Reading Recommendations
So you're here for a recommendation! I'll try to update this page pretty regularly, click on a genre to see the book suggestions.
If something interests you, click on the blue hyperlink to find it in the school library. (Make sure YOU are logged into Destiny so that it works.) If a book is NOT linked to Destiny, I probably own it and can lend it to you 😊
If you have a book recommendation for me, leave it here!
✨DR. CONBOY'S [current] TOP 10✨
- Illuminae (Kaufman & Kristoff) - their spaceship is under attack, the world is ending, and there's a plague.
- Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Riggs) - a modern set fantasy about children with mysterious abilities, and the "normal" kid who discovers them
- The Book Theif (Zusak) - Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.
- Truly Devious (Johnson) - teenage sleuth attends a private school and ends up investigating a
100yr old mystery. - The House in the Cerulean Sea (Klune) - There is an orphanage where certain children are sent for being unlike the others. What will happen when a Normal Man is sent to shut them down?
- The Hate U Give (Thomas) - Her best friend is wrongly murdered by the police. Her goal? Clear his name and protect her community.
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The Benefits of Being an Octopus (Braden) - a young girl's story of saving herself and her siblings from her mother's abusive relationship.
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A Very Large Expanse of Sea (Mafi) - A Muslim girl tries to navigate her life a year following 9/11.
- Ghost (Reynolds) - Ghost, a naturally talented runner and troublemaker, is recruited for an elite middle school track team. He must stay on track, literally and figuratively, to reach his full potential.
- We Were Liars (Lockhart) - A fifteen-year-old girl is missing all of her memories of one summer until they begin coming back.
🧪Science Fiction & Dystopias
Matched (Condie) - dystopia, girl paired with "ideal mate," but is he really?
Scythe (Shusterman) - dystopia, a world without disease, the only way to die is to be randomly "reaped"
They Both Die at the End (Silvera) - ... self-explanatory.
Midnight at the Electric (Anderson) - overlapping storylines between Mars (2063) and Oklahoma (1930s)
Illuminae (Kaufman & Kristoff) - their spaceship is under attack, the world is ending, and there's a plague.
The Grace Year (Liggett) - The Crucible meets Lord of the Flies (you should read both when you finish this)
🦄 Fantasy
The Warrior Heir (Chima) - Turns out, this regular teenage boy is actually a magical warrior.
Children of Blood and Bone (Adeyemi) - A fight to restore magic to the land, and she's the only one who can do it.
The House in the Cerulean Sea (Klune) - A group of magical kids lives in an orphanage and a nonmagic man who's sent to shut them down.
Akata Witch (Okorafor-Mbachu) - think Harry Potter- but set in Nigeria
A Deadly Education (Novik) - Harry Potter- but the school wants to kill them even more
Red Queen (Aveyard) - The red blood serve the silver blood- but our main character is something different
Shadow and Bone (Bardugo) - Is she training to become the Sun Summoner for good? Or evil?
Three Dark Crowns (Blake) - dark and twisty fantasy
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Riggs) - a modern set fantasy about children with mysterious abilities, and the "normal" kid who discovers them
The Diviners (Bray) - Small town Evie moves to New York City where she and her uncle get caught in the middle of a murder case intent on bringing around the end of the world.
Daughter of the Deep (Riorden) - A spin-off of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
☠ Thrillers
The Girls I've Been (Sharpe) - a bank robbery forces a teenage con artist to confront her past
Don't Breathe a Word (Taylor) - secret societies! cults! mystery!
All Your Twisted Secrets (Urban) - a group of high schoolers are all invited to a mysterious dinner- to be poisoned.
Five Total Strangers (Richards) - a snowstorm, some bad decisions, and one stranger in a car who is not as innocent as they seem
Truly Devious (Johnson) - teenage sleuth attends a private school and ends up investigating a 100yr old mystery
The Inheritance Games (Barnes) - teenager inherits a billionaire's fortune and mansion, but has no idea who he was. To keep the money, she must outsmart his living family.
The Cousins (McManus) - The cousins visit their estranged grandmother, only to discover that she is not there, and the longer they stay on the island, the more they realize their mysterious family history has some deadly secrets.
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (Jackson) - For her senior assignment, she looks into the mysterious death of the girl down the street. The goal? Prove the suspect is innocent.
A Study in Charlotte (Cavallaro) - A gender-bent and modern retelling of Sherlock Holmes
One of Us is Lying (McManus) - the creator of a high-school gossip app dies- how? why?
Shelter (Coben) - Conspiracy! Mystery! (Even if you don't like reading, you're hooked)
We Were Liars (Lockhart) - A fifteen-year-old girl is missing all of her memories of one summer until they begin coming back.
Breathe My Name (Nelson) - Her mother tried to kill her and her siblings. Now she's released from jail, and trying to find her daughter.
Ace of Spades (Àbíké-Íyímídé) - Welcome to Niveus Private Academy, where money paves the hallways, and the students are never less than perfect. Until now. Because anonymous texter, Aces, is bringing two students' dark secrets to light.
📔 Novels in Verse
Red, White, and Whole (Larocca) - family, immigration, illness
Punching the Air (Zoboi)- he's wrongfully accused and imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, will truth weigh out?
The Poet X (Acevedo) - Writing poetry is the only thing that makes sense to her, but she must do so in secret
Long Way Down (Reynolds) - He's on his way to avenge his brother's death- but something stops him.
Clap When You Land (Acevedo) - Their father dies in a plane crash, and that is when they learn their father had two families.
All the Broken Pieces (Burg) - Airlifted out of Vietnam, he is haunted by the terrible secret he left behind.
The Vanishing Place (Emminzer) - A nighttime sailing trip, a sudden storm, castaways on a hidden island
Rhyme Schemer (Holt) - A journey from bully to being bullied, as he learns about friendship, family, and his talent for poetry.
House Arrest (Holt) - A teenage boy is sentenced to house arrest for stealing.
Swing (Alexander) - music, basketball, love, all the good stuff
The Crossover (Alexander) - twin basketball stars navigate life as their father's health declines
With the Fire on High (Acevedo) - Emoni Santiago balances school with her job and raising her two-year-old daughter in Philadelphia. Her abuela helps develop Emoni's love of cooking, but Emoni also knows that to pursue culinary school is impossible. But in the end, Emoni, despite the challenges, has no choice but to follow her passion.
🏳🌈 LGBTQ+ Characters
Only Mostly Devastated - a summer fling, a hidden life, and the navigating among it
Lily and Dunkin (Gephart) - two friends navigating their communities, identities, and mental health (with iced coffee)
Felix Ever After (Callender) - Felix explores his identity, friendships, and family while falling in love with a boy who does not know who he really is.
The Black Flamingo (Atta) - A novel in verse. Lots of flamingos and drag
Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe (Sáenz) - When Ari and Dante meet, Ari starts to ask questions about himself, his parents, and his family that he has never asked before.
I'll Give You the Sun (Nelson) First love, family, loss, and betrayal told from different points in time, and in separate voices, by artists Jude and her twin brother Noah.
Simon vs. the Homosapien Agenda (Albertalli) Simon is blackmailed (of being outed) to be his classmate's wingman.
You Should See Me in a Crown (Johnson) - Prom queen? Maybe? Even if she doesn't want to?
Like a Love Story (Nazemian) - two boys navigate their life during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s
📕 Realistic Fiction (with interwovern romance)
Radha & Jai's Recipe for Romance (Sharma) - She's sworn never to dance again, but he needs her to save his dance team.
There's Something about Sweetie (Menon) - These two begin dating under contract- but will the contract hold?
When Dimple met Rishi (Menon) - Dimple: avoids love at all costs. Rishi: determined to find his "wife." Stars- crossed.
From Twinkle, with Love (Menon) - She's finding love unexpectedly while filming for a festival and discovering herself.
Sick Kids in Love (Moskowitz) - really, the title says it all. If you liked "Fault in our Stars," read this.
Holding up the Universe (Niven) - A boy with face blindness and a girl who struggles with weight fall in love
Everything, Everything (Yoon) - She's allergic to the outdoor world, but the new boy next door makes her curious about what is beyond her doors.
The Sun is Also a Star (Yoon) - Star-crossed lovers kind of romance. With some defy your parents mixed in.
Instructions for Dancing (Yoon) - can they just be dance partners, or will it be something else?
Tweet Cute (Lord) - they don't know it, but they're fueding in real life and flirting on Twitter.
To All the Boys I Loved Before (Han) - just a masterpiece of fluffy wonderful feelings
💔 Realistic Fiction (Emotionally heavy)
Every Last Word (Stone) - OCD, friendship, mental health
On the Come Up (Thomas) - Bri wants to become a famous rapper. When her first song goes viral, will she sell out or be true to herself?
The Hate U Give (Thomas) - Her best friend is wrongly murdered by the police. Her goal? Clear his name and protect her community.
Concrete Rose (Thomas) - a prequel to "The Hate U Give." How will one boy escape his gang lifestyle to protect himself and his family?
Let me Hear a Rhyme (Jackson) - after their friend dies, they find a stack of his recorded music. Can they make him famous from beyond the grave?
Coming Up for Air (Tyndall) - Themes of addiction, loss, and the tumultuousness of first love—and how to find strength when everything falls apart.
Counting Down with You (Bhuiyan) - Karina must navigate life and love outside of her strict parents' wishes while they are away visiting family in Bengal.
The Benefits of Being an Octopus (Braden) - a young girl's story of saving herself and her siblings from her mother's abusive relationship.
A Very Large Expanse of Sea (Mafi) - A Muslim girl tries to navigate her life a year following 9/11
Girl in Pieces(Glasgow) - a teenage girl has lost everyone she loves and is trying to navigate her homeless life. TW: self-harm
Words in Deep Blue (Crowley) - love letters tucked in books, letters trapped in time, grief, and healing.
👪 Realistic Fiction (growing up)
One for the Murphys (Hunt) - Carley struggles with being open to love after she suffers a betrayal that forces her to move in with a foster family.
The Season of Styx Malone (Magoon) - Caleb Franklin and his younger brother, Bobby Gene, spend an extraordinary summer with their new, older neighbor, Styx Malone, a foster boy from the city.
Ghost (Reynolds) - Ghost, a naturally talented runner and troublemaker, is recruited for an elite middle school track team. He must stay on track, literally and figuratively, to reach his full potential.
You Have a Match (Lord) - she signed up for a DNA service to see if her best friend is her perfect match, but surprise! She has a younger sister?
🖋 Historical Fiction
Anatomy: A Love Story (Schwartz) - In the 1800s, a woman cannot be a surgeon. But she's not about to let anything stop her, and there's a gravedigger willing to help her get bodies to practice dissecting.
Indian No More (McManis) - Regina's tribe is legally terminated and her family must relocate from Oregon to Los Angeles, she goes on a quest to understand her identity as an Indian despite being so far from home.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Alexie) Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Native American is the school mascot.
Salt to the Sea (Sepetys) - WWII, refugees try to escape the war's final dangers, only to find themselves aboard a ship with a target on its hull
The Fountains of Silence (Sepetys) - Daniel sees the harsh impact of the Spanish Civil War that still affects her family. Daniel finds himself facing difficult decisions as dangerous secrets from the past emerge, revealing a dark side of Spain hidden from tourists.
The Book Theif (Zusak) - Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.
Still can't find something that speaks to you? Email me with the last thing you enjoyed reading and we'll figure it out.