World Book Day recommendations
For most teenagers nowadays, reading for pleasure has increasingly become a thing of the past, and you are 1092792x more likely to find a teenager with a smartphone in their hands rather than a fiction book. However, I have tried my best to remain a dedicated bookworm despite the distractions of addicting TV shows like 13 Reasons Why and Riverdale.
My reading schedule is primarily determined by crossing off books on a mile long list of recommendations from friends, newspaper columns, and bestseller rankings. I initially set a goal of completing one book every two weeks, but it is safe to say that studies have definitely gotten the best of me these last few weeks. Nevertheless, for World Book Day, here are my top four must-reads!
The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak Marcus Zusak poignantly retells the story of a young girl, Liesel, who lives with eccentric foster parents and harbours a dangerous love for books during Nazi Germany. Her best friend is a nine year old community revolutionary who aspires to be Jesse Owens at a time when Hitler glorified the ideal of racial purity. Her precarious situation is further exacerbated when her father decides to hide a Jewish boy in their basement. I love this book not only for its raw insights on German life during Nazi Germany, but also for the penetrating perspective through which it is told - I’ll leave it to you to work it out.
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini The Kite Runner captures the story of two boys in Afghanistan - Amir, the son of a well-to do Pashtun businessman and Hassan, his ethnic minority servant - and their adventures and misadventures as best friends in pre-Soviet Afghanistan. They are torn apart after the Soviet invasion as Amir and his father migrate to the United States. But twenty years later, Amir returns to Afghanistan to rectify the mistakes he made as a child.
I read this book as part of an English class in Grade 8, and was taken aback by the heart-breaking honesty with which it tackles difficult issues such as rape and suicide, but also seemingly uncomplicated emotions such as shame and jealousy. Hosseini represents these wider issues through indirect descriptions of relevant events; he explains them forthright, leaving the reader to tie the details together and make inferences. However, this extra work that the reader has to do is well worth it, as Hosseini’s insights are tearfully eye-opening.
The Rosie Project - Graeme Simison In contrast to the heavier titles of the Book Thief and the Kite Runner, the Rosie Project is a humorous tale that revolves around a brilliant genetics professor Don Tillman and his quest to find a wife. But Don is diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, which makes him oblivious to social cues and exhibit OCD-type behaviours, meaning that he has never progressed till a second date. Despite his “extra” behaviours, Don is well meaning and adorably innocent in the realm of romance, and Simison is bound to elicit a few incredulous laughs from you. The Rosie Project is a light read that ultimately has questions the meaning of compatibility and love.
Rooftoppers - Katherine Rundell Saying that Sophie’s foster father Charles is not an archetypal father is a wild understatement - he writes on his bedroom walls and spends the majority of his days with either his cello, or daughter, or both. But when Sophie hears a cello tune that her long-lost mother had played, it leads her and Charles to the gleaming rooftops of Paris on an enthralling adventure to find the source.
The beauty of this book is not only in its heart-stopping descriptions of the City of Love, but also in the power of unconditional and innocent family love portrayed through the relationship between Sophie and her father. This book has charmed everyone in my family, from my younger sister to my grandmother, and it’s time that it charmed your family too!
