Megan Crewe – another world, not quite ours

In honor of having recently (finally!) read, and loved, SUITE SCARLETT.

The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary – The Mountain View Inn: Where a mouse and a boy form a friendship based on a shared love of a toy motorcycle.

Bad Kitty by Michele Jaffe – The Venetian Hotel: Where all the trouble begins, starting with a three-legged cat leaping on our heroine.

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan – The Marriott Marquis: Where our couple is caught in a compromising position in the ice room.

Prada and Prejudice – Unnamed five-star hotel in London: Where an embarrassing moment and a surprising encounter provoke Callie to buy a very special pair of heels.

Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson – The Hopewell: Where the Martin family makes their home and livelihood, and the means by which Scarlett meets the eccentric woman who will throw her life into a whirlwind.

Because it’s the season of holidays and gifting.

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman – The alethiometer the Master gives to Lyra guides her on an adventure more treacherous than she ever imagined.

Lost It by Kristen Tracy – Tess hoped her Christmas present for her boyfriend would keep her on his mind, but instead it reveals an inadvertent lie.

The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner – An unwanted gift of a pair of earrings becomes the key to deciding two wars — one of politics, the other of the heart.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – The burnt loaf of bread Peeta offered kept Katniss’s family from starving, and ties her to him even when she tries to stand alone.

Nation by Terry Pratchett – It was meant as an act of self-defense, but the gun Daphne holds out and Mau accepts becomes the beginning of tragedy-defying bond.

Since Halloween is fast approaching…

The Witches by Roald Dahl – My favorite Roald Dahl book ever (which is saying a lot) features some very creepy and nasty witches. Beware of women with gloves and itchy heads!

Witchery Hill by Welwyn Wilton Katz – A spooky page-turner by a Canadian author, in which a girl’s stepmother is truly wicked, though of course all of the grown-ups refuse to see it.

The Magic Circle by Donna Jo Napoli – Hansel and Gretel from the witch’s point of view. A look into her theoretical past makes her surprisingly sympathetic — and her end shockingly tragic.

Bras & Broomsticks by Sarah Mlynowski – One of the most fun witch books you’ll ever read, about a teen attempting to take advantage of her younger sister’s witchy heritage (which has passed the older sister by).

The Changeover by Margaret Mahy – A boy witch! Whom Laura must turn to, and awaken powers of her own with, in order to save her little brother. An intense and eerie story.

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling – How could I not list this first? There’s Snape, of course, who skips back and forth across the line between good and bad throughout the series, not to mention the individual books’ villains-or-not like Sirius Black in Prisoner of Azkaban and Prof. Moody in Goblet of Fire.

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones – The Wizard Howl has a reputation for eating the hearts of young women and a contract with a fire demon. But wait until you’ve spent some time with him before drawing conclusions.

The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney – Are Janie’s parents really her parents? Her grandparents? Her kidnappers? Funny how one picture can make you question everything.

Northlander by Meg Burden – Who is worse — the Northlanders who scorn Ellin’s people but whose princes befriend her, or the Southling outlaws who offer her a new home but have violent plans in the making? Ellin’s about to discover that everyone’s a villain to someone, and a hero to someone else.

Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier – A book full of shades of gray: cousins who become captors, lovers who might become monsters, other worlds both welcoming and dangerous, and Night People who offer the truth and then poison it — but not always.

The Dark Light by Mette Newth – What’s amazing about this book about a teen with leprosy is not how heart-wrenching it is, but how hopeful at the same time.

Winnie’s War by Jenny Moss – The effect of the Spanish Flu on a girl, her family, friends, and town — no punches pulled. If you’re not tearing up by the end, you’re a stronger reader than I.

Crash Into Me by Albert Borris – Four teens attempting to flee their troubled pasts in the most permanent of ways. Just try not to be touched by Owen’s conflicted emotions.

The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z by Kate Messner – Not a sad book by any means, but watching Gianna and her family come to terms with her grandmother’s failing health got me teary-eyed more than once.

Taylor Five by Ann Halam – When I hit a certain point halfway through, I almost started bawling right there on the subway. Not for the faint of heart (though I promise it does get happier again).

Silent to the Bone by E.L. Konigsburg – Conner knows Branwell would never have hurt his baby sister, but to prove it he must find a way to get his now-mute best friend to speak again.

Sirena by Donna Jo Napoli – Sirena’s song can enchant any man, but she’d rather live alone in silence than lure someone to his death to win her own immortality.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson – Ever since the horrible events at that end of summer party, Melinda has hesitated to talk to anyone–but some truths need to be spoken.

Hurt Go Happy by Ginny Rorby – Though she’s deaf, Joey has always accepted her mother’s insistence that she dismiss sign language–until she meets an eccentric neighbor and his chimpanzee companion.

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock – There’s a lot of silence in D.J.’s family–and a lot of things left unsaid. Can D.J. find the courage to try to change that?

Invisible by Pete Hautman – You can tell from the start something’s a little off about Doug, but the secret he’s hiding is so big even he might not be able to cope with it.

A Fast and Brutal Wing by Kathleen Jeffrie Johnson – The line between reality and imagination is so blurred in this tale of one bloody Halloween night that you’re never quite sure who to believe, and how far.

Evernight by Claudia Gray – There’s one very important detail about Bianca’s life that she doesn’t mention until about halfway through — and if you guess what it is beforehand, you’re a sharper reader than I.

The Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan – Nick doesn’t mean to be unreliable — in fact, he doesn’t lie at all — it’s just there’s so much he doesn’t know in his world of magicians and demons, he can’t help it.

Liar by Justine Larbalestier – Micah, on the other hand, freely admits she’s a liar. But just this once, she promises to come clean and tell the whole truth. Really, you can trust her this time. Or can you?

Who are your favorite unreliable narrators (YA or otherwise)?

Looking for Alaska by John Green — Getting back at the school snobs, coming out of your shell, developing friendships, honoring the dead — who knew how useful (or meaningful) pranks could be?

The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty — The pranks start out in fun, and then as a way to put a jerk in his place, but if Emily, Lydia, and Cassie aren’t careful, they’ll end up in more trouble (personal and public) than they expected.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart — Frankie knows she’s just as bold and clever as the school’s all-boys band of pranksters, and what better way to prove it than to wrap them up in her own string of pranks?

A Match Made in High School by Kristin Walker — What starts as a prank war between two “newly-weds” leads Fiona to discover surprising truths about herself, her friends, and her supposed enemies.

Goth Girl Rising by Barry Lyga — Kyra is determined to get back at Fanboy for abandoning her, and if she has her way, these pranks are only the beginning. That is, if she can get herself to completely believe he deserves it.

What are your favorite book-ish pranks?

The Keeper of the Isis Light by Monica Hughes — Appearance doesn’t matter much when you’re the only human on your planet. And maybe new environments require different standards of beauty. But that doesn’t help you when colonists arrive with their own set of ideals.

Jacob I Have Loved by Katherine Paterson — Sara Louise feels her life is defined by the fact that she isn’t a beauty like her twin sister. Is it fair? No. But it’s going to take more than hand cream for her to find her own sort of beauty.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld — Tally can’t wait to become a beautiful “pretty.” That is, until she finds out that along with gaining good looks, she might be sacrificing far more than she imagined.

Secrets of Truth and Beauty by Megan Frazer — Dara used to be a pretty little girl, but because of her weight, none of her classmates would consider her beautiful now. What’s more important, though, is how Dara feels about it, and how much that can change in one summer.

Fire by Kristin Cashore — Fire is not what you’d expect from a monster. So beautiful one look at her can drive men to marriage proposals or violence, she’s used to hiding herself away for everyone’s safety. But what if her monstrous beauty could save her country?

Know any other great books that deal with beauty? Share them!