Today, a couple of suggestions. No particular reason, other than I’ve been thinking about these books lately.
First, When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead. Totally, absolutely wonderful book that falls somewhere in the young YA category, I would guess. Don’t let that stop you if you fall outside of that age range. I suspect I would have loved it even if I hadn’t loved A Wrinkle in Time as a kid, but that was icing on the cake. A warm, loving, curious, intelligent book about being a kid, and friends, and time travel.
Second, China Mountain Zhang, by Maureen McHugh. Have I mentioned that I’m a big fan of rereading books? Like at least a quarter of my reading is stuff I’ve read before? This is one of those books I go back to, over and over. I first read it because my husband was assigned it for a class on utopias and dystopias (about a thousand years ago), and it was kicking around the house, and I was bored. It’s now one of my favorite books. It’s the kind of science fiction I want to press into someone’s hand every time they tell me they don’t read science fiction. A believable future, peopled by people, not action heroes, just people. I think this book reads much like watching a dragonfly shed its nymphal skin and emerge as a winged adult–it is not for the impatient but it is nothing short of miraculous.