(See yesterday’s post if you have no idea what a Category 4 book is.)
I’m sure I’ll think of others, but these leap to mind:
Holes Louis Sachar
The Dark is Rising Susan Cooper
Dubliners, Ulysses James Joyce
1st Harry Potter J.K. Rowling
The Time Travelers Wife Audrey Niffenegger
American Gods Neil Gaiman (all his stuff, really)
all of Elizabeth George’s mysteries
most of P.D. James’ mysteries
What are your Category 4s?
(BTW, Dad’s poetry reading was wonderful!)
Off the top of my head
Life is Funny E.R. Frank
Pretty much anything by Jacqueline Woodson
Goodnight, Mr. Tom Can’t recall the author
Any poetry collection by Naomi Shihab Nye
My Antonia Willa Cather
category 4 books
I agree about the Time Traveler’s Wife– it’s a wonderful book.
Twilight by Stephenie Meyers
The Stand by Stephen King
The Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank
The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson 🙂
susan from Spartanburg, SC
I love “The Lovely Bones”… except for the end maybe. Definitely a category 4 book for me.
Category 4 Books
Not to be a suck up or anything, but you KNOW I felt that way about SPEAK. I also agree about HOLES by Sachar. I’ll also add CHINESE HANDCUFFS by Chris Crutcher, FREAK THE MIGHTY by Rodman Philbrick and A SINGLE SHARD by Linda Sue Park.
We’re very lucky to have Linda keynoting at our NE SCBWI Conference in Nashua, NH next month. I can’t wait. And next we’ll have to work on getting you up to New England conference or retreat!
Jan
JCKoz452@aol.com
“You Don’t Know Me” by David Klass
“The Dirty Cowboy” by Amy Timberlake (it’s a PB)
“An Acceptable Time” and “A Ring of Endless Light” by Madeleine L’Engle
“The Solitaire Mystery” by Jostein Gaarder
I’m sure there’s more. You already took some of mine. 🙂
Re: Category 4 Books
Crutcher! How could I have forgotten Crutcher’s books! Def. a Cat 4!! AND Linda Sue’s!
She is an amazing speaker, by the way. You guys are in for a real treat. (I’ll be emailing you later today.)
Holes.. That was a good book. I have too many category 4’s to list!
Re: category 4 books
::waves towards Spartanburg::
So many cat 4s, it’s a hurricane!
Alas, Babylon — Pat Frank
1984 — George Orwell
Life of Pi, Self — Yann Martel
anything Barbara Kingsolver or Virginia Woolf
And the Band Played On
Rebecca — Daphne DuMaurier
Walk Two Moons — Sharon Creech
A handful, off the top of my head:
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
A Summer to Die, Lois Lowry
Prep, Curtis Sittenfeld
The Great Mortality, John Kelly
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling
The Blue Castle, L.M. Montgomery
Our Lady of the Lost and Found, Diane Schoemperlen
Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott
And I’m totally with you on The Time Traveler’s Wife. It fascinated me in a way I hadn’t experienced in a long time.
The ones I can think of off the top of my head…
Empress of the World by Sara Ryan
Wicked by Gregory Maguire
Lamb by Christopher Moore
Peeps by Scott Westerfeld (most of his books rank at Cat. 4 or really close for me)
Running Out Of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix
And I think Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys might be added to the list soon (I’m reading it for a class and really enjoying it so far.)
Category 4 YAs: Catherine Called, Birdy
Enchantress From the Stars
Stargirl
Speak
Looking for Alibrandi
The Moorchild
Sabriel
The Golden Compass
Silverwing
Skybreaker
All of Chris Crutcher’s book’s-expecially Staying Fat for Sarah Brynes
Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings- Megan McCafferty
The Truth about Forever-Sarah Dessen
All the Harry Potters-J.K Rowling
And the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series-Ann Brashares
My Sister’s Keeper- Jodi Picoult
I’m sure there are a couple more but thats all I can think of for now.
♥
“The Secret Life of Bees”- Sue Monk Kidd
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower”- Stephen Chobosky
“The Time Travelers Wife”- Audrey Niffenneger
“Mister Posterior and the Genius Child”- Emily Jenkins
I feel like I have an inordinate number of Cat. 4’s… Perhaps I’m being too kind, but I think these are all legit.
THE HIGH KING, Lloyd Alexander
SKELLIG, David Almond
THE NAMING and THE RIDDLE, Alison Croggon
THE MERRYBEGOT, Julie Hearn
ALICE, I THINK, Susan Juby
THE SERPENT GIFT, Lene Kaaberbol
THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE, C.S. Lewis (I almost didn’t put this one on. I wept like a baby through large chunks of this and it really affected me but I don’t whether it was the Christian story behind the allegorical structure getting to me, or Lewis’ story…)
LIFE OF PI, Yann Martel
BEAUTY, Robin McKinley
ABHORSEN, Garth Nix
AIRBORN and SKYBREAKER, Kenneth Oppel
MORTAL ENGINES, Philip Reeve
All the Harry Potter books, which would almost have to be a Cat. 5 for me, if such a thing can exist.
A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY and REBEL ANGELS, Libba Bray
THE LORD OF THE RINGS, J.R.R. Tolkien
AN EARTHLY KNIGHT, Janet McNaughton
THE DEVIL’S ARITHMETIC, Jane Yolen
And, of course, SPEAK.
cat. 4
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
Sabriel by Garth Nix
Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Speak AND Catalyst
The Ancient One by T.A. Barron (This book was my first Category 4 book-I was 9 and I stayed up into the wee hours of the night to finish it. I had never experienced anything like it before.)
oh, so many . . . a few quick ones, looking at my bookshelf . . .
SPEAK (of course)
STORKY
SAVING FRANCESCA
THE GOOD EARTH
SHATTERING GLASS
INEXCUSABE
THURSDAY’S CHILD
WHEN JEFF COMES HOME
TUCK EVERLASTING
STAINED
JOEY PIGZA
NOTHING TO LOSE
A FAST AND BRUTAL WING
MY SISTER’s KEEPER
oh, and now the next shelf . . . I better stop.
Sticking to YA, (and bearing in mind that I lean toward dark adventure), what first comes to mind is:
Lord of the Nutcracker Men and B for Buster by Iain Lawrence
Dust and Tribes by Arthur Slade
Shade’s Children by Garth Nix
anything by Kenneth Oppel
The Giver – Lois Lowry
The Perks Of Being A Wallflower – Stephen Chobosky
Friday – Issac Asimov
I know I’m missing a few, but until I can get home and scan my bookshelf I can’t do much.
I keep starting Enchantress from the stars but then it gets returned and by the time I get it back I have to start over…
The Time Travelers Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
The Giver – Lois Lowry
The Outsiders – SE Hinton
The Pact, My Sister’s Keeper – Jodi Picoult
Speak, Cataylst – Laurie Halse Anderson
This Lullaby – Sarah Dessen
The Harry Potter books
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books
The Golden Compass
The Subtle Knife
The Amber Spyglass all by Philip Pullman. If you enjoyed these, you should really check out his other books, especially the Sally Lockhart trilogy:
The Ruby in the Smoke
The Shadow in the North
The Tiger in the Well
Other books that come to mind:
A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle
1984 by George Orwell
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Wouldn’t It Be Nice by Brian Wilson
All day I’ve been trying to figure out why Golden Compass isn’t a Cat 4 for me. I LOVED that book…. but something is holding me back. I think I need to re-read it.
Just out of curiosity, why not L’Engle’s other works?
Catagory 4
Off the top of my head…
Looking for Alaska – John Green
Sometimes a Great Notion – Ken Kesey
Sophie’s Choice – William Styron
Catalyst – duh
Sloppy Firsts – Megan McCafferty
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
Tender is the Night – Fitzgerald
And many more!
Cathcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
The Best Awful by Carrie Fisher
The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice
Learning to Swim by Ann Turner
Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel
Innocence by Jane Mendelsohn
Winter Garden by Pablo Neruda
You should really check out Postcards from the Edge & The Best Awful by Carrie Fisher, the woman is hilarious, I laugh outloud whenever I read her.
My category 4’s…
“Speak” by…some woman….I don’t remember….name rhymes with glory…I dunno.
“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” by J.K Rowling
“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
“Hamlet” by William Shakespeare
“Hiroshima” by John Hersey
“A Separate Peace” by John Knowles
Could be because you’re comparing it to the Amber Spyglass, which is so good (ah! those last 40 pages!) it makes the first two pale by comparison.
Speak 🙂
White Oleander by Janet Fitch
Holes by Louis Sachar
And that’s all. It means something super special to me to have a category 4 book.
Of all time: “The Truth About Forever” by Sarah Dessen, “Body Bags” by Christopher Golden, “Prowlers” by Christopher Golden, “The Boys are Back in Town” by Christopher Golden, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll, “The NeverEnding Story” by Michael Ende, “Sophie’s World” by Jostein Gaarder, “The Phantom Tollbooth” by Norton Juster, “Innocence” by Jane Mendelsohn, “The Westing Game” by Ellen Raskin
Series: Body of Evidence (ten) by Christopher Golden, Anne of Green Gables (eight) by L.M. Montgomery
Of those recently read: “A Certain Slant of Light” by Laura Whitcomb, “May Bird and the Ever After” by Jodi Lynn Anderson, “The Penderwicks” by Jeanne Birdsall
Speak, Ulysses, White Noise
The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
You must read it. Goodness…I can’t put into words how good this book is.
Blue Castle!!
Bird by Bird!!
*adds to the love*
The first (not previously named)book that pops to mind for me is The Secret History by Donna Tartt. It is one that just stuck with me and I have recommended to many people. Maybe it’s because I read it senior year of college.
Fours
This is the ultimate question…like the question I’d want to discuss with you-know-who at the pearly gates if infinite time was available.
Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmund Rostand
I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Operating Instructions by Anne Lamott
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Nine Horses by Billy Collins
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
Speak (hmmm…the name of the author eludes me ;))
Staying Fat for Sarah Burnes by Chris Crutcher
The Kite Runner by Kahled Hosseini
Some recent YA’s in the four:
Girls for Breakfast by David Yoo
A Room on Lorelei Street by Mary Pearson
Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going
The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
Thanks for such a great question! I love reading the fours of others…great way to learn about books, too. Got to get my hands on The Time Traveler’s Wife.
heh…
My Cat 4s
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Girl Meets God by Lauren Winner
Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller
all of Amy Tan’s books
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
All of Barbara Kingsolver’s books
Prozac Nation
What did you think of the movie, Prozac Nation?
Ms. Laurie I am shocked that you have failed to mention that it’s women’s history month. In order to get everyone in the spirit here is a poem I had previously written.
Crave
I lie on the floor frozen with fear when down my face trickles a single tear.
I hear footsteps coming and my feet stay put although my brain tells me start running!.
They say it’s time for you to put on your act oh those who believe it the brains they must lack!
Oh how much longer must I go on with this charade?
Oh how I long for someone to see pass the masquerade !
When it’s all over I’m dragged back to my cell.
Help me! help me! My broken spirit yells.
As the injustice of it all comes over me like a wave
I struggle for it is equality I crave
By Jessica Hernandez
A poem in the prospective of a prisoner of the woman’s rights movement.
There’s a prompt you haven’t done you should ask for people to write poetry about women’s history month/women in history I bet it would be great!
oh my categorie 4’s include a wrinkle in time Speak Harry potter Anne Frank, Matilda, A child called it, Jeremy thatcher dragon hatcher, The secret garden and the theif lord,Chasing redbird and Bloomability and last but not least and not really last the one the only Catalyst
Oh, how did I forget.
Chronicles of Narnia and anything by L Frank Baum
Oh. Honestly, i own all of her books. But these are the two that rise to the top in my mind. Not that i don’t like the rest, because i really do. 🙂
good point
To Kill A Mockingbird
Forgive me if this sounds tacky, but Speak, Fever, Prom, and Catalyst
All of the Harry Potter books
All of Nicholas Sparks’ books
Boy Proof –
Scribbler of Dreams and A Room on Lorelei Street –
All of Sarah Dessen’s books – especially The Truth About Forever
Megan McCafferty’s books
I know there are many, MANY more, but I’m in a hurry.
Have a good week!
hmm a 4….
Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings- Megan McCafferty
All Sarah Dessen books
All the Harry Potters-J.K Rowling
catcher in the rye – j.d. salinger
keeping you a secret – julie ann peters
empress of the world – sara ryan
speak – you
revolution on canvas – poetry by bands (popular && underground)
Rx – tacey lynn
i’m thinking there’s more but smallville is distracting me right now….
Ryanne
My catagory 4’s are
Speak by you.
Pure by Rebecca Ray.
The Lake Of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman.
Secret Smile by Nicci French.
All of Laurell K. Hamiltons books.
Innocents by Cathy Coote.
The Onion Girl by Charles De Lint.
Tithe by Holly Black.
and last but not least The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold…
I actually have more but yeah I really do not want to dig through my books right now ^.^
My Category 4 books!
The Giver- Lois Lowry
Bridge to Terabithia- Katherine Patterson
Holes-Louis Sachar
Where the Red Fern Grows- Wilson Rawls
Fahrenheit 451- Ray Bradbury
Cut- Patricia McCormick
Freaky Green Eyes- Joyce Carol Oates
Big Mouth, Ugly Girl- Joyce Carol Oates
Silent to the Bone- E.L. Konigsburg
ALL the Harry Potter books- J.K. Rowling
The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants series- Anne Brashares
Everything by Darren Shan
I LOVE INNOCENCE!!!! lol sorry, but I like that book.
Hmm, there’s a few off the top of my mind.
The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks
Lucky, Alice Sebold
Cut, Patricia McCormick
Second Star to the Right, Deborah Hautzig
A Child Called It, dave Pelzer
The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
(And of course, Speak.)
I second the first two 🙂
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Handmaid’s Tale and Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
and
Lessons in Taxidermy by Bee Lavender, an amazing memoir of in-your-face courage, intelligence and strength growing up with an odd form of cancer in a working-class family and beating the odds to become a kick-ass teen mom. No one tells it quite like Bee–not a drop of self pity but plenty of insight.
Well, you *have* to read it! It is such a good story! Definitely one of my all-time faves. 😀
That book is AMAZING.
You might enjoy Like the Red Panda by Andrea Siegel.
That trilogy is amazing.
Re: Prozac Nation
Haven’t seen it yet, but it’s on my NetFlix list.
I will look it up! Thank god for Borders.com!!! I have to say though that I so didnt expect it to be that kind of book. I just thought it was one of those crazy teenage ones but instead it was about vampires and freaky people who drink tampon tea.
Always happy to give book recommendations. See my LJ for more – – and my website – Your Girl!
You clearly have superior taste 😉
Hard Love by ? (I love it so much that right after reading it I forced a friend of mine to borrow and read it. I haven’t gotten it back)
The Circle of Magic series especially Shatterglass by Tamora Pierce
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
The Harry Potter series minus the Half-Blood Prince by J.K.Rowling
The New Rules of High School by Blake Nelson
And probably like three others I can’t remember
Ok! That will be my next goal! B/c I like it enough to keep trying, so yeah!
Hiroshima HURT me! Like my teacher read it outloud b/c she did it ever year around fcat or sats or something and I was about falling out of my seat in pain. I’m way too empathetic.
Alone at Ninety Foot, Katherine Holubitsky
Icebound, Jerri Nielson
The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
Life is Funny, E.R. Frank
Someone Like You, Sarah Dessen
I *know* there are some big one’s I’m forgetting … but it’s a start!
Sarah
Angela’s Ashes (or anything by Frank McCourt)
Running with Scissors, by Augusten Burroughs (who is my new author-crush)
The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath
Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (those who love Perks should read this one), by Jonathan Safran Foer. Already, this is my book of the year.
Back to my study now 🙁
Oh, okay. 🙂 Just wondering.
A Wrinkle in Time was amazing when I read it in the 4th grade for the first time, and now, after 7 years, I still find it super.
I didn’t quite like the Sally Lockhart books, the morality read all wrong for me. I read the second only to see if it was any better than the first, and I read the first because I hadn’t yet read anything by Pullman.
FWIW.
Re: Fours
I loved THE JOY LUCK CLUB and have been so disapointed that her other books, while often having nice sentences or scenes, or so disjointed and badly constructed.
HARD LOVE is by Ellen Wittlinger. Look for her other books, too!
Nancy Willard’s TELLING TIME and Ursula Le Guin’s DANCING AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD, both collections of personal essays on writing, reading, feminism, etc. and both really really good.
I CAPTURE THE CASTLE by Dodie Smith (just lovely)
CHASING VERMEER by Blue Balliet (intricate YA “thriller” of sorts about art, math, learning, etc. Lots of fun, not at all preachy, and very complex. I love that it respects the readers intelligence with all the puzzles.)
THE THIEF by Megan Whalen Turner (brilliant YA fantasy with all sorts of unexpected twists–don’t read the back cover copy for the two sequels since they contain spoilers for the first volume)
Connie Willis’ BELLWETHER (romantic comedy about chaos theory), PASSAGE and TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG
Patrice Kindl’s OWL IN LOVE
That would be part of why it’s a category 4, for me, anyway. Books that make you empathise are definitely powerful.
Well… yeah, that does make it powerful, but I prefer emotional rather than physical… but both can be good.
Hi Laurie! My name is Rosie and I’m a big fan of your writing. Last year you came to my school to give a talk during Library Week and I was really impressed. I didn’t know you had an lj until just now, though.
Let’s see my Category 4’s (too many to count! I read way to much than is probably healthy)
Anything by Sarah Dessen, whom I love.
Speak
Pride and Prejudice (and all Jane Austen)
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee
the Harry Potter books
and about ten million others
Catergory 4s
-All of your books. I’m not being a suck-up, just honest!
-Dreamland by the same author who wrote The Truth About Forever
-The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
-Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Allcott
-Prep by Curtis Sittenfield
-The Boyfriend List
-The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books by Ann Brashares
-The Year of Secret Assignments
-Heart’s Delight by some Swedish guy
-To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
-Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
I also loved the series High Hurdles when I was like ten! lol
I forgot one!
Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes is a good one, too. I don’t remeber who it’s by, though.
An Eclectic Assortment – But hey that’s what moves me
The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
All the Harry Potter books by JK Rowling
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Dracula by Bram Stoker
I’m a lurker mostly, but I just had to participate in this one 🙂
Speak by er, you (I actually had the pleasure of meeting you very briefly at my school once and you were nice enough to sign my book for me, thank you!)
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series by Anne Brashares
All Harry Potter
All of Nicholas Sparks’ books (except for The Notebook)
Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
She Said Yes by Misty Bernall
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
I guess I’ll bump it up on my “to read” list, then. Not that the order means anything when the list is 78 pages long. :p Oh! And I’ve got your book in my hands (well, in my office at work) now. I will read it before I have to renew it.
Others have mentioned some of mine, but the ones I can think of off-hand are Double Helix by Nancy Werlin, House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer, City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau, Mortal Engines (actually that whole trilogy) by Philip Reeve, Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card, and just about anything by Terry Pratchett (especially Reaper Man and Mort) or Neil Gaiman. I also loved Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks.
Oh! and the most recent one is Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar. I made about five coworkers promise me that they would read it after my boss’s boss got through with it.
“I will read it before I have to renew it.”
I’m honoured! Particularly if I’ve got bumped to the top of a 78 page waiting list. 😉
I always thought Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom was a category 4 for me.
Books
I love books by Lene Kaaberbol
also David Clement-Davis
JK Rowling
Sharron Creech