Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel

Written by: Lisa Cron

First line: What's the biggest mistake writers make?

Why you should read this book: If you feel like you have book inside you and have no idea how to get it out, this might be the solution you've been looking for. Cron's method focuses on a reader's connection to a character's emotional journal and provides a host of exercises for helping authors create compelling reasons for their readers to fall into a story and never want to come out. Each chapter builds on the last, leading to the creation of a "blueprint" (rather than an outline—you really need to read the book to understand the distinction) that, the book promises, will make the actual writing of the novel as simple as paint-by-numbers.

Why you shouldn't read this book: I personally felt this method sucked all the joy and pleasure out of the creative process without offering seasoned writers anything new except charts to fill out with information that they previously just kept in their head; also I didn't really see how "brain science" figured into the method, other than by identifying character driven stories as being the most interesting and helping new writers understand things like back stories and motivation.

What Are We Going to Do about David?

Written by: Willo Davis Roberts

First line: I knew I was in trouble the minute I saw Mom's car parked in front of our apartment house.

Why you should read this book: I confess that adore this author specifically because her writing acknowledges that adults can and often do suffer from mental illnesses that they manage to hide from the adult world while making their hapless child victim believe that they're responsible for a grown-up's irrational behavior. Such is the case for David, whose high-strung mother is in the process of torpedoing all her relationships in pursuit of a real estate career, and who is caught in the crossfire when neither of his parents are willing to sacrifice their own plans to take care of him over the summer. David finds himself stuck in a weird and boring little town with a grandmother he barely knows, with only three kids his age (two of whom are bullies and one of whom is horribly disfigured), a beach where you can't swim, and a dog that you can't train.  

Why you shouldn't read this book: You don't believe that people are supposed to take care of each other.

Down World

Written by: Rebecca Phelps

First line: So we've decided to leave.

Why you should read this book: Starting her sophomore year at a confusing new high school, Marina O'Connell gradually becomes aware of a strange not-so-secret secret in the basement, one that could upend not just Marina's understanding of reality, but reality itself. As she creeps ever closer to the truth, she begins to ask not just what the other kids know about the three mysterious doors beneath the building, but what her own mother might know, what they might have to do with the tragedy of her past, and what they might mean for her future. But when the act of investigating has the power to warp your world beyond recognition and the truth is strong enough to literally devastate or even destroy lives, every step Marina takes becomes critical, and it gets harder and harder to take back mistakes. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're obsessed with the mistakes of the past. 

Go Set a Watchman

Written by: Harper Lee

First line: Since Atlanta, she had looked out the dining-car window with a delight almost physical.

Why you should read this book: Jean Louise Scout returns to the sleepy southern town where she never fit in as a child to spend time with her aging father, Atticus, her sometimes sweetheart, Henry, and an assortment of disapproving friends and family. Maycomb should be timeless, as far as she's concerned, but as she muddles through her visit, its people seem different, more sinister, than she remembered, and she questions all her old relationships and understandings, particularly as they pertain to race relations. This book is primarily of interest to scholars of the author and perhaps writing enthusiasts interested in the progression of an idea from trunk novel to Pulitzer.

Why you shouldn't read this book: It seems fairly obvious that Lee never intended for it to be published, and that she was probably coerced into releasing the manuscript at a time in her life when she was not truly capable of consent.

The Fairy Rebel

Written by: Lynne Reid Banks

First line: If you happen to go to school just outside London, you might find yourself sitting next to a girl called Bindi.

Why you should read this book: A chance meeting between Jan, a former child star with chronic depression and a deep desire for a baby to fill the void, and Tiki, a rebel fairy who wears blue jeans in defiance of her fairy queen's edict, leads to the birth of Bindi, an almost perfectly normal human child. But the fairy queen has rules—lots of rules—and the punishment for disobedience is fierce and terrible, if not swift. Now Tiki's life and Bindi's future are threatened by the wrath of a tyrant who demands love and and obedience and takes infractions very personally. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: There's a bit of fat-shaming in there that would have gone unremarked when this book was published in the '80s but is kind of uncomfortable now.

Sinister Tentacle Sorority: A Grave Robbers Novella

Written by: Cameron D. Blackwell

First line: Bradley McCluskey stood on the Gamma Rho Lambda sorority house lawn, staring up at it in awe and trepidation.

Why you should read this book: What you see is what you get—there's a sorority, there are tentacles, things get sinister. Optimistic teen Bradley McCluskey, one of six new pledges at Gamma Rho Lambda, uncovers a shocking conspiracy: a horrific tentacle monster lives beneath her new home, and the Greeks have been feeding it pledges for as long as anyone can remember. When Bradley runs afoul of the mean girl but escapes a terrible, tentacled fate, things start to get really dangerous. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: The dedication page warns readers that the book contains no tentacle rape, and further disclaims that people who are interested in tentacle rape need Jesus, but I think a little tentacle rape could have elevated the story—these tentacles only kill and eat young people, and there's no sex. 

The Dark Kraft: A Collection of Cheesy Creepy Pastas

Written by: Cameron D. Blackwell

First line: Paula Jean Stanton, or PJ to her friends, worked diligently on her project at Stanco labs.

Why you should read this book: "Creepy pasta," or internet-based horror legends, began as cut and paste twenty-first century legends of terror based on possibly believable premises, but the term has gradually evolved to include a wide range of scary stories. This book brings you five silly-spooky tales of the modern unknown, including an AI turned evil through accidental forced immersion in a marathon of the '90s era sitcom Friends, a terrifyingly comfortable secondhand couch, and an irresponsible pet sitter unaware of the importance of catering to a persnickety house cat. Fast and funny, this short collection may have you avoiding thrift shops and Black Friday sales for fear of the evil that lurks within. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: The "cheesy" part is not just a side dish; this book piles on the cheese.

My Mama Says There Aren't Any Zombies, Ghosts, Vampires, Creatures, Demons, Monsters, Fiends, Goblins, or Things

Written by: Judith Viorst and Kay Chorao

First line: My mama says there isn't an mean-eyed monster with long slimy hair and pointy claws going scritchy-scratch, scritchy-scritchy-scratch outside my window.

Why you should read this book: In a child's eyes, the world is full of terrors and wonder, and our child narrator has ample sensory evidence for the existence of a whole pantheon of monsters lurking just at the edge of human perception. In every case, the child's perception allows him to see or hear the horrors of his world, and in every case his mother denies any foundation for his reality. But the observant child notes a litany of mistakes his mother makes on a regular basis, and a long list of things she's definitely wrong about, so how can he possibly trust her when she reassures him that monsters aren't real?

Why you shouldn't read this book: You need your kid to believe that you're infallible.

The Frog Prince Continued

Written by: Jon Scieszka and Steve Johnson 

First line: The princess kissed the frog. 

Why you should read this book: In the modern tradition of fractured fairy tales, this book examines, with increasing silliness, the meaning of the phrase "happily ever after" and the question of what comes after that. Feeling unloved and incompatible with his princess, who doesn't seem to accept any residual amphibious traits in her beloved, the Frog Prince sets off in search of a witch who can turn him back into a frog so he doesn't have to deal with the constant nagging and criticism. While there are no end of witches infesting this kingdom, they all seem to be engaged in tormenting other fairy tale characters and even the most useful of them can offer only a temporary transformation, leading our protagonist to reassess the importance of perfect harmony at home. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're desperately working to escape an abusive spouse. 

 

 

If I Ran the Circus

Written by: Dr. Seuss 

First line: "In all the whole town, the most wonderful spot/Is behind Sneelock's Store in the big vacant lot." 

Why you should read this book: Young Morris McGurk waxes poetic/fanciful about his plans for a vacant lot in his town, which, if he can just clear out the trash, will house the most remarkable circus ever conceived. Along with a large number of increasingly improbable animals, his plans hinge on the full participation of old man Sneelock, an amiable grandfatherly type who seems content to lean against the door jamb smoking a pipe, although McGurk's vision depends on Sneelock participating in wild stunts, training animals, and performing dangerous feats such as diving four-fifths of a mile into a fishbowl. McGurk has a big imagination but the implication seems to be that he has no follow-through and there's no indication that he's secured financial back for this project. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Even for Seuss fans, this one is kind of phoned-in, derivative of other Seuss works, highly dependent on nonsense words to create easy rhymes, with no plot or conflict to speak of, other than the reader's relative certainty that Sneelock isn't going to participate on any level envisioned by the young narrator.

Becoming Brianna

Written by: Terri Libenson

First line: Well, here I am again.

Why you should read this book: Brianna can't figure out why she agreed to have a bat mitzvah when she doesn't know any Hebrew and hardly even feels like she's Jewish, but she did tell her mother to sign her up and now she's stuck with her decision. But as she finds herself more and more stressed out trying to learn an entire new language while being asked to find meaning in a religion that seems increasingly at odds with her own personal worldview, she's also in between her divorced parents' disagreements, and meanwhile, her best friend seems jealous of the attention Brianna's suddenly getting from the popular girls who want in on the party of the year. Will Brianna muddle through this ceremony with her relationships intact or will she lose her parents' respect and her best friend for good?

Why you shouldn't read this book: Do you often throw up before public speaking?

Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids

Edited by: Cynthia Leitich Smith 

First line: A powwow is/friends and family/gathered together to honor the Creator,/Kinnekasus, Man-Never-Known-on-Earth,/who watches over us. 

Why you should read this book: It's a collection of short stories for young readers, clustered around the experience of children attending the big powwow in Ann Arbor, Michigan, written by a variety of authors from different tribes and traditions (with a glossary at the end, since the book contains snippets of many languages). Although the characters have diverse backgrounds and personalities (including those who don't have powwow or dance in their culture historically), patterns soon emerge: a fear of or reluctance to dance being replaced by joy in dancing, feelings around beautiful regalia, the experience of eating frybread, the experience of working in the family business selling food or crafts, the gulf between young people and their elders made small through love and communication, the embracing of identity in surprising new ways, the absence of missing loved ones and the joys of reunification, and the presence of a dog wearing a funny T-shirt. While these are certainly stories for kids, they also tackle bigger issues like death and mourning, cultural appropriation, and making retribution for mistakes. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: These are mostly what I call "quiet" stories; they tend to be less about plot and action and more about the protagonist's thoughts and feelings.