No Ivy League

Written by: Hazel Newlevant

First line: Add more calendars!

Why you should read this book: Homeschool ("my parents are hippies" homeschool, not "my parents are religious nuts" homeschool) teen Hazel has a nice life, studying whatever she feels like, hanging out with other homeschool kids, and the only thing she's missing is the cash she needs to go to DC with her boyfriend and best friend to see a band she loves. Hazel takes a summer job with No Ivy League, a group dedicated to hiring at-risk youth to remove invasive English ivy from the park, and suddenly she's in another world, working with kids with whom she can't seem to find any commonality, kids who have less than she does and resent her privilege. In this honest memoir, Newlevant relates the lessons she learned about race, class, romance, and community at her summer job. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: There's some spicy language in there, probably not for younger teens or kids. 

Dysmorphic Kingdom

Written by: Colleen Chen

First line: She would never be able to look at Nim the same way again. 

Why you should read this book: Part fantasy, part fairy tale, part romance, part adventure, part genre-bending, part sex-farce, constantly surprising, this unusual but delightful story is all about parts: what holds them together, what tears them away from one another. In Vesper's world, women have no rights, and she's finding it progressively more and more difficult to escape an unwanted marriage when she stumbles upon a disembodied penis who can talk and fly as well as perform other tasks more suited to its form. Determined to reunite the member with its rightful owner, Vesper embarks upon a strange journey through a landscape increasingly littered with talking, flying body parts, and she must navigate the confusing obstacles of the royal court, the attentions of men, and her own heart to become the hero scientist she's dreamed of being. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's desperately in need of a couple more proofreading passes. 

All Systems Red (book 1 of the Muderbot Diaries)

Written by: Martha Wells

First line: I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites.

Why you should read this book: "Murderbot," a security unit created from both robot and organic parts, does his job in the hopes that no one will notice he's been hacked, but his primary concern is watching TV: 35,000 hours of streaming video so far. Far more interested in the lives of the fictional characters in his favorite serials than the very real scientists he's supposed to be protecting, he still does his duty as it becomes increasingly apparent that the mission has been sabotaged and someone wants his entire crew dead. If he ever wants to watch TV in peace again, Murderbot must outwit the antagonists and save his small group of intellectual researchers from a much larger and better armed opponent. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: This is one of those stories where the plot is sort of irrelevant, but the voice and the character journey is so engaging you don't really care. (Apparently this series is being developed by Apple TV for a show starring Alexanders Skarsgard, so I guess you could wait a while and then enjoy the story the way Murderbot would want you to enjoy it, if Murderbot cared about you, which it probably doesn't.)

Turtles All the Way Down

Written by: John Green

First line: At the first time I realized I might be fictional, my weekdays were spent at a publicly funded institution on the north side of Indianapolis called White River High School, where I was required to eat lunch at a particular time--between 12:37 P.M. and 1:14 P.M.--by forces so much larger than myself that I couldn't even begin to identify them. 

Why you should read this book: Teenager Aza "Holmesy" Holmes has been living with anxiety and invasive thought for a while now, probably since her father died when she was a little kid, and although they control many aspects of her life, they don't control her best friend, Daisy. When Daisy learns that Aza used to be friends with the son of a missing billionaire (they met at "sad camp" for kids with dead parents), Daisy wants to exploit that connection in the hopes that she and Aza can collect the reward for finding the missing man. But Aza's reunion with her old friend only exacerbates her illness until her behavior threatens all her relationships and even her life. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: John Green is not exactly known for happy endings.