Book picks similar to
Peace, O River by Nancy Garden


young-adult
ya_glbtq
do-not-remember
3-author

The World of Normal Boys


K.M. Soehnlein - 2000
    Soehnlein captures the spirit of a generation and an era, embodied in the haunting, unstoppable voice of thirteen-year-old Robin MacKenzie, a modern-day Holden Caulfield, whose struggle for a place in the world is as ferocious as it is real.The time is the late 1970s--an age of gas shortages, head shops, and Saturday Night Fever. The place, suburban New Jersey. At a time when the teenagers around him are coming of age, Robin MacKenzie is coming undone. While "normal boys" are into cars, sports, and bullying their classmates, Robin enjoys day trips to New York City with his elegant mother, spinning fantastic tales for her amusement in an intimate ritual he has come to love. He dutifully plays the role of the good son for his meat-and-potatoes father, even as his own mind is a jumble of sexual confusion and painful self-doubt. But everything changes in one, horrifying instant when a tragic accident wakes his family from their middle-American dream and plunges them into a spiral of slow destruction.As his family falls apart day by day, Robin finds himself pulling away from the unquestioned, unexamined life that has been carefully laid out for him. Small acts of rebellion lead to larger questions of what it means to stand on his own. Falling into a fevered triangle with two other outcasts, Todd Spicer and Scott Schatz, Robin embarks on an explosive odyssey of sexual self-discovery that will take him beyond the spring-green lawns of suburbia, beyond the fraying fabric barely holding together his quickly unraveling family, and into a complex future, beyond the world of normal boys.In The World Of Normal Boys, K.M. Soehnlein has created a dazzling gem of a debut novel in the tradition of Ordinary People and A Boy's Own Story, one that sparkles with raw honesty, poetic beauty, wry insight, and a rare richness of emotion that reverberates long after the last page is read. It is a story about growing up and falling apart, of rebellion and acceptance, of unspoken lives and irreversible choices that are made.

My Ticket Out


J.N. Marton - 2020
    A mysterious new girl. A secret romance…Charlie Baker wants out. She wants out of her small, southern hometown of BluHaven and she has her sights set on a basketball scholarship to a college as far away as her dreams can take her. Everything is going according to plan until she moves to town.Aspen Sullivan is breathtaking. She is beautiful, smart, talented…. She evokes feelings in Charlie that she hadn’t thought possible. When their friendship blossoms into something more, Charlie discovers a new truth about herself. But with Aspen’s mysterious past, they must keep their relationship a secret.Will their love be strong enough to endure the trials of deceiving those closest to them?Do they have what it takes to escape the constraints of the south and the closet together?My Ticket Out is a Young Adult, LGBT story about love, and self-discovery. If you enjoy stories that include romance, heartbreak, and embracing who you are, then you will definitely love this book by author J.N. Marton.Pick this book up today to see if Charlie will find her ticket out.

My Invented Life


Lauren Bjorkman - 2009
    Still, they're as close as sisters can be. Until Eva deletes Roz from her life like so much junk e-mail for no reason that Roz understands. Now Eva hangs out with the annoyingly petite cheerleaders, and Roz fantasizes about slipping bovine growth hormone into their Gatorade.Roz has a suspicion about Eva. In turn, Eva taunts Roz with a dare, which leads to an act of total insanity. Drama geeks clamor for attention, Shakespearean insults fly, and Roz steals the show in Lauren Bjorkman's hilarious debut novel.

Herself When She's Missing


Sarah Terez Rosenblum - 2012
    Forever in search of spiritual fulfillment, Andrea has rejected everything from religion to eating disorders, in favor of "I'm-with-the-band" style fanaticism, all centered on Cry Wolf, a brother-sister folk/rock duo with an eccentric hodgepodge of followers. When Andrea meets fellow groupie Jordan outside a concert, their connection is undeniable: Jordan is powerfully seductive, and Andrea is intrigued by Jordan’s lawless ways. Their romance escalates as they follow Cry Wolf around the country, but as Jordan becomes increasingly manipulative and unreliable, Andrea begins to realize that her passion for Jordan has turned into yet another addiction. The first time Jordan leaves her, Andrea flees Los Angeles for Chicago, almost relieved, and almost ready to start fresh. But when Jordan arrives unannounced on Andrea’s doorstep, Andrea can’t help it; she’s thrilled.Meet Andrea: tightly wound, mid-20s, teacher, hotter than she gives herself credit for, less clever than she believes.Meet Jordan: LA-skinny, ocean eyes, early-40s, perpetual undergraduate student, a liar who believes her own lies.Post-modern in form (lists, 3x5 cards, even the occasional screenplay), but classical in theme: a tale of a girl desperate for something like, but not quite love.

Time (Mirror Book 2)


Janessa Burt - 2015
     One – I would’ve tried shielding Miles from the ugliness of the mirror. Two – I would’ve listened to the warnings that despite the evil I’ve already met, worse was coming. Three – I would’ve recognized that while I was trying to keep everyone in the light, darkness crept into the hidden corners of myself I never knew existed. Four – I wouldn’t have so willingly trusted others just because they are family. Five – Most importantly, I would have shielded my heart before it turned black.

The Rehearsal


Eleanor Catton - 2008
    When news spreads of a high school teacher's relationship with his underage student, participants and observers alike soon take part in an elaborate show of concern and dismay. But beneath the surface of the teenage girls' display, there simmers a new awareness of their own power. They obsessively examine the details of the affair with the curiosity, jealousy, and approbation native to any adolescent girl, under the watchful eye of their stern and enigmatic saxophone teacher, whose focus may not be as strictly on their upcoming recital as she implies.

Havemercy


Jaida Jones - 2008
    The renegade airmen who fly the corps’s mechanical, magic-fueled dragons are Volstov’s greatest weapon. But now one of its members is at the center of a scandal that may turn the tide of victory. To counter the threat, four ill-assorted heroes must converge to save their kingdom: an exiled magician, a naive country boy, a young student—and the unpredictable ace who flies the city’s fiercest dragon, Havemercy. But on the eve of battle, these courageous men will face something that could make the most formidable of warriors hesitate, the most powerful of magicians weak, and the most unlikely of men allies in their quest to rise against it.

Noteworthy


Riley Redgate - 2017
    But when her low Alto 2 voice gets her shut out for the third straight year—threatening her future at Kensington-Blaine and jeopardizing her college applications—she’s forced to consider nontraditional options.In Jordan’s case, really nontraditional. A spot has opened up in the Sharpshooters, Kensington’s elite a cappella octet. Worshiped…revered…all male. Desperate to prove herself, Jordan auditions in her most convincing drag, and it turns out that Jordan Sun, Tenor 1, is exactly what the Sharps are looking for.Jordan finds herself enmeshed in a precarious juggling act: making friends, alienating friends, crushing on a guy, crushing on a girl, and navigating decades-old rivalries. With her secret growing heavier every day, Jordan pushes beyond gender norms to confront what it means to be a girl (and a guy) in a male-dominated society, and—most importantly—what it means to be herself.

Sheltered by Love


M.E. Tudor - 2020
    The result being two hundred hours of community service at the local Humane Society Shelter. The shelter is run by Lillie Stein, who moved back to her hometown with her daughter, Chrissy, leaving behind the chaotic and uptight life that entailed being part of a United States’ senator’s family.Chrissy Stein spent most of her life being bullied because of her family. She blossomed when her mother moved her away from Washington D.C. and homeschooled her. Now, a vet tech at the shelter, Chrissy loves her life helping animals.Jericho, as Suzanne prefers to be called, finds working at the shelter is not as easy as she thought it would be, but quickly realizes cleaning the kennels and grounds is just one of many things that make life better for the animals at the shelter.Chrissy is devoted to helping animals and is not excited about having to babysit Jericho. But, as the two young women work together, they find that they have a lot in common, despite their very different backgrounds, including their love of animals.Tornadoes, hurricanes, and animal rescues bring Chrissy and Jericho closer together as their relationship builds slowly from friendship to something more. But, will Jericho’s ex ruin everything for these two young women in her effort to hurt everyone she feels has let her down?

Lucky


Eddie de Oliveira - 2004
    He doesn't know what to call himself or where he fits in. Then he meets Toby, another boy who likes both boys and girls. Are they destined to be just friends, more than friends, or less than friends? And what would happen if they were attracted to the same girl? Love comes in many shapes and sizes. Sometimes all at once. In his brilliant, funny, and heartfelt debut, Eddie de Oliveira shows us there's more to life than being a wallflower or being knocked out by nunga-nungas.

Boy Robot


Simon Curtis - 2016
    But with a deadly military force tasked to find him at any cost, his odds are less than favorable.Now Isaak must decide whether to hold on to his humanity and face possible death…or to embrace his true nature in order to survive, at the risk of becoming the weapon he was made to be.In his debut, recording artist Simon Curtis has written a fast-paced, high-stakes novel that explores humanity, the ultimate power of empathy, and the greatest battle of all: love vs. fear.

A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend


Emily Horner - 2010
    Then Julia is killed in a sudden car accident, and while Cass is still reeling from her death, Julia’s boyfriend and her other drama friends make it their mission to bring to fruition the nearly-completed secret project: a musical about an orphaned ninja princess entitled Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad.Cass isn’t one of the drama people. She doesn’t feel at home with Julia’s drama friends, and she doesn’t see a place for her in the play. Things only get worse when she finds out that Heather Galloway, the girl who made her miserable all through middle school, has been cast as the ninja princess.Cass can’t take a summer of swallowing her pride and painting sets, so she decides to follow her original plan for a cross-country road trip with Julia. Even if she has a touring bicycle instead of a driver’s license, and even if Julia’s ashes are coming along in Tupperware.Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad is a story about friendship. About love. About traveling a thousand miles just to find yourself. About making peace with the past, and making sense of it. And it’s a story about the bloodiest high school musical one quiet suburb has ever seen.

Our Year of Maybe


Rachel Lynn Solomon - 2019
    Peter, a gifted pianist, is everything to Sophie: best friend, musical collaborator, secret crush. When she learns she’s a match, donating a kidney is an easy, obvious choice. She can’t help wondering if after the transplant, he’ll love her back the way she’s always wanted.But Peter’s life post-transplant isn’t what either of them expected. Though he once had feelings for Sophie too, he’s now drawn to Chase, the guitarist in a band that happens to be looking for a keyboardist. And while neglected parts of Sophie’s world are calling to her—dance opportunities, new friends, a sister and niece she barely knows—she longs for a now-distant Peter more than ever, growing increasingly bitter he doesn’t seem to feel the same connection.Peter fears he’ll forever be indebted to her. Sophie isn’t sure who she is without him. Then one blurry, heartbreaking night twists their relationship into something neither of them recognizes, leading them to question their past, their future, and whether their friendship is even worth fighting for.

Gavin's Big Gay Checklist


Chase Connor - 2018
    But it's not what you think. Okay, maybe it is. Being half-Mexican, half-white, Jewish and Catholic is hard enough. Being a closeted high school senior just makes things harder to handle. Only Eli, Gavin's best friend who lives next door--and who happens to be a white, straight, home-schooled son of a preacher--knows who Gavin really is inside and out. But that's not enough. Gavin decides to make a list. A checklist of "To Do" items to help him become an open, proud gay man before his high school career is over. Before he heads off to college and leaves behind his mother and father, hopefully with their love and support. However, what the checklist does is educate Gavin about life--not just as a gay man--but simply as a man. It teaches him about friendship, honesty, kindness, duty, responsibility, and family. Maybe...just maybe...it will teach him to not be miserable. Gavin's Big Gay Checklist starts out as the story of how a young gay man sets out to accomplish "gay" tasks on his path to coming out of the closet. But it ends up being about life, friendship, family, all of the misery and happiness along the way...and menudo.

Almost, Maine


John Cariani - 2020
    And it almost doesn’t exist, because its residents never got around to getting organized. So it’s just . . . Almost.One cold, clear Friday night in the middle of winter, while the northern lights hover in the sky above, Almost’s residents find themselves falling in and out of love in the strangest ways. Knees are bruised. Hearts are broken. Love is lost and found. And life for the people of Almost, Maine will never be the same.