Best Books 2004: Adult Books for High School Students

From mysteries and memoirs to books about Mars and Morocco, this list reflects the tastes of teens whose interests are, as always, varied, intense, and highly individualistic. It's all here: fiction that is speculative, realistic, and historical; graphic novels with compelling art and stories; and nonfiction titles as unusual as a treatise on rats, as inspiring as the accomplishment of building an electric car, and as fascinating as the simulated attempt to survive on Mars. These titles, like many of the books reviewed this year, are indicative of a wider focus that is becoming more and more important to teens in their ever-widening global environment.
–Jackie Gropman and Susan Woodcock, chairs, Adult Books for High School Students

ALVAREZ, Julia. The Woman I Kept to Myself. Algonquin. Tr $17.95. ISBN 1-56512-406-5.
In eloquent and sometimes humorous poems, Alvarez, a native of the Dominican Republic, writes of her feelings and discoveries growing up in New York City with her sisters. (July)

CHEVALIER, Tracy. The Lady and the Unicorn. Dutton. Tr $23.95. ISBN 0-525-94767-1.
A fanciful, engaging tale about the creation of the famous Unicorn Tapestries in 1490s France, in which strands of character and culture are woven together as cleverly as the artworks themselves. (Apr.)

FASULO, Linda. An Insider's Guide to the UN. Yale Univ. Tr $27. ISBN 0-300-10155-4.
With highly readable and journalistic clarity, the author leads readers through the complex organizational structure of the United Nations. Her concise and entertaining narrative sheds light on its mission, evolution, and controversies. (June)

FISCHER, David Hackett. Washington's Crossing. Oxford Univ. Tr $35. ISBN 0-19-517034-2.
This stirring account of perseverance, inventiveness, and improvisation describes how Washington, his officers, and their men turned early military defeats into victory at Trenton and Princeton, and offers insight into how the decisions made determined history. (May)

GOODWIN, Joy. The Second Mark: Courage, Corruption, and the Battle for Olympic Gold. S & S. Tr $25. ISBN 0-7432-4527-X.
The chicanery of the judges that marred the 2002 Olympic pairs figure-skating competition is contrasted with the courage of the young athletes, who displayed grace beyond their years. (Sept.)

HALPERN, Jake. Braving Home. Houghton. Tr $23. ISBN 0-618-15548-1.
With interest and empathy, the author tells the stories of individuals who refused to evacuate their property in the face of impending disasters, offering a new look at the meaning of adventure–and of home. (Jan.)

HEILBRUN, Robert. Offer of Proof: A Novel. HarperCollins/Morrow. Tr $24.95. ISBN 0-06-053812-0.
A thought-provoking journey through the criminal justice system of New York. When an innocent black youth is accused of murder, his noir-voiced attorney fights on both sides of the law to save him from the death penalty and to learn the truth. (Mar.)

KETTLEWELL, Caroline. Electric Dreams: One Unlikely Team of Kids and the Race to Build the Car of the Future. Carroll & Graf. Tr $24. ISBN 0-7867-1271-6.
The true and inspiring story tells how a twice-totaled 1985 two-door Ford Escort was transformed by students from the poorest county in North Carolina to win the first Mid-Atlantic High School Electric Vehicle Challenge. (Aug.)

KERMODE, Frank. The Age of Shakespeare. Modern Library. Tr $21.95. ISBN 0-679-64244-7.
An elegant and concise journey through the politics, religion, language, and history of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Kermode offers readers an accessible route to a broad understanding and deep appreciation of Shakespeare's artistic triumphs and the development of the theater. (Apr.)

KING, Laurie R. The Game. Bantam. Tr $23.95. ISBN 0-553-80194-5.
This is the seventh and possibly best Mary Russell mystery yet, rich in period detail and sense of time and place. The heroine and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, travel to India to search for Kim, the hero of Rudyard Kipling's novel. (June)

KRAUS, Caroline. Borderlines: A Memoir. Broadway. Tr $23.95. ISBN 0-7679-1403-1.
Caroline, an intelligent but somewhat naive college graduate, finds herself in a severely dysfunctional and dangerous friendship with troubled and manipulative Jane. Her downward spiral and recovery make for a compelling and suspenseful read. (July)

POLLACK, John. Cork Boat. illus. by Tim Purus. Pantheon. Tr $21. ISBN 0-375-42257-9.
The amusing, suspenseful, and true story of a man with a can-do attitude, who surmounted many unique challenges to realize an unusual dream–to build a boat from corks. (Apr.)

PRICE, David A. Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas and the Heart of a New Nation. Knopf. Tr $25.95. ISBN 0-375-41541-6.
A richly flavored narrative of the first two decades of the Jamestown settlement and some of its key personalities. Price offers a fascinating modern take on the economics, events, and cultural crises that followed upon Captain Smith's original vision of America. (Feb.)

ROBINSON, Kim Stanley. Forty Signs of Rain. Bantam. Tr $25. ISBN 0-553-80311-5.
In this well-crafted, thoughtful, and often humorous novel, the specter of global warming looms over the personal and professional lives of several scientists at the National Science Foundation and the delegation of Buddhist refugees from a drowned nation, who open an embassy next door. (Sept.)

ROTH, Philip. The Plot Against America: A Novel. Houghton. Tr $26. ISBN 0-618-50928-3.
When Charles Lindbergh wins the 1940 presidential election and starts making deals with the Third Reich, everything in young Phil's once-secure Jewish neighborhood and family life in New Jersey begins to veer onto a frightening new course. A compelling alternate history that features a very recognizable America. (Nov.)

SATRAPI, Marjane. Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return. illus. by author. Pantheon. Tr $17.95. ISBN 0-375-42288-9.
A compelling memoir of alienation and misunderstanding, relating–in words enhanced by drawings–Satrapi's departure from a repressive Iran to get an education in Vienna, her four troubled years as a student there, and finally her struggle to build a life for herself back in Iran. (Dec.)

SCOTT, Georgia. Headwraps: A Global Journey. PublicAffairs. Tr $35. ISBN 1-58648-109-6.
The author, a fashion writer, takes readers along on her quest to discover the origins and cultural significance of head wraps and scarves worn by men and women on every continent. A visually stunning and ebullient whirlwind tour. (June)

SLOAN, Kay. The Patron Saint of Red Chevys: A Novel. Permanent. 2004. Tr $21.95. ISBN 1-57962-104-X.
Through tragedy, comic episodes, and the many changes in the 1960s, a teen journeys from a childhood marked by violence and eccentricity in racist Mississippi to college in Berkeley, CA, always searching for a place she can feel is her true home. (Dec.)

SULLIVAN, Robert. Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants. Bloomsbury. Tr $23.95. ISBN 1-58234-385-3.
With incongruous wit and charm, the author takes a seemingly unappealing subject–rats in New York City, from bar fights in the 1840s to the World Trade Center catastrophe–and turns it into a top-notch page-turner. (Sept.)

THOMPSON, Craig. Carnet de Voyage. illus. by author. Top Shelf Productions. pap. $14.95. ISBN 1-891830-60-0.
The author's journal of his recent travels in Europe and Morocco, told through black-and-white drawings, cartoons, and concise captions, captures to perfection what it's like to be young, on one's own, and on a fascinating adventure. (Dec.)

TUCKER, Neely. Love in the Driest Season: A Family Memoir. Crown. Tr $23.95. ISBN 0-609-60976-9.
The riveting narrative of two Mississippians in Africa–a white reporter and his African-American wife–who struggle against Third World bureaucracy to adopt an abandoned Zimbabwean baby, as the continent is torn by crisis. (Aug.)

WINSPEAR, Jacqueline. Birds of a Feather. Soho. Tr $25. ISBN 1-56947-368-4.
A well-plotted and substantial mystery featuring a spirited heroine who solves a missing-persons case in post-World War I London, a setting rich in period details and still steeped in the aftermath of the horrors of war. (Sept.)

ZUBRIN, Robert. Mars on Earth: The Adventures of Space Pioneers in the High Arctic. Tarcher. Tr $28.95. ISBN 1-58542-255-X.
Weary of government delays, an international group of scientists, students, and other interested individuals initiated, privately funded, and carried out ingenious "science projects" to test humans and equipment in preparation for future expeditions to the Red Planet. A compelling account of science at work. (May)

See also Best Books 2004