1. The Girl Who Owned a City by O.T. Nelson
This was my first post-apocalyptic book. It’s about a deadly virus that sweeps the world killing everyone over the age of 12 and how one badass girl decides to survive using brains and guts and a little (but not too much) compassion. And it’s set in a Chicago suburb, which is where I was ACTUALLY LIVING when I read it. It’s a stunner.
2. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton (Who was a WOMAN! Named Susan!)
So I have a favorite uncle who is only a few years older than me. When I was a kid, he hung out with a bunch of teenaged boys who greased their hair back and wore converse and called themselves “The Greasers.” I was in love with all of them and when I read The Outsiders, each character had their real life counterpart and when Johnny dies (spoiler alert) I wept a week.
3. Forever by Judy Blume
I was a virgin until I was 20 years old and a junior in college. But I might as well have lost it at 12 when I readForever. This amazing book was so incendiary (and popular) the librarian had to keep it behind the front desk. If you wanted to check it out, you had to take a deep breath, say 3 Hail Marys and ask for it: BY NAME. You were rewarded by the frankest talk about sex ever, a penis named Ralph, and being able to act like you totally knew what everyone was talking about once your friends started actually having sex without having to fake it too much.
4. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
OK, so this was the book that did me in. I don’t even remember where I heard of Sylvia Plath. I want to say an English teacher but I don’t think that was it. I read the poetry first and fell in love and then sought out more and found The Bell Jar and then, I wanted to be a writer. Madness, virginity, writing, ambition, complex friendships; it was all there and I ate it up with a spoon. Fast forward a few years and I go and write a book called And Then Things Fall Apart which is basically a love letter to the Sylvia and The Bell Jar, and the dramatic twists and turns of becoming an adult.
Arlaina Tibensky is the world’s oldest teenager. She lives in NYC where she curates the Pen Parentis Literary Salon at the Libertine Library. Her debut YA novel AND THEN THINGS FALL APART, about how Sylvia Plath and an old typewriter usher a reluctant virgin through the worst summer of her freaking life is out July 26, 2011 with Simon & Schuster. Visit her at http://www.arlainatibensky.blogspot.com
This was my first post-apocalyptic book. It’s about a deadly virus that sweeps the world killing everyone over the age of 12 and how one badass girl decides to survive using brains and guts and a little (but not too much) compassion. And it’s set in a Chicago suburb, which is where I was ACTUALLY LIVING when I read it. It’s a stunner.
2. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton (Who was a WOMAN! Named Susan!)
So I have a favorite uncle who is only a few years older than me. When I was a kid, he hung out with a bunch of teenaged boys who greased their hair back and wore converse and called themselves “The Greasers.” I was in love with all of them and when I read The Outsiders, each character had their real life counterpart and when Johnny dies (spoiler alert) I wept a week.
3. Forever by Judy Blume
I was a virgin until I was 20 years old and a junior in college. But I might as well have lost it at 12 when I readForever. This amazing book was so incendiary (and popular) the librarian had to keep it behind the front desk. If you wanted to check it out, you had to take a deep breath, say 3 Hail Marys and ask for it: BY NAME. You were rewarded by the frankest talk about sex ever, a penis named Ralph, and being able to act like you totally knew what everyone was talking about once your friends started actually having sex without having to fake it too much.
4. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
OK, so this was the book that did me in. I don’t even remember where I heard of Sylvia Plath. I want to say an English teacher but I don’t think that was it. I read the poetry first and fell in love and then sought out more and found The Bell Jar and then, I wanted to be a writer. Madness, virginity, writing, ambition, complex friendships; it was all there and I ate it up with a spoon. Fast forward a few years and I go and write a book called And Then Things Fall Apart which is basically a love letter to the Sylvia and The Bell Jar, and the dramatic twists and turns of becoming an adult.
Arlaina Tibensky is the world’s oldest teenager. She lives in NYC where she curates the Pen Parentis Literary Salon at the Libertine Library. Her debut YA novel AND THEN THINGS FALL APART, about how Sylvia Plath and an old typewriter usher a reluctant virgin through the worst summer of her freaking life is out July 26, 2011 with Simon & Schuster. Visit her at http://www.arlainatibensky.blogspot.com
