Young Writers Society

Here I will list the books that have been nominated for the YWS Top 100 Recent Books. Reasons why or why not certain books should be considered can also go here. Remember, this is for books that are newer than 50 years.


Please nominate books in the other thread provided. Thanks!


Alphabetically, by author

--Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, Douglas Adams
--The Plato Papers[i], Peter Ackroyd
--[i]Time Cat, Lloyd Alexander
--The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, Julie Andrews
--Xanth series, Piers Anthony
--The Book of Illusions, Paul Auster
--The Prince of Nothing series, Scott. R. Bakker
--Abarat quintet, Clive Barker
--Jennifer Government, Max Barry
--Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
--A Great and Terrible Beauty, Libba Bray
--The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
--A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
--If On A Winter's Night a Traveller, Italo Calvino
--Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
--Ender's Shadow, Orson Scott Card
--The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
--Asian Saga series, James Clavell
--The Dark Is Rising sequence, Susan Cooper
--Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton
--Star by Star, Troy Denning
--The Man in the High Castle, Philip K Dick
--The Belgariad series, David Eddings
--The Riftwar Saga trilogy, Raymond E. Feist
--Postcards From the Edge, Carrie Fisher
--Cold Mountain, Charles Fraizer
--The Thief Lord, Cornelia Funke
--The Polish Officer, Alan Furst
--American Gods, Neil Gaiman
--Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman
--Legend, David Gemmell
--The Sword of Truth series, Terry Goodkind
--The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon
--Tales of the Otori series, Lian Hearn
--Catch-22, Joseph Heller
--The Power of Five series, Anthony Horowitz
--The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
--The View From The Mirror quartet, Ian Irvine
--The Well Of Echoes quartet, Ian Irvine
--Castle series, Diana Wynne Jones
--The Wheel of Time series, Robert Jordan
--The Analyst, John Katzenbach
--Christine, Stephen King
--The Dark Tower series, Stephen King
--The Stand, Stephen King
--From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E. L. Konigsburg
--The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova
--Time Quartet series, Madeline L'Engle
--The Giver, Lois Lowry
--One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
--The Squire, His Knight and His Lady, Gerald Morris
--Abhorsen trilogy, Garth Nix
--Shade's Children, Garth Nix
--Beasts, Joyce Carol Oates
--To Jaykae: Life Stinx, Jean Davies Okimoto
--The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow, Fuyumi Ono
--Inheritance series, Christopher Paolini
--Freak the Mighty, Rodman Philbrick
--My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult
--Protector of the Small series, Tamora Pierce
--Provost's Dog trilogy, Tamora Pierce
--The Song of the Lioness series, Tamora Pierce
--The Will of the Empress, Tamora Pierce
--The Thief trilogy, Megan Whalen Turner
--Chainletter series, Christopher Pike
--Remember Me series, Christopher Pike
--What Happened to Lani Garver, Carol Plum-Ucci
--The Carpet People, Terry Pratchett
--Discworld series, Terry Pratchett
--His Dark Materials, Phillip Pullman
--Hungry City Chronicles series, Philip Reeve
--Interview With the Vampire, Anne Rice
--Medieval Word of Margaret of Ashbury series, Judith Merkle Riley
--Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling
--Old Man's War, John Scalzi
--The Long Way Home, Lauraine Snelling
--A Series of Unfortunate Events series, Lemony Snicket
--The Egypt Game, Zilpha Keatley Snyder
--Bartimaeus trilogy, Jonathan Stroud
--Montmorency series, Eleanor Updale
--Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
--The Color Purple, Alice Walker
--Wars of Light and Shadow series, Janny Wurts
--The Tiger's Apprentice series, Laurence Yep
--A Sorcerer's Treason, Sarah Zettel

I'm guessing the Inheritance series is a no-no. It is, after all, perhaps the main reason we're making this list.

I've never read it (nor even heard of it for that matter), but I don't think Pratchett's The Carpet People should be on here, as it's not really notable, and certainly isn't as notable as his Discworld series.

Urgh, Inheritance can't possibly make it any further. Stupid excuse for a book.

:stares: What is Tamora Pierce doing on there? And Inheritance. Does anyone else have the urge to go buy a BB gun and shoot a certain book?

Lol, simply nominations. If you think they don't deserve to be on there, then say so. And in the process, nominate some that should!

Yes, well I'm saying so, again. I think I will be close to suicide if Inheritance comes anywhere near this list. (Well, slight exaggeration, but you get the gist) And for some inexplicable reason I am suddenly unable to think of any recent books, other than the ones already nominated. I've thought of plenty of classics, though (or fairy tales )

Eugh. Inheritance makes me feel ashamed to be human, let alone a teenage writer. I'd also have to disagree with the nominations for Tamora Pierce. She's not bad, but I'm not sure I'd put her in a "Top 100."

I would like to reassert my second from the other thread: if anything is worthy of a "Top 100" list, His Dark Materials is.

I don't like Pierce at all. I think she's boring and I've heard some really bad things about some of her books...

Postcards From the Edge is my favorite. I love Carrie Fisher.

Nah, I think at least Song of the Lioness should be on there. I loved that series when I was younger. But yeah, Inheritance shouldn't be on the list. It's not even close to deserving.

the historian!

I am glad.

and HeadInTheClouds, our avatars are very similar. hehe. =P

I love Garth Nix, but I would replace "Shade's Children" with the Abhorsen trilogy. It's more deserving of a Top 100 list in my opinion.

I also support "American Gods" and "Anansi Boys". Neil Gaiman rocks.

I'd also like to nominate the "Abarat" series by Clive Barker.

Siddharta by Herman Hesse was also good, but I'm not sure when it was written so...which list does it belong on?

Personally, I like the "Inkheart" series better than "The Thief Lord".

I'd also like to nominate "A Great and Terrible Beauty" by Libba Bray.

I didn't like My Sister's Keeper. It's blasphemy, I know, everybody loves Jodi Picoult, but I wasn't emotionally attached to the characters at all. I think I was kind of insulted by Anna seeming younger to me than 13. I got through it... and I really didn't care. I read Vanishing Acts by her, too, and felt the same way. She has plot, I just don't like the characters. Sort of the opposite of Stephenie Meyer.

As to The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, I was so mad when I finished it at 7 am - I sacrificed an entire night of sleep so I could find out everything turned out exactly like I thought it would. The same with his Angels and Demons.

I did love The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. I thought it was going to be a rather done view of the world from the "outside", but it was really well-done. Depressing at times, but good.

Niel Gaiman.

*snuggles*

Just an idea, maybe there should be a limit on the number of books/series an author can have on the list? (Just like for awhile, New York Times clumped the Potter books together, because they were taking up, like, half of the bestseller list.) Dunno, just a suggestion.