The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera (a book by an author of a different ethnicity than you)
I watched this movie years ago (can't really remember it), but I loved the mythological, magical feel behind the writing. This story felt timeless, like it could have happened now or thousands of years ago. Beautiful.
Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery (the next book in a series you started)
Speaking of beautiful . . . I love the way Montgomery writes. Anne's life is pretty ideal, but it just shows lovely little world, from the point of view of a lovely girl.
No Easy Answers by Brooks Brown & Rob Merritt (true crime)
Fiction books tend to offer simple motives for their characters, but this book, written by a good friend of one of the Columbine shooters, offers no easy answers. In a time when school shootings are becoming more common than natural disasters, this shows that sometimes, you can know someone and still just . . . not know them.
The Homeward Bounders by Diana Wynne Jones (a book with an ugly cover)
Like many of Jones' books, the ending was hard to understand, and I feel that she didn't explain the ending as well as I would have liked, but I love how she weaves old stories into new tales.
Also read, but not for the challenge:
Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
I did not like this book quite as much as I've liked others by Sanderson, but the world was richly and carefully built and the characters all felt different from each other — and I've never gone from hating a character to loving him so fast before.
