Hello! I am admittedly, a terribly under read person outside of my profession. My almost 16-year-old son is dating a lovely, well read girl. He is in the space of trying to find a gift for her for the holidays but has found himself dealing with some analysis paralysis.
I offered to help out but by helping I mean coming here and begging you all for a unique gift appropriate from a 16yo boy to a 16yo girl.
They are both very intelligent, both taking honors classes and in things like the debate team, and that club where the different nations are represented by different teens and they argue economical things… You know what I’m talking about..
She is a very sweet girl, less typical teen and more loves weather podcasts and archery. I know that she has loved the Hunger Games.
I suggested an antique copy of Little Women, but he said he’d rather something new that she’s not read.
Please help me help him. Thanks!
by Imaginary-Fruit-8633
5 Comments
Okay so my advice is two fold.
1. As a man who went through this dilemma myself at 16 or so, don’t do the work for him. I found it an opportunity for growth to go to a bookstore/library and ask someone for help finding the right book. I didn’t have internet access at home at 16 though so you could also suggest that HE do the asking online. Because he is 16 and will only benefit from doing his own problem solving now instead of having mom do it. I participate in lots of program’s mentoring boys his age and I issue the same advice to ALL of my little brothers. This is heartfelt advice that comes from a lot of first hand experience.
2. ALL THAT BEING SAID, I have a few recommendations on the fiction and non-fiction side of things based on what you said. For non-fiction I would go with something like Timothy Snyder’s ***On Tyranny*** which is great for anyone interested in political science. For economics, ***Freakonomics*** is great. For fiction, ***Tress of the Emerald Sea*** by Brandon Sanderson, or ***Wyrd Sisters*** by Sir Terry Pratchett. For something a little more adult on the fiction side, ***The Last Heir to Blackwood Library*** by Hester Fox.
It’s a bit difficult without knowing what she’s into / read / owns, but some of my favorite gift books that would be appropriate are:
1. Never let me go – kazuo ishiguro
2. The unbearable lightness of being – milan kundera
3. The summer book – tove Jansson
4. Piranesi – susana Clarke
5. Kitchen – banana yoshimoto
6. Demon copperhead – Barbara kingsolver
7. North woods – Daniel mason
If she liked Hunger Games, she might like other dystopian novels. I really enjoyed The Final Strife.
When my brother was that age, I gave him a copy of A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar (with the idea that it’d be a good book to talk about on college apps as well) and he ended up really loving it. The movie is good too, but the book is definitely worth a read.
It’s a biography of John Nash, the mathematician who developed the concept of Nash equilibrium, which is the cornerstone of game theory (and some other economics concepts as well). He was a brilliant kid with a super bright future who ended up developing schizophrenia in his 20s, which threatened to derail his future. The book talks about his personal life and struggle with mental illness and ends with his being awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994.
It’s a bit of a tough read, but from your description of your son’s gf, I think she can handle it.
Another suggestion is Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, which I’m mostly recommending because she’s interested in debate and Model UN, and because she liked Hunger Games. The book is about a WWII bombadier and chronicles his life during the war in a satirical, absurdist way. It’s very funny, but it’s also a sharp critique of war and life in the military. I read Catch-22 for the first time when I was 17, and it might be my favorite book of all time.
I’d say have him go look in a bookstore and something should jump out. Giving books as gifts is fraught because you don’t know if they will like the book or not. And if they don’t happen to like the book, they still like you! Just get her a book that seems like her and don’t make it such a big deal. Reading taste is very subjective.