Anonymous wrote:Maybe "Prep" if you both liked the boarding school thing.

That one would feel awkward for me because it the sex. I also didn't get the hype. It was mildly entertaining but not that great.

Books my teens read in school that I also read that made good dinner time conversations:

Fahrenheit 451
The Giver
Several short stories by Edgar Allen Poe around Halloween
Toni Morrison's Beloved
The Hunger Games
The Lord of the Flies (teen hated this one, but it made for interesting conversation)
Romeo and Juliet (plays can be fun to read aloud together, they enjoyed talking about how love can make people do unwise impulsive things)
King Lear along with Jane Smiley's spinoff novel

Anonymous wrote:Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy

She wrote Wild Dark Shore which involves teenagers. It was good.

I'd stay away from Romance. They are heavy on sex. It feels awkward for me to read as a married 40 year old.

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson. Technically a YA mystery but I read it as an adult and enjoyed it. This also has a boarding school setting.

If you like Fantasy I'd recommend Rainbow Rowell's Carry On series, sort of a deconstruction of chosen one narratives. I really like the magic system in this one.

Anonymous wrote:Maybe "Prep" if you both liked the boarding school thing.

I was going to suggest Curtis Sittenfeld too!

Daisy Jones and the Six
The Road to Tender Hearts
Nothing to See Here
The Favorites
Don't Forget to Write
Anything by Jeff Zentner
The Nanny Diaries
Eleanor and Park
The Royal We
Love and Gelato

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy

Straub not Strauss.

Maybe This Time Tomorrow by Emma Strauss, about a middle aged woman going back in time to her teenage self.

My daughter and I both read some Taylor Jenkins Reid books when she was that age. Also Maybe Your Should Talk to Someone, a nonfiction book by a therapist about her patients (by Lori Gottlieb).

Taylor Jenkins Reed - my entire family read and loved Carrie Soto is Back and 7 Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Rosie Project trilogy by Graeme Simsion was also a favorite. Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. Things we save in a fire by Katherine Center. The Rook by Daniel O'Malley.

Maybe "Prep" if you both liked the boarding school thing.

Some ideas:

Little Fires Everywhere

The Pursuit of Love: A novel

Shelterwood: A novel

The Glass castle

Hope you find something you will both enjoy!

My 15 year old and I just jointly read “The Academy” (written by Elin Hilderbrand and her daughter). I’d never read EH before and the co-author scenario and boarding school plot made me pick it up for us.


It was nothing formal but we shared the book and talked about it when we knew we were at same point to not spoil it.

I’d love to do it again, looking for suggestions of authors or books that might work for both of us. Probably on the lighter side. The Emily’s (Henry, Giffin) seem to be about older people so not as interesting for her.

This spring I plan to re-read an old favorite when she reads it in English class.