What book should I read for a paper I have to write?

Question

Every year we have a big term paper.
This year we have to write the paper on a book and I think do a character analysis.
What would be a good book to write this paper on?
I don't have to start writing for a few weeks, but I want to go ahead and start reading.
I am 17, so I would like it to be interesting to me.
What book should I choose?
I don't want to write about "To Kill a mockingbird" or any other books like that. Writng a book report on a classic book just seems kind of predictable to me.
I want my paper to blow my teacher away.
I am a good writer.
I want the book to be something kind of unexpected.
I want my paper to be really creative.
Please help.
Thanks!

Answer 1

As I don't really know your interests I'll suggest several on several different subjects:

A Rose for Melinda by Lurlene McDaniel (ISBN:0553570900)
(or any of her other books - she has good strong characters

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (ISBN:0316166685)

The Last Mortal Man by Syne Mitchell (ISBN:0451460944)

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan (ISBN:0618773479)

The Gunslinger by Stephen King (ISBN:0451210840) (don't worry it's a shorter one, lol!)

Masterharper of Pern by Anne McCaffrey(ISBN:0345424603)

Storm Front by Jim Butcher (ISBN:0451457811)

Riding the Bus With My Sister by Rachael Simon(ISBN:0452284554)

Don't Leave Me This Way: Or When I Get Back on My Feet You'll Be Sorry by Julia Fox Garrison (ISBN:0061120618)

That's a good mix of contemporary fiction and nonfiction with a few unexpected titles and themes. My favorite out of all these would have to be Syne Mitchell, she has a really captivating plot, excellent writing style, and characters that jump off the page. You can look up plot synopses on all of them with the ISBN (International Standard Book Number - How's that for useless knowledge! JK, lol)

Answer 2

Sounds like a great project. A wonderful book is "The Will of the Empress" by Tamora Pierce. It is number eight in a series though and even thought they go up in age level (the characters grow up in the books) it still might take you awhile to read. Four very different characters that would work well in an analysis. That would be my first pick.

Second I would say the book "The Goldren Compass" is worth reading. It is very complex and fun to read. You can't put it down. Lots to write about too. Watch out though. It's being made into a movie so you had better read it first. Good luck. Tell me what book you go with.

Answer 3

Greetings! I think I can help you. The book I am going to recommend is actually for younger children, but it did win the Newbery Award this year (if you don't know what the Newbery Award is, it's essentially the Pulitzer Prize of Children's literature).

The book is called "The Higher Power of Lucky". It was very controversial and many libraries considered pulling this award winner. It is about a twelve year old girl who lives in a deeply impoverished village in the eastern Sierras of California.

The twelve year old girl has to deal with the departure of her father, the death of her mother, poverty, and also finds herself intertwined with twelve step groups (Yes, adult groups like AA, Gamblers Anonymous, etc). She deals with all of these things, including fear of abandonment and still has the hold of a twelve year old girl's charm.

It is not a long book, but in it are all kinds of different things that this child had to face and deal with. There are all kinds of moral dilemmas that you could write about. I would imagine for you, it would be an incredible eye-opener.

It's not a big book, but I bet that if you wrote a dyno-supreme paper, the teacher will overlook the book size. Give it a try.

Good luck. Take care.

Answer 4

A couple of these may fall into the classics category, but some of my favorites that would definately give you GREAT character analysises are: Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy), The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck) and Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand).

They are all rather long, but very good reads. Atlas Shrugged blew me away once I got into it. I don't think your teacher would expect it, and it's an awesome book. Depending on what grade you are in, it may seem like you didnt try very hard if you read a children's book, no matter how many characters there are in it, or how good of a report you do on it.

Answer 5

I think The Neverending Story would be a really good choice-
It lets you get close with the characters and there is alot of variety in the characters you can choose. Hope this helps!

by the way, this book is extremely creative and would be unexpected as it is kind of a rarely read book~

Answer 6

Well a really good book that I have read is called TEMPLE it was written by Mattew Reilly, you might want to try it.
Also, here is something I did over 40 years ago in my senior year in high school. The teacher told us in order to get an A in his class all we had to do was a book report in class and we only had about 40 minutes left to do it. I did a book report on 'Dick and Jane' in about ten minutes. After he got done laughing he gave me an 'A'. Don't know if that would work in your case, but it might be funny.

Answer 7

Los Angeles Diaries by James Brown
Ham On Rye by Charles Bukowski
Red Shift by Alan Garner

Answer 8

I think some consider it a classic, but The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald is an excellent character book. Lord of the Rings is also a great character book.

Answer 9

Why not a Stephen King book. He's recognized as a great writer of our time. I think the book Christine wouldn't be a bad choice - you could describe how the car changes Arnie and how he becomes obsessed with restoring the car.

Also, Misery and It might be interesting choices.

Good luck!

Answer 10

If you like science fiction at all, Alfred Bester's "The Demolished Man" has a really interesting main character... he is, if I remember right, a corporate bigwig who decides to murder his #1 competitor... in a world full of telepaths. It's an easy read from the golden age of science fiction.