Yep, I know I’m biased because I work for Twitter, but I’m really bullish about American Express’s Sync with Twitter program.

Not only have I saved $90 in the past two weeks using Amex deal hashtags, but I’ve been really impressed with the redemption execution.

After I tweet the hashtag, I get an @reply from Amex letting me know I’m enrolled in the deal, and a couple minutes after placing my order with the retailer, I get an email from Amex confirming I’ll be credited.

The only piece of  “Yeah….but…” criticism I’ve heard from people is “I don’t want to spam my followers with a bunch irrelevant tweets.”

That’s something I’m sensitive too as well, and after I synced my first deal, I figured this might be the case with other less-talkative tweeters as well.

This can be easily solved by replying either to the retailer or Amex handle.

Instead of sending out a tweet with the deal hashtag to all of your followers’ timelines, an @reply will be seen only by your followers who follow that handle (@americanexpress, @zappos, etc) — limiting its visibility to only the people who would probably be most interested in seeing the hashtag deal.

Problem solved.

Persona

1967

Director: Ingmar Bergman

Principal Actors: Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann

Gut-level Take

Sometimes it’s exhausting being yourself. Or knowing who your self should be.

Basic Plot

Liv Ullmann plays an actress who stops talking. By choice? Psychosomatic illness? Bibi Andersson plays the nurse assigned as her caretaker as she convalesces at a seaside cottage.

Themes

• Short hair vs long hair
• Introverts in the spotlight will eventually snap
• Spend enough time around someone else, and you’ll start acting like them
• You’re more transparent than you realize
• Not all women want to be mothers
• The tyranny of the beautiful
• Silence is a potent weapon

Unexpected Awesomeness

• Minimalistic Swedish 60s wardrobe. You will want to wear dark turtlenecks and stare meaningfully out to sea.
• Sven Nykvist. Sven Nykvist. Sven Nykvist. Cinematography that will make you wish more films were made in B&W.
• Seeing the stylistic origins of Stardust Memories.
• The film gets better in retrospect. I didn’t enjoy watching it. But afterwards, after thinking about it, it became a good film.

Harry & Tonto

1974

Director: Paul Mazursky

Principal Actors: Art Carney, Tonto the Cat

Gut-level Take

Everything either changes or dies. Observe it, accept it, and keep moving on.

Basic Plot

Evicted from his lifelong apartment in New York, old-guy Harry and his old cat Tonto take a road trip west meeting sweet, eccentric people along the way.

Themes

• The death of your generation and its culture
• Meeting strangers is transformative
• Individualism vs community
• Animals as family
• Is the world really getting more dangerous, or do we just perceive it to be more so?

Unexpected Awesomeness

• 1970s economy referred to as the “worst since the Great Depression” — gave me hope that the dire economy now will eventually get better
• Melanie Mayron (eccentric photographer in Thirtysomething) as a kooky young runaway with crazy round glasses
• A road movie in which nothing bad happens to the travelers
• Larry Hagman as a wanna-be West Coast playboy with a penchant for tightly tied neck scarves

Full Metal Jacket

1987

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Principle actors: Matthew Modine, Vincent D’Onofrio

Gut-level take

It’s impossible to be ironic, detached, intellectual, and objective in war.

Basic plot

A journalist enlists in the Marines, and we follow his journey from basic training to reporting on the front during the Tet Offensive.

Themes

• The importance of chain of command
• Sadism and bullying
• The desire for peace vs vengeance
• Price of freedom via militarism

Unexpected Awesomeness

• Hearing the origin of 2 Live Crew’s “Me So Horny” samples
• John Terry (Christian Shepard on Lost) as a journalist lieutenant
• Seeing the origin of R. Lee Ermey’s drill sergeant persona in pop culture

See also: the Kickstarter project to turn Matthew Modine’s limited edition book Full Metal Jacket Diaries into an iPad app.

The Conversation

1974

Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola

Principal actors: Gene Hackman & Harrison Ford

Gut-level take

An introvert’s greatest nightmare is being observed without knowing it.

Basic plot

Gene Hackman plays a guarded surveillance expert hired to record the conversation of two people in SF’s Union Square but his morality starts to intrude on his professionalism and exactitude.

Themes

• Advanced technology eroding privacy
• Paranoia
• Isolation
• Fear of being duped despite exceptional intelligence and research
• Perception vs reality

Unexpected Awesomeness

• Harrison Ford as a charismatic, ambitious executive assistant
• San Francisco in the 1970s
• Haunting piano score by David Shire
• Old-school character-driven narrative that challenges our current attention spans.
• Cindy Williams looks like Zooey Deschanel! Or vice versa!

See also “Old-School Paranoia” by Benjamin Strong.

It was the summer of 1990. I was 14 years old and at a crossroads.

New Kids on the Block, Sweet Valley High books, and Growing Pains didn’t appeal to me anymore, and I was looking for whatever would come next.

I’m not sure how I came across Sassy magazine for the first time, but it was probably while browsing the magazine rack at a suburban Minneapolis Super America, looking for something to read other than the YM I had already read and the dozens of boy-crazy rags like The Big Bopper with Kirk Cameron’s goofy mug on the cover.

I remember reading Sassy for the first time knowing immediately that it was different. It called bullshit on the crap that other teen magazines fawned over and instead covered independent film, music and NYC culture. It was honest and funny and ironic, and it had the tone of a street-wise older sister who was much cooler than I was.

Sassy’s awesomeness is well documented on the internet—there’s even a book about it—so I’m not unique in saying that Sassy magazine changed my life. And it did, in a big way.

Back in the summer of 1990, Sassy’s editors compiled a small pull-out booklet for the July issue of the magazine. Titled 150 Things to Read, Watch, and Listen To, So You Don’t Die of Boredom This Summer, it was an annotated list of seminal records, movies, and books that were favorites of the editors and writers.

Not only had I not seen, listened to, or read any of the titles in the booklet, and I not even HEARD of most of them. And this intrigued me. It was like the cooler older sister was throwing down the gauntlet to see if I was up to the challenge.

And so I made it my personal quest to find the books, movies & music on the list and study them that summer.

Of course, this was all before the internet, before Amazon, Google, eBay, Netflix, YouTube, and iTunes made it ridiculously easy to find anything that you want instantly.

This was when tracking down physical copies of obscure titles was a quest, and the hunt became part of the media’s meaning.

A lot of the stuff on the list I flat-out didn’t get.

Movies I watched went right over my head—Dr. Strangelove for example. And when I listened to a band like the Buzzcocks, I heard mostly noise.

But though some of the movies, books, and music were cryptic to my 14-year-old brain, they planted something in my unconsciousness, and they created a life-long love of Stanley Kubrick, Lou Reed, and Frank Conroy.

In fact, I can trace just about every piece of media that I love back to that pull-out booklet from 1990.

Like almost all pieces of ephemera, my pull-out booklet was thrown out in the trash, and I never saw it again.

Until this spring when I was able to track down on eBay a July 1990 copy of Sassy with the booklet intact.

In the spirit of the true Internet, where everything is shared and nothing is ever lost, I decided to digitize the booklet’s suggestions so some 14-year-old girl has instant access to all the media it took me years to find on foot back in the ’90s.

To today’s 14-year-old girl, most of the stuff on the list is going to seem dated. But I hope it will help her understand her Gen X parents better, and know that wherever we are right now in culture, it came from someplace else.

The Movies/Videos

The Music

The Books

Download a copy of the scanned booklet

Get the background on this list.

Videos/Movies

Adam’s Rib

Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy play husband-and-wife lawyers on opposite sides of a women’s right’s case. (Comedy/Drama)

Annie Hall

The best break-up movie ever, through the eyes of Woody Allen. (Comedy/Potentially embarrassing if viewed with the folks/To be seen with a member of the opposite sex.)

Baby, It’s You

A doctor’s preppy daughter takes up with a greaser, much to the horror of your equally preppie friends. (Drama/Romance/Comedy/Potentially embarrassing if viewed with the folks/To be seen with a member of the opposite sex)

Barbarella

Pre-politicized Jane Fonda as a space-traveling sex kitten. Also where Duran Duran got their name. (Comedy/Sci-Fi/Potentially embarrassing if viewed with the folks/To be seen with a member of the opposite sex)

Birdy

Matthew Modine is a shell-shocked Vietnam vet who thinks he’s a bird. Nicholas Cage tries to help. (Drama/There is no way you’ll guess the ending/Cute boy fest/Sob alert/Movie with a message)

The Blob

Double feature: See Steve McQueen in the 1958 original, then view the ’88 remake with Kevin Dillon. (Horror/Sci-Fi/Cute boy fest/Do not eat before, during or after this movie)

Blood Simple

This twisted tale of murder and passion will make you scared of rednecks. (Comedy/Drama/There is no way you’ll guess the ending)

Brazil

Mind-blowing futuristic nightmare that also manages to be darkly funny.  (Comedy/Drama/There is no way you’ll guess the ending/Movie with a message)

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Starring Audrey Hepburn, featuring clothes you gotta have. (Comedy/Drama/Romance/Sob alert)

Dawn of the Dead

Ghouls in a shopping mall. Sequel to—and better than—Night of the Living Dead. (Horror/Comedy/Do not eat before, during or after this movie)

Decline of the Western Civilization, Part 1 and Part 2

The punk and heavy metal movements, featuring shockingly candid interviews with real musicians. (Documentary/Potentially embarrassing if viewed with the folks/Movie with a message)

Desperately Seeking Susan

Madonna is the very essence of early ’80s hip New York-ness. (Comedy/Romance/Mystery/Cute boy fest).

Diva

Cute postman loves opera and that’s what gets him in trouble. An amazing movie to look at—you’ll wish you were French. (Drama/To be seen with a member of the opposite sex)

Do the Right Thing

Spike Lee directs a day in the life of a Brooklyn pizza joint and says more about racism in America than anyone else in Hollywood. (Comedy/Drama/Potentially embarrassing if viewed with the folks/Movie with a message/Sob alert)

Dr. Strangelove

Still brilliant (and true) political satire after 20 years; dead genius Peter Sellers plays three of the parts. (Comedy/Drama/There is no way you’ll guess the ending/Movie with a message)

Drugstore Cowboy

The first cliche-free movie about drug addicts. Plus Matt Dillon. (Comedy/Drama/Potentially embarrassing if viewed with the folks/Teenagers as they really are)

East of Eden

The only James Dean movie worth getting excited about. (Drama/Cute boy fest)

Fandango

Boys on the road right before Vietnam. (Comedy/Drama/Cute boy fest)

Gates of Heaven

This deadpan look at a pet cemetery proves truth is stranger than fiction. (Comedy/Documentry)

The Girl Can’t Help It

Bodacious Jayne Mansfield wants to be a rock star. Great early cameos by Little Richard and Eddie Cochran. (Comedy/Romance)

The Graduate

Angst-ridden college grad has an affair with a married woman, then falls in love with her daughter. (Comedy/Romance/Potentially embarrassing if viewed with the folks/To be seen with a member of the opposite sex)

A Hard Day’s Night

Comedy starring The Beatles that captures their early fabness. (Comedy/Cute boy fest)

Harold & Maude

Optimistic old lady + pessimistic young man = the kookiest love story ever. (Comedy/Drama/Romance/Potentially embarrassing if viewed with the folks/There is no way you’ll guess the ending/Movie with a message)

Heathers

(Teenagers as they really are, like, x5)

High School

A fly-on-the-wall view of a real, live high school in the ’70s. (Documentary)

High School Confidential

A 1950s anti-drug morality tale that’s a scream. Dig that crazy beatnik poet. (Comedy/Potentially embarrassing if viewed with the folks/To be seen with a member of the opposite sex)

How to Marry a Millionaire

Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall and Betty Grable all snag rich husbands (Comedy/Romance).

Lady and the Tramp

And for that matter, 101 Dalmatians.

The Misfits

Marilyn Monroe again, this time trying to save lots of wild horses from dog-food-hunting cowboys. Her last film. (Drama/Romance/Sob alert)

My Life as a Dog

Gorgeous little boy loses dog. Loses mom. Finds quirky uncle. Finds friends. From Sweden. (Drama/Sob alert)

Near Dark

Even cooler than The Lost Boys. Gorier too. (Horror/Mystery/Cute boy fest/To be seen with a member of the opposite sex/Do not eat before, during or after this movie)

A Nightmare on Elm Street

See Johnny Depp get sucked into a bed. (Horror/Cute boy fest/To be seen with a member of the opposite sex)

Notorious

Ingrid Bergman was never so sexy, Cary Grant was never so dark. Arguably Alfred Hitchcock’s best. (Romance/Mystery)

Polyester

Forget Cry-Baby, this is the kind of truly sick stuff John Waters does best.  (Comedy/Potentially embarrassing if viewed with the folks/Do not eat before, during or after this movie)

Pumping Iron and Pumping Iron II, The Women

Real body builders (including Arnold Schwarzenegger) get big bodies and heads for the Mr./Ms. Universe contests. (Documentary/Movie with a message)

Repo Man

This movie about a punk-style car repossessor proves that Emilio Estevez was cool. Once. (Comedy/To be seen with a member of the opposite sex/Movie with a message)

River’s Edge

The dark side of friendship. Keanu has yet to top this. (Drama/Potentially embarrassing if viewed with the folks/To be seen with a member of the opposite sex/Teenagers the way they really are)

Rock ‘N’ Roll High School

Punk-era celebration of mindless adolescence, starring the Ramones (Comedy/Romance/Teenagers the way they really are)

Say Anything

You mean you haven’t seen this yet? (Comedy/Romance/Potentially embarrassing if viewed with the folks/To be seen with a member of the opposite sex/Teenagers the way they really are)

Some Kind of Wonderful

Eric Stoltz when he was humble. (Drama/Romance/Potentially embarrassing if viewed with the folks/To be seen with a member of the opposite sex/Teenagers the way they really are)

Soylent Green

Campy story about post-Greenhouse-effect life, and getting truer by the minute. (Sci-Fi/You’ll never guess the ending/To be seen with a member of the opposite sex/Movie with a message)

Stand by Me

River Phoenix was only this big. (Drama/Cute boy fest)

The Stepford Wives

You’ll never look at your mother the same way again. (Horror/Mystery)

A Streetcar Named Desire

If your mom’s always going on about Marlon Brando, this is why. (Drama/Romance/Sob alert)

This is Spinal Tap

Docu-style comedy about a trash metal band. If you’re left wondering who would make a movie about a band this bad, you didn’t get it. (Comedy/To be seen with a member of the opposite sex)

2,000 Maniacs

Do not eat before, during or after this movie!!!!!

Valley of the Dolls

Classic ’60s bitchery between Hollywood starlets, and some mighty swell hairdos. (Comedy/Drama/Romance)

Viva Las Vegas

Indisputable proof that Ann-Margret and Elvis Presley are the same person. (Comedy/Action/Romance)

The Year My Voice Broke

A younger boy loves an older girl. She gets pregnant and he gets burned. (Comedy/Drama/Potentially embarrassing if viewed with the folks/Teenagers the way they really are)

Get the background on this list.

Music

After the Gold Rush

Neil Young. Yeah, he’s weird, but this stuff comes straight from the heart. (Folk rock/Music to be alone with)

Ain’t That a Groove

James Brown. He’s old enough to be your grandfather but still showing the world how it’s done. (Soul/Best at speaker-busting volume/Take to a party)

Avalon

Roxy Music. Bryan Ferry is the master scribe of superior love songs. Great makeout or pining music. (Rock/Soul/Music to be alone with/To be heard with a member of the opposite sex)

Back to Mystery City

Hanoi Rocks. The ultimate of their trashy-metal-glam sound for those who like to crank up the volume. (Metal/Best at speaker-busting volume/Music to be in the car with)

Blood on the Tracks

Bob Dylan. Released in ’75, this was Bob’s last true masterpiece. (Folk rock/Rock/Music to be alone with)

Patsy Cline’s Greatest Hits

Miss Cline is the Bob Dylan of barn dances. (Country/Dead artist/Music to be alone with/Music to be in the car with)

Cosmic Thing

The B-52′s. Surreal meets funky in outer space. Rock the house. (New Wave/Rock/Take to a party/Music to be in the car with)

Darkness on the Edge of Town

Bruce Springsteen. Raw boss, not the commercial stuff of Born in the U.S.A. (Rock/Music to be in the car with)

Different Light

Bangles. Their second, most popular and least predictable. (Rock/Take to a party/Music to be in the car with)

Dirty Mind

Prince. The Purple One when he was still controversial—crude, throbbing and very danceable. (Soul/Take to a party/Music to be in the car with)

English Settlement

XTC. The British quartet’s multi-layered sound takes some getting used to, but then it becomes addictive. Get the two-record British version. (New Wave/Music to be alone with)

Exile on Main Street

Rolling Stones. The Stones discover America and let it all hang out. Their zenith—and that’s saying something. (R0ck/Best at speaker-busting volume/Take to a party)

More Fun in the New World

X. The best cruising music on this or any planet, by the vastly underrated L.A. post-punks. (Punk/Best at speaker-busting volume/Music to be in the car with)

Al Green/Greatest Hits

A good place to start getting to know one of the best R&B voices in the biz. (To be heard with a member of the opposite sex)

The Harder They Come, Soundtrack

Jimmy Cliff and others. Beach music doesn’t get much better than this. Pass the coconut oil, mon. (Reggae/Take to a party)

Hexbreaker!

The Fleshtones. Semi-psychedelic ’80s garage rock from one New York’s finest. (Rock/Best at speaker-busting volume/Take to a party)

Hunky Dory

David Bowie. This is pre-Ziggy Stardust,  with charming acoustic stuff like “Fill Your Heart” and “Kooks.” (Rock/Music to be alone with)

King of Rock

Run-D.M.C. These rotund masters of the mike have an awesome sense of humor. “You Talk Too Much” could be the soundtrack to your worst dates. (Rap/Best at speaker-busting volume)

Eartha Kitt’s Greatest Hits

“Sort of like being in a dinky Paris nightclub in the ’40s–with a sense of humor,” Karen Catchpole, Sassy Magazine. (Music to be alone with)

Labour of Love

UB40. Reggae classics lovingly recreated by these Brits. This one stands the test of time. (Reggae/Bring to a party/Music to be in a car with)

The Lion and the Cobra

Sinéad O’Connor. Her debut album is angrier than her latest, but just as hypnotic. Wear it out. (Rock rock/Rock/Music to be alone with/To be heard with a member of the opposite sex.)

London Calling

The Clash. The pop-rock-shock of this two-record set has made it a punk staple, but less aggressive people will love it too. (Punk/Best at speaker-busting volume/Take to a party)

Marquee Moon

Television. A searing, guitar-soaked melding of poetry and punk. Strap on the headphones and hold tight. (Punk/Rock/Best at speaker-busting volume/Music to be alone with)

Me Myself and I

Joan Armatrading. The woman they kept comparing Tracy Chapman to. Joan’s songs will get you through many a love crisis. (Folk rock/Music to be alone with)

Moondance

Van Morrison. Mood music for a rainy day–mossy green and wet. Bono loves this guy. (Rock rock/Music to be alone with)

Murmur

R.E.M. We chose this album over their others ’cause it’s the first, back when their voice-as-another-instrument, smart words, and jangly guitars really stood out. (Rock/Music to be alone with/Music to be in a car with)

October

U2. Raw stuff, before they were deified. (Rock/Best at speaker-busting volume/Take to a party)

Parallel Lines

Blondie. Prior to Madonna there was Debbie Harry. (New Wave/Take to a party)

Physical Graffiti

Led Zeppelin. Zep’s only double album is also their most varied. A proven cure for metalphobia. (Rock x 3/Metal/Best at speaker-busting volume)

Pure Pop for Now People

Nick Lowe. Pop-punk cynicism, English pub rock and sugary-sweet balladeering make for some fun. (New Wave/Rock.)

Ramones

Ramones. Unrelenting. Brilliant. Enough said. (Punk/Best at speaker-busting volume/Music to be in a car with)

Rebel Yell

Billy Idol. Rock doesn’t get more straight-ahead than this. The essential beach accessory. (Rock/Best at speaker-busting volume/Music to be in a car with.)

Roachford

Roachford.  A brill R&B debut that was virtually ignored. (Rock/Soul/Take to a party.)

Searching for the Young Soul Rebels

Dexy’s Midnight Runners. Imagine if Otis Redding were British and white. (Soul/Take to a party.)

Singles Going Steady

Buzzcocks. A collection of their A- and B-sides, these frenetic Brits are like the Ramones with intellect. (New Wave/Best at speaker-busting volume)

The Slider/Electric Warrior

T. Rex. The best in early ’70s glam rock, contains the original “Bang a Gong” (two-album set). (Rock/Dead artist/Take to a party)

Sly and the Family Stone’s Greatest Hits

Hot fun in the summertime from the king of shake your thing. (Soul/Best at speaker-busting volume/Take to a party)

So

Peter Gabriel. This one’s more accessible than his usual stuff. Selections from “Sledgehammer” to “Don’t Give Up” make for some cool variety. (Rock/Music to be alone with/Music to be in a car with/To be heard with a member of the opposite sex)

Soul Mining

The The. No matter how depressed you are, singer/songwriter Matt Johnson will inevitably be more so. (New Wave/Music to be alone with)

Special Beat Service

The English Beat. Early ’80s ska (a faster predecessor of reggae). Some of its members went on to form Fine Young Cannibals. (Reggae/Take to a party)

Squeezing Out Sparks

Graham Parker. The underrated British rocker in all his nasal-voiced glory. (Reggae/Music to be alone with/To be heard with a member of the opposite sex)

Tender Prey

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Surreal lyrics and heavy, dark music–a must-have for alternative music fans. (Rock/Music to be alone with)

Ten Years of Gold

Aretha Franklin. Why Aretha is the goddess of soul. Includes some of her massive torch songs. (Soul/Take to a party/Music to be in a car with)

This Year’s Model

Elvis Costello. (Though the old, chubby, contemplating Elvis is great, let’s not forget the young, skinny, angry man he once was. (New Wave/Best at speaker-busting volume)

3 Feet High and Rising

De La Soul. We defy you to listen to rap’s most innovative threesome and be in a bad mood afterward. (Rap/Soul/Best at speaker-busting volume/Take to a party)

Toys in the Attic

Aerosmith. Any rock and roll fan who doesn’t have this in their collection is committing a heinous crime. (Rock/Metal/Best at speaker-busting volume/Music to be in a car with)

Transformer

Lou Reed. A kinder, gentler, almost sweet Lou. Contains the classic “Walk on the Wild Side.” (Rap/Rock/Music to be alone with)

Trouble Funk, Live from D.C.

Go-go music is like rap with a melody and horns, and it’s rarely captured on vinyl. Which is why this record is such a party. (Rap/Take to a party)

Union

Toni Childs. A voice more powerful than Aretha Franklin’s beautiful African instrumentation and poetic lyrics. A stirring album. (Folk rock/Music to be alone with)

The Kinks and the Village Green Preservation Society

The Kinks. Forget about “Lola” and “You Really Got Me.” This pastoral, poetic beauty will show you the real soul of The Kinks. (Folk rock/Rock)

Get the background on this list.

The Books

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

Three years in a Jewish teenager’s life while hiding from the Nazis. Most poignant and timely. (Autobiography/Sob alert/They’re gonna make you read this one in school sooner or later anyway/People have tried to ban this)

As I Lay Dying

William Faulkner.  A stream-of-consciousness hayride with an eccentric southern family (Novel/They’re gonna make you read this one in school sooner or later anyway/An intellectual workout)

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Malcolm’s popularity is on the rise–here’s a clue as to what he was about. (Autobiography/An intellectual workout)

The Awakening

Kate Chopin. Privileged married woman want to be her own person back when women didn’t do that. Bonus: steamy love scenes. (Novel/Romance/Sob alert)

The Basketball Diaries

Jim Carroll. The very real diary of a New York teen’s loss of innocence. Totally deglamorizes drug use. (Autobiography/Teenagers the way they really are)

The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath. Overly sensitive and bright college girl has a breakdown. (Novel/Beach reading)

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Truman Capote. Introducing the enchantingly wacko Holly Golightly. Better than the movie, which has the obligatory happy ending. (Novel/Beach reading)

Catcher in the Rye

J.D. Salinger. A day in the life of Holden Caulfield, who just got kicked out of prep school and hasn’t told his parents yet. (Novel/Humor/Beach reading/Teenagers the way they really are/They’re gonna make you read this one in school sooner or later anyway)

Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady

Florence King. Completely hilarious autobiography about a girl who just doesn’t fit the southern-lady criteria. Great menstual scenes. (Autobiography/Humor/Beach reading/Teenagers the way they really are)

The Country Girls

Edna O’Brien. The bittersweet misadventures of two Irish girls growing up in the ’60s, one of whom has an alcoholic father. (Novel/Beach reading/Teenagers the way they really are)

Crossing the Line

William Finnegan. White American lands in South Africa and gets a job teaching “colored” kids. Makes that country’s terrifying racism very clear. (Non-fiction)

Daughter of Time

Josephine Tey. Modern-day, bed-ridden sleuth investigates a murder committed by Richard III. An offbeat whodunnit. (Mystery/Beach reading)

Dicey’s Song

Cynthia Voigt. A 13-year old girl has to take care of her younger brothers and sisters when her parents can’t. (Novel/Sob alert)

Edie: An American Biography

George Plimpton and Jean Stein. Fabulous rich girl parties it up with Andy Warhol and come to a tragic end. (Biography/Beach reading)

Easy in the Islands

Bob Shacochis. Set in the Caribbean, by a writer who lived there. (Short stories/Beach reading)

Endless Love

Scott Spencer. One teenager’s obsession for another destroys them both. Don’t see the movie. (Novel/Romance/Beach reading/ Sob alert)

The Fountainhead

Ayn Rand. Young architect rebels against the world and has a torrid affair. Some philosophy called objectivism is expounded. (Novel/An intellectual workout/People have tried to ban this)

A Good Man is Hard to Find

Flannery O’Connor. Weird southern people and not the easily spooked. (Short stories/humor)

Gorillas in the Mist

Dian Fossey. The author was murdered for caring too much about Africa’s endangered gorillas. (Autobiography/Sob alert)

The Greengage Summer

Rumer Godden. English sisters spend one memorable summer in France. (Novel/Teenagers the way they really are)

The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald. All about the American Dream, with lots of flappers and things. (Novel/They’re gonna make you read this one in school sooner or later anyway/People have tried to ban this)

Grown-Up Fast

Betsy Israel. The author gets pregnant the night of her senior prom and denies it to herself for seven months. (Autobiography/Beach reading/Teenagers the way they really are)

Hollywood

Charles Bukowski. Loosely based on the underground author’s experiences when his novel was made into a movie. (Autobiography/They’re gonna make you read this one in school sooner or later anyway)

I’m With The Band

Pamela Des Barres. Very engrossing tales of a wild yet innocent ’60s groupie costarring Jim Morrison and Jimmy Page. (Autobiography/Beach reading/Teenagers the way they really are)

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

James Agee. Portraits of poor sharecropping families during the Depression, with Walker Evans photographs. (Non-fiction/They’re gonna make you read this one in school sooner or later anyway)

Manchild in the Promised Land

Claude Brown. A Harlem boy fights crime, drugs and poverty to become a law student. (Autobiography)

The Metamorphosis

Franz Kafka. Man wakes up one day and finds out he’s a beetle. Haven’t we all felt that way? (Novella/They’re gonna make you read this one in school sooner or later anyway/An intellectual workout)

Minor Characters

Joyce Johnson. The author was Jack Kerouac’s girl for a while. This book is about that. (Autobiography/Beach reading)

Monkeys

Susan Minot. Modern minimalist first novel about growing up in a big New England family, and then the mother dies. (Novel/Beach reading/Sob alert/Teenagers the way they really are)

The Mountain People

Colin M. Turnbull. A formerly powerful African tribe slowly starves to death. A scary parallel to the selfishness of our own society. (Non-fiction)

My Antonìa

Willa Cather. Pioneer boy and girl at the turn of the century. May be the most beautiful romance written by an American. (Novel/Romance/Beach reading/Sob alert)

My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist

Mark Leyner. Weird things happen. Strange language is used. Brand names are bandied about. Very bizarre. (Novel/An intellectual workout)

Nadja

André Breton. Surrealist love story set in Paris in the ’20s. Illustrated with really cool paintings of the time. (Novel/Romance/An intellectual workout)

No One Here Gets Out Alive

Danny Sugarman and Jerry Hopkins. Way-above-average biography of Jim Morrison (Biography/Beach reading)

Other Fires

Modern short fiction by Latin American women. Very much about the female experience. (Short stories/Beach reading)

Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions

Gloria Steinem. Some of her best essays, including her undercover stint as a Playboy bunny. (Non-fiction/Beach reading)

The Outsiders

S.E. Hinton. You’ve seen the TV series, now read the book about poor teenagers persecuted by rich ones. (Novel/Beach reading/Teenagers the way they really are)

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Annie Dillard. Even if you’re not a nature type, you’ll love the way Dillard’s nature essays put a microscope to the outdoors. (Non-fiction/An intellectual workout)

Celine

Brock Cole. A 16-year-old painter lives in a Chicago loft with her 22-year-old stepmother. Nicely unpredictable. (Novel/Beach reading/Teenagers the way they really are)

Slaves of New York

Tama Janowitz. Hip short stories about the East Village art scene of the early ‘ 80s. (Short stories/Beach reading).

Stop-Time

Frank Conroy. A ’50s cult classic that makes you understand what it’s like being a boy. Great for would-be writers. (Autobiography/Beach reading/Teenagers the way they really are)

Tar Baby

Toni Morrison. Caribbean girl grows up, becomes a high fashion model and gets involved with the homeless man. (Novel/ Beach reading/Sob alert)

That Was Then, This is Now

S.E. Hinton. Why friends grow apart. (Novel/Beach reading/Sob alert/Teenagers the way they really are)

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Zora Neale Hurston. A young black woman comes of age just after the civil war. (Novel/Sob alert/An intellectual workout)

Wearing Dad’s Head

Barry Yourgrau. What Kafka would have written if he’d grown up in the suburbs and watched too much TV. (Short stories/Humor/Beach reading/An intellectual workout)

Welcome to the Monkey House

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Jane swears she’s read these twisted stories a zillion times. (Short stories/Humor/An intellectual workout/People have tried to ban this)

White Palace

Glenn Savan. A grittier version of the yuppie-falls-in-love-with-lower-class-woman story. (Novel)

Wide Sargasso Sea

Jean Rhys. If you’ve read Jane Eyre, you must have wondered about Mr. Rochester’s mad wife. This is a poetic answer. (Novel/Romance/Sob alert)

The Woman Warrior

Maxine Hong Kingston. A beautiful and scary book about growing up female and Chinese-American. (Autobiography/An intellectual workout)