Classic Fridays, 2011: Lois Duncan

Every once in a while, I like to do something a little different, like choose themes for random months and challenge myself to stick with the theme throughout. For this month, I'm taking y'all back. WAY back. To when Jaded was a little girl, stuck indoors while other kids played outside, attempting to stay sane by drowning in music, television and books.

Sometimes, while locked away in my ivory tower, I would shut off the TV and radio for a minute (well, maybe not the radio) and escape into a good book. Back in the 80s and 90s, the Brooklyn Public Library didn't put any borrowing limits on books and I took full advantage of that, grabbing as many as 20 books at a time on each visit to the Marcy or Dekalb branches.

During those visits, I fell in love with one author in particular- Lois Duncan. Her books "Stranger with My Face" and "Summer of Fear" awakened my fascination with the occult and supernatural world(so you can blame Duncan for my Harry Potter and Buffy obsession!). From there I went on to read "Killing Mr. Griffin" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer" which weren't about the occult but OH MY GOD the suspense kept my attention throughout.

After that I quietly made my way through all of her books, and besides the titles previously listed, the following Lois Duncan tales get the Jaded Seal of Approval:

Locked in Time- WHAT? This book was the shit! Read it!
Daughters of Eve- oh how I wanted to join this secret society...
Down a Dark Hall- SO GLAD my mom never sent me away to school!
Ransom- riding the school bus was TOUGH after this one
They Never Came Home- Suspense. Drama. READ IT!

Duncan has many others I've yet to read (YES I wrote YET. So what if they're young adult novels? I LOVE SHE!) but you can bet on me having finished them all by the end of next year.

I highly recommend ANY Lois Duncan book to the young and young at heart. They are truly DIVINE!

*smooches...reminded you to pick up a book and READ*
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I never tire of pushing books on you!