Good Reads - Diaries & Journals

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Good Reads

Diaries & Journals

Fiction / Biographies / Nonfiction

FICTION

The following books can be found in the Fiction collection, shelved by the first three letters of the author's last name, e.g., F BAR.

Adlington, L. J. The diary of Pelly D. [2008].

When Toni V, a construction worker on a futuristic colony, finds the diary of a teenage girl whose life has been turned upside-down by holocaust-like events, he begins to question his own beliefs.

Alexie, Sherman and Forney, Ellen. The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian. [2007].

Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Anderson, M. T. The Pox party. [2006].

Various diaries, letters, and other manuscripts chronicle the experiences of Octavian, a young African American, from birth to age sixteen, as he is brought up as part of a science experiment in the years leading up to and during the Revolutionary War. (The Astonishing life of Octavian Nothing, traitor to the nation, v. 1)

_____. The kingdom on the waves / taken from accounts by his own hand and other sundry sources; collected by Mr. M.T. Anderson of Boston [2008.]

(The Astonishing life of Octavian Nothing, traitor to the nation, v. 2)

Black, Jonah. The Black book (diaries).

Depicts the continuing adventures of Jonah, a Florida high school student looking for the love of his life. (Girls, girls, girls; Stop, don't stop; Run Jonah, run; Faster, faster, faster)

Cabot, Meg. Princess in love.

In a series of humorous diary entries, a New York City ninth grader agonizes over her love life, final exams, and future role as the princess of Genovia. (see also: the other Princess Diaries books)

Carlson, Melody. Diary of a teenage girl: Becoming me, by Caitlin O'Conner.

Sixteen-year-old Caitlin O'Conner keeps a six-month diary in which she records the day-to-day events of her life as well as her struggles to understand herself and God's plan for her future.

________.   It's my life, by Caitlin O'Connor : a novel

(Diary of a teenage girl, Book 2) Sixteen-year-old Caitlin struggles with her feelings about her best friend's pregnancy, boys who tempt her to break her vow not to date, non-Christian friends, and what God may be calling her to do with her life.

________. Who I am, by Caitlin O'Conner.

(Diary of a teenage girl, book 3) As she faces her senior year in high school, Caitlin O'Connor finds herself torn between two semi-different worlds and tries to find a way to pull them together and discover her true identity.

Carlson, Melody. Just ask : a novel. [2005].

Sixteen-year-old Kim Peterson learns more about herself and her friends, and practices her new commitment to God, by writing a teen advice column for the newspaper on which her father is managing editor.

Chambers, Aidan. This is all : the pillow book of Cordelia Kenn. [2006].

Nineteen-year-old Cordelia Kenn, weeks away from giving birth, gathers up her journals, poems, letters, stories, and thoughts in a collection to share with her daughter on the occasion of the unborn child's sixteenth birthday.

Clark, Catherine. Truth of dairy.

Courtney uses a diary to express her frustration over the fact that her boyfriend left her in order to go to college.

Cooney, Caroline B. Among friends.

Six high school juniors discover surprising, often painful things about themselves and with people around them in the diaries they are asked to keep for a 3-month English assignment.

Douglas, Lola. More confessions of a Hollywood starlet: a novel. [2008].

When her true identity as a Hollywood starlet is revealed, seventeen-year-old Morgan Carter, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, must choose whether to return to her glamorous movie star existence or stick with the wholesome life, and the new love, she has found in the Midwest. Told in the form of diary entries.

_______. True confessions of a Hollywood starlet [2005].

Teen movie star Morgan Carter retreats to a small midwestern town to recuperate anonymously after an overdose and rehabilitation, recording her thoughts in a diary.

Easton, Kelly. The life history of a star.

For more than a year, fourteen-year-old Kristin uses her diary to record her confused thoughts about the physical changes brought on by adolescence and the emotional strain on her family of living with the "ghost" of her beloved older brother who was physically and mentally destroyed while serving in Vietnam.

Finding Katie: the diary of Anonymous, a teenager in foster care. [2005].

Garfinkle, D. L. Storky: how I lost my nickname and won the girl. [2007].

Fourteen-year-old high school student Michael "Storky" Pomerantz's journal describes his freshman year, from dealing with his mother dating his dentist to attempting to win the heart of the girl he loves.

Hamm, Diane Johnston. Bunkhouse journal.

Sandy, a sensitive 15 year old boy spending the winter of 1911 helping his cousins on their ranch in Wyoming, records in his journal his first love and his attempts to sort through his confused feelings for his drunkard father in Denver.

Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Don't you dare read this, Mrs. Dunphrey.

In the journal she is keeping for English class, 16 yearold Tish chronicles the changes in her life when her abusive father returns home after a two-year absence.

Hesse, Karen. Music of dolphins.

Using sophisticated computer technology, a 15 year old girl who has been raised by dolphins records her thoughts about her reintroduction to the human world.

_______. Out of the dust.

In a series of poems, 15 year old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.

_________. Witness.

A series of poems express the views of various people in a small Vermont town, including a young black girl and a young Jewish girl, during the early 1920s when the Ku Klux Klan is trying to infiltrate the town.

_________. Stowaway.

A fictionalized journal relates the experiences of a young stowaway from 1768 to 1771 aboard the Endeavor which sailed around the world under Captain James Cook.

Hite, Sid. I'm exploding now. [2007].

The summer he turns seventeen, Max Whooten is feeling off his game with no job and nothing to do, but after spending a lot of time hanging out in Manhattan, thinking about life, writing down his thoughts, and visiting his aunt in Woodstock, he develops a personal philosophy called "coolism" which seems to help turn things around.

Hussey, Charmian and Crump, Christopher.   The valley of secrets. [2005].

When strange events occur in his newly inherited manor house in Cornwall, England, Stephen, a teenager who was abandoned at birth, investigates the mystery and his family history using clues found in a travel journal kept by his great uncle Theo during his trip to the Amazon River region.

Juby, Susan. Alice, I think.

Fifteen-year-old Alice keeps a diary as she struggles to cope with the embarrassments and trials of family, dating, school, work, small town life, and a serious case of "outcastitis".

Kim : empty inside : the diary of an anonymous teenager.

Seventeen-year-old Kim, feeling the pressure of maintaining an A average to stay on her college gymnastics team, becomes obsessive about her weight and develops anorexia.

Kinney, Jeff. Diary of a wimpy kid: the last straw. [2009].

Middle-schooler Greg Heffley nimbly sidesteps his father's attempts to change Greg's wimpy ways until his father threatens to send him to military school.

_____. Diary of a wimpy kid: Rodrick rules. [2008].

Greg Heffley tells about his summer vacation and his attempts to steer clear of trouble when he returns to middle school and tries to keep his older brother Rodrick from telling everyone about Greg's most humiliating experience of the summer.

_____. Diary of a wimpy kid: Greg Heffley’s journal [2007].

Greg records his sixth grade experiences in a middle school where he and his best friend, Rowley, undersized weaklings amid boys who need to shave twice daily, hope just to survive, but when Rowley grows more popular, Greg must take drastic measures to save their friendship.

Klein, Norma. Sunshine.

The fact-based story of a young woman, dying of cancer, and the tape-recorded diary she kept for her young daughter.

Koertge, Ronald. Shakespeare bats cleanup.

When a fourteen-year-old baseball player catches mononucleosis, he discovers that keeping a journal and experimenting with poetry not only helps fill the time, it also helps him deal with life, love, and loss.

Mandabach, Brian. --Or not. [2007].

When fourteen-year-old Cassie Sullivan stands up for her beliefs, the Christian majority at her conservative Colorado school begin to torment her, leaving Cassie scared and confused, with only her journal to confide in as she wonders if standing up for what she believes in in the post-9/11 world is really worth the trouble.

Marsden, John. So much to tell you.

Sent to a boarding school by her mother, Marina, a disfigured Australian girl who refuses to speak, reveals her thoughts and feelings in a diary.

Mechling, Laruen and Moser, Laura. The rise and fall of a tenth-grade social climber. [2005].

When her best friend dares her to become part of the popular crowd and record her experiences in a diary, fifteen-year-old Mimi's world turns upside down when the diary gets into the wrong hands.

Miller, Mary Beth. Aimee : a novel.

Zoe, a high school senior, struggles to survive the aftermath of the suicide of her best friend Aimee, and her own murder trial for her role in the incident, by writing about her feelings in a journal.

Myers, Walter Dean. Shooter. [2004].

Written in the form of interviews, reports, and journal entries, the story of three troubled teenagers ends in a tragic school shooting.

Newman, Leslea. Fat chance.

Judi "knows" that if she were thinner, life would be perfect.

Noël, Alyson. Saving Zoë. [2007].

A year after her older sister Zoe's murder, fifteen-year-old Echo is still struggling to put her life back together, but when Zoe's boyfriend gives Echo Zoe's diary, Echo finds a connection with her sister and learns some surprising secrets Zoe was keeping.

Parker, Daniel and Miller, Lee. Break the surface. [2004].

High school senior Tom Sinclair's journal chronicles events leading up to the disappearance of Alice, the only person he has confided in after moving from Vermont to Manhattan in an attempt to run away from his past.

Parker, Daniel. Walk on water. [2004].

Alice's diary reveals her true, hidden reason for pursuing Tom; her secret meetings is a downtown hospital and her desperation to escape her ex-boyfriend, Carter.

Parker, Daniel. Seek the prophet. [2004].

In desperation, high school senior Tom Sinclair turns to the Internet for help in locating his missing and possibly kidnapped girlfriend, Alice Brown, when he publishes her diary online.

Paulsen, Gary. Amazing life of birds: (the twenty-day puberty journal of Duane Homer Leech) [2005].

Pfeffer, Susan Beth. Life as we knew it. [2006].

Through journal entries sixteen-year-old Miranda describes her family's struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.

Rees, Celia. Witch child.

In 1659, fourteen-year-old Mary Newbury keeps a journal of her voyage from England to the New World and her experiences living as a witch in a community of Puritans near Salem, Massachusetts.

Rennison, Louise. Angus, thongs, and full-frontal snogging.

Presents the humorous journal of a year in the life of a fourteen-year-old British girl who tries to reduce the size of her nose, stop her mad cat from terrorizing the neighborhood animals, and win the love of handsome hunk Robbie.

___________. On the bright side, I'm now the girlfriend of a sex god.

Fourteen-year-old Georgia continues her diary in which she records her misadventures trying to reclaim the attention of seventeen-year-old Robbie, while coping with her friends, family, and dog-like cat Angus at the same time.

___________. Knocked out by my nunga-nungas.

The saga of fourteen-year-old Georgia Nicolson continues as she travels to Scotland on a nightmarish family vacation, confesses her anxiety over being the girlfriend of a sex god, and tests the limits of true friendship.

___________. Dancing in my nuddy-pants : even further confessions of Georgia Nicolson.

The further confessions of teenaged Georgia Nicolson continue as, among other things, she begins to wonder if Robbie is really the right boy for her.

Rinaldi, Ann. Sarah's ground. [2004].

In 1861, eighteen-year-old Sarah Tracy, from New York state, comes to work at Mount Vernon, the historic Virginia home of George Washington, where she tries to protect the safety and neutrality of the site during the Civil War, and where she encounters her future husband, Upton Herbert. Includes historical notes.

Rivers, Karen. The cure for crushes (and other deadly plagues) [2005].

Sixteen-year-old Haley Andromeda Harmony resumes her laptop diary in January of "the greatest year of my life," still reeling from having a boyfriend and discovering that her mother is a nun.

Sams, Ferrol. Down town: the journal of James Aloysius Holcombe, Jr. for Ephraim Holcombe Mookinfoos. [2007].

Schreck, Karen Halvorsen. Dream journal. [2006].

As Livy struggles to accept her mother's impending death, she is swept into an ill-fated crush and must learn to trust not only those around her, but also herself.

Shaw, Tucker. Confessions of a backup dancer. [2004].

Kelly Kimbal lands a job as a back-up dancer for pop diva, Darcy Barnes, but is soon fired by Darcy's overbearing mother until Darcy develops the courage to tell her mother off and bring Kelly back into the show.

Shields, Gillian. The actual real reality of Jennifer James. [2006].

While competing on a reality television show being filmed at her English high school, shy and bookish Jennifer James records her experiences in her diary.

Stewart, Sean and Brigg, Cathy. Cathy's book: if found, call (650) 266-8233. [2006].

After Victor breaks up with Cathy and her father dies unexpectedly, and she is failing at school, everything goes from bad to worse including a conflict with her best friend Emma. As she describes her struggle, she provides letters, photographs, date book entries, and her telephone number and her web site address that readers can access to learn her secrets.

Treacherous love: the diary of an anyonomous teenager.

Thomas, Rob. Rats saw God.

Local bands, a dadaistic society, and first love and betrayal all appear in the increasingly personal - and funny - pages 18 year old Steve York produces to make up the credit for an English class.

Van de Ruit, John. Spud-- the madness continues. [2008].

Spud, a scholarship student at an elite boys' boarding school in South Africa, returns for a second year in 1991 to find things even more chaotic, with new students, a house cat, girl troubles, and a questionable part in the school play.

_____. Spud. [2007].

In 1990, thirteen-year-old John "Spud" Milton, a prepubescent choirboy, keeps a diary of his first year at an elite, boys-only boarding school in South Africa, as he deals with bizarre housemates, wild crushes, embarrassingly dysfunctional parents, and much more.

BIOGRAHIES

Frank, Anne. Diary of a young girl: Anne Frank. - B FRA

Filipovic, Zlata. Zlata's diary: a young girl in Sarajevo - B FIL

NONFICTION

305.235 NOT

Baskin, Julia. The notebook girls : four friends - one diary - real life. [2006].

Four friends started a notebook in their freshman year at Stuyvesant High School (New York City) as a way to keep in contact when conflicting schedules denied them one another's company.

306.874 ARN

Arnoldi, Katherine. The Amazing "true" story of a teenage single mom [1998].

The author uses a comic-strip format to tell the story of her experiences as a young, poor teenage mother who learns some difficult lessons about life while trying to realize her dream of attending college.

333.72 MEL

Melville, Greg. Greasy rider: two dudes, one fry-oil-powered car, and a cross-country search for a greener future [2008].

Details the experiences of the author and his college friend during their one hundred and ninety-two hour journey across the United States--from Vermont to California--in a car that has been modified to run on vegetable oil.

362.28 RUN

Runyon, Brent. The burn journals. [2004].

Presents the true story of Brent Runyon, who at fourteen set himself on fire and sustained burns over eighty percent of his body and describes the months of physical and mental rehabilitation that followed as he attempted to pull his life together.

Hubalek, Linda K. TRAIL OF THREAD - 813 HUB

Trail of thread. Letters recreate a family's wagon trail walk from Kentucky to Kansas in 1854. Includes bibliographical references.

Thimble of Soil. A family from Ohio becomes involved on the free-state side against pro-slavery forces in Kansas before the Civil War.

Stitch of Courage. Tells the story of a young woman living in the new state of Kansas during the Civil War.

Rutledge, Carol Brunner. Dying and living on the Kansas prairie. - 362.1BRU

The author's diary of the three months preceding the death of her mother, Alice.

Pepys, Samuel. Passages from the diary of Samuel Pepys. - 820 PEP

Ruede, Howard. Sod house days: letters from a Kansas homesteader, 1877-1878. - 978.1 RUE