10. Half A Life

By Darin Strauss (205 pp)

This book is tough, but really, really good. Two months before he graduated high school, Strauss was out with friends and a bike swerved in front of his car. The bicycle rider was a classmate and she died from the accident. He was not at fault. This happened in 1988. The story is about him dealing with it for the rest of his life, so far. It is, at times, completely heart-breaking. There are a lot of ways a book like this could go wrong but this one does not. It does not tie up in some neat conclusion. Recommend.