“Watership Down” by ?Adams? [it’s an adventure about the pursuit of liberty ; the characters are wild rabbits seeking a new land and amazingly enough it’s so well-written that you can become absorbed enough not to think it strange. They encounter fascistlike, communistlike and deranged artsy rabbit cultures living in a welfare state, etc, before finally finding a place suitable for their new colony to thrive and be free. ]
“Traveler,” by the same author as Watership Down, as I recall. It’s not as long or elaborate as that book, but it’s still a good short read. It is a story about the civil war written from the perspective of General Lee’s horse.
Anything from the Hornblower series of books. The main figure is aa Royal Navy officer and they are interesting whether you’re a boy or a girl.
Paul O. Williams has a series of fantasy-adventure books that were fun to read.
Robert Heinlein’s short science fiction stories are good too.
Alan Dean Foster had some good sci-fi books in his earlier years though his fantasy works were weird and not so interesting.
On a more serious note there is “Five Years to Freedom” about Vietnam. Very serious but very readable.
Excellent. Thanks for the suggestions.