(Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme brought to you by The Broke and the Bookish. Want to make your own list? Clicking the image will take you to this week’s post. Happy listing!)
This week’s list is all about books that tackle tough subjects. I had to try really hard to not just list all of last week’s, books that should be required teen reading. There’s a lot of overlap, in my mind. Let’s get started.
1. Impossible (Nancy Werlin) – This book is very much a book about supernatural beings meddling in the lives of mortals; however, it also shows a character who goes through rape, pregnancy, and fighting against incredible odds to save herself and her child.
2. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (R. Louis Stevenson) – The struggle between the good and evil of the human soul. A bit dry, unfortunately, but it picks up enough at the end that the reader gets a good idea of the theme and meaning behind Stevenson’s tale.
3. Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury) – A no-brainer for this list. Censorship, book-burning, and the people who give up everything they’ve known in order to remember.
4. Graceling (Kristin Cashore) – I always come back to Graceling. I just feel such a connection with it, and with Katsa. I love a female Young Adult character who isn’t obsessed with finding love, or getting married or having kids. I think it’s important for women (and men) to realize that marriage and kids is merely one of many ways to live life.
5. Animal Farm (George Orwell) – A creepy look at Socialism and how it’s lame. Allegory at its best.
6. Forever… (Judy Blume) – First relationships, love, and sex. There’s not many subjects more tough than that.
7. Lies My Teacher Told Me (James W. Loewen) – A book about what your history textbook got wrong. It was kind of tough to read the truth behind the rose-colored tales of American and world history.
8. The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove (Susan Gregg Gilmore) – Abuse, racial and societal tensions, and one young woman’s decision to be who her family wants her to be, or who she wants to be.
9. March (Geraldine Brooks) – If you’ve read Little Women, chances are you’ve wondered what kinds of things the March girls’ father was experiencing while at war. If you’ve read March, you know. This story gives the reader a brutal look at the Civil War, slavery, and the inner workings of a mind overrun with guilt and fear.
10. Love Wins (Rob Bell) – This one’s caused a big kerfluffle in the religious community — but I love Bell’s simple lessons and ability to condense all that “religion” down to something understandable, relateable, and joyful.
What are some of your favorite “tough subject” books?
Nice unique list but some familiar.
http://teawithmarce.blogspot.com/2011/07/top-ten-books-that-tackle-tough-issues.html
I’m glad you liked my list. Looking it over now, I notice that I ended up with a couple non-fiction books, while most lists I saw were all fiction. Interesting…
“Lies My Teacher Told Me” sounds good. I’d heard of it before, but I keep neglecting to add it to my TBR list. Thanks for the reminder!
Glad I could jog your memory, MJ. It’s a good book, and the second edition includes more recent history as well.
Wow – Love Wins! What a great, thought provoking book. Lies my Teacher Told me sounds really interesting and I loved March.
Love Wins was excellent, and I really like Rob Bell’s sermons and lessons. March was tough to read in parts, but was more than worth it. Definitely check out Lies My Teacher Told Me — it’s pretty eye-opening!