It’s Tuesday again which means time for another round of Top Ten Tuesday; I like joining in of this meme because I have a set topic to work with. Top Ten Tuesday is a book blogger meme that is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week the theme is: Top 10 Contemporary Books That Would Be Great Paired With A Required Reading Book or Top Ten Books That You Wish Were Taught In Schools. Both lists sound really interesting, so I’m going to do five of each.
5 Contemporary Books That Would Be Great Paired With A Required Reading Book
- The Machine by James Symthe with Frankenstein by Mary Shelley – The Machine was dubbed Frankenstein for the 21st century
- When She Woke by Hillary Jordan with The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne – The contrast between the two novels would make for some interesting discussions
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak with Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury – While I didn’t like The Book Thief, two books about book book burning would be interesting
- Maus by Art Spiegelman with The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank – Two books about the Jewish oppression in Nazi occupied countries
- Longbourn by Jo Baker with Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – I’ve not finished Longbourn yet but I think it will make an for a interesting conversation about classes
5 Books That You Wish Were Taught In Schools
- Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky – While this book was banned in some schools, this has some important themes of teenagers
- Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding – Easy to read and a good book to discuss self esteem and body image
- Quiet by Susan Cain – Society tends to think introverts can be fixed but I would of loved to have learnt that it’s ok to be an introvert at a young age
- Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder – just to get a basic understanding of philosophy in an easy to read novel
- The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time by Mark Haddon – to give students a better understanding about social impacting disorders like autism
These two topics are really interesting and I will have to remember them for future posts, where I can go into great details. I am really looking forward in seeing what everyone else has put for their top ten. I hope I get some good ideas for books to read in the future.
Great list. I have The Curious Incident.. on my list this week too. I think it’s a very important book!
I agree, it really is
Finally, someone else who didn’t like The Book Thief! I thought I was the only one out there in blogland with that opinion 🙂 (funnily enough, it showed up on my list still too). The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time was a required reading book in my school!
You have good taste 😛
I tried to read Sophie’s World in college (extracurricular) and failed. I’ll have to try again some time. It’s interesting how you prefer school age kids to meet hard topics head on. I have little ones and I think that will be hard for me to encourage when they get to that age, but I’m sure you have the right idea.
I personally think they are dealing with many of the issues already and often are too afraid to ask an adult. I book that deals with the same issues often can be a source of information as well as a source for comfort
I’ve just got my hands on a copy of Perks of being a wallflower. I didn’t realise it had been banned. Maybe I should save it for banned books week.
Shouldn’t be hard to find another banned book