...or rather, these books tackle tough issues.  That's the theme this week over at The Broke and the Bookish, the lovely bloggers who host Top Ten Tuesday.  I have a while theory of reading as social justice, and have been meaning to get back to building my Social Justice Books page here at Book Addict Reviews, so coming up with ten is a cakewalk.  I'll put the adult titles here, but if you ware interested in social justice-themed books for children, check out my post at Second Childhood Reviews.

1.  A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini:  I have a friend who has told me she is glad that I was around on 9-1 so I could explain who the Taliban were and what was happening in Afghanistan, since she had never heard of them.  I think that this book does the best job of describing what life was like under Taliban rule.

 

 2.  The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien:  I just read this book of short stories/vignettes from O'Brien's experience in the Viet Nam War, and I think that it has important things to say about war in general and what it does to the young people we send into it.

3.  The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood:  Patriarchal, tyrannical theocracy based on biological control of women anyone?  Oh, wait, that's right, we aren't that far away from that it some parts of our country, where a woman's right to choose is being eroded more and more every day.

4.  Bastard Out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison:  Amazingly powerful book about child sexual abuse and domestic violence.  And on a related note...

5.  The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison:  All of the above, only adding racial identity and racism to the mix.

6.  Dead Man Walking, Sister Helen Prejean:  When horrible people do horrible things it is in our nature to dehumanize them and turn them into monsters who deserve death.  What Sr. Prejean's work does is remind the readers vividly that people on death row are as human as you or me, and that if we as a society want to continue executing them, we need to do it with an understanding of our shared humanity.

7.  Stone Butch Blues, Leslie Feinberg:  This roman a clef details Feinberg's life as a butch lesbian in New York in the years directly before and after the Stonewall Riot in 1969.  Feinberg has since identified as transgendered, and wrote another book about the historical treatment of transgendered people called Transgender Warriors that is really fascinating.

8.  Zeitoun, Dave Eggers:  This true story details what happened to an Islamic immigrant named Zeitoun and his family in the days after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.  Zeitoun stayed in New Orleans, and after the storm spent his days rowing around his neighborhood rescuing people and feeding pets left-behind-that is, until the US army arrested him as a terrorist...

 

9.  And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts:  Shilts' book recounts the early years of the AIDS epidemic, and how homophobia and bigotry kept doctors and scientists from recognizing, researching, and treating the disease more quickly and efficiently.

 10.  The Abstinence Teacher, Tom Perotta:  Perotta gives us a thoughtful look at the abstinence-only vs. comprehensive sex education debate.  But guess which one still leads to fewer unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases?  Knowledge is power, people!

Top Ten Tuesday-Books All Teens Should Read

I am so excited to be participating in Top Ten Tuesday for the first time all summer.  Somehow I thought I would have more time for blogging on my summer break, but the truth is that I honestly don't remember what day it is most of the time.  I call it summer brain.  As a result, I usually remember Top Ten Tuesday on about Friday.  Anywoot, here's my picks for the ten books every teen should read.

1.  To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee-I realize that this is still on the high school reading lists in most places, so most teens are reading this book.  While I am a proponent of enriching the high school English curriculum with more contemporary works, this is one that should stay on the list forever and ever!

2.  The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood-I didn't read this until college, and it literally changed my life.  And I don't just think that female teens should read this.  Atwood's horrifying vision of what theocracy could look like is still timely for everyone.

3.  The Book Thief, Markus Zusak-OK, I admit I haven't read this myself, but everyone I know who has-youth or adult-has impressed upon me how amazing it is, and it is on my TBR list.  And on a related note...

4.  The Diary of Anne Frank-There is so much in this slim volume that speaks to young people.  And given the increasing polarization of our society over issues of class and immigration, there are plenty of lessons to be learned here about our shared humanity.

5.  Luna, Julie Anne Peters or Almost Perfect, Brian Katcher-Both of these titles are about transgendered youth, and they both give good insight into the struggles that transgendered people have living true to themselves and gaining acceptance from their families, peers, and society.  Given the recent spate of anti-gay bullying, I think that we need to be encouraging more teens to read books with GLBT themes.

6.  Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson-I think that this novel about a young girl finding her voice again after a sexual assault speaks to many young people who feel like they are powerless, even if they have not had a similar experience as the reason.

7.  Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut-Again, I am making a recommendation that I have not in fact read myself, but it is a gaping hole in my reading past that I plan to fill this summer.  And really, I am down with any anti-war book that we can get into the hands of young people.  I am eternally hopeful that maybe the next generation can find less-violent solutions than the previous generations.

8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky-Like Speak, only without the sexual assault and with a male protagonist. 

9.  A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini-I never really understood much about Afghan culture until I read this and The Kite Runner.  Given the continuing war there, I think people should understand more rather than less about what the stakes are, and I don't mean for the US, but for the Afghan people, if the Taliban are allowed to reassert themselves.

10.  Flowers in the Attic, V.C. Andrews-Because really, you can only get away with it in high school...if you're going to read trashy novels about incest, do yourself a favor and only do it early enough to be able to claim youthful stupidity when you admit it later.

Top Ten Tuesday: Minor Character Love

This week's Top Ten topic, from the brilliant bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish, is Top Ten Minor Characters.  It's interesting that this topic came up this week, as I am finally reading The Eyre Affair, which is full of talk about minor characters and how taking them out of books is a crime.  I'm going to try not to let this list devolve into Top Ten Sidekicks Redux, but I admit to having trouble thinking of enough minor characters to fill a whole list...besides, there are no small parts, only small actors, or something like that...

10.  Octavia, Venia, and Falvius from The Hunger Games-These three were Katniss's prep team for the Hunger Games, and along with her stylist Cinna were in charge of getting her support from wealthy capitol residents.  I'm not sure why I found them so charming-they are completely shallow and not that bright, but something about them just struck me as endearing.

9.  Robin Castagna, from Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware series-Robin is Alex's love interest, a musician who makes and restore guitars and other stringed instruments.  She provides the perfect compliment to Delaware's rather driven nature.  I was so upset when they split for a couple of books, but they are back together and all is right with the world.

8.  Neville Longbottom from Harry Potter-Poor Neville!  He just couldn't seem to catch a break, could he?  And I only loved him more after I found out what happened to his parents.  Such a sad story!

7.  Fletch, from Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster-OK, so he's a real person, and therefore not minor in the least, but I love reading about him as Jen writes about him.  He appears rather saintly, putting up with her snarkiness.  I admit to being convinced that Jen and I are destined to meet on the streets of Chicago and become besties, and then I would get to meet the sainted Fletch in person!

6.  The Town of Niniltna and The Park, from Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak series-I realize that choosing the whole town is a bit of a cop out, but there are so many interesting, quirky characters in this series that choosing one is almost impossible.  This series makes me want to lace up my mukluks, grab my parka, jump on my snowmobile, and ride down a frozen river.

5.  Miss Celia from The Help-Poor trashy Celia!  She is so out of her depth in the world of privileged Southern women, and her poor, stupid husband just doesn't seem to get it.

4.  Windsor Horne Lockwood III from Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar series-Win, as he is known, is a rich and powerful child of privilege who is completely amoral but fiercely loyal to the few people he calls friend.  What's not to love?

3.  Moira, from The Handmaid's Tale-I'm not sure if it is the fact that she was a lesbian, or the fact that she refused to accept her fate as a Handmaid and ran away, but whatever the reason I always felt close to Moira when reading this book.  What happens to her is tragic, but I would not have felt it so strongly if I didn't also feel a strong connection to her.

2.  Eeyore, from Winnie the Pooh-I know that he is all sad and stuff, but he makes me happy.  Perverse, I realize, but there it is.

1.  Lucy Farinelli, from the Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell-She's slowly become a more major than minor character, but I loved her from her precocious, 10 year old start.  Kay's neice, only daughter of her flighty, many-times married sister, Kay has always taken care of Lucy as best she could.  Lucy is brilliant, a millionaire by 25, but emotionally stunted, especially after she is sucked in by the manipulative Carrie Grethen, who uses her love to try and kill Scarpetta.  She might be my current favorite character from this series.

Top Ten Tuesday: Jerkface!

Thanks to The Broke and the Bookish for hosting this weekly excuse for list-making!  This week's topic is Top Ten Literary Jerks.  Well, I guess the hero/villain dichotomy doesn't really work without Jerky Jerkerson, the jerky mayor of Jerkytown, Jerksylvania, so here are a few I found distasteful.

1.  Anne Coulter-I don't care if she's a real person (and that she isn't literary)!  She's still a bookish jerk!  She is everything that is wrong with the way politics is discussed in this country.  While we disagree about, oh, every single topic in American political and cultural life, I could live with that if she could express her disagreement without calling people names like the playground bully.


2.  Curly, Of Mice and Men-Curly was the boss's son, the little guy who liked to pick fights to try and prove what a man he was.  There should really be a sub-category of jerkiness just for boss's sons.  And to continue a theme...

3.  Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter-While not exactly the boss's son, he was a child of privilege who felt a need to hold it over everyone's head and generally make their lives miserable.

4.  Bill Sikes, Oliver Twist-He takes jerkiness to a whole new level.  I mean, is there any major crime he leaves undone?  Robbery, child abuse, domestic violence, animal cruelty, and murder-he's a one stop criminal shop.  Plus, he's a got a really foul attitude!

5.  Prior Godwyn, World Without End-I've been listening to the second installment of Ken Follett's epic tale of medieval cathedral/bridge building, and while most of the men in the novel make me want to run my car into the embankment with their sexism and superstition, Prior Godwyn takes the cake.  While you have to excuse most of the characters their ignorance due to, you know, the fact that they are living in 14th century England, he is purposefully and willfully deceptive, manipulative, greedy, and dishonest.

6. Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood, Matilda-While the Trunchbull has made my list of favorite villains and bitc..I mean, mean girls, this category seems prefectly made for Matilda's neglectful, conniving, hateful parents.  Thank goodness for Miss Honey!

7.  Big Jim Rennie, Under the Dome-Stephen King always has some jerky characters in his books, but very few rise to the level of Big Jim.  When the dome descends on his small Maine town, Big Jim, car salesman and city councilman, could have gone into action to help his fellow townspeople.  Instead, he steals their propane, gets anyone who disagrees with him thrown in jail and/or beaten, and tries to protect a meth lab that ends up destroying the whole town when it explodes.  That, and he doesn't even notice his own son has gone off the deep end.

8.  Daniel Cleaver, Bridget Jones Diary-I have to admit that I never read this book, only saw the movie version.  Chick lit isn't really my thing, but the movie had Hugh Grant in it, so there you go.  What I didn't realize going in was that he was the jerkface of that story.  Oh, but what a cute jerkface it is!

9.  Commander Fred, The Handmaid's Tale-Let's see, he and the other powerful men that killed the president and created a theocratic military regime keep fertile women as slaves, refusing to even allow them their own name, all for the glory of God and country.  And the description of the martial bed...ewwwww does not begin to cover it.

10.  Jack Randall, Outlander-When Claire finds herself transported back to 18th century Scotland, the first person she meets is this cruel, sneering man.  He later proves to be sadistic and single-minded in his desire to hurt her and have her husband Jamie as his own.  When Jamie is later captured by Randall, he is tortured and sexually assaulted by him.  Charming.

Top Ten Tuesday: Mean Girls

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely ladies at The Broke and the Bookish for all of us that love lists.  This week's topic is Top Ten Mean Girls.  I had to really give it some thought, since I would probably choose a slightly more, ummm, colorful word to describe most of these women (rhymes with "stitch, if you know what I mean).  I only got up to eight before I ran out of time, but they are pretty representative of the type, I think!

1. Miss Hilly from The Help-I don't know if it was her shocking-by-today's-standards racism, or just her general mean-spiritedness, but she was a character I loved to hate.

2.  Cruella Deville from 101 Dalmations-A fur coat from puppies, do I really need to explain more than that?

3. The Trunchbull, from Matilda-She was the headmistress from Hell, until Matilda gave her her comeuppance!

4.  Lady MacBeth, from, well, you know where-I don't care how bad she felt about it later (out, damned spot!), she started that whole miserable mess.

5. Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest-What a horrible, nasty, cruel person she was!

6.  Mrs. John Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility-Her greed and general snootiness make her a perfect Vistorian mean girl!

7.  Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter-Again with the racism!  Muggles unite!

8.  The White Witch from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe-The movie version of her was exactly as I envisioned her when I read the books back in the early 1980s.  Haughty and cruel.

Top Ten Tuesday Rewind-My Favorite Authors

This week's Top Ten, hosted by the gals at The Broke and the Bookish, is specially designed for those of us that occasionally miss a week of the action.  It's rewind time-a time to go back and create a post on a past topic that you didn't participate in when it was first posted.  After looking at the list of past topics for what felt like an inordinate amount of time, I rejected Favorite Best Fictional Couples and Best Villains, having posted on those for a different meme.  I finally settled on Favorite Authors, since I've mentioned them a lot but I'm not sure if I've ever actually written a post devoted just to them.  After each author I will list their books of theirs I have read and loved.  So, in no particular order, may I present...

1.  Toni Morrison-The Bluest Eye, Jazz, Song of Solomon, Beloved, Paradise, Love, A Mercy

2.  Alice Walker-Temple of My Familiar, The Color Purple, Possessing the Secret of Joy, Warrior Marks

3.  Octavia Butler-Fledgling, Mind of My Mind, Wild Seed, Patternmaster, Clay's Ark

4.  Barbara Kingslover-Animal Dreams, The Bean Trees, Prodigal Summer, The Poisonwood Bible, Pigs in Heaven, The Lacuna

5.  Chris Bohjalian-Midwives, The Double Bind, Before You Know Kindness, Transister Radio, Buffalo Soldier, The Law of Similars

6.  Margaret Atwood-The Handmaid's Tale, The Robber Bride, Cat's Eye, Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin, Lady Oracle, Surfacing, Life Before Man

7.  Stephen King-Carrie, Salem's Lot, The Shining, Dead Zone, The Stand, Firestarter, Cujo, Roadwork, The Dark Tower series, Christine, Pet Semetary, Cycle of the Werewolf, The Talisman, The Bachman Books, The Eye of the Dragon, Misery, Tommyknockers, The Dark Half, Needful Things, Gerald's Game, Dolores Claiborne, Insomnia, Rose Madder, The Green Mile, Desperation, Storm of the Century, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Black House, From a Buick 8, Cell, Lisey's Story, Duma Key, Under the Dome, all of his short stories

8.  Sheri S. Tepper-The Gate to Women's Country, Beauty, Gibbons Decline and Fall, The Visitor

9.  Neil Gaiman-American Gods, Anansi Boys, Good Omens, Interworld (YA), Stardust, Neverwhere, The Graveyard Book (YA)

10.  Roald Dahl-Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, The BFG, The Witches

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Pet Peeves

This week's Top Ten, hosted by the lovely bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish, is your bookish pet peeves.  And I know that every reader has them.  Reading is a very personal experience.  While some of us can read anywhere, others need the environment to be just right.  While some of us don't mind a crumpled, marked up old paperback copy of some book we've always wanted to read, others need clean copies.  Not to mention the actual literary pet peeves that readers have (see my post on stream-of-consciousness writing).  So, what are some of my pet peeves?  I've only got seven, but I feel them strongly!

1.  Being asked what I'm reading-There is nothing that bothers me more than sitting somewhere reading, like in a hotel lobby waiting for a conference to start, and having someone I don't know or barely know ask me what I'm reading.  Partly I'm annoyed at the interruption, but mostly I'm uncomfortable because I don't know what to say.  Is this person a reader?  Will they know the book or author just from the title?  Do they want a synopsis?  If I give them a synopsis, will they be annoyed because they were just asking to be polite?  Yep, hate this when it happens.

2.  Reading snobbery-there are very few things that annoy me more than snobbery in general, but I have lately become very  sensitive to book snobbery.  People who read literary fiction looking down on people who enjoy genre fiction, non-fiction readers looking down on fiction readers-I saw an analogy from another book blogger not long ago (sorry I don't remember which one-either the Ape or The Literate Man, I think), that your reading diet should be like your food diet-balanced.  Eat what you like, just try to make sure that you eat more "good" than "bad".  And there is good in every genre (even romance, I'm sure-OK, so I'm not completely immune to book bias).

3.  Overuse of adjective, metaphor, and simile-Anne Rice, I'm talking to you!  I don't need 12 pages of description to know that it is hot, humid, and sultry in New Orleans.  Look, I said it in three words!  Really, I had the idea by page two.

4.  Books written from movies-Do I really need to explain this?

5.  Mass-market Paperbacks-It's not so much the print as the binding.  I hate having to hold the book open all the time.  Makes it much more difficult to snack and read!  I realize that this would be solved with a Kindle, but with over 400 books in my house I have not yet read, I just can't justify the expense.

6.  I'm not bored, I'm reading!-Do you ever visit friends or family, and sit down to relax with your book, only to have them immediately suggest an outing, since you must be "bored"?  Maybe you are lucky enough to only visit other readers, but this has happened to me more than once.

7.  Chapters that start with long poems or song lyrics-Not gonna lie, I generally skip them.  I know they're supposed to add to the meaning of the story and all, but I'm impatient...