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alex garland, An inspector calls, Barbara Kingsolver, Holes (film), Jorge Luis Borges, kurt vonnegut, Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch, Louis Sachar, The Handmaid's Tale, toni morrison, Top Ten Tuesday, William Golding
Could it be? Could I be getting back into doing meme’s again? Not likely, but here’s another Top Ten Tuesday post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish with this week’s topic as ‘books that make you think’. And would you believe it those are my particular speciality. Here’s my list in no particular order:
1. Lord of the Flies by William Golding – Not all that glitters is gold… This is a really powerful novel I revisited this year about the latent demon in us all. This is the ultimate story about how an island paradise could become hell as a bunch of harmless school children turn native in the true sense of the word. A good follow-up to this would be the more adult-themed ‘The Beach’ by Alex Garland which I also highly recommend.
2. Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver – Another gripping novel about how social norms don’t stand a chance in the wilderness, where survival means to conform or else. Nathan Price, a preacher with a will of iron, uproots his family taking them deep into the Belgian Congo where his plans of educating the savages ends in disaster. Told through the eyes of his wife and daughters, it makes one think about how one man’s right can be another man’s wrong.
3. Holes by Louis Sachar – An absolute gem; Stanley Yelnats battle with his accumulative ‘bad karma’ is both inspirational, touching and funny all at the same time. After reading this you will DEFINITELY make sure you don’t have any unfinished business, as it might have a way of coming back.
4. An Inspector Calls by J B Priestley – Not everything is as it seems in this detective play. It explores the dangers of capitalism and raises interesting questions on the concept of ‘guilt’.
5. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood – Dystopian fiction that was so powerful I was actually haunted by it. It invaded my dreams at one point. I can’t imagine a society that would treat women as baby-making machines, but nothing is impossible…
6. Venus in Furs by Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch – I call this the ‘thinking persons 50 Shades’, as I am convinced that this book is what EL James took her inspiration from, to the point of ‘plagiarism’, so don’t give me all that crap about it being a Twilight fanfic! *snorts* Anyway, here is something with more narrative meat as it explores themes of love, cruelty and both physical and mental slavery to the desires of the flesh.
7. Beloved by Toni Morrison – To be able to peer into the depths of one mother’s murderous insanity and be able to call it fatal love… that is the high price Morrison asks of you in this novel. Can you do it?
8. Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges – Endlessly and deliriously looping pathways of questions without answers and answers to unknown questions. Borges plumbs the depths of your unconscious and offers it to you in beautifully executed prose. Less is more.
9. The Cellist of Sarajevo – Novel about the terrible siege of Sarajevo. Told through the eyes of a handful of characters, it allows us to experience life lived in the crosshairs of a sniper rifle. Powerful examples of humanity and the reason WHY people go to war.
10. Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut – You never really knew it before, but after reading this you will certainly realise how our world could (for all we know) be run by absolute madmen.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg (touche to no.10), what’s your top ten ‘thinking’ novels?
Related articles
- Holes (garth.typepad.com)
- Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Wouldn’t Mind Santa Bringing Me (booksandreviews.wordpress.com)
- Top Ten Tuesday: Dec 18 (coffeebeanbookshelf.com)
- Top Ten Tuesday – Christmas Gifts (December 25) (wcs53.wordpress.com)
Wordly Obsessions 
Great choices, Zee! I found it difficult to pare it down to ten, but here’s what I came up with:
1. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy – made me think about what it is that makes human love valuable for its own sake.
2. A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving – made me think about the idea of everyone having a destiny or purpose.
3. Dune, by Frank Herbert – made me think about how civilization, the environment, politics, and even personal relationships are all entertwined.
4. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Jean Dominique-Bauby – made me think about the power of the human mind to stretch beyond apparent boundaries.
5. The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – still makes me consider what is truly important, and reminds me to stay open to see beyond the surface of things.
6. Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe – made me more aware of the destructive power of colonialism, and that adaptability to change is a critical survival skill.
7. The Hiding Place, by Corrie ten Boom, John & Elizabeth Sherrill – made me think about the power of faith to help people survive and reframe terrible experiences.
8. The Running Man, by Stephen King – made me think about the power of media and the potential consequences of feeding our prurient interest in contrived “reality.”
9. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess – made me think about the costs of free will and putting the rights of the individual ahead of the community…and vice versa.
10. Reading Lolita in Tehran – made me think about the costs women have paid and still pay for the right to knowledge and free thought, and reminded me to be vigilant.
Thanks for making me think!
I’m loving your list!! Thanks for the comment. I was going to add ‘A Clockwork Orange’ and ‘Dune’ but you can only have ten so I went with the latest books I’d read instead. That’s what books are supposed to do, make you think about things and introduce different concepts and ideas. I definitely think that your Top Ten is ace in that department 🙂
I absolutely love Holes! It is such a fantastic book, and I loved how it all came together at the end.
Me too. It was so satisfying. Can’t believe we never read this in school, it is the perfect curriculum text.
Yes, our lists are quite different, aside from Lord of the Flies 😉 But I really like the variety between them. I’ve added Holes to my tbr. The Poisonwood Bible and Beloved are two more books I need to read. The Handsmaid’s Tale is a great book, don’t know why I forgot to name that one. I think I wanted to make mine as eclectic as possible. Zombie books can make you think too :p
You won’t be disappointed. My only advice is that Beloved may take time for you to get into, but everyone seems to have that problem with it. Give it some time and an incredible world will open up to you. It really hammers home the psychology of what it was like to be a black slave. I haven’t read anything more powerful on the subject.
Which zombie books might those be? O.o lol
I can’t believe you are not taking the danger of a zombie apocalypse seriously 😛 The Zombie book by Don Roff I listed hints at the danger of food additives (which everyone in the developed world is exposed to) and Cell by Stephen King sort of deals with zombified humans and the threat of cell phone signals. Or something. I don’t really remember. But it’s not “just” scary stuff, is my point 😉
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