top ten books dealing with tough subjects

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where we all get to exercise our OCD tendencies and come up with bookish lists.  If you’d like to play along, check out this post.

Today didn’t start well.  First I thought it was Wednesday, and I posted my Waiting on Wednesday blog a day early.  It turns out that it is Tuesday instead.  I am okay with this, but the confusion got to me.  I may go get a chocolate peanut butter milkshake on my lunch break, because: reasons.  To get back to the subject at hand...I am very interested to see peoples’ lists for this week’s topic.  I think reactions to ‘issue’ books are personal, and I expect them to vary widely.  I know I was surprised by my own list as it took shape on the page (or post-it note, as it were).  I tend to avoid tough subjects and read for escape, but these stories have all stolen pieces of my heart. 

Top Ten Books Dealing with Tough Subjects

1. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness – Conor’s mother has cancer, and his grief, anger, and despair make for heart-wrenching reading.

2. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee – Oh, this book.  It gutted me.  The racism, injustice and violence made me long for peace.

3. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie – Alexie’s dark humor carries the reader through the depths of poverty, alcoholism, racism and other staples of Reservation life.

4. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth C. Wein – History shows us harrowing things, and the anti-Semitism and fascism of Nazi Germany and Nazi-occupied France is the definition of a ‘tough subject.’  Plus, the book is just amazing.

5. The Kid Table by Andrea Seigel – I tend to think of family dysfunction as a tough subject, and this book is full of it.  And life.  And growing up (another tough subject!).

6. The Psycopath Test by Jon Ronson – Ronson investigates the darkest side of human nature and the world of mental illness.  Also, I gave this book to my mom for Mother’s Day a few years ago.  She liked it!

7. Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach – This is a hilarious book with an amazing narrator.  It’s also about dealing with neglectful parents, death and growing up in weird ways.  It’s special.

8. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith – Urban poverty, family disappointments and alcoholism are the backdrop of one girl’s coming of age in Brooklyn, and somehow it is beautiful.

9. The Giver by Lois Lowry – Lowry’s dystopian future muses on the importance of memory, the depths of pain and human ethics.

10. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson – Anderson gives voice to a teenager who is the victim of rape, shame, guilt, and social ostracism. It’s an *important* book.

Are any of these books on your list?  What does your list look like?