Top Ten Books I’d Love to Read with a Book Club

Posted January 26, 2015 by Cristina (Girl in the Pages) in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Features/Memes / 30 Comments

TTTcustombannerAs usual, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the fantastic blog The Broke and The Bookish. This week’s topic is ten books you’d want to read with your book club (whether you belong to one or wish you did!) I decided to split mine up by my favorite genres when it comes to discussions.

I love YA books that tackle tough social topics, so I chose three books that handled different issues and that handled the tough topics without being preachy. Topics in my picks include racism, bullying, abusive relationships, and slut shaming. As I’ve mentioned before, along with majoring in English while in college I also majored in Religious Studies (not to be confused with theology, religious studies looks at comparative world religions through an interdisciplinary approach including sociology, history, and anthropology). I love reading modern books with religious themes, whether they be retellings (such as East of Eden being a retelling of Adam/Eve and Cain/Abel) or if they just pull from religious concepts (I’d love to read Angelfall and nerd out over all of the biblical references and interpretations with someone!) Lastly, I chose three YA psychological thrillers that I would love to read with a club so we could deconstruct the narrative, as all three feature very unreliable narrators!

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What books made your book club wish list this week? Let me know in the comments!

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30 responses to “Top Ten Books I’d Love to Read with a Book Club

    • I love the Mara Dyer series because she’s at times the antagonist herself! Even though I’ve finished the trilogy it would be so fascinating to discuss the psychological elements with others!

    • Yay, more East of Eden fans! I decided this week to break down my book club reads based on the topics I would want to discuss- I can imagine it would be a bit of a drag if you belonged to a book club that chose a focus that wasn’t your thing. Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

  1. Eleanor and Park and The Truth About Alice would be great books to discuss! I haven’t read anything by Sarah Dessen in years but seeing her on your list is making me want to go read something by her again 🙂

  2. I haven’t read the Mara Dyer series yet, but I’ve got the first two books so I need to do that soon! I don’t know if I want to read We Were Liars – I’ve seen a ton of bad reviews that focus on the weird writing style which I’m pretty sure would irritate me too. Worth reading?
    My TTT!

    • We Were Liars definitely has a really strange prose style, but it’s a really short book (I read it in like a day) so I personally think it’s worth the fast read because I thought the twist was so interesting (it also has a lot of critique about classism and racism). Mara Dyer is fantastic, I would highly recommend getting to that asap!

    • I’ve talked a lot about E&P on my blog but East of Eden was so good (and so long, it was fascinating how it covered so many generations) and I wrote a few papers on it while in college, and there’s SO MUCH that could be discussed! Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

  3. I’ve read Angelfall and I really liked it. I can’t wait for the final one. I’m afraid I didn’t notice any of the religious themes besides the obvious angels. I’ve been curious about Mara Dyer. That’s another of those books that you either love it or hate it.

    • Mara Dyer is definitely one you’re going to have strong feelings about regardless of HOW you feel about it! I liked how it constantly kept me guessing as to WHAT was really going on, and it would be great to bounce theories around with other book club members!

    • The Truth About Alice would be great for that, especially because it has so many alternating POV’s of both males and females. We Were Liars had such a different type of writing style, and I didn’t guess the twist but it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting either.

  4. Oh my goodness.

    Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes and yes to Eleanor and Park, Dreamland, The Truth About Alice, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, Dangerous Girls and We Were Liars. I loved Eleanor and Park, The Truth About Alice and We Were Liars. I haven’t read Dangerous Girls yet. 🙁 I haven’t finished it I mean.

    I have Dreamland and really want to read it. I want to read The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer too. I’m always “down” for a book with religious themes, even if I haven’t read any. I want to read The Read Tent. I love the categories you chose, so different and yet…they kind of fit together (in my mind).

    • The Red Tent is SO good. Literally life changing if you’re looking for a feminist perspective read on biblical women! Dreamland, in my opinion, is one of Sarah Dessen’s stronger novels because it deals with a deeper issue that’s buried within the romance itself.

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