top ten tuesdays! (03)

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. If you love lists

and wracking your brain for answers, then this is the meme for you!

Top Ten Books That Tackle Tough Issues: (in no particular order)

1. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: Although this is outwardly about censure, it's also very much about learning to think differently from group mentality and question the world with your own eyes.

2. Unwind by Neal Shusterman: It seems like this book is on every list of mine, but it falls into so many categories. It's a loss of individual freedoms, of the absolute choice, and just what it means when compromising goes too far.

3. Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma: This book is still on my shelf unread, however, I choose to spotlight it talks about an issue that gets swept under the rug: incest. Personally, I love reading books about things I haven't before even if it's not traditional.

4. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles: Perhaps an unconventional choice, but when Oedipus is doomed from the start to unknowingly commit familicide (among things), he ends up having to deal with his actions and emotions in a manner that's not too hard to empathize with.

5. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk: Pick an issue, there's so many. Schizophrenia, insomnia (and, yes, this is an issue purely due to the results it can create), overall emotional instability and finding a method to cope from it all that was at the time stunningly original and incredibly realistic.

6. Watership Down by Richard Adams: The environment is something that should not be a tough issue, but sadly it has a difficult time spotlighting itself of its importance. This is one everyone should read.

7. The Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss: I read and read and read this book when I was little until the spine was tattered and the pages so worn they're difficult to turn. The Sneetches in particular are a good lesson on how being different and standing out isn't always the decision you'd like it to be. However, every story in this book from "The Zax" (sharing and relenting) to "What Was I Scared Of?" (fear and contempt) has its purpose.

8. Stay by Deb Caletti: While this book is on the whole about an abusive relationship and obsessive behavior, the story between the lines is about female empowerment and realising that it's more than okay to say no.

9. The Wal-Mart Effect by Charles Fishman: Every day actions and the desire for the bottom line, the lowest price and their entirely too real and saddening effects on normal people just trying to make a living.

10. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn: This is the book that changed my life, opened my eyes, and sent me back to school. It is not an easy read, but it is a necessary one.