Top Ten Tuesday I s a weekly feature that currently resides at The Artsy Reader Girl and features bloggers sharing lists on various book topics. For this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, participants are tasked with listing ten books that they were assigned to read in school, with bonus points awarded if you provide a little review or your thoughts on the book in question. This proved to be a rather interesting topic, and it really got me thinking about the random works of fiction I read or had assigned to me during my turbulent school years. My resulting list on the subject proved to be an eclectic mixture or classic novels and several distinctive reads that have followed me into my later reviewing/blogging career. A such, I rather like the list below and I think it is a simultaneously fun and depressing look back at my academic past.
Top Ten List:
Daughter of the Empire by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts
Whilst in college (year 11 in my school system) I signed up to do a fantasy fiction course which I thought sounded fun. Unfortunately, the teacher was absolutely rubbish, but luckily there was a silver lining in that Daughter of the Empire was a required reading. A deep and compelling fantasy book about a young woman forced to take up the reigns of leadership of her noble family, Daughter of the Empire was a brilliant read and the first book in the Empire trilogy. As a fantasy nerd, I was very familiar with Feist, having read multiple books in his Riftwar Cycle already, but I hadn’t made the leap over to the Empire trilogy yet. Naturally I loved this required reading and powered through Daughter of the Empire faster than anyone in the class. I even went a step beyond and grabbed the next two books in the series, Servant of the Empire and Mistress of the Empire, that’s how much I loved it. Daughter of the Empire remains one of my favourite fantasy books to this day (see my blog’s review for the series here), and I cannot recommend this series enough. Literally the only good thing to come out of a terrible, semester-long class.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
A true American classic, To Kill a Mockingbird was an excellent coming-of-age story that also featured a complex tale of racial inequality in small-town America. I read To Kill a Mockingbird as part of a pretty good general English course, and it proved fascinating and insightful to analyse this book. We also watched the Gregory Peck film adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird in the same class, which proved to be an impressive black and white watch. A wonderful read whose message still resonates to this day.
Tomorrow series by John Marsden
A series I particularly enjoyed having to read at school was the Tomorrow series by John Marsden. An iconic Australian young adult series that follows a group of teenagers caught up in an invasion of Australia by a foreign army, the Tomorrow books are an exceptional series with a brilliant story behind it. I love all seven books in this excellent series, and I really got into them thanks to some required reading in high school. I honestly read more of this series than I needed to for school purposes, and the Tomorrow series really influenced me growing up. I remember doing some basic reviews of this book back at school, and I have since done a more detailed review of the series on my blog. A highly recommended series that still holds up.
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Thanks to a holiday project, I read Jurassic Park during my summer break one year and it proved to be very epic. As a fan of the film and a massive reader, even as a teenager, it honestly wasn’t a great trial for me to read Jurassic Park during my holidays, and I really got caught up in Michael Crichton’s unique science fiction thriller. Another classic, Jurassic Park really stands on its own as a novel and I can see why a movie adaptation from it was so successful. It is quite fascinating to see the differences between the novel and the later film, and I really liked Crichton’s original science focussed and darker story. I honestly need to read this book again at some point, but I enjoyed reading it while younger, and it’s a book all science fiction and thriller fans should check out at some point.
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
One of the more memorable novels I was assigned to read in college was the emotionally charged book, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. A dark and powerful read that followed the aftermath of a tragic murder, The Lovely Bones proved to be an interesting addition to my reading list while at school. While not something I probably would have chosen to read on my own, The Lovely Bones had a distinctive and intense story behind it, that dealt with the aftermath of tragedy and regret by following the victim’s surviving family. An outstanding book that allowed for a lot of literary analysis, The Lovely Bones is an excellent addition to this list.
The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett
Required to give a presentation on a specific fantasy novel, I of course chose one of my favourite books, The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett. A particularly hilarious Pratchett novel, set in the Discworld’s equivalent of Australia, The Last Continent proved fertile ground for an in-depth presentation, and I made sure to re-read the book in advance. I have a lot of love for this book (see my review for it on this blog), and I’m sure that came through in my passionate presentation.
Odyssey by Homer
A particularly interesting English class studying myths and legends let to me reading the Greek epic poem Odyssey. The stylised and distinctive tale of legendary figure Odysseus, Odyssey was a great read to get lost in as a student, and it really appealed to my love of Greek mythology. While I remember struggling with the classic prose and language, Odyssey lived up to epic in epic poem, and I had a great time learning about it at school.
Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell
As part of a decent crime fiction English course at school, we dove into the debut novel of Patricia Cornwell, Postmortem. The first book in her long-running Kay Scarpetta series, Postmortem introduced readers to world of modern forensic fiction with this in-depth and dark murder mystery. Postmortem proved to be a fantastic read, and my class had an excellent time examining the clever mystery it contained. While this is another book from school that I should probably re-read at some point, I did deeply enjoy Postmortem and I recall writing a descent essay about it.
The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell
One of the more entertaining recommendations/assigned readings I had during my education occurred in a hectic Post-Roman Britain archaeology course while attending university. The professor, an occasionally funny figure, would often provide us with a list of suggested readings to help us with the course. While most of these readings were academic books and papers, he also recommended The Last Kingdom series by Bernard Cornwell, which he believed perfectly captured the period we were studying. I was already a fan of this series before taking on this class, but I dutifully read more The Last Kingdom books to benefit my academic career (and for no other reason). Cornwell clearly did a ton of research on the setting for his books, and I appreciated the historical and archaeological detail he included in his story, as well as the fantastic and intense narrative that accompanied it. While I’m slightly stretching the definition of assigned reading with this entry, I’m going to leave The Last Kingdom in, as I did technically read it after a university lecturer told me to.
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The final book I want to feature on this list is the classic book, Animal Farm by George Orwell. More suggested reading than an assigned book, I read Animal Farm in my high school library over the course of several lunchtimes and classes (I was popular at school as you can no doubt tell). While I didn’t get all of Orwell’s clever satyr and commentary on the Soviet Union, I still found Animal Farm to be an interesting read that has stuck with me years after. A clever and unique examination of complex history and society, Animal Farm is a classic for a reason, and I’m glad I made an effort to read it at school.
That’s the end of my list. As you can see, I had some intriguing and memorable assigned reading during my school years. Despite often being forced to read the above, I had a great time with all these classic and distinctive books, and they are really worth checking out. I hope you find this list interesting and make sure to let me know what books you had to read in the comments below.
The Unseen Library 