Top Ten Tuesday (10)

This is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and Bookish.

Top Ten Books I Hope They're Still Reading in Thirty Years

1) The Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling-HP has brought joy to me and many and I hope it continues to do so in the years to come. I know many people who have already started introducing it to their kids or their younger siblings/relatives so I have no doubt that HP is here to stay.

2) His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillup Pullman-Unlike nearly everyone, I think HDM is about more then being anti-religious. It's about Lyra's journey, it's about how power can corrupt any group of people (not just the church), it's about sticking together, growing up, self-sacrifice, and much more. Yes, a bit of anti-church feelings are in it, but it is really a small amount of what the trilogy is about. Of course this is a personal bias because I tend to get eye-twitchy whenever the religious set tries to tell people what is acceptable to read and what is not.

3) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak-Every so often there's a writer who actually does do inventive ways of writing and storytelling that are brilliant without being gimmicky. The Book Thief is one of the best examples to me of how to be creative narratively without being annoying about it and tell a beautiful story in the process. Other "modern-writing" authors please take notes.

4) The Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin-This is how you do character work in fantasy, people. If I had my way this series would be required reading for anyone wanting to go into fantasy writing to see how to do proper world-building, good story-telling, and how to have good complex female characters in such a male dominated world.

5) Tortall/Circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce-These books not only introduced me to feminism during my tweens but pretty much got me into fantasy books period. The series are still going strong all these years later and I still await the books eagerly each year. God, do I want that Tris in magic school book something fierce. I just want every girl to get a chance to read these.

6) American Gods by Neil Gaiman-Because it's just GOOD okay? Plus it talks about a multitude of subjects that are great for discussion.

7) Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson-Because sadly, rape will probably still be an issue in thirty years and we'll probably still have people playing the victem-blaming game and making it hard for girls to come forward and speak out against their rapists.

8) The Millaneum Trilogy by Stieg Larsson-Because Lisbeth is a fascinating character and people really should know about all the corruption that goes on in the system and the brutal things that happen against women. Much as I hate to say it, I imagine we'll still face sexism thirty years from now.

9) The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins-Because while it's not a overly complicated book trilogy, HG does do great things like bringing up issues of tyranny, classism, the effects of war on the young, how power can corrupt even those with good intentions, etc. etc.

10) The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett (particularly the Tiffany Aching books)-Becauase these books are great examples of what the parody genre has to offer and I just love how metaish it is about going into all the tropes in fantasy. Plus, it's just hilarious.