Top Ten Tuesday: Favourite Books I Read in School

Hey everyone!

Today I thought I would switch over to Top Ten Tuesday because the Top 5 Wednesday topics are a bit of a challenge for me this month. This week’s prompt is anything “school-related”, so I chose “Favourite Books I Read in School”. When I was in High School there were about 2-5 books/plays that I had to read each year, so these are my favourites.

Note from the future: Ooops I posted this in the wrong week 😦

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created here at The Broke and the Bookish in June 2010. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We’d love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

1. Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

I read this in Year 12 for English and flew through the story as though it wasn’t required reading. I loved the premise and everything about the story because it felt so realistic.

2. Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey

Jasper Jones is also another book that I read like it wasn’t a book that I had to be reading. I liked the adventure in the story and how everything came together in the end. I also really liked my teacher when I studied it in Year 10, she was really nice lol.

3. Atonement by Ian McEwan

I had to read Atonement in Year 11 and it was for a Literature class, and it was actually a Year 12 subject. I was really bad at Literature because I never knew what was going on, but I thought the story of Atonement was so complex and interesting.

4. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I think I have grown to appreciate The Great Gatsby over time. Once I watched the film a year after I studied the book in Year 10 I actually understood everything much better. I remember my Literature class went to see the film in 2013 when it came out, and I thought the story was better than I remembered. The story has stuck with me since then, even though I did really badly in the essay.

5. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

I don’t really remember much of this book, but I remember enjoying being taught the material. I think I studied it in Year 10 and we watched two different films based around the text, and the story always makes so much more sense when you watch the film in my opinion.

6. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

The originality behind In Cold Blood is very inspiring! I liked that Capote was basically the first author to write a true crime novel that reads like a work of fiction. I studied this in Year 11 in my Literature class and thought it was an insightful take on how criminals behave and are treated. It also changed my opinion on capital punishment.

7. Eucalyptus by Murray Bail

I chose to write about this text in my class called “Australian Writing and Cultural Change” last year. It was a really weird novel but still not a bad text to write an essay on. The story is about a man who has a really pretty daughter so he makes a challenge for all the men to name the different types of eucalypts he has on his property, and if someone can then he can marry the girl. Weird premise and weird father, but not a bad read.

8. Once by Morris Gleitzman

I read Once in Year 7 and it is about a Jewish boy trying to survive Europe during World War II. I liked studying this book because the story was very easy to follow.

9. The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

I only studied this book last semester and I like it more because it helped me improve my structuring and plotting skills. I liked the story and message of the novel, but I think it’s really slow and not so fun to read for entertainment.

10. First Girl by Gloria Whelan

Finally, First Girl is a children’s book that I read in Year 7. It is very sad because it is about a young Chinese girl who lives in a family that do not like her purely for the fact that she is a girl. The family try for a boy but keep getting girls, and the main character is the “first girl” of the family.

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• Did you have to study any of these for school as well?

P.S. Yes, it’s Tuesday in Australia. I was just so excited to get this post up I couldn’t be bothered waiting for other time zones like I usually do (jk).