Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is a Back To School Freebie — so I’ve decided to focus on books from my school days that I’d really like to revisit someday.
Here are ten books from my middle and high school reading adventures that I recall fondly… and really should re-read to see if they still grab my attention:
1) Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
2) A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
3) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
4) Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
5) Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
6) 1984 by George Orwell
7) Hiroshima by John Hersey
8) The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
9) Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markanday
10) Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen
What books made your list this week? Please share your TTT links!
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Bookshelf Fantasies 
I recently reread The Lottery and I swear, it was just as creepy as it was the first time I read it. I read 1984 for the first time last year and I enjoyed it. Love your list and your take on the topic.
Thanks! I’d really like to read more Shirley Jackson. I read We Have Always Lived in the Castle last year and thought it was one of the creepiest things I’ve ever experienced.
Of these I’ve read Island of the Blue Dolphin, Brave New World (didn’t like it), Flowers for Algernon, 1984 (really didn’t like it), and The Lottery
Check out my list: Care to Matriculate?: Ten Top Schools of Magic & Science
Ha, I guess these aren’t for everyone! I reread Brave New World a few years ago and thought it was amazing. 🙂
I’ve reread a few books that I read at school and enjoyed them more. I took different things from them! 🙂
Absolutely, rereading some of the books I read in school as an adult has given me a much different perspective on them!
Good luck with your rereads 😀 😀 http://www.curious-daisy.com/top-ten-tuesday/top-10-books-from-my-childhood/
Thank you!
I’ve never heard of these books, but I remember reading about Hiroshima in school. Good luck re-reading your books!!
My TTT: http://poemsbyayoungartist.blogspot.com/2016/08/top-ten-tuesday-15-back-to-school-book.html
I think the required reading lists vary a lot over the years… so I probably haven’t read most of what high schoolers are reading now! 🙂
True, I have no idea what kids are reading in school today LOL!
Brave New World and 1984 are dystopian classics! Love them!
My TTT: https://bookclubbabe.net/2016/08/30/top-ten-tuesday-classic-books-all-children-need-to-read/
Aren’t they great? I did reread Brave New World a few years ago, and was so amazed by how much of Huxley’s vision can be related to today’s technology. Brilliant.
I feel like I’ve read Island of the Blue Dolphin before, but I’m not 100% sure. I’m going to have to look it up!
Dolphins*
I don’t remember a whole lot of the detail, but I know I loved it! (I think I remember a movie version as well…)
If it’s the same book I’m thinking of, I loved it too. Now I definitely need to see what that’s about. Lol
Great list! I loved that I had read 1984 whilst studying Soviet history because it added so much more to the story…Also enjoyed reading Brave New World and A Tale of Two Cities (though for the latter I’m glad to have read it on my own and not for school).
My TTT
Oh yes, I can see how tying 1984 to real-world events would make it so much more powerful. I read A Tale of Two Cities during high school, in a year when I had probably the best English teacher of all of my school years. She really helped us understand the story in a way that brought it all to life for me — probably my first time getting so into a “classic”.
Island of the Blue Dolphins is one of my childhood favorites. 🙂 I never could get through Brave New World. I wonder if I’d do better with the audio version. Orwell’s novel, on the other hand, was a favorite of mine. 🙂 Great list!
Thanks! I wasn’t as crazy about the Island of the Blue Dolphins sequel, but maybe that’s because I didn’t read it until I was an adult.
You read some heavy stuff in school 🙂 1984 is fantastic, and Brave New Rold is on my list too.
I think I was fortunate to have a couple of great English teachers who really pushed us. 🙂 And in public school, so yay for public education!
I loved Flowers for Algernon. I haven’t picked it up for years, but I really enjoyed it the first time around. Maybe it’s time for a reread…
I’d been thinking about a re-read too… and then Audible had it on sale this week!
Island of the Blue Dolphins is also a favorite of mine and I would really love to re-read it. A few of these I STILL haven’t read (Flowers for Algernon and Brave New World specifically – how I missed those I have no idea). And a few others I’ve never even heard of. Will definitely check them out. 🙂
I keep remembering more and more from my school years (i really did have some excellent English teachers). I think there’s a lot that I read back then that I didn’t fully appreciate, because you know, high school 🙂
Great list! I haven’t read any of these. Surprisingly, not even The Lottery.
I love the idea of re-reading school books — in fact, for a while I was trying to do this on my blog and was purposely re-reading books I didn’t like to see if an older (wiser?) me would appreciate what I missed back in the day. It fell by the wayside, but hopefully someday I’ll get back to it!
It’s a great goal! And yes, I’d definitely love to see what adult me would think.