Wednesday, September 5, 2012

RTW: Books from school

Another Wednesday, another Road Trip! Road Trip Wednesday is a blog hop hosted by YA Highway!

This week's RTW comes as the kids of America are heading back to school. So the question - What's your favorite book that you had to read for a class?

This is a tricky one because I did read some amazing books at school. Some classic, some contemporary, some plays like Hamlet, some that I should've loved but found really hard to read like Wuthering Heights and some that I recommended to everyone, like The Tomorrow Series. 

The other reason this is a tricky question, as although it's only been seven years since I left high school, it still feel like a really long time, and I'm having trouble remembering some of the books from the earlier years. However there are some that stick out.

The first is one I would consider to be one of the best books I've ever read. I should say I hated it with a passion when I had to read it. Oh how I hated it. It's long and it's very serious.... it's almost painful. But it was worth the slog. The book is called One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich cover.jpg

The book is literally that. One day in this man's life. This man, Ivan Denisovich is a prisoner of a Soviet labour camp in the 1950s and the book describes an ordinary day. It's a tough read, because it's pretty close to the truth but it's very moving and insightful. The author of the book was imprisoned in a labour camp from 1945 to 1953 for writing a derogatory comment in letters to friends about the conduct of the war by Joseph Stalin, so obviously had first hand experiences of the hardships. This is one of the best books I read at school simply because of the impact it had on me. Almost ten years later and I still list it as one of the best books I've ever read....


The next book I loved was The Secret Life of Bees

Front Cover

In New Zealand, we don't get taught a lot of American history in school. We may brush over a few aspects like the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and we may talk briefly about the Civil War or the Revolution, but we don't really study American history. In one of my classes as a 14 year old, we did, however, study the Civil Rights movement. I am a history geek, you may be able to tell. I became obsessed with learning all about the Civil Rights Movement and so enjoyed this book a lot, which we had to read as a way of getting a feel for the segregation and atmosphere of the time. Anyway, to put it simply, it's a great coming of age story about a young girl who finds herself living among a group of African American women and helping them run their honey business.  It's a great book.

Other books I feel deserve a mention - Mister Pip, The Halfmen of O series (love love love), The Handmaid's Tale (another that I only appreciated later), The Whale Rider - All these are New Zealand books! Oh also To Kill a Mockingbird and The Lovely Bones.

I'm sure there are heaps more but these were definitely some that left a lasting impression! What are yours?

 

19 comments:

  1. I've been meaning to read The Secret Lives of Bees. and The Handmaid's Tale. It might be time to push them up on my list.

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    1. They're both fantastic books but total polar opposites!

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  2. I read THE HANDMAID'S TALE in college and then again a couple of months ago for book club. It was interesting to see how my opinion of it had changed. That book was really one of the first reproductive-dystopia books and I think the YA world owes Atwood a lot of credit for that.

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    1. I agree completely. She really paved the way for a lot of the female led dystopian novels. I really didn't enjoy reading it at the time, but it's always stuck with me and I've found myself telling numerous people about it.

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  3. I forgot about the Handmaid's Tale. I liked that one, too!

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  4. Love the Secret Life of Bees! Oh gosh, and "To Kill a Mockingbird." Amazing books!

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  5. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich sounds kind of good. Russian writing can be really hard to get through.

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    1. It is pretty hard, and painful and slow.... but it's one of those books that grabs your heart and doesn't let go

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  6. I wish we read the Secret Life or Bees or the Handmaid's Tale when I was in school, but sadly I am too old to have been able to enjoy those books when I was young :) But, I also grew up in a pretty conservative county where books like weren't generally read in public school. So, that you got to read them is pretty awesome to me!

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    1. That's true. I was always excited at the start but sometimes they just got pretty tough to get through! But looking back I loved the reading segments more than anything!

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  7. To Kill a Mockingbird was on my list but I am interested in the other books on your list. Great choices!

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  8. If it makes you feel any better, in the US we don't get taught ANY New Zealand history (sad but true).

    I loved 'The Secret Life of Bees'! I was working at a library when it came out, and I read a chapter here and there when I got a chance because the request list was a mile long. I made my mom read it, too (she loved it)

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    1. Haha we're a baby country, our history is limited to about 165 years or so.

      A chapter here and there, a frustrating way to read it but at least you got to! Very cool! I also made my mum read it!

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  9. I've never heard of One Day in the Life, but now I really want to read it! TKAM was my pick for favorite assigned read. I absolutely loved that book.

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    1. It's a beautiful story huh, I feel a lot of people are passing over many of the classics simply because they're classics and seem 'hard' and 'too complex' but there is a reason they're the greats. Because it's raw story telling goodness!

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  10. I loved "The Secret Life of Bees," especially because my daughter and I read it together. She's thirteen and I'm 42, and we both loved it. A book that can bring a teenage girl and her mother together and talking is a wonder in its own right! That was such a beautiful story. However, I have never heard of "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," but I will be putting it on my reading list now. That book sounds right up my alley.

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    1. Aww that's such a nice bonding activity! It's amazing how books and stories can bring people together, and create some common ground! I mean look at all of us here from all sides of the world chatting about our love of books - it's an awesome thing!

      Definitely read One Day in the Life.. it's a tough read but it's really an incredible story. I need to read it again actually!

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  11. I started The Secret Life of Bees a long time ago and never finished that...oops! Need to rectify that one. And that's pretty neat that you studied American History and read that book alongside your studies. Neat!

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    1. Ohh do finish it! It's great! We didn't study much American history but in Social Studies we learned about the Civil Rights movement. It's only since I've been living in America that I've learned about the Civil war and the Revolutionary War and whatnot so now I'm on the hunt for books from those eras too! Always a nice way to aid study!

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