The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini - I read this back in middle school and it's one of the few books that really made me care about the main character. It deals with real situations and without spoiling it, what happens to Hassan is still one of the most shocking things I've read in any book. It's a very human book and I love it for those aspects which made me root for the characters.
1984 by George Orwell - I loved this look at a scary future of a false utopia in which people live under a false sense of security. Big Brother & The Thought Police brought fear into people. This book makes you wonder just how much we might be being monitored and how we might eventually lose our individualism. http://www.amazon.com/1984-60th-Anniversary-Plume-George-Orwell/dp/0452262933/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367045839&sr=1-1&keywords=1984
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger - Teenage angst, I could really relate to it when I read this book in high school. I felt like I could relate to Holden, not because I lost a sibling or anything, but I didn't want to lose my sense of youth. I always want to be young whenever I can be. I don't want to wake up in the morning and be a stern adult who doesn't know how to have fun anymore, I want to hold on to the innocence the most young people have.
Good choices. I'm wondering if "The Kite Runner" an assigned reading in middle school, or something you picked up. It seems too mature for middle schoolers.
ReplyDeleteI had a similar response when reading "Kite Runner". I still remember sitting in my room and re-reading the part I think you're talking about. The book grabbed me emotionally, and I couldn't believe that that happened! The book got turned into a movie, right?
ReplyDeleteI love "The Kite Runner". It was one of the first books I ever read, because I was not a big reader before I read it. I picked it up in High school my sophomore year, it was a required reading for my senior year. The book changed my life and was hard for me to read at the time because I didn't like what I was reading, yet I couldnt put the book down.
ReplyDeleteThree excellent choices. The Kite Runner is an incredibly emotional book. I loved Hosseini's narration of Amir's father from the perspective of his son, as he slowly matures and gains insight into the ugliness of the world that surrounds him.
ReplyDelete1984 is terrific and beyond amazing. It supplements his other work, Animal Farm incredibly well, as well as Huxley's Brave New World. The dystopian (now defined as Orwellian, now) depiction of the future (past, really) he paints is terrific and addictive.
And everybody knows The Catcher in the Rye.