Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Book Club Picks

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.

Okay, before I start this, I should point out I've never actually been part of a book club so have only vague ideas about what kind of books are suitable. But why let that get in the way of a good top 10 Tuesday?!

1. Koh-Tabu by Ann Kelley - Hugely thought-provoking. I believe it's nearly two years since I read it and I STILL wonder about whether one decision of Bonnie's was right. This is an underrated gem.

2. The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins - I have a feeling a lot of people will say this one, but it's hard not to. Intense, gripping, and asking some massive questions about moral choices.

3. Dreaming of Amelia (published as Ghosts of Ashbury High in the US) by Jaclyn Moriarty - I find Moriarty's 'scrapbook' style of throwing in all kinds of different writing - exam answers, journals, poetry, and goodness knows what else - to be phenomenal, and would love to discuss her crazy inventiveness with people.

4. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher - Hard-hitting and thought-provoking, this tale of reasons why a girl committed suicide would definitely get debate going.

5. The Boy Who Would Be Shakespeare by Doug Stewart - This is non-fiction, and not technically YA, but it's a wonderful coming of age tale featuring forgery, the great and good of Georgian London, and a son looking for his father's love. Massive potential for discussion here.

6/7. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee AND The Caster Chronicles by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl - Putting these together because they're my favourite novels of the South, and because the Chronicles pay homage to TKAM in so many ways - not least of which is Macon's dog Boo Radley. Lee's masterpiece is one lots of people will already have discussed at school but is worth returning to, as it's one of the greatest books ever written in my opinion, while Stohl and Garcia's fantasy sequence is a stunning series which tackles similar themes of bigotry and the hidden depths people can have.

8. The Moorehawke Trilogy by Celine Kiernan - Utterly enthralling high fantasy with richly layered characters and tons of questions. A far cry from 'standard' good vs evil, this is political intrigue and moral dilemmas all the way.

9. Lottie Biggs series by Hayley Long - Mainly the first one, Lottie Biggs Is (Not) Mad, which is an incredible depiction of a narrator suffering from mental health issues.

10. Hey Dollface by Deborah Hautzig - Tender exploration of the feelings two teenage girls have for each other may be a little dated now but is still a wonderful read, and would provoke some interesting discussion on how this was considered somewhat shocking at the time of publication but seems rather tame now.