Top 4 Books That Make Me Think

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Top Ten Tuesday was an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish, and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Every week we will post our Top Ten of the selected theme.

This week we get to pick a theme from the back catalog. I chose Books that make me think.

This Week’s theme is: Books That Make Me Think

Being an English student has taught me to read critically and with required readings this is especially true. These four books that make me think about larger issues are ones I that I have both read for pleasure and school. They are generally non-fiction and biographies.

The Interesting Narrative
by Olaudah Equiano

As I’ve mentioned in a WWW Wednesday, I had to read this book for Travel Writing in English. It just so happened that I started it very close to the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement currently still going on. I hadn’t previously read any slave narratives or abolitionist writings before this class and Equiano’s tale opened up for me a whole new genre to pursue. This book brought home to me the continued impact of racism.

A Dangerous Woman
by Susan Ronald

I actually listened to this as an audiobook and it’s a biography about Florence Gould. She was a rather interesting woman, accused of being a Nazi sympathizer during the Second World War. Yet after the war she was able to escape prosecution. This is an interesting exploration of class and the art crimes of the Nazi’s. It made me interested in learning more about the art crimes that the Nazi’s were involved in and also France during the war.

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Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter
by Kate Clifford Larson

A biography, that tells the story of Rosemary Kennedy. Rosemary was born intellectually disabled. And her family kept her out of the public eye . It shows an interesting aspect of the history of treating mental and intellectual disorders. And really made me interested in learning more about: the black sheep of family dynasties and mental illness.

Shakespeare
by Bill Bryson

This is yet another biography but this one is slightly different. Bill Bryson, examines, what was previously written about Shakespeare and exposes the holes in the official story. It’s almost more a book about the biographies of Shakespeare, then about Shakespeare himself. I really recommend this book to get a good overview of Shakespeare’s life and works. This book made me think about how we interpret history and even how myths become accepted facts.

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What are some books that make you think?