July 27, 2016

Motivating Books

Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is "Top ten things books have made me want to do or learn more about". I'm not sure I can find 10, but I will try.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo. - This made me want to know more about what India is like today. Especially for those at the bottom of the social ladder.

Read or Die by Hideyuki Kurata - This was my first manga book. It had a protagonist I could really relate to: she is a paper warrior. She loves books and paper does her bidding. This lead me to Read or Dream by the same author about a trio of sisters who are also paper warriors. These are still my favorite manga sets.

A Good Hard Look by Ann Napolitano - I read this book for book club and it inspired to learn more about Flannery O'Connor. She is such an interesting person.

Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff - Reading about Detroit is like looking at a train wreck. It is both fascinating and horrifying and terrifying. This book inspired me to add more books about Detroit to my list, such as Detroit: a Biography by Charlie LeDuff.

Katrina: After the Flood by Gary Rivlin - Reading this book led me to read Five Days at Memorial, also about Hurricane Katrina, and add the novel Salvage the Bones by Jessmyn Ward to my list.

The Reading Group Handbook by Rachel W. Jacobsohn - I read this before launching my own reading group 13 years ago. Very helpful in organizing my group the way I wanted it to go.

Storm Warning by Nancy Mathis - I'm not actually sure if this is the first tornado book I read, but I can't find the other one I remember reading. I got all into reading about tornadoes for some crazy reason. It's really not recommended in Oklahoma. It's like reading a horror book when you're alone in the house.

The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin - This book led me on a spree of reading about the time when all the American Heiresses were marrying British noblemen. The Brits got money to boost their estates and the heiresses got a title.

Rumspringa by Tom Shachtman - This book kicked off a decade long (so far) obsession with reading about strange religious groups. This one is about the Amish, but I've also read a few about the FLDS and Scientology.

New Jack: Guarding Sing Sing by Ted Conover - After reading this one, I got interested in reading about prison and gang culture. The two are, unsurprisingly, closely related. I am definitely not done with this trend, as I have a prison fiction book on my list for this year.

So hey! I did find 10 books that led me to research or do more stuff. I had no idea. I forgot about all those things. This was a cool topic!