[Error: unknown template qotd]Best books'Les Miserables' by Victor Hugo. It's melodramatic, yes, but so incredibly moving. An unforgettable story of redemption of a criminal who tries to evade a police officer. A story that tells how the very outcasts of society struggle to survive. Basically tells how if we want to reduce crime, we must eliminate to conditions that lead to people committing crime (poverty, ignorance). Hugo had revolutionary ideas (and was lighyears ahead of his peers) for a person of his time.
'Looking for Alibrandi' by Melina Marchetta. A bildungsroman novel on an illegitimate born teen who comes to accept her Italian heritage. She deals with first love, death and finally meeting her father for the first time.
A tie between 'First Test' and 'Page' by Tamora Pierce. These first two books are part of a Fantasy quartet about Kel, the first girl to train as a knight in the European medieval world of Tortall. Simply written and for young teens, but told so well. The first book deals with hazing and bullying, and how to deal with bullies. The second one covers violence against women, self defense, bullying. These books have their flaws (Kel overcomes her fear of heights too quickly), but I love them all the same.
Worst booksLeft Behind books, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B Jenkins. Read hilarious and insightful summaries by slacktivist (Fred Clark, a liberal Christian) here:
http://exharpazo.blogspot.com/2007/01/index-to-slactivists-left-behind.htmlAwful far right wing Christian propaganda. Sexist, racist, homophobic, prejudiced against other religions, with flat characters, awful Gary Stus who are more hateful than the villain...Fred Clark describes these books as having anti-Christian values, and I couldn't agree more.
( Read more... )There was someone who came up with the great quote that bad morals make for bad writing(I think it was baeraad) . All in all, I can only agree.