Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Think All Teens Should Read

This fabulous meme is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish, and this week it's books we think all teens must read. Awesome topic!

So, in no particular order...

1.) Pride & Prejudice — I think I first read this one when I was about 12, and I've re-read it plenty of times since! You can't go wrong with Austen and P&P is probably the best one to start with.

2.) The Harry Potter series — this is pretty much a no-brainer. (And yes, I'm cheating and including the entire series here :P)

3.) A Tamora Pierce book — it doesn't really matter which one (although I am partial to the Song of the Lioness and the Immortals series), but for solid YA fantasy Tamora Pierce is a must.

4.) Something by Shakespeare — I read Romeo & Juliet in Grade 8 and went on to study Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest later in high school. Reason to read? Shakespeare is awesome. Why wouldn't you want to?

5.) Jane Eyre — I read this one when I was around 12 as well. How better to start off an appreciation of Gothic novels than with the best one out there?

6.) Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes —It's a classic for a reason, and a great example of how writing style can be so effective in telling a story.

7.) The Giver by Lois Lowry — I saw this on another list and I have to agree! The Giver is a fabulous introduction to dystopian fiction, and frankly still one of the best dystopian YA reads out there (despite this recent influx in the genre).

8.) Animal Farm by George Orwell — okay, George Orwell's books are not fun and this one quite disturbed me, to tell the truth (partly because I read it when I was pretty young, probably before I was really ready for it). But, I do think it touches on a lot of really important themes and it's a book that will stick with you.

9.) The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. I studied this play in high school and actually quite liked it. It's beautiful, thoughtful, and sad.

10.) Mrs. Mike by Benedict and Nancy Freedman — I remember being in my mid-teens and asking my mom for books to read from my parents' shelves (my parents' and sister's bookcases always seemed far more alluring than my own...grass is greener and all that). She pulled Mrs. Mike out and gave it to me, saying something like, "I think you're old enough to appreciate this one." It's part old-fashioned love story, part adventure in the Great Canadian North. You'd better have tissues at hand when you read it, though.

I'm sure there are way more I could add, but I'll stop at ten. Looking at the list, a surprising number of these are adult books. Anyway, what books are on your list?