Top 10 Fantasy Books for Book Club Picks (TTT #11)

"Top Ten Tuesday" is a weekly book blogger meme hosted by

The Broke and the Bookish!    

This week's list topic is...

 

TOP 10 FANTASY BOOKS FOR BOOK CLUB PICKS

• Sorry, this time I could only come up with 9 books.
• These are all just MY opinion. So many others would quality for sure...
   

1. The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins

I've always thought this series would be great for a book club discussion. It probably already has been discussed many times, but I never participate in book clubs, so I wouldn't know. I love all the political themes as they are definitely important for our day and age.

2. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

It's so well-written and bound to be a timeless classic, how could it not make a great book club pick? I loved the first book for its narrative voice and classical author influence, besides the great storytelling.

3. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

This classic definitely gets classroom discussion already, so of course there is much to discuss in a book club. Themes like man's relationship with God, the ethics of science, man's responsibility to his own invented abominations, etc. etc. 

4. (and by extension) This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel

This prequel takes on pretty much the same themes as the original, but stars a more responsible Victor Frankenstein. He trades in his avoidance of personal accountability for a growing obsession with playing God. That is a weighty theme in and of itself. 

5. Iron Druid Chronicles series by Kevin Hearne

There are a lot of social and religious issues within each of these books, and people have already had a field day with them. It's easy to pick up on a lot of its intense themes and discuss them at length, even though one would hardly imagine these books could contain anything but pure fun. A nice perk...

6. The Infernal Devices trilogy by Cassandra Clare

I think because these books are historical, they naturally lend themselves to gender role discussion and the topic of old fashioned misogyny. Since the main character is a marriageable 16-year-old female, we modern day folks have to tolerate the disparity between how much freedom women have earned during the 20^th century, and how very much further they had to go during the late Victorian era. 

7. Vampire Empire trilogy by Clay & Susan Griffith

Issues of prejudice play out in full force in this series as humans and vampires struggle with each other over dominance of the world's land masses. Main character Adele grows up with all sorts of prejudices against vampires, and learns through a close relationship with one that they are not all the beastly blood suckers she heard about. She grows as a character as she overcomes her preconceived notions.

  

8. Death Note manga series by Tsugumi Ohba

I've also always thought this Japanese manga series would make a fabulous book club, if not classroom, discussion pick for its obvious MacBethan themes. Light Yagami is the poster child for psychopathic serial killers being the absolute LAST people you'd ever imagine. It's truly frightening, and for those who love to discuss such a character would have more than a little fodder to work with.

 9. Bleach manga series by Tite Kubo

Another Japanese manga series that has surprising depth to it once you get past the first arc or two (which takes a while). Contained within are themes of man's struggle with the self and his devilish impulses, the dual nature of man, the bad inherent in all good people and societies, and man's struggle to contain his baser instincts for battle and destruction. Who knew all that was in Bleach? (It's LONG. That's why...)

These are my kind of fantasy book club discussion picks. What are yours?