Top Ten Tuesday (8-9-11)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. Each week, they post a different topic and you get to create your own top 10 list! This week, the topic is: 

Top Ten Underrated Books

1) Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand - I might have only read this book a month ago, but I am amazed that this book hasn't gotten more press! Detailing a POW's experience in the Pacific, it was eye opening and made me proud to be an American. Seriously, why aren't more people reading this book?!?

2) Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi - detailing the life of a person with an eating disorder, it opened by eyes to how devastating these diseases are. I never imagined that this was what it was like to live with an eating disorder. I think that this should be required reading for all teenage girls so they realize how hurtful these diseases are.

3) A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith - this was never required reading for me in school, but I wish that it was. There was so much that I took away from this book that I find myself going back to read it every few years or so. It really is a great book that doesn't get enough recognition.

4) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - I read this earlier this year and was outraged that no one had ever MADE me read this book! It was a great story that was so different from anything written at that time (a female character who wasn't depending on a man and didn't want to) and the writing was wonderful.

5) Testimony by Anita Shreve - chroncling a sex scandal that rips through a private prep school in New England, Shreve's writing is superb. Each chapter is told from a different character's point of view so you understand how something like this affects the victim, the accused, the principles, teachers, parents, and other students. A great novel that I read cover-to-cover in just a few hours.

6) any David Sedaris book - if you haven't read a David Sedaris novel, go get one. Right now! One of the most refreshing, honest, and hilarious authors to come along. His insights will have you laughing outloud and taking note of your surroundings a little bit more.

7) First Family: John and Abigail Adams by Joseph Ellis - a great book based on the letters between John and Abigail Adams, from their courtship through the American Revolution and into their later years. It was so interesting to read their thoughts on our country as it was being born and the love that they had for one another. Lots of people haven't heard of this book, but I guarantee that they need to. It's a wonderful way to learn about one of our Founding Fathers.

Well, that's all that I could come up with this week! What are your top 10 underrated books? Let me know!