T5W: Books that made me think

1. Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman  - this book is about racism and tackles it in the unique way of having black people be the privileged race and white people are oppressed. This is a trilogy (and a companion novel) and while all four books made me think about different things this first book made me think the most. One of the things it made me think about was actually terrorism as there is a terrorist group/group of freedom fighters in this series  that are fighting for equality but with really messed up methods. The hatred that grows inside Callum (a white boy) towards the black-ran world, despite his best friend (Sephie) being black, and Sephie's unintentional ignorance towards the problems he faces were really thought provoking.
2. The Ask and The Answer by Patrick Ness  - this is another trilogy but this is the second book. While all the books dealt with thought provoking topics this one in particular made me think about what motivates people to do bad things. There are really horrendous acts carried out by the main character but he is in no way a bad person he is just confused and hurt and doesn't have all the information he needs to see what he is doing is wrong. It also shows that he is doing these things out of a need to survive and not because he wants to. His journey also gives a second look and some of the "bad guys" from the first book and you see that while some of them are even worse than they appeared from afar some are still good people who just have been raised to not see an issue with their actions. The last few chapters of this book I have read again and again and again.
3. Nothing by Janne Teller   - this book seriously messed with my mind. It takes an existential look at humanity and what the point of living is when we are inevitably going to die. The fact that it does this through such young characters adds another layer to the story as they slowly have their innocence stripped away as they struggle to find meaning in their lives. 
4. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach  - I find it hard to explain what this book did to me but it made me think on so many smaller topics. It is a very character driven story and one example is Chapter 6 which I read three times before moving on to the next chapter - a new character is introduced and so it is unrelated to the previous chapters but it just made me think about passion and what I truly care about and that if you follow your passions you will live a happy life. The way Guert described his love for Moby Dick has really stuck with me. It also was about learning to have self worth that isn't purely dependant on your performance in one field. It made me question the way I look at myself. I think was really incoherent but I don't even know how to articulate all the ways this book changed me.
5. The Bot in Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne   - This book is about the Holocaust and is set at a concentration camp but the main character is the child of the man who runs it. He befriends one of the boys in the concentration camp and they talk often from either side of the fence. Because it was told through a child's eyes it was really innocent and when horrors were being talked about the character didn't understand what was being referred to but the reader knew. It was also interesting because the boy was not morally against the concentration camp as it was just a part of his life (even if he wasn't entirely aware of everything that went on inside the fence). I read this book when I was very young and I am sure I will get even more out of it when I get around to rereading it but I still think about it often 10 years later.

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