Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I Had VERY Strong Emotions About

This week's topic for the Broke and Bookish's Top Ten Tuesday is all about books that inspired very strong feelings in us. I love doing the TTTs, but I'm starting to feel like I'm always writing about the same books. I'm always going on about the books that made me laugh or cry or both because those are usually the books I like the best, but I thought I'd take a different tack this week and write about books that made me angry. Not usually angry because they were so bad - just angry because they hit a nerve, or they're so realistic about the people are that I ended up "frustrated" angry, or maybe just angry that authors are using perfectly good books to push an agenda. Anyhow - here's a list of ten books that made me really angry.

1. House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III - I always tell people that this is a book I'd like to throw against the wall, and not because it was bad. Rather this book is my poster child for characters that are so vivid and realistic having a conflict that is so vivid and realistic that it actually makes you angry because you're so frustrated that they can't seem to get around themselves to solve their problem. Kind of like people in real life.

2. A Wolf at the Table by Augusten Burroughs - This book is all about Burroughs' father who is, to put it simply, an emotionally abusive jack@$$. It's so well written that there's no way you don't end up kind of terrified of and totally furious at this father who is so terrible to his own child.

3. The Rest of Her Life by Laura Moriarty - Here's another book that suffers from House of Sand and Fog syndrome. The mothers and daughters and their conflicts and misunderstandings and good intentions gone awry are so well-drawn that you can't help being frustrated that they just can't seem to love each other quite right.

4. The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty - A Laura Moriarty double whammy! The narrator in this book totally struck a chord with me. I related so much, too much even, so that every slight against the narrator made me angry on her behalf. But make no mistake, I loved this book. It was a good kind of angry.

5. The Law of Dreams by Peter Behrens - Okay, I, as a rule, enjoy depressing books. Depressing stories of the unfortunate Irish immigrants are often especially right up my alley. This one made me mad because it was actually too depressing. Even a sad story needs a bright spot or two once in a while.

6. The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman - And here we have the last book of the His Dark Materials series. I loved the first part of the series, but by the time the third book rolled around, I was kind of frustrated that Pullman's anti-religious agenda seemed to overwhelm the great storytelling.

7. No Matter How Loud I Shout by Edward Humes - Want to work up a righteous anger at the way underprivileged juveniles are dealt with by justice system? Read this book!

8. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult - The ending! I mean....jeez!

9. The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine by Alina Bronsky - This book is about pretty much the nuttiest mother ever. If your jaw doesn't drop at just how ludicrous and anger-inspiring she can be, then this book would not be near so great as it is! Weird, huh?

10. The Blue Notebook by James A. Levine - And more righteous anger! Child sex slavery painfully realistically depicted. If you can read this book without getting angry, you should maybe probably be worried about yourself. Just sayin'.

Do you have any books that get you angry?

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