Top 5 Tuesday- Modern Classics

My book review is late, but at least my Top 5 Tuesday post is on time!! 😛 Shanah aka the Bionic Bookworm hosts this awesome weekly meme, and this week’s Top 5 Topic is “Books I’d Consider Modern Classics!” I had a hard time deciding what “modern” meant, so all my choices have been published after the year 2000. I think this is a great theme to start the month of September!

Let’s get to it!

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#5- Telling Tales by Patience Agbabi

I suppose this collection of poetry is technically a retelling, but when I studied in London, Ms. Agbabi performed a few of her poems for our poetry class, and I fell in love. Agbabi takes Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and essentially makes a rap-like remix. This poetry collection is witty, lyrical, and more than a little foul-mouthed. But it takes all the literary-ness I know words of Canterbury Tales, and makes them so much more fun!

#4- The Road by Cormac McCarthy

This book follows a man and his son through the apocalypse (while the book never specifies what kind, a lot of people assume some sort of nuclear disaster or seismic activity; you can find a list of theories here). Together, these two have to learn what it means to stay human when battling near-death experiences almost every day. This book is full of literary details to analyze, symbolism, and great imagery, all while being an engaging story that is more than a little heart-wrenching.

#3- Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

I felt I should add a children’s book to this list, and I would love for this one to reach classic status. This story follows Minli, a young girl who works hard and believes in the magic of her father’s stories. This belief drives her to seek out the Old Man of the Moon to try to change her family’s fortune. Full of friends, fantasy, and folklore, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon definitely deserves classic status in my book.

#2- Sula by Toni Morrison

Most of Toni Morrison’s novels could probably make it onto this list, but Sula is the only one I’ve read. This book follows two childhood best friends as they choose very different lives and deal with the prejudices they each must face. Normally, I’m not big on character (only)-driven books, but I devoured this one. Morrison (probs obvs) has an amazing writing style, and kept me reading from page one.

#1- White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

I adore this book. It’s delightfully dark, and full of all kinds of little details to make my literary analyst side all kinds of happy. This book tells the story of Miranda Silver, a young woman affected by pica, an eating disorder which makes people want to eat non-edible things. For Miranda, she craves chalk, but it’s been different for all the Silver women, who’ve been affected by this disease for generations. Told from the point of view of her brother, her lover, and her house, this gothic(ish) novel is both haunting and heart-breaking, and I definitely consider it a modern classic (and recommend it very highly).

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That’s it for this week’s Top 5 Tuesday! Thanks for reading, and make sure to check out Shanah’s Top 5 Post!

What about you? Are there any modern books you consider classics? Do you agree, or disagree, with any of my choices? Let me know in the comment below!