Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.Each week we will post a new Top Ten list complete with one of our bloggers’ answers. Everyone is welcome to join.  If you can’t come up with ten, don’t worry about it—post as many as you can!

This week is all about mandatory reading.  Remember back when we were all in school and had reading lists, except we didn't populate those lists ourselves.  Did you not read some of those books because they just looked bad?  I know I did.  But there were many that I gave a try and loved. Or do you have a friend, relative, even an frenemy who forces you to read certain books?  I certainly have one of those (love you J!).  Here's my top ten books I was forced to read and ended up loving:

1. The Awakening by Kate Chopin -- My 10th grade English teacher picked my book for my hour-long.  She told me I would love it.  And it ended up being my favorite book to this day.  Speaking of, I really need to make some time to reread this one.
2. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein-- The next five choices were all hoist upon me by J.  He keeps trying to get me to read science fiction.  And surprisingly, more of his selections I really enjoy.  There have been a few that I didn't absolutely love, but they were definitely different.  He's always giving me more and more choices.
3. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
4. Have Spacesuit - Will Travel by Robert Heinlein
5. Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
6. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
7. At the Scent of Water by Linda Nichols-- Required by my friend a few years ago.  She picked this one up at the coffeehouse bookshelf.  I read it and fell in love with the characters.  Such beauty!
8. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot -- Book club selection that I never would have picked up on my own.  This was surprisingly entertaining and heartbreaking.
9. Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer -- Yeah, yeah I know.  But back in 2008, my high school students told me I had to read the series.  I ended up finishing the entire thing in about a week.  Really entertaining at the time.  I don't the movies have lived up to the books at all, but that's normal.
10. The Boys series by Garth Ennis -- Another J recommendation, but in comic book form this time.  This series is not for everyone, it's super violent.  But I love Ennis' discussion of human nature, society, and politics.  Overall, the series seems very timely given the climate in America today.