Author’s Note: My little sister is embarking on an adolescent riot of passage this fall—high school. There are only two things I can think to bestow on her that will be of any substantive value for her social and educational enlightenment—a can of mace and The List.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy
Crime and Punishment by Fydor Dystovesky
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Once and Future King by T.H. White
The Jungle by Sinclair Lewis
The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Old School by Tobias Wolf
Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas
The Trilogy—Night, Dawn, Accident by Elie Wiesel
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
A River Runs Through It by Norman MacLean
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stephenson
Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Marquez
Last of the Mohicans by James Fennimore Cooper
Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
The Prince by Machiavelli
The Plague by Albert Camus
Return of the Soldiers by Rebecca West
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Metamorphis by Franz Kafka
The Rector of Justin by Louis Auchincloss
*Yes, I know, I left out a world of geniuses. “Write to your audience,” and believe me, my little sister is not ready for Kerouac, Vonnegut, Rilke and such. They will be included on the college list posted next week. Let me know what suggestions you have.
Other Book Lists
Great American Novels
Junior High Reading List
College Reading List
Modern Reading List
Just Read for Heaven’s Sake List
2 responses so far ↓
1 avocadoinparadise // Aug 28, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Hi there! I fondly remember the reading list I got in high school. In fact, I still have it in my file cabinet. I need to pull it out and see how much progress I’ve made.
One book I’d add to your list here is Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. We loved it in high school! We got to choose our own novels to read from a bookshelf at the back of the room, and every girl in the class took turns reading this one.
2 Juliet Marinelli // Oct 5, 2008 at 10:46 am
You’ve attributed Pride and Prejudice to EM Forster, rather than Jane Austen.
Leave a Comment