Books you enjoyed in high school?

[charlatti]

What do you remember reading in high school that you enjoyed?



I am looking for books for our department to consider. Needs to be fairly challenging. Looking for non-white authors and women authors. We also, unfortunately, have to be careful to avoid ruffling feathers with anything too controversial. 

[abs]

To Kill a Mockingbird
Of Mice and Men
The Color Purple
Lonesome Dove
The Great Gatsby

I hated Charles Dickens, Shakespeare, The Scarlett Letter, and Lord of the Flies

ETA: I know most of these are white men. I wasn’t exposed to much else until college. I remember liking The Awakening.

[meowmaps]

+1 to The Awakening!

I read The Count of Monte Cristo in 8th grade but loved it and think it’s perfectly appropriate for high school too.

Animal Farm
Turn of the Screw
Ethan Frome
The French Lieutenant’s Wife (don’t remember the details but remember liking the book)

I’m drawing a blank on others I liked right now. Others that I didn’t like keep popping up in my head.

Ditto To Kill A Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men

[dearprudence]

I fell in love with Austen in high school - we read Pride and Prejudice.

Autobiography of Malcolm X

Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey

Kindred - Octavia Butler

[tacokick]

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison were my two favorite books from school if we are going for classics.

Other suggestions:

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini


I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez


You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

[abs]

If you can do The Hate You Give that is a wonderful contemporary book.

It would not be allowed here though.

[sakoro]

I appreciated Native Son by Richard Wright during my junior year of high school. It opened my eyes to problematic white savior do-gooders.

[estrellita]

Life of Pi (so much better than the movie IMO)
The Giver (also better than the movie, but maybe more middle school?)

Ones I've read more recently that could work:
The Kite Runner MAYBE but there are definitely some difficult scenes
Fountains of Silence

[mrspez07]

For class I remember:
Mila 18 by Leon Uris
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Agatha Christie
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

For fun:
Danielle Steele, Mary Higgins Clark ;-)

[sporklemotion]

Raisin in the Sun and Fences are both good. My school teaches both— we’re a relatively conservative district in a blue state; we tend to shy away from very controversial picks but have tried to open up the curriculum.
It’s long and probably dated, but I liked The Joy Luck Club.
I’ve wanted to teach All American Boys, but it will likely not fly if your district is more cautious.