Animal Farm, George Orwell
This is the allegorical tale of a farm in which the animals revolt against the cruel farmer and run the farm themselves. It is Orwell's thinly disguised critique of the communist revolution and regime in Russia, and it gets across with simple clarity why their idealistic hope for a better future was doomed to failure.
A Light in the Forest, Conrad Richter
Set in colonial America, this is the story of a teen-aged boy returned to his white family after living with the Indians since he was a small child. He hates it, and more than anything I have read elsewhere, this book makes you understand the lure of the Indian culture.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
Partly a memoir, this story tells of the struggles of Francie and her family in a poor New York neighborhood in the early 20th century. Funny, poignant, and devastating, the book does a wonderful job of bringing alive the time and place, as well as a host of compelling characters.
All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Remarque
This is the first-person narrative, told in the present tense, of a young German soldier in World War I. For anyone who's ever wondered what it's like to fight in a war, this takes you into their world. By the end, you will understand the meaning of the title . . .
For High School kids, these are some of my favorite classics:
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
The famous love story of Miss Bennet and Mr. Darcy - better than any of the movies!
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
Jane grows up an unwanted orphan in 19th century England, but the plot really thickens when she goes to work as a governess in the home of the irascible Mr. Rochester, who has something strange going on in his household.
The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
Full of symbolism and beautifully written, this famous book tells of Hester Prynne, a young woman in a Puritan New England village who is made to wear the A on the front of her dress as a symbol of her shame after she gives birth to a child whose father is not her husband. Who is the father? See how soon you can figure it out.
Middlemarch, George Eliot
Set in a village in 19th century England, this sprawling novel follows three sets of young men and women as they try to figure out life and love. After 800 pages, they're still figuring, with some having more luck than others.
The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
This book, set in 19th century England, begins with a young man selling his wife after he gets drunk at a country fair. (Yes, someone actually "buys" her.) The repercussions of this rather unfortunate event play out over the next 40 years and into the next generation.
David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
This is Dickens at his best - tons of humorous, odd, tragic characters; plots and subplots galore; and David at the center, based on Dickens himself, growing from a small child to a young man who finally discovers both his vocation and the love of his life.
The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
If anyone dares to try to unabridged version - more than 1,000 pages - I'll do it, too. After the almost too-perfect Edmond Dantes is unjustly imprisoned right before the return of Napoleon, he vows revenge - and that revenge is a p-whopper! Nobody escapes the intricate and deadly schemes of the brilliant and cold-blooded Count of Monte Cristo.
Moby Dick, Herman Melville
This is the "whale" book, packed both with symbolism and with information about 19th century American whaling. "Ishmael" unwittingly joins a whaling expedition headed by the obsessed Captain Ahab who is determined to bring down the mighty white whale that deprived him of his leg. As you might guess, the odds are on the whale.
The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
Holden Caulfield is a teen-aged boy in a boarding school in the late 1940s who doesn't like his life or the "phonies" he's surrounded with. The story chronicles his hapless adventures in New York City over a weekend after he goes AWOL from school. You may love Holden, or think he's a jerk, or maybe just a mess, but you won't be indifferent.
The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
This book takes place among the upper classes of New York City in the late 19th century. Newland Archer, a young man who has lived comfortably amid all the rules and restrictions of his society, suddenly finds himself in love with a woman who is completely "inappropriate."
The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James
This book is only for people who don't mind paragraphs that go on for at least a page. Dense and complex, it is the story of an intelligent, adventurous young American woman, Isabel Archer, who gets the chance to travel and live in Europe with an eccentric aunt. Written in the late 19th century, the story follows Isabel as she is pursued by various young men in England and Italy and finally makes what turns out to be a fateful decision.
Another favorite that no one seems to have heard of but is great for girls:
The Greengage Summer, Rumor Godden
An English family of four children spend the summer alone in a French inn after their mother is taken ill. Told by the second child, 13-year-old Hester, the story chronicles their introduction to people and events rather too old for them, particularly the mysterious and volatile Eliot, whose attraction to the older girl, Joss, is both heady and alarming.
All Loves Excelling, Josiah Bunting
A compelling look at what might happen when our desire to be accepted at "good" college collides with the pressures of life. Written by a former boarding school head of school.
Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
Forget the movie! This novel about a man and his desire to seek meaning for his empty life is provocative and thought-provoking in our commercial society.
The Rapture of Canaan, Sheri Reynolds
Set in the south, this novel traces a young woman's struggle to grow up in the shadow of her father, a preacher.
The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
This novel chronicles the struggles of Howard Roarke, an architect, as he attempts to challenge the status quo. Its universal theme of the strength of the individual against the crowd make this 1943 novel timeless.
Nickle and Dimed in America, Barbara Ehrenreich
A nonfiction work, Nickle and Dimed in America takes a true look at what it means to work for (and live on) minimum wage in America.
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky
An attack of nihilism in which we see a mentally troubled student in extreme psychological distress because of a utilitarian murder he committed.
44 Scotland Street series, Alexander McCall Smith
First published in serial form in The Scotsman, these five books are about the lives of a few (fictional) people who inhabit Scotland Street.
His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
A fantasy trilogy retelling and inverting Milton's Paradise Lost.
The Cave, Jose Saramago
A look at how we invent our own reality, to which we are enslaved.
All the Names, Jose Saramago
An examination of the human condition.
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary, Simon Winchester
