High School Book List
** These books are recommended for high school students only
100 Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1410L)
1776, David McCullough (1300L)
1984, George Orwell (1090L)
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ishmael Beah (920L)
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hossennii (830L)
A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson (1210L)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie (600L)
The Adventures of Huck Finn, Mark Twain (980L)
The Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock, Arthur Doyle (NC1070L)
Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll (890L)
All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot (990L)
All Quiet on the Western Front , Erich Maria Remarque (830L)
Revised 6/29/20
All Souls: A Family Story from Southie, Michael Patrick McDonald
All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy (940L)
And the Mountains Echoed, Khaled Hosseini
And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie (570L)
Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt (1110L)
Animal Farm, George Orwell (1170L)
Anthem, Ayn Rand (880L)
Antigone, Sophocles (1090L)
Arcadia, Tom Stoppard Around the World in Eighty Days, Jules Verne (1080L)
As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner (870L)
Athletic Shorts, Chris Crutcher (1010L)
Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand (1070L)
Autobiography of a Face, Lucy Grealy (1200L)
Bad, Jean Ferris (730L)
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller
Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates (1090L)
Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World, Dalai Lama
Billy Budd, Herman Melville (1450L)
Black Hawk Down, Mark Bowden (970L)
Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya (840L)
Blood Done Sign My Name, Timothy Tyson (1240L) Revised 6/29/20
The Book, M. Clifford
The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World, Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu and Douglas Abrams
The Book Thief, Markus Zusak (730L)
Booknotes: Stories from American History, Brian Lamb (1060L)
Born of a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant, Daniel Tammet (1170L)
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley (870L)
Cadillac Desert, Marc Reisner
Candide, Francois Voltaire (1110L)
Canterbury Tales, Geoffry Chaucer (NP)
Catch 22, Joseph Heller (1140L)
The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger (790L)
Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins (820L)
Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (790L)
Children of Men, P. D. James
The Chocolate War, Robert Cormier (820L)
The Chosen, Chaim Potok (970L)
Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two, Joseph Bruchac (910L)
Collapse, Jared Diamond The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribure to His White Mother, James McBride (1240L) Revised 6/29/20
The Contender, Robert Lipsyte (760L)
Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander Dumas (930L)
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky (990L)
The Crucible, Arthur Miller (1320L)
Cry the Beloved Country, Alan Paton (860L)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Mark Haddon (1180L)
Dandelion Wine, Ray Bradbury (880L)
David Copperfield, Charles Dickens (1070L)
A Day No Pigs Would Die, Robert Newton Peck (690L)
A Deadly Wandering, Matt Richtel
Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller (NP)
Deathwatch, Robb White (990L)
Developing the Leader Within You, John C. Maxwell
Devil’s Highway, Luis Alberto
The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson (1170L)
The Diary of Anne Frank, Anne Frank (1080L)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen (NP)
Don’t You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey, Margaret Peterson Haddix (980L)
Driver’s Ed, Caroline B. Cooney (670L)
East of Eden, John Steinbeck (700L)
Revised 6/29/20
Empire Falls, Richard Russo
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card (780L)
Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton (1200L)
Ethics for the New Millennium, the Dalai Lama
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury (890L)
Fallen Angels, Walter Dean Myers (650L)
Falling Leaves, Adeline Yen Mah (950L)
A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway (730L)
Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne Houston (1040L)
FEED, M.T. Anderson (770L)
Finding my Hat, John Son (840L)
The First Part Last, Angela Johnson (790L)
First They Killed My Father, Loung Ung (920L)
Flatland A Romance of Many Dimensions, Edwin Abbott Abbott (1280L)
Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes (910L)
Founding Fathers: Brief Lives of the United States Constitution, M.E. Bradford (AP Government Book)
The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand (780L)
Frankenstein. Mary Shelley (1170L)
Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Free the Children, Craig Kielburger and Kevin Major
Revised 6/29/20
The Freedom Writer’s Diary (900L)
Friday Night Lights, H. G. Bissinger (1260L)
A Garden of Marvels: How We Discovered that Flowers Have Sex, Leaves Eat Air, and Other Secrets of Plants, Ruth Kassinger
Generation Me, Jean Twenge
Get Well Soon, Julie Halpern (850L)
The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson
Gilgamesh, Unknown
The Girl with Seven Names, Hyeonseo Lee
Give a Boy a Gun, Todd Strasser (760L)
The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls (1010L)
Go Ask Alice, Anonymous (1010L)
The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck (1530L)
The Gospel According to Larry, Janet Tashjian (800L)
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck (680L)
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens (1230L)
Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald (1070L)
Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
Half-Broke Horses, Jeanette Walls
Hamlet, William Shakespeare (1390L)
Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (750L) Grade 10-12
The Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad (1 of 2) (1050L) Revised 6/29/20
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad (2 of 2) (1050L)
The Help, Kathryn Stockett (730L)
The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom (900L)
Hiroshima, John Hersey (1190L)
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkein (1000L)
The House of the Scorpion, Nancy Farmer (660L)
The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (870L)
How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster
The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins (810L)
I am Malala, Malala Yousafzai (830L)
I am the Cheese , Robert Cormier (810L)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou (1070L)
Idylls of the King, Alfred Tennyson (1260L)
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot (1140L)
Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde (NP)
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote (1040L) (for 11th-12th Grade Only)
In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez (910L)
The Inferno, Dante Alighieri
Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer (1270L)
Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1320L)
Revised 6/29/20
In Our Time, Ernest Hemingway
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison (950L)
Ishmael, Daniel Quinn
Jake, Reinvented, Gordon Korman (800L)
Jayne Eyre, Charlotte Bronte (780L)
Jesse, Gary Soto (900L)
Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (930L)
Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare (NP)
The Jungle, Upton Sinclair (1170L)
Junkyard Planet, Adam Minter
Kaffir Boy, Mark Mathabane (1040L)
Keeping Faith, Jodi Picoult (780L)
Killer Angels, Michael Shaara (610L)
Killing Mr. Griffin, Lois Duncan (720L)
King Lear, William Shakespeare (NP)
King Solomon’s Mines, H. Rider Haggard (1230L)
Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (840L)
Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver
Larry and the Meaning of Life, Janet Tashjian (760L)
Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv The Last Days of Summer, Steve Kluger (900L)
The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch Revised 6/29/20
The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Nathaniel Philbrick
Life in the Fat Lane, Cherier Bennett (640L)
Life of Pi, Yann Martel (830L)
Lone Survivor, Marcus Lutrell
Lord of the Flies, William Golding (770L)
Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkein
Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story, Douglas Preston
Love that Dog, Sharon Creech (1010L)
Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (890L) (for 10th-12th grade only)
Macbeth, William Shakespeare (NP)
Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert (1030L)
The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammet (760L)
The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbruy (740L)
Man Who Was Poe, Avi (600L)
The Martian, Andy Weir (680L)
Medea, Euripides (1000L)
Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden (1000L)
Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare (1380L)
The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka (670L)
Mexican White Boy, Matt de la Pena (680L)
Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie (1120L) Revised 6/29/20
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare (NP)
Milkweed, Jerry Spinelli (510L)
Mocking Jay, Suzanne Collins
Monster, Walter Dean Myers (670L)
The Mosquito Coast, Paul Theroux (720L)
The Motorcycle Diaries, Ernesto Guevara
My Brother Sam is Dead, Christopher Collier (770L)
My Forbidden Face, Latifa (970L)
My Sister’s Keeper, Jodi Picoult (840L)
Narrative of the Life of FD, Frederick Douglas (1080L)
Native Son, Richard Wright (700L)
Never Eat Alone, Keith Ferrazzi
Night, Elie Wiesel (590L) Grade 11-12
A Night to Remember, Walter Lord (950L)
Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult (890L)
No Fear Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet, SparkNotes Editors
The Odyssey, Homer (1050L)
Oedipus Rex, Sophocles (620L)
Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck (630L)
The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway (1370L)
On Target, Laura Rowley
Revised 6/29/20
The Once and Future King, TH White (1080L)
Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored, Clifton L. Taulbert
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey (1110L)
Othello, William Shakespeare (NP)
The Other Wes Moore, by Wes Moore (990L)
Our Town, Thornton Wilder (NP)
Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
Parrot in the Oven, Victor Martinez (1000L)
The Pearl, John Steinbeck (1010L)
Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde (920L)
The Pigman, Paul Zindel (950L)
The Plague, Albert Camus (1070L)
Poe: Tales of Mystery and Terror, Edgar Allen Poe (1310L)
Point Blank, Anthony Horowitz (610L)
The Power of One, Bryce Courtenay (940L)
Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1050L)
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (1100L)
The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli (1450L)
The Princess Bride, William Goldman (870L)
Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw (NP)
The Quiet American, Graham Greene (800L)
Revised 6/29/20
The Rag and Bone Shop, Robert Cormier (730L)
A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry (NP)
Rats Saw God, Rob Thomas (970L)
Ready Player One, Ernest Cline (990L)
Redcoats and Rebels, Christopher Hibert
Right Behind You, Gail Giles (590L)
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (670L)
The Road to Character, David Brooks
Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Dafoe
Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare (GN – 530)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard (NP)
Rumble Fish, S.E. Hinton (680L)
Sapiens: A Brief History Of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari
Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne (1420L)
Scorpions, Walter Dean Myers (610L)
Seabiscuit: An American Legend, Laura Hillenbrand (990L)
The Seamstress: A Memoir of Survival, Sara Tuval Bernstein, Marlene Bernstein Samuels
Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd (840L)
A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson (1190L)
Siddhartha, Herman Hesse (1010L)
Silent Spring, Rachel Carson (1340L) Revised 6/29/20
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Anonymous (890L)
Slaughterhouse 5, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (850L)
The Social Animal, David Brooks Sold, Patricia McCormick (820L)
The Spanish Tragedy, Thomas Kyd
Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson (680L)
Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein (1020L)
Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, Simon Sinek
The Story of the Human Body, Daniel Lieberman
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson (1040L)
The Stranger, Albert Camus (880L)
Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein (940L)
The Street, Ann Petry
A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
Stuck in Neutral, Terry Trueman (820L)
Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior, L. Mlodinow
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway (1420L) Sunrise over Fallujah, Walter Dean Myers (780L)
Survival of the Sickest, Dr. Sharon Moalem
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens (990L)
Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare (1340L)
Revised 6/29/20
Tattoos on the Heart, Gregory Boyle
The Tempest, William Shakespeare (1290L)
Tess of D’Ubervilles, Thomas Hardy (1160L)
That Was Then, This Is Now, S. E. Hinton (780L)
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston (1080L)
These is My Words, Nancy Turner (1110L)
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe (890L)
Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien (880L)
This I Believe, Jay Allison and Dan Gediman
Through A Dog’s Eyes, Jennifer Arnold
Through the Looking-Glass, Lewis Carroll
Time Machine, H.G. Wells (860L)
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Malcolm Gladwell (1160L)
The Tortilla Curtain, T.C. Boyle (1210L)
To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee (870L)
Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain (830L)
Touching Spirit Bear, Ben Mikaelsen (670L)
Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson (1070L)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith (810L)
Twelfth Night, Shakespeare Twisted, Laurie Halse Anderson (680L)
Revised 6/29/20
The Two Gentlemen of Verona, William Shakespeare (NC1080L)
Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand (850L)
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe (1050L)
Utopia, Sir Thomas More (1370L)
Vote For Larry, Janet Tashjian (810L)
Walden, Henry David Thoreau (1420L)
The Walmart Effect, Charles Fishman
The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells (1170L)
Warrior of the Light: A Manual, Paulo Coelho
Watership Down, Richard Adams (880L)
What Happened to Cass McBride, Gail Giles (520L)
When the Legends Die, Hal Borland (850L)
Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The World Until Yesterday, Jared Diamond
Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins (920L)
You Are Not Special… And Other Encouragements, David McCullough Jr.
You Don’t Know Me, David Klass (970L)
Zlata’s Diary, Zlata Filipovic (640L)
NP (Non-Prose) – Any book containing more then half non-standard prose. Lexile is based on prose analysis.
Revised 6/29/20