New York State Recommended Reading List for High School Students
Note: this is not meant to be an all inclusive or exclusive list, it is simply some often read and recommended titles.
Fiction and Nonfiction
Title --------------------------------------------------------Author
Things Fall Apart ....................................................................................Achebe, Chinua
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings..........................................................Angelou, Maya
Days of Grace...........................................................................................Ashe, Arthur
Pride and Prejudice..................................................................................Austen, Jane
Growing Up.............................................................................................Baker, Russell
Forbidden City .........................................................................................Bell, William
Wuthering Heights ..................................................................................Bronte, Charlotte
My Antonia .............................................................................................Cather, Willa
Shogun .....................................................................................................Clavell, James
Heart of Darkness ....................................................................................Conrad, Joseph
Prince of Tides..........................................................................................Conroy, Pat
After the First Death................................................................................Cormier, Robert
Maggie: Girl of the Streets.......................................................................Crane, Stephen
he Red Badge of Courage .......................................................................Crane, Stephen
Tale of Two Cities .....................................................................................Dickens, Charles
Crime and Punishment............................................................................Dostoyevsky, Fyodor
The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass...............................................Douglass, Frederick
Silas Marner ............................................................................................Elliott, George
The Invisible Man....................................................................................Ellison, Ralph
The Portable Emerson..............................................................................Emerson, Ralph Waldo
As I Lay Dying ........................................................................................Faulkner, William
The Great Gatsby .....................................................................................Fitzgerald, F. Scott
Lord of the Flies........................................................................................Golding, William
Waiting for the Rain ................................................................................Gordon, Sheila
Black Like Me...........................................................................................Griffin, John Howard
Roots ........................................................................................................Haley, Alex
ARaisin in the Sun .................................................................................Hansberry, Lorraine
Tess of the D'Urbervilles..........................................................................Hardy, Thomas
The Scarlet Letter.....................................................................................Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Pentimento...............................................................................................Hellman, Lillian
A Farewell to Arms..................................................................................Hemingway, Ernest
The Snows of Kilimanjaro........................................................................Hemingway, Ernest
Lés Miserables..........................................................................................Hugo, Victor
Dust Tracks on a Road.............................................................................Hurston, Zora Neale
Their Eyes Were Watching God...............................................................Hurston, Zora Neale
A Time to Speak .......................................................................................Jackson, Jesse
The Lottery...............................................................................................Jackson, Shirley
APortrait of the Artist As a Young Man ................................................Joyce, James
Profiles in Courage ..................................................................................Kennedy, John F.
Ironweed...................................................................................................Kennedy, William
Stride Toward Freedom ............................................................................King, Martin Luther
ASeparate Peace ......................................................................................Knowles, John
Dark Child ...............................................................................................Laye, Camara
To Kill a Mockingbird..............................................................................Lee, Harper
Call of the Wild ........................................................................................London, Jack
Ninety-Five Theses ..................................................................................Luther, Martin
The Prince ................................................................................................Machiavelli, Niccolo
ADeath in Venice ...........................................Mann, Thomas Grades 9 – 12 16 Grades 9 – 12
Nicholas and Alexandra...........................................................................Massie, Robert
Color of Water..........................................................................................McBride, James
All the Pretty Horses ...............................................................................McCarthy, Cormac
Moby Dick ...............................................................................................Melville, Herman
Blue Highways.......................................................................Moon, William Least Heat
Song of Solomon ......................................................................................Morrison, Toni
Beloved .....................................................................................................Morrison, Toni
The Power of Myth ..................................................................................Moyers, Bill 1
984..........................................................................................................Orwell, George
Cry the Beloved Country .........................................................................Paton, Alan
ADay No Pigs Would Die ......................................................................Peck, Robert Newton
All Quiet on the Western Front...............................................................Remarque, Erich Maria
My Day....................................................................................................Roosevelt, Eleanor
Catcher in the Rye....................................................................................Salinger, J. D.
ATree Grows in Brooklyn........................................................................Smith, Betty
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch.................................................Solzhenitsyn, Alexandr
Of Mice and Men.....................................................................................Steinbeck, John
Grapes of Wrath.......................................................................................Steinbeck, John
The Joy Luck Club....................................................................................Tan, Amy
Hard Times...............................................................................................Terkel, Studs
Walden.....................................................................................................Thoreau, Henry David
The Guns of August.................................................................................Tuchman, Barbara W.
Fathers and Sons......................................................................................Turgenev, Ivan Sergeyevich
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ......................................................Twain, Mark
Rabbit, Run..............................................................................................Updike, John
Exodus......................................................................................................Uris, Leon
Slaughterhouse Five.................................................................................Vonnegut, Kurt
The Color Purple......................................................................................Walker, Alice
Black Boy..................................................................................................Wright, Richard
Briar Rose.................................................................................................Yolen, Jane
We ............................................................................................................Zarnation, Eugene
Folklore
Aesop's Fables ..........................................................................................Aesop
Andersen's Fairy Tales.............................................................................Andersen, Hans Christian
Johnny Appleseed.....................................................................................Benet, Rosemary
Trickster Stories .......................................................................................Edmonds, I. G.
Greek Mythology .....................................................................................Hamilton, Edith
Mules and Men........................................................................................Hurston, Zora Neale
Tales of King Arthur................................................................................Malory, Sir Thomas
Paul Bunyan ............................................................................................Sandburg, Carl
Fantasy and Science Fiction
Watership Down......................................................................................Adams, Richard
The Handmaid's Tale................................................................................Atwood, Margaret
I. Robot ....................................................................................................Azimov, Isaac
The Illustrated Man.................................................................................Bradbury, Ray
Jurassic Park ............................................................................................Crichton, Michael
The Princess Bride ...................................................................................Goldman, William
17 Stranger in a Strange Land .....................................................................Heinlein, Robert A.
Brave New World ....................................................................................Huxley, Aldous 1
984...................................................................................................................Orwell, George
AConnecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.....................................................Twain, Mark
Sirens of the Titan.................................................................................................Vonnegut, Kurt
The Time Machine ....................................................................................................Wells, H.G.
Poetry
And Still I Rise ........................................................................................Angelou, Maya
Collected Poems .......................................................................................Auden, W. Hugh
Cry ................................................................................................Baca, Jimmy Santiago
Tiger, Tiger...............................................................................................Blake, William
Thanatopsis..............................................................................................Bryant, William C.
The Canterbury Tales...............................................................................Chaucer, Geoffrey
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson................................................Dickinson, Emily
Collected Poems .......................................................................................Eliot, Thomas S.
Endless Life ....................................................................................Ferlinghetti, Lawrence
The Poetry of Robert Frost.................................................................................Frost, Robert
My House.................................................................................................Giovanni, Nikki
Selected Poems of Langston Hughes........................................................Hughes, Langston
The Iliad ..................................................................................................................Homer
The Odyssey...............................................................................................................Homer
Poetical Works ..........................................................................................................Keats, John
Spoon River Anthology............................................................................Masters, Edgar Lee
Poems of Pablo Neruda (bilingual)...............................................................................Neruda, Pablo
The Collected Poems ..............................................................................................Plath, Sylvia
The Raven .....................................................................................................Poe, Edgar Allan
Richard Cory...................................................................................................Robinson, Edwin A
Sonnets.........................................................................................................Shakespeare, William
The Poetical Works ........................................................................................Shelley, Percy Bysshe
Leaves of Grass...............................................................................................Whitman, Walt
Drama
Becket .......................................................................................................Anouilh, Jean
Antigone ..................................................................................................Anoulih, Jean
Waiting for Godot....................................................................................Beckett, Samuel
The Stranger ............................................................................................Camus, Albert
Medea.......................................................................................................Euripides
Julia ..........................................................................................................Hellman, Lillian
A Doll's House .........................................................................................Ibsen, Henry
Inherit the Wind ......................................................................................Lawrence, Jerome
Death of a Salesman.................................................................................Miller, Arthur
The Crucible.............................................................................................Miller, Arthur
Long Day's Journey Into Night...............................................................O'Neill, Eugene
Twelve Angry Men..................................................................................Rose, Reginald
Cyrano de Bergerac..................................................................................Rostand, Edmond
As You Like It...........................................................................................Shakespeare, William
Hamlet......................................................................................................Shakespeare, William
Macbeth......................................................................................................Shakespeare, William
18 Richard II .................................................................................................Shakespeare, William
Romeo and Juliet ......................................................................................Shakespeare, William
Pygmalion................................................................................................Shaw, George Bernard
Oedipus Rex.............................................................................................Sophocles
Tartuffe................................................................................Moliere, Jean Baptiste Poquelin
The Heidi Chronicles ...............................................................................Wasserman, Wendy
A.Streetcar Named Desire .......................................................................Williams, Tennessee
Fences.......................................................................................................Wilson, August
Publications
Literary Cavalcade
Merlyn's Pen
The New Yorker
New York Times Magazine
Newsweek
Poets and Writers
Sports Illustrated
Time
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Additional recommended titles:
(these are among the most commonly taught works in New York State)
FICTION
Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Cisneros, The House on Mango Street
Clark, The Ox-Bow Incident
Golding, Lord of the Flies
Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls
Hentoff, The Day They Came to Arrest the Book
Hilton, Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Kinsella, Shoeless Joe
Knowles, A Separate Peace
Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
McCullers, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Orwell, 1984
Paulsen, Canyons
Portis, True Grit
Potok, Davita's Harp
Stoker, Dracula
Wartski, ABoat to Nowhere
Welty, The Golden Apples
NONFICTION
Angell, Late Innings
Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Ashe, Days of Grace
Beal, "I Will Fight No More Forever": Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce
War Bishop, The Day Lincoln Was Shot
Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind
Campbell, The Power of Myth
Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Galarza, Barrio Boy
Hawking, A Brief History of Time
Houston, Farewell to Manzanar
Kennedy, Profiles in Courage
Kingsley and Levitz, Count Us In: Growing Up With Down Syndrome
Kingston, Woman Warrior
Mazer, ed., Going Where I'm Coming From
Momaday, The Way to Rainy Mountain
Rodriquez, Hunger of Memory
Sternberg, User's Guide to the Internet
Wright, Black Boy
POETRY
Angelou, I Shall Not be Moved
Bly, ed., News of the Universe
Cummings, Collected Poems
Dickinson, Complete Poems
Randall, ed., The Black Poets
Carruth, ed., The Voice That Is Great Within Us
Hughes, Selected Poems
Knudson and Swenson, eds., American Sports Poems
Longfellow, Evangeline
Wilbur, Things of This World
Drama
Christie, And Then There Were None
Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun
McCullers, The Member of the Wedding
Pomerance, The Elephant Man
Rose, Twelve Angry Men
Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac
Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet; Julius Caesar
Van Druten, I Remember Mama
Wilder, The Skin of Our Teeth
Wilson, The Piano Lesson
Folklore/Mythology
Evslin, Adventures of Ulysses
Pinsent, Greek Mythology
Stewart, The Crystal Cave
Burland, North American Indian Mythology
White, The Once and Future King
Modern Fantasy and Science Fiction
Adams, Watership Down
Asimov, Foundation
Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles
Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Childhood's End
Frank, Alas, Babylon
Herbert, Dune Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet
McCaffrey, Dragonflight
Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Magazines and Newspapers
Omni
Sports lllustrated
Literary Cavalcade (Scholastic)
National Geographic
Smithsonian
Newsweek
Other
Computer manuals, instructions, contracts, technical materials.
last revised 7/21/98
