I am writing this reading recommendation because I think the current HS needs to know at least half of these books. And yes, I have read three-fourths of these in HS. I have other books that I won't be putting in here. Some books I have only encountered later in life. And before you ask, yes, I have read Shakespeare in high school. My mother introduced me to Shakespeare at a very young age of 4. It drove my teachers crazy when I only wanted to talk like Shakespeare for days. In high school, we deep-dived a book a year.
Here it is.
Easy Series
- Harry Potter Series – JK Rowling
- Percy Jackson – Rick Riordan
- Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
- Maze Runner - James Dashner
- Disney Villains - Serena Valentino
- Twisted Tales - Liz Braswell, Jen Calonita, & Elizabeth Lim
- Ghost Girl - Tonya Hurley
- The Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
- Nancy Drew - Carolyn Keene
- The Hardy Boys - Franklin W. Dixon
- The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - Ann Brashares
Classics
- Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
- The Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Orczy
- The Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux
- Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
- Dracula - Bram Stoker
- Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
- The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
- Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
- To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
- Animal Farm, 1984 - George Orwell
- Lord of the Flies - William Golding
- Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom
- Moby-Dick - Herman Melville
- Life of Pi - Yann Martel
- The Murders in the Rue Morgue - Edgar Allan Poe
- The Island of Doctor Moreau - H.G. Wells
- The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
- Tarzan of the Apes (Series) - Edgar Rice Burroughs
- H.G. Wells - The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, The Invisible Man
- Jules Verne - Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Around the World in Eighty Days
- Charles Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, A Christmas Carol
- Mark Twain - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- William Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Emily Brontë - Wuthering Heights (Her only novel, but a massive bestseller)
- Charlotte Brontë - Jane Eyre, Villette
- Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma
Sci-Fi
- Frank Herbert - Dune (Widely cited as the best-selling science fiction novel of all time).
- Anne McCaffrey - Dragonriders of Pern series, The Ship Who Sang, Aconra, etc.
- Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Fantasy
- Tamora Pierce - The Song of the Lioness, Protector of the Small, The Immortals, Circle of Magic
- David Eddings - The Belgariad, The Malloreon, The Elenium, The Tamuli
- Ursula K. Le Guin - The Earthsea Cycle (Beginning with A Wizard of Earthsea)
- Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass)
Steampunk
- Gail Carriger’s - Finishing School Series
Mystery
- Agatha Christie - Hercule Poirot, Murder on the Orient Express, Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence Series
- Arthur Conan Doyle - Sherlock Holmes A Study in Scarlet
- G.K. Chesterton - Father Brown
- Ellis Peters - Brother Cadfael
- Maureen Jennings - Detective Murdoch
Horror
- Stephen King - The Shining, It, The Stand, Carrie, Misery, Pet Sematary
- H.P. Lovecraft - The Call of Cthulhu, At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Dunwich Horror
Local Recommendations
- Maximo D. Ramos
- Dean Alfar
- F. Sionil Jose
- Eating Fire and Drinking Water
- Jose Rizal
- Florante at Laura - Balagtas
- Steamerella
- Lagimat
- Mt High School Fairytale
- Heist Club’s A Time for Heists
