If you read the blog last night, I bet you saw today’s lunch coming from a mile away.
Such a delicious and easy salad to make.
White nectarine slices added sweetness to the meal.
Sadie had negative interest in the fruit. She was all about the chicken and even managed to create a ring of drool while watching me eat.
It’s a gift.
High School Reading Material
Late this morning, I read an interesting article on MSNBC.com about the “10 books you really should have read in high school.”
The article admits to omitting “a lot of astonishing books,” but the list of books included (in no particular order):
- Frankenstein
- The Scarlet Letter
- The Catcher in the Rye
- The Great Gatsby
- Pride and Prejudice
- Siddhartha
- Lord of the Flies
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- The Fountainhead
I was only assigned to read three of the books on this list. I read The Great Gatsby (loved it), The Catcher in the Rye (liked it a lot) and The Scarlet Letter (take it or leave it).
I read a lot of books not on the list and remember absolutely loving Of Mice and Men (I sobbed like a baby) and absolutely hating Fahrenheit 451 in high school. I started reading Pride and Prejudice as an adult and then the movie was on television as I was about halfway through reading it, so I watched the movie… and then never picked up the book again. Oops.
Question of the Afternoon
- What was the best book you were assigned to read in high school?
- What book – classic or not – do you think high school students should be assigned to read? (Maybe we’ll make it the next PBF Book Club book!)
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Saide’s drool is hillarious! She looks so much like my brothers dog who is a Pointer (black & white) but their faces are so similar!
i love pointers! if we get another dog (that’s not a vizsla) we’d get a pointer!
I’m in high school right now (when will 10th grade end?) and i have Pride and Prejudice this year. I have read both the adventure of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Also i read To Kill A Mockingbird, which i liked. I think high schoolers, or at least girls should read Little Women. Some say Jane Eyre but it was hard for me to get through and i quit half way through! Sense and Sensibility is nice, but a little confusing. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Elsie Dinsmore series! And i have Shakespeare for the first time this year. How did that go for you guys? I’ve never read Shakespeare so i hoe y’all can tell me if ya enjoyed it. Here are some books i think should make the list:
1. Little Women
2. An Old Fashioned Girl
3. The Elsie Dinsmore Series
4. The Narnia books
5. Anne of Green Gables
6. Saving Sprite ( totally not classic, still so heartwarming for dog lovers everywhere)
7. Catherine Called Birdy (HAlarious)
8.Mary Bloody Mary
9. Sense and Sensibility
10. My Mother Got Married (And Other Disasters) -ok, that’s just me- not a general hschool reading list material
And Julie- maybe next post you could compile some of the suggestions into a high school reading list and we could all go through the list together 🙂 Also it would totally help me for reading lists cuz im homeschooled. Thanks!
how neat that you’re homeschooled! i’m loving the comments on this post because they’re giving me reading ideas! i actually liked shakespeare – from what i could understand of it, at least. one of my teachers had a neat book where it would have “shakespeare speak” on one side and modern day translations on the other. it was really cool!
I agree with Julie! Shakespeare is good–even if you can’t understand the language, when you’re able to grasp everything I think you’ll really like the stories!
ooooh! Now i can’t wait to get to it! Shakespeare has always scared me just cuz all my older friends said it was the worst! They said to avoid it as long as i could- as if homeschoolers can avoid shakespeare anyhow! Just wondering- do you remember the title of that “shakespeare speaks” book? And do you know if it’s available for private instruction? I think it would be really helpful, especially since English/Literature isn’t my strong point.
Oh wow I’m glad I read your comment!
I read “Catherine Called Birdy” in 6th grade. Just randomly pulled it out of my teacher’s private “library” collection and I completely adored it. It has stuck with me forever but I couldn’t remember the exact name of it.
I think I wrote a rave report on the book or something because when the author came to speak locally my teacher took me on a Saturday to see it!
I’m definitely going to have to find it and buy it.
I read that book in school too!!
Isn’t it great? Actually i had to read it as part of my 9th grade history curricula last year! And i can’t believe Karen Cushman actually came to speak locally and you got to see her! SO cool! Now my sister is enjoying it- it is so funny! i just read it for the 7th time. it’s one of those books i pick up when i need to smile- and i never get tired of it!
I only read 4 of them as assigned, and 1 on my own (Catcher in the Rye).
I agree with you, The Great Gatsby was really great, one of the best assigned books!
good call on Of Mice and Men! such a good book … I sobbed like a baby, too.
the great gatsby was by FAR my favorite. we always got to watch the movies afterwards too, robert redford was a babe. high schoolers should definitely read the omnivores dilemma. especially with the obesity epidemic with our youth and all the junk being served in school cafeterias….high school (or even earlier) is where they should be learning to make healthy choices!
I read some of those in high school, and some on my own as well. I adore catcher in the rye and never read it at school, and i guess i read huckleberry on my own as well. I did read LOTF and to kill a mockingbird in high school, and I liked them both. What can I say, I love to read period!
The BBC version of Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite movies. It’s also very long (it was a miniseries). Colin Firth as Darcy..yum.
I’ve read all of those- but I was an English major in college so a lot of them I read in my survey classes. I’m surprised 1984 wasn’t on there! I wrote one of my application essays on that!
The Awakening was the best book I read in high school—-it’s the book that made me want to be an English teacher! Talk about influential.
I teach Frankenstein to my eighth grade gifted students, and they LOVE it. I love teaching it, too!
I read all of the ones on the list throughout English class in High School. Favorites that I had to read included Great Gatsby, The Awakening, Jane Eyre, The Sun Also Rises, Farinheight 451, and Brave New World.
The only book that I had to read in high school on that list was Lord of the Flies…guess I didn’t do to a very great high school!
I also remember reading Great Expectations.
I read every book on that list but 6 and 10. I don’t know why… I think the Fountainhead looked daunting and I wasn’t a Rand fan. I think Fahrenheit 451 should be on that list; I liked it a lot.
However, I think reading in high school is extremely complex, because not every student is going to like every book. It’s only when you’re an adult and you get to pick and choose what you read when it becomes really fun, in my opinion.
The Fountainhead was absolutely amazing! I had to read it my senior year and it was one of the only books we read that people finished. It is about 700 and some odd pages but it is well worth it. I loved Of Mice and Men, such a great story. I hated Things Fall Apart, I just could not get through it but The Great Gatsby will always be a favorite 🙂
I read 6 out those books. I loved Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby, and Lord of the Flies. My favorite books I read in high school were probably The Awakening by Kate Chopin and For Whom the Bells Tolls by Hemingway. My worst favorite book by far was Moby Dick!!!! I don’t know how people like it!
Funny enough, in my High School literature class we were assigned to read Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton (this was about a year before the movie came out) . I think we were studying modern writing at the time. I was riveted and couldn’t put it down. Not so with some of the other reading assignments, lol.
I looove Jane Austen. I always did. Pride and Prejudice was my favorite, but I also really loved Emma. It was required reading for my “women in literature” class in college.
whoops. I think I replied to the wrong one. It was supposed to go to the one under this…
i read jurassic park in 8th grade and LOVVVED it!
Pride and Prejudice is my all time favorite book!! I picked it up freshman year of high school because I heard great things about it. It started off slow at first and I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it. Once I got used to the wording and pacing of the book I couldn’t put it down! I think it is such a great love story and love how it examines the flaws and beauty in people. I’m such a sap. ;P
I should have to hand in my mom card for this one, but I’ve never read any of those books. I’m adding all of them to my Goodreads “to read” shelf right now!!!
I loooooved The Great Gatsby. I was also in Honors English classes, so there were a lot more books on our lists than the regular English classes. Other favorites of mine were All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Ramarque and Night by Elie Wiesel. There was also one I remember really enjoying called McTeague by Frank Norris.
But I should stop. I could go on forever and ever. I love books. I love to read, love to write. I could do those things all day with a few breaks for snacks and be a happy camper.
I loved To Kill a Mockingbird! Also, for several of my AP english classes we got to pick from a list of books and the one I really enjoyed was Jane Eyre! All I have to say is I DO NOT think kids should have to read Crime and Punishment- seriously…making us read that book was a crime in itself haha.
I LOVED The Great Gatsby and Cather in the Rye. My favorite books in HS were probably Night by Eli Weisel and A Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (a very interesting take on what the future could be like for women).
I never read Huckleberry Finn though because it’s not allowed in my county! They’ve taken it off of all of our reading lists and everything (or at least they did when I was in HS a few years ago!) And I lived in a very large and well known county in VA too!
wow – i’ve only read two of those! I guess i need to step away from the chick lit.
Book that left the longest/best impression – “the Lottery” by shirley jackson. Very disturbing .
So many good books, so little time! I remember having a reading list and we had to choose a book and do a report once a month. Most of those books were on the list. I tended to try to choose the ones not everyone else was reading (meaning I read all the longer books and let 85% of the other kids do their report on Pearl by Steinbeck).
I would add One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest to this list, along with Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse Five. I loved Catch-22 so much that I go back and re-read it again every few years.
I loved Catcher in the Rye! ..and the name Holden.
PS- Sadie… I’m so impressed!
We read; Lord of the Flies, Great Gatsby, and Scarlett Letter. I remember being assigned to read Fountainhead in 6th grade but pretty sure I didn’t get through one page of that book. Now I think back and wonder why in the heck we would have been assigned that in 6th grade!
Two books that I really liked were 1984 and Animal Farm, both by George Orwell. I read 1984 in college and Animal Farm in HS but I am really intrigued by the themes in these books.
I can’t wait for The Great Gatsby movie to come out!
I loved Catcher in the Rye… and also the Grapes of Wrath! If you ever get the chance to read the Grapes of Wrath I would definitely suggest you do 🙂
As a matter of fact I think I am going to re-read it in the near future…
Ooh I’ve read all of those, except Siddartha, Catcher in the Rye and the Fountainhead. I was an English major in college, too, so I’m all about reading some classics.. I would love to read Huckleberry Finn again though- I read that a million years ago it feels like.
I LOVED ‘Emma’ by Jane Austen. The whole time I was reading it, I kept thinking how familiar it seemed. Turns out, the movie ‘Clueless’ is based on it! It is so good.
the best book I was assigned to read in high school was “Someone to run with” by David Grossmann, I absolutely loved that book! for the rest, I was only assigned 1 of the 10 books, Pride and Prejudice, but I guess that’s because I’m Italian and we read mostly italian classics.
We read the Diary of Anne Frank , and Night which I loved. We also had to read the Great Gatsby.
i think i was assigned 6 from that list.
my favorite was to kill a mockingbird. LOVED it!
I read all except Frankenstein, The Fountainhead, and Siddharta! I loved The Great Gatsby. So good. I also really enjoyed Mansfield Park, which I read last semester in college! Yay for being an English major. 🙂
I’m reading the Great Gatsby right now for school (I’m a junior) and it’s pretty interesting.
I’m not sure if Catch-22 would be over a high school student’s head, but I loved reading it in college and wished I’d read it sooner.
I think Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a thought-provoking book I was assigned and truly loved…Ok, anything by Margaret Atwood I love.
I need to get ontop of those reading materials!!! eeeek! It’s a wonder I ever graduated!
Hahaha I’m seriously loving all the hilarious pictures you take of Sadie! She seems like quite the character!
I read Speak in middle school and I loved it. 🙂
I was only assigned to read two of those books…We read “Of Mice and Men” too and I really enjoyed that one
….
As a(n almost) CAL teacher, I absolutely think students should read “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson. It’s an AMAZING book about a young girl who goes through some serious friend changes, is raped, and is afraid to tell anyone about it for over a year. She goes experiences a lot of bullying and depression before she learns she just has to stand up for herself and protect herself so that others can be protected and heard, too.
I highly recommend it, even as an adult it’s a fantastic book to read.
I read all of those books in high school, except for To Kill A Mockingbird. But I want to read it sometime. My boyfriend says it’s really good. I think Jane Eyre and East of Eden should really be on that list. 🙂
One of my favorites that I believe I read sophomore year was Cold Sassy Tree!
I read 6 of those books! My favorite was The Great Gatsby, but I hated the Scarlet Letter.
Awww dogs are the best at that sad puppy dog face. I need to work on that…minus the drool!
I never really read in high school, but since finishing my masters, I’ve had SOOO much time to read. Last year I decided to go back and re-read the major “classics”, many of which are on that list. I read Pride and Prejudice (which was amazing), East of Eden (again….amazing), and The Scarlett Letter (definitely won’t read that again).
One book I would add to that list though is To Kill A Mockingbird. It is, by far, one of my top 5 books of all time. I’m actually re-reading it now!
Definitely Pride and Prejudice! It was one of the books we had to study for my graduation, the book and the film actually, and it’s my best memory of a book so far! The teacher was also awesome so I enjoyed every part of it!
Ooops…totally missed To Kill A Mockingbird on the list!
hahaha my girlfriends and I made a “video project” for Lord of the Flies. It was absolutely hilarious and we had a blast making it. Surprisingly enough we came out with top marks. Not quite sure how we pulled that one off since our bloopers section was twice as long as the actual content .. Oppsie 🙂
I hates Brave New World and 1984…it was more science fiction…. I love to Kill A Mockingbird and The Great Gatsby…after we read the books we would then watch the movie. I love to Kill a Mockingbird with Gregory Peck.
BTW, chicken salad looks awesome
I love J.D. Salinger. In addition to Catcher in the Rye, we also read the short story collection Nine Stories, which to this day is one of my favorites.
Also, Sound and the Fury by Faulkner. I have read it in 4 different English classes, high school and college combined 🙂
My favorite book that I read in high school was The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. I loved the vignettes and the voice of the protagonist. I was so proud of myself when I got an A on the assignment, if not my only A of the year in that class, definitely my first.
Other than the great books mentioned in the comments, I think Three Musketeers was a fun read, Also Cry the Beloved Country was super moving.
You HAVE to read To Kill a Mockingbird!! A Time to Kill is sort of similar in theme, but Mockingbird is even better. And The Help also made a lot of references to TKM.
Great Gatsby was my very favorite in high school! I really loved learning about the time period in general and actually couldn’t put the book down. One of the few I actually finished and didn’t just read the spark notes 🙂 I absolutely hated Scarlet Letter.
I was only at a regular high school for my freshmen year. I remember reading Jane Eyre and I really liked it. We also read Native Son, and I completely hated it.
I absolutely love The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. I read it in my own free time when I was 16 or 17. I think that should be required reading.