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Welcome Readers!
Each summer, the MHS English department curates a great selection of recommended readings. This year, we encourage you to consider books—44 actually—that we believe you should read before you graduate from high school.
On this list, you'll find books that speak to us and that we hope will speak to you. There are fictions and nonfictions; there are personal histories and natural histories; there are page turners and page-lingerers. We hope—and we trust—you'll find something here that appeals to you.
Happy reading!
Students should know Baldwin's work for style, content, cultural literacy--for being Baldwin.
"You need to remember that. If you're to have decent lives, you have to know who you are and what lies ahead of you. Every one of you."
What does it mean to be educated? What's our role in becoming educated?
Holden Caulfield made teenage angst what it is. A quintessential coming of age book with layers.
What is more morally complex than religion and family?
Score 1 for the humble and capable.
We are all witnesses to history. Wiesel asks us what, exactly, that means.
The story of a family against the backdrop of an evolving city; The Yellow House provides a fascinating exploration of the intersection of personhood and place.
You can lose power. But this story shows you that you can also win it back.
Sometimes even people we strongly dislike can educate us.
This dystopian novel is worth reading because it offers an action-packed plot while provoking readers to consider the power of books and ideas in shaping societies and individuals.
Capote tells the story of a murder and its investigation in his groundbreaking work of creative nonfiction. The writing is engaging and beautiful, the story is horrifying, and the book forces us to confront so many of our assumptions.
Where have we come from? Before going off into the world, it's worth examining where humans came from, from a scientific and philosophical perspective.
A modern novel that doesn't try to resolve the ambiguity of identity.
Ifemelu's story encourages us to explore what—and whom—we are connected to.
It is agitating in all the right ways.
Thackeray offers us a good way to learn to laugh at ourselves and our flaws. As a plus? It has a "Bridgerton" vibe.
Who's Audre Lorde? Exactly.
How do you tell a true war story? O'Brien provides a series of vignettes that get us closer to an answer.
Pip is ambitious. And he learns exactly what that means.
Now a staple on most college syllabi, this book changed my perspective of the world more than any I've ever read.
Food is a connective force. Our associations with it transcend space, time, and even death.
Given where we are in our understanding of our country's legacy of race and race relations, students will come at this from a different vantage point than previous generations (an important conversation is to be had); still relevant; still readable.
A novel that forces us to reckon with a huge blight in our history, slavery. Bonus: it's banned, so now you HAVE to read it.
A graphic novel memoir with rich images and even richer words.
This play answers the questions of who, why, and how the world works.
This love letter to childhood offers vast wisdom on life.
An easy-to-digest book that explains real-life situations dealing with racism and how to better handle them in the future.
Humans are complicated. O'Connor holds the mirror up for the reader to see that.
Mary Oliver offers instructions for how to live a life: Pay attention, Be Astonished, Tell about it.
Even though it may be a period love story, it's a REALLY GOOD period love story.
This memoir was the first time I realized I could access important lived experiences outside of my own simply through reading. It is beautifully written as well.
The only book that's ever made me want to vomit with terror. Even for those who don't usually enjoy the horror genre, this book shows, more than any I've ever read, the power that words can have and how we can be viscerally affected by what we read.
A twisted dystopian future with an authoritarian government that could never happen for real... right? The fact that Burgess crafted his own, unique dialect from scratch for the book AND did it all in just a few weeks when he (mistakenly) was told he had terminal cancer, is impressive.
A very different coming-of-age story that will make you laugh, cry, and want to keep reading.
Based on the author's real-life experience, the book focuses on social and academic stresses- with a sense of humor.
Classic work of dystopian fiction that is eerily applicable to our modern world.
A torn wedding dress and worlds torn apart. How can we not love this novel of NYC high society?
Billy Pilgrim is loveable. Humans are bad and good. So it goes.
Every family has its issues.
This book challenged and completely changed my preconceived notions of geishas, culture, and life in Japan. A great and informative story with a unique perspective.
If you like fantasy (movies, TV series, etc.), you really have to start with The Lord of the Rings.
A study of the "new" science of genetics told through family stories and science.
"If you can see, look. If you can look, observe."
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