Classic books for young adults. (Yeah, you might read them in English but they’re still good.)
- Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer
 —Joseph Conrad, great writing, great stories and they’re short, too.
- Pride and Prejudice—Jane Austen, although Jane never married, she seems to have had a thing for bad boys. Maybe that’s why she never married. This book stars the classic bad boy, Mr. Darcy, and, Elizabeth, the girl who tames him.
- The Great Gatsby—F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece of the jazz age and the excesses of wealth.
- Bernice Bobs Her Hair and Other Stories—F. Scott Fitzgerald really understood teenagers. These stories prove it.
- The Red Badge of Courage—Stephen Crane. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers died to preserve the union. Would a president fight this war today?
- Huckleberry Finn—Mark Twain. A trip down the Mississippi that says a lot about the human heart.
- Franny and Zooey—J. D. Salinger. Two of the best short stories ever written.
- The Catcher in the Rye—J. D. Salinger. The book that put teen angst on the map.
- Nine Stories—J. D. Salinger. A collection of charming stories. Some have lasted better than others.
- Animal Farm—George Orwell. Everyone is equal but some pigs are more equal than others. That says it all about how politicians think.
Fun books for young adults. (Good for any time.)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—J. K. Rowling. Everyone knows Harry Potter by now. What else is there to say?
- Princess Diaries—Meg Cabot. If you’ve only seen the movie, you don’t know ANYTHING about Mia Thermopolis.
- Holes—Louis Sachar. Another book that’s better than the movie.
- High Fidelity: A Novel—Nick Hornby. It’s a very cool book.
- Treasure Island—Robert Louis Stevenson. Argghh. If it weren’t for this book, Johnny Depp would never have played a pirate.
- Lord Emsworth and Others—P.G. Wodehouse. Everything Meg Cabot knows about writing comedy, she learned from P.G. Wodehouse.
- Daddy Long Legs—Jean Webster. This book has been made into three movies and it’s better than all of three of them put together.
- Lord of the Rings—J. R. R. Tolkien. A lot to do about a ring.
- Complete Sherlock Holmes—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock still gets letters from prospective clients. You can’t create better characters than that.
- The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread—Kate Dicamillo and Timothy B. Ering. This book is about the adventures of a little mouse. It’s designed for young children but it’s so good, everyone should read it.
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