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1.The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This classic is read by many a highschooler for good reason as it offers an excellent character study to help the reader

explore morality, ethics, and society.2.Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Huxleys dystopian novel takes the reader to a

futuristic society where humanity has taken a back seat to technology.

3.OfMice and Men by John Steinbeck. This story of friendship and the struggle tosurvive is touching and intensely beautiful.4.Animal Farm by George Orwell. Check out Orwells famous allegory of the

Russian Revolution that can teach something to all readers about society and politics.

5.The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. This book is a must-read foranyone who has ever felt on the fringe of society.

6.Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Vonneguts novel provides a vehicle ofhope through the traffic of war and insanity.

7.Native Son by Richard Wright. Get lost in the excellent writing and characterdevelopment of this story, but dont overlook the powerful statement Wright makes

about the results of a society that devalues humanity.

8.Seize the Day by Saul Bellow. Perhaps this Nobel Prize-winning novelists mostdeveloped work, this short read delves inside the mind of a man in the midst of mid-

life crisis as he struggles with himself.9.Howards End by E.M. Forester. Explore class and society in this powerful novel set

in early twentieth century England.10.The Sun Also Rises by Earnest Hemingway. Read Hemingways account of the

emasculating effects of war and women in this popular classic.11.The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger . This classic has interesting effects on the

reader, usually based on the readers age and current state of mind. No doubt there is

something in this book that details the confusion of adolescence with which most can

relate.

12.Heart ofDarkness by Joseph Conrad. Marlows journey down the river and into theheart of a native Africa is but a metaphor for the even darker journey of self-

exploration he makes.

13.The Call ofthe Wild by Jack London . If you havent already read Londonsdescription of survival of the fittest from the dogs perspective, then add this one to

your list of must-reads.

14.To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Lees popular classic explores racism,justice, family ties, and more in a story that is difficult to forget.

15.The Grapes ofWrath by John Steinbeck. Examine issues of equality and justice inAmerica through the eyes of the Joad family in the Great Depression.

Non-Fiction Classics

From test pilots to boxers to the Civil Rights movement, these classic non-fiction books have

maintained their popularity for good reason.

16.Why We Cant Wait by Martin Luther King, Jr . Martin Luther King, Jr.s accountof the Civil Rights Movement in 1963 serves as an important reminder of how much

progress has been made and how much more work there is to accomplish.

17.Ideas and Opinions by Albert Einstein. Read essays written by Einstein on a broadrange of subjects from science to human rights.

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18.Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell. Orwell recounts his service in the SpanishCivil War and his escape from the country afterwards as he narrowly escapes arrest as

an enemy to the state.19.Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West. Those interested in Balkan history

will want to tackle this massive, 1000-page classic.

20.The Right Stuffby Tom Wolfe. The American space race didnt start in the 1960s,but many years earlier with the test pilots in the jet program, and Wolfe takes readersthrough it all up to the space race of the 1960s.

21.Working by Studs Terkel. Terkel is arguably the king of documenting oral historyfrom Americans in the early 20th century. This book captures the voices of American

workers from all walks of life who describe what they do all day and how they feel

about it.

22.In the American Grain by William Carlos Williams . Williams paints his ownversion of historical figures throughout American history in the essays contained in

this classic.

23.Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner. This book recounts the battles over water rights inthe American West and is a must-read for anyone interested in conservation, politics,or having water to drink.

24.The House ofMorgan by Ron Chernow . Learn about the history of JP Morgan andhis banking business as it began and evolved up to the 1990s.

25.Pilgram at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard. Study the nature of Mother Natureherself in this classic by Annie Dillard.

26.The Sweet Science by A. J. Liebling. Liebling details the world of boxing in itsheyday to life.

27.The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross. While nottechnically a classic, this book by New Yorker music critic Alex Ross is sure to be

one. Ross covers composers of the 20th century, including their biographies, the

music, and the social context for it all.

Recent Literature

These books are some of the most powerful of more recent literature written.

28.Midnights Children by Salman Rushdie . This allegorical story follows Indianindependence and the events leading up to it via the life of Saleem Sinai. The the huge

cast of characters, history of India, and religious mythology make this book a rich andengrossing read.

29.A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. The title character of this novel will bedifficult to erase from your heart after finishing this hilarious and poignant novel.

30.The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. Follow this family as they leave thecomfort of their southern home to spread Christianity to one corner of Africa, then

watch as the heart of Africa takes over the lives of each of the individual familymembers in their own unique ways.

31.The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood. Atwoods futuristic look at societyand what it does to women is a cautionary tale that should not be missed.

32.Beloved by Toni Morrison. The ghosts of the past haunt this enchanting novel ofslavery and freedom.

33.Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. The incredible character development carries thisbook that engages the reader in Cals life as both a girl and a boy, and the family

history that unwittingly delivered Cal to such an unusual place.

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34.Life ofPi by Yann Martel. This easy-to-read tale is a deceptively simple account ofone mans struggle to survive.

35.The Things They Carried by Tim OBrien. This fictional account of a platoon inVietnam is based on Tim OBriens experience in the war himself and explores the

fear and courage that are necessary to bring one through to the other side.

36.The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Through letters, the reader learns of Celiesdifficult life as a black woman in the south and her transformation as she discoversher inner strength.

Autobiographies and Memoirs

From Tobias Wolffs struggles as a young black man in the south to Vladimir Nabokovs

childhood in pre-Revolutionary Russia, learn first-hand what it was like to live in a different

place and a different era.

37.BlackBoy by Richard Wright. Writes description of life as a black man in thesouth is both painful and beautifully writtenand definitely worth reading.

38.The Autobiography ofMark Twain by Mark Twain. Read about the amazing lifeof this American legend through his own eyes.39.Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov. Nabokov details his idyllic childhood in

Russia, then emigrating to America at the age of 18 as a result of the Russian

Revolution in his brilliantly written autobiography.

40.The Autobiography ofMalcolm X by Alex Haley and Malcolm X . Alex Haley andMalcolm X do a remarkable job conveying the many experiences and transformations

experienced by Malcolm X on his journey to overcoming racial barriers.

41.Out ofAfrica by Isak Dinesen. This popular memoir details life in colonial Africa asDinesen embraces Nairobi and the people who live there.

42.The Autobiography ofAlice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein. Learn about Stein andher life as an ex-pat in Paris through the frame of a biography of her partner, Alice

Toklas.43.This Boys Life by Tobias Wolff. Wolff recounts his life as a boy and teen struggling

with his identity as he lives with his divorced mother and her second husband in the1950s.

44.Autobiographies by W.B. Yeats. Yeats account of his life as a poet and playwrightin Ireland up to his winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Biographies

Learn about such famous people as Florence Nightingale and Thomas Jefferson with these

biographies.

45.Florence Nightingale by Cecil Woodham-Smith. Read this classic biography of theastonishing woman who was Florence Nightingale.

46.Samuel Johnson by Walter Jackson Bate. Bate takes readers beyond what is knownpublicly about Johnson and delves deep within the man in this outstanding biography.

47.The Age ofJackson by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. This biography looks at both thepresident and the politics surrounding his administration.

48.Jefferson and His Time by Dumas Malone. This six-volume biography is likely justfor those obsessed with Thomas Jefferson, but it is the pinnacle of information on thisamazing man.

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49.James Joyce by Richard Ellmann. Considered one of the best biographies on Joyce,the writings of Ellmann capture the true nature of the man.

50.The Rise ofTheodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris . Learn about Roosevelts earlyyears with this Pulitzer Prize-winning biography.

51.Vermeer by Lawrence Gowing. This much-beloved biography informs about the lifeof this famous painter and also contains plenty of reproductions of Vermeers art.

52.Up From History by Robert J. Norrell. This account of Booker T. Washingtonslife as a slave to a soft-spoken, educated advocate for civil rights is an informative

read that reminds Americans of the beginnings of the the modern day fight for civil

rights.

World Literature

Read these books and step into a different culture or sometimes, a truly unique perspective of

a familiar world.

53.The Assault by Harry Mulisch. In Nazi-occupied Holland, a young boy witnessesterrible tragedy. Follow the boy as he grows into a man and must come to terms with

what happened while he learns truths about humanity with which all readers canidentify.

54.Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgokov. This novel is steeped in magicalrealism, but below the fanciful stories of a magical cat and the devil himself, this book

explores power, corruption, good and evil, and human frailty.

55.The Unbearable Lightness ofBeing by Milan Kundara. The history of Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia is as much a character of this novel as the bumbling people

who struggle to find their way amidst personal insecurities.

56.The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami. Murakamis unusual style ofwriting carries readers on a wild ride as a man looks for his missing cat in the midst of

his personal crisis.

57.Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The main character, Okonkwo, grapples withpreserving his cultural history in the face of Western domination in this tragicallybeautiful novel.

58.One Hundred Years ofSolitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Recounting thehistory of a village through the Buendia family, Marquezs lyrical writing andmagical realism create a funny, yet hauntingly beautiful read.

59.Hunger by Knut Hamsun. Feel the hunger of the starving young artist in Hamsunsnovel that is a classic from this Norwegian author.

60.Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis. Zorbas unabashed embracing of lifeparallels that of the stoic narrator as this novel explores the dual nature of humanity

and the repercussions of both approaches to life.

61.The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Discover how to find the beauty in life no matterwhat your experience as you follow the life of a young shepherd who gains so muchfrom his journey of life.

62.Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. The tale of a young Brahmins spiritual journeythroughout his life is told in this popular novel.

63.Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. Love and loyalty in the time of the RussianRevolution are the driving force behind this classic novel.

History

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These books are some of the most famous and widely read history books around.

64.The Education ofHenry Adams by Henry Adams. This autobiography that isntreally an autobiography excellently captures the feel of the American history

throughout the 19th century and into the 20th as told through the eyes of Henry

Adams.

65.The Frontier in American History by Frederick Jackson Turner. Turners classicwork explores the idea of American uniqueness being shaped by the specific ordeals

confronted by the settlers along the frontier.

66.The Civil War by Shelby Foote. This three-volume set describes the Civil War ineasy-to-read language that captures the readers imagination.

67.The Second World War by Winston Churchill . Churchills account of WWII isbeautifully recreated in this six-volume account.

68.The Strange Career ofJim Crow by C. Vann Woodward . Take a hard look at thehistory of segregation, segregation myths, and more in this book that helped spark the

Civil Rights movement.

69.The Making ofthe Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes. Learn about the unique timein the early 20th century that saw four countries working diligently to design an

atomic bomb and the motivation behind this work.70.A Study ofHistory by Arnold J. Toynbee. Considered one of the most

comprehensive and complete pieces of scholarship written and includes 10 volumescovering the rise and fall of virtually every civilization known.

71.The Great Bridge by David McCullough. This book tells the story behind buildingthe Brooklyn Bridge by one of the great modern-day historians.

72.Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature ofthe American Civil War by EdmundWilson. Read 16 essays each providing a unique perspective to the Civil War.

73.The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell. Fussell uses this book,which includes literature mostly from WWI, but from other wars as well, as a

testament to what warfare does to those involved in it.

74.The Battle Cry ofFreedom by James M. McPherson. McPhersons book detailsthe events that lead up to the Civil War and delves clearly into details of the actualwar that can often seem confusing when written by other hands.

75.The Contours ofAmerican History by William Appleman Williams . This bookhas been used in college classes throughout the years as a text to illustrate the

economic systems of America throughout history. While sometimes controversial,

this book remains widely read and discussed.

Political Science

Justice, economics, and capitalism are just a few of the topics in these books.

76.The Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith. This book, written in 1958,provides a remarkably timely look at American economics and the American way of

life.

77.The Open Society and Its Enemies by Karl Popper. Poppers famous workdiscusses the role of the individual as separate from the state, while also tackling

Marxism, despite his belief that Marxs intentions were good.

78.A Theory ofJustice by John Rawls . Rawls has updated his classic text from 1971and continues to promote his theories on justice and fairness in a democratic society.

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79.The American Political Tradition by Richard Hofstadter. While Hofstadters booksometimes comes with harsh criticism, it also serves as an important reminder that

citizens should not blindly follow long-held beliefs or reputations without questioningwhy.

80.Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy by Joseph A. Schumpeter. Schumpeterseconomic theories continue to arise in current analysis. Find out the basis of his

beliefs in his landmark book.81.Religion and the Rise ofCapitalism by R. H. Tawney. This classic explores the

interconnectedness of religion and capitalism within society and includes historical

support for the theory.

Language Arts and Literary Theory

From awesome reference books to books that can take your study of literature to the next

level, check out these books about the English language.

82.The Elements ofStyle by William Strunk and E. B. White . Strunk originally wrotethis rule book of grammatical style in 1919, and in 1959, White revised what has

become an icon of the American written language.83.The American Language by H. L. Mencken. Mencken was an early advocate for

"American" as a language and style to be recognized as the powerful world force it

has become.

84.The Mirror and the Lamp by Meyer Howard Abrams. This classic text of literaryscholarship examines the role of the Romantic era on literature and the arts.

85.A Room ofOnes Own by Virginia Woolf. Woolf discusses the historicaldifferences between men and women writers and how these differences come down to

the availability of freedom and money that men have in plenty compared to women.

86.The Penguin Dictionary ofLiterary Terms and Literary Theory by J.A. Cuddon .This classic text is an awesome reference book that every English language student

should own.

87.Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) byJonathan Culler. Arranged by theme, this book covers the different types of literarycriticism and the people behind each.

88.Literary Theory: An Introduction by Terry Eagleton. Eagletons easy-to-readbook has shown up in graduate classes around the country as well as on the shelves of

just about anyone interested in learning about literary theory.

89.Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory by PeterBarry. Barrys engaging text covers the basic principles of literary theory for

beginners.

90.The Norton Anthology ofTheory and Criticism by Vincent B. Leitch . This bookoffers comprehensive coverage of literary theory from the classical era to current

schools of thought.

Science, Math, and Social Sciences

Find classics alongside more modern works from the fields of science, math, and the social

sciences in this list.

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91.Philosophae Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton. Written whileCambridge was closed due to the plague, Newton penned his famous thoughts on

gravity, mechanics, calculus, and light and color.92.The Art ofthe Soluble by Peter B. Medawar. Medawars book of essays explores

the role of scientists in the world of science.

93.Six Easy Pieces by Richard P. Feynman. This science classic presents six ofFeynmans lectures that explain the basics of physics from his perspective ofunderstanding science in the context of history.

94.Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. Carsons powerful writing on the topic ofenvironmental justice creates a book that will make the reader think seriously about

humanitys relationship to the Earth.

95.The Ants by Bert Hoelldobler and Edward O. Wilson. Written by two of theleading authorities on ants, this book covers it all, is well-written, and even won a

Nobel Prize.

96.A Mathematicians Apology by G. H. Hardy. Those with a love of mathematicswill appreciate this work that extols the beauty of math beyond the expected.

97.The Art ofMemory by Frances A. Yates. This book provides a look at the art ofcreating memory that was so important in days past.

98.The Interpretation ofDreams by Sigmund Freud. Freud included the basics of histheories on psychoanalysis in this landmark work that is still read worldwide.

99.Pioneers ofPsychology by Raymond E. Fancher . This fascinating book exploresthe beginning of psychology by exploring such thinkers as Descartes, Kant, Skinner,

and more.100. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks . Psychology

student or not, this book will appeal to anyone who has an interest in the curious way

the mind worksand how it does no