37 - A Book You Should Have Read in High School

[Ron]

One thing that always irritated me was that we never read any Indigenous books- either novels or poetry.

Joy Harjo is one of the best and most well-known Indigenous poets in the country. It would have been nice to have read this one.

In Mad Love and War

[Nadine in NY]

Ron wrote: "One thing that always irritated me was that we never read any Indigenous books- either novels or poetry.

Joy Harjo is one of the best and most well-known Indigenous poets in the country. It would..."


Joy Harjo was not widely known yet when I was in high school, her first major book - She Had Some Horses - was published by a small press right before I graduated! So that was not a possibility for us back then.

And that got me curious ... who WAS well known back then? N. Scott Momaday &
Louise Erdrich ... Love Medicine had JUST been published and it made enough of a splash that I bought a copy of the paperback when I was in college

That's all I can think of. It's a different world now! We have so many choices!

[Ron]

Good point.

I just noticed the one I shared was published in 1990, which I suppose could still work. I didn't graduate high school until 2007.

She published 3 more after that from 1994-2002 (I mean the time frame from when I was in elementary through high school. Not including college and after). So I suppose any of those 5 could fit for within my time frame of high school more so than middle school.

*****

I should look for more Indigenous authors from that time period just for the heck of it. Though I wouldn't know where to start. It's like you said, "it's a different world now," so there weren't a lot of Indigenous authors from 1990-2007. And from what there were, they were pretty scarce.

Maybe I can find an anthology. If those were even around back then too.

*****

I was thinking about Love Medicine too. Plus, these days I've seen it on a lot of school reading lists which is awesome.

Or there was also Ceremony .

While we read a lot of novels by white authors, and only 3 Black authors (for only one class), we never read any novels by Indigenous authors or any other races for that matter.

[Nadine in NY]

Ron wrote: "While we read a lot of novels by white authors, and only 3 Black authors (for only one class), we never read any novels by Indigenous authors or any other races for that matter...."



Yes my school curriculum was almost exclusively white and male, too. We had ONE Black author (Native Son) and ONE woman author (Ethan Frome which I really hated - what a downer book!! what highschooler will like that book????) No Indigenous or Asian or Latino authors were assigned in my high school years.


ETA: correction! I'm pretty sure we had Uncle Tom's Cabin assigned, too. So, TWO women authors.

[Nadine in NY]

Update! I found an Indigenous author I could have read in high school - it is perfect, it's short, published over five years before I started high school, and is now considered a "modern classic"

Winter in the Blood by James Welch

[Ron]

Nadine in NY wrote: "Update! I found an Indigenous author I could have read in high school - it is perfect, it's short, published over five years before I started high school, and is now considered a "modern classic"

..."

Great rec!

This book has been on my tbr for years. I need to bump it up my list of books so I don't forget about it.

[Jessica]

I read Lord of the Flies for this prompt.

[Crystal]

I’m finally reading the Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay for this prompt. I’m taking this as a prompt to read something historical.

[LeahS]

Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life by Helen Czerski.

Despite producing two daughters who work in physics, I hated the subject at school, and can remember spending lessons writing James Bond fanfic with a friend.... I wish I'd read this book, which makes it very relatable and fascinating. I know now exactly how a toaster works!

[Nadine in NY]

LeahS wrote: "Moving this book over from ATY for a better fit.

Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life by Helen Czerski.

Despite producing two daughters who work in phy..."


I've had this book on my TBR for a while now! Glad to hear it's good.

[Ron]

Even though Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking was not published until 2012, it's a book that I wish had existed back when I was in high school. Had I read it then my world would have made a lot more sense.

[Lilith]

Ron wrote: "Even though Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking was not published until 2012, it's a book that I wish had existed back when I was in high school. Had I ..."

Ooooohhh, thank you, I wish this book existed when I was in high school. This would have helped me too.
I have been wondering what to do for this prompt, as I did all the assigned reading. I graduated early, so I thought I'd figure out what friends were reading for classes senior year.... but this book looks really good!

[Ron]

Lilith wrote: Ooooohhh, thank you, I wish this book existed when I was in high school. This would have helped me too.
I have been wondering what to do for this prompt, as I did all the assigned reading. I graduated early, so I thought I'd figure out what friends were reading for classes senior year.... but this book looks really good!

No problem.

I figure it would be okay to stretch this prompt a bit from not only 'a book you should have read in high school' but also to the idea of 'a book you wish you would have read in high school.'.

----

I graduated in 2007 so 'Quiet' is a bit late for me, but it would have been great to have had it back then.

[Ron]

Okay so I officially decided on my book for this prompt:

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States for Young People .

Even though this YA edition was published in 2019, it's still a book I wish I had read growing up. The only Indigenous history I was taught was the basics and often it was the Indigenous people who were viewed as villains. This book would have been perfect. Especially given that it asks questions that would be perfect for students to answer.

[Sherri]

I read Walden. It was agony. This is why I skipped it in high school.

[Robin H-R]

My choice for this prompt
The Red Badge of Courage

[Nadine in NY]

Robin wrote: "My choice for this prompt
The Red Badge of Courage"



I liked that book when we read it in highschool!! But I see a lot of people over the years saying they did not like it

[Tayjah]

1984 by George Orwell

[Themis]

I read The Scarlet Letter for this prompt.

[Heather L]

I read The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald for this one. While we did read it in high school, I was so bored with it that I never finished. Much better experience this time around.

[Heather]

I read The Once and Future King for this prompt. This wasn't my favorite Arthurian story. I think I would have enjoyed it more as a teenager before I'd read so many other Arthurian stories and retellings.

[Laura Ruth]

Not sure about "should," but everyone except me seems to have read The Catcher in the Rye in high school, so I went with that. Honestly found it tedious. Everything's "crumby," everyone's "phony," Holden hates it all.

If I had to pick a book everyone "should" read in high school, I'd go with one of the three autobiographies of Frederick Douglass.

[Amber Brianne]

Laura wrote: "Not sure about "should," but everyone except me seems to have read The Catcher in the Rye in high school, so I went with that. Honestly found it tedious. Everything's "crumby," everyone..."

But now you know why everyone hates Holden. lol

[Ashley Marie]

Oh I like Nadine's list of everything they read, let's see what I can remember:

Romeo and Juliet
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Hobbit
Lord of the Flies
Beowulf
Frankenstein
Macbeth - loved
On the Road
Into the Wild
The Sound and the Fury - haaaated
1984 - loved

[Amber Brianne]

Grapes of Wrath- Did anyone retain anything besides the breastfeeding scene? I loved to read assigned reading... I did not enjoy that one.

[Amber Brianne]

Ashley-No "Of Mice and Men?!?"

[Amber Brianne]

Let me see...What did I read in high school for assigned reading...

1984
Of Mice and Men
Death of a Salesman
Animal Farm
A Light in the Forest
Scarlet Letter
TKAM
Anne Frank (JH though?)
The Jungle
The Good Earth
LotF
The Outsiders (JH?)
Grapes of Wrath
Beowulf
Canterbury Tales
Raisin in the Sun
Our Town
The Crucible
Othello
Great Gatsby


Then, I taught high school English for 5 years and added to that list for sure! I have FOMO when it comes to books.

[Britany]

Finished Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Danielle]

I did all my assigned reading in high school, so I decided to read The People of Sparks --the sequel to The City of Ember which I did read in high school. Not sure why, but for some reason I never picked up the second book and thought this would be a great opportunity!

[Teri]

High school was so long ago (1975-78) that I can't remember all my assigned reading. But I'm sure I read it all. What I can remember is:

Romeo and Juliet
Julius Caesar (can still recite some of the Friends, Romans, Countrymen speech)
The Grapes of Wrath (I liked it more than most of you, apparently)
The Diary of a Young Girl
Of Mice and Men
Animal Farm
The Great Gatsby (not a fan)

I have never read The Scarlet Letter, so I'm counting it for this prompt.

[Anshita]

I am reading The Kitemaker by Ruskin Bond. It is a collection of fictional and non-fictional short stories. I remember reading his stories almost every year since the 8th grade. I think I might find a few in this book.

[Ashley Marie]

Amber Brianne wrote: "Ashley-No "Of Mice and Men?!?""

Good catch, Amber! I'm trying to remember if we read that one in middle school or high school - either way I remember disliking it until I worked on a staged play version in the 2010s.

Same for Grapes of Wrath, I think we only read a few snippets of it in school and I liked the stage play much better.

[Dixie]

After struggling with this prompt for awhile, this morning I looked up "most important books published in the 1970s" and saw All the President's Men. It was published in 1974. I was in high school 1975-77 so that would have been timely and very useful in teaching us what American politics, at the highest level, could degrade into.

[Dubhease]

I read Of Mice and Men

[Nadine in NY]

I am currently reading Willa Cather because I have never read her before, and my school's curriculum was woefully light on women authors (we had one: Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome, which is so incredibly cold and depressing, what high school student can identify with that??? I sure couldn't.)

I couldn't decide between O Pioneers! and My Ántonia. I finally chose Antonia, just randomly, and I am LOVING it!! And I know I would have loved this as a high school student, too! It's from a child's POV even! And it's educational about how immigrants managed when they first settled in the west. WHY was this not on my high school's reading list???

I am definitely going to read Pioneers, too.

[Heather L]

Nadine in NY wrote: "I am currently reading Willa Cather because I have never read her before, and my school's curriculum was woefully light on women authors (we had one: Edith Wharton…."

I’m glad you are enjoying My Ántonia. We read that in high school and I remember loving it. I read O Pioneers! in college and reread it fairly recently and liked it as well. I’ve just finished a collection of short stories by her, The Troll Garden and Selected Stories, which I also liked (it was a free Kindle edition).

[Jackie]

We had to read My Antonia in high school and I hated it. I think I was just very bored with it, because I remember liking other similar works at that time. Maybe the teacher I had just didn't do a good job with it or something. Honestly, there's so many books I read in high school that I hated that I might have liked if I didn't have to do the horrible school assignments that went with it.

[Lilith]

I was always did the assigned readings; in general, I enjoyed them.
I remember a summer reading list we had - a pretty loose guide. I read Go Tell It On the Mountain by James Baldwin for a different challenge. So, I read The Fire Next Time.
His work is still sorely needed in 2023! His writing is penetrating and scorching, and I highly recommend it!

[Erin]

I decide to approach this prompt as a book that would have had an impact on high school me. With that, I went with Nat Turner by Kyle Baker. Going into the graphic novel, I vaguely knew who Nat Turner was but honestly couldn't recall much and to Baker's point in the introduction of the novel, Nat Turner is a name we hear a lot but not one most people know a whole lot about.... which again is why I picked this book.

My thoughts having read it is.... the graphic novel is ..... pretty violent. Like depictions of children being killed... violent. However, I think that's the point... to remind you just how violent slavery was and right or wrong how that brutality fueled Nat Turner's violence.

Anyhow, high school me would have been blown away by this graphic novel... so I felt like this checked the box for this prompt.

[Katy]

I'm reading the The Black Unicorn for this one. I read the first one in this series (Magic Kingdom for Sale/Sold) for my high school's reading competition team and I should've continued on with the series. I just reread the first one and I thought it was even better as an adult!