I feel that more classics and world literature should be required. The literature I've been exposed to in advanced English classes has been, at best, unenjoyable. The purpose is to inspire students to love literature, not hate it.

A few books I've enjoyed have been "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe, "The Stranger" by Albert Camus, "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee (although that was year eight, not technically high school), "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare, and... well, that's all that really comes to mind.

I'd love it if we'd read "Abundance" by Sena Jeter Naslund, "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath, "The Red Tent" by Anita Diamant, "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë, "Kitchen" by Banana Yoshimoto, "Gone With The Wind" by Margaret Mitchell, "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess, "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini, "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini, "Water For Elephants" by Sara Gruen, "Animal Farm" by George Orwell, and "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. These are all novels that I've read and loved, and I believe that high school students (especially in advanced classes) would benefit from reading these books and others in a similar vein. Novels such as "Abundance," "Gone With The Wind," and Khaled Hosseini's novels provide historical and modern insight into events that students can easily feel detached from, broadening their education of the world, whereas "Animal Farm" and "Brave New World" are warnings of the future.

I recognize the limitations of curriculum and what's "appropriate" for high school students, but students definitely need greater exposure to the world around them, both the tangible world and the world of literature.

I'm actually not that into the classics. Some are good, like 1984 and Catcher in the Rye, but Stephen King is one of the greatest writers i've ever read.

The Stand should be an optional one (since it's so fuckin' long) and some of the stories from Different Seasons should also be it (Apt Pupil, Shawshank Redemption and The Body).

Liberty and Tyranny by Mark Levin

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So much to choose from it's difficult to say but I would definately add two from James Frey which include "A Million Little Peces" and "My Friend Leonard." Both are proclaimed to be true stories and I believe the second one is...there was some debate about the first one but that does not take away from the content or the fullness of the experience of either. Great reading. Even if you don't have to...start with "A Million Little Pieces."