Classics

Louisa May Alcott- Little Women (6ecommended by English Literature A-level students)

Jane Austen- Pride and Prejudice

Charlotte Bronte- Jane Eyre (recommended by Miss Gough)

Emily Bronte- Wuthering Heights

Charles Dickens- A Tale of Two Cities

Graham Greene- The Quiet American and The Third Man (both recommended by Mrs Quainton) and Our Man in Havana (recommended by Dr Sutton)

Laurie Lee- Cider with Rosie (recommended by Mrs Quainton)

Daphne Du Maurier- Rebecca (recommended by Ms Pollard; a gothic page-turner)

F Scott Fitzgerald- The Great Gatsby

Harper Lee- To Kill A Mocking Bird

George Orwell- Nineteen Eighty-Four (recommended by Dr Sutton and Ms Pollard; this is where ‘Big Brother’ society originates.  Be warned, parts of this aren’t for the faint-hearted.)

George Orwell- Down and Out in Paris and London (recommended by Miss Lenihan)

Arthur Ransome- Swallows and Amazons (recommended by Miss Gough)

J D Salinger- The Catcher in the Rye

Autobiography

Maya Angelou- I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Vera Brittain- Testament of Youth

Frank McCourt- Angela’s Ashes

Lorna Sage- Bad Blood

James D Watson- The Double Helix (recommended by A-level students who love Science; a personal account of the discovery of DNA)

Modern Fiction

Douglas Adams- Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Cecilia Aherne- If You Could See Me Now (recommended by A-level English Lit students)

Kate Atkinson- Behind the Scenes at the Museum

Pat Barker- Regeneration (recommended by Ms Pollard; a trilogy dealing with the psychological effects of the First World War)

Bernard Beckett – Genesis (recommended by Miss Cooke. This has lots of ideas about life and what it is to be human)

Malorie Blackman- The Stuff of Nightmares (recommended by Miss Lenihan)

Ann Brashares- I Am Memory (recommended by Miss Cooke)

Melvin Burgess- Junk (recommended by Miss Cooke)

Albert Camus- The Outsider (recommended by Dr Sutton)

Raymond Chandler- The Big Sleep (recommended by Mrs Quainton)

Stephen Chbosky- The Perks of Being a Wallflower (recommended by Miss Lenihan)

Tom Clancy- Command Authority (recommended by English Literature A-level students)

Joseph Conrad- Heart of Darkness (recommended by Mr Howard)

Robert Cormier- After the First Death (Recommended by Miss Cooke; this book it banned in America!)

Emma Donoghue- Stirfry (a ‘coming out’ novel set in Dublin in the 1990s)

Fyodor Dostoevsky- Notes from Underground (recommended by Dr Sutton)

Roddy Doyle- Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha!

Sebastian Faulks- Birdsong (First World War and a love story)

Ian Fleming- From Russia With Love (if you like James Bond)

Alan Garner- Owl Service (recommended by Miss Gough)

Philippa Gregory- The Other Boleyn Girl (recommended by Miss Lenihan)

Paula Hawkins- The Girl on the Train (recommended by A-level students; psychological thriller)

Ernest Hemmingway- The Old Man and the Sea (recommended by Dr Sutton)

Robin Horsfall- Fighting Scared (recommended by A-level students; Rob Horsfall shot and killed the terrorist commander inside the Iranian Embassy when the SAS stormed the building)

Nick Hornby- About A Boy and Fever Pitch

Khalid Hosseini- A Thousand Splendid Suns (recommended by Miss Lenihan)

Richard Hughes- A High Wind in Jamaica (recommended by Miss Gough)

Kasuo Ishiguro- Never Let Me Go (recommended by Ms Pollard; a dystopian novel dealing with what it is to be human)

M.R James- Collected Ghost Stories (recommended by Miss Gough; best ghost stories ever!)

Robert Ludlum- The Bourne Identity

Yann Martel- The Life of Pi

Andy McNab- Recoil (recommended by A-level students; action-packed military novel)

David Nicholls- One Day

Jean Rhys- Wide Sargasso Sea (recommended by Mrs Quainton)

Chris Ryan- Bravo Two Zero (recommended by A-level students; special forces operative and soldier)

Bernhard Schlink- The Reader (recommended by Ms Pollard; an inventive and harrowing novel about the Holocaust)

John Steinbeck- The Moon is Down (recommended by Mrs Quainton)

Katherine Stockett- The Help

Sue Townsend- The Queen and I (recommended by Ms Pollard; Sue Townend is laugh out loud funny)

Sarah Waters- The Little Stranger

Evelyn Waugh- Decline and Fall (recommended by Dr Sutton)

Tim Winton- Cloud Street (recommended by Mr Howard)

Marcus Zusack- The Book Thief and I am Messenger (both recommended by Miss Cooke)

Graphic novels

Neil Gaiman- The Sandman

Alan Moore- From Hell and V is for Vendetta

Art Spigelman- Maus (recommended by Ms Pollard; a new way of learning about the Holocaust)

Poetry

Carol Ann Duffy- The Bees and Meantime (recommended by Ms Pollard)

T.S. Eliot: Selected Poems.

Frank O’Hara: Selected Poems (recommended by Dr Sutton)

Sylvia Plath: Selected Poems

Rosemary Tonks: Selected Poems (recommended by Dr Sutton)