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)