The Awkward Black Man: Stories by Walter Mosley. “I’d never read any Mosley before, but a friend said this was probably his best one, and I took advantage of the recommendation. Quirky, funny, and slightly sad stories. The title says it all.” ~Tara Campbell

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis. “There are a number of reasons for teaching this comic masterpiece on campuses throughout the world, but it’s unlikely that college administrators would willfully welcome the opportunity to gaze into the mirror of this text, only to see themselves painted as soulless buffoons.” ~Drew Gallagher

Animal Farm by George Orwell. “It’s short enough for even the laziest to read, with plenty of symbolism and metaphor and stuff teachers like to talk about, while heartbreaking and clear about the route to a totalitarian state, one on which we are traveling. Perhaps too dangerous a book for current times.” ~David O. Stewart

Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence. “They still aren’t likely to assign Lawrence’s last novel due to the intimate scenes, language, and profanity, but it was a significant book when published in 1928, as it defined the differences between the English upper classes and those below them.” ~Andrew M. Mayer

The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. “It would be great if this comic series was taught in 12th grade. The emotional excavation undertaken by Morpheus is riveting, with the moral and philosophical allegories going down like sugar thanks to the beautiful graphics. Teaching these books in high school would also provide food for thought on separating (and not separating) artistic value from authorial controversy.” ~Dorothy Reno

Principia Discordia: Or, How I Found Goddess and What I Did to Her When I Found Her by Malaclypse the Younger. “It’s DIY from the Age of Aquarius and the biblezine of Eris, goddess of Discord. A tonic for ‘scientific’ times. If your phone rings, water it.” ~Michael Maiello

The Sellout: A Novel by Paul Beatty. “In this wildly satirical novel, protagonists Bonbon and Hominy draw attention to racial strife by growing watermelons, resegregating transportation, and restoring slavery. In the process, Beatty — who is African American — forces readers to reexamine notions of racial progress.” ~John P. Loonam

United States: Essays 1952-1992 by Gore Vidal. “‘We are the United States of Amnesia, which is encouraged by a media that has no desire to tell us the truth about anything, serving their corporate masters who have other plans to dominate us,’ Vidal once said. Students and other patriots would be well-served to read his collected essays to see how we got here and how we may yet escape.” ~Michael Causey

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman. “This 1985 book explores the bleak societal consequences when we lose our appreciation and aspiration for high culture and folk culture and instead rely on entertainment culture to make sense of ourselves and our world.” ~Samantha Neugebauer

The Complete Works of François Rabelais by François Rabelais. “This one is just fun, albeit sometimes naughty.” ~Paul D. Pearlstein

Nightbitch: A Novel by Rachel Yoder. “This novel is, in my opinion, a fictionally honest and essential account of how mothers are monsters, artists, love machines, guilt pits. They are savage, selfless women, one of whom turned herself inside out to birth you, dear student.” ~Mary Kay Zuravleff

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. “This is an owner’s manual for planet Earth, explaining all sorts of scientific things — as small as atoms and as large as the universe — in clear and often hilarious English.” ~Randy Cepuch

In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes. “This 1947 masterpiece by a prolific but long-forgotten noir-crime writer is a must for the budding college author. A spare novel, ostensibly about the sudden appearance of a post-WWII serial killer in Southern California, it is a beautifully crafted, terrifying psychological study of a handsome, murderous predator. Hughes out-Highsmiths Patricia Highsmith.” ~Diane Kiesel

The Teacher Wars: A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession by Dana Goldstein. “Goldstein’s exploration of the many ways in which teachers have been subjected to political pressures and moral panics that have little or nothing to do with their ability to teach will be an eye-opener for students — and their parents.” ~Marcie Geffner

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. “A canonical work of English literature by a woman author, Shelley’s richly protean Frankenstein will provoke and reward classroom discussion from countless angles of vision, in either historicist or ‘presentist’ terms, at any level of secondary or higher education. The tale is also an engrossing read and, from James Whale to Mel Brooks, an icon of popular culture.” ~Charles Caramello

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens. “The title is enough to send vigilantes for their pitchforks and educators to their safe rooms. Hitchens gives a sardonic take on religion’s inconsistencies, penchant for righteous violence, and foundational documents imagined by far-removed ‘witnesses’ who can’t get their stories straight. It’s a thought-provoking treatise for the devout or the apostate.” ~C.B. Santore

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. “This 1979 book is a classic, but not the sort that makes it onto class reading lists. An inspired public-school teacher did assign it to one of my kids before being elevated (or demoted) to administrator. It’s fun and funny and has everything — including the destruction of Earth, space travel, and the secret of life.” ~Ellen Prentiss Campbell

The War of Our Childhood: Memories of World War II by Wolfgang W.E. Samuel. “Wanna start a war? Read this book, and you’ll chicken out fast. Samuel was 10 in 1945 when the Red Army hit his German town. His story and his interviews with 27 fellow Germans report atrocities, bombings, family deaths, postwar hunger, etc., all as seen by youngsters. Put kids through these horrors again? Only psychopaths would do it.” ~Stephen Case

White Cat, Black Dog: Stories by Kelly Link. “This collection of short stories should be assigned in any class on myths and mythology. Link’s stories, where cats speak and a house-sitter receives visitors from another world, make Homer’s Odyssey sound like a trip to the grocery store.” ~Cathy Alter

A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor. “In 1933, young Fermor, lacking money and prospects, determined to traverse Europe on foot. Fortuitously, he was fearless, sociable, and a gifted writer, and his three years’ worth of journals provide an incomparable record of a Europe that would soon vanish forever.” ~Elizabeth J. Moore

Dinner with King Tut: How Rogue Archaeologists Are Re-Creating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations by Sam Kean. “Look out, traditional archaeologists...there’s a new sheriff in town. ‘Rogue archaeology’ is the redheaded stepchild of the academic field, one that recreates elements of ancient peoples’ lives across cultures and time through experimentation. This book captures the findings in a fun and insightful way that will stick with students.” ~Peggy Kurkowski

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. “This funny, horrifying, and deeply profound novel is a science-fiction masterpiece. Miller’s vision of a world torn asunder by nuclear war and embroiled in a struggle between the forces of religion and science is as relevant for our time as it was when first published in 1959.” ~Raima Larter

Girl Boner: The Good Girl’s Guide to Sexual Empowerment by August McLaughlin. “The title says it all. It’s a book I give to my nieces. It’s a book I wish I had been given when I was in college. Female empowerment via pride and strength and pleasure...a vital message that resonates now more than ever.” ~Heidi Mastrogiovanni

Orbital: A Novel by Samantha Harvey. “Thinking about what kids need to read and understand now, I nominate Orbital for its poetry, for its convincing verisimilitude, and, above all, for its clear understanding of the beauty, fragility, and oneness of this Earth we call home.” ~Marilyn Oser

[…] by Fady Joudah. “This work by Palestinian American poet Joudah should be required reading. It has no title but a bracketed ellipsis because the Gazan genocide is unspeakable. Enough of hollow words. This poetry is authentic and deeply humanizing and, as such, possesses the power to stir hearts and minds into meaningful action.” ~Amanda Holmes Duffy

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need by Daniel H. Pink. “Every student staring down entry into the workforce should read this. Schools may dismiss it, given its manga-style presentation, but it contains invaluable advice, including ‘Think strengths, not weaknesses’ and ‘Persistence trumps talent.’ Soft skills are simply not taught but are the most important part of your job hunt.” ~Chris Rutledge

The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter. “Along with a handful of other seminal books, this history did more to open my eyes to whiteness as an artificial construct invented to oppress Black people than any other. It connects the dots between the relatively recent invention of whiteness; a form of Christianity linked to colonial power and imperialization; the connections between capitalism and slavery; and so much more. It is thorough and revelatory. A must-read.” ~Martha Anne Toll

The Quick & the Dead: A Novel by Joy Williams. “Williams’ second novel follows three unusual teenagers as they explore a landscape of wildlife, crime, and occasional ghosts. This book opens like a portal to a world of ordinary strangeness, and more students should be offered entrance.” ~Molly McGinnis

American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard. “This book dives deep into our country’s origins to explore how patterns of settlement are still affecting us. It would help students understand why we’re less of a melting pot than a rich, lumpy stew.” ~Anne Cassidy

The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 by Rashid Khalidi. “Impeccably researched and beautifully written, this book is a vital text for college-level courses in Middle Eastern history. It’s particularly important now at a time when Palestinian history (and even existence) is being actively erased and even speaking these words is, at best, politically dangerous.” ~Rose Rankin

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. “In 1885, the Concord, Massachusetts, Public Library banned Huckleberry Finn for racism. Twain’s unforgettable characters — flawed and deeply lovable — mirror the complex morality of the antebellum South and of our country 140 years later. To understand a Civil War that still divides us, this Great American Novel has never been more relevant.” ~Anne Eliot Feldman   

Fool: A Novel by Christopher Moore. “I’m not saying this exquisitely bawdy, laugh-out-loud-hysterical story starring Pocket of Dog Snogging — aka King Lear’s jester — is a better introduction to Shakespeare than the Bard’s actual works, but I’m not not saying it, either.” ~Holly Smith