10 Required High School Reads Worth Diving Into Again

"I always love a good satire, and Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle is a perfect example. It's packed with heavier themes like love, death, and the hunger for power, but it's so well balanced with wittiness and absurdity. It's a quick read that doesn't really feel like sci-fi. I'm sure half of it went over my head when I read it sophomore year, but I loved it nonetheless." — Ryan Roschke, assistant editor, entertainment

"The Catcher in the Rye really caught my attention, because who isn't moody and totally over everything in high school?" — Maggie Pehanick, editor, entertainment

"As soon as I checked out Catcher in the Rye for English class, I started reading it. Even though it wasn't assigned yet. My enthusiasm might have hurt my GPA overall, since I would hide it in my geometry book during class and read it instead of paying attention. It was too good to put down!" — Annie Gabillet, managing director, living

"I had my ups and downs with John Steinbeck in school (I could barely get through Grapes of Wrath both times it was assigned), but something about East of Eden spoke to me. I loved the story of nature vs. nurture, the family drama that spanned generations, and the rich Northern California setting that Steinbeck described so well. It's even one of those cases where the book is still way better than the movie — and the movie stars James Dean, so that's saying something." — Shannon Vestal Robson, director, entertainment

"Not only is To Kill a Mockingbird my favorite book from high school, but it's one of my favorites to read in general. Scout Finch is such a precocious, astute character, and it's one of the only books out there where I love the movie just as much!" — Brittney Stephens, lead editor, celebrity

"There's nothing I love more than a coming-of-age story, and I remember finishing Speak in one sitting when it was assigned my freshman year. Melinda, the main character, manages to be both witty and sincere, and I've been gripped by her dark, compelling story every time I've reread the book. (There's a bonus for Kristen Stewart fans, too — she stars in the 2004 film adaptation.)" — Laura Marie Meyers, editor, news

"Lord of the Flies was used as a tool to introduce me to symbolism, and I think what made it better was the woman who taught it to me. The prose and sequences are incredibly compelling, so much so that I was completely engrossed in the story. I felt like I was going insane with everyone else. It's one of the few books I actually read cover to cover in high school." — Ryan Roschke, assistant editor, entertainment

"In my junior year of high school, I had my first experience with the works of Charles Dickens when we were assigned A Tale of Two Cities. At first I was intimidated (and later, as I struggled with the language, frustrated), but once I got into the story, I was completely captivated. You might even say it was the best of times and the worst of times." — Becky Kirsch, senior director, editorial

"The Duchess of Malfi has murder, corruption, lycanthropia, incest . . . All excellent things to educate a 16-year-old about!" — Gemma Cartwright, editor, UK fashion and beauty

"The Great Gatsby was thrust back into the spotlight thanks to the 2013 movie, but I first fell in love with the story in my sophomore year English class. Love, nostalgia, the 1920s — Fitzgerald captured it all with such poignant, poetic language, and the characters are just unforgettable. It's a classic for a reason!" — Laura Marie Meyers, editor, news

"My most memorable high school read has to be Tess of the D'Urbervilles, which I studied in my final year. There were two separate groups for English literature lessons, and I remember being really annoyed that we had to read 'boring' Thomas Hardy while the other group got Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which I thought was far more "me." It ended up being the first school book in a long time that I loved so much, I read ahead long before we finished it in class. Hardy's world was so much darker than the classic British novels I'd read up to that point and opened up a whole new world to me." — Gemma Cartwright, editor, UK fashion and beauty