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Paideia High School Summer Reading 2024: Booklists for Every Reader

New York Times

For full access to New York Times articles & book reviews, activate your free online Times subscription with your @paideiaschool.org email account.  Info and instructions under the Paideia NYTimes tab.

Young Adult Paperback Bestsellers (updated monthly)
- click the arrows on either side of the <Month Year> link for previous or next month's list

The New York Times Best Books of 2024 (So Far)
"The nonfiction and novels [they] can’t stop thinking about."

The Book Review’s Best Books Since 2000
Click & sort 24 years of The Times' favorite Fiction & Non-Fiction, 2000-2023

"What To Read Next" by the NYTimes Book Staff

Open Culture Book Lists

Open Culture is an amazing online resource with a mission "to bring together high-quality cultural & educational media for the worldwide lifelong learning community. It’s all free. It’s all enriching."  These are just some of the reading lists you can find there.

22 Essential Books: A List by F. Scott Fitzgerald
“These are books that Scott thought should be required reading.” (1936)

The Harvard Classics: Free and Online
A collection of 51 the world's most influential books, compiled by a Harvard president and published in 1909.

20 Books in the High School Literature Canon
The classics, with links to downloadable ebook and audio versions.

Poetry

50 Must-Read Best Poetry Books
A BookRiot list, from the classics to now.

50 Essential Books of Poetry That Everyone Should Read
A Flavorwire list, leaning more toward the modern and contemporary.

Native American Works

Top 110 Books by Indigenous Masters 
- own voices books reflecting the Native American experience, published in School Library Journal

Modern Library's Lists

Modern Library's "100 Best" Project (1998)
The goal of the “100 Best” project was to get people talking about great books. More than 400,000 avid readers cast votes for their favorite books.

100 Best Novels

100 Best Non-Fiction

Read a Banned Book

Any attempt to remove or restrict access to a book that was previously available in a school library, a teacher’s syllabus, or a bookstore, is counted as a challenge. A successful challenge is counted as a Banned Book. The American Library Association has been tracking book challenges since 1990.

Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2023

Most Frequently Challenged Books Archive ( 2001-2023)

NPR Recommended Reads

“We Did It for the LOLs”: NPR’s Favorite 100 Funny Books
A readers + expert list of 100 reads designed to make you laugh out loud.

NPR's Book Picks for All 50 States (+DC & PR)
Authors, bookshop owners and librarians recommend Quintessential reads that illuminate the state where they live.

NPR’s Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels
Results of a 2011 reader survey

Page-to-Screen

65 Book-to-Screen Adaptations to Add to Your 2024 Reading List (from Vulture) -

New movie adaptations of fiction, non-fiction, children's, YA, adult and graphic novels.

53 YA Books That Have Been (And Will Be) Adapted for the Screen (from Epic Reads) 

Young adult novels, new and not-so-new, to read before you watch.

Science Fiction Lists

100 Great Sci Fi Stories by Women
Links to 20 online full-text short fiction, and citations for finding the rest.

50 Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time
A 2022 list from Esquire magazine