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Paideia High School Summer Reading 2025: Booklists for Every Reader

New York Times

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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 2025 (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, 2000-2024

"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.

The Best American Poetry of the 21st Century (so far)
A Flavorwire list, leaning more toward the modern and contemporary.

50 Essential Books of Poetry That Everyone Should Read
From The Atlantic - "The 25 most consequential collections from the past 25 years."

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 2024

Most Frequently Challenged Books Archive ( 2001-2023)

NPR Recommended Reads

“Books We Love”: Great Reads, Thoughtfully Curated
Nearly 4,000 recommendations from NPR staff and trusted critics; filter by year, genre and/or age group. Start with "2024 + Young Adult"

“We Did It for the LOLs”: NPR’s Favorite 100 Funny Books
A 2019 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 (2022).

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

 

Page-to-Screen

 42 Book-to-Screen Adaptations to Add to Your 2025 Reading List
65 Book-to-Screen Adaptations to Add to Your 2024 Reading List
Annual roundups from Vulture.com -- new movie adaptations of fiction, non-fiction, children's, YA, adult and graphic novels.

53 YA Books That Have Been 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 works, and citations for finding the rest.

75 Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time
An updated-in-2024 list from Esquire magazine