Crime, Mysteries & Thrillers discussion

I was wondering what books people read, while they were in school, that they loved and still remember. Why do you think that book had such an affect on you? Have you reread it recently and did that change its meaning for you?

My favorites from high school were Gulliver's Travels and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I actually reread both of them last year and still love the stories and the writing styles. I can't pinpoint why they stuck with me, I think part of it was my English teacher, Mrs. Drury.

Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court.
I re-read it a few years ago and got just as much of a kick out of it as I did in high school. Perhaps more as I have learned much in the intervening years.

In 12th Grade we read The Plague. Boy, that made an impression.

I had to read Kindred for American Lit my junior year of high school, and Holes in 6th grade. They both stuck with me, even though they weren't necessarily books I would have picked out for myself. In 6th grade, I read a lot of Babysitters Club and Dear America books, with the occasional fantasy/science fiction book thrown in for good measure. By junior year, my tastes had evolved to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, Ann Rinaldi, and Lois Duncan- I didn't read much about time-traveling black women who save their ancestors.

Rebecca to this day one if my favorites

Jennifer wrote: "In 12th Grade we read The Plague. Boy, that made an impression."

Never heard of this before just read it the blurb-- good lord I think your teacher wanted everyone to kill themselves.

The Necklace by Guy de Maupessant.

I read so much in school...I was such a book worm I would spend lunch times in the library! At primary school it was The Magic Far Away Tree, the Asterix comics, Wonder Woman comics & I was obsessed with Trixie Belden. Then in secondary school there were books like My Name is Asher Lev.

But then there were two books that changed my life forever. When I was around 12 I read To Kill a Mockingbird for the first time & it was the first time I realised that a book could make you so happy, sad, break your heart, make it soar, make you fall in love with a fictional character. Then I was around 15 when I read The Crucible (a play I know but we read it as a text) & I realised what I was meant to be doing with my life. I've been making theatre ever since!

I think A Tale of Two Cities may be my favorite from my HS years, but I remember enjoying A Separate Peace (read in MS, I think), some Shakespeare (particularly Twelfth Night) and a good bit of D.H. Lawrence. I was in an Indepedent Study Lit class my senior year, and the first semester was spent on Lawrence & W.B. Yeats.

I read Lady Chatterley's Lover with a brown paper covering.

And Then There Were None.
It's my favorite and I've re-read it a couple of times.

Mickey wrote: "And Then There Were None.
It's my favorite and I've re-read it a couple of times."

My junior high English class was assigned this book.it was my introduction to mysteries. I went on to read all of Agatha Christie's books and then on to discover other mystery writers. Great book.

Lord of the Rings.

Portia wrote: "The Necklace by Guy de Maupessant."

Oh,yeah.

"To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. I re-read it this summer and loved every word.

I loved 'To Kill a Mockingbird' 'The Crucible' and 'A Streetcar Named Desire'. I have re-read them many times as an adult, and with each reading I get more out of them!

For me it was The Worlg according to Garp by John Irving. it was the first'grownup' book i read and to this day I still love that book

In college, decades ago, we were assigned to read "The Lord of The Rings" series. I did not think I would like the books much, as they involved war, violence, etc. I can still, clearly remember sitting under an oak tree, on the campus green, with my nose buried in "The Hobbit". In fact, I missed classes, due to being so involved in the story! I have read and re-read them, since then, and I still cherish them all. P.S. The books far outshine the movies. If you read them, be careful not to read the "movie" versions of same, as they differ quite a lot.

I read Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman for an American Lit class in college and loved it!!

From high school, two short stories that I have never forgotten are The Lottery by Shirley Jackson and An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce.

Great Gatsby must be the classic case of a book that changes its meaning over time. At least to me. I remember reading it when I was twelve and liking it. But I've also read it at least once every ten years since and it seems to have more and more to offer every time. If anybody has read it when they were twelve and not gone back to it since, they really need to do that. It's probably not the same book they remember.

I remember reading The Source and loving it too!

One that has never left me

Slaughterhouse-Five when in high school.

A Separate Peace -- unbelievably tragic.

by Anne Frank

by Frank Herbert

This is the book that started me on science fiction. I just wish they'd make a decent movie/miniseries out of it.

Diane wrote: " by Frank Herbert

This is the book that started me on science fiction. I just wish they'd make a decent movie/miniseries out of it."

Magnificent book!

I loved when I read it in high school. One of the most memorable book I read.

3 that stuck with me were:

The Great Gatsby

Wuthering Heights

The Outsiders

I also enjoyed any of the Shakespeare plays we studied, and I see someone else also mentioned A Streetcar Named Desire. I have to admit I enjoyed all our A-level texts.

I read a lot growing up but on my own time. I didn't get much assigned reading and actually can't remember anything other than To kill a mockingbird. Definitely need to re-read that, forgot almost everything.

Three I remember reading in school that really stuck with me are To Kill a Mockingbird,Fahrenheit 451and The Canterbury Tales

The first book I remember checking out from the school library was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! Long before it was a movie, and long before Johnny Depp for that matter!! I loved that book. Read it in a weekend sitting in my Dad's leather recliner. I could not put it down. That was back in the early 70's.

When I was in 7th grade, my English teacher lent me The Agony and the Ecstasy. The book was about Michaelangelo. Up until that point in time, it was the largest book I had ever read. I loved it and I often think of that story and her kindness in lending it to me.

At our high school the focus was on getting students to read anything, period. I do remember taking a class with the French teacher where we read and discussed "Richard the III" and watched a movie version -- that has stayed with me for some reason.

So on my own, I didn't read many classics in the sense of "To Kill a Mockingbird." But I did read Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood," which freaked both my mom and my teachers a bit. That was along with the usual Agatha Christie's, Conan Doyle, Peter Ellis, etc. ...

Leigh wrote: "I was wondering what books people read, while they were in school, that they loved and still remember."

Great question! I read many books for school--that is assigned school reading--elementary through college. When I read this question, several books popped out at me right away--To Kill a Mockingbird, The Scarlet Letter, The Lion in Winter, Macbeth, The Canterbury Tales, The Crucible, etc. I'm sure if I thought about it more, I'd come up with even more. (I read Becket when I was in 7th or 8th grade, but it wasn't assigned reading. I think it was my older brother's book.)

I fell in love with reading as a kid, making my way through Nancy Drew and Little House among others things ( Becket!!). My parents had shelves of books we could read--everything from mystery/adventure (Ian Fleming, Mickey Spillane, and Carter Brown) to romance (various) to autobiography and biography (Jean Shepherd, etc.). We frequented the library and used bookstores. I had older and younger siblings with books (both assigned and gifted). School fostered my love with an introduction a wide variety to literature and authors and genres that made me love it all the more. Reading is the greatest gift one can ever receive in a lifetime!

On the flip side, I remember hating (assigned reading) The Old Man and the Sea and The Grapes of Wrath, both for pretty much the same reason. The Old Man caught the fish in an early chapter and the rest of the book was him holding on to that fish chapter after chapter after chapter. Same with the Joads and that dang road. Maybe I was too young to appreciate the stories themselves, but to this day, I cannot watch those movies and I cannot bring myself to reread those books.

When I was in 7th grad, I read Dumas' The Three Musketeers and loved it. I've read it again and loved the movie versions. It made me a big fan of Dumas, and I've read most o his books.

Margaret, you would probably love The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo as it is about Dumas' father and how his father's exploits were recreated in "The Three Musketeers" and "The Count of Monte Cristo."

I did read The Black Count. In fact. I own the book-got it for Christmas the year it came out. Loved it.

To Kill a a mockingbird and Tail OF Two Cities. It's time to read them again.

A Separate Peace. I read this book in the 1960s when I was I high school. The story stuck with me all these decades so I read it again recently. I am as impressed with it now as I was then. Recommend.

Portia wrote: "A Separate Peace. I read this book in the 1960s when I was I high school. The story stuck with me all these decades so I read it again recently. I am as impressed with it now as I was..."

I really need to re-read that one. I remember it stuck with me in high school too.

I had the most awesome 6th grade teacher. He read us books like James and the Giant Peach, Where the Red Fern Grows The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. I too read books at the library in junior high. Required reading in HS included some Shakespeare, The Crusible Lord of the Flies etc. I too detested Old Man and the Sea... The first and only book I used Cliff Notes to get through the book. lol. I also had a most awesome senior English teacher who suggested scififant books. Besides all those, I too read Tolkien, Dumas, Bronte, Nancy Drew, Linda Craig, Blyton and more. I got most listed in my profile. It helped when my Mum read aloud to us

A Tale of Two Cities - hands down.

Reaching the Heights , To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men.All great books which we were lucky to read in school especially To Kill A MockingBird, great insight into the racism interwined into society in the 1960s

An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestly.

Re-read it recently because my son was reading it at school. I forgot how good a read it was, love the twists!

Wuthering Heights. Read it when I was nine. Then read it when I was seventeen and realised it wasn't just an adventure story.

Fahrenheit 451 and To Kill A Mockingbird
Both exceptional books and have great themes and plots.

To Kill a Mockingbird
Watership Down
Things Fall Apart
Monkey Beach