Having spent a good portion of my professional life in a fervent attempt to excite young people about the joys and importance of literature, it saddens me that we may be failing in that regard. Recent statistics related to the reading habits of adolescents are both alarming and discouraging. Apparently, twenty percent of high school seniors report that they have never finished a book. Fifty-one percent claim to read only one or two books per year including titles that are required academic reading. Seventy-one percent say that they rarely or never read for fun.

Based on data from a recent Americans Time Use Survey the percentage of Americans reading for pleasure on any given day has declined by thirty percent since 2004. The data indicates that only twenty-eight percent of Americans over the age of fifteen read for pleasure on any given day.

As someone who has always found enjoyment, solace and escape in reading, I find it mind-boggling that others do not get the same joy and intellectual stimulus from diving into a good book, short story or poem. Reading provides opportunities to experience trials and adventures through another person’s experience. There are those who prefer to have those experiences through films and other media. I have yet to view the film version of a book that I can honestly say provided better experience on screen.

This sad state of affairs tends to illuminate the current state in our country. We have a population of citizens who are less informed and unable or unwilling to delve more deeply into issues. More importantly, many are unable to see the world through another person’s experience because of their inability or unwillingness to read. Whether reading for enjoyment, or to become informed, reading is a gradually dying activity.  

One instance from my many years of struggle to promote reading comes to mind . This instance often kept me going when I was discouraged by the level of disinterest demonstrated by many students. In my second year as a young teacher, I provided a list of books for students to choose from for free reading time. Each book had a brief synopsis of the characters and plot. A young man was fairly adamant that he wanted a particular book, but the school library was missing the copies. He seemed fairly adamant  about that title so I told him I would get it for him. Over the weekend I found the book at the public library. It was relatively short so I decided to read it over the weekend. On Monday I gave the book to the student, and as he read it over the next few weeks, I would check in with him and we would talk about the book and the characters. When he was finished with the book, he returned it to me and thanked me for getting it for him. What he said next floored me. He said that it was the first book he had ever read from beginning to end. That was inconceivable to me. That student went on to read many more books and is now a successful attorney. Unfortunately, his experience was not the norm.

In the midst of the general malaise surrounding our national reading habits, I continue to enjoy getting lost in a good book as well as sharing and discussing them with fellow readers. What follows is my list of ten fiction books that stand out for me among the long list of titles I have enjoyed over the years. Some are books that I have had the pleasure to use with students, and are classics of the American canon. As with any list, it is difficult to include only ten and the list could change at any time.

My Brother’s Keeper

Author: Marcia Davenport

Published: 1954

I include this novel because it is the first adult novel that I remember reading and getting lost in. I distinctly remember I was thirteen or fourteen and looking for something to read and finding this book lying around. I picked it up and started reading and barely put it down for the next couple of weeks. The book follows the lives of two brothers, Seymour and Randall Holt, and is based on the lives of the two real-life brothers, the Collyer brothers, who were found dead in their New York brownstone some years earlier. The conditions of squalor that were discovered in the brownstone lead to a great deal of inquiry and to this fictional accounting. The Holt brothers are raised and controlled in a home ruled by an over-bearing grandmother and weak mother which eventually leads to them being recluses. The novel describes the isolated and bizarre lives they lead in that house as they descend into madness. They are eventually found dead in the midst of a hoarding nightmare featuring tunnels built using old newspapers that run throughout the house.

The Road

Author: Cormac McCarthy

Published: 2006

In this post-apocalyptic novel, a father and son travel through stark and dangerous terrain for months after an unexplained cataclysmic event destroys a good deal of the population and landscape. They are attempting to get to the East coast where there is the specter of a safer, more hospitable life. They must travel through areas where gangs present a dangerous gauntlet of theft, violence and possible cannibalism. Despite the many horrific things that they see and experience along their journey, the ending presents an interesting mixture of sadness and a flickering hope for the future.

American Dirt

Author: Jeanine Cummins

Published: 2020

A Mexican mother and her son must flee their comfortable home in Acapulco after her journalist husband and his family are brutally murdered by cartel members who control the area. There is an interesting plot scenario that involves the mother’s relationship with the cartel leader. The mother and son must make it to the U.S. in order to save their lives. The story illustrates with great clarity and nuance, the struggle that these characters, and the many others that they meet along their journey, must endure to escape the poverty and dangers faced daily by millions living in Central America and Mexico.

North River

Author: Pete Hamill

Published; 2007

The novel is set in depression-era New York. A local doctor moves through his daily life treating any and all of his neighbors and anyone else who needs him while he personally spends each day in a functional haze. His wife has left him and his daughter has moved to South America. One day he returns home to find that his daughter has deposited his three-year old grandson at his home with little or no explanation. He must now adjust his life to deal with raising this young boy. He hires an Italian nanny/housekeeper to help with the boy. Rose, the housekeeper, is harboring a secret which is gradually revealed as the doctor develops a relationship with both the boy and Rose. The doctor also finds himself in a tangled and dramatic situation involving the local mob which he must navigate to keep everyone safe.

Native Son

Author: Richard Wright

Published: 1940

Twenty-year-old Bigger Thomas lives with his family on Chicago’s South side. He is very unsure of his role in the world and understands that as a Black man he is opportunities are extremely limited. He and his friends contemplate committing crimes, but Bigger cleverly backs out. Bigger gets a job with a white family driving for them and doing other odd tasks. He befriends the daughter of the family who is a somewhat rambunctious and rebellious young girl. One night after she has spent the night partying and getting very drunk, he brings her home and attempts to put her to bed in her room. While doing that her blind mother enters, and Bigger, worried that he will be found in her room with her, attempts to keep her quiet by putting a pillow over her face. As a result, he accidently kills her. He decides to dispose of the body by placing it in the furnace. A series of additional actions and crimes occur as Bigger tries to cover up for his crime. Although his crimes are not excused in the book, the story does illustrate how the circumstances surrounding Bigger, and many of his fatal decisions, are driven by the environment of racism that exists in society.

The Grapes of Wrath

Author: John Steinbeck

Published: 1939

The story takes places during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl era. Tennant farmers living in Oklahoma are no longer able to farm the land and there is a great migration west to California. Tom Joad has just gotten out of prison and returns home to find his family preparing to leave Oklahoma and join the migration West. Tom decides to join them despite the fact that he is on parole. The story follows the family’s struggles as they make their way to California. When they arrive, they find that the promise of work and a better life are not exactly what they expected. There are far too many workers who have flooded California so jobs are not as plentiful and wages are low. The owners are cheating workers by paying lower wages, providing deplorable living conditions, and charging high prices for commodities. Some of the people with Tom get involved with trying to form a union and are in a constant battle with the owners and the people who are hired to keep the workers in line. Events lead to Tom killing a man who has killed his friend and he knows that he has to leave the family before he is caught. The family is left to fend for themselves and continue the struggle.

Lord of the Flies

Author: William Golding

Published: 1954

The novel is standard reading for students in grades eight-ten depending on the school. The novel is in response to the idea that a group of young men, given the correct upbringing, could fend for themselves and function as a coordinated group if the circumstances called for it. Golding wrote the book to illustrate what would actually occur in that scenario given our base instincts. A group of school boys headed to safe-haven during the war are stranded on an island when their plane crashes and the pilot is killed. There are no adults alive so they must organize themselves to survive. Initially, one boy takes charge and the decision is made to identify necessary tasks and to assign each boy to a task. One of the tasks is to build a signal fire and keep it constantly burning. Over time most of the boys decide to ignore their tasks and to have fun instead. As the leader and his supporters try to get the boys to perform their tasks, conflict leads to an opposing faction developing that takes over leadership and the boys breaking down into warring camps. Violence and death ensue as some of the boys lose their grip on reality.

Alaska

Author: James Michner

Published: 1988

With regard to James Michner, I could have chosen any one of a number of his books. I have found quite a few of them to be very interesting and educational. Reading a Michner book is a commitment as they tend to very long. Typical of most of his stories, Alaska begins with a semi-personification of the land mass that eventually over millions of years becomes what we know today as Alaska and Russia separated by the Bering Strait. He also personifies the early animal life, especially the mastodons and their experience in this region. This is a familiar technique that Michner uses in many of his books. He often begins the story by going as far back as possible to the geographical development and origins of species in the region he is writing about. Another technique is his integration of real historical figures with fictional characters that carry the narrative along. He informs the reader up front about the real historical characters. Reading one of Michner’s books is a dramatic lesson on the political and social development of the region. If you read enough of them you may begin to see overlapping and recurring themes throughout history.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Author: Harper Lee

Published: 1960

This novel has been used in just about every high school in America for many years until the recent assault on books that has begun in many communities. The story takes place in a small Alabama town in 1936. The town and its people are semi-autobiographical as Harper Lee grew up in a similar small Alabama town. The story centers around a little girl and her brother who are being raised by their widowed father who is a lawyer in town. He is a highly principled man who is not afraid to do what is right and sets that example for the children. His defense of a black man who is accused of the rape of a white girl creates a great deal of tension for the family and in the town. There is a sub-text that involves the adventures of the children around a mysterious character who lives in the house next door. They spend a lot of time trying to get him to come out of the house so they can get a look at him. The trial passages really illustrate the nature of the Jim Crow South and what could occur when a white man attempts to interfere with that system. Interesting fact; one the characters in the book, Dill, who is a visiting summertime friend of the children, is actually based on the author Truman Capote who was a childhood friend of Harper Lee.

The Book Thief

Author: Markus Zusak

Published: 2005

The story begins in 1939 Germany. The main character is a young girl, Liesel, who has been sent with her brother to live with foster parents in another section of Germany. While traveling on the train her little brothers dies and she must continue the journey alone. A very interesting literary technique of the novel is that the story is narrated by Death. While on the train she steals a book titled, The Gravediggers Handbook. Liesel goes to live with an older couple. The mother is a stern taskmaster who treats Liesel very harshly at the beginning. The father is a musician who treats Liesel very kindly and begins to teach her to read. At one point the family is visited by a young Jewish man who needs refuge. He is the son of a man that saved the father’s life in World War I. Although the mother is against hiding the young man, the father insists and they hide him in the basement. Over time, Liesel and the young man become very close. While Liesel delivers and collects laundry for her mother at the home of the mayor, she finds that they have an extensive library. Liesel begins to steal books from the house. Once she is discovered by the mayor’s wife, the wife allows her to use the books in the library. During the course of the story Lielsel is exposed to the horrors of the Nazi regime. She and the other people of the town live in constant fear of inciting the retribution of the Nazis.