The TRS Books List: The 120 Most Inspirational and Diverse Books for Teens and Young People

The following booklist was created by the TRS team with input from our young followers as well as professional advisors in education and publishing.

While we believe that book lists are inherently subjective and incomplete, we made every effort possible to consider books that feature high-quality writing, are relatable to teens and young people, and present diversity of thought, point of view, gender, genre, the racial identity of both authors and characters, geography and time.

1. Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch – Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
2. Ligeia – Edgar Allan Poe
3. The Girl with All the Gifts – M. R. Carey
4. Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
5. Circe – Madeline Miller
6. Alice in Wonderland- Lewis Carroll
7. 1984 – George Orwell
8. The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver
9. The Red Notebook – Antoine Laurain
10. The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt
11. The Talented Mr. Ripley – Patricia Highsmith
12. Strange the Dreamer – Laini Tayor
13. Black Enough – Ibi Zoboi
14. Let Me Hear a Rhyme – Tiffany Jackson
15. Les Fiances de l’hiver (A Winter’s Promise) – Christelle Dabos
16. 11/22/63 – Stephen King
17. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe – Benjamin Alire Saenz
18. Saga – Brian K Vaughan, Fiona Staples
19. The Thing About Jellyfish – Ali Benjamin
20. Riyria – Michael J Sullivan
21. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief – Rick Riordan
22. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
23. Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle
24. The Flight of Swans – Sarah McGuire
25. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
26. Hungry Hearts – Elsie Chapman
27. The Weight of Our Sky – Hanna Alkaf
28. The Wicked Deep – Shea Ernshaw
29. Serpent and Dove – Shelby Mahurin
30. The Cruel Prince – Holly Black
31. Six of Crows – Leigh Bardugo
32. The Mysterious Benedict Society – Trenton Lee Stewart
33. Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins
34. Heart Bones – Colleen Hoover
35. The Bane Chronicles – Cassandra Clare
36. Gone-Away Lake – Elizabeth Enright
37. The Three-Body Problem – Liu Cixin
38. The Garden of Eden – Ernest Hemingway
39. The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue – Mackenzi Lee 
40. The Song of Achilles – Madeline Miller
41. The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
42. Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
43. The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys – Gerard Way
44. The Invisible Bridge – Julie Orringer
45. Vango – Timothee de Fombelle
46. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
47. The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern
48. Anne of Green Gables – L.M. Montgomery
49. The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender – Leslye Walton
50. Almost Home – Joan Bauer
51. The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
52. Emma – Jane Austen
53. The Witches – Roald Dahl
54. Crime and Punishment – Fydor Doestoyevsky
55. The Lord of the Rings – J R R Tolkien
56. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
57. The Stand – Stephen King
58. A Song of Ice and Fire – George R. R. Martin
59. Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
60. The Hobit – J R R Tolkien
61. Serenade for Nadia – Zülfü Livaneli
62. Red at the Bone – Jacqueline Woodson
63. The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd
64. Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Truman Capote
65. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
66. The Golden Compass – Philip Pullman
67. Dracula – Bram Stoker
68. The Maze Runner – James Dashner
69. Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen
70. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
71. Clap When You Land – Elizabeth Acevedo
72. Red, White, and Royal Blue – Casey McQuinston
73. Jurassic Park – Michael Crichton
74. The Joy Luck Club – Amy Tan
75. The Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka
76. The Vanishing Half – Britt Bennett
77. The Veldt – Ray Bradbury
78. 2001: A Space Odyssey – Arthur C. Clarke
79. The Lottery  – Shirley Jackson
80. The Sympathizer – Viet Thanh Nguyen
81. Pachinko – Min Jin Lee
82. The Namesake – Jhumpa Lahiri
83. The Midnight Library – Matt Haig
84. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel García Márquez
85. Every Last Word – Tamara Ireland Stone 
86. Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens 
87. The Glass Castle – Jeanette Walls 
88. Language of Flowers – Vanessa Diffenbaugh
89. East of Eden – John Steinbeck
90. The Sun is Also a Star – Nicola Yoon
91. The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
92. Holes – Louis Sachar
93. Fear the Dark – Chris Mooney
94. Lolita – Vladimir Nobakov
95. The Shining – Stephen King
96. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey
97. A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini
98. Life of Pi – Yann Martel
99. Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
100. Gone Girl  – Gillian Flynn
101. City of Bones – Cassandra Clare
102. Keeper of the Lost Cities – Shannon Messenger
103. Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda – Becky Albertalli and Mathilde Tamae-Bouhon
104. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before – Jenny Han
105. From Blood and Ash – Jennifer L. Armentrout
106. Homegoing  – Yaa Gyasi
107. Sign, Unburied, Sing  – Jesmyn Ward 
108. American Street – Ibi Zoboi 
109. The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead 
110. Someone Knows My Name – Lawrence Hill 
111. Memoirs of a Geisha  – Arthur Golden 
112. Kindred  – Octavia Butler 
113. In the Time of the Butterflies – Julia Alverez
114. Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 
115. Song of Solomon – Toni Morrison 
116. A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
117. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – Betty Smith 
118. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks 
119. The Night Watchman – Louise Erdrich 
120. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan – Lisa See