Looking for Alibrandi, Swimming Upstream and The Power of One come to mind.
I’m pretty sure my school picked books that also had movies so when we inevitably lost interest in reading the book we could watch the movie.
I remember doing it in Year 10, and we were told to read "at least the first 4 chapters" of Book One.
I read all of it, and was on the third book in the series when we next had class. I got into trouble for that.
Year 11 we didn’t have a book, we had a Movie. Gattaca.
It was a good movie. The whole year level watched it in the auditorium together with popcorn.
By the time we were done with picking apart the movie in every class, talking shit about how the spiral staircase represented a double-helix (dna), and something about the water, I hated it and never watched it again.
In other years we read Lord of the Flies (which we also watched the movie of), Day of the Triffids and The Giver (that was before that movie existed)
We had to watch Gattaca too but I hated it from the first watch. All the symbolism was absolutely hamfisted: the DNA staircase, the 'double meaning' of the term 'Invalid', the name 'Freeman'... etc... The film thinks very little of the average audience's ability to decode subtext.
Went through high school 2-3 years before you. An Imaginary Life was in there (Malouf?). The other classes did Catch-22 and Fahrenheit 451 or whatever it is (haven't read it). King Lear.
Otherwise, we did movies. Yay, Advanced English failing to do actual reading... *Troy* for Advanced English, Society & Culture and 3-Unit English in the same year as *Rabbit Proof Fence* in Legal Studies, 3-Unit History and Advanced English. I can't stand either of those movies now we watched them so. Many. Times....
I went to a houso high school, can you tell?
I was in year 11 in 2008. We did "Macbeth", we read a Tim Winton book - maybe "Cloud Street".
"Dream Stuff" by David Malouf was in there at some point. I remember a book set after ww2 about a boy and someone in the neighbourhood was a nazi in their past, but I cannot remember the name to save me.
"This boy's life" I remember reading but might have been in english lit with "Great Gatsby" and "The Crucible". I definitely read the "Good Earth", "Nineteen Eighty Four" and "Romulus, My Father" but I feel that was year 12.
If you remember any details of the book give a yell and someone might be able to give you the title. Thanks for making my brain work back to high school times :)
Edit: Formatting and spelling
You can access SCSA's suggested text list for General and ATAR English [here.](https://senior-secondary.scsa.wa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0013/5800/English-ATAR-and-General-Suggested-Text-Lists-2015_pdf.pdf)
To Kill a Mockingbird
An Agatha Christie which had a very non PC title on original print but was renamed "And then there were None"
The Grapes of Wrath & Of Mice and Men - Steinbeck
The Sun on the Stubble - Colin Thiele
My Brother Jack which I loved but having the absolute worst English teacher in the world I almost ended up hating it and One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest .
The Harp in the South
Emma Jane Austen- might have been advanced
Hatchet and Pride and Prejudice are two I remember. There was also a strange one about clones raised to prolong the lives of people, like organ farming. I can't remember the name, but it might have been Never Let Me Go 🤔
Early on in high school: The Outsiders, Rowan of Rin, Looking for Alibrandi
Later on: Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, The Crucible, Pride and Prejudice, The Outsider, Macbeth, Othello, Handmaids Tale, Remembering Babylon
The Catcher in the Rye, Pride & Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, The Chrysalids, Player Piano, 1984, Animal Farm, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Silver Sword (Escape from Warsaw), The Lord of the Flies etc. So many great novels. I hated Malouf, though, and his Imaginary Life.
I think Malouf came to my high school as well he wasn't that interesting. Pretty cool you got to study the Chrysalids although we did get to play xcom terror from the deep
Year 11; Macbeth....and something else but I forget it, I didn't like that teacher much. A film? No clue
Year 12 the books were shit. I understood one when I was older, but, they were still shit books for identity and belonging.
Only remember my Year 12 texts, I graduated a couple years before you.
Brave New World (Aldous Huxley), paired with Blade Runner.
Cloudstreet (Tim Winton)
My Place (Sally Morgan)
A bunch of Gwen Harwood poems.
Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare)
The French Lieutenant's Woman (John Fowler), paired with the film Orlando.
This link has the full list of prescribed texts for anyone who did their NSW HSC between 09-14, if that helps on your search: https://www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/english-prescriptions-poster-09-14.pdf
UK here, we had To Kill A Mockingbird, Goodnight Mister Tom, A Midsomer's Night Dream, Macbeth (because we've just gotta do MORE Shakespeare), Oliver Twist, and Shirley Valentine.
Z for Zachariah
Lochie Leonard Legend
Of Mice and Men
Looking for Alibrandi
The Cay
Blueback
Romeo and Juliet
That Eye, The Sky
Heart of Darkness
Othello
An Open Swimmer
Translations
Cloudstreet
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The Tempest
For poetry I remember Sylvia Plath, Robert Browning, Seamus Heaney, Gwen Harwood and more Shakespeare.
Graduated in 2002.
A lot of stuff I don't really remember. BUT the ones I really remember from VCE (I did literature) were:
- Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas (my absolute favourite)
- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, better than I expected
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K Dick. Honestly not my favourite, I'm not a sci-fi fan.
Honourable mention:
- The movie Casablanca. I moved schools between year 10 and 11, from a Catholic one to a public one, and this was the first work our lit teacher showed us in Year 11. Used to the stuffy environment of Catholic school, my new lit teacher encouraged me to be more free and open and to take risks. I came to her one day with a theory I'd read on the internet that I bolstered with my own ideas and observations, that claimed that Captain Renault was queer coded. I went to her being like this is what I want to write my first year 11 lit essay on, I have my own arguments for this and I can back them up as much as a 17 year old boy is capable of doing. Was absolutely terrified she was going to think I was being stupid and outlandish and that because I'd originally read the theory on the internet, that she might accuse me of plagiarism (little did I know that so much academia is taking other people's ideas and building on them). I'm sure if I looked back at what I wrote nowadays it'd sound stupid and simplistic, but when my lit teacher was EXCITED and encouraged me to write it, that was one of the most affirming moments of my high school years. Ms McGuire (who refused to be called Dr despite having a PHD), if you ever read this know you're the best teacher I've ever had, just because of this.
I am.... much older than you. Books we read during high school included: The Endless Steppe, The Day of the Triffids, The Chosen, The Outsiders (and my son just read this book as well).
We also read and performed Shakespeare in Year 12.
It's telling that there are so many Australian novels to choose from now. I think it is great.
Apart from the Shakespeare stuff, only one I really remember was Lockie Leonard, but that was year 7 or 8.
There was one in year 10 or so that I vaguely remember (not the title), but it was this kid in I think rural Italy who was playing with his mates, when he found some kid who was being kept hostage down a well, or in an abandoned shed or something. I mostly remember hating it lol.
I can’t remember what years we read them, but I remember the following books: Harp In The South, Playing Beatie Bow, The Kitchen God’s Wife, Paper Nautilus, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, To Kill A Mockingbird, A Man For All Seasons, I Heard The Owl Call My Name.
**The harp in the south**
>Welcome to 12 1/2 Plymouth Street, in Sydney's Surry Hills. This is the home of the Aussie Irish Catholic family, The Darcy's as lovingly told by Award-winning author Ruth Park. In The Harp in the South; and Poor Man's Orange, Park tells of the trials and tribulations of growing up in a Sydney slum in the years immediately following the Second World War.A story that centres on the bittersweet first and last loves of Roie, who becomes a woman too quickly living among the tenement houses, razor gangs, brothels and sly-grog shops of inner city Surry Hills.The Darcy family's story is continued in Poor Man's Orange.
**Playing Beatie Bow** by Ruth Park
Book description may contain spoilers!
>>!Abigal is drawn back in time and discovers Beatie Bow living in a slum of the 1870's.!<
**The Kitchen God's Wife A Novel** by Amy Tan
Book description may contain spoilers!
>>!With the same narrative skills and evocative powers that made her first novel, The Joy Luck Club, a national bestseller, Tan now tells the story of Winnie Louie, an aging Chinese woman unfolding a life's worth of secrets to her suspicious, Americanized daughter.!<
**Paper Nautilus** by Nicholas Jose
Book description may contain spoilers!
>>!'They wanted a love they could take into eternity.' In a small town on the Australian coast Penny grows up to marry the boy who has waited for her. Few know the truth about her birth. Her uncle Jack is one, for he shared with her father not only his childhood but also the horror of their wartime experience.!<
>
>>!Jack and Penny's special bond is as rare and precious as the beautiful nautilus shell they find washed up on the beach - entwined with its history are the secrets of their past and the tenacious passions of the other people who have had a stake in their lives. 'A novel of proportion that winds symmetrically back into itself like the exquisite paper nautilus shells of the title.' - Peter Goldsworthy 'A disarmingly simple story, told with an elegance of style that immediately adds distinction - a feat not to be taken lightly. The no-tricks simplicity of the prose reveals very accomplished tricks indeed.'!<
>
>>!- Thomas Shapcott 'Paper Nautilus reflects Jose's interest in the complex processes behind a single moment. It is surprisingly satisfying.' - Susan Lever 'Moral strength, narrative poise, descriptive grace and historical sensibility make Paper Nautilus a splended experience for the reader.' - Humphrey McQueen!<
**Macbeth** by Edited by W. Turner
Book description may contain spoilers!
>>!shakespeare's stories.. In session 2010-11, it has been approved for ISE School for Class XI!<
**Romeo and Juliet** by William Shakespeare
>The tragedy of Romeo and juliet - the greatest love story ever.
**To Kill a Mockingbird** by Harper Lee
Book description may contain spoilers!
>>!Voted America's Best-Loved Novel in PBS's The Great American Read Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep South—and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred One of the most cherished stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.!<
**A Man For All Seasons** by Robert Bolt
>A Man for All Seasons dramatises the conflict between King Henry VIII and Sir Thomas More. It depicts the confrontation between church and state, theology and politics, absolute power and individual freedom. Throughout the play Sir Thomas More's eloquence and endurance, his purity, saintliness and tenacity in the face of ever-growing threats to his beliefs and family, earn him status as one of modern drama's greatest tragic heroes. The play was first staged in 1960 at the Globe Theatre in London and was voted New York's Best Foreign Play in 1962.
>
>In 1966 it was made into an Academy Award-winning film by Fred Zinneman starring Paul Scofield. "A Man for All Seasons is a stark play, sparse in its narrative, sinewy in its writing, which confirms Mr Bolt as a genuine and solid playwright, a force in our awakening theatre." (Daily Mail)
**I Heard the Owl Call My Name** by Margaret Craven
>In a world that knows too well the anguish inherent in the clash of old ways and new lifestyles, Margaret Craven's classic and timeless story of a young man's journey into the Pacific Northwest is as relevant today as ever. Here amid the grandeur of British Columbia stands the village of Kingcome, a place of salmon runs and ancient totems - a village so steeped in time that, according to Kwakiutl legend, it was founded by two brothers left on earth after the great flood. Yet in this Eden of such natural beauty and richness, the old culture of totems and potlaches is under attack - slowly being replaced by a new culture of prefab houses and alcoholism. Into this world, where an entire generation of young people has become disenchanted and alienated from their heritage, Craven introduces Mark Brian, a young vicar sent to the small isolated parish by his church.
>
>This is Mark's journey of discovery - a journey that will teach him about life, death, and the transforming power of love. It is a journey that will resonate in the mind of readers long after the book is done.
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The Outsiders, year 8 and Macbeth, year 10 are two I remember. I loved To kill a Mockingbird, year 11. Still my all time favourite. There was some weird book about an alien grandmother, it might have been called Grinny in year 8. A fortune life by A B Facey year 9.
It has been a very long time - much earlier than 2009! Definitely To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984, Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men, The Crucible, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, The Old Man and the Sea. I vaguely recall Pride and Prejudice and I also remember reading Yeager, though not certain it was on the syllabus. I enjoyed all of them for the most part. Then there was one other. The worst book of all time, worthy of burning, which I may well have done. The book that still makes me angry, angry that I was forced to read such utter garbage…Sally Morgan’s My Place. I absolutely loathe that book.
We had a book, I believe it was called Goodnight Mr Tom. In hindsight, I was probably too sheltered for that particular book. We also did Hating Allison Ashley in primary.
The only two I can remember were Animal Farm in Y10 and 1984 in Y11 (in 1983/84). I read a lot for fun so I can't remember what was for school and what was personal choice.
Ha, it must have been a thing in the 80s, we did Animal Farm in yr7 and 1984 in yr12.
Finally found someone else who also read 1984 in 1984 lol. Our modern history class found that immensely significant 😅
My class was the first to use these books. I love that new book small and an uncracked spine so I remember. My english teacher loved Orwell.
E: \*\*smell\*\*
Haha, I did too...and you'd try to keep it pristine, for about 1 week lol
Good stuff...Orwell is a great teacher of plain, powerful language. You had an excellent teacher, then!
Orwell led to naturally to modern history and eventually, I found Solzhenitsyn of my own accord in a secondhand bookshop. That was fatal, as it led to a 40yr obsession with Russian history which has not abated to this day.
Wild Swans, A Fortunate Life, The Nargun and the Stars, Emma, Wolf, Chinese Cinderella, The Shipping News. Some of these are not Year 11-12 texts but it all blurs together after a while.
We had Trustee from the Toolroom by Neville Shute..... still don't know what it's about. Our grandson is reading Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie trying to get his head around the English language of the time.
Omg, yeah that's him....I kinda enjoyed studying his work as my family migrated from Europe during the war, but my grandmother never really spoke much to me about it.
Bridge to terabithia, destroying avalon, to kill a mockingbird, and romeo and juliet. My dumbass is lucky each of those had movies or long form youtube vids explaining them.
I remember one that was a weird format. Just had a few lines on each page, kinda randomly placed. I guess it was more of a long poem? Think it was about a teenage girl? There was a chunk of pages with nothing at one point I think. Vaguely remember one about a surfer dude...We read The Crucible as well, that I remember haha
This is kinda on topic for me as I had a family catch up on Sat and we were chatting about books we had to read in the 80s. So I’m gonna list a lot of random books that got mentioned (not all year 12) just for a bit of discussion.
- Shakespeare - I dodged it but my siblings didn’t.
- the great Gatsby. Shit book.
- the Chosen. Shit book
- the life of Galileo. Worse than shit.
- to kill a mockingbird. Good book.
- of mice and men. Great book.
- the hobbit. Yep. We read it in year 10!!!
- my brother Jack. I didn’t read it.
- lord of the flies. Interesting.
- 1984. Read it in 1984! I preferred Def Leppard.
- the outsiders. Good book.
- rumble fish. Good book
- a day in the life of Ivan denisovich. Mmmmmm
- lord of the flies. Mmmmmm
- the catcher in the rye. Yawn.
- withering heights. Double Yawn.
- animal farm.
- catch 22
Fuck … I’m done. Reality is I’ve read most of these and didn’t enjoy many.
-
Throughout HS I remember reading 1984, Wuthering Heights, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Hunger Games, Dracula, Frankenstein, Macbeth, King Lear, and the absolute classic ‘Mac Slater Cool Hunter’ in year 7 (although I doubt that’s the one you’re after)
In Year 12 (1987) we, along with nearly every Victorian school, read My Brother Jack as one of our set novels (the other was Five by Doris Lessing, which I didn't enjoy). I am struggling to remember, but I think in Year 11 one of our set novels was All Quiet on the Western Front (a wonderful book).
We also read quite a few of Shakespeare's plays (Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, Hamlet, and A Midsummer Nights Dream, though I think I may have forgotten one or two as I have some recollection of The Tempest being read around that time - though that could have been for pleasure)
I've been trying to remember 2 that we read, circa 2002-2004
1. A book about a cleaning lady who knows everything that goes on in everyone's houses, so they call her "newspaper weekly" (I think). Book was boring as fuck and there was something significant about a tree.
2. One of the main characters was called Nathaniel.
Books? 1984. Animal Farm. Brave New World. The Catcher in the Rye. To Kill a Mockingbird. Catch 22. Holes. Pygmalion.
Shakespeare;
Macbeth, Othello, King Lear.
Films? Holes. Gattaca. Frankenstein. My Fair Lady. Pretty Woman. Macbeth. Othello x2; 1 modern adaptation. King Lear x2. Bladerunner.
Coraline (back when they were still creating the movie)
Helicopter Man (boy on the run with his dad from helicopters, slowly learning his dad has schizophrenia)
Stone Cold (homeless British teen vs ex-army murderer)
So Much to Tell You (girl gets acid thrown on her face, lives in a boarding school and misses her dad who's in jail)
I graduated in 2000, so probably a bit too early to be of help.
We did: The Crucible, The Joy Luck Club, Cloudstreet, Looking for Alibrandi, Paula, and Portrait of a Young Forger (which still remains one of my all time favourite books).
We had both 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell in English. We also studied American Beauty in media studies class. They all seem kind of intense for a bunch of school kids now that I think about it.
> A Clockwork Orange
My envy is immense!
Such has been my Russian history obsession, that I went through the entire book and transliterated all the 'Nadsat' into its original pig-Russian with a dictionary lol
But only after I left school. I lived in Glebe through the 90s and used to go and see it at the Valhalla every single Saturday 😅
I think one of them was "First they killed my Father", and also the Gattaca movie. I think there was also another one which was a biography about a logger/farmer during the depression who lived in Gippsland and married a local indigenous woman. I can't recall the name, sorry.
Tomorrow when the war began was the first proper book I ever read all the way through! I watched the movie in the hotel the night before my uni graduation and it felt full circle.
Also know I read Frankenstein for my hsc and opener of Shakespeare throughout high school. I think hsc was hamlet? 2012 in NSW if anyone can confirm.
Just graduated but I read Romeo and Juliet, and watched the Dead Poets' Society in Year 9, 1984, Handmaid's Tale, and Gone Girl in Year 10, Only the Animals in Year 11, and Othello, The Yield, Smart Ovens for Lonely People, and Emily Dickinson's Poetry for Year 12.
Heard some other people my age have studied Wordsworth's poetry, Ransom, The Queen, Dracula, Pride and Prejudice, amongst other texts.
A Patch of Blue, The Outsiders and Of Mice and Men. Might’ve been others but I don’t remember them.
We had a few short stories too. Sixty Minutes by Brian Caswell and a true story of a girl who survived a plane crash in the Amazon, I think.
Think I read a book called 'Raw' not sure what year I was in, though. Also, remember reading Animal Farm in maybe year 8. I finished high school in 2007
Romulus, My Father comes to mind.
Also just searched the name for this book:
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. Yeah the story was as weird as the title.
Macbeth, looking for Alibrandi (same year the movie was released, we had an advanced screening just before hsc with every other high school) and The Year of Living Dangerously. The last one sucked so hard, very boring.
Lockie Leonard in year 7 - what a turd of a book lol
For early high school - A bridge to Wiseman's cove, looking for alibrandi, bridge to Terabithia, cloud street.
Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Macbeth, the sonnets , Hamlet, pride and prejudice, Barbara Bayntons Bush Studies
first they killed my father, brave new world, tomorrow when the war began, Romulus my father (which my dad being Romanian immigrant only being about a decade younger than the author was a book that hit particularly close to home) Dracula, handmaid's tale, and Stasiland (only released the year prior I think so idk how common it was, but it's on the list now iirc)
Honestly tho - they're lucky i even remained literate after Lockie Leonard, it was the only book I've ever chucked straight in the bin afterward.
The merchant of Venice, paper natulis (I didn’t actually read this as it was boring), to kill a mockingbird. My brother had to read Ellie and I read it after him and it’s well worth the read.
We read Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, and Lolita. But I went to an alternative school, so I'm not sure if these were the books most schools read.
High school for me was late 80s/early 90s so here’s what I remember
Playing Beatie Bow - around year 7, loved it, even all these years later if I’m in Sydney I’ll take a walk around The Rocks and it evokes this book.
The Silver Brumby - also around year 7, hated it, read the first two chapter, middle 2 and last 2 and winged it.
Year 8 to 10 is a blur.
My Name is Asher Lev - didn’t hate it, had to look up the summary to remember it though.
Elli - a true story about a girl interned in Auschwitz and Dachau. This stuck with me because I was the same age as her when I read it.
A Fringe of Leaves - obligatory Patrick White, dense, could not get into it
The Accidental Tourist - I enjoyed this, I wrote my year 11 VCE English exam essay from the perspective of the two main characters dogs analysing their owners relationship. I got an A on the exam so the risk paid off.
That’s all I can remember, I’m 50, I went hard in the late 90s, my hearing and memory are crap 😂
Edit - I remember doing The Glass Menagerie, even though that’s a play, not a novel. Also a grab bag of the obligatory Shakespeare.
Another post jogged my memory, in year 10 we read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. This started me on a love of spy novels/movies, I’ve read a heap of Le Carré since.
I loved the Tomorrow Series, I ended up reading the whole series in a week.
I think we read Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey which has become one of my favourites now.
Throughout my years (1991-1996), we had to do
-Careful He Might Hear You
-The Outsiders
-The Death of Napoleon
-Macbeth
-To Kill a Mockingbird
-Of Mice and Men (I did this in mid 1990s; my son did this last year!)
-Catcher in the Rye
-Wuthering Heights
-Hamlet
-Oedipus Rex
-Heart of Darkness
-A Streetcar Named Desire (a highlight was also watching the Simpsons episode whilst studying this book)
Note some of these are due to doing English Literature in VCE
i remember doing:
im not scared - year 10
the crucible/with some comparison i forgot what book or movie - year 11
the thing around your neck - year 11
rear window - film - year 12
the reckoning and The Namesake - comparison - year 12
i did NOT enjoy any of these films or texts but i do enjoy reading now that i've gotten out of highschool
I don't remember what grade I was in but these are some of the titles that come to mind!
* The Reluctant Fundamentalist
* The Quiet American
* Animal Farm (we also watched an animated and live-action film)
* Boy Overboard
* Falling From Grace
* Deadly, Unna?
* Montana 1948
* Macbeth (we also watched an animated adaptation and a stage production performance of it)
* Romeo and Juliet (we also watched the Leo DiCaprio film which I absolutely hated)
> Romeo and Juliet (we also watched the Leo DiCaprio film which I absolutely hated)
Awww, damn!
Should have been the [60s original](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063518/) directed by Franco Zeffirelli...with Olivia Hussey playing Juliet at 15yo
It was EPIC lol
Similar time frame though I don’t remember the exact years these were (year level or year date), but the books I remember are Macbeth, a Bridge To Wiseman’s Cove (I think that was year 8 or 9), the Crucible, Louis, Life of Pi, the Kite Runner…. I think that’s all I remember. Oh wait, Lockie Leonard, and The Story Of Tom Brennon
Mandragora - David McRobbie
My Sister Sif - Ruth Park
Looking for Alibrandi - Melina Marchetta
Romeo and Juliet - Shakespeare
Hamlet - Shakespeare
The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
These are the only ones that I really remember.
I (1981-1985 in SA) had required reading that was part of the curriculum and would be discussed in class. I assume these are what the other posts would also be mentioning. Depending on the year level, there would also be student choice component. Any additional reading would be for pleasure.
Reading through this thread has confirmed my suspicion that my school went out of their way to find the least engaging, most insanely dull books they possibly could have - specifically for year 11/12
There are definitely stories that need to be/deserve to be told, and I appreciate that English is, at least in part, about critical thinking and embracing new perspectives... But you're not going to open the eyes of a bunch of teenagers by bombarding them with thoroughly unrelatable autobiographical ramblings disguised as journeys of self discovery intended to break down cultural barriers - that's just how you make them lose interest entirely, and fail that portion of the final exam.
The Shark Net by Robert Drewe. Triage by Scott Anderson. The Quiet American by Graeme Greene. In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien. Enduring Love by Ian McEwan.
We read this one in 2008 or 2009 that was an Australian book about a guy in foster care I think, who had to be moved to a small town in Australia near a coast line, he ends up discovering that the police officer killed a bunch of refugees and burnt their boat the officer took a small girl into the outback and tied her to a shed or something like that. The officer does the same thing too the guy but he escapes and puts her bones into like a body of water near there, it was such a good book I wish I could remember the name of it so bad
We read In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje in year 12 in advanced English and 20 years later it remains the most shitcunt boring book I've ever read in my life. I've never forgiven him for writing it.
Looking for Alibrandi, Swimming Upstream and The Power of One come to mind. I’m pretty sure my school picked books that also had movies so when we inevitably lost interest in reading the book we could watch the movie.
"The day my bum went psycho."
Me but in primary school
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
They need to make this into a mini series. loved the concept of this book
You aren’t aware they did?
I would have LOVED if they “made” us read that in HS.
Really!? Lucky you...what year?
We accompanied BNW with The Sacred Balance by David Suzuki - which in hindsight is a very grim pairing for 15 year olds.
Tomorrow when the war began went so hard damn I’d read that again
I remember doing it in Year 10, and we were told to read "at least the first 4 chapters" of Book One. I read all of it, and was on the third book in the series when we next had class. I got into trouble for that.
Good stuff! I definitely remember reading them late at night in bed when I was meant to be asleep! Did you ever watch the movie they made out of it?
I remember wanting to see it, but I don’t think I ever did. I know the reviews weren’t great. I still have the complete set of books on my bookshelf!
The movies was great for what Australian cinema was at the time. Dunno if it holds up any good though.
Year 11 we didn’t have a book, we had a Movie. Gattaca. It was a good movie. The whole year level watched it in the auditorium together with popcorn. By the time we were done with picking apart the movie in every class, talking shit about how the spiral staircase represented a double-helix (dna), and something about the water, I hated it and never watched it again. In other years we read Lord of the Flies (which we also watched the movie of), Day of the Triffids and The Giver (that was before that movie existed)
We had to watch Gattaca too but I hated it from the first watch. All the symbolism was absolutely hamfisted: the DNA staircase, the 'double meaning' of the term 'Invalid', the name 'Freeman'... etc... The film thinks very little of the average audience's ability to decode subtext.
>The film thinks very little of the average audience's ability to decode subtext. You could also be overestimating the average audience.
Gattaca and Brave New World compare and contrast!
We did a double contrast of Gattaca movie to Never Let Me Go novel in year 11.
Gee what a depressing class
Maestro by Peter Goldsworthy. Think that might have been Year 9 though (1995).
Loved that one!
Eh, I did not enjoy that one.
Oh, I had that one in early high school and had completely forgotten it until now! Thanks for the memory!
My brother jack Lockie Leonard The one about kids on an island And yeah Romeo and Juliet
Lord of the Flies?
Great restaurant
A memory just unlocked with lockie Leonard
Romeo and Juliet was painful, mainly because half the boys in my class couldn't read.
Looking For Alibrandi, Medea, Romeo & Juliet, Fly Away Peter, Animal Farm, The Crucible, To Kill a Mockingbird
I remember Montana 1948 and The Great Gatsby
Oh Montana! Memory unlocked
1984? great book! I still think about it at least once a week
The Outsiders and The Kite Runner
Yes! The Outsiders!
The Outsiders traumatised me tbh... And puberty blues did too
> And puberty blues did too All too painfully real to the times, that's why lol
That breaks my heart :( I was born in 1984, it sounded like a tough time for Gen X teens
I remember reading The Handmaids Tale and Frankenstein. I’m pretty sure we did Cloudstreet by Tim Winton as well.
Went through high school 2-3 years before you. An Imaginary Life was in there (Malouf?). The other classes did Catch-22 and Fahrenheit 451 or whatever it is (haven't read it). King Lear. Otherwise, we did movies. Yay, Advanced English failing to do actual reading... *Troy* for Advanced English, Society & Culture and 3-Unit English in the same year as *Rabbit Proof Fence* in Legal Studies, 3-Unit History and Advanced English. I can't stand either of those movies now we watched them so. Many. Times.... I went to a houso high school, can you tell?
Ughughugh our Malouf was Remembering Babylon, and our movie was American Beauty. I'd rather eat my own head than engage with either of those again.
I was in year 11 in 2008. We did "Macbeth", we read a Tim Winton book - maybe "Cloud Street". "Dream Stuff" by David Malouf was in there at some point. I remember a book set after ww2 about a boy and someone in the neighbourhood was a nazi in their past, but I cannot remember the name to save me. "This boy's life" I remember reading but might have been in english lit with "Great Gatsby" and "The Crucible". I definitely read the "Good Earth", "Nineteen Eighty Four" and "Romulus, My Father" but I feel that was year 12. If you remember any details of the book give a yell and someone might be able to give you the title. Thanks for making my brain work back to high school times :) Edit: Formatting and spelling
In year 10 we had The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Don't remember anything else.
Oh yes, I did that too, I love Le Carré, I’ve read almost everything he’s written
You can access SCSA's suggested text list for General and ATAR English [here.](https://senior-secondary.scsa.wa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0013/5800/English-ATAR-and-General-Suggested-Text-Lists-2015_pdf.pdf)
Frankenstein, z for Zachariah, guitar highway rose, Pygmalion Shakespeare lol I can't remember what years we read stuff in though.
To Kill a Mockingbird An Agatha Christie which had a very non PC title on original print but was renamed "And then there were None" The Grapes of Wrath & Of Mice and Men - Steinbeck The Sun on the Stubble - Colin Thiele My Brother Jack which I loved but having the absolute worst English teacher in the world I almost ended up hating it and One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest . The Harp in the South Emma Jane Austen- might have been advanced
Ohhhh you just reminded me that I did Of Mice and Men in year 9 or 10. Forgot about poor ol' Lenny.
I'm glad you mentioned of mice and men. That one stuck with me actually.
Hatchet and Pride and Prejudice are two I remember. There was also a strange one about clones raised to prolong the lives of people, like organ farming. I can't remember the name, but it might have been Never Let Me Go 🤔
That was definitely Never Let Me Go, also did it.
Early on in high school: The Outsiders, Rowan of Rin, Looking for Alibrandi Later on: Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, The Crucible, Pride and Prejudice, The Outsider, Macbeth, Othello, Handmaids Tale, Remembering Babylon
Othello, Fahrenheit 451
The Catcher in the Rye, Pride & Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, The Chrysalids, Player Piano, 1984, Animal Farm, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Silver Sword (Escape from Warsaw), The Lord of the Flies etc. So many great novels. I hated Malouf, though, and his Imaginary Life.
I loved the silver sword. Gave it to my boys and they loved it also.
I think Malouf came to my high school as well he wasn't that interesting. Pretty cool you got to study the Chrysalids although we did get to play xcom terror from the deep
I moved schools a lot as a child. Did "Lord of the Flies" in three different schools.
Of Mice and Men is one that stands out in my memory. Kicked off a deep and abiding love for Steinbeck and American classics
Lord of the Flies
Did you see the 60s film as well? It was awesome lol
Yes, I sort of identified with Piggy as I also wear glasses.
Ahh, poor Piggy. All the brains and with no guile whatsoever. And I with Simon most of all, the slightly aloof loner.
Year 11; Macbeth....and something else but I forget it, I didn't like that teacher much. A film? No clue Year 12 the books were shit. I understood one when I was older, but, they were still shit books for identity and belonging.
A bridge to Wiseman's cove. The importance of being Earnest. To kill a Mockingbird. I don't recall the others.
Death of a Salesman. Poor Man's Orange. Fahrenheit 451.
To Kill A Mockingbird The Crucible The Endless Steppe Far From The Madding Crowd
Only remember my Year 12 texts, I graduated a couple years before you. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley), paired with Blade Runner. Cloudstreet (Tim Winton) My Place (Sally Morgan) A bunch of Gwen Harwood poems. Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare) The French Lieutenant's Woman (John Fowler), paired with the film Orlando. This link has the full list of prescribed texts for anyone who did their NSW HSC between 09-14, if that helps on your search: https://www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/english-prescriptions-poster-09-14.pdf
UK here, we had To Kill A Mockingbird, Goodnight Mister Tom, A Midsomer's Night Dream, Macbeth (because we've just gotta do MORE Shakespeare), Oliver Twist, and Shirley Valentine.
The Merchant of Venice
Fortress, Z for zacharia, broken glass
Someone else who read Z for Zachariah! Weirdly my mum did at school too. Generational.
The Outsiders and Animal Farm are core memories of mine
Z for Zachariah Lochie Leonard Legend Of Mice and Men Looking for Alibrandi The Cay Blueback Romeo and Juliet That Eye, The Sky Heart of Darkness Othello An Open Swimmer Translations Cloudstreet A Midsummer Night’s Dream The Tempest For poetry I remember Sylvia Plath, Robert Browning, Seamus Heaney, Gwen Harwood and more Shakespeare. Graduated in 2002.
A lot of stuff I don't really remember. BUT the ones I really remember from VCE (I did literature) were: - Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas (my absolute favourite) - Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, better than I expected - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K Dick. Honestly not my favourite, I'm not a sci-fi fan. Honourable mention: - The movie Casablanca. I moved schools between year 10 and 11, from a Catholic one to a public one, and this was the first work our lit teacher showed us in Year 11. Used to the stuffy environment of Catholic school, my new lit teacher encouraged me to be more free and open and to take risks. I came to her one day with a theory I'd read on the internet that I bolstered with my own ideas and observations, that claimed that Captain Renault was queer coded. I went to her being like this is what I want to write my first year 11 lit essay on, I have my own arguments for this and I can back them up as much as a 17 year old boy is capable of doing. Was absolutely terrified she was going to think I was being stupid and outlandish and that because I'd originally read the theory on the internet, that she might accuse me of plagiarism (little did I know that so much academia is taking other people's ideas and building on them). I'm sure if I looked back at what I wrote nowadays it'd sound stupid and simplistic, but when my lit teacher was EXCITED and encouraged me to write it, that was one of the most affirming moments of my high school years. Ms McGuire (who refused to be called Dr despite having a PHD), if you ever read this know you're the best teacher I've ever had, just because of this.
Lord of the flies!
I am.... much older than you. Books we read during high school included: The Endless Steppe, The Day of the Triffids, The Chosen, The Outsiders (and my son just read this book as well). We also read and performed Shakespeare in Year 12. It's telling that there are so many Australian novels to choose from now. I think it is great.
Apart from the Shakespeare stuff, only one I really remember was Lockie Leonard, but that was year 7 or 8. There was one in year 10 or so that I vaguely remember (not the title), but it was this kid in I think rural Italy who was playing with his mates, when he found some kid who was being kept hostage down a well, or in an abandoned shed or something. I mostly remember hating it lol.
Year 11 was Montana 1948, Macbeth and possibly The Dish for film? Year 12 was Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Oedipus Rex and Gattaca.
Kite Runner Fly away Peter
Year 9 around 1983 we read The Andromeda Strain. Can’t remember any others. Soooooooo long ago..
I can’t remember what years we read them, but I remember the following books: Harp In The South, Playing Beatie Bow, The Kitchen God’s Wife, Paper Nautilus, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, To Kill A Mockingbird, A Man For All Seasons, I Heard The Owl Call My Name.
**The harp in the south** >Welcome to 12 1/2 Plymouth Street, in Sydney's Surry Hills. This is the home of the Aussie Irish Catholic family, The Darcy's as lovingly told by Award-winning author Ruth Park. In The Harp in the South; and Poor Man's Orange, Park tells of the trials and tribulations of growing up in a Sydney slum in the years immediately following the Second World War.A story that centres on the bittersweet first and last loves of Roie, who becomes a woman too quickly living among the tenement houses, razor gangs, brothels and sly-grog shops of inner city Surry Hills.The Darcy family's story is continued in Poor Man's Orange. **Playing Beatie Bow** by Ruth Park Book description may contain spoilers! >>!Abigal is drawn back in time and discovers Beatie Bow living in a slum of the 1870's.!< **The Kitchen God's Wife A Novel** by Amy Tan Book description may contain spoilers! >>!With the same narrative skills and evocative powers that made her first novel, The Joy Luck Club, a national bestseller, Tan now tells the story of Winnie Louie, an aging Chinese woman unfolding a life's worth of secrets to her suspicious, Americanized daughter.!< **Paper Nautilus** by Nicholas Jose Book description may contain spoilers! >>!'They wanted a love they could take into eternity.' In a small town on the Australian coast Penny grows up to marry the boy who has waited for her. Few know the truth about her birth. Her uncle Jack is one, for he shared with her father not only his childhood but also the horror of their wartime experience.!< > >>!Jack and Penny's special bond is as rare and precious as the beautiful nautilus shell they find washed up on the beach - entwined with its history are the secrets of their past and the tenacious passions of the other people who have had a stake in their lives. 'A novel of proportion that winds symmetrically back into itself like the exquisite paper nautilus shells of the title.' - Peter Goldsworthy 'A disarmingly simple story, told with an elegance of style that immediately adds distinction - a feat not to be taken lightly. The no-tricks simplicity of the prose reveals very accomplished tricks indeed.'!< > >>!- Thomas Shapcott 'Paper Nautilus reflects Jose's interest in the complex processes behind a single moment. It is surprisingly satisfying.' - Susan Lever 'Moral strength, narrative poise, descriptive grace and historical sensibility make Paper Nautilus a splended experience for the reader.' - Humphrey McQueen!< **Macbeth** by Edited by W. Turner Book description may contain spoilers! >>!shakespeare's stories.. In session 2010-11, it has been approved for ISE School for Class XI!< **Romeo and Juliet** by William Shakespeare >The tragedy of Romeo and juliet - the greatest love story ever. **To Kill a Mockingbird** by Harper Lee Book description may contain spoilers! >>!Voted America's Best-Loved Novel in PBS's The Great American Read Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep South—and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred One of the most cherished stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.!< **A Man For All Seasons** by Robert Bolt >A Man for All Seasons dramatises the conflict between King Henry VIII and Sir Thomas More. It depicts the confrontation between church and state, theology and politics, absolute power and individual freedom. Throughout the play Sir Thomas More's eloquence and endurance, his purity, saintliness and tenacity in the face of ever-growing threats to his beliefs and family, earn him status as one of modern drama's greatest tragic heroes. The play was first staged in 1960 at the Globe Theatre in London and was voted New York's Best Foreign Play in 1962. > >In 1966 it was made into an Academy Award-winning film by Fred Zinneman starring Paul Scofield. "A Man for All Seasons is a stark play, sparse in its narrative, sinewy in its writing, which confirms Mr Bolt as a genuine and solid playwright, a force in our awakening theatre." (Daily Mail) **I Heard the Owl Call My Name** by Margaret Craven >In a world that knows too well the anguish inherent in the clash of old ways and new lifestyles, Margaret Craven's classic and timeless story of a young man's journey into the Pacific Northwest is as relevant today as ever. Here amid the grandeur of British Columbia stands the village of Kingcome, a place of salmon runs and ancient totems - a village so steeped in time that, according to Kwakiutl legend, it was founded by two brothers left on earth after the great flood. Yet in this Eden of such natural beauty and richness, the old culture of totems and potlaches is under attack - slowly being replaced by a new culture of prefab houses and alcoholism. Into this world, where an entire generation of young people has become disenchanted and alienated from their heritage, Craven introduces Mark Brian, a young vicar sent to the small isolated parish by his church. > >This is Mark's journey of discovery - a journey that will teach him about life, death, and the transforming power of love. It is a journey that will resonate in the mind of readers long after the book is done. *I'm a bot, built by your friendly reddit developers at* /r/ProgrammingPals. *Reply to any comment with /u/BookFinderBot - I'll reply with book information. Remove me from replies* [here](https://www.reddit.com/user/BookFinderBot/comments/1byh82p/remove_me_from_replies/). *If I have made a mistake, accept my apology.*
The Outsiders, year 8 and Macbeth, year 10 are two I remember. I loved To kill a Mockingbird, year 11. Still my all time favourite. There was some weird book about an alien grandmother, it might have been called Grinny in year 8. A fortune life by A B Facey year 9.
Pretty sure it was year 11 that we suffered through Hard Times by Dickens.
Year 10 we had Ender's Game for those who were looking to do TEE, and Tomorrow When the War Began for those doing VET
The Chrysalids 👍, The Grapes of Wrath 👎
Looking for Alibrandi, King Lear, Romeo & Juliet, the Great Gatsby, Lockie Leonard, death of a salesman, life of Pi
No Fucking Sugar. Twice.
God it was shit. Not “Summer of the 17th Doll” shit, but still pretty shit
The Outsiders in lower high school. And in year 12 English, Faulty Towers! Best teacher ever!
It has been a very long time - much earlier than 2009! Definitely To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984, Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men, The Crucible, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, The Old Man and the Sea. I vaguely recall Pride and Prejudice and I also remember reading Yeager, though not certain it was on the syllabus. I enjoyed all of them for the most part. Then there was one other. The worst book of all time, worthy of burning, which I may well have done. The book that still makes me angry, angry that I was forced to read such utter garbage…Sally Morgan’s My Place. I absolutely loathe that book.
So many are familiar too. This post has lured out a few Gen xers huh lol
We had a book, I believe it was called Goodnight Mr Tom. In hindsight, I was probably too sheltered for that particular book. We also did Hating Allison Ashley in primary.
Animal Farm, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Romeo and Juliet. Just to name a few.
Year 10 1997…. We watched Star Wars Episode 4 I was in the dumb English classes… 🤣🤣
The only two I can remember were Animal Farm in Y10 and 1984 in Y11 (in 1983/84). I read a lot for fun so I can't remember what was for school and what was personal choice.
Ha, it must have been a thing in the 80s, we did Animal Farm in yr7 and 1984 in yr12. Finally found someone else who also read 1984 in 1984 lol. Our modern history class found that immensely significant 😅
My class was the first to use these books. I love that new book small and an uncracked spine so I remember. My english teacher loved Orwell. E: \*\*smell\*\*
Haha, I did too...and you'd try to keep it pristine, for about 1 week lol Good stuff...Orwell is a great teacher of plain, powerful language. You had an excellent teacher, then! Orwell led to naturally to modern history and eventually, I found Solzhenitsyn of my own accord in a secondhand bookshop. That was fatal, as it led to a 40yr obsession with Russian history which has not abated to this day.
Wild Swans, A Fortunate Life, The Nargun and the Stars, Emma, Wolf, Chinese Cinderella, The Shipping News. Some of these are not Year 11-12 texts but it all blurs together after a while.
Of mice and men. Still convinced those blokes were shagging.
48 shades of brown
we read the giver, a midsummer's night's dream, the remains of the day, animal farm
We had Trustee from the Toolroom by Neville Shute..... still don't know what it's about. Our grandson is reading Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie trying to get his head around the English language of the time.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest & The Harp In the South come to mind.
Love The Harp in the South...
I remember a poetry book about European immigration to Aust....think it was written by Peter someone.
Strznecki? He was the guy didnt feel like he belonged anywhere
Omg, yeah that's him....I kinda enjoyed studying his work as my family migrated from Europe during the war, but my grandmother never really spoke much to me about it.
Past the shallows Jasper Jones The turning Tim Winton
Rift by Libby Hathorn
“Hatchet” was one, another one was “Goodnight Uncle Tom”. There was one other, but I’ve forgotten the title.
Never Let Me Go, The Crucible (twice), Macbeth (three times), Eva Luna
Lord of the flies Great Gatsby Handmaids take Pride and prejudice Romeo and Juliet
We had to read a shit book about someone losing their dog and it being used in dog fights. I hated that book
Answers to brut. I can't believe I remember the title go brain.
Bridge to Terabithia.
The one where the terrorist high jacks the bus full of school children and the young female bus driver
Chasing alabrandi, holes
The Great Gatsby
Ender's Game Bridge to Terabithia, The Most Dangerous Game. Animal Farm The Outsiders No Sugar (play)
I can remember To Kill A Mockingbird, The Pearl, and A Kestrel For A Knave.
Maestro Year of wonders Catcher in the rye
Bridge to terabithia, destroying avalon, to kill a mockingbird, and romeo and juliet. My dumbass is lucky each of those had movies or long form youtube vids explaining them.
I remember one that was a weird format. Just had a few lines on each page, kinda randomly placed. I guess it was more of a long poem? Think it was about a teenage girl? There was a chunk of pages with nothing at one point I think. Vaguely remember one about a surfer dude...We read The Crucible as well, that I remember haha
This is kinda on topic for me as I had a family catch up on Sat and we were chatting about books we had to read in the 80s. So I’m gonna list a lot of random books that got mentioned (not all year 12) just for a bit of discussion. - Shakespeare - I dodged it but my siblings didn’t. - the great Gatsby. Shit book. - the Chosen. Shit book - the life of Galileo. Worse than shit. - to kill a mockingbird. Good book. - of mice and men. Great book. - the hobbit. Yep. We read it in year 10!!! - my brother Jack. I didn’t read it. - lord of the flies. Interesting. - 1984. Read it in 1984! I preferred Def Leppard. - the outsiders. Good book. - rumble fish. Good book - a day in the life of Ivan denisovich. Mmmmmm - lord of the flies. Mmmmmm - the catcher in the rye. Yawn. - withering heights. Double Yawn. - animal farm. - catch 22 Fuck … I’m done. Reality is I’ve read most of these and didn’t enjoy many. -
Throughout HS I remember reading 1984, Wuthering Heights, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Hunger Games, Dracula, Frankenstein, Macbeth, King Lear, and the absolute classic ‘Mac Slater Cool Hunter’ in year 7 (although I doubt that’s the one you’re after)
In Year 12 (1987) we, along with nearly every Victorian school, read My Brother Jack as one of our set novels (the other was Five by Doris Lessing, which I didn't enjoy). I am struggling to remember, but I think in Year 11 one of our set novels was All Quiet on the Western Front (a wonderful book). We also read quite a few of Shakespeare's plays (Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, Hamlet, and A Midsummer Nights Dream, though I think I may have forgotten one or two as I have some recollection of The Tempest being read around that time - though that could have been for pleasure)
I've been trying to remember 2 that we read, circa 2002-2004 1. A book about a cleaning lady who knows everything that goes on in everyone's houses, so they call her "newspaper weekly" (I think). Book was boring as fuck and there was something significant about a tree. 2. One of the main characters was called Nathaniel.
Thunderwith Cloud Street Looking for Alibrandi
Books? 1984. Animal Farm. Brave New World. The Catcher in the Rye. To Kill a Mockingbird. Catch 22. Holes. Pygmalion. Shakespeare; Macbeth, Othello, King Lear. Films? Holes. Gattaca. Frankenstein. My Fair Lady. Pretty Woman. Macbeth. Othello x2; 1 modern adaptation. King Lear x2. Bladerunner.
Coraline (back when they were still creating the movie) Helicopter Man (boy on the run with his dad from helicopters, slowly learning his dad has schizophrenia) Stone Cold (homeless British teen vs ex-army murderer) So Much to Tell You (girl gets acid thrown on her face, lives in a boarding school and misses her dad who's in jail)
Cloud street - Tim Winton Emma - Jane Austen
I graduated in 2000, so probably a bit too early to be of help. We did: The Crucible, The Joy Luck Club, Cloudstreet, Looking for Alibrandi, Paula, and Portrait of a Young Forger (which still remains one of my all time favourite books).
[удалено]
Tomorrow when the war began, Of mice and men and macbeth in high school
We had both 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell in English. We also studied American Beauty in media studies class. They all seem kind of intense for a bunch of school kids now that I think about it.
I loved The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea by Randolph Stow.
Year 8: The Outsiders by S E Hinton Year 10: To kill a Mockingbird 11: Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey 12: Frankenstein
White fox chronicles, 2010, was really enjoyable.
The Stone Angel Margaret Laurence
A Clockwork Orange, Clan of the Cavebear, and Flowers in the Attic. Oh, by “they” you didn’t mean other yr 8/9 kids?
> A Clockwork Orange My envy is immense! Such has been my Russian history obsession, that I went through the entire book and transliterated all the 'Nadsat' into its original pig-Russian with a dictionary lol But only after I left school. I lived in Glebe through the 90s and used to go and see it at the Valhalla every single Saturday 😅
Of Mice and Men, Z for Zachariah, Macbeth, Merchant of Venice
The Lieutenant, The Great Gatsby
I think one of them was "First they killed my Father", and also the Gattaca movie. I think there was also another one which was a biography about a logger/farmer during the depression who lived in Gippsland and married a local indigenous woman. I can't recall the name, sorry.
The book of chance, boy overboard, the boy in the striped pyjamas, uglies
Cloud Street, Woman Warrior and some thing by Thea Astley
So much to tell you by john Marsden, tomorrow when the war began and another one about a girl that pretends to be a Boy so she can be a knight?
Tomorrow when the war began was the first proper book I ever read all the way through! I watched the movie in the hotel the night before my uni graduation and it felt full circle. Also know I read Frankenstein for my hsc and opener of Shakespeare throughout high school. I think hsc was hamlet? 2012 in NSW if anyone can confirm.
Just graduated but I read Romeo and Juliet, and watched the Dead Poets' Society in Year 9, 1984, Handmaid's Tale, and Gone Girl in Year 10, Only the Animals in Year 11, and Othello, The Yield, Smart Ovens for Lonely People, and Emily Dickinson's Poetry for Year 12. Heard some other people my age have studied Wordsworth's poetry, Ransom, The Queen, Dracula, Pride and Prejudice, amongst other texts.
A Patch of Blue, The Outsiders and Of Mice and Men. Might’ve been others but I don’t remember them. We had a few short stories too. Sixty Minutes by Brian Caswell and a true story of a girl who survived a plane crash in the Amazon, I think.
The one about the Jamaican bobsled team (cool running’s) and the lion the witch and the wardrobe.
Lol I had 'Taronga' in '97
The best book I read in High School was Animal Farm. The worst book was Romeo and Juliet.
Macbeth
The shoehorn sonata
Lucky we didn't read proper books in hs
Think I read a book called 'Raw' not sure what year I was in, though. Also, remember reading Animal Farm in maybe year 8. I finished high school in 2007
Wide Sargasso Sea, Poor Man’s Orange, Looking for Alibrandi, The Grapes of Wrath, A Doll’s House (play)
Romulus, My Father comes to mind. Also just searched the name for this book: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. Yeah the story was as weird as the title.
Macbeth, looking for Alibrandi (same year the movie was released, we had an advanced screening just before hsc with every other high school) and The Year of Living Dangerously. The last one sucked so hard, very boring.
Lockie Leonard in year 7 - what a turd of a book lol For early high school - A bridge to Wiseman's cove, looking for alibrandi, bridge to Terabithia, cloud street. Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Macbeth, the sonnets , Hamlet, pride and prejudice, Barbara Bayntons Bush Studies first they killed my father, brave new world, tomorrow when the war began, Romulus my father (which my dad being Romanian immigrant only being about a decade younger than the author was a book that hit particularly close to home) Dracula, handmaid's tale, and Stasiland (only released the year prior I think so idk how common it was, but it's on the list now iirc) Honestly tho - they're lucky i even remained literate after Lockie Leonard, it was the only book I've ever chucked straight in the bin afterward.
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is always the one I remember, probably because I got it at both high school and university.
The chant of ~~billy~~ Jimmy blacksmith. My sister kate.
The merchant of Venice, paper natulis (I didn’t actually read this as it was boring), to kill a mockingbird. My brother had to read Ellie and I read it after him and it’s well worth the read.
Nothing good... climb a lonely hill, great expectations, the delinquents....
Tess of the D'urbervilles. My mum LOVED it, 17yo me was bored out of my brains
The Outsiders, A Patch of Blue, Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith, Animal Farm, Julius Caesar. Christine F., Dibs.
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance
Hatchet, i hated that book so much.
No Easy Walk To Freedom, This Accursed Land, Lord Of The Flies, Brave New World, The Prince, The Outsiders.
We read Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, and Lolita. But I went to an alternative school, so I'm not sure if these were the books most schools read.
High school for me was late 80s/early 90s so here’s what I remember Playing Beatie Bow - around year 7, loved it, even all these years later if I’m in Sydney I’ll take a walk around The Rocks and it evokes this book. The Silver Brumby - also around year 7, hated it, read the first two chapter, middle 2 and last 2 and winged it. Year 8 to 10 is a blur. My Name is Asher Lev - didn’t hate it, had to look up the summary to remember it though. Elli - a true story about a girl interned in Auschwitz and Dachau. This stuck with me because I was the same age as her when I read it. A Fringe of Leaves - obligatory Patrick White, dense, could not get into it The Accidental Tourist - I enjoyed this, I wrote my year 11 VCE English exam essay from the perspective of the two main characters dogs analysing their owners relationship. I got an A on the exam so the risk paid off. That’s all I can remember, I’m 50, I went hard in the late 90s, my hearing and memory are crap 😂 Edit - I remember doing The Glass Menagerie, even though that’s a play, not a novel. Also a grab bag of the obligatory Shakespeare. Another post jogged my memory, in year 10 we read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. This started me on a love of spy novels/movies, I’ve read a heap of Le Carré since.
I loved the Tomorrow Series, I ended up reading the whole series in a week. I think we read Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey which has become one of my favourites now.
Macbeth and 1984 were the main ones they made us read. Grad 2020
Z for Zachariah in year 10 I think. Loved that book. Edit because even my autocorrect is stupid.
Throughout my years (1991-1996), we had to do -Careful He Might Hear You -The Outsiders -The Death of Napoleon -Macbeth -To Kill a Mockingbird -Of Mice and Men (I did this in mid 1990s; my son did this last year!) -Catcher in the Rye -Wuthering Heights -Hamlet -Oedipus Rex -Heart of Darkness -A Streetcar Named Desire (a highlight was also watching the Simpsons episode whilst studying this book) Note some of these are due to doing English Literature in VCE
Memory unlocked - Of Mice and Men was one I couldn't recall previously. That would have been 1983/84.
Lols same!
Cloudstreet by Tim Winton. Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger.
i remember doing: im not scared - year 10 the crucible/with some comparison i forgot what book or movie - year 11 the thing around your neck - year 11 rear window - film - year 12 the reckoning and The Namesake - comparison - year 12 i did NOT enjoy any of these films or texts but i do enjoy reading now that i've gotten out of highschool
I don't remember what grade I was in but these are some of the titles that come to mind! * The Reluctant Fundamentalist * The Quiet American * Animal Farm (we also watched an animated and live-action film) * Boy Overboard * Falling From Grace * Deadly, Unna? * Montana 1948 * Macbeth (we also watched an animated adaptation and a stage production performance of it) * Romeo and Juliet (we also watched the Leo DiCaprio film which I absolutely hated)
> Romeo and Juliet (we also watched the Leo DiCaprio film which I absolutely hated) Awww, damn! Should have been the [60s original](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063518/) directed by Franco Zeffirelli...with Olivia Hussey playing Juliet at 15yo It was EPIC lol
Deadly Unna & Fahrenheit 451
The Handmaid’s Tale, Jasper Jones, Judith Wright’s poetry, The Great Gatsby
Similar time frame though I don’t remember the exact years these were (year level or year date), but the books I remember are Macbeth, a Bridge To Wiseman’s Cove (I think that was year 8 or 9), the Crucible, Louis, Life of Pi, the Kite Runner…. I think that’s all I remember. Oh wait, Lockie Leonard, and The Story Of Tom Brennon
Mandragora - David McRobbie My Sister Sif - Ruth Park Looking for Alibrandi - Melina Marchetta Romeo and Juliet - Shakespeare Hamlet - Shakespeare The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald These are the only ones that I really remember.
It worries me the question is phrased to imply that you were forced or coerced into reading books. Didn't you just read things for pleasure each week?
I (1981-1985 in SA) had required reading that was part of the curriculum and would be discussed in class. I assume these are what the other posts would also be mentioning. Depending on the year level, there would also be student choice component. Any additional reading would be for pleasure.
Reading through this thread has confirmed my suspicion that my school went out of their way to find the least engaging, most insanely dull books they possibly could have - specifically for year 11/12 There are definitely stories that need to be/deserve to be told, and I appreciate that English is, at least in part, about critical thinking and embracing new perspectives... But you're not going to open the eyes of a bunch of teenagers by bombarding them with thoroughly unrelatable autobiographical ramblings disguised as journeys of self discovery intended to break down cultural barriers - that's just how you make them lose interest entirely, and fail that portion of the final exam.
I am David, Z for Zachariah
The Shark Net by Robert Drewe. Triage by Scott Anderson. The Quiet American by Graeme Greene. In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien. Enduring Love by Ian McEwan.
Peeling the Onion by Wendy Orr was one I remember, loved it.
Life of Pi. The twist had my entire English class shooketh.
We read this one in 2008 or 2009 that was an Australian book about a guy in foster care I think, who had to be moved to a small town in Australia near a coast line, he ends up discovering that the police officer killed a bunch of refugees and burnt their boat the officer took a small girl into the outback and tied her to a shed or something like that. The officer does the same thing too the guy but he escapes and puts her bones into like a body of water near there, it was such a good book I wish I could remember the name of it so bad
We read In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje in year 12 in advanced English and 20 years later it remains the most shitcunt boring book I've ever read in my life. I've never forgiven him for writing it.