[mflip]

Well, I just graduated so I'll try to give a few suggestions. I'm having a hard time remembering everything that was on my reading list for High School but I'll make a list of ones that I can remember.

The Great Gatsby
Beloved
Fifth Business
A Handmaid's Tale
Hamlet
Romeo & Juliet
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Macbeth
Julius Caesar
Catcher In The Rye
Oliver Twist
The Outsiders

I thought the first four were really good and led to good classroom discussion. There was quite a bit of Shakespeare and I honestly haven't decided whether all of it was necessary but I didn't really mind it. I remember a lot of people enjoyed reading The Outsiders which was read in Grade 9. I agree that adding something by Stephen King would most likely be interesting for the students but I don't have any specific suggestion for which one. It seemed like a lot of teachers chose novels which had movie versions so that they could show the movie after finishing the book and do comparisons.

Edit to add: I read Freakonomics recently and really enjoyed it and think it would work well in a classroom.

Edit 2: Forgot to put To Kill A Mockingbird on the list but everyone really enjoyed that as well.