Recommended by Lit Lad, a patron of the Canton Public Library.

Check our other Fave Five lists, too!

The Catcher in the Rye

by J. D. Salinger
Holden Caulfield is the ultimate outsider who wisecracks his way out of private school into the lust and greed of New York City.

Punahou Blues: A Hawaiian Novel

by Kirby Wright
Jeff Gill searches for identity in a pressure cooker school in Honolulu and ultimately triumphs by discovering his own worth and inner strength.

Dubliners

by James Joyce
Schoolboy stories of a sensitive chap living in an Ireland filled with religious/political persecution.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

by James Joyce
Stephen wants to be a priest but realizes he is destined to love a woman after seeing the girl in the water down by the shore.

In Our Time: Stories

by Ernest Hemingway
Nick starts out rowing with his father in a boat to help a woman having a baby and ends up fishing for trout as therapy to recover from his life and death experiences in the war. Powerful, muscular descriptions and dialogue.