Stuyvesant’s Favorite Reads

“My favorite book in English class is called The Namesake. I like it because it's about a family who is not American living in America, and I can sort of relate to their struggles of having a different culture than other people.” —Kentaro Fukui, junior

“Fifteen Dogs. It was kind of something you usually wouldn’t read in class. Also, it had multiple narratives from different dogs, which I enjoyed.” —Yumiko Wang, junior

“Maus was a very noice graphic novel filled with wonderful––or not so wonderful––depictions of animals that was generally just very fun to read and analyze. Also, no, I haven't read any other comic books, including Marvel and DC.” —Bryan Zhang, senior

“I liked reading ‘American Born Chinese’ in Freshman Comp because it introduced a different approach to literary analysis.” —Aaron Hsu, senior

“‘The Glass Castle,’ because it’s engrossing, relatable, and meaningful. It actually taught me something. Jeanette Walls’ story inspired me to persevere in the face of adversity.” —Celina Huynh, senior

“My favorite book was ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray.’ [It was] interesting, had good execution, and a unique concept.” —Jordan Leung, sophomore

“The book I hated the least was ‘The Importance Of Being Earnest.’” —Robert Shibata, sophomore

“I didn’t like the ‘Odyssey.’” —Alena Chen, junior

“I can’t commit to a favorite book. It’s too stressful” —Lia Nelson, senior

“It’s been a while. I’m taking poetry, and I took acting last year, so there weren’t a lot of books. And also COVID year, so we didn’t have a lot of books. I remember reading ‘Catcher in the Rye’ two years ago. That was pretty memorable. Not sure if it’s my favorite, though.” —Sophie Liu, senior

“My favorite book I’ve read at Stuyvesant so far is ‘Our Twisted Hero’ by Yi Munyol because of the juxtaposing qualities of many of the characters in the novella.” —Kailey Poon, freshman

“‘The Picture of Dorian Grey.’ It’s about Dorian, who’s an artist, and his friend Basil, and Basil paints a portrait that shows his youth. It was very dark and I didn’t agree with Dorian 75 percent of the time.” —Karen Chen, sophomore

“I’d say the favorite thing I’ve read for school this year was this short story from the beginning of the year called ‘True Love’ by Isaac Asimov.” —Elaine Huang, sophomore

“The book I hated the least was ‘The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.’” —Julia Czech, junior

“The most interesting book I’ve read in English was ‘American Born Chinese’ by Gene Luen Yang in Ms. Thom’s freshman year class. The format of the book was different than most books, and it touched upon extremely important topics that we don’t usually read about.” —Bella Rosen, sophomore

“I’m really liking ‘Pride and Prejudice.’ I just think the characters are really funny and it’s really fun to read.” —Chloe Tom, sophomore

"I really liked ‘The Joy Luck Club’ by Amy Tan; the book felt authentic to the Chinese American experience." —Aanya Khanna, freshman

“‘The Odyssey’ is definitely my favorite book in English class so far. On the surface, The Odyssey is about a good guy who defeats monsters and gets back with the objectified wife. It is so much more than that. There are so many different perspectives and it is relatable on so many levels. The Odyssey grapples with otherness, how to deal with people who are not like you, and what homecoming means.

Odysseus arrives home to Ithaca well before the end of the novel and there is a reason why the epic doesn’t end there. Homecoming is more than the physical act of arriving home. One’s home is built by relationships, which is why Odysseus has to go through the process of revealing himself to his wife, his son, his slaves, and eventually the suitors.” —Ivy Huang, sophomore

“‘The Paper Menagerie’ is the only piece of writing to make me cry––surprising that it was a short story that did it––and also deeply deepened my appreciation for my mom. It felt like a Disney short but more raw.” —Eshaal Ubaid, sophomore

“It’s the Oedipus play. That was the least boring.” —Shreya Das, sophomore

“My favorite book would be ‘Frankenstein.’ It’s a classic and everyone knows about it, but then I learned that the monster’s name wasn’t actually Frankenstein and it was the scientist that created him.” —Tara Suri, sophomore

“That designation would have to go to Amy Tan's ‘The Joy Luck Club,’ because of the soap opera type drama, and how it could relate deeply to the narrator's culture. It was a very entertaining and meaningful read in Ms. Dwyer's Freshman Comp class.” —Ethan Andrews, senior

“I think my favorite book I have read in full for an English class was ‘Things Fall Apart’ by Chinua Achebe.” —Eugenia Ochoa, junior

“Favorite book is definitely ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ by Oscar Wilde in Euro Lit last year. It was beautifully intricate in how it made us challenge what constitutes beauty and why we find things beautiful as well as how we can start obsessing over these ideals. We also see Dorian’s descent into madness because of this obsession leading to lots of questions, like the difference between obsessions and passions, is there a single standard of beauty, and to what extent will you go to make sure you stay beautiful.” —Anjini Katari, junior

“‘The Catcher in the Rye’ [because] Holden makes me blush sometimes.” —Edison You, sophomore