The Outsiders October 2, 2011

It's 1965 and Ponyboy Curtis belongs to a lower-class group of Oklahoma youths who call themselves greasers. Walking home from a movie, Ponyboy is attacked by a group of Socs, short for Socials, a rival gang that threaten to cut him. So begins this impactful tale by S.E. Hinton, who wrote this landmark work as a teen in Tulsa. The Socs jump greasers like Ponyboy and his friend Johnny for fun. When Johnny kills a Soc who was beating the two of them up, the pair goes into hiding. As Pony's world crumbles, it teaches him that pain feels the same whether a soc or a greaser.