JUNIOR AND SENIOR BOOK LISTS
Note: the date listed with each title is the date that the work was
originally published. Different editions may have a later date.
JUNIOR BASIC AND CP LIST
Annixter, Paul. Swiftwater. 1960. FIC
In an isolated village in the north woods of Maine, sixteen-year-old
Bucky and his father are the last of the trappers in a region that has become
predominantly agricultural. The relationship between father and son is
intensified by the hostility of the community, while the central theme of the
story deals with their lonely struggle to realize the dream of a lifetime by
establishing a sanctuary for wild geese.
Arnold, Eliott. Blood Brother. 1947. FIC
A fictional history of the Southwest, from the time of the Gadsden
Purchase in 1956 until the end of the Indian wars, about 1970, highlighting
the adventures of Cochise, noted chief of the Chiracahua Apaches, and Tom
Jeffords, famous peace-maker and Indian agent.
Beach, Edward. Run Silent, Run Deep. 1955. FIC
The story of a submarine war patrol in the Pacific in World War II,
seen through the eyes of an Annapolis two-and-a-half-striper with his first
submarine command.
Bristow, Gwen. Jubilee Trail. 1950. FIC
The Jubilee Trail was the traders’ name for the great Spanish Trail,
which in the 1840’s led from Santa Fe to Los Angeles. This exuberant and
occasionally rowdy novel describes the trek of a middle-class New York girl
and her trader husband along that trail.
Clark, Mary Higgins. Weep No More, Lady. 1987. FIC
Love and murder at a swank California health spa.
Clark, Walter van Tilburg. The Ox-bow Incident. 1940. FIC
In 1885 Nevada, a group of citizens of the town of Bridger’s Gulch
learn that one of their members has been murdered by cattle rustlers, and
they form an illegal posse to pursue the murderers. A cowboy story set apart
by expert writing and psychological insight.
Cooper, James Fenimore. The Deerslayer. 1841. FIC
Set in early New York State, this is a record of Natty Bumppo’s early
days as a young hunter brought among the Delaware Indians, engaged in warfare
against the Hurons.
Cozzens, James Gould. Guard of Honor. 1948. FIC
Pulitzer Prize for Literature, 1949.
This story reviews three days at an air base in Florida in 1943,
where one small incident leads to another, with the complications of
conflicting authority, personalities, and racial animosities, until real
trouble threatens.
Crane, Stephen. Maggie, a Girl of the Streets. 1896. FIC
A girl of the New York slums is doomed by family and environmental
forces to a life from which she is unable to escape.
Drury, Allan. Advise and Consent. 1959. FIC
Probes the drama and maneuvering surrounding the choice of an
American Secretary of State.
Evans, Richard Paul. The Carousel: a Novel. 2000. FIC
Michael Keddington and Faye Murrow’s love must weather the worst of
storms before they can be sure it is going to last.
The Christmas Box. 1993. FIC
Presents the story of a widow and the young family who moves in with
her. Together they discover the first gift of Christmas and learn what
Christmas is really all about.
The Locket. 1998. FIC
Michael Keddington, a poor young man whose relationship with the
rich, beautiful Faye is causing consternation in her family, learns the value
of standing up for love when he befriends Esther, a resident of the nursing
home where he is employed.
The Looking Glass: a Novel. 1999. FIC
While running from his ministry and the bitter memories of his past,
a Presbyterian minister encounters a young Irish woman who teaches him how to
let go of his past and learn to love again.
Timepiece. 1996. FIC
A companion story to the author’s first novel, The Christmas Box,
traces the lives of David and Mary Anne Parkin as they learn the true meaning
of love, loyalty, and forgiveness.
Faulkner, William. The Bear in Go Down, Moses, and Other Stories. 1942.
FIC SHORT STORIES
Southern states—social life and customs.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. 1925. FIC
A definitive novel of the 1920s. Gatsby, a self-made man whose money
is made by various mysterious non-ethical means, is at the center of this
story of the American dream fulfilled and desecrated.
Frank, Pat. Alas, Babylon. 1959. FIC
The story of a group of people who rely on their own courage and
ingenuity to survive in a small Florida town that has escaped nuclear bombing.
Guthrie, A.B. The Way West. 1949. FIC
Pulitzer Prize for Literature, 1950.
The story of a wagon train trek from Independence, Missouri, to
Oregon in the 1840’s. An unpretentious novel of human nature.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. 1850. FIC
A novel about the effect of sin on the mind and spirit of its main
characters: Hester Prynn, condemned to wear a scarlet A on her dress for her
crime; her lover Arthur Dimmesdale, the young but revered minister of the
town; their child Pearl; and Hester’s husband Roger Chillingworth, an aged
scholar.
Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. 1929. FIC
An American ambulance officer serving on the Austro-Italian front
becomes entangled with an English nurse and deserts to join her after the
retreat of Caparetto. Their affair, casual and tawdry at first, becomes a
moving and beautiful love story at the tragic end.
Herbert, Frank. Dune Trilogy. 1974-1984. FIC
In Dune, the first book of this science fiction trilogy, Duke Leo
Atreides and his family are forced by the all-powerful Emperor of the known
universe to exchange their rich lands for the barren planet Dune, sole
producer of a unique narcotic drug. Trained from birth by his mother, a
member of a strange religious matriarchy, the Duke’s son Paul becomes the
prophet Maud’dib, who leads the savage Fremen of Dune against the Empire.
Paul’s story is continued in Dune Messiah and Children of Dune.
Hersey, John. A Bell for Adano. 1944. FIC
Pulitzer Prize for Literature, 1945.
A Brooklyn-born major of Italian parentage is placed in charge of the
village of Adano during the American occupation of Italy in World War II.
The main theme is the search for a bell that will replace the one melted down
by the Fascists, in this frequently humorous and earthy novel that underlines
the need for empathy and imaginative action in international relations.
Hickam, Homer Jr. October Sky. 1999. FIC
Homer Hickam, the introspective son of a mine superintendent
and a mother determined to get him out of Coalwood, West Virginia, forever,
nurtures a dream to send rockets into outer space—an ambition that changes
his life and the lives of everyone living in Coalwood in 1957.
Howells, William Dean. The Rise of Silas Lapham. 1885. FIC
Silas, a self-reliant businessman who has become wealthy, moves to
Boston and a pretentious home on Beacon Hill
Jackson, Helen Hunt. Ramona. 1884. FIC
Ramona, a girl of Indian ancestry, is raised ignorant of her heritage
by the patriarchal Moreno family, who are trying to hold their estate in
early California despite American conquests. Primarily an appeal for justice
to the American Indian, Ramona is also a tragic love story and a sympathetic
picture of the life and culture of the Indians of Lower California.
Kantor, Mackinley. Andersonville. 1955. FIC
Pulitzer Prize for Literature, 1956.
A lovely woodland in southwestern Georgia is transformed into the
Confederacy’s largest prison camp, administered by a senile general who
derives savage satisfaction from watching Yankee prisoners die of exposure,
starvation, and disease. A great war novel, as hideous as war, and not for
the squeamish, but with glory and grandeur in it as well, and an indelible
impression of sublimity amidst degradation.
Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. 1962. FIC
A boisterous and ribald story centering on the struggle for power
between the head nurse of a mental institution and one of the patients.
King, Stephen. The Stand. 1980. FIC
A deadly “super-flu” practically wipes out the entire population of
the United States. Gradually, survivors trail across a wasteland of horror
and death to congregate in two zones, one the embodiment of good, the other
of evil.
La Farge, Oliver. Laughing Boy. 1929. FIC
Pulitzer Prize for Literature, 1930.
Laughing Boy, a Navajo Indian, loves Slim Girl, who, tainted and
embittered as a result of her American schooling, is trying to find her way
back into the heart of her people.
Lewis, Sinclair. Babbitt. 1922. FIC
A satire on American middle-class life. George F. Babbitt is a
successful real estate man, boss, Rotarian, and Republican – unimaginative,
self-important, and hopelessly middle class. Vaguely dissatisfied, he tries
to alter the pattern of his life by flirting with liberalism and by entering
a liaison with an attractive widow, only to find that his dread of ostracism
is greater than his desire for escape.
Other works by Lewis may read, with the approval of your teacher.
Ludlum, Robert. The Bourne Identity. 1980. FIC
A man has been shot and now has no memory and as he searches for his
origins he comes to fear he may have been an international assassin.
McCarthy, Mary. The Group. 1963. FIC
McCarthy’s scathing satires of American literary life gain
effectiveness from a prose style of fluidity and precision.
McCullers, Carson. The Heart is Lonely Hunter. 1960. FIC
In a small southern town, John Singer, a deaf-mute, loses his only
friend, who is committed to an insane hospital, in this parable on fascism.
Forced to listen and not to “talk,” John becomes the recipient of the
confidences of several other residents of the town — the proprietor of a
quick-lunch counter, a little girl, an intellectual black doctor, and a half-
crazy, drunken radical.
Melville, Herman. Billy Budd, Foretopman. 1891. FIC
Billy, an innocently good young sailor, is cruelly antagonized by
Claggart, the evil master-at-arms. Unjustly accused before the captain by
Claggart, Billy, speechless with rage, strikes and kills him, and the
captain, who loves Billy like a son, must choose between justice and mercy.
Michener, James A. Centennial. 1974. FIC
This absorbing novel traces the history of the Platte River and
Colorado, from the days of the dinosaur to the present, and describes the
people involved in that history — Indians, trappers, traders, farmers,
adventurers, and homesteaders.
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. 1949. PLAY
Pulitzer Prize-winning play concerned with the despair of a 63-
year-old traveling salesman who is forced to face the reality he has evaded
all his life.
Mitchell, Margaret. Gone With the Wind. 1936. FIC
Pulitzer Prize for Literature, 1940.
Scarlett O’Hara is a fiery Southern belle whose love for Ashley
Wilkes is frustrated when he marries gentle Melanie Hamilton, but the dashing
rogue Rhett Butler proves more than a match for Scarlett.
Norris, Frank. The Octopus. 1901. FIC
This novel, the first of a projected trilogy on wheat, and a landmark
in the development of the American novel, depicts the struggle for power
between California wheat ranchers and the railroad, “the octopus” that
encircles and strangles them. With its epic sweep, the novel includes two
love affairs, one involving the mystical Vanamee, and comes to a climax with
a pitched battle between farmers and railroad men.
Roberts, Kenneth. Northwest Passage. 1959. FIC
This historical novel describes Major Robert Rogers’
expedition in 1759 to destroy the Indian town of St. Francis and his search
for an overland route to the Pacific.
Rölvaag, Ole Edvart. Giants in the Earth. 1927. FIC
To Per Hansa, a Norwegian immigrant to America, the Dakota prairie means
life, exhilarating struggle, and freedom, but to Beret, his well-loved wife,
it brings loneliness, terror, and despair, in this story of adventure and
pioneer psychology.
Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. 1999. FIC
During his third year at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry,
Harry Potter must confront the devious and dangerous wizard responsible for
his parents’ deaths. *PARENT PERMISSION IS REQUIRED FOR THIS TITLE.
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. 1951. FIC
Two days in the life of Holden Caulfield, a slightly unbalanced
teenager who has run away from his prep school just before the Christmas
vacation. Unwilling to go home, he drifts around in New York, getting
himself into a series of wryly humorous adventures. A sophisticated and
articulate portrayal of contemporary youth’s dissatisfaction with adult
society.
Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. 1946. FIC
An appallingly grim account of life in the Chicago stockyards. It
portrays with vivid and brutal realism the experiences of a Slavic immigrant
who turns to socialism.
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. 1939. FIC
Pulitzer Prize for Literature, 1940.
A moving and highly successful novel telling of the hardships of the
Joad family. “Okie” farmers forced out of their home in the Oklahoma
dustbowl region by economic desperation, they drive to California in search
of work as migrant fruit-pickers.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom’s Cabin. 1852. FIC
The trials, suffering, and human dignity of Uncle Tom, an old slave.
This famous novel was a major contribution to the abolitionist movement
before the Civil War — when Abraham Lincoln met the author, he said, “So this
is the little lady who wrote the book that started this big war” — but it
treats the situation in a balanced manner.
Styron, William. The Confessions of Nat Turner. 1967. FIC
Tells the story of the short-lived, bloody rebellion of slaves in
Southhampton, Virginia, in August 1831, as seen through the eyes of the
instigator, Nat Turner.
Thoene, Bodie. In My Father’s House. 1992. FIC
The story of ordinary families from different cultures and how their
lives become entwined with each other.
Truman, Margaret. Murder in the Smithsonian. 1983. FIC
Heather McBean comes to Washington D.C. to find out who murdered her
fiance, Dr. Lewis Tenney, at a black-tie gala at the Smithsonian.
Other works by Margaret Truman may be read, with the approval of your
teacher.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse-five. 1968. FIC
Billy Pilgrim survives capture by the Germans in World War
II, the Dresden fire bombings, and the struggle for financial success only to
be kidnapped in a flying saucer and taken to another planet.
West, Jessamyn. The Friendly Persuasion. 1945. FIC
Episodic chapters about the Birdwell family, nineteenth-century
Quakers living in Indiana during the period following the Civil War.
Wharton, Edith. The Age Innocence. 1920. FIC
A satirical picture of social life in New York during the 1870’s,
this novel describes the marriage of Newland Archer to May Welland, who is
bound by the tribal code of the elite. Although he is attracted to her
unconventional cousin, Ellen Olenska, they are both too obedient to the code
to seek happiness together.
Wilder, Thornton. The Bridge of San Luis Rey. 1927. FIC
Pulitzer Prize for Literature, 1928.
When a bridge collapses in 1714 Peru, five travelers are killed, and
a priest who witnesses the accident wonders whether it really was an accident
or a deliberate plan of the Almighty, and it is his subsequent investigation
into the lives of the five victims that forms the core of this book.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. 1945. PLAY
A play about a Southern woman who is anxious for her
physically handicapped daughter to be
married.
A Streetcar Named Desire. 1947. PLAY
Pulitzer Prize-winning play about Blanche DuBois, a haggard
and fragile southern beauty who finds her pathetic last grasp at happiness
cruelly destroyed in large part by her brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski.
Wister, Owen. The Virginian. 1902. FIC
Portraying cowboy life in Wyoming, and in many ways the prototype of
the modern Western, this story deals with the enmity between its unnamed hero
and a local bad man.
Wouk, Herman. The Winds of War. 1971. FIC
The lives of the members of the Henry family, headed by naval
commander “Pug” Henry, are irrevocably changed in the days leading up to the
outbreak of World War II.
Yates, Elizabeth. Amos Fortune, Free Man. 1950. FIC
Newbery Medal for Excellence in Children’s Literature, 1951.
The fictionalized life of the 18th century African prince who, after
being captured by slave traders, was brought to Massachusetts where he was a
slave until he was able to buy his freedom at the age of sixty.
JUNIOR AP LIST
Baldwin, James. If Beale Street Could Talk. 1974. FIC
Two young black people are sustained by their love in their struggle
against injustice and racial oppression.
Bellow, Saul. Humboldt’s Gift. 1976. FIC
Two characters force Charlie Citrine to re-examine his life — one is
a small-time gangster, and the other a poet named Humboldt whom he had known
in the 1930’s.
Clark, Walter Van Tilburg. The Ox-Bow Incident. 1940. FIC
In 1885 Nevada, a group of citizens of the town of Bridger’s Gulch
learn that one of their members has been murdered by cattle rustlers, and
they form an illegal posse to pursue the murderers. A cowboy story set apart
for expert writing and psychological insight.
Doctorow, E.L. Ragtime. 1974. FIC
A saga intertwining the lives of three families, an upper middle-
class family in New Rochelle, New York, an immigrant family struggling to
support themselves, and a black ragtime musician who retaliates against
prejudice and brutality.
Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie. 1900. FIC
The plain, unaffected, and unconventional story of Carrie, an
innocent country girl who is exposed to the impersonal cruelty of Chicago in
the 1890’s. Considered by many to be Dreiser’s most important work, Sister
Carrie was published in 1900 but was not made publicly available until 1912
because of its outspoken frankness and supposed immorality.
Du Bois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk. 1903. 973.04 D812 NON-FICTION
(ESSAYS)
A collection of essays by W.E.B. Du Bois that describe the effects of
racism in America.
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. 1952. FIC
The odyssey of a complex, highly sensitive black man, beginning with
his graduation from high school in the South and ending in a hideaway in
Harlem, filled with surrealistic, nightmarish descriptions of situations and
characters.
Faulkner, William. The Sound and the Fury. 1929. FIC
Often considered Faulkner’s best novel, this book is a radical
experiment in form and technique. In three interior monologues and a third-
person narrative, it describes the decay of a southern family of genteel
blood, its members petty failures, drunkards, suicides, pathological
perverts, and idiots.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. 1925. FIC
A definitive novel of the 1920’s. Gatsby, a self-made man whose
money is made by various mysterious non-ethical means, is at the center of
this story of the American dream fulfilled and desecrated.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. 1850. FIC
A novel about the effect of sin on the mind and spirit of its main
characters: Hester Prynn, condemned to wear a scarlet A on her dress for her
crime; her lover Arthur Dimmesdale, the young but revered minister of the
town; their child Pearl; and Hester’s husband Roger Chillingworth, an aged
scholar.
Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. 1929. FIC
An American ambulance officer serving on the Austro-Italian front
becomes entangled with an English nurse and deserts to join her after the
retreat of Caparetto. Their affair, casual and tawdry at first, becomes a
moving and beautiful love story at the tragic end.
James, Henry. The Turn of the Screw. 1898. FIC
A terrifying ghost story about two children, haunted by the evil
spirits of a man and a woman, former servants, who are determined to gain
possession of the souls of the little boy and girl. Their young governess
encounters the ghosts, and gradually discovers the mysterious power which
they exert over the children.
Lewis, Sinclair. Babbitt. 1922. FIC
A satire on American middle-class life George F. Babbitt is a
successful real estate man, booster, Rotarian, and Republican –
unimaginative, self-important, and hopelessly middle class. Vaguely
dissatisfied, he tries to alter the pattern of his life by flirting with
liberalism and by entering a liaison with an attractive widow only to find
that his dread of ostracism is greater than his desire for escape.
Lurie, Alison. Foreign Affairs. 1984. FIC
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 1985.
Relates in alternating chapters the affairs that Vinnie Miner and
Fred Turner have while they live in London.
Mailer, Norman. The Executioner’s Song. 1979. FIC
A reconstruction of the crime and fate of Gary Gilmore, the convicted
murderer who sought his own execution, in Utah where he was imprisoned.
Based on interviews with relatives, friends, lawyers, and law enforcement
officials.
Mason, Bobbie Ann. In Country. 1986. FIC
Sam Hughes lives in Hopewell, Kentucky with her uncle Emmett, who is
a Vietnam veteran. Sam’s father was killed in Vietnam, and in an effort to
understand about him and the war, she embarks on a pilgrimage with Emmett and
her grandfather to the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial — “The Wall” — in
Washington, D.C.
Melville, Herman. Billy Budd, Foretopman. 1891. FIC
Billy, an innocently good young sailor, is cruelly antagonized by
Claggart, the evil master-at-arms. Unjustly accused before the captain by
Claggart, Billy, speechless with rage, strikes and kills him, and the
captain, who loves Billy like a son, must choose between justice and mercy.
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. 1949. PLAY
Pulitzer Prize-winning play concerned with the despair of a 63-year-
old traveling salesman who is forced to face the reality he has evaded all
his life.
Porter, Katherine Ann. Pale Horse, Pale Rider. 1939. FIC
The story of a short-lived love affair during the influenza epidemic
of the First World War, between a young Southern newspaperwoman and a
soldier, written in a limpid, spare style that suggests more than it says.
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. 1939. FIC
Pulitzer Prize for Literature, 1940.
A moving and highly successful novel telling of the hardships of the
Joad family. “Okie” farmers forced out of their home in the Oklahoma
dustbowl region by economic desperation, they drive to California in search
of work as migrant fruit-pickers.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom’s Cabin. 1852. FIC
The trials, suffering, and human dignity of Uncle Tom, an old
slave. This famous novel was a major contribution to the abolitionist
movement before the Civil War---when Abraham Lincoln met the author, he
said, “So this is the little lady who wrote the book that started this big
war”—but it treats the situation in a balanced manner.
Tyler, Anne. The Accidental Tourist. 1986. FIC
A travel writer, shattered by the death of his young son, comes out of his
shell when he meets a kooky, aggressive young woman who couldn’t be less his
type.
Warren, Robert Penn. All the King’s Men. 1946. FIC
Pulitzer Prize for Literature, 1947.
Jack Burden, a young intellectual, narrates the story of the rise and
fall of Willie Stark, a Southern lawyer turned politician, in which Burden is
forced to confront the problem of good and evil in Stark’s career.
Welty, Eudora. The Optimist’s Daughter. 1972. FIC
A woman who has left the South returns when her father is ill. After
his death, she and her silly young stepmother go back to the small
Mississippi town where she grew up.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. 1945. PLAY
A Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a Southern woman who is anxious
for her physically handicapped daughter to be married.
A Streetcar Named Desire. 1947. PLAY
A Pulitzer Prize-winning play about Blanche DuBois, a haggard and
fragile Southern beauty finds her pathetic last grasp at happiness cruelly
destroyed in large part by her brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski.
Wright, Richard. Native Son. 1940. FIC
Trapped in the poverty-stricken ghetto of Chicago’s South Side, a
young black man finds release only in acts of violence.
Other works by Wright may be read, with the approval of your teacher.
*Though twelfth grade primarily emphasizes English literature, it also
includes American and world literature as well.
SENIOR BASIC AND CP READING LIST
Adams, Richard. Watership Down. 1972. FIC
A small group of rabbits, frightened by the imminent destruction of
their warren, embark upon a hazardous journey across the English downs in
search of a new home. An adventure tale about rabbits that has overtones of
social comment, distinctive characterization, an intricate but sturdy plot,
and a flowing style.
Other works by Richard Adams may be read, with the approval of your
teacher.
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. 1999. FIC
A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect
on Melinda’s freshman year in high school.
Archer, Jeffrey. The Eleventh Commandment. 1998. FIC
CIA assassin Connor Fitzgerald, only days from retirement, finds his
life threatened by a dangerous enemy from inside the agency, while at the
same time, a new Russian president is trying to force a military
confrontation with the United States.
Kane and Abel. 1979. FIC
The story of two men from widely differing backgrounds, whose
driving passions are overshadowed only by their obsession to destroy each
other.
Other works by Archer may be read, with the approval of your
teacher.
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. 1813. FIC
Mr. and Mrs. Bennet cope in very different ways with the problem of
marrying off five daughters, while one of them, the intelligent and
independent Elizabeth, must deal with the conflict between her own prejudice
and the well-founded though misinterpreted pride of the aristocratic Mr.
Darcy.
Bennett, Arnold. The Old Wives’ Tale. 1911. FIC
A story of two sisters, one who stays in her small home town and
inherits her family’s business, and the other who elopes to Paris with a
young man who eventually deserts her, and returns to their home in her old
age. A naturalistic study of environment and character development,
remarkable for its sense of passing time and its detailed, sympathetic
picture of ordinary women’s lives.
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. 1847. FIC
Jane Eyre, a plain but strong-willed orphan who was abused and
neglected by her relatives and sent off to a school where her hard work and
intelligence won her a teaching position, becomes governess for the ward of
Mr. Rochester, the moody master of Thornfield.
Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. 1847. FIC
Forced by a storm to spend the night at the home of the somber and
unsociable Heathcliff, Mr. Lockwood has an encounter with the ghost of
Catherine Linton. A wild tale of terror, passion, and hatred among the rough
people of the Yorkshire moors.
Butler, Samuel. The Way of All Flesh. 1903. FIC
A semi-autobiographical and keenly satirical account of a son
struggling to find himself and break free of the restrictions of Victorian
convention and parental authority. Generally regarded as a very original
work in its time, it had a considerable influence on later English writers.
Clark, Mary Higgins. All Through the Night. 1998. FIC
A thief escaping from the church where he stole a treasured artifact
grabs the stroller with a newborn baby that was left on the doorstep.
Moonlight Becomes You: a Novel. 1996. FIC
Maggie Holloway arrives at the home of her long-lost stepmother
Nuala, only to find the older woman dead. During a visit to the cemetery,
Maggie, a professional photographer, notices something is amiss and finds
herself the target of a sinister money-bilking plot.
Pretend You Don’t See Her. 1998. FIC
Lacey is the witness to a murder and to the dying words of the
victim, so, following the words of this victim, she tries to uncover the
truth behind the murder.
Where Are the Children. 1975. FIC
Nancy had fled from the evil of her first marriage, the macabre
deaths of her two little children, and the charges against her. Now she had a
new family—until the morning she could not find her children
You Belong to Me. 1998. FIC
Radio talk show host Dr. Susan Chandler is marked for murder when she
decides to explore the phenomenon of lonely, insecure women who are targeted
by killers, and becomes intrigued with the disappearance of Regina Clausen—a
mystery someone does not want solved.
Clavell, James. Shogun. 1975. FIC
When a gale casts John Blackthorne’s ship ashore in feudal
seventeenth-century Japan, the English sea pilot and his crew must learn
to “sink or swim” in an alien culture. Blackthorne’s mentor is a feudal lord
locked in a power struggle with another lord for control of all Japan.
Other works by Clavell may be read, with the approval of your
instructor.
Collins, Wilkie. The Moonstone. 1868. FIC
One of the first detective stories in English fiction, this novel
concerns the disappearance of the Moonstone, an enormous diamond that once
adorned a Hindu idol and came into the possession of an English officer.
Dangarembga, Tsitsi. Nervous Conditions. 1997. FIC
The patriarchal society of modern Africa is irked with two daring
women who are determined to be free Africans and free women.
Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe. 1719. FIC
The classic story of survival and adventure, told with realistic
atmosphere and simplicity of style. After his shipwreck, Crusoe sets about
with methodical industry to make an uninhabited island into a comfortable
home.
Deighton, Len. Berlin Game. 1984. FIC
British agent Bernard Sampson must help an undercover agent known as
Brahms Four escape from East Berlin; unfortunately, a security leak high in
the British organization threatens the continued success of the Brahms Four
network. This is a complex and entertaining suspense novel.
Other works by Deighton may be read, with the approval of your
teacher.
Dickens, Charles. David Copperfield. 1850. FIC
As a mere boy, after his mother’s death, David is sent by his harsh
stepfather to London, where he works pasting labels on bottles in a warehouse
and lodges with the poverty-stricken Micawber family. This is a remarkable
story with vivid and varied characters.
A Tale of Two Cities. 1859. FIC
This complex plot involves Sydney Carton’s sacrifice of his own life
on behalf of his friends, Charles Darnay and Lucie Manette.
Other works by Dickens may be read, with the approval of your teacher.
Eliot, George. Adam Bede. 1859. FIC
The highly-principled Adam Bede loves Hetty Sorel, a pretty but
superficial girl. Although Adam tries to save her, she fancies herself the
wife of the young squire, with tragic results.
Other works by George Eliot may be read, with the approval of your
teacher.
Fielding, Henry. Tom Jones. 1749. FIC
The “complete and unexpurgated history” of a young man of strong
natural impulses, a good disposition, and no overpowering sense of morality.
Other works by Fielding may be read, with the approval of your
teacher.
Fleming, Ian. From Russia, With Love. 1957. FIC
James Bond, British secret agent, meets the Soviet murder
organization SMERSH once more, when his execution is ordered.
Other works by Ian Fleming may be read, with the approval of your
teacher.
Follett, Ken. On Wings of Eagles. 1984. 955.054 F667 NON-FICTION
Relates the true story of a Green Beret Colonel who came out of
retirement to lead a secret raid to get two Americans out of an Iranian jail
and home to America.
Other works by Follett may be read, with the approval of your
instructor.
Forester, C.S. Captain Horatio Hornblower. 1939. FIC
The adventures of an English sea captain during the nineteenth
century, filled with exciting action, historical accuracy, and an unobtrusive
but reliable knowledge of ships and the sea.
Forsyth, Frederick. The Day of the Jackal. 1971. FIC
A tautly written and intricately plotted thriller, describes the
meticulous plans for assassination of a political figure and the equally
meticulous search for the assassin.
Fowles, John. The French Lieutenant’s Woman. 1969. FIC
Charles Smithson, a young gentleman of traditional values, is betrothed to
Ernestina Freeman, the wealthy but shallow daughter of a London merchant, but
he is haunted by the enigmatic, independent Sarah Woodruff, who is castigated
by the townspeople for her brief affair with a French sailor.
Francis, Dick. Bonecrack. 1971. FIC
A powerful racehorse owner puts pressure on the stable to see that
his son races the favorite in a major handicap, in this exciting novel.
Francis, a former steeplechase jockey, knows horses and racing inside out,
and writes with great vitality.
Other novels by Dick Francis may be read, with the approval of your
teacher.
Galsworthy, John. The Forsyte Saga. 1922. FIC
The chronicles of the Forsytes, an upper-middle class English family
through the Victorian age and the first years of the twentieth century.
Gardner, John. Grendel. 1971. FIC
For the heroes of the old epic Beowulf, the monster Grendel
represented chaos, death, and pagan darkness – this novel is Grendel’s side
of the story.
Golding, William. Lord of the flies. 1954. FIC
A group of English schoolboys is marooned on a desert island, where
they try to establish something they can call civilization, but in spite of
the efforts of a few leaders to form an organized society, the group reverts
to primitive religious rites and rituals.
Greene, Graham. A Burnt-out Case. 1961 FIC.
Set in a leper colony in the Congo, this is the story of a famous
architect who is a spiritual leper and “burnt-out case.”
Other works by Graham Greene may be read, with the approval of your
teacher.
Griffin, W.E.B. Honor Bound. 1993 FIC
In 1942 First Lieutenant Cletus Frade, a Marine aviator and two
others are sent to Buenos Aires to sabotage the resupply of German ships and
submarines.
Grisham, John. The Client. 1997. FIC
Eleven-year-old Mark Sway witnesses the bizarre suicide of a New
Orleans attorney and is left with a deadly secret concerning the recent
murder of a Louisiana senator.
The Runaway Jury. 1997. FIC
The Big four in the tobacco industry think they have all their bases
covered in an upcoming trial in which a widow is suing for the smoking-
related death of her husband, but they did not count on an inside operator
who has a personal grudge and a sure-fire plan to bring them down.
The Street Lawyer. 1999. FIC
Young lawyer Michael Brock’s investigation into the motives of a
homeless gunman who was killed by police after taking Brock and eight of his
fellow attorneys hostage, leads him to the discovery of a dirty little secret
that changes the course of his life and career.
The Testament. 1999. FIC
When Rachel Lane learns that she has inherited eleven billion dollars
from her biological father, she wants nothing to do with the money, or her
father’s other children who insist that they be given the money they feel
they deserve, even though the will states they are to get nothing.
Hardman, Ric Lynden. Sunshine Rider. 1998. FIC
In the late 1800’s, while on a cattle drive, which takes him north
from Texas, seventeen-year-old Wylie learns that it is no longer necessary to
run from the father he never knew. Part Western, part cookbook, part American
picaresque, part coming-of-age story, this is a delightful and laugh-out-loud
funny sum of its disparate parts…the plot moves along as briskly as a cattle
stampede. Booklist
Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the d’Urbervilles. 1891 FIC
The tragic history of a woman betrayed by the evil deeds of others,
one an evil seducer and one the well-meaning intellectual who marries her.
Lyric descriptions of the pastoral surroundings, of field, river, and sky,
serve to add beauty and dignity to Tess’ tragic personality.
Other novels by Hardy can be read, with the approval of your
instructor.
Holt, Victoria. [Any title, with the approval of your teacher.] FIC
Holt writes atmospheric novels of suspense in the gothic tradition,
filled with murder, intrigue, romance, family skeletons, and a touch of the
supernatural, all in an unpretentious, intensely readable and enjoyable style.
Hudson, W.H. Green Mansions. 1904. FIC
A young man making his way over the Andes, falls in with a tribe of savage
Indians, discovers in the forest and falls in love with a mysterious person,
part woman and part bird, and seeks to unravel her mystery.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. 1932. FIC
A satirical novel set in the future. In a world where human embryos
are developed in bottles and conditioned to collectivism and passivity,
a “savage” is found and imported as an experiment.
Other works by Huxley may be read, with the approval of your
instructor.
Hyde, Catherine Ryan. Pay it Forward: a Novel. 1999. FIC
A young boy who believes in the goodness of human nature sets out to
change the world with his seemingly simple plan, but he soon learns that some
people are not willing to help him.
*PARENT PERMISSION IS REQUIRED FOR THIS TITLE.
James, P.D. Death of an Expert Witness. 1977. FIC
When a scientist is found murdered, inspector Dalgliesh becomes
involved in an investigation that is far more complex than it appears.
Innocent Blood. 1980. FIC
Adopted at age eight, Philippa Palfrey learns that she is the
daughter of a rapist and a murderess who is soon to be paroled from a life
sentence for killing a child, whose father now seeks revenge.
Other works by P.D. James may be read, with the approval of your
teacher.
Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 1916 FIC
Stephen Dedalus’ growing awareness as an artist forces him to reject
the whole narrow world in which he has been brought up, including family
ties, nationalism, and the Catholic religion.
Koestler, Arthur. Darkness at Noon. 1940. FIC
Analyzing various kinds of Communist psychology, this is an account
of the moral struggles of an idealistic revolutionary who is persuaded by his
superiors to confess to crimes against the state which he did not commit.
Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. 1997. 917.9804 K89 NON-FICTION
Tells the story of Chris McCandless, a twenty-four-year-old who
walked into the Alaskan wilderness on an idealistic journey and was found
dead of starvation four months later. It attempts to discover what led the
young man to that point.
Into Thin Air. 1998. 796.522 K89 NON-FICTION
An illustrated edition of the author’s account of his climb up Mount
Everest during its deadliest season, along with his insights into why people
willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship, and expense.
Lawrence, D.H. Sons and Lovers. 1913. FIC
The two women in Paul Morel’s life — Miriam, highly sensitive and
spiritual, and Clara, a woman of fire and passion — cannot wean him from
devotion to his mother, in this semi-autobiographical novel which dramatizes
the sexually inhibiting force of excessive mother-love.
Le Carré, John. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. 1963. FIC
Secret agent Alec Leamas undertakes one last assignment before his
long hoped-for retirement. Recalled form Berlin after the death of his last
East German contact at the Wall, Leamas lets himself be seduced into a
pretended defection, thereby providing the East Germans with data from which
they can deduce that the head of their own spy operation is a double agent.
Other works by Le Carré can be read, with the approval of your
teacher.
Lofts, Norah. The King’s Pleasure. 1969. FIC
A biographical novel of Katharine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry
VIII, set against the colorful background of Tudor England.
Other works by Lofts can be read, with the approval of your teacher.
Maugham, Somerset. Of Human Bondage. 1915. FIC
Philip Carey is a sensitive, talented, club-footed orphan who is
brought up by an unsympathetic aunt and uncle. This novel is a study of his
struggle for independence, his intellectual development, and his attempt to
become an artist.
Other works by Maugham may be read, with the approval of your teacher.
Morris, Debbie. Forgiving the Dead Man Walking. 1998. 364.15 M875 NON-
FICTION
Debbie Morris discusses what it was like to be the victim of Robert
Willie, the rapist and murderer whose story was told in the movie Dead Man
Walking, and explains how the movie helped her forgive Willie for the horror
he inflicted on her and her family.
Orr, Wendy. Peeling an Onion. 1996. FIC
Following an automobile accident in which her neck is broken, a
teenage karate champion begins a long and painful recovery with the help of
her family.
Orwell, George. Animal Farm. 1945. FIC
A political satire written in the guise of an allegory, the animals
on a certain farm rise, overthrow their drunken master, and take over the
running of the farm themselves, but gradually the utopian stage passes and
dictatorship seeps in.
Other works by Orwell may be read, with the approval of your teacher.
Paton, Alan. Cry, the Beloved Country. 1948 FIC
In this widely-read and influential novel about the human suffering
caused by racial problems in South Africa, a Zulu country parson comes to
Johannesburg to find that circumstances have forced his sister to become a
prostitute and his son a murderer.
Other works by Paton may be read, with the approval of your teacher.
Perry, Anne. The Cater Street Hangman. 1979. FIC
In Victorian London, young Inspector Thomas Pitt searches for the
killer of a strangled maid and finds himself attracted to the clever
Charlotte Ellison, who is not only a member of the household in which the
murder took place, but is also very much above his social class.
Plaidy, Jean. [Any title, with the approval of your teacher.] FIC
Plaidy excels at historical fiction, specializing in the lives of
kings and queens of the 15th and 16th centuries, such as Katharine of Aragon,
Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain, Mary Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth I.
Reeve, Christopher. Still Me. 1999. BIO REEVE
Actor Christopher Reeve tells the story of his life and career and
discusses how his focus and outlook have changed since 1995 when he was
paralyzed in a riding accident.
Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. 2001. FIC
Sequel to: Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban. Harry Potter, a
fourth-year student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, longs to
escape his hateful relatives, the Dursleys, and live as a normal fourteen-
year-old wizard, but what Harry does not yet realize is that he is not a
normal wizard, and in his case, different can be deadly. *PARENT PERMISSION
IS REQUIRED FOR THIS TITLE.
Sayers, Dorothy L. Strong Poison. 1930. FIC
A sophisticated detective story in which the urbane sleuth Lord Peter
Wimsey feels sure that Harriet Vane, on trial for murdering her lover, is
innocent.
Other novels by Sayers may be read, with the approval of your
instructor.
Scott, Walter. Ivanhoe. 1819. FIC
In the period following the Norman Conquest, a knight falls in love
with his father’s ward, who is to marry a young nobleman. Perhaps the most
enthralling of Scott’s novels, Ivanhoe delivers a frenzied variety of action,
with the pageantry of a tournament and a great flame-engulfed castle, and
characters such as Richard the Lion-Heart and Robin Hood.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. FIC
A young medical student animates a soulless monster made out of
pieces of corpses from churchyards and dissecting rooms. Longing for
sympathy and shunned by everyone, the creature ultimately comes to evil and
brings dreadful retribution on the doctor. Several movies have been based on
this novel, but focus on the horror to the exclusion of the psychological
aspects.
Shreve, Anita. The Weight of Water. 1997. FIC
The story of a photographer investigating a murder scene in New
Hampshire begins to question her own life and marriage rethinking her ideas
concerning trust and passion and exploring the farthest extremes of emotion.
*PARENT PERMISSION IS REQUIRED FOR THIS TITLE.
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. 1998. FIC
Recounts the experiences of Shukhov, a prisoner at a Soviet work camp
in Siberia, as he struggles for survival.
Sparks, Christine. The Elephant Man: a Novel. 1980. FIC
A novel based on the life of a nineteenth-century Englishman called
the elephant man who suffered from Neurofibromatosis, a rare disease. He was
condemned to a miserable life in a workhouse until a kind doctor gave him his
first real home.
Sparks, Nicholas. A Walk to Remember. 1999. FIC
When a twist of fate makes Jamie Sullivan his date at the homecoming
dance Landon Carter never dreamed they would fall in love, but as he comes to
realize his true feelings for Jamie, he learns of a terrible secret that will
take his love away from him forever.
Stewart, Mary. The Crystal Cave. 1970. FIC
A retelling of the Arthurian saga from Merlin’s point of view, from
his childhood as a solitary little boy with strange and secret powers to a
participant in the struggle to unite Britain. A swiftly paced story of
swords, ambiguous magic, mystery, and heroic deeds.
Other works by Mary Stewart can be read, with the approval of your
teacher.
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels. 1726. FIC
A satiric masterpiece written in the form of a journal kept by a
ship’s physician who makes four voyages, one to a land whose inhabitants are
only six inches tall, one to a land of giants, one to a flying island
of “wise men,” and one to a land where horses rule. Swift’s bitterest work,
Gulliver uses fantasy and humor to satirize man’s abuse of human reason.
Tey, Josephine. Daughter of Time. 1951. FIC
Bored by a lengthy stay in the hospital, a man is intrigued by a
portrait of Richard III into investigating the 400-year-old mystery of the
murder of Richard’s nephews in the Tower of London.
Trumbo, Dalton. Johnny Got His Gun. 1959. FIC
This was no ordinary war. This was a war to make the world safe for
democracy. And if democracy was made safe, then nothing else mattered – not
the millions of dead bodies, nor the thousands of ruined lives… This is no
ordinary novel. This is a novel that never takes the easy way out: it is
shocking, violent, terrifying, horrible, uncompromising, brutal, remorseless
and gruesome… but so is war. *PARENT PERMISSION IS REQUIRED FOR THIS TITLE.
White, T.H. The Once and Future King. 1958. FIC
A retelling of the Arthurian epic, characterized by a realistic
portrayal of the legendary figures, matter-of-fact treatment of fantasy,
imaginative interpretation of setting, and an obvious enjoyment in the
telling of the tale.
*Though twelfth grade primarily emphasizes English literature, it also
includes American and world literature as well.
SENIOR AP READING LIST
Allende, Isabel. House of the Spirits. 1993. FIC
The epic story of the passionate Trueba family begins at the turn of
the century in South America.
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. 1813. FIC
Mr. and Mrs. Bennet cope in very different ways with the problem of
marrying off five daughters, while one of them, the intelligent and
independent Elizabeth, must deal with the conflict between her own prejudice
and the well-founded though misinterpreted pride of the aristocratic Mr.
Darcy.
Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot. 1954. 842 B394 PLAY
A modern classic of the “Theatre of the Absurd.” Two old tramps,
bored and dismayed to a point where ordinary boredom might seem exciting,
wait on a bare stretch of road, near a tree, for Godot, a person no one knows.
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. 1847. FIC
Jane Eyre, a plain but strong-willed orphan who was abused and
neglected by her relatives and sent off to a school where her hard work and
intelligence won her a teaching position, becomes governess for the ward of
Mr. Rochester, the moody master of Thornfield.
Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. 1847. FIC
Forced by a storm to spend the night at the home of the somber and
unsociable Heathcliff, Mr. Lockwood has an encounter with the ghost of
Catherine Linton. A wild tale of terror, passion, and hatred among the rough
people of the Yorkshire moors.
Camus, Albert. The Stranger. 1942. FIC
A quiet little clerk in Algiers becomes involved in events far beyond
his control when he shoots an Arab, is tried for murder, and condemned to
die, in this story reflecting the absurdity of the human condition, and the
sensation of man as a stranger in his world.
Conrad, Joseph. Lord Jim. 1899. FIC
Young Jim is one of the officers of the Patna who frantically take to
the life-boats when their ship appears to be sinking — leaving their
passengers, eight hundred Muslim pilgrims, to apparent certain death. After
the ship survives and is towed to port, Jim becomes a wandering outcast and
spends his life in efforts to atone for his act of instinctive cowardice.
Other works by Conrad may be read, with the approval of your
instructor.
Defoe, Daniel. Moll Flanders. 1722. FIC
This novel, whose full title is The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the
Famous Moll Flanders, follows the heroine’s adventures from 17th-century
England to the American colonies. Moll goes bad early in life, is five times
married, a thief and a harlot, and eventually a penitent; she tells her story
with a plain sincerity that both captivates and appalls.
Dickens, Charles. David Copperfield. 1850. FIC
As a mere boy, after his mother’s death, David is sent by his harsh
stepfather to London, where he works pasting labels on bottles in a warehouse
and lodges with the poverty-stricken Micawber family. A remarkable story
with vivid and varied characters.
Other works by Dickens may be read, with the approval of your teacher.
Eliot, George. Middlemarch. 1872. FIC
Dorothea Brooke longs to devote herself to some great cause, and for
a time expects to find it in her marriage to Mr. Casaubon, an aging scholar.
Eliot’s greatest preoccupation is with the moral development of her
characters, many of whom, like Dorothea, strive with the difficulty of
arriving at an individual and mature view of life.
Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary. 1857. FIC
With flawless style, Flaubert creates the life and fate of Emma
Bovary, unhappy in her marriage to a good-hearted but stupid village doctor
and dreaming of romantic love unfulfilled.
Forster, E.M. A Passage to India. 1924. FIC
An ironic, compassionate novel about the difficulties of friendship
between the races in British-ruled India, notable for its strong mystical
flavor and its sympathetic treatment of Indian religions.
Golden, Arthur. Memoirs of a Geisha: a Novel. 1997. FIC
Nitta Sayuri, a young Japanese woman who was taken from her home at
the age of nine and sold into slavery as a Geisha, discovers a rare
opportunity for freedom when the outbreak of World War II forces an end to
the only life she has ever known. *PARENT PERMISSION IS REQUIRED FOR THIS
TITLE.
Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. 1954. FIC
A group of English schoolboys is marooned on a desert island, where
they try to establish something they can call civilization, but in spite of
the efforts of a few leaders to form an organized society, the group reverts
to primitive religious rites and rituals.
Guterson, David. Snow Falling on Cedars. 1995. FIC
When a newspaper journalist covers the trial of a Japanese American
accused of murder, he must come to terms with his own past.
Hardy, Thomas. Jude the Obscure. 1895. FIC
Hardy’s tragic last novel dramatizes the conflict between carnal and
spiritual life, tracing Jude Frawley’s life from his boyhood aspirations of
intellectual achievement to his miserable, early death. Hardy wrote forceful
studies of life in which his characters are continually defeated in their
struggle against their physical and social environment, against their own
impulses, and against the malevolent caprices of chance.
Other novels by Hardy can be read, with the approval of your
instructor.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. 1932. FIC
A satirical novel set in the future. In a world where human embryos
are developed in bottles and conditioned to collectivism and passivity,
a “savage” is found and imported as an experiment.
Other works by Huxley may be read, with the approval of your
instructor.
Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 1916. FIC
Stephen Dedalus’ growing awareness as an artist forces him to reject
the whole narrow world in which he has been brought up, including family
ties, nationalism, and the Catholic religion.
Lawrence, D.H. Sons and Lovers. 1913. FIC
The two women in Paul Morel’s life — Miriam, highly sensitive and
spiritual, and Clara, a woman of fire and passion — cannot wean him from
devotion to his mother, in this semi-autobiographical novel which dramatizes
the sexually inhibiting force of excessive mother-love.
Other works by Lawrence may be read, with the approval of your
teacher.
Leroux, Gaston. Phantom of the Opera. 1927. FIC
This love story/thriller relates the tale of the mysterious masked terror who
inhabits the cellars of the paris Opera House.
Malamud, Bernard. The Natural. 1993. FIC
Now an American baseball hero and a winner after a dark period, Roy
finds the woman he thought he had lost. But he is up against corrupters,
seducers, and glory destroyers. He has to win the toughest game of his life.
Orwell, George. 1984. 1949. FIC
A novel set in the society of the future, satirizing both extreme
right- and left-wing totalitarianism. A man rebels against this terrifying
society in which there is no place for truth, for historical records are
destroyed and propaganda replaces information, thought and love are punished,
privacy is impossible, and signs everywhere say “Big Brother is watching you.”
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels. 1726. FIC
A satiric masterpiece written in the form of a journal kept by a
ship’s physician who makes four voyages, one to a land whose inhabitants are
only six inches tall, one to a land of giants, one to a flying island
of “wise men,” and one to a land where horses rule. Swift’s bitterest work,
Gulliver uses fantasy and humor to satirize man’s abuse of human reason.
Thackeray, William Makepeace. Vanity Fair. 1848. FIC
A story of English society in the Napoleonic Wars and the early
nineteenth century, as seen through the characters of Becky Sharp and Amelia
Sedley.
Trollope, Anthony. Barchester Towers. 1857. FIC
Mrs. Proudie, the bishop’s wife, and the insidious chaplain, Mr.
Slope, each wish to become the dominant voice in the quiet cathedral town of
Barchester.
Other works by Trollope may be read, with the approval of your
teacher.
Trumbo, Dalton. Johnny Got His Gun. 1959. FIC
This was no ordinary war. This was a war to make the world safe for
democracy. And if democracy was made safe, then nothing else mattered – not
the millions of dead bodies, nor the thousands of ruined lives…this is no
ordinary novel. This is a novel that never takes the easy way out: it is
shocking, violent, terrifying, horrible, uncompromising, brutal, remorseless
and gruesome…but so is war. *PARENT PERMISSION IS REQUIRED
FOR THIS TITLE.
Wodehouse, P.G. Carry on, Jeeves. 1925. FIC
This affectionate comedy introduces Bertie Wooster, an idle young
gentleman-about-town prone to absurdly elaborate misadventures, and his
manservant, the incredibly resourceful and unflappable Jeeves.
Other stories by Wodehouse may be read, with the approval of your
teacher.
Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse. 1927. FIC
A symbolic, stream-of-consciousness novel of great atmosphere,
emotion, and poetry, in which the characters' moment-by-moment actions, sense
impressions, and thoughts are described. More a prose poem than a
conventional novel, the whole book, whose plot loosely centers around a boat
trip to a lighthouse, is a statement about time and death and the permanence
of art.
Other novels by Woolf may be read, with the approval of your teacher.
