*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam. Accelerated English AR Reading List – 04/20/10 *1984, Orwell--The story starts, as the title tells us, in the year of 1984, and it takes place in England or as it is called at that time, Airstrip One. Airstrip One itself is the mainland of a huge country, called Oceania, which consists of North America, South Africa, and Australia. 4 th of July: a novel, Patterson, San Francisco police lieutenant Lindsay Boxer, the subject of a police brutality trial after a shoot-out involving two teens, retreats to Half Moon Bay to get away from the media circus and becomes embroiled in the investigation of a series of murders that puts her in mind of an unsolved case from her rookie years. The Acorn People , Jones—The first day Ron James works as a counselor at a camp for handicapped children, he is filled with depression and sadness. As the summer wears on, however, Ron experiences a sharp reversal in attitude. Across Five Aprils, Hunt--Jethro Creighton, the protagonist, is young and idealistic when the Civil War begins. At first he thinks the war will be neat, full of marching soldiers and demonstrative patriotism. He learns the realities of war soon enough as he watches his three brothers, his cousin, and his teacher go off to fight. Always looking up : the adventures of an incurable optimist – Fox -- Actor Michael J. Fox discusses his life since he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, discussing his career, political views, family, faith, health, and overall perspective on life. *The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain-- is an adventure book about the escapades of a boy who has run away from home. The main character is candid, trustworthy, and funny, and he offers us a boy’s-eye view of the interesting characters he meets during his trip. It is also a satire of the American South in the 19 th century. Slavery is its main target, but it attacks many human traits and institutions. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Twain—Tom’s tricks get him involved in a murder mystery. The Aeneid, Virgil -- Virgil's epic poem describing the fall of Troy and the legendary origin of Rome in English prose. Almost Moon: a novel – Sebold, Alice -- Fifty-year-old artist's model Helen Knightly, worn down by years of dealing with her depressed and needy mother, gives in to the temptation to smother the now old and senile Clair and spends the next twenty-four hours feeling both liberated by what she has done, and tormented by her memories of the past and expectations for the future.
Transcript
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.
Accelerated English AR Reading List – 04/20/10
*1984, Orwell--The story starts, as the title tells us, in the year of 1984, and it takes place in England or as it is called at that time, Airstrip One. Airstrip One itself is the mainland of a huge country, called Oceania, which consists of North America, South Africa, and Australia.
4th of July: a novel, Patterson, San Francisco police lieutenant Lindsay Boxer, the subject of a police brutality trial after a shoot-out involving two teens, retreats to Half Moon Bay to get away from the media circus and becomes embroiled in the investigation of a series of murders that puts her in mind of an unsolved case from her rookie years.
The Acorn People , Jones—The first day Ron James works as a counselor at a camp for handicapped children, he is filled with depression and sadness. As the summer wears on, however, Ron experiences a sharp reversal in attitude.
Across Five Aprils, Hunt--Jethro Creighton, the protagonist, is young and idealistic when the Civil War begins. At first he thinks the war will be neat, full of marching soldiers and demonstrative patriotism. He learns the realities of war soon enough as he watches his three brothers, his cousin, and his teacher go off to fight.
Always looking up : the adventures of an incurable optimist – Fox -- Actor Michael J. Fox discusses his life since he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, discussing his career, political views, family, faith, health, and overall perspective on life.
*The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain-- is an adventure book about the escapades of a boy who has run away from home. The main character is candid, trustworthy, and funny, and he offers us a boy’s-eye view of the interesting characters he meets during his trip. It is also a satire of the American South in the 19th century. Slavery is its main target, but it attacks many human traits and institutions.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Twain—Tom’s tricks get him involved in a murder mystery.
The Aeneid, Virgil -- Virgil's epic poem describing the fall of Troy and the legendary origin of Rome in English prose.
Almost Moon: a novel – Sebold, Alice -- Fifty-year-old artist's model Helen Knightly, worn down by years of dealing with her depressed and needy mother, gives in to the temptation to smother the now old and senile Clair and spends the next twenty-four hours feeling both liberated by what she has done, and tormented by her memories of the past and expectations for the future.
An Abundance of Katherines Green -- Title is presented as a mathematical equation. Having been recently dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named Katherine, recent high school graduate and former child prodigy Colin sets off on a road trip with his best friend to try to find some new direction in life while also trying to create a mathematical formula to explain his relationships.
And Then There Were None, Christie— First there were ten--a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they're unwilling to reveal--and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. And only the dead are above suspicion.
And still we rise : the trials and triumphs of twelve gifted inner-city students Corwin -- Chronicles the experiences of twelve South Central Los Angeles high school seniors in a program for gifted students, as well as their teachers and administrators, and discusses the potential ramifications of the elimination of affirmative action in California.
Angels & demons—Brown – World-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a mysterious symbol seared into the chest of a murder victim, where he discovers evidence of the resurgence of an ancient brotherhood with a vendetta against the Catholic Church.
Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl, Frank – A thirteen-year-old Dutch-Jewish girl records her impressions of the two years she and seven others spent hiding from the Nazis before they were discovered and taken to concentration camps.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.
Annie John, Kincaid, A fictional account of a young girl's coming of age in Antigua, from a doted upon childhood to an adolescence fraught with events and alliances leading her away from mutual complacent acceptance.
Anthem, Rand-- Rand examines a frightening future in which individuals have no name, no independence, and no values. Equality 7-2521 lives in the dark ages of the future where all decisions are made by committee, all people live in collectives, and all traces of individualism have been wiped out.
After the Rain, Mazer--At fifteen, Rachel is a worrier. She worries about whether her family understands her, whether her friends like her, and whether she'll get her first kiss before she turns sixteen. And she worries about whether she can handle having a real boyfriend if he does come along. But it takes a dying old man -- her grandfather -- who has never been easy for anyone to handle, to show Rachel she has very special abilities.
*The Age of Innocence, Wharton—Portrayal of NY society in the 1870s, where money is counted more than manners or morals.
Alas, Babylon, Frank—Survivors of a nuclear attack try to hold onto life after the disaster.
Alias Grace – Atwood -- Fact-based story of Grace Marks, a sixteen-year-old girl who received a life sentence in 1843 for allegedly taking part in the murder of her employer and his lover, but whose case continued to stir debate throughout her prison stay, resulting in her release in 1872.
All Creatures Great and Small, Heirrot—Herriot shares the story of his adventures as a country veterinarian.
All He Ever Wanted – Shreve -- Nicholas Van Tassel, having glimpsed Etna Bliss standing under a street light, falls immediately in love and rearranges his entire life around the goal of making her his wife.
All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque—about WWI, originally written in German, the story is about Paul, a German soldier who doesn’t understand the reasons for the war, but attempts to survive its horrors.
*All The King’s Men, Warren—a story of political intrigue and corruption based on the real-life story of 1930’s Louisiana Governor Huey P. Long. Written by a KY author.
All The President’s Men, Bernstein and Woodward--All The President's Men is an essential part of political history: It also an essential part of journalism history. Watergate & the revealed power of the media to topple a president changed journalism
*All the Pretty Horses McCarthy -- The story of young John Grady Cole, the last of a long line of Texas ranchers, who, along with two companions, sets off on an idyllic, sometimes comic adventure, to a place where dreams are paid for in blood.
All Things Bright and Beautiful, Herriot--The world's most beloved animal doctor delightfully continues where he left off in All Creatures Great and Small with new adventures. Young James, now married and working as a small-town vet, encounters a cast of extraordinary characters as he makes his way through the Yorkshire countryside tending to sick cattle, pregnant ewes, ailing dogs-- and their owners.
*An American Tragedy, Dreiser--A classic depiction of the harsh realities of American life, the dark side of the American Dream, and one man's doomed pursuit of love and success.
Andersonville, Kantor--an epic account of the notorious prison camp in Southwest Georgia which operated from February 1864 till the end of the Civil War.
Angela’s Ashes, McCourt -- The author chronicles his impoverished childhood in Limerick, Ireland, in the 1930s and 1940s, describing his father's alcoholism and talent for storytelling; the challenges and tragedies his mother faced, including the loss of three children; and his early experiences in the Catholic church, and balances painful memories with humor.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.
The Andromeda Strain, Crichton--A Nobel-Prize-winning bacteriologist, Jeremy Stone, urges the president to approve an extraterrestrial decontamination facility to sterilize returning astronauts, satellites, and spacecraft that might carry an "unknown biologic agent." The government agrees, almost too quickly, to build the top-secret Wildfire Lab in the desert of Nevada.
Angle of Repose, Stegner—A thoughtful novel about a retired historian who researches and writes about his pioneer grandparents.
Animal Farm, Orwell—The political satire of how a barnyard full of animals parallels a totalitarian society.
*Anna Karenina, Tolstoy—The story of the tragic love affair of Anna and Count Vronsky, doomed because of their conflict with the social values and restrictions of their time.
Anne Frank, Diary of Young Girl, -- Frank, Anne – A thirteen-year-old Dutch-Jewish girl records her impressions of the two years she and seven others spent hiding from the Nazis before they were discovered and taken to concentration camps
Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary, VanDerRol--With its combination of family photographs, biographical sketches of Anne Frank and the others in the "Secret Annex," and brief essays identifying specific stages of the Holocaust, this astonishing book moves past symbolism to reveal the real Anne Frank.
April Morning, Fast—Recounts the Battle of Lexington and focuses on the hopes and fears of those who were there.
Around the World in Eighty Days, Verne--Before there was any kind of high-speed travel an English gentleman named Phileas Fogg bets 20,000 pounds (money) that he can travel around the world in 80 or less days.
As I Lay Dying, Faulkner—A poor family takes the corpse of their mother to a distant burial ground.
As Simple as Snow, Galloway, After his eccentric girlfriend mysteriously disappears, a young man must unravel the puzzle she left behind in her cryptic, riddle-filled letters and in the obituaries she created for every living person in town.
The Assistant, Malamud – Frank, a troubled, somewhat desperate, Italian American, works long hours in the grocery store of a struggling Jewish family in a Brooklyn neighborhood where he develops a secret passion for his employer's attractive daughter
The Associate – Grisham – A dark episode from college haunts Kyle McAvoy's future after he graduates from Yale and takes a shady job at a large law firm where his new employer blackmails him into unethical work, which includes a scheme that could put Kyle in jail or even get him killed.
*Atonement: a novel McEwan - Imaginative thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis, misinterpreting a scene between her older sister Cecilia and Robbie Turner, the housekeeper's son, later accuses Robbie of a crime she has no proof he committed and spends years trying to atone for her actions.
The autobiography of an ex-colored man, Johnson -- Presents a fictional autobiography in which the narrator, the fair-skinned child of a mulatto mother and white father, discusses his youth in Connecticut, his knowledge of his African-American ancestry, and his decision to join white society.
*The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X with Haley--If there was any one man who articulated the anger, the struggle, and the beliefs of African Americans in the 1960s, that man was Malxolm X.
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Gaines—The life of a 100 year-old black woman is presented via tape recorded remembrances of Pittman herself, as well as those of her neighbors.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.*The Awakening, Chopin, Kate -- A reprint of the 1899 novel about Edna Pontellier, a Victorian-era wife and mother who is awakened to the full force of her desire for love and freedom when she becomes enamored with Robert LeBrun, a young man she meets while on vacation.
Babbitt, Lewis—The novel behind the name, Babbitt is Sinclair Lewis’s classic commentary on middle-class society. George Follanbee Babbitt has acquired everything required to fit neatly into the mold of social expectation—except total comfort with it. Distracted by the feeling that there must be more, Babbitt starts pushing limits, with many surprising results.
Barefoot Heart, Stories of a Migrant Child , Hart --The author, born in south Texas to Mexican immigrants, provides an account of her life growing up in a family of migrant farm workers, and tells how she overcame the disadvantages of her youth to attend college and earn a master's degree in computer science/engineering.
Bastard out of Carolina – Allison -- Ruth Ann Boatwright, a South Carolina bastard, tells her life with her family and the emotional and physical violence she experiences.
The Bean Trees, Kingsolver-- Marietta Greer changes her name to "Taylor" when her car runs out of gas in Taylorville, Ill. By the time she reaches Oklahoma, this strong-willed young Kentucky native with a quick tongue and an open mind is catapulted into a surprising new life. Taylor leaves home in a beat-up '55 Volkswagen bug, on her way to nowhere in particular, savoring her freedom. But when a forlorn Cherokee woman drops a baby in Taylor's passenger seat and asks her to take it, she does.
Beautfiul Boy A Father’s Journey through his son's addiction Sheff -- Journalist David Sheff tells the story of his son Nic's happy early childhood, the transformation wrought by Nic's addiction to methamphetamine, and his own obsession with Nic's well-being.
Bee Season: a novel , Goldberg-- Eliza Naumann is used to being the unremarkable member of her family, but when she wins a series of spelling bees, her once distant family begins to lavish praise on her, bringing about surprising complications.
Before I Say Good-bye, Clark, Mary Higgins -- After a quarrel over her decision to follow in her grandfather's footsteps and run for Congress, Nell MacDermott's husband dies in a boat explosion, and Nell, who has long possessed psychic gifts, must find out who killed him before she becomes the next victim.
A Bell For Adano, Hershey—An Italian-American major wins the love and admiration of a small Siciliam village when he tries to replace the 700 year-old bell that was melted down by the Fascists.
The Bell Jar, Plath--tells the story of a gifted young woman's mental breakdown beginning during a summer internship as a junior editor at a magazine in New York City in the early 1950s. The real Plath committed suicide in 1963 and left behind this scathingly sad, honest and well written book, which remains one of the best-told tales of a woman's descent into insanity.
*Beloved, Morrison—In post-Civil War Ohio, the past century continues to haunt an ex-slave and the surviving members of her family.
Ben-Hur, Wallace— A wealthy young Jew and his family, experiencing changing fortunes under Roman tyranny, are affected by the life and teachings of a Nazarene named Jesus Christ.
Beowulf, Anonymous—The hero, Beowulf, in this medieval tale saves his society from the monster, Grendel.
Between A Rock and a Hard Place, Ralston, Aron —The author recounts his harrowing experiences of being trapped for six days in Blue John Canyon in Utah and having to amputate his own right arm in order to save his life.
Big Russ & Me, Tim Russert— A memoir in which Tim Russert, moderator of "Meet the Press," presents an affectionate look at the life of his father, Big Russ, and shares the lessons he learned from the World War II veteran
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.The Black Arrow, Stevenson--The time is 15th century England, and Richard Shelton, the young hero, overcomes one obstacle after another in his quest to rescue Joanna, his love.
Black Boy, Wright—A powerful story of growing up as a “black boy” in the South.
Black Hawk Down, Bowden, Chronicles the experiences of ninety-nine American soldiers who were trapped in the city of Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993.
Black Like Me, Griffin—To get an accurate picture of the life of a black person, Griffin darkens his skin and travel through the South.
Black Swan Green, Mitchell - A meditative novel of a young boy on the cusp of adulthood follows a single year in the life of thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor as he grows up in what is for him the sleepiest village in Worcestershire, England, in 1982.
Bleachers, Grisham, John -- When his old coach dies, high school football star Neely Crenshaw returns to his hometown after fifteen years, reunites with his former teammates, and struggles to resolve his mixed feelings about the man.
Bleak House -- Dickens, Charles – Presents Dickens's 1853 novel which tells the story of several generations of the Jarndyce family who wait in vain to inherit money that is tied up in a legal dispute in England's notoriously slow-moving Court of Chancery.
Bless The Beasts and Children, Swarthout—Poignant tale of young people striking a desperate blow against a world that has no place for them.
*Billy Budd – Melville -- Billy Budd, a handsome and innocent sailor, is admired by all except for the jealous master-at-arms who plots to frame the young man for treason, with tragic results.
*Black Boy, Wright -- Presents an autobiography describing the author's struggles against the dehumanizing southern social environment of the Jim Crow South.
*Bleak House – Dickens -- Presents Dickens's 1853 novel which tells the story of several generations of the Jarndyce family who wait in vain to inherit money that is tied up in a legal dispute in England's notoriously slow-moving Court of Chancery.
*Bless Me, Ultima – Anaya -- Six-year-old Antonio embarks upon a spiritual journey under the watchful guidance of Ultima, a healing woman, that leads him to question his faith and beliefs in family, religion, and other aspects of his Chicano culture.
Blindsided: A Reluctant Memoir – Cohen – story of a 25-yearold TV producer who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and also battled colon cancer. He chronicles his life of accomplishments and adversity.
The Blind Side: evolution of a game, Lewis -- Details the life of University of Mississippi football player Michael Oher, who was raised by a crack addicted mother and adopted at the age of sixteen by a wealthy family, and explores the rising importance and salary of the offensive left tackle in the game of football.
Bloodline, Cary -- Nineteen-year-old John Shaw returns from World War One and is haunted by nightmares of not only the battles but the horrifying discovery that his regimental commander is descended from Count Dracula.
*Bluest Eye – Morrison -- An eleven-year-old African-American girl in Ohio, in the early 1940s, prays for her eyes to turn blue so that she will be beautiful..
*The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Tan-- two packets of papers written in Chinese calligraphy fall into the hands of Ruth Young. One bundle is titled Things I Know Are True and the other, Things I Must Not Forget. The author? That would be the protagonist's mother, LuLing, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. In these documents
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.the elderly matriarch, born in China in 1916, has set down a record of her birth and family history, determined to keep the facts from vanishing as her mind deteriorates.
The Book of Lost Things, Connelly - Twelve-year-old David's grief over his mother's death at the start of World War II intensifies with his father's remarriage and the impending birth of a sibling, so when his books begin talking to him, tempting him to enter a portal into a magical world, he decides to take the risk
Born Free, Adamson—Describes the special relationship Adamson and her husband share with Elsa, the lioness they raise for two years before they release her into the wild.
Born on a blue day, Tammet --Inside the extraordinary mind of an autistic savant, Huxley—An anti-utopian novel. In it, the author questions the values of 1931 London, using satire and irony to portray a futuristic world in which many of the contemporary trends in British and American society have been taken to extremes.
Born of the Fourth of July, Kovic -- A veteran of Vietnam describes his experiences in the war and his reentry into American society after he was paralyzed.
*Brave New World – Huxley -- A satirical novel about the utopia of the future, a world in which babies are decanted from bottles and the great Ford is worshipped.
Breathing Lessons, --Tyler--Maggie Moran's mission is to connect and unite people, whether they want to be united or not. Maggie is a meddler and as she and her husband, Ira, drive 90 miles to the funeral of an old friend, Ira contemplates his wasted life and the traffic, while Maggie hatches a plant to reunite her son Jesse with his long-estranged wife and baby.
Brian Piccolo: A short season, --Morris, Jeannie--Biography of football star Brian Piccolo, who died at the age of twenty-six after a seven-month battle with a rare form of cancer.
Briar Rose – Yolen, Jane -- The tale of Sleeping Beauty and the dark tale of the Holocaust twined together in a story of darkness and redemption.
The Bride’s Farewell – Rosoff, Meg Pell Ridley, having left home on the day she was to marry her childhood sweetheart with the intention of finding a more fulfilling life, meets a poacher with whom she travels through the countryside, but soon becomes overwhelmed by her emotional ties to her family, home, and lover.
Bridge Over the River Kwai, --Boulle, Pierre - The story of a Colonel Nicholson, brilliant officer, disciplinarian, perfectionist, whose passion for duty led him to perform an almost impossible feat of military genius for the Japanese Army he hated.
Bridge of the San Luis Rey, Wilder—In this Pulitzer Prize winner, a bridge collapses in eighteenth-century Peru; five die. Who were they? In the answer to that question lie numerous cosmic ironies, which are related in a melancholy narrative of great power, simplicity and beauty.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Brown—Offers a new perspective on the treatment of the Indians at the hands of the settlers as they moved westward. This book describes an American tragedy.
By the Light of the Moon, Koontz -- comic named Jillian and an artist named Dylan are attacked in Arizona by a mad doctor wielding a mysterious injection and are forced to run from his enemies, taking along Dylan's autistic brother, Shep, whereupon they develop incredible traits: psychic sight, extreme altruism, and the ability to teleport.
The Cage, Sender, Ruth – A teenage girl recounts the suffering and persecution of her family under the Nazis--in a Polish ghetto, during deportation, and in a concentration camp.
The Caine Mutiny, Wouk—Novel about a court-martial on a mine-sweeper in the Pacific during WWII.
Call of the Wild, London—The tales of a sled dog’s adventures.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.*Candide Voltaire --Presents the eighteenth-century social satire of a gentle and kind man who is thrashed by fate and his fellow man yet continues to believe that he lives in "the best of all possible worlds."
Cannery Row, Steinbeck--The book is set on a street in Monterey, California called Cannery Row. It's a fairly poor district. Mack is a poor but kind-hearted character who lives with some of his friends in an abandoned warehouse. He and his friends want to do something nice for Doc, a marine biologist who everybody likes. However, when they do this, it usually ends up going wrong.
*Canterbury Tales, Chaucer – A company of thirty-one pilgrims tell their stories on the way to the shrine of St. Thomas at Canterbury.
Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven, Flagg -- Elderly Elner Shimfissle's fall from a tree while picking figs sets off a chain of events that leaves the residents of small Elmwood Springs, Missouri, pondering the meaning of life.
Captain Courageous, Kipling—Young and spoiled Harvey Cheyne has several exciting adventures as part of a fishing expedition. His experiences teach him the meaning of responsibility and respect.
*Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - Williams -- Tells of the problems that beset a wealthy Southern family gathered together for a family celebration
*Cat’s Eye—Atwood, -- A feminist painter returns to Toronto for a retrospective of her work and confronts her memories, family, and friends.
*Catch 22, Heller—The impossible and illogical adventures of the 256th bombing squad and its local bombardier.
*Catcher in the Rye, Salinger--The Catcher in the Rye is set around the 1950s and is narrated by a young man named Holden Caulfield. Holden is not specific about his location while he’s telling the story, but he makes it clear that he is undergoing treatment in a mental hospital or sanatorium. The events he narrates take place in the few days between the end of the fall school term and Christmas, when Holden is sixteen years old.
Caucasia, Senna -- Two sisters, one light-skinned like their mother, the other dark like their father, are separated after their parents’ divorce and go on to lead very different lives while hoping for a reunion with each other.
Cell, King -- Maine artist Clayton Riddell, elated after closing the deal for his first comic book, comes down to Earth quickly when a brain-zapping energy burst--The Pulse--strikes, reducing cell phone users to zombie-like creatures, and leaving Clayton desperate to find a way home from Boston to see if his wife and son have survived.
*Ceremony – Silko -- Follows Tayo, a young Native American, after his release from a veteran's hospital following World War II as he searches for meaning and sanity in his life.
Change of Heart, Picoult – June Nealon's life is shattered when Shay Bourne murders her husband and daughter, but when her eleven-year-old daughter, Claire, needs a heart transplant, Bourne decides that his only chance at redemption is to give Claire his heart after he is put to death, leaving June to decide if she wants to let the man who destroyed her life save her daughter.
Chasing the Dime, Donnelly, -- Henry Price is drawn into a world of Web sites, sex, and violence, eventually becoming the chief suspect in a murder case, after investigating messages left on his answering machine for a mysterious woman named Lilly.
Chew on This,Schlosser, Eric –Includes bibliographical references and index. A look at fast food, what's in it, how it's made, and what it does to our bodies.
Cheaper By the Dozen, Gilbreath—the story of 12 lively Gilbreath children and their remarkable parents.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.Cherry Orchard – Chekhov -- Chekhov's last play, written in 1904, tells the story of an aristocratic Russian family that struggles to maintain their status in a changing world as they are faced with the prospect of selling the family estate to a land developer in order to pay off their debts
Cheyenne Autumn – Sandoz -- Recounts the 1,500 mile trek of a band of Northern Cheyenne from an Oklahoma reservation in 1878 to their home on the Yellowstone.
Chinese Cinderella, The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter, Mah, The author tells the story of her painful childhood in China where she lived until the age of fourteen with her father, stepmother, and siblings, all of whom considered her bad luck because her mother died shortly after giving birth to her.
The Chocolate War, Cormier – A high school freshman discovers the devastating consequences of refusing to join in the school's annual fund raising drive and arousing the wrath of the school bullies.
*The Chosen, Chaim, Potok —Recounts the story of Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders--one an orthodox Jew, the other the son of a Hasidic rabbi--and the course of their friendship as they grow up in Brooklyn.
Christy, Marshall--When Christy Huddleston leaves a life of privilege and ease to teach in the impoverished Smokey Mountains, her faith is severely tested by her pupils, the love of two men, and the curious customs of the mountain people in her community.
City of Bones, Connelly -- Detective Harry Bosch responds to a call when a dog digs up a human bone, and soon finds himself investigating a murder case that is more than twenty years old, stirring up distant memories from his childhood.
City of Thieves – Benioff -- Seventeen-year-old Lev Beniov, having been arrested for looting the corpse of a German paratrooper, is given the opportunity to be released from jail if he, along with a soldier imprisoned for desertion, can secure twelve eggs to be used in the colonel's daughter's wedding cake by traversing the dangerous streets of Leningrad.
Clay’s Quilt, House--Set in the Kentucky hills, Clay Sizemore, a young coal miner from a big family and a small town, never doubts that he will live out his life in the place where he was born. His mother, Anneth, was killed when he was only four, and he never knew his father, but he is surrounded by the people he loves.
The Client, Grisham--Mark Sway, age 11 but years wiser thanks to a drunken dad who abused his mom, is out in the woods behind his Memphis trailer park teaching his kid brother, Ricky, how to smoke. He's a pretty upright kid--he's determined to protect his brother from drugs, and he once defended his mom with a baseball bat. The dangers of smoking rapidly escalate when Mark glimpses a guy trying to commit suicide by carbon monoxide in his car nearby and tries to stop him. The guy is Jerome, a lawyer who tells Mark that his Mafia client has murdered Senator Boyd Boyette and buried him in the concrete under his garage in New Orleans.
Coal: A Human History, Freese -- Traces the history of coal, discussing how it has been used in different cultures, how it is mined, what negative effects it has had on people, economics, and the environment, and the role it has played in world history and development.
Coal Tattoo -- House, Silas – Two sisters, Easter and Anneth, struggle to raise themselves in their small mining town after their parents' death, and each deals with the tragedy and hardships in a different way.
*Cold Mountain -- Frazier, Charles – Map of the southern Blue Ridge Mountains on endpapers. Inman, a wounded Confederate soldier, leaves the hospital where he is being treated and determines to walk home to his sweetheart Ada, only to find the land and the girl he remembers as changed by the war as he
Cold Sassy Tree, Burns--The one thing you can depend on in Cold Sassy, Georgia, is that word gets around - fast. When Grandpa E. Rucker Blakeslee announces one July morning in 1906 that he's aiming to marry the young Miss Love Simpson - a bare three weeks after Granny Blakeslee has gone to her reward - the news is served up all over town with that afternoon's dinner.
The Color of Water, McBride-- tells the remarkable story of Ruth McBride Jordan, the two good men she married, and the 12 good children she raised. Jordan, born a Polish Jew, immigrated to America soon after birth; as an adult she moved to New York City, leaving her family and faith behind in Virginia. Jordan met and married a black man,
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.making her isolation even more profound. The book is a success story, a testament to one woman's true heart, solid values, and indomitable will. Ruth Jordan battled not only racism but also poverty to raise her children and, despite being sorely tested, never wavered. In telling her story--along with her son's--The Color of Water addresses racial identity with compassion, insight, and realism.
Color of the Sea, Hamamura Sam's pain over losing the love of his life when her parents take her back to Japan is overshadowed when he is drafted by the U.S. Army and sent to Japan on a secret mission that forces Sam to choose between his loyalties to America and loyalties to his heritage.
*The Color Purple, Walker—Life wasn’t easy for Celie, but she knows how to survive, needing little to get by. Reveals truths about men, women, blacks and whites, God and love.
Coming Through Slaughter, Ondaatje –A fictionalized story of jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden, a cornet player in turn-of-the-century New Orleans who cut hair by day, played music by night, and went mad at the age of thiry-one.
A Confederacy of Dunces, Toole--Ignatious J. Reilly is the hero of this tragic-comical novel. Some hero. Ignatious is truly pathetic, arrogant and pretentious. He regards and treats everyone and everything with contempt. Whatever he does not outright hate, he finds room for plenty of criticism (humorous at that). He sees himself as the "Don Quixote of the French Quarter." He still lives with his mother, spends his time writing his masterpiece and only finds a job after a series of events forces him to. Pulitzer Prize winner.
The Confessions of Nat Tuner, Styron--Pulitzer Prize-winning novel depicting the leader of a slave revolt. Turner's Rebellion took place in the long hot summer of 1831, in the state of Virginia. When it was over, 59 white people were dead; the insurgents were rounded up and either hanged or worse; and Nat Turner, a preacher, confessed to his part in the only effective revolt in the annals of American Negro slavery.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Twain, Mark-- Nineteenth-century mechanic Hank Morgan suffers a blow to the head and wakes up in King Arthur's Court where he tries to introduce modern technology and political ideas to the inhabitants. Includes explanatory notes, overview of themes, a chronology of Mark Twain's life and work, critical excerpts, and discussion questions
Counting Coup: a true story of basketball and honor on the Little Big Horn, Colton – Presents a study of the girls' basketball team at Hardin High School on the Crow reservation in Montana, focusing on talented young player Sharon LaForge, and examines the social conditions that prevent her and other Native American athletes from reaching their potential on and off the court.
A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens--This stirring tale, set in the late eighteenth century against the backdrop of the French Revolution, is a novel for all generations. Filled with adventure and love, revolution and terror, it transports the reader to a time of political upheaval and solutions by guillotine.
The Count of Monte Cristo, Dumas—Unjustly sentenced to life in prison, Edmund Dante escapes, determined to get revenge on his enemies.
*Crime and Punishment, Dostoyevsky—Raskolnikov murders an old pawnbroker in order to commit the perfect crime.
The Cross and the Switchblade, Wilkerson—A minister helps the tortured youth and his son Absalom.
Crow Lake, Lawson --Kate Morrison, orphaned at the age of seven, grows up seeing her brilliant older brother Matt's failure to further his education as a tragedy, and feeling somewhat guilty about her own accomplishments, and it is not until years later that she finally sees the damage her faulty thinking has caused.
*Crucible – Miller -- Presents Arthur Miller's play in which a vengeful teenager in 1692 Salem accuses her former lover and his wife of witchcraft.
Cry in the night, Clark, Mary Higgins --Jenny's only hope for happiness lies in unraveling the truth about the past, a truth hidden in the great house that has become her prison.
*Cry, The Beloved Country, Paton—The compassionate story of the Zulu pastor and his son, Absalom.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.Curious incident of the dog in the night-time, Haddon -- Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother.
Cyrano de Bergerac, Rostand—The story of the finest swordsman in France, a gallant soldier, a brilliant wit and the tragic lover with the face of a clown.
Daddy Long Legs, Webster—Delightful story of a relationship that develops between an orphan girl and one of the trustees of the orphanage.
Dandelion Wine, Bradbury--The summer of '28 was a vintage season for a growing boy. A summer of green apple trees, mowed lawns, and new sneakers. Of half-burnt firecrackers, of gathering dandelions, of Grandma's belly-busting dinner. It was a summer of sorrows and marvels and gold-fuzzed bees. A magical, timeless summer in the life of a twelve-year-old boy named Douglas Spaulding.
Daniel Half Human – Chotjewitz In 1933, best friends Daniel and Armin admire Hitler, but as anti-Semitism buoys Hitler to power, Daniel learns he is half Jewish, threatening the friendship even as life in their beloved Hamburg, Germany, is becoming nightmarish. Also details Daniel and Armin's reunion in 1945 in interspersed chapters.
Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man, Flagg, Fannie, Daisy Fay is not afraid to speak what is on her mind, and the townspeople in the Gulf Coast's Shell Beach don't always appreciate her meddling in their business.
*Daisy Miller Henry Cover. Classic novella about a captivating young American, Daisy Miller, whose behavior causes conflicting feelings in the mind of would-be suitor
Darkest Evening of the Year, Koontz -- No one is surprised when Amy Redwing brings a rescued female golden retriever into her home, however, her joy is overshadowed by a series of mysterious incidents and the feeling that she is being watched.
Darkfall, Koontz -- Four corpses are found in four days, each more hideously disfigured than the last. Then the nightmare in all its mottled, slimy horror appears, coming from every direction
The dark side of the game : my life in the NFL Green -- The author, a former defensive end for the Atlanta Falcons, presents an inside look at the National Football League, reporting on the good and bad things that go on away from the prying eyes of the public and the media.
The Da Vinci code : a novel, Brown -- Investigating the murder of a Louvre curator, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon and French cryptologist Sophie Neveu find clues painted into a Da Vinci work, inadvertently uncovering a plot involving the Holy Grail and the secret society known as the Priory of Sion.
*David Copperfield, Dickens--Growing up is never easy--especially if your name happens to be David Copperfield. Orphaned as an infant, David must suffer the privation and cruelties of his evil stepfather, Mr. Murdstone--who packs David away to a workhouse at the age of ten.
Dawn, Weisel—sequel to Night. Two men wait through the night in British-controlled Palestine for dawn--and for death. One is a captured English officer. The other is Elisha, a young Israeli freedom fighter whose assignment is to kill the officer in reprisal for Britain's execution of a Jewish prisoner. Elisha's past is the nightmare memory of Nazi death camps. He is the only surviving member of his family. His future is a cherished dream of life in the promised homeland.
Day of Infamy, Lord-- Sunday, December 7, 1941, was, as President Roosevelt said, "a date which will live in infamy." Day of Infamy is a fascinating account of that unforgettable day's events. In brilliant detail Walter Lord traces the human drama of the great attack.
A Day No Pigs Would Die, Peck— "With plenty of Yankee common sense and dry wit, and some pathos as the boyat 13 takes on the duties of a man. For boys of this age and for the young of any age."--School Library Journal.
Days of Grace, Ashe, Arthur—Tennis champion, Arthur Ashe, tells of his life, career, and battles with heart disease and AIDS"
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam— Dear America allows us to witness the war firsthand through the eyes of the men and women who served in Vietnam. In this collection of more than 200 letters, they share their first impressions of the rigors of life in the bush, their longing for home and family, their emotions over the conduct of the war, and their ache at the loss of a friend in battle.
Death Be Not Proud, Gunther—A father’s moving story of a son’s fight for life against a brain tumor.
Death Comes for the Archbishop, Cather—Set in the mid-19th century, this is the story of a priest who sets out to win the Southwest for Catholicism.
A Death in the Family, Agee— about a family's reactions to the accidental death of the father. Published in 1957, the novel was praised as one of the best examples of American autobiographical fiction, and it won a Pulitzer Prize in 1958. As told through the eyes of six-year-old Rufus Follet, the story emerges as an exploration of conflicts both among members of the family and in society. The differences between black and white, rich and poor, country life and city life, and, ultimately, life and death are richly depicted.
*Death of the Salesman, Miller—The tragic story of a salesman who never got beyond his own daydream world.
The Demon in the Freezer, Preston – Chronicles the reaction of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) to the September 11 attacks and the October 2001 anthrax attacks, focusing on USAMRIID's top virologist, Peter Jahrling, and his work to combat the possible development of a superpox virus by terrorists worldwide.
The Deerslayer, Cooper— Set in 1740 during the French and Indian Wars, The Deerslayer testifies to the murderous humanity and natural beauty on which the history of America was written.
*Desire Under Elms – O’Neil --These three plays exemplify Eugene O'Neil's ability to explore the limits of the human predicament, even as he sounds the depths of his audiences' hearts.
Devil’s Highway A True Story – Urrea -- Chronicles the true story of twenty-six men who attempted to cross the Mexican border into the southern Arizona desert known as the Devil's Highway, describing how the men struggled to survive the desert's harsh conditions and why only twelve survived the journey.
Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank –A thirteen-year-old Dutch-Jewish girl records her impressions of the two years she and seven others spent hiding from the Nazis before they were discovered and taken to concentration camps. Includes entries previously omitted.
Digital Fortress, Brown -- Cryptographer Susan Fletcher finds herself fighting for her country, her life, and the life of the man she loves when she is called in by the National Security Agency to decipher a mysterious code and discovers a plot that has the power to cripple U.S. intelligence.
*Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant – Tyler Pearl Tull's children return to their home to watch their mother die, and while they are there, they are forced to deal with the issues they have with their mother before it is too late.
The Dive from Clausen’s Pier – Packer, Ann -- Twenty-three-year-old Carrie Bell, engaged to her high school sweetheart, is ready to make a break from a life that has become suffocating in its sameness, but her decision is complicated when her fiancee is paralyzed in a diving accident and everyone expects her to stay and care for him.
Divine secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood: a novel – Wells-- Siddalee Walker, a successful theater director, is thrown into a void of uncertainty when she has a falling out with her mother, Vivi, over a New York Times article in which Vivi is characterized as an abusive parent, and the Ya-Yas, Vivi's gang of lifelong girlfriends, conspire to restore the mother-daughter relationship.
*Dollmaker, Arnow -- A woman and her family struggle to keep their dignity as they move from the hills of Kentucky to the chilling indifference of a big midwestern cityryptographer.
*A Doll’s House, Ibsen—a self-sacrificing wife finally walks out on an unappreciative husband.
*Don Quixote, Cervantes—The saga of the fabulous knight and his simple squire and their adventures in medieval Spain.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.Donorboy, Halpin -- , a fourteen-year-old orphan, becomes the ward of her biological father after the tragic death of her gay mother, and struggles with the adjustment of getting to know a father she never knew.
The Door to December, Koontz -- A suspenseful thriller involving multiple murders and the supernatural.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson— Spawned by a nightmare that Stevenson had, this classic tale of the dark, primordial night of the soul remains a masterpiece of the duality of good and evil within us all.
Dr. Zhivago, Pasternak—A story of Russia and its revolution. It is also a tale of love, which endures through hardship, tragedy and time.
Dracula, Stoker—The famous Gothic horror story about the vampire.
Dreams from My Father A Story of Race and Inheritance -- Obama -- President Barack Obama tells the story of his life as the son of a black African father and a white American mother, searching for a workable meaning to his life as an African American.
Eagle blue: a team , a tribe, and a high school basketball season in Artic Alaska D’Orso Follows the Fort Yukon Eagles high school basketball team from its 2004 preseason to the 2005 Alaskan state championship, exploring the lives of its players and coach and examining the six-hundred-person village's Gwich'in Athabascan heritage.
*East of Eden, Steinbeck-- A symbolic recreation of the biblical story of Cain and Abel woven into a history of California's Salinas Valley.
The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Zindel—Two daughters search for stable values in a house ruled by a frustrated and embittered mom.
Eleven on top, Evanovich -- Hoping to discontinue her career as a bounty hunter for something safer, Stephanie Plum is inadvertently drawn into a case that is complicated by her tangled love life, her chaotic family, and her penchant for wrecking cars.
Elf Queen of Shannara, Brooks— this third volume of Brooks's projected Heritage of Shannara tetralogy follows Wren Ohmsford in her search for the last of the Elves, part of the quest set for her by the shade of the Druid Allanon as her role in saving the world from destruction by the mysterious Shadowen.
The Elephant Man, Sparks, Christine – Based on the Paramount movie. 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.
The Eli the Good, House, Silas – In the summer of 1976, ten-year-old Eli Book's excitement over Bicentennial celebrations is tempered by his father's flashbacks to the Vietnam War and other family problems, as well as concern about his tough but troubled best friend, Edie.
Ella Minnow Pea: A novel in letters – Dunn -- The language-loving inhabitants of a South Carolina island interpret the falling of the letter "Z" from a beloved monument as a divine warning not to use the letter any longer. But catastrophe is imminent when the other letters in the monument--which contains the entire alphabet--begin falling one by one.
*Emma, Austen— The story revolves around a comedy of errors: Emma befriends Harriet Smith, a young woman of unknown parentage, and attempts to remake her in her own image.
*An Enemy of the People, Ibsen, Henrik – In Riverton, Maine, circa 1893, Dr. Thomas Stockman wants to disclose that the town's money-making health spa, Clearwater Springs, has been fouled by pollution from a tannery. His proposal to go public is opposed by his brother Pete, the town's mayor, who prompts a wave of public out rage against Dr. Stockman and his family.
The English Patient, Ondaatje – The stories of four people reveal themselves during the final moments of World War II in a deserted Italian villa.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.*Equus –Shaffer A psychiatrist's probings into the mind of a young man who has blinded six horses with a spike, leaves him questioning his own purpose and the work he is doing.
Eric, Lund --The mother of a teenage leukemia victim describes the courageous way her son spent the years before his death.
*Ethan Frome, Wharton—A simple New England farmer is horribly trapped by forces he cannot control.
Every Crooked Pot, Rosen -- Nina Goldman, growing up in Akron, Ohio, in the 1970s, struggles to overcome the feelings of inferiority caused by the birthmark that covers one of her eyes, but she is helped along by her loving mom and larger-than-life father, and when a treatment is found that could remove the mark, Nina is conflicted about whether to go forward
Everything is Illuminated, Foer – American college student Jonathan Safran Foer sets out, along with Ukranian travel agent Alex Perchov, Alex's depressive grandfather, and the family dog, in an attempt to find the village where a Ukranian woman might or might not have saved Jonathan's grandfather from the Nazis during World War II.
Exodus, Uris—Story of Jewish people’s struggle to create a new nation.
Extremely loud & incredibly close – Foer -- Follows nine-year-old Oskar Schell as he encounters a number of interesting characters in his search for information about his father who died in the World Trade Tower and tries to find the lock that fits the mysterious key his father had.
Fall on your knees, MacDonald, Ann-Marie—Traces the lives and experiences of four sisters telling of their bonds, secrets, and love for each other.
Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury—Depicts a world of the future in which books are banned and burned and most people act like robots.
False Memory Koontz -- Dustin Rhodes, desperate to learn why his wife, a successful video game designer, has suddenly developed autophobia--the fear of oneself, discovers the shocking truth in the person of her therapist, the respected Dr. Ahriman.
Far From the Madding Crowd, Hardy—A love story about the difficulties of courting.
A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway—One of the most poignant loves stories ever written. Set in WWII Italy.
Farewell to Manzanar, Houston—A Japanese family during WWII attempts to survive in a forced detention camp.
The farming of bones : a novel -- Danticat, Edwidge Amabelle, a Haitian woman who has grown up as a servant in the home of Dominicans, falls in love with Sebastien, an itinerant sugarcane cutter, and together they try to weather the storms of persecution against their people.
Fathers and Sons, Turgenev, Ivan – Essays in criticism. In three parts, first, the text of the novel which portrays a new type of hero, a "nihilist," who would represent the values of the younger generation, revealing the full breadth of 19th century Russia, second, a selection of Turgenev's letters, and third, sixteen critical essays on the novel.
Feed – Anderson -- In a future where most people have computer implants in their heads to control their environment, a boy meets an unusual girl who is in serious trouble.
The Fellowship of the Ring, Tolkien—The first volume of the saga of the Hobbits of Middle-Earth and the great war of the ring.
Fiddler on the Roof, Stein—Play based on the book by Sholom Aleichen dealing with life and customs of Russian Jews.
*A fine balance, Rohinton, Mistry—The government of India in 1975 has just declared a State of Emergency, which, coupled with a housing shortage, compels four people to share an apartment. Their common need leads them to forge a lasting friendship that sees them through the bad times.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.The Firm, Grisham— Mitch McDeere, the appealing hero, is a poor kid whose only assets are a first-class mind, a Harvard law degree, and a beautiful, loving wife. When a Memphis law firm makes him an offer he really can't refuse, he trades his old Nissan for a new BMW, his cramped apartment for a house in the best part of town, and puts in long hours finding tax shelters for Texans who'd rather pay a lawyer than the IRS.
First They Killed My Father, Ung -- Loung Ung, one of seven children of a high-ranking government official in Phnom Penh, tells of her experiences after her family was forced to flee from Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army, discussing her training as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans, and telling of how her surviving siblings were eventually reunited.
*The Fixer, Malamud—the story of Yakoo Bok, accused of murder as part of an anti-Semitic group and how he becomes a hero.
Flight, Alexie -- Follows the life of a troubled teen as he is transported back and forth in time in a search for his true identity.
The Floor of the sky, Joern -- A widow soon to lose her ranch in the Nebraska Sandhills is faced with questions about family and the future when her sixteen-year-old pregnant granddaughter arrives from the city for the summer.
Flowers for Algernon, Keyes—Depicts the transformation that occurs when Charlie Gordon, a mentally retarded man, becomes a genius through a medical experiment.
For the Win – Doctorow, A group of teens from around the world find themselves drawn into an online revolution arranged by a mysterious young woman known as Big Sister Nor, who hopes to challenge the status quo and change the world using her virtual connections.
For One More Day—Albom -- After years of drinking, being rejected by his wife and daughter, and a suicide attempt, ex-baseball star Charley Benetto returns to his childhood home where he encounters the ghost of his mother, who tells him family secrets and guides him in making his life better.
*For Whom the Bell Tolls Hemingway The story of an American, Robert Jordan, who fought during the Civil War in Spain with the anti-fascist guerrillas in the mountains of Spain.
Foreign Affairs, Lurie—The actions and reactions of two American professors in London as they indulge in love affairs with unlikely people.
The Fountainhead, Rand—novel of a rebellious architect who refused to lower his standards in work or love.
*Frankenstein, Shelley— This is the story of young Victor Frankenstein, who longed to seek out the answers to life and death. Day and night he worked to create something that the world had never seen. But he did not know that one day his efforts would destroy him and everything he had.
Freedom’s Children -- Levine -- Presents a collection of true stories in which African-Americans who were involved in the Civil Rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s discuss their struggles to end segregation in the South.
Freedom Writer’s Diary -- Tells the story of how young English teacher Erin Gruwell confronted the problem of racial and ethnic intolerance in her classroom, and features excerpts from the diaries of her students, now known as The Freedom Writers.
Friday Night Lights, Bissinger— the timeless account of the Permian Panthers of Odessa--the winningest high-school football team in Texas history. Odessa is not known to be a town big on dreams, but the Panthers help keep the hopes and dreams of this small, dusty town going.
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, Flagg-novel about the sustaining of friendship amid the violence and racial hate in a small Alabama town.
Friendly Persuasion, West—A collection of stories about a family of Quakers, the Birdwells, in Civil War-era Indiana. For the most part, they center around the ongoing but largely unspoken battle between the somewhat free-spirited husband, Jess, who likes singing and horse racing and the like, and his more serious wife, Eliza.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.The Gangster We Are All Looking For,LE, Young Vietnamese refugee, newly arrived in America with her father, struggles along with other family members to make sense of the past and adjust to life in the United States.
Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho, Katz -- Tells the true story of Jesse and Eric, nineteen-year-old roommates in the small town of Caldwell, Idaho who changed their lives and built a new future for themselves with the power of the Internet.
Gifted Hands— Carson - Captures the physician's fight to beat the odds, the secret behind his outstanding accomplishments, and what drives him to take risks.
Girl, interrupted— Kaysen, Susanna - Originally published: New York : Turtle Bay Books, 1993. The author describes her two-year stay at a psychiatric hospital renowned for its famous clientele and for its progressive methods of treatment.
The Glass Castle: A Memoir – Walls, The author recalls her life growing up in a dysfunctional family with an alcohol father and distant mother and describes how she and her siblings had to fend for themselves until they finally found the resources and will to leave home.
*Go Tell It On the Mountain, Baldwin --With startling realism that brings Harlem and the black experience vividly to life, this is a work that touches the heart with. Moving through time from the rural South to the northern ghetto, it is an unsurpassed portrayal of human beings caught up in a dramatic struggle and of a society confronting inevitable change.
God of Animals: A Novel – Kyle – Alice Winston is left to help support the family business by boarding the horses of their rich neighbors when her older sister runs away and her parents are no longer able to provide for the family.
Gone with the Wind – Mitchell, Margaret -- After the Civil War sweeps away the genteel life to which she has been accustomed, Scarlett O'Hara sets about to salvage her plantation home.
The Good Soldiers, Finkel -- Presents the true story of the January 2007 surge into Iraq and President Bush's order to increase the number of American troops in order to provide security to Baghdad and Al Anbar Province.
Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Hilton, James – A retired teacher reminisces about his years at Brookfield school, the thousands of boys he taught, his happy marriage, and about the comic and tragic events in his life.
*The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck--The epic struggle of families forced off of their lands during the Great Depression. *Great Expectations, Dickens--The story of Pip, taken out of poverty by an anonymous benefactor. *Gulliver's Travels, Swift-- Gulliver's Travels describes the four fantastic voyages of Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's surgeon. Swift portrays him as an observer, a reporter, and a victim of circumstance. *The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald – The tragic story of the wealthy Jay Gatsby and his attempt to win back the love of Daisy Buchanan.
Grendel, Gardner -- Grendel, the monster, tells his side of the Beowulf story, and compares his values with the chief values of human beings.
*Gulliver’s Travel, Swift – An Englishman's voyages carry him to Lilliput, a land of people six inches high, and to Brobdingnag, a land of giants.
*Hamlet, Shakespeare--The famous tragedy of a son who feigns insanity in order to find his father's killer. Handle with Care – Picoult -- When Charlotte and Sean O'Keefe learn about their daughter's illness, they wonder if they should have known about it sooner and begin to question what constitutes the value of even the most fragile life.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad, Petry-- Born a slave, Harriet Tubman dreamed of freedom. And through hard work and her willingness to risk everything-including her life-she was able to make that dream come true.But after making her escape, Harriet realized that her own freedom was not enough. Harvesting the Heart, Picoult --Paige struggles to improve her own maternal ability and self-worth, knowing that in order to find true happiness with her husband and child, she must first come to terms with the painful memories of the mother who abandoned her years earlier.
Have a little faith – Albom -- Author Mitch Albom, having been asked to write a eulogy for an elderly rabbi, begins a relationship with the man in order to get to know him better, and, in the process, also becomes involved with the plight of a local pastor whose church is falling down around him, leading Mitch to better understand the importance of faith
Having Our Say: the Delany sisters' first 100 years / Sarah and A. Elizabeth Delany – Chronicles the experiences of two African-American women growing up in North Carolina at the turn-of-the-century.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, McCullers--The characters search for companionship. The main characters are all drawn to Singer, who is ironically, a lonely man. *Heart of Darkness, Conrad--A trip up the Congo takes a civilized Londoner to the heart of Africa and the darkest region of the human soul.
Heart-Shaped Box, Hill -- Aging rocker Judas Coyne, a collector of the macabre, pays a thousand dollars for a suit said to be inhabited by the owner's ghost, and learns only after the angry spirit arrives that he has been set up by the family of his last young lover who committed suicide upon her return home.
Heart Sick, Cain -- Portland detective Archie Sheridan, kidnapped and tortured for ten days by Gretchen Lowell, a beautiful serial killer he had hunted for ten years, is having trouble coming to grips with his life since Lowell released him and turned herself in, but he knows he must pull himself together when another killer begins snatching teenage girls off the street. *Hedda Gabler, Ibsen, Henrik – Examines the forces which cause people to commit otherwise inexplicable acts, translated specifically for the American voice.
The help – Stockett, Kathryn - Skeeter returns home to Mississippi from college in 1962 and begins to write stories about the African-American women that are found working in white households, which includes Aibileen, who grieves for the loss of her son while caring for her seventeenth white child, and Minny, Aibileen's sassy friend, the hired cook for a secretive woman who is new to town.
*Henry V, Shakepseare-- focuses on the young warrior king--from Henry's decision to continue the military exploits of his royal ancestors and press England's claim to the French throne, to his nervous watch before the Battle of Agincourt and his role in one of the greatest military triumphs in English history. Here on Earth, Hoffman -- March Murray returns to her New England hometown with her teenage daughter, supposedly to attend the funeral of her old housekeeper, but in the back of her mind March knows she is headed for a reunion with Hollis, the boy she has loved since childhood.
The heretic's daughter, Kent, Kathleen -- Sarah Carrier and Martha, her mother, who live on the family farm in Andover, Massachusetts, endure a dispute with Sarah's uncle about their plot, and when reports of supernatural activity in nearby Salem escalate into mass hysteria, people begin accusing Martha and her family of being witches.
The Hiding Place, Ten Boom--True story of a Dutch family who hides Jews from the Nazis. They are betrayed and end up in a concentration camp. Hiroshima, Hershey--Compassionate account of the catastrophic event that heralded the coming of the atomic age. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Adams-- Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor. Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.The Hobbit, Tolkien-- The dwarves' goal is to return to their ancestral home in the Lonely Mountains and reclaim a stolen fortune from the dragon Smaug. Along the way, they and their reluctant companion meet giant spiders, hostile elves, ravening wolves--and, most perilous of all, a subterranean creature named Gollum from whom Bilbo Baggins wins a magical ring in a riddling contest. The Hot Zone, Preston – Tells the dramatic story of U.S. Army scientists and soldiers who worked to stop the outbreak of a deadly and extremely contagious virus in 1989.
The Hound of the Baskervilles, Doyle-- Set in Nineteenth Century England, the tale of murder and a family curse will hold the reader's attention until the end. When Sir Charles Baskerville mysteriously dies and the heir to his estate is threatened, the real mystery begins. *House Made of Dawn, Momaday--A fictional story based on the lives of the author's Indian ancestors. *House of the Seven Gables, Hawthorne--A dark, tragic novel about a wealthy and hypocritical judge and the misfortune he causes. *House on Mango Street, Cisneros -- young girl living in a Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago ponders the advantages and disadvantages of her environment and evaluates her relationships with family and friends.
House Rules, Picoult -- Emma Hunt's son Jacob, who has Asperger's syndrome and occasionally tries helping the police with his unique forensic analysis abilities, falls under suspicion when a murder occurs in town, reminding Emma of society's--and the legal system's--misunderstanding with regard to the behavioral cues associated with Asperger's.
How Green Was My Valley, Llewellyn-- 1939 classic about growing up in a Welsh coal-mining village. The Human Comedy, Sarayan-- The place is Ithaca, in California's San Joaquin Valley. The time is World War II. The family is the Macauley's -- a mother, sister, and three brothers whose struggles and dreams reflect those of America's second-generation immigrants.. In particular, fourteen-year-old Homer, determined to become one of the fastest telegraph messengers in the West.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hugo-- He was Quasimodo--the bell ringer of Notre Dame. For most of his life he has been forced to live in lonely isolation in the bell tower of the famous cathedral--hidden away like a beast, banished from sight, shunned and despised by all. For though he was gentle and kind, it was Quasimodo's crime to have been born hideously deformed. But one day his heart would prove to be a thing of rare beauty. She was the dazzling Esmerelda. A dark-eyed gypsy girl who, the victim of a coward's jealous rage, is unjustly convicted of a crime she did not commit. Her sentence is death by hanging. Only one man had the courage to save her: Quasimodo.
The Hunt for Red October, Clancy-- The Soviets' new ballistic-missile submarine is attempting to defect to the United States, but the Soviet Atlantic fleet has been ordered to find and destroy her at all costs. Can Red October reach the U.S. safely? I am Scout: The Biography of Harper Lee—Shields --An exploration of the life and achievements of Harper Lee that discusses her Southern upbringing, education, family, writing of "To Kill a Mockingbird," association with Truman Capote, and personality.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou--Remarkable poetic autobiography of a black girl from Arkansas. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, McLean-- The story of Deborah, a 16-year-old schizophrenic young Jewish girl, is told with amazing insight into the delusions and hallucinations of this type of mental illness. The Iliad, Homer-- This timeless poem-more than 2,700 year old-still vividly conveys the horror and heroism of men and gods wrestling with towering emotions and battling amid devastation and destruction as it moves inexorably to its wrenching, tragic conclusion.
In Cold Blood, Capote-- On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues. Five years, four months and twenty-nine days later,
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.on April 14, 1965, Richard Eugene Hickock, aged thirty-three, and Perry Edward Smith, aged thirty-six, were hanged from the crime on a gallows in a warehouse in the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing, Kansas. This is the story of the lives and deaths of these six people.
*In the Lake of the Woods – O’Brien –After John and Kathy realize that their marriage has been built on deception, Kathy mysteriously disappears in the Minnesota north woods
*In the time of the butterflies Alvarez, Julia. Gives a fictionalized account of four sisters in the Dominican Republic under the dictatorship of General Trujillo.
An Inconvenient Truth: The planetary emergency of global warming and what we can do about it, Gore, AL –Former Vice President Al Gore examines the climate crisis that is threatening the future of the planet, describes what the world's governments are doing to correct the problem, and explains why the problem should be taken more seriously.
Inherit the Wind, Lawrence/Lee-- In that year, a high school teacher named John Scopes was put on trial in Tennessee for violating a law that forbade the teaching of Darwinian evolution. With William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution and Clarence Darrow for the defense, this became one of the most important trials in United States history. The trial remains a key battle in the ongoing war of biblical literalism versus science and reason.
The Innocents Abroad, Twain-- Originally published in 1869. Presents Mark Twain's classic 1869 chronicle of his travels with a group of fellow "pilgrims" through Europe and the Holy Land, in which he makes fun of both European snobbery and American coarseness.
Into Thin Air, Krakauer-- a riveting first-hand account of a catastrophic expedition up Mount Everest.
Intruder in the Dust, Faulkner, William – Charles, a sixteen-year-old white boy, repays a debt he owes to an elderly black man, Lucas. After Lucas is accused of murdering a white man, Charles proves his innocence and saves him from a lynching in a southern town
*The Invisible Man, Wells-- focuses on the powers and bold ventures of a scientist, who, after discovering the means to make himself invisible, unleashes a bizarre streak of terror on the inhabitants of an English village. *Invisible Man, Ellison--the odyssey of one black man's search for his own identity. Ironweed, Kennedy-- Francis Phelan, ex-ballplayer, part-time gravedigger, full-time drunk, has hit bottom. Years ago he left Albany in a hurry after killing a scab during a trolley workers' strike. He ran away again after accidentally -- and fatally -- dropping his infant son. Now, in 1938, Francis is back in town, roaming the old familiar streets with his hobo pal, Helen, trying to make peace with the ghosts of the past and the present. Ivanhoe, Scott-- England is in turmoil--torn by fierce and bitter hatreds between Norman and Saxon. Rival claimants to the throne have plunged into bloody civil war. Price John--taking advantage of Richard's absence while fighting in the Crusades--plots to make himself crowned king. Richard returns and vows to take his revenge on John. But he will need a courageous and able warrior on his side--a warrior like Wilfred of Ivanhoe.
Jacob I Have Loved, Paterson-- Sara Louise Bradshaw is sick and tired of her beautiful twin Caroline. Ever since they were born, Caroline has been the pretty one, the talented one, the better sister. Even now, Caroline seems to take everything: Louise's friends, their parents' love, her dreams for the future. For once in her life, Louise wants to be the special one. But in order to do that, she must first figure out who she is, and find a way to make a place for herself outside her sister's shadow.
*Jane Eyre, Bronte--Orphaned and unwanted by wealthy relatives, Jane is sent to a charity school to learn her place in life. She later becomes a governess at Thornfield Monor. There she falls in love with Rochester and discovers his terrible secret. Jazz: a novel Morrison -- A mysterious voice weaves the story of an African-American door-to-door salesman of beauty products who shoots his young lover, and his wife who tries to disfigure the corpse with a knife in the winter of 1926.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.Jellicoe Road – Marchetta – Previously published in 2006 in Australia under title: On the Jellicoe Road. Abandoned by her drug-addicted mother at the age of eleven, high school student Taylor Markham struggles with her identity and family history at a boarding school in Australia.
Jesus land: a memoir, Scheeres -- The author recalls her childhood in a strict religious Midwestern town, her brother's and her education in a Christian reform school in the Dominican Republic, the trials of adolescence and racism.
Johnny Got His Gun, Trumbo--A WWI soldier is blown nearly out of existence, yet his mind lives on. Journey to the Center of the Earth, Verne-- Professor Lidenbrock, a neurotically impatient scientist, discovers a cryptic manuscript written by a long-dead explorer; with the help of his nephew, he decodes the cryptogram to read an account of a journey to the center of the earth begun beneath a dormant volcano in Iceland. Joy in the Morning, Smith--The story of Annie and Carl and their love which survives through dark days and heartbreak. *Joy Luck Club, Tan--Chronicles the lives of 4 Chinese women, their 40 year friendship and how the death of one brings her daughter into the fold and a new understanding of each. *Jude The Obscure, Hardy--The tragic tale of a young man whose dreams are destroyed because of his social class. *Julius Caesar, Shakespeare--Play about the men who murder a man to prevent a dictatorship and the aftermath of that act. *The Jungle, Sinclair--Sinclair's indictment of the horrifying conditions in the meatpacking industry of the early 1900s. Just Take My Heart -- Clark -- Assistant prosecutor Emily Wallace enthusiastically pursues a case against Gregg Aldrich, the prime suspect in the murder of his wife, Broadway actress Natalie Raines, in spite of his unwavering profession of innocence, not realizing she is in danger herself from a killer who is posing as a friend.
Kaffir Boy, Mathabane-- Mathabane describes his life growing up in a nonwhite ghetto outside Johannesburg--and how he escaped its horrors. Hard work and faith in education played key roles, and Mathabane eventually won a tennis scholarship to an American university.
Keeping the Faith, Picoult -- Seven-year-old Faith White, the object of a custody battle, becomes the focus of a much larger controversy when she begins quoting from the Bible, develops stigmata, and appears to be able to perform miraculous healings.
Keeping the Faith, Picoult -- Seven-year-old Faith White, the object of a custody battle, becomes the focus of a much larger controversy when she begins quoting from the Bible, develops stigmata, and appears to be able to perform miraculous healings.
Kidnapped ,Sevenson -- adventures of seventeen-year-old David Balfour, an orphan whose uncle arranges for his kidnapping by an evil sea captain in order to steal his inheritance. The Kids are all right: a memoir – Welch, Diana - The four Welch siblings--Amanda, Liz, Dan, and Diana--describe the hardships and struggles they faced during their childhoods, which culminated with the death of their actress mother, Ann, and resulted in their separation from one another.
The Killer Angels, Shaara--A gripping novel of the 4 day battle of Gettysburg as seen by the members of the Union and Confederate Armies. *King Lear—Shakespeare- Shakespeare's drama about an aging regent who foolishly disinherits his favorite daughter and splits his kingdom between his other two daughters who are secretly plotting against him.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.*Kite Runner, Hosseini -- Amir, haunted by his betrayal of Hassan, the son of his father's servant and a childhood friend, returns to Kabul as an adult after he learns Hassan has been killed, in an attempt to redeem himself by rescuing Hassan's son from a life of slavery to a Taliban official.
A Knight of the Word, Brooks -- Sequel to: Running with the demon. John Ross, a modern-day Knight of the Word, becomes disillusioned with his quest and turns his back on magic to build a new life with the beautiful Stefanie Winslow, but he does not realize that a fallen Knight makes an irresistible target for the Void, and soon Ross and those he loves are being stalked by evil.
The Lake House – Patterson -- When the wind blows. Six genetically engineered bird-children struggle to stay with the couple who saved them from their captors while one scientist hunts for the oldest girl, Max, who knows too much about his new, even more portentous project.
The Land, Taylor – Prequel to: Roll of thunder, hear my cry. Paul-Edward, the son of a part-Indian, part-African slave mother and a White plantation owner father, finds himself caught between the two worlds of his parents as he pursues his dream of owning land in the aftermath of the Civil War.
Last of the Breed, L'Armour-- set in Siberia where a downed American test pilot, Joseph "Joe Mack" Makatozi, has been taken after his capture by the Russians. The Last of the Mohicans, Cooper--when an Indian captures a general’s two daughters, Hawkeye, Uncas, and their father are in pursuit to save them.
The Last Juror – Grisham - In 1970s Clanton, Mississippi, college dropout Willie Traynor turns a failed small-town paper into a success covering a local rape and murder case and finds his life coming full circle when the man convicted of that crime is paroled nine years after receiving a life sentence and jury members from the trial begin turning up dead.
The Learning Tree, Parks -- An African-American youth in a small town in Kansas finds himself the only witness to a murder.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Irving-- Ichabod Crane faces the terror of the Headless Horseman. Les Miserables, Hugo--begins in the same year as Dumas' Monte Cristo (1815) with the escape of Jean Vajean from prison, where he spent 20 years for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his family. After becoming the mayor of a French city under another name, Valjean meets a woman named Fantine and a police inspector named Javert. One's desperation will move his heart to pity while the other's relentless adherence to the letter of the law will cause him to live in perpetual hiding.
*Lesson Before Dying—Gaines Tells the story of a young African-American man sentenced to death for a murder he did not commit, and a teacher who tries to impart to him his learning and pride before the execution.
Let Me Call You Sweetheart, Clark-- spunky New Jersey prosecutor, Kerry McGrath, has taken an interest in a 10-year-old murder case, in which Skip Reardon had been found guilty of slaying his beautiful wife, Suzanne, and has since been pleading his innocence from his jail cell. When Kerry's small daughter, Robin, goes to a New York plastic surgeon after a car crash, it is apparent that Dr. Smith, who was Suzanne's father, is weird. He seems to be fashioning the faces of young women to resemble his dead daughter, and it was his testimony that sent Skip to jail. Let the Cirlce Be Unbroken, Taylor--The inspiring story of a loving, close-knit black family confronted with racial injustice. Let's roll! : ordinary people, extraordinary courage, Beamer--Lisa Beamer shares memories of her life with husband Todd, and discusses how her husband's courageous actions on United Flight 93 on September 11, 2001, forever changed her life, and the lives of all Americans.
Life on the Mississippi, Twain--Twain's recollections of his boyhood dream to become a riverboat pilot.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.Life on the color line : the true story of a white boy who discovered he was black, Williams, Gregory Howard--The autobiography of a fair-skinned man who learned, as a child in the 1950s, that he was actually the son of an African-American man. Liar’s Club: A Memoir, Karr – An account of the author's childhood in a Texas oil town and of her family's struggles with cancer, madness, and alcoholism.
Life is Funny, Frank -- The lives of a number of young people of different races, economic backgrounds, and family situations living in Brooklyn, New York, become intertwined over a seven year period.
*Light in August- Faulkner -- Joe Christmas, who appears to be white but is part African-American, kills Joanna Burden, a spinster with whom he has had an affair. He is captured, castrated, and killed by outraged townspeople.
The Light in the Forest, Richter-- When he was just four years old, John Cameron Butler was captured by the Lenne Lenape Indians. He has since been adopted by the Indians, who named him True Son, and has grown to love the only family he has ever known, as well as the ways of his people. But now it's 1765 and in order to make a land deal, the Lenne Lenape and other tribes have agreed to return all their captives to the white Army, including now-15-year-old True Son/John. Lilies of the Field, Barrett--An ex-GI befriends a group of refugee nuns. He ends up making their dream of having a chapel reality. Lincoln Lawyer,Connelly -- Criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller has spent his career protecting the city's low lives, but when a Beverly Hills playboy hires Mickey to defend him in an assault trial, Mickey believes it will be the easiest and most lucrative case of his career, until the case takes a dangerous turn that threatens everything Mickey loves.
Lisa Bright and Dark, Neufeld--Describes a young girl's descent into a world of madness. Little Brother -- Doctorow -- Interrogated for days by the Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco, California, seventeen-year-old Marcus is released into what is now a police state, and decides to use his expertise in computer hacking to set things right.
Little Men, Alcott-- The beloved sequel to Little Women, this classic continues the story of Jo March, who goes on to get married and inherit an estate with which she creates an experimental school for boys. *Little Women, Alcott-- The story of four sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy is one that will forever be a part of American literary culture. Set in the mid-1800s in a small New England town, Louisa May Alcott invites the reader into the home of these four sisters as they deal with the struggles of having a father off fighting in the Civil War, having to mature and grow up supporting themselves with little jobs here and there and finding out about the joys of love, children, and the sadness of death. Living History: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Clinton -New York senator and former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton reflects on her public and private lives, discussing her upbringing in suburban America in the 1950s, her political journey, her marriage and career, motherhood, and life in the White House.
The Long Road to Gettysburg, Murphy-- Excerpts from the diaries of two young officers, Lt. John Dooley of the Confederacy and Cpl. Thomas Galway of the Union army, are at the heart of this compelling account of the Civil War's bloodiest battle. The Longshot: a novel – Kitamura, Kati M. Cal, a veteran mixed martial arts fighter who is trying to make a comeback, and Riley, his longtime trainer, are headed to Mexico for a rematch with the legendary champion, Rivera.
Look Homeward, Angel, a story of a buried life —Wolfe – Describes the coming of age of Eugene Gant, his boyhood in North Carolina and his growing passion to experience life.
Looking for Alaska – Green - Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.
*Long day's journey into night / Eugene O'Neill -- Depicts the struggles of the Tyrone family as they face drug addiction, alcohol abuse, tuberculosis, and lost dreams in this semi-autobiographical play.
* Lord Jim, Conrad-- Jim is a young man who has big plans to become a sea captain, but after pushing through the ranks and becoming chief mate he makes a bad mistake. The ship he was currently boarded, "the Patna", became damaged and without thinking Jim and the rest of the crew abandoned the ship leaving innocents stranded on the boat. This mistake costs Jim his life as a seaman. This is where he meets Marlow, who seems to take interest in Jim. Marlow assists Jim in finding a new way to live in Patusan, where people begin to look up to Jim as their leader. *The Lord of the Flies, Golding--A group of young boys are trapped on a deserted island with no adult supervision. Lost Horizon, Hilton--Four people are trapped in a hidden valley where no one grows old and no one thinks of death. The Lost World, Crichton-- It is now six years since the secret disaster at Jurassic Park, six years since the extraordinary dream of science and imagination came to a crashing end--the dinosaurs destroyed, the park dismantled, the island indefinitely closed to the public. There are rumors that something has survived. The Lovely Bones, Sebold-- When we first meet 14-year-old Susie Salmon, she is already in heaven. This was before milk carton photos and public service announcements, she tells us; back in 1973, when Susie mysteriously disappeared, people still believed these things didn't happen. In the sweet, untroubled voice of a precocious teenage girl, Susie relates the awful events of her death, and her own adjustment to the strange new place she finds herself.
Lucky, Sebold – The author tells the story of her violent rape at the age of eighteen, her accidental sighting of her attacker six months later, the resulting trial and conviction of the man, and the trauma she suffered for years afterwards.
Macbeth, Shakespeare--A man compromises his morals to achieve power.
*Madame Bovary, Flaubert-- Bored and unhappy in a lifeless marriage, Emma Bovary yearns to escape from the dull circumstances of provincial life. Flaubert’s powerful, deeply moving examination of the moral degeneration of a middle-class Frenchwoman is universally regarded as one of the landmarks of 19th-century fiction.
Maggie’s American Dream: the life and times of a Black family, Comer, James – An educator and child psychiatrist chronicles the life of his mother, an African American woman who guided and inspired her family through her own determination to rise above the limitations imposed by poverty and racial prejudice.
The Magic Mountain, Mann – The story of Hans Castorp, an unassuming young engineer who ponders the meaning of life, time, and love while being treated for tuberculosis in a sanatorium.
*Main Street, Lewis-- In this classic satire of small-town America, beautiful young Carol Kennicott comes to Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, with dreams of transforming the provincial old town into a place of beauty and culture. But she runs into a wall of bigotry, hypocrisy and complacency. The first popular bestseller to attack conventional ideas about marriage, gender roles, and small town life, Main Street established Lewis as a major American novelist. *Major Barbara – Shaw -- A play about poverty and society, dramatized in the struggle between a wealthy man and his daughter, Barbara, who works with the Salvation Army.
Makes Me Wanna Holler, McCall-- In this "honest and searching look at the perils of growing up a black male in urban America" (San Francisco Chronicle), Washington Post reporter Nathan McCall tells the story of his passage from the street and the prison yard to the newsroom of one of America's most prestigious papers. Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary, Myers-- Myers organizes Malcolm X's life into four stages: his childhood; his adolescence; his period of working under Elijah Mohammad; and his life after breaking with the Nation of Islam. Maltese Falcon, Hammet--Sam Spade is the classic private eye in this tale of suspense and intrigue.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.Many Stones, Coman, Carolyn, After her sister Laura is murdered in South Africa, Berry and her estranged father travel there to participate in the dedication of a memorial in her name.
*Mansfield Park – Austen -- Miss Fanny Price, the poor relation of a wealthy family, possesses only natural goodness to aid her against a witty and lovely rival as they compete for the man they both love.
Martian Chronicles, Bradbury--A sometimes eerie, sometimes poetic fantasy about the colonization of Mars. Mayor of Casterbridge, Hardy--The story of an unemployed and homeless hay-trusser who becomes mayor.
Meet Me in the Green Glen, Warren—It is a strange and complex story of love, betrayal, revenge, murder. The plot is tightly constructed and full of suspense; it moves inexorably toward events that culminate in murder; ther is a dramatic trial, followed by the heroic efforts of a determined lawyer to reverse the judgment of the court.
* The Member of the Wedding, McCullers-- Twelve-year-old Frankie Adams, longing at once for escape and belonging, takes her role as "member of the wedding" to mean that when her older brother marries she will join the happy couple in their new life together. But Frankie is unlucky in love, and her mother is dead. She devises a desperate plan, reinventing herself as the seemingly sophisticated F. Jasmine, a gawky beauty in a pink dress who looks closer to 16 than 12.
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, Edwards-- Dr. David Henry, forced to deliver his own twins during a snowstorm in 1964 with only a nurse to help him, makes a decision that has far-reaching effects on his life, and the lives of his wife and son, when his infant daughter is born with Down Syndrome, and in a vain attempt to protect his wife, he orders the nurse to take the baby to an institution. The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare – Presents a modern spelling text of Shakespeare's comedy about a creditor who is demanding a pound of flesh as payment for a defaulted loan and a lover who must solve a riddle to win the hand of a wealthy lady; and includes scene summaries, explanatory notes, and an account of Shakespeare's life and theater.
Mercy, Picoult, Jodi -- Jamie McDonald turns himself in after killing his terminally-ill wife, and his cousin Cam, the chief of police, finds himself at odds with his own wife, Allie, over the ethics of the situation. Their marriage is further strained by the arrival of Mia, a new assistant at Allie's shop who captures Cam's attention.
Middlesex – Eugenides - Three generations of a Greek American family find themselves plagued by a mutant gene which causes bizarre side effects in the family's teenage girls.
*A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare-- This story contains yet another authoritarian father of Shakespheare's creation, Egeus, telling his daughter Hermia who she will marry (Demetrius) and not marry (Lysander). There is also her sister Helena who is in love with Demetrius, but Demetrius does not love her. Enter the fairies, mainly Oberon and his servant Puck who muck things up further by enchanting Lysander and Demetrius into falling in love with Helena instead of their previous darling girl Hermia. *The Mill on the Floss, Eliot, George – Young Maggie Tulliver's loyalty to her beloved older brother, Tom, and to the rest of her family, is tragically tested when she falls in love with the son of her father's bitterest enemy.
The Miracle Worker, Gibson--A dramatization of the miracle brought about by Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller's teacher. Miracle on the 17th Green - Patterson-- Fifty-year-old Travis McKinley, discontented with his job, wife, children, and accomplishments, suddenly begins playing golf like a pro and is invited to compete in the PGA Senior Open at Pebble Beach where he, his family, and a live television audience witness a miracle.
Mister Pip – Jones -- On a remote tropical island where villages are overrun by rebel fighting, thirteen-year-old Matilda is introduced to the Charles Dickens classic "Great Expectations" by her white school teacher and becomes enthralled with the story's main character, with whom she feels a connection.
Murder at the Vicarage – Christie - Miss Jane Marple, a deceptively demure spinster, investigates when an unpopular magistrate and church warden is discovered shot through the head.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.
*Moby Dick, Melville--Famouse story of Capatain Ahab's pursuit of the great white whale. *Monkey Bridge – Cao -- Mai Nguyen, a young Vietnamese girl, immigrates to America after the end of the Vietnam War and moves into a Vietnamese community in Virginia where she is reunited with her mother and learns about her family's dark past.
*Monster – Myers -- While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken.
*Mrs. Dalloway Woolf - Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway, occupied with the last-minute details of party preparation, finds her thoughts on a very different route through the past
*Mrs. Warren’s Profession Shaw -- George Bernard Shaw's classic play about an unapologetic prostitute's reaction to her daughter finding out about her questionable lifestyle.
Mudbound – Jordan -- The shaky marriage between Henry McAllan and his city-bred wife Laura becomes even more unstable when his brother Jamie returns from World War II in 1946 to help work the family's miserable cotton farm in the Mississippi Delta, along with his comrade-in-arms Ronsel Jackson, the oldest son of local sharecroppers, who soon learns that his heroics in battle mean nothing in the Jim Crow south.
Murder at the vicarage, Christie, Agatha -- A Miss Marple Mystery"--Cover. Miss Jane Marple, a deceptively demure spinster, investigates when an unpopular magistrate and church warden is discovered shot through the head.
*Murder in the Cathedral Eliot -- drama of the conflict between church and state in 12th century England culminates in the murder of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral.
Mutiny on the Bounty, Nordhoff--The infamous Captain Bligh provokes Mr. Christian into a mutiny, which leaves Bligh in a long boat doomed to die. Instead, he sails hundreds of miles to safety and plots revenge. My Abandonment – Rock -- Thirteen-year-old Caroline, living with her veteran father in a cave in the Forest Park nature preserve in Portland, is confronted by the realities of her unconventional life when she attracts the attention of government officials who relocate them to a farm, where her father works and she begins to question her past.
*My Antonia, Cather--The story of an immigrant family and their daughter who live on the Western plains. My beautiful disaster : a novel – Buckman -- Dixie Chambers is pulled into the fast-paced world of the popular crowd when she begins dating musician Vince Evans, and just as Dixie begins to wonder if this new life is for her, she learns some shocking news that will forever change her life.
My Jim: a novel, Rawles --Ex-slave Sadie Watson reveals to her granddaughter her experiences while in bondage and the love she had for her husband, Jim, who escaped down the Mississippi with Huck Finn when he learned he was to be sold.
My Sister’s Keeper, Picoult -- Thirteen-year-old Anna, conceived specifically to provide blood and bone marrow for her sister Kate who was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia at the age of two, decides to sue her parents for control of her body when her mother wants her to donate a kidney to Kate
Mythology, Hamilton--The great stories from Greek and Roman mythology. The Naked and the Dead, Mailer – The members of an American platoon react to their part in the invasion and occupation of a Japanese-held island in 1944
Narn i chin Hurin : the tale of the children of Hurin – Tolkien -Imprisoned by the evil Morgoth, the great warrior Hurin Thalion is forced to witness the trials and tribulations of his son, Turin, and his daughter, Nienor--the consequences of a curse placed on them for their father's alliance with elves.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.*Native Son, Wright--Powerful novel about growing up black in America. Navajo Code Talkers, Aaseng-- A fascinating account that sheds light on a little-known contribution of the Navajos during World War II. A civil engineer who spent his childhood among them suggested that their language be used as a perfect unbreakable code. The result was one of the most secret and important aspects of U. S. intelligence work against the Japanese--Navajo code talking Never Let Me Go, Ishiguro - Thirty-one-year-old Kathy, along with old friends from Hailsham, a private school in England, are forced to face the truth about their childhood when they all come together again.
Nickel and dimed : on (not) getting by in America / Barbara Ehrenreich Author Barbara Ehrenreich relates her experiences from 1998 to 2000, during which time joined the ranks of the working poor as a waitress, hotel housekeeper, cleaning woman, nursing home aide, and Wal-Mart clerk to see for herself how America's "unskilled" workers are able to survive on only $6 or $7 an hour.
Night, Weisel-- Like Wiesel himself, the protagonist of Night is a scholarly, pious teenager racked with guilt at having survived the holocaust that consumed his family. His memories of the nightmare world of the death camps present him with an intolerable question: how can the God he once so fervently believed in have allowed these monstrous events to occur? The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, Lawrence/Lee—“If the law is of such a nature that it requires you to be an agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law." So wrote the young Henry David Thoreau in 1849. Three years earlier, Thoreau had put his belief into action and refused to pay taxes because of the United States government's involvement in the Mexican War, which Thoreau firmly believed was unjust. For his daring and unprecedented act of protest, he was thrown in jail. The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail is a celebrated dramatic presentation of this famous act of civil disobedience and its consequences. A Night to Remember, Lord--Details the events of the first and last fateful voyage of the Titanic. *Nineteen Eighty-Four – Orwell -- Winston Smith, a worker at the Ministry of Truth in the future political entity of Oceania, puts his life on the line when he joins a covert brotherhood in rebelling against the Party that controls all human thought and action.
Nineteen Minutes, Picoult – The people of Sterling, New Hampshire, are forever changed after a shooting at the high school leaves ten people dead, and the judge presiding over the trial tries to remain unbiased, even though her daughter witnessed the events and was friends with the assailant.
Northanger Abbey, Austen – Young Catherine Morland's entry into nineteenth-century English society is attended by the collapse of many romantic illusions. he people of Sterling.
*No Exit – Sartre – A play about three characters are condemned to a new kind of hell for crimes against humanity; their separate discoveries of each other and the way they are to be punished is revealed in the climax.
No Promises in the Wind, Hunt-- About a young boy's struggle to survive during the depression in the U.S. It takes place during the winter of 1932. October Sky, Hickam – 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.
*O Pioneers, Cather--Alexendra Bergon tames the land and leads her less intelligent brothers to prosperity. *Oedipus Rex, Sophocles – Greek tragedy about Oedipus, a king who inadvertantly kills his father and marries his mother
*The Odyssey, Homer-- If The Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, then The Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of everyman's journey though life. Odysseus's reliance on his wit and wiliness for survival in his
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.encounters with divine and natural forces during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War is at once a timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance. Of Human Bondage, Maugham--Semi-autobiographical novel about a medical student's bond to his own lameness and his lvoe for an unappreciative woman. *Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck – Sustained by the hope of someday owning a farm of their own, two migrant laborers arrive to work on a ranch in central California.
The Old Curiosity Shop, -- Dickens, Charles –The Victorian tale of Little Nell, a girl who is uprooted from her secure and innocent childhood and cast into a world of evil when she and her grandfather are pursued relentlessly through England by the evil and loathsome dwarf Quilp.
The Old Man and The Sea, Hemingway--In this beuatiful and symbolic story, an old fisherman catches a giant marlin, only to have sharks strip it to the bone. Oliver Twist, Dickens-- Abandoned at an early age, Oliver Twist is forced to live in a dark and dismal London workhouse lorded over by awful Mr. Bumble who cheats the boys of their meager rations! Desperate but determined, Oliver makes his escape. But what he discovers in the harsh streets of London's underworld makes the workhouse look like a picnic. Penniless and alone, he is lured into a world of crime by the wily Fagin--the nefarious mastermind of a gang of pint-sized pickpockets. On the Beach, Shute--Story of the last survivors of a nuclear war. The Once and Future King, White--A young Arthur (Wart) learns from Merlin what it means to be king. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Solzhenitsyn--The story of a man-made hell--the Soviet work camps. *One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Kesey--The story of life in a mental institution and one patient who rebels. *One Hundred Years of Solitude, Marquez – Translation of the Spanish novel which traces the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo, through the history of the Buendia family.
One of Ours, Cather--a young man escapes from an oppressive life on a mid-western farm to fight in France during WWI. *The Optimist's Daughter, Welty--Character study of a middle-aged woman who returns from Chicago to Mississippi to care for her dying father. *Othello Shakespeare -- a man, swayed by his jealous friend's deceptions, tragically doubts his wife's faithfulness;
Ordinary People, Guest--A look at a family after the tragic death of a son. The remaining son is looking for the meaning of life after a suicide attempt. *Our Town, Wilder--Pulitzer Prize winning play about the simple life in a small town. Over and Under,Tucker - The bond of friendship is tested when the fathers of two twelve-year-old boys become enemies during the Borden Casket Company labor strike -- one is a manager, and the other is a union laborer -- as the boys, Andy and Tom, share one last life-changing summer.
The Ox-Bow Incident, Clark-- Set in 1885, it is a searing and realistic portrait of frontier life and mob violence in the American West. First published in 1940, it focuses on the lynching of three innocent men and the tragedy that ensues when law and order are abandoned.
The Pact , Picoult -- The Hartes and the Golds, long-time neighbors and friends, are not surprised when their children Chris and Emily fall in love, but the bond between the families is placed under an enormous strain when Emily is killed, leaving behind the question of whether her death was a suicide, or murder.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.Painted House – Grisham --Seven-year-old Arkansas farm boy Luke Chandler loses his innocence over the course of a contentious and strenuous cotton harvest in 1952, during which time Luke's family hires several Mexicans and an Ozark family and Luke begins keeping dangerous secrets.
Paper Towns – Green -- One month before graduating from his Central Florida high school, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen basks in the predictable boringness of his life until the beautiful and exciting Margo Roth Spiegelman, Q's neighbor and classmate, takes him on a midnight adventure and then mysteriously disappears.
*Paradise Lost – Milton, -- Presents John Milton's epic poem, which chronicles man's fall from grace and Satan's rebellion against God, providing a scholarly introduction, chronology, bibliography, Andrew Marvell's verse tribute to Milton from the second edition, and explanatory notes. (located in Reference section REF 821.4 Mil, in Great Britannica)
A Parchment of Leaves, House-- It is the early 1900s in rural Kentucky, and young Saul Sullivan is heading up to Redbud Camp to look for work. He is wary but unafraid of the Cherokee girl there whose beauty is said to cause the death of all men who see her. But the minute Saul lays eyes on Vine, he knows she is meant to be his wife. Vine’s mother disapproves of the mixed marriage; Saul’s mother, Esme, has always been ill at ease around the Cherokee people.
The Partner, Grisham-- Patrick Lanigan, a young law partner who faked his death and fled the country with millions of dollars stolen from his law firm, is found in Brazil after a four-year chase, but investigators are about to learn that the hunt is really just beginning. *A Passage to India, Forster-- follows the fortunes of three English newcomers to India--Miss Adela Quested, Mrs. Moore, and Cyril Fielding--and the Indian, Dr. Aziz, with whom they cross destinies. The idea of true friendship between the races was a radical one in Forster's time, and he makes it abundantly clear that it was not one that either side welcomed. The passion of Artemisia / Susan Vreeland-- Eighteen-year-old Artemisia Gentileschi, having ruined her reputation by making a public accusation of rape against her art teacher, enters into an arranged marriage in post-Renaissance Italy and moves with her husband to Florence where her talent blossoms, bringing fame and conflict into her life.
Patriot Games, Clancy-- From England to Ireland to America, an explosive wave of violence sweeps a CIA analyst and his family into the deadliest game of our time: international terrorism.
The Pearl, Steinbeck--A poor Mexican fisherman finds a pearl beyond price, and tragedy follows. The Pelican Brief, Grisham--The story begins with the assassination of two Supreme Court justices. Perfect Match, Picoult -- Assistant district attorney Nina Frost has always prided herself on the fact that she protects the city's children from abuse and crime, but when her own son is sexually abused, she finds herself overcome with rage and sets out to find his attacker and exact justice for her son.
Perfect Once Removed -- Hoose – The author recalls how, at age nine and having just moved to Speedway, Indiana, his life took on a new meaning when he discovered that his second cousin was Don Larsen, pitcher for the New York Yankees.
*Persuasion, Austin -- Anne Elliot, persuaded by family and friends that the charming and handsome Frederick Wentworth is not worthy of her regard, questions her decision to send him away until he returns seven years later, his circumstances much improved.
The Phantom of the Opera, Leroux--Who hasn't felt like Raoul, confused and in love? Or Christine, trapped between a rock and a hard place, unsure of her own future? And perhaps most powerfully, Erik, the tragic villain, who has never known love and wants only to know what it feels like to be cared for. At the same time, Leroux fills our minds with images from the story. *The Piano Lesson –Wilson -- Dramatizes the struggles of an African-American family as they consider selling a prized possession, an ornate upright piano, in order to buy the tract of land upon which they were once enslaved.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.The Pickwick Papers, Dickens--A hilarious portrait of the members of the Pickwick Society and their aides. *The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde--An apparently innocent but mentally corrupt gentleman draws those around him into sin. The Pigman, Zindel--Stroy of a meaningful relationship which knows no generational limits. The Pigman's Legacy, Zindel--Haunted by the memory of a dead friend, two teens join an old man in a series of misadventures. Sequel to The Pigman. Pigs in Heaven, Kingsolver--Taylor wants to keep her adopted Cherokee daughter, but the Cherokee want her back. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Dillard, Annie – The author philosophizes on the positive and negative sides of nature while observing life near Tinker Creek, in a valley in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains.
The Pilgrim's Progress, Bunyan--One of the most powerful dramas of Christian faith ever written, this captivating allegory of man's religious journey in search of salvation follows the pilgrim as he travels an obstacle-filled road to the Celestial City. Along the way, he is confronted by monsters and spiritual terrors, among them Worldly Wiseman, Giant Despair, and the demons of the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
The Pilot’s Wife, Shreve, Anita -- Kathryn Lyon's life was peacefully routine, she had a good job and a happy marriage, so when she received the news that her pilot husband has died in a crash, her world was drastically changed. Even before his body is recovered the media discovers that her husband had a secret life, and Kathryn sets out to learn who her husband really was. *The Plague, Camus, Albert, A coastal city in Algeria is struck by bubonic plague and is shut off from the world for months.
Plain Truth, Picoult – Philadelphia defense attorney Ellie Hathaway, unsatisfied with the course of her career and personal life, leaves her job for an open-ended stay at her great-aunt's home in Paradise, Pennsylvania, arriving just in time to become embroiled in the case of a young, unmarried Amish woman accused of killing her newborn baby.
Planet of the Apes, Boulle, Pierre--Explorers in space find a planet that is identical to Earth, with the exception that on the planet Betelgeuse the roles of ape and human are reversed.
The Poisonwood Bible, Kingsolver--The wife and four daughters of a Baptist missionary tell the story of their family's struggles in post colonial Africa.
Postcards from no man's land / Aidan Chambers. – Alternates between two stories--contemporarily, seventeen-year-old Jacob visits a daunting Amsterdam at the request of his English grandmother--and historically, nineteen-year-old Geertrui relates her experience of British soldiers's attempts to liberate Holland from its German occupation.
*The Power and the Glory, Greene--The story of a Catholic priest tortured by alcohol and fear. *Pride and Prejudice, Austen--Mama Bennet is trying to marry off her five daughters. *Prime of Miss Jane Brodie – Spark -- A teacher at a girls' school in Edinburgh, Scotland, Miss Jean Brodie was a woman of ideas, wit, and charm who had a lover. The students she chose as her special friends were called the "Brodie set." One of them would betray her.
The Prince and the Pauper, Twain--A beggar and a prince look so alike that they change places but then cannot immediately switch back. Prodigal Summer, Kingsolver--Set in the mountains and struggling farms of Appalachia, it focuses on a wildlife biologist, a young farmer's wife and feuding neighbors. Profiles in Courage, Kennedy--A study of men, who at risk to themselves, stood fast for their principles.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.Pudd'nhead Wilson, Twain--Tale of an intellectual with an interest in being an amateur detective. *Push, Sapphire, Precious Jones, a sixteen-year-old girl who is pregnant with her second child by her father, is pushed by her courageous African-American teacher to learn to read, and discovers the truth about herself and her life.
*Pygmalion, Shaw--A flower girl is transformed into a lady by a professor of phonetics. QB VII, Uris--The story of war crimes unfolds during a legal battle between a doctor and an author. Quiet Strength, A Memoir, Dungy -- Race to the Super Bowl. NFL football coach Tony Dungy reflects on his personal and professional life; discussing his childhood, family, religious beliefs, coaching practices, Super Bowl victory, and more. Includes photographs.
Rabbit at Rest, Updike--Ex-basketball player, Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, has acquired heart trouble, a second grandchild, and is looking for a reason to live. *A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry--Play about a young black man and his family and his efforts to break through the wall of prejudice around him. Rebecca, DuMaurier--A young bride is haunted by the ghost of her husband's first wife.
Reckoning, Cary, Kate -- Mary Seward, back home following a terrifying experience in Transylvania, continues to be plagued by fears and nightmares, and when her father is stricken by a strange virus, she believes there is something more sinister going on--a suspicion that seems to prove true when Quincey Harker, heir to Count Dracula's bloodline, turns up in England claiming to have renounced his evil heritage.
Red Scarf Girl, Jiang, Ji-li--The author tells about the happy life she led in China up until she was twelve-years-old when her family became a target of the Cultural Revolution, and discusses the choice she had to make between denouncing her father and breaking with her family, or refusing to speak against him and losing her future in the Communist Party. *The Red Badge of Courage, Crane--A young Civil War recruit is unprepared for battle. The Red Pony, Steinbeck--A young boy dreams great dreams and learns the harsh realities of life. Red prophet / Orson Scott Card.-- Alvin Miller, the seventh son of a seventh son, continues to work his extraordinary talents and magic in the rough frontier of America.
The Reivers, Faulkner--One day in 1905, 11 year-old Lucius is persuaded to "borrow" his grandfather's car. The Reluctant God, Service--The adventures of a modern teenage girl, a teenage pharaoh, and an oath that traveled over 4,000 years. The Remains of the Day, Ishiguro--The novel's narrator, Stevens, is a perfect English butler who tries to give his narrow existence form and meaning through the self-effacing, almost mystical practice of his profession. In a career that spans the second World War, Stevens is oblivious of the real life that goes on around him -- oblivious, for instance, of the fact that his aristocrat employer is a Nazi sympathizer. *Reservation Blues, Alexie -- Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil in 1931, and was murdered seven years later. He reappears in 1992 on the Spokane Indian Reservation and meets Thomas Builds-the-Fire, who starts Coyote Springs, an all-Indian Catholic rock-and-roll band.
The Return of the King, Tolkien--While the evil might of the Dark Lord Sauron swarmed out to conquer all Middle-earth, Frodo and Sam struggled deep into Mordor, seat of Sauron's power. To defeat the Dark Lord, the accursed Ring of Power had to be destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom. *The Return of the Native, Hardy--centers famously on Egdon Heath, the wild, haunted Wessex moor that D. H. Lawrence called "the real stuff of tragedy." The heath's changing face mirrors the fortunes of the farmers, inn-
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.keepers, sons, mothers, and lovers who populate the novel. The "native" is Clym Yeobright, who comes home from a cosmopolitan life in Paris. He; his cousin Thomasin; her fiancé, Damon Wildeve; and the willful Eustacia Vye are the protagonists in a tale of doomed love, passion, alienation, and melancholy. Return With Honor, O'Grady--Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady tells the story of how he survived after being shot down over Bosnia on June 2, 1995, describing his six day ordeal in hostile territory being hunted by the Bosnian Serbs, his rescue by the U.S. Marines, and his hero's welcome home.
A River Runs Through It, MacLean--Maclean paints an evocative portrait of the sons of a small-town Montana minister, two brothers headed in very different directions. Fly-fishing for trout is one thing that unites father and sons, and, in the end, it is the language of the river that provides understanding and acceptance in the most difficult of times.
Riding the Bus with My Sister, Simon Rachel Simon chronicles the experiences she had and shares the lessons she learned during the year she spent riding the bus which her mentally handicapped sister rides on each day.
*River Runs Through It Maclean -- Western story about the relationship between a father and his two sons, bound together by love and fly fishing.
The Road – McCarthy -- Traces the journey of a father and his son as they walk alone after a great fire has consumed the nation and left everything in ashes
The Road from Home: the story of an Armenian girl, Kherdian, David, - A biography of the author's mother, concentrating on her childhood in Turkey before the Turkish government deported its Armenian population. Road to Memphis, Taylor, Mildred, --Sadistically teased by two white boys in 1940's rural Mississippi, a black youth severely injures one of the boys with a tire iron and enlists Cassie's help in trying to flee the state.
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Taylor--A Southern Black family is determined to maintain their pride and independence against hard times and racial inequities. *Romeo and Juliet , Shakespeare – tragedy about Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, two young people from noble Veronese houses whose love for one another is doomed by the long-standing feud between their families,
Roots, Haley--Spectacular story that traces a family's history from its beginnings in Africa. Rosa Parks, My Story, Parks--Story of "the mother of the Civil Rights movement". The Rose that grew From Concrete, Shakur -- A collection of poems written by rap artist and actor Tupac Shakur at the age of nineteen
The Runawary Jury, Grisham--In Biloxi, Miss. a landmark tobacco trial with millions at stake begins to go off course.
Running with the Demon, Brooks -- Fourteen-year-old Nest Freemark, a girl who is possessed with magical powers, becomes the center of a battle between good and evil in the small town of Hopewell, Illinois Ryan White: My Story – White -- Ryan White describes how he got AIDS, engaged in a legal battle to return to school, and became a celebrity and spokesman for issues concerning the deadly disease.
*Saint Joan, Shaw--Play about the life of Joan of Arc. Saint Maybe, Tyler--In 1965, the Bedloe family is living an ideal life in Baltimore. But an accident shatters their peace forever, and seventeen year-old Ian Bedloe is guilt-wracked over the accidental death of his brother. Salem Falls – Picoult -- Jack St. Bride arrives in the quiet town of Salem Falls, determined to rebuild his life and leave behind the accusations which ruined his reputation as a teacher, but just as his life is getting back on the right track, his past catches up with him.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.
Sarah / Orson Scott Card.— The first novel in a trilogy on the women of Genesis, focusing on the life of Sarah, a devoted wife, and follower of the God of Abraham, who is chosen to experience a miracle.
*The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne--It is 1642 in the Puritan town of Boston. Hester Prynne has been found guilty of adultery and has born an illegitimate child. In lieu of being put to death, she is condemned to wear the scarlet letter A on her dress as a reminder of her shameful act. Hester's husband had been lost at sea years earlier and was presumed dead, but now reappears in time to witness Hester's humiliation on the town scaffold. Upon discovering her deed, the vengeful husband becomes obsessed with finding the identity of the man who dishonored his wife. To do so he assumes a false name, pretends to be a physician and forces Hester keep his new identity secret. Meanwhile Hester's lover, the beloved Reverend Dimmesdale, publicly pressures her to name the child's father, while secretly praying that she will not. The Scarlet Pimpernel, Orczy--Tale of the French Revolution and a heroic group of rescuers. Schlinder's List, Keneally--Recounts how a daring German Catholic industrialist outwitted the Nazis and saved hundreds of Jews. The Scions of Shannara, Brooks--Unless the children of Shannara complete the charges given them, neither the Federation nor the Shadowen can by stopped. The Screwtape Letters, Lewis--In this humorous and perceptive exchange between two devils, C. S. Lewis delves into moral questions about good vs. evil, temptation, repentance, and grace. The Sea Wolf, London--a vivid sea-action story. Seabiscuit: An American Legend, Hillenbrand--The story of the racehorse and the men who staked their lives and fortunes on him.
Second Glance, Picoult -- When an old man puts a piece of land up for sale in Vermont, the local Abenaki Indian tribe protest, claiming it is a burial ground, and when odd, supernatural events start plaguing the town, a ghost hunter is hired by the developer to help convince residents that there is nothing spiritual about the property Secret Life of Bees, Kidd --Fourteen-year-old Lily and her companion, Rosaleen, an African-American woman who has cared for Lily since her mother's death ten years earlier, flee their home after Rosaleen is victimized by racist police officers, and find a safe haven in Tiburon, South Carolina at the home of three beekeeping sisters, May, June, and August.
See How They Run, Patterson -- Dr. David Strauss embarks upon a quest to uncover the explosive secret behind the murder of his wife and brother.
Seize the Day - Bellow, Saul --A portrait of one day in the life of Tommy Wilhelm, a man on the brink of despair
Senior Year a father, a son, and high school baseball Shaughness -- Boston Globe" columnist Dan Shaughnessy chronicles his son Sam's senior year of high school and makes comparisons to his own school career, focusing on the baseball season during which Sam, a power hitter, attracted the attention of Division 1 college programs
Sense and Sensibility, Austen--a novel of social criticism about class prejudice. *Sent for You Yesterday Wideman, -- In the 1920s, piano man Albert Wilkes returns to his old African-American neighborhood, Homewood, after seven years hiding out from the law, and sets off a sequence of events that affects two families and shapes the lives of three generations, spanning a period of fifty years.
*A Separate Peace, Knowles--Story of a scholar and his friend and rival, a popular daredevil athlete at school during WW II. Shane, Schaefer--Story of a boy's love for the man who taught him the meaning of courage and self-respect.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.Sharp Teeth -- Barlow --- Anthony, a kindhearted dogcatcher in Los Angeles, finds himself caught between his heart and his job when he falls in love with a female werewolf who has abandoned a pack of lycanthropes intent on dominating the city.
*The Shipping News, Proulx--a romance set in Newfoundland. Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner. Shogun, Clavell--An English adventurer, a Japanese warlord, and a beautiful woman brought together in a mighty saga. Siddartha, Hesse--A young man leaves his family for a contemplative life. *Silas Marner, Eliot--Marner, the weaver, is framed for theft by his best friend and becomes a recluse, focusing his strong affections only on the store of golden coins he receives in payment for his work. Silent Spring -- Carson, Rachel – "A Mariner book."Includes bibliographical references and index. Presents Rachel Carson's 1962 environmental classic "Silent Spring," which identified the dangers of indiscriminate pesticide use;
Side of Paradise—Fitzgerald, F. Scott -- The coming of age story of a young college man in his twenties including his years in prep school and his times at Princeton.
*Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut--From the WWII bombing of Dresden to the distant planet, Tralfamadore, the reader follows Billy Pilgrim in his attempt to understand time and existence. Smashed – Zailckas --The author discusses her relationship with alcohol, telling how she began drinking at the age of fourteen and continued drinking for the express purpose of getting drunk, bolstering her courage, or medicating her moods, and sharing the reasons why she decided to give up alcohol nine years later.
*Snow Falling on Cedars, Guterson--Shortly after WWII a Japanese-American man is accused of murder. His trial stirs memories of events and relationships and fuels racism. Sold – McCormick -- A novel in vignettes, in which Lakshmi, a thirteen-year-old girl from Nepal, is sold into prostitution in India.
Some Day This Pain Will Be Useful to You – Cameron -- Eighteen-year-old James Sveck copes with the uncertainties of adolescence as he works in his mother's Manhattan art gallery, falls for a charming older gentleman, and tries to decide what he wants out of life. Something Wicked This Way Comes, Bradbury--the memorable story of two boys, James Nightshade and William Halloway, and the evil that grips their small Midwestern town with the arrival of a "dark carnival" one Autumn midnight. Sometimes we’re always real same-same – Roesch, Mattox - Cesar Stone, a teenage gang member from Los Angeles, moves with his mother to her native Alaska, and as he attempts to find his place in Unalakleet, he bonds with his older cousin, Go-boy, and starts to feel hope for the future.
*Song of Solomon – Morrison -- Follows the life of Macon Dead, Jr., the son of the richest black family in a midwestern town, as he leaves home on a quest for personal freedom.
*Sons and Lovers, Lawrence – First published in 1913.;Includes bibliographical references (p. xxix). Paul Morel, a painter from a British working-class family, is unable to choose between his possessive mother and two young beautiful women.
Soulless – Carriger, Gail - Alexia Tarabotti, a woman without a soul who is viewed as unable to marry, works with werewolf Lord Conall Maccon to clear her name after she accidently kills a vampire and is suspected of the disappearances of other undead members of high society.
The Sound and The Fury, Faulkner--Saga of the Compson family, once great lords of a Southern plantation.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.Spellman Files – Lutz -- While deciding if she should quit working for her family's private investigation firm, Izzy Spellman copes with meddling parents, an alcoholic uncle, the disappearance of her younger sister, and her own problems with men and drinking.
Step on a Cracks, Patterson--Title proper from title frame.;Mode of access: World Wide Web.;Electronic reproduction. New York : Little, Brown, 2007. New York detective Michael Bennett faces raising his ten children alone after the death of his wife when he is called upon to help rescue thirty-four high-profile hostages.
Stiff : the curious lives of human cadavers / Mary Roach. Explores how human cadavers have been used throughout history, discussing how the use of dead bodies has benefited every aspect of human existence.
Stillwatch, Clark--a television producer unearths secrets that could ruin a politician’s career and her own. *Stone Angel Laurence -- Ninety-year-old Hagar Shipley, in a final struggle for independence, escapes from her nursing home and tries to come to terms with her tumultuous past.
The Stone Diaries, Shields--Born in 1905, Daisy Goodwill drifts through the chapters of childhood, marriage, widowhood, remarriage, motherhood and old age. Bewildered by her inability to understand her own role, Daisy attempts to find a way to tell her own story within a novel that is itself about the limitations of autobiography. The Story of My Life, Keller -- An autobiography of Helen Keller, written while she was a young woman, in which she tells of her early life, her relationship with her teacher Anne Sullivan, and her struggles to triumph over blindness and deafness.
*The Stranger, Camus--an ordinary little man living quietly in Algiers commits a pointless murder. The Street Lawyer, Grisham-- 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.
*A Streetcar Names Desire, Williams--One of the most admired plays of its time, it concerns the mental and moral disintegration and ultimate ruin of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle. Her neurotic, genteel pretensions are no match for the harsh realities symbolized by her brutish brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. *Sula, Morrison -- Traces the lives of two African-American heroines from their growing up together in a small Ohio town, to their sharply divergent paths of womanhood, to their ultimate confrontation and reconciliation.
Summer of My German Soldier, Greene--Story of a friendship between a 12 year-old Jewish girl and a German POW during WWII. A Summons to Memphis, Taylor--When Phillip Carver receives, on a lonely Sunday evening, two successive telephone calls from his sisters, begging him to leave his home in Manhattan and return immediately to Memphis, he is slow to agree. His sisters, middle-aged and unmarried, want his help in averting the remarriage of their father, an elderly widower. And although Phillip wants no part in such manipulations, he finds himself unable to refuse to make the trip South...and into his own past. Winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. *Sun Also Rises Hemingway -- Focuses on a "lost generation" of Americans who fought in France during World War I and who expatriated themselves from America after the war.
Sunrise Over Fallujah – Myers –Robin Perry, from Harlem, is sent to Iraq in 2003 as a member of the Civilian Affairs Battalion, and his time there profoundly changes him.
Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps, Warren--15 year-old Jack is taken from his family and thorn into the world of the concentration camps. The Swiss Family Robinson, Wyss--Swept off course by a raging storm, a Swiss pastor, his wife, and four young sons are shipwrecked on an uncharted tropical island. Thus begins the classic story of survival and adventure that has fired the imaginations of readers since it first appeared in 1812.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.Sweet Thursday / John Steinbeck -- Sequel to: Cannery Row.; Life continues much the same in the Cannery Row district of Monterey, California, following World War II--with the exception that there are no more fish to can, and Doc discovers the missing ingredient in his life is love.
The Sword of Shannara, Brooks--Half-Elfin Shea Ohmsford begins a seemingly hopeless quest against the greatest power of evil the world has ever known. * Tale of Two Cities, Dickens--Dickens's dramatic narrative of the French Revolution Tales of the South Pacific, Michener--Enter the exotic world of the South Pacific, meet the men and women caught up in the drama of a big war. The young Marine who falls madly in love with a beautiful Tonkinese girl. Nurse Nellie and her French planter, Emile De Becque. The soldiers, sailors, and nurses playing at war and waiting for love in a tropic paradise. Winner of the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The Talisman of Shannara, Brooks--The Shannaran children must escape traps and Par must find a way to use the sword of Shannara. Tar Baby Morrison -- A beautiful African-American woman of privilege finds herself attracted to the kind of man she has dreaded since childhood: uneducated, violent, and contemptuous of her.
Teacher Man: A Memoir:McCourt -- Celebrated American author Frank McCourt recounts his thirty-year teaching career, and describes some of his unconventional teaching methods that have left an impact of his students.
The Temple of My Familiar, Walker--A cross-cultural blend of fact and fiction about the remarkable strength of our own histories. Ten Cents a Dance- Fletcher -In 1941 Chicago, fifteen-year-old Ruby, a Polish-American girl from the slums, leaves her meat-packing plant job to be a "taxi" dancer, paid a dime apiece to dance with men in a dance hall, and becomes entangled with the mob.
The Tender Bar: a memoir, Moehringer -- The author presents his memoirs of growing up without his father and finding himself looking for male role models among the regulars at Publicans, a Manhasset, Long Island, bar.
Tender is the Night, Fitzgerald--Set on the French Riviera in the late 1920s, Tender Is the Night is the tragic romance of the young actress Rosemary Hoyt and the stylish American couple Dick and Nicole Diver. Tender Morsels – Lanagan -- A young woman who has endured unspeakable cruelties is magically granted a safe haven apart from the real world and allowed to raise her two daughters in this alternate reality, until the barrier between her world and the real one begins to break down.
The Tenth Circle—Picoult -- Comic book artist Daniel Stone, a stay-at-home dad with a fourteen-year-old daughter Trixie, and an unfaithful wife, turns a blind eye to Trixie's first broken heart and wife Laura's affair, but the feelings of rage he has buried for years come to the surface when Trixie is raped at a party and accuses her former boyfriend.
*Tess of the D-Urbervilles, Hardy--Violated by one man, forsaken by another, Tess Durbeyfield is the magnificent and spirited heroine of Thomas Hardy's immortal work. *Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston--the story of Janie Crawford's evolving sense of self through three marriages.
There Are No Children Here, Kotlowitz--Explores life in an inner city Chicago housing project discussing the residents' daily encounters with neighborhood violence, drugs, and gangs. *Things Fall Apart, Achebe--Story of an African man and the conditions which bring an end to the traditions he cherishes. The Things They Carried, O'Brien--Focuses on the prior lives of Vietnam soldiers, their experiences in Vietnam, and back home two decades later.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam. Thinner Than Thou, Reed, Rev. Earl's luxury spa, Sylphania, is the rage for those with severe eating disorders until Jeremy Devlin enters and discovers the dark secrets at the core of Earl's empire.
The Thirteenth tale:a novel - Setterfield --Aging, reclusive author Vida Winter, having given out multiple versions of her life story over the years, decides to finally set the record straight and engages Margaret Lea, a London bookseller's daughter, to write her biography, drawing the young woman into a tale of a governess, a ghost, a willful woman, feral twins, and a gothic mansion.
The Thorn Birds, McCullough -- Follows the lives of three generations of the Cleary family, who leave their New Zealand home to live on a huge Australian sheep station.
*A Thousand Acres, Smiley--The lives of an Iowa farm family begin to unravel. A Thousand Splendid Suns Hosseini (author of The Kite Runner) -,A novel set against the three decades of Afghanistan's history shaped by Soviet occupation, civil war, and the Taliban, which tells the stories of two women, Mariam and Laila, who grow close despite their nineteen-year age difference and initial rivalry as they suffer at the hand of a common enemy: their abusive husband.
The Thread That Runs So True, Stuart--Personal narrative of the author's experiences as a teacher. A Ky. author. The Three Musketeers, Dumas--Swashbuckling novel, filled with high adventure, royal intrigue and romance, relates the escapades of D'Artagnan and his three friends-Athos, Porthos and Aramis-and their involvement in the secret plots of Cardinal Richelieu and his beautiful but treacherous spy, Lady de Winter. The Time Machine, Wells--The time? 802,701 A.D. The place? An Earth stranger than you can imagine. The people? A pretty, childlike race, the Eloi-and their distant cousins, the Morlocks: disgusting, hairy creatures who live in caves and feed on the flesh of-what? Enter the Time Traveller, who has hurtled almost a million years into the future. Tis: A Memoir, McCourt – (sequel to Angela’s Ashes) Sequel to: Angela's ashes. Frank McCourt, author of the childhood memoir "Angela's Ashes," shares the story of his life as an American immigrant, discussing his experiences from the age of nineteen when he landed in New York, to his eventual success as a teacher and writer.
*To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee--A white lawyer in a Southern town in the 1930s defends a black man accused of assaulting a white woman. To the Lighthouse, Woolf – Describes a family gathered at a house on the Scottish coast, where in later years only caretakers live. Then, the house is again filled with surviving family members.
To Sir, With Love, Braithwaite--Story of a dedicated teacher condemned by his color to a London slum school. *Tom Jones, Fielding, Henry, -- Describes the foundling, Tom, who grows to be athletic, charismatic, generous, and filled with "the glorious lust of doing good" but with a tendency toward dissolution. He leaves home to seek his fortune and his real identity.
Tortilla Flat / John Steinbeck. -- Above the town of Monterey on the California coast lies the shabby district of Tortilla Flat where Danny and his colorful group of friends live and where their revels recall the exploits of King Arthur's knights.
Total Oblivion, more or less – Deniro, Alan -- Sixteen-year-old Macy has her world turned upside down when communication lines fail and a Scythian army attacks, causing her to leave her suburban Minnesota town with her family; as they plan to escape a refugee camp via the Mississippi river, events take an even stranger turn, and her family's bonds are tested.
Treasure Island, Stevenson--A mysterious seaman hides at a country inn; cut-throats raid a sleepy English village; suddenly, young Jim Hawkins becomes the owner of a map leading to a lost tropical island and a fortune in stolen
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.gold. Three adventures--Jim, Squire Trelawney, and Dr. Livesey--set out to find the treasure. But they trust the one they should most fear, Long John Silver. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Smith--Francis come of age in poverty during the turn of the last century in the Brooklyn slums. *The Trial, Kafka, Franz –Joseph K. is suddenly arrested and must spend the rest of his life fighting a charge against him about which he can get no information.
True Notebooks of a Writer’s Year at Juvenile Hall , Salzman -- Mark Salzman chronicles his first years teaching at Central Juvenile Hall, a lockup for Los Angeles's most violent teenage offenders, discussing what his students taught him about life.
Truth and Beauty a friendship, Patchett, Ann Patchett describes her friendship with Lucy Grealy, author of "Autobiography of a Face," and their commitment to each other for twenty years, from graduate school in Iowa to literary fame in New York City. Tuesday’s with Morrie – Albom --The author, an alumnus of Brandeis University, tells of his meetings with a former professor suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease and of the lessons he learned about life and death from his college mentor.
*The Turn of the Screw, James--The story starts conventionally enough with friends sharing ghost stories 'round the fire on Christmas Eve. One of the guests tells about a governess at a country house plagued by supernatural visitors. Only the young governess can see the ghosts; only she suspects that the previous governess and her lover are controlling the two orphaned children (a girl and a boy) for some evil purpose. Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphines Sheff -- The author describes his childhood in California, his addiction to crystal meth and heroin at a young age, his relapse after eighteen months of sobriety, and his path to recovery.
Twelve Sharp, Evanovich -- Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum discovers she is being stalked by a crazed woman and sets out to find the mysterious woman and uncover her connection to a dangerous murderer.
*Twelfth Night – Shakespeare -- . Presents the original text of Shakespeare's play recounting the story of Viola, who is separated from her twin, Sebastian, after a shipwreck and, convinced he has died, disguises herself as a page in the home of the duke and inadvertently becomes the love interest of the countess.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Verne--The story is told by Professor Aronnax, who agrees to investigate a series of attacks by a mysterious sea monster. He joins the crew of the ship Abraham Lincoln. The men encounter what they believe is the monster, but turns out to be a large, state-of-the-art submarine, the Nautilus. Twilight Eyes, Koontz -- They" are not human and "they" feed their twisted needs with human suffering. Unseen by normal eyes, "they" are all too visible to Slim MacKenzie.
The Two Towers, Tolkien--The Fellowship was scattered. Some were bracing hopelessly for war against the ancient evil of Sauron. Some were contending with the treachery of the wizard Saruman. Only Frodo and Sam were left to take the accursed Ring of Power to be destroyed in Mordor-the dark Kingdom where Sauron was supreme. Their guide was Gollum, deceitful and lust-filled, slave to the corruption of the Ring. Two Years Before the Mast, Dana--Tracing an awe-inspiring oceanic route from Boston, around Cape Horn, to the California coast. *Typical American – Jen --Like Amy Tan and Timothy Mo, Jen's delightful first novel follows the hopeful lives of Chinese immigrants with a great deal of humor and sympathy. As foreign students in New York, Ralph Chang, "Older Sister" Teresa, and Ralph's future wife Helen become trapped in the United States when the Communists assume control of China in 1948. Banding together, the three of them innocently plan to achieve the American dream, while retaining their Chinese values. Predictably, just when they appear to have reached their goal, the lures of freedom prove too great. Ralph's greed leads him to sacrifice his family's security to build Ralph's Chicken Palace, while Teresa and Helen find their own passions ignited in illicit ways. Inevitably, the family--the Chinese symbol of unity--suffers more than a few cracks along the way. This is truly "an American story"--a poignant and
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.deftly told tale of immigrants coming to terms with the possibilities of America and with their own limitations, foibles, and the necessity of forgiveness. The Ugly American, Lederer/Burdick--The Ugly American became a runaway national bestseller for its slashing expos of American arrogance, incompetence, and corruption in Southeast Asia. Based on fact, the book's eye-opening stories and sketches drew a devastating picture of how the United States was losing the struggle with Communism in Asia. Combining gripping storytelling with an urgent call to action, the book prompted President Eisenhower to launch a study of our military aid program that led the way to much-needed reform. *Uncle Tom's Cabin, Stowe--Arguably the most influential novel in American history, Uncle Tom's Cabin fanned the embers of the struggle between free states and slave states into the fire of the Civil War. Unmasked The Final Years of Michael Jackson –Halprin – Discusses the life of entertainer Michael Jackson, covering topics such as his health problems, family, and celebrity friends in order to clarify the truth behind various controversies and analyze the reasons for his death.
Up From Slavery, Washington--The record of Washington's rise from slavery to his becoming an educator and founder of the Tuskegee Institute. Up the Down Staircase, Kaufman--The funny and touching story of a committed, idealistic teacher whose dash with school bureaucracy is a timeless lesson for students, teachers, parents--anyone concerned about public education. Upon the Head of the Goat: a childhood in Hungary – Siegal -- Nine-year-old Piri describes the bewilderment of being a Jewish child during the 1939-1944 German occupation of her hometown in Hungary and relates the ordeal of trying to survive in the ghetto. Upstate, Buckhanon -- Seventeen-year-old Antonio and his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, Natasha, find their love tested when Antonio is wrongfully imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit.
Vanishing Act, Picoult – Thirty-two-year-old New Hampshire search-and-rescue worker Delia Hopkins, a soon-to-be-married mother of a five-year-old daughter, begins having strange flashbacks of a forgotten childhood and learns that her father, whom she always believed to be a widower, kidnapped her when she was four--and that her mother is still alive.
Vanity Fair, Thackery--Through the cast of characters we see for ourselves the pervasive greed and hypocrisy of the 19th century British Empire. Jos Sedley, the Ex-collecter of Bogley Walla, the unfortunate Rawdon Crawley, George Osborne and the immoral, resourceful Becky Sharpe are some of the most vivid characters in English writing.
The Virgin Suicides – Eugenides -- The narrator and his friends try to piece together facts and gossip about a tragic suicide that happened twenty years earlier.
The Virginian, Wister—Epic tale of one man's journey into the untamed territory of Wyoming, where he is caught between his love for a woman and his quest for justice, has exemplified one of the most significant and enduring themes in all of American culture. With remarkable character depth and vivid descriptive passages, The Virginian stands not only as the first great novel of American Western literature, but as a testament to the eternal struggle between good and evil in humanity, and a revealing study of the forces that guide the combatants on both sides. Voices from Vietnam – Denenberg – Letters from soldiers in Vietnam tell stories of those who experienced the conflict. The author weaves his own commentary and explanations through their quotations. “Readers will find these pages disturbing and illuminating.” BCCB, recommended review
*Waiting for Godot Beckett - Two old tramps wait on a bare stretch of road near a tree for Godot.
Waiting For the Rain, Gordon--Chronicles nine years in the lives of two South African youths, one black, one white, as their friendship ends in a violent confrontation between student and scholar. Walden, Thoreau--Meditations on human existence, society, government and other topics
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam. A Walk Across America, Jenkins--With his own feelings echoing the disillusionment of his whole generation, Peter Jenkins set out with his dog Cooper to walk across America and find out what his country was really about. Along the way, Jenkins' faith and pride in his country -- and himself -- were tested and ultimately restored. Walkabout, Marshall--A young girl, her tiny brother, and an Aborigine boy fight for survival in the wilds of Australia. War and Peace, Tolstoy--The heart of this drama is the metamorphosis of five families, some peasant, some aristocraticAamid the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars. War and Remembrance, Wouk--Follows the various members of the Henry family as they become involved in the events preceeding America's involvement in World War II and captures all the drama, romance, heroism, and tragedy of the Second World War. The War of the Worlds, Wells--Science Fiction classic about a Martian invasion of the English countryside. Water for elephants: a novel, Gruen Ninety-year-old Jacob Jankowski finds himself haunted by memories of his past in the circus and the freaks, exotic animals, and other people he encountered as a performer.
The Water is Wide, Conroy--The triumphant true story of one man's battle for the kids on a forgotten American island. Watership Down, Adams--The unique odyssey of a rabbit warren and their efforts to survive when a construction team moves into their territory. The wayward bus / John Steinbeck -- A bus traveling California's back roads carries travelers away from their shattered past lives to the promise of the future.
We need to talk about Kevin / Lionel Shriver. -- Eva Khatchadourian has been living a life plagued by guilt and denial since her son opened fire and killed seven of his classmates two years earlier, and as she tries to come to terms with her son's actions, she examines the parenting choices she made when raising him and wonders where she went wrong
Weep No More, My Lady, Clark--Elizabeth Lange has arrived at Cypress Point Spa in Pebble Beach, California, weary of heart and soul. Still grieving for her beloved sister, a famous actress who plunged to her death from her Manhattan penthouse, Elizabeth is determined to unearth the truth about how Leila died. Dashing multimillionaire Ted Winters stands accused of her murder, but Elizabeth has doubts. Wheelchair Warrior Gangs, Disability and Basketball – Juette --The best of all victories. The memoir of Melvin Juette, who was paralyzed in a gang-related shooting, attended college, and became a wheelchair basketball athlete, playing for the U.S. National Wheelchair Basketball team.When the legends die, Borland, Hal – An orphaned Ute Indian boy wins stardom on the rodeo circuit but, disillusioned by his success, returns to the ways of his ancestors.
When the Winds Blows,Patterson --Unconventional FBI agent Kit Harrison, determined to pursue a conspiracy of illegal human genetic experimentation, travels to Colorado where he and veterinarian Frannie O'Neill work together to save a group of children who can fly.
Where are you now? – Clark –Twenty-six-year-old Carolyn MacKenzie, having suffered from the September 11, 2001, death of her father and finished her clerkship in Manhattan, decide to track down her brother who disappeared ten years earlier, and uncovers a web of lies and deceit involving her family and wealthy, powerful people whowant to keep a secret quiet
The Whistling Season, Doig -- Oliver Milliron answers an ad for a housekeeper named Rose from Minneapolis, who arrives with her unconventional brother, Morrie, in tow. White Fang, London--Story of the taming of a wild wolf-dog throught the patience and devotion of one man.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.*Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf – Albee -- Dramatizes a night of warfare between a professor and his wife, the daughter of the college president, as witnessed by a young couple newly arrived on campus.
Wicked the life and times of the wicked witch of the west--- Maguire – Elphaba, born with emerald green skin, comes of age in the land of Oz, rooming with debutante Glinda at the university, and following a path in life that earns her the label of Wicked.
*Wide Sargasso Sea, Rhys -- Prequel to: Jane Eyre / Charlotte Bronte. Story of a young woman in the Caribbean whose family's past will be used against her by her cold-hearted and prideful husband, Rochester.
*The Wild duck / Henrik Ibsen. -- Presents ninteenth-century Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen's play that illustrates the destructive impact on an average family of a neurotic fanatic who fails to understand the consequences of his behavior.
The Winds of War, Wouk--Prequel to War and Remembrance. *Winter in the Blood—Welch --sensitive young man living on the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana relates the haunting memories of his proud heritage while drifting through life on his father's ranch in a search for meaning.
The Winter of our Discontent – Steinbeck John – In a moment of moral crisis, Ethan Hawley, a clerk in a New England grocery store, departs from his high standards to provide for the material comforts he cannot afford for his restless wife and discontented children.
*Winter’s Tale – Shakespeare -- the tragicomedy about a king whose unfounded jealousy has lifelong consequences for his family and friends; and includes an introduction, an essay on the theatrical world of Shakespeare, and a note on the text used.
Winterdance: the fine madness of running the Iditarod – Paulsen, Gary - The author's account of his most ambitious quest, to know a world beyond his knowing, to train for and run the Iditarod.
The Wishsong of Shannara, Brooks--Horror stalked the Four Lands as the Ildatch, ancient source of evil, sent its ghastly Mord Wraiths to destroy Mankind. Only Druid Allanon held the magic power of wishsong that could make plants bloom instantly or turn trees from green to autumn gold. Within Reach: My Everest Story, Galvin--The world's most famous teen mountain climber was the youngest to attempt to climb Everest. *Woman Warrior – Kingston -- A memoir of the American-born daughter of Chinese immigrants who lived within the traditions and fears of the Chinese past as well as the realities of the alien modern American culture.
The World Made Straight, Rash -- After stumbling into a bear trap surrounding a large marijuana grove on his neighbor's property, Travis Shelton finds himself drawn into a world of subtle evils and danger as he struggles to free himself from his neighbor's influence and protect his close friends from a painful conflict.
*Wuthering Heights, Bronte--Classic novel of consuming passions, played out against the lonely moors of northern England, recounts the turbulent and tempestuous love story of Cathy and Heathcliff. Ya-Yas in Bloom: a novel- Wells, Rebecca - Follows the childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood of Vivi, Teensy, Caro, and Necie from the time they first meet in the 1930s through their many experiences and years of friendship.
The Year We Disappeared – Busby -- Father and daughter, Cylin and John Busby, share their memories of the challenges they faced after their family was forced to go into hiding in order to protect themselves from a killer who had already shot John, a police officer, once and was determined to finish the job.
The Yearling, Rawlings--classic story of the Baxter family and their wild, hard, and satisfying life in remote central Florida.
*Books with an asterisk are titles that have appeared on the English AP Exam.Yellow Raft in Blue Water, Dorris -- A saga of three generations of Indian women, beset by hardship and torn by angry secrets, yet joined by the indissoluble bonds of kinship
Your Own Sylvia, A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath, Hemphill -- A series of poems that provide a chronological portrait of the life of Sylvia Plath, told in the voices of family members, friends, associates, and others who knew her.
