College+Bound+Reading+List

=College Bound Reading List= =American Literature= Agee, James Story of loss and heartbreak felt when a young father dies.
 * A Death in the Family**

Anderson, Sherwood A collection of short stories lays bare the life of a small town in the Midwest.
 * Winesburg****, Ohio**

Baldwin, James Semi-autobiographical novel about a 14-year-old black youth's religious conversion.
 * Go Tell It On the Mountain**

Bellamy, Edward Written in 1887 about a young man who travels in time to a utopian year 2000, where economic security and a healthy moral environment have reduced crime.
 * Looking Backward: 2000-1887**

Bellow, Saul A son grapples with his love and hate for an unworthy father.
 * Seize the Day**

Bradbury, Ray Reading is a crime and firemen burn books in this futuristic society.
 * Fahrenheit 451**

Cather, Willa Immigrant pioneers strive to adapt to the Nebraska prairies.
 * My Antonia**

Chopin, Kate The story of a New Orleans woman who abandons her husband and children to search for love and self-understanding.
 * The Awakening**

Clark, Walter Van Tilburg When a group of citizens discovers one of their members has been murdered by cattle rustlers, they form an illegal posse, pursue the murderers, and lynch them.
 * The Ox-Bow Incident**

Cormier, Robert Jerry Renault challenges the power structure of his school when he refuses to sell chocolates for the annual fundraiser.
 * The Chocolate War**

Crane, Stephen During the Civil War, Henry Fleming joins the army full of romantic visions of battle which are shattered by combat.
 * The Red Badge of Courage**

Dorris, Michael Three generations of Native American women recount their searches for identity and love.
 * A Yellow Raft in Blue Water**

Ellison, Ralph A black man's search for himself as an individual and as a member of his race and his society.
 * Invisible Man**

Faulkner, William The Bundren family takes the ripening corpse of Addie, wife and mother, on a gruesomely comic journey.
 * As I Lay Dying**

Fitzgerald, F. Scott A young man corrupts himself and the American Dream to regain a lost love.
 * The Great Gatsby**

Gaines, Ernest In her 100 years, Miss Jane Pittman experiences it all, from slavery to the civil rights movement.
 * The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman**

Hawthorne, Nathaniel An adulterous Puritan woman keeps secret the identity of the father of her illegitimate child.
 * The Scarlet Letter**

Heller, Joseph A broad comedy about a WWII bombardier based in Italy and his efforts to avoid bombing missions.
 * Catch-22**

Hemingway, Ernest During World War I, an American lieutenant runs away with the woman who nurses him back to health.
 * A Farewell to Arms**

Hurston, Zora Neale Janie repudiates many roles in her quest for self-fulfillment.
 * Their Eyes Were Watching God**

Kesey, Ken A novel about a power struggle between the head nurse and one of the male patients in a mental institution.
 * One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest**

Lee, Harper At great peril to himself and his children, lawyer Atticus Finch defends an African-American man accused of raping a white woman in a small Alabama town.
 * To Kill a Mockingbird**

Lewis, Sinclair A young doctor's wife tries to change the ugliness, dullness and ignorance which prevail in Gopher Prairie, Minn.
 * Main Street**

London, Jack Buck is a loyal pet dog until cruel men make him a pawn in their search for Klondike gold.
 * Call of the Wild**

McCullers, Carson A young southern girl is determined to be the third party on a honeymoon, despite all the advice against it from friends and family.
 * The Member of the Wedding**

Melville, Herman A complex novel about a mad sea captain's pursuit of the White Whale.
 * Moby-Dick**

Morrison, Toni The lifelong friendship of two women becomes strained when one causes the others husband to abandon her.
 * Sula**

O'Connor, Flannery Social awareness, the grotesque, and the need for faith characterize these stories of the contemporary South.
 * A Good Man is Hard to Find**

Parks, Gordon A fictional study of a black family in a small Kansas town in the 1920s.
 * The Learning Tree**

Plath, Sylvia The heartbreaking story of a talented young woman's descent into madness.
 * The Bell Jar**

Poe, Edgar Allan Poe is considered the father of detective stories and a master of supernatural tales.
 * Great Tales and Poems**

Potok, Chaim Friendship between two Jewish boys, one Hasidic and the other Orthodox, begins at a baseball game and flourishes despite their different backgrounds and beliefs.
 * The Chosen**

Salinger, J.D. A prep school dropout rejects the "phoniness" he sees all about him.
 * The Catcher in the Rye**

Sinclair, Upton The deplorable conditions of the Chicago stockyards are exposed in this turn-of-the-century novel.
 * The Jungle**

Steinbeck, John The desperate flight of tenant farmers from Oklahoma during the Depression.
 * The Grapes of Wrath**

Stowe, Harriet Beecher The classic tale that awakened a nation about the slave system.
 * Uncle Tom's Cabin**

Twain, Mark Huck and Jim, a runaway slave, travel down the Mississippi in search of freedom.
 * The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn**

Vonnegut, Kurt Billy Pilgrim, an optometrist from Ilium, New York, shuttles between World War II Dresden and a luxurious zoo on the planet Tralfamadore.
 * Slaughterhouse-Five**

Walker, Alice A young woman sees herself as property until another woman teaches her to value herself.
 * The Color Purple**

Welty, Eudora A collection of short stories about people and life in the deep South.
 * Thirteen Stories**

Wolfe, Thomas A novel depicting the coming of age of Eugene Gant and his passion to experience life.
 * Look Homeward, Angel**

Wright, Richard Bigger Thomas, a young man from the Chicago slums, lashes out against a hostile society by committing two murders.
 * Native Son**

Achebe, Chinua Okonkwo, a proud village leader, is driven to murder and suicide by European changes to his traditional Ibo society.
 * World Literature **
 * Things Fall Apart**

Allende, Isabel The story of the Trueba family in Chile, from the turn of the century to the violent days of the overthrow of the Salvador Allende government in 1973.
 * House of the Spirits**

Austen, Jane Love and marriage among the English country gentry of Austen's day.
 * Pride and Prejudice**

Balzac, Honore de A father is reduced to poverty after giving money to his daughters.
 * Pere Goriot**

Borges, Jorge Luis An anthology of literary fireworks based on Borges' favorite symbol.
 * Labyrinths**

Bronte, Charlotte An intelligent and passionate governess falls in love with a strange, moody man tormented by dark secrets.
 * Jane Eyre**

Bronte, Emily One of the masterpieces of English romanticism, this is a novel of Heathcliff and Catherine, love and revenge.
 * Wuthering** **Heights**

Camus, Albert A man who is virtually unknown to both himself and others commits a pointless murder for which he has no explanation.
 * The Stranger**

Carroll, Lewis A fantasy in which Alice follows the White Rabbit to a dream world.
 * Alice****'s Adventures in Wonderland**

Cervantes, Miguel de An eccentric old gentleman sets out as a knight "tilting at windmills" to right the wrongs of the world.
 * Don Quixote**

Conrad, Joseph The novel's narrator journeys into the Congo where he discovers the extent to which greed can corrupt a good man.
 * Heart of Darkness**

Defoe, Daniel The adventures of a man who spends 24 years on an isolated island.
 * Robinson Crusoe**

Dickens, Charles The moving story of the rise, fall, and rise again of a humbly-born young orphan.
 * Great Expectations**

Dostoevski, Feodor A psychological novel about a poor student who murders an old woman pawnbroker and her sister.
 * Crime and Punishment**

Eliot, George Maggie is miserable because her brother disapproves of her choices of romances.
 * The Mill on the Floss**

Esquivel, Laura As the youngest of three daughters in a turn-of-the-century Mexican family, Tita may not marry but must remain at home to care for her mother.
 * Like Water for Chocolate**

Flaubert, Gustave In her extramarital affairs, a bored young wife seeks unsuccessfully to find the emotional experiences she craves.
 * Madame Bovary**

Forster, E.M. A young English woman in British-ruled India accuses an Indian doctor of sexual assault.
 * A Passage to India**

Fuentes, Carlos A powerful Mexican newspaper publisher recalls his life as he lies dying at age 71.
 * The Death of Artemio Cruz**

Garcia Marquez, Gabriel A technique called magical realism is used in this portrait of seven generations in the lives of the Buendia family.
 * One Hundred Years of Solitude**

Gogol, Nikolai Russian tales of good and evil.
 * The Overcoat**

Golding, William English schoolboys marooned on an uninhabited island test the values of civilization when they attempt to set up a society of their own.
 * Lord of the Flies**

Grass, Gunter Oskar describes the amoral conditions through which he has lived in Germany, both during and after the Hitler regime.
 * The Tin Drum**

Hardy, Thomas The happiness of Tess and her husband is destroyed when she confesses that she bore a child as the result of a forced sexual relationship with her employer's son.
 * Tess of the D'Urbervilles**

Hesse, Hermann Emerging from a kaleidoscope of experiences and pleasures, a young Brahmin ascends to a state of peace and mystic holiness.
 * Siddhartha**

Huxley, Aldous A bitter satire of the future, in which the world is controlled by advances in science and social changes.
 * Brave New World**

Joyce, James A novel about a young man growing up in Ireland and rebelling against family, country, and religion.
 * A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man**

Kafka, Franz A man is tried for a crime he knows nothing about, yet for which he feels guilt.
 * The Trial**

Lawrence, D.H. An autobiographical novel about a youth torn between a dominant working-class father and a possessive genteel mother.
 * Sons and Lovers**

Mann, Thomas In this novella, an author becomes aware of a darker side of himself when he visits Venice.
 * Death in Venice**

Orwell, George Animals turn the tables on their masters.
 * Animal Farm**

Pasternak, Boris An epic novel of Russia before and after the Bolshevik revolution.
 * Doctor Zhivago**

Paton, Alan A country Zulu pastor searches for his sick sister in Johannesburg, and discovers that she has become a prostitute and his son a murderer.
 * Cry, the Beloved Country**

Remarque, Erich Maria A young German soldier in World War I experiences pounding shellfire, hunger, sickness, and death.
 * All Quiet on the Western Front**

Scott, Sir Walter Tale of Ivanhoe, the disinherited knight, Lady Rowena, Richard the Lion-Hearted, and Robin Hood at the time of the Crusades.
 * Ivanhoe**

Shelley, Mary W. A gothic tale of terror in which Franken-stein creates a monster from corpses.
 * Frankenstein**

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksander Ivan Denisovich Shukhov endures one more day in a Siberian prison camp and finds joy in survival.
 * One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich**

Swift, Jonathan Gulliver encounters dwarfs and giants and has other strange adventures when his ship is wrecked in distant lands.
 * Gulliver's Travels**

Tan, Amy After her mother's death, a young Chinese-American woman learns of her mother's tragic early life in China.
 * The Joy Luck Club**

Tolstoy, Leo Anna forsakes her husband for the dashing Count Vronsky and brief happiness.
 * Anna Karenina**

Weisel, Elie A searing account of the Holocaust as experienced by a 15-year-old boy.
 * Night**

Angelou, Maya An African-American writer traces her coming of age.
 * Biography/History **
 * I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings**

Ashe, Arthur and Arnold Rampersad. Biography of a highly respected tennis star and citizen of the world who dies of AIDS.
 * Days of Grace**

Baker, Russell A columnist with a sense of humor takes a gentle look at his childhood in Baltimore during the Depression.
 * Growing Up**

Berenbaum, Michael
 * The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.**

Brown, Dee A narrative of the white man's conquest of the American land as the Indian victims experienced it.
 * Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee**

Cooke, Alistair A history of the continent, with anecdotes and insight into what makes America work.
 * Alistair Cooke's America**

Criddle, Jan. D. and Teeda Butt Mam After the 1975 Communist takeover of Cambodia, Teeda's upper-class life is re-duced to surviving impossible conditions.
 * To Destroy You Is No Loss: The Odyssey of a Cambodian Family**

Crow Dog, Mary and Richard Erdoes Mary Crow Dog stands with 2,000 other Native Americans at the site of the Wounded Knee massacre, demonstrating for Native American rights.
 * Lakota Woman**

Curie, Eve In sharing personal papers and her own memories, a daughter pays tribute to her mother, a scientific genius.
 * Madame Curie**

Delany, Sara and A. Elizabeth with Amy Hill Hearth Two daughters of former slaves tell their stories of fighting racial and gender prejudice during the 20th century.
 * Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years**

Epstein, Norrie Gain a perspective on Shakespeare's works through these sidelights, interpretations, anecdotes, and historical insights.
 * Friendly Shakespeare: A Thoroughly Painless Guide to the Best of the Bard.**

Frank, Anne The story of a Jewish family forced by encroaching Nazis to live in hiding.
 * The Diary of a Young Girl**

Franklin, Benjamin Considered one of the most interesting autobiographies in English.
 * The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin**

Haley, Alex Traces Haley's search for the history of his family, from Africa through the era of slavery to the 20th century.
 * Roots**

Hersey, John Six Hiroshima survivors reflect on the aftermath of the first atomic bomb.
 * Hiroshima**

Karlsen, Carol The status of women in colonial society affects the Salem witch accusations.
 * The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England**

Keller, Helen The story of Helen Keller, who was both blind and deaf, and her relationship with her devoted teacher Anne Sullivan.
 * The Story of My Life**

Kennedy, John F. A series of profiles of Americans who took courageous stands in public life.
 * Profiles in Courage**

King, Martin Luther, Jr. King's most important writings are gathered together in one source.
 * A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr.**

Kovic, Ron Paralyzed in the Vietnam War, 21-year-old Ron Kovic received little support from his country and its government.
 * Born on the Fourth of July**

Machiavelli, Niccolo A treatise giving the absolute ruler practical advice on ways to maintain a strong central government.
 * The Prince**

Malcom X, with Alex Haley Traces the transformation of a controversial Black Muslim figure from street hustler to religious and national leader.
 * The Autobiography of Malcom X**

Marx, Karl Expresses Marx's belief in the inevitability of conflict between social classes and calls on the workers of the world to unite and revolt.
 * The Communist Manifesto**

Mathabane, Mark A tennis player breaks down racial barriers and escape to a better life in America.
 * Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa**

Maybury-Lewis, David Profiles members of several tribal cultures.
 * Millenium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World**

McPherson, James From the Mexican War to Appomattox, aspects of the Civil War are examined.
 * Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era**

Mills, Kay Fannie Lou Hamer, a sharecropper's daughter, uses her considerable courage and singing talent to become a leader in the civil rights movement.
 * This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer**

Plato Plato creates an ideal society where justice is equated with health and happiness in the state and the individual.
 * The Republic**

Rogosin, Donn Negro League players finally gain recognition for their contributions to baseball.
 * Invisible Men: Life in Baseball's Negro Leagues**

Thoreau, Henry David In the mid-19th century, Thoreau spends 26 months alone in the woods to "front the essential facts of life."
 * Walden**

Tocqueville, Alexis de This classic in political literature examines American society from the viewpoint of a leading French magistrate who visited the U.S. in 1831.
 * Democracy in America**

Tuchman, Barbara Tuchman uses the example of a single feudal lord to trace the history of the 14th century.
 * A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century**

Williams, Juan From Brown vs. the Board of Education to the Voting Rights Act, Williams outlines the social and political gains of African-Americans
 * Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-65**

Yolen, Jane Yolen frames these powerful tales with explanations of historical and literary significance.
 * Favorite Folktales From Around the World**

Science
Attenborough, David Various habitats expand the vision of Planet Earth.
 * The Living Planet: A Portrait of the Earth**

Bronowski, Jacob A scientist's history of the human mind and the human condition.
 * The Ascent of Man**

Carson, Rachel Carson's original clarion call to environmental action sets the stage for saving our planet.
 * Silent Spring**

Darwin, Charles The classic exposition of the theory of evolution by natural selection.
 * The Origin of Species**

Hawking, Stephen Cosmology becomes understandable as the author discusses the origin, evolution, and fate of our universe.
 * A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes**

Leopold, Aldo Leopold shares his present and future visions of a natural world.
 * A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There**

Campbell, Joseph Explores themes and symbols from world religions and their relevance to humankind's spiritual journey today.
 * Social Science **
 * The Power of Myth**

Hamilton, Edith Gods and heroes, their clashes and adventures, come alive in this splendid retelling of the Greek, Roman and Norse myths.
 * Mythology**

Kotlowitz, Alex Lafayette and Pharoah Rivers and their family struggle to survive in one of Chicago's worst housing projects.
 * There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in Urban America**

Kozol, Jonathan Kozol's indictment of the public school system advocates equalizing per pupil public school expenditures.
 * Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools**

Terkel, Studs This kaleidoscope covers the full range of America's views on racial issues.
 * Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession**

Beckett, Samuel Powerful, symbolic portrayal of the human condition.
 * Drama **
 * Waiting for Godot**

Brecht, Bertolt A product of the Nazi era, Mother Courage is a feminine "Everyman" in a play on the futility of war.
 * Mother Courage and Her Children**

Chekhov, Anton The orchard evokes different meanings for the impoverished aristocrat and the merchant who buys it.
 * The Cherry Orchard**

Ibsen, Henrik A woman leaves her family to pursue personal freedom.
 * A Doll's House**

Marlowe, Christopher First dramatization of the medieval legend of a man who sold his soul to the devil.
 * Doctor Faustus**

Miller, Arthur The tragedy of a typical American who, at age 63, is faced with what he cannot face: defeat and disillusionment.
 * Death of a Salesman**

O'Neill, Eugene A tragedy set in 1912 in the summer home of an isolated, theatrical family.
 * Long Day's Journey Into Night**

Sarte, Jean Paul A modern morality play in which three persons are condemned to hell because of crimes against humanity.
 * No Exit**

Shakespeare, William
 * Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, Twelfth Night**, others.

Shaw, Bernard
 * Man and Superman, Saint Joan, Pygmalion**, others.

Sophocles Classical tragedy of Oedipus who unwittingly killed his father, married his mother and brought the plague to Thebes.
 * Oedipus Rex**

Wilde, Oscar Comedy exposing quirks and foibles of Victorian society.
 * The Importance of Being Earnest**

Wilder, Thornton The dead of a New Hampshire village of the early 1900s appreciate life more than the living.
 * Our Town**

Williams, Tennessee Blanche Dubois' fantasies of refinement and grandeur are brutally destroyed by her brother-in-law.
 * A Streetcar Named Desire**

Wilson, August Drama set in 1936 Pittsburgh chronicles black experience in America.
 * The Piano Lesson**

Poetry
Angelou, Maya Poems reflecting themes from her autobiography.
 * And Still I Rise**

Brooks, Gwendolyn Poetry focusing on the lives of African American residents of Northern urban ghettos, particularly women.
 * Selected Poems**

Cummings, E.E. Prepared directly from the original manuscripts, preserving the original typography and format.
 * Complete Poems, 1904-1962**

Dickinson, Emily A chronological arrangement of all known Dickinson poems and fragments.
 * The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson**

Donne, John Poems distinguished by wit, profundity of thought, passion and subtlety.
 * The Complete Poetry of John Donne**

Eliot, T.S. A poem of despair by one of the most important modern poets in English.
 * The Waste Land**

Frost, Robert Collected works reflecting both flashing insight and practical wisdom.
 * The Poetry of Robert Frost**

Ginsberg, Allen Works from the leading poet of the so-called "beat generation."
 * Howl and Other Poems**

Giovanni, Nikki The poems in this collection deal with love, family, nature, friends, music, aloneness, blackness, and Africa.
 * My House**

Hughes, Langston Poems selected by Hughes shortly before his death in 1967, representing work from his entire career.
 * Selected Poems**

Keats, John Among the greatest odes in English, written by a genius who died young.
 * Complete Poems**

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth Includes "The Song of Hiawatha" and "The Courtship of Miles Standish."
 * The Poetical Works of Longfellow**

Sandburg, Carl Sandburg celebrates industrial and agricultural America and the common people.
 * Complete Poems**

Thomas, Dylan Poetry by a "word magician" with a powerful imagination.
 * Poems of Dylan Thomas**

Williams, William Carlos Williams' poetry is firmly rooted in the commonplace details of American life.
 * Selected Poems**

Wordsworth, William Poetry revealing the extraordinary beauty and significance of simple things.
 * Poems**

Yeats, William Butler Leading poet of the Irish Renaissance.
 * The Poems**