Books to read

Parent Cafe
41

<p>The best book there is One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (the movies better though)—> catch 22 is also good if you set aside the crazy amount of time to read and understand it</p>

42

<p>A couple of recent faves:</p>

<p>Reading Lolita in Tehran</p>

<p>Sky Burial, The Good Women of China</p>

<p>Old faves:</p>

<p>The Cairo Trilogy </p>

<p>A Fine Balance, Such a Long Journey</p>

<p>The Unbearable Lightness of Being</p>

<p>Waiting</p>

<p>A Gesture Life</p>

<p>The Farming of Bones</p>

<p>…I could go on and on…</p>

43

<p>I just finished reading Cold Sassy Tree and absolutely loved it.</p>

44

<p>A few good ones:
Pride and Prejudice or Emma by Jane Austen
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad</p>

<p>Someone already mentioned Sophie’s World, and I agree. We read it in TOK, and it was a great intro to philosophy.</p>

45

<p>Oh yes, Isabel Allende has the best Ex-pat book: My Invented Country</p>

46

<p>I would definitely read Fahrenheit 451…it is one of my all time favorite books, and so relevant today. It’s right under In Cold Blood on my favorites list.</p>

47

<p>Try some Thoreau, Emerson, or Dickinson. Novels they are not, but still excellent reading. Also, Tennyson.
Do you like Madeleine L’Engle? Many of her books are ostensibly for children, but address far greater issues.</p>

48

<p>Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, is also a good book)
The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell, Dustin Thomason
The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King
A Place of Execution by Val McDermid</p>

49

<p>The Giver, by Lois Lowry. A “young adult” book, but truly excellent on many levels.</p>

50

<p>I’m a bit eclectic, but my suggestions:</p>

<p>A Brief History of Time - an elegant book, whose true wit and intelligence shines through even in the choice of title</p>

<p>Excellent Women (Barbara Pym) - such a classic</p>

<p>The Discworld books - what a stitch, particularly the one about Death. I laughed constantly.</p>

<p>Seabiscuit - if ever you want to read a non-fiction book that is written perfectly. I defy anyone to find a sentence in the book that should be rewritten. And it’s not clinically well written by dry - it’s fascinating and one of those truly good books where you know the ending, but still savor every page.</p>

<p>Pride & Prejudice - always a good story of human nature of any era</p>

<p>The New Testament, plus Psalms and Judges. I prefer the Revised King James version </p>

<p>1st Ladies Detective Agency (Alexander McCall Smith). A little light, but only because real life is a little light, when you really think about it.</p>

<p>Someone suggested Susannah Clark’s book. I tried reading it (Jonathan Strange and Mr. Morel). I feel like I’m trying to wash the dishes at a frat house after a really, really big party. It’s really heavy slogging for me, and not sure if I’ll force myself to get through it.</p>

51

<p>The Good Earth - Pearl Buck
War & Peace - Tolstoy
Crime & Punishment - Dostoevsky
Dr Zhivago - Pasternak
Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan
and books by Anna Quindlen - How reading changed my life
And most of the classic books because they are classic.</p>

52

<p>Some books outside the typical AP English reading list:</p>

<p>The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Right Stuff – Tom Wolfe</p>

<p>On the Road – Jack Kerouac</p>

<p>Naked Lunch – William S. Burroughs</p>

<p>Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – Hunter S. Thompson</p>

<p>Just about anything by Ken Kesey</p>

<p>Holidays in Hell – PJ O’Rourke</p>

<p>Good stuff, I tell ya!</p>

53

<p>bluealien, some of these books should have been read in middle school. Like the book “Time machine”, my daughter read it in 6th grade. “Ender’s Game” in 7th grade and 60-70% these books she already covered them in middle school.
I don’t know where you live but California has a reading list depends on your grade and reading level. Here is the link
<a href=“http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/readinglist.asp[/url]”>http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/readinglist.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

54

<p>WHile some books are read earlier- for instance my average reading level 5th grd book group read * To kill a mockingbird- The Giver- Bridge to Terabithia & Tuck Everlasting * the ideas in them can be discussed in middle or high school as well.
My older daughter read the Odyessey for example once in middle school but again in high school and again in college LOL.</p>

55

<p>Have you read Walt Whitman’s poems? They’re often represented as part of the first truly American poetry, the American literary awakening, etc.
Also, what about the collected short stories of Poe?
In defense of The Scarlet Letter, one’s appreciation of it depends on one’s taste in books. Don’t not read it, or read it, solely on other people’s opinions.
Do you like mythology? The Mabinogi is old, but makes excellent reading if you’re into Welsh/Saxon/Celtic mythology; also Beowulf.</p>

56

<p>Lots of good ones already mentioned</p>

<p>willow, </p>

<p>I also liked Scarlet Letter. And you are so right about Whitman. Open up to any spot at random in The Body Electric or Leaves of Grass and it can make you weep…</p>

<p>Also: poetry: read Wallace Stevens!!!</p>

<p>Classics:
Pere Goriot
Mrs Bridge
My Antonia
Henderson the Rain King
Portnoy’s Complaint
Lost in the Funhouse
The Power & the Glory
Love in the time of Cholera & all by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez
Sophie’s Choice</p>

<p>Having a brain Freeze-- there was a wonderful book about Czech independence/doomed love affair got made into a movie with Lena Olin and I can’t think of title!!! Someone help me.</p>

<p>Newer & worth it:</p>

<p>A Very Long Engagement
Accidental Tourist
Moo
The Time Traveler’s Wife
Prep</p>

<p>& Just for Fun:</p>

<p>The #1 Ladies Detective Agency series
Remains of the Day</p>

57

<p>Okay my brain still works:</p>

<p>The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera.</p>

<p>Remains of the Day <em>should</em> be on newer & worth it list, not just for fun though…</p>

58

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<p>Oh well. Southern schools aren’t exactly good apparently…</p>

59

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<p>We did not have a reading list in elem/middle school. We were required to read books from a list in high school. Read To kill a mockingbird, never heard of the other three.</p>

<p>How did this thread get revived anyway???</p>

60

<p>

Mea culpa. It was linked to from another ‘Books to read’ thread.</p>

<p>I think I suggested this on another thread, but what about Walden by Thoreau? It was hard for me to understand (I was in 8th grade when I read it), but I have fond memories of it. Also, Thoreau wrote a good essay on ‘Civil Disobedience’. An extremely applicable essay of Emerson’s, though rather wordy, is ‘The American Scholar’.
In a complete change of genre, you might read ‘And Then There Were None’ by Agatha Christie. It’s a mystery novel, but I’ve found a lot of references to it in other works.
I hesitate to suggest this, as it damaged my young psyche for some time, but Eli Wiesel’s books, particularly ‘Night’, are powerful memoirs of the Holocaust and the Jewish resistance movement. Don’t read it if you have an easily scarred mind.</p>