<p>A Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien</p>
<p>Importance of Being Earnest
Being There
Heart of Darkness
Ordinary People
Separate Peace
Bluest Eye
Farewell to Arms
Slaughterhouse Five
The Last of the Just
Zen and the Art of Bicycle Maintenance</p>
<p>These are books I’ve run into multiple times between high school and college, in different contexts:</p>
<p>The Importance of Being Earnest (or Oscar Wilde in general)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (and Hamlet, of course)
Things Fall Apart
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius: A Memoir Based On a True Story
Anything Shakespeare (particularly Hamlet, King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Much Ado About Nothing; plus critical writings; McDonald has an extensive book on him)
Lots of short stories! Wow, I can’t believe no one has mentioned short stories yet (maybe that’s because the title of the thread is Books to Read, but whatever! :D)</p>
<p>“Hills Like White Elephants,” “A&P,” “CivilWarLand in Bad Decline,” “The Ceiling,” “After I Was Thrown in the River and Before I Died,” “The Year of Getting to Know Us” and so on and so on. You can find some excellent literary anthologies (not the textbook-for-classroom kinds) with some great selections – I highly suggest you do, because there are some terrific short stories out there.</p>
<p>The Good Earth
The Jungle
The Amber Room
Battle Cry of Freedom
To Kill a Mocking Bird
The Great Gatsby
Angel’s and Demons
Life of Pi
Why the Cage bird sings</p>
<p>books we read in honors english:</p>
<p>scarlet letter
the crucible
huckleberry finn
red badge of courage
color purple
their eyes were watching god
the great gatsby
the grapes of wrath
screetcar named desire
farewell to arms
catcher in the rye
black boy
catch 22</p>
<p>i guess they are good cuz we had to read them in this class.</p>
<p>Mama, is that Smashed: Memoir of a Drunken Girlhood? Seems like an interesting choice for assigned reading. . .</p>
<p>Yes, I believe that is the same book Willow. Each year our guidance dept. and district health director select one title to tie in with attendance at senior health day, which is a grad requirement here. I believe there will be discussion groups, speakers, etc…</p>
<p>For the “West” in all of us:</p>
<p>Dancing at the Rascal Fair by Ivan Doig</p>
<p>or “My Antonia” by Willa Cather</p>
<p>“Animal Farm” and “1984” by George Orwell are both good books to read. Animal Farm presents an interesting look at the post-Russian 1917 Revolution. Also, the issues dealt with in these two books are fairly relevant in today’s day and age.
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (?) is also pretty good. It takes place in an extreme conformist/totalitarian society.</p>
<p>suggested authors:
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (100 Years of Solitude)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (especially short stories like Bernice Bobs her Hair)
Herman Melville (Omoo and Typee)
Joan Didion
E.M. Forster (A Room With a View, A Passage to India, Howards End)
George Eliot (Middlemarch)
Patrick White (Riders in the Chariot)
Peter Carey (Illywacker)
Salman Rushdie</p>
<p>Ditto to CDN_dancer: 1984, Animal Farm and Fahrenheit 451 are favorites. </p>
<p>(1984 and Brave New World show up in lists a lot.)</p>
<p>The Stranger is also pretty popular, as is The Giver (though that’s a 7th-grade book here.)</p>
<p>I loved a more recent book - The KiteRunner.</p>
<p>Short stories:</p>
<p>“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” - Ursula LeGuin - wonderful</p>
<p>I recommend Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, a real eye-opener, should be in every economics/sociology syllabus-a must read for everyone. Also many colleges ask for “books you’ve read for pleaseure during the last year” on the app-this one looks good, esp for more left leaning campuses.</p>
<p>I heartily agree.^^^ Great, great book.</p>
<p>In 7th grade (last year) my son was fresh to the bus driver of his school bus-- and I when I picked him up at the bus she told me about it.</p>
<p>For his “punishment” I had him write her a letter of apology and read “Nickled & Dimed.” Then I had my D read it, just because. </p>
<p>This book will change the way you see things and make you mindful of the ‘anonymous’ people who work so hard, running flat out but staying in place or even falling back, in our country of plenty.</p>
<p>Thanks so much, my son could not put it down-was reading it when I picked him up from train. He goes to a highly selective, but socioecomically very diverse (from very affluent to PA/public housing) NYC arts/academic HS, and he recently wrote a paper about how those with means (e.g. can afford a $900 Kaplan SAT prep course, as he did) have such an advantage in everything, esp college admissions. I am VP of the PTA at the school, and in our budget we have a (very discreet) Helping Hand program. Among this year’s “gives”: $15 to a student who couldn’t afford the pay the PSAT reg fee, $5 to a student who couldn’t afford to see his sister’s show, $4 for a Metro card for a student who stayed late at school to “tech” a show, and had no way to get home. We have also provided babysitting for families who can’t afford to pay for a ticket and a sitter so they can come and see their older child perform. At my suggestion, this book is being added to next year’s APUSH/Economics curriculum…</p>
<p>Thanks everyone!</p>
<p>Cangel,
I did read “Their eyes” for my AP English class. I got a 5 on the AP literature test, but look what good it did me…The college application process is such a joke. I have lost all faith in this system.</p>
<p>Moby Dick.</p>