While it is impossible to read everything “good” or valuable, these titles comprise some significant literary works. I suggest researching authors and titles before investing “extra time.” Many of these works you will encounter in your high school experience (some indicated by grade level); therefore, many listed are considered “classics.” For more modern and contemporary works you may want to consult Best Seller lists, Popular Contemporary lists, and specific university reading lists. Curl up with a good book!

American Titles and AuthorsAlbee, Edward □ Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

□ American Dream (10)

Alvarez, Julia □ In the Name of Salome□ In the time of Butterflies (10)

Anaya, Rudolfo □ Bless Me, Ultima (9)

Angelou, Maya □ I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings* (9)□ selected poems* (9)

Arnow, Harriette Louis □ The Dollmaker

Atwood, Margaret □ The Handmaid’s Tale* (AP)

Bradbury, Ray □ Fahrenheit 451*□ Dandelion Wine (AP)

Buck, Pearl S. □ The Good Earth

Carson, Rachel □ Silent Spring

Carter, Forrest □ The Education of Little Tree

Cather, Willa □ My Antonia*Cheever, John □ selected short stories

Chopin, Kate □ The Awakening* (AP)

Cisneros, Sandra □ House on Mango Street* (AP)

Cooper, James Fennimore □ Last of the Mohicans*Cormier, Robert □ I am the Cheese

□ The Chocolate War□ Beyond the Chocolate War

Crane, Stephen □ The Red Badge of Courage* (9)

DeLillo, Don □ White Noise

Dickinson, Emily □ selected poems* (10)

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Dreiser, Theodore □ An American Tragedy

DuBois, W. E. B. □ Souls of Black Folk

Eliot, T.S. □ Wasteland* (AP)□ Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (10/AP)

Ellison, Ralph □ Invisible Man (Hum. Values)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo □ selected poetry and essays (10)

Faulkner, William □ Bear□ As I Lay Dying□ The Sound and the Fury (AP)□ “A Rose for Emily” (10)

Fitzgerald, F. Scott □ The Great Gatsby* (10)

Franklin, Benjamin □ The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

Frost, Robert □ selected poems* (10)

Gladwell, Malcolm □ The Tipping Point□ Flow

Golden, Arthor □ Memoirs of a Geisha

Gunther, John □ Death Be Not Proud

Hansberry, Lorraine □ A Raisin in the Sun* (10)

Hawthorne, Nathaniel □ The Scarlet Letter* (10)□ The House of the Seven Gables

Hemingway, Ernest □ A Farwell to Arms* (10)□ For Whom the Bell Tolls*□ The Old Man and the Sea□ The Sun Also Rises□ Selected short stories (10, AP)

Hersch, Patricia □ A Tribe Apart

Hinton, S. E. □ The Outsiders* (7)

Hoff, Benjamin □ Tao of Pooh (Hum. Search)

Humes, Edward □ No Matter How Loud I Shout

Hurston, Zora Neale □ Their Eyes Were Watching God* (AP)

Irving, John □ Prayer for Owen Meany (AP)

Jackson, Shirley □ We Have Always Lived in the Castle□ selected stories (“The Lottery”) (10, Hum. Values)

James, Henry □ Turn of the Screw* (AP)

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Jones, Ron □ The Acorn People (9)

Joyce, James □ Portrait of and Artist as a Young Man (AP)

Keller, Helen □ The Story of My Life

Kennedy, John F. □ Profiles of Courage

Kesey, Ken □ One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest* (AP)

Kingsolver, Barbara □ The Poisonwood Bible

Knowles, John □ A Separate Peace* (9)

Lawrence, D. H. □ Sons and Lovers□ Lady Chatterley’s Lover

L’Engle, Madeleine □ A Wrinkle in Time*

Lee, Harper □ To Kill A Mockingbird* (10)

Le Guin, Ursula □ The Earthsea Series□ The Dispossessed□ The Left Hand of Darkness

Lewis, Sinclair □ Main Street*

London, Jack □ selected poetry and short stories “To Build a Fire” * (10)□ The Call of the Wild (9)

Lowry, Lois □ The Giver (8)

Mason, Bobbi Ann □ “Shiloh” and other short stories

McCullers, Carson □ Member of the Wedding□ The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Melville, Herman □ Moby Dick (10)□ selected short stories (“Bartleby, the Scrivener”)□ Billy Bud

Michener, James □ Centennial

Millay, Edna St. Vincent □ selected poems*

Miller, Arthur □ Death of a Salesman* (AP)□ The Crucible* (10)

Morrison, Toni □ The Bluest Eye

Pipher, Mary □ Reviving Ophelia*Plath, Sylvia □ The Bell Jar (10)

□ selected short stories

Poe, Edgar Allen □ Complete stories, selected poems* (9, 10)

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Salinger, J.D. □ The Catcher in the Rye* (10)

Sandburg, Carl □ selected poems*

Sinclair, Upton □ The Jungle* (10)

Smith, Adam □ The Wealth of Nations

Steinbeck, John □ The Pearl (9)□ The Grapes of Wrath* (10)□ Of Mice and Men (10)□ East of Eden

Stowe, Harriet Beecher □ Uncle Tom’s Cabin*

Tan, Amy □ The Joy Luck Club*□ Kitchen God’s Wife

Thoreau, Henry David □ Walden* (10)□ selected essays (“Civil Disobedience”*) (10, AP)

Thurber, James □ “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”* (9)

Twain, Mark □ selected short stories (10)□ Life on the Mississippi□ The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn* (10)□ The Adventures of Tom Sawyer* (9)

Updike, John □ selected short stories*Vonnegut, Kurt □ selected short stories

□ Slaughterhouse Five* (10)

Walker, Alice □ The Color Purple* (AP)

Welty, Eudora □ selected stories (“A Worn Path”) (Hum. Search)

White, E. B. (Elwyn Brooks) □ Stuart Little□ Charlotte’s Web□ essay “One Man’s Meat”

Whitman, Walt □ Leaves of Grass* (10)

Wilder, Thornton □ Our Town* (Honors Drama)

Williams, Tennessee □ A Streetcar Named Desire* (Honors Drama)□ A Glass Menagerie

Wright, Richard □ Black Boy*(9)□ Native Son

X, Malcolm □ The Autobiography of Malcolm X

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Non-American Titles and Authors Achebe, Chinua □ Things Fall Apart (Hum. Search)

Adams, Richard □ Watership Down (9, Hum. Values)

Aeschylus □ Prometheus Bound (AP test)□ Agamemnon (11☼)

Allende, Isabel □ Of Love and Shadows (11☼)

Anaya, Rudolfo □ Bless Me, Ultima (9)

Aristotle □ Physics (11☼)□ Metaphysics (11☼)□ Nicomachean Ethics (11☼)□ Poetics * (Hum. Values)

Augustine □ Confessions (11☼)□ Song of Roland (11☼)

Aristophanes □ Lysistrata (11☼)□ The Frogs (11☼)□ The Birds (11☼)

Aurelius, Marcus □ Meditations (Hum. Values)

Austen, Jane □ Emma (11☼)□ Sense and Sensibility (11☼)□ Pride and Prejudice* (11☼, AP test)

Bacon, Sir Francis □ selected essays (11)

Barca, Pedro Calderón de la □ selected poetry

Baudelaire □ selected poems (11)

Beaumarchais, Pierre □ Barber of Seville (11☼)

Beckett, Samuel □ Waiting for Godot (Honors Drama)

Brecht, Bertolt □ Mother Courage

Brontë, Charlotte □ Jane Erye (9)

Brontë, Emily □ Wuthering Heights* (11☼)

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett □ selected poems* (11)

Burgess, Anthony □ A Clockwork Orange (11☼)

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Burns, Robert □ Selected poetry (11)

Camus, Albert □ The Plague (11☼)

Carey, Peter □ My Life as Fake (11☼)

Carroll, Lewis □ Through the Looking Glass (11☼)□ Alice in Wonderland* (11☼, AP test)

Cervantes, Miguel □ Don Quixote (11☼)

Chandra, Vikram □ Red Earth and Pouring Rain (11☼)

Chaucer, Geoffrey □ Canterbury Tales* (AP)

Chbosky, Stephen □ The Perks of Being a Wallflower (9)

Chekhov, Anton □ The Cherry Orchard (11☼)□ “The Bet” (11)

Conrad, Joseph □ Heart of Darkness (Hum. Values)□ Lord Jim (11☼)

Corneille, Pierre □ The Cid (11☼)

Dante Alligiere □ The Divine Comedy, specifically Inferno* (11)

Day, David □ Search for King Arthur (11☼)

Defoe, Daniel □ Robinson Crusoe (11☼)

Descartes □ Meditations (11☼)□ Rules for the Direction of the Mind (Hum. Values)

Dickens, Charles □ A Christmas Carol (middle school)□ Oliver Twist (9)□ A Tale of Two Cities (9)□ Great Expectations* (9)□ David Copperfield (11☼)□ Hard Times (AP)

Donne, John □ selected poems and sonnets*Dostoevsky, Fyodor □ Crime and Punishment (11☼)

□ The Possessed (11☼)□ The Idiot (11☼)

Dumas, Alexander □ Man in the Iron Mask (11☼)□ The Three Musketeers (11☼)□ The Count of Monte Cristo (11☼)

du Maurier, Daphne □ Rebecca (11☼)

Egyptian Love Poetry (11)

Einstein, Albert □ On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies (11☼)

Eliot, George □ Silas Mariner (11)

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□ Middlemarch (11☼, AP test)□ The Mill on the Floss (11☼)

Epic of Gilgamesh* (11) □

Esquivel, Laura □ Like Water for Chocolate (11☼)

Euclid □ Elements (11☼)

Euripides □ Medea*(11☼)

Fielding, Henry □ Tom Jones (11☼)

Fitzgerald, Edward □ translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam* (11)

Flaubert, Gustav □ Madame Bovary (11☼)

Fontaine, Jean de la □ selected poems (11)

Forester, E. M. □ Passage to India (11☼)□ Howards End (11☼)□ A Room with a View (11☼)

Frank, Anne □ Diary of a Young Girl* (middle school)

Frankl, Viktor □ Man’s Search for Meaning* (Hum. Search)

Freud, Sigmund □ A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis (11☼)

Gaardner, Jostiene □ Sophie’s World (Hum. Values)

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von □ Faust* (11, AP test)

Gogol, Nikolai □ Dead Souls (11☼)□ Inspector General (11☼)□ “The Overcoat” (11)

Golding, William □ Lord of the Flies* (9)

Hamilton, Edith □ Mythology* (Hum. Search)

Hardy, Thomas □ Tess of d’Urbervilles (11☼)□ Jude the Obscure (11☼)□ Return of the Native (AP test, 11☼)

Hesse, Herman □ Siddhartha (Hum. Search)□ Steppenwolf (11☼)

Homer □ The Iliad* and the Odyssey* (11)

Hosseini, Khaled □ The Kite Runner (11☼)

Housman, A. E. (Alfred Edward) □ selected poems

Hugo, Victor □ The Hunchback of Notre Dame (11☼)□ Les Miserables (11☼)□ “The Expiation” (11)

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Huong, Duong Thu □ Paradise of the Blind (11☼)

Huxley, Aldous □ Brave New World (AP)□ The Doors of Perception (11☼)□ Point Counter Point (11☼)

Ibsen, Heinrik □ A Doll’s House* (11, Honors Drama)

Ji-Li, Jiang □ Red Scarf Girl (11☼)

Jonson, Ben □ Volpone (11☼)

Kafka, Franz □ The Trial (Hum.Values)□ “The Metamorphosis”* (11)

Kaufman, Bel □ Up the Down Staircase (11☼)

Keats, John □ selected poems* (11)

Keneally, Thomas □ Schindler’s List (11☼)

Khayyam, Omar □ The Rubaiyat (11)

Kipling, Rudyard □ The Jungle Book (11☼)

Latifa □ My Forbidden Face (11☼)

Lessing, Doris □ The Golden Notebook (11☼)□ selected works (AP test)□ “To Room 19” (AP)

Lewis, C. S. □ The Screwtape Letters (11☼, Hum. Search)□ Out of the Silent Planet (11☼)

Locke, John □ selected essays (11☼, AP test)

Lovelace, Earl □ The Wine of Astonishment (11☼)

Lucretius □ On the Nature of Things (11☼)

Machiavelli, Niccolo □ The Prince* (11)

Markandaya, Kamala □ Nectar in a Sieve (11☼, Hum. Search)

Marlowe, Christopher □ The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (AP test, 11☼)□ Tamburlaine (11☼)□ Edward II (11☼)□ selected poems (11☼)

Marques, Gabrell Garcia □ 100 Years of Solitude (AP)

Martel, Yann □ Life of Pi (11☼, Hum. Values)

Marx, Karl □ Communist Manifesto (11☼)□ Capital (11☼)□ Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts (11☼)

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Milton, John □ Paradise Lost* (AP)

Moliẻre, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin □ Tartuffe (11☼)□ The Miser (11☼)□ The School for Wives (11☼)□ The School for Husbands (11☼)□ Misanthrope (11☼)

Montaigne, Michel de □ selected essays

Neruda, Pablo □ “Enigma” and selected poems (11, Hum. Values) “Mindwalk”□ “Ode to My Socks” (AP test, Hum. Values)

Nietzsche, Friedrich □ Twilight of the Idols (11☼)□ Birth of Tragedy (11☼)□ Beyond Good and Evil (11☼)

Nordhoff, Charles □ Mutiny on the Bounty (11☼)

Nuruddin, Farah □ Secrets (11☼)

“One Thousand and One Nights” (11) □

Orwell, George □ Animal Farm* (9)□ 1984* (11☼)

Ovid □ Metamorphoses (11☼)

Pascal, Blaise □ Pensées (11☼)□ selected essays “Man in the Universe” (11)

Pasternak, Boris □ Doctor Zhivago (11☼)

Paton, Alan □ Cry the Beloved Country (11☼)

Plato □ Ion (11☼)□ Meno (11☼)□ Gorgias (11☼)□ Apology (11☼)□ Crito (11☼)□ Phaedo (11☼)□ Symposium* (11☼)□ Parmedides (11☼)□ Republic* (Hum. Values)

Plautus □ Pot of Gold (11☼)□ Four Comedies (11☼)

Plutarch □ Lives (11☼)

Pushkin, Alexander □ “The Bridegroom” (11)

Q’ran □ (11, Hum. Search)

Racine, Jean □ Andromache (11☼)□ Phédre (11☼)

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Rand, Ayn □ The Fountainhead (Hum. Values)□ Atlas Shrugged (11☼)

Remarque, Erich Maria □ All’s Quiet on the Western Front (11☼)

Rostand, Edmond □ Cyrano de Bergerac (11)

Rousseau □ selected essays (“The Social Contract”) (11☼)

Rushdie, Salman □ Midnight’s Children (11☼)

Saadawi, Nawal el □ Woman at Point Zero (11☼)

Schiler, Johann □ William Tell (11☼)

Scott, Sir Walter □ Ivanhoe (11☼)

Shakespeare, William □ Othello* (11), selected sonnets (9-12)□ Romeo and Juliet* (9)□ Macbeth* (AP)□ Hamlet* (AP)□ Much Ado About Nothing* (AP)□ A Midsummer Night’s Dream* (11☼) □ The Merchant of Venice (9, Hum. Search)□ The Taming of the Shrew* (9, AP)□ Julius Caesar (9)□ Twelfth Night (11☼)□ King Lear (Hum. Values)□ The Tempest (11☼)□ As You Like It (11☼)

Shaw, George Bernard □ Pygmalion (AP test, Honors Drama)

Shelley, Mary □ Frankenstein (AP)

Sheridan, Richard □ School for Scandal (11☼)

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander □ One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch (11☼)

Sophocles □ Oedipus Rex* (11)□ Antigone* (11☼)

Spenser, Edmund □ selected sonnets (11)

Stevenson, Robert Lewis □ Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (11☼)□ Treasure Island (11☼)

Stoker, Bram □ Dracula (11☼)

Strindberg, August □ The Father (11☼)

Suri, Manil □ Death of Vishnu (Hum. Search)

Swift, Johnathan □ Gulliver’s Travels* (11☼)□ “A Modest Proposal” (11)

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Tacitus □ Annals (11☼)

Terence □selected comedies (11☼)

Thackeray, William □ Vanity Fair (11☼)

Tolkien, J. R. R. □ The Hobbit* (9 Ch.)

Tolstoy, Leo □ War and Peace (11☼)□ Anna Karenina (11☼)□ “How Much Land Does a Man Need” (11)

Vega, Lopé de □ Star of Seville (11☼)□ selected plays (11☼)

Verne, Jules □ Around the World in Eighty Days (11☼)□ Journey to the Center of the Earth (11☼)□ 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (11☼)

Virgil □ Aeneid (Honors Latin, AP test)

Voltaire, Francois □ Candide (11☼, AP test)

Weisel, Elie □ Night (9)

Wells, H. G. □ The Invisible Man (Hum. Values)□ The Time Machine (11☼)□ War of the Worlds (11☼)

White, T. H. □ Once and Future King (11☼)

Wilde, Oscar □ Picture of Dorian Gray* (11☼)□ The Importance of Being Ernest (AP)

Woolf, Virginia □ Mrs. Dalloway (11☼)□ selected works* (Ap test)

Zola, Emile □ Germinal (11☼)□ L’Ouvre (11☼)

* denotes Monson’s recommendation to read because you are likely to encounter the work and/or the author in collegiate classes.

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