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Graphic by Georgia Muchen
Dear Students,
Below are lists of recommended works of literature.
List #1: This list is from
Amazon.com.
http://www.amazon.com/Must-Read-Century-American-Novels/lm/2OILXZJR0IBF0
List #2: This list is from the American Library Association.
These titles are recommended for college bound teenagers.
Allison, Dorothy. Bastard Out of Carolina. 1993.
Penguin/Plume.
Bone confronts illegitimacy, poverty, the troubled marriage of her mother and
stepfather, and the stigma of being considered “white trash” as she comes of
age in South Carolina.
Anderson, M.T. The Astonishing Life of Octavian
Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party. 2006.
Candlewick.
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. II:
The Kingdom on the Waves. 2008. Candlewick.
Set during the American Revolution, Octavian is raised as a pampered African
prince by a society of Enlightenment philosophers who view him as an
experiment. Realizing that his freedom is an illusion, Octavian sets off on a
journey to find freedom and a place in the world. These books will challenge
everything you have ever learned about the Revolutionary War.
Cameron, Peter. Someday This Pain Will be Useful to
You. 2007. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
James hates everyone except his grandmother. Take a look at life through this
brilliant and mischievous New York teen’s eyes as he tries to figure out life
and his place in it.
Cisneros, Sandra. Caramelo. 2003. Knopf/Vintage.
LaLa learns the stories of her Awful Grandmother and weaves them into a
colorful family history. The “caramelo,” a striped shawl begun by her
Great-Grandmother, symbolizes their traditions.
Foer, Jonathan Safran. Extremely Loud and Incredibly
Close. 2006. Houghton Mifflin.
Oskar Schell, a gifted 9-year old, explores the mystery of his father’s death
during the 9/11 attack.
Gaines, Ernest. A Lesson Before Dying. 1997.
Knopf/Vintage.
When Jefferson's attorney states, "I would just as soon put a hog in the
electric chair as this," disillusioned teacher Grant Wiggins is sent into the
penitentiary to help Jefferson gain a sense of dignity and self-esteem before
his execution.
Ishiguro, Kazuo. Never Let Me Go. 2005.
Knopf.
Only special students are chosen to attend Hailsham, an exclusive boarding
school tucked away in the English countryside. The chilling truth of their
special nature slowly unfolds as we follow the stories of three former
students.
Jones, Lloyd. Mister Pip. 2008. Dell
Publishing/Dial Press.
Matilda’s Pacific Island village has been torn apart by civil war. Against
this harsh backdrop, Mr. Watts, a lonely British expatriate, maintains calm by
reading Dicken’s Great Expectations aloud to the village children,
transforming their lives.
McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. 2008. Knopf/Vintage.
After an apocalyptic catastrophe, a father and his young son embark on a grim
and perilous quest following the road to the sea.
Murakami, Haruki. Kafka on the Shore. 2006.
Knopf/Vintage.
Reality and fantasy converge in this story of a Japanese runaway’s quest to
find his long-lost sister and mother.
Myers, Walter Dean. Sunrise Over Fallujah. 2008.
Scholastic.
Robin believes in his country and volunteers to fight in Iraq; but when he
arrives he realizes that fighting for freedom is not always black and white.
Roth, Philip. The Plot Against America. 2005.
Knopf/Vintage.
This is a fascinating alternate history that takes a hard look at one of
America’s legendary heroes, Charles Lindbergh, and at how bigotry and fear can
shape politics.
Zusak, Marcus. The Book Thief. 2006. Random
House/Knopf.
Living in Nazi Germany, young Liesel and her family choose to lie and steal to
protect a Jewish refugee hiding in their basement. Narrated by Death, this is
not your typical World War II story.
List #3: List from a professor at USC.
http://www.bookstorepeople.com/2009/09/the-best-american-literature/
List #4: This list is from
Hungry Mind.
Hungry Mind Review's
100 Best 20th-Century American
Books of Fiction and Nonfiction
What the
Hungry Mind Review had to say
about its list:
The books were chosen by
five writers: Mary Moore Easter, Heid E. Erdrich, Bill Holm, David Mura, and
George Rabasa, under the direction of Bart Schneider, editor of the
Hungry Mind Review, and J. Otis
Powell of The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis.
The
Hungry Mind Review list provides
a compelling alternative to the Modern Library's selection of "100 Best Novels
published in the English language since 1900," announced last July. Although
the Modern Library list was criticized for including only six books by
nonwhite writers, only nine books by women, and very few books published after
1960, it initiated a lively national discussion. The
HMR list reflects a far more
realistic race and gender balance, and includes a good number of contemporary
books. Our list is however limited to books written by Americans.
While the Modern Library
list is restricted to novels, the Hungry
Mind Review includes distinguished books of nonfiction and
collections of short fiction. "Opening the list to nonfiction makes sense in a
literary century that has witnessed the blurring of the line between fiction
and nonfiction," according to Hungry
Mind Review editor Bart Schneider. "It's thrilling to have James
Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men,
as well as the autobiographies of Malcolm X and Alice B. Toklas, on this
list," Schneider adds. "Essential 20th-century writers like James Baldwin,
Joan Didion, and Gore Vidal, who each have collections of nonfiction included
on the list, are commonly thought to have done their best writing in the essay
form."
Frequently Asked Questions
Who wrote this list?
See the heading above and the
credit below to find out who wrote this list. If you don't like the
selections in this list or the arrangement, take it up with the author(s).
Why isn't my favorite author listed here?
This list may not include your favorite author, but he or she may be on other
Great Books lists. Check the
author index to see.
See the
Great Books FAQ for more about the Great Books and these lists of them.
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Henry Adams. The
Education of Henry Adams (1918)
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James Agee and Walker Evans.
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
(1941)
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Dorothy Allison.
Bastard out of Carolina (1992)
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Rudolfo Anaya.
Bless Me Ultima (1972)
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Sherwood Anderson.
Winesburg, Ohio (1919)
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Maya Angelou. I
Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970)
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Gloria Anzaldúa.
Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987)
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James Baldwin. Go
Tell It on the Mountain (1953)
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James Baldwin. The
Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction (1985)
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Edward Ball.
Slaves in the Family (1998)
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Saul Bellow.
Herzog (1964)
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Paul Bowles. The
Sheltering Sky (1948)
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William Burroughs.
Naked Lunch (1959)
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Truman Capote. In
Cold Blood (1966)
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Raymond Carver.
Cathedral (1983)
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Willa Cather. O
Pioneers! (1913)
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Willa Cather.
Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927)
-
John Cheever.
Collected Stories (1978)
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Sandra Cisneros.
House on Mango Street (1984)
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Don DeLillo. White
Noise (1985)
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Joan Didion.
Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968)
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Vine Deloria Jr..
Custer Died for Your Sins (1983)
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John Dos Passos.
U.S.A. (1930)
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Theodore Dreiser.
An American Tragedy (1925)
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W.E.B. DuBois. The
Souls of Black Folk (1903)
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Ralph Ellison.
Invisible Man (1952)
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Louise Erdrich.
Love Medicine (1984)
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William Faulkner.
The Sound and the Fury (1926)
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William Faulkner.
As I Lay Dying (1930)
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William Faulkner.
Go Down, Moses (1940)
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M.F.K. Fisher. The
Art of Eating (1954)
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Francisco Goldman.
The Ordinary Seaman (1997)
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Alex Haley. Roots
(1976)
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Joseph Heller.
Catch-22 (1961)
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Ernest Hemingway.
The Sun Also Rises (1926)
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Ernest Hemingway.
The Short Stories (1938)
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Michael Herr.
Dispatches (1977)
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Chester Himes. My Life of Absurdity:
The Autobiography (1976)
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Linda Hogan. Mean
Spirit (1990)
- Bell Hooks. Ain't I
a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (1982)
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Henry James. The
Wings of the Dove (1902)
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LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka).
Blues People: Negro Music in White America
(1963)
-
Jack Kerouac. On
the Road (1957)
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Jamaica Kincaid. Annie John
(1983)
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Maxine Hong Kingston.
Woman Warrior (1976)
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Jerzy Kosinski.
The Painted Bird (1976)
-
Li-Young Lee. The
Winged Seed (1995)
-
Sinclair Lewis.
Babbitt (1922)
-
Cormac McCarthy.
The Crossing (1994)
- Carson
McCullers. The Heart is a Lonely
Hunter (1940)
-
Norman Mailer. The
Naked and the Dead (1948)
-
Bernard Malamud.
The Magic Barrel (1958)
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Malcolm X and Alex Haley.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)
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Rollo May. Love
and Will (1969)
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Thomas Merton. The
Seven Storey Mountain (1948)
-
Henry Miller.
Tropic of Cancer (1934)
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N. Scott Momaday.
House Made of Dawn (1968)
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Wright Morris.
Field of Vision (1956)
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Toni Morrison.
Sula (1973)
-
Toni Morrison.
Song of Solomon (1977)
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Toni Morrison.
Beloved (1987)
-
Toni Morrison.
Jazz (1992)
-
Vladimir Nabokov.
Lolita (1958)
-
John G. Neihardt.
Black Elk Speaks (1932)
-
Flannery O'Connor.
A Good Man is Hard to Find
(1955)
-
Charles Olson.
Call Me Ishmael (1947)
-
Tillie Olson. Tell
Me a Riddle (1961)
-
Jon Okada. No-No
Boy (1977)
-
Grace Paley.
Collected Stories (1994)
-
Walker Percy. The
Moviegoer (1961)
-
Katherine Anne Porter.
Flowering Judas and Other Stories (1930)
-
Thomas Pynchon.
Gravity's Rainbow (1973)
-
Adrienne Rich. On
Lies, Secrets and Silence (1979)
-
Philip Roth.
Portnoy's Complaint (1969)
-
May Sarton. At
Seventy (1984)
-
Leslie Marmon Silko.
Ceremony (1977)
-
Isaac B. Singer.
The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer (1982)
-
Gertrude Stein.
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933)
-
John Steinbeck.
The Grapes of Wrath (1937)
-
William Styron.
Sophie's Choice (1979)
-
James Thurber. A
Thurber Carnival (1945)
-
Jean Toomer. Cane
(1923)
-
Mark Twain.
Letters from the Earth (1962)
-
John Updike.
Rabbit, Run (1960)
-
Gore Vidal. The
United States: Essays 1952-1992 (1993)
-
Kurt Vonnegut.
Slaughterhouse Five (1969)
-
Alice Walker. The
Color Purple (1982)
-
Robert Penn Warren.
All the Kings Men (1946)
-
Nathaneal West.
The Day of the Locust (1939)
-
John Edgar Wideman.
Philadelphia Fire (1990)
-
William Carlos Williams.
In the American Grain (1925)
-
Edmund Wilson. To
the Finland Station (1940)
-
Thomas Wolfe. You
Can't Go Home Again (1941)
-
Richard Wright.
Native Son (1940)
-
Wakako Yamauchi.
Songs My Mother Taught Me (1994)
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