Flagstaff Unified School District
Flagstaff High School
Tony Cullen, Principal · Sharon Falor, Assistant Principal
Kevin Davis, Assistant Principal · Jeannine Brandel, Athletic Director / Activities Coordinator
400 W. Elm · Flagstaff, AZ 86001 · 928.773.81
May 2013
Dear AP 12 Students:
Welcome! I’m looking forward to working with you next year in AP English 12. I know you want to get started on all that fun and super uplifting summer reading, so I’m sending you the list of books. You should read them BEFORE class starts in August. Write your observations as you read. I will collect your written (not typed) on the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. If you do not have them with you on the first day, you will not receive points for them. Your notes should be approximately 10 pages in length.
We will learn to write a good style analysis in AP English 12. As you read your books, you should look for examples of the author’s use of these six elements of style:
1. Tone and author’s attitude
2. Diction (word choice)
3. Detail (literal or factual descriptions; imagery)
4. Point of view (perspective from which the author chooses to present the story)
5. Organization/Narrative Structure (beginning, middle, end; broad pattern of organization; structure of the writing)
6. Syntax/Sentence Structure/Phrasing (phrasing; length, number and type of sentences; parallel structure; type of punctuation; repetition)
7. Theme (Author’s message/philosophical observations/the reason the author wrote this book and not another book)
Include some discussion of these 7 elements of style in your notes for each book. Be sure to include page numbers and direct quotes from your book in your observations. These direct references will help you when we discuss and write about these books during the semester. Do NOT come with printed out “notes” from the Internet and expect to get credit. Also, do not expect to get credit for highlighting the book itself. You must have original notes and observations to receive credit.
In addition, on the first 2 days of school there will be 2 short assessments on these books. Be prepared for these; if all of this seems like too much, AP 12 may not be the class for you.
You are required to read two major works that we will study in class: Crime and Punishment (Dostoyevsky) and Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison). Be sure to take notes on them as I have described above. Bring these notes to class on the first day. You should buy your own copy of the books so you can make notes to yourself as you read.
I am copying the list of books that have appeared on the AP exam on the back of this page. If you want to do some extra summer reading, you might want to choose some you haven’t read before.
Enjoy your summer. See you soon,
Chris Coyne
English Teacher/Dept. Chair
Flagstaff High School
Major Works Appearing on AP English Lit Exams 1978-2012 (Titles in bold have appeared the most frequently)
Absalom, Absalom
Adam Bede
The Adventures of Huck Finn
The Age of Innocence
Alias Grace
The American
The American Dream
Another Country
All My Sons
All the King’s Men
All the Pretty Horses
An American Tragedy
Anna Karenina
Antigone
Antony and Cleopatra
As I Lay Dying
As You Like It
Atonement
Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
The Awakening
The Bear
Beloved
Benito Cereno
Billy Budd
The Birthday Party
Black Boy
Bleak House
Bless Me, Ultima
The Blind Assassin
The Bluest Eye
The Bonesetter’s Daughter
Brave New World
Brideshead Revisited
Brighton Rock
The Brothers Karamazov
Candida
Candide
The Caretaker
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Catch-22
Catcher in the Rye
The Cat’s Eye
The Centaur
Ceremony
The Cherry Orchard
Cold MountaIn
The Color Purple
Crime and Punishment
The Crossing
The Crucible
Cry, the Beloved Country
Daisy Miller
David Copperfield
Death of a Salesman
The Death of Ivan Illych
Desire Under the Elms
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
The Diviners
Doctor Faustus
A Doll House
Don Quixote
East of Eden
An Enemy of the People
Equus
Emma
Ethan Frome
The Fall
A Farewell to Arms
Fathers and Sons
Faust
Fences
Fifth Business
The Fixer
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Frankenstein
A Gathering of Old Men
A Gesture Life
The Glass Menagerie
Go Tell it on the Mountain
The God of Small Things
The Golden Bowl
The Grapes of Wrath
Great Expectations
The Great Gatsby
Gulliver’s Travels
The Hairy Ape
Hamlet
The Handmaid’s Tale
Hard Times
Heart of Darkness
Hedda Gabler
Henry IV
Henry V
The House of Mirth
House of the Seven Gables
House Made of Dawn
The Illiad
In the Lake of the Woods
The Invisible Man
Jasmine
J.B.
Jane Eyre
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
The Joy Luck Club
Jude the Obscure
Julius Caesar
The Jungle
King Lear
The Kite Runner
Lady Windemere’s Fan
A Light in August
A Lesson Before Dying
The Little Foxes
Long Day’s Journey into Night
Lord Jim
Lord of the Flies
The Loved One
Lysistrata
Love Medicine
Macbeth
Madame Bovary
Mansfield Park
M. Butterfly
Main Street
Maggie-Girl of the Streets
Major Barbara
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Man and Superman
Mansfield Park
Medea
A Member of the Wedding
Memory Keeper’s Daughter
The Merchant of Venice
The Metamorphosis
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Middlemarch
The Misanthrope
Miss Lonelyhearts
Moby Dick
Moll Flanders
The Moor’s Last Sigh
Mother Courage
Mrs. Warren’s Profession
Mrs. Dalloway
Much Ado About Nothing
Murder in the Cathedral
The Namesake
Native Son
Native Speaker
Nineteen Eighty-Four
No Country for Old Men
No Exit
Obasan
Oedipus Rex
O Pioneers!
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Orlando
Othello
The Other
Oryx and Crake
Our Town
Out of Africa
Paradise Lost
A Passage to India
Persuasion
Phedra
The Piano Lesson
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Plague
Poisonwood Bible
The Portrait of a Lady
Portrait of the Artist
Power and the Glory
A Prayer for Owen Meany
Pride and Prejudice
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Pygmalion
Ragtime
A Raisin in the Sun
The Remains of the Day
Reservation Blues
Richard III
The Road
Romeo and Juliet
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Saint Joan
The Scarlet Letter
A Separate Peace
Sent for You Yesterday
Set This House on Fire
The Shipping News
Silas Marner
Sister Carrie
Sister of My Heart
Slaughterhouse Five
Snow
Snow Falling on Cedars
Song of Solomon
Sons and Lovers
The Sound and the Fury
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
The Stranger
A Streetcar Named Desire
Sula
The Sun Also Rises
Surfacing
A Tale of Two Cities
Tartuffe
The Tempest
Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Their Eyes Were Watching God
The Things They Carried
Things Fall Apart
A Thousand Acres
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Tom Jones
The Trial
Trifles
The Turn of the Screw
The Vicar of Wakefield
The Way We Live Now
The Winter’s Tale
Twelfth Night
Typical American
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Volpone
Waiting for Godot
Watch on the Rhine
The Watch That Ends the Night
When The Emperor Was Divine
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
The Wide Sargasso Sea
The Wild Duck
A Winter’s Tale
Wise Blood
Winter in the Blood
The Woman Warrior
The Women of Brewster Place
Wuthering Heights
Zoo Story
Zoot Suit
Note: AP reading selections are based on College Board recommendations and individual teacher unit design, and as such are subject to change.