Suggested Reading for the College Board
FICTION
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle
The brilliant, analytical detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend, Dr. Watson, put Scotland Yard to shame as they outwit the villainous Moriarty.
A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
Owen Meany has an important task to accomplish which determines the entire course of his life.
Animal Dreams, Barbara Kingsolver
CodiNoline learns secrets about her past that change her future when she returns home to care for her ailing father and to teach high school biology.
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
Anna forsakes her husband for dashing Count Vronsky and brief happiness.
Another Marvelous Thing, Laurie Colwin
A series of eight interconnected stories.
Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Ernest J. Gaines
This fictional autobiography tells the story of a remarkable African American woman born in slavery on a Louisiana plantation who is freed after the Civil War and lives another one hundred years to see the second emancipation.
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Preferring death over slavery for her children, Sethe murders her infant daughter, Beloved, who later mysteriously returns as a young woman and almost destroys her mother’s and sister’s lives.
Black Boy, Richard Wright
The unforgettable story of what it means to grow up black in the Jim Crow South, by one of America’s most powerful writers.
The Blessing Way, Tony Hillerman
The first of the Joe Leaphorn mystery series, set in the Navajo reservations of New Mexico and Arizona. The story pits Leaphorn, a Navajo tribal policeman, against the mysterious forces of evil.
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
In this chilling vision of the future, babies are produced in bottles and exist in a mechanized world without soul.
Bride Price, BuchiEmecheta
Aku-nna, a very young Ibo girl, and Chike, her teacher, fall in love despite tribal custom forbidding their romance.
A Cup of Tea: A Novel of 1917, Amy Ephron
Little did wealthy Rosemary Fell realize, when she took the penniless and mysterious Eleanor Smith out of the rain, what terrible consequences her good deed would have.
Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko
Tayo, a young American Indian who has been a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II returns to his native Laguna Pueblo reservation and undergoes a spiritual quest.
The Chosen, ChaimPotok
The story of a friendship between an Orthodox Jewish boy and a boy from a prominent Hasidic Jewish family in post-war Brooklyn.
The Color Purple, Alice Walker
In a series of letters to God and her sister, Celie reveals her struggle to overcome the violence and brutality of her life.
Coma, Robin Cook
Some traceless error in anesthesia has caused irreparable brain death, leaving hospital patients victims on the operating table.
Cry, the Beloved Country, Alan Paton
Relates the personal tragedy of a humble Zulu parson seeking his son and sister in Johannesburg.
Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler
A fictional critique of the ruthlessness of modern revolutionary procedures, a penetrating study of revolutionary psychology and the compulsions which lead to the catharsis of confession.
Daughters of the House, IndraniAikath-Gyaltsen
In a novel of contemporary India, eighteen-year-old tomboy Chchanda tells of her household of three generations of self-sufficient women.
David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
An autobiographical novel reflecting the life of English in the early nineteenth century.
Deerskin, Robin McKinley
A full-length modern treatment of Charles Perrault’s story “Donkeyskin.” This is a fairy tale for adults, one you’ll never forget.
Dune, Frank Herbert
A desert planet is the exotic scene of a richly detailed space fantasy in which the “freemen” of Dune battle the emperor of the known universe.
East of Eden, John Steinback
The lives of two California families intertwine as good clashes against evil.
Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes
After an experiment on a mouse named Algernon triples its intelligence, the same operation is performed on Charlie, a thirty-two-year old man.
Franny and Zooey, J.D. Salinger
Franny, a young college student, suffers a mental breakdown, her brother Zooey takes her under his somewhat rough and unwilling wing to show her how to cope.
A Gathering of Old Men, Ernest J. Gaines
More than a dozen aging African American men claim to be the sole murderer of a Southern white farmer and welcome a chance to confound the law after lifetimes of oppression.
Going After Cacciato: A Novel, Tim O’Brien
Private Cacciato takes off from the Vietnam War to walk to Paris, and his company follows him in a real and surreal journey.
Good Scent from a Cold Mountain, Robert Olin Butler
A collection stories told from the vantage point of Vietnamese immigrants to America.
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
The Story of Offred, a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead.Atwoods’ shocking futuristic fable of life in a Fascist state – an allegory of what results from a politics based on misogyny, racism, and anti-Semitism.
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
The deaf-mute John Singer becomes the talisman for the dreams and yearnings of four people in a small southern town.
How Green Was My Valley, Richard Llewellyn
A young Welsh miner watches his idyllic village become of a scene of tragedy.
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent, Julia Alvarez
The four Garcia girls face a strange new life in America when they are forced to flee the Dominican Republic.
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, Joanne Greenberg
A sixteen-year-old girl struggles out of the seductive kingdom of her madness and reenters the world.
In Country, Bobbie Anne Mason
Sam Hughes, whose father was killed in the Vietnam War, comes to grips with the impact the war has on her life when she visits the Vietnam War Memorial.
Inherit the Wind, Jerome Lawrence
A dramatic rendering of the famous Scopes “monkey” trial of the 1920’s.
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
A young African American seeking identity during his high school and college days, and later in New York’s Harlem, relates his terrifying experiences.
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
Find out what happens when Jane falls in love with Rochester, but beware the madwoman in the attic!
Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
A young Chinese American woman realizes her mother’s early life in China is an important reason for the rift between them.
The Jungle, Upton Sinclair
This gritty description of urban life at the turn of the century shows the moral and physical degradation of a “jungle” in which humans barely live better than animals.
Killer Angels, Michael Shaara
A great battle looms over Gettysburg as the Rebels face the Yanks.
The Kitchen God’s Wife, Amy Tan
By the author of The Joy Luck Club, this is a novel about secrets, class differences (especially in China), and the ways in which male-dominated cultures operate.
Lord Grizzly, Frederick Manfred
The agony, courage, and strange revenge of a nineteenth-century mountain man deserted and left to die by his companions.
Lord of the Flies, William Golding
Chaos prevails when British school boys get stranded on a deserted island.
Lucy Gayheart, Willa Cather
A young girl from an American village leaves home, goes to Chicago, falls in love with a middle-age singer.
The Lying Days, Nadine Gordimer
Helen Shaw, daughter of white middle-class parents in a small gold-mining town in South Africa, comes of age in the anti-aparteid life that surrounds her.
Member of the Wedding, Carson McCullers
A young Southern girl is determined to be the third party on a honeymoon despite all the advice.
The Middleman & Other Stories, BharatiMukherjee
Parables about the nature of cultural change and the overwhelming disruption it can entail for the individual member or “soul” of a particular culture.
Miss Lonelyhearts, Nathanael West
The story of Miss Lonelyhearts, the author of an advice-to-the-lovelorn column in a large newspaper.
Native son, Richard Wright
For Bigger Thomas, an African American man accused of crime in the white man’s world, there could be no extenuating circumstances, no explanations – only death.
Night Flight, Antoine de Saint-Exupery
A short novel that captures the excitement of pioneer aviation. Thrills and terrors early pilots experienced who flew mail, by night, across the treacherous and largely uncharted Andes.
Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Stephen King
A collection of short stories by the master of gothic fiction.
Obasan, Joy Kogawa
Autobiographical novel of Japanese-Canadian Nisei writer Kogawa, the story of what happened to her, her family, and her life in Canada during WW II.
On the Road, Jack Kerouac
Kerouac’s masterpiece of the Beat Generation, a portrait of underground America in the Fifties.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Alexander Solzhenitsyn
An inmate lives one day at a time in the Siberian prison camp.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
An irrepressible rebel leads fellow inmates of a mental hospital in a struggle with tyrannical Nurse Ratched.
Painted Bird, Jerzy N. Kosinski
An abandoned dark-haired child wanders alone through isolated villages of Eastern Europe in World War II.
Palace Walk,Najib Mahfouz
Nobel Prize-winner Mahfouz re-creates the daily life of three generations of a Cairo middle-class family in the first half of the twentieth century. There’s a focus on the torments of adolescent love as well as on the banked passions of an established marriage.
Passage to India, E.M. Forster
East and West clash in India when an Englishwoman accuses an Indian man of attacking her.
Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
A handsome young man’s portrait becomes a mirror, increasingly grotesque, of his true inner self.
The Plague, Albert Camus
A small group of people react to the catastrophe of bubonic plague at the Algerian fort of Oran.
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce
A young Irish student struggles to become a writer.
Rebecca, Daphne DuMaurier
The timid new mistress of Manderley is haunted by the shadow of her predecessor, the vibrant Rebecca.
A Separate Peace, John Knowles
Against the backdrop of World War II, the rivalry of two roommates at a boys’ school turns into a private war.
Siddhartha, Herman Hesse
Emerging from a kaleidoscope of eperiences and tasted pleasures, Siddhartha transcends to a state of peace and mystic holiness.
Slaugtherhouse Five; or, The Children’s Crusade, Kurt Vonnegut
Billy Pilgrim shuttles between the cellars of Dresden, smoldering from Allied bombardment, and a luxurious zoo on the planet Tralfamdore.
Snow Falling on Cedars, David Guterson
Set in northwest Washington state at the end of World War II, Kabuo Miyamoto is on trial for murdering a citizen of the town.
Summer, Edith Wharton
A psychological portrait of a young woman coming of age, the forces that move her from childhood into adulthood.
Taming the Star Runner, S.E. Hinton
By the author of The Outsiders, the story of Travis, a tough, cool city kid already in trouble with the law, who is sent to stay with his uncle on a Western ranch.
Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald bases this story on his real life marriage to Zelda who suffered from mental illness.
The Tiger’s Daughter,BharatiMukerjee
Tara returns to India after several years in the West to discover a country quite unlike the one she remembered. Memories of genteel Brahmin lifestyle are usurped by new impressions of poverty and political unrest.
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
European missionaries and colonial officials disrupt the patterns and rituals of traditional Nigerian Ibo society at the end of the nineteenth century.
The Wall, John Hersey
The doomed Jews of the Warsaw ghetto turn and face their oppressors.
To the Hilt, Dick Francis
Summoned to the bedside of his dying stepfather, Alexander Kinloch, the fourth son of an earl, becomes entangles in deadly affairs, and must struggle to save his own life and the honor of the Kinlochs.
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
A story of intense and frustrated love, of hate and revenge, that takes place in the wild moors of England.
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, Michael Dorris
Three generations of Native American women tell their stories in their search for self-identity.
War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells
You may remember hearing stories of this actual broadcast. Listeners believed the events were real, and not fictional.
BIOGRAPHY
Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family, MiepGies with Alison Leslie Gold
At great risk to their own lives, the Gies family hides the family of Anne Frank in their warehouse attic in Amsterdam, during World War II.
Biko, Donald Woods
Woods, editor of the leading anti-apartheid newspaper in South Africa, smuggled out the contents of this book about life, imprisonment, and unsatisfactory inquest into the death of Stephen Biko, the charismatic South African leader.
Born on the Fourth of July, Ron Kovic
An all-American boy joins the Marines, goes to Vietnam, is gravely wounded, and becomes an antiwar activist.
The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother, James McBridge
The story of “a rabbi’s daughter, born in Poland and raised in the South, who fled to Harlem, married a black man, founded a Baptist church, and put twelve children through college.”
Days of Grace: A Memoir, Arthur Ashe
A highly respected tennis star and citizen of the world dies of AIDS.
I, RigobertaMenchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala, RigobertaMenchu
Born in Guatemala into abject poverty marked by violence and lack of education, this Nobel Peace Prize winner has become one of the world’s foremost fighters for human rights.
Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth’ Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa, Mark Mathebane
A teenager comes of age under apartheid in South Africa.
Lakota Woman, Mary Crowdog and Richard Erdoes
Mary Crowdog stands with two thousand other Native Americans at the site of the Wounded Knee, South Dakota, massacre, demonstrating for Native American rights.
Life and Death in Shanghai, Nien Cheng
Nien Cheng tells the story of seven harrowing years in solitary confinement during China’s Cultural Revolution.
Mother Jones: The Most Dangerous Woman in America, Linda Atkinson
Some call her dangerous; a tough union organizer who was still active and outspoken at age ninety.
To Destroy You Is No Loss: The Odyssey of a Cambodian Family, Joan D. Criddle and Teeda Butt Mam
After the Communists take over Cambodia in 1975, Teeda Butt Mam’s upper-class existence is reduced to surviving impossible conditions.
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, Maxine Hong Kingston
A remarkable account of growing up female and Chinese-American in California.
Yeager: An Autobiography, Chuck Yeager and Leo Janos
U.S. Air Force General Chuck Yeager – World War II ace and the first man to break the sound barrier candidly shares the drama of his life and career.
NONFICTION
All the President’s Men, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
Two Washington Post reporters lift the veil of secrecy surrounding the Nixon administration’s Watergate cover-up.
Blue Highways: A Journey into America, William Least Heat Moon
Traveling miles along the small back roads of the United States allows the author to introduce a series of diverse and unique Americans.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown
A narrative of the white man’s conquest of the American land as the Native American victims experienced it.
Broken Cord, Michael Dorris
Dorris shares the triumphs and difficulties of life with his adopted child, a victim of fetal alcohol syndrome.
Catherine, Called Birdy, Karen Cushman
A wonderfully funny diary from the year 1290. Catherine’s father is determined to marry her off to a rich man, and the one he has chosen is old, ugly, and revolting. What is a clever young maiden to do?
China Men, Maxine Hong Kingston
A description of the lives of several generations of Chinese males contributes to an understanding of the experiences of Chinese immigration.
Daughter of Persia, Sattareh Farman Farmaian
Though Farman Farmaian was born and raised in a traditional Muslim family, her father was passionately committed to education and chose to ignore many of the Muslim restrictions for girls.
Gideon’s Trumpet, Anthony Lewis
One determined convict changes the American legal system.
Hiroshima, John Hersey
John Hersey comes to Hiroshima, Japan, in 1946 to report on the first city to be destroyed by an atomic bomb and returns forty years later to tell what happening since his first visit.