In-Coming 11th & 12th Grade Summer Reading List
For ISM Language & Literature Students
ISM English teachers have collaborated on a master book list for in-coming upperclassmen. Here you
will find a variety of contemporary and classic novels, as well as a range of compelling nonfiction.
Please see recommendations as follows below. Be sure to pack your books this summer and surround
yourself with great literature and media texts!
Expectations:
 Regardless of course selection, students are expected to read quality and enjoyable literature
this summer
 Be prepared! Be aware that some teachers will assess this reading; and all teachers will begin
the year with summer reading discussions and activities.
Specific Course Reading Requirements:
In-coming juniors enrolled in the IB A Language and Literature course:
1.
You are required to read a book of your choosing from the list below and select a 25-45 line
passage that you will use for an oral or written commentary. The passage can be either fiction or nonfiction. You must photocopy or type the passage.
2.
You are required to bring to the first class of the year three texts. They must be:
- different text types
- Mass communication text types (see text list at the bottom of this file)
- about holidays/vacations
In-coming seniors enrolled in the IB A Language and Literature course:
You are required to bring in three texts related to one of the following themes:
Language and Gender, Language and Social Relations or Language and Taboo (Refer to the handout
you were given before the end of the school year).
Novels:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner
A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemmingway
The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemmingway
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende
Siddhartha, Herman Hesse
Catch 22, Joseph Heller
All the King’s Men, Robert Penn Warren
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
Short Stories by Flannery O’Conner
A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
The Guide, R.K. Narayan
Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie
Sea of Poppies, Amitav Ghosh
The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, Daniyal Mueenuddin (short stories)
Games at Twilight, Anita Desai, (short stories)
The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguo
Waiting, Ha Jin
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse Louise Erdrich
Fool’s Crow, James Welsh
Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko
House Made of Dawn, N. Scott Momaday
The Help, Kathryn Stockett
Let Great World Spin, Colum McCann
The Road, Cormack McCarthy
No Country for Old Men, Cormack McCarthy
Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
Jazz, Toni Morrison
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
Native Son, Richard Wright
The Color Purple, Alice Walker
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Saffron Foer
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer
The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien
Atonement, Ian McEwan
On the Road, Jack Kerouac
The Life of PI, Yann Martel
Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding
Cat’s Cradle OR The Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut
Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
The Painted Girls, Cathy Marie Buchanan
In the Shadow of the Banyan, Vaddey, Ratner
The Yellow Birds, Kevin Powers
Jonny Got his Gun, Dalton Trumbo
White Noise, Don DeLillo
Short Stories, Borges
The Interpreter of Maladies, Namesake, and/or Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloane
The Imperfectionist, Tom Rachman
The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver
Frontline, David Loyn
Scoop, Evelyn Waugh
Non-Fiction:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman
How to be a Woman, Caitlin Moran
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer
Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer
Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg
Wild, Cheryl Strayed
Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand
Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Katherine Boo
You Talking to Me? Sam Leith
The Kindness of Strangers, Kate Adie
The Road Taken, Michael Buerk
Strange Places, Questionable People, John Simpson
A Little Book of Language, David Crystal
The Story of English in 100 Words, David Crystal
Hitch-22: A Memoir, Christopher Hitchens
Here I am: The Story of Tim Hetherington, War Photographer, Alan Huffman
Memoirs
18. Breaking the Silence, Lourdes Montinola (Filipino writer)
19. Chino and His Time, Vergel O. Santos (Filipino writer)
20. A Country Not Even His Own, Steve Psinakis (Filipino writer)
21. When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, Le Ly Hayslip* (Vietnamese)
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
Red Azalea, Anchee Min (Chinese/Cultural Revolution)
When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge: A Memoir, Chanrithy Him*
Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi* (female freedom/literature issues in Iran)
Alicia, My Story, Alicia Appleman-Jurman (WWII holocaust survivor)
Our Street, Gilda O’Neill (London during WWII)
If I Die in a Combat Zone, Tim O’Brien (US Vietnam War veteran)
Travelogues
28. Green Hills of Africa, Ernest Hemingway
29. Endurance: Shakleton’s Incredible Voyage, Alfred Lansing
30. Red Dust: A Path Through China, Ma Jian
31. Songlines, Bruce Chatwin (Australian)
32. The Places Between, Rory Stewart (British Journalist walks across Afghanistan)
33. Riding the Iron Rooster, Paul Theroux
List of Possible Text Types:



























Advertisement
Appeal
Biography
Blog
Brochure/leaflet
Cartoon
Diagram
Diary
Editorial
Electronic texts
Encyclopedia entry
Essay
Film/television
Guide book
Interview
Letter
Magazine article
Memoir
News report
Opinion column
Parody
Pastiche
Photographs
Radio broadcast
Report
Screenplay
Set of inst




ructions
Song lyric
Speech
Textbook
Travel writing