ISP Suggested Comparisons
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
Title One
Author
Title Two
Author
Genre/Topic
Sybil
One Flew Over the
Cuckoo’s Nest
La Storia
Ken Kesey
Madness/Sanity
Black Madonna
Flora Rheta
Schreiber
F.G. Paci
Jerre Mangione
A Passage to India
E.M. Forster
A Country of Strangers
Susan Shreve
Immigrant
Experience
Survival/Journey
The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath
Surfacing
Margaret Atwood
Veronika Decides to Die
Paolo Cohelo
Of Human Bondage
Helter Skelter
Vincent Bugliosi
A Clockwork Orange
Somerset
Maugham
Anthony Burgess
Wuthering Heights
Emily Bronte
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Bronte
Hard Times
Charles Dickens
Fall On Your Knees
Revolutionary Road
Anne Marie
McDonald
Richard Yates
Sophie’s Choice
William Styron
The Cage
Ruth Minsky
Sender
James Joyce
Schindler’s List
The Picture of Dorian
Gray
Light in August
Thomas
Keneally
Oscar Wilde
Franny and Zooey
William
Faulkner
Margaret
Laurence
J.D. Salinger
Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger
The Stone Angel
All Quiet on the
Western Front
I Never Promised You
a Rose Garden
The Handmaid’s Tale
Erich Maria
Remarque
A Portrait of an Artist
as a Young Man
Phantom of the Opera
Black Like Me
Women’s Issues/
Psychology
Crime/Psychology
Relationships /
Women’s Issues
War/ Family/
Relationships
Art/Gothic
Influencees/
Gaston Leroux
Prejudice/ Racism
Pride and Prejudice
John Howard
Griffin
Jane Austen
Sons and Lovers
D.H. Laurence
Growing Up
Losers
F.G. Paci
Growing Up
A Separate Peace
John Knowles
The Quiet American
Graham Greene
A Farwell to Arms
Ernest Hemingway
Of Human Bondage
Somerset
Maugham
Sheri S. Teper
Madness / Sanity
Judith Guest
Growing Up
Women’s Issues
War
A Separate Peace
Joanne
Greenberg
Margaret
Atwood
John Knowles
The Gate to Women’s
Country
Ordinary People
Ordinary People
Judith Guest
Losers
F.G. Paci
Growing Up
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Bronte
Wilde Sargasso Sea
Jean Rhys
Women’s Issues
Nineteen Eighty Four
George Orwell
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
Dystopia
A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess
The Dubious Hills
Pamela Dean
The Lathe of Heaven
Ursula K. Le
Guin
Dystopia
Sci Fi/ Morality
22
23
24
25
26
27
29
30
31
32
33
Frankenstein
The Moon is a Harsh
Mistress
Mary Shelley
Robert Heinlein
The Phantom of the
Opera
Dracula
Gaston Laroux
The Dispossessed
Ursula K. Le Guin
Under the Yoke
S.M. Sterling
Walter M. Miller
Science Fiction
Alice Walker
Race/Prejudice
Family/Relationship
s
War/Sacrifice/Mora
lity
Prejudice/Immigran
t Experience
Mystery/Gothic
Influences
War/Personal
Experience
Personal
Experience/Survival
/Journey
Bram Stoker
The White Bird of
Kinship
Beloved
Richard Cowper
Toni Morisson
The Canticle for
Leibowitz
The Colour Purple
Accidental Tourist
Anne Tyler
Shipping News
Annie Proulx
Sophie’s Choice
William Styron
Night-Day-Dawn
Elie Wiesel
The Scarlet Letter
Lives of the Saints
Nino Ricci
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Nathanial
Hawthorne
R.L. Stevenson
Phantom of the Opera
Gaston Leroux
The Wars
Timothy Findley
Stephen Crane
A Fine Balance
Rohinton Mistry
The Red Badge of
Courage
Night – Day – Dawn
Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ernest Hemingway
One Flew Over the
Cockoo’s Nest
The Curious Case of the
Dog in the Nighttime
Ken Kesey
The English Patient
Michael
Ondaatje
Gothic Influences /
Horror/ Mystery
Elie Wiesel
War/Survival/Relati
onships/ Identity
34
The Adoration of
Jenna Fox
Mary E. Pearson
35
36
37
White Oleander
Janet Fitch
The Glass Castle
Jeannette Walls
Prisoner of Tehran
Marina Nemat
A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens
Personal
Experience/Journey
/
Relationships
Journey/Self
Discovery/Family
Survival
The Memory Keeper’s
Daughter
Kim Edwards
The Lovely Bones
Alice Sebold
Family Issues
Secret Daughter
Feminism
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
Mark Haddon
Science
Fiction/Revolution
The Colour Purple
Alice Walker
The Help
Shilpi Somaya
Gowda
Kathryn Stockett
Solomon Gursky Was
Here
Catch 22
Mordecai
Richler
Joseph Heller
On The Road
Jack Kerouac
Slaughterhouse V
Kurt Vonneghut
Barometer Rising
Hugh Maclennan
The Tin Flute
Gabrielle Roy
Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe
The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini
A Room of One’s Own
Virginia Woolf
The Awakening
Kate Chopin
The Book of Negroes
Lawrence Hill
Over A Thousand Hills I
walk With You
Hanna Jansen
Great Expectations
Charles Dickens
Emma
Jane Austen
Canadian Fiction/
Journey
War/Madness/
Romance/
War
Escape/ Survival
Women’s
Issues/Social Issues
Historical/ Escape
Slavery/ Genocide
Coming of Age/
Romance
46
47
48
The Curious Case of
the Dog in the
Nighttime
Snow Falling on
Cedars
As For Me and My
House
Mark Haddon
Not Wanted on the
Voyage
Timothy Findley
Satirical/ Discovery
David Guterson
Obasan
Joy Kagawa
Justice
Sinclair Ross
The Diviners
Margaret
Laurence
Canadian Lit.
/Immigrant
Experience/
Relationships
Fifth Business
Robertson Davies
49
Angela’s Ashes
Frank McCourt
The Bluest Eye
Toni Morrison
50
Annabel
Kathleen
Winters
Middlesex
Jeffrey Eugenides
Self Discovery/
Survival/Family and
Social Issues
Gender/Identity/Jou
rney
Student Pairings
Student Name
Book 1
Book 2
Thanks for filling in the gaps Jessica. I suppose we can try handing this out as is on Monday, but I do have a
couple of concerns that I thought I’d share, b/c you will probably encounter them too.
1. Inevitably, there will be students who want to mix the pairings. i.e. they like one book, but don’t
want to read it with the one it is paired with. I’ve decided that as long as they run the pairing by me,
it seems to make sense, and the book seems to hold a certain literary challenge/value, I will probably
allow for this.
I will allow them, but I think they are going to do research on why they are a good pairing, and schedule
a meeting with me to persuade me as to why they want to use the book they chose. I will want it in
writing and I am going to keep it in case any problems arise later.
2. Because we are asking them to complete a research essay, I am a little concerned that some of the
more recent/”popular” novels…i.e. The Help; Lovely Bones etc. will be very difficult to find credible
research for…i.e. scholarly essays/articles etc. What do you think? We should perhaps make them
aware of this, and ensure they do a preliminary search?
I think that is a good idea. They will definitely be more difficult but here is what I think about it and tell me
what you think. As long as they choose an element of the texts that is thematic or a larger concept (ex//
feminism or the psychological aspects of the characters) then they should be able to find good research to
support their texts. I think that I will just make sure that I direct them/ warn them if they choose one of the
more modern texts. What do you think? Do you think that would be too complex for them at this level?
3. Some of our novel selections are quite long…not that I personally have a problem with that, but I
imagine the kids (and parents in some cases) might feel that this work load is a little heavy….esp. A
Tale of Two Cities; A Book of Negroes; Great Expectations etc. Once again…not saying we should
remove them, but this could be challenging for some and perhaps we need to be cognizant of those
who sign up for this reading.
I think that is a good plan. I will make sure that I tell all my students to write down the number of pages of
each text for their proposal so that they (and I) are aware of what they are getting themselves into.
Let me know if you have feedback/suggestions on any of this.
P.S. Is the Adoration of Jenna Fox a literary novel? Hard to tell from the description online. It is a sci fi
about a girl who pretty much dies, and then much of her body is replaced with mechanical parts, but she also
changes mentally after that happens. She goes from being passive to standing up to her mother etc. It is
essentially about finding one’s identity but it could also be about what is real vs. what is not real,
fantasy/reality … It was on the list from Campion as a possible read for students, and I had one of my
students read it there and they really liked it. They tool a psychological approach on it, but also did some
research on the concept of the cyborg in modern fiction. It ended up being a n interesting essay.