INDEPENDENT READING FOR SENIOR AP ENGLISH
Senior AP English students must read one work independently during the summer and a minimum
of one during each nine-week period, complete data sheets on each book, and be prepared to
discuss the book in class. Each nine-week period, we concentrate on a particular theme, and the
books are grouped according to that theme. After you have completed work on your independent
work for a nine-week period, you are encouraged to read any other work on the entire list for one
extra grade. Some books are long, some so short you must read two, some modern, and some not.
Look up their descriptions and reviews on Amazon.com to get an idea of length, difficulty,
and subject matter. You are welcome to read ahead and do these data sheets early. You may not
report on any work you have previously read.
1ST NINE WEEKS The Fall: The Tragic Flaw
“I’m the reason it’s a no go.” William Golding- Lord of the Flies
“Did he who made the Lamb make thee?”- William Blake- “The Tyger”
Agee- A Death in the Family
Atwood- Alias Grace
Cat’s Eye
Camus- The Fall (counts as ½)
The Plague
Conrad- Lord Jim
The Secret Agent
Conroy- The Lords of Discipline
Dickey- Deliverance
Dickens- Bleak House
Doctorow- Ragtime
Dreiser- An American Tragedy
Ellison- Invisible Man
Faulkner- As I Lay Dying
Light in August
Intruder in the Dust
Flaubert- Madame Bovary
Fowles- The French Lieutenant=s Woman
Greene- The Heart of the Matter
Hardy- The Mayor of Casterbridge
Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Hemingway- The Sun Also Rises
Hosseini- The Kite Runner
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Ishiguro- The Remains of the Day
Malamud- The Fixer
McCarthy- All the Pretty Horses
The Road
McEwan- Atonement
Melville- Billy Budd (counts as ½)
O’Connor- Wise Blood
Ondaatje- The English Patient
Sinclair- The Jungle
Swift- Gulliver’s Travels
Tolstoy- Anna Karenina
Voltaire- Candide (counts as ½)
Warren- All the King’s Men
Wharton- The Age of Innocence
The House of Mirth
2ND NINE WEEKS
Becoming Aware or Refusing Awareness
“There is no coming to consciousness without pain.” Carl Jung
Atwood- Alias Grace
A Handmaid’s Tale
Alvarez- In the Time of Butterflies
Anaya- Bless Me, Ultima
Austen- Emma
Persuasion
Baldwin- Go Tell It on the Mountain
Bronte, C.- Jane Eyre
Bulosan- America Is in the Heart
Cao- Monkey Bridge
Cather- My Antonia
Chekhov- The Seagull (play- counts as ½)
Chopin- The Awakening
Desai- The Inheritance of Loss
Divakaruni- Sister of the Heart
Ellison- Invisible Man
Faulkner- As I Lay Dying
Forster- A Room with a View
Howards End
Frayn- Copenhagen (a play- counts as ½)
Garcia Marquez- Chronicle of a Death Foretold (counts as ½)
Gutterson- Snow Falling on Cedars
Hardy- Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Hemingway- For Whom the Bell Tolls
Hansberry- A Raisin in the Sun (play-counts as ½)
Hosseini- A Thousand Splendid Suns
Hurston- Their Eyes Were Watching God
Ibsen- A Doll House (play-counts as ½)
An Enemy of the People –(play- counts as ½)
Ishiguro- The Other
The Remains of the Day
James- The American
Washington Square
Jin- A Free Life
Kallos- Broken for You
Kidd- The Secret Life of Bees
Kingsolver- The Poisonwood Bible
Lawrence- Sons and Lovers
Lee- Native Speaker
Malamud- The Fixer
McEwan- Atonement
Mukherjee- Jasmine
O’Brien- Going After Cacciato
O’Connor- Wise Blood
Orwell- Animal Farm (counts as ½)
1984
Roy- The God of Small Things
Sartre- No Exit (play-counts as ½)
Sinclair- The Jungle
Solzhenitsyn- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (counts as ½)
Stegner- Angle of Repose
Tolstoy- The Death of Ivan Ilych (counts as ½)
Tyler- Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Warren- All the King’s Men
Wharton- Ethan Frome (counts as ½)
The House of Mirth
Woolf- Mrs. Dalloway
To the Lighthouse
3RD NINE WEEKS
Things fall apart: Disintegration/Alienation
“And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.”
“Dover Beach”- Matthew Arnold
Achebe- Things Fall Apart
Alvarez- In the Time of Butterflies
Atwood- Cat’s Eye
Baldwin- Native Son
Bronte, C.- Jane Eyre
Camus- The Plague
Cao- Monkey Bridge
Conrad- The Secret Agent
Desai- The Inheritance of Loss
Dickens- A Tale of Two Cities
Doctorow- The March
Ellison- Invisible Man
Ford- The Good Soldier
Frazer- Cold Mountain
Garcia Marquez- Chronicle of a Death Foretold (counts as ½)
Goodman- Kaaterskill Falls
Hansberry- A Raisin in the Sun
Hegi- Stones from the River
Heller- Catch-22
Hemingway- The Sun Also Rises
Hosseini- The Kite Runner
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Ibsen- An Enemy of the People- play (counts as ½)
Hedda Gabler- play (counts as ½)
Ishiguro- The Remains of the Day
Jen- Typical American
Kafka- The Trial
Koestler- Darkness at Noon
Kogawa- Obasan
Lee- A Gesture Life
Native Speaker
McCarthy- The Road
Momaday-House Made of Dawn
Mukherjee- The Holder of the World
O=Brien- The Things They Carried
Plath- The Bell Jar (counts as ½)
Sartre- No Exit (play-counts as ½)
Silko- Ceremony
Smiley- A Thousand Acres
Steinbeck- The Grapes of Wrath
Warren- All the King’s Men
4TH NINE WEEKS
Love, Marriage, Family Relationships
“All happy families resemble one another; every unhappy
family is unhappy in its own fashion.”
Leo Tolstoy- Anna Karenina
Agee- A Death in the Family
Allende- Daughter of Fortune
Alvarez- In the Time of Butterflies
Atwood- Alias Grace
The Blind Assassin
Austen- Emma
Mansfield Park
Sense and Sensibility
Baldwin- Go Tell It on the Mountain
Balzac- Père Goriot
Byatt- Possession
Bronte, C.- Jane Eyre
Cao- Monkey Bridge
Cather- O Pioneers
Chekhov- The Three Sisters (play- counts as ½)
Uncle Vanya (play- counts as ½)
Chopin- The Awakening
Desai- The Inheritance of Loss
Dinesen- Out of Africa
Divakaruni- Sister of My Heart: A Novel
Dreiser- An American Tragedy
Sister CarrieEdwards- The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
Faulkner- Absalom, Absalom
As I Lay Dying
Light in August
Flaubert- Madame Bovary
Forster- Howards End
Garcia- Dreaming in Cuban
Guterson- Snow Falling on Cedars
Hansberry- A Raisin in the Sun
Hardy- Jude the Obscure
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Hemingway-For Whom the Bell Tolls
The Sun Also Rises
Hosseini- The Kite Runner
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Ishiguro- The Remains of the Day
James- The American
Portrait of a Lady
Kahiri- The Namesake
Kallos- Broken for You
Kidd- The Secret Life of Bees
Kingsolver- Animal Dreams
Lawrence- Sons and Lovers
Women in Love
Lee- A Gesture Life
Marqeuz- One Hundred Years of Solitude
McEwan- Atonement
Mukherjee- Jasmine
Ondaatje- The English Patient
O’Neill- Desire Under the Elms (play-counts as ½)
Pasternak- Dr. Zhivago
Paton- Cry, The Beloved Country
Potok- The Chosen
Roy- The God of Small Things
Smiley- A Thousand Acres
Stegner- Angle of Repose
Steinbeck- East of Eden
Grapes of Wrath
Tan- The Bonesetter’s Daughter
The Joy Luck Club
The Kitchen God’s Wife
Tolstoy- Anna Karenina
Toole- A Confederacy of Dunces
Tyler- Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Wharton- The Age of Innocence
Ethan Frome (counts as ½)
Wilde- The Importance of Being Earnest (play) (counts as ½)
Williams- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (play-counts as ½)
A Streetcar Named Desire (play-counts as ½)
Wolfe- Look Homeward, Angel
Woolf- Mrs. Dalloway