You must select one of the four options from this list of contemporary American literature. Please read
the summaries of each option. The writing styles of each option are very different, so we recommend
reading excerpts of each book before making your selection.
A Walk in the Woods- Bill Bryson
Summary from Random House:
Back in America after twenty years in Britain, Bill Bryson decided to reacquaint himself with his native country by walking the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine.
The Appalachian Trail offers an astonishing landscape of silent forests and sparkling lakes--and
to a writer with the comic genius of Bill Bryson, it also provides endless opportunities to witness
the majestic silliness of his fellow human beings. For a start there’s the gloriously out-of-shape
Stephen Katz, a buddy from Iowa along for the walk. Despite Katz’s overwhelming desire to find
cozy restaurants, he and Bryson eventually settle into their stride, and while on the trail they meet
a bizarre assortment of hilarious characters.
Excerpt Available At:
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/billbryson/bb_title/display.pperl?isbn=9780767902526&view=excerpt
Nineteen Minutes- Jodi Piccoult
Summary from jodipiccoult.com:
In Sterling, New Hampshire, 17-year-old high school student Peter Houghton has endured years of
verbal and physical abuse at the hands of classmates. His best friend, Josie Cormier, succumbed
to peer pressure and now hangs out with the popular crowd that often instigates the harassment.
One final incident of bullying sends Peter over the edge and leads him to commit an act of violence
that forever changes the lives of Sterling’s residents.
Excerpt Available At:
http://www.jodipicoult.com/nineteen-minutes.html#excerpt
Fight Club-Chuck Palahniuk
Summary from Publishers Weekly:
The unnamed (and extremely unreliable) narrator, who makes his living investigating accidents for
a car company in order to assess their liability, is combating insomnia and a general sense of anomie by attending a steady series of support-group meetings for the grievously ill, at one of which
(testicular cancer) he meets a young woman named Marla. She and the narrator get into a love
triangle of sorts with Tyler Durden, a mysterious and gleefully destructive young man with whom
the narrator starts a fight club, a secret society that offers young professionals the chance to beat
one another to a bloody pulp.
Excerpt Available At:
http://catalog.dclibrary.org/vufind/Record/ocm33440073/Excerpt
Me Talk Pretty One Day- David Sedaris
Summary from Book Rags:
Humorist David Sedaris “may not be the smartest American writer, but he is arguably the funniest,” wrote Sam Jemielty in an article. And as Sedaris reported in his essay collection Me Talk
Pretty One Day... “There are cats that weigh more than my IQ score.” But as Jemielty pointed
out, it is humor and not brains that sell Sedaris’s work. “His four essay collections have sold hundreds of thousands of copies. And while other popular books by ‘smart’ guys like Tom Wolfe or
Don DeLillo often sit unread on coffee tables, Sedaris’ tomes get devoured, passed from friend to
friend like dirty emails, creating an underground railroad of fans.”
Excerpt Available At:
http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/0316776963-excerpt.asp