Reading
No.
1
2
Title
What We Talk
About When
We Talk About
Love
The Yellow
Wallpaper
Author
Raymond
Carver
English IV Independent Reading List (Suggested)
Year
Summary
Written
Welcome to Albuquerque New, Mexico, and the home of heart doctor Mel McGinnis and his wife Terri.
Their friends, newlyweds Nick and Laura, are with them, and the two couples are drinking gin and tonics
1981
and talking about love.
Charlotte
Gilman
1899
Car Crash
While
Hitchhiking
Denise
Johnson
1992
The Shawl
Cynthia
Ozick
1980
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
A Happy Man
The Fly
I Have No
Mouth and I
Must Scream
Regret
Orientation
Anton
Chekhov
Katherine
Mansfield
Harlan
Ellison
Kate
Chopin
Daniel
Orozco
1904
1922
1967
1894
2012
10
11
12
13
14
15
The Story of an
Hour
Kate
Chopin
The Last Night
of the World
The Second
Bakery Attack
Ray
Bradbury
Haruki
Murakami
Two Kinds
Amy Tan
1989
The Very Old
Man With
Enormous
Wings
Gabriel
Garcia
Marquez
1968
The Lady with
the Pet Dog
Anton
Chekov
1899
1894
1951
1989
An early work of feminist literature, this story follows a young woman as she descends into psychosis,
becoming obsessed with the pattern and color of the wallpaper.
“Car Crash While Hitchhiking” is the first story in Jesus’ Son (1992), an interrelated collection of short
stories that traces the progress of a young man from drug addiction to recovery. Told in the first person
by a seemingly clairvoyant narrator who claims that he can perceive future events, the story jumps
around in time. The bulk of the story is devoted to a description of an automobile accident and its
aftermath.
“The Shawl” (1980) is a breathtaking story. In seven short, poetically terrifying pages, Ozick compresses
the unspeakable experience of the Holocaust into a story that is as close to formal perfection as a story
can be.
You get on the wrong train. A train accident. Anything can happen at anytime to put an end to your
happiness.
This short story deals with some heavy themes, like death, truth and the horrors of war.
The story takes place 109 years after the complete destruction of human civilization. The Cold War had
escalated into a world war, fought mainly between China, Russia, and the United States. As the war
progressed, the three warring nations each created a super-computer capable of running the war more
efficiently than humans.
“She let her head fall down on her bended arm, and began to cry. Oh, but she cried! Not softly, as
women often do. She cried like a man, with sobs that seemed to tear her very soul.”
Daniel Orozco tells the story of the typical job orientation by using both realistic and nonrealistic
elements to poke fun at the experience that many can relate to. Parody!
Because Louise Mallard suffers from a heart condition, her sister Josephine gently and carefully gives
her the news of her husband’s death. Mr. Richards, a close friend of her husband, Brentley Mallard, and
the first to learn of the tragic railroad accident that claimed Mallard’s life, has accompanied Josephine to
help soften what they know will be a cruel blow.
The "Last Night of the World" begins when a husband asks his wife, "What would you do if you knew
that this was the last night of the world?"
Bizarre and almost dreamlike, this story seems simple but will have you thinking back to it after you’ve
finished.
A young Chinese American woman, Jing-Mei “June” Woo, recalls, after her mother’s death, her
mother’s sadness at having left her twin baby girls in China in 1949.
This magical realist story focuses on a couple who have found what they believe to be an angel in their
front yard– for better or for worse.
A banker, Dmitry Dmitrich Gurov, a married but philandering man of almost forty, spends a vacation
alone in the seaside resort of Yalta, where he meets and skillfully seduces a much younger lady, Anna
Sergeyevna, who is also on holiday without her spouse.
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
The Celebrated
Jumping Frog
of Calaveras
County
Harrison
Bergeron
2BR02B
Roman Fever
Cathedral
Mark Twain
1865
Kurt
Vonnegut
1961
Kurt
Vonnegut
Edith
Wharton
Raymond
Carver
1962
1936
1981
The Things
They Carried
Tim O’Brien
1992
The Man Who
Was Almost A
Man
Richard
Wright
1961
Look on the
Bright Side
Dagoberto
Gilb
1993
23
24
25
26
27
The Use of
Force
The Necklace
1992
1884
The Monkey’s
Paw
W.W.
Jacobs
1902
I Stand Here
Ironing
Tillie Olsen
1961
A& P
John
Updike
1961
Why I Live at
The P.O.
Eudora
Welty
1941
Blood Burning
Moon
Jean
Toomer
1923
28
29
William
Carlos
Williams
Guy de
Maupassant
30
This colorful tale about a man and his famous jumping frog earned Twain fame and acclaim and is well
worth a read.
In this satirical, dystopian story society has finally achieved equality by handicapping the most
intelligent, athletic or beautiful members of society.
In a world of population control, you must find a volunteer to die in order to have a baby.
What happens during a vacation trip to Rome? Power struggles, betrayal, and grudges.
“Cathedral” opens with the narrator telling the reader in a conversational tone that a blind friend of his
wife’s is coming to visit them. The narrator is clearly unhappy about the upcoming visit.
Nominated for and winning numerous literary awards, this collection of stories about the Vietnam War is
moving– perhaps even more so because many of them are based on the author’s own experiences.
“The Man Who Was Almost a Man” is an initiation story, a tale of a teenage youth struggling to break
free of childhood and enter the world of adulthood. Frustrated by being young, poor, and black, David
Glover wrestles with the tension of wanting to be an adult yet being viewed as a child by the adult
community
In Dagoberto Gilb’s short story entitled Look on the Bright Side, a Mexican immigrant and his family are
living in the “enlightened” city of Los Angles in a broken down apartment. The family rents from a
scrupulous landlord, Mrs. Kevovian, who despite faulty plumbing and cockroach infestation, decides to
illegally raise the rent. The story covers Gilb’s humor and ability to capture life’s everyday hassles.
This story asks readers to consider whether or not it is ethical to hurt someone for their own good and,
more importantly, whether one should be ashamed to enjoy the experience.
Popular for its twist ending and the inspiration for many other writers, this short story is a must-read for
anyone interested in the genre.
In this terrifying tale, readers will learn to be careful what they wish for– it might not always be what they
want.
The narrator (Emily's mother) is ironing as she speaks to someone from her daughter Emily's school.
Emily is a 19 year old girl, and the figure - whose exact position is unspecified - has contacted the
narrator for guidance in "helping" Emily.
“A & P” is a short initiation story in which the young protagonist, in a gesture of empty heroism, quits his
job at the supermarket because the manager has embarrassed three girls—and learns just “how hard
the world was going to be to him hereafter.”
“Why I Live at the P.O.” is a monologue in which the narrator, whom the other characters call “Sister,”
explains how she came to leave the family home in China Grove, Mississippi. In the process, she
reveals her own character and a good many family secrets.
"Blood-Burning Moon" is exemplary of Toomer's theme of African-American identity and his setting of
rural Southern life during segregation. It tells the story of the conflict between Bob Stone, a white man,
and Tom Burwell, an African American, who are rivals for the affection of Louisa, a light-skinned AfricanAmerican woman. During the course of one evening, each man learns of the other's relationship with
Louisa.