Some of my favorite great American works in NO particular order. Feel free to read at will during your many empty winter hours.
 Moby Dick by Melville: it's Melville, what else do you need to know? You love Melville, right?
 Cane by Jean Toomer: stories, images, poems all with a unifying theme; it is truly ahead of its time.
 Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison: a tragic, magical, possibly hopeful (depending on your point of view) coming of age
story by a Nobel Prize winning author.
 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison: one of the GREATEST American novels--you cannot call yourself truly literate if you
have not read this masterpiece. A complex investigation of race in America that avoids simplistic solutions.
 Everything by Jane Austen except Mansfield Park: Okay, she's not American, but I really love her charming and
humorous novels (maybe more than Melville--sorry Herman).
 The short stories of Raymond Carver: spare, minimalist stories about the lives of working class Americans, often
haunting.
 White Noise or Libra by Don DeLillo: The greatest living American novelist? Probably. Destined to be read until the end
of time? Definitely. Read Underworld and Mao II as well.
 The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon: strangest living American novelist? Yes! A postmodern masterpiece about an
evil alternate postal service and the woman who tries to track down this conspiracy. Weirdly funny with a thick
atmosphere of paranoia.
 The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks: a beautiful, tragic novel that examines (with clear eyes and a thorough lack of
sentimentality) how Americans deal with loss. Also Cloudsplitter, a novel about John Brown, the famous abolitionist, key
figure in the Underground Railroad, and terrorist, told from the perspective of son Owen.
 Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis: a novel about the follies of the American Dream. Sweetly sad and sympathetic to all those men
and women who follow the rules to end up with nothing.
 Hemingway's short stories: any and probably all, especially “A Clean, Well-lighted Place”--an Existential masterpiece.
 All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy: the Western is re-invented for the Post-Modern era, turned into a spare,
elegant and heart-achingly romantic novel
 And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts: the classic non-fiction work that documents the beginnings of and spread of
AIDS in America. Meet real American heroes and experience a tragedy that springs from ignorance and hatred. Made
me see the nobility of the medical profession. For more on public health read Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy
Kidder, the true story of Paul Farmer, James Yong Kim and Ophelia Dahl--the creators of Partners in Health, an
organization that revolutionized medical care for the poorest in the world.
 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon: a powerful novel about two Jewish boys who escape the
terror of Nazi Germany and become comic book writers/illustrators in America.
 Housekeeping by Marilyne Robinson: a lovely novel about loss and rootlessness and the American preoccupation with
movement. A stunningly poetic novel that surprises you with its beauty while breaking your heart.
 Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole: A funny, charming book with a very quirky cast of characters. Unfailingly
entertaining and wonderfully written, this novel is set in New Orleans during with the most unforgettable narrator--the
loud, pretentious, flatulent, and hypocritical Ignatius J. Reilly.
 In Cold Blood by Truman Capote: Fascinating investigation of murder. This book begins the crime non-fiction genre and
does so with great style.
 Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem: a truly odd detective novel--our hero, suffering from Tourette’s Syndrome,
attempts to track down the killer of his mentor. Entertaining and insightful. I really loved Lethem’s latest Chronic City as
well.
 Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan: Four Chinese women and their four Chinese-American daughters navigate complex cultural
expectations to create a surprisingly beautiful jewelbox of a novel.
 Catch 22 by Joseph Heller: Dark, funny absurd. A crazed novel about the insanity of war; funny and tragic--Yossarian,
the central character is buffeted about by forces beyond his control, earning the audiences admiration in the process.
 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz: The book chronicles the life of Oscar de Leon, an overweight
Dominican boy growing up in New Jersey who is obsessed with science fiction and fantasy novels and with falling in
love, as well as the curse that has plagued his family for generations. A critical and commercial success.
 For those obsessed with cartography, try Infinite City by Rebecca Solnit--a work that inventively recreates the concept of
an atlas and explores the history and culture of San Francisco--and the Atlas of Remote Islands by Judith Schlalnsky, a
slight work that briefly describes the culture or history of 50 remote and unpopulated or sparsely populated islands
around the world--a charming book that inspires the adventurer in us all.