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Half a life--Strauss, Daren
About how some events undo us for the rest of our lives.
*The Fault in Our Stars--Green, John
Never has cancer been a funny subject. Until now. Want to cry? Want to feel love? Read this.
Looking for Alaska--Green, John
Friendship, love, loss. A wonderful novel about adolescence.
*The Kite Runner[4]— Hosseini, Khaled (371 pg.)[RL 5.2]
To what ends would you go to make up for a terrible mistake you made as a child?
The Power of One [] Courtney, Bryce
I really, really think this is a great book, nuf said.
A Lesson Before Dying[5]—Gaines, E.J. (256 pg.)[RL 4.4]
Men are not pigs. A man is convicted of a horrible murder—did he do it? Does that even matter? It’s about dying as a man.
*The Children of Men[4]—James, P.D. (351 pg.)[RL ]What would the world be like if no one could give birth and no children were born?
*Murphy’s Boy/One Child[1]—Hayden, Tory (219 pg.)[RL]
I think I’ll go and work with children who have serious issues and try to make the world better. Serious, serious issues.
Johnny Got His Gun[2]— Trumbo, Dalton (243 pg.) [RL 5.9]
Metallica wrote the song “ONE” for this little anti-war novel. Truly a messed up and repelling, yet oddly beautiful novel.
*A Walk in the Woods[5]—Bryson, Bill (274 pg.) [RL 7.6]
Ever thought “Hey, I should go camping!” Bryson gets drunk one night and invites old friends on a 3,000 mile backpacking trip.
*1984[7]—Orwell, George (326 pg.) [RL 8.9]
Big brother is watching you.. This is a must read for anyone. If you die before reading this novel, you should be forgotten and made a nonperson.
*Rebecca[7]— DuMaurier Daphne (357 pg.) [RL 6.8]
Gothic novel about a new bride who is a little worried that her new husband may have off’d his widowed wife. Oh, and a crazy maid.
*A Catcher in the Rye[5]—Salinger, J.D. (214 pg.)[RL 4.7]
To some, the main character is a big complainer. Who cares—this book has been banned more than Harry Potter, and it’s the #1 hit for assassins.
*If I Die in a Combat Zone/The Things They Carried[3]—Obrien, Patrick (209 pg.)[RL 5.8]
Two very different works (one fiction, one nonfiction) guaranteed to make you laugh, vomit, and cry all at the same time.
*The Road [0 ]— McCarthy, Cormac
A very uncomfortable book about a future where there is no future for humanity. A father and son live on, simply travelling.
*Girl, Interrupted[5]—Kaysen, Sarah (pg. 111) [RL 5.4]
A real story about a young woman put in an institution for being crazy. Is she nuts or is she normal? What is crazy, afterall?
*Into the Wild[5]—Krakauer, Jon [8.1] (pg. 98)
A young man’s body is found in a bus in a remote section of Alaska. What caused his death? What was he trying to find out there? This is a book about self-discover, not a murder mystery. Mr. Whatley could be this guy.
*Flowers for Algernon[5]— Keyes, Daniel (219 pg.)[RL 5.8]
Following his doctor's instructions, engaging simpleton Charlie Gordon tells his own story in semi-literate "progris riports." He dimly wants to better himself, but with an IQ of 68 can't even beat the laboratory mouse Algernon at maze-solving.
*How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents[1]— Alvarez, Julia (289 pg.)[RL 6.2]
Fifteen tales vividly chronicle a Dominican family's exile in the Bronx, focusing on the four Garcia daughters' rebellion against their immigrant elders.
The Road--Cormac McCarthy :
The quintessential guy book. End of the world. Father and son. Survival.
*The Plague[6]— Camus, Albert (308 pg.)[RL 8.2]
A meditation on a society trapped by a plague that seems to kill at random. But, it’s a lot more than that.
All Quiet on the Western Front[3]—Remarque, Enrique (296 pg.)[RL 6.0]
WWI told from the German perspective. Be happy you aren’t this poor guy.
The Influencer: the power to change anything.
Beautiful Boy—Sheff, David
A close look at the results of Methamphetamine use and an insightful analysis of addiction.
Siddhartha[5]—Hesse, Hermann (152 pg.)[RL 7.1]
A book about a young guy finding himself. I’ve read it dozens of times.
The Bean Trees[2]—Kingsolver, Barbara (232 pg.)[RL 5.6]
I’m leaving town and not getting pregnant. (heck it could be the aspiration of any young girl.) The world works out a little differently.
Odyssey[5]—Homer (324 pg.)[RL 10.3]
The most accessible and enthralling epic of classical Greece.
Brave New World[5]— Huxley, Aldous (267 pg.)[RL 11.4]
Huxley uses his erudite knowledge of human relations to compare our actual world with his prophetic fantasy of 1931. It is a frightening experience, indeed, to discover how much of his satirical prediction of a distant future became reality in so short a time
For Whom the Bell Tolls[6]—Hemingway, Ernest (507 pg.)[RL 5.8]
A secret agent is sent to blow up a bridge. There’s love involved.
Sand County Almanac[2]-- Leopold, Aldo (295 pg.)[RL 9.0]
Writing from the vantage of his summer shack along the banks of the Wisconsin River, Leopold mixes essay, polemic, and memoir in his book's pages.
Master and Commander[2]— O’Brian, Patrick (402 pg.) [RL 9.0]
The Good Earth[6]— Buck, Pearl S. (306 pg.)[RL 6.8]
A poignant tale about the life and labors of a Chinese farmer during the sweeping reign of the country¹s last emperor.
The Time Machine[5] Wells, H.G— (76 pg.) [RL 7.4]
A Victorian scientist propels himself into the year a.d. 802,701. He finds two different races battling to live.
Lives of a Cell[6]— Thomas, Lewis (146 pg.)[RL 9]
A field biologist studying microbiology and connecting it in suprising ways to everything in our world.
Gandhi[5]— Fischer, Louis (189 pg.)
A careful analysis of one of the greatest figures in humanity.
Hunger of Memory[2]— Rodriguez, Richard (195 pg.)[RL 7.2]
Superb autobiographical essay ... Mr. Rodriguez offers himself as an example of the long labor of change: its costs, about which he is movingly frank, its loneliness, but also its triumph
Prayer for Owen Meany[1]— Irving, John (617 pg.)[RL 7.7]
Owen Meany is a dwarfish boy with a strange voice who accidentally kills his best friend's mom with a baseball and believes--accurately--that he is an instrument of God, to be redeemed by martyrdom.
The Fountainhead[5]— Rand, Ayn (694 pg.)[RL 7.0]
It is a story of one man, Howard Roark, and his struggles as an architect in the face of a successful rival, Peter Keating, and a newspaper columnist, Ellsworth Toohey.
On the Beach[1]—Shute, Neville [RL 6.3]
So what would you do if you knew that all life on Earth was ending in a month due to a global thermonuclear war? Love, despair, longing, racecars…this one’s got it all.
The Glass Castle [3]--Jeannette Walls (288 pg.)[RL 8]
Think you have an unusual family. This young woman makes “The Lost Boy/A Child Called ‘it’” and The Osbornes look normal..
Life of Pi—[ fiction, religion][1] Martel, Yann (319 pg.)[RL 5.7]
Ever thought it would be fun to be trapped on a boat with a Bengal tiger? Some religion and spirituality in this one.
Dune[3]—Herbert, Frank [RL 5.7] (pg. 830)
Giant sandworms rule this planet where a young man whose father is killed must survive and take his place among the great leaders of the Arakkis. There’s a couple movies based on this book—they are terrible B flicks.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich[5]—Solzenietzen, [RL 5.5] (pg. 220)
Another “you think your life sucks…” work. It’s about a man who gets sent to Siberia for reasons unknown. It’s one day in his life.
About how some events undo us for the rest of our lives.
*The Fault in Our Stars--Green, John
Never has cancer been a funny subject. Until now. Want to cry? Want to feel love? Read this.
Looking for Alaska--Green, John
Friendship, love, loss. A wonderful novel about adolescence.
*The Kite Runner[4]— Hosseini, Khaled (371 pg.)[RL 5.2]
To what ends would you go to make up for a terrible mistake you made as a child?
The Power of One [] Courtney, Bryce
I really, really think this is a great book, nuf said.
A Lesson Before Dying[5]—Gaines, E.J. (256 pg.)[RL 4.4]
Men are not pigs. A man is convicted of a horrible murder—did he do it? Does that even matter? It’s about dying as a man.
*The Children of Men[4]—James, P.D. (351 pg.)[RL ]What would the world be like if no one could give birth and no children were born?
*Murphy’s Boy/One Child[1]—Hayden, Tory (219 pg.)[RL]
I think I’ll go and work with children who have serious issues and try to make the world better. Serious, serious issues.
Johnny Got His Gun[2]— Trumbo, Dalton (243 pg.) [RL 5.9]
Metallica wrote the song “ONE” for this little anti-war novel. Truly a messed up and repelling, yet oddly beautiful novel.
*A Walk in the Woods[5]—Bryson, Bill (274 pg.) [RL 7.6]
Ever thought “Hey, I should go camping!” Bryson gets drunk one night and invites old friends on a 3,000 mile backpacking trip.
*1984[7]—Orwell, George (326 pg.) [RL 8.9]
Big brother is watching you.. This is a must read for anyone. If you die before reading this novel, you should be forgotten and made a nonperson.
*Rebecca[7]— DuMaurier Daphne (357 pg.) [RL 6.8]
Gothic novel about a new bride who is a little worried that her new husband may have off’d his widowed wife. Oh, and a crazy maid.
*A Catcher in the Rye[5]—Salinger, J.D. (214 pg.)[RL 4.7]
To some, the main character is a big complainer. Who cares—this book has been banned more than Harry Potter, and it’s the #1 hit for assassins.
*If I Die in a Combat Zone/The Things They Carried[3]—Obrien, Patrick (209 pg.)[RL 5.8]
Two very different works (one fiction, one nonfiction) guaranteed to make you laugh, vomit, and cry all at the same time.
*The Road [0 ]— McCarthy, Cormac
A very uncomfortable book about a future where there is no future for humanity. A father and son live on, simply travelling.
*Girl, Interrupted[5]—Kaysen, Sarah (pg. 111) [RL 5.4]
A real story about a young woman put in an institution for being crazy. Is she nuts or is she normal? What is crazy, afterall?
*Into the Wild[5]—Krakauer, Jon [8.1] (pg. 98)
A young man’s body is found in a bus in a remote section of Alaska. What caused his death? What was he trying to find out there? This is a book about self-discover, not a murder mystery. Mr. Whatley could be this guy.
*Flowers for Algernon[5]— Keyes, Daniel (219 pg.)[RL 5.8]
Following his doctor's instructions, engaging simpleton Charlie Gordon tells his own story in semi-literate "progris riports." He dimly wants to better himself, but with an IQ of 68 can't even beat the laboratory mouse Algernon at maze-solving.
*How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents[1]— Alvarez, Julia (289 pg.)[RL 6.2]
Fifteen tales vividly chronicle a Dominican family's exile in the Bronx, focusing on the four Garcia daughters' rebellion against their immigrant elders.
The Road--Cormac McCarthy :
The quintessential guy book. End of the world. Father and son. Survival.
*The Plague[6]— Camus, Albert (308 pg.)[RL 8.2]
A meditation on a society trapped by a plague that seems to kill at random. But, it’s a lot more than that.
All Quiet on the Western Front[3]—Remarque, Enrique (296 pg.)[RL 6.0]
WWI told from the German perspective. Be happy you aren’t this poor guy.
The Influencer: the power to change anything.
Beautiful Boy—Sheff, David
A close look at the results of Methamphetamine use and an insightful analysis of addiction.
Siddhartha[5]—Hesse, Hermann (152 pg.)[RL 7.1]
A book about a young guy finding himself. I’ve read it dozens of times.
The Bean Trees[2]—Kingsolver, Barbara (232 pg.)[RL 5.6]
I’m leaving town and not getting pregnant. (heck it could be the aspiration of any young girl.) The world works out a little differently.
Odyssey[5]—Homer (324 pg.)[RL 10.3]
The most accessible and enthralling epic of classical Greece.
Brave New World[5]— Huxley, Aldous (267 pg.)[RL 11.4]
Huxley uses his erudite knowledge of human relations to compare our actual world with his prophetic fantasy of 1931. It is a frightening experience, indeed, to discover how much of his satirical prediction of a distant future became reality in so short a time
For Whom the Bell Tolls[6]—Hemingway, Ernest (507 pg.)[RL 5.8]
A secret agent is sent to blow up a bridge. There’s love involved.
Sand County Almanac[2]-- Leopold, Aldo (295 pg.)[RL 9.0]
Writing from the vantage of his summer shack along the banks of the Wisconsin River, Leopold mixes essay, polemic, and memoir in his book's pages.
Master and Commander[2]— O’Brian, Patrick (402 pg.) [RL 9.0]
The Good Earth[6]— Buck, Pearl S. (306 pg.)[RL 6.8]
A poignant tale about the life and labors of a Chinese farmer during the sweeping reign of the country¹s last emperor.
The Time Machine[5] Wells, H.G— (76 pg.) [RL 7.4]
A Victorian scientist propels himself into the year a.d. 802,701. He finds two different races battling to live.
Lives of a Cell[6]— Thomas, Lewis (146 pg.)[RL 9]
A field biologist studying microbiology and connecting it in suprising ways to everything in our world.
Gandhi[5]— Fischer, Louis (189 pg.)
A careful analysis of one of the greatest figures in humanity.
Hunger of Memory[2]— Rodriguez, Richard (195 pg.)[RL 7.2]
Superb autobiographical essay ... Mr. Rodriguez offers himself as an example of the long labor of change: its costs, about which he is movingly frank, its loneliness, but also its triumph
Prayer for Owen Meany[1]— Irving, John (617 pg.)[RL 7.7]
Owen Meany is a dwarfish boy with a strange voice who accidentally kills his best friend's mom with a baseball and believes--accurately--that he is an instrument of God, to be redeemed by martyrdom.
The Fountainhead[5]— Rand, Ayn (694 pg.)[RL 7.0]
It is a story of one man, Howard Roark, and his struggles as an architect in the face of a successful rival, Peter Keating, and a newspaper columnist, Ellsworth Toohey.
On the Beach[1]—Shute, Neville [RL 6.3]
So what would you do if you knew that all life on Earth was ending in a month due to a global thermonuclear war? Love, despair, longing, racecars…this one’s got it all.
The Glass Castle [3]--Jeannette Walls (288 pg.)[RL 8]
Think you have an unusual family. This young woman makes “The Lost Boy/A Child Called ‘it’” and The Osbornes look normal..
Life of Pi—[ fiction, religion][1] Martel, Yann (319 pg.)[RL 5.7]
Ever thought it would be fun to be trapped on a boat with a Bengal tiger? Some religion and spirituality in this one.
Dune[3]—Herbert, Frank [RL 5.7] (pg. 830)
Giant sandworms rule this planet where a young man whose father is killed must survive and take his place among the great leaders of the Arakkis. There’s a couple movies based on this book—they are terrible B flicks.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich[5]—Solzenietzen, [RL 5.5] (pg. 220)
Another “you think your life sucks…” work. It’s about a man who gets sent to Siberia for reasons unknown. It’s one day in his life.
The Rhetoric Reading List is divided up by genre [sci/fi, memoir, fiction, & etc]. All books on the list have a brief synopsis; likewise, all books are college-level reading
| 2008_rhetoric_ap_reading_list_11-8-08.doc |
The Man Booker Prize books
Each year a single work of exceptional fiction is awarded the Booker Prize. I'm currently reading The God of Small Things.
Click here to see the list.
Click here to see the list.