2015-2016 12th Grade English IV AP and Humanities

Macbeth by William Shakespeare- no purchase required, provided from class literature book
A drama about a man who kills the King of Scotland in order to claim the throne for himself, and includes discussion of the theatrical world of Shakespeare, an introduction to the play, and a note on the text used.

Hamlet by William Shakespeare – Not Available  (ISBN: 978-0-7434-7712-3). William Shakespeare's tragedy in which Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, struggles with the decision whether to avenge his father's murder. Also includes details on Shakespeare's life, world, and theater; and an essay that offers a modern perspective on the play.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - Available for $5 (ISBN: 0-553-21310-5)
Pride and Prejudice is Jane Austen's classic comic romance, in which the five Bennett sisters try to find that most elusive creature: a single man in possession of a large fortune. Sparks fly when sweet, pretty Jane meets their new neighbor, Mr. Bingley, but her sister Elizabeth is most offended by his haughty friend, Mr. Darcy. 

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad– Available for $5 (ISBN:  978-0-553-21214-1)
The tale concerns the journey of the narrator (Marlow) up the Congo River on behalf of a Belgian trading company. Far upriver, he encounters the mysterious Kurtz, an ivory trader who exercises an almost godlike sway over the inhabitants of the region. Both repelled and fascinated by the man, Marlow is brought face to face with the corruption and despair that Conrad saw at the heart of human existence.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini– Available for $16 (978-1-59463-193-1)
The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father's servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed.

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole– Available for $16 (ISBN:  978-0-8021-3020-4)
A Confederacy of Dunces is an American comic masterpiece. John Kennedy Toole's hero, one Ignatius J. Reilly, is "huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly original characters, denizens of New Orleans' lower depths, incredibly true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures" 

PERK Titles

Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow-  Not Available  (ISBN: 978-0-14-310548-0)
Henderson the Rain King is a 1959 novel by Saul Bellow. The book's blend of philosophical discourse and comic adventure has helped make it one of his most enduringly popular works. It is said to be Bellow's own favorite amongst his books.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath  – Not Available (ISBN: 978-0-06-083702-0)
The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under -- maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens –  Not Available  (ISBN: 978-0-486-47570-7)
Great Expectations is a bildungsroman, or a coming-of-age novel, and it is a classic work of Victorian literature. It depicts the growth and personal development of an orphan named Pip. 

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri - Not Available  (ISBN: 978-0-618-48522-2)
Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies established this young writer as one the most brilliant of her generation. Her stories are one of the very few debut works -- and only a handful of collections -- to have won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Among the many other awards and honors it received were the New Yorker Debut of the Year award, the PEN/Hemingway Award, and the highest critical praise for its grace, acuity, and compassion in detailing lives transported from India to America. 

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy - Not Available (ISBN: 978-0-8129-7965-7)
Compared favorably to the works of Faulkner and Dickens, Arundhati Roy’s debut novel is a modern classic that has been read and loved worldwide. Equal parts powerful family saga, forbidden love story, and piercing political drama, it is the story of an affluent Indian family forever changed by one fateful day in 1969. 

Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy– Not Available  (ISBN: 0-553-21168-4)
The ne'er-do-well sire of a starving brood suddenly discovers a family connection to the aristocracy, and his selfish scheme to capitalize on their wealth sets a fateful plot in motion. Jack Durbeyfield dispatches his gentle daughter Tess to the home of their noble kin, anticipating a lucrative match between the lovely girl and a titled cousin. Innocent Tess finds the path of the d'Urberville estate paved with ruin in this gripping tale of the inevitability of fate and the tragic nature of existence.

Digging to America by Anne Tyler– Available for $15 (ISBN: 978-0-345-49234-0)
Anne Tyler’s richest, most deeply searching novel–a story about what it is to be an American, and about Iranian-born Maryam Yazdan, who, after 35 years in this country, must finally come to terms with her “outsiderness.”

A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest Gaines– Available for $11 (ISBN:  978-0-679-73890-8)
Set on a Louisiana sugarcane plantation in the 1970s,
 A Gathering of Old Men is a powerful depiction of racial tensions arising over the death of a Cajun farmer at the hands of a black man. 

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde– Available for $5 (ISBN:  978-0-451-53045-5)
In this celebrated work, his only novel, Wilde forged a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young aesthete in late-19th-century England. Combining elements of the Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction, the book centers on a striking premise: As Dorian Gray sinks into a life of crime and gross sensuality, his body retains perfect youth and vigor while his recently painted portrait grows day by day into a hideous record of evil, which he must keep hidden from the world.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy– Available for $16 (ISBN:  978-0-307-38789-9)
 A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. 

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley– Available for $15 (ISBN: 978-0-06-085052-4)
Brave New World remains absolutely relevant to this day as both a cautionary dystopian tale in the vein of the George Orwell classic 1984, and as thought-provoking, thoroughly satisfying entertainment.

Saturday by Ian McEwan– Available for $16 (ISBN:  978-1-4000-7619-2)
In his triumphant new novel, Ian McEwan, the bestselling author of Atonement, follows an ordinary man through a Saturday whose high promise gradually turns nightmarish. Henry Perowne–a neurosurgeon, urbane, privileged, deeply in love with his wife and grown-up children–plans to play a game of squash, visit his elderly mother, and cook dinner for his family. But after a minor traffic accident leads to an unsettling confrontation, Perowne must set aside his plans and summon a strength greater than he knew he had in order to preserve the life that is dear to him.