Columbia
Prep 2008 Summer Reading List
Grades 9-12
(Click here to download this as a PDF)
Over the summer, you are
required to read at least FOUR new books. The English Department and the History Department each
require a book for 9th and 10th grade. 11th and 12th
graders have a lot of freedom this year, yet we have provided a number of good
titles to help you choose (see below). Some AP courses have required summer
reading as well (you should know about these already), and it is your
responsibility to complete all your requirements and then choose your own books
to reach a total of four.
For
the books of your choice, you are encouraged to follow your interests and
tastes for fiction, nonfiction, drama, or poetry. The lists provided below (after the required books) are only
designed to give you a sense of what you might consider. You do not need to choose from these
lists—just choose something you find interesting. The faculty recommendations can
help, and we also recommend that you browse online, browse bookstores, and ask
your friends and family for books that seem right for you. Happy reading!
Required Books
9th
Grade English—About a Boy by Nick Hornby.
9th Grade History—The
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Yale University Press,
ISBN:
0-300-08701-2).
10th
Grade English—The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien.
10th Grade History—The
Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux
AP English—Great
Expectations by Charles Dickens (Penguin Classics edition,
ISBN:
978-0-14-143956-3)
11th and 12th
Grade English—You are free to choose any four books this
year; however, if you want suggestions, here are a few that the English
Department especially recommends:
The Shipping
News by Annie Proulx. This is
a fun, quirky, and meaningful contemporary novel (a Pulitzer Prize winner too)
about a most unlikely main character named Quoyle,
who uproots his life and attempts a fresh start in Newfoundland. Great story and great
writing as well.
SophieÕs
Choice by William Styron. This
striking American novel is told from the point-of-view of a young man trying to
be a writer in post WWII New York.
His friendships with his neighbors, one of whom is a holocaust survivor,
drive this intense story. ItÕs an
important book, and while not short, it is a great choice for those who love to
read.
The Best
American Nonrequired Reading 2007, ed. by Dave Eggers. A fun,
fascinating, and eclectic collection of stories, articles, memoirs, lists and
other great writing published in the past year.
Also highly recommended: Goodbye Columbus
by Phillip Roth, Loon Lake by E.L
Doctorow, The Name of the Rose by
Umberto Eco.
Ms. Allen
Bellow,
Saul. Henderson
the Rain King.
Gardner,
John. Grendel.
Bainbridge,
Beryl. According to Queeney.
Enger,
Leif. Peace Like a River.
Waugh,
Evelyn. A Handful
of Dust.
Mr. Cramer
Eco,
Umberto. The Name
of the Rose.
Bass,
Rick. The Watch.
Melville,
Herman. Moby Dick.
Ellison,
Ralph. Invisible Man.
Hammett,
Dashiell. The
Maltese Falcon, Red Harvest
Robinson,
Marilynne. Housekeeping.
Carver,
Raymond. Where I'm Calling From.
Adams,
Richard. Watership Down.
Ms. Dean
Rohington,
Mistry. A Fine Balance.
Kidder, Tracy. Mountains Beyond Mountains.
Garcia
Marquez, Gabriel. Living to Tell.
Ms. DeGulis
Graham,
Katharine. Personal History
Cohen, Adam
and Taylor Elizabeth. American Pharaoh:
Mayor Richard J. Daley - His Battle for
Chicago and the Nation
Garrow, David. Bearing
the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference
Herrera,
Hayden. Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo
Lady Borton. After Sorrow: An American among the Vietnamese
Ms. Cusick
Helprin,
Mark. Winter's
Tale.
Byatt, A. S. Possession.
Vogel,
Paula. How I Learned to Drive.
Kingsolver,
Barbara. The Poisonwood
Bible.
Auster,
Paul. Leviathan.
Mr. Feinblatt
Klein,
Joe. The
Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton.
Dahl, Robert A. How Democratic is the
American Constitution?
Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed:
On (Not) Getting By in America.
Wheelan,
Charles. Naked Economics—Undressing the Dismal
Science.
Ms. Friesinger,
Wharton,
Edith. The Age of Innocence
Smiley,
Jane. Ordinary Love and Good Will
Mr. Gerson
Stephenson,
Neal. Cryptonomicon.
Stoll,
Clifford. The CuckooÕs Egg
Mr. Gogolin
Huxley, Aldous. Brave
New World.
Ms. Grady
Garcia,
Cristina. Dreaming in Cuban.
Bulgakov,
Mikhail. The Master and Margarita.
Brooks,
Gwendolyn. Selected Poems.
Kaplan,
Robert D. Balkan Ghosts.
Nell
Smith, Martha. Rowing in Eden: Rereading
Emily Dickinson.
Mr. Greenside
Voltaire.
Candide.
Hemingway,
Ernest. A
Moveable Feast.
Flanner,
Janet. Paris Journal: 1965-1970.
Dante.
The Divine Comedy.
Theroux,
Paul. The Great Railway Bazaar: By
Train Through Asia.
Tuckman,
Barbara. A Distant
Mirror.
Chatwin,
Bruce. The Songlines.
Ms. Ho
Kidd,
Sue Monk. The
Secret Life of Bees.
Sijie,
Dai. Balzac & the Little Chinese
Seamstress.
Sneider,
Vern. Teahouse of the August Moon.
Ms. Kraus
Nabokov,
Vladimir. Lolita.
Conrad,
Joseph. Heart of
Darkness.
Packer, ZZ. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere.
Proulx,
Annie. The Shipping
News.
Ms. Markovits
Pears, Ian. The Dream of
Scipio.
Unsworth,
Barry. The Songs of the
Kings.
Gregory,
Phillippa. The Other Boleyn Girl.
Power, Samantha. A Problem from
Hell.
Lewis,
Bernand. The Crisis of Islam.
Friedman,
Thomas. Longitudes and
Attitudes.
Ms. OÕConnor
Roy, Arundhati.
God of Small Things.
Banks, Russell. The Sweet Hereafter, Rule of the Bone.
Chabon, Michael. The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.
Foer,
Jonathan Safran. Extremely
Loud and Incredibly Close.
Tartt, Donna. The Secret History.
Smiley, Jane. A Thousand Acres Jane
Smiley.
Mr. Puccio
Rand,
Ayn. The
Fountainhead.
Atwood,
Margaret. The Robber Bride.
Gardner,
John. FreddyÕs Book.
Albee,
Edward. WhoÕs Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Hughes,
Ted. Tales from Ovid.
Crossley-Holland, Kevin. The Norse Myths.
Chandler,
Raymond. Lady in the Lake.
Doctorow,
E.L. Loon Lake.
Ms. Schulte
Alvarez,
Julia. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents; In the
Time of the Butterflies.
Atwood,
Margaret. Cat's Eye; Alias Grace.
Hurston,
Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were
Watching God.
Kingsolver,
Barbara. The Bean Trees; The
Poisonwood Bible.
Steinbeck,
John. Travels with Charley; Cannery
Row.
Austen,
Jane. Emma.
Mr. Speyer
Sayers,
Dorothy L. The
Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club.
Adolphe,
Bruce. What to
Listen for in the World.
Mr. Wilson
The Best American Nonrequired Reading of 2007.
Stephenson,
Neal. Snow Crash.
Robertson,
James. The Testament of Gideon Mack.
Smith, Zadie. On Beauty.
Dubus, Andre. Separate
Flights.
Josopovici,
Gabriel. In a Hotel Garden.
Heaney, Seamus (trans.) Beowul
Ms. Zinn
Pessl,
Marissa. Special Topics in Calamity Physics.
Levitin, Daniel. This is Your Brain on Music.
Angier, Natalie. The Cannon.
FICTION
Achebe,
Chinua
Things Fall Apart
Agee,
James
A Death in the Family
Alvarez,
Julia
How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents
Anderson,
Sherwood
Winesburg, Ohio (Stories)
Atwood,
Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Austen,
Jane
Emma
Sense and Sensibility
Baldwin,
James
Go Tell it on the Mountain
Bellow,
Saul
Seize the Day
Henderson the Rain King
Borges,
Jorge
Luis
Labyrinths
Bradbury,
Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bronte,
Charlotte
Jane Eyre
Cervantes,
Miguel
de
Don Quixote
Chopin,
Kate
The Awakening
Cisneros,
Sandra
The House on Mango Street
Crane,
Stephen
The Red Badge of Courage
Defoe,
Daniel
Robinson Crusoe
Dickens,
Charles
David Copperfield
A Tale of Two Cities
Eliot,
George
The Mill on the Floss
Silas Marner
Ellison,
Ralph
Invisible Man
Faulkner,
William
Intruder in the Dust
As I Lay Dying
Fitzgerald,
F.
Scott
This Side of Paradise
Fowles,
John
The French Lieutenant's Woman
Gardner,
John
Grendel
Gaines,
Ernest
A Lesson Before Dying
Golding,
William
Lord of the Flies
Hardy,
Thomas
The Return of the Native
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Heller ,
Joseph
Catch-22
Hemingway,
Ernest
The Nick Adams Stories
Snows of Kilimanjaro and other stories
A Farewell to Arms
Hesse,
Hermann
Siddhartha
Hurston,
Zora
Neale
Their Eyes were Watching God
Huxley,
Aldous
Brave New World
Jackson,
Shirley
The Lottery (Stories)
James,
Henry
The Portrait of a Lady
Joyce,
James
Dubliners
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Kafka,
Franz
The Trial
Metamorphosis
Kesey,
Ken
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Lee,
Harper
To Kill a Mockingbird
Lewis,
Sinclair
Babbitt
Main Street
Malamud,
Bernard
The Complete Stories
The Magic Barrel
Mann,
Thomas
Death in Venice and other stories
Markandaya,
Kamala
Nectar in a Sieve
McCullers,
Carson
The Member of the Wedding
Melville,
Herman
Moby Dick
Morrison,
Toni
Beloved
O'Connor,
Flannery
Everything That Rises Must Converge
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Orwell,
George
1984
Animal Farm
Plath,
Sylvia
The Bell Jar
Paton,
Alan
Cry, the Beloved Country
Poe,
Edgar
Allan
The Complete Stories
Potok, Chaim
The Chosen
Roth,
Philip
Goodbye Columbus and other short stories
Scott,
Sir
Walter
Ivanhoe
Shelley,
Mary
Frankenstein
Steinbeck,
John
The Grapes of Wrath
Stendhal
The Red and the Black
Stevenson,
Robert
Louis
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde
Swift,
Jonathan
Gulliver's Travels
Thackerary,
William
Vanity Fair
Tolstoy,
Leo
War and Peace
Anna Karenina
Vonnegut,
Kurt
Slaughterhouse Five
Waugh,
Evelyn
A Handful of Dust
Walker,
Alice
The Color Purple
Wright,
Richard
Native Son
PUBLICATIONS (Note: Becoming a regular reader of an excellent
publication counts as a book. The
following magazines contain especially good writing:
The New Yorker
HarperÕs
The Believer
NON-FICTION
Abbot,
Edwin
Flatland
Asinof,
Eliot
Eight Men Out
Alvarez,
Walter
T. Rex and the Crater of Doom
Blais,
Madeleine
In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle
Blatner,
David
The Joy of [Pi]
Boorstin,
Jon
Making Movies Work: Thinking Like a
Filmmaker
Brown,
Dee
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee