My daughter just brought home her reading list for next year's high school senior English AP class. I'm pretty pleased with it overall.
Summer reading
The Road, Cormac McCarthy
Blindness, Jose Saramago
Rest of the Year
A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams *
Hamlet, Shakespeare *
Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner *
Wise Blood, Flannery O'Connor
As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner *
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston *
Surfacing, Margaret Atwood
The Dubliners, James Joyce
White Noise, Don DeLillo
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
Sad to say, I've only read five out of the twelve (which I've starred), although Frankenstein is definitely on my short-term TBR list, and I would like to read The Dubliners, maybe for my Ireland Reading Challenge.
Overall, I'm happy with the list and think my daughter will like some of the books on it. I remember reading As I Lay Dying and Hamlet as a high school senior, and liking both of them. I only read Their Eyes Were Watching God last year, and thought it so powerful.
It'll be interesting to compare this list to my son's list when he brings it home. He's in the International Baccalaureate program and is also a senior next year, and I expect his list to have far fewer American authors than does this AP list.
Wow, that's quite a reading list! I've read Frankenstein.....Hamlet, and Surfacing. I'd like to read Blindness. I can't remember if I've read Wise Blood, and I own The Dubliners - I just read a couple of short stories from it.
ReplyDeleteThe more I think of it, the more I think this is quite an up-to-date list too, with current writers as well as dead one on it. I hope your daughter enjoys reading these novels, and the coming year in English class :-)
Wow, has the reading list for Senior AP English changed since my day taking it! We read Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, lots of other classics and nothing at all contemporary. I loved it all the same though. Hope your daughter does too!
ReplyDeleteIt's always fun for me to see what's on high school reading lists, so thanks for posting this. Glad to see Wallace Stegner, even though Crossing to Safety is my favorite. Hope you'll share your son's list, too.
ReplyDeleteLet me say a word about Cormac McCarthy: I've read every one of his books and consider him America's greatest living author. He is an acquired taste for sure. Movies made from his novels: All The Pretty Horses, No Country For Old Men, The Road, and Blood Meridian is being filmed.
ReplyDeleteCool to see Wallace Stegner on the list. I have his All the Little Live Things on the night stand.
ReplyDeleteWhat a list! She's got some amazing reading ahead of her!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it isn't Crossing to Safety. One of the female characters in that was too ghastly for comfort. Good list though.
ReplyDeleteThe Road as summer reading?!? That's one morbid English teacher. Great list for a high school student, though.
ReplyDeleteOoh, summer reading -- that was always such an exciting time for me, haha! Definitely some great titles on here. I read Frankenstein for a British literature class in college and absolutely loved it -- so atmospheric and thought-provoking. It was way different than I expected, but in the best way.
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