American Literature Summer Reading List Essay

The following list was complied from the recommendations of the Belmont High School English department and contains some of the best-known works of American literature. Each book addresses the American Dream and/or American identities. All entering 11th graders must read at least one book from the list below over the summer. Students entering English 11 Honors must read at least one contemporary AND one classic work from the list. The American Literature Summer Reading page on your Edline account provides summaries of the works listed below; it will be available until July 15th. We encourage all students to preview a book before making a choice in order to determine that the writing style and narrative voice will be a good fit. Please consult your 10th grade teacher if you need help finding a book that is a good match for you. Author Book Joan Didion Joan Didion W. E. B. Du Bois Booker T. Washington The White Album: Essays Slouching Toward Bethlehem: Essays The Souls of Black Folk Up from Slavery Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream The Dharma Bums On the Road Hunter S. Thompson Jack Kerouac Jack Kerouac Malcolm X and Alex Haley Tom Wolfe Alex Haley Ayn Rand  Ayn Rand Bernard Malamud E. L. Doctorow Edith Wharton Edith Wharton F. Scott Fitzgerald F. Scott Fitzgerald Herman Melville James Baldwin James Weldon Johnson The Autobiography of Malcolm X The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Roots The Fountainhead Atlas Shrugged The Natural Ragtime The Age of Innocence The House of Mirth Tender is the Night This Side of Paradise Moby-Dick Go Tell it on the Mountain Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man Genre Essays Essays Essays Memoir Era Classic Classic Classic Classic Memoir Memoir Memoir Classic Classic Classic. Memoir Memoir Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Classic  Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Joan Didion John Cheever John Dos Passos John Irving John Steinbeck John Steinbeck John Updike Kate Chopin Ken Kesey N. Scott Momaday Nella Larson Norman Mailer Philip Roth Ralph Ellison Raymond Chandler Richard Wright Rita Mae Brown Robert Penn Warren Saul Bellow Sinclair Lewis Theodore Dreiser Theodore Dreiser Upton Sinclair Vladimir Nabokov Willa Cather Willa Cather William Faulkner Studs Terkel Play It As It Lays The Wapshot Chronicle The U. S. A. Trilogy The World According to Garp East of Eden The Grapes of Wrath Rabbit, Run The Awakening One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest House Made of Dawn Passing An American Dream Portnoy’s Complaint Invisible Man The Big Sleep Black Boy Rubyfruit Jungle All the King’s Men The Adventures of Augie March Main Street An American Tragedy Sister Carrie The Jungle Lolita My Antonia O Pioneers! Absalom, Absalom! Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel about What They Do Arthur Miller A View from the Bridge Lorraine Hansberry Sherwood Anderson Sarah Vowell Toure A Raisin in the Sun Winesburg, Ohio The Partly Cloudy Patriot Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? What It Means to be Black Now Novel Novel Novel. Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Classic Oral History Play Play Short Stories Essays Essays Classic Classic Classic Classic Contemporary Contemporary Annie Dillard Barack Obama Bob Dylan Itabari Njeri James McBride Jay-Z John Edgar Wideman Luis Rodriguez Maxine Hong Kingston Richard Rodriguez Barbara Ehrenreich Dave Eggers. David Bianculli Erik Larsen Greil Marcus John Berendt Jon Krakauer Neil Swidey Tom Wolfe Amy Tan Andre Dubus III Annie Proulx Audrey Niffenegger Barbara Kingsolver Barbara Kingsolver Barbara Kingsolver Chad Harbach Chang-rae Lee Cormac McCarthy Daniel Wallace Danzy Senna Dave Eggers David Foster Wallace An American Childhood Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance Chronicles, Vol. I Every Goodbye Ain’t Gone The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother Decoded Brothers and Keepers Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L. A The Woman Warrior Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez. Nickle and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America Zeitoun Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of â€Å"The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour† Devil in the White City The Old, Weird America: The World of Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Into the Wild The Assist: Hoops, Hope, and the Game of Their Lives The Right Stuff The Joy Luck Club House of Sand and Fog The Shipping News The Time Traveller’s Wife The Bean Trees Animal Dreams The Poisonwood Bible The Art of Fielding Native Speaker Blood Meridian Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions Caucasia What is the What Infinite Jest Memoir Memoir Memoir Memoir. Memoir Memoir Memoir Memoir Memoir Memoir Nonfiction Nonfiction Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Nonfiction Nonfiction Nonfiction Nonfiction Nonfiction Nonfiction Nonfiction Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary David Sheff Don DeLillo Donna Tartt Dorothy Allison Edward P. Jones Fannie Flagg Gish Jen Gloria Naylor Jane Smiley Jennifer Egan Jhumpa Lahiri John Irving John Kennedy O’Toole Jonathan Franzen Jonathan Lethem Jonathan Safran Foer Julia Alvarez Junot Diaz K. M. Soehnlein Leslie Marmon Silko Marilynne Robinson Marilynne Robinson Marisha Pessl Michael Chabon Ntzoke Shange Paul Auster Paul Auster Paula Fox Peter Cameron Philip Roth Philip Roth Richard Ford Richard Russo Sherman Alexie Beautiful Boy Americana The Secret History Bastard out of Carolina The Known World Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe Typical American. The Women of Brewster Place A Thousand Acres A Visit from the Goon Squad The Namesake A Prayer for Owen Meany A Confederacy of Dunces The Corrections The Fortress of Solitude Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao The World of Normal Boys Ceremony Gilead Home Special Topics in Calamity Physics The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo The New York Trilogy The Music of Chance Desperate Characters Someday This Pain Will be Useful to You American Pastoral The Human Stain The Sportswriter Empire Falls Reservation Blues Novel Novel Novel. Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Steven Millhauser. Sue Monk Kidd T. C. Boyle Thomas Pynchon Thomas Pynchon Tom Wolfe Toni Morrison Toni Morrison Walter Mosley Walter Mosley August Wilson August Wilson Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer The Secret Life of Bees The Tortilla Curtain Vineland The Crying of Lot 49 Bonfire of the Vanities Beloved Song of Solomon Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned The Man in My Basement Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom The Piano Lesson David Mamet Glengarry Glen Ross Tony Kushner Annie Proulx Jhumpa Lahiri Raymond Carver Sherman Alexie Angels in America Close Range: Wyoming Stories Interpreter of Maladies What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. The Long Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Novel Play Play Play Play Short Stories Short Stories Short Stories Short Stories Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary Contemporary.