LHS Summer Reading 2013: AP Senior English novel list

A teenaged Nigerian girl and her older brother struggle to cope with life in their tense, stifling household--caused by their father's demands for perfection--after getting a taste of freedom during a visit to their aunt's home.

Set in an Ibo village in Nigeria, the novel recreates pre-Christian tribal life and shows how the coming of the white man led to the breaking up of the old ways.

Nathan Price and his family move to the Belgian Congo in 1959, and the experiences they have while living in Africa affect each member of the family in a different way.

Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo travels to Johannesburg on an errand for a friend and to visit his son, Absalom, only to learn Absalom has been accused of murdering white city engineer and social activist Arthur Jarvis and stands very little chance of receiving mercy.

Set in an Ibo village in Nigeria, the novel recreates pre-Christian tribal life and shows how the coming of the white man led to the breaking up of the old ways.

Describes a day in the life of several members of a Harlem fundamentalist church. The saga of three generations of people is related through flashbacks.

In nineteenth-century Russia, the wife of an important government official loses her family and social status when she chooses the love of Count Vronsky over a passionless marriage.

Tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a wife and mother living in Victorian-era New Orleans. On a summer vacation, she meets and falls in love with a young man, leading to a series of unexpected, escalating events as she acts upon her deepening feelings.

Presents Ibsen's 1879 play in which Nora, stifled as a pampered wife, forges a signature to obtain money for her ailing husband, resulting in her personal growth and increased resentment of being treated like a doll in her own home; and includes a chronology of Ibsen's life and work, a plot summary, commentary, and other reference information.

The story of Emma Bovary, the bored wife of a provincial doctor whose desires and illusions are shattered when reality catches up with her.

Ethan Frome, a New England farmer who is married to a hypochondriac but in love with his wife's lively cousin, Mattie.

Tells the story of two African-American sisters: Nettie, a missionary in Africa, and Celie, a child-wife living in the south, in the medium of their letters to each other and in Celie's case, the desperate letters she begins, "Dear God."

An eleven-year-old African-American girl in Ohio, in the early 1940s, prays for her eyes to turn blue so that she will be beautiful.

Sethe, an escaped slave living in post-Civil War Ohio, is haunted by the ghost of her infant daughter, Beloved, and terrible secrets from her past.

Between 1930 and 1935, William Faulkner came into full possession of the genius and creativity that made him America's greatest writer of the twentieth century. "Sanctuary," a violent novel of social class that moves from Mississippi back roads to the flesh-pots of Memphis, features a sadistic gangster named Popeye and a debutante with an affinity for evil.

Trapped in the poverty-stricken ghetto of Chicago's South Side, a young African-American man finds release only in acts of violence.

Richard Wright's story of the journey from innocence to experience in the Jim Crow South.

Tells the story of a young African-American man sentenced to death for a murder he did not commit, and a teacher who tries to impart to him his learning and pride before the execution.

In the course of his wanderings from a Southern Negro college to New York's Harlem, an African-American man becomes involved in a series of adventures.

An unknown person has provided money for the education of a poor English boy in eighteenth-century England.

The story of young John Grady Cole, the last of a long line of Texas ranchers, who, along with two companions, sets off on an idyllic, sometimes comic adventure, to a place where dreams are paid for in blood.

Two Jewish boys living in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn struggle through the joys and problems of growing up.

The author presents a first-person narrative that chronicles the mental break-down of Esther Greenwood from the doctor's office to the asylum.

Frankie is a bored twelve-year-old trying to fit in to a life bigger than her own. She immerses herself in plans for her older brother's wedding. Fueled by her imagination and discussions with the family maid and her six-year-old cousin, Frankie becomes part of the wedding and even plans to join the honeymoon.

Raskolnikov, a former Russian student, murders an old pawnbroker and her sister. The guilt with which he struggles results in a tragedy of tension and terror.

Presents the script of the sixteenth-century drama about a scholar who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power; and includes an introduction, a history of the play on stage, and a bibliography.

Joseph K. is suddenly arrested and must spend the rest of his life fighting a charge against him about which he can get no information.

Camus asks if there is a God or just a cold indifferent universe in this story of the trial of a man who commits a pointless murder.

Related short stories with recurring characters and an interwoven plot and theme as told by a foot soldier recreating his Vietnam War experience.

The story of an American, Robert Jordan, who fought during the Civil War in Spain with the anti-fascist guerrillas in the mountains of Spain.

A bombardier, based in Italy during World War II, repeatedly tries to avoid flying bombing missions while his colonel tries to get him killed by demanding that he fly more and more missions.

A fourth-generation German-American is tortured by his memories of the firebombing of Dresden in 1944 which he witnessed while a prisoner of war.

Chronicles the lives of four Chinese women, their 40 year friendship and how the death of one brings her daughter into the fold and a new understanding for each.

Nathan Price and his family move to the Belgian Congo in 1959, and the experiences they have while living in Africa affect each member of the family in a different way.

The story of four strong-willed women of the del Pino family of Havana and of Brooklyn who are divided by conflicting political loyalties.

Overweight and nerdy Oscar lives with his Dominican American mother and sister in New Jersey and dreams of becoming a renowned author and finding true love, but unfortunately, a family curse stands in the way of his wishes.

The story of what happened to a Japanese family in Canada during World War II.

When a newspaper journalist covers the trial of a Japanese American accused of murder, he must come to terms with his own past.

Six-year-old Antonio embarks upon a spiritual journey under the watchful guidance of Ultima, a healing woman, that leads him to question his faith and beliefs in family, religion, and other aspects of his Chicano culture.

The rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendia family.

Follows Tayo, a young Native American of mixed descent, after his release from a veteran's hospital following WWII as he searches for meaning and sanity in his life.

Abel, a young American Indian home from a foreign war, finds himself torn between his father's world on the reservation and the lure of industrial America.

Forced by a storm to spend the night at the home of Heathcliff, Mr. Lockwood uncovers a tale of terror and hatred on the Yorkshire moors.

Jane, a plain and penniless orphan in nineteenth-century England, accepts employment as a governess at Thornfield Hall and soon finds herself in love with her melancholy employer, Mr. Edward Rochester, a man with a terrible secret.

Depicts the struggles of the Tyrone family as they face drug addiction, alcohol abuse, tuberculosis, and lost dreams in this semi-autobiographical play.

The story of King Oedipus and the tragedy that ensues when he discovers he has inadvertently killed his father and married his mother.

Recounts the experiences of Shukhov, a prisoner at a Soviet work camp in Siberia, as he struggles for survival.

When Fyodor Karamazov, a man of immoral character, is murdered one night, his four sons must contend with the criminal investigation and with their own inner questions about justice and the existence of God.

Dramatizes a night of warfare between a professor and his wife, the daughter of the college president, as witnessed by a young couple newly arrived on campus.

The story of a haggard and fragile southern beauty whose pathetic last grasp at happiness is cruelly destroyed.

Raskolnikov, a former Russian student, murders an old pawnbroker and her sister. The guilt with which he struggles results in a tragedy of tension and terror.

Victor Frankenstein discovers the secret of generating life from lifeless matter and creates a monster who, scorned for being ugly, swears revenge on his creator and the human race.

Nathan Price and his family move to the Belgian Congo in 1959, and the experiences they have while living in Africa affect each member of the family in a different way.

The rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendia family.

A bombardier, based in Italy during World War II, repeatedly tries to avoid flying bombing missions while his colonel tries to get him killed by demanding that he fly more and more missions.

Among the mental patients Randle McMurphy stands out for his rebellion. He presses for self-reliance and humor in a world full of fear and loathing, and he ultimately is destroyed by it.

In 2021 when a world war has sent most humans off-planet to Mars, a thriving business has risen building realistic artificial horses, birds, cats, sheep, and humans. Human androids are so sophisticated that they are banned from Earth and sent to Mars. Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter whose job is to find rogue androids and retire them, but androids fight back like humans when their existence is threatened.

Victor Frankenstein discovers the secret of generating life from lifeless matter and creates a monster who, scorned for being ugly, swears revenge on his creator and the human race.

When Herald Loomis arrives at an African-American Pittsburgh boardinghouse, after seven years' impressed labor on Joe Turner's chain gang, he is a free man--in body.

After the three Moss brothers escape from the South to find employment in the North with hundreds of others, they land in a steel mill full of difficult people and experience threats on their lives every day from the extreme heat.

A young boy in nineteenth-century London runs away from an unhappy home, finds employment in a wine factory, and becomes acquainted with a wide variety of characters in the city streets.

An adolescent boy, knowing he is about to be dropped by his school, spends three days and nights in New York City.

An official from an interplanetary federation is called in to arbitrate peace on a planet whose inhabitants are technically advanced, androgynous, and have telepathic powers.

A satirical novel about the utopia of the future, a world in which babies are decanted from bottles and the great Ford is worshipped.