December 21 - Holiday Reading/Literature Analysis for Spring Semester

If you plan on doing some reading over the break, and I hope you all are, here is a list of AP novels and plays to pick from. (Those of you that have not read Like Water for Chocolate might want to - it got rave reviews from your classmates.) Other terrific books are below the AP list. If you choose to read something off this list run it by me first and give me time to check it out. If you need recommendations from this list, email me; I would be happy to help. Happy Reading!

 A
Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner (76, 00, 10)
Adam Bede by George Eliot (06)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (80, 82, 85, 91, 92, 94, 95, 96, 99, 05, 06, 07, 08,11)
The Aeneid by Virgil (06)
Agnes of God by John Pielmeier (00)
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (97, 02, 03, 08)
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (00, 04, 08)
All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren (00, 02, 04, 07, 08, 09, 11)
All My Sons by Arthur Miller (85, 90)
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (95, 96, 06, 07, 08, 10, 11)
America is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan (95)
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser (81, 82, 95, 03)
American Pastoral by Philip Roth (09)
The American by Henry James (05, 07, 10)
Angels in America by Tony Kushner (09)
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (10)
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (80, 91, 99, 03, 04, 06, 08, 09)
Another Country by James Baldwin (95, 10)
Antigone by Sophocles (79, 80, 90, 94, 99, 03, 05, 09, 11)
Anthony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare (80, 91)
Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler (94)
Armies of the Night by Norman Mailer (76)
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner (78, 89, 90, 94, 01, 04, 06, 07, 09)
As You Like It by William Shakespeare (92 05, 06, 10)
Atonement by Ian McEwan (07, 11)
Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson (02, 05)
The Awakening by Kate Chopin (87, 88, 91, 92, 95, 97, 99, 02, 04, 07, 09, 11)

B
“The Bear” by William Faulkner (94, 06)
Beloved by Toni Morrison (90, 99, 01, 03, 05, 07, 09, 10, 11)
A Bend in the River by V. S. Naipaul (03)
Benito Cereno by Herman Melville (89)
Billy Budd by Herman Melville (79, 81, 82, 83, 85, 99, 02, 04, 05, 07, 08)
The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter (89, 97)
Black Boy by Richard Wright (06, 08)
Bleak House by Charles Dickens (94, 00, 04, 09, 10)
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya (94, 96, 97, 99, 04, 05, 06, 08)
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (07, 11)
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (95, 08, 09)
Bone: A Novel by Fae M. Ng (03)
The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan (06, 07, 11)
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (89, 05, 09, 10)
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene (79)
Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos (09)
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevski (90, 08)

C
Candida by George Bernard Shaw (80)
Candide by Voltaire (80, 86, 87, 91, 95, 96, 04, 06, 10)
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (06)
The Caretaker by Harold Pinter (85)
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (82, 85, 87, 89, 94, 01, 03, 04, 05, 07, 08, 11)
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger (01, 08, 11)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams (00)
Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood (94, 08, 09)
The Centaur by John Updike (81)
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko (94, 96, 97, 99, 01, 03, 05, 06, 07, 09)
The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov (71, 77, 06, 07, 09, 10)
The Chosen by Chaim Potok (08)
“Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau (76)
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (06, 08)
The Color Purple by Alice Walker (92, 94, 95, 96, 97, 05, 08, 09)
Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje (01)
Copenhagen by Michael Frayn (09)
The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett (10)
Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton (85, 87, 91, 95, 96, 07, 09)
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevski (76, 79, 80, 82, 88, 96, 99, 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 09, 10, 11)
“The Crisis” by Thomas Paine (76)
The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy (09)
The Crucible by Arthur Miller (71, 83, 86, 89, 04, 05, 09)

D
Daisy Miller by Henry James (97, 03)
Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel (01)
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (78, 83, 06)
“The Dead” by James Joyce (97)
The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy (86)
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (86, 88, 94, 03, 04, 05, 07)
Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty (97)
Desire under the Elms by Eugene O’Neill (81)
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler (97)
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (06)
The Diviners by Margaret Laurence (95)
Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (79, 86, 99, 04, 11)
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak (10)
A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen (71, 83, 87, 88, 95, 05, 09)
The Dollmaker by Harriet Arnot (91)
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (01, 04, 06, 08)
Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia (03)
Dutchman by Amiri Baraka/Leroi Jones (03, 06)

E
East of Eden by John Steinbeck (06)
Emma by Jane Austen (96, 08)
An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen (76, 80, 87, 99, 01, 07)
Equus by Peter Shaffer (92, 99, 00, 01, 08, 09)
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (80, 85, 03, 05, 06, 07)
The Eumenides by Aeschylus (in The Orestia) (96)

F
The Fall by Albert Camus (81)
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (99, 04, 09)
The Father by August Strindberg (01)
Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev (90)
Faust by Johann Goethe (02, 03)
The Federalist by Alexander Hamilton (76)
Fences by August Wilson (02, 03, 05, 09, 10)
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (03)
Fifth Business by Robertson Davis (00, 07)
The Fixer by Bernard Malamud (07)
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway (03, 06)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (89, 00, 03, 06, 08)
A Free Life: A Novel by Ha Jin (10)

G
A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest Gaines (00, 11)
Germinal by Emile Zola (09)
A Gesture Life by Chang-Rae Lee (04, 05)
Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen (00, 04)
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams (71, 90, 94, 97, 99, 02, 08, 09, 10)
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (10, 11)
Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brien (01, 06, 10)
The Golden Bowl by Henry James (09)
The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford (00, 11)
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (95, 03, 06, 09, 10)
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (79, 80, 88, 89, 92, 95, 96, 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 07, 08, 10)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (82, 83, 88, 91, 92, 97, 00, 02, 04, 05, 07, 10)
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin (83, 88, 90, 05, 09)
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift (87, 89, 01, 04, 06, 09)

H
The Hairy Ape by Eugene O’Neill (89, 0994, 97, 99, 00)
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (03, 09)
Hard Times by Charles Dickens (87, 90, 09)
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (71, 76, 91, 94, 96, 99, 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 06, 09, 10, 11)
The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene (71)
Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen (79, 92, 00, 02, 03, 05)
Henry IV, Parts I and II by William Shakespeare (80, 90, 08)
Henry V by William Shakespeare (02)
A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes (08)
The Homecoming by Harold Pinter (78, 90)
Home to Harlem by Claude McKay (10)
A House for Mr. Biswas by V. S. Naipul (10)
House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday (95, 06, 09)
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (04, 07, 10)
The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne (89)
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (08, 10)

I
The Iliad by Homer (80)
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (06)
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (10)
In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien (00)
In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez (05)
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (76, 77, 78, 82, 83, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 91, 94, 95, 96, 97, 01, 03, 04, 05, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11)

J
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (78, 79, 80, 88, 91, 94, 95, 96, 97, 99, 00, 05, 07, 08, 10)
Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee (99, 10)
J.B. by Archibald MacLeish (81, 94)
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone by August Wilson (00, 04)
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (97, 03)
Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding (99)
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy (71, 76, 80, 85, 87, 95, 04, 09, 10)
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare (82, 97, 05, 07, 09)
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (77, 78, 82, 88, 89, 90, 96, 09

K
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (08)
King Lear by William Shakespeare (77, 78, 82, 88, 89, 90, 96, 01, 03, 04, 05, 06, 08, 10, 11)
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (07, 08, 09)


L
Lady Windermere’s Fan by Oscar Wilde (09)
A Lesson before Dying by Ernest Gaines (99, 11)
Letters from an American Farmer by de Crevecoeur (76), 11)
The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman (85, 90, 10)
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (08)
Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill (90, 03, 07)
Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe (10)
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad (77, 78, 82, 86, 00, 03, 07)
Lord of the Flies by William Golding (85, 08)
The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh (89)
Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich (95)
“Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot (85)
Lysistrata by Aristophanes (87)


M
Macbeth by William Shakespeare (83, 99, 03, 05, 09)
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (80, 85, 04, 05, 06, 09, 10)
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis (87, 09)
Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw (79, 96, 04, 07, 09, 11)
Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw (81)
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (03, 06)
Master Harold...and the Boys by Athol Fugard (03, 08, 09)
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy (94, 99, 00, 02, 07, 10, 11)
M. Butterfly by David Henry Wang (95, 11)
Medea by Euripides (82, 92, 95, 01, 03)
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers (97, 08)
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards (09)
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (85, 91, 95, 02, 03, 11)
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (78, 89)
Middlemarch by George Eliot (95, 04, 05, 07)
Middle Passage by V. S. Naipaul (06)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare (06)
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (90, 92, 04)
The Misanthrope by Moliere (08)
Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West (89)
Moby Dick by Herman Melville (76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 89, 94, 96, 01, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 09)
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe (76, 77, 86, 87, 95, 09)
Monkey Bridge by Lan Cao (00, 03)
The Moor’s Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie (07)
Mother Courage and Her Children by Berthold Brecht (85, 87, 06)
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (94, 97, 04, 05, 07, 11)
Mrs. Warren’s Profession by George Bernard Shaw (87, 90, 95, 02, 09)
Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare (97)
Murder in the Cathedral by T. S. Eliot (76, 80, 85, 95, 07, 11)
“My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning (85)
My Ántonia by Willa Cather (03, 08, 10)
My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok (03)


N
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (09, 10)
Native Son by Richard Wright (79, 82, 85, 87, 95, 01, 04, 09, 11)
Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee (99, 03, 05, 07, 08)
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (09, 10)
1984 by George Orwell (87, 94, 05, 09)
No Exit by John Paul Sartre (86)
No-No Boy by John Okada (95)
Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevski (89)


O
Obasan by Joy Kogawa (94, 95, 04, 05, 06, 07, 10)
The Octopus by Frank Norris (09)
The Odyssey by Homer (86, 06, 10)
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles (77, 85, 88, 00, 03, 04, 11)
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (01)
Old School by Tobia Wolff (08)
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (09)
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn (05, 10)
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (89, 04)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey (01)
O Pioneers! by Willa Cather (06)
The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty (94)
The Orestia by Aeschylus (90)
Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf (04)
Othello by William Shakespeare (79, 85, 88, 92, 95, 03, 04, 07, 11)
The Other by Thomas Tryon (10)
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens (90)
Our Town by Thornton Wilder (86, 97, 09)
Out of Africa by Isaak Dinesen (06)


P
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov (01)
Pamela by Samuel Richardson (86)
A Passage to India by E. M. Forster (71, 77, 78, 88, 91, 92, 07, 09)
Paradise Lost by John Milton (85, 86, 10)
Passing by Nella Larsen (11)
Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen (06)
Père Goriot by Honore de Balzac (02)
Persuasion by Jane Austen (90, 05, 07)
Phaedre by Jean Racine (92, 03)
The Piano Lesson by August Wilson (96, 99, 07, 08, 10)
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (02)
The Plague by Albert Camus (02, 09)
Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov (97)
Pocho by Jose Antonio Villarreal (02, 08)
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (10, 11)
Portrait of a Lady by Henry James ( 88, 92, 96, 03, 05, 07, 11)
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (76, 77, 80, 86, 88, 96, 99, 04, 05, 08, 09, 10, 11)
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene (95)
Praisesong for the Widow by Paule Marshall (96)
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (09)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (83, 88, 92, 97, 08, 11)
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (90, 08)
Push by Sapphire (07)
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw (03, 05, 08)


R
Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow (03, 07)
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (87, 90, 94, 96, 99, 07, 09)
The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope (81)
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (08)
Redburn by Herman Melville (87)
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (00, 03, 11)
Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie (08, 09)
The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy (07)
Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco (09)
Richard III by William Shakespeare (79)
A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean (08)
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (10)
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (10)
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf (76)
A Room with a View by E. M. Forster (03)
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (90, 92, 97, 08)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard (81, 94, 00, 04, 05, 06, 10, 11)


S
Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw (95)
The Sandbox by Edward Albee (71)
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (71, 77, 78, 83, 88, 91, 99, 02, 04, 05, 06, 11)
Sent for You Yesterday by John Edgar Wideman (03)
A Separate Peace by John Knowles (82, 07)
Set This House on Fire by William Styron (11)
The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (97)
Silas Marner by George Eliot (02)
Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser (87, 02, 04, 09, 10)
Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (10)
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (91, 04)
Snow by Orhan Pamuk (09)
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson (00, 10)
A Soldier’s Play by Charles Fuller (11)
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison (81, 88, 96, 00, 04, 05, 06, 07, 10)
Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence (77, 90)
Sophie’s Choice by William Styron (09)
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (77, 86, 97, 01, 07, 08)
The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence (96, 04)
The Story of Edgar sawtelle by David Wroblewski (11)
The Stranger by Albert Camus (79, 82, 86, 04)
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams (91, 92, 01, 04, 07, 08, 09, 1, 110)
The Street by Ann Petry (07)
Sula by Toni Morrison (92, 97, 02, 04, 07, 08, 10)
Surfacing by Margaret Atwood (05)
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (85, 91, 95, 96, 04, 05)


T
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (82, 91, 04, 08)
Tarftuffe by Moliere (87)
The Tempest by William Shakespeare (71, 78, 96, 03, 05, 07, 10)
Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (82, 91, 03, 06, 07)
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zorah Neale Hurston (88, 90, 91, 96, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 10, 11)
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (91, 97, 03, 09, 10, 11)
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien (04, 09)
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (06)
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (11)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (08, 09, 11)
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (77, 86, 88, 08)
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding (90, 00, 06, 08)
Tracks by Louise Erdrich (05)
The Trial by Franz Kafka (88, 89, 00, 11)
Trifles by Susan Glaspell (00)
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne (86)
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (92, 94, 00, 02, 04, 08)
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare (85, 94, 96, 11)
Typical American by Gish Jen (02, 03, 05)


U
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (87, 09)
U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos (09)


V
The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith (06)
Victory by Joseph Conrad (83)
Volpone by Ben Jonson (83)


W
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (77, 85, 86, 89, 94, 01, 09)
The Warden by Anthony Trollope (96)
Washington Square by Henry James (90)
The Wasteland by T. S. Eliot (81)
Watch on the Rhine by Lillian Hellman (87)
The Way of the World by William Congreve (71)
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope (06)
We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates (07)
Who Has Seen the Wind by W. O. Mitchell (11)
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee (88, 94, 00, 04, 07, 11)
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (89, 92, 05, 07, 08)
The Wild Duck by Henrik Ibsen (78)
Winter in the Blood by James Welch (95)
Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare (82, 89, 95, 06)
Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor (82, 89, 95, 09, 10)
Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston (91, 08)
The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor (09, 10)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (71,77, 78, 79, 83, 86, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 96, 97, 99, 01, 06, 07, 08, 10)


Z
The Zoo Story by Edward Albee (82, 01)
Zoot Suit by Luis Valdez (95)


Other terrific books: 
Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer
Walking Stars by Victor Villasenor
White Noise by Don Delillo
Down & Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
The Shack by William P. Young
The Sin Eater by Sandra Cisneros
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by Janet Evenivich
One for the Money Two for the Dough by Janet Evenivich
Angel Falls by Nora Roberts
Blue Dahlia by Nora Roberts
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
Call of the Wild by Jack London
Old Yeller by Fred Gipson
Gingerbread Girl by Stephen King
Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
HP: Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
HP: Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The Inexcusable by Chris Lynch
Deadly Partners by Christine Green
Identical by Ellen Hopkins
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Long Fall by Walter Mosely
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
Under the Dome by Stephen King
The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks
A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
You’ve Been Warned by Michael Connelly
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
 Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Dark Angel by V.C. Andrews
The Stand by Stephen King
The Shack by William P. Young
The Lake House by James Patterson
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Black Company by Glen Cook
Shadows Linger by Glen Cook
Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
The Screwtape Letters C.S. Lewis
The Haunting by Joan Lowery Nixon
Blue is for Nightmares Laurie Stolarz
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly
The Hard Way by Lee Child
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

December 8

AGENDA:

1) In Class Essay on Waiting for Godot

December 7

AGENDA:

1) Socratic Seminar

December 6

AGENDA:

1) Waiting for Godot in music - what are the metaphors?
1) Finish play
2) Discussion questions - Act 2
3) Think about the play from a psychological perspective, a religious perspective, a social perspective and a formal (plot, structure, character development) perspective. What is the author's intentions?

December 5

AGENDA:

1) Waiting for Godot trailer
2) Read Act 2

December 2

AGENDA:

1) Vocabulary quiz
2) Read Act 2 - look for similarities and differences from Act 1/exits and entrances / shifts -
Discuss in groups:

1) How has the scene changed?
2) As with Act 1, this act opens at evening time. How important is this detail? Would the scene feel different it it were morning? What's the difference?
3) How does Estragon respond to the signs of spring? How does he see them?
4) Define the differences between the character Vladimir and Estragon.
5) Why do they stay together and talk so much, according to Estragon?
6) To what do Vladimir and Estragon refer when they discuss the dead voices? How much do we know?
7) Why does Vladimir suddenly start talking to Estragon as Pozzo does to Lucky?
8) Estragon says that they always find something to give them the impression that they exist. Why do they need to do so?
9) When they believe Godot has arrived, Vladimir believes that they are saved. From what, do you think? And how does he view the power of Godot?



Act 2 beginning Waiting for Godot

December 1

AGENDA:

1) Monsterpiece Theater - Waiting for Godot
2) Complete reading Act 1
3) What does it mean to be free? What is freedom? How does the theme of freedom and being free play into the play? How is this play a tragicomedy?


HW: Study for vocabulary

November 30

AGENDA:

1) "Guinea Pig Theater"
2) Discuss reading so far
3) Act out scene from play two different ways - which is truer, more natural?

HW: What is the nature of the scene between Pozzo and Lucky? Contemplate their presence. What notes and themes do they bring into the play? Do they change the tone? Do we learn anything new about Vladimir and Estragon as a result of their presence? How do they react to Pozzo and Lucky?

November 29

AGENDA:

1) Examples of Theater of the Absurd / Comedy
2) Read part of Act 1 - Waiting for Godot


HW: Reading Waiting for Godot; respond to questions (see below)


Reading of Waiting for Godot - Day 1 homework



Questions for reading Day 1

November 28

AGENDA:

1) Handout vocabulary for the week
2) Literary terms (handout) - tragicomedy, the fourth wall , stycomithea, Existentialism
3) Theater of the Absurd / Samuel Beckett

HW: 1-Vocabulary due tomorrow.
2 -Read the 32 insults and the 21 humorous quips and select five and tell me why you think they are funny or what makes them funny? Is there tragedy in comedy; and comedy in tragedy? Explain.



Theatre of the Absurd

November 22

AGENDA:

1) HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
2)

MEANINGS, SIGNS, SYMBOLS & VOCABULARY

Essay & Vocabulary

Answer the following question in a thoughtful, well-organized essay:

Compare your thought process to that of the average chimpanzee or shampoo slave.  Be sure to define and analyze the following concepts: signs, symbols, referents, meaning situations, and the relationship of language to power.

 

November 21

AGENDA:

1) Socratic seminar on "Are you a Shampoo Slave?"
2) Begin homework if time...


HW: Handout on shampoo; come to you own conclusion about whether people should use shampoo; argue your point to someone prior to coming to class.

November 18

AGENDA:

1) Vocabulary Quiz (take out your active reading notes while you take quiz so I can give you points for your homework)
2) Discuss reading from homework
3) Group discussion/class discussion - Existentialism - who are we and why do we exist?



HW: Meanings, signs and symbols part 3 - come to class on Monday prepared to answer the question, "Are you a Shampoo Slave?"



meanings signs and symbols 3

November 17

AGENDA:

1) Video
2) Discuss the reading from the homework
3) Intro into Drama/Comedy and the similarities and differences

HW: Read Meaning, Signs and Symbols part 2 and be ready to discuss on Friday - take active reading notes



meanings signs and symbols 2

November 16

AGENDA:

Due to the assembly - classes will read homework and begin taking active reading notes in class

HW: Read Meaning, Signs and Symbols part 1 and be ready to discuss in class on Thursday - take active reading notes




meanings signs and symbols 1

November 15

AGENDA:

1) Vocabulary check
2) Journal Write:
     Write a outlandish fake absence excuse using any five of    this week's vocabulary words.
3) Complete poetry analysis as a class



Vocabulary Quiz 8

November 14

AGENDA:

1) Vocabulary worksheet handout
2) Vocabulary quiz
3) Poetry analysis presentations

HW: Vocabulary sentences; rewrite
"From the Lighthouse"

November 10

AGENDA:




1) Journal Write -
Every once in a while, often during moments of extreme stress, ordinary people do extraordinary things. What makes this possible? Can you apply this idea over the next few weeks to achieve your academic goals for the semester?

2) Group work on poem - exchange ideas and thoughts;
write up two paragraphs analyzing the poem
3) Poem handout, annotate, analyze and be ready to present to class on Monday


HW: Study vocabulary; poem annotation

November 9

AGENDA:

1) Practice CAHSEE Test
2) Student conferences

HW: Handout on Flora Podmore, "From the Lighthouse"; read and annotate as much as possible and be ready to discuss or possibly turn in your annotations or possibly have a quiz on the poem.

November 8

AGENDA:

1) Vocabulary sentences
2) CAHSEE Practice Test

November 7

AGENDA:

1) Vocabulary worksheets handed out
2) Poems read from Friday's class
3) Handout on poetry assignment / grade conference handout
4) Literary terms PPT

HW: Vocabulary worksheets; read and answer questions to poem in journals


My Papa's Waltz



Lit terms poetry

November 4

AGENDA:

1) Word choice, word order, and tone - 2 poems compared

HW: Literature Analysis!

November 3

AGENDA:

1) Review class analysis'
2) Look at AP student analysis
3) Discussion


Writing a Critique or Analysis:
1st Part - give an overview of the ideas and themes, and states the reader's view of the poem.
2nd Part - give a detailed explanation of how the ideas are developed and presented each paragraph deals with a separate aspect, ie argument, structure, language. Each paragraph is supported with examples and details.
3rd Part - a brief summary of the main argument about the poem and its effectiveness.

November 2

AGENDA:

1) Read "Spring and Fall (To a Young Child)"
by Gerald Manley Hopkins
2) Analyze the poem
3) Write a group analysis


HW: Good time to think about getting a literary analysis done. No other homework this week.


TONE/ATTITUDE WORDS

1.        accusatory-charging of wrong doing

2.        apathetic-indifferent due to lack of energy or concern

3.        awe-solemn wonder

4.        bitter-exhibiting strong animosity as a result of pain or grief

5.        cynical-questions the basic sincerity and goodness of people

6.        condescension; condescending-a feeling of superiority

7.        callous-unfeeling, insensitive to feelings of others

8.        contemplative-studying, thinking, reflecting on an issue

9.        critical-finding fault

10.     choleric-hot-tempered, easily angered

11.     contemptuous-showing or feeling that something is worthless or lacks respect

12.     caustic-intense use of sarcasm; stinging, biting

13.     conventional-lacking spontaneity, originality, and individuality

14.     disdainful-scornful

15.     didactic-author attempts to educate or instruct the reader

16.     derisive-ridiculing, mocking

17.     earnest-intense, a sincere state of mind

18.     erudite-learned, polished, scholarly

19.     fanciful-using the imagination

20.     forthright-directly frank without hesitation

21.     gloomy-darkness, sadness, rejection

22.     haughty-proud and vain to the point of arrogance

23.     indignant-marked by anger aroused by injustice

24.     intimate-very familiar

25.     judgmental-authoritative and often having critical opinions

26.     jovial-happy

27.     lyrical-expressing a poet’s inner feelings; emotional; full of images; song-like

28.     matter-of-fact--accepting of conditions; not fanciful or emotional

29.     mocking-treating with contempt or ridicule

30.     morose-gloomy, sullen, surly, despondent

31.     malicious-purposely hurtful

32.     objective-an unbiased view-able to leave personal judgments aside

33.     optimistic-hopeful, cheerful

34.     obsequious-polite and obedient in order to gain something

35.     patronizing-air of condescension

36.     pessimistic-seeing the worst side of things; no hope

37.     quizzical-odd, eccentric, amusing

38.     ribald-offensive in speech or gesture

39.     reverent-treating a subject with honor and respect

40.     ridiculing-slightly contemptuous banter; making fun of

41.     reflective-illustrating innermost thoughts and emotions

42.     sarcastic-sneering, caustic

43.     sardonic-scornfully and bitterly sarcastic

44.     satiric-ridiculing to show weakness in order to make a point, teach

45.     sincere-without deceit or pretense; genuine

46.     solemn-deeply earnest, tending toward sad reflection

47.     sanguineous -optimistic, cheerful

48.     whimsical-odd, strange, fantastic; fun

November 1

AGENDA:

1) Looking at movie reviews / music reviews / theater reviews / book reviews
2) How do these relate to us?
3) Handouts on poetry to get us started

October 25

AGENDA:

1) Active and Passive Voice
2) Literary Terms / Test taking strategies

HW: Unit Final - October 26-27; Vocabulary Test October 28

October 24

AGENDA:

1) Julius Caesar themes


HW: Unit Final - October 26-27; Vocabulary Test October 28


JC themes




LITERATURE ANALYSIS