| Literature
Selections: |
Bosse -- The Examination
Set in the Ming Dynasty in China, this historical
novel traces the adventures of two very different but
loving brothers as they journey across the breadth of
China. They are traveling to allow the scholar brother
to take the coveted civil service examinations, which
will guarantee their future. They encounter floods, battles,
great food, fascinating people, and serious peril on their
rigorous journey. Many interesting cultural and historical
details are integrated into the exciting storyline. |
| Buck -- The Good
Earth
The Good Earth follows the life of Wang Lung,
from his beginnings as an impoverished peasant to his
eventual position as a prosperous landowner. He is aided
immeasurably by his equally humble wife, O-Lan, with
whom he shares a devotion to the land, to duty, and
to survival. |
Campbell -- The Power of Myth
In this nonfiction book based on his 6-part PBS series,
anthropologist Joseph Campbell shows us not only the magic
of myths, but he also shows us how myths relate to aspects
and events of contemporary life. Since as an anthropologist,
Campbell was a specialist in comparative mythology, the
reader gets something of a world tour while being shown
the connections among the various myth systems of our
planet. |
| Camus -- The
Plague
Set in Algeria, in northern Africa, The Plague
is a powerful study of human life and its meaning in
the face of a deadly virus that sweeps dispassionately
through the city, taking a vast percentage of the population
with it. |
Camus -- The Stranger
In this Existentialist novel Camus explores the tension
between the French and the Arabs in Algeria as well as
conflicts within the self. |
Cheng, Nien -- Life and Death
in Shanghai
Nien Cheng tells the story of seven harrowing years in
solitary confinement during China's Cultural Revolution. |
| Dineson -- Out
of Africa
From 1914 to 1931, Danish aristocrat Baroness Karen
Blixen owned and operated a coffee plantation in Kenya.
After the plantation failed, she returned to Europe
and began to write under the pen name Isak Dinesen.
Out of Africa reads like a collection of stories
in which she adheres to no strict chronology, gives
no explanation of the facts of her life, and apologizes
for nothing. |
Dorris
-- Yellow Raft on Blue Water
Moving backward in time, Dorris' critically acclaimed
debut novel is a lyrical saga of three generations of
Native American women beset by hardship and torn by angry
secrets |
Forster -- A Passage to India
E.M. Forster is known for his studies of class, economic
status, and nationality. His novels center on the ways
these aspects of life affect relationships between people.
During the Raj, three English people come to India for
the first time. There they encounter an Indian doctor
who is intrigued with them and wishes to get to know them
better. Conflicts develop due to the differences in cultural
background and these conflicts lead to dire consequences.
|
Fuller, A. -- Don't Let's Go
to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood
This memoir provides a dramatic account of a childhood
spent in Rhodesia, Zambia and Malawi, some of the most
troubled and unstable environments in Africa. Family faces
challenges -- wild animals to social injustices. |
Gogol -- The Overcoat
and Other Tales of Good and Evil
Since several editions of this well-known and important
title story have been produced, you must take care to
obtain the correct edition. Pay careful attention to the
exact title. |
Hemingway -- For
Whom the Bell Tolls
Inspired by Hemingway’s experience as a war
correspondent, this novel focuses on a love story that
develops in the midst of the Spanish Civil War. |
Kipling -- Kim
This classic tale of adventure follows the orphaned
Kim as he goes from living from hand to mouth on the streets
of Lahore to becoming the guide and protector of a Tibetan
lama. |
| Markandaya --
Nectar in a Sieve
Rukmani, a peasant from a village in India, lives
a life of constant struggle, yet she is a source of
strength for many. |
| Paton -- Cry,
the Beloved Country
Called by some critics the greatest novel to come
out of "The tragedy of South Africa," this
novel focuses on the human conflicts produced by the
Apartheid System. |
Potok -- The Chosen
Two Jewish boys, one Orthodox and one Hasidic, grow
up in two entirely different worlds in 1940’s Brooklyn
in this novel of fathers, sons, and expectations. When
the boys meet, first as opponents and later as friends,
their lives intertwine and become more complicated. |
| Smith
-- I Capture the Castle
Seventeen-year-old Cassandra lives in not-so-genteel
poverty in the crumbling ruin of an old English castle,
along with her father (a writer suffering from writer's
block), her mother (a beautiful free spirit named Topaz),
an older sister, Rose, a younger brother, Thomas, and
young Stephen -- the orphaned son of a former maid.
Life gets more complicated with the arrival of the estate's
young, handsome American landlords, Simon and Neal,
who take a romantic interest in Cassandra and Rose.
|
Stevenson -- Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Brilliantly anticipating modern psychology, Stevenson's
story of the kindly scientist who drinks a potion that
nightly transforms him into a stunted, evil version of
himself is a tale of incomparable suspense and horror. |
Stevenson -- Treasure
Island
If you enjoy pirate stories, this is the original.
One day when he is working at his parents’ seaside
inn, young Jim Hawkins encounters Black Dog, and the pirate
adventure begins! Follow Jim and Long John Silver as they
vie for the buried treasure. |
| Xingjian,
Gao -- Soul Mountain
Gao, recipient of Noble Prize in Literature, diagnosed
with lung cancer and given only a few weeks to live.
He was mistakenly diagnosed, and the news gave him renewed
passion for life. It is a fictional account of Gao's
flight from Beijing across rural China to escape the
Cultural Revolution. |
| ADDITIONAL
Selections: |
| In an effort
to make sure all of our students are being adequately
challenged, we have decided to add to the list several
books that require parental
permission for the student to receive Summer Reading
credit for those books. These are books that may contain
more mature subject matter and/or more challenging material
than the regular 10th grade list. The parental permission
slip appears at the end of the list. |
| |
| Golden
-- Memoirs of a Geisha
Sold into slavery by her family to a famous geisha
house, beautiful Chiyo takes a new name and learns to
survive in a cruel, competitive world. As Sayuri, she
becomes a great success. |
Hosseini --
The Kite Runner
In this novel set in Afghanistan, the political story
parallels the personal story, and in this case parallel
lines sometimes meet. A powerful and harrowing story,
this novel traces the maturation process of its young
narrator as it follows him from Afghanistan to the United
States. |
| London
-- Gilgamesh
Set in 1937 on a farm in rural Australia, this novel
follows the intertwined lives of Edith and two men,
her English cousin Leopold and his Armenian friend Aram.
The men, just back from an archeological dig in Iraq,
tell Edith such fascinating stories, such as the epic
of Gilgamesh, about the world beyond the confines of
the small Australian town that they tempt her to travel
seeking adventure. She encounters love, friendship,
grief, and loss against the backdrop of the world war. |
See -- Snow
Flower and the Secret Fan
This novel is set in China in the 19th century, a
period in which many women’s feet were still bound.
In Hunan, women developed a secret form of writing known
only to a few. Women used this secret writing to get around
some of the restrictions that governed their lives. |
| Sijie
-- Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
During China’s Cultural Revolution, two city
boys are sent to a distant village in the mountains
for “re-education.” When they meet the lovely
daughter of a tailor, they also uncover a cache of Western
books that have been translated into Chinese. Interesting
events transpire as they read the banned works and experience
adventures. |
Solzhenitsyn
-- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
For a long time this novel was forbidden to be published
in Soviet Russia. Read it, and you will see why. The structure
of the novel is built on exactly what the title says it
is: one day in the life of a prisoner in a Siberian prison
camp. |
| >>
Download PARENTAL PERMISSION SLIP |
