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AP English IV Summer Reading Tips

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AP English IV Summer Reading Tips Summer Reading for AP Literature Seniors You are expected to read at least two novels (classic or contemporary) this summer. Both are free choice; however; the books should be of some literary merit with a mature reader in mind. The authors and works on the following page are provided as suggestions. As you make your novel choices, you may wish to consider the following advice from the College Board: “Reading in an AP course is both wide and deep. The goal of this year’s reading is that it will complement and extend the reading done in previous AP courses so that by the time you are finished with your Senior year, you will have read from several genres and time periods.” Imitate the thinking patterns of insightful readers: Absorb the work’s complexity and its richness of meaning Reflect upon its artistry Consider the social and historical values it reflects and embodies Experience, interpret, evaluate Make careful observations of the details, make connections among your observations, draw from these connections a series of inferences that will lead you to an interpretive conclusion about meaning of the work Tips: To widen your cultural horizons of literature, consider a novel written by a non-American author representative of a culture other than your own Consider choosing a novel that explores controversial topics that are artistically represented in the piece of literature: ethnicities, nationalities, religions, races, dialects, gender, or class Suggested Authors, as per College Board, are on the back of this sheet. You are not required to select works by these authors, but it is an excellent list to consider. You may also want to peruse the bestsellers lists of The New York Times, Amazon, Dallas Morning News, Barnes and Noble, etc. Family members and friends may also offer fine suggestions. ABOVE ALL: ENJOY THE BENEFITS OF READING: 1. Escape the stress & boredom of your daily life. 2. Become more imaginative. 3. Become more creative. 4. Learn stuff. 5. Become a more compassionate human being. 6. Participate in a timeless, global conversation. 7. Join the family of book addicts. 8. Improve your memory. 9. Improve your critical thinking skills. 10. Improve your writing style. The following authors are provided simply to suggest the range and quality of reading expected in this course. Drama (Classic and Modern) Aeschylus; Edward Albee; Amiri Baraka; Samuel Beckett; Anton Chekhov; Caryl Churchill; William Congreve; Athol Fugard; Lorrain Hansberry; Lillian Hellman; David Henry Hwang; Henrik Ibsen; Ben Johnson; David Mamet; Arthur Miller; Molière; Marsh Norman; Sean O’Casey; Eugene O’Neill; Suzan-Lori Parks; Harold Pinter; Luigi Pirandello; William Shakespeare; George Bernard Shaw; Sam Shepard; Sophocles; Tom Stoppard; Luis Valdez; Oscar Wilde; Tennessee Williams; August Wilson Fiction (Classic and Modern) Chinua Achebe, Sherman Alexie, Isabel Allende, Rudolfo Anaya, Margaret Atwood; Jane Austen; James Baldwin; Saul Bellow; Charlotte Brontë; Emily Brontë; Raymond Carver; Willa Cather; John Cheever; Kate Chopin; Sandra Cisneros; Joseph Conrad; Edwidge Danticat; Daniel Defoe; Anita Desai; Charles Dickens; Fyodor Dostoevsky; George Elliot; Ralph Ellison; Louise Erdrich; William Faulkner; Henry Fielding; F. Scott Fitzgerald; E.M. Forster; Thomas Hardy; Nathaniel Hawthorne; Ernest Hemingway; Zora Neale Hurston; Kazuo Ishiguro; Henry James; Ha Jin; Edward P/ Jones; James Joyce; Maxine Hong Kingston; Joy Kogawa; Jhumpa Lahiri; Margaret Laurence; D. H. Lawrence; Chang-rae Lee; Bernard Malamud; Gabriel García Márquez; Cormac McCarthy; Ian McEwan; Herman Melville; Toni Morrison. Bharati Mukherjee; Vladimir Nabokov; Flannery O’Connor; Orhan Pamuk; Katherine Anne Porter; Marilynne Robinson; Jonathan Swift; Mark Twain; John Updike; Alice Walker; Evelyn Waugh; Eudora Welty; Edith Wharton; John Edgar Wideman; Virginia Woolf; Richard Wright Source: © 2008 The College Board. All rights reserved. Visit the College Board on the web: www.collegeboard.com. .
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