GREEN MEADOW WALDORF SCHOOL OUTSIDE READING LIST GRADE 11 2017-2018 REMINDERS: 1) Read as many plays as you wish, but choose only one for a book report. 2) If you choose to write on a work of literature not on this list, you must check with your English teacher first to receive approval. 3) Passing off a previously written book report, yours or someone else’s, will be considered a serious violation of academic ethics and will be dealt with sternly. FICTION The Outlander Adamson How can a nineteen-year-old widow make her way alone in the western Canadian mountains, pursued by husband’s two brothers, when she knows nothing of the wilderness? Raw, potent, well-written. Brick Lane Ali Lives of immigrants in London, focusing on a young woman with an arranged marriage. Emma Austen A clever, pretty, powerful and smug young woman’s matchmaking schemes eventually deepen and humble her. Pride and Prejudice Austen Famous early 19th century novel presents witty, acerbic sketches of the English country gentry and their occupations and preoccupations. A Place to Stand Baca The extraordinary autobiography of a Chicano who, growing up in Albuquerque, seems slated, even fated, for prison. Although illiterate at age twenty-one, Baca teaches himself to read in a maximum security prison, finding remarkable transformative power through the word, becoming a potently vital poet of recognized stature. Voyage of the Narwhal Barrett A fine novel of men and women, scientists and artists, connected to an American expedition sailing to the Arctic in the 1840s. In the Days of Vittorio Bell James Kaywaykla’s first-hand account of the last years of Warm Springs Apache Chiefs Vittorio and Nana, in the time of Geronimo. The Exonerated Blank & The authors combine their interviews with people exonerated from (Play) Jensen death row with their own memoirs of how they explored these people’s stories to create a play from the material. March Brooks The Pulitzer-Prize winning story of the Civil War experiences of Mr. March, the absent father of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. A vivid recreation of a Northerner’s experiences in the South, including characters such as Emerson. Thoreau, and John Brown. The Horse’s Mouth Cary The adventures of an inimitable iconoclastic artist, Gulley Jimson, about living, speaking, acting in acting in freedom. The Amazing Chabon The social history of America in the 20th Century as seen through Adventures of the eyes of a New York comic book writer. Humor, adventure Kavalier and Clay beautiful love stories. I am One of You Chappell A southern farm family’s stories about themselves and … stories. Forever The Man Who Chesterton An alarming and fast-moving political fantasy which pits a sturdy Was Thursday individual against a cadre of murderous anarchists. Segu Conde Several generations of the Bambara tribe (present Mali - West Africa) encounter white slave traders and Muslim converters in the 18th and 19th centuries. Heart of Darkness Conrad Archetypal story of a mission upriver into the jungle to “rescue” a man mad with power. The Power of One Courtenay The engrossing novel of a boy, growing up in South Africa around World War II, who finds boxing to be his way into the world. The Farming of Danticat A novel set around the time of the 1937 massacre in Haiti, a story of Bones individual struggle set against a historical backdrop. The writing and the content are vivid, disturbing and powerful. Danticat is an emerging young Haitian author. Bird Without de Bernieres A multi-textured, multi-generational portrait of a Greek, Christian/ Wings Muslim village in Turkey around the beginning of the 20th Century. Crime and Dostoyevsky A poor student explores the question of whether great people can live; Punishment above or outside the law, putting his life and others’ on the line. The Birth of Venus Durant Set in Renaissance Florence in the time of the Medicis and Savonarola; the novel explores the roles of art and love in a young woman’s life during dramatic civil and social change. The Name of the Rose Eco A philosophical, medieval murder mystery. Love Medicine Erdrich A lush, impressionistic story of an eccentric Native-American family. The Antelope Erdrich Ojibway Indians in modern Minneapolis, where there still deer Wife ` husbands and wives who are part antelope. The Sound and Faulkner The Fury Such is Hu Fayun An extraordinary new novel, finally published controversially in China This [email protected] in 2007, just translated into English, this novel explores contemporary themes, any through internet comraderies. 2 The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald The hero pursues his own distorted vision of the American dream, in the mood and manners of the 1920’s. Memoirs of a Geisha Golden A window into the fascinating and disappearing world of a Japanese geisha. Dead Souls Gogol The ingenious story of a clever Russian who generates power and respect based on...dead souls. The Power and Greene Set in Mexico early in this century; the last priest in the land is hunted the Glory by a government bent on crushing all religious impulses. The Widow’s War Gunning A Cape Cod whaler’s widow finds her way in the 1760s, discovering notions strange to her family, her neighbors, local law, and to herself. Far From the Hardy Set in Hardy’s imaginary Wessex (England) and featuring one of his Madding Crowd most endearing heroines, the determined Bathsheba Everdene. An unconventional love story, written by a male Victorian feminist! Tess of the Hardy A story of betrayal and love, abandonment and revenge, set in the lush D’urbervilles pastoral beauty of Hardy’s Wessex countryside. A classic portrait of Victorian characters trapped and molded by society’s conventions, written with a modern viewpoint. Plainsong Haruf A subdued portrait of a quiet town in the Plains, in the foothills of the Rockies. The characters become engrained, like weathered wood, as two old brothers discover connections to one young woman. Catch 22 Heller Fast, funny, sprawling account of American soldiers in Italy during World War I. A Soldier of the Helprin A journey of immense courage, a profound love story; discourses on Great War the beauty of Italy and art, mountain climbing, and the horrors of World War I. Refiner’s Fire Helprin Superbly written; young man’s restless, restful modern quest. Winter’s Tale Helprin Magical realism hits New York City, complete with angels, gangsters and flying horses. For Whom the Hemingway An American joins in a doomed but heroic resistance to enemy forces Bell Tolls in the Spanish Civil War. Steppenwolf Hesse Of Steppenwolf, Hesse said, “It is not a book of a man despairing but of a man believing. The hero struggles to reconcile the beast, the man, and the angel in himself and to make sense of the pieces of life’s game.” A Thousand Hosseini The turbulent politics of Afghanistan seen through 30 years of a Splendid Suns compelling human story. Their Eyes Were Hurston The journey of a powerful Black woman through the rural South 3 Watching God in the 1920’s. Middle Passage Johnson The potent story of a free Black man’s journey from New Orleans to Africa and back on a slave ship in the 1830s. Ordinary Wolves Kantner A potent portrayal of a contemporary white family growing up vibrantly among the Inuit in the Alaskan Arctic. The language participates in the story. Zorba the Greek Katzanzakis Exuberant story of a scholarly teacher from England who learns the dance of life from a Greek laborer, dreamer, and lover of life. Poisonwood Bible Kingsolver The Belgian Congo of the 1950’s and 1960’s seen through the eyes of an American missionary family set against the backdrop of political assassinations and corruptions. The Unbearable Kundera The political repression in Czechoslovakia under Communism and Lightness of Being its reverberations in the souls of men and women. A particular kind of a love story. Laughing Boy LaFarge A story of love--with a hard edge--between the Navajo hero Laughing Boy, who knew nothing of the white world, and Slim Girl, who knew all too much of it. The Collected Works Reif Larsen This novel is unlike any other; the story of a brilliant boy’s journey of T.S. Spivet from West to East, from Montana to Washington D.C., will intrigue anyone who is intrigued by…everything. Amazing, refreshing. Sons and Lovers Lawrence Charts the growth of a young English boy to manhood, his relationship with his mother and two young women who vie for his affection. Inherit the Wind Lawrence/Lee Colorful courtroom drama of the famous “monkey trials” of the 1920’s, debating of Darwin’s theory of evolution. The German Lesson Lenz An artist is forbidden to paint by the Nazis. After the war his works become valuable—one boy seeks to steal them, but why? Memoirs of a Lessing Set in the future when the structure of society has broken down; a Survivor woman discovers her humanity and balance in the midst of inhumanity. The Goat Llosa The story of the last year of the dictator of the Dominican Republic. The Storyteller Llosa A modern man disappears into the mysterious world of the crucial role of the storyteller among tribes of the Amazon. A Thrall’s Tale Lindbergh Greenland, c. 1000 A.D. Vivid, tough language tells the tale of the thrall (slave), her daughter and the seer/teacher, three generations of women in the twilight Viking world of Thor, Odin, and Freya, as 4 Christianity just begins to dawn in the new world. Memories of Makine An unusual memoir of a Russian youth with his French grandmother, My Russian Summers spanning decades from the 1890s with Czar Nicholas and Alexandra in Paris, all the way to the 1960s, with vivid scenes and insightful distinctions between Russian and French consciousness.