Roslyn High School
English Department
Summer Reading 2008
For students entering
Grade 11
Dear Student,
If you
plan to enroll in the American Literature (regents) class, you are required to read one selection from the following
list.
If you plan to enroll in the American
Literature and Analysis (honors) class, you are required to read two (2) selections from the list. At least one of those titles must
be designated as Ňmore challenging.Ó Those titles marked with an asterisk (*) are considered
Ňmore challenging.Ó
During the month of September, you will be asked to respond to an in-class assignment based on your book. You will receive a grade which will be part of your first quarter average.
Sincerely,
Eleventh Grade English Teachers
FICTION
*Atwood,
Margaret
The
HandmaidŐs Tale
Set in the near future, America has
become a puritanical theocracy and Offred tells her story as a Handmaid under
the new social order.
Danticat, Edwidge
Breath, Eyes, Memory
Sophie Caco, a child who was born
of rape, leaves Haiti at twelve to join her mother in New York City, where they
both battle with the results of sexual abuse.
Dick, Phillip K.
Do Androids Dream of
Electric Sheep
In January 2021, years after World War Terminus has
destroyed the planet, bounty hunter Rick Deckard remains on the Earth pursuing
his vocation of hunting down and killing rogue androids.
*Doctorow, E. L.
The March
Presents an historical novel that centers around William
Tecumseh Sherman's march through Georgia and the Carolinas and those he
encounters along the way which include a freed slave girl named Pearl; a Union
regimental surgeon, Colonel Sartorius; Emily Thompson, the daughter of a
Southern judge; and two misfit soldiers.
*Fitzgerald,
F. Scott
Tender is
the Night
This novel
explores the moral failure of a group of Americans living in Europe between the
two World Wars. Through them,
Fitzgerald illustrates the tragedy of wasted lives and abandoned dreams.
*Greene,
Graham
Set in Mexico
during the era of anticlerical violence by revolutionaries, the story depicts
the martyrdom of the last Roman Catholic priest, who is being hunted by a
police lieutenant. The "whisky priest" has broken most of his vows,
but nevertheless insists upon performing his duties until his capture and
execution.
Altar boy
Michael Devlin befriends a Rabbi in the late 1940's, and a deep friendship,
with vast consequences, develops between them.
*Hemingway,
Ernest
A Farewell
to Arms
An American
ambulance driver serving on the Austro-Italian front becomes entangled with an
English nurse and deserts to join her after the retreat of Caparetto.
Hesse, Herman
Steppenwolf
A man searches
for self-discovery in this semi-autobiographical novel, set with fantastic
overtones.
Irving, John
A Prayer
for Owen Meany
This novel tells
the story of Owen Meany, who believes he is GodŐs instrument, and of his
friendship with John Wheelwright , whose mother Owen killed when he hit a foul ball during a Little League game
in 1953 when Owen was eleven.
The Natural
Gifted
baseball player Roy Hobbs, his career derailed by a youthful indiscretion,
makes a stunning comeback in later life, but finds himself still struggling
against the temptations that would bring him to ruin.
A Clock
without Hands
Set in Georgia
on the eve of court-ordered integration, Clock without Hands is a
poignant statement on race, class, and justice. A small-town druggist dying of
leukemia calls himself and his community to account for its racism.
Oates, Joyce Carol
We Were
the Mulvaneys
The Mulvaneys,
at first a close and very lucky family, drift apart over the years, until the
youngest son, Judd, discovers the secret of their downfall and sets out to help
reunite the family.
Steinbeck,
John
Tortilla
Flat
Above the town
of Monterey on the California coast lies the shabby district of Tortilla Flat
where Danny and his colorful group of friends live. Their revelry recalls the exploits of King ArthurŐs knights.
East
of Eden
This
sprawling and often brutal novel, set in the rich farmlands of California's
Salinas Valley, follows the intertwined destinies of two families--the Trasks
and the Hamiltons--whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and
Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
Pudd'nhead
Wilson
A young slave
woman exchanges her light skinned child with her master's, in this engrossing
story of reversed identities in the 19th century South.
Vonnegut,
Kurt
In this
satirical science fiction novel, a group of grotesque people find themselves on
the imaginary island of San Lorenzo, where they learn about ice-nice and
espouse a new religion of Bokononism.
NON- FICTION
Alvarez,
Julia
How the
Garcia Girls Lost their Accents
This is the
story of four sisters and their family as they become Americanized after
fleeing the Dominican Republic in the 1960Ős.
Armstrong,
a U.S. Olympic cyclist, winner of the World Championship and Tour de France,
faced the greatest challenge when he was diagnosed with cancer in 1996.
Armstrong beat the cancer and proceeded to stun all winning the 1999 Tour de
France.
Barbash,
Tom
On
Top of the World: Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, & 9/11: A Story of
Loss & Renewal
In the
attacks of September 11, 2001,
658 of
New York brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald's 1,000 New York employees were
killed. Immediately following the events, author Tom Barbash traveled to New
York to profile his college friend, Cantor CEO Howard Lutnick, and chronicle
the firm's struggles to stay in business and help its employees' families.
In this
autobiographical account of his time as an infantry officer in Vietnam, Caputo
describes what the experience of the war meant to this young college graduate,
an enlisted 'gung-ho' lieutenant in the Marine Corps.
Feig, Paul
Kick Me:
Adventures in Adolescence
A humorous
memoir in which Paul Feig, the creator of the television series Freaks and
Geeks recalls some of the more humiliating experiences of his
public school career during the 1970Ős.
More than
a Game
JacksonŐs third
book brings him, and his co-author Charley Rosen, to Los Angeles, leading the
Lakers to yet another championship. The primary voice is Jackson's, and the
major interest to most readers will be his behind-the-scenes account of the
Lakers' successful season and the tenuous teaming of stars Shaquille O'Neal and
Kobe Bryant.
Moore,
Michael
Dude, WhereŐs My Country?
Michael Moore
takes on President George W. Bush, corporate barons, gun-nuts, and other men
and women who seem, to him, to be destroying the American Dream.
Sebold, Alice
Lucky: A
Memoir
In 1981, Sebold
was brutally raped on her college campus, at Syracuse University. Now in her 30s, she reconstructs the
rape and the year following in which her assailant was brought to trial and
found guilty.