EFFINGHAMCOUNTYHIGH SCHOOL

AIR FORCE JUNIOR ROTC

READING LIST

You don't have to major in rocket science to know that a pre-college reading program will boost your vocabulary, prepare you for entrance tests, and help you succeed in college level courses. The trick is to know which books are the most important to your long-term academic success.

The Effingham County High School Air Force Junior ROTC Reading List provides you with a collection of lists that will help you to succeed, find enjoyment, and encourage thought. You should be able to find most of these books in the school and public libraries, bookstores, and online. We recommend you use the libraries and online resources.

You earn the Achievement Ribbon for each 3 books you read from this collection, each year. You should keep a list of the books you read by title, author, dates started and completed. Have a parent or guardian verify your reading by signing beside the form from your instructors. Turn-in your completed list when you complete 3 books and an Achievement Ribbon will be awarded, along with a $5 gift certificate for each book up to 3 books ($15 gift certificate).

EffinghamCountyHigh School’s Air Force Junior ROTC Department provides this list to help in the intellectual development of its cadets. There is no implication of agreement with, or support for or against, any book, author, or idea presented. Those having a recommendation for works to include in this list should contact the Air Force Junior ROTC Department.

The following list is from ARCO's Reading Lists for College Bound Students, 3rd Edition. The list of the 100 most often recommended books is derived from the input of more than 100 of the leading colleges and universities nationwide. These are the books these schools expect new freshmen to have read in high school, or to read in the first year of college. For the college bound student, reading these books now should help prepare for college admission and ease the freshman year workload.

The 100 Most-Often-Recommended Works for College Freshman
Novels and Short Stories
Jane Austen / Pride and Prejudice / British, 1813
James Baldwin / Go Tell It on the Mountain / American, 1953
Saul Bellow / Seize the Day / American, 1956
Charlotte Brontë / Jane Eyre / British 1847
Emily Brontë / WutheringHeights / British, 1847
Albert Camus / The Stranger / French, 1942
Lewis Carroll / Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / British, 1865
Willa Cather / My Antonia / American, 1918
Miguel de Cervantes / Don Quixote / Spanish, 1605, 1617
Kate Chopin / The Awakening / American, 1899
Joseph Conrad / Heart of Darkness / British, 1902
Daniel Defoe / Robinson Crusoe / British, 1719
Charles Dickens / Great Expectations / British, 1860-61
Feodor Dostoevski / Crime and Punishment / Russian, 1866
George Eliot / The Mill on the Floss / British, 1860
Ralph Ellison / Invisible Man / American, 1947
William Faulkner / The Sound and the Fury / American, 1929
Henry Fielding / Tom Jones / British, 1749
F. Scott Fitzgerald / The Great Gatsby / American, 1925
Gustave Flaubert / Madame Bovary / French, 1857
E.M. Forster / A Passage to India / British, 1924
Gabriel García Márquez / One Hundred Years of Solitude / Columbian, 1967
William Golding / Lord of the Flies / British, 1954
Thomas Hardy / Tess of the D'Urbervilles / British, 1891
Nathaniel Hawthorne / The Scarlet Letter / American, 1850
Ernest Hemingway / A Farewell to Arms / American, 1929
Zora Neale Hurston / Their Eyes Were Watching God / American, 1937
Aldous Huxley / Brave New World / British, 1932
Henry James / The Turn of the Screw / American, 1898
James Joyce / A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man / Irish, 1916
Franz Kafka / The Trial / Czechoslovakian, 1925
D.H. Lawrence / Sons and Lovers / British, 1913
Sinclair Lewis / Babbitt / American, 1922
Bernard Malamud / The Assistant / American, 1957
Thomas Mann / Death in Venice / German, 1912
Herman Melville / Moby-Dick / American, 1851
Toni Morrison / Sula / American, 1973
Flannery O'Connor / A Good Man Is Hard to Find / American, 1955
Tillie Olsen / Tell Me a Riddle / American, 1956-60
George Orwell / Animal Farm / British, 1945
Alan Paton / Cry, the Beloved Country / South African, 1948
Edgar Allan Poe / Great Tales and Poems / American, 1839-45
J.D. Salinger / The Catcher in the Rye / American, 1951
Sir Walter Scott / Ivanhoe / British, 1820
Mary Shelley / Frankenstein / British, 1818
John Steinbeck / The Grapes of Wrath / American, 1939
Jonathan Swift / Gulliver's Travels / British, 1726
William Makepeace Thackeray / Vanity Fair / British, 1847-48
Leo Tolstoy / War and Peace / Russian, 1865-69
Ivan Turgenev / Fathers and Sons / Russian, 1862
Mark Twain / The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn / American, 1886
John Updike / Rabbit, Run / American, 1961
Voltaire / Candide / French, 1759
Kurt Vonnegut / Slaughterhouse Five / American, 1969
Alice Walker / The Color Purple / American, 1982
Eudora Welty / Thirteen Stories / American, 1965
Edith Wharton / The Age of Innocence / American, 1920
Virginia Woolf / To the Lighthouse / British, 1927
Richard Wright / Native Son / American, 1940

Drama

Aeschylus / Oresteia / Greek, 458 BCE
Aristophanes / Lysistrata / Greek, 411, BCE
Samuel Beckett / Waiting for Godot / Irish, 1952
Bertolt Brecht / Mother Courage and Her Children / German, 1941
Anton Chekov / The Cherry Orchard / Russian, 1904
Euripides / Medea / Greek, 431 BCE
Johann von Goethe / Faust, Part I / German, 1808
Henrik Ibsen / A Doll's House / Norwegian, 1879
Christopher Marlowe / Doctor Faustus / British, 1604
Arthur Miller / Death of a Salesman / American, 1949
Molière / The Misanthrope / French, 1666
Eugene O'Neill / Desire Under the Elms / American, 1924
William Shakespeare / Hamlet / British, 1600
George Bernard Shaw / Pygmalion / British, 1913
Sophocles / Oedipus Rex / Greek, 430 BCE
Oscar Wilde / The Importance of Being Earnest / British, 1895
Thornton Wilder / Our Town / American, 1938
Tennessee Williams / The Glass Menagerie / American, 1945

Poetry

Allison, Alexander, Editor / Norton Anthology of Poetry (Shorter Edition) / British & American
Anonymous / Beowulf / British, c. 700
Anonymous / Sir Gawain and the Green Knight / British, c. 1350-1400
Geoffrey Chaucer / Canterbury Tales / British, 1387-1400
Dante / Inferno / Italian, c. 1320
Homer / The Odyssey / Greek, c. 9th C. BCE
John Milton / Paradise Lost / British, 1667
Vergil / The Aeneid / Italian, c. 18 BCE
Walt Whitman / Leaves of Grass / American, 1855

Miscellaneous

Aristotle / Poetics / Greek, 4th C. BCE
Saint Augustine / Confessions / Italian, 397-401
Charles Darwin / Origin of the Species / British, 1859
Ralph Waldo Emerson / "The American Scholar" / American, 1837
Benjamin Franklin / Autobiography / American, 1771
Sigmund Freud / Civilization and Its Discontents / German, 1930
Edith Hamilton / Mythology / American, 1940
Niccolò Machiavelli / The Prince / Italian, 1532
Karl Marx / Communist Manifesto / German, 1848
Michel de Montaigne / Selected Essays / French, 1580
Plato / Republic / Greek, c. 370 BCE
Henry David Thoreau / Walden / American, 1854

The following works are from The American Library Association’s list of Outstanding Books for the College Bound. This list is broken into five sections: fiction, nonfiction, biography, drama, and poetry.

Fiction

Agee, James. A Death in the Family.1957.
The enchanted childhood summer of 1915 suddenly becomes a baffling experience for Rufus Follet when his father dies.

Allison, Dorothy. Bastard Out of Carolina.1992.
Bone confronts poverty, the troubled marriage of her mother and stepfather, and the stigma of being considered "white trash" as she comes of age in South Carolina.

Alvarez, Julia. In the Time of Butterflies.1994.
Dede, the only survivor of the four Mirabel sisters, code named Mariposas or butterflies, reveals their role in the liberation of the Dominican Republic from the dictator Trujillo.

Anaya, Rudolfo. Bless Me, Ultima.1972.
Ultima, a wise old mystic, helps a young Hispanic boy resolve personal dilemmas caused by the differing backgrounds and aspirations of his parents and society.

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale.1986.
In Gilead, a Christian fundamentalist dystopia, fertile lower-class women serve as birth-mothers for the upper class.

Butler, Octavia. Parable of the Sower.1993.
Lauren Olamina, who suffers from a hereditary trait called "hyperempathy" that causes her to feel others' pain physically, journeys north along the dangerous highways of twentieth-first century California.

Card, Orson Scott. Ender's Game.1985.
In a world decimated by alien attacks, the government trains young geniuses like Ender Wiggin in military strategy with increasingly complex computer games.

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening.1899.
Edna Pontellier, an unhappy wife and mother, discovers new qualities in herself when she visits Grand Isle, a resort for the Creole elite of New Orleans.

Cisneros, Sandra. The House On Mango Street.1991.
In short, poetic stories, Esperanza describes life in a low-income, predominantly Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago.

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment.1866.
A sensitive intellectual is driven by poverty to believe himself exempt from moral law.

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man.1952.
A young African American seeking identity during his high school and college days, and later in New York's Harlem, relates his terrifying experiences.

Emecheta, Buchi. Bride Price.1976.
Aku-nna, a very young Ibo girl, and Chike, her teacher, fall in love despite tribal custom forbidding their romance.

Faulkner, William. The Bear.1931.
Ike McCaslin's hunting trips for the legendary bear, Old Ben, are played out against opposing ideas of corruption and innocence.

Frazier, Charles. ColdMountain.1997.
Inman, a wounded Civil War soldier, endures the elements, The Guard, and his own weakness and infirmity to return to his sweetheart, Ada, who is fighting her own battle to survive while farming the mountainous North Carolina terrain.

Gaines, Ernest. A Lesson Before Dying.1993.
When Jefferson's attorney states, "I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this," disillusioned teacher Grant Wiggins is sent into the penitentiary to help this slow learner gain a sense of dignity and self-esteem before his execution.

Gardner, John. Grendel.1971.
In a unique interpretation of the Beowulf legend, the monster Grendel relates his struggle to understand the ugliness in himself and mankind in the brutal world of fourteenth-century Denmark.

Gibbons, Kaye. Ellen Foster.1987.
Casting an unflinching yet humorous eye on her situation, eleven-year-old Ellen survives her mother's death, an abusive father, and uncaring relatives to find for herself a loving home and a new mama.

Heller, Joseph. Catch-22.1961.
In this satirical novel, Captain Yossarian confronts the hypocrisy of war and bureaucracy as he frantically attempts to survive.

Hemingway, Ernest. Farewell to Arms.1929.
World War I is the setting for this love story of an English nurse and a wounded American ambulance officer.

Hesse, Hermann. Siddhartha.1951.
Emerging from a kaleidoscope of experiences and tasted pleasures, Siddhartha transcends to a state of peace and mystic holiness in this strangely simple story.

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World.1932.
In a chilling vision of the future, babies are produced in bottles and exist in a mechanized world without soul.

Keneally, Thomas. Schindler's List.1982.
Oskar Schindler, a rich factory owner, risks his life and spends his personal fortune to save Jews listed as his workers during World War II.

King, Laurie R. The Beekeeper's Apprentice, or, on the Segregation of the Queen.1994.
Retired Sherlock Holmes meets his intellectual match in 15-year-old Mary Russell, who challenges him to investigate yet another case.

Kosinski, Jerzy. Painted Bird.1965.
An abandoned dark-haired child wanders alone through isolated villages of Eastern Europe in World War II.

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird.1960.
A young girl tells of life in a small Alabama town in the 1930s and her father's defense in court of an African American accused of raping a white woman.

McCullers, Carson. The Member of the Wedding.1946.
A young Southern girl is determined to be the third party on a honeymoon, despite all advice.

McKinley, Robin. Beauty.1978.
Love is the only key to unlocking a curse and transforming the Beast into a man.

Malamud, Bernard. The Fixer.1966.
Victim of a vicious anti-Semitic conspiracy, Yakov Bok is in a Russian prison with only his indomitable will to sustain him.

Markandaya, Kamala. Nectar In A Sieve.1954.
Natural disasters, an arranged marriage, and industrialization of her village are the challenges Rukmani must face as the bride of a peasant farmer in southern India.

Mason, Bobbi Ann. In Country.1985.
After her father is killed in the Vietnam War, Sam Hughes lives with an uncle whom she suspects suffers from the effects of Agent Orange, and struggles to come to terms with the war's impact on her family.

Mori, Kyoko. Shizuko's Daughter.1993.
In the years following her mother's suicide, Yuki develops the inner strength to cope with her distant father, her resentful stepmother, and her haunting, painful memories.

O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried: A Work of Fiction.1990.
These stories follow Tim O'Brien's platoon of American soldiers through a variety of personal and military encounters during the Vietnam War.

O'Connor, Flannery. Everything That Rises Must Converge.1965.
Stories about misfits in small Southern towns force the reader to confront hypocrisy and complacency.

Potok, Chaim. The Chosen.1967.
A baseball injury brings together two Jewish boys, one Hasidic, the other Orthodox, first in hostility but finally in friendship.

Power, Susan. The Grass Dancer.1994.
Ending in the 1980s with the love story of Charlene Thunder and grass dancer Harley Wind Soldier, this multigenerational tale of a Sioux family is told in the voices of the living and the dead.

Shaara, Michael. Killer Angels.1974.
Officers and foot soldiers from both the Union and Confederacy steel themselves for the bloody Battle of Gettysburg.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath.1939.
An Oklahoma farmer and his family leave the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression to go to the promised land of California.

Uchida, Yoshiko. Picture Bride.1987.
Taro journeys to America in the early 1900s to marry a man she has never met.

Watson, Larry. Montana 1948.1993.
The summer he is 12, David watches as his family and small town are shattered by scandal and tragedy.

Wright, Richard. Native Son.1940.
For Bigger Thomas, an African American man accused of a crime in the white man's world, there could be no extenuating circumstances, no explanations and only death.

Yolen, Jane. Briar Rose.1992.
Disturbed by her grandmother Gemma's unique version of Sleeping Beauty, Rebecca seeks the truth behind the fairy tale.

Non-Fiction

Asinof, Eliot. Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series. 1963.
It's all here: the players, the scandal, the shame, and the damage the 1919 World Series caused America's national pastime.
Atkin, S. Beth. Voices from the Streets: Young Former Gang Members Tell Their Stories. 1996.
Gang members from all races and backgrounds describe why they joined, and why--and how--they left.
Alvarez, Walter. T. Rex and the Crater of Doom. 1997.
Geologist Alvarez presents the development of the impact theory of dinosaur extinction as the adventure/mystery it was.
Aronson, Marc. Art Attack: A Short Cultural History of the Avant-Garde. 1998.
Discover everything you ever wanted to know about bohemians, hipsters, and the development of the world's most radical art.
Bernstein, Leonard. The Joy of Music. 1959.
Bernstein describes all aspects of classical music.
Blackstone, Harry, Jr. The Blackstone Book of Magic & Illusion. 1985.
A well-known magician introduces readers to the history, principles, and effects of one of the oldest entertainment arts.
Blais, Madeleine. In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle. 1995.
Learn about the year of heart, sweat, and muscle that transformed the Amherst Lady Hurricanes basketball team into state champions.
Bodanis, David. The Secret Family: Twenty-four Hours Inside the Mysterious World of Our Minds and Bodies. 1997.
The unseen world around us and within our bodies is shown in vivid detail as we follow a typical family through their day.
Boorstin, Jon. Making Movies Work: Thinking Like a Filmmaker. 1996.
Both novice and expert can enjoy this behind-the-scenes look at the art of filmmaking.
Brown, Dee. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. 1970.
There's another side of America's western expansion: the one seen through Native American eyes.
Brumberg, Joan Jacobs. The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls. 1997.
The historical evolution of body perception has turned the value system of American girls inside out.

Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. 1962.
This landmark book gave birth to the environmental movement.
Chang, Iris. The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. 1997.
Barely a postscript in official Japanese history, the horrific rape, mutilation, torture, and murder of hundreds of thousands of Chinese citizens took place over the course of just seven weeks.
Clark, Kenneth. Civilization: A Personal View. 1970.
Clark explores history through the works, impulses, and beliefs of the great creative individuals of Western civilization.
Cooke, Mervyn. The Chronicle of Jazz. 1998.
Cooke provides a comprehensive guide to this uniquely American musical form.
Copland, Aaron. What to Listen For in Music. 1939.
The composer provides a basic introduction to the mysteries of musical composition and music appreciation.
Cumming, Robert. Annotated Art. 1995.
Art masterpieces are made understandable through the exploration of some of the world's greatest paintings.
DuBois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches. 1903.
Educator DuBois describes the lives and history of African American farmers, including the career of Booker T. Washington.
Day, David. The Search for King Arthur. 1995.
Discover through magnificent illustrations and romantic retellings what is fact and what is legend about this fifth-century hero.
Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. 1997.
Diamond contends that these three factors determined the course of world power throughout history.
Dorris, Michael. The Broken Cord. 1989.
The persistent physical and emotional problems of his adopted son baffled the author until he learned the condition had a name: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
Edelman, Marion Wright. The Measure of Our success: A Letter to My Children and Yours. 1992.
A child advocate shares her thoughts on values, raising families, and the future of our country.