Independent Reading List 1St Quarter

Independent Reading List – 1st QuarterThe “Perfect” Society

Choose ONE book from the following:

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

Join Douglas Adams's hapless hero Arthur Dent as he travels the galaxy with his intrepid pal Ford Prefect, getting into horrible messes and generally wreaking hilarious havoc. Dent is grabbed from Earth moments before a cosmic construction team obliterates the planet to build a freeway. You'll never read funnier science fiction; Adams is a master of intelligent satire, barbed wit, and comedic dialogue.

Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

A fantasy of the future that sheds a blazing critical light on the present--considered to be Aldous Huxley's most enduring masterpiece.

The Martian Chronicles – Ray Bradbury

Leaving behind a world on the brink of destruction, man came to Mars and found Martians waiting. While seeking a new beginning, man nevertheless brought with him his oldest fears and deepest desires. Man conquered Mars, but in that instant, Mars conquered him.

The Good Earth – Pearl S. Buck

In The Good Earth Buck presents a graphic view of a China when the last emperor reigned and the vast political and social upheavals of the twentieth century were but distant rumblings for the ordinary people. This moving, classic story of the honest farmer Wang Lung and his selfless wife O-lan is must reading for those who would fully appreciate the sweeping changes that have occurred in the lives of the Chinese people during this century.

1984 – George Orwell

In a grim city and a terrifying country, where Big Brother is always Watching You and the Thought Police can practically read your mind, Winston Smith is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. He knows the Party controls the people by feeding them lies and narrowing their imaginations through a process of bewilderment and brutalization. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be.

Main Street – Sinclair Lewis

In this classic satire of small-town America, beautiful young Carol Kennicott comes to Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, with dreams of transforming the provincial old town into a place of beauty and culture. But she runs into a wall of bigotry, hypocrisy and complacency. The first popular bestseller to attack conventional ideas about marriage, gender roles, and small town life, Main Street established Lewis as a major American novelist.

Player Piano – Kurt Vonnegut

Vonnegut's first novel, an unforgiving portrait of an automated and totalitarian future, was published in 1952. A human revolt against the machines which control life was arranged by the machines themselves to prove the futility of such resistance. Visionary and unrelenting, this is felt by some critics to be Vonnegut's best and most original novel.