PROMINENT AMERICAN AUTHORS

AUTHOR / DATES / SUGGESTED READINGS
Alcott, Louisa May / 1832-1888 / Little Women
Little Men
Alvarez, Julia / 1950- / How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
In the Time of the Butterflies
Angelou, Maya / 1928- / All God’s Children
Gather Together in my Name
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
Asimov, Isaac / 1920-1992 / Robot Series
Atwood, Margaret / 1939- / Handmaid’s Tale
Baldwin, James / 1924-1991 / Go Tell it on The Mountain
If Beale Street Could Talk
Banks, Russell / 1940- / Cloudsplitter
Rule of the Bone
Bradbury, Ray / 1920- / Fahrenheit 451
Dandelion Wine
The Martian Chronicles
Buck, Pearl / 1892-1973 / The Good Earth
Capote, Truman / 1924-1984 / Breakfast at Tiffany’s
In Cold Blood
Cather, Willa / 1873-1947 / Death Comes for the Archbishop
My Antonia
Clemens, Samuel Langhorne / 1835-1910 / A Connecticut Yankee
The Prince and the Pauper
or a collection of short stories
Clancy, Tom / 1947- / The Cardinal of the Kremlin, Clear and Present Danger, Debt of Honor,
The Hunt for Red October
Patriot Games, Red Storm Rising
The Sum of all Fears, Without Remorse
Cormier, Robert / 1925-2000 / The Chocolate War, Frenchtown Summer
I am the Cheese, The Rag and Bone Shop
Heroes
Crane, Stephen / 1871-1900 / The Red Badge of Courage
Crichton, Michael / 1942- / The Andromeda Strain
or a few other books
Dickinson, Emily / 1830-1886 / Poetry/A collection of writings
Doctorow, E. L. / 1931- / Ragtime
Ellison, Ralph / 1914-1994 / Invisible Man
Fitzgerald, F. Scott / 1896-1940 / The Great Gatsby
Tender is the Night
A collection of short stories
Frost, Robert / 1874-1963 / Poetry/A collection of writings
Grisham, John / 1955- / The Firm, The Chamber
The Client, The Pelican Brief
The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury
A Time to Kill
or a few other books
Godwin, Gail / 1937- / Finishing School
A Mother and Two Daughters
Hansberry, Lorraine / 1930-1965 / A Raisin in the Sun
Hawthorne, Nathaniel / 1804-1864 / The Scarlet Letter
Heinlein, Robert / 1907-1988 / Stranger in a Strange Land
Heller, Joseph / 1923- / Catch 22
Closing Time
Hemingway, Ernest / 1899-1961 / A Farewell to Arms, For Whom The Bell Tolls
Old Man and the Sea, The Sun Also Rises
or a collection of short stories
Herbert, Frank / 1920-1989 / Dune
Hinton, S.E. / 1948- / Tex, Taming the Star Runner
Rumble Fish,
or a few other books (not The Outsiders)
Hughes, Langston / 1902-1967 / Poetry/A collection of writings
Irving, John / 1942- / World According to Garp
Cider House Rules
Jackson, Shirley / 1919-1965 / Haunting of Hill House
Kerouac, Jack / 1922-1969 / On the Road
Kesey, Ken / 1935-2001 / One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
King, Stephen / 1947- / See Mr. Lahr
Kingsolver, Barbara / 1955- / Animal Dreams, The Bean Trees
Pigs in Heaven, The Poisonwood Bible
Knowles, John / 1926-2001 / A Separate Peace
Peace Breaks Out
Lee, Harper / 1926- / To Kill A Mockingbird
LeGuin, Ursula / 1929- / Always Coming Home, The Earthsea Trilogy
Left Hand of Darkness
Lewis, Sinclair / 1885-1951 / Babbit, Elmer Gantry, Main Street
London, Jack / 1876-1916 / The Call of the Wild
White Fang
Lowry, Lois / 1937- / The Giver
Ludlum, Robert / 1927-2001 / The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Ultimatum
The Holcroft Covenant, The Matarese Circle
The Osterman Weekend
McCaffrey, Anne / 1926- / Dragon Series
McCullers, Carson / 1917-1967 / Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Member of the Wedding
Melville, Herman / 1819-1891 / Moby Dick
Michener, James / 1907-1997 / Hawaii
Or a few other books
Miller, Arthur / 1915-2005 / Death of a Salesman
All My Sons
Morrison, Toni / 1931- / Bluest Eye, Beloved
Sula, Song of Solomon
Myers, Walter Dean / 1937- / Bad Boys: A Memoir, Monster
Scorpions, Fallen Angels
Here in Harlem: Poems in Many Voices
or a few other books
O’Neill, Eugene / 1888-1953 / Desire Under the Sun
Mourning Becomes Electra
O. Henry (see Porter) / Short stories
Oates, Joyce Carol / 1938- / We Were the Mulvaneys
Expensive People
The Museum of Dr. Moses (short stories)
Paterson, Katherine / 1932- / Bridge to Terabithia
The Great Gilly Hopkins
Plath, Sylvia / 1922-1963 / The Bell Jar
Poe, Edgar Allen / 1809-1849 / Short stories
Porter, William Sydney / 1862-1910 / Short stories
Puzo, Mario / 1920-1999 / The Godfather
The Last Don
Rand, Ayn / 1905-1982 / Atlas Shrugged
The Fountainhead
Roth, Philip / 1933- / The Breast, Goodbye, Columbus
My Life as a Man, Portnoy’s Complaint
When She Was Good
Salinger, Jerome D. / 1919- / The Catcher in the Rye
Simon, Neil / 1927- / Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple
Sinclair, Upton / 1878-1968 / The Jungle
Steinbeck, John / 1902-1968 / East of Eden
The Grapes of Wrath
Tan, Amy / 1952- / The Joy Luck Club
Kitchen God’s Wife
Thompson, Hunter / 1937-2005 / Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Thoreau, Henry David / 1817-1862 / Walden
Twain, Mark (See Clemens)
Tyler, Anne / 1941- / Breathing Lessons
Dinner at Homesick Restaurant
Accidental Tourist
Updike, John / 1932- / Rabbit Series
Rabbit, Run
Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr. / 1922- / Cat’s Cradle
Mother Night
Slaughterhouse Five
or a few other books
Walker, Alice / 1944- / The Color Purple
Wharton, Edith / 1862-1937 / Age of Innocence
House of Mirth
Williams, Tennessee / 1911-1983 / A Streetcar Named Desire
Wilson, August / 1945-2005 / Fences
The Piano Lesson
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Wright, Richard / 1908-1960 / Black Boy
Native Son