Book List

 

Title	Author	Description
1984	Orwell	Ignorance is strength and peace is war in Orwell’s darkly imaginative vision of a future controlled by Big Brother and the Thought Police.
A Confederacy of Dunces	Toole	The story is set in New Orleans in the early 1960s. The central character is Ignatius J. Reilly, an educated but slothful 30-year-old man still living with his mother in the city's Uptown neighborhood, who, due to an incident early in the book, must set out to get a job. In his quest for employment he has various adventures with colorful French Quarter characters.
Across Five Aprils	Hunt	Across Five Aprils is a historical novel about a boy who grows up during the Civil War. Jethro's family farms in Southern Illinois and is divided about which side of the war to support.
All Quiet on the Western Front	Remarque	Though the war he describes is World War I, Remarque writes eloquently of all wars in this tale of a young German sent to fight in the trenches.
Black Beauty	Sewell	A horse in nineteenth-century England recounts his experiences with both good and bad masters.
Brave New World	Huxley	Huxley brilliantly satirizes contemporary society’s dehumanization in this grim novel of the future.
Catch-22	Heller	This black comedy about World War II Army Air Corps aviators attempting to survive the absurdities of military bureaucracy has become a part of the American collective consciousness.
Cat's Cradle	Vonnegut	The title of the book derives from the string game "cat's cradle". Early in the book we learn that Felix Hoenikker (a fictional co-inventor of the atom bomb) was playing cat's cradle when the bomb was dropped, and the game is later referenced by his son, Newton Hoenikker.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde	Stevenson	One night, having been awakened amidst a frightful dream, Stevenson remarked to his wife, "I was dreaming a fine bogey tale." From this nightmare came the material for The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He worked on the first manuscript for three straight days. After reading it to his wife, he threw the draft into the fireplace. Stevenson immediately worked on a second version and came up with his little masterpiece.
Dracula	Stoker	Vampires. Before they were sexy?
Emma	Austen	Emma is a novel about the perils of misconstrued romance. Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like." In the very first sentence she introduces the title character as "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich."
Fahrenheit 451	Bradbury	In a violent and hedonistic future America, reading is banned, and firefighters burn books instead of fighting fires.
For Whom the Bell Tolls	Hemmingway	It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to a republican guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil War. As an expert in the use of explosives, he is assigned to blow up a bridge during an attack on the city of Segovia.
Frankenstein	Shelly	The story of Dr. Victor Frankenstein and his creature. His monster is the central character in this classic book of with gothic, science fiction and horror themes.
Great Expectations	Dickens	When young Pip accidentally meets a convict out in the marsh one Christmas Eve, he has no idea that his life is about to change--forever.
On The Road	Kerouac	Follows the counterculture escapades of members of the Beat generation as they seek pleasure and meaning while traveling coast to coast.
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest	Kesey	McMurphy, a criminal who feigns insanity, is admitted to a mental hospital where he challenges the autocratic authority of the head nurse.
Rabbit, Run	Updike	Rabbit, Run is a classic story of dissatisfaction and restlessness. Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom was a star basketball player in high school. Now twenty-six, his life seems full of traps, the biggest being his pregnant wife and two-year-old son. He sets out to escape, but it's not clear if Rabbit is really following his heart or only chasing his tail.
Sense and Sensibility	Austen	The novel follows the Dashwood sisters to their new home, a cottage on a distant relative's property, where they experience both romance and heartbreak. The contrast between the sisters' characters is eventually resolved as they each find love and lasting happiness. Through the events in the novel, Elinor and Marianne encounter the sense and sensibility of life and love.
Sophie's Choice	Stryon	Three stories are told: a young Southerner wants to become a writer; a turbulent love-hate affair between a brilliant Jew and a beautiful Polish woman; and of an awful wound in that woman's past--one that impels both Sophie and Nathan toward destruction.
Steppenwolf	Hesse	Steppenwolf is Hesse’s best-known and most autobiographical work. With its blend of Eastern mysticism and Western culture, it is one of literature’s most poetic evocations of the soul’s journey to liberation
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn	Twain	Justice and honor are celebrated in this story about Huck’s adventures on the Mississippi River with the runaway slave Jim.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer	Twain	The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is a popular 1876 novel about a young boy growing up in a small town along the Mississippi River. The story is set in the town of "St Petersburg", inspired by Hannibal, Missouri, where Mark Twain grew up
The Catcher in the Rye	Salinger	Fleeing his Pennsylvania prep school, Holden Caulfield holes up in New York City and rails against adult phoniness while trying to lose his innocence.
The Grapes of Wrath	Steinbeck	Proletarian fiction at its finest, Steinbeck’s portrait of an Oklahoma family during the Depression spurred legislation to help stricken migrant workers.
The Last Days of Pompeii	Bulwer-Lytton	Once a very widely read book and now relatively neglected, it culminates in the cataclysmic destruction of the city of Pompeii by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe	Lewis	Four English schoolchildren find their way through the back of a wardrobe into the magic land of Narnia and assist Aslan, the golden lion, to triumph over the White Witch, who has cursed the land with eternal winter.
The Picture of Dorian Gray	Wilde	Oscar Wilde's haunting classic of a never-aging man, and his ever-graying portrait, is one of literature's finest examples of gothic horror.
The Prince & the Pauper	Twain	Set in 1547, the novel tells the story of two young boys who are identical in appearance: Tom Canty, a pauper who lives with his abusive father in Offal Court off Pudding Lane in London; and Edward VI of England, son of Henry VIII of England.
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold	Le Carre	British Cold War spy novel that became famous for its portrayal of Western espionage methods as being morally inconsistent with Western democracy and values.
The Stranger	Camus	First published in French in 1942, the narrator of Albert Camus’ existential masterpiece is an autobiographical figure who does not conform to religious morality or social convention.
The Woman in White	Collins	An epistolary novel considered to be among the first mystery novels and widely regarded as one of the first (and finest) in the genre of 'sensation novels'. The story is considered an early example of detective fiction with the hero, Walter Hartright, employing many of the sleuthing techniques of later private detectives. The use of multiple narratives draws on Collins's legal training and as he points out in his Preamble: 'the story here presented will be told by more than one pen, as the story of an offence against the laws is told in Court by more than one witness'.
Treasure Island	Stevenson	Traditionally considered a coming-of-age story, it is an adventure tale known for its atmosphere, character and action, and also a wry commentary on the ambiguity of morality—as seen in Long John Silver—unusual for children's literature then and now. The influence of Treasure Island on popular perception of pirates is vast, including treasure maps with an "X", schooners, the Black Spot, tropical islands, and one-legged seamen with parrots on their shoulders.
Two Years Before the Mast	Dana	Written after a two-year sea voyage starting in 1834 and published in 1840.
Wuthering Heights	Bronte	Catherine and Heathcliff are the tempestuous lovers in this tale of passion and revenge on the Yorkshire moors.