Book List
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Titles in the General category are useful references for all high school writers. The list of texts in the specific class categories will be complemented throughout the year by shorter works. Additionally, while it is my intention to read these works with my classes, we may not get to each one. I may also decide to substitute other titles for these. You can always contact me if you have questions.
General
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Grammar Girl's Quick ad Dirty Tips for Better Writing
by Mignon Fogarty Year Published:In this book Fogarty gets away from the textbook approach to grammar and writing. Her explanations are easy to understand and in the voice of the modern high school reader. What I also like about this book is that she knows the most common writing problems that our students face and she addresses them with excellent style and wit.
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
by Modern Language Association Year Published:The MLA Handbook is published by the Modern Language Association, the authority on MLA documentation style. Widely adopted in high schools, colleges, and publishing houses, the MLA Handbook treats every aspect of research writing, from selecting a topic to submitting the completed paper. The expanded, revised, and redesigned seventh edition of the Handbook is a complete, up-to-date guide to documentation style and online research. It is also a required text for all high school students in the Pittsford Central School District. Newsweek magazine calls it "The style bible for most college students."
Simon & Schuster Handbook for Writers
by Lynn Quitman Troyka Year Published:I have had this handbook since I was an undergraduate and still keep a current edition. It has it all.
English 11
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Ethan Frome
by Edith Wharton Year Published:This novel augments our study of American Realism as it segues into Modernism. "Set in the bleak, barren winter landscape of New England, it is the . . . tale of a simple man, bound to the demands of his farm and his tyrannical, sickly wife, Zeena, and driven by his . . . love for Zeena's young cousin, Mattie Silver." —Publisher's Note
Into the Wild
by Jon Krakauer Year Published:From the Barnes and Noble Overview: In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain Year Published:Huck's journey down the Mississippi is symbolic of the journey that Twain's America was also taking. In what some consider to be the greatest American novel, Twain explores moral conflict facing a young boy and a burgeoning nation.
The Crucible
by Arthur Miller Year Published:In this play, Arthur Miller satirizes the hysteria of the 1950s Red Scare under Senator Joe McCarthy. Set in Puritan Salem, Massachusetts in the 17th century, Miller suggests a parallel between the literal witch hunts of colonial New England and their metaphoric counterpart of 20th century America. This drama is an excellent tool for teaching satire and complex characterization.
The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald Year Published:F. Scott Fitzgerald's love/hate relationship with the era he coined the "Jazz-Age" brings about a complex novel in both language and plot. In it, Fitzgerald asks us to consider what true greatness is and whether or not it can ever be achieved.
The Scarlet Letter
by Nathaniel Hawthorne Year Published:This novel is an exploration of the concepts of guilt, conscience, and punishment. In class, we explore the meaning of these concepts and the extent to which each of them plays a role in our own moral disposition. The language is highly complex as are the characters.
AP Language and Composition
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Complications
by Atul Gawande Year Published:This book is highly engaging as Gawande, who wrote this book as a senior surgical resident in Boston, uses the essay as his medium to tell of the fascinating and sometimes frightening world of modern medicine. It is interesting to note his use of rhetorical modalities as he reveals the intricacies of his field. It is a work of high-interest yet complex in its approach to the essay as a form.
East of Eden
by John Steinbeck Year Published: ISBN-13: 978-0140186390One could certainly argue, and many have, that John Steinbeck's East of Eden is the great American novel of the twentieth century. While each character reveals an important, and sometimes dark, facet of the human condition, many of them exhibit a uniquely American perspective. The language is sophisticated, precise, and beautiful.
Fast Food Nation
by Eric Schlosser Year Published:From Publishers Weekly: In this fascinating sociocultural report, Schlosser digs into the deeper meaning of Burger King, Auggie's, The Chicken Shack, Jack-in-the-Box, Little Caesar's and myriad other examples of fast food in America. Frequently using McDonald's as a template, Schlosser, an Atlantic Monthly correspondent, explains how the development of fast-food restaurants has led to the standardization of American culture, widespread obesity, urban sprawl and more.
Lincoln at Gettysburg
by Garry Wills Year Published:From Amazon.com: A former professor of Greek at Yale University, Wills painstakingly deconstructs Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and discovers heavy influence from the early Greeks (Pericles) and the 19th century Transcendentalists (Edward Everett). The author also probes Lincoln's decision to rely more on the Declaration of Independence than the U.S. Constitution, a decision Wills says represented a "revolution in thought." He speaks effusively of the 272-word address: "All modern political prose descends from [it]. The Address does what all great art accomplishes. [I]t tease[s] us out of thought." Wills' book won the 1992 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.
Nickel and Dimed
by Barbara Ehrenreich Year Published:From Amazon.com's Best of 2001: Essayist and cultural critic Barbara Ehrenreich has always specialized in turning received wisdom on its head with intelligence, clarity, and verve. With some 12 million women being pushed into the labor market by welfare reform, she decided to do some good old-fashioned journalism and find out just how they were going to survive on the wages of the unskilled--at $6 to $7 an hour, only half of what is considered a living wage. So she did what millions of Americans do, she looked for a job and a place to live, worked that job, and tried to make ends meet.
SuperFreakonomics
by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner Year Published:From Barnesandnoble.com: Levitt and Dubner mix smart thinking and great storytelling like no one else.... By examining how people respond to incentives, they show the world for what it really is—good, bad, ugly, and, in the final analysis, super freaky.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
by Alex Haley and Malcolm X Year Published:This autobiography is widely considered to be one of the most powerful and important works of non-fiction of our time. It defines for us not only the struggles of the angrier side of the Civil Rights movement, but exemplifies the power and importance of the written word—a lesson essential to the study of language.
The Ghost Map
by Steven Johnson Year Published:From Amazon.com: It's the summer of 1854, and London is just emerging as one of the first modern cities in the world. But lacking the infrastructure—garbage removal, clean water, sewers—necessary to support its rapidly expanding population, the city has become the perfect breeding ground for a terrifying disease no one knows how to cure. As the cholera outbreak takes hold, a physician and a local curate are spurred to action—and ultimately solve the most pressing medical riddle of their time. In a triumph of multidisciplinary thinking, Johnson illuminates the intertwined histories of the spread of disease, the rise of cities, and the nature of scientific inquiry, offering both a riveting history and a powerful explanation of how it has shaped the world we live in.
The McGraw-Hill Reader: Issues Across the Disciplines
by Gilbert H. Muller, ed. Year Published:This anthology of essays addresses issues from the fields of education, the social sciences, humanities, as well as business and economics. It is a collection designed to provoke critical thought and encourage effective writing.
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