The College Board: 101 Great Books Recommended for College-Bound Readers
The following list of books are recommended by the College Board for college-bound readers. They are ordered alphabetically by authors last name. I have not read all of the books, however, as I read them I will add text about how these could be used in the classroom including summary, curricular connections and theme, lexile, and my own personal rating.
1. Beowulf
Written in Old English, Beowulf is one of the earliest texts, it was written in the 7th or 8th century and takes place in Scandinavia. In the story, the village of King Hrothgar, who is the ruler of the Danes, is being rampaged nightly by a demon named Grendel. The village is unable to protect itself until Beowulf comes to their village to offer them help. In a series of three battles, Beowulf fights and defends Hrothgar’s village and mead-hall.
Curricular Connections & Themes:
Personal Rating: 5/5
This is one of my favorite texts because it is so challenging and the poetic form immediately lends itself to literary analysis, however, I think getting students to access this text is a great way to build their confidence as readers. Also, this text is full of characteristics that students can relate to as far as analyzing themes such as kinship, heroism, etc.
Written in Old English, Beowulf is one of the earliest texts, it was written in the 7th or 8th century and takes place in Scandinavia. In the story, the village of King Hrothgar, who is the ruler of the Danes, is being rampaged nightly by a demon named Grendel. The village is unable to protect itself until Beowulf comes to their village to offer them help. In a series of three battles, Beowulf fights and defends Hrothgar’s village and mead-hall.
Curricular Connections & Themes:
- The character of Beowulf can be studied as a hero who embodies Anglo-Saxon Ideals. The text can be studied as a quintessential quest.
- The form of the epic poem is characteristic of Anglo-Saxon poetry (i.e., blank verse, four beats per line, caesuras, alliterations, kennings, and imagery).
- The book lends itself to a thick discussion of how pagan traditions and ideals are juxtaposed with Christian traditions and ideals.
- External battles vs. Internal battles
Personal Rating: 5/5
This is one of my favorite texts because it is so challenging and the poetic form immediately lends itself to literary analysis, however, I think getting students to access this text is a great way to build their confidence as readers. Also, this text is full of characteristics that students can relate to as far as analyzing themes such as kinship, heroism, etc.
2. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
3. A Death in the Family by James Agee
4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
5. Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
6. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
7. The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
8. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Written by a woman, in a time period when this was socially unacceptable, both Jane Eyre the novel and Jane Eyre the character challenge the traditional notions and stereotypes of a Victorian woman as docile and domestic beings. In my opinion, this story is a coming of age novel for Jane Eyre, who progresses through various stages from childhood to adulthood throughout the novel. From the time we are introduced to 10-year old, orphan Jane at the beginning of the novel to Jane at the end of the novel, she struggles against internal and external forces to live an authentic and meaningful life.
Curricular Connections & Themes:
Personal Rating: 5/5
Absolutely one of my favorite texts. It may get a little slow in the middle, however, students who are really willing to dig into this text will find the same benefit. The boys in my AP class were over critical of “Plain Jane,” as they dubbed her, but even they could see that this book is so rich in so many ways!
Written by a woman, in a time period when this was socially unacceptable, both Jane Eyre the novel and Jane Eyre the character challenge the traditional notions and stereotypes of a Victorian woman as docile and domestic beings. In my opinion, this story is a coming of age novel for Jane Eyre, who progresses through various stages from childhood to adulthood throughout the novel. From the time we are introduced to 10-year old, orphan Jane at the beginning of the novel to Jane at the end of the novel, she struggles against internal and external forces to live an authentic and meaningful life.
Curricular Connections & Themes:
- Life-as-a-Journey Metaphor
- Gothic features in text
- Byronic Hero
- Exploring “The Other” vs. “An Outsider”
- Understand the basic virtues that women were expected to uphold by situating the novel in Victorian Britain.
Personal Rating: 5/5
Absolutely one of my favorite texts. It may get a little slow in the middle, however, students who are really willing to dig into this text will find the same benefit. The boys in my AP class were over critical of “Plain Jane,” as they dubbed her, but even they could see that this book is so rich in so many ways!
9. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
10. The Stranger by Albert Camus
11. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
12. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
13. The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov
14. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
15. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
16. The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
17. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
18. Inferno by Dante
19. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
20. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
21. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
22. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
17. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
18. Inferno by Dante
19. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
20. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
21. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
22. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
23. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
24. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
25. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
26. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
27. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
25. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
26. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
27. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
28. Selected Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
29. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
30. The Sound the Fury by William Faulkner
31. Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
31. Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
32. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
33. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
34. The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
35. Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
34. The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
35. Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
36. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
37. Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
38. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
39. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
40. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
41. The Iliad by Homer
42. The Odyssey by Homer
43. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
40. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
41. The Iliad by Homer
42. The Odyssey by Homer
43. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
44. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
45. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
46. A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen
47. A Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
48. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
49. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
47. A Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
48. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
49. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
50. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
51. The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
52. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
53. Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
54. Call of the Wild by Jack London
55. The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
56. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
56. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
57. Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville
58. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
59. The Crucible by Arthur Miller
60. Beloved by Toni Morrison
61. A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
62. Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill
61. A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
62. Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill
63. Animal Farm by George Orwell
64. Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
65. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
66. Selected Tales by Edgar Allan Poe
67. Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
68. The Crying Lot of 49 by Thomas Pynchon
69. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
70. Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
71. Call It Sleep by Henry Roth
72. The Cather in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
65. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
66. Selected Tales by Edgar Allan Poe
67. Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
68. The Crying Lot of 49 by Thomas Pynchon
69. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
70. Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
71. Call It Sleep by Henry Roth
72. The Cather in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
73. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
74. A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
75. Romeo and Julie by William Shakespeare
76. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
77. Frankenstein by Mary Shelly
78. Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
79. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
79. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
80. Antigone by Sophocles
81. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
82. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
83. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
84. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
85. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
86. Vanity Fair by William Thackeray
87. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
88. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
89. Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
90. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twin
91. Candide by Voltaire
92. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
93. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
94. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
95. Collected Stories by Eudora Welty
94. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
95. Collected Stories by Eudora Welty
96. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
97. The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
98. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
99. Native Son by Richard Wright
98. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
99. Native Son by Richard Wright