What are some good books to read at a sophmore level?

I've read Catcher in the Rye, The Historian, Great Expectations, The Outsiders, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, and I am currently reading A Tale of Two Cities.





What are some other good books/novels?

What are some good books to read at a sophmore level?
College Bound Reading List











Agee, James


A Death in the Family


Story of loss and heartbreak felt when a young father dies.





Anderson, Sherwood


Winesburg, Ohio


A collection of short stories lays bare the life of a small town in the Midwest.





Baldwin, James


Go Tell It On the Mountain


Semi-autobiographical novel about a 14-year-old black youth's religious conversion.





Bellamy, Edward


Looking Backward: 2000-1887


Written in 1887 about a young man who travels in time to a utopian year 2000, where economic security and a healthy moral environment have reduced crime.





Bellow, Saul


Seize the Day


A son grapples with his love and hate for an unworthy father.





Bradbury, Ray


Fahrenheit 451


Reading is a crime and firemen burn books in this futuristic society.





Cather, Willa


My Antonia


Immigrant pioneers strive to adapt to the Nebraska prairies.





Chopin, Kate


The Awakening


The story of a New Orleans woman who abandons her husband and children to search for love and self-understanding.





Clark, Walter Van Tilburg


The Ox-Bow Incident


When a group of citizens discovers one of their members has been murdered by cattle rustlers, they form an illegal posse, pursue the murderers, and lynch them.





Cormier, Robert


The Chocolate War


Jerry Renault challenges the power structure of his school when he refuses to sell chocolates for the annual fundraiser.





Crane, Stephen


The Red Badge of Courage


During the Civil War, Henry Fleming joins the army full of romantic visions of battle which are shattered by combat.





Dorris, Michael


A Yellow Raft in Blue Water


Three generations of Native American women recount their searches for identity and love.





Ellison, Ralph


Invisible Man


A black man's search for himself as an individual and as a member of his race and his society.





Faulkner, William


As I Lay Dying


The Bundren family takes the ripening corpse of Addie, wife and mother, on a gruesomely comic journey.





Fitzgerald, F. Scott


The Great Gatsby


A young man corrupts himself and the American Dream to regain a lost love.





Gaines, Ernest


The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman


In her 100 years, Miss Jane Pittman experiences it all, from slavery to the civil rights movement.





Hawthorne, Nathaniel


The Scarlet Letter


An adulterous Puritan woman keeps secret the identity of the father of her illegitimate child.





Heller, Joseph


Catch-22


A broad comedy about a WWII bombardier based in Italy and his efforts to avoid bombing missions.





Hemingway, Ernest


A Farewell to Arms


During World War I, an American lieutenant runs away with the woman who nurses him back to health.





Hurston, Zora Neale


Their Eyes Were Watching God


Janie repudiates many roles in her quest for self-fulfillment.





Kesey, Ken


One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest


A novel about a power struggle between the head nurse and one of the male patients in a mental institution.





Lee, Harper


To Kill a Mockingbird


At great peril to himself and his children, lawyer Atticus Finch defends an African-American man accused of raping a white woman in a small Alabama town.





Lewis, Sinclair


Main Street


A young doctor's wife tries to change the ugliness, dullness and ignorance which prevail in Gopher Prairie, Minn.





London, Jack


Call of the Wild


Buck is a loyal pet dog until cruel men make him a pawn in their search for Klondike gold.





McCullers, Carson


The Member of the Wedding


A young southern girl is determined to be the third party on a honeymoon, despite all the advice against it from friends and family.





Melville, Herman


Moby-Dick


A complex novel about a mad sea captain's pursuit of the White Whale.





Morrison, Toni


Sula


The lifelong friendship of two women becomes strained when one causes the other's husband to abandon her.





O'Connor, Flannery


A Good Man is Hard to Find


Social awareness, the grotesque, and the need for faith characterize these stories of the contemporary South.





Parks, Gordon


The Learning Tree


A fictional study of a black family in a small Kansas town in the 1920s.





Plath, Sylvia


The Bell Jar


The heartbreaking story of a talented young woman's descent into madness.





Poe, Edgar Allan


Great Tales and Poems


Poe is considered the father of detective stories and a master of supernatural tales.





Potok, Chaim


The Chosen


Friendship between two Jewish boys, one Hasidic and the other Orthodox, begins at a baseball game and flourishes despite their different backgrounds and beliefs.





Salinger, J.D.


The Catcher in the Rye


A prep school dropout rejects the "phoniness" he sees all about him.





Sinclair, Upton


The Jungle


The deplorable conditions of the Chicago stockyards are exposed in this turn-of-the-century novel.





Steinbeck, John


The Grapes of Wrath


The desperate flight of tenant farmers from Oklahoma during the Depression.





Stowe, Harriet Beecher


Uncle Tom's Cabin


The classic tale that awakened a nation about the slave system.





Twain, Mark


The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn


Huck and Jim, a runaway slave, travel down the Mississippi in search of freedom.





Vonnegut, Kurt


Slaughterhouse-Five


Billy Pilgrim, an optometrist from Ilium, New York, shuttles between World War II Dresden and a luxurious zoo on the planet Tralfamadore.





Walker, Alice


The Color Purple


A young woman sees herself as property until another woman teaches her to value herself.





Wells, H.G.


The Time Machine


A scientist invents a machine that transports him into the future.





Welty, Eudora


Thirteen Stories


A collection of short stories about people and life in the deep South.





Wolfe, Thomas


Look Homeward, Angel


A novel depicting the coming of age of Eugene Gant and his passion to experience life.





Wright, Richard


Native Son


Bigger Thomas, a young man from the Chicago slums, lashes out against a hostile society by committing two murders.





Achebe, Chinua


Things Fall Apart


Okonkwo, a proud village leader, is driven to murder and suicide by European changes to his traditional Ibo society.





Allende, Isabel


House of the Spirits


The story of the Trueba family in Chile, from the turn of the century to the violent days of the overthrow of the Salvador Allende government in 1973.





Austen, Jane


Pride and Prejudice


Love and marriage among the English country gentry of Austen's day.





Balzac, Honore de


Pere Goriot


A father is reduced to poverty after giving money to his daughters.





Borges, Jorge Luis


Labyrinths


An anthology of literary fireworks based on Borges' favorite symbol.





Bronte, Charlotte


Jane Eyre


An intelligent and passionate governess falls in love with a strange, moody man tormented by dark secrets.





Bronte, Emily


Wuthering Heights


One of the masterpieces of English romanticism, this is a novel of Heathcliff and Catherine, love and revenge.





Camus, Albert


The Stranger


A man who is virtually unknown to both himself and others commits a pointless murder for which he has no explanation.





Carroll, Lewis


Alice's Adventures in Wonderland


A fantasy in which Alice follows the White Rabbit to a dream world.





Cervantes, Miguel de


Don Quixote


An eccentric old gentleman sets out as a knight "tilting at windmills" to right the wrongs of the world.





Conrad, Joseph


Heart of Darkness


The novel's narrator journeys into the Congo where he discovers the extent to which greed can corrupt a good man.





Defoe, Daniel


Robinson Crusoe


The adventures of a man who spends 24 years on an isolated island.





Dickens, Charles


Great Expectations


The moving story of the rise, fall, and rise again of a humbly-born young orphan.





Dostoevski, Feodor


Crime and Punishment


A psychological novel about a poor student who murders an old woman pawnbroker and her sister.





Eliot, George


The Mill on the Floss


Maggie is miserable because her brother disapproves of her choices of romances.





Esquivel, Laura


Like Water for Chocolate


As the youngest of three daughters in a turn-of-the-century Mexican family, Tita may not marry but must remain at home to care for her mother.





Flaubert, Gustave


Madame Bovary


In her extramarital affairs, a bored young wife seeks unsuccessfully to find the emotional experiences she craves.





Forster, E.M.


A Passage to India


A young English woman in British-ruled India accuses an Indian doctor of sexual assault.





Fuentes, Carlos


The Death of Artemio Cruz


A powerful Mexican newspaper publisher recalls his life as he lies dying at age 71.





Garcia Marquez, Gabriel


One Hundred Years of Solitude


A technique called magical realism is used in this portrait of seven generations in the lives of the Buendia family.





Gogol, Nikolai


The Overcoat


Russian tales of good and evil.





Golding, William


Lord of the Flies


English schoolboys marooned on an uninhabited island test the values of civilization when they attempt to set up a society of their own.





Grass, Gunter


The Tin Drum


Oskar describes the amoral conditions through which he has lived in Germany, both during and after the Hitler regime.





Hardy, Thomas


Tess of the D'Urbervilles


The happiness of Tess and her husband is destroyed when she confesses that she bore a child as the result of a forced sexual relationship with her employer's son.





Hesse, Hermann


Siddhartha


Emerging from a kaleidoscope of experiences and pleasures, a young Brahmin ascends to a state of peace and mystic holiness.





Huxley, Aldous


Brave New World


A bitter satire of the future, in which the world is controlled by advances in science and social changes.





Joyce, James


A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man


A novel about a young man growing up in Ireland and rebelling against family, country, and religion.





Kafka, Franz


The Trial


A man is tried for a crime he knows nothing about, yet for which he feels guilt.





Lawrence, D.H.


Sons and Lovers


An autobiographical novel about a youth torn between a dominant working-class father and a possessive genteel mother.





Mann, Thomas


Death in Venice


In this novella, an author becomes aware of a darker side of himself when he visits Venice.





Orwell, George


Animal Farm


Animals turn the tables on their masters.





Pasternak, Boris


Doctor Zhivago


An epic novel of Russia before and after the Bolshevik revolution.





Paton, Alan


Cry, the Beloved Country


A country Zulu pastor searches for his sick sister in Johannesburg, and discovers that she has become a prostitute and his son a murderer.





Remarque, Erich Maria


All Quiet on the Western Front


A young German soldier in World War I experiences pounding shellfire, hunger, sickness, and death.





Scott, Sir Walter


Ivanhoe


Tale of Ivanhoe, the disinherited knight, Lady Rowena, Richard the Lion-Hearted, and Robin Hood at the time of the Crusades.





Shelley, Mary W.


Frankenstein


A gothic tale of terror in which Franken-stein creates a monster from corpses.





Solzhenitsyn, Aleksander


One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich


Ivan Denisovich Shukhov endures one more day in a Siberian prison camp and finds joy in survival.





Swift, Jonathan


Gulliver's Travels


Gulliver encounters dwarfs and giants and has other strange adventures when his ship is wrecked in distant lands.





Tan, Amy


The Joy Luck Club


After her mother's death, a young Chinese-American woman learns of her mother's tragic early life in China.





Tolstoy, Leo


Anna Karenina


Anna forsakes her husband for the dashing Count Vronsky and brief happiness.





Weisel, Elie


Night


A searing account of the Holocaust as experienced by a 15-year-old boy.





Angelou, Maya


I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings


An African-American writer traces her coming of age.





Ashe, Arthur and Arnold Rampersad.


Days of Grace


Biography of a highly respected tennis star and citizen of the world who dies of AIDS.





Baker, Russell


Growing Up


A columnist with a sense of humor takes a gentle look at his childhood in Baltimore during the Depression.





Berenbaum, Michael


The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.





Brown, Dee


Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee


A narrative of the white man's conquest of the American land as the Indian victims experienced it.





Cooke, Alistair


Alistair Cooke's America


A history of the continent, with anecdotes and insight into what makes America work.





Criddle, Jan. D. and Teeda Butt Mam


To Destroy You Is No Loss: The Odyssey of a Cambodian Family


After the 1975 Communist takeover of Cambodia, Teeda's upper-class life is re-duced to surviving impossible conditions.





Crow Dog, Mary and Richard Erdoes


Lakota Woman


Mary Crow Dog stands with 2,000 other Native Americans at the site of the Wounded Knee massacre, demonstrating for Native American rights.





Curie, Eve


Madame Curie


In sharing personal papers and her own memories, a daughter pays tribute to her mother, a scientific genius.





Delany, Sara and A. Elizabeth with Amy Hill Hearth


Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years


Two daughters of former slaves tell their stories of fighting racial and gender pre-


judice during the 20th century.





Epstein, Norrie


Friendly Shakespeare: A Thoroughly Painless Guide to the Best of the Bard.


Gain a perspective on Shakespeare's works through these sidelights, interpretations, anecdotes, and historical insights.





Frank, Anne


The Diary of a Young Girl


The story of a Jewish family forced by encroaching Nazis to live in hiding.





Franklin, Benjamin


The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin


Considered one of the most interesting autobiographies in English.





Haley, Alex


Roots


Traces Haley's search for the history of his family, from Africa through the era of slavery to the 20th century.





Hersey, John


Hiroshima


Six Hiroshima survivors reflect on the aftermath of the first atomic bomb.





Karlsen, Carol


The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England


The status of women in colonial society affects the Salem witch accusations.





Keller, Helen


The Story of My Life


The story of Helen Keller, who was both blind and deaf, and her relationship with her devoted teacher Anne Sullivan.





Kennedy, John F.


Profiles in Courage


A series of profiles of Americans who took courageous stands in public life.





King, Martin Luther, Jr.


A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr.


King's most important writings are gathered together in one source.





Kovic, Ron


Born on the Fourth of July


Paralyzed in the Vietnam War, 21-year-old Ron Kovic received little support from his country and its government.





Machiavelli, Niccolo


The Prince


A treatise giving the absolute ruler practical advice on ways to maintain a strong central government.





Malcom X, with Alex Haley


The Autobiography of Malcom X


Traces the transformation of a controversial Black Muslim figure from street hustler to religious and national leader.





Marx, Karl


The Communist Manifesto


Expresses Marx's belief in the inevitability of conflict between social classes and calls on the workers of the world to unite and revolt.





Mathabane, Mark


Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa


A tennis player breaks down racial barriers and escape to a better life in America.





Maybury-Lewis, David


Millenium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World


Profiles members of several tribal cultures.





McPherson, James


Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era


From the Mexican War to Appomattox, aspects of the Civil War are examined.





Mills, Kay


This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer


Fannie Lou Hamer, a sharecropper's daughter, uses her considerable courage and singing talent to become a leader in the civil rights movement.





Plato


The Republic


Plato creates an ideal society where


justice is equated with health and happiness in the state and the individual.





Rogosin, Donn


Invisible Men: Life in Baseball's ***** Leagues


***** League players finally gain recognition for their contributions to baseball.





Thoreau, Henry David


Walden


In the mid-19th century, Thoreau spends 26 months alone in the woods to "front the essential facts of life."





Tocqueville, Alexis de


Democracy in America


This classic in political literature examines American society from the viewpoint of a leading French magistrate who visited the U.S. in 1831.





Tuchman, Barbara


A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century


Tuchman uses the example of a single feudal lord to trace the history of the 14th century.





Williams, Juan


Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-65


From Brown vs. the Board of Education to the Voting Rights Act, Williams outlines the social and political gains of African-Americans





Yolen, Jane


Favorite Folktales From Around the World


Yolen frames these powerful tales with explanations of historical and literary significance.





Attenborough, David


The Living Planet: A Portrait of the Earth


Various habitats expand the vision of Planet Earth.





Bronowski, Jacob


The Ascent of Man


A scientist's history of the human mind and the human condition.





Carson, Rachel


Silent Spring


Carson's original clarion call to environmental action sets the stage for saving our planet.





Darwin, Charles


The Origin of Species


The classic exposition of the theory of


evolution by natural selection.





Hawking, Stephen


A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes


Cosmology becomes understandable as the author discusses the origin, evolution, and fate of our universe.





Leopold, Aldo


A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There


Leopold shares his present and future visions of a natural world.





Campbell, Joseph


The Power of Myth


Explores themes and symbols from world religions and their relevance to humankind's spiritual journey today.





Hamilton, Edith


Mythology


Gods and heroes, their clashes and adventures, come alive in this splendid retelling of the Greek, Roman and Norse myths.





Kotlowitz, Alex


There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in Urban America


Lafayette and Pharoah Rivers and their family struggle to survive in one of Chicago's worst housing projects.





Kozol, Jonathan


Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools


Kozol's indictment of the public school system advocates equalizing per pupil public school expenditures.





Terkel, Studs


Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession


This kaleidoscope covers the full range of America's views on racial issues.





Beckett, Samuel


Waiting for Godot


Powerful, symbolic portrayal of the human condition.





Brecht, Bertolt


Mother Courage and Her Children


A product of the Nazi era, Mother Courage is a feminine "Everyman" in a play on the futility of war.





Chekhov, Anton


The Cherry Orchard


The orchard evokes different meanings for the impoverished aristocrat and the merchant who buys it.





Ibsen, Henrik


A Doll's House


A woman leaves her family to pursue personal freedom.





Marlowe, Christopher


Doctor Faustus


First dramatization of the medieval legend of a man who sold his soul to the devil.





Miller, Arthur


Death of a Salesman


The tragedy of a typical American who, at age 63, is faced with what he cannot face: defeat and disillusionment.





O'Neill, Eugene


Long Day's Journey Into Night


A tragedy set in 1912 in the summer home of an isolated, theatrical family.





Sarte, Jean Paul


No Exit


A modern morality play in which three persons are condemned to hell because of crimes against humanity.





Shakespeare, William


Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet,


Macbeth, Twelfth Night, others.





Shaw, Bernard


Man and Superman, Saint Joan, Pygmalion, others.


Sophocles


Oedipus Rex


Classical tragedy of Oedipus who unwittingly killed his father, married his mother and brought the plague to Thebes.





Wilde, Oscar


The Importance of Being Earnest


Comedy exposing quirks and foibles of Victorian society.





Wilder, Thornton


Our Town


The dead of a New Hamshire village of the early 1900s appreciate life more than the living.





Williams, Tennessee


A Streetcar Named Desire


Blanche Dubois' fantasies of refinement and grandeur are brutally destroyed by her brother-in-law.





Wilson, August


The Piano Lesson


Drama set in 1936 Pittsburgh chronicles black experience in America.





Angelou, Maya


And Still I Rise


Poems reflecting themes from her autobiography.





Brooks, Gwendolyn


Selected Poems


Poetry focusing on the lives of African American residents of Northern urban ghettos, particularly women.





Cummings, E.E.


Complete Poems, 1904-1962


Prepared directly from the original manuscripts, preserving the original typography and format.





Dickinson, Emily


The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson


A chronological arrangement of all known Dickinson poems and fragments.





Donne, John


The Complete Poetry of John Donne


Poems distinguished by wit, profundity of thought, passion and subtlety.





Eliot, T.S.


The Waste Land


A poem of despair by one of the most important modern poets in English.





Frost, Robert


The Poetry of Robert Frost


Collected works reflecting both flashing insight and practical wisdom.





Ginsberg, Allen


Howl and Other Poems


Works from the leading poet of the so-called "beat generation."





Giovanni, Nikki


My House


The poems in this collection deal with love, family, nature, friends, music, aloneness, blackness, and Africa.





Hughes, Langston


Selected Poems


Poems selected by Hughes shortly before his death in 1967, representing work from his entire career.





Keats, John


Complete Poems


Among the greatest odes in English, written by a genius who died young.





Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth


The Poetical Works of Longfellow


Includes "The Song of Hiawatha" and "The Courtship of Miles Standish."





Sandburg, Carl


Complete Poems


Sandburg celebrates industrial and agricultural America and the common people.





Thomas, Dylan


Poems of Dylan Thomas


Poetry by a "word magician" with a powerful imagination.





Williams, William Carlos


Selected Poems


Williams' poetry is firmly rooted in the commonplace details of American life.





Wordsworth, William


Poems


Poetry revealing the extraordinary beauty and significance of simple things.





Yeats, William Butler


The Poems


Leading poet of the Irish Renaissance.
Reply:Try my mom's books. My mother is Dianne Henderson, author of The Miller's Pond Mystery Series.





Readers voted the books 5 stars.





These are excellent books!





We are still tring to get the word out about the books. Check them out. They are great books. You would like them too!!
Reply:"Candy" is a very interesting one for its nature. Here are some others--the list is endless, you know--Anthem, The Poetry of Robert Frost , Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Winter of my Discontent, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, The Piano Lesson, The Robber Bridegroom, My House, The Midwife's Apprentice, Poems of Dylan Thomas, Magic Men, The Stranger, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Light in August, The Cherry Orchard, War and Peace, Waiting for Godot, The Power of Myth, Favorite Folktales From Around the World, The Myths, The Republic, Seize the Day, The Awakening, Les Miserables, The Odyssey. The Old Man and the Sea, Travels with Charlie, Chronicles of a Death Fortold, Cheaper by the Dozen,The Crucible, The Egg and I, Annie and the King of Siam, Grapes of Wrath, Press and Prejudice, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Tempest, Sound and Fury, Islands in the Stream, My Struggle, Leatherstocking Tales, Kidnapped, Tom Sawyer, Innocents Abroad, Shipwrecked, and I Was There.





Concentrate on the Russians, Shakespeare, Faulkner and the British authors of the 1800s. Don't overlook some excellent writing from contemporary Italy and South America.





ADDED-- Don't forget the CLASSIC CLASSICS--"Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans" is a good starter. So are the plays of the early Greeks (all timeless), and read the librettos of the leading operas (mainly the German and Italian ones) if you want to found yourself in high morality and the human experience.
Reply:the awakening





the crucible
Reply:Les Miserables, The Old Man and the Sea, Travels with Charlie, Chronicles of a Death Fortold, and Candide. Those were the books I read my sophmore year.
Reply:The fountainhead by Ayn rand


Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance by Robert pirsig


The stranger by Albert camus


The Republic by Plato





there are many more but u can't go wrong with any one of them





Good luck
Reply:It looks like there is plenty of a list for you to choose from, but I would personally recommend Anthem by Ayn Rand. It really makes you think about life and the society we live in.
Reply:McBeth, The Odyssey
Reply:Fantastic!! If you've read all of those, you can read anything you wish. Your reading level doesn't matter; at least as far as school rates you; you are already further advanced than most of your peer. And if you understood what you've read you are further along than a lot of college students. Keep it up.
Reply:The Midwife's Apprentice is awesome.
Reply:Something different, read Magic Men by W. Korol Selley.