New York State English Language Arts Recommended Reading List
Please visit the website below for more information
http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/guides/ela/part1b.pdf
Recommended Reading for Grades 9 - 12
Fiction and
Non-Fiction
Things Fall Apart
....................................................................................Achebe,
Chinua
I Know Why the Caged Bird
Sings..........................................................Angelou, Maya
Days of
Grace...........................................................................................Ashe,
Arthur
Pride and
Prejudice..................................................................................Austen,
Jane
Growing
Up.............................................................................................Baker,
Russell
Forbidden City
.........................................................................................Bell,
William
Wuthering Heights
..................................................................................Bronte,
Charlotte
My Antonia
.............................................................................................Cather,
Willa
Shogun
.....................................................................................................Clavell,
James
Heart of Darkness
....................................................................................Conrad,
Joseph
Prince of
Tides..........................................................................................Conroy,
Pat
After the First
Death................................................................................Cormier,
Robert
Maggie: Girl of the
Streets.......................................................................Crane,
Stephen
The Red Badge of Courage
.......................................................................Crane,
Stephen
Tale of Two Cities
.....................................................................................Dickens,
Charles
Crime and
Punishment............................................................................Dostoyevsky,
Fyodor
The Life and Times of Frederick
Douglass...............................................Douglass, Frederick
Silas Marner
............................................................................................Elliott,
George
The Invisible
Man....................................................................................Ellison,
Ralph
The Portable
Emerson..............................................................................Emerson,
Ralph Waldo
As I Lay Dying
........................................................................................Faulkner,
William
The Great Gatsby
.....................................................................................Fitzerald,
F. Scott
Lord of the
Flies........................................................................................Golding,
William
Waiting for the Rain
................................................................................Gordon,
Sheila
Black Like
Me...........................................................................................Griffin,
John Howard
Roots
........................................................................................................Haley,
Alex
ARaisin in the Sun
.................................................................................Hansberry,
Lorraine
Tess of the
D’Urbervilles..........................................................................Hardy,
Thomas
The Scarlet
Letter.....................................................................................Hawthorne,
Nathaniel
Pentimento
..............................................................................Hellman,
Lillian
AFarewell to Arms
.................................................................Hemingway,
Ernest
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
.......................................................Hemingway, Ernest
Lés Miserables
.........................................................................Hugo,
Victor
Dust Tracks on a
Road.............................................................Hurston, Zora
Neale
Their Eyes Were Watching God..............................................Hurston,
Zora Neale
ATime to
Speak.......................................................................Jackson,
Jesse
The Lottery
..............................................................................Jackson,
Shirley
APortrait of the Artist As a Young Man ...............................Joyce,
James
Profiles in Courage
..................................................................Kennedy, John
F.
Ironweed
..................................................................................Kennedy,
William
Stride Toward
Freedom............................................................King, Martin
Luther
ASeparate
Peace......................................................................Knowles,
John
Dark Child
...............................................................................Laye,
Camara
To Kill A
Mockingbird.............................................................Lee,
Harper
Call of the
Wild........................................................................London,
Jack
Ninety-Five Theses
..................................................................................Luther,
Martin
The Prince
................................................................................................Machiavelli,
Niccolo
A Death in Venice
....................................................................................Mann,
Thomas
Nicholas and
Alexandra...........................................................................Massie,
Robert
Color of
Water..........................................................................................McBride,
James
All the Pretty Horses
...............................................................................McCarthy,
Cormac
Moby Dick
...............................................................................................Melville,
Herman
Blue
Highways.........................................................................................Moon,
William Least Heat
Song of Solomon
......................................................................................Morrison,
Toni
Beloved
.....................................................................................................Morrison,
Toni
The Power of Myth
..................................................................................Moyers,
Bill
1984..........................................................................................................Orwell,
George
Cry the Beloved Country
.........................................................................Paton,
Alan
ADay No Pigs Would Die
......................................................................Peck,
Robert Newton
All Quiet on the Western
Front...............................................................Remarque,
Erich Maria
My
Day....................................................................................................Roosevelt,
Eleanor
Catcher in the
Rye....................................................................................Salinger,
J. D.
ATree Grows in
Brooklyn........................................................................Smith,
Betty
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch.................................................Solzhenitsyn,
Alexandr
Of Mice and
Men.....................................................................................Steinbeck,
John
Grapes of
Wrath.......................................................................................Steinbeck,
John
The Joy Luck
Club....................................................................................Tan,
Amy
Hard
Times...............................................................................................Terkel,
Studs
Walden.....................................................................................................Thoreau,
Henry David
The Guns of
August.................................................................................Tuchman,
Barbara W.
Fathers and
Sons......................................................................................Turgenev,
Ivan Sergeyevich
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
......................................................Twain, Mark
Rabbit
Run...............................................................................................Updike,
John
Exodus......................................................................................................Uris,
Leon
Slaughterhouse
Five.................................................................................Vonnegut,
Kurt
The Color
Purple......................................................................................Walker,
Alice
Black
Boy..................................................................................................Wright,
Richard
Briar
Rose.................................................................................................Yolen,
Jane
We
............................................................................................................Zarnation,
Eugene
Folklore
Aesop’s Fables
..........................................................................................Aesop
Andersen’s Fairy
Tales.............................................................................Anderson,
Hans Christian
Johnny Appleseed.....................................................................................Benet,
Rosemary
Trickster Stories
.......................................................................................Edmonds,
I. G.
Greek Mythology
.....................................................................................Hamilton,
Edith
Mules and
Men........................................................................................Hurston,
Zora Neale
Tales of King Arthur
................................................................................Malory,
Sir Thomas
Paul Bunyan
............................................................................................Sandberg,
Carl
Fantasy and Science Fiction
Watership
Down......................................................................................Adams,
Richard
The Handmaid’s
Tale................................................................................Atwood,
Margaret
I. Robot
....................................................................................................Azimov,
Isaac
The Illustrated
Man.................................................................................Bradbury,
Ray
Jurassic Park
............................................................................................Crichton,
Michael
The Princess Bride
...................................................................................Goldman,
William
17 English Language Arts
Stranger in a Strange Land
.....................................................................Heinlein,
Robert A.
Brave New World
....................................................................................Huxley,
Aldous
1984..........................................................................................................Orwell,
George
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s
Court.......................................Twain, Mark
Sirens of the
Titan....................................................................................Vonnegut,
Kurt
The Time Machine
...................................................................................Wells,
Herbert George
Poetry
And Still I Rise
........................................................................................Angelou,
Maya
Collected Poems
.......................................................................................Auden,
W. Hugh
Cry
...........................................................................................................Baca,
Jimmy Santiago
Tiger,
Tiger...............................................................................................Blake,
William
Thanatopsis..............................................................................................Bryant,
William C.
The Canterbury
Tales...............................................................................Chaucer,
Geoffrey
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickenson
...............................................Dickinson, Emily
Collected Poems
.......................................................................................Eliot,
Thomas S.
Endless Life
..............................................................................................Ferlinghetti,
Lawrence
The Poetry of Robert
Frost.......................................................................Frost,
Robert
My
House.................................................................................................Giovanni,
Nikki
Selected Poems of Langston
Hughes........................................................Hughes, Langston
The Iliad
...................................................................................................Homer
The
Odyssey.............................................................................................Homer
Poetical Works
.........................................................................................Keats,
John
Spoon River
Anthology............................................................................Masters,
Edgar Lee
Poems of Pablo Neruda
(bilingual)..........................................................Neruda,
Pablo
The Collected Poems
................................................................................Plath,
Sylvia
The Raven
................................................................................................Poe,
Edgar Allen
Richard
Cory............................................................................................Robinson,
Edwin A.
Sonnets.....................................................................................................Shakespeare,
William
The Poetical Works
..................................................................................Shelley,
Percy Bysshe
Leaves of
Grass.........................................................................................Whitman,
Walt
Drama
Becket
.......................................................................................................Anouilh,
Jean
Antigone
..................................................................................................Anoulih,
Jean
Waiting for Godot....................................................................................Beckett,
Samuel
The Stranger
............................................................................................Camus,
Albert
Medea.......................................................................................................Euripides
Julia
..........................................................................................................Hellman,
Lillian
A Doll’s House
.........................................................................................Ibsen,
Henry
Inherit the Wind
......................................................................................Lawrence,
Jerome
Death of a
Salesman.................................................................................Miller,
Arthur
The
Crucible.............................................................................................Miller,
Arthur
Long Day’s Journey Into
Night...............................................................O’Neill,
Eugene
Twelve Angry
Men..................................................................................Rose,
Reginald
Cyrano de
Bergerac..................................................................................Rostand,
Edmond
As You Like
It...........................................................................................Shakespeare,
William
Hamlet......................................................................................................Shakespeare,
William
Macbeth....................................................................................................Shakespeare,
William
Richard II
.................................................................................................Shakespeare,
William
Romeo and Juliet
......................................................................................Shakespeare,
William
Pygmalion................................................................................................Shaw,
George Bernard
Oedipus
Rex.............................................................................................Sophocles
Tartuffe.....................................................................................................Moliere,
Jean Baptiste Poquelin
The Heidi Chronicles
...............................................................................Wasserman,
Wendy
AStreetcar Named Desire
.......................................................................Williams,
Tennessee
Fences.......................................................................................................Wilson,
August
All information taken from: http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/guides/ela/part1b.pdf