2024-25 AP Literature & Composition Summer Reading Assignment

Mr. Hurst

Part I 

Watch Videos:  How to take efficient and neat notes  and How I take notes 

• After watching StudyTee’s notes system, think about how you can benefit from her advice and method by making it your own.

Assignment: Purchase a notebook of your choice with the style of paper that you prefer (lined, graph, blank, bullet point, etc.). You will use this notebook to create notes for major works that we study, so find one that suits you.

Part II

You may choose any book from the list below. These works cover a range of different nationalities, cultures, religions, races, and ethnicities, and some titles may contain adult themes and content, so I encourage you to do some research before selecting a title. I also suggest reading What AP Stands For, so you have a clear understanding about the literature we will be reading.  

Assignment:

• Create at least 4 pages of StudyTee style notes about your book. One side of the paper counts as one page. Later in the year you may want to refer back and add to these notes when studying for the exam.
• As you read, keep in mind the following AP Lit. Big Ideas: Character, Setting, Structure, Narration, and Figurative Language, and controlling idea or Theme. These big ideas should serve as broad categories for your notes and help guide your reading. Notes pages should include quoted (and cited) short passages and/or quoted keywords and phrases. You should note connections to other texts (if possible), the world, and events throughout the text itself. Mark down patterns or shifts you notice. Also focus on how and why any of the following literary elements are used in the story: character foils, allusions, symbols/motifs/recurring details, imagery, foreshadowing, narrator’s tone, diction/syntax, etc. Consider how these literary elements work together with the AP Lit. Big Ideas to create meaning thematically throughout the text. Notes can include color and images to enhance meaning. How you organize your notes pages is up to you. Do what you feel is right and works best. Be creative! 
• Annotations are not required but recommended. I really want you to enjoy this book without being slowed down by marking the text. However, please use some sticky notes to highlight key moments/passages that reveal themes, symbols, and/or motifs–or even to just pose a question or make a connection. Focus on what jumps out at you or stirs your emotions. The Harvard College Library has posted an excellent guide to annotation,  “Interrogating Texts: Six reading habits to Develop in your First Year at Harvard.” 

 

Book List

Romance

1. Frankly In Love by David Yoon

2. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

4. Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

5. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

6. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

7. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

8. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

 

Sci Fi, Dystopian, Post Apocalyptic

1. 1984 by George Orwell

2. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

3. The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

4. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

5. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

6. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

7. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

8. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

9. The Martian by Andy Weir

10. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

11. Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi

12. The Road by Cormac McCarthy

13. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

14. Station Eleven by Emily St. Jean Mandel

15. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

 

Mystery

1. All The Truth That’s In Me by Julie Berry

2. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

3. Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia

4. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon

5. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

6. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

7. Room by Emma Donoghue

8. Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Safon

9. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

10. The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti

 

Horror/Thriller

1. Blue Moon by Lee Child

2. Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

3. Gwendy’s Button Box by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar

4. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

5. A Headful of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

6. Lisey’s Story by Stephen King

7. A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis

8. The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice

9. The Raven’s Tale by Cat Winters

10. Room by Emma Donoghue

11. Zone One by Colson Whitehead

 

Historical Fiction

1. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

2. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

3. Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras

4. A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson

5. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

6. Refuge by Dina Nayeri

7. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

8. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

9. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

10. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

11. The Water Dancer by Ta-Nahisi Coates

12. The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

 

Family Drama

1. East of Eden by John Steinbeck

2. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

3. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende

4. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

5. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

6. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards

7. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

8. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

9. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

10. We the Animals by Justin Torres

11. The Leavers by Lisa Ko

12. There There by Tommy Orange

 

Books with Strong Female Protagonists

1. Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson

2. A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza

3. The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd

4. Circe by Madeline Miller

5. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

6. Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

7. The Friend by Sigrid Nunez

8. The Other Americans by Lalami, Laila

9. Out of The Easy by Ruta Sepetys

10. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

11. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

12. We Are Not From Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez

13. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

14. With The Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

15. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

 

Books with Strong Male Protagonists

1. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

2. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

3. The Boy In The Black Suit by Jason Reynolds

4. Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano

5. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

6. George Washington Gomez by Américo Paredes

7. LaRose by Louise Erdrich

8. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty

9. News of the World by Paulette Jiles

10. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

11. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

 

Relatable Stories of High School Drama

1. Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner

2. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

3. Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

4. Tradition by Brendon Kiely

5. The Topeka School by Ben Lerner

6. Us Against You by Fredrik Backman

 

Coming of Age

1. Dig by A.S. King

2. Everyone Knows You Go Home by Natalia Sylvester

3. Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras

4. The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea

5. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

6. Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay

7. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

8. The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner

9. Where We Come From by Oscar Cásares

10. The Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas