VIS English Department Recommended Reading List grades 10-‐12
Title The Go Between
Author L. P. Hartley
Like Water for Chocolate
Laura Esquivel
Angela’s Ashes
Frank McCourt
Paris Stories
Mavis Gallant
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Dai Sijie
Novels, short stories and poems
Edgar Allen Poe
The English Patient
Michael Ondaatje
Dracula
Bram Stoker
IQ84 (Books 1-‐ 3), Sputnik Lover and others
Haruki Murakami
Sons and Lovers (and others)
D H Lawrence
Joy Luck Club
Amy Tan
Snow Country
Yasunari Kawabata
Tess of the D’Urbervilles (and others)
Thomas Hardy
The God of Small Things
Arhundhati Roy
Some information The haunting story of a young boy's awakening into the secrets of the adult world, The Go-‐ Between is also an unforgettable evocation of the boundaries of Edwardian society. A novel presented recipe by traditional recipe chronicling a passionate and forbidden love affair on a ranch in Mexico. Magical realism. A touching story that pulls you into the author’s past in impoverished Ireland. Some of the most memorable of her stories chosen for this collection are set in Europe and Paris, where Gallant has long lived. Mysterious, funny, insightful, and heartbreaking. Two wealthy sons sent to work in rural China by the communist regime befriend a local seamstress’ daughter and discover a hoard of illicit literature. Horror, satires, hoaxes Poe’s work includes murderers run mad by their guilt, death held at bay by hypnosis and maidens in death like trances and more. A man plummets from the sky and lands a burnt, unrecognizable wreck in the desert. He and the other protagonists of this novel who inhabit a world torn apart by war attempt to piece together their identities and what is left of their lives. Jonathan Harker and his fiancée must pit themselves against a disturbing individual from Transylvania with a taste for blood who is threatening to devastate the very fabric of their lives together. Japan’s answer to magic realism, Murakami tells of often isolated characters who experience unnerving and absorbing events in Japan: events that stretch the boundaries of reality as we know it. Lawrence harks from a Northern England mining town where many of his narratives are set dealing with the conflicts between social class at that time. This novel centres around Chinese immigrant women in the US playing mahjong for money whilst feasting. Three mothers and four daughters share their memories in stories that interweave. Set in the startling beauty of rural Japan’s ‘snow country’ this novel touches all seasons and tells of a man’s hidden love for a Geisha girl. Many of Hardy’s novels are set in a semi-‐ fictional 19th Century Wessex and are filled with characters who struggle against their passions and social circumstances, Tess’ tragic tale among them. Twins attempt to deal with the aftermath of a love story that breaches the strict social class
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VIS English Department Recommended Reading List grades 10-‐12
Midnight’s Children and others
Salman Rushdie
Fasting and Feasting and others
Anita Desai
The Handmaid’s Tale
Margaret Atwood
Cat’s Eye and others
Margaret Atwood
The Tunnel
Ernesto Sabato
Atonement and others
Ian McEwan
The Painted Veil
Somerset Maugham
The House of Spirits and others
Isabel Allende
One Hundred Years of Solitude and others
Gabriel García Márquez
Beloved, The Bluest Eye, Jazz, Amercy
Toni Morrison
Black Rain
Masuji Ibuse
Who Do You Think You Are? (and other sets of short stories) Never Let Me Go (and others)
Alice Munro
The Stone Angel
Margaret
Kazuo Ishiguro
system in India. Children born at the stroke of midnight on the night India is given its independence possess extraordinary powers. Magic realism that tells of social turmoil in India. Three narratives interwine dealing with the lives of Uma, Aruna and Arun and also exploring the different approaches the West and East have to food and eating. Desai has written 17 other books. Set in a dystopian future, possibly in the aftermath of nuclear war, an autocratic regime where men and women are reassigned roles so that the world can be repopulated. Bullying, ageing, friendship, crime, identity, passion and social stereotypes are some of the many issues touched in Atwood’s novels. This novel provides us with a momentary insight into a criminal mind and allows us a glimpse of its motivations and manias. How much can one event be misinterpreted and just how far reaching can our actions be? A sister tells of her sibling’s love affair and her own actions in war-‐torn England. Kitty flings herself into a marriage with a bacteriologist and moves with him to Hong Kong and eventually the Chinese interior where she begins to understand a less vacuous existence. A magical realism book that tells of the twisting tales of Clara the clairvoyant and Rosa, her green haired and beautiful sister: murder plots and adventures ensue. One of the founders of the magical realism style, Márquez’ novels are set in a metaphorical Columbia and tell of Jose Arcardo Beundia’s quest to found the Utopian society of Macondo, the city of mirrors that reflects the world around it. Extraordinary events follow. Not for the faint-‐hearted, Morrison’s novels tell of the experiences of black Americans as far back as the slave trade. Houses haunted by dead children, families lost and separated. These are powerful stories of humanity’s struggle to survive. Set in Japan, this novel alternates between Shigematsu’s attempts to secure a marriage match for his niece by assuring suitors she is not suffering from radiation sickness and his own wartime diary from Hiroshima. Many of Munro’s stories have a regional focus and are set in Huron County, Ontario. Coming of age tales of a young girl, the human condition and relationships. Set in a dystopian society, Kathy and her friends are scientific specimens who struggle to understand their planned destinies. Ishiguro has written many novels set in various contexts. In two interweaving narratives, 90 year old
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VIS English Department Recommended Reading List grades 10-‐12
(and others)
Laurence
As for Me and My House (ands others)
Sinclair Ross
A Hero of Our Time
Mikhail Lermontov
Out of Africa (and other short stories)
Isak Dinesen (Karen von Blixen-‐ Finecke) Alexandra Fuller
Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight Short stories
Anton Chekhov
1984 (and others)
George Orwell
The Grapes of Wrath (and others)
John Steinbeck
Gathering Light
Jennifer Donnelly Ray Badbury
Fahrenheit 451 (and others) A Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
The Turning of the Screw (and others)
Henry James
The Long Walk
Slavomir Rawicz
Fatherland (and others)
Robert Harris
Between Extremes
Brian Keenan & John McCarthy
Hagar is struggling against being put into a nursing home which she sees as a symbol of death and reflecting on her past. Set in an imagined mid-‐western prairie town during the Great Depression this classic tells of the life of a minister’s wife and her family’s hardships and struggles to survive. The tales of the great Byronic hero Pechorin from various perspectives: his captain’s diaries, his own and a traveller’s. A vivid snapshot of African colonial life in the last decades of the British Empire recalling Karen’s struggles and triumphs in the hard of what is now Kenya. A coming of age tale set in a Rhodesia that is struggling in the vicious throes of political antagonism: tales of the dangers of road-‐side mines and a family’s struggle for survival. Chekhov wrote over two hundred short stories during his life. They feature the hardships and triumphs of persons from all walks of life. A dystopian novel set in a society controlled by a cruel dictatorship that watches its society’s every move. Winston and his lover, Julia, must face their worst fears in order to fight for the freedom to think their own thoughts. A Pulitzer winner set during the frightening dust storms of the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. A family of sharecroppers face terrible hardships and are driven from their land. A coming of age story set in the Adirondack mountains based on the mystery of a real murder at the turn of the century. A dystopian world where books are banned and fireman come to start fires not to put them out. Badbury has over five hundred published works. London, AD 2540, where children are ‘decanted’, not born, and raised in ‘Hatcheries’ and society has rewritten the laws on relationships. Bernard and John challenge their society with disastrous consequences. A Gothic spine chiller in which a governess takes on the charge of two beautiful and seemingly innocent orphans and gradually realizes that all is not as it seems… One of a small group of people to escape from the tortures of a Gulag camp during a blizzard in 1941, Rawicz undertakes an eleven-‐month trek to safety. Unveiling the living nightmare of the reality that the Nazis planned but never achieved: Swiss bank vaults, love, the trail of the loner March and the black heart of the Nazi state. Having spent years kidnapped and confined in Beirut the two kept up their spirits by imagining the High Andes and Patagonia. Later they undertake a breathtaking journey across Chile,
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VIS English Department Recommended Reading List grades 10-‐12
The Painter of Battles
Arturo Perez Reverte
The Penelopiad
Margaret Attwood
The Tesseract
Alex Garland
The Library of Shadows
Mikkel Birkegaard
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher
Kate Summerscale
Going After Cacciato The Shadow of the Wind
Tim O’Brien
Case Histories
Kate Atkinson
A Singular Hostage
Thalassa Ali
A Beggar at the Gate
Thalassa Ali
Labyrinth
Kate Mosse
Archangel
Robert Harris
Three Views of Crystal Water
Katherine Govier
Carlos Ruiz Zafón
to see how the country matches with their dreams. War photographer is painting a vast mural to sum up his experiences, when he is tracked down by a Bosnian whose life has been ruined by a photo. The Odyssey retold the whole lot from Penelope’s point of view. There is a chorus from the twelve maidens who were Penelope’s chambermaids. set in the Philippines, the plot brings together several different strands – a Brit waiting for an appointment with a local Mafia-‐style boss, il capo’s group, the family of a girl from the province who now works as a doctor, and two street boys. if you liked Dan Brown secret society and conspiracy stories will like this. It’s about people who have telepathic powers who can influence us by the way they read out loud. biography of one of the first detectives, an exploration of a child-‐murder which shocked the public as well as a study in the evolution of police work. In the Vietnam War a small group of soldiers head off to catch the AWOL Cacciato of the title. A library of lost books in Barcelona, in the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath. It’s a love story, a mystery, a story about redemption. It makes you laugh and cry; it’s a great book and the characters are wonderful. A kind of mystery novel, with cold cases which the main character Jackson takes on. They are all interconnected although this is by no means obvious at first. The characters are vividly drawn; there is pathos and plenty of humour. Set in the Punjab, the Sikh Maharajah is being wooed into an alliance to attack Afghanistan. The heroine, Mariana, is as clumsy as she is brave and there is much to enjoy for a wide spectrum of readers – history, society, mysticism, adventure, romance. Ostracised from polite society because of her supposed marriage to a native, Mariana is caught in the battle at Lahore as opposing groups vied for power Here’s a woman who knows her medieval French history and literature. Very well-‐done, double plotted novel, of the Da Vinci Code wave of semi-‐mystical thrillers but much, MUCH better. A ‘what if?’ novel based soundly in history (just as you would expect from Harris). A gripping thriller, and you are never, never on top of the plot -‐ a combination of John Le Carré and Stephen King. Vera, left unprovided for by her family, and taken to Japan by her grandfather’s young
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VIS English Department Recommended Reading List grades 10-‐12
The Gladiator
Simon Scarrow
The Mask of Apollo
Mary Renault
Imperium
Robert Harris
Fifth Business
Robertson Davies
The Song of the Gladiator
Paul Docherty
The Left Hand of Darkness
Ursula Le Guin
The Seduction of Water
Carol Goodman
Kit’s Wilderness
David Almond
Ashenden
W. Somerset Maugham
The Mask of Ra
Paul Doherty
mistress, an ama or diver. The story interweaves the histories of Vera’s parents and grandparents, and the katanatogi – the sword sharpener, Ikkanshi whose life had been in diplomatic circles until he could no longer tolerate Japan’s politics. No – not that Gladiator! A swashbuckling historical novel set in the Roman Empire imagining the social and political consequences of an earthquake, mindful of slave rebellions in Sicily, and the later one led by Spartacus. Scarrow has two centurions as his main characters, Macro and Cato and this novel picks up after a siege at Palmyra . The memoir of an actor set in the decades around 350 B.C. set in ancient Greece and Sicily. Insights into the practicalities of the Greek theatre and a page-‐turner because of the battles and dirty politics. Historical novel based on the life of Cicero the lawyer and orator who rose to prominence from a humble background confronts the frightening Catilina and a huge conspiracy to rig the elections. Cicero’s penetrating intelligence and his dramatic public speeches dazzle. Growing up in small-‐town Canada coupled with World War I, saints, magic and miracles. Insightful and funny on social change, friendship and personal rivalries. Light reading but historically accurate and compulsive mystery set in the Roman Empire. Docherty makes Rome sound like the east End of London in much more recent years in terms of the intrigue and organized crime. Thrilling stuff. Breathtaking piece of science fiction, in a world where the inhabitants are hermaphrodite, or rather, neuter until they are in ‘kemmer’ at which point they can become either male or female and can either mother or father children. Psychological complexity as well as the distractions you associate with a good Hitchcock film especially with the interspersed telling of the fantasy story written by the mother of the main character, Iris Greenfeder. The MacGuffin seems to be the third book in the trilogy which the mother may have written but failed to publish. About being new in a place and trying to fit in, scary games children play and our relationship with the past, good for teens and grown-‐ups. It contrasts family relationships with Askew’s father’s cruelty and the close relationship between Kit and his grandfather. It’s also about reconciliation and saving the lost. Short stories based on Maugham’s own experiences as a spy in WWI are a delight. The characters are meticulously observed. Le Carré was inspired by these – it’s easy to see why. Set in ancient, Egypt the sudden death of
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VIS English Department Recommended Reading List grades 10-‐12
Red Shift
Alan Garner
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Riddley Walker
Russell Hoban
Feersum Endjinn
Iain M. Banks
If I Told You Once
Judy Budnitz
One Good Turn
Kate Atkinson
House on Mango Street
Sandra Cisneros
A Scanner Darkly
Philip K. Dick
44
Peter Sheridan
May Contain Nuts
John O’Farrell
Sophie’s World Ishmael
Daniel Quinn
Pharoah Tuthmosis II starts a power struggle in which the pharoah’s young wife, Hatusu, better known to us as Hatshepsut, rises to power. Three time periods overlap: the missing ninth legion of the Roman Imperial Army, the civil war and the modern age and they are linked through a visionary character who can sense and see the passions and acts of violence which have happened before. Even as Santiago staggers around in his death throes, people cannot agree on the way it really was but the narrator tries to piece together the facts twenty-‐three years later. Set in a post apocalyptic future in Kent, England, exploring what slender knowledge about the past has survived to become the basis of belief in an illiterate world. Phonetically written – and completely amazing. Four simultaneous plots, each one ending with a cliffhanger so you never, ever want to put the book down. The best characters include Bascule (‘the Rascule’) the crypting novice monk and Ergates, the nanotech ant. Splendidly surreal novel starting in some backwood of Europe which ought to be in the distant past of fairy tale but turns out to be shortly before WW2. The big picture allows us to see through various generations in Europe and America, how women are defined by their societies and their relationship with men. Jauntily told story about characters who witness to a road rage incident. They all become involved with each other, some having important epiphanies some of surprise to us. A series of charming vignettes. The juvenile point of view has detachment from issues of poverty and family strife but also an acute observation. “When you leave you must remember to come back for the others.” In a dystopian drug-‐riddled society, narcotics agents have their identities protected with scramble suits. Comical and disturbing, Fred Arctor ends up spying on himself. Delightful autobiography with episodes based on important landmarks in life, hovering between pathos and comedy and just plain wisdom. Tensions between the parents and the inequities of the education system run by the Catholics are shrewdly observed. In this satire of middle class parenthood, the main character poses as her daughter to take an entrance exam and is helped by a coloured, working class girl with disastrous consequences. Philosophy for kids! Ishmael is a gorilla of immense wisdom and he has a story to tell, one that no other human
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VIS English Department Recommended Reading List grades 10-‐12
Bel Canto
Ann Patchett
The Sunday Philosophy Club
Alexander McCall Smith
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Tracy Chevalier
From Heaven Lake
Vikram Seth
The Time-‐traveller’s Wife
Audrey Niffenegger
Dark Matter
Michelle Paver
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being has ever heard. It is a story that extends backward and forward over the lifespan of the earth from the birth of time to a future there is still time to save. Can we learn the lesson in time? Set in a South American country with a Japanese president, the novel explores the relationships which develop between hostages and terrorists. At the centre is an opera singer with whom many of the men are besotted. It’s full of discovery and fulfillment, sadness and loss, generosity and heroism. Set in Edinburgh, this gentle story combines philosophical musings and mystery: a painless way of tackling some issues of moral philosophy. What would it be like to be a poor girl in Delft, forced into working as a maid, a Protestant working in a Catholic family. And her boss is the painter, Vermeer. Relates the author’s journey from Nanjing – where he was a student at university – to New Delhi via Tibet. Mostly he is hitch-‐hiking and by various little miracles, manages to get the papers to get him where he needs to go. What would it be like if you could travel through time but had no control over when and where you went? Five men and eight huskies on an Arctic expedition where the Arctic summer is brief. As night returns to claim the land, Jack feels a creeping unease and one by one, his companions are forced to leave.
