Outstanding Books for the College Bound:
This
list is revised every 5 years by a committe of the Young Adult Library Services
Association of the American Library Association. It is intended as a tool for
a variety of audiences - college bound students, educators, librarians, and
parents. Of that original list, only these titles are available to download
free.
Fiction:
- The
Awakening, and selected short stories by Kate Chopin
Edna Pontellier, an unhappy wife and mother, discovers new qualities in herself
when she visits Grand Isle, a resort for the Creole elite of New Orleans.
- Crime
and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, trans. by Constance Garnett
A sensitive intellectual is driven by poverty to believe himself exempt from
moral law.
- Siddhartha
by Hermann Hesse Emerging from a kaleidoscope of experiences and tasted pleasures,
Siddhartha transcends toa state of peace and mystic holiness in this strangely
simple story.
Nonfiction:
Biography:
- Narrative
of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845) by Frederick
Douglass
Former slave and famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass describes the horrors
of his enslavement and eventual escape.
- The
Story of My Life by Helen Keller and Anne Mansfield Sullivan, ed. by John
Albert Macy
Overcoming deafness and blindness to become an outstanding citizen, Helen
Keller embodies courage, passion, and perseverance.
Drama:
- A
Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen
Nora, one of feminism's great heroines, steps off her pedestal and encounters
the real world.
- King
Lear by William Shakespeare
An arrogant old man goes insane after his daughters strip him of every dignity
and possession.
- Pygmalion
by George Bernard Shaw
Professor Higgins bets a friend he can turn common Eliza Doolittle into a
duchess.
- The
Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
Can a baby, abandoned at Victoria Station, grow up to find love, romance,
identity, and the importance of being earnest?
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