Spring break

No formal assignment in any of my classes over the break, but may I recommend the habit of reading during vacations as one which improves the mind, restores the soul, nurtures the imagination, and fulfills our hunger for the joy of stories. As a practical matter, it also prepares us just a little better for the exam in May and gives us a head start for the paper due at the end of April in AP English class. Our study of British literature has taken us to the beginning of the twentieth century, so perhaps you would like to read a classic novel of the last 100 years. Or perhaps you've always wanted to read Dickens or one of the Brontes and never quite gotten round to it. At this point in the year, even a talented American might satisfy that craving for a quality AP reading book. I've posted some of my suggestions on my blog page. Why not choose one and immerse yourself in another time and place? Or choose an AP-caliber author not on this list and dig into one of her (or his) novels. Even if you're not prepping for the exam, two weeks away from school with a good book in your hands adds to your quality of life wherever you are, whatever you're doing. I'll see you in April. Enjoy yourselves, and don't forget to read.

Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (1984)
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte (1847) 
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte (1847)

The Awakening, Kate Chopin (1899)

Lord Jim, Joseph Conrad (1900)
Great Expectations or A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens (1854)

Middlemarch, George Eliot (1874)

A Passage to India or Howard's End, E.M. Forster (1924, 1910)

Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy (1895)

Catch-22, Joseph Heller (1961)
Obasan, Joy Kogawa (1981)

Cry the Beloved Country, Alan Paton (1948)

Native Son, Richard Wright (1940)

Pat Barker, Regeneration (1991)

Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange (1962)

Gustav Flaubert, Madame Bovary (1856)

Nadine Gordimer, July’s People (1981)

Graham Greene, The Quiet American (1955)

Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932)

Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day (1989)

Yann Martel, Life of Pi (2002)

Ian McEwan, Atonement (2001)

George Orwell, 1984 (1949)

Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger (1992)

Edith Wharton, Age of Innocence (1920)