looking for enjoyable American literature

[AngieW in Texas]

Next year, I'd like to assign books for American literature that are actually enjoyable to read.

not enjoyable:
anything by Hemingway
Red Badge of Courage
Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
Great Expectations (yes, I know it's British)
Jane Eyre (also British) - but it was better than Great Expectations
Great Gatsby - complete and utter garbage with no redeeming value whatsoever


enjoyable:
Alas, Babylon - have re-read it at least 1x/year for the past 20 years
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Tale of Two Cities (yes, I know it's British)
Silas Marner (British)
Animal Farm (British)
Count of Monte Cristo (world)

What American novels are actually good reads? I want an actual story that is interesting. We've already done Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, and Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, so I don't want to do another Twain novel. We also spent a full month on To Kill a Mockingbird this year, so I don't want to repeat that either.

I know that different people have different opinions on what a good read is. Lots of people posted that Jane Eyre was favorite. My 14yo, 16yo, and I all had to force ourselves to slog through it. The book would have been much better if it had been 1/2 of its actual length. It also would have helped considerably if the romantic interest had been somebody that we didn't all loathe.

Bearing all this in mind, there have to be others on this board with similar reading tastes.

Any suggestions on American literature novels to read? This is for my rising 10th grader.

[Mrs Mungo]

Well, we may have somewhat different tastes as I like some of the books that you hate. ;)

Are you looking for American-as in all historical periods or only 20th century?

Here are some American (all of them actually American) authors (not just authors of novels) from various periods in history. I'm going through my Norton and listing the ones I think *all* students should read, leaving out authors that you mentioned:

Edgar Allen Poe

Washington Irving

James Fenimore Cooper

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Oliver Wendell Holmes

John Greenleaf Whittier

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Herman Melville

Walt Whitman

DH Lawrence (pick and choose carefully here)

Emily Dickinson

Wallace Stevens

William Carlos Williams (one of my favorites)

Ezra Pound

Sylvia Plath

TS Eliot

Robert Frost

Carl Sandburg

ee cummings

Allen Ginsberg (pre-read these, some are bad)

Henry James

Edith Wharton (you may not like these last two, they are sort of along the lines of Stephen Crane)

Upton Sinclair

Gertrude Stein

William Faulkner (although a little Hemingway-esque, maybe)

John Steinbeck

JD Salinger

Jack Kerouac

Norman Miller

Joseph Heller

Kurt Vonnegut Jr

John Updike

Ralph Ellison

Flannery O'Connor

Toni Morrison (pre-read, not all of these are 10th grade appropriate)

[readwithem]

Little Women, Little Men, An Old Fashioned Girl, Jo's Boys, Eight Cousins - Louisa May Alcott
O Pioneers, My Antonia, Death Comes for the Archbishop - Willa Cather
House of Seven Gables, Scarlet Letter, Twice Told Tales - Nathaniel Hawthorne
Call of the Wild, White Fang, Sea Wolf (may be more "boy" books)

You've already hit the high points IMO when you did Mockingbird and the Twain books. I'd call it good and read some Jane Austen novels :lol:

[Sandra in NC]

Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck.

The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Bartleby the Scrivener, by Herman Melville

[plansrme]

Either way, but possibly more so for a girl, I recommend Theodore Dreiser. Sister Carrie still disturbs me (but in a good way), and I read it almost 30 years ago.

There are several books by Betty Smith that are excellent reads. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is one, though there are certainly others. They take place around the turn of the century (the last one, not this one).

How about Truman Capote? In Cold Blood is certainly readable. He also has a book of short stories that is excellent, though one of them (something about the narrator and a maid) has some objectionable parts.

Kate Chopin, The Awakening, though it has some sexual content.


Terri

[Michelle in GA]

Some of our favorites in Am Lit:

To Kill a Mockingbird

The Good Earth, by Pearl Buck

Catcher in the Rye (teens seem to like this better than adults)

Fahrenheit 451 and short stories by Bradbury

Of Mice and Men and Grapes of Wrath

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (for girls)

The Joy Luck Club (for girls)

Call of the Wild (boys)

Short Stories: Poe, The Lottery, Flannery O Connor, The Most Dangerous Game, stories by O'Henry

[Mrs Mungo]

Catcher in the Rye (teens seem to like this better than adults)

That's because it's such a teenager book. One of my sisters hates it. She hated it slightly less after I told her my theory-the redeeming quality of the book is that Holden is telling the story as an adult. That means he now sees his flaws and that he's overcome a lot of them.

[Lori D.]

We're doing American Lit. this year, and to both reduce the "torture" of some of the numerous depressing novels AND to cover more authors/works overall, we're doing 3-4 novels, 3 novellas, and a LOT of short stories and some poetry. For example, you can definitely cover, say, Hemingway, with 2 short stories (2-3 days to read and analyze) -- OR with a novella such as Old Man and the Sea (1 week to read/analyze) -- so you "get" the author, his themes and worldview, and move on before you're overwhelmed with depression. :tongue_smilie:

Below is a "master list" I made when trying to decide what to include in our American Lit.; maybe something here will work for you. Or, maybe this will be your year to focus on poetry and short stories! BEST of luck whatever you decide. Warmly, Lori D.


AMERICAN LIT (chronological by when written)

1810s
Washington Irving
- "Rip Van Winkle" (short story) -- set before & after Revolutionary War
- "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (short story) -- set c. 1790


1820s
James Fenimore Cooper
- The Deerslayer (novel) -- set in 1744
- Last of the Mohicans (novel) -- set in 1757


1830s
Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Twice-Told Tales (collection of short stories)
- "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" (short story) -- set pre-Revolutionary War
- "Young Goodman Brown" (short story) -- late 1600s
- "The Minister's Black Veil" (short story)


1840s
Nathaniel Hawthorne
- "Rappaccini's Daughter" (short story) -- set in medieval Italy

Edgar Allen Poe
- "Fall of the House of Usher" (short story)
- "The Black Cat" (short story)
- "The Tell-Tale Heart" (short story)
- "The Raven" (poem)


1850s
Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Uncle Tom's Cabin (novel)

Henry David Thoreau
- Walden (essays/journal)

Herman Melville
- "Billy Budd" (short story) -- set in 1797
- Moby Dick (novel)
- "Bartleby the Scrivner" (short story)

Nathaniel Hawthorne
- The Scarlett Letter (novel) -- set in 17th century
- The House of Seven Gables (novel) -- set mid-19th century
- Tanglewood Tales (short story collection)
- "Feathertop? (short story) -- set in 17th century



1860s-70s
Bret Harte
- "Outcasts of Poker Flats" (short story) -- set in 1850
- "Luck of Roaring Camp" (short story) -- set in 1849/1850

Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Self Reliance (essay)

Mark Twain
- "Celebrated Jumping Frog" (short story)
- Adventures of Tom Sawyer (novel) -- set in 1830s-50s

Louisa May Alcott
- Hospital Sketches -- her letters while a Civil War nurse
- Little Women (novel) -- set during Civil War
- Little Men (novel) -- set in the years after Civil War


1880s
Mark Twain
- Prince and the Pauper (novel) -- set in 1547
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (novel) -- set in 1830s-50s
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (novel) -- set in 528



1890s

Stephen Crane
- "Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" (short story)
- "The Monster" (short story)
- "The Open Boat" (short story)
- The Red Badge of Courage -- set in Civil War

Ambrose Bierce
- "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (short story) -- set in Civil War


1900s
Jack London
- Call of the Wild (novel)
- White Fang (novel)
- The Sea Wolf (novel)
- "To Build a Fire" (short story)

O. Henry
- "Gift of the Magi" (short story)
- "Ransom of Red Chief" (short story)

Edith Wharton
- Ethan Fromme (novel)
- The House of Mirth (novel)

Upton Sinclair
- The Jungle (novel) -- set early 1900s


1910s
Willa Cather
- O Pioneers! (novel) -- set at turn of 20th century
- My Antonia (novel)

Booth Tarkington
- Penrod (collection of comic sketches) -- set in pre-WW1


1920s
Edith Wharton
- Age of Innocence (novel) -- set in the 1870s

Willa Cather
- Death Comes for the Archbishop (novel) -- set in the 1840s-1890s

F. Scott Fitzgerald
- The Great Gatsby (novel) -- just after WW1
- "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" (short story)
- "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (short story)
- "Babylon Revisited" (short story) -- set in post 1929 Stock Market Crash


1930s - 1940s
Ernest Hemingway
- Farwell to Arms (novel) -- set during WW1
- For Whom the Bell Tolls (novel) -- set in Spanish Civil War (1930s)
- "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" (short story)
- The Old Man and the Sea (novella)

Zora Neale Hurston
- Their Eyes Were Watching God (novel) -- set pre-WW1 20th century

Thornton Wilder
- Our Town (play) -- set in 1901-1913

William Faulkner
- a short story???

John Steinbeck
- The Grapes of Wrath (novel) -- set in the 1930s
- The Pearl (novella)

Langston Hughes
- "Thank you Ma'am" (short story) -- set in the 1940s

James Thurber
- "The Catbird Seat" (short story) -- set in the 1940s; humorous


1950s - 1960s
Arthur Miller
- Death of a Salesman (play) set in 1949
- The Crucible (play) -- set in 1690s Salem witch trials; some sexuality

Ralph Ellison
- The Invisible Man (novel)

John Howard Griffin
- Black Like Me (autobiography) -- set in 1959

J.D. Salinger
- Catcher in the Rye (novel)

Lorraine Hansberry
- A Raisin in the Sun (play) -- set in 1950s

Flannery O'Connor
- "A Good Man is Hard to Find" (short story)
- "Revelation" (short story)

Shirley Jackson
- "The Lottery" (short story)

Harper Lee
- To Kill a Mockingbird (novel) -- set in the 1930s

Chaim Potok
- The Chosen (novel) -- set in the 1940s

Margaret Craven
- I Heard The Owl Call My Name (novel) -- beautiful; poignant

Ray Bradbury
- The Martian Chronicles (novel)
- Fahrenheit 451 (novel)
- Something Wicked This Way Comes (novel)
- R is For Rocket (collection of short stories)
- "There Will Come Soft Rains" (short story)

N. Scott Momaday
- House Made of Dawn (novel) -- set in post WW2


1970s
Ursula LeGuin
- Earthsea trilogy: Wizard of Earthsea; Tombs of Atuan; The Farthest Shore (novels)
- The Left Hand of Darkness (novel)
- Lathe of Heaven (novel)
- "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" (short story)


1980s
Amy Tan
- The Joy Luck Club (novel)

[Lori D.]

And in case it helps, here's the list of works we've done so far this year (we've done a few out of chronological order):

Hits
- Rip Van Winkle
- Legend of Sleepy Hollow
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- Luck of Roaring Camp
- Thank you Ma'am
- The Catbird Seat

Interesting
- Fall of the House of Usher
- The Raven
- Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
- Call of the Wild

Okay
- The Scarlett Letter
- Man Without a Country
- Narrative of Life of Frederick Douglass (excerpts)

Endured
- Billy Budd -- (wish we'd done Bartleby the Scrivner instead)
- Walden (excerpts)
- Self Reliance (excerpts)

Done in previous years and really enjoyed:
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Adventures of Tom Sawyer
- Bride Comes to Yellow Sky
- Gift of the Magi
- Ransom of Red Chief
- Fahrenheit 451
- Something Wicked This Way Comes
- R is For Rocket
- Earthsea trilogy: Wizard of Earthsea; Tombs of Atuan; The Farthest Shore