ARHS Recommended Reading Lists: LA 9 - Garcia's Class

Depicts life in a totalitarian regime in the year of 1984.

Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Native American is the school mascot.

Huck, in flight from his murderous father, and Jim, in flight from slavery, pilot their raft down the Mississippi River in search of freedom.

In a future where there is no love, no science, and everyone is equal and of one entity, one man defies the group to be his own person. That is a serious offense.

Tells of a woman's desire for an affair with the son of a Louisiana resort owner whom she meets on vacation. Includes selections of short stories.

Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.

A satirical novel about the Utopia of the future, when babies are decanted from bottles and the great Ford is worshipped.

An adolescent boy, knowing he is about to be dropped by his school, spends three days and nights in New York City.

Tells the story of two African-American sisters: Nettie, a missionary in Africa, and Celie, a child-wife living in the south, in the medium of their letters to each other and in Celie's case, the desperate letters she begins, "Dear God.".

Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother.

"Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits--smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try"--Provided by publisher.

Ender, who is the result of genetic experimentation, may be the military genius Earth needs in its war against an alien enemy.

Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression.

A bookburner official in a future fascist state finds out books are a vital part of a culture he never knew. He clandestinely pursues reading, until he is betrayed.

After being mentally retarded for all of his thirty-two years, Charlie Gordon undergoes an operation designed to change his life.

The saga of a family in 1939 that struggles through the Great Depression by laboring as Dust Bowl migrants.

The tragic story of the wealthy Jay Gatsby and his attempt to win back the love of Daisy Buchanan.

At Cold Mountain Penitentiary John Coffey awaits death for raping and murdering two young girls.

Set in the near future, America has become a puritanical theocracy and Offred tells her story as a Handmaid under the new social order.

Skeeter returns home to Mississippi from college in 1962 and begins to write stories about the African-American women that are found working in white households, which includes Aibileen, who grieves for the loss of her son while caring for her seventeenth white child, and Minny, Aibileen's sassy friend, the hired cook for a secretive woman who is new to town.

Seconds before Earth is demolished to make room for a galactic freeway, an earthman is saved by his friend. Together they journey through the galaxy.

A color-illustrated edition of J. R. R. Tolkien's novel about Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit who lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to share in an adventure from which he may never return.

The epic story of the passionate Trueba family begins at the turn of the century in South America.

A young girl living in a Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago ponders the advantages and disadvantages of her environment and evaluates her relationships with family and friends.

Dr. Susan Calvin, the first great practitioner of the new science of robopsychology in 2008, looks back on her career with U.S. Robotics on the occasion of her retirement fifty years later, telling stories of how the mechanical race developed.

In 1949 four Chinese women began meeting in San Francisco to play mah jong. They called their gathering the Joy Luck Club. Forty years later they look back and remember.

In 1949 four Chinese women began meeting in San Francisco to play mah jong. They called their gathering the Joy Luck Club. Forty years later they look back and remember.

Describes the conditions of the Chicago stockyards through the eyes of a young immigrant struggling in America.

In an alternate 1914 Europe, fifteen-year-old Austrian Prince Alek, on the run from the Clanker Powers who are attempting to take over the globe using mechanical machinery, forms an uneasy alliance with Deryn who, disguised as a boy to join the British Air Service, is learning to fly genetically-engineered beasts.

Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash.

Nitta Sayuri, a young Japanese woman who was taken from her home at the age of nine and sold into slavery as a geisha, discovers a rare opportunity for freedom when the outbreak of World War II forces an end to the only life she has ever known.

"Seven linked vignettes unfold on a Scandinavian island inhabited--throughout various time periods--by Vikings, vampires, ghosts, and a curiously powerful plant"--Provided by publisher.

A circus known as Le Cirque des Rêves features two illusionists, Celia and Marco, who are unknowingly competing in a game to which they have been irrevocably bound by their mercurial masters, and as the two fall deeply and passionately in love with each other, their masters intervene with dangerous consequences.

Sustained by the hope of someday owning a farm of their own, two migrant laborers arrive to work on a ranch in central California.

An old fisherman battles the sea and sharks to bring home the giant marlin he caught.

McMurphy, a criminal who feigns insanity, is admitted to a mental hospital where he challenges the autocratic authority of the head nurse.

Charlie, a freshman in high school, explores the dilemmas of growing up through a collection of letters he sends to an unknown receiver.

Westley, a farm boy, goes off to seek his fortune shortly after declaring his love for Buttercup, the most beautiful woman in the world, but their relationship is put to the test when his ship is captured by pirates and she is summoned to become the bride of the prince. Includes a reading group guide.

Traces the journey of a father and his son as they walk alone after a great fire has consumed the nation and left everything in ashes.

American journalist Julia Jarmond researches the brutal 1942 Nazi roundup in Paris and stumbles upon a connection between her family and one of the victims, which compels Julia to learn more about the girl's life.

Hester Prynne, a young wife in colonial New England, is sentenced to wear a scarlet "A" on her clothing as a sign of her sin of adultery.

Nineteen-year-old returning champion Sean Kendrick competes against Puck Connolly, the first girl ever to ride in the annual Scorpio Races, both trying to keep hold of their dangerous water horses long enough to make it to the finish line.

A scientist invents a time machine and uses it to travel into the future, where he discovers the childlike Eloi and the hideous underground Morlocks.

Young Francie Nolan experiences the problems of growing up in a Brooklyn, New York slum.

Tally believes that when she turns sixteen she will suddenly turn very beautiful but her friend Shay is more interested in the outside world and runs away. The authorities tell Tally she must find Shay or never become pretty at all.

The story of American slavery and Uncle Tom, a black man who never lost his dignity under the most inhumane circumstances.

The author chronicles his impoverished childhood in Limerick, Ireland, in the 1930s and 1940s, describing his father's alcoholism and talent for storytelling; the challenges and tragedies his mother faced, including the loss of three children; and his early experiences in the Catholic church, and balances painful memories with humor.

Tells the story of America's first black paratroopers during World War II.

The prize-winning play concerned with the despair of a 63-year-old traveling salesman when he is forced to face the reality he has evaded all his life.

Follows the 1988 season of the Permian Panthers, a high school football team in Odessa, Texas, exploring the lives of the players and the impact of the championship team on the small town.

Poet Maya Angelou chronicles her early life, focusing on her childhood in 1930s rural Arkansas, including her rape at the age of five, her subsequent years of muteness, and the strength she gained from her grandmother and Mrs. Bertha Flowers, a respected African-American woman in her town.

Examines the experiences of the children and husband of Henrietta Lacks, who, twenty years after her death from cervical cancer in 1951, learned doctors and researchers took cells from her cervix without consent which were used to create the immortal cell line known as the HeLa cell; provides an overview of Henrietta's life; and explores issues of experimentation on African-Americans and bioethics.

Presents the slave narrative of Harriet A. Jacobs, published in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent, and includes commentary about the people and places discussed by the author, as well as photographs and a selection of letters.

Examines Title IX, the 1972 legislation which mandated that schools receiving federal funds could not discriminate on the basis of gender. and focuses on its effects in schools, politics, sports and the culture as a whole.

Drawing on personal relationships with Jordan's coaches; countless interviews with friends, teammates, family members, and Jordan himself; and decades in the trenches covering Jordan in college and the pros, Roland Lazenby provides the first truly definitive study of Jordan: the player, the icon, and the man.

An autobiographical account by the runaway slave Frederick Douglass that chronicles his experiences with his owners and overseers and discusses how slavery affected both slaves and slaveholders.

Presents the history of the group of spies, Holocaust survivors, and lawyers who persued Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi war criminal, for fifteen years in order to bring him to justice for his leadership role in the killing of thousands of Jews during World War II.

Introduces readers to the real Benedict Arnold: reckless, heroic, and driven. Traces Arnold's rise to fame in the American military, outlining the factors that drove him to turn against his nation and become a traitor for the British.

Follows the three major food chains that feed humans--industrial, organic, and hunter-gatherer--from the earth to four meals, exploring the ethical and political effects of one's food choices.

Uses interviews, memoirs, radio conversations, and technical research to recreate the last days of the crew of the Andrea Gail, a fishing boat that was lost in a storm off the coast of Nova Scotia in October 1991.

Looks at the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and related events, including his funeral and the apprehension of his killer.

Explores the role introverts play in a world that is geared towards those who enjoy communicating with others and offers practical suggestions at how introverts can make sure their message is heard.

Chronicles the life and accomplishments of Apple mogul Steve Jobs, discussing his ideas, and describing how he has influenced life in the twenty-first century.

Describes the promises Greg Mortenson made to the people of an impoverished village in Pakistan after they rescued him from a failed mountain-climbing event. Promises to build schools, already fifty-five of them have been completed, along with the help of local citizens. Provides both boys and girls a balanced education to combat ongoing terrorism, poverty, and ignorance.

American author Tom Robbins shares true stories from his life.

A biography of Olympic runner and World War II bombardier, Louis Zamperini, who had been rambunctious in childhood before succeeding in track and eventually serving in the military, which led to a trial in which he was forced to find a way to survive in the open ocean after being shot down.