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June 17, 2009
Dear Seniors and Parents,
The high school English department is asking the seniors to read the required book, Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, and a book from the list, which is on the same webpage further down. NO WRITTEN BOOK REPORT IS REQUIRED FOR THE FIRST DAY OF CLASSES THIS FALL!!!
Enclosed you will find: -- the list of required books for each grade
-- a list of books from which to choose
However, the seniors must write A COLLEGE APPLICATION ESSAY THAT IS DUE ON THE FIRST DAY OF CLASSES—the day AFTER beach day. Some colleges and universities have their own applications and essay questions. Some have essay questions in addition to those that will be found on the Common App. For our purposes in the summer, it’s easiest to use the questions that appear on the Common App, as many colleges and universities use this form exclusively. The Common App will be available on July 1 @ https://app.commonapp.org/application/applicantlogin.aspx. On it, you will find the questions to which you will respond in your essays.
Note: The questions from last year’s Common App are printed below just so you can get an idea of what will be asked. I’m sure the coming year’s questions will be similar. (Also, you may want to fill out the Common App itself (download after July 1) so that when you’re ready to apply to the many, many school’s using the Common App, you’ll already have the application completed.)
Short Answer: Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences in the space below or on an attached sheet (150 words or fewer).
Personal Essay: Please write an essay (250 words minimum) on a topic of your choice or on one of the options listed below, and attach it to your application before submission. Please indicate your topic by checking the appropriate box. This personal essay helps us become acquainted with you as a person and student, apart from courses, grades, test scores, and other objective data. It will also demonstrate your ability to organize your thoughts and express yourself.
p 1 Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you. p 2 Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you. p 3 Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence. p 4 Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence. p 5 A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community, or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you. p 6 Topic of your choice. If you have any further questions, please contact me at: karenlgrant@msn.com.
Sincerely,
Karen Grant
Summer Before
Dr. Faustus -- Christopher Marlowe– (No written report)
A book from the reading list – (No written report)
Three Kings Play track
1984 – George Orwell (No written report)
A written report on a book from the reading list
The students will write in class about the books for which no report is due.
Summer reports:
Three books should be read during the summer vacation: two required books and one of your choice from the book list.
10th - 12th Grades: Write one book report from the list. You will be given a test on the two required books. The report is due on the first day of school. Give it to your English teacher during the 10:45 period.
Eurythmy reports:
You are to read the required book and one book from the appropriate list. Write one report on your choice of books from the list.
The reports are due on the last day of Eurythmy if it is the last track of the school year, or on the first day of the English track that follows the Eurythmy track during the school year. Actual dates will be given when the schedule for the upcoming school year is available.
For full credit, all book reports should be given to your English teacher
on the due date.
Book List for Twelfth Grade
Mikhail Bulgakov The Master and Margarita
Anthony Burgess A Clockwork Orange
Samuel Butler The Way of All Flesh
Albert Camus The Stranger
Miguel de Cervantes Don Quixote
Joseph Conrad The Heart of Darkness
James Dickey Deliverance
Fyodor Dostoyevsky The Brothers Karamazov
Theodore Dreiser An American Tragedy
George Eliot Middlemarch
Antoine de Saint-Exupery Wind, Sand, and Stars
Filliam Faulkner As I Lay Dying
F. Scott Fitzgerald Tender is the Night
Gustave Flaubert Madame Bovary
Benjamin Franklin Autobiography
John Galsworthy The Forsyte Sage
John Gardner Grendel
Joseph Heller Catch 22
Ernest Hemingway A Moveable Feast
Victor Hugo Les Miserables
James Joyce Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Jack Kerouac On the Road
Arthur Koestler Darkness at Noon
Guiseppe de Lampedusa The Leopard
Sinclair Lewis Arrowsmith
Annie Proulx The Shipping News
Alexander Solzhenitzyn One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch
Thomas Mann The Magic Mountain (and others)
Somerset Maugham Of Human Bondage
Toni Morrison Song of Solomon
Eugene O’Neill A Long Day’s Journey into Night
Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged
Jean Paul Sartre No Exit and other plays
Nevil Shute On the Beach
John Steinbeck East of Eden
Book List Reviews All reviews and synopses are from Amazon.com
Samuel Beckett Waiting for Godot
"Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it's awful?" Estragon's complaint, uttered in the first act of "Waiting for Godot", is the playwright's sly joke at the expense of his own play - or rather at the expense of those in the audience who expect theatre always to consist of events progressing in an apparently purposeful and logical manner towards a decisive climax. In those terms, "Waiting for Godot" - which has been famously described as a play in which "nothing happens, twice"- scarcely seems recognizable as theatre at all.
Mikhail Bulgakov The Master and Margarita
Written during the darkest, most repressive period of Stalin's reign, this novel gives substance to the notion of artistic and religious freedom. Despite its devastating satire of Soviet life and its audacious portrayals of Christ and Satan, the manuscript had somehow eluded Russian censors, and the enthusiasm of its readers assured the novel immediate and enduring success. The New York Times Book Review calls this "one of the truly great Russian novels of this century.". --
Anthony Burgess A Clockwork Orange
Set in a dismal dystopia, it is the first-person account of a juvenile delinquent who undergoes state-sponsored psychological rehabilitation for his aberrant behavior. The novel satirizes extreme political systems that are based on opposing models of the perfectibility or incorrigibility of humanity. Written in a futuristic slang vocabulary invented by Burgess, in part by adaptation of Russian words, it was his most original and best-known work. Alex, the protagonist, has a passion for classical music and is a member of a vicious teenage gang that commits random acts of brutality. Captured and imprisoned, he is transformed through behavioral conditioning into a model citizen, but his taming also leaves him defenseless. He ultimately reverts to his former behavior.
Samuel Butler The Way of All Flesh Reared on piety, repression and emotional blackmail, Ernest Pontifex follows the course prescribed for him towards Holy Orders. Yet rebellion at Cambridge, unwise theology, unwiser financial dealings, and finally prison free him from his parents' tyranny. Left with his health and career ruined, Ernest faces still more trials before fortune and his godfather rescue him from the brink. This savagely funny, iconoclastic odyssey from joyless duty to unbridled liberalism exposes the hypocrisy of nineteenth century family life.
Albert Camus The Stranger
In the story of an ordinary man who unwittingly gets drawn into a senseless murder on a sun-drenched Algerian beach, Camus was exploring what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd."
Joseph Conrad The Heart of Darkness
A masterpiece of twentieth-century writing, Heart of Darkness (1902) exposes the tenuous fabric that holds "civilization" together and the brutal horror at the center of European colonialism. Conrad's crowning achievement recounts Marlow's physical and psychological journey deep into the heart of the Belgian Congo in search of the mysterious trader Kurtz.
James Dickey Deliverance
Dickey's bestselling novel of four men caught in a violent test for manhood was produced as a blockbuster film starring Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight. A canoe trip down a wild North Georgia river turns into a primitive nightmare that will leave one man dead--and three men changed forever. "A brilliant and breathtaking adventure".--The New Yorker.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky The Brothers Karamazov
This was Dostoyevsky's last and possibly greatest novel. Two of the brothers Karamazov, Mitya and Ivan, come under scrutiny following that most heinous of acts - parricide. One of them is punished following a dramatic and celebrated trial. But was he the guilty brother?
Theodore Dreiser An American Tragedy
A complex and compassionate account of the life and death of a young antihero named Clyde Griffiths. The novel begins with Clyde's blighted background, recounts his path to success, and culminates in his apprehension, trial, and execution for murder. The book was called by one influential critic "the worst-written great novel in the world," but its questionable grammar and style are transcended by its narrative power. Dreiser's intricate speculations on the extent of Clyde's guilt are countered by his searing indictment of materialism and the American dream of success. -
George Eliot Middlemarch
With sure and subtle touch, Eliot paints a luminous and spacious landscape of life in a provincial town, interweaving her themes with a proliferation of characters: an innocent idealist; a self-defeated young doctor; a naive young woman; and a cold man, who "lives too much with the dead".
Wind, Sand and Stars Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Wind, Sand and Stars is a recounting of several episodes in Saint-Exupery's life as a pilot, told to illustrate his view of the world, and especially his opinions of what makes life worth living, and who we are or should be. He was a wonderfully insightful individual, and his prose and ideas are the sort of thing you'll carry with you for years.
William Faulkner As I Lay Dying
As I Lay Dying is the harrowing, darkly comic tale of the Bundren family's trek across Mississippi to bury Addie, their wife and mother, as told by each of the family members--including Addie herself.
F. Scott Fitzgerald Tender is the Night
Set on the French Riviera in the late 1920s, Tender Is the Night is the tragic romance of the young actress Rosemary Hoyt and the stylish American couple Dick and Nicole Diver. A brilliant young psychiatrist at the time of his marriage, Dick is both husband and doctor to Nicole, whose wealth goads him into a lifestyle not his own, and whose growing strength highlights Dick's harrowing demise. A profound study of the romantic concept of character -- lyrical, expansive, and hauntingly evocative
Gustave Flaubert Madame Bovary
Ushering in a new age of realism in literature, in Madame Bovary, Flaubert took a commonplace story of adultery and made of it a book that has continued to be read because of its profound humanity. Emma Bovary is a bored and unhappy middle-class wife whose general dissatisfaction with life leads her to act out her romantic fantasies and embark on an ultimately disastrous love affair. She destroys her life by embracing abstractions--passion, happiness--as concrete realities. She ignores material reality itself, as symbolized by money, and is inexorably drawn to financial ruin and suicide.
Benjamin Franklin Autobiography
Discover Benjamin Franklin-scientist, inventor, writer, and politician-through the words of the elder statesman himself and the perceptions of his friends and family. With writings from Franklin's wife and son-as well as his own essays and letters-this remarkable book paints an intimate, revealing portrait of a truly extraordinary man.
John Galsworthy The Forsyte Sage
The three novels which make up The Forsyte Saga chronicle the ebbing social power of the commercial upper-middle class Forsyte family between 1886 and 1920. Galsworthy's masterly narrative examines not only their fortunes but also the wider developments within society, particularly the changing position of women.
John Gardner Grendel Grendel is a beautiful and heartbreaking modern retelling of the Beowulf epic from the point of view of the monster, Grendel, the villain of the 8th-century Anglo-Saxon epic. This book benefits from both of Gardner's careers: in addition to his work as a novelist, Gardner was a noted professor of medieval literature and a scholar of ancient languages.
Joseph Heller Catch 22 There was a time when reading Joseph Heller's classic satire on the murderous insanity of war was nothing less than a rite of passage. Echoes of Yossarian, the wise-ass bombardier who was too smart to die but not smart enough to find a way out of his predicament, could be heard throughout the counterculture. As a result, it's impossible not to consider Catch-22 to be something of a period piece. But 40 years on, the novel's undiminished strength is its looking-glass logic. Again and again, Heller's characters demonstrate that what is commonly held to be good, is bad; what is sensible, is nonsense.
Ernest Hemingway A Moveable Feast
Published posthumously in 1964, A Moveable Feast remains one of Ernest Hemingway's most beloved works. It is his classic memoir of Paris in the 1920s, filled with irreverent portraits of other expatriate luminaries such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein; tender memories of his first wife, Hadley; and insightful recollections of his own early experiments with his craft. It is a literary feast, brilliantly evoking the exuberant mood of Paris after World War I and the youthful spirit, unbridled creativity, and unquenchable enthusiasm that Hemingway himself epitomized.
Victor Hugo Les Miserables
Against the backdrop of the French Revolution, the story of escaped convict Jean Valjean and his search for grace and redemption will leave any listener moved by the parallel of God's grace towards us.
James Joyce Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Published in 1916, James Joyce's semiautobiographical tale of his alter ego, Stephen Dedalus, is a coming-of-age story like no other. A bold, innovative experiment with both language and structure, the work has exerted a lasting influence on the contemporary novel.
Jack Kerouac On the Road
On The Road, the most famous of Jack Kerouac's works, is not only the soul of the Beat movement and literature, but one of the most important novels of the century. Like nearly all of Kerouac's writing, On The Road is thinly fictionalized autobiography, filled with a cast made of Kerouac's real life friends, lovers, and fellow travelers. Narrated by Sal Paradise, one of Kerouac's alter-egos, On the Road is a cross-country bohemian odyssey that not only influenced writing in the years since its 1957 publication but penetrated into the deepest levels of American thought and culture.
Arthur Koestler Darkness at Noon
This splendid novel is set in the tumultuous Soviet Union of the 1930s during the treason trials. Rubashov, the protagonist and a hero of the revolution, is arrested and jailed for things he has not done, though there is much about the current Soviet state that veered from his ideals as a revolutionary. His investigators, Ivanov and Gletkin, seek a public confession and interrogate him using a number of methods. Through the ordeal, Rubashov reaches an epiphany or two while his interrogators suffer the cruel fate of the Soviet machine. Darkness at Noon succeeds as political/historical novel, but even more so as a refreshing tale of the human spirit
Guiseppe de Lampedusa The Leopard
In Sicily in 1860, as Italian unification grows inevitable, the smallest of gestures seems dense with meaning and melancholy, sensual agitation and disquiet: "Some huge irrational disaster is in the making." All around him, the prince, Don Fabrizio, witnesses the ruin of the class and inheritance that already disgust him. His favorite nephew, Tancredi, proffers the paradox, "If we want things to stay as they are, they will have to change," but Don Fabrizio would rather take refuge in skepticism or astronomy, "the sublime routine of the skies."
Sinclair Lewis Arrowsmith
As the son and grandson of physicians, Sinclair Lewis had a store of experiences and imparted knowledge to draw upon for Arrowsmith. Published in 1925, after three years of anticipation, the book follows the life of Martin Arrowsmith, a rather ordinary fellow who gets his first taste of medicine at 14 as an assistant to the drunken physician in his home town. It is Leora Tozer who makes Martin's life extraordinary. With vitality and love, she urges him beyond the confines of the mundane to risk answering his true calling as a scientist and researcher. Not even her tragic death can extinguish her spirit or her impact on Martin's life
Annie Proulx The Shipping News
In this touching and atmospheric novel set among the fishermen of Newfoundland, Proulx tells the story of Quoyle. From all outward appearances, Quoyle has gone through his first 36 years on earth as a big schlump of a loser. He's not attractive, he's not brilliant or witty or talented, and he's not the kind of person who typically assumes the central position in a novel. But Proulx creates a simple and compelling tale of Quoyle's psychological and spiritual growth. Along the way, we get to look in on the maritime beauty of what is probably a disappearing way of life.
Alexander Solzhenitzyn One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch
Solzhenitsyn's first book, this economical, relentless novel is one of the most forceful artistic indictments of political oppression in the Stalin-era Soviet Union. The simply told story of a typical, grueling day of the titular character's life in a labor camp in Siberia, is a modern classic of Russian literature and quickly cemented Solzhenitsyn's international reputation upon publication in 1962. It is painfully apparent that Solzhenitsyn himself spent time in the gulags--he was imprisoned for nearly a decade as punishment for making derogatory statements about Stalin in a letter to a friend
Thomas Mann The Magic Mountain
One of the most influential and celebrated German works of the 20th century, Mann's novel tells the story of Hans Castorp, a modern everyman who spends seven years in an Alpine sanatorium for tuberculosis patients, finally leaving to become a soldier in World War I. Isolated from the concerns of the everyday world, he is exposed to the wide range of ideas that shaped a world on the verge of explosion. Considering what was to follow, the most poignant moment comes when Naphta, a Jewish-born Jesuit, defends the use of terror and the taking of life for the sake of an all-encompassing idea.
Somerset Maugham Of Human Bondage
Originally published in 1915, Of Human Bondage is a potent expression of the power of sexual obsession and of modern man's yearning for freedom. This classic bildungsroman tells the story of Philip Carey, a sensitive boy born with a clubfoot who is orphaned and raised by a religious aunt and uncle. Philip yearns for adventure, and at eighteen leaves home, eventually pursuing a career as an artist in Paris. When he returns to London to study medicine, he meets the androgynous but alluring Mildred and begins a doomed love affair that will change the course of his life. There is no more powerful story of sexual infatuation, of human longing for connection and freedom.
Toni Morrison Song of Solomon
In an effort to hide his Southern, working class roots, Macon Dead, an upper-class Northern black businessman, tries to insulate his family from the danger and despair of the rank and file blacks with whom he shares the neighborhood. The plan leads his son, "Milkman"--a named he earned after his mother nursed him well past the proper age--onto a path exactly opposite the one his father had hoped. Milkman is driven into the arms of a violent, lower-class woman, into a clandestine circle of blacks who repay white violence in kind and into an awareness that he can fulfill his own potential by understanding the mistakes of his ancestors as they relate to his own.
Eugene O’Neill A Long Day’s Journey into Night
Completed in 1940, Long Day's Journey Into the Night is an autobiographical play Eugene O'Neill wrote that--because of the highly personal writing about his family--was not to be released until 25 years after his death, which occurred in 1953. But since O'Neill's immediate family had died in the early 1920s, his wife allowed publication of the play in 1956. Besides the history alone, the play is fascinating in its own right. It tells of the "Tyrones"--a fictional name for what is clearly the O'Neills. Theirs is not a happy tale: The youngest son (Edmond) is sent to a sanitarium to recover from tuberculosis; he despises his father for sending him; his mother is wrecked by narcotics; and his older brother by drink. In real-life these factors conspired to turn O'Neill into who he was--a tormented individual and a brilliant playwright
Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged
Novel by Ayn Rand, published in 1957. The book's female protagonist, Dagny Taggart, struggles to manage a transcontinental railroad amid the pressures and restrictions of massive bureaucracy. Her antagonistic reaction to a libertarian group seeking an end to government regulation is later echoed and modified in her encounter with a utopian community, Galt's Gulch, whose members regard self-determination rather than collective responsibility as the highest ideal. The novel contains the most complete presentation of Rand's personal philosophy, known as objectivism, in fictional form. --
Jean Paul Sartre No Exit and other plays
4 plays about an existential portrayal of Hell, the reworking of the Electra-Orestes story, the conflict of a young intellectual torn between theory and conflict and an arresting attack on American racism.
Nevil Shute On the Beach
"The most shocking fiction I have read in years. What is shocking about it is both the idea and the sheer imaginative brilliance with which Mr. Shute brings it off. THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE. They are the last generation, the innocent victims of an accidental war, living out their last days, making do with what they have, hoping for a miracle. As the deadly rain moves ever closer, the world as we know it winds toward an inevitable end.
Things to be Careful of with Book Reports
1 – Always double space. The teacher needs room to make comments.
2 – Always underline book titles (or italicize, if you have a computer). Book titles never, never, never go in quotation marks. Other things that are underlined are the names of newspapers, magazines, movies, operas, record albums, etc.
3 – Don’t switch tenses in the middle of a report. Stick with either the present or the past. Too many students switch tenses within the same sentence; e.g. “The girl fell down but Mrs. Rappaport comes and helps her.”
4 – Watch out for run-on sentences that just go on and on and even if your idea changes to something else that might be in another paragraph, such as a story about Joan of Arc, you just can’t stop that sentence from running all up and down the page, which, by the way, should always be double spaced.
5 – Fragments. Don’t. Writing in fragments, which don’t have a subject and a verb. Causing much confusion in the reader. Because your sentences need to breathe, and have a beginning, middle, and end.
Don’t write in fragments. Be sure that every sentence has a subject and a verb.
6 – Always proofread everything you have written. Expect to write a first draft. Then expect to read it and edit it – cutting out unnecessary words, fixing spelling, etc. Then write the new draft and proofread it. If you find more errors, or areas that need fine-tuning, rewrite the paper again. DON’T EXPECT YOUR FIRST DRAFT TO BE THE FINAL DRAFT – IT NEVER IS!
Your Name
English
Book Report
Date due (day month year: 8 Sept 2009)
HHWS Book Report Guidelines – 5 Paragraph Essay
Heading, Title, and General Format
Identify student, class, assignment, due date, and page number as illustrated above. Put the last name and page number in the header function of your computer.. Create an original title, uniquely relevant to this essay (not the book's title). Center it on the page, not underlined, below the heading and above the first paragraph. Double space and use a legible 12-point font and one-inch margins throughout. Staple multiple pages together.
Introduction (first paragraph)
Begin with a catchy opening statement. Go on to identify the book's title (underlined or italicized), author, type of work (eg. historical novel, not "fictional novel" or just "book"—all novels are fictional, all novels are books), genre (look it up!), and major themes. Briefly introduce the main characters and describe the setting (time and place). If you wish, you may also mention other titles by the author and /or pertinent details of the author's background. The last sentence of the introduction MUST be a thesis statement that previews the ideas you will explore in paragraphs 2, 3, and 4. Be certain that there is a direct connection between this statement and the topic sentence of each of your three body paragraphs (below).
Synopsis (second paragraph)
Begin this paragraph with the book's main idea in a single topic sentence. Go on to present a complete but concise synopsis of the book in one paragraph. This is a brief sketch of what happens: the beginning, the middle, and the end. Think about the major conflict, the rising action, the climax of the story, and the resolution. Keep it brief.
Observations (third and fourth paragraphs)
In each of these two paragraphs, narrow the discussion to a significant topic. Begin each paragraph with a topic sentence that makes an observation about a particular aspect of the book: a character, a feature of the plot, an element of style, or a theme. Go on to support and expand upon your idea with specific examples, incidents, details, and at least one relevant quote from the book. Write in flowing sentences, weaving these elements from the book into your writing, not simply listing them. (Cite the page number for each quote used.) End each paragraph with a wrap-up sentence that ties your examples and details together in support of your topic sentence; show how they add up to your main point, what they have in common. The paragraph that makes the most important point should be the fourth one, right before your conclusion.
Conclusion (fifth paragraph)
Begin this paragraph with your reaction to this piece of literature, your response to it as a reader. Avoid writing, "I think," "I feel," "I believe," or "In my opinion," but do try to expresss how the work has affected you, deepened your understanding, alerted or enlightened you (or even a wider audience) in some way. Go on to integrate the themes of your three body paragraphs and your essay's unique title, revealing how they relate to one another. End with a thoughtful closing statement: a concluding remark for the whole report. This could be your most important evaluative point, an intriguing twist on your title, a fitting quote, or a compelling question. (Hint: Save time to sleep on it, read it aloud, and revise.)
Book Report Grading , ________________________________________________________________
Student Class Date
High School Book Report__________________________________________
I. Introduction ____ A. Opening Statement
____ B. Title, author, genre, theme
____ C. Main characters, setting
____ D. Thesis statement
II. Synopsis ____ A. Complete
____ B. Concise (a paragraph, not a lengthy summary)
III. Observation #1 ____ A. Topic sentence
____ B. Support for topic
____ C. Supporting quote(s)
____ D. Wrap-up sentence
IV. Observation #2 ____ A. Topic sentence
____ B. Support for topic
____ C. Supporting quote(s)
____ D. Wrap-up sentence (+)
V. Conclusion ____ A. Writer’s reaction
____ B. Integration of themes
____ C. Closing statement
Extra credit for style ____ A. Transitions
____ B. Language
____ C. Voice
VII. Mechanics ____ A. Heading and header (see top of page)
____ B. Title
____ C. Format (5 paragraph essay) ____ D. Spell./punct./cap.
____ E. Grammar (tenses, person, etc.)
____ F. Fluency, clarity
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