Here are all the titles submitted by Merrick Library staff for consideration as essential reading.
1984, by George Orwell
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle
Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain
Alchemist, by Paolo Coelho
American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang
And Ladies of the Club, by H. H. Santmyer
Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown
Animal Farm, by George Orwell
Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
Anthem, by Ayn Rand
Are You There God, It's Me Margaret, by Judy Blume
Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne
The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, by Malcom X
The BibleThe Birth of Venus, by Sarah Dunant
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder
Butterfield 8, by John O'Hara
Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger
Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson
Charlotte's Web, by E. B. White
Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
Cuckoo's Egg, by Clifford Stoll
Collected Short Stories, by Ernest Hemingway
Count of Monte Christo, by Alexander Dumas
Dubliners, by James Joyce
Electric Cool Aid Acid Test, by Tom Wolfe
Ella Enchanted, Gail C. Levine
Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
Eragon series, by Christopher Paolini
Everything Is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer
Exodus, by Leon Uris
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer
Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom
Foundation, by Isaac Asimov
Frog and Toad Are Friends, by Arnold Lobel
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil Frankewailer, by E. L. Konigsburg
Girlfriend in a Coma, by Douglas Coupland
Giver, by Lois Lowry
Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein
Gold Coast, by Nelson DeMille
Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
Good Earth, by Pearl Buck
Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman
Great Books, by David Denby
Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr. Seuss
Growing Up, by Russell Baker
Half Magic, by Edward Eager
Hamlet, by William Shakespeare
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J. K. Rowling
Henry V, by William Shakespeare
Here Lies the Librarian, by Richard Peck
Hey, Nostradamus, Douglas Coupland
Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien
Hound of the Baskervilles, by Arthur Conan Doyle
How Far Can You Go? by David Lodge
If the Creek Don't Rise, by Rita Williams
I'll Always Have Paris, by Art Buchwald
In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
It, by Stephen King
The Jungle Books, by Rudyard Kipling
Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
Last Hurrah, by Edwin O'Connor
Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis
Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
Longitude, by Dava Sobel
Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
Lord of the Rings (Trilogy), by J. R. R. Tolkien
Lost Horizon, by James Hilton
Man Who Was Thursday, by G. K. Chesterton
Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden
Memory Keeper's Daughter, by Kim Edwards
Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, by Kate Dicamillo
The Most of P. G. Wodehouse, by P. G. Wodehouse
My Sister's Keeper, by Jodi Picoult
Night, by Elie Wiesel
Nineteen Minutes, by Jodi Picoult
Noble House, by James Clavell
North and South, by John Jakes
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, by Allan Gurganus
On the Road, Jack Kerouac
Once and Future King, by T. H. White
One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey
One Minute Manager, by Blanchard & Johnson
Outsiders, by S. E. Hinton
Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett
Prince of Tides, by Pat Conroy
Professor and the Madman, by Simon Winchester
The prophet, by Kahlil Gibran
Q & A, by Vikas Swarup
Razor's Edge, by Somerset Maugham
Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare
Sailing the Wine Dark Sea, by Thomas Cahill
Sarah's Key, by Tatiana De Rosnay
Saratoga Trunk, by Edna Ferber
Screwtape Letters, by C. S. Lewis
Sermons and Soda Water, by John O'Hara
Shogun, by James Clavell
Show Boat, by Edna Ferber
Sons, by Evan Hunter
Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson
Stand, by Stephen King
Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas, by James Patterson
Tai Pan, by James Clavell
A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
Ten North Frederick , by John O'Hara
A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini
A Thread of Grace, by Mary Doria Russell
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith
Trinity, Leon Uris
Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom
Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams
Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle
War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy
Winesburg, Ohio, by Sherwood Anderson
Yearling, by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
You Just Don't Understand, by Deborah Tannen
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Just a note. Wm. Shakespeare did not make the final list because we judged his works to be plays, not books. The list on this page simply includes every title that was submitted to the committee. Obviously, we believe that Shakespeare is essential-but one can view his works, and never read them, and benefit from his work.
ReplyDeleteI can't help but feel that it is a mistake to exclude plays as "non-books." To say that one may view works of literature without reading them and benefit from the work, is the equivalent of recommending that no one read anymore because you can just see the movie. There are many movie versions of Hamlet available, and each is different, influenced by the eye of the director, among others. To read the works yourself allows you to experience them in a more pure form and make your own judgements. I would recommend reading plays as well as seeing them performed. One of my personal favorites is The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, which I loved as a book long before I ever saw it performed.
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