Embedded Files
The books listed on this page are non-fiction and fiction suggestions, by no means are they requirements. They are books that I have read over the years and have found to be interesting, inspiring, and enjoyable in their own right. They key is always to read, nothing else replaces reading in its ability to increase knowledge, increase vocabulary, and a multitude of other admirable pieces to your individual makeup.
Non-Fiction
Non-Fiction
Ambrose, Stephen E. Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne: from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.
Band of Brothers follows one company of soldiers from the time they are formed, through all the different campaigns in World War II, until they are disbanded. They are the men of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, U.S. Army
Bernstein, Carl; Bob Woodward. All the President's Men. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1974.
All the President's Men is a 1974 non-fiction book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, two of the journalists who investigated the June 1972 break-in at the Watergate Office Building and the resultant political scandal for The Washington Post.
Brown, Tom, Jr. The Tracker. New York: Berkley Books, 1979, ©1978. Berkley ed.
In this powerful memoir, famous "Pine Barrens" tracker Tom Brown Jr. reveals how he acquired the skill that has saved dozens of lives—including his own. His story begins with the chance meeting between an ancient Apache and a New Jersey boy.
Bugliosi, Vincent, and Curt Gentry. Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders. New York: Norton, 1974.
In the bestselling true crime book Helter Skelter, lead prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi provides a meticulously detailed account of the murders committed by the Manson family and their trial—one of the most sensational criminal cases of the century.
Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences. New York: Vintage Books, 1994.
The book tells the story of the murder of the Clutter family, consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Clutter and their two teenage children, Kenyon and Nancy (two older daughters were grown and out of the house), and the events that lead the killers to murder.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt). The Souls of Black Folk; Essays and Sketches. Chicago, A. G. McClurg, 1903. New York: Johnson Reprint Corp., 1968.
The Souls of Black Folk is a passionate and eloquent autobiography. It tells the life story of an individual, W. E. B. Du Bois, and of a group, African Americans. In the process of telling his personal autobiography, Du Bois shows how he is shaped by his community's story.
Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York: Norton, 1963.
The Feminine Mystique, a landmark book by feminist Betty Friedan published in 1963 that described the pervasive dissatisfaction among women in mainstream American society in the post-World War II period.
Gardner, Lloyd C. The Case That Never Dies: The Lindbergh Kidnapping. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press, 2004.
Gardner delves deeply into the aspects of the case that remain confusing to this day, including Lindbergh's dealings with crime baron Owney Madden, Al Capone's New York counterpart, as well as the inexplicable exploits of John Condon, a retired schoolteacher who became the prosecution's best witness.
Griffin, John Howard. Black Like Me. New York: New American Library, 2003.
Black Like Me, first published in 1961, is a nonfiction book by white journalist John Howard Griffin recounting his journey in the Deep South of the United States, at a time when African-Americans lived under racial segregation.
Hersh, Seymour M. The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon Whitehouse. New York : Summit Books, cop. 1983.
Price of Power examines Henry Kissinger’s influence on the development of the foreign policy of the United States during the presidency of Richard Nixon.
Jackson, Helen Hunt. A Century of Dishonor: A Sketch of the United States Government's Dealings with Some of the Indian Tribes. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1881.
Jackson wrote A Century of Dishonor in an attempt to change government ideas/policy toward Native Americans at a time when effects of the 1871 Indian Appropriations Act (making the entire Native American population wards of the nation) had begun to draw the attention of the public.
Sommerville, George B. The Lure of Long Beach. Long Beach Island Board of Trade, 1914.
Being a detailed account of the traditions, history and growth of a grand Little Island Off the New Jersey Coast.
Thoreau, Henry David, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, 1849.
(Available on my website). https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1MZ4FaLNFtjYXhybVdKSkM3d2s/view
In Civil Disobedience, Thoreau's basic premise is that a higher law than civil law demands the obedience of the individual. Human law and government are subordinate. In cases where the two are at odds with one another, the individual must follow his conscience and, if necessary, disregard human law.
Twain, Mark. Following the Equator - A Journey Around the World. Hartford and New York: American Publishing Co., 1897
Following the Equator provides a glimpse into the challenges of world travel, and the perceptions of most western travelers regarding the rest of the world, circa the 1890s. While most readers are probably familiar with Twain's travel books through Europe, this lesser known work finds him traipsing through the Pacific.
Von Drehle, David. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2003.
Triangle is a poignantly detailed account of the 1911 disaster that horrified the country and changed the course of twentieth-century politics and labor relations. On March 25, 1911, as workers were getting ready to leave for the day, a fire broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York's Greenwich Village.
Washington, Booker T. Up from Slavery: An Autobiography. New York: Doubleday, Page, 1901; Bartleby.com, 2000.
Up from Slavery chronicles more than forty years of Washington's life: from slave to schoolmaster to the face of southern race relations. In this text, Washington climbs the social ladder through hard, manual labor, a decent education, and relationships with great people.
X, Malcolm, and Alex Haley. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Grove Press, 1965.
The Autobiography is a spiritual conversion narrative that outlines Malcolm X's philosophy of black pride, black nationalism, and pan-Africanism. After the leader was killed, Haley wrote the book's epilogue. He described their collaborative process and the events at the end of Malcolm X's life.
Fiction
Fiction
Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. New York: Scribner, 1954.
The Sun Also Rises, first major novel by Ernest Hemingway, published in 1926. The novel captures the moods, feelings, and attitudes of a hard-drinking, fast-living group of disillusioned expatriates in postwar France and Spain.
Hemingway, Ernest. To Have and Have Not. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1937.
To Have and Have Not is a novel about Harry Morgan, a fishing boat captain out of Key West, Florida. The novel depicts Harry as an ordinary working man of the Depression Era, forced by dire economic forces into the black-market activity of running contraband between Cuba and Florida.
Lawrence, Jerome, and Robert E. Lee. Inherit the Wind. New York: Bantam Books, 1960.
The plot of Inherit the Wind is a fictionalized version of an actual trial that took place in 1926: The Scopes ''Monkey'' Trial. A small-town science teacher, John T. Scopes, was convicted for teaching Charles Darwin's theory of evolution to his class, which was against the law at that time in Tennessee.
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006.
The story is told by the little six-year-old girl Jean Louise Finch nicknamed Scout. She is a rebellious girl who has tomboy tendencies. The storyline is based in Maycomb, a small town in Alabama in the 1930s where Scout lives with her elder brother Jem, and her father, Atticus, who is widowed.
McMurtry, Larry. Lonesome Dove. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985.
Lonesome Dove is the story of a cattle drive from far South Texas through the central Great Plains and hostile Indian country to virgin grazing land in Montana. Along the way, the characters either grow and change or deepen to reveal further elements of themselves.
Orwell, George. Animal Farm: A Fairy Story. New York, NY: Signet Classics, 1996.
Animal Farm is an allegorical novella by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. The book tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy.
Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1958.
The record of several schoolmates who represent a generation destroyed by the dehumanization of World War I's trench warfare, All Quiet on the Western Front tells of their enlistment in the army at the urging of their teacher, Kantorek, whose wisdom they trusted.
Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. New York: Penguin Books, 1985.
(Available on my website). https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OxcsknDdJnOmQobWQ-ys_NDevnu2mWcs/view
Sinclair wrote the novel to portray the harsh conditions and exploited lives of immigrants in the United States in Chicago and similar industrialized cities. His primary purpose in describing the meat industry and its working conditions was to advance socialism in the United States.
Stanwood, Donald A. The Memory of Eva Ryker. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1978.
Norman Hall, a twenty-year-old kid in 1941's Honolulu Police Department, gets involved in the gruesome double murder of a couple--who may be the couple who kidnapped little heiress Eva Ryker aboard the Titanic.
Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York, N.Y., U.S.A: Penguin Books, 1994.
Of Mice and Men focuses on the lives of George Milton and Lennie Small, two friends who are working towards a shared dream of owning their own piece of land during the Great Depression. Of Mice and Men explores themes of human interaction, dependence, and the damaging effects of isolation.
Steinbeck, John, and Robert J. DeMott. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin Books, 1992.
John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, Tom Joad and his family are forced from their farm in the Depression-era Oklahoma Dust Bowl and set out for California along with thousands of others in search of jobs, land, and hope for a brighter future.
Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. New York: Putnam's, 1989.
The Joy Luck Club describes the lives of four Asian women who fled China in the 1940s and their four very Americanized daughters. The novel focuses on Jing-mei "June" Woo, a thirty-six-year-old daughter, who, after her mother's death, takes her place at the meetings of a social group called the Joy Luck Club.
Uhlman, Fred. Reunion. United Kingdom: Adam Books, 1971.
A daring novella about the loss of innocence in pre-war Germany. Reunion is the story of intense and innocent devotion between two young men growing up in "the soft, serene, bluish hills of Swabia," and the sinister (but all too mundane) forces that end both their friendship and their childhood.
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