It's extra credit time again...need your recommendations
 

Well I am a genius teacher who doesn't want kids with B plusses to sic their angry parents on me, so every year I allow them to read a novel for one grade of extra credit. The book has to be from my list, and it has to have significant cultural or historical value. Some already on my list are The House of Spirits, Daughter of Fortune, Over the Edge of the World, The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down, The Good Earth, Highwire Moon, Mexico (by Michener), The Haj, Exodus, In the Time of Butterflies, Love in the Time of Cholera, and others. Does anyone have any suggestions that a gifted high school student can manage that would meet the above criteria? I know we've done the book thing to death here (and I love it) but now I am looking for a book that will knock the socks of my seniors and will teach them something as well? What do you think?

That's a great list you've got there.

My contributions:

The Known World
The Kite Runner

I like
Birth of Venus

But I love the HAJ and you have some other great choices as well.

One that isn't a novel, is "Galileo's Daughter"...it is a phenomenal book. But it is letters from Galileo's daughter to him, and there are many historical references laced through to bring the letters and comments into perspective. It is one of my favorite books.

you can check out reviews and descriptions here:


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/014...Fencoding=UTF8

Atonement by McEwan(although a bit difficult)
The Last Life by Messud
Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid (shorter than the others)
The Wine of Astonishment by Lovelace
Paris to the Moon by Gopnik

I'm an English teacher too. Great idea.

A few suggestions:

"Little World of Don Camillo" by Guareschi
"My Home is Far Away" by Dawn Powell
"Scoop" by Evelyn Waugh

Anthony

teacher,

I'll be reading it again later this year..for the THIRD time....."A House for Mr. Biswas" by V.S. Naipaul

I recommend The Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Teaches a lot about responsibility, accountability, principles, etc.

I would offer up:

We the Living by Ayn Rand
This Side of Paradise by Fitzgerald
Brideshead Revisited by Waugh

Here's another vote for any of the Don Camillo books--how nice to meet another fan!

Other suggestions:

"The Bookseller of Kabul"

"Gilead"

"Five Quarters of an Orange"

Dreams of My Russian Summers:

"Consider This, Senora"

What about "Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling" by Ross King?

How about "Shadow Divers"? Any World War II history buffs would like this - non-fiction about crazy deep sea divers who discover a German U boat off the coast of New Jersey and their quest to identify it. Not something I would have picked, but enjoyed it nonetheless.

Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson; a tale of (among other things) the Japanese internment during WW2.

I nominate "A Border Passage--from Cairo to America" by Leila Ahmed. This is one of my favorite books in that general category. It's written by an Egyptian woman about her childhood in Cairo, Egypt, and perspectives on Islam from a female point of view. She is now a professor at Harvard teaching women's studies and religion. It is beautifully written, and shouldn't be too difficult for that age and isn't too long, either.

oh, sorry, that wasn't a novel. Is this a class on fiction or something?

The opening did say novel so I'll give a couple as well as a non-fiction:

The Industry of Souls - Martin Booth
A Brit wakes up on his 80th birthday and relfects on his last 45 years - 25 in a Gulag and then 20 in a Russian village - wonderful book

A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
set in India in the mid 70s it follows 4 people- can't really describe without getting into a long book report - one of the best books I have read

and if you could set a non-fiction to carry on with the India theme (and this is the Europe forum!) Freedom at Midnight - Dominique la Pierre and Larry Collins - a book about the partition of India - a great way to absorb history

and one more on the same theme Midnight';s Children by Rusdie

I second the nomination for "ATonement". This is one of the best books I have ever read. As an author myself, I can say that my evaluation of the writing and the story is that it is flawless.

Catfish and Mandala by Andrew Pham.

Would recommend "Saturday" over Atonement

The Aubrey/Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brian, beginning with Master And Commander. Historical fiction at its finest: per one reviewer what you would get "if Jane Austen wrote rousing sea yarns." Have a globe handy when reading; gives you a feeling for our spherical world. Need not know a spar from a sprit to enjoy them.

Christina, I so much liked _A Border Passage_, and have taught it several times. As for novels, I would recommend Arundhati Roy's _The God of Small Things_.