2008 Summer Reading -- Advanced Placement English Language 12

The AP Language 12 teachers recommend that you purchase and read the first two chapters of the most recent Cliff's AP Language.  (Older editions will not include information about the newest essay assignment on the test, the synthesis question.)

All AP Lang 12 students should read TWO of the following texts:

      Choose ONE fiction and ONE non-fiction text

Fiction	Non-Fiction
Wuthering Heights -- Emily Bronte	Freakomics -- Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
The Stranger -- Albert Camus	Everything Bad is Good for You -- Steven Johnson
Heart of Darkness -- Joseph Conrad	The Tipping Point ­ Malcolm Gladwell
Tess of the D'urbervilles ­ Thomas Hardy	The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama
Their Eyes Were Watching God -- Zora Neale Hurston	Character Is Destiny - John McCain
Beloved -- Toni Morrison	Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science - Atul Gawande
Candide ­ Voltaire	The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat   - Oliver Sacks
Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen	The Omnivore’s Dilemma - Michael Pollan
The Bean Trees- Barbara Kingsolver	BOOM! - Tom Brokaw
The Metamorphosis ­ Franz Kafka	Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World - Jack Weatherford
	The World Without Us - Alan Weisman
	The World Is Flat - Thomas L. Friedman

 

The first few assignments/compositions of the semester will ask you to deal with these texts.  Please be sure you have read and understand both before school begins.  There will be no grace period.

In addition, the AP Language teachers also suggest reading the news ­ newspapers, news magazines, etc. ­ both to advance knowledge of current events and to prepare for analysis of nonfiction sources.  Vary your readings as much as possible: editorials, film reviews and political cartoons can be as valuable in developing analytical skills as can “straight news” articles.