Welcome to AP!
Reading is one of the best things you can do to prepare yourself for the challenges of the upcoming school year. Enjoying a good book will help expand your vocabulary, deepen critical thinking, and enhance focus and imagination. Equally important, reading is the very best way to strengthen your writing skills!
As a Northside AP English student, we ask that you read at least one nonfiction title of your choice this summer. There is no other assignment than to read and be ready to discuss your book when school starts.
Remember, you can pick whichever book you wish to read - it does not have to be on the list below, but it does have to be nonfiction.The following titles are included just to give you some ideas. They are books that are popular in the library, award winners, or recommended by teachers. The nonfiction titles marked by an asterisk are titles that you may want to discuss with your parents or guardians before choosing it as your summer reading.
You can check out digital books on Sora, Libby, and Overdrive through your school library.
Happy Reading!
Holmes and NSITE High School Disclaimer:
Parents and students are highly encouraged to read book summaries and online reviews before selecting summer reading in order to approve content.
ENGLISH 1 and 2
ROMANCE:
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
The Great Gatsby* by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende
One Day by David Nicholls
Pride and Prejudice* by Jane Austen
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
There’s Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
SCI FI, DYSTOPIAN, POST APOCALYPTIC
Anthem* by Ayn Rand
Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
The Circle by Dave Eggers
Ender’s Game* by Orson Scott Card
The Illustrated Man* by Ray Bradbury
Scythe by Neal Shusterman
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Unwind by Neal Shusterman
Vox by Christina Dalcher
Warcross by Marie Lu
MYSTERY
Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson
Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime* by Mark Haddon
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Mercy Rule by Tom Leveen
Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
HORROR/THRILLER
Blue Moon by Lee Child
Frankenstein* by Mary Shelly
The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
Gwendy’s Button Box by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar
A Headful of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
In the Woods by Tana French
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
The Poet by Michael Connelly
The Raven’s Tale by Cat Winters
HISTORICAL FICTION
11/23/63 by Stephen King
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Book Thief* by Markus Zusak
The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys
The Lovely War by Julie Berry
Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nahisi Coates
The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers
STRONG FEMALE PROTAGONIST
The Book Thief*by Markus Zusak
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson
Internment by Samira Ahmed
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
Pride and Prejudice* by Jane Austin
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
Stepsister by Jennifer Donnely
A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi
STRONG MALE PROTAGONIST
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak
City of Thieves by David Benioff
Fahrenheit 451* by Ray Bradbury
Gutless by Carl Deuker
Here to Stay by Sara Farizan
I Am Alfonso Jones by Tony Medina
News of the World by Paulette Jiles
Things Fall Apart* by Chinua Achebe
What Is the What by Dave Eggers
RELATABLE STORIES HIGH SCHOOL DRAMA
Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick
Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner
A Separate Peace* by John Knowles
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
Us Against You by Fredrick Backman
COMING OF AGE
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Saenz
Bless Me, Ultima* by Rudolfo Anaya
The Boy Kings of Texas by Domingo Martinez
The Catcher in the Rye* by J.D. Salinger
Darius The Great is Not Okay by Adbi Khorram
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez
Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay
To Kill a Mockingbird* by Harper Lee
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
* Indicates vetted, approved titles from the NISD English I-IV Approved Reading List
English 3
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
League of Denial: the NFL, Concussions, and the Battle for Truth by Mark Fainaru-Wada
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell
Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H.G. Bissinger
Originals: How Nonconformists Move the World by Adam Grant
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Susan Cain
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
Stamped: Racism, AntiRacism and You - Jason Reynolds, Abram X Kendi
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
*The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime that Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater
The Faraway Brothers by Lauren Markham
*I Have The Right To: A High School Survivor’s Story of Sexual Assault, Justice and Hope by Chessy Prout
*Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson
Muck City: Winning and Losing in Football’s Forgotten Town by Bryan Mealer
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
*The Writings On The Wall by Kareem Abdul Jabbar
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
Parkland: Birth of a Movement by Dave Cullen
The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains by Nicholas Carr
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson
*Know My Name by Chanel Miller
A Deadly Wandering by Matt Richtel
Educated by Tara Westover
The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
*Anything by David Sedaris
* indicates that students and parents may want to preview the work for mature language and/or content
English 4
ROMANCE
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood
Frankly In Love by David Yoon
The Importance of Being Earnest* by Oscar Wilde
Jane Eyre* by Charlotte Brontë
Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
Pride by Ibi Zoboi
Pride and Prejudice* by Jane Austen
Their Eyes Were Watching God* by Zora Neale Hurston
SCI FI, DYSTOPIAN, POST APOCALYPTIC
1984* by George Orwell
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
Brave New World* by Aldous Huxley
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
The Martian by Andy Weir
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Slaughterhouse-Five* by Kurt Vonnegut
Station Eleven by Emily St. Jean Mandel
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
MYSTERY
All The Truth That’s In Me by Julie Berry
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime* by Mark Haddon
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Room by Emma Donoghue
Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Safon
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti
HORROR/THRILLER
Blue Moon by Lee Child
Frankenstein* by Mary Shelly
Gwendy’s Button Box by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
A Headful of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
Lisey’s Story by Stephen King
A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis
The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice
The Raven’s Tale by Cat Winters
Room by Emma Donoghue
Zone One by Colson Whitehead
HISTORICAL FICTION
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
Refuge by Dina Nayeri
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nahisi Coates
The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers
FAMILY DRAMA
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
The Joy Luck Club* by Amy Tan
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
We the Animals by Justin Torres
BOOKS WITH STRONG FEMALE PROTAGONIST
Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd
Circe by Madeline Miller
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
The Other Americans by Lalami, Laila
Out of The Easy by Ruta Sepetys
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
Their Eyes Were Watching God* by Zora Neale Hurston
We Are Not From Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
With The Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
BOOKS WITH STRONG MALE PROTAGONIST
A Farewell to Arms* by Ernest Hemingway
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
The Boy In The Black Suit by Jason Reynolds
Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano
Fahrenheit 451* by Ray Bradbury
George Washington Gomez by Américo Paredes
LaRose by Louise Erdrich
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty
News of the World by Paulette Jiles
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Things Fall Apart* by Chinua Achebe
RELATABLE HIGH SCHOOL DRAMA
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
Tradition by Brendon Kiely
The Topeka School by Ben Lerner
Us Against You by Fredrik Backman
COMING OF AGE
The Catcher in the Rye* by J.D. Salinger
Dig by A.S. King
Everyone Knows You Go Home by Natalia Sylvester
Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea
The Kite Runner* by Khaled Hosseini
Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner
Where We Come From by Oscar Cásares
* Indicates vetted, approved titles from the NISD English I-IV Approved Reading List
