Mrs. Spurlock AP Literature and Composition
  • Spurlock: AP Language and Composition
  • Analytical Essay Rubric
  • AP Syllabus
  • What does the AP Exam look like?
    • Summer Reading Assignment
  • Reading List
  • AP Practice Test
Reading Lists
Students:
I have had a few inquiries about novels to read for the AP exam. I wanted to clarify that the AP Language and Composition (Junior year) test is different than AP Literature and Composition test (Senior year). The AP Language and Composition focuses on non-fiction. Focus on reading as many of this articles and novels as you can! Here is a list of readings that are recommended by the AP Language and Composition Readers:

Argument
"On Self-Respect" by Joan Didion
"Whistleblowing and Professional Responsibility" by Sissela Bok
"Future Schlock" by Neil Postman
"Why Blame T.V." by John Leonard
"Save the Whales, Screw the Shrimp" by Joy Williams
from "The End of Nature" by Bill McKibbin
"Is Business Bluffing Ethical?" by Albert Carr
"Pornography" by Margaret Atwood
"A Proposal to Abolish Grading" by Paul Goodman
"Why Not a Football Degree?" by William F. Shurhart II

Style: Schemes and Tropes
"Marrying Absurd" by Joan Didion
"I Want a Wife" by Judy Brady
"Assorted Speeches" by Spiro Agnew
"Guys vs. Men" by Dave Barry
"Gettysburg Address" by Abraham Lincoln
"Nobel Prize Award Speech" by William Faulkner
"A Small Place" by Jamaica Kincaid

Rhetorical Analysis
"An End to Audience" by Margaret Atwood
"Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell
"What High School Is" by Ted Sizer
"Killing Me Microsoftly" by Julia Keller
"Distancing the Homeless" by Jonathon Kozol
"A Vindication of the Rights of Women" by Mary Wollstonecraft


Classic Novels and Poets
  • John F. Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
  • Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
  • Jack London, Call of the Wild
  • Herman Melville, Moby Dick
  • J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye
  • John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
  • Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  • Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
  • Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
  • Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage
  • Kurt Vonnejut Jr., Slaughterhouse-Five
  • Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
  • Frank L. Baum, The Wizard of Oz
  • Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome
  • Henry David Thoreau, Walden
  • Harriet Breecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin
  • Sinclair Lewis, Main Street
  • Willa Cather, O Pioneers!
  • James Fenimore Coopers, Last of the Mohicans





Suggested Novels


IN COLD BLOOD by Truman Capote
THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS by Rebecca Skloot
INTO THE WILD by John Krakauer
AMAZING GRACE by Jonathon Kazol
 THE RIGHT STUFF by Tom Wolfe
 FAST FOOD NATION by Eric Schlosser
 NICKEL AND DIMED: ON (NOT) GETTING BY IN AMERICA 
 by Barbara Ehrenreich
 OVERACHIEVERS: THE SECRET LIVES OF DRIVEN KIDS by Alexandra Robbins
 THERE ARE NO CHILDREN HERE by Alex Kotlowitz
 KABUL BEAUTY SCHOOL: AN AMERICAN WOMAN GOES BEHIND THE VEIL by Deborah Rodriguez
THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER by Stephen Chbosky
 BLACK HAWK DOWN by Mark Bowden
 SHE SAID YES: THE UNLIKELY MARTYRDOM OF CASSIE BERNALL by Misty Bernall
 CATCH ME IF YOU CAN by Frank Abagnale
 THE ZOOKEEPER’S WIFE: A WAR STORY by Diane Ackerman
 READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN by Azar Nafisi
 DRESS YOUR FAMILY IN CORDUROY AND DENIM by David Sedaris
 HOW STARBUCKS SAVED MY LIFE: A SON OF PRIVILEGE LEARNS TO LIVE LIKE EVERYONE
ELSE by Michael Gates Gill
ESCAPE by Carolyn Jessop
THE GLASS CASTLE by Jeannette Walls
 BEAUTIFUL BOY: A FATHER’S JOURNEY THROUGH HIS SON’S ADDICTION by David Sheff
 PROZAC NATION by Elizabeth Wurtzel
 SEABISCUIT: AN AMERICAN LEGEND by Laura Hillenbrand
 THE INNOCENT MAN by John Grisham
 FREAKONOMICS by Malcolm Gladwell
 THE PERFECT STORM by Sebastian Junger

Five Recommended Plays:
  • Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie
  • Arthur Miller, The Crucible
  • Thornton Wilder, Our Town
  • Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun
  • Edward Albee, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?
Five Recommended Poets:
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Emily Dickinson
  • Robert Frost
  • Edgar Allan Poe
  • Walt Whitman
Suggested Novels

IN COLD BLOOD by Truman Capote
THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS by Rebecca Skloot
INTO THE WILD by John Krakauer
AMAZING GRACE by Jonathon Kazol
 THE RIGHT STUFF by Tom Wolfe
 FAST FOOD NATION by Eric Schlosser
 NICKEL AND DIMED: ON (NOT) GETTING BY IN AMERICA 
 by Barbara Ehrenreich
 OVERACHIEVERS: THE SECRET LIVES OF DRIVEN KIDS by Alexandra Robbins
 THERE ARE NO CHILDREN HERE by Alex Kotlowitz
 KABUL BEAUTY SCHOOL: AN AMERICAN WOMAN GOES BEHIND THE VEIL by Deborah Rodriguez
THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER by Stephen Chbosky
 BLACK HAWK DOWN by Mark Bowden
 SHE SAID YES: THE UNLIKELY MARTYRDOM OF CASSIE BERNALL by Misty Bernall
 CATCH ME IF YOU CAN by Frank Abagnale
 THE ZOOKEEPER’S WIFE: A WAR STORY by Diane Ackerman
 READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN by Azar Nafisi
 DRESS YOUR FAMILY IN CORDUROY AND DENIM by David Sedaris
 HOW STARBUCKS SAVED MY LIFE: A SON OF PRIVILEGE LEARNS TO LIVE LIKE EVERYONE
ELSE by Michael Gates Gill
ESCAPE by Carolyn Jessop
THE GLASS CASTLE by Jeannette Walls
 BEAUTIFUL BOY: A FATHER’S JOURNEY THROUGH HIS SON’S ADDICTION by David Sheff
 PROZAC NATION by Elizabeth Wurtzel
 SEABISCUIT: AN AMERICAN LEGEND by Laura Hillenbrand
 THE INNOCENT MAN by John Grisham
 FREAKONOMICS by Malcolm Gladwell
 THE PERFECT STORM by Sebastian Junger

Five Recommended Plays:
  • Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie
  • Arthur Miller, The Crucible
  • Thornton Wilder, Our Town
  • Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun
  • Edward Albee, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?
Five Recommended Poets:
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Emily Dickinson
  • Robert Frost
  • Edgar Allan Poe
  • Walt Whitman
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