High School Book LIst - Federal Way Public Schools

Title Author
High School Supplementary Reading List
Content
Gods, Heroes and Men of
Ancient Greece
Rouse, W.H.D. From the strong-arm heroics of Heracles, to the trickery of the Trojan Horse, from the
seductions of Circe the sorceress, to the terrors of the Cyclops and Minotaur… First published
in 1934, Gods, Heroes and Men of Ancient Greece has become one of the most popular,
enduring and captivating retellings of the ancient myths for modern readers. Recognizing the
sheer entertainment value of these timeless adventurers, world renowned classical scholar
W.H.D. Rouse delighted his students at the Perse School in Cambridge, England, with a
conversational style and childlike wonder that made the legends come alive – a rare
storytelling gift that continues to engage young and old alike.
Good Earth Buck, Pearl Pearl Buck (1892-1973) wrote The Good Earth in three months, based on her observations of
Chinese life and culture while she lived in China as the daughter of American missionaries. In
the novel, Buck tells the story of a simple, traditional small farmer, Wang Lung, whose highest
priority is the land he farms himself with his wife, O-lan. Throughout, Wang Lung‘s family is
contrasted to the wealthy and decadent Huangs, whose tie to the precious land has long been
cut: they hire outsiders to do their farming and devote themselves to luxury. As the years go
by, Wang Lung prospers as the corrupt Huangs decline—but by novel‘s end, he has become
more like them, and his own children fall into the traps that wealth sets: leisure, opium, and a
lack of respect for the good earth. Through Wang Lung and his family Buck depicts the
changes that were taking place in Chinese culture in the early 20th century.
Good Rain, The Egan, Timothy The Pacific Northwest, with its giant trees, fascinating coastline, mighty Columbia River, and
not-always-dormant volcanoes, has inspired a number of personal narratives. In this book,
New York Times reporter Egan interweaves personal experiences and conversations with
observations of nature and historical information. He travels through Washington, Oregon,
and southern Vancouver, following the route taken by an earlier traveler, Theodore Winthrop,
150 years ago.
Grapes of Wrath Steinbeck, John One of the greatest and most socially significant novels of the twentieth century, Steinbeck's
controversial masterpiece indelibly captured America during the Great Depression through the
story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads. Intensely human yet majestic in its scale and
moral vision, tragic but ultimately stirring in its insistence on human dignity, The Grapes of
Wrath (1939) is not only a landmark American novel, but it is as well an extraordinary moment
in the history of our national conscience. Note: This book may contain offensive material.
Great Dialogues of Plato Plato wrote approximately 25 dialogues—intellectual debates on such topics as law, virtue,
love, and beauty—which are normally divided into three periods: those featuring Socrates,
those in which the words of Socrates are most likely Plato‘s own, and the last several written
during Plato‘s later years.
Great Expectations Dickens, Charles The protagonist Pip is led into making grave mistakes based on several false expectations.
Through suffering and disappointment, he eventually realizes his true self-worth and lives a
fulfilling life.
Great Gatsby, The Fitzgerald, F. Scott F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess captures the
spirit of the author's generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology.
Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald's--and his
country's--most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new
beginnings. Gatsby's rise to glory and eventual fall from grace becomes a kind of cautionary
tale about the American Dream. Adultery.
Green Mile, The King, Stephen Maybe it's a little too cute (there's a smart prison mouse named Mr. Jingles), maybe the
pathos is laid on a little thick, but it's hard to resist the colorful personalities and simple
wonders of this supernatural tale.
Gulliver‘s Travels Swift, Jonathan In Jonathan Swift‘s bitter, witty, and utterly brilliant satire of the state of England in the early
18th century, his hero, Lemuel Gulliver (the epitome of the average man), becomes, as he
travels, increasingly frustrated by the corruption and irrationality of the human race. His sea
voyage takes him first to Lilliput, where he is first exploited by its tiny citizens and then
condemned as a traitor. Then he lands in Brobdingnag, to whom he is the Lilliputian; he is
repulsed by the size, grossness, and stupidity of the giants who capture him. His third voyage
is to Laputa, where Swift wickedly satirizes intellectuals as impractical twits. It‘s only in the
land of the Houyhnhnms that Gulliver finds peace, where gentle, intelligent, and ever-rational
horses rule the land and the humans—known as Yahoos—are brutish and stupid. When
Gulliver is cast out, he is consumed with grief, and his return to England—the land of true
Yahoos—brings him no joy.
High School 2011-12