Second Marking Period Independent Reading Choices and Paper Topics (DUE 1/9/09)

Independent Reading: 2nd Marking Period - Winter 2008 (200 points)

DUE JANUARY 5, 2009

You may choose one of the following books below to use for your independent reading paper for the second marking period (or run the title of your choice by me for approval - no middle school books, please! You are too grown for that stuff…):

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (this one is the shortest but it’s not the best)
---(available at http://www.lib.rochester.edu/CAMELOT/sggk.htm)
---(available at http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/sggk_neilson.pdf)
The Tragedy of MacBeth by William Shakespeare
---(available at http://shakespeare.mit.edu/macbeth/full.html)
---(available at http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext00/0ws3410.txt)
Beloved by Toni Morrison
---(very difficult but rewarding book - you can get a taste of it at
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3912464)
Animal Farm by George Orwell (this one is a shortie too! No, not that kind of shortie…)
---(full text can be found at http://books.google.com; type title into search)
---(available at http://www.george-orwell.org/Animal_Farm/0.html)
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
---(a beautiful book that can be found at http://books.google.com; type title into search -
this is cited frequently on the AP Exam - I will award you 100 extra points for attempting
this book for your independent reading!!!)
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
---(one of my favorite books; you can find most of it at http://books.google.com; type title into search - like murder mysteries?)
Wicked by Gregory MacGuire
---(one of the greatest books of all TIME - a new take on the Wizard of Oz - not for the
faint of heart - 200 extra points for tackling this one!)
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel by Jonathan Safran Foer
---(still curious about 9/11? - me too - I have one copy which I can lend out; otherwise,
read it at http://books.google.com; type title into search)

YOUR PAPER TOPICS: Choose one from below OR do both for double the points.

From the 1995 AP Exam: Writers often highlight the values of a culture or a society by using characters who are alienated from that culture or society because of gender, race, class, or creed. Choose a novel or a play in which such a character plays a significant role and show how that character's alienation reveals the surrounding society's assumptions or moral values. AVOID MERE PLOT SUMMARY.

From the 2002 AP Exam: Morally ambiguous characters – characters whose behavior discourages readers from identifying them as purely evil or purely good – are at the heart of many works of literature. Choose a novel or play in which a morally ambiguous character plays a pivotal role. Then write an essay in which you explain how the character can be viewed as morally ambiguous and why his or her moral ambiguity is significant to the work as a whole. AVOID MERE PLOT SUMMARY.