Book Choices

1. Book Choices AP Language

2. #1 • Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981.  Was it murder or self-defense?  For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares.  This sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative reads like a thoroughly engrossing novel, and yet it is a work of nonfiction.  The author skillfully interweaves a hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case.It is a spellbinding story peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman's Card Club; the turbulent young redneck gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the "soul of pampered self-absorption"; the uproariously funny black drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young blacks dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight.  These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with the author revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else.

3. #2 • On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? This heart-stoppingly dramatic new novel is about a man who travels back in time to prevent the JFK assassination—a thousand page tour de force. • Following his massively successful other novels, this author sweeps readers back in time to another moment—a real life moment—when everything went wrong: the JFK assassination. And he introduces readers to a character who has the power to change the course of history.

4. #3 • The Soviet's most valuable ship -- a new ballistic-missile submarine with their most trusted and skilled naval officer at the helm -- is attempting to defect to the United States. It is high treason on an unprecedented scale, and the Soviet's mission is to seek and destroy her at any cost. If the U.S. fleet can locate the Red October and get her safely to port, it will be the intelligence coup of all time. But the submarine has a million square miles in which to hide and the deadly game of hide-and-seek is on.

5. #4 • This author has created a huge, brash thunderstorm of a novel, stinging with honesty and resounding with drama. Spanning forty years, this is the story of turbulent Tom Wingo, his gifted and troubled twin sister Savannah, and their struggle to triumph over the dark and tragic legacy of the extraordinary family into which they were born.Filled with the vanishing beauty of the South Carolina low country as well as the dusty glitter of New York City, this novel shows the author at his very best.

6. #5 • The author’s tour de force, this novel is a darkly satiric vision of a "utopian" future—where humans are genetically bred and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively serve a ruling order. A powerful work of speculative fiction that has enthralled and terrified readers for generations, it remains remarkably relevant to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as thought-provoking, satisfying entertainment.

7. #6 • This author intertwines the true tale of the 1893 World's Fair and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death. Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling, he has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction.

8. #7 • The novel features the memorably eccentric characters, outlandish situations, and moments both joyous and heartbreaking that so many readers cherish. It is the tragicomic life story of the son of the controversial feminist Jenny Fields. Her son’s world is filled with "lunacy and sorrow." His mother is a radically independent nurse who conceives him by taking advantage of a brain-damaged soldier. His best friend is a transsexual who was formerly a tight end for the Philadelphia Eagles. The main character struggles vainly to protect the people he loves. His life is both hilarious and ultimately tragic. This novel was especially popular on college campuses across the nation because of its youthful energy, and the novelist was applauded for creating realistic and strong female characters. It is an intricately plotted novel, and its themes are universal: love, sex, death, art, gender roles. The book shares many of the characteristics of Irving novels published before and after it. Millions continue to read this author’s books, and thus he remains one of the most popular and successful American writers of the last twenty-five years.

9. #8 • This novel, set in New York City in the nineteen eighties, has as its protagonist Sherman McCoy, a self-dubbed "Master of the Universe." McCoy makes a million dollars per annum on Wall Street. He is married to Judy McCoy, and they live with their six-year-old daughter on Park Avenue while maintaining a weekend house in Southampton, Long Island. Much of the action of the story takes place in the extremely decadent world of Park Avenue in the 1980s. Sherman and Judy McCoy's life of elegant apartments, profligate spending, and shallow friendship plays out amid Sheraton furnishings, marble floors, and $2000 suits. • Behind his wife's back, McCoy is conducting an affair with a younger woman, Maria, the socialite wife of another Park Avenue millionaire. One night, after picking her up from the airport………….

10. #9 • On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood.  Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared.  It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard.  So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War II. Driven to the limits of endurance, this protagonist would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion.  His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

11. Answers • #1 Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt • #2 11/22/63 by Stephen King • #3 Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy • #4 Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy • #5 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley • #6 Devil in the White City by Erik Larson • #7 The World According to Garp by John Irving • #8 Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe • #9 Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand