Beginnings

Welcome friends! I have started this entry in the global technosphere because I have been in love with books since the age of 2. Among the busy business of being a new teacher, this is my outlet for sharing thoughts on a love of reading a wide variety of books. My inspiration can be summed up with a yearbook quote from a teacher written when I was 8: "To the only girl at recess I see reading a book. Good for you!"
My blog title is quoted from a classmate who asked me this once. Believe it or not, I've also heard it as a teacher :D

Lifetime Must-Read List

After reading other such lists, book club recommendations, and brainstorming titles of interest, I've compiled a huge, ever-growing list of books I feel are "must-reads."  Ambitious, but considering current life expectancy statistics, I have at least 50 years to read these & then I'll have to catch up to what I missed between now & then :D  It's an ongoing process & a constantly changing list, so I'll update it here when I add to it & delete titles I acquire for my TBR shelf.  Hope this adds to the enjoyment of other "bookies" looking for titles they feel obligated to read as a member of the human species...or simply personal gratification.

My subject interests are varied, but mostly revolve around movies, (auto)biographies, all forms of literature (classic, modern, contemporary), some philosophy, some science, and some popular fiction.

They are organized categorically & then alphabetically.

18th Century Classics
Robinson Crusoe- Daniel Defoe
The Social Contract- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Tom Jones- Henry Fielding
Tragedy of Faust- Goethe

19th Century Lit Classics
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Cyrano de Bergerac- Edmond Rostand
Dracula- Bram Stoker
House of the Seven Gables- Nathaniel Hawthorne
Hunchback of Notre Dame- Victor Hugo
North and South- Elizabeth Gaskell
On Nature & Selected Essays- Ralph Waldo Emerson
On the Origin of Species- Charles Darwin
The Three Musketeers- Alexandre Dumas
Thus Spoke Zarathustra- Friedrich Nietzsche
Uncle Tom’s Cabin- Harriet Beecher Stowe
Walden- Henry David Thoreau
The Way of All Flesh- Samuel Butler
Woman in White- Wilkie Collins

20th Century Lit Classics
The 39 Steps- John Buchan
100 Years of Solitude- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
As I Lay Dying- William Faulkner

Atlas Shrugged- Ayn Rand
Breakfast at Tiffany’s- Truman Capote

Bridge of San Luis Rey- Thornton Wilder
The Call of the Wild- Jack London
Children of the Sun- Maxim Gorky
Elmer Gantry- Sinclair Lewis
The End of the Affair- Graham Greene

The Executioner's Song- Norman Mailer
Finnegans Wake- James Joyce
The Fountainhead- Ayn Rand
The Good Earth- Pearl S. Buck
The Good Soldier- Ford Madox Ford
Howards End- E.M. Forster

Human Condition- Hannah Arendt
Humboldt’s Gift- Saul Bellow
In Cold Blood- Truman Capote
Invisible Man- Ralph Ellison
Little House on the Prairie- Laura Ingalls Wilder
Lord Jim- Joseph Conrad
Lucky Jim- Kingsley Amis
Metamorphosis- Franz Kafka
Mrs. Dalloway- Virginia Woolf
My Cousin Rachel- Daphne du Maurier
Myra Breckinridge- Gore Vidal

The Naked & the Dead- Norman Mailer
Naked Lunch- William S. Burroughs
The Natural- Bernard Malamud
Of Human Bondage- W. Somerset Maugham

Ordinary People- Judith Guest
Orlando- Virginia Woolf
A Passage to India- E.M. Forster
Piccadilly Jim- P.G. Wodehouse
The Quiet American- Graham Greene

The Razor’s Edge- W. Somerset Maugham
A Single Man- Christopher Isherwood
Sometimes a Great Notion- Ken Kesey
The Sound & the Fury- William Faulkner
The Tin Drum- Gunter Grass
To the Lighthouse- Virginia Woolf
The Trial- Franz Kafka
Ulysses- James Joyce
Zorba the Greek- Nikos Kazantzakis


Anna Quindlen
Black and Blue

Every Last One
A Short Guide to a Happy Life
Thinking Out Loud


Anne Tyler
Breathing Lessons
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Searching For Caleb

Autobiographies
All My Yesterdays- Edward G. Robinson
American Prince- Tony Curtis
Among the Porcupines- Carol Matthau
Ann-Margret: My Story- Ann-Margret
Are You Hungry, Dear?- Doris Roberts
As I Am- Patricia Neal
Ask Me Again Tomorrow- Olympia Dukakis
Ava: My Story- Ava Gardner
Bring on the Empty Horses- David Niven
Cagney by Cagney- James Cagney
Child Star- Shirley Temple Black
Chuck Amuck- Chuck Jones
Colleen Dewhurst: Her Autobiography- Colleen Dewhurst
Don’t Look Back- Marcia Wallace
The Elephant to Hollywood- Michael Caine
Ernie- Ernest Borgnine
Fonda: My Life- Henry Fonda
Ginger: My Story- Ginger Rogers
The Good, the Bad & Me- Eli Wallach
Groucho & Me- Groucho Marx
Harpo Speaks!- Harpo Marx
A Hell of a Life- Maureen Stapleton

Ingrid Bergman: My Story- Ingrid Bergman
In Spite of Myself- Christopher Plummer
It’s Not Easy Bein’ Me- Rodney Dangerfield
James Earl Jones: Voices & Silences- James Earl Jones
Life is Too Short- Mickey Rooney
Lonely Life- Bette Davis
Looking For Gatsby- Faye Dunaway
Love Lucy- Lucille Ball
Milton Berle: An Autobiography- Milton Berle
My Story- Marilyn Monroe
The Name Above the Title- Frank Capra
No Bed of Roses- Joan Fontaine
Now is the Time- Olivia de Havilland
A Private View- Irene Mayer Selznick
Rock Hudson: His Story- Rock Hudson
Roman- Roman Polanski
The Salad Days- Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Shelley, also Known as Shirley- Shelley Winters
Shelley II, the Middle of my Century- Shelley Winters
So Far, So Good- Burgess Meredith
Sunshine & Shadow- Mary Pickford
Terrible Liar- Hume Cronyn
That’s Not All Folks- Mel Blanc
There Really Was a Hollywood- Janet Leigh
Vanity Will Get You Somewhere- Joseph Cotten

Barbara Kingsolver
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral
The Bean Trees
Prodigal Summer

BFI Classics Series
Citizen Kane- Laura Mulvey
The Wizard of Oz- Salman Rushdie
The Shawshank Redemption- Mark Kermode
The Terminator- Sean French
Thelma & Louise- Marita Sturken

Biographies
Angelina: An Unauthorized Biography- Andrew Morton (Angelina Jolie)
Audrey: A Biography of Audrey Hepburn- Charles Higham
Audrey Hepburn- Sean Hepburn Ferrer
Bette: The Life of Bette Davis- Charles Higham
Bogart- A.M. Sperber & Eric Lax (Humphrey Bogart)
Bogart: In Search of my Father- Stephen H. Bogart
Bogie- Richard Schickel
Brando- Richard Schickel

Buster Keaton- David Robinson
Cary Grant: A Class Apart- Graham McCann
Clint Eastwood: A Biography- Richard Schickel
Conversations With Wilder- Cameron Crowe
Elia Kazan: A Biography- Richard Schickel
The Eye of My Tornado- Marina Anderson (David Carradine)
Five Easy Decades- Dennis McDougal (Jack Nicholson)

Foster Child- Buddy Foster (Jodie Foster)
Get Happy- Gerald Clarke (Judy Garland)
I’m Chevy Chase & You’re Not- Rena Fruchter
It’s Good To Be the King- James Robert Parish (Mel Brooks)
Jack- John Parker (Jack Nicholson)

James Cagney: A Celebration- Richard Schickel
James Stewart: A Biography- Donald Dewey
John Ford- Peter Bogdanovich
John Ford Movie Mystery- Andrew Sarris
John Wayne, My Father- Aissa Wayne

Marilyn- Norman Mailer
Marilyn Monroe- Graham McCann
Marilyn Monroe: The Biography- Donald Spoto

Matthau: A Life- Rob Edelman (Walter Matthau)
Method in Madness- Maurice Yacowar (Mel Brooks)
My Husband, My Friend- Nellie McQueen Toffel (Steve McQueen)
Olivia & Joan- Charles Higham (Olivia de Havilland & Joan Fontaine)
Pappy: The Life of John Ford- Dan Ford
Paul Newman: A Life- Shawn Levy
Passion For Life- Donald Spoto (Elizabeth Taylor)
Rebel- Donald Spoto (James Dean)
Renoir, My Father- Jean Renoir
Robin Williams- Andy Dougan
Sally Field- Jason Bonderoff
Six Men- Alistair Cooke (Charlie Chaplin, Humphrey Bogart)
The Tom Hanks Enigma- David Gardner
Untouchable- Andy Dougan (Robert DeNiro)
Vincent Price- Victoria Price
William Hurt- Toby Goldstein

Canadian Lit
Anil’s Ghost- Michael Ondaatje
The English Patient- Michael Ondaatje

Charles Dickens
Bleak House
David Copperfield
Pickwick Papers

Charles Grodin
How I Get Through Life
How to Got to Be Whoever it is I Am
I Like It Better When You’re Funny
We’re Ready For You, Mr. Grodin

"Chick Lit" (for lack of a better category)
Bridges of Madison County- Robert James Waller
Chocolat- Joanne Harris
The French Lieutenant’s Woman- John Fowles
Fried Green Tomatoes- Fannie Flagg
The Horse Whisperer- Nicholas Evans
How to Make an American Quilt- Whitney Otto
Jane Austen Book Club- Karen Joy Fowler
Message in a Bottle- Nicholas Sparks
My Sister’s Keeper- Jodi Picoult
The Notebook- Nicholas Sparks

The Pilot's Wife- Anita Shreve
Under the Tuscan Sun- Frances Mayes
Waiting to Exhale- Terry McMillan
White Oleander- Janet Fitch

Children’s Lit
Adventures of Tom Sawyer- Mark Twain
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret- Judy Blume
Because of Winn-Dixie- Kate DiCamillo
City of Ember- Jeanne DuPrau
Coraline- Neil Gaiman
Dangerous Book For Boys- Conn & Hal Iggulden
Ella Enchanted- Gail Carson Levine
Fairy Tales- Hans Christian Andersen
Grimm's Fairy Tales- Brothers (Jacob & Wilhelm) Grimm

Holes- Louis Sachar
The Jungle Book- Rudyard Kipling
Kim- Rudyard Kipling
Number the Stars- Lois Lowry

Pippi Longstocking- Astrid Lindgren
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants- Ann Brashares
Summer Sisters- Judy Blume
The Tale of Despereaux- Kate DiCamillo

Treasure Island- Robert Louis Stevenson
Watership Down- Richard Adams
What Every Girl (Except Me) Knows- Nora Raleigh Baskin
Wind in the Willows- Kenneth Grahame
Winnie-the-Pooh- A.A. Milne

Contemporary Lit
Art of the Steal- Frank Abagnale
Bee Season- Myla Goldberg
The Book Thief- Markus Zusak
Castaways of the Flying Dutchman- Brian Jacques
Catch Me If You Can- Frank Abagnale

Choke- Chuck Palahniuk
City of God- Paulo Lins
Color of Water- James McBride
Confederacy of Dunces- John Kennedy Toole
Cutting For Stone- Abraham Verghese
The Devil’s Advocate- Morris West

The Distant Hours- Kate Morton
Diving Bell & the Butterfly- Jean-Dominique Bauby
Education of Little Tree- Forrest Carter

Everything is Illuminated- Jonathan Safran Foer
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close- Jonathan Safran Foer
The Eyre Affair- Jasper Fforde
Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas- Hunter S. Thompson
Fight Club- Chuck Palahniuk
The Five People You Meet in Heaven- Mitch Albom
For the Love of Books- Ronald B. Shwartz
For the Love of Books- Paul Jordan Smith
The Forgotten Garden- Kate Morton

Foucault’s Pendulum- Umberto Eco
Friday Night Knitting Club- Kate Jacobs
Get a Life- Nadine Gordimer
Gone Baby Gone- Dennis Lehane
A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters- Julian Barnes
House of the Spirits- Isabel Allende
Jonathan Livingston Seagull- Richard Bach
A Lesson Before Dying- Ernest Gaines
Let the Great World Spin- Colum McCann

Little Earthquakes- Jennifer Weiner
Look Me in the Eye- John Elder Robinson
Memoirs of a Geisha- Arthur Golden
Memory Keeper’s Daughter- Kim Edwards
Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil- John Berendt

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio- Terry Ryan
Queen Bee Moms & Kingpin Dads- Rosalind Wiseman
Queen Bees & Wannabes- Rosalind Wiseman
Reading Lolita in Tehran- Azar Nafisi
River, Cross My Heart- Breena Clarke
The Secret Life of Bees- Sue Monk Kidd

Shopgirl- Steve Martin
The Sky is Falling- Sidney Sheldon

Shades of Grey- Jasper Fforde
This Side of Brightness- Colum McCann
Songs in Ordinary Times- Marry McGarry Morris
Stones For Ibarra- Harriet Doerr
Stones From the River- Ursula Hegl
Tuesdays With Morrie- Mitch Albom

The Wasp Factory- Iain Banks
We Need to Talk About Kevin- Lionel Shriver
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape- Peter Hodges

Cormac McCarthy
All the Pretty Horses
No Country For Old Men
The Road

Cultural Criticism
Don’t Eat This Book- Morgan Spurlock
Eat the Rich- P.J. O’Rourke
Fast Food Nation- Eric Schlosser
iPod, Therefore I Am- Dylan Jones

Karlology- Karl Pilkington
Kissing Bill O’Reilly, Roasting Miss Piggy- Ken Tucker
No Logo- Naomi Klein
Our Dumb Century- Scott Dikkers & the staff of the Onion
Rock & Roll Will Save Your Life- Steve Almond

Dave Barry
Big Trouble
Claw Your Way to the Top
Dave Barry Turns 40
Dave Barry Turns 50

D.H. Lawrence
Sons & Lovers
Women in Love

Early Lit
The Aeneid- Virgil
Aesop's Fables- Aesop

Canterbury Tales- Chaucer
Divine Comedy- Dante
Don Quixote- Miguel de Cervantes
The Faerie Queen- Edmund Spenser
The Iliad- Homer
Medea- Euripedes
Metamorphoses- Ovid
Oedipus Rex- Sophocles
Politics- Aristotle
The Prince- Niccolo Machiavelli
Prometheus Bound- Aeschylus
The Republic- Plato
Troilus & Cressida- Chaucer

Edith Wharton
Ethan Frome
House of Mirth

Education
Celluloid Curriculum- Richard A. Maynard
Critical Education in the New Information Age- Manuel Castells et al
Educating Esme- Esme Raji Codell
Parents & Teachers’ Guide to Helping Young People Learn- Betty Farber
Working With Emotional Intelligence- Daniel Goleman

Ernest Hemingway
Farewell to Arms
For Whom the Bell Tolls
The Sun Also Rises

Fantasy
Lord of the Rings- J.R.R. Tolkien

Feminism
Feminine Mystique- Betty Friedan
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter- Simone de Beauvoir
Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus- John Gray
Outrageous Acts & Everyday Rebellions- Gloria Steinem
Revolution From Within- Gloria Steinem
Second Sex- Simone de Beauvoir
You Just Don’t Understand- Debora Tannen

Film/TV Criticism
Alien Woman: The Making of Lt. Ellen Ripley- Jason Smith & Ximena Gallardo-C
Art of the Cinematographer- Leonard Maltin
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls- Peter Biskind
Film Style & Technique- Barry Salt
Great Funnies- David Robinson
Heavenly Bodies- Richard Dyer
Hollywood- Peter Biskind
Leaving Springfield- John Alberti

Movies as Politics- Jonathan Rosenbaum
Notes on Cinematography- Robert Bresson
Placing Movies- Jonathan Rosenbaum
The Power of Movies- Colin McGinn
Schickel on Film- Richard Schickel
Science Fiction Cinema- Geoff King & Tanya Krzywinska
Spectacular Narratives- Geoff King
Star Wars & Philosophy- Kevin S. Decker et al
What is Cinema?- Andre Bazin

Film Directors
American Cinema: Directors & Directions, 1929-68- Ed. Andrew Sarris
Celluloid Muse: Hollywood Directors Speak- Charles & Joel Greenberg Higham
Cinema of Alfred Hitchcock- Peter Bogdanovich

Cinema of Loneliness: Penn, Kubrick, Coppola, Scorsese, Altman- R.P. Kolker
Cinema of Orson Welles- Peter Bogdanovich
Citizen Kane Book- Pauline Kael
Cronenberg on Cronenberg- David Cronenberg & Chris Rodley
Dark Side of Genius- Donald Spoto

Films in My Life- Francois Truffaut
Films of Orson Welles- Charles Higham
Godard on Godard- Eds. Jean Narboni & Tom Milne
Hitchcock- Francois Truffaut
Hitchcock: The First 44 Films- Eric Rohmer & Claude Chabrol
Hitchcock’s Films- Robin Wood
Hitchcock’s Films Revisited- Robin Wood

Howard Hawks- Robin Wood
How I Made a Hundred Movies…- Roger Corman
Interviews With Film Directors- Ed. Andrew Sarris
My Life & My Films- Jean Renoir
On Being Funny- Eric Lax (Woody Allen)
On Cukor- Gavin Lambert
On Directing Film- David Mamet
Orson Welles: A Critical View- Andre Bazin

Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Cinema- MS
Scorsese on Scorsese- David Thompson & Ian Christie
Steven Spielberg: The Director & the Films- John H. Foote
Truffaut-Hitchock- Francois Truffaut

Who the Hell’s In It- Peter Bogdanovich
Woody Allen on Woody Allen- Stig Bjorkman
Woody Allen: A Life in Film- Richard Schickel

Film History
75 Years of the Oscar- Robert Osborne
All About Oscar: The History & Politics of the Academy Awards- Emanuel Levy

The Big Picture: Hollywood Cinema From Star Wars to Titanic- Peter Kramer
Bugs Bunny: 50 Years & Only 1 Grey Hare- Joe Adamson
Cinema Book- Eds. Pam Cook & Mike Bernink
Film History: An Introduction- Kristin Thompson & David Bordwell
Movie-Made America- Robert Sklar
Of Mice & Magic- Leonard Maltin

French Lit
120 Years of Sodom- Marquis de Sade
Being & Nothingness- Jean-Paul Sartre
Candide- Voltaire
Cruel Intentions- Choderlos de Laclos
Dangerous Liaisons- Choderlos de Laclos
Le Pere Goriot- Honore Balzac
Les Miserables- Victor Hugo
Madame Bovary- Gustave Flaubert
Meditations- Rene Descartes
Remembrance of Things Past- Marcel Proust

George Eliot
Mill on the Floss
Silas Marner

German Lit
Death in Venice- Thomas Mann
Joan of the Stockyards- Bertolt Brecht
Mother Courage- Bertolt Brecht
Mein Kampf- Adolf Hitler

Harold Bloom
20th Century American Literature
How to Read & Why
John Keats
Oscar Wilde
Percy Bysshe Shelley

Stephen King

Henry Giroux
Breaking in to the Movies
Critical Theory & Educational Practice
Education Under Siege
Ideology, Culture & the Process of Schooling
The Mouse That Roared
Schooling & the Struggle For Public Life
Take Back Higher Education
Teachers as Intellectuals

Henry James
The Art of the Novel
The Bostonians
The Portrait of a Lady
The Turn of the Screw
Wings of the Dove

H.G. Wells
The Invisible Man
The Island of Dr. Moreau
The Time Machine
War of the Worlds

Inspiration
7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The- Stephen R. Covey
7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, The- Sean Covey
Getting Past No- William Ury
How to Win Friends & Influence People- Dale Carnegie
I See Rude People- Amy Alkon
Who Moved My Cheese?- Spencer Johnson

Jane Austen
Mansfield Park
Northanger Abbey
Persuasion

James King
Blue Moon
Etienne’s Alphabet
Faking
The Life of Margaret Laurence
Pure Inventions
Transformations
Virginia Woolf


John Irving
The Hotel New Hampshire
Last Night in Twisted River

John le Carré
The Constant Gardener
The Tailor of Panama

John Steinbeck
East of Eden
The Grapes of Wrath
Of Mice & Men

John Updike
A Month of Sundays
The Witches of Eastwick

The Widows of Eastwick

Kirk Douglas
Ragman’s Son
Climbing the Mountain
My Stroke of Luck
Let’s Face It

Language & Reading
Adventure of English- Melvyn Bragg
Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies- June Casagrande
Readers’ Choice- Victoria Golden McMains
Reading Group Handbook- Rachel W. Jacobsohn
The Reading List: Contemporary Fiction- David Rubel
So Many Books- Gabriel Zaid
So Many Books, So Little Time- Sara Nelson
What to Read in English Literature- Denys Thompson
A Word a Day- Anu Garg

Larry McMurtry
The Last Picture Show
Lonesome Dove

Literature & Criticism
Conversations With Isaac Asimov- Ed. Carl Freedman
Conversations With Jack Kerouac- Ed. Kevin J. Hayes
Elements of Semiology- Roland Barthes
Fiction Writer’s Handbook- Hallie & Whit Burnett
Figuring the Woman Author in Contemporary Fiction- Mary Eagleton
How Novels Work- John Mullan
How to Talk About Books You’ve Never Read- Pierre Bayard
In Search of Salinger- Ian Hamilton
Literature, Culture & Society- Andrew Milner
The Mother-Daughter Book Club- Shireen Dodson & Teresa Barker
On Becoming a Novelist- John Gardner
On Literature- Umberto Eco

Margaret Atwood
Alias Grace

The Blind Assassin
Cat’s Eye
The Edible Woman
The Robber Bride
Surfacing
Year of the Flood

Margaret Laurence
Dance on the Earth
The Fire-Dwellers
A Jest of God

Marlo Thomas
Growing Up Laughing
The Right Words at the Right Time
The Right Words at the Right Time, Volume II

Memoirs
Book- Whoopi Goldberg
Brando: Songs My Mother Taught Me- Marlon Brando
B.S. I Love You- Milton Berle

Caesar’s Hours- Sid Caesar
Cinderella Story- Bill Murray
Conversations With Brando- Lawrence Grobel
Don’t Stand Too Close To a Naked Man- Tim Allen
Dorothy & Lillian Gish- Lillian Gish
Endless Highway- David Carradine

Find Me- Rosie O'Donnell
The First Time- Cher
Here We Go Again- Betty White
I Feel Bad About My Neck- Nora Ephron
I Remember It Well- Vincente Minnelli
I Remember Nothing- Nora Ephron
I Shouldn’t Even Be Doing This- Bob Newhart
If You Ask Me- Betty White

I’m Not Really Here- Tim Allen
Is It Just Me or Is It Nuts Out There?- Whoopi Goldberg
King of Comedy- Mack Sennett
King of the Hill- A.E. Hotchner
Lillian Gish: Movies, Mr. Griffith & Me- Lillian Gish
Little Girl Lost- Drew Barrymore
Manhood For Amateurs- Michael Chabon
Married to Laughter- Jerry Stiller
Marx Bros. Scrapbook- Groucho Marx
Memoirs- Will Hays
Moe Howard & the Three Stooges- Moe Howard
Mommie Dearest- Christina Crawford
My Anecdotal Life- Carl Reiner
My Life in France- Julia Child
My Wonderful World of Slapstick- Buster Keaton
Nothing is Impossible- Christopher Reeve
Psycho: Behind the Scenes of the Classic Thriller- Janet Leigh
Rickles’ Book- Don Rickles
Still Me- Christopher Reeve

This is Orson Welles- Orson Welles & Peter Bogdanovich
This ‘n’ That- Bette Davis
Undiscovered- Debra Winger
Where Have I Been?- Sid Caesar
Who’s Sorry Now- Joe Pantoliano
With Ossie & Ruby- Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee
The Woman Who Can’t Forget- Jill Price
We Barrymores- Lionel Barrymore

Michael J. Fox
Lucky Man
Always Looking Up
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future

Modern Classics
American Psycho- Bret Easton Ellis
Billy Bathgate- E.L. Doctorow

Blindness- Jose Saramago
Book of Daniel- E.L. Doctorow
The Children's Book- A.S. Byatt
The Crying of Lot 49- Thomas Pynchon
The Godfather- Mario Puzo
Gone With the Wind- Margaret Mitchell
Gravity’s Rainbow- Thomas Pynchon
Guns, Germs & Steel- Jared Diamond
Henry & June- Anais Nin
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings- Maya Angelou
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden- Hannah Green
I Never Sang For My Father- Robert Anderson
Interview With the Vampire- Anne Rice
Into the Wild- Jon Krakauer
Jaws- Peter Benchley
Kiss of the Spider Woman- Manuel Puig
The Last Temptation of Christ- Nikos Kazantzakis
Life of Pi- Yann Martel
Like Water For Chocolate- Laura Esquivel
Love in the Time of Cholera- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Never Let Me Go- Kazuo Ishiguro
Out of Sight- Elmore Leonard

The Perfect Storm- Sebastian Junger
Possession- A.S. Byatt
The Remains of the Day- Kazuo Ishiguro
Requiem For a Dream- Hubert Selby
A River Runs Through It- Norman Maclean
Schindler’s List- Thomas Keneally
Seabiscuit- Laura Hillenbrand
The Shipping News- E. Annie Proulx
Trainspotting- Irvine Welsh
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles- Haruki Murakami

Mystery & Suspense
Death on the Nile- Agatha Christie

Devil in a Blue Dress- Walter Mosley
Fortunate Son- Walter Mosley
The Lighthouse- P.D. James
The Maltese Falcon- Dashiell Hammett

Murder on the Orient Express- Agatha Christie
No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency- Alexander McCall Smith
Strangers on a Train- Patricia Highsmith

Nick Hornby
Fever Pitch
How to Be Good
A Long Way Down

Parenting
7 Worst Things Parents Do, The- John & Linda Friel
Big Book of Parenting Solutions- Michelle Borba
It’s a Boy- Andrea J. Buchanan
The Mom Book- Stacey M. DeBroff
Raising Cain- Dan Kindlon & Michael Thompson
Raising Cain (and Abel, Too)- John F. McDermott
A Special Education- Dana Buchman

Plays
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof- Tennessee Williams
Dido, Queen of Carthage- Christopher Marlowe
A Doll's House- Henrik Ibsen
Dr. Faustus- Christopher Marlowe
Educating Rita- Willy Russell
Hedda Gabler- Henrik Ibsen
The Iceman Cometh- Eugene O’Neill
The Little Foxes- Lillian Hellman
The Misanthrope- Moliere
Mourning Becomes Electra- Eugene O’Neill
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead- Tom Stoppard
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?- Edward Albee

Poetry
Complete Poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley- Eds. Donald Reiman & Neil Fraistat
Complete Tales & Poems- Edgar Allan Poe
A Defence of Poetry- Percy Shelley

Leaves of Grass- Walt Whitman
Poems- Emily Dickinson
The Rape of the Lock- Alexander Pope

Political
1984- George Orwell
All the President’s Men- Bob Woodward
Charlotte Gray- Sebastian Faulks
Communist Manifesto- Karl Marx
Das Kapital- Karl Marx
Guerrilla Warfare- Che Guevara
Primary Colors- Joe Klein (formerly Anonymous)
State of Denial- Bob Woodward
Wealth of Nations- Adam Smith

Race
Book of Negroes- Lawrence Hill
The Conservationist- Nadine Gordimer

House of Sand & Fog- Andre Dubus III
The Human Stain- Philip Roth
The Joy Luck Club- Amy Tan
Midnight’s Children- Salman Rushdie
Orientalism- Edward Said
The Satanic Verses- Salman Rushdie

Russian Lit
Brothers Karamazov- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Crime & Punishment- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Doctor Zhivago- Boris Pasternak
The Idiot- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Lolita- Vladimir Nabokov
Selected Stories- Anton Chekhov
Uncle Vanya- Anton Chekhov
War & Peace- Leo Tolstoy

Science
A Beautiful Mind- Sylvia Nasar
A Brief History of Time- Stephen Hawking
Awakenings- Oliver Sacks

Contact- Carl Sagan
Flow- Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi
Interpretation of Dreams- Sigmund Freud
The Lying Stones of Marrakech- Stephen Jay Gould
Musicophilia- Oliver Sacks

Sexual Behavior in the Human Female- Alfred Kinsey
Sexual Behavior in the Human Male- Alfred Kinsey
The Universe in a Nutshell- Stephen Hawking

Science Fiction/Dystopian Fiction
20 000 Leagues Under the Sea- Jules Verne

2001: A Space Odyssey- Arthur C. Clarke
Brave New World- Aldous Huxley
Children of Men- P.D. James
A Clockwork Orange- Anthony Burgess
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?- Philip K. Dick

Dune- Frank Herbert
Ender’s Shadow- Orson Scott Card
Flowers For Algernon- Daniel Keyes
Journey to the Centre of the Earth- Jules Verne

Jurassic Park- Michael Crichton
Nostromo- Joseph Conrad
A Scanner Darkly- Philip K. Dick

Sergei Eisenstein
Film Form
Film Sense
Immoral Memories
Towards a Theory of Montage

Series
Alex Delaware #2-26- Jonathan Kellerman
Anne of Green Gables #3-9- L.M. Montgomery
Avonlea- #1-2- L.M. Montgomery
Bridget Jones #1-2- Helen Fielding
Hannibal Lecter- #1, 3-4- Thomas Harris
Harry Bosch #1-16- Michael Connelly
James Bond #1-14- Ian Fleming
Jason Bourne- #1-8- Robert Ludlum (#1-3), Eric van Lustbader (#4-8)
Jeeves & Wooster #1-18- P.G. Wodehouse
Kay Scarpetta #1-18- Patricia Cornwell
Millennium Trilogy- #3- Stieg Larsson
Kinsey Millhone- #2-21- Sue Grafton
Wizard of Oz #1-14- L. Frank Baum

Shakespeare
All’s Well That Ends Well
As You Like It
Love’s Labour’s Lost
Merchant of Venice
Much Ado About Nothing
Taming of the Shrew
Troilus & Cressida

Short Stories
The Fall of the House of Usher- Edgar Allan Poe

Sidney Poitier
This Life
Measure of a Man
Life Beyond Measure

Sir Walter Scott
Ivanhoe
Lady of the Lake
Rob Roy

Stephen King
Bag of Bones
Christine
Cujo
Dolores Claiborne
Duma Key
Firestarter
From a Buick 8
Gerald’s Game
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
Hearts in Atlantis
Insomnia
It
Lisey’s Story
Needful Things
Salem’s Lot
Skeleton Crew
The Talisman

Thomas Hardy
Mayor of Casterbridge

Tom Wolfe
Electric Kool-Aid Test
The Right Stuff

Toni Morrison
Beloved
Sula

War
All Quiet on the Western Front- Erich Maria Remarque
Catch-22- Joseph Heller
Cold Mountain- Charles Frazier
Empire of the Sun- J.G. Ballard
Flags of Our Fathers- James Bradley & Ron Powers
The Greatest Generation- Tom Brokaw
Miracle at St. Anna- James McBride
Not on Our Watch- Don Cheadle