A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN
by Virginia Woolf
Harcourt Brace
ISBN: 0151787336
Ms. Woolf can be a teensy bit esoteric, but this long essay on creativity is her most understandable and coolest work. She pretty much invented feminist criticism in these pages --- so get into it, grrrrls!
BLACK BOY: American Hunger
by Richard Wright
Prentice Hall
ISBN: 0060929782
Before there were legions of whiny former alcoholics and self-important CEOs writing their memoirs, there was this book. Hard-hitting, brutal and honest, Wright's tale of growing up poor and African-American in the South will grip you.
THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES
by Joseph Campbell
Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691017840
Why are people obsessed with STAR WARS and the WWF? Campbell answers those questions (in a scholarly way) in this excellent intro to mythology, religion, literature, art, and everything else.
PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK
by Annie Dillard
Harperperennial Library
ISBN: 0060953020
WALDEN, redux. Writer Dillard moved to the mountains to get answers to life's big mysteries and to study beauty. Soak in this book and change your perceptions.
THE GREAT GATSBY
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Scribner
ISBN: 0684830426
I don't care if you have already read it for class and hated it. Read it again and again until you feel the mournful decadence of the Jazz Age coursing through your veins.
THE LITTLE PRINCE
by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Harcourt Trade
ISBN: 0152023984
This fable of love and loneliness only seems to be for kids. A book to read and reread and discuss over cafe lattes.
OUT OF AFRICA
by Isak Dinesen
Modern Library
ISBN: 0679600213
Luminous and lively, Dinesen's loosely connected, non-chronological tale tells the story of her time in East Africa. Moving and gorgeously written, it will also score you big points with romantic girls and Peace-Corps bound boys.
BLESS ME, ULTIMA
by Rudolfo Anaya
Prentice Hall
ISBN: 0446600253
Another great book about growing up, good vs. evil, and tradition. You know, all the big stuff. Anaya's book comes from the perspective of a Chicano boy growing up in New Mexico and is just a great read.
THE COMPLETE POEMS
by Anne Sexton
Mariner Books
ISBN: 0395957761
Gritty, intense, moving, real. These poems are some of the finest ever written. And you will get mad props from hipster cuties for reading this book --- just don't try to be Sexton.
THE RED TENT
by Anita Diamant
St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 0312169787
In simple terms, this book is a retelling of one very short Biblical story. In the grand scheme of things, it gives you a sense of life in the Middle East during the BC era as well as a sense of what early literature would be like if it was written by women.
