AP Lang

Independent Reading Assignment

Guidelines
This year, students are required to read one nonfiction book as independent reading per
quarter (except 4th quarter), totaling to 3 non-fiction books. Students may choose a title from
the approved list or choose their own selection, but the book MUST be approved by the
teacher if the student is reading a book not on the approved list. Only full-length works are
acceptable for this project; short works of nonfiction, such as collections of essays, are not
acceptable.
The purpose of this assignment is to give students greater awareness and experience with
longer pieces of nonfiction prose. The book as well as the assignment must be
completed by
Q1: October 20th
Q2: Jan 5th
Q3: April 5th
Initial Independent Reading Assignment:
1) Write a 5-7-sentence summary of the overall main idea of this book. Within this summary,
include 3-5 main points the author makes (most important, or ones you find most
interesting). This needs to be a tight, concise, accurate paragraph of writing. Avoid critique
at this point; just focus on short description that has specific main points.
2) List 5 (only 5) different rhetorical strategies used in this book (see rhetorical terms
handouts). For each one, discuss the following: A) Name the rhetorical strategy, and define
it; B) Write a short unified paragraph that explains how the author uses the rhetorical
strategywhat is he or she trying to convince the reader to think, and how, and why? What
is the authors purpose in using this strategy? Is it effective? Why or why not? C) Support
your analysis with specific references to text (i.e. quotes, correctly formatted and cited with
an MLA parenthetical citation). Weave all of this together in to a well-developed paragraph
for each example. Select five strong examples that give you plenty to discuss.
3) What do you think was the authors goal in writing this book? Did s/he achieve it? Did
she/he convince you of his/her point of view on the topic discussed? Did reading this book
change your thinking on the topic, and if so, how? If not, why not?
4) Write a short book review (5-7 sentences) for this book. Pretend you are trying to convince
someone you know (who is reluctant) to read it. Be creative! Include at least one interesting
thing about it; here is where you get to put in your opinion. It is okay to say you disliked it,
but be attention-getting (humor, satire, irony, strong critique are all appropriate). Write in the
style of Steven Colbert, John Stewart, Saturday Night Live, The Onion, or other news parody
critical commentary shows. (i.e. dont be silly just to be silly; make a point.)
5) Create a Work Cited entry in correct MLA citation format.

Although it is not required, students are encouraged to purchase the book they have
chosen and annotate as they read. An alternative method, of course, is to take notes in a
notebook or on sticky notes.
***Obtain your book as soon as you can in the beginning of the school year, so you can have
it read and the assignment completed before the homework load becomes heavier;
otherwise, you will have to balance your nonfiction book with other reading assignments.
Nonfiction Reading List Possible Selections
Fermats Last Theorem
Amir Aczel
Infidel Ayaan
Hirsi Ali
A History of God
Karen Armstrong
Of Beetles and Angels
Mawi Asgedom
Double Fold
Nicholson Baker
The Size of Thoughts
Nicholson Baker
Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX
Karen Blumenthal
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Ishmael Beah
Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil
John Berendt
All over But the Shoutin
Rick Bragg
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Dee Brown
A Walk in the Woods
Bill Bryson
Another Planet
Elinor Burkett
Running with Scissors
Augusten Burroughs
Quiet: The Power of Introverts
Susan Cain
The Rape of Nanking
Iris Chang
Beyond the Narrow Gate
Leslie Chang
Wishing on the Moon
Donald Clarke
Glass, Paper, Beans
Leah Hager Cohen
The Road from Coorain
Jill Kerr Conway
Dispatches from the Edge
Anderson Cooper
Salvation on Sand Mountain
Dennis Covington
Columbine
Dave Cullen
Disarmed
Gregory Curtis
The Death of Satan
Andrew Delbanco
Guns, Germs, and Steel
Jared Diamond
The Year of Magical Thinking
Joan Didion
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Jean-Dominique Bauby
Calendar
David Ewing Duncan
102 Minutes
Jim Dwyer
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Dave Eggers
What is the What
Dave Eggers
Nickel and Dimed
Barbara Ehrenreich
American Sphinx
Joseph Ellis
The Sports Gene: Inside the Science
David Epstein
The Spirit Catches You & You Fall Down
Anne Fadiman
Walking the Bible
Bruce Feiler

The Whole Shebang

Six Easy Pieces
True Story
Swallow the Ocean
Eating Animals
Gorillas in the Mist
Next of Kin Thatcher
Beirut to Jerusalem
Hot, Flat, and Crowded
Complications
Many Masks
Shot in the Heart
Blink
Outliers
The Culture of Fear
No Ordinary Time
Wait Till Next Year
The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction
We Wish to Inform You
Autobiography of a Face
A Civil Action
The End of Faith
The Total Package
God is not Great
Lost in Translation
A Peoples History of the Supreme Court
Emergence
Empires of Light
Woman Warrior
Balkan Ghosts
The Liars Club
Orange is the New Black
Mountains Beyond Mountains
The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold
Clone
Flu
Savage Inequalities
There Are No Children Here
Into the Wild
Into Thin Air
Under the Banner of Heaven
Cod
Salt: A World History
The Arabs
The Africans
American Ground

Timothy Ferris
Richard Feynman
Michael Finkel
Laura Flynn
Jonathan Safran Foer
Diane Fossey
Freund
Thomas Friedman
Thomas L. Friedman
Atul Gawande
Brendan Gill
Mikal Gilmore
Malcom Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell
Barry Glasser
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Linda Gordon
Philip Gourevitch
Lucy Grealy
Jonathan Harr
Sam Harris
Thomas Hine
Christopher Hitchens
Eva Hoffman
Peter Irons
Steven Johnson
Jill Jonnes
Maxine Hong Kingston
Robert Kaplan
Mary Karr
Piper Kerman
Tracy Kidder
Denise Kiernan
Gina Kolata
Gina Kolata
Jonathan Kozol
Alex Kotlowitz
Jon Krakauer
Jon Krakauer
Jon Krakauer
Mark Kurlansky
Mark Kurlansky
David Lamb
David Lamb
William Langewiesche

Devil in the White City

Erik Larson
The Big Test
Nicholas Lemann
Freakonomics
Steven Leavitt
Detroit: An American Autopsy
Charlie LeDuff
The Middle East
Bernard Lewis
The Accidental Asian
Eric Liu
Young Men and Fire
Norman Maclean
Four Arguments for Elimination of TV
Jerry Mander
Angelas Ashes
Frank McCourt
Born to Run
Christopher McDougall
Fatal Vision
Joe McGinniss
Coming into the Country
John McPhee
Battle Cry of Freedom
James McPherson
Greasy Rider
Greg Melville
City of the Century
Donald Miller
Blue Highways
William Least Heat Moon
Theodore Rex
Edmund Morris
Three Cups of Tea
Greg Mortenson
The Power of Myth
Bill Moyers
Reading Lolita in Tehran
Azar Nafisi
The Average American
Kevin OKeefe
The Orchid Thief
Susan Orlean
For God, Country and Coca-Cola
Mark Pendergrast
Engineers of Dreams
Henry Petroski
In the Heart of the Sea
Nathaniel Philbrook
The Botany of Desire
Michael Pollan
The Omnivores Dilemma
Michael Pollan
Amusing Ourselves to Death
Neil Postman
Technology: The Surrender of Culture
Neil Postman
Making the Corps
Thomas Ricks
Genome
Matt Ridley
Bonk
Mary Roach
Stiff
Mary Roach
Overachievers: Secret Life of Driven Kids
Alexandra Robbins
The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth
Alexandra Robbins
Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's
John Elder Robison
Little Girls in Pretty Boxes
Joan Ryan
Lean In: Women, Work and the Will To Lead
Sheryl Sandberg
Skyscraper
Karl Sabbagh
The Devils Candy
Julie Salamon
Iron and Silk
Mark Salzman
Jesus Land
Julia Scheeres
Fast Food Nation
Eric Schlosser
Mies van der Rohe
Franz Schulze
Learned Optimism
Martin E. P. Seligman
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Rebecca Skloot

Galileos Daughter
The Black Swan
The Mole People
How Children Succeed
The Guns of August
Why We Shop
Call of the Mall
Triangle
Gang Leader for a Day
Assassination Vacation
The Glass Castle
Mississippi
The Beak of the Finch
The World Without Us
Forever Open, Clear, and Free
The Professor and the Madman
Shaping a Nation
The Right Stuff
The Dancing Wu Li Masters

Dava Sobel
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Jennifer Toth
Paul Tough
Barbara Tuchman
Paco Underhill
Paco Underhill
David Von Drehle
Sudhir Venkatesh
Sarah Vowell
Jeanette Walls
John Walton
Jonathan Weiner
Alan Weisman
Lois Wille
Simon Winchester
Carter Wiseman
Tom Wolfe
Gary Zukav