English 101
I don’t know about you. But I love a good story. Reading was not always my favorite thing in the world. But as I got older I started to enjoy it more. Literature has and continues to teach me so much. It has shown me how to think critically, Think intentionally, to think in a way that challenges me to be the best version of myself. In no particular order here are books/poetry/plays I believe everyone should read at least once. Or if you’re looking for a good read, look no further I got you covered. ⬇️
Books
The Great Gatsby - by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Color Purple - by Alice Walker
Harry Potter (All of them 😂) - by J.K. Rowling
Another Country - by James Baldwin
Black Reconstruction In America - by W.E.B Du Bois
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness- by Michelle Alexander
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings - by Maya Angelou
Farenheit 451- by Ray Bradbury
The Iliad- by Homer
The Oddesey - by Homer
Sherlock Holmes - by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Heart Of Darkness - by Joseph Conrad
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn- by Mark Twain
The Canterbury Tales - by Geoffrey Chaucer
Reflection - by Jessica Roberts
Reaction- by Jessica Roberts
Don Juan-by Lord Byron
Notes From The Underground - by Dostoevsky
The Giver- by Lois Lowry
The Outsiders- by S.E. Hinton
To Kill a Mockingbird- by Harper Lee
The Catcher In The Rye- by J. D. Salinger
Lord of The Rings (All of them 😂)- by J.R.R. Tolkien
Catch-22 - by Jospeh Heller
Great Expectations- by Charles Dickens
Call Of The Wild- by Jack London
The Tale of Desperaux- by Kate DiCamillo
Don Quixote- by Miguel de Cervantes
Animal Farm - by George Orwell
Lord Of The Flies- by William Golding
Of Mice of Men- by John Steinbeck
The Sun Also Rises- by Earnest Hemingway
War & Peace- by Leo Tolstoy
1984- by George Orwell
Creativity Inc.- by Amy Wallace and Edwin Catmull
Hot Potato - by Bob Kuska
Dracula- by Bram Stoker
The Kite Runner- by Khaled Hosseini
The Alchemist- by Paulo Coelho
The Quartet- by Joseph J. Ellis
Crime and Punishment- by Dostoevsky
Churchill: A Life by Martin Gilbert
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (What the musical was based off of)
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman - by Jon Krakauer
Prince: A Private View by Afshin Shahid
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera
The Black Rose: The Dramatic Story of Madam C.J. Walker, America’s First Black Female Millionaire - by Tananarive Due
Leonardo Da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
Ida: A Sword Among Lions By Paula J. Giddings
A Beautiful Mind By Sylvia Nasar
The Catch. by David Tyree
There’s No Such Thing as a Bad Kid- by Titus O’Neil
Attitude- by Jay Wright
Success Is The Only Option- by John Calapari
Titan: The Life of John. D. Rockefeller Sr. by Ron Chernow
My Bondage My Freedom- by Fredrick Douglas
The Bell Jar- by Sylvia Plath
Long Walk to Freedom-by Nelson Mandela
Gandhi - by Mahatma Gahndi
A Movable Feast- by Earnest Hemingway
Becoming- by Michelle Obama
Born A Crime- by Trevor Noah
Surprised by Joy - by C.S Lewis
Shoe Dog- by Phil Knight
Walden- by Henry David Thoreau
The Sunshine Mind - by Tanya Rad & Raquelle Stevens
The Art Of Bouncing Back- by Darlene Santore
Poetry
Hope is the thing with Feathers- by Emily Dickinson
I heard a Fly buzz—when I died by Emily Dickinson
Because I could not stop for death- by Emily Dickinson.
Fire and Ice- by Robert Frost
The Raven- by Edgar Allen Poe
And Still I Rise- by Maya Angelou
The Waste Land- by T.S. Elliot
O Captain ! My Captain - by Walt Whitman
The Road Not Taken - by Robert Frost
Harlem- by Langston Hughes
Annabel Lee- by Edgar Allen Poe
Do not go gentle into that good night. - by Dylan Thomas
Sonnet 18- by William Shakespeare
Ultimately - by Earnest Hemingway
A Dream Within A Dream- by Edgar Allen Poe Ralph Waldo Emerson
Christmas Trees - by Robert Frost
Anything by Shel Silverstein 😂
Leaves of Grass- Walt Whitman
Milk and Honey- Rupi Kaur
100 selected poems of EE Cummings
Plays
Hamlet - by William Shakespeare
Beowulf - Unknown
Epic of Gilgamesh - Unknown
Romeo & Juliet-by William Shakespeare
Othello- by William Shakespeare
The Tempest- by William Shakespeare
Julias Cesar- by William Shakespeare
Alls Well That Ends Well- by William Shakespeare
As You Like It- by William Shakespeare
Macbeth - by William Shakespeare
A Raisin In The Sun.- by Lorraine Hansberry
A Street Car Named Desire- by Tennessee Williams
The Importance Of Being Earnest - by Oscar Wilde
Topdog/Underdog, by Suzan-Lori Parks
Fires in the Mirror, by Anna Deaveare Smith
Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare
The Theory of Everything by Prince Gomolvilas
(List is subject to change.)
If I missed anything please feel free to drop the name of it in the comment section below or for the benefit of someone else reading this. Always looking for something new to read also so definitely interested in any recommendations you may have.
