I am a huge fan of American literature, and I thought that it would be a lovely idea to devote a whole month to primarily reading just that. There are a lot of American books on my Classics Club list, plus a few more on my shelves. I have decided that I will be reading as many American works as I can during the month of April, and blogging about them during the month of May.
The books which I have set aside to read are as follows. In an ideal world, I would be able to get to all of them, but those with asterisks are the ones which I currently own copies of, so they will, of course, take priority over others:
1. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey (CC #2)
2. The Good Earth – Pearl S. Buck (CC #3)
3. In Cold Blood – Truman Capote (CC #5) *
4. The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner (CC #12) *
5. What Maisie Knew – Henry James (CC #18) *
6. A View From the Bridge – Arthur Miller (CC #21)
7. The Pearl – John Steinbeck (CC #29)
8. Tortilla Flat – John Steinbeck (CC #30)
9. A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine l’Engle (CC #38)
10. The Beetle – Richard Marsh (CC #51) *
11. Disturbing the Peace – Richard Yates (CC #52)
12. The Beautiful and Damned – F. Scott Fitzgerald (CC #55) *
13. Save Me The Waltz – Zelda Fitzgerald (CC #56)
14. Young Hearts Crying – Richard Yates (CC #68)
15. The Group – Mary McCarthy (CC #75) *
16. Five Little Peppers and How They Grew – Margaret Sidney (CC #81) *
17. Stoner – John Williams (CC #92)
18. Sweet Thursday – John Steinbeck *
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger (re-read) *
20. The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton (re-read) *
21. Bastard Out of Carolina – Dorothy Allison *
I am also planning to re-read some of Sylvia Plath’s work, and get to a Tennessee Williams play or two if I have the time. If anyone would like to join me in this endeavour, please let me know – the more, the merrier!
