Year 10 / 11 Summer Reading Recommendations
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
‘It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen...’
Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith
skilfully rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. Yet he inwardly rebels against the
totalitarian world he lives in, which demands absolute obedience and controls him through the allseeing telescreens and the watchful eye of Big Brother, symbolic head of the Party. In his longing
for truth and liberty, Smith begins a secret love affair with a fellow-worker Julia, but soon discovers
the true price of freedom is betrayal.
If you like science-fiction you could also try: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, The War of the Worlds by H.G
Wells or Cormack McCarthy’s The Road
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Collected inside this book are diary entries, letters and newspaper clippings that piece together the
depraved story of the ultimate predator. A young lawyer on an assignment finds himself imprisoned
in a Transylvanian castle by his mysterious host. Back at home his fiancee and friends are menaced by
a malevolent force which seems intent on imposing suffering and destruction. Can the devil really
have arrived on England's shores? And what is it that he hungers for so desperately?
If you like the idea of horror classics you could also try: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Doctor
Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
'It was now too late and too far to go back, and I went on. And the mists had all solemnly risen now,
and the world lay spread before me’
A terrifying encounter with an escaped convict in a graveyard on the wild Kent marshes; a summons
to meet the bitter, decaying Miss Havisham and her beautiful, cold-hearted ward Estella; the sudden
generosity of a mysterious benefactor – these form a series of events that change the orphaned Pip’s
life forever, and he eagerly abandons his humble origins to begin a new life as a gentleman.
Dickens’s haunting late novel depicts Pip’s education and development through adversity as he
discovers the true nature of his ‘great expectations.
If you like the idea of trying some Dickens you could also read: Oliver Twist or A Tale of Two Cities.
Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy by John Le Carre
George Smiley, who is a troubled man of infinite compassion, is also a single-mindedly ruthless
adversary as a spy.
The scene which he enters is a Cold War landscape of moles and lamplighters, scalphunters and
pavement artists, where men are turned, burned or bought for stock. Smiley’s mission is to catch a
Moscow Centre mole burrowed thirty years deep into the Circus itself.
If you like the idea of spy novels you could also try: Restless by William Boyd, The Thirty-Nine
Steps by John Buchan or Enigma by Robert Harris.
The Crow Road by Iain Banks
From its bravura opening onwards The Crow Road is justly regarded as an outstanding
contemporary novel. 'It was the day my grandmother exploded. I sat in the crematorium, listening to
my Uncle Hamish quietly snoring in harmony to Bach's Mass in B Minor, and I reflected that it
always seemed to be death that drew me back to Gallanach.' Prentice McHoan has returned to the
bosom of his complex but enduring Scottish family.
If you are interested in reading cutting edge modern fiction with a darker side you could also
try: The Wasp Factory also by Iain Banks or The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Fifteen-year-old Christopher has a photographic memory. He understands maths. He understands
science. What he can't understand are other human beings. When he finds his neighbour's dog lying
dead on the lawn, he decides to track down the killer and write a murder mystery about it. But what
other mysteries will he end up uncovering?
If you like the idea of more modern bestsellers you could also try: The Kite Runner by Khaled
Hosseini, The Shadow o f the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon or Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
'Shoot all the Bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a Mockingbird.'
This book presents a lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of this
classic novel - a black man charged with attacking a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout
and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep
South of the 1930s with both compassion and humour. She also creates one of the great heroes of
literature in their father, Atticus, whose lone struggle for justice pricks the conscience of a town
steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy.
If you like the idea of reading some American classics you could also try: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck,
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald or Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger.
The Beach by Alex Garland
‘A white-knuckle ride into the heart of darkness.’
Late at night in a seedy hotel, Richard is drawn into a strange conversation with a fellow guest.
Through a narrow strip of mosquito netting he hears for the first time of a secret beach, and island
Garden of Eden hidden somewhere in the scattered islands of a Thai marine park. Next morning,
Richard finds a map pinned to his door, and the man who put it there is dead. The challenge is
irresistible, and Richard sets off on a perilous journey in search of Shangri-La.
If you like the idea of desert island stories you could also try: Lord of the Flies by William Golding or Treasure
Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Reading good non-fiction is just as valuable! Have a look at some really good travel writing to start you off:
Touching the Void by Joe Simpson
Touching the Void is the heart-stopping account of Joe Simpson's terrifying adventure in the
Peruvian Andes. He and his climbing partner, Simon, reached the summit of the remote Siula
Grande in June 1995. A few days later, Simon staggered into Base Camp, exhausted and frost-bitten,
with news that Joe was dead. What happened to Joe, and how the pair dealt with the psychological
traumas that resulted when Simon was forced into the appalling decision to cut the rope, makes not
only an epic of survival but a compelling testament of friendship.
If you like the idea of reading travel writing you could also try: Into the Heart of Borneo by
Redmond O’Hanlon, Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson, Pole to Pole by Michael Palin.