Taipei American School Upper School English Department
Summer Reading Texts & Semester Texts 2015-2016
Writers of classical antiquity understood the unique quality of art, its capacity to delight and instruct.
The hearers of tales, the audiences in the theaters, and, centuries later, the readers of books – all
immersed in story – emerged transformed from their experience with literature. The TAS English
Department follows this venerable tradition and hopes our students, too, will be enriched by and find
pleasure and knowledge in the books they read. The titles listed for each grade (see below) have been
selected for that purpose. In addition, one school-selected “community” book will be read by all
students.
•
Community Book: Required Text for Grades 9-12: Pramoedya Ananta Toer, This Earth of Mankind,
Amazon ISBN-13: 978-0140256352. A Kindle edition is available for this book.
Teachers, students, and administrators alike will be reading this book, and discussion of this work will
extend beyond the English classroom. Students should anticipate that in August, at the beginning of
school, teachers will give an evaluated in-class essay test about all the books required for summer
reading.
ALL STUDENTS:
Students must purchase their books, including the book selected for community reading. All books
should be obtained as soon as possible, ideally by the beginning of the school year. Students should allot
the appropriate amount of time for a book shipment to arrive and should not rely on last minute
purchases at local bookstores, which may or may not have enough copies of a particular book. Kindle
editions, when available, may be purchased in place of paperback editions; however, students are not
encouraged to use e-texts on their laptops or phones in the classroom.
NEW STUDENTS:
Please select two texts from your grade level and from what you anticipate will be your course. So, for
instance, if in grade 11 you expect to enroll in the IB program but you are not sure if you will take IBSL or
IBHL, choose the one most likely. Teachers will be flexible when they give their in-class assessments.
It is possible that some students will not know their final placement in English classes until school begins
in August. When classes begin, your teachers will, if necessary, make arrangements for both in-class
preparation and assessment of the texts you read. Students new to TAS may not have the opportunity to
obtain books that are provided by the school. We encourage parents of these students to buy any
available edition so students can read and be prepared.
STUDENTS with TWO ENGLISH COURSES:
Students who have two English classes must read both texts for one course of their choice. They may, of
course, read four books--the two works for both classes.
Kindle: Any assigned book may be purchased and read via Kindle, if available; however, students are not
encouraged to use e-texts on their laptops or phones in the classroom.
ENGLISH 9
Summer Reading Text
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Kindle
version?
First They Killed My Father
Anne Frank: The Diary of a
Young Girl
Loung Ung
Harper
978-0060856267
Yes
Anne Frank
Bantam
978-0553296983
Semester Text
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Yes
Kindle
version?
Elements of Style, The
Strunk & White
Pearson, 4th Ed.
978-0205309023
Yes
Non-fiction Essays
Provided by teacher
Hackett
978-0872204843
Yes
Romeo and Juliet
Various
Homer, Trans.
Lombardo
William
Shakespeare
Folger
978-1451621709
Yes
Lord of the Flies
William Golding
Perigee Books; Reissue edition
978-0399501487
Yes
The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger
Little, Brown and Company
978-0316769488
Yes
Poetry
Various
Provided by teacher
Odyssey
HONORS ENGLISH 9
Summer Reading Text
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Kindle
version?
First They Killed My Father
Anne Frank: The Diary of a
Young Girl
Loung Ung
Harper
978-0060856267
Yes
Anne Frank
Bantam
978-0553296983
Semester Text
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Yes
Kindle
version?
Elements of Style, The
Strunk & White
Pearson, 4th Ed.
978-0205309023
Yes
Non-fiction Essays
Various
Homer, Trans.
Lombardo
Provided by teacher
978-0872204843
Yes
Provided by teacher
Romeo and Juliet
Various
William
Shakespeare
Folger
978-1451621709
Yes
Northanger Abbey
Jane Austen
Anchor
978-0307390806
Yes
Poetry
Various
Provided by teacher
Odyssey
Short Stories
Hackett
ENGLISH 10
Summer Reading Text
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Kindle
version?
Freakonomics
Levitt & Dubner
William Morrow; Revised & Expand
978-0061234002
Yes
Kindred
Octavia Butler
Beacon Press
978-0807083697
Semester Text
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Yes
Kindle
version?
Animal Farm
George Orwell
978-0452284241
Yes
Gothic Short Stories
Various
Plume
Provided by teacher
The Oedipus Cycle
Sophocles
978-0156027649
Yes
Poetry
Various
William
Shakespeare
Frederick
Douglass
Mariner Books; 1 edition
Provided by teacher
Simon & Schuster
978-0743477109
Yes
Modern Library Classics
978-0345478238
Macbeth
Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass
HONORS ENGLISH 10
Summer Reading Text
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Kindle
version?
A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens
Dover Thrift or any edition
978-0486406510
Yes
Freakonomics
Levitt & Dubner
William Morrow; Revised & Expand
978-0061234002
Semester Text
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Yes
Kindle
version?
Non-fiction essays
Various
Provided by teacher
1984
George Orwell
Signet Classics
978-0451524935
Yes
The Oedipus Cycle
Mariner Books; 1 edition
978-0156027649
Yes
Macbeth
Sophocles
William
Shakespeare
Simon & Schuster
978-0743477109
Yes
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Mohsin Hamid
Harvest Books
978-0156034029
Yes
Interpreter of Maladies
Jhumpa Lahiri
Mariner Books
978-0395927205
Yes
Poetry
Various
Provided by teacher
HONORS SHAKESPEARE
Summer Reading Text
A Comedy of Errors
William Shakespeare: The
World as a Stage
Semester Text
Twelfth Night, or What You
Will
The Merchant of Venice
Hamlet
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Are Dead
The Winter's Tale
The Tempest
Author/Writer
William
Shakespeare
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Kindle
version?
Oxford
978-0199536146
Yes
Bill Bryson
Harper (or any)
978-0007197903
Author/Writer
William
Shakespeare
William
Shakespeare
William
Shakespeare
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Yes
Kindle
version?
Oxford
978-0199536092
Yes
Oxford
978-0199535859
Yes
Oxford
978-0199535811
Yes
Tom Stoppard
William
Shakespeare
William
Shakespeare
Grove Press
978-0802132758
Yes
Oxford
978-0199535910
Yes
Oxford
978-0199535903
Yes
AP ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION
Summer Reading Text
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Kindle
version?
Homage to Catalonia
George Orwell
Mariner Books
978-0156421171
Yes
Wild Swans
Jung Chang
Touchstone Reprint Edition
978-0743246989
Semester Text
Author/Writer
Henry David
Thoreau
Various
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Yes
Kindle
version?
Signet Classics
Provided by teacher
978-0451532169
Yes
Walden
Essays
AMERICAN LITERATURE
Summer Reading Text
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Kindle
version?
Quicksand and Passing
Rutgers University Press
978-0813511702
Yes
Stealing Buddha's Dinner
Nella Larsen
Bich Minh
Nguyen
Penguin
978-0143113034
Semester Text
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Yes
Kindle
version?
The Great Gatsby
Scribner
978-0743273565
Yes
A Streetcar Named Desire
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Tennessee
Williams
New Directions
978-0811216029
Yes
The Color Purple
Alice Walker
Mariner Books; First Edition
978-0156028356
Yes
When the Emperor Was Divine
Julie Otsuka
Anchor
978-0385721813
Yes
The Things They Carried
The Oxford Book of American
Short Stories
Tim O'Brien
Joyce Carol
Oates, ed.
Mariner Books; 1st edition
978-0618706419
Yes
Oxford University
978-0199744398
Yes
HONORS AMERICAN LITERATURE
Summer Reading Text
A Raisin in the Sun
Stealing Buddha's Dinner
Semester Text
The Oxford Book of American
Short Stories
The Great Gatsby
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Ceremony
When the Emperor Was Divine
God Help the Child
The Things They Carried
The Lone Ranger and Tonto
Fistfight in Heaven
Author/Writer
Lorraine
Hansberry
Bich Minh
Nguyen
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Kindle
version?
Vintage (or any)
978-0679755333
Yes
Penguin
978-0143113034
Author/Writer
Joyce Carol
Oates, ed.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Zora Neale
Hurston
Leslie Marmon
Silko
Julie Otsuka
Toni Morrison
Tim O'Brien
Edition
Oxford University Press (2nd
Edition)
Scribner
Amazon ISBN-13
Yes
Kindle
version?
978-0199744398
978-0743273565
Yes
Yes
Harper
978-0061120060
Yes
Penguin Books
Anchor
Knopf
Mariner Books
978-0143104919
978-0385721813
978-0307594174
978-0618706419
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Sherman Alexie
Grove Press
978-0802121998
Yes
SCIENCE FICTION
Summer Reading Text
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Kindle
version?
Starship Troopers
Robert Heinlein
Ace
978-0441783588
Yes
Dawn
Octavia Butler
Aspect Reprint Edition
978-0446603775
Semester Text
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Yes
Kindle
version?
Kindred
Octavia Butler
Beacon Press
978-0807083697
Yes
The Word for World is Forest
Ursula LeGuin
Tor Books, Second edition
978-0765324641
Yes
Double Star
Robert Heinlein
SF Masterworks/Gollancz
978-0575122031
Yes
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley
Various
Norton Critical Editions
Provided by teacher
978-0393927931
No
Short stories
RHETORIC AND COMPOSITION
Summer Reading Text
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Kindle
version?
Fast Food Nation
Eric Schlosser
Mariner Books
978‐0547750330
Yes
Predictably Irrational
Dan Ariely
Harper Perennial
978‐0061353246
Semester Text
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Yes
Kindle
version?
The Tipping Point
Malcolm Gladwell
Barbara
Ehrenreich
Back Bay Books
978-0316346627
Yes
Picador
978-0312626686
Yes
Night
The Man who Mistook his Wife
for a Hat
Elie Wiesel
Hill and Wang
978-0374500016
Yes
Oliver Sacks
Touchstone
978-0684853949
Yes
Amadeus
Peter Shaffer
Harper
978-0060935498
No
Non-fiction essays
Various
Provided by teacher
Poetry
Various
Provided by teacher
Nickel and Dimed
WORLD LITERATURE
Summer Reading Text
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Kindle
version?
Behind the Beautiful Forevers
Katherine Boo
Random House
978-0812979329
Yes
The Time Machine
H.G. Wells
Any edition
978-1453767528
Semester Text
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Yes
Kindle
version?
Medea
Euripedes
Dover Thrift
978-0486275482
Yes
Like Water for Chocolate
Raise the Red Lantern: Three
Novellas
Laura Esquivel
Anchor
978-0385420174
Yes
William Morrow Paperbacks
978-0060596330
Othello
Su Tong
William
Shakespeare
Simon & Schuster
978-0743477550
Yes
Fiction of Lu Xun
Lu Xun
Online; provided by teacher
Course Reader
Various
Provided by teacher
HONORS WORLD LITERATURE
Summer Reading Text
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Kindle
version?
Steppenwolf
Hesse
Picador
978-0312278670
Yes
Woman in the Dunes
Abe
Vintage
978-0679733782
Semester Text
Beowulf: A New Translation
(Bilingual Edition)
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Yes
Kindle
version?
Heaney
Norton
978-0393320978
Yes
Medea (Svarlien Translation)
Four Major Plays, Volume I
(Signet Classics)
Euripides
Hacket Classics
978-0872209237
Yes
Ibsen
Mass Market Paperback
978-0451530226
Yes
Please Look After Mom
Kyung-Sok Shin
Vintage Contemporaries
978-0307739513
Yes
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Marquez
Vintage
978-1400034710
Yes
World Classics Course Reader
Selected Contemporary Short
Works
Various
Provided by teacher
Various
Provided by teacher
IBSL ENGLISH YEAR 1
Summer Reading Text
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Kindle
version?
Member of the Wedding
Carson McCullers
Gabriel Garcia
Marquez
Mariner Books
978-0618492398
Yes
Vintage
978-1400034710
Semester Text
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's
Nest
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Yes
Kindle
version?
Ken Kesey
Mass Market Paperback
978-0451163967
Yes
Death of a Salesman
Arthur Miller
Penguin Books
978-0140481341
Yes
Rickshaw Boy
Lao She
Harper Perennial; Original edition
978-0061436925
Yes
Hedda Gabler
Henrik Ibsen
Dover Publications
978-0486264691
Yes
Candide
Voltaire
Dover Publications
978-0486266893
Yes
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
IBSL ENGLISH YEAR 2
Summer Reading Text
Shakespeare: The World as
Stage
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Kindle
version?
Bryson
Harper
978-0061673696
Yes
Waiting for Godot
Beckett
Grove Press
978-0802144423
Semester Text
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Yes
Kindle
version?
Hamlet
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
are Dead
The Importance of Being
Earnest
Shakespeare
Oxford University
978-0198328704
Yes
Stoppard
Grove Press
978-0802132758
Yes
Wilde
Dover
978-0486264783
Yes
The Crucible
IB English A Literature Course
Book
Miller
Penguin
978-0142437339
Yes
Tyson
Oxford University
978-0198390084
No
Poetry of Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson
Provided by teacher
No
IBHL ENGLISH YEAR 1
Summer Reading Text
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's
Nest
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Kindle
version?
Kesey
Mass Market Paperback
978-0451163967
Yes
The Hours: A Novel
Cunningham
Picador
978-0312243029
Semester Text
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Yes
Kindle
version?
Medea (Svarlien Translation)
Euripides
Hacket Classics
978-0872209237
Yes
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Marquez
Vintage
978-1400034710
Yes
The Reader
Schlink
Vintage
978-0375707971
Yes
In Cold Blood
Capote
Vintage
978-0679745587
Yes
The Awakening
Chopin
Various
Dover
978-0486277868
Yes
Poetry Collection
Provided by teacher
IBHL ENGLISH YEAR 2
Kindle
version?
Summer Reading Text
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
The Street
The Immortal Life of Henrietta
Lacks
Ann Petry
Mariner Books
Rebecca Skloot
Broadway Books
978-0395901496
ISBN-10:
1400052181
Semester Text
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Yes
Kindle
version?
Poetry by Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson
Provided by teacher
Folger Shakespeare Library
978-0743477567
Yes, but
not
recommended
Annie Dillard
Tennessee
Williams
Harper Perennial
978-0060915414
Yes
New Directions
978-0811214049
Yes
Long Day's Journey Into Night
The Importance of Being
Earnest
Eugene O'Neill
Yale University Press
978-0300093056
Yes
Oscar Wilde
Signet Classics
978-0451531896
Yes
Master Harold and the Boys
Athol Fugard
Vintage International
978-0307475206
No
The Merchant of Venice
Teaching a Stone to Talk:
Expeditions and Encounters
The Glass Menagerie
William
Shakespeare
Yes
AP ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION
Summer Reading Text
Author/Writer
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Kindle
version?
Paula
Isabel Allende
Harper Perennial; 1st edition
978-0061564901
Yes
The House of the Spirits
Isabel Allende
Dial Press Trade Paperback
978-0553383805
Semester Text
Edition
Amazon ISBN-13
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Author/Writer
Friedrich
Nietzsche
Yes
Kindle
version?
Penguin Classics
978-0140441185
Yes
Steppenwolf
Hermann Hesse
Picador; Reprint edition
978-0312278670
Yes
Death in Venice
Thomas Mann
Dover Publications
978-0486287140
Yes
The Stranger
Albert Camus
Vintage
978-0679720201
Yes
Marguerite Duras
Grove Press; Reprint edition
*Recommended; other editions
also acceptable
978-0802151117
Yes
Man in the Holocene
Max Frisch
Dalkey Archive Press; First Dalkey
edition *Recommended; other
editions also acceptable
978-1564784667
No
The Crying of Lot 49
Thomas Pynchon
Fyodor
Dostoyevsky
Harper Perennial
978-0060913076
Yes
Vintage; Reprint edition
978-0679734505
Yes
Despair
Three Novels: Molloy, Malone
Dies, The Unnamable
Vladimir Nabokov
Vintage; Reissue edition
978-0679723431
Yes
Samuel Beckett
Grove Press
978-0802144478
Yes
The Joke (Definitive Edition)
Milan Kundera
Harper Perennial; Reprint edition
978-0060995058
No
Moderato Cantabile
Crime and Punishment