App Workshop’s
Well-Read Book Club
The Well-Read Book Club prepares students for the scholarly demands of the nation’s most competitive college campuses.
Zafón’s Story Within a Story: The Shadow of the Wind
Set during the Spanish Civil War, The Shadow of the Wind is a mise en abyme, or more commonly translated as a story within a story. Carlos Ruiz Zafón, a Spanish novelist, artfully ties his book together while keeping readers hanging on his every word as he seamlessly switches storylines set during and after the Spanish Civil War.
Virginia Woolf: A Modernist Must for Modern College Students
Before there was Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex, there was Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. Known for her modernist writing, both in regards to structure and theme, Woolf explores gender identity and fluidity in her novel Orlando, a fantastical text truly demonstrating that she was ahead of her time.
Jason Taylor: A Holden Caulfield for the Next Generation
Enter the world of David Mitchell through his semi-autobiographical novel Black Swan Green. Set in England in the 1980s, readers witness the coming-of-age of Jason Taylor.
Do Not Let Epic Poetry Become Your Achilles’ Heel
High schools often teach Homer’s Odyssey, but skip right over the Iliad. It is a challenging read, even in translation, but the epic poem is crucial to understanding the ancient Greek culture and mythology that inspired so much of Western Civilization.
Love in the Time of Cholera
Love can be a disease, a plague that takes over the body and soul, causing the person inflicted to eventually succumb. Marquez brings this metaphor to life as he tells the tale of Fermina Daza and Florentino Ariza, two forlorn lovers who are destined to tragically separate and yearn for one another over the course of a lifetime.
Here’s to Hemingway: How to Avoid Becoming a Lost Generation
Hemingway was a member of the Lost Generation, a group of writers and artists who embraced existentialism in an effort to find a sense of purpose in post-war America and Europe.
Just South of Stanford University: The Salinas Valley
Few novelists integrate the setting into a story as beautifully as John Steinbeck. Throughout each of his works, Steinbeck treats the lands and cities in which his novels are set as living, breathing characters that very much affect the storyline of his works.
The Right Stuff to Get You Into College
Go for a wild ride with Tom Wolfe in The Right Stuff as he attempts to define the incredible qualities that enabled pilots to succeed with experimental high-speed and rocket-powered aircrafts during the space race with the Soviet Union.
Find Flight Through Morrison’s Magical Realism
Toni Morrison’s lyrical tour de force, Song of Solomon, follows Milkman Dead as he embarks on an odyssey to discover the secrets of his lineage. With allusions to the Bible and Homer throughout the text, Morrison crafted a novel that is both unforgettable and a must-read in American literature.
New Journalism for New College Students
Truman Capote created an entirely new genre of literature called New Journalism with his groundbreaking novel, In Cold Blood. The genre allows the author to integrate his or her own subjective response to actual people and events contained within a story.
Is Dickens the Original Blogger?
Dickens is essential. Why? Because Dickens pulls from life, from history, and unfortunately he used to get paid for each installment of his novel, so his works have a tendency to be quite long. The great irony, however, is that Dickens, in a sense, was one of history’s original bloggers.