Which of these books are good?

Question

James Agee- A Death in the Family
Sherman Alexie – Flight, Indian Killer
James Baldwin-Go Tell it on the Mountain; Another Country, Giovanni’s Room
John Barth- The Floating Opera, End of the Road,
Giles Goat Boy, Sabbatical
Saul Bellow- The Dangling, Humbolt’s Gift, Mr. Sammler’s Planet, Herzog
Octavia Butler – Kindred, Fledgling
Willa Cather- O Pioneers!, Death Comes for the Archbishop, My Antonia
Kate Chopin- At Fault, The Awakening
John Cheever- The Wapshot Chronicle, The Wapshot Scandal
Sandra Cisneros – Caramelo
Stephen Crane- The Red Badge of Courage
Don Delillo – Underworld, White Noise
Ralph Ellison- Invisible Man
Dave Eggers- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Louise Erdrich – The Painted Drum, Love Medicine, The Beet Queen
William Faulkner- The Unvanquished, Intruder in the Dust, Light in August, As I Lay Dying
F. Scott Fitzgerald- Tender is the Night, The Last Tycoon, This Side of Paradise
John Gardner- Grendel, October Light
Nathaniel Hawthorne- Blithedale Romance, Marble Faun, House of Seven Gables
Joseph Heller- Catch-22, Closing Time
Hemingway- A Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises, For Whom The Bell Tolls, To Have and Have Not
William Dean Howells- The Rise of Silas Lapham, A Hazard of New Fortunes
Zora Neale Hurston- Their Eyes Were Watching God
John Irving- The World According to Garp, The Cider House Rules, A Prayer for Omen Meany
Henry James- Portrait of a Lady, The Americans, The Bostonians
Ken Kesey- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Sue Monk Kidd- The Secret Life of Bees
Barbara Kingsolver- The Poisonwood Bible, Prodigal Summer
Jerzy Kosinski- The Painted Bird, Being There, Cockpit
Nella Larsen – Passing, Quicksand
Sinclair Lewis- Babbitt, Arrowsmith, Main Street
London- Martin Eden, The Call of the Wild, The Iron Heel
Norman Mailer- The Naked and the Dead, The Deer Park, Harlot’s Ghost
Bernard Malamud- The Assistant, The Natural, The Fixer
Cormac McCarthy – The Road, Blood Meridian, No Country for Old Men
Carson McCullers- The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, The Member of the Wedding, Ballad of The Sad Café
Herman Melville- Moby Dick
Margaret Mitchell- Gone with the Wind
M. Scott Momaday- House Made of Dawn, The Way to Rainy Mountain
Toni Morrison- Song of Solomon, Beloved, The Bluest Eye, Sula
Vladimir Nabokov- Pale Fire
Gloria Naylor- The Women of Brewster Place
Frank Norris- McTeague, The Octopus
Flannery O’Connor – The Violent Bear It Away, Wise Blood
Carolyn Parkhurst- The Dogs of Babel
Robert Pirsig- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Lila
Sylvia Plath- The Bell Jar
Katharine Anne Porter- Ship of Fools
Thomas Pynchon – V., Gravity’s Rainbow
Ayn Rand- Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, We the Living
Frederick Reiken- The Odd Sea, The Lost Legends of New Jersey
Marilynne Robinson - Housekeeping
Philip Roth- The Plot Against America, Exit Ghost, American Pastoral
J. D. Salinger- Franny and Zooey, Raise High the Roof Beams, The Catcher in the Rye
Alice Sebold – The Lovely Bones
Upton Sinclair- The Jungle
Jane Smiley- A Thousand Acres, Moo
John Steinbeck- East of Eden, Winter of Our Discontent, The Moon Is Down, Cannery Row
Amy Tan- The Kitchen God’s Wife, The Bonesetter’s Daughter
Mark Twain- Innocents Abroad, Mysterious Stranger, Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
John Updike- Rabbit Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit is Rich, Rabbit at Rest, The Centaur, The Coup
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. - Slaughterhouse Five, Cat’s Cradle, Breakfast of Champions, The Sirens of Titan, Mother Night
Alice Walker- The Color Purple, Possessing the Secret of Joy
Robert Penn Warren- All the Kings Men, A Place to Come to
Dorothy West – The Living is Easy
Nathaniel West- Miss Lonely Hearts, Day of the Locusts
Edith Wharton- Ethan Frome, The Age of Innocence, Custom of the Country
Thomas Wolfe- Look Homeward, Angel, You Can’t Go Home Again
Richard Wright- Native Son, Black Boy


I need to choose one to read for american lit. let me know if you've read any that were good

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

Ones from the list I have read and enjoyed:
Kate Chopin- The Awakening
Don Delillo – White Noise
Ralph Ellison- Invisible Man
William Faulkner- Light in August, As I Lay Dying
F. Scott Fitzgerald- This Side of Paradise
Joseph Heller- Catch-22
Hemingway- A Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises
Zora Neale Hurston- Their Eyes Were Watching God
Ken Kesey- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Barbara Kingsolver- The Poisonwood Bible
Cormac McCarthy – The Road
Margaret Mitchell- Gone with the Wind
Sylvia Plath- The Bell Jar
Thomas Pynchon –Gravity’s Rainbow
Ayn Rand- Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, We the Living
J. D. Salinger- The Catcher in the Rye
Alice Sebold – The Lovely Bones
John Steinbeck- East of Eden,Cannery Row
John Updike- Rabbit Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit is Rich, Rabbit at Rest
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. - Slaughterhouse Five, Cat’s Cradle, Breakfast of Champions
Alice Walker- The Color Purple
Edith Wharton- The Age of Innocence

Good luck! I hope you find something you like :)

Answer 2

I LOVED. . .

Grendel
The Bluest Eye
Secret Life of Bees
East of Eden
The Catcher in the Rye

But my favorite was The Bluest Eye, its very sad, but easy to write about and full of symbolism. I felt like it made me a better person.

Answer 3

Ethan Frome is really good. It's fairy short and straight foreward and a good story.


The Secret Life of Bees is pretty good, too.

Answer 4

I personally liked The Dogs of Babel or The Lovely Bones. Personally The Lovely Bones was simply easier for me to get into and understand.

Source(s):

I've read the two books

Answer 5

Good:
James Agee- A Death in the Family
William Faulkner- As I Lay Dying
F. Scott Fitzgerald- Tender is the Night
Joseph Heller- Catch-22 (My favorite book ever)
Ken Kesey- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Jerzy Kosinski- Being There
Toni Morrison- Beloved
Sylvia Plath- The Bell Jar
Upton Sinclair- The Jungle
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. - Slaughterhouse Five, Cat’s Cradle, Breakfast of Champions

Bad:
Willa Cather- My Antonia
Kate Chopin- The Awakening
Hemingway- A Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises, For Whom The Bell Tolls
Barbara Kingsolver- The Poisonwood Bible


The others I haven't read.

Answer 6

These would be my choices as I have read them all and considered them to be good books.
Ken Kesey- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. - Slaughterhouse Five, Cat’s Cradle, Breakfast of Champions, The Sirens of Titan, Mother Night
Joseph Heller- Catch-22
Mark Twain - Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Robert Pirsig- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
John Irving- The World According to Garp

Answer 7

Great list. I'm jealous.
My current favorites from the list are:
Dave Eggers, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Kesey, McCarthy, Melville, Nabokov, Flannery O'Connor, Pynchon, Salinger, Steinbeck, Twain, and Vonnegut.
It depends on where you are & what mood you're in.

Answer 8

Are any of these books "good?"

They all excellent, stand-out literature. What does that mean: are they "good?"

You will benefit from reading any one of the titles on the list. There's something for everyone, too, depending on your tastes.

But you cannot take a list like this and ask "which of these are good?" (And it would be "which of these IS good . . . .")

Answer 9

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. - Slaughterhouse Five, Cat’s Cradle ( easy poniente reads )

Mark Twain- Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court ( a great fairy tale )

Upton Sinclair- The Jungle ( this is about life before workers unions)

J. D. Salinger- The Catcher in the Rye ( teenage angst )

Robert Pirsig- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance ( more philosophy than Lit. )

Toni Morrison- Beloved ( a Chick book so good I too loved it)

Hemingway- For Whom The Bell Tolls ( romance in war everyone dies)

Answer 10

It would be easier to answer this question if we knew a little about your taste. What kinds of books do you like?

That being said, Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises is one of my all-time favorites.

But if you're looking for something more uplifting (and really, really easy) go with The Secret Life of Bees. It takes about two hours to read and it borders on the cheesy, but it's hard not to enjoy it.

Answer 11

Lots of great choices, but I'm only going to name one, lest it get lost in a list. Probably the most fun I've ever had reading a novel:

"The Sirens of Titan" - Vonnegut