<p>I am somewhat nervous for the last essay in the AP Lit class. My class at school is pretty slow and has a lot of busy work. Instead of immersing ourselves in literature to develop the best basis possible for the test, we spend most of our time on silly projects. </p>
<p>I think I need to start reading more "works of literary merit" in my free-time to be ready for the exam and have a broader selection of novels from which to pick. Of course, like pretty much everyone on the forum, I don't have a ton of spare time. </p>
<p>I want to read as many as possible, and obviously need to be able to understand them deeply -- not just skim them. </p>
<p>Can you please recommend any good books that your classes read in AP Lit that are relatively short? </p>
<p>Thanks so much.</p>
<p>On 2009 exam one of the choices was play “Cherry Orchard”
by Chekhov. Other ones are “Three sisters” and “Uncle Vanya”, same author. These plays are among the most known works of Russian literature, and they are really short; I would read at least one of them. </p>
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<p>Thank you so much! Also, I apologize for the typos in my first post. They’re especially embarrassing given that this is the AP ENGLISH forum.</p>
<p>I will definitely check out the plays you recommended. </p>
<p>Also, if others have the same question, I just started reading Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, which seems like another good book to have in one’s repertoire.</p>
<p>just remember: quality, not quantity. reading “as many [short books] as possible” is not necessarily better than just focusing on one or two “long” book(s) that develop more themes for you to implement in your writing. just a thought. be prudent in the books you choose. find a list of frequently mentioned works on the ap lit exam and choose one that you actually want to read. sorry to equivocate but i felt compelled to just give my two cents.</p>
<p>Life of Pi! Great themes, interesting, not too long.</p>
<p>llilliann – Don’t be sorry at all - that is great advice!! I’m not trying to be lazy or cheat the system or find an easy way out. My goal is simply to position myself to do well on the exam which my class is NOT really helping me accomplish. I really like this idea.</p>
<p>thunder1 – Thanks for the idea - I’ll check it out!</p>
<p>The key to Lit is to know 5-8 great books/plays IN DETAIL. At least 2 from Shakespeare and three others with varying themes and character types and you should be covered for Essay #3. The hard part, though, is poetry. If you’re not experienced, it can be tough. Also, it’s very helpful to understand the principles of comparative analysis, because the poetry essay frequently requires it (and very few students in high school really know how to write a compare and contrast essay that does much more than say "these things are both different and similar. here are some similarities:alskdfja;sdlfkja;d. here are some differences: a;sdlkfja;sdlkfjasd;lkfja).</p>
<p>A few good books that are easy reads off the top of my head: Animal Farm (Orwell), Remains of the Day (Ishiguro), Frankenstein (Shelley), Lord of the Flies (Golding), The Bluest Eye (Morrison), Angela’s Ashes (McCourt) and Things Fall Apart (Achebe). PM me if you want me to give quick intros to the books so you can tell which ones would interest you or if you want to tell me about your taste in literature so I can better recommend something. :)</p>
<p>“The Awakening” is short and is packed with symbolism, archetypes, and feminism (I find writing essays about feminist works easy: “The author uses this device and this device to highlight women’s oppression” is a general thesis I use for feminist works)
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” isn’t as short, but it has very obvious symbols and archetypes and stuff, so it’s easy and also enjoyable. For this book, I generally connect the symbols or whatever to the destructiveness of society’s oppression of individuality and natural impulses.</p>
<p>I got a 5 last year on Lit. I hate to use a cliche, but if you “don’t read any other book this year,” read Invisible Man. It is the novel that shows up with most frequency on the suggested works list. This is because it can apply so well to so many different prompts. I used it last year.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>In my AP Lit class we are assigned a new novel or form of poetry to read every two weeks. So we are constantly readin at night, but in class we review for the ap test. I’ve read over 20 books now so here our the ones I was assigned:</p>
<ul>
<li>Frankenstein</li>
<li>1984</li>
<li>Othello</li>
<li>Jane Eyre</li>
<li>The Last Picture Show</li>
<li>Brave New World</li>
<li>Things Fall Apart.</li>
</ul>
<p>Their is more. Just ask if you want more books. (:</p>
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