BOOK CLUB

With Mrs. Queen

FAHRENHEIT 451 BY RAY BRADBURY

Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 dystopian novel by Ray

Bradbury (a dystopia is an imagined place or state in

which everything is unpleasant or bad)

The novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed and

firemen burn any house that contains them.

ANTHEM BY AYN RAND

A dystopian fictional novel which takes place at some future unspecified date when mankind has entered another

“dark age” characterized by irrationality, collectivism, and socialistic thinking and

economics.

Technological advancement is now carefully planned (when it is allowed to

occur at all) and the concept of individuality has been eliminated (for example, the use of the word “I” or

“ego” is punishable by death).

BLACK LIKE ME BY JOHN HOWARD GRIFFIN Black Like Me is a nonfiction book first

published in 1961.

Griffin was a white native of Dallas, Texas and the book describes his six-week

experience travelling on Greyhound buses (occasionally hitchhiking)throughout the racially segregated states of Louisiana,

Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia passing as a black man.

Sepia Magazine financed the project in exchange for the right to print the account

first as a series of articles.

“DEATH OF A SALESMAN” BY ARTHUR MILLER

Death of a Salesman is a 1949 play written by American playwright Arthur Miller. It was the recipient of the 1949

Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play. The play premiered on

Broadway in February 1949, running for 742 performances, and has been revived on Broadway four times, winning three

Tony Awards for Best Revival.

In it, an aging traveling salesman recognizes the emptiness of his life and

tries to fix it.

FALLEN ANGELS BY WALTER DEAN MYERSA 1988 young adult novel about the

Vietnam War.

It won the 1988 Coretta Scott King Award.

Fallen Angels is listed as number 16 in the American Library

Association’s list of 100 most frequently challenged books of

1990-2000 due to its use of profanity and realistic depiction of the war.

THE GIVER BY LOIS LOWRY

A dystopian children’s novel, it is set in a society which is at first depicted as a

utopian society and gradually appears more and more dystopian.

The society has eliminated pain and strife by converting to “Sameness,” a plan that has also eradicated emotional depth from

their lives.

The protagonist, Jonas, is selected to inherit the position of “Receiver of Memory,” the

person who stores all the past memories of the time before Sameness. Conflict ensues.

THE OUTSIDERS BY S.E. HINTON

A coming-of-age novel, written when Hinton was a junior in high school. The

book follows two rival groups, the Greasers and

the Socs, who are divided by their socioeconomic status.

THE CALL OF THE WILD BY JACK LONDONThe story takes place in the extreme conditions of the Yukon during the 19th-century Klondike Gold Rush,

where strong sled dogs were in high demand. After Buck, a domesticated

dog, is snatched from a pastoral ranch, he is sold into a brutal life as a sled dog. The novel details Buck’s

struggle to adjust and survive the cruel treatment he receives.