1) First semester: Read one book from the following titles;
-1984, by George Orwell (Engish, on totalitaniarism; the origin of the “Big Brother” notion);
-The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James (American-British, questions male chauvinist society);
-The Pearl, by John Steinbeck (American; strong moral story);
-The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde (Irish; classic gothic horror fiction by controversial author on the price of beauty and hedonism);
-Selected Stories, by D.H. Lawrence (English; confronts issues relating to emotional health and vitality, spontaneity, human sexuality, etc.);
-The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald (American; classic story and characters uniting glamour, crime and mystery);
-Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier (English; love and crime across social classes; taken to the cinema by Alfred Hitchcock);
-The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne (American, criticizes hypocritical society; tried to avoid imitating Brit novel);
-The Mistress of Spices, by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (Indian-American; hopeful tale of immigrants in USA).
2) Second semester: you are free to read any book you may find interesting.
These are some recommended titles. Please, ask if in doubt.
-The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon. (English; autistic young boy´s investigation and unexpected discoveries from original perspective.)
-The New York Trilogy, by Paul Auster (American; mysteries about mysteries; strange, clever working of the detective novel).
-The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, by John Boyne. (Irish; story around the Holocaust from the point of view of a naive young boy.)
-Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom. (American; relationship between an old professor and one of his young students to whom he teaches life's greatest lesson.)
-The Catcher in the Rye, by Salinger. (American; popular for its themes of teenage confusion, sexuality and rebellion.)
