SCHOOL BOOKS OF RORY

[clairsunshine]

hey everyone,
i am homeschooled and i was wondering if you all had the names of the books that rory had to read in Chilton and Yale. since im homeschooled im not sure what to read, so anything that will help vocabulary and just expand my mind would be great!
thanks!

[sagedautumn]

Wow that's really cool. I'm not sure if you're talking about the allusions to the many books within the show or just in Chilton the school itself but I know that in season 1 Rory had to catch up on Dostoyevsky and then later on had a major test on Shakespeare, there were also references to Dickens, Tolstoy, and I think Proust was mentioned as well.
By the way, HI!!! It's nice to see new members!

[Dominique]

I can't think of any school books of Rory's, but since your profile says you are 15 I think some of those Russian authors might be a little too advanced yet (or they would have been when I was 15 anyway, they are probably too advanced for me now;) ).

Instead I'm going to reccommend:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Madame Bovary by Flaubert
Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell
Dracula by Bram Stoker
"The Blind Assasin" by Margaret Atwood

And some of my school books:
A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Frankenstein by Mary Shelly
King Lear by Shakespeare

If you don't get enough answers and you want more Gilmore Girls books feel free to check out our thread about books from gilmore girls, it's a bit long but you might find some stuff you want in there:

www.rorysbookclub.proboards55.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1158628371

[zeldafitzgerald]

Good recommendations Dom! And I would second the fact that a lot of what Rory read in high school was incredibly advanced, even for advanced readers.

I would add these to the recommended list:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Hamlet by Shakespeare
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
Bartleby the scrivener by Herman Melville

I would avoid:
A Tale of Two City by Dickens. I don't know why this is so widely used - it may just turn you off of Dickens forever, and that's a shame, because he's worth reading, and his other stuff isn't as horrid.
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Very under appreciated when read too young or for school. I'm still not over how much I hated it back when I first read it in high school. Might as well save yourself the pain and try it when you're older and mastered other classics and might appreciate it more.

[clairsunshine]

thank you so much everyone! (hi by the way, since im new and all!!!)
i am actually pretty advanced. i havent read some of those books, but i am homeschoolde because i was kind of being held back. im a senior now, and i just finished the brothers karamazov by Dostoevsky and i really enjoyed it. so if you think of any more, dont hold back, even if you think they are too advanced.
thank you all so much again!!!

[sagedautumn]

Dostoyevsky isn't that hard!! And good for you on getting such a head start clairsunshine, i read Crime and Punishment when i was 17 which wasn't all that long ago!!

[Kristie]

Welcome to the club, clairsunshine! Wow, 15 and a senior--that sounds advanced to me Aside from all of the classics already mentioned, all of which I would say represent great literature, I think that there are some more modern novels that would be good to read, too. For instance, my senior year in school we read The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Many on the boards here have loved it and it was my most favourite book to read for school. I also enjoyed Rocket Boys by Homer Hickham Jr. and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (old, but still a great read). None of these books are very advanced--I read them with no problem But I do really like them.

If you're just interested in good books aside from reading for school, there's a thread on the boards where most of us have listed our all-time favourites.
www.rorysbookclub.proboards55.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1169561371&page=1

[Lu]

Welcome clairsunshine! glad you join the club.

There are many good recommendations here that I can't think of anything else right now.

I read my first Dostoevskij (Crime and Punishment) when I was 15, Lit teacher assigned it (and other books) as a reading for summer holiday.

[Bina]

I reserved my summer break for tackling some Russians

Melville´s Billy Budd is great, I can also recommend Edith Wharton´s works, the moon is down by Steinbeck and Harold Pinter´s plays.

[rebecca]

In one episode, when she's at Yale, she study a Kafka's book.

[clairsunshine]

thank you so much everyone!!!!!!!!!! you all have been such great help!

[mathgeek2010]

hi. I am homeschooled 2! If you have a say in your curriculum, I reccomend Sonlight curriculum.For History, you read amazing autobiographys. I am not sure what books she would read in Yale, but I know she was in shock when she saw the Huge library at Harvard! Maybe you could ask a friend who is in college what they read. I am sorry I don't know any titles!

[annak]

I had a discussion on Life of Pi in high school. It's recent but I would say it's worth reading. And of course, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina is a must. Rather long, but once you get past the first 60 pages or so, it speeds up some.

I think everyone should read some Salinger so I say Catcher in the Rye
Amy Tan's Joy Luck Club is also good
In high school we did an extensive discussion on Edmond Tosland's play Cyrano De Bergerac. Also a Steve Martin movie called "Roxanne" if you're into book spin offs
Count of Monte Cristo is a must by Alexandre Dumas
A Room with a View by EM Forster (It's the movie Rory and Lorelai are watching after Rory comes back from Europe with her Grandma)
I adored Portrait of a Lady by Henry James but I hear Daisy Miller is also really good. Henry James was several times mentioned in Gilmore Girls.

And if you feel like it The Once and Future King by TH White has some good themes in it.

[Katelyn]

I have to say, I disagree with you - I absolutely loved a Tale of Two Cities! Actually, it was one of my school books. Another one of my school books was The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende, which I also loved. I also read Beloved by Tony Morrison for a book report for school. I am trying to think of all the books that I read for school.... Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, and The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. I also read a lot of books by Canadian authors, since I grew up in Canada and the Ontario curriculum was - and still is, thankfully - largely based on authors such as Margaret Atwood and Margaret Lawrence. Thanks for giving me an opportunity to reminisce! I hope you enjoy all of these wonderful reads.

[Katelyn]

Having read Daisy Miller, I can definitely second that - it's worth a read!