I recently stumbled upon an old reading list for an MFA program that I had printed several years ago.  As an English Literature major while an undergrad, I had crossed off many of the titles, and while I was entertaining myself by updating the list to include books I have read since graduating, I had an amazing idea.  Wouldn’t it be fun to work through this reading list WHILE earning my Master of Arts in History?  It’s summer now, so anything seems possible.

This is not even close to the whole list, and a couple titles I’ve already read but want to read again.

1. Pilgrim’s Progress (Bunyan)
2. The Odyssey/The Iliad (Homer)
3. Paradise Lost (Milton) (I’m always in the mood to re-read this one)
4. Emma (Austin)
5. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
6. Bleak House (Dickens)
7. Jude the Obscure (Hardy)
8. The Prairie (Cooper)
9. The Awakening (Chopin) (A grossly mistreated book.  More on that later)
10. Moby Dick (Melville)
11. Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Stowe)
12. Out of Africa (Dinesen)
13. All Quiet on the Western Front (Remarque)
14. The Red and the Black (Stendhal)
15. Fathers and Sons (Zola)
16. Passage to India (Forster)
17. Sons and Lovers (Lawrence)
18. The Heart of the Matter (Greene)
19. In Cold Blood (Capote)
20. The Professor’s House (Cather)
21. The Sun Also Rises (Hemingway)
22. The Sound and the Fury (Faulkner)
23. The Ambassadors (James)
24. The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck)
25. The Name of the Rose (Eco)
26. The Handmaid’s Tale (Atwood) (Tried this one 3 times – 4th time a charm?)
27. Nebraska (Hansen)
28. Cry, the Beloved Country (Paton)
29. The Eye of the Storm (White)

Also some historical fiction/ random books for fun

1. Between Shades of Grey
2. Where the Light Falls: A novel of the French Revolution
3. The Nightingale
4. The Miniaturist
5. The Summer Before the War 6/12/2017