America Reads
Special Presentation
Books That Shaped America 2012
TOP 25: Favorites in 2012
- Ayn Rand (1905–1982). Atlas Shrugged, 1957
- Harper Lee (1926–2016). To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960
- Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835–1910). The Adventures of Huckleberry, 1884
- Thomas Paine (1737–1809). Common Sense, 1776
- Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896). Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly, 1852
- The Federalist: A Collection of Essays, Written in Favour of the New Constitution, 1788
- Upton Sinclair (1878–1968). The Jungle, 1906
- J. D. Salinger (1919–2010). The Catcher in the Rye, 1951
- John Steinbeck (1902–1968). The Grapes of Wrath, 1939
- Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism, 1939
- Ray Bradbury (1920–2012). Fahrenheit 451, 1953
- F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940). The Great Gatsby, 1925
- Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888). Little Women; or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, 1868
- Margaret Mitchell (1900–1949). Gone With the Wind, 1936
- Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel, 1904–1991). The Cat in the Hat, 1957
- Rachel Carson (1907–1964). Silent Spring, 1962
- Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862). Walden; or, Life in the Woods, 1854
- Jack Kerouac (1922–1969). On the Road, 1957
- Betty Friedan (1921–2006). The Feminine Mystique, 1963
- L. Frank Baum (1856–1919). The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, 1900
- Herman Melville (1819–1891). Moby-Dick; or, the Whale, 1851
- Dale Carnegie (1888–1955). How to Win Friends and Influence People, 1936
- Joseph Heller (1923–1999). Catch-22, 1961
- Walt Whitman (1819–1892). Leaves of Grass, 1855
- Benjamin Spock (1903–1998). The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, 1946
America Reads 2016
TOP 40: Nominations for 2016
- Ayn Rand (1905–1982). The Fountainhead, 1943
- Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007). Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death, 1969
- Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957). Little House in the Big Woods, 1932 (Little House Series)
- Joseph Smith, Translator(1805–1844).The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, 1830
- Willa Cather (1873–1947). My Ántonia, 1918
- Alex Haley (1921–1992). Roots, 1976
- Ayn Rand (1905–1982). Anthem, 1938
- Alice Walker (b. 1944). The Color Purple, 1982
- John Steinbeck (1902–1968). Of Mice and Men, 1937
- John Steinbeck (1902–1968). East of Eden, 1952
- Sylvia Plath (1932–1963). The Bell Jar, 1963
- Tim O’Brien (b. 1946). The Things They Carried, 1990
- Carl Bernstein (b. 1944) and Bob Woodward (b. 1943). All the President’s Men, 1974
- Arthur Miller (1915–2005). Death of a Salesman, 1949
- Arthur Miller (1915–2005). The Crucible, 1953
- Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961). The Old Man and the Sea, 1952
- Ken Kesey (1935–2001). One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, 1962
- Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005). Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 1972
- Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961). The Sun Also Rises, 1926
- John F. Kennedy (1917–1963). Profiles in Courage, 1956
- Stephen King (b. 1947). The Stand, 1978
- Larry McMurtry (b. 1936). Lonesome Dove, 1985
- Judy Blume (b. 1938). Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret, 1970
- Howard Zinn (1922–2010). A People’s History of the United States, 1980
- James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851). The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757, 1826
- Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988). The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, 1966
- Wilson Rawls (1913–1984). Where the Red Fern Grows,1961
- Madeleine L’Engle (1918–2007). A Wrinkle in Time, 1962
- Frank Herbert (1920–1986). Dune, 1965
- Thomas Pynchon (b. 1937). Gravity’s Rainbow, 1973
- Simone Beck (1904–1991), Louisette Bertholle (1905–1999), and Julia Child (1912–2004), Mastering the Art of French Cooking, 1961
- Kate Chopin (1850–1904). The Awakening, 1899
- Shel Silverstein (1930–1999). The Giving Tree, 1964
- Milton Friedman (1912–2006). Capitalism and Freedom,1962
- Milton Friedman (1912–2006) and Rose Friedman (1910–2009). Free to Choose, 1980
- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882). Nature, 1836
- Napoleon Hill (1883–1970). Think and Grow Rich, 1937
- John Kennedy Toole (1937–1969). A Confederacy of Dunces, 1980
- Robert Penn Warren (1905–1989). All the King’s Men, 1946
- Robert Pirsig (b. 1928). Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, 1974
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