SAT Recommended Reading

 Fiction/Narrative Prose

Books

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (or any of Austen’s novels!)
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
• Native Son by Richard Wright
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Pearl by John Steinbeck (or any of Steinbeck’s novels!)
• The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
• Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (or Remains of the Day)
• House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Short Stories or Novellas

• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
• The Awakening by Kate Chopin
• “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• “The Dead” by James Joyce
• “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner
• “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri
• “Winter Dreams” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• “To Build a Fire” by Jack London

Natural Science

Books

• The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
• Hyperspace by Michio Kaku
• Gravity in Reverse by Neil DeGrasse Tyson
• A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
• Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach
• The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Trials by Oliver Sacks
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
• In the Shadow of Man by Jane Goodall
• Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life by Helen Czerski
• The Story of Science by Joy Hakim
• Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World by Mark Miodownik
• This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitin

Magazines or Scientific Journals

• National Geographic
• Scientific American
• Smithsonian
• Science Magazine

Social Science

Books

• The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
• The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail—But Some Don’t by Nate Silver
• Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser
• The Omnivore’s Dilemma: The Secrets Behind What You Eat by Michael Pollan
• Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
• Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science by Charles Wheelan
• The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less by Barry Schwartz
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
• One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger by Matthew Yglesias
• This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate

Magazines or Academic Journals

• The Atlantic
• The Economist
• Time Magazine
• The New Yorker

Founding (Historical) Documents

Books or Collections of Essays

• Walden by Henry David Thoreau
• On Liberty by John Stuart Mill
• Society and Solitude by Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule by Mahatma Gandhi
• Democracy in America by Alex de Tocqueville
• Second Treatise of Civil Government by John Locke
• Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke
• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft
• By Any Means Necessary by Malcolm X
• The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• The Federalist Papers written by John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison

Individual Essays or Texts

• United States Declaration of Independence
• Declaration of Sentiments
• “On Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau
• “Letters from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr.
• “The Ballot or the Bullet” by Malcolm X
• “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson
• John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address
• Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech
• “I am the First Accused” speech by Nelson Mandela
• “Freedom or Death” speech by Emmeline Pankhurst
• George Washington’s Farewell Address
• “Ain’t I A Woman” speech by Sojourner Truth
• “The Man with the Muck-Rake” speech by Theodore Roosevelt
• “Quit India” speech by Mahatma Gandhi
• “Duties of American Citizenship” by Theodore Roosevelt