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Summary:
Native Son, novel by Richard Wright, published in 1940. The novel addresses the issue of white American society’s responsibility for the repression of blacks. The plot charts the decline of Bigger Thomas, a young African American imprisoned for two murders—the accidental smothering of his white employer’s daughter and the deliberate killing of his girlfriend to silence her. In his cell Thomas confronts his growing sense of injustice and concludes that violence is the only alternative to submission to white society.

Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Native-Son

My Opinion:
It sounds a bit gruesome and not as intriguing as other books.

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Summary:
In 1949 four Chinese women-drawn together by the shadow of their past-begin meeting in San Francisco to play mah jong, invest in stocks, eat dim sum, and "say" stories. They call their gathering the Joy Luck Club. Nearly forty years later, one of the members has died, and her daughter has come to take her place, only to learn of her mother's lifelong wish-and the tragic way in which it has come true. The revelation of this secret unleashes an urgent need among the women to reach back and remember... In this extraordinary first work of fiction, Amy Tan writes about what is lost-over the years, between generations, among friends-and what is saved.

Source: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/joy-luck-club-amy-tan/1100023550

My Opinion:
I read this last year for my ORB. It was really good, but there's no need for me to read it again.

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Summary:
It is the world of the near future, and Offred is a Handmaid in the home of the Commander and his wife. She is allowed out once a day to the food market, she is not permitted to read, and she is hoping the Commander makes her pregnant, because she is only valued if her ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she was an independent woman, had a job of her own, a husband and child. But all of that is gone now...everything has changed.

Source: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/handmaids-tale-margaret-atwood/1100295471?ean=9780385490818#productInfoTabs

My Opinion:
It sounds really interesting, and I would consider it a top choice. I feel like I would get frustrated with the inequality while reading it though.

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Summary:
Miles Roby has been slinging burgers at the Empire Grill for 20 years, a job that cost him his college education and much of his self-respect. What keeps him there? It could be his bright, sensitive daughter Tick, who needs all his help surviving the local high school. Or maybe it’s Janine, Miles’ soon-to-be ex-wife, who’s taken up with a noxiously vain health-club proprietor. Or perhaps it’s the imperious Francine Whiting, who owns everything in town–and seems to believe that “everything” includes Miles himself. In Empire FallsRichard Russo delves deep into the blue-collar heart of America in a work that overflows with hilarity, heartache, and grace.

Source: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/empire-falls-richard-russo/1100539778?ean=9780375726408#productInfoTabs

My Opinion:
Its achievements make it sound impressive alone, and it sounds like an emotional roller coaster. Probably high on my list.

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Summary:
So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of l967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.

Source: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/middlesex-jeffrey-eugenides/1100355974?ean=9780312427733#productInfoTabs

My Opinion:
I like the concept and the idea of awareness, but in such a long list of books, I wouldn't consider this to be a necessity.

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Summary:
Topanga Canyon is home to two couples on a collision course. Los Angeles liberals Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher lead an ordered sushi-and-recycling existence in a newly gated hilltop community: he a sensitive nature writer, she an obsessive realtor. Mexican illegals Candido and America Rincon desperately cling to their vision of the American Dream as they fight off starvation in a makeshift camp deep in the ravine. And from the moment a freak accident brings Candido and Delaney into intimate contact, these four and their opposing worlds gradually intersect in what becomes a tragicomedy of error and misunderstanding.

Source: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tortilla-curtain-t-c-boyle/1100309780?ean=9780140238280#productInfoTabs

My Opinion:
The plot is not as intriguing as others.

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Summary:
On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues. As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, he generates both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy. In Cold Blood is a work that transcends its moment, yielding poignant insights into the nature of American violence.

Source:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/in-cold-blood-truman-capote/1101755577?ean=9780679745587#productInfoTabs

My Opinion:
This one sounds really interesting, and if I don't read it for ORB, I will probably read it over summer.

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This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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Summary:
Alternately self-confident and self-effacing, torn between ambition and idleness, the self-absorbed, immature Amory yearns to run with Princeton’s rich, fast crowd and become one of the “gods” of the campus. Hopelessly romantic, he learns about love and sex from a series of beautiful young “flappers,” women who leave him both exhilarated and devastated. Fitzgerald describes it all in intensely lyrical prose that fills the novel with a heartbreaking sense of longing, as Amory comes to understand that the sweet-scented springtime of his life is fragile and fleeting, disappearing into memory even as he reaches for it.

Source: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/this-side-of-paradise-scott-fitzgerald/1116616137?ean=9781593082437#productInfoTabs

My Opinion:
I like Fitzgerald's exaggerated and cynical writing, and I am really tempted to read this book. I'm just afraid it will be too much like the Great Gatsby, and I will get bored of it.

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I Know Why the Cages Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

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I Know Why the Cages Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

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Summary:
Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.

Source:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/i-know-why-the-caged-bird-sings-maya-angelou/1100392955?ean=9780345514400#productInfoTabs

My Opinion:
I know it's a classic and often referenced, but I don't have much interest in it. It sounds like a more artistic Henrietta Lacks story.

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Summary:
Esther Greenwood is brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under—maybe for the last time. In her acclaimed and enduring masterwork, Sylvia Plath brilliantly draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that her insanity becomes palpably real, even rational—as accessible an experience as going to the movies. A deep penetration into the darkest and most harrowing corners of the human psyche, The Bell Jar is an extraordinary accomplishment and a haunting American classic.

Source: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bell-jar-sylvia-plath/1100550703?ean=9780061148514#productInfoTabs

My Opinion:
It might be wise to finish school before reading a book about insanity and gradually losing mental stability. Definitely something I want to read over summer as well.

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Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

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Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

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Summary:
One of the most important and enduring books of the twentieth century, Their Eyes Were Watching God brings to life a Southern love story with the wit and pathos found only in the writing of Zora Neale Hurston. Out of print for almost thirty years—due largely to initial audiences’ rejection of its strong black female protagonist—Hurston’s classic has since its 1978 reissue become perhaps the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature.

Source: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/their-eyes-were-watching-god-lp-zora-neale-hurston/1115137793?ean=9780061470370#productInfoTabs

My Opinion:
I'm amazed at how a book can be rejected for so long, yet make such an astounding impact decades later. Nothing about the plot stood out to me, but it might be worth the read to see what the fuss is about.

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Summary:
A poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation, the novel introduces two of Hemingway’s most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley. The story follows the flamboyant Brett and the hapless Jake as they journey from the wild nightlife of 1920s Paris to the brutal bullfighting rings of Spain with a motley group of expatriates. First published in 1926, The Sun Also Rises helped establish Hemingway as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.

Source: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sun-also-rises-ernest-hemingway/1100300822?ean=9780743297332#productInfoTabs

My Opinion:
Possibly a good alternative to Fitzgerald since they are similar writers, but the story is a little too outrageous for me.