Invisible Man: narrative about a young black man growing up in the 1950’s written, as I recall, from the vantage of an older man’s wisdom. Handmaid’s Tale: Excellent read–long, but the story moves quickly–feminist perspective. The Sound and the Fury: See comment about the Southern tradition–Faulkner created an entire county, and most of his stories focus on its citizens. A maximalist (some very long sentences–181 words long). Long-standing feud between him and Hemingway-For Whom the Bell Tolls: I taught this in a Comp I class (the department made me do it!) and 19 out of 23 students went straight to Cliff Notes–wise to know a little about the Spanish-American war and a bit about Hemingway. House of Mirth: Turn of the century novel about manners…the language may take some getting used to, but it’s a representative piece of British literature of that period. Of Human Bondage: I’m 57, sweetie, and read that when I was 13….do not remember anything about it except its sadness. Have not read the others.

I would choose ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and ‘The Sound and the Fury’. ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is just a wonderful novel that is worth reading because it is useful for the writing section of the AP exam. I haven’t read ‘The Sound and the Fury’ (Which I assume you mean, because the only ‘The Sound of Fury’ I can find is an album), but I love Faulkner. I read ‘As I Lay Dying’ for my AP English Language class and found it very useful for the exam. It might be a bit hard to figure out Faulkner if you aren’t familiar with the south and Southern traditions.

My sister took AP English last year, and one of the books she read was Invisible Man. She said it was an interesting book. I had read a bit of it, too, and I liked it, so that might be a good choice. As for the others, I’m not sure.