Books N17 read in Grade Twelve
N17’s Book Rating System (His comments added in brackets.)
****** Tolkien
***** Epic, maybe a masterpiece
**** Excellent
*** Good. Worth Reading.
** Ok…
* Bad, possibly terrible.
-* Impossibly terrible.
Books Son N17 read this year homeschooling in Grade Twelve at ages sixteen and seventeen:
Phantastes: A Faerie Romance ~ George McDonald ***** (Superb!)
History of the Kings of Britain ~ Geoffrey of Monmouth **** (More legends than history but really entertaining and easy to read.)
The Prince ~ Niccolò Machiavelli ***
Childhood’s End ~ Arthur C. Clarke ***
Beowulf ***** (Essential reading)
The Alchemist ~ Paulo Coelho *** (I liked it more for its story than for its cookie-cutter ‘pursue your dreams’ message.) (A quick, easy, cozy read but not worthy of all its praise)
The Laird’s Inheritance ~ George MacDonald **** (Pretty good)
The Tale of Genji ~ Murasaki Shikibu ***** (Masterpiece) (One of the best, if not the best novel ever written.)
Letters from Father Christmas ~ J.R.R. Tolkien ** (A collection of letters that Tolkien wrote to his children, sometimes amusing, but I’m surprised it was published)
Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal ~ Ayn Rand ***** (Excellent defense of Capitalism)
Fountainhead ~Ayn Rand *** (Read Atlas Shrugged instead)
Atlas Shrugged ~ Ayn Rand ***** (A boring, literary defense of Capitalism and Individual Liberty.) (Terrible and superb at the same time)
Anthem ~ Ayn Rand *** (I’d rather read Atlas Shrugged even though it’s a lot longer)
The Art of War ~ Sun Tzu **** (an ancient and famous military treatise)
Alfred The Great ~ Simon Keynes ***
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Sir Orfeo **** (This is Tolkien’s translation of them)
Tales From The Perilous Realm ~ J.R.R. Tolkien ***** (Four short stories from Tolkien, enough said)
The Mabinogion ***
The Gammage Cup ~ Carol Kendall *** (a fun read)
Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves ** (not ‘bad’, but the real Faerie Queen should be read instead)
Gregory of Tours: History of the Franks ***
The Count of Monte Cristo ~ Alexander Dumas ****
The Complete English Poems ~ George Herbert *** (good but not worth writing a thesis on)
The City of God ~ Augustine ****
The Consolation of Philosophy ~ Boethius ***
William of Malmesbury’s Chronicle of the Kings of England ***
The Two Lives of Charlemagne ~ Einhard and Notker the Stammerer ***
The Divine Comedy: Inferno ~ Dante ***
The Divine Comedy: Purgatory ~ Dante ***
The Divine Comedy: Paradise ~ Dante ****
1 and 2 Corinthians
The Saga of the Volsungs: ***** (My favorite Norse Saga)
Le Morte D’Arthur ~ St. Thomas Malory **** (My favorite ‘version’ of the Arthur Legend)
Idylls of the King ~ Tennyson **** (Second favorite)
Leviticus
St. Thomas and St. Francis ~ G.K. Chesterton ***
Numbers
The Great Divorce ~ C. S. Lewis ***
1 and 2 Thessalonians
The Name of the Rose ~ Umberto Eco **** (Exellent!)
The Decameron ~ Giovanni Boccaccio ***** (100+ novelas) (Excellent!)
The Patriot’s History Of The United States ~ Larry Schweikart ****
The Real Benjamin Franklin ~ Andrew M. Allison ****
The Real George Washington ~ Jay A. Parry ****
The Real Thomas Jefferson ~ Andrew M. Allison ****
George Washington’s Sacred Fire ~ Peter A. Lillback ****
The Qur’an **
Summa Theologica ~ Thomas Aquinas ****
The Praise of Folly ~ Desiderious Erasmus *
How to Prepare SAT 09 24th Edition (completed five practice tests)
Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students ~ Crowley, Hawhee
Above material has been recorded in university portfolio. The following literature was read/studied/completed after February 2011.
Omnibus V: The Medieval World ***
Don Quixote ~ Cervantes ***** (Masterpiece) (One of literature’s finest works, it’s even funny.)
Canturbury Tales ***
Romeo and Juliet **** (Actually one of my favorite Shakespeare plays)
Othello **
A Comedy of Errors ***
History of the Franks ~ Gregory of Tours ***
Tartuffe ~ Moliere **
Crime and Punishment ~ Dostoyevsky ***
Summa of the Summa ~ Edited by Peter Kreeft ***
Monologion, Proslogion, Why God Became Man ~ Anselm of Canturbury ***
Two Lives of Charlemagne ~ Einhard and Notker the Stammerer ***
Consolation of Philosophy ~ Boethius **
The Travels ~ Marco Polo **
Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Francis of Assisi ~ G.K. Chesterton ***
Chronicle of the Kings of England ~ William of Malmesbury ***
Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God **
Romance of the Three Kingdoms ~ Luo Guanzhong *****
Conquering Gotham ~ Jill Jones * (Not about Batman, sadly.)
The Tale of the Heike ***** (Samurai!)
The Worm Ourboros ~ E.R. Eddison ***
Samuel Adams: A Life ~ Ira Stoll **
Alfred the Great **
Disappointment with God ~ Philip Yancey **
Calvin’s Teachings on Jobs ~ Derek Thomas **
Freedom of the Will ~ Jonathan Edwards **
Don’t Waste your Life ~ John Piper **
On the Medieval Origins of the Modern State ~ Joseph Strayer **
Economic Facts and Fallacies ~ Thomas Sowell ***
Ethics ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer **
A Distant Mirror ~ Barbara Tuchman **
Giants: The Parallel Lives of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas ***
Song of Ice and Fire: A Game of Thrones ~ George R. R. Martin **** (The series is really good) (But very dark and gritty, not for kids)
Song of Ice and Fire: A Clash of Kings ~ George R. R. Martin ****
Song of Ice and Fire: A Storm of Swords ~ George R. R. Martin ****
Song of Ice and Fire: A Feast for Crows ~ George R. R. Martin ****
Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio ~ Po Songling ***** (Collection of 100+ short stories, ranging from entertaining to superb)
Narrow Road to the Deep North ~ Matsuo Basho **** (Surprisingly good) (probably not for everyone though)
The Silmarillion ~ J.R.R. Tolkien ****** (A genius work of epic fantasy)
The Hobbit ~ J.R.R. Tolkien ****** (My favorite book of all time)
Dream of the Red Chamber ~ Cao Xequin ***** (the most acclaimed of classical Chinese literature) (extremely hard to approach but immensely rewarding) (probably difficult for some people) (Then again if you’re already interested in this kind of thing then you’re probably up for the challenge)
Paradise Lost ~ Milton ***** (Masterpiece)
The Book of Lost Tales I ~ J.R.R. Tolkien ****** (Fantastic as always)
The Book of Lost Tales II ~ J.R.R. Tolkien ****** (See above)
The Fellowship of the Ring ~ J.R.R. Tolkien ****** (Still a joy to go back to and read)
General Chemistry: Essential Concepts ~ Chang
The Feymman Lectures on Physics Volume 1
Rosetta Stone Japanese Level I (working on at present)
Let’s Learn Kanji ~ Mitamura
Let’s Learn Hiragana ~ Mitamura
(Some books are likely missing from the list. He also skimmed and read excerpts from many other books.)
(Click here for Grade Twelve schedule and curriculum that was loosely followed.)
Past three years:
Books N14 Read in Grade Nine
http://parentingfreedom.com/2008/06/19/books-n14-read-in-grade-nine/
Books N15 Read in Grade Ten
http://parentingfreedom.com/2009/06/08/books-n15-read-in-grade-ten/
Books N16 Read in Grade Eleven
http://parentingfreedom.com/2010/06/22/books-n16-read-in-grade-eleven/
About The Author
Wow! More impressive every year!
It’s the last year for him!