"The television aspect of
The Great American Read involves a two-hour opening show to air on May 22 on PBS affiliate stations, then, after summer tapings of “entertaining and informative documentary segments,” the show returns in the fall for six one-hour episodes led by NBC News correspondent Meredith Vieira..."
There is a list of 100 titles as follows:
At their web site, with nice front covers:
http://www.pbs.org/the-great-american-read/books/#/
1984 George Orwell
A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole
A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving
A Separate Peace John Knowles
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain
The Alchemist Paulo Coelho
Alex Cross Mysteries (series)
James Patterson
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll
Americanah Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
And Then There Were None Agatha Christie
Anne of Green Gables Lucy Maud Montgomery
Another Country James Baldwin
Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand
Beloved Toni Morrison
Bless Me, Ultima Rudolfo Anaya
The Book Thief Markus Zusak
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Díaz
The Call of the Wild Jack London
Catch-22 Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
Charlotte's Web E. B. White
The Chronicles of Narnia (series) C.S. Lewis
Clan of the Cave Bear Jean M. Auel
Coldest Winter Ever Sister Souljah
The Color Purple Alice Walker
The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas
Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Mark Haddon
The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown
Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes
Doña Bárbára Rómulo Gallegos
Dune Frank Herbert
Fifty Shades of Grey (series) E. L. James
Flowers in the Attic V.C. Andrews
Foundation (series) Isaac Asimov
Frankenstein Mary Shelley
Game of Thrones (series) George R. R. Martin
Ghost Jason Reynolds
Gilead Marilynne Robinson
The Giver Lois Lowry
The Godfather Mario Puzo
Gone Girl Gillian Flynn
Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell
The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
Great Expectations Charles Dickens
The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift
The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood
Harry Potter (series) J.K. Rowling
Hatchet (series) Gary Paulsen
Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
The Help Kathryn Stockett
The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy
Douglas Adams
The Hunger Games (series) Suzanne Collins
The Hunt for Red October Tom Clancy
The Intuitionist Colson Whitehead
Invisible Man Ralph Ellison
Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë
The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan
Jurassic Park Michael Crichton
Left Behind (series) Tim LaHaye and
Jerry B. Jenkins
The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Little Women Louisa May Alcott
Lonesome Dove Larry McMurtry
Looking for Alaska John Green
The Lord of the Rings (series) J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold
The Martian Andy Weir
Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden
Mind Invaders Dave Hunt
Moby-Dick Herman Melville
The Notebook Nicholas Sparks
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel García Márquez
Outlander (series) Diana Gabaldon
The Outsiders S. E. Hinton
The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde
The Pilgrim's Progress John Bunyan
The Pillars of The Earth Ken Follett
Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
Ready Player One Ernest Cline
Rebecca Daphne du Maurier
The Shack William P. Young
Siddhartha Hermann Hesse
The Sirens of Titan Kurt Vonnegut
The Stand Stephen King
The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway
Swan Song Robert R. McCammon
Tales of The City (series) Armistead Maupin
Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston
Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe
This Present Darkness Frank. E. Peretti
To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
The Twilight Saga (series) Stephenie Meyer
War and Peace Leo Tolstoy
Watchers Dean Koontz
The Wheel of Time (series) Robert Jordan and
Brandon Sanderson
Where the Red Fern Grows Wilson Rawls
White Teeth Zadie Smith
Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë
I have emphasized just a few of the above which I have read...
Personally, I would add a few classics, such as:
The Odyssey of Homer: Homer, the Richmond Lattimore translation. This is such a fun adventure story.
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
Histories by Herodotus
also,
The Canterbury Tales
and,
Beowulf, especially when read aloud!