TOP 5 American Book Recommendations
Hi, I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Do you want some great book recommendations?
Let’s talk about it.
Movies and TV shows are a great way to learn
about the English language and about American
culture, but there is another way, another
kind of material that is great for learning
about this as well.
Books, my love, but I know that not everyone
loves to read as much as I do, so today I
have narrowed down, this means I have chosen
five books that will help you to learn more
about American culture, American history,
some ideas that are essential to the American
spirit, and I hope that these five book recommendations
will help you to expand your knowledge of
English as well.
I added a link in the description to Amazon.com
for all of these books so that you can check
them out.
All right, let’s start with book number one.
The first three books are usually read by
eight, nine and 10 year olds.
So the language is a little bit simpler.
The vocabulary is a little bit simpler, but
the story is still complex and interesting
enough to hold the attention of adults, so
if you feel a little bit uncomfortable about
reading books in English or maybe you’ve never
read a book in English before, these are a
great place to start.
The first book is Little House on the Prairie
by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
As you can see on the cover of this book takes
place quite a while ago, in the 1880s, 1890s,
and it’s based on the true story of the author’s
life.
When her family moved from the north of the
US to Minnesota to Kansas and this kind of
experience moving into Indian territory, starting
a new town, and trying to make it through
the hardships and the struggles of early American
settlers.
I feel like this book really shows that original
American spirit of trying to find a home,
find someplace to live and having hope despite
difficulties.
So I’d like to read a couple sentences from
this book so that you can kind of see the
language and see if it’s a good fit for you.
Chapter one, going west.
A long time ago, when all the grandfathers
and grandmothers of today were little boys
and little girls or very small babies or perhaps
not even born, Pa and Ma and Mary and Laura
and baby Kerry left their little house in
the big woods of Wisconsin.
They drove away and left it lonely and empty
in the clearing among the big trees and they
never saw that little house again.
They were going to Indian country.
Pa said there were too many people in the
big woods, now.
Quite often Laura heard the ringing thud of
an ax, which was not Pa’s ax, or the echo
of a shot that did not come from his gun.
The path that went by the little house had
become a road.
Almost every day, Laura and Mary stopped their
plane and stared at surprise at a wagon slowly
creaking by on that road.
Oh, so here we can be introduced to some new
words like creaking or the path.
Instead of a road, you can compare these vocabulary
words.
I hope that you could understand a little
bit of this story.
This book is one of the most simple that we’re
going to talk about today and it’s a good
starting place.
Let’s go on to book 1.5.
It’s not quite my second book, but it’s similar
to this one, so if you are interested in this
style of book, you’ll be interested in the
next one.
My next recommendation, recommendation 1.5
is Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Ross.
This book is also well known.
The story is well loved by a lot of Americans
and if you have ever had a dog or even a pet,
but for a dog, you know that bond between
dog and owner, owner and dog, that is a strong
friendship, a strong love and that’s what
this book is essentially about.
It’s about a boy and two dogs, but these dogs
are coon dogs, which means that they hunt
raccoons.
This book is a lovely story about growing
up and love and friendship, but I have to
warn you, this book is really sad.
In fact, in fourth grade, after lunch, my
teacher used to read us one chapter every
day and after lunch all of the students would
sit at their desks and listen, but at the
end of this book, she couldn’t continue.
She couldn’t read it out loud to us because
she was crying too much, so she asked a student
in my class to finish reading the last chapter
so you can imagine that you get involved with
the characters, you get involved with the
story and you really care about it.
So I warned you.
Let’s read a couple sentences from this book.
Chapter one.
When I left my office, that beautiful spring
day, I had no idea what was in store for me.
To begin with, everything was too perfect
for anything unusual to happen.
It was one of those days when a man feels
good, feels like speaking to his neighbor,
is glad to live in a country like ours and
proud of his government.
You know what I mean.
One of those rare days when everything is
right and nothing is wrong.
I was walking along saline when I heard a
dog fight.
At first I paid no attention to it, after
all, it wasn’t anything to get excited about
just another dog fight in a residential section.
As the sound of the fight grew nearer, I could
tell there were quite a few dogs mixed up
in it.
They boiled out of an alley turned and headed
straight towards me.
Not wanting to get bitten or run over, I moved
over to the edge of the sidewalk.
So in this section already in the first couple
paragraphs, you’ve seen new words such as
in store for me, what is in store for me,
great expression or the word rare or whistling
or to get excited about something.
These are great words that are not too challenging.
Maybe you’ve heard them before, but it’s going
to help remind you of words that you already
know and help to build your vocabulary.
Book number two, because the last one was
1.5, is Wonder by RJ Palacio, this book is
newer than the other two and that makes it
feel more relatable because it’s more modern
and it’s quickly becoming a new American classic.
I think that this book is required reading
in some fourth and fifth grade classrooms
in the US and it follows a boy August or Augie
as he goes to fifth grade for the first time
in his life.
You see, he has been homeschooled for his
whole life because he has a facial deformity
that looks like his face is melting off.
This is an unusual situation, so it talks
about him trying to find friends and acclimate
to a new situation and other people trying
to accept him.
This book doesn’t just focus on Augie’s perspective.
Some of the chapters are written by other
characters in the book so that you can see
it through their eyes.
You might see a chapter written by his sister,
his sister’s boyfriend, his best friend, some
classmates of his, so you can see the story
from different perspectives and realize that
each person in the story is struggling with
something.
Each person in the story maybe they look like
their life is great, but really they’re struggling
with something and need love and care and
friendship like everyone else.
Let’s read a couple sentences from this book.
Chapter one, ordinary.
I know I’m not an ordinary 10 year old kid.
I mean, sure, I do ordinary things.
I eat ice cream, I ride my bike, I play ball.
I have an Xbox, stuff that makes me ordinary,
I guess, and I feel ordinary inside, but I
know ordinary kids don’t make other ordinary
kids run away screaming in playgrounds.
I know ordinary kids don’t get stared at wherever
they go.
If I found a magic lamp and I could have one
wish, I would wish that I had a normal face
that no one ever noticed at all.
I would wish that I could walk down the street
without people seeing me and then doing that
look away thing.
Here’s what I think.
The only reason I’m not ordinary is that no
one else sees me that way.
We see this from a modern 10 year olds perspective.
It’s a beautiful story and I recommend it.
The next books are all written for adults,
so the language is a little bit higher.
Maybe the sentence structure is a little more
complex, but I chose these ones because I
think that you will like them and they’re
not scholarly journals, so I hope that you’ll
be able to understand them with some practice.
The next book is The Help by Katherine Stockett.
This is not the usual cover of this book.
It’s right here, but this book, can you imagine
living in the US in the south, in the 1960s
as an African American woman?
Not easy, right?
Life was not easy in the south for these women,
but this story is a beautiful story to give
us some insight into what life was like.
This book is told from the perspective of
two, sincere wise and fun loving black women
whose job it is to take care of the house
and the children for wealthy white families
in the south and it’s also told from the perspective
of Eugenia who is the daughter of one of the
wealthy white families.
She has an idea to create and write a book
about the white and black race relations in
the south in the 1960s.
So it’s kind of a book within a book.
She’s writing a book in the book.
Personally, I really loved this story and
I felt like I learned a lot about history
in the US and especially because I live in
the south, I felt like it helped me to learn
more about where I live.
I’m going to read a couple sentences from
this book, but I want to let you know I almost
included this book in my other video a while
ago about recommendations for English books
in general, but I decided not to include it
because the author decides to use some changes
in grammar and changes in spelling to show
the dialect of the people who were living
in the south.
So I want you to just be aware that some of
the grammar is not textbook correct grammar,
but it’s accurate for the people who lived
at that time.
So you’re going to hear their voice, hear
their dialect while you’re reading.
Let me read a couple sentences and then I’ll
tell you about what I mean.
Chapter one, Abilene.
This whose perspective we’re seeing.
August 1962, Mae Mobley was born on an early
Sunday morning in August 1960, a church baby.
We like to call it.
Taking care of white babies, that’s what I
do, along with all the cooking and the cleaning.
I done raised 17 kids in my lifetime.
I know how to get them babies to sleep, stop
crying, and go to the toilet bowl before they
mamas even get out of bed in the morning,
but I ain’t never seen a baby yell like May
Mobley Leefolt.
First day I walk in the door, there she be,
red hot and hollering with colic, fighting
that bottle like it’s a rotten turnip.
Mrs. Leefolt.
She looked terrified at her own child.
What am I doing wrong?
Why can’t I stop it?
It?
That was my first hint.
Something is wrong with this situation.
So here we see the perspective of Abilene.
One of the people who cares for the white
children and the white households in the south,
but she uses some interesting dialect changes
in her stories so far.
For example, she says, I done raised 17 kids.
The correct version is I raised, but she adds
done, so once you realize, okay, when I see
done, this is just a regional dialect variation.
It’s not the most common way of speaking.
Once you realize that, it’s not too bad, it’s
easier to understand.
Or for example, she uses the word ain’t, I
ain’t never seen.
I don’t really recommend using the word ain’t.
This is something that is also kind of a regional
or even class difference in English, but because
she uses this word in the book, you kind of
can get this picture of where she’s coming
from, the kind of person that she is, and
it’s a good way to learn more about the culture.
The next book is another classic American
story.
It is Into the Wild by John Krakauer.
I’m going to read the front of this book because
it gives a beautiful description.
In April 1992, this is a true story, a young
man from a well to do family, that means a
wealthy family, hitchhiked to Alaska and walked
alone into the wilderness north of Mount McKinley.
His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless.
He had given $25,000 in savings to charity,
abandoned his car, and most of his possessions,
burned all the cash in his wallet and invented
a new life for himself.
Four months later, his decomposed body was
found by a moose hunter.
Oh.
This gives a gripping summary of what happens
in this story.
The reason why I wanted to include this adventure
story, first of all, it’s a true story, so
it makes it even more incredible, but also
we can see that the main character, Christopher
McCandless, he is leaving his life, his well
to do, his comfortable life and he is going
off into the wilderness, into the forest,
going out into an unknown territory.
But why is he doing that?
Is he doing it for survival?
Because he needs to.
Because in the previous book, Little House
on the Prairie, they did that because they
needed to survive, but he is not doing that
because he needs to survive.
Instead, he’s doing something that’s quite
typical in American culture and that is trying
to find yourself, and this is quite a vague
idea.
It’s not specific at all, but it is trying
to find your roots, or who you are, what you
love, and who you truly are.
So Christopher goes off into the wilderness
trying to find himself, so if you enjoy some
philosophical thinking, some ideas about enlightening
yourself, about what is society, how can I
fit in?
This book is a great one for you and it’s
also an adventure story.
Let’s read a couple sentences from this book.
This book is full of different maps and also
real writings from Christopher because he
sent postcards and letters back to his friends
and family, so this gives us quite a real
feel.
Alright, let’s read some of the first sentences.
Chapter one.
The Alaska Interior.
Jim Galleon had driven four miles out of Fairbanks
when he spotted a hitchhiker standing in the
snow beside the road.
Thumb raised high, shivering in the Alaska
dawn.
He didn’t appear to be very old.
18, maybe 19 at most.
A rifle protruded from the young man’s backpack,
but he looked friendly enough.
A hitchhiker with a gun isn’t the sort of
thing that gives motorists pause in the 49th
state.
Galleon steered his truck onto the shoulder
and told the kid to climb in.
So here we’ve already been introduced to a
lot of great vocabulary.
You have seen the expression, give pause.
Oh, how can we use this as a verb?
It gives me pause.
This means it makes me stop and think, and
in the book he says, when you see someone
carrying a gun, it doesn’t make you stop and
think, it’s quite normal in the 49th state.
This is Alaska, so in Alaska it’s quite common
to carry a gun, at least in this time period.
So it’s kind of giving this general picture
of the wilderness, this wild different land
in Alaska that the main character, Christopher
has gone to.
Let’s go on to the fifth book.
It is Bill Bryson’s book.
I’m a Stranger Here Myself.
I love everything about this book.
This is one of my top 10 books of all time,
but in fact it’s not really even a book.
It’s a series of articles and essays that
the author Bill Bryson wrote.
This is a nonfiction book as well, that he
wrote about his experience as an American
moving back to the US, so he has lived in
the UK for 20 years and this is his notes
on returning to America after 20 years away,
so he’s kind of experiencing the American
culture for a second time.
He grew up in the US, but as an adult he lived
in the UK for such a long time that that became
normal to him and now he’s moving back to
the U.S. and Bill Bryson’s style of writing
is comedic and clever and witty and beautiful
in every way.
Let’s read a couple sentences from one of
his chapters called take me out to the ballpark.
A great thing about this book is that you
can complete a full story in just a few pages,
so in three pages you can finish this full
story and feel like you’ve accomplished something
in English.
Let’s read a couple sentences.
People sometimes ask me what’s the difference
between baseball and cricket?
The answer is simple.
Both are games of great skill involving balls
and bats, but with this crucial difference,
baseball is exciting and when you go home
at the end of the day, you know who won.
I’m joking.
Of course.
Cricket is a wonderful sport, full of deliciously
scattered micro moments of real action.
If a doctor ever instructs me to take a complete
rest and not get overexcited, I shall become
a fan at once.
In the meantime, my heart belongs to baseball.
It’s what I grew up with, what I played as
a boy, and that of course is vital to any
meaningful appreciation of a sport.
I had this brought home to me many years ago
in England when I went out to a soccer ground
with a couple of English friends to knock
a ball around.
Okay.
We have the introduction to his little story
about his experience with baseball and we
saw some interesting words here.
He said, this brought home to me.
I had this brought home to me.
Do you know what this means to have something
brought home to you?
Is someone really bringing physically bringing
something to your house?
No.
This just means that you understood something,
they’re bringing it home to your mind, so
he says, I had this idea brought home to me
many years ago in England, so he got this
idea in his mind many years ago.
This is a great way to introduce yourself
to new vocabulary and idioms.
I’d like to talk about one more book.
It’s kind of book recommendation 5.5 because
it’s from the same author, but it’s a little
bit nerdier.
My final book recommendation is The Mother
Tongue by the same author, Bill Bryson.
This book is my second favorite Bill Bryson
book, and if you like language and the history
of language and those nerdy facts about language,
especially English, you’re gonna love this
book.
I think that this book is the most complex
book of all of my recommendations today because
it uses some clever jokes and twists of language
while explaining history and it uses a lot
of vocabulary to talk about vocabulary and
where it came from, but it’s quite interesting
because it compares English with a lot of
other languages and showing where different
English words came from.
Let’s read a couple sentences from the beginning,
chapter one, the world’s language.
More than 3 million people in the world speak
English and the rest, it sometimes seems,
try to.
It would be charitable to say that the results
are sometimes mixed.
Imagine being a foreigner and having to learn
that in English, one tells a lie, but the
truth.
That a person who says, I could care less
means the same thing as someone who says,
I couldn’t care less.
That a sign in the store says all items not
on sale, doesn’t mean literally what it says,
that every item is not on sale, but rather
than only some of the items are on sale, and
when a person says to you, how do you do,
he will be taken aback if you reply with impeccable
logic, how do I do what?
The complexities of the English language are,
such that even native English speakers can
not always communicate effectively as almost
every American learns on his first day in
Britain.
Indeed Robert Birchfield, editor of the Oxford
English dictionary created a stir in linguistic
circles on both sides of the Atlantic.
When he announced his belief that American
English and English English are drifting apart
so rapidly that within 200 years the two nations
won’t be able to understand each other at
all.
So here he’s just giving a glimpse of some
history, some cleverness, some little ideas.
There is a lot of information stored in this
book.
So if you’re interested in the history of
the English language and also some humor,
this is not just facts.
There’s a lot of humor and wit, I recommend
it.
So today I recommended books from the past
about American history, about the American
language, about the south, about the 1960s,
about the northwest in the 1990s, about the
American spirits.
I hope that you can learn more about the English
language, but also just American culture and
the complexities and learn more about this
to help us all realize that in the end humans
are humans, no matter where we come from,
we might have different backgrounds and different
ideas.
But you know what?
We’re still human.
So now I want to know about you.
What books do you recommend?
Let us know in the comments and I hope that
we can read some books and expand our knowledge
together.
Thanks so much.
I’ll see you the next time for a new lesson
on my YouTube channel here next Friday.
Bye.
The next step is to download my free e-book,
Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English
Speaker.
You’ll learn what you need to do to speak
confidently and fluently.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel
for more free lessons.
Thanks so much.
Bye.