Individual Learning: Ideas for book groups, informal learning teams and individuals who like to thoroughly explore a topic

Many reading opportunities about the immigrant experience are available, fiction and nonfiction, historic and contemporary. These titles cover a variety of topics relating to the experience, and are gleaned from a number of sources, including personal references, expert bibliographies, references in secondary sources, and websites. Roberta Simone’s The Immigrant Experience in American Fiction: An Annotated Bibliography, The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1995, is an excellent resource for finding out what a book is about before you embark. The book summaries on Amazon.com and other book vendors are also useful.

Fiction
The immigrant experience in fiction is a prominent theme in 20th century literature. This is just a short list of the many authors who have chosen to make it a theme in their creative works. Be sure to search for multiple works by these and other authors.
o Julia Alvarez, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. Plume, 1992.
o Rudolfo Anaya, Heart of Aztlan. Editorial Justa, 1976.
o Charles Angoff, Journey to the Dawn. A.S. Barnes, 1951.
o Alberic Archambault, Mill Village. Bruce Humphries, 1943.
o Joseph Auslander and Audrey Wurdemann, My Uncle Jan. Longmans, Green, 1948.
o Harry Barba, For the Grape Season. Macmillan, 1960
o Helen Barolini, Umbertina. Seaview Books, 1979.
o Thomas Bell, Out of This Furnace. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1941.
o Saul Bellow, Mr. Sammler’s Planet. Viking, 1970.
o Yun Ching Bezine, Children of the Pearl. Signet, 1991.
o Carlos Bulosan, America is in the Heart. Harcourt Brace & Company, 1943.
o Robert Olen Butler, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain. Henry Holt, 1992.
o Abraham Cahan, Yekl, A Tale of the New York Ghetto. (1896) Dover, 1970.
o Lan Cao, Monkey Bridge. Viking, 1997.
o Willa Cather, My Ántonia. Houghton Mifflin, 1917.
o Jerome Charyn. American Scrapbook. Viking Press, 1969.
o Frank Chin, Donald Duk. Coffee House, 1991.
o Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street. Arte Publico, 1984.
o Mary Doyle Curran, The Parish and the Hill. Houghton Mifflin, 1948..
o Borghild Dahl, Homecoming. Dutton, 1953.
o Edwidge Danticat, Breath, Eyes, Memory. Soho, 1994.
o David C. De Jong, With a Dutch Accent. Harper and Brothers, 1944.
o Junot Diaz, Drown. Riverhead Books, 1996.
o Junot Diaz. The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Riverhead, 2007.
o Theodore Dreiser, Jennie Gerhardt. Harper and Brothers, 1911.
o Mylene Dressler, The Deadwood Beetle. BlueHen Books, 2001.
o James T. Farrell, Studs Lonigan: A Trilogy. Vanguard, 1935.
o Edna Ferber, So Big. Doubleday, Page, 1924.
o Ernesto Galarza, Barrio Boy. Notre Dame University Press, 1971.
o Cristina Garcia, Dreaming in Cuban. Knopf, 1992.
o Joseph Geha, Through and Through: Toledo Stories. Greywolf, 1990.
o Emilian Glocar, A Man from the Balkans. Dorrance, 1942.
o Herbert Gold, Fathers: A Novel in the Form of a Memoir. Random House, 1967.
o Michael Gold, Jews Without Money. Liveright, 1930.
o Mary Gordon, The Other Side. Viking Penguin, 1989.
o David Guterson, Snow Falling on Cedars. Harcourt Brace, 1994.
o Hermann Hagedorn, The Hyphenated Family. Macmillan, 1960.
o Richard Hagopian, Wine for the Living. Scribner’s, 1956.
o Ursula Hegi, The Vision of Emma Blau. Simon and Schuster, 2000.
o Oscar Hijuelos, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love. Harper Perennial, 1991.
o Marjorie Housepian, A Houseful of Love. Random House, 1957.
o Edward Ifkovic, Anna Marinkovich. Maryland Books, 1980.
o Charles E. Jarvis, The Tyrants. Ithaca Press, 1972.
o Gish Jen, Typical American. Houghton Mifflin, 1991.
o Younghill Kang. East Goes West. Scribner’s, 1937.
o Elia Kazan, America, America. Stein and Day, 1962.
o Elia Kazan, The Anatolian. Knopf, 1982.
o Jack Kerouac. Doctor Sax: Faust, Part Three. Harcourt Brace, 1959.
o Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy. Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 1990.
o Maxine Hong Kingston, China Men. Knopf, 1980.
o Jerzy Kosinski, The Painted Bird. Houghton Mifflin, 1965.
o Ruby R. Krider, Time and Tide. Dorrance, 1968. o Jhumpa Lahiri. Unaccustomed Earth. Knopf. 2008.
o Wendy Law-Yone, The Coffin Tree. Knopf, 1983.
o Robert Laxalt, Sweet Promised Land. Harper and Brothers, 1957.
o Vera Lebedeff, The Heart Returneth. Lippincott, 1943.
o Chang-rae Lee, Native Speaker. Riverhead Books, 1995.
o Jennifer B. Lee, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food. Twelve, 2008.
o Milla Zenovich Logan, Bring Along Laughter. Random House, 1947.
o Paule Marshall, Brown Girl, Brown Stones. Random House, 1959.
o Ruthanne Lum McCunn, Thousand Pieces of Gold. Design Enterprises, 1981.
o Claude McKay, Home to Harlem. Harper and Brothers, 1928.
o Dinaw Mengestu, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears. Riverhead Hardcover, 2007.
o Grace de Repentigny Metalious. No Adam in Eden, Trident, 1967.
o Kazuo Miyamoto, Hawaii, End of the Rainbow. Tuttle, 1964.
o Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine. Grove, 1989.
o Vladimir Nabokov, Pnin. Heinemann, 1960.
o Peter Najorian, Daughters of Memory. City Miner Books, 1986.
o John Okada, No-No Boy. Charles E. Tuttle, 1957.
o Tillie Olsen, Tell Me a Riddle. Delacorte, 1960.
o Ty Pak. Guilt Payment. Bamboo Ridge Press, 1983.
o Harry Petrakis, Days of Vengeance. Doubleday, 1983.
o Chaim Potok, In the Beginning. Knopf, 1975.
o Mario Puzo, The Fortunate Pilgrim. Atheneum, 1964.
o Nahid Rachlin, Foreigner. Norton, 1978.
o Nahid Rachlin, Married to a Stranger. Dutton, 1983.
o Gerard Robichaud, Papa Martel. All Saints, 1961.
o Roll, Elvira Osorio. Hawaii’s Kohala Breezes. Exposition Press, 1964.
o Ole Rolvaag, Giants in the Earth. Harper, 1927.
o Leo C. Rosten (aka Leonard Q. Ross), The Education of H*y*m*a*n K*a*p*l*a*n. Harcourt, Brace, 1937.
o Henry Roth, Call It Sleep. R.O. Ballou, 1934.
o Shirley Schoonover. Mountains of Winter. Coward-McCann, 1962.
o Upton Singer, The Jungle. Doubleday, Page, 1906.
o Isaac Bashevis Singer, Enemies: A Love Story. Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1972.
o Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Blakiston, 1943.
o Gary Soto, Living Up The Street: Narrative Recollections. Strawberry Hill, 1985.
o Virgil Suárez, Welcome to the Oasis and Other Stories. Arte Publico, 1991.
o James W. Sullivan, Tenement Tales of New York. Henry Hold, 1895.
o Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club. Putnam’s, 1989.
o Piri Thomas, Down These Mean Streets. Knopf, 1967.
o Yoshiko Uchida, Picture Bride. Simon and Schuster, 1987.
o Gina Valdez, There are No Madmen Here. Arte Publico, 1981.
o Mircea Vasiliu, Which Way to the Melting Pot? Doubleday, 1963.
o Victor G. Vecki, Threatening Shadows. Stratford, 1931.
o Anzia Yezierska, Bread Givers, A Novel: A Struggle Between a Father of the Old World and a Daughter of the New. 1925. Persea Books, 1975.
o Sophus Keith Winther, Trilogy – Take All to Nebraska (1936); Mortgage Your Heart (1937); and This Passion Never Dies (1938).
o Shawn Wong, Homebase. I Reed Books, 1979.