Summer Reading That Builds SAT Vocabulary

Summer is the best time to grow your vocabulary by reading a great book! Vocabulary words met in the context of a story are easier to remember, because they come attached to characters and events that make them stick. So this summer, I'm asking my students to read. Here are seven books I recommend: three classics, a modern essay collection, my personal favorite novel, and two books written specifically for SAT prep.

1984 by George Orwell

Orwell's dystopian classic is packed with high-value words like orthodoxy, proletariat, and rectify, used with such precision that their meanings become unforgettable. The novel also sharpens skills the SAT rewards: tracking an argument, recognizing tone, seeing how word choice shapes meaning. Plus, you'll finally understand what people mean by "Big Brother is watching."

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Nineteenth-century novels are vocabulary goldmines, and Little Women is one of the most readable of them all. Alcott's story of the four March sisters is full of words like vexation, impertinent, and contrite, woven into scenes so warm and funny that you barely notice you're studying. Older prose also trains you to handle the denser sentences in SAT reading passages.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald's Jazz Age masterpiece is short enough to finish in a week and dense with SAT-level words like supercilious, languid, feign, and incredulous. Every sentence is polished, which makes it ideal for studying how skilled writers choose their words. The green light at the end of Daisy's dock is one of the most famous symbols in American literature, so you'll be building literary knowledge along with vocabulary.

Calypso by David Sedaris

For open-minded readers, this essay collection about family, middle age, and a beach house named the Sea Section proves that sophisticated vocabulary lives in laugh-out-loud writing too. Sedaris reaches for words like lugubrious, fastidious, and macabre with a comedian's timing. Fair warning: the humor is dark and the topics can be mature. If you'd rather sample his most loved pieces, try The Best of Me instead.

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

I'll admit my bias up front: this is my favorite book. When a radio telescope picks up music from a distant planet, a Jesuit-sponsored crew sets out to make first contact, and what follows is a story about faith, language, and the price of good intentions. Russell writes with a linguist's ear, and the novel is rich with words like celibate, anthropologist, penance, and transcendent. A serious caution before you pick it up: The Sparrow contains scenes of violence and mature themes, so it's best suited for older students ready for a demanding read. For those who are, it stays with you for life.

The Ring of McAllister by Robert Marantz

This one was designed for exactly our purpose. Published by Kaplan, The Ring of McAllister is a mystery novel featuring 1,046 must-know SAT vocabulary words, all defined at the bottom of each page. When Will Lassiter's neighbor vanishes from the mysterious Stone Manor, Will is pulled into the puzzle of the late Algernon McAllister. A page-turner and a study guide in one book.

Tooth and Nail by Charles Harrington Elster and Joseph Elliot

Tooth and Nail: A Novel Approach to the SAT is the original of this genre. A campus mystery set at fictional Holyfield College, it weaves more than a thousand SAT words into the plot, with a glossary in the back so you can check yourself as you go. A missing manuscript, two English-major heroes, and a vocabulary workout on every page.

How to Make It Count

Pick at least two books from this list, perhaps mixing a classic with one of the vocab novels. Then get yourself a small notebook, a real paper one, and write down every word you can't define along with the sentence and page number where you found it. I recommend handwriting over typing because forming the letters yourself strengthens the hand-brain connection: words you write by hand are words you remember. Colored markers or highlighters add one more make-it-stick layer, maybe one color for words you've mastered and another for words that keep slipping away. Each week, review your notebook and try using three of the words in conversation. Aim for twenty to thirty minutes of reading a day.

Do that from now until September, and you'll walk into the SAT with hundreds of new words you actually know how to use. Happy reading!

And, because I love to read, here are a few more suggestions:

• A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving. A story of faith, fate, and friendship, rich with Irving's vocabulary; mild caution for mature themes.

• Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë. A 19th-century vocabulary goldmine featuring words like countenance and vehement, with a heroine students root for. I also loved Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye. It’s a 2016 retelling of Jane Eyre in Victorian diction, but in this version Jane takes charge of her fate and murders her oppressors! Pairs perfectly with the original.

• The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde. Wilde's epigrams deliver languor, sordid, and insolence, and the eerie premise hooks readers instantly.

• Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier. A suspenseful gothic page-turner with elegant mid-century prose and plenty of SAT words throughout.

• The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas. Long but addictive; the revenge plot delivers magnanimous, avarice, and clemency in memorable context.

• Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen. Austen's irony teaches tone alongside vocabulary like amiable, condescension, and impropriety, with romance as the reward.

• The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan. Interwoven mother-daughter stories in accessible but sophisticated prose, ideal for students wanting something more modern.

• Born a Crime, Trevor Noah. A memoir students genuinely love, with sharp vocabulary and strong storytelling; some mature content and language.

• The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith. This is a psychological thriller that will help readers to refine their inference skills, something that the reading section of the SAT is also measuring. Caution for violence and mature themes.

• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin. A 2022 bestseller about friendship, love, and video game design; smart prose with a mild caution for mature themes.

• Frankenstein, Mary Shelley. Gothic atmosphere and formal Romantic-era diction like abhorrence and desolation, in a story students are familiar with.