English Department
Upper School Summer Reading List
2008
Students entering grades 9 through 12 will need to select two books from the list below to read over the summer and are required to read one other. In addition, all students in the Upper School are required to read:
Best Short Stories of 2007, edited by Stephen King.
These stories, compiled by novelist Stephen King, are linked by a common
theme: when individuals feel the need to break the rules to stay true
to themselves.
Students must pick the remaining two books from the list
below unless alternative selections have been approved by the English
Department Chair by the last day of classes.
Students should also be aware that their teachers will expect them to
bring their summer reading books to class in September and will be holding
studens accountable for the reading.
**Especially suitable for readers who like a challenge
Highlighted titles are new additions to the list
Book list categories:
Fiction
Non-Fiction
Biography
Alcott, Louisa May
Little Women
1868.
The story concerns the lives and loves of four sisters growing up during the American Civil War. It is based on Alcott’s own experiences as a child in Boston and Concord, Massachusetts.
Agee, James.
A Death in the Family
1957
The enchanted childhood summer of 1915 suddenly becomes a baffling experience
for Rufus Follet when his father dies.
Allen, Irene
Quaker Indictment
1998
Elizabeth Elliot, mild-mannered Quaker confronts murder, sexual harassment
and plagiarism at Harvard. Also recommended: Quaker Witness and Quaker
Testimony.
Alvarez, Julia
In the Time of Butterflies
1994
Dede, the only survivor of the four Mirabel sisters, code named Mariposas
or butterflies, reveals their role in the liberation of the Dominican
Republic from the dictator Trujillo.
**Austen, Jane
Pride and Prejudice
1813
Elizabeth Bennet, a spirited and attractive young woman, encounters and
captivates the proud Mr. Darcy in spite of her own preconceived notions.
**Austen, Jane
Sense and Sensibility
1990 (republished)
Elinor and Marianne are two sisters who are
polar opposites in terms of their characters, but who both struggle with
disappointment, regret, and hope in the search to find real love within
the confines of strict English society.
Baldwin, James.
Go Tell it on the Mountain.
1953.
In this novel, teenage John struggles
with inner religious conflict and with his rigid father in 1930’s
Harlem.
Butler, Octavia
Parable of the Sower
1993
Lauren Olamina, who suffers from a hereditary trait called "hyperempathy"
that causes her to feel others' pain physically, journeys north along
the dangerous highways of twentieth-first century California.
Cao, Lan
Monkeybridge
1997
Both Mai Ngyuen and her widowed mother escape the terrible aftermath of the Vietnam War. But while Mai seems to adjust readily to American life, her mother – haunted by their losses – cannot embrace this new country as home.
*Card, Orson Scott
Ender’s Shadow
1999
A parallel novel to Card’s award-winning Ender’s Game, Ender’s
Shadow presents Bean, Ender Wiggins’ friend and right hand, who
plays an invaluable role in the final battle against an alien enemy.
Clavell, James
Shogun
1986
A bold English adventurer. An invincible Japanese warlord. A beautiful woman torn between two ways of life, two ways of love. All brought together in a mighty saga of a time and place aflame with conflict, passion, ambition, lust and the struggle for power.
Crane, Stephen
The Red Badge of Courage
1895.
This Civil War story, told through the eyes of Henry Fleming, an ordinary
farm boy turned soldier, captures the sights and sounds of war while creating
the intricate inner world of Henry.
De Bernieres, Louis
Corelli’s Mandolin
1994
In the early days of the Second World War, the betrothed daughter of a
Greek doctor falls in love with a cultured officer of the Italian army
which is invading her country.
**Desai, Kiran
The Inheritance of Loss
2005
Parallel stories of a father and son, one in India the other in New York City, marks a real difference in what people want out of life and how generations see the world.
Dickens, Charles
A Tale of Two Cities
1859
This is Dickens’ second historical novel. It centers on the years leading up to the French Revolution and culminates with the Reign of Terror.
Dickens, Charles
David Copperfield
1850
David Copperfield, born in 1820, tells his own story from childhood to adulthood. This is the first of Dickens’ first person narrators.
Dickens, Charles
Great Expectations
1861
Pip, a young Englishman, pursues his ambitions and expectations in hope
of winning the fickle heart of the lovely Estella.
Doctorow, E.L.
Billy Bathgate
1989
In the Bronx of the 1930s, 15-year-old Billy Bathgate hooks up with a
legendary mobster, Dutch Schultz. Schultz becomes an unlikely surrogate
parent to the boy, introducing him to the ways of the world and training
Billy to follow in his footsteps.
Dorris, Michael
A Yellow raft in Blue Water
1987
Starting in the present and moving backward, this is the story of a young girl trying to understand her self a part black, part Native American girl growing up in the west.
**Dostoyevsky, Fyodor
Crime and Punishment
1866.
A sensitive intellectual is driven by poverty to believe himself exempt
from moral law.
Dreiser, Theodore
An American Tragedy
1925.
This is the story of the corruption and destruction of one man, Clyde Griffiths, who forfeits his life in the desperate pursuit of success.
**Eliot, George
The Mill on the Floss
1860
In this 19th-century novel, Maggie Tulliver breaks off her romance
with the man she loves, after she discovers that it was he who ruined
her family’s small mill business.
Emecheta, Buchi
Bride Price
1976
Aku-nna, a very young Ibo girl, and Chike, her teacher, fall in
love despite tribal custom forbidding their romance.
Eugenides, Jeffrey
Middlesex
2002
This story follows three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family as they travel from a tiny village in Greece to Prohibition-era Detroit through the city’s race riots of 1967 to the suburban peace of Grosse Pointe, Michigan. At the heart of this story lies the family secret that leads to the transformation of Callie Stephanides into Cal.
Eggers Dave
What is the What
2006
Based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng who was one of Sudan’s lost boys, the story is about his adjustment to life in the United States as well as reflections of his childhood in Africa. This book was chosen for the One Book One Philadelphia initiative in spring of 2008.
Fager, Chuck
Murder among Friends
1998
The conference was designed to bring fractious Quakers together, but now
a televangelist is dead and a Quaker is the major suspect. Also recommended:
Un-Friendly Persuasion.
Fast, Howard
April Morning
1970
The story of one day in the life of a young American boy in colonial
Lexington, the day on which he joined the militia and saw his father shot
down by the British.
Faulkner, William
The Unvanquished
1938
Set in Mississippi during the Civil War and Reconstruction, The Unvanquished
focuses on the Sartoris family, who with their code of personal responsibility
and courage, stand for the best of the Old South’s traditions.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott
**Tender is the Night
1934
Psychiatrist Dick Diver and his former schizophrenic patient turned wife,
Nicole, live, work, and play in the French Riviera in the 1920's. Nicole
is still dangerously capricious and fragile, and their marriage has been
built on a shaky foundation.
**Flaubert, Gustave
Madame Bovary
1857 One of the great creations of modern literature, Emma Bovary
is the bored wife of a provincial doctor whose desires and illusions are
inevitably shattered when reality catches up with her.
Frazier, Charles
Cold Mountain
1997
Inman, a wounded Civil War soldier, endures the elements, The Guard, and
his own weakness and infirmity to return to his sweetheart, Ada, who is
fighting her own battle to survive while farming the mountainous North
Carolina terrain.
Garcia Y Robertson, R.
American Woman
Sarah Kilroy, a young Quaker married to a Sioux, witnesses the battle
at Little Big Horn and the death of General Custer.
Gibbons, Kaye.
Ellen Foster
1987
Casting an unflinching yet humorous eye on her situation, eleven-year-old
Ellen survives her mother's death, an abusive father, and uncaring relatives
to find for herself a loving home and a new mama.
Gloss, Molly.
The Dazzle of Day
Quakers voyage to the stars as humankind spreads throughout the universe.
Goldberg, Myla
Bee Season
2000
Eliza’s extraordinary gift for spelling leads her to understand the sounds of the alphabet, in a way that echoes the teachings of the mystical Kabala
Golden, Arthur S.
Memoirs of a Geisha
1999
In this elegantly written rendering of geisha culture in the years before
World War II, Sayuri ages from a nine-year-old Japanese peasant girl to
a popular geisha in her late twenties.
Guterson, David.
Snow Falling on Cedars
1990
Set in the 1950’s on an island in Washington, lingering memories
of World War II, internment camps and racism help fuel suspicion of a
Japanese-American fisherman during a murder trial.
Haruf, Kent
Plainsong
2000.
A story of life in the prairie town of Holt Colorado, where a seemingly small town deals with big issues through a series of un-expected plot turns.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
**The House of the Seven Gables
1850
Meet a respected New England family of many generations in its decaying,
gabled mansion, still haunted by the presence of dead ancestors one of
whom was accused of witchcraft in 17th century.
Hegi, Ursula
Stones from the River
1994
Trudi Montag –a dwarf – born between the two World Wars, comes of age just as Hitler's pronouncements begin to threaten the Jewish residents of her town, and of all Germany. Trudi has difficult ethical choices to make, and these decisions shape her for the rest of her life.
Heller, Joseph
Catch-22
1961
In this satirical novel, Captain Yossarian confronts the hypocrisy of
war and bureaucracy as he frantically attempts to survive.
Hemingway, Ernest
Farewell to Arms
1929
World War I is the setting for this love story of an English nurse and
a wounded American ambulance officer.
Hemingway, Ernest
For Whom the Bell Tolls
1968
In 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, Robert Jordan, a demolitions expert,
has come to blow up a bridge on behalf of the antifascist guerrilla forces.
Jordan's sense of duty conflicts with a local leader's dangerous self-interest
and weariness with the war.
Hesse, Hermann
Siddhartha
1951
Emerging from a kaleidoscope of experiences and tasted pleasures, Siddhartha
transcends to a state of peace and mystic holiness in this strangely simple
story.
Hosseini, Khaled
A Thousand Splendid Suns
2006
A story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years -- from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives -- the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness -- are inextricable from the history playing out around them.
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
1932
In a chilling vision of the future, babies are produced in bottles and
exist in a mechanized world without soul.
Irving, John
A Prayer for Owen Meaney
1990
Tells the story of two friends who struggle with personal tragedies and with the looming shadow of the Vietnam war.
Jones, Elizabeth Crockett
Three Blocks from Heaven
2007
Jessica Lawless had a seemingly successful life. It was not until her mother's death that she realized she really didn't have it all. Through a series of unexpected events in her life, Jessica learns that achieving success isn't the same as achieving happiness, and there is more to life than just living.
**Joyce, James
Portrait of the artist as a Young Man
1916
Protagonist Stephen Daedalus is a renegade Catholic artist-hero in a story
that is a testament of what t means to be alive and filled with curiosity,
desire, and sensitivity—in short, to be an artist.
Keneally, Thomas
Schindler's List
1982
Oskar Schindler, a rich factory owner, risks his life and spends his personal
fortune to save Jews listed as his workers during World War II.
Lahiri, Jhumpa
The Namesake
2003
Lahiri explores the challenges facing Indian Immigrants and their children
in the United States.
Lahiri, Jhumpa
Unaccustomed Earth
2008
Lahiri’s second short story collection explores individuals hopes and aspirations compared to the realities of events that surround them. Each story has strong characters whose emotions are compelling.
Kingsolver, Barbara
Prodigal Summer
2000
This lush, sparkling novel weaves together three stories of characters
whose lives are intertwined with each other and with the beautiful natural
surroundings of southern Appalachia.
LeGuin, Ursula
The Left Hand of Darkness
1969
First envoy to the technologically primitive world of Winter, Al must
deal with a hostile climate; a suspicious, bickering government; and his
own conventional sexual mores.
**Marquez, Gabriel Garcia
Love in the Time of Cholera
Fermina, who is courted solely by letter, decisively rejects her suitor
when he first speaks, and then joins the urbane Dr. Juvenal Urbino, much
above her station, in a marriage initially loveless but ultimately remarkable
in its strength.
McCullers, Carson
The Member of the Wedding
1946
A young Southern girl is determined to be the third party on a honeymoon,
despite all advice.
Malamud, Bernard
The Fixer
1966
Victim of a vicious anti-Semitic conspiracy, Yakov Bok is in a Russian
prison with only his indomitable will to sustain him.
Mason, Bobbi Ann
In Country
1985
After her father is killed in the Vietnam War, Sam Hughes lives with an
uncle whom she suspects suffers from the effects of Agent Orange, and
struggles to come to terms with the war's impact on her family.
McCarthy, Cormac
All the Pretty Horses
1992
Sixteen-year-old John Grady Cole, the last in a long line of west Texas
ranchers, realizes that the only life he has ever known is disappearing
into the past and therefore leaves on a dangerous and harrowing journey
in the beautiful and utterly foreign world that is Mexico.
McCarthy, Cormac
Cities of the Plain
1999
Older now, John Grady Cole sees his way of life disappearing, so he holds
on to it even harder. Things fall apart as he falls in love with a Mexican
girl and tries to rescue her from her enslaver. Funny, sad and violent.
McMurtry, Larry
Lonesome Dove
1988
While this story is as a classic tale of the west with a group of men herding cattle, the real energy comes from the compelling characters and how they relate to each other.
**Melville, Herman
Moby Dick
1851
In allegorical and epic saga, the fanatical Captain Ahab swears vengeance
on the mammoth white whale that has crippled him.
**Mistry Rohinton
A Fine Balance
2001
Set in India, this story follows the lives of four ordinary people whose lives become intertwined through the politics of the country.
Morrison, Toni
The Bluest Eye
1970
In this subtle and lyrical work, Toni Morrison tells the story of Pecola,
a black girl in Ohio who longs for blue eyes so she’ll be lovable.
O'Brien, Tim
The Things They Carried: A Work of Fiction
1990
These stories follow Tim O'Brien's platoon of American soldiers through
a variety of personal and military encounters during the Vietnam War.
Payton, Alan
Cry, the Beloved Country
1948
This is a beautifully told and profoundly compassionate story of the Zulu
pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, who experiences the joys and
tragedies of a South African community struggling with the injustice of
apartheid.
Petterson, Per
Out Stealing Horses
2003
Looking back at his life, Trond Sander, begins to understand what moments defined his life for him. Specifically, he recalls the effect of going out to steal horses In Norway with his younger brother soon after world War Two.
*Price, Susan
The Sterkarm Handshake
2000
Andrea, a 21st century researcher, and Per, a 16th century warrior, find
that their love for each other is threatened by the collision between
their cultures and peoples.
Quinonez, Ernesto
Bodega Dreams
2000
In this inspired and darkly funny novel, young Chino finds himself helplessly
drawn into a criminal network after being introduced to the mysterious,
powerful Willie Bodega.
Relin, David
Three Cups of Tea
2007
A man travels to Afghanistan and Pakistan to build schools for children
and learns about the value of service.
Remarque, Enrich Maria
All Quiet on the Western Front
1928
This book tells the story of war and the deep detachment from German civilian life felt by men returning from the front.
Roth, Phillip
The Plot Against America
2005
Charles Lindbergh, the flying hero and Nazi sympathizer, becomes president
of the United States on a platform of keeping us out of WWII. Soon “camps”
start springing up in the West. Jews are encouraged to move there...
**Roth, Phillip
Operation Shylock
1993
The life of Philip Roth, a Jewish-American novelist in Israel, is being
plagued by an impostor who is claiming to be him and publicly spreading
controversial ideas.
Roy, Aundhati
The God of Small Things
1997
Set in Kerala, India, during the late 1960s when Communism rattled the
age-old caste system, Roy reveals the family tensions that incite the
behavior of Rahel and her fraternal twin brother, Estha, on the fateful
night that their young cousin drowned.
Russo, Richard
Empire Falls
2001
Miles Roby, proprietor of the local greasy spoon and the recently divorced
father of a teenage daughter has a tendency to take it on the chin. His
role as Mr. Nice Guy thrusts him into all sorts of clashes with his not-so-nice
Maine mill town community.
Shields, Carol
The Stone Diaries
1993
With irony and humor, Shields weaves together the poignant story of a
20th Century pilgrim, and in doing so creates a story that is a paradigm
of our unsettled era.
Sinclair, Upton
The Jungle
1906
Telling a vivid story that led to government regulations of the food industry,
this is a vivid portrait of life and death in a turn-of-the-century American
meat-packing factory.
Smiley, Jane
A Thousand Acres
1991
Aging Larry Cook announces his intention to turn over his 1,000-acre farm
to his three adult daughters, Caroline, Ginny and Rose, but then leaves
Caroline out of the deal because she is less than enthusiastic about her
father's generosity. While Larry Cook deteriorates into an alcoholic,
his daughters are left to cope with the often grim realities of life on
a family farm and their pasts.
**Smith, Judy
Yellowbird
2007
Looking at Hawthorne and Melville through the points of view of their wives and a native American mystic.
Smith, Zadie
On Beauty
2005
Set in Both England and the United States, this is a story about family, politics, and the power of self deception.
Steinbeck, John
The Grapes of Wrath
1939
An Oklahoma farmer and his family leave the Dust Bowl during the Great
Depression to go to the promised land of California.
Stendhal, Roger
The Red and the Black
1830
This book relates to a young man’s attempts to rise above his common birth, only to find himself betrayed by his own passions.
Stoker, Bram
Dracula
The original (and best?) vampire story.
1897
Read it if you dare.
**Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
1852
This anti-slavery novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the United States.
**Tolstoy, Leo
Anna Karenina
1877
This tragic love story pits the fragile heart of Anna against society
as she endeavors to sustain her affair with her beloved Vronsky.
Uchida, Yoshiko
Picture Bride
1987
Taro journeys to America in the early 1900s to marry a man she has never
met.
Updike, John
Rabbit Run
1960
Harry Angstrom was a star basketball player in high school and that was
the best time of his life. Now in his mid-20s, his work is unfulfilling,
his marriage is moribund, and he tries to find happiness with another
woman.
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
1966
Billy Pilgrim, a GI prisoner of war, becomes “unstuck” in
time and travels through space and time.
Walker, Alice
The Color Purple
1982
Celie journeys through an unbearable life consisting of many different,
but abusive, relationships to find herself and her own happiness.
Wharton, Edith
Ethan Frome
1911
Set in turn-of-the-century New England, Ethan Frome is a man with dreams and desires that end in an ironic turn of events.
Wright, Richard
Native Son
1940
For Bigger Thomas, an African American man accused of a crime in the white
man's world, there could be no extenuating circumstances, no explanations
and only death.
*Yolen, Jane
Briar Rose
1992
Disturbed by her grandmother Gemma's unique version of Sleeping Beauty,
Rebecca seeks the truth behind the fairy tale.
Non-Fiction
The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition.
1998
This riveting account of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 expedition to Antarctica presents , for the first time, 150 images by Australian photographer Frank Hurley and superb research and narrative by Caroline Alexander.
Anderson, M.T.
The Pox party: taken from accounts by [Octavius Nothing's] own hand and other Sundry
2006
As the boy's regal mother, Cassiopeia, entertains the house scholars with her beauty and wit, young Octavian begins to question the purpose behind his guardians' fanatical studies. Only after he dares to open a forbidden door does he learn the hideous nature of their experiments - and his own chilling role in them.
Armstrong, Karen
The Spiral Staircase
2005
Karen Armstrong writes about her decision to leave the Roman Catholic church from the perspective of a nun.
Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series
1963
It's all here: the players, the scandal, the shame, and the damage the 1919 World Series caused America's national pastime.
*Atkin, S. Beth
Voices from the Streets: Young Former Gang Members Tell Their Stories
1996
Gang members from all races and backgrounds describe why they joined,
and why--and how--they left.
Alvarez, Walter
T. Rex and the Crater of Doom
1997
Geologist Alvarez presents the development of the impact theory of dinosaur
extinction as the adventure/mystery it was.
Bardi, Jason
The Calculus Wars
2006
Both intellectual powerhouses, Newton and Leibniz openly fought over who actually invented Calculus.
Barry, John M.
The Great Influenza
2004
The epic story of the deadliest plague in history--the influenza pandemic
of 1918-19.
Blais, Madeleine
In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle
1995
Learn about the year of heart, sweat, and muscle that transformed the
Amherst Lady Hurricanes basketball team into state champions.
Bodanis, David
E=mc2: A Biography of the World’s Most Famous Equation
2000
After showing how Eingsetin formulated his famous equation in 1905, Bodanis
tells the riveting story of the first great application of E=mc2: the
heated race to split the atom.
Boorstin, Jon
Making Movies Work: Thinking Like a Filmmaker
1996
Both novice and expert can enjoy this behind-the-scenes look at the art
of filmmaking.
Brown, Dee.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West 1970
There's another side of America's western expansion: the one seen through
Native American eyes.
**Carson, Rachel
Silent Spring
1962
This landmark book gave birth to the environmental movement.
Chang, Iris
The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II
1997
Barely a postscript in official Japanese history, the horrific rape, mutilation,
torture, and murder of hundreds of thousands of Chinese citizens took
place over the course of just seven weeks.
Cooke, Mervyn
The Chronicle of Jazz
1998
Cooke provides a comprehensive guide to this uniquely American musical
form.
Deng, Alephonsion
They Poured Fire on us From the Sky: the True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan
2003
A gripping account of the stories of three boys forced to flee from the massacres of Sudan's civil war and of their determination to survive with spirits unbroken.
Didion, Joan
The Year of Magical Thinking.
2005
The narrative structure of the book parallels the mental re-living of a tragic event that is common to many experiences of grief.
**Diamond, Jared
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
1997
Diamond contends that these three factors determined the course of world
power throughout history.
DuBois, W.E.B.
The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches.
1903
Educator DuBois describes the lives and history of African American farmers,
including the career of Booker T. Washington.
Due, Linnea
Joining the Tribe: Growing Up Gay and Lesbian in the '90's
1995
Being young and gay in America means surviving cruelty, abuse, and isolation,
as these individual stories of courage from teens around the country attest.
Ehrenreich, Barbara
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.
2001
Can you really survive on minimum wage? To find out, the author left her middle-class life for a year to see what life is really like for America’s working poor.
Feynman, Richard
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out
1999
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, this collection of Feynman’s thoughts on being inquisitive inspires intellectual curiosity in every subject matter.
*Garfunkel, Trudy
On Wings of Joy: The Story of Ballet from the 16th Century to Today
1994
Fascinating history, dancers, choreographers, and stories: here is everything
that has helped create this wonderful art form.
Goldberg, Vicki
The Power of Photographs: How Photography Changed Our Lives
1991
Photographers and photographs evolve, rather than spring forth fully formed.
Gombrich, E. H.
The Story of Art
1995
Everything from cave paintings to the experimental art of today is covered,
in words and pictures, in this sixteenth edition of one of the most famous
and popular art books ever published.
*Gore, Shiff, Karenna
Lighting the Way: Nine Women Who Changed Modern America
2006
This book tells the fascinating stories of nine influential women, who each in her own way tackled inequity and advocated change throughout the turbulent twentieth century, including Ida B. Wells-Barnett, who was born a slave and fought against lynching and Mother Jones, an Irish immigrant who organized coal miners and campaigned against child labor.
Greene, Brian
The Elegant Universe
2000
A wonderfully written account of relativity, quantum mechanics and the
attempt to unify them. Delves into string theory. All without math.
Gwande, Atul
Better A Surgeon’s notes on Performance
2007
While exploring his own field of medicine, Gwande looks carefully at how doctors learn from their own mistakes and what they can do better in their own practices. His insights into medicine can be applied to every day life.
Hawking, Stephen
A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes
1988
Cosmology becomes understandable as the author discusses the origin, evolution,
and fate of our universe.
Hersch, Patricia
A Tribe Apart: A Journey into the Heart of American Adolescence
1998
An intimate three-year journey through contemporary adolescence with eight
"typical" teens reveals a separate culture spawned not from
personal choice, but rather from adult alienation and abandonment.
*Hersey, John
Hiroshima
1946
Six Hiroshima survivors reflect on the aftermath of the first atomic bomb.
Hillenbrand, Laura
Seabiscuit
2001
Hillenbrand tells the story of thoroughbred racing and Seabiscuit, an
unimpressive physical specimen of a race horse, and his unlikely rise
to legendary status during the 1930s and 1940s.
*Jones, K. Maurice
Say It Loud! The Story of Rap Music
1994
From a village in West Africa to a street in Brooklyn, to MTV, rappers
make the Scene
*Junger, Sebastian
The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea
1997
Haunting premonitions didn't save seven fisherman from the ferocious and
deadly power of the sea.
Katz, Jon
Geeks: How Two Lost
Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho.
2000
This is the story of how Jesse and Eric, tow teenage hackers, used technology
to try and change their lives and their destiny.
Kendall, Elizabeth
Where She
Danced
1979
The contributions of major innovators and the conditions of their times
are the basis for this history of modern American dance.
King, Jr., Martin Luther
Why We Can’t Wait
This book examines the history of the civil rights struggle and the tasks
that future generations must accomplish to bring about full equality for
African Americans.
King, Stephen
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
2000
In this memoir, King reflects on his career as a writer and offers good suggestions for those seeking a writer’s life.
Kolb, Rocky. Blind Watchers of the Sky: The
People and Ideas that Shaped Our View of the Universe
1996
Kolb delivers a witty and lively history of astronomy and cosmology.
Krakauer, Jon
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
2003
An investigation of a branch of the Mormon church that believes in polygamy
and verges on criminal behavior. Focuses on two brothers who, claiming
they were directed by God, kill the wife of another brother.
Larson, Erik
Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
2003
The twin stories of the genesis of the World’s Fair in Chicago and Henry H. Holmes, a killer who used the attraction of the great fair and his own satanic charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths.
Mellon, Thomas
Mrs. Paine’s Garage and the Murder of John F. Kennedy
Ruth Hyde Paine, ex-head of Green Street Friends School, befriends Lee
Harvey and Marina Oswald, setting the scene for tragedy.
Nazario Sonia
Enrique’s Journey
2007
A story of the immigrant experience from Central America into the Untied States where individuals are willing to give up so much of what they know for
what they hope may come.
Parkman, Francis
The Oregon Trail
1864
In 1846, a young man of privilege left his comfortable Boston home to
embark on a strenuous overland journey to the untamed West. This timeless
account of Parkman's travels and travails provides an expressive portrait
of the rough frontiersmen, immigrants, and Native Americans he encounters,
set against the splendor of the unspoiled wilderness.
Regis, Ed
Virus Ground Zero: Stalking the Killer Viruses with the Centers for Disease
Control
1996
The history of the CDC is told through the handling of the Ebola outbreak
in Zaire.
Ridley, Matt
Genome:The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters
2000
This account is a nearly jargon-free expedition that hops from one human
chromosome to the next in search of the most delightful stories.
Satrapi, Marjane
Persepolis: the Story of a Childhood
2003
A memoir told in the form of a graphic novel, Satrapi tells the
story of her life in Tehran as a young girl, growing up during the Islamic
Revolution. This original account speaks to growing up and vividly depicts
the human cost of war and political repression.
Schlosser, Eric
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
2001
The growth of the fast food industry has changed America’s eating habits and greatly impacted agriculture, the meatpacking industry, the minimum wage, and other aspects of American life.
Sedaris, David
Me Talk Pretty Some Day
2001
The most consistently hilarious stories in this book are the ones dealing
with the odd idiosyncrasies of Sedaris' father. However, by far the funniest
story of the bunch had to be "You Can't Kill the Rooster," about
Sedaris' foul-mouthed, white trash younger brother.
Seife, Charles
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea
2000
In Zero, Carles Seife describes with good humor and wonder how one digit
has bedeviled and fascinated thinkers from ancient Athens to Los Alamos.
*Slung, Michele
Living with Cannibals and Other Women’s Adventures
2000
This is a collection of short biographies of spirited women who have undertaken
physical adventures and explorations from the eighteenth century to the
present.
*Spiegelman, Art
Maus: A Survivor's Tale and Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles
Began
1986
Using comic book format, the author chronicles his father's experience
of the Holocaust and its impact on his family.
Thomas, Lewis
Lives of the Cell
A thought-provoking collection of essays on biology that help you to look
at your surroundings in a new light.
**Thoreau, Henry David
Walden and Civil Disobedience
1850
Walden is Thoreau’s autobiographical account of his solitary existence,
bare of creature comforts but rich in contemplation of the wonders of
nature and the ways of man. On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience is the classic
protest against government's interference with individual liberty.
Weiner, Eric
The Geography of Bliss
2008
As a National Public Radio Correspondent, Weiner travels around the world to explore how different cultures understand happiness.
Watson, James D.
The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery and Structure of
DNA
1968
The author recreates the excitement of participating in a momentous discovery
and demonstrates to the non-scientist how the scientific method works.
White, Theodore
The Making of the President
1960
A classic work of campaign reporting, this book follows John F. Kennedy
and Richard Nixon during their presidential campaign in 1960.
*Williams, Juan
Eyes on the
Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965
1987
From Brown v. the Board of Education to the Voting Rights Act, Williams
outlines the social and political gains of African Americans.
Biography
Paula
1995
At the bedside of her dying daughter, Allende spins tales of childhood, of ancestors, and of becoming a novelist.
Karen Armstrong
Muhammad, A Prophet for Our Time
2006
Armstrong’s depiction of the life and times of the prophet gives great insight into the life of one of the most important figures known to man.
*LANCE ARMSTRONG. It’s Not About the
Bike: My Journey Back to Life.
Lance Armstrong. 2000
People around the world have found inspiration in the story of Lance Armstrong—a
world-class athlete nearly struck down by cancer, only to recover and
win the Tour de France, the multi-day bicycle race famous for its grueling
intensity.
JIMMY SANTIAGO BACA.
A Place to Stand
2001
Baca revisits his life, starting with his childhood in rural New Mexico,
where both parents essentially abandoned him during his adolescence in
"juvee" halls, and his days as a drug dealer. The story leads
up to an account of five years in a maximum-security prison in Arizona,
and his unusual personal transformation.
MARIE CURIE. Madam Curie: a Biography. Eve
Curie. 1937
In sharing personal papers and her own memories, a daughter pays tribute
to her unique and generous mother, a scientific genius.
*ANNIE DILLARD. An American Childhood. Annie
Dillard. 1987
In this magical memoir, the author describes her girlhood in 1950’s
Pittsburgh.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS. Narrative
of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself.
Frederick Douglass. 1845
Former slave and famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass describes the horrors
of his enslavement and eventual escape.
RICHARD FEYNMAN. Surely You're Joking, Mr.
Feynman: Adventures of a Curious Character. Richard P. Feynman as told
to Ralph Leighton. 1985
This Nobel Prize-winning physicist was also a bongo drummer, a practical
joker, and a loving husband.
CHANRITHY HIM
When Broken Glass
Floats: Growing up under the Khmer Rouge. Chanrithy Him. 2000
In this mesmerizing story of survival, courage and perseverance, Chanrihy
Him vividly recounts her childhood trek through the hell of the “killing
fields” of Cambodia during the Pol Pot regime.
**MERIWETHER LEWIS. Undaunted
Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American
West. Stephen E. Ambrose. 1996
Lewis and Clark brave the wilds of North America in this vivid account
of exploration and adventure.
JAMES McBRIDE AND RUTH McBRIDE-JORDAN.
The Color of Water: a Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother. James McBride.
1996
McBride blends his story with that of his mother, who battled poverty
and racism to raise twelve children.
FRANK McCOURT. Angela's Ashes: A Memoir. Frank
McCourt. 1996
Illness, hunger, alcoholism, and death plague McCourt's childhood in Ireland,
but somehow he survives with his spirit intact.
DAVID McCULLOUGH. John Adams.
2001
McCullough brings President John Adams (1735-1826) back to life in this
historical narrative, revealing in particular his restrained, sometimes
off-putting disposition, as well as his political shrewdness.
MARK MATHABANE
Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid
South Africa. Mark Mathabane. 1986
Growing up under the brutalities of apartheid South Africa, Mathabane
describes the growing unrest in his country and his eventual escape through
his ties to the tennis community.
VED MEHTA. Sound-Shadows of
the New World. Ved Mehta. 1985
Leaving his home, family, and culture behind, a blind Indian boy travels
to Arkansas to attend a special school where he is challenged by handicap,
loneliness, poor preparation, and culture shock.
*ANN MOODY. Coming of Age in Mississippi.
Ann Moody. 1968
One of the first brave young African American students to participate
in a lunch counter sit-in, Moody becomes a heroine of the civil rights
movement.
PAT MORA. House of Houses. Pat Mora. 1997
With magic and imagination, author Pat Mora weaves the voices of her ancestors
into her own personal account of growing up in a Mexican-American family
in El Paso, Texas.
TSAR NICHOLAS ROMANOV AND TSARINA
ALEXANDRA. Nicholas and Alexandra. Robert K. Massie 1967
At the brink of revolution, the last Tsar of Russia and his family become
victims of their own mismanagement and personal problems.
**ELEANOR ROOSEVELT. Eleanor
Roosevelt: Vol. 1:1884-1933. Blanche Wiesen Cook. 1992
Born into a privileged world, Eleanor Roosevelt became a champion of the
underprivileged and a fighter for human rights.
**HARRY S. TRUMAN. Truman. David
G. McCullough. 1992
This notable president earned America's respect by helping to end World
War II and reshape the world for postwar peace.
*ERIK WEIHENMAYER. Touch the
Top of the World: A Blind Man’s Journey to Climb Farther Than the
Eye Can See. Erik Weihenmayer. 2001
The incredible, inspiring story of world-class climber Erik Weihenmayer,
from the terrible diagnosis that foretold the loss of his eyesight, to
his dream to climb mountains, and finally his question to reach each of
the Seven Summits.
*TOBIAS WOLFF. This Boy's Life:
A Memoir. Tobias Wolff. 1989
In and out of trouble in his youth, this charter member of the "Bad
Boys' Club" survives a boyhood that stretches from Florida to the
Pacific Northwest