Western Reserve Academy

Summer Reading Program 2005 Western Reserve Academy English Department

Required Summer 2005 Reading

For the Class of 2009 Old School, Tobias Wolff

For the Class of 2008 Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse

For the Class of 2007 My Antonia, Willa Cather

ALL BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE AT WRA’S CAMPUS BOOKSTORE

Western Reserve Academy Summer Reading 2005

Most members of the Reserve community find pleasures in reading. For those of us tied to the academic calendar, summers and holidays give us what we need most – time. With that in mind, we offer students this booklet of recom- mended books for summer reading. Several of these titles have been suggested over the years by WRA students, faculty members and their families, and the WRA librarians. Other titles are recommended by the American Library Association for Young Adults. This list is updated and titles rotated annually by the John D. Ong Library staff and is intended to provide some variety: classic to recently published titles, rela- tively easy to challenging reading levels, fiction and non-fiction selections cover- ing diverse topics, and a list of recommended websites for further suggestions for award-winning books and titles in a specific genre. In general, books included in the WRA curriculum are not listed. A few titles have frank passages that mirror some aspects of life explicitly. Therefore, we urge parents to explore the titles your teenagers choose and discuss the book as well as the choice with them. This list is accessible on the WRA website on the John D. Ong Library home page at http://library.wra.net. Last year’s Summer Reading List is accessible as well. All the books on this list should be available in libraries and/or bookstores. Check the Ong Library home page for summer hours; students are welcome. We hope every student will find several books that peak his curiosity or expand his horizon. Enjoy your summer, your free time, and try to spend some of it reading.

Enjoy! The John D. Ong Library Staff

Table of Contents

Recommended Summer Reading for Ninth/Tenth Graders...... 1 Recommended Summer Reading for Eleventh/Twelfth Graders...... 17 Something for Everyone: Informational Titles for Teenagers...... 37 Poetry, Anyone?...... 39 Looking for a Good Book? Some Websites to Help You...... 41 Title Index...... 43 Author Index...... 50 Summer Reading for Ninth/Tenth Graders

Fiction:

Abhorsen Trilogy (The): Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen (Garth Nix, 1996- 2003) This popular fantasy series focuses on good and evil, war and peace, and the value of friendship.

All That Remains (Bruce Brooks, 2001) In three novellas, Brooks highlights teens whose lives are affected in various ways by a death in the family.*

Animal Farm (George Orwell, 1946) This satire on dictatorship focuses on the overthrow of a farmer by the animals on his farm.

At All Costs (John Gilstrap, 1998) That Federal agents happened to be looking for someone else didn’t matter once they learned that Jake and his wife, Carolyn, were on their Ten Most Wanted list. They try to prove their innocence as they go on the run with their 13-year-old son in this terrific nail-biter.*

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Dai Sijie, 2001) Set in Mao’s China, this book examines the lives of two Chinese boys taken from their wealthy families and sent to a remote village to be “re-educated.” There they dis- cover a suitcase of Western literature with which they feed their minds and cre- ate their own education.

Bee Season (Myla Goldberg, 2000) There is so much pain in this powerful first novel about a family’s unraveling that it often seems on the edge of unbearable. And yet, as we watch nine-year-old Eliza Naumann transform herself from underachiever to spelling prodigy, we endure the pain out of respect for one girl’s courage and all-consuming love.*

Big Stone Gap Trilogy (The): Big Stone Gap, Big Cherry Holler, and Milk Glass Moon (Adriana Trigiani, 2000-2003) This trilogy recounts the memories of spinster pharmacist Ave Maria Mulligan over a 20-year period as she marries and leaves her sleepy home town of Big Stone Gap.

Brave New World (Aldous Huxley, 1932) In a chilling vision of the future, babies are produced in bottles and exist in a mechanized world without a soul.*

Bucking the Sarge (Christopher Paul Curtis, 2004) Fifteen-year-old Luther uses his humor and smarts to cope with a longtime crush, an impending science fair, and the shady dealings of his slumlord mother.*

1 Call of the Wild (The) (Jack London, 1903) Buck is stolen from his life as a Eagle Strike: An Alex Rider Adventure (Anthony Horowitz, 2004) Teenage beloved pet. His life then changes drastically when he is abused as a Klondike British spy Alex Rider is back in an addictive adventure that includes a celebrity sled dog. He later enjoys life with a loving master, John Thornton, and finally he madman and a near-fatal rendezvous with destiny aboard the famous Air Force becomes the leader of a pack of wolves in the wild. One.*

Caramelo (Sandra Cisneros, 2002) The author’s novel is a sweeping, fictional- Earthly Knight (An) (Janet McNaughton, 2004) In 1162 Scotland, Jenny is ized history of her Mexican American family. When Celaya (or “Lala”) Reyes supposed to save her family by marrying their chosen suitor; she falls in love with takes a family vacation from Chicago to Mexico City, she begins a journey from Tam Lin, returned from the fairies, instead.* girl to young adult and from the present to the past. Generous digressions trace roots and branches on the luxuriant family tree, telling the tales of ancestors, fam- Egg On Three Sticks (An) (Jackie Fischer, 2004) In this unforgettable debut, ily members, and sometimes even walk-on players.* 13-year-old Abby recounts her mother’s heartbreaking descent into mental ill- ness. With acutely observed detail, Fischer describes a young adult’s pull between Count of Monte Cristo (The) (Alexander Dumas, 1844) One of the greatest the universal struggles of adolescence and the surreal anguish of losing a parent thrillers of all time tells the tale of young Edmond Dantes, who, falsely accused to disease.* of treason and arrested on his wedding day, escapes from prison to seek revenge on his enemies.* Ellen Foster (Kaye Gibbons, 1987) Casting an unflinching yet humorous eye on her situation, eleven-year-old Ellen survives her mother’s death, an abusive Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (The) (Mark Haddon, 2003) father, and uncaring relatives to find for herself a loving home and a new mama.* Fifteen-year-old Christopher is an autistic math genius determined to find out who killed his neighbor’s poodle. Haddon’s debut novel is an inventive mystery Every Time a Rainbow Dies (Rita Williams-Garcia, 2001) A 16-year-old boy about self-discovery and living with illness.* witnesses a rape from his roof. He helps the naked, injured girl, and afterward, he tries to get to know her. Stark and moving, this book will stay with readers for a Daniel Half Human: And the Good Nazi (David Chotjewitz, 2004) In 1933, long time.* German teen Daniel is shocked to learn that he is not allowed to join the Nazi party because he is half-Jewish.* Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury, 1953) Books are for burning in this future soci- ety where thinking and reading are crimes. Dead Man’s Gold, and Other Stories (Paul Yee, 2002) Drawing on ghost sto- ries told among early Chinese immigrants in Canada and the U.S., Yee brings the Fire-Eaters (The) (David Almond, 2004) During the Cuban missile crisis in supernatural right into daily life, setting the harsh facts on the edge of horror or 1962, Bobby Burns fights his own battles with a sadistic headmaster and worries redemption. His plain, beautiful words speak with brutal honesty in 10 short sto- about his father’s illness.* ries about the immigrant struggle: the backbreaking work in the gold mines, on the railroads, in the forests, laundries, kitchens; the anguish of leaving home, and Five People You Meet in Heaven (The) (Mitch Albom, 2003) The author of of being left behind; the dreams of riches and reunion; the shock of prejudice and Tuesdays with Morrie offers a terrific novel about an 83-year-old man who dies betrayal.* while trying to save a child. A story of reflection and a bit of whimsy, he imag- ines what happens when you get to heaven. Detective/Crime Mystery Writers: Try any book by the following mystery writers: C. J. Box (featuring Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett); Elizabeth For Whom the Bell Tolls (Ernest Hemingway, 1940) Set in the Spanish Civil Peters (featuring Edwardian Egyptologist Amanda Peabody); Ellis Peters (mys- War, this is a classic story of war and personal honor. One of the best war novels teries of the medieval monk, Brother Cadfael); Gillian Roberts (featuring ama- of the 20th century. teur sleuth Amanda Pepper, a prep school English teacher); Lilian Jackson Braun (featuring journalist/philanthropist James Qwilleran and his two Siamese Forest Lover (The) (Susan Vreeland, 2004) A speculative portrait of the intrep- cats, Koko and Yum Yum); Diane Mott Davidson (featuring Goldy Bear, a cater- id and too little known British Columbian painter Emily Carr (1871-1945). er with a nose for trouble; delicious recipes are also part of the reading bargain); [Vreeland’s] dramatic depictions of Carr’s daunting solo journeys, arduous artis- or Les Roberts (featuring Cleveland private detective Milan Jacovich). tic struggle, persistent loneliness, and despair over the tragic fate of the endan- gered people she came to love truly are provocative and moving.*

2 3 Foundation Series (The) (Isaac Asimov) Written originally as a series of mag- Great Santini (The) (Pat Conroy, 1976) Marine fighter pilot Bull Meecham azine novellettes or novellas over an eight year period and later published in rules his home with an iron fist. The novel focuses on his son Ben’s efforts to novel form, Foundation (1951), Foundation and Empire (1952), and Second rebel against his father’s tyranny and become his own man. Foundation (1953) were then collected as a trilogy under one cover in 1963. Winner of the Hugo Award for the Best All-Time Science Fiction Series. Grendel (John Gardner, 1971) In a unique interpretation of the Beowulf legend, the monster Grendel relates his struggle to understand the ugliness in himself and Forgotten Fire (Adam Bagdasarian, 2000) Based on a true story from the mankind in the brutal world of fourteenth-century Denmark.* Armenian Holocaust, this is an eloquent, touching and heart-wrenching portrait of pain and triumph during a time of tragedy.* Heroes (Robert Cormier, 1998) Eighteen year old Francis comes back from World War II with his face blown off and a mission to murder his childhood Foxmask (Juliet Marillier, 2004) This sweeping Dark Ages fantasy, a sequel to hero.* the rousing Wolfskin (2003), follows 18-year-old Thorvald to remote northern British isles in a suspenseful, romantic page-turner steeped in Norse lore.* Jim the Boy: A Novel (Tony Earley, 2000) Set in 1934…this is a deceptively gentle, nostalgic look at childhood during an era when life was by turns harsh and Frankenstein (Mary Shelley, 1818) Despite being trivialized by cartoons, hopeful. Jim is a real boy who can be selfish and stubborn and then determined spoofs, and toys, this powerful story is a portrayal of the pride of a scientist and and giving. Earley offers an understated, poetic tribute to those families whose the consequences of his abuse of power. pride in and love for one another helped them face hard times.*

Gabriel’s Story (David Anthony Durham, 2002) In this powerful coming-of- Life is Funny (E. R. Frank, 2000) Growing up in New York can be agonizing, age story about two post-Civil War African American teens who leave home to humorous, and always a challenge for the teens who tell their stories.* become cowboys, Durham formulates his own slant on the settlement of the American West—one that speaks directly to the multicultural character of the Life of Pi (Yann Martel, 2002) Pi Patel, a young man from India, tells how he nation.* was shipwrecked and stranded in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger for 227 days. This outlandish story is only the core of a deceptively complex three-part novel ulti- Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood (Ann Brashares, 2005) mately about memory as a narrative and about how we choose truths.* It’s the summer before the girls go to college, a summer in which old and new boyfriends appear, families grow and change, crises occur and are resolved, and Lord of the Flies (William Golding, 1954) A group of English schoolboys the pants continue their designated rounds. It’s a strong ending to a series [The marooned on an uninhabited island test the values of civilization. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and The Second Summer of the Sisterhood] about four fully developed, strikingly different, equally fascinating teenage Lord of the Rings Trilogy (The): The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two girls.* Towers, and The Return of the King (J.R.R. Tolkein, 1954…) Hobbits Bilbo and Frodo and their elvish friends get swept up into a mighty conflict with the Go and Come Back (Joan Abelove, 1998) In a story of mutual culture shock, dragon Smaug, the dark lord Sauron and the awful power of the magical Ring.* Alicia, a young Isabo girl in a remote part of Peru, is just as fascinated by the American anthropologists, Joanna and Margarita, as they are with the ways of her Martyrs’ Crossing (Amy Wilentz, 2001) The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at people.* the center of this gripping novel that focuses on individual people on all sides, including an Israeli border guard and a young Palestinian mother whose child Gothic: Ten Original Dark Tales (Deborah Noyes [ed.], 2004) Ghouls, ghosts, needs medical help.* and shocking twists and turns haunt these ten twisted tales.* Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Patrick O’Brian, 1970) Great Gatsby (The) (F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925) Narrator Nick Carraway tells This is the first in the long series of novels featuring Captain Jack Aubrey, R.N. the story of Jay Gatsby and the Buchanans and the lives of the Long Island and Stephen Maturin, ship’s surgeon and intelligence agent, set in the British wealthy during the decadence of the 1920’s. Considered a masterpiece of Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. Beautifully written with fascinating charac- American literature and probably the best known of Fitzgerald’s works. terizations.

4 5 Moth Diaries (The) (Rachel Klein, 2002) A studious, thoughtful 16-year-old Private Peaceful (Michael Morpurgo, 2004) The Peaceful brothers have always believes she is losing roommate Lucy’s friendship to the quiet, mysterious new shared a close bond, and they vow that the trenches of WWI won’t change that. girl at their boarding school, Ernessa. Lucy contracts a mysterious wasting ill- But there are some evils of war that have nothing to do with fighting.* ness. Is Ernessa a vampire? Menace permeates this portrayal of how much obses- sion and fear of the supernatural are alike.* Quiver (Stephanie Spinner, 2002) Atalanta takes a vow of chastity to the god- dess Artemis, who has granted her exceptional athletic and hunting abilities. But Motherland (Vineeta Vijayaraghavan, 2001) Maya was born in India, but she when Aphrodite steps in, Atalanta falls in love with a beautiful runner and threat- considers herself all-American. When her parents send her back to India to visit ens her vow. The feminist slant and comic relief enliven this taut reinterpretation her grandmother for the summer, she rediscovers her homeland, receives an offer of the Greek myth.* of marriage, and uncovers a family secret.* Ransom Trilogy (The): Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That My Sister’s Keeper (Jodi Picoult, 2004) Teen Anna sues her parents for the Hideous Strength (C.S. Lewis, 1938-1945) This science fiction trilogy features rights to her own body when she is asked to donate a kidney to her sister. This a Cambridge University scholar, Dr. Elwin Ransom, who gets caught up in a spellbinding story will draw a wide range of readers with its strong characters struggle with the forces of evil. and provocative questions.* Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe, 1906) During one of his several adventurous Neanderthal (John Darnton, 1996) Two paleoanthropologists receive a most voyages in the 1600’s, an Englishman becomes the sole survivor of a shipwreck unusual message from a missing colleague—the skull of a Neanderthal who, tests and lives for nearly thirty years on a deserted island. reveal, lived a mere 25 years ago. Thus begins a fantastic journey that stimulates the imagination and leaves one wondering if the Neanderthal could have survived Rooster (Beth Nixon Weaver, 2001) Frustrated by her responsibilities, which into modern times. include taking care of a senile grandmother and Rooster, the mentally handi- capped son of some neighbors, Kady becomes enamored with wealthy, popular, Nectar in a Sieve (Kamala Markandaya, 1954) Natural disasters, an arranged and unscrupulous Jon.* marriage, and industrialization of her village are the challenges Rukmani must face as the bride of a peasant farmer in southern India.* Sand-Reckoner (The) (Gillian Bradshaw, 2001) Around the few facts that are known about Archimedes (287?-212 B.C.), well-regarded historical novelist Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck, 1955) This is a story of the down-trodden, Bradshaw has fashioned an interesting and informative tale of love, war, and fam- the lonely people we do not often encounter in our lives. Set on a ranch, we see ily responsibilities. Her novel provides a vivid picture of the life and times of the the tough choices George must make to protect Lenny, his mentally challenged greatest mathematical and engineering mind in the classical world.* friend.* Sarah: Women of Genesis (Orson Scott Card, 2000) A departure from his sci- Old School (Tobias Wolff, 2003) In a 1960s New England boarding school, an fi and fantasy works, this novel recounts the story of the Biblical figure Sarah, aspiring writer longs to fit in with his privileged classmates. Wolff’s clear, pre- wife of Abraham. cise prose articulates the anxieties and yearning of adolescence.* Saving Francesca (Melina Marchetta, 2004) As her high-powered mother suf- One More for the Road: A New Story Collection (Ray Bradbury, 2002) One fers from severe depression, Francesca copes with her classes, her friends, and the of the masters of science fiction and of the short story, Bradbury shows why he complications that arise from being one of 30 girls in a school with 750 guys.* is considered among the best in this collection of 25 short stories that span his writing career including 17 that have never before been published. Secret Life of Bees (The) (Sue Monk Kidd, 2002) Kidd’s warm debut is set in the sixties, just after the civil rights bill has been passed. Fourteen-year-old Lily Postcards from No Man’s Land (Aidan Chambers, 2002) [This] novel is part Owens is haunted by the accidental death of her mother 10 years earlier, which thrilling WWII love story and part edgy, contemporary coming-of-age fiction. left her in the care of her brutal, angry father and Rosaleen, a strong, proud black Chambers weaves together past and present with enough plot, characters, and woman. After Rosaleen is [arrested] for standing up to a trio of racists, Lily helps ideas with such mastery that all the pieces finally come together, with compelling her escape from the hospital where she is being kept, and the two flee to Tiburon, discoveries about love, courage, family, and sexual identity.* a town [to which] Lily believes her mother had a connection.*

6 7 Separate Peace (A) (John Knowles, 1959) This is the story of two young men— Tale of Two Cities (A) (Charles Dickens, 1859) The classic novel of imprison- Gene, lonely and introverted, and Phineas, handsome and athletic—and their ment, injustice, violence, love, and redemption by the master. Set during the friendship during their last two years at a boarding school. French revolution, Dickens spins a dramatic tale centered on the fortunes of one family. Shades of Simon Gray (Joyce McDonald, 2001) Was the terrible crash that put Simon in a coma really an accident, or was it an attempt to end the guilt he felt Tales (Edgar Allan Poe, 1952) One of the many compilations of tales from the because of the failure of his illegal computer project?* master of horror—mysterious, complex, sometimes horrifying, occasionally psy- chotic, and always suspenseful. Look for Poe’s stories and poems in a variety of Shield of Three Lions (Pamela Kaufman, 1983) Set in the Middle Ages around collections of works by the author. the time of Richard the Lion-heart, an 11-year-old girl loses her parents and best friend at the hands of marauding Scots near the border of England. To get back To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee, 1960) A young girl tells of life in a small the estate she should have inherited, she disguises herself as a boy and sets out to Alabama town in the 1930s and her father’s defense in court of an African find the King and reclaim her land. American accused of raping a white woman.*

Shylock’s Daughter (Mirjam Pressler, 2001) Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice Touching Spirit Bear (Ben Mickaelsen, 2001) Cole Matthews is a 15-year-old, finds new life in this novel, which reexamines the characters’ complex motives baby-faced con. The child of wealthy, abusive alcoholic parents, Cole has been and illuminates the opulence and oppression of sixteenth-century Venice.* getting into trouble most of his life. One day he beats a fellow student so severe- ly the boy suffers permanent physical damage. [This] novel is the story of Cole’s Siddhartha (Herman Hesse, 1951) Emerging from a kaleidoscope of experi- redemption; it is also a look at an unusual justice system.* ences and tasted pleasures, Siddhartha transcends to a state of peace and mystic holiness in this strangely simple story.* True Account (The): A Novel of the Lewis and Clark and Kinnesan Expeditions (Howard Frank Mosher, 2003) The Lewis and Clark expedition Sign of the Qin: Outlaws of Moonshadow Marsh (L. G. Bass, 2004) Dangers inspires a wild, funny spin-off in this tale about an eccentric Vermont uncle and abound in this magical martial-arts fantasy, which follows young Prince Zong his nephew who race across the American landscape, determined to beat the and his mother after their separate escapes form the dangerous, corrupt Emperor famous explorers.* Han.* Truth and Bright Water (Thomas King, 2000) The story of Native American Something Rotten (Jasper Fforde, 2004) In the fourth Thursday Next teenage cousins, Tecumseh and Lum, and one summer full of mystery and unpre- book…the literary detective is fed up with the bureaucracy and red tape of dictable family relations on the Indian Reservation. BookWorld, where the characters and plots of novels are alive and need constant governing. The Council of Genres refuses to accept her resignation as head of Waifs and Strays (Charles De Lint, 2002) A showcase for the diversity of a pop- JurisFiction, but she returns to her home in the real world anyway—Swindon, ular fantasy writer, this collection includes 16 stories that evoke a sense of magic England.* Earlier titles in the series are The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, just beyond the ordinary world, whether in Ottawa, Bordertown, or the made-up and The Well of Lost Plots. city of Newton, somewhere in North America.*

State of Fear (Michael Crichton, 2004) Millionaire George Morton is about to Water Dancers (The) (Terry Gamble, 2003) From WWII to the Vietnam War, donate $10 million to the National Environmental Research Fund (NERF) when this family saga tells a moving story of prejudice and the friction between class- he suddenly decides against it. His lawyer, Peter Evans, is as surprised as anyone es. The story begins with teenage Native American Rachel, who falls in love with and is drawn into a web of intrigue after Morton’s car careens off the road and a wealthy heir.* Morton is presumed dead. Just before his “death,” Morton was in contact with Dr. John Kenner, a researcher at the Center for Risk Analysis, who opposes NERF’s Whale Talk (Chris Crutcher, 2001) Adopted, biracial high-school senior Tao agenda and presents Evans with some startling evidence about global warming.* Jones is well-adjusted on the surface. A smart, likable kid with a great sense of humor and athletic ability, he decides to accept the offer [from] the swim coach to anchor the swim team. Through it all shines Crutcher’s sympathy for teens and their problems.*

8 9 When the Emperor Was Divine (Julie Otsuka, 2002) Otsuka tells an exquisite psychological tale, inspired by her own family’s travails, of the internment of tens of thousands of innocent Japanese Americans during World War II.*

Whiteout (Ken Follett, 2004) This is a bio-thriller taking place over a wintry Christmas holiday in northern Scotland and well larded with family drama. Toni Gallo is the driven head of security for Oxenford Medical (aka the Kremlin), a research facility working on a cure for Madoba-2, an especially virulent strain of Ebola. Predictably, things go suddenly, frightfully wrong.*

Year of Secret Assignments (The) (Jaclyn Moriarty, 2004) Written entirely in letters, diary entries, lists, quizzes, transcripts, and mock subpoenas (there are a disproportionate number of lawyerly parents here), the novel focuses on three Australian girls who have each been assigned to write to a student at a rival school. The girls’ pen friends turn out to be three boys, and the entertaining cor- respondence between the couples reveals the characters’ quirky ingenuity, pranks, burgeoning romances, and fierce friendships as well as deeper family stories, including one about a parent’s death.*

Non-fiction:

Ancient Olympics (The) (Nigel Jonathan Spivey, 2004) The author provides the inside scoop of the ancient games—the events, the rules for competitors, ath- lete preparation, the rampant cheating and bribery, and other fascinating details. He also provides the background for the modern Olympics and how we view them.

Beet Fields (The): Memories of a Sixteenth Summer (Gary Paulsen, 2000) The coming-of-age autobiography of the well known Young Adult author. The author recalls his experiences as a migrant laborer and carnival worker after run- ning away from home at sixteen.

Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth (Richard Wright, 1945) Wright recalls his pre-World War II youth when racial and personal obstacles seemed insurmountable.*

Charles Dickens (Jane Smiley, 2002) Her intelligent biography examines Dickens’ life through his work, starting not with his birth but rather the begin- nings of his literary career. Smiley’s superb and thoughtful analysis should appeal to anyone familiar with the great author’s work.*

Chess: From First Moves to Checkmate (Daniel King, 2001) King’s attractive introduction to the game of chess, which covers rules, strategy, famous players, history, and chess notation, combines understandable explanations with stunning computer graphics.*

10 Counting Coup: The True Story of Basketball and Honor on the Little Gang of One: Memoirs of a Red Guard (Fan Shen, 2004) In this irony-laden Bighorn (Larry Colton, 2000) A girls’ high-school basketball team on the Crow memoir, a former Red Guard grows up swimming against the tide of the Cultural reservation in Montana is the focus of this realistic account of the players’ lives, Revolution. Teens will strongly identify with Shen’s maneuverings around on and off the court. Colton finds grim social conditions but also joy, humor, and repressive regulations.* ethnic pride.* Hidden Evidence: Forty True Crimes and How Forensic Science Helped Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail (Ruben Martinez, Solve Them (David Owen, 2002) The evolution of forensic science and crime 2001) Martinez explores the powerful forces that drive men, women, and even investigation is detailed in this study that includes famous cases, from Jack the children to risk their lives crossing the border illegally from Mexico to the United Ripper and presidential assassinations to crimes by recent serial killers.* States to find work.* Indian Summer: The Tragic Story of Louis Francis Sockalexis, the First D-Day: The Greatest Invasion (Dan Van Der Vat, 2003) Insightful and com- Native American in Major League Baseball (Brian McDonald, 2003) pelling, this well-balanced account details how the Canadians liberated a Dutch McDonald’s biography of Louis Francis Sockalexis, a full-blooded Maine village during D-Day. An arresting mix of rare photos and reproduced personal Penobscot, focuses on anecdotal information about the little-known player who artifacts illustrate.* played professional baseball in Cleveland in the late 1890s and for whom the team renamed themselves the Cleveland Indians.* Desert Solitaire (Edward Abbey, 1968) This iconoclastic defender of wild America describes his experiences as a ranger in Arches National Park Abbey Insect Lives: Stories of Mystery and Romance from a Hidden World (Erich writes of his fondness for the desert and his determination to keep our wilderness Hoyt and Ted Schultz [eds.], 1999) Erich and Schultz compiled a diverse collec- untamed. tion of brief essays and illustrations that entice readers to explore the fascinating and mysterious world of insects.* End of the Earth: Voyaging to Antarctica (Peter Matthiessen, 2004) The grand master of the purposeful and philosophical nature-oriented travelogue, Journey of Crazy Horse (The): A Lakota History (Joseph M. Marshall III, Matthiessen chronicles the attainment of a lifelong dream in his eighteenth work 2004) Using his skills as a historian along with the oral histories Marshall col- of nonfiction: two voyages to Antarctica. Vivid and empathic accounts of the high lected from the children and grandchildren of contemporaries of Crazy Horse, he drama and petty rivalries of Antarctic exploration alternate with Matthiessen’s freshly characterizes the charismatic leader. Although Crazy Horse’s famous tac- own adventures as he shares his indelible impressions of this cold, white won- iturnity makes him an elusive subject, Marshall does a good job of bringing Crazy derland in the hope that they will inspire readers to appreciate the beauty and Horse to life by examining all his milestones: the boy’s early military training by bounty of the earth’s “shimmering web of biodiversity” enough to defend and High Back Bone; his doomed love for Black Buffalo Woman; his role as leader preserve it.* of one of the last remaining bands wishing to retain their traditional ways.*

Fermat’s Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World’s Greatest Lasso the Wind: Away to the New West (Timothy P. Egan, 1998) Egan exam- Mathematical Problem (Simon Singh, 1997) A Princeton professor pursues a ines myths and realities of the Old West and the New West in 14 essays, each set lifelong dream of solving a 350-year-old mathematical puzzle.* in one of the 11 states west of the one-hundredth meridian. The essays are con- nected by more than just location, as Egan’s easy, humorous style and occasion- Fighting for Honor: Japanese Americans and World War II (Michael al references to previous essays tie the pieces together and give the sense of being Cooper, 2000) The Japanese American experience in the U.S. and on the front guided by a friend through a fascinating but sometimes frightening environ- lines is revealed in this thoughtful book about World War II.* ment.*

For the Time Being (Annie Dillard, 1999) The noted author contemplates the big issues—God, life and death, and good and evil in this contemplative work.

Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream (H. G. Bissinger, 2003) In Odessa, Texas, high school football is more than a recreational interest, it is the whole town’s passion.*

12 13 Left for Dead (Peter Nelson, 2002) While watching the classic bragging scene Player (The): Christy Mathewson, Baseball, and the American Century (Philip in the movie Jaws, 11-year-old Hunter Scott grew curious about one character’s M. Seib, 2003) This is the biography of the first real national “star” the game of reference to the U.S.S. Indianapolis. Discovering that history usually glossed baseball saw, who preceded Babe Ruth and the 1919 World Series scandal. Not just over or omitted the story, Scott began a six-year crusade, gathering information about baseball, this is about a man who lived to the highest of moral and ethical from the survivors and, eventually, ensuring that their mission and their unjustly standards amongst a pretty raucous crowd, both in baseball and society. maligned captain were appropriately honored. Narrative combines with inter- views between Scott and the soldiers to give individualized synopses of the 1945 Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race sinking and rescue, ensuing court-martial, crusade, and exoneration.* (Stephanie Nolan, 2002) The history of women in aviation and as astronauts is revealed in this compelling story.* Light at the Edge of the World: A Journey Through the Realm of Vanishing Cultures (Wade Davis, 2002) Through photographs and eloquent text, the author Runaway Girl: The Artist Louise Bourgeois (Jan Greenberg and Sandra unveils the diversity and unique quality of human culture around the world.* Jordan, 2003) Challenging art [is] accessible and exciting in this beautifully designed biography of Franco-American sculptor Bourgeois. Clear, elegant prose My Forbidden Face: Growing Up Under the Taliban (Latifa, 2002) Latifa juxtaposes stories about the artist’s life with relevant artworks, often described in was only 16 when the Taliban overran Kabul, changing her life dramatically. A Bourgeois’ own words. Crisp reproductions and personal photos illustrate.* moving firsthand account with a real sense of immediacy.* Savage Summit: The True Stories of the First Five Women Who Climbed K2, My Losing Season (Pat Conroy, 2002) Conroy goes autobiographical in this the World’s Most Feared Mountain (Jennifer Jordan, 2005) Five women, each poignant account centering on his senior year at The Citadel where he was a bas- with seemingly preternatural abilities to climb, have reached the summit of K2. ketball player on scholarship and when he first recognized the beginning of the While not the highest mountain in the world, it is considered the most deadly, man and writer he would become. While the book focuses on a losing season, it hence its earning the name “Savage Mountain.” These five women—Polish demonstrates how, in fact, lessons learned from losing and adversity can be more climber Wanda Rutkiewicz, French climbers Lilane Barrard and Chantal important and more character building than those learned from winning. Mauduit, and British climbers Julie Tullis and Alison Hargreaves—so very dif- ferent from each other, were alike in their strength, ability, determination, and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by willingness to endure not only the pain of high altitude but also the massive prej- Himself (Frederick Douglass, 1845) Former slave and famed abolitionist udice of the male-dominated climbing world.* Frederick Douglass describes the horrors of his enslavement and eventual escape. Seabiscuit: An American Legend (Laura Hillenbrand, 2001) This is the true Outwitting History : The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a story of the squat, homely racehorse with a crooked foreleg who becomes Million Yiddish Books (Aaron Lansky, 2004) Aaron Lansky discovered while America’s legendary hero during the American Depression years. While studying Yiddish in the 1970s that thousands of Yiddish books were collecting Seabiscuit is the heart of the story, Hillenbrand does a magnificent job of por- dust in attics and basements or were being carted off to landfills. With no traying the atmosphere of horseracing during the 1930s: the shameful treatment resources beyond his conviction, chutzpah, and fortitude, he set out to “save the of jockeys, the public’s love of the sport, and the rivalry among the participants world’s Yiddish books” and soon found himself driving all over creation to visit in the world of horseracing. with elderly Jews who talked with great emotion about the beloved Yiddish books they were entrusting to him.* Secret House (The): The Extraordinary Science of an Ordinary Day (David Bodanis, 2003) The unseen world around us is shown in vivid detail as Bodanis Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return (Marjane Satrapi, 2004) Satrapi continues take us through an average day in and around the average house. her memoir-in-comics about growing up in revolutionary Iran. Once again, the bold-lined artwork illustrates one of the most noteworthy youth memoirs of Shadow Warriors (The): Inside the Special Forces (Tom Clancy, 2002) Best recent years.* The sequel to Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. known for his spy thrillers, Clancy departs from fiction and takes a third outing into nonfiction with a U.S. commander, in this case Gen. Carl Stiner. The book focuses on Photography: An Illustrated History (Martin Sandler, 2002) Sandler’s terrif- the history of U.S. Special Forces including the Rangers, SEALs, Delta Force, Green ic photography compendium introduces history and practice, using exciting Berets and other groups and their various roles in World War II, Vietnam, Panama, Iraq images, both archival and contemporary, to bring the technology to life.* and Desert Storm, to name a few. A fascinating account of these unique groups.

14 15 Shooting Under Fire: The World of the War Photographer (Peter Howe, We Are Witnesses: Five Diaries of Teenagers Who Died in the Holocaust 2002) War photographers seek out the most horrifying and dangerous places in (Jacob Boas, 1995) Drawing on the unfinished diaries of five Jewish teenagers, the world to practice their craft. What compels them to do it?* Holocaust survivor Boas bears witness to ordinary families as they were crowd- ed into ghettos, persecuted, and murdered. Small Wonder (Barbara Kingsolver, 2002) This set of 19 penetrating autobio- graphical musings on humankind and how we treat each other and the rest of Wilderness Family: At Home With Africa’s Wildlife (Kobie Kruger, 2001) nature coalesced in the stunned aftermath of September 11. Grief, the struggle for Kruger eagerly embraced her husband’s assignment to a remote ranger station in understanding, and the recognition of the need for “reordered expectations” South Africa, where her life revolved around temperamental hippos, rambunc- underlie each bracing reverie. Trained as a biologist and gifted in the art of sto- tious badgers, and three beautiful, willful daughters. What she didn’t count on rytelling, Kingsolver is able to draw on her knowledge of the wild—of evolution was the starving lion cub that her husband brought home.* and biodiversity—as well as her feel for archetypes to bring into focus and dram- atize the biological and social impact of our unexamined habits of consumption.* Working Fire: The Making of an Accidental Fireman (Zac Unger, 2004) A young rookie provides a look behind the firehouse doors, bringing close the dan- Speak Truth to Power: Human Rights Defenders Who Are Changing Our ger, excitement, and challenge of fighting fire in a big city.* World (Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, 2000) A collection of biographical sketches and haunting photographs of ordinary people from 35 countries who are leading Yell-Oh Girls!: Emerging Voices Explore Culture, Identity and Growing-Up the fight to ensure basic human rights for everyone.* Asian American (Vickie Nam [ed.], 2001) Young women of Asian descent detail their experiences growing up in America.* Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (Mary Roach, 2003) Discover the amazing life-after-death adventures of human bodies in this examination of Zoya’s Story: An Afghan Woman’s Struggle for Freedom (Zoya, 2002) After how medical and research scientists use cadavers to make our lives better.* both her parents were killed by the predecessors of the Taliban, the Mujahideen, Zoya took up her mother’s work in RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail (Malika Oufkir and Michele Women of Afghanistan and, with her grandmother, journeyed to Pakistan, where Fitoussi, 2001) The shocking true story of one family’s fight to survive an unjus- she could receive an education at a school run by RAWA. A few years later, Zoya tified and lengthy political imprisonment in Morocco. returned to Afghanistan to help her people and get firsthand accounts of the hor- rors of the Taliban reign. A stirring memoir by an uncompromisingly brave Subject to Debate: Sense and Dissents on Women, Politics, and Culture woman.* (Katha Pollitt, 2001) Based on Pollitt’s popular columns for The Nation, these witty, passionate, irreverent essays open up many issues that affect young peo- Summer Reading for Eleventh/Twelfth Graders ple.* Fiction: Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer (Lynne Cox, 2004) Cox, who swam the English Channel at 15, writes about her subsequent Absolute Friends (John Le Carre, 2004) Le Carre’s novel focuses on the swims across some of the world’s most perilous waters. An inspirational account friendship between Ted Mundy, son of a British army officer and Sasha, the hand- of how solitary acts can unite people.* icapped son of an old Nazi. Student radicals in Germany in the ‘60s who evolve into Cold War spies, the two go their separate ways when Soviet communism This Boy’s Life: A Memoir (Tobias Wolff, 1989) In and out of trouble in his ends. The war in Iraq reunites the old friends in a world of intrigue and cynicism. youth, this charter member of the “Bad Boy’s Club” survives a boyhood that stretches from Florida to the Pacific Northwest.* All Loves Excelling (Joseph Bunting, 2001) The pressure to get into a presti- gious college is the drama in this realistic, contemporary story of a hardworking Truman (David McCullough, 1992) A biography of the notable President who high-school student who is driven to a breakdown by the expectations of her par- earned America’s respect by helping to end World War II and reshaping the world ents and herself.* for postwar peace.*

16 17 Alms for Oblivion: A Shakespearean Murder Mystery (Philip Gooden, 2003) Body and Soul (Frank Conroy, 1993) Claude Rawlings, a musical prodigy It’s 1602, in the midst of the plague; Elizabeth I’s health is failing, and growing up in the 1940s in New York City, is neglected by his poverty-stricken Shakespeare is flourishing as a playwright when murder strikes. Gooden devises mother but is taken under the wing of a Park Avenue maestro who helps him a fiendishly intricate mystery, featuring Nick Revill, a poor player and sometime uncover and develop his musical genius. sleuth in Shakespeare’s company, in a well-realized historical and literary set- ting.* Bondwoman’s Narrative (The) (Hannah Crafts, 1850?; Henry Louis Gates, Jr. [ed.], 2002) According to Harvard professor Gates (who purchased, edited, and Amy (Mary Hooper, 2002) In a chilling story about the dangers of Internet dat- published the original manuscript), this is probably the first novel written by a ing, lonely teenager Amy finds company in Internet chat rooms, and an online female slave and possibly the first written by a black woman. The story is the fic- romance flourishes with Zed. Their face-to-face meeting, however, is far from tional autobiography of Hannah Crafts and her slave life on a plantation in North idyllic as her recorded statement to the police reveals.* Carolina and her flight to freedom in the North.

Argall: The True Story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith (William T. Bucking the Tiger (Bruce Olds, 2001) This fictional collage picturing the life Vollmann, 2001) This is the third installment of the Seven Dreams series, of Doc Holliday—constructed from newspaper clippings, interviews, poetry, and Vollmann’s highly creative novels about the European conquest of North personal narrative—is ultimately a meditation on the Old West.* America. This novel focuses on the founding of the colony of Jamestown, Virginia. Cairo Trilogy (The): Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, and Sugar Alley (Naiguib Mahfouz, 1956-1957) Paralleling the politics of early 20th century As I Lay Dying (William Faulkner, 1930) The Bruden family treks across Egypt, this is an extensive but rewarding series about a merchant-class family Mississippi to take their recently departed matriarch, Addie, to the town where steeped in Islamic tradition. she wished to be buried. Each family member reveals his thoughts along the way in this dark comic novel. Can’t Get There From Here (Todd Strasser, 2004) She calls herself Maybe. Thrown out by her abusive mom, she struggles to survive on the streets of New Bel Canto (Ann Patchett, 2001) Readers curious about the emotional flow York with homeless teens who become a family in the asphalt jungle.* between hostages and their takers should cotton to this novel based on the 1996 Tupac Amaru takeover of the Japanese ambassadorial residence in Lima, Peru. It Cat’s Cradle (Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., 1963) One of the early works by the satiric traces the hostages’ adjusting attitudes during the torpor of a months-long siege.* genius of folly, the novel presents the chaotic story of the family of a leading atomic scientist who helped develop the first generation of nuclear bombs. Beloved (Toni Morrison, 1998) Preferring death over slavery for her child, Diversions keep shifting the focus to cult mysticism, Caribbean politics, profes- Sethe murders her infant, Beloved, who later mysteriously returns as a young sional rivalries, and odd individuals, while the ultimate weapon of mass destruc- woman and almost destroys her mother’s life. tion heads toward final realization.

Black Wind (Clive Cussler, 2004) The story begins toward the end of World Catch-22 (Joseph Heller, 1961) Set in the closing months of World War II, this War II, and the Japanese have sent two submarines to the West Coast of the U.S. is the classic satire of the absurdity of war featuring bombardier Yossarian, a They are carrying a lethal new strain of biological virus, but neither vessel makes character like no other. it to the designated target. Then, in 2007, a number of sea-lion deaths are report- ed along the western Alaska Peninsula, and birds and people in the area become Caves of Steel (The) (Isaac Asimov, 1954) Spacers live in space colonies in lux- sick and die, although no known environmental catastrophe or human-induced ury aided by robots. Earthlings live on a disease-ridden, overpopulated Earth and culprit is suspected. Called to the scene is Dirk Pitt, the head of the National are despised by the Spacers. A Spacer is killed outside one of Earth’s cities, and Underwater Marine Agency, and his two sons, one a marine biologist, the other a Detective Lije Bailey must find the murderer. marine engineer.* Chang and Eng (Darin Strauss, 2000) This truly remarkable first novel is both Blue Girl (The) (Charles De Lint, 2004) Brash, blue-skinned, street-smart a brilliant conjuring of a historical reality and a wonderful piece of storytelling Imogene battles the soul-eating Anamithims with her real, imaginary, and undead based on the sad evidence and disturbing myths of the historic Siamese twins friends.* Chang and Eng, born in 1811.*

18 19 Complete Stories (The) (Flannery O’Connor, 1971) She was not just the best Detective/Crime Mystery Writers: Try any book by the following mystery “woman writer” of the South—O’Connor also expressed something secret about writers: Nevada Barr (featuring National Park Ranger Amanda Pigeon; novels America. These stories about characters and misfits who live in small towns have are set in various U.S. National Parks); Henning Mankell (books set in Sweden the effect of an electric shock. featuring police detective Kurt Wallender); Sue Grafton (featuring female sleuth Kinsey Millhone); Dick Francis (featuring a variety of sleuths and locations); Corrections (The) (Jonathan Franzen, 2001) Franzen has taken a potentially Robert B. Parker (featuring hard-boiled Boston detective Spenser); Alexander sentimental framework, a Midwestern woman’s desire to have all three of her McCall Smith (featuring Mma Precious Ramotswe, owner of Botswana’s #1 adult children home for Christmas before their father succumbs to Parkinson’s Ladies Detective Agency); or Steve Womack (WRA alumnus whose novels fea- disease, and transformed it into a highly imaginative, empathic, caustically funny ture Nashville reporter turned private investigator, Harry James Denton). and moving saga about the absurdity of life as lived within our rampant global culture.* Divine Wind (The): A Love Story (Gary Disher, 2002) Set in a small northwest Australian coastal town, this World War II story is about friends and enemies Crooked River Burning (Mark Winegardner, 2001) Set in 1950s and 1960s close to home, racism, love and family heartaches, betrayal, and discovering per- Cleveland, Ohio, this highly entertaining novel charts the rise and fall of an aging sonal courage.* industrial center and profiles its inhabitants both real and imagined.* Dream of Scipio (The) (Iain Pears, 2002) Pears’ grand-scale historical thriller Da Vinci Code (The) (Dan Brown, 2003) One of the hottest books in recent juggles three radically different periods—the fall of the Roman Empire in the years, this is the fascinating story of American symbologist Robert Langdon who fourth century, the spread of the plague in the fourteenth, and World War II in the is accused of murdering the curator of the Louvre. On the run from police with twentieth. Pears’ elaborate narrative triptych is dazzling.* Sopie Neveu, a French cryptologist, the two find themselves looking for nothing less than the Holy Grail.* Drinking Coffee Elsewhere (Z. Z. Packer, 2003) A collection of stories told through the eyes of a variety of youthful characters, each with a unique situation Dante Club (The) (Matthew Pearl, 2003) Pearl’s gripping debut novel, set in and voice. Boston in 1865, begins with the discovery of the maggot-ridden, dead body of Judge Artemus Healey… Expertly weaving period detail, historical fact (the Einstein’s Dream (Alan Lightman, 1993) Focusing on three key months of Dante Club did indeed exist), complex character studies, and nail-biting sus- Albert Einstein’s life in 1905 when he is working as a patent clerk at the Swiss pense, Pearl has written a unique and utterly absorbing tale.* Patent Office in Bern, Lightman re-creates the dreams that allegedly lead Einstein to his spectacular conclusions about the nature of time. Darling (The) (Russell Banks, 2004) Banks continues his inquiry into the com- plex legacy of slavery in this gripping and unpredictable tale of a 1960s American Ethan Frome (Edith Wharton, 1911) This classic novel is the story of New radical, Hannah Musgrave, who surfaces in Liberia, where she cares for trauma- England farmer who finds himself in a loveless marriage. His world is turned tized chimpanzees and becomes embroiled in the country’s horrifically bloody upside down when his wife’s cousin comes to visit and he finds himself falling in power struggles.* love setting in motion a hopeless situation for all involved.

Deep River (Shusaku Endo, 1996) Endo’s haunting fiction is a vehicle for his Fall of Rome (The) (Martha Southgate, 2002) The author delves deeply into the views on God, religion, and the vast divides between cultures. In [this] novel, he social and emotional elements that unite and divide us. Issues of race, identity, intertwines the compelling stories of a group of troubled strangers on a tour of and integrity are intensely explored through a tragic human triangle comprising Buddhist shrines in India. We meet each of them at a pivotal point in their lives.* the lone African American instructor at an exclusive boys’ boarding school in Connecticut, a promising African American student from New York City, and a white divorcée.*

20 21 Feed (Matthew T. Anderson, 2002) In this strange, disturbing future world, teens Hundred Secret Senses (The) (Amy Tan, 1995) Tan [offers an] ambitious novel travel to the moon for spring break, live in stacked-up neighborhoods with artifi- that tackles themes of loyalty, connectedness, and what it means to be a family. cial blue sky, and are bombarded by a constant advertising and media blitz When Olivia Yee’s half-sister, Kwan, arrives from China, Olivia’s life is irrevo- through their feeds. The young people are bored unthinking pawns of commer- cably changed.* cialism, speaking only in obnoxious slang, ignoring or disrespecting the few adults around. Many teens will feel a haunting familiarity about this future uni- Iliad (The) (Homer, c. 800 B.C.) One of the greatest epic poems and war sto- verse.* ries of all time, this is the sweeping account of Achilles, Agamemnon, Helen, Hector, and others in the Trojan War. God in Ruins (A) (Leon Uris, 1999) This is another of the author’s vast and vigorous novels about politics and history, right and wrong, love and loss. This Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (Susanna Clarke, 2004) This first novel set time his country of choice is the United States, on the eve of the 2008 presiden- in early-nineteenth-century England, about the currently moribund state of magic tial election.* in the kingdom, is itself magical—an exceptionally compelling, brilliantly cre- ative, and historically fine-tuned piece of work.* Hazards of Good Breeding (The) (Jessica Shattuck, 2003) Caroline Dunlap has graduated college and returned to her father’s house in the genteel upper-class Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami, 2005) Acclaimed Japanese novelist world of suburban Boston for lack of a better option. Her sensitive, 10-year-old Murakami navigates the surreal world in this tale of two troubled souls whose brother, Eliot, is quietly launching a search for his baby-sitter, Rosita, whom his lives are entwined by fate. Fifteen-year-old Tokyo resident Kafka Tamura runs father, Jack, summarily fired six months ago. Faith, Jack’s ex-wife, who is still in away from home to escape a murderous curse inflicted by his famous sculptor the process of recovering from the nervous breakdown that precipitated the end father. Elderly Satoru Nakata wanders his way through each day after a mysteri- of her marriage, is in town to see a play Eliot is starring in and visit some friends. ous childhood accident turns his mind into a blank slate.* The characters are all stuck in a sense, in need of a push to disrupt their apathy.* Kitchen Boy (The) (Robert Alexander, 2003) The final days of the last Russian Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (The) (Douglas Adams, 1979) Adams’ high- tsar, Nicholas II, and his family are still a fascinating mystery. There is no one left ly successful radio series evolved into this first of five novels featuring Arthur to bear witness to what happened at the execution. Or is there? Alexander takes a Dent, an ordinary guy who ends up exploring other worlds as Earth is demol- very real, but forgotten and overlooked, potential witness, a young kitchen boy, ished. Later novels in the series include: The Restaurant at the End of the and creates an amazing fictional account of what may have transpired.* Universe (1980), Life, the Universe and Everything (1982), So Long and Thanks For All the Fish (1984), and Mostly Harmless (1992). Kite Runner (The) (Khaled Hosseini, 2003) Years after he flees Afghanistan, Amir, now an American citizen, returns to his native land and attempts to atone Human Factor (The) (Graham Greene, 1978) A spy novel and something more. for the betrayal of his best friend before he fled Kabul and the Taliban.* A British MI agent watches a plot of murder and even genocide unfold. All he wants is to have his evening drink with his South African wife and to watch their Lady and the Unicorn (The) (Tracy Chevalier, 2004) The author of Girl with son grow up in a world without prejudices. a Pearl Earring (2000) and Falling Angels (2001) offers a luminous tale about a set of medieval tapestries known as the Lady and the Unicorn sequence. Nicolas Human Stain (The) (Philip Roth, 2000) With the help of his alter ego, Nathan des Innocents, a handsome, lascivious artist, is summoned to the home of Jean Le Zuckerman, Roth continues the inquiry into the state of the American soul during Viste, a nobleman who wants Nicolas to design a series of battle tapestries.* the second half of the twentieth-century. Fueled by the story of his magnetic hero, Coleman Silk, it roars, with heart-revving velocity, through a literary landscape Love and Sex: Ten Stories of Truth (Michael Cart [ed.], 2001) Michael Cart that embraces the politics of race and sex, the Vietnam War, the absurdity of has collected 10 stories from a stellar roundup of familiar writers for young adults extreme political correctness, the dumbing down of the academy, and President who explore, with candor and heart, how passion, sex, crushes, and commitment Clinton’s impeachment. * alter and influence teens’ lives.*

22 23 Mrs. Dalloway (Virginia Woolf, 1925) Exploring the relationships between men Peace Like A River (Leif Enger, 2001) Readers will find themselves immersed and women, this novel centers on one day in the life of society matron Clarissa in an exceptionally heartfelt and moving tale about the resilience of family rela- Dalloway. Readers may also be interested in The Hours by Michael Cunningham tionships in this tale of Reuben, who was an adolescent in Minnesota in the (2000), a novel that both pays homage to Woolf and Mrs. Dalloway and makes 1960s, when his brother, Davy, shot and killed two young men who were harass- them integral to Cunningham’s story. ing the family.*

Namesake (The) (Jhumpa Lahiri, 2003) Ashoke Ganguli, a doctoral candidate Pearl (The) (John Steinbeck, 1947) Greed, treachery and loss are the focus of at MIT, chose Gogol as a pet name for his and his wife’s first-born because a vol- this story of a poor Mexican pearl diver who finds a priceless pearl. ume of the Russian writer’s work literally saved his life, but, in one of many con- fusions endured by the immigrant Bengali couple, Gogol ends up on the boy’s Plot Against America (The) (Philip Roth, 2004) Roth steps boldly into the dif- birth certificate. Unaware of the dramatic story behind his unusual and, eventu- ficult realm of alternate history. As he has it, aviation hero Charles Lindbergh is ally, much hated name, Gogol refuses to read his namesake’s work, and just nominated for president in 1940 on a peace-with-Hitler platform and wins hand- before he leaves for Yale, he goes to court to change his name to Nikhil.* ily over FDR—the majority of the electorate fearing that Roosevelt intends to propel the country into the war currently raging in Europe. Roth brings this Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro, 2005) Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth were once provocative national situation down to a personal level by drawing the reader into classmates at Hailsham, a private school in the English countryside. The tightly the lives of the young narrator—called Philip Roth—and his Jewish family in knit trio experienced love, loss, and betrayal as they pondered their destinies... In Newark, New Jersey.* this luminous offering, [Ishiguro] nimbly navigates the landscape of emotion— the inevitable link between present and past and the fine line between compas- Pompeii (Robert Harris, 2003) Popular thriller writer Harris sets his sights on sion and cruelty, pleasure and pain.* one of the most famous natural disasters in history: the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. With rich historical details and scientific minutiae, Harris Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman, 1997) Helping a young woman who lies dirty and vividly brings to life the ancient world on the brink of unspeakable disaster.* bleeding in the street leads Richard Mayhew into London Below, a subterranean collage of long-forgotten parts of historic London—a sort of Oz overrun by mani- Prayer for Owen Meany (A) (John Irving, 1989) Narrator John Wheelright acs and monsters that can be as exhilarating as it is terrifying.* reflects on his early life and the influence of his best friend Owen Meany. When the boys are 11, Owen hits a foul ball and accidentally kills John’s mother. Of Human Bondage (W. Somerset Maugham, 1915) The classic story of Philip Convinced that he is now “God’s instrument”, Owen believes he is destined to Carey, an orphan with a clubfoot who is raised by religious relatives. At eighteen, perform a sacrificial deed. he leaves home and looks for adventure abroad. Prince of Fire (Daniel Silva, 2005) Not long after an explosion in Rome Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway, 1953) Awarded the Pulitzer Prize destroys the Israeli embassy compound, a file linked to the terrorists behind the for Fiction in 1953, this classic novel is the story of an aging Cuban fisherman, bombing surfaces; it contains a remarkably comprehensive account of the career Santiago, who pursues and battles the catch of a lifetime—a magnificent marlin. of Gabriel Allon, including the date of his recruitment by the Israeli secret serv- This is a story of human courage, endurance, triumph. ice. Living in Venice and about to embark upon the restoration of a priceless Rubens painting, Gabriel, a talented art restorer and a reluctant spy, must return On the Road (Jack Kerouac, 1957) Considered to be one of Kerouac’s finest to Israel and the auspices of the agency bureaucrats.* This is the latest install- works and the classic work of the Beat Generation, this novel follows narrator Sal ment in a terrific series of thrillers featuring Allon. Paradise and his best friend Dean Moriarity as they travel cross-county looking for the meaning of life. Prodigal Summer (Barbara Kingsolver, 2001) Summer is the season for abun- dance and abandon, and all of its prodigal forces are at work in this seductive tale Passion of Artemesia (The) (Susan Vreeland, 2002) The author tells a vivid fic- of romance, risk, conviction, and love. Deanna Wolfe, a passionate Forest Service tionalized version of the life of Artemesia Gentileschi, known for her significant wildlife biologist, lives alone in the woods far above her hometown. After dis- contributions to Renaissance art.* covering a family of coyotes, she becomes determined to protect them, a mission jeopardized by her equally intense desire for a handsome hunter.*

24 25 Red Tent (The) (Anita Diamant, 1997) Biblical history is told from the Stories of John Cheever (The) (John Cheever, 1978) Suburbia, cocktail parties, woman’s point of view in this sweeping novel. Jacob’s daughter, Dinah, narrates swimming pools, gin, infidelities, and love—the urbane Cheever captures the emotionally charged stories that are exchanged between the women in her America in the ’40s and ’50s like no other writer. father’s household. Swallows of Kabul (The) (Yasmina Khadra, 2004) In Kabul under the Taliban, Rock (The): A Seventh-Century Tale of Jerusalem (Kanan Makiya, 2001) a part-time jailer and the scion of a business family ruined by the revolution, each Immersing the reader in seventh-century Jerusalem, Makiya brings to life K’ab, a caught in a spiral of disasters, cross paths when the latter’s beautiful wife is con- Jewish advisor to the fourth caliph of the Islamic empire, who converted to Islam demned to death in this harrowing and painful portrayal of a society enslaved by without abandoning Judaism and taught Muslims about the Jewish holy sites.* anger.*

Roman Fever and other Stories (Edith Wharton, 1990) A collection of tales Things They Carried (The): A Work of Fiction (Tim O’Brien, 1990) These about the lives of the well-to-do at the turn of the 20th century. poignant stories follow Tim O’Brien’s platoon of American soldiers through a variety of personal and military encounters during the Vietnam War.* Romance of Tristan and Iseult (Joseph Bedier, 1930) This is Bedier’s inter- pretation of one of the greatest love stories in Western literature. After defeating Time Traveler’s Wife (The) (Audrey Niffenegger, 2003) On the surface, Henry a famous Irish warrior and gaining the favor of his uncle, King Marc of Cornwall, and Clare Detamble are a normal couple living in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neigh- the Cornish warrior Tristan sets out a great mission: to bring home a queen for his borhood. Henry works at the Newberry Library and Clare creates abstract paper uncle. A story of doomed love and heartache. art, but the cruel reality is that Henry is a prisoner of time. It sweeps him back and forth at its leisure, from the present to the past, with no regard for where he Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood (Benjamin Alire Saenz, 2004) Sammy is or what he is doing.* Santos’ dreams of escaping the barrio in the late 1960’s are shattered after Juliana, the girl he loves, is murdered.* Troy (Adele Geras, 2001) The plot of Homer’s Iliad serves as backdrop to this sweeping, vividly detailed epic that imagines the lives of Trojan women and Sense of Honor (A) (James A. Webb, 1981) A top midshipman guides a plebe shows the dramas of love and work at home while the battles raged.* through the rigors of his first year at the Naval Academy. Turn of the Screw (The) (Henry James, 1898) This famous classic and terrify- Sheltered Quarter (The): A Tale of a Boyhood in Mecca (Hamza Bogary, ing ghost story is about a governess who sees ghosts—or does she? Are the chil- 1991) The Saudi author grew up in the Holy City before the development of oil. dren in her charge being manipulated by these spirits of two former servants? He recaptures a bygone way of life in this descriptive novel. Can she save them from their evil influence? To be sure, it is a fascinating and chilling tale. Songs of the Kings (The) (Barry Unsworth, 2003) Join Unsworth on another one of his greatly atmospheric visits to times past, in this case, ancient Greece on Ulysses (James Joyce, 1934) Voted top novel of the twentieth century, Ulysses the eve of the Trojan War. Adverse winds are keeping the allied forces of King is usually reserved for college classrooms. Tackling such a rambling novel can be Agamemnon from sailing across the Aegean Sea in their planned siege of Troy, fun, if you have a guide book: check your local bookstore. Recounting the day wherein inhabits Paris, who stole the beautiful Helen, wife of Agamemnon’s in the life of an Irish Jew named Leopold Bloom, the novel contains humor, brother, Menelaus.* strong language, stream-of-consciousness writing, drama-like passages, and inti- mate details of people’s lives. Sound and the Fury (The) (William Faulkner, 1929) This book is about the decline and fall of the aristocratic Compson family in Faulkner’s fictional Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green (The) (Joshua Braff, 2004) Jacob nav- Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi.* igates the minefields of his father’s rage in this humorous and heartrending view of a suburban Jewish family in the late 1970s.* Stillwater (William F. Weld, 2002) A powerful, poignant coming-of-age story novel set in rural western Massachusetts in 1938. Fifteen-year-old Jamieson nar- rates the events surrounding the flooding of the Swift River Valley as the people living there cope with the event that will change their lives forever.

26 27 War and Peace (Leo Tolstoy, 1865) This epic historical novel of early 19th cen- Blood Diamonds: Tracing the Deadly Path of the World’s Most Precious tury Russia is considered a masterpiece. Dealing primarily with the histories of Stones (Greg Campbell, 2003) Diamonds lose some of their luster in this five aristocratic families, the novel presents Russian social life during the war graphic account of the illegal diamond trade in the war-ravaged country of Sierra against Napoleon (1805-14). Leone in western Africa and the efforts of the diamond industry to minimize and distance itself from the problem. War Trash (Ha Jin, 2004) Ha Jin revisits a forgotten facet of the Korean War through the keen eyes of Yu Yuan, a book-loving and English-speaking Chinese Blue Latitudes: Going Boldly Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before (Tony POW in an American-run camp in which prisoners undertake everything from Horwitz, 2002) This is a thoroughly entertaining and informational book by the murder and torture to producing plays and staging daring protests.* Pulitzer Prize winning journalist that takes an insightful look at one of most important, if not under-appreciated, maritime explorers, circumnavigator James What Masie Knew (Henry James, 1897) Subtle and sophisticated story-telling Cook. Part biography, part travelogue, Horwitz offers a detailed, humorous, and about a young girl, Masie, who can’t understand what the adults are saying and balanced look at Cook and his legacy. He “follows the steps” of Cook’s three his- doing, but whose impressions and comments are uncannily accurate—a funny, toric 18th century voyages of the Pacific, interweaving written historical but unsettling story. accounts of the trips, including Cook’s, Joseph Banks’ (a wealthy botanist who signed on for the first voyage), and other ship’s officers’ and seamen’s. World According to Garp (The) (John Irving, 1978) A comic novel inter- weaving the halting struggles of male maturation and feminist independence. Book of Honor (The): Covert Lives and Classified Deaths at the CIA (Ted The story follows the growth of a son through prep school and beyond as he deals Gup, 2000) WRA alumnus Gup has written a powerful book about the real lives with writing, parenthood, marital problems, and friendship with a transsexual for- of secret agents in an unprecedented attempt to bring to light the names of those mer tight end for the Philadelphia Eagles. At the same time, his unwed mother agents who died in the line of duty, but whose identities have never been publicly emerges as a feminist author and activist for women. revealed by the CIA. Gup pens a compelling and controversial must-read.

Year of Ice (The) (Brian Malloy, 2002) Malloy’s first novel is a memorable Botany of Desire (The): A Plant’s-Eye View of the World (Michael Pollan, story of the emotional complexities of American families and the complications 2001) Pollan intertwines history, anecdote, and epiphany in this paradigm-alter- of coming of age. High-school senior Kevin Doyle is literally skating on thin ice: ing view of the mutually beneficial relationship between humans and four plants a self-described “alpha male,” he is secretly gay and increasingly estranged from that have thrived under cultivation and satisfied specific desires: apples, tulips, his father, who has a secret of his own.* marijuana, and potatoes.

Non-fiction: Burning (The): Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 (Tim Madigan, 2001) Madigan provides a riveting account of one of the most Alexander Hamilton (Ron Chernow, 2004) As Chernow’s comprehensive and shameful episodes in the troubled history of race relations in the U.S. On June 1, superbly written biography makes clear, Hamilton was at least as influential as 1921, a mob of angry white citizens descended on Greenwood, the prosperous any of our Founding Fathers in shaping our national institutions and political cul- black quarter of Tulsa, Oklahoma, burning the thriving community and torturing ture.* and killing African American residents.

Atom: An Odyssey from the Big Bang to Life on Earth…and Beyond Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West (Lawrence M. Krauss, 2001) Surpassing even Blake’s vision of the world in a (Dee Brown, 1970) Here’s another side of America’s western expansion: the one grain of sand, Krauss offers readers the entire cosmos in a mere atom. A rigorous, seen through Native American eyes.* intellectually exciting book.* Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America Autobiography of Malcolm X (The) (Malcolm X with the Assistance of Alex (Steve Almond, 2004) Almond elevates what could have been dry reportage into Haley, 1965) A great and controversial Black Muslim figure relates his transfor- a riotously funny memoir about his obsession with candy, which reached “freak” mation from street hustler to religious and national leader.* status during adolescence. Tender, bawdy, and wickedly comical.*

28 29 Code Book (The): The Evolution Of Secrecy From Ancient Egypt To Endurance (The): Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage (Alfred Lansing, 1985) Quantum Cryptography (Simon Singh, 1999) Singh takes us into the world of What Earnest Shackleton and his men survived, endured and struggled through in secret codes and code breaking. He provides insight into how codes work and their 1914-1916 Antarctic expedition is almost beyond comprehension in this then describes several examples of successful decipherment throughout history in modern era. This is by far one of the most amazing stories lived through to be this illuminating book. told.

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (Jared Diamond, 2004) Everest: Summit of Achievement (The Royal Geographical Society, 2003) Defining collapse as “extreme decline,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Spectacular photographs and gripping text commemorate nine historical Everest Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997), which posed questions about Western civiliza- expeditions. The climbers’ physical accomplishments are balanced by thought- tion’s domination of much of the world, now examines the reverse side of that provoking discussion of how Westerners and Tibetans differ in their views of the coin. Diamond ponders reasons why certain civilizations have collapsed. In addi- mountain.* tion, Diamond casts his critical but acute and inclusive gaze on the issue of why civilizations fail to see collapse coming. A thought-provoking book containing First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (Loung not a single page of dense prose.* Ung, 2000) Written by a young witness of the Cambodian atrocities by the Khmer Rouge, this is a book that will shock with its unrelenting violence and bru- Creole Mutiny (The): A Tale of Revolt Aboard a Slave Ship (George and tality. Ung’s narrative, however, displays her eloquence and strength as she sur- Willene Hendrick [eds.], 2003) This is an account of the slave revolt under the vives the devastation of war. leadership of Maidson Washington aboard the slave ship Creole in the early 1840s as she headed to New Orleans from the east coast of the U.S. The Flyboys: A True Story of Courage (James Bradley, 2003) Bradley brings to Hendricks use court records and insurance documents to detail this little known light the circumstances around and following the downing of eight U.S. pilots and story. airmen by the Japanese military at Chichi Jima in 1944-45, including former President George H. W. Bush. While Bush’s story is known (he was the only sur- D-Day: June 6, 1945: The Climactic Battle of World War II (Stephen vivor), Bradley exposes the fate of the others as documented in the recently Ambrose, 1994) An expert on D-Day, Ambrose offers a highly readable account revealed war-crimes trials of the Japanese officers in command. of and stunning tribute to the courageous World War II veterans who faced Nazi enemy fire in this terrifying and gruesome battle.* Future of Ice (The): A Journey Into Cold (Gretel Ehrlich, 2004) What does the current melting of the Arctic ice cap mean for the future of life on Earth? Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (Bernard Edelman [ed.], 1985) Ehrlich, veteran nature writer and lover of cold places, explores icy terrains, cel- Actual letters sent home by American G.I.s stationed in Vietnam bring alive var- ebrates the beauty of ice, portrays polar wildlife, and elucidates a crucial envi- ied aspects of that war. ronmental concern.*

Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams (Lynne Withey, 2001) Truly a Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America’s Man-made remarkable person, Abigail Adams was not afraid to express her views on gov- Landscape (James Howard Kunstler, 1993) Since the first settlers came to ernment, slavery and women’s issue in the 18th century when women had little America, communities formed as a result of function, safety, style and conven- role outside the home. Her husband, President John Adams, welcomed and val- ience. Kunstler argues that convenience is now the primary goal in this country, ued the opinions of his political wife who carried on her life with energy, intelli- and the independent spirit and increasing mobility of its citizens prevents indi- gence and determination. viduals from devoting time and talent toward the public good.

Edward Abbey: A Life (James M. Cahalan, 2001) Cahalan offers a meticulous Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II’s Most Dramatic portrait of writer Abbey, whose satiric fiction and high-voltage nature writing Mission (Hampton Sides, 2001) Among the plenitude of wartime horrors, the were fueled by a deep love for the Southwest, and who became a radical and Japanese treatment of POWs in World War II was among the most horrific, the enormously influential person.* Bataan Death March being one of the most notorious examples of the victors’ brutality. By January 1945 a few hundred survivors were in a squalid work camp on Luzon. Sides’ book recounts a gung-ho military raid to rescue them—and to assuage American humiliation for their surrender in 1942.*

30 31 Goya (Robert Hughes, 2003) Hughes brings eighteenth- and nineteenth-centu- Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America (Nathan McCall, ry Madrid to dynamic life and insightfully dissects every aspect of Goya’s ever- 1994) A harrowing, disturbing look at the world in which the author grew up. evolving paintings and etchings, indelible works that grew steadily darker, more This memoir vividly depicts gangs, drugs, and crime and how they impacted disturbing, and increasingly radical in their indictment of injustice and violence.* McCall who was a good student, yet unable to stay out of trouble. He recounts how he turned his life around, yet his accomplishments have not diminished the Great Shame (The): And the Triumph of the Irish in the English-Speaking problems of a black man succeeding in a white world.* World (Thomas Keneally, 1999) Starting with his own family, Keneally offers an extraordinary chronicle of the Irish migration to countries around the world in Man and His Symbols (Carl Jung, 1964) Jung’s book is an excellent explana- the 19th and early 20th centuries. tion of symbolism, its sources, and its meaning in our lives, “a psychiatrist intro- duces the concept of the collective unconscious.” Gum-Dipped: A Daughter Remembers Rubber Town (Joyce Dyer, 2003) Dyer’s memoir reads like a novel and builds to a surprising, but magnificent end- Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling (Ross King, 2003) This book focuses ing. A tribute to her father, Dyer captures life in the company town of Akron, specifically on the period 1508-1512 when Pope Julius II coerced Michelangelo Ohio, in the 1950s and ’60s. into an undertaking the intimidated and yet challenged the well-known sculptor: the frescoing of the Sistine Chapel. A reluctant employee at best, Michelangelo Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (A) (Dave Eggers, 2000) A very was plagued by money, health, technical and personality difficulties throughout personal and revealing memoir of how the author’s parents both died within a the seemingly never-ending project. year of each other when he was just 22 and how he became responsible for rais- ing his 8-year-old brother, Toph. Inherently tragic, but written with a sense of Mummy Congress (The): Science, Obsession and the Everlasting Dead humor and appreciation for the ridiculous demonstrates Eggers’ ability to over- (Heather Pringle, 2001) A fascinating book about the Mummy Congress—indi- come his pain and anger. viduals who devote their career and/or personal time to the study of mummies— as well as the fascinating array of mummy specimens from around the world to Hiroshima (John Hershey, 1946) Six Hiroshima survivors reflect on the after- whom they devote their lives. math of the first atomic bomb.* Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America (Barbara Ehrenreich, Infidels: A History of the Conflict Between Islam and Christendom (Andrew 2001) This is social critic Ehrenreich’s on-the-job study of how a single mother Wheatcroft, 2004) In the roar of skyscrapers collapsing in New York and in the (or anyone else) leaving welfare could survive without government assistance in thunder of fusillades in Afghanistan and Iraq, a leading British historian hears the form of food stamps, Medicaid, housing and child-care subsidies. To find the echoes of battles fought centuries ago. Wheatcroft’s taut and memorable narrative answers, Ehrenreich left her home in Key West and traveled from Florida to interprets today’s headlines within a very long chronology, showing how Muslim Maine and then to Minnesota, working in low-paying jobs. Read this fascinating and Christian leaders alike have imbued their followers with hostility toward account. alien creeds.* On the Rez (Ian Frazier, 2000) WRA alumnus Frazier has written a touching, Lady (The): Aung San Suu Kyi: Nobel Laureate and Burma’s Prisoner humorous story of the history of Oglala Sioux nation and life on the Pine Ridge (Barbara Victor, 1998) Victor, a journalist nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, has Reservation. written the first biography of Daw Aung Sau Suu Kyi, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for her resistance against Burma’s military junta. Called “the Lady” by Path Between the Seas (The): The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 authorities in an effort to trivialize her, she endured six years of house arrest and (David McCullough, 1997) If you’re interested in history, politics, diplomacy, deprivation.* medicine, engineering, or just a good story (which happens to be based on truth), you’ll enjoy this book. It’s an account of the building of the Panama Canal, filled Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life (Queen Noor, 2003) The for- with improbable events and colorful figures. mer Lisa Halaby, Queen Noor details her early life, her courtship with and mar- riage to Jordan’s King Hussein and the political and emotional dealings of King Hussein and his attempts over many years to achieve peace in the Middle East.

32 33 President in the Family (A): Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, and Thomas Roger Nash Baldwin and the American Civil Liberties Union (Robert C. Woodson (Byron W. Woodson, 2001) Woodson conveys the pain, pride, and Cottrell, 2001) Historian Cottrell’s involving biography reveals the deep contra- persistence of a remarkable family that faced nearly 200 years of denial of their dictions embodied in Harvard-educated Boston Brahmin Roger Nash Baldwin, the descent from the first-born son of Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings. unlikely individual most identified with the Egalitarian civil liberties crusade.* An important contribution to the honest presentation of American history.* Seeing in the Dark: How Backyard Stargazers Are Probing Deep Space and Price of Honor: Muslim Women Lift the Veil of Silence on the Islamic World Guarding Earth from Interplanetary Peril (Timothy Ferris, 2002) (Jan Goodwin, 1994) Goodwin set out to investigate the status of women in 10 Differentiating between the nature of stargazing done by professionals in well- Islamic countries after being shocked and appalled at the brutal treatment of a equipped observatories and the work of backyard scientists using homemade tel- nine-year-old girl she befriended while living in Peshawar, a frontier town on the escopes, Ferris invites teens to join the scientific community by tracing the con- border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Goodwin takes pains to present balanced tributions of amateur astronomers, ranging from Copernicus to Brian May.* and well-documented information, making her revelations all the more alarm- ing.* Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II (Robert Radioactive Boy Scout (The): The True Story of a Boy and His Backyard Kurson, 2004) Who knew that German submarine U-869, long thought to have Nuclear Reactor (Ken Silverstein, 2004) In the early 1990s, Detroit-area been sunk off Gibraltar in 1945, was actually sunk by its own torpedo less than teenager David Hahn tried to build a nuclear reactor in his backyard. Silverstein 60 miles from Brielle, New Jersey? No one—until 1991, when two death-cheat- tells his shocking story in lively detail that personalizes Hahn’s world without ing wreck-divers began exploring the boat’s wrecked hull, 230 feet underwater.* sensationalizing.* You will not want to put this book down!

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books (Azar Nafisi, 2003) Nafisi, a Short History of Nearly Everything (A) (Bill Bryson, 2003) Confessing to an former English professor at the University of Tehran, decided to hold secret, pri- aversion to science dating to his 1950s school days, Bryson here writes for those vate classes at her home after the rules at the university became too restrictive. of like mind, perhaps out of guilt about his lack of literacy on the subject. Making She invited seven insightful, talented women to participate in the class. At first science less intimidating is Bryson’s essential selling point as he explores an they were tentative and reserved, but gradually they bonded over discussions of atom; a cell; light; the age and fate of the earth; the origin of human beings. Lolita, Pride and Prejudice, and A Thousand and One Nights. Nafisi’s determi- Bryson’s organization is historical and his prose heavy on humanizing anecdotes nation and devotion to literature shine through, and her book is an absorbing look about the pioneers of physics, chemistry, geology, biology, evolution and pale- at primarily Western classics through the eyes of women and men living in a very ontology, or cosmology.* different culture.* Silent Spring (Rachel Carson, 1962) This landmark book is credited with giv- Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs and Cheap Labor in the American Black ing birth to the environmental movement. Market (Eric Schlosser, 2003) Schlosser provides an engaging, thoughtful book focusing on three segments of the underground economy in the United States: Spare Parts: A Marine Reservist’s Journey from Campus to Combat in 38 marijuana production and sales, the migrant labor issue in California’s produce Days (Buzz Williams, 2004) Williams describes the day-to-day rigors of boot fields, and the production and distribution of pornography. camp, the trials of his Gulf War tour of duty, and the particulars of his troubled reentry into society. A rare, honest account.* Remembering the Boys: A Collection of Letters, A Gathering of Memories (Lynna Piekutowski [ed.], 2000) A poignant, touching collection of letters Spinster and the Prophet (The): H.G. Wells, Florence Deeks, and the Case of between alumni of the Western Reserve Academy serving in WW II and its head- the Plagiarized Text (A.B. McKillop, 2002) This is a fascinating story of liter- master, Joel Hayden. These letters reveal the loneliness, boredom, hardships and ary theft. Florence Deeks’s manuscript about the feminist history of the world is dangers of military life on the frontlines and the active war effort of those left rejected by the publisher Macmillan. Several months later, in 1920, an astonish- behind at the Academy. A wonderful look at a special time in WRA history. ingly similar work, The Outline of History by the well-known author H. G. Wells, is published by Macmillan. Is it coincidence or plagiarism? The contrast of and insight into these two very different individuals is compelling and gripping as Deeks seeks justice.

34 35 Stories that Changed America: Muckrakers of the 20th Century (Carl Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare (Stephen Jensen [ed.], 2000) This collection centers on the major muckraking stories of Greenblatt, 2004) A Harvard scholar here sheds penetrating light on this enig- the twentieth century, providing some biographical and background information matic genius, teasing out the mystery of artistic transformation by carefully con- along with samples of each writer’s work. All of the included writers and their necting the Bard’s brilliant verse to his times and circumstances.* words have in some way—culturally, socially, or politically—altered the course of history. Woman Who Watches over the World: A Native Memoir (Linda Hogan, 2001) This is a haunting, courageous memoir by Chickasaw novelist Hogan, Theodore Rex (Edmund Morris, 2001) Yes, TR’s reputation is based on carrying much of it about young people who are lost, broken, and strong.* the Big Stick and sending the Great White Fleet around the World to impress every nation with American might; however, let’s not forget that he was a diplomat as Zelda Fitzgerald: Her Voice in Paradise (Sally Cline, 2003) Once the hoy- well and won the Nobel Peace Prize for settling the 1905 Russo-Japanese War.* denish belle of Montgomery, Alabama, then the notorious flapper wife of the famed novelist who coined the very term jazz age, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald was as There are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the artistic as she was bold and beautiful. Sadly, she lost her footing, suffering sev- Other America (Alex Kotlowitz, 1991) The powerful story of two young broth- eral breakdowns and enduring long periods of institutionalization. Cline not only ers struggling to survive in a drug-infested, crime ridden Chicago neighborhood. clarifies many heretofore misunderstood aspects of Zelda’s life, she also cele- brates her unique style of whimsical and sardonic artistic expression. Ticket Out (The): Darryl Strawberry and the Boys of Crenshaw (Michael Sokolove, 2004) The individual stories of the vastly talented 1979 L.A. high Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values school baseball team come to life in the heartbreaking account of the players’ last (Robert Pirsig, 1974) More than just the autobiography of a man who motorcy- season and the difficulties they faced in the years that followed.* cles across the country with this son, this classic delves into the mind and the meaning of life. Pirsig takes us on a philosophical journey that can change the True Notebooks (Mark Salzman, 2003) When Salzman agreed to teach a writ- way you view, think and feel about life. ing class at Central Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles, he had no idea how moved he would be by the lives and the eloquence of his students, all high-risk violent Something for Everyone: Informational Titles for Teenagers offenders.* Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (Anne Lamott, 1995) Universe in a Nutshell (The) (Steven Hawking, 2001) The physics guru illu- Advice to the fledging writers: “Just take it bird by bird.” A gentle, anecdotal minates startling new theories about our world in a lavishly illustrated sequel to guide for beginning authors.* A Brief History of Time.* Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers From the Media, War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (Chris Hedges, 2003) A Pulitzer Prize Politicians, and Activists (Joel Best, 2001) Do you know the difference winning author presents a passionate, thought-provoking look at wars through between “good” and “bad” statistics or how statistics and public policy are con- the ages and exposes the myths of the culture of combat.* nected?*

Washington’s Crossing (David Hackett Fischer, 2004) This outstanding ana- Dinner at the New Gene Café: How Genetic Engineering Is Changing What lytical narrative examines how the American colonists, at the nadir of their rebel- We Eat, How We Live, and the Global Politics of Food (Bill Lambrecht, lion, reversed their fortunes in a short, sharp campaign. Fischer’s exhaustive 2001) Lambrecht traces the scientific and political controversies surrounding the research, right down to the Americans’ collection of supplies, captures the utter use of genetically modified organisms and the food we eat.* precariousness of their situation.* Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (Eric Schlosser, What If? The World’s Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might 2001) The growth of the fast food industry has changed America’s eating habits Have Been (Robert Cowley [ed.], 2000) This book offers an exercise in taking and greatly impacted agriculture, the meatpacking industry, the minimum wage, history out of the textbooks and giving the lessons of history a twist. If you know and other aspects of American life.* what happened during a certain historical event and think you can’t learn anything from it, step back and consider “what if?” it hadn’t happened that way at all.

36 37 Gatekeepers (The): Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College Poetry, Anyone? (Jacques Steinberg, 2002) Getting in—who and what drives the college admis- sions cycle? Find out in a behind the scenes look at Wesleyan University through 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East (Naomi Shihab Nye, 2002) the eyes of an admissions officer seeking members for the class of 2004. Another world, another culture—poems that personalize the conflicts and peo- ple, deepening understanding of the impact of September 11th.* How Rude! The Teenager’s Guide to Good Manners, Proper Behavior, & Not Grossing People Out (Alex J. Packer, 1999) This is a funny, information Ariel (Sylvia Plath, 1965) An insightful collection of poems by the acclaimed packed book full of practical advice that guides the reader through the world of poet. manners. It’s a great resource for avoiding etiquette blunders. Body Eclectic (The): An Anthology of Poems (Patrice Vecchione [ed.], 2002) How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide Hand, blood, elbow, breast—this international anthology celebrates the body in to Reading Between the Lines (Thomas Foster, 2003) Every author leaves raw, beautiful poems by contemporary and classic poets.* clues to lead readers deeper into the inner meanings of their writings. Learn how to follow literary breadcrumbs in any story.* Book of Love Poetry (A) (Jon Stallworthy [ed.], 1987) You can experience love, throughout the ages, as expressed in the past 2000 years of poetry.* Make Yourself Heard: Teen Power Politics (Sara Jane Boyers, 2000) This book is a terrific introduction to the importance of teen political power and how Earth-Shattering Poems (Liz Rosenberg [ed.], 1998) Poets from around the teenagers can really make a difference. It provides a thought-provoking look at world and through the centuries express the emotional intensity of life’s experi- how teenagers’ views are shaped, outlining methods to refine and voice them.* ences.*

Purpose-Driven Life (The): What On Earth Am I Here For? (Rick Warren, Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth Century American Art 2002) Applying a purpose-driven framework to the individual, this book guides (Jan Greenberg [ed.], 2001) Specially commissioned, original poems celebrate the reader through a 40-day spiritual journey designed to answer life’s important some of the finest twentieth-century American art in this beautiful, surprising question: What on earth am I here for? volume.*

Teenage Survival Manual: How to Reach 20 in One Piece (And Enjoy Every In Search of Color Everywhere: A Collection of African-American Poetry Step of the Way) (H. Sam Coombs, 1995) This book offers a focused look at (Ethelbert E. Miller [ed.], 1994) From spirituals to rap to classic works by serious subjects impacting teens. It discusses ways to take charge of one’s life famous poets, this presentation delights the senses.* and to solve problems. Included in this fully revised edition are such issues as sexual health and orientation, violence, suicide, addiction, multiculturalism, eco- Movin’: Teen Poets Take Voice (Dave Johnson [ed.], 2000) Budding poets will logical issues, the search for self-identity, alienation, and rebellion. be inspired by this collection of poems by teenagers.*

What Does It Mean to Be Human?: Reverence for Life Reaffirmed by Sailing Alone Around the Room (Billy Collins, 2001) The former U.S. poet Responses from Around the World (Frederick Franck [ed.], 2000) Thought- laureate illuminates the landscape of the ordinary with humor and intelligence.* provoking essays on one of the most essential questions one can ask.* School Among the Ruins (The): Poems 2000-2004 (Adrienne Rich, 2004) Rich, a clarion poet of conscience, gets the fractured timbre of our times just right in a collection of vigorous lyric poems about cell phones and television, ter- ror and war, commercialization and “social impotence.”*

Slam (Cecily Von Ziegesar [ed.], 2000) Find out all about slam poetry in this entertaining book.

Spoken Word Revolution: Slam, Hip-Hop, and the Poetry of a New Generation (The) (Marc Smith and Mark Eleveld [ed.], 2003) This vibrant col-

38 39 lection of spoken-word poetry captures the raw street-savvy language of rap and Looking for A Good Book? Some Websites to Help You hip-hop and the aggressive energy of slam poems, as well as other poetry, all meant to be read out loud. A welcome anthology that reflects a growing move- Below are some websites that offer recommended books in a number of cate- ment with a large youth following.* gories. While by no means all-inclusive, we hope to give you some useful sug- gestions of where to start looking… Things I Have to Tell You: Poems and Writing by Teenage Girls (Betty Franco [ed.], 2001) A companion to You Hear Me (2000), this collection of sto- AllReaders.com ries and poems by teen girls reveals the truth about boyfriends, body image, and (http://allreaders.com) Look for books by plot, theme, character or setting. Book being female.* reviews are also available.

United States of Poetry (The) (Joshua Blum [ed.], 1996) Contemporary poems American Library Association enhanced by outstanding photographs highlight poets ranging from Nobel laure- (http://www.ala.org) This website offers a selection of booklists for people of all ates to rappers.* ages. Booklists can be found by selecting on “Issues and Advocacy” from the menu bar at the top of the page and then selecting “Literacy” from the menu on Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry the left. Under “Other Resources” are links to several excellent lists for (Maria M. Gillan [ed.], 1994) This poetry feast challenges stereotypes about teenagers including Best Books for Young Adults and Outstanding Books for the who or what is American.* College Bound.

Bookwire: Book Awards *These annotations have been reproduced from the American Library (http://www.bookwire.com/bookwire/otherbooks/Book-Awards.html) This web Association’s World Wide Website. ãCopyright 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, site offers links to a wide variety of book awards. 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 American Library Association. Edgar Awards The American Library Association is providing information and services on the (http://www.mysterynet.com/edgars) The annual Edgar Allan Poe Awards given World Wide Web in furtherance of its non-profit and tax-exempt status. by the Mystery Writers of America for achievement in the mystery field. Permission to use, copy and distribute documents delivered from this World Wide Web server and related graphics is hereby granted for private, non-commercial Horror Writers Association and education purposes only, and not for resale, provided that the above copy- right notice appears in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this (http://www.horror.org) Look under “Awards” for a variety of awards presented permission notice appear. All other rights reserved. by the Horror Writers Association including the annual Bram Stoker Awards for achievement in horror writing.

Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize (http://www.kiriyamaprize.org) Under Winners & Finalists, look for the annual awards given to “books that will contribute to greater understanding among peo- ples and nations of the Pacific Rim.”

National Book Awards (http://www.nationalbook.org/index.html) Annual awards presented by the National Book Foundation for literary achievement in four categories: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and young people’s literature.

40 41 National Book Critics Circle: Awards Title Index (http://www.bookcritics.org) Prestigious awards given for the year’s best books 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of Blood Diamonds: Tracing the in five categories: fiction, general nonfiction, criticism, poetry, and biogra- phy/autobiography. the Middle East, 39 Deadly Path of the World’s Most Abhorsen Trilogy (The), 1 Precious Stones, 29 Pulitzer Prizes Abhorsen, 1 Blue Girl (The), 18 (http://www.pulitzer.org) Select any year to view the annual awards for distin- Absolute Friends, 17 Blue Latitudes: Going Boldly guished writing by The Graduate School of ournalism at Columbia University. Alexander Hamilton, 28 Where Captain Cook Has Gone All Loves Excelling, 17 Before, 29 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Inc. All That Remains, 1 Body and Soul, 19 (http://www.sfwa.org) Look for the Nebula Awards for excellence in science fic- Alms for Oblivion: A Body Eclectic (The): An Anthology tion and fantasy writing. Shakespearean Murder Mystery, of Poems, 39 18 Bondwoman’s Narrative (The), 19 Western Writers of America Spur Awards Amy, 18 Book of Honor (The): Covert Lives (http://www.slco.lib.ut.us/award/spur.htm) The annual awards for distinguished writ- Ancient Olympics (The), 10 and the Classified Deaths at the ing about the American West. Animal Farm, 1 CIA, 29 Argall: The True Story of Book of Love Poetry (A), 39 Pocahontas and Captain John Botany of Desire (The): A Plant’s- Smith, 18 Eye View of the World, 29 Ariel, 39 Brave New World, 1 As I Lay Dying, 18 Bucking the Sarge, 1 At All Costs, 1 Bucking the Tiger, 19 Atom: An Odyssey from the Big Burning (The): Massacre, Bang to Life of Earth…and Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Beyond, 28 Riot of 1921, 29 Autobiography of Malcolm X, 28 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: Balzac and the Little Chinese An Indian History of the Seamstress, 1 American West, 29 Bee Season, 1 Cairo Trilogy (The), 19 Beet Fields (The): Memories of a Call of the Wild (The), 2 Sixteenth Summer, 10 Can’t Get There From Here, 19 Bel Canto, 18 Candyfreak: A Journey Through Beloved, 18 the Chocolate Underbelly of Big Cherry Holler, 1 America, 29 Big Stone Gap Trilogy, 1 Caramelo, 2 Big Stone Gap, 1 Cat’s Cradle, 19 Bird by Bird: Instructions on Catch-22, 19 Writing and Life, 37 Caves of Steel (The), 19 Black Boy: A Record of Childhood Chang and Eng, 19 and Youth, 10 Charles Dickens, 10 Black Wind, 18

42 43 Chess: From First Moves to Desert Solitaire, 12 Five People You Meet in Heaven Gum-Dipped: A Daughter Checkmate, 10 Dinner at the New Gene Café: (The), 3 Remembers Rubber Town, 32 Code Book (The): The Evolution of How Genetic Engineering is Flyboys: A True Story of Courage, Hazards of Good Breeding (The), Secrecy From Ancient Egypt to Changing What We Eat, How 31 22 Quantum Cryptography, 30 We Live, and the Global Politics For the Time Being, 12 Heart to Heart: New Poem Collapse: How Societies Choose to of Food, 37 For Whom the Bell Tolls, 3 Inspired by Twentieth Century Fail or Succeed, 30 Divine Wind (The): A Love Story, Forest Lover (The), 3 American Art, 39 Complete Stories (The), 20 21 Forgotten Fire, 4 Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Corrections (The), 20 Dream of Scipio (The), 21 Foundation and Empire, 4 Genius (A), 32 Count of Monte Cristo (The), 2 Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, 21 Foundation Series (The), 4 Heroes, 5 Counting Coup: The True Story of Eagle Strike: An Alex Rider Foundation, 4 Hidden Evidence: Forty True Basketball and Honor on the Adventure, 3 Foxmask, 4 Crimes and How Forensic Little Bighorn, 12 Earthly Knight (An), 3 Frankenstein, 4 Science Helped Solve Them, 13 Creole Mutiny (The): A Tale of Earth-Shattering Poems, 39 Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Hiroshima, 32 Revolt Aboard a Slave Ship, 30 Edward Abbey: A Life, 30 Team, and a Dream, 12 Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Crooked River Burning, 20 Egg On Three Sticks (An), 3 Future of Ice (The): A Journey (The), 22 Crossing Over: A Mexican Family Einstein’s Dream, 21 Into Cold, 31 How Rude! The Teenager’s Guide on the Migrant Trail, 12 Ellen Foster, 3 Gabriel’s Story, 4 to Good Manners, Proper Curious Incident of the Dog in the End of the Earth: Voyaging to Gang of One: Memoirs of a Red Behavior, & Not Grossing People Night-Time (The), 2 Antarctica, 12 Guard, 13 Out, 38 Da Vinci Code (The), 20 Endurance (The): Shackleton’s Gatekeepers (The): Inside the How to Read Literature Like a Damned Lies and Statistics: Incredible Voyage, 31 Admissions Process of a Premier Professor: A Lively and Understanding Numbers From Ethan Frome, 21 College, 38 Entertaining Guide to Reading the Media, Politicians, and Everest: Summit of Achievement, Geography of Nowhere: The Rise Between the Lines, 38 Activists, 37 31 and Decline of America’s Man- Human Factor (The), 22 Daniel Half Human: And the Good Every Time a Rainbow Dies, 3 Made Landscape, 31 Human Stain (The), 22 Nazi, 2 Fahrenheit 451, 3 Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Hundred Secret Senses (The), 23 Dante Club (The), 20 Fall of Rome (The), 21 Story of World War II’s Most Iliad (The), 23 Darling (The), 20 Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side Dramatic Mission, 31 In Search of Color Everywhere: A D-Day: June 6, 1945: The of the All-American Meal, 37 Girls in Pants: The Third Summer Collection of African-American Climactic Battle of World War Feed, 22 of the Sisterhood, 4 Poetry, 39 II, 30 Fellowship of the Ring (The), 5 Go and Come Back, 4 Indian Summer: The Tragic Story D-Day: The Greatest Invasion, 12 Fermat’s Enigma: The Quest to God in Ruins (A), 22 of Louis Francis Sockalexis, the Dead Man’s Gold: And Other Solve the World’s Greatest Gothic: Ten Original Dark Tales, 4 First Native American in Major Stories, 2 Mathematical Problem, 12 Goya, 32 League Baseball, 13 Dear America: Letters Home from Fighting for Honor: Japanese Great Gatsby (The), 4 Infidels: A History of the Conflict Vietnam, 30 Americans and World War II, 12 Great Santini (The), 5 Between Islam and Christendom, Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Fire-Eaters (The), 3 Great Shame (The): And the 32 Adams, 30 First They Killed My Father: A Triumph of the Irish in the Insect Lives: Stories of Mystery Deep River, 20 Daughter of Cambodia English-Speaking World, 32 and Romance from a Hidden Remembers, 31 Grendel, 5 World, 13

44 45 Jim the Boy: A Novel, 5 Mummy Congress (The): Science, Photography: An Illustrated Rock (The): A Seventh-Century Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, 23 Obsession and the Everlasting History, 14 Tale of Jerusalem, 26 Journey of Crazy Horse (The): A Dead, 33 Player, The: Christy Mathewson, Roger Nash Baldwin and the Lakota History, 13 My Forbidden Face: Growing Up Baseball, and the American American Civil Liberties Union, Kafka on the Shore, 23 Under the Taliban, 14 Century, 15 35 Kitchen Boy (The), 23 My Losing Season, 14 Plot Against America (The), 25 Roman Fever and Other Stories, 26 Kite Runner (The), 23 My Sister’s Keeper, 6 Pompeii, 25 Romance of Tristan and Iseult, 26 Lady (The): Aung San Suu Kyi: Namesake (The), 24 Postcards from No Man’s Land, 6 Rooster, 7 Nobel Laureate and Burma’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Prayer for Owen Meany (A), 25 Runaway Girl: The Artist Louise Prisoner, 32 Douglass, an American Slave, President in the Family (A): Bourgeois, 15 Lady and the Unicorn (The), 23 Written by Himself, 14 Thomas Jefferson, Sally Sabriel, 1 Lasso the Wind: Away to the New Neanderthal, 6 Hemings, and Thomas Woodson, Sailing Alone Around the Room, 39 West, 13 Nectar in a Sieve, 6 34 Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood, Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Never Let Me Go, 24 Price of Honor: Muslim Women 26 Unexpected Life, 32 Neverwhere, 24 Lift the Veil of Silence on the Sand-Reckoner (The), 7 Left for Dead, 14 Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Islamic World, 34 Sarah: Women of Genesis, 7 Life is Funny, 5 Getting By in America, 33 Prince of Fire, 25 Savage Summit: The True Stories Life of Pi, 5 Of Human Bondage, 24 Private Peaceful, 7 of the First Five Women Who Light at the Edge of the World: A Of Mice and Men, 6 Prodigal Summer, 25 Climbed K2, the World’s Most Journey Through the Realm of Old Man and the Sea, 24 Promised the Moon: The Untold Feared Mountain, 15 Vanishing Cultures, 14 Old School, 6 Story of the First Women in the Saving Francesca, 7 Lirael, 1 On the Rez, 33 Space Race, 15 School Among the Ruins (The): Lord of the Flies, 5 On the Road, 24 Purpose-Driven Life (The): What Poems 2000-2004, 39 Lord of the Rings Trilogy (The), 5 One More for the Road: A New On Earth Am I Here For?, 38 Seabiscuit: An American Legend, Love and Sex: Ten Stories of Truth, Story Collection, 6 Quiver, 7 15 23 Out of the Silent Planet, 7 Radioactive Boy Scout (The): The Second Foundation, 4 Make Yourself Heard: Teen Power Outwitting History: The Amazing True Story of a Boy and His Secret House (The): The Politics, 38 Adventures of a Man Who Backyard Nuclear Reactor, 34 Extraordinary Science of an Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Rescued a Million Yiddish Ransom Trilogy (The), 7 Ordinary Day, 15 Black Man in America, 33 Books, 14 Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Secret Life of Bees (The), 7 Man and His Symbols, 33 Palace of Desire, 19 Memoir in Books, 34 Seeing in the Dark: How Backyard Martyrs’ Crossing, 5 Palace Walk, 19 Red Tent (The), 26 Stargazers Are Probing Deep Master and Commander: The Far Passion of Artemesia (The), 24 Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs and Space and Guarding Earth From Side of the World, 5 Path Between the Seas (The): The Cheap Labor in the American Interplanetary Peril, 35 Michelangelo and the Pope’s Creation of the Panama Canal, Black Market, 34 Sense of Honor (A), 26 Ceiling, 33 1870-1914, 33 Remembering the Boys: A Separate Peace (A), 8 Milk Glass Moon, 1 Peace Like A River, 25 Collection of Letters, A Shades of Simon Gray, 8 Moth Diaries (The), 6 Pearl (The), 25 Gathering of Memories, 34 Motherland, 6 Perelandra, 7 Return of the King (The), 5 Movin’: Teen Poets Take Voice, 39 Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return, Robinson Crusoe, 7 Mrs. Dalloway, 24 14

46 47 Shadow Divers: The True Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Turn of the Screw (The), 27 World According to Garp (The), 28 Adventure of Two Americans Desert Jail, 16 Two Towers (The), 5 Year of Ice (The), 28 Who Risked Everything to Solve Stories of John Cheever (The), 27 Ulysses, 27 Year of Secret Assignments (The), One of the Last Mysteries of Stories that Changed America: United States of Poetry (The), 40 10 World War II, 35 Muckrakers of the 20th Century, Universe in a Nutshell (The), 36 Yell-oh Girls!: Emerging Voices Shadow Warriors (The): Inside the 36 Unsettling America: An Anthology Explore Culture, Identity, and Special Forces, 15 Subject to Debate: Sense and of Contemporary Multicultural Growing Up Asian American, 17 Sheltered Quarter (The): A Tale of Dissents on Women, Politics, and Poetry, 40 Zelda Fitzgerald: Her Voice in a Boyhood in Mecca, 26 Culture, 16 Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Paradise, 37 Shield of Three Lions, 8 Sugar Alley, 19 Green (The), 27 Zen and the Art of the Motorcycle Shooting Under Fire: The World of Swallows of Kabul (The), 27 Waifs and Strays, 9 Maintenance: An Inquiry into the War Photographer, 16 Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a War and Peace, 28 Values, 37 Short History of Nearly Everything Long-Distance Swimmer, 16 War is a Force That Gives Us Zoya’s Story: An Afghan Woman’s (A), 35 Tale of Two Cities (A), 9 Meaning, 36 Struggle for Freedom, 17 Shylock’s Daughter, 8 Tales, 9 War Trash, 28 Siddhartha, 8 Teenage Survival Manual: How to Washington’s Crossing, 36 Sign of the Qin: Outlaws of Reach 20 in One Piece (And Water Dancers (The), 9 Moonshadow Marsh, 8 Enjoy Every Step of the Way), 38 We Are Witnesses: Five Diaries of Silent Spring, 35 That Hideous Strength, 7 Teenagers Who Died in the Slam, 39 Theodore Rex, 36 Holocaust, 17 Small Wonder, 16 There Are No Children Here: The Whale Talk, 9 Something Rotten, 8 Story of Two Boys Growing Up What Does It Mean to be Human?: Songs of the Kings (The), 26 in the Other America, 36 Reverence for Life Reaffirmed Sound and the Fury (The), 26 Things I Have to Tell You: Poems by Responses from Around the Spare Parts: A Marine Reservist’s and Writing by Teenage Girls, 40 World, 38 Journey from Campus to Things They Carried (The): A What If? The World’s Foremost Combat in 38 Days, 35 Work of Fiction, 27 Military Historians Imagine Speak Truth to Power: Human This Boy’s Life: A Memoir, 16 What Might Have Been, 36 Rights Defenders Who Are Ticket Out (The): Darryl What Masie Knew, 28 Changing Our World, 16 Strawberry and the Boys of When the Emperor Was Divine, 10 Spinster and the Prophet (The): H. Crenshaw, 36 Whiteout, 10 G. Wells, Florence Deeks, and the Time Traveler’s Wife (The), 27 Wilderness Family: At Home with Case of the Plagiarized Text, 35 To Kill A Mockingbird, 9 Africa’s Wildlife, 17 Spoken Word Revolution (The): Touching Spirit Bear, 9 Will in the World: How Slam, Hip-Hop, and the Poetry Troy, 27 Shakespeare Became of a New Generation, 39 True Account (The): A Novel of the Shakespeare, 37 State of Fear, 8 Lewis and Clark and Kinnesan Woman Who Watches Over the Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Expeditions, 9 World (The): A Native Memoir, Cadavers, 16 True Notebooks, 36 37 Stillwater, 26 Truman, 16 Working Fire: The Making of an Truth and Bright Water, 9 Accidental Fireman, 17

48 49 Author Index Hawking, Steven, 36 Kruger, Kobie, 17 Murakami, Haruki, 23 Hedges, Chris, 36 Kunstler, James Nafisi, Azar, 34 Abbey, Edward, 12 Chevalier, Tracy, 23 Eggers, Dave, 32 Heller, Joseph, 19 Howard, 31 Nam, Vickie, 17 Abelove, Joan, 4 Chotjewitz, David, 2 Ehrenreich, Barbara, 33 Hemingway, Ernest, 3, Kurson, Robert, 35 Nelson, Peter, 14 Adams, Douglas, 22 Cisneros, Sandra, 2 Ehrlich, Gretel, 31 24 Lahiri, Jhumpa, 24 Niffenegger, Audrey, 27 Albom, Mitch, 3 Clancy, Tom, 15 Eleveld, Mark, 39 Hendrick, George, 30 Lambrecht, Bill, 37 Nix, Garth, 1 Alexander, Robert, 23 Clarke, Susannah, 23 Endo, Shusaku, 20 Hendrick, Willene, 30 Lamott, Anne, 37 Nolan, Stephanie, 15 Almond, David, 3 Cline, Sally, 37 Enger, Leif, 25 Hershey, John, 32 Lansing, Alfred, 31 Noor, Queen, 32 Almond, Steve, 29 Collins, Billy, 39 Faulkner, William, 18, Hesse, Herman, 8 Lansky, Aaron, 14 Noyes, Deborah, 4 Ambrose, Stephen, 30 Colton, Larry, 12 26 Hillenbrand, Laura, 15 Latifa, 14 Nye, Naomi Shihab, 39 Anderson, Matthew T., Conroy, Frank, 19 Ferris, Timothy, 35 Hogan, Linda, 37 Le Carre, John, 17 O’Brian, Patrick, 5 22 Conroy, Pat, 5, 14 Fforde, Jasper, 8 Homer, 23 Lee, Harper, 9 O’Brien, Tim, 27 Asimov, Isaac, 4, 19 Coombs, H. Sam, 38 Fischer, David Hackett, Hooper, Mary, 18 Lewis, C. S., 7 O’Connor, Flannery, 20 Bagdasarian, Adam, 4 Cooper, Michael, 12 36 Horowitz, Anthony, 3 Lightman, Alan, 21 Olds, Bruce, 19 Banks, Russell, 20 Cormier, Robert, 5, 6 Fischer, Jackie, 3 Horwitz, Tony, 29 London, Jack, 2 Orwell, George, 1 Barr, Nevada, 21 Cottrell, Robert C., 35 Fitoussi, Michele, 16 Hosseini, Khaled, 23 Madigan, Tim, 29 Otsuka, Julie, 10 Bass, L. G., 8 Cowley, Robert, 36 Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 4 Howe, Peter, 16 Mahfouz, Naguib, 19 Oufkir, Malika, 16 Bedier, Joseph, 26 Cox, Lynne, 16 Follett, Ken, 10 Hoyt, Erich, 13 Makiya, Kanan, 26 Owen, David, 13 Best, Joel, 37 Crafts, Hannah, 19 Foster, Thomas, 38 Hughes, Robert, 32 Malloy, Brian, 28 Packer, Alex J., 38 Bissinger, H. G., 12 Crichton, Michael, 8 Francis, Dick, 21 Huxley, Aldous, 1 Mankell, Henning, 21 Packer, Z. Z., 21 Blum, Joshua, 40 Crutcher, Chris, 9 Franck, Frederick, 38 Irving, John, 25, 28 Marchetta, Melina, 7 Parker, Robert B., 21 Boas, Jacob, 17 Cuomo, Kerry Franco, Betty, 40 Ishiguro, Kazuo, 24 Marillier, Juliet, 4 Patchett, Ann, 18 Bodanis, David, 15 Kennedy, 16 Frank, E. R., 5 James, Henry, 27, 28 Markandaya, Kamala, 6 Paulsen, Gary, 10 Bogary, Hamza, 26 Curtis, Christopher Franzen, Jonathan, 20 Jensen, Carl, 36 Marshall, III, Joseph Pearl, Matthew, 20 Box, C. J., 2 Paul, 1 Frazier, Ian, 33 Jin, Ha, 28 M., 13 Pears, Iain, 21 Boyers, Sara Jane, 38 Cussler, Clive, 18 Gaiman, Neil, 24 Johnson, Dave, 39 Martel, Yann, 5 Peters, Elizabeth, 2 Bradbury, Ray, 3, 6 Darnton, John, 6 Gamble, Terry, 9 Jordan, Jennifer, 15 Martinez, Ruben, 12 Peters, Ellis, 2 Bradley, James, 31 Davidson, Diane Mott, Gardner, John, 5 Jordan, Sandra, 15 Matthiessen, Peter, 12 Picoult, Jodi, 6 Bradshaw, Gillian, 7 2 Gates, Henry Louis, 19 Joyce, James, 27 Maugham, W. Piekutowski, Lynna, 34 Braff, Joshua, 27 Davis, Wade, 14 Geras, Adele, 27 Jung, Carl, 33 Somerset, 24 Pirsig, Robert, 37 Brashares, Ann, 4 De Lint, Charles, 9, 18 Gibbons, Kaye, 3 Kaufman, Pamela, 8 McCall, Nathan, 33 Plath, Sylvia, 39 Braun, Lilian Jackson, 2 Defoe, Daniel, 7 Gillan, Maria M., 40 Keneally, Thomas, 32 McCullough, David, 16, Poe, Edgar Allan, 9 Brooks, Bruce, 1 Diamant, Anita, 26 Gilstrap, John, 1 Kerouac, Jack, 24 33 Pollan, Michael, 29 Brown, Dan, 20 Diamond, Jared, 30 Goldberg, Myla, 1 Khadra, Yasmina, 27 McDonald, Brian, 13 Pollitt, Katha, 16 Brown, Dee, 29 Dickens, Charles, 9 Golding, William, 5 Kidd, Sue Monk, 7 McDonald, Joyce, 8 Pressler, Mirjam, 8 Bryson, Bill, 35 Dillard, Annie, 12, 36 Gooden, Philip, 18 King, Daniel, 10 McKillop, A. B., 35 Pringle, Heather, 33 Bunting, Joseph, 17 Disher, Gary, 21 Goodwin, Jan, 34 King, Ross, 33 McNaughton, Janet, 3 Rich, Adrienne, 39 Cahalan, James, 30 Douglass, Frederick, 14 Grafton, Sue, 21 King, Thomas, 9 Mickaelsen, Ben, 9 Roach, Mary, 16 Campbell, Greg, 29 Dumas, Alexander, 2 Greenberg, Jan, 15, 39 Kingsolver, Barbara, Miller, Ethelbert E., 39 Roberts, Gillian, 2 Card, Orson Scott, 7 Durham, David Greenblatt, Stephen, 37 16, 25 Moriarty, Jaclyn, 10 Roberts, Les, 2 Carson, Rachel, 35 Anthony, 4 Greene, Graham, 22 Klein, Rachel, 6 Morpurgo, Michael, 7 Rosenberg, Liz, 39 Cart, Michael, 23 Dyer, Joyce, 32 Gup, Ted, 29 Knowles, John, 8 Morris, Edmund, 36 Roth, Philip, 22, 25 Chambers, Aiden, 6 Earley, Tony, 5 Haddon, Mark, 2 Kotlowitz, Alex, 36 Morrison, Toni, 18 Royal Geographical Cheever, John, 27 Edelman, Bernard, 30 Haley, Alex, 28 Krauss, Lawrence M., Mosher, Howard Frank, Society (The), 31 Chernow, Ron, 28 Egan, Timothy P., 13 Harris, Robert, 25 28 9

50 51 Saenz, Benjamin Alire, Von Ziegesar, Cecily, Notes 26 39 Salzman, Mark, 36 Vonnegut, Jr., Kurt, 19 Sandler, Martin, 14 Vreeland, Susan, 3, 24 Satrapi, Marjane, 14 Warren, Rick, 38 Schlosser, Eric, 34, 37 Weaver, Beth Nixon, 7 Schultz, Ted, 13 Webb, James A., 26 Seib, Philip M., 15 Weld, William F., 26 Shattuck, Jessica, 22 Wharton, Edith, 21, 26 Shelley, Mary, 4 Wheatcroft, Andrew, 32 Shen, Fan, 13 Wilentz, Amy, 5 Sides, Hampton, 31 Williams, Buzz, 35 Sijie, Dai, 1 Williams-Garcia, Rita, Silva, Daniel, 25 3 Silverstein, Ken, 34 Winegardner, Mark, 20 Singh, Simon, 12, 30 Withey, Lynne, 30 Smiley, Jane, 10 Wolff, Tobias, 6, 16 Smith, Alexander Womack, Steve, 21 McCall, 21 Woodson, Byron W., 34 Smith, Marc, 39 Woolf, Virginia, 24 Sokolove, Michael, 36 Wright, Richard, 10 Southgate, Martha, 21 X, Malcolm, 28 Spinner, Stephanie, 7 Yee, Paul, 2 Spivey, Nigel Jonathan, Zoya, 17 10 Stallworthy, John, 39 Steinbeck, John, 6, 25 Steinberg, Jacques, 38 Strasser, Todd, 19 Strauss, Darin, 19 Tan, Amy, 23 Tolkien, J. R. R., 5 Tolstoy, Leo, 28 Trigiani, Adriana, 1 Ung, Loung, 31 Unger, Zac, 17 Unsworth, Barry, 26 Uris, Leon, 22 Van Der Vat, Dan, 12 Vecchione, Patrice, 39 Victor, Barbara, 32 Vijayaraghavan, Vineeta, 6 Vollmann, William T., 18

52 53 Notes

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