Summer Reading List 2015 English Department Summer Reading for Summer 2015 All Rising 9th graders will read True Grit by Charles Portis. Students should annotate their books, marking themes, questions, unfamiliar words, favorite passages, major plot moments and rhetorical devices. The first day of classes, they should arrive with their books, expecting an assessment on facts and themes.* All Rising 10th graders will read A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines. Students should annotate their books, marking themes, questions, unfamiliar words, favorite passages, major plot devices and characters. The first day of classes, they should arrive with their books, expecting an assessment on facts and themes.* All Rising 10th graders entering Honors Genre Studies should also read a book from the following list headed Honors Genre Studies. They should prepare to give a two minute oral presentation convincing others to either read or avoid the book. This presentation is not a plot review, but rather a sharp and convincing textual analysis. Honors Genre Studies (in alphabetical order by title) The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko The Color Purple by Alice Walker Emma by Jane Austen Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie I am Malala by Malala Yousafza I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie The Reivers by William Faulkner Tandia by Bryce Courtenay (follow up to The Power of One) A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor All Rising 11th graders will read A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. Students should annotate their books, marking themes, questions, unfamiliar words, favorite passages, major plot moments and rhetorical devices. The first day of classes, they should arrive with their books, expecting an assessment on facts and themes.* All Rising 11th graders enrolled in or seeking to enroll in Advanced American Literature should also read a book from the following list headed American Literature. They should prepare to give a two minute oral presentation convincing others to either read or avoid the book. This presentation is not a plot review, but rather a sharp and convincing textual analysis. American Literature (in alphabetical order by title) All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo Catch 22 by Joseph Heller Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris (follow up to A Raisin in the Sun) Clockers by Richard Price Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole The Day of the Locust by Nathaniel West Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen Dreams of my Father by Barack Obama Empire Falls by Richard Russo The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand In Cold Blood by Truman Capote In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez Jazz by Toni Morrison Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich March by Geraldine Brooks Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides The Moviegoer by Walker Percy Native Son by Richard Wright Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee Roots by Alex Haley Secret History by Donna Tartt Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey State of Wonder by Ann Patchett The Unvanquished by William Faulkner Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston All Rising 12th graders will read Atonement by Ian McEwan. Students should annotate their books, marking themes, questions, unfamiliar words, favorite passages, major plot devices and characters. The first day of classes, they should arrive with their books, expecting an assessment on facts and themes.* All Rising 12th graders are required to bring to their first English class a polished essay response to one of the Common Application essay questions. Senior English teachers will grade these essays and then will work with their students to further edit these essays. Zeros will be assigned to students who do not bring an essay to class. All Rising 12th graders enrolled in Advanced British Literature should also read a book from the following list headed British and World Literature. They should prepare to give a two minute oral presentation convincing others to either read or avoid the book. This presentation is not a plot review, but rather a sharp and convincing textual analysis. British and World Literature (in alphabetical order by title) Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Blindness by Jose Saramago Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese The Death of Atermio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles The Garden Party by Vaclav Havel The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai July’s People by Nadine Gordimer King Rat by James Clavell Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie Narcissist and Goldman by Herman Hesse One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson A Passage to India by E. M. Forster A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce Possession by A.S. Byatt The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles Snow by Orham Pamuk Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Marukami Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens Vanity Fair by William Thackeray *Note: If a student is enrolled in a class that most of the grade is not in (a junior in 12th grade class, for instance), that student should read for the class in which he or she is enrolled, and not the grade-wide text. Episcopal High School Social Studies Summer Reading 2015 Students in all Social Studies courses (except second semester electives) are expected to read a book and prepare the specific assignment/s listed below. This is a great opportunity for students to begin learning the course material in advance and to start the quarter in good standing! All summer reading and assignments are DUE the first day of classes and assignments will be considered a test grade in the first quarter. *The regular late paper policy will apply (5 points a day will be deducted for each class day the journal is late for up to a week when the grade becomes a 0). It is advised that papers are finished and printed at home before returning to campus. Early-return athletes are also encouraged to complete the assignments before arriving on campus due to the busy nature of pre-season! The books for each course have been chosen to generate interest and enthusiasm for the subject. We encourage parental involvement in the process of reading and discussing the books! Books should be available through ClassBooks (our online bookstore), or any other bookstore. Themes in Global History 1: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (ISBN: 0-385-47454-7) Nine chapter prompts are outlined in an attached document and are due on Thursday, September 10th. Each prompt should have a one-paragraph, thoughtful response, supported with points from the book. Themes in Global History 2: The Lost King of France by Deborah Cadbury. (ISBN 9780312320294). A multiple-choice test will be given Thursday, September 10th. A study guide answering chapter questions (attached) will also be due Thursday, September 10th. Honors Global History 2: Document Studies Fire and Light: How the Enlightenment Transformed Our World by Jame MacGregor Burns (ISBN 978-1-250-02489-3). A directed journal answering the chapter questions (attached) will be due Thursday, September 10th. US History: Student choice of any book from the Oxford University Press: Pivotal Moments in American History http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/category/academic/series/history/pmah.do (list attached) Four guiding questions (attached) will be answered in a coherent, analytically developed, short-answer response of approximately 150 words, are due on Thursday, September 10th. Advanced United States History: Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different by Gordon S. Wood (ISBN 978-0-14-311208-2). A directed journal answering the chapter questions (attached) will be due Thursday, September 10th. Advanced Government Seminar: Students choose their own book (after meeting with Mr. Goodnow in the spring), which should cover a significant aspect of US policy and politics during 1981-present. A (4-5 page) critique of the book will be due Thursday, September 10th. Advanced Micro Economics: The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli nd Paperback 2 edition: 2009 (ISBN-13: 978-0470287163 or 978-1118950142) A directed journal answering the chapter questions will be due Thursday, September 10th. Advanced Human Geography: Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser (ISBN: 978-0547750330) Students will turn in a (4-5 page) commentary on any aspect of the book and have a reading quiz on Thursday, September 10th. Advanced Research Seminar: Resistance and Power in the American South: Honor and Slavery by Kenneth S. Greenberg (ISBN 0-691-01719-0). A directed journal answering the chapter questions will be due Thursday, September 10th. Advanced History of Theology: Athanasius: The Life of Antony & The Letter to Marcellinus (ISBN: 978-0809122950) Students do not need to read the Letter to Marcellinus. This course will focus on the following themes: Slavery, gender, war, wealth, and empire.