SUMMER READING GUIDE 2018 Many readers have “go-to” authors, writers they turn to when no one else grabs their attention. This summer we’d like to help you find a “go-to” writer of your own. Below is a list of authors who have many titles to their credit. Some have written a series with recurring characters; some have written books with similar themes; some have written exclusively within one genre (mystery, fantasy, and so on); and some have just produced lots of good, lively writing over the years. In addition, we have included some individual titles, recommended by students, by faculty, and by the library staff. THE HEADMASTER’S CHOICE THIS YEAR IS BEARTOWN BY FREDRIK BACKMAN, WHICH BEGINS LIKE THIS: “It’s a Friday in early March in Beartown and nothing has happened yet. Everyone is waiting. Tomorrow, the Beartown Ice Hockey Club’s junior team is playing in the semi-final of the biggest youth tournament in the country. How important can something like that be? In most places, not so important, of course. But Beartown isn’t most places.” Backman’s novel explores the hopes that a small community pins on a group of teenaged athletes, and it explores the secrets that can tear a small town apart. Backman’s characters—coaches, athletes, parents, and local fans—are often flawed, often heroic, and always fully human. In addition to Beartown, you are to read two other books from the list below. You may choose two books by the same author, or two books by different authors. You may do some research on your own and read other titles from the authors listed here (for instance, John D. MacDonald and Terry Pratchett have at least 30 titles more than the ones we’ve included). When you return in the fall, your English teacher will give a graded assessment of your summer reading. That grade will be part of your fall trimester average. You may certainly read more than what is required, and you will receive extra credit for reading you do beyond the three required books. Extra credit reading may include authors not listed in the Summer Reading Guide. Please remember that this is a summer reading program. Recorded books are popular and entertaining, but they are not a substitute for reading itself. If you listen to recorded books, you should follow the written text as well. Finally, you obviously should choose books that you have not previously read. The purpose of summer reading is to read, not just to check titles off a list. We hope you enjoy the chance this summer gives to explore new writers. Fiction Joe Abercrombie writes “epic fantasy” full of dark secrets, court magicians and fraudulent wizards, invaders from the frozen North, and much palace intrigue. Reviewers have described his First Law trilogy as “unpredictable, compelling, wickedly funny, and packed with unforgettable characters. It is noir fantasy with a real cutting edge.” • The Blade Itself • Before They Are Hanged • Red Country • Half a King Margaret Atwood has gotten lots of attention recently for one of her earliest novels, The Handmaid’s Tale, the inspiration for the acclaimed Hulu television series. However, Atwood has been writing for decades, and everything she releases is equally thought-provoking. Her MaddAddams trilogy centers on a dystopian world in which cloning, genetic engineering, environmental exploitation, and powerfully corrupt corporations are the norm. • The Handmaid’s Tale • Oryx and Crake • The Year of the Flood • MaddAddam Leigh Bardugo is a fantasy writer who is immersed in Russian folklore. Her Grisha trilogy is a fine interweaving of Russian mainstays and originality. She also writes other fairy tale retellings, short stories, and even a novelization of Wonder Woman. • Shadow and Bone • Siege and Storm • Ruin and Rising Pat Barker’s Regeneration books are historical novels set during WWI. The first book focuses on the real-life poet and decorated war hero, Siegfried Sassoon, who refuses to return to the front because he finds the war mere senseless carnage. Barker has said that that the books are “trying to tell something about the parts of war that don’t get into the official accounts.” • Regeneration • The Eye in the Door • The Ghost Road W. Edward Blain--known to us simply as Woodberry’s longtime English Department Chair “Mr. Blain” --is author of two top-notch murder mysteries set at Virginia’s “Montpelier School for Boys.” Both whodunits combine Mr. Blain’s knowledge of the culture of boys’ schools with his love of theater. Publisher’s Weekly says that Mr. Blain endows “teachers, teachers’ wives, sports coaches, the boys and their girlfriends with an unforgettable reality.” • Passion Play • Love Cools Raymond Chandler is one of the founding fathers of the American “hard- boiled” detective novel. Chandler’s novels feature private-eye Philip Marlowe, a wise-cracking, hard-drinking cynic, who also loves an occasional game of chess, or even a good poem now and then. His novels usually center on a beautiful but untrustworthy woman, whom Marlowe almost falls for, but doesn’t. • The Big Sleep • The Lady in the Lake • Playback • Farewell, My Lovely Agatha Christie is the grande dame of British mystery. Her greatest characters are Miss Marple, Harley Quin, Tommy and Tuppence, and, of course, Hercule Poirot. Her quirky sleuths rely both on calculated deduction, as well as sudden, brilliant insight to solve crime and bring criminals to justice. Christie has written dozens of novels. Below are some of her most famous titles. • Murder on the Orient Express • The Murder of Roger Ackroyd • Death on the Nile • And Then There Were None Michael Crichton specializes in thrillers, most of which have a scientific or medical backdrop. Whether writing about a deadly extraterrestrial microbe, eco-terrorists plotting mass murder to draw attention to global warming, or (most famously) genetically engineered dinosaurs, Crichton warns about the dangers of technology gone haywire. • Jurassic Park • The Lost World • The Andromeda Strain • Sphere • State of Fear • The Great Train Robbery Arthur Conan Doyle, of course, created the most famous sleuth of all, the iconic Sherlock Holmes. Doctor Watson, Holmes’s fast friend and biographer, tells how the great detective uses logic and deduction to solve the gnarliest of cases. • The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes • The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes • The Return of Sherlock Holmes • A Study in Scarlet • The Hound of the Baskervilles • The Sign of the Four C.S. Forester’s Hornblower saga tracks Horatio Hornblower’s naval career during the Napoleonic Wars. We follow Hornblower from his earliest days as a midshipman through his rise to Commodore in His Majesty’s Royal Navy. Forester captures perfectly the reality of life at sea, as well as the political and personal pressures faced by a career Navy man in the early 1800’s. • Ship of the Line • Admiral Hornblower • Hornblower in the West Indies • Flying Colours Neil Gaiman’s books range widely. He’s written graphic novels; he’s retold the Norse myths of Odin, Loki, and Thor (do you know why Odin has only one eye?); and he’s even written a biography of the 80’s hair-band, Duran-Duran. His books make the unbelievable believable and the mythical not-so-far- fetched. • American Gods • Good Omens (written with Terry Pratchett) • Stardust • Anansi Boys • The Ocean at the End of the Lane • Norse Mythology The New York Times actually coined a term—“Green-Lit”—to describe John Green’s books. Green-Lit is characterized by "sharp dialogue, defective authority figures, occasional boozing, unrequited crushes and one or more heartbreaking twists.” John Green will also be familiar to many of you as the creator of the educational You Tube series, “Crash Course,” designed to help students with literature, history and science. • Looking for Alaska • Turtles All the Way Down • The Fault in Our Stars • Paper Towns When John Grisham publishes a new book, it goes straight to the top of the best-seller list. English teachers sometimes dismiss him as a mere storyteller, and Grisham himself has modestly said, “I’m just a famous writer in a country that doesn’t read much.” However, over the course of three decades, Grisham’s mysteries and legal thrillers (Grisham himself was a practicing lawyer before becoming a novelist) have gained the respect of critics. Walk down any beach in the summer, and you’re sure to see at least a few people reading a Grisham novel. • A Time to Kill • The Firm • The Pelican Brief • The Rogue Lawyer • The Rooster Bar John Hart is a Woodberry alum, class of ’84, and two-time winner of the Edgar Allan Poe prize for best mystery novel. He writes thrillers, mostly set in North Carolina. His novel The Last Child about a kidnapping was our all-school read a few years back. • The Hush • The Last Child • King of Lies • Down River Woodberry third-formers have already read Paulette Jiles’s historical novel News of the World, about a young girl, captured and raised by the Kiowa tribe and the old man tasked with returning her to her rightful home. Jiles has also written powerfully about Texas oil families during the Great Depression, families torn apart by the Civil War, and even a modern dystopian novel whose main character is a mapmaker in an overpopulated world with no borders. • The News of the World • Enemy Women • Stormy Weather • The Color of Lightning • Lighthouse Island Jenny Hubbard taught at Woodberry a dozen years ago, left to pursue a writing career, and is now returning to serve as a teacher and writer-in- residence at WFS for 2018-19.