Summer Reading List Guidelines:
- Limit 2 books Per Family
- Books on the CBNA lists CANNOT be renewed. Books can be borrowed for a period of 2 weeks only and must be returned at the end of the 2 weeks.
- If we own a book you want but it is not on the shelf, ask at the front desk and we can reserve it for you.
- Copies of the different lists are also available at the library!
9th Grade Required Reading 10th Grade Required Reading 11th Grade Required Reading 12th Grade Required Reading
11th Grade General Required Reading
Choose 1 Book from the following suggested titles or any age and grade appropriate title
The Island, Gary Paulsen
Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Jamie Ford
Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline
I know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
Made in America, Bill Bryson
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, Susannah Cahalan
Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
Hiroshima, John Hersey
October Sky, Homer Hickam
The Color of Water, James McBride
The Psychopath Test, Mary Roach
The Wordy Shipmates, Sara Vowell
The Glass Castle, Jeanette Walls
All Souls: A Family Story from Southie, Michael Patrick MacDonald
Rocked by Whitey Bulger’s crime schemes and busing riots, MacDonald’s Southie is populated by interesting characters like his Ma, a mini-skirted, accordion-playing single mother who endures the deaths of four of her eleven children. Nearly suffocated by his grief and his community’s code of silence, MacDonald tells his family story here with gritty but moving honesty.
The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
Marietta Greer spent her entire rural Kentucky life swearing she would not get pregnant like all the other girls in her town. She saves up enough money to buy a ’55 VW and heads West to see what life has to offer. At a road-side bar in Cherokee Nation, a toddler wrapped in dirty blankets is thrust upon her by a Native American woman. The woman says the child’s mother is dead and the child will be harmed if she stays with her. The mysterious woman puts little Turtle into the backseat and takes off. Now, Marietta has a child – the very thing she was looking to avoid – and must find a place to call home.
Big Mouth & Ugly Girl, Joyce Carol Oates
Matt jokes about weapons and bombing the school. Most people can see he doesn’t mean anything by it, except for a few people who are within earshot and report him. Matt is taken into police custody, questioned, and suspended from school. Ursula, who barely knows him, can’t stand the injustice. She comes forward and tells the principal what she heard, insisting that he’s innocent.
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, Nathaniel Philbrick
In 1820, the 240-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, it was repeatedly rammed and sunk by an eighty-ton bull sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, made for the 3,000-mile-distant coast of South America in three tiny boats. During ninety days at sea under horrendous conditions, the survivors clung to life as one by one they succumbed to hunger, thirst, disease, and fear.
Shock Point, April Henry
Cassie discovers that her stepfather, Rick, a teen psychiatrist, has been illegally prescribing a new behavioral drug to his patients and three teens have died. Before she can report him, Rick commits Cassie to Peaceful Cove, a boot camp for troubled teens in Mexico. Cassie knows she has to get out now, before more teens die. But no one has ever escaped from Peaceful Cove alive and even if Cassie gets over the walls and survives the Mexican desert, will anyone believe her story?
Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man’s Miraculous Survival, Joe Simpson
Two friends set out on a dangerous climb in the Andes Mountains. Disaster strikes on the way down the mountain as Joe falls and smashes his knee. Simon attempts to rescue Joe, but has to abandon him. Incredible story of perserverance leads to both men finding a way to survive.
The Island, Gary Paulsen
Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Jamie Ford
Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline
I know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
Made in America, Bill Bryson
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, Susannah Cahalan
Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
Hiroshima, John Hersey
October Sky, Homer Hickam
The Color of Water, James McBride
The Psychopath Test, Mary Roach
The Wordy Shipmates, Sara Vowell
The Glass Castle, Jeanette Walls
All Souls: A Family Story from Southie, Michael Patrick MacDonald
Rocked by Whitey Bulger’s crime schemes and busing riots, MacDonald’s Southie is populated by interesting characters like his Ma, a mini-skirted, accordion-playing single mother who endures the deaths of four of her eleven children. Nearly suffocated by his grief and his community’s code of silence, MacDonald tells his family story here with gritty but moving honesty.
The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
Marietta Greer spent her entire rural Kentucky life swearing she would not get pregnant like all the other girls in her town. She saves up enough money to buy a ’55 VW and heads West to see what life has to offer. At a road-side bar in Cherokee Nation, a toddler wrapped in dirty blankets is thrust upon her by a Native American woman. The woman says the child’s mother is dead and the child will be harmed if she stays with her. The mysterious woman puts little Turtle into the backseat and takes off. Now, Marietta has a child – the very thing she was looking to avoid – and must find a place to call home.
Big Mouth & Ugly Girl, Joyce Carol Oates
Matt jokes about weapons and bombing the school. Most people can see he doesn’t mean anything by it, except for a few people who are within earshot and report him. Matt is taken into police custody, questioned, and suspended from school. Ursula, who barely knows him, can’t stand the injustice. She comes forward and tells the principal what she heard, insisting that he’s innocent.
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, Nathaniel Philbrick
In 1820, the 240-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, it was repeatedly rammed and sunk by an eighty-ton bull sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, made for the 3,000-mile-distant coast of South America in three tiny boats. During ninety days at sea under horrendous conditions, the survivors clung to life as one by one they succumbed to hunger, thirst, disease, and fear.
Shock Point, April Henry
Cassie discovers that her stepfather, Rick, a teen psychiatrist, has been illegally prescribing a new behavioral drug to his patients and three teens have died. Before she can report him, Rick commits Cassie to Peaceful Cove, a boot camp for troubled teens in Mexico. Cassie knows she has to get out now, before more teens die. But no one has ever escaped from Peaceful Cove alive and even if Cassie gets over the walls and survives the Mexican desert, will anyone believe her story?
Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man’s Miraculous Survival, Joe Simpson
Two friends set out on a dangerous climb in the Andes Mountains. Disaster strikes on the way down the mountain as Joe falls and smashes his knee. Simon attempts to rescue Joe, but has to abandon him. Incredible story of perserverance leads to both men finding a way to survive.
11th College Prep Required Reading
Read 2 books - Required: 1 from the Classic American Literature list and 1 from the Contemporary Nonfiction list.
Classic American Literature
A Farewell to Arms, John Steinbeck
Recounts the fear, comradeship, and courage of a young American volunteer and the men and women he meets in Italy during World War I.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
One of the most inspiring authors of our time recalls with candor, humor, poignancy and grace how her journey began — growing up in a small, rural community in Arkansas during the 1930s. Themes of racism, community, abuse, family, and poverty.
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
A chilling portrait of the savage murders of four members of the Clutter family in rural Holcomb, Kansas, on November 15, 1959. Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, generating both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy.
My Antonia, Willa Cather
A child of immigrants, Antonia spends her girlhood working to help her parents make a living from the untamed land of the Nebraska prairie in the 1880s.
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
In one of the funniest books ever written, we meet Yossarian, a hero who is endlessly inventive in his schemes to save his skin from the horrible chances of war.
A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
Recounts the fear, comradeship, and courage of a young American volunteer and the men and women he meets in Italy during World War I.
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway
Robert Jordan is a young American in the mountains of Spain during the Spanish Civil War. It tells of loyalty, courage, love, defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal.
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
Tells the story of fair-skinned and fiercely independent Janie Crawford through her three marriages in 1920s Florida.
The Portrait of a Lady, James Henry
The story of Isabel Archer, who inherits money, and the suitors who would like to take advantage of her.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
A man fakes insanity to finish his prison sentence in a psychiatric hospital.
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later, she is still not free. Her new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless.
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
The shocking, realistic, and emotional story of Esther Greenwood, who is brilliant, beautiful, talented, and successful, but slowly falling into the grip of insanity.
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
A poor family of sharecroppers are driven from their Oklahoma home by drought and economic hardship during the Great Depression.
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
Set in California, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
Told with deadpan humor and bitter irony, this is a cult tale of global destruction that preys on our deepest fears of witnessing Armageddon, and worse still, surviving it.
Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
About a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens and his experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.
The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
The impending marriage of an upper class woman in the 1870s and a possible scandal that ensues. Torn between duty and passion, Newland Archer struggles to make a decision that will either courageously define his life—or mercilessly destroy it.
The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
A young woman, who has expensive taste, has to choose between a relationship based on wealth or one based on love.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X
An account of the life of Malcolm X, the human rights activist.
Contemporary Nonfiction
Made in America, Bill Bryson
A humorous outsider’s look at America. Bryson spends each of the 17 chapters tracing and explaining the roots of words and phrases that are generally regarded as “Americanisms”, meaning they were created and coined in the United States.
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, Susannah Cahalan
Susannah tells the true story of her descent into madness and the brilliant, lifesaving diagnosis that nearly didn’t happen.
Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
Interview with author about his book
A brilliant work answering the question of why the peoples of certain continents succeeded in invading other continents and conquering or displacing their peoples.
Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell
Interview with author about this book
A fascinating and provocative blueprint for making the most of human potential. This is an intellectual journey through the world of the best, brightest, the most famous, and the most successful.
Hiroshima, Jon Hersey
First hand accounts of 6 people who survived the dropping of the atomic bomb.
October Sky (previously titled Rocket Boys), Homer Hickam
Author talks about his book
Homer Hickam looks back after a distinguished NASA career to tell his own true story of growing up in a dying coal town and of how, against the odds, he made his dreams of launching rockets into outer space come true.
Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand
A man struggles to survive the crash of his Army Air Forces bomber during WWII.
On Writing, Stephen King
Video: Author talks about writing
Revealing and practical view of the writer’s craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have.
Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer
The author describes his spring 1996 trek to Mount Everest, a disastrous expedition that claimed the lives of eight climbers, and explains why he survived.
Salt: a World History, Mark Lurlansky
Audio excerpt
This is an entertaining account of a common household item with a long and intriguing history: salt. Salt has influenced the establishment of trade routes and cities, provoked and financed wars, secured empires, and inspired revolutions.
The Color of Water, James McBride
One of twelve children, the mixed race author chronicles his intriguing mother’s life. Ruth Jordan battled not only racism but also poverty to raise her children.
In the Heart of the Sea, Nathaniel Philbrick
Video Background: The History of Whaling in America
In 1820, the 240-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, it was repeatedly rammed and sunk by an eighty-ton bull sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, made for the 3,000-mile-distant coast of South America in three tiny boats. During ninety days at sea under horrendous conditions, the survivors clung to life as one by one they succumbed to hunger, thirst, disease, and fear.
Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan
Video Book Review
This book is changing the way Americans think about the politics, perils, and pleasures of eating. We are what we eat-and what we eat remakes the world. A society of voracious and increasingly confused omnivores, we are just beginning to recognize the consequences of everyday food choices, both for ourselves and for the natural world.
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human, Cadavers Mary Roach
Video book review of Stiff
Oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For two thousand years, cadavers have been involved in science’s boldest strides and weirdest undertakings.
The Psychopath Test, Jon Ronson
Author talks about his book
A fascinating adventure through the minds of psychopathic people. Sometimes the personalities at the helm of the madness industry are as mad in their own way as those they study. This is a fascinating adventure through the minds of madness.
The Wordy Shipmates, Sara Vowell
Author talks about her book
An exploration of the Puritans and their journey to America to become the people of John Winthrop’s “city upon a hill”.
The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls
Classic American Literature
A Farewell to Arms, John Steinbeck
Recounts the fear, comradeship, and courage of a young American volunteer and the men and women he meets in Italy during World War I.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
One of the most inspiring authors of our time recalls with candor, humor, poignancy and grace how her journey began — growing up in a small, rural community in Arkansas during the 1930s. Themes of racism, community, abuse, family, and poverty.
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
A chilling portrait of the savage murders of four members of the Clutter family in rural Holcomb, Kansas, on November 15, 1959. Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, generating both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy.
My Antonia, Willa Cather
A child of immigrants, Antonia spends her girlhood working to help her parents make a living from the untamed land of the Nebraska prairie in the 1880s.
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
In one of the funniest books ever written, we meet Yossarian, a hero who is endlessly inventive in his schemes to save his skin from the horrible chances of war.
A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
Recounts the fear, comradeship, and courage of a young American volunteer and the men and women he meets in Italy during World War I.
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway
Robert Jordan is a young American in the mountains of Spain during the Spanish Civil War. It tells of loyalty, courage, love, defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal.
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
Tells the story of fair-skinned and fiercely independent Janie Crawford through her three marriages in 1920s Florida.
The Portrait of a Lady, James Henry
The story of Isabel Archer, who inherits money, and the suitors who would like to take advantage of her.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
A man fakes insanity to finish his prison sentence in a psychiatric hospital.
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later, she is still not free. Her new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless.
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
The shocking, realistic, and emotional story of Esther Greenwood, who is brilliant, beautiful, talented, and successful, but slowly falling into the grip of insanity.
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
A poor family of sharecroppers are driven from their Oklahoma home by drought and economic hardship during the Great Depression.
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
Set in California, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
Told with deadpan humor and bitter irony, this is a cult tale of global destruction that preys on our deepest fears of witnessing Armageddon, and worse still, surviving it.
Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
About a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens and his experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.
The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
The impending marriage of an upper class woman in the 1870s and a possible scandal that ensues. Torn between duty and passion, Newland Archer struggles to make a decision that will either courageously define his life—or mercilessly destroy it.
The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
A young woman, who has expensive taste, has to choose between a relationship based on wealth or one based on love.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X
An account of the life of Malcolm X, the human rights activist.
Contemporary Nonfiction
Made in America, Bill Bryson
A humorous outsider’s look at America. Bryson spends each of the 17 chapters tracing and explaining the roots of words and phrases that are generally regarded as “Americanisms”, meaning they were created and coined in the United States.
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, Susannah Cahalan
Susannah tells the true story of her descent into madness and the brilliant, lifesaving diagnosis that nearly didn’t happen.
Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
Interview with author about his book
A brilliant work answering the question of why the peoples of certain continents succeeded in invading other continents and conquering or displacing their peoples.
Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell
Interview with author about this book
A fascinating and provocative blueprint for making the most of human potential. This is an intellectual journey through the world of the best, brightest, the most famous, and the most successful.
Hiroshima, Jon Hersey
First hand accounts of 6 people who survived the dropping of the atomic bomb.
October Sky (previously titled Rocket Boys), Homer Hickam
Author talks about his book
Homer Hickam looks back after a distinguished NASA career to tell his own true story of growing up in a dying coal town and of how, against the odds, he made his dreams of launching rockets into outer space come true.
Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand
A man struggles to survive the crash of his Army Air Forces bomber during WWII.
On Writing, Stephen King
Video: Author talks about writing
Revealing and practical view of the writer’s craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have.
Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer
The author describes his spring 1996 trek to Mount Everest, a disastrous expedition that claimed the lives of eight climbers, and explains why he survived.
Salt: a World History, Mark Lurlansky
Audio excerpt
This is an entertaining account of a common household item with a long and intriguing history: salt. Salt has influenced the establishment of trade routes and cities, provoked and financed wars, secured empires, and inspired revolutions.
The Color of Water, James McBride
One of twelve children, the mixed race author chronicles his intriguing mother’s life. Ruth Jordan battled not only racism but also poverty to raise her children.
In the Heart of the Sea, Nathaniel Philbrick
Video Background: The History of Whaling in America
In 1820, the 240-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, it was repeatedly rammed and sunk by an eighty-ton bull sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, made for the 3,000-mile-distant coast of South America in three tiny boats. During ninety days at sea under horrendous conditions, the survivors clung to life as one by one they succumbed to hunger, thirst, disease, and fear.
Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan
Video Book Review
This book is changing the way Americans think about the politics, perils, and pleasures of eating. We are what we eat-and what we eat remakes the world. A society of voracious and increasingly confused omnivores, we are just beginning to recognize the consequences of everyday food choices, both for ourselves and for the natural world.
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human, Cadavers Mary Roach
Video book review of Stiff
Oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For two thousand years, cadavers have been involved in science’s boldest strides and weirdest undertakings.
The Psychopath Test, Jon Ronson
Author talks about his book
A fascinating adventure through the minds of psychopathic people. Sometimes the personalities at the helm of the madness industry are as mad in their own way as those they study. This is a fascinating adventure through the minds of madness.
The Wordy Shipmates, Sara Vowell
Author talks about her book
An exploration of the Puritans and their journey to America to become the people of John Winthrop’s “city upon a hill”.
The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls
11th Grade Advanced Placement Required Reading
Read 3 books - Required: Into Thin Air by Krakauer and 1 from the Classic American Literature list and 1 from the Contemporary Nonfiction list.
Required Reading: Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer
The author describes his spring 1996 trek to Mount Everest, a disastrous expedition that claimed the lives of eight climbers, and explains why he survived.
Classic American Literature
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
One of the most inspiring authors of our time recalls with candor, humor, poignancy and grace how her journey began — growing up in a small, rural community in Arkansas during the 1930s. Themes of racism, community, abuse, family, and poverty.
In Cold Blood, Truman Capot
A chilling portrait of the savage murders of four members of the Clutter family in rural Holcomb, Kansas, on November 15, 1959. Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, generating both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy.
My Antonia, Willa Cather
A child of immigrants, Antonia spends her girlhood working to help her parents make a living from the untamed land of the Nebraska prairie in the 1880s.
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
In one of the funniest books ever written, we meet Yossarian, a hero who is endlessly inventive in his schemes to save his skin from the horrible chances of war.
A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
Recounts the fear, comradeship, and courage of a young American volunteer and the men and women he meets in Italy during World War I.
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway
Robert Jordan is a young American in the mountains of Spain during the Spanish Civil War. It tells of loyalty, courage, love, defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal.
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
Tells the story of fair-skinned and fiercely independent Janie Crawford through her three marriages in 1920s Florida.
The Portrait of a Lady, James Henry
The story of Isabel Archer, who inherits money, and the suitors who would like to take advantage of her.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
A man fakes insanity to finish his prison sentence in a psychiatric hospital
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later, she is still not free. Her new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless.
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
The shocking, realistic, and emotional story of Esther Greenwood, who is brilliant, beautiful, talented, and successful, but slowly falling into the grip of insanity.
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
A poor family of sharecroppers are driven from their Oklahoma home by drought and economic hardship during the Great Depression.
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
Set in California, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
Told with deadpan humor and bitter irony, this is a cult tale of global destruction that preys on our deepest fears of witnessing Armageddon, and worse still, surviving it.
Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
About a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens and his experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.
The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
The impending marriage of an upper class woman in the 1870s and a possible scandal that ensues. Torn between duty and passion, Newland Archer struggles to make a decision that will either courageously define his life—or mercilessly destroy it.
The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
A young woman, who has expensive taste, has to choose between a relationship based on wealth or one based on love.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X
An account of the life of Malcolm X, the human rights activist.
Contemporary Nonfiction
Made in America, Bill Bryson
A humorous outsider’s look at America. Bryson spends each of the 17 chapters tracing and explaining the roots of words and phrases that are generally regarded as “Americanisms”, meaning they were created and coined in the United States.
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, Susannah Cahalan
Susannah tells the true story of her descent into madness and the brilliant, lifesaving diagnosis that nearly didn’t happen.
Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
Interview with author about his book
A brilliant work answering the question of why the peoples of certain continents succeeded in invading other continents and conquering or displacing their peoples.
Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell
Interview with author about this book
A fascinating and provocative blueprint for making the most of human potential. This is an intellectual journey through the world of the best, brightest, the most famous, and the most successful.
Hiroshima, Jon Hersey
First hand accounts of 6 people who survived the dropping of the atomic bomb.
October Sky (previously titled Rocket Boys), Homer Hickam
Homer Hickam looks back after a distinguished NASA career to tell his own true story of growing up in a dying coal town and of how, against the odds, he made his dreams of launching rockets into outer space come true.
Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand
A man struggles to survive the crash of his Army Air Forces bomber during WWII.
On Writing, Stephen King
Video: Author talks about writing
Revealing and practical view of the writer’s craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have.
Salt: a World History, Mark Lurlansky
Audio excerpt
This is an entertaining account of a common household item with a long and intriguing history: salt. Salt has influenced the establishment of trade routes and cities, provoked and financed wars, secured empires, and inspired revolutions.
The Color of Water, James McBride
One of twelve children, the mixed race author chronicles his intriguing mother’s life. Ruth Jordan battled not only racism but also poverty to raise her children.
In the Heart of the Sea, Nathaniel Philbrick
Video Background: The History of Whaling in America
In 1820, the 240-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, it was repeatedly rammed and sunk by an eighty-ton bull sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, made for the 3,000-mile-distant coast of South America in three tiny boats. During ninety days at sea under horrendous conditions, the survivors clung to life as one by one they succumbed to hunger, thirst, disease, and fear.
Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan
Video Book Review
This book is changing the way Americans think about the politics, perils, and pleasures of eating. We are what we eat-and what we eat remakes the world. A society of voracious and increasingly confused omnivores, we are just beginning to recognize the consequences of everyday food choices, both for ourselves and for the natural world.
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Mary Roach
Video book review of Stiff
Oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For two thousand years, cadavers have been involved in science’s boldest strides and weirdest undertakings.
The Psychopath Test, Jon Ronson
Author talks about his book
A fascinating adventure through the minds of psychopathic people. Sometimes the personalities at the helm of the madness industry are as mad in their own way as those they study. This is a fascinating adventure through the minds of madness.
The Wordy Shipmates, Sara Vowell
Author talks about her book
An exploration of the Puritans and their journey to America to become the people of John Winthrop’s “city upon a hill”.
The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls
Required Reading: Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer
The author describes his spring 1996 trek to Mount Everest, a disastrous expedition that claimed the lives of eight climbers, and explains why he survived.
Classic American Literature
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
One of the most inspiring authors of our time recalls with candor, humor, poignancy and grace how her journey began — growing up in a small, rural community in Arkansas during the 1930s. Themes of racism, community, abuse, family, and poverty.
In Cold Blood, Truman Capot
A chilling portrait of the savage murders of four members of the Clutter family in rural Holcomb, Kansas, on November 15, 1959. Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, generating both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy.
My Antonia, Willa Cather
A child of immigrants, Antonia spends her girlhood working to help her parents make a living from the untamed land of the Nebraska prairie in the 1880s.
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
In one of the funniest books ever written, we meet Yossarian, a hero who is endlessly inventive in his schemes to save his skin from the horrible chances of war.
A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
Recounts the fear, comradeship, and courage of a young American volunteer and the men and women he meets in Italy during World War I.
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway
Robert Jordan is a young American in the mountains of Spain during the Spanish Civil War. It tells of loyalty, courage, love, defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal.
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
Tells the story of fair-skinned and fiercely independent Janie Crawford through her three marriages in 1920s Florida.
The Portrait of a Lady, James Henry
The story of Isabel Archer, who inherits money, and the suitors who would like to take advantage of her.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
A man fakes insanity to finish his prison sentence in a psychiatric hospital
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later, she is still not free. Her new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless.
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
The shocking, realistic, and emotional story of Esther Greenwood, who is brilliant, beautiful, talented, and successful, but slowly falling into the grip of insanity.
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
A poor family of sharecroppers are driven from their Oklahoma home by drought and economic hardship during the Great Depression.
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
Set in California, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
Told with deadpan humor and bitter irony, this is a cult tale of global destruction that preys on our deepest fears of witnessing Armageddon, and worse still, surviving it.
Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
About a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens and his experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.
The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
The impending marriage of an upper class woman in the 1870s and a possible scandal that ensues. Torn between duty and passion, Newland Archer struggles to make a decision that will either courageously define his life—or mercilessly destroy it.
The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
A young woman, who has expensive taste, has to choose between a relationship based on wealth or one based on love.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X
An account of the life of Malcolm X, the human rights activist.
Contemporary Nonfiction
Made in America, Bill Bryson
A humorous outsider’s look at America. Bryson spends each of the 17 chapters tracing and explaining the roots of words and phrases that are generally regarded as “Americanisms”, meaning they were created and coined in the United States.
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, Susannah Cahalan
Susannah tells the true story of her descent into madness and the brilliant, lifesaving diagnosis that nearly didn’t happen.
Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
Interview with author about his book
A brilliant work answering the question of why the peoples of certain continents succeeded in invading other continents and conquering or displacing their peoples.
Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell
Interview with author about this book
A fascinating and provocative blueprint for making the most of human potential. This is an intellectual journey through the world of the best, brightest, the most famous, and the most successful.
Hiroshima, Jon Hersey
First hand accounts of 6 people who survived the dropping of the atomic bomb.
October Sky (previously titled Rocket Boys), Homer Hickam
Homer Hickam looks back after a distinguished NASA career to tell his own true story of growing up in a dying coal town and of how, against the odds, he made his dreams of launching rockets into outer space come true.
Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand
A man struggles to survive the crash of his Army Air Forces bomber during WWII.
On Writing, Stephen King
Video: Author talks about writing
Revealing and practical view of the writer’s craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have.
Salt: a World History, Mark Lurlansky
Audio excerpt
This is an entertaining account of a common household item with a long and intriguing history: salt. Salt has influenced the establishment of trade routes and cities, provoked and financed wars, secured empires, and inspired revolutions.
The Color of Water, James McBride
One of twelve children, the mixed race author chronicles his intriguing mother’s life. Ruth Jordan battled not only racism but also poverty to raise her children.
In the Heart of the Sea, Nathaniel Philbrick
Video Background: The History of Whaling in America
In 1820, the 240-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, it was repeatedly rammed and sunk by an eighty-ton bull sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, made for the 3,000-mile-distant coast of South America in three tiny boats. During ninety days at sea under horrendous conditions, the survivors clung to life as one by one they succumbed to hunger, thirst, disease, and fear.
Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan
Video Book Review
This book is changing the way Americans think about the politics, perils, and pleasures of eating. We are what we eat-and what we eat remakes the world. A society of voracious and increasingly confused omnivores, we are just beginning to recognize the consequences of everyday food choices, both for ourselves and for the natural world.
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Mary Roach
Video book review of Stiff
Oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For two thousand years, cadavers have been involved in science’s boldest strides and weirdest undertakings.
The Psychopath Test, Jon Ronson
Author talks about his book
A fascinating adventure through the minds of psychopathic people. Sometimes the personalities at the helm of the madness industry are as mad in their own way as those they study. This is a fascinating adventure through the minds of madness.
The Wordy Shipmates, Sara Vowell
Author talks about her book
An exploration of the Puritans and their journey to America to become the people of John Winthrop’s “city upon a hill”.
The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls
11th Grade Honors Required Summer Reading
Requirement: Read 3 books - Required: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving and 1 from the Classic American Literature list and 1 from the Contemporary Nonfiction list.
Classic American Literature
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
One of the most inspiring authors of our time recalls with candor, humor, poignancy and grace how her journey began — growing up in a small, rural community in Arkansas during the 1930s. Themes of racism, community, abuse, family, and poverty.
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
A chilling portrait of the savage murders of four members of the Clutter family in rural Holcomb, Kansas, on November 15, 1959. Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, generating both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy.
My Antonia, Willa Cather
A child of immigrants, Antonia spends her girlhood working to help her parents make a living from the untamed land of the Nebraska prairie in the 1880s.
A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
Recounts the fear, comradeship, and courage of a young American volunteer and the men and women he meets in Italy during World War I.
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
Tells the story of fair-skinned and fiercely independent Janie Crawford through her three marriages in 1920s Florida.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
A man fakes insanity to finish his prison sentence in a psychiatric hospital
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later, she is still not free. Her new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless.
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
The shocking, realistic, and emotional story of Esther Greenwood, who is brilliant, beautiful, talented, and successful, but slowly falling into the grip of insanity.
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
A poor family of sharecroppers are driven from their Oklahoma home by drought and economic hardship during the Great Depression.
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
Set in California, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
About a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens and his experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.
The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
The impending marriage of an upper class woman in the 1870s and a possible scandal that ensues. Torn between duty and passion, Newland Archer struggles to make a decision that will either courageously define his life—or mercilessly destroy it.
Contemporary Nonfiction
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, Susannah Cahalan
Susannah tells the true story of her descent into madness and the brilliant, lifesaving diagnosis that nearly didn’t happen.
Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
Interview with author about his book
A brilliant work answering the question of why the peoples of certain continents succeeded in invading other continents and conquering or displacing their peoples.
Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell
Interview with author about this book
A fascinating and provocative blueprint for making the most of human potential. This is an intellectual journey through the world of the best, brightest, the most famous, and the most successful.
Hiroshima, Jon Hersey
First hand accounts of 6 people who survived the dropping of the atomic bomb.
October Sky (previously titled Rocket Boys), Homer Hickam
Homer Hickam looks back after a distinguished NASA career to tell his own true story of growing up in a dying coal town and of how, against the odds, he made his dreams of launching rockets into outer space come true.
Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand
A man struggles to survive the crash of his Army Air Forces bomber during WWII.
On Writing, Stephen King
Video: Author talks about writing
Revealing and practical view of the writer’s craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have.
Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer
The author describes his spring 1996 trek to Mount Everest, a disastrous expedition that claimed the lives of eight climbers, and explains why he survived.
The Color of Water, James McBride
One of twelve children, the mixed race author chronicles his intriguing mother’s life. Ruth Jordan battled not only racism but also poverty to raise her children.
In the Heart of the Sea, Nathaniel Philbrick
Video Background: The History of Whaling in America
In 1820, the 240-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, it was repeatedly rammed and sunk by an eighty-ton bull sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, made for the 3,000-mile-distant coast of South America in three tiny boats. During ninety days at sea under horrendous conditions, the survivors clung to life as one by one they succumbed to hunger, thirst, disease, and fear.
The Psychopath Test, Jon Ronson
Author talks about his book
A fascinating adventure through the minds of psychopathic people. Sometimes the personalities at the helm of the madness industry are as mad in their own way as those they study. This is a fascinating adventure through the minds of madness.
The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls
Classic American Literature
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
One of the most inspiring authors of our time recalls with candor, humor, poignancy and grace how her journey began — growing up in a small, rural community in Arkansas during the 1930s. Themes of racism, community, abuse, family, and poverty.
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
A chilling portrait of the savage murders of four members of the Clutter family in rural Holcomb, Kansas, on November 15, 1959. Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, generating both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy.
My Antonia, Willa Cather
A child of immigrants, Antonia spends her girlhood working to help her parents make a living from the untamed land of the Nebraska prairie in the 1880s.
A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
Recounts the fear, comradeship, and courage of a young American volunteer and the men and women he meets in Italy during World War I.
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
Tells the story of fair-skinned and fiercely independent Janie Crawford through her three marriages in 1920s Florida.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
A man fakes insanity to finish his prison sentence in a psychiatric hospital
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later, she is still not free. Her new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless.
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
The shocking, realistic, and emotional story of Esther Greenwood, who is brilliant, beautiful, talented, and successful, but slowly falling into the grip of insanity.
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
A poor family of sharecroppers are driven from their Oklahoma home by drought and economic hardship during the Great Depression.
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
Set in California, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
About a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens and his experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.
The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
The impending marriage of an upper class woman in the 1870s and a possible scandal that ensues. Torn between duty and passion, Newland Archer struggles to make a decision that will either courageously define his life—or mercilessly destroy it.
Contemporary Nonfiction
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, Susannah Cahalan
Susannah tells the true story of her descent into madness and the brilliant, lifesaving diagnosis that nearly didn’t happen.
Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
Interview with author about his book
A brilliant work answering the question of why the peoples of certain continents succeeded in invading other continents and conquering or displacing their peoples.
Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell
Interview with author about this book
A fascinating and provocative blueprint for making the most of human potential. This is an intellectual journey through the world of the best, brightest, the most famous, and the most successful.
Hiroshima, Jon Hersey
First hand accounts of 6 people who survived the dropping of the atomic bomb.
October Sky (previously titled Rocket Boys), Homer Hickam
Homer Hickam looks back after a distinguished NASA career to tell his own true story of growing up in a dying coal town and of how, against the odds, he made his dreams of launching rockets into outer space come true.
Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand
A man struggles to survive the crash of his Army Air Forces bomber during WWII.
On Writing, Stephen King
Video: Author talks about writing
Revealing and practical view of the writer’s craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have.
Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer
The author describes his spring 1996 trek to Mount Everest, a disastrous expedition that claimed the lives of eight climbers, and explains why he survived.
The Color of Water, James McBride
One of twelve children, the mixed race author chronicles his intriguing mother’s life. Ruth Jordan battled not only racism but also poverty to raise her children.
In the Heart of the Sea, Nathaniel Philbrick
Video Background: The History of Whaling in America
In 1820, the 240-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, it was repeatedly rammed and sunk by an eighty-ton bull sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, made for the 3,000-mile-distant coast of South America in three tiny boats. During ninety days at sea under horrendous conditions, the survivors clung to life as one by one they succumbed to hunger, thirst, disease, and fear.
The Psychopath Test, Jon Ronson
Author talks about his book
A fascinating adventure through the minds of psychopathic people. Sometimes the personalities at the helm of the madness industry are as mad in their own way as those they study. This is a fascinating adventure through the minds of madness.
The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls