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Add the following information: Your name/Department; Title/Author; Categories under which to advertise the book; a 2 or 3 sentence "teaser." The Student WIKI is in the works at this site. As you add your entries, I clean them up and place standardized versions on the student wiki.
Sick of Shadows by Sharyn McCrumb
Set in the Appalachia that the author knows so well, this novel starts a series about an amateur sleuth, Elizabeth McPherson. A wedding, a dead body, friends being accused--many of the standard mystery elements are here. It is the culture of a place and time that makes the book so interesting (I went to college in East Tennessee, and I have loved all of her books even before I heard her speak at National Council of Teachers of English convention in Nashville). Peggy McNash, English Department, will lead this discussion.
Jenifer Baro/ English; Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman/Jon Krakauer; Non-Fiction; The author of Into the Wildand other non-fiction works tells the story of an American soldier in Afghanistan who is killed tragically and accidently by his own Ranger platoon.
Helen Shean/English/Shane/Schaefer/Coming of Age; The archetypal westernwith a mysterious hero coming to champion the cause of the small farmer in opposition to the rich cattleman. Think Clint Eastwood! (reserved for rising 9th).
Dagmar Ebaugh/Foreign Language;The Book Thief/Markus Zusak: This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul."It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . ." "
Set during World War II in Germany, this is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau. (description via Amazon.com) Fantasy
Kelli Stanyard/Foreign Language; Mockingjay/Suzanne Collins; Fiction/Fantasy; Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she's made it out of the bloody arena alive, she's still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what's worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss's family, not her friends, not the people of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collins's groundbreaking The Hunger Gamestrilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year. Young Adult Fiction
Charles Bryant/History/Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders/Vincent Bugliosi: The 1960s hippie culture, the Beatles, California . . . and murder. Why are we so easily led to kill our fellow man? Why do cults have so much power? The #1 best selling crime book of all time. Non Fiction
Margaret Lee/English/Me Talk Pretty One Day/David Sedaris/ A collection of memoirs by American humorist David Sedaris. These essays, ranging in subject matter from growing up in Raleigh, North Carolina, to speaking French in Normandy, are guaranteed to make you laugh out loud. Non Fiction.
Stacey Sandifer/Math/Long Drive Home/Will Allison/ Life can change in an instant because of one small mistake. For Glen Bauer, all it takes is a quick jerk of the steering wheel, intended to scare a reckless driver. But the reckless driver is killed, and just like that, Glen's placid suburban existence begins to unravel. (teaser from Allison, the author)
Jeannie Hixon/US Library; Divergent/ Veronica Roth; dystopian Science Fiction. In a future dystopian Chicago, 16-year-old Beatrice must choose among five predetermined virtues to define her identity for the rest of her life. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is - she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.
Jim Hampton/Foreign Language/The Shadow of the Wind/Carlos Ruiz Zafón; Gothic Fiction; Daniel Sempere, the son of a widowed bookstore owner, is 10 when he discovers a novel, The Shadow of the Wind, by Julián Carax. The novel is rare, the author obscure, and rumors tell of a horribly disfigured man who has been burning every copy he can find of Carax's novels. The man calls himself Laín Coubert-the name of the devil in one of Carax's novels. As he grows up, Daniel's fascination with the mysterious Carax links him to a blind femme fatale with a "porcelain gaze," Clara Barceló; another fan, a leftist jack-of-all-trades, Fermín Romero de Torres; his best friend's sister, the delectable Beatriz Aguilar; and, as he begins investigating the life and death of Carax, a cast of characters with secrets to hide. Officially, Carax's dead body was dumped in an alley in 1936. But discrepancies in this story surface. Meanwhile, Daniel and Fermín are being harried by a sadistic policeman, Carax's childhood friend. As Daniel's quest continues, frightening parallels between his own life and Carax's begin to emerge.
Scott Crook/English/Safe at Home/Richard Doster/Fiction--Coming of Age/ "In Safe at Home, author Richard Doster accurately portrays the struggle of integration in the 1950’s and the battle each person must face to protect the things they treasure. Readers will love Doster’s Southern writing style amid an entertaining and inspiring sports story." From author's web site.
Maus by Art Spiegelman
"A picture is worth a thousand words." Come read the ONLY comic book to win the Pulitzer Prize! Depicting the Jews as mice and the Nazis as cats, Spiegelman overturns the classical convention of the comic book. In MAUS, the author narrates the horrors of the concentration camps and the subsequent effects on later generations who had to come to terms with the pain and suffering of their ancestors. Sarah Cohen, English Department, leads this discussion.
Joanne Baker/Carlos Library; As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth/Lynne Rae Perkins; Fiction; Humor; On the way to camp, 16-year-old Ry finds himself in the middle of nowhere when his train leaves him behind. This catastrophe leads to a remarkable journey full of surprises and adventure.
Bill Batterman/Debate, Computer Lab; Einstein's Dreams, Alan Lightman; Physics, Science, Philosophy; "Time is what prevents everything from happening at once." In this bestseller, MIT Professor Alan Lightman brings Albert Einstein's theory of relativity to life in a series of 30 fables about the nature of time. What is time? How is time perceived? This thought-provoking book forces readers to think deeply about this elementary—but profound—subject in challenging ways.
Chris Andros/Student Life/How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization by Franklin Foer. non-fiction. From amazon.comSoccer is much more than a game, or even a way of life. It is a perfect window into the crosscurrents of today's world, with all of its joys and sorrows. Soccer clubs don't represent geographic areas; they stand for social classes and political ideologies, and often command more faith than religion. From Brazil to Bosnia and from Italy to Iran, How Soccer Explains the World is an eye-opening chronicle of how a beautiful sport and its fanatical followers can illuminate the fault lines of a society, whether poverty, anti-Semitism, or radical Islam.
Mark Carrington/Science/Servant Leadership/Robert K. Greenleaf/Non-fiction Greenleaf proposes that service ought to be the distinguishing characteristic of leadership. He was the first to analyze the qualities of leaders and followers - and the necessity for leaders to be attentive to the needs of others. In this respect, the leader becomes the follower. (If you are in a leadership role in the coming year, consider reading this book as you critically examine what you have to offer, and what you need to gain, in order to become a more effective leader.)
Tad Sahara/Moneyball by Michael Lewis.
From the same writer as the Blindside, Michael Lewis explores how the Oakland A's baseball team built a team by using unconventional methods of evaluating players. In this process our eyes can deceive us, and it is not as simple as merely looking at players and determining how athletic they are.
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
" First there were ten--a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unkonwn to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they're unwilling to reveal--and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. And only the dead are above suspicion." Blurb from amazon.com.Kelsey Emerson will lead this discussion.
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
This book is an excellent thriller that discusses the many aspects of a viral disease outbreak and its implications in this new world where people can travel all over the world in a matter of hours. It also discusses the possible origins of HIV and some other interesting topics including how we were on the verge of a massive outbreak from the presence of a very deadly virus called Ebola in our own country in Reston, VA. It is written for the layperson, but it has the potential to turn the layperson into a well-informed, disease-hunting epidemiologist, or an obsessive reader at the least. David Alvord, Science department teacher, leads this discussion.
20. Dana Reker/ All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot/ nonfiction/ humor
From Amazon- "Delve into the magical, unforgettable world of James Herriot, the world's most beloved veterinarian, and his menagerie of heartwarming, funny, and tragic animal patients. In All Creatures Great and Small, we meet the young Herriot as he takes up his calling and discovers that the realities of veterinary practice in rural Yorkshire are very different from the sterile setting of veterinary school. From caring for his patients in the depths of winter on the remotest homesteads to dealing with uncooperative owners and critically ill animals, Herriot discovers the wondrous variety and never-ending challenges of veterinary practice as his humor, compassion, and love of the animal world shine forth." Reserved for ninth graders Chapters 1-32 only Required since it is a 500 page book.
21. Hunter Smith (History Department): Into Thin Air by John Krakauer (nonfiction)
From the New York Times review (1997): "The particular descent ahead of those on the ''hill'' on May 10, 1996, resulted in the greatest loss of life in the history of mountaineering on Everest. As news spread of the nine deaths (including that of Hall, who spoke to his wife in New Zealand by radiophone as he lay stranded in a snowstorm on the summit ridge), a barrage of questions resounded: What went wrong? Why was the approaching storm ignored? And, most emphatically, why are ''tourists'' with more money than expertise being taken up Everest in the first place? Jon Krakauer was one of the survivors, and in ''Into Thin Air'' he relives the storm and its aftermath, trying to answer those questions. As he sees it, essentially nothing ''went wrong,'' at least in terms of the storm, which struck with little warning. Instead, the root of the problem lies in the famous explanation George Mallory gave when asked why he wanted to climb the mountain, an explanation that still holds true, albeit with a slight amendment. People climb Mount Everest because it -- and the money -- is there."
22 Bob Lawrence/Chaplain The Noticer by Andy Andrews (fiction, inspirational)
Sometimes all a person needs is a little perspective! Like everyone, the good folks of Orange Beach, Alabama have their share of problems, but fortunately for them, when things look bleakest, a mysterious man named Jones has a funny way of showing up. With his long white hair, blue jeans, t-shirt and flip flops, Jones is a unique soul who has a way of helping people put everything into perspective.
23. Jane Graham (English Department): Save Me by Lisa Scottoline (fiction)
From The Atlanta Journal and Constitution review on 3/18/12: Scottoline nimbly draws on the topic of bullying in this legal thriller. Rose volunteers at school mainly to keep an eye on her third-grade daughter, the target of a viper classmate. When an explosion goes off in the cafeteria kitchen, Rose faces a horrific moral choice, and her actions cause an uproar in her idyllic suburban community.
24.Brian Keith Jackson (History) and Monica Kuhlman (Science): The Redneck Manifesto: How Hillbillies, Hicks, and White Trash Became America's Scapegoats by Jim Goad (Non-Fiction). PARENTAL ADVISORY/ WARNING: This book contains language that is offensive to every race and ethnicity. This title is limited to rising juniors and seniors only. From http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/81201.The_Redneck_Manifesto Culture maverick Jim Goad presents a thoroughly reasoned, darkly funny, and rampagingly angry defense of America's most maligned social group -- the cultural clan variously referred to as rednecks, hillbillies, white trash, crackers, and trailer trash. As The Redneck Manifesto boldly points out and brilliantly demonstrates, America's dirty little secret isn't racism but classism. While pouncing incessantly on racial themes, most major media are silent about America's widening class rifts, a problem that negatively affects more people of all colors than does racism.
25. Lacy George (Science Department): Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (Fiction)
From the Amazon.com review: Intense is the word for Ender's Game. Aliens have attacked Earth twice and almost destroyed the human species. To make sure humans win the next encounter, the world government has taken to breeding military geniuses -- and then training them in the arts of war... The early training, not surprisingly, takes the form of 'games'... Ender Wiggin is a genius among geniuses; he wins all the games... He is smart enough to know that time is running out. But is he smart enough to save the planet? 26. Thomas Moore (English Department):Kurt Vonnegut'sSlaughterhouse-Five( FICTION--Fantasy and Science Fiction and FICTION--Humor) Billy Pilgrim has a problem: he has become unstuck in time. In Vonnegut's sci-fi comic masterpiece Slaughthouse-five, time travel, aliens and World War II all have a place. Written with Vonnegut's famous wit and humanity, follow Billy Pilgrim as he makes his way through the war, a distant planet and the future .
27. Rachael Szymanski (English Department): State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (fiction). I read this book on a cross country plane flight, and I was so pleased to be stuck in one place for three hours of fast-paced reading! From Amazon.com: "Dr. Marina Singh, a research scientist with a Minnesota pharmaceutical company, is sent to Brazil to track down her former mentor, Dr. Annick Swenson, who seems to have all but disappeared in the Amazon while working on what is destined to be an extremely valuable new drug, the development of which has already cost the company a fortune. Nothing about Marina's assignment is easy: not only does no one know where Dr. Swenson is, but the last person who was sent to find her, Marina's research partner Anders Eckman, died before he could complete his mission. Plagued by trepidation, Marina embarks on an odyssey into the insect-infested jungle in hopes of finding her former mentor as well as answers to several troubling questions about her friend's death, the state of her company's future, and her own past."
28. Chris Freer (Student Life): Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Doby Claude M. Steele (non-fiction).
Girls can't do math ... white men can't jump ... "We all know that women can't compete with men at higher math. We all know that white men can't jump. And then there's a curious fact: When confronted with those negative stereotypes, female math majors do perform worse on tests, and white jumpers fail to clear the usual bar. Take away the threat to their identity, and they'll do fine." "Our social identities come from a lot of places: our race, our sex, our age, our political affiliations, our medical diagnoses, our high schools, colleges, our favorite baseball teams. And each of those identities comes along with a set of expectations or stereotypes."
29. Ronda Zents (English Department): The Other Wes Moore (non-fiction). I heard Wes Moore speak at an independent schools conference last year, and his story is a must-read! From the book jacket:"Two kids named Wes Moore were born blocks apart within a year of each other. Both grew up fatherless in similar Baltimore neighborhoods; both hung out on street corners with their crews; both ran into trouble with the police. How, then, did one grow up to be a Rhodes scholar, decorated veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader, while the other ended up a convicted murderer serving a life sentence?"
30. Angela Stephenson (Learning Support): Ordinary People, Judith Guest.
A remarkable book about an ordinary family's response to an extraordinary tragedy; it was so popular in its time precisely because the Jarretts could be any American family and what happened in their family could happen in anyone's family. Well, maybe not in anyone's family; most Americans aren't wealthy enough to live in a McMansion in an upper-middle-class bedroom community nor do most families own a boat; but income aside, the Jarretts are like most people one knows: a hardworking father, a mother who wants the best for her family, and two teenage sons, one outgoing and confident, the other quiet and retiring, living in his older brother's shadow. A freak boating accident leaves the older brother dead by drowning, and the family devastated. The parents, Cal and Beth, and their younger son Conrad, are left to cope with the aftermath. "Ordinary People" is the story of how they cope - or fail to.
31. Sharon Hornecker, US Nursing Staff The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks/Rebecca Skloot: Part detective story, part social commentary, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a nonfiction account of an African American woman who died of cancer in 1951--but whose cells live on in science labs around the world. Using first hand accounts, Skloot "tells a rich, resonant tale of modern science, the wonders it can perform and how easily it can exploit society's most vulnerable people." (Publishers Weekly review). Added to NON fiction.
32. Mao's last dancer, Carolyn Haldeman and second section Patti Herring non fiction. Cunxin li.
Li Cunxin was a peasant boy chosen to be a dancer for Mao. He had never danced, but a team sent out by Mao's wife took him out of his classroom in a village because he seemed flexible. After much homesickness, Li Cunxin learned to love dance. He practiced for hours after the mandatory dance classes and eventually got the opportunity to dance in the United States, where he found support from then first lady Barbara Bush, who helped go back to China to visit his parents and later bring them for a visit to the United States. He married an Australian dancer and now lives in Australia with his wife and three children. There is an excellent film based on the autobiography, celebrating "the quest for freedom and the courage it takes to live your own life."
33. Jonathan Merrill/History/Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption/Laura Hillenbrand: This is the amazing and true story of Louis Zamperini. A world class mile runner who competed in the 1936 Olympic Games, Zamperini quit his preparations for the 1940 Olympics to join the Army Air Corps as a bombardier. The book traces his incredible story from harrowing combat missions, to surviving a month-long journey aboard a tiny raft while drifting in the shark infested waters of the Pacific, and ultimately, to Japanese POW camps.Added to the student wiki under Non-Fiction. 34. Brent Hilpert (Science): The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. (non-fiction) What are our habits? What are the patterns that shape ever aspect of our lives? How do we transform our habits? In The Power of Habit, the author takes us to the through discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. Along the way we learn why some people struggle to change, despite years of trying, while others seem to remake themselves overnight. We visit laboratories where neuroscientists explore how habits work and where, exactly, they reside in our brains. We discover how the right habits were crucial to the success of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and civil-rights hero Martin Luther King, Jr. We go inside Target superstores, Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, NFL locker rooms, and the nation’s largest hospitals and see how implementing so-called keystone habits can earn billions and mean the difference between failure and success, life and death. At its core, The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, becoming more productive,social movements, and achieving success is understanding how habits work. 35. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. Fiction. (Alexis Horder-English).
On page one, pretty and popular high school senior Samantha Kingston wakes up to her alarm ready to rule the school with her three best friends, but by the end of chapter one...she's dead. She wakes up to start the same day over again, and again; in fact, she relives it seven times. Through slight changes each day, Sam sees that her choices and relationships are more complicated and intertwined than she ever imagined. This Mean Girls meets Groundhog Day tale is a fantastic summer read--you won't be able to put it down!
36. The Noticer, Andy Andrews (Bob Lawrence Chaplain)
Bestselling inspirational writer and speaker Andrews (The Traveler's Gift) again blends fiction, allegory and inspiration and seasons it with a dash of autobiography. The result is a readable little tale of a mysterious old man named Jones—just Jones, no mister—who shows up in the lives of people in crisis. Jones brings the gift of perspective—he notices alternative ways to think about things. Some of what he says is common sense: yes, sir works better than I guess. Some of what he says counters received wisdom: do sweat the small stuff, because little things can make a big difference as surely as brushstrokes make up a masterpiece. The narrator Andy is personable and appealing, and Jones is mysterious and brusque enough not to be a cloying Pollyanna. The title is awkward and not everyone likes motivational books, but many readers do. Andrews brings a track record, wordsmith skills and, best of all, an imagination. Description from Publishers Weeekly. 37. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky (Lorri Hewett-English). This is a story about a freshman in high school caught between trying to live his life and run from it. The story is told through Charlie's letters to an unknown recipient. In them he discusses family life, problems with school, love and music and the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Note: Books contains some mature themes--this book is for rising 11th and 12th graders only.
38. Jeanne Ann Ratliff/English/In Cold Blood/Capote/It is a bright, sunny Sunday morning in November, 1959. Unable to reach her friend Nancy Clutter by phone, Sue Kidd enters Nancy’s house—and discovers a quadruple homicide that continues to fascinate readers today. In a book that married serious literature with the true-crime genre, author Truman Capote explored the brutal crime that sparked the manhunt for the two killers—one an amoral psychopath but the other oddly sympathetic. In Cold Blood vividly brings to life all the players in this story—the murderers as well as their victims, the upstanding and admired Clutter family of small-town Holcomb, Kansas—and reminds us that evil in human form can enter anyone’s life suddenly and cruelly.
39. Fritz Hutchinson/History/An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power/Gordon/How did the United States become the economic colossus of the 20th and 21st centuries? According to The New York Times, John Steele Gordon's An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power is "fascinating, colorful . . . and entertaining." With numerous anecdotes and stories, Gordon's prose comes alive. It is highly readable and enlightening. If you choose this book, you will not be disappointed. Added to student wiki page under Non-Fiction.
40. "The Travelers Gift" is a treasury of wisdom for living an unconventional life in a conventional world. This book combines fiction with self-help as the main character is propelled through time to visit historical figures who offer seven decisions that determine personal success. Slider, Sandra.
41. Stein,The Art of Racing in the Rain This book, a New York Times best seller, is told from the perspective of Enzo, a dog whose owner is a struggling race car driver that suffers through several personal and professional tribulations. The dog’s observances of his master's actions and general philosophy toward life and how it should be lived are complex, insightful, and leave an unforgettable impression upon the reader. (moderator, Jonathan Lee, English Department) Added to student wiki under Fiction--Coming of Age and Young Adult Interest.
42.Out of Nowhere/Ouida Sebestyen—“Left on the desert to fend for himself after his free-spirited mother runs off with the owner of a BMW, 13-year-old Harley joins forces with four other cast-offs, namely Ish, a pit bull dumped by his owner; May, a recently divorced 70-year-old woman; Bill, who finds himself facing eviction after he is released from a hospital; and Singer, a young drifter. Making a home for themselves out of the run-down brick house inherited by May, the [members of this] unlikely quintet help one another learn rules of survival as they weather various crises” (Publishers Weekly).
43. The Water is Wide/ Fictional superwriter turns to memoir in this piece as he remembers the time he spent as a teacher among underserved students on Daufuskee Island off Carolina's coast. A story of humor and pathos. Added to the student wiki page under Non-Fiction. Stuart Gulley, President of WA, will lead this discussion. Book not on list until 10th and 9th graders get to select.
44. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (Jenny Green: English).
The year is 1920, and 28 year-old Hadley Richardson has nearly given up on the possibility of love and marriage….that is until she meets a young, vibrant man by the name of Ernest Hemingway. Intensely in love, the couple marries and moves to Paris, quickly becoming the “Golden Couple” of the Jazz Age as Ernest establishes himself as a writer that will define the “Lost Generation.” Yet Hadley and Ernest are unprepared for the volatile, egocentric, and untraditional world of 1920s Paris that will threaten the life that they’ve fought so hard to build.
45. Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit by Daniel Quinn (Carri Carver: Math)
This book was the Winner of the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship, a literary competition designed to encourage fictional books that present positive solutions to global problems, and for which the author received a half-million-dollar first prize. Have you ever worried over the conflict between our modern lifestyle and what is best for the environment? For instance, cars are bad for the environment, but I have to drive to work. Processed and imported food have a negative impact on the earth, but I have to be able to afford to feed my family. This book, through an imaginative and fanciful premise, addresses why our society is unable to stop destroying the environment and offers some alternatives to the self-destructive path that we seem fated to follow. The book is profound but simple. It grapples with complex ideas but is easy to understand. It is a thought-provoking page turner that will broaden your mind and open your eyes. Added to wiki under Ficiton: Miss and Inspirational.
46. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (Mystery) Lynn Robinson, Counseling
Alan Grant, a Scotland Yard detective, has broken his leg and isn't allowed to do much of anything. He is bored and looking for something to keep his mind occupied. He becomes a bit obsessed with a portrait of King Richard III. He knows from school that King Richard was a horrible king, a hunchback who was mean and cruel and who secured his throne by murdering his nephews. As Alan studies the portrait, he begins to see King Richard differently and he can't help wondering if those who wrote history did a hatchet job on King Richard's character? (This book was voted by the British Crime Writers' Association as the greatest mystery of all time.)
47. Erica Pendleton/Counseling; The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri; The Namesake is the story of the challenges of the Ganguli family as they assimilate into American life after moving from Calcutta. From Houghton Mifflin books, "Lahiri's critically acclaimed first novel is a finely wrought, deeply moving family drama that illuminates her signature themes: the immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, [and] the tangled ties between generations." Fiction--coming of age--
48.
Erich von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods is a work of monumental importance--the first book to introduce the shocking theory that ancient Earth had been visited by aliens. This world-famous bestseller has withstood the test of time, inspiring countless books and films. Von Daniken's startling theories of our earliest encounters with alien worlds, based upon his lifelong studies of ancient ruins, lost cities, potential spaceports, and a myriad of hard scientific facts that point to extraterrestrial intervention in human history. Most incredible of all, however, is von Daniken's theory that we ourselves are the descendants of these galactic pioneers--and the archeological discoveries that prove it... Sam Mugavero
49.
How to talk Liberal If You Must: Welcome to The World of Ann Coulter, by Ann Coulter "With her monumental bestsellers Treason, Slander, and High Crimes and Misdemeanors, Coulter has become the most recognized and talked-about conservative intellectual in years—and certainly the most controversial. Now, in How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must), which is sure to ignite impassioned debate, she offers her most comprehensive analysis of the American political scene to date. With incisive reasoning, refreshing candor, and razor-sharp wit, she reveals just why liberals have got it so wrong." Ethan Greenberg, Science Department, will lead this review.
50 Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls Jeannette Walls shares in this book about her grandmother’s life through her mother’s eyes! The author’s hope is that readers will “just try to understand people and get into a life that’s not their own.” Readers will be spellbound at the sometimes “outrageous” and often “heartwarming” tales of her mother and especially her grandmother and lives that are not so typical to many at Woodward! Jane Webster, Foreign Language, will lead this discussion.
51 Paula Nettles/Science/The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean. The Periodic Table is one of man's crowning scientific achievements. But it's also a treasure trove of stories of passion, adventure, betrayal, and obsession. The infectious tales and astounding details in THE DISAPPEARING SPOON follow carbon, neon, silicon, and gold as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, war, the arts, poison, and the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them. We learn that Marie Curie used to provoke jealousy in colleagues' wives when she'd invite them into closets to see her glow-in-the-dark experiments. And that Lewis and Clark swallowed mercury capsules across the country and their campsites are still detectable by the poison in the ground. Why did Gandhi hate iodine? Why did the Japanese kill Godzilla with missiles made of cadmium? And why did tellurium lead to the most bizarre gold rush in history? From the Big Bang to the end of time, it's all in THE DISAPPEARING SPOON. Added to the student wiki page under Non-Fiction.
All are on the student wiki. Maggie B will pick up a section of something that fills up. Wyatt ?
Add the following information: Your name/Department; Title/Author; Categories under which to advertise the book; a 2 or 3 sentence "teaser." The Student WIKI is in the works at this site. As you add your entries, I clean them up and place standardized versions on the student wiki.
Sick of Shadows by Sharyn McCrumb
Set in the Appalachia that the author knows so well, this novel starts a series about an amateur sleuth, Elizabeth McPherson. A wedding, a dead body, friends being accused--many of the standard mystery elements are here. It is the culture of a place and time that makes the book so interesting (I went to college in East Tennessee, and I have loved all of her books even before I heard her speak at National Council of Teachers of English convention in Nashville). Peggy McNash, English Department, will lead this discussion.
Set during World War II in Germany, this is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau. (description via Amazon.com) Fantasy
"A picture is worth a thousand words." Come read the ONLY comic book to win the Pulitzer Prize! Depicting the Jews as mice and the Nazis as cats, Spiegelman overturns the classical convention of the comic book. In MAUS, the author narrates the horrors of the concentration camps and the subsequent effects on later generations who had to come to terms with the pain and suffering of their ancestors. Sarah Cohen, English Department, leads this discussion.
From the same writer as the Blindside, Michael Lewis explores how the Oakland A's baseball team built a team by using unconventional methods of evaluating players. In this process our eyes can deceive us, and it is not as simple as merely looking at players and determining how athletic they are.
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
" First there were ten--a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unkonwn to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they're unwilling to reveal--and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. And only the dead are above suspicion." Blurb from amazon.com.Kelsey Emerson will lead this discussion.
This book is an excellent thriller that discusses the many aspects of a viral disease outbreak and its implications in this new world where people can travel all over the world in a matter of hours. It also discusses the possible origins of HIV and some other interesting topics including how we were on the verge of a massive outbreak from the presence of a very deadly virus called Ebola in our own country in Reston, VA. It is written for the layperson, but it has the potential to turn the layperson into a well-informed, disease-hunting epidemiologist, or an obsessive reader at the least. David Alvord, Science department teacher, leads this discussion.
20. Dana Reker/ All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot/ nonfiction/ humor
From Amazon- "Delve into the magical, unforgettable world of James Herriot, the world's most beloved veterinarian, and his menagerie of heartwarming, funny, and tragic animal patients. In All Creatures Great and Small, we meet the young Herriot as he takes up his calling and discovers that the realities of veterinary practice in rural Yorkshire are very different from the sterile setting of veterinary school. From caring for his patients in the depths of winter on the remotest homesteads to dealing with uncooperative owners and critically ill animals, Herriot discovers the wondrous variety and never-ending challenges of veterinary practice as his humor, compassion, and love of the animal world shine forth." Reserved for ninth graders
Chapters 1-32 only Required since it is a 500 page book.
21. Hunter Smith (History Department): Into Thin Air by John Krakauer (nonfiction)
From the New York Times review (1997): "The particular descent ahead of those on the ''hill'' on May 10, 1996, resulted in the greatest loss of life in the history of mountaineering on Everest. As news spread of the nine deaths (including that of Hall, who spoke to his wife in New Zealand by radiophone as he lay stranded in a snowstorm on the summit ridge), a barrage of questions resounded: What went wrong? Why was the approaching storm ignored? And, most emphatically, why are ''tourists'' with more money than expertise being taken up Everest in the first place? Jon Krakauer was one of the survivors, and in ''Into Thin Air'' he relives the storm and its aftermath, trying to answer those questions. As he sees it, essentially nothing ''went wrong,'' at least in terms of the storm, which struck with little warning. Instead, the root of the problem lies in the famous explanation George Mallory gave when asked why he wanted to climb the mountain, an explanation that still holds true, albeit with a slight amendment. People climb Mount Everest because it -- and the money -- is there."
22 Bob Lawrence/Chaplain The Noticer by Andy Andrews (fiction, inspirational)
Sometimes all a person needs is a little perspective! Like everyone, the good folks of Orange Beach, Alabama have their share of problems, but fortunately for them, when things look bleakest, a mysterious man named Jones has a funny way of showing up. With his long white hair, blue jeans, t-shirt and flip flops, Jones is a unique soul who has a way of helping people put everything into perspective.
23. Jane Graham (English Department): Save Me by Lisa Scottoline (fiction)
From The Atlanta Journal and Constitution review on 3/18/12: Scottoline nimbly draws on the topic of bullying in this legal thriller. Rose volunteers at school mainly to keep an eye on her third-grade daughter, the target of a viper classmate. When an explosion goes off in the cafeteria kitchen, Rose faces a horrific moral choice, and her actions cause an uproar in her idyllic suburban community.
24.Brian Keith Jackson (History) and Monica Kuhlman (Science): The Redneck Manifesto: How Hillbillies, Hicks, and White Trash Became America's Scapegoats by Jim Goad (Non-Fiction). PARENTAL ADVISORY/ WARNING: This book contains language that is offensive to every race and ethnicity. This title is limited to rising juniors and seniors only. From http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/81201.The_Redneck_Manifesto Culture maverick Jim Goad presents a thoroughly reasoned, darkly funny, and rampagingly angry defense of America's most maligned social group -- the cultural clan variously referred to as rednecks, hillbillies, white trash, crackers, and trailer trash. As The Redneck Manifesto boldly points out and brilliantly demonstrates, America's dirty little secret isn't racism but classism. While pouncing incessantly on racial themes, most major media are silent about America's widening class rifts, a problem that negatively affects more people of all colors than does racism.
25. Lacy George (Science Department): Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (Fiction)
From the Amazon.com review: Intense is the word for Ender's Game. Aliens have attacked Earth twice and almost destroyed the human species. To make sure humans win the next encounter, the world government has taken to breeding military geniuses -- and then training them in the arts of war... The early training, not surprisingly, takes the form of 'games'... Ender Wiggin is a genius among geniuses; he wins all the games... He is smart enough to know that time is running out. But is he smart enough to save the planet?
26. Thomas Moore (English Department): Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five( FICTION--Fantasy and Science Fiction and FICTION--Humor) Billy Pilgrim has a problem: he has become unstuck in time. In Vonnegut's sci-fi comic masterpiece Slaughthouse-five, time travel, aliens and World War II all have a place. Written with Vonnegut's famous wit and humanity, follow Billy Pilgrim as he makes his way through the war, a distant planet and the future .
27. Rachael Szymanski (English Department): State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (fiction). I read this book on a cross country plane flight, and I was so pleased to be stuck in one place for three hours of fast-paced reading! From Amazon.com: "Dr. Marina Singh, a research scientist with a Minnesota pharmaceutical company, is sent to Brazil to track down her former mentor, Dr. Annick Swenson, who seems to have all but disappeared in the Amazon while working on what is destined to be an extremely valuable new drug, the development of which has already cost the company a fortune. Nothing about Marina's assignment is easy: not only does no one know where Dr. Swenson is, but the last person who was sent to find her, Marina's research partner Anders Eckman, died before he could complete his mission. Plagued by trepidation, Marina embarks on an odyssey into the insect-infested jungle in hopes of finding her former mentor as well as answers to several troubling questions about her friend's death, the state of her company's future, and her own past."
28. Chris Freer (Student Life): Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do by Claude M. Steele (non-fiction).
Girls can't do math ... white men can't jump ... "We all know that women can't compete with men at higher math. We all know that white men can't jump. And then there's a curious fact: When confronted with those negative stereotypes, female math majors do perform worse on tests, and white jumpers fail to clear the usual bar. Take away the threat to their identity, and they'll do fine." "Our social identities come from a lot of places: our race, our sex, our age, our political affiliations, our medical diagnoses, our high schools, colleges, our favorite baseball teams. And each of those identities comes along with a set of expectations or stereotypes."
29. Ronda Zents (English Department): The Other Wes Moore (non-fiction). I heard Wes Moore speak at an independent schools conference last year, and his story is a must-read! From the book jacket:"Two kids named Wes Moore were born blocks apart within a year of each other. Both grew up fatherless in similar Baltimore neighborhoods; both hung out on street corners with their crews; both ran into trouble with the police. How, then, did one grow up to be a Rhodes scholar, decorated veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader, while the other ended up a convicted murderer serving a life sentence?"
30. Angela Stephenson (Learning Support): Ordinary People, Judith Guest.
A remarkable book about an ordinary family's response to an extraordinary tragedy; it was so popular in its time precisely because the Jarretts could be any American family and what happened in their family could happen in anyone's family. Well, maybe not in anyone's family; most Americans aren't wealthy enough to live in a McMansion in an upper-middle-class bedroom community nor do most families own a boat; but income aside, the Jarretts are like most people one knows: a hardworking father, a mother who wants the best for her family, and two teenage sons, one outgoing and confident, the other quiet and retiring, living in his older brother's shadow. A freak boating accident leaves the older brother dead by drowning, and the family devastated. The parents, Cal and Beth, and their younger son Conrad, are left to cope with the aftermath. "Ordinary People" is the story of how they cope - or fail to.
31. Sharon Hornecker, US Nursing Staff The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks/Rebecca Skloot: Part detective story, part social commentary, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a nonfiction account of an African American woman who died of cancer in 1951--but whose cells live on in science labs around the world. Using first hand accounts, Skloot "tells a rich, resonant tale of modern science, the wonders it can perform and how easily it can exploit society's most vulnerable people." (Publishers Weekly review). Added to NON fiction.
32. Mao's last dancer, Carolyn Haldeman and second section Patti Herring non fiction. Cunxin li.
Li Cunxin was a peasant boy chosen to be a dancer for Mao. He had never danced, but a team sent out by Mao's wife took him out of his classroom in a village because he seemed flexible. After much homesickness, Li Cunxin learned to love dance. He practiced for hours after the mandatory dance classes and eventually got the opportunity to dance in the United States, where he found support from then first lady Barbara Bush, who helped go back to China to visit his parents and later bring them for a visit to the United States. He married an Australian dancer and now lives in Australia with his wife and three children. There is an excellent film based on the autobiography, celebrating "the quest for freedom and the courage it takes to live your own life."
33. Jonathan Merrill/History/Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption/Laura Hillenbrand: This is the amazing and true story of Louis Zamperini. A world class mile runner who competed in the 1936 Olympic Games, Zamperini quit his preparations for the 1940 Olympics to join the Army Air Corps as a bombardier. The book traces his incredible story from harrowing combat missions, to surviving a month-long journey aboard a tiny raft while drifting in the shark infested waters of the Pacific, and ultimately, to Japanese POW camps.Added to the student wiki under Non-Fiction.
34. Brent Hilpert (Science): The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. (non-fiction)
What are our habits? What are the patterns that shape ever aspect of our lives? How do we transform our habits? In The Power of Habit, the author takes us to the through discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. Along the way we learn why some people struggle to change, despite years of trying, while others seem to remake themselves overnight. We visit laboratories where neuroscientists explore how habits work and where, exactly, they reside in our brains. We discover how the right habits were crucial to the success of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and civil-rights hero Martin Luther King, Jr. We go inside Target superstores, Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, NFL locker rooms, and the nation’s largest hospitals and see how implementing so-called keystone habits can earn billions and mean the difference between failure and success, life and death. At its core, The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, becoming more productive,social movements, and achieving success is understanding how habits work.
35. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. Fiction. (Alexis Horder-English).
On page one, pretty and popular high school senior Samantha Kingston wakes up to her alarm ready to rule the school with her three best friends, but by the end of chapter one...she's dead. She wakes up to start the same day over again, and again; in fact, she relives it seven times. Through slight changes each day, Sam sees that her choices and relationships are more complicated and intertwined than she ever imagined. This Mean Girls meets Groundhog Day tale is a fantastic summer read--you won't be able to put it down!
36. The Noticer, Andy Andrews (Bob Lawrence Chaplain)
Bestselling inspirational writer and speaker Andrews (The Traveler's Gift) again blends fiction, allegory and inspiration and seasons it with a dash of autobiography. The result is a readable little tale of a mysterious old man named Jones—just Jones, no mister—who shows up in the lives of people in crisis. Jones brings the gift of perspective—he notices alternative ways to think about things. Some of what he says is common sense: yes, sir works better than I guess. Some of what he says counters received wisdom: do sweat the small stuff, because little things can make a big difference as surely as brushstrokes make up a masterpiece. The narrator Andy is personable and appealing, and Jones is mysterious and brusque enough not to be a cloying Pollyanna. The title is awkward and not everyone likes motivational books, but many readers do. Andrews brings a track record, wordsmith skills and, best of all, an imagination. Description from Publishers Weeekly.
37. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky (Lorri Hewett-English). This is a story about a freshman in high school caught between trying to live his life and run from it. The story is told through Charlie's letters to an unknown recipient. In them he discusses family life, problems with school, love and music and the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Note: Books contains some mature themes--this book is for rising 11th and 12th graders only.
38. Jeanne Ann Ratliff/English/In Cold Blood/Capote/It is a bright, sunny Sunday morning in November, 1959. Unable to reach her friend Nancy Clutter by phone, Sue Kidd enters Nancy’s house—and discovers a quadruple homicide that continues to fascinate readers today. In a book that married serious literature with the true-crime genre, author Truman Capote explored the brutal crime that sparked the manhunt for the two killers—one an amoral psychopath but the other oddly sympathetic. In Cold Blood vividly brings to life all the players in this story—the murderers as well as their victims, the upstanding and admired Clutter family of small-town Holcomb, Kansas—and reminds us that evil in human form can enter anyone’s life suddenly and cruelly.
39. Fritz Hutchinson/History/An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power/Gordon/How did the United States become the economic colossus of the 20th and 21st centuries? According to The New York Times, John Steele Gordon's An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power is "fascinating, colorful . . . and entertaining." With numerous anecdotes and stories, Gordon's prose comes alive. It is highly readable and enlightening. If you choose this book, you will not be disappointed. Added to student wiki page under Non-Fiction.
40. "The Travelers Gift" is a treasury of wisdom for living an unconventional life in a conventional world. This book combines fiction with self-help as the main character is propelled through time to visit historical figures who offer seven decisions that determine personal success. Slider, Sandra.
41. Stein,The Art of Racing in the Rain
This book, a New York Times best seller, is told from the perspective of Enzo, a dog whose owner is a struggling race car driver that suffers through several personal and professional tribulations. The dog’s observances of his master's actions and general philosophy toward life and how it should be lived are complex, insightful, and leave an unforgettable impression upon the reader. (moderator, Jonathan Lee, English Department) Added to student wiki under Fiction--Coming of Age and Young Adult Interest.
42.Out of Nowhere/Ouida Sebestyen—“Left on the desert to fend for himself after his free-spirited mother runs off with the owner of a BMW, 13-year-old Harley joins forces with four other cast-offs, namely Ish, a pit bull dumped by his owner; May, a recently divorced 70-year-old woman; Bill, who finds himself facing eviction after he is released from a hospital; and Singer, a young drifter. Making a home for themselves out of the run-down brick house inherited by May, the [members of this] unlikely quintet help one another learn rules of survival as they weather various crises” (Publishers Weekly).
43. The Water is Wide/ Fictional superwriter turns to memoir in this piece as he remembers the time he spent as a teacher among underserved students on Daufuskee Island off Carolina's coast. A story of humor and pathos. Added to the student wiki page under Non-Fiction. Stuart Gulley, President of WA, will lead this discussion. Book not on list until 10th and 9th graders get to select.
44. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (Jenny Green: English).
The year is 1920, and 28 year-old Hadley Richardson has nearly given up on the possibility of love and marriage….that is until she meets a young, vibrant man by the name of Ernest Hemingway. Intensely in love, the couple marries and moves to Paris, quickly becoming the “Golden Couple” of the Jazz Age as Ernest establishes himself as a writer that will define the “Lost Generation.” Yet Hadley and Ernest are unprepared for the volatile, egocentric, and untraditional world of 1920s Paris that will threaten the life that they’ve fought so hard to build.
45. Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit by Daniel Quinn (Carri Carver: Math)
This book was the Winner of the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship, a literary competition designed to encourage fictional books that present positive solutions to global problems, and for which the author received a half-million-dollar first prize. Have you ever worried over the conflict between our modern lifestyle and what is best for the environment? For instance, cars are bad for the environment, but I have to drive to work. Processed and imported food have a negative impact on the earth, but I have to be able to afford to feed my family. This book, through an imaginative and fanciful premise, addresses why our society is unable to stop destroying the environment and offers some alternatives to the self-destructive path that we seem fated to follow. The book is profound but simple. It grapples with complex ideas but is easy to understand. It is a thought-provoking page turner that will broaden your mind and open your eyes. Added to wiki under Ficiton: Miss and Inspirational.
46. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (Mystery) Lynn Robinson, Counseling
Alan Grant, a Scotland Yard detective, has broken his leg and isn't allowed to do much of anything. He is bored and looking for something to keep his mind occupied. He becomes a bit obsessed with a portrait of King Richard III. He knows from school that King Richard was a horrible king, a hunchback who was mean and cruel and who secured his throne by murdering his nephews. As Alan studies the portrait, he begins to see King Richard differently and he can't help wondering if those who wrote history did a hatchet job on King Richard's character? (This book was voted by the British Crime Writers' Association as the greatest mystery of all time.)
47. Erica Pendleton/Counseling; The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri; The Namesake is the story of the challenges of the Ganguli family as they assimilate into American life after moving from Calcutta. From Houghton Mifflin books, "Lahiri's critically acclaimed first novel is a finely wrought, deeply moving family drama that illuminates her signature themes: the immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, [and] the tangled ties between generations." Fiction--coming of age--
48.
Erich von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods is a work of monumental importance--the first book to introduce the shocking theory that ancient Earth had been visited by aliens. This world-famous bestseller has withstood the test of time, inspiring countless books and films. Von Daniken's startling theories of our earliest encounters with alien worlds, based upon his lifelong studies of ancient ruins, lost cities, potential spaceports, and a myriad of hard scientific facts that point to extraterrestrial intervention in human history. Most incredible of all, however, is von Daniken's theory that we ourselves are the descendants of these galactic pioneers--and the archeological discoveries that prove it... Sam Mugavero
49.
- How to talk Liberal If You Must: Welcome to The World of Ann Coulter, by Ann Coulter
51 Paula Nettles/Science/The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean. The Periodic Table is one of man's crowning scientific achievements. But it's also a treasure trove of stories of passion, adventure, betrayal, and obsession. The infectious tales and astounding details in THE DISAPPEARING SPOON follow carbon, neon, silicon, and gold as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, war, the arts, poison, and the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them. We learn that Marie Curie used to provoke jealousy in colleagues' wives when she'd invite them into closets to see her glow-in-the-dark experiments. And that Lewis and Clark swallowed mercury capsules across the country and their campsites are still detectable by the poison in the ground. Why did Gandhi hate iodine? Why did the Japanese kill Godzilla with missiles made of cadmium? And why did tellurium lead to the most bizarre gold rush in history? From the Big Bang to the end of time, it's all in THE DISAPPEARING SPOON. Added to the student wiki page under Non-Fiction."With her monumental bestsellers Treason, Slander, and High Crimes and Misdemeanors, Coulter has become the most recognized and talked-about conservative intellectual in years—and certainly the most controversial. Now, in How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must), which is sure to ignite impassioned debate, she offers her most comprehensive analysis of the American political scene to date. With incisive reasoning, refreshing candor, and razor-sharp wit, she reveals just why liberals have got it so wrong." Ethan Greenberg, Science Department, will lead this review.
50 Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
Jeannette Walls shares in this book about her grandmother’s life through her mother’s eyes! The author’s hope is that readers will “just try to understand people and get into a life that’s not their own.” Readers will be spellbound at the sometimes “outrageous” and often “heartwarming” tales of her mother and especially her grandmother and lives that are not so typical to many at Woodward! Jane Webster, Foreign Language, will lead this discussion.
All are on the student wiki. Maggie B will pick up a section of something that fills up. Wyatt ?