Ms. Hope

• Richard Powers,The Overstory

  • An Air Force loadmaster in the Vietnam War is shot out of the sky, then saved by falling into a banyan. An artist inherits a hundred years of photographic portraits, all of the same doomed American chestnut. A hard-partying undergraduate in the late 1980s electrocutes herself, dies, and is sent back into life by creatures of air and light. A hearing- and speech-impaired scientist discovers that trees are communicating with one another. These four, and five other strangers―each summoned in different ways by trees―are brought together in a last and violent stand to save the continent’s few remaining acres of virgin forest.

• Robert Jordan, The Wheel of Time

  • A series of high fantasy novels. Originally planned as a six-book series, The Wheel of Time spanned fourteen volumes, in addition to a prequel novel and two companion books. The series draws on numerous elements of both European and Asian mythology, most notably the cyclical nature of time found in Buddhism and Hinduism, the metaphysical concepts of balance and duality, and a respect for nature found in Taoism. The Wheel of Time is notable for its length, detailed imaginary world, well-developed magic system, and large cast of characters.

Mrs. Canning

• Austin Grossman, Soon I Will Be Invincible

  • Doctor Impossible—evil genius, diabolical scientist, wannabe world dominator—languishes in a federal detention facility. He's lost his freedom, his girlfriend, and his hidden island fortress. Over the years he's tried to take over the world in every way imaginable: doomsday devices of all varieties (nuclear, thermonuclear, nanotechnological) and mass mind control. He's traveled backwards in time to change history, forward in time to escape it. He's commanded robot armies, insect armies, and dinosaur armies. Fungus army. Army of fish. Of rodents. Alien invasions. All failures. But not this time. This time it's going to be different...

• Siobhan MacDonald, Twisted River

  • A gripping debut psychological thriller for fans of The Silent Wife and The Wicked Girls about two families in crisis and a holiday house swap gone terribly wrong. “She would never have fit as neatly into the trunk of his own car.” Limerick, Ireland: the O’Brien family’s driveway. American Oscar Harvey opens the trunk of his hosts’ car and finds the body of a woman, beaten and bloody. But let’s start at the beginning. Kate and Mannix O’Brien live by Curragower Falls in Limerick, in a lovely house they can barely afford. Their son Fergus is bullied at school, and their daughter Izzy blames herself, wishing she could protect him. Kate decides that her family needs a vacation, and is convinced her luck’s about to change when she spots a gorgeous Manhattan apartment on a home-exchange website. Hazel and Oscar Harvey and their two children live on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Though they seem successful and happy, Hazel has mysterious bruises, and Oscar is hiding things about his dental practice. They, too, need a change of pace. Hazel has always wanted her children to see her native Limerick, and the house swap offers a perfect chance to soothe two troubled marriages. But this will be anything but a perfect vacation. And the body in the trunk is just the beginning.

• Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere: A Novel

  • It is the story of Richard Mayhew, a young London businessman with a good heart and an ordinary life, which is changed forever when he discovers a girl bleeding on the sidewalk. He stops to help her—an act of kindness that plunges him into a world he never dreamed existed. Slipping through the cracks of reality, Richard lands in Neverwhere—a London of shadows and darkness, monsters and saints, murderers and angels that exists entirely in a subterranean labyrinth. Neverwhere is home to Door, the mysterious girl Richard helped in the London Above. Here in Neverwhere, Door is a powerful noblewoman who has vowed to find the evil agent of her family’s slaughter and thwart the destruction of this strange underworld kingdom. If Richard is ever to return to his former life and home, he must join Lady Door’s quest to save her world—and may well die trying.

Mrs. Banas

• Dan Rather, What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism

  • Journalist Dan Rather reflects on the history of our country through various essay topics such as freedom, education, inclusion, and voting rights. As a journalist for many years, he has had an up close look at history. Through his eyes he allows us to see where our country has been and the most positive way forward. They also have it in a graphic novel!

• Garrett M. Graff, The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11

  • This novel tells the story of 9/11 through the eyes of the people who lived it using transcripts, interviews, and never-before-seen unclassified documents.

• Trevor Noah, Born a Crime

  • Trevor Noah tells his amazing story of growing up in South Africa, the son of a black South African woman and a white European father when it was against the law for a mixed-race child to exist. There is also a YA version.

Mr. Gallant

• Monty Don, A French Garden Journey

  • Monty takes you on a journey through France by visiting a variety of famous, and little known gardens that encapsulate the very essence of french gardening. From the famous gardens of french aristocrats to a self-sufficient convent farm. From a 5th generation onion grower to a garden of modernist architectural design from the 1920's. Along the way, Monty also shares memories of his travels through France in his youth, which helped shape his passion for the garden.

Mrs. Adams

• Neil Shusterman, Scythe

  • A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control. Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

Mrs. Erle

• Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad

  • In this parallel novel, Margaret Atwood retells portions of Homer's Odyssey from the perspective of Penelope, Odysseus' wife. The central themes of the novella include double standards between the sexes and classes, the fairness of justice, and the importance of perspective in storytelling.

Mrs. Angiulo

• Somaiya Daud, Mirage

  • In this Sci-fi / fantasy book, the Vathek Empire has kidnapped 18 year old Amani as a body double for the much hated half-Vathek princess Maram...

Mr. Whitehead

• Violet Ramis Stiel, Ghostbuster's Daughter: Life with my Dad, Harold Ramis

  • This biographical novel explores the life of the late Harold Ramis, as written by his daughter. Violet and her father were starting to get material together to write a book about parenting, but Harold died, so the project became a book about Violet's relationship with her dad.

• Nick de Semlyen, Wild and Crazy Guys: How the Comedy Mavericks of the '80s Changed Hollywood Forever

  • A book about the heavy hitters of 80s comedy (mainly coming from National Lampoon and SNL).

• James Clear, Atomic Habits

  • A great book about not setting goals in life, but rather creating a personal system that allows you to get things done in small steps leading to big results.

Mrs. Dufresne

• Victoria L. Dunckley MD, Reset Your Child's Brain: A Four-Week Plan to End Meltdowns, Raise Grades, and Boost Social Skills by Reversing the Effects of Electronic Screen-Time

• Tilar J. Mazzeo, Irena's Children: The Extraordinary Story of the Woman Who Saved 2,500 Children from the Warsaw Ghetto

Mrs. Vogt

• Margaret Mitchell, Gone With The Wind

  • Margaret Mitchell's epic novel of love and war won the Pulitzer Prize. Many novels have been written about the Civil War and its aftermath. None take us into the burning fields and cities of the American South as Gone With the Wind does, creating haunting scenes and thrilling portraits of characters so vivid that we remember their words and feel their fear and hunger for the rest of our lives. In the two main characters, Scarlett and Rhett, Mitchell not only conveyed a timeless story of survival under the harshest of circumstances, she also created two of the most famous lovers in the English-speaking world since Romeo and Juliet.

Mr. Doherty

• Richard Hague, Studied Days: Poems Early & Late in Appalachia

• Mary Beard, Women & Power: A Manifesto

• Constance Hale, Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wicked Good Prose