Ah, summertime…we are looking forward to diving into some new books, revisiting favorites, taking walks, travelling, watching movies, etc. We want to share some of our favorite books, stories, audiotapes with you – come by to talk about them!
Alone Together by Sherry Turkle (2017)
Professor Sherry Turkle at MIT interviews high school students, computer programmers, young professionals, and people of the pre-Internet generation and asks them about technology in their everyday lives. What they have to say about the way technology makes chronic demands on them and steers them to a life of isolation is unsettling but not surprising. When we are always connected, we can no longer tolerate the idea of being alone, of not having someone respond to what we say or think. Check out this interesting and relevant book.
-Mrs. Gilbert
The Best Cook in the World: Tales From My Momma’s Table by Rick Bragg (2019).
This is a book about Southern cooking, and yes, it includes recipes, but you’ll want to read it for the fascinating stories about generations of this amazing family—Southerners are great cooks, but even better story-tellers. It’s true that you will find a recipe for possum & sweet potatoes in this book, but I didn’t love this book simply because it taught me to cook marsupials. There’s a legacy in Southern life that Rick Bragg captures with great humor and great love. The stories (sometimes bittersweet, often hilarious) about his ancestors and life in rural Alabama remind me of my own grandmothers, who knew that nourishment involves so much more than food.
– Mrs. Klein
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015)
One the top ten books of the year on multiple lists including New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times and a Pulitzer Prize finalist. The author looks at Issues of in race in America and the complicated history around it.
– Mr. Frank
Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes by Tamim Ansary
What can my students read—in as short an excerpt as possible—to learn about the Ottoman Empire’s labyrinthine bureaucracy? I was trying to refine my unit on the land empires, 1450-1750. I had heard good things about Tamim Ansary’s Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes, and so I picked up a copy, checked out the Table of Contents, found the chapter on Ottoman government, and began reading. Hours later, I found myself so engrossed that I went back to the first chapter and ended up devouring the whole thing.
–Ms. Yi
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (2004)
Non-fiction that reads like a novel, this book alternates between detailing the massive undertaking of designing and constructing the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 (world-building before video games!) with the story of a serial killer who was on the loose in the city at the same time. Fascinating architectural challenges for your engineering side, and murder for your horror-movie-loving side.
– Dr. Castaldo
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (2015)
This novel’s first line is “Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet…” Part mystery, part family drama, this novel tells the story of a Chinese American family living in Ohio in the 1970s. The narrative jumps from past to present, giving us glimpses of the family’s story from multiple points of view. We learn not only about what might have happened to teenager Lydia, whose body is found in a lake, but also about the secrets the family keeps from one another. A quick and compelling read.
– Dr. Castaldo
The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens (2014)
Joe Talbert is a college student assigned by his college professor to interview a stranger and write a biography. He finds Carl Iverson, an ailing Vietnam veteran released from jail to hospice where he can live out his final weeks. Joe learns that Carl was convicted of a heinous crime--a crime that Joe decides to re-investigate after learning more about the sensitive, misunderstood man. The story is told by a kind, smart and funny narrator and made up of genuine characters who are committed to doing what’s right. It has lots of action and suspense, too.
-Mrs. Gilbert
On the Origins of War by Donald Kagan (1995)
Warfare has been a constant in recorded human history, but what do we know about its causes? 19th Century Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz saw it as an extension of politics. Today, the US has a volunteer military. How many of us appreciate how easy it is to commit those troops to combat or how war can devastate a formerly vital country? Thucydides said that countries go to war for three reasons: “honor, fear and interest.” Join Professor Kagan in a fascinating examination of the beginnings of five major wars. If you are interested foreign affairs, diplomacy or a career in national security, you will be drawn in by the missed opportunities, drama of political ambition and the competing worldviews.
-Mr. Bourjaily
Once and for All by Sarah Dessen (2018)
Dessen’s stories are coming-of-age tales centering around the themes of love, loss, and transition. Her stories sometimes feature cameos from characters in other books she has written which makes for a playfully connected fictional world.
-Ms. Tinkelman
One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson (2014)
I love Bryson’s narrative voice, which is dry and witty. Many of his works reflect his travels to various places in the US and abroad and I would also highly recommend them. He has a unique perspective as an author with dual citizenship (US & British) and uses an investigative style to support his stories with anecdotes from primary sources he digs up in his research.
-Ms. Tinkelman
Post-Truth by Lee McIntyre (2018)
What is true and what is false? What happens when someone manipulates the truth or mischaracterizes what is false as true for personal gain or advantage? What happens when we don’t know we are being manipulated? What are the political implications? These are some of the questions Professor McIntyre addresses in Post-Truth. The internet and social media have changed our sources of information and how we obtain it. In some ways, this is democratizing. It also makes us vulnerable to bias and misinformation. McIntyre is a philosopher offering insight into the problem of misinformation. Have a conversation with him about the importance of the integrity of information in democratic society. Experience a real 1984.
- Mr. Bourjaily
River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay (2013)
In this historical fantasy novel, Ren Daiyan goes from teenage outlaw to military leader in Kitai (a country inspired by Song dynasty China) as he meets poetess Lin Shan. The book features power struggles in war and love as well as meditations on art and honor. When I got to the end of this book one summer, I went right back to the first page to start it over.
– Ms. Lebryk-Chao
The Uncommon Reader: a novella by Alan Bennett (2008)
After her corgis stumble across a lending library, the Queen discovers books. One book leads to another, alarming those around her. A funny book that invites us to think about how and why we read; a good way to begin AP Lit class.
-Ms. Lebryk-Chao
View with a Grain of Sand by Wisława Szymborska (1995) Translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh
There is something to be said about the way that words linger on the page, long after that page is turned. Whether you are curious to know what one sees in “dreams about final exams” or “what love’s answer to an open question” might be, this collection of poems by Wisława Szymborska provides the reader with a chance to explore. Whether you are a lover of reading poetry or not, allow Szymborska to shine a light on the beauty of well-placed words with well-placed meaning.
– Mrs. Henry
We Fed an Island: The True Story of Rebuilding Puerto Rico, One Meal at a Time by José Andrés (2018)
“All we wanted to do was to feed the people. But when you start with a simple goal, you learn you can achieve the impossible.” This is a story of how Chef José Andrés helped to aid Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria’s devastation in 2017. When the island was destroyed and people had no clean water, no food, no gasoline, and no real way to communicate with the outside world, Chef Andrés knew he needed to get involved. He secured food trucks that would reach people living in the mountains and other places where the National Guard could not access—all so that he could prepare healthy meals for people who had lost everything. If you want to read about the power of the human spirit to do the “impossible” in the face of disaster, this is for you.
– Mrs. Henry
When Asia Was the World: Traveling Merchants, Scholars, Warriors, and Monks who Created “The Riches of the East” by Stewart Gordon (2009)
Where do myths and histories intersect? When Rome “fell,” Europe entered the “Dark Ages,” and a fascinating world of knights on horseback, dungeons and castles ensued—so goes the traditional, romance-infused narrative on the millennium-long “Middle Ages.” In this book, Dr. Gordon seeks to dispel the very notion of the “Middle Ages” in the larger historical context by capturing the vibrant spirit of Asia, a vast and diverse collection of societies intricately interconnected through trade and cultural exchanges on the many overland and maritime trade routes collectively known today as the Silk Roads. And he does so by weaving stories of select Asian societies through the lens of monks, merchants, scholars, warriors, and pilgrims who journeyed to those places and wrote about what they saw and what they experienced. In this way, the reader experiences Indian learning and culture through the eyes of the Chinese monk Xuanzhang, who spent years studying Buddhist scriptures at the University of Nalanda. And the world of the Slavic and Viking warriors and traders comes alive when the Muslim scholar Ibn Fadlan takes the reader along his journey up and down the Volga River in an expedition to spread Islam.
- Ms. Yi
The Wright Brothers by David McCullough (2015)
The folks at The Economist called this an “enjoyable, fast-paced” read, and they’re right! Reading this, I was blown away by the determination, ingenuity, and brilliance of the Wright brothers. Great things have their start in the smallest and most humble of places. The book takes you through every failure and success--and all the while, you’re just cheering them on. A well-researched biography about innovation and hard work--a really relevant book about the role that imagination plays in technological change.
- Mrs. Gilbert