Independent Reading Assignment #3
-
Non-Fiction
This assignment asks you to move out of the familiar form of fiction, and of narrative in particular,
in order to try something new. As always, the book you choose should hold some interest for you,
but it may not take the form of a memoir or biography; in other words, it may not focus primarily
on the life of a specific character or person.
The book you choose may come from one of many genres of non-fiction. For example:
History:
Bill Bryson
John Hershey
Howard Zinn
-
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Hiroshima
A People’s History of the United States
–
–
-
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat or An Anthropologist on Mars
Complications or Better
A Brief History of Time
The Wave: In Pursuit of Rouges, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean
Katherine Boo
-
Malcolm Gladwell
Barbara Ehrenreich
Adrain Nicole LeBlanc
Franklin Foer
Eric Schlosser
Susan Cain
Stephen D. Levitt
& Stephen J. Dubner
-
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai
Undercity
Outliers, The Tipping Point or Blink
Nickel and Dimed
Random Family
How Soccer Explains the World
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking
Freakanomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
-
Friday Night Lights
When March Went Mad
In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle
Science:
Oliver Sacks
Atul Gawande
Stephen Hawking
Susan Casey
Social Sciences:
Sports:
H.G. Bissinger
Seth Davis
Madeleine Blais
Self-Help or Self-Awareness
Atul Gawande
Daniel Pink
Joshua Foer
–
–
-
The Checklist Manifesto
A Whole New Mind
Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
In any event, the book you choose should be interesting, age-appropriate, and something you’ll enjoy
reading and writing about over the next month or so. You must present the book of your choice to me by
Monday, March 3rd.
Please see me if you have questions. Enjoy!!