“Portable Magic”: Summer Reading List 2015
JSerra Catholic High School
Title and
Genre
Author
MEMOIR/AUTOBIOGRAPHY/BIOGRAPHY
Description
The Wave: In Pursuit
of the Rogues, Freaks
and Giants of the
Ocean, by Susan
Casey
The Boy on the
Wooden Box by
Leon Leyson
Memoir
Casey travels across the world and into the past to confront the largest
waves the oceans have to offer; including rogue waves south of Africa,
storm-born giants near Hawaii, and the biggest wave ever recorded, a
1,740 foot-high wall of wave that blasted the Alaska coastline in 1958.
Memoir
A Moveable Feast, by
Ernest Hemingway
Memoir
Leon Leyson (born Leib Lezjon) was only ten years old when the Nazis
forced his family to relocate to the Krakow ghetto. With incredible luck,
perseverance, and grit, Leyson was able to survive the sadism of the
Nazis, including that of the demonic Amon Goeth, commandant of
Plaszow, the concentration camp outside Krakow. This, the only memoir
published by a former Schindler’s List child, perfectly captures the
innocence of a small boy who goes through the unthinkable.
*Recommended for, but not exclusive to, AP Lit students
Based on Hemingway's early writing career, 1920s Paris, cafe life.
Man’s Search for
Meaning, by Viktor
E. Frankl
Memoir
In My Hands:
Memoir
Memories of a
Holocaust Rescuer by
A psychiatrist’s memoir of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for
spiritual survival. May be of special interest to students who found Elie
Wiesel’s Night moving.
Irene Gut was just 17 in 1939, when the Germans and Russians devoured
her native Poland. Just a girl, really. But a girl who saw evil and chose to
defy it.
1
Recommended
by
Sickler, Lebeda
Brown,
McKeagney,
Vandenberg
Forster, Plaia,
deBoisblanc, Dale,
Amrein, Hirsch,
Stehney
Sickler, Plaia,
Telles,
deBoisblanc,
Vandenberg,
Moran, Taylor
Vandenberg,
Hemphill
Irene Gut Opdyke
Seal of God, by Chad
Williams
Memoir
The Wilder Life – My
Adventures in the
Lost World of Little
House in the Prairie,
by Wendy McClure
With God in Russia,
by Fr. Walter J.
Ciszek, S.J.
Memoir
He Leadeth Me, by
Fr. Walter J. Ciszek,
S.J.
Autobiography
Stradivari’s Genius:
Five Violins, One
Cello, and Three
Centuries of
Enduring Perfection,
by Toby Faber
The Boys in the Boat:
Biography
Autobiography
Biography
Days before Chad Williams was to report to military duty, he turned on a
television and was greeted with the horrifying images of his mentor, US
Navy SEAL Scott Helvenston, being brutally murdered on the roads of
Fallujah, Iraq. Williams followed in Scott’s footsteps and completed the
US military’s most difficult and grueling training to become a Navy
SEAL. Witnessing the horrors of war up close, Chad shares his own
radical conversion story and talks about how he draws on his own
experiences as a SEAL to help others better understand the depths of
Christ’s sacrifice and love.
If you loved the Little House on the Prairie books and have always
wanted to visit “The Big Woods,” “Plum Creek,” “Tableland,” or trace
the path of the Ingall’s covered wagon, this book is for you. The author
visits all known “Laura” locations and explores the history, the television
show, and the little known facts about one of my favorite authors.
Few return from the dead, even among those only presumed to be dead by
the living. This autobiography is the astounding story of an Americanborn Jesuit priest who, in the service of God, survived for twenty-three
years, unknown to family or friends, in the controlled society that exists in
the Soviet Union.
Captured by the Russian army during World War II and convicted of
being a "Vatican spy," American Jesuit Father Walter J. Ciszek spent
some 23 agonizing years in Soviet prisons and the labor camps of Siberia.
He here recalls how it was only through an utter reliance on God's will
that he managed to endure.
The skill of Antonio Stradivari—the greatest instrument builder in
history—has never been replicated, even by modern technology. This
wonderful book tells the story of this genius and tracks six of his
instruments, five violins and one cello, across the gulf of history.
Vandenberg,
Holligan, Taylor
Harrell, N.
It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of the sons
Crayton, J Harrell
2
Crafts, Miraglia
Sr. Carmen
Therese, Lagalante
Sr. Maria Corazon
Sr. Carmen
Therese, Lagalante,
Sr. Maria Corazon
Amrein
Nine Americans and
Their Epic Quest for
Gold at the 1936
Berlin Olympics, by
Daniel James Brown
The River of Doubt:
Theodore Roosevelt’s
Darkest Journey, by
Candice Millard
of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the University of Washington’s
eight-oar crew team was never expected to defeat the elite teams of the
East Coast and Great Britain, yet they did, going on to shock the world by
defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler.
Biography
At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical
portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt’s
harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth.
Meyer
Non-Fiction
Forty schools that will change the way you think about college.
Huie, Taylor, Ricks
Non-Fiction
A priest works with gang members to change their lives for the better, but
in actuality, they end up changing the priest's life so much more.
An extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the two remarkable men
that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary. As definitions
were collected, it was discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had
submitted more than ten thousand. Dr. Minor, an American Civil War
veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.
Huie, Vandenberg,
Dale, N. Harrell
Sickler, Plaia,
Stroupe, J Harrell,
Stehney
The story of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for
the fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a
charming doctor. Burnham's overcame numerous obstacles to construct
the famous "White City" around which the fair was built. The activities of
the sinister Dr. Holmes, who is believed to be responsible for scores of
murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable.
A vivid portrait of Berlin during the first years of Hitler’s reign, brought
to life through the stories of two people: William E. Dodd, America’s first
ambassador to Hitler’s regime, and his daughter, Martha. Dodd’s growing
misgivings about Hitler’s ambitions fall on deaf ears among his peers.
Sickler, Hemphill,
Amrein, J. Harrell,
Sulick
NON-FICTION / HISTORY / BUSINESS
Colleges that Change
Lives, by Loren Pope
Tattoos on the Heart,
by Fr. Greg Boyle
The Professor and the
Madman: A Tale of
Murder, Insanity, and
the Making of the
Oxford English
Dictionary, by Simon
Winchester
The Devil in the
White City: Murder,
Magic, and Madness
at the Fair that
Changed America, by
Erik Larson
In the Garden of
Beasts: Love, Terror,
and an American
Family in Hitler’s
Non-Fiction
Non-Fiction
Non-Fiction
3
Sickler, Hemphill,
Amrein, J. Harrell
Berlin, by Erik
Larson
Into Thin Air: A
Personal Account of
the Mt. Everest
Disaster, by Jon
Krakauer
Non-Fiction
Resurrection: The
Miracle Season That
Saved Notre Dame,
by Jim Dent
Non-Fiction
Remember Why You
Play by David
Thomas
Non-Fiction,
Sports
Pele: Why Soccer
Matters, by Pele and
Brian Winters
Non-Fiction,
Sports
1776, by David
McCullough
History
Martha, on the other hand, is mesmerized by the glamorous parties and
the high-minded conversation of Berlin’s salon society.
“A harrowing tale of the perils of high-altitude climbing, a story of bad
luck and worse judgment and heart-breaking heroism.” The stuff of
classic adventure tales.
In the 1960’s, Notre Dame’s football program was in shambles. Little did
anyone know, help was on its way in the form of Ara Parseghian, a
controversial choice for head coach—the first one outside of the Notre
Dame “family.” It was now his responsibility to rebuild the once-proud
program and teach the Fighting Irish how to win again. But it was no
small task.
Sports columnist and author David Thomas followed the team for a full
season, recording a story that will inspire readers to understand that
relationships are more important than winning. One of the key events was
a game that Faith Christian played against the Gainesville State
Tornadoes, a school for convicted juvenile offenders. This true story
makes a strong statement about the impact of compassion and
sportsmanship.
The world’s greatest soccer player reflects on the “beautiful game” and
how it has changed the world. Since his playing days in the 1950’s
through the 70’s Pele has been the world’s best ambassador for the sport.
His recollections and insights shed a new light on today’s game in the
21st century.
America’s beloved and distinguished historian presents, in a book of
breathtaking excitement, drama, and narrative force, the stirring story of
the year of our nation’s birth, 1776, interweaving, on both sides of the
Atlantic, the actions and decisions that led Great Britain to undertake a
war against her rebellious colonial subjects and that placed America’s
survival in the hands of George Washington.
4
Sickler, Lebeda,
McKeagney, Dale,
Stehney,Kahl,
Kennedy,
Vandenberg,
Taylor
Gabriel-Licavoli
Fullerton
Plaia
Desmond, Misiow,
J Harrell
Killing Lincoln: The
Shocking
Assassination that
Changed America
Forever, by Bill
O’Reilly and Martin
Dugard
Rise to Globalism:
American Foreign
Policy Since 193, by
Stephen Ambrose and
Douglas Brinkley
Undaunted Courage,
by Stephen Ambrose
Good to Great, by
Jim Collins
History
A riveting historical narrative of the heart-stopping events surrounding
the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Fullerton,
deBoisblanc,
Sickler, Borowski,
Misiow, Taylor,
Stehney
History
A concise and informative overview of the evolution of American foreign
policy from 1938 to the present, focusing on such pivotal events as World
War II, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, and 9/11. The book examines
everything from the Iran-Contra scandal to the rise of international
terrorism.
Riveting account of the journey of Lewis and Clark across the
unchartered frontier of the West at the turn of the 19th century.
For anyone interested in understanding why some great organizations
endure the test of time while others rise and fall, this is a must read.
Borowski, Misiow
The Closing of the
American Mind, by
Allan Bloom
The Bully Pulpit:
Theodore Roosevelt,
William Howard Taft,
and the Golden Age
of Journalism, by
Doris Kearns
Goodwin
Amusing Ourselves to
Death, by Neil
Postman
The Road to Middle
Earth: How Tolkien
Non-fiction,
political
commentary
History
Bloom accounts for the demise of openness among American universities
and ascribes it to the actions of the liberal elite whose moral relativism,
ironically, crowds out true freedom of thought and speech.
*Recommended for, but not exclusive to, AP Lit students
Focusing on the presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt and his successor,
William Howard Taft--one-time colleagues and friends who later became
sworn foes--Goodwin chronicles the birth of an activist press, which
occurred when five of the nation’s best-ever journalists converged at
McClure’s magazine and helped usher in the Progressive era.
Non-Fiction
Discusses the dangers of overexposure to electronic media and society's
addiction to entertainment.
Forster, Sickler, N.
Harrell
Non-Fiction
Fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings will be interested to know
how Tolkien invented Middle Earth and its inhabitants.
Amrein
Lagalante
History
Business
5
Meyer, Stroupe
Meyer,
Vandenberg,
Miraglia, Perkes
Stroupe
D. Summers,
Hirsch, Fullerton
Created a New
Mythology, by Tom
Shippey
The Lost Painting:
The Quest for a
Caravaggio
Masterpiece, by
Jonathan Harr
Non-Fiction
When a graduate student discovers a painting that may or may not have
been made by that Italian master Caravaggio, an artistic detective case
ensues that examines the worlds of art dealership, forgery, and forensic
science and technology.
Amrein
THEOLOGY / SPIRITUALITY
Jesus of Nazareth:
From the Baptism in
the Jordan to the
Transfiguration, Pope
Benedict XVI
The Shadow of His
Wings: The True
Story of Fr. Gereon
Goldmann, OFM,
by Gereon
Goldmann
The Story of a Soul,
by St. Thérèse of
Lisieux
One Thousand Gifts:
A Dare to Live Fully
Right Where You
Are by Ann Voskamp
Theology
This may be Pope Benedict’s greatest legacy to the Church, but certainly
his greatest teaching legacy. One cannot read this text without growing
closer to the Lord.
Telles, Lagalante,
Sr. Maria Corazon
Spirituality
Lagalante, Miraglia
Mere Christianity, by
C.S. Lewis
Spirituality
Here is the astonishing true story of the harrowing experiences of a young
German seminarian drafted into Hitler's dreaded SS at the onset of World
War II. Without betraying his Christian ideals, against all odds, and in the
face of Evil, Gereon Goldmann was able to complete his priestly training,
be ordained, and secretly minister to German Catholic soldiers and
innocent civilian victims caught up in the horrors of war.
Be prepared to be astounded as St. Thérèse, under obedience, writes of
her spiritual development from childhood. Guys, this is perhaps one of the
best books in the world for learning how to be a father.
How do we find joy in the midst of deadlines, debt, drama, and daily
duties? What does the Christ-life really look like when your days are
gritty, long--and sometimes even dark? How is God even here? This book
invites readers to embrace everyday blessings and embark on the
transformative spiritual discipline of chronicling God's gifts.
C.S. Lewis dissembles the beauty, mystery, and logical reality of
Christianity in a series of true-life informal radio talks to the British
citizenry during WWII's "Battle of Britain," the Nazi's all-out air assault.
Spirituality
Spirituality
6
Telles, Lagalante,
Taylor, Miraglia,
Sr. Maria Corazon
Lagalante,
Chenault
Kahl, Sickler,
Telles, Misiow,
Lagalante, Moran,
Proof of Heaven: A
Neurosurgeon's
Journey into the
Afterlife, by Eben
Alexander
The Four Signs of a
Dynamic Catholic, by
Matthew Kelly
Spirituality
A first-person account of the author’s near-death experience which will
reassure afterlife believers and possibly convince skeptics.
Spirituality
What four things did Mother Teresa, Francis of Assisi, John Paul II,
Therese of Lisieux, and Ignatius Loyola have in common? They all
practiced the four signs: prayer, study, generosity, and evangelization.
Everything You Ever
Wanted to Know
about Heaven, by
Peter Kreeft
Surprised by Truth:
11 Converts Give the
Biblical and
Historical Reasons
for Becoming
Catholic, by Patrick
Madrid
Rhythm of Life, by
Matthew Kelly
Theology
Forget the boring image of endless cloud-sitting and boring harp music;
philosopher Peter Kreeft asks the questions that sometimes seem offlimits: What will we do in heaven? Where is heaven? Is there really a
hell?
Powerful testimonies of Evangelicals who became Catholic These eleven
personal conversion accounts are unlike any you've ever read. They're
packed with biblical, theological, and historical proofs for Catholicism.
Rediscover
Catholicism, by
Matthew Kelly
Spirituality
Spirituality
Spirituality
Taylor, Hirsch, N.
Harrell, Perkes
Vandenberg,
Sulick, Lebeda
J Harrell
McClellan,
Vandenberg,
Lagalante, Moran,
Perkes
Telles, Lagalante,
Taylor
Taylor, Telles,
Lagalante, Misiow,
Taylor, Miraglia,
Sr. Maria Corazon
In this classic bestseller, acclaimed author and speaker Matthew Kelly
Moran, Miraglia,
offers inspiring, take-charge strategies to help you discover your deepest
Perkes
desires, identify your unique talents, and lead a life filled with passion and
purpose.
In this unique and timely book, he proposes that Catholicism is not a
Moran, Miraglia
lifeless set of rules and regulations , but a way of life designed by God to
help each person reach his or her full potential. With remarkable insight,
Kelly dispels dozens of myths that surround the rejection of Catholicism
today and provides a profound and practical vision of what will lead the
Catholic Church to thrive again in the future.
7
FICTION / HISTORICAL FICTION / SCIENCE FICTION
Rebecca, by Daphne
DuMaurier
British Literature
A young woman finds herself married into the British gentry and
discovers her greatest adversary is the ghost of her new husband’s
previous wife.
Dune, by Frank
Herbert
Maus by Art
Spiegelman
Science Fiction
Moloka’i by Alan
Brennert
Historical Fiction
The Great Divorce,
by C. S. Lewis
Fiction
A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and
politics. Winner of the Nebula and Hugo awards.
A graphic novel that depicts Spiegelman interviewing his father, whom he
finds old and frustrating, about his experiences as a Polish Jew and
Holocaust survivor. In the novel, Spiegleman depicts Jews as mice,
Germans as cats, and non-Jewish Poles as pigs.
An inspiring novel about a young girl sent away from her family to the
quarantined leper colony of Kalaupapa on the island of Moloka’i. Based
on true stories, you follow her struggles, sadness, and joy among a group
of people forgotten by society.
Follow the author of The Chronicles of Narnia on a mind-blowing
journey through the afterlife!
Out of the Silent
Planet, by C. S.
Lewis
An American
Tragedy, by
Theodore Dreiser
Fiction
Imagine being abducted only to wake up and find you’re on board a ship
to the red planet of Malacandra; the first in a trilogy by C. S. Lewis.
Fiction
House of the Spirits
by Isabel Allende
Fiction
A Separate Peace, by
John Knowles
Fiction
The book follows a young man with great aspirations through the course
of his life. The decisions he makes as a young man impact the way his life
unfolds in unexpected ways. One theme of the novel centers around the
complex question of “does the end justify the means?”
*Recommended for, but not exclusive to, AP Lit students
This classic of magical realism tells the story of the Trueba family across
four generations, tracing the social and political upheavals of Chile.
This novel describes the inner turmoil of a student at a New England prep
school contending with the death of a friend.
Graphic novel
8
McKeagney,
Sulick,
deBoisblanc,
Taylor, N. Harrell
Sickler, Taylor, J
Harrell
Sickler, Hemphill,
McKeagney,
Amrein, Hirsch
Crafts, Sulick,
McQueen, Taylor
Telles, Morales,
Moran, Taylor,
Hirsch, Sr. Maria
Corazon
Telles, Lagalante
Crafts, Sulick,
deBoisblanc
McQueen, Hirsch
Stroupe, Plaia,
Forster, Sulick,
Sirens of Titan, by
Kurt Vonnegut
Science Fiction
My Antonia, by Willa
Cather
Fiction
The Guernsey
Literary and Potato
Peel Pie Society
Paperback,
by Mary Ann Shaffer
and Annie Barrows
Possession, by A.S.
Byatt
Fiction
The Chosen, by
Chaim Potok
Fiction
O Pioneers, by Willa
Cather
Fiction
Fiction
An outrageous romp through space, time, and morality. The richest, most
depraved man on Earth, Malachi Constant, is offered a chance to take a
space journey to distant worlds with a beautiful woman at his side. Of
course there’s a catch to the invitation–and a prophetic vision about the
purpose of human life that only Vonnegut has the courage to tell
*Recommended for, but not exclusive to, AP Lit students
A great love story that winds its way through the great Midwest during
the late nineteenth century. Cather’s brilliant storytelling style carries the
reader along a tale of love and hardships on the prairies of the American
frontier.
January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World
War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who
could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never
met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name
written inside a book by Charles Lamb.
Possession is the tale of a pair of young scholars researching the lives of
two Victorian poets. As they uncover their letters, journals, and poems,
and track their movements from London to Yorkshire—from spiritualist
séances to the fairy-haunted far west of Brittany—what emerges is an
extraordinary counterpoint of passions and ideas.
It is the now-classic story of two fathers and two sons and the pressures
on all of them to pursue the religion they share in the way that is best
suited to each. And as the boys grow into young men, they discover in the
other a lost spiritual brother, and a link to an unexplored world that
neither had ever considered before. In effect, they exchange places, and
find the peace that neither will ever retreat from again.
Young Alexandra Bergson’s dying father leaves her in charge of the
family and of the Nebraska lands they have struggled to farm. In
Alexandra’s lifelong fight to survive and succeed, Cather relates an
important chapter in the history of the American frontier, evoking the
9
Misiow
Kahl, Plaia,
deBoisblanc
Plaia, Hirsch,
Vandenberg,
Lagalante,
Kennedy
Taylor,
McKeagney,
Vandenberg,
McQueen, Taylor
Taylor, McQueen
Kennedy, Plaia,
Sickler,
McKeagney
Stroupe, Hirsch
harsh grandeur of the prairie.
Switched at birth by a young slave woman attempting to protect her son
from the horrors of slavery, a light-skinned infant changes places with the
master's white son. A compelling drama that contains all the elements of a
classic 19th-century mystery: reversed identities, a ghastly crime, an
eccentric detective, and a tense courtroom scene.
Books 2 and 3 of The Maze Runner trilogy: Thomas wakes up in an
elevator, remembering nothing but his own name. He emerges into a
world of about 60 teen boys who have learned to survive in a completely
enclosed environment. The original group has been in "the glade" for two
years. Then a comatose girl arrives with a strange note, and their world
begins to change.
Pudd’nhead Wilson,
by Mark Twain
Fiction
The Scorch Trials or
The Death Cure, by
James Dashner
(Choose one book)
Fiction
Jacob Have I Loved,
by Katherine
Paterson
Fiction
Sara Louise Bradshaw is sick and tired of her beautiful twin Caroline.
Ever since they were born, Caroline has been the pretty one, the talented
one, the better sister. For once in her life, Louise wants to be the special
one. But in order to do that, she must first figure out who she is . . . and
find a way to make a place for herself outside her sister's shadow.
Sickler, Lebeda
Farewell, My Lovely,
by Raymond
Chandler
Fiction
Hirsch, J Harrell
The Complete Father
Brown Stories, by
G.K. Chesterton
(This is a collection
of five stories; you
must read three)
Orphan Train, by
Christina Baker Kline
Mystery
Marlowe's about to give up on a completely routine case when he finds
himself in the wrong place at the right time to get caught up in a murder
that leads to a ring of jewel thieves, another murder, a fortune-teller, a
couple more murders, and more corruption than your average graveyard.
In the genre of the finely crafted English detective story, Chesterton's
"Father Brown" stories are wholesome and stimulating detective tales.
Father Brown's simple manner makes you quick to underestimate him, but
the startling flashes of brilliance that spill from beneath his humble
exterior soon make you realize that he has a firm grasp on the truth of a
situation when you are as yet frustratingly distant from it.
Set between modern day and the Great Depression, this novel weaves the
story of two young girls’ lives. Vivian is sent West to find a family on
“the orphan train”- a little known chapter in our own American History.
The train carried orphans from the East Coast to the bustling farmlands of
Fiction
10
Everett, J Harrell
Sickler,
Vandenberg,
Chenault
Sr. Carmen Therese
J Harrell
Hemphill
The Watch That Ends
the Night: Voices
from the Titanic, by
Allan Wolf
Monster, by Walter
Dean Myers
Historical Fiction
Fiction
the Midwest. Her life story comes to modern day as she interacts with a
rebellious teenage girl of the 21st century.
Taking the Titanic disaster as his subject, Alan Wolf makes good use of
his poetic style the retells history from alternating points of view (this
time even the famous iceberg gets its say).
African American teenager Steve Harmon is on trial for murder. His
experiences navigating a prejudiced society are chronicled in his journals
and the screenplay he writes as his trial unfolds.
11
Amrein
Amrein, Hemphill