2014 MSJ School-Wide Summer Reading Program Title List
Biography
12 Years a Slave, by Solomon Northup
Solomon Northup’s riveting, heartbreaking account of his 1853 kidnapping and
subsequent sale to a succession of owners who kept Northup enslaved for 12 years in the Deep
South. In its day, the book sold some 30,000 copies and, along with Harriet Beecher
Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), helped rally public opposition to slavery. The book
“disappeared” for more than a century, to be rediscovered, authenticated, and annotated in the
1960s by LSU scholar Sue Eakin, then published again under her guidance with supplementary
materials in 2007. …a delicate balance between moral outrage, humility, and sheer worldweariness over the sufferings Northup witnessed and endured during his captivity. Northup (born
a free man in Saratoga Springs, New York) recorded with erudite precision the daily life of a
slave, from living conditions to tasks assigned. He also offered gimlet-eyed portraits of his
masters and detailed the horrific punishments exacted upon transgressions, however slight or
even unintended.
Black Dog of Fate: A Memoir by Peter Balakian
Peter Balakian writes with the precision of a poet and the lyricism of a privileged
suburban child in 1950s & 60s New Jersey. He is shadowed by his relatives' carefully guarded
memories of past trauma: the brutal Turkish extermination in 1915 of more than a million
Armenians, including most of his maternal grandmother's family. Balakian seamlessly
interweaves personal and historical material to depict one young man's reclamation of his heritage
and to scathingly indict the political forces that conspired to sweep under the rug the 20th
century's first genocide.
Dear Marcus: A Letter to the Man Who Shot Me, by Jerry McGill
Jerry McGill was thirteen years old, walking home through the projects of Manhattan’s
Lower East Side, when he was shot in the back by a stranger. Jerry survived, wheelchair-bound
for life; his assailant was never caught. Thirty years later, Jerry wants to say something to the
man who shot him. With profound grace, brutal honesty, and devastating humor, Jerry McGill
takes us on a dramatic and inspiring journey—from the streets of 1980s New York, where
poverty and violence were part of growing up, to the challenges of living with a disability and
learning to help and inspire others, to the long, difficult road to acceptance, forgiveness, and,
ultimately, triumph.
Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story, by Ben Carson
Raised in inner-city Detroit by a mother with a third-grade education, Ben Carson (worldrenowned surgeon and local celebrity at Johns Hopkins) lacked motivation. He had terrible
grades. And a pathological temper threatened to put him in jail. But Sonya Carson convinced her
son that he could make something of his life, even though everything around him said otherwise.
Trust in God, a relentless belief in his own capabilities, and sheer determination catapulted Ben
from failing grades to the top of his class - and beyond. Gifted Hands is the riveting story of one
man's secret for success, tested against daunting odds and driven by an incredible mindset that
dares to take risks.
Hellhound on His Trail, by Hampton Sides
This is the story of James Earl Ray, the confessed assassin (later recanted) of Martin
Luther King, Jr. in April 1968. Through research and evidence, Sides follows the hellhound
(Ray) in his stalking of MLK. Once Ray pulls the trigger, the FBI becomes the hellhound,
tracking Ray on an international hunt. A work of nonfiction that reads like an action-suspense
novel.
Johnny U: The Life and Times of Johnny Unitas, by Tom Callahan
This is a nonfiction biography of the great Johnny Unitas, one of the greatest
quarterbacks in the history of the NFL. From his childhood to his years in college, all the way to
his later years when he signed with the Baltimore Colts in 1956, Johnny U. met not only
opportunity beyond his wildest dreams, but also some hardships.
Leap Into Darkness: Seven Years on the Run in Wartime Europe, by Leo Bretholz and
Michael Olesker
This is a Holocaust memoir of Leo Bretholz, co-authored by onetime Baltimore Sun
columnist Michael Olesker. It is a spellbinding account of Bretholz’s transformation from a boy
growing up in a sheltered environment to a resourceful, daring, brilliant escape artist matching
wits with the Nazis and their French collaborators. The intellectual honesty, the ever-present fear,
the self-doubts, the worries about family and friends, the repeated encounters with treachery, with
the enemy and with those who risked their lives to help, ranks this work with the best of
Holocaust literature.
The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates, by Wes Moore
Two hauntingly similar boys take starkly different paths in this searing tale of the ghetto.
Moore, an investment banker, Rhodes scholar, and former aide to Condoleezza Rice, was
intrigued when he learned that another Wes Moore, his age and from the same area of Greater
Baltimore, was wanted for killing a cop. Meeting his double and delving into his life reveals
deeper likenesses: raised in fatherless families and poor black neighborhoods, both felt the lure of
the money and status to be gained from dealing drugs. That the author resisted the criminal
underworld while the other Wes drifted into it is chalked up less to character than to the influence
of relatives, mentors, and expectations that pushed against his own delinquent impulses, to the
point of exiling him to military school. Moore writes with subtlety and insight about the plight of
ghetto youth, viewing it from inside and out; he probes beneath the pathologies to reveal the
pressures—poverty, a lack of prospects, the need to respond to violence with greater violence—
that propelled the other Wes to his doom. The result is a moving exploration of roads not taken.
Unbroken: A WWII Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption, by Laura Hillenbrand
This is the story of Louie Zamperini - a track and field star of the 1930's, who
participated in the Berlin Olympics, was an aviator in WWII, was shot down over the ocean,
battled sharks and starvation and exposure while adrift in the Pacific for over a month, suffered
brutality while held as a POW by Japanese forces and finally made it back to his life in the U.S.
and has had the courage to live it to its fullest. This is a book that grips you, draws you in and
leaves you feeling a slightly better person for having read it.
The Unforgiving Minute: a soldier’s education, by Ret. Captain Craig Mullaney
Young Captain Mullaney’s admirable, literate autobiography, that of a veteran of combat
in Afghanistan, adds much to knowledge of the modern army and makes a valuable contribution
to the ongoing debate over what a “warrior” is these days. Mullaney wryly recounts his years at
West Point and as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, then writes eloquently of infantry combat and the
persistent burden of guilt for not bringing all his men home even as he makes his account a tribute
to his fellow warriors. He concludes with sidelights on his teaching post at the U.S. Naval
Academy and the moving story of his younger brother’s graduation from West Point and
subsequent passage into the ranks of the warriors himself. Almost impossible to put down for
anyone interested in the modern U.S. Army or in modern warfare in general.
Fiction
The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelhlo
An enchanting novel that has inspired a devoted following around the world. This story,
dazzling in its powerful simplicity and inspiring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy
named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a
treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls
himself king, and an alchemist, all of whom points Santiago in the direction of his quest. No one
knows what the treasure is, or if Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles along the way.
But what starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treasure found
within. Lush, evocative, and deeply humane, the story of Santiago is an eternal testament to the
transformation power of our dreams and the importance of listening to our hearts.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Mark Haddon.
Christopher Boone, the autistic 15-year-old narrator of this revelatory novel, relaxes by
groaning and doing math problems in his head, eats red-but not yellow or brown-foods and
screams when he is touched. Strange as he may seem, other people are far more of a conundrum
to him, for he lacks the intuitive "theory of mind" by which most of us sense what's going on in
other people's heads. When his neighbor's poodle is killed and Christopher is falsely accused of
the crime, he decides that he will take a page from Sherlock Holmes and track down the killer. As
the mystery leads him to the secrets of his parents' broken marriage and then into an odyssey to
find his place in the world, he must fall back on deductive logic to navigate the emotional
complexities of a social world that remains a closed book to him. Christopher is a fascinating
case study and, above all, a sympathetic boy: not closed off, as the stereotype would have it, but
too open-overwhelmed by sensations, bereft of the filters through which normal people screen
their surroundings. Though Christopher insists, "This will not be a funny book. I cannot tell jokes
because I do not understand them," the novel brims with touching, ironic humor. The result is an
eye-opening work in a unique and compelling literary voice.
Fat Kid Rules the World, by K. L. Going
This first-person narrative immediately hooks readers as they enter the lonely, troubled,
self-deprecating world of Troy Billings, a 296-pound 17-year-old who contemplates ending his
life by jumping off a New York City subway platform. He is interrupted by Curt MacCrae, a
legendary punk-rock guitarist and sometime-student at W. T. Watson High School. When Curt
connects with him and "saves his life," Troy is amazed that someone, especially someone as cool
as Curt, wants to befriend him. Or does Curt have other motives? An unlikely, almost symbiotic
relationship develops between these two. This award-winning book has been made into a movie
that has aired at film festivals in recent weeks, and may be released sometime this year.
The Fault in our Stars, by John Green
At 16, Hazel Grace Lancaster, a three-year stage IV–cancer survivor, is clinically
depressed. To help her deal with this, her doctor sends her to a weekly support group where she
meets Augustus Waters, a fellow cancer survivor, and the two fall in love. Both kids are
preternaturally intelligent; Beautifully conceived and executed, this story artfully examines the
largest possible considerations—life, love, and death—with sensitivity, intelligence, honesty, and
integrity. In the process, Green shows his readers what it is like to live with cancer, sometimes no
more than a breath or a heartbeat away from death. But it is life that Green spiritedly celebrates
here, even while acknowledging its pain. In its every aspect, this novel is a triumph.
Now Is the Time for Running, by Michael Williams
Just down the road from their families, Deo and his friends play soccer in the dusty fields
of Zimbabwe, cheered on by Deo's older brother, Innocent. It is a day like any other... until the
soldiers arrive and Deo and Innocent are forced to run for their lives, fleeing the wreckage of their
village for the distant promise of safe haven in South Africa. Along the way, they face the
prejudice and poverty that greet refugees everywhere, but eventually Deo finds hope, joining
dozens of other homeless, displaced teens on the World Cup Street Soccer team--a possible ticket
out of extreme hardship to a new life.Captivating and timely, Now Is the Time for Running is a
staggering story of survival that follows Deo and his brother on a transformative journey that will
stay with readers long after the last page.
Paper Towns, by John Green
Quentin—or “Q.” as everyone calls him—has known his neighbor, the fabulous Margo
Roth Spiegelman, since they were two. Or has he? Q. can’t help but wonder, when, a month
before high-school graduation, she vanishes. At first he worries that she might have committed
suicide, but then he begins discovering clues that seem to have been left for him, which might
reveal Margo’s whereabouts. Yet the more he and his pals learn, the more Q. realizes he doesn’t
know and the more he comes to understand that the real mystery is not Margo’s fate but Margo
herself—enigmatic, mysterious, and so very alluring.
Sycamore Row, by John Grisham.
Clanton, Mississippi 1988. A wealthy white male commits suicide. Can his black maid
become the richest woman in Ford County? Two wills. Two grown children. One bored lawyer
well-liked by the one judge. “Everything is about race in Mississippi.” Really? If you like sound
argument or if you tend to support the underdog, you will love the intrigue and intensity
surrounding the estate of Henry Seth Hubbard.
Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher
Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying
on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker - his classmate
and crush - who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah's voice tells him that there are
thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out
why. Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a
firsthand witness to Hannah's pain, and learns the truth about himself-a truth he never wanted to
face.
Fiction -- Fantasy/Science Fiction
Furies of Calderon, by Jim Butcher.
This first book of a series, the Codex Aliera, is a real page-turner, with the classic plot of
a kingdom threatened by both an outside invader and internal treachery enlivened by an
abundance of original details and sheer storytelling gusto. For centuries, the ability of the people
of Aliera to bond with furies--elemental spirits of earth, air, fire, water, and metal--has allowed
them to defend their land against invaders. But the current lord is old and lacks an heir. So
Aliera’s traditional enemies plot with treacherous lords within the country to seize power. Far off
in the mountains, the young lad Tavi struggles with his inability to attract and bond with a fury-and with sensual adolescent urges. He saves the life of a young girl he believes to be a slave, but
who is actually an agent of the king, looking for traitors. Tavi is himself drawn into battle and war
before he can say “lost sheep.”
Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke.
One dark night, a mysterious man called Dustfinger appears at the house where Meggie
lives with her father, a bookbinder. Dustfinger’s arrival sets in motion a long, complicated chain
of events involving a journey, fictional characters brought to life, dangerous secrets revealed,
threats of evil deeds, actual evil deeds, a long-lost relative found, and the triumph of creativity
and courage. Despite the presence of several well-developed, sympathetic characters, the plot is
often driven by the decidedly menacing, less-convincing villains. Although Meggie, one of the
few young people in the book, remains the central character, she is not always in the forefront of
the action or even on the scene. The points of view of sympathetic adult characters become
increasingly important and more fully developed as the story progresses.
Insurgent, by Veronica Roth
One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has
consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying
to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and
forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love. Tris's initiation day should have been marked
by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable
horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times
of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more
irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting
grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her
Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.
House of the Scorpion, by Nancy Farmer
A coming-of-age novel set in a desolate futuristic desert, Farmer's novel hits close to
home, raising questions of what it means to be human, what is the value of life, and what are the
responsibilities of a society. Readers will be hooked from the first page, in which a scientist
brings to life one of 36 tiny cells, frozen more than 100 years earlier. The result is the protagonist
at the novel's center, Matt a clone of El Patrón, a powerful drug lord, born as Matteo Alacrán to a
poor family in a small village in Mexico.
The Outcasts (The Brotherband Chronicles series) by John Flanagan.
They are outcasts. Hal, Stig, and the others - they are the boys the others want no part of.
Skandians, as any reader of Ranger's Apprentice could tell you, are known for their size and
strength. Not these boys. Yet that doesn't mean they don't have skills. And courage - which they
will need every ounce of to do battle at sea against the other bands, the Wolves and the Sharks, in
the ultimate race. The icy waters make for a treacherous playing field . . . especially when not
everyone thinks of it as playing. John Flanagan, author of the international phenomenon Ranger's
Apprentice, creates a new cast of characters to populate his world of Skandians and Araluens, a
world millions of young readers around the world have come to know and admire.
Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline
In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels
alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to
studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines—puzzles that are based on their
creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and
fortune to whoever can unlock them. But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds
himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's
going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to
escape.
Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein.
There’s a reason why this rousing war story won the Hugo Award, spawned movies and
games and comic books, and has been reprinted in numerous editions: it’s damn good. Heinlein
was one of the masters of the science-fiction genre—a storyteller so talented that the stories he
told transcended their genre. This novel, set a couple of hundred years in the future, is narrated by
Juan “Johnnie” Rico, who has the misfortune of signing up for military service just before war
breaks out with the Bugs, an arachnid species from the planet Klendathu. But what appears to be
a stroke of bad luck is actually the best thing that could have happened to Johnnie: the rigors of
boot camp and the horrors of combat turn him into a soldier—and into a man. Heinlein, who
served in the U.S. Navy from 1929 to 1934, packs the novel with futuristic—but entirely
realistic—details about weaponry, command structure, and combat tactics. He also provides,
through Johnnie’s first-person narration, a thoughtful and perceptive examination of the nature of
war and of the people who voluntarily enter into it.
Fiction – Humor
The Big Over Easy, by Scott Fforde.
Fforde, here launches a new detective series, set in Reading, England’s no-respect
Nursery Crime Division (their clues tend to come in threes). Detective Inspector Jack
Spratt and Detective Sergeant Mary Mary are summoned to a trash-strewn and albumenspattered yard where, at the foot of a wall, lie the mortal remains of one Mr. Dumpty. The
British have a rich tradition of nonsense and whimsy, and Fforde is a worthy standardbearer. But, as with puns, people are fans of silliness or they aren’t, and as this book makes
evident, literary in-jokes are more fun when the source material is more sophisticated. But
Fforde is gaining fans, and even readers who start out groaning may find themselves
grinning.
Classic Literature
The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce is a classic Christian allegorical tale about a bus ride from
hell to heaven. An extraordinary meditation upon good and evil, grace and judgment, Lewis’s
revolutionary idea in the The Great Divorce is that the gates of Hell are locked from the inside.
Using his extraordinary descriptive powers, Lewis’ The Great Divorce will change the way we
think about good and evil.
The Screwtape Letters, by C. S. Lewis
This small book contains within its pages a powerful example of the author’s penetrating
insight into human nature. These lessons are set in a series of fictional correspondences between
Screwtape, a high ranking demon, and his young protege Wormwood, a young demon that has
been sent out on his first assignment to ensnare a human. The seemingly gentle and fatherly
advice to the young demon from his patron exposes the true designs of the masters of Hell, as
well as the frailties of the human psyche that they seek to exploit in their attempts to gain a
convert for their side. The demonic viewpoints are presented in an ironically sensitive and almost
plaintive voice, expressing the motives and problems of the demons from their viewpoint. This
wonderful literary mechanism adds power to this probing treatise on the common frailties and
pitfalls of humans as they struggle in a morally ambiguous universe. Short, concise, and easily
understood, this is a classic example of Mr. Lewis' great value as an observer of human nature.
Graphic Novel
Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life, by Bryan Lee O’Malley.
Scott Pilgrim’s life is so awesome. He’s 23 years old, in a rock band, “between jobs,”
and dating a cute high school girl. Everything’s fantastic until a seriously mind-blowing,
dangerously fashionable rollerblading delivery girl named Ramona Flowers starts cruising
through his dreams and sailing by him at parties. But the path to Miss Flowers isn’t covered in
rose petals. Ramona’s seven evil ex-boyfriends stand in the way between Scott and true
happiness. Can Scott beat the bad guys and get the girl without turning his precious little life
upside down? You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. This is Scott Pilgrim. This is your life.
Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
It all begins with the paranoid delusions of a half-insane hero called Rorschach--but is he
really insane or has he, in fact, uncovered a plot to murder super-heroes and possibly millions of
innocent civilians? Following two generations of masked super-heroes from the close of World
War II to the icy shadow of the Cold War comes this groundbreaking comic story--the story of
The Watchmen. This award-winning graphic novel is an inquiry into what superheroes would be
like in a real, credible world. Many cite it as the catalyzing moment when “comic books” grew
up and came into their own as complex literary works.
Military Fiction / Spy Thriller
Sunrise over Fallujah, by Walter Dean Myers
In this book, Myers looks at contemporary war with power and searing insight. He
creates memorable characters like the book's narrator, Birdy, a young recruit from Harlem who's
questioning why he even enlisted; Marla, a blond, tough-talking, wisecracking gunner; Jonesy, a
guitar-playing bluesman who just wants to make it back to Georgia and open a club; and a whole
unit of other young men and women and drops them incountry in Iraq, where they are supposed
to help secure and stabilize Iraq and successfully interact with the Iraqi people. The young civil
affairs soldiers soon find their definition of "winning" ever more elusive and their good intentions
being replaced by terms like "survival" and "despair." Caught in the crossfire, Myers' richly
rendered characters are just beginning to understand the meaning of war in this powerful, realistic
novel of our times.
The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien
The protagonist, Tim O’Brien, begins by describing an event that occurred in the middle
of his Vietnam experience. The various stories catalog the variety of things his fellow officers in
the Alpha Company brought on their mission. Several of the things are intangible, including guilt
and fear, while others are specific physical objects, including matches, morphine, M-16 rifles, and
M&M’s candy. By turns, the work is disturbing, graphic, haunting, surreal, ironic, violent and
funny. A unique book, truly a masterpiece, no matter how it’s classified.
Non Fiction
David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, by Malcolm
Gladwell.
Best-selling author Gladwell challenges how we think about obstacles and disadvantages,
offering a new interpretation of what it means to be discriminated against, or cope with a
disability, or lose a parent, or attend a mediocre school, or suffer from any number of other
apparent setbacks… draws upon history, psychology, and powerful storytelling to reshape the
way we think of the world around us.
Enjoy Your Money!: How to Make It, Save It, Invest It, and Give It, by J. Steve Miller
Most people aren't enjoying their money. Trapped in boring jobs and weighed down with
debt, they can't seem to get ahead. This multiple award winning book can help you get out of debt
and accumulate wealth; get ahead, even when the work you love doesn't produce big bucks;find
your strengths and passions and make a living with them; live a more fulfilled life. Readers love
its combination of solid research with an entertaining story line, making it the ideal financial book
for people who don't like financial books. One professor called it "A fast, fun read with practical
and often remarkable insights." A CPA observed, "It's rare and refreshing to find a book so
enjoyable, so accurate, and so life changing." Chapters include Discover the Basics, Catch the
Vision, Don't Lose Money in Stocks, Make Money in Mutual Funds, Diversify with Real Estate,
Live WAY Beneath Your Means, Save on Food and Clothes, Save on Cars, Save on Houses, Ten
Popular Ways to Lose Loads of Money, Find Those Dream Jobs, Excel at Your Job, Invest in
Your Mind, Look for Happiness in the Right Places. This book teaches you how to make, save
and invest money in an entertaining way. The author begins with four teens who are unhappy
with the lifestyle in which they were brought up. An excellent book for gaining insight into
personal finance.
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, by Steven D.
Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo
wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do
parents really matter? How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime? These
may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical
economist. He is a much-heralded scholar who studies the riddles of everyday life - from cheating
and crime to sports and child-rearing - and whose conclusions turn the conventional wisdom on
its head. Freakonomics is a ground-breaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J.
Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist. They usually begin with a mountain of data and
a simple, unasked question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an
admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: Freakonomics.
The Sixth Extinction, by Elizabeth Kolbert.
A major book about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and
field reporting into a powerful account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes. Over the
last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth
suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the
sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact
that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us. In The Sixth Extinction, twotime winner of the National Magazine Award and New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert draws on
the work of scores of researchers in half a dozen disciplines, accompanying many of them into
the field: geologists who study deep ocean cores, botanists who follow the tree line as it climbs up
the Andes, marine biologists who dive off the Great Barrier Reef. She introduces us to a dozen
species, some already gone, others facing extinction, including the Panamian golden frog,
staghorn coral, the great auk, and the Sumatran rhino. Through these stories, Kolbert provides a
moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of
extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up
through the present day. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy; as
Kolbert observes, it compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be
human.
Win Forever: Live, Work and play Like a Champion by Pete Carroll
Pete Carroll is one of college football's most successful coaches. He is also one of the
smartest and most philosophical. He calls his coaching approach "Win Forever" and preaches it
not just on the field, but to local kids and business audiences in the off-season. While his book
has plenty of behind-the-scenes stories featuring some of the most famous names in sports, it's
really about Carroll's immensely effective approach to leadership.
NonFiction - History/Military
One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer, by Nathaniel Fick
If you want to know what it takes to become a Marine Officer, read this book. If you
want to know what it’s like to be a Marine and go to war, read this book. If you want to know
what it is like for a Marine veteran to come home from combat, read this book. A wonderfully
written and compelling account of the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions from the perspective of a
Dartmouth College classics major who sought adventure and challenge and ended up in the
middle of it all. Honest and forthright, the author articulates how and why some men have the
mysterious spirit of gladiators, whereas others (himself included) are reluctant warriors at best.
NonFiction - Humor
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, by Bill Bryson
This book is much more than a travelogue of two neophyte hikers, the author and his
friend Katz, on the Appalachian Trail. Hiking provides only a backdrop to a heartfelt discourse
on the social condition of America, local history, the environment, and the complexities of
friendship. And the book is in many places simply laugh-out-loud funny. Bryson and Katz
ultimately fail in their attempt to hike the entire AT (this is far from a how-to guide!), but at least
they tried, and they returned from their hike as changed men who learned many lessons about the
wilderness and friendship. Towards the end of the book, the two men are talking about the hike.
When Katz remarks that "we did it," Bryson reminds him that they didn't even see Mount
Katahdin, much less climb it. Katz says, "Another mountain. How many do you need to see,
Bryson?" Indeed. As they say, the journey is the thing.
NonFiction – Philosophy
The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff.
The how of Pooh? The Tao of who? The Tao of Pooh!?! In which it is revealed that one
of the world's great Taoist masters isn't Chinese--or a venerable philosopher--but is in fact none
other than that effortlessly calm, still, reflective bear. A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh! While
Eeyore frets, and Piglet hesitates, and Rabbit calculates, and Owl pontificates, Pooh just is. And
that's a clue to the secret wisdom of the Taoists. The book is intended as an introduction to
the Eastern belief system of Taoism for Westerners. It allegorically employs the fictional
characters of A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories to explain the basic principles of
philosophical Taoism.
Non Fiction - Sports
The Best Game Ever: Giants vs. Colts, 1958, and the birth of the modern NFL, by
Mark Bowden.
The author of Black Hawk Down recreates the 1958 NFL championship game between
the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants. On the field and roaming the sidelines were
seventeen future Hall of Famers, including Colts stars Johnny Unitas, Raymond Berry, and Gino
Marchetti, and Giants greats Frank Gifford, Sam Huff, and assistant coaches Vince Lombardi and
Tom Landry. An estimated forty-five million viewers—at that time the largest crowd to have ever
watched a football game—tuned in to see what would become the first sudden-death contest in
NFL history. It was a battle of the league's best offense—the Colts—versus its best defense—the
Giants. And it was a contest between the blue-collar Baltimore team versus the glamour boys of
the Giants squad. The Best Game Ever is a brilliant portrait of how a single game changed the
history of American sport.
Out of My League: A Rookie's Survival in the Bigs, by Dirk Hayhurst
After six years in the minors, pitcher Dirk Hayhurst hopes 2008 is the year he breaks into the big
leagues. But every time Dirk looks up, the bases are loaded with challenges--a wedding hanging on a blind
hope, a family in chaos, and paychecks that beg Dirk to answer, "How long can I afford to keep doing
this?" Then it finally happens--Dirk gets called up to the Majors, to play for the San Diego Padres. A
dream comes true when he takes the mound against the San Francisco Giants, kicking off forty insane days
and nights in the Bigs. As a nervous rookie, Hayhurst wants to succeed on the mound, but he's equally
worried about messing up in the clubhouse. The constant struggle of fitting in with his teammates and
fitting in with his life, is one that all can identify with. Like the classic games of baseball's history, Out of
My League entertains from the first pitch to the last out, capturing the gritty realities of playing on the big
stage, the comedy and camaraderie in the dugouts and locker rooms, and the hard-fought, personal journeys
that drive our love of America's favorite pastime.
True Adventure
Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival, by Joe Simpson
Joe Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, had just reached the top of a 21,000foot peak in the Andes when disaster struck. Simpson plunged off the vertical face of an ice
ledge, breaking his leg. In the hours that followed, darkness fell and a blizzard raged as Yates
tried to lower his friend to safety. Finally, Yates was forced to cut the rope, moments before he
would have been pulled to his own death. The next three days were an impossibly grueling
ordeal for both men. Yates, certain that Simpson was dead, returned to base camp consumed with
grief and guilt over abandoning him. Miraculously, Simpson had survived the fall, but crippled,
starving, and severely frostbitten was trapped in a deep crevasse. Summoning vast reserves of
physical and spiritual strength, Simpson crawled over the cliffs and canyons of the Andes,
reaching base camp hours before Yates had planned to leave. How both men overcame the
torments of those harrowing days is an epic tale of fear, suffering, and survival, and a poignant
testament to unshakable courage and friendship. A modern classic, likely to be of interest to
those who read Krakauer’s Into Thin Air last summer.