New Global Citizen
Suggested Reading List
Gender Equality
Half the Sky--Kristof and WuDunn (NF)
With Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn as our guides, we undertake an odyssey
through Africa and Asia to meet the extraordinary women struggling there, among them a Cambodian teenager sold
into sex slavery and an Ethiopian woman who suffered devastating injuries in childbirth. Drawing on the breadth of
their combined reporting experience, Kristof and WuDunn depict our world with anger, sadness, clarity, and,
ultimately, hope.
A Thousand Splendid Suns—Hosseini (can go in the universal education category)
Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women
brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in
their home as well as in the streets of Kabul--they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and motherdaughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation.
Their Eyes Were Watching God--Hurston, (CC)
It pays quiet tribute to a black woman, who, though constricted by the times, still demanded to be heard.
The Scarlet Letter—Hawthorne (CC)
"Thou and thine, Hester Prynne, belong to me." With these chilling words a husband claims his wife after
a two-year absence. But the child she clutches is not his, and Hester wears a scarlet "A" upon her breast,
the sign of adultery visible to all. Under an assumed name, her husband begins his vindictive search for
her lover, determined to expose what Hester is equally determined to protect. Defiant and proud, Hester
witnesses the degradation of two very different men, as moral codes and legal imperatives painfully
collide. Set in the Puritan community of seventeenth-century Boston
The Joys of Motherhood – Emecheta (CC)
Nnu Ego, a woman who is driven from the home of her first husband after she fails to produce a child, is given to
Nnaife, a man who repels her but helps her fulfill her desire to be a mother.
Palace Walk – (First in the trilogy_ - Mahfouz (CC author):
The Cairo Trilogy trace three generations of the family of tyrannical patriarch al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, who
rules his household with a strict hand while living a secret life of self-indulgence. Palace Walkintroduces us to his
gentle, oppressed wife, Amina, his cloistered daughters, Aisha and Khadija, and his three sons-the tragic and
idealistic Fahmy, the dissolute hedonist Yasin, and the soul-searching intellectual Kamal. The family's trials mirror
those of their turbulent country during the years spanning the two world wars, as change comes to a society that has
resisted it for centuries.
New Global Citizen
Suggested Reading List
A Girl Named Disaster – Farmer (Jr. High reading level)
Nhamo is a Shona girl living in a traditional village in Mozambique in 1981. When her family tries to force her into
a marriage with a cruel man, she flees. What was supposed to have been a short boat trip across the border into
Zimbabwe, where she hoped to find her father, turns into an adventure filled with challenges and danger that lasts a
year.
Extreme Poverty and Hunger
Hard Times—Dickens
In a northern English town, disciplinarian Thomas Gradgrind must reexamine his utilitarian worldview when his
daughter's upbringing and loveless marriage lead her to a crisis
Nickel and Dimed--Ehrenreich (NF)
Author Barbara Ehrenreich relates her experiences from 1998 to 2000, during which time joined the ranks of the
working poor as a waitress, hotel housekeeper, cleaning woman, nursing home aide, and Wal-Mart clerk to see for
herself how America's "unskilled" workers are able to survive on only $6 or $7 an hour.
Nectar in the Sieve -- Markandaya (CC)
Tells of a simple peasant woman in a primitive village in India whose whole life was a gallant and persistent battle
to care for those she loved.
The Good Earth –Buck
The story of a Chinese peasant and his passionate, dogged accumulation of land during famine, drought, and
revolution.
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in Mumbai Undercity – Boo
(NF)
Annawadi is a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport, and as India starts to
prosper, Annawadians are electric with hope. Abdul, a reflective and enterprising Muslim teenager, sees “a fortune
beyond counting” in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. Asha, a woman of formidable wit and
deep scars from a childhood in rural poverty, has identified an alternate route to the middle class: political
corruption. With a little luck, her sensitive, beautiful daughter—Annawadi’s “most-everything girl”—will soon
become its first female college graduate. And even the poorest Annawadians, like Kalu, a fifteen-year-old scrapmetal thief, believe themselves inching closer to the good lives and good times they call “the full enjoy.”
But then Abdul the garbage sorter is falsely accused in a shocking tragedy; terror and a global recession rock the
city; and suppressed tensions over religion, caste, sex, power and economic envy turn brutal. As the tenderest
individual hopes intersect with the greatest global truths,the true contours of a competitive age are revealed. And so,
too, are the imaginations and courage of the people of Annawadi.
New Global Citizen
Suggested Reading List
HIV/AIDS and other Epidemics
The Plague—Camus
A coastal city in Algeria is struck by bubonic plague and is shut off from the world for months.
Year of Wonders—Brooks
Anna Frith, a housemaid in a small mountain village in England becomes an unlikely hero as her neighbors try to
survive the terrible plague of 1666.
Love in the Time of Cholera—Marquez (CC author)
Florentino Ariza engages in hundreds of liasons over the course of fifty-three years, seven months, and eleven days,
while waiting to finally possess Fermina Daza, a woman who once promised Florentino her love, but then jilted him
in favor of another.
My Own Country--A Doctor's Story—Verghese
Nestled in the Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee, the town of Johnson City had always seemed exempt from
the anxieties of modern American life. But when the local hospital treated its first AIDS patient, a crisis that had
once seemed an “urban problem” had arrived in the town to stay.
And the Band Played On –Shilts (NF)
On April 14, 1912, when the Titanic struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sank, 1,500 passengers and crew
lost their lives. As the order to abandon ship was given, the orchestra took their instruments on deck and continued
to play as the ship went down. The violinist, 21 year-old Jock Hume, knew that his fiancée, Mary, was expecting
their first child, the author's mother. A century later, Christopher Ward reveals a dramatic story of love, loss, and
betrayal, and the catastrophic impact of Jock's death on two very different Scottish families. He paints a vivid
portrait of an age in which class determined the way people lived—and died. This outstanding piece of historical
detective work is also a moving account of how the author's quest to learn more about his grandfather revealed the
shocking truth about a family he thought he knew, a truth that had been hidden for nearly 100 years.
The Hot Zone – Preston
Tells the dramatic story of U.S. Army scientists and soldiers who worked to stop the outbreak of a deadly and
extremely contagious virus in 1989.
Mountains Beyond Mountains –Farmer, Paul by Kidder, Tracy(NF)
Meet Dr. Paul Farmer, a Harvard-educated doctor with a self-proclaimed mission to transform healthcare on a global
scale. Tracy Kidder follows Farmer's quest as he focuses his attention on some of the world's most impoverished
people and uses unconventional ways in which to provide healthcare, to achieve real results and save lives.
New Global Citizen
Suggested Reading List
Armed Conflict
The Things They Carried--O'Brien
Recurring characters and an interwoven plot, recreate an American foot soldier's experience in the Vietnam War.
All Quiet on the Western Front—Remarque
Depicts the experiences of a group of young German soldiers fighting and suffering during the last days of World
War I.
The Yellow Birds—Powers
In Al Tafar, Iraq, the platoon of twenty-one-year old Private Bartle and eighteen-year-old Private Murphy battles for
the city, doing everything to protect each other from insurgents, physical fatigue, and the mental stress that comes
from constant danger.
Catch 22—Heller
Satire of military bureaucracy, focusing on the story of John Yossarian, a bombadier in World War II who is trying
to avoid getting killed while at the same time dealing with a colonel who keeps upping the number of missions he
must fly.
Johnny Got His Gun—Trumbo
A young man who was severely wounded in World War I thinks about his life and about the horror and futility of
war.
The Road—McCarthy (CC)
McCarthy's latest novel, a frightening apocalyptic vision, is narrated by a nameless man, one of the few survivors of
an unspecified civilization-ending catastrophe. He and his young son are trekking along a treacherous highway,
starving and freezing, trying to avoid roving cannibal armies. The tale, and their lives, are saved from teetering over
the edge of bleakness thanks to the man's fierce belief that they are "the good guys" who are preserving the light of
humanity. In this stark, effective production, Stechschulte gives the father an appropriately harsh, weary voice that
sways little from its numbed register except to urge on the weakening boy or soothe his fears after an encounter with
barbarians. When they uncover some vestige of the former world, the man recalls its vanished wonder with an
aching nostalgia that makes the listener's heart swell. Stechschulte portrays the son with a mournful, slightly breathy
tone that emphasizes the child's whininess, making him much less sympathetic than his resourceful father. With no
music or effects interrupting Stechschulte's carefully measured pace and gruff, straightforward delivery, McCarthy's
darkly poetic prose comes alive in a way that will transfix listeners.
Dispatches from the Edge –Anderson Cooper
News correspondent Anderson Cooper offers an inside look at some of the political, military, social, and natural
crises that have defined modern times, sharing the experiences he had while covering events around the world.
New Global Citizen
Suggested Reading List
The Underdogs: A Novel of the Mexican Revolution – Azuela (CC)
During the Mexican Revolution, Demetrio Macias is forced to side with the rebels so he can save his family, and
while he is fighting in Pancho Villa's army, he realizes he is more violent than he thought possible.
Shiloh –Foote
This fictional re-creation of the battle of Shiloh in April 1862 fulfills the standard set by his monumental history,
conveying both the bloody choreography of two armies and the movements of the combatants' hearts and minds.
Killer Angels – Shaara (CC)
A fictional account of four days in July, 1863 at the Battle of Gettysburg discussing tactics, plans, and preparations
for battle from both the Northern and Southern points of view.
Natural Disasters
Haiti After the Earthquake--Farmer (NF)
Dr. Paul Farmer describes the devastating impact the January 12, 2010, earthquake had on Haiti, and chronicles the
experiences he and his colleagues had in the year following the quake as they worked with the UN to try and aid in
the country's recovery efforts.
Zeitoun—Eggers
Details the experiences of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian-American and New Orleans resident, and his family, in
the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and describes how he was arrested and falsely imprisoned because of his
ethnicity.
House of the Spirits – Allende (CC)
Presents a novel set in an unnamed Latin American country and describes the struggles, passions, and secrets of the
Trueba family that spans three generations.
Ninth Ward - Rhodes (Jr. High reading)
In New Orleans' Ninth Ward, twelve-year-old Lanesha, who can see spirits, and her adopted grandmother have no
choice but to stay and weather the storm as Hurricane Katrina bears down upon them.
New Global Citizen
Suggested Reading List
Environmental Sustainability
Silent Spring—Carson
First published in 1962, Silent Spring can single-handedly be credited with sounding the alarm and raising
awareness of humankind's collective impact on its own future through chemical pollution. No other book has so
strongly influenced the environmental conscience of Americans and the world at large.
Ishmael—Quinn
Records the philosophical conversations that take place between a man and a gorilla named Ishmael after the man
answers an advertisement for a pupil with a desire to save the world.
The Jungle – Sinclair
Ecological and environmental messages, the work's depiction of a meat-processing plant pressed the U.S.
government into taking steps to regulate the industry for the benefit of workers and consumers.
The Grapes of Wrath—Steinbeck (CC)
The story of a farm family's Depression-era journey from the Dustbowl of Oklahoma to the California migrant labor
camps in search of a better life.
The Fat Years: A Novel—Koonchung
Beijing, sometime in the near future: a month has gone missing from official records. No one has any memory of it,
and no one could care less—except for a small circle of friends, who will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of the
sinister cheerfulness and amnesia that have possessed the Chinese nation. When they kidnap a high-ranking official
and force him to reveal all, what they learn—not only about their leaders, but also about their own people
Where Things Come Back – Whaley (YA)
Seventeen-year-old Cullen's summer in Lily, Arkansas, is marked by his cousin's death by overdose, an alleged
spotting of a woodpecker thought to be extinct, failed romances, and his younger brother's sudden disappearance.
New Global Citizen
Suggested Reading List
Maternal Health
Cutting for Stone—Verghese
Twin brothers Marion and Shiva Stone come of age in Ethiopia, sharing a deep bond that has helped them survive
the loss of their parents and the country's political upheaval, but when they both fall for the same woman, their bond
is broken and the two go their separate ways, until a medical crisis reunites them.
Do They Hear You When You Cry?--Kassindja (NF)
Fauziya Kassindja, a young woman who fled her home country of Togo, Africa to escape the tribal practice of
female genital mutilation, tells the story of her early life, her flight from her country after the death of her father, her
imprisonment by immigration officials upon her arrival in the U.S., and her legal battle for political asylum.
Infidel--Ali (NF)
Ayaan Hirsi Ali recounts her life story, discussing her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and
Kenya, her intellectual awakening and activism in the Netherlands, and her current life under armed guard in the
West.
100 Years of Solitude—Marquez (CC)
This history of a family is an amalgamation of Garcia Marquez's shorter fiction, American fiction, biblical parables,
and quixotic experiences of his own unique life story. His is a community crowded with people and personal
narratives, confusion, and progressive decline. The novel is a journey through life, caught on paper, so real that
you'll swear you can smell it.
No Woman No Cry--Turlington (NF)
The stories of at-risk pregnant women in four parts of the world, including a remote Massai tribe, in Tanzania, a
slum of Bangladesh, a post-abortion care ward in Guatemala, and a prenatal clinic in the United States.
New Global Citizen
Suggested Reading List
Child Mortality
Beloved—Morrison
A woman haunted by the past. Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not
free. She has borne the unthinkable and not gone mad, yet she is still held captive by memories of Sweet Home, the
beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. Meanwhile Sethe's house has long been troubled by the
angry, destructive ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word:
Beloved. Sethe works at beating back the past, but it makes itself heard and felt incessantly in her memory and in the
lives of those around her. When a mysterious teenage girl arrives, calling herself Beloved, Sethe's terrible secret
explodes into the present.
Twelve Tribes of Hattie—Mathis
In 1923, African American Hattie Shepherd flees Georgia, settles in Philadelphia, marries a man who will bring her
nothing but disappointment, loses her first-born twins, and raises her next nine children to face a world that will not
love them.
Death Be Not Proud –Gardner (NF) (YA)
This true story relates a father's recollection of his son's courageous and spirited battle against the brain tumor that
would take his life at the age of seventeen.
Light in August – Faulkner
Portrait of Southern society. It traces the history of a group of characters shaped by and responding to the religious,
cultural, and racial traditions of the American South. Faulkner contrasts the story of Joe Christmas, whose unclear
parentage makes him a target for the town's hatred, with the placid tale of Lena Grove's search for her lover. While
Joe's story is created by prejudice, hatred, and mistrust, Lena's story is one of simple country people whose honor,
courage, and affections are uncorrupted by either the past or the modern world. Alwyn Berland illuminates the
relationship between these contrasting stories, demonstrating how Southern Calvinism, both as a theme and as an
unconscious influence on Faulkner, is the key to a small cluster of themes that connects seemingly unrelated threads
of narrative.
The Fault in our Stars – Green, John (YA)
Sixteen-year-old Hazel, a stage IV thyroid cancer patient, has accepted her terminal diagnosis until a chance meeting
with a boy at cancer support group forces her to reexamine her perspective on love, loss, and life.
New Global Citizen
Suggested Reading List
Universal Education
Three Cups of Tea – Mortenson
Greg Mortenson recounts the experiences he had while trying to help impoverished villages in Pakistan's Karakoram
Himalaya build schools for their children.
Stones into Schools – Mortenson
Greg Mortenson describes his efforts to promote peace throughout the world, and details how he was able to
establish over 130 schools--mostly for girls--in remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan with the backing of the
Central Asia Institute--a nonprofit organization.
Little Women – Alcott
Story of four 'little women' - Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth - and their wise and patient mother Marmee, Enduring
hardships and enjoying adventures in Civil War New England,. Readers have rooted for Laurie in his pursuit of Jo's
hand, cried over little Beth's death, and dreamed of travelling through Europe with old Aunt March and Amy. Future
writers have found inspiration in Jo's devotion to her writing.
Pride and Prejudice –Austen (CC)
In early nineteenth-century England, a spirited young woman copes with the courtship of a snobbish gentleman as
well as the romantic entanglements of her four sisters.
Anthem – Rand
In a future world, only one man dares to think, strive, and love as an individual in the midst of a paralyzing
collective humanity.