Summer Reading Program 2013 - Woodberry.org

Woodberry Forest School Summer Reading Program, 2013 All students are required to read three books over the summer. One of those must be the book selected for an all-school reading assignment by the headmaster, described below. The other two required books should come from the following list. If you see that a faculty member has recommended a particular book, feel free to ask that faculty member for additional information. In the fall, your English teacher will ask you to fill out a pledged questionnaire about your reading. You will receive full credit, partial credit, or no credit depending upon the amount of reading you do. Please understand that summer reading will be figured into your English grade for the fall trimester and that it will have a significant impact on your average. If you read more than the required three books, you will receive extra credit for other books you choose from this list or from a list that you and your English teacher generate (with mutually acceptable titles) before you leave for the summer. Please remember that this program requires reading, not listening to a recorded book instead.

Headmaster’s selection for 2013: The Big Thirst by Charles Fishman Did you know that it’s possible for water to become so clean that it’s toxic? Did you ever stop to think that the water you’re using to brush your teeth is four billion years old? Did you ever wonder how so much water got onto this planet in the first place? Did you ever consider how much for granted we take this essential, lifegiving substance? In this fascinating non-fiction study of our most basic and arguably most neglected resource, Charles Fishman contends that we are no longer in a golden age wherein water is cheap, abundant, and safe; we will have to settle for two out of three of those qualities from now on. Yet he also shows us how we can manage the finite supply of water on this planet to support safely our growing global population. In this lively, accessible, well-researched book, Fishman explains complex problems in language that everyone can understand and in chapters that are as entertaining as they are educational.

Especially Appropriate for Rising 3rd and 4th Formers 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. Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi A gritty, high-stakes adventure set in a futuristic world where oil is scarce, but loyalty is scarcer. In America's Gulf Coast region, grounded oil tankers are being broken down for parts by crews of young people. Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quota-and hopefully live to see another day. But when, by luck or by chance, he discovers an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, Nailer faces the most important decision of his life: Strip the ship for all it's worth or rescue its lone survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl who could lead him to a better life.... For the Win by Cory Doctorow Teens from around the globe battle in multiple online games to win "gold and artifacts." But who's in control: the players or the companies who produce the games? Or is it the hedge funds who "bet" on the popularity of the games? Cory Doctorow gives you insight into gaming and economics with a memorable cast of kids who just want to have fun with their friends but who become entangled in a web of intrigue. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow What happens to a group of innocent teenagers in the aftermath of a terrorist attack on the Bay Area? In this science fiction novel, set in an uncomfortably close future, what happens is a collision between government and citizenry, between security and liberty, and between parents and children. Exciting, fast-paced, and all too believable. Recommended by Pete Cashwell Mister Midshipman Hornblower by C.S. Forester If you like adventure stories, war stories, and especially naval stories, the Hornblower saga will entertain you for a long time. Based roughly on the career of Lord Nelson, the great British admiral, C.S. Forester has created a fictional character who works his way up through the ranks of the British navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The Hornblower series—there are eleven books in all—are fast-paced, carefully researched historical novels. Reading them will make you want to go to sea. If you like these books, you might also try the Jack Aubrey novels by Patrick O’Brian, the first of which is Master and Commander. If you want a more modern, more American naval story, try

Herman Wouk’s The Caine Mutiny or Thomas Heggen’s Mister Roberts. Recommended by John Amos Paper Towns by John Green The hardest thing about making this selection is in choosing which novel by John Green to recommend. This one has is all: When Margo Roth Spiegelman beckons Quentin Jacobsen in the middle of the night—dressed like a ninja and plotting an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows her. Margo’s always planned extravagantly, and, until now, she’s always planned solo. After a lifetime of loving Margo from afar, things are finally looking up for Q . . . until day breaks and she has vanished. Always an enigma, Margo has now become a mystery. But there are clues. And they’re for Q. Recommended by Phoebe Warmack Slam by Nick Hornby Sam is a disarmingly ordinary 15-year-old kid who loves to skate (that's skateboarding, to you and me). But then he is blindsided: his girlfriend gets pregnant, and he lands in the middle of his mum's nightmare (she had Sam when she was 16). This may sound like an old-fashioned realistic YA problem novel, but it's a whole lot more. Sam, you see, has a sort-of-imaginary friend: the world's greatest skater, Tony Hawk, whose poster Sam talks to when he has problems. And the poster talks back, maybe, or maybe Sam is just reciting quotes from Tony's autobiography. And is it really Tony who is "whizzing" Sam into the future for glimpses of what is to come? With or without Tony's help, Sam gives us the facts about his very eventful couple of years, but as he reminds us, "there comes a point where the facts don't matter anymore . . . because you don't know what anything felt like. Amazon.com. Recommended by Marc Hogan Ashfall by Mike Mullin Under the bubbling hot springs and geysers of Yellowstone National Park is a supervolcano. Most people don't know it's there. The caldera is so large that it can only be seen from a plane or satellite. It just could be overdue for an eruption, which would change the landscape and climate of our planet. For Alex, being left alone for the weekend means having the freedom to play computer games and hang out with his friends without hassle from his mother. Then the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts, plunging his hometown into a nightmare of darkness, ash, and violence. Alex begins a harrowing trek to search for his family and finds help in Darla, a travel partner he meets along the way. Together they must find the strength and skills to survive and outlast an epic disaster. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers When prospects for college look hopeless, Richie Perry finds his way out of Harlem and financial difficulty with a tour of duty in Vietnam. At first he believes an injury will keep him out of combat, but he soon finds himself fighting alongside a diverse company of soldiers. Myers, who lost his brother in Vietnam in 1968, writes with terrifying detail about the realities of war, race, and friendship. Myers has written other compelling fiction such as Autobiography of my Dead Brother and Hoops. Some sophisticated books on the war in Vietnam include Going after Cacciato by Tim O’Brien,

Tree of Smoke: A Novel by Denis Johnson, and A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo. Recommended by Karen Broaddus. Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey Charlie Bucktin, a bookish thirteen year old, is startled one summer night by an urgent knock on his bedroom window. His visitor is Jasper Jones, an outcast in their small mining town, and he has come to ask for Charlie's help. Terribly afraid but desperate to impress, Charlie follows him into the night. Jasper takes him to his secret glade, where Charlie witnesses Jasper's horrible discovery. With his secret like a brick in his belly, Charlie is pushed and pulled by a town closing in on itself in fear and suspicion. He locks horns with his tempestuous mother, falls nervously in love, and battles to keep a lid on his zealous best friend. In the simmering summer where everything changes, Charlie learns why the truth of things is so hard to know, and even harder to hold in his heart. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before it's barely begun. When “Verity” is arrested by the Gestapo, she's sure she doesn’t stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she’s living a spy’s worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution. As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage, failure and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy? The Book Thief by Markus Zusak Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s mesmerizing novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Death himself narrates the tale and while he is both sardonic and compassionate he is not proud. To quote A Book Thief: "It’s a small story really, about, among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist fighter, and quite a lot of thievery..." No one escapes unscathed, in body or in mind, and you can't take anything for granted. Recommended by Phoebe Warmack

Nonfiction Open by Andre Agassi You don’t have to like, play, or know anything about tennis to enjoy this book about one of the world’s great tennis stars. Andre Agassi could come right out of Shakespeare. But unlike Macbeth’s poor player, “he struts and frets his hour upon the stage” and then is heard from again and again. Manhood for Amateurs by Michael Chabon The prize-winning novelist considers his other roles in life--son, brother, husband, and father--in this collection of thoughtful, funny, and sometimes startling essays on that most mysterious subject, being a man. Recommended by Pete Cashwell My Losing Season by Pat Conroy The famous South Carolina author revisits his senior year at the Citadel, when he played varsity basketball on a team with a demanding coach and a losing season. A fictional version of this same year appears in Conroy’s novel The Lords of Discipline, but this honest, revealing report offers comfort to anybody who has disagreed with a coach and perspective to anybody who wants to play college sports. Life After Death by Damien Echols Damien Echols and two other teenage boys were falsely convicted of murdering a young boy in Memphis, Tennessee in 1994. Damien served 18 years on death row before he was finally released after new evidence was presented. Three documentary films have been made about this case. Don't Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller In Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller remembers her African childhood with candor and sensitivity. Though it is a diary of an unruly life in an often inhospitable place, it is suffused with Fuller’s endearing ability to find laughter, even when there is little to celebrate. Fuller’s debut is unsentimental and unflinching but always captivating. In wry and sometimes hilarious prose, she stares down disaster and looks back with rage and love at the life of an extraordinary family in an extraordinary time. Imperial Dreams by Tim Gallagher The biggest woodpecker in the world used to live in the mountains of western Mexico, and Tim Gallagher wants to see if it still survives there. But to find the bird, he'll have to survive the trip through some of Mexico's most dangerous territory, filled with armed gangs of drug dealers who'll kidnap or kill anyone they can catch. A gripping reallife adventure. The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert Eustace Conway discovered nature's wonders as a boy growing up in North Carolina during the 1960s. Miserable at home, a born perfectionist and fanatic, he took to the woods and developed wilderness skills unknown to most modern Americans. By the time

he finished high school and moved into a teepee (his abode for 17 years), he was convinced that only encounters with "the high art and godliness of nature" could help save American society from its catastrophically wasteful habits and soul-deadening trivial pursuits. Conway is not alone in his beliefs, but he is unique in his maniacal drive to proselytize, and, ironically enough, he's taken his teaching mission to such extremes by attempting to create an Appalachian wilderness utopia that it's impossible for him to live the very life he champions. Tough, shrewd, gifted, vigorous, and contradictory, Conway, who set a world record crossing the continent on horseback in 103 days, both enlightens and confounds all who know him. Gilbert, a top-notch journalist and fiction writer, braids keen and provocative observations about the American frontier, the myth of the mountain man, and the peculiar state of contemporary America with its "profound alienation" from nature into her spirited and canny portrait, ultimately concluding that Conway's magnetism is due in part to his embodying society's most urgent conundrums. Great Expectations: The Sons and Daughters of Charles Dickens by Robert Gottlieb Celebrity offspring like Charlie Sheen and Liza Minnelli are not an invention of our own era. Charles Dickens, most famous as the author of the heartwarming “A Christmas Carol,” had ten children, all of whom struggled with the burden of their relationship with the most famous writer of their day. If you want to learn a lot about both Dickens and the Victorian age, this slender book will serve you well. The Raw and the Cooked: Adventures of a Roving Gourmand by Jim Harrison A fantastic collection of stories about eating, cooking, hunting, fishing, and living. This is a book that (almost) inspires me to write, certainly to read, and definitely to eat more- and better! If you think you are a hunter or fisherman you will be surprised at how raw and refined Mr. Harrison can be all in the very same sentence. And yes, wood duck stock is every bit as good as he says it is! Recommended by Jason Slade A Long Day at The End of the World by Brent Hendricks In February 2002, hundreds of abandoned and decayed bodies were discovered at the Tri-State Crematory in rural Georgia, making it the largest mass desecration in modern American history. The perpetrator—a well-respected family man and a former hometown football star—had managed to conceal the horror for five years. Among the bodies found was that of Brent Hendricks’s father. In A Long Day at the End of the World, Brent Hendricks reveals his very complicated relationship with the South as he tries to reconcile his love-hate feelings for the culture with his own personal and familial history there, and his fascination with the disturbed landscape. In achingly beautiful prose, Hendricks explores his fraught relationship with his father—not just the grief that surrounded his death but the uncanniness of his resurrection. It’s a story that’s so heartwrenching, so unbelievable, and so sensational that it would be easy to tell it without delving deep. But Hendricks’s inquiry is unrelenting, and he probes the extremely difficult questions about the love between a parent and a child, about the way human beings treat each other—in life and in death—and about the sanctity of the body. It’s the perfect storm for a true Southern Gothic tale.

Midnight Rising by Tony Horwitz Who could be better than the Pulitzer-winning author of Confederates in the Attic to tell the astonishing tale of one of America's best-known and least-understood historical figures? Let Horwitz introduce you to John Brown, the fanatical leader whose raid on Harper's Ferry helped catapult the nation into the Civil War--exactly as he'd hoped. War by Sebastian Junger Junger spent 14 months in 2007–2008 intermittently embedded with a platoon of the 173rd Airborne brigade in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. The soldiers are a scruffy, warped lot, with unkempt uniforms—they sometimes do battle in shorts and flip-flops— and a ritual of administering friendly beatings to new arrivals, but Junger finds them to be superlative soldiers. Junger experiences everything they do—nerve-racking patrols, terrifying roadside bombings and ambushes, stultifying weeks in camp when they long for a firefight to relieve the tedium. We Learn Nothing by Tim Kreider One of modern America's most pointed, black-humored cartoonists turns out to be a surprisingly thoughtful and human essayist, as he reveals here in short pieces about everything from his friend's sexual reassignment surgery to his reconnection with his birth family. Hilarious,occasionally brutal, and always interesting. Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson I am neither a SCUBA diver nor a history buff, yet I was riveted by this true story of deep-sea divers, treasure-hunting, and the quest to solve a historical mystery involving a World War II-era German submarine discovered at the bottom of the ocean in 1991, sixty miles off the New Jersey coast. From the historical facts, Kurson crafts a suspenseful narrative, featuring characters driven by fame, fortune, a sense of adventure, great daring, greater ego, and surprising pathos. Recommended by Paul Vickers Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane This riveting memoir depicts the author’s experiences growing up in the slums of South Africa in the last days of apartheid. It is shocking and heartbreaking but ultimately hopeful and joyful. A page-turner which will also make you think and put you in the shoes of someone in far, far different circumstances than your own. Recommended by Ben Hale Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham This highly acclaimed, eminently readable biography does a wonderful job of conveying how Mr. Jefferson, both a wise philosopher and a canny politician, used his wisdom to motivate the citizenry and make his ideas prevail. But he’s more than just a founding father: He’s a man of deep and varied interests, of sensuous appetites, and passionate love for his region and his new nation. Meacham conveys all these sides to his character and, in the process, explains how Jefferson saw the world in which he lived.

Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss Michael Moss is a prize-winning reporter who stumbled onto a great scoop waiting in plain sight on the aisles of every grocery store in the country: the way that food processors deliberately manipulate their products in order to hook their customers. Have you ever wondered why our country is suffering an obesity epidemic? Moss will show you. Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen One of America's very best nature writers takes on the job of explaining how diseases jump from animals to human beings, and in the process reveals the astonishing (and sometimes terrifying) life cycles of the organisms that cause AIDS, Ebola, and avian flu. Unforgettable--even if you'd kind of like to forget. Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach Dubbed as “the world’s funniest science writer” by The Washington Post, Mary Roach has made a career of taking readers into places they didn’t even know they wanted to visit. In her latest book she manages to make the most ordinary of activities—eating— into a wildly entertaining and enlightening adventure. Ironically enough, you may not want to read it while eating. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot When a young mother went to Johns Hopkins for treatment of the cancer that eventually killed her, no one could have guessed that a group of cells from her tumor would change medicine as we know it--and that her cells would still be alive, today, in virtually every laboratory in the world. An astonishing story of biology, ethics, family, and the meaning of life itself. Recommended by Pete Cashwell The Toaster Project by Thomas Thwaites What happens when a British art student decides to build an ordinary appliance-from scratch? It's not pretty, but you'll never look at your household appliances in quite the same way after you've learned about Thwaites' often hilarious journeys across Great Britain to gather iron ore for his homemade smelter, to extrude plastic from natural ingredients, and put it all together in something that can brown two slices of bread.

Fiction Fobbit by David Abrams Some days are dull and some horrific for those officers supporting the combat troops at a Forward Operations Base in Iraq. Hilarious, shocking, and eye-opening, this is an unsettling novel about a war where the reader probably should feel a little unsettled, written by an Iraq veteran whose keen observations show how awful and even absurd his situation often was. Citrus County by John Brandon This might be described as "teenage noir." It is about a young man in a small town in Florida who is in the midst of committing a terrible crime. Will he be prevented from doing so and saved? World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks A stroke of storytelling genius: a Studs Terkel-style oral history of an event that hasn't actually happened (yet). Here are the facts about the ten-year global war against the Zombie Apocalypse, as seen through the eyes of dozens of its survivors. Packed with gruesome details, stirring accounts of heroism, and a truly global perspective, this is almost certainly going to be much better than the upcoming movie. Vulture Peak by John Burdett “So, farang,” as the Buddhist Bangkok Royal Police detective, Sonchai Jitpleecheep, says, “you'd like to find out about the business of body parts and strange structures on Vulture Peak [a sacred Buddhist area]? Please to follow me. But perhaps you'd first like to read Bangkok 8 and finish with my temporarily last adventure Vulture Peak. Either way is the Buddha's way because both will lead to enlightenment, particulalrly when in Bangkok 8 there's that cobra coming at you from the open car door.” Burdett is quite skillful at merging current interests in the forced or unforced sale of body parts with a rather harrowing chase and plenty of action. Bangkok 8 is the first novel in the series and Vulture Peak is a stopping point. Both are excellently written and move very quickly. Recommended by John Reimers The Devil You Know by Mike Carey London exorcist Felix Castor is making a living, what with the dead having risen from their graves, but when the demons and ghosts start targeting him on purpose, living gets tougher. This cross between horror and noir detective fiction isn't short, but it's a very enjoyable page-turner. Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon In this latest novel from one of our most gifted and most prolific writers, we find ourselves in the entertaining world of a vinyl record shop in Berkeley, California. The two owners find themselves threatened when a wealthy professional athlete decides to open a competing store nearby. Complications abound.

The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy This sprawling, ambitious, irresistible novel is set in a fictional version of the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, during the 1960’s. Will McLean is a senior who doesn’t entirely buy in to the traditions and structure of his all-male school. When he’s asked to watch over the first African-American student to enroll, he runs into trouble from administrators, fellow students, and a secret society known as The Ten. The Passage by Justin Cronin What happens when the Army becomes too greedy in its search for the perfect weapon? Virals (vampires) appear, and along with them, the destruction of the United States as we know it. In a tale that spans over one hundred years, Justin Cronin explores the downfall of mankind and its search for hope and reclamation of the past. This novel is book one of a trilogy with its sequel, The Twelve, already out. The Umbrella Man by Roald Dahl Most people know Roald Dahl as the author of books for children: James and the Giant Peach, Matilda and others. Few know that Dahl also wrote a series of short stories that are most definitely not aimed at children. The Umbrella Man contains thirteen odd, witty, macabre short stories, all of which have strange characters placed in the strangest of situations. Dahl is a master storyteller, and each of these tales keeps you wondering to the very end what will happen. Reading these stories is like watching a Hitchcock movie or an especially bizarre episode of The Twilight Zone. Room: A Novel by Emma Donoghue At age five, Jack has never seen beyond the four walls of the room that he occupies with his mother. Although the reader soon discovers that the two are being held captive, Jack’s point of view fills the narrative with wonder and hope. This is an excellent choice for a student interested in the craft of fiction writing. Recommended by Karen Broaddus A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan Sasha is a kleptomaniac, and her boss Bennie is an aging punk rocker. This tale of the music business is told in varied formats; there is even a power point presentation. This is a mature read for students who enjoy experiments with style. Recommended by Karen Broaddus The Round House by Louise Erdrich Told from the point-of-view of a teenaged boy, this intense novel takes a reader deep into the culture of modern Native Americans living on a reservation in North Dakota. The story begins when the narrator’s mother becomes the victim of a terrible crime. As the narrator, his family, and his friends try to learn who assaulted her and why, the troubled relationship between the U.S. government and Native Americans becomes increasingly significant. This novel, which is most definitely for mature readers only, won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2012.

Time and Again by Jack Finney The U.S. government has found a way to travel back in time and taps a young man named Si Morley to help change the past so as to change the present. Finley takes Morley back to New York City of the 1880s, where skyscrapers have yet to be built and the Statue of Liberty’s hand lies in a park, awaiting delivery of the rest of its body for erection in New York harbor. The novel contains just enough science fiction to make time travel plausible, a first-rate mystery, a delightful romance, and a terrific depiction of life in Gilded Age New York. Recommended by Fred Jordan Nightwoods by Charles Frazier Luce is content as the caretaker of a remote lodge set on a lake in the North Carolina mountains, but that peaceful existence suddenly changes when she becomes the guardian of her murdered sister’s two children. They are strange and violent youngsters who are prone to setting fires. When their father shows up in town after being released from jail, Luce learns why the two children do not speak. Recommended by Karen Broaddus American Gods by Neil Gaiman Let’s pretend that the old European gods—Odin and Zeus and company—came to the United States with the immigrants from their home countries and that they are preparing for war with the local deities, the new upstart gods of credit cards and internet. There’s a lot more to this satirical look at American consumerism, but the premise should be enough to hook you. Calico Joe by John Grisham John Grisham, a passionate baseball fan, had never written a novel about baseball—until he penned Calico Joe. If you’re either an aficionado of Grisham’s work or a fan of The Grand Old Game and have not read this novel, here’s the perfect opportunity to fill a gap. It’s an engaging, enjoyable read. The Magicians by Lev Grossman If you have always been a Harry Potter fan, you might have wished that the series would continue. Now you have an alternative; you can enjoy Grossman’s adult version of magical fantasy. Quentin is a Brooklyn teenager without any aspirations for wizardry who finds himself admitted to Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy. The motivations of the cast of characters he meets in this new world prove quite complicated. Quentin discovers that it is difficult to distinguish good from evil in this college setting or in the real world in New York. This tale is much more than an extension of Harry Potter. It is an innovative, mature fantasy. Recommended by Karen Broaddus The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton The narrator of this thriller, a young man who suffered a childhood trauma so horrifying that it has left him speechless, happens to be a genius at picking locks. The reason for his skill at opening locks becomes clearer and clearer as the mystery of his

childhood trauma is revealed. As criminals exploit his talents, we readers turn the pages not only to watch this young man’s initiation into the underworld, but also to admire his heroic efforts to remain a decent and moral man. Recommended by Ted Blain The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach This highly acclaimed first novel is constructed around baseball, but it’s not exactly a baseball novel. Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big-league stardom when he enrolls at Westish College, on the Wisconsin shore of Lake Michigan. But when a routine throw goes off course, the lives of several people are completely upturned. In addition to Henry himself, these include catcher Mike Schwartz, the team captain and Henry’s best friend; Owen Dunne, Henry’s teammate and roommate; Guert Affenlight, the college president and a longtime bachelor who has recently fallen in love; and Pella Affenlight, Guert’s daughter, who has returned home after a very brief failed marriage to start her life anew. It’s an engaging story, humorous at times and poignant at others, that touches on ambition, family, friendship, love, and commitment. Recommended by Tom Parker and Ted Blain The Third Bullet by Stephen Hunter This book has it all, especially if you’re a conspiracy theorist and a ballistics freak. You will enjoy the action, intrigue, and, if you’re a bit hazy on what happened in Dallas on November 22, 1963, this book will fill in a lot of gaps. A perfect read for the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. Now You Know by Susan Kelly This novel begins at what the writer herself has described as "Woodberry graduation," and from there it takes us into the heart of a family tragedy and out the other side. It's a good read, but it's also a good way to begin thinking about the complications that lie ahead in adulthood. 11/22/63 by Stephen King King started his career as an English teacher, and in this deservedly acclaimed novel, the master storyteller creates an English teacher who journeys back to the late 1950’s in an effort to stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Impeccably researched and rendered, this irresistible novel never fails to entertain. King understands that the best stories rely on great characters, and you will never regret a minute that you spend with these. Recommended by Ted Blain The Dinner by Herman Koch This creepy, unsettling novel unfolds in the course of one single evening when two couples meet at a restaurant for dinner. It’s part mystery, part thriller, part psychological study, and it leaves you feeling slightly squeamish. Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan Ian McEwan’s latest novel arrives in the voice of a woman, a spy for MI6 in Britain during the 1980’s. All of the trademark McEwan touches are here: the deft turn

of phrase, the plot twists, the unreliable narrator, the betrayals, the mordant humor, the vague sense of poetic justice at the end. The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley Ptolemy is losing his memory at 91, but he still has a mystery to solve in the present and a promise to keep to a friend who died during Ptolemy’s childhood. His prospects begin to improve when 17-year-old Robyn arrives to straighten up his life. Mosley’s literary mystery travels between current violence in a Los Angeles neighborhood and past racism in the South. The tricks of an aging mind create a compelling story. Recommended by Karen Broaddus A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn An Afrikaner police captain has been murdered in a small South African town in 1952, and Detective Cooper must move across groups and color barriers in the local community to find the killer. With the help of a Zulu assistant, Cooper begins to examine the personal relationships of the captain and the secrets that he kept. Born in South Africa, Nunn is an Australian filmmaker and writer who focuses on the details to create a suspenseful story in a fascinating historical setting. This is a mystery for mature readers. Recommended by Karen Broaddus Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’Nan This is a quirky novel that features Manny DeLeon, manager of a Red Lobster Restaurant located at the corner of a run-down mall in New England. The restaurant has not been sufficiently profitable, so corporate headquarters has decided to shut it down. On this, its last night of operation, Manny deals with unhappy workers, difficult patrons, and complications in his personal life, all while a blizzard is blanketing the region. Serena by Ron Rash Serene she is not. Utterly terrifying from the first page because love doesn't always turn out as you might wish. The story is set in western North Carolina, well west of Asheville, and the year is 1929. But Serena is the person you'd want leading you in a firefight if you're in the military. Money, brains, power--if you're interested in those things you'd be interested in how an empire might be formed beyond Waynesville, N.C. But the high and the low of the county meet in strange ways, from Harvard educated George Pemberton' s opening with his knife "a thin smile across Harmon's stomach." And you're only on p. 9. The Battle by Patrick Rimbaud This novel is a lightly fictionalized account of the Battle of Aspern-Essling, Napoleon's first defeat, which occurred outside Vienna in May, 1809. The reader follows the story of the battle through the eyes of a dozen characters. The winner of two prestigious literary awards, The Battle vividly conveys the nature of Napoleonic warfare and the character of the Emperor and his generals. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Bono met his wife in high school, Park says. So did Jerry Lee Lewis, Eleanor answers. I'm not kidding, he says. You should be, she says, we're 16. What about Romeo and Juliet? Shallow, confused, then dead. I love you, Park says. Wherefore art thou, Eleanor answers. I'm not kidding, he says. You should be. Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. Tenth of December by George Saunders This lively, quirky, off-center collection of short stories will engage you and get you thinking about what stories are and how stories work. The Ruins By Scott Smith Four Americans on vacation in Cancun finally have some time to relax. While traveling to the middle of the Mexican jungle, the group soon finds they are isolated and held captive in some old ruins. Working together to try to escape, the Americans begin to notice that the natives are actually quarantining them from something even worse outside the ruins. This is an intense book that is a great read. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein This book is a favorite of mine with much to offer. It is a dog story but so much more than that. First there is Enzo, our canine narrator, then there is love, tragedy, competitive race car driving, danger and redemption. I'm not going to lie to you, you will cry, but don't let that stop you. Ride shotgun with Enzo - you'll be glad you did! Recommended by Phoebe Warmack We the Animals by Justin Torres An intense, honest and tough novel. Three brothers tear their way through childhood-- smashing tomatoes all over each other, building kites from trash, hiding out when their parents do battle, tiptoeing around the house as their mother sleeps off her graveyard shift. Paps and Ma are from Brooklyn--he's Puerto Rican, she's white--and their love is a serious, dangerous thing that makes and unmakes a family many times. Written in the voice of the youngest of three boys, this beautiful novel reinvents the coming-of-age story in a way that is sly and punch-in-the-stomach powerful. Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter This recent novel by the author of Citizen Vince and The Zero traces the lives of several characters whose stories converge with satisfying results. Whether he’s writing about the real-life movie star Richard Burton in Italy in the 1960’s or a modern-day Hollywood hack, Walter gets everything just right. The Zero by Jess Walter Jess Walter takes us on a harrowing tour of a city and a country shuddering through the aftershocks of a devastating terrorist attack. As the smoke slowly clears, Remy finds that his memory is skipping, lurking between moments of lucidity and days when he doesn-t seem to be living his own life at all. The landscape around him is at once

fractured and oddly familiar: a world dominated by a Machiavellian mayor known as The Boss,- and peopled by anguished policemen, gawking celebrities, and pink real estate divas inventing new uses for tragedy. Remy himself has a new girlfriend he doesn-t know, a son who pretends he-s dead, and an unsettling new job chasing a trail of paper scraps for a shadowy intelligence agency known as the Department of Documentation. Whether that trail will lead Remy to an elusive terror cell - or send him circling back to himself-is only one of the questions posed by this provocative novel.

For Readers Who Like a Challenge Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte This novel, the ultimate expression of English Romanticism, is a miracle of symmetry, plot structure, character development, and flouting of conventional storytelling rules. I can’t think of another book in which we get the same story twice, once as tragedy and once as comedy. And I know that there is no other book featuring the brooding, volatile, dangerous Heathcliff as the catalyst who drives so much change. Recommended by Ted Blain Bleak House by Charles Dickens This great big glorious doorstopper of a novel is not just an entertainment; it’s an experience. Part satire, part romance, part thriller, this book never fails to entertain, from its introduction of the first police detective in a British novel to its bizarre spontaneous combustion of a rag-shop owner. Sure it’s long, but what’s your hurry? Recommended by Ted Blain Middlemarch by George Eliot Fans of “Downton Abbey” will recognize where all the polite subterfuge, treachery, manipulation, self-deception, passion, and criminal activity began: in the village of Middlemarch, created from the mind of an English genius in the latter half of the 19th Century. Don’t be put off by the leisurely start to the novel. You’ll get caught up in the characters swiftly enough. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner Stick with this novel, and not only will you feel proud of yourself, but you will also understand why so many readers have chosen to struggle with the challenges of Faulkner’s unconventional style. The author delivers the same story from four different points of view, including that of Benjy, a mentally handicapped 33-year-old. The title comes from Macbeth: “Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Faulkner’s mordant sense of humor led him to tell a tale literally by an “idiot,” which in his day was a medical term referring to anyone with the mental capacity of a three-year-old. Recommended by Ted Blain The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Robert Fagles This grand epic adventure is about 3,000 years old, and yet it never gets old. This new translation by Robert Fagles makes the famous voyage of Odysseus seem absolutely fresh, thrilling, and irresistible. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway This great novel takes place over three days during the Spanish Civil War. Its hero, Robert Jordan, is an American who is trying to help the Spanish Loyalists defeat the Fascists. He claims that a man could live an entire lifetime in just 70 hours if he lives that life well enough, and the novel proves this claim to be true.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell This remarkable novel begins in the 19th Century and ends in the distant future, but that description only begins to hint at its complexities. The first half of the book consists of partially told stories, each of which is connected in some way to the others. The second half of the book revisits those stories in reverse order, so that you end up learning how all the plots get resolved in a variety of tones, points of view, and themes. It’s hard to describe but grand to experience. Beloved by Toni Morrison This astonishing novel by the Nobel-prize-winning Princeton professor is a ghost story, a work of historical fiction, an indictment of slavery, and a celebration of the healing power of community. Morrison says she was influenced by both Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner, and this novel offers plenty of supporting evidence. Skippy Dies by Paul Murray Yes, the title tells the truth. Skippy dies during the first chapter of this astonishing novel, and you spend the rest of the book finding out why he dies and learning everything about everyone who knew Skippy at his Irish boarding school. The humor in this novel is bountiful, though often quite dark, and the characters are universally entertaining and three-dimensional.