Summer+Reading

**Recommended Summer Reading List 2009**
Exploring Indian identity, both self and tribal, Alexie's first young adult novel is a semiautobiographical chronicle of Arnold Spirit, aka Junior, a Spokane Indian from Wellpinit, WA. The bright 14-year-old was born with water on the brain, is regularly the target of bullies, and loves to draw. . . He expects disaster when he transfers from the reservation school to the rich, white school in Reardan, but soon finds himself making friends with both geeky and popular students and starting on the basketball team. Meeting his old classmates on the court, Junior grapples with questions about what constitutes one's community, identity, and tribe. (//School Library Journal//)
 * __FICTION__**
 * //Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian//****, by Sherman Alexie**

Pitting scientific terrorists against the cardinals of Vatican City, this well-plotted if over-the-top thriller is crammed with Vatican intrigue and high-tech drama. . . . Though its premises strain credulity, Brown's tale is laced with twists and shocks that keep the reader wired right up to the last revelation. (//Publishers Weekly//)
 * //Angels and Demons//****, by Dan Brown**

Big ideas are an essential part of the fun in this sparkling tour de force. Back at her elite boarding school after a summer vacation in which she has grown from duckling to swan, sophomore Frankie starts dating cool, gorgeous senior Matthew and instantly becomes a part of his charmed social circle. Hanging with Matthew and his crowd is a thrill, but Frankie begins to chafe as she realizes that the boys are all members of the secret society to which her own father belonged, the Loyal Order of the Basset Hound, and that not only will they never let her join, Matthew will not even tell her about it. Lockhart dexterously juggles a number of smart and tantalizing themes-class and privilege, feminism and romance, wordplay and thought, friendship and loyalty-and combines the pacing of a mystery with writing that realizes settings and characters, large and small, with an artist's sure hand. (//School Library Journal//)
 * //The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks//****, by E. Lockhart**

Garcia's first novel is about Cuba, her native country, and three generations of del Pino women who are seeking spiritual homes for their passionate, often troubled souls. Celia del Pino and her descendants also share clairvoyant and visionary powers that somehow remain undiminished, despite the Cuban revolution and its profound effect upon their lives. . . . Writing experimentally in a variety of forms, she combines narratives, love letters, and monologs to portray the del Pinos as they move back and forth through time. Garcia tells their story with an economy of words and a rich, tropical imagery, setting a brisk but comfortable pace. (//Library Journal//)
 * //Dreaming in Cuban//****, by Cristina Garcia**

Sixteen-year-old Katniss poaches food for her widowed mother and little sister from the forest outside the legal perimeter of District 12, the poorest of the dozen districts constituting Panem, the North American dystopic state that has replaced the U.S. in the not-too-distant future. Her hunting and tracking skills serve her well when she is then cast into the nation’s annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death where contestants must battle harsh terrain, artificially concocted weather conditions, and two teenaged contestants from each of Panem’s districts. . . . Populated by three-dimensional characters, this is a superb tale of physical adventure, political suspense, and romance. (//Booklist//)
 * //The Hunger Games//****, by Suzanne Collins**

Ed is a 19-year-old loser only marginally connected to the world; he's the son that not even his mother loves. But his life begins to change after he acts heroically during a robbery. Perhaps it's the notoriety he receives that leads to his receiving playing cards in the mail. Ed instinctively understands that the scrawled words on the aces are clues to be followed, which lead him to people he will help (including some he'll have to hurt first). But as much as he changes those who come into his life, he changes himself more. (//Booklist//)
 * //I Am the Messenger//****, by Marcus Zusak**

In his first full-length novel, Gaiman, the comic-book mastermind, brings his talents to the black-and-white world of books, eschewing the darkly elegant illustrations that are a trademark of his comics. However, this journey to yet another fantastical realm is full of haunting images just the same. The story revolves around Richard Mayhew, a bumbling young businessman, who is about to discover a new side of London after helping a wounded girl named Door. He is trapped in an alternate dimension, known as London Below, or the Underground. Once he steps into it, he finds that his normal life no longer exists. The only chance of getting his old life back is to accompany Door on a dangerous mission across the Underground. . . . Readers will find themselves as unable to escape this tale as the characters themselves. (//Library Journal//)
 * //Neverwhere//****, by Neil Gaiman**

Bestseller Picoult takes on another contemporary hot-button issue in her brilliantly told new thriller, about a high school shooting. Peter Houghton, an alienated teen who has been bullied for years by the popular crowd, brings weapons to his high school in Sterling, N.H., one day and opens fire, killing 10 people. Flashbacks reveal how bullying caused Peter to retreat into a world of violent computer games. Alex Cormier, the judge assigned to Peter's case, tries to maintain her objectivity as she struggles to understand her daughter, Josie, one of the surviving witnesses of the shooting. The author's insights into her characters' deep-seated emotions brings this ripped-from-the-headlines read chillingly alive. (//Publishers Weekly//)
 * //Nineteen Minutes//****, by Jodi Picoult**

A man and a boy, father and son, "each the other's world entire," walk a road in "the ashes of the late world." In this stunning departure from his previous work, McCarthy envisions a postapocalyptic scenario. Cities have been destroyed, plants and animals have died, and few humans survive. The sun is hidden by ash, and it is winter. With every scrap of food looted, many of the living have turned to cannibalism. The man and the boy plod toward the sea. The man remembers the world before; as his memories die, so, too dies that world. The boy was born after everything changed. The man, dying, has a fierce paternal love and will to survive--yet he saves his last two bullets for himself and his son. . . . Though the focus never leaves the two travelers, they carry our humanity, and we can't help but feel the world hangs in the balance of their hopeless quest. A masterpiece. (//Booklist//)
 * //The Road//****, by Cormac McCarthy**

De Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél' d'Hiv' roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand's family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants. (//Publishers Weekly//)
 * //Sarah’s Key//****, by Tatiana de Rosnay**

Born without the ability to speak, Edgar Sawtelle grows up on a Wisconsin farm turned dog breeding and training kennel with his parents, using sign and gesture to aid the pursuit of perfecting canine companionship. Then, in an injection of Hamlet that one can almost map out point for point, the Sawtelle dream is poisoned. There is the murderous uncle who woos the widowed mother, a ghostly apparition of Edgar’s father warning the boy of something rotten, and, most cleverly, a canine reenaction of the deadly deed before Edgar sets out into the wilderness with a trio of young pups. (//Booklist//)
 * //The Story of Edgar Sawtelle//****, by David Wroblewski**

Hosseini's follow-up to his best-selling debut, //The Kite Runner// views the plight of Afghanistan during the last half-century through the eyes of two women. Mariam is the illegitimate daughter of a maid and a businessman, who is given away in marriage at 15 to Rasheed, a man three times her age; their union is not a loving one. Laila is born to educated, liberal parents in Kabul the night the Communists take over Afghanistan. . . . A devastating tragedy brings Laila to the house of Rasheed and Mariam, where she is forced to make a horrific choice to secure her future. (//Booklist//)
 * //A Thousand Splendid Suns//****, by Khaled Hosseini**

This collection’s five powerful stories and haunting triptych of tales about the fates of two Bengali families in America map the perplexing hidden forces that pull families asunder and undermine marriages. “Unaccustomed Earth,” the title story, dramatizes the divide between immigrant parents and their American-raised children, and is the first of several scathing inquiries into the lack of deep-down understanding and trust in a marriage between a Bengali and non-Bengali. . . . Lahiri’s emotionally and culturally astute short stories (ideal for people with limited time for pleasure reading and a hunger for serious literature) are surprising, aesthetically marvelous, and shaped by a sure and provocative sense of inevitability. (//Booklist//)
 * //Unaccustomed Earth//****, by Jhumpa Lahiri**

Baldacci triumphs with his best novel yet, an utterly captivating drama centered on the difficult adjustment to rural life faced by two children when their New York City existence shatters in an auto accident. That tragedy, which opens the book with a flourish, sees acclaimed but impecunious riter Jack Cardinal dead, his wife in a coma and their daughter, Lou, 12, and son, Oz, seven, forced to move to the southwestern Virginia farm of their aged great-grandmother, Louisa. Several questions propel the subsequent story with vigor. Will the siblings learn to accept, even to love, their new life? Will their mother regain consciousness? And—in a development that takes the narrative into familiar Baldacci territory for a gripping legal showdown—will Louisa lose her land to industrial interests? (//Publishers Weekly//)
 * //Wish You Well//****, by David Baldacci**

Obama argues with himself on almost every page of this lively autobiographical conversation. He gets you to agree with him, and then he brings in a counternarrative that seems just as convincing. Son of a white American mother and of a black Kenyan father whom he never knew, Obama grew up mainly in Hawaii. After college, he worked for three years as a community organizer on Chicago's South Side. Then, finally, he went to Kenya, to find the world of his dead father, his "authentic" self. Will the truth set you free, Obama asks? Or will it disappoint? (//Booklist//)
 * __NONFICTION__**
 * //Dreams From My Father//****, by Barack Obama**

After hearing "Anji," a beautiful acoustic-guitar piece written and recorded by 1960s British folkie Davey Graham, Hodgkinson made it his goal to learn the instrument and perform in front of an audience within six months, kicking off a physical, mental and (arguably) transcendental journey that's eminently readable. . . . Pop culture fans will get almost as much out of this narrative as frustrated musicians; Hodgkinson's struggles with his labor of love are highly relatable, as is his conclusion that joy can, indeed, be found in the journey. (//Publishers Weekly//)
 * //Guitar Man//****, by Will Hodgkinson**

Three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Friedman mapped the level economic playing field created by digital technology and global free-market capitalism in The World Is Flat. He now adds two crucial elements to his galvanizing analysis of the state of the world: climate change and the population explosion. . . . Friedman’s big, passionate, and solidly specific ecological primer, social manifesto, and realistic plan for a green revolution aimed at restoring America’s greatness and securing a sustainable future should serve as a playbook for innovators and civic leaders. (//Booklist//)
 * //Hot, Flat, and Crowded//****, by Thomas Friedman**

Originally profiled in Sebastian Junger's hugely popular //The Perfect Storm// (1997), Captain Greenlaw pens her account of one memorable fishing trip to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland aboard her ship the //Hannah Boden//. Greenlaw and crew are in search of a "slammer," one month at sea that hopefully will bring them upwards of 60,000 pounds of very valuable fish. Probably the world's only female swordboat captain, Greenlaw recounts the 20-hour workdays, the frequent equipment breakdowns, and the in-fighting that eventually erupts among her crew. Not surprisingly, her all-male crew includes some macho types, but that's something Greenlaw uses to her advantage; her efforts are always matched or bettered by the men, as "No self-respecting fisherman will allow himself to be outworked by a woman." Exciting and gritty, especially when the big fish are biting and Greenlaw is expertly detailing the dangerous world of deep-ocean fishing. (//Booklist//)
 * //The Hungry Ocean//****, by Linda Greenlaw**

Greenberg, a columnist for London's //Times Literary Supplement//, was living in Greenwich Village in 1996 when his 15-year-old daughter, Sally, suddenly became manic, importuning strangers and ranting in the streets about her newfound cosmic wisdom. . . . After Sally's discharge, questions of how they would adjust to their new lives were complicated in very different ways. In this well-written and sincere memoir, Greenberg proves to be a caring man trying to find his way through the minefield of a loved one's madness. (//Publishers Weekly//)
 * //Hurry Down Sunshine//****, by Michael Greenberg**

Marsalis, in whose first-person voice this book is presented (so attentively to speech rhythms, thanks to Ward, that the text seems transcribed more than written), may be the finest trumpeter alive. So when he says, as he has throughout a stellar career in classical music as well as jazz, that the latter is his first love, he demands respectful attention. That’s easy to give him for this loving, candid, almost reverential exposure of how jazz has shaped his life, from boyhood learning in veteran New Orleans banjoist-guitarist Danny Barker’s children’s brass band to his present eminence as director of jazz at Lincoln Center. (//Booklist//)
 * //Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life//****, by Wynton Marsalis**

The five senses not only serve biological functions, they also are inextricably a part of our culture. Award-winning poet Ackerman celebrates the senses by examining their biological bases and the various and bizarre ways we have come to indulge them. Her catalog of the senses is itself a sensuous journey, with prose rich in imagery and rhythm. Ackerman's book is a provocative and entertaining treat whose details will bestir the reader's imagination. Consider, for example, the guest whose pleasure for fragrance led to an untimely death in a shower of rose petals at a Roman feast, or the diner whose thrill at exciting the palate proved deadly upon tasting the poisonous puffer fish. Unlike the fish, this savory delight is recommended for general readers. (//Library Journal//)
 * //A Natural History of the Senses//****, by Diane Ackerman**

A close observer and astute analyzer of American life, Ehrenreich turns her attention to what it is like trying to subsist while working in low-paying jobs. Inspired to see what boom times looked like from the bottom, she hides her real identity and attempts to make a life on a salary of just over $300 per week after taxes. She is often forced to work at two jobs, leaving her time and energy for little else than sleeping and working. Ehrenreich vividly describes her experiences living in isolated trailers and dilapidated motels while working as a nursing-home aide, a Wal-Mart "sales associate," a cleaning woman, a waitress, and a hotel maid in three states Florida, Maine, and Minnesota. Her narrative is candid, often moving, and very revealing. (//Library Journal//)
 * //Nickel and Dimed//****, by Barbara Ehrenreich**

//Outliers// begins with a provocative look at why certain five-year-old boys enjoy an advantage in ice hockey, and how these advantages accumulate over time. We learn what Bill Gates, the Beatles and Mozart had in common: along with talent and ambition, each enjoyed an unusual opportunity to intensively cultivate a skill that allowed them to rise above their peers. . . . Through case studies ranging from Canadian junior hockey champions to the robber barons of the Gilded Age, from Asian math whizzes to software entrepreneurs to the rise of his own family in Jamaica, Gladwell tears down the myth of individual merit to explore how culture, circumstance, timing, birth and luck account for success—and how historical legacies can hold others back despite ample individual gifts. (//Publishers Weekly//)
 * //Outliers//****, by Malcolm Gladwell**

In this latest effort to popularize the sciences, City University of New York professor and media star Kaku ponders topics that many people regard as impossible, ranging from psychokinesis and telepathy to time travel and teleportation. . . . He explains how what many consider to be flights of fancy are being made tangible by recent scientific discoveries ranging from rudimentary advances in teleportation to the creation of small quantities of antimatter and transmissions faster than the speed of light. Science and science fiction buffs can easily follow Kaku's explanations as he shows that in the wonderful worlds of science, impossible things are happening every day. (//Publishers Weekly//)
 * //The Physics of the Impossible//****, by Michio Kaku**

When a book proclaims that it is not about the decline of America but the rise of everyone else, readers might expect another diatribe about our dismal post-9/11 world. They are in for a pleasant surprise as //Newsweek// editor and popular pundit Zakaria delivers a stimulating, largely optimistic forecast of where the 21st century is heading. . . . Zakaria predicts that despite its record of recent blunders at home and abroad, America will stay strong, buoyed by a stellar educational system and the influx of young immigrants, who give the U.S. a more youthful demographic than Europe and much of Asia whose workers support an increasing population of unproductive elderly. A lucid, thought-provoking appraisal of world affairs, this book will engage readers on both sides of the political spectrum. (//Publishers Weekly//)
 * //The Post-American World//****, by Fareed Zakaria**

Adam Shepard graduated from college in the summer of 2006 feeling disillusioned by the apathy he saw around him and incensed after reading Barbara Ehrenreich's famous works //Nickel and Dimed// and //Bait and Switch//—books that gave him a feeling of hopelessness over the state of the working class in America. Eager to see if he could make something out of nothing, he set out to prove wrong Ehrenreich's theory that those who start at the bottom stay at the bottom, and to see if the American Dream can still be a reality. Shepard's plan was simple. Carrying only a sleeping bag, the clothes on his back, and $25 in cash, and restricted from using previous contacts or relying on his college education, he set out for a randomly selected city with one objective: work his way out of homelessness and into a life that would give him the opportunity for success.
 * //Scratch Beginnings//****, by Adam Shepard**

"Uproariously funny" doesn't seem a likely description for a book on cadavers. However, Roach, a Salon and Reader's Digest columnist, has done the nearly impossible and written a book as informative and respectful as it is irreverent and witty. From her opening lines ("The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship. Most of your time is spent lying on your back"), it is clear that she's taking a unique approach to issues surrounding death. Roach delves into the many productive uses to which cadavers have been put, from medical experimentation to applications in transportation safety research (in a chapter archly called "Dead Man Driving") to work by forensic scientists quantifying rates of decay under a wide array of bizarre circumstances. . . . Even Roach's digressions and footnotes are captivating, helping to make the book impossible to put down. (//Publishers Weekly//)
 * //Stiff//****, by Mary Roach**

Africa’s first elected female president, Sirleaf chronicles her rise from an abused young wife and mother to a woman with a career in government finance and international banking to the president of Liberia since 2006. Sirleaf confronted corruption and incompetence through several Liberian governments and suffered imprisonment and exile for her controversial positions before ultimately returning and challenging the long and troubled history of her nation. . . . An inspiring inside look at a nation struggling to rebuild itself and the woman now behind those efforts. (//Booklist//)
 * //This Child Will Be Great//****, by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf**

On April 14, 1935, the biggest dust storm on record descended over five states, from the Dakotas to Amarillo, Texas. People standing a few feet apart could not see each other; if they touched, they risked being knocked over by the static electricity that the dust created in the air. . . . This ecological disaster rapidly disfigured whole communities. Egan's portraits of the families who stayed behind are sobering and far less familiar than those of the "exodusters" who staggered out of the High Plains. He tells of towns depopulated to this day, a mother who watched her baby die of "dust pneumonia," and farmers who gathered tumbleweed as food for their cattle and, eventually, for their children. (//The New Yorker//)
 * //The Worst Hard Time//****, by Timothy Egan**