Waltham High School: 2012 Junior Summer Reading List
Honors
1 Required All Levels Read: All Souls by Michael Patrick MacDonald
1 Required Honors: Choose 1 additional title from the list below
Any Additional Choice Books from the List: Extra Credit
C1 and C2
1 Required All Levels Read: All Souls by Michael MacDonald
Any Additional Choice Books from the List: Extra Credit
§ Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
§ Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
§ Fist Stick Knife Gun by Geoffrey Canada
§ Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons
§ Blessings by Anna Quindlen
§ The Cider House Rules by John Irving
§ Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger
§ The Road by Cormac McCarthy
§ Moneyball by Michael Lewis
§ Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
Required for All Levels to Read: All Souls by Michael Patrick MacDonald
All Souls takes us deep into 1970s Southie, the proudly insular Boston neighborhood with the highest concentration of white poverty in America. Rocked by drugs, crime, and school busing riots, MacDonald shares his life growing up in the projects, losing four of his eight siblings. Gritty but touching, All Souls shares a powerful message of hope, renewal, and redemption. MacDonald is now an activist against violence and helped start the successful gun buy-back program in Boston.
Choice Books:
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
In a small New Hampshire town, 17 year old student Peter Houghton endures years of verbal and physical abuse from his classmates. One final incident pushes him over the edge and leads him to commit an act of violence that forever changes the lives of the town's residents. Rich with psychological and social insight, Picoult delivers a poignant and thought provoking novel.
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Relationships, unexpected blessings, sudden calamities, and the powers of survival—these are among the themes of Jhumpa Lahiri's extraordinary, Pulitzer Prize-winning debut collection of stories. Traveling from India to New England and back again, Lahiri charts the emotional voyages of characters seeking love beyond the barriers of nations, cultures, religions, and generations. Infused with the passionate details of both Indian and American cultures, they also speak with universal compassion to everyone who has ever felt like an outsider.
Fist Stick Knife Gun by Geoffrey Canada
When award-winning educator and activist Geoff Canada was growing up in the Bronx, the "sidewalk" boys learned the codes of the block from their elders and were ranked--and to some degree protected--through the rituals of fist, stick, and knife. Weaving in and out of his stark storytelling is a cogent anaylsis of how the complicity of gun manufacturers turned this contained violence into today's world of drive-by shootings and automatic weapons.
Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons
After the death of her mother, 11 year old Ellen is abused and neglected by her father. She is shuttled from one uncaring relative's home to another before she finally takes matters into her own hands and finds herself a place to belong. With only her own wit and courage, and the occasional kindness of others, she survives her childhood and rises above her misfortune.
Blessings by Anna Quindlen
18 year old Skip Cuddy, ex-con and caretaker for a vast estate owned by a joyless old matriarch Lydia Blessing, finds an abandoned baby girl in a box and decides to keep her. With tender devotion and a new purpose in life, he cares secretly for the baby for four months. When Lydia discovers his secret, she admires his parenting skills and decides to help him. The bond they form changes both of their lives. A poignant novel of love, redemption, and personal change.
The Cider House Rules by John Irving
Homer Wells grows up in an orphanage where he spends his childhood as a medical assistant to the director, Dr. Wilbur Larch, whose history is told in flashbacks: After a traumatic misadventure with a prostitute as a young man, Wilbur turns his back on sex and love, choosing instead to help women with unwanted pregnancies give birth and then keeping the babies in an orphanage.
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Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger
Return once again to the timeless account of the Permian Panthers of Odessa--the winningest high-school football team in Texas history. Odessa is not known to be a town big on dreams, but the Panthers help keep the hopes and dreams of this small, dusty town going. Socially and racially divided, its fragile economy follows the treacherous boom-bust path of the oil business. In bad times, the unemployment rate barrels out of control; in good times, its murder rate skyrockets. But every Friday night from September to December, when the Permian High School Panthers play football, this West Texas town becomes a place where dreams can come true.
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The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The searing, post-apocalyptic novel is the story of a father and his son who walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food-—and each other.
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis
Billy Beane, general manager of MLB's Oakland A's and protagonist of Michael Lewis's Moneyball, had a problem: how to win in the Major Leagues with a budget that's smaller than that of nearly every other team. Conventional wisdom long held that big name, highly athletic hitters and young pitchers with rocket arms were the ticket to success. But Beane and his staff, buoyed by massive amounts of carefully interpreted statistical data, believed that wins could be had by more affordable methods such as hitters with high on-base percentage and pitchers who get lots of ground outs. Given this information and a tight budget, Beane defied tradition and his own scouting department to build winning teams of young affordable players and inexpensive castoff veterans.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick
By 2021, the World War had killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remained coveted any living creature, and for people who couldn't afford one, companies built incredibly realistic simulacrae: horses, dogs, cats, birds. . . .They even built humans.
Final Version: 6-1-12