New Roads High Summer Reading List -- Part 2
Explore Part 2 of New Roads High's Summer Reading List! Discover must-read books for students, featuring engaging titles to inspire your summer reading journey.
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My Name Is Asher Lev
by Chaim Potok
NATIONAL BESTSELLER ⢠In this modern classic from the National Book Awardânominated author of The Chosen, a young religious artist is compulsively driven to render the world he sees and feels, even when it leads him to blasphemy. âA novel of finely articulated tragic power .... Little short of a work of genius.ââThe New York Times Book Review Asher Lev is a Ladover Hasid who keeps kosher, prays three times a day and believes in the Ribbono Shel Olom, the Master of the Universe. He grows up in a cloistered Hasidic community in postwar Brooklyn, a world suffused by ritual and revolving around a charismatic Rebbe. He is torn between two identities, the one consecrated to God, the other devoted only to art and his imagination, and in time, his artistic gift threatens to estrange him from that world and the parents he adores. As it follows his struggle, My Name Is Asher Lev becomes a luminous, visionary portrait of the artist, by turns heartbreaking and exultant.
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
by Oscar Wilde
Introduction by Jeffrey Eugenides ⢠Nominated as one of Americaâs best-loved novels by PBSâs The Great American Read Written in his distinctively dazzling manner, Oscar Wildeâs story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is the authorâs most popular work. The tale of Dorian Grayâs moral disintegration caused a scandal when it ďŹrst appeared in 1890, but though Wilde was attacked for the novelâs corrupting inďŹuence, he responded that there is, in fact, âa terrible moral in Dorian Gray.â Just a few years later, the book and the aesthetic/moral dilemma it presented became issues in the trials occasioned by Wildeâs homosexual liaisons, which resulted in his imprisonment. Of Dorian Grayâs relationship to autobiography, Wilde noted in a letter, âBasil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to beâin other ages, perhaps.â
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A People's History of the United States
by Howard Zinn
Chronicles United States history from a grassroots perspective and provides an analysis of important events from 1492 through the current war on terrorism.
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Cannery Row
by John Steinbeck
Vividly depicts the colorful, sometimes disreputable, inhabitants of a run-down area in Monterey, California
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The Metamorphosis
by Franz Kafka
âWhen Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.â With this startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first sentence, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetlelike insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowingâthough absurdly comicâmeditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, âKafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man.â
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The Left Hand of Darkness
by Ursula K. Le Guin
50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITIONâWITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY DAVID MITCHELL AND A NEW AFTERWORD BY CHARLIE JANE ANDERS Ursula K. Le Guinâs groundbreaking work of science fictionâwinner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards. A lone human ambassador is sent to the icebound planet of Winter, a world without sexual prejudice, where the inhabitantsâ gender is fluid. His goal is to facilitate Winterâs inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the strange, intriguing culture he encounters... Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.
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Drop City
by T.C. Boyle
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ⢠NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST ⢠From the awardâwinning author of The Tortilla Curtain comes a âgorgeously crafted epicâ (People) about a band of hippies who attempt to establish themselves deep in the wilderness of Alaska. âNot only an entertaining romp through the madness of the countercultural â70s, but a stirring parable about the American dream as well.ââThe New York Times It is 1970, and a down-at-the-heels California commune devoted to peace, free love, and the simple life has decided to relocate to the last frontierâthe unforgiving landscape of interior Alaskaâin the ultimate expression of going back to the land. Armed with the spirit of adventure and naĂŻve optimism, the inhabitants of âDrop Cityâ arrive in the wilderness of Alaska only to find their utopia already populated by other young homesteaders. When the two communities collide, unexpected friendships and dangerous enmities are born as everyone struggles with the bare essentials of life: love, nourishment, and a roof over oneâs head. Drop City is a surprising story that reveals human behavior at its rawest, most tender, and most compelling. It is also a rich, allusive, and unsentimental look at the ideals of a generation and their impact on todayâs radically transformed world. Above all, itâs an epic and gripping novel infused with the lyricism and take-no-prisoners storytelling for which T.C. Boyle is justly famous.
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Watership Down
by Richard Adams
One of the most beloved novels of our time, Richard Adams's Watership Down takes us to a world we have never truly seen: to the remarkable life that teems in the fields, forests and riverbanks far beyond our cities and towns. It is a powerful saga of courage, leadership and survival; an epic tale of a hardy band of adventurers forced to flee the destruction of their fragile community...and their trials and triumphs in the face of extraordinary adversity as they pursue a glorious dream called "home." Watership Down is a remarkable tale of exile and survival, of heroism and leadership...the epic novel of a group of adventurers who desert their doomed city, and venture forth against all odds on a quest for a new home, a sturdier future,
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The Trial
by Franz Kafka
A brilliant translation of one of the most important novels of the twentieth century, revealing a tale that is as full of energy and power as it was when it was first written. From the author of The Metamorphosis. Written in 1914, The Trial is the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism, Kafka's nightmare has resonated with chilling truth for generations of readers. This new edition is based upon the work of an international team of experts who have restored the text, the sequence of chapters, and their division to create a version that is as close as possible to the way the author left it.
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The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain
by Mark Twain
For deft plotting, riotous inventiveness, unforgettable characters, and language that brilliantly captures the lively rhythms of American speech, no American writer comes close to Mark Twain. This sparkling anthology covers the entire span of Twainâs inimitable yarn-spinning, from his early broad comedy to the biting satire of his later years. Every one of his sixty stories is here: ranging from the frontier humor of âThe Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,â to the bitter vision of humankind in âThe Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg,â to the delightful hilarity of âIs He Living or Is He Dead?â Surging with Twainâs ebullient wit and penetrating insight into the follies of human nature, this volume is a vibrant summation of the career ofâin the words of H. L. Menckenââthe father of our national literature.â
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The Golden Ratio
by Mario Livio
Throughout history, thinkers from mathematicians to theologians have pondered the mysterious relationship between numbers and the nature of reality. In this fascinating book, Mario Livio tells the tale of a number at the heart of that mystery: phi, or 1.6180339887...This curious mathematical relationship, widely known as "The Golden Ratio," was discovered by Euclid more than two thousand years ago because of its crucial role in the construction of the pentagram, to which magical properties had been attributed. Since then it has shown a propensity to appear in the most astonishing variety of places, from mollusk shells, sunflower florets, and rose petals to the shape of the galaxy. Psychological studies have investigated whether the Golden Ratio is the most aesthetically pleasing proportion extant, and it has been asserted that the creators of the Pyramids and the Parthenon employed it. It is believed to feature in works of art from Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa to Salvador Dali's The Sacrament of the Last Supper, and poets and composers have used it in their works. It has even been found to be connected to the behavior of the stock market! The Golden Ratio is a captivating journey through art and architecture, botany and biology, physics and mathematics. It tells the human story of numerous phi-fixated individuals, including the followers of Pythagoras who believed that this proportion revealed the hand of God; astronomer Johannes Kepler, who saw phi as the greatest treasure of geometry; such Renaissance thinkers as mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci of Pisa; and such masters of the modern world as Goethe, Cezanne, Bartok, and physicist Roger Penrose. Wherever his quest for the meaning of phi takes him, Mario Livio reveals the world as a place where order, beauty, and eternal mystery will always coexist.
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Dubliners
by James Joyce
Fifteen short stories evoke the character, atmosphere, and people of the Irish city of Dublin at the turn of the century
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Flatland
by Edwin Abbott Abbott
A humorous examination with serious overtones of the concepts of space, time, and dimension.
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Teaching with Fire
by Sam M. Intrator
Reclaim Your Fire "Teaching with Fire is a glorious collection of the poetry that has restored the faith of teachers in the highest, most transcendent values of their work with children....Those who want us to believe that teaching is a technocratic and robotic skill devoid of art or joy or beauty need to read this powerful collection. So, for that matter, do we all." ?Jonathan Kozol, author of Amazing Grace and Savage Inequalities "When reasoned argument fails, poetry helps us make sense of life. A few well-chosen images, the spinning together of words creates a way of seeing where we came from and lights up possibilities for where we might be going....Dip in, read, and ponder; share with others. It's inspiration in the very best sense." ?Deborah Meier, co-principal of The Mission Hill School, Boston and founder of a network of schools in East Harlem, New York "In the Confucian tradition it is said that the mark of a golden era is that children are the most important members of the society and teaching is the most revered profession. Our jour ney to that ideal may be a long one, but it is books like this that will sustain us - for who are we all at our best save teachers, and who matters more to us than the children?" ?Peter M. Senge, founding chair, SoL (Society for Organizational Learning) and author of The Fifth Discipline Those of us who care about the young and their education must find ways to remember what teaching and learning are really about. We must find ways to keep our hearts alive as we serve our students. Poetry has the power to keep us vital and focused on what really matters in life and in schooling. Teaching with Fire is a wonderful collection of eighty-eight poems from such well-loved poets as Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, Billy Collins, Emily Dickinson, and Pablo Neruda. Each of these evocative poems is accompanied by a brief story from a teacher explaining the significance of the poem in his or her life's work. This beautiful book also includes an essay that describes how poetry can be used to grow both personally and professionally. Teaching With Fire was written in partnership with the Center for Teacher Formation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Royalties from this book will be used to fund scholarship opportunities for teachers to grow and learn.
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Chaos
by James Gleick
James Gleick explains the theories behind the fascinating new science called chaos. Alongside relativity and quantum mechanics, it is being hailed as the twentieth century's third revolution. 8 pages of photos.