This month's Teacher Feature is the English Department!
Check out their recommendations in the HS CIC now!
Ms. Shari
1. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. A beautifully written book that despite covering 300 years, creates memorable characters and makes the African Slave Trade's personal impact haunting. I recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys love stories, historical fiction, and magic realism.
2. Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance. Do NOT read this book if you are looking to understand Trump voters. Despite some publicity naming defining this memoir as such, I found it a much more interesting read about how a young person can love his angry, poor, disfunctional family while at the same time wanting to escape them.
3. Madras, Chennai and the Self. Conversations with the City. by Tulsi Badrinath. Our city is literally millions of inhabitants, and Badrinath has found 12 interesting characters to share with us. Like a series of journalistic feature stories, this book is easy to read in any order, and you can start with the actor Vikram, or the most recent Nawah of Arcot, or a Hindu priest/Karate champion.
Mr. Condon
Song of Solomon: Toni Morrison's coming of age/heroic journey story of Milkman Dead explores the far reaching consequences of slavery on African American families. While Beloved might be Morrison's masterpiece, Song of Solomon is Morrison's most ripping story, filled with adventure and a host of great characters.
The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead. "Based on a real school for boys that closed in Florida in 2011 after more than one hundred years in existence, Colson Whitehead’s Nickel Academy is the kind of institution that purports to rebrand bad boys into good young men. So in theory it should be a good place for Elwood, a young black man who, although he had planned to attend a nearby college, was caught unknowingly riding in a stolen car. But what happens inside Nickel Academy does not match its public image, and Elwood is about to learn that, no matter how idealistic or optimistic he is, his life is taking a very bad turn." (Amazon)
Chronicle of A Death Foretold, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Haunted by the murder of a friend, the narrator returns to his hometown 27 years later, determined to get to the bottom of the murder. Interestingly, as the title suggests, everyone in the village knew the murder would happen. Yet, if everyone knew the murder was going to happy, then why did no one stop it? The more the narrator learns, the less he understands, and as the story races to it's enigmatic ending, an entire society--not just a pair of murderers--is put on trial.
The Natural Way Of Things, Charlotte Wood. Set in the Australian outback, several women awake to find they've been kidnapped and are being held captive because of unknown crimes. Slowly, the women come to realize they all share painful episodes that link them in their present imprisonment. Think Furiosa from Mad Max, throw in some Lord of the Flies and mix with A Handmaid's Tale--a heady and challenging cocktail for sure.
No Country For Old Men, Cormac McCarthy: At once a brutally violent Texas Mexico border narcotics thriller, and also a philosophical novel about the challenges of changing times. It was made into an equally compelling movie, but the book is so much better.
Ms. Helen
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon --A lovely read, this book is a balance between lightly written characters and the parts of life we have to take seriously, even though sometimes we just want them to go away.
V for Vendetta by Alan Moore--A dark, complex dystopian graphic novel that explores the extremes of anarchism and fascism as political philosophies, the power of ideas, and creates a range of fascinatingly ambiguous characters.
My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk--Against a backdrop of the 16th century Istanbul art world, a murder occurs. Pamuk weaves a mystery for thinkers with threads of East-West cultural tensions, social history and philosophy, and at the center of all, the art that led to the murder.
Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman--a thoughtful and wry series of essays that explore the personal reading: the idiosyncrasies and joys of picking up a book--any book. The beautifully written essays also detail the potential irritations that might occur as a result of obsession with books.
Alive by Piers Paul Read--For a book featuring cannibalism, Read manages to avoid controversy with objective story-telling that also manages to paint a sympathetic portrait of the straits under which humans are driven to extremes. This is the engrossing true account of an Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashes in the snow-covered Andes, leaving them with a choice: starve or consume human flesh.
This month's Teacher Feature is the Social Studies Department!
Check out their recommendations in the HS CIC now!
Mr. Gold's Booklist
Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India by Sashi Tharoor
This book helped me understand how 300 years of economic, political, and social exploitation impacted the modern state of India. This is the history that we don't learn in school, though it's essential for appreciating the underlying complexities of our day to day interactions and experiences in India.
Ms. Mac's Booklist
Ms. Gretchen's Booklist
Exit West By Mohsin Hamid
I had this book lying around for a while and don’t understand why I didn’t pick it up; when I did, I devoured it! It is really relevant and thought-provoking...a fascinating take on acculturation that (I think...I hope) can foster compassion.
The Poet X By Elizabeth Acevedo
Gotta love some slam poetry! This novel conveyed a young woman’s true (beautiful and not simple) process of growing and changing individually, and in the context of one’s family, in a unique and powerful way.
The Testaments By Margaret Atwood
I believe what she is writing is important right now. It was terrifying but hopeful.
Mr. Cota's Booklist
The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford
If you 've ever found yourself asking why people buy & consume what they do, this book will help you answer some of those questions... as it exposes the 'incentives' that drive many of our human consumption patterns, through the perspective of an undercover detective.
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
This is one of the most approachable and interesting reads on a variety of topics that one would not normally connect to the field of Economic.
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky
Daniel Kahneman's Nobel Prize in Economics, comes to light in a book that provides a deeper look into human decision making -- that is more often irrational and not logical. Reading this book will help you to become a better decision maker and bring to light many of your own 'questionably' made decisions.
This month's Teacher Feature is Ms. Shez, Mr. James, and Mr. Suresh from the P.E. Department!
You can check these books out in the HS CIC now!
Ms. Shez's Booklist
Mr. James' Booklist
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
How can a life that contains brutality, inequality, corruption, starvation and freezing cold contain any day that be considered good? An insight into gulag (prison camp) life in freezing Siberia of a man unfairly committed to a sentence in the harshest of environments. A moving human account.
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
A great book can transport you to any country in the world, but when you read a book in it’s setting the sights and settings of the featured protagonists become more real and compelling. Set in an era of reform in India, this is a sometimes bleak but hopeful must-read for anyone that has a connection with this incredible country.
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
First published in 1844 and set 30 years before in Bonapartist France, this is an enthralling tale of ambition, greed, deception, capture, escape and lots of carefully planned revenge. A true classic.
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
Set in the trenches and tunnels of no-man’s land between the warring British and German armies during WWI in France. This book gives an incredibly graphic account of the life of a tunneler, who are times mere centimetres from the enemy underground - and sometimes even closer.
Exuberant Animal: The Power of Health, Play and Joyful Movement by Frank Forencich
I had to include a non-fiction book on my favourite subject here because this is one that I just coming back to again and again. Unveiling the needs of being human through movement and enjoyment. This would be a quick read if it didn’t constantly inspire deep thought on the subject matter.
Mr. Suresh's Booklist
Getting Stronger: Weight Training for Sports by Bill Pearl. Students should read this to help them train for their sports. Weight training will help them be a better athlete and be better at their chosen sport.
