Rhonda Gail Lesperance
Mr. Barrett's list of books students should read during the summer.
At the age when you first experience desperate lovesickness, overwhelming heartbreak, and the consequences of your decisions, what better novel to read than the gold standard in impetuous romantic decisions? Like a teenager sneaking away from parental guidance before facing the music at the end of the day, Anna must negotiate the hypocritical standards of the society to which she belongs while trying to follow every fleeting fancy of her own heart. Let’s just say there’s a strong moral ending.
Since Russell’s novel is a relatively new release, we must admit it’s impossible to chastise ourselves for not having read this in high school. However, to upcoming generations of high schoolers, we suggest it highly: it’s a novel about the importance of family, especially a family that’s a little bit strange, and the lengths to which we will go to appease our imaginations. As a bonus, it would have positively reinforced us significantly in high school (it does now, too) to read a bestseller by a young woman in her twenties — it makes it all seem that much more attainable.
Another recent release, Reality Hunger is an imperative read for teenagers growing up in a culture of mixed media, shifting genres, and increasing overlap between truth, fiction, and whatever lies between the two. Though in our heart of hearts we don’t subscribe to Shields’ thesis that attribution doesn’t matter and all artistic barriers are endlessly permeable, we think upcoming generations of writers, readers and consumers of culture should be presented with these ideas at an early age, so they can make those decisions for themselves.
Another family story (we know we could have used the reinforcement of the importance of family in our teenage tugging-away years), The God of Small Things is a dreamy look at another culture with lessons on dealing with suffering that ring universal. The beautiful language alone is enough to recommend it, magical enough that every page feels like a private discovery. And we know how much teenagers love their secrets.
Perhaps it goes without saying that Sontag’s essays are a must-read for any high schooler self-consciously counting themselves as an intellectual, but we think they’re a perfect high-brow introduction into how to think about things. After all, we’ve always thought of school as more important in terms of it teaching you how to learn and think than in terms of what facts you’re actually memorizing in that Modern European History class. Plus, with this collection, you’ll get a primer (or at least a canned opinion) on everyone from Beckett to Sartre to Godard. You know, just something to pull out at parties.
Though some readers might be able to tackle this sci-fi treat before high school, we’ve never read a more convincing argument for the power and importance of young people, something many high schoolers might need a little reminder of. Plus, it combines politics, deep space, video games and social hierarchy into one neat bundle that any self-respecting book nerd will fly through in a day or two, leaving plenty of time for that Bio lab that’s due on Wednesday.
The most important thing we took from The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress is something every high schooler should take note of: TANSTAAFL. That is, “there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” That’s worth thinking about when you forget to be grateful for everything your parents do for you. It’s the real world soon, kids!
This incredibly dense and distressing novel is one of the best books of all time, and should be read by everyone despite its difficulty. The spirit of a murdered infant haunts the home of a former slave in Ohio a few years after the civil war, bringing fear but also comfort to its mother. This is a beautiful introduction to grief and complex choices, as well as the post-war climate and the sickening history of slavery in America.
Information is endlessly available to us; where shall wisdom be found?" is the crucial question with which renowned literary critic Harold Bloom begins this impassioned book on the pleasures and benefits of reading well. For more than forty years, Bloom has transformed college students into lifelong readers with his unrivaled love for literature. Now, at a time when faster and easier electronic media threatens to eclipse the practice of reading, Bloom draws on his experience as critic, teacher, and prolific reader to plumb the great books for their sustaining wisdom.
Shedding all polemic, Bloom addresses the solitary reader, who, he urges, should read for the purest of all reasons: to discover and augment the self. His ultimate faith in the restorative power of literature resonates on every page of this infinitely rewarding and important book.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20943.How_to_Read_and_Why?from_search=true&search_version=service
In David Copperfield—the novel he described as his “favorite child”—Dickens drew revealingly on his own experiences to create one of his most exuberant
and enduringly popular works, filled with tragedy and comedy in equal measure.
The author of The Satanic Verses returns with his most humorous and accessible novel yet. This is the story of Haroun, a 12-year-old boy whose father Rashid is the greatest storyteller in a city so sad that it has forgotten its name. When the gift of gab suddenly deserts Rashid, Haroun sets out on an adventure to rescue his print.
Larry Brown is one of the great unsung heroes of American fiction... His work is a reminder of a reason to read.”
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/256109.Father_and_Son?from_search=true&search_version=service
Russian-born Spirin, considered one of our best living illustrators.
Alyosha is a pupil at a boarding school in St. Petersburg. He saves a little black hen from the cook's knife and, in return, the hen takes him to an underground kingdom of little people, where he receives a gift of magical powers from their king. He becomes the brightest student at school, without having to study at all. Soon no one likes him anymore and Alyosha, trying to ingratiate himself, confesses to his magical power. Unfortunately, this breaks the spell and causes the little people from the magic kingdom to move away. Having learned his lesson, he undertakes to study and learn in school on his own.
Are human beings, in essence, good or evil?
In welcoming this mysterious foreigner, the whole village becomes an accomplice to hid sophisticated plot which will forever mark their lives.
In this stunning novel, Paulo Coelho dramatizes the struggle within every soul between light and darkness, and its relevance to our everyday struggles: To dare to follow our dreams, to have the courage to be different and to master the fear that prevents us from truly living. The Devil and Miss Prym is a story charged with emotion, in which the integrity of being human meets a terrifying test.
reader of the wide, shallow, deep, and various irrelevancies; mother of human male teenager; wife of a nature loving person, librarian; passionate for coffee, euchre, juicing, running, scrabble, & ...
