Title Author Recommended By:

11/22/1963 Stephen King Ms. Libby

12 Years A Slave Solomon Northup Ms. Anderson

The 100-Year-Old Man Who

Climbed Out the Window and

Disappeared Jonas Jonasson Ms. Quintanilla

The Adoration of Jenna Fox Mary Pearson Ms. Korba

The Alchemist Paulo Coelho

Ms. Panlilio and Ms.

Payne

Angels and Demons Dan Brown Ms. Pacatte

Black Swan Green David Mitchell Ms. Anderson

The Blind Side: Evolution of a

Game Michael Lewis Mr. Sommers

Blindness Jose Saramago Ms. Pacatte

The Book Thief Markus Zusak Ms. Mendez

Bottlemania Elizabeth Royte Mr. Forte

Brain on Fire Susannah Calahan Ms. Peters

The Brief Wondrous Life of

Oscar Wao Junot Diaz Mr. Sutphin

Buck M.K. Asante Mr. Sutphin

Cannibal Reign Thomas Koloniar Ms. Libby

The Catcher In the Rye J.D. Salinger Ms. McCormick

The Coke Machine: The Dirty

Truth Behind the World's

Favorite Soft Drink Michael Blanding Ms. Long

Code Name Verity Elizabeth Wean Ms. Anderson

The Color Purple Alice Walker Ms. Balding

The Coming Plague: Newly

Emerging Diseases in a

World Out of Balance Laurie Garrett Mr. Quach

Counting Coup: A True Story

of Basketball and Honor on

The Little Big Horn Larry Colton Mr. Sommers

The Curious Incident of the

Dog in the Night-Time Mark Haddon Mr. Heuer and Ms. Peters

The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown Ms. Pacatte

Dead Mountain: The Untold

True Story of the Dyatlov

Pass Incident Donnie Eichar Ms. Anderson

The Dip: A Little Book That

Teaches You When to Quit

(and when to stick) Seth Godin Mr. Molnar

Follow the Rabbit Proof

Fence Doris Pilkington Ms. Anderson

God Help the Child Toni Morrison Mr. Thomas

The Good Food Revolution Will Allen Ms. Anderson

The Help Kathryn Stockett Ms. Pacatte

The Historian Elizabeth Kostova Mr. Heuer

Hitchhiker's Guide to the

Galaxy Douglas Adams Mr. Thomas

How to Be Manly Maureen O'Leary Wanket Ms. Mendez

How to Lie with Statistics Darrell Huff Ms. McManus

Invictus: Nelson Mandela and

the Game That Made a

Nation John Carlin Mr. Sommers

Joseph Smith: A Rough

Stone Rolling Richard Lyman Bushman Ms. Long

The Jungle Upton Sinclair Mr. Mohun

Just Mercy: A Story of

Justice and Redemption Bryan Stevenson Ms. Harkness

Mi Planta de Naranja-Lima

José Mauro de

Vasconcelos Ms. Bernales

Mountains Beyond

Mountains: The Quest of Dr.

Paul Farmer, a Man Who

Would Cure the World Tracy Kidder Ms. Hubbell

My Struggle Vol 1 Karl Ove Knausgaard Mr. Sutphin

Narrative of the Life of

Frederick Douglass, an

American Slave Frederick Douglass Dr. Mullane

On Such a Full Sea Chang-rae Lee Ms. Mahoney

The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde Ms. Bernales

Ready Player One Ernest Cline Ms. Libby

Refusing Heaven Jack Gilbert Ms. Bernales

Slam Nick Hornby Ms. Libby

Tattoos on the Heart: The

Power of Boundless

Compassion Gregory Boyle Ms. Peters

The Time Traveller's Wife Audrey Niffenegger Ms. Libby

Tinkers Paul Harding Mr. Sutphin

Touching the Void: The True

Story of One Man's

Miraculous Survival Joe Simpson Mr. Rubey

Tuesdays With Morrie: An

Old Man, a Young Man, and

Life's Greatest Lesson Mitch Albom Mr. Sommers

Unbroken: A World War II

Story of Survival, Resilience,

and Redemption Laura Hillenbrand Mr. Headley

Walk in Their Shoes: Can

One Person Change the

World? Jim Ziolkowski Mr. Sommers

West With the Night Beryl Markham Ms. Anderson

Would You Baptize an

Extraterrestrial? ...and Other

Questions from the

Astronomers' In-box at the

Vatican Observatory

G. Consolmagno and P.

Mueller Br. David

Zoot Suit Luis Valdez Ms. Mendez

Summary Length

A high school English teacher

goes back in time to prevent

the assassination of JFK.

866

pages

The unforgettable memoir of

a freeman kidnapped and

sold into slavery.

156

pages

Desperate to avoid his 100th

birthday party, Allan Karlsson

climbs out the window of his

room at the nursing home

and heads to the nearest bus

station, intending to travel as

far as his pocket money will

take him.

400

pages

Who is Jenna Fox?

Seventeen-year-old Jenna

has been told that is her

name. She has just awoken

from a coma, they tell her,

and she is still recovering

from a terrible accident in

which she was involved a

year ago. But what happened

before that? Jenna doesn't

remember her life. Or does

she? And are the memories

really hers?

288

pages

Paulo Coelho's masterpiece

tells the mystical story of

Santiago, an Andalusian

shepherd boy who yearns to

travel in search of a worldly

treasure.

208

pages

A murder mystery introducing

an ancient secret

brotherhood.

736

pages

Thirteen chapters provide a

monthly snapshot of Jason

Taylor's life in small-town

England from January 1982

to January 1983. Whether the

13-year-old narrator is battling

his stammer or trying to

navigate the social hierarchy

of his schoolmates or

watching the slow

disintegration of his parents'

marriage, he relates his story

in a voice that is achingly true

to life.

304

pages

Our protagonist becomes the

priceless package of size,

speed, and agility necessary

to guard the quarterback's

greatest vulnerability: his blind

side.

352

pages

A city is hit by an epidemic of

'white blindness' which spares

no one. Authorities confine

the blind to an empty mental

hospital, but there the criminal

element holds everyone

captive. A magnificent

parable of loss and

disorientation and a vivid

evocation of the horrors of the

twentieth century.

352

pages

Liesel Meminger is a foster

girl living outside of Munich,

who scratches out a meager

existence for herself by

stealing when she encounters

something she can’t

resist–books.

576

pages

A study of the impact bottled

water has ecologically and

economically.

266

pages

When twenty-four-year-old

Susannah Cahalan woke up

alone in a hospital room,

strapped to her bed and

unable to move or speak, she

had no memory of how she’d

gotten there. Days earlier,

she had been on the

threshold of a new, adult life:

at the beginning of her first

serious relationship and a

promising career at a major

New York newspaper. Now

she was labeled violent,

psychotic, a flight risk. What

happened? Susannah tells

the astonishing true story of

her descent into madness,

her family’s inspiring faith in

her, and the lifesaving

diagnosis that nearly didn’t

happen.

288

pages

Oscar is a sweet but

disastrously overweight

ghetto nerd who—from the

New Jersey home he shares

with his old world mother and

rebellious sister—dreams of

becoming the Dominican

J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of

all, finding love.

339

pages

MK’s memoir is an

unforgettable tale of how one

precocious, confused kid

educated himself through

gangs, rap, mystic cults,

ghetto philosophy, and,

eventually, books. It is an

inspiring tribute to the power

of literature to heal and

redeem us.

272

pages

Cannibal Reign follows the

fortunes of a small band of

survivors, as they make their

way across a nightmare

landscape populated by

bestial, flesh-eating savages

after an asteroid strike

destroys America.

512

pages

“...a good ‘coming of age’

tale" _ Ms. McCormick

224

pages

Eye-opening information

about a product that is

ubiquitous in our lives.

384

pages

Code Name Verity is a

visceral read of danger,

resolve, and survival that

shows just how far true

friends will go to save each

other.

368

pages

The Pulitzer Prize-winning

novel that tells the story of

two sisters through their

correspondence.

300

pages

Laurie Garrett takes you on a

fifty-year journey through the

world's battles with microbes.

768

pages

Counting Coup is a sobering

exposé of a part of our

society long since cut out of

the American dream.

434

pages

Told from the perspective of a

young, autistic boy, this book

will help you understand what

it means to walk in someone

else’s shoes.

226

pages

Dan Brown's novel is a

thrilling masterpiece—from its

opening pages to its stunning

conclusion.

597

pages

In February 1959, a group of

nine experienced hikers in the

Russian Ural Mountains died

mysteriously on an elevation

known as Dead Mountain. A

fascinating portrait of the

young hikers and a skillful

interweaving of their story and

the author's investigations,

here for the first time is the

real story of what happened

that night on Dead Mountain .

288

pages

A little book with a big punch. 96 pages

This extraordinary story of

courage and faith is based on

the actual experiences of

three girls who fled from the

repressive life of Moore River

Native Settlement.

160

pages

"Another thoughtful novel by

Morrison. I can’t wait to talk to

students about it” - Mr.

Thomas

The Good Food Revolution is

the story of Will's personal

journey, the lives he has

touched, and a grassroots

movement that is changing

the way our nation eats.

304

pages

Kathryn Stockett creates

three extraordinary women

whose determination to start

a movement of their own

forever changes a town.

544

pages

Breathtakingly suspenseful

and beautifully written, The

Historian is the story of a

young woman plunged into a

labyrinth where the secrets of

her family's past connect to

an inconceivable evil: the

dark fifteenth-century reign of

Vlad the Impaler and a time-

defying pact that may have

kept his awful work alive

through the ages.

909

pages

"Simply the funniest book I

have ever read." - Mr.

Thomas

224

pages

How To Be Manly is more

than a coming of age story--

it's a gritty quest full of

heart...a sharp, comic novel

about trying to do the right

thing… even when you’re not

sure what that is.

354

pages

"There is terror in numbers,"

writes Darrell Huff in How to

Lie with Statistics . And

nowhere does this terror

translate to blind acceptance

of authority more than in the

slippery world of averages,

correlations, graphs, and

trends. Huff sought to break

through "the daze that follows

the collision of statistics with

the human mind" with this

slim volume, first published in

1954.

144

pages

An arresting narrative of the

birth of the Mormon Church,

Joseph Smith: Rough Stone

Rolling also brilliantly

evaluates the prophet’s bold

contributions to Christian

theology and his cultural

place in the modern world.

288

pages

An arresting narrative of the

birth of the Mormon Church,

Joseph Smith: Rough Stone

Rolling also brilliantly

evaluates the prophet’s bold

contributions to Christian

theology and his cultural

place in the modern world.

784

pages

A must-read -- an ardent

activist, champion of political

reform, novelist, and

progressive journalist, Upton

Sinclair is perhaps best

known today for The Jungle

— his devastating exposé of

the meat-packing industry. A

protest novel he privately

published in 1906, the book

was a shocking revelation of

intolerable labor practices and

unsanitary working conditions

in the Chicago stockyards.

304

pages

Just Mercy examines who is

on death row in America,

including children tried as

adults, and the legacy of

racism, poverty and inequality

that underlies the

disproportion of people of

color who are executed.

352

pages

"A beautiful book about

growing up too fast. My

favorite book in my early

teens. Warning: It's a

weeper." - Ms. Bernales

178

pages

"This totally inspiring book will

force you to consider how far

you are willing to go to right

the wrongs of our world.” -

Ms. Hubbell

332

pages

An audacious, addictive, and

profoundly surprising

international literary

sensation; unafraid of the big

issues--death, love, art, fear--

and yet committed to the

intimate details of life as it is

lived, My Struggle is an

essential work of

contemporary literature.

448

pages

Former slave, impassioned

abolitionist, brilliant writer,

newspaper editor and

eloquent orator whose

speeches fired the abolitionist

cause, Frederick Douglass

led an astounding life. 96 pages

Fan, a female fish-tank diver,

leaves her home in the B-Mor

settlement (once known as

Baltimore), when the man she

loves mysteriously

disappears. Fan’s journey to

find him takes her out of the

safety of B-Mor, through the

anarchic Open Counties,

where crime is rampant with

scant governmental oversight,

and to a faraway charter

village, in a quest that will

soon become legend to those

she left behind.

432

pages

Wilde forged a devastating

portrait of the effects of evil

and debauchery on a young

aesthete in late-19th-century

England.

176

pages

The race is on, and if Wade's

going to survive, he'll have to

win—and confront the real

world he's always been so

desperate to escape.

384

pages

Jack Gilbert writes poetry

about the mundane in all its

beauty. He talks about love,

sadness, and morality in

simple language that moves

the heart.

112

pages

Just when everything is

coming together for Sam, his

girlfriend Alicia drops a

bombshell. Make that ex-

girlfriend-- because by the

time she tells him she's

pregnant, they've already

called it quits. Sam does not

want to be a teenage dad. His

mom had him at sixteen and

has made it very clear how

having a baby so young

interrupted her life. There's

only one person Sam can turn

to--his hero, skating legend

Tony Hawk. Sam believes the

answers to life's hurdles can

be found in Hawk's

autobiography.

304

pages

An amazing story that

chronicles Homeboy

Industries, a gang-

intervention program in Los

Angeles — this book reminds

us how people can make a

difference in our world.

240

pages

An enchanting debut and a

spellbinding tale of fate and

belief in the bonds of love.

546

pages

An old man lies dying.

Confined to bed in his living

room, he sees the walls

around him begin to collapse,

the windows come loose from

their sashes, and the ceiling

plaster fall off in great chunks,

showering him with a lifetime

of debris: newspaper

clippings, old photographs,

wool jackets, rusty tools, and

the mangled brass works of

antique clocks. Soon, the

clouds from the sky above

plummet down on top of him,

followed by the stars, till the

black night covers him like a

shroud. He is hallucinating, in

death throes from cancer and

kidney failure...

191

pages

"Joe Simpson and his

climbing partner, Simon

Yates, had just reached the

top of a 21,000-foot peak in

the Andes when disaster

struck. Simpson plunged off

the vertical face of an ice

ledge, breaking his leg. In the

hours that followed, darkness

fell and a blizzard raged as

Yates tried to lower his friend

to safety. Finally, Yates was

forced to cut the rope,

moments before he would

have been pulled to his own

death..."

218

pages

"Albom writes a lot of great

books, but I think this is the

best. It is about love and

dying." - Mr. Sommers

192

pages

The story of an unbreakable

human spirit that makes the

reader feel that there’s

nothing life can throw at you

that you can’t overcome. Also

recommended by Arlo Rudy,

Class of 2015.

528

pages

Walk in Their Shoes is the

powerful, personal story of

Jim Ziolkowski's inspiring

mission to change the world

one community at a time.

272

pages

Born Beryl Clutterbuck in the

middle of England, Beryl

Markham and her father

moved to Kenya when she

was a girl, and she grew up

with a zebra for a pet; horses

for friends; baboons, lions,

and gazelles for neighbors.

She made money by scouting

elephants from a tiny plane.

And she would spend most of

the rest of her life in East

Africa as an adventurer, a

racehorse trainer, and an

aviatrix—she became the first

person to fly nonstop from

Europe to America, the first

woman to fly solo east to west

across the Atlantic. Hers was

indisputably a life full of

adventure and beauty.

293

pages

Witty and thought provoking,

two Vatican astronomers

shed provocative light on

some of the strange places

where religion and science

meet.

304

pages

Zoot Suit is a play that tells

the story of Henry Reyna and

the 38th Street Gang, who

were tried for the Sleepy

Lagoon murder in Los

Angeles, during World War II.

214

pages