10th_Summer Reading_2009 - Friends' Central School

FRIENDS’ CENTRAL SCHOOL 10 TH GRADE SUMMER READING LIST (2009-2010)
Sophomores are required to read the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and Nickel and
Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. The books were chosen as a pair because of the many interesting
ways they connect with each other while at the same time introducing several important themes
that we will continue to follow through the rest of the year.
There will be a quiz on these works on the first day of class, and they will form the basis of our
first unit of study in the fall. Thus you will need your own copy of the texts to use in class. Take
notes and mark up the texts as you read. In order to help guide your reading and to prepare you
for our study of the two texts when we return to school in September, we have compiled the
questions below for your consideration.
In addition, all students must select and read one additional book from the attached optional list.
This book will be discussed during the first week of school in a group composed of other
students who read that book and the teacher who selected it.
1. What makes the stories depicted in these works tragic? Having studied the tragedy of
Macbeth in 9 th grade, do you see any correlations between its tragic elements and the
forces operating in Ehrenreich's and Steinbeck's narratives? In what ways might an
understanding of a model tragedy like Macbeth help us make sense of the conflicts in
Nickel and Dimed and Of Mice and Men?
2. In a 1938 journal entry, John Steinbeck wrote, "if you understand [another person], you
will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always
leads to love." How do the relationships and friendships in both texts foster this kind of
knowledge and understanding of others? What prevents such understanding?
3. Both Of Mice and Men and Nickel and Dimed examine the ways in which people come
to understand themselves as a part of a larger, multi-faceted world. How do the
individuals in both texts navigate and understand the political, cultural and/or social
structures in which they live?
4. Both books are set in work worlds that depend on their employees, but simultaneously
devalue them. What are some specific ways that the hired hands in Of Mice and Men
and the unskilled laborers in Nickel and Dimed are kept in their places and made to feel
of little worth or even expendable?
5. If the message from the employers in both books is, finally, that their workers have little
personal value, how do the laborers and employees manage to find meaning or selfrespect,
and how effective are these forms of survival and resistance?
6. In different ways Ehrenreich and Steinbeck create stories that reveal environments and
people who are often invisible within society. What is the purpose and value of telling

these stories? What influence does the choice of form (documentary/participant vs.
fictional re-creation) have on the impact of the stories themselves?
7. There is a Quaker saying, “Let your life speak.” What do the lives Ehrenreich and
Steinbeck depict in these texts “speak” to us? What do these stories in particular reveal
about the nature and value of storytelling?
FRIENDS’ CENTRAL SCHOOL 2009 OPTIONAL SUMMER READING
Many teachers, not just English teachers, like to read and talk about books—and many different
kinds of books, not just the kind that occur to English teachers to select, are stimulating and
enjoyable. You’ll find 28 books listed below, each with the name of a recommending teacher
attached. We’re confident that we’ve come up with something for everyone. Choose one of
these books and read it. When we come back to school in the fall, we’ll organize book
discussion groups—about a class block in length—where you can talk about the book with the
teacher who recommended it and the other students in 10 th , 11 th , and 12 th grade who chose to
read it. Make sure you have a few things to say about the book when your group meets—and
have a great summer, both while you’re reading and while you’re not!
This year’s choices (select one):
Please choose a new book—do not read a book you read for this project in previous years.
1. Incident at Vichy by Arthur Miller Mme.
Ostroff-Weinberg
From books.google.com:
In Vichy France in 1942, eight men and a boy are seized by the collaborationist authorities and
made to wait in a building that may be a police station. Some of them are Jews. All of them have
something to hide-- if not from the Nazis, then from their fellow detainees and, inevitably, from
themselves. For in this claustrophobic antechamber to the death camps, everyone is guilty. And
perhaps none more so than those who can walk away alive. In Incident at Vichy, Arthur Miller
re-creates Dante's hell inside the gaping pit that is our history and populates it with sinners
whose crimes are all the more fearful because they are so recognizable.
2. Q & A by Vikas Swarup
Dr. Patterson
The novel that inspired the 2008 Best Picture, “Slumdog Millionaire.” The hero, Ram
Mohammad Thomas, poor and ill-educated, becomes the winner on an Indian version of "Who
Wants to Be a Millionaire" and is catapulted to fame. He is also accused of cheating, since it

seems impossible that someone from his caste could possibly win on his own merits. Narrated in
first person by Ram, his story reveals how the answers to the questions have come from the
uncanny experiences he has had in his short life. The book is different enough from the movie
that one can't substitute for the other, but similar enough that you can read the book and watch
the film and decide which is better. Or just read the book.
3. True Notebooks: A Writer’s Year at Juvenile Hall by Mark Salzman Ms.
Morton
True Notebooks chronicles the year novelist Mark Salzman (Lost in Place, Iron and Silk) taught
creative writing at Central Juvenile Hall, a youth detention center in Los Angeles. The book
focuses on the lives of Salzman’s students—teenagers considered “high-risk offenders,” most
awaiting trial for “187s” (police code for murder). Salzman reveals glimpses of these students’
lives through their own writing, which is crude, terrifying, and sometimes shockingly beautiful.
I read this in high school and am still haunted by one of the poems in the book. This is powerful,
moving, well-written…and absolutely true.
4. The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
Ms. Torpey
Twelve-year old David is mourning his mother's death and resisting the changes it brings--his
father's marriage to Rose, and their move out of London to the house where Rose grew up.
David's room in the house, high in the attic, is filled with books from a previous occupant. The
books have started talking to David, and he is having trouble keeping the fairy-tale world of the
books and the real world separate. As fantasy becomes David's reality, he hears his mother's
voice calling to him, and one night he follows it . . . . Check out the website:
http://www.thebookoflostthings.com/
5. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Ms. Goldader
"Twilight" fans, you know this is Bella's favorite book. How similar is the love story of Bella
and Edward to that of Catherine and Heathcliff? Read, and let's talk about it.
6. The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama by Gwen Ifill
Mr. Crauderueff
In The Breakthrough, Gwen Ifill offers her analysis of contemporary African American politics,
which have developed a new identity in recent years. The book is based on Ifill’s long-term
observations as a newspaper reporter and correspondent, as well as interviews she completed
with significant African American politicians. She particularly investigates the “sandpaper
moments” that cause initial discomfort but ultimately lead to transformation in the areas of age,
gender, region and – of course – race.
7. In Small Things Forgotten by James Deetz
Dr. Graham
Or, clay pots, tombstones, and brick houses - oh, my! This short paperback book on the
archaeology of early America is not your usual FCS book, because it's not fiction and no one
dies. Deetz takes a look at the way that historical artifacts speak to us, in what historians call a

"material cultures" approach to the past. For example, in the chapter "Remember me as you pass
by," he looks at the way that changes in the carving of tombstones show changing attitudes
towards death. He considers houses, dishes, and the archaeological research into a small
community called "Parting Ways," a free black community established in Massachusetts at the
end of the 18th century. Something fun to read if you feel like getting your history on!
8. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Ms. Novo
The Thirteenth Tale opens with a letter from one book-loving stranger to another: Vida Winter,
the most famous and flamboyant writer in England, writes to Margaret Lea, who runs a rare book
shop with her father and has never read a single one of Vida’s books. Over many years, Vida
has spun implausible, fantastic tales about her origins to countless interviewers—and now, out of
the blue, invites Margaret to become her official biographer, promising finally to reveal
truthfully the secrets of her past. To her own surprise, Margaret takes her up on the offer,
traveling to Vida’s mysterious, decrepit family home to interview her. Margaret is surprised to
find how strongly she is attracted to Vida; at the same time she is suspicious, a scholar who vows
to test the validity of each part of Vida’s story. The story that unfolds is hard to believe and yet
compels belief, and the relationship between Vida and Margaret, storyteller and recipient, is
replicated in the relationship that develops between Margaret, the novel’s narrator, and us, its
readers as we travel through this world of ghosts, mistaken identity, secrets, surprises, disaster,
disguise, loneliness, suspense and, ultimately, resolution.
9. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
Ms. Schumacher
Renee is a concierge for an elegant residence in Paris. Subjected to the ignorance of the elite
tenants of the building, she plays into the stereotypes they believe apply to all those who are not
rich like themselves. In reality, Renee is a genius, a lover of Tolstoy and Japanese films.
Paloma is a twelve-year-old tenant of the same building for which Renee is a concierge. Paloma
is disillusioned by all the wealth she sees around her. She too is bright, but she has also decided
that upon her thirteenth birthday, she will kill herself. However, both Paloma and Renee’s lives
will be turned upside down when a new resident moves into their elite Parisian apartment
building. Join me for a delightful adventure into the Parisian world of Paloma and Renee.
10. The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis
Mr. Morris
From npr.org:
If you read the big stories about NFL football, you'll notice that some positions get a lot more
attention than others: receivers, quarterbacks and running backs. Sometimes even menacing
linebackers or brilliantly athletic cornerbacks get attention, too. But Michael Lewis' new book
about football, The Blind Side, makes a counterintuitive argument: that the pivotal position on a
football team today is the offensive left tackle. Through the story of Michael Oher, a top-notch
football prospect with the rare qualities of a "perfect" offensive left tackle, The Blind Side traces
how the position's importance has evolved, and how money has affected the game.

11. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Ms. Gowen-Tolcott
When I read this novel last year, I was profoundly moved. This is a tale of the struggle of
women in the Afghan society during the past thirty years. In this novel, love, friendship and
sacrifice play major roles. In a clear and powerful style, the author shows how the political
events that annihilated a country could not destroy the resilience of the main characters. Since
Afghanistan is still facing an uncertain fate, this novel is timely and compelling, and makes us
hope for a better future for its citizens, especially the women.
12. Measure for Measure AND Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare
Terry Guerin
Let’s talk politics, sexual and otherwise, in two of Shakespeare's more obscure "problem" plays.
13. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Mrs. Brodsky
Last spring, while browsing in a bookstore in Sydney, Australia, I decided I should read a book
by an Australian author. The Book Thief was my choice and once I got through the first 30
pages, I couldn't put it down! The story, set in Nazi Germay, begins as a young Liesel Meminger
travels to a small town outside of Munich. Along the way, her brother dies and during his
funeral, Liesel steals her first book, The Gravedigger’s Handbook. Narrated by Death, The Book
Thief tells the story of Liesl over the next five years: her foster parents, the ill-tempered Rosa and
mellow, accordion-playing Hans (who teaches her to read her first stolen book), her best friend
Rudy, the poverty-stricken life she leads in wartime Germany, the books she steals, the Jew in
the basement and the words that inspire them all.
14. Memories of Amnesia by Lawrence Shainberg
Mr. Sheppard
For those who prefer their humor dark, keep reading. If you're also kept up at night by the
haunting fact that your precious consciousness is somehow born from that ugly, wrinkled mass
of neurons and blood vessels resting easy on your pillow, this book is for you. When an
insightful brain surgeon begins to observe, in himself, symptoms of brain disease, his medical
knowledge becomes a blessing and a curse. Horrified and curious, he forges ahead on a
precarious path as both patient and doctor, protagonist and antagonist, host and disease. Through
infected and infecting prose, come see what happens as a man's mind erodes before your eyes,
and self- discovery becomes inextricable from self-destruction.
15. Remainder by Tom McCarthy
Mr. Kennedy
Jonathan Lethem, one of our best novelists, describes Remainder as "a stunningly strange book
about the rarest of fictional subjects: happiness." He is not wrong. A man recovering from a
random and rather serious injury receives an enormous financial settlement for his pain. What to
do with the money? Charity? Self-indulgence? No, he wants to feel real again. The only way
he can think to make that happen is to recreate a moment from his past and place himself in that
space. What starts out as a harmless quest becomes a deadly obsession in this Kafkaesque tale.
By the time you realize you are trapped in McCarthy's world you will not be able to find the exit,
much less use it.

16. The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Ms. Ewen
“Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.” This famous opening line of Virginia
Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway is the thread that intertwines the lives of three women in Cunningham’s
Pulitzer-Prize winning novel—Virginia Woolf herself, Laura Brown, a housewife who turns the
pages of Woolf’s novel, and Clarissa Vaughn, a modern Manhattanite whom we meet as she sets
out to buy flowers for a party she’s giving. The novel traces a day in the life of these three
women who are separated by history but who are drawn to the fictional character of Mrs.
Dalloway and the parts of their own lives they see in hers.
17. Mona in the Promised Land by Gish Jen
Mr. MacFarlane
An admired former professor of mine at college includes Gish Jen in her list of the top ten
underappreciated American Women writers, "one of the funniest and most free-wheeling
novelists of the multicultural
90s." This first got me interested in reading her. When I saw the Amazon.com description of the
title character of this novel, I thought many students here might appreciate an introduction to the
author as
well. Mona, it tells us, is "a self-described 'self-made mouth' [who] goes to temple, loves pickles,
is boy-crazy, worries about getting into the right college and keeping up with her over-achieving
sister,
and wishes her parents were less strict. Her equally Jewish Westchester classmates hardly notice
what everyone else finds hard to forget: Mona may be Jewish by choice (and voice) and
American by nationality, but her surname is Chang and she is considered less an expert on seders
and schmaltz than China."
18. We Are All Welcome Here by Elizabeth Berg
Ms. Haimm
From borders.com:
It is the summer of 1964. In Tupelo, Mississippi, the town of Elvis's birth, tensions are mounting
over civil-rights demonstrations occurring ever more frequently -- and violently – across the
state. But in Paige Dunn's small, ramshackle house, there are more immediate concerns.
Challenged by the effects of the polio she contracted during her last month of pregnancy, Paige
is nonetheless determined to live as normal a life as possible and to raise her daughter, Diana, in
the way she sees fit – with the support of her tough-talking black caregiver, Peacie. As the
summer unfolds, hate and adversity will visit this modest home. Despite the difficulties thrust
upon them, each of the women will find her own path to independence, understanding, and
peace. And Diana's mother, so mightily compromised, will end up giving her daughter an
extraordinary gift few parents could match.

17. Idea Factory: Learning to Think at MIT by Pepper White Mr.
Buckingham
“Getting an education at MIT is like getting a drink of water from a firehose,'' says one of
White's fellow students in this grad school memoir. Test anxiety, lab-project drama, and stylish
prose propel White's recollections with enough force to make three years of engineering study
compelling, even to readers committed to the liberal arts. The professors' egos, the career stakes,
and the quizzes are presented as intense. This is a personal story of the educational process at one
of the world's great technological universities. Pepper White entered MIT in 1981 and received
his master's degree in mechanical engineering in 1984. His account of his experiences, written in
diary form, offers insight into graduate school life in general--including the loneliness and even
desperation that can result from the intense pressure to succeed--and the purposes of engineering
education in particular. The first professor White met at MIT told him that it did not really matter
what he learned there, but that MIT would teach him how to think.
18. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
Ms. Plunkett
From the book jacket:
The first novel in Alexander McCall Smith’s widely acclaimed The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective
Agency series tells the story of the delightfully cunning and enormously engaging Precious
Ramotswe, who is drawn to her profession to “help people with the problems in their lives.”
Immediately upon setting up shop in a small storefront in Gaborone, she is hired to track down a
missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. But the case that tugs at
her heart, and lands her in danger, is that of a missing eleven-year-old boy, who may have been
snatched by witch doctors.
19. Why Is Sex Fun: The Evolution of Human Sexuality by Jared Diamond
Mr. Vernacchio
If you enjoyed Jared Diamond’s visit to FCS this Spring and his intellectual yet approachable
way of talking about complex subjects – or if you’re just interested in human sexuality – this is a
great book for you. Diamond calls humans the “animals with the weirdest sex lives” and in this
book he explores the evolutionary path that led to such behaviors as sex for pleasure, sex as a
private behavior, the role of the human male in sex, and the reason for female menopause; the
topics are hetero-centric, but fascinating nonetheless. Written in a scholarly and scientific tone,
this book is certainly not a “how-to” manual, but rather an interesting exploration of why humans
behave the way they do. As Diamond says in his preface, “…the book may help you understand
why your body feels the way it does, and why your beloved is behaving the way he or she is.”
20. 1984 by George Orwell
Mr. Dankoff
In a world where Big Brother is always watching you and Thought Police can practically read
your mind, Winston Smith is in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still
functions. Written in 1949 amidst the anti-communist hysteria of the Cold War, the novel
depicts a future totalitarian government that censors everyone’s behavior and thoughts. Winston
is disgusted with his oppressed life and secretly longs to join the fabled Brotherhood, a supposed

group of underground rebels intent on overthrowing the government. When I read this book in
high school, my understanding of the world’s potential cracked wide open.
21. Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger
Ms. Lager
Everyone in the world has read The Catcher in the Rye, that edgy book about growing up in New
York and being the sharp-eyed Holden Caulfield. At about the same time, its author, J.D.
Salinger, was writing short stories, published in one slim volume called Nine Stories. This book
includes children who are too wise for their years, teenagers who steal, and unhappy and
disappointed adults wishing they were children again. Altogether, the stories may be the most
read short stories in contemporary fiction with the most remembered characters, like the
Laughing Man, Esme, Teddy and Uncle Wiggly.
22. Little Heathens by Mildred Armstrong Kalish
Ms. McConnell
Having spent childhood days of simple bliss on my grandparents' farm in Honeybrook, Chester
County, I was immediately drawn to the possibility of reliving, or at least rethinking, some of
those memories. After a chockfull school year, I find myself ready for a simple and good read
like that afforded by Little Heathens. The author, Mildred Kalish, writes about growing up on her
grandparents' Iowa farm during the Great Depression. Instead of focusing on the hardships
presented, she tells of "the legacy of kinship, kindness and remembered pleasures." I'm looking
forward to reading in the moment. Make me a promise. If you choose this book for your summer
reading, you will take out your earbuds and turn off your cell phone.
23. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie Jim
Rosengarten
The back of this book reads, “In this darkly comic short story collection, Sherman Alexie, a
Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, brilliantly weaves memory, fantasy, and stark realism to paint a
complex, grimly ironic portrait of life in and around the Spokane Indian Reservation. These
twenty-two interlinked tales are narrated by characters raised on humiliation and governmentissue
cheese, and yet are filled with passion and affection, myth and dream.” I remember being
enthralled by Alexie, not only as a story-teller, of which he is a fine one, but also with his ability
to portray humanity in all its complicated beauty. I hope you join me for a great read which is
bound to lead to a great chat.
24. Black Ice by Lorene Cary
Ms. Johnson
From randomhouse.com:
In 1972 Lorene Cary, a bright, ambitious black teenager from Philadelphia, was transplanted into
the formerly all-white, all-male environs of the elite St. Paul's School in New Hampshire, where
she became a scholarship student in a "boot camp" for future American leaders. Like any good
student, she was determined to succeed. But Cary was also determined to succeed without

selling out. This wonderfully frank and perceptive memoir describes the perils and ambiguities
of that double role, in which failing calculus and winning a student election could both be
interpreted as betrayals of one's skin.
25. The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr
Mrs. Sabaj-Perez
From amazon.com:
In this funny, razor-edged memoir, Mary Karr, a prize-winning poet and critic, looks back at her
upbringing in a swampy East Texas refinery town with a volatile, defiantly loving family. She
recalls her painter mother, seven times married, whose outlaw spirit could tip into psychosis; a
fist-swinging father who spun tales with his cronies--dubbed the Liars' Club; and a neighborhood
rape when she was eight. An inheritance was squandered, endless bottles emptied, and guns
leveled at the deserving and undeserving. With a raw authenticity stripped of self-pity and a
poet's eye for the lyrical detail, Karr shows us a "terrific family of liars and drunks ... redeemed
by a slow unearthing of truth."
26. The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard
Matt Murphy
The Hidden Persuaders was the first book about most of the things we take for granted about
marketing. The title refers to the psychological methods advertisers use to get us to buy their
products, and the book is a fascinating study about the human brain. Take yourself back to 1957,
before the world at large truly knew what was being pitched to us, and this book is pioneering.
Even today, it stands tall as a classic examination of how our thoughts and feelings are
manipulated by business, media and politicians. Much has changed in the world, but these same
tenets still hold true. Read this book and learn how to beat the people who are constantly trying
to brainwash you.