2012 Summer Reading Guide - Hopkins School

Park, Jacqueline The Secret Book of Grazia dei Rossi
A young Jewish woman living through the Italian Renaissance faces an impossible choice between
passion and tradition. A look at fifteenth-century Italy through a lens of love and loss.
Shaara, Michael Killer Angels
A gripping view of the battle of Gettysburg through the eyes of the main players, both the famous and
the little known.
Slotkin, Richard Abe: A Novel of the Young Lincoln
An American president “comes-of-age” in this creative portrayal of young Abe Lincoln, and Slotkin
weaves imagination with historical detail to engage readers. When Abe loses both his mother and
sister, he travels from north to south along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans, and he
becomes a different person in the process.
Sobel, Dava Galileo’s Daughter
Sobel’s novel about “The Father of Modern Science” is based on letters between Galileo and his
illegitimate daughter.
Stone, Irving The Agony and the Ecstasy
Stone’s exhaustively researched, first-person account of the life of Michelangelo brings alive the
bustling streets of Florence, as well as the vivid emotions and surging passion which created the
Italian Renaissance.
Uris, Leon Exodus
Uris writes a fast-moving novel tracing the history of the Jews from the close of the 19 th century to
the establishment of the state of Israel.
Wouk, Herman The Winds of War
A fictional recreation of the years leading up to America's entry into World War II. In addition to
romance and personal drama, the book provides sound insight into pre-war European/American
politics.
NONFICTION
Abbey, Edward Desert Solitaire
Following in the footsteps of Thoreau, John Muir, and Aldo Leopold, Abbey wanders through the
American Southwest and the wilderness of his imagination.
Ambrose, Stephen Band of Brothers
This gripping history follows two WWII US Airborne divisions through training, D-Day, the Battle of
the Bulge, and the defeat of Germany.
Applegate, Debby The Most Famous Man in America:
The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher
Beecher was a Civil War-era preacher whose alleged affair with a parishioner caused nationwide
scandal. This Pulitzer Prize-winner, features lively prose and a well-meaning but flawed central
character.
Ballard, Robert The Discovery of the Titanic
An exciting story by the first person to locate and explore the wreckage of the ship that went down in
1912.
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