Motherless Booklyn / Jonathan Lethem (Random House, 2000), 336 pp. ISBN 0375724834

[Recommended by Diane Herschleb, US English]

“He’s just a big mouse, Daddy, a vigorous louse, big as a house, a couch, a man, a plan, a canal, apocalypse.” So goes the narration of Jonathan Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn, a gritty, fast paced and warm hearted mystery whose protagonist, Lionel Essrog, is an orphan with Tourette’s syndrome. As readers we follow Essrog on his mission to find and punish the murderer of his mentor Frank Minna, the leader of a gang of misfits Frank commandeered to work in his makeshift detective agency. We can’t help but care deeply about Essrog as we travel through the convolutions of his urban search for justice.

The Pact / Jodi Picoult (Avon, 2006) 512 pp. ISBN 9780061150142

[Recommended by Wendy Steele, US Attendance and Dorm Parent]

From publisher comments: “Until the phone calls came at three o'clock on a November morning, the Golds and their neighbors, the Hartes, had been inseparable. It was no surprise to anyone when their teenage children, Chris and Emily, began showing signs that their relationship was moving beyond that of lifelong friends. But now seventeen-year-old Emily is dead—shot with a gun her beloved and devoted Chris pilfered from his father's cabinet as part of an apparent suicide pact—leaving two devastated families stranded in the dark and dense predawn, desperate for answers about an unthinkable act and the children they never really knew.”

Parasites Like Us / Adam Johnson (Penguin, 2004), 352 pp., ISBN 9780142004777

[Recommended by Robin Schauffler, US English and Service]

To be honest, I don’t know what to think of Adam Johnson’s Parasites Like Us. I know it scared the stuffing out of me, and I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s set in a Midwest university town, pretty much now, but it quickly descends into a weird, horrifying look into the distant human past and into a gruesome and disastrous future. My nephew, who is now attending a small town Midwestern university, told me I had to read it, and once I started I couldn’t put it down. So is it, as Publishers Weekly says, “an erratic, overstuffed satire,” an “elaborate concoction that sags under its own weight.”? or do I agree with Esquire that it’s a “fantastically twisted and terrifying first novel.”? Or maybe it shows, as Booklist suggests, “the same inventiveness, black humor, and penetrating insight” that Johnson’s short stories exhibit. And then there’s The New York Times Book Review, weighing in with “A grim romp of a first novel... great ingenuity and bravado . . . an artifact of real ambition and originality.” STLtoday.com advises the reader to “hunt down, gather and devour this splendid novel.”  I suggest you do the same, and decide for yourself how to describe this bizarre and frightening view of a possible—and fairly plausible--near future.

Plug-In Hybrids: The Cars That Will Re-Charge America / Sherry Boschert ( New Society, 2006), 231pp. ISBN 9780865715714

[Recommended by James K. '08]

This book is about all that we need to change in America's oil consumption through cars and what can be done to fix it. Current hybrids only gain electric power through regenerative breaking (instead of losing energy through friction, they put it back into usable energy); plug-in hybrids run essentially like a 100-percent electric car, but you get energy through a much more efficient and clean energy grid. Plug-in hybrids have the potential to dramatically reduce car energy consumption, even if they get their electricity from coal or oil power plants.

Rogue Male / Geoffrey Household (Orion, 1999), 192 pp. ISBN 9780753804353

[Recommended by Peter Langley, US Biology]

From Powells.com: The narrator stalks a human prey, a man guarded by the best in the land, a man with a vested interest in keeping himself out of the sights of an assassin. With the prey in his sight, the hero is apprehended. Left to fall from a cliff, he lands in a bog and here begins his flight to freedom.

Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas / Sylviane A. Diouf (NYU, 1998), 304 pp., ISBN 9780814719053

[Recommended by Jordan Elliott, Interim Head of Upper School]

From Powells.com: Servants of Allah explores the stories of African Muslim slaves in the New World. The author argues that although Islam as brought by the Africans did not outlive the last slaves, "what they wrote on the sands of the plantations is a successful story of strength, resilience, courage, pride, and dignity." She discusses Christian Europeans, African Muslims, the Atlantic slave trade, literacy, revolts, and the Muslim legacy.

Sometimes a Great Notion / Ken Kesey (Penguin, 1977), 640 pp., ISBN 9780140045291

[Recommended by Terry Hansen, US Religion]

Considered by many to be the great Oregon novel, Sometimes a Great Notion is, according to The Chicago Tribune, “a contemporary classic.” Powells.com says: “Reading Sometimes a Great Notion (I finally made it past the first 100 labyrinthine pages after many failed attempts) had such a profound impact on me; it spoke so directly to my core and to what brought me to the land of big trees and ocean breeze (I'm getting chills just writing this). I believe this book is Kesey's real masterpiece, and is fundamental to understanding the Northwest.”

The Sparrow / Mary Doria Russell (Ballantine, 1997), 432 pp. ISBN 0449912558

[Recommended by Stephen Decker, US Science]

From publisher comments: “An astonishing literary debut, The Sparrow takes you on a journey to a distant planet and to the center of the human soul. It is the story of a charismatic Jesuit priest and linguist, Emilio Sandoz, who leads a twenty-first-century scientific mission to a newly discovered extraterrestrial culture. Sandoz and his companions are prepared to endure isolation, hardship and death, but nothing can prepare them for the civilization they encounter, or for the tragic misunderstanding that brings the mission to a catastrophic end. Once considered a living saint, Sandoz returns alone to Earth physically and spiritually maimed, the mission's sole survivor — only to be accused of heinous crimes and blamed for the mission's failure.”

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time / Greg Mortonson and David Relin (Penguin, 2007), 349 pp. ISBN 9780143038252

[Recommended by Deri Bash, US Technology and Dorm Parent]

From Publishers Weekly:  "Some failures lead to phenomenal successes, and this American nurse's unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, the world's second tallest mountain, is one of them. Dangerously ill when he finished his climb in 1993, Mortenson was sheltered for seven weeks by the small Pakistani village of Korphe; in return, he promised to build the impoverished town's first school, a project that grew into the Central Asia Institute, which has since constructed more than 50 schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. Coauthor Relin recounts Mortenson's efforts in fascinating detail, presenting compelling portraits of the village elders, con artists, philanthropists, mujahideen, Taliban officials, ambitious school girls and upright Muslims Mortenson met along the way. As the book moves into the post-9/11 world, Mortenson and Relin argue that the United States must fight Islamic extremism in the region through collaborative efforts to alleviate poverty and improve access to education, especially for girls. Captivating and suspenseful, with engrossing accounts of both hostilities and unlikely friendships, this book will win many readers' hearts."

Walkin' the Dog / Walter Mosley (Back Bay, 2005), 288 pp. ISBN 0316881716

[Recommended by Myra Clark, AASK]

Socrates is a former jailbird doing his best to go straight in a seamy Los Angeles full of temptation. He lives in a tiny shack in a back alley in Watts, and like his dog, Killer ­ a spirited mutt who's missing his two hind legs ­ Socrates has to contend with a number of severe challenges. Forget the fact that he's a black man in a white society. He's also the fall guy for every crime committed in the vicinity even as he tries to stay out of the way of the ever-suspicious cops, unwittingly acts as a role model for an unhappy teenager and takes a low-key, yet powerful stand against police brutality. (adapted from the Amazon.com review). Of all the Walter Mosley books, this is my favorite. Socrates’s life reveals racism, discrimination and poverty and yet it never plays on sentimentality or pity. There is much to enjoy, and much to unwittingly learn in a book that embraces suspense, truth and justice, and characters who are wise and yet flawed ­ all terrific elements for a summer read that leaves you wanting more.

Watchmen / Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (DC Comics, 1995), 413 pp., ISBN 978093029232

[Recommended by Harlan B. '08]

From Powells.com: To call Watchmen a graphic novel is to not understand the complexities of its story. Watchmen is a dark, brooding novel, full of unrelenting characters, a bitter sense of humor, and a cynical worldview It's just a coincidence that it is a novel about superheroes so Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and Barry Marx decided to draw it instead of just putting the text on paper.Alan Moore is one of the most talented people to ever work in comics, the dark, brooding genius who has given us The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and From Hell. In Watchmen he gives us a dark group of superheroes that perhaps cause more problems for the world than they solve. When one of them is murdered, it begins a chain of events that will lead to the deaths of over 3 million people and, perhaps, a new world order. A "superhero" graphic novel that changed the way the genre is looked at long before Neil Gaiman came along, this is one not to be missed.

Where Dogs Run / Hunter Gregg '92 (302 Publishing, 2007), 281 pp., ISBN 9780979016554

[Recommended by Bettina Gregg '92, US Mathematics]

From the book jacket: "Life is rotten in a small and crumbling town just west of the Wokegama River, where the constant smell of garbage lingers in the air. For 11-year-old Josh Graham, this grim reality reaches a boiling point when he suspects that his dog has been stolen from his backyard. He enlists the help of a mysterious loner to aid him in his search. Their journey takes them through the present and into the past. Who they find, and what they find, will change their lives forever."

Wooden Boats: In Pursuit of the Perfect Craft at an American Boatyard / Michael Ruhlman (Penguin, 2002), 336 pp. ISBN 01400121x

[Recommended by Jack O'Brien, US Art]

Boats made of wood. By hand. How do they do that? I did it. You could too. Find out how and why  Ross Gannon & Nat Benjamin build boats made of wood. Discover why building a wooden boat is something special and unique. Maybe it will inspire you to build a boat. It did me. Read Michael Ruhlman's Wooden Boat this summer.

The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century / Thomas Friedman (FSG, 2006), 608 pp. ISBN 9780374292796

[Recommended by Hayden E. '08]

Publisher comments from Powells.com:  “When scholars write the history of the world twenty years from now, and they come to the chapter "Y2K to March 2004," what will they say was the most crucial development? The attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11 and the Iraq war? Or the convergence of technology and events that allowed India, China, and so many other countries to become part of the global supply chain for services and manufacturing, creating an explosion of wealth in the middle classes of the world's two biggest nations, giving them a huge new stake in the success of globalization? And with this "flattening" of the globe, which requires us to run faster in order to stay in place, has the world gotten too small and too fast for human beings and their political systems to adjust in a stable manner?”