Summer Reading List English IV Honors Hello! I am really looking forward to having you in English IV Honors next year! I cannot wait to meet each of you and experience your last year of high school with you. I hope that you find time to relax and enjoy the summer. There are ​
three ​
assignments for you to complete. You will have some flexibility in your choices, so I hope that you find something that interests you. This year we will work through a variety of texts and study many different writing methods. These texts will help you see a variety of writing with a large scope of purposes and themes. Please read through this document and if you have any questions please feel free to email me at ​
[email protected]​
. Have a fantastic summer and I look forward to seeing you in August! 1. ​
The Color of Water* ​
by James McBride. Interspersed throughout his mother's compelling narrative, McBride shares candid recollections of his own experiences as a mixed­race child of poverty and his eventual self­ realization. Who is Ruth McBride Jordan? A self­declared "light­skinned" woman evasive about her ethnicity, yet steadfast in her love for her twelve black children. James McBride, journalist, musician, and son, explores his mother's past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage, in a poignant and powerful debut, ​
The Color Of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother​
. As you read this book, take note or highlight moments in the text that seem to illuminate McBride’s struggles to define himself. Consider the significance of these moments and take notes about how he finally comes to terms with his identity as he tells his story. *The book contains mature themes and has some racially sensitive language. If a student or parent feels uncomfortable reading this book, ​
The Hiding Place​
by Corrie ten Boom may be substituted. 2. Choose one of the following books. There are a variety of issues in a variety of areas (science, health, culture, education, etc) dealt with from a variety of viewpoints. Some of the books may have some offensive language or may describe violent or abusive events—please choose carefully if these are things that may bother you. As you read your chosen book, please annotate and take notes using the attached SOAPStone strategy found at the end of this document. During the first full week of school you will work on a presentation that addresses your chosen texts using this reading strategy. If none of these choices work for you, you may email me if you want me to approve another book that isn’t on the list; it must be aimed at adult level and it needs to cover an issue or event that has more than one side. The Power of Place ​
Harm​
​
de Blij Offers a thoughtful, balanced, and meandering tour of the diversity of human geography. Mr. de Blij's vast reach and steady even­handedness make The Power of Place an enjoyable, intellectual stroll. If the author has one overarching theme, it is to remind his readers that much of the world is still suffering with poverty and disease. That fact is always worth remembering. Informative and provocative book, analysis of issues is made all the richer by his inspired use of maps. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything​
by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? How much do parents really matter? These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He studies the riddles of everyday life—from cheating and crime to parenting and sports—and reaches conclusions that turn conventional wisdom on its head. More Guns, Less Crime​
by John R Lott Directly challenges common perceptions about the relationship of guns, crime, and violence. But Is It True​
, Aaron Wildavsky A citizen’s guide to environmental health and safety issues ­ factual look at how the rival claims of environmentalists and industrialists work. Dead Man Walking​
Helen Prejean In 1982, Sister Helen Prejean became the spiritual advisor to Patrick Sonnier, the convicted killer of two teenagers who was sentenced to die in the electric chair of Louisiana's Angola State Prison. In the months before Sonnier's death, the Roman Catholic nun came to know a man who was as terrified as he had once been terrifying. At the same time, she came to know the families of the victims and the men whose job it was to execute him­­men who often harbored doubts about the rightness of what they were doing. Generation We​
by Eric Greenberg and Karl Weber (note different author than ​
Generation Me) A look at the epidemic narcissism, illusory optimism, and anxiety and depression of today's younger Americans. Explores the emerging power of the Millennial Generation, shows how they (and their supporters from other generations) are poised to change our nation and our world for the better, and lays out a powerful plan for progressive change Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference​
by Warren St. John This fast­paced chronicle of a single soccer season is a complex and inspiring tale of a small town becoming a global community—and an account of the ingenious and complicated ways we create a home in a changing world. Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream​
by Adam Shepard. Adam Shepard graduated from college feeling disillusioned by the apathy around him and was then incensed after reading Barbara Ehrenreich's famous work Nickel and Dimed—a book that gave him a feeling of hopelessness about the working class in America. He set out to disprove Ehrenreich's theory—the notion that those who start at the bottom stay at the bottom—by making something out of nothing to achieve the American Dream. A response to ​
Nickel and Dimed. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business ​
by Neil Postman A prophetic look at what happens when politics, journalism, education, and even religion become subject to the demands of entertainment. It is also a blueprint for regaining control of our media, so that they can serve our highest goals. A groundbreaking polemic about the corrosive effects of television on our politics and public discourse has been hailed as a twenty­first­century book published in the twentieth century. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks​
, Rebecca Skloot A poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. Her cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. Tells a rich and haunting story that asks the questions, Who owns our bodies? And who carries our memories? The Omnivore’s Dilemma​
Michael Pollan In a journey that takes us from an "organic" California chicken farm to Vermont, Pollan asks basic questions about the moral and ecological consequences of our food. Critics agree it's a wake­up call and written in clear, informative prose. Fast Food Nation ​
Eric Schlosser In 2001, ​
Fast Food Nation​
was published to critical acclaim and became an international bestseller. Eric Schlosser’s exposé revealed how the fast food industry has altered the landscape of America, widened the gap between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and transformed food production throughout the world. The book changed the way millions of people think about what they eat and helped to launch today’s food movement. The Obesity Epidemic: Science, Morality, Ideology​
,​
by Michael Gard and Jan Wright Increasing obesity levels are currently big news but do we think carefully enough about what this trend actually means? Everybody – including doctors, parents, teachers, sports clubs, businesses and governments – has a role to play in the ‘war on obesity’. But is talk of an obesity ‘crisis’ justified? Is it the product of measured scientific reasoning or age­old ‘habits of mind’? Why is it happening now? And are there potential risks associated with talking about obesity as an ‘epidemic’? The Working Poor: Invisible in America​
, ​
by David Shipler “Nobody who works hard should be poor in America,” writes Pulitzer Prize winner David Shipler. Clear­headed, rigorous, and compassionate, he journeys deeply into the lives of individual store clerks and factory workers, farm laborers and sweat­shop seamstresses, illegal immigrants in menial jobs and Americans saddled with immense student loans and paltry wages. They are known as the working poor.They perform labor essential to America’s comfort. They are white and black, Latino and Asian­­men and women in small towns and city slums trapped near the poverty line, where the margins are so tight that even minor setbacks can cause devastating chain reactions. Shipler shows how liberals and conservatives are both partly right–that practically every life story contains failure by both the society and the individual. Braced by hard fact and personal testimony, he unravels the forces that confine people in the quagmire of low wages. And unlike most works on poverty, this book also offers compelling portraits of employers struggling against razor­thin profits and competition from abroad. With pointed recommendations for change that challenge Republicans and Democrats alike, The Working Poor stands to make a difference. Global Warming and Other Eco Myths: How the Environmental Movement Uses False Science to Scare Us to Death​
, ​
by Ronald Bailey The modern environmental movement began with the publication of three seminal works, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb, and the Club of Rome's The Limits to Growth. These books' dismal visions of a poisoned, over­populated, resource­depleted world spiraling down toward environmental collapse are today's conventional wisdom. And every year we hear about new "conclusive" reports from special interest groups claiming that our atmosphere's temperatures are soaring, our air and water are more polluted, our cities are more crowded, and our global food supply is more precarious than ever before. However, according to a number of leading scientists from around the world, members of the environmental movement are guilty of twisting—sometimes manufacturing—the facts in an effort to frighten people into joining their cause. The Travels of a T­Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade​
, by Pietra Rivoli This book takes the reader on an around­the­world journey to reveal the economic and political lessons from the life story of a simple t­shirt. Over five years, business professor Pietra Rivoli traveled from a Texas cotton field to a Chinese factory to a used clothing market in Africa, to investigate compelling questions about the politics, economics, ethics, and history of modern business and globalization. Using the story of the t­shirt to illustrate the major issues of the globalization debate, this business book offers a surprising and balanced look at one of the major topics of our time. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures​
by Anne Fadiman When three­month­old Lia Lee Arrived at the county hospital emergency room in Merced, California, a chain of events was set in motion from which neither she nor her parents nor her doctors would ever recover. Lia's parents, Foua and Nao Kao, were part of a large Hmong community in Merced, refugees from the CIA­run "Quiet War" in Laos. The Hmong, traditionally a close­knit and fiercely people, have been less amenable to assimilation than most immigrants, adhering steadfastly to the rituals and beliefs of their ancestors. Lia's pediatricians, Neil Ernst and his wife, Peggy Philip, cleaved just as strongly to another tradition: that of Western medicine. When Lia Lee Entered the American medical system, diagnosed as an epileptic, her story became a tragic case history of cultural miscommunication. The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed our Culture by John Battelle What does the world want? According to John Battelle, a company that answers that question—in all its shades of meaning—can unlock the most intractable riddles of business and arguably of human culture itself. And for the past few years, that’s exactly what Google has been doing. But The Search offers much more than the inside story of Google’s triumph. It’s a big­picture book about the past, present, and future of search technology and the enormous impact it’s starting to have on marketing, media, pop culture, dating, job hunting, international law, civil liberties, and just about every other sphere of human interest. Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood ​
by Susan Linn In Consuming Kids, psychologist Susan Linn takes a comprehensive and unsparing look at the demographic advertisers call "the kid market," taking readers on a compelling and disconcerting journey through modern childhood as envisioned by commercial interests. Children are now the focus of a marketing maelstrom, targets for everything from minivans to M&M counting books. All aspects of children's lives—their health, education, creativity, and values—are at risk of being compromised by their status in the marketplace. The Big Test​
, ​
by Nicholas Lehmann What do we know about the history, origin, design, and purpose of the SAT? Who invented it, and why? How did it acquire such a prominent and lasting position in American education? The Big Test reveals the ideas, people, and politics behind a fifty­year­old utopian social experiment that changed this country. Combining vibrant storytelling, vivid portraiture, and thematic analysis, Lemann shows why this experiment did not turn out as planned. It did create a new elite, but it also generated conflict and tension—and America's best educated, most privileged people are now leaders without followers. Affluenza: The All­Consuming Epidemic​
, ​
by John De Graaf, David Wann, and Thomas H. Naylor In chapters with titles like "Swollen Expectations" and "A Rash of Bankruptcies, " Affluenza uses the whimsical metaphor of a disease to tackle a very serious subject: the damage done ­­ to our health, our families, our communities, and our environment ­­ by the obsessive quest for material gain. The authors examine the origins, evolution, and symptoms of the affluenza epidemic. But more importantly, they explore cures and suggest strategies for rebuilding families and communities and for restoring and respecting the earth. Waiting for an Ordinary Day ​
b y​
​
Farnaz Fassihi Farnaz Fassihi, The Wall Street Journal’s intrepid senior Middle East correspondent, unveils an Iraq that has remained largely hidden since the United States declared their “Mission Accomplished.” Fassihi chronicles the experience of the disenfranchised as they come to terms with the realities of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. In a portrait of Iraqis whose voices have remained eerily silent—from art gallery owners to clairvoyants, taxi drivers to radicalized teenagers—Fassihi brings to life the very people whose goodwill the U.S. depended upon for a successful occupation. Haunting and lyrical, Waiting for An Ordinary Day tells the long­awaited story of post­occupation Iraq through native eyes. The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood ​
by Kien Nguyen Saigon fell to the Viet Cong on April 30, 1975. Kien Nguyen watched the last U.S. Army helicopter leave without him, without his brother, without his mother, without his grandparents. Left to a nightmarish existence in a violated & decimated country, Kien was more at risk than most because of his odd blond hair & his light eyes ­ because he was Amerasian. He was the most unwanted. This is a story of survival & hope, a moving & personal record of a tumultuous & important piece of history. The End of Education​
: ​
Redefining the Value of School​
, ​
by Neil Postman In this comprehensive response to the education crisis, the author of Teaching as a Subversive Activity returns to the subject that established his reputation as one of our most insightful social critics. Postman presents useful models with which schools can restore a sense of purpose, tolerance, and a respect for learning. The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things,​
​
by Barry Glassner In the age of 9/11, the Iraq War, financial collapse, and Amber Alerts, our society is defined by fear. So it’s not surprising that three out of four Americans say they feel more fearful today than they did twenty years ago. But are we living in exceptionally dangerous times? In The Culture of Fear, sociologist Barry Glassner demonstrates that it is our perception of danger that has increased, not the actual level of risk. Glassner exposes the people and organizations that manipulate our perceptions and profit from our fears, including advocacy groups that raise money by exaggerating the prevalence of particular diseases and politicians who win elections by heightening concerns about crime, drug use, and terrorism. In this new edition of a classic book Glassner exposes the price we pay for social panic. 3. You will choose one of the following books that you are interested in reading. There are a variety of topics and situations explored in these texts. Some of the books may have some offensive language or may describe violent or abusive events—please choose carefully if these are things that may bother you. If none of the books work for you, you may email me if you want me to approve another book that isn’t on the list but it must be a piece of literary nonfiction. As you read one of these books, take note or highlight moments in the text that seem to illuminate some kind of theme. Consider the significance of these moments and take notes about how the author conveys a theme throughout the text. An Ordinary Man: an Autobiography​
​
by Paul Rusesabagina The riveting life story of Paul Rusesabagina, the man whose heroism inspired the film ​
Hotel Rwanda​
. As his country was being torn apart by violence during the Rwandan genocide of 1994, hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina, the Oskar Schindler of Africa, refused to bow to the madness that surrounded him. Confronting killers with a combination of diplomacy, flattery, and deception, he offered shelter to more than twelve thousand members of the Tutsi clan and Hutu moderates, while homicidal mobs raged outside with machetes. ​
Brothers in Arms: the Epic Story of the 761st​
Tank Battalion, WWII’s Forgotten Heroes​
by Kareem Abdul­Jabbar A powerful wartime saga in the bestselling tradition of Flags of Our Fathers, BROTHERS IN ARMS recounts the extraordinary story of the 761st "Black Panthers," the first all­black armored unit to see combat in World War II. Abdul­Jabbar interviewed the surviving members of the battalion and their descendants to weave together a page­turning narrative based on their memories and stories, from basic training through the horrors on the battlefield to their postwar experiences in a racially divided America. The Hitler Salute: On the Meaning of a Gesture​
by Tilman Allert A strikingly original investigation of the origins and dissemination of the world's most infamous greeting. Sometimes the smallest detail reveals the most about a culture. Sociologist Tilman Allert uses the Nazi transformation of the most mundane human interaction ­ the greeting ­ to show how National Socialism brought about the submission and conformity of a whole society. Made compulsory in 1933, the Hitler salute developed into a daily reflex in a matter of mere months, and quickly became the norm in schools, at work, among friends, and even at home.. The Woman Who Can’t Forget the Extraordinary Story of Living With the Most Remarkable Memory Known to Science: a Memoir​
​
by Jill Price Jill Price has the first diagnosed case of a memory condition called "hyperthymestic syndrome" ­­ the continuous, automatic, autobiographical recall of every day of her life since she was fourteen. Give her any date from that year on, and she can almost instantly tell you what day of the week it was, what she did on that day, and any major world event or cultural happening that took place, as long as she heard about it that day. Her memories are like scenes from home movies, constantly playing in her head, backward and forward, through the years; not only does she make no effort to call her memories to mind, she cannot stop them. Teams of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln​
by Doris Kearns Goodwin On May 18, 1860, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, and Abraham Lincoln waited in their hometowns for the results from the Republican National Convention in Chicago. When Lincoln emerged as the victor, his rivals were dismayed and angry. Throughout the turbulent 1850s, each had energetically sought the presidency as the conflict over slavery was leading inexorably to secession and civil war. That Lincoln succeeded, Goodwin demonstrates, was the result of a character that had been forged by experiences that raised him above his more privileged and accomplished rivals. He won because he possessed an extraordinary ability to put himself in the place of other men, to experience what they were feeling, to understand their motives and desires. It was this capacity that enabled Lincoln as president to bring his disgruntled opponents together, create the most unusual cabinet in history, and marshal their talents to the task of preserving the Union and winning the war. Vanished Smile: the Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa​
by R.A. Scotti The astonishing story of the still unsolved mystery of Mona Lisa's disappearance in 1911 told with dramatic freshness and imagination. On August 21, 1911, the unfathomable happened­­ Mona Lisa vanished from the Louvre. More than twenty­four hours passed before museum officials realized she was gone. The prime suspects in the case were as shocking as the crime­­the young avant­garde poet Guillaume Apollinaire and his friend Pablo Picasso. R. A. Scotti's riveting, ingeniously realized account of the theft and its aftermath (the painting would not be recovered for more than two years) is itself a masterful portrait of a world in transition, transforming itself into the modern while enjoying a last carefree fling before the onset of war. The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion & the Fall of Imperial Russia​
​
by Candace Fleming Here is the tumultuous, heartrending, true story of the Romanovs­­at once an intimate portrait of Russia's last royal family and a gripping account of its undoing. Using captivating photos and compelling first person accounts, award­winning author Candace Fleming deftly maneuvers between the imperial family's extravagant lives and the plight of Russia's poor masses, making this an utterly mesmerizing read. The King’s Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy​
by Mark Logue The King's Speech was written by London Sunday Times journalist Peter Conradi and Mark Logue­­grandson of Lionel Logue, whose recently discovered diaries and correspondence contain fascinating details about these true events. At the urging of his wife, Elizabeth, the Duke of York (known to the royal family as "Bertie") began to see speech therapist Lionel Logue in a desperate bid to cure his lifelong stammer. Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory​
by Ben Macintyre In 1943, from a windowless basement office in London, two brilliant intelligence officers conceived a plan that was both simple and complicated­­ Operation Mincemeat. The purpose? To deceive the Nazis into thinking that Allied forces were planning to attack southern Europe by way of Greece or Sardinia, rather than Sicily, as the Nazis had assumed, and the Allies ultimately chose. Charles Cholmondeley of MI5 and the British naval intelligence officer Ewen Montagu created an ingenious plan: Get a corpse, equip it with secret (but false and misleading) papers concerning the invasion, then drop it off the coast of Spain where German spies would, they hoped, take the bait. Lost in Shangri­la: a True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of WWII​
​
by Mitchell Zuckoff In 1945, twenty­four American servicemen and women boarded a plane to see "Shangri­La," a beautiful valley deep within Dutch New Guinea. But when the plane crashed, only three pulled through to battle for survival. Emotionally devastated and badly injured, the trio faced certain death. Caught between spear­carrying tribesmen and enemy Japanese, they trekked down the jungle­covered mountainside and straight into superstitious natives rumored to be cannibals. The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris​
by David McCullough The Greater Journey is the enthralling, inspiring­and until now, untold­story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, architects, and others of high aspiration who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900, ambitious to excel in their work. Most had never left home, never experienced a different culture. None had any guarantee of success. That they achieved so much for themselves and their country profoundly altered American history. Crossing the Borders of Time: a True Story of War, Exile, and Love Reclaimed​
by Leslie Maitland On a pier in Marseille in 1942, with desperate refugees pressing to board one of the last ships to escape France before the Nazis choked off its ports, an 18­year­old German Jewish girl was pried from the arms of the Catholic Frenchman she loved and promised to marry. As the Lipari carried Janine and her family to Casablanca on the first leg of a perilous journey to safety in Cuba, she would read through her tears the farewell letter that Roland had slipped in her pocket: "Whatever the length of our separation, our love will survive it, because it depends on us alone. I give you my vow that whatever the time we must wait, you will be my wife. Never forget, never doubt." Five years later ­ her fierce desire to reunite with Roland first obstructed by war and then, in secret, by her father and brother ­ Janine would build a new life in New York with a dynamic American husband. Investigative reporter Leslie Maitland grew up enthralled by her mother's accounts of forbidden romance and harrowing flight from the Nazis. Her book is both a journalist's vivid depiction of a world at war and a daughter's pursuit of a haunting question: what had become of the handsome Frenchman whose picture her mother continued to treasure almost fifty years after they parted? It is a tale of memory that reporting made real and a story of undying love that crosses the borders of time. Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: the Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle​
​
by Fiona, Countess of Carnarvon Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey tells the story behind Highclere Castle, the real­life inspiration and setting for Julian Fellowes's Emmy Award­winning PBS show, and the life of one of its most famous inhabitants: Lady Almina, the fifth Countess of Carnarvon. Drawing on a rich store of materials from the archives of Highclere Castle, including diaries, letters, and photographs, the current Lady Carnarvon has written a transporting story of this fabled home on the brink of war. Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey​
​
by Fiona, Countess of Carnarvon Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey, a transporting companion piece to the New York Times bestseller Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey, tells the story of Catherine Wendell, the beautiful and spirited American who married Lady Almina's son, the man who would become the 6th Earl of Carnarvon. Left for Dead​
by Pete Nelson Just after midnight on July 30, 1945, the USS ​
Indianapolis​
was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. The ship sank in 14 minutes. More than 1,000 men were thrown into shark­infested waters. Those who survived the fiery sinking­­some injured, many without life jackets­­struggled to stay afloat in shark­infested waters as they waited for rescue. But the United States Navy did not even know they were missing. The Navy needed a scapegoat for this disaster. So it court­martialed the captain for "hazarding" his ship. The survivors of the ​
Indianapolis​
knew that their captain was not to blame. For 50 years they worked to clear his name, even after his untimely death. But the navy would not budge­­until an 11­year­old boy named Hunter Scott entered the picture. His history fair project on the ​
Indianapolis​
soon became a crusade to restore the captain's good name and the honor of the men who served under him. A Secret Gift: How One Man’s Kindness—and a Trove of Letters—Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression​
by Ted Gup Shortly before Christmas 1933 in Depression­scarred Canton, Ohio, a newspaper ad offered $10 to 75 families in distress. Interested readers were asked to submit letters describing their hardships to a benefactor calling himself Mr. B. Virdot. In actuality, he was Sam Stone, the author's grandfather. Ted Gup discovered the letters in a suitcase 75 years later and was so moved by the tales of suffering and expressions of hope that he set out to unveil the lives behind them. The author also unearthed deeply buried details about his grandfather's life ­ from his impoverished, abusive upbringing to his felonious efforts to hide his immigrant status from U.S. officials ­ that explain why he felt such a strong affinity to strangers in need. Escape From the Deep the Epic Story of a Legendary Submarine and Her Courageous Crew ​
by Alex Kershaw Details the history of the U.S. Navy submarine Tang in the Pacific theater of World War II, the explosion that led to its sinking, the ordeal of its surviving crew members and their capture by the Japanese, followed by months of brutal captivity. IBM and the Holocaust: the Strategic Alliance Between Nazi German and America’s Most Powerful Corporation​
by Edwin Black IBM and the Holocaust is the stunning story of IBM's strategic alliance with Nazi Germany ­­ beginning in 1933 in the first weeks that Hitler came to power and continuing well into World War II. As the Third Reich embarked upon its plan of conquest and genocide, IBM and its subsidiaries helped create enabling technologies, step­by­step, from the identification and cataloging programs of the 1930s to the selections of the 1940s. Only after Jews were identified ­­ a massive and complex task that Hitler wanted done immediately ­­ could they be targeted for efficient asset confiscation, ghettoization, deportation, enslaved labor, and, ultimately, annihilation. It was a cross­tabulation and organizational challenge so monumental, it called for a computer. Of course, in the 1930s no computer existed. But IBM's Hollerith punch card technology did exist. Aided by the company's custom­designed and constantly updated Hollerith systems, Hitler was able to automate his persecution of the Jews. The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism​
by Doris Kearns Goodwin The gap between rich and poor has never been wider...legislative stalemate paralyzes the country...corporations resist federal regulations...spectacular mergers produce giant companies...the influence of money in politics deepens...bombs explode in crowded streets...small wars proliferate far from our shores...a dizzying array of inventions speeds the pace of daily life. These unnervingly familiar headlines serve as the backdrop for Doris Kearns Goodwin's highly anticipated The Bully Pulpit ­a dynamic history of the first decade of the Progressive era, that tumultuous time when the nation was coming unseamed and reform was in the air. The story is told through the intense friendship of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft­a close relationship that strengthens both men before it ruptures in 1912, when they engage in a brutal fight for the presidential nomination. One Summer: America, 1927​
by Bill Bryson The summer of 1927 began with one of the signature events of the twentieth century: on May 21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh became the first man to cross the Atlantic by plane nonstop, and when he landed in Le Bourget airfield near Paris, he ignited an explosion of worldwide rapture and instantly became the most famous person on the planet. Meanwhile, the titanically talented Babe Ruth was beginning his assault on the home run record, which would culminate on September 30 with his sixtieth blast, one of the most resonant and durable records in sports history. In between those dates a Queens housewife named Ruth Snyder and her corset­salesman lover garroted her husband, leading to a murder trial that became a huge tabloid sensation—and more. Killing Patton: the Strange Death of World War II’s Most Audacious General​
by Bill O’Reilly General George S. Patton, Jr. died under mysterious circumstances in the months following the end of World War II. For almost seventy years, there has been suspicion that his death was not an accident­­and may very well have been an act of assassination. Killing Patton takes readers inside the final year of the war and recounts the events surrounding Patton's tragic demise, naming names of the many powerful individuals who wanted him silenced. The Devil in the White City​
by Erik Larson Erik Larson—author of #1 bestseller ​
In the Garden of Beasts​
—intertwines the true tale of the 1893 World's Fair and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death. Combining meticulous research with nail­biting storytelling, Erik Larson has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction. Warriors Don’t Cry​
by Melba Pattillo Beals In 1957, Melba Pattillo turned sixteen. That was also the year she became a warrior on the front lines of a civil rights firestorm. Following the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling, ​
Brown v. Board of Education,​
Melba was one of nine teenagers chosen to integrate Little Rock's Central High School. Throughout her harrowing ordeal, Melba was taunted by her schoolmates and their parents, threatened by a lynch mob's rope, attacked with lighted sticks of dynamite, and injured by acid sprayed in her eyes. But through it all, she acted with dignity and courage, and refused to back down. SOAPSTone Reading Strategy The College Board’s ​
S​
peaker The voice that tells the story​
. The author and the speaker are NOT necessarily the same. An author may choose to tell the story from any number of different ​
points of view​
. In non­fiction consider important facts about speaker that will help assess his/her point of view / position. O​
ccasion The time and place of the piece; the context that encouraged the writing to happen​
. Writing does not occur in a vacuum. There is the ​
larger occasion​
: an environment of ideas and emotions that swirl around a broad issue. Then there is the ​
immediate occasion​
: an event or situation that catches the writer’s attention and triggers a response. A​
udience The group of readers to whom this piece is directed.​
The audience may be one person, a small group, or a large group; it may be a certain person or a certain people. P​
urpose The reason behind the text​
. Consider the purpose of the text in order to examine the argument and its logic. You should ask yourself, ​
“What does the speaker want the audience to think or do as a result of reading this text?” S​
ubject The general topic, content, and ideas contained in the text. You should be able to state the subject in a few words or a phrase. T​
one The attitude of the author​
. The spoken word can convey the speaker’s attitude, and, thus, help to impart meaning, through tone of voice. With the written work, it is tone that extends meaning beyond the literal. Tone can be determined by examining the author’s ​
diction ​
(choice of words), ​
syntax (sentence construction), and ​
imagery ​
(vivid descriptions that appeal to the senses).