Non-fiction Book Choices

AP English Language Summer Reading Assignment - 2009

Non-fiction book choices

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer: A non-fiction account of a disaster that occurs when a team of climbers attempt to climb Mt. Everest. Intriguing and good for adventurous types. Please do not read Into the Wild by the same author, as we will be reading this together as a class.

The Color of Water by James McBride: A non-fiction story written by a bi-racial man in dedication to his white mother. Details the adversity of growing up both black and white. A beautiful, touching story about family and race.

Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt: A non-fiction story of growing up poor and Irish, told with a sense of humor. McCourt was an Irish Immigrant to America, and details the tragedies and triumphs of his life with a very unique voice.

Black Boy by Richard Wright: This autobiography of famous black writer Wright is more than a story about a black boy growing up in the South. It is his coming of age story, and a story about being a kid who no one, not even his family, can understand.

Augusta, Gone by Mary Todd Dudman: Mature in content, this is the personal story of a mother who experiences a crisis when her daughters rebel against her, spin out of control, use drugs and run away. Very powerful and well-written.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley: The very compelling story of controversial civil-rights leader Malcolm X, who inspired many as an uneducated black man who during imprisonment finds enlightenment. A must read portrait of American History.

The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger: The true story on which the movie is based, about an unusually powerful storm that takes the lives of a group of fishermen. Great choice for adventure lovers, but also looks at the science behind storm formation. I have a high school friend who got caught in this storm and his boat was sunk.

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi: This choice for sophisticated readers is one woman’s look at the oppression of the arts and literature in Iran during the cultural revolution. Nafisi rebelled by having secret book groups to discuss banned literature, such as The Great Gatsby and Lolita, with other Iranian women.

Seabiscuit by Laura Hellenbrand: The now famous sports-biography on which the movie is based about the horse that became a champion. Critically acclaimed book.

Don’t Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller: This memoir is the story of a white girl growing up in war-torn Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and learning about living in a difficult part of the world as an outsider.

Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen: The memoir on which the movie is based about a teenage girl’s breakdown and admittance to a mental institution in 1967. Written like a diary, it explores the author’s intimate feeling about her experience.

Train Go Sorry by Leah Hager Cohen: This is a book of journalism and part memoir, written by a woman who, although not deaf herself, grew up amongst deaf people because her father was a superintendent at a school for the deaf. A very compassionate look at being deaf in the modern world.

On Writing by Stephen King: This memoir by famous horror writer King reveals the other side of his personality, his memories of growing up and childhood, along with advice for aspiring writers.

It’s Not About the Bike by Lance Armstrong: This sports memoir has been given critical recognition. The story of Tour de France winner Armstrong, his struggle through testicular cancer and his role as a man, father and champion. Do not read his second book. This one is the best.

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nat Philbrick: This award winning book, as described on Amazon examines “the 19th-century Pacific whaling industry through the arc of the sinking of the whaleship Essex by a boisterous sperm whale. The story that inspired Herman Melville's classic Moby-Dick has a lot going for it--derring-do, cannibalism, rescue--and Philbrick proves an amiable and well-informed narrator, providing both context and detail.”

Rocket Boys by Homer Hickham: The story on which the film October Sky is based, this is Hickham’s memoir about growing up with a difficult father in a small coal-mining town in Virginia during the first days of space exploration. Hickham dreams of becoming an astronaut and in this inspiring story recalls how he becomes a NASA engineer.

The Green Hills of Africa by Ernest Hemingway: As described on Amazon, this is the great American writer’s “lyrical journal of a month on safari in the great game country of East Africa...In examining the poetic grace of the chase, and the ferocity of the kill, Hemingway also looks inward, seeking to explain the lure of the hunt and the primal undercurrent that comes alive on the plains of Africa.”

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway: Unlike Africa, this looks at Hemingway’s other love, Paris in the 1920’s , where he lived in the arts community so vibrant there at the time. Good for literature lovers who want a feeling for this very special time and place.

Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin: This story reads like a good piece of journalism. A white man undergoes a dangerous experiment in the 1950’s by posing as a black man in the American South. He learns what it really felt like to be black during a time of incredible discrimination, risking his own life by doing so.

Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez: A well-known memoir, Amazon describes this as “the story of Mexican-American Richard Rodriguez, who begins his schooling in Sacramento, California, knowing just 50 words of English, and concludes his university studies in the stately quiet of the reading room of the British Museum. Here is the poignant journey of a “minority student” who pays the cost of his social assimilation and academic success with a painful alienation — from his past, his parents, his culture…”

Counting Coup by Larry Colton: The writer set out to write a book about a boy’s basketball team in the Crow Indian territory of the United States. When he met a young, athletic female player, he became more interested in her life, her talent and her struggles off the court as a teenage girl growing up in the problem rid Indian reservations of the U.S. dealing with abuse, alcoholism and racism.

Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey: Abbey is a well-known nature writer and this book accounts his living in Utah in the desert as a park ranger for two summers. He is very defensive against the modern world and protective of nature, and many similar people find this to be a life-changing book about natural history.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: Written by a journalist, this book might be a little mature in some of its content. Later turned into a movie directed by Clint Eastwood, it paints a picture of Savannah, Georgia and its very unique, eccentric Southern characters, from a murdering socialite to a famous drag queen. Involves the story of the murder trial and other portraits of the people of this Southern city.

When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago : As described by Library School Journal, “Esmerelda and her seven siblings live in a corrugated metal shack in Puerto Rico. She is uprooted as a result of poverty and her parents' quarreling and suffers blows to her ego from their expectations of her. The girl goes to New York, and must rely on her intelligence and talents to help her survive in an alien world in which being Puerto Rican is not advantageous.”

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Not as bloody as it sounds. Capote creates a new genre here – the non-fiction novel. Based on a true story of the murder of a family of four. Great for CSI fans. Watch one of the Capote movies as well.

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. I added this book so that the list would have some humor. Based on the story of two friends who decide to hike part of the Appalachian Trail in the U.S. Amazon said “Don't read this book while you're trying to eat. Or where people might look at you funny if you start to laugh out loud. Because this is a very funny book.”

A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar. For the math fans in our class. This is an amazing story that really explains the game theory and why John Nash won the Nobel Prize. A much better book than that lousy movie.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. This is the story of a nearly homeless family who struggles through life, traveling across the U.S. The opening of the book gives you an idea of how unexpected this woman’s life story is. Not as depressing as I thought it would be, as Walls mother said “being homeless is an adventure.”

The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer. This one is not in the library but well worth trying to track down. It’s a memoir by an author who had no father and basically grew up in a bar. This book also has a great deal of humor in it – a real guy book.

My Losing Season by Pat Conroy. I had to have a Southern writer on this list. This is a great sports book that the SAT actually quoted on its May exam. A great book if you are playing a varsity sport.

Endurance by Alfred Lansing. I have a well-loved and well-worn paperback. This is one of the most exciting stories I have ever read about Sir Ernest Shackelton’s Antarctic adventure. Read this one at the beach because the descriptions make you very cold.

Three Cups of Tea. By Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. The book that changed the way people think about changing the world: Peace Through Education. The subtitle is One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time.