AUTOBIOGRAPHY, BIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIR



2016-2017 AP Language and Composition Summer Reading AssignmentYou will read a total of three books this summer and watch one documentary film. You will create a total of four Thought Sheets, one for each of the assigned elements. You may contact me at bsickler@ if you have any questions. Bring your four Thought Sheets with you on the first day of class. Be prepared to take a test on 1984 and The True Cost on the first day of class.#1 Read 1984 by George Orwell and create one Thought Sheet. #2 Watch The True Cost, directed by Andrew Morgan (available on Netflix) and create one Thought Sheet.#3 Read any book of your choice and create one Thought Sheet.#4 Read one non-fiction book from the attached list and create one Thought Sheet.What is a THOUGHT SHEET??A thought sheet is a handwritten unlined single-page (8 ? X 11) response to your reading. It is a way to be creative and experimental. It is a way to respond imaginatively and honestly. It is a way to be brief and compressed in a world drowning in paper. Take time to record your reaction to the text as you are reading. ?Do not attempt to do this assignment after you have finished the whole book; interact and engage with the text as you read it.?The purpose of a thought sheet is to invest in what you are reading. We read differently when we know we are going to be doing something with a text. We learn best when we can create our own patterns. A thought sheet connects the verbal and the visual; it connects the book’s ideas to your ideas; it connects words and images.?Pull out a telling quotation or two, using it as a springboard to explore one of your own ideas. If you're intrigued by certain statements or attracted to characters or issues, write your response?Sketch a small visual image to reflect your thoughts on a specific part of the book. What does the reading make you think of? Does it remind you of anything or anyone? Make connections with other texts or concepts or historic events. Do you see any similarities??Create a hand drawn collage of small key images and words. Cluster words and images around a dominant impression, feeling, or thought regarding what you have read.?Make a personal statement about the text or ask and answer a question or two.?What perplexes you about a particular passage? Try beginning, "I wonder why..." or "I'm having trouble understanding how...' or "It perplexes or surprises me that..." ?On what points, or about what issues, do you agree or disagree? Write down supporting ideas. Try arguing with the author. Think of this as a place to carry on a dialogue with the author.?How does the author's attitude shape the way the writer presents the material??? Cover the page with writing. Make your Thought Sheet rich with quotations and images. ?Seek to design a response that uses your entire sheet of paper. Your grade will be contingent upon the quality and quantity of your work.What is NOT a THOUGHT SHEET?DO NOT type, or cut out pictures and paste them on the sheetDO NOT merely summarize.DO NOT simply draw one or two pictures or a scene from the book.DO NOT think a half page will do. ?DO NOT use a sheet larger than 8 ? X 11 DO NOT use lined paper.AP English Language Nonfiction Reading ListUpdated & Approved by JSerra Materials Committee: DATE \@ "M/d/yyyy" 3/8/2016GENERAL NONFICTIONAmbrose, Stephen. Undaunted Courage. Follows the Lewis and Clark expedition from Thomas Jefferson’s hope of finding a waterway to the Pacific, through the heart-stopping moments of the actual trip, to Lewis’s lonely demise on the Natchez Trace. For readers who love detailed history.Barber, Benjamin. Jihad vs. Mc World: How Globalism and Tribalism Are Reshaping the World. A groundbreaking work…analysis of the central conflict of our times: consumerist capitalism versus religious and tribal fundamentalism.Barry, Dave. I'm Not Taking This Sitting Down. One of the Pulitzer prize-winning humorist’s best collections. Barry writes about what irritates him in today’s culture—slow drivers, people who work in their bathrobes, low-flow toilets—lots of things! Definitely light weight, but always hilarious.Barry, John M. The Great Influenza. A detailed description of the scourge of the "Spanish flu" of 1918 with interesting elements of the practice of medicine and medical school in those days. Especially appealing for students who are science oriented.Rising Tide. An account of the flood of the Mississippi River in 1927. Elementsare remarkably similar to the Katrina disaster. Students whose bent is engineering will find the fight of man vs. nature interesting. Connects well to American history, politics.Bugliosi, Vincent. Helter Skelter. From : “Prosecuting attorney in the Manson trial, VincentBugliosi held a unique insider's position in one of the most baffling and horrifying cases of the twentieth century: the cold-blooded Tate-LaBianca murders carried out by Charles Manson and four of his followers. What motivated Manson…and what was his hold over the young women who obeyed his orders? Here is the gripping story of this famous and haunting crime.”Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood. Truman Capote reconstructs the 1959 murder of a Kansas farm family and theinvestigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers…the story of the lives and deaths of these six people, the victims and the murderers. Ground breaking journalism that reads like fiction.Carter, Stephen. Culture of Disbelief (1994). God’s Name in Vain: The Wrongs and Rights of Religion inPolitics (2001). Cultural commentary by Yale Law School professor.Casey, Susan. The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean (2010). Casey travels across the world and into the past to confront the largest waves the oceans have to offer; including rogue waves south of Africa, storm-born giants near Hawaii, and the biggest wave ever recorded, a 1,740 foot-high wall of wave that blasted the Alaska coastline in 1958. Casey follows big-wave surfers in their attempts to tackle monsters waves and also interviews scientists exploring the danger that global warning will bring us more and larger waves. Collins, Larry and Dominique Lapierre. Is Paris Burning: How Paris Miraculously Escaped Adolf Hitler’sSentence of Death in August, 1944. The dramatic story of the liberation of Paris…exciting, emotionally charged history, impeccably researched and written.Cullen, Dave. Columbine. Like Capote’s In Cold Blood, this is a vivid exploration of the broken logic that drove two young men to commit a terrible senseless crime. Demick, Barbara. Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. An award-winning journalistfollows the lives of six North Korean citizens over fifteen years-a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, and a devastating famine that killed one-fifth of the population. Memick brings to life what it means to be living in the the most repressive totalitarian regime today-an Orwellian world not connected to the Internet, where displays of affection are punished, informants are rewarded, and an offhand remark can send a person to the gulag for life.Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in American. A classic of undercoverreporting…journalist works for a year as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing home aide, and Wal-Mart salesperson.Foer, Franklin. How Soccer Explains the World. Soccer is much more than a game, or even a way of life. It is a perfect window into the cross-currents of today’s world, with all its joys and…sorrows…a wide-ranging work of reportage…a surprising tour through the world of soccer, shining a spotlight on the clash of civilizations, the international economy, and just about everything in between…an utterly original book that makes sense of our troubled times.Friedman, Thomas. The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. Hot, Flat, and Crowded. From Beirut to Jerusalem. Important books by one of today’s leading journalists, New York Times writer, Thomas Friedman.Gilbert, Daniel. Stumbling on Happiness. Why are lovers quicker to forgive their partners for infidelity than for leaving dirty dishes in the sink?? Why will sighted people pay more to avoid going blind than blind people will pay to regain their sight? Why can't we remember one song while listening to another? In this brilliant, witty, and accessible book, renowned Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert describes the foibles of imagination and illusions of foresight…Vividly bringing to life the latest scientific research in psychology, cognitive neuroscience, philosophy, and behavioral economics, Gilbert reveals what scientists have discovered about the uniquely human ability to imagine the future, and about our capacity to predict how much we will like it when we get there.Gladwell, Malcolm. Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Explores the tipping pointphenomenon—what causes a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate.Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. A book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant...that aren’t as simple as they seem…cutting edge neuroscience and psychology. Outliers: The Story of Success. Gladwell’s newest best seller.Haroutunian, Harry. Being Sober. The disease of addiction affects 1 out of 10 people in the United States, and is a devastating--often, fatal--illness. Dr. Haroutunian, the director of the renowned Betty Ford Center, gives a clear medical and scientific explanation for treatment of the disease that so often seems insurmountable. Junger, Sebastian. The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men against the Sea. In 1991, as Halloween nears, a cold front moves south from Canada, a hurricane swirls over Bermuda, and an intense storm builds over the Great Lakes…forces converge to create…a 100-year tempest that catches the North Atlantic fishing fleet off guard and unprotected. Readers weigh anchor with sailors struggling against the elements; they follow meteorologists, who watch helplessly as the storm builds; and, by helicopter and boat, they navigate 100-foot seas and 120-mph winds to attempt rescue against harrowing odds. Waaaay better than the movie! Alex Award book*King, Stephen. On Writing. King gives his hints for becoming a better writer…discusses revisions andinspirations. Students who have an interest in being published find this book very readable and useful.Kolker, Robert, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, New Essay’s. Almost allstudents have seen 2001, but virtually none understand its inheritance, its complexities, and certainly not its ironies. The essays in this collection, commissioned from a wide variety of scholars, examine in detail various possible readings of the film and its historical context.Kotlowitz, Alex. There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in The Other America.Recounts two boys growing up in the housing projects of the big city.Krakauer, Jon. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt Everest Disaster. A harrowing tale of the perils ofhigh-altitude climbing, a story of bad luck and worse judgment and heart-breaking heroism. The stuff of classic adventure tales. Into the Wild. Engrossing tale of a young man’s search for nature and his essential self. Under the Banner of Heaven Examination of religious extremists, not the expected dangers of Muslim extremists, but a case of Mormon Fundamentalists in Salt Lake City, and an appalling double murder. A multi-layered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, polygamy, savage violence, and unyielding faith. Kurson, Robert. Shadow Divers. Underwater investigation of WWII mystery U-boat shipwreck.Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird. “A warm, generous and hilarious guide through the writer’s world and itstreacherous swamps.” (Los Angeles Times) “Superb writing advice…hilarious, helpful, and provocative.” (New York Times Book Review). A great read for anyone interested in maybe, just maybe, becoming a writer someday.Larson, Erik. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America. The story of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsiblefor the fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charmingdoctor. Burnham's overcame numerous obstacles to construct the famous "White City" around which the fair was built. The activities of the sinister Dr. Holmes, who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable. In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin (2011). A vivid portrait of Berlin during the first years of Hitler’s reign, brought to life through the stories of two people: William E. Dodd, America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s regime, and his daughter, Martha. Dodd’s growing misgivings about Hitler’s ambitions fall on deaf ears among his peers. Martha, on the other hand, is mesmerized by the glamorous parties and the high-minded conversation of Berlin’s salon society.Maclean, Norman. Young Men and Fire. Unforgettable story of fifteen of the United States Forest Service’s elite airborne firefighters, the Smokejumpers, in the 1949 Mann Gulch tragedy in the Montana wilderness.O’Reilly, Bill and Martin Dugard. Killing Lincoln. Recounts one of the most dramatic stories inAmerican history—how one gunshot changed the country forever. Killing Kennedy. About the shocking assassination that changed the course of American history. Killing Jesus. Details the events leading up to the murder of the most influential man in history: Jesus of Nazareth. Three best sellers written by our very own track coach, Marty Dugard.Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. “Television hashabituated us to visual entertainment measured out in spoonfuls of time. But what happens when we come to expect the same things from our politics and public discourse? What happens to journalism, education, and religion when they too become forms of show business? Twenty years ago, Neil Postman’s lively polemic was the first book to consider the way that electronic media were reshaping our culture. Now, with TV joined by the internet, cell phones, cable, and DVDs [the book] carries even greater significance. Elegant, incisive, and terrifically readable…a compelling take on our addiction to entertainment.”Prose, Francine. Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those WhoWant to Write Them. Will inspire readers to return to literature with a fresh eye and an eager heart. Should be read by everyone who wants to write, and yes, by everyone wholoves to read (San Francisco Chronicle)Read, Piers Paul. Alive. “Sixteen Men, Seventy-two Days, and Insurmountable Odds—The Classic Adventureof Survival in the Andes.”Redding, Stan and Frank W. Abagnalie. Catch Me if You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake The amazing truestory of the youngest, most daring con man in the history of fun and profit.Roach, Mary. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (2004). Those curious or brave enough to find out what really happens to a body that is donated to the scientific community can do so with this book. Sacks, Oliver. The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales. Psychology…”one of the great clinical writers of the 20th century” (New York Times) recounts the case histories of patients lost in the bizarre, apparently inescapable world of neurological disorders…stories of individuals afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberrations.Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010). Henrietta Lacks, a poor AfricanAmerican, died from cancer in 1951. A sample of her cancerous tissue, known as HeLa cells, gave scientists a building block for countless breakthroughs, beginning with the cure for polio. Stanton, Doug. Into Harm's Way: The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors. Best selling account of WW II naval disaster, when a Japanese submarine torpedo’s US ship in 1945)…a classic tale of war, survival, and extraordinary courage.Stout, Martha, The Sociopath Next Door. We are accustomed to think of sociopaths asviolent criminals, but Harvard psychologist Martha Stout reveals that a shocking 4 percent of ordinary people—one in twenty-five—has an often undetected mental disorder, the chief symptom of which is that that person possesses no conscience. He or she has no ability whatsoever to feel shame, guilt, or remorse. One in twenty-five everyday Americans, therefore, is secretly a sociopath. They could be your colleague, your neighbor, even family. And they can do literally anything at all and feel absolutely no guilt.Terkel, Studs. Working. A classic.Twenge, Jean M. Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled—And More Miserable Than Ever Before (2007). The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement (2009)Wallace, Scott. Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribe. Even today there remain tribes in the far reaches of the Amazon rainforest that have avoided contact with modern civilization. In this gripping first-person account of adventure and survival, author Scott Wallace chronicles an expedition into the Amazon’s uncharted depths, discovering the rainforest’s secrets while moving ever closer to a possible encounter with one such tribe—the mysterious flecheiros, or “People of the Arrow,”. Winchester, Simon. The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. An extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and thetwo remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary. As definitions were collected, it was discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.Wolfe, Tom. The Right Stuff. History of the first Americans in space…heroic, epic stuff!Woodward, Bob and Carl Bernstein. All the President’s Men. Beginning with the story of asimple burglary at Democratic headquarters, a tale of conspiracy that brought about Nixon's scandalous downfall. Won a Pulitzer Prize for The Washington Post and toppled the President.Zakaria, Fareed. Post-America World. An important book by one of today’s most influential journalists.Zinsser, William. On Writing Well: An informal guide to writing nonfiction. A classic in its field, praised for the helpfulness of its advice and the warmth of its style…widely used in America’s homes, colleges, school, newspapers offices and corporations. A great choice for someone who wants to become a better writer.Writing to Learn: How to Write—and Think—Clearly about any Subject at All. Zinsser, writer, editor, teacher (Yale University), is an acknowledged master in his field.AUTOBIOGRAPHY, BIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIRAlexander, Caroline. The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition. The Imperial Transatlantic Expedition, Sir Ernest Shackleton's daring but ill-fated attempt to cross the South Pole, comes to life in pictures…and in the words of the men who lived the extraordinary Antarctic adventure…an exhilarating account of one of the greatest episodes in the history of polar exploration…one of history's all-time great survival stories. Alex Award book*Arana, Marie. American Chica: Two Worlds, One Childhood. MemoirBragg, Rick. All Over but the Shoutin'. [This] Pulitzer Prize–winning correspondent… recalls this personal journey in a rags-to-riches memoir, which begins in 1959 in Alabama… by turns comic and affecting, he recalls growing up white and poor in the South, his difficult relationship with his abusive, alcoholic father, and his love for his courageous mother, who raised him and taught him what really mattered. Alex Award book.*Chen, Da. Colors of the Mountain. “I was born in Southern China in 1962, in the tiny town of Yellow Stone…”Codell, Esmé Raji. Educating Esme: Diary of a Teacher's First Year. “…24-year-old first-year teacher in an inner-city Chicago school…her forthright diary entries reveal that along with teaching her job means fighting lazy teachers and unsupportive administrators…dealing with violence and racism…marshalling energy, imagination, and wit enough to ensure her students the best possible education. Teens…can't help but recognize the landscape.” Alex Award book*Conroy, Pat. The Water Is Wide: A MemoirConway, Jill Ker. The Road from Coorain. Autobiography…from girlhood on an isolated sheepfarm in the grasslands of Australia to the presidency of one of America’s elite women’s colleges. Dillard, Annie. An American Childhood. Autobiography of 1950s childhood in Pittsburgh…”combines the child’s sense of wonder with adult’s intelligence and is written in some of the finest prose that exists in contemporary American writing…a joyous ode to [Dillard’s] childhood” (Newark Star-Ledger). Beautiful and evocative of the era. Eire, Carlos. Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy. MemoirFrankl, Viktor E. Man’s Search for Meaning. Psychiatrist’s memoir of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Has sold more than 10 million copies in twenty-four languages…listed in a Library of Congress survey as among the ten most influential books in America as “a book that made a difference in your life.” May be of special interest to students who liked Elie Wiesel’s Night. Gates, Louis Henry. Colored People. Rich memoir of celebrated contemporary African American scholar and writer.Greenlaw, Linda. The Hungry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain's Journey. Greenlaw, captain of the Hanna Boden, sister ship to the Andrea Gail, whose loss was portrayed in…The Perfect Storm… tells a different but equally fascinating story of life at sea…a record of a typical month-long swordfishing trip--the backbreaking work, the danger, the uncertainty of the weather, and the thrill of a gritty job that makes the sea a home. "Writing has proven to be hard work, often painful," she says. "I can honestly say I'd rather be fishing." Alex Award book*Hillenbrand, Laura. Seabiscuit. Sports biography of a great American race horse in Depression era America.Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption(2010). The inspiring story of Louie Z amperini, a juvenile delinquent-turned-Olympic runner-turned-Army hero, a man who lived through a series of catastrophes almost too incredible to be believed. During a routine search mission over the Pacific, Louie’s plane crashed into the ocean, and what happened to him over the next three years of his life is a story that will keep you glued to the pages, eagerly awaiting the next turn in the story and fearing it at the same time; agreat book for runners.Kennedy , Caroline. Profiles in Courage for our Time. From Publishers Weekly: “In 1990, the Kennedy family resurrected the concept and established the Profiles in Courage Award for selfless public service. Now, in this expertly packaged anthology, Caroline Kennedy and over a dozen prominent writers bring the sacrifices of those award winners to life…a stirring look at people who rarely thought about what they could do for themselves, but always about what they could do for their country.”Kennedy, John F. Profiles in Courage. “This is a book about the most admirable of human virtues—courage. ‘Grace under pressure,’ Ernest Hemingway defined it. And these are the stories of the pressures experienced by eight United States senators and the grace with which they endured them.” (Kennedy). Pulitzer Prize, 1957. Of special interest to students interested in politics, public life…about the kind of courage America needs—moral courage, the courage of personal integrity.Kercheval, Jesse Lee. Space. A memoir so beautifully and seamlessly written [you] will think it is fiction. Kercheval tells her own story, beginning when, at age 10, she moved with her family to a home in Cocoa Beach, Florida, in view of Cape Kennedy. Set against the promise implicit in the launching of Apollo, her touching recollection of her youth and teenage years--her strange, unhappy parents, her difficulties fitting into a new school, and her first love--speaks to universal concerns about growing up and resurrects a pivotal episode of American history and culture for a new generation. Alex Award book*Markham, Beryl. West With the Night. Moving memoir of early 20th Century woman aviator in East Africa. Moehringer, J.R. The Tender Bar. “A memoir about coming of age in, of all unlikely places, a great American bar…both joyous and triumphant.”Mooney, Jonathan. The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal. Memoir. “Labeled ‘dyslexic and profoundly disabled,’ Jonathan Mooney was a short-bus rider—a derogatory term used for kids in special education.”Nafisi, Azar. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books.Ray, Janisse. Ecology of a Cracker Childhood (World as Home). “The forests of the Southeast find their Rachel Carson.” “[Ray’s] tale of growing up poor and white in backwoods Georgia.”Reichl, Ruth. Tender at the Bone. Funny and fascinating childhood memoir of one of the world’s leading food writers.Walls, Jeanette. The Glass Castle: A Memoir. Tragic and tender memoir of her childhood. Wolff, Tobias. This Boy’s Life. Memoir of boyhood in the 1950s… a boy’s fight for identity and self-respect against the unrelenting hostility of a new stepfather…recreates the frustrations, cruelties, and joys of adolescence.* The Alex Awards are given annually to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults. ................
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