About
The library leaders are excited about continuing our sponsored summer reading program this year!
Returning Urban students (current grades 9-11) will select a book to read over the summer from a list of several titles. Each of these titles is sponsored by Urban faculty, staff, or student leaders. You will pledge to read a book over the summer. In the fall, we'll convene the reading groups to have a book club-style meeting that will last about 45 minutes. We hope this program will promote reading for fun and inter-grade camaraderie.
Take a look at the books on the list by browsing the titles below, and fill out this form to select a book. Reading groups will be limited to 15 readers, so you may not get your first choice BUT THE SOONER YOU RESPOND, THE MORE LIKELY YOU'LL BE TO GET ONE OF YOUR TOP CHOICES. Please fill out the form by Friday, May 27th. Happy reading!
Nonfiction
After the Fall: Being American in the World We've Made, hosted by Charlotte Worsley, Assistant Head of School for Student Lifeby Ben Rhodes
genre: politics
“America has an opportunity to step back into history as a nation with a new understanding of how to improve upon the world we made. To do so, we have to re-create an identity that draws on our better history as a nation of outsiders, reflexively distrustful of power, joined together to do big things, united by a set of principles that allows each of us to be whoever we want to be regardless of tribe. After the fall, we must determine what it means to be American again.” - Ben Rhodes
All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, hosted by Green TeamBy Ayana E. Johnson & Katherine K. Wilkinson
genre: environment
All We Can Save is an anthology of writings by 60 women at the forefront of the climate movement who are harnessing truth, courage, and solutions to lead humanity forward...Curated by two climate leaders, this book is a collection and celebration of visionaries who are leading us on a path toward all we can save. (allwecansave.earth)
Conversations with People Who Hate Me, hosted by Julian Morris, Englishby Dylan Marron
genre: nonfiction
In an internet era characterized by comment section wars, devastating clapbacks, and anonymous vitriol, Dylan Marron explores what happens when online feuders step out from behind the keyboard and get to know the human on the other side of the screen. Join Dylan as he connects people who have clashed online – from old friends to complete strangers — to explore why we believe what we believe, how we relate to each other on the internet, and just what a phone call can accomplish. (dylanmarron.com)
The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred, hosted by Bethany Hellerich, Urban X Labsby Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
genre: memoir
"As a Black Jewish person who was socially assigned female at birth, I wasn’t supposed to become a theoretical physicist. Jewish women are familiar with this phenomenon, after having been locked out of the rabbinate for centuries. While theoretical physicists, like Rabbis, get to think about exciting questions regarding the origins of spacetime, gatekeeping impacts who gets to be in the room, calculating. Here is how I’ve come to better understand the way patriarchy has shaped my life." - Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
Educated, hosted by Paris and Halle, Library Leadersby Tara Westover
genre: memoir
Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her "head-for-the-hills bag". In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father's junkyard. Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. (Goodreads)
hosted by Sylvia H., Library Leader
Ever wonder what it’s like to live on another planet? This podcast takes us to a simulated Mars mission inside a dome in an isolated part of Hawaii. Discover what it’s like to live with real people in a very different world, where everything needs to be controlled and precise. Six HI-SEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation) IV members, embark on this year-long scientific social experiment. Observe how people interact in an extremely foreign environment.
Hood Feminism, hosted by Courtney Rein, Englishby Mikki Kendall
genre: essays
In this searing collection of essays, Mikki Kendall takes aim at the legitimacy of the modern feminist movement, arguing it has chronically failed to address the needs of all but a few women. Drawing on her own experiences with hunger, violence, and hypersexualization, along with incisive commentary on politics, pop culture, the stigma of mental health, and more, Hood Feminism delivers an irrefutable indictment of a movement in flux. (mikkikendall.com)
Period: Twelve Voices Tell the Bloody Truth, hosted by Scarlett H. and HIPEEdited by Kate Farrell
genre: nonfiction
Periods enter the spotlight in this essay collection that raises a variety of voices on a topic long shrouded in shame and secrecy. In this collection, writers of various ages and across racial, cultural, and gender identities share stories about the period. Each of our twelve authors brings an individual perspective and sensibility. They write about homeless periods, nonexistent periods, male periods, political periods, and more. Told with warmth and humor, these essays celebrate all kinds of period experiences. Periods are a fact of life. It's time to talk about them. (us.macmillan.com) We invite students of all genders to read this book!
Salt Fat Acid Heat, hosted by Danica Gakovich, Spanishby Samin Nosrat
genre: cookbook
Chef and writer Samin Nosrat has taught everyone from professional chefs to middle school kids to author Michael Pollan to cook using her revolutionary, yet simple, philosophy. Master the use of just four elements — Salt, which enhances flavor; Fat, which delivers flavor and generates texture; Acid, which balances flavor; and Heat, which ultimately determines the texture of food — and anything you cook will be delicious. (powells.com)
Fantasy & Sci-Fi
Legendborn, hosted by Laura Hawkins, Mathby Tracy Deonn
genre: fantasy
After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus. A flying demon feeding on human energies. A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down. And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw. (simonandschuster.com)
Sea of Tranquility, hosted by Jo de Pirul, Libraryby Emily St. John Mandel
genre: sci-fi
Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal—an experience that shocks him to his core. Sea of Tranquility is a novel of art, time, love and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space. (bookmarks.reviews)
Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful, hosted by Bella B., Library Leaderby Arwen Elys Dayton
genre: sci-fi
The future is curious.
STRONGER
Today our bodies define us. We color our hair; tattoo our skin; pierce our ears, brows, noses. We lift weights, run miles, break records. We are flesh and blood and bone.
FASTER
Tomorrow has different rules. The future is no longer about who we are—it's about who we want to be. If you can dream it, you can be it. Science will make us smarter, healthier, flawless in every way. Our future is boundless.
MORE BEAUTIFUL
This is a story that begins tomorrow. It's a story about us. It's a story about who comes after us. And it's a story about perfection. Because perfection has a way of getting ugly. (barnesandnoble.com)
Dune, hosted by Randy Li, Mathby Frank Herbert
genre: sci-fi
A mythic and emotionally charged hero’s journey, Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence—a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential—only those who can conquer their fear will survive. (barnesandnoble.com)
House Of M Ultimate Edition, hosted by Lingerr Senghor, English & Journalismby Brian Michael Bendis, Olivier Coipel
genre: graphic novel
Lingerr says, "Do you like the X-Men? Do you like the Avengers? Did you love Wandavision? Then you'll want to read House of M, the groundbreaking text that digs into Wanda's destructive power and how it affects our favorite heroes. Rife with great moments and devastating events, this is a must-series for any MCU super-fans (or casual observers)."
The Golden Compass, hosted by Mary Murphy, Scienceby Philip Pullman
genre: fantasy
Lyra is rushing to the cold, far North, where witch clans and armored bears rule. North, where the Gobblers take the children they steal—including her friend Roger. North, where her fearsome uncle Asriel is trying to build a bridge to a parallel world. Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want. But what Lyra doesn't know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other... (scholastic.co.uk)
Fiction
American Gothic Tales, Julian I., Library LeadersEdited by Joyce Carol Oates
genre: short stories
In showing us the gothic vision—a world askew where mankind’s forbidden impulses are set free from the repressions of the psyche, and nature turns malevolent and lawless—Joyce Carol Oates includes Henry James’s “The Romance of Certain Old Clothes,” Herman Melville’s horrific tale of factory women, “The Tartarus of Maids,” and Edith Wharton’s “Afterward,”...Added to these stories of the past are new ones that explore the wounded worlds of Stephen King, Anne Rice, Peter Straub, Raymond Carver, and more. (googlebooks)
Dietland, hosted by Kristjiana, History & Service LearningBy Sarai Walker
genre: realistic fiction
Plum Kettle does her best not to be noticed, because when you’re fat, to be noticed is to be judged. With her job answering fan mail for a teen magazine, she is biding her time until her weight-loss surgery. But when a mysterious woman in colorful tights and combat boots begins following her, Plum falls down a rabbit hole into the world of Calliope House—an underground community of women who reject society’s rules—and is forced to confront the real costs of becoming “beautiful.” At the same time, a guerilla group begins terrorizing a world that mistreats women, and Plum becomes entangled in a sinister plot. The consequences are explosive. (hmhbooks.com)
The Name of the Rose, hosted by Riley Maddox, Math & 2023 Grade DeanBy Umberto Eco
genre: historical fiction
Riley says, "Are you interested in reading a historical whodunit that is described as an 'intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies, and literary theory'? Did you also just have to google 'semiotics'? Is your goal in summer reading to be transported to a rich, far-away (space & time) world? Are you interested in monks or monasteries? What about philosophy? Answering Yes to any of the above might suggest you should join in reading The Name of the Rose."
Native Air, hosted by Geoff Ruth, ScienceBy Jonathan Howland (former Urban English teacher!)
genre: literary fiction
You know there are people whose obsession is big-wall climbing. You may have seen the documentaries, read the articles, perhaps even read a memoir. But you’ve never read anything that takes you so deep inside the anchoritic psyche of helpless, abject cliff worship. The narrator is ambivalent and supremely observant, his partner the absolutist...This is literary fiction of a high order, with a physical immediacy and specificity that never let up, and then a riveting next-generation denouement. The final top-out will destroy you. Climb on. (The New Yorker)
Patron Saints of Nothing, hosted by Ricco Siasoco, English & 2024 Grade DeanBy Randy Ribay
genre: YA
Jay Reguero plans to spend the last semester of his senior year playing video games before heading to the University of Michigan in the fall. But when he discovers that his Filipino cousin Jun was murdered as part of President Duterte's war on drugs, and no one in the family wants to talk about what happened, Jay travels to the Philippines to find out the real story. Hoping to uncover more about Jun and the events that led to his death, Jay is forced to reckon with the many sides of his cousin before he can face the whole horrible truth -- and the part he played in it. (Goodreads)
Girl, Woman, Other, hosted by Cathleen Sheehan, Englishby Bernardine Evaristo
genre: realistic fiction
Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives of twelve very different people in Britain, predominantly female and black. Aged 19 to 93, they span a variety of cultural backgrounds, sexualities, classes and occupations as they tell the stories of themselves, their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years. (bevaristo.com)
The Vanishing Half, hosted by Kelli Yon, Visual ArtsBy Brit Bennett
genre: literary fiction
The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines intersect? (Riverhead Books)
