Summer Strategies

In This Section
Summer Strategies: Ideas to Utilize Those Lazy, Crazy Days
Courtesy of Princeton Review
Summer Programs: Why Should You Go?
by Neill Seltzer
Summer Programs for High School and College Students
by Mike Pugh from Fastweb.com
Summertime SAT/ACT Prep by Stephen Borkowski &
Fastweb.com
Summer Is a Great Time to Read! Courtesy of Princeton Review and the Boston Latin School with additions and comments by John B. Boshoven

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Summer Strategies: Ideas to Utilize Those Lazy, Crazy Days

Courtesy of Princeton Review

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS: TOP TEN PLAN FOR SUMMER LEARNING (so your parents will leave you alone)

1. READ
If we had to suggest one thing that would increase your grades and SAT scores, make you a better writer, a better student, and increase your knowledge of the world, it would be to read as many good books as possible. We’ve included a reading list, but go where your heart desires. Read newspapers and magazines, even check out a trashy novel or two. But read!

2. VOLUNTEER
One of the best things you can do this summer is help your community. It’s never too late to sign up. Most charities need your help and are more than willing to work around your schedule. Call the Sierra Club, Ronald McDonald House, the Coalition for the Homeless, whatever meets your interest.
Volunteer work is challenging and rewarding-and it looks great on college applications.

3. WORK/INTERN
Summer jobs and internships are great opportunities to learn new skills and meet new people. Although some of the best are probably gone by now, there’s still time to find work. Call local law firms, publishers, radio stations and offer to work for free. If you need the cash, baby sit, clean neighbors’ houses, tutor kids, flip burgers-there’s always something you can do to expand your horizons and maybe even make some money.

4. LEARN SOMETHING
Just because school’s out is no reason to shut off your mind. Instead of learning the concrete curriculum, teach yourself something totally off the roster. Learn about jazz, cooking, modern art, French films, whatever interests you. Summer is the perfect time to take control of your education and to learn things that you’re interested in at your own pace.

5. CHECK OUT COLLEGES
Go to a library or bookstore and check out the many books on colleges. Think about what you want in a college. Do you want to go to a large state university, a small liberal arts college, or something in between? Surf the web and check out different college web sites. If you can, visit some of the campuses you’re interested in. Even if you’re nowhere near the schools that interest you most, visit a college close to you and talk to
professors and administrators to get a sense of what college life is about.

6. TAKE A HIKE
No matter where you live in the US, it’s a short trip to some form of wilderness. This summer might be the perfect time to start hiking, to get out of the city or the suburbs, and hang with Mother Nature.

7. PREPARE FOR THE SAT/ACT (see related article below)
The SAT is a pretty terrible test, causing much anxiety and measuring little more than how well you take the SAT/ACT. Unfortunately, it’s an incredibly important test and your ability to take it could have a significant impact on the course of your life. If you don’t prepare for the test, you’re losing out to the hundreds of thousands of students who are. Take courses, use books or software, but you better prepare for the SAT, and summer affords you plenty of time to do this.

8. DO AT LEAST ONE THING THAT YOU’VE NEVER DONE BEFORE Experiment. Do something great. Act in a play, spend time with senior citizens, skydive, learn karate. The beauty of it is you’re making your own agenda. Nobody’s telling you what to do, so go crazy.

9. KEEP A JOURNAL
Along with how well you read, the ability to write well is one of the most important skills you can develop. Keeping a journal is a pressure-free way to express yourself in writing. And it’s a lot more fun than writing essays and book reports.

10. NETWORK
Interested in the University of Michigan or Amherst College? Curious about a job in advertising? Talk to someone who goes to Michigan or Amherst. Meet with someone who works at an ad agency. You’ll get a good sense if you’re still interested in following those paths. You’d be surprised how happy people are to talk to someone who’s interested in what they do.

Courtesy of Princeton Review

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Summer Programs: Why Should You Go?

by Neill Seltzer

Summer is special. It can’t come soon enough and it always ends too quickly. Summer is everything that school is not. Where school days often seem to drag on, during the summer whole months skip by before we know it. The learning that takes place in summer is of a different sort that the kind you find in school. Summers fill your head with dreams. Summer is about filling your time the way you choose. It is about discovering your own interests, at your own pace, and in your own way.

It doesn’t take too much imagination to see the three precious summers of high school as the three magic beans given to Jack in the fairy tale about the beanstalk. Jack plants his beans in the garden and out grows a magic beanstalk that reaches far beyond Jack’s limited horizons. When he began to climb, he had no idea what was at the other end. It wasn’t easy, but in the end he got his mother’s approval and the golden goose. Your high school summers are like that: If you plant them in fertile ground, they will lead to adventure.

The benefits of a summer adventure are very real. The opportunity to reinvent yourself, to discover that you are capable of so much more than you ever thought possible, to discover that other people hold the same fears and dreams that you never dared to share out loud, to collide with another culture, to work as a team, to overcome authentic challenges, to face questions of personal and cultural identity, to expand your view and understanding of the world, and, most of all, to discover who you are and where you come from by stepping out of your comfort zone, can only be described in one way: priceless.

And these direct benefits lead to residual benefits. You become a more interesting and thoughtful person, which can help with college admissions. You may have a clearer sense of your own personal interests and learning styles, which will lead to a more successful academic career. You will have a greater sense of self confidence, which will help overcome peer pressure, loneliness, and the feeling of being trapped. You will be better equipped to deal with the transitions that we all face from high school to college-or from dependent to independent-and better equipped to deal with the unexpected crises that come up in all lives.

Besides, how many new challenges do you think you are likely to bump into while sitting on your couch at home? Let’s look at some specific reasons to participate in a summer program.

Changing Your Perspective
Understanding another walk of life not only enriches your understanding of the world, but it also makes you a more capable person, ready to tackle and solve complex problems that involve real human beings. When you bring this change in perspective from your summer experience home with you, it will act equally on those truths that you thought you knew. This is especially true of students returning form particularly intense service programs. Richard Webb, the founder of ProPeru, puts it this way: “Returning students often describe to me a newly found sense of what is important and what is not important. The interpersonal dramas that once consumed their lives no longer seem to have any significance. Students experience a new sense of peace and balance as a result of understanding how petty [their] previous issues were when seen in relation to the hunger and poverty-but also joy-that they have seen over the summer.”

Related Links
Summer Programs: What Do You Want to Do?
http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/articles/prepare/summerBook1.asp

Describing Your Summer Experience on a College App
http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/articles/prepare/summerBook3.asp

Evaluating Summer Programs
http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/articles/prepare/summerBook4.asp

Intern by Design: Creating Your Own Internship
http://www.princetonreview.com/cte/articles/internships/internshipDesign.asp

Dry Run for College
When you get to college, you will have to walk into an unfamiliar environment and spend long periods away from home. You will be leaving your friends and the comforts of home behind. You will have to face new challenges emotionally, physically, academically, and socially. Your personal weaknesses will be tested, and you will have to find new strengths to pull you through. Sound familiar? A summer program will test you in all of the same ways, but the length of commitment is shorter, the environment is smaller (20 kids vs. 2,000), the stakes are lower, the activities more fun, the support groups better. Putting yourself in this challenging environment now is a perfect way to learn to manage dramatic, unsupervised, unsupported transitions later.

Trying On a Life for Size
Summer programs offer you the opportunity to try out skills, job descriptions, or fantasies that normally require years of commitment to achieve. They also provide an opportunity to travel to exotic places, meet people from different countries, develop arcane but interesting skills, and to generally do things that you could never do at home.

Reinvent Yourself
Summer programs provide you with a chance to be whoever you want to be. Many challenging programs create an environment where teamwork is a survival skill. Other programs focus on creating an atmosphere of open, honest communication. No posturing, no being cool, no playing to the audience, just talking about issues that are confronting the entire group. Summer programs that push the whole student-mentally, physically, emotionally, and socially-create a space in which a teenager can develop skills and personality traits that may have been stifled in school. If you are feeling typecast, pigeonholed, or trapped in a particular peer group, summer programs allow you to change the channel.

Push Personal Limits
If the notion of expanding your personal limits sounds scary to you, don’t worry. Good summer programs are not in the business of setting people up for failure. If they confronted students with challenges but did not help them to succeed, no one would come back. They are created for students just like you. If you’re not sure, call the references that they give you. They will all tell you the same thing: “If you think that it won’t work, don’t worry. You can do it. I didn’t think that I would ever do it, but I did, and now I’ll never forget it!”

It’s Fun
There is nothing boring about sitting in a kayak off the coast of Alaska. Rebuilding old Romanesque chapels in the south of France is way more interesting than painting houses in Pennsylvania. Spend a summer with twenty of your peers doing community service in Peru where just walking down the street is fun. Most of the students that we’ve spoken to tell us that the programs that they went on made for the dirtiest, hottest, hungriest, most exhausting-but quite possibly the happiest-summers they ever spent. What more do you need to know? These are people just like you.

Next Steps
-Search for Internship Opportunities
http://www.princetonreview.com/cte/search/internshipAdvSearch.asp
-Use Counselor-O-Matic to Find Your Good Match Schools
http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/advsearch/match.asp
-Discussion Boards: Read What Others Are Doing
http://discuss.princetonreview.com/forums/index.cfm?CFID=570889&CFTOKEN=9510870&CFApp=3&
-Try a FREE Full-Length Practice SAT
http://www.princetonreview.com/college/testprep/testprep.asp?TPRPAGE=78&TYPE=SAT

This article is adapted from The 500 Best Ways for Teens to Spend the Summer by Neill Seltzer.
http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/articles/prepare/summerbook2.asp

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Summer Programs for High School and College Students

by Mike Pugh from Fastweb.com

Participating in a summer program is a great way to spend your summer. Not only do you experience life on a college campus, you get to explore new fields, earn college credit and make friendships that last a lifetime.

But if you’re planning on a summer program, you need to act now! Application deadlines come early in the year.

To get started, check out this directory of 25 popular programs for high school and/or college students. But don’t stop there! There are hundreds of summer programs being offered each year at colleges all over the country. No matter where you live or what you wish to study, chances are good that there’s a program being offered near you.

Abbey Road Overseas Programs
These summer immersion programs for high school students facilitate cross-cultural understanding. Students spend several weeks in either Spain, France or Italy, where they will undergo intensive language immersion and travel to historic sites. The French and Spanish homestay programs focus on linguistic and cultural immersion, while the pre-college programs in Cannes, France, and Florence, Italy, have a greater emphasis on academics (culture, history, art, literature, etc) and take place on college campuses.

Academic Connections at the University of California – San Diego
In this three-week program, students immerse themselves in study of a particular academic subject. Options include: engineering, biomedical sciences, humanities/arts, marine sciences, media/ communication, mathematics/economics and social sciences/law. Participants must be in high school and have a minimum GPA of 3.3.

American Collegiate Adventures
American Collegiate Adventures offer two-, three- and six-week summer programs at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Students enroll in two college-level courses and take them either for college credit or personal enrichment. American Collegiate Adventures also offers a four-week program in Spain.

Bentley College – Camp Bentley
Bentley College, located in Waltham, Massachusetts, offers a one-week residential summer program for students entering the 10th, 11th and 12th grades – “Wall Street 101” and “Leadership Institute”. Within a fun and interactive setting, the programs offer students an opportunity to learn about careers in business.

California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science
This four-week residential program gives high school students a chance to take university-level math and science courses at one of three University of California campuses – Santa Cruz, Davis or Irvine. Students live in campus housing with other program participants. Full and partial scholarships are available.

Carnegie Mellon University – Summer Academy for Mathematics and Science (SAMS)
This six-week program gives incoming high school juniors and seniors an opportunity to take part in hands-on projects as well as classroom instruction in computer science, engineering and science. There are no tuition, housing or dining fees for this program.

Columbia College of Chicago
This program is for students who have a serious interest in the fine arts, performing arts, media arts or communication arts. Participants will choose from a selection of courses and earn 1-3 college credits. The program culminates a showcase, in which students share their finished work in a day of performances and exhibits. The program is open to current high school sophomores, juniors and seniors.

Concordia Language Villages
Concordia Language Villages is a world language and culture education program. Their mission is to prepare young people for responsible citizenship in the global community. With an annual enrollment reaching 9,500, Concordia Language Villages draws young people from every state and several countries. Villagers may choose from 12 world language programs: Chinese, Danish, English, Finnish, French, French Voyageur, German, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish, Italian or Swedish.

Cornell University – Summer Programs for High School Students
High school students take Cornell courses for credit, live on campus, explore academic and career opportunities and learn what college is all about. Some courses may be taken for academic credit.

Duke University’s Pre-College Program
Part of Duke University’s Talent Identification program, Duke’s Pre-College Program offers small classes taught by Duke University faculty and a residential life program. Intensive, fast-paced courses are offered in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, mathematics and computer sciences.

Harvard Summer School Secondary School Program (SSP)
Every summer approximately 1,000 high school students who have completed their junior or senior year spend eight weeks at Harvard University. (A limited number of sophomores are also accepted.) Living and learning with students from all areas of the United States and more than 90 countries around the world, SSP students take courses and earn college credit.

Indiana University – High School Journalism Institute
The High School Journalism Institute is designed for high school students interested in journalism. Participants examine the role of the media, analyze their own and other student publications and develop the skills needed to produce quality publications. Faculty members from Indiana University and guest lecturers from around the country guide student courses of study.

Miami University of Ohio – Junior Scholars Program
The Junior Scholars Program is a six-week summer term for academically talented high school students. The Program provides a total collegiate experience, including courses for college credit, residence hall life, planned recreation programs and co-curricular seminars. Junior Scholars also receive scholarships in recognition of their scholastic achievements.

Mathcamp
Mathcamp is an intensive five-week summer program in which students receive dedicated instruction in various principles of mathematics. The program offers courses, problem-solving sessions and lectures by leading mathematicians. The program is open to high school and junior high students ages 13 to 18. A qualifying quiz is required of all applicants.

National Youth Science Camp
The National Youth Science Camp is an intense month-long camp for young scientists the summer after high school graduation. In a rustic setting, students from around the country are challenged in lectures, hands-on studies and an extensive outdoor program. Two students from each state are invited by their governor to participate in this all-expenses-paid program.

New York Film Academy’s High School Workshop
These immersion workshops range from four-week programs to full-year programs. They are designed to introduce students to the creative and technical demands of telling stories with moving images. Students have the opportunity to write, direct, shoot and edit short films. Award-winning instructors, abundant equipment and small classes provide students with the individual attention and support necessary to complete their own work.

Rhode Island School of Design Pre-College Program
The six-week RISD summer Pre-College Program introduces high school students to the focused curriculum of a college of art and design. Students live in residence halls, attend social activities and study a particular subject in the fine or visual arts. Participants must be high school students between the age of 16-18 years old.

Summer Study Programs
The Summer Study Programs at Penn State University, University of Colorado at Boulder, and The American University of Paris combine academically challenging courses with the experience of campus life. Students completing 9th, 10th or 11th grade can choose from several programs: three and one-half-week Summer Enrichment or six-week college credit Summer Study Program at Penn State University; a three-week enrichment program (no credit) or five-week college credit program at The American University of Paris; or a five-week college credit program at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Summer Science Program (SSP) – Ojai, California
The Summer Science Program in Ojai, California, exposes selected high school students to advanced topics in mathematics, astronomy and space science. SSP challenges its students to calculate the orbit of an asteroid using their own direct telescopic observations.

Telluride Association Summer Programs (TASP)
TASP is a six-week educational experience for high school juniors. Students participate in seminars led by college and university members and participate in educational and social activities outside the classroom. Telluride Association seeks students from all kinds of educational backgrounds who demonstrate intellectual curiosity and motivation. Telluride Association Summer Programs are free; every student awarded a place in a TASP attends the program on a full housing, dining and tuition scholarship.

Tufts Summer High School Program
Since 1982, Tufts has attracted top-caliber high school students who wish to spend their summers pursuing academic excellence and social maturity. Tufts programs are kept small so students receive individual attention from instructors. Two different programs are offered: Tufts Summit (Talloires, France) and Tufts Summer Study (Medford/Boston).

University of Chicago – The Young Scholars Program
The University of Chicago offers an enrichment program in mathematics for Chicago Public School students. Students attend daily seminars given by University professors and solve mathematics problems based on these seminars. Topics include number theory, geometry and probability. Students also learn computer skills. Tuition is free for those accepted.

University of Dallas Summer Study in Europe
The University of Dallas’ programs use European travel to stimulate careful reading, writing and thinking about life’s most serious questions. Courses are led by experienced University faculty and staff.

University of New Hampshire Upward Bound Summer Program
During their six-week summer program, students live on the campus of the University of New Hampshire and take five classes in the following areas: math, science, English, electives and “success studies” (SAT prep, study skills, etc). Small classes are designed to inspire excitement about academics and give students a head start on college.

University of Pennsylvania Programs for High School Students
Penn’s summer programs combine rigorous classroom and lab work with a wide range of social activities, trips and tours. Opportunities are available for residential students, commuting students and distance learners. Each of Penn’s summer programs for high school students offers a college-level experience that smoothes the transition from high school to college.

To find a summer program close to home, call your local colleges or check their Web sites. Also, check out Science Service’s Student Programs by State listing at
http://www.sciserv.org/stp/.

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Summertime SAT/ACT Prep

by Stephen Borkowski & Fastweb.com

It may be summer, but you know there’s an SAT and ACT bubble sheet in your future. Whether it’ll be your second attempt or first encounter with the SAT, summer is a great time to boost your test taking abilities. Here are some simple things you can do this summer that will serve you well on test day.

Read
Whether it’s a book by the pool or a magazine on your lunch break, reading regularly will help in several ways.

Students need to read something every day says William Sullivan, an SAT tutor in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Simply reading a newspaper lets students “see a lot of words in context that will help them when they’re reading on the SAT,” he says.

Reading will also help students with the SAT’s writing component. Students will need evidence to support arguments they make in their essays says Ian Simpson, the owner and president of Integrated Learning, a Los Angeles-based tutoring company. “One way to have a lot of examples is to do a lot of reading. Any good book will have several themes that will be relevant,” he says.

Try the Math
Pick up a copy of 10 Real SATs and try to crack one problem a day, or maybe even a few if you’ve got a long road trip or flight planned.

The majority of the math on the SAT consists of percentiles, fractions, algebra and geometry. Simpson says that the phrasing often confuses students more than the math concepts.

“Students have to have constant exposure to the style of the test. In my opinion, the test is a language by itself,” Simpson says. The more exposure a student has to the test’s language, the more comfortable they’ll be on test day.

Pack Some Flash Cards
Whether you create your own or buy a deck, flash cards are a convenient way to put your downtime to good use. If you’re stuck waiting for a ride, why not use the time to build your vocabulary or brush up on your math fundamentals?

Good test takers “keep their studying grouped into small chunks so that they’re never overwhelmed, and they’re able to take their time to assimilate all the information,” Sullivan says. Flash cards make the material portable and manageable.

Be Consistent
Studying regularly now is more likely to benefit your score than trying to cram for the test. Sullivan says the best test takers are “always doing something but they’re never doing too much.”

There are quick tricks and strategies that can boost a student’s SAT score, but consistently studying some fundamentals will be more beneficial. “You can’t do the SAT on strategies alone,” Simpson says.

Starting early on your test preparation has the added benefit of alleviating stress on test day. If you’ve built a good foundation and taken some sample tests, when the bubble sheet hits your desk you’ll be ready for it.

http://www.fastweb.com

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Summer is a great time to read!

Reading is a life-time skill, so pick up some good books at a library or bookstore near you and let them do their magic!

SUMMER READING LIST
Any good book can increase your vocabulary and critical reading skills, so you may as well have fun. The books we’ve selected represent great authors you might not have encountered. We recommend all of their books.  Enjoy…

The Autobiography of Malcolm X: Alex Haley If you’re not sure who he is, definitely read this book. If you’ve heard of him and would like to learn more, the book will tell you everything.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. Murder in Savannah. It’s a quirky and compelling true story.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein. A human raised by Martians returns to Earth after thirty years.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Four Vermont College students get involved in a murder and prove how clever they really are.

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. The oddly formed offspring of a circus family try to fit in despite their physical oddities.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. Reading about life in a mental hospital is much better than being there. Also read Sometimes a Great Notion.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. The story of a woman’s descent into madness.

Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. A bizarre mix of satire, fantasy, and realism dealing with atomic scientists and the end of the world.

Beloved by Toni Morrison. The story of a woman, her daughter, and her ghost daughter.

The Godfather by Mario Puzo. Check out the book about the Mafia that inspired several great movies.

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. The stories of four Chinese mothers followed by the stories of their Americanized daughters.

The World According to Garp by John Irving. All of Irving’s books are good. We highly recommend him as an enjoyable contemporary author.

1984 by George Orwell. A chilling version of a totalitarian future that has come true in many respects.

The Chosen by Chaim Potok. Two New Yorkers from different worlds reconcile their differences and grow to be friends.

Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney. A yuppie drug addict discovers he is his own worst enemy.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. The America of the future has polluted itself into near extinction, and fertile women are enslaved by an aristocracy of religious fanatics.

Time and Again by Jack Finney. An artist travels back in time to
nineteenth-century New York City.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. The experience of an African-American community in the early twentieth century.

Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins. Follows the adventures of an immortal king through thousands of years of human history.

The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy. Like all of Clancy’s works, it’s full of in-depth stories about military strategy, spies, submarines, etc.

The Stand by Stephen King. A killer virus: It’s scary, weird, and gross. This one is loaded with SAT words.

Courtesy of Princeton Review

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Boston Latin School Summer Reading List: Required of Students Entering Class in 2010

The three required titles for students entering Class I are: Cat’s Eye, The Kite Runner, and The Namesake.

Additional requirements are as follows:

• College English 12: In addition to the three required titles, please select two books from the list

below. You are also free to select among the required titles for AP Literature. If you are enrolled in

Facing History and Ourselves, you must read one of the titles on the list for that course. This may be

substituted for one of your two ‘free choice’ titles.

• Advanced Placement English: In addition to the required titles, you should read: The Stranger, by

Albert Camus; The Awakening, by Kate Chopin; Medea, by Euripides; Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse;

and Sula, by Toni Morrison. If you are enrolled in Facing History and Ourselves, you must also

complete the summer reading requirement for that course.

• Students in both classes should keep in mind that the focus of this year’s reading is world literature.

You may wish to consider how these books help expand your scope as a reader and thinker.

English Department List—Class I

Allende, Isabel Eva Luna Eva loves a Turkish merchant, a guerrilla fighter, and a German immigrant while

triumphing over harsh reality through creativity and imagination.

The House of the Spirits Four generations of women with unnatural powers witness upheaval in South

America.

Agee, James A Death in the Family A family reacts to the sudden accidental death of the father.

Austen, Jane Sense and Sensibility Happiness is a good balance of sense and sensibility.

Beckett, Samuel Waiting for Godot Despite Godot’s failure to appear, Vladimir and Estragon

endlessly hope for direction.

Buck, Pearl The Good Earth Before the Revolution a Chinese farmer and his wife go from poverty to land

ownership.

Camus, Albert The Stranger Meursault is innocently drawn into a senseless murder in Algeria.

Capote, Truman Other Voices, Other Rooms Joel, searching for his father and himself, finds the unexpected.

Catton, Bruce A Stillness at Appomattox The conflict between Lee and Grant foreshadows the end of hope for

the Confederacy.

Cheever, John Collected Stories There can be darkness hidden behind happiness and success.

The Wapshot Chronicle The breakdown of a small fishing village and its people is revealed.

Chekhov, Anton The Three Sisters Lives are monetarily brightened when the imperial army comes to town.

Cheng, Nien Life and Death in Shanghai Six years as a political prisoner during the Chinese Cultural Revolution

are chronicled.

Chopin, Kate The Awakening Edna's affair inflames her heart and blinds her to all else, even her children.

Desai, Anita Baumgartner’s Bombay A German Jew flees the Holocaust to remake his life in India.

Dickens, Charles Bleak House The legal system consumes the greedy and destroys the innocents.

Dostoevski, Fyodor The Brothers Karamazov Family drama depicts the Russian character and human nature.

Dreiser, Theodore An American Tragedy Dreams of wealth and status cause a poor boy to commit murder.

Eliot, George Adam Bede Women are destroyed by selfish men and their own weaknesses.

Erdrich, Louise Tracks White men’s greed destroys the Chipawa Indians as told from two opposing

viewpoints.

Fadiman, Anne The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of

Two Cultures Three-month-old Lia Lee arrives at the county hospital emergency room in Merced, California and,

along with her parents, is caught up in a chain of events from which neither she, her parents, nor her doctors

will ever recover.

Faulkner, William The Sound and the Fury Three children and the servants tell of the decline and fall of a

family.

Flaubert, Gustave Madame Bovary Emma is unhappy with her marriage and feels trapped.

Friedman, Thomas From Beirut to Jerusalem The Middle East is explored in this thought provoking book.

Fuentes, Carlos The Death of Artemis Cruz This portrait of an individual comments on Mexican society and the

abuse of power.

Fuller, Charles A Soldier’s Play A murder occurs in a black regiment in Louisiana during WW II.

Fussell, Paul The Great War and Modern Memory The impact of this historical turning point on art and culture

Gardner, John Grendel The Beowolf epic is retold from Grendel's point of view.

Golden, Marita A Woman’s Place A college friendship of three black women in the 60’s guides them in later

years.

Hardy,Thomas The Mayor of Casterbridge Michael tries to atone for selling his wife and daughter at a fair.

Hassler, Jon Staggerford A high school teacher's life turns into a tragicomedy.

Simon’s Night A professor goes to the strange, delightful and frightening world of a retirement home.

Love Hunter A dangerous love triangle exists among a dying man, his wife, and his best friend.

Heller, Joseph Catch-22 The dehumanizing effects of the WW II military bureaucracy are satirically depicted.

Hemingway, Ernest The Sun Also Rises The lost generation after WW I struggles to make sense of life.

Hesse, Hermann Demian Led by a school mate, Emil descends into a world of petty crime and revolt.

Steppenwolf The protagonist wrestles with the conflict between the flesh and the spirit.

Hijuelos, Oscar The Mambo King Plays Songs of Love Cesar and Nestor come to New York in 1949 to emulate

their heroes, Desi Arnaz and Xavier Cugart.

Ibsen, Henrick A Doll’s House A wife confronts a male dominated and authoritarian society.

Joyce, James Dubliners This series of short stories give an idea of the feelings and thinking of Dubliners.

Jin, Ha Waiting Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction in 1999, this novel explores the conflict

between the individual and society and between the urgings of the human heart and the shifting politics of the

moment.

Keneally, Thomas To Asmara An alienated Australian journalist travels through war torn Africa.

Kennedy, William Ironweed An ex-ballplayer, and part time grave digger, tries to make peace with ghosts of his

past.

Kerouac, Jack On the Road The soul of the Beat Movement is revealed in this cross-country bohemian odyssey.

Kosinski, Jerzy The Painted Bird After losing his parents, a boy wanders throughout Europe after WW II.

Laguma, Alex A Walk in the Night This riveting book epitomizes the workings of the apartheid system.

Lawrence, D. H. Sons and Lovers An abnormally close mother-son relationship makes Paul unable to love as an

adult.

Mahfouz, Naguib Palace Walk The second of a trilogy tells of a Muslim family in Cairo during the early

1900’s.

Marquez, Gabriel Garcia One Hundred Years of Solitude A hundred years in the life of the village of Macondo

are revealed.

McCarthy, Cormac The Crossing This second book of The Border Trilogy follows teenage Billy from his ranch

to Mexico.

Moon, William L.H. Blue Highways The protagonist takes a 13,000-mile journey along the blue roads of the

highway map.

More, Thomas Utopia Four hundred years ago Thomas More dreamed of a better world.

Morrison, Toni Beloved Sethe lives an uneasy but comforting life with the spirit of her dead child, Beloved.

Mukherjee Bharati Jasmine Widowed at seventeen, Jasmine travels around America and experiences a

metamorphosis.

Nabokov, Vladimir Speak, Memory The author’s autobiographical work explores the experience of living a life

divided between two cultures and languages (Russian and English).

Naipaul, V. S. A Bend in the River An Indian man moves to a newly freed African nation where both struggle

to establish an identity.

Ngugui, James Decolonizing the Mind Collection of provocative and insightful essays on the pivotal role of

language in the formation of identity in post-colonial Africa.

Nicholas, Lynn Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe’s Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War Winner

of the National Book Critics Circle Award, Nicholas’s work involves a cast of characters ranging from Hitler

and Goering to Gertrude Stein and Marc Chagall, along with works by artists from da Vinci to Picasso.

O’Neill, Eugene A Long Day’s Journey into Night An ostensibly respectful family is also greatly tormented.

Pasternak, Boris Doctor Zhivago A poet physician lives and loves during the Russian Revolution.

Paton, Alan Cry, the Beloved Country A Zulu pastor and his son experience the turbulence of South Africa.

Philbrick, Nathaniel In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex This book, winner of the National

Book Award for Nonfiction in 2000, chronicles the story of the wreck of the whaleship Essex, whose fate

inspired the climax of Moby Dick.

Rand, Ayn Atlas Shrugged The female protagonist fights to manage a transcontinental railroad.

Rostand, Edmond Cyrano de Bergerac A soldier, a wit, but a timid lover, woos by proxy of a more handsome

man.

Sartre, Jean Paul No Exit In this existential play, hell is other people.

Shakespeare, William Henry IV, Part I Prince Hal carouses with his friend Falstaff.

Shaw, George Bernard Arms and the Man This farce criticizes Romanticism and embraces twentieth century

Realism.

Shirer, William The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich WW II, the Holocaust, and the Nuremberg Trials are

explored.

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich A typical day in the labor camp of Siberia

emerges.

Sophocles Oedipus at Colonus Blamed for the curse upon him, Oedipus is exiled.

Stegner, Wallace Angle of Repose Wheelchair-bound Lyman writes about his grandparents whom he never

knew.

Steele, Shelly The Content of Our Character This look at the African-American experience argues for personal

responsibility.

Stoppard, Tom Rosencrantz and Guidenstern Are Dead Minor characters from Shakespeare’s Hamlet take on major

roles in this existential comedy.

Tan, Amy The Kitchen God’s Wife Winnie and her daughter Pearl have secrets that Auntie Helen wants to tell.

Tolstoy, Leo Anna Karenina Unhappy in her marriage, Anna develops a dangerous passion for Count Vronsky.

Voltaire Candide Candide believes that he lives in the “best of all possible worlds.”

Walker, Alice The Color Purple Celie struggles for empowerment against a life of abuse and lack of education.

Wangerin, Walter The Book of the Dun Cow An animal fable tells of courage, sorrow, humor, character, and

love.

Warren, Robert Penn All the King's Men The life of Hughie Long, the governor of Louisiana, is fictionalized.

Wilde, Oscar The Picture of Dorian Gray A portrait hidden in the attic ages while Dorian himself does not.

Wilson, August Two Trains Running This play, set in a 60’s Pittsburgh diner, boldly confronts racism.

Woolfe, Virginia Mrs. Dalloway The feelings during a single day in the life of Mrs. Dalloway emerge.

Wouk, Herman The Caine Mutiny Mutiny aboard a World War II ship pits a maturing Keith against a fanatical

Captain Queeg.

Wright, Steven Meditations in Green James survives Vietnam but not the effects of war

~~~~

a note from a parent…

Dear John:
Even though those books on your email list may have been recommended by Princeton Review, they aren’t the sort of books that I’d like my son to read. As I am familiar with UM & other “elite” schools & sell high-end books (often to universities (in Europe, Japan, South America, Australia & U.S.) & to research libraries) & to students & scholars, I have the following observations:_

-Read “The Economist” magazine. During “elite” college interviews, this magazine & its contents often come up during the conversation.

-Anybody applying to MIT: read “Technology Review” & “Car & Driver.” The editor of the latter does MIT alumni interviews in Ann Arbor.

-”The Sea Around Us” by Rachel Carson. One of the most influential science books of the 20th century.

-”A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking. Required reading for Freshman English at U of M; an essential 20-th century book!

-”The Double Helix” by James Watson. American good-off goes to England & figures out the structure of DNA & wins Nobel Prize.

-Read a few of Isabelle Allende’s books. She is probably the most outstanding & influential woman writer in the world. If you’re a Spanish student, read them in Spanish!

-Read books by Carlos Fuentes and Pablo Neruda. Read them in Spanish if you can, otherwise in English.

-The only 1990’s novel that has “Elan” is “The Phantom” by Susan Kay. Hard to come by, Amazon 5-star. I sell copies of this all over the world.

-Another tip: Go see the current exhibits at the UM Art Museum; watch the videos & read the exhibit brochures. It’s also important because U of M Freshman English requires students to write about a work at UM Art Museum. Get some experience with art before college.

ANOTHER Parent suggestion!

It is helpful to have a variety of lists. I was happy to see the titles on the Princeton Review list but would also like to add that there are many books that provide multiple perspectives on being in America and also some terrific historical fiction, biography, and memoirs that can expand our knowledge of others and also be fun to read! Anything by Milton Meltzer who writes nonfiction and historical fiction. I liked:

“Never to Forget: The Jews of the Holocaust” and “The American Revolution: A History in their Own Words 1750-1800”

“Empress of the Splendid Season” by Oscar Hijuelos

“When I Was Puerto Rican” by Esmeralda Santiago

“The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros (on the Princeton Review list?)

“The Color of Water” by James McBride (he is a jazz musician as well as a writer so may appeal to CHS jazz folks)

“American Chica” by Marie ARiana

“Postcards from No Man’s Land” by Adain Chambers (fiction that links present with WWII)

“Reason for Hope” by Jane Goodall.

“No Ordinary Time” (The book about Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt during WWII by Doris Kearns)