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Outstanding Books for Grades 11 and 12

FICTION
Atwood, Margaret.
 Oryx and Crake: A Novel.
 
Snowman,near starvation and losing his memory for language, describes his 
post-plague society stripped of vegetation and all other forms of life 
except the genetically engineered Children of Crake. (New York Times Notable 
Book.)

Hopkins, Ellen
Crank
Ellen Hopkins's semi-autobiographical verse novel, Crank, reads like a Go 
Ask Alice for the 21st century. In it, she chronicles the turbulent and 
often disturbing relationship between Kristina, a character based on her own 
daughter, and the "monster," the highly addictive drug crystal meth, 
or "crank." 

Crichton,Michael
Eaters of the Dead
A fast-paced adventure that takes only a few hours to finish. It's a 
masterful retelling of the Beowulf saga, cleverly combined with the 
manuscripts of Ibn Fadlan, an historically authentic person. (Of course 
there are other fast paced reads by Crichton - Jurassic Park  
and The Lost World.

Coben, Harlan
Tell No One
After years of struggling with grief over his wife's murder by a serial 
killer, Dr. David Beck receives a mysterious e-mail which includes a secret 
word only the two of them knew.

Roth, Philip.
The Plot Against America
In this semiautobiographical fantasy, Charles Lindbergh defeats President 
Roosevelt in the 1940 Presedential election and acts on his anti-semitic 
leanings. Pultitzer Prize Winner.

Zusak, Markus. 
The Book Thief
Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story 
of Liesel, a young German girl, whose book stealing and storytelling talents 
help sustain her family, the Jewish man they are hiding, and her neighbors.

Pressfield, Steven 
The Gates of Fire.
Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their 
laws we lie.
Thus reads an ancient stone at Thermopylae in northern Greece, the site of 
one of the world's greatest battles for freedom. Here, in 480 B.C., on a 
narrow mountain pass above the crystalline Aegean, 300 Spartan knights and 
their allies faced the massive forces of Xerxes, King of Persia. From the 
start, there was no question but that the Spartans would perish. In Gates of 
Fire, however, Steven Pressfield makes their courageous defense--and 
eventual extinction--unbearably suspenseful.


Doctorow, E.L.
The March
Towards the end of the Civil War, General Sherman is joined by characters 
both fictional and historical as he marches 60,000 Union troops on a sixty 
mile wide path of pillage and destruction through Georgia and the Carolinas.


Dumas, Alexandre. 
The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas's, The Count of Monte Cristo is one of the greatest novels 
of all time and in fact stands at the fountainhead of the entire stream of 
popular adventure-fiction. A lengthy tale that is well worth the effort!!


Welsh, Irvine.
Trainspotting
 
An authentic, unrelenting, and strangely exhilarating group portrait of 
blasted lives in Edinburgh that has the linguistic energy of A Clockwork 
Orange and the literary impact of Last Exit to Brooklyn. Rents, Sick Boy, 
Mother Superior, Swanney, Spuds, and Begbie are as unforgettable a clutch of 
rude boys, junkies, and nutters as readers will ever encounter.

Christie, Agatha
Murder on the Orient Express
 
The bestselling mystery writer of all time. The greatest detective of the 
century. The romance of the Orient Express. The murder and the mystery that 
has shocked--and stumped--readers for the past six decades. This is Murder 
on the Orient Express. 

Martel, Yann.
Life of Pi : a novel
Pi, the son of a zookeeper, is marooned aboard a lifeboat with four wild 
animals. His knowledge and cunning allow him to coexist for 227 days with 
Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger.

Stephen King - OF COURSE!!!
 
It's hard to choose, but here are some of his best:
The Stand
A military virus wipes out most of the world's population 
and society must rebuild itself.
The Dead Zone
 All about pure evil and our responsibility to fight 
it.
Salem's Lot
 Anne Rice who?? Without question the best modern 
vampire tale of all time.

Haddon, Mark
The curious incident of the dog in the night-time
 
Narrated by a 15-year-old autistic savant obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, 
this dazzling novel weaves together an old-fashioned mystery, a contemporary 
coming-of-age story, and a fascinating excursion into a mind incapable of 
processing emotions. 



Non-Fiction

Axelrod, Alan
Elizabeth I, CEO : strategic lessons from the leader who 
built an empire
 
In 1558, she inherited a business in trouble. Burdened by runaway inflation 
and a debased currency, bereft of strategic alliances, torn by internal 
dissent, and eyed greedily by competitors bent on takeover, her business -- 
England -- was on the brink of ruin. Forty-five years later, England was the 
richest nation on the planet.

Almond, Steve
Candyfreak: A Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of 
America.
Former journalist Steve Almond, who admits that he has eaten a piece of 
candy everyday of his life, writes a memoir/report/travelogue about the 
history of candy in America. A delicious, darkly funny read - without 
calories or carbs. Alex Award Winner

Kurson, Robert.
Shadow divers : the true adventure of two Americans who 
risked everything to solve one of the last mysteries of World War II
This superlative journalistic narrative tells of John Chatterton and Rich 
Kohler, two deep-sea wreck divers who in 1991 dove to a mysterious wreck 
lying at the perilous depth of 230 feet, off the coast of New Jersey.

Bascomb, Neal 
 Red Mutiny: Eleven Fateful Days on the Battleship 
Potemkin
"It wasn't just maggots in their meat that drove the sailors to kill the 
ship's captain and face down the Tsar". Using new material from previously 
closed Soviet archives, author Neal Bascomb crafts a novel like study 
regarding the mutiny of the Battleship Potemkin.

Larson, Erik.
The devil in the white city : murder, magic, and madness at the fair 
that changed America
The story of two men's obsessions with the Chicago World's Fair, one its 
architect, the other a murderer.

Bradley, James and Ron Powers 
 Flags of Our Fathers
Say "Iwo Jima," and what comes to mind? Most likely a famous photograph from 
1945: six tired, helmeted Marines, fresh from a long, terrifying and bloody 
battle, work together to raise the American flag on Mount Suribachi. 
Bradley's father, John, was one of the six. In this voluminous and memorable 
work of popular history mixed with memoir, Bradley and Powers (White Town 
Drowsing) reconstruct those Marines' experiences, and those of their Pacific 
Theater comrades. 

Leavy, Jane 
Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy
A lucid examination of arguably major league baseball's all-time greatest 
southpaw pitcher, from his bonus baby days with the world-champion Brooklyn 
Dodgers to his receipt of three Cy Young awards as the game's top moundsman. 
But Leavy's (Squeeze Play) story is far richer than simply a tale of the 
promising youngster who finally struck gold. Calling on her hundreds of 
interviews, she offers a richly drawn account of an often misunderstood yet 
greatly celebrated athlete.  

 Gould, Lewis
The Modern American Presidency
A no holds-barred analysis of all the modern presidents observes that 
today's presidency is so bogged down in media manipulation, fund-raising, 
and self-indulgence that it is no more capable of grappling with 
difficulties than it was a century ago.

Beevor, Antony
The Fall of Berlin,1945
By December 1944, many of the 3 million citizens of Berlin had stopped 
giving the Nazi salute, and jokes circulated that the most practical 
Christmas gift of the season was a coffin. And for good reason, military 
historian Antony Beevor writes in this richly detailed reconstruction of 
events in the final days of Adolf Hitler's Berlin.

Roach, Mary 
Stiff:The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
What actually happens to bodies that are donated to science?  In this 
nonfiction read, Mary Roach explores and explains where human remains reside 
and the purposes they serve.  Her research takes her to medical 
universities, cemeteries, crime labs, and a few other more non-traditional 
sites.  At times gory, but more often interesting and humorous, this book is 
a must-read for those of you who are science buffs or just cadaver-curious.

Fuller, Alexandra 
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight
 
Alexandra Fuller captivates the reader with stories about growing up as a 
Caucasian in Africa during the 1970’s. Her attention to the exotic and 
horrific details of everyday living brings to life the fear of uncertain 
political violence and family turmoil--as well as the joys of her 
environment's remarkable beauty.  Each chapter of this engaging memoir 
offers its own personal glimpse into a world we might never experience 
without Ms. Fuller's insightful recollections.  Winner of the Entertainment 
Weekly #1 Nonfiction Book of the Year, A New York Times Notable Book 
Finalist, and the Guardian First Book Prize.

McCullough, David
John Adams
One of the least understood of the founding fathers, Adams was a man who 
transcended his times. (Pulitzer Prize Winner)

Sears, Stephen 
Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam.
Of all the days on all the fields where American soldiers have fought and 
bled, the most terrible was September 17, 1862.

Philbrick, Nathan
Revenge of the Whale: The true story of the Whaleship Essex
The Nantucket whaleship Essex was attacked by a whale and sunk. Of the 20 on 
board, only three, including the teenage cabin boy, survived for the months 
it took to be rescued.



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