Suggested Summer Nonfiction - July

1776 / David McCullough

In 1776,  American Colonists from all walks of life banded together to form a ragtag army intent on defeating the British. Read about the army’s struggles, defeats, and victories, their bravery and ingenuity. For example, Henry Knox’s brilliant plan for moving guns from Fort Ticonderoga in the dead of winter. He drilled holes into frozen Hudson River, allowing water to bubble up and freeze over, thickening the ice until it would hold the weight of the canons.

In a 1778 letter, George Washington described his soldiers as men “without clothes. . . without blankets. . . without shoes, [whose] marches might be traced by the blood from their feet, and almost as often without provisions as with them. . . .”  They fought so that the noble ideals of the Declaration would not amount to little more than words on paper. [Amazon.com; www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com]

Space, stars and the beginning of time : what the Hubble telescope saw / Elaine Scott

The Hubble telescope has allowed scientists to visit galaxies light-years away, to see a star being born, shed light on the deepest mysteries of the cosmos, and verify the existence of dark energy, the mysterious force that is causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate. 

American Sniper / Chris Kyle with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice

Enemies call him “the devil”.  Fellow servicemen call him “the legend.”

With 150 confirmed kills, Chris Kyles is the deadliest American sniper ever.

Uh Oh : Some observations from both sides of the refrigerator door / Robert Fulghum

Fulghum's books include All I really needed to know I learned in kindergarten and  It was on fire when I lay down on it.

All are collections of short stories. Some are introspective; they will make you think about life. Some are sweet. Some are side-splittingly funny.

Read all of his collections and you will learn that all you really needed to know you learned in kindergarten; laugh at Hogaboom’s funeral starring the VFW and a stripper; hear about the “Queen Forever of Show and Tell;” and learn how mirror fragment relates to life.

Suggested Summer Fiction - July

 Deep Zone / Tim Green

Troy White can predict a play before it happens. Star quarterback on his state football team, Troy’s a natural for the 7-on-7 tournament. Ty Lewis is a wide receiver with exceptional speed.

From the moment the two football champs cross paths, Troy and Ty begin to size each other up. Troy is suspicious of Ty’s interest in his friend Tate, while Ty worries his speed will never be a match for Troy’s game smarts. But when the two rivals find themselves somehow tangled in the same dangerous web of deceit, they discover that they have more in common than their skill at football.  (Amazon.com)

Dope sick / Walter Dean Myers

Believed to have shot an undercover cop in drug deal, 17-year-old Lil J hides in an abandoned building. While trying to find a way out, Lil J encounters a vagrant man named Kelly who is watching scenes from J’s past and his prospective future on a television. Kelly then asks: “If you could do it all over again and change something, what would it be?”  Lil J ponders his answer while reviewing scenes from his past. A didn't-see-that-coming ending wraps up the story on a note of well-earned hope.

And then there were none / Agatha Christie

Ten strangers are lured to an isolated island mansion off the Devon coast by a mysterious "U.N. Owen."
"Nine . . ."At dinner a recorded message accuses each of them in turn of having a guilty secret, and by the end of the night one of the guests is dead.
"Eight . . ." Stranded by a violent storm, and haunted by a nursery rhyme counting down one by one . . . one by one they begin to die.
"Seven . . ."  Who among them is the killer and will any of them survive? (Amazon.com)

Five flavors of dumb / Antony John

“For the record, I wasn’t around the day they decided to become Dumb. If I’d been their manager back then I’d have pointed out that the name, while accurate, was not exactly smart.” (p.1)

Piper feels invisible. Her dad refused to learn to sign when she lost her hearing at the age of six, even though it's how she prefers to communicate.  And, worst of all, she finds out that her parents "borrowed" money from her college fund to pay for her baby sister's cochlear implants - surgical devices that will give hearing to Grace.  And now Piper has been hired to manage Dumb, a band she sums up as “one egomaniacal pretty boy, one silent rocker, one talentless piece of eye candy, one angry girl, and one nerd-boy drummer.” (www.Abbythelibrarian.com)

 The book thief / Markus Zusak

This novel is set in World War II Germany and is narrated by Death. Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside Munich during World War II, scratches out a meager existence by stealing when she discovers something she can’t resist–books. Soon she is stealing them from Nazi book-burnings and the mayor’s wife’s library. With the help of her foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors and with the Jewish man her family has hidden in the basement.

This is an unforgettable story about courage, the triumph of the human spirit, and the ability of books to feed the soul. (from the book jacket.)
 

What happened to goodbye / Sarah Dessen

McClean and her father travel light. Their emotional baggage—her mother’s affair, the divorce, her mother’s marriage to a high-profile college basketball coach—is heavy enough. McLean has chosen to live with her father, and his work requires them to move about every six months. With each new location and new school, McLean establishes a new identity, calling herself a difference derivative of her name—Beth, Eliza, Elizabeth—and participating in different activities. She sometimes leaves without even saying goodbye. So what happens she doesn’t want to leave again?

Poetry

The panther and the lash / Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes, African American poet, addresses the racial politics of the sixties.

God’s trombones / James Weldon Johnson

James Weldon Johnson, African American poet, was a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance. This is a collection of seven inspirational sermons of African American preachers reimagined as poetry.