Everyone who is
enrolled in AP English Language next year needs to read ONE of these sets of
thematically related books over the summer. During the first weeks of school,
you will be asked to develop an idea in response to what you have read and
write an essay explaining this idea.
To help you
choose a set that is truly interesting to you, Iąd suggest talking to others
who read a lot and visiting one of the major online booksellers to read brief
summaries of the books. I (Mr. Baron) am also happy to help you choose if you
stop by room 1201 before the end of the year.
You donąt need
to write anything before the start of school, but it may help you to jot down a
few reactions after you read each book what ideas make sense to you? Which
donąt? What connections do you see with other books? Contradictions?
1) Cultural
Difference - What happens when cultures collide?
The Spirit
Catches You and You Fall Down
by Anne Fadiman
Tearing at
the Silence: On Being German in America by Ursula Hegi
The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer
2) Growing Up
Female - What particular challenges do girls face growing up today?
How do
these challenges affect girls and the women they become?
Odd Girl Out by Rachel Simmons
Reviving Ophelia by Mary Pipher
Female
Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy
3) Growing Up
Male - What particular
challenges do boys face growing up today?
How do these challenges affect boys
and the men they become?
Real Boys - William Pollack
The War
Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men by Christina Hoff Sommers
Affliction by Russell Banks
4) Medicine
- How does modern medicine face moral gray areas?
The Spirit
Catches You and You Fall Down
by Anne Fadiman
Complications by Atul Gawande
Mountains Beyond
Mountains by Tracy Kidder
5) Work and
class - What is it like to be poor in America? What should be done to
alleviate poverty?
Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
American
Dream by Jason
Deparle
Nickel and
Dimed by Babara
Ehrenreich
6) The Temptations
of Being Young - What dangers do adolescents and young college students
face?
What happens when they
succumb? How hard are they to avoid?
Smashed :
Story of a Drunken Girlhood by Koren Zailckas
Binge: What
Your College Student Won't Tell You by Barrett Seaman
I Am
Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe
7) American
Culture - How does popular culture change the experience of growing up?
Consuming
Kids by Susan Linn
Everything
Bad Is Good For You by Steven
Johnson
The Tipping
Point by Malcolm
Gladwell
8) Technology
- Does technology improve our lives?
Better Off:
Two People, One Year, Zero Watts by Eric Brende
Being Digital by Nicholas Negroponte
Nectar in a
Sieve by Kamala
Markandaya
9) Stress -
Can adolescents live up to the expectations that are placed on them?
How does
the attempt to do so change them?
No Time :
Stress and the Crisis of Modern Life by Heather Menzies
Generation Me
: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More
Miserable Than Ever Before
by Jean M. Twenge
The
Gatekeepers by Jacques
Steinberg
10)
Connecting - How do people connect/relate in modern culture?
Urban Tribes
: Are Friends the New Family?
by Ethan Watters
Generation Me
: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More
Miserable Than Ever Before
by Jean M. Twenge
Pledged: The
Secret Life of Sororities by Alexandra
Robbins
If you have any questions over the
summer, I can be reached at brian_baron@newton.mec.edu.