Reading List

Each summer the School asks all students and faculty to read a book in common, believing that the experience will be one more factor that can bring us together as a community. This year everyone will read another book as well, one that each chooses from a list of books that faculty have chosen to sponsor. Both books are required, and we will discuss them in the fall.  The all-school book will be a relatively short but provocative book, The Legacy: An Elder's Vision for Our Substainable Future, by Dr. David Suzuki. Of course, we hope that students will read several more than just these two books, because reading expands one's perspective on life, besides being entertaining. And we hope the list of faculty-sponsored books will provide many options and ideas and create an opportunity for many discussions in school and beyond. Enjoy!

New incoming students may sign up by sending an email with their name and the title of the book to summerreading@taftschool.org

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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The

Fiction
By Mark Twain

Sponsor(s): Saarnijoki, Linda

Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant

Nonfiction
By Daniel Tammet

Sponsor(s): Monti, Laura

Catch-22

Fiction
By Joseph Heller

Sponsor(s): Magee, John; Piacenza, John

Cat's Cradle

Fiction
By Kurt Vonnegut

Sponsor(s): Reiff, Alvin

Churchill

Nonfiction
By Paul Johnson

Sponsor(s): Lansdale, Richard

Civil Action, A

Nonfiction
By Jonathan Harr

Sponsor(s): Lee, Jamella

Discovery of Witches, A

Fiction
By Deborah Harkness

Sponsor(s): Reiff, Julie; Valenti, Megan

Frankenstein, or The Modern Promethius

Fiction
By Mary Shelley

Sponsor(s): Ganung, Catherine

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (P.S.)

Nonfiction
By Steven D. Levitt

Sponsor(s): Clifford, Jeremy

In the Shadow of the Banyan

Fiction
By Vaddey Ratner

Sponsor(s): McCabe, Susan

In Zanesville

Fiction
By Jo Ann Beard

Sponsor(s): Heavenrich, Ted

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)

Nonfiction
By Mindy Kaling

Sponsor(s): Leal, Lindsay; Aguirre-Kelly, Isabel

Jayber Crow

Fiction
By Wendell Berry

Sponsor(s): Dethlefs, David

Jurassic Park

Fiction
By Michael Crichton

Sponsor(s): MacDonald, Nick

Lean in: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

Nonfiction
By Sheryl Sandberg

Sponsor(s): Ryan, Rachael

Left Hand of Darkness, The

Fiction
By Ursula LeGuin

Sponsor(s): Benedict, Amanda; Lehner, James

Mao II

Fiction
By Don Delillo

Sponsor(s): Hawes, Gregory

Mudbound

Fiction
By Hillary Jordan

Sponsor(s): Serafine, Lillian; Taylor, Patricia

My Sister's Keeper

Fiction
By Jodi Picoult

Sponsor(s): Bertuglia, Dana; Guidotti, Shannon

Not Without Hope

Nonfiction
By Nick Schuyler and Jere Longman

Sponsor(s): O'Shea, Ginger

Notes from a Small Island

Nonfiction
By Bill Bryson

Sponsor(s): Giffen, Suzanne

Once a Runner

Fiction
By John L. Parker

Sponsor(s): Hincker, Ken

Orlando

Fiction
By Virginia Woolf

Sponsor(s): Hincker, Caitlin

Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons, A

Nonfiction
By Robert M. Sapolsky

Sponsor(s): Palmer, Karla

River Runs Through It, A

Fiction
By Norman MacLean

Sponsor(s): Ganung, Robert

Rocket Boys: A Memoir

Nonfiction
By Homer Hickam

Sponsor(s): Davis, H. William

Round House, The

Fiction
By Louise Erdrich

Sponsor(s): Chandler, Linda

Rules of Civility

Fiction
By Amor Towles

Sponsor(s): Fifer, Helena; Frew, Elizabeth

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories, The

Short Story
By Robert Louis Stevenson

Sponsor(s): Sanborn, Sarah

Suite Francaise

Fiction
By Irene Nemirovsky

Sponsor(s): Henebry, Susan

What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures

Nonfiction
By Malcolm Gladwell

Sponsor(s): MacMullen, William

Why Read MOBY DICK?

Nonfiction
By Nathaniel Philbrick

Sponsor(s): Cesarz, Thomas; Bender, Jonathan

Wolf Totem

Fiction
By Jiang Rong

Sponsor(s): Borken, Carly


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