Senior Book Group Options 2007

Senior Book Group Options -- 2007

Senior Book Groups will meet once before the end of the school year to organize and once during the summer to discuss the book for an hour or so. Successful participation in this discussion takes the place of the in-class assignment at the start of the school year. Seniors can sign up for groups on Tuesday, May 15, starting at 7:30 a.m. These books can all be purchased through English classes at the price listed (which is 30% off list price, with no cost for shipping), online, or at a local bookstore. Most are also available at the library as well.

Teacher	Book and PHS cost	Author	Description
Ms. Reetz Social Studies	My Sister’s Keeper $10.00	Jodi Picoult	Anna was genetically engineered to be a perfect match for her cancer-ridden older sister. As this compelling story opens, Anna has hired a lawyer to represent her in a medical emancipation suit to allow her to have control over her own body.
Mrs. Rehusch Foreign Language	Like Water For Chocolate $9.50	Laura Esquivel	The youngest daughter of a well-born rancher, Tita has always known her destiny: to remain single and care for her aging mother. When she falls in love, her mother quickly scotches the liaison and tyrannically dictates that Tita's sister Rosaura must marry the luckless suitor, Pedro, in her place. But Tita has one weapon left--her cooking.Esquivel does a splendid job of describing the frustration, love and hope expressed through the most domestic and feminine of arts, family cooking, suggesting by implication the limited options available to Mexican women of this period.
Mr. Kersemeier English	Breakfast of Champions $10.00	Kurt Vonnegut	One of Vonnegut’s bestselling novels, Breakfast of Champions features many of the recurring themes and ideas – including Ice-9 from Cat’s Cradle. The book follows its main character, auto-dealing solid-citizen Dwayne Hoover, down into madness, a condition brought on by the work of Vonnegut’s alter ego Kilgore Trout.
Mr. Shoub Science	Guns, Germs, and Steel $14.00	Jared Diamond	Explaining what William McNeill called The Rise of the West has become the central problem in the study of global history. In Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond presents the biologist's answer: geography, demography, and ecological happenstance. Diamond evenhandedly reviews human history on every continent since the Ice Age at a rate that emphasizes only the broadest movements of peoples and ideas.
Mrs. Kupka English	Girl’s Life Online $10	Katie Tarbox	Tarbox, eighteen at the time she wrote this book, tells her story – an eye-opening tale of one teenager's descent into the seductive world of the Internet. She became the first "unnamed minor" to test a federal law enacted to protect kids from online sexual predators.
Mr. Hostert Art	Freakonomics $22.50	Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner	In Freakonomics, Levitt argues that many apparent mysteries in everyday life don’t need to be so mysterious: they can be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the right questions and drawing connections. In doing so, the authors analyze everything from the organizational structure of gangs to baby-naming patterns.
Mr. Berleman English	Slaughterhouse-Five $6.00	Kurt Vonnegut	Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.
Ms. Appino English	Interpreter of Maladies $9.50	Jhumpa Lahiri	While the nine stories in this Pulitzer Prize collection (some set in India, others in the United States) mostly concern characters of Indian heritage, the situations Lahiri’s characters face transcend ethnicity.
Mrs. Broemmelsiek Media Center	Primal Teen: What the New Discoveries about the Teenage Brain Tells Us About Our Kids $11.00	Barbara Strauch	Contrary to what scientists have assumed until recently, teenagers act weird not because of hormones but because their brains are still trying to get all the wiring right. From the health and science editor at the New York Times.
Mr. Eric Millstone English	Leading with the Heart $11.00$	Mike Krzyzewski	Coach K reveals his personal principles for leadership, from dealing with adversity in life or on the basketball court, to taking responsibility for your actions, to learning how to trust your heartfelt instincts in times of trouble. The result is a book that shows how you can be successful in any leadership challenges you face.
Mrs. Chin Math	The Alchemist $10.00	Paulo Coelho	The Alchemist presents a simple fable that evokes simple truths in fantastic situations. Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy, dreams one night of a distant treasure in the Egyptian pyramids, and so he’s off, leaving Spain to literally follow his dream.
Ms. Lindstrom English	Stiff $10.00	Mary Roach	You will laugh your way through the quirkiness of Roach’s surprisingly humorous and yet unwaveringly reverent exploration of the scientific, social, and ethical matters surrounding death. Tales of her visits to a university anatomy lab, a cosmetic surgery conference, and a pathology dissection will engross even the queasiest of readers.

Mr. Fisher-Rhode Science	Maus I and II : A Survivor's Tale : My Father Bleeds History/Here My Troubles Began [BOX SET] $20.00	Art Spiegelman	With jarring accuracy and a seemingly innocent, obviously deceptive presentation, Art Spiegelman, renowned author/cartoonist, makes well-placed flashbacks and evenly spaced real-time dialogues flow smoothly as he paints a perfect picture of the horrific events of the Holocaust in his phenomenal two-book series Maus.
Mr. Leathem English	The Children of Hurin not available for purchase through PHS	J.R.R. Tolkien	The first complete book by J.R.R. Tolkien in three decades--since the publication of The Silmarillion in 1977--The Children of Húrin reunites fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, dragons and Dwarves, Eagles and Orcs.
Ms. Naumann English	Freakonomics $22.50	Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner	In Freakonomics, Levitt argues that many apparent mysteries in everyday life don’t need to be so mysterious: they can be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the right questions and drawing connections. In doing so, the authors analyze everything from the organizational structure of gangs to baby-naming patterns.
Ms. Naumann English	Stiff $10.00	Mary Roach	You will laugh your way through the quirkiness of Roach’s surprisingly humorous and yet unwaveringly reverent exploration of the scientific, social, and ethical matters surrounding death. Tales of her visits to a university anatomy lab, a cosmetic surgery conference, and a pathology dissection will engross even the queasiest of readers.
Mrs. Batterton English	Marley and Me $15.50	John Grogan	Dog lovers will delight in the antics of Marley, a yellow lab, as he happily terrorizes the Grogan family. Grogan’s account with arguably one of the world’s worst dogs is told with affection by this columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Mrs. Harer English	Flags of Our Fathers $10.00	James Bradley	Flags of Our Fathers recounts the sometimes tragic life stories of the six men who were photographed raising an American flag on the flank of Mount Suribachi in the Battle of Iwo Jima. Written by the son of one of the six, this is a memorable work of popular history mixed with memoir.
Mr. Gross English	The Winter of Our Discontent $8.50	John Steinbeck	Ethan Hawley, a descendant of a proud New England family, now works for an Italian immigrant in the store his family once owned. This cleverly ironic tale from the author of The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men explores the themes of what it means to be an American and what it takes to be truly happy in life.
Anita Lee Social Studies, and Mrs. O’Keefe Science	Freakonomics $22.50	Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner	In Freakonomics, Levitt argues that many apparent mysteries in everyday life don’t need to be so mysterious: they can be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the right questions and drawing connections. In doing so, the authors analyze everything from the organizational structure of gangs to baby-naming patterns.
Ms. Mikes English	The Story of My Life $9.50	Farah Ahmedi	This 21^st century American immigrant story embodies the modern American Dream. Ahmedi interweaves a childhood in war-ravaged Afghanistan with an American adolescence in Chicago.
Ms. Hubbard	Nickel and Dimed $9.50	Barbara Ehrenreich	A New York Times bestseller, Nickel and Dimed explores the experience of millions of Americans who work for poverty-level wages. Instantly acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this book is changing the way America perceives its working poor.
Mrs. Carp Foreign Language	Carmelo $10.50	Sandra Cisneros	This is Cisneros’s first novel since her celebrated The House on Mango Street. Through the eyes of young Calaya, or Lala, the Reyes family saga twists and turns over three generations of truths, half-truths, and outright lies.
Mr. Campbell Math	Freakonomics $22.50	Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner	In Freakonomics, Levitt argues that many apparent mysteries in everyday life don’t need to be so mysterious: they can be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the right questions and drawing connections. In doing so, the authors analyze everything from the organizational structure of gangs to baby-naming patterns.
Mr. Mitz Administration	When Pride Still Mattered $13.00	David Maraniss	No coach has been mythologized as much as the Green Bay Packers’ Vince Lombardi. Maraniss, a Pulitzer-winning journalist, presents a portrait of a complicated human being who was a great teacher and an effective psychologist despite his many flaws.
Ms. Tollberg Math	Marley and Me $15.50	John Grogan	Dog lovers will delight in the antics of Marley, a yellow lab, as he happily terrorizes the Grogan family. Grogan’s account with arguably one of the world’s worst dogs is told with affection by this columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Mr. McFaul Business, and Mr. O’Connell Counselor	The Devil in the White City $11	Erik Larson	A gripping tale about two men -- one a creative genius, the other a mass murderer -- who turned the 1893 Chicago World's Fair into their playground. Set against the dazzle of a dream city whose technological marvels presaged the coming century, this real-life drama of good and evil unfolds with all the narrative tension of a fictional thriller. (Meeting Information:This book group will be meeting for a full-day trip into Chicago as a culminating event. Students can expect the day to be an adventerous experience.)
Mr. Albrecht Science	Ghost Soldiers $10.50	Hampton Sides	On January 28, 1945, 121 hand-selected U.S. troops slipped behind enemy lines in the Philippines to rescue 513 POWs languishing in a hellish camp. Sides vividly recreates this daring raid, offering a minute-by-minute narration that unfolds alongside intimate portraits of the prisoners and their lives in the camps.