AP Language and CompositionSummer Reading List

Nigro
Instructions: Choose one of the books below to read in addition to reading Ray
Bradburys Fahrenheit 451. See instructions on your primary summer assignment sheet
(all reviews from Amazon.com).
1. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking: A landmark volume in science
writing by one of the great minds of our time, Stephen Hawkings book explores such
profound questions as: How did the universe beginand what made its start possible?
Does time always flow forward? Is the universe unendingor are there boundaries? Are
there other dimensions in space? What will happen when it all ends?
Told in language we all can understand, A Brief History of Time plunges into the exotic
realms of black holes and quarks, of antimatter and arrows of time, of the big bang
and a bigger Godwhere the possibilities are wondrous and unexpected. With exciting
images and profound imagination, Stephen Hawking brings us closer to the ultimate
secrets at the very heart of creation.
2. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah: This is how wars
are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have
become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is
estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of
them.
In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at the
age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by
violence. By thirteen, he'd been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a
gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts.
3. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro:
One of the most acclaimed books of our time, winner of both the Pulitzer and the Francis
Parkman prizes, The Power Broker tells the hidden story behind the shaping (and misshaping) of twentieth-century New York (city and state) and makes public what few have
known: that Robert Moses was, for almost half a century, the single most powerful man
of our time in New York, the shaper not only of the city's politics but of its physical
structure and the problems of urban decline that plague us today.
4. The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the
1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown: Centered around the life of Joe Rantz
a farm boy from the Pacific Northwest who was literally abandoned as a childand set
during the Great Depression, The Boys in the Boat is a character-driven story with a
natural crescendo that will have you racing to the finish. In 1936, the University of
Washingtons eight-oar crew team raced its way to the Berlin Olympics for an
opportunity to challenge the greatest in the world. How this team, largely composed of
rowers from foggy coastal villages, damp dairy farms, and smoky lumber towns all over
the state, managed to work together and sacrifice toward their goal of defeating
Hitlers feared racers is half the story. The other half is equally fascinating, as Brown
seamlessly weaves in the story of crew itself. This is fast-paced and emotional nonfiction
about determination, bonds built by teamwork, and what it takes to achieve glory.
5. Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy: At age nine, Lucy Grealy was diagnosed
with a potentially terminal cancer. When she returned to school with a third of her jaw

removed, she faced the cruel taunts of classmates. In this strikingly candid memoir,
Grealy tells her story of great suffering and remarkable strength without sentimentality
and with considerable wit. Vividly portraying the pain of peer rejection and the guilty
pleasures of wanting to be special, Grealy captures with unique insight what it is like as
a child and young adult to be torn between two warring impulses: to feel that more than
anything else we want to be loved for who we are, while wishing desperately and
secretly to be perfect.
6. The Color of Water: A Black Mans Tribute to his White Mother by James
McBride: The need to clarify his racial identity prompted the author to penetrate his
veiled and troubled family history. Ruth McBride Jordan concealed her former life as
Rachel Deborah Shilsky, the daughter of an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, from her children. Her
grim upbringing in an abusive environment is left behind when she moves to Harlem,
marries a black man, converts to Christianity, and cofounds a Baptist congregation with
her husband. The courage and tenacity shown by this twice-widowed mother who
manages to raise 12 children, all of whom go on to successful careers, are remarkable.
Ruth Jordan battled not only racism but also poverty to raise her children and, despite
being sorely tested, never wavered. In telling her story--along with her son's--The Color
of Water addresses racial identity with compassion, insight, and realism. It is, in a word,
inspiring, and you will finish it with unalloyed admiration for a flawed but remarkable
individual. And, perhaps, a little more faith in us all.
7. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi: At the age of thirty-six, on the
verge of completing a decades worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was
diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and
the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife
had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithis
transformation from a nave medical student possessed, as he wrote, by the question
of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life into a
neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity,
and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.
8. Once a Cop: The Street, the Law, Two Worlds, One Man by Corey Pegues:
Corey Pegues tells how a onetime crack dealer became one the highest ranking
members of the largest police force in the country, living and working in the nations
most violent neighborhoods. His meteoric rise from patrol officer to deputy inspector
covers the administrations of former New York City mayors Rudy Giulliani and Michael
Bloomberg. As tensions continue to mount between police and communities of color,
Corey tears down the blue wall to discuss the discriminatory practices he faced within
the NYPD and talks candidly about the distrust that exists between law enforcement and
the citizens they are sworn to protect. What is daily life truly like for urban youth in
America? What is the one problem endemic in law enforcement thats even more
dangerous than rampant racism? Corey doesnt hate the police. He loves the badge. And
he believes its his duty to challenge the culture of racism, silence, and arrogance in the
NYPD and police departments across the country.
9. The Fatal Conceit by F.A. Hayek: Hayek gives the main arguments for the freemarket case and presents his manifesto on the "errors of socialism." Hayek argues that
socialism has, from its origins, been mistaken on factual, and even on logical, grounds
and that its repeated failures in the many different practical applications of socialist

ideas that this century has witnessed were the direct outcome of these errors. He labels
as the "fatal conceit" the idea that "man is able to shape the world around him according
to his wishes."
10. Justice: Whats the Right Thing to Do? By Michael J. Sandel: Sandel, a
Harvard law professor, effortlessly integrates common concerns of individuals with topics
as varied as abortion, affirmative action, and family loyalties within the modern theories
and perspectives on freedom. He reviews philosophical thought from the ancient to more
modern political philosophers, including Immanuel Kant and John Rawls. Sandel critiques
three ways of thinking about justice: a utilitarian perspective that seeks the greatest
happiness for the greatest number; the connection of justice to freedom with contrast
between what he calls the laissez-faire camp that tends to be market libertarians and
the fairness camp with an egalitarian slant that acknowledges the need for market
regulation; and justice tied to virtue and pursuit of the good life. Although the last is
generally associated with the cultural and political Right, he exposes connections across
political lines. Sandel reveals how perspectives on justice are connected to a deeper and
reasoned analysis, a moral engagement in politics, and a counterintuitive conclusion in
modern politics.