BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS FOR INDEPENDENT READING (A Partial List Of New, Little Known Or Forgotten Books For The High School Reader)

NON-FICTION

History

Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss

The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism, and Treachery by Steve Sheinkin

Current Events

The Other Wes Moore: One Name: Two Fates by Wes Moore
The Boy Kings by Katherine Losse

Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death at a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink
And Still We Rise by Miles Corwin

The Overachievers by Alexandra Robbins

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

I’m a Stranger Here Myself by Bill Bryson

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley
Private: Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks, and the Biggest Exposure of Official Secrets in American History  by Denver Nicks

The Smartest Kids in the World: and How They Got that Way by Amanda Ripley

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich

Sports

Wooden:  A Coach’s Life by Seth Davis

One Shot at Forever by Chris Ballard

Muck City: Winning and Losing in Football’s Forgotten Town by Bryan Mealer

League of Denial: the NFL, Concussions, and the Battle for the Truth by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru.

The Boys in the Boat: 9 Americans and their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown.
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis

Science and Psychology

Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Ever Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon
The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum
Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different by Karen Blumenthal
E=mc2: A Biography of the World’s Most Famous Equation by David Bodanis

How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown
Feynman by Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Quiet: the Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain

FICTION

Dystopian Fiction/Science Fiction/Fantasy

The Circle by Dave Eggers

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Enemy by Charlie Higson

The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau

Independent Study by Joelle Charbonneau

Graduation Day by Joelle Charbonneau

The Age of Miracles by Karen Walker Thompson

Lexicon by Max Barry 

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Sports

Crackback by John Coy

Player by Joyce Sweeney

Goal! The Dream Begins by Robert Rigby

Black and White (Speak) by Paul Volponi

Ball Don’t Lie by Matt De La Peña

Racing Fear by Jaqueline Guest

Realistic (sort of ) Fiction

Nothing by Janne Telle and Martin Aitken, trans.

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yange
The Radleys by Matt Haig

Everything Matters by Ron Currie, Jr.

Swamplandia by Karen Russell

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

The Golden Boy by Abigail Tarttelin

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence

The Round House by Louise Erdrich
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
Sold by Patricia McCormick
Maya’s Notebook by Isabel Allende

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
The Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Code Name Verity  by Elizabeth Wein
Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson
My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf

Casebook by Mona Simpson

Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore