Team Detail
Summer Reading with a Community Focus
This past spring we asked our faculty to choose a book to share with students for summer reading. When we assembled the list, it was a combination of fiction, science fiction,fantasy, philosophy, memoir and non-fiction. Students were able to choose from this list and pick a book that interested them.
One of our main goals for summer reading is for students to keep growing their knowledge and empathy by reading something interesting, and having this list to choose from has allowed them to do so with a book that interests them. Summer reading is also important because it allows students to work on sustained reading skills. In the world of social media, the ability to maintain sustained attention is crucial, and summer reading is a way for students to work on this skill.
This program is exciting because it also provides an opportunity to start our year with a community activity. Instead of summer reading being confined to the English classroom, faculty will be leading book group discussions of their chosen texts during orientation in the fall. Some faculty chose to pair up, others asked to be assigned with a partner. As a faculty, we will be practicing and modeling book group discussions with our own summer reading during our orientation.
While students and faculty will be reading and preparing these books, faculty will also be reading a second book chosen by our new Head of School Mike Peller. Mike chose three books: How to Love a Forest by Ethan Tapper '07, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Place-Based Education: Connecting Classrooms and Communities by David Sobel. All of these books explore issues of how we relate to the land and the very special place we all live and work.These will be part of faculty orientation and tie into larger school objectives around place-based learning and developing our relationship to the land, one of the core pillars.
Which book would you choose?
Which book would you choose?
The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams.
I have been a big fan of Jane Goodall from her lifetime of working with chimps in their environment. I enjoyed the positive ways Jane focuses on human intellect, the resilience of nature, the power of young people, and the indomitable human spirit, to give an uplifting way of looking at things.
Category: Memoir Page Count: 272
CHOSEN BY: PETER AHLFELD (CENTER FOR LEARNING, MATH FACULTY)
Driving by Starlight by Anat Deracine. This book offers a cultural snapshot of the lives of two teenage Saudi Arabian girls as they navigate societal constraints, cultural restrictions, the loss of identity through language barriers, and the meaning of unconditional friendship, while exploring independence for the first time.
Category: YA Fiction Page Count: 288
CHOSEN BY: JENNA KOTCH (CENTER FOR LEARNING FACULTY)
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin. James Baldwin is one of the most important authors of the 20th century. No one can weave together a story of love, injustice, and humanity like Baldwin. If Beale Street Could Talk is timeless and just as relevant today as it was when it was published in 1974.
Category: Literary Fiction Page Count: 210
CHOSEN BY: AMANDA HODGSON (HUMANITIES FACULTY)
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. This coming-of-age novel is framed loosely as a letter from a son to his mother, and explores issues of race, class, and masculinity. It resonated with me partially because segments of it take place in the tobacco fields of Connecticut, but also because it is a beautifully written memoir-ish novel that does a beautiful job exploring what it means to make sense of identity, family, and trauma. Ocean Vuong is perhaps best known as a poet, and that is clear from the way this book is written.
Category: Literary Fiction/LGBTQIA+ Page Count: 252
CHOSEN BY: WHITNEY BARRETT (HUMANITIES FACULTY)
Slade House by David Mitchell. Spanning five decades, from the last days of the 1970s to the present, leaping genres, and barreling toward an astonishing conclusion, this intricately woven novel will pull you into a reality-warping new vision of the haunted house story—as only David Mitchell could imagine it.
Category: Thriller/Fiction Page Count: 226
CHOSEN BY: ANDREW LISS NODA (HUMANITIES FACULTY)
Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi. [From Amazon: “The National Book Award-winning history of how racist ideas were created, spread, and deeply rooted in American society. Some Americans insist that we're living in a post-racial society. But racist thought is not just alive and well in America--it is more sophisticated and more insidious than ever. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues, racist ideas have a long and lingering history, one in which nearly every great American thinker is complicit.”
Category: History Page Count: 608
CHOSEN BY: CHARLES BUTLER (HUMANITIES FACULTY)
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. A man lives in an endless maze of rooms lined with statues and staircases with only one other person, "The Other." Filled with classical and contemporary Easter eggs, the story unfolds from there. It's best enjoyed with little information—though initially a bit confusing, it's a rewarding read I wish I could experience again for the first time.
Category: Literary Fiction Page Count: 246
CHOSEN BY: GWENN CURTIS (HUMANITIES FACULTY)
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ereneich. [from Amazon: “Millions of Americans work full time, year-round, for poverty-level wages. In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that a job—any job—can be the ticket to a better life. But how does anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 an hour?”]
Category: Economics/Social Science Page Count: 244
CHOSEN BY: GREG MARTIN (HUMANITIES FACULTY)
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie (first book of a trilogy). This book follows three main characters: Logen Ninefingers, a barbarian on the run; Jezal dan Luthar, a privileged nobleman drawn into war; and Inquisitor Glokta, a ruthless interrogator uncovering corruption. Their paths intertwine as a brewing war and a mysterious wizard, Bayaz, complicate their lives and reveal the brutal realities of the world.
Category: Historical Fantasy Page Count: 536
CHOSEN BY: ADRIAN DIAZ (STUDENT LIFE)
Jack: Secret Histories by F. Paul Wilson. This is a book I read in middle or high school that I just couldn't put down. This book is a YA mystery with a touch of Sci-fi and Historical fiction. If you like conspiracy theories and secret histories of the world, this book is for you. Jack and his friends are creative young minds who find themselves in the middle of a murder mystery with new secrets around every corner.
Category: YA Mystery Page Count: 275
CHOSEN BY: CHRISTINE GILBERT (WORLD LANGUAGES FACULTY)
The Martian by Andy Weir. I like this book as a scientist, as it is a story involving the struggle for existence. The author does a great job mixing real and theoretical science in this work.
Category: Science Fiction Page Count: 385
CHOSEN BY: JAKE MILLER (SCIENCE FACULTY)
The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. So a book that I actually read, all the way through and actually understood, with help from a book on tape and my wife, was the Tao of Pooh. I would love to read it again. [from Amazon: “Through brilliant and witty dialogue with the beloved Pooh-bear and his companions, the author of this smash bestseller explains with ease and aplomb that rather than being a distant and mysterious concept, Taoism is as near and practical to us as our morning breakfast bowl.”]
Category: Philosophy/Religion Page Count: 176
CHOSEN BY: MICHAEL NORKUN (SCIENCE FACULTY)
Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin. [from Amazon: “A lone human ambassador is sent to the icebound planet of Winter, a world without sexual prejudice, where the inhabitants’ gender is fluid. His goal is to facilitate Winter’s inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so, he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the strange, intriguing culture he encounters. Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.”]
Category: Science Fiction Page Count: 367
CHOSEN BY: JOE ECHANIS (SCIENCE FACULTY)
Our Fragile Moment by Michael E Mann. In this sweeping work of science and history, the renowned climate scientist and author of The New Climate War shows us the conditions on Earth that allowed humans not only to exist but thrive, and how they are imperiled if we veer off course.
Category: Science/History Page Count: 397
CHOSEN BY: PETAR VUJICIC (SCIENCE FACULTY)
The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King. I love to read horror, science fiction, and fantasy, and particularly love the writing of Stephen King. Eyes of the Dragon breaks from the predicted style of King's writing, leaving the gruesome and terrifying by the wayside, instead leaning into wizards, dragons, castles, and princes. Remarkably accessible and quickly read, this book will enrapture readers of any level or interest; Stephen King and Eyes of the Dragon are storytelling at its very best.
Category: Horror/SciFi Page Count: 386
CHOSEN BY: STEVE CADY (PERFORMING ARTS FACULTY)
Fever Pitch By Nick Hornby. [from Amazon: For many people, watching football is mere entertainment, to some it's more like a ritual, but to others, its highs and lows provide a narrative to life itself. For Nick Hornby, his devotion to the game has provided one of the few constants in a life where the meaningful things - like growing up, leaving home, and forming relationships, both parental and romantic - have rarely been as simple or as uncomplicated as his love for Arsenal. Fever Pitch is his tribute to a lifelong obsession. Part autobiography, part comedy, part incisive analysis of insanity, Hornby's award-winning memoir captures the fever pitch of fandom — its agony and ecstasy, its community, and its defining role in thousands of young men's coming-of-age stories.”]
Category: Memoir/Sports Page Count: 256
CHOSEN BY: PETE BARRERAS (VISUAL ARTS FACULTY)
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt. [From Amazon: “With The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt pays homage to the classic Western, transforming it into an unforgettable comic tour de force. Filled with a remarkable cast of characters-losers, cheaters, and ne’er-do-wells from all stripes of life-and told by a complex and compelling narrator, it is a violent, lustful odyssey through the underworld of the 1850s frontier that beautifully captures the humor, melancholy, and grit of the Old West and two brothers bound by blood, violence, and love.”]
Category: Literary Fiction Page Count: 340
CHOSEN BY: SEAN ALLEN (MATH FACULTY)
Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci. A simple, fun book about food, I laughed aloud when reading this. [from Amazon: “Taste is a reflection on the intersection of food and life, filled with anecdotes about his growing up in Westchester, New York;...Each morsel of this gastronomic journey through good times and bad… is as heartfelt and delicious as the last.]
Category: Culinary Memoir Page Count: 300
CHOSEN BY: LISA MCNEALUS (VISUAL ARTS FACULTY)
How Far The Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler. It’s a memoir by a gender non-binary marine biologist who explores their life and identity through a variety of sea creatures. It’s pretty cool. [from Amazon: “A queer, mixed race writer working in a largely white, male field, science and conservation journalist Sabrina Imbler has always been drawn to the mystery of life in the sea, and particularly to creatures living in hostile or remote environments. Each essay in their debut collection profiles one such creature…”]
Category: Memoir/Science/LGBTQIA+ Page Count: 272
CHOSEN BY: BRIAN SCHILLING (ACADEMIC DEAN)
The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens. [From Amazon: “College student Joe Talbert has the modest goal of completing a writing assignment for an English class. His task is to interview a stranger and write a brief biography of the person. With deadlines looming, Joe heads to a nearby nursing home to find a willing subject. There he meets Carl Iverson, a dying Vietnam veteran--and a convicted murderer. With only a few months to live, he has been medically paroled to a nursing home, after spending thirty years in prison for the crimes of rape and murder. As Joe writes about Carl's life, especially Carl's valor in Vietnam, he cannot reconcile the heroism of the soldier with the despicable acts of the convict. Joe, along with his skeptical female neighbor, throws himself into uncovering the truth. Thread by thread, Joe unravels the tapestry of Carl’s conviction. Will Joe discover the truth before it’s too late to escape the fallout?”]
Category: Suspense/Thriller Page Count: 304
CHOSEN BY: SARAH NATVIG (STUDENT LIFE)
Vermont Academy is a coed college preparatory boarding and day school in southern Vermont, serving grades 9-12 plus a postgraduate year.
