12th
Honors - Summer Reading Choices
Browse the websites to select the two books that
interest you most. Each link provides a set of discussion questions that should guide your reading. Document
quotes and personal reactions in your dialectical journals as you read your selections. These dialectical journals (see the
first link below) will be turned in the first week of school. Additionally, you will participate in reading group discussions
of the books you read.
Advisory to students and parents: in an attempt to prepare these talented young
people for their senior year and for college, we have chosen contemporary ADULT titles because they are more challenging while
at the same time entertaining. With that priority, we must advise you that as in most contemporary literature, some
of these books have mature content. Please research your choices carefully.
Dialectical
Journal
Use the format shown in the link below to respond to your book in a dialectical journal of at least
20 documented entries taken from throughout the entire book.
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/actbank/tdia.htm
Atwood - Alias Grace
Advisory - Mature subject matter
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_A/alias_grace1.asp
Atwood - Handmaid's Tale
Advisory - Mature subject matter
http://www.randomhouse.com/resources/bookgroup/handmaidstale_bgc.html
Austen - Persuasion
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/persuasion1.asp
Bradley - Mists of Avalon
Advisory - Mature subject matter
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/mists_avalon1.asp
Carson - Gifted Hands
http://academic.pgcc.edu/bookbridge/ghquest.htm
http://www.dom.com/about/education/strong/pdf/teachguide_carson_activities.pdf
Coelho - The Fifth Mountain
http://www.harpercollins.com/author/authorExtra.aspx?authorID=1858&isbn13=9780060930134&displayType=readingGuide
Coelho - Zahir
Advisory - Mature subject matter
http://www.harpercollins.com/author/authorExtra.aspx?authorID=1858&isbn13=9780060825218&displayType=readingGuide
Didion - The Year of Magical Thinking http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/year_of_magical_thinking1.asp
Dostoevsky - Crime and Punishment
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides2/crime_and_punishment.asp
Hardy - Tess of the d'Ubervilles
http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/jgarret/446-F05/sq-tess.htm
Garcia - Dreaming in Cuban
Advisory - Mature
subject matter
http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/rc/library/display.pperl?isbn=9780345381439&view=rg
Gladwell - Blink
http://www.bookbrowse.com/reading_guides/detail/index.cfm?book_number=1521
http://www.litlovers.com/guide_blink.html
Gladwell - The Tipping Point
http://www.litlovers.com/guide_tipping_point.html
Guterson - Snow Falling on Cedars
Advisory - Mature subject matter
http://www.state.lib.de.us/Center_For_The_Book/DE_Reads/Discussion_Questions/Snow_Falling_on_Cedars.shtml
http://www.randomhouse.com/vintage/read/snow/
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides/snow_falling_on_cedars.asp
Hesse - Siddhartha
http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/siddhartha.html
Hosseini - Thousand Splendid Suns
http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/thousand_splendid_suns.html
http://bestsellers.about.com/od/bookclubquestions/a/thousand_suns_q.htm
http://www.mahalo.com/A_Thousand_Splendid_Suns
Irving - A Prayer for Owen Meany
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides/prayer_for_owen_meany.asp
http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/rc/library/display.pperl?isbn=9780345417978&view=rg
Jacobs - The Year of Living Biblically
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_Y/year_living_biblically1.asp
Johnson - The Ghost Map
http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/ghost_map.html
Kidd - Secret Life of Bees
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/secret_life_of_bees1.asp
Kingsolver - The Bean Trees
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides/bean_trees.asp
http://www.ket.org/bookclub/books/2001_may/questions.htm
Kingsolver - Pigs in Heaven (sequel to The Bean Trees)
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_P/pigs_in_heaven1.asp
Lahiri - The Namesake
Advisory - Mature subject matter
http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/readers_guides/lahiri_namesake.shtml
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/namesake1.asp
Larsen - Devil in the White City
Advisory - Mature
subject matter
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/devil_white_city1.asp
McBride - The Color of Water
http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/color_of_water.html
McCarthy - Cities of the Plain
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_C/cities_of_the_plain1.asp
Mcewan - Saturday
Advisory - Mature subject matter
http://www.randomhouse.com/doubleday/saturday/mcewan_saturday_rgg.php
Morrison - Beloved
Advisory - Mature subject matter
http://www.litlovers.com/guide_beloved.html
Oates - We Were the Mulvaneys
http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/we_were_the_mulvaneys.html
http://www.usfca.edu/~southerr/works/novels/mulvaneys.html
O'Brien - In the Lake of the Woods
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_L/lake_of_the_woods1.asp
O'Brien - Going after Cacciato
http://www.randomhouse.com/resources/bookgroup/goingaftercacciato_bgc.html
Paton - Cry the Beloved Country
http://www.litlovers.com/guide_cry_beloved_country.html
Pausch - The Last Lecture
http://www.thelastlecture.com/pdf/LastLecture_EdGuide.pdf
http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2008/05/30/a-totally-unauthorized-reading-group-guide-to-%E2%80%98the-last-lecture%E2%80%99-by-randy-pausch/
Picoult - Harvesting the Heart
http://www.jodipicoult.com/harvesting-the-heart.html
Picoult - Change of Heart
Advisory - Mature subject matter
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_C/change_of_heart1.asp
Quindlen - One True Thing
http://www.litlovers.com/guide_one_true_thing.html
Schlosser - Fast Food Nation
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/fast_food_nation1.asp
Tan - Hundred Secret Senses
http://www.angelfire.com/mn2/APS/asianamerican/story2.html
http://www.ywca.org/atf/cf/%7BAC4038C4-BCCA-4F24-B55C-F41063EDF6FE%7D/Discussion%20Points%20for%20The%20Hundred%20Secret%20Senses.doc
Tyler - Back When We Were Grownups
http://www.litlovers.com/guide_backwhenwe.html
Tyler - Digging to America
http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307263940&view=rg
Walker - The Color Purple
Advisory - Mature subject matter
http://www.litlovers.com/guide_colorpurple.html