10th+grade+SUMMER+READING+NOVELS

Inheriting the mantle of revolutionary biologist from Darwin, Watson, and Crick, Richard Dawkins forced an enormous change in the way we see ourselves and the world with the publication of //The Selfish Gene//. Suppose, instead of thinking about organisms using genes to reproduce themselves, as we had since Mendel's work was rediscovered, we turn it around and imagine that "our" genes build and maintain us in order to make more genes. That simple reversal seems to answer many puzzlers which had stumped scientists for years, and we haven't thought of evolution in the same way since. Why are there miles and miles of "unused" DNA within each of our bodies? Why should a bee give up its own chance to reproduce to help raise her sisters and brothers? With a prophet's clarity, Dawkins told us the answers from the perspective of molecules competing for limited space and resources to produce more of their own kind. Drawing fascinating examples from every field of biology, he paved the way for a serious re-evaluation of evolution. He also introduced the concept of self-reproducing ideas, or //memes//, which (seemingly) use humans exclusively for their propagation. If we are puppets, he says, at least we can try to understand our strings. David Guterson's first novel, //[|Snow Falling on Cedars]//, was a true ensemble piece, in which even a high-stakes murder trial seemed like a judgment passed on the community at large. In his eloquent second novel, however, the author swings dramatically in the opposite direction. //East of the Mountains// is the tale of a solitary, 73-year-old Seattle widower. A retired heart surgeon, Ben Givens is an old hand at turning isolation to his advantage, both professionally and personally: "When everything human was erased from existence except that narrow antiseptic window through which another's heart could be manipulated--few were as adroit as Dr. Givens." Now, however, Ben has been dealt a problem entirely beyond his powers of manipulation: a diagnosis of terminal cancer. With just a few months to live, he sets out across the Cascades for a hunting trip, planning to take his own life once he reaches the high desert. A car crash en route puts an initial crimp in this suicide mission. But the ailing surgeon presses onward--and begins a simultaneous journey into the past. Between present-tense episodes, which demonstrate Ben's cranky commitment to his own extinction, we learn about his boyhood in Washington's apple country, his traumatic war experience in the Italian Alps, and the beginning of his vocation. Guterson narrates the apple-scented idyll of Ben's childhood in a typically low-key manner--and orchards, of course, are seldom the stuff of melodrama. Still, many of his ambling sentences offer miniature lessons in patience and perception: "They rode back all day to the Columbia, traversed it on the Colockum Ferry, and at dusk came into their orchard tired, on empty stomachs, their hats tipped back, to walk the horses between the rows of trees in a silent kind of processional, and Aidan ran his hands over limbs as he passed them with his horse behind him, the limbs trembling in the wake of his passing, and on, then, to the barn." The wartime episodes, however, are less satisfactory. Clearly Guterson has done his research down to the last stray bullet, but there's a second-hand feeling to the material, which seems less a token of Ben's detachment than the author's. There is, alas, an additional problem. Begin a story with a planned suicide, and there are exactly two possible outcomes. It would be unfair to reveal Ben's fate. But as the forces of life and death yank him one way, then another, Guterson tends to stack the deck--particularly during a bus ride toward the end of the novel, when Ben's fellow passengers appear to have wandered in from a Frank Capra film. Yet //East of the Mountains// remains a beautifully imagined work, in which the landscape reflects both Ben's desperation and his intermittent delight. And Guterson knows from the start what his protagonist learns in painful increments: that "a neat, uncomplicated end" doesn't exist on either side of the mountains. This Hugo and Nebula Award winner tells the sweeping tale of a desert planet called Arrakis, the focus of an intricate power struggle in a byzantine interstellar empire. Arrakis is the sole source of Melange, the "spice of spices." Melange is necessary for interstellar travel and grants psychic powers and longevity, so whoever controls it wields great influence. The troubles begin when stewardship of Arrakis is transferred by the Emperor from the Harkonnen Noble House to House Atreides. The Harkonnens don't want to give up their privilege, though, and through sabotage and treachery they cast young Duke Paul Atreides out into the planet's harsh environment to die. There he falls in with the Fremen, a tribe of desert dwellers who become the basis of the army with which he will reclaim what's rightfully his. Paul Atreides, though, is far more than just a usurped duke. He might be the end product of a very long-term genetic experiment designed to breed a super human; he might be a messiah. His struggle is at the center of a nexus of powerful people and events, and the repercussions will be felt throughout the Imperium. //Dune// is one of the most famous science fiction novels ever written, and deservedly so. The setting is elaborate and ornate, the plot labyrinthine, the adventures exciting. Five sequels follow. //Ever Since Darwin//, Stephen Jay Gould's first book, has sold more than a quarter of a million copies. Like all of Gould's succeeding collections, it brings the art of the scientific essay to unparalleled heights. Its genius? Gould's ability to use his knowledge of the world, including popular culture, to illuminate science. 15 illustrations. Bakersfield, California. Her ne'er-do-well boyfriend, Willie Jack Pickens, abandons her in an Oklahoma Wal-Mart and takes off on his own, leaving her with just 10 dollars and the clothes on her back. Not that hard luck is anything new to Novalee, who is "seventeen, seven months pregnant, thirty-seven pounds overweight--and superstitious about sevens.... For most people, sevens were lucky. But not for her," Billie Letts writes. "She'd had a bad history with them, starting with her seventh birthday, the day Momma Nell ran away with a baseball umpire named Fred..." Still, finding herself alone and penniless in Sequoyah, Oklahoma is enough to make even someone as inured to ill fortune as Novalee want to give up and die. Fortunately, the Wal-Mart parking lot is the Sequoyah equivalent of a town square, and within hours Novalee has met three people who will change her life: Sister Thelma Husband, a kindly eccentric; Benny Goodluck, a young Native American boy; and Moses Whitecotton, an elderly African American photographer. For the next two months, Novalee surreptitiously makes her home in the Wal-Mart, sleeping there at night, exploring the town by day. When she goes into labor and delivers her baby there, however, Novalee learns that sometimes it's not so bad to depend on the kindness of strangers--especially if one of them happens to be Sam Walton, the superchain's founder. //Where the Heart Is// oddly mixes heart-warming vignettes and surprising, brutal violence. Novalee's story is juxtaposed with occasional chapters chronicling Willy Jack's downward spiral into prison, disappointment, and degradation. And even in Sequoyah, sudden storms, domestic violence, kidnapping, and deadly fires punctuate Novalee's progress from homeless, unwed teen mom to successful, happy member of the community. This is not a subtle book; there's never any doubt that our heroine will make a home for herself and her baby or that Willy Jack will get what he deserves for abandoning them. Still, Billie Letts has created several memorable characters, and there's always room for another novel that celebrates the life-affirming qualities of reading, the importance of education, and the power of love to change lives. Environmental historian Linda Lear does justice to the tragic dimensions of Rachel Carson's life in her prologue, which shows the author of [|//Silent Spring//], even as she was dying of cancer, testifying calmly before a congressional subcommittee whose investigation of the dangers of pesticides were prompted by her book. Lear portrays Carson (1907-1964) with affection and discernment as a remarkable woman who overcame prejudice against female scientists and aroused post-World War II America to the beauties of nature and the technological threats against it in a series of deservedly popular books. Ender Wiggin is a very bright young boy with a powerful skill. One of a group of children bred to be military geniuses and save Earth from an inevitable attack by aliens, known here as "buggers," Ender becomes unbeatable in [|war games] and seems poised to lead Earth to triumph over the buggers. Meanwhile, his brother and sister plot to wrest power from Ender. Twists, surprises and interesting characters elevate this novel into status as a bona fide page turner. It captured the [|Nebula] and [|Hugo] Awards. When the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, few could have anticipated its potential for devastation. Pulitzer prize-winning author John Hersey recorded the stories of Hiroshima residents shortly after the explosion and, in 1946, //Hiroshima// was published, giving the world first-hand accounts from people who had survived it. The words of Miss Sasaki, Dr. Fujii, Mrs. Nakamara, Father Kleinsorg, Dr. Sasaki, and the Reverend Tanimoto gave a face to the statistics that saturated the media and solicited an overwhelming public response. Whether you believe the bomb made the difference in the war or that it should never have been dropped, "Hiroshima" is a must read for all of us who live in the shadow of armed conflict. __Out of the Dust__ evokes photographic-clear images of the Dust Bowl and the Depression, told from the perspective of 3-year-old Billie Jo. Beginning with her birth in 1920, and jumping quickly to the winter of 1934, Billie tells, with simple understatement, the story of her family's bitter struggle to survive the unrelenting dust and drought. She catches the reader off-guard as she tells of the horrible day when her father left a pail of kerosene by the stove and her mother accidentally poured it on the fire. Billie Jo, trying to help threw the burning kerosene outside the door, not knowing that her mother was coming back inside. The "flaming oil" turned her mother into a "column of fire," and she, as well as her unborn child, died a month later. Billie is left with her father, haunted by guilty and frief; her burnt, raw hands, now screaming with pain when she tries to play the piano which soothes her soul; and a dust storm that chokes the crops, livestock, and even causes death. An aborted attempt to run away brings Billie to the realization that there is nothing better htan what she already has, causeig her to return to her father, to her home, and, eventually, to find forgiveness for herself and her father. While billed as a novel and clearly a narrative, the entire book is formatted in prose-like free verse poetry structure, which enhances the accessibility, the clarity //Frankenstein: A Kaplan SAT Score-Raising Classic// features:
 * __The Selfish Gene__ by Richard Dawkins**
 * NON-FICTION (Genetics)**
 * Interest Level: Adult**
 * __East of the Mountains__ by David Guterson**
 * FICTION**
 * Reading Level: 6.7 Interest Level: 9+**
 * __Dune__ by Frank Herbert**
 * SCIENCE FICTION**
 * Reading Level: 8 Interest Level: 7- Adult**
 * __Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History__ by Stephen Jay Gould**
 * NON-FICTION (Evolution / Natural Selection**
 * Interest Level: Adult**
 * __Where the Heart Is__ by Billie Letts**
 * FICTION**
 * Reading Level 5.0 Interest Level 7- Adult**
 * __Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature__ by Linda Lear**
 * BIOGRAPHY**
 * Reading Level: 8.5 Interest Level 7- Adult**
 * __Ender's Game__ by Orson Scott Card**
 * SCIENCE FICTION**
 * Reading Level: 5.5 Interest Level: 9+**
 * __Hiroshima__ by John Hersey**
 * NON-FICTION (History)**
 * Reading Level: 8.4 Interest Level: 7+**
 * 10th grade Honors**
 * __Out of the Dust__ by Karen Hesse**
 * HISTORICAL FICTION**
 * Reading Level: 5.3 Interest Level: 5-9**
 * __Frankenstein: A Kaplan SAT Score-Raising Classic__ by Mary Shelley**
 * FICTION**
 * Reading Level: 8 Interest Level 7-12**
 * The complete tale of the classic novel, //Frankenstein//
 * More than 600 vocabulary words frequently tested on the SAT highlighted throughout the text
 * Definitions for each highlighted word on the facing page
 * A word-pronunciation guide
 * An index for easy reference