By Rafi Josselson
As summer approaches, many students begin their summer reading. To discover some books that students should read, Rafi Josselson asked teachers around the school about their summer book recommendations.
Title: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Author: Douglas Adams
Genre: Science Fiction
Recommended by: Computer Science Teacher William Jamieson
This book details the adventure of the only man to survive the destruction of Earth by hitchhiking across the Universe. He finds himself interacting with weird aliens in even weirder situations. Somehow along the way, he learns the Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. Jamieson read this book for a Summer reading assignment when he was in high school and loved it. According to him, the book presents a type of dry humor that may not be for everyone, but for some, it will still be just as funny as when it was published 45 years ago. He recommends if you enjoy the book you can read the rest of the “trilogy” of five other books and even watch the movie! The book is available in a paperback version for $8 on Amazon, it is 224 pages long.
Title: Kings III
Author: Yochi Brandes
Genre: Modern Midrash
Recommended by: Hebrew Teacher Yaniv Cohen
Kings III is the story of the era of Saul’s ruling told from two perspectives we are not very used to when thinking of the biblical stories: a woman, and a child. Cohen first read this book when he was 18, and he finished it in three days – after studying Tanach for so long, he recalls that this was the first time he lived it so vividly. Characters come to life and Yochi Brandes cracks a window into this significant period in our history. The book is available in a paperback version for $26 on Gefen Publishing’s website, it is written in Hebrew.
Title: Homegoing
Author: Yaa Gyasi
Genre: Historical Fiction
Recommended by: History Teacher Ilana Moskowitz
Homegoing tells the story of two half-sisters and the generations that follow from them. One sister is sold into slavery during the height of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the other becomes the wife of a slave trader. Gyasi cleverly travels through history by sharing the stories of these women’s descendants as they grapple with British slavers, American plantations, and the new freedoms of the Jazz Age.
This book is monumental in its scope of history. It addresses the nuances of history and clarifies why having only one single story of people’s experiences is ignorant at best and dangerous at worst. The characters were beautifully realized and heartbreakingly real. Moskowitz loved how the book made history personal by connecting events and facts to characters that she could empathize with and relate to. She feels that this is a truly amazing book that anyone with an interest in history and current events should read. The book is available in a paperback version for $10 on Amazon, it is 320 pages long.
Title: The Outside Boy
Author: Jenine Cummings
Genre: Historical Fiction
Recommended by: English Teacher Jennifer Lividini
The Outside Boy is a historical fiction novel told from the point of view of a motherless 11-year-old boy who drifts from place to place with his gypsy father and family. Set in Ireland during the 1950s, the main character is on a constant quest to find out who he is and why he and “his kind” are marginalized during this period. He eventually discovers some secrets that are told in beautiful prose with a lot of suspense. Lividini highly recommends this novel to anyone, especially those interested in learning about periods and places from the past. The book is available in a paperback version for $15 on Amazon, it is 384 pages long.
Title: Story of Your Life and Others
Author: Ted Chiang
Genre: Short Stories
Recommended by: Akiva Coordinator Lisa Bennett
This collection of short stories is beautifully written and each one left Bennett thinking more deeply about the world. This book has many stories touching Jewish themes. The first story in the collection is a reimagining of the tower of Babel and one of the other stories references the Kabbalistic idea of the 72 names of God — but even without those references each story evokes the beauty of the human experience. Bennett walked away from every story in the collection breathing more deeply. Bennett found this book because Director of Technology Rachel Lebwhol recommended it to her.