HIGH SCHOOL HAYFIELD READING EXCHANGE
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(Click here for an alphabetical list by teacher.)

Cover	Teacher Name	Book Title/Author	Annotation
	Mr. Bourjaily	10 Days that Unexpectedly Changed America by Steven Gillon	Sheds new light on little-known events whose undervalued influence transformed American history, spanning the history of the United States from the time of the earliest European settlements to the recent past. (Title Source III)
	Ms. Platz, Media Center	100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez	Tells the rich and lusty story of the rise and fall of the Buendia family. Love and death, war and peace, youth and age--the noble and stunningly beautiful story of this family is alive with a truth and understanding that strike the soul.
	Ms. Khodaei, Administrative Asst. Madison Hall	The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie	Leaving the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white high school, Junior struggles to find his place in his new surroundings in order to escape his destiny back on the reservation. (Title Source III)
	Ms. Klein, Librarian Media Center	Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn	In a novel set in a land much like feudal Japan, a young boy named Takeo becomes a pawn in the ceaseless battles between rival warlord clans in a culture ruled by codes of honor and formal rituals. (Title Source III)
	Ms. Klein, Librarian Media Center	The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho	A fable about undauntingly following one's dreams, listening to one's heart, and reading life's omens features the dialogue between a young Spanish shepherd seeking a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids and an unnamed being. (Title Source III)
	Ms. Mandelkorn, HS Foreign Language Rm 1380	The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho	A fable about undauntingly following one's dreams, listening to one's heart, and reading life's omens features the dialogue between a young Spanish shepherd seeking a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids and an unnamed being. (Title Source III)
	Ms. Holcombe, MS English Rm 1132	American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld	The "New York Times"-bestselling author of "Prep" returns with her most ambitious novel yet--the epic and intimate story of an ordinary woman thrust into extraordinary circumstances when she becomes first lady.
	Ms. Poe, MS SPED Rm 2229A	Angels and Demons by Dan Brown	World-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist. What he discovers is unimaginable: a deadly vendetta against the Catholic Church by a centuries-old underground organization -- the Illuminati. (TitleSource III)
	Mrs. Laquement Rm 2437	Anti-Cancer: A New Way of Life by David Servan-Schreiber.	The author describes his treatment for brain cancer, challenges beliefs about the body's ability to heal, identifies the environmental and lifestyle factors that promote cancer growth, and outlines conventional and alternative therapies. (TitleSourceIII)
	Ms. Holcombe, MS English Rm 1132	The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz	Living with an Old World mother and rebellious sister, an urban New Jersey misfit dreams of becoming the next J.R.R. Tolkien and believes that a longstanding family curse is thwarting his efforts to find love and happiness. (Title Source III)
	Mr. Bourjaily	East of Eden by John Steinbeck	Set in the rich farmland of California's Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families -- the Trasks and the Hamiltons -- whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
	Mrs. Laquement Rm 2437	The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery	The lives of fifty-four-year-old concierge Rene Michel and extremely bright, suicidal twelve-year-old Paloma Josse are transformed by the arrival of a new tenant, Kakuro Ozu. (I-Bistro)
	Ms. Merz Rm 2458	Emma by Jane Austen	Quick-witted, beautiful, headstrong and rich, Emma Woodhouse is inordinately fond of matchmaking. Yet the irony is that she is oblivious to the question of who she herself might marry. Through this comedy of sentimental education, she discovers a capacity for love and marriage. (TitleSource III)
	Ms. Sherwood, MS Reading Specialist Rm 1549	The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen L. Carter	After the death of his father, the accomplished, flamboyant, and controversial Judge Oliver Garland, his son Talcott, a law professor, must unravel the truth about his father's life, a quest that brings him face to face with old scandals, family secrets, and justice gone wrong. (TitleSourceIII)
	Ms. Trost	Exodus by Leon Uris	Leon Uris magnificently portrays the birth of a new nation in the midst of enemies--the beginning of an earthshaking struggle for power.  Here is the tale that swept the world with its fury: the story of an American nurse, an Israeli freedom fighter caught up in a glorious, heartbreaking, triumphant era.  Here is Exodus --one of the great best-selling novels of all time. (TitleSource III)
	Dr. Kinder, HS Science Rm 1317	The Forever War by Filkins, Dexter	A correspondent furnishes a best-selling account of the battle against Islamic fundamentalism, from the rise of the Taliban, to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, offering a compelling study of the people involved from all sides of the conflict. (TitleSourceIII)
	Ms. Oliva, HS English Rm 2440	The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls	The second child of a scholarly, alcoholic father and an eccentric artist mother discusses her family's nomadic upbringing from the Arizona desert, to Las Vegas, to an Appalachian mining town, during which her siblings and she fended for themselves while their parents outmaneuvered bill collectors and the authorities. (Title Source III)
	Ms. Holcombe, MS English Rm 1132	The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls	The second child of a scholarly, alcoholic father and an eccentric artist mother discusses her family's nomadic upbringing from the Arizona desert, to Las Vegas, to an Appalachian mining town, during which her siblings and she fended for themselves while their parents outmaneuvered bill collectors and the authorities. (Title Source III)
	Mrs. Laquement Rm 2437	God in a Cup: The Obsessive Quest for a Perfect Cup of Coffee by Michaele Weissman	Can a cup of coffee reveal the face of God? Can it become the holy grail of modern-day knights errant who brave hardship and peril in a relentless quest for perfection? Can it change the world? These questions are not rhetorical. When highly prized coffee beans sell at auction for $50, $100, or $150 a pound wholesale (and potentially twice that at retail), anything can happen. (Title Source III)
	Ms. Small, HS English Rm 2459	God Dies by the Nile by Nawal El Saadawi	Zakeya dwells in an Egyptian society where women have no choice and no power. The injustice toward women enrages her and brings her to question the loving and peaceful God in whom she believes.
	Ms. Bliss, MS English Rm 2203	Gods and Generals by Jeff Shaara	This is the interweaving story of four men. On the Union side, Joshua Chamberlain and Winfield Scott Hancock both became heroes at Gettysburg. For the Confederacy, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, a failure at the Virginia Miltiary Academy, and Robert E. Lee, one of the greatest leaders of all time. (TitleSource III)
	Ms. Small, HS English Rm 2459	A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain: Stories by Robert Olen Butler	A collection of stories about the residents of Saigon as they face love, loss, and despair. (Title Source III)
	Ms. Poquis, HS English Rm 2446	The Help	In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. With the civil rights movement exploding all around them, three women start a movement of their own, forever changing a town and the way women--black and white, mothers and daughters--view one another. (I-Bistro)
	Dr. Kinder, HS Science Rm 1317	Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts by Kaplan, Robert	From protecting sea lanes, to providing disaster relief, to preparing for potential military confrontation with North Korea and Iran, Kaplan describes the astonishing, vital, and often unacknowledged operations regularly performed by American military personnel in the air, at sea, and on the ground. Vivid and illuminating, this book takes us deep into the highly technical and exotic cultures of the armed forces, telling soldiers' stories from the perspective of the troops on the ground. (TitleSource III)
	Ms. Poe, MS SPED Rm 2229A	The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb	Relocating to a family farm in Connecticut after surviving the Columbine school shootings, Caelum and Maureen discover a cache of family memorabilia dating back five generations, which reveals to Caelum unexpected truths about painful past events. (TitleSourceIII)
	Ms. Poquis, HS English Rm 2446	The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb	Relocating to a family farm in Connecticut after surviving the Columbine school shootings, Caelum and Maureen discover a cache of family memorabilia dating back five generations, which reveals to Caelum unexpected truths about painful past events. (TitleSourceIII)
	Ms. Koenig, Librarian, Media Center	The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins	In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place. (I-Bistro)
	Ms. Giuliani, Librarian Media Center	I am the Messenger by Marcus Zusak	Meet Ed Kennedy—underage cabdriver, pathetic cardplayer, and useless at romance. He lives in a shack with his coffee-addicted dog, the Doorman, and he’s hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence, until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery. That’s when the first Ace arrives. That’s when Ed becomes the messenger. . . . (TitleSource III)
	Ms. Giuliani, Librarian Media Center	In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan	Cites the reasons why people have become so confused about their dietary choices and discusses the importance of enjoyable moderate eating of mostly traditional plant foods. (TitleSource III)
	Ms. Small, HS English Rm 2459	Iola Leroy or Shadows Uplifted by Frances E. W. Harper	Iola Leroy, mulatto who becomes a slave when her white father dies, finds that through her maternal ancestors she is heir to a black family, searches for her true community and her real family. (Title Source III)
	Ms. Merz Rm 2458	John Adams by David McCullough	A Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of John Adams chronicles the life of America's second president, including his youth, his career as a Massachusetts farmer and lawyer, his marriage to Abigail, his rivalry with Thomas Jefferson, and his influence on the birth of the United States. (TitleSource III)
	Ms. Bliss, MS English Rm 2203	Killer Angels by Michael Shaara	Incisive portraits of Lee, Longstreet, Meade, and other Civil War leaders are interwoven with rich historical detail to provide a fictional recreation of the bloody battle at Gettysburg (TitleSource III)
	Ms. Small, HS English Rm 2459	Kindred, Octiva Butler	Inexplicably pulled pack in time to the antebellum South, a comtemporary Black woman, raised in the age of Civil Rights and Black Power, must confront the harsh realities of Black history in America. (Title source III)
	Ms. Bliss, MS English Rm 2203	The Last Full Measure by Jeff Shaara	Follows the continuing showdown between Grant and Lee on the battlefields of the Civil War. (TitleSource III)
	Ms. Khodaei, Administrative Asst. Madison Hall	Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel	Despite the fact that she has fallen in love with a young man, Tita, the youngest of three daughters born to a tyrannical rancher, must obey tradition and remain single and at home to care for her mother. (Title Source III)
	Ms. Platz, Media Center	The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery	An aviator whose plane is forced down in the Sahara Desert encounters a little prince from a small planet who relates his adventures in seeking the secret of what is important in life. (I-Bistro)
	Ms. Small, HS English Rm 2459	Linden Hills, Gloria Naylor	Lester Tilson and Willie Mason, a pair of hip, latter-day poets, work their way down through Linden Hills, experiencing firsthand the lust, pain, hypocrisy, and valor of the hell-bound upper- and middle-class residents. (Title Source III)
	Ms. Small, HS English Rm 2459	The Man in My Basement: A Novel by Walter Mosley	To save the home that has belonged to his family for generations, Charles Blakey, a young black man whose life is slowly crumbling around him, agrees to rent out his basement for the summer to a mysterious stranger. (Title Source III)
	Ms. Khodaei, Administrative Asst. Madison Hall	The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie	A collection of short stories portrays life on the Spokane Indian Reservation, relating the stories of a child with alcoholic parents, a letter-writer who is dying of cancer, and others. (Title Source III)
	Ms. Saccente Rm 2216	Looking for Alaska by John Green	Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash. (TitleSource III)
	Ms. Khodaei, Administrative Asst. Madison Hall	Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich	The lives and destinies of two Native American families--the Kashpaws and the Lamartines--intertwine on and around a North Dakota Indian reservation from 1934 to 1984, in a tale of survival, tenacity, tradition, injustice, and love. (Title Source III)
	Ms. Delaney Rm 2444	Marley and Me by John Grogan	Follows the life story of an exuberant golden Labrador who gets into perpetual trouble and experiences a range of inspiring adventures, from comforting his human companions in the aftermath of a devastating miscarriage, to shutting down an entire beach, to guarding a seventeen-year-old neighbor in the aftermath of a stabbing attack. (Title Source III)
	Ms. Klein, Librarian Media Center	Marley and Me: Live and Love with the World's Worst Dog by John Grogan	Follows the life story of an exuberant golden Labrador who gets into perpetual trouble and experiences a range of inspiring adventures, from comforting his human companions in the aftermath of a devastating miscarriage, to shutting down an entire beach, to guarding a seventeen-year-old neighbor in the aftermath of a stabbing attack. (Title Source III)
	Ms. Merz Rm 2458	Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie	Considered to be one of Agatha Christie’s most controversial mysteries, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd breaks all the rules of traditional mystery writing. A widow’s suicide has stirred rumors of blackmail, and of a secret lover named Roger Ackroyd, who was found stabbed to death in his study. The case is so unconventional that not even crack detective Hercule Poirot has a clue as to how to solve it. (TitleSource III)
	Ms. Bliss, MS English Rm 2203	My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult	All her life, 13-year old Anna has helped her sister fight leukemia. Anna has provided platelets, bone marrow, and even stem cells to ensure Kate's survival. But when their parents ask her to donate a kidney, Anna has had enough. She enlists the aid of a lawyer and announces her intention to sue for control of her own body.
	Ms. Delaney Rm 2444	My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult	All her life, 13-year old Anna has helped her sister fight leukemia. Anna has provided platelets, bone marrow, and even stem cells to ensure Kate's survival. But when their parents ask her to donate a kidney, Anna has had enough. She enlists the aid of a lawyer and announces her intention to sue for control of her own body.
	Mrs. Spatz	Omnivore's Dilemna by Michael Pollan	Pollan writes about the ecology of the food humans eat and why--what it is, in fact, that we are eating. Discussing industrial farming, organic food, and what it is like to hunt and gather food, this is a surprisingly honest and self-aware account of the evolution of the modern diet. (IBistro)
	Ms. Klein, Librarian Media Center	On a Pale Horse by Piers Anthony	After would-be suicide Zane confronts and kills the incarnation of Death, he finds himself forced to assume the office of Death, with all its duties, in a world revolutionized by magic and science. (Title Source III)
	Ms. Merz Rm 2458	One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey	Boisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, Keseys work is the seminal novel of the 1960s that has left an indelible mark on literature. Here is the unforgettable story of a mental ward and its inhabitants, especially the tyrannical Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy, the brawling, fun-loving new inmate who resolves to oppose her. (IBistro)
	Ms. Delaney Rm 2444	The Pact by Jodi Picoult	Until the phone calls came at 3:00 A.M. on a November morning, the Golds and their neighbors, the Hartes, had been inseparable. It was no surprise to anyone when their teenage children, Chris and Emily, began showing signs that their relationship was moving beyond that of lifelong friends. But now seventeen-year-old Emily has been shot to death by her beloved and devoted Chris as part of an apparent suicide pact -- leaving two devastated families stranded in the dark and dense predawn, desperate for answers about an unthinkable act and the children they never really knew. (I-Bistro)
	Ms. Trost	Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier	At the great Cornwall estate of Manderley, Maxim de Winter and his frightened new wife try to live with the haunting legacy of Maxim's first wife, the beautiful and cold Rebecca, who died in a sailing accident. (IBistro)
	Ms. Giuliani, Librarian Media Center	The Road by Cormac McCarthy	In a novel set in an indefinite, futuristic, post-apocalyptic world, a father and his young son make their way through the ruins of a devastated American landscape, struggling to survive and preserve the last remnants of their own humanity. (Title Source III)
	Ms. Small, HS English Rm 2459	Rosa's District 6 by Rozena Maart	A look at the lives of the neighbors of District 6 as seen through the eyes of a young girl, Rosa growing up in apartheid South Africa.
	Dr. Kinder, HS Science Rm 1317	Satchel – The Life and Times of an American Legend by Tye, Larry	A portrait of the Negro League pitcher and pioneer in the integration of baseball evaluates the role of discrimination in limiting his career, the Jim Crow biases that prevented his signing with the big leagues until he was in his forties, and his lasting legacy. (TitleSourceIII)
	Ms. Holcombe, MS English Rm 1132	The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Kidd Monk	After her "stand-in mother," a bold black woman named Rosaleen, insults the three biggest racists in town, Lily Owens joins Rosaleen on a journey to Tiburon, South Carolina, where they are taken in by three black, bee-keeping sisters. (Title Source III)
	Mrs. Laquement Rm 2437	Seeds of Terror: How heroin is bank rolling the Talabin and al Qaeda by Gretchen Peters	Examines the drug trade in Afghanistan, discussing how farmers there continue to grow poppy illegally, and how the Taliban and al Qaeda control heroin labs and distribution networks, and use drug profits to finance terrorist activities. (I Bistro)
	Ms. Sherwood, MS Reading Specialist Rm 1549	The Solist; A Lost Dream, An Unlikely Friendship, and the redemptive Power of Music by Steve Lopez	An intimate portrait of gifted violinist Nathaniel Ayers traces his promising education at Juilliard, his struggles with schizophrenia, and the factors that led to his homelessness in Los Angeles, circumstances that prompted their friendship and the author's efforts to improve the musician's life in spite of numerous setbacks. (TitleSource III)
	Ms. Small, HS English Rm 2459	Song for Night by Chris Abani	My Luck, a West African boy solider who has not spoken for three years, fights in a senseless war and embarks on a terrifying yet beautiful journey to find his lost platoon. (Title Source III)
	Ms. Sherwood, MS Reading Specialist Rm 1549	Standing in the Rainbow by Fannie Flagg	Captures the humorous and complex realities of ordinary people living in Elmwood Springs, Missouri, including Neighbor Dorothy, a radio hostess, her son Bobby, the Oatman Family gospel singers, and hotshot salesman Hamm Sparks. (TitleSourceIII)
	Ms. Platz, Media Center	The Stranger by Albert Camus	Story of a man who commits a pointless murder, in which the author asks if there is a God or just a cold indifferent universe. (I-Bistro)
	Ms. Sherwood, MS Reading Specialist Rm 1549	The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley	A delightfully dark English mystery, featuring precocious young sleuth Flavia de Luce and her eccentric family. (TitleSourceIII)
	Ms. Giuliani, Librarian Media Center	Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson	Traces how the author, having been rescued and resuscitated by Himalayan villagers after a failed attempt to climb K2, worked to build schools that would particularly benefit the young girls who were forbidden an education by Taliban restrictions, an endeavor for which his life has been repeatedly threatened. (Title Source III)
	Ms. Poe, MS SPED Rm 2229A	The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger	Passionately in love, Clare and Henry vow to hold onto each other and their marriage as they struggle with the effects of Chrono-Displacement Disorder, a condition that casts Henry involuntarily into the world of time travel. (TitleSourceIII)
	Ms. Merz Rm 2458	Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut	After the universe decides to back up ten years and all humans must live through the 1990s again, author Kurt Vonnegut finds himself trying to write a book called Timequake, which he knows he will never finish since he already did not finish it. (TitleSourceIII)
	Ms. Andrews, Admin Assistant Washington Hall	A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith	Francie Nolan, armed with idealism and determination, struggles to escape from the poverty of life in a Brooklyn tenement during the early 1900's.
	Ms. Sherwood, MS Reading Specialist Rm 1549	A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith	Francie Nolan, armed with idealism and determination, struggles to escape from the poverty of life in a Brooklyn tenement during the early 1900's.
	Ms. Koenig, Librarian, Media Center	The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld	In Tally's world, everyone gets to be transformed from ugly to gorgeous on their sixteenth birthday, but Tally's friend Shay would rather risk life on the outside than be operated on, and when she runs away, the authorities make Tally find her friend and turn her in. (Title Source III)
	Ms. Sherwood, MS Reading Specialist Rm 1549	Under the Tuscan Sun: at Home in Italy by Frances Mayes	The author of Bella Tuscany applies a poet's sensibility, a seasoned traveler's eye, and a cook's palate to the pleasures of the Tuscan countryside, where she began restoring an abandoned villa. (TitleSourceIII)
	Dr. Kinder, HS Science Rm 1317	Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud by Robert Park	The author, a noted physicist, takes a wide swipe at fraudulent claims and fringe science, taking on Deepak Chopra, the international space station, and other icons of "voodoo science." (TitleSourceIII)
	Ms. Mandelkorn, HS Foreign Language Rm 1380	Walden by Henry David Thoreau	Presents Thoreau's reflections on his experiences living alone in the woods surrounding Walden Pond and his philosophy concerning humankind's need to reevaluate life and commune with nature. (Title Source III)
	Mrs. Laquement Rm 2437	What is the What by Dave Eggars	A biographical novel traces the story of Valentino Achak Deng, who as a boy of seven was separated from his family when his village in southern Sudan was attacked by government helicopters and became one of the estimated 17,000 "lost boys of Sudan" before relocating from a Kenyan refugee camp to Atlanta in 2001. (I-Bistro)
	Ms. Poquis, HS English Rm 2446	The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga	Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life -- having nothing but his own wits to help him along. (I-Bistro)
	Ms. Bliss, MS English Rm 2203	The Winter King (Book 1 The Warlord Chronicles) by Bernard Cornwell	In Dark Age Britain, a land from which Arthur has been banished and Merlin has disappeared, a child-king sits unprotected on the throne, and it is up to Arthur, a courageous and honorable man, to preserve the lonely embers of civilization in a barbaric world (TitleSource III)
	Ms. Platz, Media Center	The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck	Ethan Allen Hawley, the protagonist of the novel, works as a clerk in a grocery store that his family once owned. With the decline in their status, his wife is restless, and his teenage children are hungry for the tantalizing material comforts he cannot provide. Then one day, in a moment of moral crisis, Ethan decides to take a holiday from his own scrupulous standards. (TitleSourceIII)
	Ms. Small, HS English Rm 2459	The Writing Circle by Rozena Maart	Five South African women gather every Friday night to discuss writing. One of them is attacked and raped while going home one night and manages to kill her attacker. The personal lives of the women intersect as they deal with what comes next.
	Ms. Oliva, HS English Rm 2440	The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond	Photographer Abby Mason's life is changed forever by the disappearance of the young girl with whom she had been walking on a cold and foggy beach, her desperate search for the truth behind the child's vanishing, and her unwavering faith in the redemptive power of love. (TitleSourceIII)

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Last Updated: October 22, 2009