We've got lots of new books.  Why not choose what YOU want to read and think about during your free time?  Here are a few good suggestions:

Letters to a Young Artist, by Anna Deavere Smith 
Those of you in Chris Bagg’s Modern Drama class have encountered this brilliant author’s work.  School Library Journal writes:  ”From a role on the popular TV show The West Wing to a MacArthur Foundation Award, Smith has attained success as an actress, a playwright, and a director. Her letters are filled with anecdotes and stories about her own successes and failures, giving the book an accessible, conversational feel. While the author primarily focuses on the joys of an artistic life, she also points out how much hard work, persistence, and even luck are necessary to succeed. She gives especially tender advice for those times when progress seems slow or when the review is bad. The book reads breezily front to back but is also divided into categories so it can be easily used as a reference when needing inspiration in specific areas.”  (http://tiny.cc/BNeKB)

World War Z:  An Oral History of the Zombie War, by Max Brooks

Thanks to Toby Alden for the recommendation.  Here’s a snippet from a Booklist review:  

”Brooks (son of Mel Brooks and author of The Zombie Survival Guide, 2003) has taken it upon himself to document the “first hand” experiences and testimonies of those lucky to survive 10 years after the fictitious zombie war. Like a horror fan’s version of Studs Terkel’s The Good War (1984), the “historical account” format gives Brooks room to explore the zombie plague from numerous different views and characters. In a deadpan voice, Brooks exhaustively details zombie incidents from isolated attacks to full-scale military combat: “what if the enemy can’t be shocked and awed? Not just won’t, but biologically can’t!” With the exception of a weak BAT-21 story in the second act, the “interviews” and personal accounts capture the universal fear of the collapse of society–a living nightmare in which anyone can become a mindless, insatiable predator at a moment’s notice.”  (http://tiny.cc/KsRBP)

Image from Random House website:  http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307346605

The Help:  a Novel, by Kathryn Stockett
This was recommended by two faculty members.  This segment of a review was printed in the Washington Post:  ”Southern whites’ guilt for not expressing gratitude to the black maids who raised them threatens to become a familiar refrain. But don’t tell Kathryn Stockett because her first novel is a nuanced variation on the theme that strikes every note with authenticity. In a page-turner that brings new resonance to the moral issues involved, she spins a story of social awakening as seen from both sides of the American racial divide.  Newly graduated from Ole Miss with a degree in English but neither an engagement ring nor a steady boyfriend, Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan returns to her parents’ cotton farm in Jackson. Although it’s 1962, during the early years of the civil rights movement, she is largely unaware of the tensions gathering around her town.”  (http://tiny.cc/sHF0w)

Stones into Schools:  Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, by Greg Mortenson
One of the Upper School Library’s most popular nonfiction titles in recent years has been Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea.  The book jacket explains, “Just as Three Cups of Tea began with a promise-to build a school in Korphe, Pakistan–so too does Mortenson’s new book.  In 1999, Kirghiz horsemen from Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor rode into Pakistan and secured a promise from Mortenson to construct a school in an isolated pocket of the Pamir Mountains known as Bozai Gumbaz.  Mortenson could not build that school before constructing many others, and that is the story he tells in this dramatic new book.”  Here’s a link to Mortenson’s website if you want to learn more about his work.