You don't have to pick from this list, but here are a few ideas of some good non-fiction books.
Conservationist Manifesto- Scott Russell Sanders
Nonzero- Robert Wright
Moral Animal- Robert Wright
Audacity of Hope: Barack Obama
Bananas: Peter Chapman
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: Jean Dominque Bauby
The Professor and the Madman: Simon Winchester
Rogue Economics: Napoleoni
The Communist Manifesto: Karl Marx
Achilles in Vietnam: Sway
Farwell to Manzanar: Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
Cod: Mark Kurlansky
Three Cups of Tea: Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
The Social Contract: Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Travels with Charley: John Steinbeck
The Snow Leopard: Peter Matthiessen
How to Read Literature like a Professor: Thomas C. Foster
Angela’s Ashes: Frank McCourt
The Forbidden Schoolhouse: The True and Dramatic Story of Prudence Crandall and Her Students: Suzanne Jurmain
The Informant: A True Story: Kurt Eichenwald
The Shopkeeper: James D. Best
In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War: David Reynolds
The Year of Yes: Maria Dahvana Headley
Black Elk Speaks: Black Elk
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: Maya Angelou
Cotton: Christopher Wilson
Salt: A World History: Mark Kurlansky
Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free by Charles P. Pierce
Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II : Douglas A. Blackmon
The Post-American World: Fareed Zakaria
The Universe in a Nutshell - Stephen William Hawking
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance - Barack Obama
Pimps Up, Ho's Down: Hip Hop's Hold on Young Black Women - T. Sharpley-Whiting
Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare - Stephen Greenblatt Ph.D.;
Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela - Nelson Mandela
The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. - Martin Luther King Jr.; The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945: Saul Friedlander
Gandhi An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth - Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi
The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley - Malcolm X
I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala - Rigoberta Menchu
Outliers: The Story of Success - Malcolm Gladwell
Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo - Hayden Herrera
Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism - Muhammad Yunus
Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. - Luis J. Rodriguez
The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong: The Autobiographical Writings of a Crown Princess of Eighteenth-Century Korea - JaHyun Kim Haboush
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11: Lawrence Wright Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya: Caroline Elkins Ghost Wars: The Secret History of The CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, From the Soviet by Steve Coll Gulag: A History: Anne Applebaum A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide: Samantha Power Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution: Diane McWhorter Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan: Herbert P. Bix Embracing Defeat: John W. Dower Annals of the Former World: John McPhee Guns, Germs, and Steel: Jared Diamond Ashes to Ashes : Richard Kluger The Haunted Land: Tina Rosenberg The Beak of the Finch: Jonathan Weiner Lenin's Tomb: David Remnick Lincoln at Gettysburg: Garry Wills The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power: Daniel Yergin The Ants: Bert Hölldobler and Edward O. Wilson And Their Children After Them: Dale Maharidge and Michael Williamson A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam: Neil Sheehan The Making of the Atomic Bomb: Richard Rhodes Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land: David K. Shipler Common Ground: J. Anthony Lukas
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House: Jon Meacham Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father: John Matteson The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher: Debby Applegate American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer: Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin De Kooning: An American Master: Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan Khrushchev: The Man and His Era: William Taubman Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Robert A. Caro John Adams: David McCullough W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963: David Levering Lewis Véra: Stacy Schiff Lindbergh: A. Scott Berg Personal History: Katharine Graham God: A Biography: Jack Miles Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life: Joan D. Hedrick W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868-1919: David Levering Lewis Truman: David McCullough Fortunate Son: Lewis B. Puller Jr. Jackson Pollock: Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith Machiavelli in Hell: Sebastian de Grazia Oscar Wilde: Richard Ellmann Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe: David Herbert Donald Bearing the Cross: David J. Garrow Louise Bogan: A Portrait: Elizabeth Frank
The Hemingses of Monticello: Annette Gordon-Reed What God Hath Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848: Daniel Walker Howe The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation: Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff Polio: An American Story: David M. Oshinsky Washington's Crossing: David Hackett Fischer A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration: Steven Hahn An Army at Dawn: The War in Africa, 1942-1943: Rick Atkinson The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America: Louis Menand Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation: Joseph J. Ellis Freedom from Fear: David M. Kennedy Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898: Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace Summer for the Gods: Edward J. Larson Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution: Jack N. Rakove William Cooper's Town: Alan Taylor No Ordinary Time: Doris Kearns Goodwin The Radicalism of the American Revolution: Gordon S. Wood The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties: Mark E. Neely Jr. A Midwife's Tale: Laurel Thatcher Ulrich In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines: Stanley Karnow Battle Cry of Freedom: James M. McPherson And Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63: Taylor Branch The Launching of Modern American Science, 1846-1976: Robert V. Bruce Voyagers to the West: Bernard Bailyn The Heavens and the Earth: Walter A. McDougall
The Forever War: Dexter Filkins This Republic of Suffering: Drew Gilpin Faust The Dark Side: Jane Mayer White Protestant Nation: Allan J. Lichtman From Colony to Superpower: George C. Herring
Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Paula Giddings The Bin Ladens: Steve Coll The World Is What It Is by Patrick French--Winner!The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed White Heat by Brenda Wineapple
Why I Came Wes: Rick Bass The House on Sugar Beach: Helene Cooper The Bishop's Daughter: Honor Moore The Eaves of Heaven: Andrew X. Pham My Father's Paradise: Ariel Sabar
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
1. What is the American Dream? (Everyone must answer)
What is the American Dream? How does Fitzgerald show the struggle for the American Dream? Who in the book wants it? Who in the book has it?
2. The Great GAPsby Society
Agree or disagree with this cartoon and explain why the artist is making an allusion to The Great Gatsby? What does this say about the importance of the book?
3. Social Rules
What are the social lines that are drawn in the beginning of the book? Explain how this social structure is set up and how the characters fall into each division.
4. Nick Carraway's Sense of Morality
Consider how Nick Carraway's sense of morality changes toward three characters, and explain how this makes him the true hero of The Great Gatsby.
5. Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan
Contrast Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan. What does each character represent? Who is more noble? More idealistic?
6. POV
From what point of view is The Great Gatsby written, and what effect does that have on the story?
7. Nick's Feelings
What is the progression of Nick’s feelings toward the Buchanans and people like them. What does Nick learn from his summer at West Egg?
8. Social and Moral Behavior
Evaluate the accepted social and moral behavior exhibited by the wealthy people in the novel. What was Fitzgerald criticizing?
9. Symbols
What are the main symbols in the book? What does each one stand for? (Each person should name a different one.)
10. Poetry
Read either Keat’s “Ode to a Grecian Urn” or T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland.” Many critics feel that Fitzgerald was influenced by both of these great poets. Explain whether you agree or disagree with the critics.
12. Females
Compare the major female characters in the novel: Jordan, Daisy, and Myrtle. How does each act toward men? What seem to be their motivations and goals?
16. Stereotypes
Are the characters in The Great Gatsby stereotypes? If so, explain the usefulness of employing stereotypes in the novel. If they are not, explain how they merit individuality.
19. Style
Evaluate F. Scott Fitzgerald's style of writing. How does it contribute to the value of the novel?
23. Minor Characters
Explain how F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the minor characters--Owl Eyes, Mr. Wolfshiem, Pammy, Michaelis, and George Wilson in the novel. What does each character add to the story?
25. Nick's Role
What is Nick's role in Gatsby? What does he add to the story, and how would the story have been different without him?
26. Who was responsible for Gatsby's death.
Who was responsible for Gatsby's death? Explain your choice.
27. Gatsby's Death
Why did Fitzgerald "kill off" Gatsby? What did this plot choice add to the story?
28. Myrtle's Death
What was the importance of Myrtle's death? How would the story have changed if Myrtle had not been killed?
32. Classic
Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby in 1925, and here we are readingit so many years later. Why? What makes this book a "classic"?
33. Rotten Crowd
Explain the following ,"They're a rotten crowd," I shouted across the lawn. "You're worth the whole damn bunchput together." (Nick to Gatsby)
35. The Green Light
Explain the importance of the following quotation,"Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of the [green] light had nowvanished forever." (Nick about Gatsby after he had met with Daisy)
36. Gatz
Who is Henry C. Gatz?What is the book Henry Gatz shows Nick? Why is it important to the novel?
39. The Party
What is Daisy's opinion of Gatsby's party? How does this affect him?What does Gatsby want from Daisy?
40. Myrtle
What reason did Myrtle give for marrying George Wilson? What does this say about her social status and the role of women in that social status?
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