On the Bookshelf

On the Bookshelf If you’re looking for your next read, check out these recommendations from our Faculty and Staff.

Angela Seewald

(Teacher-Librarian) just finished reading: The Beatryce Prophecy

by Kate DiCamillo

Youth Adventure Fiction

In my line of work, I read a lot of children and young adult books. The Beatryce Prophecy has stuck with me, long after I finished it several weeks ago. It is a story about a girl, a monk, a boy, a king and a prophecy. But the character who stole my heart was the obnoxious goat, Answelica. Goats are notoriously badtempered; the goat I had as a tween growing up in Pakistan was no different. Answelica is no different. But her fierce love for Beatryce redeems her as she seeks to protect a girl who reads, but is in grave danger because she can.

Edie Moon

(Drama Director) is currently reading (among other things…): Surrender

by Bono

Autobiography

The lead singer of U2 has written a book about his life experience growing up in Ireland and his journey as a musician by using one song for each chapter to center his thoughts around. He also has made a playlist of the songs so that you can listen to the song and then read his writing in relation to it. His writing is stream of consciousness, poetic and profound all at the same time.

Stephanie Cary

(Grade 5 Homeroom Teacher) is currently reading: Water for Elephants

by Sara Gruen

Historical Fiction

Jacob Jankowski is a young man with his whole life ahead of him until everything falls apart. He finds himself on a train with the Benzini Brothers Circus on an adventure he never could have dreamed of. Set in the United States in the 1930s amidst the Great Depression and Prohibition, this is a story full of love, hope and desperation.

Colm Flanagan

(Head of School) is currently reading: Crime & Punishment

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Psychological Novel

One of those classics that I should have got round to a long time ago. It’s a bit of a page turner actually and the character development is astonishing. Written in the mid 19th century, it feels very modern but it’s the central protagonist, Raskolnikov that is most gripping. Complex, contradictory, morally flawed and seemingly guilty of an horrendous crime, he somehow manages to hold one’s empathy. Every sentence feels like it’s imbued with deeper meaning. Definitely one for the ‘Book Club.’

Nancy Le Nezet

(High School Principal) is currently reading: The Searcher

by Tana French

Crime Investigation

Tana French is one of my favourite authors and this is her latest novel. Set in Ireland, like most of her novels, it focuses on a teenager who enlists the help of a retired American detective in order to investigate the disappearance of their sibling. Great writing and wonderful characters.

Emmalee Johnson

(IB Music & HS Orchestra) is reading: Bad Vibes Only

by Nora McInerny

Essay Collection

The author is brilliant and funny. She focuses a lot on sincerity and honesty in our everyday lives while telling stories that are either remarkably unique or totally relatable. I really have enjoyed her work on the podcast "Terrible, Thanks For Asking" and other books she has published. Socrates claimed that the unexamined life is not worth living. Bad Vibes Only is for people who have taken that dictum a bit too far—the overthinkers, the analyzers, the recovering Girl Bosses, and the burned-out personal brand—reminding us that a life worth living is about more than just “good vibes.”

Michael Lucchesi

(PYP Coordinator) just finished re-reading: Patience

by Daniel Clowes

Graphic Novel

I have also recently reread Daniel Clowes's graphic novel Patience. It's a masterfully drawn and written exploration of time travel, determinism, heartbreak and grief. When his wife Patience is murdered, Jack falls into a deep pit of anger, grief, and guilt. Ten years later, he learns of a time machine that might allow him to fix things. From there, he plunges into a psychedelic journey through Patience’s past and the events that shaped her into the woman he knew and loved.

Jamie Bacigalupo

(HS English Language and Literature) is currently reading: On Such a Full Sea

by Chang-Rae Lee

Dystopian Fiction

Fun fact: Lee is a Shinhan Distinguished Visiting Professor at Yonsei University. As I walked through our high school library, I saw this book on display, and I ended up picking it up to read when I saw it again at a friend's home. Historically, I would not describe myself as an avid reader of dystopian or science fiction, but recently, I have been branching out from memoirs and historical fiction. I am enjoying the world into which I have been plunged, a California reimagined as climate change has continued to shift the physical and thus social landscape of America.

Lychelle Bruski

(HS English Language and Literature) is currently reading The Last Story of Mina Lee

by Nancy Jooyoung Kim

Fiction

Margot Lee's mother, Mina, isn't returning her calls. It's a mystery to twenty-six-year-old Margot, until she visits her childhood apartment in Koreatown, LA, and finds that her mother has suspiciously died. The discovery sends Margot digging through the past, unraveling the tenuous invisible strings that held together her single mother's life as a Korean War orphan and an undocumented immigrant, only to realize how little she truly knew about her mother.