Team Engagement
School may be out for summer, but this is a great time to catch up on some reading.
With class and practice on your busy schedule during the academic year, reading for pleasure often falls to the wayside. But reading an enjoyable book is a great way to much-needed re in between practices and workouts. So crank up the AC, find a nice cozy spot, and curl up with one of these classics.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
The most recent film adaptation, directed by Baz Lehrman, is a great interpretation of Fitzgerald’s text – complete with all of the gaudiness and hype of New York in the 1920s. But nothing beats the original. This book, which is only approximately 190 pages, is a quick read packed with a great story and profound characters. Explore a unique side of the roaring 20s with the mysterious Jay Gatsby and narrator Nick Carraway. Before long you will find yourself swept up by romance and questioning the definition of the American dream.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Harper Lee’s award-winning novel focuses on six-year-old Scout Finch, who lives in small-town Alabama during the Great Depression. When Scout’s father, a lawyer, is appointed by the court to defend an African American man accused of sexually assaulting a white woman, readers must grapple with issues of racial injustice, compassion, and the destruction of innocence. Often mentioned as one of the greatest novels ever written, this book is a must-read for every high school student.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
This novel explores the relationship between adhering to traditional customs and encountering new cultures. After Okonkwo, a leader and wrestling champion in the Nigerian village of Umuofia, is exiled from the village, white men begin to arrive with the intent of introducing their own cultural practices. Returning from exile years later, Okonkwo finds his village a changed place. Forced to respond to the introduction of the white people’s new society, Okonko must choose between acceptance or conflict.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Similar to George Orwell’s 1984, this novel takes a look at a dystopian future in which family life and normal social interactions are turned upside down. In Huxley’s world--known as “World State”—human intelligence, attractiveness, and capabilities are eerily predetermined before birth. Although the castes of Alphas and Betas are superior to the many Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons that surround them, everyone lives in a drug-induced state of eternal bliss. But when Bernard Marx, a unique and progressive Alpha Plus, decides to venture out of World State onto a Savage Reservation, he exposes the detriment of his society.
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
O’Brien’s semi-autobiographical memoir is comprised of several short stories alluding to the author’s personal experiences in the Vietnam War. Themes of brotherhood, courage, and grief resonate throughout this eye-opening book, which blurs the lines between facts and fiction, and brings to light the life of a soldier.