May Book Club!

Today was the last High School Book Club of the school year! In addition to our usual discussion of all things reading, we prepared something special for our graduating Seniors. Ms. Melinson read “The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver to the Seniors, and then gifted a reading journal and a personalized bookmark to each of them. The Seniors then shared any thoughts they had about reading in high school.

Aarushi found time to read during Freshman and Sophomore, but struggled during the rest of her time at Country Day as her courses and extra curricular activities became more demanding. Rachel has always loved stories, and found friends with whom she could share this love during Middle School. Imani had lost her voice, so pantomimed to us that she read The House on Mango Street three times, and that she wrote stories about her friends as Medieval adventurers. Many demands to read her work followed this revelation. Similar to Aarushi, Chloe struggled to find time to read during High School. She found that serialized web novels solved this issue, as the chapters tended to be shorter and always available on her phone. Ms. Melinson let everyone know that it is quite common for readers to stray from the reading path in their teenage years, but assured them that the time demands of High School don’t last forever. We readers all return home to the pages of a book eventually.

Ms. Melinson did inquire about how Country Day might encourage a rekindling of a culture of reading amongst our community. Students shared several ideas about how they managed to carve out dedicated reading time. The list included: reminding themselves about the benefits of reading; reading as a transition/warm-up for doing homework; reading during road/train/plane trips; reading while waiting in line or during other stalled out moments in life (perfect for the impatient among us); setting self-imposed reading expectations, such as reading 100 pages before you can put the book down, or only stopping on a page interval of 5 or 10; reading when bored of schoolwork to simulate a feeling of accomplishment; listening to audiobooks while doing things like cleaning or driving.

We then proceeded with our usual discussion of the books we’ve been reading. Jess recommended Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli, which centers on a “big ally” to the LGBT community who comes to question if maybe her support of the community is more than just allyship.

Ash re-read The Red Queen and forgot the huge plot twist from their first read of the book back in middle school. How lucky to be able to re-read an old favorite as if it were once again new!

Radha’s journey from business books to science books led her to philosophy. She read Lessons from the Magic Shop by neurosurgeon James Dotey. It is his manifesto on how he learned to focus, open his heart and mind, and find happiness and freedom in life.

Jordyn is reading and loving A Psalm for the Wild-Built after Pax recommended it for the High School summer read committee. That’s at least three of us in the High School Book Club now who Pax has encouraged to fall in love with this beautiful novella about finding one’s purpose and undoing the nature-culture divide. As John Green once wrote, “sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.”

Jim recommended Babel by R.F. Kuang, a book which he believes was unfairly robbed of the Hugo award this year. The novel has won several other awards though, and has wowed most who read it. This historical fantasy epic examines student revolutions, colonialism, translation, and the British Empire itself.

Jordyn rounded out our meeting with a reading from Ash’s copy of The Gen Z Bible. It made most of us cringe.

For a list of all the books recommended at High School Book Club, check out our GoodReads page here!

March Book Club

We held Book Club on a Tuesday this month as part of our secret library agenda to Throw You Off Your Rhythm, Country Day! Not really, there was just a college counseling meeting already scheduled for this Wednesday and a Leadership Lunch next Wednesday, and we simply could not wait any longer to hear what books our club read over their mid-winter break.

Ms. Melinson delivered a book recommendation from Mr. Cunningham (book pictured above) titled The Five Lives of Hilma Af Klint. It is a graphic novel biography of the Swedish artist and mystic, Hilma Af Klint. Ms. Melinson herself was so intrigued by its vibrant colors and unique subject matter that it’s been added to her TBR pile, and will very likely find its way into the Matthews’ collection shortly. Ms. Melinson went on to talk to us a little bit about poetry, as Poetry Month is coming up quickly. She recommended the poets Mary Oliver, Sarah Kay, Phil Kaye, Ada Limón, and Langston Hughes.

Jess read Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds, a time-loop romance with tragic consequences. She spoiled it a bit for us, but we’ll spare those details. Suffice it to say, Jess enjoys a happily ever after in her romances.

Suketa read the magazine article “The Mountains of Pi” by Richard Preston. It is the true story of two brothers who build a supercomputer out of mail-order parts in order to calculate the most digits of pi ever calculated.

Jordyn did not finish Vagabonds! because the narration style did not suit her fancies. Instead, she dove into Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows, and is enthralled by the quick world building and witty characters.

Radha is reading Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else, by Jordan Ellenberg. She describes it as a cocky author’s view of the world.

Mr. Comer read Philodemus’ On Anger over break, and has also been thoroughly enjoying Usagi Yojimbo, a graphic novel collection about a rabbit swordsman who also appeared in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.

Rachel is enjoying her read of The Princess Bride in spite of the marked differences between the book and the beloved classic movie.

We also discussed the possibility of getting student book recommendations up on our slat wall displays, which has been done in the past. Look forward to seeing more of those in the library moving forward!

For a list of all the books discussed at High School Book Club over the years, see our Goodreads page here!

January Book Club

Our first book club of 2024 featured hot apple cider, rich chocolate brownies, and book recommendations galore. It also meandered into a discussion of the human muscular system using Lilya’s Ryan Reynolds collage pillow as a reference. Mostly, though, we focused on books.

Ms. Melinson kicked off the meeting with a surprise. While she usually reads cookbooks in December, this year she read a veritable genre smorgasbord. She began listening to teen mystery novel The Agathas, but her loan expired just as the mystery started getting intriguing, so now she’s waiting for her new hold to be ready. In the meantime, she’s made it most of the way through the novel Tom Lake and the self-help book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. Not to disappoint, she still provided us with four cookery-related books: The Great British Bake Off Big Book of Baking, A New Taste of Chocolate, High on the Hog, and 50 Foods that Changed the Course of History.

Jordyn, too, strayed from her usual by picking up a book set in the real modern world. I Wish You All the Best is a romance with a nonbinary main character. She’s also begun a dystopian sci-fi novel though, titled Hell Followed With Us, so rest assured we haven’t entered the Upside Down. Rachel listened to Be Useful: 7 Tools for Life, read by the author, Arnold Schwarzenegger. She gave us an impressive imitation of his voice as she explained the thrust of the self help book’s advice: work hard. Pax read A Psalm for the Wild-Built, a sci-fi book featuring an adventure between a nonbinary Tea Monk and a robot. The book is a short read and the first in a series. Radha mentioned that her parents would like her to read Bhagavad Gita, a classic epic of Indian Mythology. Suketa said that her folks also advocate for her to read it.

Imani brought up how excellent she finds the new Percy Jackson TV series. Jordyn and Connor adamantly agreed. According to the three, the series does a wonderful job of following the plot of the book while updating certain aspects of it that they recognized could be improved upon from its original publication nearly two decades ago.

We closed out the meeting with a brief discussion of books we heard of being gifted and received recently, including a Hayao Miyazaki biography, a career planning and a life skills book for teens, and a hybrid planner/notebook for shenanigans.

For a list of all the books discussed in High School Book Club, check out our Goodreads here.

December Book Club

Ms Melinson accidentally read the fourth book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series called Before We Say Goodbye, but it was still good and it can stand alone. The series is about a Japanese cafe where you can time travel but with some very specific rules such as a strict one about returning before the coffee gets cold. She also talked about a bunch of books that people might want to read over break. Some that are back in the library are Heartstopper, Imogen Obviously, and Killers of the Flower Moon. Warrior Girl Unearthed is the sequel to Firekeeper’s Daughter. Poet Nikita Gill has a new book of poems, These Are the Words, her first one written for a young adult audience. Guardians of Dawn: Zahra has a beautiful cover and it’s been described as Sailor Moon meets Cinder. Jess read a fantasy, He’s Haunted. Dylan read a book that Mr Cunningham recommended called Third Class Superhero. Gabriel is reading the Summer I Turned Pretty books and watching the series. Rachel is reading a book in AP Biology, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, that is both interesting and very sad.

We started talking about gift books (ones you want and ones you give). When Chloe said the book she likes to give is the 50th Anniversary Edition of The Princess Bride, Rachel said that is the book she would like to receive (so we hope the hint was taken;-) She would also like any of the Terry Pratchett books that she hasn’t read yet. She has received and would give the whole set of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Imani would choose the Maze Runner series because she was a Percy Jackson kid and would like to see the other popular series from back then. Noor likes to give the Penguin Clothbound Classics or the Oxford World’s Classics because they have good introductions. Dylan would want to receive the Hunger Games series because with the new movie out, so he needs to catch up. 

A lively discussion followed about what are the worst books to receive as gifts. An SAT Prep book, an outdated dictionary, a textbook for a class you’re not taking, “How to Make Your Bed,” an anger management book, and a puberty book from your parent topped our worst list.

Click here if you’d like to peruse all the titles recommended or discussed in Book Club!

November Book Club

Another excellent high school book club meeting in the books! This month Ms. Melinson kicked the meeting off by reminding us of the opportunity to read we all have coming up with Thanksgiving break just around the corner. The seniors in attendance replied that they’ll be a bit too busy with college applications. For those of us without major life changes looming ever-nearer, though, Ms. Melinson drew our attention to the Fall book recommendation Newsletter that Ms. Z-S just put out.

The newsletter features recommendations from the top 3 genres preferred by high school students this year: fantasy, mystery, and romance. Rachel was shocked to discover that romance has edged out humor for the bronze. Jordyn commented that she doesn’t particularly gravitate towards comedy books. Rachel then questioned her appreciation of Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, a markedly humorous novel. Jordyn explained that she generally avoids comedies because they’re rather entrenched in reality, and she prefers escaping into fantasy or science fiction, which criteria Good Omens fit. Jess questioned the appeal of fantasy, feeling that escaping into a whole different world goes a tad too far, but Jordyn retorted that she just doesn’t like reading “real life stuff.” Isn’t it wonderful how different genres can satisfy our different interests and desires?

Ms. Melinson told us about The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker. She’s enjoyed her slow read of this nonfiction book, as evidenced by the many annotation tabs she has added. The book discusses all the ways in which people gather (not just dinner parties as she first suspected), and emphasizes the importance of intentionality in such meetings.

Jordyn has been enthralled by Three Dark Crowns, which fantasy novel she picked up at Ms. Melinson’s recommendation during the October book club meeting. She felt that it had a slow start, but that’s to be expected when an author is setting the stage for an entire high fantasy series. The plot is intricate and, without giving away any spoilers, she emphasized that the book gets “really good.” Ms. Melinson questioned whether the triplets in the story reminded her of her own siblings, but as these triplets were separated at birth, Jordyn found little in common. Perhaps that was another point in the novel’s favor for escapism-appreciator Jordyn?

Rachel has been listening to The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, and she is loving it. “It’s like listening to a painting,” she explained of the intricate, beautiful, tragic prose. The language and structure have amazed her, and she has equally appreciated the time Dumas takes to follow the protagonist’s life across decades. “It’s a classic for a reason,” remarked Ms. Melinson, who agreed with Rachel that the structure, syntax, and diction of a work compel her just as much as (or sometimes more than) its plot. Chloe added that listening to the novel in its original French was a memorable experience for her.

The current read for Jess is a romance novel about a guy who never gets rejected and the girl who finally does. He seduces her just to prove to his mates that he really is that good, but soon begins truly falling for her. What happens when she finds out his ulterior motives for pursuing her? Jess recommended the book for any romance fans out there, of which we know there are plenty!

Mr. Comer told us about two books he read last weekend. The first was Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by Nigerian engineer and novelist Wole Talabi. This Godpunk novel follows the story of two Yoruba gods liberating a Nigerian artifact from London’s British Museum. Mr. Comer highly enjoyed the novel and heartily recommended it. His second read of the weekend was the first of the Viriconium series by M. John Harrison. The Pastel City is set millennia in the future and follows the tradition of dying Earth stories. He felt that Talabi had a much better command of storytelling than Harrison, but enjoyed The Pastel City as well, and has begun the second in the series, A Storm of Wings.

Suketa revisited The Maltese Falcon, which students read in her English class this year. The murder mystery had a very surprising end that she really enjoyed. The blatant sexism of the main character put Jordyn off of the story.

Mr. Wells has started Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig. In the story, a 12-year-old boy who has been raised by his grandmother must take a greyhound bus across several states to go stay with different family when his grandmother falls ill. The novel so far reminds him of The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles, and he is greatly enjoying the wisdom the boy shares as he meets plentiful folk on his bus journey.

Ms. Melinson then turned the conversation towards the upcoming release of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes based on the Hunger Games prequel novel by the same name. Jordyn enjoyed the book when she read it, explaining that she thought Suzanne Collins did an excellent job of humanizing the villain of the trilogy, Coriolanus Snow.

Finally, we discussed our favorite independent and used bookstores, which included Capitol Books, Bookworm, and Ruby’s. Rachel concluded the meeting with a joke about a loyal dog and a poorly placed gravestone.

September Book Club

We had a great turn out for our first book club of the new year! We discussed the merits of spoilers and whether reading the last page of a book is a viable way to choose if it should go in your TBR pile or not. There was also a spirited compassionate debate regarding which of Rick Riordan’s many series deserved to be considered “great.” (Everyone involved in the debate agreed they were all at least good.) Aarushi felt that if you like Greek Mythology that much you should read The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller.

Ms. Melinson and Mr. Wells both recommended Admissions: A Memoir of Surviving Boarding School by Kendra James. It was the summer staff read, and it deals with themes of white privilege and elitism within college preparatory private schools. Ms. Melinson also recommended the graphic novel version of Bomb by Steve Sheinkin, which we recently added to our collection. She showed off two other books we recently put in circulation: Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng and Nightbird by Kate J Armstrong. In addition, she discussed her love of Neil Gaiman’s indescribable “skinny book” The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Mr. Wells also recommended two poetry books by his “agnostic pagan godfather” John Purser who dwells on an isle off the coast of Scotland: This Much Endures and There is No Night.

Jordyn (a passionate proponent of Percy Jackson) enthused over the novel Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett as well as the TV show adaptation, which is currently in its second season. Rachel was skeptical of the TV show, but shared her own appreciation of Terry Pratchett and recommended his Discworld series. She also recommended The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, which novel has the Ms. Melinson stamp of approval.

Isaac, Radha, Gabriel, and Lila have all been on a non-fiction kick. Isaac has been reading up on the war of 1812 and Tecumseh’s role in it. Radha has stayed in her “business books” groove with How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Gabriel recently enjoyed Viola Davis’s memoir: Finding Me. Lila has a strong appreciation for urban planning, so despite its dry nature in certain parts has enjoyed Pave Paradise: How Parking Explains the World, a book by Henry Grabar.

Julianna has been reading books by the author of Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn. She recommended Sharp Objects and Dark Places.

Suketa really enjoyed the student summer read: The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green.

Dylan recommended Dry by Neil Shusterman, explaining that it was “not what I was expecting at all” and “kept on taking dark turns.” Jordyn added that Shusterman writes dark and unexpected very well, recalling how much she enjoyed Unwind, also by him.

We ate the entire plate of brownies this time around. Come on by the library at lunch time on Wednesday October 18th for your own taste of the famous brownies spirited and lively discussion of books with your peers.

For a list of all the books we’ve had recommended in High School book club, check out our goodreads page here.

Book Elective Book Reviews

For this trimester, Ms. LaMay’s Book Elective class had the opportunity to review their books for a prize. The kids read some great books and submitted informative, interesting, and entertaining reviews. Congratulations to Connor for his review of Matilda and Vivian for her review of Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina! Check out all of the reviews below!

Connor recorded his review of Matilda by Roald Dahl, which you can listen to below.

Vivian reviewed Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland and rated it 5 stars. She wrote:

“This book is so inspiring. That’s why I love it. It shows that just about anyone can do anything. It is about Misty Copeland who is the first black ballerina at ABT. How she came from nothing to one of the world’s best ballerina’s. This is a good read for everyone from kids to adults most people will like it. The book is very well written Misty is obviously a very talented ballerina but she is also a good writer. In the middle of the book it has pictures of her as a dancer which is good because it gives a nice visual of what life was for her. This is overall a great book.”

Jake reviewed The Icebound Land by John Flanagan and rated it 5 stars. He wrote:

“The Icebound Land is the third book in the Rangers Apprentice series and is the most tragic of the books in the series. It is a very close tie to Halts Peril which is book nine. This is a heartbreaking tale about how Will who is the main character has been taken by savages that live in the north with a young girl. Meanwhile, his friend Horace and his mentor, Halt have gone off to rescue him traveling around the continent in order to find him. This book is part of a larger series called Rangers Apprentice which is about Will who is an orphan being taken into secret training for his kingdom as a ranger which is an elite group of combat scouts. His adventures take him all around the world fighting to protect his friends and his kingdom. His two best friends Horace and Alice also join him occasionally and help him fight these evil plans. The Icebound Lands is a good book and I enjoyed it very much.”

Hannah reviewed The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and rated it 5 stars. She wrote:

“The Hunger Games takes you into the life of a scared but brave girl named Katniss Everdeen. District 12 was one of the twelve districts that made up the country of Panem. Every year, children’s names, ages 12 through 18, are put into a bowl and drawn out during a ceremony known. This is a dreaded time and no one wants to be a part of it because it is almost like a death sentence. When a name is called, you are then taken and thrown into what is known as “The Hunger Games.” This book was really good because it kept me on my toes the whole time. I would rate it a solid 10. The unexpected seemed to happen a lot and things popped up all the time out of nowhere. The book also kept a good pace and you could picture what was going on in your head while the story kept moving. I would definitely recommend reading this book!”

Will reviewed A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park and rated it 5 stars. He wrote:

“The book is about a boy named Salva who was in school when war broke out in his village in Southern Sudan. Salva has run as far away into the bush as he can. As he runs from his village, he can’t help but think about his family. Through the book Salva meets a friend and finds his uncle. I think the biggest problem they had was having water. In the middle of the book it explains how people were dying from dehydration. I think the book was great because of all the details the author put into the. The only thing I would say I didn’t like was how repetitive it was talking about walking. Otherwise I feel like this is a great book to read in your spare time because of how short it is and how the rest of the book lures you in to reading more. Overall, I thing this is a great book”

Hayden reviewed Brisingr by Christopher Paolini and rated it 4 stars. He wrote:

“The book Brisingr is the third book of the Inheritance Cycle. It unlike the other two is very action filled and doesn’t contain a lot of “filler”. Filler is where in order to progress the story it tells a tale of something mostly unrelated. The main setting of the book is during one of the great wars in which the main characters are trying to overthrow the tyrannical overlord. I like the book so much because all of the characters certain power gaps and weaknesses are fixed during this book really setting the stage for the story to transition into the next book. In other words the book Brisingr is a well rounded book that is used as perfect stepping stone to Inheritance, the final book of the series.”

We also had two video submissions. For their review, Kellen and Malek filmed a scene from the Percy Jackson series.

For Colin and Cooper’s review, they filmed a scene from the Eragon series.

Thank you to all of our participants!

Book Club

For our first book club of the year, we had a whopping 17 students and 5 faculty members in attendance! We’re thinking the free brownies and lemonade might’ve had something to do with it, but the book discussions were also top-notch.

The overarching theme of the books everyone read over summer leaned more towards the dystopian side of things. Jaspreet was particularly fond of the book The Dead and the Gone, which he declared did not have any “xylophones in it.” To clarify: Jaspreet has said the word “zombie” a few too many times here in the library and it was decided that he was no longer allowed to say the word “zombie,” lest he pay a $10 swear-jar fee. Thus the code word “xylophone” was born.

We had some other great summer reading discussions, from The Maze Runner to The Name of the Wind. Dr. Bell led a discussion about Haruki Murakami’s newest novel, Colorless Tsukura Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. This led us towards a conversation about talking cats. Ms. Fels insists she does not want to know what a cat thinks. Your narrator agrees.

For a complete list and description of books we recommended and discussed during this and previous book clubs, check out our Goodreads list here.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Here’s a book to put on your summer reading list: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta, known to scientists as HeLa, was an African American woman whose tumor samples were taken without her knowledge and used as the first immortal human cells. Though the cells helped make the polio vaccine and chemo possible, they have not always been used responsibly. Her own family, many of whom could not even afford health insurance, did not learn of her contribution to medicine until more than 20 years after her death. This was one of the most celebrated books this year, receiving many starred reviews and named by more than sixty critics as one of the best books of 2010. This is an interesting look at bioethics, but also the story of the Lack family. Here are some reviews:

“For a decade, Skloot doggedly but compassionately gathered the threads of these stories, slowly gaining the trust of the family while helping them learn the truth about Henrietta, and with their aid she tells a rich and haunting story that asks the questions, Who owns our bodies? And who carries our memories?” –Tom Nissley, Amazon Best Books of the Month