Hi AP Lit Folks,
Thanks for a great year. Before you head out to the world, you might take this summer to pause and reflect on it. Here are a few important books that can help you do just that:
The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria (a hypothesis about where the US might be in the near future)
Ill Fares the Land by Tony Judt (an assessment of the dangers facing the U.S. and the E.U. and reasons why young people need to become engaged citizens concerned about politics for the greater good. This is is what has been missing from your intellectual diet.)
From Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough & Michael Braungart (if you want to read what a real "green" revolution would look, read this. Your country needs to make things and in order to do that we need to "remake" things. "WASTE = FOOD")
Making Globalization Work by Joseph Stiglitz (what is wrong with the globalization and prescriptions to a more just and equitable world)
The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman (get a sense of the other job applicants you might not see in the waiting room)...Also Check out Cyber War by Richard Clarke (it covers the unintended security risks created by globalization and computers; yes, it affects you on an individual level)
A Whole New Mind by Dan Pink (lead a richer and fuller life and learn how to offer more in the business of life as well as in business)...Also check out his latest: Drive (It will give you some insight as to how to be self-directed, autonomous in work, and maybe a bit happier in life)
The Fourth Turning by William Strauss and Neil Howe (Talking about your generation, the hero generation)
Good to Great by Jim Collins (why some people and companies are great and stay that way for a lifetime)
Technopoly by Neil Postman (where all this technology is leading and how you might protect yourself from it)
The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman (indispensable economic history of the U.S. Why you live where you live, work where you work, and why your neighbor is your neighbor)
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (A first novel and a Booker Prize winner!! This is the best novel written on globalization this century)
Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid (get to know Pakistan in this author's first novel)
Options by Dan Lyons (a LOL novel for anyone who loves Apple products or is fascinated by Steve Jobs)
Lush Life by Richard Price (the master)
Falling Man by Don DeLillo (a penetrating look at 9/11)
The Good Life by Jay McInerney (a brilliant novelist who worked tirelessly in the aftermath pens a love story with a perceptive, if unsettling, conclusion)
Hygiene and the Assassin and Fear and Trembling by Amelie Nothomb
Also, here is a great place to feed your head and meet the thought leaders in our world today:
TED Talks
Sample: The Library of Human Imagination
English Mania (I know you don't believe me but...)
2 Million Minutes
