Head of School’s Reading List: Winter 2024/25

Jonathon Safran Foer’s We are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast: Once you become aware of a truth you have a choice as to whether your values will allow you to continue living as you have or if you need to make a major change (not in your values, but how you align your life with your values). Such is the impact Foer’s work has had on me.  Shared with me by Dan Pittz, I now can’t avoid the effect my dietary choices have on the world.

Mae Bunseng Taing’s Under the Naga Tail: A True Story of Survival, Bravery, and Escape from the Cambodian Genocide: This book has garnered a lot of awards and for good reason. If you are similar to me, you only have a vague understanding of the Khmer Rouge’s impact on Cambodian citizens; this is a first-person account of a Chinese family that had prospered in Cambodia and how they navigated the uncertainties and turmoil post-Vietnam War. It is not a spoiler to share that they eventually find their way to the United States.

Tamin Amisary’s Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes: For those interested in viewing history through the lens of the Middle East this book is for you! Amisary is a CRMS graduate, and he tells a compelling and insightful story. Amisary focuses on major events and is selective in the historical persons he highlights, as he explains their influence on this region of the world. My Western understanding of this part of the world is often limited to those countries that border the Mediterranean Sea, and I have viewed the events from a Euro-centric perspective that doesn’t capture the complex history and importance of this region.

Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga’s The Courage to be Disliked: The alternative title might be: “How do we live a happy life and achieve real happiness.”  Based on Alfred Adler’s philosophy, a contemporary of Freud, this intriguing book is written in the format of a student-teacher exchange and was a best-seller in Japan. To live a happy life, we have to accept ourselves as we are and accept others as they are, because Adler believes that all problems in life are a consequence of interpersonal relationships. We achieve a sense of fulfillment and belonging by fulfilling our “tasks” – for a student, it is essentially doing one’s homework, and the parent strips the student of this responsibility when they impose their will on them by making them do it. Whether you ultimately employ Adler’s philosophy, this book is an easy introduction to Adler’s compelling thinking and notions of service.

Jodi Picoult’s By Any Other Name: A novel that proposes an alternative author to all of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets. There has long been a debate that Shakespeare was not the author of all the works attributed to him. According to Picoult’s thesis, there is enough intriguing evidence regarding the question of authorship to warrant her story of a young, Jewish writer who must use an untalented Shakespeare to bring her work to public life. Picoult uses the lack of facts about Shakespeare’s life to present this possibility. The fact that Shakespearean scholars have continually debunked the notion of alternative writers, doesn’t make this a less enjoyable and entertaining read.

Cherry Lour Sy’s: Love Can’t Feed You: There is an unfinished sense to the resolutions that take place in this storyline that centers on a Chinese-Filipino immigrant family that fractures amidst its transition to the United States. The first part of the book is by far the strongest, as the family navigates this new landscape and their “American Dream”.

Daniel Mason’s The Winter Soldier: How many great books can an author write?  It seems that Mason has not yet found his ceiling. If you loved “Northwoods” as I did – as did many others on the CRMS campus – then you will not be disappointed by “The Winter Soldier”. A love story set during the first World War, Lucius Krzelewski is the sixth child of a Polish industrial family who goes on to study medicine in Vienna during which he proves to be a talented physician. When he joins the war, and while positioned in a remote station, he meets and is separated from Sister Margarette, the love of his life. The rest of the book is his journey to be reunited with her (with a detour here and there)…if he can find her.

Peng Shepherd’s The Book of M: If you have read and liked science fiction books such as “Station 11” then this might be one to pick up.  I confess that the fundamental issue within the book is a strange one given that there is no explanation for why people start losing their physical shadows – but the result has global consequences.  Shepherd pulls it all together, in this imaginative, well-told novel set in a dystopian future.  All I can say is that if you stick with it (which is not difficult to do), the book’s pieces all fall into place at the end.

Joe Abercombie’s Half a King (#1 in a series): A prolific writer in the fantasy-adventure-gore genre that was recently dominated by “The Game of Thrones” series and earlier by Tolkien’s books about Middle Earth.  If you are familiar with Abercrombie, then this book is similar to the others.  If he is new to you, you should probably start with his “First Law Trilogy”.

Karin Slaughter’s This is Why We Lied: A Will Trent Thriller (#12 in a series): Everyone is a liar in this entertaining thriller that has our two central characters, Will Trent and Sara Linton, finding unsolicited trouble on their honeymoon.  Fans of the series will likely enjoy this installment as it develops the relationship between Will and Sara.  For those new to the series, this book can stand alone and if you didn’t know Will and Sara before, you will be just fine.