Just a recap of the books I read this year in the order I read them. Maybe you’ll see something that strikes a spark in you. Some of these were educational, but most were recreational. No matter what you read, it will make your brain muscles grow!
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand — Biography of Louis Zamperini, Olympian and WWII POW survivor. Fantastic read and very descriptive of life in a Japanese prison camp.
Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson — Last of the Dragon Tattoo books. Heard of them? 
The River Why by David James Duncan — Life as a fly fisherman, a dream of mine.
Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin — Behind the scenes of the 2008 presidential election. Perfect book to read as the 2012 election is upon us.
Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby — Like most Hornby books, life is full of complicated relationships and good music. If you liked High Fidelity and About a Boy, you’ll enjoy this one.
Best American Travel Writing 2010 — Good book, full of travel stories from a variety of publications. The Best American series puts out some great books each year.
Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology by Allan Collins and Richard Halverson — I saw Halverson give a keynote at a conference and then bought/read the book. This is an exceptional read for anyone interested in some big picture thinking about how schools have changed over the past century and how they need to change. Absolutely loved this book.
Bite Me by Christopher Moore — Moore’s tales are wild and bizarre and this one fits that mold. Love and war among vampires and their strange entourage.
Manhunt by James Swanson — This is the story of the assassination of President Lincoln and the hunt for his killers. If you love history, this is a book for you. This is a real page turner and not some stuffy historical text. It will also lead you to great appreciation of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.
Ireland by Frank Delaney — Story telling is a wonderful Irish tradition and this book shares many Irish tales to explain the history of Ireland. Read this while on vacation in Ireland in June. Aside from the Irish history, it is a great story of family relationships.
Straight Man by Richard Russo — The politics and lunacy of life as a professor. My wife is a professor and this book certainly resembles some of the humorous stories she tells about colorful campus characters.
Nemesis by Jo Nesbo — Those Scandinavians are good at writing creepy crime novels and this is one of them. If you liked the Larsson books, this one ought to be on your list.
The Passage by Justin Cronin — 800+ pages of creepy dystopian awesome. Super vampirical creatures from the jungles of South America nearly decimate the population of the earth. Small bands of humans learn to survive and eventually make progress toward bringing down the bad guys. It’s like a Stephen King story starring the alien creatures from Predator. This book is already being made into a movie and I can’t wait for the second book to be published within the next year.
Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes — This quite possibly is the best book I’ve ever read. This is a fictional account (but based on true events) of Marlantes’ time as a soldier in the Vietnam War. It is unimaginable what these young men were asked to do in this war. Beyond just war stories, this is a story of humanity. No wonder so many soldiers came home from this war, but could hardly be called survivors. If you only picked one book from this list, this would be the one.
Results Now by Mike Schmoker — Want to make an immediate positive impact on your classroom and school? Then read this book. More than just theory, you’ll learn concrete doable strategies to make you a better educator.
Readicide: How schools are killing reading and what you can do about it by Kelly Gallagher — This should be required reading for every educator. In this age of accountability we sometimes lose sight of the fact that reading should be an enjoyable (but still challenging) activity. This book isn’t just a scolding about poor teaching practices. You’ll also learn what you can do to be a better teacher.
The Hunger Games triology by Suzanne Collins — Read these books before the movie comes out this spring. Once I started the first book, The Hunger Games, I gave up sleep until I finished it and the other two (Catching Fire and Mockingjay).
Curriculum 21: Essential education for a changing world by Heidi Hayes Jacobs — This was a book I assigned to my students in a grad class I teach and see the video book report we made. This is a great read for anyone who wants to be a change agent in the reformation of schools. You can also find author Jacobs on Twitter.
Best American Sports Writing 2011 — Sports are played and enjoyed by real people, and this collection of articles will make you laugh, curse, and cry. I look forward to the release of this anthology every year. The book is filled with many amazing stories but my favorites would be “The Courage of Jill Costello” by Chris Ballard and “Gentling Cheatgrass” by Sterry Butcher. The stories are quite different as Costello was a coxswain on a crew team, and Cheatgrass is a mustang.
Hope you picked up some ideas for material to add to your “gotta read” list. Would also love to hear from you about your faves from this past year.
