Outstanding Books for the College Bound: Social Sciences
These titles are located throughout the library; please find the location in the catalog by clicking on the title.
Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson. Mitch Albom’s Tuesday visits with his dying sociology professor, Morrie, offer valuable lessons about the art of living and dying with dignity.
Conover, Ted. Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing. Gripping and sometimes humorous insider’s look at Sing Sing prison, through the eyes of a writer who worked for a year as a corrections officer.
Corwin, Miles. And Still We Rise: The Trials and Triumphs of Twelve Gifted Inner-City High School Students. Twelve seniors from Crenshaw High School’s Advanced Placement English class in Los Angeles dream of going to college, but the harsh realities of their lives threaten to derail their plans.
Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. Why do some societies become rich and powerful while others remain poor and powerless? Diamond contends that three elements, guns, germs and steel, determined the course of history.
Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. Can you really survive on minimum wage? To find out, the author left her middle-class life for a year to see what life is really like for America’s working poor.
Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Christopher has two mysteries to solve: who killed Wellington the dog, and what happened to his mother. But Christopher, who has Asperger syndrome (a form of autism), approaches these mysteries and the world itself in a unique and special way.
Hart, Elva Trevino. The Barefoot Heart: Stories of a Migrant Child. This honest and moving memoir follows a migrant child and her family as they travel from their home in New Mexico to the farm fields of Minnesota and Wisconsin in search of work.
Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. Years after he flees Afghanistan, Amir, now an American citizen, returns to his native land and attempts to atone for the betrayal of his best friend before he fled Kabul and the Taliban.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. In a chilling vision of the future, children are produced in bottles and exist in a mechanized world without soul.
Latifa (pseudo.). My Forbidden Face: Growing Up Under the Taliban: A Young Woman’s Story. Sixteen-year-old Latifa dreamed of becoming a professional journalist until the Taliban’s repression of women changed her life.
Martinez, Ruben. Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail. Martinez explores the powerful forces that drive men, women and even children to risk their lives crossing the border illegally from Mexico to the United States to find work.
Pipher, Mary. The Middle of Everywhere: The World’s Refugees Come to our Town. An exploration of the difficulties and struggles of refugees settled by the United States government in Lincoln, Nebraska as they try to adjust and build a life in America.
Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. The growth of the fast food industry has changed America’s eating habits and greatly impacted agriculture, the meatpacking industry, the minimum wage, and other aspects of American life.
Senna, Danzy. Caucasia. Separated when their parents’ interracial marriage ends in divorce, light-skinned Birdie and her dark-skinned sister Cole lead very different lives while hoping for a reunion with one another.
Simon, Rachel. Riding the Bus with my Sister: A True Life Journey. Rachel Simon’s sister, who has mental retardation, spends her days riding buses in the Pennsylvania city where she lives. When Rachel begins to accompany her sister on the bus, she learns a lot about her sister and her disability, and about her own limitations.
Smith, Zadie. White Teeth. Archie and Samad, two unlikely friends, are brought together by bizarre twists of fate and near-death experiences in this epic novel of family, culture, love and loss set in post-World War II London.
Wheelan, Charles. Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science. Without using charts, graphs or jargon, Wheelan makes economics understandable, even interesting, as he demystifies basic concepts and applies them to everyday life.
List adapted from www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists/obcb for Glendale Public Library
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