Tuesday, June 17, 2008

SAT Book List

SAT Book List

I'm a college-bound almost-senior, so my next and final SAT on October 4th is weighing heavily on my mind. For all you other 2400 hopefuls out there, here is a list of good books to read in preparation. Of course as I read them they will appear on this blog with a review and a yay/nay for enjoyment/helpfulness. In the meantime, enjoy.

Analyses
A Brief History of Time -- Stephen Hawking
QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter -- Richard P. Feynman
The Mismeasure of Man -- Stephen Jay Gould
The Lives of a Cell -- Lewis Thomas
The Republic -- Plato
Democracy in America -- Alexis DeTocqueville
Civilization and Its Discontents -- Sigmond Freud
The Language Instinct -- Steven Pinker
How the Mind Works -- Steven Pinker
(Seen in a review from Amazon.com: "If How the Mind Works were a rock show, tickets would be scalped for $100.")
A People's History of the US -- Howard Zinn
Freakonomics -- Stephen Levitt & Steven Dubner

Narratives
Crime and Punishment -- Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Metamorphosis & Other Stories -- Franz Kafka
Narratives of the Life of Frederick Douglas
Life of Pi -- Yann Martel
The Color Purple -- Alice Walker
Atlas Shrugged -- Ayn Rand
Frankenstein -- Mary Shelley
Pride and Prejudice -- Jane Austen
Baby, It's Cold Inside -- S. J. Perelman
Best American Short Stories of the Century -- John Updike
Growing Up -- Russell Baker
The Wall -- John Hersey
Candide -- Voltaire
Macbeth -- William Shakespeare
The Painted Bird -- Jerzy Kosinski
One Hundred Years of Solitude -- Gabriel García Márquez

Arguments
The Chomsky Reader -- Chomsky
The World is Flat -- Friedman
Drift and Mastery -- Lippmann
The Best American Essays -- Atwan
Walden -- Thoreau
Lanterns & Lances -- Thurber
> plus other media:
The Op-Ed pages of the New York Times
The Nation
Scientific American
Essays in Harper's, Atlantic Monthly, and the New Yorker
Sunday Magazine

More ways to prepare:
Talk to smart adults and friends with good vocabularies
Read college-level books
Watch documentaries
Listen to National Public Radio
~ try out new words on your own
~ get a dictionary with pronunciation and etymology

And lastly, don't forget to practice writing essays. You only have 25 minutes to 'present and support a point of view on a specific issue' as well as you can.

Go to the College Board site for even more info:
http://www.collegeboard.com/

Sabriel


Sabriel • Lirael
by Garth Nix

Wow, quite a series. I love this style so much better than Garth Nix's other series, Keys of the Kingdom.

One day I sat down at the library with his Across the Wall - a collection of short stories that he has jotted down over the years. It was a neat read, almost like meeting the author in person. The 'interactive narrative' was a blast, I was cracking up the whole way and it brought me back to Paris with scenes of the Seine and Three Musketeer-ness. One of my favorite stories was the one about the gardner and the king who kept taking his roses. Interesting how such a powerful feeling can be produced in such a short passage.

Can't wait to read the next one!

Gregor the Overlandor



Gregor the Overlander and Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane
by Suzanne Collins

Worth reading. It is for a little bit younger audience but I still enjoyed it very much. The author describes it as her New York version of Alice in Wonderland. She has created a fascinating world full of danger but also hope.


Monday, June 2, 2008

The Host


The Host
by Stephenie Meyer

Eeep! Just finished it; the ending is like being hurled from a giant catapult, a crazily spinning carousel with the colors brightening each moment. Awesome.

My only, tiny, inconsequential, and petty qualms: First, I liked Melanie's body better. Sorry, I can't help it. I don't think Meyer was totally enthused about it either; she pointed out quite a bit of difficulties. But it wasn't what I imagined in my head for the wonderful Wanderer. Still, I find that character description intriguing. A small, very small 17 year old with a silverish palor to her skin, golden specks or freckles, and long golden hair? and I quote Meyer (should be doing this more often) page 603: "The skin on the face had the same silver undertone -- silver like moonlight -- as the hand did, with another handful of the golden freckles across the bridge of the nose. Wide gray eyes, the silver of the soul shimmering faintly behind the soft color, framed by tangled golden lashes. Pale behind them. A dimple in the chin. And everywhere, everywhere, golden, waving hair that stood away from my face in a bright halo and fell below where the mirror showed." also page 603, "this half-child with her moonlight face and sunlight hair."