Staff Picks

1. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
This book is about African Americans working in white households in the 1960’s. I really enjoy this book due to the insight that it gives on how racial discrimination was a part of every social conversation, especially during the 1960’s. The plot is alluring and I really couldn’t put this book down once I started it.

2. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Most people often think that successful individuals are “self made”, but Gladwell explains that what lies behind the myth is often a series of lucky events, rare opportunities and external factors, which are out of our control. This really made me think about the extremely successful individuals we see today and what they went through to get to where they are now.

3. Eragon by Christopher Paolini
This is a great book for slightly younger readers to teenagers. If you love fiction, fantasy, and mystical elements, then you’ll love this series. Eragon is book one of the Eragon series. A boy named Eragon finds an egg that hatches a dragon, and together they plot to stop an evil king from taking over their beloved home..

4. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
I grew to love this book after doing a deep dive into it for a high school class. Set in the roaring 1920’s, this book explores the lives of an extremely wealthy man, a woman who is the social belle, and many others.

5. Rocket Boys by Homer Hickman Jr.
A unique American memoir, Homer Hickman Jr., better known as Sonny, reflects back on his high school age in the 1960’s. He and his friends developed a love for designing, building, and setting off rockets, but not without some external and internal troubles along the way.

Delaney Wieland