The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake: A Novel

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender tells the story of nine-year old Rose Edelstein, who, after taking a bite of her mother's homemade lemon-chocolate cake, learns that she can "taste" her mother's feelings and emotions. Rose learns of deep family secrets kept by her mother, father and brother.

More information about the book at Amazon.com.
Information about Aimee Bender on her website.

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Just Don't Fall

Just Don't Fall: How I Grew Up, Conquered Illness, and Made It Down the Mountain by Josh Sundquist is about Josh's own experience of surviving Ewing's Sarcoma; a virulent cancer strain, that claimed his left leg at the age of nine. The story follows Josh through his hospital visits, through his struggles as a young boy, into adulthood and as he takes on his first attempt at skiing.

More about the book at Amazon.com.
More about the author, Josh Sundquist, on his website.

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The Lock Artist: A Novel

The Lock Artist: A Novel by Steve Hamilton follows Mike, the "boxman", "Miracle Boy" Smith as he documents his eighteen years of life, now that he is in prison. Mike hasn't spoken a word in ten years, since he became the "Miracle Boy" and discovered his talent of opening anything from key-less locks to eight-hundred pout safes (which is what landed him in prison).

Check out more information about this book on Amazon.com.
Information about the author, Steve Hamilton, on his Website.

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The Vanishing of Katharina Linden: A Novel

The Vanishing of Katharina Linden: A Novel, by Helen Grant is described as a "charming horror novel" by Publishers Weekly (Amazon.com). Pia, a ten-year-old girl from a small town in Germany had a normal life until, one day, her grandmother accidentally catches fire and burned to death. Afterwards, Pia becomes an outcast; her only friend being the most unpopular boy in her town, StinkStefan. The two of them visit an elderly man who tells them ghost stories of the town in the hopes of solving old disappearances of young girls.

More information about the Author on her website.

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The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To

The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To by DC Pierson tells the story of two, socially awkward, high school, best friends, Eric and Darren. Neither are good with girls and must endure the cruel high school experience until Eric reveals a truth to Darren: Eric does not sleep and never has. Once this fact reaches the rest of the school and the world, it sends Eric and Darren on a daring adventure.

More information on the book at Amazon.com.
DC Pierson's Website.

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Voice of America

Voice of America by E.C. Osondu is a collection of 18 short stories about living in Nigeria and Africa. E.C. Osondu presents a grim picture of the hardships of living in Africa. Although the book is dark, Osondu provides moments of humor and imagination.

More information about the book is available on Amazon.com, as well as information about the author.

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Guyland

Michael Kimmel wrote Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men based on his research into the lives and relationships of adolescent and young adult men in America between the ages of 16-26.

See information at Amazon and on the author's website.

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The Weather of the Future

In The Weather of the Future: Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and Other Scenes from a Climate-Changed Planet Heidi Cullen outlines the weather scenarios we can expect over the next 40 years as the result of climate change, and she offers steps we can take now to respond to our changing climate.

See information at Amazon.

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Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat

Hal Herzog's book Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat describes the complex relationships of humans and animals.

See information at Amazon and on the author's website.

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Little Princes

Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal follows author Conor Grennan as he travels to Nepal and volunteers at an orphanage. While he is volunteering he learns that the children are not orphans; their families have paid a steep price and for the promise that their children will be taken to safety away from Nepal's civil war. The book is a true story that follows Grennan's work to reunite the children with their families.

See information at Amazon and on the author's website.

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The House of Tomorrow

The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni is a story of self-discovery, family bonding and the unlikely friendship of two social outcasts and their desperation to be heard. Told from the point of view of 17-year-old Sebastian Prendergast who has lived in semi-rural Iowa with his eccentric grandmother in a geodesic dome.

L.A. Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction
Finalist for a Minnesota Book Award
One of Oprah Magazine's Great Reads to Pick Up
Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection

See information at Amazon
Author's website

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Stealing Buddha’s Dinner

In Stealing Buddha’s Dinner: A Memoir by Bich Minh Nguyen, the glossy branded allure of Pringles, Kit Kats, and Toll House Cookies becomes an ingenious metaphor for Nguyen's struggle during the 1908's to become a "real" American, a distinction that brings with it the dream of the perfect school lunch, burgers and Jell- O for dinner, and a visit from the Kool-Aid man.

The 2009-2010 Great Michigan Read
Winner of the PEN/Jerard Award
A Chicago Tribune Best Book of 2007
Kiriyama Prize Notable Book
Asian American Literature Award Finalist

See information at Amazon
Author's website

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The Outside Boy

The Outside Boy by Jeanine Cummins is a novel about an Irish gypsy boy's childhood in the 1950's.

Booklist Editors’ Choice: Adult Books for Young Adults, 2010
School Library Journal, Best Adult Books 4 Teens, 2010

See information at Amazon
Author's website

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Miral

Miral by Italo-Palestinian journalist Rula Jabreal is an autobiographical novel of a Palestinian girl growing up amid the intifada. Made into a motion picture released in March 2011, directed by Julian Schnabel.

See information at Amazon and on the author's website.

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Girl in Translation

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok is the fictional story of Kimberly Chang and her mother who emigrate from Hong Kong to Brooklyn squalor. She begins a secret double life: exceptional schoolgirl during the day, Chinatown sweatshop worker in the evenings. Disguising the more difficult truths of her life, Kimberly learns to constantly translate not just her language but also herself back and forth between the worlds she straddles.

New York Times bestseller
American Library Association Alex Award
Chosen by the School Library Journal as one of their Best Adult Books 4 Teens
Discover Great New Writers pick for Barnes and Noble

See information at Amazon
Author's website

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The John Carlos Story

The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment That Changed the World by John Carlos and Dave Zirin is the memoir of the African American former track and field athlete, professional football player, and founding member of the Olympic Project for Human Rights. He won the bronze medal in the 200 meters race at the 1968 Olympics, where his Black Power salute on the podium with Tommie Smith caused much political controversy. John Carlos attended SJSU.

See information at Amazon
SJSU Tommie Smith John Carlos Project


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The Golden Road

The Golden Road: Notes on My Gentrification by Caille Millner is a memoir of the author's childhood in a Latino neighborhood in San Jose, California, and coming of age in a more affluent yet quietly hostile Silicon Valley suburb to a succession of imagined promised lands-Harvard, London, post-apartheid South Africa, New York City.

See information at Amazon
Author website

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She’s Not There

She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan is an autobiography detailing the author's lifelong struggle with her burgeoning femaleness and the path she followed to become a female, both physically and mentally.

A 2003 Lambda Literary Award Winner

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Author website

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Scoreboard, Baby

Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime, and Complicity by Ken Armstrong and Nick Perry is a tale of the University of Washington’s 2000 football squad, which included at least 24 players arrested or charged with crimes during their years at the university, crimes for which they did little or no time. Complicit were university officials, team coaches, local police and prosecutors, members of the media, even victims, all in the name of sustaining a winning program.

Winner of the 2011 Edgar Award, Best Crime Fact category
2009 Michael Kelly Award (Atlantic Monthly)

See information at Amazon
Author website

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The Reluctant Fundamentalist

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid is a 9/11 novel, written from the perspective of Changez, a young Pakistani whose sympathies, despite his fervid immigrant embrace of America, lie with the attackers. The book unfolds as a monologue that Changez delivers to a mysterious American operative over dinner at a Lahore, Pakistan, cafe.

A 2008 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Winner
A 2008 Ambassador Book Award Winner
A 2008 South Bank Show Award Winner
A 2008 Asian American Literary Award Winner

See information at Amazon

Interview with the author
Author website

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Zeitoun

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers is the true story of one family, caught between America’s two biggest policy disasters: the war on terror and the response to Hurricane Katrina.

A New York Times Notable Book
An O, The Oprah Magazine Terrific Read of the Year
A Huffington Post Best Book of the Year
A New Yorker Favorite Book of the Year
A Chicago Tribune Favorite Nonfiction Book of the Year
A Kansas City Star Best Book of the Year
A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year
An Entertainment Weekly Best Book of the Decade
A 2010 American Book Award Winner
A 2010 Northern California Book Award Winner
The 2010 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Current Interest Award Winner
The 2010 Nonfiction Winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize

See information about the book at Amazon and about the author here.
Zeitoun Foundation

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