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AP English Language Summer Work: Engagement Ideas

Summer 2022

Read

Book Suggestions

  • Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, & You (a Remix) by Ibram X. Kendi & Jason Reynolds
  • Just Mercy: A Story of Justice & Redemption by Bryan Stevenson 
  • The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander (ebook available on Hoopla)
  • Columbine by Dave Cullen 
  • Parkland: The Birth of a Movement by Dave Cullen
  • Lethal Passage: The Story of a Gun by Erik Larson 
  • Missoula: Rape & the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer 
  • Evicted: Poverty & Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
  • The nature writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Terry Tempest Williams, John Muir, Wendell Berry
  • Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (ebook and audiobook available on Hoopla)
  • Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard 
  • The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
  • Buzz, Sting, Bite: Why We Need Insects by Anne Svederup-Thygeson
  • The End of Ice by Dahr Jamail (ebook available on Hoopla)
  • Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner   
  • Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
  • White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg (audiobook available on Hoopla)
  • Evicted: Profit and Poverty in the American City by Matthew Desmond
  • The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford
  • The Big Short by Michael Lewis (or many of his other books)
  • Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil Degrasse Tyson
  • A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
  • Cosmos by Carl Sagan
  • The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic - And How It Changed Science Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson (audiobook available on Hoopla)
  • The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum (audiobook available on Hoopla)
  • Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Inequality by Cathy O’Neil
  • A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
  •  Malcolm Gladwell’s books: Outliers, The Tipping Point, Talking to Strangers, David & Goliath, etc. 
  • How to Be a High School Superstar by Cal Newport (audiobook available through Hoopla)
  • Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
  • Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
  • The Latte Factor: Why You Don’t Have to Be Rich to Live Rich by David Bach 
  • The Warrior’s Heart by Eric Greitens (ebook available through Hoopla)
  • Erik Larson’s books
  • An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Dunbar-Ortiz
  • A Black Women's History of the United States by Daina Berry and Kali Nicole Gross
  • An African American and Latinx History of the United States by Paul Ortiz
  • A Disability History of the United States by Kim Nielsen
  • A Queer History of the United States by Michael Bronski
  • The Truffle Underground: A Tale of Mystery, Mayhem, and Manipulation in the Shadowy Market of the World’s Most Expensive Fungus by Ryan Jacobs 
  • Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky 
  • Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver (ebook and audiobook available on Hoopla) 
  • Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat
  • Chocolate: Sweet Science & Dark Secrets of the World’s Favorite Treat by Kay Frydenborg
  • The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor by Mark Schatzker (audiobook available on Hoopla)

Other texts

  • Newspaper articles
  • Articles from news websites, online scholarly journals, etc. 
  • Longer articles from sources such as The Atlantic or The New Yorker or Time Magazine 

Listen

Podcasts

  • Floodlines by The Atlantic
  • Freakanomics Radio by Steven Dubner
  • Invisibilia by NPR
  • Jolted by VT Public Radio
  • The Lifehack Show
  • Marketplace from NPR
  • More Perfect by RadioLab and WNYC
  • Ologies by Allie Ward
  • Outlandish by The U.S. Forest Service
  • Patient Zero: Lyme Disease by NH Public Radio
  • Planet Money from NPR
  • RadioLab by WNYC Studios 
  • Serial by This American Life
  • Stranglehold by NH Public Radio
  • The Sound of Economics by Bruegel
  • The Story Collider 
  • Techathlon by Popular Science
  • This Podcast Will Kill You
  • The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week by the Editors at Popular Science
  • Who Makes Cents
  • It Was Said

Watch

Movies

  • Just Mercy (2019 movie)
  • Snowpiercer (2013 film or 2020 TV show)

On Streaming Services

  • Kanopy is a free streaming service accessible through your library card. They add a good rotation of documentaries to their service, and instructions for accessing it are in the next tab of this website. 
  • The National Parks: America’s Best Idea docu-series by Ken Burns  (Amazon Prime)
  • Our Planet (Netflix Documentary​ available for free on Netflix YouTube)
  • Chasing Coral (Netflix 2017)
  • Planet Earth or any of the other BBC Nature series (Discovery+)
  • Sustainable (Netflix)
  • Chasing Coral (Netflix 2017)
  • Prediction by the Numbers (Netflix)
  • 13th (Netflix Documentary available for free on Netflix YouTube)
  • Particle Fever (Netflix)
  • Zion (Netflix Documentary Short available for free on Netflix YouTube)
  • Generation Startup
  • 13th (Netflix Documentary available for free on Netflix YouTube)
  • The Men Who Built America (History Channel miniseries available on Amazon Prime)
  • Salt Fat Acid Heat (Netflix)
  • Period. End of Sentence (Netflix Documentary available for free on Netflix YouTube)
  • Fed Up (Netflix)
  • Cooked (Netflix 2016)
  • The C Word (Netflix)

Other

Experience

Resources

Suggestions