It can be hard to find a good book: the title doesn’t spark the imagination, the summary leaves something to be desired, or the cover just fails to draw you in. So, to save you some time, here are five books Madison’s English teachers just couldn’t get enough of.
Margaret Foarde: All My Rage, by Sabaa Tahir
For people who want a more “emotionally challenging book”, according to Margaret Foarde, try “All My Rage”, written by Sabaa Tahir. The book was released in 2022 and chronicles the hardships that come with race, ethnicity and family.
“[It is] a heart wrenching portrayal of a South Asian family’s experience with the American Dream, but it is one of those books that changes you forever,” Margaret Foarde said.
Michaela Wolf: A Voice in the Wind, by Francine Rivers
Michaela Wolf’s “top book of 2023,” “A Voice in the Wind” follows the story of a young Christian-Jewish slave living under the Roman Empire during the first century. Released in 1993, the book still manages to be “riveting… and inspiring…this historical Christian fiction was breathtaking,” Wolf said.
Lauren Craft: Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver
“Demon Copperhead” is the story of 10-year old Damon Fields, and chronicles his life with a drug-addicted teenage mother, abusive stepfather and a corrupt foster system. “Raw, relevant, and heartbreaking,” Craft said, the book received a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2023.
“I loved this modernized riff on Charles Dickens’ semi-autobiographical novel, ‘David Copperfield,’” Craft said. “Kingsolver’s version of the story follows a precocious orphan boy as he tries to dodge the opioid epidemic in 1990’s Appalachia.”.
Marc Lebendig: Poverty, By America; by Matthew Desmond
For readers who want a novel from 2023, try “Poverty, By America,” by Matthew Desmond. It dives into the myriad of reasons why America has such a high poverty rate compared to other rich countries, delivered through the stories of real individuals.
“[It] challenged many of the things I thought I knew about America’s efforts to address poverty,” Marc Lebendig said. “Rich in data, but anchored in a highly readable narrative.”
Julia Whitten: Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel
Published in 2014 and written by Emily St. John Mandel, this book may seem familiar to readers.
“This novel feels so eerie because we just […] experienced […] a pandemic,” Julia Whitten said. “St. John Mandel’s book, published in 2014, feels like a prediction that thankfully didn’t go as horribly in the real world as it did in her story.”
Set in a post-apocalyptic future, “Station Eleven” reveals what could have been had COVID-19 been even more devastating than it was. The story begins 20 years after “the collapse,” a deadly flu epidemic that decimated the global population, revolving around a central cast of characters and offering glimpses of their lives both before the collapse and during the years that followed it.
