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Modern Lit/History suggestions needed


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Our history text for next year only takes us up till 2010. I already have some speeches (and of course current events) to fill in here, but  I'd like a couple of "not to be missed" history, biography or literature suggestions for this time period.  Actually the last 20 years is fine, since I'm not sure yet how current our literature goes.  Our year is very full already, so if I could just get a couple of really great books, that would be perfect.  Thanks!

 

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Hindsight is 20/20 so I don't think we have it yet about 21st century literature by any means. I think you'd be fine to choose any award-winners from the last decade and run with them. Is there are theme or geographic area?

This list has some good stuff... but most of it is from the early 2000's and not the last few years:
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150119-the-21st-centurys-12-best-novels

This Powell's list is also good and includes some nonfiction:
https://www.powells.com/post/lists/25-books-to-read-before-you-die-21st-century

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USA contemporary lit ideas
2001 = Peace Like a River (Enger) -- realistic; set in the 1960s
2005 = Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Foer) -- 9-1-1 aftermath
2006 = American-Born Chinese (Yang) -- graphic novel set at time of writing
2007 = Auralia's Colors (Oversetree) -- fantasy; first of a quadrilogy
2008 = Anathem (Stephenson) -- sci-fi
2009 = The Help (Stockett) -- African Americans working as domestic help in the 1960s Deep South
2011 = The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Skloot) -- African American woman/medical ethics; nonfiction, 1950s

2012 = Night Circus (Morgenstern) -- fantastical/romance
2016 = Hidden Figures (Shetterly) -- African American mathematical women/space race; nonfiction, 1960s
2017 = The Hate U Give (Thomas) -- or -- All American Boys (Kiely & Reynolds) -- Black lives matter

2000-present world contemporary lit ideas
Afghanistan -- 2003 =The Kite Runner; or, 2007 = A Thousand Splendid Suns (Hosseini) -- PREVIEW! intense/adult content!
African Savannah -- 2003 = Facing the Lion: Growing Up Maasai (Lekuton) -- nonfiction autobiography
Algiers -- 2002 = The Swallows of Kabul (Khadra)-- PREVIEW! intense/adult content!
Canada/India -- 2001 = Life of Pi (Martel)
China -- 2001 = Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Sijie)
German/Australian -- 2005 = 
The Book Thief (Zusak) -- set in WW2
Iran -- 2000 = Persepolis (Satrapi) -- autobiography
Iran/USA -- 2003 = Reading Lolita in Tehran (Nafisi)
Japan/UK -- 2005 = Never Let Me Go (Ishiguro) -- dystopian

Japan -- choice of classic work of Manga
Malawi -- 2010 = The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Kamkwanda) -- nonfiction autobiography
Nigeria -- 2008 = Say You're One of Them (Akpan) -- short story collection; -- PREVIEW! intense/adult content!
Pakistan -- 2013 = I Am Malala (Yousafzai) -- nonfiction autobiography
Sierra Leone -- 2007 = A Long Way Gone (Beah) -- nonfiction autobiography
South Africa -- 2008 = Invictus (Carlin) -- about events in the early 1990s
UK -- 2011 = Shades of Grey
(fforde) -- NOT the s*x book; this is is creative dystopian novel

Edited by Lori D.
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