The Odyssey by Homer and Elizabeth Vandiver's The Odyssey of Homer - link to my post. (purchased copies)
Elemental: How the Periodic Table Can Now Explain (Nearly) Everything by Tim James - This is another book I pre-read in the search of a chemistry free read for my high school son. It's a light breezy book perfect for a high school reading level that includes some great explanations of chemical principles. It's also full of the kind of humor a 15-year-old boy would appreciate (lots of death and destruction). Its greatest defect is the lack of a periodic table anywhere in the text. To really follow the reasoning, you would need to dig one up to keep alongside you as you read. For a Christian, there are also numerous side comments intended to be humorous but I think go just a little too far and are therefore flippant or dismissive toward the faith (any faith). Weirdly enough, the author bio specifically mentions how he grew up in Africa because his parents were missionaries. He also casually mentions a non-traditional living arrangement for a scientist and assumes people who found it scandalous were clearly mistaken. While I wouldn't mind if my high-schooler read this book, I'm not going to assign it. (library copy)
The Omnivore's Dilemma: Young Readers Edition by Michael Pollan - This book is an adaptation I'm going to have my high-schooler read as part of a health course alongside anatomy next year (tenth grade). It's far below his reading level, but that will work well as I'd like to include a handful of other books in addition and the original (which we own) would simply take him too long. It covers all four of the meals (industrial, industrial organic, local sustainable, and hunter-gatherer) plus a new preface and an afterword. Pollan's food rules are included as well. Despite the easy text, I'd hesitate to give it to a really young reader as some of the scenes described, especially in the course of the industrial meal, are quite distressing. I discouraged my twelve-year-old from reading it yet. (library copy)
You Need a Budget by Jesse Mecham - link to my post. (library copy)
Brother Astronomer: Adventures of a Vatican Scientist by Brother Guy Consolmagno - link to my post. (library copy)I have received nothing in exchange for these posts. All opinions are my own. Links to Amazon, RC History, and PaperBackSwap are affiliate links.
