It’s the perennial question for overworked professionals: What book will I read this summer? Education Week posed it in a random poll, with the following results:
Yurugu by Mirimba Ani (Africa World Press).
--Molefi Kete Asante, head, African-American Studies Program, Temple University.
The Chamber by John Grisham (Doubleday).
--Ron Axelrod, resource teacher, staff-development and training office, Fairfax County, Va., schools.
The Agenda: Inside the Clinton White House by Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster); One Art: Letters Selected and Edited by Elizabeth Bishop (Farrar, Straus & Giroux); A Fish in the Water by Mario Vargas Llosa (Farrar, Straus & Giroux).
--Carol Bellamy, director, U.S. Peace Corps.
The Best of Roald Dahl by Roald Dahl (Random House).
--Steve Booth, 2nd-grade teacher, Laporte School, Laporte, Minn.
In My Father’s House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture by Kwame Anthony Appiah (Oxford University Press).
--Barbara Brown, director, African Outreach Program, Boston University.
Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics by Jane Jacobs (Random House).
--Rexford Brown, senior fellow, Education Commission of the States.
School Girls: Young Women, Self-Esteem, and the Confidence Gap by Peggy Orenstein (Doubleday, September).
--Anne Bryant, executive director, American Association of University Women.
Education Reform in the 90’s by Chester E. Finn Jr. and Theodore Ruebarber (Macmillan); Making School Reform Happen by Pamela Bullard and Barbara Taylor (Allyn & Bacon).
--Jefferson Burnett, director of government relations, National Association of Independent Schools.
The Island: A Journey to Sakhalin by Anton Chekhov (Greenwood).
--Robert Coles, professor of psychiatry and the medical humanities, Harvard University.
Who Will Teach the Children? by Harriet Tyson (Jossey-Bass).
--Graham Down, president, Council for Basic Education.
Every Living Thing by James Herriot (St. Martin’s).
--Keith Geiger, president, National Education Association.
The Killer Angels: A Novel About the Four Days at Gettysburg by Michael Shaara (McKay).
--Rep. Bill Goodling, R-Pa.
The Banished Children of Eve by Peter Quinn (Viking Penguin).
--Martha B. Graham, manager of public-education initiatives, Chemical Bank, New York City.
Caretakers of Wonder by Cooper Edens (Green Tiger/Simon & Schuster); Provencal Light: Traditional Recipes From Provence for Today’s Healthy Lifestyles by Martha Rose Shulman (Bantam).
--Patricia Graham, president, Spencer Foundation.
Battleground: One Mother’s Crusade, the Religious Right, and the Struggle for Control of Our Classrooms by Stephen Bates (Poseidon).
--Samuel Halperin, director, American Youth Policy Forum.
Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 by Albert Castel (University of Kansas Press).
--Dick Heath, headmaster, Sandia Prep School, Albuquerque, N.M.
Thomas Jefferson, Writings ed. by Merrill Peterson (Library of America).
--G. Alan Hickrod, distinguished professor of educational administration and foundations, Illinois State University.
The Discoverers by Daniel J. Boorstin (Vintage Books).
--David Imig, director, American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education.
The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom (Simon & Schuster); The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours by Marian Wright Edelman (Beacon Press).
--Mary Scheller Jones, math and science teacher, St. Philip the Apostle School, Dallas.
Diplomacy by Henry Kissinger (Simon & Schuster).
--Nannerl Keohane, president, Duke University.
Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf (Harvest Books/Harcourt Brace); Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien (Plume).
--Bill Kennedy, head of the English department, Friends’ Central School, Wynnewood, Pa.
The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy (Knopf); The Agenda: Inside the Clinton White House by Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster).
--Madeleine Kunin, deputy U.S. secretary of education.
Renewing American Schools by Carl Gligman (Jossey-Bass).
--Deborah Meier, co-director and principal, Central Park East Secondary School, New York City.
Life You Were Born To Live: A Guide to Finding Your Life Purpose by Dan Millman (H.J. Kramer).
--Sandra McBrayer, 1994 Teacher of the Year and head teacher, Progressive Learning Alternative Center for Education, San Diego.
Why Should You Doubt Me Now? by Mary Breasted (Farrar, Straus & Giroux); The Chamber by John Grisham (Doubleday).
--Dale Mezzacappa, education reporter, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The Call of Service: A Witness to Idealism by Robert Coles (Houghton Mifflin).
--Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md.
The Fist of God by Frederick Forsyth (Bantam); Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History by Robert D. Kaplan (St. Martin’s); The Great Game: The Struggle for the Empire in Central Asia by Peter Hopkirk (Kodansha).
--Sen. Claiborne Pell, D-R.I
Just Tell Me When To Cry: A Memoir by Richard Fleischer (Carroll & Graf); Immoral Certainty by Robert Tannenbaum (Signet).
--Kenneth L. Peters, former member, California State Board of Education.
An Aristocracy of Everyone: The Politics of Education and the Future of America by Benjamin R. Barber (Ballantine).
--Bob Shoop, professor of educational law, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kan.
Vaclav Havel by Eda Kriseova (Pharos Books); A Union of Professionals: Labor Relations and Educational Reforms by Charles Taylor Kerchner, et al. (Teachers College Press).
--Adam Urbanski, president, Rochester Teachers Association, Rochester, N.Y.
Palm Beach Babylon by Murray Weiss and William Hoffman (Carol Publishing Group).
--Pat Woodlock, 8th-grade teacher, Herberg Middle School, Pittsfield, Mass.
Anger Management for Youth: Stemming Aggression and Violence by Leona L. Eggert (National Education Service).
--Theresa Zutter, education director, Fairfax Juvenile Detention Center, Fairfax, Va.
--Compiled by Megan Drennan
