This year’s summer reading for Mercersburg students and faculty includes several choices with common threads that define interdependence at various levels and, by logic, the need for collaboration and awareness about the world in which we live, particularly the global connections that have become normative in our rapidly changing world.    

The entire school will read at least one of the four summer reading selections indicated below.  In the fall, students will declare their reading selection with the history and English departments and we will also share our reactions to these books in school-wide seminars.

All four books are available online at MBS Direct (a company that handles textbook sales for the school).

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster, by Jon Krakauer


The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, by Thomas L. Friedman


The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan


Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace… One School at a Time, by Greg Mortenson

 
As a school we subscribe to the idea that reading—and reading widely—defines the core of an educated person. The best preparation for active and engaged learning is reading. There is little question that the habitual reader is more inquisitive, more sensitive to language, and more responsive to subtle distinctions than is the person who reads little or not at all.

We hope that you will read beyond one of these four required books in ways that will make your summer an interesting and enjoyable time.

--Eugenio Sancho, Academic Dean