Welcome to the Summer 2022 CCHS Reading List. These titles have been handpicked for the summer before our year in the Medieval period. Everyone who reads at least 3 titles gets a prize. There will be a special prize for the person who reads the most books on the list. To get credit for the 'books to read aloud to a younger person', you must have read the book aloud to a younger person. Same for 'books to read with a parent/mentor'. Use the reading log below to keep track of your progress and to hand in to Mr. Hill.

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Books to read aloud to a younger person

Farmer Giles of Ham, Tolkien - a delightful short work from Tolkien

 

The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster - a witty and imaginative adventure.

 

The Fables of Odo of Cheriton - Aesop-style fables from a Christian pastor in Medieval Spain

 

On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, Peterson - heir apparent to the throne of the Narnia books.

 

The Princess and the Goblin, George MacDonald - the Ur text of modern fairytales; heavily influential for Tolkien

 

Books to read on your own

Fiction

The Prose Edda, Snori Sturluson - excellent starting point for diving into medieval Icelandic sagas

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The Song of Roland - the earliest substantial work of French literature; recounts a battle between Charlemagne's Franks and the heathen Basques 

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Book I of Faerie Queene, Edmund Spencer - a good way to introduce yourself to the masterpiece of 16th-century English poetry; more challenging

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Any of the 4 books contained in The Once and Future King, T.H. White - the standard, massive, modern retelling of the King Arthur cycle.

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A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Mark Twain - typical Twain; a fun comparative thought experiment on England in the 19th and 6th centuries; 

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The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco - A murder mystery set in Medieval Italy; written by a medievalist professor of language and philosophy; more challenging

 

A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Leguin -  considered by many to be the only 20th-century Fantasy to successfully depart from Tolkien

 

Out of the Silent Planet Trilogy - C.S. Lewis + science fiction = win
 

Non-fiction

On the Road with St. Augustine, James K.A. Smith - an examination of St. Augustine’s practical theology; especially suitable for students who read Confessions with us last year

 

The Discarded Image, C.S. Lewis - an introduction to medieval art and literature by the expert himself

 

The Return of Martin Guerre - a historian’s piecing together of the fascinating true story of stolen identity from Medieval France

 

Books to read with a parent/mentor

A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller - one of the first dystopian novels, set after nuclear fallout in a medieval-inspired monastery in the Southwest USA; religious themes worth discussing

 

The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis - Lewis’ imagining of what heaven might be like; an excellent companion to On the Road with St. Augustine