As 2024 came to a close, so did the books of the teachers and staff at San Dimas High School. Over the course of January, Saint Scroll interviewed many of these teachers about what their favorite book of last year was, and they definitely delivered with a vast selection of genres. The passion could be seen emanating from every word as the book’s contents were discussed, and each chosen title truly reflected the teacher as well. Whether you’re looking for your next big read, or just wanting to see what your teacher’s favorite book of the year was, we have just the right thing in store for you!
It Ends With Us
By Colleen Hoover
Chosen By Mrs. Yang
“It Ends With Us” is recommended for teachers and mature readers of 18+.
This romance novel follows a young woman who starts a new relationship, yet can’t stop thinking about her old one as she goes through the hardships of abuse.
Hardworking Lily Bloom moves to Boston and starts her very own flower shop when she meets a neurosurgeon upon a rooftop one night. This man is almost everything Lily had hoped for, yet he seems to have a dislike towards relationships. As Lily starts to question her new relationship, she starts to think about her first love and the link to her past, which she thought she had left far behind her. Known for packing an emotional punch, Hoover’s best-selling book deals with the drama, truths, pain, and seemingly impossible decisions that come with an abusive relationship.
“The author does a really good job where you want to keep reading and shows the characters as not just one-dimensional,” Mrs. Yang says, “You kind of relate to all parts of the characters – multilayered. I think the author, Colleen Hoover, is excellent.”
“It Ends With Us” became a movie last August, directed by Justin Baldoni and stars Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, and Jenny Slate. The movie is rated PG-13, and has been included in three award nominations.
The Mastery of Self
By Don Miguel Ruiz Jr.
Chosen By Mr. Coulter
Written by a Toltec wisdom teacher, Miguel Ruiz Jr. shows readers the tools of understanding, awareness, and love for unlocking your authentic self in this self-improvement philosophy book.
Predating the Aztecs, Toltecs believed that life is a dream. People live in their own dreams every day, but issues can start when the idea that dreams aren’t a fixed reality are forgotten. “The Mastery of Self” takes the Toltec Philosophy, “Dream of the Planet” and helps people live their authentic lives wherever they go.
“I guess I’m sort of a philosopher at heart,” says Mr. Coulter, “What I like about this concept is that it says when you get most heightened by your emotions, most angry, most sad, whatever, that’s the moment when it says you should ask yourself ‘what attachment is making me react so strongly?’”
“For me this book is a breath of fresh air because it allows me to be an audience,” he adds, “We think of an audience as being outside of us, but you can kind of be an audience to anything in the way you react all day, any moment.”
This book is one of a series, written by Don Miquel Ruiz and his son. Other titles include “The Mastery of Love” and “The Fifth Agreement.”
The Cat Who Saved Books
By Sosuke Natsukawa
Chosen By Mrs. Bailey
Translated from Japanese, “The Cat Who Saved Books” is an allegory about a magical cat and a shy teen who loves reading. As a high school student, Rintaro is an introvert. He always has been, and that tendency doesn’t get any better when he inherits a small bookstore. Just as Rintaro was about to close up the shop for good, a ginger tabby cat comes along to warn him about the store. The books inside are imprisoned and are in need of saving! These pages dive into different adventures full of people who are threatening the world of books.
Mrs. Bailey says that she is excited to read more Japanese authors after reading this title.
“Especially this author because I love what he has to say and how he says it. I think it’s not heavy handed, he’s not telling you to read books, he’s just essentially showing you about the beauty of them.”
“Sometimes you read a book and it changes the way that you view yourself in the world.” Mrs. Bailey explains, “This book is that to me. I think that it is important. I fight hard for students to read and when I read this book, it felt like somebody else was fighting too.”
Many professional reviewers such as “Publisher’s Weekly” and “AudioFile Magazine” will call this book “charming,” “uplifting,” and “heartwarming.” Many would also add that this story is for those who view books as more than just words on paper.
There is a sequel called “The Cat Who Saved The Library,” coming out in early April this year.
All Quiet On The Western Front
By Erich Maria Remarque
Chosen By Mr. Perez
Remarque tells a tale of a twenty-year-old German man in World War 1 in this historical fiction war novel.
“I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow…” These are the words of Paul Baumer, who is serving in the German army along with his classmates during World War 1. They started out with youthful, patriotic enthusiasm, but as the first bombardment in the trenches falls, they wonder if this world of duty is as exciting as they first thought. Over the years, Paul holds on to a single vow: he must “fight against the principle of hate that meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against one another.”
“It’s a worthy read for anybody in spite of your tastes,” says Mr. Perez, “It’s something that is poignant in terms of today’s modern era with everything that’s happening in the world and it’s just nice to have an anti-war perspective because nothing really good comes from war.”
“All Quiet On The Western Front” is also a Netflix Film Adaptation directed by Edward Berger, starring Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, and Aaron Hilmer. The movie is rated R for your consideration, and has won 4 Oscars since it was released.
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
By Isabel Wilkerson
Chosen By Ms. Robles
From an award winning author, Wilkerson helps readers dive into the caste system that influences people’s lives and behaviors in this nonfiction sociology history book. She links this system to America and other countries, and introduces the eight pillars that underlie caste systems across history. She includes stories from people like Martin Luther King Jr., and many others, including herself in this journey toward her hope in changing humanity.
“Often I have this recurring conversation to myself and to my students,” Ms. Robles shares, “In life you get what you get. You get the hand that you’re dealt. Nobody chooses their language, their ethnicity, their race, their family, you are born into it as an innocent baby and as you progress and you learn and you mature in life, it’s up to everyone as an individual to learn about each other. To be open minded. To accept others as they are, and to support each other. All we have in this life is each other, so I think that’s also one of the recurring themes or messages in this book. No matter where you’re at in society, it’s up to us to help each other and to support each other.”
“Caste” has won many awards, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and Carl Sandburg Literary Award. It has also been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Dayton Literary Prize, the John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction, the Kirkus Prize, and the Jean Stein Book Award.
For teens interested in reading this book, there is a young adult adaptation of this title, free to read at the nearest library.
Stiff
By Mary Roach
Chosen By Mrs. Knott
Roach, a bestselling author for science, writes a history of human cadavers. This book “explains the strange lives of our bodies most-mortem and answers the question: what should we do after we die?”
Mrs. Knott recommends this book to students wanting to go in the pathology side of medicine.
“Students that are going into nursing [and] medical school that want to also on the side be expert witnesses to testify, and forensic nurses would enrich their knowledge of the history by reading this book.” She also mentions that “This book was very much not a solve the crime or who done it, this book is very much the history of this specific science.”
Many professional reviewers such as Publisher’s Weekly and Booklist as well as the Los Angeles Times say it’s “quirky, funny read” and that the author, Mary Roach, is a witty and humorous writer, while keeping the respect for this profession.
“You can close this book with an appreciation of the miracle that the human body really is,” says Tara Parker-Pope, from the Wall Street Journal.
Please keep in mind that while it is known as a “witty” and “respectful” one, this book is not for the faint of heart!
Billy Summers
By Steven King
Chosen By Mr. Feiola
This Book is recommended for teacher’s and mature readers of 17+.
The Master of Horror, Stephen King, writes about a good guy in a bad situation.
Billy Summers, a war veteran, is a masterful killer by hire, but will only take the job if you’re a truly bad person. After a while, things start to catch up with him, and Billy decides that he wants out of the whole killing business. Before he’s allowed to leave though, he must do one last job, and for a quite large sum of payload too. Things however don’t seem to add up. When things start to go awry, Billy goes rogue, winding up in a whole bigger story than the one he was playing in.
Mr. Feiola talks about how he thinks this book is a little different than most of Steven King’s books.
“Most of his work is known for horror and stuff like that. This one just felt…different. Had a different style.”
King is also known for writing well known titles such as “It” and “The Shining.”
Dungeon Crawler Carl
By Matt Dinniman
Chosen By Mr. Sandt
This book is recommended for teachers and mature readers of 16+.
Welcome to the game show of Dungeon Crawler World in this science fiction LitRPG for all of the gamers out there. In this world, all human construction on Earth has collapsed, creating a humongous 18-level dungeon chalk-full of traps, monsters, and loot. Once a survivor dares enter the interior, there is no escape. They have only days to find the stairs to the next level or it’s game over. In this game, it is not strength nor dexterity that can help you survive, but your popularity and views on the show. Follow Carl and his cat, Princess Donut in this fantasy for gaming fans.
For Mr. Sandt, he recommends listening to the audiobook for a wilder experience.
“The characters are hilarious and the voice actor for Dungeon Crawler Carl was so good that I was under the impression that they had a full ensemble cast and after, like, six books I went to look it up and discovered it was just one guy and he doesn’t even do it in multiple takes! He does it swapping voices the whole time. I had no idea it was just one guy, he’s just amazing.”
Mr. Sandt also mentioned that he would have to pause the audiobook because he would be laughing so hard.
“It doesn’t seem to matter how old you are, everybody just thinks it’s great.”
He does mention that there is some more adult content however, and recommends a fantasy
author under the name of Brandon Sanderson for younger readers.
“If you want a fascinating book that you can read right now that is not R rated, there’s a fantasy author named Brandon Sanderson and the Mistborn series that is probably my favorite fantasy series of all time.”
On a different note, he says that with parent permission, Dungeon Crawler Carl is a fantastic read that can be checked out.
The Pout Pout Fish
By Deborah Diesen
Chosen By Mrs. Boyd
“I’m a pout-pout fish with a pout-pout face so I spread the dreary-wearies all over the place.”
“The Pout-Pout Fish” is a children’s picture book that brings the “all you need is love” message to light with a fish who thinks he’s an unhappy fish because of the way he looks. Little does he know that that path is not his destiny.
“My son makes me read it a lot and it’s a fun book to read. It’s funny, it’s a really cute book to read and he [the fish] thinks he’s something he’s not and then he realizes ‘oh wait I’m really like a happy fish, I’m not a sad fish!’ It has a good message.” says Mrs. Boyd, who reads this story with her son often.
“The Pout-Pout Fish” is a 2009 Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year.
The Holy Bible
Chosen By Mr. Beckford
Supposedly the most important and influential book ever read, the Holy Bible is a masterpiece for spiritual writing.
“Based on where I am in life certain things stick out to you more, so I would say I’ve been able to gain inspiration for myself and for others in the book of proverbs, or book of wisdom. I think the book of proverbs is really important, but also just the call to love people is really important too,” says Mr. Beckford.
The Holy Bible is free to read almost everywhere, and can be found at the nearest library.
Did you find the next book to put on your bookshelf? A big thanks goes out to all of the teachers for allowing The Saint Scroll to interview them about what their favorite book of 2024 was, and as for 2025, the body of San Dimas will be opening new chapters soon!
