Lexiles

[Swiggly]

Well, I've been faced with the difficulty of finding books that are my lexile score. If you don't know what a lexile score is, its based off of something (not exactly sure what) and it tells you what grade level you read on. I have a 1200 lexile score - which is senior. I'm in eighth grade and its relatively hard to find a book that is my lexile score.

We have to read seven books this quarter. Four of fiction or non, and three of the opposite of which you have the four for. I've already read my four fiction books, way back. I've read one non-fiction (Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris if you were wondering. Its positively hilarious.) and I need two more. Naturally I chose the four fiction books instead of just three. I loathe non-fiction except for books like David Sedaris' Does anybody have any recomendations for me? Keep in mind that it has to be my lexile score. 12th grade. I'd really appreciate some help here, guys.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Try Isaac Asimov's autobiographies. They're very entertaining. And then there's things like A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. And the Memoir (or Life or Vita) of Benvenuto Cellini.

I'm not sure how to find out a book's lexile score though.

Oh, Lexile.com tells me A Brief History of Time has a 1290L, and Asimov's Chronology of Science & Discovery has a 1250L (it's not an autobiography, but I'm sure it's a good read).

[DavidB]

If I remember right, the Chronology of Science & Discovery is more of a reference book. It is well-written, but I'm not sure if I'd want  to read it from cover to cover for a school project.

I don't know how to find out a book's lexile score either. Lexile.com's database seems extremely limited. But if you're looking for great non-fiction books, I can certainly recommend some:

• Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel asks why some cultures advanced more quickly than others, technologically speaking, so that, for example, the Europeans conquered the Native Americans rather than the other way around. The book tackles questions of what is needed for a culture to develop technologically, and provides a great, broad perspective of history. It's an amazing book. Diamond's Collapse, about cultures in history that failed because of damage that they did to their environment, is also very good, if you ignore the part at the end where Diamond gets all preachy. (These books might be a little long to read for a class project -- though, I think they're shorter than Asimov's autobiographies -- but they're definitely well worth reading.)
• If you like A Brief History of Time, you might also give Lee Smolin's The Trouble with Physics a look. It's an accessible book that takes a look at what string theory is, and what it has accomplished (and failed to accomplish) in the last thirty years.
• If you have any interest in becoming a writer, Orson Scott Card's Characters & Viewpoint is a must read. James N. Frey's How To Write A Damn Good Novel series, especially How To Write A Damn Good Mystery, also provides some useful advice about how to develop a plot outline and (to a lesser extent) how to develop characters. Ignore his advice about writing narrative, though, and be aware that the terms he uses for the parts of a story are...nonstandard, to say the least. (For example, Mr. Frey calls the main plot of a novel its "premise", and when he wants to say that each scene in your story should contribute to the main plot, he says that you should "prove your premise". I nearly fell over.)
• Atul Gawande's Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science is about learning to become a doctor. You should definitely read it, if you don't mind reading about people getting jabbed with needles and suchlike.
• Mary Roach's Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers is about what happens to people's bodies once they're dead, and it's tons of fun.
• Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner's Freakonomics doesn't live up to the hype in my opinion, but it's still pretty good.
• Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson's Animals in Translation is also a marvelous book.

[The Jade Knight]

No idea on Lexile scores here, either.  More recommendations:

Wild Swans - nonfiction narrative of a family in China over the last 100 years
Emperor of China - constructed autobiography of a Chinese emperor
Night - a brutal account of the Holocaust
Free Culture - an eye-opening look at copyright.  Everyone should read this book
One of the Histories written by Wace or Dudo of St. Quentin—in translation, of course (Wace wrote in Norman, Dudo in Latin).  They're actually quite interesting, and Wace's Roman de Brut has stories about Arthur (though I've mostly only read the Roman de Rou)!  (The Roman de Brut is still technically a history—but history was a little different in the 12th century).

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I have to be the immature one here. To me, Lexiles sounds like a Marvel Comics supervillain group, or else a group of DC heroes dedicated to thwarting Mr. Luthor.

[Swiggly]

Wow, thanks for the book recommendations!