MUHSD Staff Summer Reading Recommendations by Kim Buhrmann

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

kbuhrmann — 2025-04-29 19:46:15 UTC

This remains one of my overall favorites. Here's the summary from the author's website: The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France–a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women.

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

myramora — 2025-04-30 16:05:59 UTC

There's also the sequel, The Family Remains. Summary: The Family Upstairs tells the stories of three characters: Libby, Lucy, and Henry. Alternating third-person chapters follow Libby and Lucy’s lives as adults, alongside Henry’s memories of growing up in a mansion in Chelsea in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Libby is a 25-year-old woman living in London when she receives a letter indicating she has inherited a mansion in Chelsea that belonged to her biological family. Libby doesn’t know much about her biological family because she was adopted as a baby. She quickly learns that the house has a dark past, and the novel follows Libby as she unravels the house’s mystery.

Night Watching by Tracy Sierra

2025-04-30 20:04:33 UTC

Trapped in a blizzard with her young children, a mother is pushed to her limits when a familiar intruder breaks in. Hiding in a secret room as he searches the house, she must stay calm, protect her children, and confront the terrifying truth—she knows exactly who he is and what he wants.

Upstream by Dan Heath

2025-04-30 21:32:25 UTC

Upstream has probably influenced my understanding of leadership more than any other book I've read so far. Here's a partial summary from Amazon: So often in life, we get stuck in a cycle of response. We put out fires. We deal with emergencies. We stay downstream, handling one problem after another, but we never make our way upstream to fix the systems that caused the problems. Cops chase robbers, doctors treat patients with chronic illnesses, and call-center reps address customer complaints. But many crimes, chronic illnesses, and customer complaints are preventable. So why do our efforts skew so heavily toward reaction rather than prevention?

Mr. Johnson will be leading a Book Study this summer for aspiring leaders and this will be the book! Be on the look out for the email to sign up.

2025-04-30 21:38:53 UTC

Multiple Londons. One magical traveler. And trouble, of course. This fast-paced fantasy follows Kell, who can move between parallel worlds—until he smuggles something he shouldn’t have. With layered world-building, sharp magic, and complex characters, it’s a great next step for those who grew up loving Harry Potter and are ready for something darker, sleeker, and just as immersive.

hdougherty — 2025-05-16 20:55:50 UTC

If you love art and a unique story-telling experience with a little whodunnit thrown in, this is for you!

Goodreads: Welcome to Eris: An island with only one house, one inhabitant, one way out. Unreachable from the Scottish mainland for twelve hours each day.

Once home to Vanessa: A famous artist whose notoriously unfaithful husband disappeared twenty years ago.
Now home to Grace: A solitary creature of the tides, content in her own isolation.
But when a shocking discovery is made in an art gallery far away in London, a visitor comes calling.
And the secrets of Eris threaten to emerge . .
A masterful novel that is as page-turning as it is unsettling, The Blue Hour recalls the sophisticated suspense of Shirley Jackson and Patricia Highsmith...