With summer here, we decided to ask faculty to recommend books they've recently read and enjoyed. Feel free to steal their choices as we wade deep into beach-reading season.
Go As A River by Shelley Read
I normally read non-fiction, but this novel about a young woman coming of age in Colorado in the 1950's is, to say it simply, remarkable.
-- Pete Elman
Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer
Fantastic musings about the challenges of loving art made by problematic people, and navigating the complicated feelings around that. Great on gender, art fandom, narcissism, and why we love what we love.
My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson
When white supremacists take over Charlottesville and drive the black residents out, they take shelter in the home of the narrator's ancestor — Sally Hemings — in Monticello.
-- Stephanie Wells
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia, MD
Who doesn’t want to live long and live well? Dr. Attia reveals a new approach to preventing chronic disease and extending long term health through nutrition interventions, optimizing exercise and sleep, and addresses emotional and mental health.
-- Yoni Mayeri
North Woods by Daniel Mason
This is the best novel I have read in a long time: the story of a forest and a farm in western Massachusetts, beginning in the colonial period and stretching to a time in the future. It is a history of America and our ghosts, but also an environmental history and prophecy. Beautifully done.
Anything by Claire Keegan: Small Things Like These, So Late in the Day, Walk the Blue Fields, and Foster were all quietly magnificent stories of Ireland and the Irish. And I very much enjoyed Hard by a Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili, a novel about a son in search of his brother and father in the wreckage of post-war Georgia. He uses the tale of Hansel and Gretel as a foundation for his work.
-- Linda Rugg
Billy Lynn's Long Half-Time Walk by Ben Fountain
A dazzling novel about America during the Iraq War. The entire action takes place during the halftime show of a Dallas Cowboys football game.
The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason
A haunting evocation, by the Stanford psychiatrist-novelist, of one man's travails at the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
-- Adam Hochschild
The Hunter by Tana French
Her writing is so engaging. Who cares about a retired Chicago Detective in a tiny Irish town? Her plot is inevitably believable--but misleading in a great way!
The Searcher by Tana French
Same author, set up for the other recommendation. Same reason — her writing could be about math problems. It is addictive!
-- Sara Orem
Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis by Serhii Plokhy
The best book on the CMC. Written with flair, like a thriller.
-- George Breslauer
A Divine Language: Learning Algebra, Geometry, and Calculus at the Edge of Old Age by Alec Wilkinson
This book is an extraordinary blend of memoir, exploration of mathematics, and reflection on the passage of time. Wilkinson, a seasoned writer and journalist, embarks on a unique journey to learn advanced mathematics in his later years, offering readers an intimate glimpse into both the beauty of mathematics and the challenges of aging.
-- Bebo White
Pledging Allegiance: The Last Campaign of the Cold War by Sidney Blumenthal
It is a brilliantly written and ultra-cynical account of the Reagan administration and George Bush’s and Michael Dukakis’ Presidential campaign of 1988. Shows how Bush’s harsh approach to Gorbachev was already wrecking the real opportunity for peace created by Gorbachev and Reagan.
-- Art Eckstein
Fellow Travelers by Thomas Mallon
I like to read novels that have been turned into operas. One such book that most affected me was Fellow Travelers, a story of forbidden love and betrayal during the "Lavender Scare" in the McCarthy Era of the 1950's. Composer Gregory Spears has turned this book into a dramatically engrossing opera which will be performed by San Francisco's Opera Parallele in June 2024.
-- Kip Cranna
Suspicious Minds by Rob Brotherton
This book is fabulous on the social psychology of conspiracy theory.
-- Tamim Ansary
The Murdochian Mind, edited by Sylvia Panizza
It's an anthology of essays on the philosopher and novelist Iris Murdoch. She's breathtakingly smart and brave and audacious and thinks outside the box. Some of the essays are quite esoteric, and I couldn't work my way through them. But a lot of them don't require any special knowledge of philosophy or her novels. And so much of it is really fun and interesting.
Moses: A Human Life by Aviva Zornberg
This is a wonderful set of essays exploring Moses. Neither belief nor knowledge is required. It's just fun to have a super smart writer explore different ways to understand his meaning.
-- Harry Chotiner
Rolling Stone Magazine: The Uncensored History by Robert Draper
Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine by Joe Hagan
Like a Rolling Stone: A Memoir by Jann Wenner
-- Peter Richardson