With summer here, we asked OLLI faculty to recommend books they've recently read and enjoyed. Feel free to steal their choices as we wade deep into beach-reading season.
Karen Davis
The Book of Eels, by Patrik Svensson
One part memoir, one part natural history, and one part something entirely new, Svensson's first book made me think, dream and feel more for the mysteries of the elusive eel than I ever thought possible. A deeply moving narrative, embracing all the genres it wriggles and slips effortlessly into.
Abbas Kiarostami and Iranian National Cinema, by Hossein Khosrowjah
This is a beautifully written and illuminating book examining the role of Iranian cinema in the constitution of national identity within and across national boundaries. The focal point is Abbas Kiarostami, Iran's most celebrated cinematic auteur.
Peter A. Davis
Searching for Juliet: The Lives and Deaths of Shakespeare's First Tragic Heroine, by Sophie Duncan
A wonderfully written and thoroughly researched study of Shakespeare's iconic romantic heroine covering an extraordinary range of issues and angles. A great book and a very fun read.
Art Eckstein
Coming Apart: A Memoir of the Harvard Wars of 1969, by Roger Rosenblatt
A terrific book about the seizure of a building at Harvard in spring 1969 by anti war protesters, and the student strike that developed after the building was cleared by police. It’s wonderfully written, from the point of view of a junior faculty member. Obviously, his observations about both the students and the faculty have relevance at the moment. A fascinating read.
Pete Elman
The Paper Palace, by Miranda Cowley Heller
I grew up in DC, and when I was a kid we went every August to Wellfleet, a little town on Cape Cod; God did I love that place—and still do. This brilliantly written, glorious piece of autobiographical romantic fiction takes place in Wellfleet; I know all the places like the back of my hand, and the book is impossible to put down. You want beach summer reading? Look no further. I own a little house in the next town, Truro, and I'll be there in a few days...maybe I'll run into Miranda Cowley there...and she can explain the ending.
Tom Laqueur
Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
I just re-read Huckleberry Finn as a prelude to reading Percival Everett's acclaimed James. Twain is better than I remembered: specular at every level. I now look forward to reading Everett's version of the picaresque tale with the enslaved as narrator.
Louise Nayer
The Winter Soldier, by Daniel Mason
Beautifully written, set during World War I—about a young doctor working in a clinic in the mountains, leaving his wealthy family and finding true love, if only fleetingly.
The Orphan's Tale, by Pam Jenoff
It’s set during World War II and takes place in a circus, a perfect venue for a gathering of characters who have journeyed there and create a chosen family during the trauma of the war.
Yoni Mayeri
My Name is Barbara, by Barbara Streisand
I listened to this book on Audible which is read by Barbra Streisand and has additional anecdotes and music that are exclusive to the audiobook. (It’s also available in hard copy). Listening to it felt like I was in conversation with Barbara about her life and extraordinary career told in a frank, funny, opinionated, and charming manner.
Sara Orem
Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, by Sarah Wynn-Williams
An idealistic young policy maker from New Zealand believes she can help Facebook contribute significantly to world peace. She tries and eventually secures a job there. As soon as she has regular contact with senior leadership, she finds their strategy both without concern for international tensions and self-serving to their own profit motives. She is eventually fired. Another view of our tech bros that is not very hopeful.
Peter Richardson
Loud and Clear, by Brian Anderson
Anderson traces the development of the Grateful Dead’s so-called Wall of Sound. At its peak, the system consisted of almost 600 speakers, stood over three stories tall, weighed 75 tons, and required four semi-trucks to haul it from gig to gig. A fresh account the Dead’s relentless pursuit of sonic perfection.
Ready for My Close Up, by David Lubin
As Lubin writes, Sunset Boulevard was a movie “about has-beens and also-rans, about failed comebacks, misguided dreams, and murderous delusions.” Deeply informed but never pedantic, this book shows how Wilder and his team turned Hollywood's midcentury crisis into film history.
Eric J. Simon
The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World, by Andrea Wulf
This is a great introduction to the remarkable life of Alexander von Humboldt, the 19th century's most famous scientist. I will be teaching a future course on von Humboldt's five-year journey to South America (1799-1804) and this is a great way to become excited about this amazing man.
Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis, by Kim Todd
This book tells the story of an amazing woman. Maria Merian, as a single mother in 1699, traveled from Amsterdam to Suriname and brought back some of the most remarkable and timeless paintings of insects in the natural world that have ever been produced.
Richie Unterberger
Hollywood Dream: The Thunderclap Newman Story, by Mark Wilkerson
For a rock group that only had one hit (1969's "Something in the Air"), this is an amazingly interesting and deeply researched story of one of the most mismatched bands of all time, featuring a mercurial singer-songwriter, a teenage guitar prodigy, and a jazz pianist. This group also had a close connection with Pete Townshend of the Who, who produced their only album, and played bass on it.
Stephanie Wells
Stay True, by Hua Hsu
You probably already read it . . . but if not, a lovely meditation on friendship and how we apply the abstract theories we learn in college to the real-world living of life.
Bebo White
The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius, by Patchen Barss
A fascinating story of Roger Penrose the Nobel Prize winning physicist. It demonstrates that despite his brilliant capability to visualize physical and mathematical entities beyond most people, he is also a vulnerable human being who has faced multiple problems in his youth and personal life.
Mina Witteman
The Postcard, by Anne Berest
A powerful and compelling reminder of how history reverberates through generations. Though published as a novel, it recounts the journey of Berest's Jewish family through the twentieth century.
Song of a Blackbird, by Maria van Lieshout
This graphic novel is a prescient tale of caution and of individual courage set in Amsterdam during WWII.