Behold the power of furniture.

The college’s residence hall at 280 College Avenue, opened in 2007, includes study rooms designed for small groups. Each room has a table for six, but occupancy rarely tops one or two students.

That’s a prevailing American social response to tables: One person seems to own the whole thing. So a single student in that �ֲ���ý study room can effectively, if not intentionally, take over the whole space — other students don’t want to intrude.

Furniture, in short, shapes psychological space. It’s a lesson taken to heart by the �ֲ���ý people who influenced the design of the college’s new residences, Kalperis and Chu halls, at 65 and 55 Campus Ave. respectively.

By diversifying furnishings in the common spaces, “we were trying to mix together single users, smaller groups, and larger groups,” says Pam Wichroski, the college’s director of capital planning and construction.

A mix of furniture, an inventive floor plan, and an cozy fireplace (out of sight around a corner) combine to make the Chu Hall lobby an attractive gathering spot. (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

That’s an example of interior design as a means of shaping interactions — a kind of social engineering long understood at �ֲ���ý, where residential life is integral to the educational mission.

Providing common spaces, and furniture, that suit different kinds of people is a way to get those people talking to and learning from each other.

“The principles of inclusivity, diversity, and community were embedded into the design and the planning process” for the new dorms, says Philip Chen, principal architect on the project for Ann Beha Architects.

Beha surveyed students about their housing experiences and preferences at the beginning of planning, Chen says. Eighty-four percent of respondents ranked “living with friends” as the first or second consideration in making their housing choices. “So we knew that building community was a key goal for this project.”

Diverse furniture is one approach to healthy res life, but it’s not the only one. Here’s a closer look at interior design concepts that �ֲ���ý and project designer Ann Beha Architects emphasized at Kalperis and Chu.

Campus crossroads

The presence of the College Store and Post & Print in Kalperis Hall brings a new density of �ֲ���ý people to the south edge of campus. Here, arriving members and families of the Class of 2020 stock up at the store in late August 2016. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

The boldest stroke of social engineering in the new dorms was the relocation of the College Store and Post & Print (the former Office Services) to the first floor of Kalperis Hall, adjacent to a welcoming lobby with mixed seating and a fireplace.

This arrangement echoes a national trend on residential campuses, says architect Chen: “vertical housing” that integrates ground-floor retail space with housing above. In �ֲ���ý’ case, he notes, “the rise of online shopping has made packaging and postal services a primary campus function.”

Now a state-of-the-art handling center for the avalanche of packages that arrives daily for students, “Post & Print along with the Campus Store will create a daily hub of activity and student traffic.”

And not just students. The store and P&P are broadly useful businesses that, sooner or later, will draw in virtually everyone on campus — and they’re open to the general public, too.

“That whole area is becoming a bit more of a center for campus, or least is more heavily traveled than it has been in the past,” says Matt Phillips ’17 of Acton, Mass., residence coordinator for Chu Hall. “So it’s really nice to have lots of different spaces where people can hang out, even if you don’t live in the dorms.”

How suite they aren’t: Singles and doubles

In planning the new dorms, “we spent quite a bit of time looking at the mix of student rooms on campus,” says Pam Wichroski, �ֲ���ý’ director of capital planning and construction.

The result is an echo, if not a replica, of a concept employed at 280 College Street. In that residence, and now Kalperis and Chu, the once-trendy notion of suites gave way to a more outward-facing model: “We ended up mixing singles and doubles, grouped in clusters that are broken up with common areas,” Wichroski says.

Isabella Del Priore ’19 of Cos Cob, Conn., poses for a portrait in her fourth-floor room in Kalperis Hall. “It really feels like a community. Having the kitchen close by is nice, and all my friends come up here to hang out.” (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

That allows friends to lodge near each other while encouraging them to socialize in common areas, instead of holing up behind closed doors. The clusters at Chu and Kalperis include first-year centers on the second floor of each dorm.

Lounge where?

The residence at 280 College laid important groundwork for Kalperis and Chu halls in other ways. Taking the older residence as a baseline, student input on the new dorms suggested allocating less space for student bedrooms and applying the savings to common areas.

They also made clear that what they want in their living space is flexibility — a diversity of environments to meet a diversity of learning and socializing styles.

For instance, “students want to study in groups, and they want to study by themselves,” says Erin Foster Zsiga, head of residential life. “They need complete quiet so they’re not distracted, and they need to be around people.”

In short, they wanted variety and they got it. “One of the things that’s really interesting is the fact that there are so many different common areas,” says Matt Phillips.

Taken in August shortly before students moved into Kalperis Hall, this lounge serves a cluster of student rooms. Note the mixed furniture — a table and chairs at rear, and soft furniture for TV viewing — and the glass walls, which afford what’s called “flow-by quality.” (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

There’s a common space for every personality and purpose. Spaces range in size from intimate nooks, like diner booths, to the Treehouse, the sprawling fourth-floor lounge in Kalperis Hall that’s like a family rec room writ large.

Sofas and banquettes and chairs, oh my

The wooden storage units in this Chu Hall student room can take two forms: stacked to function as bureaus, as shown, and separated into two-drawer units that slide under the beds. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Planning for the new residences included “exhaustive furniture testing” with students, Foster Zsiga says.

Flexibility was the watchword for furniture, too — as applied both to the mix of items within rooms, and to specific models like the bedroom storage bins that can live either under the bed or stacked up, like a little bureau.

The result is mind-boggling furniture diversity. (If only the tribes of humanity could co-exist so peacefully and productively.) In study areas, for instance, large rectangular tables accommodate large groups and small round ones are ready for more intimate gatherings. “The furniture sends a signal that this is a study space for multiple people,” says Foster Zsiga, alluding to those six-seat tables for one in the 280 College study rooms.

Large lounges bring furniture diversity to its ultimate. In the Treehouse, easy chairs and a sofa offer an invitation to bliss out while gazing into the gas fireplace. Away from the fireplace, there are smaller groupings of soft furniture for tête-à-têtes.

Near the kitchen, there’s a farmhouse table with benches for studying or snacking. In the kitchen itself, a long counter with stools affords a great view toward Chu Hall.

And the kitchen at Chu, like the one in Smith Hall’s newly renovated basement, boasts what appears to be a new �ֲ���ý trend in public furniture: long banquettes with little tables that, restaurant-like, can be used by solo diners or pushed together for groups. Flexibility!

Hello? Goodbye? Flow-by!

Associate Dean of Students James Reese named another formative concept built into 280 College. “Flow-by quality” refers to a kind of visual access to a room that allows students to reconnoiter before committing themselves to entering.

Wenkai Han ’17 of Beijing, China, works on his resume in a “niche” in Chu Hall. Spaces like this have “flow-by ” quality: A student can watch any social action nearby with an easy choice of joining or not. (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

Common spaces that succeed socially, Reese explains, are “positioned such that a person can walk by and easily view in to see who is there, while also being able to walk away naturally.” New arrivals are spared the awkwardness of entering a space only to leave because they don’t know anyone.

Flow-by abounds in Kalperis and Chu. Lounges are situated near heavily trafficked areas like stairwells and corridor junctions. Study areas have doors and even walls with a lot of glass. A few brilliantly achieve flow-by via graphics, adapted from decades-old �ֲ���ý Manufacturing Co. textile designs, applied to the glass walls that make it easier to see in than out.

Again, the Treehouse may be the crowning example of flow-by. It’s a destination that’s also a thoroughfare, with an adjoining TV room and elevator at one end, a kitchen and access to sleeping quarters at the other, and the dorm’s laundry room midway along. The Treehouse is the place to be — but when it’s not, there are always other places to go.

And a twist on the concept is a booth-like niche in the Chu lobby (with a counterpart in the Smith Hall basement) that works like flow-by in reverse: The booth allows occupants to watch the social action flow by without committing to either joining or abstaining.

Open kitchens

A variety of seating arrangements, including a long banquette at rear and stools at the counter, accommodate a variety of personalities and activities in the Chu Hall kitchen. This image was taken just days after the first students moved into Chu, in late August 2016. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The kitchen at 280 College has proven to be a little small, Wichroski says, because students tend to stay there to eat. “The dining area is remote from it, and students almost never take their food from the kitchen into the larger living area.”

In contrast, the Kalperis and Chu kitchens are spacious and amply equipped with seating. And, of course, it’s mixed seating: farmhouse tables, banquettes, counters with stools, high-tops.

Kitchen placement, of course, was intentional: The kitchens are adjacent to large lounges in each dorm, but distinct from them. “There’s a nice flow between the two spaces,” says Molly Newton ’11, associate director of residence life.

The kitchens in Kalperis and especially Chu, the larger of the two, are meant to be used by the whole student body. “We really want students to be able to say, ‘These are great vibrant spaces and I want to be part of that,'” says Foster Zsiga.

“Our students want to sit and talk over food, and they want to learn about other cultures over food.”

Seen a couple of weeks before students moved into Kalperis Hall, a fourth-floor eat-in kitchen adjoins, but is distinct from, the Treehouse lounge. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

On the Historic Quad a few weeks ago, Jack Sapoch ’18 of Hopewell, N.J., savors the pleasures of fresco reading. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Here’s the 20th annual summer reading list from the �ֲ���ý College Store, aka Non-required Reading, or Good Reads for Leisure Moments.

The list gets a dazzling number of contributions from across the �ֲ���ý community, befitting its No. 1 purpose, as a collective gift to the senior class.

But the list is a gift to the rest of us, too — a reminder to take some “leisure moments” for ourselves each summer.

The 2016 Good Reads list was compiled as always by its founder, Sarah Potter ’77, recently retired as the director.

Lee Abrahamsen, Associate Professor of Biology and Biochemistry

A Thousand Miles to Freedom by Eunsun Kim. A true story of a woman raised in North Korea and her escape to South Korea and journey to America. Not the best-written book I’ve read, but an honest and compelling story about how difficult it became to survive physically and emotionally in North Korea. I can’t say that I liked it, but I certainly learned something from reading it.

Lightening by Dean Koontz. I read lots of Dean Koontz novels when I was younger, and remembered this as a favorite. Rereading it again now, some 30 years later, it’s not as good as I remember, but it still kept me reading until the end. The other Koontz novel I remember loving was Watchers. I’ll probably report on that one next year.

The Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny. Sarah Potter told me about this series, and I find myself going back to it when I need a familiar cast of characters and a mystery to escape into. Good call, Sarah, thanks!

Áslaug Ásgeirsdóttir, Associate Professor of Politics

I recommend Lynda Barry’s Syllabus, a wonderful book about teaching, students and the arts. I also recommend Jeff Smith’s book, Mr. Smith Goes to Prison. A first person account of a rising politician violating campaign law and ending up in prison in Kentucky and the lessons learned for the US prison system. Finally, I recommend Dear Mr. You��by Mary-Louise Parker. She does a good job of writing about the men in her life without naming names.

Jim Bauer, Director of Network and Infrastructure Services, Information and Library Services

Not For Sale: Finding Center in the Land of Crazy Horse by Kevin Hancock. An amazing book by a local author and friend (Bowdoin grad), this is a unique, iconoclastic memoir that traces one businessman’s journey deep into Indian country, and even deeper into his own soul. In a corporate world hallmarked by the never-ending quest for bigger, better, more, this CEO of one of America’s oldest family businesses contemplates an organizational structure where the goal is to do less, not more.

In a 24/7 Internet-wired world consumed with roles, responsibilities, and external accomplishments, Kevin learns to look inward for meaning and purpose.

Peter Beach, Professional Machinist, Carnegie Science

I could submit two entries by Erik Larson: Devil in the White City, and Isaac’s Storm. Both nonfiction. Both good reads.

Jane Bedard, Senior Admission Office Specialist

My suggestion this year without reservation is for a Swedish novel, A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman. It makes you laugh, it makes you cry, and Ove becomes part of your family. Great read for everyone since Ove is a grumpy man, but has a heart in spite of himself. It really is a must read.

Another book which I have not read yet but loved the movie, is also from Sweden. It is The 100 Year Old Man Who Jumped Out of the Window. Having seen the movie, I must read the book it was created from in 2013.

Denise Begin, Academic Administrative Assistant

I would recommend . They provide a “fun read” that engages the mind and provides entertainment. They’re considered “gentle” books — no graphic violence, no profanity, and no explicit sex. The crime-solver is usually an educated woman who is an amateur sleuth. The mysteries take place in a small town or village and makes it convenient for her to “casually overhear” things at the scene of a crime. Many themes and many authors to chose from.

Sarah Jane Bernard ’75, Director of Human Resources Information Systems

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed, and A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. These two books chronicle the hiking journeys of their authors, one on the west coast (Pacific Crest Trail) and the other on the east coast (Appalachian Trail).

Thoroughly enjoyable reads — make me want to get out on those trails and test my endurance and abilities.

Kendall Blake, Systems Analyst, Information and Library Services

I took a few days over the winter to read the Imperial Radch trilogy by Ann Leckie: Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword, and Ancillary Mercy. Leckie does a good job of creating a universe and having great fun with language and perspective. Just relax, suspend your disbelief and enjoy some sci-fi.

Helen Boucher, Associate Professor of Psychology

I was hesitating about mentioning this book, as I am sure this book and the author come up frequently on this list, but I’ve been reading The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty and it is blowing my mind. In fact, I am begrudgingly doing work right now rather than reading the last 75 pages or so. Once you find out his secret (about one-third of the way in) you do not want to put this book down! Interesting, believable characters, great dialogue, and a wonderful reminder about how issues of right and wrong are not so black and white. I hope this helps!

Jane Boyle, INN-reach Coordinator, Ladd Library

Excellent reads for those who want to practice some self-improvements in their life, both by Matthew Kelly: Off Balance: Getting Beyond the Work-Life Balance Myth and The Rhythm of Life: Living Every Day with Passion and Purpose.

Jay Burns, Editorial Director and �ֲ���ý Magazine Editor, �ֲ���ý Communications

How does a great pro athlete know when to leave the game? Kobe Bryant, Willie Mays, Brett Favre, and others all stayed too long. So, read For Love of the Game by Michael Shaara (The Killer Angels) with those cautionary tales in mind. It takes a sweet look at a pitcher’s final weekend of major league baseball, capturing the rapid, head-spinning shift in identity that a great athlete must navigate, amidst great outside pressures, in trying to decide if now, or next year, is the right time.

Ella Caron via Tammy Caron, Senior Visual Designer, �ֲ���ý Communications

Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen.

Peter Casares, Swimming and Diving Head Coach

I am really enjoying The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs!

Raluca Cernahoschi, Assistant Professor of German

So glad to see the Good Reads list is still going strong and will be 20 this year! I wouldn’t want to miss the occasion, so here is my humble submission:

Originally written in German with a recent translation into English, The Lamentations of Zeno by Ilija Trojanow is the story of a glaciologist whose world comes undone when his beloved alpine glacier dies. Desperate for a change, he retreats to the Antarctic, where he helps to explain ice to privileged cruise passengers. But Zeno is not quite up to handling what he believes to be simply disaster tourism. Or is he?

The novel alternates Zeno’s diary with fragments from different discourses, whose blended voices act as a Greek chorus offering commentary on the novel’s action.

Alternately hilarious and heartrending, lucid and hallucinogenic, Zeno’s lamentations question the line between sanity and madness in a world threatened with extinction.

Jane Costlow, Clark A. Griffith Professor of Environmental Studies

I’ve recently revisited Virginia Woolf, who I adored in college; it turns out that hasn’t changed. Orlando is her genre- and gender-bending account of four centuries of a life, with a whimsical sequence that involves a Russian princess. Flush is Woolf’s “biography” of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, told through the eyes/consciousness of her cocker spaniel.

For something entirely different, Marc Bennett’s Kicking the Kremlin gives an account of attempts to challenge Putin and the kleptocracy at the heart of Russian power — the back story of protests in the wake of his “election” in 2012. It’s a vivid and readable account by a journalist who’s written for both the Guardian and The New York Times.

“Kleptocracy” is actually the term used by political scientist Karen Dawisha in a book I also read part of this year — Putin’s Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia? — a meticulously researched book that was following the money long before the Panama papers. Deeply sobering, not to say depressing — hence the “part of” in my account of reading it.

And for those quiet summer mornings when there’s finally time for more meditative pursuits, I’ll be aiming to finish a book given to me last fall — Pat Schneider’s How the Light Gets In: Writing as Spiritual Practice — a beautiful set of essays on life, self, and words.

Marianne Cowan ’92, Associate Director of Program Design, Purposeful Work

Tales of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman has been a pleasure. I love a good travelog, and this has me traveling the world vicariously through someone who has flown away from her newly emptied nest. And a couple of very light beach books by an alumna: The Love Wars and The Never Never Sisters by L. Allison Heller, �ֲ���ý Class of 1994.

David Das, Associate Director of Off-Campus Study

As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee describes his walk from rural England to the Spanish Civil War. What’s there not to like about a book that starts: “The stooping figure of my mother, waist-deep in the grass and caught there like a piece of sheep’s wool, was the last I saw of my country home as I left it to discover the world.”

Jerry Davis, Class of ’61

Dead Wake by Erik Larson. The sinking of the Lusitania by a U-boat in WWI and all of the ramifications.

The Banquet of Consequences by Elizabeth George. An excellent mystery by one of the best.

House of the Rising Sun by James Lee Burke. Mystery and bloodshed at its best.

Pacific by Simon Winchester. Excellent and thorough study of events shaping the Pacific Ocean.

Midnight Sun by Jo Nesbo. Murder above the Arctic Circle.

The Crossing by Michael Connelly. Detective Harry Bosch on the warpath of LA criminals.

Lavina Dhingra, Professor of English

Big Magic: Creative Living Without Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Elizabeth Durand, Class of 1976

Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey. What feels like a true portrayal of what it’s like to be on the inside as dementia creeps up on you. The best book I’ve read this year.

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult. Elephants, love, memory….

The Last of the Just��by André Schwarz-Bart. Winner of the Prix Goncourt (it is translated from the French) in 1959. Follows a Jewish family through centuries up to Auschwitz; gripping, emotional, and reminds us to remember.

Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín. I did not know this had been made into a movie, and still haven’t seen it. The book felt slow while I read it, but I can’t shake it. Post-World War II Irish immigration to the US.

In the young-adult section (I insist that there’s a lot of great writing going unrecognized in the YA section): The Truth Commission by Susan Juby; Reality Boy by A.S. King; and Whirligig by Paul Fleischman. All short(ish), all absorbing, all about change, toughness, and triumph.

And in the pop fiction section: Every Fifteen Minutes by Lisa Scottoline (love, betrayal, doctor-patient confidentiality, and the Philadelphia area); and three by JoJo Moyes. I resisted reading her for a long time — but her name is not her fault. These three to start: One Plus One (my favorite); Me Before You; and After You. Do not read After You until you have read Me Before You. Please.

Ken Emerson, Senior Director of Human Resources Operations and Benefits

Public Apology: In Which a Man Grapples With a Lifetime of Regret, One Incident at a Time by Dave Bry. The book itself was just OK but what it really did was make me think back to some of the dumb stuff I did as I grew up and I could relate to some of the feelings and regrets the author relates.

Melinda Emerson, Purchasing, Sales and Accounting Specialist, Information and Library Services.

Season of Fear by Brian Freeman. Very Timely. It’s about an election, for governor in Florida. Published in 2014, it’s a political-suspense novel. Paralleling this election.

Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes. Reading this made me want to go to Italy. Movie from the book is good, but the book is better.

Two by Steve Berry: Ramanov Prophecy and The Templer Legacy. You can’t go wrong with the fast action pace of Steve Berry’s books.

Darkness Rising series — young adult — The Gathering, The Calling, and The Rising by Kelly Armstrong. A fantasy-paranormal trilogy set on Vancouver Island, it is very fast reading.

The Last of The Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper. A classic good book.

Three novellas: Brown Dog, Sunset Limited, and The Woman Lit by Fireflies by Jim Harrison. Each story is so different from the next. It is sad we lost Jim Harrison this year. He was such a good writer.

Carla Essenberg, Assistant Professor of Biology

This hasn’t been an adventurous reading year for me, but I do have cookbooks I can recommend!

The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan. This book may look intimidating, but it has many very simple, delicious recipes. This is one of my go-to books when I want something easy and wonderful.

Afghan Food and Cookery by Noshe Djan. Reliably scrumptious.

Paul Farnsworth, Senior Project Manager, Facility Services

The One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood. By a Maine author that I’m sure lots of people have already read.

Robert Farnsworth, Senior Lecturer in English

Rob Farnsworth suggests spending time with the poetry of C.K. Williams, brilliant American poet who died recently.

Sylvia Federico, Associate Professor of English

Smash Cut by Brad Gooch.

Kristy Gagne, Coordinator of Residence Life and Housing

How to Cook a Moose: A Culinary Memoir by Kate Christensen. A love song to the state of Maine and food — two of my favorite things.

Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal. Another one about food; this one funny, poignant.

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Beautiful (a great audiobook option as well!)

Bruce Hall, Network Administrator, Information and Library Services

I recommend The Martian by Andy Weir. If you saw the movie and liked it, then you won’t need to wait for a sequel. Astronaut Mark Watney has to use science in more life threatening situations that didn’t make it into the movie. While the book is very similar to the movie, including a lot of the dialogue, there are differences and additional details that keep it interesting. If you haven’t seen the movie, then it is fun to read it for either the survival adventure story of being alone many tens of millions of miles from home or the science of how hard it is to get to and survive on Mars.

Joe Hall, Associate Professor of History

The Turner House by Angela Flournoy. It’s odd to recommend a book that I have only read the first few pages of, but my wife, who reads more and more critically than I do, really enjoyed its exploration of age, family, and the presence of the past. I can’t wait to start my summer with this book.

Judy Head, formerly of the Dean of the Faculty’s Office

Fans of short stories should consider giving Mia Alvar’s In the Country a try. It recently won the PEN/Bingham Award for Debut Fiction. A Filipino who was raised in the Philippines, Bahrain, and the U.S., she writes stories populated with Filipino characters from across society, most of whom have left their country to make a living or survive. The writing is lovely, and layers of detail and insight ignite plots, characters, settings, and events. Next up for me are more stories, this time with sparse prose, in A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories by Lucia Berlin, who died more than a decade ago.

Bill Hiss, Class of 1966, Retiree

1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus by Charles G. Mann. A fascinating compilation of evidence of the huge populations of Native Americans who had successfully inhabited the Americas before the arrival of whites, before communicable diseases and other problems reduced populations to the very small numbers of today.

Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies, and Three Battles by Bernard Cornwell. A very readable account for those not into the fine points of military history.

The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life by Tom Reiss. Occasionally the minor flotsam of major historical times is fascinating. Lev Nussimbaum was born in 1905 into a family of Jewish oil well owners in Baku, then part of Russian Azerbaijan. As an adult he recreated himself as Essad Bey, a Muslim prince, and moved to Nazi Berlin, where somehow the Gestapo failed to trace his background. In a life spent a step ahead of many enemies, he lived with layers of deception, writing many books condemning Soviet communism that won him the protection of Goebbels’ Ministry of Propaganda.

The Sympathizer by Viet Thann Nguyen. Now having won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, this book is part of the rewarding flood of modern Vietnamese fiction and film since the end of Vietnam’s five back-to-back wars in the mid-1980s. This first novel from a Vietnamese-American professor in California is narrated by a Viet Cong mole sent to the U.S. with the fleeing South Vietnamese general who had been his commander in Vietnam, to keep track of the former South Vietnamese who maintain their hostility to the new Vietnam.

The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan by Rafia Zakaria. For those interested in South Asia, a fascinating blend of family and national history. Zakaria lays side by side over almost 30 years accounts of an aunt, who is obliged by the Islamic laws of Pakistan to accommodate a second wife her husband takes, with the increasingly tumultuous political and social life of people In Karachi.

The Last Roll Call: The 29th Infantry Division Victorious by Joseph Balkoski. The third volume in a series on the 29th in World War II. With a standing strength of about 14,500, they took 20,000 casualties between D-Day and crossing the Rhine. Very well written.

Princeton Radicals of the 1960s, Now and Then by William H. Tucker ’67. Full disclosure: Bill Tucker was my roommate at �ֲ���ý, and we have been good friends since 1965. That said, this is a fascinating book on multiple levels. It starts with an essay on Students for a Democratic Society on various campuses, especially the unlikely, conservative, Southern-oriented Princeton campus, where Bill did his Ph.D. in psychometrics. Bill brings to life the internal political struggles of SDS, without losing sight of the commitments of those who joined.

The second part of the book is riveting chapter biographies on Bill’s fellow SDS members, whom Bill tracked down and interviewed. After all the struggles, some had moved to other worlds, while others found commitments to new versions of the struggles that had attracted them to SDS in the first place. I only wish Bill had done an autobiographical chapter, on his own life’s commitment to progressive higher education, with important books on the misuse of social science to support oppressive social policies, and the influence of right-wing funding sources that paid for research supporting their views.

Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis by Robert Putnam. Putnam, the renowned Harvard sociologist and author of Bowling Alone, returned to his home town of Port Clinton, Ohio, to start his examination of the chances of success for young people coming of age now, compared to his own childhood in the late ’50s.

The book is a painful confirmation of the central theme of Jonathan Kozol’s Savage Inequalities, that socio-economic class has a far more powerful effect on young people growing up now than 60 years ago. (And an important NPR series that ran over April 2016 on a similar theme: that the reliance on the local property tax to fund a significant portion of K-12 education has the effect of immorally stacking the deck for all of America’s life-long benefits in favor of wealthy communities. )

Scary Old Sex by Arlene Heyman. An odd but accurate title for a collection of short stories about how love and desire play out in old age and as death nears. The author is a fine writer, and also a NYC Jewish psychiatrist, with all three of these facets coloring her stories, that are both sad and touching.

In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson. Known for his The Devil in the White City, Larson has found a niche of history writing dealing with social or political disasters. This is the account of a principled but inexperienced history professor sent to be the U.S. Ambassador to Nazi Germany in the early 1930s as Hitler was taking power. Like many books dealing with the Nazis, it details the lengths to which reasonable people tied themselves in knots trying to find some basis for dealing with a regime that from the outset was led by monsters and psychopaths

Joan Houston, Administrative Assistant, Facility Services

I’ve started the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, and love it. I got the books from Marsha Graef and since I only just started reading them, I was unable to tell her how much I am enjoying them, sad to say. It’s the characters that make a great series, and these are definitely good. Also: Dewey by Vicki Myron. An adorable cat that “adopted” a library.

Margaret Imber, Associate Professor of Classical and Medieval Studies

The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson. This is by the author of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand. It’s a delightful, lazy, rainy Sunday afternoon kind of book set in Edwardian England. She’s a keen observer of class differences and a delightful chronicler of small town feuds and friendships. There’s a twist at the end that I didn’t see coming.

I found Bryan Stevenson’s book Just Mercy to be absolutely compelling. It’s a memoir by a lawyer who devoted his career to representing prisoners and their families.

Cynthia Jalbert, Administrative Assistant, Leadership Gifts, College Advancement

I would recommend Seed of Sarah by the late Judith Isaacson ’65, and maybe since it is short it can be accompanied by the Memoirs of an Amateur Spy by her husband, Irving Isaacson ’36. Seed of Sarah was a great read. I have not read Mr. Isaacson’s book yet but it should be just as interesting.

Buddy: How a Rooster Made Me a Family Man by Brian McGrory ’84. I have not read it yet but hear it is absolutely funny!

The Beans of Egypt Maine by Carolyn Chute.

Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian. I cried reading this one. He lives in Vermont. Wonderful writer, love all his books except The Double Bind.

Phyllis Graber Jensen, Director of Photography and Video, �ֲ���ý Communications

One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway by Åsne Seierstad. Why? Why? Why? Why would Anders Behring Breivik commit these atrocious crimes? Why would I read about it? Why should you? Read this tome, literary journalism at its best, for the answers.

Eve Arnold: Magnum Legacy by Janine Di Giovanni. Photojournalist Eve Arnold (1912-2012) started out as a 1950s housewife, was the first woman to join Magnum Photo, and emerged as one of the most talented documentarians of her time. Her images of famous and anonymous subjects alike are equally compelling, compassionate, and celebrated. I no longer buy books — or so I try to tell myself — but I couldn’t let this one get away.

Bev Johnson, Professor of Geology

I’ve got a great good read: Adam Johnson’s The Orphan Master’s Son. A beautifully written, fascinating and brutal tale of life in North Korea inspired, in part, from the accounts of those who have defected.

Michael Jones, Professor of History

I enjoyed Graham Moore’s The Sherlockian (2010). Murder mystery and literary intrigue. First rate!

Laura Juraska, Associate College Librarian for Research Services

Tsar of Love and Techno: Stories by Anthony Marra. Though they can be read as individual short stories, these interwoven tales all circle back round to the first story of a 1930s Soviet censor. A bit bleak at times, but marvelously written.

Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds with Common Birds by Julie Zinkefoose.

For anyone who enjoys birds, whether a birder or not, this book is a real eye-opener to the individual characteristics of birds that are rehabilitated for eventual release into the wild. Wonderfully written and beautifully illustrated by the author.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel as an audiobook read by Simon Slater. Even if you’ve seen the well-done BBC production, the book is so much better, and having it read to you by such an expert actor/reader as Simon Slater is a delightful intrigue.

Emily Kane, Professor of Sociology

Here are a couple of fiction titles I’ve enjoyed as leisure reading and a couple non- fiction titles I’ve enjoyed as sociological reading this year (although, of course, even the leisure reading is full of sociological insight).

On the fiction side, I recommend The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro, and One-in-a-Million Boy by our first-year Common Reading author of a few years back, Monica Wood. Though very different from each other in many ways, both books offer intriguing ruminations on memory, love, and the complexities of human connection.

On the non-fiction side, I’ve been reading a lot about family policy and poverty in the U.S., and I recommend two books on that topic that are both written in a lively and engaging way: $2 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America by Kathy Edin and Luke Shaefer, and Cut Adrift: Families in Insecure Times by Marianne Cooper.

Jeff Kazin ’04, Library Assistant, Public Services

Devil in a White City, Thunderstruck, and anything else by Erik Larson. Erik Larson is extremely well written. He writes entirely non-fiction, which allows the reader to learn some interesting historical facts, but at the same time they’re written in the style of a mystery novel that will satisfy those who enjoy suspense/thriller/standard murder mysteries.

Alison Keegan, Administrative Assistant and Supervisor of Academic Administrative Services, Dean of the Faculty’s Office

Coming out of the six-month fog after having a newborn, I sought something substantial to read to ease back into my most treasured and coveted hobby. On my way home from work one night, and, for some reason, was captivated enough to immediately buy the first Neapolitan novel.

Thus began for me a more than 1,700-page, four-book, five-month journey into the grittiest that Italy has to offer, following two very different girls growing up together in post-war Naples of the 1950s all the way to almost present day. To call this journey a slog is accurate — however, not in a bad way. These books take commitment and effort. Effort in keeping the stories straight, effort in remembering who’s who, and effort in remembering enough about the previous books to understand what’s happening in the current one.

As I approached the last few pages of the fourth and final book, I felt sadness that it was the end of me peering into the lives of Lila and Elena and the diverse cast of characters these books portrayed. But as journeys go, this one was well worth the time, the effort, and the slog.

The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante:

My Brilliant Friend (Book 1)

The Story of a New Name (Book 2)

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (Book 3)

The Story of the Lost Child (Book 4)

The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante got the most mentions in this year’s list, with five.

Brittany Longsdorf, Multifaith Chaplain

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and, for fun,��Bossypants by Tina Fey.

Rebecca Lovett, Assistant Manager, �ֲ���ý College Store

Two books I’ve really enjoyed this year are Wild by Cheryl Strayed, and The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane. Both are great reads that take you out of your armchair…far, far beyond! Both go well in small portions.

Kathy Low, Professor of Psychology and Associate Dean of the Faculty

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates and The Beginning of Spring��by��Penelope Fitzgerald. And any of the Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante. And, Here by Richard McGuire.

Monica McCusker, Office Coordinator, �ֲ���ý College Store

The Chess Queen Enigma by Colleen Gleason. This Stoker & Holmes novel was recently released in the young readers category, but I found it entertaining and a good read for lunchtime or beach-time relaxation. The story takes place in late-19th century England and follows the adventures of two young ladies, Evaline Stoker and Mina Holmes, members of the well-known families of Bram Stoker and Sherlock Holmes, as they work together to solve a mystery of a missing chess piece. The story includes intrigue and danger as Evaline fights off vampire attacks and Mina unravels various clues to solve the mystery and thwart an international crisis between England and Betrovia.

Long Time Coming by Edie Claire. The story of a young woman returning to her home town in Kentucky to help her aging parents and how she had to come to terms with the tragic death of her best friend. The story is a romance mixed with a bit of supernatural interactions. I liked the story because it presented the main character as an empowered woman who tried to maintain her independence as she adjusted to life as a daughter/care-giver.

The Bette Davis Club by Jane Lotter. Great road trip story! Imagine being a groom, jilted at the altar and having to drive cross-country in an antique car with your missing bride’s aunt in search of your missing bride. During their journey from southern California to Chicago and on to New York City, the two strangers find themselves in some unusual situations and ultimately discover new meaning for their lives. No spoilers here— read the book!

The Wedding Dress by Rachel Hauck. I enjoyed the book, deservedly named “Inspirational Novel of the Year” by Romantic Times, because of the intrigue created as the story described the lives of two women separated by nearly a century. As the mystery surrounding a wedding dress found in a locked trunk evolves, two more women become part of the story as recipients and wearers of the special dress created in 1912. The book was a well-written romance novel that kept me reading way past my bedtime several times and had me wanting more when I reached the final page.

David McDonough, Director, �ֲ���ý Career Development Center

Istanbul Passage by Joseph Kanon. Spy thriller set in post-war Istanbul.

The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy. Memoir of Pat Conroy’s teaching experience on Yamacraw Island, S.C.

The Last Train to Zona Verde��by Paul Theroux, who revisits South Africa, Namibia and Angola to discover how he and this part of Africa have changed.

The Martian��by Andy Weir. “A mission to mars. A freak accident. One man’s struggle to survive.”

Richard McNeil ’10, Gift Officer, College Advancement

The Martian by Andy Weir. Definitely better than the film adaptation.

Live by Night by Dennis Lehane. Film version coming out soon.

The Last Four Days of Paddy Buckley by Jeremy Massey. Great dark comedy.

Mary Main, Assistant Vice President, Human Resources and Environmental Health and Safety

The One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood (my favorite local author!). : “The One-in-a-Million Boy revolves around a friendship between a 104-year-old Lithuanian immigrant woman and an 11-year-old Boy Scout obsessed with Guinness World Records. For seven Saturdays, the boy has arrived promptly to do Ona Vitkus’s yard chores, record her life story for a fifth-grade school project, and talk her into gunning for the record of oldest licensed driver. On page two, the reader discovers that the boy has recently died. In his place, on the 10th Saturday, the boy’s father reluctantly shows up to complete his son’s good deed.”

One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson. : “Even though we know many of these stories — Lindbergh’s flight, Babe Ruth’s 60-homerun season, the Mississippi River flood, Al Capone’s bullet-ridden reign over Chicago — in Bryson’s hands, and in the context of one amazing summer of 20-century ingenuity and accomplishment, they feel fresh, lively, and just plain fun.”

The Crossing Place by Elly Griffiths. For all the mystery writers out there, this is the introductory novel to forensic anthropologist Ruth Galloway and a local detective Harry Nelson as they solve a local — and an ancient — crime. I enjoyed the series: Be sure to start with this book.

Judy Marden ’66, �ֲ���ý retiree and �ֲ���ý Outing Club Adviser

The Martian by Andy Weir. Not a book I would have chosen off the shelf (and that’s why I love Book Club!). It had me from page two, and I couldn’t put it down. In short, an astronaut is stranded on Mars. Then what? “Here’s to the ‘steely-eyed missile men,'” is all I can say, in space and in life. Read the book first, then see the movie, which is also enthralling but leaves out some of the best parts.

A trip to Iceland is imminent this June, and as I started planning, our Greene librarian introduced me to Arnaldur Indridason’s series about Icelandic detective Erlendur with Reykjavik Nights. Of course I had to go back and read the whole series, most recently finishing Into Oblivion, one of the best. Aptly described by one reviewer as “Nordic noir.”

River Thieves by Michael Crummey. Set in the early 19th century, this historical novel is the story of European fishers and trappers settling in Newfoundland and their impact on the land and last remaining Beothuk people. It’s a story seldom heard, written from various perspectives, and powerfully told.

Answers to Questions Nobody Was Askin’ by Tim Sample. This was a gift when I ended my term as president of the Androscoggin Land Trust. Someone thought I’d have time to read more…but in small bites. As always, Tim Sample’s pithy small bites are funny, engaging, and have a twist.

The best? For me it was the title essay, where he discusses “improvements”:

“Oh joy! Just what this world really needs, a car you don’t even have to drive….why it’s only a matter of time before some genius develops the meal you don’t have to eat. How about the thought you don’t have to think? Carried to its logical conclusion, I suppose this techno-depravity will eventually culminate in the life you don’t have to live — surely the ultimate answer to a question nobody was asking.”

Recently, however, my reading (and waking) hours have been consumed by the best book ever: the �ֲ���ý ’66 50th Reunion yearbook, thanks to Pris Clark ’66, Sue Wagg Dye ’66, and many classmates who shared their life experiences. I am fascinated with the people that the notorious Class of 1966 seniors have become in the past 50 years. There’s also a bit of regret — that I didn’t get to know enough of them in college and didn’t keep in touch with more of them, better, afterward. I guess that’s what Reunions are for: trying to make up for that.

Lisa Maurizio, Associate Professor of Classical and Medieval Studies

I assume that others have recommended Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels, so I’ll add this slim volume: The Odd Woman and the City: A Memoir by .

An unflinching yet lyrical memoir that is a meditation on New York city, walking, friendship, solitude, professional success, chance encounters, and the ways in which our youth (mothers, neighborhoods, social world) shape our identity.

Hannah Miller, Academic Administrative Assistant

This past fall I read Man Up by Carlos Andrés Gomez and loved it! I also recommend checking out his poetry — his talent for spoken word is amazing.

Christine Murray, Social Science Librarian

The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf.

Michael Murray, Phillips Professor of Economics

Dante’s The Inferno (Penske’s poetic translation). If you’ve never read the Inferno, try reading Penske’s version aloud. It’s a treat.

When Will There Be Good News by Kate Atkinson. A complex and very readable mystery.

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Slow, but reveals 1850s–60s parallels to current times. A leisurely summer read.

Suzy Nattress, Electronic Access System Manager

The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson.

Charles Nero, Professor of Rhetoric, American Cultural Studies

Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo. So what happens if the trans-Atlantic slave trade had been reversed and Africans had enslaved Europeans in the New World? It’s a satire. Loved her earlier work, Mr. Loverman, about a 30-year love affair between two Caribbean gents in London.

We Love You, Charlie Freeman by Kaitlin Greenidge. A Massachusetts institute with a past in white supremacist research hires an African American family to teach sign language to a chimpanzee. It’s another satire.

The Sellout by Paul Beatty. Yet, another satire about race and racism. National Book Critics Circle Award (2016).

Madeline Kahn: Being the Music, A Life by William V. Madison. Biography of one of the screen’s brilliant comic actors of the 1970s. Remember her scene-stealing moments in Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Paper Moon, and What’s Up, Doc?

The Black Calhouns: From Civil War to Civil Rights With One African American Family by Gail Lumet Buckley. Lena Horne’s daughter writes a follow-up to her excellent The Hornes: An American Family (1986).

Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship Between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X by Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith. Roberts, a favorite boxing sportswriter (excellent bios of Joe Louis and Jack Johnson) and co-writer Smith deal with two 1960s icons.

The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice by Patricia Bell-Scott. Murray was a brilliant African American lawyer and later a pioneer religious cleric.

Negroland: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson. Bio about growing up black and elite in Post World War II Chicago by an excellent theater and arts critic. National Book Critics Circle Award (2016).

Georgia Nigro, Professor of Psychology

Currently reading Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld, and it is pitch-perfect Jane Austen in modern-day Cincinnati. For readers of a certain age, Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf is pleasing and infuriating at once. If the present political situation has you up at night, and you like science fiction, try The Three-Body Problem by Ken Liu.

Kerry O’Brien, Assistant Dean of the Faculty

The Last Hundred Years trilogy by the great Jane Smiley tells the story of one Iowa family through from 1920 to 2020. Read them in chronological order: Some Luck, Early Warning, and Golden Age. The books are part family saga, covering four or five generations; part U.S. history lesson, as they chronicle America in the last century; and part Forrest Gump, in that these people uncannily manage to find themselves in the middle of key events. I did find the family trees at the front of each book to be essential as it is sometimes hard to keep track of this clan, especially with their plain Iowa names.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. I think appeared a lot on last year’s reading list. The stories of a heroic blind French girl, and orphan turned Hitler Youth with a conscience, and a German gemologist after a lifesaving rock run parallel across war-torn landscapes, until they don’t. Evocative recreations of the siege of Saint Malo make you realize that it is amazing that Europe ever moved forward after World War II.

The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance by Edmund de Waal, a renowned ceramist but also an amazing writer. De Waal inherited a large collection of tiny Japanese netsuke and began to study their provenance, in the process unearthing the history of his storied family, a Jewish banking dynasty in Vienna and Paris. He recounts the rise of this refined family of collectors and chronicles what happened to them and their collections through the tragic 20th century. De Waal wonders who held these little carved figures, why they mattered so much to his family members, and, with the eye of a ceramic artist, “what space they displaced.”

Zane Omohundro, Stock Assistant, College Store

I’m going to recommend the Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull. It’s a fun romp through magical creatures and mysteries with some interesting characters. I picked up the first book on a whim from the library (judging it by its cover, I’m sure) and promptly finished the full series within a month or so.

Carole Parker, Ladd Library Acquisitions

Early Warning, Some Luck, and Golden Age by Jane Smiley. I received the third in her Last Hundred Years trilogy as a gift for Christmas, and wanted to read the first two before. Enjoyable.

I used to read Ellen Gilchrist and after a long hiatus have recently picked up and read Nora Jane: A Life in Stories. I’m reading the novel A Dangerous Age and will probably also read Acts of God (stories). I still love her writing.

If one likes police procedurals, I recommend Archer Mayer’s Joe Gunter series, although I’ve only read the first two (he’s up to 26). Also, Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series, of which I’ve read three. Also, Isabelle Allende just came out with a new novel, Japanese Lover, and a new English translation of Eva Luna: A Novel, translated by Margaret Sayers Peden.

Nicole Pelonzi, Program Coordinator, Multifaith Chaplaincy

No Mud, No Lotus and The Art of Transforming Suffering by Thich Nhat Hanh.

Sonja Pieck, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies

I’m currently reading Robert Massie’s Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman and am enjoying it very much. Maybe it’s Massie’s accessible style, but it could also be Catherine’s life itself that reads like a suspenseful novel. This is an incredible story about how an obscure Prussian girl rises to become one of the most brilliant and powerful monarchs of her age. (And Empress Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great, is no less fascinating.) A really engaging read.

Liz Pinnie, Assistant Director of Admission

This suggestion would be for any �ֲ���ý students who might be heading out to find wide open spaces in the West (as I did post college!). I loved reading Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove. It’s a bit hefty, but it was a worthwhile read for me. I felt that it just captured the spirit of the West!

Sarah Potter ’77, Bookstore Retiree

I’m just going to list a few titles that I’ve read in the past six months, suggested by past Good Reads submitters. Since I am newly “retired,” these were all reads that mostly entertained:

Nature of the Beast by Louise Penney. Such engaging mysteries this woman writes!

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. What a great story of determination against significant odds. And my first electronic read!

The Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig, a compelling storyteller.

At Martin Andrucki’s suggestion last year, I tried Maeve Binchy, reading A Week in Winter and Whitethorn Wood. Big-hearted tales, and they end well which I seemed to need especially this spring.

And finally, I have Book Four of the Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante still to read. The first three in the series were terrific. Thank you, Ali Keegan, for getting me hooked. And I am eagerly anticipating My Name is Lucy Barton by Liz Strout ’77 along with Monica Wood’s The One-in-a-Million Boy.

Jack Pribram, Professor Emeritus of Physics

Consequences by Penelope Lively. A novel tracing three generations of women from World War II to recent times, mostly in London. Nicely written as each woman makes different decisions on how they want to live their lives. You never know where the story is going, but it’s always interesting. Fun to read as we traveled in England last year.

North with the Spring by Edwin Way Teale. The book that got me hooked on birds when I first read it in 1968 with the Peterson Field Guide next to me. Teale travels 17,000 miles with his wife, Nellie, from Florida (first day of spring) meandering northward in the eastern U.S. arriving in New Hampshire’s Mount Washington on June 21. I’d forgotten how much he also wrote about flowers. This may be the first time I’ve read a book from cover to cover a second time.

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough. They were amazing and deserve every accolade they received. Smart, excellent mechanics, disciplined, hard working, and didn’t just go once to Kitty Hawk in 1903. For several years they kept improving their designs, from gliders to motorized planes, until they really had something that would reliably fly. And, of course, McCullough’s writing keeps the Wright family story and that of the development of airplane moving forward and interesting.

Erica Rand, Whitehouse Professor of Art and Visual Culture and of Women and Gender Studies

I recommend Rebecca Scherm’s 2015 novel Unbecoming, a bit of a thriller about making objects precious and relationships perverse, in all the best and worst senses of all of those terms.

John Rasmussen, Energy Manager, Facility Services

The Code Book: Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography by Simon Singh. Heavy on the math but Mr. Singh is a great storyteller rendering much of the math involved in encryption accessible. There’s a particularly great chapter on the breaking of the Nazi Enigma machine.

Deal Breaker by Harlan Coben. Light, quick murder mystery with some fun comic dialogue.

Darby Ray, Director, Harward Center for Community Partnerships

Here are a few I enjoyed this year, some of which were probably drawn to my attention by prior years’ Good Reads.

A Land More Kind than Home by Wiley Cash. A haunting debut novel, Wiley Cash’s story of two young brothers trying to navigate the religious wilds and family cruelties of the rural South broke my heart.

The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami. Storytelling is a portal to survival and salvation in this riveting account of cultural contact, Old World tragedy, and New World comeuppance. Inspired by a single mention, in a travelogue of the Spanish conquest of Florida, of “an Arab negro from Azamor,” Lalami conjures this full-bodied account of America’s first black explorer. An amazing feat of narrative imagination and skill.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is at the same time an edgy, post- apocalyptic page-turner, a quirky caress of days gone by, and a testament to the humanizing impact of the arts.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo. I cannot stop thinking about this book — the heart-rending, infuriating ravages of global capitalism; the exquisitely- narrated stories of the children and families of a Mumbai slum; the Indian water crisis. There is so much here to be moved by.

Julie Retelle, Assistant College Librarian for Access Services

Here is my favorite book from this past year: The Fields of Home by Ralph Moody.

I stumbled upon this book as it arrived at Ladd for the featured-works display. The cover artwork drew my eye, and then I realized the story was set on a farm near Lewiston in 1912.

As I was reading I was envisioning what my grandparents lives were like during that time period. I enjoyed the characters and story line so much that I purchased the first in book in the Little Britches series, Father and I Were Ranchers. The entire series will eventually end up on the �ֲ���ý Kindles.

Here is Amazon’s : “Ralph Moody was eight years old in 1906 when his family moved from New Hampshire to a Colorado ranch. Through his eyes we experience the pleasures and perils of ranching there early in the 20th century. Auctions and roundups, family picnics, irrigation wars, tornadoes, and wind storms give authentic color to Little Britches. So do adventures, wonderfully told, that equip Ralph to take his father’s place when it becomes necessary.”

Michael Retelle, Professor of Geology

The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Colbert.

Jennifer Richard, Assistant Vice President, College Advancement

Inside the O’Briens by the college’s very own Lisa Genova ’92. A powerful story about a family struggling with Huntington’s disease. Great character development, fun family dynamics throughout, and written in a very smart manner. I could not put it down. As a parent, this made me stop and think about all the things I could be passing along to my children.

Lisa Romeo ’88, Boston �ֲ���ý Book Club

Here is the Boston Alumnae Book Club’s list of reads this “school year”:

Life After Life by Jill McCorkle (NOT the Kate Atkinson one).

Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast.

Trapped Under the Sea by Neil Swidey.

We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas.

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough.

The Baker’s Daughter by Sarah McCoy.

What She Left Behind by Ellen Marie Wiseman.

The Lowland by Jumpa Lahiri.

Not all of them were universally enjoyed by everyone but overall it’s been a good year. Sometimes we have a better discussion when we don’t like the book! Personally, I really enjoyed Nathan Englander’s collection of short stories: What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank.

Kelsy Ross, Women’s Soccer Head Coach

I haven’t read it (on my list…) but everyone who has raves about it: The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. One of my all-time fave’s (and probably on the list before): We Took to the Woods by Louise Dickinson Rich.

Ree Russell, Administrative Coordinator, Writing at �ֲ���ý

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler. This book introduced me to Butler and Afrofuturism, which has expanded my mind in ways I hadn’t predicted. Kindred is less sci-fi than her other works and is typically described more as “dark fantasy.”

: “Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her 26th birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South….”

Backyard Foraging: 65 Familiar Plants You Didn’t Know You Could Eat by Ellen Zachos. Thanks to this book I now know we can eat the Japanese knotweed that grows like crazy in our side yard (strawberry knotweed pie is delicious!). Also helped me identify 10 other edibles growing on our property. So exciting!

: “There’s food growing everywhere! You’ll be amazed by how many of the plants you see each day are actually nutritious edibles. Ideal for first-time foragers, this book features 70 edible weeds, flowers, mushrooms, and ornamental plants typically found in urban and suburban neighborhoods.”

Bronwyn Sale, Lecturer in Education

The Aesthetic Brain by Anjan Chatterjee.

Nancy Salmon, �ֲ���ý Retiree

I read soooo much this winter, much by non-U.S. authors or placed in other countries.

Size of the World by Joan Silber. Several expats speak about what brought them to various Asian countries. The different voices are great and there is a connection among some of them by the end. Lovely writing.

Destiny by Carl Howe Hansen, a Maine author, about an eco-disaster. Placed in Maine and Washington, D.C. A wooden sailboat named Destiny is important in potential survival.

Waiting for Snow in Cuba by Carlos Eire. “Confessions of a Cuban Boy” about his privileged life pre-Castro and life in U.S. This one was hard to get into because of the writing but I enjoyed it from about halfway to the end. He became a more sympathetic character for me.

Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller who also authored Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight about her parents surviving and thriving in Africa as farmers during apartheid.

A bunch of John Grisham mysteries — I’ve never really enjoyed mysteries (real life is mysterious enough) but have enjoyed these mostly set in my Southern homeland region. The ones I’ve read are a real exposé of the prison system and a lot of racism shows up in many of his books (duh, the South, racism.)

Sharon Saunders, Associate College Librarian for Systems and Bibliographic Services

The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community by David C. Korten. Korten does a marvelous job, clearly laying out the frame in which “civilized” humans live. Once seeing this frame — the story that shapes what we believe about our nature, our society, and our relationships — we can walk away from it. We can live a new story, one that aligns with our values. In this time of climate change, peak oil, and the accompanying collapse of food production, this book shows how we can create lives and communities aligned with Earth and its processes.

Waking up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving. An engrossing story of one woman’s experience as she started to learn of the racism built into United States institutions and how her perspectives and unacknowledged beliefs were hindering her relationships and interactions.

Move into Life by Anat Baniel. Is there some diminished capability, some ache or pain that you attribute to “getting old”? Anat Baniel combines experiences from clinical psychology and movement therapy with knowledge from neuroscience to show how attention to movement can give the brain new information to change habitual patterns. Laid out in nine essentials that can be easily incorporated throughout the day.

Paula Schlax, Professor of Chemistry

My recommendations for this year are the following:

1. The Snoring Bird by Bernd Heinrich.
2. Mosquitoland by David Arnold.
3. The Last Season by Eric Blehm.
4. Kingbird Highway by Kenn Kaufman.

Five and six — I will put them up again, because I am worried that the screen adaptations won’t do them justice: Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett and American Gods by Gaiman.

Johie Farrar Seltzer ’03, Interim Director of Admission

I am only part of the way through, but I am loving: The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Carey and, I am not sure if it is in print anymore, but Room for One More by Anna Rose Wright was wonderful, especially as a new parent!

Anthony Shostak, Education Curator, �ֲ���ý College Museum of Art

H.P. Lovecraft created the Copernican Revolution of the horror genre, recasting the supernatural as esoteric alien science. Although his creepy writing is singularly stylized and full of the bigotry one might expect in early-20th century literature, it remains essential reading for anyone seeking to (a) have a great, spooky read, and/or (b) gain insight into the lineage of influence in horror and science fiction literature and film.

He led a group of other writers including Robert E. Howard (of Conan fame), and screenplay writer Robert Bloch (Psycho). Lovecraft’s novellas, At the Mountains of Madness and The Call of Cthulhu, his longest work and most recognizable works, respectively, and are part of an oeuvre that directly or indirectly inspired a multitude of films (Alien, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Re-Animator), music, board and card games, radio plays, comic books and graphic novels, and body art. Read his stories, and New England will never seem quite the same.

By Lovecraft:

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories

At the Mountains of Madness: and Other Weird Tales

Bonnie Shulman, Professor Emerita of Mathematics

The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan. This is an amazing book about the Israeli-Palistinian conflict. It’s based on a segment the author did for Fresh Air in 1998, the story of a 20-something Palistinian, Bashir, who, during a calm before the next storm, was able to make a visit to his ancestral home in Palestine/Israel.

Surprisingly, he was welcomed in (unlike his cousins who had less positive experiences) by Dalia, daughter of Holocaust survivors, who had been living in the home he was born in, for 20 years. Thus begins a 35-year friendship that is repeatedly tested by the ongoing conflict between their two nations.

The author did a thorough job of researching these events from many sides, and provides no easy answers. But there is a very human face on these events that both underlines the tragedy, and still gives hope for redemption and reconciliation, if not now, in future generations. It’s also extremely well written.

Clayton Spencer, President

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Outline by Rachel Cusk.

Stacy Smith, Lecturer in Education

Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement by John Lewis. A memoir by this year’s Commencement speaker.

Carl Steidel, Associate Dean of Students

Liveship Traders trilogy by Robin Hobb. Excellent fantasy trilogy and good entry point into the many books Robin Hobb has written in this world.

Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. Fantasy series set in modern-day Chicago. Fun, easy reading series.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown. First book in an engaging and fun dystopian, sci-fi trilogy.

Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy. Powerful non-fiction work discussing the epidemic of black-on-black homicide in America and how it might be stopped.

Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers. A quirky and somewhat odd story about a struggling, middle-aged man trying to sell a piece of technology to the king of Saudi Arabia. A bit strange, but enjoyable.

The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin. I’m a Supreme Court nerd. If you are as well, you will enjoy this exploration of the court with a particular focus on the modern era through the start of the Roberts court.

Redshirts by John Scalzi. A fairly humorous satirical novel poking fun at the Star Trek universe.

Robert Strong, Lecturer in English, Director of National Fellowships

Fiction: Margaret the First��by��Danielle Dutton; The Wallcreeper by��Nell Zink.

Poetry: The Empty Form Goes All the Way to Heaven by��Brian Teare.

Sawyer Sylvester, Professor Emeritus of Sociology

Alec Guinness, My Name Escapes Me. At 81, Sir Alec recounts some memorable personalities and events in his long career, with a quirky undertone to remind us all that our time is coming.

Shannon Brownlee, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer. Brownlee offers a heavily documented account of the fraud and waste in the American medical system. Thousands of lives are lost or damaged by faulty testing and unnecessary treatment. And all this is fed by a cabal of physicians, hospitals, and drug manufacturers.

Fareed Zakaria, In Defense of a Liberal Education. Zakaria reminds us that, at base, the liberal arts aim to teach us how to think, speak, and write correctly and persuasively, and that these skills transcend the more career-oriented programs that have come to dominate much of higher education today. Graduates from the latter may soon find themselves “fit in an unfit fitness.”

Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Harari begins by describing Sapiens as “an insignificant animal minding its own business in a corner of Africa,” and chronicles the advance of that animal to the present through a process of chance, good luck, and development of a shared ability to believe in fictions.

Daniel Silva, The Confessor. This is another of Silva’s mysteries involving the Israeli intelligence agent and art restorer, Gabriel Allon. It’s a closely written and complex novel about efforts to discover (and to conceal) the part played by Pius XII in the Holocaust.

Irin Carmon & Shana Knizhnik, Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Arguably the most interesting justice on the U.S. Supreme Court since Harry Blackmun, is here portrayed in what could best be described as both a biography and a scrapbook. There’s even a photograph of RBG riding an elephant with (mirabile dictu) Antonin Scalia.

Richard Morris, The Last Sorcerers: The Path from Alchemy to the Periodic Table. Morris recounts the fits and starts of modern chemistry in the ancient practice of alchemy. It seems much of the effort involved bizarre attempts to manufacture gold. For example, because of its golden color, Hennig Brandt is said to have boiled down gallons of human urine to produce gold. Regretfully, he only managed to discover phosphorus. Tant pis.

Sherry Turkle, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less From Each Other. A spring day, a gentle breeze, and no one sees, smells, or feels a thing. Faces glued to the tiny phosphorescence of the cell phone, they trudge alone together. Turkle writes of the poverty of the virtual self as it minimally interacts with the virtual other.

Richard A. Posner, Divergent Paths: The Academy and the Judiciary. Judge Posner writes of the gulf between the judiciary in America and academia in the form of the law schools. Judges in America occupy a system born out of a jurisprudence of practitioners, and far less influenced by legal academics than in continental legal systems. Legal academics, on the other hand, divorced from practice, increasingly occupy the abstruse realms of legal theory. Hence, neither adequately informs the other.

Lawrence Goldstone & Nancy Goldstone, Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World. Finding the charms of retirement fading, the authors embark on a quest for second- hand books. The firm limit of twenty dollars each soon evaporates, and they fall headlong into the world of book sellers, book collectors, and the science of book identification and evaluation, and the inevitable problem — where to put them all.

Edgar W. Smith, Profile by Gaslight: An Irregular Reader About the Private Life of Sherlock Holmes; and Zach Dundas, The Great Detective: The Amazing Rise and Immortal Life of Sherlock Holmes. This is a brace of books of Holmesian scholarship. The first is a classic in which a series of well-known mystery writers each in turn takes up one or more arcane elements of the Sherlockian canon. The second is a very recent work, engagingly written and a full and detailed analysis of the tales in their historical settings. It also recounts the intricate relationships between the characters in the stories and the biography of Arthur Conan Doyle.

Bill Bryson, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir. The “Thunderbolt Kid” is the heroic alternate identity assumed by Bryson as a youngster growing up in the 1950s to ward off the daily annoyances of other children and especially adults. The book is a delightful chronicle of middle-class mid-western life told with characteristic Bryson hilarity. It’s even a better read for those born no later than the 1960s.

Jack Lynch, You Could Look It Up: The Reference Shelf from Ancient Babylon to Wikipedia. At the last, there is a book about books, reference books, from Corpus Juris Civilis to the OED and beyond. Fifty reference books, in related pairs, with their own brief history. If you’re into compendia, this one’s for you.

Sheila wishes to add to the list A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. She insists that Ove, quite the curmudgeon, does not remind her of anyone she knows. The book is charming and like no other she has read. One minute she found herself laughing out loud — the next, in tears. A must read.

Anne Thompson, Professor Emerita of English

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald. Memoir by a daughter who, grieving for her father, decides to train a goshawk as part of the healing process. What I especially loved was her homage to T.H. White, also a lover of goshawks (very scary birds).

Flood of Fire by Amitav Ghosh. Final volume of a trilogy about the British-Chinese opium wars. A novel, but I learned a lot about the infamous history of this period.

Can’t and Won’t by Lydia Davis. A novel, I guess, almost indescribable. Short pieces, partly true, partly made up. The one recounting anxiety about teaching was both funny and painful — it’s over the top but funny, painful, and true all at the same time.

If This is a Man��by Primo Levi. Reread this when the complete edition of his writing was published last year. The best account of incarceration in Auschwitz that I have ever read. Harrowing, but never sentimental or judgmental.

My Name is Lucy Barton��by Liz Strout ’77. One of her best, really needs no recommendation from me.

Mara Tieken, Assistant Professor of Education

This winter I read Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me — a tragic, beautiful letter to his son that tries to make sense of racial injustice. This isn’t a hopeful read; Coates sees racism as a permanent part of American society and the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown and Eric Garner and Tamir Rice and his own friend, Prince Jones, as products of an American history of slavery and racial exploitation. But it is a call to action. As Coates tells his son, “And still you are called to struggle, not because it assures you victory but because it assures you an honorable and sane life.”

Joseph Tomaras, Director of Sponsored Programs and Research Compliance

I read a lot of very good books in the last year, so for now I’m only recommending the absolute best of them.

Non-Fiction:

Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich. Brilliantly curated and organized oral history of a horrific event, by a Nobel Prize–winning author who earned it on the strength of this work alone. (Though she has much more work, which I would like to read.)

Making Refuge: Somali Bantu Refugees and Lewiston, Maine by Catherine Bestman. Yes, the author is a Colby professor, but let’s not hold that against her, especially since the informants include many �ֲ���ý faculty, alumni, and community partners. While reading an ethnography of the town you call home can be at times disorienting, the book serves fantastically well as a handbook on how to stop “seeing like a state” and start “seeing like a refugee.”

Collections of Short Fiction:

Sweet Nothing: Stories by Richard Lange. My favorite short-story collection of the last year. The stories range in quality from almost-perfect to flawless. Where other writers would be happy to pull off a few great sentences, Lange constructs great paragraphs, then works them into fugal structures that would make J.S. Bach nod in recognition. The final story, “To Ashes,” left me gutted.

Novels:

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu. Probably the best science fiction novel published in English in 2014. An all-too-rare case of such a novel where the sociology is as rigorous as the physics — and both are rigorous. Also recommended, though not quite as vigorously, is the second novel in the trilogy, The Dark Forest. The third is due out later this year.

Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson. Probably the best science fiction novel published in English in 2015. Possibly the best English-language novel of any genre published that year. What do you look for in science fiction? The sublime beauty of Newtonian mechanics? Got it. Metafictional digressions on the fuzzy inadequacy of human language, as told by a collective of artificial intelligences? Got it. A timely exploration of the tenuousness of ecological homeostasis? Plenty of that too, and more. Left me gutted.

Tom Tracy, Phillips Professor of Religious Studies

I loved Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See. It is beautifully written and artfully constructed.

Katie Vale, Vice President for Information and Library Services and Librarian

I recently enjoyed An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield. He’s a retired Canadian astronaut and former commander of the International Space Station.

Dick Wagner, Professor Emeritus of Psychology

Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You. A “literary thriller,” says The New York Times reviewer, and I agree. It begins this way: “Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” Then it takes off, with first-person accounts of members of the family who, clearly, haven’t communicated in any meaningful way with one another ever. Lydia drowned, but how, why, and by whose hand. Thriller. But just as important, the language the author uses is superior: wonderful allusions, descriptions.

Jonathan Lee’s High Dive. This is a novel about the attempted assassination of Margaret Thatcher in Brighton, England, by Irish terrorists. The story is told primarily through three characters: a hesitant Irish terrorist, a key functionary of the hotel that the terrorists have targeted, and the functionary’s highly competent daughter. The story is really about the three characters more than about the actual bombing.

Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See. I probably recommended this last year. I re-recommend it because it’s the best novel I’ve read in the past half-dozen years.

Laura Webb, Gift Planning Administrator, College Advancement

Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling). When it comes to vivid characters you can’t beat J.K. Rowling. This time she turns her considerable talents to the murder mystery genre. If you enjoy the first book you can continue with the sequels: The Silkworm and Career of Evil.

Pat Webber, Director of Archives and Special Collections

Pacific by Simon Winchester. The great travel writer is at it again, with a companion to his book Atlantic. If you like Winchester’s writing, and his ranging far and wide over multiple topics, then pick this one up. You won’t be disappointed.

Ancillary Justice / Ancillary Sword / Ancillary Mercy (trilogy) by Ann Leckie. Very good sci-fi trilogy that has won multiple awards over the past few years. A nice mix of “hard” sci-fi with character studies and solid world-building.

Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu. Recent translation of Liu’s 2008 novel. First of a trilogy, wherein scientists on Earth discover that we are indeed not alone.

Ghostwritten by David Mitchell. Episodic novel about a variety of loosely connected characters across the world, and from the 1800s to the present. Mitchell’s first novel.

Beth Whalon, Assistant in Instruction, Biochemistry

I’m currently enjoying Barbara Kingsolver’s latest novel, Flight Behavior.

Andrew White, Director of Academic and Client Services, Information and Library Services

The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth. A “post-apocalyptic” novel set after the Norman invasion of England, language sets this book apart. Written in a hybrid “shadow” language of modern and old English, the novel is a challenging read. But ample rewards await the patient reader.

Gene Wiemers, Librarian Emeritus

Readers of earlier editions of Sarah’s fine publication will have heard of my dedication to following the antics of Virgil Flowers, investigator for the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in southeastern Minnesota. The setting is close to my home in Iowa, though a bit rougher around the edges.

This year I’ve been following William Kent Krueger’s creation Corcoran O’Connor, the sheriff (off and on) of Tamarack County, adjacent to the Boundary Waters — what passes for Vacationland to an Iowa boy. Being a “retired gentleman,” I don’t have as much time to read as I’d like. You’ll find out about that when the time comes.

I’m about halfway through this list, in order (all titles published by Atria Books, ordered by publication date):

Iron Lake

Boundary Waters

Purgatory Ridge

Blood Hollow

Mercy Falls

Copper River

Thunder Bay

Red Knife

Heaven’s Keep

Vermilion Drift

Northwest Angle

Trickster’s Point

Tamarack County

Windigo Island

Another series of books evoking settings and people I know well. And you thought there’s no crime in the wilderness, eh? Keep reading.

Anne Williams, Professor Emerita of Economics

Non-fiction:

Unfair: The New Science of Criminal Justice by Adam Benforado. Exposes poorly understood biases and problems with legal system. A good companion to The New Jim Crow.

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahnerman. Very dense, deals a lot with understanding behavior in the face of risk. I especially liked the part about whether we are our experiencing selves or remembering selves.

Nonsense, the Power of Not Knowing by Jamie Holmes. Complements Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow, but Holmes writes in a livelier and more accessible way.

Girl in the Dark by Anna Lyndsey. Memoir re: sanely coping with debilitating illness.

My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem. Fascinating childhood as well as adult life, with interesting insights.

Fiction:

A Banquet of Consequences by Elizabeth George. Classic Lindley and Havers, now back on track after the crazy kidnapping in previous book.

The Confession by John Grisham. Horrors of the legal system in the south.

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie King. Imagining Sherlock Holmes in retirement with a new protégé.

Impulse by Frederick Ramsay. Three parallel unexplained deaths.

Shantaram by Gregory D. Roberts. Expats and gangsters in Bombay circa 1980.

Sleeper Spy by William Safire. Witty, good characters, many double crosses.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. Hilarious, more than one colleague fits this mold.

The Fly Trap by Fredrik Sjoberg. Whimsy, obsession, bugs.

Laverne Winn, �ֲ���ý Retiree

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki. “Entwining Japanese language with World War II history, pop culture with Proust, Zen with quantum mechanics, Ozeki alternates between the voices of two women to produce a spellbinding tale,” says Oprah.

Rachel Wray, Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations, College Advancement

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, the first of four of the Neapolitan Novels.

The Relic Master by Christopher Buckley. A compelling and hilarious adventure featuring a 16-century relic hunter and his best friend, Albrecht Dürer, who conspire to forge the Shroud of Turin.

Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel. Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII, great as audio books if you have along drive this summer!

The Wave by Susan Casey. About colossal, ship-swallowing waves, and the surfers and scientists who seek them out. Does not sound like a page-turner but it is fascinating!

All the Light We Cannot See by Antony Doerr. Amazing book about World War II.

Erin Foster Zsiga, Associate Dean of Students

My recommendation is for the Robert Galbraith (aka J.K.) novels. The three are a series of detective stories about a private eye named Cormoran Strike.

The Cuckoo’s Calling. : “After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office. Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story….”

The Silkworm. : “When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days–as he has done before–and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.”

And my favorite, Career of Evil. : “When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman’s severed leg. Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed. There are four people from his past who he thinks could be responsible….”

Taken by Judith Marden ’66 from an ultralight aircraft piloted by Mike Theriault on Oct. 12, 2015, this campus view shows the L-shaped Campus Life Project dorms at center. (Judith Marden ’66 for �ֲ���ý College)

An action-packed hour spent the other day with Chris Streifel, project manager for Facility Services and �ֲ���ý’ point person on the Campus Life residential project, afforded some insight into the multifaceted work that �ֲ���ý project managers do.

A lounge, complete with fireplace, will occupy this first-floor space in 55 Campus Ave., photographed Oct. 20, 2015. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Two facets specifically: How Streifel interprets this major construction project for different �ֲ���ý constituencies (including Campus Construction Update readers).

And, more important and more intriguing, how Streifel and his Facility Services peers represent �ֲ���ý’ interests when complex decisions must be made in the field.

Photographed Oct. 20, 2015, this greenly insulated first-floor space at 55 Campus Ave. will be a game room. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Streifel met CCU on Bardwell Street around noon Tuesday in front of the portable office occupied by staff from Consigli Construction, which manages the Campus Life Project work for �ֲ���ý.

With the �ֲ���ý Board of Trustees scheduled to meet on campus later in the week, Streifel gave us a preview of the tour he was planning for that august group.

We began at 55 Campus Ave. — Campus Construction Update’s first visit inside the building, which is the virtual twin of 65 Campus and, by design, is a few weeks behind its sibling in the construction process. While the ground floor of 55 is still an undivided expense of exposed and unfinished building innards, Streifel walked us through spaces that in about a year will be buzzing with the electricity of student life.

Facing north toward Campus Avenue and east toward 65 Campus, an L-shaped lounge area will sport comfy furniture, a natural gas fireplace and a “laptop bar” facing out through a glass wall. A kitchen island, whose future space is currently occupied by an island of stockpiled metal wall studs, and a game room will occupy the rear of building, adjacent to a wing of dorm rooms.

Another view of the entrance lounge at 55 Campus Ave. A fireplace will be installed just past the large window opening. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Back outdoors, looking more (Streifel) or less (CCU) like we belonged there in our hard hats and reflective-chartreuse visibility vests, required on the work sites, we watched bricklayers at work on a long eastern wall of No. 55. That’s the third wall on that building, out of six, that Maine Masonry has gotten to, compared with No. 65, where last week masons began work on the next-to-last wall, facing Central Avenue.

We took a quick look at the wall-treatment mockup in front of 55, where Streifel pointed out an instance of how the mockup had served its purpose: One masonry product on the the mockup, a concrete paneling called Taktl, had become bleached out when a mason practice-washed the bricks above it. Lesson: Wash the bricks before the Taktl goes up.

Plenty of bricks have been washed over at 65 Campus, and there’s plenty of Taktl in place, a textured material mounted on metal frames and colored the charcoal gray that has become standard in the �ֲ���ý architectural palette in recent years.

In other realms of exterior progress, many of the window units that arrived during the first week of October have been installed, looking natty with Taktl accents underneath. And workers for Industrial Roofing have gotten most of the several layers of the roofing sandwich in place — different types of board, insulation, and water and air barriers — and will soon start topping it off with asphalt shingles.

The stack of metal wall studs marks the approximate location of a kitchen island in a student lounge at 55 Campus Ave. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

One gets from one Campus Avenue construction site to the other by crossing Franklin Street. On Tuesday, the street was graded dirt, with new pavement coming in the near future. “We did so much work underground there, and it was in poor condition to begin with,” Streifel said, that closing the street for a few days to repave it was a no-brainer.

Moreover, as part of the Campus Life Project plan, the stretch of Franklin closest to Campus Avenue was made narrower at the same time. “We eliminated the parking lanes on each side, so it’s now just the width of two traffic lanes.”

Because No. 65 will house the College Store and Office Services, both of which will be open to the public, the building’s ground floor will differ from No. 55. Through entrances on Campus Avenue and at the corner of Campus and Central, you’ll walk into a reception area connecting to the store through a portal that will be locked outside business hours.

This image taken Oct. 20, 2015, shows contrasting masonry surfaces on a west wall of 65 Campus Ave.: brick and the rugged concrete paneling called Taktl. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The store’s big windows will face Campus Avenue, and Office Services will look out on Central Avenue. Office Services will be reachable both through the store and a separate entrance, and will have its own lobby.

We headed upstairs, planning to check out dorm rooms, whose progress ranges from bare studs to new paint; the new subway-style wall tiles that have been finished in certain bathrooms; and a fourth-floor lounge that will have an awesome view once glass has replaced the plastic in the windows.

And then Streifel’s phone rang: He was needed to settle a question.

While Campus Construction Update roamed the fourth floor in an ecstasy of photographing subway tiles and coils of electrical cable (shiny!), Streifel met in a single dorm room with a city electrical inspector and with representatives from Consigli, project designer Ann Beha Architects, and the project’s electrical subcontractor, Lewiston-based DeBlois Electric.

The question involved the placement of the four electrical outlets that will equip each of the single dorm rooms.

While that placement had recently been finalized, following a decision about the standard furniture arrangement in the singles, some outlets had been installed prior to that determination and not conforming to it. Hence the fourth-floor confab.

Project manager Chris Streifel, photographed during the June 19 topping-off ceremony that marked the end of structural steelwork on the Campus Life Project dorms. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

“We had to figure out how to best realign what we want without completely redoing all the work that’s in place,” Streifel said, “trying to salvage the work that’s in place, and not create additional cost and time constraints for the contractor.”

In the end, it was an easy resolution: One outlet per room would be moved.

“The architect is the authority on this,” Streifel said, but “if we have a specific idea for these outlets that may be different from what they’d envisioned, then they’re usually going to defer to us, provided that we’re not violating any codes or any design issues that they see as important.”

Complete with natty charcoal-gray Taktl inserts, a third-story row of dorm-room window units had been installed at 65 Campus Ave. by Oct. 16, 2015. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

He continued, “In this case we inserted ourselves into the conversation to make sure that we got what we needed. They’re trying to build the beautiful, functional buildings that �ֲ���ý wants. And so I’m representing �ֲ���ý in the field, and conveying our desires and intentions.

When questions arise or design changes are needed, “Everybody’s looking for �ֲ���ý to approve the plans and decisions that are being made in the field.”

Industrial Roofing Corp. technicians roll a fabric barrier out over oriented-strand panels at 65 Campus Ave. on Oct. 8, 2015. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

But in the real world there will be questions, and it’s the project manager’s job to address them in a way that best serves several, and sometimes conflicting, interests, from student needs to the college’s costs, from the realities of a timetable to the needs of the maintenance and custodial staff who will keep the buildings in shape.

“You have to weigh all of those,” he says. “In this case, it was just trying to figure out how to give the students the most flexible electrical power options” — no small thing in this wired, wired world.

Can we talk? Campus Construction Update welcomes queries and comments about current, past, future, and imaginary construction at �ֲ���ý. Write to dhubley@bates.edu, putting “Campus Construction” or “Shiny!” in the subject line. Or use the comments system below.

The Grape Wall: Photographed Oct. 20, 2015, the south wall at 55 Campus Ave. is still naked purple wallboard. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Retiring College Store director Sarah Potter ’77 has given generations of student workers a sense of normalcy amid their intense, day-to-day academic lives. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Back in 2006, when Caitlin McKitrick ’10 and her mother came into the bookstore on her first day at �ֲ���ý, buying books was on their to-do list.

Also on the list was saying hello to the store’s director, Sarah Emerson Potter ’77, a contemporary of Caitlin’s mom, Rosemary Duggan McKitrick ’75.

Potter, out and about on the store floor per usual, greeted the McKitricks and asked Caitlin how she was doing so far.

Caitlin’s response? “I burst into tears.”

No stranger to students and their stress tears, Potter swept Caitlin and her mom back to her office for some quiet time and deep breaths. Later, she hired Caitlin as a student worker.

From that day forward, Caitlin recalls that Potter — who retires as bookstore director on Oct. 30 after 35 years — “always lent a sympathetic ear” to the student workers, “always asked after our well-being, reminding us to relax, sleep, and eat — and she was always ready with a new book recommendation.”

Most everything in a college bookstore comes at a price, but in the case of the College Store at �ֲ���ý, there’s a notable exception, that being what Potter has given to some 185 �ֲ���ý students who’ve worked in the bookstore over the years. (And she’s been at �ֲ���ý long enough to have hired students in the 1980s and their �ֲ���ý children in the 2000s.)

“All of us try to help students become fully formed people.”

To them all, she’s given guidance and support, while instilling the best qualities of a �ֲ���ý education, such as the twin, double-helix virtues of “hard work and thoughtfulness,” in the words of Hallie Balcomb ’14.

In this sense, staff are �ֲ���ý educators, too.

“All of us try to help students become fully formed people,” Potter says. “We all want them to get a sense of who they really are, so that even if they don’t really know what they’re jumping off into” when they leave �ֲ���ý, “they have the confidence to jump.”

In March of her senior year at �ֲ���ý, student worker Hallie Balcomb ’14 gets a hug from bookstore director Sarah Potter ’77. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

We could go in many other directions to salute Potter’s contributions to �ֲ���ý.

She has run this $1.2 million business with skill and a human touch, handling everything from purchasing and pricing to managing the college’s relationships with a host of businesses, from car dealerships and local hotels to furniture vendors.

As the college’s “contract officer,” she ensures that �ֲ���ý is “easy to do business with and is responsive to vendors,” says Doug Ginevan, assistant vice president for financial planning and analysis. “She has done it superbly.”

She’s embraced sustainable practices, receiving a Stanton Environmental Stewardship Award in 2013 from �ֲ���ý, and the Harward Center honored her in 2008 with its Staff Award for Community Volunteerism and Leadership.

Changing with the times, Potter has adjusted the store’s mission. More of a textbook “counselor,” the store sees its “obligation as much more than selling a textbook. It’s to help a student somehow get that book,” she says, whether through a sale, rental, reserve, or other way.

She creates community in specific ways. She’s published the jovial and offbeat “Good Reads for Leisure Moments” summer reading list each spring since 1997, a friendly place where someone like Dana Professor of Theater Martin Andrucki can admit to admiring the books of Maeve Binchy. (“I still can’t tell if Marty was being tongue in cheek,” Potter says.)

Like other �ֲ���ý alumni staff members — like Leigh Campbell ’64, who continues to counsel students for Student Financial Services — Potter’s combination of job focus and personal experience gives her a good sense of student life.

Each year, Potter hires a dozen or more students to handle the cash register, stock shelves, and keep the place looking sharp.

In many cases, Potter is part of their lives literally from start to finish.

Balcomb, now teaching at St. James School in Hagerstown, Md., was hired after meeting Potter on her first day at �ֲ���ý. Four years later, on Commencement Day, “I turned the corner of the ramp to receive my diploma and saw Sarah standing there with her wonderful colleagues, ready to reach out for a hug.”

In between, Potter says that she and her colleagues try to give students “a sense of normalcy.” The staff helps to balance and relieve students from the intense academic rigor that many of them are experiencing for the first time in their lives.

And she treats students the way she was treated by the staff at �ֲ���ý.

“People like the dorm housekeeper, the night watchman, or the women I worked with in Commons were family; they teased me, and I could tease them back,” Potter recalls. “They were incredibly connected to my daily life, and I could always turn to them.”

Potter and her staff “were my family away from home,” says McKitrick.

The road to academic honors has a few stress stops on the way, and for McKitrick one stop was giving a public talk about her anthropology thesis.

“When I walked into the room, Sarah was sitting front-row center,” McKitrick recalls. “I hadn’t mentioned it to her but she found out about it and came to support me.”

“It’s being able to come in and be who you are. You can be grumpy. You can unload.”

Potter’s interest in student life is more than personal, and her work to supervise student workers involves seeing them at their best, their worst, and everything in between.

“It’s being able to come in and be who you are. You can be grumpy. You can unload — ‘unpack’ is probably a better word for what they do,” Potter says.

Years ago, one of the store’s student workers was caught stealing merchandise. Working with student deans, Potter focused on restorative justice, not punishment. She and her staff met with the student and talked about what happened.

At Reunion 2002, Sarah Potter ’77 talks with Ernest Muller, professor emeritus of history, and his wife, Peg. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

“We talked about how it made us feel, and the student was horrified and remorseful,” Potter recalls. “I don’t know what the student is doing now. But you hope it was the kind of teachable moment that helped create a better life.”

It helps that Potter, who came to �ֲ���ý from Gorham (Maine) High School, has never forgotten what it’s like to be a �ֲ���ý student.

Many students get overwhelmed when they can’t be the same kind of student they were in high school, “with their fingers in a lot of curricular and extracurricular pies,” she says. At �ֲ���ý, “you can’t leave yourself a half-hour to do homework after your play rehearsal like you did in high school. The academic intensity won’t allow it.

“I remember what it was like to come here and be overwhelmed. I feel their anxiety.”

While a student’s faculty mentor often exerts influence later in a student’s �ֲ���ý life, the student-supervisor work relationship often starts early and builds from there.

Jason Hall ’97 has a law degree from Vanderbilt and is vice president for entrepreneurship and innovation for the St. Louis Chamber.

Hall brings to his work today what he saw in Potter back then — how being “positive and authentic” has a “tremendous influence on motivating a team.”

In 1993, he was a first-generation-to-college student, and over the next four years his campus work would become “very much a part of my life and experience at �ֲ���ý.”

His first and only job was in the bookstore, and his touchstone was Potter, an emotional shock absorber who was “always incredibly positive and extraordinarily good-humored.” No matter how things were going for Hall at �ֲ���ý, he knew that “going to work was going to be a bright spot for me.”

Hall brings to his work today what he saw in Potter back then — how being “positive and authentic” has a “tremendous influence on motivating a team.” Not to be ignored, either, is how an upbeat boss simply “makes the daily life of those she leads brighter in so many ways.”

After their weepy meeting, McKitrick says that Potter “saw me grow up over those four years — navigating school, stress, new friendships, breakups, and new relationships.”

And a marriage. When McKitrick met her future husband, Ethan Warren ’08, it was a meet-cute, �ֲ���ý bookstore style.

“He and his friends called me ‘CBG’ — Cute Bookstore Girl,” says McKitrick, who is in graduate school at the Yale Nurse-Midwifery/Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner program.

He kept stopping in to buy pens, ink cartridges, and batteries before he got the courage to introduce himself. “We went on our first date eight years ago over fall break, and got married in July.

“I am so glad Sarah offered me that job!”

The list, famously known as the��Non-required Reading List, or Good Reads for Leisure Moments,��is now in its 15th edition, with more than 110 contributors this year.

And as always, we lead off with our “alpha” contributor, Associate Professor of Biology Lee Abrahamsen.

For a couple of years I have been hooked on the novels of Bryce Courtenay. His stories of boxing and Australia and his wonderful character development hook me every time. The newest of his novels,��The Four Fires,��is another good one. About an Australian family working their way up from poverty in the 1950s-1970s, this story is particularly good to listen to as the audiobook is narrated by Humphrey Bower (a fantastic weaver of tales and voices).

I am also 2/3 of the way through his��Australian Trilogy, which is historical fiction that chronicles the change of Australia from the land of Aboriginal people, to a place where England’s convicts are exiled and struggle to survive. The three books in the trilogy are��The Potato Factory,��Tommo and Hawk��and��Solomon’s Song. The characters are engaging, and the action is non-stop. The books include bawdy stories about whaling, pickpockets and beer-making in Van Dieman’s land — what more could you want?

Lee Abrahamsen, Associate Professor of Biology

Cutting for Stone��by Abraham Verghese is the story of twin brothers who are born to a young nun and a surgeon at a mission hospital in Ethiopia. Their mother dies in childbirth, and their father disappears, so the twins are adopted and raised at the hospital by two other physicians. The twins learn medicine by osmosis – then one goes on to attend medical school, while the other stays behind to work with his mother in the clinic. As Ethiopia teeters on the brink of revolution, the characters learn about politics, relationships and the many ways we care for others. A great book that leaves you thinking about your own life and how you choose to live it.

That Old Cape Magic��by Richard Russo, late of Colby College, is a great read for academics. It’s about a guy whose parents were English profs and who can’t get their voices out of his head. Funny and truthful.

Martin Andrucki, Professor of Theater

OK, I haven’t read it yet but I have it on good authority that this is a good read:��Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body��by Neil Shubin.

Every night I read one or two selections from��The Essential Rumi��translated by Coleman Barks. I read the same selections again the following morning or as soon as I get to it. The second reading is heaven!

Linda Archambault, Lab Research Assistant, Dana Chemistry

I have two recommendations, both of which center broadly on the immigrant experience – one in the US, the other in France. The first one is��Zeitoun��by Dave Eggars and the second one is��A Palace in the Old Village��by Tahar Ben Jelloun.

Áslaug Asgeirsdottir, Associate Professor of Politics

A Choice of Weapons��by Gordon Parks (autobiography/photography)
Musashi��by Eiji Yoshikawa (historical novel)
Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf: Zen Poems��by Ryokan (poetry)
Japanese Pilgrimage��by Oliver Statler (out of print) (history/travel)
Soul of the Night: An Astronomical Pilgrimage��by Chet Raymo (science)

Will Ash, Assistant in Instruction, Imaging and Computing Center

The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life��by Tom Reiss
The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street��by Naguib Mahfouz
The Museum of Innocence��by Orhan Pamuk

Senem Aslan, Assistant Professor of Politics

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society��by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. I had no idea that the Channel Islands of Britain had been occupied by the Nazis in WWII. This whole book is in the form of fictional letters through which we learn about the lives of ordinary people during that time. It seems odd to use a word like “charming” to describe a book about wartime occupation, but it is.

The Artist, the Philosopher and the Warrior��by Paul Strathern. I vaguely knew that DaVinci, Machiavelli and Borgia lived in Italy around the same time, but I didn’t know that all three interacted extensively. Really fascinating history… real life tales of intrigue, science and art.

Pam Baker, Professor of Biology/Director of Faculty Research and Scholarship

One of the best books I read this year was��Just Kids��by Patti Smith. It’s a remarkable “coming of age” story, a love story, and, most importantly, the story of a young woman as artist. The writing is clear, free of nostalgia, cliche, or cynicism. The memoir is a beautiful evocation of what it felt like to discover art and music at the time.

I’m currently re-reading and enjoying Annie Dillard’s��Teaching a Stone to Talk. It’s a collection of exquisitely written essays on human relationship to the natural world.

Misty Beck, Writing Specialist

Non-fiction….Against Medical Advice��by James Patterson and Hal Friedman

Chronicles a boy’s life with Tourette’s Syndrome, OCD and depression from age 5-18. Hal (co-author) is Cody’s dad. Unbelievable what the family managed to survive in those 13 years and especially, Cody.

Fiction….The Keepsake��by Tess Gerritsen
She is a “page-turner” author!!!!! Her story tangles in so many directions that it is near the end when I started to figure things out. This book makes me anxious to read more Tess Gerritsen….

Jane Bedard, Admission Office Specialist

My attendance April 2010 at the 50th Anniversary of The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee inspired a year of nostalgic, moving, and informative reading. Three great ones:

1.��Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC��(Holsaert, et. al.)

2.��Blues for Mr. Charlie��(James Baldwin)

3.��Letters From Mississippi: Reports from Civil Rights Volunteers and Freedom School Poetry of the 1964 Freedom Summer��(Elizabeth Martinez, editor)

And a really great read about the art of peace-making:��The Moral Imagination��(James Laderach)

Bill Blaine-Wallace, Multifaith Chaplain

Of the books on the schedule for the Boston �ֲ���ý Alumnae Book Club this year, the one that we all seemed to agree upon as a great read (not an easy thing as we have such divergent tastes) is��Cutting for Stone��by Abraham Verghese. Beautifully written and a fascinating story of family, medicine and politics.

Boston �ֲ���ý Club via Lisa Romeo ’88

I’d like to recommend��Bounce: Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, and the Science of Success��by Matthew Syed. While his ideas are applicable to other areas of life, this is really a book about the success of elite athletes. How do they perform at what seems to be other-worldly levels? How do they squelch self-doubt and why do they sometimes choke under pressure? Mr. Syed, who is himself a world-class table tennis player, has some pretty counterintuitive answers to these questions. This is an engagingly written book with some wonderful examples of both “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat,” but combined with relevant scientific findings from sports psychology, neuroscience, and other fields. This book will change the way you think about what it takes to be successful.

Helen Boucher, Assistant Professor of Psychology

The following are a series of three books by author Stieg Larsson: great adventure, murder, mystery and intrigue, suspense. You must read the first one as each one refers to the prior book. This is also out in video but after reading the book it is a bit graphic, so be warned. My husband liked the videos as he is not a big fan of reading.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest

The following is the write up from the publisher on the first book,��The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
“The disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden, gnaws at her octogenarian uncle, Henrik Vanger. He is determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder. He hires crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist, recently at the wrong end of a libel case, to get to the bottom of Harriet’s disappearance. Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old, pierced, tattooed genius hacker, possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age–and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness–assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, an astonishing corruption at the highest echelon of Swedish industrialism–and a surprising connection between themselves.” –From publisher description.

Jane Boyle, Ladd Library, Library Assistant-Public Service

I enjoy reading…maybe too much. If I have a good book, the world could disintegrate around me. I would not notice and I would not care!

Under the Dome��– Stephen King
I’ve been staying away from Stephen King the last few years but my daughter left this at the house. I wasn’t thrilled with the way the ending, but the first 800 pages were great!

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo��by Stieg Larsson
Received this one for Christmas. LOVED IT!
Forced myself to wait until I was traveling to pick up the 2nd volume in the trilogy.

The Girl Who Played with Fire
I finished this and wanted more! But the 3rd book wasn’t out in paperback.
The next long plane ride, I’ll be getting

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest��even if I have to buy the hardcover.

The Lincoln Lawyer��by Michael Connelly
I picked this up because the movie was coming out. I still haven’t seen the movie but
the book lived up to what I have come to expect from Connelly.

Barbara Buck, Program Analyst

I have not personally read this book but my father (who has read just about every non-fiction adventure book in existence) could not recommend this book enough for those who like adventure novels!

Great Heart: The History of a Labrador Adventureby James West Davidson and John Rugge (This has been taken off Amazon.com: “In 1903 Leonidas Hubbard set out to cross the Ungava-Labrador Peninsula, and to forge a name for himself as an adventure writer. He took a friend, a guide, a canoe, a ton of equipment, and scads of naive hope. Months later, the friend and guide staggered out of the snow, and Hubbard starved to death in his tent, too weak to attempt the 30-mile trek to safety. And that’s just Part I.)”

Amy Bureau, Administrative Assistant Alumni and Parent Engagement

I recommend��The Master Switch��by Tim Wu. A detailed account of information empires — telephone, radio, movies, and television and cable. Each one was thought to be the invention that would change everything. Then money pours in, the grassroots industry consolidates hugely, and small handful of companies control the ‘master switch’ to reach consumers by that communications medium. Do you think the internet will be different — that broadband changes everything? Then read this book. Lots of detail about the outsize personalities involved.

Also recommend��Zero History��by William Gibson. The last of a trilogy (including��Pattern Recognition��andSpook Country). Quirky but highly imaginative plots. Almost science fiction in a completely recognizable world. The author is a close observer of modern culture, consumerism (same thing?), technology, the thrum of cities (especially Tokyo), spycraft and fashion.��Zero History��can be read alone, in fact each of them can be, but if you have time it’s more satisfying to read��Zero History��as the capper of the three. I will never see an exuberantly decorated hotel again without recalling the amusing opening chapters of this book.

Ann Bushmiller, ’79, Trustee

I do recommend reading or for many of us re-reading��Jane Eyre. The book is a stunning portrayal of the power of authenticity and self direction, and the difference one person can make.

Nancy Cable, Vice President and Dean of Enrollment and External Affairs

Last Lecture��by Randy Pausch
Here If You Need Me��by Kate Braestrup

Tammy Caron, Assistant Director, CMR, Creative Design

In no particular order of preference, here are my book reviews for this year!

Ragtime, by E.L. Doctorow: A “classic” that I had never read. I really enjoyed this book — well crafted. And it gave a wonderful sense of history of a time/place. It was funny at times, poignant, and had a host of interesting characters weaving in and out of the pages.

A Passage to India, by E.M. Forster: Another classic and a brilliant book — philosophical and literary. It reveals the tensions between the Indians and the British in the early part of the 20th century. I had never read this book, and I’m glad I finally did. Be sure to read the reflection/commentary at end — it has great insights into some of the layers of the novel.

Half Broke Horses, by Jeannette Walls: The story of Jeannette’s grandmother, told from first person p.o.v. It was a good story, but I liked her��Glass Castle��book better. This one doesn’t really explore the characters in depth — more of a sense of vignettes in her grandmother’s life. But I did enjoy it, and so did two of my boys, ages 14 and 16.

People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks: A page turner. It traces, through minute details, an ancient Jewish text that travels around much of the world. My one complaint is that each chapter of discovery from tidbits never “go” anywhere — it is disjointed, almost like a series of short stories.

A Year of Wonder, by Geraldine Brooks: I would give this 3 out of 5 stars. I would rate it higher, if not for the abysmal ending. The story is captivating, well written, and captures a slice of true-to-life realities from the 1600’s in a small town infected by the plague. Based in a real historic town and set of events, the book was excellent overall. Unfortunately, the ending put a damper on my enthusiasm for this book and left me disappointed. Still, it’s a good read if you overlook that one flaw.

March, by Geraldine Brooks: Clever take on the Civil War as seen by Mr. March, the father of the Little Women. It shows the complexities and brutality of both sides of the war, and it portrays what Mr. March goes through while away at war. A Pulitzer Prize winner.

The City of Falling Angels, by John Berendt: Nonfiction. I liked this book much more than I expected to. It is very well written, and it reads a bit like a mystery, a bit like a series of character sketches. It’s all true, and it made Venice come alive to me, truly a character in its own right within the book. Fascinating story.

Sarah’s Key, by Tatiana de Rosnay: A good book in many ways, but it dragged a bit at the end, and I also felt that the writing quality decreased toward the end. A sad story about a girl who gets rounded up by Nazis and who promises to come back for her little brother who is locked in a cabinet… and the fall-out from that decision.

Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann: I enjoyed this book quite a bit — The “background” story/thread is about a tightrope walker who walks between the Twin Towers (pre-9/11). But the “bigger” story is really about the everyday lives of people on the streets of NY — and the ways in which those lives collide and intersect with each other. The contrast of the ordinary with the extraordinary, the mundane and the surreal, creates a tension that places all of us (readers) on that tight rope. Well written.

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy: A sad and quick read about a post-apocalyptic world, where a father and son try to find safety, food, and warmth — all of which is in very short supply. But, despite the inhuman conditions and the almost complete lack of hope, the father and son keep their spirits alive by staying focused on what matters — their love for each other and the possibility of something “more” out there.

The Hunger Games��trilogy, by Suzanne Collins: These books are written for the “young adult” audience, but they are definitely “dark” — about a dystopian world where children are chosen to participate in “games” to the death. This series is a real page-turner! Well written, and the characters, settings, and plot are well developed. The best are the first and second books, but the third wrapped up many details. However, the third book shifts the focus quite a bit away from the society as a whole, to the heroine herself. I definitely recommend the series.

The Millenium Trilogy, by Stieg Larsson: (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo;��The Girl Who Played with Fire;The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest): All three of these books are real page turners, no doubt about that, and I couldn’t put them down. A quirky heroine (most likely with Aspergers, which is near and dear to my heart as a parent) who defies all explanation and labels, who ends up on a set of tense adventures that create a complex webbing of characters and circumstances. However, these books are all extremely dark, not always my “cup of tea,” and I also found my “willing suspension of disbelief” pushed to the max on many occasions. The second book was my least favorite, and I found myself impatiently trying to finish it. But the other two were better and kept my attention all the way through.

The Beet Queen, by Louise Erdrich: A 40-year saga that begins with a brother and sister abandoned by their mother who jump on a train. The boy, Karl, vanishes, to reappear later, and the girl, Mary, is raised by an aunt and uncle, vying for attention and friends with her cousin Sita. Slow-moving, with shifts of perspectives throughout. No real conclusion to the tensions, which works for the novel in many ways. This is a real “character” novel.

Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe: A simply-told story of enduring complexity. A classic and a “must read” for many reasons. It captures the tensions of old tribal customs (Nigeria) and colonialism, and the costs of both in the intersections. Told in sparse prose, with an anti-hero trying to make sense of conflicting worlds, the story ends inevitably in tragedy.

Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson: Nonfiction. Despite the recent controversies surrounding this text and the author (most of which I attribute to a somewhat-prurient desire to dig up dirt on heroes), I really liked this book and wish I’d read it sooner. While I have not yet read the sequel (Stones to Schools), I was taken in by the storyline — a man who more or less “falls into” a situation where he makes a promise to build a school in the mountains of Pakistan, an occurrence that begins a lifelong mission to build schools in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Greg Mortenson never claims to be a details-person, an organizer, or a record-keeper (some of which faults have led to the recent criticisms), but he is a passionate and sincere visionary who works against all odds in the name of education for all.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley: Cute and clever, funny and quick — a fun read. An 11-year-old precocious heroine who unwittingly finds a dead body in her garden and then works to free her father from the suspicion of murder. The writing is a bit stilted, the plot a bit contrived, and the similes are significantly overdone, but it’s easy to forgive the flaws for an escapist mystery featuring a likable and quirky protagonist.

The Help, by Kathryn Stockett: Really enjoyed this book — well written with important reflections on women’s roles in the south during the early ’60’s, and several women’s courageous choices to step outside of their assigned identities to break down barriers.

The Insufficiency of Maps, by Nora Pierce: A novel about growing up Native American as seen through the eyes of a child who is torn between the people of the “res” (her own heritage), many of whom are broken and dysfunctional, and the white people who take her in as a foster child. Her mother’s mental illness make it impossible for the child to stay with her, and we follow the disintegration of the spirit through the child’s eyes. Good idea for a story, but not as well written as I’d like.

Anita Charles, Lecturer/Director of Secondary Teacher Education

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle��by David Wroblewski. Here is synopsis from Amazon:

“Born mute, speaking only in sign, Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents on their farm in remote northern Wisconsin. For generations, the Sawtelles have raised and trained a fictional breed of dog whose thoughtful companionship is epitomized by Almondine, Edgar’s lifelong friend and ally. But with the unexpected return of Claude, Edgar’s paternal uncle, turmoil consumes the Sawtelles’ once peaceful home. When Edgar’s father dies suddenly, Claude insinuates himself into the life of the farm–and into Edgar’s mother’s affections.

“Grief-stricken and bewildered, Edgar tries to prove Claude played a role in his father’s death, but his plan backfires–spectacularly. Forced to flee into the vast wilderness lying beyond the farm, Edgar comes of age in the wild, fighting for his survival and that of the three yearling dogs who follow him. But his need to face his father’s murderer and his devotion to the Sawtelle dogs turn Edgar ever homeward.

“David Wroblewski is a master storyteller, and his breathtaking scenes–the elemental north woods, the sweep of seasons, an iconic American barn, a fateful vision rendered in the falling rain–create a riveting family saga, a brilliant exploration of the limits of language, and a compulsively readable modern classic.”

It’s a wonderful book that many relate to a modern take on Hamlet. Being a lover of dogs, I was personally drawn to the brilliant description of the emotional ties between humans and their canine companions, as well as the parts of the novel that were told from the vantage point of Almondine.

Kristen Cloutier, HCCP, Assistant Director of Center Operations

Here’s one I recommend:��The Measure of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error That Transformed the World��by Ken Alder. It’s an account of the efforts during the French Revolution to measure the size of the earth and establish the true length of the meter. Politics, history, science, cover-ups…everything you need for a good summer read.

Matt Cote, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Associate Dean of the Faculty

North and South– by Elizabeth Gaskell. I discovered this little gem last April. It was originally published as a 22-part weekly serial in a magazine in the mid 1850s. (Don’t be misled, this is NOT the John Jakes series of novels centering on the Civil War.) The title of this book refers to the contrast between the wealthy south and the industrial north of England in the Victorian era. I have recommended this book to friends and all of them compare it to Pride & Prejudice. If you are a lover of Jane Austen then you will likely enjoy this book. In fact, you might even have a hard time deciding which characters you love more. Will it be Mr. Darcy or Mr. Thornton? [In the U.S. this book is in the public domain, so you can download a free copy of the ebook through Project Gutenberg or another such source of public domain books.]

The Pillars of the Earth��– by Ken Follett. This is a sprawling epic in the 12th century about a community of people, in fictional Kingsbridge, who endeavor to build a cathedral. It’s a roller coaster ride of highs and lows for the heroes of the story and includes truly evil villains. This summer I plan to read the follow-up,��World Without End, which takes place in Kingsbridge two centuries later featuring the descendants of the characters fromPillars��but set against the backdrop of the Plague.

Never Let Me Go��– by Kazuo Ishiguro. This is a unique and thought provoking story about the loss of innocence, accepting one’s fate, and the meaning of humanity. This one contains heaps of great subtext. I could not stop thinking about this book for several days after finishing it.

The Remains of the Day��– also by Kazuo Ishiguro. Tells the story of a butler in post-WWII England. He strives for perfection in his profession while failing to notice that his former employer was a Nazi sympathizer. Much of the story is told through his recollections. While attempting to achieve perfect dignity in his profession he makes sacrifices in personal relationships along the way. This is not a fast-paced book, but very well written.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day��– Winifred Watson. It spans one day in the life of Miss Pettigrew who stumbles into a job as the social secretary of a singer/actress who lives a whirlwind existence. In short, it is a case of mistaken identity coupled with self-discovery. This is a delightful, fun, and quick read.

Split Second,��Hour Game,��Simple Genius, and��First Family��– by David Baldacci. A series of books about two former Secret Service agents, Maxwell and King, turned private investigators. The most recent installment,��The Sixth Man, was just released in 4/2011. They are very fast reads–I squeezed the first four in during February break.
A Prayer for Owen Meany��– by John Irving. I first read this book in the mid 90s, but I reread it every few years because it is one of my favorites. Tells the story of John and his best friend Owen. Most of the story is set in New Hampshire in the 50s and 60s. A central theme of the story is Owen’s belief that he is an instrument of God, but just��how��is not revealed until the end of the story.

Grace Coulombe, Director of the Mathematics and Statistics Workshop

I read my �ֲ���ý contemporary Ru Freeman ’93’s��A Disobedient Girl��this year – I think it was this year – enjoyed it very much, though the ending was a painful twist. Good illustration of the havoc wreaked by the class system in Sri Lanka on the lives of two women and their families.

I’ve been reading some pretty fluffy but good historical fiction about the Renaissance that I won’t report about.
I bought��Left Neglected��but haven’t read it yet…

And I’ve only read half of��What the Dog Saw…

I know there have been some other good ones, just don’t remember what.

Marianne Nolan Cowan, Director of Alumni and Parent Engagement

Halfway to Each Other��by Susan Pohlman
Loving Frank��by Nancy Horan
The Art of Racing in the Rain��by Garth Stein

Karen Daigler, �ֲ���ý Career Development Center

The Girls Who Went Away��by Anne Fessler. Interesting, heart-wrenching stories of women who surrendered their children for adoption

Half the Sky��by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Study of the suppression of women in various cultures and the ways women have worked to overcome their circumstances to advocate for others.

The Help��by Kathryn Stockett

Let the Great World Spin��by Colum McCann

Cutting for Stone��by Abraham Verghese

Crazy��by Pete Earley. A very readable book (by a journalist whose son struggles with bipolar disorder) about the broken mental health/prison system in our country.

Marty Deschaines, HCCP, Asst. Dir. for Community Volunteerism and Student Dev.

I am really interested in China. Ha Jin’s��Waiting��shows how difficult life and love can be when a man lives in two places–in the city for his job with summer visits to his hometown with women in both places. He is caught between two cultures and two very different women. Lisa See’s novels are quick reads.��Shanghai Girlsfollows two sisters from Shanghai where they were carefree and “modern” until their father, who has lost all of his wealth, sells them to Chinese men from Los Angeles. There they live traditional lives in what some might call a Chinese ghetto. Finally Peter Hessler (whose previous books,��River Townand��Oracle Bones,��were also terrific reads) takes the reader across today’s China in��Country Driving: A Journey through China from Farm to Factory.Hessler captures the people he meets and the places he visits with such detail, the reader feels as if s/he has been right beside him and learns a great deal about the lives and perspectives of diverse Chinese people.

Anne Dodd, Senior Lecturer Emerita in Education

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption��by Laura Hillenbrand
This book recounts the experiences of Olympic Runner Louis Zampirini as an Olympic Athlete and World War II POW. Hillenbrand provides and extensively researched account of Zampirini’s life as a child, airman and post war hero. I highly recommend this book.

Stephanie Dumont, Administrative Assistant, Advancement

Digging to America��– Anne Tyler

The Bean Trees��– Barbara Kingsolver
One of her earliest books, and deserves to be better known.

Bleak House��– Charles Dickens
Yes, really — it’s been a different book every time I’ve read it. So far, that’s been in my teens, 20s, and 30s.

The Patron Saint of Butterflies��– Cecilia Galante
Ostensibly a YA book, but well worth reading.

To Kill a Mockingbird��– Harper Lee
Because it’s probably been a while since most people reading the list read this book. My 8th-grade daughter was blown away by it this year.

Knitting for Peace:Make the World a Better Place One Stitch at a Time��– Betty Christiansen
For knitters (obviously). Short chapters on ways you can knit for others in the hope that every tiny act helps things get better.

Elizabeth Durand, class of 1976

I read one of the books being discussed during Staff Enrichment Week,��The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. It is a quick read and the messages are practical. For some reason it inspired me to proceed with getting our kitchen remodeled (something we had wanted to do for a long time) so I did get something out of it.

Ken Emerson, Associate Director of Human Resources

Following the Water- a Hydromancer’s Notebook��by David M Carroll
I read this during the winter and felt like I was transported into SPRING. It is a beautifully descriptive notebook with wonderful sketches, then again I love nature.

The Power of the Rellard��by Carolyn F Logan
I got this for my grandson, but had to read it first. It is a young readers’ adventure, much like��The Golden Compass��and Harry Potter.

Melinda Emerson, ILS Purchasing, Sales and Accounting Specialist

Justin Tussing –��The Best People in the World��— a quirky, but engaging novel about young people on the lam back to the land in VT back in the day.

Jose Saramago –��Blindness��— a ferocious but provocative apocalyptic novel by the Portuguese Nobel winner.

Aracelis Girmay –��Teeth��— one of the most vibrant first books of poems I have read in some years. She read here at �ֲ���ý this spring.

David Lodge –��Deaf Sentence��— It’s very British, and often excruciatingly funny– you know, David Lodge.

Gregory Pardlo –��Totem— another excellent first book of poems, by a young poet coming to �ֲ���ý to read in September.

Rob Farnsworth, Senior Lecturer in English

This might have been on the list before, but: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle��– Barbara Kingsolver

Johanna Farrar, Associate Dean of Admission

Life��by Keith Richards.
I just finished Keith Richards’ autobiography, which I totally enjoyed but am embarrassed to recommend for fear that the �ֲ���ý community would think that I ever partook in such debauchery while young.
But it really was a fun read.

Joan Fischer, Leadership Gifts Officer

May I recommend��The Book Thief��by Markus Zusak?
I do not want to spoil this book for anyone. Let is suffice to say that I had not cried over a book for many a year until I read this one. But, oddly enough, it is not a sad book!! Set in a small town in Nazi-ruled Germany, this book describes the daily life of young girl. Amazon ranking with over 1000 replies is 4.5 stars. It may be aimed at the young adult reader, but it one of the best-written and well-plotted books I have ever read. Once I figured out who the narrator of the tale was, I was hooked. I would love to read this in a book club so that I could discuss it with others.

Also, for a sweet “cozy” mystery, I just found Carolyn Hart’s 3 detective books about the ghost Bailey Ruth.Ghost at Work,��Merry Merry Ghost��and��Ghost in Trouble. The well-dressed heroine is not a “ghost”, but an “emissary” from Heaven’s “Department of Good Intentions” who gets sent back to fix problems without interfering, but always interferes. Above all, she must not scare anyone by being ghostly or doing something unexplainable, but how else can she save the day? These stories are lots of fun with minimal mental aerobics required.

Jane Frizzell, Network Services Administrator

I just finished the Alex McKnight series of books by Steve Hamilton. The first book in the series is��A Cold Day in Paradise, which won the Private Eye Writers of America/St. Martin’s Press Award for Best First Mystery by an Unpublished Writer. Once published, it went on to win the MWA Edgar and the PWA Shamus Awards for Best First Novel, and was short-listed for the Anthony and Barry Awards. Great series.

Shirley Govindasamy, Payroll Manager

If you like mysteries, here’s a good one for summer reading, centering on horses and a train trip across Canada:The Edge, by Dick Francis.

Lois Griffiths, Alumna and Retiree

The Thirteenth Tale��by Diane Setterfield : A mystery with magnetic pull.

Left Neglected��by Lisa Genova: Interesting story of the impact of a brain injury that could happen to any of us. Character has lost the ability to perceive information coming from the left side. Enjoyed this story very much and if you liked “Still Alice” you will like this also.

A Reliable Wife��by Robert Godrick: This is a thriller on the quiet side but an enjoyable read.

I Was a Dancer��by Jacques d’ Amboise: I have to promote my cousin’s book!! But even if I were not related, I would love this book. Jacques speaks of a life well-lived with lots of hard work and much success. The back ground of the dance world in the US and in foreign lands is well documented. It is a joy to know that some famous people can live a good and healthy life in the entertainment world. He has accomplished a lot in his life with more to come I am sure.

Lorraine Groves, Bookstore Sales Floor Supervisor

Great book, would recommend to all:��Middlesex��by Jeffrey Eugenides.

Nicole Hastings, Assistant in Instruction, Physics

I can’t remember if I already suggested this in a previous year (books are so timeless!)–An Imaginary Life��by David Malouf. A very edgy imagination of what Ovid’s exile in Tomis (on the Black Sea) might (not) have been like. Short but engrossing.

Also the field guides by David Sibley, the one I use when I go birding myself–The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America.

Tom Hayward, Humanities Reference Librarian

Unaccustomed Earth��by Jhumpa Lahiri. Longish, telling short stories.

Judy Head, Associate Dean of the Faculty

Under the Dome��by Stephen King. On a normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mills, Maine, the town is suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when—or if—it will go away.

Laurie Henderson, Director of Offices Services

Ian Frazier,��Travels in Siberia. Part travelogue, part history of where the Czars and Soviets sent the millions of people who annoyed them. Beautifully written with a droll sense of humor: lots can go wrong on a trip through a land that includes 11 time zones, and it does, starting with buying a second-hand car for the trip.

Antonia Fraser,��Must You Go: My Life with Harold Pinter. A great historian’s elegiac account of her mid-life marriage to one of the great modern playwrights, up to his death. The wry sad title is reflective of the tone of the book.

Rebecca Skloot,��The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. A stunning book on the “HeLa” cells that form the basis of most modern cellular and genetic research. Part medical history, part social commentary and family portrait of a young Black woman who died of cancer in Johns Hopkins University Hospital. Her cancer cells, taken without her knowledge, were able to survive outside her body and were used for most modern medical research, helping to find cures for polio, cancer and viral diseases. The book includes Victor McKusick, a �ֲ���ý parent and founder of modern genetics, who was a leader in the team who worked with the cells.

Siddhartha Mukherjee,��The Emperor of All Maladies. Another book on cancer, by a gifted and dedicated oncologist, with sections on the history of the disease and its treatment, layered with chapters on the author’s work with his patients. Powerful writing, and ultimately hopeful about the disease.

Isabel Wilkerson,��The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration.��A powerfully told story of the Black migration from the South to other parts of America, following three families. The Amazon blurb calls it “an epic, beautifully written masterwork,” not an exaggeration for this book.

Peter Gomes,��The Good Life.��The great voice is stilled, but in this book are his rolling cadences and phrasing with the warm crisp insight from one who spent his life thinking about how to make a good life from the imperfect stuff we are given.

Bill Hiss ’66, Executive Director for International Advancement and Lecturer in Asian Studies

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks��is a great read!

Aislinn Hougham, Assistant Director of Annual Giving

The Wedding��by Danielle Steele

Another great book,��Vanished��by Danielle Steele

Also–titles that are part of a SERIES aka THE SISTERHOOD series and the Lt. DALLAS series, these are GREAT and are ongoing.

Joan Houston, Administrative Assistant, Facility Services

To the End of the Land��by David Grossman
This is a long and tender tale of an Israeli woman who hopes that a hike in the Galilee — with an old friend and lover who has fathered her son but never met him — will somehow protect the young man from his military service. If she’s not sitting at home waiting for the delivery of her son’s death notice, he can’t die. Written by one of Israel’s finest novelists and essayists who lost his own son to war, this book embodies the power of life and intimacy and rages against the idiocy of armed conflict.

Phyllis Graber Jensen, Director of Photography and Video, Communications and Media Relations

Half Broke Horses– Jeannette Walls this is the follow up to��The Glass Castle��which I would also recommend.
Another I would suggest is��Room��by Emma Donoghue. It’s a difficult read in that it is about a woman abducted and abused by her captor, she has a son and together they escape and begin to live a normal life outside of Room. It’s beautiful, dark and sad but uplifting when you consider the resilience of the human spirit.

A lighter, feel good read:��The Art of Racing in the Rain��Garth Stein. If you are a dog lover you will appreciate this book about the special bond between a dog and its human.

Ashley Jewell, Admission Coordinator, Campus Visits and Events

Has anyone recommended��The Help��yet? If you were raised by a Southern woman who came of age during the civil rights movement, this book will definitely provide insight into who she was. (I loved it!) Not a very lofty comment, but the book is a dang good read for the beach/airplane.

Beverly Johnson, Associate Professor of Geology

Cutting for Stone : a Novel / Abraham Verghese2009
Compelling story about a medical family – their relationships with the backdrop of Ethiopian’s turbulent history.

The Sherlockian / Graham Moore2110
Sherlock lovers, for sure, and others will enjoy this debut novel intrigue about the interim period when Sir Conan Doyle had “killed” Sherlock to when he decides to write him to life again, and the modern Sherlockian search for the lost diary of the same period.

Octavia’s Hill / Margaret Dickson1983
Margaret (Smith) Dickson ’68 writes a haunting account of a fictional place in Maine and the historical relationships that continue to affect the present generation of occupants on the hill.

The Poacher’s Son / Paul Doiron2010
I guess I’m on a Maine authors kick…. this is not as enthusiastically endorsed as the above ones, but I thought it was a good page-turner and an interesting look at the lives of those who live much further north.
Laura Juraska, Associate Librarian for Reference Services

Some years I offer more of a summary of my entries, but this year I’m especially tight for time so I’ll have to settle for a few random selections with little description!

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay��by Michael Chabon: somehow I missed this book 10 years ago when everyone else was reading it, so I’ll recommend it now to encourage anyone else who missed it to check it out (or anyone who forgot it because they read it 10 years ago to consider reading it again!).

The Lacuna��by Barbara Kingsolver: I’m only about one-third of the way through this book, but one of my 17-year old sons is an avid reader who recommends it very enthusiastically, so I’ll pass that recommendation along.

The Gravedigger’s Daughter��by Joyce Carol Oates: this is another one that everyone else was reading a few years ago and I only managed to get around to recently.

Parenting Out of Control: Anxious Parents in Uncertain Times��by Margaret Nelson: a very engaging sociological study of class variation in parenting styles and the use of surveillance technologies in parenting; many students in my course on “Privilege, Power and Inequality” considered it their favorite of the 5 books we read because they recognized their own experiences in Nelson’s analysis of her interviews with parents of teenagers (while I found it interesting both as a sociologist and as a parent of teenagers myself).

Winning��by Francesco Duina: here’s a plug for one of my colleagues in the �ֲ���ý sociology department- his new book is written for a broader audience than just sociologists, and a very engaging read.

The 2010 �ֲ���ý College Accreditation Self-Study Report: working on this was a large part of the reason I got so behind on everything else this year, and did less leisure reading than usual, so I’ll include it on my list of what I’ve been reading, but I’m confident you’ll find many better suggestions throughout this year’s summer reading list.

Emily Kane, Whitehouse Professor of Sociology

Little Bee��by Chris Cleave–Like the back of the cover says–it’s simply a magical book that will leave you wanting to discuss with others, and if you’re lucky, like I did when I discussed, learned totally different perspectives by the others who read. It’s a fantastic book club, summer read.

The Help��by Kathryn Stockett–This book has gained steady momentum since coming out last year. The author truly captures the Southern way of life, right down to the language, and at times can be laugh out loud funny, and as well as sad and heartbreaking. Each chapter is a different character voice that weave together to form an incredible story. Highly recommend!

Sarah’s Key��by Tatiana de Rosnay–A different take on the World War 2/Holocaust era, it deals with the French occupation, and a little known event called Vel’ d’Hiv. The story goes back and forth between 1942 and present day, and offers a heart wrenching take on loss and the destruction that family secrets can have, even across time. I read this book literally in 24 hours. I could not put it down.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane��by Kate DiCamillo–This book is marked as a childrens’ book, however, like so many others, has messages within that speak directly to the grown- ups. A little less magical or whimsical than The Velveteen Rabbit, but still manages to touch you from within, and give a lesson simply on the power of love.

Blindness��by Jose Saramago–I read this book over a decade ago, and have read it again for two different book clubs. This book was unlike any book I had ever read, both in content and style of writing. It takes you to a place that is raw and emotional, and asks the reader to consider what would happen if society were to completely breakdown, where all rules are broken, and what happens when individuals are taken to the very brink of humanity. It is captivating yet sometimes difficult to read because of its content, but it will leave the reader repeatedly asking the question “what if…?” and remind us how easy it is to take for granted the societal structure and comforts that we are so used to.

The Puzzle King��by Betsey Carter–Just a really interesting and well crafted story based on the authors own ancestors–the puzzle king itself can mean so many different things as you journey throughout 30 years during a Hitler regime and how the tentacles of that occupation reached German Jews in the US, the struggle to fit in, despite enormous wealth, and the fact that not everything is as it seems. Another fascinating story from that time period.

Made for You and Me: Going West, Going Broke, Finding Home, a memoir by Caitlin Shetterly. My book club read this book recently and last night, we actually had the author come to our meeting. Suffice to say, it was such an inspiring evening, none of us wanted it to end. Caitlin lives in Portland with her husband, 2 year old son, and dog. She is down-to-earth, warm, and very genuine, and to sit and talk with her about this amazing book was just wonderful.
This book chronicles Caitlin and her husband Dan’s decision to leave Portland a couple years ago and drive across country to California where Dan is supposed to start work. During their journey they find out Caitlin is pregnant, and when they arrive in LA, things are not quite as glamorous as hoped.

It turns out Dan’s job has fallen through, they struggle financially and emotionally as they wonder how they made this decision and what to do with a baby on the way. After several months of searching, struggling, and optimistically hoping things would work out, Dan and Caitlin, now with a two month old and only $16 in their bank account, decide to travel back to Maine and live with Caitlin’s mother while they get their feet back on the ground and attempt to recapture the dream that they seemingly lost in LA.

This book is heartwarming, emotional, raw and in some way touches just about anyone who has ever had a dream and ever had to struggle to achieve it. The title comes from the song “This Land is Your Land, this Land is My land”…etc….with of course the last line being “this land was Made for You and Me…” and she points out that most people don’t know the one of the verses to the song goes like this:

“In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?”
In today’s economic climate, where so many are struggling to live by their means, this book reflects a real voice, a Maine voice, and is one for the permanent shelves.

Alison Keegan, Administrative Assistant, Dean of Faculty’s Office

Jonathan Franzen’s��Freedom��was excellent. And since you suggest comic books, allow me to suggest my favorite comic book of all time: “Radio: An Illustrated Guide” by Ira Glass.

Colin Kelley, Digital Media Specialist

I am sorry to say that I haven’t read ANYTHING this year that I would recommend. I enjoyed��The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival��by John Vaillant, but I certainly don’t recommend it as good literature.

John Kelsey, Professor of Psychology

Little Scarlet��by Walter Mosley. A mystery set in Los Angeles just after the Watts riots. Mosley confronts racial stereotypes in the context of a good story. This book is one in a series, and I would suspect any book by the author would be equally good.

Cutting for Stone��by Abraham Verghese . Mostly set in a hospital in Ethiopia, though most of the main characters are Indian or have ties to India. Great characters and an interesting story. I’ve had to look up more medical terminology than I ever have before!

Invisible��by Paul Auster. A story about the strange life of aspiring poet, Adam Walker. Although it is a bit of a bizarre read, it all comes together at the end. I’d suggest not reading the book description on the cover as it gives too much away.

New York Trilogy��by Paul Auster. Three detective stories, which focus much more on the detective than the story. Intriguing and strange but pulled me in to the stories.

Jennifer Koviach-Cote, Associate Professor of Chemistry

The Civil War��by Shelby Foote
A Stillness at Appomattox��by Bruce Catton
Curtain��by Agatha Christie
Les Miserables��by Victor Hugo, trans. Julie Rose
Odd Thomas��by Dean Koontz
Peace Like a River��by Leif Enger
Bonhoeffer��by Eric Metaxas

Paul Kuritz, Professor of Theater

I am guessing others may have probably already mentioned this one but I just finished��The Paris Wife��and absolutely loved it! It kept my interest into the wee hours (even on school nights!).

Also,��The Help; might have been on last year’s list as I cannot remember when it came out but I just finished it a few months ago and still keep talking about it to people–telling everyone I know to read it. Probably one of the best books I have ever read–I cried, I laughed, was angry, mad, happy…you get the picture.

Cleopatra: A Life–wow…if only my history classes about Ancient Egypt had been this good!

Alli Lambert, Assoc. Director of Annual Giving, Parents’ Fund Director

Unfortunately this year my titles aren’t for the light-of-heart. That’s the way it is. Recommended:

Matterhorn: a novel of the Vietnam War��(N.Y. : Atlantic Monthly, 2010). Our Vietnam War, strictly grunt-side.

Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin��(N.Y. : Basic Books, 2010). An harrowing account of an horrible period in the history of East Europe. The numbers are staggering.

Jim Lamontage, Library Assistant- Cataloging

I’m only halfway through this but think it’s very interesting:��Unbroken��by Laura Hillenbrand

Genevieve Leslie, Assistant Director Alumni and Parent Programs

This past year I have read some of Carolyn Chute’s latest work, specifically��Merry Men,��Snow Man, and��The School on Heart’s Content Road. I liked them all, but I loved��Merry Men��so much I wanted to cry when it was over. I also read Nathaniel Philbrick’s��In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex��which was fabulous and horrifying all at the same time. Linda Greenlaw’s non-fiction is good beach reading. I could go on and on and on….don’t even get me started on kids’ books!

Heide Lester, Gift Administration Specialist, Office of College Advancement

This spring I’ve been reading��At Home on This Earth: Two Centuries of U.S. Women’s Nature Writing��edited by Lorraine Anderson and Thomas S. Edwards. It includes stories and excerpts from the works of over fifty women. I’ve enjoyed the better-known authors such as Ursula Le Guin, Louise Erdrich and Terry Tempest Williams but the best part has been discovering names that are new to me. One day I’m alongside Gene Stratton Porter as she observes and reflects upon the last passenger pigeons. Next I am on horseback with Mabel Dodge Luhan in the Southwest. And then I’m winter camping in the high country with Pam Houston, 32 below, and she’s the one lucky enough to have a dog snuggled into her sleeping bag. This is a great anthology.

Rebecca Lovett, Assistant Bookstore Manager

I feel fortunate to have been turned on to the author W.G. Sebald, “A writer of almost unclassifiable originality, but whose voice we recognize as indispensable and central to our time.” —The New York Times Book Review….and highly recommend the two books of his that I’ve read so far:

Austerlitz��– If the mark of a great novel is that it creates its own world, drawing in the reader with its distinctive rhythms and reverberations, then W.G. Sebald’s��Austerlitz��may be the first great novel of the new century. An unnamed narrator, resting in a waiting room of the Antwerp rail station in the late 1960s, strikes up a conversation with a student of architecture named Austerlitz, about whom he knows almost nothing. Over the next several years, the narrator often runs into his odd, engaging acquaintance by chance on his travels, until finally, after a gap of two decades, Austerlitz decides to tell the narrator the story of his life and of his search for his origins in wartime Europe. Slow and meditative, relying on the cumulative effect of its sedate, musical prose and its dark subject matter (illuminated here and there with hope), Sebald’s novel doesn’t overturn the conventions of fiction, but transcends them. It is a love story to history and vanished beauty. Don’t let the slow beginning turn you away.

After Nature��– Alas, Sebald didn’t live to see the National Book Critics Circle give him its 2001 fiction award forAusterlitz. At least readers have the consolation of this three-part prose poem, which limns the life journeys of Renaissance painter Matthias Grunewald, explorer/botanist Georg Stellar, and Sebald himself. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

“The language of��After Nature, as conveyed in Michael Hamburger’s flawlessly clear translation, is classically lucid…. It is [Sebald’s] ability to enter diverse inner landscapes, and evoke, with an impartial empathy, entire geographies of experience, that gives [his] writing…its gravitas and its somber beauty.” —The New York Times Book Review

Bill Low, Curator, Museum of Art

Anything by David Mitchell is spectacular, including his new book,��The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. I also really liked��Tinkers��by Paul Harding–an exquisitely written and achingly brief first book, and Richard Holmes’��Age of Wonder.

Kathy Low, Professor of Psychology

Here are some recent favorites…

Autobiography of Red (Anne Carson)
Is it poetry? Is it a novel in verse? A fable? A myth? However you define Carson’s distinctive and wildly inventive new work, it is riveting reading. At the center of the narrative is a winged red monster named Geryon; throughout, we see him struggling with his family, falling for the indifferent Herakles, and discovering photography as a means of comfort and escape. Wistful yet whimsical, offhand yet intense, funky yet erudite (Carson, a classics professor at McGill, grounds this work in ancient Greek myth), this is a reading experience like no other. -Library Journal

Nox (Anne Carson)
Starred Review. In order to discuss Carson’s latest work—a foldout, Jacob’s ladder collage of letters, photographs, and poetry, all housed in a beautiful box—one must first address its resistance to being addressed. Rather, what Carson does (and with furious precision) is impress upon us her grief over a life she cannot recapture—for Carson, this life is her brother’s, for whom this collection is both an elegy and a history. What results is a work of astonishing candor, in which Carson manages to define the elegy anew by exploring the lacunae of her brother’s life. It is when you are asking about something, she writes, that you realize you have survived it, and so you must carry it, or fashion it into a thing that carries itself. Carson accomplishes just that, creating a physical record of a life in the form of a book that allows its fragments to carry her brother’s absence. To call this art object extraordinary—more than a book, it’s a reproduction of a scroll Carson made by hand—would be to understate. What Carson has given us is an act of devotion of such integrity that it carries its grief on its back. -Publishers Weekly

High Wind in Jamaica (Richard Hughes)
“This brilliant, gorgeously written, highly entertaining, and apparently light-hearted idyll quickly reveals its true nature as a powerful and profoundly disquieting meditation on the meaning of loyalty and betrayal, innocence and corruption, truth and deception.” -Francine Prose

Heavenly Questions (Gjertrud Schackenberg)
“A fascinating invocation of the wonders of eternity, and a human relationship to eternal questions. Schnackenberg pursues these wonders on all fronts—in mathematical iterations as well as references to science and philosophy, and it is this integrated approach, along with the sheer density of her imagery, that characterizes her compelling new poetry collection.” -Aisha K. Down, The Harvard Crimson

For Now (William Eggleston)
For Now is the result of film-maker Michael Almereyda’s year-long rummage through the Eggleston archives, a remarkable collection of heretofore unseen images spanning four decades of work by one of our seminal artists. Unusual in its concentration on family and friends, the book highlights an air of offhand intimacy, typical of Eggleston and typically surprising. Afterword by Michael Almereyda

Perrin Joel Lumbert, Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery

Here’s my list – a repeat perhaps on the Belsky book, but for good reason…he might be coming to campus later in the fall to speak at our “Day of Slowing”:

Ethan Dahlin Magoon, Director of Creative Technology

I have been in murder mystery mood this year so my recommended books are from that genre.

In addition to these I highly recommend authors Julia Spencer-Fleming and Louise Penny. Start at the beginning of their series and you will be racing to get the next book. These two authors have quite a loyal following at �ֲ���ý!

Pete Morris Mystery Series��by Maine Author, Woody Hanstein
Woody Hanstein is a trial lawyer in Maine. His books are published by a small local press and each one is a gem. Were they published by a larger, more famous press, they would all be best sellers. Pete Morris, a small town lawyer, his family, friends and town develop and become more colorful as each book progresses. The plots are tight and innovative and you will find yourself cheering for Pete Morris.

A Drink Before the War��– Patrick Kensie Series – by Dennis Lehane
Author of Shutter Island, this is a very good, fast moving novel. The first in his Kenzie – Gennaro series about Boston private detectives and I am looking forward to reading the rest in the series.

Mary Main, Director of Human Resources

Forest Forensics, Tom Wessels
If you’ve read “Reading the Forested Landscape” (or even if you haven’t) you’ll love this! Tom Wessels, a master at interpreting the land use history of the Northeast woods, takes the precepts of his well-known book, condenses them into pocket size, adds clear and beautiful photos, and creates a field guide for figuring out what’s been going on in the land you walk. Ever seen a plow terrace? Of course–but maybe you didn’t know it. Stone walls, aging trees, fire scars, pastures vs. hay fields vs. crop fields? It makes your walk in the woods even more fun.

Cold Wind, C.J. Box
The latest in the Joe Pickett series, about a game warden who solves mysteries in the mountains and foothills of Wyoming. This novel is interconnected with wind energy development, and deals with many of the same questions Maine has been debating. An intriguing mix of personalities and issues; it may entice you to read the series backwards.

The Last days of Ptolemy Grey, Walter Mosley
How often do you get to see the world through the eyes of a 91-year-old (that is, until you become one?) Ptolemy Grey, living alone in a Los Angeles apartment and becoming progressively isolated, suddenly finds a way to take action that makes a difference in his own life and that of his extended family and neighbors. He proves it’s never too late to be a hero.
The Ice Princess, Camilla Lackberg
Complicated characters unravel a complicated murder in the tiny town of Fjallbacka, Sweden. The cold permeates…

The Map of True Places, Brunonia Barry
A respected psychotherapist deals with a patient’s suicide, reexamines her own life, and redraws her existing map of both her past and future. Caring for an aging, and ailing, parent helps her figure out what is most important for the rest of her life: not what she thought it was.

Judy Marden ’66, Retiree

Jean Auel released the 6th and final installment of her Earth Children series in March 2011.��The Land of Painted Caves��was a great finish to Ayla and Jondalar’s Journey. And if you haven’t read the first 5 books, don’t worry. The book stands up on its own.

Karen McArthur, ILS, Systems Analyst

One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd��by Jim Fergus

“An American western with a most unusual twist, this is an imaginative fictional account of the participation of May Dodd and others in the controversial “Brides for Indians” program, a clandestine U.S. government-sponsored program intended to instruct “savages” in the ways of civilization and to assimilate the Indians into white culture through the offspring of these unions.” Excellent!

Outlander��by Diana Gabaldon
“A 600-page time-travel romance, strong-willed and sensual Claire Randall leads a double life with a husband in one century, and a lover in another. Torn between fidelity and desire, she struggles to understand the pure intent of her heart. But don’t let the number of pages and the Scottish dialect scare you. It’s one of the fastest reads you’ll have in your library.” I LOVED this book. It will be on my list of all time favorites. Can’t wait to read the sequel and more of Gabaldon’s books.

Winter Garden��by Kristin Hannah
“Pacific Northwest apple country provides a beautiful, chilly setting for this family drama ignited by the death of a loving father whose two daughters have grown apart from each other and from their acid-tongued, Russian-born mother. How these three women find each other and themselves with the help of vodka and a trip to Alaska competes for emotional attention with the story within a story of WWII Leningrad.” An intense, good read about family relationships. I picked it up in an airport and couldn’t put it down.

Laurie McConnell, Carnegie Science AAA

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Society, by MaryAnn Shaffer & Annie Barrows
A great story told through correspondences between the characters, giving the reader a glimpse into the lives of the people in London and the island of Guernsey during the latter part of WWII and the months of recovery following the war. It’s like finding a footlocker full of letters and learning a history of a family or group of friends through the eyes of other people. Very entertaining.

Left Neglected, by Lisa Genova
Lisa has done it again! She has written an intriguing story about a woman whose life has been changed by a disabling phenomenon caused by a car accident. The woman in the story describes her life before the accident and the trials of living with a brain that no longer comprehends the meaning of “left”. Lisa’s story-telling style makes the character wonderfully “real” by pulling in research and medical prognoses in a way that lets one feel what the main character is feeling and allows one to celebrate her accomplishments as she progresses in her abilities to do things normally taken for granted.

For those who enjoy historical novels – or have considered reading one – I recommend two books by Kenneth Roberts,��Arundel��and��Rabble in Arms, that describe events during the American Revolution occurring in Maine and New England and Quebec, Canada. The novels are rich with descriptions of the people and lands of Maine, the trials and tribulations of the colonists who lived during that time and fought in the skirmishes and battles that took place along the St. John and Hudson Rivers, and beyond… As someone who has participated in living history events, I found Mr. Roberts’ characters and activities to be accurately depicted and believable.

Monica McCusker, Office Coordinator, �ֲ���ý College Store

For some light reading I recommend��The 13th Hour��by Richard Doetsch. For anyone who enjoys mysteries and thrillers this has a unique and interesting twist as there is a time-travel element. The story unfolds backwards as Nick Quinn, the protagonist, is accused of having just murdered his beloved wife in the opening pages of Chapter 1 and is mysteriously presented with a way to relive the previous 12 hours of the day, hour by hour, in a race to save his wife and, in doing so, make right other events related to her murder. It isn’t the strongest writing but it is clever, the plot is fast-paced, and the time-travel threads are deftly handled by Doestch. I also recommend��On Writing��by Stephen King. The title suggests an instruction manual on the subject of writing but this is much more. It is both a captivating memoir with Mr. King sharing recollections of his life and their influence on his writing style, as well as an instruction manual for the student of writing with suggested readings, writing assignments, and advice on the business of writing. I’m actually not a huge fan of his fiction but found this to be an engrossing read as well as an insightful and inspiring writing instruction manual.

Mary Meserve, Registrar

Here’s a recent favorite.
Patti Smith:��Just Kids.

Dan Mills, Director of the Museum of Art

Best American Short Stories, 2010, edited by Richard Russo.
For that matter, any edition of BASS – little gems, every one.

Mr. Bloomfield’s Orchard, Nicholas Money
A mycologist’s view of the world. Fungal, pithy and sexy. I found my first��Phallus ravenelii��shortly after reading this book and laughed myself silly.

Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein
First read when I was 13. I think I missed a few things first time around. Like Heinlein’s pro-sexual liberation, homophobic stance.

How We Die, Sherwin Nuland
For those of who aren’t content to just enjoy the ride, it’s nice to know how it might end.

How Democratic is the American Constitution?��Robert A. Dahl
I’m still digesting this one. Get back to me.

The Economic Naturalist, Robert A. Frank
Great browse for fun facts.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Stephen King
Concise, great plot, character development and pace. Didn’t know King had it in him.

Faith for Beginners, Aaron Hamburger
Quirky first novel. Nice gay Jewish boy recovering from a little drug problem goes off to Israel with his neurotic family and falls in love with a nice gay Palestinian boy. What could go wrong?

Today’s Best Maine Fiction, edited by Wesley McNair
Again, little gems, every one.

The Frontrunner, Patricia Nell Warren
Written in the 70’s it’s considered a classic of gay fiction. I thought it was dreadful.

Grief, Andrew Holleran
Pensive, repetitious, sepia-toned novel, based in contemporary Washington, D.C., muses on the death of a parent and what might Mary Todd Lincoln have done in a similar situation. There’s grief and then there’s depression. I think this book would have been better titled the latter.

Spiral, Paul McEuen
Bioluminescent fungus, killer bacteria, micro robots tending an herbarium, murder, espionage and a love story. What more could you want? Fantastic thriller – loved it!

Teague Morris, Interim Technology Coordinator, BCDC

I’m probably a few years behind, but some of my favorite books read in the past few months are:

Cutting for Stone��(Verghese)
The Glass Castle��(Walls)
Sarah’s Key��(de Rosnay)
Water for Elephants��(Gruen)
Atlas Shrugged��(Ayn Rand)
The Fountainhead��(Ayn Rand)
QB VII��(Leon Uris)
Trinity (Leon Uris)
Watership Down��(Adams)
1984��(Geo. Orwell)
Animal Farm��(Geo. Orwell)
The Stand��(Stephen King)
Into Thin Air��(Krakauer)The Endurance
The World According to Garp��(Irving)
It’s Not About the Bike��(Lance Armstrong)
Horton Hears a Who��(Seuss)

Steve Mortimer, Advancement

Favorite non-fiction of the year:��Bossypants��by Tina Fey
I feel like if the title and the author haven’t already sucked you in, then maybe you need to check out the two photos of Tina Fey that appear on the book jacket. If those pictures don’t compel you to read this book, then you probably don’t have a sense of humor.

In all sincerity, this book is so much more than funny. This will be widely read by young women for years to come, and much is being made lately of the role Fey has played for female writers and comediennes in the past decade or so, but there’s something in this for everyone. It’s also the perfect Read Before Bed Book because the chapters are perfectly chunked stories that will end your day on a warm fuzzy note.

Favorite fiction of the year:��One Day��by David Nicholls
This is the perfect book to read in print if you are a lady, or the perfect book to read on an e-reader if you are a man, because the cover is absolutely ridiculous. Its splashy hot pink and neon orange title and kissy-faced silhouettes look like every run-of-the-mill chicklit available for 75% off in bargain bins around the country, but it could not be more un-that. The story traces Em and Dex, on the same day (the titular “one day”) for two decades as they develop their relationship – which is at times friendship, romance, or antagonism. These are some of the most genuinely human characters I’ve seen written and that humanity gives the book an accessibility that makes it incredibly easy to “see yourself” in. Hollywood is of course paying off on such a cinema-ready theme by making it into a movie being released this summer that is surely going to play up the more “rom-com” aspects of the story, so read it fast so you can say you read it first and “the book was better.”

Favorite Unreleased Book of the Year that I Already Know I am Going to Love and Here’s Why…:��Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN��by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales

These are the guys that brought us��Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live��back in 2002. If you’ve not yet read that amazing oral history, you’ve just got to, because it is amazing. After seeing the thorough treatment these authors (really, more “story curators” I like to think) gave to the living-breathing cultural institution that is SNL, I am practically beside myself with excitement for what they’ll do for ESPN. If you like inside scoop, juicy but real gossip and honest-to-goodness great storytelling, I’d highly recommend both of these books. (Releases May 24, 2011)

Carrie Murphey, Housing Coordinator and Residential Life Assistant

Here’s my recommendations from my reading this past year:

The Moonflower Vine��by Jetta Carleson: A languorous, compelling story of a Missouri farm family in its early 20th century beginnings and late 20th century adulthood. Beautifully written. Jane Smiley put it on her list of “100 greatest novels” and I can see why, even though I am only half way through.

Deafening��by Francis Itani: A powerful, psychologically rich rendering of a woman’s life without hearing blended with the life of her love in and after WWI.

Bury Your Dead��by Louise Penny: This latest of the Inspector Gamache series has set me to reading them all. Good yarns set in Canada. Light stuff, but if you like detective stories, this one’s terrific, with characters you want as friends and three intertwined mysteries to keep you guessing.

Wolf Hall��by Hilary Mantel: Historical fiction very well done. See Henry VIII through the eyes and life of Thomas Cromwell.

Middlemarch, by George Eliot: Fortunately, I didn’t have to read this book in high school. Today I can appreciate it. Another slow tale with a now predictable plot. But the psychological insights of the author give the book some modern force.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo��and its sequels by Stieg Larsson: I inhaled these. Not for the squeamish.
Michael Murray, Charles Franklin Phillips Professor of Economics

Alice Bliss��by Laura Harrington. Full disclosure: author is my best friend from college, but this is also a wonderful, aching coming-of-age book about a girl whose father is deployed to Iraq.��Alice Bliss��looks at the devastating impact of the current wars on families and communities. This book goes on sale around Memorial Day.

The Imperfectionists��by Tom Rachman. It turns out��The Imperfectionists��is��perfect. It’s a group of character profiles, it’s a bunch of short stories, it’s a novel — structurally genius. A brilliant story of a crumbling English-language newspaper in Rome.

Private Life��by Jane Smiley. This is an incredible book about a mindful woman, a suffocating marriage, the pursuit of scientific “truth,” and the tumultuous epoch in San Francisco between the earthquake and the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II.

Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry��by Leanne Shapton. This book should be required reading for the Material Culture GEC. Book artist, illustrator, and writer Leanne Shapton reveals an entire relationship — in amazing depth and sophistication — through a faux auction catalogue of a fictional couple’s belongings. In its attention to authentic detail, it could easily pass for a catalogue from a major auction house, but them when you start looking closer… it’s unbelievable.

If you want to look really erudite at the beach this summer, pick up a copy of Kirk Read’s new book,��Birthing Bodies in Early Modern France: Stories of Gender and Reproduction. I can honestly say I have read this great book many times. It’s a fascinating look at the most intimate and contested aspects of life in Renaissance France, from literature and social life to gender politics and sexuality identity. A��tour de force, if I may borrow from the French!

Kerry O’Brien, Assistant Dean of the Faculty

Eye of the World��by Robert Jordan – I’m two-thirds way through first book and there are twelve more to go! For those who enjoy fantasy/fiction, it’s one of the best Here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia which defines quite well….”The series draws on numerous elements of both European and Asian mythology, most notably the cyclical nature of time found in����and����and the concepts of��,��, and a matter-of-fact respect for nature found in��. It was also partly inspired by��‘s��.

You may have received numerous reviews for��My Name is Mary Sutter��by Robin Oliveira – the book that BOPN read over the summer – wonderfully written with a meaningful look at the civil war in the eyes of a woman who wants to help as a doctor and the obstacles she goes through to prove herself

Lori Ouellette, Administrative Assistant-Dean of the Faculty’s Office

My suggestion is��Made for You and Me, a memoir by Caitlin Shetterly.

My take: A Maine author describes in raw honesty her young family’s journey from Maine to California, and back. A Maine lens on the struggles of an American family during the most recent recession. Overall, a funny and heartwarming/heartbreaking story of failure, family and finding what is important. Bonus: I had the privilege of meeting and having dinner with this author and she is every bit what the memoir portrays.

Amie Parker, Employment Manager – Human Resources

Books I’d like to finish/read:

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Juno Diaz – Quirky and sad but interesting story of Oscar and his family from the Dominican Republic and their assimilation into US culture. Hampshire College gave it to their incoming Fall 2010 first year students to read over the summer. I’m having some trouble getting into it, but since it’s a Pulitzer-prize winner…I feel I should try. I don’t know why. Sigh.

Luka and the Fire of Life, Salman Rushdie’s sequel to��Haroun and the Sea of Stories, which I loved.

A Widow’s Story: a Memoir, Joyce Carol Oates

The Alice Behind Wonderland, Simon Winchester

Carole Parker, Library Assistant-Acquisitions

The Whistling Season��by Ivan Doig- Set in rural Montana in the early 1900’s, the story surrounds a father and his 3 sons who decide to employ a widow as a housekeeper. Her advertisement in the newspaper is, “Can’t cook but won’t bite”. To their surprise, her brother arrives as well. What follows is a wonderful story of their lives over the next year and the transformations that ensue.

A Member of the Wedding��by Carson McCullers – Written in 1946, this autobiographical novel focuses on a 12 year old adolescent as she struggles with feelings of loneliness, anger, anticipation and anxiety during the 3 days prior to her older brother’s wedding. The author is so adept in her writing that she transports you back to your own adolescence- for better or worse. At the same time, she creates a setting and relationships that confront issues of sexuality, racism, and gender. Remarkable for a short book.

Camille Parrish, Learning Associate-Environmental Studies

Moloka’i��by Alan Brennert. Moloka’i is the island leper colony to which Hawaiians with leprosy were sent from the mid 1800’s through the 1930’s. This book tells the tale of a young girl with leprosy, and describes her time at Moloka’i. In addition to creating compelling characters and a compelling story, the book is also full of Hawaiian history and culture (so rich!) and information about leprosy (now called Hansen’s disease) and its impact on not only those who contracted the disease, but rest of the community as well. I couldn’t put this one down.

These Is My Words��by Nancy E. Turner. This tale is based on the writings of one of the authors’ ancestors, Sarah Prime, and shares her journey of making her way as a woman in the unsettled southwestern United States in the 1800’s. I loved how the narration of this book changed as the central character grows and learns.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog��by Muriel Barbery. Okay, I’ll admit it. I bought this book at Marden’s, several years ago – because I liked the title, and I just loved the look and feel of the published book. But then, I read it. I was blown away by the insights and perceptions, if not by the characters who live such painfully beautiful contradictions. It is brilliantly written and oh, so very human.

Ellen Peters, Director of Institutional Research and Assessment

If you want to escape and just be engrossed in good old fashioned thrillers with good guys, bad guys and some unpredictable twists and turns try Jack Dubrul and Douglas Preston. My selections from Dubrul included��River of Ruin,��Charon’s Landing,��The Medusa Stone,��Pandora’s Curse��and��Havoc. The hero is a geologist and there are often some historical tie-ins for those who like to speculate about the details of obscure events in history. It’s always good to imagine there is a person of exceptional character and intellect who can save the world from its most evil inhabitants.

Douglas Preston often writes with Lincoln Child though they both write their own thrillers from time to time.Tyrannosaur Canyon��was my most recent read and it was fast paced and intense. Preston managed to tie together an Apollo moon walk, a murder in the high mesa country near Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, the New York Museum of Natural History, dinosaurs, a special CIA operative, a scientist, a convict who never should have been let out of prison, a monk novitiate who has an interesting past and a couple of characters of high moral fiber from a previous novel. It was great fun and didn’t last nearly long enough.

For more serious reading, if you are interested in zoos, I read three very different books. It started when we planned a March vacation which included time in Tampa, Florida. We have visited lots of zoos on various vacations and there was a recent book,��The Zoo Story��by Thomas French, which was written specifically about the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa. One review describes it as��Animals Make Us Human��meets��An Inconvenient Truth. It’s a history of the evolution of this particular zoo which includes some very pointed questions about the ethics of keeping animals in captivity, especially the elephants saved from culling and brought to Florida.��The Zoo Story��doesn’t answer the questions for you but it sure makes you think. It changed the way I experienced this particular zoo. But then it led me to want to know more about the two sides of the argument. So I read��Last Animals at the Zoo��by Colin Tudge. Tudge is a British science journalist with a comfortable style and an occasional clever wit. While I found a lot of reasons to be comfortable about the way zoos have been re-inventing themselves some of his arguments seemed a bit weak. So I looked for something that might represent the other side of the argument. What I found was��Metamorphoses of the Zoo��edited by Ralph Acampora. This was not a pleasant experience for me. The essays collected for this book made me angry. I suppose one reason we read is to arouse our emotions but something about the style and arrogance of these essays really disturbed me without really helping me to fully understand the other side of the captive animal argument. I think it was too much idealism and not enough reality, though there were some pretty realistic facts about mortality of captive animals.

Ray Potter, Environmental Health and Safety Manager

Salt��by Jeremy Page. This is an odd, first-novel by a British screenwriter. I picked it up at “The Big Chicken Barn” in Ellsworth (if you haven’t been there and you love a good browse amidst old books and antiques, it’s well worth the trip!) because it looked enticing. This line from a “Booklist” review captures the essence. “Every story heads towards tragedy, given the time,” writes Pip, the mute teenage narrator in Page’s bleak debut set in marshy, mid–twentieth century Norfolk, England.��Quirky characters and the pervasive theme of water build a story that reads like a dark fairy tale.

Freedom��by Jonathan Franzen. This was my first Franzen novel and a pretty good read. I came away from the novel empathizing most with Richard. Does that seem right? I think I was supposed to be more connected to Patty! Let me know what you think!

Interpreter of Maladies��by Jhumpa Lahiri. I can recommend this read wholeheartedly!

And in my ongoing effort to check off yet another title from “1001 Novels to Read Before You Die,” I am finally reading��Madame Bovary��by Flaubert. The edition is a Doubleday, 1997 hardcover translation by Mildred Marmur. While thetranslation is a bit 1990s, I have to admit that this particular edition is a tactile pleasure—an eReader could never duplicate this delight! I recommend finding the real book and enjoying every page.

Sarah Potter, Bookstore Director

Norman Maclean,��A River Runs Through It and Other Stories��(1976). Basis of the movie. A reminiscence of growing up in the West in close-knit family in the early 20th century. Light touch, but with depth. Long time English professor at the University of Chicago.

Diane Ackerman,��The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story��(2007). A true survival story of people trying to maintain the Warsaw Zoo after the Nazis came in during World War II. Loss of animals; hiding Jews; connections to the Warsaw Ghetto; and rebuilding after the war.

Mark Kurlansky,��Salt: A World History��(2002). Who knew Salt could be so interesting. His point is that only in the last century has salt been plentiful enough that cities and countries no longer rise and fall based on harvesting and using salt. Lots of recipes going back hundreds and thousands of years. And lots of history.

Kate Buford,��Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe��(2010). Just bought this for a long summer read after hearing Buford speak. Biography of a great athlete, but history in the context of being an American Indian in the early 20th century. 1912 Olympian; major league baseball and professional football player.

Jack Pribram, Professor Emeritus of Physics

The book that I am more than half way through reading is��Saved By Her Enemy��by Don Teague, and Rafraf Barrak. This a compelling and remarkable story of a Muslim woman living under the regime of Saddam Hussein, and totally convinced that Americans were her enemies. She was hired to work with the American press and slowly learning the truth about her country’s dictator. Her experiences with the outrage of her family and friends, their fear of retaliation because of her relationship with the American press was difficult to even imagine.I am not finished with the book so I cannot expound on her experiences once she came to the U.S. I have been so busy and too tired to read at night lately.

Carmen Purdy, Assistant Director, Office of Equity and Diversity Resources

Gender Outlaws: the Next Generation, coedited by S. Bear Bergman and Kate Bornstein, hot off the presses, 2010.��There are more people to learn from than Chaz Bono. Great essays, poems, and more.

Erica Rand, Professor of Art & Visual Culture

London��by Edward Rutherfurd. Easy summer read. If you enjoy historical novels with the temporal sweep of James Michener, you love this book. A history of the city from Roman times to the present through the eyes of generations of seven families. Also by Mr. Rutherfurd-��Sarum��(history of the Salisbury Plain in England) andRusska��(a history of Russia).

Thinking in Pictures��by Temple Grandin. For anyone whose had to deal with learning disabilities and undiagnosed autism, this is a great resource. Temple Grandin’s life story (she is autistic) is a real inspiration for developing strategies to deal with the non-autistic world.

John Rasmussen, Project Manager, Facility Services

Abigail Adams, Woody Holton

Jill Reich, Dean of the Faculty

We Took to the Woods��by Louise Dickinson Rich
Louise’s description of life on the Rapid River in the 1940’s was very soothing to me after reading the Stieg Larsson trilogy.

Julie Retelle, Assistant College Librarian for Access Services

LEGO: A Love Story��by Jonathan Bender
If you ever played with Lego, if you or someone you know is a “collector” or “fanboy” of anything, you will enjoy this. I recognized way too much of myself in there. Laughing out loud kind of read.

The Hunger Games,��Catching Fire, and��Mockingjay��by Suzanne Collins
This trilogy sounds awful: kids used in a to-the-death televised contest in a post-apocalyptic USA but it’s insanely addictive. Don’t get caught finishing one without the next one in hand!

Brenda Reynolds, Audio Supervisor, Ladd Library

It hasn’t been a year with a “You have to read this book!” experience for me, but here are a few I enjoyed:

The Ranger’s Apprentice��series by John Flanagan. I just finished the last of the 10 books in this younger adult series, about a young Ranger (think Strider from the Fellowship of the Ring) as his undergoes his initial training to growing up and saving the kingdom. Fun adventures, the importance of friendships, finding your gifts. Good summer reads for girls and boys.

The Ghost Writer��by Robert Harris. I haven’t seen the movie, but enjoyed this thriller where a ghost writer asks just a few too many questions while writing the memoirs of a former British Prime Minister.

The Magicians��by Lev Grossman. Harry Potter for grown-ups, not kids. Some nice twists on the wizard genre and I’m hoping for a second book.

The Handmaids Tale��by Margaret Atwood. Still haunting and creepy after all these years. I recently re-read this after reading her very strange After the Flood, and it really makes me wonder about her World View.
Next on my list is a book many in my book group love,��The Forest Lover��by Susan Vreeland. This is a fictional rendering of the life of Emily Carr, a Canadian painter from the earlier 20th century.

Stephanie Richards, Visiting Assistant Professor, Biology

I have read the book��The Help��and it was incredible (the audio version is even better as you can hear the southern accents – makes me think of home).

I am also currently reading��Belong to Me��by Marisa De los Santos. I don’t have time to read much fiction, but so far this one is a winner and well worth the read.

Marsha Roy, ILS Programmer Analyst

The Elegance of the Hedgehog��by Muriel Barbery

Bronwyn Sale, Lecturer in Education

I Was a Dancer, Jacques D’Amboise – great story-teller as all who attended his book tour lectures here and in Portland can attest. Wonderful personal “gossip” about the ballet greats from the ’40s to the ’80s.

The Honey Thief, Elizabeth Graver – easy read about an 11 year old girl and her mom and their move to the country for a “geography cure” for her petty theft habits.

Songs of Three Islands, Milicent Monks – autobiography by Cape Elizabeth woman who started Ram Island Dance Company (alum, John Carrafa, danced their), about her family’s history and struggle w/mental illness. Compelling story from a woman who now does education and fund-raising events about mental illness and the effects on families. Great love story, too, and wonderful that someone of her stature is “out” about this still taboo subject.

Nancy Salmon, Assistant Director of the �ֲ���ý Dance Festival

Ishmael : An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit��by Daniel Quinn

Sharon Saunders, Systems and Catalog Librarian

I loved��The Warmth of Other Suns��by Isabel Wilkerson.

I also enjoyed��The Fiddler in the Subway��by Gene Weingarten and Connie Willis’ books-��Blackout��and��All Clear.

Paula Schlax, Associate Professor of Chemistry

The Reluctant Fundamentalist��by Mohsin Hamid.

Susan Schomburg, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies

Cutting for Stone, Verghese

Laura Sewall, Assistant Director, HCCP

I really like��The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe��by Theodore Gray and Nick Mann. Light, funny, and educational reading!

Anthony Shostak, Education Curator, Museum of Art

Alice Walker,��Now is the Time to Open Your Heart. Kate, the protagonist, is a well-published author, something like Alice Walker, and goes through a transformational magical journey where she confronts herself as she travels down the Colorado River, into the Amazon jungle, and into her deep inner places. She meets shamans, and other mysterious spiritual guides. Riveting and full of wisdom, laughter, love and sorrow — a classic Walker mix!

Carol Schaefer,��Grandmothers Counsel the World. I studied with these 13 indigenous elders at Omega Institute in October, and it changed my life forever. Women Elders offer their vision for our planet. A collection of each of their stories (with pictures) filled with wisdom told “as if the future matters.”

Joanna Macy,��Pass It On: Five Stories That Can Change the World. 5 stories that will inspire and bear witness that collective faith and effort can transform our consciousness and help heal the planet. It will leave you open to possibility.

Jack Kornfield,��The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace. If you’ve read Jack Kornfield, then the title says it all. If not, the title probably still says a lot, and you should be prepared to experience the tranformative power of forgiveness, and “to remember that no matter where you are and what you face, within your heart peace is possible.”

Lama Surya Das,��Buddha Is As Buddha Does. “We are all Buddhas by nature. We only have to recognize and awaken to that fact — and anyone can do it.” This book can help you get there, it surely was inspirational and life-changing for me. The author writes in a down-to-earth, wise, humorous and clear way. He’s a GREAT teacher!

Karen Maezen Miller,��Hand Wash Cold. A very playful, yet profound exploration of what it means to be aware within our daily routines. Here is an ordinary woman, finding happiness and wisdom at the bottom of a laundry basket, and love in the kitchen sink. I LOVED this book! Wise and gentle and reminds us of the preciousness of our lives.

Susan Moon,��This is Getting Old: Zen Thoughts on Aging with Humor and Dignity. The subtitle says it all! These stories about getting old and aging with grace is funny, wise, sad, and deeply moving. The intimate style and vulnerability of the author are totally engaging. How to face death — your own and others — and the in between stages — with grace and humor, looking at every stage as an opportunity to “be here now.”

Bonnie Shulman, Associate Professor of Mathematics

John Coltrane: His Life and Music��by Lewis Porter.
A great biography of a major jazz figure that includes lots of musical analysis to aid the aspiring jazz musician, as well as copious notes and a complete chronology of Trane’s performances and recording sessions.

John Smedley, Professor of Physics

The Rest is Noise��by Alex Ross.

Submitted by Dean Stein, Violin Teacher

I just enjoyed “reading” P. D. James’ murder mystery, The Murder Room, on a drive down to Cape Cod to visit my mother. I hold James’ writing in high esteem, especially for the social and psychological detail she gives to each one of her very different characters. When I read the “about the author” statement at the back of the book, I realized that James, just like my favorite Japanese mystery writer, Miyuki Miyabe, had a career as a civil servant working with the public before becoming a writer. James worked in London, Miyabe in Tokyo. That social work career seems to be where both writers acquired the rich knowledge they show of human character and the many varied social situations of urban life. I recommend both James’ The Murder Room and Miyabe’s For All She Was Worth for anyone who loves a good plot and lots of social detail. Reading both would be a nice cross-cultural exploration.

Sarah Strong, Professor of Japanese

This year, a little said about a lot.

Pen of Iron��by Robert Alter details the influence of the majestic style of the King James Bible on American literature.

Wolf Hall��by Hilary Mantel (widely recommended and finally read) is a fictional/factual account of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s faithful fixer.

The Meaning of Everything��by Simon Winchester is a history of dictionaries, mostly the most famous of all dictionaries – the OED, and its principal shepherd, James Murray.

Passionate Sage��by Joseph Ellis is a biography, using the subject’s own correspondence, of John Adams, to whom Ellis refers as “… perhaps the most misunderstood and underappreciated great man in American history.”

William Blackstone��by Wilfrid Prest is the story of the Oxford Doctor of the Civil Law who became the most famous chronicler of the Common Law.

Religious Literacy��by Stephen Prothero makes the claim that, while America is probably the most devout of modern Western nations, it is also the one most ignorant of religion. Prothero aims to correct this with his primer on Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

My list ends with two books on the history of libraries –��Library: An Unquiet History��by Matthew Battles, andThe Library: An Illustrated History��by Stuart A. P. Murray. I should add to these a book of gorgeous photographs of libraries at home,��At Home with Books��by Estelle Ellis, et al. And if your home happens to be Chatsworth, you might be able to say, like the current Duke of Devonshire, “What I set out to do was to produce a library so wide-ranging that a person of reasonable education could stay there for two years and emerge quite happy.” And lastly, the last word on books, the ultimate book on books, the “Companion” of all Oxford “Companions” –��The Oxford Companion to the Book.

Sheila wants to add one more book that she thoroughly enjoyed,��Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand��by Helen Simenon, finding it “utterly charming.”

Sawyer Sylvester, Professor of Sociology (and Sheila Sylvester, Administrative Assistant Emerita, Dean of the Faculty’s Office)

Edmund de Waal,��The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Family’s Century of Art and Loss.

It’s really hard to describe this book, as the long title perhaps suggests. It begins with the author’s account of inheriting a collection of Japanese netsuke, tiny delicately carved objects often used as ties for a kimono. His investigation traces the history of the first owner, the wealthy nineteenth century Jewish art collector, Charles Ephrussi who lived in Paris, and was a partial model for Proust’s Swann. From there the trail leads to Vienna and “the tears of things” as de Waal writes of what happened to the Ephrussi family during World War II. The book moves slowly at first, and it took me a while to get into it, but by the end I was reading more and more slowly because I just didn’t want it to end. De Waal is a wonderful and meticulous writer, and I know this description doesn’t do justice to the book, but it’s a must read for anyone who has time.

Emma Donoghue,��Room

And now for something completely different! A popular page-turner of a novel which I avoided for a long time because the description sounded like some kind of soft porn horror story: girl kidnapped by pervert, kept in locked room for years, gives birth to a son while she’s there… And yes, Donoghue admits the idea first came from the real life creep who did something like this. BUT it’s really a wonderful, even inspiring book. What moved me was the way the girl creates in one tiny room, where her only resources are her imagination and an ancient black and white tv, a world that is rich enough for her and her child to survive.

Anne Thompson, Professor Emerita of English

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle��by Barbara Kingsolver
If you read just one book this year, read this one. It’s eye-opening and inspiring, while still being an entertaining story. Kingsolver takes us through a year’s worth of eating locally with her family (much of which they grew on their own farm). Heartfelt, funny, informative, and timely, with recipes to boot!

Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri

Liana Thompson, Office Coordinator, Multifaith Chaplaincy

Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel, is a wonderful book. It won the Man Booker Prize a couple of years ago.

Tom Tracy, Phillips Professor of Religious Studies

Kazuo Ishiguro (Remains of the Day) has “five stories of music and nightfall”, from a crooner to a cellist:Nocturnes.

Manning Henkel has another Kurt Wallender mystery:��Wallender’s Last Case. Do you think it really is?

And in anticipation, Adam Hocschild has a new book out that got a rave review from Christopher Hitchens recently:��To End All Wars. The “First” World War focusing on the men on the ground. (Apparently a French diplomat, upon seeing the terms of the Versailles Treaty, mumbled “the peace to end all peace”! Part of the argument is that the First World War lasted until the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, with a brief truce between 1919 and 1939.

Dick Wagner, Professor Emeritus of Psychology

Here is my suggestion:��How to Cook Everything, Completely Revised 10th Anniversary Edition:2,000 Simple Recipes for Great Food, by Mark Bittman.

Simply put, this book was a revolution in my kitchen. It is the perfect guide for making the transition from “bachelor-cooking” (everything goes in one pot and it is usually pasta!) to “family cooking” (this has to be a balanced meal because now there are kids involved!) Rather than being a compendium of finicky recipes, it is a how-to book for cooking just about anything they sell in your grocery store. It walks you through the process of getting the basic cooking techniques down for everything from simple hard-boiled eggs to the perfect soufflé, then lets you expand your horizons by suggesting variations, tasty add-ins, etc. I use it basically day!

Phil Walsh, Office of College Advancement, Assoc. Director, Gov’t. and Foundation Relations

Legacy of Ashes��– Tim Weiner
Shadow Country��– Peter Matthiessen
Heaven and Hell��– Jon Kalman Stefansson
Bachelor Brothers Bed and Breakfast��– Bill Richardson

Andrew White, Director of User Services, ILS

So what’s different about this year? I usually listen to the news on the way to work and back. Sometime around the election in November I decided it isn’t a good idea to arrive at work angry, and especially not a good idea to arrive home that way. So I started diligently listening to audio books instead. This year has thus been the year of, among other things, Ivan Doig, whose writing about Montana, growing up, and growing old is an excellent antidote to contemporary politics. I have not met anyone who thought my recommendation to read��The Whistling Season(2006) was off base. It’s a fictional account of growing up in Montana, matched in “real life” by his Montana memoir��This House of Sky��(1978). His trilogy��Dancing at the Rascal Fair��(1987),��English Creek��(1984) andRide with Me, Mariah Montana��(1990) creates 100 years of fictional Montana family history that you won’t want to end. These combine to make a fine recipe for peaceful thoughts.

Gene Wiemers, Vice President for ILS and Librarian

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things, by Randy Frost & Gail Steketee. Good if you are thinking about downsizing.

Handle with Care, by Jodi Picoult. Interesting medical and legal dilemmas.

The Hare with Amber Eyes, by Edmund de Waal. True tale of family treasures (netsukes) found, then lost, then found.

Shell Game, by Sarah R. Shaber. Beach reading – Professor Simon Shaw the forensic historian.

Anne Williams, Professor Emerita of Economics

A Proper Education for Girls��by Elaine diRollo
A tale of twin sisters in Victorian England (1857). One sent to India and the other remaining in her father’s bizarre country home. It can be described as a fairytale, Gothic romance mixed with realism but that doesn’t do it justice. The characters are eccentric, strong willed females, a father obsessed with scientific discoveries. By turns silly, serious and surprising.

LaVerne Winn, Science Reference Librarian, Ladd Library

I just had this book returned to me ten years (!!) after a friend borrowed it, and was reminded of how good it is:
Counting Coup: A True Story of Basketball and Honor on the Little Big Horn��by Larry Colton.

Colton went to the Little Big Horn reservation hoping to do a newspaper story on the HS boys’ basketball team, but instead found that the girls’ bball team was where all the drama was at. He follows the girls’ team the entire school year, and it’s absolutely riveting and heartbreaking.

Jenny Woodruff , Lecturer, Music Department

Receiving 3 or more recommendations on the 15th annual list!

• Cutting for Stone (Verghese)
• Girl with the Dragon Tatoo and the rest of the series (Larsson)
• Sarah’s Key (de Rosnay)
• The Help (Stockett)
• Left Neglected (Genova)
• Wolf Hall (Mantel)

Submissions are listed alphabetically by surname of the submitter. In an effort to conserve paper, we have condensed the list with very little regard for design or spacing! We apologize for overcrowding, typographical errors or other misrepresentations.
Our annual thanks to our friends in Office Services for getting this list into booklet format with blazing speed and to our friend in Communications and Media Relations for their assistance with our web version of the list.

Compiled and edited by Sarah Potter, Bookstore Director, 5/11

In a new twist this year, submitters were also asked to suggest that one book they’d like to have with them if they were shipwrecked on a deserted, tropical island for several months. So, look for a few��titles for desert-island reading in this, the��11th annual “Non-required Reading List, or Good Reads for Leisure Moments.”

Lee Abrahamsen, Associate Professor of Biology:

The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan
Interesting biology, history, philosophy and sociology. About how “domesticated” plants have changed us while we thought we were changing them. Great writing and some very provocative ideas. Just enough humor.

Rise and Shine, Anna Quindlan
A good story about two sisters and how they deal with life and each other. If you like Quindlan’s easy style, you’ll like this one. A good, not-at-all-taxing read.

Wickett’s Remedy, Maya Goldberg
This is a sort of historical novel about a fictitious character in Boston during the 1918 flu epidemic. It was a good story. Being the infectious disease geek that I am, I was disappointed that there wasn’t more about the flu epidemic itself, but normal people will probably be grateful for that. I also like Goldberg’s earlier novel Bee Season about a girl who finds that she’s good at spelling bees. Goldberg is good at creating believable characters with lots of familiar complexities.

• • •

Stefany Arsenault, VISTA Leader, Maine Campus Compact:

Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris
An autobiography of sorts, also out on audio book read by the author himself. His self-deprecating humor brightens up a gloomy, rainy day. My favorite part is when he talks about his parents’ Great Danes. David Sedaris is known for is work with This American Life (Public Radio International).

His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
This trilogy is juvenile fantasy. The first book, The Golden Compass, is expected to come out in the theaters in December 2007 (with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig). I urge you to read the book or listen to the tape before the movie comes out because these books are incredible. The second and third books are called The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.

Bitter with Baggage Seeks Same: The Life and Times of Some Chickens, Sloane Tanen
This is a funny picture book — the author photographed dioramas featuring little yellow chicks going about their daily lives. Sarcastic, witty and a bit cynical.

Desert island reading: One book that I have always loved is unfortunately out of print. It’s called My Friend Bear by Carol-Lynn Rossel-Waugh. It’s a comfort book.

• • •

Pam Baker ’70, Helen A. Papaioanou Professor of Biology:

Zorro, Isabel Allende
We��(husband, Dave ’70, too) both��enjoyed it very much. Lots of history about colonial California, and a swashbuckling (yet highly personal) good tale.

• • •

Jan Beaudoin, Athletics, Business Manager:

A World Lit Only By Fire, William Manchester
An interesting read about the European Renaissance and Reformation focusing on early Catholic religion. It is based on research of various writings of those years and delves into the history’s darker side of that religious period. For those wanting a wider outlook beyond the usual. This was a borrowed book, so not sure if still in print.

• • •

Denise Begin, Staff Assistant, Dean of Faculty’s Office:

Golf for Women
A magazine with good tips for some. It hasn’t been all that successful for me yet!

• • •

Helen Boucher, Assistant Professor of Psychology:

Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation, Michael Zielenziger
This is a new book that analyzes several modern-day problems with which Japan is struggling: the highest suicide and lowest birth rates of any industrialized county, and a new mental disorder called “hikikomori,” in which young men (typically) shut themselves in their rooms for weeks, months and years at a time, among other trends. For anyone interested in the land of geisha, bullet trains, sushi, Zen and anime, this is a must read.

• • •

Jane Boyle, Library Assistant, Public Service:

The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees
Pocket Guide with great pictures of tree trunks, bark and leaves all both in color.

Healing Lyme: Natural Healing and Prevention of Lyme Borreliosis and Its Coinfections, Stephen Harrod Buhner
A lot of great info in this book. The library does not own this title but you can order through MaineCat.

• • •

Sean Campbell, Director of Leadership Gifts:

The Book of Ruth, Jane Hamilton.

• • •

Ned Carr, Assistant Treasurer:

Written in Stone: A Geological History of the Northeastern United States, Chet Raymo and Maureen E. Raymo
Maureen Raymo gave a talk at �ֲ���ý earlier this year. In readable format, the book tells the story of how the landscape of the Northeastern U.S. came to be what it is.

Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England, Tom Wessels. A walk through the woods will never be the same, as you’ll understand more of its language and what it’s telling you.
• • •

Gene Clough, Geology and Physics Lecturer:

A Philosophy of Play, Luther Halsey Gulick
Everyone should read this book, published in 1920 by Scribners, although it is no longer in print and might be hard to find. An excerpt: “If you want to know what a child is, study his play; if you want to affect what he will be, direct the form of his play.”

• • •

Joanne Cole ’77, Peer Tutor Writing Pilot Program:

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer
Atonement, Ian McEwan
The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama

• • •

John Cole, Thomas Hedley Reynolds Professor of History:

I’ve recently encountered a pair of entertaining books on the odd postmortem histories of the physical remains of two notables from the era of the French Revolution:

The Lost King of France: A True Story of Revolution, Revenge, and DNA, Deborah Cadbury,New York: St. Martin’s, 2002
The “king” in question is Louis XVII (1785–1795), who reigned only nominally and briefly while being treated with abominable inhumanity by the republican revolutionaries who had executed his father in 1793. The book tells this sad story, which becomes paradoxically livelier after the boy’s death, with accounts of the succession of false claimants to be “the lost Dauphin” (including a half-caste American Indian, for instance) and the remarkable story of the true heart, “stolen” from the corpse by the physician who performed the autopsy in 1795, then re-stolen from him, and so on.

The Trouble with Tom: The Strange Afterlife and Times of Thomas Paine, Paul Collins, New York: Bloomsbury, 2005
This one tells the story of the author’s search for Paine’s remains, starting in a gay bar in Greenwich Village.

• • •

Grace Coulombe ’94, Director of the Mathematics and Statistics Workshop:

The Prestige, Christopher Priest
A story of intrigue and illusion surrounding the fierce rivalry between two stage magicians at the end of the 19th century. The story, told through journal entries, tells of each magician’s obsession with outwitting and outperforming the other as well as discovering the other’s secrets.

The Painted Veil, W. Somerset Maugham
A story about a young, shallow British woman, Kitty. When Kitty’s husband, a bacteriologist, discovers her infidelity he volunteers to be a doctor in a remote region of mainland China in the middle of a cholera epidemic. Kitty is compelled to accompany him and eventually come to terms with her selfish existence.

• • •

Marianne Nolan Cowan ’92, Associate Director of Alumni and Parent Programs:

Five Smooth Stones, Ann Fairbairn
Four Spirits, Sena Jeter Naslund
The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom, Slavomir Rawicz
An incredible story of endurance.

• • •

John W. Creasy, Professor of Geology:

A Land Gone Lonesome: An Inland Voyage along the Yukon River, Dan O’Neill
The Border Trilogy, Cormac McCarthy
The Dispossessed, Ursula Le Guin
The Road, Cormac McCarthy
Nightfall, Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg
The Foundation, Isaac Asimov (series)
The Map that Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology, Simon Winchester (as much social history as geology)
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883, Simon Winchester
Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays, Joan Didion
The White Album, Joan Didion

• • •

Marty Deschaines, Assistant Director for Community Volunteerism and Student Development, the Harward Center for Community Partnerships:

Some books I’ve enjoyed reading over the past year:
Consider the Lobster, David Foster Wallace
Behind the Scenes at the Museum;Case Histories;and One Good Turn, by Kate Atkinson
The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan
The White Rose, Jean Hanff Korelitz
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer

• • •

Vicky Devlin, Vice President for Advancement:

The Tender Bar, J.D. Moehringer
This is a beautifully written memoir of growing up under difficult circumstances and finding friends and role models among the characters who frequent a local bar. The author’s descriptions of his college years at Yale should help everyone understand that mentoring students from unusual backgrounds is essential.

Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky
As compelling a book about war as one can read. First, the author’s personal story and the subsequent discovery of her notes and publication of the book makes her story even more compelling. The author was not able to finish the book, but her rough notes tell individual stories about living through the German occupation of France from the taking of Paris to the movement of the Germans throughout the countryside up to the establishment of the Russian front.

• • •

Carol Dilley, Assistant Professor of Dance:

The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins
This is a life-changing book and amazing history of ideas through the tension between science and religion. I have not read any of his other works yet, like The Selfish Gene, but my guess is that I am a later comer to someone everyone else knows about already.

The Book Thief, Marcus Zuzak
Germany during the war — a compelling story but with a narrator voice that some love and some don’t.

Ghost Dancer, Douglas Wright
Art and aids and amazing way with words. With this book I felt compelled to share phrases with friends on a regular basis because the writing was so glorious. He is a dancer, drug addict, reader, artist laureate of New Zealand, prostitute and generally big liver. His second book, Terra Incognito, is supposed to be even better but his books may not be easily available in U.S.

The Reader, Bernhard Schlink
Love and war on an intimate level.

Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates
Going over the bridge at Chappaquiddick. This unfolds in the most gripping way, looping back in time over and over again. It is short and powerful.

All of Kurt Vonnegut, again.

• • •

Members of the Educational Policy Committee:

Our Underachieving Colleges, Derek Bok.�� A good read, easy and not too taxing. But, a book that raises provocative questions and interesting perspectives about what makes up an undergraduate education. Sometimes by being too simplistic and other times by being too dogmatic, Bok brings into focus the hard question of how to contribute to and organize a quality education for bright undergraduate students.

• • •

Melinda Emerson, Information and Library Services:

Stealing History, William Andrews.
A Maine author, and��a book with a Maine theme (Bethel Historical Museum).

• • •

Johanna Farrar ’03, Assistant Dean of Admissions:

My Half of the Sky, Jana McBurney-Lin ’84. The novel gives an interesting look at women’s rolls in a ‘modern’ China. The fact that Jana is an alum made me proud when I read it!

Desert island reading: The Odyssey. It never bores.

• • •

Paul Farnsworth, Project Manager, Facility Services:

Underground History of American Education, John Taylor Gatto
Very heavy reading; not your typical beach material. I liked it.

• • •

Laura Faure, Director of the �ֲ���ý Dance Festival:

The Places In Between,Rory Stewart
About walking across Afghanistan.

Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town, Paul Theroux.

Holy Fools: A Novel, Joanne Harris
1610 Brittany, France
• • •

Sylvia Federico, Assistant Professor of English:

Amy and Isabelle, Elizabeth Strout ’77
Spunk, Zora Neale Hurston

Also, Jessica Mitford’s letters, collected as Decca, were highly entertaining and decadent.

• • •

David Foster ’77, Trustee:

Queen of Cups, Mina Samuels
Why would a strong woman choose to stay with a brilliant but abusive man? The answer is more complicated than you might think.

• • •

Jane K. Frizzell, Network Services Administrator:

No 1. Ladies’ Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith.
This is a series of at least eight books about Mma Ramotswe, a modern Botswana woman who starts her own detective agency. The writing is beautiful, the point of view decidedly African, the plots interesting and the solutions feminine and fitting of the crime. Descriptions of daily Botswana life and the landscape are haunting and the growth and emerging abilities of the “Ladies” is delightful. Starting with the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, Tears of the Giraffe, Morality of Beautiful Girls and, most recently, The Good Husband of Zebra Drive, these books are not just for mystery readers.

• • •

Heidi Gagnon, Alumni and Parent Programs Coordinator:

One of my favorites is The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks.

• • •

Leah Wiedmann Gailey ’97, Associate Director of Alumni and Parent Programs:

Suite Française, Irene Nemirovsky
This book was written in 1941–42, but the author was deported to Auschwitz in 1942 where she died. Her daughters preserved her manuscript for 60 years without realizing it was a masterpiece. It was published recently for the first time and is a wonderful account of France during the German invasion in the early 1940s.

The Last Days of Dogtown, Anita Diamant
A great read set in the early 1800s about a community of castoffs in Cape Ann, Mass.

• • •

Lois M. Griffiths ’51, retired staff:

Benedict Arnold’s Navy, James L. Nelson
A lively history of Arnold’s retreat from Quebec in 1776, which gave America’s revolutionary army an extra year to organize.

Master and Commander, Patrick O’Brian
And all the other 19 books of this wonderful series about the British navy in the Napoleonic era. I have been re-reading them in order, after skipping around the first time,
and enjoying them much more. Fascinating characters in adventures around the world 200 years ago.

• • •

Lorraine Groves, Sales Floor Supervisor, �ֲ���ý College Store:

Astrid and Veronika, Linda Olsson
An unusual relationship between two women several decades apart in age. Their histories unfold during a harsh winter in a remote Swedish village. Both women share secrets of their past and as the seasons change so do they. This is a wonderful story that left me in tears and wanting more from this new author. Read it in bed read it on the beach, but do read it!

The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
We all know the Secret, but this book assists and helps to confirm how we can control our destiny, be it wealth, love, health,��and life as we want it to be. I read it in small doses and will read it many more times. I have been a recipient of this��formula and know that it works and will if you believe in yourself.

• • •

Claire Guyton, Area Coordinator, Philosophy and Religion:

The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo, Peter Orner
It took me about 30 pages to get used to the unusual structure, but I was captivated by the language on page one. This book has it all — an exotic locale, rich characters, poetic and innovative language, plenty of philosophical notes to ponder. I just loaned it out, and now I’m sorry I did, because I want to read it again.

The Wisdom of Insecurity, Alan Watts
I re-read this little gem every few years.

Desert island reading: If I were stuck on an island for three months I’d want my Norton Anthology of Short Stories. Is that cheating?

• • •

Amy Nadzo Haile, Associate Director of Alumni and Parent Programs:

Saturday, Ian McEwan

Raising Resilient Children, Robert Brooks

The Snowy Day, Ezra Jack Keats
A��children’s classic!

• • •

Elaine Hansen, President:

I don’t usually have time to read or write, but I actually read two fabulous books this year that were so amazing that I would add to the [list] if others have not yet mentioned them: Anne Tyler’s Digging to America, and David Lodge’s Author Author.

• • •

John Harrison, Associate College Librarian for Collection Development:

The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy

• • •

Nina Hicks, Student Services Specialist:

Why We Love, The Nature & Chemistry of Romantic Love, Helen Fisher
“For anyone who is in love, has ever been in love or wants to love, [this book] is a fascinating and eye-opening examination of the forces behind passion, attraction, lust and romance.”

• • •

Joan Houston, Facility Services Staff Assistant:

Dangerous, Nora Roberts
Great for easy reading; three stories in one book.

Sisters, Danielle Steele

• • •

Michael Jones, Christian A. Johnson Professor of History:

Mama Makes Up Her Mind, Bailey White
Terrific storyteller and humorist.

The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard
These are the famous crime writer’s earlier Wild West stories.

• • •

Laura Juraska, Associate College Librarian for Reference Services, and Richard Fochtmann, partner:

Coroner’s Lunch,Thirty-three Teeth andDisco for the Departed, Colin Cotterill
For an absolute delight in crime fiction, try Colin Cotterill’s Dr. Siri Paiboun. Set in newly Communist Laos, the party, finding the old coroner has escaped by crossing the river to Thailand in a rubber tube, tells the 72-year-old doctor that he is too young to be retired and that he must now be the official state coroner, even though he has never done an autopsy before. Despite bungling party officials and lack of equipment and forensic lab, Dr. Siri, his poor but ambitious Nurse Dtui, and loveable Down-syndrome-with-a-perfect-memory-for-autopsy-details Mr. Geung make a remarkable team. If you, like we, like to have a book to read aloud to the driver or in bed before turning off the light, these are great choices, but do read them in order of publication.

Moonstone, Wilkie Collins
And speaking of mystery, Moonstone is “the first and greatest of English detective novels” (T.S. Eliot). This, the first tale of romance, theft, murder, was the inspiration for a complete new, in 1871, genre: the detective mystery, the whodunit! If you love mysteries and haven’t read this one, you are in for a delightful experience.

The Painted Drum, Louise Erdrich
Louise Erdrich is part Ojibwa and part white of European extraction, and her books’ characters speak of the conflict of native peoples, and especially those of bi-cultural parentage, caught between two worlds. The painted drum is sacred and becomes the object of obsession of an assimilated woman who is compelled to learn about her roots. Time shifts back and forth thru generations as Erdrich herself grows in knowledge of the story of the peoples of the drum.

The Last Gentleman Adventurer: Coming of Age in the Arctic, Edward Beauclerk Maurice
Another book about the conflict of two worlds is a true story, recently published by the children of the author, about his adventures at his first real job, working for the Hudson Bay Co., and his life with the Inuit. The author, unlike many other whites, is sensitive and interested in the native people, enough to learn their language and how to live as they do, becoming one of them, without “going native” — the term used to indicate someone who has given up their cultural roots to become “one of the natives.” You will learn a good deal about the difference in cultural norms of a people who live with death constantly in the harsh environment of the Arctic versus those of a poor young man of Victorian England.

• • •

Margo Knight, Director of Advancement Research:

Five Thousand Days Like This One, Jane Brox
A memoir of her family and the family farm in Dracut, Mass., interwoven with the history of the Merrimack River Valley. She says that she is a poet first, and that is evident in this beautifully written book.

March, by Geraldine Brooks
The story of a fictional character, the absent father, Mr. March, of the “Little Women” in Louisa May Alcott’s classic. It is a well-written story about the Civil War and March’s struggle between his anti-slavery, Quaker beliefs and the realities of war. By the way, if you read her first book, Year of Wonders, I thought March was much better.

This year, I also re-read two favorites by Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose and Crossing to Safety. His writing is beautiful and the stories are compelling. He is a joy to read.

• • •

James Elkins, How to Use Your Eyes.
A set of illustrated essays helping the reader to see more carefully and generously the natural and cultural phenomena around us.

David Kolb, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy:

Convergence Culture, Henry Jenkins
An interpretation of the mixing of Internet, television and print to create new kinds of programming and new kinds of experiences that will change how we experience ourselves as “viewers” and “authors.” Jenkins cites the dynamics of “fan” involvement with TV shows, the creation of mixed media advertising and the increasingly active role of “the audience.”

This Land, Anthony Flint
A well-written, journalistic account of suburban sprawl, its causes, its history and movements to limit or to defend the current patterns and processes of development.

• • •

Nancy Koven , Assistant Professor of Psychology:

Melmoth the Wanderer by Maturin
An often-overlooked classic.

• • •

Paul Kuritz, Professor of Theater:

The Language of God,Francis Collins
The Beginning of Wisdom,Leon Kass
How Green Was My Valley,Richard Llewellyn
Exclusion and Embrace,Miroslav Volf

Desert island reading: The Bible.

• • •

Jim Lamontagne, Library Assistant, Cataloging:

Returning to Earth, Jim Harrison (Grove Press, 2007)
The Road, Cormac McCarthy (Knopf, 2006)

The latest titles from American lit’s two best living writers. I’m one of the few people east of the Upper Peninsula of Harrison’s native Michigan who read him. Everyone else’s loss, I say.

And my choice for the island stay: Encyclopaedia Britannica (latest paper edition). Why? Multi volumes, more pages, more reading, more kindling.

• • •

Alli Lambert, Assistant Director of Alumni and Parent Programs:

Eye Contact, Cammie McGovern
Brief description from Publisher’s Weekly: “A parent’s worst nightmare becomes a crusade for justice in McGovern’s dynamite second novel (after 2002’s The Art of Seeing), set in an unspecified middle-class suburban community. Shortly after Adam, a nine-year-old boy with autism spectrum disorder, and his friend Amelia, a 10-year-old diagnosed with PDD-NOS (pervasive developmental disorder—not otherwise specified), disappear during recess from Greenwood elementary school, a traumatized Adam turns up next to Amelia’s body in the nearby woods. Cara, Adam’s 30-year-old single mom, helps the police unlock the clues in Adam’s mind to try to identify Amelia’s killer. Cara finds surprising assistance from 13-year-old Morgan, who’s determined to solve the crime in order to distract authorities from his own guilty secret—accidentally starting a fire in the wetlands his lawyer/environmentalist mom was trying to protect. Meticulously researched and emotionally absorbing, this provocative page-turner also addresses an important issue—how to educate and care for children with special needs.”

• • •

Holly Lasagna, Assistant Director of Service Learning:

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer
I bought this astonishing book for my 15-year-old daughter who adored it (though it may be a bit old for some 15-year-olds). She gave it away to her best friend who loved it as well. She then bought another copy for my husband for his birthday and he read it late into the night. I just finished it yesterday and was stunned by it. I can’t explain it any other way. It speaks to familial love, loss, 9/11, the Holocaust and the wonders of New York City, among other things. The author uses not just words but text, typeface and photographs to “illustrate” the story. A line of the book summed it up for me (if anything could), “You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.” And all told mostly from the perspective of a troubled, intense, creative genius of an 8-year-old boy, Oskar Schell.

• • •

Charlotte Lehmann, Research Technician:

Understanding Our Mind, Thich Nhat Hahn
I Heard God Laughing: Poems of Hope and Joy, renderings of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky
Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West, Daniel Ladinsky
The Eleven Million Mile High Dancer, Carol Hill
The Time Quartet, Madeline L’Engle
Well Schooled in Murder, Elizabeth George
The Journey to the East, Herman Hesse
Undersong, Audre Lourde
The Everything Seed: A Story of Beginnings, Carole Martignacco

• • •

Becky Lovett, Assistant Bookstore Manager:

Eat the Document, Dana Spiotta
This novel makes you straddle the past and the present of a fugitive radical
from the 1970s. The in-between is largely left for you to construct, on the way to understanding this woman’s life, defined then and now by an action taken.

• • •

Bill Low, Assistant Curator, Museum of Art:

The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece, Jonathan Harr
“Jonathan Harr has taken the story of the lost painting, and woven from it a deeply moving narrative about history, art and taste–and about the greed, envy, covetousness and professional jealousy of people who fall prey to obsession. It is as perfect a work of narrative nonfiction as you could ever hope to read.” — The Economist

Solo Faces, James Salter
Not a new one but a favorite. “Solo Faces contrasts a devotion to mountain climbing with the earthbound tugs of love and ordinary life…. A beautifully composed book that will remind readers of Camus and Saint-Exupery. It exemplifies the purity it describes.”

• • •

Kathy Low, Professor of Psychology:

The Echomaker, Richard Powers
The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan
Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
The Sea, John Banville

• • •

Maren Lowell, offspring of Seri Rudolph, Writing Workshop:

Journey to the Center of the Earth, Jules Verne

Wheeler Lowell, offspring of Seri Rudolph, Writing Workshop:

Swallows and Amazons, Arthur Ransom

• • •

Judy Marden ’66, Director, �ֲ���ý-Mores Mountain Conservation Area and Coastal Center at Shortridge

With No One as Witness, Elizabeth George
This was my mystery year, and I found myself involved with George’s complex characters and British law enforcement and class issues to such an extent that I wanted to find out the rest of the story — so set about finding and reading all her other mysteries. So far: 12 down and only Payment in Blood to go (if I can find it).

My Place, Nadia Wheatley and Donna Rawlins
Thanks to David Scobey, a brilliant book for children (and others); the stories of the different “owners” of a particular place over 200 years of time.

And of course Mary Oliver — her visit inspiring me to go back, and keep up. What a joy to have her here in person!

• • •

Laurie McConnell, Area Coordinator, Carnegie Science:

Light, Margaret Elphinstone
I have a discovered a new author — she has written many books that I can look forward to reading! The year is 1831. A family headed by two sisters-in-law live on a very small island off the coast of Scotland. They tend the lighthouse there after the untimely death of the brother/husband keeper. There are three children who have never known any other life. Now their lives are about to change dramatically. The private owner of the lighthouse has died and the civil authorities are taking over and plan to rebuild and bring the lighthouse up to modern requirements — and assign a new keeper who, of course, must be a man. A surveyor and his assistant come to the island to start the process and the interaction between these two men and the women and children make up the bulk of the story — with lots of history and vivid description, each life is slowly revealed — just as if you were there interacting with them all, living their lives. Don’t know the ending yet, but the journey is so fine!

• • •

Bryan McNulty, Director of the Office of Communication and Media Relations:

The Guns of August,Barbara W. Tuchman
Published in 1962 and winner of a Pulitzer, it has a timeless style and eloquence. The story is about events and political intrigues leading up to World War I and the first month of the war. It provides unflattering insights into powerful royals — King, Kaiser and Czar — all related through Queen Victoria. It reveals the naivety, hubris and tragedy that marked the end of the European century and the bloody transformation to scientific warfare. It is one of those rarest of jewels from historians: fine history and an engaging narrative.

• • •

Jason Moreau, Programmer/Analyst, Information and Library Services:

I’m embarrassed to admit that I am not a heavy reader. Most of my reading happens in 10-minute intervals at night before falling asleep. That being said, I do want to contribute to this important resource. Here are a few suggestions, keeping in mind by background as a geek :-). All have been around for quite a while (the last, not so long).

The Design of Everyday Things, Donald A. Norman
This book helped shape my philosophy in my work as a Web developer and programmer, designing software that is easy for people to use. This book explores the design of doors, cars, appliances in an extremely enjoyable format. It’s a must-read for anyone whose job involves creating anything that others will need to interact with. I’d also suggest it’s equally valuable to people who have to interact with this “stuff” — and last I checked, that’s pretty much anyone.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
The first book of a series adapted from the author’s radio series. I’ve yet to find anyone who can match Douglas’s dry wit in novel form. One-tenth sci-fi, nine-tenths humor. I read through three novels in the series during the course of one week back in high school. I was laughing so hard I didn’t want to stop reading.

The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, Thomas L. Friedman
An analysis of globalization in the 21st century. An important read for anyone who wants to have a better understanding of the forces shaping our economy and world today.

• • •

Kerry O’Brien, Assistant Dean of Faculty:

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Last summer I read several Jane Austens, but this is the crème de la crème, a truly engaging, funny and wonderful book and a great read.

The Vision of Emma Blau, Ursula Hegi
Follows multiple generations of a German-American family obsessed with an apartment building-cum-schloss built by the patriarch on Lake Winnipesaukee.

Good Faith, Jane Smiley
Smiley’s satiric take on the get-rich real estate schemers of the 1980s. In spite of pretty unsympathetic characters, you get sucked into the maelstrom of the capitalists.

For young adults and old adults: To laugh out loud without stopping, read Daniel Pinkwater, whose hysterical novels for teens only improve with rereading. My son and I never tire of them. The best are the Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death and the Snarkout Boys and the Baconburg Horror, both featuring three teens caught up with werewolves, detectives, avocados and Wallace Nussbaum, the evil mastermind of the world, but other classics areBorgel; Slaves of Spiegel;Alan Mendelsohn, Boy from Mars; The Hoboken Chicken Emergency and its very funny sequel, Looking for Bobowicz; and the Worms of Kukumlima (in which a boy finds adventure in Africa with his grandfather, inventor of the “plastic-thingy-used-to-close-bread bags”). I cannot recommend these books highly enough.

• • •

Lori Ouellette, Administrative Assistant, Dean of Faculty’s Office:

Health
This magazine actually has some worthwhile recipes and healthy living tips.

• • •

Karen Palin, Lecturer in Biology:

I joined a book group this year and we read some very thought provoking works, which I submit for non-required reading (although I am thinking that one of them might be fun to use sometime in a bio class!).

The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan
I used snippets of this in Bio 101, to good effect.

Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
Might be considered science fiction but was unlike any science fiction I had ever read.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Lisa See
Wonderful and powerful story about women and their friendships in 19th-century China.

Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich
The author tries to work and live in several parts of the country, supporting herself with various poverty level jobs. Maine is one of the places she finds herself.

Suite Française, Irene Nemirovsky
The author intended this to be a five-part novel, set in France during World War II. Early in the war, she was deported to Auschwitz and never came home. After the war, her daughters found this writing but did not read it, believing it to be her diaries, until many years later. This is book is the first two parts of the author’s intended book.

The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai
Don’t read it while it is raining or gloomy outside.

Lighthousekeeping, Jeanette Winterson
Our last book, and we all agreed we need to re-read it.

• • •

Carole Parker, Library Assistant, Acquisitions:

Coroner’s Lunch, Thirty-three Teeth, and Disco for the Departed, Colin Cotterill
Great characters and rich interesting mysteries, recommended to me by Laura Juraska! I’ve also been re-reading the first three Madeline L’Engle fantasy juvenile books Wrinkle in Time (I remember from way back as my favorite book), A Wind in the Door, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet with my 10-year old son. They’re wonderful.

• • •

Christie Peterson, Muskie Archives:

Fun Home: a Family Tragicomic, Alison Bechdel
I very, very enthusiastically recommend this relatively new book for reading, summer or otherwise.

• • •

Ray Potter, Environmental Health and Safety Coordinator:

My list for this year is strictly escapist. I found a pair of authors, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, who have been around a while and can spin a pretty captivating tale. The stories are a unique blend of archeology, anthropology, science, forensics and relationships. Some are, admittedly, pretty blatant fantasy so if you are the sort of reader who can’t deal with the unreal these aren’t the books for you. The characters are strong and can be either likable or detestable, as the story demands. Since some of the characters carry over there is an order to the books though each story can stand alone very nicely. And there are more where these came from — very prolific writers. Each by Preston and Child:

Relic takes place in the New York Museum of Natural History and involves a chemical-dependent creature which has made its way into the underground catacombs of the museum in search of plant matter containing the chemical it needs.

Reliquary takes place in old tunnels and caverns below the subway tunnels in New York. There’s an underground subculture with a twisted connection to characters in the previous book. The search for and attempts to eliminate the cause of a string of mysterious, bizarre murders is intense and filled with twists and turns.

Cabinet of Curiosities presents a character prominent in the earlier books and places him at the heart of the story. There are references to historical natural history collection practices and lots of skulking about in dark dusty old buildings as our hero tries to end the long history of murders spanning decades.

Still Life with Crows takes us to Kansas where the FBI agent who has helped solve the mysteries on the previous stories finds himself on a “busman’s holiday” sort of vacation. There are murders occurring in a small town where competing economic interests and locals with secrets makes for a tale full of surprises.

Thunderhead takes us to the canyons in the heart of Utah looking for the lost city of gold with a truly unique group of misfits and some challenges with a supernatural sort of feel.

Douglas Preston has also written solo. I read Codex which has a similar sort of feel to stories he has co-written with Child. It takes place in the rain forests of Honduras with good guys and bad guys searching for an ancient codex which provides pharmacological uses for many of the plants in the rain forest. There’s a beautiful woman, a handsome guy, a dysfunctional family of brothers and some strange fish and animals. And of course, there is a deadline to meet if things are going to end happily. Hard to beat for a creative story.

Finally, I just finished two volumes of science fiction by Peter Hamilton. It had everything: faster-than-light space travel, travel through worm holes, friendly aliens, aliens programmed in their DNA to eliminate all other sentient life forms, relief clinics to restore people from the dead, beautiful first lifers, beautiful elders who had lived hundreds of years, electronic implants that allowed communication and computing within one’s eye, world-destroying weapons, and other endless surprises. In basic terms it was good versus evil stretched out over hundreds of years with social classes, issues and occupations recognizable across the ages. And you just never knew who to trust, right down to the final showdown. The books were Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained.

• • •

Sarah Potter ’77, Bookstore Director:

In an attempt to stay ahead of my son in our informal competition to read as many books as we can from 1001 Books to Read Before You Die (by Peter Ackroyd and Peter Boxall), I have read these titles recently and can recommend them:

Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
This 1932 parody is a perfectly hilarious read. What’s not to love about cows named Feckless and Graceless, eccentric and charming human characters and the anticipation of “something nasty in the woodshed?” I agree with the reviewer who described the novel as a slapstick comedy of manners. I may need to see the movie now!

A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
A remarkable story that I will need to read again, I think. Such a compelling first line: “I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice—not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew or even because he was the instrument of my mother’s death, but because he is the reason I believe in God;”
The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate,Nancy Mitford
A satirization of British aristocracy in the 1920’s and ’30s.

And in pursuit of my dream of coastal living, this summer I will read Sailing Days on the Penobscot by George Savary Wasson and immerse myself in life on the Penobscot River and Penobscot Bay at a time when the sailing industry was booming. Beyond Concord: Selected Writings of David Atwood Wasson,edited by Charles H. Foster, is also on my reading stack to tackle. This Wasson is the father of George and was a contemporary of Emerson and Thoreau, described as a “transcendentalist with a difference.” I hope I’m up to the task!

I’ll revisit E.B. White’s Essays, too.

• • •

Zach Potter, Bookstore alumnus:

Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro

Desert island reading: East of Eden, John Steinbeck.

• • •

Jack Pribram, Professor of Physics:

A Nervous Splendor: Vienna 1888–1889,Frederic Morton
An idiosyncratic telling of a year in the life of the city and the Hapsburg empire with the brilliant Crown Prince Rudolph as the central personality. A year where the older Brahms, Bruckner and Johann Strauss are still creative, and the younger Freud, Herzl, Klimt and Mahler are struggling to define their life work. A remarkable year with turning points that will affect the early 20th century.

Oppenheimer: Portrait of an Enigma, Jeremy Bernstein
Very readable. A full-length book written in the style of New Yorker profile (Bernstein did write many profiles). Bernstein is an excellent physicist and writer, knew Oppenheimer and was puzzled by the combination of brilliance and arrogance. There is emphasis on the remarkable physics programs he helped develop at Cal Tech and Berkeley in the 1930s, on his leadership of the Manhattan Project in the 1940s and on his security clearance trial during the height of the McCarthy era frenzy of the early 1950s.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir, Bill Bryson
Just started this, but a hilarious description of growing up in one kind of America in the 1950s.

• • •

George Purgavie, Associate Professor, Physical Education:

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ishmael Beah
Very compelling book.

• • •

Lorelei Purrington, Area Coordinator, Pettengill Hall

Excellent memoirs:
Seed of Sarah, Judith Magyar Isaacson ’65
A memoir of Judith’s experience in concentration camps during the Holocaust. Amazing, sparkling woman who was a �ֲ���ý College dean of students in our recent past.

Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller
A memoir of a white woman who was raised in Africa from the time she was 2 years old. The book is about her survival with wild Africa and with her unique, unconventional family.

Rita Will, Rita Mae Brown
Bestselling author of a number of books who is known for her political activism in the Civil Rights movement and the Gay Liberation movement and the feminist movement in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls
An author who relates her amazing strength growing up in a very dysfunctional family. She manages to do so with a great sense of humor in such a sad situation.

Incredible, suspenseful novels that you cannot put down:

The Way the Crow Flies, Ann-Marie MacDonald and
The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruis Zafon

Thank you Melinda Plastas for suggesting the following fantastic books:
Year of Wonders, Geraldine Brooks
The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner

Desert island reading:Clan of the Cave Bear series, Jean Auel

• • •

Kirk Read, Associate Professor of French:

My Life in France, Julia Child and Alex Prudhomme
This is a great book about this wonderful woman whom (sadly) many only know from Dan Ackroyd’s hilarious impersonation on Saturday Night Live. It is a love song to good food, France and her husband. The photographs, mostly by her husband, are truly wonderful. You will want to hop on a jet immediately and start eating.

Suite Française, Irene Nemirovsky
I am still reading it but really love it. It may have been recommended before as I have several colleagues who have told me about it, assuming that I had read it. I am finally getting around to it and greatly enjoy both the story of exiled Parisian families in World War II France and the style which is reminiscent of the best of Balzac and Flaubert: keen observations on the human condition. French or English: same title! No one will know you’re reading in translation!

Call Me By Your Name, Andre Aciman.
Steamy summer reading. It is about longing, crushing and consumating and then more longing. And the cover is unassuming enough that you won’t have to cover the book in brown paper at Popham. The relationship ignites in an Italian, Mediterranean household of academics between the oldest son and a graduate student come to Italy to translate his dissertation for publication. The relationships between all of the colorful characters are well drawn and the romantic and erotic attachments, while mostly gay in this context, are often universal. The father-son relationship is truly wonderful. And everyone is fluent in Italian, French and English, and the son relaxes by transcribing Haydn sonatas and Latin poetry. He is a one-man humanities General Education Concentration.

The Last Life,Claire Messud
A nice companion to Call Me By Your Name. More Mediterranean shenanigans in a family that runs a hotel on the Riviera. Another colorful cast of characters. A wonderful coming of age story about a girl with a handicapped brother, philandering father, long-suffering mother, wacky American cousins and a grandfather fond of gun-play. Beautifully written and observed. I liked it much better than Messud’s latest, acclaimed novel, The Emperor’s Children, which was populated by lots of people I really couldn’t care less about.

Desert island reading: I would take David Sedaris’s Naked or Me Talk Pretty One Day. I would rather die laughing than crying, I suppose. The essays are short and you could probably finish one before the shark did fatal damage. I know people who can recite Sedaris sentence by sentence like Bible verse. I have an aging mind like a sieve which, happily in this case, means that Mr. Sedaris is fresh every time I reread!

• • •

Julie Retelle, Assistant College Librarian for Access Services:

Deception Point, Dan Brown. Great suspense, as usual!

• • •

Julie Rosenbach, Environmental Coordinator:

Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
It’s great. I would recommend it to folks.

• • •

Michael Sargent, Associate Professor of Psychology:

The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins
This wide-ranging and boldly written book is recommended to all independent thinkers. In addition to reviewing — and rebutting — various arguments for the existence of God (meaning a personal, supernatural god), Dawkins also describes reasons that a belief in God is unnecessary — unnecessary in accounting for the existence of the universe and of life itself and unnecessary in order to live a moral life. (And if you’re thinking, “What’s wrong with religion? Why be so hostile?” then be sure to read his Chapter 8, titled “What’s wrong with religion? Why be so hostile?”)

Mindblindness: An Essay on Autism and Theory of Mind, Simon Baron-Cohen
A very quick read (you can probably finish in one evening) that describes Baron-Cohen’s ideas on what psychological mechanisms are required in order for one individual to understand the mental processes of other individuals and which of these component processes he thinks are absent in some autistic individuals.

The Wages of Wins: Taking Measure of the Many Myths in Modern Sport, David J. Berri, Martin B. Schmidt, Stacey L. Brook

If you liked Michael Lewis’ Moneyball, then you’ll like this one too. Berri et al. are economists who apply econometric analyses to such questions as “Who’s the most valuable player in the NBA in any given year?” and “Who’s more valuable — Kobe or Shaq?” and “How much value (in wins) do high baseball payrolls actually purchase?” and “How are quarterbacks like mutual funds” (also a chapter title of theirs). For the right kind of sports fan, this could be a fun read.

• • •

Paula Schlax, Associate Professor of Chemistry:

Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Marisha Pessl
A great first novel.

The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
The well written.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick
A terrific and beautiful graphic novel.

Heartbeat and Love that Dog by Creech
Perfect for elementary school students.

Love, Rosie, Cecelia Ahern
Very light but fun.

I also read a lot of Alice Munro on Sanford’s recommendation and enjoyed her work very much.

• • •

Sagaree Sengupta, Lecturer in Asian Studies:

Desert island reading: On a desert island, I’d want something with me that would be very difficult to read, in order to keep my mind occupied — something that would help me structure my days, that would give me hope and amazement. The Rig Veda, with its myriads of vanished nature-gods, questions about the mysteries of the universe, and admiration of colorful cattle herds, is a natural choice. (Isn’t it?) Since my own Vedic Sanskrit is not very good, I’d keep busy on my island decoding the commentaries on each verse. And any time life got really strange, the Rig Veda would always have something stranger and more wonderful to offer. Wendy Doniger’s Penguin paperback, The Rig Veda: An Anthology of One Hundred Eight Hymns is recommended for those not prepared to dive into Vedic Sanskrit.

My 8-year old recommends There’s a Chef in my Soup by Emeril Lagasse. It’s a children’s cookbook with really tasty food in it that certain adults could enjoy too. The instructions and layout are really clear, and the ingredients in the recipes are decent. My daughter says it would be good on a desert island because “there is lots of stuff in it to memorize and it has tons of recipes.” She points out that the few recipes she’s tried have been very good.

Other recent leisure reading I can heartily recommend, on a desert island or not:

Assassinating Shakespeare: The True Confessions of a Bard in the Bush, Thomas Goltz
The well-known war correspondent of Chechnya Diary, etc., reveals his most amazing youthful adventures. Goltz hitchhiked through Africa after college performing impromptu Shakespeare with puppets he carved himself — no kidding! Technically, he was looking for his sibling-rival brother, who was also traveling in Africa, but with a guitar. He does find the brother, finally, but their eventual meeting is a minor event compared to the other close encounters Goltz has with locals, ex-pats, civil conflict and the law. The account is almost a textbook of what not to do when abroad, nevertheless it is a boon that Goltz did not throw his travel journals into the Avon river (as he almost did) once he returned to Europe.

Sentimental Education, Gustave Flaubert
Speaking of youthful indiscretions — reading it for the first time I was blown away by Flaubert’s crystal-clear observations of the many shadings of sexual passion, the having and not of money, the workings of class, the details of the 1848 uprising, the realities of politics…all folded into a story you want to follow wherever it leads. My copy was the Penguin translation by Robert Baldick. Worth carrying on a trip, if only to the beach.

• • •

Lavina Shankar, Associate Professor of English:

Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog, John Grogan

• • •

Beth Sheppard, Associate Director of Alumni and Parent Programs:

I’ve had lots of time to read this year, and lots of wonderful friends have supplied me with books. I am grateful to all of them except the person who introduced me to the work of James Patterson (Jack and Jill, Along Came a Spider, Beach Road, et al.). I am appalled to admit to having gobbled up a couple dozen Patterson thrillers. Thanks a bunch, buddy. (You know who you are.)

I’ve also discovered (and read everything by) Elizabeth Berg and Chris Bohjalian this year. Especially loved Berg’s The Art of Mendingand Bohjalian’s Before You Know Kindness, both of which deal with family loyalties. Another great book about families is The Big House: A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home. A nonfiction account of the author’s family’s New England summer house, it covers history, architecture, sailing, local politics, reading lists, family stories, building techniques, economics — fascinating stuff. I read it twice then bought copies for several people on my Christmas list.

Based on recommendations from last year’s list, I read Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex and loved it for all the reasons that everyone mentioned last year: It is a novel of amazing depth and breadth. Put off by hermaphrodites? Don’t be. Finally, a more personal choice: I Remember Running: The Year I Got Everything I Ever Wanted — and ALS, by the late Darcy Wakefield ’92.

• • •

Anthony Shostak, Education Coordinator, Museum of Art:

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, William McDonough and Michael Braungart
The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Michael Pollan

• • •

Bonnie Shulman, Associate professor of Mathematics:

I have recently been introduced to Lois McMaster Bujold, an award-winning science fiction writer, and her hero Miles Vorkosigan. There are many books in the series, and fans argue over which is the best order to read them in. You can check out for more details. Bujold’s writing is wonderful, loaded with humor, wisdom, compassion and well-researched. She gets her biology, physics, mathematics, psychology, medicine right, and weaves intelligent consideration of profound ethical issues deftly into her exciting stories. Each volume is a page turner, but not like reading the same book over and over. The characters evolve and develop, and the themes change.

I also highly recommend the short stories of Alice Munro, in particular the volume Runaway. Munro’s prose is delicious, and she is a master of the short story genre. In Runaway she paints portraits of women of all ages and their relationships with their families, friends, lovers and themselves, always with an unexpected twist. Even though the circumstances are sometimes strange and haunting, I feel like I’ve met these people, they are so real.

• • •

Sara Stone ’06, VISTA:

The Culture of Make Believe, Derrick Jensen
Walking on Water: Reading, Writing, and Revolution, Derrick Jensen

I have found the writing of Derrick Jensen, my new favorite author, very engaging and thought-provoking. If you’re looking for an “escape,” this probably isn’t the choice for you, but if you’re looking for something interesting and challenging to dig into, check out these books!

• • •

Sawyer Sylvester, Professor of Sociology:

Letter of the Century, Lisa Grunwald and Stephen Adler
From the first letter, written in 1900 by Joel Chandler Harris, in which he says of letters that in them “we commit our thoughts, as it were, to the winds,” to the last letter in 1999 from a married woman who wistfully confesses she has an online lover, the letters in the book, of the famous and the less so, hold a mirror up to what we have been.

The Victory of Reason, Rodney Stark
Stark claims that the rationalism characteristic of Christianity as a whole, and not just of Protestantism, led to the West’s technological, political and economic supremacy. I think Max Weber would take more convincing.

After Elizabeth, Leanda de Lisle
De Lisle offers a rich account of the political storm that raged in England after the reign of Elizabeth and of the successful passage through the storm to the throne by James (of doubtful ability and even more doubtful morality). He still was once called “the wisest fool in Christendom”— and there was the book that he commissioned, which just might make it on to my “desert island” list.

Amo, Amas, Amat…and All That, Harry Mount
If the terms “passive periphrastic” and “ablative absolute” still chill your blood, you must have taken high school Latin. (You would have done better to wait and come to �ֲ���ý.) Mount claims that his humorous review of the essentials will exorcise the remaining demons. I haven’t quite finished it, so we’ll see.

Jacquard’s Web, James Essinger
A short time after I arrived in Lewiston, I visited one of the abandoned textile mills which still had a power loom with a Jacquard head. This was a device into which was fed a series of heavy, punched fiberboard cards that caused the warp threads to be raised and lowered in a planned sequence so that the shuttle would weave patterns. It was an invention of Joseph-Marie Jacquard, and Essinger has traced the idea behind it from the loom to the Hollerith card to the first modern IBM computer.

The Book of Lost Books, Stuart Kelly
My final book selection is the story of the ones that got away. In an age when our friendly (for now) electronic servants remember so much, we tend to be unaware of how many manuscripts have gone missing, how many sequels didn’t follow, how many libraries just couldn’t find that last copy of that last book. Kelly offers examples from 80 or so authors in what he calls “An Incomplete History of All the Great Books You’ll Never Read.”

• • •

Anne Thomson, Professor Emerita of English:

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Michael Pollan
I’m sure this will be on other folks’ list as well, but I can’t recommend it too highly. It’s nonfiction but reads with all the narrative pull of a thriller. I thought I already knew about the evils of corn — as seen in the prevalence of high-fructose corn syrup in just about everything — but the story turns out to be much more complicated, starting in 1947 when munitions plants had to decide what to do with the surplus ammonium nitrate used to make explosives. They began turning it into chemical fertilizer, which revolutionized the agricultural industry by making cheap corn the most profitable crop ever grown. So what’s wrong with that? Read the book and find out, but one overwhelming fact is that it takes enormous amounts of fossil fuels both to produce that corn and get it to our supermarkets. The chapter on “big organic” is a further revelation, not cheery, about the degree to which the success of chains like Whole Foods rests on bad farming practices. Let me emphasize, however, that reading this book is not depressing, just enthralling and informative, especially in the third chapter where Pollan describes a small organic farm in Virginia that will make you wish you could head down there for a visit tomorrow.

The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai
Set in the 1980s in Kalimpong, a part of northeast India bordering Nepal, at a time of growing unrest. I love books that tell me something new about the world, and I knew virtually nothing about the history of this area. This novel, which won the 2006 Booker Prize, is also a terrific read, though at times it’s almost unbearably sad as it traces the fortunes of the many characters who are dealing with all the tensions and losses attendant on their post-colonial world. The humor and the small but real glimpse of light in the darkness keep you going, more because of the resilience and humanity of the characters than because of any great hope for a better future.

Finally (this is a plug for the Good Reads list!), if there’s anyone who hasn’t yet read Edward P. Jones’ The Known World, a novel set just before the Civil War in Virginia about a freed African American who himself becomes a slave-owner, it’s a must-read. When I saw that it had been recommended on the two previous lists, I decided to follow up — hope others will do the same.

• • •

Bonnie Trundy, Assistant to the Director, Office of Career Services:

Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis, Jimmy Carter
Madame Secretary, Madeleine Albright
Saving Graces, Elizabeth Edwards
Coming of Age in Mississippi, Anne Moody
Rosa Lee, Leon Dash
What Can One Person Do? Sabina Alkire and Edmund Newell
An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore
Girl with Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote

• • •

Pat Webber, Archivist, Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library:

The Inimitable Jeeves or Wodehouse on Golf, P.G. Wodehouse
Very smooth, very dry, and very funny.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick
Book on which the movie Blade Runner is based. Reads a little dated now, but is still a classic story of paranoia and questioning who one really is.

• • •

Leigh Weisenburger, Assistant Dean of Admissions:

Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert
The Homeowners Guide to Energy Independence: Alternative Power Sources for the Average American, Christine Woodside

• • •

Andrew W. White, Director of Academic Technology:

Ghosts of Spain, Guy Tremlett
One anglosajon‘s view of life in post-Franco Spain

Suite Française, Irene Nemirovsky
Beautifully written, heartbreaking and truncated chronicle of life in World War II France.

English, August, Upamanyu Chatterjee
Twentysomething angst transcends cultural boundaries.

Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens
Excellent company during the long winter evenings

The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, Michael Chabon
Isaac Bashevis Singer crossed with Philip Marlowe.

Desert island reading: While this is cheating somewhat, I’d select all 12 volumes of Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell. I’ve always wanted to read this saga, but could never find the time to commit; being stranded without any distraction except survival seems the optimal time. Would I have an espresso machine?

• • •

Gene Wiemers ,Vice President for Information and Library Services and Librarian:

For some readers who might want to mix mystery with the intricacies of book conservation or art detection, a couple of suggestions from the librarian geek in me. The Sixteen Pleasures, Robert R. Hellenga (New York: Soho, 1994) Blends romance and the intricacies of book and manuscript conservation. No kidding. Set in the aftermath of the Florence flood of 1966, it shows how saving manuscripts can be redemptive in other ways. Readers may be familiar with Jonathan Harr’s book A Civil Action, based on fact and later transformed into a movie. His book The Lost Painting (New York: Random House, 2005) tells the story of the discovery and authentication of a lost Caravaggio, now on view in Dublin. A surprising mystery read, hard to put down, with some extremely attractive smart people — and a rogue or two as well.

• • •

Dick Williamson, Professor Emeritus of French:

In retirement mode, I have read much this year. My first choice:

Skylight Confessions, Alice Hoffmann
Another superb novel by Hoffmann.

Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
About the different and challenging life of a young Greek American who is a s/he growing up in Grosse Pointe, Mich., in the ’60s and ’70s.

For beach or deck reading: any novel by Carl Hiaasen, and Bill Buford’s
Heat about his apprenticeship in Italian kitchens and in a Tuscan butchershop.

Desert island reading: My book(s) for a lonely, lovely isle is, indeed, Marcel Proust, A la recherche du temps perdu. It has everything one could ask for in literature, and one can recommence the novel with Du côté de chez Swann as soon as one has finished Le temps retrouvé.

• • •

LaVerne Winn, Science Reference Librarian:

Out of the Shadow: A Russian Jewish Girlhood on the Lower East Side, Rose Cohen
(Cornell University Press, 1995)
Written in 1918, this is a memoir of a young girl and her family’s experiences in New York’s Jewish Community. There is no grand, triumphant success story but a simple recounting of her life up to young adulthood, working from the age of 14, sewing coat sleeves, her struggle to get an education. I found it mesmerizing.

• • •

Phyllis Wisher, Security Officer:

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
This book has taught me so much about myself.

• • •

Wayne Zimmerman, Associate Director of Advancement Services:

The Monkey Wrench Gang, John Abbey.
One of my all time favorite book, it’s a sometimes sad, sometimes funny, sometimes disturbing work of fiction set in the American Southwest. While at its deepest level, it is a “man against the machine” story, on the surface it is an entertaining story about four well-intentioned but misguided people trying to change the world, or save the world — it’s your call. It’s one of a very small number of books that I reach for even though I have read it many times before. It is not War and Peace but it’s an enjoyable read and even has a message or two.

Paula Jean Schlax, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biological Chemistry:

…Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. This was a fascinating story about Kafka, a 15-year-old boy who runs away from home and ends up at a small private library and Nakata, a strange old man who has a connection to Kafka and the people he meets. The story delves in and out of time and dream type reality. The prose, even in translation, is great.

Harbor by Lorraine Adams. This story is about an illegal immigrant from Algeria and his experiences. He is accused of being a terrorist (because of his associations with others that conduct illegal activities). His interactions with others are intriguing.

Mirrormask: Script book by Dave Mckean and Neil Gaiman. It is the storyboard and script of an upcoming movie by (Jim) Henson films. Dave McKean’s storyboards are so interesting that I enjoy looking at it and reading it.

…

Andrew White, Director of Academic Technology:

The busier I get at home and work, the more I read–go figure.

The Baroque Cycle–Neal Stephenson
A tale told across 3 volumes and over 2700 pages. I could say it’s about the origins of our modern economic system in Baroque Europe-but it’s really a fantastic, picaresque adventure story which blends Newton, Leibniz, Louis XIV, piracy, European aristocracy, Peter the Great, voyages round the world, and cross-dressing into a rollicking read. You can go deep or stay on the surface. Either way it’s a blast.

Gilead and Housekeeping–both by Marilynne Robinson

Housekeeping has always stayed on my reread shelf. It reads like a single breath. Reading Gilead is like reading a prayer.

Buddha in the World–Pankaj Mishra
A somewhat disjointed, but enjoyable overview of the Buddha’s legacy.

One Man’s Wilderness–Sam Keith
Touted during endless PBS beg-athons, this reconstruction of Dick Proenneke’s journals of his time near Lake Clark, Alaska fuels the wanderlust of those of us trapped behind our desks.

How Soon is Never?–Marc Spitz
A great read for us Reagan-era adolescents. A primer for saving your life by reuniting your favorite band.

Lobster Coast–Colin Woodward
Entertaining cultural history of the Maine coast, useful for those of us perpetually from away. It explains a lot.

…

Laura Faure, Director of �ֲ���ý Dance Festival:

Time Traveler’s Wife (by Audrey Niffenegger) and The Kite Runner (by Khaled Hosseini). Both were excellent.

…

Elizabeth Eames, Associate Professor of Anthropology:

Finally got around to Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver–been meaning to read it for ages–I thought the first three-quarters were inspired and brilliant. (Even though it went on a bit too long, it was all in all enlightening, poetic and evocative).

…

Alli Lambert, Coordinator of Alumni and Parent Programs:

Night Fall by Nelson Demille…finished it in one day! A fast and funny read.

…

Gene Wiemers, Vice President for Information and Library Services and Librarian:

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World, by Tracy Kidder. Out in paperback from Random House in 2004. Required reading for the human race. I’m interested in it because it shows that it is possible to be an effective professional one person at a time, and at the same time influence political systems, national, and international policy. Some �ֲ���ý readers will remember Farmer’s visit here several years ago, and many will have read Kidder’s other books. Kidder wrote this book as a first person narrative, which some readers may find jarring. In a recent visit to Maine, he said that he used this approach in order to keep Farmer on a human and personal scale, as his accomplishments are so great that a third person narrative might make Farmer seem unbelievable.

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda, by Philip Gourevitch. The 1998 book available in paperback from Picador. You may not think about the Rwandan genocide as summer reading. Many readers may have been put off by the topic, which makes this book of value to this list many years after it was published. Don’t let the subject matter stop you. This is a gripping, dispassionate and compelling account of how human beings can instigate, accept, witness and ignore unspeakably inhuman acts. It reminds you that it can happen here. A very good and very important reading experience.

…

Charles Kovacs, Director of Career Services:

Getting a job is really a job; it involves as much, possibly more, time, energy, effort, and skills than a nine to five occupation. More, job hunting hurts: loss of self-esteem, wages, identity, and status. Yep, unemployment can be a bummer, for the first time, job seeker no less than the seasoned professional. Consequently, there is a proliferation of books, web sites, newsletters, self-help guides, and multi-media materials aimed at making the transition a bit less painful. After a while, the literature in the field resembles variations on predictable themes, like the “gothic” novels of pulp fiction fame. It was refreshing to discover that a recent book returned to a provocative technique that has not been covered in the literature for a while and is most deserving of another serious review.

Brian Graham’s new monograph, Get Hired Fast! Tap the Hidden Job Market in 15 Days, [Adams Media, Avon, MA, 2005] recommends that the older techniques – cover letters, resumes, email spam “blasts” of your documents, web postings, and networking – are too time-consuming and less effective, especially the technology over-kill approach. Graham advises a simple, direct, and seemingly swift approach: identify the key contact in any organization, do research on the organization, target appropriate companies, and execute a professional scripted phone call. If this is done in a focused manner, he states, you could see results in 15 days.

While this sounds too good to be true, it does work. The catch: focus, time, and intentional effort. Graham’s style is direct, clear and exact, just what you would expect from a successful founder of an executive search firm with major clients. Especially useful is his chapter on scripted calling. His advice there is particularly useful for the neophyte and experienced job hunter.

Guy Kawaski is perhaps best know for his work with Apple Computer as their corporate “evangelist” and the positive effect wrought through an intentional and enthusiastic expression of a product. He has published many popular and substantial books, is a motivational speaker, and entrepreneur. His most recent book, The Art of the Start. The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything [Portfolio/Penguin, New York, 2004] provides the reader with a great benchmarking tool for starting any new venture be that a company, family, career, or writing a book.

In 11 chapters, Kawaski presents his distilled experience, insights, and sense of the phases of new venture development: starting, positing, pitching, business plan crafting, bootstrapping, recruiting, capital raising, partnering, branding, and rainmaking. His last chapter is perhaps his best – he recommends reading that chapter first – on “The Art of Being a Mensch.” Essentially, if you are not engaged in your new venture for anything less than being ethical, decent, and admirable, your success – or failure – will never satisfy or lead to a higher level of personhood. I was struck with the resonance of his admonition with aspects of the �ֲ���ý philosophy: “The three foundations of menschhood are helping lots of people, doing what is right, and paying back society – simple concepts that are hard to implement.” He inspires too: “When telescopes work, everyone is an astronomer, and the world is full of stars. When they don’t, everyone whips out their microscopes, and the world is full of flaws.”

This easy to read book will delight, entertain, and inform your next great venture. It is a funny, witty, and delightful book and if you want to check out his corresponding web site for a taste of it try http://www.artofthestart.com. Just be sure you focus your telescope, not your microscope, as you start your new venture.

…

Jim Hart, Academic Technology Project Manager:

I often like mysteries by British authors, especially the series that feature a central cast of characters through a number of books. In that vein are the Lord Peter Wimsey books by Dorothy Sayers. While the early ones are good to excellent mysteries, the Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane books are even more interesting. They interlace a sophisticated love story into a series of 4 mysteries. Sayers’ command of dialogue in these books is outstanding and, sometimes, memorable. She conveys so much without having to tell the reader overtly what the characters are thinking and feeling.

The books are: Strong Poison, Have His Carcase, Gaudy Night and Busman’s Honeymoon.

Do read them in that order. While the mysteries in each stand alone, the progress of the romance between the two protagonists moves in a continuum through them.

…

Sarah Strong, Associate Professor of Japanese

I recommend Ceremony by Leslie Silko. Written in the 1970s and set in northern New Mexico, it tells a story of recovery from the trauma of war. Healing comes in multiple ways but especially through the power of traditional stories of the Laguna Pueblo people and Navaho ceremonies. There are lots of cool desert springs, warm sandstone cliffs, rhythmic voices and wise animals. The narrative thread is both engaging and complex. I really like this book.

…

Paul Kuritz, Professor of Theater:

Will in the World. How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt

Father Joe. The Man Who Saved My Soul by Tony Hendra

Right Turns. Unconventional Lessons from a Controversial Life by Michael Medved

Gilead. A Novel by Marilynne Robinson

…

Sawyer Sylvester, Professor of Sociology:

John Adams by David McCullough is an immensely readable biography of the quintessential New Englander and second president of the United States, without whose efforts there probably would not be a United States. If this book rekindles your interest in early American history, you might also enjoy Joseph Ellis’s Founding Brothers and Alden Vaughan’s The Puritan Heritage in America.

A Solitude of Space is a collection of paintings by Thomas Crotty. I suppose it’s not necessary to have been born and raised in Maine to like Crotty’s spare, cold, silent landscapes—but it helps. For those not fortunate, go alone to a place like “Backyard Winter South”, “Wolf’s Neck Pasture” or—especially—“Frost Gully, New Snow”, take a deep breath of the frozen air, and listen.

Oxymoronica by Marty Grothe is a little collection of those pithy sayings with the snap of illogic at the end. One from a church bulletin is: “The cost for attending the Fasting and Prayer Conference includes meals.”

Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code, with some suspension of critical faculties, is a romp. P.D. James’s The Murder Room is a solid read, requiring no such suspension.

In an age enamored of alternative medicine, Dangerous Garden by David Stuart is a sober reminder of the double edge to herbal remedies.

Sailing the Wine Dark Sea is the fourth in Thomas Cahill’s “Hinges of History” series, and a book-long paean to ancient Greek culture—including its language which he says had a word for just about everything. Hebrew, by contrast, was a language of silences, and Latin, “a language ideal for recordkeeping.” That last is a bit harsh, I think.

Outwitting History by Aaron Lansky is the story of a college student who, in order to gain a “sociological view of Jewish history,” takes a course in Yiddish and soon discovers that there are very few Yiddish books. This is because such books in America are rapidly being lost, abandoned, or destroyed. The author begins a country-wide rescue, raiding attics and dumpsters, and finally establishing the National Yiddish Book Center.

…

Anthony Shostak, Education Coordinator/Museum of Art:

The Elementary Particles by Michel Houellebecq
This tale of two half-brothers encompasses genetic engineering, wife swapping, and the consequences of growing up motherless.

Platform by Michel Houellebecq
This homage to Camus focuses on how sexual tourism and religious intolerance change the life of a middle-aged French bureaucrat.

…

Sylvia Federico, Resident Learning Associate/Classical and Medieval Studies:

I recently read, and thoroughly enjoyed, Jonathan Lethem’s novel titled Motherless Brooklyn. It’s about a detective with Tourette’s syndrome, set in contemporary New York.

…

Leigh Weisenburger, Assistant Dean of Admissions:

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingslover

Camille by Alexandre Dumas

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

11 Minutes by Paulo Coehlo

The Big House by George Howe Colt

…

Rob Farnsworth, Lecturer in English:

I recommend: Ian McEwan’s new novel Saturday, skillfully done and quite absorbing/disturbing; John Banville’s strange novel Athena; William Trevor’s novel pathetique The Story of Lucy Gault; Botanies of Desire by Michael Pollan, engagingly written horticultural and cultural musings in four chapters concerning respectively the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato; and for those still picking up thin volumes of verse, of whom I wish there were many more, poetry: by James Richardson–Interglacial: New & Selected Poems; by Glyn Maxwell–The Nerve and The Boys At Twilight: Poems 1990-95; by Sydney Lea–Ghost Pain.

Roxanne Prichard, Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology:

Oryx & Crake– Margart Atwood

…

Maggie Maurer-Fazio, Associate Professor of Economics/Associate Dean of the Faculty:

Books that I read this year and would recommend are:

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Michael Haddon

Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Lipstick Jihad by Azadeh Moaveni

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

…

Karen McArthur, Systems Administrator/ILS:

For those of you who enjoy a bit of humor, I recently read Yiddish with Dick and Jane by Ellis Weiner and Barbara Davilman. It’s very enjoyable! And it has a Yiddish index in the back that helps you figure out that childhood mystery … What “Bobe” was saying?

…

Ray Potter, Environmental Health and Safety Specialist:

I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe
I was looking for some answers. I hoped to gain some understanding of today’s college student. I found more questions. I don’t know whether the novel is an accurate reflection of Wolfe’s research or a serious case of literary and “older generation” exaggeration. There seems to be a convergence of what I have observed and what Wolfe writes but it’s not clear how widespread the behaviors are in the population.

Anyway, it’s an interesting tale of one young woman’s painful maturing process in the first six months of college. It’s not a good read for a parent sending a teenager off for the first time. The end product of this process is not thoroughly likable. It might make one consider home schooling at the collegiate level.

Ice Hunt by James Rollins
For sheer escapism featuring science fiction, international intrigue, marriage rebuilding under extreme circumstances with a side order of Navy Special Forces, this is the book for you. Rollins seems to have a formula which he sticks to in his books but if you’re not looking for great literature, it’s a good entertaining read. This tale takes place in the extreme northern hemisphere beginning in the Alaskan wilderness and proceeding to a research station buried in the ice above the arctic circle. There are prehistoric creatures, a favorite of Rollins, evil scientists, a wolf, an Alaskan Fish & Wildlife agent and an Alaskan law enforcement person. All these characters are wrapped up into a compelling adventure that’s pretty hard to put down. Other books by Rollins that might be of interest: Excavation, Subterranean, and Amazonia.

Jack Whyte has written a series of books that put a new, and perhaps more believable spin on the Arthurian legend. He starts with Roman legionnaires in the fifth century and weaves an earthy and fascinating story of how Arthur and his knights may have evolved. There are characters of all kinds: likable, despicable, endearing, lovable, creative, bellicose. I liked the new Merlin, a real, clever person, not a wizard. It’s a great series and I’m not sure we’ve come to the end yet. There was a new book released in hardcover in November 2004. The titles, including the newest are: The Skystone, The Singing Sword, The Eagles Brood, The Saxon Shore, The Fort at River’s Bend, The Sorcerer: Metamorphosis, Uther, and The Lance Thrower.

…

Bill Hiss, Vice President for External Affairs:

Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization. A lovely slender volume to cover eons of history, this book tells how the Irish monks copied the classics and Biblical texts during the Dark Ages when the books were being lost almost everywhere else. Gracefully and sympathetically written, hopping nimbly about the Western and Middle Eastern world over centuries, it is a rewarding short read about what we owe the Irish and especially the unpromising, isolated Irish monasteries, from which no one then alive would have expected much in the way of cultural contributions.

Dallas Murphy, Rounding the Horn. A well-written history and sailing tour of Cape Horn, with its hideously difficult weather and seas, and some fascinating portraits of who ended up there, by choice or literal accident. A good summer read, perhaps an amalgam of “The Perfect Storm” and Patrick O’Brien’s wonderful sea novels.

William H. Tucker ’67, The Funding of Scientific Racism: Wickliffe Draper and the Pioneer Fund. Bill Tucker, a professor of psychology at Rutgers, has written a powerful scholarly account of how a wealthy man funded a foundation–The Pioneer Fund–which for decades has surreptitiously funded much of the very worst racist research to try to establish the genetic superiority of the Nordic races and influence public policy against any forms of civil rights or opportunity for non-whites.

Charles E. Clark ’51, �ֲ���ý Through the Years: An Illustrated History. Charlie Clark, an emeritus professor of New England history at UNH, was commissioned by �ֲ���ý to prepare a volume of topical essays on the history of �ֲ���ý as part of the Sesquicentennial celebrations. Written with an eye for detail and some humor, the book deals with major facets of �ֲ���ý–the Presidents, the faculty, the curriculum, student life–and is illustrated with many dozens of wonderful photographs from �ֲ���ý history over the decades. The book will be published for the opening of College in the fall.

Michael Shapiro, The Last Good Season: Brooklyn, the Dodgers, and Their Final Pennant Race Together. Another good summer read, on the last season the Dodgers played at Ebbets Field before moving to Los Angeles. It is certainly for baseball aficionados, but also for those interested in the social and political history of the 1950’s. The collection of very fallible players have survived as cult heroes: Pee Wee Reese, Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella. But the equally engrossing story is the political battle between team owner Walter O’Malley and city planning czar Robert Moses over whether the Dodgers could build a new stadium in Brooklyn–imagine a time when public housing and transportation was a higher priority for tax dollars than a professional sports stadium!

…

Jane K. Frizzell, Network Services Administrator:

May I recommend Eric Garcia (Matchstick Men) and his 3 book series about the dinosaurs who walk amongst us. Anonymous Rex, Casual Rex and Hot and Sweaty Rex are lots of fun to read. They are adult detective mysteries, and Garcia is a good writer. The writing is the best part along with the humor, strange plots and absurd situations. Dinosaurs are not extinct, just in hiding. You may not know it, but many of the people you see every day are actually dinosaurs in sophisticated people suits. They have a sub-culture that helps keep their secret, can get inebriated when exposed to sage and oregano and have great senses of humor.

…

Kimberly Hokanson, Director of Alumni and Parent Programs:

Paranoia, by Joseph Finder
A great story of corporate espionage–easy reading, lots of suspense to keep you turning the pages. Added bonus for me–Joe was my expository writing teacher way back in graduate school, at which point he was writing his first novel!

…

Holly Lasagna, Service Learning Program Coordinator:

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. Even though I have been so busy that I don’t get to do much reading these days, this book was great to pick up, read one of the stories and then come back to it at any point. She has an incredible eye for the detail that defines a person, relationship, life. Great subtle commentary on the immigrant experience.

…

Sue Hubley, Senior Researcher/Office of College Advancement:

This is my first time submitting a book. I’ve meant to other years, but got sidetracked and never did. But right now I’m reading a book that I’m finding so powerful that I just had to submit it. It’s titled, At Hell’s Gate, and the author is Claude Anshin Thomas, a Soto Zen Buddhist monk. He was in Maine a couple of weeks ago to publicize the book and to do daylong retreats on mindfulness, and I attended one of those retreats. He was a soldier who went to Vietnam believing the war was right, was severely traumatized by what he saw and did there, came back, had a breakdown, and has spent years trying to achieve peace inside and to atone for his actions. He experienced a complete turnaround, believes that war and violence are wrong, and is trying to spread the message that violence — and peace and compassion as well — begin inside each of us.

The book is absolutely compelling, from my point of view. It’s not light reading, though. It was published in 2004 by Shambhala Publications.

…

Sagaree Sengupta, Lecturer, Asian Studies:

Books I have read that would make good summer reading:

Pico Iyer, The Lady and the Monk

Monica Ali, Brick Lane

Michael Chabon, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh

Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence

Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf (yeah, on a stormy day at the shore!)

There is some great English poetry from India, but I’m afraid they’d be hard for people to get their hands on. Names of poets:

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra
Jayanta Mahapatra

The book I really want to read this summer:

Suketu Mehta, Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found (non-fic).

…

Bonnie Shulman, Associate Professor of Mathematics:

Don’t Think of an Elephant by George Lakoff–I know it’s “trendy” and all the rage in some political circles, but I STILL want to recommend this book by an academic linguist, written for a more general audience. He boils down some principles about “framing” (marketing?) one’s issues and values to get them across to a larger public. Some have criticized the book as touting form over substance (“it’s all spin”), but I do NOT think that is what he is saying. Many of us were perplexed in the last election cycle about how and why we were ineffective at communicating with others, especially about “values.” This book helps one to understand some of the dynamics that might be going on, and, ultimately is a primer on how to communicate respectfully with those with whom you might disagree. A good antidote to polarizing rhetoric!

Wild Steps of Heaven by Victor Villasenor–Second book in the series after Rain of Gold, but I would read this one first. It’s the history of the paternal branch of “la familia” telling the story of his grandfather’s life as a young boy in Mexico, during the Revolution. A little reminiscent of the magical realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the sometimes quite violent scenes are tempered by passion, faith, and love. It is a great summer read.

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore
How to describe this book? It’s not easy…but trust me, you will laugh out loud from page 1! As a parody of Monster Who Ate New York (Godzilla) type fiction, it is a real send-up! But there is more–characters like a stoned constable, a pharmacist with a fish-fetish, a bartender with more “augmented” (artificial) body parts than her originals, and more. I know it sounds weird (wired?) but it’s even weirder than it sounds, and 100 times as funny!

…

Michael Sargent, Assistant Professor of Psychology:

Amsterdam, by Ian McEwaw
As is typical for McEwan, this novel begins with a great deal of rich character development, which continues for a while, until something dreadful happens. If you like dry, witty banter and also have a dark sense of humor, you’re likely to enjoy this book. It’s a quick read too. Once you’ve finished, if you’re in the mood for more McEwan, I also recommend The Comfort of Strangers.

…

Tanisha Scottham, College Advancement:

Isabel Allende’s newest book Zorro: A Novel looks like a good read!

…

Anita Charles, Instructor/Dept. of Education:

Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri
A Pulitzer-Prize-winning collection of short stories featuring families from India integrating into American culture. I do not recommend, however, her later novel The Namesake. Guess she doesn’t do longer fiction as well as she does short stories.

Beloved, by Toni Morrison
One of my all-time favorite books. I could read it over and over, and it would definitely be one I’d want if I were stranded on a desert isle. It’s not an “easy” read, but it’s beautifully written and thematically deep.

The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner
It’s like a puzzle that you get to put together as you read, with many moments of sudden realizations. Faulkner’s influence on Toni Morrison is evident in the previously-mentioned book. This is another book worth reading a few times.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy, by Tolkien
Yes, okay, I’m behind the 8-ball on these and probably the last person on earth finally reading them, but I am thoroughly enjoying the language and the story. I am reading them bit by bit with my boys, ages 9 and 11.

Don’t forget to revisit Shakespeare! Some great ones to read or reread would include Twelfth Night, Othello, and of course Macbeth and Hamlet.

City of the Beasts, by I. Allende
This is actually a Young Adult coming-of-age novel about a 15-year-old boy who takes a trip into the Amazon with his grandmother, while his mother faces cancer back at home. It’s a wonderful novel by a wonderful author.

Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech
Another Young Adult coming-of-age novel, this one about a girl who travels by car with her grandparents to try to discover more about her mother.

…

Lois Griffiths, Alumna and Retiree:

My favorite book this year was Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, recommended by my granddaughter – I read it last fall, and still think about it often.

It is set in Oxford in the near future, when scientists are perfecting a time travel method, and the same Oxfordshire area in the fourteenth century. The modern academic scene contrasts ironically with the 1300’s.

If you have ever wondered what it would really be like to go back there, especially with a chance of never returning, try this!

…

Jack Pribram, Professor of Physics:

Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, 2003
Fiction. A good story line narrated by a British teenager with autism and special math skills. The book is beautifully constructed and gives the reader a sense of the logic this boy uses as he negotiates life with his parents and neighbors. Think a young Rain Man with different skills and personality. A fast read.

Simon Winchester, Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883, 2003
An account of one of the greatest volcanic explosions of all time and the impact on the people of Indonesia and the world. The first event to be reported almost instantaneously around the earth because of the recent completion of the laying of telegraph lines. Winchester is an experienced writer [The Professor and the Madman] whose training is in geology. He also brings in the history of Dutch colonialism. The December tsunami renewed interest in Krakatoa.

Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, 2003.
The magic was the Chicago’s world fair (the white city) of 1893, the murder and madness were the unnoticed disappearances due to a serial killer. The parallel stories of lead architect and the killer make for a good narrative, even when you’d rather not read about deaths. Larson gives a good sense of the incredible effort to put the fair together by the major architects of the day, of parts of America before 1900, and of Chicago coming into its own as a major city.

Ruth Wilson, Alumna and Retiree:

Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss.
Right down and editor’s “alley.”

One Man’s Meat by E.B. White
Reprise with one of my favorite writers.

Madam Secretary, a memoir by Madeleine Albright
What a woman! Should be on everyone’s reading list.

Abe by Richard Slotkin
Interesting, probably somewhat fictional, good account of Lincoln’s early days.

Numerous mysteries by P.D. James, Elizabeth Peters, Anne Perry, and the Laurie King series about retirement years of Sherlock Holmes sleuthing with his wife.

…

Ellen Peters, Institutional Planning and Analysis:

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
A beautifully written book about the intersection of a boy’s emotional development and war-torn Afghanistan.

Odd Girl Out: the Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls by Rachel Simmons
A ground breaking study of the passive bullying of girls.

Under the Banner of Heaven : A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer
An admittedly biased account of fundamentalist Mormonism, sprinkled with history.

Postville:A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America by Stephen G. Bloom
About the influx of a group of Orthodox Jews into a rural Iowa community.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
An old classic I’d never read and am delighted to have finally found the time to pick up…a telling book about a girl’s coming of age in a working poor family a century ago.

…

Zach Potter, Bookstore:

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and The Autobiography of an Ex-colored Man by James Weldon Johnson
Great, classic stories depicting the “passing” between black and white society and the main characters’ finding of themselves within these societies.

Nobody’s Fool by Richard Russo
Great story. Even better that the movie with Paul Newman.

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Pat Meader, Local Bibliophile:

March Cost, The Year of the Yield

J.B.Priestly, The Good Companions

Margery Allingham’s The Estate of the Beckoning Lady

Lillian Beckwith’s The Hills are Lonely

Margery Sharpe: Britannia Mews

Most of these entertaining reads will be out of print but perhaps you can find them at your local library! They are worth the hunt. If you can’t find them, anything by Elizabeth Berg is good.

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Carole Parker, Library Assistant/Acquisitions:

I got 2 new books for Christmas, and I actually got to read them. Bob Dylan’s Chronicles I is great if you’re a Dylan fan; it reads very much like he sings. Frieda Hughes’ release of Sylvia Plath’s Ariel: The Restored Edition: A Facsimile of Plath’s Manuscript, Reinstating Her Original Selection and Arrangement was interesting for its history together with her fine poetry.

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Lorraine Groves, Bookstore:

The only suggestion I have is The Power of NOW by Eckhart Tolle. Visit your inner self for a transforming experience.

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Debbie and Dick Williamson, Charles A. Dana Professor of French:

Ron McLarty, The Memory of Running. Why does Smithy Ide, an overweight, chain-smoking 43 yr old, drunk go on a cross-country bike ride?

Michael Sanders, Families of the Vine. Sanders from Brunswick, Maine and the author of From Here, You Can’t See Paris, presents the insider’s view of winemaking in Southwestern France.

Victor Hugo, The Toilers of the Sea. In French, Les Travailleurs de lamer, this novel by Hugo is as profound and as challening as Moby Dick. Great beach reading.

And we are sure that this one will appear on other lists:

Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner.

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Erica Rand, Professor of Art and Visual Culture:

I recommend the novel Crybaby Butch (Firebrand Books, 2004) by Judith Frank. It’s a great read about gender, generation, dyke identities, and adult literacy.

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Claire Schmoll, Administrative Assistant to the President:

Trace by Patricia Cornwell is the most recent book I’ve read.

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Laura Juraska, Associate College Librarian for Reference Services:

Master Butcher Singing Club by Louise Erdrich
If you’ve not read anything by Louise Erdrich, this is a good place to start because she is at her best once again in this story weaving together tales of life and love like no other.

Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler
What is striking about this book is that the narrators in most of these stories are women, Vietnamese women. How an American male author can write in the feminine voice, about the feelings and experiences of the Vietnamese diaspora here in America, is what amazed me. Butler has written a beautiful, sensitive collection of stories about their lives past and present. Not like any novel or collection of stories written after the war that you have read. It won, and deserves, the Pulitzer Prize.

Lusty Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore
The author of “Coyote Blue” has done it again. Moore has a way with putting words together that often brings a chuckle. He is irreverent, given to the absurd, and has an imagination that catches one unawares and makes one shake one’s head at the preposterousness that just seems to flow out of his mind – yet it all makes sense in the context of the story. Can’t imagine what it would be like to live with someone whose synapses are so twisted, but it sure was fun reading it.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
I finally got around to this revived classic and found that one of the best ways to enter is through this wonderful audiobook edition. The story and language come to life through the artful interpretation and reading of Michele-Denise Woods.

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John Harrison, Associate College Librarian for Collection Development:

Two extremes, both wonderful in their way:

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

The Stories of John Cheever

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Anne Thompson, Professor of English

Brick Lane, by Monica Ali
This novel tells of the life of a Bangladeshi woman in an arranged marriage, in a community of Bangladeshi in London. It’s a wonderful read, both serious and funny, and also illuminating about a culture with which I was completely unfamiliar. Recommended to me both by a �ֲ���ý professor and a Bangladeshi undergraduate, so you know it must be good.

The Spiral Staircase, by Karen Armstrong
The spiritual autobiography of a woman who spent seven years as a Catholic nun, beginning when she was seventeen, and has now become an authority on all the world religions. I think what I liked best about this book was the tracing of her journey from her initial complete disaffection and indeed hostility to Catholicism, to her current profound engagement with and respect for all religious and spiritual traditions, though without committing herself to a conventional belief in any.

…

Kerry O’Brien, Dean of the Faculty’s Office:

The Plot against America, by Philip Roth
By far my favorite read of the year. Roth places his own family in an alternate-history scenario, as seen through his own 9-year-old eyes: what if Nazi-sympathizer Charles Lindbergh had become president in the 1940s? The ominous anti-Semitic escalation is harrowing, as what was one thought to be impossible begins to unfold. The family is wrenched apart as they take various sides; the broader message is a warning about the dangers of chummy, plain-spoken ideologues in the White House and their catastrophic influence on clueless Americans.

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
It’s astonishing that this book was written by someone who was barely out of his teens. It’s at once hilarious and tragic, crossing back and forth across several centuries as it depicts life and death in Jewish shtetls and a present-day American’s search for the truth about his family’s near-annihilation in the Holocaust. Maybe the person who gets most enlightened is the Ukrainian translator-tour guide coming to terms with the past, his family’s complicity, and the future.

Another chronological moving target is The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.
Weird as it got sometimes, I could not put this book down. Talk about love standing the test of time: could you stand it if your husband disappeared for days on end, genetically predisposed to time-travel, only to reappear naked and beat up in the stacks of the library?

Runaway by Alice Munro
Alice Munro is amazing at capturing the lives of women, which are filled with traps and opportunities. Her stories are like tiny epic novels, huge in scope, yet she has cut away all the extra junk: perfectly distilled.

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Lorelei Purrington, Area Coordinator:

A Painted House by John Grisham
A Novel written about rural Arkansas in 1952 and a little boy, Luke, who lives with his parents and grandparents in a house that’s never been painted. They hire a truck-load of Mexicans and a family from the Ozarks to help harvest the cotton. Luke sees and hears things that he never should. Excellent book, which I loved and could not put down!

Joy Comes in the Morning by Jonathan Rosen
A novel about a woman rabbi who has passionate contradictions, doubts and desires and who searches for something sacred in the midst of modern chaos. Wonderfully written.

An Enduring Love, My Life with the Shah by Farah Pahlavi
A memoir about the empress, Farah Pahlavi, wife of the last emperor of Iran—Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi and her devotion to social and cultural causes. Farah tells the heart-wrenching story of love she had for a man and his country during a tragic national struggle. Terrific book along with being very informational.

Good Harbor by Anita Daiment
A quick read about a new friendship that empowers two women going through personal challenges in their lives. Very realistic and touching.

Victorine by Catherine Texier
A story of adventure and self discovery of a woman’s struggle between duty and independence, tradition and freedom, longing and regret as she looks back at her life told by her great granddaughter. Very enjoyable read.

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Sue Martin, Assistant Director of Center for Service Learning:

Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst
An unlikely topic- teaching a dog to talk- that turns into a great book.

Taft by Ann Patchett
I keep hoping one of her books will come up to Bel Canto. This one doesn’t but it’s entertaining.

The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushie
A wonderful book I just got around to this year.

Unless by Carol Shields
The struggles of watching young adult children lead their own lives.

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Hadden
I kept ignoring it because I thought it was overrated, but it was intriguing.

John Adams by David McCullough
I’m reading it in sections and really enjoy the integration of original letters, journals, etc.

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Laurie Henderson, Director of Office Services:

Mental-pause…and other midlife laughs by Laura Jensen Walker
Good simple and fun read. Looking at your mother’s face in the mirror? Or forgetting simple words for the common things, like husband and sink? If subzero temperatures are suddenly pleasant, this is a good “been there, done that” book.

Phillips’ Treasure of Humorous Quotations, Bob Phillips
What can I say, a quote a day keeps me happy.

Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris
Great quick read. David has a unique sense of humor recalling many childhood and adolescent memories.

…

Jane Costlow, Professor of Russian:

Mary Gordon’s new novel Pearl took me a while to get into – her narrator’s voice was off-putting at first; but I was glad to have persevered – this is a mother/daughter story in which the study-abroad year ends with Pearl (the daughter) staging a hunger strike in front of the American embassy in Dublin. Many of Gordon’s persistent themes are here – women’s relationships to Catholicism, to their bodies, and to each other. And perhaps the naivete of Americans meddling in other folks’ politics?

Gilead is an extraordinary book – an elderly protestant minister’s long letter to his very young son, about the history of the family, which is also a history of religiously-grounded protest against slavery. A wonderful, wonderful book, with a gentle voice and great wisdom.

Finally – short stories by Alice Munroe, who is quite simply an AMAZING writer. Just read her Friendship, Hateship, Courtship…. (there’s more but I’ll get it wrong). Her evocation of character is extraordinary – the lives of women in Canada in a generation just on the cusp of feminism – written with wit and insight into the ways in which people do marvelous things with lives that are in many ways constrained.

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Leslie Hill, Associate Professor of Political Science:

Turtle Baby: A Mystery Novel by Abigail Padgett
I found this a good read because the detective was a flawed character.

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Jill Reich, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty:

I fear my reading habits are rather prosaic – but perhaps there are others among us who seek calm in their good reads. My favorites from the past year are: Joseph Ellis’ George Washington and R. Chernov’s Alexander Hamilton.

…

Michael Hanrahan, Assistant Director and Instruction Coordinator, ILS:

Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux
Recounts overland journey form Cairo to Cape Town. Quite a good read!

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Denise A. Begin, Staff Assistant/Dean of the Faculty’s Office:

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, by John Gray.
A first-year marriage manual!

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Kirk Read, Associate Professor of French:

Arabian Jazz by Diana Abu-Jaber, family sadness and humor and hijinx among Lebanese immigrants in Upstate New York

In Search of Time Past by Proust. Just bathe in the first volume if that’s all you have time for. At 3500 pages total, your French professor would understand. Extra credit for the original, A la recherche du temps perdu. Great summer reading. Torpor, angst, poetic prose, the most gorgeous impressionistic prose imaginable.

Testament of Devotion, Thomas Kelly for the spiritual questers, Quaker, Christian.

Annie Lamott, Plan B: Further thoughts on faith; more spiritual questing, great sense of humor, hilarious, christian.

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Rebecca Fraser-Thill, Visiting Instructor in Psychology:

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett is an excellent novel that I highly recommend! It’s one of those books that I never wanted to end. An aristocratic party in South America is taken over by terrorists, and Patchett weaves a beautiful tale of how the terrorists and hostages become emotionally entangled over the course of months. The descriptions are elegant, the characters are completely believable, and the emotions evoked are powerful. It’s clear why this novel won the PEN/Faulkner award.

Little Children by Tom Perrotta is a novel about a stay-at-home dad and stay-at-home mom who get wrapped up in an affair. What I loved about it was the biting humor Perrotta employs as he explores suburban life, and how round and real the characters are. I found myself dying to get home each evening so that I keep reading, and even though the ending didn’t quite hit the right note for me, I still highly recommend it.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold has probably been on this list in the past. The narrator is a young murdered girl who witnesses how her family changes after she’s died. I found this novel to be beautifully written, emotionally compelling, and, despite the somber topic, containing lightheartedness and hope.

Ernie’s Ark by Monica Wood is a set of connected short stories that take place in Maine and are written by a Maine author. The stories have well-defined characters and subtle themes that kept me pondering each story long after I read them.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden is a novel that follows a girl from being sold by her parents up through her life as a famous geisha. Not only did I learn a lot about Japan’s history and geisha life by reading this book, but I was also transported by the detailed descriptions, the surprising number of plot twists, and the theme of true love that runs through the book.

The novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel tells about a family whose boat sinks as they are trying to transport themselves and their zoo from India to Canada. The son, Pi, gets stuck on a lifeboat with a small menagerie, including a tiger. I didn’t expect to like this book, but found myself enthralled by the use of details that made me suspend logical thought (I mean, a man and a tiger on a tiny boat? Really?). I also respect Martel’s ability to keep me completely engaged even though there is only one human character, and therefore basically no dialogue, for a majority of the novel.

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Lori Ouellette, Administrative Assistant/Dean of the Faculty’s Office:

A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on her Diary 1785-1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Fabulouly great (but dry) reading. Martha Ballard is the aunt of Clara Barton, foundner of the American Red Cross.

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Anne Williams, Professor of Economics:

For Democrats (NOT Republicans) who enjoy thrillers and information processing, I recommend The Librarian by Larry Beinhart. The movie, “Wag the Dog”, is based on another one of his novels.

On a more serious note, I recommend Year of Wonders, historical fiction about an unusual English Village during an outbreak of the Black Death, by Geraldine Brooks.

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Rebecca Lovett, Assistant Bookstore Manager:

The Secret Book of Grazia dei Rossi by Jacqueline Park
A pair of letters from Renaissance Italy was the inspiration for this wonderful work of historical fiction. Accurate in detail, full of great characters, reads well in small doses as well as on long plane rides.

Aloft by Chang-Rae Lee
This quiet novel stayed with me months after I finished reading it. Subtle writing on deep emotions, descriptions that put you right into the character’s skin (and aloft over Long Island) – an amazing author not to be missed.

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David Das, Study Abroad Advisor and Mentoring Coordinator:

The Empire Trilogy by J.G. Farrell — The Siege of Krishnapur, Singapore Grip, Troubles. Wonderful evocations of British imperial folly that have much to teach 21st century builders of empire.

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S. Marie Henderson, Library Assistant, Government Documents:

The Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou
Contents: I know why the caged bird sings — Gather together in my name — Singin’ and swingin’ and gettin’ merry like Christmas — The heart of a woman — All God’s children need traveling shoes — A song flung up to heaven

This was an excellent collection of the autobiographical stories of Maya Angelou. A very interesting read… Some of the stories made me feel sad, and depressed because of what this woman faced in her life –but through it all Maya proved to be a strong and courageous woman. A very admirable book.

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Smriti Rao, Visiting Instructor of Economics:

I just thought of one that I’ve tremendously enjoyed (if it isn’t already on the list): The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh. Science fiction meets post-colonial critique!

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Beth Sheppard, Associate Director of Alumni & Parent Programs:

Based on many recommendations last year, I enjoyed The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. And I loved The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

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Perrin Lumbert, Library Assistant, Interlibrary Loan:

The Notebook the Proof the Third Lie, by Agota Kristof

Sea of Fertility, tetralogy by Yukio Mishima (this remains my favorite read of all time)

Casanova in Bolzano, and Embers, both by Sandor Marai

For witty detective mysteries, anything by Swedish writer Henning Mankell

All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville West

Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi (latest book from the author of Persepolis)

The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life (utterly fascinating and disturbing story of Lev Nussimbaum, who reinvented himself and became the writer Kurban Said)

The Crimson Petal and the White, by Michel Faber (an unforgettable take on the Victorian novel)

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Ken Emerson, Associate Director/Human Resources:

I really haven’t read much leisure reading in the past year. I did read Angels and Demons by Dan Brown just before the Pope died so it was a timely book regarding all the processes and protocol involved in choosing a new Pope. I guess I had a kind of Dan Brown year as I also read Da Vinci Code , Digital Fortress and Deception Point. All have the same characteristic of engaging you in the story and characters in the first few pages. All quick, interesting reads.

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Bill Low, Assistant Curator/Museum of Art:

My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk (translated by Erdag Goknar).
Great, entertaining story. I loved the descriptions of cultural and religious differences between East and West seen through artistic traditions.

“In 16th-century Istanbul, master miniaturist and illuminator of books Enishte Effendi is commissioned to illustrate a book celebrating the sultan. Soon he lies dead at the bottom of a well, and how he got there is the crux of this novel. A number of narrators give testimony to what they know about the circumstances surrounding the murder. The stories accumulate and become more detailed as the novel progresses, giving the reader not only a nontraditional murder mystery but insight into the mores and customs of the time. In addition, this is both an examination of the way figurative art is viewed within Islam and a love story that demonstrates the tricky mechanics of marriage laws.” (Library Journal)

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Sarah Potter, Bookstore Director:

Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell
Publishers Weekly describes this Russell novel as “busy, noisy and heartfelt… sprawling…a striking departure from her previous two acclaimed SF thrillers, The Sparrow and Children of God—chronicles the Italian resistance to the Germans during the last two years of WWII. Three cultures mingle uneasily in Porto Sant’Andrea on the Ligurian coast of northwest Italy—the Italian Jews of the village; the Italian Catholics, who befriend and shelter the Jews; and the occupying Germans invited by Mussolini’s crumbling regime.” Keeping track of characters can be tricky but is well worth the effort. It is a story that lingers with you long after the reading.

A Walk on the Beach: Tales of Wisdom from Unconventional Women by Joan Anderson
This memoir, set on Cape Cod, details Anderson’s remarkable relationship with Joan Erikson, wife of psychoanalyst Erik Erikson. Anderson, in her mid-fifties, is taking a year off from her marriage while Erikson, in her early nineties, is observing her husband’s rapid decline in health. This is a quick read, full of wisdom and insight as well as energy and life.

I’ve also just finished Meg Wolitzer’s The Wife: A Novel
This review from Booksmith: “A diabolically smart and funny assault against the literary establishment and the tacit assumption that only men can write the Great American Novel. As Joan recounts the misery she and her fellow writers’ wives endure, popular and shrewd novelist Wolitzer choreographs her ire into kung-fu precision moves to zap our every notion about gender and status, creativity and fame, individuality and marriage, deftly exposing the injustice, sorrow, and sheer absurdity of it all.” It’s worth the summer read!

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Aslaug Asgeirsdottir, Assistant Professor of Political Science:

I would like to include William Easterly’s book, The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists’ Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics. While not exactly beach reading, it is a fascinating account of some of the misguided policies pursued by the World Bank in developing countries.

Some good detective novels that do qualify as beach reading are any of Henning Mankell’s mysteries featuring Swedish detective Kurt Wallander. Police work in Sweden has a slightly different flavor than Law and Order. Good titles include: Faceless Killers, The Dogs of Riga, Sidetracked, One Step Behind and Firewall. It is good to begin with the first one (Faceless Killers) and work down the list as the books build on history a bit.

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Terry Beckmann, Vice President for Finance and Administration/Treasurer:

Trace by Patricia Cornwell

And for truly light, entertaining summer reading, anything by Mary Higgins Clark.

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Camille Parrish, Learning Associate/Environmental Studies:

Terror in the Name of God by Jessica Stern. This book contains interviews that Jessica Stern, a Professor at Harvard, had with religiously motivated terriorists. The book spans the globe and covers the range of terrorists from individuals to highly organized terrorist organizations. I highly recommend it for those who want to better understand and see inside the lives of people involved in terrorist activity. It is one of those books that stays with you long after reading it.

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Kathy Low, Professor of Psychology:

The Known World, by Edward Jones

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Kerry Maloney, College Chaplain:

Here’s a brief list of a few of my favorites from this and last year — probably several repeat titles from other contributors to you list.

Anne Lamott. Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith. Riverhead, 2005.

Marilynne Robinson. Gilead. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004.

Jon Kabat-Zinn. Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the

World Through Mindfulness. Hyperion, 2005.

David Sedaris. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. Little, Brown and Company, 2004.

Marcus Borg. The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith. HarperSanFrancisco, 2003.

Dorothee Soelle. The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance. Fortress, 2001.

Tony Hendra. Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul. Random House, 2004.

Heidi Neumark. Breathing Space: A Spiritual Journey in the South Bronx. Beacon Press, 2004.

Gary Schmidt and Susan M. Felch, eds. Autumn: A Spiritual Biography of the Season. Skylight Paths Publishing, 2004. (See also their 2003 publication, Winter: A Spiritual Biography of the Season.)

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Julie Retelle, Assistant College Librarian for Access Services:

I would recommend all of the books by Maine author Van Reid. The titles are:

Cordelia Underwood, or, The marvelous beginnings of the Moosepath League

Daniel Plainway, or, The holiday haunting of the Moosepath League

Fiddler’s green, or, A wedding, a ball, and the singular adventure of Sundry Moss

Mollie Peer, or, The underground adventure of the Moosepath League

Mrs. Roberto, or, The widowy worries of the Moosepath League

…

Peter Schlax, Research Technician/Chemistry:

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
From Publishers Weekly:

Not long after Jack the Ripper haunted the ill-lit streets of 1888 London, H.H. Holmes (born Herman Webster Mudgett) dispatched somewhere between 27 and 200 people, mostly single young women, in the churning new metropolis of Chicago; many of the murders occurred during (and exploited) the city’s finest moment, the World’s Fair of 1893. Larson’s breathtaking new history is a novelistic yet wholly factual account of the fair and the mass murderer who lurked within it. Bestselling author Larson (Isaac’s Storm) strikes a fine balance between the planning and execution of the vast fair and Holmes’s relentless, ghastly activities. The passages about Holmes are compelling and aptly claustrophobic; readers will be glad for the frequent escapes to the relative sanity of Holmes’s co-star, architect and fair overseer Daniel Hudson Burnham, who managed the thousands of workers and engineers who pulled the sprawling fair together 0n an astonishingly tight two-year schedule. A natural charlatan, Holmes exploited the inability of authorities to coordinate, creating a small commercial empire entirely on unpaid debts and constructing a personal cadaver-disposal system. This is, in effect, the nonfiction Alienist, or a sort of companion, which might be called Homicide, to Emile Durkheim’s Suicide. However, rather than anomie, Larson is most interested in industriousness and the new opportunities for mayhem afforded by the advent of widespread public anonymity. This book is everything popular history should be, meticulously recreating a rich, pre-automobile America on the cusp of modernity, in which the sale of “articulated” corpses was a semi-respectable trade and serial killers could go well-nigh unnoticed.

Kitchen Confidentialby Anthony Bourdain
A world class chef revels tales from the underbelly of fine cuisine.

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Doug Hubley, Communications and Media Relations:

I’m likely not the first to suggest it, but Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink is an engrossing, enlightening and eminently readable survey of what the subconscious mind can do — and what it can’t. For people (like me) who can’t think in a straight line but still somehow manage to get the job done each day, Blink also affords a boost in the self-esteem/self-congratulation department.

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Jim Lamontagne, Library Assistant/Cataloging:

I would recommend two new works by Rick Bass, the novel The Diezmo (confirms his status as a distinctive voice in current American literature that is largely a literary wilderness, but if you’re at all squeamish about the rough edges of existence skip it), and his new piece of nature writing entitled Caribou Rising (confirms his status as a determined voice for the increasingly threatened real American wilderness, specifically in this case the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but if you like George W. Bush, well, skip this one too)

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Mary Meserve, Associate Registrar:

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger was an amazing read. The classic sci-fi element of time travel is beautifully interwoven with a deeply felt love story. I also was entranced by The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. This story, about an autistic teenager compelled to solve the mysterious death of a neighbor’s dog, is very compelling and moving. On a different note, The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson was a fascinating look at the events surrounding the Chicago’s World Fair in 1893 from the perspectives of Daniel Burnham, the chief architect of the fair, and H. H. Holmes, a doctor who became one of this country’s first serial killers. I had to remind myself repeatedly that this wasn’t just an inventive, fictious thriller but that it was non-fiction and just over one hundred years ago this story was front page news!

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Judith Robbins, Learning Associate/Dean of Faculty’s Office:

Setting aside momentarily the request for titles of note, I would like to recommend to Constant Readers a manner of reading, viz., listening. I may be the last person on campus who has gotten hooked by audio books, but in case there is another soul out there with at least 8 CD tracks worth of commute, a soul who lives by the printed word and has not yet succumbed to the seductiveness of the audio word, this one’s for you.

My first was a book whose title I don’t remember but which was of the caliber of the B movie you can watch between Boston and Portland and enjoy but would never pay money for at the video store. I knew I was spoiled for good when I couldn’t wait to drive home from work and hear the vapid heroine’s latest Important Decision. Pathetic but true.

I’m only on my third book now, Chaim Potok’s The Chosen, and it’s too early in the game to make a call on “readability,” but I certainly recommend Yann Martel’s Life of Pi. I still have a thousand pictures in my head from reading… hearing that book.

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Mark Semon, Professor of Physics:

Ann Coulter, Slander

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Phyllis Graber Jensen, Senior Staff Writer and Photographer:

Truth & Beauty : A Friendship by Ann Patchett
This memoir of the author’s friendship with writer Lucy Grealy examines the depths of pleasure and pain in a friendship.

The Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany by Martin Goldsmith
The author writes about how his parents — both talented musicians — coped with the Nazis and escaped the Holocaust. But they paid a price.

Family Circle : The Boudins and the Aristocracy of the Left by Susan Braudy
This is a gossipy account, a true “guilty pleasure.” I indulged.

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Brenda Reynolds, Audio Supervisor, Ladd Library:

Sabriel. Lirael. Abhorsen, Garth Nix
Strong female characters, magic, putting down the Dead and a text that doesn’t dumb down. What more can you ask for in a Young Adult series? I already have my pre-order in for the 4th installment.

Selling the Work Ethic: From Puritan Pulpit to Corporate PR, Sharon Beder
It made me mad, frustrated and quite introspective. If even half of us read it, we might stand a chance at a better existence.

You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You, Molly Ivins
She’s a Texan, a liberal and she writes biting, witty political commentary. This collection is from 1998 but it’s a fun look back at ourselves.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: A Novel, Susanna Clarke
OK its 800 pages and I haven’t finished it yet but it is absolutely wonderful! It opens in 1806 England, with lots of social positioning, think Pride and Prejudice. It has fairies but not like you’d envision from childhood. It has magicians but there’s not actually any magic done in England at the start of the book. It also has the Napoleonic Wars… I’ve heard it described as Harry Potter for adults. (Of course every adult I know has read and loved every Potter book). It’s really nothing like Potter except that it’s funny and you’ll love it.

…

Michael Murray, Charles Franklin Phillips Professor of Economics:

The Namesake (by Jhumpa Lahiri)
A fine story.

And there’s Freakonomics, by Steven Levitt and Steven someone else (Dubner). As the jacket says: “Prepare to be dazzled!” Economics for anyone, yet deep and rich! (What do Sumo wrestlers and school teachers have in common?)

Hardball by Chris Mathews
A list of principles of practical politics with lively real-world examples.

The Price of Loyalty by Paul O’Neil
A sad inside look at the Bush administration by Bush’s former treasury secretary.

…

Karen Palin, Lecturer in Biology:

Well, in preparation for (a trip to) Denmark, I DID re-read Hans Christian Andersen…and I highly recommend doing so for all. He was an awfully prolific writer, and I enjoyed taking another look at his work.

And then there is May Sarton, always worth another read!

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Judy Marden, Director at Shortridge:

Wesley McNair’s The Maine Poets
Wonderful in itself, and also for why he chose the poets and poems he did. See if you agree! Especially notable: Bob Chute’s ‘A Revolutionary Soldier’s Reward’ (and not ONLY because it’s about Morse Mountain!) and Mekeel McBride’s ‘A Little Bit of Timely Advice’ (“You say you got no makings for a song? Sing anyway. Best music’s the stuff comes rising out of nothing.”)

Beth Gutcheon’s More Than You Know: A Novel
In a small town called Dundee on the coast of Maine, an old woman named Hannah Gray begins her story: “Somebody said ‘true love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen.’ I’ve seen both and I don’t know how to tell you which is worse.” Quoth the book jacket–bet you can’t wait to get inside!

Nancy Taylor Rosenberg’s Sullivan’s Law
One of her best. Wraps you up in a plot that won’t let you put it down til you find out–and, it doesn’t end too soon. Plan on an all-nighter.

Bill McKibben: Wandering Home
A long walk through Vermont and New Hampshire, called by McKibben “America’s most hopeful landscapes.” He quotes a virtually unknown poet, Jeanne Robert Foster, a woman contemporaneous with Robert Frost “but lacking his great ego”, who wrote but one book:

I gave the mountainside to keep it wild,
Free for the life that it has had so long
The trail will always be what it is now
The summit, with its scrubby balsam trees…
In future years, you will come here
And touch the trees as I have done
And think that I did right.”

His question of how much human intervention can a place stand before it loses its essence is one for all of us.

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Marita Bryant, Assistant in Instruction/Geology:

Simon Winchester, Krakatoa
Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire, Shake Hands with the Devil

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