Welcome to the 28th edition of the �ֲ���ý community’s annual summer reading list, aka Good Reads: The �ֲ���ý College Non-Required Reading List for Leisure Moments.

Begun and named in 1997 by Sarah Emerson Potter ’77, the longtime former �ֲ���ý College Store director, Good Reads brings together the readers — and their bookshelves — of the broad �ֲ���ý community, including alumni, current and retired staff, and faculty.

In 2017, Alison Keegan in the Office of the Dean of the Faculty took over the annual tradition of collecting and compiling submissions.

“Thanks to you, �ֲ���ý community, who let me know every year how important this tradition remains,” Keegan said as she offered this year’s edition to the community. “May you find endless new worlds to explore from these pages.”

Fifty-six members of the �ֲ���ý community — faculty, staff, alumni, retirees — submitted book titles this year, and Keegan reports that these titles have two or more recommendations:

• The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
• Horse by Geraldine Brooks
• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
• The Women by Kristin Hannah
• Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez
• Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
• Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
• Just East of Nowhere by Scot Lehigh
• The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
• Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
• Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
• The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Tobie Akerley Gordon, Academic Support Services

• When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill.
• The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris.
• Horse by Geraldine Brooks.
• Prophet Song by Paul Lynch.
• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
• The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.
• Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune.

Casey Andersen ’12, Office of College Advancement

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. “Loretta Thurwar and Hamara ‘Hurricane Staxxx’ Stacker are the stars of the Chain-Gang All- Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly popular, highly controversial profit-raising program in America’s increasingly dominant private prison industry. It’s the return of the gladiators, and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.” — Pantheon Books

Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xóchitl González. “About a first-generation Ivy League student who uncovers the genius work of a female artist decades after her suspicious death.” — Flatiron Books

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward. “An epochal story, a journey through Mississippi’s past and present that is both an intimate portrait of a family and an epic tale of hope and struggle.” — Scribner

The Round House by Louise Erdrich. “Story of a boy on the cusp of manhood who seeks justice and understanding in the wake of a terrible crime that upends and forever transforms his family.” — Harper

Judith Ayugi, College Store

• Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.
• A House in the Sky: A Memoir by Amanda Lindhout.
• The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese.
• Beneficence by Meredith Hall.
• This Other Eden by Paul Harding
• Salt Houses by Hala Alyan.

Pavel Bačovský, Department of Politics

This year, I would like to recommend Freedom to Win: A Cold War Story of the Courageous Hockey Team That Fought the Soviets for the Soul of Its People — And Olympic Gold by Ethan Scheiner. This book is great for anyone who loves ice hockey, the nexus of sport and politics, or the Cold War political history. You may enjoy this book if you like Miracle on Ice, Beartown, Amy Bass’s One Team, or something like Welcome to Wrexham.

Jim Bauer, retired colleague

Dead Man’s Wake by Paul Doiron. Game Warden Mike Bowditch’s engagement party is interrupted by the discovery of a gruesome double murder in Dead Man’s Wake, a thriller from Edgar Award- nominated author Paul Doiron. “Doiron’s crisp first-person narrative is thoroughly absorbing and richly atmospheric. Readers will enjoy every pine needle–crunching step.” — Booklist

Another author I’m enjoying is Randy Wayne White . I’m on Book 4 but they all are good.

Bobby Bosse, Post & Print

A Quantum Love Story by Mike Chen. A science fiction novel about two strangers working together to break a time loop that involves them living the same four days on repeat with some unexpected twists. Groundhog Day meets Star Trek.

11/22/63 by Stephen King. A man discovers a portal that takes him back to 1958 and devises a plan that involves him living in the past for five years to prevent the JFK assassination. Different from King’s other works, this is more suspense than horror.

I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella. A woman finds a phone in the trash and starts using it as her own. A silly romantic comedy that’s a fun and quick read.

Wells Castonguay, Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning

Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia by Kate Manne. To quote Manne, this book is “part memoir, part polemic, and part (all?) philosophy” and “aims to show why fatphobia is a vital social justice issue and provide an analysis of what fatphobia is and how it works.” Working through Manne’s personal narrative and evidence-based arguments is especially important for us in higher education, our highly fatphobic higher education.

Which Side Are You On by Ryan Lee Wong. What do our students wrestle with? Identities. Relationships. Activism. Advocacy. Dissent. Power. Positionality. Intersectionality. Violence. Authority.

In this novel, we glimpse these complexities and challenges through the eyes of Reed, a 21-year-old Asian American considering dropping out of his prestigious college because he’s angry and inspired to do something and be someone in the wake of a killing of a Black man by an Asian American police officer.

Jonathan Cavallero, Department of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies

Ma Speaks Up: And a First-Generation Daughter Talks Back, Marianne Leone‘s memoir about growing up as the daughter of Italian immigrants, just outside of Boston, is an emotional roller coaster.

On any given day, during my less-than-an-hour commute, I would turn on the audiobook and go from laughing out loud to tears streaming down my face to anger and then back to laughter. I always got to campus feeling invigorated, and that’s no small feat for someone with a 4-month-old at home.

I told my students about how amazing this book was as we prepared for Marianne’s public reading at the �ֲ���ý Film Festival. Then I told them about Marianne’s other moving memoir, Jesse: A Mother’s Story, which tells the story of her and her husband Chris’ unconditional love for their son Jesse, an honor-roll student, poet, and windsurfer, who had severe cerebral palsy, was quadriplegic, and unable to speak. Jesse died at the age of 17.

I gushed about these works and about Marianne, who is also an accomplished actress and Sopranos alum, and I don’t think my students fully believed me. I mean it all sounds pretty dramatic, and for Marianne to be coming to our film festival… well, you can’t fault them for thinking that I might have been exaggerating. But I wasn’t!

They went to Marianne’s reading at the festival, and then, they all got it. Many were so moved that they purchased her books on the spot! Books, like music and movies, can make you feel less alone in the world. Marianne’s work does that for me, and apparently, for my students as well! Maybe it will do the same for you.

The Left Coast Irregulars by Steven DePaul. A �ֲ���ý parent, DePaul has lived many lives. He toured the world with rock bands, including a certain singer from New Jersey who you may have heard I’m a fan of. Then, he came off the road to start a career in television, becoming an Emmy Award-winning producer and director on shows like NYPD Blue.

Now, he’s an author! And he draws on all those previous lives in his remarkable debut novel: a mystery set in the world of rock ‘n roll tours! This page turner offers a backstage peek at a world that intrigues me but of which I have no direct experience, and the mystery kept me guessing until the very end. The Left Coast Irregulars left me wanting more (and wanting to ask Steven how many of the narrative’s events were based on true stories!). So, it’s a good thing that Steven’s second “Rock and Roll Confidential Mystery,” titled Frequently Asked Questions, has already been published… and rumor has it a third one is on the way!

Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra. “Maria Lagana has come to Hollywood.” That snippet is in the first sentence of this novel’s description. If you know me, you know those six words meant I had to read this book, even before adding an Italian-American author to the mix. I loved this novel! A story of Italy, immigration, filmmaking, and the film business, the story also includes mystery, romance, and generational conflict. It’s wonderful!

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. I’m a little late to the party, as this novel been recommended here on the summer reading list before — and rightfully so. I finally got around to the audiobook, and I couldn’t stop listening to it. It made my commute along the Androscoggin River even more enjoyable. Check it out. You won’t regret it.

Anita Charles, Department of Education

For the past couple of years, I have greatly enjoyed listening to audio books. The narration is part of the experience in an audio book, and the list below includes some of my favorites from the past year.

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin. This fictional book is based on this premise: “If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life?” It follows 4 siblings who must face that question.

Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver.

Abide with Me by Elizabeth Strout ’77.

Music for Wartime by Rebecca Makkai. Short stories — beautifully written.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I never expected to love this book as much as I did! There’s a movie based on it as well that I watched after reading (listening to) the book. Very clever premise of a future world where people live much of their lives as “avatars” within an online game. Puzzles must be solved and games-within-games must be won to secure the future of the “real” world.

Dogtripping by David Rosenfelt. Memoir about bringing 25 rescue dogs from California to Maine in three RVs.

Finding Me by Viola Davis. Memoir about Davis’s journey of her career. Audio version is narrated by the author.

Finding Freedom by Erin French. Audio version is narrated by the author. Beautifully written memoir about a rural Maine woman who finds her passion and courage in cooking, despite a lack of formal training.

Jonathan Cohen, Department of Philosophy

Most of my “reading” comes via audiobooks while I commute to Lewiston from Farmington, so it’s possible the thrill came from brilliant narration as much as by brilliant writing, but this year I enjoyed The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, and Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray (a great name to go with a great book). The latter bills itself as “a novel without a hero” and has some of the best snarky writing I’ve ever heard, eventually building to some well-earned moral outrage, as well as some wonderfully subtle ways of delivering the news about what’s going on, e.g. sometimes nothing more than a carefully chosen word mid-sentence.

The former has some fabulous plot twists, to the point where I would be yelling to myself in the car, “Wait! That guy…is the same guy from 20 chapters ago!” Interestingly, both books turn crucially on the battle of Waterloo. Speaking of which, is War and Peace on your list?

Emily Colucci, Information and Library Services

The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: True stories of the Magic of Reading by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann with Chris Mooney. This book is incredibly inspiring and heartwarming. My mom grew up in her parents’ bookstore in Albuquerque, N.M. This was her start to developing a profound love for reading and books, which she has lots of in her and my dad’s home, making up their own personal library.

She has bestowed that knowledge as well as many of those same books and the love of reading to me, which is partially why I obtained my master’s degree in library and information studies and have worked in both public and academic libraries since 2015.

Encompassing each individual bookseller’s, librarian’s, and, in some cases, author’s personal testimony to loving to read and what they do — sharing their knowledge and love for ferociously absorbing information with their patrons — this book truly makes my heart happy.

This book is definitely one for the passionate soul who absolutely loves books, the joys of reading, and of course, devouring all kinds of information — enabling them to be the best critical and imaginative thinker possible.

To that front, I also truly hope that this book serves as a freeing outlet to (re)vitalize and emphasize the importance of booksellers, bookstores, librarians and libraries everywhere.

Renee Dana, Office of the Dean of the Faculty

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin. Following the stories of four siblings and how their lives are changed after they are told their death dates at a young age. Novel spans over five decades.

None of This is True by Lisa Jewell. Twisty turny psychological thriller following Josie and Alix as they develop their friendship. Split timelines between current day true crime podcast interviews and the lives of Alix and Josie.

Happy Place by Emily Henry. A summer story based in Maine about a group of friends on their annual friend trip and a second chance romance.

Hang the Moon by Jeanette Walls. Set in Virginia during prohibition, following the life of Sallie Kincaid. A story of strength, the family you are born into, and the family you choose.

Carrie Diaz Eaton, Program in Digital and Computational Studies

Imagination: A Manifesto by Ruha Benjamin. Use your imagination to see justice in the world — don’t stop dreaming!

Susan Dunning, Office of College Advancement

Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty by Anderson Cooper. This was one of three books I read about the Vanderbilt family last year, and definitely the best of the three. I chose it because I was utterly fascinated by the fact that Anderson Cooper, whose mother was Gloria Vanderbilt (of jeans fame), is Cornelius Vanderbilt’s great-great-great-grandson. His telling of the family’s story is unflinchingly honest, but not mean-spirited — I loved it.

The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict. A novel based on the true story of Hedy Lamarr that you probably never knew: her marriage to a Nazi arms dealer, her daring escape and eventual success in Hollywood, and her scientific contributions to modern communication.

All My Knotted-Up Life by Beth Moore. A refreshingly honest and authentic memoir from a Bible teacher who, even among Christians, is revered by some and despised by others. I loved hearing her story directly from her and continue to be inspired by her laser-focus on what is truly important.

Elizabeth Durand ’76

Current fiction: The Women by Kristin Hannah. So much of what I’ve read in the last several years has been set during World War II, often in France. This is a different war, different time, different countries — it’s hard to believe the main character set off for Vietnam as an Army nurse nearly 60 years ago.

My YA pick: all of the Stevie Bell books by Maureen Johnson. There are five so far; the first one (and you’ll want to read them in order) is Truly Devious.

Beach books: Funny Story by Emily Henry. Her best in several years.

Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez.

Classic mystery novel: Hide My Eyes by Margery Allingham. This is not the first of the Albert Campion books, but it’s one of my favorites.

Still See You Everywhere by Lisa Gardner. A mystery with many twists.

Melinda Emerson, retired colleague

The Winners (No. 3 of the Beartown Series) by Fredrick Backman. “Two years have passed since the events that no one wants to think about. Everyone has tried to move on, but there’s something about this place that prevents it. The residents continue to grapple with life’s big questions: What is a family? What is a community? And what, if anything, are we willing to sacrifice in order to protect them?” — Atria Books

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley. “As a biracial, unenrolled tribal member and the product of a scandal, Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in — both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. When her family is struck by tragedy, Daunis puts her dreams on hold to care for her fragile mother. After Daunis witnesses a shocking murder that thrusts her into a criminal investigation, she agrees to go undercover. But the deceptions — and deaths — keep piling up and soon the threat strikes too close to home. How far will she go to protect her community if it means tearing apart the only world she’s ever known?” — Henry Holt and Co.

Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley. “Perry Firekeeper-Birch has always known who she is – the laidback twin, the troublemaker, the best fisher on Sugar Island. Her aspirations won’t ever take her far from home, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. But as the rising number of missing Indigenous women starts circling closer to home, as her family becomes embroiled in a high-profile murder investigation, and as greedy grave robbers seek to profit off of what belongs to her Anishinaabe tribe, Perry begins to question everything. In order to reclaim this inheritance for her people, Perry has no choice but to take matters into her own hands. She can only count on her friends and allies, including her overachieving twin and a charming new boy in town with unwavering morals. Old rivalries, sister secrets, and botched heists cannot – will not – stop her from uncovering the mystery before the ancestors and missing women are lost forever.” — Henry Holt & Co.

Murder in an Irish Pub by Carlene O’Connor. “The luck of the Irish runs out for a professional poker player in this mystery set in County Cork. Detective Sargent Macdara Flannery would lay odds it’s a simple suicide — after all, there’s a note and the room was locked. But officer Siobhán O’Sullivan suspects foul play, as does Foley’s very pregnant widow. Soon it’s up to Siobhán to call a killer’s bluff, but if she doesn’t play her cards right, she may be the next one taken out of the game.” — Kensington

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. “Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans, the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with, of all things, her mind. True chemistry results.” — Doubleday

Family Fortune by Mignon G. Eberhart. “A great plantation isolated by the Civil War…its young and beautiful heiress…the ruthless brother with whom she struggles for her birthright…the mysterious lover whose claims of distant kinship she can only half believe…the lovely mulatto girl whose kinship she cannot deny…the maze of shameful family secrets and lies through which she flees–pursued by the danger that is her legacy and the savage death that well may be her fate.” — Aeonian Press

The Hike by Susi Holiday. “Four hikers enter the mountains. Only two return. But is it tragedy? Or treachery?” — Thomas & Mercer

The Nurse’s Secret by Amanda Skenandore. Skenandore “brings her medical expertise to a page-turning story that explores the evolution of modern nursing — including the grisly realities of nineteenth-century medicine — as seen through the eyes of an intriguing and dynamic heroine.” — Kensington

Port Chatham by Steven Douglas Brown. “In Alaska, people disappear at a startling rate and the visitors to Port Chatham are about to add to that number.” — Independently published

The Ragged Edge of Night by Olivia Hawker. “Germany 1942. Franciscan friar Anton Starzmann is stripped of his place in the world when his school is seized by the Nazis. He relocates to a small German hamlet to wed Elisabeth Herter, a widow who seeks a marriage, in name only, to a man who can help raise her three children. Anton seeks something too: atonement for failing to protect his young students from the wrath of the Nazis. But neither he nor Elisabeth expects their lives to be shaken once again by the inescapable rumble of war.” — Lake Union Publishing

The Stillwater Girls by Minka Kent. “Two sisters raised in fear are about to find out why in a chilling novel of psychological suspense from the author of The Thinnest Air.” — Thomas & Mercer 

Marina Filipovic, Department of German and Russian Studies

Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi. “I never asked myself about the meaning of freedom until the day I hugged Stalin. From close up, he was much taller than I expected,” reads the opening of a witty, ironical, and tastefully written memoir narrated through the eyes of a young girl about complex realities of Enver Hoxha’s regime in the early 1980s and post-communist Albania of the 1990s.

Theory of Sorrow by Slavenka Drakulić (translated from the Croatian by Vladislav Beronja). A novel about Mileva Marić, one of the first female students in Europe to study mathematics and physics in prestigious and all-male Zurich Polytechnic School at the end of the 19th century.

Drakulić weaves in fiction and facts to tell a story of Mileva’s persistent feelings of sadness that affect her academic career, her marriage to Albert Einstein, and result in a series of personal losses. An insightful literary treatment of chronic depression and, certainly, a non-standard portrayal of Mileva Marić, whose life has aroused literary and film interest over the past decade.

Dan Girling, Post & Print

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. A story spanning over 20 years, this novel follows two characters who establish a video game development company. I enjoyed reading about the evolution of their friendship as the company grows and they face creative differences.

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. A science fiction novel with LGBTQ+ themes, this book is about two soldiers on opposite sides of a war fought through time. The story is told in letters the soldiers send to each other, as they jump back and forth through time and space.

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. This children’s book is about a boy named Milo who receives a magic tollbooth that takes him to another world, the Kingdom of Wisdom. I revisited this classic this year and still found it entertaining. It has a lot of humor and wordplay, and a positive message about the importance of learning.

Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie. This novel is a murder mystery about a famous painter who is poisoned while a group of friends are visiting his mansion. One unique part about this book is that the murder occurred sixteen years before the events of the book, with detective Hercule Poirot searching for the truth long after the evidence is gone. This was the first Agatha Christie novel I’ve read, but I enjoyed this and I look forward to reading more.

Dennis Grafflin, retired colleague, Department of History

Anything by Percival Everett is likely to be remarkable. I don’t know his poetry, but I’ve read two of his short-story collections, and they are excellent. (“The Appropriation of Cultures” in Damned If I Do is brilliant, if you like fiction that incorporates contemporary social commentary at the same time. A number of the stories in Big Picture are wonderful studies of fathers and sons, husbands and wives.)

I’ve read only two of his many novels. Wounded is about as perfectly constructed as a novel could be, and Walk Me to the Distance hit me hard for reasons that may be strictly personal. His latest, James, is getting lots of attention as a reimagining of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim instead of Huck, but I haven’t seen it.

Bruce Hall, Information and Library Services

I recommend Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande. He says that “being mortal is about the struggle to cope with the constraints of our biology.” While Gawande became a doctor “to push against these limits,” he has “seen the damage we in medicine do when we fail to acknowledge that such power is finite.”

Specifically, this book is about what we call “elder care,” “assisted living,” “nursing homes,” “memory care” or any of many other terms used to describe how we approach our own or our aging loved ones’ mortality, particularly over the last century. The issues are not simple and everyone is in a different situation.

To avoid that “damage” when his own father was facing a terminal disease, Gawande asked his father this question: “I asked him what trade-offs he was willing to make and not willing to make to try to stop what was happening to him.” Gawande’s experiences and frankness will be helpful to anyone who wants to be better prepared for this part of life.

I first learned of Atul Gawande from his earlier book The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right. It is a short, informative, and even fun account of the development of checklists as technology became more complex. Beyond that history, he covers how his hospital was able to improve patient outcomes by using checklists.

Joseph Hall, Department of History

The Abundance by Annie Dillard. This collection of essays includes selections from other collections of Dillard’s essays. Maybe you could think of it as her greatest hits or something like that.

I pulled it off the shelf in early April so I could read “Total Eclipse,” which she first published in 1982. A colleague recommended that I read it before I watched the total solar eclipse in northern Maine on April 8, and I was stunned by the essay’s brilliance. I read it twice. You should, too. And then enjoy the other essays in this marvelous collection. Or any collection of Dillard’s. She insists that we pay attention to the world around us. Thanks to her, I’m trying a little harder.

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. Keegan is renowned for her tightly woven novellas. I can only speak for this one, and it is a tiny, masterful snapshot. Keegan conveys a rich sense of Ireland in the early 1980s. She builds these vignettes into a powerful story that asks you to continue imagining its repercussions after the last page.

Mnemonic Ecologies: Memory and Nature Conservation along the Former Iron Curtain by Sonja Pieck. I should read more of my colleagues’ work. I’m glad I read this one.

With the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the reunification of East and West German in 1989, Germans had to decide how they would cultivate the border that once divided them. It was a strip scarred by the deaths of people who had tried to flee the east; it was a corridor filled with plants and animals who thrived in places largely devoid of human life. Sonja highlights how nature lives in human history, and humans live inextricably bound to the rest of the living world.

Lindsey Hamilton ’05, Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning

When I picked up a copy of Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby van Pelt, I was skeptical that I would enjoy a book with the protagonist of an octopus, but I quickly was captivated. Marcellus is a grumpy giant Pacific octopus living in captivity (he escapes nightly) who becomes an amateur detective for his only human friend, the night custodian, Tova Sullivan, in order to bring her closure about her long missing son. I listened to this as an audiobook and Michael Urie did a wonderful job bringing the curmudgeonly and intelligent octopus to life.

Nina Hicks, Office of Student Financial Services

Just East of Nowhere by Scot Lehigh. This is a great debut novel by a Maine author, set in a Maine town and the main character attends �ֲ���ý!

Bill Hiss ’66, retired colleague

Stranger in the Shogun’s City: A Japanese Woman and Her World by Amy Stanley. An intriguing approach to Japanese history. An early 1800s Japanese woman from the “snow country” of northwest Japan rebelled against every dictate of how a Japanese woman should behave, and after three divorces, made her way to Edo, which would become Tokyo.

We only know of her struggles for independence because she came from a literate family of Buddhist priests, which saved decades of letters as they tried to talk her into a compliant traditional role, which she rejected, even as she was often hungry and ill-clothed. Against her personal struggles came in the 1850s the forced changes to Japanese society, with its “double-bolted gates” to the outside world, as Admiral Perry brought to Japan his Black Ships with their 8-inch guns, against which the samurai were helpless.

Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind by Robert D. Richardson, Jr. Not a quick or light read, as the book traces the influences on Thoreau’s ideas, including a raft of European and Asian philosophers. But rewarding for seeing him in a far wider context of thinkers than his Concord and Transcendental friends, and far more involved than the cabin at Walden Pond would imply.

Knowing What We Know by Simon Winchester. This 2023 release is Winchester’s 33rd book, many of them fascinating, such as Krakatoa, on the 1883 volcanic eruption in Java, and his two books related to the Oxford English Dictionary, The Professor and the Madman and The Meaning of Everything.

This latest book has a very wide scale: tracing how humans have defined and kept track of knowledge. Much of it follows Winchester’s journalistic style, with lots of intriguing details and droll footnotes. But it is also a book conceived during Covid, written from the study rather than the road, with dozens of mini-chapters on everything from clay cuneiform tablets in Iraq and the Great Library at Alexandria to hand-held computers, Google and GPS.

Dispatch from Berlin, 1943 by Anthony Cooper and Thorsten Perl. In an ill-fated attempt to provide some press coverage for the massive British bombing raids over Germany, five non-British journalists were invited to accompany a single night of bombing over Berlin, with hopes to build support for Britain in the journalists’ home countries. One journalist was Norwegian, an admired poet and novelist; two were Australian; and two were Americans, including the renowned Edward R. Murrow.

Murrow’s radio broadcasts on the Blitz, that began with “This is London” and ended with “Good night and good luck,” were heard all over America, essentially inventing electronic journalism and substantially creating American support for World War II. (Walter Cronkite volunteered and trained for the bomber raid assignment but was not chosen as one of the five.)

Perhaps in contrast to the press coverage the British had hoped for, the raid demonstrated the high costs for everyone of strategic bombing: In most raids of several hundred bombers, 5 to 10 percent of the planes would be lost. Two of the journalists were shot down and killed with their crews; a third survived a crash and became a war prisoner.

This war prisoner was taken to see the destruction caused by the bombers, with German hopes that he would become a mouthpiece for them. He did not, but after his release wrote about the inaccuracy of strategic bombing: Vast portions of German cities were leveled or burned out, but often missed the military and transportation targets.

Amazing Grace: A Cultural History of the Beloved Hymn by James Walvin. A readable book for those interested in following a single hymn, from its religious and evangelical roots to the civil rights movement. Also an exploration of the powerful impact of music on American culture, much of it re-shaped by electronic communications from the first 1920s radio stations to the web.

Foreign Bodies: Pandemics, Vaccines, and the Health of Nations by Simon Schama. A history of the late-19th century development of vaccines, especially those for cholera and the bubonic plague.

Much of the book follows the life of Waldemar Haffkine, a Jewish microbiologist who fled Czarist oppression in Russia to find training in Europe, largely in Pasteur’s laboratories in Paris. He spent much of his life in India, battling both ignorance about the causes of diseases and British colonial resistance to giving authority over medical treatments to a foreigner. The book ends with an acid commentary on Republican hostility to Dr. Fauci over his leadership during the COVID crisis.

The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration by Jake Bittle. A journalist, Bittle examines various parts of America where climate change is forcing significant migrations due to ocean flooding, drought, heat, and violent storms.

Into Siberia: George Keenan’s Epic Journey Through the Brutal, Frozen Heart of Russia by Gregory J. Wallance. In 1885, George Keenan, a journalist with previous experience in Siberia, undertook an 8,000-mile journey of ten months to investigate the penal camps and mines to which Russian czars sent political reformers and revolutionaries (often with their families) as well as criminals.

For the czars, it both removed dissenters and supported the Russian oligarchy, as profits from gold and silver mines allowed the czars to avoid raising taxes on the nobility. Few prisoners ever returned to European Russia, and many never even reached their destinations: There were almost no railroads in Siberia, and the prisoners, in chains and guarded by Cossacks, were forced to walk for thousands of miles through terrible weather.

Keenan wrote an extended series of articles and a book on the Siberian prisons and slave labor camps, and gave thousands of lectures throughout America, which gradually turned American public opinion against Russia. The czarist use of Siberia to punish dissent, including most of the later Bolshevik leaders, was enormously expanded in Stalin’s gulag archipelago. The book is dedicated to Alexei Navalny, but published before his death in an Arctic prison.

Shakespeare’s Book: The Story Behind the First Folio and the Making of Shakespeare by Chris Laoutaris. To be sure, a 350-page book on the making and publication of the First Folio will be TMI for many. But as an English major drafted as a first-year student in 1963 by Miss Schaeffer to play Guildenstern in her production of Hamlet, this was for me a happy trip down a deep rabbit hole.

The Vice President’s Black Wife: The Untold Story of Julia Chinn by Amrita Chakrabarti Myers. Quite a remarkable book, about a personage about whom little by way of records have survived.

Julia Chinn was an enslaved teenage African American woman, given with dozens of other slaves and a farm in Kentucky to Richard Mentor Johnson, the politically ambitious son of a wealthy family with enormous land holdings. Trained from childhood as a house servant, Julia proved a highly skilled manager of Johnson’s farm, especially when he was elected to the Congress, then to the Senate, and finally served as vice president for Martin Van Buren, spending six months each year in Washington.

Johnson openly treated and referred to Chinn as his wife, had two daughters with her, but never freed her. She ran the farm and supervised the other slaves, kept the finances afloat (Johnson, an irresponsible social butterfly who loved to host expensive parties, was always in debt), and even supervised a boarding school on the farm for Choctaw teenage boys.

The book deals heavily with her extraordinary managerial skills, but also with the very limited blind eye to which the community would turn toward an interracial marriage. Julia died in her 30s of cholera, and Johnson’s family after his death destroyed all records of her life. Her daughters both married white men, and themselves presented with a farm and slaves, chose to “pass” in subsequent generations.

Enter the Aardvark by Jessica Anthony. Our colleague Jess Anthony, lecturer in English and �ֲ���ý Class of 1996, is a most imaginative writer. Her previous novel, The Convalescent, is a marvel, and this one is parallel. Wildly inventive prose that made me slow down to savor sentences, and not infrequently sent me to a dictionary. It’s biting current political satire that involves a 19th-century taxidermist and a stuffed aardvark — how Jess pulls it off is a wonder.

Shonna Humphrey, Sponsored Programs and Research Compliance

Right now, I’m loving ADHD is Awesome by Penn and Kim Holderness. If you struggle with how atypical brains work, this could be a great resource. Bonus for it being written in a funny, conversational style with practical tips for navigating relationships.

I’m also excited about Joyce Maynard‘s novel How the Light Gets In, a follow up to Count the Ways. It’s based in New Hampshire, and, for me, it’s a nice mix of “beach read” and “lit fic.” There’s enough substance in this series to feel invested, but it’s light enough to read just for fun.

Speaking of beach reading, I am also catching up on Jacqueline Winspear‘s Maisie Dobbs series. This is an easy, 1920s-era mystery collection, and the final book, The Comfort of Ghosts, is out now.

I’m most looking forward to Lovely One, Ketanji Brown Jackson’s memoir. It’s out in September.

Will Hyland, College Store

Flood Tide by Albert Waitt ’83. �ֲ���ý alumnus Albert Waitt is back with his second book, Flood Tide, in the LT Nichols mystery series. After The Ruins of Woodman’s Village kicked off the series last year, Waitt’s sequel carries on the crime-solving legacy of main character LT Nichols. Set in a fictional coastal Maine town, I recommend them both for their witty dialogue, suspenseful storylines, and local flavor.

The American Daughters by Maurice Carlos Ruffin. This historical fiction novel recently discovered by the College Store staff follows an enslaved Black woman in New Orleans during the Antebellum period. Separated from her mother, the protagonist meets a new friend who introduces her to a secret society of spies aiming toward abolition and freedom.

Masters of the Air by Donald Miller. Now adapted as a hit miniseries on Apple TV+, Donald Miller’s written history of the American 100th Bomber Group during World War II is a thorough account of our country’s greatest generation.

And while the television series is well-done and a product of great minds too, Miller was able to take me back in time to meet those unheralded heroes who conquered the skies and laid the groundwork for Western Europe’s liberation.

There will sadly come a day when these stories can no longer be told from its eye-witnesses. Thankfully the author has provided us with this account of “The Bloody Hundredth.”

Just East of Nowhere by Scot Lehigh. Maine native and Colby alumnus Scot Lehigh debuts his first novel — a coming of age story in Down East Maine. A small-town drama that’s gripping and relatable for those of us who hail from tiny map dots.

Caleb Ireland ’23, Program in Environmental Studies

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. Out of the various novels that I read this academic year, this stood out as a captivating story that brilliantly blends social commentary, humor, and science.

Garmus crafts a compelling narrative around Elizabeth Zott, a chemist in the U.S. during the early 1960s who defies sexist societal expectations with her intelligence, wit, and determination. The novel tackles serious themes and contains insightful observations, vivid characters, and clever dialogue, making it a truly engaging read. I recommend it to anyone who is looking for a smart, well-written story with a strong, inspiring protagonist.

Emily Kane, Department of Sociology

I like to suggest some novels plus one academic book by a sociologist. For this year, some of the many novels I particularly appreciated were:

Angie Cruz’s How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water is a novel written in the form of a series of reports from monthly sessions a 50-something Dominican woman in NYC has with a counselor in a state-sponsored jobs program. It took me a few chapters to get into the rhythm but once I did, I really enjoyed it. It’s funny, engaging, and addresses some very important social issues.

Margaret Verble’s Stealing is about an indigenous child forcibly removed from her family, and her journey to escape the religious boarding school where she is held against her and her family’s will. It’s emotionally intense, as are the two below, and also really well plotted and written.

Jesmyn Ward’s Let Us Descend is a multigenerational family saga about enslaved people, with richly written characters, a strong plot, and a compelling exploration of the horrors of enslavement that spans from the middle passage to multiple sites in the U.S. south.

And Celeste Ng’s Our Missing Hearts, another family saga, is set in a dystopic near-future that feels very possible. The novel explores immigration, culture, power, censorship, and the surveillance state within a fast-paced plot that is very engaging.

And my recommended academic book for this year is sociologist Matthew Desmond’s Poverty by America. A previous book of his, Evicted, won a Pulitzer, and this one is also accessibly written, carefully researched, and very compelling in the argument it makes.

Alison Keegan, Office of the Dean of the Faculty

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. Lyrical and masterful is how I’d describe this debut. A strange, messy, beautiful book about, quite simply, our life meaning and what we bring and how we are willing to live. Akbar is first and foremost a poet and his gorgeous prose is enticing and profound.

Adelaide by Genevieve Wheeler. Sometimes a book hits you in ways that are unexpected and beautiful and deeply moving. This was that book for me. A raw, emotional, relatable journey of hope, despair, love, grief, and so much more all wrapped in the messy knot called life.

The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer. At first glance, one might think this is a book about dying, but really, it’s a book about living, and how we make the most of the time we have here. Two of my favorite quotes from this book: “Grief is just love looking for a place to settle.” and “Don’t let the best parts of life pass you by because you’re too scared of the unknown.” If you needed a sign, this is it. Go live.

Beach reads that are juicy and addictive:

• Yours Truly and Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez.
• The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren (and really any Christina Lauren book).
• Happily Never After by Lynn Painter.
• The Husbands by Holly Gramazio.
• The Whispers by Ashely Audrain.

Daniel Lindahl, Information and Library Services

The Poacher’s Son (the first novel) and the entire Mike Bowditch series by local author and former editor of Down East magazine Paul Doiron. Definitely best to read them in order. This is an ongoing series of well-written fiction centering around a Maine game warden, featuring a regular dose of Maine vignettes (some real places, some just based on real places). Probably not new to most of us, but well worth the recommendation if you haven’t read them. Added bonus, as Paul Doiron is a Maine figure, he pops up from time to time for talks and book signings.

Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention — And How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari. The New York Times best-selling author examines the growing climate of distraction, using both research findings and personal exploration to uncovering the root causes of the dwindling ability to concentrate many of us feel plague our modern lives.

Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport. An examination of distraction and diminished well-being in a social media world, along with a strategy to “declutter” and get back to pre-iPhone life before the constant, attention-demanding age of over-notification.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. I’ll be one of many recommending this first work of long-time copywriter, and all-around fascinating person. While the Apple+ series that is based on it is fantastic, it pales in comparison to the book. Just fantastic.

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. If you like science fiction and you’re about to watch the new Netflix version, maybe read the book first. It really is quite good.

Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. The first book of the Mars trilogy. While the writing is occasionally — often — dense with scientific content, the parallels between his account of the colonization and terraforming of Mars, interlaced with a detailed account of both human exploration juxtaposed with the pervasive corruption of world politics is eerily reminiscent of modern life on Earth.

Added bonus, if you’re the type of reader that likes to be challenged with concepts and vocabulary you’ll likely need to chase down, this is an excellent series. I’d imagine “regolith” is a word familiar to plenty of folks at the college, it was just one of the many terms that sent me off exploring enriching rabbit holes while reading this series.

The Murderbot Series starting with All Systems Red by Martha Wells. A light, fast-paced sci-fi series centered on a very human, very conflicted cyborg constructed as a Security Unit to protect a scientific expedition. The name “Murderbot” comes from the cyborg herself, and she’d like nothing more than to hide away and binge old television shows she pirates from the net.

The writing is brisk and entertaining, though I will warn that it is at times quite graphic in its depictions of battles and such. It is equally compelling in the unfolding of her connection and dependence on relationships, a development she often laments and finds annoyingly inconvenient.

I started this series with inexpensive, shorter Kindle downloads, but as with many popular series, the Kindle versions ramp up significantly in price, so I ended up finding most of these through the library, starting at about the third book.

Kathy Low, Department of Psychology

• Hollow Land by Jane Gardam.
• Avitram Ghosh’s works (fiction trilogy and non-fiction books on opium trade, global warming).
• The Fraud by Zadie Smith.
• Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng.
• Tom Lake by Ann Patchett.
• We Sinners and End of Drum Time by Hanna Pylväinen.
• Worm by Edel Rodriguez.
• North Woods by Daniel Mason.
• Case Histories by Kate Atkinson.
• Fates and Furies and The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff.
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson.
• The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride.
• Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry.
• And I read Stephen King for the first time in 30 years, and enjoyed the “Holly” character and series.

Sarah Lynch, Program in Classical and Medieval Studies

I picked up Sequoia Nagamatsu’s How High We Go in the Dark based on its cover and it is a searing read. Set during and after a future, devastating pandemic, it tells the stories of the scientists and victims and bereaved family and friends with humanity and grace. It also poses a question that we have all avoided: Should we just go back to “the way it was” or should we reach for something different, even better?

For the short story readers out there, I also enjoyed Isak Dinesen‘s Babette’s Feast where one meal comes to represent the power of love, friendship, and kindness across time and cultural differences. Best read before an excellent dinner!

Maggie Maurer-Fazio, retired colleague, Department of Economics

• I recommend two books by Tim O’Brien, America Fantastica and The Things They Carried.
• Tom Lake by Ann Patchett.
• Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton.
• The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin.
• The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey.

Christine Murray, Information and Library Services

There were two books, one fiction and the other non-fiction, that I read over the past year and made a real, lasting impression on me. Wellness by Nathan Hill is a smart and funny novel about modern obsessions with self-improvement, consumption, and social media through the lens of a married couple experiencing the ups and downs of a long-term relationship.

The second was Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann. Recently made into an Oscar-nominated film, this true crime book chronicles the widespread murders of members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma a century ago and the development of the FBI as it investigated the crimes.

Tom McGuinness, Office of Institutional Research, Analysis, and Planning

Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi.

Kerry O’Brien, retired colleague

In All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake, historian Tiya Miles uses the surviving material possession of an enslaved woman’s life — a sack — to piece together the experiences of enslaved people, especially girls and women. While her history of Rose and her daughter Ashley is, by necessity, speculative, it is grounded in evidence of the experiences of other enslaved people. The way that Miles uses this single object to spin a deeply personal family story and the broader history of slavery is virtuosic.

Worn: A People’s History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser is no history of fashion. Instead it’s a sobering look at the historical, economic, biological, environmental, and sociological impact of the clothing we wear. Thanhauser weaves a global history that features phenomenal technologies, international trade, colonial exploitation, enslavement, the rise of the labor movement, and the climate impact of clothing. The book really makes you think about who makes what you wear and at what cost. Start making your own clothes!

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride is the story of a poor Pennsylvania community of black pioneers of the Great Migration and immigrant Jews from Eastern Europe, both groups ostracized from mainstream white society. The story — part mystery, part thriller, part racial political intrigue, part love story — is incredibly well constructed and reminds us why neighborhoods and mutuality matter.

The O’Briens by Peter Behrens (an eponymous book title if ever…) is a 20th-century family saga about dirt-poor Irish-Canadian immigrants, some of whom are confined to convents (the girls) while others make it big in the westward expansion of the railroad. Several generations of O’Briens are impacted by the Depression, wars, and changing roles for women, and take the reader from Alberta to Los Angeles and Montreal to Kennebunk.

And you can’t go wrong with these two great Edith Wharton novels, The Age of Innocence and The Custom of the Country. Blind ambition! Tarnished reputations! Infatuated chumps! Financial ruin! Bamboozling! Gilded Age shenanigans!

Ben Peck, Information and Library Services

A Memory Called Empire and its sequel A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine. I loved this pair of great science fiction books that explore identity, colonialism, and politics.

The protagonist is a diplomat with secret technology implanted in her brain that allows her to communicate with her predecessor, but the technology glitches when she arrives at the center of the massive empire threatening to consume her small outpost, and she is swept up in a coup attempt while trying to save herself and her home.

The author, a scholar with a wide-ranging academic background in the Byzantine Empire and city planning, applies her knowledge to create a complex world and spins a tale with drama and intrigue alongside great character development and allegory.

Peter Philbin ’22, Museum of Art

Here are two of my favorite books from the past year:

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami, 1985 (translated into English by Alfred Birnbaum in 1991). A really unique novel that features two distinct parallel narratives combining science fiction, hardboiled detective stories, magical realism, and more. It is somehow funny, tragic, comforting, and deeply twisted all at the same time. Highly recommend it.

Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor. A very eccentric novel about Hazel Motes, a Southern World War II veteran who sets out to preach a gospel of anti-religion to try and resolve a lifelong crisis of faith.

Melinda Plastas, Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies

K-Ming Chang’s Gods of Want: Stories is funny, timely, dystopic, hungry, and queer as hell. Her writing rocks, rocks, rocks.

In Stitching Love and Loss: A Gee’s Bend Quilt, art historian Lisa Gail Collins offers a deep study of a singular quilt created in 1942 by Missouri Pettway in honor of her husband who had recently passed away. Pettway assembled the quilt from remnants of his work clothes. Collins’ elegiac work engages with questions of grief, loss, community and creativity. As one reviewer writes: “It is a praisesong for the artistry, resilience and resistance of Black women in Alabama’s rural Black Belt.”

Sarah Potter ’77, Bookstore Director Emerita

The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin. A tale of love and literature, blackouts and bombs and a bookstore that survived the Blitz.

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan. A powerful story that could not be put down.

Absolution by Alice McDermott. A novel that begins in Saigon in the early 1960s and leaves a lasting impression of America’s role in Southeast Asia.

Somebody’s Fool by Richard Russo. Another entertaining read from Russo in his “fool” series (Nobody’s…Everybody’s…).

Chronicles of a Radical Hag by Lorna Landvik. Because I enjoy Lorna Landvik’s writing and I identify with this title, this was a good read for me — witty, warm, funny.

Stephanie Pridgeon, Department of Hispanic Studies

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin was the best book I read in 2023. I am not a gamer by any means, but the beautiful imagery of Zevin’s prose made me appreciate the design of video games.

Having said I’m not a gamer, the references to Super Mario Bros and Oregon Trail offer nostalgic delight to any elder millennial. The metaphors and images from the video games shed light on one the novel’s authentic, compelling stories of childhood friendships that wax and wane into adulthood. And the novel manages to meaningfully foreground the complex dynamics between individuals’ racial and ethnic identities and disabilities in these stories of friendship and loss.

Kirk Read, Department of French and Francophone Studies

In no particular order: entertaining, educating, soothing, questioning myself throughout the year. Most soothing and lovely for last.

Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor. Transformative for me. Amazing history and insight of how breath and well-being are connected. Practical tips and practices which truly helped me. You’ll never breathe through your mouth again.

Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty. Gritty interconnected stories of people living on the edges of happiness, misery, survival, and strife. Honest, painful, funny.

I Don’t Want this Poem to End by Mahmoud Darwish. Gorgeous poetry by a Palestinian icon. Beautiful.

Thinking about injustice and various radical ruminations on economy and race: Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Davis. I listen to anything this friend of �ֲ���ý has to say with open ears and heart. And then reread her autobiography which so moved me as a high school junior.

Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own by Eddie Glaude. Smart, beautiful homage to Baldwin and Glaude’s own trajectory through this man’s life and wisdom. Baldwin said it all so long ago it seems. We need to pay better attention!

Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World by Jason Hickel. Recommended by a best friend who sees economic injustice imbedded in capitalism as central to our inability to heal and sustain ourselves as a country.

Breaking Bread: Essays from New England on Food, Hunger, and Family, edited by Deborah Joy Corey and Debra Spark. Many Maine luminaries weigh in on food’s comfort and joy. And other related issues of wealth and want and food. On my bedside stand for dream preparedness!

For the francophones, my student’s favorite author Fatou Diome, a Senegalese French powerhouse who tells it like it is. La Préférence Nationale offers short stories about post-colonial realities both in France and Senegal. Her use and reframing of French cultural icons make one wonder if the master’s tools can be used to dismantle oppression.

Finally, This is Happiness by Niall Williams. A gorgeous novel on electricity coming to a small town in Ireland. Quirky characters and sweet relationships. You cannot read it without hearing the Irish lilt. Exquisite writing. Did not want it to end.

Adrienne Shibles ‘91, Department of Athletics

Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America by Nancy MacLean.

Under the Sky We Make: How to be Human in a Warming World by Kimberly Nicholas.

Sharon Saunders, Information and Library Services

Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad. “A deeply moving memoir of illness and recovery that traces one young woman’s journey from diagnosis to remission to re-entry into ‘normal’ life.” Following her remission, Suleika embarks on a road trip of healing and self-discovery. I also recommend her Isolation Journals blog on Substack.

Samantha Sigmon, Museum of Art

Topless Cellist: The Improbable Life of Charlotte Moorman by Joan Rothfuss. This biography of avant-garde musician and artist Charlotte Moorman has short chapters and lots of photographs, and is a really fun overview of her surprising and singular life. Like all of us, she was a complicated character, but her determination, work ethic, and passion for contemporary art even when people often misunderstood her, underestimated or belittled her, and poked fun at her work is inspiring — especially, I would think, for recent college grads.

Coming out of Arkansas as a classical cellist who then studied at Julliard, Moorman refused to be just another unknown symphony musician and instead interpreted works by Yoko Ono, John Cage, and many others while working closely with artist Nam June Paik. While she is notoriously known for taking her clothes off while she played cello, what inspired me was the epic avant-garde performance festivals she produced year after year in some of the biggest and oddest venues in New York City (The Twin Towers, boats, islands, etc).

She did so much to champion contemporary art on the fringe in the 1960s and 70s, and often these producers, planners, and organizers don’t get the credit for the tedious and un-fun, never-ending work it takes to put together these arts events time and time again. Beyond her performances, these events became her great artwork. A true original who collaborated with all those around her, Moornan reminded me of the need to take risks, break out of the mold, and confidently forge ahead.

Deirdre Stires, �ֲ���ý Communications Office

Two books I reread in the past year spoke profoundly about viewpoints, and are worth a read if you enjoy seeing the world from a very different perspective.

The first was one recommended to me in graduate school by one of my advisors: John Howard Griffin‘s Black Like Me, a memoir from a journalist who medically darkened his skin and then traveled as a vagabond through the South in the 1950s documenting how he was treated. It’s a shocking and troubling account of a man who, because of the fact his skin has changed colors, becomes terrified and psychologically unhinged. First printed in 1962, it’s still just as relevant today.

The second book was Barack Obama‘s Promised Land, which reads like a novel and at times, despite the story of how Obama inherited one of the worst financial crises in the nation’s history, is even funny. It also provides insight into how difficult the office of the U.S. president is on a young family.

It explains in detail how Michelle Obama was not a fan of the idea, but how President Obama convinced her to let them pursue the White House because, he said, then every child who looks different will see themselves there. I can’t find the book at the moment to offer President Obama’s exact quote, but I remember exactly what Michelle said in response: “Well, honey. That’s a pretty good answer.”

Lea Staedtler, Center for Purposeful Work

The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton. Set in the (possibly not-so-distant) future, humanity has given up on Florida, which has been ravaged by hurricanes and rising sea levels. The story follows Wanda as she grows up, meets others who chose to stay behind, and learns to adapt to the changing environment. It’s a beautifully written book, sometimes heart-breaking, sometimes hopeful, that stuck with me for a very long time, and made me grapple with the question, “What will our world look like in 50 years?”

Beartown Trilogy (Beartown, Us Against You, The Winners) by Fredrik Backman. It’s a story about a tight-knit small town, a successful junior hockey team, and big dreams. It’s also a story about violence, and the price people, individually and collectively, are willing to pay to make those dreams become a reality.

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune. I have yet to read a book by TJ Klune that I didn’t love and didn’t make me bawl my eyes out for one reason or another. In this book we meet Wallace, who refuses to cross over into the afterlife after his death, and falls in love with the ferryman. Faced with an ultimatum, he reflects on all the little and big moments he missed and tries to live a lifetime in just seven days, before having to move on into the unknown.

No Ordinary Assignment by Jane Ferguson. This memoir about Ferguson’s time as a war correspondent is a fascinating insight into conflict zones from the perspective of a news reporter. Not only does she tell both moving and harrowing stories of her time in the Middle East and Afghanistan, she also grapples with deeper moral questions about her responsibility to raise awareness of the suffering of the people through TV reporting, while ultimately being a bystander, who has the freedom to leave when the conflict zone becomes too dangerous.

Anne Thompson, retired colleague, Department of English

Three wonderful books to recommend this year:

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. In 1985 Ireland, a coal merchant is delivering an order to a local convent. He encounters a young girl who is trying to run away from what turns out to be one of the infamous laundries of that time. A short book, but absolutely unputdownable.

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. In a small town in 1936, Pennsylvania, Jews, immigrants, and black people live side-by-side, sometimes peacefully, sometimes not, often funny but sometimes heartbreaking and always full of the music of the times (Louis Armstrong, e.g.) The plot is too complicated to explain but full of unforgettable characters.

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. Full disclosure, the story is 700 pages long. But it will pull you in in an extraordinary way. Covering more than 70 years in the lives of a family in southern India, it begins with an arranged marriage between a 12-year-old girl and a much older man. They come to love each other very much but there’s also a family tragedy, whereby something called “The Condition” leads to the unnatural death by water of several family members. If you read his earlier novel. Cutting for Stone, you will not be surprised to know that there’s a good deal about medicine and doctors.

Darryl Uy, Office of Admission 

Reading with Patrick: A Teacher, a Student, and a Life-Changing Friendship by Michelle Kuo. A powerful look at race and inequality in the Arkansas Delta and the transformative power of literature and caring teachers.

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune. A queer version of the movie Ghost told with Klune’s signature creativity, humor, and heart. For anyone who has lost someone, this book will make you cry, but it will also make you laugh, find joy and love again, and it will help you heal.

True Biz by Sara Nović. A brilliant story that explores Deaf culture and the Deaf community. There are even sign language pictorials sprinkled throughout the book!

Other highlights:

• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus.
• Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin.
• In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune.
• The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin.
• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.

William Wallace, Department of Education

The Forest: A Fable of America in the 1830s by Alexander Nemerov. I’ve been a longtime fan of Nemerov’s work. Here he gives us a thoughtful consideration of the forest in 1830s America, addressing its literal as well as figurative associations.

Beautifully lyrical and evocative, one finds surprises on every page, owing to the broad roster of writers, artists, and historical figures that he discusses, including James Fennimore Cooper, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Washington Irving, Elijah Parish Lovejoy, Nat Turner, and The Hudson River School painters, among others. Elegiac in light of our current ecological and sociopolitical moment, the forest emerges as a fragile figure for a fraught and conflicted country.

Outlaw Cook by John Thorne with Matt Lewis Thorne. Few are the cookbook authors who draw you in on the strength of their prose, but John and Matt Lewis Thorne pass the test.

I’ve enjoyed several of their books over the past year and especially appreciate how they chronicle the unfolding of each recipe from its conception through its culmination, enfolding it into their lived experience. Not bound to culinary codes or conventional wisdom, the Thornes are hyperattentive to the subtleties of flavor and texture, writing with a precision that makes it only honest to be an outlaw cook.

Matt Von Vogt, Academic Support Services

Alfie and Me by Carl Safina. This is a terrific book by zoologist/writerSafina about his unlikely encounter and bond with an injured, fledgling screech owl, Alfie, during the pandemic. He writes with sensitivity (and a ton of great science) about his connection to Alfie, the mysteries of wild animals, and our own place in the natural world. All of this taking place at the start of and height of the Pandemic when social isolation produced a need for optimism, humor, and light.

Anne Williams, retired colleague, Department of Economics

Three non-fiction books that impressed me in the past year:

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Margareta Magnusson. If Marie Kondo strikes you as too much of a drill sergeant, try this book. It’s funny, and the topic is important.

Harriet Jacobs, A Life by Jean F. Yellin. A remarkable memoir of an escaped slave who became an emancipation activist in the North.

How Minds Change by David McRaney. This book helped me understand the importance of community instead of facts in the evolution of one’s thinking.

Fiction I have enjoyed:

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. Sheer fun.

Horse by Geraldine Brooks. Perspectives on race and horses from pre-Civil War times and today.

The Great Transition by Nick Googins. A futuristic view of climate change.

Exit by Belinda Bauer. An intriguing mystery.

I’ve also read and enjoyed more mysteries/thrillers by C.J. Box and Michael Connelly.

Marianne Williams, Information and Library Services

Subtract: The Untapped Science of Doing Less by Leidy Klotz. Klotz argues that we tend to choose addition over subtraction when it comes to problem-solving. Through different examples in engineering, architecture, art and business, he advocates for re-examining issues in life and work by what we can take away rather than add. This book does not need to be read cover to cover to understand his approach, but the case studies he presents offer a great new insight into solving some of life’s frictions.

Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock by Jenny Odell. Jenny Odell proposes a new way of thinking about time, examining and incorporating ecological rhythms to foster a more humane and hopeful existence outside the confines of work and profit. I particularly enjoyed her insights into concepts of the apocalypse, and her gentle humor in talking about topics that often feel hopeless, like overconsumption and climate change. Highly recommend!

The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight by Andrew Leland. If you are a fan of This American Life, you’ve likely heard some of Leland’s humorous and insightful stories about losing his vision to a degenerative eye disease. This memoir brings them together and expands his personal story along with a well-researched history of treatment of visual impairment and blind culture in America. His detailed explanation of the physical experience of blindness reframed the concept of disability for me, and I’d encourage all to read it.

Rachel Wray, Office of College Advancement

Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo. This is the fourth in a series of novellas, but they can be read in any order. They are the stories of Cleric Chih, a member of a religious order that is tasked with taking down the stories of others. This one is a particularly lovely story about homecoming and loss and personal growth.

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. A mother tells stories of her long-ago summer romance with a famous actor to her three daughters as they pick cherries at their Michigan farm during the summer of 2020.

Mollie Woodworth, Program in Neuroscience

I have been on a Barbara Kingsolver kick lately. I started with Demon Copperhead (2022) (and then I took a detour to read David Copperfield (1850) by Charles Dickens for comparison purposes). After that, I went back and read Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible (1998) which I had somehow never read. Kingsolver is an exceptionally creative, expressive story teller and both books bring the reader along on odysseys that are hilarious, heart wrenching, and non-stop.

I highly recommend these two books and I look forward to reading more of her work.

Eileen Zimmerman, Information and Library Services

I thoroughly enjoyed The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. This book takes place in Hallowell, Maine, in the late 1700s. The main character is a midwife, Martha Ballard, who is remarkable. The author takes you back to the 18th century and gives you a great deal to think about. This is historical fiction, but based on a character, Martha, who actually existed. The characters were engaging and the story well told.

The Women by Kristin Hannah is the story of a young, well-off nurse who goes to Vietnam to serve as an Army nurse right after graduating from nursing school. Kristin Hannah takes time to develop characters fully. There is a lot going on in this book and sheds light on a difficult period in American history.

You are pulled into this story early on as Frankie the nurse starts her career and becomes an excellent surgical nurse, then you follow through her tours of duty, and suffer with her as she returns home. Another well-written historical fiction worth the read.

Welcome to the 27th edition of Good Reads: The �ֲ���ý College Non-Required Reading List for Leisure Moments.

Begun and named in 1997 by Sarah Emerson Potter ’77, the longtime former �ֲ���ý College Store director, Good Reads brings together the readers — and bookshelves — of the broader �ֲ���ý community, including alumni, current and retired staff, and faculty. In 2017, Alison Keegan in the Dean of the Faculty’s Office took over the annual tradition of collecting and compiling submissions.

“It’s a true blend of what makes �ֲ���ý so great.”

Alison Keegan

Hard copies of the list — produced by Post and Print — are available at the College Store, Ladd Library, and on the first floor of Lane Hall. This “labor of love” for Keegan draws requests from alumni and emeritus faculty every year.

“It’s a true blend of what makes �ֲ���ý so great and is a thread that keeps everyone connected through something joyful, sometimes inspiring, and yet light and fun,” Keegan said. “It helps that it also comes at the beginning of summer, when we’re all looking for our next great beach-hammock-fireside-or-campsite book.”

For 2023, the �ֲ���ý community has offered up 214 titles, ranging from murder mysteries, romance novels, and science fiction to memoirs and historical nonfiction.

Twelve titles received two or more recommendations, they were:

Mad Honey by Jennifer Finney Boylan and Jodi Picoult

Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life and Japan’s Disaster Zone by Richard Lloyd Parry

Hatchet Island by Paul Doiron

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

The Personal Librarian by Heather Terrell and Victoria Christopher Murray

Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Trust by Hernan Diaz

Women Holding Things by Maira Kalman

Keegan summed up the joy that can be found in the great reads in a quote from author Madeleine L’Engle’s Newbery Medal acceptance speech in 1963: “A book, too, can be a star… a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.”

So pick a star, or two or three, and start exploring the universe!

Tobie Akerley Gordon, Academic Administrative Assistant

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan. I have been a fan of Jennifer Finney Boylan since reading her book I’m Looking Through you: Growing Up Haunted. (Perhaps another book to add to the list.) Her latest book, written with Jodi Picoult, covers so many topics from love to tragic death, to bees and more. It will keep you reading late into the night and leave you wanting more when you are done.

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande. This book has really changed how I view life, death, and all the measures we go to in order to prolong life. As soon as I finished I sent a copy to my daughter who is a (certified nursing assistant) in a nursing home. I thought that it could help her see things a bit differently in her line of work.

The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America by Elizabeth Letts. Looking to remember when life was a little slower? Follow Annie as she crosses the country from Minot, Maine, to California. Her mode of transportation: a trusty horse. Her companion: a dog. I was amazed at the resilience and strength that Annie showed and the kindness and willingness of the people who opened their doors to a stranger.

Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan’s Disaster Zone by Richard Lloyd Parry. Shout out to [Visiting Assistant Professor of Politics] Pavel Bacovsky for recommending this book. I think it is one of the few that I have rated five stars on my Goodreads list. This is the true story of the earthquake that hit Japan — and more so that tsunami that followed back in 2011. Most people remember the nuclear power plant, Fukushima, but this book tells of the lives lost at an elementary school and what the aftermath looked like for their surviving families and communities.

Áslaug Ásgeirsdóttir, Professor of Politics

We Need to Build: Fieldnotes for a Diverse Democracy by Eboo Patel. Eboo Patel is the founder and president of and in this book he discusses the power of critical thinking combined with action to make society better. Pointing out that while it is easier to tear things down than to build institutions that make society better, Patel shows that engaging in building is worthwhile.   

The Fires by Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir. The novel centers around the area around Reykjavík, Iceland, where volcanoes wake up after hundreds of years. The main protagonist is a female geologist who is seeking to protect the public and save her family during dangerous times.  

Foster by Claire Keegan. This short novella is packed with emotion and restraint. A young girl in Ireland is sent away to live with a childless couple while her mother awaits the birth of yet another child. In her foster home she experiences the feeling of being cared for, which profoundly impacts her. 

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka. The novel is told from the point of view of Maali Almeida, a skilled war photographer, gambler, and closeted gay man, as he navigates the afterlife trying to figure out who killed him in 1990. Astute observations about the absurdities of civil war and ethnic conflict weave throughout the novel. 

City of Refugees: The Story of Three Newcomers Who Breathed Life Into a Dying American Town by Susan Hartman. Refugees have changed the fabric of the city in Utica, New York, for the better over the past decades. This is a great read for anyone living in the L-A area. 

Wayne Assing, Director of Counseling and Psychological Services

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryū Suzuki. A classic book on meditation, mindfulness, and learning to be fully present. Suzuki is a masterful Zen teacher who played a critical role in bringing Zen Buddhism to the West, which has amplified our��awareness of the interconnectedness of all things.

Pavel Bacovsky, Visiting Assistant Professor of Politics

As a bit heavier and more thought-provoking book, I recommend Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan’s Disaster Zone by Richard Lloyd Parry. 

For a lighter (but still thought-provoking) book, I recommend Monday Starts on Saturday by Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky. 

Jim Bauer, retired colleague

Hatchet Island, the latest Paul Doiron installment in the Mike Bowditch series. The eerie, windswept Hatchet Island off the coast of Maine becomes the site of a double murder and a disappearance in this thriller from bestselling author Paul Doiron.

I’ve also enjoyed two similar series by , set in Wyoming and Montana.

Jane Bedard, retired colleague

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier

The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hildebrand

The Measure by Nikki Erlick

All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave (now )

The Dive from Clausen’s Pier by Ann Packer

The Keeper of Stories by Sally Page

All very different from one another but all very interesting.

Jonathan Cavallero, Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies

Jane Leavy‘s The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood. There are plenty of biographies of Yankee great Mickey Mantle and even a handful of autobiographies. What sets Leavy’s apart from the rest is her willingness to critically interrogate the myths that surround Mantle and what they reveal about masculine ideals, American identity in the 20th century, and the nature of celebrity.

Like many of her other works, Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland tells a story that transcends decades and continents. Lahiri is one of my favorite writers, and this book is one of her best.

I got on a Godfather/[Mario] Puzo kick this year. Puzo’s ���������à was an enjoyable read, and Ed Falco‘s Godfather prequel The Family Corleone provided an interesting backstory for many beloved characters, especially Luca Brasi, a character about whom I did a lot of writing this year.

With How It Happened, Michael Koryta offers another compelling mystery set in Maine. Koryta combines an intriguing storyline with his usual knack for a descriptive prose that allows readers to feel the texture of the place we call home.

Chuck Klosterman‘s The Nineties: A Book reminded me of the fads and trends of my high school and college years, but more importantly, it brought a new appreciation and perspective to the way new technologies have fundamentally changed our relationship to the world.  For example, in one particularly memorable passage, Klosterman suggests that listening to music in the 1950s on a vinyl album and listening to a CD in the 1990s was a comparable experience – a physical disk with a selection of songs by the same artist is purchased and placed in a player. However, the difference between buying a CD and buying an individual song that you digitally download to your phone is very different.

I’ve been reading a lot of titles from the BFI Film Classics series this year.  These are small 100-ish page books about individual films. It’s a great series, and the best I read this year was Tom Kemper‘s Toy Story: A Critical Reading. Kemper shows how the Pixar film flipped the script, from starting with the film and working to the merchandising to starting with the merchandising and working toward the film.

Raluca Cernahoschi, Associate Professor of German

For those who might have noted the new interest on Netflix in all things East German, here are some good reads on the German Democratic Republic: Brigitte Reiman‘s novel Siblings probes the wounds of the separation between East and West Germany, at the time of writing recently cemented (literally and figuratively) by the wall. Originally published in 1963, this is the novel’s first translation into English. From the other end of the GDR, Olivia Wenzel‘s 1000 Coils of Fear explores the fractured post-wall lives of one of the last generations born into socialism. I’m also excited to try Jenny Erpenbeck‘s latest novel, Kairos, which came out in March in German and will follow in June in English, a “complicated love story” (according to the book’s promo,) set against the fall of the wall and German reunification.

Jonathan Cohen, Lecturer in Philosophy

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides. Traces a romantic triangle that begins during college and is finally resolved at the end of the trio’s first post-grad year. 

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. A story, told in first-person, of someone born with non-binary genitalia, interwoven with the story of their grandparents, immigrants to America from a Greek-speaking, ethnically-cleansed community in Turkey, whose incestuous relationship sets up the genetic combination that makes possible the narrator’s rare condition.

Deb Cutten, Academic Administrative Assistant

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid is a historical fiction that follows the extraordinary life of fictional  actress Evelyn Hugo and it is loosely inspired by the real lives of actresses Elizabeth Taylor and Ava Gardner. The story is full of drama and twists, and it is also a story of true love, society’s moral standards and of being a strong woman in predominantly man’s world of Old Hollywood. 

Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid is the story of the rise and fall of a fictional 70s rock band. It’s told in the style of VH1’s Behind the Music. All the members are being interviewed 20 years later and events are remembered quite differently.

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult tells an unforgettable story about family secrets, love, and letting go.

A Tangled Mercy by Joy Jordan-Lake

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Karen Daigler, Director of Graduate and Professional School Advising

The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray

Freida McFadden is a practicing physician who writes with lots of twists and turns in The Housemaid, and The Housemaid’s Secret, a pair of suspenseful novels about a gutsy housemaid.

Under the Magnolias by T.I. Lowe. Coming of age story about a girl in the South who holds her family together after losing her mother in childbirth. 

The Keeper of Happy Endings by Barbara Davis

Lost and Found in Paris by Lian Dolan who also produces a podcast that I love called . 

Dear Grace by Clare Swatman is about an unlikely friendship between Grace, a 94-year-old woman and Anna, a young woman whose husband has just cheated on her. It is a story of love, female friendship, and learning to forgive.

Renee Dana, Executive Assistant to the Dean of the Faculty and Vice President of Academic Affairs

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold. Their stories, their demise, and the city of London make this book riveting and impossible to put down. 

The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear by Kate Moore. Elizabeth Packard is one bad-ass by current standards and in the 1860s she was superhuman. Her story has affected and changed the lives of every marriage, everyone struggling with mental health. Her story sounds like fiction but is pure non-fiction. After finishing this book, I could not stop talking about it. 

Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney. This was the first Alice Feeney book I read and I was guessing to the end.

Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano. The first in a three-book series, this novel outlines the story of a newly single mom falling into the murder-for-hire business and the hijinks that follow. 

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton. A murder mystery wrapped in time travel with an ending you do not see coming. Reads like a movie — was rumored to be a Netflix product.

Elizabeth Durand ’76

Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella. “If you build it, they will come.” I never saw the movie Field of Dreams because this book is so perfect that I did not want to run the risk of ruining it.

The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths. The last, at least for now, book in the Ruth Galloway series. It does not disappoint. I hope the author takes advantage of the window she’s left open and brings Ruth back for a few more books.

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb. Subtitle is “A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed.” A friend who is a therapist tells me it’s a good description of what it’s like to be one.

The Winners by Fredrik Backman. Just read all his books.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Looking for a new mystery series? Deborah Crombie‘s Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James (British police) appear in 19 books so far, so you should be set for a while. As always, it is best to start at the beginning; the first title in this series is A Share in Death.

Dig by A.S. King. My obligatory title from the YA section. King writes weird books that grab hold of you and hang on for a while.

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. I read this for the first time about 30 years ago. It holds up to the second reading, all these years later.

Beach reads – but worth your time: Now That You Mention It and Out of the Clear Blue Sky by Kristan Higgins; and Just My Type by Falon Ballard.

Blake Edwards, Associate Director of Career Exploration and Pre-Law Advising

Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder is a novel about the history of philosophy in which a young girl named Sophie begins to receive mysterious notes from a stranger encouraging her to question her reality. This book is great for anyone interested in philosophy, the meaning of life, and mystery. You will also find it tugging at your heartstrings as Sophie tries to navigate her new reality. 

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson is about Bryan’s founding of the  and his appeal work with inmates on death row. This book holds up a horrifying mirror to American incarceration, digs into the romantic irony we have with race relations in the U.S., and inspires everyone to be agents of change for better incarceration policies. The film featuring Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx is also a great adaptation of one story from the book. 

March, books 1-3, and Run by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell is a graphic novel series covering the early life of U.S. Representative John Lewis as he worked with various civil rights groups to fight for equality for Black Americans and eventually his political run for the U.S. House of Representatives. This series is brutally honest while making the history of the civil rights movement accessible to all age groups. 

Melinda Emerson, retired colleague

Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah

Gift from the Sea by Ann Morrow Lindbergh

The Butterfly’s Daughter by Mary Alice Monroe

Flight of the Sparrow by Amy Belding Brown

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray 

When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin

Hatchet Island by Paul Doiron

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

A Spanish Sunrise by Boo Walker

The Second Mrs. Astor by Shana Abe

The Memory Keeper of Kyiv by Erin Litteken

Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark

The Second Life of Mirielle West by Amanda Skenandore

Marina Filipovic, Visiting Lecturer in Russian

Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov (translated by Angela Rodel). A therapist, Gaustine, founds a clinic that treats dementia patients by recreating the past and reproducing historical spaces on each floor.

“Weren’t you heading to New York in 1939 last time I saw you? When did you get back?

After the war, he replied, unruffled.

So what are we going to do now?

Rooms from different times. As a start.

Rooms of the past? It sounds like a title.

Yes, rooms of the past. Or a clinic of the past. Or a city… Are you in?”

Time Shelter was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2023. Read it before you forget!

Hilary Gibson, Academic Administrative Assistant

The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin, starting with The Fifth Season!

Dan Girling, Material Handling and Post Clerk

The Maid by Nita Prose. This thriller follows an eccentric hotel maid named Molly. After she discovers a wealthy guest dead in his room, Molly becomes a suspect and must find the ones responsible in order to prove her innocence.

Fairy Tale by Stephen King. This recent novel from Stephen King follows a teenager named Charlie who discovers a portal to a dark fantasy world. He journeys into this new world hoping to use magic to heal his aging dog, Radar, but soon finds himself fighting for survival and looking for a way back home.

The Reservoir by David Duchovny. This is a short novella set during the COVID-19 pandemic, where a man spends lockdown in a New York City apartment facing Central Park. The story becomes increasingly surreal and dreamlike as his isolation starts to wear on him.

Borne by Jeff VanderMeer. Set in a post-apocalyptic city inhabited by dangerous mutant creatures, this story begins when a woman named Rachel discovers Borne, a small organism that can change form. As Borne continues to grow and learn, Rachel starts to wonder if she can trust or control him.

A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson. This novel follows three different people in a small Canadian town: a young girl who waits for her missing sister to return; a man who moved to the town after inheriting a house; and an old woman who reflects on her life from a hospital room. Each character is on their own journey but are revealed to be connected as the story progresses.

Lars Gunderson, Research Associate in Environmental Science

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez

Bruce Hall, Network Administrator, Information and Library Services

I recommend Into the Storm by Tristram Korten. The book’s subtitle says almost everything you need to know: “Two Ships, A Deadly Hurricane, and an Epic Battle for Survival.” The hurricane is the one that sank the El Faro in 2015 killing all of the 33-person crew including several from Maine and others with ties to Maine. One thing that makes this book fascinating is that the El Faro had a Voyage Data Recorder that recorded conversations and data on the bridge for the last 26 hours before the sinking. The transcripts provide a direct and unique perspective on the fatal choices they made. There was a second ship, the Minouche that sank on the same day although not as widely covered in news accounts. Through heroic actions, the U.S. Coast Guard was able to rescue the entire crew of the Minouche after their ship sank. Telling the two stories together gives a good perspective on risk assessment and risk management that is useful off the ocean.

One problem with Into the Storm is that it does not have any drawings or photographs. It does have one good map with the routes of both ships and the path of the hurricane marked. More drawings, including a diagram of the El Faro chain of command, and a lengthy list of the “cast of characters” can be found in Into the Raging Sea by Rachel Slade. 

While a good book on its own, Into the Raging Sea does not cover the Minouche very much and doesn’t even show its course on the map. Another excellent source to review while reading Into the Storm is the ‘illustrated digest’ version of the National Transportation Safety Board on the “Sinking of the U.S. Cargo Vessel El Faro” that is available on the Internet. It is 16 pages packed with photographs, drawings, maps, timelines, and more that help to explain what happened. 

Lindsey Hamilton ’05, Director of the Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning

Almond by Won-pyung Sohn (author), and Sandy Joosun Lee (translator). You’ll finish this in one sitting. I read it cover to cover in about two hours. It’s a stunning look at a boy who, due to his underdeveloped amygdala, cannot feel emotions like fear or anger. It’s a coming-of-age tale and a poignant look at friendship and neurodiversity and will stick with you long after reading. 

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. What makes a good life? If you made a different decision at any point in your life, what would you be doing now? This book’s concept is that there is an afterlife library that houses thousands and thousands of books. One telling the story of your life. Every other book shows alternative lives that could have been based on decisions made. This book is uplifting and whimsical. 

Recursion by Blake Crouch. This is a fast-paced, modern-day time travel sci-fi book that you will be glad you read before it is inevitably made into a movie (maybe in the style of Memento?). It’s a suspenseful thriller about why people seem to be having memories of lives they didn’t live. A neuroscientist and a NYC detective team up to solve the mystery of why reality is broken. You don’t want to start the book before bed because you won’t want to put it down. 

Matt Hauske, Associate Director of Community-Engaged Learning and Research

Stoner by John Williams.

Bill Hiss ’66, retired colleague

Two books on mental illness: Oliver Sacks, The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, and Other Clinical Tales. Sacks, a renowned neurologist and essayist, writes about the ways in which humanity and often brilliance survives in his patients with profound handicaps. (Sacks is also the author of Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, a collection of essays on how music and neuroscience can illumine each other.)

Esme Meijun Wang, The Collected Schizophrenias, Essays. Wang has dealt with serious mental illness for most of her adult life. Her painful essays portray both her own attempts to maintain her sanity and her career as a novelist, and her struggles to deal with widely uneven mental health treatment systems and drug therapies.

Two massive WWII histories, both focusing on the last year of the war in Europe and the Pacific, and more on people’s experiences rather than strategy or politics: Max Hastings, Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 and Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944-45.

Two beautifully written books by a (literal and figurative) ground-breaking geologist: Walter Alvarez T. Rex and the Crater of Doom and The Mountains of St. Francis: Discovering the Geologic Events that Shaped Our Earth.

Sarah Blake, The Guest Book. A complex historical novel follows a wealthy family over several generations whose Maine island summer home is the setting for their increasingly fraught reactions to modern America.

Ross King, Brunelleschi’s Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture. Partly early Renaissance history, partly a riveting architectural marvel. To construct the immense dome of the cathedral in Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore, 143 feet in diameter, the winning design was submitted not by a master mason or carpenter, but by a fractious but brilliant goldsmith and clockmaker. It took him 28 years to build it, in the process inventing the field of architecture.

Malcolm Gladwell, Talking with Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know. An intriguing set of essays, bookended by commentary on the death of Sandra Bland after a traffic stop, on how we misjudge others by projecting our expectations or training on them, with examples from Hitler and Castro to fraternity parties and police training.

Mary Karr, The Liar’s Club. A memoir of a horrific childhood in East Texas poverty, poignantly written and somehow funny.

Annie Proulx, Fen, Bog and Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis. Her eleventh book, just out — Proulx can turn her great writer’s hand to almost anything. This book of only 175 pages is part environmental warning, part world history back in the ice ages, part an account of struggles between the rough folks who somehow survived in the fens and bogs versus the improvers and landowners who wanted to drain these lands to make them more profitable. Now, we are realizing, these “improvements” were a trip up a blind alley for climate change. A parallel story to [Professor of Earth and Climate Sciences Beverly Johnson]’s scholarship at Morse Mountain on the carbon sequestration offered by the tidal marshes in Maine and other U.S. shorefronts.

Shonna Humphrey, Director of Sponsored Programs and Research Compliance

Breaking Bread: Essays from New England on Food, Hunger, and Family, edited by Debra Spark and Deborah Joy Corey, includes contributions from �ֲ���ý’ own community members [Shonna Humphrey, Assistant Professor of English Myronn Hardy].

Fly Girl by Ann Hood. This memoir shares the author’s move from small-town Rhode Island to a career as a flight attendant in the late 1970s-early 1980s. It’s rich in airline history, explains the politics (and economics) of federal deregulation, and describes what it was like to be a flight attendant during a very tumultuous era for airline travel. As always, Ann Hood’s writing style is lively, engaging, and fun to read.

Managing Expectations by Minnie Driver

Spare by Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex. I listened to this memoir as an audiobook, and I recommend that approach. It was a tender and honest look at a very complicated life, and I appreciated hearing the stories told in his own voice. There was a level of intimacy — and empowerment — in experiencing the words straight from his mouth. I came away with a deeper understanding of his challenges, as well as a heightened level of compassion for his situation.

Will Hyland, College Store

The Midcoast by Adam White

The Ruins of Woodman’s Village by Albert Waitt ’83

Emily Kane, Professor of Sociology

I always like to suggest a few novels plus one academic book by a sociologist. For this year, some of the many novels I found especially compelling were:

Robert Jones Jr.‘s The Prophets, a stunning, haunting, and beautifully written story of love and resistance that I know showed up on the list last year and has gotten a great deal of attention, but I only got around to reading it this year and I recommend it highly.

Melissa Fu‘s Peach Blossom Spring, because I always love a well-written multigenerational family saga, this one spanning from late 1930s China to the contemporary U.S.; it explores war, state surveillance, migration stories, family ties, love, loss, oppression and resilience, and much more.

Louise Erdrich‘s The Sentence, set primarily in a bookstore and among its staff and patrons (including a patron’s ghost), this novel celebrates books, reading, and the connections they create and sustain in a way that feels just right for all I appreciate about the Good Reads project. It also celebrates resistance, navigating difficult relationships, and working toward social justice.

Yōko Ogawa‘s The Housekeeper and the Professor, a gentle and engaging exploration of the relationships among a math professor who can only remember the last 80 minutes, the housekeeper who finds a way to care for him, and the housekeeper’s young son. Math features centrally in the story, so if you are a math enthusiast that will be an extra bonus to the rest of its merits as a novel.

And my recommended academic book for this year is Zakiya Luna‘s
Reproductive Rights as Human Rights: Women of Color and the Fight for Reproductive Justice, a timely analysis to dive into after the Dobbs decision, featuring an intersectional lens on a wide range of reproductive justice issues through a case study of the activist organization .

Alison Keegan, Administrative Assistant and Supervisor of Academic Administrative Services

A Quiet Life and A Little Hope, both by Ethan Joella. I love an author who can expertly and seamlessly create characters whose stories weave together in some unimagined way without knowing how until nearly the end of a book. Joella is that author. His writing is so beautiful and these books resonated with me during some challenging times.

Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat During Difficult Times by Katherine May. Simply put, it’s OK to not be OK. For anyone experiencing grief, especially during a dark, cold winter, I highly recommend this book. 

Finding Me by Viola Davis. This was gritty and emotional and such an incredible raw view of her childhood and what led her to be such the inspiration she is today.  So compelling and truly a page-turner. I’m not an audiobook fan, however, I can imagine that listening to it with her as the narrator would be amazing. 

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. I’ve had a recent fascination with octopuses after watching the documentary My Octopus Teacher on Netflix during those early pandemic lockdown days. This book touches on grief, resilience, whimsical mystery, and unexpected friendship. The writing was beautiful and for a debut, it was one of my few five-star reads for the year.

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. This is historical fiction at its best. So interesting and the recounting of someone I had no idea existed during the life and times of the infamous J.P. Morgan. Bold writing and larger-than-life characters—easily devoured.

Rebecca Lazure, Leadership Gift Officer, College Advancement

A few favorites from this year:

The War That Saved My Life and The War I Finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. These young adult historical novels set during WWII in Britain are great family read-alouds. They paint a personal picture of life during wartime that makes the experience relatable to kids while also cultivating an understanding of empathy and the vastly different feelings and experiences happening at the same time to each character.

Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman. Fun, fast reads, full of British humor. Perfect for anglophiles who also like to watch British quiz shows like QI and 8 Out of 10 Cats.

Kathy Low, Professor of Psychology

The All of It by Jeannette Haien
The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
The Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

Perrin Lumbert, Library Assistant for Interlibrary Loan, ILS

Here is my list of favorite/memorable/enthralling reads of 2022-2023:

Salty: Lessons on Eating, Drinking, and Living from Revolutionary Women by Alissa Wilkinson

Still Pictures: On Photography and Memory by Janet Malcolm

My Government Means to Kill Me by Rasheed Newson 

An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten

Hit Parade of Tears: Stories by Izumi Suzuki

Flint is Family in Three Acts by LaToya Ruby Frazier

The Hurting Kind by ���岹&�Բ�����;������ó��

Tomb of Sand: A Novel by Geetanjali Shree

Content Warning: Everything by Akwaeke Emezi

The Song of Our Scars: The Untold Story of Pain by Haider Warraich

Ren Hang by Ren Hang, Dian Hanson (editor)

Evil Flowers: Stories by �ҳܲԲԳ󾱱���&�Բ�����;Ø���󲹳ܲ�

Making Love with the Land: Essays by Joshua Whitehead

Who Does That Bitch Think She is?: Doris Fish and the Rise of Drag by Craig Seligman

The New Life: A Novel by Tom Crewe

All The Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami

We Are Lost and Found by Helene Dunbar

Asylum: A Memoir & Manifesto by Edafe Okporo

Mayumu: Mayumu: Filipino American Desserts Remixed by Abi Balingit

Tenderheart: A Cookbook About Vegetables and Unbreakable Family Bonds by Hetty Lui McKinnon

Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector by Benjamin Moser

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

Chris Marden, Director of Donor Relations, College Advancement

The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis — in honor of honorary degree recipient Michael Lewis. I loved this book for its clear explanation of how we were ready, how that readiness failed, and what a few smart, dedicated public servants tried to do about it. 

I drive a lot and loved the audio book The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow. It’s a bit hard to describe — sort of an alternative history of an alternative world that has a basis in reality. Suffice to say there is a great narrator and it is a captivating tale.

Mary Meserve, Assistant Dean of Curricular Planning

I found an engrossing mystery series this year by Nathan Dylan Goodwin. He writes genealogical mysteries where the story is fiction but the genealogy work his protagonist undertakes throughout the book is real. I couldn’t put down the first in the series, Hiding the Past, and am thoroughly enjoying The Lost Ancestor.

Kevin Michaud, Campus Safety Officer

Gay Like Me, A Father Writes to His Son by Richie Jackson. A beautiful and important guide to understanding the queer journey. I wish I had this book to guide me when I was young, and to help my straight parents understand the complexity I was struggling with as a gay kid.

Hoi Ning Ngai, Director of Employer Engagement and Business Advising

Here are a few I’ve enjoyed on Audible (I barely read anything in paper anymore!):

Ted Chiang, Exhalation: Stories

Ken Liu, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These

Colleen Hoover, It Ends With Us

Colleen Hoover, It Starts With Us

Melinda Moustakis, Homestead

Jodi Picoult, Wish You Were Here

Tara Dairman, The Girl From Earth’s End

Kerry O’Brien, retired colleague

Horse by Geraldine Brooks is based on a famous 19th-century racehorse, from which Brooks has spun the story of the horse and his enslaved trainer; white owners (of people and animals), gamblers, thugs, and speculators; and their fate during and after the Civil War. Two current-day protagonists, an art historian and a paleontologist piece together the story, revealing the extraordinary relationship between the horse and the trainer Jarrett in the midst of violence and terror created by humans.

Trust by Hernan Diaz is an incredibly constructed book comprising three different accounts of a Wall Street tycoon’s life and fortunes, told from the vantage point of three different narrators who possess varying degrees of trustworthiness. Whom to trust? It all comes out at the end. An ingenious book which won the Pulitzer Prize.

Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra is a yarn about what Hollywood created and what it represented during the mid-20th century. The book moves between Italy during World War II and the heroine’s imprisoned dissident father, and the Hollywood of the wartime and postwar era, from the movie industry’s role in creating U.S. propaganda to the Red Scare that disenfranchised so many artists.

Women Holding Things by Maira Kalman. Why hasn’t Maira Kalman received an honorary degree from �ֲ���ý? She is the consummate liberal artisan: a phenomenal visual artist, hilariously funny and also filled with pathos, an exquisite observer of life whose writing is both deadpan and lyrical. In this book she takes the seemingly mundane idea of women holding things — hats, cakes — but also holding all the big things: family, civilization, memory, generations, the past, and the future. She’s a genius and this is a gorgeous, genius book.

Mary Pols, Media Relations Specialist, �ֲ���ý Communications

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton. Total page turner that’s funny and maddening and enlightening all at once. Here’s the outline of the plot: New Zealand eco-activist Mira Bunting is ready to take her guerrilla gardening collective, Birnam Wood, to the next level with a soil-level invasion of a gentleman farmer’s property, recently abandoned after a natural disaster. But American billionaire Robert Lemoine has plans to plant a doomsday bunker there. That’s just the first of many conflicts between fractious idealists and the very rich and ruthless in this savagely satirical thriller. Mostly wickedly funny until it hits you in the heart. The ending must be discussed!

Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout ’77. Well, who among us does not love a new Liz Strout novel? In this one, the third of her Lucy Barton books, it’s the beginning of the pandemic. Lucy’s ex-husband William grimly whisks a reluctant Lucy from Manhattan to Maine, where Strout’s twin fictional worlds coalesce in Olive Kitteridge’s hometown. I mean, I thought maybe she was even going to have Lucy and William renting Olive’s old house (not quite, but the territory is familiar). As always, it’s subtle, measured storytelling that is somehow just breathtakingly satisfying.

The Mad Girls of New York: A Nellie Bly Novel by Maya Rodale. This historical fiction almost felt like a YA novel to me. Young journalist Nellie Bly lands in New York in 1887, loaded with ambition but unable to convince any (male) editors to hire her, until she offers to go undercover at a notorious insane asylum. Based on a true story but written like feminist fan fiction, this lively tale and plucky heroine are irresistible.  

Love Marriage by Monica Ali. Young London doctors in love, Yasmin Ghorami and Joe Sangster, start planning their wedding with her traditional parents, his radical feminist mother and a stash of secrets. It’s kind of a Meet the Parents setup for culture clashes. Great, vivid characters and the story went in unexpected directions. Would make a super fun limited Netflix series. 

Girls They Write Songs About by Carlene Bauer. I just loved this book even though arguably, it got a little bloated in the homestretch. Youthful writers Charlotte and Rose meet at a New York music magazine in 1997 and become joined at the hip, soul sisters planning to rebel against domesticity while becoming famous writers, thinkers and heartbreakers. But then one of them choses domesticity and promises are broken and it really feels so much like what so often happens even in the best of feminist friends. One of them describes herself as “a daughter of an incomplete revolution” and that feels perfect. 

Any Other Family by Eleanor Brown. Adoptive moms Tabitha, Ginger, and Elizabeth take a fractious two-week vacation with spouses and their children, who share biological parents but are being raised collectively as a family in different households. The aim is for the siblings to grow up together. But everybody has a slightly different parenting style and the seams start to come apart in the well-intentioned plan. Brown illuminates the humanity and challenges of open adoptions with humor and compassion and it’s very easy to sink into this story. 

Cat Brushing by Jane Campbell. All 13 heroines in this strikingly original debut collection are old women dealing with the indignities of age. These are characters rarely portrayed in fiction, variously mischievous, wistful, and unabashedly sensual. Not every story lands as well as the title story, but it’s a really worthy collection and Campbell, 80, opens up a much-needed portal to what it feels like to contend with coming to an end. 

Sam by Allegra Goodman. I’ve read a lot of Goodman early in her career, and had fond memories of doing so, but I thought this portrait of a girl at risk was whole new territory and incredibly well done. It’s kind of like that movie Boyhood but in novel form. Her title character is 7 at the start of the book, living in Beverly, Mass., with her mother, Courtney, a hairdresser, and her brother, Noah, who is 2. Courtney is a crushingly good-hearted and hardworking 26-year-old but the two fathers of her children are both unreliable. Sam’s father is Mitchell, a magician, juggler, occasional palm reader and poet. He’s a dreamer, but he introduces Sam to a hobby, rock climbing, that will change her life. So many forces oppose Sam’s success, including her mother’s financial straits, and how little her dad is in her life, but somehow, she keeps pulling herself up the rock. This is one of those short books that really stays with you. 

Sarah Potter ’77, Bookstore Director Emerita

Professor Emerita Margaret Creighton’s mother, J.S. Borthwick, wrote a number of entertaining mysteries that have kept me busy this past winter. My favorite, perhaps for obvious reasons, was The Downeast Murders. I am very nearly finished reading Captain Abby and Captain John, by Maine writer Robert P.T. Coffin. Coffin was a Pulitzer Prize winning poet and Bowdoin professor who wrote this “around-the-world biography” about the famous Brunswick sailing family, the Pennells. You can read the book and take a walk in the lovely Pennellville neighborhood in Brunswick while you imagine the robust sailing life in mid-19th century Maine. Coffin’s book of poems Apples by Ocean is well worth a read, too. 

And finally, not so much a good read as an artistic delight is Women Holding Things by Maira Kalman. It is a thoughtful artistic embrace of women’s lives.

Tim Pratt, Work Control and IT Systems Manager, Facility Services

The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design by Kurt Kohlstedt and Roman Mars. A really interesting dive into the stories behind everyday design that we take for granted in the built environment around us. I listened to the audiobook, but bought a copy for my father-in-law and the physical copy is really stunning. I’d also recommend the 99% Invisible hosted by Roman Mars for more of the same type of content.

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. I thought this was a fresh take on the personal finance genre that talks more about behaviors through the lens of psychology and human behavior rather than the typical self-help nine steps to this or four rules for that. Heard with Housel on the Freakonomics podcast and it was interesting enough to go out and get the book.  

Stephanie Pridgeon, Assistant Professor of Hispanic Studies

Trust by Hernan Diaz
Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez

Erica Rand, Professor of Art and Visual Culture and Gender and Sexuality Studies

I recommend You or Someone You Love: Reflections from an Abortion Doula by Hannah Matthews, beautifully written, highly informative, and profoundly moving.

Julie Retelle, retired colleague

My favorite recent book is by Jojo Moyes, the title is Someone Else’s Shoes.

Mike Retelle, Professor of Earth and Climate Sciences

I’ve read quite a few books in the past two years in this series by Paul Doiron. Definitely page turners. Best to start with his first!

The Poacher’s Son by Paul Doiron. This is his first in an excellent series of murder mysteries set in rural Maine that follow Maine game warden, Mike Bowditch. If you have spent time in the Maine outdoors hiking, boating or fishing you will be captured by Doiron’s detailed descriptions of the geography, landscapes and people of Maine. 

Bronwyn Sale, Lecturer in Education and Director of Secondary Teacher Education

I recommend Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution and The Poppy War, both by R.F. Kuang.

Michael Sargent, Associate Professor of Psychology

T-Minus AI: Humanity’s Countdown to Artificial Intelligence and the New Pursuit of Global Power by Michael Kanaan. I’m not an expert on artificial intelligence, so I appreciated the clear and engaging writing style of Kanaan as he offers a layperson an introduction to artificial intelligence. He not only gives the reader a sense of what AI is, but he also places AI into historical context (relative to disruptive technologies that have come before), while also exploring comparisons to human intelligence and consciousness. While it was published a few years ago, and much has changed since then, it still feels relevant. If you want something that goes beyond mere doomsday accounts of ChatGPT, then I recommend this book.

Sharon Saunders, Associate College Librarian for Systems and Bibliographic Services, ILS

Eye-opening books, each in its own way:
The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture by Daniel Maté and Gabor Maté

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

The Sum of Us · What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee

Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber

Paula Schlax, Stella James Sims Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry

My recommendation this year is Sidecountry: Tales of Death and Life from the Back Roads of Sports by John Branch. It is a series of essays including some on climbing, avalanches, and even horseshoe pitching. 

Paul Schofield, Associate Professor of Philosophy

Forrest Stuart, Ballad of the Bullet: Gangs, Drill Music, and the Power of Online Infamy. This is a riveting work of urban ethnography that follows some gang members’ attempts to become internet-famous rappers. It’s a really unique angle on social media, the attention economy, class, and race. I was surprised at what a page-turner this book is — so many of the episodes are outrageous, funny, sad, or baffling. It’s also relentlessly insightful — every chapter left me thinking of ways I could incorporate it into one of my philosophy classes. I cannot recommend this enough.

Sarah Weinman, Scoundrel: How a Convicted Murderer Persuaded the Women Who Loved Him, the Conservative Establishment, and the Courts to Set Him Free. In the early 60s, William F. Buckley read a story about how a death row inmate was a fan of his conservative magazine, the National Review. Partially driven by the thought that a National Review reader couldn’t be all that bad, Buckley became convinced of the guy’s innocence and worked to get him off death row — helping him write a book about his innocence, giving him legal advice, etc. Well, Buckley came to regret this. A lot. It’s an absolutely wild story that I knew nothing about before reading this. Good, quick read.

Quentin Tarantino, Cinema Speculation. I’m a Tarantino fan, but I’ve consumed so much of his writing and seen so many interviews with him that I figured there wouldn’t be a whole lot that’s new in here. But I was basically wrong. He talks about a lot of movies I’d not heard him discuss before. He gives fun, imaginative, exciting readings of films about which I thought there was nothing more to say — like Taxi Driver. Great summer read for anyone who wants to spend some time reading about some movies.

Samantha Sigmon, Assistant Curator, �ֲ���ý College Museum of Art

Art on My Mind: Visual Politics by bell hooks. This book presents ideas as fresh as ever about what art means, how Black art has been often excluded, and includes fascinating conversations with some well-known contemporary artists. Not just about art, it brings up issues of racial and gender politics, as well as makes you think about the importance of objects you have in your home. I kept this in my car as a read while I had random times to hang out, so I was working on it for about a year, reading one essay at a time, but then just decided to devour it all because the ideas brought through her amazing writing are so important and interesting to read. 

Theophil Syslo, Multimedia Producer, �ֲ���ý Communications

It’s Never Too Late by Dallas Clayton. Titled as “a kids book for adults,” it’s a perfect example of less is more. Beautiful story and a great reminder.

Anne Thompson, Professor Emerita of English

Twelve Bytes: How We got Here, Where We Might Go Next by Jeanette Winterson. Twelve eye-opening, mind-expanding, funny, and provocative essays on the implications of artificial intelligence for the way we live and the way we love. As one reader describes it, “Talky, smart, anarchic, and quite sexy.” Winterson herself says of the 12 essays in this book, “My aim name is modest. I want readers who imagine they are not much interested in AI or biotech, or Big Tech, or data-tech, to find that the stories are engaging, sometimes frightening, always connected. We all need to know what’s going on as humans advance, perhaps towards a trans human – or even a post-human – future.” Winterson is also determined to bring women into the story of computers and AI, beginning with Mary Shelley, the poet’s wife who wrote Frankenstein, and Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron’s daughter, who both paved the way for ChatGPT and Botpoet (god help us). The book is challenging for a non-scientist, but funny, absorbing and fun to read.

The History of the Rain by Niall Williams. If you loved This is Happiness as much as I did, I’ll wager that you’ll love this book just as much.  

Karolyn Towle, Associate Director of Advancement Communications

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue was wonderful. I listened to it as an audiobook and the narration was very powerful! 

Darryl Uy, Director of Admission

Here are my favorites from the past year:

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. A fabulous book for anyone who has ever felt like they didn’t belong. Through humor, creativity, and heart, Klune reminds us to embrace our differences, to live authentically, and to find magic in the ordinary.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. The tagline of the book sums it up perfectly — “A life no one will remember; a story you will never forget.” Writing is brilliant, lyrical, and at times poetic. Couldn’t put it down!

Additional highlights: Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr, Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart, The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater.

Matt Von Vogt, Academic Administrative Assistant

Honey From a Weed: Fasting and Feasting in Tuscany, Catalonia, the Cyclades and Apulia by Patience Gray. Recently, cookbooks have come to resemble exhibition catalogs showcasing the creations of their star chefs. These are fun to look at; how refreshing, however, to find this gem (first published in 1986) by Patience Gray, where the author’s lyrical prose and the hand-drawn illustrations (by Corinna Sargood) take precedence. Having lived in the Mediterranean settings referenced in the title, Gray writes first-hand of the pleasures and hardships presented by the regions, in which “food took on the quality of life-restoring, rather than the satisfaction of appetite.”

William Wallace, Lecturer in Education

Rough Sleepers by Tracy Kidder — hands down. The book chronicles Dr. Jim O’Connell and his lifelong career (>40 years) caring for Boston’s homeless.

Anne Williams, Professor Emerita of Economics

Robin Wall Kimmerer‘s Braiding Sweetgrass is a collection of related essays about transforming humans’ relation to nature — beautifully written, inspiring, and especially relevant today.

Max Fisher‘s The Chaos Machine opened my eyes to the pervasive and insidious effects of today’s social media business. It is not an easy read, but an important one as the electronics age continues to evolve.

For mysteries I continue to like Louise Penny, e.g. The Madness of Crowds. I’ve also read some of Michael Connelly‘s many books about Detective Harry Bosch who usually manages to solve at least two cold cases per volume. I especially liked The Wrong Side of Goodbye. I recently discovered and enjoyed Joanne Harris‘s A Narrow Door, Alice Feeney‘s Sometimes I Lie, and Stephen Spotswood‘s Fortune Favors the Dead.

Freddie Wright, Staff Writer, �ֲ���ý Communications

Wise Child by Monica Furlong. Every once in a while, I find a book that feels like it was pulled out of my own being. A young Scottish girl is taken in by a reclusive witch, and taught about the relationships between magic and reality, religion and occult, and hurt and healing. Wise Child is a fantasy book with the down-to-earth, everyday magic sensibility of Diana Wynne Jones or Vivian Vande Velde, and the philosophical abrasiveness of Robin McKinley.

Sharing a House with the Never-Ending Man: 15 Years at Studio Ghibli by Steve Alpert. Steve Alpert, the “resident foreigner” at the Japanese animation studio known for films like Spirited Away and Ponyo, describes what it was like to be the only American at the studio, helping international interactions run smoothly. Although it’s a bit dry at times (being a business memoir, written by a businessman), it’s highly entertaining, even if you’re not familiar with Studio Ghibli.

Birdwing by Rafe Martin. “The Seven Wild Swans” is my favorite fairytale, and finding new adaptations is always a treat. This novel explores what happened after the siblings returned home, all returned to their human forms, except the youngest prince, who still has a single swan wing in place of an arm. Torn between his duty as a prince, his humanity, and his swan-ness, he sets out on a journey to find where he really belongs in the world, if anywhere. It’s a gorgeous, serious fantasy, with themes of grief, wonder, frustration, joy, and identity.

Eileen Zimmerman, Director of Systems Development & Integration, ILS

The Book of Lost Names and The Forest of the Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel. I recently enjoyed these two books by Harmel. Both are fictional World War II stories that give a different perspective on some WWII heroes. The characters are extremely well developed and I was sucked into the stories quickly. These were both good reads! Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. This was a quick read about an entertaining octopus. I actually wish there was more about Marcellus, the octopus, in this tale. I read it on a friend’s recommendation and I really enjoyed it. There’s a little bit of everything in this story with the weird combination of sea creatures, romance, grief, and adventures in an old motorhome. I appreciated the way the author tied things up at the end. It’s a nice, heartwarming story.

Welcome to the 26th edition of Good Reads: The �ֲ���ý College Non-Required Reading List for Leisure Moments.

Since its inaugural edition in 1997, compiled by now-retired �ֲ���ý College Store director Sarah Emerson Potter ’77, Good Reads has provided a peek at the shelves of �ֲ���ý alumni and current and retired staff and faculty. Now, Alison Keegan, in the Dean of the Faculty’s Office, collects the submissions and compiles the list.

“This continues to be a labor of love that I fortunately had passed on to me by Sarah Potter,” Keegan writes. “This issue is dedicated to all those who, even in the most uncertain of times, find solace and comfort in the written word.”

This year, we have collected 180 titles, so take your pick: fantasy, romance, history, mystery, sci-fi, psychology, social issue, or memoir — all of these come recommended by the people of �ֲ���ý.

This year, seven titles received two or more recommendations:

Piranesi by Susanna Clark

Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

This is Happiness by Niall Williams

Get ready to meet your new favorite book!

Tobie Akerley Gordon, Academic Administrative Assistant

Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds. This is unlike any book you will ever read. If you can, grab the actual book so you can feel it in your hands while you turn the pages. It is composed of just three sentences — yes, three sentences, yet it conjures up so many feelings. The illustrations are just as essential to the book as the words you will find within it. If you want to learn more about the author you can listen to Brené Brown’s podcast,  , where they discuss how his life has influenced his work.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. This was a tough book to get through but so worth it. Have you ever wished you could go back and change a decision you made in your life? Is it because you assumed that if you had decided differently your life would have turned out so much better? This book will make you rethink all of that. 

Áslaug Ásgeirsdóttir, Professor of Politics

Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History by Leah Ypi. Leah Ypi grew up in Albania during the abrupt transition from communism to capitalism. In recounting the absurdities that occurred during this transition, the book is filled with astute observations, both humorous and painful, about navigating a life in a country where the state has deemed you to have the “wrong past.”  

Where you Come From by Sasa Stanisic. Loved this book from a Bosnian-German writer. He weaves together memories of youth, that can be true or not, as he writes lovingly about his grandmother’s decline from dementia, and how he and his family came to flee to Germany during the war in Bosnia. 

Devil House by John Darnielle. A writer moves into a house in a down-on-its-luck California town to write a book about murders that took place in the house. Written as a true crime story, it is pretty critical of the genre while offering an interesting plot. 

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. The made-up story in this book is intricate and mysterious, as is Piranesi being there. The mystery is very clever. 

A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen. Funny book about a man who returns to Moscow to take care of his aging grandmother. He discovers Moscow over time, a city that is both beautiful and brutal. 

The Girl Who Died by Ragnar Jónsson. A young woman moves to remote Langanes in Iceland to teach the only two pupils in town. Of course, the town has secrets. 

Fake Accounts by Lauren Oyler. Young woman has a boyfriend she does not like very much, but before she gets a chance to break up with him he dies in an accident. Of course, she then decides to move to Berlin. Oyler has a knack for writing self-consciousness very well, which fills in a plot that is often submerged. 

Tonya Bailey-Curry, Staff Therapist, Counseling and Psychological Services

One of the most impactful books I read this year was Atlas of the Heart, by Brené Brown. I have not only read this book multiple times, I have gifted it to so many others to do the same. Brown takes readers on a deep dive in understanding what it truly means to be human and explains why the relationship with yourself is the key to connecting to others in a meaningful way. This is a must-read!

Laurie Baker, Visiting Assistant Professor of Digital and Computational Studies

Undrowned by Alexis Pauline Gumbs.

Pamela Baker, Helen A. Papaioanou Professor Emerita of Biological Sciences

Tru Biz by Sara Nović. The author is a young Deaf woman. The book is a riveting novel and is also a very good introduction to Deaf Culture, American Sign Language and to the eugenics of today.

Michael Becker, Visiting Assistant Professor of History

I find myself returning again and again to Patrick Chamoiseau‘s Texaco. It is a historical epic, focused on the story of the fictional Caribbean shantytown of Texaco, as a window to the recent past and current problems facing the region. It grapples thoughtfully with topics like the afterlives of slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism, labor and class politics, and generational trauma. The translation to English by Rose-Myriam Rejouis and Val Vinokur is a great introduction to this brilliant Martinican novelist not yet well known in the US.

Jen Blanchard, Senior Writer and Assistant to the President

I really enjoyed Zorrie, by Laird Hunt. It’s one of those small yet epic tellings of a single, particular life that is beautifully wrought and wonderfully resonant and relatable, even if you never were an Indiana farmer in the middle of the twentieth century.

Jonathan Cavallero, Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See follows two sisters who readers meet as teenagers in pre-1937 Shanghai. See then demonstrates the ways various immigration policies affect individuals by charting the characters’ life histories as they journey from China to the U.S. As soon as I read the final page, I was anxious for a sequel, which conveniently comes in the form of Dreams of Joy, a novel that picks up the story where Shanghai Girls leaves off.  I haven’t read it yet, but it is on my list for next year.

Renegades: Born in the U.S.A. by Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen. Introspective conversations about the American Dream and class, masculinity and fatherhood, music and movies. What’s not to like? Listen to the podcast, read the book (which is more or less a transcript of the podcast with bonus material), or do both.

The Cubs Way: The Zen of Building the Best Team in Baseball and Breaking the Curse by Tom Verducci. This one was recommended to me by a dear friend who may be the biggest Cubs fan I know.  It offers a behind-the-scenes account of the steps that were taken to break the curse of the Billy Goat.  It’s a wonderful read and shows the power and limitations of sabermetrics.

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann. Coming soon to a theater near you, Killers of the Flower Moon serves as the source material for Martin Scorsese’s next movie.  From the 1910s to 1930s, dozens of Osage Native Americans were murdered or otherwise died under suspicious circumstances.  At the time the tribe represented one of the world’s most prosperous populations, thanks to the oil rights leased on their land.  The book follows efforts to solve the mystery, uncovering yet another instance of a Native American population being exploited by White people.  I kept shaking my head not just at the story itself but the fact that it has so rarely been discussed in U.S. history classes.

A Promised Land by Barack Obama. Obama’s first presidential memoir, A Promised Land recounts his upbringing, the events of the 2008 presidential campaign, and some of the key moments of his presidency.  It’s a fascinating read, even if you have previously picked up Dreams of My Father and The Audacity of Hope.

Karen Daigler, Director of Graduate and Professional School Advising

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Lots of twists and turns on this journey through the splendor of old Hollywood into the harsh realities of the present day as two women struggle with what it means and what it costs to face the truth.

Write My Name across the Sky by Barbara O’Neil. Set in NYC, this story is about three women having to reckon with and reconcile their interwoven traumas, past loves, and the looming consequences that could either destroy their futures or bring them closer than ever.

The Singing Trees by Boo Walker. Set in Maine in 1969, this young woman from a small, stifling factory town and a large Italian family, is determined to pursue her dream of becoming a painter. 

Love and Saffron by Kim Fay. A light but quick, fun read, this novel is a witty story about food and friendship.

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave. This is a mystery about a woman searching for the truth about her husband’s disappearance at any cost. 

Elizabeth Durand ’76

Fire Keeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley. You will find this in the YA section of the library or bookstore, but only because the main character is a teenager. The book is sophisticated and beautifully written. The main character is the daughter of an Ojibwe father and a white mother; the book deals with the conflicts inherent in her life specifically and between life in the Ojibwe community and life in the world outside that community. It’s won several awards. I was happy I found it before it received that public acclaim, because it was a great discovery. Highly recommended.

Write for Your Life by Anna Quindlen. Why writing still matters, and why you should at least write a real letter now and then.

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. This is fiction, but it feels like a Rolling Stone feature article. 

Finally, I found a new mystery author. Julia Keller has published 12 books (so far) in her Bell Elkins series. Like Louise Penny and Julia Spencer-Fleming, she uses her setting almost like another character. You will feel steeped in West Virginia. You must read these books in order for the best experience — the first one is A Killing in the Hills.

Francis Eanes, Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies

Raising Expectations and Raising Hell by Jane McAlevey

A Collective Bargain by Jane McAlevey

Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber

The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow

The Betrayal of Local 14 by Julius Getman

Ken Emerson, Director of Compensation and Benefits

Lies my teacher told me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen. This book is copyright 1995 but I believe still stands true for the most part today. It is an interesting look at how high school textbooks get published and the various reasons why they may not provide the most accurate information or leave information out completely. Some of the historical information presented you may find interesting.

Music is the Drug: The authorized biography of Cowboy Junkies by David Bowler.  I first saw Cowboy Junkies after having moved to Maine. I grew up with them on the radio but did not own an album until I saw them live. It is an interesting study of both how a band stays together and keeps making music over 35+ years but also how the music industry has changed during that time. The Junkies went from producing their first couple of albums on their own, to a major label contract, back to producing music on their own through the early days of the internet and now digital streaming. As the band members discussed different records I found myself searching for them on youtube and giving them a listen with a new understanding of the songwriting and recording process.

Melinda Emerson, Retired Colleague

Falling by T.J. Newmann. Terror in the sky, told from an attendant’s point of view.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. Such a beautifully written book. Can’t wait for the film to come out.

Faye Faraway by Helen Fischer. For fans of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Outlander, the story is about loss, faith and love as it follows a grown woman who travels back in time to be reunited with her mother.

The Singing Trees by Boo Walker. A young artist, in Maine in 1969 forges a path of self-discovery, forgiving the past, and embracing second chances.

Carnegie’s Maid by Marie Benedict. A mesmerizing story of love, power and the woman who inspired an American dynasty.

Go Tell the Bees That I am Gone by Diana Gabaldon. The 9th book in the Outlander series. It’s not done yet.

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Love of Mother Earth and how we interact with it.

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys. A story about the single greatest tragedy in maritime history, the little-known January 30,1945 sinking of a German cruise liner by a Soviet submarine.

State of Terror by Hillary Rodman Clinton and Louise Penny. A high-stakes thriller of international intrigue.

Dead by Dawn by Paul Doiron. His books are always good. This one features the Androscoggin River. 

Marina Filipovic, Lecturer in Russian

Leeches by David Albahari. The whole book is written as a 300-page paragraph. The conspiracy-minded narrator tries to decode a manuscript that rewrites itself every time he opens it. Living in a stifling Belgrade atmosphere, fostered by Serbian nationalism in the late 1990s, the already paranoid protagonist turns to, no less absurd, esoteric thinking in his attempt to circumvent reality. 

An engagingly clever and well-crafted postmodern prose. You should give this unusual one-paragraph novel a close read!  

Hilary Gibson, Synergy Intern, �ֲ���ý Museum of Art

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Dan Girling, Mail and Materials Handling Clerk

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green. Adapted from Green’s podcast of the same name, this book is a collection of essays, each one about a specific topic from the Anthropocene (the current geological age where humans are the dominant influence on the planet). The essays range from humorous to thoughtful, offering insight on diverse topics such as Halley’s Comet, Diet Dr. Pepper, teddy bears, air-conditioning, Monopoly, and viral meningitis, among many others.

Goodbye, Again by Jonny Sun. In this non-fiction book, Jonny Sun uses stories from his own life to explore a variety of topics: happiness, loneliness, anxiety, and social pressure. I enjoyed the fact that, even when he is discussing serious feelings, Sun remains humorous and hopeful throughout.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. This novel begins with a man named Ryland Grace waking up aboard a spaceship. Suffering from amnesia, he soon discovers that he’s the last surviving member of a mission to save Earth. Ryland attempts to complete the mission without the rest of his team, depending on his fractured memories and some assistance from an unlikely source. Like Weir’s previous books, Project Hail Mary is a thrilling science fiction story that is grounded in real-world physics and details.

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. This novel is told from the perspective of Klara, a robotic assistant who must care for a sick girl named Josie. As she tries to find a cure for Josie’s illness, Klara often struggles to understand the human world but at times has unique insight, noticing things that others miss. I appreciated Ishiguro’s commitment to staying within Klara’s point of view, even when her limited understanding leaves some details obscured.  

Dennis Grafflin, Professor Emeritus of History

The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir by Sara Seager. Add this to the growing shelf of fascinating memoirs by brilliant women scientists who place themselves firmly on the autism spectrum. Professor (at MIT) Seager’s fierce and brutal descriptions of herself and others are the most riveting parts of the book, but along the way you also learn about her leading role in the search for planets outside our solar system, especially small, cool, rocky ones that might support something that we could recognize as life.

Bruce Hall, Network Administrator

I recommend Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks. One question it asks is what happens when a very small community in the wilderness loses its technological connections to the rest of the world due to a natural disaster. The novel’s subtitle gives a hint of an unexpected challenge: yes, this is a book about Bigfoot and a volcano. While the exact circumstances are a bit of a stretch, the situations faced and decisions made are thought provoking. If you are thinking you can wait for the movie version, I would not recommend that. While Brook’s earlier Zombie novel World War Z was made into a movie, the book was much better and almost totally different. 

Bill Hiss ’66, Retired Colleague

The Sale of the Late King’s Goods: Charles I and His Art Collection by Jerry Brotton. Charles I amassed an immense art collection of mostly European masters, spending a fortune. He sort of lost his head over art, most of which was never seen by any but a few family, senior nobles and retainers, and then really lost his head, to Cromwell’s puritan revolution. Cromwell needed money, and ordered one of the largest and most poorly run art sales in human history. Eventually after the Restoration, the Crown bought a great deal of the art back, where to this day much of it is hung in palaces infrequently seen by the public. 

Travels in Siberia by Ian Frazier. A travel book, but in the way that Moby Dick is a book about whale hunting; one critic deemed it a sort of On the Road meets The Gulag Archipelago. Frazier rides the 6000 miles of the Tran-Siberian Railway, with many, many side trips into history, famous (or infamous) residents, appalling conditions, abandoned labor camps and mines, and broken-down vehicles. Somehow, it is a spellbinding stew of tragedy, information and dark humor. I will get two of his other widely heralded travel books, On the Rez and Great Plains.

The Amur River: Between Russia and China by Colin Thubron. The Amur River, 3,000 miles long from Mongolia to its outlet in Siberia, is also the boundary between China and Russia for 1,100 miles. A wonderful travel writer and journalist, undertaking this exhausting trip in his early 80s, Thubron is the author of 10 other travel books and 8 books of fiction.

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead. Most readers find Whitehead through his Pulitzer-Prize winning novel The Underground Railroad, but he won the Pulitzer twice, and has written 10 books. Harlem Shuffle, just published, is a novel about an owner of a furniture store on 125th Street trying to run his business while surrounded by corruption and crime, both from Harlem and the white world around him. I found myself reading attentively, stopping to savor wording. Unlike Underground Railroad, this novel is fully realist, but acerbic in its portrayal of the kind of survival in Harlem requires.

Rock Force by Kevin Mauer. In comparison, the retaking of Corregidor from the Japanese toward the end of WWII was a relatively small engagement: a regiment of paratroopers was dropped onto the stone spine of Corregidor with orders to clear “The Rock” of 6700 Japanese troops, with U.S. ground troops landing below the innumerable tunnels in which the Japanese were dug in, and Naval vessels shelling the caves to try to prevent Japanese counter-attacks. A small engagement, but a haunting account of the bravery and losses of the paratroopers. 

The Writing of the Gods: The Race to Decode the Rosetta Stone by Edward Dulnick. I like the odd backstories of history, the little eddies. This is a wonderful book on the multi-thousand year history of trying to translate the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and two titanic intellects, French and English, who broke through in the early 1800s. Dulnick is skilled at explaining the endless struggles to decode the pictographs with comparisons to modern code-breaking, and with a humorous touch in describing the spats between the geniuses, each of whom needed the other but resisted admitting it. 

The War of Jenkins’ Ear: The Forgotten Struggle for North and South America, 1739-1742 by Robert Gaudi. In the roughly 200 years after the initial explorations of the Americas, there were steady conflicts between Spanish and British empires over the control of the fertile, profitable lands of South America, the Caribbean, and what would later be the American southern states. Often these struggles were waged by proxy forces: English privateers, Spanish “customs inspectors” who would seize British ships found with any evidence of trading in the Spanish empire (one short-tempered inspector cut off the ear of a British captain), and lots of coastal raids. Native peoples — always caught in the middle — were wooed by both empires, and a sustained ground war broke out between the Spaniards in Florida and the British settlers in what would later become Georgia.  

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1906-1945: Martyr, Thinker, Man of Resistance by Ferdinand Schlingensiepen. At 400 pages, maybe TMI, more than we needed to know about the brilliant theologian and ethicist who was executed with other conspirators against Hitler just a few days before the end of WWII. But interesting for the networks of international ecumenical efforts that Bonhoeffer was trying to build to resist Hitler, and hopefully avoid what happened: a European blood bath. Ironically, Bonhoeffer’s “cover” while on these trips was as a spy for the German military, whose professional officers were trying to avoid being taken over by the SS as a tool of Hilter’s increasingly mad decisions. In the end, most of those officers went to the gallows with Bonhoeffer, as Germany collapsed. 

The Pages In Between: A Holocaust Legacy of Two Families, One Home by Erin Einhorn. The author is an education reporter for NBC News, but this book is an account of a WWII family home in a small city in Poland. Her Jewish family was largely rounded up for Auschwitz, but her grandfather asked a Polish family to hide their infant daughter from the Nazis, and to manage their property. The grandfather survived and retrieved his daughter after the war, making their way to America. Sixty years later Einhorn came to Poland to explore her family history and found the Polish family still living in her family’s house, with the older members remembering Erin’s mother as a toddler. But many complications ensue, reflecting the layers of Polish history, and the bizarre turns of Polish law: Einhorn cannot establish that she is the heir to the house, because she has no death certificates for her great-grandparents, born in the 1860s and murdered at Auschwitz. A family tree in the front of the book is wrenching, with most of three generations all with death dates in 1943.

The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans—and How We Can Fix it by Dorothy A. Brown. The author, a professor of tax law at Emory, traces patterns of tax law — sometimes deliberately racist and sometimes inadvertent, in that hardly anyone was thinking about Black citizens as tax law was written.

Emily Kane, Professor of Sociology

Here are some things I read this year that have particularly stuck with me for one reason or another. The first four are fiction, and the last one is a sociological study of neoliberalism and home schooling. 

At the End of the Matinee by Keiichiro Hirano

The Seedkeeper by Diane Wilson

The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers

Bewilderment by Richard Powers

The Home School Choice: Parents and the Privatization of Education by Kate Averett

Alison Keegan, Administrative Assistant and Supervisor of Academic Administrative Services

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Jenkins Reid is a master storyteller. Her books are compelling and she is able to weave stories within multiple characters flawlessly and without confusion. This particular story takes place at a party one night in 1980s Malibu. There are flashbacks, backstories, complex sibling relationships, and a flurry of emotions — all ingredients for a well-told tale.

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune. I had heard a lot of buzz about this book and it did not disappoint. Heartwarming and magical, it spun a tale unlike any I’d read before. This is a story about discovering an unlikely family in a surprising place and realizing that you are exactly where you belong. 

The Fortunate Ones by Ed Tarkington. A soul-searching and cautionary tale for anyone enamored with living the high life. This book offers a touching and realistic picture of the uncertainty and angst that comes with being pulled from poor to privileged. 

One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle. I inhaled this book in a day. The vivid depictions of Positano, Italy and all its charms had me yearning to be there instantly. This is a beautiful book about the unending bond between mother and daughter and how grief can change people and relationships. There are surprising and moving magical/whimsical elements that are made entirely believable by the main character’s devotion and love for her mother.     

Keiko Konoeda, Lecturer in Japanese

The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing is one of the most fascinating books I read recently. Great on Kindle and audiobook, too.

Rebecca Lazure, Leadership Gift Officer

Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland. This book swept me off my feet. It kicks off with gripping action and surprise and then takes you through a family’s experiences in Atlantic City in the 1930s. Despite not knowing the area at all, the street names straight from the Monopoly board makes the sense of place surprisingly familiar. Well worth a read. 

Perrin Lumbert, Library Assistant

My favorite books of 2020-2022, in no particular order, read during two years of pandemic semi-isolation.

Lean Your Loneliness Slowly Against Mine by Klara Hveberg

The End of the Golden Gate: Writers on Loving and (Sometimes) Leaving San Francisco by Gary Kamiya et al.

Who was Changed and Who was Dead by Barbara Comyns

Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski

With Each Clouded Peak by Friederike Mayrocker

Silence and Silences by Wallis Wilde-Menozzi

Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong

Written in Invisible Ink by Herve Guibert

Thinking With Trees by Jason Allen-Paisant

Imagine Wanting Only This by Kristen Radtke

The Copenhagen Trilogy: Childhood; Youth; Dependency by Tove Ditlevsen

The Pine Islands by Marion Poschmann

Instinct to Ruin by Lora Mathis

Levant: New Middle Eastern Cooking by Rawia Bishara

Baladi: A Celebration of Food from Land and Sea by Joudie Kalla

Chris Marden, Director of Donor Relations

Brené Brown‘s Daring Greatly has been a thought-provoking inspiration. Also, I loved the audio book The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow. I expect it is terrific in any form, but it’s read by an especially good narrator! 

Maggie Maurer-Fazio, Betty Doran Stangle Professor Emerita of Applied Economics

Lately, I’ve enjoyed three books by Amor Towles:

A Gentleman in Moscow

Rules of Civility

The Lincoln Highway

Rich McNeil, Leadership Gift Officer

Here are some great books my wife and/or I have read in the past few months:

Black Death at the Golden Gate by David K. Randall

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

The Hour of Land by Terry Tempest Williams

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

Animal, Vegetable, Junk by Mark Bittman

Ben Moodie, Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology

The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter by Joseph Patrick Henrich. This accessibly-written book, also available in audio format, is intellectual dynamite. Henrich puts together a portrait of homo sapiens as a species created when our ancestors stumbled upon a package of cultural knowledge valuable enough to become the main driver of natural selection for our kind. The upshot explains both humanity’s explosive cultural diversity and its roots in our shared addiction to learning from one another.

Henrich also has a 2020 book entitled The WEIRDest People in the World which is also intellectually revolutionary, but is best read as a sequel to the first book, and is of more purely social scientific concern. 

Kerry O’Brien, Assistant Dean of the Faculty

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan is my favorite book in a long time. Keegan is a short story writer and with elegant economy she packs this novel with a portrait of a man, a family, and a community in Ireland in the 1980s. What starts out as a Christmas story is a quiet but furious indictment of the infamous “laundries,” run by the Catholic Church, where pregnant teenage girls were imprisoned, judged, and abused. The moral compass is not held by the nuns.

This Is Happiness by Niall Williams is another incredible portrait of an Irish town, this time, a remote water-logged village. It starts with a bit of Garcia Marquez magical realism when we read that the rain has stopped for the first time in umpteen years — a signal that change is coming. Electrification is the change, but it is really about all those famously Irish things that endure: heartsickness, longing, unrequitedness. It’s a coming of age story for one of the protagonists and, for the other, a look back from life’s western slope. It’s about the power of stories and memory and imagination. It’s an epic story, but told in the minute details of daily life and the interactions of the characters and oddballs who inhabit the town. This is truly a gorgeous book. I hated when it ended.

Sonja Pieck, Professor of Environmental Studies

I highly recommend Ocean Vuong‘s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous — incredibly lyrical and haunting.

Sarah Potter ’77, Bookstore Director Emerita

Mysteries, mysteries, mysteries — this year I read through all of Julia Spencer-Fleming’s series. She is a mystery writer living in Buxton, Maine. She creates characters who quickly become familiars. Follow Reverend Clare and police chief Russ beginning with In the Bleak Midwinter.

Because it was on Barack Obama’s summer reading list and because I like Kazuo Ishiguro’s writing, I read Klara and the Sun. This novel is about a future in which children have artificial friends. Much to think about in this book, and it is probably worth an attentive reread on my part.

A few other notable reads:  

A Death in the Family by James Agee

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

Chances Are… by Richard Russo

Oh, William! by Elizabeth Strout

And, of course, the latest Louise Penny mystery, The Madness of Crowds.

Logan Puck, Visiting Assistant Professor of Politics

My book recommendation is The Twilight Zone by Nona Fernandez, translated by Natasha Wimmer. Fernandez is Chilean and she begins the novel by recounting how a member of Pinochet’s secret police walked into a newspaper office and began spilling his secrets about torturing and disappearing dissidents. The book grapples with trauma and memory as it jumps around in time, following and speculating about the secret police agent, his victims, and the narrator who is a young girl when the novel begins. It is a compelling and haunting read that is impossible to put down once you pick it up.

Erica Rand, Professor of Art and Visual Culture and Gender and Sexuality Studies

I recommend Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki, a super-amazing novel where trans survival skills animate musical gifts, where mentorship confronts a deal with the devil, and where a donut shop houses neuro-divergent intergalactic rescue, and far-from-youngsters are hot.  

Jennifer Reaves, Health Services 

The Shack by William P. Young 

John Roe, Library Assistant, INN-Reach Coordinator 

England’s Dreaming by Jon Savage. Pretty much the definitive history of punk rock in the 1970s.

The Monsters Know What They’re Doing by Keith Ammann. For the Dungeons & Dragons enthusiast, based on the blog of the same name.  An entertaining read that serves as a guide to making the game’s monsters more dangerous by playing them toward their strengths.

Sharon Saunders, Associate College Librarian for Systems & Bibliographic Services

What can I say about these three books?  Just read them.

Oneness vs. the 1%: Shattering illusions, seeding freedom by Vandana Shiva

Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist by Kate Raworth

Undocumented: How Immigration became Illegal by Aviva Chomsky

Paula Schlax, Stella James Sims Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry

I found Suburban Dicks by Fabian Nicieza incredibly fun. 

Paul Schofield, Assistant Professor of Philosophy  

Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival, and Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliott. This piece of narrative journalism follows a girl and her family through the New York City shelter system. Some people might remember that the girl, Dasani, was profiled for five days in the New York Times about a decade ago. The author of that series is the author of this book, which she wrote after following her story for the past ten years. It’s a great read and I recommend it highly. Here’s an anecdote from the book: At one point Dasani takes a field trip with her class to Gracie Mansion. She hopes to see Mayor Bloomberg there, not really understanding that she won’t. But going there at all is, for her, like being invited to the White House. The nice parts of Manhattan are just worlds away from the rat-infested room she lives in. Later, when Dasani is profiled in the Times — detailing the horrific ways that society has failed her — she becomes a bit of a celebrity. She reads about herself in the paper, people recognize her on the street, reporters want to talk to her, and strangers donate money to help her. And so, Mayor Bloomberg himself takes notice of little Dasani. Here’s his public statement: “The kid was dealt a bad hand. I don’t know quite why. That’s just the way God works. Sometimes, some of us are lucky and some of us are not.” What a guy!

Why It’s OK to Love Bad Movies by Matthew Strohl. Strohl gives a sincere and heartfelt defense of movies that are typically disrespected and unloved. His point is decidedly not that it can be fun to mock and ridicule bad movies, but that they can be appreciated as creative and original labors of love. As you read, you’ll want to make a list of movies to watch — he discusses The Room, Troll 2, Battlefield Earth, much of the Nic Cage catalog, and so much more. (Luckily, I got COVID right after reading the book, so I was able to dive right in.) Beyond his contagious admiration for the disreputable, Strohl works out what I take to be a novel theory of aesthetics — a view about why we like what we like, and about the role that what we like plays in our lives. 

The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes by Zachary Carter. This is ostensibly a biography of Keynes, and it’s got enough gossipy details to be fun. But really, it’s a book about Keynes’s thought and its influence. The last 100 pages or so take place after his death, and tell the story of how Keynesianism as we understand it today is detached from a lot of what animated Keynes when he was writing. So rather than the perfunctory final chapter of “And here is how so-and-so’s influence is still with us”, we get a detailed story of the further development of Keynesianism that sheds light on his work and what’s been forgotten from it. Also, apparently, Keynes was a big fan of G. E. Moore’s Principia Ethica — a book I’ve read, and which I assure you is very boring — and he ultimately used Moore’s notion of an “organic unity” to justify and defend his own sexual liberation. I hadn’t known this, but it is nice that someone found a good use for Moore.

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe. This is a remarkable and astoundingly compelling book about the Troubles. I don’t know how to describe it exactly, but it’s part history, part investigative journalism, part mystery, and, in the end, part moral philosophy. The author touches on themes of violence, anger, guilt, reconciliation, reparation, memory, and truth-seeking, all with respect to both the personal and the political. Upon finishing it, I wanted to read it again immediately.

Reconsidering Reparations by Olufemi O. Taiwo. This is an exemplary piece of political philosophy, quite possibly the best I’ve read in the past five years. Taiwo is so clear about what he’s trying to do and who he’s trying to convince, so charitable to other authors, and so willing to engage with history and social sciences (I learned so much that it would have been worth it even if the philosophy were garbage). The book is good for summer because it’s so engaging to read; a lot of moral conviction without any grandstanding. And most of all, he really squares up to the problems reparations proponents face. It’s the best thing written on this topic and it reminded me why I like political philosophy when it’s done well.

Sawyer Sylvester, Professor Emeritus of Sociology

Historical Atlas of Maine edited by Stephen J. Hornsby and Richard W. Judd. For born Mainers, as well as those from away, this book has to be the very best cartographic history of Maine. It ranges from the the Ice Age to the year 2000. The blending of text, graphics, artwork, maps, and photographs is masterful. Be warned, the book is pricey — but worth every penny.

The Age of Wood by Roland Ennos. From the very beginnings of human history, the multiple qualities of wood have played an essential part: from the trees from which humans descended, to the shelters which first housed them, from the masts of tall ships to the ties in the railroads, from our houses to our coffins, from fires to warm them and books to read by the fire.

Index, A History of the by Dennis Duncan. A book without an index is a story, however well told. A book with an index is a mine to be searched or all the delights therein.

Let’s Bring Back by Lesley M. M. Blume. Oddments for the incurably nostalgic.

Finally, a read in progress: How the Post Office Created America by Winifred Gallagher.

Anne Thompson, Professor Emerita of English and Euterpe B. Dukakis Professor Emerita of Classical and Medieval Studies 

Susan, Linda, Nina, and Cokie, The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR by Lisa Napoli. If you don’t recognize the names of these women, you probably won’t be interested in the book. Otherwise, it’s a treat.

This is Happiness by Niall Williams. Williams weaves a story that takes place sixty years ago in a small Irish village where electricity is finally set to arrive. The narrator looks back on this time without sentimentality, but with love, humor, and regret for a life that was simpler.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. Almost everyone I know (including me) raved about this book, but most of us also found it very hard to describe, so you’ll have to trust me. It’s definitely weird but not just loopy fantasy. A young man lives alone in a strange House of vast size, with halls, corridors and statues, where he spends his days tracking tides that could flood the House. There’s one other person, with whom he meets twice a week but about whom he knows almost nothing. The writing is so good and the descriptions so enticing that you may be willing to go along for the ride until you begin to make more sense of this bizarre world. 

Darryl Uy, Director of Admission 

Real Life by Brandon Taylor

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

The Lost Language of Cranes by David Leavitt

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel

She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan

The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

The Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

Birds in Fall by Brad Kessler

There, There by Tommy Orange

Good Neighbors by Ryan David Jahn

Beet by Roger Rosenblatt

Joe Vari, Head Women’s Soccer Coach

Think Again by Adam Grant 

Legacy by James Kerr

William Wallace, Lecturer in Education

Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott. Andrea Elliott is a NYT writer who has followed the life of a homeless family for eight years. Her book, in particular, follows Dasani, a 12-year-old girl in the family. As you read the book, Elliott reveals that this family is the product of four generations of homelessness. For me, Dasani personifies the power of the human spirit—an individual whose humanity shows through despite incredible obstacles in her life.  

Leigh Weisenberger, Office of Admission

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom

Anne Williams, Professor Emerita of Economics 

This list is unusually long because my 2020 and 2021 lists met with misadventures. And with pandemic isolation I had lots of time to read. I am truly grateful for the �ֲ���ý Library and its efficiency at borrowing from other Maine libraries. The Kempers’ Little Free Library on Pettingill Street was another source of great joy in a time of stress.

Non-Fiction:

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann — A powerful account of crimes against the Osage.

Complications by Atul Gawande — A doctor on the fallibility of surgeons, and more.

Tears We Cannot Stop by Michael Eric Dyson — Documenting horrors of the Black experience.                

How You Say It by Katherine Kinzler — Discrimination based on accent is innate.

I always enjoy memoirs, and recommend these:

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah — Both sobering and hilarious.

Being Heumann by Judith Heumann, the incredible activist for disability rights.

Becoming by Michelle Obama — Stunning on many fronts.

The Soul of Care by Arthur Kleinman — Reflections on caring for vs treating a patient.

Ladysitting by Lorene Cary — Caring for a 100-year old mother.

Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman — An eye opener about women’s prisons.

Fiction:

America for Beginners by Leah Franqui — Three contrasting views of the U.S.

A Delhi Obsession by M.G. Vassanji — A love story with complications set in modern Delhi.

Breaking Out of Bedlam by Leslie Larson — Odd experiences and resilience in assisted living.

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Richardson — I learned about pack horse librarians and blue-skinned people in Kentucky

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng — A “model” family isn’t quite what it seems.

Rules for Visiting by Jessica Francis Kane — A delightful story of friendship and discovery.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler — Thought provoking on humanity and animal rights.

The Every by Dave Eggers — Imagine a merger of Amazon and Facebook.

For escape I read mysteries and occasional science fiction. Favorites by authors I already knew include:

Borderline by Nevada Barr — Rio Grande murders.

The Disappeared by C.J. Box — Searching for a British Celebrity.

The Terminal Man by Michael Crichton — A new medical technique gone wrong.

Camino Island by John Grisham — Mystery centers on rare books.

Squeeze Me by Carl Hiaasen — Set in a fictionalized Mar-a-Lago.

The Girl in the Spider’s Web by David Lagercrantz — AI is important to this mystery.

Body Work by Sara Paretsky — Two intersecting murders in Chicago.

All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny — Gamache takes on Paris crime.

The Order by Daniel Silva — Intrigue after the death of a Pope.

Criminal by Karin Slaughter — A great yarn about a lady cop.

I also enjoyed these books by authors new to me:

Be Afraid by Mary Burton — Forensic artist works a cold case.

Blood Work by Michael Connelly — Heart transplant with unforeseen consequences.

The First Counsel by Brad Meltzer — Set in the White House.

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear —Independent woman sleuth in post-WWI England.

Newcomer by Higashino Keigo – Detective Kaga is understated, but very perceptive.

Michelle Williams, Human Resources Coordinator

The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung. A great read about how our bodies actually work and why obesity is such a hard thing to kick. I can’t recommend this book enough!

Freddie Wright, Staff Writer

Ace by Angela Chen. This book offers an in-depth (and personal) look into Asexuality, and how gender and sexuality influence and are influenced by today’s society. Chen also looks into what separates romantic and physical attraction, and how subjective those definitions can be for each person. I recommend it for anyone, whether or not you or anyone you know identifies as ace.

Welcome to the 25th edition of Good Reads: The �ֲ���ý College Non-Required Reading List for Leisure Moments.

Begun in 1997 by now-retired director Sarah Emerson Potter ’77 as a gift for graduating seniors, Good Reads features recommendations from current and retired faculty and staff as well as alumni. Alison Keegan, in the Dean of the Faculty’s office, now edits the list.

Potter had long wanted to publish a summer reading list. One day, an encouraging conversation with fellow book lover Ann Harward, the late wife of then-President Don Harward, “gave me a kick in the pants to do it,” says Potter. “She was very supportive.”

Today’s submissions are all electronic, of course. Back in the day, Potter recalls how sociology professor Sawyer Sylvester, one of the earliest Good Reads contributors, would submit his titles with great formality — like a “Letter of Transit” in Casablanca — “on a single sheet of paper, trifold, printed off the computer, and always signed!”

Sylvester is a contributor again this year, as is another founding contributor, Anne Thompson, English professor emerita.

This year, the titles that have two or more recommendations are:

• A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabelle Allende
• Enter the Aardvark by Jess Anthony ‘96
• Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler
• The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
• Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
• The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
• The Overstory by Richard Powers��
• Caste by Isabel Wilkerson

Onward!

Áslaug Ásgeirsdóttir, Professor of Politics and Associate Dean of the Faculty

The Eighth Detective by Alex Pavesi. Tells the story of an editor working with an author on an old manuscript. Through conversations about the rules of mysteries, you begin to sense that there is a mystery within the story that slowly unfolds as you read.

Twilight of Democracy by Anne Applebaum. The author has had unique access to the world of conservative politicians in the United States, Britain and Poland. In telling the story of the changes in her conservative circles over the past 20 years, her argument about the twilight of democracy is compelling, even though the book is missing any discussion about the role of conservatives and their policy successes in these changes.

Drive your Plow over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk. Janina lives in a small Polish village where she spends her days translating poetry and taking care of near-by summer homes. Her neighbor turns up dead and soon the mystery deepens. Funny and tragic.

My Life as a Spy by Katherine Verderey. As an American anthropologist doing research in Romania in the 1970s and 1980s, Katherine Verderey was — unbeknownst to her — the subject of secret service surveillance until the collapse of communism in the late 1980s. Much later she gets access to her more than 2000-page file and begins to reflect on it and what it means to be surveilled.

Outline Trilogy (Outline, Transit, and Kudos) by Rachel Cusk. This trilogy tells the story of a female writer and her encounters with friends and strangers. The books simultaneously tell you enough of her encounters, but also leave you wanting more.

Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq. A work of auto-fiction about a girl growing up in Nunavut mixes fact, fiction and myth. It is often hard to tell which is which. Filled with joy and heartbreak, where the last chapter still haunts me.

Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez looks at how various public policies (for example in education, health care, urban design) are suboptimal as they fail to account for gender. The book is well written with great examples.

Pamela Baker ’69, Helen A. Papaioanou Professor Emerita of Biological Sciences

One of the best books I read this year is Lisa Genova‘s new book Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting. It is her first non-fiction book and covers so much up to date information about neuroscience (her Ph.D. after all), yet still in her very readable, personable style. It is truly a work of science and art.

Another good one is This Magnificent Dappled Sea by David Brio. It covers a lot of the biology of transplantation, and finding the match for a present-day child with a blood disease reveals truths of Italy in World War II.

Completely different and very funny is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice in current America: Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld.

Jonathan Cavallero, Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah has been listed by a number of others over the years. I don’t have much to add to what has already been said. It’s a great book and well worth the time.

Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler. It is difficult to fully capture the significance of Walt Disney to American cinema and animation generally, but Gabler does it. From animation techniques to the structure of labor in Hollywood studios and all points in between this book is an eye-opening history of the studio chieftain as well as the institution itself.

American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson. Some of the most interesting work in recent years focuses on characters from marginalized groups that work within and for institutions that marginalize them. Chinonye Chukwu’s film Clemency took on the issue and so does Wilkinson’s novel. Both are wonderful.

Jane Costlow, Clark A. Griffith Professor Emerita of Environmental Studies

An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine. Amazing narrative about a woman in Beirut who defies all sorts of expectations. I loved the book for her, most of all — but also for its evocation of the city, in both war and peace. She’s a translator, and one of the pleasures of the book for me was settling into a world in which identity (both hers and the reader’s) expands across language, gender, era…

The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin. I’d never read this. Along with Robyn Davidson’s Tracks I spent several weeks imaginatively trekking through the Australian outback. I did in fact learn a lot from these authors about Australian aboriginals (and Australians’ treatments of them), but both books are as much about the authors themselves as about the places and people they encounter.

The Empire Trilogy: Troubles, The Siege of Krishnapur, and The Singapore Grip by J.G. Farrell. Farrell is brilliant and ruthless at skewering the stupidities and racism of British colonialists. Not just “colonialism” but individual participants in the system. Brilliant social satire, The Singapore Grip is Monty Python plus Tolstoy.

A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen. Young Russian-American goes to Moscow to live with his grandmother, who is very elderly and starting to get a bit confused (but still regularly beats him at anagrams). This is Gessen’s portrait of Moscow in the early 2000s; the relationship between the hero and his grandmother is beautifully described.

The Hiawatha by David Treuer. I am currently reading my way through anything and everything Treuer has written (now working on Rez Life, non-fiction/memoir about contemporary Indian lives). The Hiawatha is the story of several generations of an Ojibwe family resettled in Minneapolis: along with the heart-breaking story of a family that is not really surviving various acts of violence, the novel has descriptions of men at work — felling trees in the northern Minnesota forests, building the skyscrapers in downtown Minneapolis, fishing in a northern river — that are just amazing.

Grace Coulombe, Director of Math and Statistics Workshop and Lecturer in Quantitative Studies

Enter the Aardvark by Jessica Anthony ’96 and Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Deborah Cutten, Academic Administrative Assistant

I think I’ve read more novels this year than in any other. Looking back on this list I note they were all thrillers and dark conspiracy stories that spoke to my own spirit during the pandemic. You would think I would have searched for uplifting and optimistic stories to cheer myself, but perhaps, real life didn’t look so bleak in comparison.

• Ice Hunt, Amazonia, and The Demon Crown: A Sigma Force Novel all by James Rollins
• The Blood Gospel: The Order of the Sanguines series by James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell
• The Sancti Trilogy (The Sanctus, The Key, and The Tower) by Simon Toyne
• The Templar novels (The Last Templar, The Templar Salvation, and The Devil’s Elixir) by Raymond Khoury
• The Trench by Steve Alten
• And last but certainly not least, Enter the Aardvark by Jessica Anthony ’96

Karen Daigler, Director of Graduate and Professional School Advising, Center for Purposeful Work 

The Art of Inheriting Secrets by Barbara O’Neal. When Olivia Shaw’s mother dies, the sophisticated food editor is astonished to learn she’s inherited a centuries-old English estate — and a title to go with it. Raw with grief and reeling from the knowledge that her reserved mother hid something so momentous, Olivia leaves San Francisco and crosses the pond to unravel the mystery of a lifetime.

The Lost Girls of Devon by Barbara O’Neal. The Lost Girls of Devon follows the story of Zoe, her estranged mother Poppy, her grandmother Lilian and her daughter Isabel. When Zoe’s childhood best friend Diana goes missing, she and her daughter Isabel head to Devon from Santa Fe to try and find her.

Beneath Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan. This is about an Italian teenager’s courage and resilience during one of history’s darkest hours. He helps Jews escape over the Alps in an underground railroad. Not my usual, but I really enjoyed it.

This is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel. This book is about parents forging uncharted waters in order to help their transgender children live happy, healthy lives in a society that still largely defines gender by what’s in your pants. Laurie Frankel takes those real-life experiences and puts them into a big-hearted story of family and secrets. Loved this book.

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee. The Downstairs Girl is a powerful portrait of one plucky Chinese-American heroine living and working in the beginning of the Jim Crow south. She works by day as a maid for a wealthy socialite family while at night she writes an advice column for Southern women. She uses that platform to shed light on gender and racial discrimination. THAT does not always go over well.

28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand. A decades-long, once-a-year, secret love affair.

The Way of Beauty by Camille Di Maio. The Way of Beauty is a charming, sweet and heartwarming historical women’s fiction novel that touches on many topics while bringing a piece of history to life here with Penn Station and blending the lives of two very strong women and the people connected to them. Loved the interesting compelling characters and reading about the women’s suffrage movement.

Carol Dilley, Professor of Dance

I am thoroughly enjoying The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton. The structure, the prose, the characters and the story just keep unfolding throughout.

For those who read in Spanish, Patria by Fernando Aramburu is an utterly gripping story of the intimacy of violence in the Basque region of Spain. They made an excellent TV miniseries as well.

Phil Dostie, Assistant in Instruction

The Story of Earth by Robert Hanzen. Brief, approachable, interesting and engaging this book covers our planet’s geological history from stardust to present.

Plant Propagation Principles and Practices by Hartmann and Kester. Its current ninth edition is rather expensive but older, used editions are available shipped to your door for less than $5.00. While it’s sometimes dry, it’s always informative. I find myself using it every spring as a reference for grafting or looking the best way to propagate my lilacs and forsythia.

Northeast Foraging by Leda Meredith. Full of pictures and information on where, when, and how to harvest some of the edible wild plants around you, this book is one of the best foraging references for our state.

The Parable series by Octavia Butler. The Parable of the Sower and The Parable of the Talents (Trigger waring depictions of rape, torture, and other forms of violence are written in these book). Published in 1993 and 1998 respectively, and set in the mid-2020s. These are the first two books in what was supposed to be a trilogy, unfortunately the author died before completing the works and getting to the end of the second is very much like having a captivating conversation with a friend suddenly cut short. They leave you wanting more and knowing you’ll never get it.

The level of insight and forethought that the author had for the writing of these two books allows her to paint a future that is a portrait of modern-day America with a twisted black shadow looming over it. Additionally, there are some pretty terrifying parallels in this storyline with our current politicians/political systems and, while I’m aware that the phrase did not originate with the 2016 candidate for president, I could feel myself blanching when reading certain lines from the book. If I didn’t already know that the man struggled with basic sentences I would have sworn he read Butler first in order to coopt her work. They’re well written, fast reads that captivate and terrify. They’re the written equivalent of driving by the after effects of a particularly violent car crash; you want to look away and yet you can’t. These two books are worth the read.

White Fragility by Robin Deangelo. Deangelo takes the difficult topics of race and accountability and presents them in an approachable manner.

How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X Kendi. The author explores the structural underpinnings of racism and helps the reader to find tools to recognize and address racist laws, behaviors, and societal norms, a good start into the subject.

Elizabeth Durand ’76

Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell. A mystery full of twists and turns and changing points of view; keeps you off balance right up to the end.

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. A book about idiots, love, ineptitude, and optimism. My favorite read of 2021.

Transcription by Kate Atkinson. Another one set in World War II, behind the scenes, so many times I get to the end of the book and the ending is all wrong. This is not one of those books.

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel. I finished it and immediately had to read it again.

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn. More World War II. Young women from vastly different backgrounds end up at Bletchley Park working as code breakers. If Kate Quinn is the author, the book will end up on my “best” list.

Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt. I missed reading this one when it was a bestseller (and won the Pulitzer Prize) in the late 1990s. Utterly absorbing and appalling.

Band of Sisters by Lauren Willig. A naive group of Smith graduates head for France in 1917, while World War I is still very much in progress, to do good works among the civilians. Reality is much grimmer than they anticipated. Based on a true story and beautifully written.

Francis Eanes, Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies

• A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal by Kate Aronoff
• Capital City: Gentrification & The Real Estate State by Samuel Stein
• The Geography of Risk: Epic Storms, Rushing Seas, and the Cost of America’s Coast by Gilbert Gaul
• Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement by Monica White

Melinda Emerson, retired colleague

The Wild Inside, Mortal Fall, The Weight of Night & Sharp Solitude by Christine Carbo. Novels set in and around Glacier National Park. If you like Paul Doiron’s books, you will enjoy these.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins. The prequel to the Hunger Games Trilogy. It starts as 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games.

Virgin River series by Robyn Carr. Much better than the Netflix series, based on the books.

Mrs. Sherlock Holmes by Brad Ricca. The first-ever narrative biography of this singular woman the press nicknamed after fiction’s greatest detective. Her poignant story reveals important clues about missing girls, the media, and the real truth of crime stories.

The Haunting of Brynn Wilder by Wendy Webb. This novel is partially a paranormal romance, partially a mystery, partially a woman trying to regroup after taking time off from being a professor of English lit to reset.

Under a Gilded Moon by Joy Jordan-Lake. This is historical fiction that features characters who actually lived and became a well-known part of American history. The time is the late 1800s and young George Washington Vanderbilt II has built Biltmore House in the Appalachian Mountains.

Time is A River by Mary Alice Munroe. This is an insightful novel that will sweep readers away to the seductive southern landscape. Recovering from breast cancer and reeling from her husband’s infidelity, Mia Landan flees her Charleston home to heal in the mountains near Asheville, N.C., where she seeks refuge in a neglected fish cabin owned by a fly-fishing instructor, Belle Carson.

Wesley the Owl: The remarkable Love story of An Owl and His Girl by Stacey O’Brien chronicles the author’s rescue of an abandoned barn owlet, from her efforts to resuscitate and raise the young owl after an injury that prevented it from returning to the wild through their nineteen years together, during which the author made key discoveries about owl behavior.

Above the Bay of Angels by Rhys Bowen. A single twist of fate puts a servant girl to work in Queen Victoria’s royal kitchen, setting off a suspenseful, historical mystery.

West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge. An emotional, rousing novel inspired by the incredible true story of two giraffes who made headlines and won the hearts of Depression-era America.

Nathan Faries, Assistant Professor of Asian Studies

John le Carré passed away late in 2020. All of his spy novels about British Intelligence are amazing — reportedly required reading for Soviet KGB recruits in the 1970s and ’80s. I would start with the George Smiley novels, and if you want to “cheat” and jump into the BBC adaptations (with Sir Alec Guinness as Smiley) —Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley’s People— who would blame you? (Or watch Michelle Pfeiffer (sigh) and Sean Connery in The Russia House: “You are my country now.”) The books are more complete, naturally, but these filmed adaptations still capture the anti-jingoistic moral ambiguity of spy craft during the Cold War as le Carré envisioned it.

David Sedaris occasionally gets a little too sad for my moods to bear, but his essays are mostly hilarious and addictive. I recently re-read When You Are Engulfed in Flames and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. Check out his “Nuit of the Living Dead” or his perennial NPR reading of “Santaland Diaries” about his experience working as a Macy’s elf. The audiobooks are read by Sedaris himself, and his voice and cadence are part of the experience.

Max Brooks, Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre. As a big fan of Brooks’ World War Z (not the movie), I was compelled to read this “found-footage/fake-documentary” follow-up. In World War Z, Brooks is able to play with multiple genres and produce what is essentially a complex short-story anthology. Devolution is more linear and focused, but it is still a fun and compelling page-turner with all the X-Files–style pseudo-science in the background and a playful plot twist for a coda.

Dan Girling, Mail and Materials Handling Clerk, Post & Print

The Stand by Stephen King. In a year derailed by COVID, I found it a fitting time to read this classic from Stephen King. The story begins with a deadly form of influenza sweeping the world, but in the aftermath, the few survivors find themselves in a struggle between good and evil. While the Stand is in no way a guide on how to survive a pandemic, it does offer a thrilling story that will captivate you from beginning to end.

If It Bleeds by Stephen King. This is a collection of four stories. While I usually read Stephen King’s longer works, the variety here was a nice change of pace. The highlight for me was the story “The Life of Chuck” which retells the life of a man in three separate, uniquely designed sections.

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Blending historical fiction with elements of fantasy, this novel takes place in 19th-century America, where a young man discovers he has teleportation abilities that allow him to free himself — and later others — from the bonds of slavery. The Water Dancer covers a bleak period in history, but the novel’s imaginative style and premise make it a story worth reading.

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green. This book concludes the story that began with Hank Green’s first book, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. After a mysterious being known only as Carl appears on Earth, the world questions whether they can trust it and what motivations Carl might have. I appreciate how these novels take an old science fiction idea and use it to explore modern concerns, such as our reliance on technology, misinformation on social media, and the influence of big corporations.

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

Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody and The Resisters by Gish Jen. The hellish past and dystopian future: how two strong women struggle and prevail against their circumstances.

Meg Gresh, Assistant to the Dean of Faculty

• Verity by Colleen Hoover

Bruce Hall, Network Administrator, Information and Library Services

I used some of my pandemic reading to catch up on the history of the US founding. Based on that, I recommend 1787: The Grand Convention by Clinton Rossiter. The title is the first thing I learned: We call it the “Constitutional Convention,” they didn’t. The times were fluid and the result not pre-determined. Rossiter sets the scene with great detail, including the political situation that led to the meeting in Philadelphia. He includes biographies of all of the participants, even the minor ones. They and their world come alive as he puts them in context. He describes the economic interests and setting of each state. This includes the population divisions between free and slave within each state.

It is only after more than a third of the book, that you get to Philadelphia for the Grand Convention itself. About the middle third of the book is Rossiter’s account of the day by day debates. These make for compelling reading and are relevant to many issues we contend with today. The final third of the book covers not only the struggle for ratification but the early years of setting up the new government under the Constitution.

Indeed, some of my favorite parts were in his concluding chapter where Rossiter goes through important items that ‘completed’ the Constitution. For example, he ends in 1803 with Chief Justice John Marshall establishing the doctrine of judicial review in Marbury v. Madison. It is at this point that Rossiter says “…the Grand Convention stood at last adjourned.” Even that suggests that there is much more to study in later US history as the people of the United States through amendments, laws, and practices seek to “form a more perfect Union” and “establish Justice”.

Rossiter includes a detailed appendix of documents so that you can trace the development of the Constitution through multiple plans and proposals. You can even see the deficiencies of the Articles of Confederation that the Constitution was meant to correct. Curiously, Rossiter does not include “The Declaration of Independence” in his appendix of documents. You can remedy that by reading the �ֲ���ý Common Read book of a few years ago: Our Declaration by Danielle Allen.

I have read 72 of the 85 Federalist Papers written in 1787 and 1788 by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay in support of the ratification of the Constitution in New York. Considering that they were written as part of a public political debate, they are remarkably frank. Madison observes in No. 51 that “ambition must be made to counteract ambition.”

Hamilton warns in No. 6 that people are “ambitious, vindictive, and rapacious”. I’m sure they would be ready to survey our politics now as well. Balancing this somewhat bleak, if clear-eyed, view, Madison in No. 55 also says that there is “sufficient virtue…for self-government”. While some things under the Constitution did not turn out the way they expected or desired, their incisive study also bears directly on many of the issues of today.

Joe Hall, Associate Professor of History

The Overstory by Richard Powers. It’s not my favorite novel, but I loved what Powers did with shifting the focus away from people to also include trees. I learned a lot about trees (Powers did some great homework), but I also appreciated the ways that he showed us how people are connected to trees in ways that we, with our shorter, faster lives, often fail to recognize.

Considering that Maine is the country’s most forested state, one could do worse than to think in new ways about our numerous neighbors.

Tyler Harper, Program in Environmental Studies

The Bear by Andrew Krivak. An elegantly-written and poignant novel about the Earth getting along just fine without us.

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica. A brutal but thought-provoking satire about the moral and environmental perils of factory farming.

Bill Hiss ’66, retired colleague

Improbable Voices: The History of the World Since 1450 Seen from 26 Unusual Perspectives by Derek Anderson ’85. Derek is a �ֲ���ý alum and history teacher at a high school in California. His 700-page book is a marvel, written over 8 years, and scrupulously footnoted. Playfully, he follows the logic of the alphabet to explain world history, choosing 26 individuals from a Portuguese explorer in the 1400s to a still-living woman environmental scientist.

His 26 portraits are of people who were not historically famous but achieved something that shaped modern history. His “Exhibit A,” for example, a Portuguese explorer named Albuquerque, figured out how to use adjustable triangular sails to sail against the wind, and thus explore the southern coast of Africa and then around to India, where he was later a governor for Portugal, establishing the patterns of European colonial empires.

Crisis in the Red Zone: The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, and of the Outbreaks to Come by Richard Preston. Ebola only a hint of the future, as the title suggests.

Empty Mansions by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell Jr. Huguette Clark was an heiress who, though not ill, spent her last 20 years in a hospital room in New York, triggering a monumental lawsuit over her $300 million estate. Her family was a classic American story of immense riches put to bizarre uses.

Sixty Miles from Contentment: Traveling the 19^th Century American Interior by M.H. Dunlop. Many foreigners wanted to see the American frontier and went to great trouble and some danger to get there. There were also some wonderful cultural clashes: upscale British visitors expected to hire servants, but no American was willing to work as a servant, even while taking on frightful labor for other ends.

The Pioneers by David McCullough. McCullough is one of our fine story- teller historians, and this book no exception: the settling of Ohio when it was utter wilderness to arriving whites.

Liberty Men and Great Proprietors: The Revolutionary Settlement on the Maine Frontier, 1760-1820 by Alan Taylor. In some ways, a parallel book for Maine to The Pioneers and Sixty Miles from Contentment. In the years surrounding the American Revolution, largely poor settlers, often Revolutionary War veterans promised land for their service, came to Maine for what they expected to be free land, if they settled and improved it. But the “Great Proprietors”, including a fellow named Bowdoin, had immense land grants from the King, and wanted these settlers to buy the land. Sixty years of threats and intimidation from both sides.

The Storm on Our Shores: One Island, Two Soldiers and the Forgotten Battle of World War II by Mark Obmascik. Few places are less habitable than the Aleutians. When one of the most distant islands was invaded by the Japanese, the American military decided they needed to retake it. The book is the account of a Japanese but American-trained physician who got drafted into the Japanese medical corps while home to get married and see his parents, and then sent on this invasion. He was killed by an American soldier who found and kept his touching diary, and decades later tracked down his descendants to return it.

In Search of England by H.V. Morton. Morton was an early British travel writer who wrote a number of books about different parts of Britain. His books sold well: this one, published in 1927, saw 11 printings in five years. He was a charming and elegant writer, entranced by medieval cathedrals and villages, and regarding almost everything else that happened in Britain after the invention of the steam engine as regrettable. Like his In Search of Scotland, fascinating to read about places we may know from a century later.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. A minor Russian nobleman is sentenced by a Revolutionary court to spend the rest of his life in an elegant hotel in Moscow. Wonderfully told novel, with a riveting collection of oddballs and survivors flowing into the hotel.

The Shipping News by Annie Proulx. Fiction masterpiece.

Emily Kane, Professor of Sociology

Here are some things I read this year that have particularly stuck with me for various reasons:

• Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler
• Apeirogon by Colum McCann
• You Can’t Stop the Revolution: Community Disorder and Social Ties in Post-Ferguson America by Andrea Boyles

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

The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd. Imagine Jesus had a wife and her name was Ana. She’s rebellious, independent, and brilliant, bent on defying the expectations placed on women. This gorgeous, imaginative, and creative reimagining of what we know of Jesus, but through the eyes of Ana, is a stunning reflection of women’s longing, silencing, and awakening, and was the first of two best books I read in 2020-2021.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. Few books touch me and are unforgettable in the ways that this book did and is. To say that I didn’t want this to end is an understatement and I found it difficult to imagine reading anything in the future that is as beautiful and striking storytelling as this book. This is a book about a girl, a boy, a devil, and the stories that get told, repeated, and remembered. This is a tale of power dynamics and imbalances and what humans are willing to do to not feel trapped and alone.

This is all about a young girl who lives her life for herself, who lives her life in spite of the odds, who lives her life in hopes someone will recall her from memory. The second-best book I read in 2020–21.

Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah. Magical, whimsical, debut novel. I was charmed by this story of two neighbors, each dealing with their past and its effects, and a young girl claiming to be an alien, who brings them together in her quest for 5 miracles. Without giving anything else away, simply put, this is a beautiful story of friendship, family, and recovering from past wounds to move forward to present healing.

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James. I couldn’t read this book at night because the creep factor was way too high…then I couldn’t put it down in the daylight. Perfect summer twisty dark pleasure.

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. Kristin Hannah does it again. She has this incredible talent for making the landscapes of her novels every bit as much a character as the people within. In this case, it’s Texas, 1934 during the Dust Bowl/Great Depression era. This is a book about a woman’s choice to fight for the land she loves or go west in search of a better life. I found myself nearly choking on the descriptions of the dust storms, and the suffocating feeling of the gritty, grainy sand at every turn of page. Not an uplifting book by any means, but a beautiful, real novel of courage and the indomitable spirit we are capable of when all other hope is lost.

John Kelsey, Professor Emeritus of Psychology

I just finished reading The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson about Jennifer Doudna (our graduation speaker when we last had such things) and the research on CRISPR that led to her Nobel Prize in 2019. Isaacson does an excellent job of explaining the relevant biology at a lay level and revealing the personalities behind the intense West Coast/East Coast competition to discover how this gene-splicing technique (CRISPR), evolved by bacteria over millions of years, can be used to treat human disease, including COVID-19. An absolutely fascinating detective story.

I immensely enjoyed The Mirror and the Light which completed the trilogy by Hilary Mantel about Thomas Cromwell (Henry VIII’s advisor and shaker). Wolf Hall, the first of the trilogy, remains my favorite book of the last several years, and although the latest is longer with some unnecessary digressions, it is also lovely and a marvelous comment on class, religion, and power in pre-Elizabethan England. Her writing is just a joy for me to read.

Although I have not been a big fan of Tana French, I enjoyed her recent The Searcher: A Novel about an American who recently immigrated to rural Ireland to find a new life. In contrast to her other books, this one focuses more on character development and culture than on a mystery (although there is, of course, a mysterious disappearance). I could easily imagine having a beer with the protagonists.

Grace Kendall, Director of Design Services, �ֲ���ý Communications

Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power by Pekka Hämäläinen. Billed as a more complete history of the Lakota nation, this book sets out to share a history in which the Lakota, and the “seven council fires” — distinct bands within the nation — are less victims of an all- consuming colonizing power and more a powerhouse making purposeful and measured political decisions. It delves into how the Sioux shaped the political landscape in their region(s) both before and after the arrival of white colonizing forces, and it includes a lot of info about inter-nation relations between the Sioux and other indigenous nations as well as between the Sioux and the British, French, and (later) Americans.

It is a very dense read, and there are aspects of it that are still confusing. (I don’t think Hämäläinen does a great job explaining Sioux vs. Lakota / Nakota / Dakota, for example, and how the seven bands fit within that structure.) But it’s the most complete history of an indigenous nation that I’ve read. Even still, folks will notice that it’s very male-centric. That may be because the documents available for research, often having been curated by men, focused on other men, but it’s not something that Hämäläinen addresses, so that’s worth noting and being aware of as you go in.

A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers. There’s no way around it, so let’s start by saying this novel is about cannibalism. The story is fabulously written, and Summers does a really great job expressing the joy that food critic Dorothy Daniels gets from her work — both official and “off the books.” Although it’s an odd road to get there, the book is about a woman deciding, reluctantly at times, that she’s better than the men around her, and her journey to embrace that. Its satirical view of foodie culture is super entertaining to read, and although the main character is a psychopath…she’s an entertaining one. The subject matter may be dark, but this story was ultimately one of the funnest reads of 2020 for me. Whether that says more about me or 2020, I do not know.

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. This book was my first introduction to writer Stephen Graham Jones, and I’m so glad to have a new favorite author to add to the mix! It’s a sort of sci-fi/horror story that follows four Blackfeet men as they grow up and are forced to come to terms with an event in their past that has unleashed a supernatural entity bent on revenge.

The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave. I previously had never learned about the witch trials in northeastern Norway in the early 17th century. The Mercies is a novelization of one such rash of trials, taking place in the village of Vardø. I loved the book for its following of female stories, especially its focus on a village-wide tragedy that required women to step up in new ways in order to ensure the village’s survival. When some didn’t want to step back into their former roles, they were the target of derision and labeled as witches. The Mercies is an interesting story following women who chafe at their traditional roles and the kinds of fallout that results, which is something that still resonates, 400 years later.

Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn. This is a really interesting story about the pressure that comes with greatness. Main character Nainoa is marked for supernatural things at the age of seven when, having fallen from a boat, he is delivered safely to his mother’s arms in the jaws of a shark. As he grows up and develops unexplained abilities, it’s clear to his family he’s been blessed by the gods. With the pressure to use his abilities to help his family escape poverty, and the wedge it drives between him and his siblings, what could be a larger-than-life sci-fi story ends up a personal tale about family, heritage, and responsibility. Beautifully done.

Cheryl Lacey, Director of Dining Services

• Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
• The Lonely City by Olivia Laing
• The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia Afterlife by Julia Alvarez
• The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett White Rage by Carol Anderson 
• Sigh, Gone by Phuc Tran
• Shakespeare in A Divided America by James Shapiro

Peter Lasagna, Head Men’s Lacrosse Coach

I would like to submit Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler for this summer’s Good Read’s list. Recommended by our son and an author I have enjoyed before, I found this book to be one of the most masterfully crafted and compelling (at times terrifying) of my entire reading life. Images remain that will remain forever. It also describes a place, and life that is not hard to imagine existing right around the corner….

Daniel Lindahl, Senior Database and Oracle Application Server Administrator, Information and Library Services

This year, I read Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents and I couldn’t not share. I’d imagine you’ll get multiple notes on this. Wilkerson, who is a �ֲ���ý honorary degree recipient and former Commencement speaker, is a remarkable writer. In Caste, she unfolds the framework of inequity at the heart of the history of our nation and enumerates the core pillars of the social contract that allows and enforces it.

Her explication of a structure that codifies and in fact depends upon a strict system of caste, largely parallel to the caste system of India, is clear and personal in a balance of clinical examination and very personal, very real accounts of the lives it has forged. So powerful was my connection to the work that I found understanding of pieces of my own childhood, of my own life, that I only now realize that I had never understood, or had understood in an entirely different context.

Kathy Low, Professor of Psychology

• Stormy Weather by Paulette Jiles
• Yellow House by Sarah Broom
• Deacon King Kong by James McBride
• A Gentleman’s Murder by Christopher Huang
• Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry
• Snow by John Banville
• Sweetland by Michael Crummey
• The City We Became by NK Jemison
• Drive Your Own Plow Over the Bones by Olga Tokarczuk
• Florida by Lauren Groff
• Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller
• The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
• Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
• The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
• The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
• The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
• The Dazzle of Day by Molly Gloss

Judy Marden ’66, retired colleague

Last year’s Good Reads showed that Richard Powers‘ The Overstory was widely read by the extended �ֲ���ý Community. Re-reading it led me to also re-read Annie Proulx’s Barkskins, and find new significance in this comprehensive history of the development of the logging industry in the US and its influence on settlement by Europeans, effect on indigenous peoples in the Americas and New Zealand, and predictions for the future of humanoids. Highly recommended as we contemplate the future, with its relentless extinctions.

Spring bird migrants are here, and nesting has begun. Three great reference books to peruse in addition to the regular field guides and apps are Sibley’s What it’s Like to be a Bird (if they make it to their first breeding season, songbirds in general have about a 50 percent chance of surviving each year), Julie Zickefoose’s Baby Birds, an Artist Looks in the Nest, and Peter Vickery‘s Birds of Maine, edited by our own Barbara St. John Vickery ’83.

Migrations, a novel by Charlotte McConaghy. A haunting futuristic story of a woman who tracks the rapidly disappearing ArcticTerns from the Arctic to the Antarctic. I simply had to read it, since my friend Andrew Stowe ’06 did exactly that with his Watson Fellowship after he graduated.

The Library Book by Susan Orlean. The story of the devastating fire at the Los Angeles Central Library — and much more. Did you know that the temperature at which book paper catches fire and burns is 451 degrees Fahrenheit — and that is why Ray Bradbury’s book from 1951, Fahrenheit 451, has that title? I’m reading that classic now, for the first time…it is especially relevant in these days of history erasure and culture-canceling.

Tom McGuinness, Director of Institutional Research, Analysis, and Planning

I didn’t read any books that I truly loved during the past year, but I’ll highlight a couple that I really enjoyed. The first is Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America by Ijeoma Oluo, whose voice I really enjoy. It includes an excellent chapter on higher education, in which she explores her conflicted feelings about appreciating higher education as a pathway to a better life but also recognizing its embedded racism. The second is The Guest List by Lucy Foley. This novel is an engaging (though somewhat ridiculous) whodunit set at a wedding on a remote island off the coast of Ireland.

Meghan Metzger ’07, former colleague

If Women Rose Rooted: A Life-changing Journey to Authenticity and Belonging by Sharon Blackie. A spectacular book that has impacted my own path and growth in profound ways.

Kevin Michaud, Campus Safety Officer

I would like to recommend the following book which I could not put down once I started to read it: North River Depot, A Novel about the United States First Operational Nuclear Weapons Storage Site by John C. Garbinski.

I love the novel approach to telling this story which is based entirely on facts involving the establishment of this site in Caribou, Maine on land which the United States Government had purchased in part from my Grandparents in 1950.

This book details the history of one installation in particular and its historical contribution to the nation’s security. These distinctive contributions remained a TOP Secret for more than 40 years. This is a story of loyalty, integrity and pride. What these men did, what they had to do, and why their story has never been told until now, is the theme of this book.

Christine Murray, Social Science Librarian

• Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World’s Largest Owl by Jonathan C. Slaght
• The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

Hoi Ning Ngai, Associate Director, Center for Purposeful Work

Young Adult: 

• Fable, Namesake by Adrienne Young
• Tweet Cute by Emma Lord

Other:

• Think Again by Adam Grant
• Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong

Kerry O’Brien, Assistant Dean of the Faculty

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett. My favorite book of the year. This is an amazing novel about sibling devotion, things that could have been, and unimaginable decisions that have ramifications for years. It’s cast as a fairy tale complete with an evil stepmother and a heartless father, but there are many twists and turns. It’s about obsession, memory, why it’s so hard to let go of the things that have been lost to us, and what we gain in the wake of what we lose.

A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende. The undercurrent to this novel is life under fascism (a theme of much of Allende’s work), but it follows the lives of two people flung together at the end of the Spanish Civil War. They escape to France and are evacuated on Pablo Neruda’s refugee ship to Chile, which transported thousands of Spanish exiles to Latin America. In Chile they build a new life, only to be met with the Pinochet regime and the complicit Church. It’s a political story told through the lives of compelling individuals and families over a long arc of time and generations.

Spying on the South: An Odyssey across the American Divide by Tony Horwitz. The late, brilliant Tony Horwitz was a journalist-historian whose books are smart and also hilarious. His M.O. was to infiltrate communities and relive historic events (c.f., Confederates in the Attic and Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before) to get at the core of historical questions. In this book, he retraces the steps of Frederick Law Olmsted who, before he became the most famous American landscape architect (Central Park, Boston’s Emerald Necklace), was dispatched by The New York Times in the 1850s to investigate what life was life in the Deep South, as slavery was becoming a burning issue across the country. Horwitz follows the journeys Olmsted made, reflecting on FLO’s observations and reporting on his own view of the modern South, with a throughline of race, class, and geography. It is a fascinating book in these divided times.

Carole Parker, Library Assistant for Acquisitions

• Heavy and Long Division by Kiese Laymon
• A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende
• So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
• The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle (thanks, Therí Pickens!)
• A Stranger in the Kingdom by Howard Mosher
• A Promised Land by Barack Obama
• The Cutting Season and Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
• Fear of the Dark by Walter Mosley

Mary Pols, Media Relations Specialist, �ֲ���ý Communciations Office

For memoir, don’t miss Michelle Zauner‘s Crying in H Mart, the story of her difficult but delightful Korean mother, her life growing up in Oregon and visiting her mother’s family in South Korea regularly, and her mother’s battle against cancer. Zauner is an indie musician and the founder of Japanese Breakfast, but the book is never about her quest to make it in the music world; this is about trying to grapple with family, her own Korean-American identity and grief. Crying in H Mart takes off from Zauner’s popular essay of the same name that appeared in The New Yorker in 2018.

Notes on a Silencing by Lacy Crawford is powerful, but be warned it tackles a difficult subject head on. When Crawford was a teenager at St. Paul’s boarding school, she was violently sexually assaulted by a pair of older students. This is her story of being shut down and shamed by virtually everyone at the school, surviving and coming to terms with the privilege afforded her rapists and the misogyny directed at her. This is the kind of book that reveals the institutional sins of not-so-distant past and makes you want to fight for change.

A lot of people have likely already read this one, because it was a Maine Public read earlier this year (and on a lot of 2020 Best of lists) but Portland resident Lily King‘s novel Writers & Lovers is a subtle but firmly feminist novel about the creative process, romantic choices, waitressing to foot the bills while undertaking creative endeavors — in this case, writing a novel — and it is wonderful. I’ve shared this title with about a half dozen friends, all of them very different kinds of readers, and each of them has loved it.

Sea Wife by Amity Gaige is a fantastic summer read. A wife grudgingly agrees to her Trump-voting husband’s request that she and their kids join him on a year-long sea voyage on a sailboat. There’s suspense, a great portrait of a fraying marriage, and totally transporting settings.

Finally, a very recent release, The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz. Perfect for writers, those who love them and those who might want to understand them better. The main character is Jacob Finch Bonner, a once-promising novelist, now washed up and teaching at a low-res, low-self-esteem MFA program in Vermont, part time. (He added that Finch for flash, fyi.) A new student, Evan Parker, brags about his unfinished novel and how its plot is so good it can’t possibly fail when it is eventually published. A few years later, Jacob discovers something that makes that plot very tempting to him. No book about writing should be this much of a page turner, but this one is that and relentlessly entertaining and smart.

Sarah Potter ’77, Bookstore Director Emerita

Chickens, Gin, and a Maine Friendship: The Correspondence of E.B White and Edmund Ware Smith by E.B. White and Edmund Ware Smith.

Ahhh, I do love E.B. White! Throughout the late ’50s and ’60s, these two writer-farmers exchanged humorous and lively letters. Here White reflects on Smith’s new henhouse: “The domestic egg is the beginning of your doom…first the henhouse, then the egg, then the grain bill, then the full corn in the ear, and the bulldozer to break trail for the grain truck…That first egg, so deceptively beautiful, so germinal! I bought this place because it had a good anchorage for a boat. One day I noticed it had a barn. Now I don’t even have a boat.”

Continuing the theme of farming life in Maine, I read Lost Paradise: A Boyhood on a Maine Coast Farm by R.P.T. Coffin, poet/author, Pulitzer-prize winner, Bowdoin professor. I was charmed by his recollection of Harpswell/Brunswick life in the early 1900s. His story could easily have been my grandparents’ tale of growing up in Downeast Maine. Reading this book prompted me to find Coffin’s beautiful headstone at Cranberry Horn Cemetery in Cundy’s Harbor (in January!). Coffin family roots are broad and deep in this part of Maine.

I was surprised by another good read, Bad Beaver Tales: Love and Life in Downeast Maine by midwife, writer and beaver-trapper Carol Leonard. She was just the hilarious storyteller I needed this past year.

Of course, I read and loved Louise Penny‘s annual Armand Gamache mystery, this one called All the Devils are Here. Not her best, in my view, but it was still a great read.

And finally, I have just finished The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. This compelling novel paints a vivid picture of the devastation of the Dust Bowl. 

Jack Pribram, Professor Emeritus of Physics and Astronomy

How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog): Visionary Scientists and a Siberian Tale of Jump-Started Evolution by Lee Alan Dugatkin and Lyudmila Trut. In the late 1950s the scientist Dmitri Belyaev had the idea that if dogs came from wild wolves, maybe dogs might also come from passive wild foxes. Lyudmila Trut offered to go to a farm in Siberia to raise silver foxes and annually mate the passive ones. By the sixth and later generations some would change colors, ‘bark’ and behave much like dogs. Trut and others still work on this. She is now in her late 80s. Working in the Soviet Union and Russia caused problems off and on.

Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past by David Reich. It’s only been a dozen years or so that ancient DNA could be obtained from bones going back over tens of thousands of years, not only of Neanderthals, but recently discovered Denisovans. One big surprise was that so many humans did not always stay in one place; there were large populations moving. People going from India to Europe; people going to East Asia; people going from Siberia to America; and so on. Maps and charts for each chapter makes it possible to get a clear sense of the complexity of what was happening.

Darby Ray, Director of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships 

I highly recommend Argentine author Mariana Enríquez‘s 2016 short story collection The Things We Lost in the Fire (the English translation, by Meghan McDowell, is beautiful). Enríquez creates rich, haunting universes within each story.

Stephanie Pridgeon, Department of Spanish

I recommend Thrown in the Throat by Benjamin Garcia. An amazing first book by a queer Latinx poet whose way with words I cannot adequately describe. You could spend your summer in one poem.

Erica Rand, Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies

My guilty pleasure during the first half of the pandemic was reading Tana French‘s crime mystery novels, which I thoroughly enjoyed. In other genres and for quite different reasons, both Lily King‘s Euphoria and Isabel Wilkerson‘s Caste made an impression.

Kirk Read, Professor of French and Francophone Studies

Indeed, I’ve read a lot more this year and offer some suggestions from various spheres and journeys.

Isabel Wilkerson’s book Caste is on the bookshelves of many friends and talking heads that I listen to and watch and I highly recommend it. As with many works striving to wake us up to systemic racism, it is a retelling of American history with a new lense that helps make the scales fall from one’s eyes. When the Nazis went looking for a plan to segregate and exterminate, the monster they came to for a model was the United States. I’m still left with questions about what the legacy of privilege and entitlement means in this scheme, but it was a page turner.

I went down a rabbit hole with Walt Whitman whom I had not read in too long. My editions of his works had turned to cornflakes. My way in was Mark Doty‘s What is the Grass: Walt Whitman in My Life which is a poet and teacher’s rumination of all that this poet has meant to him professionally and personally. Inspiring. Whitman’s queerness is so beautiful, ebullient, and multi-faceted. Shifting between Doty, Whitman’s works and the Justin Kaplan biography (Walt Whitman: A Life) was a joy.

Recruited once again for a theatrical endeavor, I was prompted to research into Dominican culture in the Bronx (the play is Heidi Schreck‘s Grand Concourse — that being the borough’s main drag); Jewish life in the same neighborhood; and an education in schizophrenia and other mental illnesses which plague my very colorful character.

And so, Angie Ruiz‘s Dominicana tells a vivid story of several generations of Dominicans living and migrating between the DR and NYC; E.L. Doctorow‘s World’s Fair, is a beautiful, tender retelling of a Jewish boy’s life in the light and shadow of the 1939 World’s Fair on the cusp of World War II — as a man reading this through a boy’s retelling, I found it remarkably touching and insightful; and one of my favorite books by far: Sandy Allen‘s A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise: a True Story About Schizophrenia, wherein the author tells of their uncle’s tormented journey through a life with schizophrenia and how it repelled, challenged, and enlightened a family—their uncle sent them a manuscript which Allen then blends with their own perspective, augmented with interviews and research. I emerged from that book transformed in the way I think about “craziness” and mental illness. They are also a deeply committed sourdough bread maker with imaginable.

And circling back to Heidi Schreck, I cannot recommend her Pulitzer Prize Winning play, What the Constitution Means To Me, enough. It is also streaming and is simply amazing. Both this and Grand Concourse deal with reckoning and forgiveness with flawed families, governments, and well- meaning communities of all stripes who do not always triumph.

From my more academic shelf, I’m rereading Albert Camus‘ Le Premier Homme which I am just loving. Again, as with Doctorow, the voice of a sensitive boy’s experience (here in a very poor family in Algiers pre- independence) is stunning. The work was unpublished upon his untimely death in a car accident and was pieced together with some notations. Those who only know L’Etranger (The Stranger) from high school lit or French class will be surprised. Yes, it’s better in French, but it’s called The First Man. I am rereading all of Frantz Fanon‘s works, which as with so many amazing writers on race and colonialism from the past, come back with great urgency and wisdom in light of the year we have endured. Many know of this psychiatrist from Martinique who worked extensively in Algeria for The Wretched of the Earth. There is much more to recommend.

Tiffany Salter, Visiting Assistant Professor of English and Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies

I think, like many, I read more for pleasure this year. Here are some of the best since the last Good Reads came out. We Are Watching Eliza Bright by A.E. Osworth. A gripping thriller about a woman working in the male- dominated video games industry and the “fans” who punish her for speaking out against workplace harassment. If you followed “Gamer Gate” at all, this is a book for you.

All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung. A wonderful memoir about growing up as a Korean American adopted by white parents.

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. A strangely fun quick read about cleaning up after family mess.

Sansei and Sensibility by Karen Tei Yamashita. Short stories from over Yamashita’s long career primarily as a novelist. It is fun to see how her style has evolved through the years. The second half features contemporary takes based on each of Jane Austen’s novels featuring Japanese American characters.

Enter the Aardvark by Jess Anthony ’96. What a wild and fun ride from one of �ֲ���ý’ very own professors!

If summer means epic fantasy to you, then I recommend these by Ken Liu: The Grace of Kings, The Wall of Storms, and the third one in this series (The Dandelion Dynasty), will be out November 2021, The Veiled Throne.

The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss.

Sharon Saunders, Associate College Librarian for Systems and Bibliographic Services

Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment by Robert Wright. Don’t be put off by the title of this book. It looks at things we have learned from evolutionary biology/evolutionary psychology to help explain why the mind works the way it does. It finds parallels in the Buddhist teaching of the three marks of existence:

impermanence, suffering, no-self (e.g., all we experience is impermanent, denying this creates suffering, thinking there is a separate self in charge — telling our bodies what to do and our minds what to think — also creates suffering). It then offers techniques for recognizing the workings of the mind instead of being caught up in the workings of the mind.

Hunt, Gather, Parent: What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans by Michaeleen Doucleff. A very interesting and easy-reading book that puts our Western way of child- rearing into perspective.

Paula Schlax, Department of Biochemistry and Chemistry

I strongly recommend A World on The Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds by Scott Weidensaul. How does a bird adapt to make an 18,000-mile round trip journey? Fly 6,000 miles over about eight days, non-stop? How do the birds know where to go? What happens when their stopover places are being developed by humans? How is global climate change influencing the migration patterns?

Johanna Seltzer ’03, Senior Associate Dean of Admission and Director of Special Projects

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Amelia Nagoski and Emily Nagoski. Particularly timely for an intense period in our lives!

Especially relevant for women, working women, working mothers. Emily (a faculty member at Smith) has a great way of bringing in scientific knowledge and research to make her advice evidence-based, but digestible. The book is funny, practical, and good — and typically, I really hate self-help books!

The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway. A lovely autobiography of Conway’s upbringing in Australia. Escapist and relatable, at the same time. It’s a wonderful, easy read about a young person, coming into her own as an intellectual, a leader, and a woman.

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

Democrat to Deplorable: Why Nine Million Obama Voters Ditched the Democrats and Embraced Donald Trump by Jack Murphy. If you don’t understand how a liberal can be a conservative voter, this book might help you understand some of the many complex reasons, in a format that feels like conversations with neighbors.

Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All by Michael Shellenberger. Written by a former professional activist, this book invites one to rethink their settled thinking on environmentalist strategy, policy, and initiatives.

Clayton Spencer, President

Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck. Set in contemporary Berlin, it is the story of a university professor who is a bit at loose ends when he retires after a long career and how he stumbles into finding meaning in his new life by engaging with a group of African refugees who have landed in Berlin. The writing is spare and sublime. The underlying story is powerfully humanistic.

One of the best books I have read this year.

Kika Stump, Learning Assessment Specialist, Office of Institutional Research, Analysis, and Planning

I’ve been reading some great YA to keep up with the teenager in the house: Black Enough: Stories of Being Young and Black in America, edited by Ibi Zoboi; Kira Kira by Cynthia Kadohata; and Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson.

On my own list, (nonfiction) As We Have Always Done by Leanne Bettasamosake Simpson has kept me going while, (fiction) Washington Black by Esi Edugyan was a powerful adventure novel.

Sawyer Sylvester, Professor Emeritus of Sociology

The Joy of Walking by Suzy Crips is a collection of comments on their walks by well-known figures in English literature.

The Twilight of Democracy by Anne Applebaum is a sobering account of the rise of the modern despotic state.

For two accounts of that highly intelligent (and occasionally playful) ocean dweller, I recommend Octopus: The Ocean’s Intelligent Invertebrate by Mather, Anderson, and Wood, and The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery.

The Black Mozart, le Chevalier Saint George by Walter E. Smith is about “a great fencer, a composer, conductor, virtuoso, an artful equestrian, an exceptional marksman, an elegant dancer, an accomplished man of his time….” (1739–1799).

Legacy of the Sacred Harp by Chloe Webb is an account of a personal quest of the author for a link between her extended family and the Southern tradition of American shape note singing.

The Louvre by James Gardner is a political history, from fortress to palace of the world’s most famous museum.

Bill Bryson’s The Body is an engaging and immensely literate account of human anatomy and physiology.

Daniel Silva’s The Order is probably the best of his Gabriel Allon mysteries so far.

Finally, Henry Beston’s Herbs and the Earth is an account, both historical and personal, of his and our relationship to the world of herbs. One should also enjoy the woodcuts by John Hudson Benson.

Anne Thompson, Professor Emerita of English and Euterpe B. Dukakis Professor Emerita of Classical and Medieval Studies

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. A novel about Shakespeare and his family. It’s a fiction, but some basic aspects of it are true: Shakespeare did have three children, two of whom, Judith and Hamnet, were twins. Hamnet died at 11, for unknown reasons.

O’Farrell imagines the relationship between Hamnet’s death in 1596 and the writing of Hamlet, circa 1600. His wife, about whom we know very little, is wonderfully portrayed as an uneducated but gifted and insightful healer with much of the book seen through her eyes. I couldn’t put it down.

Stephanie Wade, Lecturer in Humanities and Assistant Director of Writing

• The Overstory by Richard Powers
• There, There by Tommy Orange
• On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Dick Wagner, Professor Emeritus of Psychology

Jill Lepore‘s These Truths is the most enlightening and best written US history I’ve ever read. It’s long but well worth the effort. Tells you things and provides contexts the standard history books “forgot” to mention.

William Wallace, Lecturer in Education

Elizabeth Kolbert‘s new book, Under A White Sky: The Nature of The Future. She was our Otis Lecturer a few years ago after she won a Pulitzer Prize for The Sixth Extinction. Elizabeth makes complex science understandable, urgent, and enjoyable to read. She’s wonderful!

In the 24th and latest �ֲ���ý compendium of faculty and staff non-required reading recommendations, a new adjective pops up: timely.

It could describe Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, a sobering nonfiction account by David Quammen of past disease outbreaks. Or Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury’s classic warning against censorship. Or, perhaps, The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, set in World War II France.

But of course, the Good Reads list, started by Bookstore Director Emerita Sarah Potter ’77 (one of her recs: Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver) and currently run by Administrative Assistant and Supervisor of Academic Administrative Services Alison Keegan (hers: anything by Beatriz Williams), contains titles for any taste.

You can learn about the current moment, or escape it, or simply sit down with a good book.

Andee Alford, Lecturer in the Humanities and Assistant Director of the Mathematics and Statistics Workshop 

I would recommend The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson for any fantasy-lovers out there! Also, The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok is an oldie, but goodie!

Martin Andrucki, Charles A. Dana Professor of Theater

In memory of Herman Wouk, who died in 2019: This is My God, a wonderful discussion of Judaism as the core of a modern man’s life; and The Winds of War, a Tolstoyan narrative of the years leading to Pearl Harbor.

A Dangerous Liaison by Carole Seymour-Jones. If you’ve been hungry for info about Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, this will fill your plate.

1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus by Charles C. Mann. Picked it up again after a looong interval. A great re-visit.

Main Currents of Marxism by Leszek Kołakowski. With socialism resurgent in some corners, a necessary resource.

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro. Robert Moses and NYC in the 20th Century. Think the Cross-Bronx Expressway is a boring topic? You won’t after this book.

Áslaug Ásgeirsdóttir, Professor of Politics and Associate Dean of the Faculty

Happiness by Aminatta Forna. Tells the story of an American divorcee in London who researches urban foxes, and how her life intersects in an interesting way with a prominent Ghanaian psychiatrist who is in the city for a conference. Leaves you hopeful.

Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person by Shonda Rimes, creator of Grey’s Anatomy. A life-affirming read about taking chances and pushing past our own limitations.

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich. Based on her grandfather’s journals, the book details his fight against Native dispossession, vividly detailing his life in North Dakota, and the challenges he and his tribe face in battling those in power in Washington, D.C.

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado-Perez. Armed with data and humor, Criado-Perez discusses how our systematic lack of data on females skews policies in predictable ways.

The Education of an Idealist by Samantha Power. Power chronicles her drive to succeed, from being a reporter during the war in Bosnia to becoming the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Claremont by Wiebke von Carolsfeld. A book that starts with a traumatic event, but then focuses on a family healing from that trauma.

Cynthia Baker, Professor of Religious Studies

I recommend the nonfiction book Erosion: Essays of Undoing by Terry Tempest Williams. Everything she writes is wonderful and this, her latest book, is as rich, deep, and thought-provoking as all that have come before.

Pamela Baker, Helen A. Papaioanou Professor Emerita of Biological Sciences

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson. A well-written story about eastern Kentucky in the 1930s when the WPA had a program for bringing books to rural people. Based on the real history of the Book Women and the “Blue People” that I knew nothing about.

Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving. The author of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle fame also spent many years in Spain. This is part travelogue, part history, and part retelling of legends he heard while living in the Alhambra in Granada in 1828. He is a great observer of humanity and a great storyteller.

One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern. I liked this one because it is a sweet story of life in present-day Ireland. Spoiler alert: It has a happy ending!

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

The Mike Bowditch series, written by Paul Doiron, editor emeritus of Down East magazine, who takes us into Maine’s wilderness, where natural predators aren’t the only killers. The series follows Bowditch, a game warden in the wilds of Maine with a haunted past. I’ve read the series in order and just started the most recent one, Almost Midnight, and have enjoyed them all.

Just finishing this and it’s well worth the read: Agent Running in the Field by John le Carré.

Jane McInnis Bedard, retired colleague

Some “easy to get caught up in authors” are Lisa Scottoline, Elin Hildebrand, and Maine’s Tess Gerritsen. I’m finding books that require lots of concentration are not keepers of my attention these last few weeks.

Right now I’m reading Hildebrand’s Summer of ’69…I can easily relate to that summer and Nantucket/Martha’s Vineyard, where it is set!

Ashley Bigda, Donor Relations Coordinator, Office of Advancement

I would love to recommend The Overstory by Richard Powers. It was a selection from the Multifaith Chaplaincy’s book club and is centered around people’s experiences with trees. I keep thinking about this book now that so many people are seeking refuge in the outdoors as a means of escape and comfort.

I also would suggest The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. It is such a magnificent story about resilience and helping others at times when it’s needed most — also very timely!

Jennifer Blanchard, Senior Writer and Assistant to the President

One of the best things I read this year was We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. I think it’s filed under YA, but who cares. It is just a beautifully written, deeply moving summer-set story that you’ll devour in a matter of hours. Perfect for long hammock afternoons; best served with a tall glass of lemonade.

Jonathan Cavallero, Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies

If She Wakes: Author Michael Koryta splits his time between Bloomington, Ind., and Camden, Maine — two places near and dear to my heart. If She Wakes is the best mystery I’ve read this past year. In addition to being a gripping story set in Maine, the novel really displays Koryta’s talents. Sometimes I would find myself thinking, “That’s a great sentence!” Those sentences usually weren’t even that important to the overall story. I loved that the writing became just as enjoyable as the big plot points.

She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story that Helped Ignite a Movement: New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey recount how they broke the Harvey Weinstein story, while also offering a close, critical look at the systemic norms and legal practices that enable(d) his (and other predators’) behavior. Truly eye-opening.

Just Mercy: �ֲ���ý honorary degree recipient Bryan Stevenson recounts his fights for social justice, including his efforts to end the death penalty. Just Mercy has been a popular title on this list for many years, and many �ֲ���ýies have attested to its virtues. It’s amazing.

With a 3-year-old at home, I’ve been reading a lot of children’s books. Maine author Chris Van Dusen is Emmett’s favorite. Van Dusen has written 10 books (and illustrated many more). All of them are wonderful, especially The Circus Ship, If I Built a House, and Randy Riley’s Really Big Hit. Van Dusen is a bit of a Maine legend. Every parent I know knows his work, and truth be told, the parents enjoy the books at least as much as the kids.

Emily Colucci, Library Assistant for Public Services, Information & Library Services

I have been listening to the book Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, via Audible, on my Kindle.

Daphne Comeau, Administrative Assistant for Annual Giving, Office of College Advancement

There were several moments made available to me this year during MLK Day at �ֲ���ý that prompted me to dive into books. They aren’t leisure, but they have had and are having a profound effect on me. 

There’s definitely a theme. Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson and Waking Up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving have both deepened my understanding of the foundational ways that white people are socialized to not identify with their own race. This piece of the puzzle has been important to finding my role in white supremacy. Reading these books together has helped me see both sides of the coin at once, and that has been a gift.

Jane Costlow, Clark A. Griffith Professor of Environmental Studies

Michael Crummey’s Sweetland. One of the most moving books I’ve read in years: a small island off the coast of Newfoundland, by the end of the book you feel as though you know the terrain — and the intertwined lives of the residents — as well as you know your backyard.

By Drew Hayden Taylor (who read at �ֲ���ý in late February), Motorcycles and Sweetgrass. Hilarious misadventures of the chief of a First Nations community in southern Ontario. A mysterious stranger rides in on a 1953 Indian Chief (the motorcycle of the title)…and the fun begins.

Jean Stafford’s The Mountain Lion. Absorbing coming-of-age story about a brother and sister who find refuge with their uncle in the mountains of Colorado. For me the most absorbing part of the book is the girl’s story — the breaking-out of a feisty and unconventional soul (who wants to be a writer) from the small-minded comforts of middle-class life in the 1920s.

Shoshanna Currier, Director, �ֲ���ý Dance Festival

Leadership: In Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin is unexpectedly resonant right now.

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo is beautiful and challenging fiction.

She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey about the breaking of the Weinstein case is fascinating. Even though we know how it ends, getting a look at the process of investigative journalism is totally riveting. It includes a really important section on Christine Blasey Ford.

Deborah Cutten, Academic Administrative Assistant

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins. “With the same propulsive writing and acute understanding of human instincts that captivated millions of readers around the world in her explosive debut thriller, The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins delivers an urgent, twisting, deeply satisfying read that hinges on the deceptiveness of emotion and memory, as well as the devastating ways that the past can reach a long arm into the present.” — Penguin Random House

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. “If it’s only a better life you seek, seek it elsewhere . . . This path is only for people who have no choice, no other option, only violence and misery behind you. And your journey will grow even more treacherous from here. Everything is working against you.” — From the novel

After the Eclipse: A Mother’s Murder, A Daughter’s Search by Sarah Perry. “Perry weaves together her painful memories of that night [of her mother’s murder] with archival research and journalistic interviews to not only piece together the details of her mother’s death, but illuminate the woman she was before it. With clear, powerful prose, Perry paints a portrait of unconventional motherhood while questioning society’s handling of violence against women.” — W Magazine

The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett. “St. Elizabeth’s, a home for unwed mothers in Habit, Kentucky, usually harbors its residents for only a little while. Not so for Rose Clinton, a beautiful, mysterious woman who comes to the home pregnant but not unwed, and stays. She plans to give up her child, thinking she cannot be the mother it needs.

“But when Cecilia is born, Rose makes a place for herself and her daughter amid St. Elizabeth’s extended family of nuns and an ever-changing collection of pregnant teenage girls. Rose’s past won’t be kept away, though, even by St. Elizabeth’s; she cannot remain untouched by what she has left behind, even as she cannot change who she has become in the leaving.” — HarperCollins Publishers

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly is a powerful book set in the second World War and based on a true story. It is well-narrated by three different narrators, whose lives are set on a collision course. The story is seen through the eyes of Caroline Ferriday, New York socialite; Kasia Kuzmerick, a young Polish woman; and Herta Oberheuser, a young German doctor. 

Karen Daigler, Director of Graduate and Professional School Advising, Center for Purposeful Work

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is a wonderful book by Kim Michele Richardson about the Pack Horse Librarians who, in the 1930s, delivered library books in rural Kentucky to promote literacy.

She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey is about the breaking of the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment story. It was a page-turner for me.

Normal People by Sally Rooney is a love story about a complicated relationship between two young people in Ireland.

The Summer Cottage by Viola Shipman is a light, easy read — which was just what I needed in the midst of COVID-19. It’s about family tradition and small-town community.

In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer Fleming is another pretty easy read but a mystery — the main characters are a small-town cop and a minister.

The Memory of Us by Camille Di Maio is set in prewar London and is about a young woman who lives the dream life of the rich, but her world is shaken when she learns that her parents institutionalized a blind and deaf younger brother.

The Overdue Life of Amy Byler by Kelly Harms was a lighthearted story about an overworked and underappreciated single mom whose ex-husband comes back to the family home to take care of the kids while she heads off to live the high life in NYC.

David Das, Assistant Director, Center for Global Education

Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann. A long internal monologue. Perfect for days of quarantine.

Carson Dockum, Coordinator in Accessible Education and Student Support

Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America by R. Eric Thomas (he also narrates his own Audible).

Jessica Duff, Assistant Director of Athletics for Internal Operations and Student Athlete Services

Heavy by Kiese Laymon.

Susan Dunning, Associate Director of Gift Planning, Office of Advancement

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty. Doughty has a nice approach for a book about death and the death industry — just irreverent enough without being insensitive. I intend to read more of her books.

The next two recommendations go together:

The Phantom of Fifth Avenue: The Mysterious Life and Scandalous Death of Heiress Huguette Clark by Meryl Gordon, AND Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell.

These books tell the fascinating story of Huguette Clark, daughter of a copper baron and disgraced U.S. senator who inherited a vast fortune but lived as a recluse, spent her final two decades (yes, decades) living in a NYC hospital, died at 104 with only the companionship of those whose salaries she paid, and left her massive estate in shambles to be fought over by employees, charitable organizations, and a large group of distant squabbling relatives. And I didn’t even mention the real estate she owned, but didn’t live in . . .

The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin. A lovely story about family, siblings especially, and all the ways they love each other, hurt each other, the choices we make and don’t make — a very relatable, undemanding book.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Somehow never read this in high school or college, but I’m glad I read it now — it’s timely and chilling.

Elizabeth Durand ’76

The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman. Set during World War II in Europe, this is one of those books that makes the outside world disappear.

The Huntress by Kate Quinn. A long, engrossing novel that starts in Siberia before WWII, and continues beyond it into Massachusetts.

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue. This title was chosen by a friend’s reading group. If she hadn’t told me to read it, I might never have picked it up. The book, set in Ireland during the second half of the 1800s, explores faith, preconceptions, and responsibility. It starts slow, but is worth the wait. Superb character development and lots to think about.

A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier. Set in the 1930s; reminiscent of Barbara Pym, but tougher. A good read anyway, but particularly of interest if you have a passion for any form of needlework.

Caz Frear has written two mysteries, with the third due late this year. On the one hand, it’s great to discover someone at the beginning of her career; on the other, you have to wait a long time for each subsequent book. She is one of the rare authors whose second book lives up to the promise of the first. Do read them in order: First is Sweet Little Lies, and the second is Stone Cold Heart.

This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel. Another book about identity and preconceptions, and also a good story.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. Because I always have to throw in at least one YA title. Everything I want to say gives something away — just read it.

Francis Eanes, Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies

• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
• The Overstory by Richard Powers
• The Unwinding by George Packer

Melinda Emerson, retired colleague

Skyward by Mary Alice Monroe. “Harris Henderson handles injured birds with ease at his birds of prey rehab center, but he has no idea how to manage his diabetic five-year-old Marion. Enter Ella Majors, a pediatric nurse-turned- nanny.

“As Ella cares for the girl, she becomes an integral part of the Hendersons’ lives and, before long, Harris begins to see her as more than a plain caretaker. Hauntingly beautiful relationships between birds and people add texture to the story.

“Most notable are the connections among an elderly Black man named Lijah and his eagle, Santee, and a rooster that appears to guard both the center and Brady, a troubled teen working off a community service sentence.” — Publishers Weekly

The Overstory by Richard Powers. “There is a world alongside ours — vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.” — W. W. Norton & Company

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. “Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U- Haul.” — Simon and Schuster

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. “This story, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and soul-stirring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried near the Pyramids.

“Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself king, and an alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the direction of his quest. No one knows what the treasure is, or if Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles in his path.

“But what starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treasure found within. Lush, evocative, and deeply humane, the story of Santiago is an eternal testament to the transforming power of our dreams and the importance of listening.” — HarperCollins

Nathan Faries, Assistant Professor of Asian Studies

Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen. May not be for everyone at this moment, but this 2013 account of previous pandemics and thoughtful consideration of “the next big one” is engaging without being sensationalistic. Here in the midst of that next big one, I found these journalistic narratives a comforting reminder that things could be much worse as well as a sobering warning that the worst could still come to pass.

Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne. I’m frustrated I can’t convince my kids to love these stories yet, but maybe they’re not middle-aged enough. As I listened to the flawless estate-authorized Audible recording, I found myself laughing with real grown-up happiness, not just nostalgia.

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout ’77. If you’ve read Olive Kitteridge, you’ve probably already read this continuation of Olive’s story. I was struck dead by the original story collection, in a good way. I lived through the sequel, but I wouldn’t have missed this life for anything.

Carol Farrell, Costume Shop Supervisor

I promise I’ve read (or listened to) books of real substance this year, but right now, it seems more relevant to share my guilty pleasure with you: audio books by Anthony Horowitz (he wrote the whole Foyle’s War TV series).

You could start with The Magpie Murders — really fun and twisted. If you like it, try The Word is Murder, which has wickedly funny self-referential pseudo-nonfictional humor. There’s a second one in that series titled The Sentence is Death — equally entertaining. 

Unrelated to those is The House of Silk, a novel that was actually sanctioned by the Arthur Conan Doyle estate, and is brilliantly read by Derek Jacobi. A real treat. That one also has a second, called Moriarty, but I DON’T recommend that one: the writing and the reader are both sub-par. Enjoy, and don’t feel guilty!

Cary Gemmer Blake ’07, Leadership Gift Officer, Office of Advancement

I really loved Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout ’77. I liked it even better than Olive Kitteridge! Also, Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover.

Dan Girling, Mail and Materials Handling Clerk, Post & Print 

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell. This book is about the problems that can occur when people try to understand and communicate with strangers. Using examples from history as well as current events, Gladwell explains why most people are not able to interpret the actions of those they don’t know. I enjoyed learning about the psychology of communication and how it could be applied to real-life situations.

Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig. In this book, Haig talks about mental health in the Information Age. Drawing from his own experiences with mental illness, he gives advice on limiting the negative effects of modern life. Given the current situation, where many of us are interacting via the internet more than ever, the book has only become more relevant.

Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel. This nonfiction book tells the real story of Christopher Knight, the “North Pond Hermit” who hid himself away in the Maine wilderness for almost three decades. The book explains how he survived through the seasons and the effects of his burglaries on nearby homes. Christopher Knight’s actions were destructive at times but the story of his seclusion is interesting and almost unbelievable.

The Institute by Stephen King. In this science fiction novel, a boy named Luke is kidnapped and brought to a secret facility for children with special powers. Luke and the other children are forced to undergo experiments to heighten their abilities so they can be used as weapons by those who run the facility. Like most Stephen King novels, the Institute has memorable characters and a story that takes many exciting turns.

Carolina González Valencia, Assistant Professor of Art and Visual Culture

On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous and Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong. The two most beautiful books I read in 2019.

My Time Among the Whites: Notes from an Unfinished Education and Make Your Home Among Strangers by Jennine Capó Crucet. A window into the experiences of a first-gen Cuban American from Miami, navigating higher ed, and what happens after.

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

Spain in Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939 by Adam Hochschild is a moving story of the heroic members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade who engaged in a pivotal struggle for democracy in Spain.

Meg Gresh, Assistant to the Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Bruce Hall, Network Administrator, Information and Library Services

I recommend The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World’s Favorite Board Game by Mary Pilon. In our new world you may have been playing board games more than before. If you have a copy of Monopoly, you may find booklets or references to the history of Monopoly included in the box or the rules. You can read them but don’t believe them as there is a lot more to the story that was intentionally left out. 

Reading The Monopolists will show how a game designed around 1900 by the progressive feminist Lizzie Magie shows problems caused by wealth inequality and demonstrates remedies and became the board game that Parker Brothers published as Monopoly in the 1930s. 

Some of my favorite books have been ones that took something I thought I knew something about and showed me an entirely different perspective. The Monopolists does that, and you’ll never look at Monopoly the same way.

Joe Hall, Associate Professor of History

Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-1782 by Elizabeth A. Fenn. I teach this book in my environmental history class, and it is a recurring favorite. This year all the more so. Fenn reveals the horrors of the disease, the ways that it revealed how North America was far more interconnected than you would imagine, and how every event — even one driven by a microbe — is inseparable from the social and political dynamics that define human fortunes.

Pox Americana is a great read, but it is also a helpful reminder that people need to do more than “be in this together” if they are going to confront the inequities of any catastrophe.

Jay Hartshorn, Head Coach, Women’s Cross Country and Track & Field

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Start Up by John Carreyrou. Nonfiction that reads like fiction.

Leslie Hill, Associate Professor of Politics

The Third Chapter: Passion, Risk, and Adventure in the 25 Years after 50 by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot

Bill Hiss ’66, retired colleague

Sometimes a series by a single author, if time allows. While volunteering in Saigon for nine weeks, I found several thorough, fascinating biographies by Walter Isaacson:

• Leonardo DaVinci
• Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
• Einstein: His Life and Universe

Isaacson has written five other books, including biographies of Kissinger and Steve Jobs, and two “group biographies” of The Wise Men (six advisers to Truman after WWII (if only Trump had a similar brain trust) and The Innovators (on the geeks, hackers and geniuses who invented the internet).

Sometimes reading books by a single author is a bit humbling, reminding us of our comparatively unproductive lives. Isaacson wrote these books while variously serving as the editor of Time, chairman/CEO of CNN, and president of the Aspen Institute.

And what turned out to be a fascinating book for our current COVID-19 lockdown: Richard Preston’s Crisis in the Red Zone: The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, and of the Outbreaks to Come.

If you love books, you might enjoy any of the 10 volumes written by Nicholas Basbanes ’65. Most are on the history of books and the unique world of bibliophiles, but his most recent is a biography: Cross of Snow, a Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Alexandra Hood, Olin Arts Center Operations Supervisor

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. “For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast.

“So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand.

“Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life — until the unthinkable happens.” — G.P. Putnam’s Sons

I’m sure this will be a repeat selection — it’s just that good. Everyone was talking about it and I was skeptical, but the hype was real. The writing is beautiful, the characters are compelling, and the story poetic and intriguing. Highly recommended.

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell. (trigger warning: dark content) “Exploring the psychological dynamics of the relationship between a precocious yet naïve teenage girl and her magnetic and manipulative teacher, a brilliant, all-consuming read that marks the explosive debut of an extraordinary new writer.” — William Morrow

This is not a light, easy selection — oriented around the #MeToo movement and the psychological impact of sexual assault, it was challenging to read, heartbreaking, often agonizing, and raw. It won’t be for everyone, but it is a powerful book if you’re up for the very heavy content.

The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. “The Broken Earth trilogy is set on a massive continent called the Stillness, in a far-future Earth wracked with periodic disasters known as Seasons. These Seasons aren’t just bad storms: they’re massive, apocalyptic events that last for generations, reshaping the world and its inhabitants.” — Andrew Liptak, The Verge

There was a lot of hype behind this trilogy, and yet again I was not disappointed. I discovered that the author is a counseling psychologist, which I find really enhances the characters and elements of the story — every aspect of this series is multifaceted, especially around subjects of trauma/mental health/abuse, racism, climate change, etc. These books are really phenomenal.

The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish by Katya Apekina. “Moving through a selection of first-person accounts and written with a sinister sense of humor, The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish powerfully captures the quiet torment of two sisters craving the attention of a parent they can’t, and shouldn’t, have to themselves.

“In this captivating debut, Katya Apekina disquietingly crooks the lines between fact and fantasy, between escape and freedom, and between love and obsession.” — Two Dollar Radio

Another heavy novel (though not nearly as intense as My Dark Vanessa), this one really blew me away. It is both dark and gorgeous, electrically charged and thought-provoking. The language in the book has a unique depth, the characters get under your skin, and the narrative structure is really compelling. By the end of the book I wanted to read it all over again.

Shonna Humphrey, Director of Sponsored Programs and Research Compliance, Dean of the Faculty’s Office

Roughhouse Friday by Maine author Jaed Coffin. This book describes a year in the life of a young man who kayaked to Alaska on a whim after college and then became a boxing league champion while tutoring at-risk kids and struggling with ideas about masculinity and maturity. I loved every page.

The Afterlife of Kenzaburo Tsuruda by Elisabeth Wilkins Lombardo. This novel is about an atheist Japanese scientist who, upon his death, emerges into an afterlife he never believed in. It reads somewhat unfinished because the author died before the book was published, but it’s a gorgeous story that mixes history and Japanese spiritual tradition.

Margaret Imber, Associate Professor of Classical and Medieval Studies and Associate Dean of the Faculty

The Lady Sherlock series by Sherry Thomas. A fun detective novel series in which Holmes is actually a girl! Good plotting and fun to read.

The Deadly Series by Kate Parker. A feminist, genteel, poor, widow in Britain during the runup to WWII — good plotting and fun.

Heavy by Kiese Laymon. I read this after hearing Laymon speak at �ֲ���ý. This is a profoundly moving, important book. I’ve been giving it as a birthday gift to everyone in my family. Extraordinary prose telling a searing tale of coming of age as an African American man in the US.

Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People by Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald. This is an excellent book that explains the theoretical underpinnings of the implicit association test in a very accessible way.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. As someone who yields to no one in her indifference to the beauty of nature, I find the lyricism of the prose in a novel that is very much about how our relationship to nature shapes our identity utterly compelling. Stunningly beautiful. Please read this book.

The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815–1914 by Richard J. Evans. A very good and accessible survey of a period in history that I find quite challenging to understand.

The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott. A fun-to-read novel based on the CIA plot to get Doctor Zhivago published in the West.

Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over by Nell Painter. A wonderful memoir by an excellent American historian about her decision to pursue a career as an artist after she retired from Princeton. If you’re retirement-curious, you should read this.

Laura Juraska, retired colleague

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walters. It’s a social critique on Hollywood over time and place with engaging characters all trying to “write” their own stories. There’s even an appearance by Richard Burton. As my book group concluded, a very good pandemic choice — a fun, generally uplifting romp.

The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel. Finally, the last volume in the trilogy of the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell.

Emily Kane, Professor of Sociology

Earlier this year, I found myself — just by coincidence rather than any plan — reading three novels in a row that all involved time travel. They have very different settings and themes, and very different ways in which time travel figures into the plots, but also some similarities in terms of history and social upheavals intertwining with individual lives. I recommend all three: Richard Powers’ The Time of Our Singing; Helen Dunmore’s The Greatcoat; and Kiese Laymon’s Long Division.

Alison Keegan, Administrative Assistant and Supervisor of Academic Administrative Services

The Golden Hour; The Summer Wives; The Wicked City; and The Wicked Redhead, all by Beatriz Williams. Williams has quickly become my new favorite author. She often intertwines characters from previous books, so it can be a challenge to pay attention and keep them all straight, but she takes us on some historic fictional journeys that are unforgettable and truly compelling.

Always with strong female characters, these books depict espionage, sacrifice, courage, love, and often are set against challenging and threatening circumstances. The writing is beautiful and I’m thrilled when I discover a new Beatriz Williams book.

The Wives by Tarryn Fisher. Fast-paced and suspenseful, this is the type of breathless thriller that I love to not be able to put down. I always try to figure things out in books like this, but have learned to just sit back and wait for it to be revealed in all its twisty glory.

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger. I started this book just as the pandemic hit in full force, and I found myself unable to focus, constantly distracted, and not giving it the full attention it deserved.

I snapped out of that funk and was soon enthralled by the gorgeous writing and truly epic journey Krueger took me on that spanned 1930s Minnesota. Much like Where the Crawdads Sing, the landscape of this book is just as much a main character as the people who inhabit it.

Stephanie Kelley-Romano, Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies

Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough. My notes say, “wicked good — wicked creepy.” Four and a half stars.

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger. My notes say, “good (not great) characters, well-enough written, with an interesting premise.” Four stars.

Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison. Disturbing and complicated story about abuse, poverty, and family. Character development was totally solid. Loved this. Five stars.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. Loved this. Idealized but real. Awesome characters — unlikely but loved it anyway. Four and a half stars.

Grace Kendall, Director of Design Services

The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman. Set in WWII Europe, it’s a story about a Jewish mother who calls to life a female golem to protect her daughter when she realizes she no longer can. It follows several intersecting characters and stories, each of them focused on connection and humanity in impossible times.

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo. This book revolves around intersecting identities and how various characters who are attached to femininity in some way (either through gender, sexuality, or gender assigned at birth) navigate that particular identity as it criss-crosses with others like race, class, gender, relationships, and work.

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker. Kolker tells the true story of the Galvins and their 12 children, six of whom were diagnosed with schizophrenia. The book follows their story, their attempts at treatment, the tragedy of such a diagnosis, and the adult childrens’ work with scientists to try to find a genetic “key” to the disease.

Solitary: Unbroken by Four Decades in Solitary Confinement. My Story of Transformation and Hope by Albert Woodfox. Woodfox shares his story of his time in Angola prison in Louisiana, where he spent more than 40 years in solitary confinement as one of the Angola Three — three Black prisoners kept in solitary confinement due to their political activism.

He fought continuously for dignity and humanity (for himself and other prisoners), and he has an exacting radar in this book for how so many prison policies boil down to the removal of those things. He also writes about the Black Panther Party and how vital it was in helping him maintain his identity and his humanity while in prison. He was released in 2016.

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk. A fantastic story fantastically translated. The further in you venture, the more uncertain you are of who’s sane. The main character is an oddball old crank I kept rooting for.

Jennifer Koviach-Côté, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry

There, There by Tommy Orange. An extremely engaging story about 12 characters, centered on the Big Oakland Powwow. Better in print than audiobook, in order to keep track of the characters.

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe. A history of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, told through the context of one woman’s murder.

Pride by Ibi Zoboi. A remarkably accurate and fun retelling of Pride and Prejudice, set in modern Brooklyn.

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra. Historical fiction set in post-Soviet Chechnya, predominantly during the second Chechen war.

The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson. The story of a North Korean man’s life, it sheds light on life in modern North Korea.

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates. The story of a young Black slave who uses his power of teleportation to help free slaves on the Underground Railroad.

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson. Full disclosure, I haven’t finished this book, but I can’t put it down. It begins with the sweet-16 party of a woman whose parents were teenagers when she was born, and tells the stories of her parents and grandparents.

Cheryl Lacey, Director of Dining Services 

Many are not that new, but I enjoyed every one of these!

• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
• Call The Midwife: A True Story of the East End in the 1950s by Jennifer Worth
• Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell 
• Circe by Madeline Miller
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller 
• Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout ’77
• Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson
• The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch

Peter Lasagna, Men’s Lacrosse Coach 

City by Clifford D. Simak. I am stunned that this futuristic, visionary masterpiece did not come to my attention earlier in life. Very quick read. Stunningly apt for this moment in United States and world history.

Bill Low, Curator, �ֲ���ý Museum of Art

Little, Big: Or, The Fairies’ Parliament by John Crowley. “John Crowley’s masterful Little, Big is the epic story of Smoky Barnable, an anonymous young man who travels by foot from the City to a place called Edgewood — not found on any map — to marry Daily Alice Drinkawater, as was prophesied.

“It is the story of four generations of a singular family, living in a house that is many houses on the magical border of an otherworld. It is a story of fantastic love and heartrending loss; of impossible things and unshakable destinies; and of the great Tale that envelops us all. It is a wonder.” — Harper Perennial

Kathy Low, Professor of Psychology

• The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel 
• Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin 
• How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi 
• Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker
• Anil’s Ghost by Michael Ondaatje
• The Dazzle of Day and Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss
• Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
• The Dutch House by Ann Patchett 
• Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout ’77

Monica McCusker, Accounting Assistant, Financial Offices 

Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies by J. B. West and Mary Lynn Kotz. I found this book to be a very interesting read. Written by the head usher of the White House, it gives a personal view of what life was like with each of the First Ladies — Roosevelts through the Nixons — their personalities, family life and social responsibilities.

What if the Norse gods were still around, and underemployed? American Gods by Neil Gaiman offers an entertaining adventure into that possibility and their struggle with a lack of believers. If you’re into exploring an irreverent look at conventional religious beliefs, Good Omens by Gaiman and Terry Pratchett could provide a good read for summer or any time.

Just One Damned Thing After Another: The Chronicles of St. Mary’s by Jodi Taylor (the first in an 11-book series). The story of a “secret” society of historians who travel in time to obtain first-hand proof of certain historical events in conjunction with a local university. Things don’t always go smoothly, and their sojourns into the past provide adventures that make for a fun read.

Tom McGuinness, Director of Institutional Research, Analysis and Planning

Educated by Tara Westover. After seemingly everyone suggested this one last year, I picked it up and it completely lived up to the billing. This memoir of a young woman growing up in an isolated, fundamentalist family in the Idaho mountains is an extraordinary coming-of-age story.

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou. I had seen and read news stories about the rise and fall of blood-testing company Theranos and its founder Elizabeth Holmes. Reading the whole story, it is shocking how such fraudulent behavior was enabled by powerful people. It was a truly riveting story.

Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow. Like Bad Blood, Catch and Kill is an example of stellar investigative reporting into the power structures that shield people (in this case, Harvey Weinstein) from the consequences of their horrible actions.

The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch. I am not big on science fiction, but this is one that has stuck with me since I read it. If a mystery featuring time travel, multiverses, and the impending end of the world is the type of thing that sounds appealing to you, I give it a strong recommendation.

Meghan Metzger, Leadership Gift Officer, Office of Advancement

The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery. This has been an incredible read — fun, moving, fascinating — exploring the consciousness of the creatures around us, and how that awareness can impact us as humans.

The author spends most of her time at the New England Aquarium, and it’s been so interesting to learn more about a place I’ve been so many times, and now can’t wait to revisit once being in public places is a thing we do again!

Kevin Michaud, Third Cook, Dining

You will notice a theme for my reads as I am a researcher and storyteller for the Maine Old Cemeteries Association. As this is Maine’s Bicentennial year, what better way to include my past time with some great reads? 

• Early Gravestones of Southern Maine: The Genius of Bartlett Adams and Portland’s Historic Eastern Cemetery: A Field of Ancient Graves by Ron Romano
• Laurel Hill Cemetery of Saco, Maine by Leslie Rounds and Emory Rounds on behalf of the Dyer Library Association
• The Irish of Portland, Maine: A History of Forest City Hibernians by Mathew Jude Barker

Hoi Ning Ngai, Associate Director, Center for Purposeful Work

My pick is Educated by Tara Westover. It was profoundly moving. Also, If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha. It just came out during the pandemic!

Kerry O’Brien, Assistant Dean of the Faculty 

Euphoria by Lily King. Anthropologists gone wild in this novel based very remotely on the life of Margaret Mead and her first and second husbands, though the author take things on a different trajectory.

The book brings up fundamental dichotomies: the scholars and the subjects, the “primitive” and the “advanced,” fame and knowledge, possession and freedom, women and men, truth and fiction. In the process, the book looks at a range of approaches to anthropological field work, what researchers owe subjects, and the motivations of scholars (spoiler: They’re not all on the level!).

It’s incredible how much stuff early anthropologists brought with them to their field sites: sideboards, tons of books, china, typewriters, and lots of booze; one wonders what the indigenous ethnographers made of them.

They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South by Stephanie Jones-Rogers is a scathing account of how white women inherited, owned, sold, and treated enslaved people; it busts open the myth that genteel white women never fully bought into the culture and economy of slavery.

Au contraire, they were full players, and derived from slave ownership considerable social standing and economic power in a male-dominated world. White women’s wealth was typically in slaves, not land; they navigated legal channels to protect their sole ownership of their enslaved property from financially inept husbands in a volatile economy.

Most chilling was the day-to-day treatment of enslaved people by their female owners, the casual dissolution of enslaved families to make a quick buck, and the intimate intersection of white and Black women around wet-nursing, through which the very life of mistress’ babies depended on Black bodies.

Carole Parker, Library Assistant for Acquisitions, Information and Library Services

• The Overstory by Richard Powers 
• The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish 
• The Library Book by Susan Orlean
• Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Camille Parrish, Lecturer and Learning Associate in Environmental Studies

Sweetland by Michael Crummey. Fantastic portrayal of an isolated Newfoundland island and the remaining inhabitants whom the government is paying to leave their homes. In particular, the book focuses on Sweetland, the same name as the island: his history, thinking, feelings, and relationships to the land, and to the human and nonhuman communities. He is a character that stays with you well beyond the end of the book, as does the island.

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. The sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale follows the stories of several women, each with different roles in Gilead and beyond. Initially, their lives appear to be separated by space and circumstance, but then “things happen,” and it becomes clear how intertwined they are as Gilead faces a crisis. I found the book riveting, and not as bleak as The Handmaid’s Tale.

Sonja Pieck, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies

Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered by Ruth Klüger (I’m reading the original German: Weiter leben: Eine Jugend). Klüger is professor emerita of German Studies at the University of California, Irvine.

Her memoir recounts her increasingly constrained childhood in Vienna after the German annexation and the traumatic years thereafter as she and her mother were transported first to Theresienstadt and then to Auschwitz. Klüger’s poetic, fluid language is deeply moving as she wrestles with the profound ambiguities of her experiences and her memories of them.

Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss by Margaret Renkl. I’m just starting on this collection of essays by the New York Times columnist Margaret Renkl. Beautiful, meandering and melancholy, Renkl’s writing meditates on the inextricability of love and loss — how they bind us to each other and to the natural world of which we are part.

Sarah Potter ’77, Bookstore Director Emerita

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. Perhaps it was the English setting, the humble Harold, or the very bizarre nature of his journey that drew me in. Quirky, charming and very human.

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver. While this was not my favorite Kingsolver novel, I enjoy her writing. And as I look back over what I have read this year, I remember the details of this story vividly — monarch butterflies, difficult Appalachian life, climate change — she weaves a good tale.

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. An immersion into the Victorian language of flowers (fascinating!), the challenges of an overwhelmed foster-care system, how one might love a child, and so much more.

And finally, my annual shout out to Louise Penny for this year’s book The Better Man. I read everything she writes! I am completely absorbed by her characters.

Jack Pribram, Professor Emeritus of Physics and Astronomy

Tara Westover, Educated. Remarkable story of growing up in a somewhat rural area of Idaho; followed by making it to college despite no K–12 schooling and almost no home schooling. On her own she learns just enough to pass exams that get her into Brigham Young University.

The role of mentors is crucial to help her get oriented and then to encourage her to go to graduate school. Not at all as smoothly as I’ve made it sound. This reminded me that in my first few years teaching at �ֲ���ý (early ’70s) I didn’t think about the fact that students have very different backgrounds.

Hiram Bingham, Lost City of the Incas: The Story of Machu Picchu and Its Builders. Bingham is rightly given credit for telling the world about Machu Picchu beginning in 1911. This city in the Peruvian Andes was essentially untouched for 400 years — not discovered by the Spaniards who brought down the Inca empire.

Bingham made several trips from Yale and discovered other places in the Andes. Separately he encouraged universities to begin to develop curricula about South America. Maps and Bingham photographs are included. Note: the 2002 edition provides a 20-page introduction by Hugh Thompson providing more context.

Stephanie Pridgeon, Assistant Professor of Spanish

Writers and Lovers by Lily King. King’s prose is effortlessly beautiful. The characters and the writing are understated.

Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor. The translation, by Sophie Hughes, has been highly acclaimed. It’s bold and haunting.

John Rasmussen, Energy Manager, Facility Services

Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World by Jill Jonnes. Traces the history of the human use of electricity from the Greeks to the late 19th century. Full of great stories of the amazing personalities involved in electrifying the planet, including Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse.

Kirk Read, Professor of French and Francophone Studies

I find myself feeling more than a little guilty each year at this time, realizing that I haven’t read nearly enough outside my job to be able to recommend a lot. Yes, I do spend much of my day job reading literature to earn my keep, but that’s no excuse . . .

Here are some titles on my bedstand that I promise myself to finish around the edges of learning to become a much more effective online teacher this summer. I am sure that many have been recommended in years past. Let this be a reminder.

I am a third of the way through Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, and it is truly transformative about the way I view the world and connections between what I now see as rather inadequate notions of natural and social sciences and humanities and how to be a better person on this planet. Subtitle: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.

Reading and rereading. There’s a theme. White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism (Robin DiAngelo); How to Be an Antiracist (Ibram Kendi); Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code (Ruha Benjamin).

The French and francophone studies department is offering all its senior majors Alain Mabanckou’s Le Monde est mon langage. Short essays in dialogue with friends and mentors of this engaging author from around the francophone world.

James Baldwin. Anything. I just finished Giovanni’s Room and keep dipping into my anthology for more. I wrote about Another Country for my college application, and have appreciated revisiting him now 43 years later.

King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa (Adam Hochschild). Again, a rereading for an article I have been working on forever in response to Hergé’s Tintin au Congo. This wildly racist and colonialist comic adventure is fondly embraced by readers in all corners of the world and I’m trying to figure that out…

For those looking to brush up on their French, the bookstore might have some copies left of several of Brahim Metiba’s works, Ma mère et moi and Je n’ai pas eu le temps de bavarder avec toi. I may have recommended this in the past.

They are lovely. A son in dialogue with his parents and the ways in which his gay Muslim identity strains their loving relationships. The bookstore would probably love to move them into your readership.

Finally, the library has been offering up books from the annex archives for faculty to add to their personal or department libraries. I offer here a list of titles culled from the most recent list. Books for the moment? More like a poem than a true recommendation (I did not write down the authors at the time…)

• A Thousand Shall Fall
• Let Us Have Faith,
• Lift Up Your Heart
• The White House Mystique
• No Life of My Own
• We Shall Rebuild
• Before the Dawn
• The Howling of the Coyotes 
• Shrinking Dollars, Vanishing Jobs
• The Quality of Bank Loans
• How to Live With Your Teenager: A Guide to Survival
• Yes You Can
• This Damned Campus

Mike Retelle, Professor of Geology

The Shepherd’s Life by James Rebanks. This is a well-written story on traditional sheep farming life in rural England.

The Game: Harvard, Yale, and America in 1968 by George Howe Colt. This is an amazing story of people from all backgrounds of life across the U.S. involved in the traditional Harvard-Yale football game and how they fit into this tumultuous year and in the future in U.S. history.

The Russian Five: A Story of Espionage, Defection, Bribery and Courage by Keith Gave. This is a story of the five Russian hockey players who defected to the U.S. to play hockey for the Detroit Red Wings in the National Hockey League.

Tip of the Iceberg: My 3,000-Mile Journey Around Wild Alaska, the Last Great American Frontier by Mark Adams. This is a mix of modern travel with a historical account of exploration around coastal southwestern Alaska.

Bronwyn Sale, Lecturer in Education

The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu

Adriana Salerno, Associate Professor of Mathematics

I have been reading the Binti trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor, and I’m loving it! Also, Francis Su’s Mathematics for Human Flourishing (which is a little bit about math but a lot more about humanity and what connects us all).

Tiffany Salter, Visiting Assistant Professor of English

I would like to recommend In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado but with a content warning (domestic abuse).

This is a heavy read, beautifully crafted. Machado’s micro-essays comprise a memoir of same-sex partner abuse during Machado’s time at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, where she earned her MFA. She illuminates the processes of the gaslighting and escalating physical and emotional abuse she experienced and only later has been able to process.

There are at least two reasons why this is an important read. There is an extreme dearth of representations of and discussions about same-sex partner abuse, and part of Machado’s impetus for writing the memoir was to let others know they are not alone, to help normalize conversations about this topic so victims will be taken seriously when they reach out for help.

Sitting side-by-side with the heaviness of the subject matter is the fact that this is an exploration of genre and trope in literature. Each section of 1–3 pages presents a portion of the story in a different tradition with titles like “Dream House as Folktale Taxonomy,” “Dream House as Choose-Your-Own-Adventure,” and “Dream House as Noir.”

The exploration of genre in itself is engaging while pushing the reader to question their relationship with stories we tell about partner abuse — what does or does not fit into the scripts our society has written about these urgent, pervasive issues.

Sharon Saunders, Associate College Librarian for Systems and Bibliographic Services, Information and Library Services

Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: or, How Capitalism Works — and How It Fails by Yanis Varoufakis. How does our economy work? This book clearly and concisely explains the system we live in that influences every aspect of our lives.

I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong. Every chapter in this book is an eye-opener. If you don’t mind having your assumptions turned inside out, this is a book for you.

Paula Schlax, Professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry

I recommend the debut novel of Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds.

Carl Steidel, Senior Associate Dean of Students

Fiction

• Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
• A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
• Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
• The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins 
• Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
•  Misery by Stephen King
• The Powder Mage Trilogy by Brian McClellan
• Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
• The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
• World War Z by Max Brooks

Non-Fiction

• Heavy by Kiese Laymon
• White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo

Sawyer Sylvester, Professor Emeritus of Sociology

Last year’s review of Mark Forsyth’s Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll through the Hidden Connections of the English Language ended with a note that two of his other books — Horologicon: A Day’s Jaunt Through the Lost Words of the English Language and Eloquence: The Elements of Eloquence: How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase awaited reading.

I have now read them, and both are highly recommended. I hope by next year to have read Forsyth’s The Unknown Unknown: Bookshops and the Delight of Not Getting what You Wanted.

I also recommend two books on America’s history and political culture: These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore, and The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels by Jon Meacham.

Whether you are a Native Mainer or from away, I guarantee you will enjoy John Cole’s In Maine: Essays on Life’s Seasons.

For an analysis of the ways literature, properly taught and properly understood, can be the major source of intellectual development for students, I recommend Mark Edmundson’s Why Read?

Finally, my current read is Alberto Manguel’s The Library at Night. This is a rich intellectual, cultural, and political history of libraries and their contribution to the civilizations in which they rest.

William Wallace, Lecturer in Humanities, Assistant Swimming Coach 

The Overstory by Richard Powers

• Make It Scream, Make It Burn by Leslie Jamison
• Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore by Elizabeth Rush
• Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein

Pat Webber, Director of Archives and Special Collections

The mystery trilogy of Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead, Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway, and The Infinite Blacktop, by Sara Gran.

Claire DeWitt is the self-diagnosed “world’s greatest detective.” And like most similarly self-regarding detectives who’ve come before her, she has a host of personal issues she is wading through while taking on cases and, often, just trying to survive.

The trilogy consists of three separate mysteries, but with several connective through-lines: You should definitely read them in order for maximum effect, but you can take each one on its own. Gran imbues the three with a touch of the occult as well, although that lessens with each book.

The third book resolves some, but not all, of the running narratives from the entire series, and that incompleteness is the only thing that mars the proceedings. (Well, that, and the fact that DeWitt makes some very poor personal decisions that are often hard to take.)

Definitely worth the read, and if you’re like me you’ll wish there was a fourth book already, if only for a better sense of completion. The most recent was published in 2018.

The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God’s Holy Warriors by Dan Jones. 

A flowing and easy-to-read one-volume history of the (in)famous crusading religious military order. Just don’t expect to find anything about Freemasons, the Holy Grail, or any Dan Brown nonsense. (Jones briefly covers some of the subsequent literary and pseudohistorical writings on the Templars in an appendix.)

Jones has also written on the Crusades and the Plantagenets of England, which I’ll probably delve into at some point given how much I enjoyed reading this book.

The NHL: 100 Years of On-Ice Action and Boardroom Battles by D’Arcy Jenish. Are you missing sports in your life right now? Well if you love hockey, give this one a try. Using previously little-known archival sources (yes!), Jenish presents an entertaining tale of the public and private doings of the National Hockey League since its founding in 1917.

He also explores the predecessors to the NHL, as well as other leagues that have come and gone in the last century. Not only a solid hockey book, but a great advertisement for the necessity of preserving documents. What else did you expect?

Wondering what to read this summer? Look no further. There’s something for everyone in the 23rd edition of Good Reads: The �ֲ���ý College Non-Required Reading List for Leisure Moments.

Begun 23 years ago by former College Store director Sarah Emerson Potter ’77 as a gift for graduating seniors, Good Reads contains faculty and staff recommendations. Alison Keegan, in the Dean of the Faculty’s office, now compiles the list.

And what a list: science fiction, magical realism, history, politics, graphic novels, from 21 Lessons for the 21st Century to World War Z — whatever it takes to get you reading till your eyes are sore, the �ֲ���ý community has a recommendation for you:

Andee Alford,��Assistant Director of the Mathematics and Statistics Workshop

Two recommendations: King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism by Adam Hochschild is a great read. It is a history book that reads like a novel.

Another good one is the science fiction book The Sparrow by Maria Doria Russell.

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

The best book I read all year was A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.

John Baughman,��Associate Professor of Politics

Kill ’Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul by James McBride. Our cultural memory of James Brown is so bound up with our myths about him that the real man gets lost. McBride, the �ֲ���ý 2001 Convocation speaker, tells us the story of Brown by going to the source — the places he grew up, the people who knew him. The story is not just about the man behind the myth, but how and why the man helped construct the myth. It ends up as much a commentary on race and American popular culture as it is about James Brown himself.

The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. Yes, her series won all of the awards. But you know what? It deserved to. These books are speculative fiction and sit somewhere between fantasy and science fiction, but the labels aren’t particularly meaningful. These are books about internalized oppression, perseverance, rebellion, and liberation. They ask us to rethink our relationship with the earth without becoming didactic. On top of that, they are a really compelling adventure. (Jemisin also made me rethink my reflexive opposition to the use of second person as a narrative device.)

The Shepherd’s Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape by James Rebanks. I stumbled upon Rebanks on Twitter, where he would comment on literature and on his latest challenges with an ill sow, and post the most gorgeous photos of Hertfordshire, where he was and is a shepherd in a long line of shepherds. The book is an extension and an elaboration of the thoughts he tweeted 140 characters at a time. (This was the old days on Twitter, after all, before the embarrassment of riches that 280 characters brought.) He writes profoundly and practically about the role of small farming in the modern industrialized world and of the importance of place. As I found on Twitter, even if you think this isn’t your cup of tea, it probably is.

Jay Burns, Editorial Director, �ֲ���ý Communications Office

Auto Biography by Earl Swift. This piece of narrative nonfiction tells two stories. One chronicles the complete ownership history of a 1957 Chevy station wagon that spent most of its life in the Norfolk, Va., area. In this story, you learn about the ups and (way, way) downs of the U.S. automotive industry; about Norfolk’s social history; and how this classic Chevy intertwines with and reflects the hopes, dreams, and despairs of its various owners.

Swift’s second story describes the life and times of the local man — owner of strip clubs and a vehicle junkyard, a former brawler but funny as hell — who came to own the vehicle by 2010. Both stories are vastly entertaining, the first a bit more for me. My mother-in-law gave me this book, and she knows me well: As someone who’s always owned older cars, I liked how Swift’s reporting illuminates our relationships with our vehicles. Whether you’re a car nut or you’ve just been curious about how your attachment to a car can evolve (and sometimes sour) over the years, this book is an especially fun and insightful read.

Jonathan Cavallero, Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies

The best book I read this year was Reclaiming 42: Public Memory and the Reframing of Jackie Robinson’s Radical Legacy by David Naze. In it, Naze uncovers the ways that Major League Baseball and other institutions have systematically worked to remove any controversy from the memory of Jackie Robinson.

The book takes readers on a compelling journey, recounting Robinson’s appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee, his public showdowns with Paul Robeson and Malcolm X, and the way he has been commemorated at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, and during MLB’s first Jackie Robinson Day in 2004.

Through it all, a picture emerges of an outspoken citizen who called out the racism of his era but whose memory has been stripped of any controversial politics in order to maximize his likability, and, more sadistically, to encourage passive, apolitical behaviors on the part of modern-day athletes of color.

Shoshona Currier, �ֲ���ý Dance Festival Director

The One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood, a Portland-based writer. This book is surprising and uplifting despite a really tragic inciting incident, and you can feel Maine throughout it.

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I read this epic coming-of-age love story that partially takes place in Lagos while I was in Lagos, and it totally centered me and gave me a deeper sense of the city and the people there.

Harry’s Trees by Jon Cohen. Magical realism at its best. A totally fun and meaningful story of people coming together after heartbreak.

Deborah Cutten, Academic Administrative Assistant

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. The book is tough to categorize; it’s a love story, a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an ode to the outdoors — all in one. “A painfully beautiful first novel that is at once a murder mystery, a coming-of-age narrative and a celebration of nature … Owens here surveys the desolate marshlands of the North Carolina coast through the eyes of an abandoned child. And in her isolation that child makes us open our own eyes to the secret wonders — and dangers — of her private world.” — The New York Times Book Review

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. “In this unforgettable portrait of human frailty and resilience, Kristin Hannah reveals the indomitable character of the modern American pioneer and the spirit of a vanishing Alaska ― a place of incomparable beauty and danger. The Great Alone is a daring, beautiful, stay-up-all-night story about love and loss, the fight for survival, and the wildness that lives in both man and nature.” — Publisher

Educated by Tara Westover. “Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one’s life through new eyes and the will to change it.

“The true story of Tara Westover’s life — lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.” — Publisher

Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell. “Sixteen-year-old Ree Dolly lives deep in the Ozarks, where she looks after her two younger brothers and her crazy mother, a woman who mostly sits on a chair in a kind of feline catatonia. Ree’s father is a methamphetamine cook who jumped bail after putting the family’s house up as collateral. Ree has a week to find Dad before the county repossesses the place.” — New York Times Book Review

Craig & Fred: A Marine, A Stray Dog, and How They Rescued Each Other by Craig Grossi. “A heartwarming story of a stray dog and a U.S. Marine who met under the unlikeliest circumstances in Afghanistan — and who changed each other’s lives forever. As part of an elite team of Marines, Craig Grossi was sent on his most dangerous assignment to the Sangin District of Afghanistan. He expected to face harsh conditions and violence from Taliban fighters. What he didn’t expect was to meet a stray dog, with a big goofy head and little legs—a dog all on his own, filthy and covered in bugs, in a bomb-ridden district, but who carried himself with confidence.

“And even though the Marines have a rule against approaching strays, Craig couldn’t help but offer some food and a pat—and was shocked when the dog wagged his tail. From that moment on, they were inseparable; whether out on missions or back at the base, the dog named Fred went along. When the time came for Craig to leave Afghanistan, he knew that Fred had to leave with him no matter what. And as Craig tried to get acclimated to civilian life, Fred was there for him. This book tells the inspiring story of two friends who ultimately rescued each other, and the stubborn positivity and love that continue to shape their world.” — Publisher

Karen Daigler, Director of Graduate and Professional School Advising, Center for Purposeful Work

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. “For years, rumors of the ’Marsh Girl’ have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home…” — Publisher

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate. “For readers of Orphan Train and The Nightingale comes a ’thought-provoking [and] complex tale about two families, two generations apart…based on a notorious true-life scandal.’” — Library Journal

A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline. “To Christina Olson, the entire world was her family’s remote farm in the small coastal town of Cushing, Maine. Born in the home her family had lived in for generations, and increasingly incapacitated by illness, Christina seemed destined for a small life. Instead, for more than 20 years, she was host and inspiration for the artist Andrew Wyeth and became the subject of one of the best-known American paintings of the 20th century.” — Publisher

Susan Dewsnap, Lecturer in Art and Visual Culture

I would like to recommend The Last Sane Man: Michael Cardew: Modern Pots, Colonialism, and the Counterculture by Tanya Harrod.

Alice Doughty, Visiting Assistant Professor of Geology

I’d recommend Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Connects indigenous wisdom with plant ecology and personal journeys.

Franck Dumergue, Teaching Assistant in French

The Dark Gifts trilogy by Vic James. I read the two first in French (unfortunately, though the translation is excellent!) and will be reading the last volume soon. It’s a dystopia based on a remaking of British history. Society is ruled by a magically gifted class and the lower non-gifted classes must give 10 years of their lives to a slavery system. The story builds up around a family partly separated, and in which the elder children are going to take part in the rebellion against the regime in various ways. So it’s more of a teenage book but the story is definitely gripping!

Atonement by Ian McEwan. I read it for my exam, and it was a pure revelation to me. The writing can prove a little hard at the start because the structure of the sentences is sometimes unsettling, and it’s a metafictional novel, but the story is sadly beautiful. The end made me cry so much that I realized it did not happen in years. The story starts like this: set in England’s countryside on a hot 1935 summer day an 13-year-old girl, Briony, sees something that she does not quite understand but on which she will build up a story anyway, a story that will destroy her sister’s life forever.

The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster. An English play I read for my exam too. It was written in the 17th century, so the language is quite archaic, but the Norton’s edition with the footnotes clarifies most of it, if not all of it! The story is almost comparable to Game of Thrones in some ways: most of the characters plot to kill others and/or die in atrocious ways.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. I discovered the story through the Hulu series, and I am now reading the novel which was adapted to the first season (only! as the second season and soon-to-be-released third are going further beyond the first novel): the writing is simply amazing, it’s a delight to read although it’s probably one of the most dreadfully realistic dystopias ever!!

Susan Dunning, Associate Director of Gift Planning, Office of Advancement

Every Note Played by Lisa Genova ’92.

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance.

Educated by Tara Westover.

And for fun: Nine Perfect Strangers and The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty.

Elizabeth Durand ’96

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty. Nine main characters, and she makes it all come together.

Us Against You by Fredrik Backman. Another book by the author of A Man Called Ove: politics, hockey, people, and how the world works.

All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood. The world of meth and despair; I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it, exactly, but it stuck with me for a long time and I think the writing is amazing.

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. Alaska — this book feels true, although I have never been there.

The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton. A superb story, like all her books.

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. I can’t describe it, but you should read it.

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn. World War II.

I’ll Be Your Blue Sky by Marisa de los Santos. Good story with wonderful characters and unexpected connections.

Oh! You Pretty Things by Shanna Mahin. Hollywood fiction.

The entire Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths. Mysteries built around an English archaeologist/professor. Read them in order.

Francis Eanes, Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies

Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime by Bruno Latour.

The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer.

Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America by Eliza Griswold.

Ken Emerson, Senior Director of Human Resources Operations and Benefits

Origin by Dan Brown. Another fast-paced Robert Langdon thriller. I enjoy how Dan Brown uses real locations as his backdrop. He makes me want to visit. The end of the book is interesting, and I recall it every time I walk across campus…

The Jesus Incident by Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom. Not as famous as Frank Herbert’s Dune series, but the author once again creates a whole new world that gets you thinking. There was one chapter early on that did not make sense to me until later in the book, so don’t stop when you go “what is this?” There is a prequel to this book as well as two sequels.

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. Not as tongue-in-cheek as Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, but he does create a new universe that has its own set of logic and evolutionary theory that is slowly unraveled. When a talking soda vending machine that is thought to be a reincarnation of a Tibetan motorcycle repairman is introduced as a character, I knew this was a Terry Pratchett book. This is the first of a five-book series.

Melinda Emerson, Manager of Purchasing, Accounting, and Licensing; Information & Library Services

Finding Fraser by kc dyer. A must for all those Outlander fans. Sometimes searching for true love can be a little… outlandish.

The Winter Sea and Firebird by Susanna Kearsley. Outstanding Scottish historical fiction (Slains #1 & 2). Very well-researched. Had to look up the places and characters on the internet. Susanna Kearsley is compared to Diana Gabaldon. Could not put these books down.

A Lowcountry Christmas by Mary Alice Monroe. “A wounded warrior and his younger brother discover the true meaning of Christmas in this timeless story of family bonds.” — Publisher

The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld. Excellent book. Abduction told from three sides and more. A haunting book.

This year I discovered The Southern Sisters Mysteries by Anne George. These Birmingham ladies have you laughing at times. Murder Gets a Life was really good.

Karen MacInerney’s Gray Whale Inn Mysteries. Takes place in the Cranberry Isles, Maine.

Mr. Emerson’s Wife by Amy Belding Brown ’69. A �ֲ���ý alumna. A historical fiction very well done. It examines the emotional landscape of love and marriage. I did not know as much about this time period as I thought I did.

Gate in the Fence of Time: A Journey to the Birth of America by David Robert Berry. A time travel book that takes place in Williamsburg, Va. 1775 to 1781. I think I learned more about the American Revolution from this book than I did in history in school. I learned that politics is as much about money and power today as it was during the founding of this country.

The River at Night by Erica Ferencik. “A high-stakes drama set against the harsh beauty of the Maine wilderness, charting the journey of four friends as they fight to survive the aftermath of a whitewater rafting accident. The River at Night is a nonstop and unforgettable thriller.” — Publisher

Night Stories: Fifteen Original Stories Inspired by the Art of Linden Frederick. Fine art painter Linden Frederick has created 15 paintings and enlisted, and inspired, noted writers to create accompanying stories. Renowned authors as diverse and talented as Elizabeth Strout ’77, Ann Patchett, Anthony Doerr, Richard Russo, and Lawrence Kasdan, among others, have contributed to expanding the artist’s world with their tales, as varied and captivating as the artworks themselves.

Carol Farrell, Costume Shop Supervisor

C’mon, audio book “readers” — tell us YOUR fave picks!! Here are some of mine from the past year. All must have good actors to read.

Circe by Madeline Miller. Retelling of mythology with Perdita Weeks narrating beautifully.

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. Many have commented on this book; the audio has an amazing cast of stars reading, which makes it really fun.

She Would be King by Wayétu Moore. History meets magical realism in retelling of formation of Liberia.

Call for the Dead by John le Carré. Great spy stuff by the master (Book 1 of Smiley series)

Warlight and In the Skin of a Lion, both by Michael Ondaatje. Can’t get enough of this guy.

Born a Crime, autobiography by Trevor Noah, read delightfully by him. Really funny and endearing.

Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute. Quirky and hard to describe…ordinary man in bizarre circumstances, read by the amazing Frank Mueller.

Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny. Well, everyone loves Ms. Penny, right? Bathurst (from Downton Abbey) is a good reader.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyassi. “A riveting, kaleidoscopic debut novel about race, history, ancestry, love, and time that traces the descendants of two sisters torn apart in 18th-century Africa across 300 years in Ghana and America” (Publisher). Long, but covers a lot of territory impressively.

Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín. The Christ story as told from Mary’s imagined perspective. Told with great skill by Meryl Streep.

West with the Night by Beryl Markham. Read by Julie Harris, this is a lovely autobiography of an adventurous woman who grew up in east Africa in the 1920s, and became a pilot (flew transatlantic in ’36).

Sylvia Federico, Professor of English

The Deeper the Water, The Uglier the Fish by Katya Apekina is a debut novel about dysfunctional family, art, concept of a muse, set in Metairie and New York. I really enjoyed it.

Rachel Forcillo ’18, Coordinator of Marketing, Operations, and Outreach, Center for Purposeful Work

Here are my favorite impactful books I’ve read in 2019:

Becoming by Michelle Obama.

No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America by Darnell L. Moore.

The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World by the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Douglas Abrams.

Educated by Tara Westover.

Heidi Gagnon, Senior Associate Director of Student Accounts, Student Financial Services

My suggestion is: Go Be Kind: 28 1/2 Adventures Guaranteed to Make You Happier by Leon Logothetis.

Dan Girling, Mail and Materials Handling Clerk, Post and Print

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green. This book begins in New York City, where a young woman named April May discovers a tall metal robot statue in the middle of a sidewalk. Thinking it’s a piece of art, she records a quick video with the statue and uploads it online. As it turns out, this statue is one of many that have suddenly appeared in cities throughout the world. While people slowly uncover the mystery of the statues, April May’s video goes viral, and she becomes the public face of the crisis. This book was not only engaging for its mystery, but also because it explores the consequences of fame in the age of social media.

Bucky F*cking Dent by David Duchovny. This year I discovered that the actor David Duchovny has written several novels, and they’re better than one might expect. Set in the year 1978, this novel follows a man named Ted who finds out that his estranged father has lung cancer. The two reconnect over the father’s interest in the Red Sox, who had a tumultuous season that year. Despite not having a deep knowledge of baseball history, I enjoyed the book because Duchovny includes enough context to understand and care about the games. We see what the wins and losses mean to the characters, and the sport gives the novel some of its most poignant moments.

Holy Cow by David Duchovny. Far more comedic than his other book, Holy Cow is a cartoonish fable about a cow named Elsie who escapes her farm after discovering the truth about slaughterhouses. With that premise, the book could have become too dark or serious, but Duchovny keeps the humor light and frequent. There are some scenes that address the treatment of animals, but by the end, the book seems more concerned with using the story as a way to explore human experience and life.

Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton. A western set in the early days of fossil hunting, this book is about a young man who journeys to the American West with an expedition searching for dinosaur bones. Along the way, his original mission is derailed and he must find his way back home while protecting a collection of fossils. Dragon Teeth was released posthumously almost 10 years after Crichton’s death, but it still contains his signature style, using real research as a foundation for a thrilling fictional story.

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff. This novel follows the marriage between two flawed people, Lotto and Mathilde. Their relationship begins full of excitement and promise, but as the years pass their lives grow more complicated. I appreciated how the book showed the perspectives of both characters, which led to surprises later on. While I didn’t always agree with decisions the characters made, I found them interesting and wanted to see their journey all the way to the end.

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

How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them by Jason Stanley.

It’s simple and scary. Stanley, the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University, uses history and contemporary commentary to place Trump and company in the arena of fascism.

Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani Perry. This is a beautifully told story about the life of a brilliant artist and activist. Perry, the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, weaves in her own personal history to emphasize Hansberry’s impact.

Michelle Greene, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover. Imagine growing up in a separatist wing of the LDS church, having never been to school or to a doctor. Then imagine teaching yourself all of the necessary content to take the SAT and get into college. Now, imagine what your life is like in college when you haven’t been exposed to the same things that your classmates have, even the existence of the Holocaust. Amazing and heartbreaking true story.

Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. Amazing use of large-scale search data to explore the side of human nature that we often don’t want to talk about. Who we really are is what we search for online.

Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O’Neil. We often think of algorithms as more objective than human thinking. However, if they are trained with the biases of human thinking, they can be just as bigoted as we are and more. Fascinating read on how algorithms that dictate loan conditions, college admissions, parole and other topics do more to enforce inequality.

Meg Gresh, Assistant to the Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn.

Daniel Guarín, Learning Associate in Spanish

Reading, the magical experience of walking the path that another person walked. I always like and recommend reading a fiction and a non-fiction book at the same time. That’s why today I want to share with you two books I enjoyed this year during my time at �ֲ���ý.

Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami. This is the most recent book by the well-known Japanese author and perpetual candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature (I still believe, in my heart of hearts, that he deserves it and should win it). Though this was not my favorite Murakami book, Killing Commendatore is an entertaining novel for those who, like me, enjoy opera, art, painting, and have listened to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

As usual, Murakami plays with two different realities and creates a world of magic realism where a circle of mysterious circumstances is opened; to close it, he must complete a journey that involves a mysterious ringing bell, a 2-foot-high physical manifestation of an Idea, a dapper businessman who lives across the valley, a precocious 13-year-old girl, a Nazi assassination attempt during World War II in Vienna, a pit in the woods behind the artist’s home, and an underworld haunted by Double Metaphors.

Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker. This is the most recent book by one of my favorite contemporary thinkers, the Canadian-American cognitive scientist Steven Pinker. In these essays, Pinker supports his ideas of progress and argues that the Enlightenment values of reason, science, and humanism have built up our world. A reading which is needed to think about what is happening today in our world from a sociological perspective. “There can be no question of which was the greatest era for culture; the answer has to be today, until it is superseded by tomorrow.”

Bruce Hall, Network Administrator, Information and Library Services

There were several books and movies focused on nuclear weapons and the end of the world when I was young. I particularly remember “Fail Safe,” “On The Beach,” and “Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.” Recently, I read a current take on nuclear weapons issues with some of the same combination of terror, fatalism, and humor that appears in those earlier works. It is The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States: A Speculative Novel.

As you can tell from the title, it is written from a future point of view looking back at a nuclear catastrophe and how it came about. The author is Jeffrey Lewis, Ph.D., who works on nuclear nonproliferation issues at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. One fascinating aspect of this novel is that, as the author says, it is “an imagination of a future based on actual events. Everything that takes place before August 7, 2018 is true and supported by the endnotes…everything that takes place after that date is invented…”. The book is a quick read and based on enough facts that it is a plausible future. Although this book probably won’t cause you to stop worrying about this possible future, you will at least be better informed.

Joseph Hall, Associate Professor of History

The Human Shore: Seacoasts in History by John Gillis. This is a wonderful book to bring to the beach. It describes how humans have always been a species of the edge, living in the productive places between different ecosystems, and the coast has been among the most hospitable of human habitats. It has also been among the most dangerous, both for those traveling along its waters or living on its unstable edges. Gillis also points out that although more people live on or visit the shore, fewer people depend upon its life for their own livelihoods. You will look at the sea with new eyes.

There, There by Tommy Orange. It is strange to recommend a novel I have not yet read, but I have heard so many wonderful things about this exploration of what it means to be Native in contemporary Oakland that it is the first novel I will read this summer. I can’t give a review, but I encourage others to see what readers have said.

Bill Hiss ’66, retired colleague

The Nautical Chart by Arturo Perez-Reverte. A mystery novel set in Spain, about trying to find a lost Jesuit treasure ship from 1770s. Lots of nautical history and detail, and very well-written, so a terrific book for someone who loves the sea and mysteries. Translated from Spanish.

Other books by the same author: The Flanders Panel, The Seville Communion, The Club Dumas, The Fencing Master.

Growing up with the Country: Family, Race and Nation after the Civil War by Kendra Taira Field. Kendra Field is a history professor at Tufts who spent several years tracing back a family tale that her great-great-grandfather, a refugee from danger and poverty in the post-Reconstruction South, had gone back to Africa with Marcus Garvey. It turned out not be Marcus Garvey but Chief Alfred C. Sam, a Ghanaian convert to Christianity who, unlike Garvey, did manage to buy a ship and sail with a few hundred blacks back to Africa in 1914.

In a most unlikely mutual effort, Chief Sam had earlier come to Maine’s “Shiloh” community in Durham, founded and led by the Rev. Frank W. Sandford, �ֲ���ý Class of 1886, as part of Sam’s conversion to Christianity, and then some years later called on the Shiloh community for help in refitting the ship in Portland and taking it to Galveston, where hundreds of Chief Sam’s followers waited in a tent city for transfer to Africa.

Field’s amalgam of family and American post-Civil War history is fascinating for much more than the Chief Sam voyage to Ghana. She traces the complex ways in which many blacks fleeing violence in the South chose what was then the Indian territory of Oklahoma, partly hoping that they would escape the racism and violence of whites, but also partly because lots of black families had ties to Native Americans, either from intermarriage or because they could make a claim to land grants in Oklahoma that created for a few decades black towns and farming districts.

It was not to last: whites redefined the racial codes to exclude blacks from any rights to Indian lands, and then as oil began to be discovered in Oklahoma, stole or bought under forced circumstances the land from both Native Americans and blacks. I have given my copy of this wonderful book to �ֲ���ý, so it is available in Ladd.

The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston. A nonfiction account of the discovery of a monumental ancient city in a very wild section of Honduran mountainous jungle. The civilization was somewhat parallel to the Aztecs, but distinct. The exploration is dangerous—the jungle teems with fer-de-lance snakes—but also a complicated archaeological detective story, as the team both maps the city with the help of a plane with lidor radar, and comes to a conclusion about the abrupt collapse of a civilization that probably served hundreds of thousands of people.

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. A Harvard surgeon writes about the limits and trade-offs of medicine, and the various ways to make choices in the time we have left.

The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Family’s Century of Art and Loss by Edmund de Wall. Technically, a family memoir of being caught in the social cataclysms of early 20th-century Europe. A wonderfully written account by an artist who inherits a set of small Japanese carvings, the only remaining element of the once-vast fortunes of a Jewish financier family who loyally tried to support the Austrian government in WWI, and then was crushed by the Nazis in WWII.

Fresh Air Fiend, Deep South and The Kingdom by the Sea: A Journey Around Great Britain by Paul Theroux. Paul Theroux is a stunningly productive writer; at last count he has published 48 books, about two-thirds fiction, but also including 17 books of travel writing. His travel writing is very readable, but he is also cranky, sometimes with an undertone of apparent dismay over the places and people he finds. Deep South may be his best, writing of the American South’s tangled and painful rural cultures.

In Search of Scotland by H.V. Morton. No need to rush to the bookstore to find Morton’s book—it was published in 1929. But I read it soon after Theroux’s Kingdom by the Sea, as both are travel books on Scotland. A tour of the Highlands by car in the 1920s was an adventure, and Morton was the Theroux of his day, writing several books of travel experiences. I was struck by the contrast in tones with Theroux; Morton is gentle and affectionate about what he is seeing. Old-fashioned, perhaps, but these days, it seems both charming and very welcome.

Alexandra Hood, Olin Arts Center Operations Supervisor

This year I loved:

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng.

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng.

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi.

Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss.

Educated by Tara Westover.

Margaret Imber, Associate Professor of Classical and Medieval Studies, Associate Dean of the Faculty

Non-Fiction

Becoming by Michelle Obama. Thoughtful, interesting reflection on her life.

Rising out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist by Eli Saslow. Fascinating biography of the son of one of the country’s leading neo-Nazis who, through the transformative power of differences that he encountered at a small liberal arts college in Florida, left the alt right and became one of its respected public critics.

The Lies that Bind: Rethinking Identity by Kwame Appiah. Very engaging, often witty exploration of the often false assumptions we make about the constituent elements of modern social identity.

Call Me American by Abdi Nor Iftin. An amazing story of a Somali refugee’s journey from a country destroyed by civil war, to a life in Portland, Maine.

One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy by Carol Anderson. Heartbreaking story about the assault on the institutions of American democracy being made in order to further a white supremacist political agenda.

Fiction

Room: A Novel by Emma Donoghue. Haunting book about a mother and child held in secret captivity, their escape, and the toll their hard-won freedom takes.

The Paragon Hotel by Lyndsay Faye. A wonderful, funny, sad story about a jazz-age gangster moll who hides out from the NYC mob in a hotel for black travelers in Portland, Ore.

The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths (Ruth Galloway series). First book in a great detective series about a British forensic archeologist.

The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness (All Souls Trilogy). So, I’m not typically one for books about witches, vampires and daemons — but this series is total fun. Strong characters, complex plot, good prose.

The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin (Broken Earth trilogy). An amazing sci-fi novel. I like sci fi, but even if you don’t, you should consider this. The book (I haven’t read #s 2 & 3, yet) addresses complicated questions of love, grief, and rage. It really transcends genre. If you like Octavia Butler’s work, you’ll like this.

Emily Kane, Professor of Sociology

Among the many novels I’ve enjoyed this year, I especially recommend Tommy Orange’s There, There, and the first two installments of Ali Smith’s season-based quartet, Autumn and Winter. Orange’s plot is faster-paced and more dramatic, with social inequalities more central to the story, both features I appreciated. But all three offer fascinating characters, complex multi-generational relationships (family relationships and other relationships), and stories set in the context of important questions about contemporary social marginalization and social change (in Orange’s case, in the United States; in Smith’s case, in the UK).

Alison Keegan, Administrative Assistant and Supervisor of Academic Administrative Services

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. The landscape in this book was as much of a character as the people were. The writing was lush and vivid, and I simply couldn’t put it down. This is a story of survival, resiliency, love, and an ode to nature and the craggy marshes of the South. Rarely do debut novels grab hold and don’t let go like this one did for me. I love that it’s a popular title for this year’s booklet.

The Library Book by Susan Orlean. This is a love story for how important the role of a library plays in civil society. Part mystery and true crime, part history lesson, this book was a fascinating look at the fire that nearly wiped out the Los Angeles Public Library in the mid-1980s. Reading about the thousands of books and historical artifacts that were lost to this fire literally took my breath away. Libraries are pillars, safe spaces, and while I already have a deep appreciation for them, I came away from this book feeling like we need to be doing everything possible to protect the libraries we have left, now more than ever.

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. After reading The Great Alone last year, I find myself wanting to get my hands on anything Kristin Hannah has written. This book was addictive, moving, and powerful. Historical fiction at its finest.

Ghosted by Rosie Walsh. I read this book in a day last summer when spending an entire day at the beach, which made it the perfect beach read. I couldn’t put it down and didn’t want it to end. It was endearing and completely unexpected…a winning combination.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. This book was glittery and enchanting from the first page. There’s a lot going on, i.e. trigger themes, but the prose is descriptive, poetic, and consuming. I loved every delicious minute of it.

Grace Kendall, Director of Design Services, �ֲ���ý Communications Office

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. A study of a woman who doesn’t fit in, thinks she’s OK with it, and realizes upon making some human connections that, actually, there’s something to be said for people.

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan. I’m three-fourths through and plan to re-read it as soon as I’m done, because I know there’s more there that I haven’t caught. It’s a book that seems to defy categorization, at least so far. It’s part fictional slave narrative, part adventure novel, part personal discovery story. Edugyan does a great job showing the monstrous and the beautiful together and demonstrating the layers of human existence, love, and pain without oversimplifying the emotions.

They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib. A collection of essays that examine racism, culture, aging, etc. told through the lens of music and memory. He’s a master of studying big topics through small stories.

Jennifer Koviach-Côté, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Circe by Madeline Miller (particularly the audiobook). A retelling of old, familiar Greek myths that many of us haven’t thought about since middle school. It is a page turner, that got me looking up more details of some of the myths. I haven’t read it yet, but her first book, Song of Achilles, is also supposed to be very good.

The Power by Naomi Alderman. A science fiction account of an imagined world in which young women across the globe gain a power to physically subdue men. The result is an upending of societal norms. The book does contain some disturbing scenes and graphic violence.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. The story of a Korean family exiled to Japan, spanning about 100 years. The family endures the Japanese occupation of Korea, WWII, and struggles with racism and exclusion as Koreans in Japan.

Euphoria by Lily King. Inspired by the life of Margaret Mead, a (love) story about three Western anthropologists in 1930s New Guinea.

Rebecca Lazure, Assistant Director of Annual Giving, Office of College Advancement

Life After Life and A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson. These two novels are connected by characters, but can be read separately. Life After Life is a captivating look at life in 20th century Britain through the lens of a woman’s experience, Ursula. The premise is to follow her life and the people around her multiple times, each time with a different ending and death. A God in Ruins follows many of the same characters, but through the lens of Ursula’s youngest brother.

Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks. The story follows a young English colonist and a young Wampanoag man as their lives intersect in 17th century Martha’s Vineyard. An incredible portrait of time and place in New England.

Kathy Low, Professor of Psychology

Warlight by Michael Ondaatje.

Happiness by Aminatta Forna.

The History of Love: A Novel by Nicole Krauss.

A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry.

The Flight of the Maidens by Jane Gardam.

Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin and These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore.

The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne.

There, There: A Novel by Tommy Orange.

Less by Andrew Sean Greer.

The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt.

Emily McConville, News Writer, �ֲ���ý Communications Office

2018 was my first year receiving the Good Reads list, and I got a lot of great recommendations from it! I loved the Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin and tore through Kindred by Octavia E. Butler.

A few months ago I read The Tyranny of the Meritocracy: Democratizing Higher Education in America by Lani Guinier. It’s a short, accessible book that argues that standardized testing in college admissions only gives an advantage to the wealthy. It also lays out some ideas for how colleges can encourage what Guinier calls democratic merit, which means admissions preferences for students who will actively make the world better. �ֲ���ý gets a shout-out for being test-optional!

I got Bad Blood by John Carreyrou from the �ֲ���ý library and read the whole thing that same evening (I went to work very tired the next day). It’s about Theranos, the company that was supposed to revolutionize healthcare by running hundreds of blood tests with a single drop of blood but ends up taking “overpromising and underdelivering” to the stratosphere. It’s a truly wild ride.

I also read World War Z by Max Brooks, which was super fun.

Monica McCusker, Office Coordinator, College Store

I discovered a series of books of the “fantasy” genre by Rachel Aaron. They’re well written and a fun read — perfect for summertime! They are:

Nice Dragons Finish Last

A Dragon of a Different Color

One Good Dragon Deserves Another

No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished

Last Dragon Standing

My husband enjoyed and recommended another of her series: The Legend of Eli Monpress.

Tom McGuinness, Director of Institutional Research, Analysis and Planning

I am not sure I read any book this past year that was worthy of an unequivocal recommendation, but there were four books, two fiction and two non-fiction, that I enjoyed enough to mention.

A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne is a wicked and engaging story of an amoral writer who is willing to do whatever it takes to become a famous author.

Beartown by Fredrik Backman reminded me of a hockey version of the Friday Night Lights television series (with a dash of Coen Brothers dark comedy).

On the non-fiction side, I will highlight two books by Cal Newport, who is a computer science professor at Georgetown.

In So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love, Newport debunks the traditional “follow your passion” advice and makes a compelling case that the key to deriving satisfaction with one’s work is to develop and master one’s skills. Credit to Rebecca Fraser-Thill for turning me on to this one.

Finally, Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World was helpful in getting me to reflect on how I interact with technology and how I can engage with it more intentionally.

Marcelle Medford, Lecturer in Sociology and Mellon Diversity and Faculty Renewal Postdoctoral Fellow

How to Love a Jamaican: Stories by Alexia Arthurs

Kerry O’Brien, Assistant Dean of the Faculty

White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg. This is a great book about the origins and persistence of the white underclass in America, beginning with notions of so-called “waste people” imported from England; exacerbated by slavery, which, while creating an intolerably inhumane world for enslaved people, also perpetuated chronic landlessness among most whites; and continuing through the ways the industrial revolution, educational systems, immigration, politics, and pop culture have further classified poor white people.

From its first pages, when Isenberg challenges us to think about how Harper Lee cast Tom Robinson’s accuser, Mayella Ewell, and her family in To Kill a Mockingbird, this book demonstrates the complex doggedness of class, poverty, and race in the U.S. It will make you question your assumptions, which is good in a book.

Circe by Madeline Miller is the retelling of tales from ancient Greece from Circe’s perspective, chronicling her life and adventures with Daedalus, Odysseus, Penelope, Helios, Scylla, random nymphs, man-pigs, and a pantheon of others, while revealing the joys and burdens of being a goddess. Gorgeous, lush writing. I loved this feminist take on elements of The Odyssey, the bro tale to end all bro tales (plus, it features weaving as a power move!).

The Library Book by Susan Orlean was my favorite book of the year. Framed around the unsolved mystery of the massive 1986 fire in the Los Angeles Public Library, this book is a loving tribute to libraries, an homage to Orlean’s mother and their time spent together in the library, a history of American libraries, a survey of the indispensable scholarly and social-service roles of the modern library, and a biographical parade of LAPL librarians. It’s part journalism, part history, part memoir. The overarching message is that libraries are the foundations of democracy and our guardians: whether tiny or vast, libraries level the playing field and give people a place to belong. Knowledge is power.

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

Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. Historical fiction portrayed through the relationship and adventures of a 20th-century traveler and an 18th-century Scottish Highlander. Written so beautifully and detailed that you become invested in the characters as if they were family. The power is in the relationships and loyalties. The sense of honor, of commitment, of holding values above personal comfort or gain.

The Outlander series requires the reader to judge their own beliefs and relationships and recognize the good and bad in each of us. An epic story of love, relationships, adventure, war, family, and more that stands the test of time — because it crosses time! The detailed character development, vivid descriptions, and engaging story pull the reader in, drawing out our own thoughts on love, politics, how we would react, what we would do. Something for everyone!

I suggest reading all eight books (and the novellas that accompany the series). Book #9 is scheduled to be released later this year. For those who cannot find time to read, they are all available on Audible, with Davina Porter as narrator, who brings all characters to life. Great therapy as you’re creating, crafting, or walking/running.

Karen Palin, Lecturer in Biology

Becoming by Michelle Obama.

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (fiction).

Chemistry by Weike Wang (fiction).

Carole Parker, Library Assistant — Acquisitions, Information and Library Services

The wonderful Monica Wood’s The One-in-a-Million Boy.

Clock Dance by Anne Tyler.

I was gifted with some discarded novels that I felt I should read before donating or whatever, including:

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult and Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck.

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein (although I have heard that A Dog’s Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron is a better book of this style. I haven’t read it.)

I also read The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, after seeing the movie. Humbling.

Camille Parrish, Lecturer in Environmental Studies and Learning Associate in Environmental Studies

The Overstory by Richard Powers.

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.

Sarah Emerson Potter ’77, Bookstore Director Emerita

Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks, solid writing set in an interesting place and time (1600s, Nantucket).

Euphoria by Lily King. King is a compelling writer and this novel, based on Margaret Mead’s experience in New Guinea in the early 1930s, was a good read.

The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer. Nothing life-changing here, but it was familiar and entertaining.

And I am reading all of Laurie King’s Mary Russell mysteries. They are such good reads that I probably recommended them for last year’s list, but as with so many other things in my life, I just can’t remember!

Jack Pribram, Professor Emeritus of Physics

The Snoring Bird: My Family’s Journey Through a Century of Biology by Bernd Heinrich. A memoir about his family, especially his father and Bernd’s life, and their intense searches for insects and birds and their behaviors. Living in Poland, they barely survived WWs I & II. After the wars, they made it to a farm in Maine. Bernd earned a Ph.D. and ended up on the faculty at the University of Vermont while maintaining the farm in Maine. He is a wonderful writer with endless fascinating details. (Oh, and he is a remarkable long-distance runner.)

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway. I never read a book quite like this. He writes about his time in Paris in the 1920s when he is settling in with long stretches of time to write. But he also writes about the details of living in Paris, and about the interactions with other writers. You can almost sense his future life and novels to come.

Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I love baseball, and Goodwin and I are about the same age. She grew up in a 1950s residential area of Brooklyn, much like my residential area outside Hartford, Conn. The Brooklyn Dodgers had great teams (Jackie Robinson et al.) that could never win the World Series, thus the title of her book. She writes wonderfully of her growing-up years, and how she intensely followed the Dodgers. At that time, I was following the Yankees, but certainly knew about the Dodgers. The Dodgers finally won just before moving to Los Angeles. (Later, she and I became Red Sox fans.)

The Pope of Physics: Enrico Fermi and the Birth of the Atomic Age by Gino Segrè and Bettina Hoerlin. A biography of Enrico Fermi. I’d prefer the Italian title “Il Papa”(rather than the Pope) that he was given by the small group of physicists, all in their 20s, that recognized him in Rome as their leader. The book is not trying to teach physics, rather it is more history and biography of going through both WWs I & II and into the 1950s. He was one of the great 20th-century physicists and beloved by all who worked with him. He was brilliant both as a theorist and an experimentalist. From a high school (Italian) friend of mine: “Great read. Some of the description of the work that Fermi was part of was not easy for me to understand, but I love the history of the man, the projects, the times! The intense struggle to unravel the processes that were necessary to harness atomic energy was riveting! Thank you for your recommendation.”

Stephanie Pridgeon, Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez. A Mexican-American teen navigates coming of age as she and her parents are reeling from the tragic, sudden loss of her sister. An honest and stunning reflection on adolescence, family, loss, and depression.

The Friend by Sigrid Nunez. The novel, written in the second person to the narrator’s recently deceased longtime friend, is a beautiful account of grief and the bonds people forge through literature and writing. (And also of the love that grows between dogs and humans.)

John Rasmussen, Energy Manager, Facility Services

Smoke Gets in Your Eye: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty. Remarkable and extremely candid insight into the mortuary business and the way in which we deal with death in America.

The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World’s Great Drinks by Amy Stewart. Thorough and often humorous review of all the different plants people have used over the centuries to create alcoholic beverages.

Darby Ray, Director of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships and Donald W. and Ann M. Harward Professor of Civic Engagement

The One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood. A heartbreaking, heart-opening story by Maine’s own Monica Wood.

The Library Book by Susan Orlean. Someone gave me this book as a gift. I threw it in my suitcase, hoping to enjoy a “pleasure read” on my way back from a conference on the West Coast; was SO disappointed when I realized it was a book about libraries; then I could hardly put it down. A fascinating romp!

Kirk Read, Professor of French and Francophone Studies

Notre Dame de Paris/The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo. Timely, for those who have ever visited or can imagine what it would mean for such a catastrophic event to occur. Hugo makes for great summer reading when many can commit to longer works. You go from this, to Les Misérables, and then are prepped for Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, a completely different genre, but competing well for length, weighing in at 3,500 pages.

Small Country/Petit pays by Gaïl Faye. An amazing book now translated. Coming of age in the Rwandan genocide. Faye’s father is French and his mother Rwandan, and he spent his earliest years in Burundi. The genocide looms and then unfolds, and his ability to tell the story through the eyes of both a child and an adult is stunning. Metaphors abound in the relationships that populate the book and presage the horrors that will take hold among them.

Warlight by Michael Ondaatje. Another child’s eye view of war, as the narrator and his sibling are left in the hands of strangers as their parents disappear into a life of spying. War story, thriller, coming-of-age. It was not the perfect unfolding for me (the beginning promises lots of twists and turns) but nicely written. Fans of The English Patient will recognize his style.

Napoleon’s Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History by Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson. Thank you, Colleen O’Loughlin, my Teaching Triangles partner, for introducing me to the ways chemistry make the world go round. A fascinating account of how chemical compounds determine significant events in history. Her class (and I) read the chapter on the Salem witch trials and the pernicious belladonna plant. Maybe those women really did see the devil! (through hallucinations).

iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy — and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood — and What That Means for the Rest of Us by Jean Twenge. Many of my colleagues have noticed significant challenges to our teaching in recent semesters/years, and in looking for answers to how our students appear to be thwarted (beyond the “snowplow” parent hypothesis), this book helped me a lot.

Ariel Gore’s We Were Witches is a novel closely based on the author’s life as a child of bohemian and abusive parents who leaves high school at 16 to backpack around the world, has a child in Italy, and returns to eke out a way through college, navigating welfare, homophobia, misogyny and other forms of violence. Her encounters and coming of age with and through the hallmark literature of women and gender studies was like a blast from the past for me. Her retelling of much of this is like a riveting 101 course in the history of patriarchy and women’s resistance.

Julia Retelle, Information and Library Services

I enjoyed reading Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. The book was eye-opening in so many ways for me.

Sharon Saunders, Associate College Librarian for Access Services

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah. “Presenting complex contemporary challenges clearly and accessibly.” These challenges are grouped into five categories: technology, politics, despair and hope, truth, and resilience.

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande. This book accompanies a Boston surgeon who is willing to ask questions, learn from others, and change his way of interacting with patients, in part because of seeing the experiences of his mother-in-law and his father as they became frail and neared the end of their lives.

Walk Out, Walk On: A Learning Journey into Communities Daring to Live the Future Now by Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze. We seem to think if we just keep doing the same things, only faster and harder, we will solve complex problems that have plagued human societies for decades. This book allows readers to visit places and people who have walked away from our normal ways of thinking and have created different ways of living and being in community.

Paula Schlax, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. I loved her memoir Cry of the Kalahari when it came out and, although this is fiction, it was a pleasure to read her prose again.

All Things Reconsidered: My Birding Adventures by Roger Tory Peterson. Especially the snippets about his experiences birding in Maine.

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann. History, crime…

Carl Steidel, Senior Associate Dean of Students

Nonfiction

Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward.

A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James Comey.

Fiction

The Circle by Dave Eggers.

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.

It Devours! by Joseph Fink.

The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss.

Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson.

Redeployment by Phil Klay.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.

Graphic Novels

Persepolis 1 & 2 by Marjane Satrapi.

Sawyer Sylvester, Professor Emeritus of Sociology

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Marc Haddon is a deeply touching story of an autistic child, lacking most social skills, who nonetheless goes in search of the killer of his closest friend – the neighborhood dog. In his quest, he relies on the investigative skills learned from his favorite fictional detective.

Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language by Mark Forsyth is a wry, witty book on the unexpected origins of everyday words in the English language. Two more of his books await reading: Horologicon and The Elements of Eloquence.

In Praise of Wasting Time by Alan Lightman. In an age when it seems that every inch of the day must be filled, Lightman sees great benefit in just “letting the mind lie fallow for some periods.”

The Book by Amaranth Borsuk considers the place of the printed book in the digital age.

For biography, I recommend Walter Isaacson’s Leonardo da Vinci.

For history, I recommend Jon Meacham’s American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation.

Finally, if one needs reminding of the enduring significance of the original liberal arts, I recommend two books of essays published by Wooden Books: Trivium and Quadrivium.

Anne Thompson, Professor Emerita of English and Euterpe B. Dukakis Professor Emerita of Classical and Medieval Studies

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen. Account of the Vietnam War as told from the complex perspective of a Vietnamese man employed by a South Vietnamese general, but who is also a double agent for North Vietnam.

The Overstory by Richard Powers. My favorite book of the year. Nine different people whom fate brings together because of their common passion to save trees from extinction. I learned so much about trees! This may seem an odd recommendation but it’s a thrilling, dramatic, and heartbreaking story.

William Wallace, Lecturer in Education

The Gardener and The Carpenter: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children by Alison Gopnik. Great book about how people parent: some guide a natural process; some engineer the process.

The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World by Andrea Wulf. An incredible story about Humboldt, his life and influence on the way we perceive the natural world, our impacts on the natural world, and how the natural world impacts us.

Justine Weisinger, Assistant Professor of Asian Studies

I would like to recommend Sacred Cesium Ground and Isa’s Deluge, a book of two novellas by Kimura Yusuke translated by Doug Slaymaker. This book just came out this year and is written by an author from the Tohoku region of Japan, which was devastated by the disasters of 2011. Kimura accesses the anger at abandonment and the point of view of a marginalized region in a way that writers from outside the affected area rarely do. Among many other fine points, Slaymaker’s translation comes to grips with the importance of dialect in the original works.

Anne Williams, Professor Emerita of Economics

Non-Fiction

I have three disparate recommendations in the general nonfiction category. The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Johnson. Details past and present obsessions with colorful feathers of exotic bird species.

Fear by Bob Woodward is a careful analysis of the workings of the Trump White House.

As a former Peace Corps volunteer, I appreciated the insightful history of the organization’s growth and change in When the World Calls: The Inside Story of the Peace Corps and Its First Fifty Years by Stanley Meisler.

Memoirs

I have enjoyed: Settled in the Wild: Notes from the Edge of Town by Susan Shetterly, a 2018 “Read ME” choice, as well as Real American by Julie Lythcott-Haim, this past year’s Common Read at �ֲ���ý.

Fiction

I’ve recently enjoyed some historical fiction, particularly three books set in the 19th century.

News of the World by Paulette Jiles and Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton introduced me to some unusual aspects of the 1870s frontiers in Texas and in and around Wyoming.

Philida by André Brink, set in South Africa earlier in the 1800s, tells a compelling story of Boer farmers and their slaves.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and Animal Farm by George Orwell are older novels that are both apt and chilling, and hopefully will never resemble reality.

Finally, Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro is sui generis, a traditional English butler beginning to doubt the value of his dedication to service.

Mysteries

As always I read many mysteries, especially those by Louise Penny and Lisa Gardner. I also enjoyed two mysteries by European authors I hadn’t encountered before: Snow White Must Die by Nele Neuhaus and The Boy in the Suitcase by��Agnete Friis and Lene Kaaberbøl.

For airplane reading on the way to visit Yellowstone National Park, I liked C. J. Box’s Paradise Valley.

Titles with two or more recommendations

A Gentleman in Moscow
Being Mortal
Born a Crime
Caleb’s Crossing
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
Euphoria
Fear
Nine Perfect Strangers
Ruth Galloway series
The Great Alone
The Handmaid’s Tale
The Overstory
Becoming
Broken Earth Trilogy
Circe (audiobook)
The Library Book
The One-in-a-Million Boy
There, There
Warlight
Where the Crawdads Sing
Educated

It’s here — the 22nd annual��Good Reads for Leisure Moments, the comprehensive list of book recommendations from �ֲ���ý faculty, staff, and alumni.

Will Olsen ‘21 reads Gregory “Pappy” Boyington‘s Baa Baa Black Sheep,��which he found at a campground during his AESOP trip to the White Mountain National Forest in August. Though the World War II memoir was engrossing, it’s not on the Good Reads��list. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

Good Reads��is compiled as a community gift to the graduating seniors, but it has something for everyone, from the baseball history buff to the Québécois mystery series aficionado — all with personalized stamps of approval from familiar names on campus.

The list was first created by Sarah Emerson Potter ’77, retired director of the �ֲ���ý College Store, and is now compiled each year by Alison Keegan, administrative assistant and supervisor of academic administrative services in the Dean of the Faculty’s Office.

Lee Abrahamsen, Associate Professor of Biology

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. My nephew suggested I read this book, and with all the hype that surrounded it, I decided to try it. I liked it. I didn’t drop-dead LOVE it, but it was fun enough to keep me reading. The plot is based on a dystopian world in which there isn’t much left to enjoy, so people spend their time in the virtual world of Oasis, where an old computer maven (read “geek”) has hidden an “Easter Egg.” The person who figures out the clues and finds the egg first wins a lot of money and control of Oasis. There are lots of references to music, computer games, and TV shows of the 1980s, and it’s fun to reminisce about some of those (once you get over the shock of realizing that the 1980s started 38 years ago…how did that happen?). Read the book before you see��the movie or you will miss things, and definitely see the movie in 3D!

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

I just finished and enjoyed Dan Brown’s new book,��Origin, the latest in the Robert Langdon series. Also have started and am enjoying David Baldacci’s Camel Club��series.

Jane Bedard, Retired Colleague

Defending Jacob by William Landay is a page-turner. You won’t want to put it down. Landay’s other books are good as well.

Christina Bell, Humanities Librarian, Information & Library Sciences

We Are Never Meeting in Real Life. Essays by Samantha Irby is probably the best book I read in 2017. Irby blogs at , and her work is honest, funny, and unapologetic. I’m a big fan of queer young adult and loved both Autoboyography by Christina Lauren and Carry On by Rainbow Rowell.

Sandy Brooks, Custodian, Facility Services

One Light Still Shines: My Life Beyond the Shadow of the Amish Schoolhouse Shooting, by Marie Monville.

Marita Bryant, Assistant Instructor in Geology

If you’ve watched the PBS series Victoria, you might find Queen Victoria’s Little Wars, by Byron Farwell, interesting.

Hamish Cameron, Lecturer in Classical and Medieval Studies

Ninefox Gambit and Raven Strategem by Yoon Ha Lee. Mathematics, calendrical manipulation, and the minds of dead people inside the minds of the living. Provenance and the trilogy Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword, and Ancillary Mercy, all by Ann Leckie. Gender, distributed artificial intelligence, and the cultural importance of gloves and tea.

Jonathan Cavallero, Assistant Professor of Rhetoric

The Game: Inside the Secret World of Major League Baseball’s Power Brokers by Jon Pessah. I’ve been a baseball fan for a long time, but The Game allowed me to see baseball from a whole new perspective. It turns out that the games played by owners, politicians, general managers, and others behind the scenes might have been just as intriguing and interesting as the games played by players on the field. Pessah covers the strike-shortened 1994 season, the steroids era, the move to Moneyball-style management, the drive to fund new stadiums with taxpayer dollars in various cities, the in-fighting between owners and commissioners, MLB’s response to 9/11, and much more. Truly eye-opening and a must-read for baseball fans.

Jane Costlow, Clark A. Griffith Professor of Environmental Studies

Jesmyn Ward’s new novel, which won the National Book Award, is extraordinary: Sing, Unburied, Sing. Multiple narrators, some living and some dead, all in this world. Deep Mississippi and the long legacies of racism and Jim Crow. I’m very struck by how Ward writes about siblings taking care of each other in a terrifying and dangerous world.

The Risen by Ron Rash is also about the South (North Carolina), family, long legacies, and attempts to break free of/come to terms with the past. That sounds kind of clichéd, but Rash builds suspense and a psychological study quite effectively.

On Trails: An Exploration, by Robert Moor, is a nonfiction, fascinating series of chapters about creatures who make and follow trails (from ants to deer to elephants to humans), and how a trail can keep you alive. The book starts with an amazing story in which Moor — who was in his 20s and superbly fit after just finishing the AT — headed out “off trail” in Newfoundland and promptly got profoundly lost.

A Dream in Polar Fog by Yuri Rytkheu. Want to read something Russian that doesn’t have anything to do with contemporary U.S. politics? Rytkheu was a Chukchi (farthest northeast you can go in Siberia before hitting the Bering Strait). This is a novel written from the point of view of a late-19th-century Canadian who gets left behind in Chukotka by his compatriots. Wonderful details of life and landscape.

Matt Côté, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker. The subtitle is, “The case for reason, science, humanism, and progress.” I’m only 75 percent of the way through the book, but so far I’ve found its reliance on evidence to support an uncommonly optimistic perspective to be a tonic during pessimistic times.

Deborah Cutten, Academic Administrative Assistant

The Forgotten Garden, The House at Riverton (The Shifting Fog), The Distant Hours, The Secret Keeper,��and The Lake House, all by Kate Morton. She is my favorite author of late. All of her books will keep you guessing until the end and then make you want to go back and reread them for clues.

After the Eclipse: A Mother’s Murder, a Daughter’s Search by Sarah Perry.

Deacon Frank Daggett, Multifaith Chaplaincy

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. I read this two months after my son died from cancer. Like my son, the author was a literature major in college; the author later became a top neurosurgeon until lung cancer ended his career and eventually his life. His first-person account shares the story of a man impelled to explore the depths of the human condition, first in literature, then in the workings of the brain. I found an unusual connection with the late author, whose fine writing articulated many of my own family’s experiences and provided a kind of affirmation and catharsis. With good reason, this unique book has been on The New York Times best-seller list for well over a year.

Susan Dunning,��Assistant Director of Gift Planning, Office of College Advancement

After I read The Sound of Gravel by Ruth Wariner last year, naturally I HAD to read The Polygamist’s Daughter by Anna LeBaron. Both fascinating!

The Wild Inside by Christine Carbo.

The Stars Are Fire by Anita Shreve. I bought this book, completely by coincidence, on the day Shreve died.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. Not quite as good as Big Little Lies, but much better than Truly Madly Guilty.

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult — not her best, but compelling enough that I had to finish. I liked all the information about elephants.

Francis Eanes, Visiting Assistant Professor in Environmental Studies

I’d like to highly recommend two books I’ve recently read, both about various dimensions of race, justice, and history in America: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (fiction), and Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America by Patrick Phillips (nonfiction).

Melinda Emerson, Technology Purchasing Specialist, Information & Library Sciences

Some of the books that made me think this year:

The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel. Based on the true story of our own Maine hermit, Christopher Knight, who left his home in Massachusetts in 1986, drove to Maine, and disappeared into the Maine woods for 27 years. Not because he had to, but because he chose to live that way. Makes you think about life.

The Man Who Planted Trees: A Story of Lost Groves, the Science of Trees, and a Plan to Save the Planet by Jim Robbins. True story about David Milarch. Part story. Part science. Lost groves, champion trees, and an urgent plan to save the planet.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. Two unlikely people spend six months changing each other’s lives. Romantic, sad, and thought-provoking.

Gifts of an Eagle by Kent Durden. True story of a golden eagle, Lady. Ed and his son, Kent, caught, trained, filmed, and learned from Lady for 16 years. Then they set her free.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. His story of going from a neurosurgeon/neuroscientist to a terminally-ill patient with cancer, to his death.

Books to enjoy:

The Elm Creek Quilts novels by Jennifer Chiaverini. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache mysteries by Louise Penny. The Gray Whale Inn mysteries, by Karen MacInerney.��The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes��— a collection of British and American stories.��Ellis Island and Other Stories by Mark Helprin.

A book for young readers:

Ray’s Violet: The Tale of a Most Extraordinary Lightning Bug by Sharon Walrond Harris. Charming story of friendship, a carefree summer, and wishes come true.

Nathan Faries, Assistant Professor of Asian Studies

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu. As someone who recently binged the Black Mirror series on Netflix and felt paranoid and misanthropic for weeks after, I really appreciated the hopeful contrast I found with Ken Liu’s humanistic science fiction and fantasy. He writes not only about the “what if?” possibilities of life, but also the “what now?” He writes not only about how amazing things might be in the future, but he reminds us of how amazing things are today and have always been, not because of gadgets, but because of the people around us. When he writes about time travel, he reminds us that we are all time travelers now, together, a spark burning down a fuse. While he writes wonderfully about gee-whiz technology, he also reminds us that we live in a world in which thoughts can be transmitted across space and time using an amazing new app called a book. There is old magic in the world and new magic and present magic. Some of this magic is called science.

Sylvia Federico, Professor of Classical and Medieval Studies

I really liked Hans Fallada’s novel Every Man Dies Alone.

Dan Girling, Mail & Materials Handling Clerk, Post & Print

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. As the name suggests, this is a modern retelling of Norse myths. The tales follow a loose chronology, beginning with the Norse creation story and ending with the apocalyptic legend of Ragnarok. While not a direct translation of the original stories, this book was an accessible introduction for those who hadn’t heard these tales before.

Artemis by Andy Weir. Weir was on the Good Reads list several times last year with his earlier book The Martian. With Artemis, Weir once again combines humor and science to tell the story of a young woman named Jazz, who lives within the first city on the moon. Jazz makes her money smuggling contraband into the city, until she’s offered a job in corporate espionage. I found this book funny and thrilling, almost playing out like a heist movie in space.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. A classic novel in the dystopian genre, The Handmaid’s Tale explores questions of religion, gender, and identity through the lens of an oppressive society. This is a heavy but important read that holds up even 30 years after it was first published.

Atonement by Ian McEwan. Beginning on a fateful night in England just a few years before World War II, Atonement tells the story of a family turned upside down by one daughter’s mistake. The book continues into the years that followed, showing the consequences of that one night. I liked McEwan’s poetic language, as well as the way he showed the perspectives of multiple characters.

����ō���ܲ� by James Clavell. This is technically fiction, but it is closely based on the life of the real historical figure William Adams, an English sailor who landed in Japan in the 17th century and became the first known Western samurai. The story follows his rise from prisoner to samurai, learning about Japanese traditions in order to survive. This is a longer book, but it had enough action and political intrigue to keep my interest.

Phyllis Graber Jensen, Director of Photography and Video, Communications

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones. After a year of marriage, an African American couple —he’s a graduate of Morehouse, she of Spelman —confronts the husband’s unjust conviction for a violent crime he did not commit. The novel explores how his imprisonment in a society of mass incarceration challenges their relationship. Sad, outrageous, and funny, this book offers a bow to Benjamin Mays, �ֲ���ý Class of 1920.

Meg Gresh, Assistant to the Vice President of Academic Affairs, Office of the Dean of the Faculty

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen.

Laurie Grimmel,��Retail Shipping & Parcel Clerk, Post & Print

I just finished Kindred by Octavia E. Butler. It was very interesting and took place in the days of slavery. Has quite the twist in the plot and was hard to put down. Also Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson was an absolutely wonderful book. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee was another book that I could not put down, as well as her To Kill a Mockingbird.

Bruce Hall, Network Administrator, Information & Library Services

I recommend Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. While it may be difficult to get tickets to Hamilton on Broadway, you can read the biography that inspired Lin-Manuel Miranda to create the musical. It is an exciting story of how a child born out of wedlock on an island in the British West Indies and who was orphaned in his teens became one of the principal founders of the United States. I was reading this at the same time as a friend of mine who observed, ”I never would have made it off that island and, instead, would have died young in squalor and ignorance, but I am not Hamilton.”

Jennifer Hartshorn, Head Coach, Women’s Track & Cross Country, Athletics

I am a longtime reader of this list but first-time responder. I have never been a mystery reader but then discovered the Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny. It was recommended last year by Sarah Potter. Start with Still Life and continue in order. I use the Maine library loan system and go through a book every other week. The stories are interesting and not too dark. You get sucked into this quaint Canadian community and truly wish you could visit.

Nicole Hastings, Assistant Instructor of Physics

I Will Send Rain by Rae Meadows. It took turns that were unexpected and unpredictable, and it worked fantastically. I loved every second spent reading it.

Bill Hiss ’66, retired colleague

For me, a shorter list, but this year seemed to bring clunkier books. Below are the three that weren’t:

The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero by Timothy Egan. Quite a life. A magnificent public speaker, Thomas Meagher rejected his family’s comfortable Irish status in English-ruled Ireland, helped found and lead the “Young Ireland” movement after the famine, and was transported as a convict to Australia for his rabble-rousing. He escaped, made his way to the U.S., and raised and led an all-Irish regiment in the Union Army that, as immigrants, were used as cannon fodder and took frightful casualties in battle after battle. Appointed the acting governor of the Montana Territory after the war, he disappeared overboard from a river boat under mysterious circumstances after resisting the land barons who controlled Montana.

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester. Beautifully written. The editors of the OED encouraged people to send in suggestions for words that should be included, with both their linguistic derivation and sample usages to trace the various meanings of words. One of these volunteers, Dr. William Chester Minor, sent in thousands of carefully researched histories of words to the renowned James Murray, the OED’s Scottish titanic intellect of an editor. After years of being put off from a thank-you visit to his mysterious contributor, Murray insisted and traveled into the English countryside, only to find that Dr. Minor, an American Civil War surgeon, had been held for more than 20 years in a mental hospital for the criminally insane, after a murder in London.

Vietnam, A New History by Christopher Goscha. Goscha, a Canadian historian, has provided a fine new account that clearly lays out Vietnam’s complex layers of interplay with neighboring empires and colonial forces. After an explanation of Vietnam’s early history, most of the book deals with the modern struggles toward nationhood after 1858, the watershed created with the invasion by France. For me, the book was wonderful preparation for a month recently in Vietnam helping to design the Admissions and Financial Aid offices for what will be Vietnam’s first liberal arts institution, Fulbright University Vietnam, partly led by Ngan Dinh ’02, the founding director of the Undergraduate College. But it is a perfect book as well for a general reader trying to move beyond seeing Vietnam through the narrow lens of what the Vietnamese call “the American war.”

Margaret Imber, Associate Professor of Classicial & Medieval Studies and Associate Dean of Faculty

Nicola Upson’s Josephine Tey detective novels, based on the real-life detective novelist. The first is titled An Expert in Murder. There are seven so far. If you are a fan of the classic British cozies (Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Agatha Christie, Tey) you will enjoy these tremendously. The heroine is Tey, the British detective novelist for people who don’t like detective novels. They are set between the first and second world wars and do a wonderful, moody description of the consequences of the wars in British society. The plotting is good. The characters are excellent.

Fatal Discord: Erasmus, Luther, and the Fight for the Western Mind by Michael Massing. A popularizing history/bio of two of the great thinkers in the emergence of Protestant religion(s) in the 16th century. Well-written and enjoyable.

Broad Band by Claire Evans. This is a fascinating and sometimes infuriating history of the role women played in the development of the internet and the reason for their erasure from most histories of the technology. If you liked Hidden Figures, you will like this.

The Birthday Party: A Memoir of Survival by Stanley Alpert. True story: An assistant United States Attorney is kidnapped in Manhattan. The author and victim of the crime has a sometimes-annoying authorial tone: terrified in the moment, smug in retrospect – but it is a completely wild story, and if you like true crime as a genre, you’ll like this.

Michael Jones, Professor of History and of Classical & Medieval Studies

Pacific Crucible by Ian W. Toll. Excellent history of World War II in the Pacific.

Laura Juraska, Associate College Librarian for Research Services, Information & Library Services

The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice by Patricia Bell-Scott. I knew next to nothing of the activist Pauli Murray, and so deepened my knowledge of her plus witnessed the remarkable relationship between these two important women of the last century.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. A historical fiction, light on historic depth, of 20th-century Russia told through the life and relationships of Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, who is under house arrest in the Metropol hotel right across from the Kremlin. Insightful, witty storytelling.

Black Water Rising and Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke. Well-written suspense thriller stories investigated by a black Texas Ranger.

Emily Kane, Professor of Sociology

For this year, one of my favorite novels was Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing, a remarkable multigenerational family saga spanning from 18th-century Ghana into the 20th-century in both Ghana and the United States. The chapters are written almost like short stories, each focusing on another individual representing a generation of one or the other of two branches of the same family tree. I also recommend Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere and Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer.

Alison Keegan, Administrative Assistant & Supervisor of Academic Administrative Services, Office of the Dean of the Faculty

The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne. Heartbreaking from Page 1, yet witty and utterly masterful writing. Five hundred and eighty pages, but it ended too soon. This book moved me to the core, and when I wasn’t reading it, I was counting the minutes until I next picked it up. It starts in Ireland in the 1940s and spans to today, through the eyes of an ordinary man and revolving around a family saga that is unlike any I’ve read. I don’t even know how to truly describe what this book is about without giving too much away or not telling enough. Suffice to say, it’ll be a while until I read something as beautiful, clever, and unflinchingly poignant as the story of Cyril Avery.

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. This book left me breathless with each page turn. The sheer cold dark isolation of Alaska’s craggy landscape is felt in every paragraph. When I had about 50 pages left, I couldn’t decide if I wanted to race to the finish or savor the story. The story is about a POW from the Vietnam War, plagued with PTSD and paranoia, moving his family to Alaska to homestead and live a life free of government and societal norms. There are so many themes to this gorgeous novel, but one profoundly obvious one, which is really felt in the last third of the book, is that what makes a family isn’t necessarily bloodlines and DNA. Also, everyone has a past, and everyone has a story.

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. This book takes effort. It’s 720 pages and is some of the most difficult content I’ve ever read (brutal abuse, addiction, and pure raw uninhibited emotion). I had this book on my to-read list for a while, but was validated in wanting to read it sooner than later when Tom McGuinness recommended it in last year’s Good Reads edition. It follows four male college classmates as they make their way into a post-college world, sustained by ambition and their friendships with each other, while navigating the uncertainty of middle age and coming to terms with the past. It spans decades of up and downs, becoming darker as truths and horrors are revealed. What makes this book so worth reading is the incredible writing, the way the author touches so brilliantly on themes of race, religion, addiction, abuse, and suffering. This is not a light read, but is well-worth the journey.

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen. This was a dark and twisty delight! I didn’t try to figure it all out, I just waited for the reveals. It didn’t disappoint.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. Deeply engrossing, this novel spans several generations of a Korean family living in Japan at a time when prejudicial tendencies reigned supreme. This was historical fiction at its finest and a compelling, sweeping family saga that gave me an insight to a part of history that I didn’t know much about.

A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. The first is about an exiled Russian count who is a charming, witty character. Towles uses enchanting language to describe the surroundings, the meals, and every happenstance meeting with those the Count comes in contact with at a famed Russian hotel. The second is New York City in all its glittery glitzy splendor of the 1930s, with its upper-crust societies and colorful characters.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. Eleanor struggles with the basics of appropriate social skills and tends to have no filtered thoughts. Her perfectly structured life is disrupted when she finds herself the other half of a duo saving an elderly man from collapsing outside her office. What transpires is a deep understanding of why Eleanor isn’t completely fine, and yet why this girl has the grit and tenacity to survive a frightful and traumatic upbringing. It’s witty and poignant, and you’re pretty much just rooting for Eleanor from the start.

Stephanie Kelley-Romano, Associate Professor of Rhetoric

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Amazing, can’t put down – especially if you were a nerd in the ’80s.

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly

Grace Kendall, Director of Design Services, Communications

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. Noah’s retelling of his childhood in South Africa becomes a retelling of not only his life, but his mother’s (and his relationship with her), as well as their experiences under apartheid. The book is peppered with sharp recollections of poverty, told with humor and a realist view of its legacy.

The Hunger by Alma Katsu. A supernatural re-imagining of the Donner Party’s fateful journey. As group members fall, one by one, the remaining party members are plagued by the feeling that they are being stalked by something more than just winter and hunger.

Suzan Kinslow, Facility Services

I just finished a novel that I found quite compelling: Lilli de Jong by Janet Benton.

Su Langdon, Lecturer in Psychology

I looked through the previous years’ lists and was shocked to see that A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles hadn’t been mentioned yet. It’s not a high-action book, and sometimes feels a little slow (if you can make it to Page 100, you’ll be hooked), but the weaving of the characters and the story is its strength. I won’t bother describing the plot because I think if someone had described it to me I might not have bothered. It’s got lots of layers though. Two books I’ve read this year that use humor to help folks understand perhaps-unexamined issues of race are Trevor Noah’s Born A Crime and Phoebe Robinson’s You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain.

Bill Low, Curator, Museum of Art

The Emigrants by W.G. Sebald. At first, The Emigrants appears simply to document the lives of four Jewish émigrés in the 20th century. But gradually, as Sebald’s precise, almost dreamlike prose begins to draw their stories, the four narrations merge into one overwhelming evocation of exile and loss. I cannot recommend this, or any of his novels, highly enough.

Judy Marden ‘66, retired colleague

The Wolf Border by Sarah Hall. A zoologist specializing in wolf recovery is hired by a wealthy earl to introduce wolves to his estate in northern England. The experiment is accompanied by complicated personal relationships and devious plots against the venture, ending in a surprising outcome involving a Scotland that has successfully seceded from the United Kingdom.

The Dry by Jane Harper. A federal agent returns to his remote Australian home town to attend the funeral of his best friend, and though he has sworn to have nothing to do with the town or its people again, it doesn’t take him long to be pulled into the chaos. The apparent murder-suicide of his best childhood friend and his family is not as straightforward as it appears. Over all the drama looms the influence of the worst drought in a century, intense heat making tempers short and conditions dangerous.

Monica McCusker, Office Coordinator, College Store

Artemis, the newly released novel by Andy Weir, author of The Martian. The story follows the capers of a young woman, Jasaman “Jazz,” struggling to make a living in the futuristic moon colony of Artemis. It was a fun read. I could envision this one being made into a movie.

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate. A fascinating novel based on historical documentation of “not-so-honest” child-adoption programs during the early 1900s. The author creates a wonderful tapestry of current and previous experiences of the main characters that kept me engrossed in the story while traveling to and from New Zealand earlier this year.

Other books I have read this past year and recommend include some that have been suggested in previous editions of the Good Reads: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (I plan to read her Hag-Seed and The Heart Goes Last), and The Shack by William Paul Young.

Tom McGuinness, Associate Director of Institutional Research

My favorite book this year was easily The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne. A coming-of-age story of a gay man in Ireland, this novel was hilarious, touching, and memorable. I tip my hat to Ali Keegan, who recommended it.

Christine Murray, Social Science Librarian, Information & Library Sciences

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym. Jane Austen-y, but in post-war London.

Ants Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India by Sujatha Gidla. A family memoir about untouchables in India.

Stephanie Navrat, Assistant Director of Annual Giving, Office of College Advancement

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson. This book will make you laugh out loud and will also provide a sobering look at how the U.S. “wilderness” has changed through history. Provides hilarious perspective on North American relationships with nature.

Charles Nero, Professor of Rhetoric

Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala. This incredible novel is a mixture of genres: gay coming-out story, immigrant narrative, and coming of age as a male Nigerian American and a female white American. It was so riveting that I’m looking forward to reading it again.

The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish. I loved her in Girl Trip, so I immediately decided to read her memoir. Okay, I confess, I listened to it on Audible because she was narrating it. I have to say it was a hoot-and-a-half. Haddish is a natural raconteur and I was constantly laughing out loud. I’m going to give this one another listen. Haddish is all that!

Then and Now: A Memoir by Barbara Cook. I have loved Cook ever since I heard her as Marian the librarian on the original cast recording of The Music Man. What a beautiful voice she had! I’m looking forward to learning about her life and learning more about the Golden Age of the Broadway musical.

The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History by Robin Givhan. This sounds like my perfect summer read: Paris in the 1970s, glamorous models, Josephine Baker, and Liza Minnelli. Who could ask for more?

Boy With Thorn by Rickey Laurentiis. I have read a couple of his poems, and now I’m going for his award-winning collection.

Counternarratives by John Keene. I’ve heard nothing but superlatives from my friends about Keene’s second book, this one a collection of short stories and novellas. It recently won an American Book Award.

Kerry O’Brien, Assistant Dean of Faculty

Golden Hill: A Novel of Old New York by Francis Spufford. This was by far my favorite book this year. Set in 1746 in the then-puny town of New York City, it’s written in the episodic style of 18th-century novels. New York is full of high-class old Dutch money, British climbers, scoundrels, soldiers, hooligans, gay men, café-sitters, actors, duelers, slaves, and women figuring out their role in this new world order (hint: it’s limited). The protagonist is just off the boat from London (a six-week voyage), and he’s in New York on a mission that is not revealed until the end. The book tracks his adventures and misadventures while revealing life on a frontier of the Empire just as frustration with King George is gaining steam. What are the social norms in a new place? How is New York similar to and different from London? When you are secretive yourself, whom do you trust?

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre. Speaking of whom one should trust, not this guy! A pedigreed English public-schooler groomed for the spy world of MI6 was a Communist early on in his career and for decades managed to spy for the Soviets, unbeknownst to his wife, school friends, and spying colleagues. His social trappings, affable humor, and fun boozy parties shielded him from discovery, at great cost to the agents he outed. What a liar! And people kept trusting him. An interesting view into several decades of Cold war history.

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan. This novel follows a woman at work – as a diver in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Concurrently, we’re privy to the life of her father, who had ditched her family early on, and one of his underworld associates. Everyone’s job has its challenges, paths cross, and people make some crazy decisions. Again, some double-crossing is involved.

Carole Parker, Library Assistant – Acquisitions, Information & Library Services

I read Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders this year. Also, The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts by Joshua Hammer. A few novels I found on the featured-works shelves in the library: Smile by Roddy Doyle; Walter Mosley’s Down the River unto the Sea (detective novel); and The Exact Nature of our Wrongs by Janet Peery. All were enjoyable, and that’s all I can remember now!

Sarah Potter ’77, Bookstore Director Emerita

This past year, I marinated in mysteries, mostly. They are easy audio “reads” on my daily commute, and I find the smaller paperbacks don’t bruise when I nod off while reading in bed. In addition to these, I did read a few books that are worthy of note.

Robert McCloskey: A Private Life in Words and Pictures by Jane McCloskey. This is a lovely look into the life of the father of Sal and Jane and it returned me instantly to Blueberries for Sal, One Morning in Maine, and all of the other McCloskey classics that I adore.

For my annual laughter, Bill Bryson’s The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island. Not Bryson’s best effort, but entertaining, and who can resist that title?

Mary Oliver’s Devotions. Balm for the troubled soul.

And for simple reading pleasure, these titles from the shelves of the Orr’s Island Library: Run by Ann Patchett;��Peaches for Father Francis by Joanna Harris (carrying on the Chocolat characters);��The Horse Dancer��by Jojo Moyes. Dressage, theft, grit, love, social commentary – a compelling tale.

Jack Pribram, Professor Emeritus of Physics

Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly. The book that inspired the movie. Brilliant African American women mathematicians, many of whom were hired during WWII, who helped with airplane designs and later continued with the space program with NASA. One of them, Katherine Johnson, had a 35-year career there, was honored by President Obama, and has a building named for her. She is 99 years old.

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson. An easy read with a variety of topics about the universe. It’s been on the New York Times best-seller list for almost a year now.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. The decades-long story of one woman who died of cancer in 1951, and of her family. Some of her cells were removed before she died, and, unusually, the cells started to reproduce. They have been used to develop polio vaccines, cloning, gene mapping, and so on. Personal stories, scientific discoveries, and a discussion of the changes in medical ethics.

The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For by David McCullough. A book to lift your spirits about the United States during these times. A collection of his speeches at dedications and commencements from 1989 to 2016.

The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars by Dava Sobel. At the end of the 1800s, as cameras on telescopes began to have glass plates, it made it easier to examine stars on the pictures. It was tedious, but a group of women tabulated thousands of stars, including ones that periodically changed brightness. Into the early 1900s, they cataloged an immense number of stars. Many of the women are still recognized for their discoveries. Sobel is an excellent science writer, earlier with The New York Times, but now with several books.

Erica Rand, Whitehouse Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies

Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility edited by Reina Gossett, Eric A. Stanley, and Johanna Burton. The editors write: “We are living in a time of trans visibility. Yet we are also living in a time of anti-trans violence” (Page xv). The essays in this volume brilliantly address this sparkly and grim situation.

John Rasmussen, Energy Manager, Facility Services

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain. This book is about introverts and their contribution to our society.

Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer. The corrosive effect of big money on politics.

American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans by Eve LaPlante. The life and times of Hutchinson, a woman who dared challenge the Puritan hierarchy.

Darby Ray, Director, Harward Center for Community Partnerships

Brain Food: The Surprising Science of Eating for Cognitive Power by Lisa Mosconi. Research-informed arguments about the importance of nutrition to brain health and the prevention of cognitive decline. Includes recipes!

News of the World by Paulette Jiles. I’ve never been a fan of Westerns, but I couldn’t put this novel down.

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys. My favorite of the year. World War II historical fiction.

Kirk Read, Professor of French & Francophone Studies

Some years the call for good reads leaves me despondent that I didn’t read MORE. But then I remind myself that I read for a living, so there’s that. But should I be reading more because my last name is Read? Probably. Shameful, really…So here are some reads from in and out of class:

Against all dissuasion, I read Lincoln at the Bardo by Charles Saunders, and sort of liked it. Somewhat inscrutable style with a story that evokes the grief of Abraham Lincoln over his young son’s death. For the naysayers, yes, it was a bit precious; for the enthusiasts, it was at times heartbreaking about impossible grief.

For class, my First-Year Seminar read Amy Dickinson’s Strangers Tend to Tell Me Things, a memoir of dying parents, blending families, parenting missteps, and depression. Sound fun?! Amy is my oldest friend of all time, and my students either loved it or did a good job of pretending. You should too.

I will recommend another book from that course until I breathe no more: Claire Messud’s The Last Life. Family drama linked to France’s colonial past.

If you didn’t read Bryan Stephenson’s Just Mercy (this year’s Common Reading), read it. My students universally loved this amazing book on justice for death row inmates.

Students in French and francophone studies quote Fatima Mernissi’s Dreams of Trespass:��Tales of a Harem Girlhood more than any other work in their capstone portfolios. Find out why. It is a memoir of growing up in a girlhood harem in Fez in the ’40s–’50s.

You should reconnect with your French from high school and college, too, right? Our store has a lot of great titles to help you along. Among my favorites (well-received by students) are Brahim Metiba’s two short memoirs about parental connection and disconnection: Je n’ai pas eu le temps de bavarder avec toi (“I didn’t have time to chat with you”) and Ma mère et moi (“My mother and I”). He weaves issues of religious and gay identity together with family expectations with great tenderness;

Mouloud Feraoun’s Le fils du pauvre (“The poor man’s son”), a lovely recounting of youth in rural Algeria;

and Leila Sebbar’s edited collection Une enfance algérienne (“An Algerian childhood”), which gives many perspectives usually from a child’s perspective (and thus more easily understandable French?) on growing up in Algeria.

There are a number of other titles as well, from murder mysteries with historical excitement — Didier Daeninckx’s Meutres pour mémoire��— to Flaubert’s Coeur Simple. And I’m sure you’ve read the literature that thinking, speaking and communicating in languages that are new to you helps fend off senility. Get one of these by your bed before you forget!

Also recommended, not from a class I gave, but a “class” I “took” (thank you, Professor Tim Dugan!) would be Tony Kushner’s Angels in America. Playing Roy Cohn in the �ֲ���ý production taught me many, many lessons, one of them being what amazing writing this is. Answering the question, “What is this play about?” is a perennial conundrum, because there are a hundred good answers, but to start with: the ’80s, AIDS, Reagan-era politics, hope, despair, beauty, compassion, humor in adversity, grief…It is amazing how timely this play has become.

Roy Cohn and Michael Cohen are linked by much, much more than their similar names…Trump engaged both. Read why and how! There are several books associated with the 25th anniversary of the play, namely, And The World Only Spins Forward by Isaac Butler and Dan Kois, which makes a great companion piece.

Kelsy Ross, Head Women’s Soccer Coach, Athletics

One Goal, by Amy Bass ’92. A must-read for anyone with ties to The Lew.

Adriana Salerno, Associate Professor of Mathematics

I want to recommend The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin, for a feminist, POC-centered fantasy series (just finished it, it’s amazing). Also Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’Neil, for a sobering look at how data is used in our society. Specifically for faculty,��The Slow Professor: Challenging the Culture of Speed in the Academy by Maggie Berg and Barbara Seeger.

Sharon Saunders, Associate College Librarian for Systems & Bibliographic Services, Information & Library Services

Born on Third Base by Chuck Collins. This isn’t about sports, it’s about accumulated wealth: “A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good.”

Beyond the Messy Truth: How We Came Apart, How We Come Together by Van Jones. An interesting take on the current state of the Democratic and Republican parties, with each having “elite” and “popular” subsets.

When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Cullors and Asha Bandele. A story of growing up in L.A., surviving, and becoming a pivotal force in creating Black Lives Matter.

Carl Steidel, Senior Associate Dean of Students

Graphic novels/comics:��Nimona by Noelle Stevenson;��Saga by Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples;��Daytripper by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba;��Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona; and��Alias by Brian Michael Bendis.

Nonfiction:��Jackson, 1964: And Other Dispatches from Fifty Years of Reporting on Race in America by Calvin Trillin;��Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson; and��Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay.

Fiction:��Run by Blake Crouch; Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan; and��Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.

Sawyer Sylvester, Professor Emeritus of Sociology

American Constitutional History: A Brief Introduction by Jack Fruchtman is a concise account of the growth of the Constitution through five distinct developmental stages.

In The Soul of the First Amendment,��Floyd Adams calls the First Amendment the “rock star of the Constitution” and claims that the protections therein make us unique among all other nations.

In The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge, Abraham Flexner states that broad theoretical knowledge, often said to be “impractical,” has been the basis for critical technological advances that would prove time-limited without the theoretical background.

In The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters,��Tom Nichols claims that modern American society has lost faith in expert knowledge, substituting for it a flattening of discourse in which all claims of truth must have equal weight. Contemporary American society feeds on agreement. Disagreement is a threat.

The following are books about books: Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper;��The Bookman’s Tale by Charlie Lovett;��The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee;��Footnotes from the World’s Greatest Bookstores: True Tales and Lost Moments from Book Buyers, Booksellers, and Book Lovers by Bob Eckstein; and��The Book Thieves: The Nazi Looting of Europe’s Libraries and the Race to Return a Literary Inheritance by Angers Rydell.

I especially recommend the last. As the Nazis swept through Europe, and the trains left for Auschwitz, the conquerors sought to eliminate not only the Jews but their history and culture as well. So they destroyed their temples and their libraries and burned their books – thousands upon thousands. This is an account of that savagery.

Finally, I recommend: Earthly Remains and The Temptation of Forgiveness by Donna Leon;��Fludd by Hilary Mantel;��The Lost Book of the Grail by Charlie Lovett;��Harry Potter: A History of Magic, an ebook of the exhibition at��The British Library;��Arthur and Sherlock: Conan Doyle and the Creation of Holmes by Michael Sims; and a fine history of Maine, The Lobster Coast, by Colin Woodard.

Anne Thompson, Professor Emerita of English; Euterpe B. Dukakis Professor Emerita of Classical & Medieval Studies

My favorite book of the year was Golden Hill, by Francis Spufford. It’s a novel about New York City in 1747, i.e. 30 years before the American Revolution. It’s comic, sharp, a wonderfully detailed history of old New York with its 6,000 citizens, and as if that’s not enough, there’s a serious mystery at the heart of it. One of the few authors I’ve read who brings the language and atmosphere of a historical past alive without seeming artificially fabricated.

I also loved Ali Smith’s two short novels (the first two of what she is calling a Seasonal Quartet), Autumn and Winter. Smith has set herself the goal of writing these books so rapidly that they capture the sense of what is happening right now in the UK, so they touch on Brexit, Trump, climate change, technology, and immigration, among other issues. Some passages are laugh-out-loud funny, and others are deeply serious, as when a character reads with dismay a newspaper account about a crowdfunding effort to raise money to buy a boat that will repel Italian boats trying to rescue refugees. I couldn’t believe that this really happened, but I looked it up and it did.

Nadia Thompson, Assistant Director of Principal Gifts, Office of College Advancement

Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell. I loved it. It felt very stark and real. Brief moments of joy and longer moments of dark anxiety. Satisfying ending.

Joseph Tomaras, Director of Sponsored Programs & Research Compliance, Dean of the Faculty’s office

Kindred by Octavia Butler. A must-read, and if you have already read it but not within the last year, then read it again. Content warnings: Racialized slavery and all that goes with it.

Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich. I hesitate to put this book on a list that is ostensibly directed at new graduates, since my own attempts to read it when I was at or near college age foundered. I suspect that to appreciate it, one needs to have some experience with mature love that persists despite failures.

The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist by Emile Habiby. Palestinian science fiction, which manages haphazardly to make a comic hero out of an informer.

The Iliad by Homer (specifically, the translation by Edward McCrorie). The first such translation into English that, to my ear, retains the furious rhythms of the original ancient Greek.

Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury. Like Habiby, a novel of Palestinian experience, but epic where Habiby is comic (though still, often, grimly humorous).

The World Goes On by László Krasznahorkai. A warning: I am the sort of person who has read and enjoyed Samuel Beckett’s novels, which are usually considered some of his most difficult and prickly texts. If you also appreciate them, then Krasznahorkai has written a Beckett novel for the epoch of near-instant telecommunication.

Autumn by Ali Smith. A novel of intergenerational friendship and the breaching of taboos past and present. Like many of Smith’s novels, it demonstrates the gaps and tears that open up when personal lives are knitted into the fabric of history.

Swing Time by Zadie Smith. A story of race, class, gender, and the seemingly small differences that can result in vastly different life trajectories; it then turns into a sharp critique of the White Savior Industrial Complex. I suspect some aspects of the narrative will resonate most vigorously for those born in the 1970s.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. This list ends much as it began, with a brilliant and brutal evocation of the truth that “the past does not pass, it accumulates.” Content warning: Racialized slavery and all that goes with it.

William Wallace, Lecturer in the Humanities

These books changed me in significant ways:

Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz;��Buck by MK Asante;��Behave by Robert Sapolsky; and��Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living by Krista Tippett.

Andrew White, Former��Director of Academic & Client Service,��Information & Library Sciences

Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram Kendi;����Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by Safiya Umoja Noble;��The Underground Railroad: A Novel by Colson Whitehead;��Golden Hill: A Novel of Old New York by Francis Spufford; and��Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell by David Yaffe.

Anne Williams, Professor Emerita of Economics

Since my brother’s stroke-induced dementia, I have read quite a bit about the brain. I found much of interest in two recent reads:

The Brain’s Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity, by Norman Doidge, focuses on neuroplasticity and how to enhance the brain’s ability to create new pathways when old ones stop working.

Into the Gray Zone: A Neuroscientist Explores the Border Between Life and Death, by Adrian Owen, studies developments in communication with people who are completely locked in and used to be diagnosed as being in vegetative states.

For those with an interest in wine or mid-20th-century New York, I suggest Anne Fadiman’s The Wine Lover’s Daughter. It is a witty family memoir and a paean to her dad, Clifton Fadiman.

About white people’s relationship to race, I found the next two to be very thought-provoking: Debby Irving’s Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race is a memoir of discovering and a manual for fighting white privilege; and Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino, Ronald Cotton, and Erin Torneo. The latter is a gripping story about truth, in the form of a rape victim who identified the wrong perpetrator and after his much-later exoneration becomes friends with him.

Amy Ellis Nutt’s Becoming Nicole:��The Transformation of an American Family tells the eye-opening story of a Maine family whose son knew from age 2 that he was really a girl.

Fiction:

A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles, is a delightful and witty narrative of the life of a fallen Russian aristocrat who experiences a rich and slightly improbable life while under decades of house arrest in the Metropol Hotel.

The Samurai’s Garden, by Gail Tsukiyama, tells of a young Chinese man finding maturity while convalescing in Japan long ago. This came out of the Kempers’ Little Free Library on Pettingill Street!

The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead, concatenates many horrors experienced by slaves and freed slaves into one amazing story that resonates today.

In the mystery, thriller, adventure categories, I had the most fun with these four:

Red Sparrow, by Jason Matthews, features Cold War spies, their training, and their intrigues.

Vector, by Robin Cook, was written in 1999 and is amazingly prescient about bio-terrorists and the alt right.

Hostage, by Kristina Ohlsson, has a policeman suffering when his son is the hostage.

The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye, by David Lagercrantz, is hard to put down and thankfully not nearly so violent as the other Lisbeth Salander books.

“No two persons ever read the same book.” — Edmund Wilson

Titles with two or more recommendations:

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Golden Hill: A Novel of New York by Francis Spufford

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne

Artemis by Andy Weir

Kindred by Octavia Butler

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Autumn by Ali Smith

The Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny

Ever wondered what’s on the bedside tables of �ֲ���ý faculty and staff? Wonder no more: Here’s the college’s 21th annual Good Reads for Leisure Moments summer reading list.

With a contributions from across the college, the list comes out each May as a collective community gift to the senior class. It’s a gift to the rest of us, too — a reminder to seize some leisure moments for ourselves each summer.

Founded and compiled for many years by now-retired bookstore director Sarah Emerson Potter ’77, the Good Reads list is now ably whipped into shape by Alison Keegan, a staff member in the Office of the Dean of the Faculty. “My deepest thanks to Sarah Potter for allowing me to grab this torch and keep it burning,” says Keegan.

To the list!

Lee Abrahamsen, Associate Professor of Biology

Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer. A lovely book about nature, spirituality, family and human emotion, Braiding Sweetgrass combines the perspectives of science and tradition. The author is a botanist and professor of plant ecology, and also a Potawatomi woman. Through these two lenses, she teaches others about the values of both.

The Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman. A story of myth, magic and relationships, this book is as fun as it is weird. A seemingly ordinary guy finds a brother he never knew he had, a father he never knew at all and himself in the process. A good romp.

Áslaug Ásgeirsdóttir, Professor of Politics

Commonwealth, by Ann Patchett. This is a sweeping family saga that brings us the story of two families coming together because of divorce. I loved the story, the writing and the suspense surrounding the early death of a central character.

The Invention of Nature, by Andrea Wulf. Wulf reintroduces Alexander von Humboldt, the prolific German scientist, to the 21st century readers. His story is filled with exploration and wonder during his travels through Latin America and the Caribbean in the 1700s and across Russia in the early 1800s as he develops his ideas that everything in nature is interconnected instead of created by God for our use. What I particularly enjoyed was the last part of the book, which details Humboldt’s influence on specific scientists.

Pamela Baker ’70, Helen A. Papaioanou Professor Emerita of Biological Sciences

Etta, by Gerald Koplan. A historical fiction story of the woman who married the Sundance Kid. It combines the actual facts that are known, and weaves a larger tale involving other real people who were alive at the time. Rollicking good story.

Vinegar Girl, by Anne Tyler. It’s a present day retelling of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. I can really picture the characters since two of them are scientists working on autoimmunity. That’s a mash-up I never thought I’d see!

The Book of Ebenezer LePage, by��Gerald Basil Edwards. It’s a history of Guernsey told as a “fictional” memoir but written by an elderly man who life seems to have been much like his narrator. It was rambly, but with a very sweet ending, and I liked the window into how an elderly person might think. Available as an ebook through Maine InfoNet.

Jennifer Blanchard, Special Projects Coordinator, Office of the President

Tell the Wolves I’m Home, by Carol Rifka Brunt. This is the novel I forced on everyone I know last year. Highly recommended for anyone who has grown up and/or loved other human beings.

Rachel Boggia, Associate Professor of Theater and Dance

Lit: A Memoir, by Mary Karr. It is not only a beautifully raw and inspiring book, but each chapter starts with a quote from another author, so it is a great way to be exposed to even more great reading.

Janet Bourne, Lecturer in Music and Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities

The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and Terror of Science, by Richard Holmes. A beautiful book that recognizes the close kinship between arts/humanities and sciences, and how they rose up together.

Marita Bryant, Geology Assistant in Instruction

I’m currently reading and would recommend The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World, by Andrea Wulf.

Daphne Comeau, Administrative Assistant, Office of College Advancement

Make Peace with Anyone: Breakthrough Strategies to Quickly End Any Conflict, Feud, or Estrangement, by David Lieberman. I haven’t read it yet, but it is on my nightstand in case of emergency. I hope I get the chance to read it before I really need it! It shows readers how to quickly resolve any situation, no matter how long it’s been going on, or how many people are involved.

The techniques and psychological strategies presented here are simple, easy to understand, and work…fast. In this book readers will learn how to: End any family feud; Get an apology from anyone; Jumpstart any relationship or friendship; Handle any passive-aggressive person.

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

Fiction:

Seveneves, by Neal Stephenson

The Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker The Day of the Jackal, by Frederick Forsyth

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, by Claire North

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, by Gabrielle Zevin

Summit: a Novel, by Harry Farthing

Nonfiction:

Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship, by Robert Kurson

A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts, by Andrew Chaikin

Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow

Karen Daigler, Senior Associate Director for Graduate and Professional School Advising, �ֲ���ý Career Development Center