Summer Reading Recommendations 2023
Check out these sizzling summer reading recommendations from your favorite professors and administrator:
Professor Anjaria:
"I recommend Love Marriage by Monica Ali. It's a fun and light book about modern-day relationships that will keep you engrossed until the final page."
Professor Burt:
"Katrin Schumann, The Forgotten Hours. The protagonist's father is convicted of a sexual offense involving her best friend. She is convinced he is innocent, but the facts are more ambiguous. And William Maxwell, So Long, See You Tomorrow. A short novel about jealousy and murder in early 20th century Illinois."
Academic Administrator Lisa Pannella:
"The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey, by Candice Millard, nonfiction.
The story of Theodore Roosevelt's journey down an uncharted tributary of the Amazon--not enough provisions, not the right style of canoe, etc. Your summer vacation will seem fantastic by comparison."
Professor Plotz:
"Eleanor Catton's Birnam Wood is a rollicking soap opera pitting New Zealand eco-warriors and guerrilla gardeners against an American plutocrat--and sometimes against one another as well. It's got love, hi-tech surveillance and low-tech intrigue all against the fabulous background of a secluded forest valley in the wilds of the Antipodes. It ain't short, but I tore through it."
Professor Targoff:
"I would like to recommend Pat Barker, The Silence of the Girls, which retells the story of the Iliad from the perspective of Achilles’ enslaved Trojan woman, Briseis. It is a powerful return to one of the most powerful works of literature in our tradition, with a strong feminist twist."
Professor Tharaud:
"This isn't exactly 'sun and surf,' but I'd recommend Patrick Radden Keefe's Say Nothing: A True History of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland (2019). It weaves together the true story of the mysterious disappearance of a Protestant mother of 10 from Belfast in 1972 with the rise of the violent struggle for Northern Irish independence known as 'The Troubles.' It's a suspenseful, skillfully told story with lots of interesting characters, and you learn a lot of history along the way."