The Best Books, According to the Class of '22
Watzek Library invited the graduating class of 2022 to share book recommendations, following in the tradition of the Faculty Best Books List of previous years. More than twenty students responded, together naming dozens of books. Their reasons, where not specific to an individual book, are collected at the bottom of this page.
Books on this page are recommended to all first-year students. Please also see Recommendations by Major.
Some items must be requested from other libraries, as noted under the title. Please let us know if we can help you with the request process.
General Fiction
The Monkey Wrench Gang by Call Number: PS3551.B2 M6 2014Publication Date: 2014"Makes you thirst for adventure"
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by
A charming, warmhearted novel from the author of the New York Times bestseller A Man Called Ove. Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy--as in standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-strangers crazy. She is also Elsa's best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother's stories, in the Land-of-Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas, where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal. When Elsa's grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa's greatest adventure begins. Her grandmother's instructions lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and old crones but also to the truth about fairy tales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry is told with the same comic accuracy and beating heart as Fredrik Backman's bestselling debut novel, A Man Called Ove. It is a story about life and death and one of the most important human rights: the right to be different.
Call Number: requestable through SummitPublication Date: 2016
Just above My Head by
James Baldwin's final novel is "the work of a born storyteller at the height of his powers" (The New York Times Book Review). "Not everything is lost. Responsibility cannot be lost, it can only be abdicated. If one refuses abdication, one begins again." The stark grief of a brother mourning a brother opens this stunning, unforgettable novel. Here, in a monumental saga of love and rage, James Baldwin goes back to Harlem, to the church of his groundbreaking novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, to the forbidden passion of Giovanni's Room, and to the political fire that enflames his nonfiction work. Here, too, the story of gospel singer Arthur Hall and his family becomes both a journey into another country of the soul and senses--and a living contemporary history of black struggle in this land.
Call Number: PS3552.A45 J877Publication Date: 2000
Invisible Cities by
Italo Calvino's beloved, intricately crafted novel about an Emperor's travels--a brilliant journey across far-off places and distant memory. "Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else." In a garden sit the aged Kublai Khan and the young Marco Polo--Mongol emperor and Venetian traveler. Kublai Khan has sensed the end of his empire coming soon. Marco Polo diverts his host with stories of the cities he has seen in his travels around the empire: cities and memory, cities and desire, cities and designs, cities and the dead, cities and the sky, trading cities, hidden cities. As Marco Polo unspools his tales, the emperor detects these fantastic places are more than they appear.
Call Number: PQ4809.A45 C52Publication Date: 1978
Trust Exercise by Call Number: PS3553.H584 T78 2019Publication Date: 2019"A gripping, masterfully written novel about power, consent, and personal autonomy. It's set in a performing arts high school in the '80s and features an epic, Gone Girl-level twist."
The Brothers Karamazov by Call Number: PG3326 .B7 2021Publication Date: 2021"The Brothers Karamazov has, in my opinion, some of the most beautiful passages that I have ever read in a book."
One Hundred Years of Solitude by
"One Hundred Years of Solitude is the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race. . . . Mr. Garcia Marquez has done nothing less than to create in the reader a sense of all that is profound, meaningful, and meaningless in life." --William Kennedy, New York Times Book Review One of the most influential literary works of our time, One Hundred Years of Solitude remains a dazzling and original achievement by the masterful Gabriel Garcia Marquez, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendiá family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad and alive with unforgettable men and women--brimming with truth, compassion, and a lyrical magic that strikes the soul--this novel is a masterpiece in the art of fiction.
Call Number: PQ8180.17.A73 C513 2003Publication Date: 2003
Snow Falling on Cedars by
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * PEN/Faulkner Award Winner * A gripping, tragic, and densely atmospheric masterpiece of courtroom suspense--one that leaves us shaken and changed. "Haunting .... A whodunit complete with courtroom maneuvering and surprising turns of evidence and at the same time a mystery, something altogether richer and deeper." --Los Angeles Times San Piedro Island, north of Puget Sound, is a place so isolated that no one who lives there can afford to make enemies. But in 1954 a local fisherman is found suspiciously drowned, and a Japanese American named Kabuo Miyamoto is charged with his murder. In the course of the ensuing trial, it becomes clear that what is at stake is more than a man's guilt. For on San Pedro, memory grows as thickly as cedar trees and the fields of ripe strawberries--memories of a charmed love affair between a white boy and the Japanese girl who grew up to become Kabuo's wife; memories of land desired, paid for, and lost. Above all, San Piedro is haunted by the memory of what happened to its Japanese residents during World War II, when an entire community was sent into exile while its neighbors watched.
Call Number: PS3557.U846 S65 1995Publication Date: 1995
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Call Number: PS3515.E37 F6 1940Publication Date: 1995"Fight for a cause you believe in."
Never Let Me Go by Call Number: PR6059.S5 N48 2005Publication Date: 2005"Features a brilliant premise and subtle, beautiful writing. Completely heartbreaking."
Rayuela by
Una nueva edición conmemorativa de la RAE y la ASALE: Rayuela, una de las obras cumbre de la literatura contemporánea en español Un hito insoslayable en la narrativa del siglo XX que no deja de encontrar lectores En el contexto de la celebración del VII Congreso Internacional de la Lengua Española en la ciudad argentina de Córdoba en marzo de 2019, esta edición rinde homenaje a uno de los autores en español más importantes de todos los tiempos y a su obra más emblemática, que conmocionó el panorama cultural de su tiempo y que no deja de encontrar lectores hasta nuestros días. La publicación de Rayuela en 1963 supuso una verdadera revolución en la narrativa en lengua castellana: por primera vez, un escritor llevaba hasta las últimas consecuencias la voluntad de transgredir el orden tradicional de una historia y el lenguaje para contarla. Rebosante de ambición literaria y vital, renovadora de las herramientas narrativas, destructora de géneros y convenciones, Rayuela es Cortázar en esencia, con toda su complejidad ética y estética, con su imaginación y su humor. La edición recupera, como complemento a la novela, tres textos magistrales de Gabriel García Márquez, Adolfo Bioy Casares y Carlos Fuentes, autores contemporáneos de Julio Cortázar, que dan cuenta de la dimensión del autor y de la recepción que tuvo la novela en su tiempo. Además, incluye trabajos de los escritores Mario Vargas Llosa y Sergio Ramírez, y de los críticos Julio Ortega, Andrés Amorós, Eduardo Romano y Graciela Montaldo, que muestran la intemporalidad de la propuesta narrativa cortazariana. Incluye, además, por primera vez desde 1983, la reproducción facsimilar del «Cuaderno de bitácora», la libreta en la que Cortázar fue anotando ideas, escenas y personajes de la novela durante el proceso de escritura. Este cuaderno permite, como un juego de los que tanto gustó Cortázar, un diálogo del autor con el lector sobre la novela que traspasa las fronteras del tiempo. De la lectura de esta novela el lector emerge tal vez con otra idea acerca del modo de leer los libros y de ver la vida. Es, sin duda, un mosaico donde toda una época se vio maravillosamente reflejada. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION A new commemorative edition by the Real Academia Española and the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language: Rayuela, a masterpiece of contemporary Spanish-language literature. An undisputed milestone in 20th-century fiction that continues to draw in new readers. In the context of the 7th International Congress of the Spanish Language in the Argentine city of Córdoba in March, 2019, this edition pays homage to one of the most important Spanish-language authors of all time and his most emblematic work, which shook the cultural landscape of his era and which still attracts new readers even today. The publication of Rayuela in 1963 signified a true revolution in Spanish-language fiction: for the first time, a writer fully broke the rules about the order and language in which a story should be told. Brimming with literary and vital ambition, reforming narrative techniques, and breaking down genres and conventions, Rayuela is the essence of Cortázar, with all his ethical and aesthetic complexities, with his imagination and his humor. As a complement to the novel, this edition contains three masterful pieces by Gabriel García Márquez, Adolfo Bioy Casares, and Carlos Fuentes, contemporaries of Julio Cortázar, that shed light on the author''s dimension and the reception the novel had in its time. It also includes works by writers Mario Vargas Llosa and Sergio Ramírez, and by critics Julio Ortega, Andrés Amorós, Eduardo Romano, and Graciela Montaldo, showing the timelessness of Cortázar''s narrative approach. In addition, for the first time since 1983, it includes a reproduction of the "Log book," the notebook in which Cortázar noted ideas, scenes, and characters for the novel during the writing process. Like one of those games that Cortázar liked so much, this notebook allows a dialogue between the author and the reader that breaks the barriers of time. Readers might emerge from this book with a different idea about how to read books and how to view life. It is, without a doubt, a mosaic in which an entire era is marvelously reflected.
Publication Date: 2019
Pachinko by
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST * A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW TOP TEN OF THE YEAR * NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2017 *A USA TODAY TOP TEN OF 2017 * JULY PICK FOR THE PBS NEWSHOUR-NEW YORK TIMES BOOK CLUB NOW READ THIS * FINALIST FOR THE 2018 DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE Roxane Gay's Favorite Book of 2017, Washington Post NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * #1 BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER * USA TODAY BESTSELLER * WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER * WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER In this gorgeous, page-turning saga, four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family fight to control their destiny in 20th-century Japan, exiled from a home they never knew. "There could only be a few winners, and a lot of losers. And yet we played on, because we had hope that we might be the lucky ones." In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant--and that her lover is married--she refuses to be bought. Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son's powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations. Richly told and profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty. From bustling street markets to the halls of Japan's finest universities to the pachinko parlors of the criminal underworld, Lee's complex and passionate characters--strong, stubborn women, devoted sisters and sons, fathers shaken by moral crisis--survive and thrive against the indifferent arc of history. *Includes reading group guide*
Call Number: PS3612.E346 P33 2017Publication Date: 2017
Once There Were Wolves by
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Blazing...Visceral" (Los Angeles Times) · "Exceptional" (Newsweek) · "Bold...Heartfelt" (New York Times Book Review) · "Thought-provoking and thrilling" (GMA) · "Suspenseful and poignant" (Scientific American) · "Gripping" (The Sydney Morning Herald) From the author of the beloved national bestseller Migrations, a pulse-pounding new novel set in the wild Scottish Highlands. Inti Flynn arrives in Scotland with her twin sister, Aggie, to lead a team of biologists tasked with reintroducing fourteen gray wolves into the remote Highlands. She hopes to heal not only the dying landscape, but Aggie, too, unmade by the terrible secrets that drove the sisters out of Alaska. Inti is not the woman she once was, either, changed by the harm she's witnessed--inflicted by humans on both the wild and each other. Yet as the wolves surprise everyone by thriving, Inti begins to let her guard down, even opening herself up to the possibility of love. But when a farmer is found dead, Inti knows where the town will lay blame. Unable to accept her wolves could be responsible, Inti makes a reckless decision to protect them. But if the wolves didn't make the kill, then who did? And what will Inti do when the man she is falling for seems to be the prime suspect? Propulsive and spell-binding, Charlotte McConaghy's Once There Were Wolves is the unforgettable story of a woman desperate to save the creatures she loves--if she isn't consumed by a wild that was once her refuge.
Call Number: requestable through SummitPublication Date: 2021
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NOW A NETFLIX FILM * A remarkable tale of the island of Guernsey during the German Occupation, and of a society as extraordinary as its name. "Treat yourself to this book, please--I can't recommend it highly enough."--Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love "I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers." January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she's never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb. . . . As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends--and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society--born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island--boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all. Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society's members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever. Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises and of finding connection in the most surprising ways. Praise for The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society "A jewel . . . Poignant and keenly observed, Guernsey is a small masterpiece about love, war, and the immeasurable sustenance to be found in good books and good friends."--People "A book-lover's delight, an implicit and sometimes explicit paean to all things literary."--Chicago Sun-Times "A sparkling epistolary novel radiating wit, lightly worn erudition and written with great assurance and aplomb."--The Sunday Times (London) "Cooked perfectly à point: subtle and elegant in flavour, yet emotionally satisfying to the finish."--The Times (London)
Call Number: PS3619.H3365 G84 2008Publication Date: 2008
Running the Light by Call Number: requestable through interlibrary loanPublication Date: 2020"Don't let poor decision making and laziness cloud your judgement."
The Secret History by
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER * A contemporary literary classic and "an accomplished psychological thriller ... absolutely chilling" (Village Voice), from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Goldfinch. Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality their lives are changed profoundly and forever, and they discover how hard it can be to truly live and how easy it is to kill.
Call Number: PS3570.A657 S4 1992Publication Date: 2004
Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars by
At once a love letter and challenge to the traditional transgender memoir, Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars is a playful, surrealist dance through queer coming of age. A haunted young girl (who happens to be a kung-fu expert and pathological liar) runsaway from an oppressive city, where the sky is always grey, in search of love and sisterhood--and finds herself in a magical place known only as the Street of Miracles.There, she is quickly adopted into a vigilante gang of glamorous warrior femmes called the Lipstick Lacerators, whose mission is to scour the Street of violent men and avenge murdered trans women everywhere. But when disaster strikes, can our intrepid heroine find the truth within herself in order to protect her new family and heal her broken heart?
Call Number: PR9199.4.T446 F54 2016Publication Date: 2016
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Call Number: PR5819.A2 F73 2011Publication Date: 2011"Appreciate youth while you have it."
Essays and Memoirs
The Fire Next Time by
A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation, gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement--and still lights the way to understanding race in America today. "Basically the finest essay I've ever read. . . . Baldwin refused to hold anyone's hand. He was both direct and beautiful all at once. He did not seem to write to convince you. He wrote beyond you." --Ta-Nehisi Coates At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document from the iconic author of If Beale Street Could Talk and Go Tell It on the Mountain. It consists of two "letters," written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism. Described by The New York Times Book Review as "sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle...all presented in searing, brilliant prose," The Fire Next Time stands as a classic of literature.
Call Number: E185.61 .B195 1993Publication Date: 1992
Dictee by Publication Date: 2001"Dictee is special for me because it is an auto-theory book about a young Asian American woman and it helped me connect with my own Asian background, as well as the experience of my Asian American mother."
Walden and Other Writings by Call Number: PS3042 .A7 1992Publication Date: 1992"Similarly to Digital Minimalism (listed under Nonfiction), Walden is filled with such tremendous insights. I began to think about my days differently, and how I want to spend them."
Trick Mirror by
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "From The New Yorker's beloved cultural critic comes a bold, unflinching collection of essays about self-deception, examining everything from scammer culture to reality television."--Esquire Book Club Pick for Now Read This, from PBS NewsHour and The New York Times * "A whip-smart, challenging book."--Zadie Smith * "Jia Tolentino could be the Joan Didion of our time."--Vulture FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE'S JOHN LEONARD PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST BOOK * NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY AND HARVARD CRIMSON AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review * Time * Chicago Tribune * The Washington Post * NPR * Variety * Esquire * Vox * Elle * Glamour * GQ * Good Housekeeping * The Paris Review * Paste * Town & Country * BookPage * Kirkus Reviews * BookRiot * Shelf Awareness Jia Tolentino is a peerless voice of her generation, tackling the conflicts, contradictions, and sea changes that define us and our time. Now, in this dazzling collection of nine entirely original essays, written with a rare combination of give and sharpness, wit and fearlessness, she delves into the forces that warp our vision, demonstrating an unparalleled stylistic potency and critical dexterity. Trick Mirror is an enlightening, unforgettable trip through the river of self-delusion that surges just beneath the surface of our lives. This is a book about the incentives that shape us, and about how hard it is to see ourselves clearly through a culture that revolves around the self. In each essay, Tolentino writes about a cultural prism: the rise of the nightmare social internet; the advent of scamming as the definitive millennial ethos; the literary heroine's journey from brave to blank to bitter; the punitive dream of optimization, which insists that everything, including our bodies, should become more efficient and beautiful until we die. Gleaming with Tolentino's sense of humor and capacity to elucidate the impossibly complex in an instant, and marked by her desire to treat the reader with profound honesty, Trick Mirror is an instant classic of the worst decade yet. FINALIST FOR THE PEN/DIAMONSTEIN-SPIELVOGEL AWARD FOR THE ART OF THE ESSAY
Call Number: E169.12 .T63 2020Publication Date: 2020
Short Stories
Ficciones by
Jorge Luis Borges was one of those very rare creators who changed the face of an art form--in his case, the short story. His work has been paid the ultimate honor of being appropriated and imitated by innumerable writers on every continent of the world. The seventeen brief masterpieces of FICCIONES explode the boundaries of genre, offering up labyrinthine libraries, a fictional encyclopedia entry that spawns an entire world, a review of a nonexistent writer's attempt to re-create Don Quixote word for word, a man with the disabling inability to forget anything he has ever experienced, and other metaphysical puzzles. But the true measure of Borges's greatness lies in the fact that his fictions--elaborately paradoxical, postmodern, and intellectually delicious as they are--managed to return the short story to the realm of the fabulous and the uncanny from which, as parable and fairy tale, it originally came.
Call Number: PQ7797.B635 F5 1973Publication Date: 1993
Burnt Water by Call Number: PQ7297.F793 A26 1980Publication Date: 1980Recommended specifically for the story "Chac Mool," in which "the protagonist comes in contact with a survivor of the pre-Columbian era who takes on supernatural attributes and reestablishes the presence of native peoples and cultures in modern times."
Her Body and Other Parties by Call Number: PS3613.A2725243 H47 2017Publication Date: 2017“Machado’s work is perfect for anyone who loves horror or short fiction, her story ‘Inventory’ came out years before the pandemic, but hits a little closer to home now.”
The Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces by Call Number: PS2380 .F68 v.9Publication Date: 1987"If you don't have the time or interest for Moby-Dick, Melville's collection of Piazza Tales will surprise you with new facts about yourself as it astounds you with the beauty of its linguistic music."
Tenth of December by Call Number: PS3569.A7897 T46 2013Publication Date: 2013"Some of the best short stories EVER. My favorite is 'The Semplica-Girl Diaries.'"
Mystery and Thrillers
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by
"The perfect mystery"
Call Number: requestable through SummitPublication Date: 1920
Gone Girl by Call Number: PS3606.L935 G66 2012Publication Date: 2012"One of the few books with an ending that genuinely surprised me... I love Flynn’s ability to write unhinged women and messed up family dynamics!"
Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Call Number: PS3554.I3 D6 1996Publication Date: 1996"Written in the 1960s, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? takes place in 2021 in a dystopian Earth that has been destroyed by natural disasters, with humanity leaving to live on Mars colonies. Even though the book was written so long ago, it accurately predicted many of the feelings of disillusionment that we actually dealt with in 2021—environmental concerns, planned obsolescence of technology, moral dilemmas over artificial intelligence, etc. As a Computer Science major, I think it's a must-read for anyone interested in pursuing a career in technology."
The Library at Mount Char by Call Number: requestable through SummitPublication Date: 2016With Bird Box and The Rook [both below], "Each of these books follows the story of a woman navigating through various hardships, but they manage to find success in unlikely places. Parts of these four years (i.e., Covid) have felt comedically absurd and of-another-world, so seeing the protagonists persevere despite similar challenges helped me to do the same."
Dune by
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE directed by Denis Villeneuve, starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, David Dastmalchian, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Chang Chen, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Charlotte Rampling, and Javier Bardem. Frank Herbert's epic masterpiece--a triumph of the imagination and the bestselling science fiction novel of all time. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the "spice" melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for.... When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul's family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad'Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream. A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.
Call Number: PS3558.E63 D8 1999Publication Date: 1999
Throne of Glass by Call Number: requestable through SummitPublication Date: 2012"The Throne of Glass series got me back into pleasure reading! I think it's important to read for fun when so many other readings are required. For me, it was a good way to disappear into a fantasy world with a badass heroin for a while, as a treat."
Bird Box by
Now a Netflix film starring Sandra Bullock, Sarah Paulson, Rosa Salazar and John Malkovich! Written with the narrative tension of The Road and the exquisite terror of classic Stephen King, Bird Box is a propulsive, edge-of-your-seat horror thriller, set in an apocalyptic near-future world--a masterpiece of suspense from the brilliantly imaginative Josh Malerman. Something is out there . . . Something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from. Five years after it began, a handful of scattered survivors remain, including Malorie and her two young children. Living in an abandoned house near the river, she has dreamed of fleeing to a place where they might be safe. Now, that the boy and girl are four, it is time to go. But the journey ahead will be terrifying: twenty miles downriver in a rowboat--blindfolded--with nothing to rely on but her wits and the children's trained ears. One wrong choice and they will die. And something is following them. But is it man, animal, or monster? Engulfed in darkness, surrounded by sounds both familiar and frightening, Malorie embarks on a harrowing odyssey--a trip that takes her into an unseen world and back into the past, to the companions who once saved her. Under the guidance of the stalwart Tom, a motely group of strangers banded together against the unseen terror, creating order from the chaos. But when supplies ran low, they were forced to venture outside--and confront the ultimate question: in a world gone mad, who can really be trusted? Interweaving past and present, Josh Malerman's breathtaking debut is a horrific and gripping snapshot of a world unraveled that will have you racing to the final page.
Call Number: requestable through SummitPublication Date: 2014
The Rook by
Myfanwy Thomas awakens in a London park surrounded by dead bodies. With her memory gone, she must trust the instructions left by her former in order to survive. She quickly learns that she is a Rook, a high-level operative in a secret agency that protects the world from supernatural threats. But there is a mole inside the organization, and this person wants her dead. Battling to save herself, Myfanwy will encounter a person with four bodies, a woman who can enter her dreams, children transformed into deadly fighters, and terrifyingly vast conspiracy. Suspenseful and hilarious, The Rook is an outrageously imaginative thriller for readers who like their espionage with a dollop of purple slime. "Utterly convincing and engrossing -- -totally thought-through and frequently hilarious....Even this aging, jaded, attention-deficit-disordered critic was blown away."-Lev Grossman, Time
Call Number: requestable through SummitPublication Date: 2012
Humor
Cruel Shoes by Publication Date: 1979"The brand of almost transgressive absurdity Steve Martin peddled around the country in the late '70s has all but been forgotten by now. Perhaps he took too many roles in feel-good family movies since the close of his artistic zenith. But the truth remains that he is one of very few comic geniuses left alive. Cruel Shoes remains his written masterpiece, the nonsensical crystallization of that all-too important work he had to walk away from."
Joy in the Morning by Call Number: requestable through SummitPublication Date: 2011"P.G. Wodehouse's fluency with the language, the delight with which he seems to empty the coffers of English's finest phrasings, is entirely unmatched. Shakespeare is not smoother. I also believe quite strongly that reading should be fun, and that fun-ness, that funitude, should not be excluded from conversations of literary merit. Wodehouse is the standard-bearer for goofiness with depth, and he should be read and studied as soon as possible. Any one of Wodehouse's short stories or novels would suffice; Joy In The Morning is simply the one that delighted me most recently."
Nonfiction
The Cultural Politics of Emotion by
Praise for the first edition "Ahmed's work contributes to cultural studies and rhetorical theory by elaborating a process through which we can approach everyday emotional practices as rich and complex sites interwoven in struggles for social change."--Rachel C. Riedner, JAC What do emotions do? How do emotions move us or get us stuck? In developing a theory of the cultural politics of emotion, Sara Ahmed focuses on the relationship between emotions, language, and bodies. She shows how emotions are named in speech acts, as well as how they involve sensations that can be felt not only emotionally, but physically. A new methodology for reading 'the emotionality of texts' is offered as are analyses of the role of emotions in debates on international terrorism, asylum and migration, and reconciliation and reparation. Attending to the intersections between race, gender, and sexuality, The Cultural Politics of Emotion is in dialogue with key trends in gender studies and cultural studies, the psychology and sociology of emotions, and phenomenology and psychoanalysis. It takes as its point of entry different emotions -- pain, hate, fear, disgust, shame, and love -- and reflects on the role of emotions in feminist and queer politics. In a special afterword to this tenth anniversary edition, Ahmed explains to readers how this classic book relates to other key works in the emergent field of affect studies and also reflects on the way the book has been part of her own intellectual trajectory.
Call Number: BF531 .A585 2015Publication Date: 2014
Braiding Sweetgrass by Call Number: E98.P5 K56 2013Publication Date: 2015“A poetic and beautiful collection of thoughts by a Native woman (Potawatomi Nation) who also researches ecology academically, while connecting it to the stories and culture of native peoples. This book entirely restructured how I view the nature around me. My relationship with nature is stronger because of this book, and this book also allowed me to take a skeptical look at our academic way of reviewing plants and animals, when there is a rich history with other names and ways of learning.”
Digital Minimalism by Call Number:HM851 .N49256 2019
requestable through SummitPublication Date: 2019"Digital Minimalism changed my life! I only really started to hear the birds while walking on campus after reading Cal Newport in sophomore year."
Dude, You're a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School by Call Number: HQ797 .P37 2007Publication Date: 2007With Feminism for the 99%, below, "Both of these books really helped shape the way I perceive and have come to understand the world I am about to step in to. Although difficult to confront, some of these truths must be known."
Feminism for The 99% by
Named one of Vogue's "Most Anticipated Books of 2019" This is a manifesto for the 99 percent Unaffordable housing, poverty wages, inadequate healthcare, border policing, climate change--these are not what you ordinarily hear feminists talking about. But aren't they the biggest issues for the vast majority of women around the globe? Taking as its inspiration the new wave of feminist militancy that has erupted globally, this manifesto makes a simple but powerful case: feminism shouldn't start--or stop--with the drive to have women represented at the top of their professions. It must focus on those at the bottom, and fight for the world they deserve. And that means targeting capitalism. Feminism must be anticapitalist, eco-socialist and antiracist.
Call Number: HQ1190 .F727 2019Publication Date: 2019
Reclaiming Our Space by
A treatise of Black women's transformative influence in media, entertainment, and politics, and why this intersectional movement building, especially on Twitter, is essential to the resistance. In Reclaiming Our Space, social worker, activist, and cultural commentator Feminista Jones explores how Black women are changing culture, society, and the landscape of feminism by building digital communities and using social media as powerful platforms. Complex conversations around race, class, and gender that have been happening behind the closed doors of academia for decades are now becoming part of the wider cultural vernacular--one pithy tweet at a time. These online platforms have given those outside the traditional university setting an opportunity to engage with and advance these conversations--and in doing so have created new energy for intersectional movements around the world. It has been a seismic shift, and as Jones argues, no one has had more to do with this renaissance of community building than Black women. As Jones reveals, some of the best-loved devices of our shared social media language are a result of Black women's innovations, from well-known movement-building hashtags (#BlackLivesMatter, #SayHerName, and #BlackGirlMagic) to the now ubiquitous use of threaded tweets as a marketing and storytelling tool. For some, these online dialogues provide an introduction to the work of Black feminist icons like Angela Davis, Barbara Smith, bell hooks, and the women of the Combahee River Collective. For others, this discourse provides a platform for continuing their feminist activism and scholarship in a new interactive way. With these important online conversations, not only are Black women influencing popular culture and creating sociopolitical movements; they are also galvanizing a new generation to learn and engage in Black feminist thought and theory, and inspiring change in communities around them. Hard-hitting, intelligent, incisive, yet bursting with humor and pop-culture savvy, Reclaiming Our Space is a survey of Black feminism's past, present, and future, and places Black women front and center in a new chapter of resistance and political engagement.
Call Number: HQ1197 .J66 2019Publication Date: 2019
In Search of Respect by
In Search of Respect, Philippe Bourgois's now-classic, ethnographic study of social marginalization in inner-city America, won critical acclaim after it was first published in 1995 and in 1997 was awarded the Margaret Mead Award. For the first time, an anthropologist had managed to gain the trust and long-term friendship of street-level drug dealers in one of the roughest ghetto neighborhoods in the United States - East Harlem. This edition adds a prologue describing the major dynamics in America that have altered life on the streets of East Harlem in the six years since the first edition. Bourgois, in a new epilogue, brings up to date the stories of the people - Primo, Caesar, Luis, Tony, Candy - who readers come to know in this remarkable window onto the world of the inner-city drug trade.
Call Number: HV5810 .B68 2003Publication Date: 2002
The Pastoral Clinic by
The Pastoral Clinic takes us on a penetrating journey into an iconic Western landscape--northern New Mexico's Española Valley, home to the highest rate of heroin addiction and fatal overdoses in the United States. In a luminous narrative, Angela Garcia chronicles the lives of several Hispanic addicts, introducing us to the intimate, physical, and institutional dependencies in which they are entangled. We discover how history pervades this region that has endured centuries of social inequality, drug and alcohol abuse, and material and cultural dispossession, and we come to see its experience of the opioid epidemic as a contemporary expression of these conditions, as well as a manifestation of the human desire to be released from them. With lyrical prose, evoking the Española Valley and its residents through conversations, encounters, and recollections, The Pastoral Clinic is at once a devastating portrait of immigration and addiction, a rich ethnography of place, and an eloquent call to political activists, politicians, and medical professionals for a new ethics of substance abuse treatment and care.
Call Number: HV5822.H4 G37 2010Publication Date: 2010
The New Jim Crow by
Despite the triumphant dismantling of the Jim Crow Laws, the system that once forced African Americans into a segregated second-class citizenship still haunts America, the US criminal justice system still unfairly targets black men and an entire segment of the population is deprived of their basic rights. Outside of prisons, a web of laws and regulations discriminates against these wrongly convicted ex-offenders in voting, housing, employment and education. Alexander here offers an urgent call for justice.
Call Number: HV9950 .A437 2010Publication Date: 2010
The Ignorant Schoolmaster by Call Number:LB675.J242 R3613 1991
requestable through SummitPublication Date: 1991
Ways of Seeing by Call Number: N7430.5 .W39 1977Publication Date: 1977"Ways of Seeing opened my eyes to the depth of art theory and the theoretical possibilities that can be created with art."
The Argonauts by Call Number: PS3564.E4687 Z46 2015Publication Date: 2016"A beautiful nonfiction read that will especially speak to queer readers."
The Hidden Life of Trees by
A NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST, AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER * One of the most beloved books of our time: an illuminating account of the forest, and the science that shows us how trees communicate, feel, and live in social networks. After reading this book, a walk in the woods will never be the same again. "Breaks entirely new ground ... [Peter Wohlleben] has listened to trees and decoded their language. Now he speaks for them."--The New York Review of Books NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BRAINPICKINGS * HONORABLE MENTION: SEJ Rachel Carson Environment Book Award * Shortlisted: Audible International Book of the Year Award * Books For a Better Life Award * Indie Choice Award--Nonfiction Book of the Year Are trees social beings? In The Hidden Life of Trees forester and author Peter Wohlleben convincingly makes the case that, yes, the forest is a social network. He draws on groundbreaking scientific discoveries to describe how trees are like human families: tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, support them as they grow, share nutrients with those who are sick or struggling, and even warn each other of impending dangers. Wohlleben also shares his deep love of woods and forests, explaining the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration that he has observed in his woodland. "A declaration of love and an engrossing primer on trees, brimming with facts and an unashamed awe for nature."--Washington Post "Heavily dusted with the glitter of wonderment."--The New Yorker Includes a Note From a Forest Scientist by Dr.Suzanne Simard Published in Partnership with the David Suzuki Institute
Call Number: QK475 .W6413 2016Publication Date: 2016
The Center Cannot Hold by Call Number:RC464.S25 A3 2007
requestable through SummitPublication Date: 2007"This was one of the first autobiographies I read for my major. It is written by a woman who tells of her experience with schizophrenia, and helped to shape my understanding of the disease, and in general, was a thoughtful lens with which I could see the psychiatric health system."
Why these books?
A number of books were recommended for their formative influence: “All of [these books] dramatically changed the way I see the world, the way I see and understand strangers,” one student wrote. Another said, “They’ve changed my perspective on the world for the better, the more radical.” “Both of these books really helped shape the way I perceive and have come to understand the world I am about to step in to. Although difficult to confront, some of these truths must be known,” reflected a third.
Some books were recommended as emotional ballast in a bewildering time: “Parts of these four years (i.e., Covid) have felt comedically absurd and of-another-world, so see the protagonists persevere despite similar challenges helped me to do the same.” Some allowed students to immerse themselves in and engage with their studies, while also offering comfort.
Many were recommended for sheer fun and enjoyment.