Recommended Summer Reading, 2006
Robert Olen Butler: A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
Beautiful short stories that view America through the eyes of Vietnamese postwar immigrants. [Mary Titus, faculty]
Louis de Bernieres: Birds Without Wings
If you loved Corelli's Mandolin, you'll want to read this, too. Set in what is now Turkey before and during WWI, it follows a whole village full of memorable characters (including two from Corelli's Mandolini) who, despite different ethnicities and religions, coexist peacefully before politics and war uproot the Armenians and Greeks. [Mary Steen, faculty]
J.M. Coetzee: Disgrace
Best novel I've read in ten years. [Cathryn Meyer, faculty]
Douglas Coupland: Life After God
Eight spare and beautiful stories accompanied by spare and beautiful drawings about a generation "trying to escape from ironic hell by converting cynicism into faith, randomness into clarity, and worry into devotion." [Adam Lozeau '08]
Justin Cronin: The Summer Guest
Wonderful, quirky, and basically good characters meet at a fishing camp in Maine, where secrets are unveiled. [Rich DuRocher, faculty]
Shasuko Endo: Silence
A slow read at times, but it poses some good theological questions. It is a historical fiction based on the unsuccessful attempt of a Catholic priest to bring Christianity to Japan. [Paul Bennett '08]
Leif Enger: Peace Like a River
A richly textured mid-western novel, a study of murder and healing. [Joan Hepburn, faculty]
Doris Kearns Goodwin: Team of Rivals
This 750 page book about Lincoln and his cabinet is, believe it or not, a page-turner. We see Lincoln as a generous, empathic, strong-minded leader who actually welcomed dessenting views as he made his decisions. [Mary Steen, faculty]
Khaled Hosseini: The Kite Runner and Geraldine Brooks: Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women
Fiction and nonfiction for those who want to start an education on Afganistan, the Middle East, women and Islam. [Karen Cherewatuk, faculty]
Aldous Huxley: Brave New World
This is somewhat of a standard reading list book, but I really enjoyed it. Much easier to read than 1984 by Orwell. It isn't quite as powerful as Orwell's book, but I feel that it went much more in depth to how the society sustained itself and how it could come to exist. More complex than Anthem. [Paul Bennett '08]
Jens Peter Jacobsen: Niels Lyhne
Recommended to be my Rainer Maria Rilke, calling it a "book of grandeur and great depth", Niels Lyhne will astound you with the most beautiful descriptive, imtimate writing ever to experience. [Michelle Vigen '07]
Mary Karr: Sinners Welcome
Karr's new collections of poems includes an essay on her religious conversion. [Jim Heynen, faculty]
Barbara Kingsolver: Prodigal Summer
This book weaves together three different stories of human love set against the stunning backdrop of the Appalachian Mountains. A great summer read for Kingsolver fans and nature enthusiasts alike. [Ellen Draeger '07]
Larry McMurtry: Lonesome Dove
This is a Pulitzer Prize-winning epic western. I try to reread it every year and have just as much fun each time. [John Douglass '07]
David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas
Six novels in one! An experimental page-turner. [Carlos Reyes, faculty]
Devin McKinney: Magic Circles: The Beatles in Dream and History
The best book on the cultural significance of the Beatles I've ever read. [Colin Wells, faculty]
Lucia Perrilo: Luck is Luck; Chad Davidson: Consolation Miracle; Richard Yates: 11 Kinds of Lonliness
Two poets and a short story writer. [Eliot Wilson, faculty]
Rainer Mari Rilke: Letters to a Young Poet
Written from an accomplished poet to a young aspiring writer, Rilke not only offers sage advice, but a beautiful sense of what it is to be an individual in a world of possibility. [Michelle Vigen '07]
Lisa See: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Chinese women, their culture (foot-binding, etc.), their relationships. [Cathryn Meyer, faculty]
Vikram Seth: A Suitable Boy
A sprawling novel about youth, age, and family relationships in Calcutta and small-town India. A must-read for lovers of Victorian novelists like Dickens and those interested in contemporary South Asian fiction. [Mary Trull, faculty]
Gary Snyder: No Nature
No Nature is a collection of Snyder's poems, including "Riprap", Cold Mountain Poems that he translated while in Japan, and other poems. Considered a San Francisco Beat poet, his unique writing style clearly show his deep devotion to nature. [Michelle Vigen '07]
Anne Tyler: Diving to America
Tyler's 17th novel--a delightful, disarming and unpretentious tale about what it means to be "American" and what it means to be part of a family--is one of her finest. [Diana Postlethwaite, faculty]
