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The Ultimate
Summer Reading List
From cultural edification to the pleasures of pulp ...
the books recommended by the Homewood faculty and staff we
surveyed are surefire must-reads for those langorous days
of summer.
Compiled by
Catherine Pierre
Illustrations by
Hadley Hooper
Linda DeLibero, Associate Director of Film and Media
Studies
"Peter Bogdanovich's Who the Hell's In It: Portraits and
Conversations. And I would add to that its predecessor,
Who the Devil Made It. The new one is a collection
of his interviews and portraits of Hollywood stars. The
first one was about directors. They're really for people
who are interested in movies, not gossip. He's one of the
rare writers who sees Hollywood from the perspective of
both critic and filmmaker, and his approach to these
stars/directors is usually insightful, touching, and
erudite."
Ron Walters, History Professor
"My summer reading lists are usually works of fiction. I
begin with great expectations that this will be the year I
reread War and Peace and work my way through all the
wonderful magical realist Latin American novels. Once I
even had Finnegans Wake on the list. The sordid
reality is that when it comes to summer reading for
pleasure, I'm not going to end up with Tolstoy but more
likely with a campy, charming Rex Stout Nero Wolfe mystery.
This summer, for a change, I am making no pretenses. I am
going to get in touch with my inner philistine and read
mysteries, not even psychologically complex ones like those
of P.D. James, Patricia Highsmith, and Ruth Rendell —
three favorites. I'm going for the old hard-boiled private
eye classics of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, with
perhaps a reread of Kenneth Fearing's wonderful The Big
Clock, if I can ever find my copy. Chandler's The
Long Goodbye and Hammett's The Glass Key are
already at my bedside, waiting for the semester to end. I
may even buy a bottle of bourbon to sip while reading this
stuff, even though I don't much like it. This summer, it's
the pleasures of pulp."
Avi Rubin, Technical Director of the Information
Security Institute, Whiting School of
Engineering
"I loved Genome and The Red Queen, by Matt
Ridley. These books convinced me that if I wasn't a
computer scientist, I'd want to be a genetic biologist. The
books are accessible, interesting, and fun. Right now, I'm
reading On Intelligence, by Jeff Hawkins. It's the
founder of the PalmPilot's take on where intelligence comes
from and how intelligence works in the brain. I am
thoroughly enjoying it."
Sandra Newman, Director of the Institute for Policy
Studies
"I really recommend A Peace to End All Peace, by
David Fromkin. It's an excellent description of the origins
of the modern Middle East — very well written and a
good foundation for understanding current events both
regionally and on a country-by-country basis. I also liked
The Empty Cradle, by Phillip Longman. He makes a
compelling argument that falling fertility rates in every
part of the world — Italy, for example, has been at
less than replacement rate for the past 10 years, and rates
are plummeting in the Middle East — are creating a
global crisis. And finally, I found The Kite Runner,
by Khaled Hosseini, to be a magnificently written
coming-of-age book that provides stunning insights into
Afghani culture and values, and the challenges of
immigration to the U.S."
Tom Calder, Athletic Director
"After many years, I am getting back into early American
and Canadian history. I'm saving Stephen Ambrose's
Undaunted Courage for a slower time, hopefully this
summer. People need to know the real story of Lewis and
Clark, and I've heard Ambrose does a great job of using
Clark's journals to tell this incredible story. I would
also like to get back into James Fenimore Cooper's
Leatherstocking novels. I haven't read the books since I
was a kid growing up in Canada. If one can handle the style
of writing, there is much excitement and adventure for
people who enjoy that period of time and history."
P.M. Forni, Professor
of Italian Literature and Co-founder of the Johns Hopkins
Civility Project
"I am interested in the human inclination to associate,
cooperate, befriend, and care. I am fascinated by the
neuroscience of social interaction and social support. So
this summer I will be rereading Matt Ridley's The
Origins of Virtue and Shelley E. Taylor's The
Tending Instinct. These two books are outstanding
primers on the topic. Look for the evolutionary origin of
co-operation in the former and for the wonders of oxytocin
— the hormone of bonding and caring — in the
latter."
Kathleen Keane, Director of the Johns Hopkins University
Press
"Most recently I read and enjoyed Bethany Aram's Juana
the Mad: Sovereignty & Dynasty in Renaissance Europe.
Aram draws upon recent scholarship and archival research to
offer a new vision of Juana's life. Known as Juana the Mad
and conventionally viewed as sullen, Juana became heir to
the realms of Castile and Aragon. As queen, Juana worked
tirelessly to assure the succession of her son Charles V to
the throne and thereby to establish the Habsburg dynasty in
the kingdoms that others managed to govern in her name.
"I am looking forward to reading a soon-to-be-published
book by James M. Lang, Life on the Tenure Track.
Lang narrates the story of his first year on the tenure
track and details his moments of confusion, frustration,
and even elation. He describes the classroom, hours at his
writing desk, office hours, departmental meetings, as well
as thoughts about the lives and working conditions of
faculty in higher education today."
Sharon Kugler, Chaplain
"Tops on my 'to read' list are Gilead, by Marilynne
Robinson, and Saturday, by Ian McEwan. One of my
all-time favorite summer reads would have to be The
Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver. Though a
painful, sometimes heartbreaking read, it captures the
dangerous territory of religious zealotry perfectly.
However, it also offers the most beautiful story of hope
and understanding between people from vastly different
backgrounds. On a very basic human level it touches the
soul quite deeply. The story is told largely through the
eyes of a woman and her four daughters. They are American
missionaries who move to the Congo during its fight for
independence from Belgium in the 20th century. The father
is nearly spiritually blind by his own fierce calling and
dominates in many toxic ways for a time, not only his
family but his flock. As the story unfolds, it becomes
clear that the true righteous path is found in the most
seemingly unlikely places, and the voice of God can be
heard from and through the weakest among the human
family."
Mavis Sanders, Associate Professor of
Education
"Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America,
by Barbara Ehrenreich, and The End of Poverty: Economic
Possibilities for Our Time, by Jeffrey Sachs. I
recommend these books because they both address one of the
most pressing issues of our time: the growing divide
between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' in the U.S. and
abroad. We owe it to ourselves to become more aware of the
increasingly invisible condition of poverty that has such
profound implications for people's lives."
Wendy Brody, Wife of President William R.
Brody
"I find myself attracted to books about the Middle East
these days, trying to understand this culture that is very
foreign to me. At the top of my favorites in the past year
is Daughter of Persia, by Sattareh Farman Farmaian;
and Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran. They
should be read in this order! Over spring break I read
The Kite Runner and loved it, and An Enduring
Love: My Life with the Shah, by Farah Pahlavi, which I
found very interesting. Next on my list 'to read' is Queen
Noor's biography, Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an
Unexpected Life.
"Just last week I read Smashed: Story of a Drunken
Girlhood, by Koren Zailckas. It is a terribly
depressing but true story about drinking amongst young
women today. I read it to try to better understand college
drinking but now it is even more incomprehensible to me.
"A couple of years ago I read Desert Queen: The
Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to
Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia, by Janet Wallach,
and still remember it as one of my all time favorites. I
have since read others about her, but this was the
best!"
Craig Hankin, Director of the Homewood Art
Workshops
"During the semester, the only books that I seem to finish
are graphic novels. Recently, I've read both volumes of
Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis series, her autobiographical
tale of growing up in the Ayatollah's Iran. I'm currently
enjoying Epileptic by David B., the true story of a
young French boy growing up with an epileptic brother. This
summer, I plan to read Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan's
De Kooning: An American Master. Right after I finish
Hayden Herrera's Arshile Gorky: His Life and Work,
which I started LAST summer...."
Return to June 2005 Table
of Contents
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