Hutton Honors College
— Faculty Recommend Books to Alumni
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Over the past few years one of the most popular features of the Honors College Alumni Newsletter has been a list of books worth reading suggested by our faculty. We don't know if that's because our alumni want to be reminded of those days when they read books required by our faculty or if they're just interested in hearing what books some faculty are reading now. But we thought it would be a good idea to provide our alumni with such a list again. Then we thought we ought to share it with our current students. Here are the books some of our faculty recommended earlier this summer.
Miller had this to say about Trevor: Trevors's collection of short stories is an excellent introduction to the fiction of one of Ireland's most distinguished contemporary authors. The 19 stories collected here are notable for a wry, urbane, and penetrating style that engages human hopes and frailties with a fierce, no-nonsense realism, informed by the heartbreak of Irish history. Beneath Trevor's polished surfaces lurks a pervasive preoccupation with sexuality, which is rendered all the more powerful and surprising by the controlled tone of Trevor's narrators, and by the wide social sweep defined and embodied by his characters farmers, shopkeepers, priests, teachers, adolescents, newlyweds, and wealthy Brits." About Lahiri he wrote: "Lahiri won the Pulitzer Prize for this, her first book of stories, which focus on love, marriage, domesticity, and the fragility of human ties. Lahiri is as much at home with Americans and American locales (e.g., Cambridge, Mass.) as she is with Indians and Indian cities and monuments. Keenly attuned to nuances of cross-cultural differences, her youthful voice is disarmingly (and engagingly) optimistic. These stories are filled with novelty and wonder as is life itself." And about Botton he says: "In addition to receiving a cram course in the life and art of one of the great writers of the 20th century, readers of Botton's highly readable book will come away with new perspectives on a multiplicity of issues related to their own lives, indicated by such chapter headings as "How to Read Yourself," "How to Take Your Time," "How to Suffer Successfully," "How to Express Your Emotions," "How to Be a Good Friend," "How to Put Books Down." Botton moves effortlessly from simple to complex topics, offering his meditations with a refreshing grace and humor that make this a truly special "self-help" book for the thinking person."
Berkvam also suggests L'Empreinte de l'ange [The Mark of the Angel] by Canadian author Nancy Huston, who writes in French: "The work is set against the backdrop of the French war in Algeria (19561962), but the main characters are emotionally and psychologically tied to World War II. The main character, Safie, is German, comes to France, marries a Frenchman, but enters into a relationship with a Hungarian Jew named Andras. The novel thus develops notions of collective guilt, crimes against humanity, the permanence of war and torture (the French in Algeria), and the effects of war on the innocent. The book was published in France by Actes Sud and in the United States in translation by Vintage Press."
About P.D. james he writes: "Lady James is surely one of the grande dames of crime fiction, and her latest novel demonstrates her special gift for creating a rich and complex scene in which murder takes place. Her continuing character, Commander Adam Dalgliesh, head of a special Scotland Yard homicide investigation team, travels to an Anglican theological seminary hugging the cliffs of East Anglia to carry on an unofficial investigation of a supposedly accidental death. While he is there, a bizarre and vicious murder takes place and another undetected murder may have occurred before he arrived. What makes James so interesting is the depth and richness of the characters and the complex ways in which their lives are intertwined, both with each other and with the place in which they all find themselves. And, as with all her books, the plot is intricate and the puzzle challenging. The narrative does not proceed at a thrilling car-chase pace. The story unfolds gradually, and details are elaborated with great care. But once absorbed in the tale, you will find it extremely compelling."
Enjoy. ---Adapted from the August 2001 Honors College Alumni Newsletter Posted August 26, 2001. |
Lew
Miller (English) suggested three books: Ireland: Selected Stories by
William Trevor (Penguin paperback, 1998); Interpreter of Maladies by
Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner paperback, 1999); and How Proust Can Change Your Life
by Alain de Botton (Vintage paperback, 1997).
Austin
Caswell (music) provides a short suggestion:"If you're feeling a bit
heavy-laden by theories of postmodernism, try this brilliant (NYT Notable Book
of the Year) short (155 pages) novel: Pfitz by Andrew Crumey (Picador
USA, New York) 1995). It's a delightful and hilarious read whose intertwined
levels of reality will do more to cement postmodernism in your consciousness(es)
than any number of theoreticians. People created by writers create other people
who, in turn et cetera ad infinitum. And they all inter-relate, or do they?"
Roy
Gardner (economics and West European studies) recommends A Beautiful
Mind: a Biography of John Forbes Nash Jr. by Sylvia Nassar. Nash was the
winner of the Nobel Prize in economics in 1994. Gardner says: "The title
is self-explanatory. This is a great read not just for what it has to say about
economic science, but for its tremendous human interest story: Genius goes mad
for 40 years, then returns to the land of the living. I'm not the only one who
thinks this is a compelling story Hollywood is making it into a big-budget movie,
with Russell Crowe transformed from gladiator into Nobel Prize winner."
Craig
Nelson (biology) calls Reality Isn't What It Used to Be: Theatrical
Politics, Ready-to-Wear Religion, Global Myths, and Other Wonders of the
Postmodern World by Walter T. Anderson (Harper & Row, 1990) "a
great survey of current thinking in many fields. Insightful and funny."
A.B.
Assensoh (Afro-American studies) recommends Rituals of Blood: Consequences
of Slavery in Two American Centuries by Orlando Patterson (1999). He has
this to say: "This book, published by Civitas/Counterpoint details a sociological
penetration of some of the indelible scars of slavery and the slave trade. To
appreciate this volume, one may also read Patterson's earlier work Slavery
and Social Death (Harvard University Press, 1984)."
Michael
Berkvam (French & Italian) recommends two books he recently used in
courses: "Two books I assigned in different courses last year were very
popular among students. I assigned (in H203 Honors Topics) the novel Orlanda
by the Belgian novelist Jacqueline Harpman. The novel is an interesting study
on male-female relations and on gender, as the main character imagines that
she inhabits a man's body and does(!) and at the same time remains herself.
Her dual perspective on being male and female provides for a fascinating novel.
The novel was first published in French by Editions Labor and has appeared in
an English translation published by Seven Stories Press."
Alex Dzierba (physics) recommends both QED The Strange Theory of Light
and Matter by Richard P. Feynman (Princeton Press, 1985) and Just
Six Numbers by Martin Rees (Basic Books, 1999). He says: "Feynman is everyone's
favorite theoretical physicist. This book is based on four lectures he gave
to a general audience on the theory that describes the interactions of electrons
and photons quantum electrodynamics. He lays all this out simply without compromising
truth. The result is beautiful. Sir Martin Rees is a renowned cosmologist and
the Astronomer Royal. In this book, he considers six physical constants and
how their fine tuning leads to the universe as we know it. For example, the
ratio of the strengths of the electrical to gravitational force could have been
slightly different with the result that there would be no time for biological
evolution."
Jim
Andrews (communications & culture) enjoyed reading Cod by Mark
Kurlansky (Penguin Books, 1997), and P.D. James's Death in Holy Orders
(Alfred A. Knopf, 2001). He says: "A biography of a fish might not seem very
appealing at first glance, but this is a biography of a fish that, according
to the author, changed the world. From men in a skiff in the waters off Nova
Scotia in the 1990s to the Viking fisherman of a thousand years ago and back
again, this little book traces the historical, geographic, and ecological dimensions
of the search for this most influential fish. Kurlansky is a masterful storyteller
whose eye for detail is as sharp as his wit. He explains such matters as why
the Puritan immigrants at Plymouth starved while the ocean around them teemed
with fish. (They forgot to bring fishing tackle!) He explains the significant
role of cod fishing in promoting slavery in the West Indies. His vivid description
of the "Cod Wars" of the 20th century encompasses national rivalries,
political machinations, and the threat to the culinary staple of the British
working class. Amusing, entertaining, informative as this book is, it also makes
a very sobering point about the ways in which human technology and ingenuity
can wreck environmental disaster. An added bonus is a delightful appendix of
cod recipes that cooks will especially enjoy." 
Edward
Gubar (journalism) recommends The Black Image in the White Mind: Media
and Race in America by Robert M. Entman and Andrew Rojecki (Chicago, 2000).
He has this to say: "Rojecki used to be a colleague in journalism
here, and this book he did with Entman has won two prestigious awards, one from
the American Political Science Association for the best book published in political
psychology, the other the Frank Luther Mott-Kappa Tau Alpha Research Award for
the best research-based book on journalism/mass communication. But it's not
only a book for academics. This book is also for anyone concerned with race
in America and how it is experienced and portrayed in the media. It will open
your eyes."
Julia
Bondanella (French & Italian) recommends a less well-known Machiavelli text.
She says: "Do you know Niccolo Machiavelli only as the author of
The Prince?
If so, his great treatise on free government may offer a surprise. Machiavelli's
Discourses on Livy has in recent times earned him the epithet of "father
of the Atlantic republican tradition." His favorite author was Livy,
historian of the Roman republic, and he was active in the republican government
of Florence. Although he wrote The Prince after the end of republican government
in Florence to bring about Italian unification, he never lost sight of the
model of the virtuous Roman republic defended by citizen-soldiers and vigilant
guardians of public liberty. In his reflections on Livy, Machiavelli sets
forth his most original views on politics the belief that a healthy and free
body politic is characterized by social friction and conflict, his theory
of mixed government, his view of expansionism, and his sophisticated analysis
of social upheaval through a discussion of conspiracies. Machiavelli's republican
theories expressed a dangerous ideology in an era of political absolutism
and his works were placed in the Index of Prohibited Works in 1559." 