Good Reads: Faculty Book Recommendations

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As passionate readers, many alumni are interested in knowing what books Dartmouth faculty are reading and enjoying. We check in with faculty twice a year, every winter and summer. Here are 22 recommendations sure to transport you this winter, even if you're only sitting in front of the fire.

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SUSAN ACKERMAN '80, Preston H. Kelsey Professor of Religion

The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time , by Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson Jeff and Benjamin are both Dartmouth '02s; Benjamin, moreover, was my honors thesis student his senior year. I can report that he's come a long way since then (and since the typo in the first sentence of his thesis!), as he and Deck have now scoured the country, taking on spelling errors, misplaced apostrophes, and missing commas. This chronicle of their adventures is hilarious, and their goal to change the world through good grammar can make their alma mater proud!

KATE CONLEY, Edward Tuck Professor of French and Comparative Literature

I've recently read two enjoyable novels whose artist protagonists are fictional but whose milieux are accurately captured with humor and insight. Kate Christensen's The Great Man does a masterful job of evoking the Abstract Expressionist era through the women who survive her fictional "great man." Peter Carey's Theft: A Love Story also depicts the New York art scene, but in the 1970s. Other novels could be added to a list of works that illuminate a period in the arts and its state of mind; these two books are a great place to start such an investigation.

MARY FLANAGAN, Professor of Film and Media Studies; Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor in Digital Humanities

The books that come to mind right now investigate place and space from a blend of personal, social, and historical perspectives. In Wanderlust: A History of Walking, San Francisco-based author Rebecca Solnit combines historical interpretations of phenomena with personal and evocative prose. This book will have you reconsidering the most simple of human actions – walking – and its vital role in thinking.

I highly recommend the psychogeographic work of British author Iain Sinclair. London Orbital is an account of a walk Sinclair undertook around London's disputed yet heavily used highway system to investigate the collisions that arise with arbitrary urban planning. Rodinsky's Room, by British author Rachel Lichtenstein and Sinclair, frames a historical investigation of London's Jewish roots and the flux of immigration, faith, and social patterns in a mystery story intermingled with a compelling personal journey.

MARCELO GLEISER, Appleton Professor of Natural Philosophy Professor of Physics and Astronomy

Solar, by Ian McEwan. Very different from McEwan's best-selling Atonement, this novel examines the life of a declining Nobel Prize-winning physicist and the question of global warming and our future as individuals and as a species.

The Human Touch: Our Part in the Creation of a Universe, by Michael Frayn. The famous playwright, author of the remarkable play Copenhagen, is actually trained as a philosopher. In this book, he authoritatively explores how science makes sense of the world and, in its essence, is a deeply human and spiritual quest for knowledge. Maybe not a beach book, but certainly a very enlightening read.

RICH KREMER, Associate Professor of History

Prompted by a visit to Turkey and a sabbatical year in Berlin, where I lived in a neighborhood filled with Turks and döner kebap stands, I've been reading Andrew Mango's wonderful biography, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey. Born into the world of Ottoman sultans, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk by 1923 would become the first president of the Turkish Republic, a new state that was to be "secular" and "western." Mango's story unpacks the significance of those two terms and explains why Atatürk's legacy remains hotly contested in today's Turkey.

LORIE LOEB, Research Associate Professor, Computer Science

I recently read three great novels, all impossible to put down, immersing me in colorful worlds in which the human spirit is pitted against harsh realities. I learned a great deal about the places and times they depict, largely because of the quality of writing.

The Gleaner, by Stephen Leslie, is about a Vermont farm boy and his connection to the land. Danny's father dies in a farming accident, and he journeys across the country in the 1960s. It reminded me of a Zola novel in the way it paints a picture of life on the land, coming of age, and a spiritual journey. You'll need to order this book from the Harvard Bookstore web site, but it's worth the effort.

The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz. The brutal realities of the Dominican Republic are mixed with the story of Oscar, a young, overweight, Dominican American boy who loves comic books and role-play games. As we follow Oscar in his search for love and aspiration to be a writer, we're exposed to the brutalities of dictatorship, life as an immigrant family, magic, and love. I found the writing fresh and exciting even as the story was painful.

What Is Left the Daughter, by Howard Norman. Set in Nova Scotia in the 1940s, this spectacularly written novel tells the story of Wyatt Hillyer, whose parents commit suicide on the same day, leaving him to live with his aunt and uncle. A series of events, mixing history, place, and tragedy, lead Wyatt to write a letter to a daughter he doesn't know.

GRAZIELLA PARATI, Professor of Italian, Comparative Literature, and Women’s and Gender Studies; Paul D. Paganucci Professor of Italian Language and Literature

We read every day about the dire economical situation in Greece. We hear less about what is happening to migrants who came to Greece in the last twenty years. They live in a country in which the concept of naturalization is unheard of and are suddenly accused of being major contributors to the crisis. Gazmend Kapllani's A Short Border Handbook, written in English, is a funny short novel about being Albanian, migrating to Greece, and experiencing "border anxiety."

Pope Joan is one of the women Giovanni Boccaccio discussed in the 14th century in his De Mulieribus Claris ("On Famous Women"). We don't know if she ever existed, but her legend reveals the centuries-old anxiety that a woman could infiltrate male institutions. Donna Woolfolk Cross's novel Pope Joan makes a big effort in constructing a story around the famous woman (or infamous, depending on whom you talk to). Full of undocumented and improbable adventures, the novel portrays Pope Joan as a woman of genius who knows everything about medicine, but certainly cannot get away with the fact that she is the pope and she is pregnant. This is captivating light reading. What I enjoyed most is the portrayal of ninth-century Europe.

If you enjoy mystery novels, don't miss Carlo Lucarelli's De Luca trilogy: Carte Blanche, The Damned Season, and Via delle Oche. Set during fascism in Italy, they offer an accurate portrayal of life during the 'Ventennio Fascista," the twenty years of the dictatorship. The plots are intriguing and the murders are investigated by a smart policeman who has no time for fascist nonsense.

ANDREW SAMWICK, Sandra L. and Arthur L. Irving '72a, P’10 Professorship of Economics

Where Does the Money Go? Your Guided Tour to the Federal Budget Crisis (rev. ed.), by Scott Bittle and Jean Johnson. We assigned this book in Public Policy 20. It's a great introduction to the federal budget and why the process of balancing it is so challenging.

STEVE SWAYNE, Professor of Music

Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin, by Timothy Snyder. I teach 20th-century music, and Snyder has greatly enriched my understanding of one of the last century's most difficult periods. A book not for the weak of heart.

DIEDERIK VANDEWALLE, Associate Professor of Government

For my upcoming Foreign Study Program in London, where I'll teach a seminar on the economic and financial aspects of the rise and decline of the British Empire, I've been reading Correlli Barnett's massive The Collapse of British Power. Barnett focuses on what he broadly terms "Grand Strategy," the collective set of institutions and strategies, including education, investment in infrastructure, and a panoply of other policies and institutions, that once made Great Britain a Great Power. The book is almost 600 pages, and, yes, students will need to read all of it – and then write a seminar paper.

For my work at the United Nations, where I'm currently a political advisor to the postconflict planning team on Libya, I'm rereading Adrian Pelt's Libyan Independence and the United Nations: A Case of Planned Decolonization. Pelt was the UN commissioner in charge of preparing Libya for independence in 1951, and his book is an astonishing description of the work that eventually led to the creation of the Kingdom of Libya out of a collection of geographical areas that historically had little in common. As Libya will need to recreate itself when the current civil war ends, Pelt's insights remain highly relevant for what will, hopefully, be a more successful new Libya.

LINDSAY WHALEY, Professor of Classics and Linguistics

Bonhoeffer, by Eric Metaxas. This book is an insightful and readable account of the life of the Lutheran theologian who plotted to assassinate Hitler. Of particular interest is the way in which Metaxas ties Bonhoeffer's experiences in Nazi Germany to his writings on ethics.

RICHARD WRIGHT, Orvil E. Dryfoos Professor of Public Affairs and Geography

The Devil's Star, by Jo Nesbø. Move over, Stieg Larsson; you may have the limelight now, but waiting in the wings is another Scandinavian writer who can, well, really write. This thriller is long, deep, and well crafted. Sure, we have the alcoholic detective; but read the first few pages, following a drop of water through an old apartment building, leading to the discovery of a murder, and I defy you to put this book down.

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, by Manning Marable. Move over, Alex Haley. Marable's legacy will be this magnificent biography of Malcolm X. A professor of African American Studies at Columbia University, Marable died just days before the publication of this labor of love and deeply researched work. It teaches us a lot about Malcolm X as well about the United States in the turbulent 1950s and '60s.

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