You Should Read....: 2019 - Fiction

Recommended by Lexie Schwipps, 2019

The podcast The Adventure Zone has been brought to life within the graphic novel format! All of the magic, humor, and heart explodes on the pages! Say hail and well met to Magnus, Merle, and Taako and marvel at the mishaps and mysteries that they stumble into! With the second book scheduled to come out summer 2019, now is the perfect time to dive in!

Recommended by Eliza Brown, School of Music

Stephen Collis' "Almost Islands" is a ruminative, gorgeously written set of interconnected essays exploring the author's longstanding friendship with an elderly poet, Phyllis Webb, who stopped writing fairly early in her career and moved to a small island off the coast of British Columbia, Canada. Webb is a poet who does not write poetry, who has chosen to situate her not-writing in a very specific place with complex indigenous and colonial histories. Collis examines the reasons why Webb - or anyone - might choose to write or not write, and the implications of making artistic work rooted in place amid the global ravages of late capitalism, climate change, and ongoing colonial oppression. Though the book is nominally about poets and poetry, it offers beautifully articulated insight to anyone who questions how an individual can have, or should use, their voice (in the broadest sense of the word) within the current geopolitical reality.

Recommended by Karen Singson, Development - see article at http://cnnphilippines.com/life/culture/literature/2018/12/28/carlos-bulosan-penguin-classics.html

Recommended by Katherine Vieck, 2021

This book is PERFECT for anyone who loves a good Downton Abby-esque period drama. The book follows a teenage girl, Cora, whose mother is set on marrying her off to a member of the British aristocracy. Cora, however, has other plans with the son of an American family friend. This book is full of drama, romance, and history! It'll be over before you know it, unfortunately.

Recommended by Sarah Rowley, History

It's gorgeous. Just read it and come talk to me about it!

Recommended by Bruce Sanders, Libraries

1981 Pulitzer Prize for fiction winner. Wikipedia writes, “… the book became a cult classic, then a mainstream success … and is now considered a canonical work of modern literature of the Southern United States.” What Wikipedia doesn’t say is that it is at times hilarious.

Recommended by Brian Howard, Computer Science

Stephenson weaves a breathtaking saga around WW2 codebreakers, Nazi gold, hackers, cryptocurrency, and the art of eating Cap'n Crunch. Reportedly this was required reading for the early employees at PayPal; Stephenson is scrupulous about getting the technology right, while also telling a great adventure story.

Recommended by Mary Giles, Chemistry & Biochemistry Administrative Assistant

I love the voice in this novel-funny, and endearing. An enjoyable read that reinforces the importance of friendships and being kind to others.

Recommended by Kappy Mintie, Art History

I read this strange, deeply unsettling novella straight through in one sitting. You will be hooked and trembling from the very first page! I'm reading Schweblin's short story collection now, and it is equally unnerving and brilliant. Keep an eye on this author.

Recommended by Jeff Kenney, Religious Studies

A riff on Mary Shelley's original, set in war-torn Baghdad in the aftermath of the 2003 U.S. invasion. The destructive power of modern warfare provides the occasion for the discovery and reconstitution of random body parts into a monstrous figure who haunts the streets and metes out a perverse form of justice. I appreciate the way the book alters the gaze of West-East Divan style literature to portray everyday life in Iraq and the devastating impact of American intervention in the Middle East.

Recommended by Marnie McInnes, English Literature Professor Emeritus

It's fast-paced, political, funny, informative--and quirky.

Recommended by J Selke, 2019

A memoir where everything that could go wrong, does...JUST READ IT!

Recommended by Grant Woods, 2019

This book will subject you to the entire spectrum of emotions, all the while pushing you to challenge your perceptions about identity, relationships, and conflict. A story about Jewishness, love, betrayal, and global war, Here I Am is one of the most poetic and emotionally moving novels that I have read in years.

Recommended by Alexandra Chamberlain '13, Assistant Director and Curator of Exhibitions and Education

Not unlike his other infamous works, Hippie takes a look at a journey. Unlike his other writings, this journey is personal. For anyone wanting to travel the world, but can’t currently, or for those who believe that understanding others helps us better understand ourselves, sit down with this one. Heartwarming and simple.

Recommended by Ashley Higgenbotham, Libraries

It is an interesting story about developing self development (specifically self-confidence) and being able to do something different/more than just what is expected of you. Also, not everything is as it seems, even the main character whom you follow! There is also a movie loosely based on this book by Studio Ghibli's Hayao Miyazaki.

Recommended by Peper Langhout, 2019

It's the most gorgeous book ever written!

Recommended by Daniel Shannon, Philosophy

Lancelot Lamar is a disenchanted lawyer who finds himself confined in a mental asylum with memories that don't seem worth remembering. It all began the day he accidentally discovered he was not the father of his youngest daughter, a discovery which sent Lancelot on modern quest to reverse the degeneration of America. Percy's novel reveals a shining knight for the modern age--a knight not of romance, but of revenge.

Recommended by David Guinee, Classical Studies

A Lesson Before Dying is one the of the most eloquent and heart-breaking statements on race in the United States I have ever read. In a rural Louisiana parish in the 40’s, a young black man named Jefferson happens to be in a liquor store where the clerk is killed in a hold-up. The actual perpetrators are killed, but Jefferson is convicted and sentenced to death. Grant Wiggins, who teaches in the local parish school, reluctantly agrees to his mother and aunt’s demand that he try to help Jefferson in prison. The official denial of Jefferson’s humanity through the courts and prison system is brutal, but perhaps even more painful is the constant parade of indignities Grant and others suffer in day-to-day life. This is not a happy read, but it is uplifting, compelling, and important.

Recommended by J Selke, 2019

THIS BOOK IS AMAZING!!!

Recommended by Kasia Pukala, 2020

The book is an interesting psychological exploration of a teenager living in China. Bored with his day to day, he decides to murder his only friend and then goes on the run. I promise I am not spoiling anything, this happens within the first couple of chapters. The book is told exclusively from his point of view.

Recommended by Karla Guerrero, 2020

It's one of the millions of narratives that need to be heard, all told through a graphic novel.

Recommended by Jodi Menke, Education Studies and Music Education

This is one of my all-time favorite books! Told from the perspective of 14-year-old Lily, this story, which is set in the 1960's south, beautifully reveals the depth, strength, and character of the women who come to mother her.

Recommended by J Selke, 2019

Maybe she's born with it? Maybe it's a ghost!

Recommended by Smita A. Rahman, Political Science

This is sparkling, high-brow, and award-winning historical fiction of the best kind. Wolf Hall traces the emergence of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's "fixer", and is a brilliant depiction of Machiavellian power politics. Not only does it give you a lens into one of the most fascinating eras in European history but it introduces you to one of the most compelling political figures of the Tudor era and offers a welcome revision of his otherwise maligned and tarnished reputation. Cromwell emerges as a brilliant Machiavellian figure of his day, as someone highly skilled in the practice of the "art of power".