You Should Read....: 2019 - Nonfiction

Recommended by Bruce Stinebrickner, Political Science

If you, like me, lived through and paid attention to the Patty Hearst and S(ymbionese) L(iberation)A(rmy) saga of the early 1970s, this book may well prove hard to put down. It certainly was for me when I read it last summer. Its gripping and detailed narrative with all its twists and turns is accompanied by the author's generally credible inferences and forthright assessments along the way. If you don't know much, if anything, about the almost mind-boggling story of Patty Hearst and the SLA, this enjoyable 400-page book, set against the backdrop of the wild world of Oakland, CA, and the America of the 1970s, will introduce you to it.

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

Does physics intimidate you? Are you interested in where we came from and how we will exist into the future? This is the book for you! Incredibly accessible for all, and incredibly informative about both our past and our future, NDT has found a way to make sense of our surroundings for us laymen. And it’s quick!

Recommended by Maria Flores, 2020

Why should you read it? Um...because it is AMAZING! :)

Recommended by Bruce Sanders, Libraries

Think you understand institutional discrimination, the black/white wealth gap, or redlining? Think again. This work is an eye opening discourse on the role 20th century housing and education policy played in building a white middle class segregated from and at the expense of people of color. One of Publisher’s Weekly’s ten best books of 2017.

Recommended by Sami Aziz, Spiritual Life

Islam is the second largest religion and Buddhism the 4th largest religion in the world. Buddhists and Muslims have lived side by side for over 1000 years. Buddhism and Islam initially may not seem similar due to the differences in the core of Islam being focused on 1 Creator and Buddhism being focused on Dharma or an Ultimate Truth. Interestingly the author shows that nuanced and complex similarities that are beautiful and surprising. As a practitioner of the esoteric side of Islam called Sufism I found so much to celebrate in both great spiritual traditions.

Recommended by Clay Carter, Coordinator of Media Services

This book is a great guide for improved interpersonal conversations. - Clay

From Amazon: Learn how to keep your cool and get the results you want when emotions flare.

When stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong, you have three choices: Avoid a crucial conversation and suffer the consequences; handle the conversation badly and suffer the consequences; or read Crucial Conversations and discover how to communicate best when it matters most. Crucial Conversations gives you the tools you need to step up to life's most difficult and important conversations, say what's on your mind, and achieve the positive resolutions you want.

Recommended by Sarah Rowley, History

Radical feminism. Babies grown in pods. Need any other reason?

Recommended by Hilary Eppley, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Are you fascinated by athletic feats such as Eluid Kipcoge's recent record-breaking marathon attempts, Alex Honnold’s free solo climb of El Capitan, or even historic expeditions to Antarctica or Mt. Everest? Alex Hutchinson’s well-referenced book will take you deep into the science of how athletes of various stripes conquer their bodies own defense mechanisms to achieve such amazing results. Chapter focus on how pain, muscle, oxygen, heat, thirst, and fuel source limit what we are capable of, and then how we can overcome at least some of those limits. Fascinating read for athletes and/or science geeks.

Recommended by Geoffrey D. Klinger, Communication and Theatre; Director of Forensics

In 2011, Nicholas Carr visited our campus to debate Jimmy Wales in an Ubben Lecutre/Debate about whether the internet does more harm than good based on his best-selling book: The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. In his most recent tome, Carr extends his thesis further arguing that our increasing reliance on technology and automation is unmistakably changing us, and not for the better. From self-driving cars, to technology in healthcare, Carr's prescient reflections on the role of technology in our lives are a welcome tonic as we boldly face the future.

Recommended by Mary Kertzman, Physics & Astronomy

Dava Sobel tells a fascinating story of the women “computers” who did amazing work measuring the properties of stars, cataloging them, and determining important physical relationships that are taught to all astronomy students today. But the book is much more: it provides a fascinating picture of how a science, astronomy, was done in that time period (the late 1800’s through early 1900’s; It is interesting to note that our own McKim Observatory was built in the early part of this time frame). I was intrigued by the role of funding from private individuals, the quest for better technology, expeditions to remote mountain tops of the world, and the roles these amazing women played throughout all.

The subtitle, “How the ladies of the Harvard Observatory took the measure of the stars” would seem to suggest why I read this book, however, my real motivation was seeing Gigi Fenlon in the Summit Performance Indianapolis company’s production of “Silent Sky” last summer. Because of the book, I now introduce my students to “Leavitt’s Law” instead of the text book “period-luminosity” law and I attach credit to these women for many of the fundamental properties taught in astronomy.

Recommended by Brian Howard, Computer Science

This is the book that made me a computer scientist. The subtitle, "A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll", only hints at the range of topics that Hofstadter manages to cover in the process of exploring how meaning and cognition can arise from systems of seemingly meaningless elements such as neurons or computer circuits. It alternates expository chapters with playful dialogues about music, art, mathematics, biology, Zen, and record players.

Recommended by Sandy Smith, McDermond Center and Management Fellows

Knowing Doug Smith personally has made me a better person. The words in his book are inspiring and teach life lessons that everyone should know. His personal journey is touching and "real"; sharing his story and words of wisdom for everyday life can change the reader forever.

666 days of diary entries documenting the life of a Union officer held in Confederate prisons Captured on October 11, 1863, James Riley Weaver, a Union cavalry officer, spent nearly seventeen months in Confederate prisons. Remarkably, Weaver kept a diary that documents 666 consecutive days of his experience, including not only his life in a series of prisons throughout the South, but his precaptivity cavalry duties, and his eventual return to civilian life. It is an unparalleled eyewitness account of a crucial part of our history. Weaver's observations never veer into romanticized descriptions; instead, he describes the "little world" inside each prison and outdoor camp, describing men drawn from "every class of society, high and low, rich and poor, from every country and clime." In addition, Weaver records details about life in the Confederacy that he gleans from visitors, guards, new arrivals, recaptured escapees, Southern newspapers, and even glimpses through windows. As the editors demonstrate, Weaver's diary-keeping provided an outlet for expressing suppressed emotions, ruminating on a seemingly endless confinement that tested his patriotism, religious faith, and will to survive. In the process, he provides not only historically important information but also keen insights into the human condition under adversity.

Recommended by Vince Lazar, Golf Coach

Though this book focuses on a high school basketball coach, it is the life lessons taught by Joe the Janitor that have become the foundation of how I coach and more generally how I treat people. I have read this book each year before the start of the season to re-identify my "why". Enjoy...

Recommended by Wallace J. Nichols, Class of 1989

I'm rereading Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet. It's in my travel bag now and, whenever I can, I pull it out and read a few pages. When my daughters were young, I read it to them as a bedtime story. It's the book that I have gifted most and, when I am done with this one, I'll pass it along, all bent, marked and underlined, as I have with the others. Eventually I'll have given everyone I know a copy.

I feel fortunate to have encountered these letters early in life and to have taken their candid advice to heart--perhaps because they supported how and what I already felt and believed. My work as a scientist and author has always come from deep within, despite being told seven times that I was committing "career suicide." I've leaned on Rilke's letters each time.

-From the DePauw Magazine

Recommended by Lynn Hohenstein, Music Library

Not only are the personal letters between John and Abigail Adams a fascinating look into the relationship of the couple that became our second President and First Lady, it is a fabulous first hand account of daily life during the years surrounding the American Revolution.

Recommended by Jim Mills, Geosciences

The book is a wonderful non-specialist treatise of the literary and scientific deconstruction of a pebble from a beach and the vast amount of information about the Earth, and the Universe, that can be gleaned from such a small, seemingly mundane, object. Jan Zalasiewicz takes the reader on a marvelous literary journey through Earth’s history (a history geoscientists like to term, deep history), and the processes that operate in our Universe to create the basic elements that make up our small, but thus far, unique planet. Jan takes the reader from elements, to minerals, to rocks by weaving a history of geologic processes that bring all of these elements together that ultimately resulted in a small pebble on beach waiting to be collected by a curious passerby.

Recommended by Alex Komives, Physics and Astronomy

This book was required reading for my seventh grade English class. I came across my copy at home a couple of years ago complete with the handwritten notes by my 12 year old self and reread it with great pleasure. These poems will make you laugh, cry and think; basically they will remind you what it is to be human. One of my favorites is Fall by Sally Andresen:

The geese flying south
In a row long and V-shaped
Pulling in winter.

Recommended by Chris Baker, Development

The worlds of a successful art dealer and a homeless drug addicted man collide, bringing the two together and changing their lives forever. The book is not to miss!

Recommended by Wade Hazel, Biology

As the subtitle says, "The powers, perversions and potentials of heredity," this clearly written and engaging book by a New York Times science columnist provides everything an educated non-scientist needs to know about genetics.

Recommended by Leslie James, Religious Studies

Written in the wake of the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1968, the ultimate goal of this book is to interpret and critically engage King's political thought. Together, its Introduction essays, and Afterword explore King's extraordinary life and lasting political legacy. Its pivotal argument is that while we honor King's memory, it is imperative to consider what his thought still has to teach us about how to build a more just and peaceful world and about political morality, judgment, and practice, in general. In the words of its editors, "this volume is imbued with a sense of urgency, given the crises of our political and intellectual moment." Indeed, it is a must read to help us interpret and navigate our contemporary moment.

Recommended by Wade Hazel, Biology

If you like Game of Thrones, this is the real life version by the same author who brought The Plantagenets to life.