Summer Reading List

-Recommended by an Anonymous Faculty

“Essential book for humanists, Americans, and anybody alive. Coates debunks myths, pulls blinders off, and demands we see, think, and do.”

– Anonymous Faculty

“Poems that are too beautiful to describe.”

– Michael Lavers

“The one book you might want on a desert island.”

– Dennis Cutchins

“Brilliant tour de force of a novel with a Victorian / Contemporary plot featuring multiple genres, theory, romance, mystery, history, economics, archives, and so forth. If I could teach only one novel, this would be it because it’s so rich.”

– Anonymous Faculty

– Recommended by Eric Eliason

“This play mirrors life, in the sense that every character presents an argument that’s at least plausible (if not totally persuasive), and perfectly consistent with his or her temperament and worldview. It dramatizes a lesson my parents tried to teach me: Everyone acts rationally–from his own perspective. As readers, we develop the skill of understanding the perspective as we evaluate the argument.”

– Mary Eyring

“Great read–and rich with interpretive possibility.”

– Brett McInelly

“Not a ‘book’–but I think every English major should read (and know) the major Shakespeare tragedies–or at least Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, and especially King Lear. For every writer and reader in English, Shakespeare truly is (to borrow Hemingway’s assertion bout Twain) ‘all our grandfather.’ Besides the Bible itself, Shakespeare has arguably exercised the single largest influence on English language and literatures. He writes beautifully and wisely. His ethics are rich and sound, He restores readers’ spirits. Reading or experiencing his plays, especially his tragedies, brings joy and understanding. These are only some reasons why anyone who loves and studies English literatures should know Shakespeare.”

– Keith Lawrence