June 11, 2024
Summer reading recommendations
Craig’s List keeps alive legacy of beloved teacherby David Fox
In the late 1980s, Craig Thorn, Instructor in English, began collecting and sharing recommendations for summer reading. Since Craig’s death at age 47 in 2006, various PA teachers have continued the tradition in his honor. Below is the selection for summer 2024. Happy reading!
David Fox is the Director of Studies and an Instructor in English and Art History
Klein, Naomi, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror of the World
—Recommended by John Bird, Stephanie Curci, David Fox & Tricia Har
Arnason, Eleanor, Hidden Folk: Icelandic Fantasies
Gibson, William, Pattern Recognition
Lee Geddy, My Effin’ Life
Mantel, Hillary, Wolf Hall
—Recommended by Natalya Baldyga
McGraw, Peter and Joel Warner, The Humor Code
Theroux, Paul, Dark Star Africa
—Recommended by Melanie Poulin
Allende, Isabel, The Wind Knows My Name
Dueñas, María, The Time in Between
Garcia Márquez, Gabriel, See You in August
—Recommended by Carmen Muñoz-Fernández
Beams, Clare, The Garden
D’Erasmo, Stacey, The Complicities
Hsu, Hua, Stay True
Kuang, B. F., Yellowface
Viren, Sarah, To Name the Bigger Lie
—Recommended by Kate McQuade
Rivera Garza, Cristina, Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice
—Recommended by Maria Martinez
Box, C. J., Three-Inch Teeth
Boyer, Susan, Lowcountry Boil
DeFede, Jim, The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland
Griswold, Mac, I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise: A Life of Bunny Mellon
Riordan, Rick, The Sun and the Star
Sevigany, Melissa, Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon
—Recommended by Michael Blake
Eagleman, David, Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain
—Recommended by Carlota Castillo
Egginton, William, The Rigor of Angels: Borges, Heisenberg, Kant and the Ultimate Nature of Reality
—Recommended by John Rogers
Enright, Anne, The Wren, The Wren
Gonzalez, Xochjtl, Anita de Monte Laughs Last
Myint, Thirili Myo Kyaw, Names for Light: A Family History
Reed, Shannon, Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out
Sutano, Jesse, Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
Van Pelt, Shelby, Remarkably Bright Creatures
—Recommended by Kristin Bair O’Keeffe
Fortune, Carley, This Summer Will Be Different
Khong, Rachel, Real Americans
Nezhukumatathil, Aimee, Bite by Bite
Robinson, Roxana, Leaving
Sagar, Riley, The Only One Left
—Recommended by Ei Smith
Harper, Kyle, Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History
Hensley, William, Fifty Miles from Tomorrow
Mullainathan, Sendhil and Eldar Shafir, Scarcity: Why Having So Little Means So Much
Robinson, Kim Stanley, The Ministry for the Future
—Recommended by Aly Blakeney
Bohannon, Cat, Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution
Clancy, Kate, Period, The Real Story of Menstruation
—Recommended by Tricia Har
Brown, Tim, The Tao of the Backup Catcher: Playing Baseball for the Love of the Game
Mortimer, Ian, The Time-Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England
Muir, Tamsyn, Gideon the Ninth
—Recommended by Elena Dugan
Kane, Andrew, Joshua: A Brooklyn Tale
Pataki, Allison, Finding Margaret Fuller
—Recommended by Nancy Kashanek
Benedict, Marie and Victoria Christopher Murray, First Ladies
Davis, Fiona, The Spectacular
Foley, Lucy, The Hunting Party
Sagar, Riley, The House Across the Lake
Sagar, Riley, The Only One Left
Williams, Beatriz, Lauren Willig, and Karen White, The Lost Summers of Newport
Williams, Beatriz, The Wicked City
—Recommended by Emma Lavoie
Hall, Rebecca and Hugo Martinez, Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts
Osman, Richard, Thursday Night Murder Club
—Recommended by Stephanie Curci
Alvarez, Julia, The Cemetery of Untold Stories
Caro, Robert, The Power Broker
Notaro, Tig, I Am Just a Person
—Recommended by Grace Curley
Benson, Michael, Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece
Higgs, John, Love and Let Die: James Bond, the Beatles, and the British Psyche
Posnanski, Joe, Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments
—Recommended by Robert Briggs
Oshetsky, Claire, Poor Deer
—Recommended by Jessie Robie
Baker, Emerson, The Devil of Great Island: Witchcraft and Conflict in Early New England
King, Stephen, Salem’s Lot
—Recommended by Donald Slater
Adler, Sarah, Mrs. Nash’s Ashes
Davis, KC, How to Keep House While Drowning
Gottlieb, Lori, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
Henry, Emily, Funny Story
Straub, Emma, All Adults Here
—Recommended by Meghan Dangremond
Wang, Jenny, Permission to Come Home: Reclaiming Mental Health as Asian Americans
—Recommended by Aya Murata
Bushmiller, Ernie, Nancy and Sluggo’s Guide to Life
DeWitt, Helen, The English Understated Wool
Esquinca, Bernardo, The Secret Life of Insects and Other Stories
Grabinski, Stefan, The Orchard of the Dead and Other Macabre Tales
Jacoby, Russell, On Diversity: The Eclipse of the Individual in a Global Era
Mizuki, Shigeru, Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths
Murata, Sayaka, Life Ceremony: Stories
Tsuge, Tadao, Trash Market
Walton, Stephen, No Transfer
—Recommended by John Bird
Landers, Jessica, Making Americans: Stories of Historic Struggles, New Ideas and Inspiration in Immigrant Education
Newman, Catherine, We All Want Impossible Things
Tahir, Sabaa, All My Rage
—Recommended by Laura Warner
Orange, Tommy, Wandering Stories
—Recommended by Richard Gorham
Black, Daniel, Don’t Cry For Me
Choo Yangsze, The Night Tiger
George, Jessica, Maame
Quinn, Kate, The Alice Network
Wingate, Lisa, Before We Were Yours
—Recommended by Ellie Perry
Everett, Percival, James
Kimmerer, Robin, Gathering Moss
Phillips, Adan, Second Chances: Shakespeare and Freud
Ward, Jesmyn, Let Us Descend
Zizek, Slavoj, Freedom: A Disease Without a Cure
—Recommended by Tom Kane
Hannah, Kristin, The Great Alone
Lockhard, E., We Were Liars
Parkhurst, Carolyn, The Dogs of Babel
—Recommended by Lauren Mondi
Armah, Esther, Emotional Justice: A Roadmap for Racial Healing
Buruma, Ian, Spinoza: Freedom’s Messiah
Israel, Jonathan, Spinoza: Life & Legacy
Martin, Rachel Louise, A Most Tolerant Little Town: The Explosive Beginning of School Desegregation
McRae, Elizabeth, Mothers of Massive Resistance: White Women and the Politics of White Supremacy
Moyn, Samuel, Liberalism Against Itself: Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times
Samuels, Robert and Tolouse Olorunnipa, His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and Struggle for Racial Justice
Shapiro, Scott, Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hacks
Stella, Frank, Working Space
Vladeck, Stephen, The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic
—Recommended by David Fox
Davies, Nick, Cuckoo: Cheating by Nature
Luchette, Claire, Agatha of Little Neon
Oyeyemi, Helen, Peaces
—Recommended by Angela Parker
Bird, Kai, American Prometheus
Collins, Jim, The Last Best League
Lewis, Michael, Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
Pearlman, Jeff, The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson
—Recommended by Chris Capano
Dugoni, Robert, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell
—Recommended by Kristin Faivre
Diviney, Rich, The Attributes
Fitzgerald, Matt, How Bad Do You Want It
Goggins, David, Can’t Hurt Me
Goggins, David, Never Finished
Voss, Chris, Never Split the Difference
—Recommended by Devin O’Reilly
Ghosh, Amitav, Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis
Saer, Juan Jose, The Sixty-Five Years of Washington
Yunkaporta, Tyson, Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World
—Recommended by Paige Roberts
Hanna, Kristin, The Women
Jaouad, Suleika, Between Two Kingdoms
—Recommended by Amalia Lisauskas
Foner, Eric, Fiery Trial
McCurry, Stephanie, Confederate Reckoning
—Recommended by Chris Jones
Categories: Academics
Other Stories
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