Book your vacation early
Profs make their picks for summer reading
Whether you are searching for the literary equivalent of Mr. Right or you just want a
thriller to tote on the plane, it helps to have a recommendation.
With that in mind, the Messenger asked UD faculty to suggest books they’d take along
when they’re facing a long stretch of uninterrupted time.
From armchair archaeology to knockout best sellers, one common
thread unites their picks. They are all page-turners.
The list includes everything from escapist adventures to intellectual exploration—
often in the same book. So, here are some suggestions, suitable for times
spent lolling on the beach or lounging on the deck.
Recommended by Douglas Taber, professor of chemistry and biochemistry:
Taber chose The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan, the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America, by Russell Shorto, for its detailed history and its readability. While most Americans know little of Manhattan’s history beyond Peter Minuet’s $24 land deal, this thorough history is based on recently translated early Dutch records of New Netherland and its capital, Manhattan.
Recommended by Marcia Rollison, assistant dean, Lerner College of Business and Economics:
“I can never pass up a great British mystery,” Rollison says. “Since Dorothy Sayers is no longer around to feed my addiction, I have come to appreciate P.D. James—anything by her!”
For this summer, she particularly recommends The Lighthouse, James’ latest issue. Rollison says the cast of characters is fully developed, so the reader has all the details to set about trying to solve the mystery. But, she says, James always manages to outsmart the reader.
Rollison also suggests Bleak House by Charles Dickens; St. Dale, Sharyn McCrumb’s NASCAR tale; The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis; Randy Alcorn’s spiritual journey, Heaven; and, for young readers, the futuristic The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer.
Recommended by Titus O. Awokuse, assistant professor of food and resource economics:
In Defense of Globalization, by Jagdish Bhagwati, explains the main issues in globalization in trade and business investments, Awokuse says.
“This book is written by one of the top three international economists in the world,” he says. “He targets non-economists and average-to-sophisticated readers who are curious about how all the arguments and issues fit together.” Awokuse says the author does an excellent job of helping non-economists understand the issues and how each nation benefits from participating in global trade.
Recommended by Lt. Col. Dane S. Tkacs, chairperson, military science:
Tkacs says An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, Rick Atkinson’s history of the preparations for World War II, has parallels for what’s going on in Iraq now. He says the book is clearly written and anyone—with a military history background or not—could read it and enjoy it.
Recommended by Jeanne Murray Walker, professor of English:
Snow, by Orhan Pamuk, is a best seller by a Turkish publishing phenomenon who was unsuccessfully tried for “insulting Turkish identity” in January.
“Through the eyes of a poet-journalist, we look at a small town in Turkey during a period of rising female suicides and, finally, revolution,” Walker says. “The book is tender and funny and sometimes surrealistic, in the vein of, say, A Hundred Years of Solitude. Reading it gave me a chance to see inside this fascinating country, torn between its passion to join the European Union and its desire to control dissent within its borders.”
She also suggests Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the East by Clyde Prestowitz.
Recommended by Chien-Chung Shen, associate professor of computer and information sciences:
As the dad of a preschooler and a toddler, Shen says the book he found helpful was Jack Petrash’s Covering Home: Lessons on the Art of Fathering From the Game of Baseball.
Petrash uses stories from baseball history and tradition to encourage fathers to be the best parents they possibly can, involving themselves in their children’s lives through activity, emotion and thoughtfulness. His chapter titles include “If You Want the Season of a Lifetime, Prepare for It,” “Develop Well-Rounded Players” and “Remember, You Can’t Win Them All.”
Recommended by Janice A. Seitz, associate dean for Extension and Outreach, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources:
Seitz recommends Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins, a best seller on leadership. She also suggests Positively Outrageous Service: How to Delight and Astound Your Customers and Win Them for Life by T. Scott Gross.
Recommended by Douglas W. Tallamy, chairperson of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology:
Tallamy calls Jared Diamond’s Collapse a “must-read for everyone on the planet.”
Selecting the best seller about why civilizations succeed and why they collapse, Tallamy says, “It’s a very thorough piece of research about the factors that have enabled societies—from ancient societies such as Easter Island to current societies—to interact in ways that sustained their societies and in ways that caused degradation to the point that societies collapsed.” It’s a message we need to hear right now, Tallamy says, “because we’re stretching the Earth’s resources beyond what we can sustain and nobody seems to care.”
Recommended by Lu Ann DeCunzo, professor of anthropology:
Gifts From the Celestial Kingdom: A Shipwrecked Cargo for Gold Rush California, by Thomas N. Layton, is DeCunzo’s pick for a highly readable nonfiction detective story. It concerns the wreck of a Chinese cargo ship bound for San Francisco in 1850 and what the salvaged cargo told anthropologists and historians.
DeCunzo says the author traces the items that were removed from the wreck, helping readers to understand what is lost when treasure hunters dive on shipwrecks and take away things that could enhance our understanding of other times and other people.
Recommended by Ali Alalou, assistant professor of foreign languages and literatures:
The French, by Theodore Zeldin, is an excellent sociological analysis of the French people and their approach to life, Alalou says.
The author interviews numerous French men, women and children to answer such questions as when to laugh at a French person’s stories, how to tell what a French businessman wants to achieve in negotiations and why the French seem to treat foreign visitors so rudely. The result is a book that explores what lies behind a society that can be baffling to outsiders.
Recommended by Janis A. Tomlinson, director, University Museums:
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, by Patrick Suskind, translated from German by John E. Woods, is Tomlinson’s choice for a novel that expertly re-creates an era, that of mid-18th-Century France. Tomlinson calls the book about a man born with a perfect sense of smell and the dark lengths he’ll go to create a perfect perfume a “wonderful allegorical tale about an anti-hero incapable of connecting with other humans and about what he does to compensate.”
Recommended by Wallace G. Pill, professor of plant and soil sciences:
Pill recommends A Short History of Nearly Everything by engaging writer Bill Bryson. He says he’s liked every book Bryson has written, and this one is the kind busy readers can enjoy in chunks as they have time.
The book is about water and light and … well, nearly everything.