Summer often marks a change in the pace of life, opening up time for important activities---like reading! In addition to your delayed professional reading and beach/mountain/forest reading (it is okay to confess that you gobbled up Game of Thrones), consider some of the following titles from the Stitt Library as well.
The genre of the graphic novel has matured well beyond the super hero themes of comic books, as Satrapi’s Persepolis elegantly shows. Many people claim that they don’t connect with poetry. Perhaps you have yet to meet the right poet. Billy Collins or Nikki Giovanni will make you laugh or cry or think in the space of a single page.
Enjoy a book. Enjoy your summer.
-- Timothy Lincoln, Stitt Library Director
Age of Iron by J.M. Coetzee
“Harsh, unflinching and powerful, Coetzee’s new novel is a cry of moral outrage at the legacy that apartheid has created in South Africa.”
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
“Had The Blair Witch Project been a book instead of a film, and had it been written by, say, Nabokov at his most playful, revised by Stephen King at his most cerebral… the result might have been something like House of Leaves.”
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
“A feminist novel about an abused and uneducated black woman’s struggle for empowerment.”
Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
“Blending flashbacks, dreams, and Native American myths, this is a suspenseful love story and a moving exploration of life’s greatest commitments.”
The robots of dawn by Isaac Asimov
“A millennium into the future two advances have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the Galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. Isaac Asimov's Robot novels chronicle the unlikely partnership between a New York City detective and a humanoid robot who must learn to work together.”
I never promised you a rose garden by Joanne Greenberg
“As Deborah struggles toward the possibility of the “normal” life she and her family hope for, the reader is inexorably drawn into her private suffering and deep determination to confront her demons. A modern classic, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden remains every bit as poignant, gripping, and relevant today as when it was first published.”
The Holy Land: yesterday and today; lithographs and diaries by David Roberts
“Lithographs taken from the sketches he made during that remarkable journey of exploration in the Holy Land, and published in London by Francis Graham Moon between 1842 and 1849… This volume contains the original plates of the first edition, in large format, arranged for the first time in correct chronological order, with commentary and considerable extracts from Roberts' journal.”
The Gospel according to Disney: faith, trust, and pixie dust by Mark I. Pinsky
“Religion journalist Mark Pinsky explores the role that the animated features of The Walt Disney Company have played in the moral and spiritual development of generations of children. Pinsky explores the religious, moral, and theological themes in 31 of the most popular Disney films, including Snow White, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and the Lion King”
Alum Paul Burns (MDiv’07) has published a book Prayer Encounters: Changing the World One Prayer at a Time, which was released June 4, 2012. He describes this book as a resource designed to be used by small groups and individuals who are looking for a way to share the love of Christ in a way that meets people at their point of need.
Later this summer, Dean Allan H. Cole Jr. will be releasing his next book The Faith and Friendship of Teenage Boys (Westminster John Knox Press, 2012) co-authored by Robert C. Dykstra and Donald Capps. Drawing on research and case studies, three pastoral care experts argue that one of the primary contexts in which the faith formation of teenage boys takes place is in their relationships with other adolescent males. Pre-orders available on Amazon.com.
(Note: The descriptions for each book list is from Amazon.com)
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
“Marjane Satrapi’s wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.”
Habibi by Craig Thompson
“Sprawling across an epic landscape of deserts, harems, and modern industrial clutter, Habibi tells the tale of Dodola and Zam… the love that grows between them.”
The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Millions by Daniel Adam Mendelsohn
“A deeply personal account of a search for one family among his larger family, the ones who are rarely spoken of, the one others only say they were ‘killed by the Nazis’.”
Mighty By Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Damaged a Nation at War by Leymah Gbowee
“The passionate and charismatic Gbowee helped organize and then led the Liberian Mass Action for Peace, a coalition of Christian and Muslim women who sat in public protest.”
Picnic, Lightning by Billy Collins
“Whether shoveling snow with the Buddha, releasing Emily Dickinson from her corsets, spoofing Auden and Wordsworth, or putting words in the mouths of Victoria’s Secrets models… Collins is a pure delight.”
Bicycles: Love Poems by Nikki Giovanni
“Sometimes controversial, sometimes ethereal, but always beautiful, her poems move readers of all hues and generations.”
Plays, prose writing and poems (Oscar Wilde)
The Complete poems and plays (T.S. Eliot)
Playing by James Evans
“God creates us for freedom in a field of play… Playing , in this view, is hardly frivolous, but the pulse of life itself.”
Mending a Tattered Faith: Devotions with Dickinson by Susan VanZanten
“Reading and reflecting on those poems can be powerful way to listen to and experience God through the arts.”
The Rothko Chapel: an act of faith by Susan J. Barnes
“Susan Barnes has written an incredible journey of the Chapel’s beginnings, including John and Dominique de Menil’s vision, and the work of artist Mark Rothko”
Norman Rockwell’s America by Christopher Finch
“Here is a heartwarming, nostalgic anthology of Norman Rockwell's affectionate paintings of 20th-century American life. The illustrations include all of Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post covers, plus paintings, drawings, and graphics from every period of the artist's career.”
The Four Gospels on Sunday by Gordan Lathrop