Lawrence students spend plenty of time reading, mostly class assignments or books and articles for various research projects. We knew there were some students who, when they had a free moment, read for pleasure. It didn't take long to find the enthusiastic readers on this page. Not only do these students love to read, but they wanted to recommend their favorite books to others. We hope there is a title below that appeals to you. Read on!
Tariq Engineer recommends...
The Eyre Affair: a novel
Jasper Fforde
New York: Viking, 2002
LUCIA call number: PR 6106.F67 E97 2002
The Eyre Affair is set in Great Britain, circa 1985, although it is nothing like the Great Britain we know. Time travellers abound, the Crimean War is still being fought a 130 years after it began, and forging works of literature are serious offenses punishable by law. Thursday Next is a Special Operative in literary detection, and therefore one of those responsible for policing the world of literature. When master criminal Acheron Hades kidnaps Jane Eyre from the novel, it is up to Thursday to get her back. The book is both witty and funny, and despite the seemingly complicated nature of the premises, easy to read. In other words, The Eyre Affair is a great book to pick up when you are sick and tired of reading for class.
Nicole Dabney recommends...
The Good Earth
Pearl S. Buck
New York: The John Day Company, c1931
LUCIA call number: PS 3503.U198 G6
A novel that takes place in pre-Revolutionary China, The Good Earth is the story of Wang Lung, a poor farmer struggling to make a name for himself. His struggle results from the conflict between his attachment to his land and saving his family from famine and the wrath of rebels. Wang Lung seeks to serve his father properly while finding a life of his own and is torn between what is right and what he desires. The reader is sympathetic to Wang Lung for the hardships he has endured in life and yet disappointed in the older man he becomes as he seems to forget his original values.
Natalie Hall recommends...
Alma Rosé: Vienna to Auschwitz
Richard Newman and Karen Kirtley
Portland, Or.: Amadeus Press, c2000
LUCIA call number: ML 418.R76 N48 2000
Alma Rosé grew up in the middle of two of the most important Viennese musical families in the early 20th century. She was the daughter of Arnold Rosé, concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic and member of the Rosé quartet, and niece of composer Gustav Mahler. While Alma Rosé is frequently remembered as the leader of the women's orchestra at Auschwitz that saved numerous young women from the gas chambers during the Holocaust, this biography portrays Alma's accomplishment at Auschwitz as the final chapter to an already amazing life. The courage, determination, and zest with which Alma embraced her life will appeal to both musicians and non-musicians, although musicians will especially appreciate the numerous anecdotes between Alma and other important musical figures of the 20th century.
Heather Hempel recommends...
Blitzcat
Robert Westall
New York: Scholastic, c1989
This is a book for cat lovers and adventure lovers. It's about a female cat named Lord Gort who is trying to get to her human master currently fighting in World War II (all of the war incidents mentioned in the book really happened, everything else is fiction). The cat has a ton of adventures and meets a large variety of people from plane bombers to rural farmers. Each person she meets gets touched and changed by her in a very special way. The book is an easy read and has a nice happy ending even though all through the middle Westall creates the feeling of utter terror that the war brings.
Peter Snyder recommends...
The Consolations of Philosophy
Alain de Botton
New York: Pantheon Books, c2000
This book is a self-help book. I know a lot of people feel embarrassed about reading self-help books, but you don't need to feel embarrassed about reading this one, because it is about philosophers instead of the Dali Lama or kittens. de Botton begins by arguing that philosophies that do not help people live better are just idle thinking. From there, he does his best to turn the writings of folks like Nietzsche, Montaigne, and Schopenhauer into easy-to-swallow lessons on suffering, inadequacy, and love, respectively. The book may not get you chicks, and it has too many pictures to impress your friends, but I recommend it. Its had a bigger impact on me than any other book I can think of.
Liz Spoden recommends...
I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company: A Novel of Lewis and
Clark
Brian Hall
New York: Viking Books, 2003
Just in time for the Lewis and Clark bicentennial, here is a novel which takes the reader into the heart of their expedition to the Pacific. The story is told from the perspective of four members of the Corps of Discovery: Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, Sacagawea, and her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau. Hall brilliantly brings these four figures to life and allows them to provide their own unique and often contradictory perspectives on some of the most famous episodes from the journey. In particular, Lewis and Sacagawea are portrayed in more human, complex, and sympathetic ways than most other accounts of the Corps of Discovery. Overall, this book remains true to the historical facts of the journey as well as the journal entries of the men on the voyage, while at the same time filling in the gaps in the journals. For anyone who enjoys reading about Lewis and Clark as well as those who love stories of adventure, discovery, and the complex bonds that form along the way, this book is for you.
Matthew Vitti recommends...
Me Talk Pretty One Day
David Sedaris
Boston: Back Bay Books, c2001
LUCIA call number: PS 3569 .E314 M4 2001
If you enjoyed David Sedaris's visit to Lawrence last year than you will thoroughly enjoy this book. I have never laughed out loud so much while reading a book. Sedaris's sharp wit and fluid story telling ability makes this book incredibly engaging. A must read.
Peter Gillette recommends...
The Penguin Thesaurus of Quotations
M.J. Cohen
New York: Penguin, 1998
I may seem like a nerd for suggesting a "reference book," but laugh away--I've learned more from this one ten-dollar book than from four years of a Lawrence education. I just love to crack this open at the end of the day after my mind's been worn down from studying, practicing at the con, and blogging.
I love quote books, and, in the land of the blind, to paraphrase, this is one heck of a one-eyed book-king: at your fingertips, you have over 10,000 speeches, pamphlets, television malapropisms, books, and--of course--classical epics. Here, though, all the boring parts are cut out; you are left with the essence, out of context. What I like to do is to memorize a quote and see how many class discussions I can ram it into in a single week. Insincerity and sophistry have never been so user-friendly.
You see, it's organized by topic, so you can skip the boring topics. Want to read about Execution? Mycology? Sex? Post-structuralism? Baseball? British humour? Yes, yes, NO, yes, and yes. Youu see, if you were to search for any of those topics on J-Stor, you'd just get some silly jargon by a "cultural studies" professor churning out crap in the hopes of meeting tenure quotas. But not here. Folks like Plato, Yogi Berra, Ralph Ellison, Richard Nixon, and--my personal favorite--Ibid., and Anon rub elbows and give you the straightest skinny there is.
So if you are an impatient reader who, like me, would prefers linguistic money-shots to that pesky concept of "context," then this is the pocket-sized (if you wear jincos) book for you. It's less stuffy than "Bartlett's" and even more user-friendly than Wikipedia. And if you're thirty words from a paper's minimum word count, this will push you over the hump for sure... Just make sure to cite.
Ravi Katkar recommends...
Ender's Game
Orson Scott Card
New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1985
Ender's Game offers a bit more than the average science fiction novel. Instead of inundating the reader with a fantastic universe that takes about 500 pages to explain, Card simply and brilliantly tells the story of Ender Wiggin, a six-year-old genius, and the buggers, the first intelligent alien race to contact Earth. The conflict that ensues tests almost every facet of Ender's character and Card spares no detail in relating all of his hardships. Deceptively easy to read, Ender's Game is ideal for anyone seeking respite from class readings and ordinary science fiction.
Matt Murphy recommends...
The Conscience of a Liberal
Paul Wellstone
New York: Random House, 2001
I am not recommending this book as a piece of liberal propaganda, despite what you may be thinking. Instead, I am recommending the late Senator Wellstone's semi-autobiographical narrative as a supreme example of the heights one person can reach if they set their mind to it. Just as Wellstone himself was inspired to politics by Barry Goldwater's The Conscience of a Conservative, I believe that, no matter what your political persuasion, you will be equally inspired by Wellstone's courageous and unwavering (perhaps blatantly stubborn) stand on his own moral principles.