Looking for your next great read? Consider some recommendations from the English department’s annual summer reading list. The list is based on what they’ve read over the past year and what they plan to read next.
From detective stories to plastic people and powerful poetry, their picks are smart, surprising, and perfect for your summer stack. Take a peek and start turning pages.
Five Decembers
By James Kestrel
If you’re into detective fiction, Five Decembers, by James Kestrel is my go-to recommendation. It won the 2022 Edgar Award for best novel. It concerns Detective Joe McGrady, who is trying to solve a missing persons case in Hawaii. The case takes him to Japan, and as the detective begins to unravel the case, Pearl Harbor happens. What results is an amazing confluence between detective and historical fiction as McGrady not only tries to survive the war, but solve the case.
— Andrew Erkkila
Plastic
By Scott Guild
In this alternate world, not only things but also people are made of plastic, with fragile bodies and superficial lives. The novel depicts tensions between the plastic people, who are politically liberal, and the conservatives, whose bodies are waffles. Add in some ecoterrorists, and the novel deals with serious issues, but in a lighthearted and surrealistic manner.
— Jean Graham
The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series
By Jessica Radloff
A book I read last year is a must-read for fans of my favorite sitcom of all time: The Big Bang Theory (a series about geeks, made for geeks, although surprisingly it became a mainstream hit. Maybe the Bible misquoted Jesus: Should have been “the geek shall inherit the earth”). The book’s foreword is by Chuck Lorre, co-creator of the series and the best writer of comic dialogue in network television.
— Lincoln Konkle
Impossible Creatures
By Katherine Rundell
An action-packed adventure (to save the world), courageous child characters, a deep abiding friendship, stunning sacrifice. I wasn’t sure as I started this book if I liked it or not, and I wasn’t sure as I continued to read (I wish each chapter had included a small map of where the characters had been and were going), but, wow … this one packed an emotional wallop. It was exactly the kind of the middle grade book I love best: a story that hits you in the heart as the characters navigate hard choices, grief, joy, and hope all at the same time. And the writing. So much to talk about.
— Emily Meixner
Bashō: The Complete Haiku of Matsuo Bashō
Translated by Andrew Fitzsimons
I made a rule in January: no reading news after dinner. Alas, I did not often follow my own rule. But I did manage, at least, to keep myself from reading news right before bed, and I accomplished this by stacking beautiful collections of haiku poetry on my nightstand. I found reading the short, blossom-like poems utterly transporting. If you need some timeless beauty and profundity in your life, this is it. You can read this book a hundred times and it will be a revelation when you read it for the one hundred and first.
— Catie Rosemurgy
Sociopath: A Memoir
By Patric Gagne
This memoir thoughtfully describes the author’s experience in dealing with her own behavioral and emotional differences and the interpersonal fall-out from having the diagnosis “Sociopath.”
— Felicia Steele
Want even more recommendations? Find out what these (and other) English professors have on their own summer reading lists, and go get your book on.