Tidbits, Resources, and Discussion for ELI Faculty

Monday, August 18, 2008

Welcome Back, and Summer Reading

Today all full-time faculty return to campus. I know that most of you taught this summer, but perhaps some of you are just now returning yourselves. I always enjoyed this week as a faculty member; it was always hectic, but also fun to catch up with friends and get really geared up for fall courses.

Let's take a break from ELI for a moment. What was the best book you read this summer?

After some random browsing at Barnes and Noble, I picked up The Best of Friends, a memoir by Sara James (Dateline correspondent) and Ginger Mauney (wildlife filmmaker), and ended up really enjoying it. It was not the best quality writing, and the cheesy title is a bit alarming, but there was actually a lot of really interesting stuff in there about some of the stories James has covered (child slavery in Sudan, the first Gulf War, the Oklahoma city bombing, etc.) and about the emotional and cultural lives of baboons and elephants as studied and filmed by Mauney. It's also a memoir of a lifelong friendship and the women's experiences with marriage and children alongside their careers--don't read it if you don't like that kind of material, or you will be very bored.

I'm taking a Labor Day Weekend vacation, and I'd love some book suggestions from all you smart and interesting colleagues!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I recently finished The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by Dave Wroblewski. It is a first novel and has been getting well-deserved good reviews.

The story focuses on a boy who is mute from birth and whose family raises and trains a unique breed of dog. By the middle of the novel, you realize the story has pretty strong overtones of Hamlet.

Wonderful characterizations and decriptions; not exactly a beach read; the novel is literary, but a book I would recommend.