Read Like a Professor (on Summer Break)

The Japanese have a word, “tsundoku,” for the particular kind of joy that comes from adding a book to a pile of to-be-read-someday titles. BookTokers speak in “TBR” lists. British singer/songwriter Dua Lipa made a podcast of her reading list; Service95 Book Club features Nobel, Booker and Pulitzer Prize winners. There are Bookstagram accounts dedicated to dark and spicy romance, and Nordic noir and romantasy accounts too numerous to count.

Now that the academic year is over and professors have more free time, we wonder: What books do they save for their summer break? What dog-eared paperback do they press into the hands of their students and friends? What novel do they return to over and over again?

Here are a few must-reads from Holy Cross faculty to spark tsundoku and add to your summer reading list.

GLOBAL NONFICTION

“Lo—TEK Design by Radical Indigenism” by Julia Watson

“I absolutely love Julia Watson’s ‘Lo—TEK Design by Radical Indigenism’; it gives me hope in the midst of climate change.

Recommended by: Rosa Carrasquillo, Helen M. Whall Chair in Race, Gender and Social Justice and director of Latin American, Latinx, and Caribbean Studies

Epic Fantasy

“The Way of Kings” by Brandon Sanderson

“I am currently in the first book of The Stormlight Archive, ‘The Way of Kings.’ Given how slowly I read during the school year and how long the series is — over 6,500 pages and counting — it is likely I will still be immersed in this series later this summer. I love reading an epic fantasy from start to finish since it allows me to move away from the day-to-day concerns of life (work, chores, children’s homework) and to consider larger themes and ideas. So far, this series is living up to all the hype.” 

Note: In 2020, Sanderson raised $6.7 million on Kickstarter, with which he produced a leatherbound edition of “The Way of Kings,” on the 10th anniversary of its first printing.

Recommended by: Bianca Sculimbrene, professor and chair of the chemistry department

Domestic Drama

“Housekeeping” by Marilynne Robinson

“I often return to Marilynne Robinson’s ‘Housekeeping’ as the book is a moving meditation on grief, on what it means to be a child, and on what it means to be a parent; and it beautifully and terribly imagines an intimate human relation to an impersonal but ever-changing natural surround.”

Recommended by: Jonathan Mulrooney, professor and chair of the English department

Memoir

“Mother Mary Comes to Me” by Arundhati Roy

“I’ve loved Roy’s fiction because it seamlessly weaves the history of post-Partition India with the lives of her protagonists. Having recently re-read Arundhati Roy’s gorgeous and textured 1997 novel, ‘The God of Small Things,’ I am very interested in how she brings her craft to telling her own story.”

Recommended by: Sahar Bazzaz, professor of history and Middle Eastern studies

Historical Fiction and Mystery

“The Frozen River” by Ariel Lawson

“I picked it out in an airport because it was historical fiction set in New England in the late 1700s, and that seemed like a good read to me. As I read, I appreciated the main character Martha Ballard’s strength, but, of course, was frustrated by ‘a woman’s place in society’ when the story takes place. 

“I really enjoyed Martha writing in her diary every day, as my grandmother (a surgical nurse, so, in the medical field, as was Martha) did something similar. I also must say that I appreciated the fictional ending (a sort of justice). I kind of wish I had not read the ‘historical facts’ at the end!”

Recommended by: Laurie Smith King, professor of computer science

Reporting, Essay and Criticism

“Picky: How American Children Became the Fussiest Eaters in History” by Helen Zoe Veit

“As someone who teaches food systems and food history, I know my students are often shocked that my children don’t subsist on heirloom produce and local fermented cheese and yogurt. If only some of that were true! Much of their diet is, instead, Goldfish crackers of all shapes, dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets and anything else gets a troublingly large glob of ketchup, especially anything they deem ‘adult food.’ Helen Zoe Veit’s ‘Picky’ explores how this came to be and the ways large food corporations created the very premise of ‘kids’ food.’ This will hopefully make me feel a little better the next time they toss aside my carefully crafted meal in favor of the ‘kids’ food’ they desire and expect.”

Recommended by: Chris Staysniak, Montserrat senior lecturer, and environmental studies and history lecturer

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