Take a Break, Enjoy These A&S Recommended Summer Reads

On the beach, on the road, or on your couch, there's still plenty of time this month to dive into a summer read. If you need a few recommendations to kick start your list, here is a list of what some faculty and staff members from UVA's College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences are enjoying reading this summer.

Bad Naturalist, by Paula Whyman

"I facilitate a community book club at Blandy Experimental Farm, a UVA environmental science field station. Each month, members gather to discuss a mass market book about the natural world — think Braiding Sweetgrass by Robbin Wall Kimmerer or Nature's Best Hope by Doug Tallamy. This spring, Bad Naturalist by local author Paula Whyman tickled many of our "Blandy Bibliophiles." Whyman recounts her family's bumbling but earnest efforts to manage invasive species on their mountaintop farm in Rappahannock County. If you've ever struggled to get rid of English ivy or Japanese stiltgrass in your backyard, you'll recognize the game of "Whac-a-Mole" Whyman describes. Read this book after you've spent the morning pulling weeds — you'll be rewarded with Whyman's wry sense of humor, commiseration and musings on the futility and joys of conservation-focused land management in Appalachia."

~ Ariel Firebaugh, director of scientific engagement, Blandy Experimental Farm

The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans

"The Correspondent is great for the summer because it's a quick read and really engaging. It was one of the most unique books I've read in a while because the entire story is written through letter or email correspondence. It's a really fun and intimate way of experiencing a story and its characters."

~ Ella Durbin, senior Faculty Affairs specialist

Film Diplomacy: A Media History of Turkey–U.S. Relations, by Ayşehan Jülide Etem

"As both a film and politics buff, I love reading books that deftly combine both areas. Rich with historical detail, yet also timely due to increased U.S. involvement in the Middle East, Film Diplomacy promise readers both fascinating stories and edifying insights about a deeply important, yet under-explored relationship."

~ Aynne Kokas, professor of media studies

Fourth of July Creek, by Smith Henderson

"Pete, the protagonist, is a family services worker in deep Montana. His clients are a mess, and he's often not in much better shape himself. But he is, sometimes effectively, often movingly, trying to help. Pete's a complex character, but so are all the figures we encounter at any length in the book, who're treated with respect if not always affection. The writing is gritty and extremely eloquent. There's no novel I know that's quite like it."

~ Mark Edmundson, University Professor of English

Girl, Woman, Other, by Bernadine Evaristo

"I started my summer reading this story of two women, Amma and Dominique, who establish an alternative theatre group in London in the 1990s and go on to find artistic, personal, and professional success in their own ways. The book is structured around narratives of the women and girls — daughters, mothers, sisters, partners and friends — who connect with Amma and Dom, sometimes without knowing each other. Bernadine Evaristo won the 2019 Booker Prize for Girl, Woman, Other. One of her real achievements is to center the book around Black women, allowing readers to experience London, the UK, work, love and life from their perspectives."

~ Fiona Greenland, associate professor of sociology

The Hounding, by Xenobe Purvis

"Equal parts historical realism and morality tale, The Hounding is an excellent debut novel. In rural early modern England, five eccentric girls are accused of transforming into wild dogs. (Echoes of The Scarlet Letter will be apparent.) The chapters shift between different villagers' viewpoints, revealing how gender, violence and resentment invisibly shape the lives of this small community."

~ Jeff Casey, Advising Fellow and Engagements lecturer

In the Pines: A Lynching, A Lie, A Reckoning, by Grace Elizabeth Hale

"At the absolute top of my summer reading list is In the Pines, a brilliant piece of historical non-fiction by our own UVA colleague, Grace Elizabeth Hale. This is a deeply researched, unflinching narrative that unfolds like a true-crime mystery. Hale is dauntless as she untangles her own family history to expose a devastating truth behind the 1947 murder of a Black man, Versie Johnson, in Mississippi at the hands of white law enforcement officers. This is a powerful work in which Hale purposefully disrupts the legacy of white supremacy by surfacing an important history — no matter the personal cost."

~ Robin Means Coleman, professor of media studies

The Look, by Michelle Obama and Meredith Koop

"Michelle Obama and Meredith Koop turn an insider's examination of the former First Lady's iconic fashion and beauty choices into a sophisticated study of cultural expression. While gorgeously illustrated with nearly 300 pages of vibrant, glossy photos, The Look is far more than just an overflowing, beautiful coffee table book. It also serves as a perceptive interrogation into the highly political nature of fashion and the shifting standards of what is considered beautiful in the U.S. today."

~ Robin Means Coleman, professor of media studies

The Odyssey, by Homer (translation by Peter Green)

"I had never read it in school, and I wanted to read it before the movie came out this summer. My kids and I checked out most of the copies from the public library and we have had a summer book club, complete with Greek food, bird omens and discussion questions about gods and monsters. I have been struck by the poetry of the book and the timelessness of human struggle. But the book has also made me deeply think about the way that emotionality was accepted as strength in Ancient Greece, and how separated humans have become from the divine nature of things. True, it's a large book, but it has been read on two different vacation beaches so far this summer!"

~ Erin Clabough, professor of psychology

Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir

"It's a gripping blend of science, ingenuity, and heart. Imagine MacGyver in space, solving impossible problems with chemistry, physics, and orbital mechanics while carrying the weight of humanity's survival. Add in an unlikely friendship and some pulling of the heartstrings and you've got yourself a page turner."

~ Lana Boyle, senior web designer and developer

Razorblade Tears, by S.A. Cosby

"As a relative newcomer to Virginia, I've been diving headfirst into local literature. S.A. Cosby's New York Times bestseller, Razorblade Tears is unrelenting and exhilarating. Set around the Richmond area, this is a ferocious mystery-revenge thriller following two ex-con fathers — one Black, one white — who forge an unlikely partnership. Motivated by grief, they take the law into their own hands to seek vigilante justice for the murder of their sons, who were a married couple. As raw as this story is, it is also a deeply moving tale of love and redemption. It is a phenomenally complex novel that is not for the faint of heart."

~ Robin Means Coleman, professor of media studies

Red Rising, by Pierce Brown

"I'm re-reading the six-book series starting with Red Rising. It's a dystopian epic that takes place in space, so Hunger Games, but make it space. It follows Darrow, a "red," the lowest color of a color caste system, as he infiltrates "the Gold" (highest color) society from within in hopes of taking it down. The seventh and final book in the series is coming out this year."

~ Ana Harrington, Echols Scholars & Hoos Getting Ready program coordinator

Tom's Crossing, by Mark Z. Danielewski

"More than a few references to classic Greek literature are woven into this epic-length Western tale of a Utah teenager who sets out to honor his promise to a dying friend to steal and rescue a pair of horses scheduled for slaughter. The escape takes him and his friend's sister on a perilous journey through the mountains, hunted by misinformed local authorities and a villainous family seeking to cover up their own murderous act. As one reviewer commented, Tom's Crossing is 'only a couple dozen pages shorter than War and Peace,' so don't expect to tear through this in one weekend. Enjoy the ride."

~ Len Perez, editorial director, A&S communications and marketing

Waking Up Alone: Navigating the Narrow Passage Through Master-Slave Narratives, by Nicole Wordlaw

"Some books ask you to think differently. This one asks you to feel differently. Wordlaw's memoir about living at the intersection of race, gender, and power is a prayer, a conversation between a woman and Spirit, between a woman and the long line of women standing at her back. This is a book for anyone ready to unlearn, to awaken, and to remember who they were before the world told them who to be."

~ Daniel Colón, lecturer in Spanish

Watching the Detective, by Deborah Shapiro

"Do you ever fixate on that time Lieutenant Columbo solved a murder while sitting behind a piano at the Hollywood Bowl? I do. And it's good to know there's somebody else who does that too and wonders why."

~ Ajay Limaye, associate professor of environmental sciences