Here are the top recommendations from books faculty read this summer! Faculty caught up on some classic Sci-Fi, explored mind-bending Non-Fiction, found useful perspectives on managing stress through mindfulness, and more. Check out the list below and let us know what you read this summer in the comments!
Title: The Mindful Twenty-Something: life skills to handle stress…& everything else
Author: Holly Rogers
Recommended by: Dr. Nicole Pfannenstiel
“This book breaks down meditation and mindfulness to show college students where to integrate the practice to their real life.
This book offers a very real perspective on the lived experiences of college students – and how meditation can help. The book is not about fixing the lives of college students, but providing real ways to reconnect with themselves to work through the stresses of life.”
The full PDF is available to read through the McNairy Library: https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=f0d7d0b5-03bf-3ad4-904e-fa3cbb78b670
Title: Parable of the Sower
Author: Octavia Butler
Recommended by: Dr. Justin Mando
“This work of dystopian fiction published in the ’90s just so happens to begin in July, 2024. What a time to encounter this startling vision of the present to shake us into seeing that there is still hope for the future
This is a foundational book of climate fiction that I’d been meaning to read for years.”
Check it out through McNairy as a book, ebook: https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=44eccbe2-c2fc-375f-b4c8-685aa165e347
Or a graphic novel adaptation: https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=a3e2cebc-7b14-39fd-b3d0-04c193e26f43
Title: Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control
Author: Stephen Kinzer
Recommended by: Dr. Timothy Mayer
“A journalistic account of how a secret project of the CIA in the 1950s experimented with LSD on willing and unwilling subjects in an ultimately failed attempt to win the Cold War through ‘brainwashing’ and ‘mind control.’
If you like speculative fiction, you will probably enjoy this book, and you will keep having to remind yourself that it is *not* fiction.”
The audiobook is available for free with a Lancaster County Libraries card through Hoopla:
https://www.hoopladigital.com/audiobook/poisoner-in-chief-stephen-kinzer/12693167
Title: The Archer’s Tale
Author: Bernard Cornwell
Recommended by: Dr. Josh Rea
“An English archer begins a quest for the Holy Grail during the War of the Roses.
I found it interesting because it paired thorough and detailed historical research and events with a fantasy-style quest.”
The McNairy Library has a hard copy available to borrow here: https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=5312ca87-07c7-389f-b7c4-0d3c01bfe1b8
Title: Dune
Author: Frank Herbert
Recommended by: Dr. Emily Baldys
“Dune is set in a distant future in which noble houses fight for control of the desert planet Arrakis, the only source of the valuable intoxicant known as ‘spice.’ The story follows Lady Jessica, a ‘Bene Gesserit witch,’ and her son Paul Atreides, a young noble who becomes the leader of a desert-dwelling people called the Fremen after his family is betrayed. Along the way, there are sand worms, spectacular fights, cackling villains, love stories, and lots of drugs and mysticism.
I’d never read this SFF classic and enjoyed it more than I expected! The story of Paul Atreides’ rise to status of prophet on a planet that’s not his home has so many interesting connections to issues of colonialism, gender, ecology, religion, and more. It was also fascinating to see how the book influenced later Sci Fi epics, like Star Wars and more.”
Check out the ebook from McNairy here: https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=da868631-395f-3b23-96f5-1cddfb1f4894