Recommendations for next year's book

So now we know that many of you did not particularly like this year's Reading Project book.  And we know that one of you would recommend Barbara Tuchman's Guns of August as a better choice and that some or possibly many of you would like to see a science fiction book selected for the Reading Project.

At my small group discussion meeting yesterday I asked the 18 students in attendance what they would recommend as future Reading Project books.  Here is a selection of their recommendations.

Four students included Aldous Huxley's Brave New World on their lists. And several recommended books by former Cornellians: Tony Morrison's Beloved and Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle and Sirens of Titan.

Two students said that our Reading Project selection from two years ago, Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, was a favorite book they had read.  And perhaps could be read again.  (If so, I would recommend that we read the entire trilogy that this book begins. His novels No Longer at Ease, and Arrow of God are also worthy of our attention.)

Some "classic" books showed up on their lists. Also offered as possible reading choices were James Joyce's Dubliners, Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, and William Golding's Lord of the Flies.

Among the many contemporary books recommended were Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, Yann Martel's Life of Pi, Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club,  Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, Orhan Pamuk's Snow and Irène Némirovsky's Suite Francaise.

And yes, there was a science fiction recommendation:  Dan Simmon's Hyperion.

What would you add to this list?

Send us your book and reading recommendations.

Comments

[Amely]

Thank you for the great post!