Best Book Recommendations for Summer 2008

Richard Ray:  Professor of Kinesiology, Men’s Athletic Director
The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Slavomir Rawicz. 
This is a true story written by a WWII Polish officer who, after being captured by the Soviets, tortured, and forced to WALK to Siberia from Moscow (ugh) escaped from the camp he was forced to build and he walked to….India.  Any student who reads this story will realize that getting through the semester is a minor part of life. Hope this helps.

Marc Baer:  Professor of History
The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Timothy Keller.  Keller is the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, which in the past 2 decades has earned a reputation as a church which loves the city and its skeptics.  The first half of the book answers each of the major questions a thoughtful skeptic brings to Christianity.  The second half is for Christians who want an intellectually rich reasoning for why they believe what they believe.

Virginia Beard:  Assistant Professor of Political Science
The Only Road North by Erik Mirandette
 
Less Than Two Dollars a Day: A Christian View of World Poverty and the Free Market by Kent A. Van Til

Steve Bouma-Prediger:  Professor and Chair of Religion Department
Hunting for Hope by Scott Russell Sanders
A beautifully written book by a father to his 18 year son on why we can and should have hope in a troubled time.

Thirst by Mary Oliver
Luminous poetry on life, earth, and faith by one of the best living poets

Carol Simon:  Professor of Philosophy
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett.  It explores how the liberal arts and the arts can equip people to live redemptively (in the broad humanist sense) in the face of unpredictable and undeserved suffering.

David Klooster:  Professor and Chair of English Department
Straight Man by Richard Russo.  I love this laugh-out-loud academic novel.   

Awakening by Kate Chopin begins and ends on the beach, which would be a good place to read it. 

Death in Vienna by Daniel Silva (this one is available as an audio book, and makes the miles fly by on a road trip).

Susanna Childress:  Visiting Instructor of English
Lolita in Tehran, the brilliantly written memoir of Azar Nafisi, an Iranian teacher who held secret meetings with her best seven female students to lead them through texts forbidden by Islamic fundamentalists within the government.  Not only is it a beautiful tribute to the power of literature but it's also a phenomenal story of daring, sacrifice, and resilience.

David Myers:  Professor of Psychology
God's Universe by Owen Gingerich.  Gingerich, a devout Mennonite, shows how one can be both a creative scientist and a believer in divine purpose, and how the motivation for scientific research can derive from a desire to trace God's handiwork.

William Pannapacker:  Associate Professor of English
Leaves of Grass (1855 version) by Walt Whitman, edited by Malcolm Cowley.  It emphasizes, above all, the connections between people, the beauty of nature, and the sublime power of God.  Inspired, in part, by the New Testament, Whitman saw his poetry as the antidote for crises of his era--racial hatred, economic exploitation, the denial of the human spirit--and Leaves of Grass speaks to our time perhaps more powerfully than it did on the eve of the Civil War.  

Dianne Portfleet:  Adjunct Associate Professor of English
The Only Necessary Things by Henry Nouwen. It focuses on prayer, but in a way that would not alienate the struggling, doubting or faithful student. It has very practical advice on forgiveness of oneself and of others, of applying times with God to our daily activities, and on spiritual dry times. It helps one to escape from the idea of prayer as talking and teaches, as Nouwen always does, listening and being in His presence.

Trygve Johnson:  Dean of the Chapel
I am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe

Truck – A Love Story by Michael Perry