NAU bookworms suggest summer reading
From tales of zombies to surreal short stories and historical fiction, members of NAU’s College of Arts and Letters share their summer reading picks.
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Jean Boreen, associate dean for the college, recommends My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park, by Steve Kluger.
“If you’re looking for an amazing coming-of-age novel that you can share with your teenager, this is the one,” Boreen says. “The three teen characters are involved in their school and community, yet do so in a realistic manner that teens can relate to and appreciate. Subplots focus on family issues, teen romance and social issues. Parents will appreciate the connections with baseball and Mary Poppins, or both.” |
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Joe Collentine, a professor of Spanish in modern languages, selects a collection of short stories by Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges. Borges’ Ficciones, originally written in Spanish, challenges the reader to rethink accepted notions of reality. Collentine says readers should be prepared for a world of diabolical tigers, imaginary encyclopedias of invented worlds and labyrinths of time and space. |
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Erica Eiting, administrative associate in the college, looks to the future with her reading choice, Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley. The novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology and sleep-learning that change society. The future society embodies the ideals that form the basis of futurism. |
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David Isbell, personnel and facilities coordinator, faces the challenges of western living with his recommendation, Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs: Living and Writing in the West, by Wallace Stegner. This collection of essays confronts living in the arid and vast western United States, and the challenges faced by American western writers. Released over a decade ago, Isbell notes these essays remain pertinent. “This is a great and very enjoyable read for anyone interested in conservation, environmentalism, western culture and attitudes and literature.” |
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Kathleen McGeever, chair of the theater department, heads East and back in time with her pick, Brooklyn, by Colm Tóibín. “Mid-century New York and Ireland are beautifully pictured through dialogue—more than through description—and the human drama is vivid, tangible and enticing,” she says. “You can’t put the book down.” |
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Tom Patin, director of the School of Art, touts The Living, by Annie Dillard. He says this fictional history of Bellingham, Wash., is “well-written prose plus fascinating historical information.” |
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Jane Armstrong Woodman, an associate professor of English, hopes readers will revive with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance. The book is an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring bone crunching zombie scenes by Seth Grahame-Smith.
In this bloody adaptation, characters Elizabeth Bennet and her sisters train to battle a "strange plague" that has befallen England. Adept with sword and musket and schooled in the martial arts, the sisters assume the "pentagram of death" to vanquish the zombies who invade the Netherfield Ball. |
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