As we near the end of the term with only one more week ahead of us, we also begin to think about ways to spend the six long weeks between fall and winter term. Though you may be busy with travel or externships, a good book is another way to make the time pass by and hopefully learn something new. The Carletonian asked the English Department’s lovely professors to submit their top five books to create a list of recommendations for their students. This list was inspired by the “New York Times: Best Books of the 21st Century,” however, it is neither confined by the 21st century nor are the books listed in any particular order. Hopefully from this list you will discover some new books as well as maybe learn you have a favorite book in common with our professors. 

Assistant Professor Gwen Kirby ’07:

Kirby has recently joined the faculty of Laird Hall and primarily teaches creative writing courses. Here are her book recommendations:

1. Kelly Link, “Get in Trouble” 

“Kelly Link is one of those writers who is beautifully and boldly herself, her work is utterly unique. When I read her stories, I feel both carried in masterful hands and disoriented, never sure where her stories will go but compelled to follow her absolutely anywhere. The stories range from a ghost-hunting reality TV show set in Florida to an actual ghost spaceship, from a superhero convention to some haunted house sitting. There is no false note in this absolutely incredible collection.”

1. Deesha Philyaw, “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies”
2. Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, “Ms Hemple Chronicles”
3. Raphael Bob-Waksberg, “Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory”
4. Andrea Barrett, “Ship Fever”

Helen F. Lewis Professor of English Susan Jaret McKinstry:

McKinstry, who recently published her poetry collection “Tumblehome” has taught many courses, primarily in British literature.

1. Charles Dickens, “Bleak House” 
2. Virginia Woolf, “To the Lighthouse” 

“As a 19th century British literature scholar, I adore long, complex novels, and I hope everyone will experience Charles Dickens’ “Bleak House” and Virginia Woolf’s “To the Lighthouse.” But this year I want to recommend three recent novellas that I consider near-perfect.”

1. Alan Bennet, “The Uncommon Reader” 
2. Helen DeWitt, “The English Understand Wool” 
3. Claire Keegan, “Small Things Like These” 

Lloyd McBride Professor of English and Environmental Studies, Micheal Kowalewski:

Kowalewski teaches American literature such as “Faulker, Hemingway and Fitzgerald” and more environmental courses such as “Nature Writing.” Here are his winter break recommendations:

1. James Joyce, “Ulysses” 

             “Yes, this novel really is as revolutionary — and as famously unread — as they say.  One Irish writer rightly described Ulysses as ‘a bawdy, loud, swaggering, hilarious opera about a small, quiet, studious man whose heart is broken.’” 

2. F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Great Gatsby” 
3. Cormac McCarthy, “Blood Meridian” 
4. Flannery O’Connor, “Wise Blood”
5. Toni Morrison, “Beloved”

Professor and Chair of English George Shuffelton:

Shuffleton specializes in medieval and early modern English literature. This term he has taught “Medieval Other Worlds.” His winter break picks, however, have been published more recently.

1. Elena Ferrante, “My Brilliant Friend”

“There’s a reason this is at the top of the New York Times list of the top 100 books of the century so far: they’re right! The psychological intensity of the friendship between two Italian girls growing up in a tough environment in Naples completely fascinated me. The rest of Ferrante’s quartet of novels are also terrific, so if you’re looking for something to keep you engaged for a while, this is a great pick.”

2. Frans Bengtsson, “The Long Ships”

“Written by a 20th century Swedish writer, this novel is set in the 10th century Viking world, and is an absolute page-turner.  The hero’s adventures take him from pagan Sweden to Christian Constantinople to Muslim Spain, the dialogue is hilarious, and the characters are lovable. It has my favorite flirting scene in all of literature, featuring a tough-minded Danish princess who is easily the equal of any man in the story.”

3. Claire Keegan, “Foster” 

“It’s pretty rare that a book makes me cry, and even more rare that I don’t resent a book for making me cry. Also: it’s short. Some people prefer Keegan’s slightly more famous “Small Things Like These” (and it’s terrific too).”

4. Colson Whitehead, “Harlem Shuffle”

“This isn’t Whitehead’s most ambitious or most powerful book (that would be “The Underground Railroad,” #7 on that NY Times list). But it’s got a terrific plot set in 1960s Harlem and a protagonist — a furniture-store owning family man who is also a shady hustler — I instantly loved. And like Whitehead’s other books, it’s a brilliant, incisive commentary on racial politics in America. Very hard to put down!”

5. Philip Roth, “American Pastoral”

“For a while, people thought Roth might be the next American to win a Nobel Prize for Literature.  I don’t think that’s going to happen, but this novel is a good example of why that seemed possible. Set in mid-20th-century New Jersey, the novel traces the breakdown of the American dream through the story of a successful businessman whose daughter bombs a post-office as a protest against the Vietnam War. It’s about the immigration, assimilation, myth-making, frustration, duplicity and rage. I can’t wait to read it again.”

Robert A. Oden Jr. Postdoctoral Fellow for Innovation in the Liberal Arts and English Emily Coccia:

Coccia is a visiting professor this term and winter term, teaching courses called “Haunting the Margins of American Literature” and “Being Queer in Nineteenth Century America.” Here are her literature recommendations:

1. Dorothy Allison, “Skin: Talking About Sex, Class and Literature”

“Given Allison’s passing a few short days ago, it feels particularly timely to revisit this collection of essays. The insistent blend of the personal and the political, of intimacy and anger is a helpful reminder that the ongoing fight for liberation requires joy, pleasure, and community to sustain itself. “

2. Leslie Feinberg, “Stone Butch Blues”

“I’ll let Feinberg’s words from one of my favorite scenes in the novel speak for themselves,”

“‘I’ve got no words for feelings that are tearing me apart. What would our words sound like?’ I looked up at the sky. ‘Like thunder, maybe.’ 

Frankie pressed her lips against my hair. ‘Yeah, like thunder. And yearning.’” 

1. Audre Lorde, “Zami: A New Spelling of My Name”

“I often teach pieces from Lorde’s “Sister Outsider” collection, but it’s “Zami,” Lorde’s biomythography, that I find myself recommending again and again to students as a way to look to the relatively recent past to help envision and make sense of the kind of futures they want to work toward.”

1. Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, “A New England Nun and Other Stories”

“I adore the queer, complex, sometimes downright weird world of nineteenth-century short stories, and Wilkins Freeman manages to craft such rich, evocative scenes of New England women’s lives in just a few pages time and again.”

1. Sarah Orne Jewett, “Deephaven” 

“If you’re looking to be transported to a small coastal town in Maine through lush prose characterized less by action-driven plot than by local color character sketches, “Deephaven” is the book for you. (Although if you want to sample something by Jewett before jumping into a whole novel, her short story “Martha’s Lady” is a personal favorite!)”

Benedict Distinguished Visiting Professor of English, Sun Yung Shin:

Shin, a visiting professor, has taught “Writing and Social Justice” this term, which focuses on the role literature has played and continues to play in advancing social justice movements.

1. Grace Lee Boggs and Scott Kurashige, “The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century”

“Grace Lee Boggs is one of my role models as a rigorous critical thinker and movement activist. Her intellectual and social development and work during 70 years as a philosopher, theorist, writer, and ground-level movement activist and organizer is fascinating, challenging, and inspiring. She lived and worked within the Black community in Detroit and witnessed a century of rapid American change and she participated in the struggles for most of the major social movements: for civil rights, women’s rights, workers’ rights, Black power, Asian American rights, and more. I hope college students and young people become versed in her work as a hopeful model for revolutionary change, locally and globally, as individuals and as a collective/species” 

1. Bhanu Kapil, “Humanimal, a Project for Future Children”
2. Myung Mi Kim, “Under Flag”
3. Edited by Walter K. Lew, “Premonitions: The Kaya Anthology of New Asian North American Poetry” 
4. Robin D. G. Kelley, “Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression”

William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of English, Constance Walker:

Professor Walker’s teaching focuses on 19th century literature, such as “The Art of Jane Austen” and “Frankenstein’s Progeny” as well as “Modern Irish Literature.”

1. Keegan, “Small Things Like These”

2. Rundell, “Impossible Creatures”

3. DeWitt, “The English Understand Wool”

4. Mantel, “Wolf Hall” trilogy

 “(yeah, cheating)”

5. Saunders, “A Swim in a Pond in the Rain”

Associate Professor Pierre Hecker:

Hecker’s course listings are wide reaching, from Shakespeare to drama to banned books. His winter break recommendations reflect these.

1. Gabriel García Márquez, “One Hundred Years of Solitude” Gabriel García Márquez

“A richer novel than you can imagine.”

1. Charles Dickens, “David Copperfield” 

“Even more beautiful and heartbreaking when you realize how autobiographical it is.”

1. William Shakespeare, “Twelfth Night” 

“Because Andrew Carlson will be directing it as the Carleton Players show this spring, and you should come. Also, the writing’s not bad.”

1. Maia Kobabe, “Gender Queer” 

“The most banned and challenged book in America in three of the last four years, which is reason enough to run to a bookstore to buy it. It also happens to be a wonderful book.”

1. Homer, “The Odyssey.” (Emily Wilson translation)

“War, gods, monsters, cunning, copious amounts of olive oil and going home.”

Associate Department Chair of English and Associate Professor Peter Balaam:

Balaam teaches and writes about American literature from colonialism to the 1900s.

1. Henry James, “Portrait of a Lady”

1. Herman Melville, “Moby-Dick”

1. Ford Madox Ford, “The Good Soldier”

1. Willa Cather, “The Professor’s House”

1. Ernest Hemingway, “In our Time”

Professor Gregory Hewett:

Professor Hewett, who coordinates the English Creative Writing minor, teaches poetry and contemporary literature alongside creative writing.

1. H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), “Trilogy.” 

“How did she revise all of Western Civilization with such insight and lyricism?”

1. Emily Dickinson, “The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson”
2. Toni Morrison, “Beloved”
3. James Baldwin, “Giovanni’s Room”
4. Robert Duncan, “Bending the Bow”

Professor of English and M.A. and A.D. Hulings Professor of American Studies, Adriana Estill:

Estill’s teaching focuses on Latino/a literature like the works of Sandra Cisneros as well as American literature. She is one of the core faculty in the American Studies department. Here are some recommendations that she highlights.

“I always find it hard to provide a list of favorite books – there are too many, and different books for different seasons, moods, etc. So what follows are books that feel really important now, November 2024.”

1. Audre Lorde, “Sister Outsider”
2. José Olivarez, “Citizen/Illegal”
3. Claudine Rankin, “Citizen”
4. NK Jemisin, “The Fifth Season” (and the entire “Broken Earth” trilogy)
5. Eve Ewing, “Electric Arches”