Looking to add to your summer reading list? A community of readers, Emma Willard School EMployees have shared some recommendations, based on their favorite reads so far this summer to get you going!
Associate Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Gemma Halfi
See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love by Valarie Kaur.
About 10 years ago, I heard Valarie Kaur give a keynote address at a global conference called the Parliament of the World's Religions. I was immediately magnetized to her beautiful message of "revolutionary love" and reimagining the world as we hope it to be. In this election year, in a country and world that in increasingly polarized, I am struck by Valarie's message that no one in the world is a stranger-- we need to start seeing others as "a part of me I do not yet know." As a DEI practitioner who believes strongly in story-sharing as a fundamental element of this work, I am unflinchingly drawn to Valarie Kaur's message of love, courage, and hope in See No Stranger.
Experiential Learning Department Chair, Homer L. Dodge Instructor in Science Jon Calos
The Pyrocene is a remarkable book about the evolution of fire on our planet including the surprising role of humans. I find myself looking at forests and reading the news very differently now that I understand how fire should be used to keep our landscapes healthy and safe. This is an important and provocative book to read!
Mathematics Instructor Brett LaFave
The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt
In The Anxious Generation, Haidt presents a great deal of data and research supporting his argument that modern social media and ubiquitous cell phone availability have led to increased real-world risk avoidance among youth, even as these same factors have led to unhealthy online risk taking behavior. Haidt describes the evolution of parenting over the last few decades and argues that modern children are overprotected in the physical world and underprotected online.
I would recommend this book to anyone! Haidt's research is robust and his findings are startling. My thinking about parenting has been influenced by this book.
Bowling Alone, Robert D. Putnam
In Bowling Alone, published around the year 2000, Putnam describes the decline of community involvement (religious, civic, and social) in America during the final three decades of the twentieth century. Relying heavily upon a wide variety of sources, Putnam seeks to examine why Americans of all social classes and races became less civically involved over this timespan. The author also presents a great deal of research connecting strong communities to positive outcomes in terms of health, crime, and economics. Finally, Putnam looks at how the three French Revolution ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity (which can be read as community) are often seen as being in competition with one another, but argues that they don't have to be.
I would recommend this one too! I feel lucky to be part of the Emma Willard community and am reminded of how rare and good a thing this is.
Lose Your Mother, Saidiya Hartman
In this one, Hartman traces the trans-Atlantic slave trade (especially within and from Ghana) through case studies related to her own ancestry. She traces people's capture from their homes and communities in the African inland, human trafficking to the coast, and transportation to the New World. Themes examined are the erasure of family, memory, and heritage.
I would recommend this to anyone! Hartman paints a picture of slavery's complexities. I am particularly interested as part of my preparation for a 2025 Jestermester trip to Ghana!
Krugman's Economics for AP, Paul Krugman
Reading and working through the textbook for AS Economics in preparation for travel to the St. Louis Federal Reserve in July and teaching AS Economics this year.
Greenwood, Michael Christie
My wife Lucy read this 500+ page novel by Canadian novelist Michael Christie in under 24 hours and can't stop talking about it, so I look forward to reading it this summer!
Associate Head of School Meredith Legg, PhD
I am reading Horse: A Novel, by Geraldine Brooks. I am really enjoying this fictional story about a real racehorse and the connections he facilitates between characters from different generations. The book explores themes of art, race, and enslavement in America. It is a thoughtful, at times exciting and heartbreaking read.
I am also reading the coming-of-age novel Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver, a compelling and beautifully written book that explores themes of poverty and class, belonging and community, and asculinity. I understand the novel to be a modern-day retelling of David Copperfield, which I have never read. I think that will be my next read so that I can compare the two!
Head of Enrollment Management Kristen Mariotti
The Vulnerables, Sigrid Nuñez
If you are a writer and/or lover of literature, this one’s for you. Beautiful prose and meaningful insights about modern life & connection.
Dinosaurs, A Novel, Lydia Millet
Beautiful & deeply moving. If you have any connection to the AZ desert it’s a must read. Examines lost love and loneliness.
Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt
One of the most interesting and enjoyable books I’ve ever read. The main character is an octopus!
The Marriage Sabbatical, Liam Dolan
An incredibly enjoyable examination of long relationships, what we gain, and what we give up.
Associate Director of Content Marketing Kaitlin Resler
Who Will Run the Frog Hospital, Lorrie Moore
My first official summer read, I loved this so much and finished it in one day. A portrayal of an Upstate, NY summer: fictionalized versions of The Great Escape, Glens Falls, Albany, this feels like a book about girlhood into adolescence into adulthood and returning to ‘that one summer’ in a kind of reply to The Virgin Suicides, Brutes, O Caledonia, and Happy Hour. Feels like theme parks, teenage friendship nostalgia, the glow of streetlights in summer trees.
Picnic at Hanging Rock, Joan Lindsay
This is a spring read that is bleeding into summer--as a huge fan of the movie, I've been working through the book although the feel of it is quite different. Despite being published in 1967, the prose reads like a slightly off-kilter E.M. Forester novel. This should be a quick read but I am apparently making a meal out of it. Feels like humidity, A Room with a View but vaguely supernatural.
Rereading: The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien (working my way through the newly recorded audiobooks by Andy Serkis--a delight!), Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel (saw Firebrand in theaters earlier this summer and was inspired, also thought a reread was in order before the long-awaited PBS second series of these novels comes out).
Honorable mentions, my library holds which will inevitably all arrive at once: Carnality, Lina Wolff (mostly I liked the cover, and the summary involving " a diabolical nun"), Elsewhere, Alexis Schiatkin (all it takes to add it to my list is the comparison to Shirley Jackson's work), The God of Endings, Jacqueine Holland (in search of some non-Anne Rice vampire novels after the end of the Interview with the Vampire TV series, landed here).
Director of Curriculum and Innovation, English Instructor Caroline Boyajian
I just finished Why Fish Don't Exist, a rare nonfiction pick for me. It explores the complicated legacy of scientist David Starr Jordan and intersperses the author's reflection on his impact with stories of her own search for purpose, partnership, and authenticity. A fast and super interesting read!
English Department Chair, English Instructor Esther Dettmar
I'm about halfway through Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV by Emily Nussbaum, a fascinating look into the origins of reality television in the 1940s and its evolution and proliferation in the decades since. It's been interesting–and sometimes disturbing–to read about how these shows were developed and how participants were selected, treated, and manipulated. I highly recommend the book to reality tv fans and critics alike! If the book feels like too big a commitment, you should at least read about one of the earliest experiments in reality television it discusses, Queen for a Day–yikes.
French Instructor Manon Sabatier
Summer Reading is Kristin Kimball's books (mother of Jane K. '26): The Dirty Life, as well as Good Husbandry.
Mathematics Instructor Judy Price
The Emotional Lives of Teenagers, Lisa Damour, PhD
I've read Dr. Damour's other books and this one also did not disappoint! She was a speaker at Emma several years ago.
Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond
This was recommended to me by my daughter Sarah '20. Interesting read so far!
History Instructor John Riley
Heartsick and Astonished: Divorce in Civil War-Era West Virginia, ed. by Allison Dorothy Fredette. I chose this because I got it for free at the Organization of American Historians last April, and before I became a Civil War scholar, I researched and wrote about Antebellum divorces, so this is a great way to stay up to date on my field as a historian.
Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine, by Barry Strauss. I read everything written by Dr. Strauss. A Classicist at Cornell, Dr. Strauss has a wonderful ability to make his area of expertise accessible for a layperson such as myself. Every time I read something from him I seem to find something new that I can use for Classical Mediterranean History (yay freshmen!).
For more summer reading suggestions, check out our 2023 selections!
Find more interesting stories about Emma Willard School on our Newsroom page.