WALNUT HILL RECOMMENDS
SPRING 2016
This is not required reading. This is inspired reading. These are the books we love to read and that we are sad to finish.
These books have enlightened and amused us, and we hope they will do the same for you.
—Walnut Hill Faculty & Staff
Maia Miskin, Campaign Manager
Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
Paramahansa Yogananda was an Indian yogi who came to the United States in 1920 to spread India’s ancient spiritual teachings on yoga and
meditation. In true autobiographical fashion, Yogananda shares his story of growing up in rural India, finding his guru, and coming to America,
including all his mystical adventures along the way.
Jason Stumpf, Humanities Department Head
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo
Behind the Beautiful Forevers is a nonfiction account of daily life in Annawadi, a slum on the outskirts of the world’s tenth-largest city. Boo
extensively researched the book over the course of four years; however, her vivid style reads more like a novel than a scholarly account. She
provides a rich study of character, allowing readers to see into the interconnected lives of a few Annawadians. Behind the Beautiful Forevers
raises questions about the toll that modern cities take on people and on their surroundings, as well as what we should expect of nonfiction.
Readers should note that Boo does not shy away from some difficult themes in pursuit of this story.
Naomi Bailis, Theater Faculty
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehesi Coates
This book is a searing, beautifully written, deeply challenging parental love letter about race and the foundational premise of the American
Dream. At the same time, it is a difficult addendum to James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time. Between the World and Me is an important book
for any person or community concerned about diversity and inclusion. Winner of the 2016 National Book Award for Nonfiction.
Jen James, Director of Administrative & Strategic Affairs
Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman
This book provides an inside view of an adolescent on a journey in and out of mental illness. Beautifully written, the novel is elegant, informative, and eye-opening. While the themes will resonate with anyone who has been a teenager, the descent of the main character into mental
illness and his ascent back out is fascinating to witness and will change the way you feel about anyone who has gone or is going through it.
Kirsten McKinney, Theater Faculty
The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life by Twyla Tharp
In this book, Twyla Tharp speaks of the discipline, preparation, and work habits that can lead you to your own definition of personal success.
Though it’s written from a choreographer’s perspective, it is universal in its message. It provides you with exercises to help you find the
personal creativity that is within each of us. She reminds us to observe our world, guides us to ways of getting rid of the clutter in our
minds, and helps us get out of ruts and into more productive actions. She seems to have found the recipe for being creative on a daily basis,
striving for your best each and every moment, and honoring your rough times and failures because they can lead you to places you never
knew existed within you.
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Audrey Bland, Director of Academic Support
The Crossroads of Should and Must: Find and Follow Your Passion by Elle Luna
This book is great for all ages. Whether entering college or headed toward retirement, we all experience crossroads in our lives.
Luna challenges you to think about who you are, what you do, and why you are doing it. This book is not a traditional read, and can be
quick and easy even for those with reading difficulties. The pages are full of color and text that jump off the page. There are plenty of
reflective questions and activities that will force you to confront what things we all SHOULD versus MUST do in our lives. I actually enjoyed
writing my own obituary! #CHOOSEMUST
Antonio Viva, Head of School
The Finest Hours by Michael Tougias and Casey Sherman
For those of us who have lived through a New England nor’easter, we know firsthand the power of Mother Nature and her fury. The Finest
Hours recounts the gripping real-life tale of two oil tankers, the Pendleton and the Fort Mercer, in a terrifying situation off the coast of
Cape Cod. It’s a great book for anyone interested in reading a story located in our own backyard and in learning about the unbelievable
effort that ensued to rescue the 84 men caught out at sea.
Pauline Connors, Bookstore and Box Office Manager
Here by Richard McGuire
In this book, Richard McGuire pictures the goings-on in a single corner of a room in its near and not-so-near past and future. There is very
little writing. Each picture has a year noted on it. I live in a very old house and often wonder about who lived in it before me. It is especially
intriguing as I play in my garden and find that every shovelful of dirt contains pieces of broken glass, crockery, and china, as well as the
occasional intact bottle or horseshoe. You will never look at your corner of the world in the same way after experiencing this book!
Tom Keenan, Math & Science Department Head
How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking by Jordan Ellenberg
How Not to Be Wrong presents the surprising revelations behind everyday questions using the mathematician’s method of analyzing life—
minus the jargon. Though Ellenberg uses math as the lens with which to examine the world, he ultimately strives to unveil the “truth” from
the cloudy judgment of the biased humans we all are.
Amanda Leshowitz, Assistant Director of Student Services
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Henrietta Lacks was a name I had never heard of before finding this book. Her cervical cancer cells (HeLa cells) were replicated and
used to make incredible and amazing scientific discoveries, everything from the polio vaccine to the workings of the atom bomb to
in-vitro fertilization. Yet, because she lived in a time when doctors experimented on African Americans without their official consent, her
family never received any compensation from the companies that bought and used her cells to make billions of dollars. She is buried in
an unmarked grave, but her cells live on, continuing to change science as we know it. This is an incredible book that gives a life and a
story to the cells that have saved so many lives.
Benjamin Gregg, Director of Academic Studies
King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild
King Leopold II of Belgium is one of history’s great monsters—a monarch who combined a ruthless and consuming avarice with the political
and military power to grind whole populations to dust in pursuit of his goals. But this book isn’t great because it is a portrait of evil. It is great
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because it examines all of the people and the context around the king to reveal the ordinary and extraordinary sources of evil acts, from the
king himself to his lowest henchmen. The decades-long outrage at the heart of this book is well known, but in Hochschild’s hands it comes to
make brutal, scary sense.
Marie Longo, Chief Advancement Officer
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
This modern-day romance explores universal themes of love and class. Will Traynor, a wealthy, thrill-seeking executive, is now confined to a
wheelchair as a quadriplegic. Louisa “Lou” Clark, desperate for a job, has been hired as his caretaker. As the prickly Will and plainspoken Lou
gradually warm to each other, she learns that the six-month length of her contract coincides with the amount of time Will has agreed, for his
parents’ sake, to postpone his planned assisted suicide. Embarking on adventures together, the pair find their lives, and their hearts, changing
in unexpected ways. All signs point to a happy ending, but the story barrels forward to a more heartbreakingly truthful conclusion: sometimes
love isn’t enough.
Jennifer Elowitch, Director of Music
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Written in 2011, The Night Circus is a novel about a mysterious magical circus that appears during the night at various times near London. The
plot and fantastical aura of the story are quite unique in my experience, and the book really drew me in through its surprising twists and turns.
Steve Durning, Humanities Faculty & Freshman Class Dean
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Little Women (the daughters of the missionary who drags his family to the Belgian Congo) meets Moby Dick (the missionary in the role of
Captain Ahab) meets Emily Dickinson if she had thought in palindromes (one of the daughters)—all this with a searing indictment of
colonialism and a strong narrative pulse.
Ian Buttermore, Humanities Faculty
Night Soldiers by Alan Furst
Bulgaria 1934. A world caught between fascism and communism. After his brother’s death at the hands of the local Nazi, party a young man
named Khristo Stoianev is recruited into an elite unit of the Soviet espionage network. Betrayed and bloodied in the Spanish Civil War, Khristo
flees to Paris to seek anonymity, but instead finds the complications of a world on the eve of war.
Amber Gode Oakley, World Languages Faculty
No God but God by Reza Aslan
In a world where Islam is constantly in the news, often in connection with violence, this nonfiction exploration of the foundation and
evolution of Islam introduces the reader to a wider view of Islam: from its Judeo-Christian roots, to the Shia and Sunni split, to the rise of
modern fundamentalism. Written in prose that is both accessible and engaging, No God but God is a powerful but short read for those who
want to explore major world cultures or understand the larger historical and political context of modern events.
Susan Woodrow, Tutor
Rhinoceros by Eugène Ionesco
Rhinoceros is a play that deals with an epidemic of hate among the inhabitants of a French town during their occupation in World War II.
The protagonist, Bérenger, watches as his neighbors and friends (and soon all the villagers) transform into rhinoceroses—hard-shelled,
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hard-hearted brutes—as they conform to the plague of Nazi political domination. I believe this is a theme that we are seeing in our own time,
unfortunately, as more and more voters follow the anger and fear-mongering of our emerging political figures. Ionesco’s imagery is evocative
and illuminating art: we may see our world differently after experiencing it.
Jenny Salamone, Humanities Faculty
The Stand by Stephen King
Supervirus that wipes out 99% of the world’s population? Check. Epic battle between good and evil? Check. Book that you can’t put
down? Check. A haunting apocalyptic masterpiece, The Stand is perhaps Stephen King’s best novel and one of my favorite works of
fiction. Don’t let the fact that it is over a thousand pages fool you; I guarantee that you’ll finish devouring this horror gem in a week or
two.
Jay Crawford-Kelly, Humanities Faculty
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
What would have happened in the past 700 years if the bubonic plague, instead of wiping out a third of Europeans, had killed almost all of
them? In this fanciful alternate history, Robinson writes about a world in which Christianity has died, the most powerful religions are Islam in
the West and Buddhism in the East, North America is colonized from west to east by the Chinese, and Native Americans led by the Iroquois
band together to repel these invaders. A handful of characters see it all by being continuously reincarnated together into new bodies, new
genders, and even new species.
Kathy Liu, Science Faculty
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
This classic and moving story is still very relevant to issues happening in the United States today. This was one of my favorite “required
reading” books when I was in high school.
Sarah Lovely, Director of College Counseling
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Unbroken is the true story of Louis Zamperini, an American Olympic track star who endured unfathomable experiences while serving his
country in World War II. It is a remarkable account of resilience, survival, and pure heart, and just one example of why such men and women
were dubbed the Greatest Generation.
Jennifer TumSuden, Director of Development
We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas
At its core, We Are Not Ourselves is a story about the American Dream. Largely told through the perspective of Eileen Tumulty Leary, the novel
is both lovely and devastating. The reader is witness to the intimate details of the Leary family’s life—from falling in love, raising a child, and
achieving professional triumphs, to facing financial failures and dealing with a degenerative disease. This is the type of book you gobble up in
one sitting. You will immediately want to pass it on—to share this emotional journey with those in your own life.
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