Curtis Westbay
Lorenzo Zhu
Edwin Day
Jennifer GunterMr. Day’s recommendations
Ender’s Game (by Orson Scott Card)
I forget when I exactly read this book, could have been middle school or early high school. It was one of those books, however, that hooked me from the very first page and I couldn’t put it down until I was finished. What I loved about the story was its focus on strategic thinking, and how the main character applied logic towards certain situations that made sense if you really thinking about it critically. Also, the book also had aliens (who doesn’t love aliens?!) and was about a super smart and strategic kid saving the world (which, as a kid, I also love). Sure, there are other themes in the book that are interesting and meaningful like authoritative control, political manipulation, etc., but I enjoyed the book the most for the strategic thinking themes it laid out.
The Big Short (by Michael Lewis)
Michael Lewis actually wrote several books, all of which I enjoyed. He excels in writing what I personally call “non-fiction white collar thrillers” where he dissects actual, major financial events and pieces together stories and accounts from interviews and his own research to give the reader a blow-by-blow account of how that major event came to be, and its aftermath, woven together with stories of who exactly to blame and how certain people dealt with it. The Big Short is my favorite (which they also made a movie about) because I witnessed the 2008-2010 financial collapse firsthand so I found learning more about it really interesting. Other books like “Liar’s Poker” and “Flash Boys” by Michael Lewis are similar and equally enthralling.
Most recently, however, I read a book called Bad Blood by investigative reporter John Carreyrou about the Elizabeth Holmes/Sunny Bulwani and the scam that was Theranos. I also categorize it as a “non-fiction white collar thriller” but in this case, instead of purely bad financial behavior/decisions that lead to a collapse, it was more the story of how one can psychologically delude one’s self into believing their own lies. This whole category of non-fiction I personally find super fascinating.
Ms. Gunter’s recommendations
A Prayer for Owen Meany (by John Irving)
Everyone remembers one book that some high school English teacher made them read that they ended up loving, and this is mine. John Irving has written more than 15 books, and I have read all of them, but this one is still my favorite.
The story is about a small boy named Owen Meany who doesn’t grow but is very wise. When he is young, he hits a foul ball at a baseball game that ends up killing his best friend’s mother. He spends the rest of his life trying to make up for it.
This book was connected to the craziest project that I ever did in high school. Ask me about it someday! The project involved staying up all night, throwing my brother in a swimming pool, and drinking hot chocolate outside my teacher’s house with my classmates at 4am - all for extra credit! This book was a turning point in my life. Maybe it will be one for you, too.
Station 11 (by Emily St. John Mandel)
I love dystopia. I’ve never read a dystopian book that I didn’t like, and I have read a lot of them. This one is special.
I’m not even sure why I picked up this book. I think it landed on my kindle one day, so I read it. It’s just so fantastically good. Set in Toronto and in the outlying areas of the city, this book shows you a post-apocalyptic world in which a virus has killed 99% of the population. Those who have survived have to decide what parts of their original world to recreate and which parts are better left gone.
Aside from great writing and storytelling, something that I loved about this book is that the setting is where I’m from. In the book, the author mentions several small Ontario towns all of which I recognize. Surely the author must have been living near where I’m from when she wrote this book!
In fact, the last time I was home in Canada, we were driving on the highway to my hometown, Huntsville, when we came upon a gas station and decided to stop. Guess what the gas station was called? It was called Station 11. This book is so memorable, weird, alarming, and great! I highly recommend it.
Mr. Westbay’s recommendations
The Disappearing Spoon (by Sam Kean)
In college, I only earned a C grade in one class— Introduction to Chemistry. I didn’t have to take biology or chemistry in high school, and I struggled to understand even the basics of the subject. Above all, chemistry just wasn’t very interesting to me.
When a coworker and friend of mine heard this, he told me that I just needed to learn the subject from someone who could express its beauty. I was skeptical. Two days later, this book appeared on my desk with a note from him. I started reading it, and I couldn’t stop.
This book is such a fascinating look into the subject of chemistry in a way that even I could understand. The intersections between chemical research and politics, medicine, physics, and economics abound, and Kean makes the science accessible by talking about the periodic table and what can be assumed of an element based on its position in the table. This book is so good, it made me wish that I had majored in the subject in college... but maybe it’s better that I stick to Latin.
Pan’s Travail (by J. Donald Hughes)
As the Roman empire expanded to an unprecedented size, the consumptive habits of its biggest cities, its army, and its larger-than-life emperors grew to unprecedented extents, as well. When I was in college, this book was an eye-opener for me about how environmental degradation on account of urbanization is nothing new. The book also contained lessons about the risk to the environment that comes of hegemony. As an American, maybe that was the more powerful realization, for me. Having grown up in a nation with an economy built on excessive consumption, and knowing how things ended for the Romans, this book filled me with a sense of existential vulnerability. Sometimes, non-fiction can bring about personal transformation just as well as literature, and that’s what this book did for me.
The Perpetual Now: A Story of Amnesia, Memory, and Love (by Michael D. Lemonick)
This biographical memoir tells the story of Lonni Sue Johnson— an artist for the New Yorker who developed anterograde amnesia from encephalitis (a swelling of the brain). Before this incident, Johnson was a talented artist and musician who flew planes as a hobbyist pilot. After this incident, she lost the ability to develop new memories, stuck in “the perpetual now.” As her life changed in an instant and her family struggled with this new reality, she still occasionally made art.
The art that came from Johnson after amnesia was different, but still special— it was more heavily reliant on written word. Neuroscientists who study her case feel that insights can be gathered about the seat of creativity in the brain from Johnson’s tragedy. She has retained a strong vocabulary as well as the fine motor skill to create art and play the violin, even as damage to her hippocampus leaves her unable to encode new memories.
In my family, a different neurodegenerative condition has affected a loved one. Similar to Johnson, my family member was also a talented artist prior to the neurodegenerative event; similar to Johnson, some of the art she has made after her life changed is among the most powerful she’s ever made.
This book was a bittersweet jaunt through science, family, loss, and love, and reading it brought me a sense of comfort and peace that had eluded me.
Mr. Lorenzo’s recommendations
Oliver Twist (by Charles Dickens)
Oliver Twist (1838) is Charles Dickens' realistic novel and one of his darkest, dealing with burglary, kidnapping, child abuse, prostitution, and murder. The story is about a child, whose mother had died, that was sent to a workhouse. Oliver was an innocent and pure boy. When he was eleven, he was tried to be sold from the workhouse as an apprentice, but he escaped from there. In his way to London, he met a boy called Artful Dodger and then ended up with Fagin, the leader of a gang of thieves, who taught children how to steal.
Oliver Twist is notable for its unromantic portrayal by Dickens of criminals and their sordid lives, as well as for exposing the cruel treatment of the many orphans in London in the mid-19th century. In this early example of the social novel, Dickens satirizes the hypocrisies of his time, including child labor, the recruitment of children as criminals, and the presence of street children. It is likely that Dickens's own youthful experiences contributed. Oliver Twist has been the subject of numerous adaptations for various media, including movies and on-stage plays.
Are Some Languages Better than Others? (by R. M. W. Dixon)
This might appear to be a dangerous book, in that riots have been fomented by denigrating another’s language. From time immemorial, Europeans - with their innate sense of superiority - have simply assumed that languages spoken by other kinds of people were ‘primitive’, and this has led to fierce counter-reaction.
In point of fact, none of the several thousand languages spoken today around the globe could in any sense be regarded as ‘primitive’. Each has a rich vocabulary and a grammar of intricacy. All present-day languages comprise a sophisticated linguistic system, which serves many social functions. But no two languages do things in precisely the same way. Language A may be more effective in a certain respect, and language B in some other respect. Summing these up, it may turn out that one language can be shown to be slightly (never more than that) superior.
Too many linguists are afraid to pose the question that makes up the title of this book. However, the question is surely worth posing. Various aspects of the enquiry are explored in this short volume. Dixon illustrates these facts in a very clear and engaging manner, using examples from a wide range of languages from around the world. By virtue of reviewing them, the readers will be able to decide for themselves whether some languages can be considered ‘better’ than others (taking care to be certain what one means by ‘better’). This is a book based in linguistic reality, instead of linguistic theory.