As finals come to a close and students prepare themselves for the glory of summer, it is about time to think about summer reading. Face it, as little as you want to admit, you go to Northwestern and we all know you want a good book or two to casually indulge now that the hustle and bustle of 4 class quarters is over.

To that end we at The Chronicle have asked a dozen of Northwestern’s most renowned professors to assign recommend a book or two for students to suffer through enjoy under the sun. So without further adieu, here is The Chronicle’s Summer Reading List 2010:

Fiction

Gary Saul Morson, a Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence who teaches “Intro to Russian Literature,” recommends two novels: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov and Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol.

Morson says, “I recommend for summer reading two great Russian comic novels. They are both among the funniest ever, as well as profound.  In both cases, it is important to read the right translation, since most translators miss the humor, and, well, what’s the point of a comic novel that isn’t funny?

“The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov is the story of the devil (who is primarily a trickster with a strange sense of humor) and his weird retinue who go to Stalinist, atheist Moscow and play a series of hilarious and philosophically profound practical jokes on people who are too sure of themselves. Meanwhile, there is a novel within the novel, in which a Russian writer manages to discover the true story of what happened between Jesus and Pontius Pilate, which is also quite profound, and differs from the Bible’s version. Get the translation by Diana Burgin and Katharine O’Connor, even if you have to get it used.

“Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol is one of the great comic novels of the world.   At the time when Russian nobleman could own serfs (or “souls”), their taxes were assessed on how many souls they owned, but when a serf died, he was still legally alive until the next official census.   A con man gets the idea of going around and buying up dead souls for almost nothing (since one is better off not having them), but no one can figure out why he wants them. It’s a scheme worthy of Bernie Madoff, and it’s a wonderfully profound statement about all the other meanings of “soul” in our lives. The translation to get is the one published by Yale University Press (Guerney and Fusso).”

Professor Morson recommends: Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

Julia Stern, Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence and Director of Undergraduate English, recommends The Morgesons by Elizabeth Stoddard.

Stern says, “If Emily Dickinson had written fiction, this would have been her best novel. The story of two sisters growing up newly rich in Buzzard’s Bay, Ma (Cape Cod) during the beginning of the decline of the whaling industry and the rise of textile making technology, Stoddard charts the emotional development of both as they enter adulthood and marriagablity. Without mentioning the Civil War that was unfolding, the book is the story of a house divided, written in prose so gothic and lyrical it will take your breathe away.”

Mark Witte, Director of Undergraduate Economics and Director of BIP, recommends Stone’s Fall by Iain Pears.

Witte says, “Iain Pears is one of my favorite living authors of fiction, although he mostly writes about Art History.  His new book, Stone’s Fall, is a story about a fictional English financier named John Stone.  In the late 19th century, Stone realizes that the future of navies is in mechanized coal power, but fears that the English government will wait too long to begin the cross-over process from sails.  Since it will take decades to build up the necessary industrial base, but will also be very expensive to do so, Stone worries that England’s government won’t act until it’s too late and Germany has built an insurmountable lead.  However, this is one of several intertwined plot threads, where all the events are revealed in the course of three related stories, set in different time periods.  The reader comes to see all the parts by the end.  Pears is a wonderful, fascinating writer.”

Jay Grossman, Professor of English, recommends The Master by Colm Toibin.

Grossman says, “The Master by Colm Toibin gives Henry James a taste of his own medicine by getting inside his head, and offering a brilliant fictionalized account of his interior life, in the same way James was always getting inside the head of his main characters.  It’s a great book on its own or paired with one of James’s shorter novels, say, The Aspern Papers, or The Turn of the Screw.”

Sanford Goldberg, Professor of Philosophy, recommends Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro.

Goldberg says, “Munro is one of the greatest living writers, and a master of the short-story form.  Her stories are typically discerning psychological portraits of people (often but not always women) whose rich inner lives are masked by their external circumstances.  I would recommend any collection of Munro’s stories, this very recent one being an good example of her stellar writing.

Non-fiction

John Alongi, Senior Lecturer in Mathematics, recommends two non-fiction books: The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White and The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.

Alongi says, “Perhaps the definitive work on clear and concise writing, The Elements of Style illustrates that the writing process itself is integral to testing arguments and clarifying values.

“The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins [is] provocative and unapologetic. Dawkins advocates reason over faith, the natural over the supernatural, and rationality over superstition.”

Professor Gordon recommends: The Big Short by Michael Lewis

Robert Gordon, Stanley G. Harris Professor in the Social Sciences and Professor of Economics, recommends The Big Short by Michael Lewis.

Gordon says, “The Big Short by Michael Lewis is acclaimed as the best book about the melt-down of Wall St propelled by internal greed and lack of government regulation.” Lewis was a former bond salesman on Wall Street he became disenchanted with what he perceived as a reckless culture in the industry. Since then Lewis has become a popular non-fiction writer and storyteller of a variety of topics.

Stephan Garnett, Lecturer in Journalism, recommends Devil in the White City by Erik Larson and Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People by John Conroy.

Devil in White City, Garnett says, “is not only a wonderful (and at times, chilling) history of Chicago and one of it’s most infamous citizens, but a superlative example of narrative journalism.

“Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People… delves into the compelling reasons behind torture and is told from the perspectives of those who have been tortured and those who have tortured. One of the men examined in this book is Commander John Burge, a Chicago police officer accused of torturing suspects.”

Jerry Goldman, Professor of Political Science, recommends Supreme Power by Jeff Shesol and Last Call by Daniel Okrent.

About Supreme Power, Goldman says, “I thought I knew about Roosevelt’s court-packing plan but my eyes were truly opened by Shesol’s thorough and insightful narrative. This book was so good I had to titrate it: just a chapter or two a day before it would be all gone. A great read that will prompt contemporary reflection.

“Last Call by Daniel Okrent is the story of how America got into and out of Prohibition. Okent offers insights to the personalities and politics of temperance, then Prohibition, then repeal. The links between the tax on booze and the tax on incomes, the Civil War and the Great War, make for fascinating reading and engaging political maneuvering. Is there a contemporary lesson here in the thought that government might legalize pot and then tax it? Let the reader decide!

“Neither book is dense. Both authors are non-academics with superb narrative skills. That’s what makes them easy to recommend. Download them to your iPad, kick back, and learn something.”

Charles Mills, John Evans Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, recommends The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter.

Of it, Mills says, “Today we take for granted that in the world there are ‘white people’ and ‘people of color.’ But 500 years ago, these categories would not even have existed. Emerita Princeton historian Nell Irvin Painter provides a fascinating account of the emergence of ‘race’ as a category, and some of the key players, both European and American, who propelled ‘whiteness’ to its status as the most important of all the racial designators.”

Richard Walker, Lecturer in Economics, recommends I.O.U by John Lanchester

Walker says, “John Lanchester is a literary novelist and reviewer rather than an economist, but decided to try and understand the crisis for himself. He then wrote this book, which I understand to be the clearest explanation for the layman of what went wrong.”

Professor Garnett recommends: Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Eli Finkel, Professor of Social Psychology, recommends Blink by Malcom Gladwell.

Finkel says of it, “It’s an intelligent and fascinating introduction to cutting edge social psychology.” A best-selling author, Gladwell’s book looks into how humans make snap decisions. In it he explores people who are able to make incrediblely deft snap judgments, as well as split-second decisions that have proven to be irrevocably poor.

Gary Saul Morson, Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence who teaches “Intro to Russian Literature,” recommends In the Stalin Archives by Jonathan Brent.

Morson says, “A recent splendid portrait of Russian life today is In the Stalin Archives…When the Soviet Union fell apart, Brent, an editor for Yale University Press, managed to get the KGB to let him publish parts of the archives which showed important things about the Revolution, about the last Tsar and Tsaritsa, about Stalin, and about American Communism that make this the most significant publishing venture of our time.  The book is Brent’s account of what it was like to work with the KGB, life in Russia, and what forces helped and hindered him.

Sandford Goldberg, Professor of Philosophy, recommends two non-fiction books: The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson and Lincoln’s Melancholy by Joshua Shnek.

Goldberg says The Ascent of Money is “an extremely interesting history of the development and centrality of money; Ferguson is one of the world’s leading experts in economic history. This is really a must-read for anyone who wants to know about the evolution of the institutions that constitute the contemporary economic system — trade, lending, banks, publicly-traded companies and the stock market, and so forth.”

Goldberg also recommends Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled his Greatness. He says “this book examines a great but troubled man who happens to be the president of the US during our nation’s most severe crisis.  Shenk’s thesis is that Lincoln’s reaction to a series of personal tragedies (including the death of a beloved son) shaped his ability to deal with the national crisis he faced at the time of the Civil War.  The idea that Lincoln’s depression shaped the tremendous achievements of his presidency is an interesting one; I don’t know whether historians will agree, but the book is still an excellent psychological portrait of one of my heroes.”

Mark Witte, Director of Undergraduate Economics and Director of BIP, recommends The Long Thaw by David Archer and College Access: Opportunity or Privilege by Michael McPherson and Morton Schapiro.

Witte say he “found David Archer’s The Long Thaw to be the most insightful book on the details of climate change that I’ve ever read. His writing, even on hard material, is readable, and the way he is able to express the problems that stem from the long time lags involved is particularly striking. Further, although his field is oceanography, he does a good job of describing the economic policy options for responding to these problems.”

He says of College Access, “If I am to be known around here for recommending a piece of literature, there is no better prose or collections of insights, than the work of this brilliant scholar (no, not McPherson, the other one).  Time and time again I pick it up and turn to a random page and and find life changing revelations.”

Kick back at the beach and enjoy (Courtesy of EveryCorner.com photography)

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