Whether you’re looking for a summer page-turner or something more challenging, consider these Richmond faculty and staff recommendations from their areas of study. 

Find out where new words come from

“Words have a particular power to them,” says Lynda Kachurek, head of rare books and special collections at Boatwright Memorial Library. "But have you ever wondered how words get their definitions, how they make their way into dictionaries? Kory Stamper, a former lexicographer at Merriam-Webster, provides a delightfully thoughtful look at that process in Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries. Skillfully setting each chapter against a specific word, Stamper explores not just how words get their definitions but also the role of words — their history and meaning — as social constructs. Stamper also reads the audio version of the book, providing extra delight to those who prefer to listen to words. But in any form, this book is a surprisingly fun look at dictionaries behind the scenes.”

See how pandemics affected life in the past

I would recommend Katherine Anne Porter’s novella “Pale Horse, Pale Rider,” and William Maxwell’s beautiful, elegiac novel They Came Like Swallows. “Pale Horse, Pale Rider” (from a collection with the same title) focuses on the relationship between a newspaper woman and soldier during the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919. Also focusing on the pandemic, They Came Like Swallows is told from multiple perspectives, including that of an 8-year old boy as influenza ravages his family and community. 

Outka’s own book, Viral Modernism: The Influenza Pandemic and Interwar Literature, also investigates the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, one of the deadliest in history.

Learn about connections between diversity and mental health

Charlynn Small, assistant director of health promotions, recommends To Live Woke: Thoughts to Carry in Our Struggle to Save the Soul of America by Rupert W. Nacoste, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson, Know My Name: A Memoir, by Chanel Miller, and Such a Fun Age, by Kiley Reid. “These books are examples that would give readers a great overview of topics around mental health and diversity, equity, and inclusion, without causing them to feel overwhelmed by too much information,” Small says. “Also, my own book, Treating Black Women With Eating Disorders: A Clinician’s Guide, is the first anthology of its kind that provides an overview of a variety of topics around mental health and intersectionality, written in discrete, brief, informative, yet easy-to-read chapters. It may resonate with readers because it is the story of an all too familiar sequence of unfortunate events that began on a college campus. But it’s also a story of resilience and survival.” 

Get a hopeful take on protecting the planet

Rob Andrejewski, director of sustainability, recommends All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis. “It’s an anthology of essays and poems by women who are leading on climate. The collection is powerful, hopeful, truthful, tragic, funny, and courageous.”

For those who think surviving 2021 feels apocalyptic

“I recommend Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel,” says Kevin Pelletier, associate professor of English. “What makes Station Eleven such a unique and important book in the tradition of apocalyptic fiction is that it takes seriously the role of art in the face of catastrophe. It proposes an aesthetic response to calamity, to suffering, to human isolation, to death. And insofar as it imagines an aesthetic response to catastrophe, the book proposes an aesthetic response to living, to the extent that living is itself catastrophic. This is what the past year has taught all of us, and Station Eleven has much to say about how the human species might survive an apocalypse.” 

Gain insights on the presidency

Ken Ruscio, senior distinguished lecturer in the Jepson School of Leadership Studies, suggests Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book Leadership, which "draws from her acclaimed earlier works on how individuals use the power and authority of the presidency. She’s a wonderful narrator whose prose is perfectly suited for a summer read both entertaining and enriching. As she reflects on the leaders she knows best — Lincoln, the two Roosevelts, and Johnson — she finds that successful presidents can be transformational, or visionary, or adept at crisis management, or turnaround leaders. Which will Joe Biden be? How will he deploy the considerable powers of the office while respecting those firm constitutional limitations? By looking back into the past Goodwin gives us a lens to view the future.”