Hilda C. Landers Library & Archives

What are you reading this summer?

Let us know by joining the Library Summer Reading Program. From June 2 to August 15 you are invited to share your opinions about books you loved, hated or can’t stop talking about. Whether you are reading this year’s big beach book, revisiting the classics, cracking open a literary masterpiece or finally reading that fantasy or YA novel everyone is watching; we want to know if we should read it. We will even give you prizes if you tell us. Not sure what to read? We have recommendations and Kindles full of books for students, faculty and staff on campus.

The Summer Reading program is open to all members of the SMCM library community including students, staff, faculty, alumni and residents of the Tri-County area (St. Mary’s, Calvert and Charles counties.) You may read anything you want as long as a copy is available at the SMCM Library or via USMAI or the Southern Maryland public library (COSMOS). You don’t need to check the book out of the library. To get points you must post a review on the blog.

For more information visit the Library Reading Circle.

The Library at St. Mary’s College of Maryland’s Summer Reading Program will begin on June 2 and end on August 15, 2015.

The Summer Reading program is open to all members of the SMCM Library community including students, staff, faculty, alumni and residents of the Tri-County area (St. Mary’s, Calvert and Charles counties.) You may read anything you like as long as a copy is available at the SMCM Library or via the USMAI or public library (COSMOS) catalogs. You do not need to check the book out of the library. To get points you must post a review on the blog.

See About Summer Reading for more information.

Harry Dresden is a private investigator in present day Chicago. He is also a wizard. Taken together, these two facts tell you almost everything you need to know about the Dresden Files series. Really, the only other relevant information is that the books are fun to read. In this particular installment Harry is heroically and possibly stupidly defending an old nemesis, the warden Morgan, from the wrath of another set of nemeses, the White Council of Wizards, while trying to keep the collateral damage amongst the non-supernatural denizens of Chicago to a minimum. There are also vampires, werewolves, a skinwalker, a hard-boiled Chicago cop named Murphy, and what is apparently a sentient island of some sort. All in all, it’s an excellent breezy page-turner.

Availability: USMAI or COSMOS
Review Submitted by: Michelle Milne, Assistant Professor of Physics
Rating: Recommended

Early one morning, police detective Cassie Maddox is called to a murder scene. When she arrives she is horrified to discover she looks exactly like the murder victim, Lexie. Next, the cops on scene all decide not to notify the victim’s nearest and dearest, but instead report Lexie as injured and recovering so they can send Maddox undercover in her place to investigate the crime from the inside and the plot carries on from there.

If you can accept the assertion that Maddox is capable of imitating Lexie so well that she can successfully fool the woman’s four best friends/roommates and the even more outrageous assertion that any cop anywhere would think this was a legitimate investigation technique, this is an excellent mystery. French has a genius for writing wonderfully evocative characters and beautiful prose. This mystery was much longer and more rambling that is usual in the genre, but it was a great pleasure to read.

Availability: SMCM Library
Review Submitted by: Michelle Milne, Assistant Professor of Physics
Rating: Recommended with Reservations

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion is an interesting take on how humans make moral decisions. The book’s thesis has two main points. Firstly, humans make moral decisions via instinct and then use reason to rationalize their decision after the fact, which the author amusingly illustrates using the metaphor of a rider (reason) carried along on the back of an elephant (instinct). Secondly, humans evaluate moral behavior using six different foundations (care/harm, fairness/cheating, liberty/oppression, loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion, sanctity/degradation) rather than judging behavior solely on whether it causes harm to anyone or anything. Haidt argues that the weight a person assigns to each of the foundations is closely correlated with that person’s political affiliation. This argument goes a long way toward explaining how two people from opposite sides of the political spectrum can each leave a debate legitimately convinced that they occupy the moral high ground and that the other person is morally depraved.

The book is a descriptive rather than a prescriptive study, so don’t expect any judgements on what ethical behavior actually consists of. However, it is a pleasure to read and very clearly written. Haidt concludes each chapter with a scrupulous summary highlighting his main points so that the material is easy to understand even if you have no background in ethics, philosophy, or sociology.

Availability: SMCM Library, COSMOS
Review Submitted by: Michelle Milne, Assistant Professor of Physics
Rating: Highly Recommended.

 Ender’s Game is a science fiction novel set in Earth’s future. To protect earth from  being attacked by aliens. The government designed a plan to breed geniuses in search for the perfect child to save planet earth. A young brilliant boy by the name of Ender lives with his parents and two other siblings. All three siblings are highly intelligent, though vastly different in genetics. Ender is a sensitive boy, his brother cruel and controlling and his sister a peacekeeper. Though Ender’s brother and sister were exceptional and wanted to join the government military training courses, the government only selected Ender for what was to become the transformation of his mind and body.

Availability: SMCM Library
Review Submitted by: Cheryl Colson
Rating: Highly Recommended

 

The Best American Short Stories series perfectly highlights the amazing diversity and skill of today’s writers. The book is set up in a way that each short story is like a chapter – maybe ten pages – but each story is so completely different that within an hour you can feel elated, terrified, uncomfortable and content. Topics range from road trips to Jewish women to love lost to the trouble of children. Within one book – and there are at least seven within the SMCM library, each denoting a year – you are bound to find at least one story that will appeal to you. This is the perfect thing to read when you don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to a whole novel, but you want a thought-provoking way to get lost for a few hours. Even as a person new to short stories, I consider these books a must-read for anyone who needs a little pick-me-up.

Availability: SMCM Library
Review Submitted by: Jennifer Walker
Rating: Highly Recommended

Melanie Gilkerson has won the monthly prize drawing for June.

Submit a review in July to be eligible for the our next drawing. Don’t forget prizes are available for all participants who submit a review between June 3 and August 16.

Let me start by saying that this is the first book I’ve read of Hosseini’s. This perhaps is an advantage for me as I don’t have anything to compare it to — unbiased, if you will. That being said, I absolutely loved it. I fell in love with its many characters but found myself angered by them as well: their decisions, their lives, how things didn’t go the way they were supposed to. I found myself getting upset with Hosseini for robbing me of my picturesque image of how their lives should have played out.

Though, now that I have just finished it, I understand that life doesn’t always work out the way its supposed to. Rarely does it play out the way you had imagined. At times, the characters will placidly accept their fates or their lives for what they were or have become. I think there is a strong sense of realism seen in his portrayal of this — albeit frustrating at times.

I’ve read in other reviews that some were frustrated that Hosseini bounced so much between characters and POV, but I thought that he did it very effectively. The characters decisions and their lives do seem to echo in each others lives — I think this ties back into the title. He even at times commenting on it throughout the narrative as if he anticipates his readers questions or restlessness.

Overall, I loved reading the book. It has been a while since I couldn’t put a book down and this definitely held my attention. I think I will read his other two novels next!

Availability: COSMOS
Review Submitted by: Melanie Gilkerson
Rating: Highly recommended

Picoult will have you on the edge of your seat guessing what will come next as what appears to be an open and shut case takes many unexpected twists and turns. This book explores to what lengths someone is willing to go for their loved ones. It will also have you questioning how well you know yourself and others.                                                                                     ..        

Availability: COSMOS
Review Submitted by: Lisa Williams
Rating: Recommended with reservations because it contains triggering topics.