Whether you’re poolside, oceanfront or by the campfire, a good book has long been considered an indispensable companion for summer break.
USC Upstate asked their faculty and staff which tomes made their reading lists, and here are their answers with, when offered, their comments.
Frieda Davison, dean of the USC Upstate Library
“Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter,” by Kate Clifford Larson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015)
“A very fascinating but disturbing read! USC Upstate library does own it.”
Shawn Masto, program coordinator, College of Arts and Sciences
“The Woman in Cabin 10,” by Ruth Ware (Simon & Schuster, 2016)
Klay Peterson, director of Public Safety and chief of police
“East of Eden,” by John Steinbeck (The Viking Press, 1952)
Joshua Jones, director of Alumni Relations
“One book I’m reading is ‘The Servant: A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadership,’ by James C. Hunter [The Crown Publishing Group, 1998]. It’s an excellent and relatively quick read.”
Gretchen Clark, head cashier, Financial Services
A historical fiction, “All the Lights We Cannot See,” by Anthony Doerr (Scribner, 2014)
Kathleen Brady, vice chancellor, community-based research, engagement, and planning; director, Metropolitan Studies Institute
“The Weight of this World,” by David Joy (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2017); and “On Immunity: An Inoculation,” (Grawolf Press, 2014) by Eula Biss
“I always have two going at once – a junk book and an intellectually redeeming one.”
Jav Rivera, interim assistant director of multimedia productions, University Communications
“Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art,” By Gene Wilder (St. Martin’s Press, 2005)
Frederick Van Patten, adjunct instructor, communications studies
“The Second Mrs. Hockaday,” by Susan Rivers (Algonquin Books, 2017)
“This book has gotten consistently good press. Susan was an adjunct in the English department here at USC Upstate. She’s a local author. Set in the waning days of the Civil War, this is an exclusive view from a young wife who is left to run the home property while her new husband is fighting a losing war. It’s told through dairies, letters, and official documents of the period. Intelligent, strong, creative literary fiction. A must read.”
Jane Allen Nodine, professor of art; director of the art gallery
Just finished: “All the Light We Cannot see,” by Anthony Doerr (Scribner, 2014)
In progress: “To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth about Moving Others,” by Daniel H. Pink (Riverhead Hardcover, 2012)
Starting: “The Butterfly and the Violin,” by Kristy Cambron (Thorndike Press, 2014)
In my stack: “Paper: Paging through History,” by Mark Kurlansky (Thorndike Press, 2016)
Douglas L. Williams, part-time instructor, Department of Informatics
“I find myself buried, for the second time, in Philip Caputo’s ‘The Voyage.’ [Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2000] I first stumbled across this wonderful, absorbing tale on the bargain table at Barnes & Noble nearly 15 years ago; being a sailor myself and this being a story of the sea, I hand no choice but to spring for the five bucks — what a bargain! Had this book appeared a century and a half ago, it might have begun “Call me Ishmael,” or a bit more than half a century, the protagonist would surely have been named Santiago. Yes, that is truly the quality class we are discussing here, which explains why I am reading it for the second time.”
Jim Charles, associate dean, School of Education
“Black Elk: The Life of an American Visionary,” by Joe Jackson (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2016)
“Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI,” by David Grann (Doubleday, 2017)
Tasha Thomas, senior instructor, Department of Languages, Literature and Composition
“I’ve been reading David Joy this summer. He has two novels published, in addition to a memoir. His work is reminiscent of Ron Rash, and I would categorize it as contemporary Southern Gothic. His plot lines are very dark, but the prose is beautifully written. I’ve also been reading some Hemingway, Michel Stone and Ann Lamott, in addition to others. I have a very eclectic reading list.”
John C. Riley, associate professor of physics
“Moonglow: A Novel,” by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins, 2016)
“Walkaway: A Novel,” by Corey Doctorow (Tom Doherty Associates, 2017)
Jimm Cox, theatre professor, director of the Shoestring Players
“Let the Right One In,” by John Ajvide Lindqvist (St. Martin’s Press, 2008)
“London Road,” by Alecky Blythe and Adam Cork (Nick Hern Books, 2011)
“Theater people read plays”!
Raymond J. Merlock, professor of mass media
“Black Elk: The Life of an American Visionary,” by Joe Jackson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016)
Black Elk as a teenager fought in the Battle of the Little Big Horn and later toured in America and Europe with Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show. Almost like an American Indian Forrest Gump, during significant events he was a presence and a witness — the murder of his second cousin Crazy Horse, during the Ghost Dance Movement and close to the Massacre at Wounded Knee before emerging as both a healer, holy man, and prophet, and as a Roman Catholic. Black Elk was the subject of “Black Elk Speaks,” adapted by John G. Neihardt, a mainstay on college campuses and part of the counter-culture movement of the 1960s. Jackson’s volume has been listed under “biography,” “nonfiction,” “Native-American studies,” “religion,” and in many bookstores in a new section designated as “cultural studies.” The amount and quality of the research is overwhelming, the writing is powerful, and the overall effect poignant and purposeful. I did not want to spend this summer with mysteries and movie-review summaries. I am glad I didn’t.”