BOOK LIST RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DEPARTMENTAL BOOK CLUB

Title

Author

Type & Theme

Subject

Nickle & Dimed

Barbara Ehrenreich

Non-fiction

Ehrenreich gives up her house, bank account and job to experience life by trying to survive on minimum wage jobs.

Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word

Randall Kennedy

Arthur Kempton

Non-fiction

History of the word and its impact on society

Real Boys: Rescuing our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood

William S Pollack

Non-fiction

The socialization of males and how to balance gender roles. Author also published a workbook.

Honky

Dalton Conley

Memoir

White kid grew up in the projects. His reflections on race and class.

Why are all the black kids sitting in the cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race

Beverly Daniel Tatum

Nonfiction

Black studies/Education

Identity development & how to start dialogues on race and culture

Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale & Improve Results

Steven Lundin

Nonfiction

Business/leadership

Many businesses and Res Lifers are adopting this "attitude" plan to make work a fun place to be.

Almost Americans: A Quest for Dignity

Patricia Justiniani McReynolds

Memoir/Culture

The child of a Filipino father and a Norwegian mother searches for integration.

Good Practice in Student Affairs : Principles to Foster Student Learning

Gregory Blimling & Elizabeth Whitt

Nonfiction

Education

identifies the best practices in student affairs, presents research used to define the practices, and gives examples of how to these principles in the field.

Creating Learning Communities

Nancy Shapiro

Nonfiction

Education

 

Civic Responsibility and Higher Education

Thomas Ehrlich

Nonfiction

Education

 

Sustaining Learning Communities

Levine & Shapiro

Nonfiction

Education

 

Halfway Heaven: Diary of a Harvard Murder

Melanie Thurnstrom

Nonfiction

Account of a murder-suicide at Harvard. Addresses sociological, cultural, mental health and student support issues

Immigrant Voices: In Search of Educational Equity. 

Trueba, Enrique, et al., (Ed.)  

Nonfiction

Essays by internationally-known scholars on ethnicity write about immigration

Making and Molding Identity in Schools: Student Narratives on Race, Gender, and Academic Engagement. 

Ann Davidson

Nonfiction Essays

 

Souls Looking Back: Life Stories of Growing Up Black.

Andrew Garrod

Nonfiction

Essays

16 black, or biracial students write about influence of home and church and when they first became aware of racial difference and identify

In the Shadow of Race: Growing Up as a Multiethnic, Multicultural, and Multiracial American. 

Teja Arboleda 

Nonfiction

Memoir

 

By the Color of Our Skin: The Illusion of Integration and the Reality of Race. 

Lawrence Erlbaum.

Leonard Steinhorn and Barbara Diggs-Brown

Nonfiction

Analytical look at race relations and the difference between "integration mythology and racial reality"

The Rage of a Privileged Class:  Why Are Middle Class Blacks Angry and Why Should America Care? 

Ellis Cose 

Nonfiction

Race relations/sociology

The Sweet Hereafter

Russell Banks

Fiction

Grief, Responsibility, Community. Uses four different narrators to address the community's grief process after a tragic bus accident

I Know This Much is True

Wally Lamb

Fiction (long!)

Family saga of one man's feelings towards his schizophrenic twin

First They Killed My Father

Luong Ung

Memoir

War, political oppression

The Activist's Daughter

Ellyn Bache

Fiction

Coming of Age, civil rights

The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother

James McBride

Memoir

Family, race & identity

SPLIT: A Counterculture Childhood

Lisa Michaels

Memoir

Story of a woman who was raised by hippie parents in the 60s and 70s.

White is a State of Mind

Melba Pattillo Beals

Memoir

Written by one of the "Little Rock Nine"

A House Divided

Mark Gerzon

Non-fiction

Politics/current events

Civility & citizenship

Life Is Not Work, Work is Not Life

Robert K Johnston & J. Walker Smith

Nonfiction

Personal discovery, balance of work and life

Ruined by Reading: A Life in Books

Lynne Sharon Schwartz

Memoir

Finding and defining oneself through reading & the power of imagination