Having trouble figuring out what to get that high school senior on your gift list this holiday season? Or parents, want to make sure your 17-year-old keeps his or her mind on the right track while on winter break?
A book might provide a simple solution.
Washington University in St. Louis faculty offer their suggestions for the one book — in a few cases two or three — that a high school senior should read before heading off to college, whether to be better prepared for the college classroom or for living away from home or simply to be a more well-rounded person.
Peter J. Kastor, Ph.D., a historian of American politics and political institutions, couldn’t just recommend one. He suggests both Barack Obama’s “Dreams from My Father” (1995) and John McCain’s “Faith of My Fathers” (1999), co-authored with Mark Salter.
“You could buy one — depending on your political inclinations — but I actually recommend both because they complement each other so well,” says Kastor, an associate professor of history and of American culture studies, both in Arts & Sciences.
“These books by the two major party presidential nominees in 2008 are, of course, timely after a year of intense political activity, but they are also appropriate for somebody leaving for college. Both books are about coming of age, struggling with personal strengths and weaknesses, coming to terms with parents, and finding a way of one’s own. In other words, exactly what every college student needs to do.
“Meanwhile, since so many young people leave the cities, suburbs and towns in which they grew up, I always suggest that students read a book about their new home: the place where college is located. College should present an opportunity to learn about a place that includes but is not limited to a college campus.
“For students coming to Washington University, I recommend Stephen Aron’s book, “American Confluence,” which chronicles the early history of the region surrounding St. Louis. The book shows how a place can have a history long before it’s acquired by the United States, and how some unfamiliar characters — French fur traders, Indian leaders and Spanish officials — can change the way we think about familiar subjects like government, immigration or race.”
Gary S. Wihl, Ph.D., dean of the faculty of Arts & Sciences and the Hortense and Tobias Lewin Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, couldn’t just list one book either. He insists that every college-bound student should read J. D. Salinger’s 1951 novel “The Catcher in the Rye,” whose antihero, Holden Caulfield, has become an icon for teenage rebellion, as well as James Joyce’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” a semi-autobiographical novel first published in book form in 1916.
“These are tried and true, no-fail coming-of-age books,” says Wihl, who is a professor of English. “They are great works for capturing big changes in the lives of people who are developing their independence and their own self-awareness, which is what college challenges you to do.
“They are fabulous books about looking inward and trusting your inner strength and are designed for a college-age audience. They made such a huge impression on me as a student.”
Cheryl Block, J.D., professor of law, didn’t have to think twice about her book suggestion. Markus Zusak’s “The Book Thief” (2005) immediately came to mind, she said, when asked about book ideas for college-bound seniors because it “so powerfully conveys the love of literature, the power of words — both to good and bad ends — and the strength of the human spirit.”
Block says that “The Book Thief” was intended for and marketed to adults in Australia, where it was originally published, but in the United States it has been marketed primarily to young adults. She feels it should be a compelling read to either audience.
“Although this unquestionably is a sad book, there is much here that is hopeful, uplifting, and perhaps even inspiring,” Block says. “The story is about Liesl Meminger, a young girl in Nazi Germany. It begins as Liesl and her brother are traveling to foster parents as their mother is being interned in Dachau because of her communist affiliations. Death is the book’s rather unusual narrator. As it turns out, this narrator is not maudlin or evil, but rather ‘confused’ and ‘haunted’ by humans, and philosophical about the work.
“Liesl sadly first encounters death when her brother dies on the train,” Block continues. “Although unable to read, it is at her brother’s burial that Liesl strikes as the ‘book thief’ for the first time, taking a small black book that the gravediggers have left behind. Starting with this book, Liesl and her foster father, Hans Huberman, together learn to read in the basement of the Hubermans’ modest home on Himmel Street in a small town near Munich.
“‘The Book Thief'” is a wonderful story about people trying to live ordinary lives in extraordinary times. Along the way, it has a lot to say about brutality, innocence, the power of words, friendship, and brave acts of kindness, both large and small.”
‘A constant in your lifetime’
Robert L. Canfield, Ph.D., professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences and an expert on Islamic movements in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and other Central Asian countries, recommends “The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and The Road to 9/11” (2006) by Lawrence Wright.
“This is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the contrast between al-Qaeda and certain Americans who recognized its threat,” Canfield says. “Mainly, the book is about how Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri and a small band of Muslims became extremely radicalized, and about the way one American, John O’Neill, came to know about al-Qaeda and tried to alert the American government to its danger.
“This is a readable book, deeply engaging, on an issue on which every college student should become informed, as it will likely continue to be an issue for much of his/her lifetime,” Canfield says. “Students in my classes love the book; a graduating senior will learn much he/she doesn’t otherwise know about what’s going on in the Middle East and how our government works, or doesn’t work.”
Kent D. Syverud, J.D., dean of the School of Law and the Ethan A. H. Shepley University Professor, recommends “A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy” (2009), by Thomas Buergenthal, a judge on the International Criminal Court.
“The judge is one of the very few children to have survived Auschwitz, and he went on to become one of the leading international law scholars and teachers,” Syverud says. “The book describes how, with a positive attitude, curiosity, and an interest in ideas, a young person can survive and thrive with his values intact in even the least auspicious circumstances, and in the face of tremendous change.
Buergenthal is coming to WUSTL’s law school to deliver the Tyrrell Williams lecture in spring 2010.
Bruce Lindsey, dean of the College of Architecture and the Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design, both part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, recommends “Architecture Depends” (2009) by Jeremy Till, dean of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Westminster in London.
Lindsey, who also serves as the E. Desmond Lee Professor for Community Collaboration, describes the book as “an iconoclastic and witty look at architecture and why it matters.
“Critical of modernism and much recent architecture that is self-referential and disconnected from the city and the environment, Till makes the case that architecture depends on us and the world around us,” Lindsey says.
Keith Sawyer, Ph.D., associate professor of education and of psychology, both in Arts & Sciences, and renowned expert on the science of creativity, recommends “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” (1990) by Mihaly Csikszenthmihalyi. “It’s essentially about how to live a fulfilling life; but unlike the vast number of self-help books out there, it’s based on several decades of research,” says Sawyer, who’s own most recent book is titled “Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration.”
“Csikszenthmihalyi studied how people get into the state of flow — that wonderful experience where you are focused on something that you love and you lose track of time,” Sawyer says. “The book is wonderful because it stays connected to the research, while at the same time providing practical advice for how a person can live to the fullest.”
Enola K. Proctor, Ph.D., the Frank J. Bruno Professor of Social Work Research and associate dean for research in the School of Social Work — and a pioneer in the field of mental health services research and the social work profession — speaks directly to high school seniors about the book that tops her list for them.
“About the time you were born — 1992 — a siege began in the city of Sarajevo that continued for four years, killing an estimated 10,000 people including over 1,500 children. ‘The Cellist of Sarajevo,’ (2008) by Stephen Galloway, is a haunting novel about the power of music in times of peril. Galloway tells the story of four people — a sniper, a cellist, an old man searching the city for bread, and his friend — as they seek water to drink and meaning for their lives during days filled with unbelievable peril.
“Terrorism, civil strife and war have been a constant in your lifetime,” continues Proctor, who is also director for the social work school’s Center for Mental Health Services Research. “This book will make you think about those in distant war-torn lands, and prompt you to consider how you might — in the everyday chaos of ordinary life — discover unexpected sources of beauty, courage, humanity and grace.”