Ohio State is in the process of revising websites and program materials to accurately reflect compliance with the law. While this work occurs, language referencing protected class status or other activities prohibited by Ohio Senate Bill 1 may still appear in some places. However, all programs and activities are being administered in compliance with federal and state law.

2023 Alumni Book Recommendations

September 7, 2023

2023 Alumni Book Recommendations

30

Over the summer we asked our Department of English alumni to share the books they’ve been reading and the books on their to-be-read list. Check out the recommendations below! 

Christine Almeida  

  • The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell 

Miranda Miller Finn (MA, 2006) 

  • The In-Between by Rebecca K.S. Ansari 

  • The Unwinding of the Miracle: A Memoir of Life, Death, and Everything That Comes After by Julie Yip-Williams 

  • My Ackee Tree: A Chef’s Memoir of Finding Home in the Kitchen by Suzanne Barr 

  • Yellowface by R. F. Kuang 

  • They Called Us Exceptional: And Other Lies That Raised Us by Prachi Gupta 

  • Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice by Cristina Rivera Garza  

Jacob Gillam (BA, 2011) 

  • You and Your Profile by Paul J. D'Ambrosio and Hans-Georg Moeller  

  • Werewolf: The Apocalypse 5th edition core rulebook by Renegade Game Studios 

  • The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson 

Tracy Healy (BA/MA, 1988/1990) 

  • Half-Blown Rose by Leesa Cross-Smith  

  • The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner 

  • Zero Days by Ruth Ware 

  • Happy Place by Emily Henry 

  • The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane 

  • Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum 

Clarence Jeffries (BA, 1968)  

  • The Last Chair Lift by John Irving 

  • The Wager by David Grann 

Megan Kafka (BA, 2022)  

  • Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy 

  • A Memory called Empire by Arkady Martine 

  • The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias 

  • Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth 

  • Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey 

  • I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman 

  • Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum 

  • Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh 

  • The Deep by Nick Cutter 

  • The Troop by Nick Cutter 

  • Jawbone by Mónica Ojeda 

  • The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones 

  • Earthlings by Sayaka Murata 

  • Burial Rites by Hannah Kent 

  • How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu 

  • I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid 

  • This Thing Between Us by Gus Moren 

  • My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell 

  • Geek Love by Katherine Dunn 

Colleen Kennedy (PhD, 2015) 

  • Bad Habits by Amy Gentry 

  • Blindness by Jose Saramago 

  • How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell 

  • The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue 

  • Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder by John Waters 

  • The Virtues of Aging by Jimmy Carter 

Daniel Moore (BA, 1980) 

  • The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War by Jeff Sharlett 

  • Cibola Burn (Expanse Series) by James S. A. Corey 

  • Twilight of Democracy by Anne Applebaum 

Will Moran (BA, 2012) 

  • The George Floyd Uprising: An Anthology by Vortex Group 

  • The Gallic Wars (Latin and English): De Bello Gallico by Julius Caesar, trans. Franz Ruedele 

Rachel Polcek (BA, 2010) 

  • Happy Place by Emily Henry  

  • Did You Hear about Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith Paul 

  • Saving Time by Jenny Odell 

Maddy Smyth (BA, 2023) 

  • Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer 

  • Get a Life Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert 

  • Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney 

Filed in: