Faculty and Staff's Favorite Reads of 2024
As 2024 draws to a close, we invited our faculty and staff to share some of the notable books they read this year. Their recommendations span a variety of genres, offering something for everyone. Find your next read in the list below, compiled by recommendations from our College of Social Work community. After all, what could be better than curling up with a cozy blanket, a warm beverage, and a great book at this time of year?
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
For fans of A Man Called Ove, a charming, witty and compulsively readable exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope that traces a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus. (Synopsis by HarperCollins Publishers)
“This novel is best as an audiobook!”
—Bethany Bingham, Development Specialist
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
“The story follows the Buendía family and the curses/tragedies that befall the family tree. If you like the song 'Apple' by Charli XCX, you’ll love One Hundred Years of Solitude! The narrative jumps around in time a lot (past, present, future) so it can be a little hard to understand, but if you push through, you get the most rewarding reading experience and thought-provoking themes. The book itself is incredibly important to the history of Latin American literature; it’s widely lauded as the birth of the genre ‘magical realism’ (think the movie Encanto). I’d been meaning to read this book for as long as I can remember, and now my English major book club (dubbed “book club classixcx”) has finally provided me with motivation!”
—Aquiles Castro, Executive Secretary
Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
“Harrow the Ninth is book two out of four of The Locked Tomb series. It can basically be summed up as: a bunch of lesbian necromancers in space grapple with grief, love, horror, pain, and really bad puns. The world-building and lore that Muir creates is astonishingly entertaining. I read the first book, Gideon the Ninth, a couple of years ago—it basically shaped me as a person. My vocabulary grew, I came out of the closet, and in general I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since.”
—Aquiles Castro, Executive Secretary
The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing by Lara Love Hardin
“An autobiography by a soccer mom, turned opioid misuser, turned felon, turned jailhouse friend and advocate for prison reform, turned ghostwriter of bestsellers for the likes of Desmond Tutu, the Drs. Gottman, and Anthony Ray Hinton’s The Sun Does Shine: An Innocent Man, A Wrongful Conviction, and The Long Path to Justice.
I listened to this on audiobook and Lara Love Hardin narrated it. Her writing voice and her narrating voice are the same, and listening to her made her incredible journey even richer to me. A few messages within the book that stood out to me:
- Substance use disorder can happen to anyone, and the justice system is disproportionately harmful to people of color. I already knew this, but Lara Love’s observations added a deeply human and personal element to the statistics and focused particularly on women of color and people from abusive relationships who couldn’t get their kids back after prison.
- I started with the assumption that this would be a redemption and success story built on white woman tears, a savior complex, and an “if I could come out of this, anyone can” pep talk vibe. So, I was skeptical. It wasn’t like that at all. She described her rock-bottom and the path to get there, but it wasn’t a “poor me/look at me” message. It was a humble recap of her path, the people, and lessons she learned along the way.
- She really drove home the fact that people who are incarcerated are so much more than their crimes or addictions, and she pointed out the very human implications of incarceration, drug use, family law, families, and how she leveraged her experiences, co-inmate’s experiences, and her connections to organize advocacy that made a real difference.”
—Nicolle Dickey, Online Instructional Designer & Educational Support Specialist
The Overstory by Richard Powers
“This environmental fiction novel is a challenging read that alternates storylines of nine Americans. It is an ode to the natural world, our interconnectedness, activism, and really, what it means to be human. Powers writes complex metaphors of the human experience through the silent ecosystem of forests. This book changed the way I see our planet and our role in the climate crisis. I recommend it to anyone who appreciates the outdoors and cares deeply about the future of the Earth.”
—Madison Hanna, Marketing & Communications Associate
The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr.
“This book is summarized in most places as a queer love story between two enslaved young men on a Deep South plantation. However, I felt it went way beyond that, using their connection as a backdrop to explore the identity erasure that occurred as a result of the slave trade, the tensions of spiritual and religious assimilation in the South, and the array of characters' and their respective survival strategies. The book offers a unique fiction exploration of slavery with incredible writing that evokes the stylings of Baldwin in the modern era.”
—Josh Kivlovitz, Assistant Professor (Lecturer)
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
“Ryland Grace is the sole survivor of a mission to reverse a solar dimming event that could lead to human extinction. He wakes up with amnesia and must discover why he's there, how to complete his mission, and conquer the threat to humanity. The book explores how people work together to solve problems in challenging situations, even when not all collaborators are human.”
—Richie Landward, Assistant Professor (Lecturer)
Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
“This is a fictionalized story about a profit-raising private prison industry system where gladiators (prisoners) compete against each other for freedom. It’s not a light-hearted book – it is brutal and hard to read in some places, but an incredibly creative and action-packed story. This story made me think deeply about our prison systems and mass incarceration in America – it is fiction but really resonated with many truths of where we are or could be in the U.S. It’s one of those books that still echoes in my head long after reading.”
—Alysse Loomis, Assistant Professor
The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why it Matters by Priya Parker
“Priya Parker is a facilitator and strategic advisor who supports companies and organizations in hosting more meaningful, human-centered meetings, conferences, and gatherings. This book walks through different tips for being more intentional about how we bring people together in our professional and personal lives. This was a fun book to read and made me think about what I do and don’t like about groups and gatherings I’ve been a part of. I like that it really came from the perspective of helping people to connect and experience new things together. I’ve used it to be more intentional about how I gather together with people. For example, I used a lot of the tips to host a baby shower for my sister recently and, naturally, it was the best shower EVER!”
—Alysse Loomis, Assistant Professor
Dear Sister: A Memoir of Secrets, Survival, and Unbreakable Bonds by Michelle Horton
In this "incendiary" memoir, a woman fights the criminal justice system to release her incarcerated sister after she kills her longtime abuser. (Synopsis by Publishers Weekly)
—Julia O’Connor, Assistant Professor
How To Say Babylon: A Memoir by Safiya Sinclair
“This book is a coming-of-age story of a woman who grew up in a strict Rastafarian family in ‘90s Jamaica. This story educates the reader about Rastafarian culture, history, and the intergenerational impact of colonialism and trauma. I really enjoyed watching the author’s life unfold as she navigates her formative years as a Rastafarian girl and teen (which Sinclair explains is a stigmatized identity), and her journey to become a poet and a professor in the U.S. I really learned a lot from this book and enjoyed the author’s beautiful prose.”
—Liz Siantz, Assistant Professor
Decolonizing Therapy: Oppression, Historical Trauma, and Politicizing Your Practice by Jennifer Mullan“As a clinical social worker who bases my practice in critical theory (i.e., CRT, feminist theory, queer theory), I found this book to be a validating space for the tension I feel both existing in and resisting the current mental health system. Beyond feeling like I was in the room with like-minded clinicians, the book pushed me further in understanding the ways in which mental health and healing work have been centered in white, colonialist practices. The book clarifies the assumptions that have shaped clinical mental health practice today and provides ideas for changing one's practice to be grounded in anti-oppressive and decolonized approaches.”
—Veronica Timbers, Assistant Professor (Lecturer)
The Women by Kristin Hannah“In The Women, Frankie McGrath is a young woman from a wealthy family who decides to enlist as a nurse in the Vietnam War after her older brother is killed in action. In doing so, she leaves her sheltered and comfortable life in California to serve in a war, while working under dangerous conditions. When she returns, the atmosphere in America is hostile to veterans, dismissive of women's contributions in the war, and she struggles to reassimilate.
It's likely that many have already read this book because it's so popular, but if you haven't, I hope you will give it a chance. Kristin Hannah is one of my favorite authors and I think it's evident that this book is a labor of love. I think the book is very well written and evokes many emotions from astonishment to terror. I love that the characters become so vivid and complete as the story goes on.”
—Dijana Trajchevska, Education Coordinator