Summer book list: 18 great reads
It’s official: summer is here. What better way to spend a long, hot afternoon than picking a book and hunkering down by the lake, on the porch or in the shade of a friendly willow tree?
We asked 15 Concordia students, staff and faculty to tell us their favourites. From a three-part history of Byzantium to Nathan Englander’s provocative short stories to a practical guide to Becoming a Supple Leopard, there's something for everyone on this list.
Happy reading!
Deborah Dysart-Gale
Chair and associate professor, Centre for Engineering in Society
Provost Fellow in Innovation
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank
Knopf, 2012
By Nathan Englander
A good friend and colleague left a copy of Nathan Englander's short story collection at my cottage, and I wasn't able to put it down. I’m just sorry I read it all before I got my first sunburn!
Punchy, funny stories about people between the life of the mind and a world that doesn't often co-operate, many of which take place in a hot, sunny place.
Bradley Tucker
Associate vice-president of Registrarial Services
Byzantium: The Early Centuries
Knopf, 1989
By John Julius Norwich
Byzantium: The Apogee
Knopf, 1992
By John Julius Norwich
Byzantium: The Decline and Fall
Knopf, 1995
By John Julius Norwich
In a case of truth being stranger than fiction, the starts and stops in the potential of the various phases of this civilization, combined with brutal intrigues, make for riveting reading. I’m looking forward to getting to volume three this summer.
Owen Novak
Concordia security agent