When was the last time you read an entire book, cover to cover, before starting another? (If that’s just the way you operate, please—tell me your secret.) As Stanford’s Biblio File editor, I read three to five per week, and often a few more. Before I finish those, I’ve skimmed, thumbed through, and sticky-noted twice as many, sorting them into next-ups and next-months. My brain is so book-focused it’s a wonder I get anything else done. Now, I get to share more of them with you. Each month in Book Nook, you can find a few good reads by Stanford alumni and faculty.
March 2025
I love a strong debut novel, but a strong second novel—well, that’s when an author’s name stays on my radar. When an advance copy of Our Beautiful Boys landed on my desk, I tucked it into my tote and had finished it by noon the next day. As in his first novel, Members Only (one of my favorite lockdown reads!), Sameer Pandya, PhD ’02, builds worlds through exploring his characters’ inner conflicts and social/societal collisions. In this case, he gives us three troubled SoCal football players and their shell-shocked parents, who find themselves at the mercy of a culture that revels in takedowns.
Speaking of seconds, I just wrapped up my read of Show Don’t Tell: Stories, the second short-story collection by Curtis Sittenfeld, ’97. It was like peering into a kaleidoscope and seeing color for the very first time.
What’s next? I’ll be digging into Good Dirt, a novel by Charmaine Wilkerson, MA ’83, The Summer Guests by Tess Gerritsen, ’75; Dream State by Eric Puchner, a 2002–04 Stegner fellow; The California Dreamers by Amy Mason Doan, MA ’98; and Ordinary Magic: The Science of How We Can Achieve Big Change with Small Acts by professor of psychology Gregory M. Walton, ’00.
February 2025
I just finished Isola by Allegra Goodman, PhD ’97, a fictionalized account of the early life of Marguerite de la Rocque, a 16th-century French noblewoman marooned by her guardian to live as a castaway on a barren island off the coast of Newfoundland. It’s a survival story worth savoring.
Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn’t, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies by Michael Albertus, PhD ’11, looks at land ownership as the primary driver of prosperity, equity, and equality. While history’s power-hungry have a poor track record for satiation, evidence of a second “reshuffling” of resources—notably, restitution and reallocation—point to hope on the horizon.
Communism, ascendant? Indeed, around the world and by force, writes historian Sean McMeekin, ’96, in his latest work, To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism. In short: A bayonet makes quick work of proselytizing.
Jennifer Worrell is Stanford’s copy chief and book wrangler. Find out how to submit your book for consideration.
