Ready to move your reading stack from bedside to poolside? We collected recommendations from SAA’s Book Salon faculty hosts, Stanford’s new-student Three Books program, Stanford Bing Overseas Studies Program and STANFORD magazine’s book editor, and sorted them for your summer reading.
We’re also collecting community (that’s you) recommendations. Tweet or Instagram your favorite books using #CardinalBookClub and find great reads that will keep you happy all season.
BOOKS TO SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE
Dive into some fiction.
Recommended by Michaela Bronstein, professor of English
An Act of Terror
By André Brink
Sometimes a Great Notion
By Ken Kesey
The Bone Clocks
By David Mitchell
Recommended by Karla Oeler, associate professor of art & art history
Hadji Murad
By Leo Tolstoy
Stoner
By John Williams
Recommended by STANFORD editors
The Removes
By Tatjana Soli, ’87
They Come in All Colors
By Malcolm Hansen, ’95
BOOKS TO GROUND YOU
For days when you’re in a non-fiction mood.
Recommended by Gavin Jones, Rehmus Family Professor in the Humanities
Travels with Charley in Search of America
By John Steinbeck
Recommended by STANFORD editors
Queer Nuns: Religion, Activism and Serious Parody
By Melissa M. Wilcox, ’93
Teacher: Two Years in the Mississippi Delta
By Michael Copperman, ’02
Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adult
By Bruce Handy, ’80
BOOKS ON GLOBALITY AND MIGRATION
These are the 2018 Three Books selections for new students, moderated by José David Saldívar, MA ’79, PhD ’83, professor of comparative literature.
Brother, I’m Dying
By Edwidge Danticat
Native Speaker
By Chang-rae Lee
Signs Preceding the End of the World
By Yuri Herrera
*Sign up to read along with Stanford Book Salon in September.
BOOKS FOR TRAVELERS
Going somewhere? Try these recommendations by the Bing Overseas Study Program.
Australia
In a Sunburned Country
By Bill Bryson, Ellen Titlebaum
Santiago, Chile
A Nation of Enemies: Chile Under Pinochet
By Pamela Constable and Arturo Valenzuela
China
Age of Ambitions: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China
By Evan Osnos
Germany
Memories of a Nation
By Neil MacGregor
The Reader
By Bernhard Schlink
The Reluctant Meister: How Germany’s Past is Shaping Its European Future
By Stephen Green
Italy
The Italians
By John Hooper
Japan
A Geek in Japan: Discovering the Land of Manga, Anime, Zen and the Tea Ceremony
By Hector Garcia
Cape Town, South Africa
Keeper of the Kumm
By Sylvia Vollenhoven
Spain
The New Spaniards
By John Hooper
Need more? Here are other Stanford reading lists.
#CardinalBookClub alumni community recommendations
Stanford Law School Faculty 2018 Summer Reading List
Freeman Spogli Institute, Center for International Security and Cooperation faculty summer reading selections
Stanford’s School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences 2018 faculty summer reading selections
What to read this summer, 2017
SCOPE blog, Stanford Medicine, A medical student’s reading list
(published in 2017)
Graduate School of Business, Twelve Business Books to Read
(published in 2017)
What to read this summer, 2016
