What Are You Reading During the Dog Days of Summer? Here’s What Education Update’s Friends & Advisory Council Members Replied
Compiled by Liza Young
In the sweltering days of August we can link back to ancient history, when the term “Dog Days of Summer” was coined by the Romans and even earlier to the ancient Egyptians who named the brightest star of the night sky “Sihor,” based on a dog-headed divinity. The Greeks later named the star “Sirius,” meaning serious or ardent. The ancients noticed an association between rising temperatures and the “dog star’s” appearance with the sun and began to refer to this coincidence as the “dog days.”
Today, the “Dog Days of Summer” provides a wonderful opportunity to sip an iced tea and catch up on reading lists, from the metaphorically rich works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, to the intriguing tales of Margaret Atwood and the socially perceptive dramas of Jane Austen. Here is the complete list of wonderful reading choices from friends and Advisory Council members of Education Update.
Harold Koplewicz, MD, NYU Child Study Center: The Overachievers by Alexandra Robbins; The Unwanted by Kien Nguyen; The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad; Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky; I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron
Pres. Jennifer Raab, Hunter College: Theft: A Love Story by Peter Carey; High-Profile Crimes: When Legal Cases Become Social Causes by Lynn Chancer
Joan Freilich, Ph.D., Con Ed: The Curious Life of Robert Hooke, The Man Who Measured London by Lisa Jardine published by Harpers.
Charlotte Frank, Ph.D, McGraw Hill.: Dark Harbor by Stuart Woods. The Ghetto of Venice by Ricardo Calimani
Alan Cohen, Principal, PS 9: From Good to Great by Jim Collins; Distributed Leadership by James Spillane
NY State Regent Lorraine Cortes-Vazquez:
Playing with the Boys by Alisa Valdez-Rodriquez—Fun, predictable, and an easy read; Live To Tell The Tales by Gabriel Garcia Marquez -great, a bit melancholy; Dandelion- The Life of a Mistfit by Sheelagh Mawe—easy read, but very insightful, similar to SeaBiscuit.
NY State Regent Karen Hopkins: Brookland, Emily Barton. Two Lives, by Vickram Seth.
NY State Regent Harry Phillips, 3rd: Ron Suskind’s One Per Cent Solution and Taylor Branch’s At Canaan’s Edge (3rd volume of the M. L. King Bio) and Charles Mann’s “1491” (America before Columbus).
Howard Gardner, Ph.D.: Artists tell us what the future might hold. I am interested in the pros and cons of biological engineering. So I just finished reading Kazuo Isiguro’s Never Let Me Go and am taking on a trip next week Margaret Atwood’s Oryx And Crake.
Bonnie Kaiser, Ph.D. Rockefeller University: Mask of Atreus by A. J. Hartley—Archaeological mystery purely for escapism; Sense and Sensibilty by Jane Austen; Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope by Shirin Ebadi with Azadeh Moaveni; Istanbul: Memories and the City by Orhan Pamuk.
Pauline Smith-Gayle, Principal P.S. 202: Summer Reading: Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman; The Knowledge Deficit by Ed. Hirsch, Jr.
Dean Mary M. Brabeck, Ph.D, NYU School of Education: I just finished re-reading Herodotus’ Inquiry (aka History). His discussion of the Persian War and examination of what is “Greek” (meaning “what is human?”) has its parallels with the current political situation and the global discussion of what marks us as a human community and what is culture/religious identity. Deb Weinstein’s Apprentice to the Flower Poet Z is lyrical and a funny insightful take on higher education. The Kurds: A People in Search of Their Homeland by Kevin McKiernan gives the history of the largest ethnic group in the world, without a country. Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake is the book we have assigned all our entering freshmen to read. It examines the question of how one develops autonomy while remaining connected to one’s culture and history. Brilliant and well crafted story.
Pola Rosen, Ed.D., Education Update: These choices are based on my studies this past summer at Oxford Universtiy on Churchill: Winston and Clementine Letters, edited by Mary Soames (daughter of the Churchills); Churchill by Roy Jenkins (winner of British Book award) and Churchill a Life by Martin Gilbert (both published in Great Britain); Will in the World by Stephen Greenblatt (Pulitzer Prize finalist about William Shakespeare).
