This was a busy semester, but I still managed to read a few books. Always open to recommendations. 

Enough. John Bogle (Business) (2009). Vanguard’s founder reflects on business, money, satisfaction, and life. Easy read. Read this during a 2+ hour faculty meeting.   

Dandelion Wine – Ray Bradbury (Novel) (1957). A Walter Effross recommendation. A story of boyhood and summer and wonder and magic.

Half an Inch of Water – Percival Everett (Fictional Short Stories) (2015). A series of stories situated in the western U.S.–about loss, love, youth, aging, corruption, animals, and the wilderness. My favorite story is “A High Lake” because it reminds me of my grandmothers’ independence, intelligence, and care before they died.  

The Enduring Community – Brian Habig and Les Newsom (Religion) (2001). Co-authored my a minister to two of my siblings while they were at the University of Mississippi (Newsom). Attempts to clarify the roles of the Church in community.

Heavy – Kiese Laymon (Memoir) (2018). Raw memoir in which the author struggles with his weight, abuse, racism, addiction, and depression. Laymon was raised in Jackson, MS and is an English professor at University of Mississippi, after a number of years on the faculty at Vassar College.  

Educated – Tara Westover (Memoir) (2018). Pitched as the remarkable story of the author’s journey from a survivalist family that did not believe in formal schooling to a Cambridge PHD.  But I think the book is more interesting as a look at how memories are formed, abuse, family, and mental illness.