The Ohio State University

onCampus

• Help
• Buckeye Link
• Map
• Find People
• Webmail
• Search

  Search Ohio State Go

Patty Carro

Posted on | August 12, 2009 | 1,906 views |

What are your five favorite books and why?

My list changes yearly, but here are the ones that come to mind right now:

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
This was the first of Bryson’s travel books that I read, and I enjoyed it so much that of course I had to read all his others. Novice hiker Bryson finds out that the Appalachian Trail is so much more challenging than his book title suggests. It is laugh-out-loud funny, and no one finds more humor in trying circumstances than Bryson. I also recommend his hilarious memoir, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid.

Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Burns
This fabulous coming-of-age novel features narrator Will Tweedy and a cast of characters to whom I was saddened to bid goodbye by story’s end. Cold Sassy is a Southern town where nothing much happens, until Will’s recently widowed grandpa marries the scandalous northerner Miss Love and returns from his honeymoon owning the first automobile in the county. Years later, I still fondly remember these people and their struggles with change.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Staying in the South, this recent novel takes place in early 1960s Mississippi and is told by four narrators. Three are “the help” - black housekeepers who work in white households, nurturing the children of their employers while cooking and cleaning for all. The fourth is a young white Southern woman and recent college graduate, anxious for the civil rights movement to reach her town, who convinces the housekeepers to tell their stories anonymously despite their fear of losing their jobs. This book is by turns sweetly comic and tragic and always eye-opening.

This Rough Magic by Mary Stewart
I choose this with great nostalgia because, as a girl growing up in central Ohio, I could only dream of the exotic places  - in this case, the island of Corfu - where Mary Stewart’s characters found romance and suspense. If you ever saw the film version of The Moonspinners starring Hayley Mills, you know exactly what I mean! I have learned that a new generation of readers has “discovered” Ms. Stewart’s novels and I am thrilled that her special gift for narrative is appreciated anew.

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
The author of Mystic River writes a highly atmospheric novel that challenges even the most experienced armchair sleuth to keep up. Do not wait for the upcoming film directed by Martin Scorsese - pick a stormy night and be prepared to visit an island whose only residents are mental patients and the staff who cares for them. Two 1950s-era detectives search for a missing patient and move inevitably to one of the best twist endings you will ever encounter.

Who is your favorite heroine?
My new favorite is Flavia deLuce from a recent novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. She is a precocious 11-year-old girl in postwar England who has a slightly wicked passion for chemistry, an emotionally distant widowed father and a mystery on the doorstep of her remote family estate. She rides her bicycle around the nearby village, gathering clues and discovering so much more in the process. I was delighted to be in her company.

What is the last book you’ve bought?
Fordlandia by Greg Grandin, the story of Henry Ford’s forgotten jungle city in Brazil, for my husband to read on vacation. For myself, I bought C.C. Finlay’s The Patriot Witch. He is an up-and-coming fantasy writer who just happens to work at Ohio State in Academic Affairs. Most times I rely on the library, recently for the poignant, true, just-in-time-for-football-season The Blind Side by Michael Lewis.

What books would you want your children to read? What would you want them not to read?
My two sons were reluctant readers growing up, despite my best efforts and numerous trips to the library. So, I want them to read whatever their hearts desire. My older son finally landed on The Count of Monte Cristo in high school and my younger son found Where the Red Fern Grows and Holes in elementary school, and you never saw a mom with a bigger smile on her face! I suppose there are books they should never read, but they are grown now and can make their own mistakes. I would tell them that you do not have to finish a book just because you started it; life is too short.

To nominate an Ohio State faculty or staff person for a future Booktalk column, e-mail
harris.587@osu.edu.

Comments