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Carson Reider, Center for Clinical and Translational Science

May 4, 2011

Carson Reider is regulatory manager and bioethics officer for OSU’s Center for Clinical and Translational Science and an adjunct assistant professor in the College of Public Health.

What are your five favorite books and why?

Siddartha, by Hermann Hesse, because I enjoy the theme of one’s search for identity and meaning/purpose.

The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame, for its emphasis on friendship. It could be some incarnate of my brother (ratty) and me (mole).

Our Town, by Thornton Wilder, because of its simple values. The “keep it simple” operative weighs heavy in my personal and professional approaches.

The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara. As a history buff and behaviorist this is a wonderful synthesis. The entire collection of Shaara novels in this construct are engaging.

Personal Writings of Ulysses S. Grant is an important historical narrative of such great scope and clarity.

What is the last book you’ve bought?

A Short History of the World, by H.G. Wells, and A Simple Path, by Mother Teresa.

What’s your “guilty pleasure” – a book you love but don’t often talk about because it’s not “serious” literature?

The Asterix the Gaul comic book series, by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo. It is python-like in its humor. Also, I’ve read about every book on Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, including Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. It is amazing in its mesh of literary figures, pranksters and musicians.

What “important book” have you not read and why haven’t you read it?

I have not read much Dickens — except for A Christmas Carol, which I read every year, and David Copperfield — but I would like to. I usually opt for Masterpiece Theatre!

Also, I was to have read Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and have tried to read The Idiot as it is about a person with epilepsy — a population with which I have worked, but I just can’t get through them. I get bogged down in most Russian authors’ works. It’s certainly not their shortcoming, I just can’t do it.

Who is your favorite character (villain or hero) in literature?

Perhaps Bob Cratchet. Despite his struggles, he has true happiness (including the girl and children!). In the end, as he has always done, good prevails. I would not want to have been Macbeth, but there is probably a touch of him within all of us that we must steer clear of…

Jacquelyn Meshelmiah, Social Work

April 6, 2011

Jacquelyn Meshelemiah is an associate professor in the College of Social Work. Her research areas are in human trafficking /prostitution, social work practice and alcohol and other drugs.

What are your five favorite books and why? I have many books that I call my favorite, including some from my high school days that include To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Native Son by Richard Wright, and Sula by Toni Morrison.

In the last 20 years, however, I have come to call some others my favorite too and they include the Bible, first and foremost; then The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley; Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity from Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn; and Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty by Muhammad Yunus.

These books are my favorite because they are about real-life scenarios (even when depicted in fiction) or real people experiencing life through its many ups and downs. They remind the reader of the realities of racism, sexism, classism and a host of other –isms. They reiterate the importance of challenging the system in a systematic and sometimes not-so-traditional manner, but more importantly, they reinforce the humanness of all people, which includes the good, the bad and the ugly.

Who is your favorite character (villain or hero) in literature?

My favorite character in literature is Kainene, the heroine in Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The novel details the lives of many characters during a dark period of Nigeria’s Civil War (also known as the Nigerian Biafran War) that took place between 1967 and 1970. This character, however, stands out because of her audacity to not be dismissed, minimized or put into a box. This same courage may have led to her demise, however, because she never returns after a bold attempt to cross dangerous borders to access food for her deprived family during the war.

What is the last book you’ve bought?

Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World by Jacqueline Novogratz. I chose this book because it caught my eye at a book store. It shows a little African girl on the cover in a pale peach dress—not the blue sweater I was looking for. Out of curiosity, I decided to buy it. It was incredible. It chronicles the journey of Jacqueline Novogratz, a former Wall Street banker who travels across Africa and South Asia in an attempt to change the world. Through trials and many errors, Jacqueline finds her “place” in other parts of the world and discovers the importance of being humble and appreciative of differences despite her privileged status as an educated, white, successful American.

What book would you most want your kids to read?

The book I most want my five children to read is Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley. Although hailed as a “faction”— a mixture of fiction and facts based on the author’s traced lineage to Africa, I feel it gives a very detailed and informed account of the roots of African Americans across the Diaspora. It offers a context for many of the challenges faced by Africans and African Americans today.

What genre of literature do you prefer to read?

As a social worker, I find it impossible to separate my passion from the profession. I feel very pulled by literature that I feel can help equip me with the tools and knowledge to make a difference. I read biographies and autobiographies are about real people with real experiences — some good and some not so good.

Audrey Begun, College of Social Work

March 16, 2011

Audrey Begun is a professor in the College of Social Work. Her recent publications include two chapters in a new textbook about development in siblings.

What are your five favorite books and why?
There are so many that it is difficult to reduce to five, so I’ll give you one for each decade of my life.

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster.
My first favorite was The Phantom Tollbooth mostly because of the extent of imagination involved and the playful use of words, along with being a book where the main character was changed by the experiences during the story.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
In my teens, this was the first place anyone tried to make sense of the painful and scary issues of race and mental “disability” stigma, where an everyday hero stood up with integrity to do the right thing, and where a young girl learned important life lessons through the experiences during the story.

Books by J.R.R. Tolkien and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
During my early 20s it was the Tolkien trilogy (plus The Hobbit) and the entire Sherlock Holmes collection because they have such wonderful stories and characters; they can serve anyone’s need for escapism. It does irk me that there aren’t better women heroes in them.

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.
The Harry Potter series came out when my daughters were just the right age for us to enjoy them all together. That is why they are my favorites of that era: The use of language, the originality and creativity and the memories of sharing precious time with my daughters.

Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven by Susan Gilman.
My recent favorites are usually whatever I just finished. That would be Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven because it so beautifully develops the experience of an emerging adult who is changed by her experiences with a friend who develops a serious mental illness, even though this is not obviously the story the author means to tell. So, it kind of takes me back full circle to the earlier book where someone tries to make sense of painful and scary issues and serves as an everyday hero who stands up with integrity to do the right thing.

What “important book” have you not read and why?
The Trial by Franz Kafka. I am not sure why I never got around to this one, but given my recent work with incarcerated women and men, I’d like to see what it has to tell.

Devin Henderson, Fisher College of Business

March 2, 2011

Devin Henderson is an academic program coordinator for the Marketing and Logistics Department in Fisher College of Business.

What are your five favorite books and why?

East of Eden by John Steinbeck
I somehow managed to get through all of high school and 2 years of college without ever reading any Steinbeck. My sister suggested I read it and I was deeply moved by it. I admit that it has its flaws and shortcomings, but I’m a sucker for epic, sweeping novels and it’s become a tradition that I reread it every summer. Sometimes I just reread the opening of the novel because I consider it to be one of the finest examples of establishing tone and setting.

Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson
This is a very peculiar, erotic, and touching love story between a woman named Louise and a name-less, age-less, gender-less narrator. The story may not be the most original, but Winterson’s use of language and her treatment of the passionate side of love are often poetic. It’s a beautiful story of love stripped of stereotypes.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
I really enjoy Victorian fiction and while I have many favorites from this time period and Dickens, Great Expectations is one I come back to. In addition to great storytelling and writing, the characters you meet in this novel are fascinating.

Nights and Days by James Merrill
I came from a family that didn’t have much money, so libraries were always a very important part of our lives. I was in high school when I came across a beat-up copy of this book of poetry. It was the first book of poetry I ever read, the first Merrill I ever read, and one of the most important collections of poetry I’d come across. Nights and Days gave me a reading experience I hadn’t ever had before. I often reread this book and have memorized some of these poems.

The Designated Mourner by Wallace Shawn
A lot of people know Wallace Shawn from the movies Clueless or The Princess Bride (“Inconceivable!”), but he is also a very adept playwright. The play is three interwoven monologues that deal with fascism, aesthetics and other issues in a very fresh and interesting way. Shawn’s focus on the personal lives of the three characters living in a country with a fascist regime show just how much the personal and social spheres intersect with the political.

Who is your favorite character (villain or hero) in literature?
My favorite villain in literature is Richard III from Shakespeare’s eponymous play. Richard III is one of the Shakespeare plays I go back and read again. He is such a difficult character because as the reader and audience you are enamored with his strange charm, but at the same time you are repulsed by his actions and terror. That Shakespeare is able to make complex and fascinating a character that could have been flat and monomaniacal is a testament to his ability as a writer and timelessness.

What is the last book you’ve bought?
Numbers in the Dark: And Other Stories by Italo Calvino

What “important book” have you not read and why haven’t you read it?
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. I like realist fiction and I trend toward fiction of that era, but I’ve always had difficulty taking in Russian literature. I own it, but I find myself grabbing another book instead. Maybe some day?

What’s your “guilty pleasure” - a book you love but don’t often talk about because it’s not “serious” literature?
Zombies. I know I’m completely tapping into the zeitgeist on this one and it doesn’t stop me. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, World War Z, The Zombie Survival Guide…I’ve read them all and more! If I’m very busy or pre-occupied with other things and I want some brainless reading, then I’ll seek out some zombie-related book and read away.

What genre of literature do you prefer to read (history, fiction, biography, etc) and why?
I have always preferred to read fiction and poetry because I like to immerse myself in another time and place with people that never existed. The allure of the imagination is very strong for me and I have a deep appreciation for creativity. I consume the news and current events on a daily basis via magazines, radio and online, but when I sit down to read a book I want reality and fiction to swap places for a time.

Cybele Smith, Moritz College of Law

February 2, 2011

Cybele Smith is the director of Public Service and Public Interest Programs at the Moritz College of Law.

What are your five favorite books and why?

Odd Girl Out, The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls by Rachel Simmons.

My father encouraged me to read this and other works by Ms. Simmons when my daughter, then about 4 years old, was being bullied by another girl in daycare. While it’s infuriating to know that aggression by girls often goes unpunished, it helped me try to understand the phenomenon and help my daughter deal with the bully. It also astounded me how many of my friends and colleagues had been scarred by mean girls at some point in their education. It struck a chord over and over again.

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.

I found this to be a quick and fascinating read and I often think about the themes, stories and concepts Gladwell writes about in this and in Blink. Also, at the time it made me feel “in the loop” because I was actually reading a title from the NYT bestseller list, which does not often happen.

Kurt Vonnegut books

Nearly any of the older Kurt Vonnegut books would make the list. I love that some of the characters recur in his books and his writing takes me to the places he writes about and makes me chuckle or ponder, depending on the book.  I also associate all these books with a special time in my life and wrote about his books as essays for my law school admissions materials, which worked out well.

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser.

I read this book in my 10th grade honors English class with one of my favorite English teachers. For some reason the mental images of young Carrie moving to the big city and going from squalor to wealth, but losing her innocence, have stayed with me ever since.  While trying to achieve the American dream, the characters are actually tragic in many respects.

Maximize Your Lawyer Potential: Professionalism and Business Etiquette for Law Students and Lawyers by Amee McKim.

The last book I selected was written by a dear friend and former boss. I was asked to contribute to it and to proofread it many times before it went to print. So because I feel part of it and because it is a useful resource for my students, it is my fifth selection. The book quotes lawyers and professionals from across the country and provides insight on how to make the most of your law school experience, the value of networking, how to turn your summer job in to a permanent position and much more.

What’s your “guilty pleasure” – a book you love but don’t often talk about because it’s not “serious” literature?

Anything by James Patterson because they are quick, intense and law-related in some respects.

What classic novel was a disappointment to you?

I wish I could say that I enjoyed Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. That is not the case, especially as a high schooler. Maybe I should try it again now.

What genre of literature do you prefer to read (history, fiction, biography, etc) and why?

Probably stereotypical of many law trained folks, I lean toward legal thrillers and action fiction. If there is a mystery brewing within a legal framework, all the more enticing.

Nominate a colleague for BookTalk by e-mailing oncampus@osu.edu

Debra Moddelmog, Department of English

January 19, 2011

Debra Moddelmog is a professor in the Department of English. She specializes in 20th century American literature, sexuality studies and intersectionality studies and is director of Diversity and Identity Studies Collective at OSU (DISCO).

What are your five favorite books and why?

Ernest Hemingway, The Garden of Eden. This extensively edited and posthumously published novel changed forever the way we think about the so-called “He-Man of American Literature.” It’s about a newly married couple that decides to switch gender roles, cut and dye their hair the same and experiment with changing their race. It makes me think deeply about norms in our society and why some people choose to resist them - and also about “secrets” that have been hidden from us about some of our most celebrated authors.

William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! Faulkner’s novel addresses some of the biggest taboos of American society at the time of its publication in 1936: Homosexuality, incest and miscegenation. At its core, it’s a detective novel (but also a narrative tour de force), with two young college students peeling back, layer by layer, an historical mystery about one family, the South and the US more generally.

Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart. A Buddhist nun who teaches in the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, Pema Chodron has written a number of works that provide teachings on compassion, mindfulness, loving kindness, meditation and other essential practices for engaged living, but this book is my favorite.

Sherman Alexie, The Toughest Indian in the World. This collection of short stories treats a range of issues related to American Indians, their history and their contemporary situation in the US.

Nella Larsen, Passing. Although this novel, written during the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s, is only slightly over 100 pages long, it has generated thousands of pages of criticism. It’s a psychological portrait of a woman who knows the truth about what she has done and who she is - but she won’t allow that truth to come to the surface of her consciousness. Every time I teach this novel, I see a different detail that changes how I understand the effects of racism, sexism, classism and homophobia - and the lies we tell ourselves and others.

Instead of answering another question, I’m going to add a 6th book to my favorites list: Ana Castillo’s So Far From God. This novel tells the story of four Chicana daughters (Corazon, Esperanza, Fe and La Loca) and their mother (Sophia), and as one can tell from the women’s names, it has allegorical meaning. It’s a kind of feminist Don Quixote, which covers so many significant current issues: violence against women, homophobia, capitalist exploitation of workers and communities, environmental destruction, AIDS, racism, divorce, colonization, communal revival and “sisterhood.” With that list, it might seem that it’s a depressing novel, but it’s actually very funny, clever and thought provoking.

What’s your “guilty pleasure” - a book you love but don’t often talk about because it’s not “serious” literature?

I love mysteries, especially Sue Grafton’s, Barbara Neely’s and Michael Nava’s mystery novels. I love the independence and humor of Grafton’s and Neely’s central characters, Kinsey Millhone and Blanche White, respectively; and they’re stories that completely engross and relax me. I also enjoy mysteries that violate conventions of the genre, such as Nicci French’s Beneath the Skin, which didn’t relax me! It scared me stiff and simultaneously thrilled me with its clever transgressions of cardinal rules for detective fiction.

What “important book” have you not read and why haven’t you read it?

Edmund Spenser’s The Fairie Queene, which is considered an important text in my field. For some reason, only parts of it were covered in the English graduate courses I took, and when I tried to read it on my own, I was quickly lost.

What genre of literature do you prefer to read (history, fiction, biography, etc) and why?

I love it all, but fiction is my favorite-which is why I’ve specialized in it for my career. I enjoy the experience of entering a different reality and watching how people interact in it. It expands my thinking about the world I actually live in, and I’m often entranced by the creativity, talent and imagination of the person who wrote the story. I also love sentences that are beautifully crafted-which can, of course, be found in genres other than fiction-the kind that make you pause to take them in and make you see and feel something you didn’t before

Lisa Kiser, Department of English

January 5, 2011

Lisa Kiser is a professor of English who specializes in medieval English literature and culture.

What are your five favorite books and why?
This list undergoes frequent change — but at present it looks like this:

A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry
This novel tells the stories of four people, from different social strata and widely separated geographical regions of India, whose lives converge in a big city (Mumbai). All four share a small apartment, where their experiences intertwine as they suffer the political and social upheavals of their time. This book introduced me to the richness of life in modern India, depicting the courageous daily struggles of its people in the face of corruption, poverty and the still-powerful remnants of the country’s colonial history. It is a book with clear vision and a large heart.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (anonymous)
With each rereading, this medieval English poem continues to astonish me with its deep understanding of how our natural and cultural identities serve to attach us firmly to life and its many attendant pleasures. It also, of course, starkly reminds its medieval audience not to be blinded by such attachments — which can lead to moral failures of a devastating sort. The consummate artistry of the poem brings enormous pleasure, and its intensely-felt depiction of shame (both public and private) is remarkably accessible to modern readers.

The Collected Poems of W.H. Auden
Both urbane and warmly human, Auden’s poems display their author’s thoughts about love, politics, war, language, art, landscape, domestic life and other subjects — all with honesty and with a fine ear for both grand and colloquial language. Once a phrase from Auden’s poetry takes up residence in your head, it’s hard to dislodge it: “What high immortals do in mirth/is life and death on Middle Earth.”

A Handful of Dust, by Evelyn Waugh
This is a novel that is both comic and painful, vividly evoking life in Britain between the wars. Waugh succeeds in showing what it was like for a generation of old guard conservatives to have to face the approach of modernity in all of its confusing new forms: The rapid rise of technology, the growth of mercantilism, the erosion of ancient moral codes, the loss of formerly durable family relationships and the cultural instability caused by Britain’s interactions with its non-European colonies. The satire is biting, but Waugh seems to share much of the trauma being felt by the very objects of his satirical gaze.

The Lais of Marie de France
These short narratives, composed by one of medieval Europe’s few women writers, are masterpieces of ethical complexity. Exploring courtly love — and the situations it sponsors — Marie exposes many of the hidden problems that the courtly code tended to ignore in the idealized tradition of medieval romance. These stories are intelligent, brave and entertaining.

What is the last book you’ve bought?
The Dons: Mentors, Eccentrics and Geniuses by Noel Annon.

What genre of literature do you prefer to read (history, fiction, biography, etc.) and why?
Fiction and poetry are my favorites. As Jacques Derrida said, “Literature is the most interesting thing in the world, maybe more interesting than the world.” But I also enjoy natural history, which has increasingly become part of my scholarly research.

To nominate a colleague for a future BookTalk, e-mail Julia Harris at harris.587@osu.edu.

Hannibal Hamlin, Department of English

December 8, 2010

Hannibal Hamlin is an associate professor in the Department of English and editor of the journal Reformation. He teaches and writes about Renaissance literature and the English Bible.

What are your five favorite books and why?

King Lear, by William Shakespeare

The problem with favorites is that they keep changing. Also, certain all-time classics are bound to be on everyone’s list. I first read King Lear, for instance, in high school, and I’ve never gotten tired of it. It really is the Stonehenge of the mind, as one critic put it.

Poems by John Donne

John Donne’s poems also are important to me, though I love his sermons and meditations too.

The Bible

Some wouldn’t think of it as literature, but I’d have to include the Bible on my list –– Job, the stories of Saul and David, Abraham and Isaac, Adam and Eve, the Crucifixion. It’s no surprise that they’ve been foundational for so many cultures and the subject of thousands of years of interpretation and rewriting.

The Invention of Love, by Tom Stoppard

For something less “classic,” how about Tom Stoppard’s play The Invention of Love? It’s less well-known than his Arcadia, but just as brilliant. It’s a terribly moving story about love, but in a way it’s also a celebration of learning. The central character, poet and scholar A.E. Housman, says that scholarship is “where we’re nearest to our humanness. Useless knowledge for its own sake. Useful knowledge is good, too, but it’s for the fainthearted, an elaboration of the real thing, which is only to shine some light, it doesn’t matter where or on what, it’s the light itself, against the darkness, it’s what’s left of God’s purpose when you take away God.” Wow.

The Rings of Saturn, by W.G. Sebald

W.G. Sebald is an amazing writer whose books, like The Rings of Saturn, are mesmerizing in a totally, weirdly, original way. Sebald isn’t a cheery writer –– one of his books is called On the Natural History of Destruction, and he’s always interested in decay, entropy and death –– but he’s strangely exhilarating in his gloom.

What is the last book you’ve bought?

I bought Robert Alter’s translation of the Wisdom Books of the Bible (Job, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs) since I buy pretty much everything he writes. The last novel I bought was Graham Greene’s The Ministry of Fear, a creepy WWII story but with a strong allegorical undercurrent like so much of Greene.

What “important book” have you not read and why haven’t you read it?

I’ve never read Toni Morrison’s Beloved, or some other American classics like A Farewell to Arms and My Ántonia. I’m stuck halfway through Absalom, Absalom. I grew up in Canada and so read all sorts of Canadian literature that most Americans don’t know about, like Margaret Laurence’s The Diviners, Tomson Highway’s amazing play Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing or the poems of Earle Birney or Jay Macpherson. There are lots of things I haven’t read, though. So many books, so little time. Anyone who says they’ve read all the important books is lying or deluded.

To nominate a colleague for a future BookTalk, e-mail Julia Harris at harris.587@osu.edu.

Katherine Burkman, Department of English

November 17, 2010

Katherine Burkman, professor emerita, was a professor in the Department of English specializing in Shakespeare and modern drama, with a special focus on playwright Harold Pinter.

What are your five favorite books and why?

Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf

I love Mrs. Dalloway because Woolf takes a very ordinary and in some ways superficial character, Clarissa Dalloway, and reveals her profundity partly through the fascinating use of a double, whom she never meets but understands, Septimus Smith. Also, the stream of consciousness writing is elegant and beautiful.

The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I love The Brothers K for the way it captures human suffering and redemption with a passion that lifts one out of the daily grind into an intensity that enlarges and deepens the living of one’s life.

Hamlet, by William Shakespeare

The next three favorites are plays, but Shakespeare, Beckett and especially Pinter are my special interests. The way Hamlet, one of the most complex characters in all literature struggles with his situation and finally comes to terms with death and his fate is endlessly fascinating and, of course, has some of the most beautifully tragic writing as well as wonderful scenes that are tragi-comic.

Happy Days, by Samuel Beckett

I came to love Happy Days, which I had always admired, because I had the chance to play the part of Winnie and get inside her. This character, imprisoned in the earth up to her waist and then to her neck, deals heroically with her captivity. Her situation becomes a metaphor for all of us. Unlike Hamlet, there is not much action she can take, but she says it all and finally even sings. Again, the tragi-comic has a special appeal for me.

The Homecoming, by Harold Pinter

I consider Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming to be the most important modern drama. Beneath the surface of the play, which shows characters who behave as if they live in a jungle, there is, as Pinter himself has said, love. Under its brutal exterior, the subtext reveals a modern version of the biblical Ruth. The villain is the professor as jungle wins over desert and Ruth offers her special brand of hope and redemption.

Who is your favorite character (villain or hero) in literature?

Perhaps an un-serious answer would be Queen Elizabeth in Alan Bennett’s The Uncommon Reader. It is just so much fun to see the queen get interested in reading and find that the interest transforms her. She is neither villain nor hero, but she becomes delightfully human.

What is the last book you’ve bought?

Our Kind of Traitor, by John le Carré. I always buy his new books and this one, as all the others, is fascinating. You can’t (or I couldn’t) put it down. Le Carré is angry at our world today and the book is relentlessly dark, but somehow sustaining in its bleak but honest look at the world of politics and spying. The spying becomes a metaphor for how we all behave.

What genre of literature do you prefer to read and why?

Even though my field is drama, I prefer to curl up with a good fiction novel. A good novel draws me in and takes me to other realities that reflect on ours. I suppose that could be said of history, biography, drama, poetry, etc., but I think there is an element of sustained escape combined with involvement in a good novel that lasts over time and gives sustained entertainment. Drama is a close second and poetry a close third. Why not history or biography? I just enjoy truth as it evolves in fiction, drama and poetry more.

To nominate a colleague for a future BookTalk, e-mail Julia Harris at harris.587@osu.edu.

Andreá Williams, English

November 3, 2010

Andreá Williams is an assistant professor of English who specializes in African American literature and American literature to 1900. Her current research focuses on class stratification in 19th-century African American fiction.

What are your five favorite books and why?

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison.

Even though I love Morrison’s body of work, it’s easy to place this novel at the top of my list, even above Beloved. I appreciate Morrison’s attention to detail, especially in her representation of tense emotion and speech. My favorite line describes how the protagonist Milkman Dead takes his lover for granted, not really feeling excited about her. The narrator explains, “She was the third beer…the one you drink because it’s there.” The metaphor is so colorful and clear that even if you resent Milkman for feeling that way, you have to love the sentence itself.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin.

I’m compelled by protagonist Edna Pontellier’s coming to consciousness, her desire to challenge female conventions of marriage and motherhood. And I enjoy Chopin’s lush language. I delight in reading passages of this novel aloud in class. The last time I taught The Awakening, I paired the final chapters with Lizz Wright’s Song for Mia, which begins, “I went down to the water/all night long.” Water imagery is so central to Edna’s awakening. Chopin’s prose, which has its own musical quality, nicely elicits this musical accompaniment.

Flight to Canada by Ishmael Reed.

I read a lot of slave narratives as a specialist in 19th-century black literature, but this was the first neo-slave narrative I read back in graduate school. Neo-slave narratives are modern fictions written as though they are antebellum accounts. Reed’s novel integrates modern twists, like having the fugitive slave escape by plane. It’s a clever novel, especially if you know your American history and literature and can catch all the allusions. This book really rewards re-reading.

Annie Allen by Gwendolyn Brooks.

I tell my students that they will feel especially intelligent after interpreting Brooks’ sometimes arcane language. By using epic and sonnet forms to describe Annie Allen as a kind of everywoman, Brooks contends that black women’s lives are worthy subjects of serious art and contemplation.

Overshadowed, by Sutton Griggs.

I like 19th-century melodramas and romances: The clearly identifiable heroes and villains, page-long speeches, suspense and deathbed scenes. These are great fun. I can’t always get my 70-something-year-old mom to read about my work, but I have been able to turn her onto Griggs.

What is the last book you’ve bought?

The last novel that I bought was Andrea Lee’s Interesting Women. Most of the stories in this collection, as elsewhere in Lee’s fiction and nonfiction, focus on privileged women (usually African American women) who travel or live abroad. Lee’s first novel, Sarah Phillips, was one book that initiated my thinking about fictional representations of the black middle class, and I’ve gone on to make the topic of intraracial class difference part of my ongoing scholarly research.

What book would you most want your kids to read?

As a teen, I read Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and learned about the psychological damage that black children suffer when their sense of identity is enmeshed with an unattainable “whiteness.” During my 8-year-old niece’s visit, I started her off with something a bit more accessible than Morrison. We read I Love My Hair! by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley. It’s about an African American girl acknowledging her roots — both in terms of hair roots and ancestors. Because popular culture fetishizes long, straight hair, I think it’s especially important for children of color to aesthetically value their own varied hair textures, colors or lengths. The illustrations in this book are really cute.

What classic novel was a disappointment?

William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! It just didn’t hold my attention.

What magazines do you subscribe to and why?

Vegetarian Times. I’ve been a vegetarian for more than a decade, and I like reading recipes. Just scanning the ingredient list or looking at pictures in cookbooks and food magazines gets me excited.

To nominate a colleague for a future BookTalk, e-mail Julia Harris at harris.587@osu.edu.

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