Need a Good Read? Try These Alum-Approved Books MHC book clubs are everywhere and their members are reading everything. Check out these latest “alumnae-approved reads” from Baltimore to Phoenix. Then let others know what you’re reading on our Facebook page (facebook.com/ aamhc). For more ideas, contact the book club leaders at the bottom of the list.
Not in My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City by Antero Pietila
Most Read
The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life and Legacy of Frances Perkins, Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, and the Minimum Wage by Kirstin Downey (It’s about Frances Perkins, class of 1902.)
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (This was also MHC’s 2011 “common read” selection.) Brain Food
Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change by Elizabeth Kolbert Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert M. Pirsig
When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present by Gail Collins (MHC’s 2010 commencement speaker)
Women-Centered
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali with Delphine Minoui
The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama by David Remnick
The Spiral Staircase: My Climb out of Darkness by Karen Armstrong
Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier
The Greatest Trade Ever: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of How John Paulson Defied Wall Street and Made Financial History by Gregory Zuckerman
House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by S.C. Gwynne
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MHC-Related
The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears at the World’s Most Famous Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn Bossypants by Tina Fey By Alums or Daughters of Alums
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand, daughter of Elizabeth Dwyer Hillenbrand ’50 A Discovery of Witches by Deborah E. Harkness ’86
Loving Frank: A Novel by Nancy Horan Finding Nouf: A Novel by Zoë Ferraris Suite Française by Irene Nemirovsky and translated by Sandra Smith
Fiction and More
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
West with the Night by Beryl Markham
Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel by Jeannette Walls
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow
Sister: A Novel by Rosamund Lupton
Caucasia: A Novel by Danzy Senna
Fools Rush In: A True Story of Love, War, and Redemption by Bill Carter
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
w w w. a l u m n a e . m t h o lyo k e . e d u
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver