Well Read This semester, first-year students pursued their intellectual passions through the College Colloquium courses. Here are some of the books they read.
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch By Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back By Andrew Zolli and Ann Marie Healy
Journey to the West By Wu Cheng’en
Life Laid Bare: The Survivors in Rwanda Speak By Jean Hatzfeld
How is the world going to end? Divine wrath, epidemic disease, floods, an asteroid collision, war or monsters created by nuclear waste? Famed fantasy authors Terry Pratchett (the Discworld series) and Neil Gaiman (The Sandman comic book series) share their version of the final battle in a tale described as morbidly funny, irreverent and wacky. A fussy angel and fastliving demon aim to stop the apocalypse. As the San Francisco Chronicle noted, it “reads like the Book of Revelation, rewritten by Monty Python.”
“Resilience” is a buzzword in several industries. But how do some groups or organizations bounce back when others do not? And what can we learn from their example? Authors Andrew Zolli and Ann Marie Healy describe resilience as a mindset that can help organizations better absorb disruption and be flexible. As they say, “If we cannot control the volatile tides of change, we can learn to build better boats.” One reviewer says the book “teaches us that being strong is not about doing one thing very well …. (It’s about) the importance of planning for the future, even when it means giving up some short-term goals.”
Adventure, new cultures and the unexpected await travelers to any foreign land. But for some, the journey is as much spiritual as physical. “Journey to the West” combines both ideas. Considered a masterpiece of Chinese literature, the novel follows a famous monk and his supernatural disciples as they face foes and demons in their search for Buddhist scriptures. Based on the journey of a real Chinese monk, the novel weaves in elements of folk religion, Taoism, Buddhism and Confucian social values. The Los Angeles Review of Books commends its “thoughtprovoking meditations on existential conundrums: the tragedy of morality, the obstacles to self-perfection, the violence and chaos of the human and animal worlds.”
Survivors of genocide bear incomprehensible trauma in ways that show their indomitable spirit. Examples of such courage fill “Life Laid Bare,” a French journalist’s account of one of the worst areas devastated by the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Survivors describe the slaughter by machete and spear of 10,000 Tutsis, when neighbors from the Hutu ethnic group became executioners. “The suffering is palpable throughout these interviews,” says one reviewer, “and this is a must-read work for anyone interested in human rights, genocide, war, peace studies, history or life in general.”
Recommended by Monique Bourque, director of student academic grants and awards, for her course “Views of the Apocalypse, Natural Disaster and the End of the World in (mostly) Western Culture.”
Recommended by Carol Long, senior vice president for academic and student affairs, and Edward Whipple, president for student affairs, for their course “Bouncing Back: How Resilience Works.”
Recommended by Mark Stewart, professor of psychology, for his course “Genocide Survived.”
Recommended by Xijuan Zhou, associate professor of religious studies, for her course “Journey to the West.”
Illustration by Jane Mount 40
FALL 2017