Spring Break reading list
Spring Break season will soon be upon us and we'll all need a good book to read while laying on the beach or by a pool. Personally, sunshine and warm weather sounds really good right now and I'm still a month away from escaping winter. This topic has been put forth periodically and the board has provided a list of great book suggestions. I like to read fiction and non-fiction books. I've been on a non-fiction run the past few years, so to start the ball rolling, here's some books I've read over past Spring Break vacations. What are you reading that's worth a recommendation? The Lost City of Z - David Grann Search for a great lost civilization in the Amazon All the Devils Are Here - Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera Explains how the financial crisis happened in 2008 A Voyage Long and Strange - Tony Horowitz The discovery of the new world Uranium - Tom Zoellner All about the nuclear era starting with the element itself Manhunt - James L. Swanson The capture of John Wilkes Booth Survival of the Sickest - Dr. Sharon Moalem with Jonathan Prince How disease is actually important to human evolution
January 29th, 2018 at 10:39 AM ^
Did you post this from a typewriter?
January 29th, 2018 at 11:06 AM ^
VCR
January 29th, 2018 at 3:25 PM ^
What's a VCR?
Yours truly,
Betamax
January 29th, 2018 at 1:05 PM ^
after I posted it.
My PC decided to go old school given I was talking about books and I read books that are bound and printed on paper.
January 29th, 2018 at 10:41 AM ^
read endurance (ernest shackleton’s failed trek across the antarctic) and a book on norse mythology next.
January 29th, 2018 at 1:06 PM ^
I read that quite a few years ago. Pretty crazy what Shakleton and his crew went through.
January 29th, 2018 at 10:44 AM ^
January 29th, 2018 at 12:24 PM ^
I had JUB sign The Great Halifax Explosion at Yost and gave it to my dad for Christmas. I saw him over the weekend and he described, in great detail, the entire book to me. In short, he loved it haha
January 29th, 2018 at 1:08 PM ^
several years ago. I agree it is a great book and hard to put down once you get going.
January 29th, 2018 at 3:43 PM ^
January 29th, 2018 at 10:50 AM ^
non-fiction and always looking for a good read so interested to see what people on here like. A couple I have enjoyed lately:
The Great Halifax Explosion
Boys in the Boat
Arsenal of Democracy
January 29th, 2018 at 11:10 AM ^
+1 for Arsenal of Democracy. It was well-written, well-researched, and astonishing. Helped me better connect with my grandparents' experiences living in Michigan generally and Detroit specifically during the WWII years.
On a more cynical note, it also helped me better understand the foundation of our great university's vast, vast endowment, sheesh.
January 29th, 2018 at 12:34 PM ^
me understand the huge importance Detroit played in winning the war. My grandfather worked at the Briggs factory during the way making engines for fighter planes. My Dad was young but he remembers many of the factories and his Dad working at the Briggs plant. Very interesting read.
January 29th, 2018 at 1:10 PM ^
I've read about Ford going from zero to producing B-24 Liberators at Willow Run during the war.
January 29th, 2018 at 11:05 AM ^
Storm before the Storm by Duncan.
Grant by Chernow
Sapiens by Harari
January 29th, 2018 at 11:16 AM ^
Three great history books from alums/faculty members of the UM History Department:
Kevin Boyle-Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age
Heather Ann Thompson-Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971
Tiya Miles-The Birth of Detroit: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits
January 29th, 2018 at 11:42 AM ^
Great recommendations. I've started assigning Arc of Justice in class even though I usually go for books that are much shorter and a little more . . . accessible. It is pretty long, and it is very detailed, but it is still very readable. It also deals with an important issue that does not get a lot of attention: residential segregation. And the last lines hit you like a ton of bricks.
I've been meaning to read the Attica book--maybe when the semester ends.
January 29th, 2018 at 12:07 PM ^
I've been stuck midstream on the Thompson for about three or four months, it's just such a dense book and I want to read all of it. Taking a break with Boyle's book was nice. He's such a lyrical writer with narrative. He's finishing a book on Sacco and Vanzetti right now, I can't wait.
On a similar note, I've been completely obsessed with Yuri Slezkine's The House of Government, a 1000-page tome of a book about the residents of a Stalin-era apartment building in Moscow built for party elite and other prominent folks. It follows these people from the end of the 19th century on through the purges. Absolutely recommended, but it too is a slog of a read.
January 29th, 2018 at 9:41 PM ^
January 29th, 2018 at 11:18 AM ^
January 29th, 2018 at 11:18 AM ^
I've been on a run through the U Chicago Press's "Edible" series: http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/series/RB-EDIBLE.html
So far I've read Herbs, Chillies, Spices, Cocktails, Rum, Chocolate, Tea, Beer, and my favorite, Doughnut. Each has been very interesting and reasonably well-written. The different authors do a good to great job of covering all aspects of the food from history, to cultural importance (anthropology), to business/economics, to even biology/food chemistry. So regardless of your interests, there's probably information you'll find particularly interesting. They're all shorter, coming in between 100 and 200 pages, and if you prefer physical books, they're smaller and easier to pack - they're good beach reading. Good dinner conversation fodder, too.
January 29th, 2018 at 11:43 AM ^
For food history I'd recommend Felipe Fernandez-Armesto's Near a Thousand Tables. Traces importance of food in human history from early civilizations up through the present.
January 29th, 2018 at 11:19 AM ^
You read while on Spring VACATION.
On Spring BREAK, you drink a fifth of vodka in 20 minutes while in South Padre Island trying to hook up with a girl who looks like an unshaven Wookie but who, you think in the moment, is hot. Then you fall to your death off a balcony.
January 29th, 2018 at 12:28 PM ^
What else do you expect from a demonic dancing clown who spends his evenings eating children?
January 29th, 2018 at 1:13 PM ^
with a crazy clown. To each his own on Spring Break.
January 29th, 2018 at 11:38 AM ^
If you like space opera I suggest "Altered Starscape" by Ian Douglas. Brush up on your physics though this book wasnt written for the unintiated. Best Sci-Fi Ive read since Michael Cobleys "Seeds of Earth" series.
January 29th, 2018 at 3:07 PM ^
What did you think of The Expanse?
January 29th, 2018 at 11:41 AM ^
January 29th, 2018 at 11:55 AM ^
January 29th, 2018 at 12:22 PM ^
January 29th, 2018 at 1:15 PM ^
this is just propoganda in preparation for the March election.
January 29th, 2018 at 12:23 PM ^
January 29th, 2018 at 12:38 PM ^
I'm a big Dan Brown fan. Love stories about religious controversy. His most recent book (Origin) was a step down from his previous work, and all of the movies are shit. But Angels and Demons is up there as one of my all-time favorite books.
Another good book, if you like anything about NYC, is called City of Ambition. Describes FDR and LaGuardia's relationship as they brought the city out of the Depression. It's long, but a pretty good read.
January 29th, 2018 at 12:45 PM ^
His book "Thank You For Being Late - An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations" is outstanding. It's perhaps a bit dense of a read for vacation, but I've found it very thought-provoking.
Link:
January 29th, 2018 at 6:33 PM ^
January 29th, 2018 at 1:05 PM ^
An Entirely Synthetic Fish: How Rainbow Trout Beguiled America and Overran the World
January 29th, 2018 at 1:08 PM ^
Reading over Spring break?
Yeah im not sure thats the point of Spring Break
January 29th, 2018 at 1:59 PM ^
My absolute favorite vacations have always involved devouring a good book while relaxed in a beautiful location. Yes, even while I was an undergraduate student on Spring Break in such far flung places as Escanaba (some of us did not have spring break travel budgets).
January 29th, 2018 at 2:19 PM ^
I mean, the reason we have Hamilton is because this is what Lin-Manuel Miranda did on a vacation to Mexico:
January 29th, 2018 at 1:10 PM ^
speaking of Spring
Is the Spring Game April 14th ?
January 29th, 2018 at 1:19 PM ^
January 29th, 2018 at 1:28 PM ^
That is a good one. Have you read Black Swan by Taleb?
January 29th, 2018 at 2:25 PM ^
January 29th, 2018 at 6:31 PM ^
the anti-science quack?
January 29th, 2018 at 1:58 PM ^
But it if you're into Fantasy books: The King Killer Chronicles (long but great), anything by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn series, Stormlight Archives) is great. If you are looking for something a little less grueling, I recommend Ready Player One. Fantastic book and the movie, directed by Spielberg, comes out this March I believe.
January 29th, 2018 at 3:30 PM ^
The Color of Law and I wished that I had read that sooner in life. I also read The Myth of the Spoiled Child by Alfie Kohn which was good but I don't know how many are interested in education/parenting books. The Poisoner's Handbook, A Tale of 7 Elements and Napoleon's Buttons are three really good chemistry nonfiction reads.
January 29th, 2018 at 3:35 PM ^
January 29th, 2018 at 6:31 PM ^
January 29th, 2018 at 4:34 PM ^
Last year I read "Once in a Great City" by David Maraniss. It's not a comprehensive Detroit history, but a great snapshot into what was probably the high point - early 60s, as the Mustang was designed and built, the city was bidding for the 1968 Olympics, and Motown Records was taking off, among other things. It's interesting because the book is generally optimistic at the end, though we all know what happened to the city afterwards. It left me feeling like "oh what could have been."
Also, if you haven't yet, Michael Lewis is an evergreen suggestion. Liar's Poker and The Big Short are basically required for anyone with an interest in finance. LP is a little too celebratory of the Wall Street culture, and TBS corrects the record with a pretty sharp criticism, gained from experience and hindsight. To me, both were perfect for vacation reading.