Selected Works

Selected by Eva Verzani ‘21

This book showed me what an inspired and courageous woman can do, despite the ways in which the world tries to restrict her. Sarah Grimke is an incredible role model for young women, and her story has inspired me to act on what I believe in and to always be braver than I feel.

Selected by Devlin Shea ’18

Selected by Sydney Avitia-Jacques ‘18

I read the story for the first time in my first-year seminar, a Religion course. Although I didn't consider myself religious at the time, I found that Borges' Babel captured, completely and concisely in just seven pages, my personal dogma. “The Library of Babel” is an infinite universe containing every possible combination of type characters that fit in a 410 page book. People are at first optimistic about the sure possibility of finding the "right" book, the one that tells the truth about the universe-- but many descend to factions, cults, or madness, desperate at the frustration of spending their lives searching for something they are sure exists but cannot find. Finally, the narrator finds acceptance of a chaotic and infinite world that is nonetheless elegant and ordered because it is cyclical, repeats itself. This paradox of ordered chaos spoke to me on a profound level, and has guided my thoughts through many questions and pursuits. I experience a self-contradictory feeling about religion, knowledge, ambition, and love: there is a Truth, but there are infinite deviations and distractions-- finding it is spectacularly unlikely. Yet Borges' library gives me faith that whichever versions of truth I might read, they all approach the Truth in some way, some language, to someone at some time. While we cannot live beyond the constraints of language or distraction, Borges' acceptance of the chaos give me faith; my "elegant hope" persists.

Selected by Jacob Reiben ’18

Inspiring compendium of experimental film for a world which doesn't canonize irreverent genres.

Selected by Lillian Eckstein ‘18

Never had I read a story so mundane in details and yet completely captivating in plot. The freedom and naivety of Ishmael, the power and yet self-doubt of Captain Ahab, the complicated connections of the entire crew and all of the people and things they encounter -- all of this moved me in a slow, methodical way such that when I had finished, not only did I feel a humble pride but also, a distinct change in my understanding of adventure beyond the self.

Selected by Chamblee Shufflebarger ‘18

This book taught me a great deal about consideration for others in both your everyday practices and in a larger global sense. It has inspired perseverance in me when I needed it most and has taught me that self-expression should never be subject to others. 

Selected by Amanda Perkins '18

This book has taught me how to live, love, and see both beauty and brokenness the world. It is where I turn when I need hope.

Selected by Viviane Kostin '19

As a devout Catholic, the Bible is my foundational text, continually applicable and reinterpreted in the ups and downs of my life. As a Religion major, I am continually challenged to take a critical stance on this text. However, rather than sacrificing one or the other, I have found these aspects of my identity and “practice” to be mutually informative and reinforcing.

Selected by Karina de Hueck ‘18

This book has been foundational in the formation of my "practice" by stimulating me to think about how I ought to live. Peter Singer is my favorite philosopher, not so much because of what he thinks, but because of how he thinks. Dubbed the "world's most influential living philosopher" by The New Yorker, he epitomizes intellectual honesty and intellectual fearlessness by taking his arguments all the way to their logical conclusions, no matter how controversial these conclusions may be. I strive to do the same, because I believe that challenging the status quo is vital to intellectual and moral/social/political progress. 

Selected by Annina Breen ‘21

The Power of One prompted me to more fully appreciate the potential of education and curiosity to affect lives directly and indirectly. The Power of One also illuminated, for me, the influence that sincerely held beliefs and spirituality has on community. I was not raised in a religious context, yet this book made me feel as if I could understand the connection that others have to their religious and cultural traditions.

Selected by Aidan McGrory ‘19

Fun as a kid.

Selected by Diego Grossman ’20

This book began my love for literature. After the journey of reading it, I sought out the magically unexplained elements in my daily life. This new idea of life as cyclical, bendable, and permeable by the past, or from the cosmos, freed from the rules of time and science, or any previous limits and demarcations of knowledge, led me to question and expand my previous comprehension and rationalization of the world, in addition to tugging my mind, taste, aspirations, body, soul, and dreams back towards Latin America—back home. 

Selected by Professor Susan Wegner (Art History) 

Selected by Eliza Goodpasture ‘18

This text was the first book I read that celebrated art and artists as a powerful force of humanity. I always return to the language it gave me when I am fumbling to defend my passion for the arts. 

Selected by Clayton Rose (President, Bowdoin College)

I first read it in college, after I attended a talk by Professor Maclean, then retired and not long before his death. I have reread it many times.  He deals with the essential importance and the complexities of family, as well as the deep connection between nature and who we are.  As an added bonus, his prose are beautiful. 

Selected by Carly Berlin ‘18

Biss' collection of essays is, in many ways, an autobiographical bildungsroman: she lays bear the ways in which she has come to understand race and place in America during her post-undergraduate years. Since I read this text this past summer, I have looked to Biss as a model for my honors project. I am particularly interested in the way she crafts her nonfiction--out of personal anecdote and cultural criticism--and in how she writes about race as a white author. 

Selected by Jessica Piper ’19

I read this book in high school and it taught me how to think about choices and trauma. I brought it with me to Bowdoin and have always kept it close by to remind me of three things: 1) Intentions matter but don't dictate the consequences of our actions; 2) Being on the "good" or "right" side of things helps, but it doesn't absolve us from guilt or criticism; 3) We are never the only ones suffering. 

Selected by Phoebe Zipper ‘19 

This book has been central in shaping the way I view how ordinary lives fit into the scope of this epic thing we call "history." Eugenides' sensitivity to the human experiences of family, love, and belonging has informed how I exist within my own relationships. And of course, his beautiful command of the English language sets the standard for which I am constantly striving in my own writing. 

Selected by Hannah Konkel ‘20

I really want my life to have meaning, and have spent a long time considering the value of human life in general. This short story was one of the most complex, difficult, thought-provoking discussions of the value of human life that I have ever encountered, and every time I read it again I reach a different conclusion.

Selected by Professor Belinda Kong (Asian Studies and English)

I first read Obasan over a dozen years ago and was deeply moved by its depiction of the Japanese Canadians’ wartime internment and continued postwar dispersal. In the 1980s, Kogawa’s novel helped galvanize public support for the redress movement that eventually culminated in the U.S. and Canadian governments’ official apologies for the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans and Canadians. The novel thus exemplifies art as activism. But more than that—as I realized all over again rereading the novel with my students this past semester—Kogawa inspires with her portrayal of and faith in human love. We are never in doubt that her characters love each other deeply, enduringly. Works of anger and protest teach us to see and combat injustice; Kogawa’s book additionally teaches us to love despite and beyond it.

Selected by Diana Furukawa ‘18

I used to bring this book everywhere, even though it's the size of a brick. But now it's just kind in me, reminding me that in our most vulnerable experiences is the greatest potential for growth. That questioning is strength. 

Selected by Naomi Jabouin ’18

Monumental for myself in high school: becoming comfortable in my skin and embracing my differences and personality 

Selected by Vanessa Apira ‘21

It inspired me to learn more about the world around me.

Selected by Juliette Dankens ‘18

Our modern era is dominated by sight, especially in art and architecture and this "dominance of the eye and the suppression of the other sense tends to push us into detachment, isolation, and exteriority," (19). In Pallasmaa's mind, art, like architecture, is becoming increasingly eye-centric, loosing it's connection to the world, and inviting "a kind of chilling de-sensualisation and de-eroticisation of the human relation to reality," (34). Works might be visually appealing, but a true work of art or architecture must elicit a bodily, or sensual reaction from the viewer; the viewer must approach and confront a work, they must look in and through the space and understand a lived space rather than just "geometry and measurability," (64). In my practice, whether I succeed or not, I attempt to hold on to this sensuality that drives the reason we make art and design buildings in the first place. 

Selected by Daniel Rechtschaffen ‘18

There is no more powerful, more essential message in this world that you can tell a five-year old reader than the assurance that despite his flaws—in my case, aptly, an inability to pronounce my Rs—he can still be gweat!

Selected by Professor Mary Hunter (Music)

The thing that is important to me about this book is the way it shows not only how music is part of both our individual and our social identities, but also how the actual sound of music communicates its social dynamics. It talks a lot about ”participatory music” - that is music that is not put on for an audience, but rather made by (almost) everyone present at an event. The idea of participatory music is central to the ways we might use music to build community.

Selected by Dakota Roe Griffin ’19

In many ways, Schwab represents the future I would like to attain for myself--successful sci-fi/fantasy author writing about magic and monsters in all of their many forms with a diverse publication list--and Vicious, as both my introduction to her work and her first adult novel, is the first stepping stone in that path. It is a book I love, a book she wrote for herself before anyone else, and a reminder to write stories that I love first. Other people can love your work, hate it, be indifferent toward it, but you have to love it. Also, it's two college kids who give themselves superpowers by being simultaneously brilliant and idiotic--what's not to love?

Selected by Kunica Kuy ‘21

One of my favorite quotes from the book is: "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” This is something that helps me keep going in life. Although it is naive to believe in "fate" or "destiny", Coelho's book offered me a new outlook on life and there's many beautiful lessons in there. An example would be to live in the present instead of the past or future, etc.. This book was written so eloquently and is my foundation to life. 

Selected by Claudia Pou ’20

As a shy, unassuming preteen, Frankie's development from a meek nerd to a clever, sensual mastermind who takes over an all-male secret society became a model for exactly what I wanted to do in life. While I didn't exactly achieve the transformation she did, this book taught me about the power of harnessing the attention old, tired, traditional symbols receive and using it to propel social change, and also the idea of using creativity to control people who won't have you for who you are. 

Selected by Professor Crystal Hall (Digital and Computational Studies)

This is a narrative of friendship between an American and an Italian, told through data visualization. Aside from reflecting many aspects of my personal and professional identities, the book is a reminder that data is nuanced, sometimes ambiguous, is a tool for crafting an argument, and rarely reveals everything at first glance.

Selected by Byron Kim (Artist and Instructor at Yale School of Art)

Selected by Professor Jen Scanlon (Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies)

Just the other day, a student of mine from twenty years ago wrote me, asking for a reference for a poem from this collection: "And When You Leave, Take Your Pictures With You."  (pages 63-64). She couldn't remember the title of the poem or the book, but she remembered that the poem challenged her understanding of herself and her whiteness, and she needed to connect with it again. The book as a whole had that kind of impact on me when I first encountered it in graduate school. It helped me recognize that I wanted to be an academic and share the stories and import of women's lives, but it also alerted me to the work I had (and still have) to do to make that real.

Selected by Frank Goodyear (co-director, Bowdoin College Museum of Art)

Selected by Ellen Tani (curator, Bowdoin College Museum of Art)

The visual impact of this children’s book was so strong that the words almost didn’t matter. It was the first time I understood illustration as an aesthetic form, and the first time I understood abstraction. To see flat, planar shapes as natural forms (snowbanks, bodies), and to understand the emotion of a character based on minimal visual illustration was powerful. Equally powerful was seeing a children’s book character who was not white for the first time.

Selected by Srinivasan Pandiyan ‘21

The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne's most iconic book, is read conventionally throughout high schools in America. When I read the book my situation was anything, but conventional. My junior of high school many things in my life blew up in front of me. I had lost all conception of who I was and who I wanted to be. I had this conception from my childhood and I reinforced this conception, but somewhere along the way, life got tricky and my plan was twisted. Learning that all you've done was for not and that there was nothing you could do to go back in time was, to be frank, paralyzing. I was ashamed of my folly and lost the tenacity and ambition I had led with all my life. Reading The Scarlet Letter, on a surface level taught me to accept my actions and to overcome my shame and embarrassment. That is the lesson most people get out, but don't really take to heart until they've gone through an extremely similar event. I learned from the book, to always take pride in who I am regardless of how that may manifest itself. I said goodbye to the long term plan and hello to the everyday. I embrace the power of my consciousness and mind and embrace the change that exists in the everyday. I like Hester seek to align my actions and thoughts. When I visited Bowdoin, Hawthorne's alma mater, I knew why he could write what he did. He saw the beauty that existed in a place like Bowdoin and he was able to connect with a part of the greater humanity. I am not afraid to be who I am and let my self and being develop, organically. While I am at Bowdoin, I am happy to express my truest self.

Selected by Aaron J Lee ‘20

This book has helped me practice thinking about views that conflict with my previously, and deeply held beliefs; without the 'knee-jerk" reactions that mar our societies ability think critically about some of the most important issues: This book, on the 'Political Philosophy of Immigration' helped me practice this skill with one of the most debated and relevant topics to consider today. 

Selected by Hailey Beaman '18

I first read Orlando the summer before my first year at Bowdoin. In fact, I finished in a Brunswick hotel room the night before I moved in to my first-year dorm. So much of this book is about transitions of various natures including time, space, and identity, to name a few. However, these more obvious and sudden transitions in the novel seemed secondary to the more subtle, gradual developments in character, voice, and language. These smaller moments of transformation made me think about my own relationship to change and challenged my thinking about what changes matter the most at a time when I was at the threshold of a major transition in my life. 

Two years later, when I encountered the novel in a class, a new layer of the text unfurled allowing me to see the beauty and inventiveness of Woolf’s prose. Woolf’s mastery of and play with language taught me that writing and language are pluralistic: they have equal capacity to elucidate, illuminate, and obfuscate meaning. Experiencing Orlando twice with two vastly different interpretations solidified in my my mind that artistic “meaning” is unfixed and that, as my professor once said, “reading is rereading.”

Selected by Philip Kiefer ‘18

Well, I should qualify this by saying that I only read it a few months ago BUT it has completely reoriented how I think about my own practice of science. It’s made me think of science as more dependent on the tools available to the scientist, and more a process of destruction and competition than a constructive search for truth. And I really think every science major (or anyone else who wants to be informed about the practice of science in society) should read it.

Selected by Sabrina Lin ‘21

This book was the first that allowed me to savor the beauty of the written word, combining history, fantasy, romance, drama, poetry and psychology. Written during the Qing dynasty, it was also my way of vicariously experiencing my country's distant past. The tale constructs a literary maze that has fascinated me ever since. 

Selected by Kinaya Hassane ’19

The books melds commentary about race, beauty, art and love in a way that has deeply affected how I understand my identity and relationships with the people and world around me. 

Selected by Enrique Mendía ’20

Selected by Professor Aaron Kitch (English)

This was one of the first "scholarly" books I read as a high school student.  It is a wonderful work of cultural criticism.  And even though Eksteins is a modern historian and I am a scholar of early modern English literature, it showed me a new way of thinking and sparked my interest in becoming a professional scholar.

Selected by Claudine Chartouni ‘20

This book encouraged me to add a descriptive quality to my writing that I now believe defines it. Also, because of its strong messages and political statements through good and creative writing, it encouraged me to approach riskier subject matter within my own work. 

Selected by Anne Goodyear (co-director, Bowdoin College Museum of Art)

Selected by David Anderson ‘19

Every family, even those which claim the banner of atheism, worships something. My father happened to be an evolutionary biologist and natural historian, so despite our supposed Episcopalian status my sister and I were raised in the Church of Darwin. It permeated every facet of our lives. We were raised in a world where any problem, be it economics, social behavior, dating, science could be reduced to the logic of natural forces. Everything had an explanation, though not necessarily a teleological logos. For us the ideas in and built upon this book were the Word, and the Journal of Researches was the Passion.

As I've grown older and pursued a course in evolutionary biology myself I've come to recognize some of the problems with the family religion. While I'm not about to second guess the power or inevitability of evolution and natural selection as empirically justified theories, I think it can be dangerous to structure one's life around such purely logical systems. Natural selection might be the ultimate force that explains and shapes our (and all) species, but it is not something we can really experience at a personal level. There is no comfort in knowing that there is an evolutionary reason for our aging, our fears, our love. While faith, be it in science, God, logic, humanity, can provide us with explanations to these things, but ultimately we face them on our own. We are balls of cells that have accidentally learned to think and feel. An understanding of that accident can help us understand how our lives came to be, but it is ultimately up to us to find meaning in our lives and enjoy them.