The Bowdoin Naturalists is reading...

The Amateur Naturalist (among others)
By: Gerald and Lee Durrell

The Bowdoin Naturalists‘ mission is to help students feel at home in all lands through engaging with the natural world through reflection, exploration, art, and discussion. For a new display in the library, our members chose books that we feel further this mission. Our members’ interests span the sciences from ornithology to marine biology, so …

Shana Stewart Deeds, Lab Instructor in Biology and Environmental Studies is reading...

Black Cake
By: Charmaine Wilkerson

My book group is reading Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson.  What a book such as Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass is to science (PopSci – allowing the reader to empathize with the main character and their skillful explanation of science) Black Cake seems to be for sociology.  My only trouble is keeping track of all …

Marjorie Hassen, Director of the Bowdoin College Library is listening to...

The Great American Songbook
By: Ella Fitzgerald

The Great American Songbook is not a single or immutable collection. Rather, it refers to the body of popular songs composed during the first half of the twentieth century that gradually coalesced into a canon of “standards” for singers and jazz musicians.  Admired for their polished music and lyrics and written during the era when …

Bowdoin College is reading, is watching, and is listening to...

2021 in Review
By: the Bowdoin College community

Bowdoin Reads|Watches|Listens began in 2008 as a way to celebrate readers, listeners, and watchers in our community.  2021 presented a host of challenges, tragedies, and perseverance … and through it all we read, watched, and listened. We hope this recap of the most-viewed recommendations of the year will spark inspiration for you to fill your …

Kat Stefko, Associate Librarian for Discovery, Digitization, and Special Collections, and Director of the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives is listening to...

The Happiness Lab
By: Dr. Laurie Santos

I run when I need to clear my mind.  The pandemic has been good to me in only one way—it has increased my running and, with it, my time alone for uninterrupted thinking. Left to its own devices, though, my brain can run itself ragged hopping down one unproductive rabbit hole of worry after another.  …

Willi Lempert, Assistant Professor of Anthropology is reading...

The Three-Body Problem
By: Cixin Liu

It might seem surprising that a sci-fi novel about alien conflict could provide solace during quarantine, yet somehow Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem inspired an interesting shade of hope for me in the depth of winter. As the first installment in Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, this book offers a novel take on the …

Rachel Reinke, Associate Director of the Sexuality, Women, and Gender Center is reading...

No One Is Talking About This
By: Patricia Lockwood

No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood has gotten a lot of hype since it was published in February of this year, and for good reason, in my opinion! It is a masterful exploration of form, and one of the most interesting (and accurate) commentaries on the contemporary moment’s online existence that I’ve …

Jay Sosa, Assistant Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies is reading...

White Market Drugs: Big Pharma and the Hidden History of Addiction in America
By: David L. Herzberg

I confess that I read so much for research and teaching, that I end up reading embarrassingly little for pleasure. That’s why I was excited when I was asked to contribute to the “Bowdoin Reads” series, as I told myself that I couldn’t read anything that deals with my current work. I ended up choosing …

Victoria Gravel '24 is reading...

The Notion of Family.
By: Latoya Ruby Frazier

While my time spent on Bowdoin’s campus may have been brief this fall, it was certainly not lacking in formative experiences, my trip to the Special Collections and Archives chief among them. Having spent the former part of the semester voraciously consuming each of their “Beyond the Reading Room” virtual events from the isolation of …