OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT > Recommended Reading Office of the President
 
 
   
President Doti's Recommended Reading
Every year President Jim Doti compiles an annual summer reading and film list he recommends for students and graduates.  Below are some of his suggestions throughout the years.

2009 List
  • Why Evolution is True
  • The Band's Visit
  • When You Are Engulfed in Flames
  • 12:08 East of Bucharest
  • What Is the What
  • The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective
  • Why Evolution Is True

    Jerry Coyner

    I found the wonderfully accessible “Why Evolution Is True” by the evolutionary geneticist at the University of Chicago, Jerry Coyne, an informative and fascinating read. It’s also timely given the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species.

  • The Band’s Visit

    Sasson Gabai, Ronit Elkabetz, Saleh Bakri, and Khalifa Natour

    One of two foreign films on my list this year that definitely warrant a larger audience. “The Band’s Visit,” is about a police band from Egypt that takes the wrong bus and gets left off in a small backwater town in Israel. While I found both films on the list this year very funny, they are also moving and perceptive portrayals of our common humanity.

  • When You Are Engulfed in Flames

    David Sedaris

    While David Sedaris may not be for everyone, one of the funniest books I read this year is his “When You Are Engulfed in Flames.” The essays are even better when you listen to Sedaris narrate them.

  • 12:08 East of Bucharest

    Sasson Gabai, Ronit Elkabetz, Saleh Bakri, and Khalifa Natour

    “12:08 East of Bucharest” is about how various hapless residents of a small town recall the Romanian Revolution and the overthrow of Nicolae Ceauþescu. While I found both films on the list this year very funny, they are also moving and perceptive portrayals of our common humanity.

  • What Is the What

    Dave Eggers

    A woman I met on a flight to Sacramento described “What Is the What” by Dave Eggers as one of the most moving books she ever read, and I have to agree. It’s a heartbreaking yet uplifting story of the civil war in Sudan as seen through the eyes of an American immigrant.

  • The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective

    Kate Summerscale

    I particularly enjoy the way she explains how this incredible yet true crime mystery served as the inspiration for some of the great literary works by the likes of Wilke Collins and Charles Dickens.



2008



Blood and Thunder
by Hampton Sides



Walt Disney: The Triumph
of the American Imagination
by Neal Gabler



Thunderstruck
by Erik Larson



The Lost: A Search for
Six of Six Million

by Daniel Mendelsohn



Movie Recommendation:
The Lives of Others


 



2007



Arthur and George
by Julian Barnes



Colors of the Mountain
by Da Chen



The Lost Painting:
The Quest for a
Caravaggio Masterpiece
by Jonathan Harr



Swimming Lessons and
Other Stories

by Firozsha Baag



Team of Rivals:
The Political Genius
of Abraham Lincoln

by Doris Kearns Goodwin



Movie Recommendation:
La Meglio Gioventù
(The Best of Youth)



2006



The Bookseller of Kabul
by Asne Seierstad



Enrique's Journey
by Sonia Nazario



The Story of My Life:
An Afghan Girl on the
Other Side of the Sky

by Farah Ahmedi



Such a Long Journey
by Rohinton Mistry




We Die Alone
by David Howarth



  

Movie Recommendations:

The Story of the Weeping Camel

Twin Sisters



2005



The Curious Incident of the
Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon



The Devil in the White City
by Erik Larson



The Householder
by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala



Night
by Elie Wiesel



Shadow Divers
by Robert Kurson



Washington's Crossing
by David Hackett Fischer



2004



English Passengers
by Matthew Kneale



A Fine Balance
by Rohinton Mistry



Hollywood Animal:
A Memoir
by Joe Eszterhas



How Ronald Reagan
Changed My Life
by Peter Robinson



Losing My Virginity:
How I’ve Survived, Had Fun,
and Made a Fortune
Doing Business My Way
by Richard Branson



Nowhere in Africa:
An Autobiographical Novel

by Stephanie Zweig




Six Days of War:
June 1967 and
the Making of the
Modern Middle East
by Michael Oren



 
 
©2009 Chapman University • One University Drive, Orange, CA 92866 • Phone: (714) 997-6815
Website Powered by ActiveCampus™ Software