Your Summer Reading List
As summer approaches, our academic responsibilities will be soon (thankfully) be finished for several months. Rest is needed, and so are good books! As we at The Phoenix are in full support of strengthening and renewing the mind of Wabash men, we pulled together a list of books that we feel are worth a look should you desire a good summer read (or two, or three…). We hope that this is helpful and that you might find a book worth your time.
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud
One of the more compelling books I’ve read at Wabash was for my freshman tutorial, Dr. Brian Tucker’s “Comic Books as Literary Form.” Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics explores the medium we know as “comics,” seeks to give it an operational definition, provide historical context for its existence, and discover the secret behind its appeal. McCloud’s book, full of abstract — yet easy to understand — theories, is a perfect way to begin your vacation. Read this intellectual gem in May, and it will make you feel good about dropping the heavy texts and spending the rest of your summer with Batman and Green Lantern.
World War Z by Max Brooks
World War Z is a Max Brooks novel modeled off of Studs Terkel’s award-winning The Good War. This perfect summer read combines gripping survival horror with a scathing social 
commentary on international politics and human nature. The book is surprisingly smart for a ridiculous concept. The author said, “Everything in World War Z is based in reality… well, except the zombies. But seriously, everything else in the book is either taken from reality or 100% real.” While hardly a literary classic, World War Z strikes a difficult balance between a horror and page turning political analysis.
Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling by Richard Lyman Bushman
Many of us have run into the missionaries on the streets or have heard of the polygamous sects in Texas. However, how much do you really know about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and their founder, Joseph Smith, Jr.? In a gripping and well-documented biography, Richard Lyman Bushman provides a fair and honest portrayal of the Mormon prophet, explaining the Book of Mormon, the persecution of the early church members, controversies surrounding the prophet, and the religious situation of America in the early 19th century. If you are at all interested in the largest indigenous American expression of Christianity and one of the most fascinating religious figures that America has ever produced, then this book is a must read this summer.
Cardinal of the Kremlin by Tom Clancy
One of his lesser known works (to all but his loyal fans), Cardinal is a carefully crafted conundrum of espionage and intrigue. It’s almost like a Hitchcock picture. Dr. Jack Ryan, assistant to a deputy director of the CIA, races to help a Soviet war hero turned informant/defector after his cover is blown. Meanwhile, a band of Afghan rebels plan to sack a Soviet base in Tajikistan, and the mysterious Mr. Clark makes his first appearance on the written page. Clancy packs the details at first, but if patient, the wait snowballs into perfect chaos. A must read.
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
This is a masterpiece of Christian apologetics, theology, and devotional literature. It is written for the layman and a very accessible introduction to the intellectual side of Christianity. However, more than simply theology, Lewis’s book exhorts its readers on how to live the Christian life and how to avoid the dangerous temptations that surround us in our modern culture.
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
What did you have for breakfast this morning? That is a pretty easy question to answer, but how about this one: “Where did the food come from?” No, no, not which grocery story. What field? What farm? As a nation, our eating habits are different than any society in the history of the human race. We have outsourced eating, one of the most basic human actions, to industry - like paying someone to use the bathroom for us. Michael Pollan’s important book discuses the centrality of eating to the human experience, and explores how America has corrupted the dinner table.
New Deal or Raw Deal? How FDR’s Economic Legacy Has Damaged America by Burton Folsom, Jr.
In New Deal or Raw Deal?, Dr. Burton Folsom bravely and eloquently provides a counter perspective of the FDR’s New Deal, identifying discomforting details that have been omitted from many history textbooks, thereby showing the dangerous implications of massive government intervention. For a complete perspective of the New Deal and its lasting effects upon America, New Deal or Raw Deal? is essential reading.
American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley: His Battle for Chicago and the Nation by Adam Cohen and Elizabeth Taylor
He was the titan of Democratic politics in America during the tumultuous ‘60s and the undisputed boss of Chicago. A man larger than life, Richard J. Daley’s policies as the mayor of Chicago transformed the city into the one we know today, and his antics during the 1968 Democratic National Convention showed the conflict inherent between the old power structure and the empowered disenfranchised. A compelling and entertaining read, Cohen and Taylor vividly portray the man who justified his political operations by saying: “Look at our Lord’s disciples. One denied Him; one doubted Him; one betrayed Him. If our Lord couldn’t have perfection, how are you going to have it in city government?”
Tom Brown’s School Days and Tom Brown at Oxford by Thomas Hughes
These books are about education. Not just as education as seen in the curricula of Rugby and Oxford in the nineteenth century, but the maturation of a soul. A boy goes out into the world, and slowly discovers what it means to be a man, what deep friendship is possible between seemingly unfitting companions who can complete each other, what a rare blessing it is to have a wise and saintly mentor. But then he is thrown into a yet larger world, where he finds himself obliged to fight for his soul. As before he learned about friendship and trust in guidance, now he discovers love, and learns to defy the law for the sake of the true Law. The richly hilarious rustic England these books are set in is as remote from our experience as a story that takes place on the moon, but delightful and enriching.
The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
This is a classic of the Christian faith that should be read by all. What does it mean to be a Christian? What does it mean to be a disciple of Christ? Answers are proposed by a man who did not live in the stuffy halls of the academy but lived it in his life. Bonhoeffer was an active opponent of the Nazi regime in Germany in the middle of the 20th century, a leader in the Christian resistance to Nazism’s encroachment into the church and morality, and a dedicated theologian who wrote for the average man in the pews. For Bonhoeffer, the question of what it meant to be a person of the Christian faith was not academic. The cost of discipleship for him was, in 1945, his life. If you want a good, readable theological book that makes you think about your faith and your commitment to it, read this book.
The Iliad by Homer
We all grew up with the story. Helen was snatched away to Troy, which brought about a Greek siege of the Asian city, which was eventually sacked with the help of a clever trick in the form of a horse. If you want to know the actual, classical version of the childhood story, pick up a translation of the Iliad. The prequel to the Odyssey, which most of us have read in C&T or high school, the Iliad offers rich, vivid battle scenes and intimate discussions about the heroic morality (or lack thereof) of the ancient Greeks. Contrary to what you might think, there is no Trojan horse in the Iliad. However, if you want to read a text that has been the foundation of a proper Western education for centuries and a classic epic of bloody warfare, here’s the perfect summer read.
Texian Iliad: A Military History of the Texas Revolution by Stephen L. Hardin
The Texas Revolution is a classic tale of David versus Goliath proportions in American history. Some of us might remember watching Davy Crockett Disney movies as children, where Crockett, wearing his coonskin cap, swung his hunting rifle at the invading Mexicans in the Alamo. Hardin presents a balanced account of the Revolution, being biased neither in favor of the American colonists who decided to revolt against Mexican rule nor the Mexicans who felt grieved by the actions of the American immigrants into Texas who failed to live up to their end of the bargain. A military historian, he provides detailed (but not too detailed) descriptions of the battles and skirmishes and shows how the Texians were able to defeat the Mexicans despite numerous opportunities for drastic failure. A fascinating read, Texian Iliad uncovers a part of American history about which we probably do not know much.
Mortal Follies: Episcopalians and the Crisis of Mainline Christianity by William Murchison
For those of us who grew up in mainline Protestant denominations (and perhaps the same is true for the Catholic Church and other traditions), the church we know today is not the church of our parents’ generation or that of our grandparents’ time. Doctrines have shifted. Attendance has decreased. The average age of the parishioner is high. Moral practices are in flux as society trends towards “progress.” William Murchison is an Episcopalian who loved (and loves) his church, but he has seen it traipse down the path of liberalism in a stupendous fashion. Homosexual (and bisexual) bishops, church endorsement of abortion, abandonment of traditional doctrine, and rapid decrease in membership – the Episcopal Church typifies the mainline Protestant tradition that is in such trouble. Murchison’s criticisms of the Episcopal Church can apply to just about any of the liberal churches today, and it is certainly worth reading if you want to understand what is happening to the grand old churches of America’s past.
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