{"id":95210,"date":"2014-07-24T08:26:58","date_gmt":"2014-07-24T12:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=95210"},"modified":"2015-10-12T10:11:06","modified_gmt":"2015-10-12T14:11:06","slug":"uconn-reads-nominations-wide-ranging-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2014\/07\/uconn-reads-nominations-wide-ranging-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Reads Nominations Wide-ranging This Year"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"UCReadsCaged_bird\"<\/a><\/div>\n

I will admit to an irrational fear, each time we announce a UConn Reads book selection theme, that we won\u2019t get any nominations and we\u2019ll end up selecting a book from an anemic list of six or seven entries.<\/p>\n

I needn\u2019t worry. As of July 18, we\u2019re at 149 nominations and counting, and the list is as complex and interesting as ever. This year\u2019s list, responding to the selection category \u201cA Book That Changed My Life,\u201d is particularly wide-ranging. Here are a few of the highlights I\u2019ve distilled so far:<\/p>\n

The Bible leads with four nominations, which is not a surprise given its foundational role in Judeo-Christian culture. The comments testify to the multiple ways that people read and respond to the Bible: as spiritual revelation, moral guide, and literature. I was interested to see that the entries in the Author field \u2013 from \u201dGod\u201d to \u201cGod inspired\u201d to \u201cvarious authors\u201d \u2013 reflect these different approaches to the Bible.<\/p>\n

The comments testify to the way that we turn to books not only for entertainment, but also for sustenance.–Anne D’Alleva<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A number of other books address how we interact with the natural world: Henry David Thoreau\u2019s Walden<\/em>: Or Life in the Woods <\/em>(1854), Peter Matthiessen\u2019s The Snow Leopard<\/em> (1978), and Michael Pollan\u2019s The Omnivore\u2019s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals<\/em> (2006) all fall in this category. The first two are classics, of course, and the last is a relatively recent book that has been highly influential in arguing for radical changes in the way we eat because “The way we eat represents our most profound engagement with the natural world.”<\/p>\n

\"UCReadsWalden_Thoreau\"<\/a><\/div>\n

All three have clear potential, but Walden<\/em>, a classic of American literature and a foundational text of the environmental movement, is especially tempting. The popular Honors course American Landscape: Walden, a History<\/em> has pioneered innovative approaches to the book on this campus. One of the mainstays of that course has been Professor Robert Thorson of Geology, who has recently published a book inspired by the course: Walden\u2019s Shore: Henry David Thoreau and Nineteenth-Century Science<\/em> (2014). Thorson argues that Thoreau\u2019s famous statement \u201cevery poet has trembled on the verge of science\u201d was an expression not of \u201cThoreau the poet being seduced by science, but Thoreau the scientist being pushed to the brink of poetry.\u201d<\/p>\n

The list also includes several classic coming-of-age books. Renowned author and activist Maya Angelou, who passed away earlier this year, is represented by her ground-breaking autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings<\/em> (1969). In following Maya from the age of three to seventeen, the book addresses, poetically and unflinchingly, the racism and violence that shaped Maya\u2019s childhood. Nominations also include Harper Lee\u2019s To Kill a Mocking Bird<\/em> (1960); J.D. Salinger\u2019s The Catcher in the Rye<\/em> (1951); and Betty Smith\u2019s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn <\/em>(1943). The last tells the story of Francie Nolan, a girl growing up in a Brooklyn tenement at the turn of the 20th century, and was both praised and criticized for its realism upon publication.<\/p>\n

Of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn<\/em>, the nominator wrote: \u201cIt left an indelible impression on me as a child, encouraging fortitude and self-reliance.\u201d Francie Nolan dreams of growing up to be a writer and turns to books for solace and encouragement, guidance and escape. In fact that\u2019s a theme throughout the UConn Reads nominations \u2013 the comments testify to the way that we turn to books not only for entertainment, but also for sustenance.<\/p>\n

To nominate a book, please visit the UConn Reads website<\/a>. Nominations close Aug. 5, and the book will be announced mid-September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Books nominated so far range from the Bible to ‘Walden’ and ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":94450,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[117],"class_list":["post-95210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 02:47:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95210"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105088,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95210\/revisions\/105088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/94450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95210"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=95210"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=95210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}