This month, we to bring you not just any book recommendations, but book recommendations from Rice’s beloved English Undergraduate Association (EUA). Continue scrolling to read about books the EUA officers and sponsor can’t help but keep re-reading!
1. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
“My favorite book to re-read is The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. Written in 1898, the horror novella focuses on an unnamed, twenty-year-old governess who, while caring for two young children at Bly, a secluded Gothic property in Victorian England, becomes convinced that the estate is haunted by two malicious ghosts. I think what I find most fascinating about the book, what made me return to it until I literally wore it out (I recently ordered a new copy), is how characteristically Victorian it is in its presentation. The characters communicate through sanitized, coded language that obscures and complicates the truth about what is “really” happening at Bly; for most of the novella, the reader cannot be sure who can see the ghosts or why, and the text’s abrupt & melodramatic ending is no more straightforward. Moreover, because the book centers an emotionally volatile and unreliable governess, the reader cannot even be sure that the narrated events of the text are true – if the children are being harmed at all, or if it is the ghosts or the governess who is hurting them. The Turn of the Screw ultimately resists any single, concrete reading: All you know is that the screw keeps turning, and every re-reading of the novella has the potential to generate a new, bone-chilling interpretation.”
– Laura Fagbemi, EUA President 2021-22
Laura is a senior (Class of 2022) at Hanszen College. She is double majoring in English and Social Policy Analysis and minoring in Politics, Law, and Social Thought. While she doesn’t technically have an English major specialization having matriculated in 2018, before the new major, she mostly takes Culture & Social Change classes! Outside of the EUA, Laura is also a captain of Basmati Beats (Rice’s premier South Asian fusion a cappella team) and a co-head of Rice ACLU’s Abortion Rights Committee.
2. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
“When Breath Becomes Air is my favorite book by far. After my sister recommended it to me a few years ago, I read the memoir in one sitting, enthralled by the detailed account of a young neurosurgeon in the face of terminal illness. Kalanthi’s prose was straightforward but evocative, and I fell in love with the depth of his honesty as well as his mental state as he processed his diagnosis. [The author] chronicles his journey from an earnest medical student, to a neurosurgeon at Stanford, to his diagnosis and mortality. Each time I pick this book back up, I’m blown away by Kalanithi’s exploration of being a physician, patient, and most of all, a human.”
– Julia Li, EUA Co-Vice President 2021-22
Julia is a sophomore (Class of 2024) at Brown College, double majoring in English (with a Concentration in Creative Writing) and Health Sciences, and minoring in Biochemistry. Outside of the English Undergraduate Association, she is a co-President of Bedside Narratives and the senior A&E writer at the Rice Thresher. She is also working as a medical scribe and a teaching assistant for Understanding Cancer on Coursera.
3. Like People in History by Felice Picano
“A few years ago, I picked up a random book at a discount bookstore to read at work (I was a lifeguard and needed something to get me through the long and boring breaks). This book, Like People in History by Felice Picano, details the lives of two cousins as they navigated and experience LGBT culture throughout the latter half of the 20th century. I think I enjoy this book so much because the author does a great job of focusing on the individual narratives and experiences of these men while still doing justice to the historical backdrop of their lives – they seem to be somehow involved with every major event in the gay rights movement. I’ve read the book 3 times now (and skipped around to my favorite parts many times over) and I gain a new appreciation for the characters with each passing through. I have always been a fan of highly emotional books, and if you are too, I really really recommend (this one).”
– Madeleine Cluck, EUA Treasurer 2021-22
Madeleine is a junior (Class of 2023) at Wiess College, double majoring in Biosciences and English (with the Science, Medicine, and Environment specialization). As far as hobbies go, she really enjoys running and picking up a new craft every few months (but rarely sticking with it).
4. Mysteries Through the Years
Question: Outside reading? Answer: Mysteries!
My whole life, I have always enjoyed literary mysteries. When learning to read, I would stumble through the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy mysteries with my mother, begging to stay up past my bedtime to find out what was going to happen next. Featuring adolescent protagonists—including a teenaged girl protagonist who solves violent crimes—these stories helped the grade-school me imagine my future self as adventurous and sophisticated. When I reached high school, I devoured Agatha Christie titles, especially those featuring the eccentric Belgian detective, Hercules Poirot, whose success in every story told the awkward teenaged me that being a “weirdo” can be a gift. In this same period, I also loved Lilian Braun’s Cat Who mysteries, which—being set in the 1990s Midwest when I lived in the 1990s Midwest—felt very familiar. Nowadays, it’s hard for me to find time to read outside of my professional duties, but when I do, I return to mysteries, because in addition to offering suspense and intrigue, the mystery genre with all its variety always gives me what I need as a reader, regardless of whodunit.
– Dr. Amanda Louise Johnson, EUA Faculty Sponsor since 2017
Dr. Amanda Louise Johnson teaches surveys of American American and Transatlantic literature from the Age of Discovery to WWI, other core requirements for the English major, and courses based on cool topics such as the Southern Gothic and the work of Edgar Allan Poe. In her spare time, she likes to drink too much black coffee, guffaw at literary memes, and send emails warning folks about Houston’s catastrophic weather.