Summer Reading

It's that time of year. Although I've been out of school for many years, I will probably always associate summer with reading assignments. What do college presidents assign for themselves?

“When reading purely to relax I enjoy biographies. I suppose it might relate to my education and past work in theatre, but biographies allow me to wear other people’s skin for awhile. I find that can also be useful as president as well,” says Maravene Loeshcke, president of Mansfield University (Pa.). “This summer I hope to start with the biography of Andrew Jackson American Lion, the new book on Ted Kennedy and one on Ethel Merman.”

Here’s a sampling of some other brainy books college presidents plan to spend time with this season:

President Lex O. McMillan, Albright College (Pa.)

• Ike by Michael Korda
• The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason
• American Lion by Jon Meacham
• Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
• The Age of the Unthinkable by Joshua Cooper Ramo

President Ray Ferrero, Nova Southeastern University (Fla.).:

• Flags of our Fathers by James Bradley
• The Prince of Darkness by Robert D. Novak
• The Last Lion: William Spencer Churchill by William Manchester

President Mike Maxey, Roanoke College (Va.):

• American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation by Jon Meacham
• Big Russ and Me by Timothy J. Russert
• Columbine by Dave Cullen
• A Link among the Days; the Life and Times of the Rev. Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin, the Father of Colonial Williamsburg by Dennis Montgomery. (Goodwin, an 1889 graduate of Roanoke College, began the effort to restore and preserve Williamsburg).

President Kim Phipps, Messiah College (Pa.):

• How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In by Jim Collins
• Blue Ocean Strategies: How To Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim and Renee Marborgne
• An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith by Barbara Bradford Taylor
• Falls the Shadow by Sharon Kay Penman

Any campus administrators up for sharing their own to-read lists for the summer?

Comments

[gm davis]

Review
On Nov. 21, 2008, the Harris and Klebold parents were sent the same letter requesting cooperation. "Your stories have yet to be fully told, and I view your help as an issue of historical significance," it said. "In 10 years, there have been no major, mainstream books on Columbine. This will be the first, and it may be the only one." The letter came not from Mr. Cullen but from Jeff Kass, whose Columbine: A True Crime Story, published by the small Ghost Road Press, preceded Columbine by a couple of weeks.

"Mr. Kass, whose tough account is made even sadder by the demise of The Rocky Mountain News in which his Columbine coverage appeared, has also delivered an intensive Columbine overview. Some of the issues he raises and information he digs up go unnoticed by Mr. Cullen." --Janet Maslin, New York Times

"A decade after the most dramatic school massacre in American history, Jeff Kass applies his considerable reporting talents to exploring the mystery of how two teens could have planned and carried out such gruesome acts without their own family and best friends knowing about it. Actually, there were important clues, but they were missed or downgraded both by those who knew the boys best and by public officials who came in contact with them. An engrossing and cautionary tale for everyone who cares about how to prevent kids from going bad." -----Ted Gest, President, Criminal Justice Journalists