Ransom Reading Groups
Near the end of the Fall semester, several professors volunteer to host small reading groups focusing on one of their favorite books. The Liberal Arts Honors office provides the books for students who sign up for the reading groups so that students can read the book over the winter break. Groups meet during the first two weeks of the Spring semester for lively and intriguing discussions.
Books for Spring 2010
Professor Book Time/Place
Larry Carver Elegy On A Toy Piano by Dean Young Thursday, January 21 5:00-7:00 LAH Commons Room
Paul Sullivan Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, Wednesday, January 20 5:00-6:30 LAH Commons Room
Robert Jensen All My bones Shake: A Progressive Path to Prophetic Voice by Robert Jensen Thursday, January 21 2:00-3:30 LAH Commons Room
Judith Coffin and Joan Neuberger War and Peace by Leoo Tolstoy Date/Time TBA
Faegheh Shirazi Velvet Jihad: Muslim Women's Quiet Resistance to Islamic Fundamentalism by Faegheh Shirazi Wednesday, January 27 2:00-3:30 Room TBA
Sheldon Ekland-OlsonMountains Beyond Mountains: Healing the World: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmerby Tracy Kidder Date/Time TBA
James Cox TBA
About the Books:
Elegyon a Toy Piano:
Staccato and frantic, created by long series of declarative end-stopped lines, Young'ssixth collection confidently balances moments of absurdity against high drama and raw admissions of emotion: "Our camouflage works best/ galloping en masse in discotheques./ We are very gentle with our young." The book is dedicated to the late Kenneth Koch; when Young writes of a power drill telling a canoe, "You don't have a clue," he really means it. The title poem recalls something of Auden's elegy for Yeats,in sentiment if not in tone, and slyly contains self-doubt: "His work has enlarged the world/ but the world is about to stop including him./ He is the tower the world runs out of." When Young's poetry works, his particular mix of the silly and the deadly serious increases the poignancy of the poems,so that in the first poem a long series of unconnected images and references(Marilyn Monroe, a squirrel hanging on a transformer, a third-grader"loose in dishwares") culminates heartrendingly in this question:"Will we never see our dead friends again?" This book of energetic,chronic juxtaposition pieces together a winning, tinkling set of send-offs forfriends, and for feelings.
Wolf Hall:
No character in the canon has been writ larger than Henry VIII, but that didn't stop Hilary Mantel. She strides through centuries, past acres of novels, histories, biographies, and plays--even past Henry himself--confident in the knowledge that to recast history's most mercurial sovereign, it's notthe King she needs to see, but one of the King's most mysterious agents. Enter Thomas Cromwell, a self-made man and remarkable polymath who ascends to the King's right hand. Rigorously pragmatic and forward-thinking, Cromwell haslittle interest in what motivates his Majesty, and although he makes way for Henry's marriage to the infamous Anne Boleyn, it's the future of a free England that he honors above all else and hopes to secure. Mantel plots with a sleight of hand, making full use of her masterful grasp on the facts without weighing down her prose. The opening cast of characters and family trees may give initial pause to some readers, but persevere: the witty, whip-smart lines volleying the action forward may convince you a short stay in the Tower of London might not be so bad... provided you could bring a copy of Wolf Hall along.
All My Bones Shake:
At the root of the current political, economic, cultural, and ecological chaos is a national spiritual unrest, a fragmentation that has inhibited society's self-awareness and slowed theological progress to a glacial crawl.
In a nation where three-fourths of the population identifies as Christian and religion salts the political discourse, unrest has manifested itself as the talking-head debate between atheists and believers. In All My Bones Shake,Robert Jensen reveals the multi-tiered complexity of the conflict and offers a progressive approach to its key theological questions. While fundamentalists on both sides have fought to an intellectual standstill and moderates seem content to ignore the battle, Jensen pushes for answers that make sense for anyone trying to exist in the modern scientific world, concluding, “There is no God, and more than ever we all need to serve the One True Gods.”
Jensen tests the mettle of his conclusion by holding it up to the best of religious and secular teachings. More than a simple study of the religious debate in America, All My Bones Shakemarks a new communion: a way to use theology to create a sustainable society and meet the uncertainty of our lives with confidence.
War and Peace:
Epic historical novel by Leo Tolstoy, originally published as Voyna i mir in 1865-69. This panoramic study of early 19th-century Russian society, noted for its mastery of realistic detail and variety of psychological analysis, is generally regarded as one of the world's greatest novels. War and Peace is primarily concerned with the histories of five aristocratic families--particularly the Bezukhovs, the Bolkonskys, and the Rostovs--the members of which are portrayed against avivid background of Russian social life during the war against Napoleon(1805-14). The theme of war, however, is subordinate to the story of family existence, which involves Tolstoy's optimistic belief in the life-asserting pattern of human existence. The heroine, Natasha Rostova, for example, reaches her greatest fulfillment through her marriage to Pierre Bezukhov and her motherhood. The novel also sets forth a theory of history, concluding that there is a minimum of free choice; all is ruled by an inexorable historical determinism.
Velvet Jihad:
There are numerous conflicts ensuing in the Middle East, but not all are being fought with rockets and rifles. While the internet has proven invaluable to those who wish to uphold a patriarchal society and spread the message of Islamic fundamentalism, Muslim women have used the Web to build a transnational community intent on growing women's rights in the Middle East. There is a large disparity between a Muslim woman's role according to the Qur'an and her role as some corners of Muslim society have interpreted it. In "Velvet Jihad"Faegheh Shirazi reveals the creative strategies Muslim women have adopted to quietly fight against those who would limit their growing rights. Shirazi examines issues that are important to all women, from routine matters such as daily hygiene and clothing to controversial subjects like abortion, birth control, and virginity. As a woman with linguistic expertise and extensive life experience in both Western and Middle Eastern cultures, she is uniquely positioned as an objective observer and reporter of changes and challenges facing Muslim women globally.
Mountains Beyond Mountains:
Thought-provoking and profoundly satisfying, this book will inspire feelings of humility, admiration, and disquietude; in some readers, it may sow the seeds of humanitarian activism. As a specialist in infectious diseases, Farmer's goal is nothing less than redressing the "steep gradient of inequality" in medical service to the desperately poor. His work establishing a complex of public health facilities on the central plateau of Haiti forms the keystone to efforts that now encompass initiatives on three continents. Farmer and a trio of friends began in the 1980s by creating a charitable foundation called Partners in Health (PIH, or Zanmi Lasante in Creole), armed with passionate conviction and $1 million in seed money from a Boston philanthropist. Kidder provides anecdotal evidence that their early approach to acquiring resources for the Haitian project at times involved a Robin Hood type of "redistributive justice" by liberating medical equipment from the "rich"(Harvard) and giving to the "poor" (the PIH clinic). Yet even as PIH has grown in size and sophistication, gaining the ability to influence and collaborate with major international organizations because of the founders'energy, professional credentials, and successful outcomes, their dedicated vision of doctoring to the poor remains unaltered. Farmer's conduct is offered as a "road map to decency," albeit an uncompromising model that nearly defies replication. This story is remarkable, and Kidder's skill in sequencing both dramatic and understated elements into a reflective commentary is unsurpassed.
