book cover for Green Rider by Kristen Britain

Summer Reading No.7: Kailyn Middleton

Resource Sharing Coordinator, Kailyn Middleton, facilitates the exchange of items between networks of libraries across the globe, making her the perfect candidate for Summer Reading Recommendations. Check out her top picks among a world of options below!

Kailyn’s first recommendation is the Green Rider series by Kristen Britain (DAW Books, 2014). The first book, Green Rider, follows Karigan G’ladheon after a fateful meeting with one of the king’s infamous Green Riders. The mortally wounded Rider has Karigan agree to take his vital message to the capital in his stead. As she struggles toward Sacor City and the king, Karigan’s understanding of her world is shattered as she encounters ancient forces, races, and magics thought long extinct. Pursued by not only the hunters of the dead Rider but the Rider’s specter as well, Karigan finds herself in far more dangerous situations than she could have expected when she took message satchel and Rider brooch in hand. The best part—these books come with music to accompany the reading experience

Ever wonder what serves as the basis for shows like Forensic Files? Learn about the “mother of forensic science” in Kailyn’s second recommendation 18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics by Bruce Goldfarb (Sourcebooks, 2020). Frances Glessner was born into a wealthy family in the 19th century, but broke the traditional mold when she became fascinated with the investigation process of violent crime. In an effort to improve investigative training, she built what are known as the ‘Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death.’ These tiny dollhouse dioramas were incredibly detailed stages of violent crime that could be interacted with and studied in a way that photographs and descriptions could not be. These exercises were so successful that the methods she developed are still in use today. Find this look into early forensics and the woman who helped advance the field at Emory or a local library near you

Looking for a story with visual appeal? Kailyn’s final recommendation comes from the Japanese manga genre! Spy x Family by Tatsuya Endo (VIZ Media LLC, 2020) is the story of the spy, Twilight, whose most recent mission requires that he get close to a reclusive state official—the only way to do so by infiltrating the elite school that the target’s son attends. To pull this mission off, Twilight (known as Loid Forger, therapist) must acquire a child to enroll in the school and secure a wife to make the family illusion complete.  Kailyn calls the story “just a truly fun read, but if manga isn’t your thing, the first season of the anime is currently airing, subbed, on Hulu and will be airing, dubbed, on Crunchyroll!” Find the book at a library near you

Need more suggestions? Check in next week for recommendations from a Candler faculty member!

Summer Reading, Vol.12: Roger Sangburm Nam

As the summer intercession comes to a close, Pitts wraps up its Summer Reading Recommendation blog series by consulting a brand new face to the Emory and Candler faculty! Roger S. Nam will join us this fall as professor of Hebrew Bible. Dr. Nam formally served as dean and professor of biblical studies at Portland Seminary at George Fox University in Oregon. A financial analyst before turning his attention to biblical studies, Nam focuses his research on the economies of the ancient Near East and the book of Ezra-Nehemiah, applying traditional historical-critical methods within social-scientific frameworks. He has also served as a pastor in Seoul, Korea. 

While Dr. Nam notes that fiction isn’t typically on his reading list, he admits that his friends’ ravings about Pachinko by novelist Min Jin Lee were warranted. This New York Times Bestseller set in the early 1900s follows the story of teenaged Sunja, the daughter of a crippled fisherman, whose decision to abandon her home and to reject her son’s powerful father sets off a dramatic saga that echos down through the generations. Readers can find this profound story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty at Emory libraries or at local public libraries.

If you’d rather set down your book and pick up the remote, Dr. Nam recommends the Hulu series Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi. Take a journey across America with this award winning cookbook author, host and executive producer to explore the rich and diverse food culture of various immigrant groups. From indigenous communities to recent immigrant arrivals, Padma uncovers the roots and relationship between one’s food, one’s humanity and one’s history. Stream this show on Hulu to find out exactly how “a (wheat flour) burrito is tradition wrapped in colonization.”

For those long drives or flights, Dr. Nam suggests one of his favorite Freakonomics podcasts, No Stupid Questions with Stephen Dubner and Angela Duckworth. During each episode, Dubner as a journalist and writer and Duckworth as an academic and researcher ask each other questions leading to lively conversations on research, literature, philosophy, and history. Whether you’re inquiring if charisma can be taught, or if familiarity really breeds contempt, you’re in for a wild but intelligent ride. Looking to the future, Dr. Nam “holds hope that hallway conversations at Candler will be this much fun and productive.” Listeners can subscribe to the series on Apple PodcastsStitcherGoogle PodcastsSpotify, or use the R.S.S. feed.

Thanks for joining us on this exciting ride through recommendations in literature, non-fiction, podcasts, documentaries, and more! Remember that these posts remain available on the Pitts Librarians’ Blog to revisit whenever you’re searching for something new to add to the shelf. We’d like to thank each and every one of our contributors for sharing their suggestions and finds, and we look forward to hearing from more library and Candler faculty and staff next summer! 

Summer Reading, vol. 4: Alison Greene

This week we invited reading suggestions from Candler’s Associate Professor of American Religious History, Dr. Alison Greene! Dr. Greene provides three cohesive suggestions in a variety of genres and formats to fit the needs of any reader.

First, Dr. Greene suggests Carol Anderson’s One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy (Bloomsbury, 2018) available at Emory in print and online. Carol Anderson is an Emory professor (AAS and History) whose most recent two books aim for a general audience. This publication takes a look at the history of voting rights and voter suppression. It’s timely, readable, and important.

Next, Dr. Greene recommends Yaa Gyasi’s novel entitled Homegoing (Vintage, 2016). This story traces two half-sisters born in 18th century Ghana, unaware of one another’s existence, through eight generations all the way to the present. One sister marries an Englishman; raiders capture the other in her village and sell her into enslavement. The women’s descendants experience the full range of American and Ghanian histories, overlapping once again in a final (and hopeful) twist. Dr. Greene describes Gyasi’s novel as a “gorgeous, beautifully written book” and a “powerful exploration of the legacies of human enslavement on both sides of the Atlantic.” Homegoing is available at Emory in print, as an ebook, and as an audiobook.

Finally, Dr. Greene suggests you plug-in your headphones for a podcast called BackStory. Produced at the University of Virginia and hosted by United States historians Nathan Connolly, Joanne Freeman, and Brian Balogh, this hour-long weekly podcast provides the historical backstory (hence the name) to issues of contemporary interest and concern in the United States, from politics to pop culture to religion. Dr. Greene describes the content as “good history designed for a general audience, and a great introduction to a broad range of historians, who appear each week as expert guests.”

Next week we look forward to hearing from Pitts Theology Library’s Acquisitions, Serials, and Assessment Librarian, Caitlin Russell, with some excellent suggestions for historical fiction and fantasy!