This month we asked ’90s to identify the best book they have read since they graduated 24 years ago. Once again responses were so plentiful that I can publish only Part I here—Part II will be in the next column. Ute Otley: “The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I’ve read it about five times now (I used it to teach WW II in my U.S. history class) and every time it gets better. Quick update: My varsity girls basketball team at Champlain Valley Union High School in Vermont just repeated as Division I state champions and has a 47-game win streak going! The fact that my daughter, sophomore Sadie Otley, is the starting point guard makes it even sweeter. Now Brian ’89 and I will spend the spring watching her run track and watching our sons Mason and Cole play baseball. Life is good in Vermont!” Ali (M.A.) Long: “The Male Brain, by Louanne Brizendine. And in other news, I am deep into food system and financial system reform. I just filed our 1023 for the Quigley Foundation, based in Hailey, Idaho. My boys Quincy (9) and Zack (6) are at the local elementary school in Ketchum, Idaho. We moved back July 2013 and are happy Idahoans again!” Nina Kushner: “I love Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. I also love Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s A Midwife’s Tale and Joanne Meyerowitz’s Transsexuality in America, both of which I assign to students all the time. My news: I am a tenured history professor at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, and recently published a book with Cornell University Press titled Erotic Exchanges: The World of Elite Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century France. I gave a book talk at Dartmouth last spring. Many of my professors attended and they did not seem old at all. Made me wonder how old they were when we were students and then how old my students currently think I am!” Laurin Grollman: “The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri and Fear of Flying, by Erica Jong. In other news, I quit my job as a lawyer (my last job was senior counsel for firearms policy in the Bloomberg administration) and am working on a middle-grade novel that combines sports and historical fiction.” Pamela Chandran: “Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. It’s epic, compelling and vivid. In other news, I’ve just completed one year as the general counsel for SEIU 121RN, a registered nurses union. I love what I do and the nurses for whom I work. The in-house life is infinitely more humane than firm life. Also, my two sons (5 and 2) are thrilled to have a happier mom.” And some more news: Congratulations to Sean Callan and his wife, Elizabeth Simmons, who welcomed their first child, Michael Patrick Callan, on December 7, 2013! And congratulations to Eric Hageman, whose son Ra’Shede (who was a standout defensive tackle for University of Minnesota) was one of 30 college football players invited to Radio City Music Hall in New York City for the NFL draft May 8-10. “Regardless of whether he gets picked in the first, second or third round, we are looking forward to sitting in the ‘green room’ with him and enjoying a once-in-a-lifetime experience!” Sebastian de Atucha: “Our second child, Daphne, was born on October 25 and we are officially the oldest parents that we know. Our first, Mills, is now 5. While most of my peers send their kids to boarding school or college, I am gearing up for preschool in a couple of years!”


—Rob Crawford, 47 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; robertlcrawford@yahoo.com; Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@mac.com