Recently, I asked ’90s, “What book from your Dartmouth academic career comes to mind first?” Here is Part II your responses. Anne Sundberg writes, “I have so many that left a lasting impression on me: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, The Tin Drum by Gunther Grass, Lillian Hellman’s Three, and of course Huis Clos, by Jean-Paul Sartre (thank you Julie Davis and Henry Todd). I was just up in Hanover with Ricki Stern ’87 for a screening at Dartmouth Film Society of a recent project of ours—we met with the Women in Media group—and I had a fun glimpse of Kate Harrison and Margaret McCrudden Rightmire ’92.” Quincy Vale writes, “Instantly I think of Things Fall Apart. First, it’s a great book; second, every time I hear the song Wild, Wild Life by the Talking Heads and the line where David Byrne sings, ‘Things fall apart, it’s scientific,’ I immediately flash back to that book and pre-freshman fall. And it is a wild, wild life, by the way.” Ashley Kaiser writes, “For me the most memorable book was Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. It stands out because I thought it was going to be awful and difficult to read and instead was really fun to essentially learn a new language (Middle English) and to read it out loud and feel what it felt like to speak 700 years ago; it was funny to the point of making me laugh out loud (loudly) in Sanborn Library, which was embarrassing in a very delightful sort of way; and, despite being a great work of literature that’s entertaining and funny and has provided great insights into what life was like for normal people during those times, it’s one of the most banned books in history. I wanted to call attention to it here, given that we live in times when people are still banning books.” Tony Jones, whose email signature says “writer, theologian, outdoorsman” and whose essays can be accessed at https://jonestony.substack.com, writes, “A Canticle for Leibowitz, which I read in a class called ‘The Science Fiction Novel’ taught by the late Noel Perrin. That class launched a lifelong interest in science fiction, and I’ve read that novel several times since.” Lauren Kehoe writes, “I would say The Sky is Grey by Ernest Gaines because of how it made me look at simple things from the perspective of someone without my advantages in life. In these wacky times, I feel like it should be required reading.” Carrie (Cogswell) Connelly writes, “A number of history books from professor David Lagomarsino’s classes still line my shelves (many about the Armada!). However, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, with The Monkey Wrench Gang and multiple Tom Robbins novels close behind, first leapt to mind in response to your question. Clearly, my peers had as much, or more, influence over my reading choices as my professors! Thanks in particular to freshman-year partners in crime Deb Blunt, Tamar Schreibman, and Kasie (Henderson) Nolan!”

—Rob Crawford, 22 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com