Stanford Humanities Center
Our Picks for 2024
What are you reading over the break? Here's a list of winter warmers to curl up with. From all of us at the SHC, happy holidays, happy reading, and best wishes for the new year.
Jamilia
By Chingiz Aitmatov
Jamilia by Chingiz Aitmatov has been on my list of favorite books ever since I crossed paths with it. Taking place in Kyrgyzstan, one of the lesser-known Central Asian states, Jamilia is a story on the limitations of social conventions, the power of love, and the redeeming power of art—told through unforgettable characters and careful descriptions of nature.
—Erica Camisa Morale
Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Stanford University
Look at This Blue: A Poem
By Allison Adelle Hedge Coke
This long “poem” is an ode to and elegy of California, its landscape, environment, and inhabitants, those that are still here, those that have been lost, and those that may be lost. I read it over and over again, the language with which we map all which surrounds us in this state that has provided me with a home for these past few decades, including the unspeakable horrors of the past and present (e.g., “How many massacres?”), but also the incredible beauty. This book to me is a way to make California a little bit more your own.
—Charlotte Fonrobert
Internal Faculty Fellow
Department of Religious Studies, Stanford University
Miracle Creek
By Angie Kim
I recently read Miracle Creek by Angie Kim and was moved to tears. It's a compelling courtroom murder mystery that draws together themes of migration, disability, and motherhood; a stunning debut novel from a former trial lawyer-turned-author.
—Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi
External Faculty Fellow
Department of Asian American Studies, UCLA
More Work for Mother
By Ruth Schwartz Cowan
It is said that the washing machine is one of modern technology's greatest gifts, and I certainly agree. But these incredible, labor-saving technologies did not always reduce the burden of housework on women the way we would expect. What can we learn from the last time truly life-changing automation entered the American home? The book is filled with detailed stories—of early- twentieth-century mothers writing about ever-growing expectations around childcare; laundry delivery services in late-nineteenth-century cities; the gas fridges or central vacuum cleaners that were technically sound but lost out in the market.
—Sun-ha Hong
External Faculty Fellow
Departments of Data Science and Communication, UNC-Chapel Hill
Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel
By Shahnaz Habib
Shahnaz Habib’s Airplane Mode is an invitation to think hard about the history of travel—its pleasures and its entanglements with histories of colonialism and empire. Habib is brilliant: whip-smart and hilarious; clear-eyed and thoughtful. The book is equal parts cultural history, personal memoir, and critical ethics, and as soon as I finished it I ordered three copies to share. Take it on your next trip, or read it in your own living room: you’ll be glad you did, either way.
—Kelda Jamison
Fellowship Program Manager, Stanford Humanities Center
The Dream Life of Sukhanov
By Olga Grushin
My pick is The Dream Life of Sukhanov by Olga Grushin. I return to it whenever I think about authenticity and competing pressures.
—Chana Lanter
Hume Honors Fellow
Major in Philosophy and Religious Studies, Stanford University
Stranger in the Shogun’s City
By Amy Stanley
I recommend Amy Stanley’s Stranger in the Shogun’s City — an intimate look at life in nineteenth-century Edo (Tokyo) from the perspective of a woman from the countryside who fled there after three failed marriages arranged by her family. It is a great read!
—Indra Levy
Internal Faculty Fellow
Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures,
Stanford University
The Forty Rules of Love: A Novel of Rumi
By Elif Shafak
The Forty Rules of Love unfolds two tantalizing parallel narratives—one contemporary and the other set in the thirteenth century when Rumi encountered his spiritual mentor, the whirling dervish known as Shams of Tabriz—that together explore the enduring power of Rumi's work.
—Helen Malko
Associate Director, Stanford Humanities Center
The Properties of Perpetual Light
By Julian Aguon
I’d like to suggest, Julian Aguon’s The Properties of Perpetual Light published by University of Guam Press. It is an inspiring collection that reflects upon the experiences of the Indigenous CHamoru people on Guåhan (Guam) who face U.S. colonialism and militarism. Aguon has this amazing ability to cultivate love and hope while sitting with grief.
—Kristin Oberiano
Distinguished Junior External Fellow
Department of History, Wesleyan University
Scattered Snows, to the North
By Carl Phillips
I recommend Carl Phillips’ new poetry collection Scattered Snows, to the North. His writing has the feel of someone who is calmly, firmly, urgently reflecting on their entire life’s journey and comes to terms with the most pertinent personal insights about former loves, the possibility of forgiveness and ways of thinking and living with our previous selves, to name just a few topics. “To remember a thing can hurt more than the thing itself/ever did.” But in another poem, “Why not call it love— // each gesture—if it does love’s work? I pulled him / closer. I kissed his mouth, its anger, its blue confusion.” As a reader, I find that he gives me a syntax tool of sorts to extract insights when I look back on my own life. If I’m ever stuck on a desert island, I want this collection with me, together with Phillips’ Then the War, which won the Pulitzer last year.
—Svetlana Turetskaya
International and Academic Programs Manager, Stanford Humanities Center
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