As winter break approaches, many in the Case Western Reserve University community are looking forward to a well-earned pause from the semester’s demands. Whether you’re curled up by a fire, traveling to visit loved ones, or simply savoring some downtime, it’s the perfect opportunity to immerse yourself in a good book.
To help you find your next page-turner, we asked faculty and staff to share their favorite reads. Their recommendations span everything from poignant fiction and thrilling suspense to fascinating nonfiction and historical narratives—ensuring there’s something for every kind of reader.
Ready to add a few titles to your winter reading list? Explore their suggestions below.
Answers have been lightly edited for clarity.
David Kazdan
Adjunct assistant professor of electrical engineering
I suggest Sinclair Lewis’ 1925 novel Arrowsmith. It is a fictionalized account of his father’s medical experience starting as a University of Michigan premed and then continues the life to that of a medical researcher. Paul de Kruif was a science popularizer of the time and served as Lewis’ science advisor for the novel. One of the sub-plots concerns bacteriophages as infection therapy; that was a real approach in the pre-antibiotic era and has been examined again in the contemporary time of antibiotic resistance. After Lewis wrote social criticism of the interwar period with Main Street, Babbit, Arrowsmith, and Elmer Gantry, he continued into the 1930s period of world fascism with It Can’t Happen Here. That is also a novel with looped-around reflection on our times and one which I highly recommend. Note the new radio play, “It Happened Here 2024,” also.
Barbara Kuemerle
Senior instructor in the Department of Biology
I’d like to recommend KRISPR by Jennifer Handler. It’s a fiction/suspense/coming-of-age novel. KRISPR is set against the backdrop of the unintended consequences of one of humanity’s greatest inventions, CRISPR Cas 9 gene editing. It is as suspenseful as it is heart-warming and features the coming of age of an intelligent, relatable young woman who out-smarts her opponents, with the added bonus of introducing cutting edge science in an understandable manner.
Gina Cannata
Academic affairs coordinator, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences
I can’t recommend Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt enough. I listened to it on a long drive and was contemplating driving another hour just to get to the end of the story. The story was amazing and the narration made it even better.
Jenda Wight
Assistant director of university events, Donor Relations and Events
I recommend Still Alice by Lisa Genova. The author is a neuroscientist with a PhD from Harvard University. The character of this book, Alice Howland, slightly mirrors Genova’s trajectory at the same alma mater (The Big Crimson), but as a professor of cognitive psychology and a world-renowned linguistics expert. The story centers around this 50-year-old elite educator discovering she has developed early onset Alzheimer’s—a churning tornado inside a once sharp, brilliant mind that is simply no match for the hands of this brutal disease (even if she is the next Carl Jung). It is for anyone who loves neuroscience, psychology, ivy-league scenescapes, and more! Most importantly though, it is a journey of the human spirit trying to find the light in an ever shrinking cave.
Kelly Burns
LEAP program manager, Office of Professional Programs
For a funny, feel-good story, I suggest The Guncle by Steven Rowley, which follows a gay uncle navigating a summer with his niece and nephew after their mother’s death. If you enjoy historical fiction, you might like Kristin Hannah’s The Women, a captivating novel about female nurses serving in Vietnam. And for those interested in contemporary social issues, Jodi Picoult’s Small Great Things is a thought-provoking courtroom drama that explores themes of race, privilege, and justice.
Ralph P. Harvey
Professor in the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences
I love the classic “ordinary people in extraordinary settings” premise in sci-fi and fantasy books. The best of these have protagonists who resonate with us as “human,” in the sense they get through life by thinking through things instead of applying some superpower (or fists or swords or spells or whatever). One such person is the cleric Chih from The Singing Hills Cycle by author Nghi Vo. This series of five short books follows Chih as they wander a pre-industrial “Imperial China” world, with the simple goal of collecting stories to preserve them as history. Chih serves a catalyst in these novellas, helping the extraordinary stories unfold through their own academic interest,and of course that resonates really well if you’re an academic yourself. Added bonus? You can read these books in any order you like—they jump around in Chih’s history. They’re short and intense, perfect reading for a plane flight. And if you absolutely need some fantastical element, I’ll note Chih’s main recording tool is a talking Hoopoe with an eidetic memory.
Harsh Mathur
Professor of physics, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences
For fiction, I suggest Orlando by Virginia Woolf, a fascinating exploration of identity and time, or The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich, a powerful novel inspired by her grandfather’s fight for Native American rights. For nonfiction, I recommend How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Michael Brown, an engaging account of the science behind redefining planets. I’d also encourage you to check out The Very Short Introduction series from Oxford University Press—these are an extraordinary way to explore a new subject. Considering their size they are surprisingly substantial and have excellent suggestions for further reading. If there is a subject you want to start learning about one of the volumes in this series might well be the place to start.