The pandemic has changed the way we see and interact with people and the world around us. One significant effect is that it has left many of us with a great deal more time in the day (or so it seems…somehow it definitely doesn’t feel that way). The lack of commute, group activities, and outings has led many of us to seek entertainment and intellectual stimulation anywhere we can find it. With this in mind, Dean Esther Jones and the faculty in the English Department have constructed a list of books, essays, and short stories that they recommend for students, alumni, and anyone who wants to find new reading material.
The list is divided into several categories. If you are looking to process the emotions and realities of the pandemic, check out the “Disease, Plague and Contagion,” “Isolations and Quarantine,” “Social and Political Conditions during Challenging Times,” and “Post/Apocalyptic Narratives” sections. If you are looking for quality escapist reading, check out the “Escapism” section.
We also would love to hear more about what you and yours are reading! Feel free to reply to this post or message us on Facebook with your recommendations!
Disease, Plague, and Contagion Narratives
Bradley, James. Clade
Brown, Charles Brockden. Arthur Mervyn
Kim, Alice Sola. “Beautiful White Bodies” (short story)
Camus, Albert. The Plague
Crichton, Michael. The Andromeda Strain
Defoe, Daniel. A Journal of the Plague Year
Donoghue, Emma. The Pull of the Stars (forthcoming July 2020)
Matheson, Richard. I Am Legend
Ouelette, Pierre. The Third Pandemic (1996 novel)
Porter, Katherine Anne. Pale Horse, Pale Rider (novel) Spanish flu epidemic of 1918-19.
Peters, Torrey. Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones (novel)
Saramago, José. Blindness
Shakespeare, William. King Lear
Shelley, Mary. The Last Man
Sontag, Susan “Illness as Metaphor” (essay)
Warner, Sylvia Townsend. The Corner that Held Them (novel)
Whitehead, Colson. Zone One
Woolf, Virginia, “On Being Ill” (essay)
The Cassandra Crossing (film)
Isolation and Quarantine:
Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot (play)
Donoghue, Emma. The Pull of the Stars (forthcoming July 2020)
Matheson, Richard. I Am Legend
Weir, Andy. The Martian (novel)
Woolf, Virginia. “A Room of One’s Own” (essay).
Social and Political Conditions during Challenging Times
Defoe, Daniel. A Journal of the Plague Year
Bradley, James. Clade
Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron
Butler, Octavia. Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents (novels)
Ishiguro, Kazuo. Never Let Me Go.
Jarry, Alfred. Ubu Roi (play)
Rukeyser, Muriel. “The Book of the Dead” (Poem)
Saramago, José. Blindness (novel)
Post/Apocalyptic Narratives
Atwood, Margaret. Oryx and Crake (novel)
Bradley, James. Clade
Butler, Octavia. Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents (novels)
LeGuin, Ursula. Always Coming Home (novel)
Matheson, Richard. I Am Legend
Saramago, José. Blindness
Shelley, Mary. The Last Man (novel)
Whitehead, Colson. Zone One
Existential Questions on the Meaning of Life and Death
The Good Place (tv series)
Escapism from Pandemic Themes for the Pure and Simple Joy of Reading Well-Crafted Prose
Atwood, Margaret. Hag-Seed
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Americanah
Dickens, Charles. Bleak House
Donna Leone’s Commissario Brunetti’s novels for their intimate view of Venice
Forster, E.M. Howard’s End
Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. 100 Years of Solitude
Mantel, Hilary. The Mirror and the Light
Smith, Zadie. White Teeth
Waugh, Evelyn. Brideshead Revisited