What are you reading?

For years, we’ve shared noteworthy books with our readers. Now, it’s your turn! New or old, fiction or nonfiction – tell us the name of a book (or a few) that you’ve recently enjoyed, why you chose it and what makes the book memorable to you.

Send your suggestions to wisweek@uc.wisc.edu. We’ll print several submissions in upcoming issues of Wisconsin Week.

“Year of Wonders” and “People of the Book”

By Geraldine Brooks

“Year of Wonders” was recommended by someone who knows my tastes. It’s an historical fiction of the English plague village Eyam, in 1666, whose inhabitants voted to voluntarily quarantine themselves so that they would not spread the plague. Though the story is based on truth, the period detail and personal struggles and relationships make it come alive.

The subject matter of “People of the Book” was even more gripping. Based on the existence of the real, priceless Sarajevo Haggadah — a rare, Medieval illuminated Jewish prayer book that survived centuries — the story traces its perilous journey through Muslim-ruled Spain, the Inquisition, fin-de-siecle Vienna, the Italian Jewish Ghetto and Nazi sacking of Sarajevo, to name a few. More than once it was protected by a Muslim librarian. Its existence and survival inextricably weaves Christians, Muslims and Jews together in a tapestry.

Each section of the book explores an artifact that a conservator found while restoring it: an insect wing, wine stains, salt crystals, a single white hair.  How and why these “clues” were stamped in the book is the sweeping story of the people who created, cherished, protected, sold, lost, found and inhabit the book.

— Submitted by Cindy Severt, senior special librarian, Data & Information Services Center

“Män som hatar kvinnor/ The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”

By Stieg Larsson

It seemed that almost everyone else in the world had read it; I want to see the movie but it’s usually a good idea to read the book first. Mostly, I was very curious about how my native country is portrayed — and now, perhaps, perceived!

Highly recommended, especially the Swedish version. From what I understand, though, the English version is a very good translation. All if you can stand multiple types of violence, abuse and more, in print. “Surprisingly good for being bad,” according to one British critic.

— Submitted by Mats Johansson, senior scientist, biomolecular chemistry

“1491”

By Charles Mann

This book provides strong evidence for new archeological insights into civilizations existing in the Western Hemisphere before Columbus. Many of these civilizations surpassed European societies in areas such as cleanliness, math abilities (they discovered the concept of zero) and organization. Mann argues, convincingly, that the Americas were not vast empty spaces of virgin wilderness, but well-tended gardens of native societies — going back 6,000 years or more.

The book was mentioned in a presentation at First Unitarian Society. It intrigued me, as I tend not to accept dogmatic statements about what was here before Columbus. I was overwhelmed with the wealth of knowledge now available.

“The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness”

By Oren Solomon Harman

One of the outreach activities of the Crow Institute for the Study of Evolution, which I administer, is the Zoology and Evolution Reading Group (ZERG). We get together weekly to discuss books we have chosen to read for their science and evolution concepts. The group is composed of some of the finest faculty and staff of UW–Madison, all retired. Even Jim Crow, our 94-year-old geneticist, attends these events.

This book tells the story of George Price, who discovered equations essential to evolutionary theory regarding altruism. Other books we have read are several books by Sean Carroll, including “Remarkable Creatures”; Wallace’s “Malay Archipelago,” Baum and Smith’s manuscript on Tree Thinking, and many more.

— Submitted by Mara McDonald, assistant administrator, Laboratory of Genetics and J.F. Crow Institute for the Study of Evolution

“The Echo from Dealey Plaza”

By Abraham Bolden

I was fairly young when Kennedy was shot, but I still remember where I was and what I was doing. I’ve recently developed an interest in reading anything I can get my hands on regarding that day.

Bolden, the first African American on the White House service detail, talks about many topics, including what it’s like to be in the Secret Service and his short time at the White House. He also talks about the prejudices he had to face, both within the service and in general, during the 1960s.

I’d recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in more recent American history, especially anyone who was alive in the early 1960s.

— Submitted by Janean Hill, data center staff/archivist, Space Science and Engineering Center