One of my favorite things about attending Boston College was the absolute love of books held by the Jesuits (and many of the other professors, but few held that love so deeply as the priests with whom I interacted). Each year, the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Boston College, William B. Neenan, SJ, published his list of books that he thought each student, alumnus, and faculty member should read. I can hardly claim to have read all of the books, although I do regret that. Still, I enjoyed giving one or two a shot each year (on top of the reading I had to do). Here's a link to Father Neenan's thoughts on the Dean's List, along with a link to the cumulative dean's list from 1982 to 2003. I've included the cumulative Dean's List in the continuation of this post, along with some thoughts on each of the books I have read. It's a fun little break from working on the story I've been fighting with this week.
(key: italics = read; boldfaced = recommended by me)
Fr. William B. Neenan's Dean's List: 1982-2003
Years on the list
1. James Agee, A Death in the Family
1984-
2. Stephen Ambrose, Undaunted Courage
1996
An interesting look at Lewis & Clark, who don't get the credit for bravery that they deserve.
3. Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim
1982-
4. Arthur Ashe, Days of Grace
1993-1999
5. Andrea Barrett, The Voyage of the Narwhal
2000
6. Robert N. Bellah and colleagues, Habits of the Heart
1985-1991
7. Peter Berger, Rumor of Angels
1982-1983
8. George Bernanos, Diary of a Country Priest
1982-
9. Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, The Gift of Peace
1997
10. Ben Birnbaum, "How to Pray: Reverence, Stories, And the Rebbe's Dream" in Kathleen Norris (ed. ) The Best American Essays
2001-2002
Birbaum is an amazing essayist, and this particular piece struck me, even though I am agnostic.
11. Allan Bloom, Closing of the American Mind
1987
12. Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons
1982-
For those that read my site regularly, you know how inspiring this version of St. Thomas More's life is to me. It's an incredibly beautiful morality play.
13. Tom Brokaw, The Greatest Generation
1999
14. Frederick Buechner, Godric
1984
15. Olive Ann Burns, Cold Sassy Tree
1991-93
16. Albert Camus, The Fall
1982-
A conversation between a devil and the lawyer, wherein you and I are all indicted for our failure to help others. "Haunting" does not accurately capture the feeling of this book.
17. Ethan Canin, Emperor of the Air
1994-1995
18. Evan S. Connell, Son of the Morning Star
1985
19. Annie Dillard, An American Childhood
1990-1991
Slightly pedantic memoir of life in Pittsburgh.
20. Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
1986-1989
21. Annie Dillard, The Living
1992
22. Charles F. Donovan, SJ, History of Boston College
1990-1993
I don't see this interesting those outside the BC community, but I enjoyed this.
23. Freeman Dyson, Weapons and Hope
1984-1985
24. Ralph Ellison, The Invisible Man
1982-1997
Race and identity. Powerhouse writing.
25. Shusako Endo, Deep River
1995-1997
26. Shusako Endo, Silence
1982-1994
A heartbreaking story of a Jesuit missionary in Shogunate Japan. It talks a lot about doubt and "the unbearable silence of God." Very moving.
27. Anne Fadiman, Ex Libris
2001
28. David Hackett Fischer, Paul Revere's Ride
1995
29. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
1982-
Can't understand why I would fixate on a story about the profligate and the morally vacant, can you?
30. Thomas Flanagan, The End of the Hunt
1994
31. Thomas Flanagan, Tenants of Time
1988
32. Thomas Flanagan, The Year of the French
1982-1986
33. Antonia Fraser, Mary Queen of Scots
1982-1985
34. William Golding, Lord of the Flies
1983-1990
Reminds me of the Boy Scouts. Just kidding. Brilliant. It boils down humanity to its essentials. And yes, my view on humanity is that dark.
35. Adam Gopnik, Paris to the Moon
2002
If I remember correctly, this was the story that featured on This American Life, about an American writer living in Paris, trying to instill some sort of Americanism in his son. Very fun.
36. Mary Gordon, Final Payments
1982-1989
37. Thomas Grady and Paula Huston (eds.), Signatures of Grace: Catholic Writers on the Sacraments
2000-2001
38. Elizabeth Graver, Unravelling
1998
39. Elizabeth Graver, The Honey Thief
2000
40. Graham Greene, The End of the Affair
2000-
I'm more of a fan of Our Man in Havana, but this is damn good.
41. Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory
1982-1999
42. Thomas Groome, What Makes Us Catholic
2002
43. David Guterson, Snow Falling on Cedars
1996
44. Ron Hansen, Atticus
1997-1998
45. Michael Harrington, The Other America
1982-1986
46. Seamus Heaney, Beowulf
2000-
With Bruce Willis as Beowulf and Robbie Coltrane as Grendel. Come on, it's one of the first great adventure stories.
47. Laura Hillenbrand, Seabiscuit: An American Legend
2003
48. Etty Hillesum, An Interrupted Life
1990-
49. James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
1982-2000
Great stream of consciousness work. I wish I had the balls to write about the workings of the mind as freely as Joyce did. Read this, but only after reading his masterwork: The Dubliners.
50. Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm
1998-
Junger had such an arrogant tone about the sailors that I grew infuriated with him. That bothers me, as I have enjoyed his other work (articles for Nat'l Geo., his reporting in Afghanistan, etc.).
51. John Keegan, Face of Battle
1982-1995
52. Garrison Keillor, Lake Wobegon Days
1986
Hmm. A recurring visit to a small town with eccentric characters and a general notion of humor and deliverance... maybe I ought to try that.
53. Thomas Keneally, Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith
1982-1983
54. Thomas Keneally, The Confederates
1984
55. William Kennedy, Ironweed
1985-1987
56. Barbara Kingsolver, The Bean Trees
1991-1995
57. Milan Kundera, Immortality
1995-1996
Kundera = brilliance.
58. Milan Kundera, The Joke
1991
See above.
59. Florence Ladd, Sarah's Psalm
1999
60. Guiseppe Lampedusa, The Leopard
1982-1997
61. H. C. Robbins Landon, 1791; Mozart's Last Year
1991
62. Margaret Laurence, The Stone Angel
1987
63. William Leonard, SJ, The Letter Carrier
1993
64. William J. Leonard, SJ, Where Thousands Fell
1995
65. Bernard Lewis, The Crisis of Islam
2003
66. Alan Lightman, Einstein's Dreams
1993
One of my favorite books. Lightman's better than anyone in addressing how we think about a moment.
67. Anthony J. Lucas, Common Ground
1986
68. Paul Mariani, Thirty Days
2002
69. Yann Martel, Life of Pi
2003
70. Suzanne Matson, The Hunger Moon
1998
71. Suzanne Matson, A Trick of Nature
2001
72. Francois Mauriac, Viper's Tangle
1982
73. Cormac McCarthy, The Crossing
1994
74. Eugene McCarthy, Up 'Til Now
1987
75. Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes
1997-1998
76. David McCullough, John Adams
2002
I'm still working on it right now, but it's not bad.
77. David McCullough, Truman
1993-
78. Alice McDermott, At Weddings and Wakes
1993-1994
79. Alice McDermott, Charming Billy
1999-2000
80. Alice McDermott, Child of My Heart
2003
81. James M. McPherson, The Battle Cry of Freedom
1989
82. Charles Morris, American Catholic: The Saints and Sinners Who Built America's Most Powerful Church
1999-
83. Gloria Naylor, Women of Brewster Place
1994-1999
84. Henri Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son
1998-
85. Christopher Nolan, Under the Eye of the Clock
1988
86. Thomas O'Connor, The Boston Irish
1996-1997
87. Thomas O'Connor, Civil War Boston
1998
88. Thomas O'Connor, The Hub: Boston Past and Present
2001
89. John O'Malley, SJ, The First Jesuits
1994-
90. Thomas P. O'Neill, Man of the House
1988-91
91. Jaroslav Pelikan, Jesus Through the Centuries
1987-
92. Ann Petry, The Street
1996-2000
93. J. P. Powers, Morte d'Urban
1982-1984
94. J. P. Powers, Wheat that Springeth Green
1989-1990
95. Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping
1997-1999
96. O. E. Rolvaag, Giants in the Earth
1982-1983
97. Colin A. Ronan, The Natural History of the Universe
1992
98. Simon Schama, Citizens
1989
99. Nancy Lusignan Schulz, Fire and Roses
2001
100. Michael Shaara, The Killer Angels
1999-
Joshua Chamberlain's military innovation revealed and humanized.
101. Hampton Sides, Ghost Soldiers
2003
102. Ignazio Silone, Bread and Wine
1983-92
103. Dava Sobel, Galileo's Daughter
2001-
104. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The First Circle
1982-1988
105. Wallace Stegner, Collected Short Stories
1990-
This is the book that introduced me to the modern short story as an artform. Stegner was brilliant, and responsible for the instruction of so many great writers (at Stanford): Ed Abbey, Raymond Carver, Tobias Wolff, and Aldo Leopold all studied under him at one point.
106. Wallace Stegner, Crossing to Safety
1989
107. Wallace Stegner, Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs
1992
About the wilds of North America during the depression. Very good.
108. Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club
1990
109. R. H. Tawney, Religion and Rise of Capitalism
1982-1983
110. Studs Terkel, Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession
1992
111. Christopher Tilghman, In a Father's Place
1992-1993
112. Sigrid Undset, Gunnar's Daughter
1989
113. Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter
1982-1988, 1990-
114. Robert Penn Warren, All the King's Men
1982-
115. Bill Watterson, The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book
1996
I still giggle like an idiot when I read Calvin and Hobbes. As a child, I've done remarkably similar pranks (the inappropriate snowmen, etc.).
116. Garry Wills, Saint Augustine
2000-
117. Simon Winchester, River at the Center of the World
1997-
118. Tom Wolfe, Bonfire of the Vanities
1988
119. Cecil Woodham-Smith, The Great Hunger
1982-1990
120. Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
1982-1996
An interesting but imposing list. #3 has always been one of my favorite books. Speaking of Jesuits, I was also "Jesuit-educated," and had the great good fortune of being taught by Walter Ong, S.J. Though he died recently, there is a weblog devoted to his memory at http://www.rememberingwalterong.com
(Another novel use for weblogs, I'd say).
Posted by: Evan | Thursday, March 11, 2004 at 01:35 PM
Wonderful list, full of reminders for me.
No Walker Percy. I actually know him more through his work on semiotics and for "Lost in the Cosmos," but his last novel, "The Thanatos Syndrome," is an excellent dramatization of our complacency toward evil.
Also, on #105, Wallace Stegner; I'd like to mention another Stanford student of his, who only had two great books in him, but that's two more than most of us have: Ken Kesey, with "Cuckoo's Nest" and "Sometimes A Great Notion."
I'm just about to begin reading the Ambrose now, by the way.
Posted by: Jerome du Bois | Sunday, March 14, 2004 at 12:24 AM
I'm terribly remiss for forgetting Kesey.
Posted by: TPB, Esq. | Monday, March 15, 2004 at 05:08 PM
Congrats for your website, we LOVE it !!!
Posted by: תורת האותיות | Sunday, May 01, 2005 at 03:25 AM