A 2020 Field Work Term Reading List
While students embark on Field Work Term, an annual work-learning term during which students gain hands-on experience and test their classroom ideas in the world of work, Bennington faculty and staff offer their reading recommendations to keep everyone’s intellectual juices flowing wherever they are.
The Spell of the Sensuous
By David Abram
Recommended by Tatiana Abatemarco, Visiting Faculty — Center for the Advancement of Public Action
The Fifth Sacred Thing
Recommended by Tatiana Abatemarco, Visiting Faculty—Center for the Advancement of Public Action
Ties
By Domenico Starnone, Translated by Jhumpa Lahiri
"A page-turner. This is the disastrous story of a difficult family narrated from three different perspectives, with a great, unpredictable final twist."
Recommended by Barbara Alfano, Faculty—Cultural Studies and Languages
Friday Black
Recommended by Noah Coburn, Associate Dean for Curriculum and Pedagogy; Faculty—Society, Culture and Thought
Fields of Combat
Recommended by Noah Coburn, Associate Dean for Curriculum and Pedagogy; Faculty—Society, Culture and Thought
Against the Grain
Recommended by Noah Coburn, Associate Dean for Curriculum and Pedagogy; Faculty—Society, Culture and Thought
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
By Lori Gottlieb
Recommended by Laura Crosslin, Senior Admissions Systems Coordinator
Tender at the Bone
"She's still writing books for different periods in her life, but this is the first about her childhood."
Recommended by Laura Crosslin, Senior Admissions Systems Coordinator
The Wild Robot
"It's a middle-school read, but so lovely."
Recommended by Laura Crosslin, Senior Admissions Systems Coordinator
Life After Life
By Kate Atkinson
Recommended by Laura Crosslin, Senior Admissions Systems Coordinator
The Panic Virus
"An excellent overview of science communications -- the roles of emotion and fact in decision making; how people interpret risk and danger, authenticity and trustworthiness; how conspiracy theories take root; and how people decide what (they believe) is true. Good book to read if you will ever need to convince people of anything."
Recommended by Alex Dery Snider, Director of Communications
Homeward: Life in the Year After Prison
Recommended by Annabel Davis-Goff, Director of the Prison Education and Incarceration in America Initiatives, CAPA; Faculty—Literature
Billy Bathgate
Recommended by Annabel Davis-Goff, Director of the Prison Education and Incarceration in America Initiatives, CAPA; Faculty—Literature
Midnight in Chernobyl
"I immediately jumped into this book after watching HBO's terrific miniseries Chernobyl. A gripping account–at some points down to the microsecond–of the events before, during, and after the Soviet nuclear disaster. A story of horror, resilience and ingenuity as mankind seeks to bend the natural world to its will."
Recommended by Keegan Ead, Digital Marketing Strategist—Communications
Everything That Follows
"What happens when regular people get caught up in a tragic mistake? Crippling paranoia and guilt that pulls them apart from the inside, of course! A dark psychological tale written by one of our own staff members."
Recommended by Keegan Ead, Digital Marketing Strategist—Communications
Days of Rage
"Did you know that in 1972 we had over 1,900 domestic bombings in the United States? This stuff is forgotten and shouldn't be."
Recommended by Keegan Ead, Digital Marketing Strategist—Communications
Children of Time
"This sci-fi series is insane. Witness a new civilization spring to life as humanity collapses into dust. Spider, Octopus, and what remains of Men must find a way forward in a cold universe."
Recommended by Keegan Ead, Digital Marketing Strategist—Communications
Just Mercy
Recommended by Bronwyn Edwards '19, Kilpatrick Fellow—President's Office
She Said
By Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey
"A deep look in to how two path breaking journalists tackled sexual assault issues. It is more about journalism than Harvey Weinstein - a guy I don't want to hear much about. Great read."
Recommended by Judith Enck, Senior Fellow in the Center for the Advancement of Public Action
Erosion
"Terry Tempest Williams writes with grace, beauty and humility. I hang on her every word."
Recommended by Judith Enck, Senior Fellow in the Center for the Advancement of Public Action
Looker
"A new novel, scary and brilliant."
Recommended by Camille Guthrie, Director of Undergraduate Writing Initiatives
Black Is the Body
"I loved this collection of essays about blackness and visibility in Vermont. I highly recommend it!"
Recommended by Rage Hezekiah, First-Year and International Student Counselor—Academic Services
A Planet to Win
By Kate Aronoff, Alyssa Battistoni, Daniel Aldana Cohen, Thea Riofrancos
Recommended by John Hultgren, Faculty—Society, Culture and Thought
The White Card
"This is Rankine's first published play and, like Citizen--but even more emphatically--it asks us to see (quotidian performances of) what's always/still there."
Recommended by Vanessa Lyon, Faculty—Visual Arts
The Bluest Eye
"2020 will mark the 50th anniversary of Morrison's searing first novel--a devastating account of the racialization of childhood and the sexualization of race."
Recommended by Vanessa Lyon, Faculty—Visual Arts
Northanger Abbey
"Two hundred years later, Austen's feminist Gothic parody is no joke."
Recommended by Vanessa Lyon, Faculty—Visual Arts
Who Killed My Father
By Édouard Louis, Translated by Lorin Stein
Recommended by Farhad Mirza '12, Technical Instructor in 3D Technology
This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom
Recommended by Farhad Mirza '12, Technical Instructor in 3D Technology
The Big Sea: An Autobiography
Recommended by Brian Michael Murphy, Faculty—Society, Culture and Thought
The End of Eddy
By Édouard Louis, Translated by Michael Lucey
"Or if you can read the French original, En finir avec Eddy Belleguele"
Recommended by Jean Randich, Faculty—Drama
Educated: A Memoir
"A remarkable memoir that deals with the complicated way identity is constructed."
Recommended by Jean Randich, Faculty—Drama
The Source of Self-Regard
"This wise tome takes the form of a memoir."
Recommended by Jean Randich, Faculty—Drama
Outline
"Rachel Cusk! After her memoirs, read her trilogy."
Recommended by Jean Randich, Faculty—Drama
Making and Being: Embodiment, Collaboration, & Circulation in the Visual Arts
By Caroline Woolard and Susan Jahoda
Recommended by Robert Ransick, Director of Art and Entrepreneurship Programs—CAPA, and Director of the MFA in Public Action
Better Work Together: How the Power of Community Can Transform Your Business
By Anthony Cabraal and Susan Basterfield
Recommended by Robert Ransick, Director of Art and Entrepreneurship Programs—CAPA, and Director of the MFA in Public Action
Learning to Love You More
By Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher
Recommended by Robert Ransick, Director of Art and Entrepreneurship Programs—CAPA, and Director of the MFA in Public Action
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
Recommended by Natalie Redmond, Associate Writer—Communications
Steps to an Ecology of Mind
Recommended by Susan Sgorbati '74, MFA '86; Director of the Center for the Advancement of Public Action
The Great Transformation
Recommended by Susan Sgorbati '74, MFA '86; Director of the Center for the Advancement of Public Action
The Three-Body Problem
By Cixin Liu, Translated by Ken Liu
Recommended by Betsy Sherman, Faculty—Science and Mathematics
Fire Logic
"Original and intricately-drawn fantasy of resistance."
Recommended by Ray Stevens '15, Student Employment Coordinator—Career Development and FWT Office
The Invisible Library
"Madcap mystery with all the fixings—like an improbable number of fixings. Think Victorian London with fairies, werewolves, dragons, transdimensional libraries, and biblioespionage."
Recommended by Ray Stevens '15, Student Employment Coordinator—Career Development and FWT Office
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
Recommended by Stephen Shapiro, Faculty—Cultural Studies and Languages
Sontag: Her Life and Work
Recommended by Stephen Shapiro, Faculty—Cultural Studies and Languages, and Mark Wunderlich, Director of the Bennington Writing Seminars
Returning to Reims
By Didier Eribon, Translated by Michael Lucey
Recommended by Debbie Warnock, Faculty—Society, Culture and Thought
The Library Book
Recommended by Ellen Weiner, Manager of Grants and Partnerships—President's Office
Feast Your Eyes
Recommended by Ellen Weiner, Manager of Grants and Partnerships—President's Office
Winter
Recommended by Ellen Weiner, Manager of Grants and Partnerships—President's Office
How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir
Recommended by Oceana Wilson, Acting Dean of the College and Dean of the Library
Orange World and Other Stories
Recommended by Oceana Wilson, Acting Dean of the College and Dean of the Library
The Door
By Magda Szabó, Translated by Len Rix
Recommended by Mark Wunderlich, Director of the Bennington Writing Seminars and Faculty—Literature
Bosnian Chronicle
By Ivo Andric, Translated by Celia Hawkesworth
Recommended by Mark Wunderlich, Director of the Bennington Writing Seminars and Faculty—Literature
I Am Dynamite!
Recommended by Mark Wunderlich, Director of the Bennington Writing Seminars and Faculty—Literature
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee
Recommended by Mark Wunderlich, Director of the Bennington Writing Seminars and Faculty—Literature
The Eight Mountains
By Paolo Cognetti, Translated by Simon Carnell and Erica Segre
"The translation, from the Italian, by Simon Carnell and Erica Segre, won the 2019 National Translation Prize in Prose. A gorgeous novel set in the remote Italian Alps and, toward the end, also in Nepal."
Recommended by Marguerite Feitlowitz, Faculty—Literature
Inri
By Raúl Zurita, Translated by William Rowe
Recommended by Marguerite Feitlowitz, Faculty—Literature
Purgatory
By Raúl Zurita, Translated by Anna Deeny
Recommended by Marguerite Feitlowitz, Faculty—Literature
