A 2019 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 offer their reading recommendations to keep everyone’s intellectual juices flowing wherever they are.
Lavinia
By Ursula K. Le Guin
"In this first-person narrative, Aeneas's last wife finally speaks to tell us who she is... Lavinia thinks of herself as a woman and as a character. Very interesting writing experiment."
Recommended by Barbara Alfano
Runaway
"Three of these stories ('Chance,' 'Soon,' and 'Silence') were adapted into Pedro Almodóvar's gorgeous most recent film Julieta. This is an Almodóvar that you may not recognize, and I recommend both."
Recommended by Sarah Harris
My Brilliant Friend
By Elena Ferrante, Translated by Ann Goldstein
"I hope we read (and re-read) Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan quartet before watching the new HBO series adaptation!"
Recommended by Sarah Harris
The Fifth Season
"It's the first volume in a trilogy that is nominally science fiction. In reality, it is a super tough investigation into the concept of race, and it's done through the lens of geology. Yes, geology! Just fantastic."
Recommended by Carol Pal
A Xicana Codex of Changing Consciousness
By Cherríe L. Moraga; Contribution by Celia Herrera Rodriguez
Recommended by Natalie Scenters-Zapico
Priestdaddy
"The book that knocked my socks off this year was Patricia Lockwood's Priestdaddy: A Memoir. It's the kind of hilarious (and painful) book that holds you hostage until you finish it and makes you annoy everyone around you because you have to read aloud from the section in which she describes the sounds her priest father makes on his electric guitar."
Recommended by Camille Guthrie
Bloodchild and Other Stories
"An exceptional collection of short stories and an introduction to Butler's writings."
Recommended by Senem Pirler
More
By Hakan Günday, Translated by Zeynep Beler
"Hakan Günday is regarded as the enfant terrible of Turkish literature. A very disturbing picture of the refugee crisis in Turkey."
Recommended by Burcu Seyben
Stuff Matters
"As is mentioned in the author's history/introduction, I too can trace back through my life and recognize clear moments that began my obsession with materials. There are so many properties inherent in this material world that make so many connections with one another often “we" or “I" don’t understand how to translate into a speaking language. A treat for those interested in stuff and origins of such things."
Recommended by John Umphlett
The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock
"Absolutely fabulous! Reminiscent of the best Victorian novels--but with the freshest and brightest of voices--completely surprising in its greatness."
Recommended by Dina Janis
The Heart's Invisible Furies
"It starts with a scene in a small church in rural Ireland and spans decades."
Recommended by Charles Schoonmaker
Look
"A book of poems written with and against terms from the Department of Defense's official dictionary."
Recommended by Mariam Ghani
On Tyranny
"A small pocket book that we should all carry and read continuously for the next two years."
Recommended by Kirk Jackson
W. E. B. Du Bois's Data Portraits
By W.E.B. Du Bois Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Staff, Edited by Whitney Battle-Baptiste and Britt Rusert
Recommended by Mary Lum
