18 books for summer reading, selected by award-winning alumni
McMaster alumni are a well-read bunch.
So when we wanted to compile a list of good summer reads, we turned to them for help.
We asked some of the University’s Arch Award winners and members of the Alumni Gallery what they’re reading this summer, and what books you should be reading too.
Recommendations came from a diverse set of people, including an ultra-endurance athlete, an engineer, a children’s author and an elementary school principal.
Below are some of the books they say are worth your time – whether you’re headed for the beach or the backyard.
Simon Donato ’08, Arch Award recipient
The Breath of Ghosts by Steven Brydon — “He is an amateur runner I met while competing in Egypt two years ago in the Sahara race, which is a 250 km ultra marathon. He wrote a book chronicling his experiences as an adult, and how he eventually ended up competing in the race.”
The Next 100 Years by George Friedman — “It’s an analysis of global geopolitics for the next century.”
Boris Martin ’07, Arch Award recipient
Power and Love by Adam Kahane
Capital by Thomas Piketti
Tina Powell ’07, Arch Award recipient
The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller — “My all-time favourite summer read. Romantic, nostalgic and thought provoking all in one. Sigh!”
Picnic in Pisticci by Tina Powell — “I’m the author of this book, which chronicles ten amusing and insightful picnic stories and celebrates all things picnic. It’s bursting with recipes, photos, and famous picnic sayings. Life is a picnic! Mangia!”
Lillian Bayne ’79, ’87, Alumni Gallery member
The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even by Chris F. Westbury — “I came across this last month when scanning the Bryan Prince Bookseller’s ‘new releases’ section. The book title appealed to me because it is the name of a Marcel Duchamp sculpture. I came across Duchamp and his fellow Dadaists while studying art history at Mac. The sculpture’s story is intriguing and the book is reputedly ‘a comic novel, about philosophy, the nature of art, the beauty of the ordinary, and about quirky, complete, night and day victims of obsessive-compulsive disorder’ that weaves around the story of the sculpture. How wonderful does THAT sound?”
Stephanie McLarty ’03, Arch Award recipient
Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life & Work by Chip & Dan Heath
Waking the Frog: Solutions for our Climate Change Paralysis by Tom Rand
Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish
Ryan Moran ’07, ’12, Arch Award recipient
Thunderball by Ian Fleming — “I’m doing a fair bit of travelling this summer, and the globetrotting, desert-read of a classic James Bond book is the perfect compliment.”
Citizenville by Gavin Newsom — “Citizenville balances this out as a thought-provoking study of how tech and digital communication can enhance democratic governance, by the former mayor of San Francisco and current Lieutenant Governor of California.”
Kalpana Raina ’79, Alumni Gallery member
The Goldfinch by Donna Tart — “A brilliant, beautiful piece of fiction. It won the Pulitzer for fiction earlier this year. Even at 700-plus pages it was hard to put down. What made it particularly interesting was viewing the 17th-century Dutch masterpiece from which the novel derives its name at the Frick Collection in New York.”
Scott Lowrey ’85, Alumni Gallery member
The Lincoln Myth by Steve Berry
Shakespeare: The invention of the human by Harold Bloom
Warlords: Borden, Mackenzie King and Canada’s World Wars by Tim Cook
Profiles in courage by J.F. Kennedy
The bombers and the bombed: Allied air war over Europe, 1940-1945 by Richard Overy
“Overall, I tend to be very disciplined with my reading regardless of the season. However, the summer affords the opportunity to invest larger chunks of time into my reading. I remain fascinated in how the human condition manifests itself in leadership, both formal and informal. Most of my reading is done through this lens.”
