What UChicago faculty and staff want you to read over winter break

1919, by Eve L. Ewing, Assistant Professor at the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice

Recommended by: Anjali Adukia, Assistant Professor at the Harris School of Public Policy

“Eve Ewing weaves a rich tapestry of history, poetry and humanity in 1919, instigating further inquiry with an online teaching guide. Ewing connects careful multimodal research with a profound understanding of people and their narratives, culminating in a poetic dive into a dark chapter of Chicago’s history whose ripples persist through time. These vignettes, accompanied by primary source documentation, illuminate roots and tendrils of systemic and local injustices, which influence our own place and experiences—known and unknown. Beyond describing what is, 1919 also inspires the imagination to dream of what could have been and what could be.”

Berlin, by Jason Lutes

Recommended by: Angel Ysaguirre, Executive Director of Court Theatre

“This graphic novel is a wonderful combination of visual art and text, telling the story of Germany during the Weimar Republic, when the communists and fascists were vying for power. Told primarily through the lives of an artist who is new to Berlin and a journalist, this piece of work is monumental, and a pleasure to read and view.”

All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake, by Tiya Miles

Recommended by: Rashauna Johnson, Associate Professor of History

“In this beautifully written text, renowned historian Tiya Miles retraces the story of one object—a humble, engraved sack—to weave a tale of love and care, family and history across the violent dislocations of slavery and emancipation.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel: Essential Writings

Recommended by: Rev. Dr. Maurice Charles, Dean of Rockefeller Chapel

“If the relationship between contemplation, wonder and activism interests you, I encourage you to explore Rabbi Heschel’s thought. This is the briefest collection of Heschel’s writings compiled and edited by his daughter Susannah Heschel, who teaches at Dartmouth College. Heschel is best known by his comment, ‘I felt my feet were praying,’ after he marched in Selma with Martin Luther King Jr. Descended from generations of Hasidic rabbis in Poland, Heschel was equally at home in classroom, synagogue or observing Vatican II, where he eloquently persuaded Roman Catholics to purge antisemitic tropes from their liturgies. He remains one of my favorite exemplars of someone so grounded in his identity and traditions that he can forge authentic connections with different people who share a common desire to repair the world.”

Solar Storms, by Linda Hogan

Recommended by: Gina Fedock, Assistant Professor in the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice

“Chickasaw poet, professor and novelist Linda Hogan’s Solar Storms is a beautifully written, intergenerational saga based in land near the boundary waters of Minnesota and Canada. As the main character (Angela) and her family members resist the creation of a hydroelectric dam being developed, she finds connections across place, time and family. This book abounds with beloved characters, especially grandmothers and great-grandmothers, as well as holds narratives of pain, healing and transformation. Linda Hogan knows how to write about winter in ways that make it achingly beautiful; her talent extends to all story arcs within this gorgeous novel. Savor it!”

Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape, by Cal Flyn

Recommended by: Catriona MacLeod, Frank Curtis Springer and Gertrude Melcher Springer Professor of Germanic Studies 

“I highly recommend Cal Flyn’s Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape. Flyn explores some of the most despoiled places on the planet—from Chernobyl, to the Buffer Zone in Cyprus, to the forests of Verdun, and Montserrat after its devastation by volcanic eruptions in the 1990s—and finds the signs of natural recovery in these apparently hopeless landscapes.”