If you’re looking for something fun to get your mind off things, then books are a great way to go. However, with the amount of amazing books out there in the world, it can be difficult to narrow down your reading list. Here’s what a couple of professors think you should be reading this quarantine season.
If you’re looking for a more modern read:
Professor of literature, Emily Cook, recommends Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers. This book is an “underrated mystery” according to Cook. Set in Oxford at an all female school, Gaudy Night tackles important themes such as “class and gender issues, love and friendship, writing and academics, and truth and justice,” Cook said.
For a modern novel, literature professor Carol Blessing recommends The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. This story is set in New England and tells the story of a deeply patriarchal, dystopian society in which women explore ways to resist this system and make attempts at independence and individuality.
If you’re looking for a good classic to fall back on:
Cook recommends Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and Willa Cather’s My Antonia. Cook also recommends “anything by Wendell Berry.”
Blessing recommends the classic novel Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich. This is a medieval work by a survivor of the Great Plague in England.
Cook’s current read is Backpacking with the Saints by Belden Lane, a story all about lessons gained from “wilderness adventures and spiritual masters.” Cook says because this book is so rich it is “like a good chocolate cake, best read in small bites.”
Written By: Ally Andre
Nick Hancock 
Tony Le Calvez