桔子视频

For the past five years, the has compiled an annual list of book recommendations by faculty members and graduate students for graduating seniors.聽

, an associate professor of psychology, started the tradition in 2020 to help students whose graduation activities were impacted by the pandemic feel valued and celebrated. The list has since evolved into a way for faculty members to share books that they鈥檝e loved and help graduates maintain their intellectual momentum.

鈥淚t is also something that can allow us to connect with friends and family beyond Georgetown and bring them a bit of the Georgetown experience,鈥� Chentsova Dutton says.

Read on to find books that can help nurture your mind and soul this summer 鈥� and beyond.

鈥�Kelyn Soong

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

鈥淚 like the novel because of the masterful way that it develops the characters 鈥� an omniscient narrator moves from character to character, shifting the point of view and expanding the reader’s understanding of the many characters whose lives have been brought together.鈥� 

鈥�, professor in the Department of Psychology

The Mind Is Flat: The Remarkable Shallowness of the Improvising Brain by Nick Chater

鈥淪tudents in my classes often refer to the process of discovering one鈥檚 true (and deep) emotions, motives or memories. In this book, Nick Chater, a cognitive scientist, argues that our inner world is a mirage 鈥� constructed to make sense of situational demands. The book explores our 鈥榬emarkable ability to creatively improvise,鈥� challenging many of our assumptions about the nature of our mental lives.鈥�

鈥�, associate professor in the Department of Psychology

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

鈥淎 moving account of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, from the point of view of the vibrant professor whose life begins to be taken over by it.鈥�

鈥�, teaching professor in the Department of Psychology

Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace by Christopher Blattman

鈥淎lthough we know a wide range of factors contribute to aggression, including poverty and trauma, these are not problems that can be easily undone or fixed, which has led some scholars to express cynicism and fatalism about reducing violence 鈥� after all, if these are the 鈥榬oot causes鈥� of violence, why even hope violence can be reduced without eradicating them? But as Blattman persuasively shows, a range of other remedial variables contribute to violence, including psychological variables like self-regulation, patience and criminal identity.鈥�

鈥�, professor in the Department of Psychology and the Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience 

Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel鈥檚 Messiah by Charles King

鈥淭his nonfiction book by Georgetown’s own beautifully recounts how the struggles of multiple people contributed to a work of art interrogating questions of suffering, justice and redemption.鈥�

鈥�, professor in the Department of Psychology and vice dean for faculty affairs in the 桔子视频 & Sciences

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin 

鈥淚t is a genre-bending fantasy series that examines themes of prejudice and stereotypes.鈥�

鈥�, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and principal investigator of the Digital Health and Happiness Lab

Autocracy Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World by Anne Applebaum

鈥淰ery insightful examination of 21st-century authoritarianism, by a brilliant author.鈥�

鈥�, professor in the Department of Psychology

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

鈥淚t鈥檚 a fun, light read (i.e. good for summer!) and has a lovely message about how to build a life that is meaningful to you 鈥� and how many lives you can have if you can only imagine them.鈥�

鈥�, professor in the Department of Psychology 

Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic 鈥� and What We Can Do About It by Jennifer Breheny Wallace 

鈥淎 warning about the characteristics and effects of toxic achievement culture (which is what got many of our students to Georgetown) but more importantly, lessons for how to combat it and what really matters when messaging to young people what they should be aiming for in life.鈥�

鈥�, professor in the Department of Psychology 

The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays by Esm茅 Weijun Wang

鈥淚 found these essays fascinating as a window into the experience of schizoaffective disorder, including the author’s account of Cotard’s syndrome (the belief that one is dead).鈥�

鈥�, teaching professor in the Department of Psychology 

(Top photo by )