The humidity is rising in Durham and the out-of-office emails are flying, which can only mean one thing: it’s time to share my summer reading recommendations! Here are a few titles I’m planning to check out over these next few months.
Joseph A. Salem, Jr.
Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian & Vice Provost for Library Affairs
Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of their Runaway Slave Ona Judge, by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
When George Washington became America’s first President, he brought enslaved people with him from Mount Vernon to the executive residence in Philadelphia. Among them was a young woman named Ona Judge, who risked everything to escape to abolitionist New England. What followed was an intense manhunt led by President Washington himself, who used his political and personal contacts to try to recapture her. This summer, all incoming first-year Duke students will receive a copy of this eye-opening biography as part of the Duke Common Experience program. The book’s selection ties in with the campus-wide “We the People” initiative, marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI, by Karen Hao
What do librarians do when a powerful new technology starts disrupting the world economy, human society, and the environment? Read up on it, for starters. Duke library colleagues recently organized an AI book group to discuss the promises and potential dangers of generative artificial intelligence. To kick things off, they picked this award-winning book by investigative reporter Karen Hao, offering a front-row seat to the evolution of ChatGPT and the Pandora’s Box some say it represents. It’s essential reading for anyone trying to understand one of the biggest technological arms races in history, how it started, and how it could reshape our lives for better or for worse.
Degas at the Gas Station, by Thomas Beller
This collection of essays by longtime New Yorker contributor and Duke University Press author Thomas Beller offers poignant and beautifully crafted observations of ordinary life, from the author’s loss of his father at a young age to his own experiences as a father of young children. Beller and his wife, Elizabeth—author of Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy—visited Perkins Library this spring and spoke about telling stories through biography and memoir. Ever since their fascinating conversation, I’ve been working my way through this gem of a book and its insights on parenthood, loss, and memory.
Touch of Grey, or How the Grateful Dead Became Pop Stars, by John Brackett
Anyone who knows me knows I’m an unapologetic Deadhead, and I’ve been excited to dive into this appraisal of the band’s lasting impact on American culture. John Brackett’s extensive archival research tells the story of how one song, “Touch of Grey,” became the Grateful Dead’s first and only hit to reach the Billboard Top Ten, propelling them from a group with a cult following to one of the most famous bands of all time. Duke has several connections with the Dead, who performed at the university five times over the years. Their 1978 concert at Cameron Indoor Stadium is widely regarded as one of the band’s best live shows.
The Last Great Dream: How Bohemians Became Hippies and Created the Sixties, by Dennis McNally
Continuing the “long strange trip” down my bookshelf, Dennis McNally is the definitive biographer of the Grateful Dead. His new book is a sweeping, panoramic history of the 1960s countercultural movement, when the postwar disillusionment with American mainstream values gave rise to the hippie ethos of creativity, mind-body connection, psychedelics, peace, love, and understanding. Weaving together the art, literature, music, politics, and activist scenes of San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and London, McNally gives a master class on how the 1960s blossomed into The Sixties.
The Land and Its People, by David Sedaris (Audiobook)
The only thing I love more than reading David Sedaris’s absurd and unfiltered brand of humor is listening to him read his stories out loud. When I need a laugh break this summer, I’ll be putting on the audiobook of his latest collection, which Sedaris recorded live on tour. If you spot me around campus with my earbuds in and chuckling to myself, you’ll know why.
Happy reading (and listening) from all of us at the Duke Libraries! Want to share your favorite page-turners with us? Tag us on Instagram or LinkedIn (@dukelibraries) and let us know the best thing you’ve read this summer—especially if you found it at your favorite library.