At a time when many of us exist in a space that’s been shrunk down to the size of our homes, turning off the news and losing ourselves in a book can be a healthy escape. To help you do that, here are a few good reads from four incredible women writers, all of whom are Rutgers graduates. Check out the alumni book club for more recommendations as well as a friendly community of thoughtful readers.
On living the dream
There’s a good reason that Behold the Dreamers, Imbolo Mbue DC’01’s debut novel, won the 2017 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction. The story of an immigrant family holding on to their dreams while facing the fallout from the 2008 financial crisis shows how much the country’s most vulnerable populations have to lose when things go bad and how much we all need each other to get through hard times.
For pure escapism
Okay, maybe Janet Evanovich DC’65 doesn’t need us to call attention to her novels, especially since she’s written 25 New York Times bestsellers. But this fall, some of her Stephanie Plum and Fox and O’Hare characters might make their TV debuts, so you may want to get to know them now. Check out Hardcore Twenty-Four for an entertaining introduction to her work.
Getting all too real
Stephanie Jones-Rogers LC’03, GSN’07, a history professor at University of California, Berkeley, turns over new ground on the issues surrounding women owning other women during slavery. The result is They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South, which recently won the Los Angeles Times Book Award in History. While not a light read, the book is definitely thought provoking.
Far from reality
Mimi Mondal GSC’18’s interests range from science fiction and politics to fantasy and technology and you catch glimpses of each in her recent novelette, His Footsteps Through Darkness and Light. The story about a trapeze artist and a genie traveling with a circus through India, is up for a Nebula Award (tune in May 30 to cheer her on). Check it out for a brief escape into a rich fantasy landscape.
