Gathering more "collective wisdom"
Readers of The Bridge offer their own book recommendations

We had an overwhelming response to our second annual Summer Reading Contest—over one hundred and sixty entries from alumni, current students, parents, friends of the College, and others! Many of those who entered the contest went a step further by offering their own favorite summer reads!

Some even included brief reviews with their recommendations!

In keeping with the spirit of "collective wisdom," we have compiled a list of the books recommended by our readers. We hope this resource helps you to find something enjoyable for your own relaxing days this summer.

Fiction

• The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
• Safely Home by Randy Alcorn
• Collected Poems, 1957-1982 by Wendell Berry
• Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry
• Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
• Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
• Godric by Frederick Buechner
• The Silver Chalice by Thomas Costain
• Black by Ted Dekker
• Red by Ted Dekker
• White by Ted Dekker
• Middlemarch by George Eliot
• Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
• Bee Season by Myla Goldberg
• Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
• The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
• Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
• A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
• The Yada-Yada Prayer Group by Neta Jones
• The Mitford series by Jan Karon
• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
• One Tuesday Morning by Karen Kingsbury
• Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
• Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
• The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
• Wicked by Gregory Maguire
• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• My Year of Meats by Ruth L. Ozeki
• Snow by Orhan Pamuk
• My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
• The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
• On Beauty by Zadie Smith
• A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
• Tepper Isn't Going Out by Calvin Trillin

Non-Fiction

• The Irresistable Revolution by Shane Claiborne
• The Hammer Rings Hope by Lowell Detweiler
• Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl
• How to Be Alone by Jonathan Franzen
• Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauwerwas and William Willimon
• Who Are We: Challenges to America's National Identity by Samuel Huntington
• When Life and Beliefs Collide by Carolyn Custis James
• Good News to the Poor by Theodore Jennings Jr.
• Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
• Amazing Grace: Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation by Jonathan Kozol
• The Cure for the Common Life by Max Lucado
• Wandering Home by Bill McKibben
• A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren
• Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
• The Healing Presence by Leanne Payne
• Listening Prayer by Leanne Payne
• God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It by Jim Wallis
• Far as the Curse is Found: The Covenant Story of Redemption by Michael Williams
• What's So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey

Biography/Autobiography/Memoir

• American Prometheus by Kai Bird
• My Losing Season by Pat Conroy
• The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadima
• Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
• The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton
• Jesus Land by Julia Scheeres
• The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
• Girl Meets God by Lauren Winner