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'Billiken Bookmarks': Summer Reading Recommendations

07/21/2017

Looking for that next great read? In this mini-series, some of Saint Louis University’s published authors share their recommendations for memorable summer reading with their fellow staff, faculty and students.

In this edition, Sara van den Berg, Ph.D., of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Yan Gai, Ph.D., of Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology, recommend novels set in places far away - France - and still farther away - a parallel Earth facing an alien invasion.

Yan Gai, Ph.D.

Yan Gai, Ph.D.

Yan Gai, Ph.D.

Book

The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu (New York: Tor Books, 2016)

About the book

“Physics does not exist.” Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision. The book also has two sequels, The Dark Forest and Death’s End.

Reasons to read

This is an award-winning science fiction that has recently taken China by storm like Harry Potter did in the Western world. After being translated into English, the book has become a bestseller on Amazon with more than a thousand reviews. The story is very compelling. It reads like a mystery or thriller but with top-notch science stirred in. The style is more or less like The Da Vinci Code. It’ll be especially appealing to college students and faculty and staff who are interested in physics, biology, and/or aliens.

As a science fiction, this book avoids some of the genre's common writing issues, such as info dumping. It gradually reveals the underlying problem while keeping a fast pace with realistic characters and conflicts. Readers can easily visualize the world and relate to the characters even though it wasn’t set in a Western culture.

The SLU Connection

This book has ignited a lot of enthusiasm about reading and science among Chinese people and Americans. It makes me realize that, as a faculty member, I should think creatively of ways to engage the public and youngsters in science, not by telling them the importance of scientific activity but by “showing” them, in a fictional setting, how human beings obtain freedom and truth about the universe and our origin through the unflinching pursue of knowledge.

SLU Author Bio

Yan Gai, Ph.D., is an assistant professor specializing in biomedical engineering and neuroscience. She published her first novel, The Starlight Fortress, a space opera, in 2013. She has published four stories in the sci-fi series Maura's Gate and is currently writing a fifth, "Scorching World." Gai leads sci-fi writing workshops on a semester basis through a high school outreach program sponsored by the University of Miami in Ohio.

Sara van den Berg, Ph.D.

Sara van den Berg

(Left) Sara van den Berg, Ph.D.

Book

The Heart, by Msylis de Kerangal, translated by Sam Taylor (New York: Picador, 2014)

About the book

This is a powerful short novel about the human emotions and values of everyone involved in a heart transplant – the parents of the young donor, the transplant coordinator, the doctor, the nurse, and the recipient. It's a recent French novel, now out in an excellent translation and in paperback.

Reasons to read

The book is compelling, from the initial account of a car crash through the decisions and feelings of everyone involved in the transplant. It is honest, creates vivid characters, and is hard to put down.  No "cheap shots" in this beautifully written book. I'd suggest this novel to everyone.

The SLU Connection
I assigned this in a Medical Humanities course last spring, and hope to read it with a Medical School group next year.
SLU Author Bio
Sara van den Berg has been a professor of English at SLU since 2000 and is a former chair of the Department of English in the College of Arts and Sciences.  She specializes in Medical Humanities and Early Modern Literature. She is the author of The Drama of Ben Jonson's Poetry, has edited Milton's divorce tracts, and has a forthcoming edition of Fr. Walter Ong's last book. Her current project is a book about the cultural meaning of dwarfs since the Renaissance.

As July winds down, check out Thursday's Newslink for a spotlight on a novel by SLU-Madrid's Muhisin Mutlak Rodhan a.k.a. Muhsin Al-Ramli that was longlisted for a major international prize. 

Billiken Bookmarks will wrap up for the summer with its round up of submitted reading picks from the SLU community on July 31.

Are you a passionate reader, eager to share your top summer reading pick with the SLU community? There's still time to share your recommendation with Newslink. Submit your suggested summer read by July 28 for a chance to win a prize selected with the avid bookworm in mind. 


'Billiken Bookmarks' is a mini-feature series that will appear with new reading recommendations from Saint Louis University authors throughout July and occasionally during the academic year.