Each year was ask our staff and faculty to share their favorite book from the past year. Here’s our 2024 favorite books list!
Sarah Rebick
Director of Maine Coast Semester
North Woods
By Daniel Mason
I love the idea of succession applied not only to a natural ecosystem, but to a house and its surroundings. In addition to the apple trees and surrounding ecosystem, the people and their stories and experiences are part of this place as well.
Cullen McGough
Director of Communications, Marketing, and IT
The Three-Body Problem
By Cixin Liu
I liked this book (part of a trilogy) in part because it’s incredibly creative science fiction that examines the multi-generational social response to disasters, and asks the reader to really consider the implications of “deeper time” (hundreds, or thousands of years) when planning social, governmental, or engineering projects. It’s also really interesting to read science fiction by a Chinese author who grew up in the shadow of the Cultural Revolution in the 1970’s, and holds a very different view of how societies and governments would respond to the existence of aliens – a refreshing new view in a genre largely crowded out by corporate dystopian visions of the future.
Dillon Whitegiver
Network Admin
Seveneves
by Neal Stephenson
First sentence in the book:
“”THE MOON BLEW UP WITHOUT WARNING AND FOR NO APPARENT reason. It was waxing, only one day short of full. The time was 05:03:12 UTC. Later it would be designated A+0.0.0, or simply Zero”
Hard sci-fi novel.
Deb Baron
Business Office Accounts Receivable
How to Read a Book
by Monica Wood
“Incredible author and playwright from Portland Maine. Her previous book When We Were the Kennedys: A Memoir from Mexico, Maine is a close #2.
Simply…charming!”
Margy Foulk
Donor Relations Manager
Being Mortal
by Atul Gawande
My 39-year-old nephew succumbed to AML in October 2023. I reread Being Mortal in early January 2024 to help me process this loss.
Katie Goodman
Camp Director
Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life
By Lulu Miller
A sometimes sad, sometimes fun exploration into the science and people behind the taxonomical conclusion that fish don’t exist. Very much a Chewonki read! Note: it does deal with some heavy subject matter and may not be suitable for young readers.
Katie Goodman
Camp Director
Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation
By Tiya Miles
A short and enlightening book about how key women in American history were shaped by the outdoors and more broadly how interacting with nature affected American history through the powerful women who influenced their social worlds. Easy to read (especially for academic writing)!
Katherine Raker
Mental Health Coordinator
The Cruelest Miles
By Milt Gay Salisbury and Laney Salisbury
This is a super cool book about the first Iditarod, Togo, who was the real dog hero, and other fascinating Alaska history!
Justin Fahey
Director of Admissions
The Last Island: Discovery, Defiance, and the Most Elusive Tribe on Earth
By Adam Goodheart
An amazing deep-dive into the “last” truly uncontacted indigenous community in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Sam Cunningham
Science Educator
All Systems Red
By Martha Wells
A novella to get you back into the Science Fiction with compelling characters that draw you in.
Carter Ramquist
Associate Director of Admissions
Ishmael
By Daniel Quinn
Even though this isn’t the best book in the world, this is a book I think about all the time. Metaphysics in a novel.
Lynne Breen
Admission Support
All the Sinners Bleed
By SA Cosby
Mystery based in the south – it was a new “setting’ for me to read a book about a small town murder. It was a page turner and I plan to read more SA Cosby.
Anna Solomon
English fellow
I Capture the Castle
By Dodie Smith
The perfect book- set in rural England in the 1930s, eccentric family living in a crumbling castle, mysterious neighbors, love affairs, female narrator with quirky internal dialogue, everything good+nothing bad.
Alison Violette
Database Systems Administrator
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts
By Gabor Maté, MD
This is a heavy nonfiction book and worth it-telling stories of all types of addiction and where addiction comes from in the mind. The concept that we are all addicted to something for some reason or have been at some point is central whether it’s sugar, drugs, or shopping, etc. The book allows you to put yourself in the shoes of the hardcore addict but at the same time ask yourself where your own mental health/habits could improve.
Alexis Grillo
Annual Fund and Alumni Manager
Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution
By Cat Bohannon
Have you ever wondered why mammals evolved to nourish their young inside a womb instead of an egg, despite how biologically “expensive” this is? Or how they fed their babies before nipples existed?I loved considering the many questions Cat Bohannon poses in Eve and imagining the countless grandmothers (grandmammals?) that connect us all.
Johnny Vallo
Maine Coast Semester Teaching Fellow
Lightning Strike
By William Kent Kreuger
This book is one of the more recent installments of William Kent Kreuger’s ‘Cork O’Connor’ mystery series. They chronicle the life of a small town detective in Minnesota, highlighting tensions between white people and indigenous people in their town, and between father and son. A super fun and easy mystery you can read that will get you hooked on this series! (If you click the link I included, you can support the indie bookstore in Madison, WI where I used to work!)
Robbin Dilley
Maine Coast Semester Faculty
American Gods
By Neil Gaiman
Classic Americana feel mixed with the modern world mixed with the Gods and traditions of all the people who have created the US. Beautiful and powerful, funny and sad.
John Scanlon
Facilities
What if We Get it Right
By Ayana Johnson
Some optimistic writings about the climate and progress for the future. Given all the negatives in our politics and lack of resolve on the environment, there is some hope and this book offers a positive look at the things that are going right. An antidote to the dark mood that has dominated lately.
