2010 Summer Reading Series: Best Books by Women Authors

Grounded by a nonexistent travel budget?

Escape the Texas summer with a good book recommended by SMU’s Vicki Hill. Each summer for 16 years she has selected four of her favorite books written by women to discuss with the audience at Dedman College’s Godbey Lecture Series. This year’s series begins June 22.

"Reading is about exploration and living in someone else’s world," said Hill, who added that she is disappointed in herself if she doesn’t read two books a week. A former SMU English professor with a Ph.D. in English and American Studies from SUNY Buffalo and long-time director of SMU's Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center, Hill spends the year looking for just the right books for the series.

"A keeper is a book I want to read a second time, a book that makes me think or one I would recommend to a friend," Hill said.

The Godbey Lecture Series, presented by Dedman College, this summer will feature the theme of “Other Lives, Other Worlds.”

• June 22 — The Piano Teacher, Janice Lee’s novel about intertwining war-time love affairs in China
     
• June 29 — The Girls, Lori Larsens’ novel that features alternating narratives of conjoined twins
     
• July 20 — The End of Manners, Francesca Marciano’s story of two mismatched journalists covering war-torn Afghanistan
     
• July 30 — Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitzer Prize-winning short story collection

At each lecture Hill presents a 50-minute talk as one reader to another, then leads a discussion with the sold-out crowds she describes as “genuinely exhilarating.” 

Visit smu.edu/godbey for more information.

# # #