MCC Good Reads

Looking for a good book to read? Take a look at the list of books below that come highly recommended by MCC faculty, staff and/or students!

And if you have a book that you'd highly recommend for others, please send the WAC Committee your recommendation so we can add it to this growing list. (Please email Joanna Gray at grayjo@middlesex.mass.edu with the following:
a)Book title, b) Author, c) Your name, and d) staff member or student at MCC.)

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Helen Boos, librarian

Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins
Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Joanna Gray, librarian

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Tom Laughlin, English Dept

The Martian by Andy Weir
Lore Porter, learning specialist

Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
In Pursuit of Silence by George Prochnik
Lifework by Donald Hall
Tainted Witness: Why We Doubt What Women Say About Their Lives by Leigh Gilmore
Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul by Eddie S. Glaude. Jr.
The Slave's Cause: A History of Abolition by Manisha Sinha
Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues From Tobacco Smoke To Global Warming by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway
The story of America: essays on origins by Jill Lepore
Ronald Rybnikar, librarian

World According to Garp by John Irving
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat By Oliver Sacks
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Wise Blood by Flannery O’Conner
Carrie Salazar, librarian




Past Recommendations 
The Kite Runner
by Khalid Hussein
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hussein
Pat Burns Staff and Student

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
Jean Cremins Staff

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
The Big House by George Howe Colt
Molly Sheehy Staff

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Hero's Walk by Anita Bidami
The God of Small Things by Arhundati Roy
River Town by Peter Hessler
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiren Desai
Lucy Ogburn Staff

Y the Last Man by Brian K. Vaughn
Runaways by Brian K. Vaughn
Ex Machina by Brian K. Vaughn
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind
The Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett
Sanford Arbogast Staff

Mockingbird (biography of Harper Lee) by Charles Shields
Judy Wong Staff

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
Night by Elie Wiesel
Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Donna Gray Staff

There Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Kelsey Hellwig Staff

The Constant Princess, The Other Boleyn Girl, The Boleyn Inheritance, The Queen's Fool, & The Virgin's Lover by Phillapa Gregory
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Denise LaFrance Staff

The Bullfighter Checks her Makeup: my encounters with extraordinary people by Susan Orlean
Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz
Ellen Royalty Staff

Love in the time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Stacey Armstrong-Brown Staff

Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi
Dianne Luz Staff

The Third Angel by Alice Hoffman
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Dry by Augusten Burroughs
Rococo by Adriana Trigiani
The Other Side of the Story by Marian Keyes
Jewel Davis Staff

The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig
Beth Kelley Staff

Narcissus & Goldmund by Herman Hesse
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
The Woman Warrior: A Memoir of a Childhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston
Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat
Tom Laughlin Staff

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
Gail Mooney, Staff

By the Light of My Father’s Smile by Alice Walker
Tom Laughlin, Staff

The Constant Gardener   by John Le Carre
Blue by Anna Quinlen
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
White Oleander by Janet Fitch
Carolyn Stonewell, Staff

Traveling Mercies by Annie Lamotte
Sandi Albertson-Shea, Staff

A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle
Marion Cuoco, Staff

The Bible (any version)
Stan Hitron, Staff

The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
Joan Atlas, Staff

Last Modified: 8/4/23