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In honour of the back-to-school season and with only a few months left to meet your Goodreads goals, I thought I might recommend some books that may appeal to you all based on your major. Whether you’re a nursing student learning to draw blood and bandage wounds or a history major spending long nights writing papers about the War of 1812, there is a book on this list for everyone.
- English and French Studies–The Idiot by Elif Batuman
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Elif Batuman’s coming-of-age story about a first-year linguistics major’s unrequited crush on an older mathematics major is full of literary easter eggs, starting with its title. Loosely inspired by Dostoyevsky’s work of the same name, Selin (the main character) is caught between two worlds: adolescence and adulthood. While her literary tastes and vocabulary are those of a seasoned literature professor, her approach to love and general social inexperience are those of a middle school girl. Due to the plot’s reliance on language and communication, and the multitude of references to the canon, The Idiot is sure to appeal to the English and French majors within us all.
- Psychology–The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
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Have you ever felt trapped? Have you ever felt unable to breathe, expand, or escape? Have you ever felt stumped under the weight of choice? These are the feelings explored in Sylvia Plath’s semi-autobiographical work, The Bell Jar. Writing about her experience with hospitalization and psychotherapy (specifically psychoanalysis) was revolutionary for its time, as the mentally ill were hidden out in the country, not to be seen or heard—an important work for any young person faced with the fig tree that is undergrad.
- Political Science and International Relations–The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
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This story is not your typical Cold War spy fiction thriller. The Sympathizer is Viet Thanh Nguyen’s response to American-centric narratives of the Vietnam War (or as the author calls it, the American War), such as Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter. This novel is a spy log, narrated by a Communist spy embedded in the South Vietnamese Army. As the war comes to a close, the Party commands the narrator to move to the United States to monitor the South Vietnamese refugee community in Los Angeles. There, our spy (who came from Vietnam) is confronted by the CIA, a hawkish Congressman, and paternalistic racism from white individuals claiming to be experts on the “Orient.” This book, marked by duality, is likely to entertain, as well as disturb, its next reader.
- History–Kindred by Octavia Butler
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Blending time-travel with historical fiction, Octavia Butler explores the dynamics of slavery in the Antebellum South through the eyes of a black woman from 1970s California. Praised for its realistic portrayal of slavery and slave communities, Kindred serves as a critique of American history. If themes of memory, repressed trauma, and the non-linearity of history are something you’d like to explore, I’d strongly recommend this futuristic take on historical fiction.
- Forensic Science–Tender Is The Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
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For those obsessed with death and all things morbid, might I recommend a narrative about a world where humanity turned to cannibalism? This Argentine novel follows the life of a slaughterhouse worker in an era where a virus contaminated all animal meat, forcing the world’s population to go vegan or eat the “special meat.” What is the special meat? human flesh. Exploring themes of grief, ethics, and class, this gruesome tale is sure to occupy your thoughts and make you look twice at Zehrs or Superstore ground beef.
- Biology, Biomedical Science, Kinesiology and Nursing–Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and its Metaphors by Susan Sontag
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While studying how to dress burns, fight cancerous cells, and treat infections, it is necessary to humanize those whose tumours you see on MRIs or whose diabetes you see on test results. Following her breast cancer diagnosis, Sontag wrote two essays on how social stigma and the way we metaphorize illness are often more damaging to the health of patients than the illness itself. Her message is important to remember as Western culture promotes “health” through diets, supplements, and lymphatic massages and frames Red40, white bread, and not getting your hormones checked as causes of the illness.
- Education–Matilda by Roald Dahl
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A classic of children’s literature—and whose lessons still ring true today—Matilda tells the story of a bright child, neglected and misunderstood by her parents, whom her teacher, Miss Honey, uplifts. Dahl reminds us that adults, whether it be Mr. Wormwood (Matilda’s father) or Miss Trunchbull (the evil principal), are often a child’s worst bullies. In a time when books and education are devalued, Matilda reminds us how a good teacher can change the course of people’s lives and how literature can serve as an escape from the horrors of daily life. All in all, I hope Matilda inspires the future educators who read it to become the Miss Honey of their classroom.