Tracy Lenfesty
"[It] gave me the opportunity to ask my mother many questions about the recipes and ingredients ... which led to questions about her life when she was given this book as a wedding present in 1949."
With a faculty whose expertise spans the breadth of human history, science, philosophy and creativity, we were curious if King’s professors had a book in their past that played an outsized role in making them who they are today.
Beginning as an exclusive feature of our monthly Alumni & Friends newsletter, we asked professors to tell us about the books that have stayed with them. The selection is as varied as you’d expect from faculty who teach across a range of disciplines.
"[It] gave me the opportunity to ask my mother many questions about the recipes and ingredients ... which led to questions about her life when she was given this book as a wedding present in 1949."
"These stories made me question things I likely would not otherwise have thought about until I was much older. It also prompted a lot of thought about the way the real world operates, and the concept of fairness."
"She saw (and still sees) the many juxtapositions and frictions of immigrant family life in a way that resembled my own experiences."
"Maybe this isn’t the right lesson to take from the novel, but it helped me see that speed was dangerous. Speed was the enemy."
"No book has been more formative for me. I was so swept up when I read it that I completely reimagined my dissertation."
"I think about it often as one of the most satisfying books I’ve read. It gave me a deep appreciation for how research can make a good story a great one."
"If I can’t get my hands on a copy very soon after landing in Europe [during frequent family visits], I become agitated, unsettled and paranoid ... I just have to know that a copy is close at hand, in case I need to consult it ... or just even do nothing more than hold it in my hands for a few minutes."
"[This book] gave me a way to think about the imaginative possibilities that can be opened up even in relation to the most difficult histories."
"I think, in a way, it awakened in me the first stirring of a kind of delight in thought that I then discovered more deeply and fully in the Foundation Year Program."
"I have never read a book that renders all the modes and aspects of love and suffering so completely."
"[This novel] would eventually be one of the key forces that got me interested in theatre."
"It continues to teach me how important it is to open one’s mind to new possibilities outside of one’s own traditions..."
"It was a story of empathy...of our ability to see the good in those we love, of the possibility of being better because we are loved."
"The book married my two loves of folk music and writing ... It changed the trajectory of my whole life."
"It taught me that who makes someone family is neither blood, nor love, but care, especially care that overcomes differences."