CUSE’s holiday reading and watch list
Aslı Aydıntaşbaş: "What We Can Know" (2025) by Ian McEwan. He calls it “science fiction without science.” It is about love, climate change, marriage, memory, and human desire for war—all the things we deal with today. “Death By Lightning” (2025) on Netflix is also more interesting than one more season of “The Diplomat.” It is about U.S. President James Garfield and his assassination.
Caroline Grassmuck: "When Harry Met Sally" (1989), "A Few Good Men" (1992), "This is Spinal Tap" (1984), etc. Anything and everything Rob Reiner this week.
Samantha Gross: "The Harder I Fight, the More I Love You" (2025) by Neko Case. I picked up a signed copy at her show a few weeks ago! She's an amazing artist who has had a rough life, her prose is as beautiful as her songs.
Anna Grzymała-Busse: Our Christmas film tradition: "Master and Commander" (2003). Brilliant film about the Napoleonic Wars, naturalists, the governance of men, honor and duty, and unlikely friendships. It’s based on the first volume of the 19 nautical novels by Patrick O’Brien, which I would also highly, highly recommend.
Daniel S. Hamilton: "Nations Apart: How Clashing Regional Characters Shattered America" (2025) by Colin Woodard. A follow-on to his "American Nations," it is an insightful read into the role regional cultural, political and economic differences play in America’s divisive polarization. Anticipating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence this coming summer, Ken Burns’ “The American Revolution” is a powerful story of America’s first civil war.
Kari Heerman: I've been enjoying a bit of an escape by reading Dickens, "A Christmas Carol" (1843). Of course, I've known the story for as long as I can remember, but it is such a delight to read it in Dickens' own words.
Anand Menon: “1883” (2021), the Yellowstone prequel. As a non-American, it taught me more about America than anything I’d ever seen or read!
Steven Pifer: "The Measure" (2025) by Nikki Erlick. What happens when everyone in the world over age 22 finds a box on their doorstep engraved “The measure of your life lies within”?
Ted Reinert: "Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands" (2022). It’s a memoir in the form of a graphic novel by Kate Beaton, a Cape Breton native who heads to the Alberta oil sands in 2005 to pay off her college loans. Beaton illuminates an environment that is toxic in more ways than one and full of her fellow economic migrants from Atlantic Canada, with pathos, humor, and beautiful drawings.
Mathilda Silbiger: Set in Victorian northern England, the four-part BBC miniseries "North and South" traces the relationship of cotton mill owner John Thornton and middle-class southerner Margaret Hale. I watched it with my grandma last winter, and we both loved it. Also: I recommend the "What Do We Owe Our Friends?" episode of The Atlantic's "How To" podcast, which has really shaped how I think about showing up for my friends.
Constanze Stelzenmüller: I am going to read Philip Pullman’s "The Rose Field" (2025), the third and final volume of his Book of Dust series—the second trilogy about Lyra, one of the most willful and poignant heroines in young adult literature. I’ve been critical of the second, but the first ("The Golden Compass," "The Subtle Knife," and "The Amber Spyglass," 1995–2000) was incomparable. As a Jane Austen movie masochist, I was pleasantly surprised by the melancholy lightness of "Jane Austen a Gâché ma Vie" (Jane Austen Ruined My Life, 2024).
Tara Varma: "The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny" (2025) which marks Kiran Desai’s great comeback, after 20 years of literary absence. It tells the story of two young people, seeking love and hope, amidst tragedy, across India and The United States. Also, I finally watched the first—excellent—season of the series "Slow Horses," detailing the lives of washed out and failed MI5 agents in London, who somehow still get involved in fighting conspiracies against the U.K.
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