Browse recommendations from the avid readers in Lowell House — named after renowned Kenyon writer Robert Lowell ‘40 and home to the Offices of Admissions and Financial Aid. Then tell us which titles have you turning the pages, and we'll share your response below.
Your Recommendations
A
“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams
Fiona C., Saint Helena, California
“The House of the Spirits” by Isabel Allende
Merckx M., Yonkers, New York
“Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen
Ambar T., Rockville, Maryland
B
“How to Think Like a Philosopher: Twelve Key Principles for More Humane, Balanced, Rational Thinking” by Julian Baggini
Jeff H., Long Grove, Illinois
“Six of Crows” by Leigh Bardugo
Aahana D., Issaquah, Washington
Samantha V., Punta Gorda, Florida
“Big Swiss” by Jen Beagin
Ben N., Milton, Massachusetts
“American Prometheus” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
Katherine G., Dublin, Ohio
“Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body” by Susan Bordo
Hayley K., Los Gatos, California
“All the Broken Places” by John Boyne
Kaia B., Orinda, California
“Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë
Oleksandra T., Odesa, Ukraine
“The Body: A Guide for Occupants” by Bill Bryson
Ambar T., Rockville, Maryland
“Parable of the Sower” by Octavia Butler
Asher L., Brooklyn, New York
C
“The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho
Emmanuel S., Kumasi, Ghana
“If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler” by Italo Calvino
Raffi C., Charlottesville, Virginia
Melvin M., Kigali, Rwanda
Ankus A., Barishal, Bangladesh
“Love in a Fallen City” by Eileen Chang
Xi C., Shanghai, China
“The Testing” by Joelle Charbonneau
Geraldo S., Tucson
“Water, Water” by Billy Collins
Amaya W., Denver, Colorado
“Sunrise on the Reaping” by Suzanne Collins
Anna G., New York
D
“House of Leaves” by Mark Z. Danielewski
Debjyoti S., Kolkata, India
“The Miseducation of Cameron Post” by Emily M. Danforth
Isabela B., Delaware, Ohio
“Bleak House” by Charles Dickens
Joshua N., Mckinney, Texas
“Oliver Twist” by Charles Dickens
Oringa A., Gulu, Uganda
“Democracy” by Joan Didion
Lucie R., Chicago
“Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Abhinav A., Janjgir, Chhattisgarh, India
Jerin J., Orlando, Florida
“The Brothers Karamazov” by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Sheikh Mehedi Hasan S., Mymensingh, Bangladesh
“The Idiot” by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Grady A., Louisville, Kentucky
E
“The Circle” by Dave Eggers
Daniel Q., Greenwood, South Carolina
“Kairos” by Jenny Erpenbeck
Violet C., New York
“Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less” by Greg McKeown
Marcus B., Kumasi, Ashanti Region, Ghana
F
“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Rasmus C., Wellfleet, Massachusetts
G
“A Lesson Before Dying” by Ernest J. Gaines
Claire A., Las Vegas, Nevada
“Spartacus” by Raffaello Giovagnoli
Nino C., Tbilisi, Georgia
“Chaos” by James Gleick
Harris L., Lutherville Timonium, Maryland
“Good Omens” by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Ava K., Cleveland, Ohio
“Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals” by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Sophia D., Englewood, New Jersey
“Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell
James G., Lutherville, Maryland
“Talking to Strangers” by Malcolm Gladwell
Winston Q., Millerton, New York
“Life and Fate” by Vasily Grossman
Kevin C., San Diego, California
Gratias F., Yaoundé, Centre, Cameroon
H
“Potter Stinks: Gender and Species in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series” by Jack Halberstam
Alice D., Atlanta, Georgia
“The Great Alone” by Kristin Hannah
Jorin H., Birmingham, Michigan
“The Art of Power” by Thich Nhat Hanh
John Z., Lusaka, Zambia
“The Road to Serfdom” by Friedrich Hayek
Shohjahon I., Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Shohjahon H., Tashkent, Uzbekistan
“How to Tell When We Will Die” by Johanna Hedva
Francis J., Fullerton, California
“A Farewell To Arms” by Ernest Hemingway
Scheherazade S., New York
“Book Lovers” by Emily Henry
Aahana D., Issaquah, Washington
“Mortality” by Christopher Hitchens
Shohjahon I., Tashkent, Uzbekistan
“Minor Feelings” by Cathy Park Hong
Ayla T., New York, New York
“The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini
Yonatan A., Bahir Dar, Amhara, Ethiopia
Brooks H., Mill Valley, California
“Fake Slackers” by Mu Gua Huang
Cindy Y.,
“Les Misérables” by Victor Hugo
Bayemir Z., Bishkek, Chui, Kyrgyzstan
I
“The Code Breaker” by Walter Isaacson
Zechariah W., Fallston, Maryland
“Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro
Sadie W., Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
“Klara and the Sun” by Kazuo Ishiguro
Oyku K., Izmir, Turkey
“The Place of Shells” by Mai Ishizawa
Madeline A., Brooklyn, New York
J
“A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” by Holly Jackson
Charlotte C., North Bend, Washington
“A Very Punchable Face: A Memoir” by Colin Jost
Fatima Z., Casablanca, Morocco
K
“Deaf Republic” by Ilya Kaminsky
Ayden A., Independence, Ohio
“The Sleepwalker” by Margarita Karapanou
Eliana C., Brooklyn, New York
“Small Things Like These” by Claire Keegan
Margaret H., Centerton, Arizona
“Suddenly, A Knock on the Door” by Etgar Keret
Sara A., Guadalajara, Mexico
“Fear and Trembling” by Søren Kierkegaard
Rewa O., Long Island City, New York
Sean O., Chicago, Illinois
“Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Emilia Z., Salt Lake City
“Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver
Irina L., Plano, Texas
“Small Wonder” by Barbara Kingsolver
Kevin C., San Diego, California
“Savage Inequalities” by Jonathan Kozol
Elsa B., Princeton, Maryland
“Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert T. Kiyosaki
Marie N., Yaoundé, Cameroon
“Katabasis” by R. F. Kuang
Adina M., Brandon, Florida
“The Poppy War” by R. F. Kuang
Denitza K., Townsend, Delaware
L
“When We Cease to Understand the World” by Benjamín Labatut
Maximus A., Denver, Colorado
“Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri
Lily S., Plandome, New York
“Bird by Bird” by Anne Lamott
Kennedy B., Columbus
Zoya M., Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
“The Constant Gardener” by John le Carré
Hirshl, H., Sherman Oaks, California
“The Dispossessed: A Novel” by Ursula K. Le Guin
Jeff H., Long Grove, Illinois
“Moneyball” by Michael Lewis
Jonah D.
“Ancillary Justice” by Ann Leckie
Afsaneh K., Sherborn, Massachusetts
“Glorious Exploits” by Ferdia Lennon
Beatrice Q., Columbus, Ohio
“Forgery of Fate” by Elizabeth Lim
Aahana D., Issaquah, Washington
M
“Do Hard Things” by Steve Magness
Zechariah W., Fallston, Maryland
“Category Theory for the Working Mathematician” by Saunders Mac Lane
Jude G., Newton, New Jersey
“A Song of Ice and Fire” by George R. R. Martin
Bekam, J., Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
“The Return” by Hisham Matar
Dylan S., Acton, Massachusetts
“Blood Meridian” by Cormac McCarthy
Gabriel F., Winsted, Connecticut
“The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires that Run the World” by Oliver Milman
Jai S., Gainesville, Florida
“The Last Manager” by John W. Miller
Michael A., Abeokuta South, Nigeria
“Beloved” by Toni Morrison
Vivianne A., Encino, California
“The Girls Who Grew Big” by Leila Mottley
Annabel H., Surprise, Arizona
“The Sealed Nectar” by Safiur Rahman Mubarakpuri
Solaiman Tanvir R., Dhaka, Dhaka Division, Bangladesh
N
“Little Fires Everywhere” by Celeste Ng
Lydia G., Westlake Village, California
“Sweat” by Lynn Nottage
Beatrice B., Baltimore, Maryland
Elizabeth O., Agege, Lagos, Nigeria
O
“Hamnet” by Maggie O’Farrell
Winston Q., Millerton, New York
“Becoming” by Michelle Obama
Lydia G., Westlake Village, California
“Animal Farm” by George Orwell
Janet A., Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria
“Little Thieves” by Margaret Owen
Sofia G., Louisville, Colorado
P
“Blue Mimosa” by Parijat
Unnati U., Bhaktapur, Nepal
“Essays” by Walter Pater
Shelby G., Wayne, Ohio
“Symposium” by Plato
Shelby G., Wayne, Ohio
“The Overstory” by Richard Powers
Noa J., Cincinnati, Ohio
R
“Not the End of the World” by Hannah Ritchie
Muhammadlaziz H., Buloqboshi Village, Andijan Region, Uzbekistan
“Long Way Down” by Jason Reynolds
Rani S., Greenwich, Connecticut
S
“Contact” by Carl Sagan
Gelson K., Luanda, Angola
Benjamin R., Madison, Wisconsin
“Rhythm of War” by Brandon Sanderson
Margaret B., Milford, Connecticut
“Half the Kingdom” by Lore Segal
Emma H., Boston, Massachusetts
“Run Away With Me” by Brian Selznick
Emilia Z., Salt Lake Cty
“A Leopard-Skin Hat” by Anne Serre
Gabriel G., Tolleson, Arizona
“Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” by Dai Sijie
Nina T., Belmont, California
“Oedipus at Colonus” by Sophocles
Shelby G., Wayne, Ohio
“The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck
Naomi B., Covington, Kentucky
“Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson
Sascha B., New York, New York
“Dracula” by Bram Stoker
Polina R., Moscow, Russia
T
“The Joy Luck Club” by Amy Tan
Sophie D.,
“The Secret History” by Donna Tartt
Sadie D., Washington, D. C.
Naida B., Charlotte, North Carolina
“The Rum Diary” by Hunter S. Thompson
Charlotte S., Spring, Texas
“Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy
Joseph B., Saint Louis, Missouri
U
“Arresting God in Kathmandu” by Samrat Upadhyay
Unnati U., Duwakot, Bagmati, Nepal
V
“The Isle of Youth” by Laura van den Berg
Mora S., Oak Park, Illinois
“Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” by Jules Verne
Allison F., Worthington, Ohio
“Breakfast of Champions” by Kurt Vonnegut
Grant H., Allentown, New Jersey
“Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut
Isabela B., Delaware, Ohio
W
“A First Time for Everything” by K .L. Walther
Leila H., Dallas, Texas
“Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World” by Jack Weatherford
Margaret F., Morrisville, Ohio
“The Duchess of Malfi” by John Webster
Chiara M., Ridgewood, Maryland
“Project Hail Mary” by Andy Weir
Arlo K., Andover, Massachusetts
“The Spirit Bares Its Teeth” by Andrew Joseph White
Naomi B., Covington, Kentucky
“The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde
Jana K., Burke, Virginia
“The CIA: An Imperial History” by Hugh Wilford
Micah Q., Brooklyn, New York
“A Terrible Thing to Waste” by Harriet A. Washington
Isabela B., Delaware, Ohio
“Infinite Jest” by David Foster Wallace
Marcello S., Monroe, Michigan
“The Color Purple” by Alice Walker
Isabela B., Delaware, Ohio
“Mrs Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf
Kate E., Palm City, Florida
Kyle P., Kailua, Hawaii
“Orlando” by Virginia Woolf
Ava B., Brooklyn, New York
“The Waves” by Virginia Woolf
Rowan M., Vestal, New York
Y
“Kitchen” by Banana Yoshimoto
Sophia D., Englewood, New Jersey
Z
“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” by Gabrielle Zevin
Reestyn B., Newport Beach, California
Various
“The Bible”
Ayden A., Independence, Ohio
Your Previous Recommendations
A
"Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
"Bastard Out of Carolina" by Dorothy Allison
"Antes de Ser Libres" by Julia Alvarez
B
“Going to Meet the Man" by James Baldwin
"Ten Days in a Mad-House" Nellie Bly
"Ficciones" by Jorge Luis Borges
C
"The Awakening" by Kate Chopin
"The Club" by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg
"Open City" by Teju Cole
"The Hunger Games: Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins
"The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen R. Covey
"The Extinction of Irena Rey" by Jennifer Croft
D
“In Search of Us" by Ava Dellaira
"Evicted" by Matthew Desmond
E
"The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco
G
"The Wild Iris" by Louise Glück
H
"The Anxious Generation" by Jonathan Haidt
"The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story" by Nikole Hannah-Jones
"Peter Camenzind" by Hermann Hesse
"Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman" by Miriam Horn
"Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Hurston
J
"The Haunting Of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson
"Dubliners" by James Joyce
K
"The Sun and Her Flowers" by Rupi Kaur
"Everything We Never Were" by Alice Kellen
"Demon Copperhead" by Barbara Kingsolver
"Sátántangó" by Lázsló Krasznahorkai
L
"Paul" by Daisy Lafarge
"Last Night at the Telegraph Club" by Malinda Lo
M
"Buddenbrooks" by Thomas Mann
"A Song of Ice and Fire: A Dance of Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
"Moby Dick" by Herman Melville
"Circe" by Madeline Miller
"Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller
"Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?" by Lorrie Moore
"After the Quake" by Haruki Murakami
N
"Invitation to Beheading" by Vladimir Nabokov
"World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments" by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
O
"Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'Dell
"Memory Police" by Yoko Ogawa
Q
"Night at the Fiestas" by Kirstin Valdez Quade
R
"I'm Thinking of Ending Things" Iain Reid
"The Creative Act" by Rick Rubin
S
"Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley
"Peak" by Roland Smith
"On Beauty" by Zadie Smith
"Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone" by Benjamin Stevenson
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe
T
"The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
"War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy
"The Brothers Karamazov" by Leo Tolstoy
"Smile at Fear" by Chögyam Trungpa
W
"The Rage of Dragons" by Evan Winter
"The Waves" by Virginia Woolf
Y
"A Little Life" by Hanya Yanagihara
"Fable" by Adrienne Young
Z
"Crying in H-Mart" by Michelle Zauner
A
"The Bloodstained Throne: Struggles for Power in Nepal, 1775–1914” by Baburam Acharya; translated by Madhav Acharya
"There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra" by Chinua Achebe
"Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe
"The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" by Douglas Adams
"Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Adichie
"Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom
"Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
"The Future Lasts Forever: A Memoir" by Louis Althusser, Olivier Corpet, and Yann Moulier Boutang
"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
"Rhetoric" by Aristotle
“The Testaments” by Margaret Atwood
“Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austin
B
“Sultan Salohiddin” by Yavuz Bahodirogli
“Seams Deadly” by Maggie Bailey
"Good Economics for Hard Times" by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo
“The Six of Crows Duology: Six of Crows and the Crooked Kingdom” by Leigh Bardugo
“The Fright Before Christmas: Surviving Krampus and Other Yuletide Monsters, Witches, and Ghosts” by Jeff Belanger
“Blasphemy: A Memoir: Sentenced to Death Over a Cup of Water” by Asia Bibi and Anne-Isabelle Tollet
“2666” by Roberto Bolaño
“The Master and Margarita” by Mikhail Bulgakov
C
“Myth of Sisyphus” by Albert Camus
“The Stranger” by Albert Camus
"Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
“What Storm, What Thunder” by Myriam J. A. Chancy
"The Awakening" by Kate Chopin
“The Six-Day War” by Randolph S. Churchill and Winston S. Churchill
"Clockwork Angel" by Cassandra Clare
"Penance" by Eliza Clark
"The Alchemist" By Paulo Coelho
“The Law of Innocence” by Michael Connelly
D
“A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens
"Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky
"Poor Folk" by Fyodor Dostoevsky
“Untame” by Glennon Doyle
E
"A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by Dave Eggers
“Second Class Citizen” by Buchi Emecheta
F
"The 4-Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferriss
“Crossroads” by Jonathan Franzen
G
"Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life" by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles
H
“Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari
"Girl in the Blue Coat" by Monica Hesse
"Trust Me I'm Lying" by Ryan Holiday
"The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
“A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini
K
"When Breath Becomes Air" by Paul Kalanithi
"The Soul of a New Machine" by Tracy Kidder
"11/22/63" by Stephen King
"Writers & Lovers" by Lily King
“Salem’s Lot” by Stephen King
“Blossoms of the Savanna” by Henry R. Ole Kulet
“The Leftover Women” by Jean Kwok
L
"The Ride of Her Life" by Elizabeth Letts
"The Gentleman Bastards" by Scott Lynch
M
"Bliss Montage" by Ling Ma
"In the Chest of a Woman" by Kojo Mawugbe
"The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother” by James McBride
"Please Kill Me" by Gillian McCain and Legs McNeil
"Song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller
"Wordslut" by Amanda Montell
"The Starless Sea" by Erin Morgenstern
"Kafka on the Shore" by Haruki Murakami
"The Bee Sting" by Paul Murray
N
"Speak, Memory" by Vladimir Nabokov
O
"The Complete Stories" by Flannery O'Connor
"The Precipice" by Toby Ord
"The Thursday Murder Club" series by Richard Osman
P
"The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think" by Robert Pantano
“The Dutch House” by Ann Patchett
"The Overstory" by Richard Powers
"Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
R
“The Young Warriors” by V.S. Reid
“How Rich Countries Get Rich, and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor” by Erik S. Reinert
“Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets” by J.K. Rowling
"The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
S
"Contact" by Carl Sagan
"The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger
“Way of Kings” by Brandon Sanderson
"Fantasmas, espectros y otros trapos sucios" by Jaime Alfonso Sandoval
“Persepolis” by Marjane Satrapi
"A Suitable Boy" by Vikram Seth
"Every Last Word" by Tamara Ireland Stone
T
“The Goldfinch” by Donna Tartt
“The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien
V
"Slaughterhouse-5" by Kurt Vonnegut
W
“This is Water” by David Foster Wallace
"The House of Mirth" by Edith Wharton
"Town Beyond the Wall" by Elie Wiesel
"Baby, You're Gonna Be Mine: Stories" by Kevin Wilson
"A Room of One's Own" by Virginia Woolf
X
"Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation" by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
Y
“The Shadow of Kyoshi” by F.C. Yee
Z
“The Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
“Crying in H Mart” by Michelle Zauner
"The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak