BC Bookmarks

Lawrence in Arabia by Scott Anderson. One Summer – America, 1927 by Bill Bryson. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. Someone by Alice McDermott. These are the new titles on the 2014 Dean’s List of Recommended Reading, compiled by William B. Neenan, SJ shortly before his death in June. The beloved Boston College Jesuit priest had produced his list of reading suggestions every year since 1982. The annual list of 27 titles included fiction and non-fiction works, some of them well-known historical, literary or popular titles, others somewhat more obscure. “I loved the Dean’s List,” says Professor of English Elizabeth Graver. “The books he was drawn to were often at once poetic and probing, interested in inner life and the human condition, alert to pain but also beauty.” Like many readers of the Dean’s List, College of Arts and Sciences Associate Dean Clare Dunsford found Fr. Neenan’s recommendations an outstanding resource. “One book I would never have known of or read without seeing it on the list was Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter. Several years ago I got the flu, a really bad case that put me out of work for 10 days or so. As I began to recover but was still weak, I started to read that book and was enchanted. It took me from my sickbed to medieval Norway in an almost physical way. I went on to read the whole trilogy.”  Read more about this year’s Dean’s List in the Boston College Chronicle | A cumulative list of Dean’s List selections is available from the BC Libraries.