University Honors College

Are you looking for a great addition to your spring break? Six OSU faculty members have chosen books or movies to share with small groups of students during the first weeks of spring term. Sign up now, and you will receive a free copy of your group’s book or film to read or watch over the break! Groups will then meetwith faculty hosts at the start of the term over pizza. To sign up, contact Kevin (kevin.stoller@oregonstate.edu) with your top three group choices by Friday, March 9th. For additional information about the staff selections, see oregonstate.edu/dept/honors/student-book-club. All OSU students are welcome to participate!

Faculty and Book Descriptions

Kevin Ahern

Biochemistry and Biophysics

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Group meeting: Tuesday, 4/3 at 5:00 p.m.

Based on extensive interviews with Steve Jobs and hundreds of people who interacted – positively and negatively – with the Apple founder, Walter Isaacson’s biography is an engagingly candid and complete portrait of one of our era’s defining technological visionaries.

Eric Hill

University Honors College

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin

Group meeting: Monday, 4/2 at 5:00 p.m.

This classic novel by acclaimed author Ursula K. Le Guin is an examination of the consequences of power. Le Guin brings her characteristic spirit of deep humanism and ethical engagement to the story of George Orr, a man who finds that he has the power to change the world with his dreams.

Jon Lewis

English

Badlands directed by Terrence Malick

Group meeting: Monday, 4/9 at 5:00 p.m.

Director Terrence Malick’s classic debut film from 1973 follows a young couple of outlaws through a crime spree across the American Midwest during the 1950s. Malick uses this material to tell a complicated, unsettling story about the contrasts and connections between America’s obsession with individuality and celebrity and the social pressure towards conformity and homogeneity. In what has become a hallmark of Malick’s style, the extraordinary visuals are a central component of the dialogue within the film.

Kathleen Dean Moore

Philosophy

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

Group Meeting: Wednesday, 4/4 at 5:00 p.m.

This acclaimed book from 2007 looks at what would happen to our planet if human beings suddenly disappeared. Combining broad scientific research with vivid description and imagination, The World Without Us is a singular examination of our impact on the world, placing human effects on the environment in a uniquely compelling light.

Indira Rajagopal

Biology

Long for this World: The Strange Science of Immortality by Jonathan Weiner

Group Meeting: Tuesday, 4/10 at 5:00 p.m.

Jonathan Weiner, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his book The Beak of the Finch, explores the surprising, strange world of longevity research in this book. With the idiosyncratic and charismatic “Prolongevist” Aubrey de Gray at the center of his tale, Weiner examines both how our bodies age and the work of scientists committed to slowing – or even overcoming – the aging process from scientific and philosophical angles. Weiner asks, would we want immortality if we could have it? Are the things that give our lives meaning tied to our mortality in ways we have never had to consider before?

Skip Rochefort

Chemical Engineering

Plastic: A Toxic Love Story by Susan Freinkel

Group meeting: Thrusday, 4/5 at 5:00 p.m.

This book examines the social structure of one of the main components of our world today – plastic. Using eight common household items to structure her narrative, Freinkel explores the historical development and the political, economic, environmental, and medical consequences of our continued dependence on plastics. This analysis recognizes the consequences of our reliance on plastics while sympathetically acknowledging the historical forces that led us to this point.

Interested students should contact Kevin Stoller by Friday, December 4th with their top three choices. This program is open to all OSU students, so get the word out!