We asked our board of trustees what they are reading during the pandemic. Here are some favorite reads from some of the Nevada Humanities Board of Trustee members.

Bill Marion, Board Chair, Las Vegas

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Illness as Metaphor by Susan Sontag

Harmonium – poems by Wallace Stevens

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

The Collected Works of Edgar Allen Poe

Susanna Newbury, Las Vegas

Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other by Sherry Turkle
A history of how technology has shaped social behavior for decades and how to understand connection in a networked society.

In the Distance by Hernán Diaz
A new classic western, set in the lonely expanse of the Gold Rush-era Sierras, the desert beyond, and the chaotic world of grief and survival.

Citizen, An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
Poet and scholar Claudia Rankine's powerful book on being seen and being black in America. Gorgeous, seeing, haunting—I assign it to all my students, and it's always on the top of my book pile.

One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey
One of my childhood favorites about a dad and daughters plying a Maine bay on a busy morning. Clam chowder for lunch!

Day Sleeper by Sam Contis
Photographer Sam Contis's deep dive into the photographic archives of Dorothea Lange at the Oakland Museum of California provides an unlikely, intimate take on the classic social documentarian's work.

Nancy Cummings-Schmidt, Reno

These past few weeks I have spent time revisiting old literary friends and discovering new ones.

In recognition of national poetry month, I re-read Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends and checked back in with the works of Robert Frost, especially enjoying Susan Jeffers’ illustrated version of Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening.

John Steinbeck is another author I am re-visiting. I was thoroughly engrossed the second time around with The Red Pony the coming of age story of Jody Tiflin, a young boy growing up on a northern California ranch.

One of my recent reading highlights was the discovery of Irish poet, theologian and philosopher John O’Donohue. I am finding his book To Bless the Space Between Us inspiring, comforting, and so very timely.

I am also participating in a fascinating experience. Mitch Albom, the Tuesdays With Morrie author is doing a serialized story of hope during the coronavirus pandemic. Titled, Human Touch, he is writing a chapter a week, with each new chapter being released on Fridays. In an interview, he said he did not know how it will end since it unfolds as the weeks unfold.

Waiting by my bedside and next up for me to read is Isabel Allende’s The Japanese Lover. I thought I had read most of her books, but this is one that I missed somewhere along the way.

Good Reads from the Board of Trustees