The Honors Program hosts faculty-led book discussions throughout the year. Discussions are held over dinner, usually in professors' homes, and all books are provided by the Honors Program through support from the Honors Program Annual Fund. If you are interested in leading a book discussion, please contact Maria de Rocher (derocher@uga.edu; 706-542-6908).

Book Discussions (Spring 2012)

To Serve God and Wal-Mart
(Bethany Moreton)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Pamela Voekel, Associate Professor of History

The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
(Siddhartha Mukherjee)
Discussion Leaders: Dr. Sujata Iyengar, Associate Professor of English, and Dr. Jonathan Murrow, Clinical Faculty, GHSU/UGA Medical Partnership

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer
(Tracy Kidder)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Susan Tanner, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Laboratory of Health and Human Biology

Stir It Up: Home Economics in American Culture
(Megan Elias)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Megan Elias, Associate Professor of History, City University of New York

From Catharine Beecher to Martha Stewart: A Cultural History of Domestic Advice
(Sarah Leavitt)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Sharon Nickols, Janette M. Barber Distinguished Professor, Department of Housing and Consumer Economics

Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague
(Geraldine Brooks)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Elizabeth Kraft, Professor of English

Remainder
(Tom McCarthy)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Adam Parkes, Professor of English

Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy
(Raj Patel)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Amy Trauger, Assistant Professor of Geography

The Best American Magazine Writing 2011
Discussion Leader: Dr. Janice Hume, Professor of Journalism

Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn
(Cathy Davidson)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Janet Frick, Associate Professor of Psychology

Country Driving: A Journey through China from Farm to Factory
(Peter Hessler)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Marissa Pagnattaro, Associate Professor, Legal Studies Program, Terry College of Business

Book Discussions (fall 2011)

The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us (Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Erik Hofmeister, Assistant Professor of Veterinary Anaesthesiology

Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln (John Stauffer)
Discussion Leader: Dr. David Williams, Associate Provost, Director of the Honors Program, and Professor of Religion

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (Isabel Wilkerson)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Michelle Garfield Cook, Interim Associate Provost for Institutional Diversity and Associate Dean of Franklin College

The Death and Life of the Great American School System (Diane Ravich)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Ronald Butchart, Professor and Department Head of Elementary and Social Studies Education

A Visit from the Goon Squad (Jennifer Egan)
Discussion Leader: Jessica Hunt, Scholarships Coordinator, Honors Program

The Grand Design (Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow)
Discussion Leader: Dr. William Kretzschmar, Professor of English

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Barbara Kingsolver)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Shari Miller, Assistant Professor of Social Work

St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves (Karen Russell)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Hugh Ruppersburg, Senior Associate Dean and Professor of English

The Children of Shahida (Anandam Kavoori)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Anandam Kavoori, Professor of Telecommunications, Grady College

Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food, Taming Our Primal Instincts (Terry Burnham and Jay Phelan)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Travis Glenn, Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, College of Public Health

Book Discussions (spring 2011)

Chosen by a Horse (Susan Richards)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Rebecca Mullis, Professor of Foods and Nutrition in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences

Evening in the Palace of Reason (James R. Gaines)
Discussion Leader: Dr. David Williams, Associate Provost, Director of the Honors Program, and Professor of Religion

All Over but the Shoutin’ (Rick Bragg)
Discussion Leader: Dr. John Inscoe, Professor of History

Keepin’ It Real: School Success Beyond Black and White (Prudence L. Carter)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Linda Renzulli, Associate Professor of Sociology

Out Stealing Horses (Per Petterson)
Discussion Leader:  Dr. Naomi Norman, Professor of Classics

Complexity: A Guided Tour (Melanie Mitchell)
Discussion Leader: Dr. William Kretzschmar, Professor of English

Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace… One School at a Time (Greg Mortenson and David Arthus Relin)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Hugh Ruppersburg, Senior Associate Dean of Franklin College and Professor of English

The Bottom Billion (Paul Collier)
Discussion Leader: Dr. John Greenman, Professor of Mass Communication, Grady College

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)
Discussion Leaders: Dr. Chao Guo, Associate Professor of Public Administration and Policy, and Dr. Morgan Marietta, Lecturer in the Department of Political Science

Being Human: A Darwinian Theory of behavior (P. R. Lawrence)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Rick Watson, Professor of Management Information Systems, Terry College of Business

Book Discussions (fall 2010)

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Rebecca Skloot)
Discussion Leader:  Prof. Patricia Thomas, Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism, Grady College

Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate (Bob Woodward)
Discussion Leader:  Tom Landrum, Senior Vice President for External Affairs

A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There (Arnold Leopold)
Discussion Leader:  Dr. Michael Tarrant, Professor in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources

Walking on Water: Reading, Writing, and Revolution (Derrick Jensen)
Discussion Leader:  Dr. Janette Hill, Professor in the Department of Lifelong Education, Administration, and Policy

The Book Thief (Mark Zusak)
Discussion Leader:  Dr. Meg Amstutz, Chief of Staff, Office of President Michael Adams

All the King’s Men (Robert Penn Warren)
Discussion Leader:  Dr. Hugh Ruppersburg, Senior Associate Dean of Franklin College and Professor of English

Joyce and the G-men: J. Edgar Hoover’s Manipulation of Modernism (Claire A. Culleton)
Discussion Leader:  Dr. David Williams, Director of the Honors Program and Professor of Religion

A Street in Marrakech (Elizabeth Warnock Fernea)
Discussion Leader:  Dr. Sharon Nickols, Professor in the African Studies Institute and Family and Consumer Sciences

Outcasts United (Warren St. John)
Discussion Leader:  Dr. Stacey Kolomer, Associate Professor in the School of Social Work

Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness (Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein)
Discussion Leader:  Dr. Angela Fertig, Assistant Professor of Public Administration and Public Policy

Franny and Zooey (J.D. Salinger)
Discussion Leader:  Jessica Hunt, Scholarship Coordinator, Honors Program

Book Discussions (spring 2010)

Renegade: The Making of a President (Richard Wolffe)
Discussion Leader: Dr. J. Douglas Toma, Associate Professor, Institute of Higher Education and Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Law

The Shadow Catcher by Marianne Wiggins
Discussion Leader: Dr. Pamela Kleiber, Associate Director of the Honors Program

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (Alison Bechdel)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Christopher Pizzino, Department of English

In Defense of Food (Michael Pollan)
Discussion Leader: Dr. John Maurer, Professor of Avian Medicine, Center for Food Safety

The Last Gentleman (Walker Percy)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Hugh Ruppersburg, Senior Associate Dean of Franklin College and Professor of English

A Canticle for Leibowitz (Walter M. Miller, Jr.)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Jonathan Evans, Associate Professor of English and Director of the Medieval Studies Program

Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (David W. Blight)
Discussion Leader:  Dr. Luke Naeher, Department of Environmental Health Sciences

Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall (Anna Funder)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Martin Kagel, Professor of German and Department Head

Founding Faith:  How Our Founding Fathers Forged a Radical New Approach to Religious Liberty (Stephen Waldman)
Discussion Leader: Dr. David Williams, Director of the Honors Program and Professor of Religion

Global Soul: Jet Lag, Shopping Malls, and the Search for Home (Pico Iyer)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Kavita Pandit, Associate Provost for International Education

Book Discussions (fall 2009)

Love in the Driest Season: A Family Memoir (Neely Tucker)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Sharon Nickols, College of Family & Consumer Sciences

Surprise, Security and the American Experience (John Lewis Gaddis)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Brock Tessman, Department of International Affairs

Killers of the Dream (Lilllian Smith)
Discussion Leader: Dr. David Williams, Director of the Honors Program and Professor of Religious Studies

The Things They Carried (Tim O'Brien)
Discussion Leader: Jessica Hunt, Honors Program Scholarships Coordinator

Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (David W. Blight)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Luke Naeher, Department of Environmental Health Sciences

Hooked: Five Addicts Challenge our Misguided Drug Rehab System (Lonny Shavelson)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Brian Bride, School of Social Work

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts (Maxine Hong Kingston)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Kam-ming Wong, Department of Comparative Literature

Deliverance (James Dickey)
Discussion Leader:Dr. Hugh Ruppersburg, Senior Associate Dean of Franklin College and Professor of English

Book Discussions (spring 2009)

Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (Christopher Browning)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Jerome S. Legge, Jr., Professor and Associate Dean of the School of Public and International Affairs

Time of Our Singing (Richard Powers)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Pamela Kleiber, Associate Director of the Honors Program

Master and Commander (Patrick O'Brian)
Discussion Leaders: Dr. Carl Bergmann, Associate Research Scientist at the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center and Dr. Harry W. Dickerson, Professor and Associate Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine

Synchronicity, Science, and Soulmaking: Understanding Jungian Synchronicity Through Physics, Buddhism, and Philosophy (Victor Mansfield)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Bonnie Cramond, Professor of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology, College of Education

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Jonathan Safran Foer)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Margaret A. Amstutz, Chief of Staff, Office of the President

The Wizard of the Crow (Ngugi wa Thiong’o)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Sharon Y. Nickols, Faculty Associate in the African Studies Institute and Professor in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences

Creating a World Without Poverty (Muhammad Yunus)
Discussion Leader: Dr. William Kisaalita, Professor and Coordinator of Graduate Programming, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering

The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court (Jeffrey Toobin)
Discussion Leader: Professor Jere Morehead, Vice President for Instruction and Professor in the Terry College of Business, Department of Legal Studies

Netherland (Joseph O’Neill)
Discussion Leader: Dr. Hugh Ruppersburg, Senior Associate Dean of Franklin College and Professor of English