By alphabetic coincidence, today’s list of book picks includes two on economic issues — but also two books perfect for airplane reading.

Laurent Jacque suggests When Genius Failed:  The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management, by Roger Lowenstein.

Michael Klein also points us toward books that can help us understand the current economy.  He wrote:  “I hesitate a bit to recommend anything on the financial crisis, since it is such a fluid situation, but a good background to it can be gained by reading  Financial Shock: Global Panic and Government Bailouts — How We Got Here and What Must Be Done to Fix It, by Mark Zandi.  Also, at this time when finance is seen as a problem, it is useful to remember how well-functioning financial markets can help, so I also recommend Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists by Raghuram G. Rajan and Luigi Zingales.”

Julie Schaffner offers the first of the airplane-worthy picks for today:  Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, which tells the story of Paul Farmer.  (Dr. Farmer also has local roots.)

Peter Uvin, who also offered picks last year, offers an engaging summer read, What is the What, by Dave Eggers.

Finally, alphabetically last but not least, Alexandros Yannis makes two suggestions:  Democracy: A History, by John Dunn, and Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945, by Tony Judt.

As I said in the first picks post, there’s something here for everyone, even if you want to rest your brain this summer.  (Though I also hasten to add that NOTHING is required and brain-resters need not worry.)  I’d love to hear your reaction to the list.  Post your comments — which books have you read?  Any that you particularly recommend to fellow students?  Chime in!

Doing a little pre-Fletcher reading doesn’t mean you need to lock yourself in the library.  Some of the professors’ picks are beach-worthy!  No matter where (or whether) you decide to read, here’s Part II of the professors’ suggestion list.

Michael Glennon offers an array of choices, from a variety of time periods and genres.  Something for every reader!  He lists:

1.    Groupthink, by Irving Janus.
2.    The Arrogance of Power, by J. William Fulbright
3.    The Metaphysical Club, by Louis Menand
4.    Memoirs: 1925-1950, by George F. Kennan
5.    West with the Night, by Beryl Markham
6.    Age of Extremes, by Eric Hobsbawm
7.    Imperium, by Robert Harris

I’m going to try to pick up West with the Night for my daughter — looks like her kind of book, and I might well borrow it back from her.

Donald Gonson not only makes suggestions but provides context for the choices:  “I have two books that might be good for your summer reading list.  One is The New Financial Order: Risk in the 21st Century by Robert J. Shiller.  The focus of corporate governance is increasingly about management of risk these days.  Corporate failure to manage risk has not only put the existence of business institutions in jeopardy, but has threatened the entire global financial system!  With his usual prescience — he wrote widely read and widely admired books about the dot.com and housing bubbles before they burst — Shiller looks at the challenge of managing risk in the modern world.  Other books focus on the specific issues of the current market meltdowns, but this book is useful in that it provides a broader context for our current difficulties.  (It also suggests extremely relevant reforms which could have mitigated our current crisis, if only….)

“The other book I recommend is Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond.  This is a fascinating look at the evolution of societies, politically and economically, from earliest days.  In fact, the book could well have been subtitled “Early History as a Study in Political Economy,” although that would have been a surprise for two reasons:  Diamond is an anthropologist, and the book is too much fun for such a sober title.  It presents a great analysis of the rise of the rule of law and of the economic forces that shape the law (both very relevant to the study of corporate governance).”

The last picks for today come from Hurst Hannum.  His first suggestion is Farhad Manjoo’s True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society.  His second suggestion is possibly the most intriguing of this year’s list.  He chooses The Plague by Albert Camus.  Certainly a book you can slip in your bag and that will engage you while you wait for your vacation flight.

The final selections, from professors whose last names start with I through Z, will appear next week.  Stay tuned!

Just before classes ended, I sent a note to the faculty asking for summer reading suggestions for incoming students.  (I like to think that this list will be useful for our newest Fletcher students, as well as anyone still reading the blog who will attend a different grad school.)  I’ve collected suggestions before, and ran short lists last summer, and in 2007.  This year I modified my request slightly:  Instead of asking the professors to suggest books that incoming students could read to prepare, I asked them instead for the books they might pass along to a family member who wanted to learn about their area of expertise.  I hoped it would result in some “lighter” reading, and I think it did.

Of course, suggesting that you do preparatory reading contradicts the students’ advice, posted recently.  I’ll just need to leave it to you to decide whether you should follow the advice to relax and recharge, or read one of the books listed below.

One final note:  I only asked the profs for their picks.  I didn’t ask them to elaborate on their choices.  I regret that now, though I think the simplicity of the assignment led to the high number of responses.  I’ll include any comments they happened to send.

So, with no further discussion, here (alphabetically by the professors’ last names) are the first of the book picks.

First, Richard Blackhurst, who teaches the mid-career folk in the GMAP program, suggests Paul Krugman’s Pop Internationalism.  He notes:  “The students will, of course, recognize Paul Krugman’s name. However, this collection of economic essays pre-dates his much more political New York Times weekly columns, and is both very entertaining, accessible, and directly relevant to many — if not all — of the economics and political science courses they will take at Tufts.”

Antonia Chayes gives a little shout-out to her daughter, when she says, “I would add  first and foremost, Sarah Chayes, The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban.”  Prof. Chayes also suggests Tom Ricks’s new book on Iraq, The Gamble:  General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008, as well as A Long Way Gone:  Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ishmael Beah’s memoir on child soldiers in Sierra Leone.

Leila Fawaz sends her choice of reading in an area of great interest to many of our students:  Juan Cole’s Engaging the Muslim World.

And last (for today), Brian Ganson suggests Kings of Peace, Pawns of War: The Untold Story of Peace-Making by Harriet Martin (with a foreward by Kofi Annan), and Making Social Science Matter:  Why Social Inquiry Fails and How It Can Succeed Again by Bent Flyvbjerg (translated by Steven Sampson).

That should keep you all busy for the week. 🙂    More to come soon!