Summer Reading List 2012 | Week 1

What would summer be without a good reading list? Throughout the summer BGSU faculty, staff and students will share their picks for best summer reading. We hope you find time to read some of the selections and share your thoughts in the comments section at the bottom of the page!

Philip M. Stinson, Sr., J.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Criminal Justice Program

At this point in my life, I generally read a book for one of several reasons. I either read for pleasure or to keep current in my academic discipline and related fields. When reading for pleasure, a good book is one that keeps my attention and distracts me from the stressors of day-to-day life. In other words, reading for pleasure has a calming effect for me. When reading a book to keep current in my discipline – or to fill gaps and read because I have more time to read books solely because I want to read than when I was in graduate school and read because I needed to read – a good book is one that adds to my knowledge and is well-written. As a criminologist and (recovering) lawyer, I am passionate about studying, teaching and researching all things related to crime, law, the legal system and the criminal justice system. As a professor, I view a good book as one that helps me become a better teacher because the book either advances my pedagogical skills in the classroom and/or advances my ability to "tell a story" in one of my classes. One of the highest compliments I receive from students is when they tell others that I often teach by weaving good stories into my lectures and classroom discussions.

• This Is a Call: The Life and Times of Dave Grohl by Paul Brannigan
• Let's Get Free: A Hip-hop Theory of Justice by Paul Butler
• Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout by Philip Connors
• The Edge of Disaster: Rebuilding a Resilient Nation by Stephen Flynn and Council on Foreign Relations
• Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
• Street Justice: Retaliation in the Criminal Underworld by Bruce Jacobs and Richard Wright
• Where Good Ideas Come from: The Natural History of Innovation by Steven Johnson
• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
• Don't Shoot: One Man, a Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-city America by David Kennedy
• Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck V. Bell by Paul Lombardo
• The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Craft Rubin
• Known and Unknown: A Memoir by Donald Rumsfeld
• The City That Became Safe: New York's Lessons for Urban Crime and Its Control by Franklin Zimring

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