The one, indispensable book
We asked some authors featured in Harvard Bound over the past year: What is an essential, must-read book for today’s graduates, and why? Here’s what they suggested, as the newest Harvard degree-holders head into the world. Sarah Braunstein, fiction instructor at Harvard Extension School and author of “The Sweet Relief of Missing Children” "‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,’ published in 1961, is a slim, hilarious, devastating novel," says Braunstein. “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” by Muriel Spark “The summer is coming. It’s time to leave the halls of learning for other places. But Muriel Spark, thankfully, invites us to linger. ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,’ published in 1961, is a slim, hilarious, devastating novel. It offers a pitch-perfect depiction of the close-knit, all-seeing ‘Brodie girls’ and their charismatic but flawed teacher. We are invited into their collective curiosity and longing. We share their losses. Spark gives access to the exhilarating...