Lee A. Farrow is professor of history and distinguished teaching professor at Auburn University–Montgomery. Her new book is Alexis in America: A Russian Grand Duke's Tour, 1871-1872.Recently I asked author about what she was reading. Farrow's reply:
I read a lot and I read across genres. I teach Russian and World History, so I read a lot of history. Recently, I read and enjoyed Candice Millard’s Destiny of the Republic about the assassination of President Garfield and Hitlerland: American Eyewitnesses to the Nazi Rise to Power by Andrew Nagorski.Learn more about Alexis in America at the LSU Press website.
In the spring, I’ll be teaching a course on Russia’s path to revolution, so I’m getting ready to reread Nikolai Gogol’s Dead Souls, "The Overcoat" and "The Nose"; Alexander Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin; and Ivan Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons.
I belong to two book clubs, one of which focuses on one author at a time. Last year, we read all Jane Austen; this year, we are reading Henry James, so I am currently reading Portrait of a Lady.
I am also the co-chair of our university’s common reading committee, so in that capacity I have recently read and enjoyed Lucky by Alice Sebold and Ghost Map by Stephen Johnson.
I also like to read popular fiction (Gone Girl, 11/22/63) and foreign fiction (Orhan Pamuk, Salman Rushdie) for fun, and I enjoy books on art theft and forgery and science and forensics.
Finally, in my new job as the Director for my university’s Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, I am reading books on student engagement and teaching.
Some of my all-time favorite novels are Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev, Confederacy of Dunces by Kennedy O’Toole, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Animal Farm by George Orwell.
--Marshal Zeringue
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