Blind Date With a Book: Student Board Edition

Looking for literary love? The OWU English Department has you covered. Blind Date With a Book is an annual Spring semester event for bookworms of any majors. It is coordinated by the English Department Student Board and Beeghly Library and is in its second year. Books beloved by students and English faculty are pulled from the library stacks, wrapped up like gifts and placed around the library’s Bayley Room with notecards of description on them. If a student is intrigued, they unwrap the book at the end of the event and check it out.

Read on for the board’s book descriptions from this year’s event!

Ever feel like you’ve just been running the same race for the past ten years with no end in sight? Do you frequently find yourself exclaiming, “I never asked to be born”? Tired of the constant performance of being alive? Not really able (or caring) to separate fantasy from reality anymore? Well then, it may just be me and my dubious half-alter ego you’ve been looking for. (Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut). 

You interested in hiking 2,000 miles in one boot to kick a nasty heroin and sex addiction with me? (Wild by Cheryl Strayed).

I live in the South, and my family lives in the South, and we’ve never left the South. All I know is death, carpentry and horses. Coffins are hard to make. I have to go now, before the rain comes. (As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner). 

Closeted gay man looking for love and fearing for my immortal soul among fellow expatriots in the mythic and wild streets of Paris. I’d only recommend picking me up if you’re ready to deal with constant moments of internal paranoia, grappling with masculinity and an affair of life and death–without hardly leaving your bedroom. (Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin).

A lot of nineteenth century novels are respected as standalone stories, but this twentieth century prequel might make things a little more interesting. From a British novel about love to a complicated story about race, gender, place and stereotypes, this book takes one popular story and completely flips it over on its head. Take a trip to the Caribbean with this book and enjoy the ride along the way…(Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys).

I’m still unsure as to how we all got here. I tried to stop thinking about it long ago. They took us all to a school and trained us to be perfect women. I guess I did a good enough job. The only thing I care about anymore is my daughter. I need her to be safe. I used to watch a woman on TV who made beautiful music. Now the bastards are always trying to grind me down. (The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood).

Do you like drama? Gossip? Romance? Comedy? This is the novel for you. Taking you through the dynamics of a family of 5 daughters who must be married off to the husband of their mother’s choosing, one can only imagine the issues that arise. Dealing with issues of class and how one fits in properly with society seems to be the only thing that matters. Lavish party invites and characters in love…what could go wrong? (Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen). 

I’m unsure of myself; I feel like a sham. I spent the summer in New York, but when I got home, I started to feel worse and worse. I’m trying to write a novel. My mother doesn’t understand. Men don’t either. I miss my father. (The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath). 

Pick me up if you’re interested in awkward conversations on the school bus about The Smiths, appreciate the post-punk scene or you’re the type of person who loves hand-picked playlists on a TDK cassette tape. (Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell).

Teen angst ain’t so grand. I’m tired of this “nice to meet you” bullshit. Let me buy you a drink and tell you about my brother’s baseball mitt. (The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger).

A retired music teacher and an African immigrant move to the countryside of Northern England. What follows is a story of two characters that reflects on universal issues like unshakeable loneliness, permeating racism, reimaginations of what it means to be a citizen and the ways seemingly opposite lives interconnect–and how willing we are to let them. (A Distant Shore by Caryl Phillips). 

Monsters, cottagers, scientists, oh my! If you are interested in science fiction and monsters who want to find love then you have picked the right novel. (Frankenstein by Mary Shelley). 

My mother died in an explosion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I miss her so much, but I have her favorite painting to remember her. I met a Russian kid; he introduced me to drugs and women. My guilt haunts me every day, and it tears me into a thousand pieces over the course of my life (The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt). 

Repressed late-twentysomething doing my best to act like a sensible and grounded young woman, even if this means rejecting the love of my life (coming up on eight years of pining) to preserve my family’s reputation. Send me a letter or a few passionate glances across a crowded theatre sometime and save me from this silent suffering. (Persuasion by Jane Austen).

Powwows and dancing and magic and suspense and death and jealousy and greed and ghosts. This book has it all. (The Grass Dancer by Susan Power). 

Bangladeshi mother seeking liberation in London’s East End from an arranged marriage. Ready for small acts of defiance, like a sewing job and an unaccomplaied walk around town, to an affair with radical protest and cultural and religious identity. (Brick Lane by Monica Ali).

Heartbroken over a summer fling? I am too, but at least I’m getting to work on time. Oh, and I got some free fruit while it lasted. I’d better go now before my neurotic Jewish aunt yells at me for talking too loud, but feel free to look me up later in the phone book if you’re into class conflict, religious stereotypes and sex on dusty old couches. (Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth). 

A cross-generational search among mothers and daughters to define their femininity and secure their identity as Chinese Americans, sometimes holding tight to family traditions, sometimes learning to let go, sometimes not realizing what they’ve lost until it’s gone. (The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan).

This play takes you back to medieval Scotland to explore the castles there. Out for revenge and seeking the throne, these characters are in for a wild ride. (Macbeth by William Shakespeare). 

One of the best ways to try to learn about Native American cultures is to try your hand at reading native poetry. Go ahead. Take this book home with you and dive into the lyricism, the details, the personal. You know you want to. (When My Brother Was an Aztec by Natalie Diaz). 

Are you ready to be taken back to the summer of 1926?  This novel promises to immerse you into a new world of glitz and glam and everything in between. It follows the life of a billionaire and represents the extremes one goes to for wealth and, hopefully, love. (The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald).

I’ve got a lot of death in me, and rats. We had to close down the towns; the situation grew out of hand. The doctors try to come up with a cure and fail many times before reaching a solution. For some, though, it’s already too late. (The Plague by Albert Camus). 

California in the 60s. It’s hot, grimy, and full of tragedy. Strap yourself in for a ride through Hell and back. (Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion).

Patient and contemplative lawyer attempting to simultaneously fight an unjust system with logic and pragmatism, and raise his children to be intelligent and ethical individuals. For fans of naive narrators getting up close and personal with the Golden Rule, or people looking to break into the house of their creepy mythical maybe-murderer neighbor. (To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee).

For weekly book recommendations and notifications about English Department events, follow the department on Instagram (@owuenglishdepartment).