Chancellor’s Reading Circle
The Chancellor’s Reading Circle invites students to expand their opportunity for intellectual
interaction with faculty on campus outside the classroom setting. Students read a book chosen by a
faculty member and later attend a book discussion held at the Kuiper House, Chancellor Howard
Cohen’s home. The discussions are always free-flowing and very enjoyable. Books are complimentary
and available in the Student Life & Activities office.
Straight man: A novel By Richard Russo
October 18, 2005
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In this uproarious new novel, Richard Russo performs his characteristic high-wire walk between hilarity and
heartbreak. Russo's protagonist is William Henry Devereaux, Jr., the reluctant chairman of the English
department of a badly underfunded college in the Pennsylvania rust belt. Devereaux's reluctance is partly
rooted in his character--he is a born anarchist-- and partly in the fact that his department is more savagely
divided than the Balkans.
In the course of a single week, Devereaux will have his nose mangled by an angry colleague, imagine his wife
is having an affair with his dean, wonder if a curvaceous adjunct is trying to seduce him with peach pits,
and threaten to execute a goose on local television. All this while coming to terms with his philandering father,
the dereliction of his youthful promise, and the ominous failure of certain vital body functions. in short,
Straight Man is classic Russo--side-splitting and true-to-life, witty, compassionate, and impossible to put down.
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Totto Chan, The Little Girl at the Window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi
January 26, 2006
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This engaging series of childhood recollections tells about an ideal school in Tokyo during World War II that
combined learning with fun, freedom, and love. This unusual school had old railroad cars for classrooms,
and it was run by an extraordinary man-its founder and headmaster, Sosaku Kobayashi--who was a firm believer in
freedom of expression and activity.
In real life, the Totto-chan of the book has become one of Japan's most popular television
personalities--Tetsuko Kuroyanagi. She attributes her success in life to this wonderful school and
its headmaster.
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The Cheating Culture by David Callahan
March 28, 2006
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The Cheating Culture describes an America where 74% of high school students have cheated on an exam, where
parents pull strings to get their toddlers into the best pre-schools, and where it is standard practice to pad
one's resume with non-existent degrees. Otherwise honest people under-report their taxes, splice into free cable
TV, and over-report their insurance losses. Why do they do it?
David Callahan sees several reasons. One is that in the Winner-Take-All Society (brilliantly described
by Robert Frank in his book of the same name), the rewards are huge. Another is that the risks are small -- even
when people are caught cheating, there is little repurcussion. And in a society where so many are cheating,
we are at a disadvantage if we don't cheat, too.
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