Episcopal Reads: Staff Favorites for Fall Break

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October is National Book Month and fall break is a great time to snuggle up with a good read.  Here are a few favorites from our Episcopal staff:

Tiffany Whitehead – Director of Library
My favorite book, if I must choose just one, is “The Thirteenth Tale” by Diane Setterfield. It’s a booklover’s book and one that I can read again and again. Suspenseful, mysterious, and haunting, the novel spins the tale of a famous author who is sharing her final story to a young biographer. It’s full of beautiful words and phrases that you can’t help but savor as a reader, but the intrigue of the story pulls you along and keeps you guessing until the end.

Dr. Rebecca Kuhn – Social Studies Department Chair/Upper School Social Studies
My favorite books are by Willa Cather. I have been moved by her “My Antonia, O Pioneers!”, and “Death Comes for the Archbishop”. Stories of leaving one's home, settling the Great Plains, creating community, and making one's living from the land resonate with me and my family's history.        

Lucy Smith – Middle School Division Head
I love to read, so it is very hard to pick one favorite book. If I have to choose, “To Kill a Mockingbird” probably is my all-time favorite.  My grandmother, whom I loved and admired tremendously, introduced me to the novel when I was quite young, and I grew to appreciate and love the book even more as I used it with students as an eighth grade English teacher.  The setting, the characterization, the theme and the powerful, positive life lessons in Harper Lee’s story combine to make this book so very special.

Martha Guarisco – Middle School English
First, choosing a favorite book is like choosing a favorite breath of air.  I read a ton of Young Adult fiction because there’s always an element of hope, unlike many works for adults.  My current favorite is “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas because of its questions about cultural identity and its depiction of someone trying to bridge the divide between two very different lifestyles.  After the death of Alton Sterling, I’ve found myself wanting to understand more about what it must be like to fear those charged with our protection, and “THUG” has done that for me.  Plus, Angie Thomas is coming to Baton Rouge for the Louisiana Book Festival! A good line from the book:  'Sometimes you can do everything right and things will still go wrong. The key is to never stop doing right.'

Bridget Henderson – Lower School Division Head
I first read “Rebecca” by Daphne duMaurier as a class novel when I was in the eighth grade.  I loved it then, and nearly forty years later, I consider it to be my all-time favorite novel.  This psychological thriller has everything I love in a book:  vivid descriptions, believable—and in some cases despicable—characters, a ghost of sorts, and twists a reader couldn’t possibly predict.  The first time I read it, I remember hiding under my covers with a flashlight way past bedtime, turning page after page through the compelling story to an unpredictable conclusion.  After at least ten more readings, though I know how it ends, my heart still races with “Rebecca”.

These are just some of our favorites.  Do you also love to read?  Share your favorites in the Comments section.  ​​