Book Nook

Is a recent read occupying your thoughts? Has a book indelibly imprinted your life? We want to hear from you. Send your recommendation to marydieter@depauw.edu.

What We’re Reading

By Barbara Perdue Osterling ’65

Looking at Book Nook brought to mind a book that will most likely indelibly imprint my thoughts for a good long time. It’s Mitch Albom’s recent book, “The Stranger in the Lifeboat.” It’s a quick read, but keeps popping into my thoughts, even though I first read it before Christmas. I recommended it to my book club, and our discussion was lively and deep. This is a group of ladies who come from all points along the spiritual spectrum – from non-believers all the way to devout Catholics – and this book had something to say to each of us! If you haven’t read it yet, put it on your list and see what you think.

I (Barbara) wrote this and it was my book club. But when my husband Dean saw how engrossed I was in it, he read it immediately after I finished it. I was “on deadline” to return it to the library!

The President’s Bookshelf

Nine alumni gathered June 6 for The President’s Book Club, where they discussed “Leadership in Turbulent Times” in a Zoom conversation moderated by President Lori White.

Author Doris Kearns Goodwin explores four presidents’ leadership and asks: Does the leader make the times or do the times make the leader?

Roberta “Robin” Barnes ’70 said both could be true, especially for these leaders who shared “incredible energy, a strive to do something to leave a mark in a good way, to do something for others.”

The four were “skilled at building coalitions, and getting people to look at issues rather than personalities and find their shared ground,” said Mary

The Book Nook features notable, professionally published books written by DePauw alumni and faculty. Self-published books will be included in the Gold Nuggets section.

Angela Castañeda ’98, anthropology professor Editor “Obstetric Violence” Scott H. Decker ’72 “On Gangs” Pedar W. Foss, professor and chair, classical studies “Pliny and the Eruption of Vesuvius” David N. Gellman, history professor “Liberty’s Chain: Slavery, Abolition, and the Jay Family of New York”

Hudelson Dunkle ’71. “… One thing that worries me a bit about the time we live in now is that it seems that skill may not be as highly valued as it was.”

Noting that Abraham Lincoln filled posts with former rivals, Jo Ankeny Lindamood ’62 said that, “today, (politicians) are more likely to pick everybody who’s going to totally agree with them.”

Rick Ferrell ’65 said that “all of them were shaped by adversity.” Each turned difficult circumstances to their advantage, said Rick Born ’83, who wondered if they would have shone as leaders had they not faced adversity.

Added David Tanner ’75: “All four had a vision of what they wanted to do, what they wanted to accomplish and what they wanted to become.”

They also were empathetic, even Teddy Roosevelt, who was “selfabsorbed and bombastic” but learned empathy, said Shirley Unruh Herrick ’64. “That’s so important, no matter what your start was in life, that they learned that.”

Greg Padgett ’81 noted that Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson became president after their predecessor was assassinated, “yet somehow they’re perfect for the problems of the times. And so you think, is that the hand of providence that they were ready when their opportunity came along?”

David Carr ’75 turned the tables and asked White what she learned from the book. “The ways in which they led really resonated with how I hope, when all is said and done, people say the same thing about me,” she said. The pandemic “enabled me to utilize that moment to bring the community together to develop what I think is a really bold and transformative strategic plan for DePauw. And I don’t know that without the pandemic and the urgency of change if I would have been able to” do that.

Glen David Kuecker, history professor “Disrupted Governance/Towards a New Policy Science” Duane Nickell ’80 “Scientific Kentucky” Kyle Smitley ’07, contributor “My Moment/106 Women on Fighting for Themselves”