While most high school students are assigned a list of books to read over the summer, undergraduates aren't required to do much at all during the summer months. Just in case you've been using the excuse of "But I don't know what to read!" to avoid any and all intellectual engagement, we here at Flyby asked some of Harvard's brightest minds for summer reading recommendations. Here's what they suggested.

Nancy M. Cline - Roy E. Larsen Librarian of Harvard College

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World, by J. Tracy Kidder '67

I would suggest Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. It is now available in an inexpensive paperback edition, perfect for slipping into a backpack or beach tote and also in digital format (and also there are copies in several Harvard libraries!)

This is not a new book. I suggest it now because it is about the work of Paul Farmer and colleagues who worked with him to found Partners in Health, an organization that has grown to have an important impact on several areas of the world. What caused me to return to this book (after first reading it a few years ago) was the earthquake in Haiti. Reading about the extraordinary challenges that Farmer and his team faced in delivering health care and building community-based programs gave considerable insight to the problems that continue to complicate the recovery of Haiti. The story is compelling. It helps one become more attentive to the diverse aspects of different countries’ economic and social conditions, to perhaps better understand why aid sometimes does not work as intended, and to appreciate the generous and proud spirit that can survive amidst poverty.

Now, I’m about to start on Kidder’s more recent book, Strength in What Remains.

Paul E. Farmer - Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School; Head of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School

Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming, by Paul Hawken; Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

I'd encourage anyone to read Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken. Those of us who think of ourselves as (or who have become, reluctantly) leaders of the social-justice movement could stand a reminder that we must also be humble participants in it—and that "our" movement is THE movement, that the fight for access to health care and education and justice and dignity is also the fight for a safer world and one that will sustain us. As Hawken says, "There is no question that the environmental movement is critical to our survival. Our house is literally burning, and it is only logical that environmentalists expect the social justice movement to get on the environmental bus. But it is the other way around; the only way we are going to put out the fire is to get on the social justice bus and heal our wounds, because in the end, there is only one bus."

And then for dessert, if you're so inclined—and if you share my aversion to Jane Austen—the nunchuk-laced send-up of regency England Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Niall C. D. Ferguson - Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History and Professor of Business Administration; William Ziegler Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon

Undergraduate summers are the time for serious reading. I would urge students to read as much as they can of Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, still the greatest work of historical writing in English. The combination of erudition and irony is exquisite. It is also an invaluable guide to the symptoms of imperial decline, which could come in handy in the years ahead.

Melissa Franklin - Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics

The Star Thrower, by Loren C. Eiseley