USC Institute of Armenian Studies - Summer Reading List
What Salpi Ghazarian is reading
The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California by Mark Arax
The Dreamt Land Chasing Water and Dust Across California

Mark Arax

Scandal, storytelling and serious water issues, by the Fresno son of rabble-rouser grandparents from Van.

Not a Creature was Stirring by Jane Haddam
Not a Creature Was Stirring, the first Gregor Demarkian mystery

Jane Haddam

The top-notch detective who lives in Philadelphia’s Armenian neighborhood and figures out crimes – and people.

Sulamita, Sevaki mets sere [Sulamita: Sevak’s Great Love, in Armenian] by Hovik Charkhchyan
Sulamita, Sevaki mets sere [Sulamita: Sevak’s Great Love, in Armenian]

Hovik Charkhchyan

Paruyr Sevak’s lover and muse, Sulamita’s influence extends far, but her name is largely unknown.

What Shushan Karapetian is reading
Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Language by Eva Hoffman
Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Language

Eva Hoffman

A meditation on the relationship between language and culture through disruptions (adolescence, exile, assimilation) and translations of all kinds (culture, language, oneself).

Bilingual: Life and Reality by François Grosjean
Bilingual: Life and Reality

François Grosjean

Myth debunking, reader-friendly, entertaining discussion of the many facets of life with multiple languages. Useful for bilinguals, parents, teachers, program administrators, and the curious.

Reflections on Armenian Identity in History and Historiography by Houri Berberian and T. Daryaee (editors)
Reflections on Armenian Identity in History and Historiography

Houri Berberian and T. Daryaee (editors)

An eclectic collection spanning a period of some three thousand years on identity, history, and historiography… again.

What Silva Sevlian is reading
Kill the Messenger: The Media’s Role in the Fate of the World by Maria Armoudian
Kill the Messenger: The Media’s Role in the Fate of the World

Maria Armoudian

A ​historical look into how the media shapes our ideals/ideas about human life.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir by Haruki Murakami
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir

Haruki Murakami

A runner’s obsession and a writer’s obsession intersect.

Portraits of Hope: Armenians in the Contemporary World by Huberta von Voss
Portraits of Hope: Armenians in the Contemporary World

Huberta von Voss

Cultural essays that read like obituaries for the living.

What Syuzanna Petrosyan is reading
Midnight at the Pera Palace by Charles King
Midnight at the Pera Palace

Charles King

The story of a decaying seaside hotel in Istanbul that tells the history of a chaotic and ever-changing city.

Nothing Is True and Everything is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev
Nothing Is True and Everything is Possible

Peter Pomerantsev

A look into the intertwined world of Russian media, propaganda, and government, and how they shape the world around us.

The Warmth of Other Suns, The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
The Warmth of Other Suns, The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration

Isabel Wilkerson

A peek into diasporas, migrations, communities – the mass journey of southern Blacks to northern and western cities of America told through the words of those who made the trek.

What Gegham Mughnetsyan is reading
How George Became Kevork: Race, Law, and the Many Transformations of the Michaelian Family by Christopher Stedman-Parmenter
How George Became Kevork: Race, Law, and the Many Transformations of the Michaelian Family

Christopher Stedman-Parmenter

A century-long journey of one Armenian family in America.

How Armenian-Americans Became "White": A Brief History by Aram Ghoogasian
How Armenian-Americans Became "White": A Brief History

Aram Ghoogasian

The story of the court decisions at the basis of legal origins of Armenian inclusion in America.

On Stuffed Grape Leaves & Seeking Refuge in America by Dayana Sarkisova
On Stuffed Grape Leaves & Seeking Refuge in America

Dayana Sarkisova

A journalist grapples with her past as a refugee and the place of food in America.

What Lilit Keshishyan is reading
Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut
Bluebeard

Kurt Vonnegut

Fictional autobiography of first-generation Armenian American painter Rabo Karabekian.

From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean: The Global Trade Networks of Armenian Merchants from New Julfa by Sebouh Aslanian
From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean: The Global Trade Networks of Armenian Merchants from New Julfa

Sebouh Aslanian

Fascinating study of the emergence and growth of the global trade network operated by Armenian silk merchants.

Representations of the Intellectual by Edward Said
Representations of the Intellectual

Edward Said

Edward Said explores what it means to be an intellectual in the 20th century.