Faculty/Staff Books I Have Loved 2026

“The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours.”

― Alan Bennett, The History Boys

This year, we asked Overlake faculty and staff: "Which book this year (or any year) came out and took your hand? Which book filled you with evangelical zeal to put the shattered world back together? Which book made you tune out an entire herd of 9th graders playing frozen-pizza frisbee, eat a whole tin of cookies your colleague intended for the department meeting, or forget to pick up your mom from Zumba class? Which book opened your eyes and your mind in ways you never expected?"

Here are the books they recommended!

“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.”

― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars