Back to School with Min Jin Lee
The bestselling author recommends books inspired by school subjects
About Min Jin Lee
Min Jin Lee is a recipient of fellowships in Fiction from the Guggenheim Foundation (2018) and the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at Harvard (2018–2019). Her novel Pachinko (2017) was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, and a New York Times 10 Best Books of 2017. A New York Times Bestseller, Pachinko was also a Top 10 Books of the Year for BBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and the New York Public Library.
Pachinko was a selection for “Now Read This,” the joint book club of PBS NewsHour and The New York Times. It was on over 75 best books of the year lists, including NPR, PBS, and CNN. Pachinko will be translated into 24 languages. Lee’s debut novel Free Food for Millionaires (2007) was a Top 10 Books of the Year for The Times of London, NPR’s Fresh Air, USA Today, and a national bestseller. Her writings have appeared in The New Yorker, NPR’s Selected Shorts, One Story, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, The Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, Conde Nast Traveler, The Times of London, and Wall Street Journal. She served three consecutive seasons as a Morning Forum columnist of the Chosun Ilbo of South Korea. In 2018, Lee was named as an Adweek Creative 100 for being one of the “10 Writers and Editors Who are Changing the National Conversation” and a Frederick Douglass 200. She received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Monmouth College.
I. STEM
CHIEF ENGINEER: Washington Roebling, The Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge by Erica Wagner
THE PERFECTIONISTS: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World by Simon Winchester
II. Humanities and Creative Arts
THE WORLD BROKE IN TWO: Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Forster, and the Year that Changed Literature by Bill Goldstein
ART & FEAR: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking
by David Bayles and Ted Orland
SISTER OUTSIDER by Audre Lorde
III. Social Sciences
WHY WE SLEEP: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker, Ph.D.
THE ATTENTION MERCHANTS: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads by Tim Wu
*Join Tim Wu in conversation on November 14 to discuss his new book, The Curse of Bigness.
IV: History and Memoir
A MOONLESS, STARLESS SKY: Ordinary Women and Men Fighting Extremism in Africa by Alexis Okeowo
A TOKYO ROMANCE: A Memoir by Ian Buruma
