Books for Lockdown
SF Ballet Development Team’s Reading Suggestions
When San Francisco Ballet’s Development team isn’t hard at work fundraising and holding events, they’re diving into a good book. Here’s what they’ve been reading this summer.

“I read The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light by Paul Bogard, which I highly recommend. This book gave me a special appreciation for the Neowise comet a few weeks ago. I’ve also been reading The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness, by Sy Montgomery; Becoming, by Michelle Obama, and A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn.”
“During lockdown, I’ve read The Mirror & The Light, by Hilary Mantel (the final book in her trilogy about Thomas Cromwell), and Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls. I’m currently reading Days Without End by Sebastian Barry”
“As a former public health student at Mailman, I’ve been reading about the virus—about transmission rates, viral load, serums, etc. I find it fascinating, as it’s a once-in-a-lifetime event for many of us. More importantly, since the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many other Black people across America, I've been focused on reading a range of books with my elementary school–age daughter on how to be antiracist: The Gospel in Color—For Kids, by Curtis A. Woods and Jarvis J. Williams; Antiracist Baby, by Ibram X. Kendi; and ColorFull: Celebrating the Colors God Gave Us, by Dorena Williamson. We read these books together because many of the terms and concepts, until now, are foreign to her and need quite a bit of explaining and discussion.”
“Some books I would recommend are Lives of the Renaissance: People Who Shapes the Modern Age, by Robert C. Davidson and Beth Lindsmith; Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet, by Jennifer Homans; and any of Terry Pratchett’s books.”
“I’ve been reading Can We All Be Feminists?: New Writing from Brit Bennett, Nicole Dennis-Benn, and More on Intersectionality, Identity, and the Way Forward for Feminism, by Brit Bennett, Evette Dionne, Nicole Y. Dennis-Benn, et al. I’ve also read Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens; Born A Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, by Trevor Noah; and The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from A Secret World, by Peter Wohlleben this summer.”
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Header Image: Frances Chung // © Erik Tomasson