The firecracker-hot days of an Alabama summer provide the perfect encouragement to get lost in the cool, crisp pages of a good book. But with infinite shelves of reading material available, where do you begin?

We asked faculty members in UAB’s Department of English for inspiration, and they shared a few of the titles that sparked their passion for literature.

• Danny Siegel, Ph.D., associate professor with a focus on Victorian literature and culture
• Lila Miranda Graves, Ph.D., associate professor specializing in 18th-century British literature
• Peter Bellis, Ph.D., professor, department chair, and specialist in American literature
• William Hutchings, Ph.D., professor, concentrating on modern British and world literature
• Cassandra Ellis, Ph.D., assistant professor and teacher of first-year writing and sophomore literature courses
• Kyle Grimes, Ph.D., associate professor, specializing in British Romantic-period literature
• Kerry Madden-Lunsford, M.F.A., associate professor of creative writing