Summertime, and the reading is easy

By Barbara Gutierrez [email protected] 06-23-2026

These are the dog days of summer. Long, lazy days when one can relax a bit. For many, it is a time to take vacations and enjoy the warm, languorous hours.

Whether going to the beach or enjoying an afternoon by the pool or in the backyard, summer reading is a treat for many. It can be fun novels, short stories, poems, or sci-fi texts. To each their own.

University of Miami deans and professors shared some of what they will be reading and watching this summer.

What will you be reading this summer?

My summer reading list is usually more ambitious than time will allow.

But I hope to read "The Comfort Crisis" by Michael Easter; "The Greatest Sentence Ever Written" by Walter Isaacson; and Ada Ferrer's "Keeper of My Kin." I also hope to catch up on recent books and articles written by our faculty at the School of Law.

What will you watch on television?

I will try to catch as many World Cup games as possible!

• Patricia Abril, dean, School of Law

What will you be reading this summer?

I typically read books about leadership. But I plan to add "Super Agers" by Eric Topol and "The Anxious Generation" by Jonathan Haidt.

What will you be watching on television?

I will be watching the World Cup every chance I get. I don't do much streaming.

• Henri Ford, dean and chief academic officer at the Miller School of Medicine

What will you be reading this summer?

In the summer, I plan to read "Quantum Supremacy" by Michio Kaku and, of course, books written by A&S faculty, including "Infinite Country" by Patricia Engel and "Before the Holocaust" by Herman Beck.

What will you be watching on television?

With regard to what I am watching on TV, I plan on spending a lot of time watching the FIFA World Cup, as I am an avid soccer fan and play soccer myself, and finishing the Jack Ryan series.

• Leonidas Bachas, dean, College of Arts and Sciences

What will you be reading this summer?

This summer, I plan to focus my reading around artificial intelligence, not only from a technical perspective but books that ask the bigger questions: What happens to judgment, leadership, education, and human purpose when AI becomes much better at doing some of the work we once thought was uniquely ours?

On my to-read list are "Co-Intelligence" by Ethan Mollick and "The Coming Wave" by Mustafa Suleyman. I also want to read "The Maniac" by Benjamín Labatut, which is a more literary exploration of genius, technology, math, and the early roots of AI.

What will you be watching on television?

I do not watch much television, but I may catch an AI documentary or two this summer, perhaps PBS' "In the Age of AI" or NOVA's "A.I. Revolution." I am excited about documentaries that treat AI neither as an apocalypse but as one of the defining human, business, and ethical challenges of our time.

And for some summer break, I will watch some of the FIFA World Cup, especially the latter part of the tournament.

So perhaps my summer theme can be summarized as artificial intelligence X human intelligence!

• Paul A. Pavlou, dean, Miami Herbert Business School

What will you be reading this summer?

I plan to read "Range" by David Epstein. It explores how people with broad interests, rather than narrow specialization, often succeed in complex fields.

What will you be streaming or watching on TV?

I plan to watch FIFA soccer, Wimbledon Tennis, and US Open Golf. I also plan on watching the documentary "The Chosen."

• Vincent K. Omachonu, interim dean, College of Engineering

What will you be reading this summer?

I am reading "El Niño in History Storming Through the Ages" by Cesar N. Caviedes and "Dear Committee Members" by Julie Schumacher.

What will you be listening to?

My current favorite podcast is "Opinionated History of Mathematics." It is a great soporific.

• Ben Kirtman, dean, Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science

What will you be reading this summer?

For fun this summer, my nightstand is full of long-overdue reads. I have started with "Kin" by Tayari Jones, which has been an engrossing read about family, motherhood, friendship, and an interesting follow up to the One Book One U common book the past year, "The Vanishing Half" by Brit Bennett, who I had the great honor of being in conversation with in February when she visited campus as part of the One Book One U program.

Having recently met Judge Roy Altman, and in a desire to always be in continuous conversation about contentious issues, I have his new book, "Israel on Trial: Examining the History, the Evidence, and the Law," next up in my queue.

Also, since my postdoctoral fellow is expecting a baby, I have been revisiting and collecting for her my favorite children's books that my son enjoyed when he was a little guy-now 19 years old-including "Please, Baby, Please," "Goodnight Moon," "The Paperbag Princess," "Chowder," "Life Doesn't Frighten Me," "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," "The Snowy Day," and "Love you Forever." It seems silly, but it gives me great empty-nest joy to remember childhood story time via these books.

What will you be watching on television?

I will be bingeing on as many World Cup matches as I can, especially since getting an in-person ticket seems impossible and very pricey! Of course, it would be nice if the USA would at least win their group, and I will be on my feet cheering for the Haitian national football team-but if not those two, Les Bleus all the way (go Mbappé!).

• Laura Kohn-Wood, dean, School of Education and Human Development

What will you be reading this summer?

I will be catching up on Louise Penny's wonderful inspector Gamache series by reading her two recent works, "A World of Curiosities" and "The Black Wolf." I just finished Anne Applebaum's "Twilight of Democracy" and will be starting "Regime Change" by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan when the book is released later this month.

What will you be watching on television?

After seeing John Hamm and Elisabeth Moss in several recent series, I'm rewatching "Mad Men," the TV series that launched their careers.

• Charles Eckman, dean, UM Libraries

What will you be reading this summer?

This summer, I'm reading Ada Ferrer's memoir, "Keeper of My Kin," which weaves together family history, migration, and memory through the lens of the Cuban experience. As someone who works with Cuban heritage and diaspora collections, I'm especially interested in personal narratives that illuminate the human impact of major historical events. Ferrer's account offers a moving perspective on how the Cuban Revolution shaped one family's story of separation, identity, and belonging across generations.

What will you be watching on television?

For lighter entertainment, I've been streaming "Widow's Bay," a comedy-horror series that has been a fun summer escape into spooky New England.

• Amanda T. Moreno-Schroeder, Esperanza Bravo de Varona Chair and director of the Cuban Heritage Collection