Too good to miss! Books recommended by faculty and staff. October 2006
Thanks for all the suggestions that were emailed to me. If this is your first time reading the blog, you may want to go back to earlier posts for more suggestions of great books. Enjoy!
Roth, Philip. Everyman. 2006 [F Roth]
The Pulitzer Prize winning author of American Pastoral, Goodbye Columbus, and Portnoy's Complaint writes about "one man's lifelong confrontation with mortality. From his first glimpse of death during his childhood through his vigorous, seemingly invincible prime, Roth's hero is a man bewildered not only by his own decline but by the unimaginable deaths of his contemporaries and those he has loved." - An incisive, thoughtful and moving account of our inevitable end, especially for those in the midst of physical dissolution in our declining years. The perfect blend of literary and philosophical truth.
-Joe Tsujimoto
Taylor, Edmund. The Fall of the Dynasties: The Collapse of the Old Order, 1905-1922. 1963
This was first recommended to me by the late "Kie" Brown (Jr. School social studies teacher of the encyclopedic mind), when I asked him what history book I might enjoy reading. Taylor's book chronicles the almost simultaneous fall of the Romanov, Hapsburg, and Ottoman empires. The style, if I recall, is equally matched to the sweep of history and the pugnacity of culture. It can be purchased at alibris.com for under $5.00, where I recently got my copy, after more than twenty years (and immediately loaned to Terry Woody).
-Joe Tsujimoto
Markham, Beryl. West with the Night. 1983. [B M34]
A beautifully written autobiography by an extraordinary woman who was raised in East Africa as horse trainer and became a transatlantic pilot. One of the finest prose writers I have come across.
Africa is of an ancient age and the blood of many of her peoples is as
venerable and as chaste as truth. What upstart race, sprung from some
recent, callow century to arm itself with steel and boastfulness, can match
In purity the blood of a single Masai Murani whose heritage may have
stemmed not far from Eden? It is not the weed that is corrupt; roots of
the weed sucked first life from the genesis of the earth and hold the essence
of it still. Always the weed returns; the cultured plants retreat before it.
Racial purity, true aristocracy, devolve not from edict, nor from rote, but
from the preservation of kinship with the elemental forces and purposes
of life whose understanding is not farther beyond the mind of the native
shepherd than beyond the cultured fumblings of a mortarboard intelligence.
-Joe Tsujimoto
Merwin, W.S. The Rain in the Trees: Poems by W. S. Merwin. 1989. [811 M553r]
Norman Hindley and I bought copies when the book first came out, and as Hindley said then, which holds true now, "He [Merwin] breaks your heart at every turn." His poems are elusive, almost fleeting, suggestive of dreams, but are not dreams, but whisperings of loss, and lovely, especially his love poems, like his opening poem "Late Spring":
Coming into the high room again after years
after oceans and shadows of hills and the sounds of lies
after losses and feet on stairs
after looking and mistakes and forgetting
turning there thinking to find
no one except those I knew
finally I saw you
sitting in white
already waiting
you of whom I had heard
with my own ears since the beginning
for whom more than once
I had opened the door
believing you were not far
-Joe Tsujimoto
Coelho, Paulo. The Alchemist.
A simple yet profound tale of a spiritual journey. A good read.
-Eileen McCool
Smith, Alexander McCall.
I recommend the #1 Ladies' Detective Agency series of books about a woman detective in Africa. Entertaining and short. I am on #6.
-Darcy Iams
McCarthy, Cormac. The Road.
I just finished reading Cormac McCarthy's new book, "The Road" this past weekend. I can honestly say it was one of the best reading experiences I've had in a long time. It's a page turner, but it's not necessarily an easy read because the world he creates is mighty bleak, and I had to take breaks to collect my thoughts and wipe away tears at certain points. That said, the book ends in a way that is hopeful and uplifting. The story follows an unnamed man and his boy who are survivors of a vaguely described, world-ending apocalypse. Starvation is now the norm in the world, and gangs of lawless cannibals abound. There is really no where to go and no reason to live, but this man is compelled by his deep love for his son to keep moving down the road. Like I said, the premise is dark, but McCarthy is such a great writer that the book becomes a platform for philosophical musings about what makes life worth living. In my opinion, this book is one of McCarthy's best and one of the best novels I've ever read.
- Tim Dyke
I read "The Road" last week. As Tim says, it's a page turner - in the world of ash, the definitive wasteland sometime after a nuclear holocaust, where the cow is extinct and no bird sings, where (to paraphrase McComac) father and son, one to each other, are the world entire.
-Joe Tsujimoto
Note: McCarthy wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Road. See story at MSNBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18139055
Deb Peterson
Friedman, Thomas L. The World is Flat. [303.4 F91]
This is a very interesting book, even though I didn't agree with all his politics, it really made me think and I think all parents of high school students and college students should read this book and encourage their students to read it as well. He really talks about the future and how we should be preparing ourselves to be successful in the years to come.
- Melanie Killam
**I read the world is flat too. Like Melanie said, even if one does not identify with everything - it rings true.
Similar in some ways, but much more sinister is "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins.
-Jim Herbert
Robinson, Marilynne. Gilead. [F Robinson]
Captivating, beautifully written, stays with you for a long time. An elderly father writes to his young son.
- Kathleen Thomas
Nafisi, Azar. Reading Lolita in Tehran. [B N13]
This book captures how life changed, especially for women when the Shah of Iran was overrun. It tells the story of women trying to keep hope and literature alive under life threatening circumstances.
- Kathleen Thomas
Hosseini, Khaled. Kite Runner. [F Hosseini]
I'm sure this has been recommended already. This book will capture you and will break your heart. I feel it is worth reading because it tells the story of so many in the Middle East.
- Kathleen Thomas
**See earlier comments about Kite Runner in the earlier post, Spring Break Reads
Cox, Lynne. Swimming to Antarctica. 2004. [797.2 C832]
This memoir is an inspiring story of an athlete pursuing her dreams. The suspense builds as the author progresses from "easier" swims like the English Channel, to amazing swims in the freezing water of the Bering Strait and Antarctica.
- Susan Clark
Rhodes, Richard. John James Audubon: The Making of an American. 2004. [B Au2r]
The person who steals the show in this biography is Audubon's remarkable wife Lucy. When Audubon traveled for long periods in the 1820s and 30s, sending little of no money, Lucy supported herself and their sons by teaching. The unvarnished letters included in the book paint a fascinating portrait of a marriage.
- Susan Clark
Schuyler, Nina. The Painting. 2004
I read a great book this summer called The Painting by Nina Schuyler - 2004. This is a story that takes place in the 1870's of Tokyo and Paris. One of the main characters is a potter in Tokyo and his wife is the painter (of the title) - their lives connect to the lives of some people in Paris during the Franco-Prussia war. Well written with a strong visual sense.
- Bob McWilliams