Just in Time for Summer Reading
Thanks to everybody who took time out of their busy schedules to send book recommendations. I'm anxious for shorter hours for Summer School to allow extra time to catch up on reading. Right now, I am reading Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth (see Tim Dyke's comments below). It is really hard to put it down to do anything else. My television hasn't been on much since I started reading it.
I have been reading other people's suggestions and would like to add my recommendations for the following:
Hirsi Ali, Ayaan. Infidel.
Dallas, Sandra. Tallgrass.
Weisman, Alan. The World Without Us. (I listened to the audio version)
Another one that I enjoyed was suggested to me by Carol Lee but it must not have been submitted to the blog so I'll pass on her recommendation for Tess Uriza Holthe's, When the Elephants Dance. [F Holthe] This is about the Philippines under Japanese occupation during WWII. It centers around one family and what is happening to them just prior to the Americans retaking the Philippines. There are also long stories of the past as the family members hide out during air raids, etc. Very good!
So much for what I've been reading, here are the other recommendations.
Michaelis, David. Schulz and Peanuts.
This biography of the creator of Charlie Brown and Snoopy asserts that Charles Schulz used his comic strip about children to exorcise his own personal demons and to paint a decidedly melancholy picture of America in the last half of the 20th Century. The author argues convincingly that Schulz was an essential American artist whose work will stand the test of time. The book is full of Peanuts cartoons which are used throughout to illustrate points and to provide evidence for certain biographical claims.
-Tim Dyke
Follett, Ken. The Pillars of the Earth F Follett
This weighty tome transports readers into 12th century England where squires fight to impress Kings, monks fight to attain power, laborers fight to build cathedrals, and unmarried mothers fight to prove they are not witches. There's blood, sex, and history in every chapter which makes the 1000+ pages turn quickly.
-Tim Dyke
Layden, Joe. The Last Great Fight.
Perhaps you grew up in the 1960s, '70s or '80s and witnessed great heavyweight prize fighters like Liston, Patterson, Ali, Frazier, Foreman and Holmes. Perhaps you have noticed that not only are such fighters absent from contemporary boxing but that the sport itself seems to have withered. The author of this book makes the case that the sport died the day Mike Tyson's career imploded, and he argues that the implosion began when Buster Douglas whipped Tyson in Japan in 1990. The narrative alternates from Tyson to Douglas chapter by chapter, and the story told is both narrowly focused and widely defined.
-Tim Dyke
Perlstein, Rick. Nixonland.
This book covers American political history from 1964-1974. The author argues that the divisions existing today in our politics trace back to racial, economic, and cultural themes that were established during Nixon's rise and fall. The book reads like a novel, and it provides a provocative lens through which to view the upcoming presidential election.
-Tim Dyke
Child, Lee. Running Blind; Die Trying; Killing Floor.
Bruce Schauble told me about this author, and I simultaneously want to thank him and curse him for the recommendation. Each story follows Jack Reacher, a lone gunman with a heart of gold, as he solves conspiracies, shoots bad guys, and respects the women he beds. I feel about these books exactly how I feel about potato chips. I forget they exist until I crave them, at which point I gorge on too many in rapid succession and feel bad about myself until the next craving hits.
-Tim Dyke
Safina, Carl. Eye of the Albatross: Visions of Hope and Survival (Henry Holt, 2002)
Engaging journalistic account of the natural history of Laysan albatrosses, monk seals, sea turtles, sharks, and other wildlife in the northwestern Hawaiian islands.
-Susan Clark
Schumm, Bruce A. Deep Down Things: The Breathtaking Beauty of Particle Physics. 539.7 Sch8
A physics light reading published by Johns Hopkins.
-Hanno Adams
Hemmings, Kaui Hart. The Descendants. HC F Hemmings
Kaui went to Punahou, and the characters are distinctly punahou-esque. Kaui graduated in 94 I believe. The book takes place on Oahu, Big Island and Kauai. The story involves complex family relationships, written in a fathers' point of view. Fairly quick reading.
-Catherine Vaughan
Barry, Dave. Barry Does Japan.
If you've ever visited Japan, or ever wanted to visit, you need to read Dave Barry's take on it. A laugh-out-loud book which really nails all the things that outsiders discover when they visit Japan.
-David Del Rocco
LeGuin, Ursula. The Left Hand of Darkness.
Imagine a world where everyone is the same gender; neither male nor female but a "potential" who can become male or female when necessary. This imaginative groundbreaking novel won both the Nebula and the Hugo Awards in 1969.
-David Del Rocco
Abu-Jaber, Diana. Crescent. F Abu-Jaber
An attractive, talented, but jaded and lovelorn chef finds amour at first sight with a dark, handsome, Iraqi linguist with a mysterious past, and they live happily ever after. With echoes of Proust, Shakespeare, and Esquivel, Crescent makes for excellent summer reading: perfect beach fare with its sensuous lyricism and romance, yet just enough political, cultural, and literary substance to counterbalance any guilty pleasure.
-Lara Cowell
Nazario, Sonia. Enrique's Journey. 305.23 N23
This non-fiction book by Pulitzer Prize winner, Sonia Nazario, tells the riveting story of Enrique, a Honduran teenager, who risks his life in order to reunite with his mother in the United States. His experience mirrors the perilous journeys of many illegal migrants, drawn to the United States by the prospect of the American Dream as well as the desire to reclaim the love of lost, idealized parents. The book made me reflect on the heart-wrenching sacrifices and trade-offs that parents make in the name of the greater good, and the way that their economic choices to ensure a higher standard of living for their families, also ironically disintegrate family stability and further unravel the societal fabric of their home countries.
-Lara Cowell
Akbar, Said Hyder and Susan Burton. Come Back to Afghanistan: A California Teenager's Story. 958.1 Ak2.
Akbar, the child of Afghan immigrants, writes a thoughtful, compelling, humorous memoir of his time spent in post-Taliban Afghanistan. He has a particularly interesting vantage point, as his father was advisor to Afghan president, Harmid Karzai, and later became governor of Kunar, a volatile province. The political and the personal beautifully weave together in this riveting, highly readable tale of chaos and change.
-Lara Cowell