Mike Roam's Books Page

• Links to Publishing Companies
• Some On-line Magazines and Newspapers
• Book recommendations, by date of reading.
• Book recommendations, by author.

Note: these pages were created as an exercise: I've written the programs that convert a database into validated xhtml interlinked webpages (in unicode) that are sorted by different fields (date, title, author), and that in one case (date) have internal links to the various dates. 2007: I'm starting to investigate LibraryThing.com. --Mike

Books Read, by Title

• 1961 METAI, KURIAIS TU GIMEI: KAS Š.VYKO. KAIP RENGŠSI. ... by ; Nonfiction; (acv edicions, Barcelona, Spain; © ACV, Afers de Comunicacio Visual, SA; ISBN#:978-84-96738-31-7) {read:2007 aug 25} (History of what happened in Lithuania in 1961.) Apparently Krushchev was pushing the planting of corn in Lithuania in 1961, the same year that Amnesty International (AI usa) was founded.
• 1984 by George Orwell ; Fiction; {read:1978 & before}
• 25 Years of the Ironman Triathlon World Championship by Bob Babbitt ; Nonfiction; (Meyer & Meyer Sport, 2003.; ) {read:2003 nov} more info at www.ironmanlive.com and www.ironman25.com
• 9/11 Report, The: A Graphic Adaptation by Sid Jacobson (+ Ernie Colón); Nonfiction; (Hill and Wang, A division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux; © 2006 Castlebridge Enterprises, Inc.; ISBN#:978-0-8090-5739-9) {read:2007 Jun} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Believe it or not, this is a "Graphic Adaption" (also known as comic book) of the report from the 9/11 commission, including history of the major participants, and analysis of future threats and things to be learned. With a compelling foreword by the Chair and Vice Chair of the 9/11 Commission, Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton. They're right: everybody should read (look at) this book.
• [Sic] by Melissa James Gibson ; Fiction; (New York : Faber and Faber, 2002.; © 2002 Melissa James Gibson; ISBN#:0-571-21167-4) {read:2008 May 04} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Our own Melissa Gibson's play was a success off Broadway, and is tremendously interesting to read. There is music in the call and response of dialogue, with missed signals and overlapping lines, while seemingly bizarre statements are suddenly revealed to be very clear after all.
• A Spot Of Bother by Mark Haddon ; Fiction; (Vintage Books, London; © Mark Haddon 2006; ISBN#:9780099506928) {read:2007 aug 29} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Like poetry in noticing subtle changes of mood. Themes include love/hate with family, fear of death, doubts about love partner, madness, community. Compulsively readable.
• Ada by Vladimir Nabakov ; Fiction; {read:1994} Intellectual, passionate, beautiful, challenging. An intricate, lush novel with a moving love story, by an author who delights in playing with language and philosophy. Smart, and full of suprises.
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The by Mark (Samuel Clemens) Twain ; Fiction; (Penguin Classics, Penguin Books USA; © 1884 Samuel L. Clemens; ISBN#:0 14 03. 9046 4) {read:2006 aug 15} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). This reads like blazes, like a house afire, and I love Huck's naive approach while he's commenting on rascals, friends, kings, and Truth, Right vs. Wrong, and Knowledge. One crazy adventure after another, too! Mark Twain starts off lightly by warning readers not to look for a plot, moral, nor motive.
• Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The by Arthur Conan Doyle ; Fiction; {read:1975 or before}
• Ajax by ? Sophocles (+ Translated by John Moore.); Fiction; (In "Sophocles II", University of Chicago Press. 1957; ) {read:1979-82}
• Ajax on Java: The Essentials of XMLHttpRequest and XML Programming with Java by Steven Douglas Olson ; Nonfiction; (O'Reilly, Sebastopol, CA; © 2007 O'Reilly Media, Inc.; ISBN#:978-0-596-10187-9) {read:2007 Jul 08} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Wonderful, including information about the Google GWT, with detailed instructions on setting up the html, javascript, ant build files, and server side Java Servlets to make everything run. See O'Reilly's java.oreilly.com and onJava.com.
• Alcestis by ? Euripides (+ Translated by Paul Roche.); Fiction; (W. W. Norton & Co., Inc. New York. 1974; ) {read:1979-82}
• All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot ; Fiction; (1972; ISBN#:0312965788) {read:1975 or before} www.jamesherriot.org has info about the great Yorkshire writer and veterinarian James Alfred Wight (who wrote under the pen name "James Herriot").
• All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy ; Fiction; (Vintage International (division of Random House Inc), New York, 1992.; ) {read:1998 , 1995} Wow! Philosophers on dusty streets and on horseback in harsh landscapes. Things turn horrible, sometimes. More Cormac McCarthy Links are at www.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/Literature/Authors/Literary_Fiction/McCarthy__Cormac/ . Link to translations of the Spanish phrases (and more) at www.CormacMcCarthy.com/Resources.htm#Translations.
• American Ambassador, The: A Novel by Ward Just ; Fiction; (Mariner Books, Houghton Mifflin, New York; © 1987 Ward Just; ISBN#:0-39-42694-4 [0-618-34078-5 pbk.]) {read:2007 Jan} I recommend! Intense, fascinating: psychological and political novel with arguments about father/son rivalry, justification of imperialism, justification of anti-establishment violence... I'm eager to read more of his books. www.nytimes.com/books/99/05/02/specials/just.html
• An Equal Music by Vikram Seth ; Fiction; (Vintage International, a division of Random House Inc., New York; © 1999 Vikram Seth; ISBN#:0-375-70924-X) {read:2005 Aug 15} I recommend! I've got to find more by this author: I was craving to find out what comes next in this novel about classical (chamber) musicians.
• And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie ; Fiction; (Washington Square Press, Pocket Books, A Division of Simon & Schuster; © 1939, 1970 Agatha Christie Mallowan; ISBN#:671-46606-2) {read:2005 Jul 08} I recommend!
• Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt ; Nonfiction; (1996; ) {read:1997} Disarmingly gentle and deceptively "simple." The author has a gift for story telling, optimism, and empathy while surrounded by poverty and disappointment.
• Angels & Demons by Dan Brown ; Fiction; {read:2003} can't put it down! Freemasons, codes, clues, horrible violence, race against time, CERN (and its invention of the world wide web by Tim Berners-Lee, who used nextstep software to invent html and http).
• Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner ; Fiction; {read:1995} Quality work. Examining life in retrospect.
• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy ; Fiction; {read:1994} Wow!
• Annotated Lolita, The by Vladimir Nabakov (+ Ed. by Edward Appel, Jr.); Fiction; (First Vintage Books, (Random House, New York): 1970, 1991; ) {read:1998 ,1994} Intricate word play, deep passion, fascinating stories. I had read "Lolita" two or three times before, so I knew that it was a fantastic, intricate book lush with allusion and subtlety (as well as a comic/tragic cry for quality and subtlety), but Appel's annotations gave me a deeper appreciation of the complex dramatic architecture, the literary references, the interwoven complementary story lines. I kept re-checking this out of the Saint Ann's library so that I could, (detective like), finish following all the footnotes and untangle the narrative threads.
• Another Country by James Baldwin ; Fiction; (A Laurel book, pub. by Dell, NY; © 1960, 1962 James Baldwin; ISBN#:0-440-30200-5) {read:2007 nov 25} My rating: 6 (fr.0-10). Things I like included the human relations (tension when people don't trust each other at the start of a romantic relationship, in particular) and issues of hate and racism, and the struggle to create significant works of art. One character watches strangers out a window and pictures one of them bringing home a new lover who will try to act out love moves as seen in movies. Truthtelling is thought to lead to redemption for artists. Whites beat up blacks and vice versa. French logic: we are French, so whatever we do is right. Policeman are potential assailants, but one is seen patrolling with a mix of suspicion and fear. "Maybe there's something in everybody that likes to be debased, but I don't think life's that simple. I don't trust all these formulas." There's a strange moment when Baldwin's voice changes into that of a movie critic for a page or two.
• Antigone by Sophocles (+ Translated by Elizabeth Wyckoff); Fiction; (In "Sophocles I", University of Chicago Press. 1954; ) {read:1979-82}
• Arcadia by Tom Stoppard ; Fiction; {read:1995} Wonderful mix of waltzing, pudding, fire, chaos, and impertinence.
• Archer, The by Bernard Cornwell ; Fiction; (HarperTorch, an imprint of HarperCollins, NY; © 2001 Bernard Cornwell; ISBN#:0-06-050525-7) {read:2005 Aug 30} More wonderful storytelling: historical and bloody fiction in 14th c. Europe, with English archers, French knights, sieges, pillaging, and Grail quest. (Inquisition wasn't allowed to shed blood, so they used fire, rack, and press. Good God.) Thomas toys with feelings of "it only matters that you believe" versus in-grained skepticism, both inherited from his priest father.
• Around the World in 20 Days by Bertrand Piccard (+ Brian Jones); Nonfiction; (John Wiley & Sons, Inc (First published as "The Greatest Adventure: The Round-the-World Balloon Voyage of the Breitling Orbiter 3" in U.K. by Headline Book Publishing); © 199; ) {read:2003 Dec} fast reading, heart-pounding true adventure with good self-knowledge, analysis of problems and challenges, and with kind intentions toward the people of the earth (their prize money went to a children's charity).
• As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner ; Fiction; {read:2004 feb} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10).
• Asylum: A Novel by Patrick McGrath ; Fiction; (Random House, New York; © 1997 Patrick McGrath; ISBN#:0-679-45228-1) {read:2006 May 10} My rating: 6 (fr.0-10). Most interesting thing was the unreliable (lovelorn and subjective) narration. The movie is beautiful to look at, and their passion-lust is palpable, but both story and book seem to drift along with Stella's depression. The voice of narrator kept me turning the pages, and I was worried about what Edgar might do, but something left me not believing Stella's passion nor caring about her depression. The author described some scenes with such nuance that I felt "Oh! I know exactly what you mean!" but I'm not putting this one on the summer reading list for school. (I rented the movie, in which Ian McKellen is amazing while the rest is just okay.)
• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand ; Fiction; {read:1979-82} Wait a minute, not so fast: are you justifying ALL kinds of selfishness and caprice? This doesn't sound like such a great idea. And what's with the brutal "love" and scorn for "do-gooders"?
• aubrey maturin series by Patrick O'Brian ; Fiction; {read:1998} Series of novels set in the British Navy in the early 19th century. The whole series (twenty books) is so marvelous that reading the final ten last summer and fall meant that I always had something to look forward to. Any of the books is a historically accurate, intelligent, thoughtful, literate, adventure story that can be read by itself. (They're even more fun in series, though the first isn't the very best of the group.) Some of my favorites include Master and Commander (#1)"; "Far Side of the World (#10), The"; "Reverse of the Medal (#11)"; "Letter of Marque, The (#12)" (W.W.Norton & Co., London & NY). --The "Aubrey and Maturin" novels about English navy action on "Man of War" ships during 1790 to 1810 are wonderful: literate, evocative, thoughtful, moving, and exciting. (The reviewers claim that they are also fanatically accurate.) They are not mere "stories for boys" (Nabokov's scoff about Hemingway). The characters feel alive to me, subtle, with plausible philosophical questions, imperfections, and bursts of heroism. Any book from the series can stand alone.
• Babes in the Wood, The: A Chief Inspector Wexford Mystery by Ruth Rendell ; Fiction; (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard; Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc, New York; © 2002 Kingsmarkham Enterprises, Ltd; ISBN#:1-4000-3419-1) {read:2005 Nov} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). Really well done mystery with sharp but human investigators.
• Back of the Napkin, The: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures by Dan Roam ; Nonfiction; (Portfolio, the business book imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.; © 2008; ISBN#:9781591841999) {read:2007 oct 29} My rating: 9 (fr.0-10). Plug for a great book by my brother Dan. (I've read every word of a proof print, prior to its Mar 2008 release date.) Aimed at business consultants, the book shows how anybody can use simple drawings (no artistic skill needed) to convey complex multi-dimensional ideas while thinking and talking out loud. Full of tricks and techniques and amazingly clear ideas (with hand-drawn pictures, naturally).
• Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose ; Nonfiction; {read:2001} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). History of American paratroopers in WWII as they train for D-Day, then fight through France and Germany. Another "can't put it down" true story, with plenty of food for thought for pacifists and non.
• Bandits and Privateers: Canada in the Age of Gunpowder by Harold Horwood (+ Ed Butts); Nonfiction; (published in hardcover 1987 by Doubleday of Canada; in paper by Goodread Biographies, 1998, Formac Publishing Co. LTD, 5359 Inglis St, Halifax NS Canada.; ) {read:2003 Aug} Cover blurb "True stories of the colourful rogues and scoundrels who bring Canadian history to life."
• Baron in the Trees, The by Italo Calvino ; Fiction; {read:2000} I am grateful for this graceful, bittersweet, quasi-fable: thankful for the author's imagination, the character's nobility of spirit, and the deftly handled considerations of how to be a good person (no didactic sledgehammers here).
• Baudolino by Umberto Eco (+ Translated from Italian by William Weaver.); Fiction; (A Harvest Book / Harcourt, Inc; NY. 2003; © 2000 RCS Libri S.p.A; ISBN#:0-15-100690-3) {read:2005 Aug 03} My rating: 6 (fr.0-10). It's wonderful that one pivotal scene, answering years of suspicion, is resolved through Baudolino, the great liar/storyteller, being shown how gullible he has been. Eco's characters also make a mockery of the faith-based "reasoning" of the middle ages, which sometimes relies on only the quotes of elders and sages while disregarding physical evidence and rigorous logic. (Eco's The Name of the Rose and Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle discuss this same point.) The novel's characters have great experience and debate with questions of reality, truth, heresy, love, and occasional humor. ("The one time in my life I told the truth and only the truth, they stoned me.") Unfortunately I found the story to lag in the middle and had to push my way through to the end.
• Beginning Perl for BioInformatics by James Tisdall ; Nonfiction; (O'Reilly; © 2001; ISBN#:0-596-00080-4) {read:2002 Sep} Another immensely useful O'Reilly book!
• Bell Jar, The by Sylvia Plath ; Nonfiction; {read:1988-89} Gives some sympathy for mental problems.
• Beloved by Toni Morrison ; Fiction; {read:1983-4}
• Bend in the River, A by V.S. Naipaul ; Fiction; (Penguin Books, Great Britain: 1979; ) {read:1990-93} The government troubles in the African country include great scenes: a "money for the people" program puts illiterates in charge of businesses that they don't understand.
• Bend Sinister by Vladimir Nabokov ; Fiction; (Vintage; ) {read:2001} A philosophy professor watches a childhood classmate known as the "toad" become the supreme dictator of their sad country. In this novel, as in the others by Nabokov, every whisper matters, and a narrator winks out from behind many of the rocks, dreams, and spies. There are even government agents dressed as organ-grinders, not knowing how to play. Worth reading and re-reading.
• Best and the Brightest, The by David Halberstam ; Nonfiction; (Fawcett Crest, New York, 1972; ) {read:1985-87} Fascinating story of America's hubris and good(?) intentions in Vietnam...
• Beyond Belief by V.S. Naipaul ; Nonfiction; (Vintage; ) {read:2001} Interviews with people involved in fundamentalist Islamist movements in Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, and Malaysia. Their idealistic dreams of countries run by religious law haven't always worked out so well. I'm taken aback by schools in which there is only one book, and the boys spend years learning it by rote.
• Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas by Elaine Pagels ; Nonfiction; (Random House, New York.; © 2003 Elaine Pagels; ) {read:2004 nov} Focus on how Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon in the 2nd century AD, attempted to unite early Christianity by selecting the four (now) canonical gospels (Luke,Matthew, Mark, and especially John) while declaring other gospels heretical. (Though his declarations of heresy were divisive, he seems to have thought that the other "gospels" (and their supporters) were more (and dangerously) divisive because they allowed for more creation of new interpretations. Improvisation, if you will. Interesting that the gospel by "John" differs from the other three canonical gospels in very significant ways: especially in uniquely declaring that Jesus is actually God* (pg.150). (Unlike the other 3 gospels, John also says Jesus is arrested Thursday night instead of Friday (pg.118); the "last supper" is not told in John and couldn't have been Passover (which would have been on Friday night); and expulsion of moneylenders is early in Jesus's life rather than late (pg.118).) Origen, an Egyptian "father of the church" says in regard to such contradictions that although "John does not always tell the truth literally, he always tells the truth spiritually."(pg.118) Of course for me this calls further into question the credibility of the "literal bible" claims. (And don't some of the gospels offer different family tree lineages of Jesus, with Matthew tracing his line back to King David?) *{Pagels, Beyond Belief, pg.50: "And why did he [Irenaeus] place John not, as Christians did later, as the fourth gospel but instead as the first and foremost pillar of "the church's gopel"? Irenaeus says that the gospel deserves this exalted position because John--and John alone--proclaims Christ's divine origin, that is his "original, powerful and glorious generation from the Father, thus declaring, "In the beginning was the word, and the word was withGod,and the word was God [John 1:1-2]." Also, "all things were made through him [the word] and without him nothing was made [John 1:3]." {Irenaeus, 3.11.8-9, Libros Quinque Adversus Haereses, ed. W.W.Harvey (Cambridge, 1851)}
• Big Red(?) by ; Nonfiction; {read:1975 or before} that dog that helps hunt wolves
• Big Sky, The by A.B. Guthrie ; Fiction; {read:1978 & before} about Mountain Men in Montana, from the Author of "The Big It" collection of short stories
• Big Trouble by Dave Barry ; Fiction; (Berkley Books, NY ( a division of Penguin Books); © 1999 Dave Barry; ISBN#:0-428-17810-2) {read:2005 Jun 26} I recommend! A goofball light novel: hilarious, in the "Bunch of South Florida Wackos" genre shared by Carl Hiassen.
• Big U, The by Neal Stephenson ; Fiction; {read:2001} My rating: 6 (fr.0-10). He dismisses it as an early work, but it has a galloping energy as it tells the story of a massive American university with out-of-control fraternities, nuclear accellerators, and monsters from outer space.
• Bikeman by Tom Flynn ; Nonfiction; (© 2008; ) {read:2007 Nov} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Genius at work: epic poem about 9-11, to be published in 2008.
• Black Sunday by Thomas Harris ; Fiction; {read:2003 Sep} settings include Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, LICH
• Blindness by José Saramago (+ Translated from the Portugese by Giovanni Pontiero.); Fiction; (A Harvest Book, Harcourt Inc., New York. First published in English in Great Britain by the Harvill Press, 1997; © José Saramago and Editorial Caminho, 1995. English Translation copyright Professor Juan Sager, 1977.; ISBN#:0-15-600775-4) {read:2006 Sep 10} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). The tragic and the tender: members of my book club were overwhelmed with things to talk about.
• Blood of Victory by Alan Furst ; Fiction; (2003, Random House Trade Paperbacks (originally Random House, 2001); © 2002 Alan Furst; ISBN#:0-8129-6872-7) {read:2005 Apr} I recommend! More stories of inadvertant inexperienced spies, and this one is beautifully written and has some suprisingly funny sections.
• Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Wallace Terry ; Nonfiction; (Ballantine Books; © 1984; ISBN#:0345311973) {read:1988-89} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). First-person accounts from blacks who served in Vietnam. It wasn't pretty there. (Aside: I'm bothered to see that at least one website (academon.com) is selling term papers, including one about this site. I hope our plagiarism sniffer account has copies of all of academon's papers.)
• Bloody Sun, The by Marion Zimmer Bradley ; Fiction; (Ace Science Fiction, New York: 1964, 1983; ) {read:1985-87}
• Bold Fisherman, The by ; Fiction; {read:1968}
• Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe ; Fiction; (Bantam Books: New York. 1987; ) {read:1994} Entertaining, a bit light.
• Book of Laughter and Forgetting, The by Milan Kundera ; Fiction; {read:1988-89} Yes!
• Breakpoint: a novel by Richard A. Clarke ; Fiction; (G.P.Putnam's Sons, a member of Penguin Group, USA; © 2007 RAC Enterprises; ISBN#:978-0-399-15378-5) {read:2007 feb 09} My rating: 5 (fr.0-10). Near future science "fiction" thriller, with direct references to TransHumanism (technological fixes of humans) and Ray Kurzweil's "singularity" concept of cascading breakthroughs in nanotechnology, genomics, artificial intelligence, etc. International foreigh policy hardball, religious conservatives, surprises, action... pretty engaging and broad-ranging and thoughtful, but not to be mistaken for fine literature with character development. Clarke was national coordinator and presidential advisor on security, counter-terrorism, cyberspace security, and critical infrastructure until 2003.
• Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoeyevsky ; Fiction; {read:1979-82}
• Bucking the Sun by Ivan Doig ; Fiction; (Simon & Schuster, NY 1996; ) {read:1997} This novel absolutely fascinated me. I especially liked the bits about Rosellen becoming an author, the leftist labor movement, the romantic rivalries, and the technical details of the dam-building. The ending seemed kind of unrealistic or out-of-the-blue or unsatisfactorily explained, but I suppose stranger things have happened in real life! Now I want to go back and re-read looking for more subtle clues.
• Build a Compiler in C++ by Jim Holmes ; Nonfiction; {read:1996}
• Bullet Park by John Cheever ; Fiction; (Vintage International, a division of Random House; © 1967; ) {read:2003 Nov}
• Burning Chrome by William Gibson ; Fiction; (Ace Books, published by the Berkley Publishing Group, NY; © 1986 William Gibson; ISBN#:0-441-08934-8) {read:2007 Jul 23} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Amazing intense "cyber-punk" short stories—imaginative, cynical, outrageous. Outlaws hide in techno-jungles of rusty metal, astronauts battle boredom and government supervision (think "big brother" in a space ship), characters get involved in schemes that bring them up against ruthless high-tech gangs, etc. Brilliant.
• Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey by Isabel Fonseca ; Nonfiction; (Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York; © 1995 Isabel Fonseca; ISBN#:978-0-679-73743-8) {read:2007 jun 18} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). I found the book fascinating, full of things I didn't know. For example, in the 1200's it was an offense punishable by hanging to be a gypsy, to be one of the traveling people whose language overlaps with one from India. In the 1980's in Eastern Europe, the gypsies—whose wagons and horses had been confiscated earlier in the century (under the communists)—were undergoing arson attacks: non-gypsy groups were assembling in churches and marching out to burn entire gypsy villages. Meanwhile, some gypsies see attempts to organize themselves as comparable to a bucket full of crabs, all pulling each other back down. The author spent more than a year living with different groups of self-proclaimed gypsies, and really knows how to tell a story.
• C Programming Language, The by Brian Kernighan (+ Dennis Ritchie); Nonfiction; (Prentice Hall, Inc., 1988. ISBN 0-13-110370-9 (hardback).; © 1988; ISBN#:0-13-110362-8) {read:1992} Also see Ritchie.
• C++ by Bjarne Stroustroup ; Nonfiction; {read:1993}
• Call of the Wild, The by Jack London ; Nonfiction; {read:1975 or before}
• Cambodian Oddysey, A by Haing Ngor ; Nonfiction; (Warner Books, New York, 1987; ) {read:1988-89} It turns out that the man who played Dith Pran in the "Killing Fields" movie had an even worse time of it under the khmer rouge than did Dith Pran.
• Catapult: Harry and I build a siege weapon by Jim Paul ; Nonfiction; (1991; ) {read:1996} Guys will be guys, having fun and providing some historical/artistic rationalizations.
• Centennial by James Michener ; Fiction; {read:1978 & before}
• Chaos by James Gleick ; Nonfiction; {read:1990-93} Wahoo!
• Charming Billy by Alice McDermott ; Fiction; (Farrar, Straus and Giroux/New York: 1998; ) {read:1998} Wonderful book, stories within stories, old lies and loyalties, friends who love each other.
• Charterhouse of Parma, The by Marie-Henri Stendahl (Beyle) ; Fiction; (Signet Classic "New American Library" New York;; ) {read:2004 apr} Now this is a novel: page-turning action plus intelligent and sensitive word-paintings of history and power, in a light-handed almost-parody. Various characters have personalities with wild mixes of cleverly calculated political behavior and impulsive but sincere passionate love, making this something like an inside-out version of Laclos's "Dangerous Liaisons." {There was 6-part production on Public Television's "Great Performances" series}
• Children of the Sun: A History of Humanity's Unappeasable Appetite for Energy by Alfred W. Crosby ; Nonfiction; (W.W.Norton & Company, New York; © 2006 Alfred W. Crosby; ISBN#:0-393-05935-9) {read:2007 Dec} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Was recommended to me by Bill Everdell: it reads quickly, giving a powerful history of humanity's use of energy, from cave-dweller cooking to space-age solar cells. Fighting for oil is just one of the themes. What about nuclear power? The future? This book looks at the "Big Picture!"
• children's story, the by James Clavell ; Fiction; (An Eleanor Friede book (in association with Michaela Clavell Crisman), Delacorte Press; © 1963, 1981 James Clavell; ISBN#:0-440-01242-2) {read:2007 feb} My rating: 4 (fr.0-10). A spooky parable of elementary schools being taken over by re-education groups after a political revolution.
• Church of Dead Girls by Stephen Dobyns ; Fiction; {read:1998}
• Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy ; Fiction; (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1998. (Distributed by Random House.); ) {read:1998} Wonderful, worth the wait--I'm going to read it again. (I prepared for this reading by re-reading "All the Pretty Horses" and "The Crossing.") More Cormac McCarthy Links at http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/Literature/Authors/Literary_Fiction/McCarthy__Cormac/ .
• Citizen Soldiers (?) by Stephen Ambrose ; Nonfiction; {read:2001}
• City of Falling Angels, The by John Berendt ; Nonfiction; (Penguin Group, New York 2005; © High Water, Inc 2005; ISBN#:1-59420-058-0) {read:2006 Feb 08} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10).
• Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy ; Fiction; {read:1994} Smart action;
• Client, The by Robert Grisham ; Fiction; {read:1994} Lightweight lawyer thriller;
• Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest, The by Anatoli Boukreev (+ co-author G. Weston DeWalt); Nonfiction; (St. Martin's Press, New York, 1997.; ) {read:1998} Breathtaking account of the May 96 climbing tragedy on Everest, differs with Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air in some interpretations.
• Coffee Trader, The: a novel by David Liss ; Fiction; (A Ballantine Books, published by the Random House Publishing Group; © 2003 David Liss; ISBN#:0-375-76090-3) {read:2007 May 22} My rating: 4 (fr.0-10). The author has done his homework about Amsterdam in the 1600's and its bustling speculative markets. His characters have personality traits that ought to make for an interesting story but I never got into it: reading the book felt like doing homework. Lots of exposition but no fireworks, no poetry.
• Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier ; Fiction; (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997; ) {read:1998} Enthralling tragic journey.
• Colonies in Space: Take an expedition to dream cities in the stars! by T.A. Heppenheimer (+ Introduction by Ray Bradbury.); Nonfiction; (Warner Books, A Warner Communications Company, New York. "Not associated with Warner Press, Inc., of Indiana."; © 1974 T.A.Heppenheimer; ISBN#:0-446-81-581-0) {read:2007 Feb 01} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10).

  If some of that limitless solar energy in outer space could be safely beamed down to Earth, we wouldn't be so hungry for oil, nor so polluted by cars and coal-burning power plants. This could be a tremendous boost for health, environment, prosperity, you name it. After reading this engaging, thoughtful, and exciting book I'm inspired to read more recent books, and am designing a high school course about space colonies, space-based solar collectors, microwave energy transmission links (spacefuture.com project 2000 and 1992 article), Buckminster Fuller, Stella (Systems Analysis software), and the Civilization IV game (fanatics) with its "manage a country" role-playing, and ecological modeling (as was attempted by Biosphere). Princeton professor Gerard K. O'Neill did early space colony analysis, and his Space Studies Institute has links to a wonderful FAQ and links page. A little googling has shown me that there are annual space colony (NASA) and settlement (spaceset.org) design contests for high school students.

  More: NASA, spacefuture.com, space.com, marsSociety.org.

• Color Purple, The by Alice Walker ; Fiction; {read:1979-82}
• Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos by M. Mitchell Waldrop ; Nonfiction; (A Touchstone Book; Simon & Schuster, NY, NY, 1992; ISBN#:9780671767891) {read:1994} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). Linking the micro and the macro--but can we predict anything now that we see the similarities?
• Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos by Mitch Waldrop ; Nonfiction; (Simon and Schuster; ISBN#:0671872346) {read:1994} Linking the micro and the macro--but can we predict anything now that we see the similarities?
• Computer Lib/Dream Machines by Ted Nelson ; Nonfiction; {read:1985-87} Outrageously cool! Like Critical Path, every page has enough inspiration and brain food for a week. This guy has a wild active imagination!
• Confusion, The: Volume Two of the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson ; Fiction; (William Morrow, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.; © 2004 Neal Stephenson; ISBN#:0-06-052386-7) {read:2006 Jun} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Very good, some intense story telling set in 1660-1715: this episode includes fantastic huge heists, capers, schemes, journeys, battles... and of course more fascinating philosophy and history. See Quicksilver Wiki (FAQ)!, wikipedia entry, as well as encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/The Baroque Cycle.
• Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, A by Mark (Samuel Clemens) Twain ; Fiction; {read:1975 or before}
• Contact by Carl Sagan ; Fiction; (Simon & Schuster, New York. 1985; ) {read:1997} Scientifically thrilling novel with good natured discussions about faith and the universe and the creator(s).
• Copperhead: Starbuck Chronicle, Volume 2 by Bernard Cornwell ; Fiction; (Harper Paperbacks, a division of Harper Collins, NY; © 1994 Bernard Cornwell; ISBN#:0-06-109187-1) {read:2005 Aug 20} I recommend! I'm fascinated by the torn loyalties (God, friends, moral stance on slavery, family, rebellion) and military techniques and battle mayhem. Well-written page-turner.
• Corrections, The by Jonathan Franzen ; Fiction; (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 19 Union Square West, New York 10003; © 2001 by Jonathan Franzen; ) {read:2003 Jul}
• Cowboys Have Always Been My Weakness by Pam Houston ; Nonfiction; {read:1990-93} Disappointing. A bunch of "I love them but they leave/ignore/hurt me and I don't learn."
• Crazed, The by Ha Jin ; Fiction; (Vintage International, a trademark of Random House, Inc; © 2002 Ha Jin; ISBN#:0-375-71411-1) {read:2004 Mar ?}
• Critical Path by Buckminster Fuller ; Nonfiction; {read:1985-87} Buckminster Fuller packed every page with enough inspiration and brain food for a week. More information at the Buckminster Fuller Institute (bfi.org).
• Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner ; Fiction; {read:1995} Quality work. Examining life in retrospect.
• Crossing, The by Cormac McCarthy ; Fiction; (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1994. (Distributed by Random House.); ) {read:1998 , 1995} Wow! Philosophers on dusty streets and on horseback in harsh landscapes. I've read parts of this out loud at a friend's party. Cormac McCarthy Links at http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/Literature/Authors/Literary_Fiction/McCarthy__Cormac/ . Spanish phrases translated (and more) at www.CormacMcCarthy.com/Resources.htm#Translations.
• Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson ; Fiction; {read:2001} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). An exciting adventure/war/computer-hacker/world-traveler story and "think piece" with parallel world war 2 and modern day dot.com threads connected by ciphers and gold.
• Cuckoo's Egg, The by Clifford Stoll ; Nonfiction; {read:2004 aug} I recommend!
• Culture of Complaint by Robert Hughes ; Nonfiction; {read:1994} Yes, enough with the whining and finger pointing already!
• Da Vinci Code, The by Dan Brown ; Fiction; (Doubleday, NY 2003; ) {read:2003} I'm crazy about this book's references to Leonardo Da Vinci, Sir Isaac Newton, and Alexander Pope. A chase in which knowledge, perspective, intuition, problem-solving, and character all matter. Manages to include Catholic and anti-catholic views, feminist thought, actual secret societies (including "Priory of Sion" which was supposedly led by Sandro Botticelli, Da Vinci, Newton, Debussy, Victor Hugo, Robert Boyle, and Jean Cocteau), Crusaders, etc.
• Dancing at the Rascal Fair by Ivan Doig ; Fiction; {read:1990-93} Novel about the Scottish settlers of Montana, with heartbreak and adventure without a drop of soap opera. Excellent!
• Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos ; Fiction; {read:1988-89} I loved this book!
• Dark Star by Alan Furst ; Fiction; {read:2005 Feb}
• Dark Voyage by Alan Furst ; Fiction; (Random House, New York; © 2004 Alan Furst; ISBN#:0-7394-5187-1) {read:2005 May} I recommend!
• Darkover Landfall by Marion Zimmer Bradley ; Fiction; (Daw Books, New York: 1972; ) {read:1985-87}
• Dave Barry is From Mars and Venus by Dave Barry ; Nonfiction; (Ballantine Books (imprint of Random House); © 1997 Dave Barry; ISBN#:0-345-42578-2) {read:2006 Apr 18} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). More laugh-out-loud hilariousness
• Dave Barry is not taking this sitting down! by Dave Barry ; Nonfiction; (Crown Publishers, New York; © 2000 Dave Barry; ISBN#:0-609-60067-2) {read:2008 may 01} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). laugh out loud
• Dave Barry's Guide to Guys by Dave Barry ; Nonfiction; {read:1995} Slapstick writing, the funniest thing I've ever read!
• Dead Man Walking by Sister Helen Prejean ; Nonfiction; {read:1996} The noble story of a volunteer who offers spiritual support to death row inmates. She knows that they have done horrible things, but she also shows us that they are trapped in cages waiting to be killed. She makes a passionate argument for the abolition of the death penalty, claiming that it satisfies only a cruel desire for revenge while dehumanizing those people who carry it out.
• Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller ; Fiction; {read:1988-89} Memorable
• Deception Point by Dan Brown ; Fiction; {read:2004 jun} more action and excitement, with a struggle over NASA's role: secret technology edge for national security vs. free-market commercialized vs. open non-commercial govt. agency
• Defense, The by Vladimir Nabokov ; Fiction; {read:2001} Now a movie in theaters, (as "Lhuzin Defense"), this novel follows the moves of a chess grandmaster feeling besieged by mysterious forces (including love). Nabokov's characters see the beauty in sun spots rippling under trees, and revel in intellectual challenges touched by that beauty. Keep alert for the chess board hints of stained glass and tile.
• Deptford Trilogy, The by Robertson Davies ; Fiction; {read:1996} Warm, wise, wonderful, and captivating. Moral growth, myth, pivotal moments, intelligent and thoughtful characters. I am grateful to Robertson Davies for giving us these rich stories with their amazing adventures and introspective, loving, good-hearted narrators struggling to make sense of life. As strong as Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose and Crossing to Safety. John Irving must wish that A Prayer for Owen Meany could have been this good.
• Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman ; Nonfiction; {read:1994} Brilliant plea for better design of tools for people: ovens, vcr's, computers. Delightful!
• Diamond Age, The by Neal Stephenson ; Fiction; {read:1996} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). How much fun to imagine education that matters, massive social movements, spies and thieves and organic computers!
• Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee ; Fiction; (Penguin Books (first published in Great Britain by Martin Secker & Warburg 1999); © 1999 J. M. Coetzee; ISBN#:0 14 02.9640 9) {read:2007 jul 10} My rating: 9 (fr.0-10). An addictive gem, Booker Prize winner. Life in South Africa starts looking bad when a professor gets too involved with one of his students. Things get better, worse, and even deeper when he moves in with his estranged daughter, out on an isolated ranch.
• Dispatches by Michael Herr ; Nonfiction; (Discus Books, Avon Books, New York. 1980; ) {read:1983-4} More stories of the disaster of war, from Vietnam.
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick ; Fiction; (A Del Rey (r) book, published by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, New York. First published in "Philip K Dick: Electric Shepherd" by Norstrilla Press. Originally published by Doubleday, 1968.; © 1968 Philip K. Dick; ) {read:2003 Sep}
• Dragonfly: NASA and the Crisis About Mir by Bryan Burrough ; Nonfiction; (Harper Collins publishers, NY 1998; ) {read:1999}
• Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan ; Nonfiction; {read:1978 & before}
• Drawn With the Sword by James M. McPherson ; Nonfiction; (Oxford University Press, New York, 1996.; ) {read:2003 nov} A highly readable, intelligent, compelling and substantive analysis of the "big picture" issues of the American Civil War. Why did the South Lose? Was the South significantly different from (than) the North? Race and Class, Uncle Tom's Cabin, was it about slavery, etc. Gets some fun out of disagreeing with other scholars on some points, and convinced me that the Southern Cause wasn't just "States Rights" and the war was started by the South-- (A) the South was happy to infringe on the "rights" of Northern states with the Fugitive Slave Act (allowing retrieval of escaped human slave "property" from the Northern states, though those states didn't allow slavery). --(B) the South seceded and fired on Federal troops mainly because they saw their "sacred" tradition and "right" of slavery threatened by the addition of more non-slavery states to the union. --(C) Though disgusted by slavery and hoping to move the U.S. closer to the ideals of equality and liberty (professed in the Declaration of Liberty), Lincoln felt bound by Federal (Constitutional) law allowing slavery at the start of the war, and only later moved to emancipating SOME of the slaves. --(D) The South had 2 or 3 times the rate of illiteracy of the North, and a much more military culture of honor and "tradition" and lack of industrial inventiveness. The author is a Princeton professor and won the Pulitzer Prize for his "Battle Cry of Freedom", also about the civil war.
• Dreams of Reason by Heinz Pagels ; Nonfiction; {read:1988-89} Mind-stretching, with discussion of an emerging third branch of science (computer simulations) that blends the other two (theory and experiment).
• Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain by Michael Paterniti ; Nonfiction; (Dial Press; ) {read:2001}
• Drop of Water, A: A book of Science and Wonder by Walter Wick ; Nonfiction; (Scholastic Press, NY; © 1977 Walter Wick; ISBN#:0-590-22197-3) {read:2005 Jun} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). beautiful photographs of water and its behavior (drops, mists, surface tension, evaporation)
• Dubliners by James Joyce ; Fiction; {read:1995} Depressing.
• Duckboy Way or Quack in the Saddle Again, The: Photos and Yarns: The Best from Duckboy Cards and Calendars by Paul Stanton ; Nonfiction; (Duckboy Cards, Milltown Montana, (800) 761-5741 and Falcon Press, Helena MT, (800) 582-2665; © 1997 by Paul Stanton; ISBN#:1-883364-09-4) {read:2005 Mar} I first saw these crazy duckboy postcards in Montana last summer, with standouts including "Trolling for Mountain Lions" (walking with a poodle on a leash) and "Where Beef Jerky Comes From" (peeling flattened snakes off the highway).
• Dude, Where's My Country? by Michael Moore ; Nonfiction; {read:2003} feels poorly reasoned, more demagoguery than thought
• Dune by Frank Herbert ; Fiction; {read:1995}
• Earthly Possessions by Anne Tyler ; Fiction; (Berkeley Books, NY, 1984, published by arrangement with Alfred A.Knopf, Inc; © 1977 Anne Tyler Modarressi; ISBN#:0-425-10167-+) {read:2006 dec 02} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Wow: this caught me from the first sentence, which tells us that the main character was planning on running away from her marriage when she stumbles into a bank robbery and hostage situation.
• Edit Raw Daniel by Matthew Bloom ; Fiction; (unpublished manuscript; ) {read:2004 Dec}
• Education Automation by Buckminster Fuller ; Nonfiction; {read:1988-89} Buckminster Fuller combines depth of vision, compassion, and intellectual excitement. More information at the Buckminster Fuller Institute (bfi.org).
• Eiger Dreams: Ventures among Men and Mountains by Jon Krakauer ; Nonfiction; (Anchor Books, Doubleday: New York, 1997.; ) {read:1998} Exciting adventures, fluent writing, interesting people struggling with the mountains.
• Electric Guitar, The: An Illustrated History by (+ Edited by Paul Trynka, Foreword by Keith Richards.); Nonfiction; (2002 Virgin Books Ltd (originally pub 1993); © 1993, 2002 The Design Museum And Virgin Publishing Ltd; ISBN#:0-7535-0653-X) {read:2005 Jun} In-depth history and essays about the most pivotal and unusual electric guitars.
• Elements of Style, The by William Strunk (+ E.B. White); Nonfiction; (Third Edition. Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc, New York.; © 1979 Macmillan Publishing; ) {read:1979-82}
• Elephant Man, The: A Study in Human Dignity by Ashley Montagu ; Nonfiction; (E.P. Dutton, New York. 1971, 1979; ) {read:1979-82} Beautiful true story. Montagu makes the strong argument that John Merrick ("the Elephant Man") had had a loving mother for the significant early years in order to have the kindness and decency that he had later.
• Elizabeth Stories by Isabel Huggan ; Fiction; (Viking Penguin, New York, 1987; ) {read:1985-87}
• Elliot Loves by Jules Pfeiffer ; Fiction; {read:1994 , (?)}
• Emma's War by Deborah Scroggins ; Nonfiction; (First Vintage Books Edition, Feb 2004 (Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc, New York); © 2002 by Deborah Scroggins; ISBN#:0-375-70377-2 [original pantheon edn ISBN 0-375-40397-3].) {read:2004 Nov} British aid-worker marries Sudanese rebel commander in true story of famine-stricken South Sudan in 1980's and 90's. What a quandary: much of the aid food is stolen (especially from the poorest of the non-local displaced tribes) by the soldiers, who keep starving groups around so that foreignors will keep sending aid money.
• Emotional Design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things by Donald A. Norman ; Nonfiction; (Basic Books ("A Member of the Perseus Books Group"), New York; © 2004; ISBN#:0-465-05135-9) {read:2005 Mar} Another book from the author of The Design of Everyday Things for anyone interested in product and software and web design, hoping to combine aesthetics and novelty and joy in things that people use. The author starts by noticing how many people love some devices (hand-held music players, certain shoes, etc.) and places, and tries to look for ways to plan all kinds of things so that they're useful and enjoyable. I especially like his section about education, acknowledging the role of engagement, focus, and passionate drive. "Robot tutors have great potential for changing the way we teach. Today's model is far too often that of a pendant lecturing at the front of the classroom, forcing students to listen to material they have no interest in, that appears irrelevant to their daily lives. Lectures and textbooks are the easiest way to teach from the point of view of the teacher, but the least effective for the learner. The most powerful learning takes place when well-motivated students get excited by a topic and then struggle with the the concepts, learning how to apply them to issues they care about. Yes, struggle: learning is an active, dynamic process, and struggle is a part of it. But when students care about something the struggle is enjoyable. This is how athletes learn. This is the essence of the attraction of video games, except that in games, what students learn is of little practical value. These methods are well known in the learning sciences, where they are called problem-base, inquiry-learning, or constructivist." "Here is where emotion plays its part. Students learn best when motivated, when they care. They need to be emotionally involved, to be drawn to the excitement of the topic. This is why examples, diagrams and illustrations, videos and animated illustrations are so powerful. Learning need not be a dull and dreary exercise, not even learning about what are normally considered dull and dreary topics: every topic can be made exciting, every topic excites the emotions of someone, so why not excite everyone? It is time for lessons to become alive, for history to be seen as a human struggle, for students to understand and appreciate the structure of art, music, science, and mathematics. How can these topics be made exciting? By making them relevant to the lives of each individual student. This is often most effective by having students put their skills to immediate application. Developing exciting, emotionally engaging, and intellectually effective learning experiences is truly a design challenge worthy of the best talent in the world." (pp 205-6)
• Emperor's Children, The by Claire Messud ; Fiction; (Alfred A. Knopf; © 2006 Claire Messud; ISBN#:0-307-26419-x) {read:2007 oct 16} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). Well-written fascinating magnificent comic tragedy of life in NYC in 2000's with characters of all kinds: literate, gay, rich, struggling, writers, scheming, depressed, cheating, ambitious, etc.
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card ; Fiction; {read:2002}
• Endurance by Alfred Lansing ; Nonfiction; {read:1996} Possibly the most exciting and incredible adventure I've ever read. This is the true story of an Antarctic expedition led by Ernest Shackleton in 1914. Their ship was trapped in the ice and finally crushed, leaving them stranded and struggling through ice, nasty oceans, and desolate islands for almost two years before reaching a remote whaling station. You won't believe it! I'm told that sailors still revere Shackleton for saving so many of his crew.
• English Patient, The by Michael Ondaatje ; Fiction; (1992, Random House; ) {read:1996} Not as good as I'd expected, but still pretty fine.
• Envisioning Information by Edward Tufte ; Nonfiction; (Graphics Press, Cheshire, Connecticut, 1990; ) {read:1998} Beautiful books for anyone who loves maps, logic, and art of building charts that are simultaneously meaningful, dense, accurate, and intuitive. Three cheers for clarity of information and high data-density!
• Eugene Onegin by Aleksandr Pushkin (+ translated by Vladimir Nabokov); Fiction; (Princeton University Press 1990; © 1964 Bollingen Foundation, 1975 Princeton U. Press]; ) {read:2003 nov} Get the Nabokov translation! Nabokov loves Russian, loves Pushkin, and is a perfectionist in matters of style, drama, wording. I don't read Russian, but Nabokov's essays (not suprisingly) assert that all the previous translations failed, mangling the text in order to try to live up to Pushkin's rhyme scheme. I read another translation to compare and it didn't come close to the subtlety of Nabokov's work, which makes the story all the more moving and alive and gripping.
• Eugene Onegin by Aleksandr Pushkin (+ translated by Walter Arndt); Fiction; {read:2003 nov}
• Everest: Mountain Without Mercy by Broughton Coburn ; Nonfiction; (MacGillivray Freeman Films, composition by National Geographic Society Book Division; © 1997; ) {read:1999}
• Everything House Buying Book, The by ? ? ; Nonfiction; {read:2001}
• Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer ; Fiction; (Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston & New York, 2002.; ) {read:2003 sep} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). It's rare for me to laugh out loud while reading, but this book got me with its intricate, detailed, and mood-swingy story. I felt like I was swimming in a sea with sparkling fish, ancient creatures, surprising structures, and sudden flashing bursts humor mixed with deep sorrows. More JSF links are at http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/Literature/Authors/Literary_Fiction/Foer__Jonathan_Safran/ and www.geocities.com/SoHo/Nook/1082/jonathan_safran_foer_page.html and www.theprojectmuseum.com.
• Eye, The by Vladimir Nabokov ; Fiction; (First Vintage Internation Edition; © 1965 Vladimir Nabokov; ) {read:2000}

  (pg. 27) “It is silly to seek a basic law, even sillier to find it. Some mean-spirited little man decides that the whole course of humanity can be explained in terms of insidiously revolving signs of the zodiac or as the struggle between an empty and a stuffed belly; he hires a punctilious Philistine to act as Clio's clerk, and begins a wholesale trade in epochs and masses; and then woe to the private individuum, with his two poor u's, hallooing hopelessly amid the dense growth of economic causes. Luckily no such laws exist: a toothache will cost a battle, a drizzle cancel an insurrection. Everything is fluid, everything depends on chance, and all in vain were the efforts of that crabbed bourgeois in Victorian checkered trousers, author of Das Kapital, the fruit of insomnia and migraine. There is titillating pleasure in looking back at the past and asking oneself, "What would have happened if . . ." and subsitituting one chance occurrence for another, observing how, from a gray, barren, humdrum moment in one's life, there grows forth a marvelous rosy event that in reality had failed to flower. A mysterious thing, this branching structure of life: one senses in every past instant a parting of ways, a "thus" and and "otherwise," with innumerable dazzling zigzags bifurcating and trifurcating against the dark background of the past.

  “All these simple thoughts about the wavering nature of life come to mind when I think how easily I might never have happened to rent a room in the house at 5 Peacock Street, or meet Vanya and her sister, or Roman Bogdanovich, or many other people whom I suddenly found, who started to live all at once, so unexpectedly and unwontedly, around me. And again, had I settled in a different house after my spectral exit from the hospital, perhaps an unimaginable happiness would have become my familiar interlocutor . . . who knows, who knows . . .”

  recurring elements: a gun, (a shooting), intercepted letters, people & cars in mirrors & windows, the "what else might have been", Edgar Allen Poe, Sherlock (Holmes), scenes that reveal they were "just" dreams,

• Failure is not an Option by Gene Kranz ; Nonfiction; {read:2008 apr} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10).
• Family, The by Mario Puzo (+ Carol Gino); Fiction; (Avon Books, an imprint of HarpCollins Publishers, New York; © 2001 by the estate of Mario Puzo and Carol Gino.; ) {read:2003}
• Farewell to Shady Glade by Bill Peet ; Fiction; (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA; © 1966; ) {read:1968}
• Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser ; Nonfiction; (Harper Perennial; © 2002; ISBN#:0060938455) {read:2004 Aug} Right, right, here's the "dirty underside" of agribusiness, but it feels like a cheap and simple-minded polemic: for Schlosser the businessmen are always wrong, the organic farmers are always right, and that's all there is to it.
• Fate of the Earth, The by Jonathan Schell ; Nonfiction; (Avon and Alfred A. Knopf, New York: 1982; ) {read:1983-4}
• Father Bear Comes Home by Else Holmelund Minarik (+ illustrated by Maurice Sendak); Fiction; (Harper, New York; © 1959; ) {read:1968}
• Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan ; Nonfiction; (Laurel Book, Dell Publishing Co. New York: 1963, 1974; ) {read:1983-4}
• Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey by Patrick O'Brian ; Fiction; (Harper Collins; © 2004 The Estate of Patrick O'Brian; ISBN#:0 00 719470 6) {read:2005 Aug 21} My rating: 6 (fr.0-10). Posthumous publication of 65 page untitled and unfinished manuscript, left at his death in Jan 2000. Moving and funny, but his handwriting is impossible (he had fortunately typed all but the last half dozen pages).
• Five Days in London: May 1940 by John Lukacs ; Nonfiction; (Yale "Nota Bene" Yale University Press, New Haven and London; © John Lukacs 1999; ) {read:2004 nov}
• Flame Trees of Thika, The by Elspeth Huxley ; Fiction; {read:1990-93} Articulate memoir of a young English girl growing up in remote Africa.
• Flash for Freedom: (III: England, West Africa, U.S.A. 1848-49) by George MacDonald Fraser ; Fiction; (A Plume Book, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Books USA.; © 1971 George MacDonald Fraser; ISBN#:0-452-26089-2) {read:2006 May 05} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Even more wicked fun and wild adventures. Flashman gets tangled up in both the slave trade and the abolitionists. (Book 3 in order of writing, Book 5 in chronological order). More info at http://www.michaelroam.com/wasao/FSotUK/FLASHMAN/ and the official web site: www.harryflashman.org.uk.
• Flashman: (I: From the Flashman Papers 1839-42) by George MacDonald Fraser ; Fiction; (A Plume Book, published by the Penguin Group, NY; © 1969 George MacDonald Fraser; ISBN#:0-452-25588-0) {read:2006 apr 22} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). I want to read more of these books now! Today! I've read the first four books of the addictive Flashman series, and I've already got the next 3 lined up at home. Harry Flashman is a ne'er-do-well reminiscing over his adventures as a cowardly soldier and daring romancer in the 1840's and 1850's. At one moment he's in the legendary charge of the Light Brigade, at another he's in a sauna with his jailer's sister, and later he is helping tribesmen attack Russian ships while under the influence of special (secretly spiked) dessert. One day he's helping transport slaves, another he is helping them escape. Don't even ask about the tangles he gets into in Afghanistan. The "appallingly appealing" Flashman really gets around, and even suffers fleeting moments of courage and sentiment while giving a "you are there" feeling of history. (Book 1) More info at http://www.michaelroam.com/wasao/FSotUK/FLASHMAN/ and the official web site: www.harryflashman.org.uk.
• Flashman and the Angel of the Lord: (X: 1858-9, USA) by George MacDonald Fraser ; Fiction; (Plume, published by the Penguin Group, New York.; © 1994 George MacDonald Fraser; ISBN#:0-452-27440-0) {read:2007 Jan} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). One of the best Flashman stories yet. We're there with John Brown and his tiny band at Harper's Ferry, and Flashman convinces me to feel sorry for that antislavery fanatic who is both well-intentioned and ready for blood. More info at http://www.michaelroam.com/wasao/FSotUK/FLASHMAN/ and the official web site: www.harryflashman.org.uk.
• Flashman and the Dragon: (VIII: China 1860) by George MacDonald Fraser ; Fiction; (A Plume Book, Penguin Group, NY.; © 1985 George MacDonald Fraser; ISBN#:0-452-26191-0) {read:2007 Jan 01} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). Flashman ends up betrayed, seduced(?), captured, you name it, during the bloody religious "Taiping" uprising in China and then on the march into Beijing. Topics range from religious madness to Elgin's burning of the "Summer Palace." (Book 8 in order of writing, with two main stories (1849 and 1876) which are out of chronological order). More info at http://www.michaelroam.com/wasao/FSotUK/FLASHMAN/ and the official web site: www.harryflashman.org.uk.
• Flashman and the Mountain of Light: (IX: 1845-6, India) by George MacDonald Fraser ; Fiction; (Plume, published by the Penguin Group, New York.; © 1990 George MacDonald Fraser; ISBN#:0-452-26784-4) {read:2007 Jan 04} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). "A word first, though. You'll have heard it said that the British empire was acquired in fit of absence of mind—one of those smart Oscarish squibs that sounds well but is thoroughly fat-headed. Presence of mind, if you like—and countless other things, such as greed and Christianity, decency and villainy, policy and lunacy, deep design and blind chance, pride and triade, blunder and ciriosity, passion, ignorance, chivalry and expediency, honest pursuit of right, and determination to keep the bloody Frogs out. And often as not, such things came tumbling together, and when the dust had settled, there we were, and who else was going to set things straight and feed the folk and guard the gate and dig the drains—oh, aye, and take the profit, by all means." More info at http://www.michaelroam.com/wasao/FSotUK/FLASHMAN/ and the official web site: www.harryflashman.org.uk.
• Flashman and the Redskins: (VII: Flashman's West, 1849 & 1876) by George Fraser ; Fiction; (A Plume Book, Penguin Group, NY.; © 1982 George MacDonald Fraser; ISBN#:0-452-26487-1) {read:2006 Dec} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). I'm from Montana so I'm motivated to know a bit more about Western US history, and this book is the most enjoyable way to "learn" that I've found. It of course includes more narrow escapes for Flashman, more fun for the reader, in Kansas, Nevada, a brothel, and with Custer at (where else?) the Little Big Horn. Topics range from scalping to skepticism about the nobility of some of the Native Americans and the "civilization" that moved onto their land. (Book 7 in order of writing, with two main stories (1849 and 1876) which are out of chronological order). More info at http://www.michaelroam.com/wasao/FSotUK/FLASHMAN/ and the official web site: www.harryflashman.org.uk.
• Flashman and the Tiger: (XI: 1878, 1883-4, 1890-1, 1879, 1894) by George MacDonald Fraser ; Fiction; (Borzoi book, published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York; © 1999 George MacDonald Fraser; ISBN#:0-375-41024-4) {read:2007 Jan} My rating: 6 (fr.0-10). Several loosely related and engaging incidents, including a plot to assassinate the Austrian Emperor, Franz Josef, and an encounter with a master sleuth. More info at http://www.michaelroam.com/wasao/FSotUK/FLASHMAN/ and the official web site: www.harryflashman.org.uk.
• Flashman at the Charge: (IV: South-west Russia and Central Asia 1854-55) by George MacDonald Fraser ; Fiction; (A Plume Book, published by the Penguin Group, Penguin Books USA, NY; © 1973 George MacDonald Fraser; ISBN#:0-452-26413-8) {read:2006 May 29} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Now he's in the legendary charge of the Light Brigade, now he's in a sauna with his jailer's sister, now he's attacking Russian ships. The "appallingly appealing" Flashman really gets around, and even suffers (fleeting) moments of courage and sentiment. (Book 4 in order of writing, Book 6 in chronological order). More info at http://www.michaelroam.com/wasao/FSotUK/FLASHMAN/ and the official web site: www.harryflashman.org.uk.
• Flashman in the Great Game: (V: From the Flashman Papers 1856-1858) by George MacDonald Fraser ; Fiction; (A Plume Book, New American Library, A division of Penguin Books USA Inc., New York; © 1975 George MacDonald Fraser; ISBN#:0-452-26303-4) {read:2006 Jul} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). More narrow escapes for Flashman, more fun for the reader, during the Indian army mutiny. Topics ranging from religion (wait until you see how a Hindhu translates the story of the Prodigal Son) to the benefits of English schooling (in which boys learn how to tolerate boredom and how to escape quick and terrifying events). There is some musing about the luxury of kings of India and the horrible treatment of their poor, and those poor still prefer Indian rule to English. (Book 5 in order of writing, Book 8 in chronological order). More info at http://www.michaelroam.com/wasao/FSotUK/FLASHMAN/ and the official web site: www.harryflashman.org.uk.
• Flashman on the March: (XII: 1867-8, Abyssinia) by George MacDonald Fraser ; Fiction; (Anchor Books, A Division of Random House, Inc, New York; © 2005 George MacDonald Fraser; ISBN#:1-4000-9646-4) {read:2007 feb 16} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Dangling over cliffs, swimming towards waterfalls, from fires into frying pans: Flashman is an unwilling spy, and is almost sympathetic with the crazed king whom the British plan to punish.
• Flashman's Lady: (VI: England, Borneo and Madagascar 1842-5) by George MacDonald Fraser ; Fiction; (Plume, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Books USA, part of the Penguin Group; © 1977 George MacDonald Fraser; ISBN#:0-452-26489-8) {read:2006 Aug 05} My rating: 6 (fr.0-10). More narrow escapes for Flashman, more fun for the reader, in Indonesia and Madagascar and the cricket field. Topics ranging from piracy to do-good-ism to psycho-pathology (the queen of Madagascar is nuts). (Book 6 in order of writing, Book 3 in chronological order). More info at http://www.michaelroam.com/wasao/FSotUK/FLASHMAN/ and the official web site: www.harryflashman.org.uk.
• For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs by Robert A. Heinlein ; Fiction; (Scribner, NY; © 2004 (written 1939, unpublished, lost, re-found); ) {read:2004 jul}
• Foreign Correspondent, The: A Novel by Alan Furst ; Fiction; (Random House, New York; © 2006 Alan Furst; ISBN#:1-4000-6019-2) {read:2006 Jul} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). Another fascinating trip into the land of reluctant/hesitant spies during the years preceding World War II. N.Y.Times book review by Alex Berenson is too unkind, though I agree that this isn't absolutely the most gripping of Furst's novels. As I did with this one, I'll be running out to buy his next the week it comes out (yes, in hard cover).
• Forgetfulness by Ward Just ; Fiction; (A Mariner Book, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York; © 2006 Ward Just; ISBN#:9780618918492) {read:2007 nov 08} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Lovely and intense novel: ethics for spies, interrogators. Just when you think you can retire to a life of painting in the country, things start happening around you.
• Fountainhead, The by Ayn Rand ; Fiction; {read:1979-82} Wait a minute, not so fast: are you justifying ALL kinds of selfishness and caprice? This doesn't sound like such a great idea. And what's with the brutal "love" and scorn for "do-gooders"?
• Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger ; Fiction; (Bantam Books and Little & Brown, 1962; ) {read:1996}
• French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles ; Fiction; (Signet (New American Library), New York, 1970; ) {read:1979-82}
• Fulcrum: A Top Gun Pilot's Escape from the Soviet Empire by Alexander Zuyev (+ written with Malcolm McConnell); Nonfiction; (Warner Books, Inc., 1271 Ave. of the Americas, NY, NY 10020; © 1992 Strategic Advantages, Inc. and Malcolm McConnell; ISBN#:0-446-51648-1) {read:2002}
• Fun in Story by ; Fiction; {read:1968}
• Fun Wherever We Are by Helen M Robinson ; Nonfiction; (Scott, Foresman, Glenview, Ill.; © 1965; ) {read:1968}
• Future of Freedom, The: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad by Fareed Zakaria ; Nonfiction; (W. W. Norton & Co., NY; © 2004 Fareed Zakaria; ISBN#:0-393-32487-7 pbk) {read:2005 jul 22} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Does an astounding job asking how you can have democracy with civil rights, without grid-locked government, without mob-rule. Like the Federalist papers, a cry for Republic style democracy with stability, civility, and an eye on the long-term good of everybody. Not a call for "strong-man" iron rule, this includes warnings about the hate-filled policies of fascist mobs-and-leaders. Warns that "government by referendum" (public voting on too many things) gives power to those with the money to buy advertising. He also notices an unintended consequence of the "sunshine laws" (public airing of every committee meeting) that not only protect against secret deals and corruption but unfortunately also mean that every move by politicians is exposed to lobbyists and clamor and sound-bite rhetoric.
• Futurological Congress, The by Stanislaw Lem (+ (translated by Michael Kandel, father of my bandmate)); Fiction; {read:2003 Sep} speedy read of deeply intriguing visions of a disturbing future
• Gai Jin by James Clavell ; Fiction; (Dell Publishing, a division of Random House, New York; © James Clavell 1993; ) {read:2003} Part of an epic, brutal and thought-provoking. The stories occur in the following order {date written follows} (1) Shogun {1975} ;(2) Tai Pan {1966} ;(3) Gai Jin {1993} ;(4) King Rat {1962} ; (5) Noble House {1981} ;(6) Whirlwind {1986}.
• Gallows Thief by Bernard Cornwell ; Fiction; (Harper Torch, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, NY; 2003; © 2002 Bernard Cornwell; ISBN#:0-06-051628-3) {read:2005 Jul 28} I recommend! Another "can't put it down" action story, set in "Regency" era England (1817), with focus on the frequent public hangings for crimes including minor theft. A former soldier, down on his luck, takes an "easy" job in which he is supposed to merely confirm the guilt of a sentenced prisoner: suspicious circumstances, doubts, and powerful people with nasty secrets immediately appear.
• Gangs of New York by Herbert Asbury ; Nonfiction; (Book Softcover; 384 pages; Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press; March, 2002; ) {read:2002}
• Genghis Khan: and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford ; Nonfiction; (Three Rivers Press (a division of Random House), New York 2004; © 2004, Jack Weatherford; ISBN#:0-609-80964-4) {read:2006 Jan} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10).
• Genius by James Gleick ; Nonfiction; (Vintage Books, Division of Random House, 1993; © 1992; ) {read:2004 jun} fascinating biography of nobel-prize winning physicist Richard Feynman
• Genius At Work: Images of Alexander Graham Bell by Dorothy Harley Eber (+ Prologue: R.Buckminster Fuller); Nonfiction; (Nimbus Publishing, 1991, Halifax, NS, Canada.; ) {read:2003 Sep}
• Ghost Wars by Steve Coll ; Nonfiction; (The Penguin Press, New York, 2004; ) {read:2004 sep}
• Gift, The by Vladimir Nabokov ; Fiction; {read:2002 ?}
• Glory Days: Bruce Springsteen in the 1980's by Dave Marsh ; Nonfiction; (Pantheon Books, New York: 1987; ) {read:1988-89} thoughtful
• Gnostic Gospels, The by Elaine Pagels ; Nonfiction; (Vintage Books, a division of Random House, New York NY; © 1979 Elaine Pagels; ISBN#:0-679-72453-2) {read:2005 Mar} A remarkable, wonderful and substantial book. It's great that the "heretical" Nag Hammadi scrolls weren't found a thousand years ago when they no doubt would have been destroyed. I've recently read "The Name of the Rose" and "The Rule of Four", in which Middle Ages book salvation and destruction are big topics.
• God of the Rodeo: The search for hope, faith, and a six-second ride in Louisiana's Angola Prison by Daniel Bergner ; Nonfiction; (Crown Publishing, Random House, New York; © 1998, Daniel Bergner; ISBN#:0-609-60105-9) {read:2005 May} I recommend! Unforgettable visit inside a maximum security prison. It reads like a novel, with an inside-the-walls rodeo that draws crowds of "freemen", with a warden who asks for bribes, with life-term prisoners (convicted of brutal crimes) who are now looking for some reason to hope and some way to improve themselves.
• Godfather by Mario Puzo ; Fiction; {read:2002}
• Going It Alone by George Willig ; Nonfiction; {read:2002} guy who climbed the exterior of the world trade center tower, with his own custom-built ascender
• Golden Compass: (His Dark Materials, Book 1) by Philip Pullman ; Fiction; (Knopf Books for Young Readers; ISBN#:0679879242) {read:2002} My rating: 6 (fr.0-10). Sci fi thriller, with gratuitous and charming pokes at religion, not to mention polar bear warriors!
• Grandmother and I by ; Fiction; {read:1968}
• Great Gatsby, The by F. Scott Fitzgerald ; Fiction; {read:1990-93} I was entranced, sympathetic, warned about the unreliable narrator, and disturbed the "rowing toward the receding light" passage at the end. (In a rowboat or a crew shell, unlike a canoe, you can't see where you're going, nor do you think that what you see is your destination. Fitzgerald has the oars beating, which is not what happens in a canoe.)
• Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence by Nick Bantock ; Fiction; (Chronicle Books, San Francisco; © 1991 Nick Bantock; ISBN#:0-87701-788-3) {read:2007 sep 08} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). Beautifully illustrated with intriguing "soulmates at a distance" story.
• Growing Up Absurd: Problems of Youth in the Organized Society by Paul Goodman ; Nonfiction; (Vintage Books, Random House, New York:1956-60; ) {read:1983-4}
• Growing Young by Ashley Montagu ; Nonfiction; {read:1979-82} Inspiring work on the the value of youthful joy and creativity, combined with adult maturity and love.
• Guitar World Presents The Bonehead's Guide to Amps by Dominic Hilton ; Nonfiction; (Hal Leonard Corporation (in cooperation with Harris Publications Inc and Guitar World Magazine), Milwaukee WI; © 1999 Hal Leonard Corp.; ISBN#:0-7935-9800-1) {read:2007 Jul 14} My rating: 6 (fr.0-10). informative!
• Gulliver's Travels: The Voyages to Lilliput and Brobdingnag by Jonathan Swift ; Fiction; (American Book Company, New York; © 1914 American Book Company; ) {read:2007 jun 23} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). marvelously engaging and thoughtful
• Gyn/Ecology by Mary Daly ; Nonfiction; {read:1983-4} Rant. "Womyn good, men evil. All wimmin oppressed by all men all the time, even if the wimmin don't know it, even if the men don't know it." Uh-oh, here I go oppressing Mary again. It is supposed to be poetically or theoretically significant that "therapist" can be spelled "the-rapist".
• Hairy Ape, The by Eugene O'Neill ; Fiction; {read:1997} Delightful in light of the scenes of the stokers in "Titanic". My friend Nancy lives in the apartment that O'Neill lived in and wrote this play in.
• HandMaid's Tale, The by Margaret Atwood ; Fiction; {read:1985-87} If all the fundamentalists and fascists joined forces HERE, not just in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Burma...
• Heart is a Lonely Hunter, The by Carson McCullers ; Fiction; (Bantam, Houghton Mifflin, 1940, 1964; ) {read:1988-89} I was drawn into the world of the young girl.
• Heart of the Matter, The by Graham Greene ; Fiction; (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition; The Penguin Group, New York.; © 1948 Graham Greene, renewed 1976.; ISBN#:0-14-24-3799 9) {read:2005 Dec 29} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). (I really enjoyed spending time with this author's character and setting. I particularly had to stop and muse after the part (pg.111) in which Scobie was thinking about a house in which a child, after surviving a torpedoing and 40 days in a lifeboat, lies dying:) "Outside the rest-house he stopped again. The lights inside would have given an extraordinary impression of peace if one hadn't known, just as the stars on this clear night gave also an impression of remoteness, security, freedom. If one knew, he wondered, the facts, would one have to feel pity even for the planets? if one reached what they called the heart of the matter?"
• High Frontier, The: Human Colonies in Space by Gerard K. O'Neill ; Nonfiction; (3rd Edition by Apogee Books, an Imprint of Collector's Guide Publishing Inc., Burlington, Ontario, Canada.; © 2000 Space Studies Institute; ISBN#:1-896522-67-X) {read:2007 jun 11} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Expanded third edition, published in 2000, includes introduction by Freeman Dyson, CD with interviews, and is available from Apogee Space Books. This amazing book dares to dream that people could live in space stations with lush farmland, low gravity sports, and more solar energy than you could dream of. This book provided the core of the Space Colonies Seminar that I taught in 2007-8 and will be teaching again in 2008-9.
• History of Bombing, A by Sven Lindqvist (+ Translated from the Swedish by Linda Haverty Rugg.); Nonfiction; (The New Press, New York.; © 2000 Sven Lindqvist; ISBN#:1-56584-625-7) {read:2007 apr 24} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10).

  I've long been interested in the multiple horribly fascinating topics that Lindqvist touches on. I spent several years growing up on air force bases, building model planes, and resolving to be a pacifist (for the most part). A college course on the history of the arms race included a guest lecture by Freeman Dyson himself, and included reading Sherwin's "A World Destroyed" which Lindqvist cites for his argument that the Japanese were trying to (conditionally) surrender before the atom bombs were dropped. My Dad was in Strategic Air Command for four years (1967-'71) and spent one of those years in Vietnam, and furthermore I went through high school in Montana, round about the time it (Montana) became major nuclear missile launchpad, sprinkled with missile silos as well as grain silos. (Our 'joke' in the 1980's was that Montana would have the world's third largest nuclear army if it seceded.)

  Mom and Dad both became flight instructors in Montana, and one day Dad was zooming along a few hundred feet above the ground (well, "puttering along" is more accurate) following the train tracks, when he realized that the train ahead on the tracks below him was all white, with machine guns mounted on it. It was evidently one of the nuclear warhead transport trains (which always varied their schedules so saboteurs, thieves, and protesters couldn't intercept them) and it was time to make a quick turn or risk being shot down.

  Dad's story would seem unlikely (he's willing to bend the truth for dramatic purposes) except I know he likes to fly low (his Montana pilot friends used to say, "Let's go out and scare the snakes!"), and I'd heard about the "white trains" from antinuke groups in college, and the railroad track does lead directly from Billings (our home) to Hardin, site of the flying school (and of the Little Big Horn/Custer battlefield).

  The page-jumping in Lindqvist's book made me feel as if I were an airplane, taking off from one page and landing on another. Because the overall structure was chronologically organized, I liked seeing the many ways that Lindqvist's essays linked events from different eras. I was bothered that there was no index, and little mention of suicide/car bombs, but glad that he seemed somewhat evenhanded about criticizing many of the major powers. (I was instantly suspicious of his propagandism when his first essay claimed that he and his boyhood friends ONLY played war games: all the boys I've ever seen --or heard of-- play many other games as well as war, but Lindqvist won me back with the depth of his research.) I wish he had given more of an explanation of why the apocalyptic fantasy stories were significant: saying that some novelists created characters who wanted to destroy Asians or Africans is a long way from saying that this was the policy (or dream) of major leaders.

• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The by Douglas Adams ; Fiction; (Pocket Books, New York. 1979; ) {read:1983-4} Funny, light-hearted, absurd.
• Hobbit, The by ? Tolkien ; Fiction; {read:1978 & before}
• Hole In the Water, A by Lionel René Saporta ; Fiction; (iUniverse, Lincoln Nebraska; © 2005 Lionel René Saporta; ISBN#:978-0-595-37389-5 [isbn10 = 0-595-37389-5]) {read:2006 Feb} My rating: 6 (fr.0-10). Combines a legal thriller with a substantial contemplative search for self, against a backdrop of secret family history and mysterious heritage. (Print-on-demand book can be ordered from online bookstores.)
• Holocaust by Gerald Green ; Nonfiction; {read:1978 & Before} Amazon.com says "Basis of the acclaimed 1979 television mini-series weaving the odyssey of Holocaust victims, taking the reader (and then the viewer) with documentary force through the darkest and most terrible events of the century."
• Hooked on Java by ? ? ; Nonfiction; {read:1996}
• Horace's Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School by Theodore R. Sizer ; Nonfiction; (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston 1992; ) {read:1990-93} In pursuit of good teaching, proposing schools that inspire, delight, and challenge.
• House Buying for Dummies by ? ? ; Nonfiction; {read:2001}
• How to Buy a Home for a Reasonable Price by Robert Irwin ; Nonfiction; (McGraw-Hill Book Co., USA; © 1979; ISBN#:0-07-032060-8) {read:2001}
• I Know People by ; Nonfiction; {read:1968}
• I Wish I'd Made You Angry Earlier: Essays on Science, Scientists, and Humanity by Max Perutz ; Nonfiction; (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor NY; © 2003 Vivien & Robin Perutz; ISBN#:0-87969-674-5) {read:2007 Dec} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Nobel-prize-winner Max Perutz (2) presents an exciting collection of essays and book reviews which speed through biographies and ethics (including a horrifying portrait of Fritz Haber, who not only invented a method of making fertilizer but also willingly provided the scientific leadership of Germany's use of poison gas in world war 1, which may have had something to do with his first wife's suicide). In short essays that I gobbled up like candy from a dish, he also talks about the joy of discovery, and describes the kindness of some of the scientists he knew. He sounds like Nabokov in his amusing dismissal of both Freudianism and Marxism as untestable "theories" that claim to explain everything while having an excuse for the opposition they find as well as any of their own mispredictions. The book's title is based on a comment by an advisor: Max resumed his study of the structure of hemoglobin after getting mad that somebody else had discovered something that Max should have thought of himself. (The angry work resulted in Perutz's Nobel prize.)
• I'm Gone by Jean Echenoz ; Fiction; {read:2004 Dec} My rating: 4 (fr.0-10).
• Icefields by Thomas Wharton ; Fiction; (Edmonton, Alta. : NeWest, c1995.; ISBN#:978-0-920897-87-4) {read:2008 feb 27} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10).
• Icelander by Dustin Long ; Fiction; (McSweeney's Books, San Francisco; © 2006 Dustin Long; ISBN#:1-932416-51-X) {read:2007 Jul 16} My rating: 3 (fr.0-10). A little disappointing, though it had promise from the start: already on page 11 there were the "Itallo" (Lolita) and "Ripe Leaf" (Pale Fire) anagrams, as well as the "Dora or Dara" (Ada or Ardor) on page 166. The constant shifting of narrative point of view is Nabokovian, as is the hiding of "don't know they matter at the time" secrets (the rusty candelabra is mentioned in the footnote on page 17, in a short passage (of text) 130 pages before its next pivotal appearance). I didn't much care for the characters, but I enjoyed the way that the last sentence of every narrator's writing shared a word or thought with the first paragraph of the next narrator's words, and I was amused by the idea of Prescott resenting the Heroine's intellectual catharsis with another man, and I could relate to Nathan (in the sacred lake) sounding like an idiot while trying to describe what he liked about the master writer, and felt that the novel lived up to Shirley's idea of having the action happen between the words or in implications.
• Idoru by William Gibson ; Fiction; (G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York. 1996; ) {read:1997} Dark thriller of techno future.
• If On A Winter's Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino (+ Translated from the Italian by William Weaver.); Fiction; (Everyman's Library, Knopf, New York.; © 1979 Giulio Einaudi editore s.p.a., Torino; ISBN#:0-679-42025-8) {read:2006 Mar 20} My rating: 9 (fr.0-10). Best book I read all year: fantastic interweaving of stories with deep, dark characters. Stories with spies, war, love, professors, farmers, readers, writers. The writing is surprising and playful and (how can I say this?) somehow charming and friendly without at all being cute.
• Iliad by ? Homer (+ Translated by Richmond Lattimore); Fiction; (University of Chicago Press. 1951, 1961; ) {read:1979-82}
• Illuminatus!: The Eye in the Pyramid by Robert Shea (+ Robert Anton Wilson); Fiction; (Dell Publishing Co, New York. 1975; ) {read:1979-82}
• Immense Journey, The by Loren Eisley ; Nonfiction; (Random House: Vintage Books, New York, 1946-1959; ) {read:1990-93}
• Immortality by Milan Kundera ; Fiction; {read:1990-93} What if you were given another life and the choice of whether to bring your current love along with you, and you weren't sure that you wanted to ask them to come along with you...
• In Broad Daylight by Harry MacLean ; Nonfiction; (ISBN#:9780060158767) {read:1988-89} True crime with analysis and strong characters--nobody will admit to seeing anything when the local bully/thief is shot in the middle of town in broad daylight.
• In the Beginning was the Command Line by Neal Stephenson ; Nonfiction; {read:2004 Sep} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). somewhat wrong headed but so exciting and "look at the big picture"-ish.
• In the Big City by ; Nonfiction; {read:1968}
• In the Shadow of Man by Jane Goodall ; Nonfiction; {read:1975 or Before} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10).
• Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace ; Fiction; (1996; ) {read:1997} Intricate architecture and wild imagination, painting an emotionally cold world of characters I didn't care about (and could barely keep track of).
• Information, The: A Novel by Martin Amis ; Fiction; (Harmony Books, a division of Crown Publishers, NY; © 1995 Martin Amis; ISBN#:0-517-58516-2) {read:2006 nov 22} My rating: 5 (fr.0-10). Although I liked it, I have to agree with my friends who felt it was a waste of the author's talent. It is non-stop full of amazingly clever writing: constant wordplay and shift of narrative stance, engrossing story—but the characters are tediously self-destructive and unlikeable.
• Intelligencer, The by Leslie Silbert ; Fiction; {read:2005 Jun 20} I recommend! Exciting spy stories in parallel: 1695 and now. Pretty good, but not quite literature. Characters wonder about some big questions and make some subtle observations, but some of the mechanism shows through.
• Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer ; Nonfiction; (Anchor Books, Doubleday: New York, 1996; ) {read:1998} Fascinating page-turner about the tragedy of an earnest young idealist who is overcome by some mistakes in the Alaska wilderness.
• Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer ; Nonfiction; {read:1997} Fascinating true-life thriller, disaster on Everest. One sees nobility, adventure, extremism (and miserable climbers: shivering, gasping for air, with headaches from sleep deprivation and altitude sickness).
• Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino ; Fiction; {read:1990-93}
• Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabakov ; Fiction; {read:1995} Imagine your head on the chopping block, imagine waiting for the day of chopping...
• Ivankiad, The by Vladimir Voinovich (+ translation by David Lapeza, 1977); Nonfiction; (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; New York 1976 ; ) {read:1983-4} A taste of real-life soviet power shoving and apartment grubbing in a writer's union housing complex. In the intro the author explains: "I tried to maintain my composure, but I wasn't always able to. What saved me was that at a certain point I decided that one must look at everything with a sense of humor, since all knowledge is a blessing. I calmed down; my hatred gave way to curiosity, which was satisfied by my adversary, who revealed himself as if in a striptease. I I was no longer struggling. I was gathering material for this work, and my adversary and his pals actively helped me, outlining this terrific plot, making a series of moves which you would not be able to think up over the dinner table. This plot is not merely fascinating; it explains, I think, certain phenomena in our country which are not always understood, either here or abroad."
• Java in a Nutshell by David Flanagan ; Nonfiction; (O'Reilly & Associates, 1996, Sebastopol, California; ) {read:1997} Couldn't live without it! (note: also at ora.com)
• Java Sourcebook, The by ? ? ; Nonfiction; {read:1996}
• Joke, The by Milan Kundera ; Fiction; {read:1988-89} Early Kundera, not as sophisticated as later work but moving! Some Kundera links at http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/Literature/Authors/Literary_Fiction/Kundera__Milan/
• Joy Luck Club, The by Amy Tan ; Fiction; {read:1994} Disappointing;
• Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy ; Fiction; {read:1979-82} Delicious and sad.
• Julian's House by Judith Hawkes ; Fiction; {read:1990-93} Fantastic, frightening, horribly compelling.
• Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton ; Fiction; {read:1994} Big ideas, pedestrian writing.
• Kamikaze by Yasuo Kuwahara (+ Gordon T. Allred); Nonfiction; (Ballantine Books; © 1957; ) {read:1975 or before} I'll answer the obvious question by explaining that the author was on his final two-day leave before his would-be-suicide mission when he was injured in the Hiroshima atomic bomb blast. I read this when I was a 5th or 6th grader, with hair-on-end fascination and horror. See the descriptive essay about the book at wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/kamikaze/.
• Keys to Loft/Condo/Coop Purchases by ? ? ; Nonfiction; {read:2001}
• Killer Angels, The by Michael Shaara ; Nonfiction; {read:1996} A fascinating telling of the horrible battle of Gettysburg. It left me tasting the dust, hearing the cannons, and second-guessing the commanders. Imagine defending your home, having no choice but to march across fields into gunfire, imagine relishing the battle, imagine trying to find cover behind rocks as an army marches toward you shooting!
• Killing Fields, The by Dith Pran ; Nonfiction; {read:1988-89} Horrifying/fascinating. Can we learn?
• Killing Rage by Eamon Collins (+ Mick McGovern); Nonfiction; (Granta Books, London: 1998; ) {read:1999} read in Ireland, 1998 or 99...
• King Rat by James Clavell ; Fiction; (Dell Publishing, a division of Random House, Inc., NY NY.; © 1962 James Clavell.; ) {read:2003} Part of an epic, brutal and thought-provoking. The stories occur in the following order {date written follows} (1) Shogun {1975} ;(2) Tai Pan {1966} ;(3) Gai Jin {1993} ;(4) King Rat {1962} ; (5) Noble House {1981} ;(6) Whirlwind {1986}.
• King, Queen, Knave by Vladimir Nabokov ; Fiction; ("Slovo" 1928, McGraw-Hill, Inc. 1968.; ) {read:1998} Delightful, luscious, richly visual and evocative.
• Kingdom of Shadows by Alan Furst ; Fiction; (Random House Trade Paperbacks, New York, NY; © 2000 Alan Furst; ISBN#:0-375-75826-7) {read:2005 Mar} Brilliant. (Count Polanyi's nephew.)
• Kiss of the Spider Woman, The by Manuel Puig ; Fiction; {read:1985-87} Wonderful!
• Kite Runner, The by Khaled Hosseini ; Fiction; (© 2003 Khaled Hosseini; ISBN#:1-57322-245-3) {read:2005 Feb} Answered some of my hunger to know a little more about Afghanistan.
• Known World, The by Edward Jones ; Fiction; (Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers; © 2003 Edward P. Jones; ISBN#:0-06-055754-0) {read:2007 Feb 02} My rating: 9 (fr.0-10). A wonderfully written, engrossing novel of life among slaves and slave-owners before the Civil War. I felt I was there and would have to shake off a spell to come back to Brooklyn. Complex characters facing nasty difficult situations with all the grace they can find.
• Language Instinct, The by Steven Pinker ; Nonfiction; {read:1995} Yes, we can have concepts for which we don't have words yet: (part of what poetry and prose are all about--finding ways to describe the unlabelled concepts)!
• Last Coyote, The by Michael Connelly ; Fiction; (St. Martin's Paperbacks; ) {read:2001}
• Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin ; Fiction; {read:1985-87}
• LeTorneau's Used Auto Parts by Carolyn Chute ; Fiction; (Ticknor & Fields, New York: 1988; ) {read:1990-93} Poor folks in Maine, self-destructive, scraping by. Fascinating.
• Life Before Birth by Ashley Montagu ; Nonfiction; (Signet Book, New American Library, New York. 1961, 1977; ) {read:1979-82} Reasons to be sparing with technological interventions and separation of mother and infant.
• Life is Elsewhere by Milan Kundera ; Fiction; {read:1988-89} Yes! Some Kundera links are at http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/Literature/Authors/Literary_Fiction/Kundera__Milan/.
• Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams ; Fiction; (Pocket Books, New York. 1979; ) {read:1983-4} Funny, light-hearted, absurd.
• Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran by Azadeh Moaveni ; Nonfiction; (PublicAffairs (tm), a division of Perseus Books Group, New York; © 2005 Azadeh Moaveni; ISBN#:978-1-58648-193-3) {read:2006 Oct 01} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). Every page had intriguing observations about day-to-day life in Iran as seen by an Iranian-born reporter who spent her childhood in the US and then moved back.
• Little Chief by Syd Hoff ; Nonfiction; (Harper, New York; © 1961; ) {read:1968}
• Little Prince, the by Antoine de Saint-Exupérys ; Fiction; {read:1996 ?} A beloved story, but some of the allegories and satires are heavy-handed and one-sided.
• Little World of Don Camillo by Giovanni Guareschi ; Fiction; (© 1948; ) {read:1970} See wikipedia's Don_Camillo entry for more information about the charming stories of the rivalry and grudging admiration between two hard-headed characters (catholic priest vs. communist mayor) in a small Italian village just after World War 2. I was suprised recently to see that a friend of mine has old Lithuanian translations of some of these books: I was less suprised when I saw that the translations came from the Lithuanian community abroad, not from (then Soviet-occupied) Lithuania.
• Lives of a Cell, The: Notes of a Biology Watcher by Lewis Thomas ; Nonfiction; (A Bantam New Age Book, published by arrangement with the Viking Press, New York; © 1974 Lewis Thomas; ) {read:1979-82}
• Lodge Stories by ; Fiction; {read:1968}
• Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov ; Fiction; {read:1994} Intricate word play, deep passion, fascinating stories.
• Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, The by Alan Sillitoe ; Fiction; (A Plume Book, published by Penguin 1992; © 1959 by Alan Sillitoe; ) {read:2004 aug ?} made me think and feel
• Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry ; Fiction; {read:2001} My childhood path went from Texas (1st grade) to Nebraska (3rd gr.) to Colorado (5th) and finally to Montana for high school, so I was especially interested in this story of a cattle drive making the same journey, except on horseback and one hundred years before.
• Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel ; Nonfiction; (Penguin reprinted by permission of Walker & Co.,; © 1995 Dava Sobel; ISBN#:0-14-025879-5) {read:2006 dec also 1997} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). Tight, quick reading history that reminds me how brave and limited the early ship captains were making their world travels without knowing where they were in relation to the obstacles that were marked on their few maps. Isaac Newton and other astronomers and physicists play a role, as they did in Neal Stephenson's fictional "Baroque Cycle."
• Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel ; Nonfiction; (1995, Walker & Co.; ) {read:1997} Well written adventure in science.
• Lord of the Flies, The by William Golding ; Fiction; {read:1978 & Before}
• Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez (+ Translated from the Spanish by Edith Grossman); Fiction; (Alfred A. Knopf, NY; © 1988 Gabriel García Márquez; ISBN#:0-394-57108-8; and 0-394-56161-9) {read:2006 Apr 15} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). Almost a catalog of love stories, including a long-term marriage with some compromises while another man, who had loved the wife as a teenager, spends 50 years pining for her while chasing other skirts.
• Love Story by Erich Segal ; Nonfiction; {read:1975 or before}
• Lowell Limpett and Two Stories by Ward Just ; Fiction; (PublicAffairs, New York; © 2001 Ward Just; ISBN#:1-58648-087-1) {read:2008 may 07} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10).
• Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism by Dennis King ; Nonfiction; (Doubleday, New York; 1989; ) {read:1997} Uh-oh!
• Lysistrata by ? Aristophanes (+ Translated by Douglass Parker.); Fiction; (Mentor Book, New American Library, New York. 1964, 1970; ) {read:1979-82}
• Mac OS X Server by ? ? ; Nonfiction; {read:2002}
• Mac OS X Server 2.2 Manual by ? ? ; Nonfiction; {read:2002}
• Mac Xcode 2 Book, The by Michael Cohen ; Nonfiction; (Wiley Publishing, Inc. Hoboken, NJ.; © 2005 Wiley Publishing Inc.; ISBN#:978-0-7645-8411-4) {read:2006 Apr 01} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Light hearted and wonderfully readable introduction to the Macintosh programming tools. wiley.com
• Magister Ludi: (The Glass Bead Game) by Herman Hesse ; Fiction; {read:1979-82}
• Man Who Walked Between The Towers, The by Mordicai Gerstein ; Nonfiction; (Roaring Brook Press, Brookfield, Connecticut; © 2003 Mordicai Gerstein; ISBN#:978-0761317913) {read:2007 sep 08} Winner of the Caldecott Medal, this children's book tells the amazing story of Philippe Petit's bandit highwire walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. In August 1974, during the construction of the towers, Petit and friends (disguised as workmen) used elevators and then stairs to smuggle almost 500 pounds of equipment to the top of the towers. Working at night, they used a crossbow to send across an arrow with fishing line that was then used to pull heavier and heavier lines across the gap between the buildings, pulling them tight with winches (after almost losing the whole heavy cable when it started to pull away from them while sagging between the buildings). By daybreak (7 Aug '74) they were ready, and Philippe took his 26-foot balance pole and walked out between the buildings, 1340 feet about ground level. Eventually people noticed, police arrived, and Petit spent almost more than an hour out between the towers (even laying down on the wire) before surrendering to the "octupus of hands" of the waiting police. His punishment was to do a free show in Central Park. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Petit and Petit's book To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers for pictures and more information.
• Man's Fate by Andre Malraux ; Fiction; {read:1979-82}
• Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl ; Nonfiction; (ISBN#:0671023373) {read:1978 & before} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Remarkable and moving essay on ethics, and the psychology of personal morality: I've never forgotten his assertion (in light of world war II's horror's) that the "Normal" emotional response to abnormal events is abnormality (pain, confusion) itself.
• March of Folly, The: From Troy to Vietnam by Barbara Tuchman ; Nonfiction; (Alfred A. Knopf, New York. 1984; ) {read:1985-87} A reminder that stupidity and miscalculation have much to do with political decisions!
• Marcovaldo, or The seasons in the city by Italo Calvino (+ translated from the Italian by William Weaver;); Fiction; (a Harvest Book, A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book, Harcourt Brace & Co., New York; English translation copyright 1983 by Harcourt Brace & Co; © 1963 by Giulio Einaudi Editore, S.p.A.; ISBN#:0-15-657204-4 (pbk)) {read:2005 Apr} I recommend! Subtle and charming short stories, reading like parables with magic and slapstick combined in the adventures of a poor but often optimistic man and his family in Italy.
• Mary by Vladimir Nabokov ; Fiction; (Vintage; ) {read:2001}
• Master of Petersburg, The by J. M. Coetzee ; Fiction; (Viking, New York; © 1994; ISBN#:9780670855872) {read:2007 aug 20} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). A poignant trip back 100 years: Russia in ferment, with idealists, revolutionaries, realists, spies, and the sad taste of tragedy. It starts with a father looking for his missing teenage son, and thereby stumbling onto secrets he might have been better off not knowing.
• Master, The by Colm Tóibín ; Fiction; (Scribner, New York; © 2004 Colm Tóibín; ISBN#:0-7432-5040-0) {read:2005 May} I recommend! A fantastic book, living inside the observant mind and subtle emotions of the author Henry James. I know a half dozen people who have read it and all seemed to love it, as did I. Friendships, (accusations of) betrayals, brilliant lively friends, and pregnant silences; drama sometimes arising through a look or through what isn't said.
• Maus by Art Spiegelman ; Nonfiction; (Pantheon Books, 1991; ) {read:1990-93} Illustrated history of a man's survival of the Holocaust. Breathtaking, sarcastic, frightening, wonderful: luck and betrayal and brutality and survival.
• Maus II by Art Spiegelman ; Nonfiction; (Pantheon Books, 1991; ) {read:1990-93} Illustrated history of a man's survival of the Holocaust. Breathtaking, sarcastic, frightening, wonderful: luck and betrayal and brutality and survival.
• Measuring the World: a novel by Daniel Kehlmann ; Fiction; (Vintage; ISBN#:978-0-307-27739-8) {read:2008 Jan 27} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10).
• Men and Angels by Mary Gordon ; Fiction; {read:1994} Felt more like a writing exercise than a novel, and left me cold.
• Men-Of-War, The by David Howarth (+ Time-Life Editors); Nonfiction; (1978: Time-Life Books, Alexandria, VA; ) {read:2000} (vol.5 of "The Seafarers) about Anglo-Dutch wars of 17th c.
• Mermaid Chair, The by Sue Monk Kidd ; Fiction; (Viking, Penguin Group, New York, NY; © Sue Monk Kidd Ltd., 2005; ISBN#:0-670-03394-4) {read:2005 May} I was particularly intrigued by section on art and spirituality, suggest/thinking that perhaps God (whatever that is) is everywhere and visible in the beauty of the world, and in the demands (desires) of one's soul and (or) heart. Over all, though, the writing (and story) struck me as simple and amateur.
• Midsummer Night's Dream, A by William Shakespeare ; Fiction; {read:1990-93}
• Mishima: A Biography by John Nathan ; Nonfiction; (ISBN#:030680977X) {read:1990-93} Biography of the intense (Japanese, Nobel-Prize-Contender) author Yukio Mishima, who ended his life with a somewhat public seppuku suicide after attempting to start a Japanese revolution.
• Mister Roberts by Thomas Heggen ; Nonfiction; {read:1975 or before} "what's 'clap'?"
• Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley ; Fiction; (A Del Rey Book, Ballantine Books, New York. 1982; ) {read:1985-87} Nice re-telling of the Arthurian legend from point of view of (some of) the women.
• Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson ; Fiction; {read:1988-89} Mind-bogglingly great!
• Moor's Last Sigh, The by Salman Rushdie ; Fiction; (Vintage International (Random House) 1995; ) {read:1997} Moving, wonderful, a feast of fantasy, history, wild characters, cultures, romance and regret.
• Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem ; Fiction; {read:2002}
• Mottled Lizard, The by Elspeth Huxley ; Fiction; (Chatto and Windus, 1962; Penguin Books 1985; ) {read:1990-93}
• Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf ; Fiction; (Harvest/Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; New York, 1925, 1953; ) {read:1983-4} Intricate, challenging.
• Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare ; Fiction; {read:1995} Love finds a way..
• Murder in the Marais: An Aimée Leduc Investigation by Cara Black ; Fiction; (Soho Press, NY; © 1999, Cara Black; ISBN#:1-56947-212-2) {read:2006 apr 19} My rating: 5 (fr.0-10).
• My Soul to Keep by Judith Hawkes ; Fiction; (1996; ) {read:1996} Wonderful, frightening.
• Mythical Man-Month, The: Essays on Software Engineering by Fred P. Brooks, Jr. ; Nonfiction; (Addison-Wesley Publishing Co, Reading Mass. 1975, 1982; ) {read:1990-93} Great book! Beware, programming teams: as number of team members rises, communication paths rise exponentially, as does possibility of screwing up under-specified interfaces.
• Naked and the Dead, The by Norman Mailer ; Fiction; {read:1988-89} War is hell, and the writing is wonderful.
• Naked is the Best Disguise by Lauri Lewin ; Nonfiction; {read:1990-93} My rating: 4 (fr.0-10). Coed turns stripper to pay the bills, writes a sociological/psychological "study" afterwards. The strippers risk rip offs from club owners and molestation from patrons (suprise!). I don't know how I even got hold of this book: garage sale, freebie? There's another book with the same title that is about Sherlock Holmes.
• Name Of The Rose, The by Umberto Eco ; Fiction; {read:2005 Jan} This is a magnificent novel, exciting and rewarding and subtle. A murder investigation in the middle ages is set inside a monastery and its labyrinth library. Intricate and passionate arguments flare up about faith, reason, and power; characters toy with poison and sneak through hallways while armies mass nearby.
• Natural Superiority of Women, The by Ashley Montagu ; Nonfiction; (Collier Books, New York. 1952, 1974; ) {read:1983-4}
• Neuromancer by William Gibson ; Fiction; (Ace Books, Berkley Publishing Group, New York, 1984; ) {read:1988-89} Mind-bogglingly great!
• New Centurions, The by Joseph Wambaugh ; Nonfiction; (1971; ) {read:1975 or before}
• New Kind Of Science, A by Stephen Wolfram ; Nonfiction; (Wolfram Research, Inc.; ) {read:2002 Aug} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Absolutely engrossing and brilliant: as only an amateur mathematician I'm barely qualified to judge, but I feel the same excitement about Wolfram's work that I feel about Newton's work as described in Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver. Simplified synopsis: some (more than expected) complex systems are intractible for calculus type analysis. Models of them have to be followed step by step, with no shortcut for finding the outcomes.
• Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens ; Fiction; (Bantam Books, New York, 1983; ) {read:1988-89} Wonderful melodrama!
• Night Soldiers by Alan Furst ; Fiction; {read:2005 Jan}
• Night to Remember, A by Walter Lord ; Nonfiction; (Bantam Books, 1955, 1997.; ) {read:1998} Another gripper, fluent: you feel as though you're there as the Titanic goes to the bottom of the sea.
• No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy ; Fiction; (Vintage International, a division of Random House; © 2005 M-71, Ltd; ISBN#:0-375-70667-4) {read:2007 Dec} My rating: 9 (fr.0-10). Cormac McCarthy's writing and story is so intense and driving that there's no way to put this book back down. Not for the squeamish.
• No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre ; Fiction; (Stuart Gilbert: 1946, Alfred A. Knopf : 1949; ) {read:1979-82}
• No One Here Gets Out Alive by Jerry Hopkins (+ Danny Sugerman); Nonfiction; (Warner Books, 1980; ) {read:1983-4} Biography of Jim Morrison, very interesting!
• Noble House by James Clavell ; Fiction; (Delacorte Press, New York; © 1981 James Clavell.; ) {read:2003} Part of an epic, brutal and thought-provoking. The stories occur in the following order {date written follows} (1) Shogun {1975} ;(2) Tai Pan {1966} ;(3) Gai Jin {1993} ;(4) King Rat {1962} ; (5) Noble House {1981} ;(6) Whirlwind {1986}.
• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen ; Fiction; (The Modern Library, New York; © 2002 Modern Library Paperback Edition; ISBN#:0-375-75917-4 (pbk)) {read:2005 Nov 21} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). Very first impression: Jane's funny! "..so pure and uncoquettish were her feelings, that, though they overtook and passed the two offending young men in Milsom-street, she was so far from seeking to attract their notice, that she looked back at them only three times." (chapter VII) "the advantages of natural folly in a beautiful girl have been already set forth ... Catherine did not know own advantages&emdash;did not know that a good-looking girl, with an affectionate heart and a very ignorant mind, cannot fail of atracting a clever young man, unless circumstances are partiularly untoward." (chapter XIV) Jane Austen (1775-1817)
• Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami ; Fiction; (Vintage International; © 1987; 2000; ) {read:2004 Jan}
• Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoeyevsky ; Fiction; {read:1979-82}
• Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, An by Ambrose Pierce ; Fiction; (Penguin, 1995; ) {read:1996} Gothic melodramas that seem a little aged and staged.
• Oedipus the King by ? Sophocles (+ Translated by Dave Grene); Fiction; (In "Sophocles I", University of Chicago Press. 1942, 1954; ) {read:1979-82}
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck ; Fiction; {read:1978 & Before}
• Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens ; Fiction; {read:1988-89} Wonderful melodrama!
• Omon Ra by Victor Pelevin (+ Translated from the Russian by Andrew Bromfield.); Fiction; (Farrar, Straus and Giroux.; ) {read:1998} Fascinating, wicked Swiftean satire of the Russian space program. Absurd human behavior, crumbling society. Reminds me of "A Clockwork Orange".
• On Being Human by Ashley Montagu ; Nonfiction; (Hawthorn Books (Elsevier-Dutton); New York: 1950, 1966; ) {read:1983-4}
• On His Majesty's Secret Service by Ian Fleming ; Fiction; {read:1971}
• On Intelligence: How a new understanding of the brain wil lead to the creation of truly intelligent machines. by Jeff Hawkins (+ Sandra Blakeslee); Nonfiction; (Owl Books, Henry Holt & Co.; © 2004 Jeff Hawkins and Sandra Blakeslee; ISBN#:0-8050-7853-3) {read:2006 nov 29} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Truly fascinating and well-written introduction (for a "lay audience") to a theory of cortex function with implications for the design of artificial intelligence systems. It suggests that most previous AI work (including neural networks) would have made more progress if they'd had Hawkins's overview theory of how feedback and feedforward complement each other with memory and prediction. His company to develop these new kind of artificial brains is numenta.com, and the book's supporting pages are at onIntelligence.com. See his 20 minute talk at the T.E.D. (Technology/Entertainment/Design) conference 2003.
• On The Road by Jack Kerouac ; Nonfiction; (Signet/New American Library, New York 1957; ) {read:1994} Stream of consciousness ("that's not writing, that's typing!"), usually interesting as an anthropological report on witless rebels.
• Once and Future King, The by T. H. White ; Fiction; (A Berkley Medallion Book, Published by G. P. Putnam's sons,; © 1939, 1940, 1958 T. H. White; ) {read:1979-82}
• Once Upon a More Enlightened Time by James Finn Garner ; Fiction; (Simon & Schuster Macmillan, 1995; ) {read:1997} Humorous, entertaining stories that, through their earnest progressive-speak, poke sly fun at PC extremes.
• One Can Do It: A How-To Guide for the Physically Handicapped by Sheri Coin Marshall ; Nonfiction; (Rainbow Books, Inc.; ISBN#:1-56825-002-9) {read:2001} one-armed woman pilot (who among other adventures after losing her arm as a child, survived plane crash with Bob Solie, our neighbor from Billings)
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey ; Fiction; {read:1978 & before}
• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez ; Fiction; (Bard, published by Avon Books, with Harper & Row, New York, 1971; ) {read:1979-82} Lush, gripping, magical, sometimes horrible.
• Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland by Christopher R. Browning ; Nonfiction; (Harper Perennial, a division of HarperCollins publishers, 1998; ) {read:1999} --(non-fiction) War crimes trials after WWII obtained chilling testimony from "Ordinary Men" (non-combatant policemen) who participated the mass murder of civilian Jews and Poles. The men are initially given opportunities to opt out, and their self-serving testimony is treated with proper skepticism, as are their claims of coercion (the courts found no evidence of any soldier being persecuted for refusing to participate). A tightly-reasoned appendix suggests that Daniel Goldhagen's "Hitler's Willing Executioners" book is sometimes illogical and overstated.
• Oresteia by ? Aeschylus (+ Translated by Richmond Lattimore.); Fiction; (In "Aeschylus I", University of Chicago Press. 1953; ) {read:1979-82}
• Outline of Lithuanian History, An by Stasys Samalavicius ; Nonfiction; (Diemedis Leidykla, Vilnius, Lithuania, 1995; ) {read:1996} Interesting to see modern myths in light of this historical account: poor little Lithuania was once a major conqueror of Europe! Russian (and Germany) have since then run rough-shod over it during the current and previous century. And Gediminas's wolf-dream telling him to build a city (where Vilnius now is) came after there were already people and even a temple there. (The archaeological finds are now being excavated out from under the current Cathedral).
• Outsiders, The by S. E. Hinton ; Fiction; (© 1967; ) {read:1975 or before} I remember being shocked at finding this story of frightening life for poor and unpopular students. See sehinton.com (official web site). This story is being done as a workshop/play by the teenage performers in the (New York City-based) Wooster Group's "Summer Institute" in 2006.
• Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov ; Fiction; (G.P.Putnam's Sons, 1962; ) {read:1997} Fantastic, intricate, compelling! I loved this book and its self-absorbed narrator, its nostalgia, its analysis of poetry, and its insistence that we read between the lines. Passionate, graceful, and challenging.
• Paperboy, The by Pete Dexter ; Fiction; (A Delta Book, Published by Dell Publishing, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, New York; © 1995 Pete Dexter; ISBN#:0-385-31572-4) {read:2007 mar} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). A novel about ambitious young journalists who while researching a story about tough backcountry people run into some jealousy and secrets of their own. One reporter doesn't know when to stop, another doesn't bother to tell the truth, and the righteousness of their work becomes questionable when other journalists start investigating the investigators.
• Parachuting: The Skydiver's Handbook by Mike Turoff (+ Dan Poynter); Nonfiction; (7th revised edition, Para Publishing, Santa Barbara, California; © 1998; ) {read:1998} I raced through it, swimming through great info and well-reasoned descriptions. See ParaPublishing.com and their collection of related URLs at www.parapublishing.com/parachute/leaps.html.
• Parachuting: The Art of Freefall Relative Work by Madden Travis "Pat" Works ; Nonfiction; (Aerographics, Deland Florida. 1975, 1988.; ) {read:1997} Great! See a sample of his writing that I saved once: Madden Travis "Pat" Works.
• Paranoia by Joseph Finder ; Fiction; (St. Martin's Press, New York;; © 2004 Joseph Finder; ISBN#:0-312-31914-2) {read:2005 Feb} Intriguing industrial espionage and double-crossing, but the characters are neither likable nor deep. I'm curious to see more of the author's (non-fiction) books about espionage...
• Patriot Games by Tom Clancy ; Fiction; {read:1996} Thriller!
• Pattern Recognition by William Gibson ; Fiction; (published by G.P.Putnam's Sons, New York; © 2003 by William Gibson; ) {read:2003} personalized autograph, from Boulder CO book reading
• Pearl, The by John Steinbeck ; Fiction; {read:1978 & Before}
• Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo (+ translated by Margaret Sayers Peden); Fiction; (Grove Press, NY; ) {read:2001}
• People's History of the United States, A by Howard Zinn ; Nonfiction; (Harper Colophon, New York: 1980; ) {read:1985-87} Why didn't we hear these tales of underdogs before?
• Perfect Storm, The by Sebastian Junger ; Nonfiction; (HarperPaperbacks, a division of HarperCollins publishers, NY: 1998; ) {read:1998}
• Perfectionist, The: Life and Death in Haute Cuisine by Rudolph Chelminski ; Nonfiction; (Gotham Books, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.; © 2005 Rudolph Chelminski; ISBN#:1-592-401047-4) {read:2005 Sep 15} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). This is the fascinating and substantial biography of Chef Bernard Loiseau, the Michelin 3-Star chef who took his own life in 2003, while at the top of his career. I'm not especially interested in cooking and cuisine, so I was surprised how interesting his story is, and was engaged by the writing while being introduced to a different world. See Chelminski Info (and ChanterelleNYC, the incredible "Best Restaurant in the Nation" where our book club discussion was hosted by owners Karen and (Chef) David Waltuck with a supper that was probably the best I've had in my life).
• Peter and the Unlucky Rocket by Hazel W. Corson (+ pictures by William Marsh;); Fiction; (Benefic Press; © 1959; ) {read:1968}
• Plague, The by Albert Camus ; Fiction; {read:1990-93} Breathtaking.
• Planet Earth: The Making of an Epic Series by David Nicolson-Lord ; Nonfiction; (BBC Books; ISBN#:978-0-563-49358-7) {read:2008 mar 29} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10).
• Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes by Thomas Cathcart (+ Daniel Klein); Nonfiction; (Abrams Image; © July 2007; ISBN#:978-0-8109-1493-3) {read:2008 jan 13} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Broad ranging, fascinating, informative and quick-paced: I've already started loaning my copy to high school students.
• Plough and the Stars, The by Sean O'Casey ; Fiction; (1926; Saint Martin's Press, 1957; ) {read:1996} Thank you, Sean, for showing the blundering that happens on all sides of conflicts.
• Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov ; Fiction; (First Vintage International Edition, 1989, original copyright 1953; ) {read:1997} So rich, so sad: I love re-reading and untangling the multiple unreliable narrations and the jabs at psychotherapy.
• Poland by James Michener ; Fiction; {read:2002 Jul}
• Polish Officer, The by Alan Furst ; Fiction; (© 1995 Alan Furst; ISBN#:0-375-75827-5) {read:2005 Jan} Fantastic, enthralling: in the week after reading it I saw the New York Times obituary (24 Jan 2005) for a real-life "Polish Officer," Jan Nowak-Jezioranski. It was a Reuters article from Warsaw, which starts "Jan Nowak-Jezioranski, a Polish hero of World War II who spent his life fighing for an independent democratic Poland, died Thursday. He was 91. ... revered by his countrymen as a symbol of Polish patriotism ... He assumed the name Jan Nowak after joining the undergournd during World War II and took part in the failed 1944 Warsaw Uprising ... His most famous achievement was as the "Courier from Warsaw," making death-defying trips to London from Warsaw to bring news of the Polish resistance's activities to the government in exile and to the Allies..."
• Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Finn Garner ; Fiction; (Simon & Schuster Macmillan, 1995; ) {read:1997} Humorous, entertaining stories that, through their earnest progressive-speak, poke sly fun at PC extremes.
• Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, A by James Joyce ; Fiction; (Penguin Popular Classics; ) {read:2001} Lietuva
• Positively 4th Street: The Lives And Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña, and Richard Fariña by David Hajdu ; Nonfiction; (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York 2001; ) {read:2004 jul}
• Positronic Man, The by Isaac Asimov (+ with Robert Silverberg); Fiction; (Doubleday, 1993; ) {read:1990-93} A bit lame.
• Possession by A.S. Byatt ; Fiction; {read:1996} Exciting historical literate novel. Great debunking of a fraud psychic. Delightful love story.
• Power Broker, The: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro ; Nonfiction; (Vintage Books Edition, Sept.1975 (A Division of Random House); © 1974 by Robert A. Caro; ) {read:2002} A true story and I can't put it down: almost every road and park that I've ever heard of around New York City (and State) was built under the rather tyrannical control of Robert Moses, who started as a young idealist but became powerful and politically savvy and vengeful. Jones Beach, BQE, LIE, West Side Highway, Verazzano Bridge: yanked into existence through some amazing political shenanigans by the man who "Got Things Done." Some of his work was for the good and some of it... well, he deliberately built the overpass bridges low on the Long Island parkways so that buses couldn't go to his beaches. This book let me know about the public visible structure of the city AND some of the action behind the scenes. (It reminds me of, and could be read in conjuction with, "The Godfather" by Mario Puzo, which is another exciting story--kind of a guilty pleasure quick read-- that let me feel like I was peeking behind the scenes, finding out about combinations of arrogant dignity and hidden nasty powers.)
• Practical Algorithms by ? ? ; Nonfiction; {read:2002}
• Practical C++ by ? ? ; Nonfiction; (O'Reilly & Associates, Sebastopol, California; ) {read:1996} (note: also at ora.com)
• Prayer for Owen Meany, A by John Irving ; Fiction; {read:1996} Gripping, but contrived in parts. (And why does a miracle of precognition and timing cause the narrator to become a Christian? Not explained.)
• Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics by John Derbyshire ; Nonfiction; (A Plume book, published by Penguin 2004, NY NY; © John Derbyshire 2003; ) {read:2004 jul} As John F. Nash (1994 Nobel Prize winner) says on the front cover: "A remarkable book."
• Prince and the Pauper, The by Mark (Samuel Clemens) Twain ; Fiction; {read:1975 or before}
• Prince of Tides, The by Pat Conroy ; Fiction; (Houghton Mifflin 1986, Bantam 1987.; ) {read:1998} The author and his characters are fluent story-tellers, with grim twists that disturbed my sleep and anecdotes that made me laugh out loud. If people are damaged, then how can they get repaired?
• Prince, the by ? Machiavelli ; Nonfiction; (Crofts Classic , AHM Publishing Corp., Illinois. 1947; ) {read:1979-82} ? is this publisher for prince or for little prince?
• Prisoner's Dilemma by William Poundstone ; Nonfiction; (Anchor Books, Doubleday (New York): 1992; ) {read:1998} Well organized, captivating account of Jon Von Neumann, game theory, brinksmanship, and the nuclear arms race. Clear, thought-provoking. It let me think that it's not just a flaw of human nature to distrust strangers: we don't know their style, goals, or accountability. It made me think that arms races need desperate attention. It reminded me to pick up the bottle I saw at the bottom of subway stairs where somebody was bound to trip over it. It led me (in the same day) to call the police about someone one threatening to stab a shopkeeper (and me), and it led me to ring the doorbell to tell a college student that it was stupid to throw water balloons out his own window onto his neighbors.
• Professor and the Prostitute, The by Linda Wolfe ; Nonfiction; {read:1988-89} True-crime story of "love" gone wrong.
• Pueblo Stories by Edward W. and Marguerite P. Dolch (+ illustrated by Robert S Kerr); Fiction; (Garrard Press, Champaign, Ill.; © 1956; ) {read:1968}
• Quicksilver: (Volume 1 of the Baroque Cycle) by Neal Stephenson ; Fiction; (William Morrow, An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers; © 2003; ISBN#:0-380-97742-7) {read:2004 aug} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). Very good, some intense story telling set in 1660-1715, in which Newton's discovery of the principles of gravity, among other things, comes as an amazing revelation. It is even better on the second reading (2006 Jun): as Nabokov says, great writing rewards re-reading. Among the wonderful parts: Daniel's idea that the growth of science and industry he has seen are like building a ship from scraps while bobbing on the sea during a storm. (Which conflicts with the view, shared by Newton and others, that the world has been going down hill since the time of the glory and wisdom of Solomon.) See Quicksilver Wiki (FAQ)!, wikipedia entry, as well as encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/The Baroque Cycle.
• Race Matters by Cornel West ; Nonfiction; {read:1994} Essays (on American race relations) that are simultaneously thoughtful, iconoclastic, inspiring, cynical, and hopeful. Learned, and more deep than sentimental.
• Radetzky March, The by Joseph Roth (+ Translated from the German by Joachim Neugroschel, 1995. Introduction by Nadine Gordimer, 1991.); Fiction; (The Overlook Press, Woodstock, New York; © 1932 Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Berlin.; ) {read:2004 apr}
• Rain Drop Splash by Alvin R Tresselt (+ Leonard Weisgard); Nonfiction; (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., New York; © 1946; ) {read:1968}
• Rascal by Sterling North ; Nonfiction; {read:1978 & before}
• Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi ; Nonfiction; (Random House Trade Paperback Division 2004; © 2003 Azar Nafisi; ) {read:2004 aug} (I have autographed copy.)
• Real Frank Zappa Book, The by Frank Zappa (+ with Petere Occhiogrosso); Nonfiction; (Poseidon Press, NY 1989; ) {read:1988-89} What a great guy! Wacky, smart, articulate, skeptical, funny, creative. A hero for his responses to rock censorship and Tipper Gore.
• Red Gold by Alan Furst ; Fiction; (Random House Trade Paperbacks, New York, NY; © 1999 Alan Furst; ISBN#:0-375-75859-3) {read:2005 Mar} Brilliant. (The former film-maker, again.)
• Remains of the Day, The by Kazuo Ishiguro ; Fiction; (Vintage International (Random House): New York, 1988, 1993; ) {read:1995} Heart-breaking nostalgia, gentle writing...
• Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke ; Fiction; {read:1978 & Before}
• Restaurant at the End of the Universe, The by Douglas Adams ; Fiction; (Pocket Books, New York. 1979; ) {read:1983-4} Funny, light-hearted, absurd.
• Return to Laughter by Elenore Smith Bowen ; Nonfiction; (Harper and Brothers: 1954; Natural History Library, Anchor Books, Doubleday, New York: 1964.; ) {read:1979-82} (Author's real name is Laura Bohannon).
• Return to the Moon: Exploration, Enterprise, and Energy in the Human Settlement of Space by Harrison H. Schmitt (+ Foreword by Neil Armstrong.); Nonfiction; (Copernicus Books, an imprint of Springer Science-Business Media, in association with Praxis Publishing, LTD.; © 2006 Praxis Publishing Ltd.; ISBN#:978-0-387-24285-9) {read:2007 sep 07} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Fantastic: a hard-boiled and clear-eyed analysis of how to make space settlement happen soon, in a way that pays for itself AND serves the world by mining the moon's Helium3 isotope to fuel the (probably) cleanest possible kind of fusion reactors. It's as if the moon is lightly coated with gold, and setting up (partly robotic) mines might not cost much more than what is being spent to build the new Meadowlands stadium in New Jersey. Schmitt is not only a scientist and adjunct professor working with fusion energy researchers at University of Wisconsin-Madison Fusion Technology Institute, not only a former US senator (New Mexico, 1976-82), but also a geologist (PhD from Harvard) who worked on the moon as an Apollo 17 astronaut. In this book he lays out business plans, analyses of international space law, descriptions of fusion reactors, risks of human space travel, and offers encouragement that this movement out of our Earthly nest is not only dream-worthy but economically viable even in the short term.
• Right Stuff, The by Tom Wolfe ; Nonfiction; (Farrar-Straus-Giroux, New York 1979; ) {read:1995}
• River Runs Through It, A by Norman Maclean ; Fiction; (Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1976.; ISBN#:9780226500577) {read:1990-93} I loved this bittersweet novel, and the accompanying short stories. Life in the Montana outdoors, early in this century.
• Road, The by Cormac McCarthy ; Fiction; (Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc.; © 2006 M-71, Ltd.; ISBN#:978-0-307-27732-3) {read:2007 May 25} My rating: 9 (fr.0-10). Mesmerizing: a small light of innocence and love stumbles through a post apocalyptic landscape of horror [and a tiny bit of love/hope]. I read most of it standing up because I couldn't be bothered to sit down whenever I had a minute to grab a few pages (moving to a chair would distract and take too long).
• Rockets Don't Go to Chicago, Andy by Jane Thayer (+ illustrated by Meg Wohlberg); Fiction; (William Morrow and Company; © 1967; ) {read:1968} saw on ebay auction 2007 "tells the tale of a curious boy named Andy, and his imaginative adventures with rockets."
• Roots by Alex Haley ; Fiction; (1974; ) {read:1978 & before} While looking for online links to Haley, (including www.kintehaley.org) I found articles at www.martinLutherKing.org/roots.html and www.papillonsartpalace.com/alex.htm asserting that Haley paid ($650,000 in?) fines for plagiarizing parts (much? or just three words?) of this supposed "true family history." (I'm told that MartinLutherKing.org is run by a white supremacist group, but New York Times articles mention Haley settling a plagiarism case regarding Roots.)
• Round About by ; Fiction; {read:1968}
• Royal Flash: (II: from the Flashman Papers, 1842-3 and 1847-8) by George MacDonald Fraser ; Fiction; (Alfred A. Knopf, NY; © 1970 George MacDonald Fraser; ISBN#:0-452-25676-3) {read:2006 Apr 27} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). More wild swashbuckling fun (book 2). More info at http://www.michaelroam.com/wasao/FSotUK/FLASHMAN/ and the official web site: www.harryflashman.org.uk.
• RubyFruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown ; Fiction; {read:1979-82}
• Rule of Four, The by Ian Caldwell (+ Dustin Thomason); Fiction; (Dial Press, a division of Random House, New York NY; © 2004, Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason; ISBN#:0-385-33711-6) {read:2005 Mar} Regarding Francesco Colonna's book, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, published in 1527. I found useful links at www.victoria.tc.ca/~mattison/ficarch/rulefour.htm, including a map of the Princeton Campus, the official Rule of Four site www.randomhouse.com/bantamdell/theruleoffour/, Amazon's info (including the 1999 English translation of) Hypnerotomachia, and directory of library copies of Hypnerotomachia.
• Sailor Jack and Bluebell's Dive by Selma and Jack Wassermann ; Fiction; (Benefic Press, Chicago; © 1961; ) {read:1968}
• Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol ; Nonfiction; {read:1990-93} How, in many school systems, the rich get more and the poor get too little.
• Scarlet Letter, The by Nathaniel Hawthorne ; Fiction; (Penguin Classics. First published in the USA by Ticknor, Reed, and Fields 1850.; © 1962 Ohio State University Press; ISBN#:0-14-03.90197) {read:2007 feb} My rating: 6 (fr.0-10).
• Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 3/4, The by Sue Townsend ; Fiction; (© 1982 Sue Townsend; ) {read:1983-4}
• Secret Life of Sebastian Knight by Vladimir Nabokov ; Fiction; {read:2000} He writes with passion, is able to paint beautiful scenes, and has imperfect but knowing (and articulate) narrators who have high standards, who avoid and criticize cliche. This novel is structured craftily, like a puzzle with hints and interwoven threads: it deserves and rewards re-reading. There is wonderful discussion of the art of story-telling, and aching nostalgia. Of similar quality and substance--every page touched by narrative craft and full of characters with soul--are Nabokov's novels The Eye, Despair, and Glory. They have fantastic dream sequences, punctured arrogance, poetic writing, mysteries of memory, and characters trying to live with honesty and artistry.
• Secrets, Lies, and Democracy by Noam Chomsky ; Nonfiction; (Odonian Press (Box 32375, Tucson AZ 85751; (602) 296-4056; Distribution through "Publishers Group West", Box 8843, Emeryville CA 94662; (800) 788-3123;; © 1994 David Barsamian; ) {read:2005 Jun 19} I recommend! A quick, lively, and provocative read, disagreeing with standard media take on most subjects of power, wealth, and freedom. For instance: what does democracy matter if corporations have all the power?
• Seeing Voices by Oliver Sacks ; Nonfiction; {read:1990-93} Why sign language is a complete language, not just a pidgin.
• Seven Summits by Rick Ridgeway (+ Dick Bass and Frank Wells); Nonfiction; (1986. Warner Books, Inc, NY NY.; ) {read:1998} Exciting adventures on the highest peaks of every continent: making dreams come true while staggering through the snow. Nicely written: observant and thoughtful.
• Sex and Death to Age Fourteen by Spaulding Grey ; Nonfiction; {read:1988-89} Fantastic.
• Sharpe's Fortress: India 1803 by Bernard Cornwell ; Fiction; (Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2002.; © 1999 Bernard Cornwell; ISBN#:0-06-109863-9 pbk) {read:2005 Jul 13} A cover blurb (from "The Economist") rightfully calls Cornwell "the direct heir to Patrick O'Brian". This is “can't put it down” action reading, focused on violent military maneuvering by Britain's army in India, 1803.
• Sharpe's Rifles: Richard Sharpe and the French Invasion of Galicia, January 1809 by Bernard Cornwell ; Fiction; (Viking Penguin,; © 1988 Rifleman Productions Ltd.; ISBN#:0 14 02.9429 5) {read:2005 Jul} Rash action with tastes of love, religion vs. reason, miracles (made or experienced).
• Sharpe's Tiger: Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Seringapatam, 1799 by Bernard Cornwell ; Fiction; (Harper Collins Publishers, London; © 1997; ISBN#:0-00-649035-2) {read:2005 Dec 12} My rating: 6 (fr.0-10).
• Sharra's Exile by Marion Zimmer Bradley ; Fiction; (Daw Books, New York: 1981; ) {read:1985-87}
• Sheltering Sky, The by Paul Bowles ; Fiction; (The Ecco Press, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers,; © 1949 Paul Bowles, renewed 1977; ISBN#:0-88001-582-9) {read:2005 Mar} Favorite moments in the book include the description of Kit's sensitivity to omens: (including the possibility of misleading omens which she suspects are trying to lull her into relaxing her guard)--I felt that this description gave me an understanding of a personality that I'd never understood before. Another moment for me is the "dancer" in the tent's story of the women who want to drink tea in the sahara, and who get there by running off with a camel train as Kit does later. The mother & son were deliciously awful, as was Kit's attempt to find Tunner tolerable.
• Shogun by James Clavell ; Fiction; (Dell, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell; 666 Fifth Ave, NY; © 1975 James Clavell.; ) {read:2003} Part of an epic, brutal and thought-provoking. The stories occur in the following order {date written follows} (1) Shogun {1975} ;(2) Tai Pan {1966} ;(3) Gai Jin {1993} ;(4) King Rat {1962} ; (5) Noble House {1981} ;(6) Whirlwind {1986}.
• Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, A: a novel by Marina Lewycka ; Fiction; (Penguin Books, Penguin Group, New York; © 2005 Marina Lewycka; ISBN#:0-14-30.3674-2) {read:2006 Jul} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). A delightful and outrageous story of delightful and outrageous behavior. The front cover features the first sentences: "Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blond Ukrainian divorcée. He was eighty-four and she was thirty-six. She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade..."
• Sick Puppy by Carl Hiassen ; Fiction; (Alfred A Knopf, New York, 2000;; © 1999 Carl Hiassen; ISBN#:0-679-45445-4) {read:2005 Feb} An amusing tangle of criminals, real-estate developers, gangly dogs, ecologists, and goofballs in the Florida everglades.
• Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Quick Start Manual by ? ? ; Nonfiction; (Aspyr/Firaxis/2K; © 2005; ) {read:2007 Dec} My rating: 5 (fr.0-10).
• Siddhartha by Herman Hesse ; Fiction; {read:1979-82} Rich, thought-provoking, but also cold emotionally.
• Sideshow by William Shawcross ; Nonfiction; {read:1988-89} A clear condemnation of Kissinger and Nixon's part in the secret bombing and destruction of Cambodia.
• Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe by George Eliot (+ (George Eliot is the pen name of Mary Anne Evans, 1819-1880)); Fiction; (First published in 1861 by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London; this edition by Dover Publications, Inc, Mineola, NY; © 1996 Dover Publications; ISBN#:0-486-29246-0) {read:2007 sep 18} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10).
• Silence of the Lambs, The by Thomas Harris ; Fiction; {read:2000 ,1998, 1990-93} I was sure glad when my housemate got home, since I'd been left frightened of every noise in the house.
• Singapore Grip, The by James G. Farrell ; Fiction; (New York Review Books classics; 1755 B'way NY NY 10019;; © 1978 James. G. Farrell; ISBN#:1-59017-136-5) {read:2005 Jun 29} I recommend! I really enjoyed every word: the mix of tragic and comic, characters wondering about their own reality, characters arguing about whether colonialization had brought more good or harm to the mix of natives and refugees and and transplants, and even the way the author leaves some things unsaid (river of "gold", the doctor's fetish for some pricey treat, the Major's lost love in Ireland). I've been to 5 bookstores looking for his other books already.
• Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog by Kitty Burns Florey ; Nonfiction; (Melville House; ISBN#:978-1-933633-10-7) {read:2008 mar 03}
• Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher by Richard P. Feynman ; Nonfiction; (Helix Books, Addison Wesley Publishing Company; © Calif. Inst. of Tech 1965, 1989, 1995; ) {read:2004 sep}
• Skinny Dip by Carl Hiassen ; Fiction; {read:2004 jul} www.powells.com/tnr/review/2004_11_11
• Skydiver's Survival Guide, The: 2nd Edition by Kim Emerson (+ Marcus Antebi); Nonfiction; (Pier Media, New York NY (212) 481-0031; © 2004, Marcus Antebi; ISBN#:0-9715980-9-6) {read:2005 Mar} Kim Emerson taught my AFF (Accellerated FreeFall training) course and was jumpmaster with Carol Sternberg for my first AFF jump. He (Kim) was for many years the S&TA (Safety and Training Advisor) at my home Dropzone, "the Ranch," where I've ridden up to altitude with Marcus.
• Slow Man by J. M. Coetzee ; Fiction; (Viking, New York.; © 2005 J. M. Coetzee; ISBN#:9780670034598) {read:2007 aug 15} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10).
• Slowness by Milan Kundera ; Fiction; (Harper Collins; ) {read:1997} I love his skeptical reading of the self-important and pretentious.
• Small is Beautiful by E.F. Schumacher ; Nonfiction; {read:1979-82} Hmm, worth considering.
• Smoke Jumper, The by Nicholas Evans ; Fiction; ("A Dell Book" Dell Publishing, division of Random House, NY NY; © 2001; ) {read:2004 aug} A bit soap-opera-ish (felt like pop psychology) but I was intrigued by the smoke jumpers, counsellors to troubled teens, and the war photographers.
• Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson ; Fiction; (1993, Bantam Spectra; ) {read:1997} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Wow! Smart thrillers from a talented author who has a sense of humor and a wide range of interests (sword-fighting, virtual reality, education, spread of language & culture, all kinds of viruses, ecology, armies, and religions). (See also Zodiac: The Eco-Thriller, and The Diamond Age by the same author.) The books leave me with the impression that education matters, and that Stephenson would be a great guy to hang out with.
• Solo Faces by James Salter ; Fiction; (North Point Press--Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, NY. 1995; © 1979; ) {read:1997} A beautiful work, a wonderful example of weaving together the threads of adventure sport, self-discovery, and flawed heroes.
• Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison ; Fiction; {read:1983-4}
• Sons and lovers by D. H. Lawrence (+ edited by Julian Moynahan); Fiction; (New York : Penguin, repr.1977, c1968.; ISBN#:0-14-015504-X) {read:2008 Feb 18} My rating: 6 (fr.0-10).
• Sophie's World: a novel about the history of philosophy by Jostein Gaarder ; Fiction; (Berkley, 1996; ISBN#:0425152251) {read:2002} My rating: 6 (fr.0-10). Gentle intro to the fascinating world of philosophy, following one thinker after another, woven into an intriguing story. Here's a short criticism of some of the book's political tendencies and oversights: www.levity.com/rubric/sophie
• Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian (+ Translated from the Chinese by Mabel Lee); Fiction; (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2000.; © 2000 Gao Xingjian; ISBN#:0-06-621082-8) {read:2008 may 06} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). A deep, moving, and constantly readable novel from Gao Xingjian, recent winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, a Chinese writer who lives in exile in France. The characters are wandering the Chinese countryside, remembering early life, finding love, telling stories of princes and warriors and pandas, talking at cross purposes, trying to know what is real and personal and true.
• Source, The by James Michener ; Fiction; {read:1995} History and moral arguments.
• South Pacific (Tales of the?) by James Michener ; Fiction; {read:1978 & before}
• Space by James A. Michener ; Fiction; (New York, N.Y. : Random House, 1982.; ISBN#:0-449-20379-4) {read:2008 mar 05} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10).
• Space on Earth: Saving Our World by Seeking Others by Charles S. Cockell ; Nonfiction; (MacMillan, New York; © 2007 Charles S. Cockell; ISBN#:978-0-230-00752-9) {read:2007 Jul 01} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Space missions and space stations can only survive if they learn to be more "green" (recycling, sustainable), so they have a lot to learn from environmentalists: even about adapting ways of keeping space free of junk, so that space craft aren't damaged and so that non-Earth life can really be detected, among other reasons. Likewise, environmentalists have much to learn from space missions, and have already gained from the earth-watching data provided by satellites that study tornadoes, ozone, plate tectonics, volcanoes, forest fires, dust storms, hurricanes, etc. The author is Chair of the "Earth and Space Foundation" which has the vision of "The Earth as an Oasis, cared for by a space-faring civilization."
• Space Travel: DK online (e.guide) by Ian Graham ; Nonfiction; (DK Publishing, NY; © 2004, 2005 Dorling Kindersley Limited; ISBN#:978-0-75662-227-5) {read:2007 aug 02} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). A children/teens book with accompanying web site (www.spacetravel.dkonline.com) from google and dk.com.
• Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov ; Fiction; {read:1998} From the first images of life as a sparkling burst between two infinite darknesses, I was captured by this richly literate autobiography. Nabokov (he tells us that it rhymes with "the croak of") had a life that brought him thought-provoking and nostalgia-inspiring events. The writing is smart, beautiful, sentimental. Exquisite images, gentle delights of memory and thought. Makes me want to look more clearly at the world, and learn how to describe it.
• Special Topics in Calamity Physics: a novel... by Marisha Pessl ; Fiction; (Viking, Published by the Penguin Group; © 2006 Marisha Pessl; ISBN#:978-0-7394-7713-7) {read:2007 mar 28} My rating: 9.3 (fr.0-10). Exuberant, ecstatic, incandescent... every sentence shines and matters. A wordy, funny, bookish young woman starts her senior year at a new high school, is drawn into a clique of stylish people, stumbles across two mysterious deaths, and idealizes her widowed father who is a charismatic professor of revolution. My favorite book of the year. (How can you not love a book in which a character talks about the "delirious" thrill of having a secret, and tells you the names of the book that she is hurling at her favorite person?) Read it twice: it's even better when you're in on the secrets, knowing that some of the apparent strangers actually have a long entwined secret history together. The author loves Nabokov and it shows in the quality, excitement, and craft.
• Spell Sword, The by Marion Zimmer Bradley ; Fiction; (Daw Books, New York: 1974; ) {read:1985-87}
• Spring in Noisy Village by ; Fiction; {read:1968}
• Star City by Daniel Roam ; Fiction; {read:2002} Unpublished screenplay about the soviet space program, based on Dan's interviews with surviving cosmonauts and lightly fictionalized.
• Stay Cool by Elmore Leonard ; Fiction; {read:2002}
• Streets of Laredo by Larry McMurtry ; Fiction; {read:2001} Sequel to lonesome dove.
• Strong Opinions by Vladimir Nabokov ; Nonfiction; (Vintage International (Random House): 1990, 1973; ) {read:1997} Transcripts of interviews with Nabokov. Articulate, inspiring: both enthusiastic and curmudgeonly.
• Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman by Richard P. Feynman ; Nonfiction; (W.W.Norton, NY 1985, republished as paperback 1997; © Richard Feynman and Ralph Leighton; ) {read:2004 mar}
• Suttree by Cormac McCarthy ; Fiction; (1979; ) {read:1996} Absolutely fascinating: Life among the bums and alcoholics, on garbage-littered backlots beside a river. It's rare for me to be provoked to laughing out loud while reading, but Cormac McCarthy has done it again (as he did in All the Pretty Horses, Cities of the Plains, and The Crossing). I was horrified and fascinated by the characters's self-destruction and dissipation. The book's challenging vocabulary kept sending me back to my dictionary, but it was worth it!
• Sweet Hereafter, The by Russel Means ; Fiction; (Harper, New York; ) {read:1998} If the accident is supposed to tear the town apart, then why don't we see any of the conflict? I liked the movie better, though it has the same lack.
• Swell Season, The by Anton? Skvorecki ; Fiction; {read:1988-89} Making the best of life under repressive governments.
• Swimming to Cambodia by Spaulding Grey ; Nonfiction; {read:1988-89} Fantastic.
• System of the World, The: Volume Three of the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson ; Fiction; (First Harper Perennial Edition, HarperCollins Publishers; © 2004 Neal Stephenson; ISBN#:0-06-052387-5) {read:2006 Jul} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Very good, some intense story telling set in 1660-1715: this concluding episode includes even more capers, battles... and of course more fascinating philosophy and history. I was carrying this with me on vacation in Vermont when Steve Maleski, the astronomer/meteorologist at the Fairbanks planetarium and science museum in St.Johnsbury, saw it and raved about the book and Stephenson to the whole audience of the planetarium show, remarking on Stephenson's ability to clarify the complicated. See Quicksilver Wiki (FAQ)!, wikipedia entry, as well as encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/The Baroque Cycle.
• Tai Pan by James Clavell ; Fiction; (Dell Publishing, Division of Bantam Doubleday Dell; New York; © 1966 James Clavell.; ) {read:2003} Part of an epic, brutal and thought-provoking. The stories occur in the following order {date written follows} (1) Shogun {1975} ;(2) Tai Pan {1966} ;(3) Gai Jin {1993} ;(4) King Rat {1962} ; (5) Noble House {1981} ;(6) Whirlwind {1986}.
• Tailor of Panama, The by John le Carré ; Fiction; (Ballantine Books, New York; © 1996 David Cornwell; ISBN#:0-345-42043-8) {read:2006 oct 09} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10).
• Taming of the Shrew, The by William Shakespeare ; Fiction; {read:2000} Not quite as full of sparkling asides of poetry and philosophy as his later works.
• Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs ; Fiction; {read:1978 & before}
• Teacher Man: A Memoir by Frank McCourt ; Nonfiction; (Scribner, New York; © 2005 Green Peril Corp.; ISBN#:978-0-7432-4377-3; [isbn10= 0-7432-4377-3]) {read:2005 Nov 27} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). Reads quickly and engagingly, with dead-on portraits of student-teacher give and take. I appreciated his candor, mood-swings, critique of the beat-them-into-conformity education he received, and enjoyed the cameo appearances of my "not shy" colleague Maureen.
• Technopoly by Neil Postman ; Nonfiction; {read:1994} Thought-provoking, worth arguing with. A reasonable warning against headlong acceptance of "progress."
• Teenage Wasteland: Suburbia's Dead End Kids by Donna Gaines ; Nonfiction; (HarperPerennial (Harper Collins, NY) 1991; ) {read:1990-93} Field trip among stoners, metal heads, and apathetic(?), disaffected, self-destructive dropouts.
• Tempest, The by William Shakespeare ; Fiction; (Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington Square Press, Simon & Schuster 1994; ) {read:1995}
• That Was Then, This Is Now by S. E. Hinton ; Fiction; (© 1971; ) {read:1975 or before} I remember being shocked at finding this story of frightening life for poor and unpopular students. See sehinton.com (official web site).
• the curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon ; Fiction; (First Vintage Contemporaries Edition, May 2004. Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc. New York.; © 2003 Mark Haddon; ISBN#:1-4000-3271-7) {read:2004 Nov} This book puts you in the mind of an autistic (or perhaps Asperger's (sp?)) teen and made me understand how too many people or too much stimulus could overwhelm an otherwise thoughtful and rational person. See www.readinggroupcenter.com.
• The Girl Who Played Go : A Novel by Shan Sa ; Fiction; (Vintage; ISBN#:1-4000-3228-8) {read:2008 Feb 26} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). Like Cormac McCarthy, this author is simultaneously a joy to read and willing to torment readers with horrible violence. The subtle characters in this book include a teenage girl, slightly rebellious against her parents, and a young soldier who is beginning to doubt the glories of his military tradition. They are often trapped by the war going on around them.
• The History of Love: a novel by Nicole Krauss ; Fiction; (W.W.Norton & Company; © 2005 Nicole Krauss; ISBN#:0-393-32862-7) {read:2007 may 27} My rating: 9 (fr.0-10). Magnificent, utterly enchanting; with a mystery, stories within stories, survivors who veer from cranky to loving, young goofballs, widows, long-lost loves, and stray splashes of optimism.
• The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James ; Fiction; (Random House "The Modern Library", New York; © 1881 Henry James Jr.; ) {read:2005 Oct 15} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Intensely subtle and knowing, with focus on the internal mental life of hope and reserve and inspiration.
• The Return by Buzz Aldrin (+ John Barnes); Fiction; (New York : Tor, 2001, c2000.; ISBN#:0-812-57060-X) {read:2008 mar 22} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). action-packed space/politics thriller, from real astronaut
• Thendara House by Marion Zimmer Bradley ; Fiction; (Daw Books, New York: 1983; ) {read:1985-87}
• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe ; Fiction; {read:1990-93}
• Thinking In Java by Bruce Eckel ; Nonfiction; {read:1999}
• This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald ; Fiction; (Charles Scribner's Sons: 1920; reprint ?; ) {read:1979-82}
• Thorn Birds, The by Colleen McCullough ; Fiction; (Avon Books (May, 1978); ISBN#:0380563908) {read:1979-82}
• Three Guineas by Virginia Woolf ; Fiction; (Harcourt Brace and World, 1938, 1966.; ) {read:1983-4}
• Time's Arrow by Martin Amis ; Fiction; (Vintage; ) {read:2001}
• Titanic: End of a Dream, The by Wyn Craig Wade ; Nonfiction; (Penguin Books, 1979, 1986.; ) {read:1998} Clear, fascinating account of the Titanic disaster by way of the congressional inquiries in the immediate aftermath. Congressman Smith comes across as a hero, while the villains include the captain of the nearby ship that did not respond to emergency flares.
• To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway ; Fiction; (A Scribner Classic, published 1987 by Collier Books, MacMillan Publishing NY; © 1937 Ernest Hemingway (renewed 1965 by Mary Hemingway); ISBN#:0-02-051880-3) {read:2006 May 28} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). An adventure story that hooked me from the first paragraph with both its action and dry tone of voice. I particularly enjoyed his mockery of authors, though I grew tired of all the drinking. A scholar tells me Hemingway tried to avoid words with Greek and Latin roots, preferring Anglo-Saxon.
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee ; Fiction; {read:1975 or before} Atticus Finch, Boo Bradley (which is/was the name of a pub in near NYU in Greenwich Village), the drinker with his "drink", the rabid dog, fear and righteousness..
• To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf ; Fiction; (Harvest/Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; New York, 1927, 1955; ) {read:1983-4} Challenging, rewarding, amazing.
• Tom Sawyer by Mark (Samuel Clemens) Twain ; Fiction; {read:1975 or before}
• Trace: A Scarpetta Novel by Patricia Cornwell ; Fiction; (Berkley Books, NY; published by the Penguin Group. (Was G.P. Putnam when in hardcover.); © 2004, Cornwell Enterprises, Inc.; ISBN#:0-425-20420-0) {read:2005 Aug 06} Forensic criminal investigation with psycho stalker: couldn't put it down, intriguingly emotional characters, bit quick at coming to an ending though.
• Tricky Business by Dave Barry ; Fiction; (Berkley Books, NY ( a division of Penguin Books); © 2002 Dave Barry; ISBN#:0-425-19274-1) {read:2005 Jun 25} I recommend! "Another actual novel..." with some hilarious parts: I read it in two days and then went to the store the same day to get his first novel. I want to give copies to my nephews, but I'm troubled by the parts in which the bad guys are VERY bad: they don't play well with others. A goofball story: hilarious, in the "Bunch of South Florida Wackos" genre shared by Carl Hiassen.
• Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare ; Fiction; {read:1990-93 ,2005}
• Type & Layout: How typography and design can get your message across—or get in the way by Colin Wheildon ; Nonfiction; (Strathmoor Press, Berkeley, California;; © 1984, 1990, 1995, 1996 by Colin Wheildon; ISBN#:0-9624891-5-8) {read:2002} This wonderful book uses (somewhat ad hoc but totally reasonable) research to prove what should be so obvious: serif fonts, as black letters on white, make words easier to read and remember. Web designers take note! Here's praise for the book aherncomm.com/training/favorite_books_CONTAINER.htm, while here's an art director who disputes Wheildon's common sense arguments, while sounding a tad defensive: www.eeicommunications.com/eye/wheildon.html .
• Unbearable Lightness of Being, The by Milan Kundera ; Fiction; {read:1988-89} Yes! Some Kundera links are at http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/Literature/Authors/Literary_Fiction/Kundera__Milan/.
• Unconquerable World, The: Power, Nonviolence and the Will of the People by Jonathan Schell ; Nonfiction; (A Metropolitan/Owl book, Henry Holt & Company, New York; © 2003 Jonathan Schell; ISBN#:978-0-8050-4457-7) {read:2007 Apr} I recommend! Starting with an overview of theories of military "power," Schell shows how nonviolence is also powerful, playing a serious role in several revolutions and independence movements. In a world in which nuclear war is both possible and unthinkable, there is more need than ever for the kinds of international and transnational ideas that Schell describes in the final part of the book.
• Under the Volcano by Martin Lowry ; Fiction; (1984 Harper & Row (orig. 1947 J.B.Lippincott); © 1947 Peter Matson;; ISBN#:0-06-095522-8) {read:2005 Apr} I find some of the story telling incredibly engaging, (especially Hugh's conscience pangs about the Republicans in Spain, and his youthful guitar/ship adventures) but then I lose heart when the sentences get unforgivably long and tangled, or when the Consul's drunkenness takes over. There are "I know exactly what he means" beautiful descriptions of mood swings and stormy skies,with some Woolf/Joyce/Tolstoy/Nabokov psychological stream of consciousness that feels astute, but all in all... I'd only recommend parts of it to my serious-reader friends.
• Underworld by Don Delillo ; Fiction; {read:2002} This is another, book, like "The Power Broker" by Caro and "The Godfather" by Puzo, that is full of interlocking stories and that takes me behind the scenes of city life. Delillo's novel touches on nostalgia, the sixties, atomic bombs, protest movements, garbage disposal, artists, AIDS, and B-52's, and manages to tie all of them together (even garbage: especially garbage).
• Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson by Geoffrey C. Ward ; Nonfiction; (New York : A.A. Knopf, 2004.; ISBN#:978-0375415326) {read:2008 mar}
• Up in the Air by Walter Kirn ; Fiction; (Anchor Books, Doubleday (a division of) Random House, NY.; © 2001 Walter Kirn; ISBN#:0-385-72237-0) {read:2006 Dec} My rating: 6 (fr.0-10). Author is a college classmate and New York times book reviewer: he writes an engaging and intriguing story of a traveling consultant who is not only facing identity theft but the imminent achievement of one million frequent flyer miles with the attendant opportunity to change his (increasingly chaotic) life.
• Vagabond by Bernard Cornwell ; Fiction; (HarperTorch, an imprint of HarperCollins, NY; © 2002 Bernard Cornwell; ISBN#:0-06-053268-8) {read:2005 Sep 02} I recommend! More wonderful storytelling: historical and bloody fiction in 14th c. Europe, sequel to "the Archer", with English archers, French knight, Grail quest, and Dominican inquisitors. (Inquisition wasn't allowed to shed blood, so they used fire, rack, and press. Good God.) Thomas toys with feelings of "it only matters that you believe" versus in-grained skepticism, both inherited from his priest father.
• Vera: Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov by Stacy Schiff ; Nonfiction; (The Modern Library; ) {read:2001 july} spectacular biography of pistol-packing Vera Nabokov
• Veronica: A novel by Mary Gaitskill ; Fiction; (Vintage Contemporaries, Vintage Books, a division of Random House, New York.; © 2005 Mary Gaitskill; ISBN#:0-375-72785-X [978-0-375-72785-6]) {read:2007 Jan 06} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). With poetic depth and allusions, it wanders through the 80's with AIDS, fashion models, and temporary employment.
• view with a grain of sand: selected poems by Wislawa Szymborska (+ translated by Stanislaw Baran n'czak & Clare Cavanagh); Nonfiction; (Harvest, Harcourt Brace & Co., New York, NY, 1995; ) {read:1999} My rating: 9 (fr.0-10). --A book of delicate, mischievous poems that grip and shine: almost conversational, sometimes troubling, with a flavor of love and hope. Her 1996 Nobel Prize brought her to my attention, but then every poem won my heart. "My apologies to chance for calling it necessity. / My apologies to necessity if I'm mistaken after all. /... / Forgive me, distant wars, for bringing flowers home." and "On Death, without Exaggeration: / It can't take a joke/ find a star, make a bridge./ It knows nothing about weaving, mining, farming."
• Virtual Light by William Gibson ; Fiction; {read:1988-89} Mind-bogglingly great!
• Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte ; Nonfiction; (Graphics Press, Cheshire, Connecticut; ) {read:1996} Beautiful books for anyone who loves maps, logic, and art of building charts that are simultaneously meaningful, dense, accurate, and intuitive. Three cheers for clarity of information and high data-density!
• Visual Explanations: Images & Quantities by Edward Tufte ; Nonfiction; (Graphics Press, Cheshire, Connecticut; ) {read:1997} Beautiful books for anyone who loves maps, logic, and art of building charts that are simultaneously meaningful, dense, accurate, and intuitive. Three cheers for clarity of information and high data-density!
• Vladimir Nabokov by Neil Cornwell ; Nonfiction; (Northcote House; ) {read:2001}
• Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett ; Fiction; {read:1988-89}
• Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee ; Fiction; (Penguin Books, New York; © 1980 J. M. Coetzee; ISBN#:01402.83358) {read:2005 Oct 29} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Nobel prize in Literature winner Coetzee tells a fascinating and morally disturbing story of life on the frontier of an empire. Desert country and salty lake are ominous enough and then the town is visited by a visitor from the castle who brings torture tools and fears of barbarian invasion.
• Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters by Jean Shepherd ; Fiction; (1976 Dolphin Books, Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York; © 1971 Jean Shepherd; ) {read:1978 & before}
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy ; Fiction; {read:1994} Yes! And (especially in the last chapters) the best discussion of free-will and determinism and forces-of-history that I've ever seen. Lush stories, one after another, all fascinating.
• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen ; Fiction; (Algonquin Books; ISBN#:978-1-56512-560-5) {read:2008 Jan 09} My rating: 5 (fr.0-10). Page turner but a little amateur: I never felt like I knew the narrator, the mood swings felt like paint by number, and the physical action was sometimes implausible. (Person A can stop B's fist an inch from C's face? I don't think so. A non-gymnast can improvise a double front-flip into a side aerial--with stand up landing--from a tent pole? Again, no chance.)
• Watership Down by Richard Adams ; Fiction; (Avon; ISBN#:0380002930) {read:1978 & before} My rating: 6 (fr.0-10). I've never forgotten the discussion with the captive/passive rabbits, in which the traveler tries to convince them that their peaceful life will be over when the farmer comes to cut them up for supper.
• We Live with Other by ; Fiction; {read:1968}
• West's Last Chance, The: Will We Win The Clash of Civilizations by Tony Blankley ; Nonfiction; (Washington, DC : Regnery Pub. ; c2005.; ISBN#:0-89526-015-8) {read:2008 jan 15} My rating: 6 (fr.0-10).
• What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard P. Feynman (+ as told to Ralph Leighton); Nonfiction; (Bantam Books, NY 1989 (published by arrangement with original publisher W.W.Norton And Company, 1988);; © Gweneth Feynman and Ralph Leighton.; ) {read:2004 jun} Very enjoyable reading, with long report on the investigation of the explosion of the space shuttle "Challenger", with anecdotes of early age loss of religious faith and late age insistence that people protect the pro-scientific anti-authoritarian virtues of skepticism, investigation, development, and uncertainty.
• What is a Frog by Gene Darby ; Nonfiction; (Benefic Press, Chicago; © 1957; ) {read:1968}
• What Just Happened by James Gleick ; Nonfiction; {read:2004 Dec}
• What We Believe but Cannot Prove : Today's Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty by John Brockman (+ introduction by Ian McEwan); Nonfiction; (Harper Perennial; © 2006 John Brockman; ISBN#:978-0-06-084181-2) {read:2008 may 20} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). Page-long essays of cutting-edge speculation regarding the universe, string theory, human nature, energy crisis... you name it. Read one a day, they're tasty.
• What Went Wrong: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response by Bernard Lewis ; Nonfiction; (Oxford University Press, 2002; ) {read:2002}
• When Heaven and Earth Changed Places by Le Ly Hayslip ; Nonfiction; {read:1994} Autobiography of vietnamese woman who grew up in a small village that experienced occupation by French, Viet Cong, Americans, hatred, fear, and betrayal. Was made into a movie by Oliver Stone.
• When You Ride Alone You Ride with Bin Laden by Bill Maher ; Nonfiction; (New Millennium Press, Beverly Hills CA, 2002.; ) {read:2003} articulate and right on, clever and wry and smart
• Whirlwind by James Clavell ; Fiction; {read:2003} Desperate race against time in the confusion of Iran during the aftermath of the collapse of the Shah's regime, with opportunists and fanatics and people of good will scratching at each other and at the rubble. Part of an epic, brutal and thought-provoking. The stories occur in the following order {date written follows} (1) Shogun {1975} ;(2) Tai Pan {1966} ;(3) Gai Jin {1993} ;(4) King Rat {1962} ; (5) Noble House {1981} ;(6) Whirlwind {1986}.
• Whiskey Rebellion, The: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and the Frontier Rebels who challenged America's Newfound Sovereignty by William Hogeland ; Nonfiction; (A Lisa Drew Book, Scribner; © 2006 William Hogeland; ISBN#:9780743254908) {read:2007 oct 20} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). True-story thriller from American history, with economics playing a major part (surprise) in deciding who gets to take what from whom, while politicians and patriots scramble to keep the young country together. There's even a young lawyer who is in way over his head, trying to please the rebels AND the army that is marching out to smash them. Meanwhile, George Washington is warning his troops not to mistreat the citizens, but who knows whether the soldiers will listen to their commanders.
• White Apples by Jonathan Carroll ; Fiction; (A TOR book, published by Tom Doherty Associates, 175 Fifth Ave., New York; © 2002 Jonathan Carroll,; ) {read:2003}
• White Castle, The by Orhan Pamuk (+ Translated from the Turkish by Victoria Holbrook.); Fiction; (Vintage International, a division of Random House, Inc, New York. Originally published in Turkish as Beyaz Kale.; © 1985 Can Yayiin Lari Ltd; ISBN#:0-375-70161-3) {read:2007 apr} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). A mysterious, gentle, enchanting, story from a Nobel prize winner. It is about a slave who becomes something of a scientist hundreds of years ago, and feels like a fable or a meditation, with twists and self-doubt.
• White Fang by Jack London ; Nonfiction; {read:1975 or before}
• White Noise by Don Delillo ; Fiction; {read:2004 Jul} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10).
• White Teeth by Zadie Smith ; Fiction; (Vintage Internation, A division of Random House, New York; © 2000 Zadie Smith; ) {read:2004 nov}
• Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Women by Christina Hoff Sommers ; Nonfiction; (Simon & Schuster, New York. 1994; ) {read:1996} Alright, Christina Hoff Sommers! Yes, let's shoot down some sacred pc flying cows in our search for truth!
• Wigwam Stories by Edward W and Marguerite P Dolch (+ illustrated by Robert S Kerr); Fiction; (Garrard Press, Champaign, Ill.; © 1956; ) {read:1968}
• Wild Swans by Jung Chang? ; Nonfiction; {read:1994} The incredible (true) life stories of 3 generations of Chinese women, from a time of warlords up to the Cultural Revolution. Much of what they went through was awful!
• Will by G. Gordon Liddy ; Nonfiction; {read:1990-93} Strange and interesting guy, over the top.
• Winter Morning Walks: one hundred postcards to Jim Harrison by Ted Kooser ; Nonfiction; (Carnegie Mellon University Press, Pittsburgh PA 2000; © 2000 Ted Kooser; ISBN#:0-88748-336-4) {read:2006 mar 20} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). America's poet laureate, gentle but suprising haiku-like poems. See public radio NPR Interview with him.
• Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin ; Fiction; {read:1990-93} Some amazing visual images and startling synchronicities and fantasies.
• Woman in Bronze by Antanas Sileika ; Fiction; (Random House Canada Ltd (printed in the USA), www.randomhouse.ca; © 2004 Antanas Sileika; ISBN#:0-679-31142-4) {read:2005 Jun 10} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). Engrossing, enjoyable, subtle story of a Lithuanian who wants to be a sculptor and flees some tragedies (and some comedy) at the family farm to become a starving artist: first in the forest and then in 1920's Paris.
• Working by Studs Terkel ; Nonfiction; {read:1978 & before}
• World According to Garp, The by John Irving ; Fiction; {read:1979-82}
• World At Night, The by Alan Furst ; Fiction; {read:2004 Dec}
• World is Flat, The: A Brief history of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman ; Nonfiction; (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; © 2005 Thomas L. Friedman; ISBN#:978-0-374-29288-1 [isbn10= 0-374-29288-4]) {read:2006 Apr 30} My rating: 8 (fr.0-10). An amazing book that had me doing something I rarely do: inserting little bookmarks (at least 15) to mark highlights and topics that I want to re-read and re-think. Highlights include the plausible assertion that there is an economic race to the top, NOT to the bottom, with an increasing ability for the participation of the poor and ambitious and creative people all over the world. "Outsourcing" can create more jobs here as well as abroad! It was recommended by my artist/businessman/consultant brother, Dan, and I'm glad I read it.
• Wren's London by Colin Amery ; Nonfiction; (Leonard Publishing; © Colin Amery 1988; ISBN#:1-85291-009-7) {read:2006 Jul} After finishing reading Stephenson's "Baroque Cycle", mostly set in London with architect (and astronomy professor and friend of the founders of the Royal Society) Christopher Wren as an incidental character, I discovered this photo album of his work on that city's churches and cathedrals. (Stephenson's characters, especially Daniel Waterhouse, are constantly using St.Paul's cathedral as a landmark, and after seeing this book I realize why: it is a dominant (huge!) bulk in the city skyline, surrounded by the many steeples put up by Wren after the great fire of 1666.)
• Wrinkle in Time, A by Madeline L'Engle ; Fiction; {read:1995} A cold-war allegory against communism, or against conformity in general? Beloved eccentrics!
• XML: The Annotated Specification by Robert DuCharme ; Nonfiction; (ISBN#:978-0130826763) {read:1997}
• Year of Living Dangerously, The by Christopher J. Koch ; Fiction; (ISBN#:0140065350) {read:1988-89} A book (and then a movie) about a western reporter's brush with the rebellion, conspiracy, racism, slaughter and tragedy in indonesia in 1965.
• Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean (+ Norman Maclean); Nonfiction; (Chicago : University of Chicago Press, c1992.; © 1992; ISBN#:9780226500621) {read:1994} It is essentially an essay that is poetic, rigorous, thoughtful, and gripping. Maclean's book is a report on a (true-life) forest fire tragedy in Montana that leads him to question not only his own art of story-telling, but also the mysteries of nature, death, and optimism. Every page has ideas that make me stop to think.
• Zodiac: The Eco-Thriller by Neal Stephenson ; Fiction; (1988, Bantam; ) {read:1997} My rating: 7 (fr.0-10). A funny adventure in toxic waste dumps and Boston Harbor.

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Modified Saturday, June 7, 2008 2:48 AM Mike Roam