| Memoirs of an Invisible Man by H F Saint, 396 pages Steven Krise 04 October 2003 Thrilling story of the adventures of an invisible securities analyst. It is amazing the extent to which Saint thought about the psychology of being invisible. It goes without saying that the book is about 8000 times better than the Chevy Chase / Daryl Hannah movie version. | Scandinavian Mythology by H R Ellis Davidson, 144 pages Steven Krise 18 June 2003 Neither the Lovettsville nor the Purcellville libraries had "Grendel". |
Memoirs of an Invisible Man by H. F. Saint, 396 pages Steve Gadd 16 November 1996 Better than H. G. Wells |
Memoirs of an Invisible Man by H. F. Saint, 396 pages Steve Gadd 07 October 2004 The author really seems to have experienced invisibility to create such a convincing story. Once again, do not try to take a shortcut and watch the movie. |
The Soul of a Bishop (1917) by H. G. Wells, 341 pages James Donahue 17 July 2006 You've heard of sci-fi. This is reli-fi. Wells takes time out from the war to describe a bishop's mystical transcending of stuffy church-religion to embrace the spiritual Kingdom-of-God-of-the-future. |
Mr. Britling Sees It Through (1916) by H. G. Wells, 423 pages James Donahue 26 July 2006 I never knew that Wells could write like this: touching, pastoral, significant. Written in the midst of WWI, Wells tracks the impact of the conflict on a typical British, middle-class family. |
Experiment in Autobiography: Discoveries and Conclusions of a Very Ordinary Brain since 1866 (1934) by H. G. Wells, 707 pages James Donahue 02 April 2007 Amusing. Ostensibly about the evolution of Wells' "brain" in the midst of the evolution of the world-state. But not worth it for the philosophy. Better for its self-absorbed musings on the Fabian circle, the rise of standardized testing in education (Wells pioneered a Princeton-Review-esque method of beating the standards), and the wide-open nature of publishing during the publishing period to absorb the first mass audiences being turned out by the first mass educational systems. Could Wells have ridden to prevelance in any other setting? |
The New Machiavelli (1911) by H. G. Wells, 378 pages James Donahue 10 March 2008 An autobiographical novel, the Bildungsroman as self-defense. Wells defends his politics - rational world state run by a new elite capable of steering human evolution towards happiness - and his new mistress - stupid old Victorians left us no sexual education capable of preparing us for real life. My offhand comment: Its nice to see the roots of fascism in our own culture. |
Consciousness and Society by H. Stuart Hughes, 431 pages James Donahue 12 May 2003 An excellent intellectual history of the generation of 1890s-1910s. Hughes organizes the book around the theme of intellectuals extending Enlightenment rationality into the irrational arenas, thereby undercutting modernity. Main figures: Freud, Weber, Pareto, Croce, Bergson, Mann, and Sorel. |
TR: The Last Romantic (1997) by H. W. Brands, 817 pages James Donahue 19 July 2007 Brands sees TR as a romantic figure living in an imaginary world, out of touch with reality, constantly pushing (and, even more tragically) those around him to live the 'streneous life.' All well and good for an academic who pushed the book out in a few years, has never hunted, and has safely modern political views? But, if TR was so caught up in unreality, then why did he resonate with so many people? I suppose I am over-tough here. The book is thoroughly enjoyable - but I suspect this is more because of its enjoyable protagonist, and not its (pseudo)smug author. |
James Bryce (1927) by H.A.L. Fisher, 682 pages James Donahue 29 April 2006 Bryce was a mountain-climber, British Lord, and TR's favorite ambassador. I read this since I have always loved Mount Bryce in BC, and was always curious about its name. Interesting life, but written in that pedantic, old-Oxford style. |
Coffee: The Epic of a Commodity by H.E. Jacob, 283 pages Tony Pisarenkov 07 June 2003 Reportedly very popular when it was first published in 1935, this book claims to be the first to examine a food as a social and economic force. One learns much, most of it very interesting and occasionally even fascinating, but the stilted and contrived writing style further exacerbated by the old-fashioned translation takes quite a bit away from the reading enjoyment. |
Ocean of Words by Ha Jin, 205 pages Jaqi Ross 26 July 2004 Set on China's bleak northern border in the 1970s, when Russia and China were close to war, these short stories describe the life of soldiers, professional officers, and raw recruits, living in constant proximity. In this hierarchical and politically charged world, there is even less privacy than normal in China, highlighting a fundamental difference between Chinese and Western societies. The book provides an unusually brilliant insight into the Chinese psyche, with its preoccupations with food, family, and political standing, and its ambivalent attitudes toward women and animals. |
A Comprehensive Interpretation of the Life and Work of Christa Wolf by Hajo Drees, 156 pages James Donahue 20 March 2003 The work is as dry as the title, but provides a maximum amount of information in a minimum amount of time about the famed East German writer. |
Ghost Soldiers (Audio) by Hampton Sides, 0 pages Kristin Schrock 14 January 2002 The dramatic story of the rescue of the Bataan POWs with lots of heroic derring-do. |
Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides, 380 pages Micaela Larkin 08 September 2005 |
Eichmann in Jersualem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt, 264 pages James Donahue 21 July 2002 Arendt's controversial thesis that the true horror of the Holocaust was not in its mendacity but in its banality. Worse: its happening again in Israel in the 1960s. Thought-provoking, fascinating |
The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt, 507 pages James Donahue 07 September 2002 A masterpiece which put the very word into our vocabulary. |
Eichmann In Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963) by Hannah Arendt, 298 pages James Donahue 29 November 2006 |
Andersen's Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen, 327 pages Jeff Gadd 27 February 2003 More Fairy tales and more plots! I still don't get them, but they make me know that I am too old for them now!!! |
The Emperor's New Clothes by Hans Christian Anderson, 85 pages Steve Gadd 07 June 2006 The title story was the least interesting of the six in this collection, maybe because it was so familiar. The rest offered a nice taste of whimsy and Grimm-style morbidity. |
Ernst Troeltsch: His Life and Work (1993) by Hans-Georg Drescher, 311 pages James Donahue 10 July 2007 |
The Final Detail by Harlan Coben, 372 pages Mike Gadd 02 April 2003 Despite starting this series six books in I quite enjoyed this story. High levels of sarcasm and dry wit kept the story flowing nicely. |
Deal Breaker by Harlan Coben, 343 pages Mike Gadd 11 September 2003 Another go with the sports agent crime fighter. Enough sarcastic banter for even me. |
Fade Away by Harlan Coben, 324 pages Mike Gadd 05 February 2004 Another well done story about the sports agent turned crime solver. |
Gone for Good by Harlan Coben, 420 pages Mike Gadd 12 February 2004 I can't think of another book I've read that spins you around as much as this one, and yet it still keeps it's focus. You're not overwhelmed with characters to try to keep track of as the curveballs keep coming at you. |
Darkest Fear by Harlan Coben, 319 pages Mike Gadd 24 February 2004 Another adventure for Myron Bolitor- Sports Agent/Detective. |
Just One Look by Harlan Coben, 352 pages Mike Gadd 01 July 2004 This writer's stand alone mysteries tend to lose some of their enjoyment because of the 30 pages necessary at the end to sort out the complicated mess. |
Tell No One by Harlen Coben, 370 pages Mike Gadd 16 July 2003 A story about a doctor whose wife was murdered 8 years ago trying to get on with his life. He gets a strange email that links him to a web cam where he sees his wife face the camera and say "I'm sorry". Strange things happen and he ends up falsely accused and on the run. The story pretzeled up a little too much by the time it ended. |
Andrew Carnegie and the Rise of Big Business by Harold Livesay, 202 pages James Donahue 03 September 2004 From this gilded age to another. |
The Great War: Walk In Hell (1999) by Harry Turtledove, 606 pages James Donahue 21 January 2007 In this alt-history sequel, WWI still plays out between the Confederates and the North. I love Turtledove's use of real history to flesh out his alternative universe. This episode we get to see southern slaves reading Marx, primitive tanks moving on the Roanoke, French Canadians with double reason to resist the Yankee Hun, Pres. Wilson (from Virginia) debating about whether to conscript African-Americans, and Mormons using the war to seize more local control over Utah. |
The Great War: Breakthroughs (2000) by Harry Turtledove, 584 pages James Donahue 18 February 2007 Turtledove's trilogy grinds down to a halt. |
Blood & Iron (2001) by Harry Turtledove, 630 pages James Donahue 24 May 2007 Turtledove continues his alternative history of the United States. In the defeated South, the KKK get political, blaming the defeat on the blacks and going after Whig politicians. In the North, Socialists finally manage to oust Teddy Roosevelt from the Powell House in Philadelphia while trying to digest the recently-swallowed parts of Canada. |
American Empire: The Center Cannot Hold (2002) by Harry Turtledove, 619 pages James Donahue 28 June 2007 Turtledove continues his alternative history through 1933, with the re-ascension of the Confederate Fascist party and the partially successful attempts of the U.S. to pacify the captured parts of Canada and the ever-simmering Mormons out West. |
American Empire: The Victorious Opposition (2003) by Harry Turtledove, 618 pages James Donahue 01 December 2007 Turtledove's alternative history of North America reaches the second world war, when a a defeated Confederacy is determined to win back lands from the North while ensuring that their African slaves will not stab them in the back again. |
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, 611 pages Jaqi Ross 05 August 2004 Fabulous read! If it were possible to isolate one theme, it would be responsibility. The atrocities committed by the Japanese army in China keep rising to the surface like a repressed memory, and Toru Okada himself is compelled by events to take responsibility for his actions and struggle with his essentially passive nature. |
After the Quake: Stories (Translated from Japanese) by Haruki Murakami, 181 pages Kristin Schrock 22 January 2006 Read aloud during the car ride back from Goshen, Indiana. These stories all feature the 1995 Kobe earthquake at some point, and it works as a metaphor for vulnerability. I wasn't jazzed about the writing (that could be the translation), but some of the images were lovely. Besides, winter cornfields do get a bit monotonous after awhile. |
The Best American Comics (2006) by Harvey Pekar (ed), 273 pages James Donahue 11 December 2006 No superheroes, no 1950s humor. Think satire, firmly rooted in anti-Bushism and mall-ternative culture. I enjoyed much of this collection, but in the end would have appreciated a bit more diversity. Pekar seems a bit too interested in making comics a "real art form" to give the topic the lack of seriousness that it needed. |
Getting the Love You Want by Harville Hendrix, 298 pages Tony Pisarenkov 22 September 2005 Though a self-help book for the "lay" reader, this synthesis of relevant ideas from every imaginable psychotherapy orientation into a method designed to help couples re-evaluating their relationship is far deeper and more analytical than most of its competitors. Certain parts made me nod my head in agreement vigorously while others provoked a loud "what the..." -- as a good psychology book should. |
Tete a Tete: Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sarte by Hazel Rowley, 95 pages Micaela Larkin 15 April 2006 I think I deserve credit for making it through the first 95 pages. I felt like I was reading people magazine (european edition) after their initial meeting. If anyone makes it through the whole book maybe they can give a better review. |
Schlomo Avineri by Hegel's Theory of the Modern State, 241 pages James Donahue 29 January 2003 Avineri provides an excellent historical study of Hegel's politics and philosophy, defending him against reductionistic arguments that contend banally that Hegel absolutized the state, was an ardent nationalist, and the forefather of totalitarianism. |
Rahel Levin Varnhagen by Heidi Tewarson, 253 pages James Donahue 03 March 2003 Varnhagen was a gifted salonaire and letter-writer during Prussia's golden years at the beginning of the nineteenth-century. Tewarson lovingly reconstructs her life and concerns here, even if she is somewhat hampered by her feminist lenses. |
Bridget Jone's Diary by Helen Fielding, 271 pages Steven Krise 16 January 2005 v. g. |
The Proud Young Thing (1952) by Helen Topping Miller, 252 pages A Bennett 08 June 2005 A novel about pre-Revolutionary War Charleston (Charles Town at the time) so badly written it makes me wonder how in the name of all things holy Ms. Topping Miller EVER got it published. Cliched, rife with bigotry and defamation of her own gender. Just _amazing_ in its awfulness. Great Jehoshephat, this woman taught Modern Fiction Writing! (http://library.cn.edu/speccoll/miller.html), and apparently birthed at least 400 other affronteries on the English reading population of the world! |
In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership by Henri J.M. Nouwen, 82 pages Brad Snyder 24 May 2006 Nouwen was a Roman Catholic priest who ministered to the mentally disabled after years of teaching seminary at Harvard. This small but deep book is a sermon he delivered in Washington, DC (actually, Arlington, VA) about the role of ministry in the coming (now present) century. With his gentle tone and deft understanding of Scripture and human nature, he identifies the need for Christian leaders to stop pursuing relevance, popularity, and power, and instead embrace lives of prayer, confession, and downward mobility. I have tried to read this book every year since it appeared in the mail three years ago. Thank you for the gift, Jonathan. |
Spiritual Direction by Henri Nouwen, 152 pages Micaela Larkin 12 September 2006 |
Loving by Henry Green, 204 pages Tony Pisarenkov 13 November 2003 Very English and, quite frankly, very boring. Nuances that would have been meaningful to a mid-century British reader are completely lost on a contemporary American one. |
Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller, 346 pages Tony Pisarenkov 25 October 2003 Advertised as a sequel of sorts to "Tropic of Cancer," and sometimes described as Miller's take on his life in New York the same way the earlier novel related his life in Paris, "Tropic of Capricorn" is in fact nothing of the sort. Expansively auto-biographical, it is written in an even more stream-of-consciousness fashion than the earlier work, so much so sometimes that I could not help concluding that Miller was on some fairly heavy drugs when writing certain passages. Still, his extreme nihilism and misanthropy come through readily, frequently in amounts that could be too much for some, and that is what makes the book powerful in the end. You have to admire his ability to deliver such an amazing lack of anything even remotely positive. |
To Engineer Is Human by Henry Petroski, 232 pages Steve Gadd 09 May 1999 Case-by-case analysis demonstrating that engineers often learn more from failure than from success. |
Engineers of Dreams by Henry Petroski, 397 pages Steve Gadd 04 April 2002 A history of bridge building in America. Petroski presents the personalities and politics behind these great engineering achievements, including embarrassments such as Tacoma Narrows. Interesting to learn that one of the most serious dangers facing early bridgebuilders was the bends, which was known as 'caisson disease,' after the large structures built midriver to support a bridge. |
The Evolution of Useful Things by Henry Petroski, 250 pages Steve Gadd 23 April 2002 There are quite interesting stories behind such commonplace items as the fork, zipper, paper clip, soda can, hammer, and Post-It note. Petroski does a great job telling these, but really hammers on his pet idea that 'form follows failure' -- the mother of invention is really a dissatisfaction with current ways of doing things. |
The Book on the Bookshelf by Henry Petroski, 252 pages Steve Gadd 14 January 2004 The bookshelf would seem a mundane object of a design history, even for an author who has written readable accounts of the pencil and paper clip. While not as awe-inspiring as the history of bridge building, this book manages to weave in the technological development of the book, as well as touching on library history. This may sound even more dull, but readers of The Name of the Rose will recall the conflict between preserving old books and making them available. Books in medieval libraries were actually chained to the bookshelf. Touching on shelving practices, Petroski shows that books used to be shelved with the spines to the back. Books came to be printed with an extra title page which could be removed and attached to the outside as an identifier, a tradition maintained today with the "fly-title" page. Thanks to Tony for the gift. |
Small Things Considered by Henry Petroski, 244 pages Steve Gadd 12 November 2004 I can't get enough of this author, despite his flaws: less than compelling prose, and a habit of methodically repeating his chosen theme. In this case it is spelled out clearly enough in the subtitle: "Why There Is No Perfect Design." The author did some legwork and wrote some insightful histories of objects like the paper cup, office chair, and toothbrush. These stories are a treat and make up for the dull ramblings on restaurant service and home remodeling. |
The Thing at the Door by Henry Slesar, 181 pages Jeff Gadd 15 October 2002 A six year old girl loses her mother and fauther and sees something coming in her doorway at night and still is hauted by it,when she is twenty-four. |
The Great War: American Front (1998) by Henry Turtledove, 562 pages James Donahue 18 December 2006 Turtledove remains my favorite paperback writer. This book contemplates what WWI would look like for a U.S. that had lost the Civil War. The South sides with France and Britain (who helped the CSA in the 1860s); the North sides with Germany. Trenches are dug in Virginia; poison gas is unveiled at Cincinnati; Canada can't afford to send troops to the Queen overseas. I never realized how rooted Wilson's thought was in the South until reading this book. As always, nicely done. |
Left Bank by Herbert Lottman, 319 pages Tony Pisarenkov 07 April 2009 An enjoyable history of a fairly narrow subject: political involvement and allegiances on the part of intellectuals, particularly writers, in France between 1930 and 1950. Recommended if you care about that sort of thing, and want to get an impression of how pervasive Communism was in France before De Gaulle. |
Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville, 57 pages Steve Gadd 20 September 2008 "At present I would prefer not to be a little reasonable," was his mildly cadaverous reply. |
Clausewitz's On War (2007) by Hew Strachan, 190 pages James Donahue 18 August 2007 A survey of the book and its origins. Unfortunately its a bit difficult to understand without some background knowledge of Prussian military life. The part I found the most interesting was his discussion of how Colin Powell and the neocons have taken to Clausewitz's book, especially a new translation which words the text a little differently from the editions beloved by Hitler and Ludendorff. |
The Life and Thought of Kanzo Uchimura by Hiyoshi Miuro, 131 pages James Donahue 03 April 2004 Uchimura was one of the first Christian converts in Japan after its legalization in 1873. Led to Christ by an American agricultural advisor, he quickly turned against American missionaires and their ethnocentrism. He founded his own church 'gone native, and propagated a gospel uniquely suited to Japanese culture and their Confucian values. |
Pere Goriot by Honore Balzac, 244 pages James Donahue 11 September 2002 Two parvenu daughters take advantage of their bourgeois father while a law student attempts to make the Parisian scene. Fairly melodramatic, but worth it just to be able to say 'I'm reading Balzac.' |
Hegel: An Intellectual Biography by Horst Althaus, 292 pages James Donahue 15 August 2002 The book focuses mainly on the development of his writings and interactions with other thinkers of his time. Little is said or know of the man behind the philosopher. An editorial choice, or a concession to Hegel''s enigmatic personality? |
Jonathan Franzen by How To Be Alone, 278 pages Jonathan Misirian 28 January 2005 A collection of articles by the author of the compelling, The Corrections. |
Teaching to Change Lives by Howard Hendricks, 152 pages Jonathan Misirian 05 April 2006 Hendricks is the dean of American Evangelical Seminarians, having taught and influenced many of today’s pastors and ministry leaders. This book is a compendium of his thoughts on the subject of teaching in the classroom. |
Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan by Howard Sounes, 527 pages Micaela Larkin 19 April 2007 Excellent biography of Dylan... |
The Elsewhere Community by Hugh Kenner, 155 pages Tony Pisarenkov 24 February 2004 A collection of essays, originally created as lectures for Canadian Radio, loosely centered around the idea of self-imposed exile and its importance to the work of poets. Some entertaining anecdotes of the author's meetings with famous poets (Ezra Pound, T.S. Elliott, William Carols Williams), but little really enlightening beyond that (although the parallels and references he draws between Homer, Dante and modern poets did make me go "a-ha!" now and then). I also wish he didn't feel compelled to comment, vacuously, on the phenomenon of the Internet. |
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson, 204 pages Steven Krise 31 May 2004 "You Samoans are all the same," I told him. "You have no faith in the essential decency of the white man's culture. Jesus, just one hour ago we were sitting over there in that stinking baiginio, stone broke and paralyzed for the weekend, when a call comes through from some total stranger in New York, telling me to got Las Vegas and expenses be damned -- and then he sends me over to some office in Beverly Hills where another total stranger gives me $300 raw cash for no reason at all...I tell you, my man, this is the American dream in action! We'd be fools not to ride this strange torpedo all the way to the end." |
Hell's Angels by Hunter S Thompson, 348 pages Steven Krise 04 July 2005 For nearly a year I had lived in a world that seemed, at first, like something original. It was obvious from the beginning that the menace bore little resemblance to its publicized image, but there was a certain pleasure in sharing the Angels' amusement at the stir they'd created....I realized that the roots of this act were not in any time-honored American myth but right beneath my feet in a new kind of society that is only beginning to take shape. To see the Hell's Angels as caretakers of the old 'individualist' tradition 'that made this country great' is only a painless way to get around seeing them for what they really are -- not some romantic leftover, but the first wave of a future that nothing in our history has prepared us to cope with. The Angels are prototypes. Their lack of education has not only rendered them completely useless in a highly technical economy, but it has also given them the leisure to cultivate a powerul resentment...and to translate it into a destructive cult which the mass media insists on portraying as a sort of isolated oddity, a temporary phenomenon that will shortly become extinct now that it's been called to the attention of the police. This is a reassuring viewpoint and it would be even more so if the police shared it. Unfortunately, they don't. |
Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome secrets of a star-crossed child in the final days of the American Century by Hunter S Thompson, 351 pages Steven Krise 04 February 2008 "Brilliant, provocative, outrageous, and brazen, Hunter S. Thompson's infamous rule breaking -- in his journalism, in his life, and under the law -- changed the shape of American letters, and the face of American icons...." |
Hey Rube - Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness by Hunter S Thompson, 246 pages Steven Krise 16 February 2008 Collection of HST's articles from the ESPN column of the same name. |
Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S Thompson, 505 pages Steven Krise 03 March 2008 He was reluctant to bet on the game [Super Bowl VII], even when I offered to take Miami with no points. A week earlier I'd been locked into the idea that the Redskins would win easily--but when Nixon came out for them and George Allen began televising his prayer meetings I decided any team with both God and Nixon on their side was fucked from the start. |
The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desparate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967 by Hunter S Thompson, 683 pages Steven Krise 25 December 2008 Collected personal letters of HST for the time period mentioned in the title (odd, that). Gems include a lot of 'em, but it's been a long sick-filled week since I finished the book and I don't remember any of the page numbers I had previously "committed" to memory for to pull out quotes for the BandML. |
Clear Thinking by Hy Ruchlis, 271 pages Steven Krise 28 April 2002 With a forward by the inimitable Carl Sagan, this isn't a bad read. It's geared more for a younger audience than the introduction to formal logic I expected. Should have paid more attention in MOMM, I guess. |