| Gai-jin by James Clavell, 1043 pages James Donahue 22 August 2004 The third in Clavell's historical series on Asia. Like his peer Clancy, Clavell writes novels like movies, and borrows from personal experience to make compelling mega-reads. Unfortunately he can also fall into Clancey's habit of predictable 'adventure'-plots and manly/womanly characters. This, one of the latest of his books, is the first to truly surprise me, and the first to really foreground legitimate woman characters. | Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut, 295 pages Steve Gadd 30 July 1998 After hearing about him for so long, I was not so impressed by my first exposure to this author. Have to try again later. |
Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel, 368 pages Steve Gadd 08 February 2009 A very enjoyable, readable biography of the celebrated heliocentrist. |
Gates of Eden by Ethan Coen, 261 pages Mike Gadd 07 March 2004 Here's an example of how reading the book jacket would have come in handy. I was about 100 pages in and the story just wasn't making any sense. I'm all for bringing in new story lines along the way and then pulling them all together in a big finish, but this was getting out of hand. When I finally read the back cover I learned that this was a book of short stories. Duh. It didn't help that I was still in my drug induced fog trying to recover from the plague. |
Generation X by Douglas Coupland, 183 pages Steve Gadd 04 January 1997 |
Generation X by Douglas Coupland, 183 pages Kristin Schrock 09 June 2002 Acts as sort of a primer for Generation X with the definition of terms such as, "ultra short term nostalgia", "terminal wanderlust", and chapter titles such as "Why I am So Poor". But the narrative lacked bite and in the end nothing really happens. Maybe that's the point. |
Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture by Douglas Coupland, 183 pages Brad Snyder 02 July 2006 This book coined the term "Generation X". It's Friends meets the Canterbury Tales: Friends in that the characters are three twenty-something friends that are struggling to understand the meaning of life and live in some bungalows on the cheap side of Palm Springs, having thrown off the trappings of their once aspiring middle-class, corporate slave lives. It reminds me of Canterbury Tales in that you learn more about the characters through the stories they tell throughout. An interesting and entertaining read. |
Genesis by God (via Moses' hands), 41 pages Ian Hassell 16 January 2002 God establishes his covenant with mankind |
Genesis: The Scientific Quest for Life's Origins by Robert Hazen, 339 pages Steven Krise 06 May 2009 A comprehensive review of the people and science of origins of life. Fascinating. |
Genius by James Gleick, 560 pages Steve Gadd 26 April 2006 More sober than I remembered, this biography does not retell any of the funny anecdotes from the books that popularized the Feynman legend, either steering clear of them or pointing out the ways in which they were embellished. |
Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by James Gleick, 531 pages Tony Pisarenkov 17 February 2008 Too heavy on the science for my taste, science of the kind that would have been lost on me even back in the day, when I was far more scientifically and mathematically minded than I am today. Still, definitely had its moments. Thank you, Steve, for the present, and I am sorry it took me two years to get to it! |
Gentleman Spy: The Life of Allen Dulles by Peter Grose, 566 pages James Donahue 24 June 2005 Dulles, brother of the more famous John Foster, ran U.S. intelligence in occupied Europe during the second world war, and then launched the C.I.A. on its path towards meddling coups, high-tech spy planes, LSD experiments, and the infamous Bay of Pigs during the 1950s. The life is fascinating and the biography well-written, if you have the interest, but can too often dwell in the bureaucracy of ‘intelligence’ (always in quotes) for others. Not many social occasions or family giving a veneer of human interest for this lone soul. |
German National Identity after the Holocaust by Mary Fulbrook, 248 pages James Donahue 31 July 2002 A magisterial survey of how public and collective memories diverged in the Eastern and Western halves of Germany. An excellent book for people interested in how the Holocaust has been dealt with in its cradle-land, or how national identities are formed and developed through public discourse. |
German Pietism During the 18th Century by F Ernst Stoeffler, 265 pages James Donahue 10 June 2004 Very capable summary |
German Women For Empire, 1885-1945 by Lore Wildenthal, 202 pages James Donahue 07 February 2003 Examines the various women's groups and their activities -- nursing, bride matching, independent farming -- in the colonies. Concludes that German women used race as a concept more frequently than German men as a means to justify their inclusion in a male space. |
Germans Jews in Germany by Uriel Tal , 321 pages James Donahue 30 October 2003 Tal provdes an excellent backdrop to the Holocaust by examining German-Jewish relations in the Second Reich. Tal's unique strength in this all-too-commonly-poorly-done field is to treat ideas and people simultaneously instead of relying upon such bodiless abstractions as "Judaism," "anti-Semitism," or "Christian." |
Germinal (1885) by Emile Zola, 532 pages James Donahue 02 August 2006 If you ever thought your life was bad. . . .Preparing to teach Western Civ this fall. |
Getting Over Jack Wagner by Elise Juska, 286 pages Kristin Schrock 18 November 2003 All I need is just a little more time, to be sure, what I feel, isn't all in my mind, because it seems so hard to believe, that you're all I need. |
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. |
Ghost Killer by Scott Chandler, 277 pages Jeff Gadd 01 August 2003 A strange book about something that gets kill in a man by a detective,that comes back in a female. |
Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides, 380 pages Micaela Larkin 08 September 2005 |
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. |
Ghoul by Michael Slade, 380 pages Jeff Gadd 15 April 2003 A very nasty killer who comes out of the sewers of London,and starts killing people in different ways to throw off the police. |
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, 247 pages Jonathan Misirian 21 February 2005 Fiction writing at its best. Gilead is the account of an elderly man writing to his young son. Gilead struck me as an American version of Turgenev's Fathers and Sons. Robinsons writes with a depth that is sadly missing from other novels. |
Girl In Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland, 257 pages James Donahue 10 April 2002 Good historical fiction. It really gives one a feel for early modern Holland, particularly with such lush descriptions of the landscape. The plot traces the history of a Vermeer painting of a girl in blue from now back to it conception through its succession of owners, paying particular attention to what each owner cherished about the painting. |
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier, 233 pages Kristin Schrock 04 November 2002 This was recommended to me by a co-worker (and I think someone on the list read it as well). It is the fictionalized story of the aforementioned girl. It's a quick and enjoyable read. Sometimes I was annoyed by the simple sentences--she is, after all, a maid--and all of the similes: like bees, like dice, like snow. It's not like, it IS. |
GIs and Frauleins by Maria Hohn, 295 pages James Donahue 31 March 2003 Good discussion of the Americanization of West Germany in the 1950s through examining the relations between American soldiers and German girls. |
Give War a Chance by P.J. O'Rourke, 256 pages Steve Gadd 13 April 2008 Political commentary soaked with scorn and sarcasm serves as a good antidote to CNN earnestness. |
Gladiator--A Hero Will Rise by David Franzoni, 229 pages Jeff Gadd 12 February 2002 The Romans are interesting to read about, but scary in their inventions of games they played. |
Goat: A Memoir by Brad Land, 224 pages Jaqi Ross 25 September 2004 Terrible terrible terrible book about a typical college Greek and his loser friends. |
God Is Not Great - How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens, 307 pages Steven Krise 08 February 2008 There still remain four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum of servility with the maximum of solipsism, that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded in wish-thinking. |
God is not great: how religion poisons everything (2007) by Christopher Hitchens, 307 pages Jonathan Misirian 15 November 2007 …except the ability to write against it. Hitchens’ work is part of the modern trinity of works scortching religion, joining Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins on the best seller lists. |
God is Not Great: How Religions Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens, 307 pages Tony Pisarenkov 03 February 2008 Hitchens is preaching to the choir here, and I am the choir. I agree with everything he has to say in the book 100% (or close to it, anyhow), and as a result the book was not useful. At best, it filled in a few minor details. |
God: The Failed Hypothesis by Victor J Stenger, 294 pages Steven Krise 07 July 2008 Starting with the hypothesis that there is a god who created the universe and life, imbued humans with an immortal soul, and taught us our moral values, Stenger reviews current scientific facts to test the hypothesis. Aside from giving away the outcome in the title, this is an engaging, delightful, easy read. Highly recommended for theists and atheists alike. |
God's Glory, Neighbor's Good by Gary Sattler, 109 pages James Donahue 08 June 2004 Sketchy biography of August Hermann Francke. |
Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson , 275 pages Mike Gadd 24 October 2005 This was the book I thought 'Secret Life of Bees' was going to be. Touching and humorous, it also wrapped up well. |
God's Long Summer by Charles Marsh, 258 pages James Donahue 09 November 2002 An excellent examination of Christians and theological stances on both sides of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. How much repentence the American church needs for this time period. The book is very readable for a history, and is in many ways a continuing reflection on the author's original bboks on Bonhoeffer. |
God's Man for the Gilded Age by Bruce Evensen, 227 pages James Donahue 03 February 2004 What seems to be a biography of D.L. Moody is really a one-dimensional account of how Moody massaged the muckracking press into a symbiotic account in order to become the first "celebrity evangelist." An interesting account of the birth of the glam faith that haunts our current landscape. (Not that I have an opinion on the matter.) |
God's Politics by Jim Wallis, 374 pages Jonathan Misirian 25 March 2005 Wallis shoots both the Left -for excluding spirituality out of the public square and at the same time takes on the Right -for representing a very narrow band of moral issues. Currently on the NYTimes Best Seller List and with good reason. Our current outlets for religiously infused politics have left both sides weakened. |
God's Secretaries by Adam Nicolson, 304 pages Jonathan Misirian 19 September 2005 English Historian Nicolson, provides a thorough understanding of the cultural trends that were in play, which helped to shape what has become known as the King James Bible. An interesting irony from the book: The King James Bible was written -in part-to dispel the Puritan cause in England and yet it was adopted by these same Puritans as their text when they came to America. |
God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible (2003) by Adam Nicolson, 243 pages James Donahue 16 July 2008 Nicolson pays tribute to the forgotten centerpiece of the English language, using the royal committee's fractured production of the KJV as a window into Jacobean England: "If you think of the King James Bible as the greatest creation of seventeenth-century England, a culture drenched in the word rather than the image, it is easy to see it as England's equivalent of the great baroque cathedral it never built, an enormous and magnificent verbal artifice, its huge structures embracing all 4 million Englishmen, its orderliness and richness a kind of national shrine built only of words." |
Goebbels by Ralf Georg Reuth, 434 pages James Donahue 10 July 2003 A good solid biography that incorporates much of the post-Iron Curtain evidence on the Third Reich. However Goebbels' political activities overshadow the person in this work, in part, I suspect, because they did so in real life. |
Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien, 301 pages Kristin Schrock 18 September 2005 Second National Book Award winner in a row. This one takes it cue from Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse Five--emphasizing the absurdity of war. Here, a Vietnam soldier tries to make sense of war when his company takes off after an AWOL soldier. O'Brien touches on a familiar theme for him--trying to tell a true war story. One of my favorite sentences: "Why, out of all that might have happened, did it lead to a beheading in Tehran? Why not pretty things? Why not a smooth, orderly arc from war to peace?" Why not pretty things, indeed. |
Going Postal by Terry Pratchett, 377 pages Steven Krise 12 January 2006 A story of hope set against the backdrop of the competition between two companies in the message delivery industry. Includes a group of phreakers called the Smoking GNU. |
Golden Dreams by Gwen Bristow, 238 pages A Bennett 15 December 2003 No one who has read, "Calico Palace", "Jubilee Trail", or "Tomorrow Is Forever" can doubt author Gwen Bristow's enduring fascination with California, no matter the time period of history in question. In this engagingly written non-fiction, Bristow takes readers from the arrival of the first pioneers (significantly accompained by the first woman--and child) to cross from Missouri to California breaking the 'Old Trail', through the 49ers of the Gold Rush (and their predecessors) on to California's long and arduous fight for statehood amid the wake of the Missouri Compromise and the pre-Civil War pressure cooker that was Congress. Rarely anything but a good--even dramatic--read, she highlights female contributions to her adopted home without crossing the line into feminist revisionism. |
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. |
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, 862 pages Julie Gephart 02 November 2002 I've always avoided this movie because it looked like a swoony romance, so I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the book. I was hoping for a bit more growth from Scarlett by the end, but hey, who am I to argue with a classic? |
Good Boys and Dead Girls-- And Other Essays by Mary Gordon, 272 pages Micaela Larkin 23 June 2006 Raiding the Donahue's book shelf. Interesting! |
Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys, 190 pages Kristin Schrock 25 June 2004 I was bookless for a couple days post move because I had tucked this in a box somewhere knowing that I would find it at the new place. Of course, I had no idea where I had put and I couldn't start another book when so close to the end on this one. That being said, this seems to be the counterpart to the Sun Also Rises. A "wounded" woman wanders around Paris in a drunken haze. Amazing in that it's melodramatic, but does not feel forced. Like this: "...because it hurts, when you have been dead, to come alive." |
Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith, 365 pages Jonathan Misirian 19 December 2005 The setting is the late 1970’s. A grisly crime occurs in Moscow. The KGB, an American executive, and a Russian detective play the main characters in this tepid novel. The author reveals the protagonist’s –Arkady- thoughts. Here’s a gem: ‘A stripped gun always struck Arkady as a cripple undressed.’ |
Grand Deception by Alexander Klein, 382 pages Jonathan Misirian 21 May 2005 Tepid overview of hoaxes, spies, fake statues, and gullible people. |
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, 454 pages Steve Gadd 21 April 1997 |
Great Mambo Chicken And The Transhuman Condition by Ed Regis, 289 pages Steve Gadd 10 November 2009 |
Green Hills Of Africa by Ernest Hemingway, 304 pages Erik Bauer 25 May 2000 A well written, relaxing sunday afternoon read. I fully intend to make it to Africa to experience a fraction of what Hemingway was able to, before it completely goes down the toilet. |
Green River Rising by Tim Willocks, 384 pages Mike Gadd 29 April 2003 Gritty, disturbing, and extremely well done story about a group of prisoners in a Texas state pen trying to survive a riot. Good pace and nice ending. |
Grendel by John Gardner, 154 pages Steve Gadd 05 September 1998 Very clever and memorable. |
Grendel by John Gardner, 174 pages Steven Krise 16 July 2003 He smashes me against it, breaks open my forehead. Hard, yes! Observe the hardness, write it down in careful runes. Now sing of walls! Sing! I howl. Sing! "I'm singing!" Sing Words! Sing raving hymns! "You're crazy. Ow!" Sing! "I sing of walls," I howl. "Hooray for the hardness of walls!" Terrible, he whispers. Terrible. He laughs and lets out fire. "You're crazy," I say. "If you think I created that wall that cracked my head, you're a fucking lunatic." Sing walls, he hisses. I have no choice. |
Grendel by John Gardner, 152 pages Steven Krise 27 April 2007 "You're crazy," I say. "If you think I created that wall that cracked my head, you're a fucking lunatic." |
Grendel by John Gardner, 174 pages Steve Gadd 11 May 2007 He stretched his wings -- it was like a huge, irascible yawn -- then settled again. "Things come and go," he said. "That's the gist of it." |
Grendel by John Gardner, 174 pages Tony Pisarenkov 17 January 2008 Enjoyed it to a surprising degree. A lot of layers and a fair amount to chew on, especially for a book that starts with such a preposterous concept. |
Grendel (audio) by John Gardner, 0 pages Steve Gadd 23 June 2009 "My advice to you, my violent friend, is to seek out gold and sit on it." |
Grey of Falloden (1937) by G. M. Trevelyan, 415 pages James Donahue 29 July 2006 |
Grimm's Fairy Tales by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, 246 pages Jeff Gadd 23 February 2003 Small fairy tales that I didn't get their points very well. Also books with missing pages should be banned from society. |
Growing Up Hockey by Brian Kennedy, 384 pages Steve Gadd 01 January 2008 This book easily doubled my knowledge of hockey. |
Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton, 272 pages Julie Gephart 06 December 2003 “There was one place I could go that might have the answers - Dead Dave’s, a nice bar that served a mean hamburger. The proprietor was an ex-cop who had been kicked off the force for being dead.” The Supreme Court has granted equal civil rights to vampires, and most people regard them as a thrillingly scary tourist attraction. Not so for Anita Blake, who serves up death warrants for the police when vampires run afoul of the law (I guess they don’t put vamps in jail, cuz, you know, you don’t need a bunch of vampires guzzling government blood rations and sitting around watching Oprah all day). It’s a very interesting set-up, and I’m glad, because I already have the next two books in the series. |
Guilty Pleasures - Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Vol. I (1993) by Laurell K. Hamilton, 355 pages A Bennett 31 December 2004 |
Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum, 586 pages James Donahue 08 October 2004 I can see why this book won a Pulitzer. No other historian has done so much to put in inside of the famed gulags (except for Solzhenitsyn). A remarkable (lack of) achievement given the literary profligency that surrounds its genocidal cousins. Applebaum begins and ends the book with a history of the camps' developments, but the real meat is in the middle: chapters that walk one through the Gulag process step by painful step |
GULAG: A History by Anne Appelbaum, 677 pages Tony Pisarenkov 03 October 2009 Let's face it: most of us will never have the fortitude to get through Solzhenitsyn's opus. This book is the best substitute. |
Gullible's Travels by Cash Peters, 276 pages Tony Pisarenkov 15 March 2009 Only occasionally funny. |
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, 457 pages Tony Pisarenkov 19 May 2005 A sweeping examination of the history of the world's native cultures and the reasons why some have developed so far beyond others as to be able to subjugate them. Asks some fascinating questions, but reads too much like a textbook for an unqualified recommendation. Thank you, Steve, for the gift. |
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, 425 pages Steve Gadd 27 July 2008 I suspect that this is a book that many more people have started than finished. The book has a great thesis, by which the author intends to explain the advancement of some cultures over others by crediting environmental factors rather than innate ability. This idea is supported by many diverse examples, showing that cultivable plants and soil, domesticable animals, and favorable climates were the mundane but critical ingredients of empires. I was captivated by the story in Chapter 3 of the fall of the last Incan emperor, Atahualpa, in his own land surrounded by thousands of loyal soldiers, at the hands (and guns) of Piazarro and his ragged band of conquistadores. Things bog down quite a bit as the book plods on. The text seems repetitive, and the illustrating examples become more and more spread out. At times it seems the language came straight from a lecture hall, as one paragraph after another is begun by posing a question and then giving the answer -- you can almost see the Powerpoint slides. |
Guns, Germs, and Steel - The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond, 494 pages Steven Krise 29 June 2008 |
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies by Jared Diamond, 480 pages James Donahue 23 March 2002 Interesting read. Posits that all of human history can be scientifically reduced to the initial availability of food and animal resources. (We historians are always so pleased when scientists can set us straight in our own fields; why did I bother learning about Napoleon when I should have been learning the five domesticable animals.) Some fascinating excursions from the main point, like why zebras cannot be ridden. Essential for better understanding Civilization III. |
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond, 427 pages Jonathan Misirian 14 February 2005 Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Diamond gives a convincing account of why some societies advance over others. Diamond answers the questions that are rarely asked? How did Pizarro over take the Inca nation? Why did Aboriginal societal development occur at a slower pace, then say in China? Comprehensive and complete. |
Gypsy Rizka by Lloyd Alexander, 195 pages A Bennett 26 December 2002 As Alexander's books and writing go, this one is quite facile, and plays on familiar themes; the loss of parents, the orphaned child who finds substitute parents to fill such a void, and the role (of the outcast) such a child often is expected to play within society. |