| Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher, 350 pages Steven Krise 27 February 2006 With this survey of history's forgotten and fringe brews (and the processes to create them), Mosher seeks to ignite the reader with his same passionate zeal for homebrewing. In the process, he elevates the hobby from quaint craft to an act of protest against bland corporate homogenization and a mystical means of communing with long dead brewing ancestors. | Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher, 350 pages Steven Krise 13 February 2007 I need to get out to the library more often. |
Radio Free Albemuth by Philip K Dick, 214 pages Steven Krise 14 March 2009 A self-indulgent exposition of Dick's Gnostic theology as a science fiction novel set in an alternate history USA of the late 60s and early 70s. Dick shows up in the novel (I think) as two of the characters: Nick Brady who is being beamed messages by a hyper-intelligent alien named VALIS via an ancient satellite orbiting earth, and his skeptical, yet supportive friend Phil. VALIS's goal is to work with his chosen people (a shadowy subversive organization called Aramchek) to overthrow the tyrannical presidency of Ferris Fremont (clearly based on Nixon). |
Rage for Fame: The Ascent of Clare Boothe Luce by Sylvia Jukes Morris, 478 pages Micaela Larkin 08 May 2007 |
Ragtime (1974) by E. L. Doctorow, 334 pages James Donahue 14 May 2009 |
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. |
Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy, 897 pages Jonathan Misirian 13 May 2005 You read Clancy for the same reason you catch an Adam Sandler movie: to temporarily put your mind on hold. |
Rant - An Oral Biography of Buster Casey by Chuck Palahniuk, 320 pages Steven Krise 22 July 2008 From the Field Notes of Green Taylor Simms: Of greatest interest is the idea that an average person easily reaches this mystical meditation state, "theta" brain waves, the state most sought by monks and pilgrims, simply by driving an automobile. Any long drive, anytime you've passed time and covered distance with no memory of the process, you've been submerged in deep theta-level meditation. Open to visions. Open to your subconscious. Creativity, intuition, and spiritual enlightenment. |
Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker, 256 pages Jeff Gadd 27 December 2001 Great dino book makes a interesting read for a book. |
Ravel: A Novel (2007) by Jean Echenoz (trans. Linda Coverdale), 117 pages James Donahue 10 December 2007 I picked up this short novel, composed of short sketches from the end of Ravel's life, more for my interest in Ravel than in the author. But I ended the book more impressed by Echenoz than by Ravel. Wonderful prose, that reminded me of Kundera at his best. Like a Modernist painter, Echenoz emphasizes the historical currents around Ravel to explain Ravel in luminous portraits of the 1920s and 1930s |
Reader's Digest: Select Editions - The Wailing Wind by Tony Hillerman, 121 pages A Bennett 31 December 2004 |
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi, 343 pages James Donahue 23 December 2004 This book is one of the few memoirs worthy of being read. Nafisi taught English in Iran as a woman from before the Revolution through 1997. What brings the book together -- through revolution, Islamism, brutality, donning the veil, suffering armed bands, losing the Iraqi war, fleeing the country -- is her ability to show us the regime through the eyes of her students, mostly women, as they read novels and reflect on their lives. Sections of the book are devoted to her students' devotion to James, Fitzgerald, Austin, and Nabakov. Nafisi writes with such precision and emotion that it is impossible not to get swept up into her world. One finds oneself absorbing knowledge about Iran without even being aware of it. Highly recommended. |
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi, 358 pages Jonathan Misirian 28 January 2005 Fascinating account of life in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Nafisi weaves great literature in between discussion of the oppression that she endured. |
Real Life, Real Love by Father Albert Cutie, 357 pages Micaela Larkin 05 December 2006 Yes, his name is Cutie. :) |
Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett, 374 pages Steven Krise 19 September 2003 Commentary on the evils of suburbanization and Wal-Mart culture, I think? Another witty, off-the-wall story by Pratchett complete with the Zombie ringleader of the Undead Rights movement, a shy bogeyman who comes "out of the closet" and a wereman. |
Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett, 353 pages Steven Krise 02 April 2005 |
Rebellion and Democracy in Meiji Japan by Roger Bowen, 313 pages James Donahue 27 April 2004 |
Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical's Inside View of White Christianity (2006) by Edward Gilbreath, 207 pages Brad Snyder 21 May 2007 Serving as an intern at a multi-racial church has allowed me to work alongside people of different races and denominational backgrounds. With the blessings, though, comes the need for understanding. Gilbreath attempts to help this by outlining an historic and socially-conscious view of the American evangelical church--one whose culture is more lily white and xenophobic than us crackers tend to understand because this same culture also nurtures our ignorance of these facts. |
Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West (2008) by Benazir Bhutto, 247 pages James Donahue 20 March 2008 Can one wholeheartedly agree with a book that one finds somewhat unconvincing? |
Red Dragon by Thomas Harris, 454 pages Jeff Gadd 23 September 2002 Interesting book,some scarry parts in it. A killer who likes Hannibal lecter is crazy. |
Red Light by T. Jefferson Parker, 480 pages Mike Gadd 29 March 2004 This guy writes a lot like Michael Connelly. We get the female version of Harry Bosch in this sequel to 'The Blue Hour'. (Friendly wave to A.B. on the way by.) |
Red Lobster, White Trash, and the Blue Lagoon by Joe Queenan, 188 pages Steve Gadd 10 October 2000 Bored silly with the highbrow culture to which he had become acustomed, this film critic decided to dive head-first into the worst of America's excesses: Cats, Yanni, "Encino Man," Geraldo, and Atlantic City. |
Red Rabbit by Tom Clancy, 618 pages Steven Krise 05 October 2002 How do you make a spy novel (including the defection of a KGB agent from Russia to America by way of Yugoslavia and England and an assassination attempt on a major world figure) boring? Well, 300+ pages of trite uninteresting ''character development'' is a good first step. Read the rest of the book for all the details. |
Red Rabbit by Tom Clancy, 618 pages James Donahue 26 October 2003 What happened to Tom? I haven't picked up a book of his in some time (maybe eight years). I always admired his sense of pacing and movie-ready episodic prose. However in this book the suspense was gone, the prose was limp, and the characters sounded like unthinking call-ins on Rush Limbaugh. I've read an awful lot of memoirs and accounts by Soviet defectors for my studies (see Wolfgang Leonhard last year for a particularly good one), and none of them sound like his Reaganite defector hero. So disappointing. |
Red Star Rogue by Kenneth Sewell, 305 pages Tony Pisarenkov 25 December 2006 An account of a Soviet submarine, evidently commandeered by a rogue KGB faction, that sank while attempting to launch a nuclear missle on Hawaii in 1968, its salavaging by the CIA in the mid-1970s and the subsequent coverup that continues to this day. While a gold mine for both submarine geeks and Cold War wonks, it's surprisingly readable by someone who is neither, but given that the real story has not been declassified by either government, and isn't likely to be, the ultimate satisfaction of having learned something historically factual is absent. |
Red Tape and the Gospel: A Biography of William Paton by Eleanor Jackson, 346 pages James Donahue 01 June 2005 Paton was a major British church figure during the two world wars. Background for my dissertation research. |
Red, White, and Blue (Audio) by Susan Isaacs, 0 pages Kristin Schrock 07 March 2002 He's a cowboy disguised as an undercover F.B.I agent. She's a reporter on a big story. Together they stop the bad guys. Not complete dren. Read by the former Lex Luthor, John Shea. |
Redeemers and Patriots in Meiji Japan by George Wilson, 155 pages James Donahue 15 October 2003 In contrast to most histories of Japan which focus on economic concerns and the upper class, Wilson provides a highly readable and highly engaging account of the peasantry and their millenarian aspirations. As a sidenote: so many striking parallels to evangelicalism. |
Reflections of Nazism: An Essay on Kitsch and Death by Saul Friedlander, 141 pages James Donahue 10 August 2002 Examines why in spite of ourselves contemporary culture is fascinated with Hitler and Nazism. Friedlander identifies our fascination on the Nazi combination of kitsch and death, familial normality and genocide, order and chaos. Very provocative; a quick-read. |
Reinventing Mona by Jennifer Coburn, 314 pages Kristin Schrock 23 February 2005 Light trash. A nice diversion from the tragedy of The House of Sand and Fog. |
Relativity: The Special and the General Theory by Albert Einstein, 188 pages Tony Pisarenkov 13 April 2008 This version was subtitled "A clear explanation that anyone can understand." In that aim, it succeeded, but it failed to change my outlook on life in a fundamental way. More comments here |
Religion and Politics in Enlightenment Europe by Dale Van Kley, 389 pages James Donahue 14 August 2003 Its a commonplace in my profession to always put religion on the side of the counter-Revolution, on the side of reactionaries against the Enlightenment. This book represents a collective of scholars devoted to showing the complexities of the Enlightenment, its religious advocates, its religious origins, and its religious effects. |
Religious Literacy: What every American needs to know and doesn’t. (2007) by Stephen Prothero, 294 pages Jonathan Misirian 23 July 2007 The author of 2003’s award winning American Jesus, comes back with a book assailing American’s lack religious knowledge. I found Prothero’s argument, for mandatory religious education, compelling, especially b/c it didn’t come from the far right camp of Christianity. The book is divided roughly in half beginning with his argument for greater religious education, and concludes with an alphabetical list of religious terms and their descriptions. |
Representing Belief: Religion, Art, and Society in 19th-century France by Michael Driskel, 279 pages James Donahue 22 September 2002 Examines the religious art of the period. Argues that avant-gardist art of the 1910s was not unique, but predicated upon the previous art of Catholicism. Themes: Byzantine influence, anti-Romanticism, tensions between Catholicism and Republicanism in France. Could have used some color photos, but too damn expensive. |
Representing the Holocaust: History, Theory, Trauma by Dominick LaCapra, 230 pages James Donahue 10 August 2002 With a heavy emphasis on critical theory and deconstruction, LaCapra promotes a self-reflexive Holocaust historiography that goes beyond political polemic and posturing. |
Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas, 172 pages James Donahue 18 December 2002 Hauerwas always delivers a prophetic punch that convicts and inspires me. Here he argues that the church needs to move from a conception of itself as trustee of American culture' to 'colonial counterculture.' He demands much of the church, but having experienced such a church in Columbus, I can say that this type of church truly works and impacts people for Christ. A hearty read, even if, as usual, Hauerwas cannot keep from making some offensive statements along the way. |
Restoring the Reformation: British Evangelicalism and the Francophone Réveil, 1816-1849 (2006) by Kenneth J. Stewart, 254 pages James Donahue 29 December 2007 Very impressive church history on an understudied topic. Too many Protestants are unaware of the Continental roots of their faith. But I should caution that this is a former dissertation that has the blocky composition required by the profession. (The title alone is a good example of this.) Still: Its worth the effort to wade through the academic style, especially if you (like me) hail from a Pietistic and European-Reformed background. |
Resurrection by Leo Tolstoi, 568 pages James Donahue 12 June 2002 A juror discovers that the defendant is a women he seduced years earlier, an act which led to a life of prostitution and crime. He repents for the next five hundred pages, seeing the true nature of the penal system, the hypocritical Church, and his own depths of depravity. Tolstoi's last work, written to finance his religious group's emigration to America. Gone however is Tolstoi's ability to portray all views and all types, gone his wonderful metaphors and descriptions… |
Rethinking Life and Death: the collapse of our traditional ethics by Dr. Peter Singer, 219 pages Jonathan Misirian 25 October 2005 Singer adeptly shows how modern technology forces societies to come to grips with the grey areas of life and death. Singer wrestles with challenging questions such as: When does life begin? Why is human life of greater worth then animal life? Singer’s most radical claim, that human life should only have a right to life, somewhere after the 28th day –after birth-, is one that draws the most criticism, and is also the one theme that he inadequately supports. |
Revivalism in Ireland and Britain, 1857-1910 by Janice Holmes, 234 pages James Donahue 28 July 2004 |
Revive Us Again: The Reawakening of American Fundamentalism by Joel Carpenter, 317 pages James Donahue 09 October 2002 The book is meant to the continuation of Marsden's "Fundamentalism and American Culture." Carpenter examines how fundamentalism went underground after the Scopes trial to create a viable subculture only to re-emerge in the 1950s and even more so in the 1980s under Jerry Falwell. The book is esquisite, written by an ex-fundamentalist who is now the provost at Calvin College. I really recommend this book to those interested in a historical sense to the Cedarville experience. |
Revolution by George Barna, 143 pages Jonathan Misirian 29 March 2006 Barna paints a picture of 20 million Christians disaffected with Church, who desire something more then what the Church can offer. Missing is the statistical analysis supporting his claims. |
Revolutionary France by Malcolm Crook, ed., 237 pages James Donahue 06 October 2002 Standard textbook on 19th-century France that includes separate chapters on often-overlooked subjects, such as religion, nationalism, the pays, and gender. A bit scattered if not accompanying a class. |
Richard Feynman: A Life in Science by John and Mary Gribbin, 284 pages Steve Gadd 14 February 1998 The least worthy of all the Feynman material. They pad out the same information found in the better written Genius (by James Gleick) with tabloid revelations from personal letters. |
Richistan: A Journey through the American wealth boom and the lives of the new rich (2007) by Robert Frank, 276 pages Jonathan Misirian 09 October 2007 I read the other day that 30% of the wealth is controlled by 1% of the people. This book details the lives of the 1%. Frank, the wealth reporter for the Wall Street Journal, takes the readers on a tour of the lives of the American Wealthy. We see their kids cringing at a $10m inheritance, 200ft Yacht owners leering in jealously at larger boats, and a couple not knowing how many people their homes employ (105). |
Ride With the Devil by Daniel Woodrell, 242 pages Kristin Schrock 23 January 2003 I enjoyed the movie so much (even with Jewel--I know!), that I had hoped that the novel would elaborate on some of the gaps. But, no, trust Ang Lee to be very faithful. The back of the book said this is a coming of age story--so the story ends when Jake learns some stuff, but I didn't read the back until I was finished with it, so I'm still left wanting. I'm not sure how much I would've enjoyed this book if I hadn't had Tobey McGuire narrating with a guest appearance by Simon Baker, but still an interesting perspective on the Civil War (not so much from the viewpoint of the South, but from the middle west states like Kansas and Missouri.) What Jake does learn is how far men will go for loyalty--even when losing sight of the Cause. This books get props for this sentence: "Oh, everything happens." |
Rift in Time by Michael Phillips, 480 pages Mike Gadd 02 May 2002 |
Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse, 224 pages Steve Gadd 19 October 2009 |
Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict 1881-2001 by Benny Morris, 694 pages Tony Pisarenkov 11 October 2005 An exhaustively comrehensive, painstakingly detailed, eminently readable and, amazingly, truly unbiased history of the development of Zionism, the creation of Israel and its struggle with the Arab world. The obvious historian's detachment aside (a very good thing in this case), Morris did for the Middle East what Rbecca West had done for the Balkans. |
Rites of Peace: The Fall of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna (2007) by Adam Zamoyski, 569 pages James Donahue 27 October 2007 "Perhaps the most striking aspect of the great charade known as the Congress of Vienna is the continuous interplay between the serious and the frivolous, an almost parasitical co-existence of activities which might appear to be mutually exclusive. The rattling of sabres and talk of blood mingled with the strains of the waltz and court gossip, and the most ridiculously trivial pursuits went hand in hand with impressive work." |
Roaring Lambs: A Gentle Plan to Radically Change Your World by Bob Briner, 179 pages Brad Snyder 04 March 2008 Briner could have summed up his entire book with one paragraph. Nothing really earth shattering but not a bad read. |
Romola by George Eliot, 736 pages James Donahue 05 September 2004 Eliot was most proud of this work, her only historical novel, her tribute to both Scott and her (ever-so-Victorian) passion for Italy. The novel tracks the moral declension of Tito Melema amid the backdrop of corrupt popes, scheming Medicis, moral zealots, and the personalities of Machaevelli, Mirandola, and Savonarola. Very personal book with reflections on leaving a spouse and grappling with disillusionment with evangelicalism. The beginning is a bit staid (by which I mean, too allegorical), and Eliot obviously struggles depicting the lower classes of Italy, but the book picks up steam at the end when fleshing out of the fruits of her character's actions. |
Roots of Romanticism by Isaiah Berlin, 247 pages James Donahue 13 May 2002 A brief series of lectures on the roots of the international movement in a handful of German thinkers. Berlin always really knows his stuff, but his conservative bias always seems at odds with his interest with "anti-Enlightenment" figures. (And this time I spelled "Isaiah" correctly). |
Rumors of Another World : What on Earth Are We Missing? by Philip Yancey, 272 pages Brad Snyder 07 May 2006 Yancey explores the world we can see in contrast to that world we can't, or rather, don't see regardless of the clues, or "rumors" of its existence all around us. |
Run by Douglas E. Winter, 390 pages Jeff Gadd 01 April 2002 Interesting book about a gunrunner where everybody is after him. |
Runaway by Alice Munro, 335 pages Jonathan Misirian 23 February 2005 Listed as one of the NYTimes Top 10 books of '04. Munro lets us know that the Canadians are as messed up as Americans. |
Runaway America by David Waldstreicher, 134 pages James Donahue 30 January 2004 Waldstreicher examines slavery and (un)free labor in the colonies through Benjamin Franklin's unique life, which in turn involved being bound as an apprentice to his elder brother, a time as a refugee from his family, a trader and owner of African slaves, and eventual, though begruding, elderly abolitionist. Fascinating detail. |
Running Blind by Lee Child, 359 pages Jeff Gadd 06 February 2002 The Last Reacher book and it's just as good as the first. |
Russia and the West under Lenin and Stalin by George Kennan, 372 pages Tony Pisarenkov 04 May 2008 Kennan's classic lectures compiled into a book are an excellent analysis of the political and diplomatic history of Russia vis-a-vis Western (and some Eastern) powers between 1917 and 1945, enhanced with some excellent insight into the Communist doctrine, Stalin's personality, and some timeless observations about the behavior of nations and governments that are still applicable today. Highly recommended to every thinking adult. More extensive comments here |
Russia: Experiment with a People by Robert Service, 351 pages James Donahue 26 February 2004 Excellent history of Russia from 1991 onwards. Could be read by someone with no background. Only problem: too optimistic. (And he's not even all that optimistic). |
Ruth by God (via Samuel?), 4 pages Ian Hassell 05 May 2002 Interesting anecdote about Ben Franklin and the book of Ruth at http://www.seekerstrove.com/ruth.html. Ruth is cited in the early lineage of Christ. |