| Sacred by Dennis Lahane, 400 pages Mike Gadd 16 December 2004 More Lahane. Each one seems to improve the series. | Saddam's Bombmaker by Khidhir Hamza and Jeff Stein, 337 pages Tony Pisarenkov 18 March 2003 The story of Iraq's nuclear weapons program written by its chief scientist, who escaped after the bomb was perfected to the point that only its excessive size prevented it from being mounted on a missile. The story of the escape alone makes the book worth reading, but what it tells about how Saddam and his system operates makes it essential reading given today's (literally) situation. |
Sahara Unveiled: A Journey Across the Desert by William Langewiesche, 310 pages Jonathan Misirian 19 May 2005 Langewiesche is an Atlantic correspondent, and the author of Unbuilding the World Trade Center. This account, traces the author’s trek across the desert. Always adept with his observations, Langewiesche provides a moving narrative of life and death in the Sahara. |
Saint Francis of Assisi by G.K. Chesterton, 160 pages Brad Snyder 09 January 2006 I originally started reading this book in a Borders here in Charlotte. Being a fan of Francis, and longing to read something from Chesterton, I was immediately absorbed by the first chapter. What followed, however, was different than I expected. This isn't so much a biography, as it is an explanation of Francis' philosophy and ideology, mixed with an apologetic written to the doubters about his life and works. Not a bad book overall, but I would have preferred to read more of his exploits. |
Saint Paul: The Foundations of Universalism by Alain Badiou, 111 pages James Donahue 12 July 2003 Badiou is ever-dense and ever-provocative. Here he argues that any absolute truth must be founded in event, not reason. As a springbroad, he utilizes Paul and his belief in the resurrection of Christ. Considering Badiou's allegiance to atheism and Maoism, this makes for a schizophrenic and delightful read. |
Saints by Orson Scott Card, 711 pages Micaela Larkin 19 April 2007 Polygamy. Polygamy. Polygamy. Not science fiction... Former ND Student writes fictional account of his Mormon pioneer ancestors. Good read! |
Saints Behaving Badly: The Cutthroats, Crooks, Trollops, Con Men, and Devil Worshippers Who Became Saints (2006) by Thomas J. Craughwell, 191 pages Brad Snyder 17 November 2007 A collection of short biographies of a handful of Catholic patron saints. Kudos to Craughwell for offering historical context and explaining when the stories are more legend than fact. |
Salem's Lot by Stephen King, 427 pages Jeff Gadd 05 April 1999 |
Salon.com's Wanderlust by Don George, Ed., 338 pages Steve Gadd 26 May 2002 Great collection of travel stories, including "Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow," "On Japanese Trains," and Simon Winchester's great "Romance in Romania." Also a great forward on "Why We Travel" by Pico Iyer. |
Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky, 484 pages Tony Pisarenkov 31 March 2008 Chock-full of fascinating random facts about salt and how it affected commerce and, through it, the rest of history, throughout the ages. Sadly, not very well written and poorly organized. More extensive comments here |
Sammy's Hill by Kristin Gore, 400 pages Micaela Larkin 08 June 2007 Gore's daughter writes political chic lit. |
Samuel Johnson is Indignant: Stories by Lydia Davis, 301 pages Kristin Schrock 11 May 2004 Lydia Davis is this generation's Gertrude Stein. And I mean that in a good way. So, what you get are stories that are one sentence long, and other bizarre stories that examine language and storytelling in that groovy post-modern way. Also, another egret appears. |
Sarajevo: A War Journal by Zlatko Dizdarevic, 200 pages Steve Gadd 07 January 1996 |
Sarge: The Life and Times of Sarge Shriver by Scot Stossell, 704 pages Micaela Larkin 01 January 2007 A++ I read it in one sitting. |
Saturday by Ian McEwan, 289 pages Jonathan Misirian 23 February 2006 A day in the life of a British neurosurgeon. In one 24 hour span he observes a fiery plane land at Heathrow, has sex with his wife, get caught up in an anti-war protest, is assaulted, plays squash, finds out his unmarried daughter is expecting, has his family terrorized, performs neurosurgery on the familial assailant, showers and has sex again with his wife. |
Savage Girl by Alex Shakar, 275 pages Kristin Schrock 27 October 2003 I've sadly slipped out of the Gadd-o-sphere. Must read faster. It would help if I didn't choose books that are a slog to get through. This one wants to say some profound things about consumerism and advertising and a post-irony age. And I was ready to listen. Sadly, the writing lacked style, zip, and was full of pretention. Except for one line which I liked: "James Couch and James Couch's irony sat down at the barstool beside me." |
Scandal Of The Evangelical Conscience: Why Are Christians Living Just Like The Rest Of The World? by Ronald J. Sider, 144 pages Brad Snyder 16 February 2005 This is very different than Sider's better known "Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger", but no less provocative. The book is based on statistics gathered by George Barna that show that evangelicals act just like non-Christians in every category surveyed except for one: it seems that the divorce rate among evangelicals is worse! Recommended for those praying for renewal of hearts and minds in the American church. |
Scandinavian Mythology by H R Ellis Davidson, 144 pages Steven Krise 18 June 2003 Neither the Lovettsville nor the Purcellville libraries had "Grendel". |
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. |
Schnitzler's Century: The Making of Middle Class Culture, 1815-1914 by Peter Gay, 289 pages Tony Pisarenkov 24 January 2006 An informative and mostly well-argued work of cultural history that attempts to show, convincingly for the most part, that Victorian-era bourgeois were not as prissy as we tend to assume. In other words, they were much like us, with a possible exception of the author, who is more obsessed with sex than either his subjects or -- harder to believe -- his readers. |
Scoop (1938) by Evelyn Waugh, 254 pages James Donahue 21 August 2007 Whenever career-driven journalists descend on a rumor-filled Third World nation and have to justify their extravagent expense reports even while they have no real grasp of the country they are in, news will be made. Or at least: "news" will be reported. Here Waugh mocks a group of journalists in the fictional African nation of "Ishmaelia" as they generate the news that they need for the folks back home. Waugh again uses the journey of a straight man (here: Mr. Boot, someone who goes only so he can keep his comfy job writing the "Rural Life" column for the Megalopolitan) to wickedly satire everyone around him. Loosely based on Waugh's experience in 1935 as a foreign correspondent covering the Italo-Abyssian War. |
Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller, 256 pages Brad Snyder 17 January 2007 While different than his magnum opus "Blue Like Jazz", Miller is no less insightful in this theological statement. |
Searching for God Knows What (2004) by Donald Miller, 256 pages Jonathan Misirian 03 May 2008 Miller, the celebrated author of Blue Like Jazz, follows up with more ruminations on what it means to follow Christ. His strength is his relaxed writing style –you feel like you are having a conversation with a friend. His adept insights provide the reader with plenty to ponder, underline and internalize… excellent read. |
Searching for Robert Johnson by Peter Guralnick, 83 pages Steven Krise 16 February 2005 Short essay based largely on the work of Mack McCormick in the 70s that seeks to fix nuggets of fact in the complex matrix of myth, anecdote, and recollection that is the story of RL's life. Has an excellent list of recommended albums in the back, both in terms of RL's influences and people he influenced. |
Season of Life: A Football Star, a Boy, a Journey to Manhood by Jeffrey Marx, 177 pages Brad Snyder 08 May 2006 A true story of a man who starts out writing a story about one of his football heroes, and how he learns to think differently as a man for the interaction. Kind of touchy feely, but certainly worthwhile. |
SeaWitch by Alistair MaClean, 279 pages Jeff Gadd 23 April 2002 About a famous oil Billionaire who enemys what to stop him by destroying his oil Rig SeaWitch. |
Second Kings by God (via Unknown - Jeremiah?), 25 pages Ian Hassell 31 August 2002 Challenging presentation of how far apart Sin and Holiness really are. |
Second Samuel by God (via Unknown), 21 pages Ian Hassell 21 June 2002 3 words: David And Bathsheba. Amazing story of how a "man after God's own heart" sins, tries to cover his tracks, is convicted, repents, is forgiven, punished and ultimately restored. God clearly reveals his character to us through a wonderfully relevant account of one of the "heroes of the faith". |
Secret Prey by John Sandford, 384 pages Jeff Gadd 20 April 2001 |
Seducing the French by Richard Kuisel, 285 pages James Donahue 22 October 2002 A brief history of French ambivalency towards America. Some great snippets in here that both amuse and illuminate. |
See Jane Run by Joy Fielding, 404 pages Kristin Schrock 30 November 2002 This book asks the question: What if Notorious were a lifetime original movie? We've got a wife with amnesia, a Bad Husband who drugs her, and a terrible, terrible secret that threatens everyone (I said, Everyone)! Mindless and a quick read, and for some reason I'm a big fan of the amnesia plot (except on 24, that was no good). |
See No Evil by Robert Baer, 320 pages Erik Bauer 02 June 2003 Book written by former CIA middle east agent. Wonderful insight into workings of CIA within a very interesting context of the Middle East in the 80s and 90s. The book definitely gave me a different view of mideast and islamic problems, but as a full blown government employee, I already figured the CIA was screwed up like the rest of the federal bureaucracy. |
See No Evil by Robert Baer, 274 pages Jonathan Misirian 14 December 2005 Published a few months after 9/11, Baer’s first hand account of his career in the CIA reads both like Allen Dulles and Inspector Clueso. While, See No Evil would have benefited from a better editor, Baer’s story reveals the faults w/n the American Intelligence System, while offering slight hope for an improved future. |
Seeing Voices by Oliver Sacks, 162 pages Steve Gadd 28 April 2000 An interesting and very educational look at the community and language of the deaf, including a report on the uprising at Gallaudet University to demand a deaf president. |
Seeker's Mask by P. C. Hodgell, 526 pages Julie Gephart 08 October 2002 Fantasy book with a great setting and heroine but overly-complex plot. Lots of references to things from previous books in the series, which I haven't read. |
SeinLanguage by Jerry Seinfeld, 180 pages Brad Snyder 17 May 2006 I'm on this weird comedy kick, please bear with me... Seinfeld's stand-up routine is a lot like those Jack Handy skits featured on Saturday Night Live in the late 80s. If you've seen his show, you've seen some of the same routines there that are in this book. |
Seize the Night by Dean Koontz, 440 pages Jeff Gadd 30 September 2000 |
Selected Stories of Philip K Dick by Philip K Dick, 476 pages Steven Krise 28 December 2007 Her name, she told him, was Mary Lorne. She was, he decided, pretty, wistful, afraid, and putting up a good front. Together they joined the other new students for a showing of a recent Herbie the Hyena cartoon which Bibleman had seen; it was the episode in which Herbie attempted to assassinate the Russian monk Rasputin. In his usual fashion, Herbie the Hyena poised his victim, shot him, blew him up six times, stabbed him, tied him up with chains and sank him in the Volga, tore him apart with wild horses, and finally shot him to the moon strapped to a rocket. The cartoon bored Bibleman. |
Self-Help (short stories) by Lorrie Moore, 163 pages Kristin Schrock 27 March 2002 All hail the brilliance of Lorrie Moore! Her stories are funny with a sharpness that hurts. She exalts puns (in the best possible way). So begins one story: "Understand that your cat is a whore and can't help you." |
Sense of Evil by Kay Hooper, 357 pages Kristin Schrock 31 July 2004 A serial killer is after the women of a quaint little town. It'll take a psychic FBI agent to catch the killer. This is a sub-par thriller. The twists were obvious and it was heavy in exposition. But the cover was bright yellow, which is why I picked it up off the shelf. |
Sex and Virtue: An Introduction to Sexual Ethics by John Grabowski, 224 pages Micaela Larkin 16 July 2006 Virtue ethics meets theology of the body. Interesting read. It makes some telling points about the legalistic attitudes of the pro-contraception Catholic crowd. |
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto (2004) by Chuck Klosterman, 253 pages Brad Snyder 23 July 2007 I enjoyed "Klosterman IV" and "Killing Yourself to Live" more, but this still has its high points, mostly in the first few chapters of the book. Interesting observations about the Sims and "Left Behind" series. |
Sexing the Cherry by Jeannette Winterson, 167 pages Kristin Schrock 07 May 2003 Essentially, there are three different stories masquerading as a novel. The last two "stories" are interesting, but the first part was a bear to muddle through. The second one tells the story of the "Twelve Dancing Princesses" and I'm a sucker for the retelling of fairy tales. As I read more Winterson (this is my least favorite other than the one that I could never finish) I realize how in love she is with her writing and her tendency towards the precious gets on my nerves. |
Sexuality, Civil Society, and the State: by Isabel Hull, 411 pages James Donahue 02 February 2003 Through extensive archical work Hull examines marriage and sex laws in Germany from 1500 through 1830 (Reformation through Code Napoleon). She concludes that Christian absolutism was much more inclined to gender equality and sexual tolerance than bourgeois republicanism which relied upon the patriarch and the family unit to ground society. Various themes covered include: the evolution of conceptionilization of sex from animal urge to fundamental right of personhood, the invention of anti-homosexual legislation, the gendered conceptions of citizenry in the 19th-cent. |
Shackleton (a biography) by Roland Huntford, 697 pages Kristin Schrock 19 March 2002 He was loved because he was a bohemian, fond of the ladies, and extravagant with taxis. He may have been a bit of a bungler, but no one died on his watch. |
Shadow in the North (1986) by Philip Pullman, 331 pages A Bennett 14 January 2004 Yet another dissolute father sells his daughter (it's like some sort of epidemic)--into marriage this time--in order to reclaim his reputation both financially and socially. Never mind that she's already married. READER BEWARE WARNING: Pet death on page 225, bringing an unexpected tear to the eye of this hardened heart. Necessary vocabulary: variety of archaic Cockney swear words, handfasting, various photographic chemical processes in use during the 1870s, a knowledge of arms and the mechanics of steam engines is also helpful. |
Shaming the Devil by Alan Jacobs, 218 pages James Donahue 22 December 2005 This collection of essays is delightful. Most are literary criticism (Jacobs is a professor of English at Wheaton College), dealing with his teacher's pets: Camus, Auden, Rebecca West, Wole Soynika, Iris Murdoch. Some deal with writers he finds uncomfortable: bioethicist Leon Kass, the lesbian poet Anne Carson, sci-fi prodigy Philip Pullman. But what these essays really sing is not just Jacobs' eyes, but rather his hand. Jacobs can really write, and this is best seen when he abandons criticism to write some original essays on Rousseau (vs Voltaire), his struggles to escape the control of the MAN by learning Linux, and the crucial importance of centering our aesthetic lives around the reality of grace. |
Shampoo Planet by Douglas Coupland, 299 pages Kristin Schrock 15 May 2005 The guy at the bookstore was very excited that I was buying this book. After reading it, I'm not sure why. It had moments where I thought--this guy is really good--but overall the book was unsatisfying. |
Shattered by Dean Koontz, 212 pages Jeff Gadd 19 September 2000 |
Shelters of Stone by Jean M. Auel, 883 pages Julie Gephart 09 November 2003 Somewhere during this series, Jean Auel must have taken the Anne Rice route of deciding that she was too popular to allow an editor to touch her books. That’s the only explanation for this bloated edition that could easily have been 400 pages instead of 900, full of useless repetition. Not only does she repeat plot points like we’re morons with an attention span of 5 pages, but she also repeats entire, detailed scenes over and over again. By now I could write the two-page scene where our hero meets a new group of people and introduces them to the wonders of starting a fire with flint and striker – I could write it because I’m sure I’ve read exactly the same scene 50 TIMES NOW. And unfortunately that’s only one of the discoveries we are compelled to relive time and time again. Curses upon you, Jean Auel, for still writing bits that are interesting enough to make me slog through all this mess to find them! |
Shogun by James Clavell, 1100 pages James Donahue 04 May 2004 Summer is finally here, and while I have to keep reading for my class next year, I finally have some time to indulge in those glossy mega-reads I love so much. Clavell is always good for some swashbuckling, macho orientalism. Like Hemingway meets Grisham. One question: why do the pretty women always have to die in the end? |
Shogun by James Clavell, 1152 pages Steve Gadd 16 May 2005 John Blackthorne wants to be the first Englishman to sail around the world, but he arrives in Japan with four of five ships lost and most of his crew perished. He, and his knowledge and inventory of firearms especially, find favor with a leader, and so begins an epic of war and love. There is plenty of swashbuckling, but there is some plodding as well, perhaps to be expected in a book this long. I don't know how accurate it is, but the view of sixteenth-century Japan is quite interesting. |
Shopping for God: how Christianity went from in your heart to in your face (2007) by James Twitchell, 324 pages Jonathan Misirian 07 May 2008 Twitchell, a self-described ‘apathiest’ writes from his position as a professor of advertising at the U. of Florida. His keen eye for explaining marketing trends made this book a great resource for understanding many of the advertising trends found in Evangelical Christianity. His assessment is sober, his insights are sharp, and his writing his excellent. |
Short Rations (1917) by Madeleine Zabriskie Doty, 274 pages James Donahue 25 August 2008 A book of Doty's firsthand experiences while traveling back and forth between Britain and Germany from 1914 - 1916 as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Remember when memoirs didn't have to be made up to become a bestseller? |
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane, 369 pages Mike Gadd 27 July 2005 Once again, done in by the blurb on the back cover. You get three quarters of the way in and you figure it is safe to read the free sample on the back. It actually gave away the ending. Very disappointing. The story itself was supposed to play out in a 'Sixth Sense' sort of way, but it had no punch. |
Sick Puppy by Carl Hiaasen, 513 pages Brad Snyder 30 December 2006 Bizarre |
Sidney Gulick and the Search for Peace with Japan by Sandra Taylor, 254 pages James Donahue 10 April 2004 Rough book that winds and repeats itself. Biography of one of the main opponents of the treatment of Japanese-Americans from 1900-1945. Missionary. Confusing figure. |
Silas Marner by George Eliot, 197 pages James Donahue 14 September 2004 Eliot's shortest book was also a bridge between her early pastoral studies and her later interest in myth and religious liberalism. Short, evocative, and scaled-back; the most accessible Eliot. (But then that also makes it uncharacteristic) |
Silence by Shusaku Endo, 201 pages Steve Gadd 01 March 1997 |
Silent Joe by T. Jefferson Parker, 388 pages Mike Gadd 07 May 2004 Well done story of an adopted son out for vengence of his murdered father. |
Silent Prey by John Sandford, 374 pages Jeff Gadd 14 April 2001 |
Silken Savage by Catherine Hart, 476 pages Julie Gephart 22 February 2003 When in a reading rut, it's always a good idea to return to the classics -- like this romance novel from high school in which our requisite stubborn-yet-naive girl is kidnapped by a Cheyenne raiding party and shortly falls in love with her requisitely arrogant-yet-noble captor. She loves the squaw lifestyle (servile obedience) and even takes some tests to be adopted formally as a member of the tribe so she can marry her young chief and have his babies. Bliss! But oh no - one day while he's away, the soldiers come and slaughter her camp and forcibly rescue her back to her white family. What's a girl to do but pout and refuse to speak English and wait for her husband to come and rescue her? And just when you think you've seen all the twists, who should appear in town but her wild Cheyenne husband, dressed like a white man and speaking perfect English! Who knew that his mother was white and he had a secret double identity as a wealthy rancher all along? So then he courts and marries her again for her family's benefit, and they take off together in radiant joy "to Europe" ("to return to their fun secret lifestyle of killing and raping any white people in the vicinity.") The End. |
Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense by N.T. Wright, 256 pages Brad Snyder 11 December 2006 This is the best book I have read all year. Regardless of what your spiritual background, Bishop Wright has offered a common sense approach to Christianity that will surely eclipse other similar works. |
Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense (2006) by N.T. Wright, 256 pages Jonathan Misirian 20 April 2007 Wright is the Bishop of Durham in the Church of England and has that rare gift of being a top flight writer and a profound thinker. Simply Christian is his apologetic of Christianity. It is gripping, erudite, accessible, and engages the soul unlike most other apologetic books. |
Sink the Bismarck! by C.S. Forester, 118 pages Jeff Gadd 11 November 2002 True story of Hitler's mightiest battleship and how the British conquered it at sea. |
Sir Edward Grey (1971) by Keith Robbins, 372 pages James Donahue 07 July 2006 Grey was Foreign Secretary of Great Britain from 1905 to 1916, and the author of several fly-fishing books that were "too bookish for the fisher and too fisherly for the bookish." |
Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman, 138 pages Steve Gadd 21 March 2004 Feynman's Lectures on Physics are widely recognized as paragons of instruction. These selections were taken from his freshman-level course. Feynman brings the science to life, introducing atomic theory and showing how it is behind everyday phenomena such as cooling by evaporation. Frequent asides illustrate principles and add flair to the lectures: Cavendish's famous experiment which weighed the Earth, and the indirect discovery of Neptune by mathematicians studying the orbits of nearer planets. Even quantum behavior in the last chapter is presented simply, making this a very readable review of introductory physics. |
Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast by Lewis Wolpert, 243 pages Tony Pisarenkov 29 December 2008 I was misled by the subtitle ("The Evolutionary Origins of Belief"), and once I discovered what the book was really about, it proved to be a disappointment. A few more comments here. |
Size 12 Is Not Fat: A Heather Wells Mystery by Meg Cabot, 368 pages Micaela Larkin 21 April 2006 The author of the Princess Diaries dynasty takes on mystery. What happens if an ex-teen pop princess has to solve the mysterious deaths of NYU students in the dorm elevators? This cozy is comfortable, smart, and a good mystery. |
Skeleton Crew by Stephen King, 557 pages Jeff Gadd 07 November 1999 |
Skipping Christmas by John Grisham, 177 pages Mike Gadd 20 February 2002 |
Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) by Kurt Vonnegut, 215 pages Brad Snyder 02 February 2009 Vonnegut's anti-war/science fiction/account of the firebombing of Dresden. |
Slave Religion: The 'Invisible Institution' in the Antebellum South by Albert Raboteau, 373 pages James Donahue 11 September 2002 |
Slave Ship (1998) by K. W. Jeter, 324 pages James Donahue 10 January 2007 Oh, silly Bossk, when will you learn that you cannot compete with Boba Fett? |
Sleepyhead by Mark Billingham, 432 pages Mike Gadd 17 August 2003 In a variation of the serial killer theme, this bad guy doesn't actually want to kill his victims, just cause a massive stroke that renders them motionless but fully conscious. It was a pretty good story for a first attempt. |
Slicky Boys by Martin Limon, 387 pages Mike Gadd 27 May 2003 A soldier is murdered in post-war Korea and the investigator thinks the perp is a 'slicky boy'. Slicky boys are the kids who sneak into the army supply buildings and steal only 4% of the inventory. That's the limit of what's is written off as loss and replaced without question. I almost learned some Korean reading this. |
Slouching Towards Kalamazoo (1983) by Peter De Vries, 246 pages James Donahue 05 January 2009 |
Slowness by Milan Kundera, 156 pages Steve Gadd 25 December 1998 |
Slowness by Milan Kundera, 156 pages Tony Pisarenkov 03 December 2008 |
Small Gods by Terry Pratchett, 344 pages Steven Krise 28 February 2002 Quirky tale about the origin and demise of gods as well as the power and danger of belief. |
Small Gods by Terry Pratchett, 344 pages Steven Krise 24 May 2004 Seems less iconclastic upon the second reading. |
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. |
Smart Girls: A New Pyschology of Girls, Women, and Giftedness by Barbara Kerr, 262 pages Micaela Larkin 29 June 2006 I was trying to balance out my Jung/Gordon reading for next week with a more "scientific" perspective. |
Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg, 499 pages A Bennett 02 November 2002 This is not a book I can recommend. It took me one move, one job, and five months to finish. It's more complicated than that. But I, I really fell in love with Smilla, and through her I came to care about everything she did--the ice, Greenland, her father, Isaiah. One character sums it up best when speaking about her; "I found out a lot from that phone call. No normal woman, no normal human being would have picked up that phone." A cocktail of geology, physics, Euclid, noir, and politics. In all those months, I never lost where I was in the story or had to backtrack. Yet, this novel has no easy answers--and in the end, no answers at all. |
Sniper's Moon by Carsten Stroud, 370 pages Mike Gadd 22 July 2003 I was halfway done with this one and I left it at home when we went on vacation. I picked it up 5 days later and continued where I left off. I'm sure I lost some of the effect as a result. Having another 'falsely accused and on the run" didn't help. |
Snow by Orhan Pamuk, 426 pages Jonathan Misirian 18 July 2005 Pamuk, sets his novel in the city of Kars, Turkey. A love story, a budding poet, and a local political race are all subplots to the main narrative; which is the tension between Islamicists and Reformers. There appear to be just a few Muslim countries where there is still a debate about the role of Islam. Pamuk is a Reformer, and in Snow, he makes his case. |
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, 471 pages Steve Gadd 09 August 2000 Wow. Action-packed, crisply written, and carefully structured, this is a big chunk of sci-fi that makes the real world seem terribly boring every time you reluctantly stop reading. |
SNOW CRASH by Neal Stephenson, 470 pages Jeff Gadd 12 March 2001 |
Snowball Earth by Gabrielle Walker, 269 pages Steven Krise 03 September 2009 Tells the story of the Snowball Earth hypothesis while telling the story (primarily) of Paul Hoffman, its chief proponent. |
So Far From God by Ana Castillo, 252 pages Jaqi Ross 29 July 2004 Castillo's ( Sapogonia ) inventive but not entirely cohesive novel about the fortunes of a contemporary Chicana family in the village of Tome, N.M., reveals its main concerns at once. Sofi's three-year-old daughter dies in a horrifying epileptic fit but is resurrected (and even levitates) at her own funeral, reporting firsthand acquaintance with hell, purgatory and heaven. Magic and divine intervention in varying ways touch each of Sofi's three other daughters: the eldest, mainstreamed yuppie Esperanza; Caridad, whose path leads toward folk mysticism; and the more mundane Fe, who--seized with a screaming convulsion when her fiance jilts her--is brought to silence only months later through the intercession of the resurrected youngest sister, "Loca." Castillo takes a page from the magical realist school of Latin American fiction, but one senses the North American component of this Chicana voice: in her work, occult phenomena are literal, not symbolic; life is traumatic and brutal--as are men--but death is merely tentative. |
So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane, 226 pages Julie Gephart 17 July 2004 “Classic” from 1983, which doesn’t make me feel old at all. Two nerdy kids discover this peculiar volume in a series of career advice books. |
SOA Adoption for Dummies (2009) by Miko Matsumura, Bjoern Brauel, Jignesh Shah, 86 pages Brad Snyder 06 May 2009 After sitting in meeting after meeting, reading white papers, technical specs, test plans, and previously produced user documentation, this little book was a welcome reprieve. |
Sock by Penn Jillette, 208 pages Ray Hunley 19 July 2004 Suck. |
Socrates Cafe by Christopher Phillips, 87 pages Tony Pisarenkov 12 May 2003 One of the hokiest books I've come across in a long time. This account of the author's experiences fascilitating informal public discussions of questions of the attendees' choice supposedly using the Scoratic method comes out as a thinly disguised self-help book of the shallowest kind. Full of the author's own platitudes and the half-baked pseudo-arguments of his audiences, occasionally interspersed with two-sentence reductions of major philosophers' central ideas, this book gives philosophy a bad name. Normally I would not even bother mentioning any book I threw down in exasperation after two chapters, but I will do it this time to warn potential readers. |
Solar Lottery by Philip K Dick, 200 pages Steven Krise 01 June 2008 In a strange feudal future society governed by Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and game theory, a disenchanted mid-level worker gets his chance to make a revolutionary change. |
Sole Survivor by Dean R. Koontz, 400 pages Jeff Gadd 11 May 1999 |
Something Blue by Emily Giffin, 368 pages Micaela Larkin 08 November 2006 What if you were the scorned best friend from previous book who went to England to stay with other childhood friend? |
Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin, 336 pages Micaela Larkin 08 November 2006 kind of weird book, but not a bad read... what happens if you slept with your best friend from grade school's fiancee on your birthday six months before the wedding? |
Something Dangerous by Patrick Redmond, 415 pages Mike Gadd 14 March 2003 Mediocre story at best about a boy's school in England in the 50's. Just about everyone dies at the end when all the skeletons come out of the closet. Real uplifting. At least it read quick. |
Song of the Lioness I: Alanna - the first adventure (1983) by Tamora Pierce, 216 pages A Bennett 04 February 2004 Interesting to read her first book (adequately, but clunkily written--sometimes breaking with P.O.V) on the heels of her most-recent. |
Song of the Lioness II: In the Hand of the Goddess (1984) by Tamora Pierce, 209 pages A Bennett 05 February 2004 Many scenes are underwritten (as they must be, to cram four years into two-hundred pages). Still, not bad stuff, though the titles and the cover art cause me to cringe whenever I get a book in this series out in public. |
Song of the Lioness III: The Woman Who Rides Like a Man (1986) by Tamora Pierce, 228 pages A Bennett 09 February 2004 If not for the crafty Schrock sneaking home unexpectedly last night, I would have finished this a day earlier. |
Song of the Lioness IV: Lioness Rampant (1988) by Tamora Pierce, 308 pages A Bennett 19 February 2004 |
Sophie's Choice by William Styron, 562 pages Kristin Schrock 16 January 2003 Near the end of the novel the narrator (who, let's face it, is just William Styron) relates a sentence from his journal during the summer he knew Sophie: "Someday I will understand Auschwitz". But, of course, the narrator (and everyone else) will never understand Auschwitz. Instead, we get a compelling, haunting, story, with the right amount of distance and history to make it bearable. Styron is often pretentious (I hate him for my suffering during Lie Down in Darkness), and oddly chooses to dramatize a, what's the word, sex marathon after Sophie reveals her choice. And, as a book to read before going to bed, it doesn't make for good dreams, but it is a gripping novel. Recommended Vocabulary: pettifoggery (that's a made up word, I'm sure of it), scupperning, lacunae, satraps, adumbrated, mucilaginous, avoirdupois |
Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder, 513 pages Steve Gadd 04 May 2002 "Ladies and gentlemen, we're floating in space!" This would have been just a cute and clever novel about a Norwegian girl. Add an unpretentious history of philosophy and it's a European bestseller. A pleasant introduction or review of philosophy. |
Soul Harvest by Tim LaHaye Jerry Jenkins, 426 pages Jeff Gadd 19 March 2001 |
Soul Music by Terry Pratchett, 373 pages Steven Krise 20 November 2005 A story about Sex, Drugs, and Music with Rocks In. The main character, Imp y Celyn (which is Llamedos-ish for Small Bud of the Holly), brings an unintended musical revolution to Ankh-Morpork. Oh, and death is off gallivanting about the Disc again trying to sort out the meaning of it all, anyways. |
Speaking In Tongues by Jeffery Deaver, 354 pages Steven Krise 29 February 2004 Two silver tongued devils (one a psychiatrist, the other a lawyer) battle over the life of a 17 yr old girl. |
Special Topics in Calamity Physics (2006) by Marisha Pessl, 514 pages Brad Snyder 07 March 2007 Story of a girl named Blue and her itinerant professor father. After moving three times a year every year since Kindergarten, after the death of her mother, they settle down in a North Carolina town for her senior year. There, she falls in with a group of students called bluebloods who hang out with the mysterious Hannah Schneider, a teacher who is found hanging from a tree in the woods, prompting Blue to search out the identity of the killer. The resulting discoveries lead her to more questions and a surprising ending. |
Spectacular Happiness by Peter D. Kramer, 313 pages Tony Pisarenkov 10 July 2003 A novel about an aging sixties' radical turned latter-day terrorist who blows up Cape Cod mansions as a sign of protest against private propery and excesses of wealth. A few secondary themes resonate quite well, and there are a few compelling characters, but the story turns more than faintly ridiculous at the end, and there is an obvious sense of the author's own Marxism oozing out of his characters' actions. I got a distinct impression that he really wanted his readers to agree that the way of renouncing material wealth for social good was morally superior, but the actual statement the book made, to me at least, was "damed if you do, damned if you don't." |
Spencerville by Nelson DeMille, 481 pages Mike Gadd 30 April 2005 I enjoyed the other 2 DeMille offerings enough to give this one a try. It wasn't too good. Too many one-diminsional characters. Not near enough dry wit to keep it worth reading. |
Sphere by Michael Chrichton, 371 pages Steve Gadd 21 December 1995 |
Spiritual Direction by Henri Nouwen, 152 pages Micaela Larkin 12 September 2006 |
Splendid Monarchy: Power and Pageantry in Modern Japan by Takashi Fujitani, 282 pages James Donahue 21 April 2004 Wonderful analysis of the nationalistic invention of Japanese court ritual in the late nineteenth-century, Very illustrative on the symbolic aspects of rule. |
Split: A Counterculture Childhood by Lisa Michaels, 307 pages Julie Gephart 03 November 2002 The author recalls her childhood spent at political rallies, communes, and traveling the country in an old milk truck. Then she grows into a pretentious college student, and it the book takes a turn toward the tedious. |
Spook by Mary Roach, 300 pages Jonathan Misirian 21 February 2006 The unfortunately named author pens a witty overview of her search for scientific proof of the afterlife. Roach delves into history as well as modern science and concludes her search with doubt and skepticism. |
STALAG LUFT III by Arthur A. Durand, 392 pages Jeff Gadd 16 August 2002 If you like the Great Escape movie you will like this book. |
Stalin by Robert Conquest, 312 pages James Donahue 03 November 2004 Decent biography heavy on the (just) condemnation. |
Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, 1942-3 by Anthony Beevor, 431 pages James Donahue 16 November 2004 This book pulls out the day-to-day details of the most important battle of WWII between the Soviets and the Nazis. Grisly conditions and brutal defeat for Hitler, after which he never recovered. Beevor does a good job making military history accessible to the general reader. |
Starbucked: a double tall tale of caffeine, commerce and culture (2007) by Taylor Clark, 294 pages Jonathan Misirian 27 June 2008 Rare is the book that wants you to send a note of thanks to the author, and for me, Starbucked is one of those books. For a first book, Clark writes with a sharp wit and a with a style that is truly a delight to read. Not a screed, nor an add for the company; but rather a well balanced look at this American and now international company. |
Starting Out in Poker by Stewart Reuben, 160 pages Steven Krise 17 October 2009 A fairly standard poker text, except for the unique "Try It Yourself" section at the end of each chapter, which is a short graded quiz with rated answers in the back of the book. |
State and Intellectual in Modern Japan by Andrew Barshay, 250 pages James Donahue 24 April 2004 |
State of Denial (2006) by Bob Woodward, 560 pages Jonathan Misirian 11 January 2007 Masterful account of the failure of the Iraq war, voiced by the insiders themselves… Bush –who comes across as the intellectual light weight that he is, and Rumsfeld –the micromanager hawk -are shown as the main contributors to the failure in Iraq. The image of Bush and Cheney making fart jokes –during a White House meeting- while tens of thousands are dieing in the gulf –is one that sadly will not leave me anytime soon. |
Stiff - The Curious Lives of Cadavers by Mary Roach, 303 pages Steven Krise 20 January 2008 After watching another five patients shed similar weight as they died, Macdougbhall moved on to dogs. Fifteen dogs breathed their last without registering a significant drop in weight, which Macdougall took as corroborating evidence, for he assumed, in keeping with his religious doctrine, that animals have no souls. While Macdougall's human subjects were patients of his, there is no explanation of how he came to be in the possession of fifteen dying dogs in so short a span of time. Barring a local outbreak of distemper, one is forced to conjecture that the good doctor calmly poisoned fifteen healthy canines for his little exercise in biological theology. |
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach, 304 pages Jaqi Ross 20 August 2004 Visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries—from the anatomy labs and human-sourced pharmacies of medieval and nineteenth-century Europe to a human decay research facility in Tennessee, to a plastic surgery practice lab, to a Scandinavian funeral directors' conference on human composting. Quick, amusing read - plus it gets you funny looks on the Metro. |
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach, 294 pages Tony Pisarenkov 29 September 2005 So, what would you like to have happen to your body after you die? Dissection? Used for crash testing? Made into dumplings? |
Still Life with Crows by Douglas Preston / Lincoln Child, 565 pages Mike Gadd 28 July 2004 Somewhat of a sequel to 'Cabinet of Curiosities'. This one didn't have the story or the suspense of their previous books. The payoff wasn't even very good. A rare disappointment from these guys. |
Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins, 277 pages Steve Gadd 28 January 1996 |
Stolypin, Nationalism, and the Politics of the Russian Imperial State by Alexandra Korros, 243 pages James Donahue 17 September 2004 |
Storm by Boris Starling, 427 pages Mike Gadd 22 August 2002 Mr. Donahue, take a breath. Put the book down. Go see a movie. I hear the pool's nice. Find another hobby... Anyway- the book. Another serial killer type. Protagonist Kate figures out who bad guy is and drags him in to be questioned. He denies all. Kate goes home to relax with the boyfriend. Oh no! Kate's wrong! The bad guy is the boyfriend! Upstairs with your son! Kate rushes out and hides at a friend's house. Ugh! Now the friend is the bad guy and Kate's in a tight spot. Fortunately a well timed lightning bolt saves the day. A little much, I should say. The first half was pretty good....... James, you're getting sleepy. Very sleepy. |
Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor by Gabriel García Márquez, 106 pages Steve Gadd 05 April 2000 A member of the Colombian navy was swept overboard and drifted for ten days in a life raft. García Márquez, a young reporter at the time, serialized the story. |
Strange Highways by Dean R. Koontz, 614 pages Jeff Gadd 15 April 1999 |
Strangers & Pilgrims: Female Preaching in America, 1740 - 1845 by Catherine Brekus, 423 pages James Donahue 02 September 2002 Yes, there were women preachers that long ago in evangelicalism, and the debates and issues surrounding them eerily remind me of today. Written for those with no background in religious history which I much appreciated. Fascinating read. |
Striking Back: The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israel’s Deadly Response by Aaron J. Klein, 256 pages Jonathan Misirian 24 May 2006 Klein provides a nationalistic explanation of political assignation by detailing the Mossad’s methodical killings of high profile Palestinians. Revenge, deterrence and prevention are mentioned as the holy trinity of justification for these killings, leaving the reader to assume that maybe deterrence and prevention are just added to make the true motive more palatable. |
Studies in the Intellectual History of Japan by Maseo Maruyama, 376 pages James Donahue 30 September 2003 In contrast to Bellah, MM provides a nuanced account of the thought of late medieval Japan. Thesis: that as medieval society dissolved, thinkers became aware that society was not natural, rather that it was something to invent, manipulate, and ground in personal authority. Written against the background of WWII, it serves as a lament for the inherently religio-authoritarian aspects of Japanese society. Readable by those with no background in Japanese philosophy (although knowledge of German helps). |
Stuffed by Brian Wiprud, 354 pages Mike Gadd 21 September 2005 This was a weak attempt at being amusing. A taxidermist runs around chasing an albino crow. He's being chased by penguin boy and a mob of pygmies. Oh dear. |
Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family by Patricia Volk, 239 pages Jaqi Ross 15 September 2004 More than I expected - a good read. This funny and charming memoir tells about a bigger-than-life New York family that owned fourteen restaurants, including Morgen’s in the garment district. Sharing life and good food for three generations, the family exhibited a voracious appetite for life. |
Style and the Man by Alan Flusser, 122 pages Tony Pisarenkov 15 April 2004 Neither a primer on basic style (matching colors and patterns, etc.) nor a guide to dressing appropriately for various business a social occasions, this book is rather an aid for those who wish to know exactly how to recognize whether an item of clothing fits properly, how to choose designs flattering to one's face and body shape, and how to recognize quality and fine workmanship when selecting clothes. The large section on high-end clothing stores and tailor shops around the world (skimmed, and therefore not reflected in the page count), although admittedly useless to most of us, occasionally reads as a travelogue. |
Suburbanistas by Pamela Satran, 352 pages Micaela Larkin 22 April 2006 Run far away! I'm a bit embarrased to admit that I checked this out of the library. It did have a cool cover. That said, this tale of movie star returning home to stop the gentrification of her old commuter New England town falls under the category of pretty lame and one should only read it if execptionally bored and too cheap to pay 9 dollars to attend an afternoon movie. |
Sudden Prey by John Sandford, 390 pages Jeff Gadd 18 May 2001 |
Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart, 258 pages Micaela Larkin 18 April 2007 Do you remember the best summer of your life? This is the story of two Iowa girls who spend the summer of 1945 working at TIFFANYS. |
Summer Friends by Judy Blume, 399 pages Micaela Larkin 26 June 2007 Dumbest book ever. I should not have picked it up!! |
Sunday Money: Speed! Lust! Madness! Death! A Hot Lap Around America With Nascar. by Jeff MacGregor, 370 pages Jonathan Misirian 15 July 2006 Writing in the manner of Hunter S. Thompson, MacGregor and his wife motor-home their way across the US visiting every stop in the 2002 Nascar season. Emerging from their travels, is a book satisfies the curious and the committed Nascar fan. |
Sunlight at Midnight: St. Petersburg and the Rise of Modern Russia by W. Bruce Lincoln, 419 pages Tony Pisarenkov 16 March 2008 A very comprehensive and beautifully written history of St. Petersburg that emphasizes the artistic and cultural aspects of the city's life without shortchanging the political and economic ones. Recommended. More comments here |
Sunshine by Robin McKinley, 389 pages Julie Gephart 12 June 2004 Vampire book on loan from A Bennett. Contrary to what the song would have you believe, they did not, in fact, sing in the sunshine, nor did they laugh every day. |
Sunshine (2003) by Robin McKinley & possibly an incubus, 389 pages A Bennett 22 January 2004 What a grave task: to read an entire novel to find that it has been written in the entirely wrong point of view. This first person narrative is repetetive, rambling and fails to conform to any sort of narrative arc, making the experience a bit TOO much like being flooded with a befuddling stream-of-consciousness narrative from a very messy mind. It doesn't get any easier when the narrator starts tripping the light fantastic on the astral plane and trying to communicate such abstractions to readers--with even more abstractions. A great disappointment from an author better than her work on this manuscript. The first novel I've bought as a new hardcover since--well, since her last book, I guess. Make that a big "O" Oops. Had two endorsements by Neil Gaiman on the dustcover. |
Superfudge by Judy Blume, 178 pages Brad Snyder 19 June 2006 Another book from my childhood that I read to my kids. The sequel to "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing". Being a dad is the coolest... |
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman, 317 pages Steve Gadd 15 October 1995 |
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman, 317 pages Steve Gadd 26 January 1997 |
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman, 317 pages Steve Gadd 16 June 2000 The great anecdotes, adventures, and experiments, always worth another read. |
Surrender on Demand by Varian Fry, 272 pages Tony Pisarenkov 18 April 2009 Fry, as the representative of the Emergency Rescue Committee in Marseille from August 1940 until September 1941, is credited with saving over 1,000 refugees from Nazi-occupied France, most of them clandestinely. It is a shame he is not better known. This is his fascinating and occasionally chilling memoir. Highly recommended. |
SwitchBack by David Alexander, 247 pages Jeff Gadd 03 September 2002 A FBI agent's son kidnapped by a serial killer and it's cat and mouse to find the killer and son. |
Sword & Fist: A Guidebook to Fighters and Monks by Jason Carl, 96 pages Steven Krise 30 January 2003 New feats, prestige classes, weapons and organizations. Most of the new feats are geared toward monks rather than fighters. Oh well. |
Sword of Honour (1952-61) by Evelyn Waugh, 796 pages James Donahue 12 October 2007 Evelyn Waugh's last novel, released slowly over a decade, is loosely based on his own WWI experiences as a forty(ish)-year old volunteer. It portrays the slow maturation of a wealthy dilenttante faced for the first time with life - and death. It begins with a romantic vow to crusade against fascism at the grave of Sir Roger Casement and ends with a desperate quest to save the life of one Jew in Yugoslavia. |
Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks, 726 pages Steven Krise 10 October 2004 Why do the bad guys always come out of the North? |
Syrup by Maxx Barry, 294 pages Kristin Schrock 15 December 2004 Not as biting as Jennifer Government, but still a sharp look at corporate politics. His observations of marketing techniques are eerily accurate. |
Syrup: A Novel (1999) by Maxx Barry, 294 pages A Bennett 03 February 2005 Probably a little more surprising if you haven't first read Jennifer Government. While I still find Barry's style breezy and entertaining, his twice transplanted revenge stories and similar female characterizations that were quite fresh the first time around, do give me pause on a second helping. But that's faint criticism when we live in a world where light entertainment of quality is no easy thing to find. (A-) |