| Waiter's Rant by The Waiter, 302 pages Tony Pisarenkov 25 September 2008 Mostly entertaining, but not without its faults. More comments here | Waking the Dead by John Eldredge, 243 pages Jonathan Misirian 27 June 2005 Eldredge, author of Wild at Heart, returns to his similar theme of reclaiming the heart for Christ. Not as compelling as his WaH. |
Walk On: The Spiritual Journey Of U2 by Steve Stockman, 250 pages Brad Snyder 02 January 2006 Something Jonathan said to me years ago resonates with me: the music of U2 is a spiritual thing. Stockman has made an honest effort at bringing the spirituality of the group to light, but I wonder if this is a necessary undertaking for those of us that have already bought into this aspect of the band. While I enjoyed a good part of the book, at times Stockman comes across as little more than an apologist with a desire for everyone to recognize this side of the band and this tainted the book a bit for me. |
Waltzing the Cat (short stories) by Pam Houston, 288 pages Kristin Schrock 31 January 2003 Houston is the poor man's Lorrie Moore. Which I thought was going to be enough with an excellent first story. But it went down hill from there, and I became increasingly annoyed with the stories, especially when the title would work its way into the text. So I'd be, "Ladies and Gentleman, we have a title!" The collection ends with an epilogue (I HATE those) that completely unravels any complexity that the previous stories had tried (and for the most part failed) to achieve. Blah. |
War and Faith: The Religious Imagination in France, 1914 - 1930 by Annette Becker, 182 pages James Donahue 14 November 2002 A brief look at how republicanism and Catholicism unexpectedly merged under the banner of nationalism during WWI. Becker attempts to portray the images and practices of the common soldier or mourner and displays a wide breadth of sources. Particularly troubling given our current fusions of nationalism and religion. |
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoi, 1192 pages James Donahue 27 March 2002 So many great things, but here are only three of them: 1) Tolstoi has the ability to use completely fresh metaphors and allegories to describe events and feelings that nevertheless make perfect sense; 2) he has the uncanny ability to have different and unique characters (counts, thirteen-year-old girls, French officers, religious spinsters); he perfectly enters the head of each; and 3) he really gets into the mindset of what it is like to live through "historical" times |
War of the Worlds The Resurrection by J.M.Dillard, 402 pages Jeff Gadd 15 February 2002 Interesting book. A little different to H.G. Wells book. |
War Reporting for Cowards by Chris Ayers, 280 pages Jonathan Misirian 14 November 2005 Ayers, a 28 year old, self-described ‘war virgin’ went from being The London Times’ Hollywood reporter - to being embedded on the front lines of the US Military’s assault of Baghdad in 2003. This humorous and gritty account in the overwrought genre of war-reporting, stands out as Ayers shows the reader his spinelessness for all things manly and military. |
War Without Mercy: Race Power in the Pacific War by John Dower, 365 pages James Donahue 13 May 2004 A compelling read of the intense racial hatred in the 'clash of civilizations' during WWII. Dower has the unusual ability to discuss the Japanese and the American cases equally well. Chilling reading given our current international situation. |
Watchers by Dean Koontz, 480 pages Jeff Gadd 15 June 2000 |
Watchmen by Alan Moore, 413 pages Steve Gadd 24 July 2006 The graphic novel that revolutionized a genre, ushering in an era of mature, adult-oriented comics. Its multilayered plot, rich symbolism, and vivid imagery make it a very immersive read. |
Water and Sky by Alan S. Kesselheim, 374 pages Lee W. Randall 27 January 2004 I had trouble putting down this first person account of a two year canoe trip taken by Kesselheim and his wife, Marypat. It reads like a good novel. My fascination with the North country drew me to the book, and it left me no less fascinated. P.S. Steve, call me ASAP I've lost your phone numbers and email--LEE |
Watermark by Joseph Brodsky, 135 pages Tony Pisarenkov 28 January 2004 A collection of charming, whimsical, poetic, and occasionally self-absorbed vignettes about the author's peculiar relationship and love affair with the city of Venice. |
We by Eugene Zamiatin, 218 pages Steve Gadd 20 September 1995 |
We Were Soldiers Once and Young by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway, 479 pages Jeff Gadd 14 July 2003 A true book about the soldiers who fought in Vietnam. Tells the story of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry fights against the North Vietnamese soldiers. |
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch, 356 pages Brad Snyder 08 November 2005 Gourevitch has presented a study of the genocide in Rwanda from a historical, political, and cultural point of view. This book is not gratuitous, although, considering the subject matter, it well could have been. Long story short, the US government refused to use the the word "genocide" because it would obligate them (by law) to get involved, the French supplied weapons to the Hutus, and the UN treated the perpetrators as the victims. 800,000 dead in three months while the world sat on its hands. And why? I'll let the book speak for itself... "(A Rwandan Minister of Commerce) explained the lack of foreign help as a consequence of Rwanda's lack of investment opportunities. 'You cannot count on the international community unless you're rich, and we are not,' he said. 'We don't have oil, so it doesn't matter that we have blood, or that we are human beings.'" |
Welcome to the Terrordome: The pain, politics and promise of sports (2007) by Dave Zirin, 258 pages Jonathan Misirian 08 April 2008 Excellent book, documenting the intersection between sports and biting social commentary. Zirin shows the unique connection between these two realms and doesn’t hold back his criticism of our consumerist culture. Great read for all of those who love sports and who also keep their ears to the ground for sharp cultural analysis. |
Westmark Trilogy I: Westmark by Lloyd Alexander, 184 pages A Bennett 13 May 2002 It is not everyday you have a revolutionary like Florian to rally 'round. Necessary Vocabulary: [printer's] devil, mountebank. |
Westmark Trilogy II: The Kestrel by Lloyd Alexander, 244 pages A Bennett 21 May 2002 Holy Revolution, Cabbarus lives! Hot-headed rebels demanding a writ of inalienable rights, queens commanding armies, ex-printer's devils ambushing enemy supply trains in the Domitian Mountains? And Florian? Aristocracy? ...will Westmark endure, or fall prey to Regian betrayal? Necessary vocabulary: curvetting, fieldpiece, limber, breech [cannon], saber, chivvied. |
Westmark Trilogy III: The Beggar Queen by Lloyd Alexander, 237 pages A Bennett 05 June 2002 Revolution breaks out in Marianstat, but who has time to worry very much about that when gephart has stabbed you in the back over vacation by pretending to need time to dress in her room--all the while reading like a madman? Necessary vocabulary: dicing dens, duckboard, midden heaps, abdicate. |
What Do You Care What Other People Think? by Richard Feynman, 248 pages Steve Gadd 25 October 1995 |
What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam by John L Esposito, 204 pages Steven Krise 18 August 2003 Book-length FAQ on Islam. It was hard to avoid hearing the bagpipes in the discussions about terrorists, but overall an informative read. |
What If Our World Is Their Heaven? The Final Conversations of Philip K Dick by Gwen Lee and Doris Elaine Sauter (Eds.), 204 pages Steven Krise 08 May 2008 Taped on three different days, these conversations between PK Dick and Gwen Lee give an intimate look into the mind and writing process of this literary master. |
What Is the What (2006) by Dave Eggers, 475 pages Brad Snyder 04 July 2007 Fictionalized story of one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, based on the accounts of one of those boys. |
What Now, Little Man? by Denis Showalter, 286 pages James Donahue 01 March 2003 A good thematic history of Der Sturmer during the Weimar years. |
What's So Amazing About Grace? (1997) by Philip Yancey, 304 pages Brad Snyder 24 December 2007 Yancey has the ability to take a topic and look at it from every conceivable angle. In this book, he uses his vast experiences and wealth of knowledge to explore the concept of grace. Wow. |
When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago, 274 pages Jaqi Ross 07 September 2004 Santiago's memoir recounts her childhood in rural Puerto Rico and her teenage years in New York City. |
When Nietzsche Wept by Irvin D. Yalom, 301 pages Steve Gadd 04 February 1996 |
When Nietzsche Wept (1992) by Irvin Yalom, 306 pages Jonathan Misirian 24 January 2007 For those passionate about the era that gave birth to psychoanalysis... When Nietzsche Wept weaves together a fictional account of Lou Salome, Josef Breuer, a young Sigmund Freud and Friedrich Nietzsche. This historical novel inter-twines these characters so that Yalom can give us his take on love, lust, marriage, life and meaning. |
When the Wind Blows by James Patterson, 413 pages Jeff Gadd 01 July 2001 |
When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? by George Carlin, 295 pages Steven Krise 28 July 2008 Reads like a bookified blog with George rapping about idiots and their use of language. |
Where Serpents Lie by T. Jefferson Parker, 576 pages Mike Gadd 04 June 2004 One of his earlier works that doesn't hold up to his current style. This one had too many slow points where the plot just didn't do anything. |
Whipping Boy by John Byrne, 498 pages Mike Gadd 21 January 2005 Slow read about a 15 year old boy with the ability to take everyone's pain and guilt away from all the bad stuff they ever did. It ends up being a temporary fix and violence ensues. |
Whispers by Dean Koontz, 499 pages Jeff Gadd 30 November 2001 |
White as Snow by Tanith Lee, 319 pages Julie Gephart 07 September 2002 A 'dark retelling' of the Snow White story blended with the myth of Persephone. Also, boring. If your main characters spend the whole book in an insane stupor where they don't care about anything that happens to them, I certainly don't care either. |
White Noise by Don DeLillo, 326 pages Tony Pisarenkov 02 April 2003 Jack Gladney, a death-obsessed professor of Hitler studies at a small liberal arts college and his family are fighting the postmodern condition of pervasive commercial and media messages, and losing the fight. Engaging enough and frequently quite funny, on balance the novel remains shallow and overwrought, and most of the issues it touches upon lack the timelessness of those covered by the great works of fiction. It might have been provocative and even controversial when first published in 1985, but by now we've seen and heard it all before. |
White Noise by Don DeLillo, 326 pages Kristin Schrock 20 October 2005 The third National Book Award Winner in a row, and I must say I haven't been all that impressed. This one was recommended by a co-worker. We're not speaking anymore. It's sort of like a contemporary Plague--without, you know, being good. Props for using the word "Ufologist". I did like this sentence: "In situations like this, you want to stick close to people in right-wing fringe groups." |
White Oleander by Janet Finch, 469 pages Julie Gephart 02 September 2002 I almost sent this straight to the trash when it arrived with the dreaded 'Oprah's Book Club' sticker, and it turns out I would have been happier for doing so. It's about a girl going through a series of foster homes. |
Who is Wanda Fuca? by G.M. Ford, 314 pages Mike Gadd 08 March 2002 |
Who's on First? by William F. Buckley, 278 pages Jeff Gadd 20 September 2003 A book about how the Russians beat us in sending a satellite into space. |
Whose Bible Is It? A History of the Scriptures Through the Ages by Jaroslav Pelikan, 288 pages Brad Snyder 28 August 2006 Before his death in May, Pelikan served as a history professor at Yale. This book is an excellent and thorough history of the Bible and Tanakh as well as the relation between the two traditions that are defined by each. |
Why Girls are Weird by Pamela Ribon, 312 pages Julie Gephart 27 June 2003 One of my favorite internet writers goes offline to write this loosely autobiographical novel about a humor writer whose personal life is decidedly less than humorous. There was a little less fun and a little more father-dying angst than I was prepared for. |
Why God Won't Go Away: Brain science and the biology of belief by Andrew Newberg, Eugene D'Aquili, and Vince Rause, 226 pages Steven Krise 19 September 2003 Purports to be a survey of the neurological underpinnings of mystical experiences. However, the book disappoints when the authors stray away from neurophysiology (which despite the title is quite often after Ch. 3) into baseless speculation and idle philosophizing. They somehow conclude (in the vein of "insert miracle here") by saying their research shows that there is a real mystical transcendent reality which is the fundamental ground of objective reality and subjective experience. |
Why I Left Scofieldism (1975) by William E. Cox, 20 pages Brad Snyder 23 July 2007 Cox left Scofieldism (now referred to as Dispensationalism) after finding that he couldn't prove it using Scripture alone. Although I don't disagree with his overall assertions that Dispensationalism has some theological hurdles to overcome, I think that declaring it heresy goes a bit far. |
Why Switzerland? by Jonathan Steinberg, 192 pages James Donahue 22 August 2005 Excellent introduction to Swiss peculiarites. Historian wonders why Switzerland ended up so differently from the other European states -- no uniform national culture, no 20th-c wars, no centralized state, specialized economy. Very readable, even if the 1970s pessimism makes it seem a little bit dated. |
Why Things Are by Joel Achenbach, 345 pages Steven Krise 06 September 2004 Why? |
Why Things Bite Back by Edward Tenner, 354 pages Steve Gadd 27 January 2006 This could be an interesting study in the unintended consequences of new technologies, but there are too few examples and too much analysis. Football helmets lead to "spearing" and neck injury, antibiotics breed superbugs, computers create paperwork, prevention of major health hazards leads to chronic conditions. The general trend is that advancing technology solves big problems, leaving us with many small problems that require more vigilance. |
Wicked, The Life & Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, 409 pages Jeff Gadd 11 February 2003 Interesting story about the Wicked Witch from Oz, makes you not like Dorothy as much in the book as you did in the movie. |
Wilderness Tips (short stories) by Margaret Atwood, 284 pages Kristin Schrock 08 April 2002 One of the great things about reading Maggie Atwood (or Mags as I like to call her) is that invariably the Mounties show up. And, usually, there's some mention of the war of 1812. I love Canada. |
Wilhelm II: Emperor and Exile, 1900-1941 (1996) by Lamar Cecil, 356 pages James Donahue 13 May 2006 In bed for four days with a fever, I read and read and then experience odd dreams about myself, the Kaiser, and a labrythine house in downtown Columbus. |
Wilhelm II: Prince and Emperor, 1859-1900 (1989) by Lamar Cecil, 339 pages James Donahue 10 May 2006 Thorough, very thorough |
William Ewart Gladstone (1993) by David Bebbington, 221 pages James Donahue 14 September 2008 |
Wilson: Campaigns for Progressivism and Peace, 1916-1917 (1965) by Arthur Link, 431 pages James Donahue 26 March 2007 Not as good as its predecessors. Too wrapped up in foreign affairs. Wilson and his entourage are lost in the melee, not really even there. It is as if Link was in a hurry to finish the grand project he set out for himself fifteen years ago. |
Wilson: Confusions and Crises, 1915 - 1916 (1964) by Arthur Link, 362 pages James Donahue 23 March 2007 |
Wilson: The New Freedom (1956) by Arthur Link, 471 pages James Donahue 11 March 2007 Link's epic covers the first two years of Wilson's presidency. Here we see WW face off against Mexican revolutionaries, be pushed into progressive legislation, create the Federal Reserve, resegregate the federal government, and fight the big, bad tariff. Remember when presidents used to do things like this? |
Wilson: The Road to the White House (1947) by Arthur Link, 528 pages James Donahue 05 March 2007 First part of a looong biography of Woodrow Wilson. Well written, but I now know more about New Jersey politics than I ever really wanted to know. |
Wilson: The Struggle for Neutrality, 1915-1916 (1960) by Arthur Link, 693 pages James Donahue 20 March 2007 This was the least interesting of the books to me. Link was able to go to British archives, which transformed his book into an excellent study of diplomatic history - but somewhere Wilson as a person got lost. |
Winner of the National Book Award: A Novel of Fame, Honor, and Really Bad Weather by Jincy Willett, 323 pages Kristin Schrock 09 March 2006 I was trapped on an airplane (at the gate) for 6 hours. So I was very thankful that I always overpack my carry-on with books. This one was a very good read--Dorcas tells what really happened to her twin sister, Abigail. |
Winner Take Nothing by Ernest Hemingway, 162 pages Steve Gadd 23 April 2000 A small collection of some of Papa's best short works. |
Winning methods of bluffing & betting in poker by Lynne Taetzsch, 128 pages Steven Krise 19 June 2009 Nice little book with suggestions about how to read people, bluff, and most importantly conceal your own style. |
Winter Notes on Summer Impressions (1863 - originally) by Fyodor Dostoevsky, 74 pages James Donahue 01 May 2007 |
Winter Prey by John Sandford, 343 pages Jeff Gadd 07 June 2001 |
Wit'ch Fire by James Clemens, 439 pages Julie Gephart 17 February 2002 First book in a very enjoyable epic fantasy series. A motley group of travelers assembles around a young girl who may be the answer to an ancient prophesy. |
Without Fail by Lee Child, 374 pages Mike Gadd 25 June 2003 This is book number 5 and they just keep getting better. Jack Reacher's motto is 'hit them hard, hit them fast, hit them a lot'. He's hired by the Secret Service to see if he can get through their defenses and get to the Vice President only to find out that there's someone out there trying to do just that. |
Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam (2006) by Joseph Ratzinger and Marcello Pera, 135 pages James Donahue 30 January 2007 |
Witnesses From the Grave by Christopher Joyce & Eric Stover, 333 pages Steven Krise 14 June 2004 It was either a history of forensic anthropology or a biography of anthropologist Clyde Snow. Maybe it was supposed to be one layered on top of the other. Anyway, it covers the numerous prominent investigations Snow has been involved in (confirming Mengele's remains in Brazil, searching for desparacidos in Argentina and doing all-important studies on the proportions of stewardesses for the FAA). |
Wolf Whistle by Lewis Nordan, 290 pages Jaqi Ross 16 March 2004 The murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy lynched for whistling at a white woman, is at the center of this ALA notable book that also won the Southern Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. |
Women at the Gates: Gender and Industry in Stalin's Russia by Wendy Goldman, 286 pages James Donahue 04 March 2003 |
Wondrous Strange: The Art and Life of Glenn Gould by Kevin Bazzana, 528 pages Tony Pisarenkov 23 October 2007 Exactly what a great biography should be: revealing without being gossipy, admiring without being adulatory and, above all, tremendously engaging. |
Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis, 372 pages Tony Pisarenkov 28 January 2009 A fascinating look into a world most of us are not even aware exists -- professional Scrabble. Could have benefited from slightly more aggressive editing, but on balance, fantastic. And you've got to admire the author's dedication -- he actually became a full-time Scrabble player for several years. |
Words and Rules by Steven Pinker, 287 pages Steve Gadd 27 November 2000 This study in linguistics, focusing on regular and irregular verbs, is a bit more tedious than The Language Instinct, but still has some rewarding insights. |
Words in Time by Geoffrey Hughes, 270 pages Steven Krise 18 March 2004 Hughes outlines how social change has impacted semantic change throughout the history of English. In the conclusion he throws several none to subtle darts at the role post-modern linguists, sociologists, and advertisers have played in bringing about verbicide and a general reduction in semantic precision. Fissiparous. |
Writing Real Programs in DCL by Paul C Anagnostopoulos, 409 pages Steven Krise 13 June 2008 From the VAX Users Series. I wish I had had this book 8 years ago when I was actually writing real programs in DCL. |
WWII Infantry Soldier by W.Y.Boyd, 248 pages Jeff Gadd 20 September 2002 The author of the book was in WWII and fought through the campains of Alsace,Siegfried Line,Wurzburg,Schweinfurt,Nuremburg,Danube, and Munich and never got wounded. Pretty empressive. |