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I Think, Therefore I Laugh   by John Allen Paulos, 155 pages Steve Gadd   12 June 1995

Mere Christianity   by C. S. Lewis, 191 pages Steve Gadd   18 June 1995

Complete Guide to Guys   by Dave Barry, 184 pages Steve Gadd   27 August 1995

A Happy Death   by Albert Camus, 167 pages Steve Gadd   14 September 1995

Notes From Underground   by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 110 pages Steve Gadd   20 January 1996

A Clockwork Orange   by Anthony Burgess, 185 pages Steve Gadd   31 January 1996

The Raft   by Robert Trumbull, 128 pages Steve Gadd   02 February 1996

Time's Arrow   by Martin Amis, 165 pages Steve Gadd   19 February 1996

Irish Myths and Legends   by Eoin Neeson, 126 pages Steve Gadd   04 July 1996

Adam, Eve, and the Serpent   by Elaine Pagels, 154 pages Steve Gadd   14 July 1996

Chronicle of a Death Foretold   by Gabriel García Márquez, 120 pages Steve Gadd   14 October 1996

Generation X   by Douglas Coupland, 183 pages Steve Gadd   04 January 1997

The Man Who Was Thursday   by G. K. Chesterton, 122 pages Steve Gadd   12 January 1997

The Bridges of Madison County   by Robert James Waller, 171 pages Steve Gadd   02 March 1997

Burning Chrome   by William Gibson, 191 pages Steve Gadd   10 June 1997

No Longer At Ease   by Chinua Achebe, 159 pages Steve Gadd   29 September 1997

The Killjoy   by Anne Fine, 189 pages Steve Gadd   01 October 1997

In Evil Hour   by Gabriel García Márquez, 183 pages Steve Gadd   10 October 1997

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy   by Douglas Adams, 159 pages Steve Gadd   06 January 1998 The classic. Look for the book-on-tape version, recorded by the author. It is pure delight.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass   by Frederick Douglass, 124 pages Steve Gadd   28 January 1998 Somewhat short but insightful autobiography.

Nikolai Gogol   by Vladimir Nabokov, 162 pages Steve Gadd   20 February 1998 Somehow you feel you learn more about Nabokov than his subject.

One Hundred Years of Solitude: Modes of Reading   by Regina Janes, 132 pages Steve Gadd   27 July 1998 Very accessable lit-crit on my favorite novel.

The Dobe !Kung   by Richard B. Lee, 157 pages Steve Gadd   30 August 1998 Guess what: the hunter-gatherer people of the Kalahari desert have more free time than we do in the 'developed' world. This fascinating anthropology study is an easy read, and a good temporary escape from industrialized life.

Grendel   by John Gardner, 154 pages Steve Gadd   05 September 1998 Very clever and memorable.

Slowness   by Milan Kundera, 156 pages Steve Gadd   25 December 1998

North Pole, South Pole   by Bertrand Imbert, 175 pages Steve Gadd   30 December 1998

The Sufferings of Young Werther   by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 160 pages Steve Gadd   26 April 1999 A moving and expertly written epistolary novel that created a sensation in its day.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly   by Jean-Dominique Bauby, 132 pages Steve Gadd   29 August 1999 Written by a man who, following a stroke, could only communicate by blinking one eye.

The Prince   by Niccolo Machiavelli, 151 pages Erik Bauer   15 January 2000 A survival guide to working in an office environment.

Breakfast At Tiffany's   by Truman Capote, 160 pages Erik Bauer   03 March 2000 I want to live in New York City for a year.

Mere Christianity   by C.S. Lewis, 191 pages Erik Bauer   25 March 2000 Both affirming and challenging 'contemplations' on Christianity.

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.

Winner Take Nothing   by Ernest Hemingway, 162 pages Steve Gadd   23 April 2000 A small collection of some of Papa's best short works.

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.

The Cossacks   by Leo Tolstoy, 159 pages Steve Gadd   23 May 2000 It took a while to find this novelette, but the enjoyable story and touching portrait of these people made it worth the search.

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.

The White Castle   by Orhan Pamuk, 161 pages Steve Gadd   15 December 2000 A short novel about two lives so intertwined as to become exchanged, it is no substitute for the Kafka or Borges to which it is compared.

I Know What U Did Last Summer   by Lois Duncan, 198 pages Jeff Gadd   14 September 2001

The Dark Side of the Island   by Jack Higgins, 151 pages Jeff Gadd   15 September 2001

Donde te lleve el corazón   by Susanna Tamaro, 139 pages Steve Gadd   15 September 2001 A series of sentimental letters from a widow to her estranged granddaughter.

The Iron Tiger   by Jack Higgins, 176 pages Jeff Gadd   27 September 2001

The Moon Is Down   by John Steinbeck, 118 pages Erik Bauer   18 November 2001 WW2 propaganda book like no other. Steinbeck's examination of the effects of war on both the aggressor and the occupied is possibly the best example of his understanding of human nature.

Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire   by Jim Cymbala, 196 pages Ian Hassell   01 January 2002 Awesome book about how the Holy Spirit worked in planting the Brooklyn Tabernacle. God is still working in miraculous ways - are we expecting Him to act in our lives?

The Ultra Secret   by F. W. Winterbotham, 191 pages Steve Gadd   16 January 2002 A convincing account of how the cracking of the German Enigma code played a decisive role in World War II.

Nature's Numbers   by Ian Stewart, 150 pages Steve Gadd   21 January 2002 Poorly written, but introduces some interesting concepts in chaos theory.

Hamburger Hill   by William Pelfrey, 197 pages Jeff Gadd   12 February 2002 A great Vietnam book but sad. But amazing courage from the American soilders who fought their.

Skipping Christmas   by John Grisham, 177 pages Mike Gadd   20 February 2002

Their Eyes Were Watching God   by Zora Neale Hurston, 193 pages Kristin Schrock   04 March 2002 The dialect is hard to plow through, but the prose is lovely and powerful.

The Godwulf Manuscript   by Robert B. Parker, 188 pages Mike Gadd   11 March 2002

Miss Shumway Waves a Wand   by James Hadley Chase, 169 pages Kristin Schrock   25 March 2002 I've been looking for this book for a long time. It's out of print in the U.S, but thanks to a interlibrary loan (hooray for the public library!) I got an ancient copy of it. It's a sort of magical realism noir. Bizarre and funny up until the third act which sort of goes astray.

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."

Jane Austen in Hollywood   by Linda Troost & Sayre Greenfield, Editors, 186 pages Kristin Schrock   24 April 2002 Essays critiquing the Austen film adaptations (there were six just in '95 and '96 alone). Mostly, these essays discuss what was altered and why. On the portrayal of Darcy: in virtually every scene before the Pemberly scenes, he is situated by or walking towards a window or mirror. Also, he's usually in profile. Necessary Vocabulary: intradiegetic, harlequization, romantification

Medievalism   by GeorgeTyrrell, 184 pages James Donahue   08 May 2002 Written in 1908 to protest both Vatican I and the papal encyclical condemning Catholic-modernism. What sets this impassioned essay apart however is the author's use of prescholastic theology and the Church Fathers to argue against Vatican I.

The Old Man And the Sea   by Ernest Hemingway, 118 pages Jeff Gadd   11 May 2002 Great Story.

Of Mice and Men   by John Steinbeck, 107 pages Jeff Gadd   11 May 2002 Another Great Short Story.

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.

Generation X   by Douglas Coupland, 183 pages Kristin Schrock   09 June 2002 Acts as sort of a primer for Generation X with the definition of terms such as, "ultra short term nostalgia", "terminal wanderlust", and chapter titles such as "Why I am So Poor". But the narrative lacked bite and in the end nothing really happens. Maybe that's the point.

Angel City Of   by Nancy Holder, 177 pages Jeff Gadd   12 June 2002

History of Scotland   by Cliff Hanley, 192 pages Steven Krise   04 July 2002 The title says it all. Starts out with the Picts and finishes up with the economic downturn of the late 80s. Best part was getting to read aloud in my head the word Glaswegian. Special £9.00 Value! I picked it up while in Glasgow back in 1997.

The Crying of Lot 49   by Thomas Pynchon, 138 pages Kristin Schrock   18 July 2002 Yeah, I have no idea. I understand the basic plot--but then there's all this MEANINGFUL stuff that just goes way over my head. Something about conspiracies and revelations and the post office. Oh, and, of course, the legacy of America. Anybody read this one? Want to give me a few hints? Lots of big words, too: hierophany, nerdigrised, stelliferous, harquebus, philatelist

The Stranger   by Albert Camus, 154 pages Steve Gadd   24 July 2002 Monsieur Meursault's brush with the law leads to his recognition of the 'benign indifference of the universe.'

The First Four Years   by Laura Ingalls Wilder, 134 pages Julie Gephart   03 August 2002 A detailed account of how it sucks and sucks and then continues to suck to be a farmer. When you think it can't get worse, throw in a dead baby and a burned-down house for good measure.

Memory, History, and the Extermination of the Jews   by Saul Friedlander, 142 pages James Donahue   05 August 2002 Seven essays by a Jewish historian on the impossibility of writing a coherent history on an irreducibly incoherent genocide.

Feminism, Film, Fascism   by Susan Linville, 170 pages James Donahue   08 August 2002 Linville explores the way in which feminist and deconstructive films have challenged common notions of the Holocaust in postwar Germany. Specifically: how they challenge the notion that Nazism is definitively over when partriachal and reactionary structures still remain intact and operative after 1945.

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.

Cowboys are My Weakness: short stories   by Pam Houston, 171 pages Kristin Schrock   16 August 2002 Pinched Patty hated this title because she said it gave too much away. Obviously PP never read it. Houston is a poor woman's Lorrie Moore, and, although almost all the stories deal with a woman involved with the 'wrong' man, they are an entertaining read.

Little House by Boston Bay   by Melissa Wiley, 195 pages Julie Gephart   01 September 2002 Heaven preserve me, who knew there were more Little House books? This one, about Laura's grandmother, didn't have quite the same charm, but it was still chock-full-o delightful details of how to sand a floor and make pounded cheese.

The Russian Revolution   by Sheila Fitzpatrick, 181 pages James Donahue   04 September 2002 A standard in the field that explodes a lot of popular (ie propaganda from Cold War) misconceptions.

Doctrines and Origin of Fascism   by Giovanni Gentile, 103 pages James Donahue   05 September 2002 He ought to know being the official philosopher of Mussolini.

Forest Rites: The War of the Demoiselles in Nineteenth-Century France   by Peter Sahlins, 157 pages James Donahue   09 September 2002 In 1827 in southern France, peasants dressed like women and harassed forest guards trying to enact the Forest Civil Code of 1826. This bizarre tale is the the window through which the author pursues an investigation of peasant life after the Revolution.

Fundamentalism and Gender: 1875 to the Present   by Margaret Bendroth, 156 pages James Donahue   08 October 2002

Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States   by Dave Barry, 178 pages Julie Gephart   10 October 2002 If this isn't quite as hilarious as it was before, does that mean I've lost my sense of humor, or that I've developed a better one? Still a fun, short read.

The Thing at the Door   by Henry Slesar, 181 pages Jeff Gadd   15 October 2002 A six year old girl loses her mother and fauther and sees something coming in her doorway at night and still is hauted by it,when she is twenty-four.

Buffy Visitor   by Laura Anne Gilman, 163 pages Jeff Gadd   28 October 2002

A Day No Pigs Would Die   by Robert Newton Peck, 132 pages Jeff Gadd   01 November 2002 A boy who get's a pet pig and who's dad is a butcher has to choise between loveing his pig or dad at the end. As sad as Old Yeller.

The Mountains of Mourning   by Lois McMaster Bujold, 112 pages Julie Gephart   03 November 2002 This is part of a larger science fiction series that I stumbled into with my standard excuse that I found it published free online and therefore had nothing to lose. A young ruler with severe birth defects has to judge a case where locals kill children who are born imperfect.

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.

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.

Life Together   by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 122 pages James Donahue   14 November 2002 Third time through the book, and each time it gets even more life-changing. How few books there are which can distill the gospel so clearly.

Ignorance   by Milan Kundera, 195 pages Tony Pisarenkov   09 December 2002 Kundera's take on the question of the possibility of returning to the country from which one emigrated and the life one left behind. Although I was initially skeptical and disappointed at Kundera's decision to treat the topic at all, the delightful inconclusiveness with which he does it made it a sublime experience once again. To the extent that it is possible to choose, this is not his best -- the amputated ear sequence, although sufficiently Kunderian, is a bit contrived to say the least -- but Kundera's "good enough" is still orders of magnitude greater than many other writers today could ever hope for.

Planets in Peril   by David Downing, 168 pages James Donahue   12 December 2002 Didn't entirely understand The Space Trilogy. Hence, this book which helped answer some of my questions and reference the work against the background of Lewis' scholastic works.

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.

A Judgement in Stone   by Ruth Rendell, 188 pages Mike Gadd   18 December 2002 Drab, dull, dry and certainly not worth the 188 pages. To think, I could have been standing in line at the WalMart having a great time. But no- I had to finish the book.

Mosby's Confederacy   by Thomas J Evans & James M Moyer, 134 pages Steven Krise   20 December 2002 Walking and automobile tours of Mosby's Confederacy and surrounding areas developed by the authors and Virgil Carrington Jones turned into book form.

Our Simple Gifts: Civil War Christmas Tales   by Owen Parry, 150 pages Mike Gadd   24 December 2002 Four delightful Christmas tales from my favorite author. Heartwarming and inspirational, the first story is the best of the four.

Gypsy Rizka   by Lloyd Alexander, 195 pages A Bennett   26 December 2002 As Alexander's books and writing go, this one is quite facile, and plays on familiar themes; the loss of parents, the orphaned child who finds substitute parents to fill such a void, and the role (of the outcast) such a child often is expected to play within society.

Brew Chem 101 - The basics of homebrewing chemistry   by Lee W Janson, 117 pages Steven Krise   28 December 2002 Very broad overview of the chemistry of brewing from mash-in, through wort boiling, to fermentation. Highlights were the discussion of the chemical sources for off-flavors (and their remedies) in Chapter 5 and the discussion of beer-tasting in Chapter 6. The preceding chemistry was handled with broader strokes than I was hoping for. I guess I'll be searching out George Fix's "Principles of Brewing Science".

Chronicles of Prydain: The Foundling and other Tales of Prydain   by Lloyd Alexander, 122 pages A Bennett   30 December 2002 A slight, though pleasant-enough collection of short stories elaborating on (and relaying the foundation of) the series of books I loved me so well.

The Unexpected Guest   by Agatha Christie, 167 pages Julie Gephart   19 January 2003 Being new to Christie, I felt smug yet disappointed when the shocking twist at the end revealed the murderer to be the person I suspected from the beginning. But oh, she wasn't done with me yet - after the whole case wrapped up and the police went home, she revealed a whole different murderer on the very last page and left me with a happier feeling.

Utopia   by Thomas More, 197 pages James Donahue   21 January 2003 A traveller from the newfound Americas relates an alternative society to 16th century Englanders. More's vision is an odd amalgamation of socialism (before there was such a thing) and Christianity. Reading this book is like finding a missing link.

The Ball and the Cross   by G.K. Chesterton, 178 pages James Donahue   25 January 2003 The placid indifference of modern England towards religion is threatened when a Catholic Scotsman and an atheist journalist decide to fight a duel over the honor of the Virgin Mary. Wonderful writing; each sentence is a jewel. Yet the overly allegorical subtitlies were over my head, despite a helpful introduction by Gardner.

Julius Streicher   by Randall Bytwerk, 196 pages James Donahue   03 February 2003 Standard bio of the infamous anti-Semite, with an eye out for the effectivesness of propaganda. Last chapter provocative.

Three Guineas   by Virginia Woolf, 188 pages James Donahue   19 February 2003 Woolf's rich and ironic response to a request for support for a pacifist cause in 1938.

Vox   by Nicholson Baker, 165 pages Steve Gadd   28 February 2003 After reading only 50 pages of Nietzsche over a snowy four-day weekend, I decided to go looking for some lighter fare. This book is a single conversation between two witty conversationalists who discover each other on an adult chat line. Baker lends his voice, with its fine-tuned attention to detail and wry imagination, to both partners. In the end it doesn't amount to much other than soft-core, but it is a nice complement to the wonderful magazine essays on boring subjects like nail clips and library card catalogs (in the collection The Size of Thoughts).

Jesus' Son   by Denis Johnson, 160 pages Kristin Schrock   08 March 2003 A series of non-sequitir stories. But in a groovy kind of way. Parts actually made me laugh out loud. Like this one: "Are you hearing unusual sounds or voices?" the doctor asked. "Help us, oh God, it hurts," the boxes of cotton screamed. "Not exactly," I said.

Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil   by Alain Badiou, 184 pages James Donahue   11 March 2003 Badiou is a contemporary French philosopher with intriguing, original, and provocative stances. In this essay he stands opposed to rights-ethics and alterity-ethics, claiming that both are innately conservative programmes of abstraction that refuse to situate ethics in concrete human relationships. Certainly his arguments -- written in 1994 -- are compelling in such troubled times when we bomb people out of 'humanitarian' concerns. Badiou ends up arguing for an ethics based upon universal (though not transcendent) truth, fidelity to our relationship to truth, and our humility before the truth. Evil is posited as perversions of the Good. (Did I mention he is profoundly influenced by Pauline Marxism?) Evil is thus the opposite of ethical action: being content with opinions and simulcrums, betrayal of what animates us, and the imposition of truth through terror and absolutizing.

Dear Gangster: Advice for the Lonelyhearted From the Gangster of Love   by Gangster of Love, 164 pages Kristin Schrock   12 March 2003 Now that I have slipped into fifth place (d*mn you, Julie and your fast reading of monstrous books), I needed some light fare. This is a very funny compilation of an advice column for the lovelorn. Includes the following passage: "I have this dream that someday I will do something so outstanding that it will culminate with four triple back flips and a tearful hug from Bela Barolyi"

A Comprehensive Interpretation of the Life and Work of Christa Wolf   by Hajo Drees, 156 pages James Donahue   20 March 2003 The work is as dry as the title, but provides a maximum amount of information in a minimum amount of time about the famed East German writer.

The Quest for Christa T.   by Christa Wolf, 185 pages James Donahue   26 March 2003 Published in 1968 in East Germany, Wolf's swirling novel of memory and subjectivity broke decisively away from the mandated socialist realism of the Communist Bloc. It signified the shift in Wolf from critically acclaimed writer to disgruntled critic. The book moves in and out of the third person as Wolf seeks herself through a long-lost friend.

Christa Wolf   by Gail Finney, 133 pages James Donahue   26 March 2003 Should be subtitled The Quest for Christa Wolf. Biographical background. Better than Drees.

I Remember Nothing More   by Adina Blady Szwajger, 181 pages James Donahue   27 March 2003 The most haunting Holocaust memoir I have ever read. Period. Szwajger was a Jewish pediatrician in Warsaw and saw the worst of the worst. Her account is unforgettable.

Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future   by Friedrich Nietzsche, 179 pages James Donahue   16 April 2003 A bit obtuse for Nietzsche. So heavy-handed and intentionally abusive to the reader.

Isaiah Berlin   by John Gray, 168 pages James Donahue   22 April 2003 An interesting examination of Berlin's combination of Romantic particularism and Enlightenment liberalism. Helpful background to Berlin's ever-so-readable intellectual histories.

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.

The Napoleon of Notting Hill   by G.K. Chesterton, 179 pages James Donahue   21 May 2003 A wonderful farce about the mysticism of nationalism in a futuristic civilized world. Chesterton is at his best when he is satirical, one of the highest of Christian trait..

Eiger Dreams   by Jon Krakauer, 186 pages Steve Gadd   22 May 2003 I wish I could find a hundred books like this one, a collection of 12 magazine articles, mostly from Outside and Smithsonian. Each one profiles a mountaineering adventure or disaster. Interesting note: K2, the second-highest mountain in the world, is regarded as the most difficult ascent. The is partly because it is so remote that no permanent human settlement is close enough to see it.

Essays in Pragmatism   by William James, 189 pages James Donahue   22 May 2003

The Man Who Was Thursday   by G.K. Chesterton, 120 pages James Donahue   26 May 2003 A policeman finally inflitrates the notorious Anarchist Council only to find out that each of the council members is an undercover policeman. Again, brilliant satire, yet the flowery theological ending confused me. (Might add that these Chesterton books are very remniscent to me of Lewis.)

Three Tales   by Gustave Flaubert, 124 pages Tony Pisarenkov   13 June 2003 These were written very late in Flaubert's career, years after "Madame Bovary" and "Sentimental Education." Of the three, "A Simple Heart" is by far the best and the only one I'd recommend. It is sad and touching while remaining exceptionally simple in language, structure and plot. The other two are are dismissible to this reader. "St. Julian Hospitator" was apparetly insipred by a legend depicted in a series of stained glass windows in a church, and is no more than a curiosity. "Herodias" dramatizes some of the political events in Palestine around the time Jesus was just beginning to attain notoriety, but it failed to capture and hold my interest.

Four Archetypes - Mother, Rebirth, Spirit, Trickster   by C G Jung, 173 pages Steven Krise   15 June 2003 In "The Phenomenology of the Spirit in Fairy Tales" we see good old Carl Gustav make reference to "The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz". Those in the know understand what this means.

Scandinavian Mythology   by H R Ellis Davidson, 144 pages Steven Krise   18 June 2003 Neither the Lovettsville nor the Purcellville libraries had "Grendel".

The Early History of God   by Mark S Smith, 197 pages Steven Krise   08 July 2003 Circa 1100 BCE, Israelite and Caananite culture are indistinguishable in terms of language and material culture. Smith traces the differentiation of Israelite religion and culture from its Caananite source culminating in the development of Israelite monotheism during the post-exilic period.

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.

Grendel   by John Gardner, 174 pages Steven Krise   16 July 2003 He smashes me against it, breaks open my forehead. Hard, yes! Observe the hardness, write it down in careful runes. Now sing of walls! Sing! I howl. Sing! "I'm singing!" Sing Words! Sing raving hymns! "You're crazy. Ow!" Sing! "I sing of walls," I howl. "Hooray for the hardness of walls!" Terrible, he whispers. Terrible. He laughs and lets out fire. "You're crazy," I say. "If you think I created that wall that cracked my head, you're a fucking lunatic." Sing walls, he hisses. I have no choice.

Christianity in the West, 1400-1700   by John Bossy, 172 pages James Donahue   12 August 2003 A really excellent history of the Reformation from a historian with both Catholic and sociological sensibilities. Broadening for this Prot mind.

The Hypochondriac's Guide to Life. And Death.   by Gene Weingarten, 197 pages Steve Gadd   20 August 2003 Dave Barry meets Dr. Sherwin "How We Die" Nuland in this funny inventory of mostly terminal illnesses and the sometimes innocuous symptoms that herald them. Includes handy self-diagnostic tests to help the reader get into the hypochondriac spirit. "When your uvula throbs in time with your heartbeat it is called Mueller's sign, and it can indicate heart disease! You could die!"

How the Canyon Became Grand   by Stephen J. Pyne, 162 pages Tony Pisarenkov   06 September 2003 An excellent survey of the exploration of the Grand Canyon and, more importantly, of the impact it had on American intellectual, cultural and political life. Packs an impressive amount of historical and social insight and some surprising connections between seemingly unrelated ideas into its relatively short length.

Piety and Politics   by Mary Fulbrook, 189 pages James Donahue   08 September 2003 Fulbrook contends that pietistic religions (Baptist, Puritan, Brethren, Lutheran Pietist) participated in 19th-century revolutions not because of their theology or class, but because certain governments opposed them. Don't read if you're a Elizabeth I fan. (Yes, this is how I spend my time.)

The Horned Man   by James Lasdun, 194 pages Tony Pisarenkov   11 September 2003 A novel about a college professor becoming a victim of what seems like an elaborate conspiracy but really a victim of his own spinelessness, culminating in a truly bizzarre, surreal, and highly symbolic denouement. An enormous amount of symbolism and an equally large variety of themes densely packed into a slim volume, propelled along by language that is surprisingly direct and unadorned for a book of this breadth and depth but ultimately highly effective. One of the best contemporary novels I've come across in quite some time. Highly recommended.

Tokugawa Religion   by Robert Bellah, 197 pages James Donahue   30 September 2003 Bellah has found the functional equivalent of the Protestant work ethic in medieval Japan. So this explains why Japan is so advanced as a society and as an economy -- due to a religion of collectivism, duty, and selflessness. (Obviously this book is a little dated.)

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.

Time's Arrow   by Martin Amis, 165 pages Steven Krise   21 October 2003 Sort of like "Memento" in book form, but not really. I believe this another of SGadd's many books I have in my possession.

Frankenstein   by Mary Shelley, 162 pages Steven Krise   12 November 2003 What is it with Romantic characters, that they're such pansies? Vic could have saved himself a whole pantload of trouble if he'd just had the balls to ACT the moment he created his monstrosity and slaughtered it while it was still too disoriented to do much else than open/close its eyes and bump into things. What did he do instead? He went had himself a bit of a cry and then a good lie down. Oh, and I'm hard pressed to see what bearing this story has on any of the subsequent tales supposedly based on it.

The Stranger   by Albert Camus, 154 pages Kristin Schrock   01 December 2003 This is a book designed for a class discussion. I know it's supposed to be chock full of extistential meaning, but it eludes me. Something about the nature of life, our inevitable death, fate, and hope. Dude kills an Arab just to watch him die.

A Grand Illusion? An Essay on Europe   by Tony Judt, 141 pages James Donahue   02 December 2003 This is one of the best and the most compact book on European unification out there. Judt is wise to be a "Euro-skeptic" and points out many substanitive issues standing in the path of total unification.

Catholic Politics in Europe, 1914-1945   by Martin Conway, 105 pages James Donahue   02 December 2003 This book is good but not all that remarkable. So let me take this chance to say thanks for another year of comments and books. Its always a blast to see what people are reading and what they think of it. Have a merry X-mas. (I'm not a heathen, just a comic book fan.)

The Five People You Meet in Heaven   by Mitch Albom, 198 pages Mike Gadd   04 December 2003 An interesting concept brought together rather nicely. Joe Regular dies in a work related accident and is surprised to find heaven isn't what he expected. He is introduced to 5 people he impacted during his lifetime who explain to him the meaning and purpose of his life.

Talk of the Devil   by Riccardo Orizio, 199 pages Steve Gadd   26 December 2003 Interviews with seven of the world's most notorious one-time dictators. The common thread among them is a complete lack of remorse and a variety of excuses for mass death and suffering. An interesting Where Are They Now for the rich and infamous.

Blockade Diaries   by Elena Kochina, 109 pages James Donahue   14 January 2004 Couldn't put it down. A woman's daily grind during the siege of Leningrad. Interesting stuff in here on ethics as she devises a new morality in the midst of desolation.

Complete Warrior - A Player's Guide to Combat for All Classes   by Andy Collins, David Noonan, Ed Stark, 159 pages Steven Krise   17 January 2004 Yeah, I'm a geek. This AD&D accessory collates fighter related information that used to be scattered over a number of sources and updates it for the 3.5 rules.

The Human Odyssey - Four Million Years of Human Evolution   by Ian Tattersall, 191 pages Steven Krise   18 January 2004 "Based on the acclaimed new hall of Human Biology and Evolution at the American Museum of Natrual History". This overview starts discussing the details of cells and DNA and the general principles of evolution before moving through mammalian evolution. The focus, not surprisingly, settles on primate evolution and heads down the hominid branch. Finishes up with an impressive review of the Solutrean and Magdelenian cave art typified by that appearing in Lascaux.

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.

The Funny Thing Is...   by Ellen DeGeneres, 177 pages Julie Gephart   28 January 2004 A few good laughs, but mostly I think she doesn't translate to print very well.

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.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich   by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, 181 pages James Donahue   15 February 2004 Preparing to teach this on Weds to a group of Notre Dame students. We've been going over the purges and the gulag in class for a few weeks, and I am stunned at their unwillingness to accept the suffering as real. They believe it exaggerated or propaganidistic. (This while they accept economic and diplomatic reports by the Soviet government at face value.) Hopefully this will knock the spoon out of their mouth, or at least dislodge it enough so that they can start eating some real food.

The Elsewhere Community   by Hugh Kenner, 155 pages Tony Pisarenkov   24 February 2004 A collection of essays, originally created as lectures for Canadian Radio, loosely centered around the idea of self-imposed exile and its importance to the work of poets. Some entertaining anecdotes of the author's meetings with famous poets (Ezra Pound, T.S. Elliott, William Carols Williams), but little really enlightening beyond that (although the parallels and references he draws between Homer, Dante and modern poets did make me go "a-ha!" now and then). I also wish he didn't feel compelled to comment, vacuously, on the phenomenon of the Internet.

To Begin Again: Stories and Memoirs, 1908-1929   by M.F.K. Fisher, 179 pages Tony Pisarenkov   29 February 2004 I wish this collection of reminiscences by one of the doyennes of American gastronomy was more about food and less about her childhood which, although remarkable in its own way, does not really deserve a memoir.

Vesper Holly Series I: The Illyrian Adventure (1986)   by Lloyd Alexander, 132 pages A Bennett   16 March 2004 "The poor child was suffering a touch of nerves--the result, naturally, of being more or less confined to a cave, subsisting on cheese and firey hot sausages, and being surrounded by desperate characters; including the most dangerous man in Illyria. It was no kind of life for a Philadelphian. (p.80)" "Killing us was, in itself, criminal in the extreme; to do so with deliberate disregard for a noble monument to antiquity was nothing less than heartless vandalism. (p.105)" (Dear Mike Gadd--I see you--hot on my heels. Beware the wrath of the lacrosse stick!)

Tuesdays with Morrie   by Mitch Albom, 192 pages Mike Gadd   16 March 2004 Very touching account of the author's visits with an old college professor suffering from ALS.

Bushido: The Soul of Japan   by Inazo Nitobe, 154 pages James Donahue   16 March 2004 The classic essay on the ethic of the samurai

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.

Ezra Pound Speaking: Radio Speeches of WWII   by Ezra Pound, 190 pages Tony Pisarenkov   01 April 2004 What's all the controversy about? Highly anti-semitic, yes, but beyond that, just ravings of a madman. No coherent arguments, no evidence, no critical analysis. You've read one, you've read them all.

The Life and Thought of Kanzo Uchimura   by Hiyoshi Miuro, 131 pages James Donahue   03 April 2004 Uchimura was one of the first Christian converts in Japan after its legalization in 1873. Led to Christ by an American agricultural advisor, he quickly turned against American missionaires and their ethnocentrism. He founded his own church 'gone native, and propagated a gospel uniquely suited to Japanese culture and their Confucian values.

Meiji Protestantism in History and Historiography   by Aaluv Sande, 141 pages James Donahue   14 April 2004

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.

A History of Japanese Theology   by Yasuo Furuya, 146 pages James Donahue   19 April 2004

The Heartreader   by MS. Terri Blackstone, 144 pages Mike Gadd   17 May 2004 Simple but effective story about a lukewarm Christian who is given the ability to 'hear' the unspoken needs and feelings of the people around him. He uses what he hears to share his faith with the people he meets.

The Silent Gondoliers (1983)   by S. Morgenstern, 110 pages A Bennett   19 May 2004 "We are gondoliers, and we make our own decisions: explanations are not part of our vocabulary." - George of the Gritti (If you can find this book, please read it. It will make both you and me happy.)

Ethan Frome   by Edith Wharton, 181 pages Kristin Schrock   30 May 2004 I was warned about this book, about how I might spiral into depression after reading it. But I have to say, it didn't seem all that depressing. Ethan pines for the woman who cares for his hypochondriacal wife, but honor forbids him from leaving the wife. Angst and tragedy ensue. The end.

Beyond the Heather Hills   by Melissa Wiley, 189 pages Julie Gephart   05 June 2004 It was a wasted book without one single new skill to pass along.

God's Glory, Neighbor's Good   by Gary Sattler, 109 pages James Donahue   08 June 2004 Sketchy biography of August Hermann Francke.

Occidentalism   by Ian Buruma, 148 pages James Donahue   08 June 2004 Buruma finds the roots of current Islamic anti-Westernism in European Romanticism. As always ,Buruma is morally and literarily inspiring, but without any actual links or "smoking guns" he is forced to rely on arguments from resemblence. Like another of my favorites, Buruma misses the point when he deals with the cynics of the Enlightenment, engaging in some crude reductionism himself.

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning: Book the First (1999)   by Lemony Snicket, 183 pages A Bennett   15 June 2004 It is hard to imagine a more marvelously, cleverly written novella. Delightfully drawn from the work of both Edward Gorey and Tim Burton, and yet somehow, perfectly, like nothing else, ever. Snicket easily takes as much fun from relating the details of his story as from the mechanics used to relate it. What luck there are 12 more unfortunate events in the series! Possibly the second most perfect non-literature book I have ever read (The Blue Sword being first). Not a misstep to be found amongst any of its thirteen, dolefully wonderful chapters.

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Miserable Mill: Book the Fourth (2000)   by Lemony Snicket, 196 pages A Bennett   16 June 2004 How unfortunate that when I needed a fix of this new book-bound drug that I was in a grocery store that only had book four to sell me, and not two or three. Encouragingly, a word here which means, "happily", such a bad beginning did little to dim my enjoyment of the text.

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Reptile Room: Book the Second (1999)   by Lemony Snicket, 192 pages A Bennett   21 June 2004 A thrilling sidebar was offered around page 35 on dramatic irony. Rather made me wish I had it to copy and pass around to students when I was teaching.

Good Morning, Midnight   by Jean Rhys, 190 pages Kristin Schrock   25 June 2004 I was bookless for a couple days post move because I had tucked this in a box somewhere knowing that I would find it at the new place. Of course, I had no idea where I had put and I couldn't start another book when so close to the end on this one. That being said, this seems to be the counterpart to the Sun Also Rises. A "wounded" woman wanders around Paris in a drunken haze. Amazing in that it's melodramatic, but does not feel forced. Like this: "...because it hurts, when you have been dead, to come alive."

How Can You Tell If a Spider Is Dead?: And More Moments of Science   by Don Glass, 192 pages Jaqi Ross   28 June 2004 Entertaining nuggets of scientific fact, as featured on the National Public Radio show A Moment of Science.

The Messiah of Stockholm: A Novel   by Cynthia Ozick, 160 pages Jaqi Ross   28 June 2004 Lars Andeming, perhaps overly intellectual and certainly eccentric, is the Monday book reviewer for a Stockholm daily. He is also the self-proclaimed son of Bruno Schulz, a Polish writer who was executed by the Nazis before his last novel, The Messiah, could be published.

The Cannibal Galaxy   by Cynthia Ozick, 161 pages Jaqi Ross   28 June 2004 The main character, Joseph, is a Jewish-Frenchman living in the middle of America. He had faced many hardships during the first decades of his life. When he finally is able to overcome them and enjoy the blessings of his emancipation, he cannot let go of his own sense of failure. The relationships he has in the latter part of his life are not fufilling because he focuses on the lack in these people, not thier ability. Joseph fails to value people as individuals. As a result, he is destined to be ordinary and unhappy instead of trying to be extraordinary. At the end of the novel he is given a chance to change his outlook on life. This novel was an easy read and full of beautiful, descriptive imagery.

Time and Tide : A Walk Through Nantucket   by Frank Conroy, 144 pages Jaqi Ross   29 June 2004 Frank Conroy first visited Nantucket with a gang of college friends in 1955. They came on a whim, and for Conroy it was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with this "small, relaxed oasis in the ocean." This book, part travel diary, part memoir, is a hauntingly evocative and personal journey through Nantucket: its sweeping dunes, rugged moors, remote beaches, secret fishing spots, and hidden forests and cranberry bogs. Admirers of Conroy?s classic and acclaimed memoir Stop-Time will again delight in what James Atlas, writing in the New York Times, called his "genius for close observation."

I, Robot   by Isaac Asimov, 192 pages Steven Krise   03 July 2004 Wir funktionieren automatik. Jetzt wollen wir tanzen mechanik. Wir sind auf alles programmiert und was du willst wird ausgeführt. Wir sind die Roboter.

The Dominion of the Dead   by Robert Pogue Harrison, 159 pages James Donahue   15 July 2004 Harrison is a fascinating writer interested in the cultural archeology of words and concepts. In this book he examines the way in which the dead shape us, have claims on us (both psychologically and culturally) and how culture drifts awry when it has no room for its dead, when it separates the living from the dead, and when the dead can no longer speak through us. Highly recommended.

The Box Man   by Kobo Abe, 178 pages Jaqi Ross   25 July 2004 The nature of identity itself is the ostensible subject of this bizarrely fascinating existential novel from the great Japanese fiction writer and dramatist Kobo Abe. In the story, a man decides to give up the self that he has been all his life to attain a state of blissful anonymity. He leaves his world behind and moves onto the streets of Tokyo. He puts a large box over his head, cuts a hole for his eyes. It is as strange as it sounds, and it's also a terrible read. NOT recommended.

Amsterdam   by Ian McEwan, 193 pages Jaqi Ross   11 August 2004 A contemporary morality tale that is as profound as it is witty, we have Ian McEwan at his wisest and most wickedly disarming. And why Amsterdam? What happens there to Clive and Vernon is the most delicious climax of a novel brimming with surprises.

The World's Parliament of Religions: The East/West Encounter in Chicago, 1893   by Richard Hughes Seager, 198 pages James Donahue   21 August 2004

Burnt-out Case   by Graham Greene, 199 pages Steven Krise   13 September 2004 He came to the end of even that.

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)

One Day My Sister Disappeared : A Memoir   by Christine Orban, 128 pages Jaqi Ross   01 October 2004 Moroccan-born Orban has published 10 novels in French; here she offers a memoir of her friendship with her sister, Maco, who died pregnant with her third child when she was only 35. In brief, elegiac chapters studded with old photographs of the two sisters, Orban revisits their childhood days in the early 1960s. Not what I expected - what reviewers call a "heartfelt account of personal loss," I found dry and uninspired.

A Separate Peace   by John Knowles, 196 pages Steven Krise   19 December 2004 The prose is well written even if the story is a cliche thrice over (coming of age story set in a New England boarding school during WW2).

Reader's Digest: Select Editions - The Wailing Wind   by Tony Hillerman, 121 pages A Bennett   31 December 2004

Unveiling   by Suzanne Wolfe, 188 pages James Donahue   19 January 2005 Wolfe writes of a recently-divorced woman in Rome working at unveiling a 16th-c triptych. While doing so she finds herself among the rituals and lived Catholicism of her environs even as she herself remains immune to religious belief. Well-written, but the short and stubby chapters never allowed me to truly immerse myself.

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.

The Secret Sharer and Heart of Darkness   by Joseph Conrad, 158 pages Steven Krise   17 March 2005 Conrad plays around a lot with the concept of duality. Interesting to see the little tidbits that made it verbatim into "Apocalypse Now".

Youth   by J. Coetzee, 188 pages James Donahue   01 April 2005 Suffering mightily through my comps, stuck skimming books and memorizing half-formed thoughts, Donahue reaches over during irregular bouts of insomnia to read about someone who is worse off than him, a boyish Afrikaaner in love with poetry but enslaved to the London business world, in love with Woman but hapless with women, a believer in the Sublime yet only because he has never truly tasted the banal. Think: the be-colleged Misirian-meets-Bridget-Jones-meets-Camus.

Engaging God's World: A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living   by Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., 169 pages Brad Snyder   03 April 2005 Plantinga has deepened my understanding of world view with this wonderfully written and mentally challenging book. The theme is that as Christians, we should be longing for "shalom", and he articulates the need to see the world through the theological understanding of the Creation, Fall, and Redemption. While it's written for a college-aged audience, it is relevant for all.

Brewing the World's Great Beers   by Dave Miller, 150 pages Steven Krise   08 May 2005 I thought it was going to be a book of recipes for notable beers, but was just a rehash of the author's introduction to homebrewing book. In typical Dave Miller fashion a number of things are made harder than they really need to be.

It Will Never Happen To Me; Children of alcoholics, as youngsters, adolescents, adults   by Claudia Black, 183 pages Jonathan Misirian   13 May 2005 Sorting out my family, insightful overview into the roles that children play

An Unquiet Mind   by Kay Redfield Jamison, 195 pages James Donahue   20 June 2005 An excellent primer on bipolar disorder. To paraphrase those cheesy commercials: Jamison is not just a Johns Hopkins professor specializing in bipolar, she's a client. Seems like this is hitting a lot of people close to us - to name two just in D.C.: Susan Philips and Jabes Schuppe. Powerful stuff.

Brew Chem 101   by Lee W Janson, 117 pages Steven Krise   25 June 2005 Starts off as a 5th grade primer on chemistry, but peaks to an informative discussion of the chemistry of brewing in chapter 3. Sadly, it finishes off with what appears to be a required section for any book written about homebrewing, a discussion of the causes and cures for off flavors. I did finish it in a days time, so that's a good ppd booster.

Clever Maids: The Secret History of the Grimm Fairy Tales   by Valerie Paradiñ, 195 pages James Donahue   27 June 2005 Paradiñ relates well the biographies of the Grimm brothers and the women who helped them collect the folk tales and old women’s stories. The Grimms undertook this scholarly activity in order to preserve German Volkkultur from the Napoleonic hordes threatening to overwash the Rhineland in the wake of the dissolution of the First Reich. Even after reading the book, I’m unsure of the motivations of their feminine counterparts. Which is a shame, since Paradiñ’s intent is to write a feminist re-reading of the tales’ birth. Yet all she can point to is the fact they were ‘robbed’ (even though she relies on modern standards of scholarship and citation to do so). In the end, the women come across as victims, not historical agents, to me, and Paradiñ comes off as someone who missed a great story by returning to a preachy point.

Amsterdam   by Ian McEwan, 193 pages James Donahue   30 June 2005 This is my first McEwan novel, chosen because it won the Booker Prize in 1998. About halfway through the book, however, I began to suspect that this particular Booker was awarded more for the author's ouerve and reputation than for the merits of these pages. McEwan writes about 'weighty' subjects with the graceful, page-turning prose of a Tom Clancy. That's an achievement, but given the wonderful things I hear about McEwan, I hope that I'll find a bit more when I pick him up next time.

The Reflecting Eye   by John Connolly, 102 pages Mike Gadd   01 August 2005 A short story to continue the adventure of Charlie Parker. I don't like shorts as a rule. They are too limiting. I like to sink my teeth into the story and ride it out. I don't mind a 800 page book as long as it can carry you through.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory   by Roald Dahl, 178 pages A Bennett   11 August 2005 Simply delightful. And with pictures.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory   by Roald Dahl, 155 pages James Donahue   13 August 2005 Simply with pictures. And a delight!

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.

A Very Civil War   by Joachim Remak, 185 pages James Donahue   22 August 2005 Remak portrays, with great illustrations and narrative punch, the Swiss civil of 1847. He compares it with the 1848 revolutions and the American Civil War, but his greatest skill is in portraying the individuals who made this conflict one of the least bloody in modern history.

Hotel Du Lac   by Anita Brookner, 184 pages James Donahue   06 September 2005 A sleepy, beautiful prose style kept my attention sharp even if the plot -- middle-aged single woman stranded on Lac Leman, forced to meet a crossroads in her life between respectability and authenticity -- was somewhat staid. Best line: "[Switzerland] was a land of prudently harvested plenty, a land which had conquered human accidents, leaving only the weather distressingly beyond control."

Fields of the Fatherless   by C. Thomas Davis, 146 pages Brad Snyder   20 September 2005 This little book is a conversational sermon about the need to reach out to the widows, orphans, naked, and hungry all around us. More than just a man preaching a sermon, Davis is living it, having adopted children into his own family. Not very deep, but an important, although sometimes forgotten, message.

The Gospel According to America: a meditation on a God-blessed, Christ haunted idea   by David Dark, 166 pages Jonathan Misirian   07 November 2005 Dark desired to look at the ways that America is viewed as Christian and point out the inconsistencies that he sees. An easy task, but one that is blunted by a writing style that impedes the job.

Dinner with a perfect stranger   by David Gregory, 100 pages Jonathan Misirian   29 November 2005 Gregory presents a simple apologetic for faith in Christ, through a dinner conversation between a seeker and Jesus.

Keeping the Republic: Ideology and Early American Diplomacy   by Robert W. Smith, 142 pages James Donahue   08 December 2005 A published dissertation, this book succintly describes the foreign policies of Washington/Hamiliton, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison against the backdrop of their differing views of republicanism, revolution, civil society, and virtue. Suprisingly relevant to our current foreign policy dilemmas.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe   by C.S. Lewis, 186 pages Kristin Schrock   11 December 2005 I actually don't remember what I thought about this book when I first read it as a young lass. I do remember, though, that our class project was the Trials of Narnia wherein I was the defense attorney for the White Witch. I fear I have become a crotchety adult with a cold black heart because I found nothing magical or special about this book. In fact, I found it to be a little annoying (especially when reminded that the girls are not to fight in the battle "because battles are ugly when women fight.") I just kept wondering why more people don't know about the Lloyd Alexander Prydain books which I like to read every few years or so because they are just that good.

The Gutter: Where Life is Meant to be Lived   by Craig Gross, 156 pages Brad Snyder   11 December 2005 Written by the co-founder of XXXChurch.com, a fantastic ministry to those enslaved by pornography, Gross challenges Christians to find the gutter in which they should minister and then go and do it. Be it porn stars (as he does), transvestite prostitutes in San Francisco, starting a Hooters Outreach (I hear the wings are delicious), or weekly visits to a lonely little old lady in a nursing home, our comfort zones should be no obstacle to loving others for Jesus.

Contested Christianity   by Timothy Larsen, 193 pages James Donahue   29 December 2005 First off - CONGRATULATIONS ALICIA!!!!This book is a compendium of essays covering the cultural history of Victorian Dissenters, ranging from scandels in Jamaica, the first Bible-tourist agencies offering trips to the Holy Land for the bourgeoisie, what happens when Baptist churches lose all their male members, and the reception of German biblical criticism. Larsen is very readable, an admirable historian and a fresh thinker - but, given his extensive use of a Dissenting vocabulary - I often missed enough of the (unexplained) references to feel like an outsider looking in.

Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport : Making Connections in Today's World   by Richard J. Mouw, 144 pages Brad Snyder   06 January 2006 When I first fully embraced my latent Presbyterianism in its fullness about three years ago, I was immediately confronted with questions from friends and family about the particulars of my Calvinist-tinted faith. In researching for more eloquent answers, I found most Calvinists to be a bit on the gruff side. In contrast, this book is refreshing. It was written to offer a softer explanation of Calvinism for both the uninitiated and fully convinced. Mouw is conversational, generous, compassionate, and even funny. There were a few weak moments, but the wheat definitely outweighs the chaff.

A History of Germany (2005)   by Peter Wende, 185 pages James Donahue   08 January 2006

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.

Loving Homosexuals As Jesus Would: A Fresh Christian Approach   by Chad W. Thompson, 183 pages Brad Snyder   19 January 2006 Thompson was a guest of a radio show in Charlotte shortly after this book was first published. I found him intriguing, but he faced criticisms from many callers: most of them from Christians who called in to criticize his message (and who never read his book). He points out in the book that Christians are good at "hating the sin", but fall short when it comes to "loving the sinner." Having homosexual friends, neighbors, and coworkers, I thought I had a good understanding of the mindset of homosexuals, but this book opened my eyes to many things I couldn't have understood outside of someone telling me. This book is immensely practical, and, as an ex-gay (his term), he faces criticisms from both Christians (as I heard on the radio) and homosexual activists. The book is part testimonial, part psychology, and part guidebook, and calls Christians to account for their failures to properly understand and love homosexuals the way we should.

After the Quake: Stories (Translated from Japanese)   by Haruki Murakami, 181 pages Kristin Schrock   22 January 2006 Read aloud during the car ride back from Goshen, Indiana. These stories all feature the 1995 Kobe earthquake at some point, and it works as a metaphor for vulnerability. I wasn't jazzed about the writing (that could be the translation), but some of the images were lovely. Besides, winter cornfields do get a bit monotonous after awhile.

Foch (2003)   by Michael Neiburg, 117 pages James Donahue   29 January 2006 Its pretty sad when your pleasure reading is so related to your research. Right now I'm reading through the minutes of the Paris Peace Conference (1919), and I kept wondering who this petulant, overbearing, shunted aside world hero was as a person. Winner of the fields of France, not allowed near the peace tables since he kept single-mindedly pushing for an invasion of Bolshevik Russia.

Amsterdam   by Ian McEwan, 178 pages Kristin Schrock   02 February 2006 Not quite as poignant as Atonement, but still enjoyable examination of chance and choice and misinterpretations leading to tragedy. Although the final action that leads to the tragedy didn't quite track for me, his characters are vivid and his use of language masterful.

Metapolitics (2006)   by Alain Badiou, 152 pages James Donahue   08 February 2006 Badiou continues to perplex and challenge me.

Mirrors of Downing Street (1921)   by Gentleman with a Duster, 171 pages James Donahue   02 March 2006 Brief, biting sketches of leading British politicians, from Churchill to Cecil to Lloyd-George.

The Enemy Within: Straight Talk About the Power and Defeat of Sin   by Kris Lundgaard, 157 pages Brad Snyder   10 March 2006 Puritan John Owen wrote extensively on sin and sanctification over three hundred years ago. Lundgaard has written a brief synopsis of Owen's work in which he challenges us to recognize sin as the destructive force in our lives that it really is.

Painted Windows (1922)   by Gentlemen with a Duster, 137 pages James Donahue   13 March 2006 A behind-the-scenes caricaturist of the British church scene takes them all on -- with jacket blurb by Chesterton.

Vox   by Nicholson Baker, 165 pages Steve Gadd   16 March 2006 Somehow this book came home with me when I picked up The Mezzanine at the library, and I read through it in two sittings.

The Mezzanine   by Nicholson Baker, 135 pages Steve Gadd   19 March 2006 A guy goes up an escalator. Brilliant.

Principles of Brewing Science   by George Fix, 189 pages Steven Krise   24 March 2006 This is what I was hoping for when I had purchased BrewChem 101. A nice technical discussion (but not so narrow as to read like a journal) of the biochemistry of brewing with a little physics thrown in at the end to cover how the gas laws relate to carbonation.

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.

Take These Letters: Follow the Mail Deliverer to the Seven Churches   by E. Alan Roberts, 160 pages Brad Snyder   31 March 2006 This is the strangest commentary I've ever read. It was written in the first person from the perspective of the servant delivering the letters of Revelation 2 and 3 to the appropriate churches. I didn't find it incredibly helpful in my study, but it is an interesting approach.

Christabel Pankhurst: Fundamentalism and Feminism in Coalition (2004)   by Timothy Larsen, 142 pages James Donahue   31 March 2006

The Gospel According to the Simpsons   by Mark Pinsky, 164 pages Jonathan Misirian   05 April 2006 Pinsky delivers a compelling study of the spiritual themes that dominate The Simpsons. His commentary is astute and refreshingly honest. A must read for all serious fans of the show.

Teaching to Change Lives   by Howard Hendricks, 152 pages Jonathan Misirian   05 April 2006 Hendricks is the dean of American Evangelical Seminarians, having taught and influenced many of today’s pastors and ministry leaders. This book is a compendium of his thoughts on the subject of teaching in the classroom.

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.

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.

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing   by Judy Blume, 120 pages Brad Snyder   12 June 2006 You know you're getting old when you go to the library with your kids and check out a book that you just "know they'll love" because you loved it when you were their age. I presented it to them in the same way my fourth-grade teacher at Gaithersburg Elementary did to me, by reading it out loud. They loved it.

The Partly Cloudy Patriot   by Sarah Vowell, 196 pages Micaela Larkin   17 June 2006

Cannery Row   by John Steinbeck, 123 pages Tony Pisarenkov   19 June 2006 Observation of the mundane taken to the level of high art. Amazing how enjoyable a book about nothing in particular can be.

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...

Everyday Apocalypse: The Sacred Revealed in Radiohead, the Simpsons, and Other Pop Culture Icons   by David Dark, 160 pages Brad Snyder   20 June 2006 Dark's writing is dense, but the thoughts are inspiring. The first and last chapters, along with the chapter on Flannery O'Connor made this book worthwhile.

I Alone Have Escaped to Tell You   by Ralph McInerny, 167 pages Micaela Larkin   23 June 2006 Ralph surveys his life, Notre Dame, and academics. I think the best part is his accounts of a little summer loving in between seminary stays.

Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture   by Douglas Coupland, 183 pages Brad Snyder   02 July 2006 This book coined the term "Generation X". It's Friends meets the Canterbury Tales: Friends in that the characters are three twenty-something friends that are struggling to understand the meaning of life and live in some bungalows on the cheap side of Palm Springs, having thrown off the trappings of their once aspiring middle-class, corporate slave lives. It reminds me of Canterbury Tales in that you learn more about the characters through the stories they tell throughout. An interesting and entertaining read.

Fudge-A-Mania   by Judy Blume, 147 pages Brad Snyder   02 July 2006 Fudge rides again in part three of the "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" series. Not nearly as funny as the first two, but the kids liked it.

Passing   by Nella Larsen (1929), 122 pages Micaela Larkin   19 July 2006 By harlem renaissance's premier woman writer--- "first published in 1929, Passing is a remarkably candid exploration of racial and sexual boundaries."

Deep Conversion, Deep Prayer   by Thomas Dubay, 122 pages Micaela Larkin   21 July 2006

Velvet Elvis   by Rob Bell, 198 pages Jonathan Misirian   25 July 2006 Velvet Elvis is a Blue Like Jazz for the Church. A fresh look at what following Jesus means for the Church today. Bell is a gifted story teller, able to link complex themes with everyday life.

The Kalahari Typing School for Men   by Alexander McCall Smith, 191 pages Jennifer Dear   14 August 2006

Jesus in the Margins: Finding God in the Places We Ignore   by Rick McKinley, 191 pages Brad Snyder   22 August 2006 This is a primer on Christianity written to people that feel marginalized in life--which covers basically all of humanity since we all have issues with which we struggle and that separate us from fellowship with God. Each chapter is an invitation into a loving relationship with God through Christ, written towards a different angle in the journey--from why we are here, to a description of what sin is and how it affects us. Not what I thought, but I'm glad I read it.

The Full Cupboard of Life (2003)   by Alexander McCall Smith, 198 pages Jennifer Dear   11 September 2006

Spiritual Direction   by Henri Nouwen, 152 pages Micaela Larkin   12 September 2006

A Box of Matches   by Nicholson Baker, 192 pages Steve Gadd   27 September 2006 As long as I'm calling myself a fan, I may as well read the rest of this guy's canon. This book is a collection of thoughts captured over several weeks while the narrator got up before dawn to build a fire. No real plot, no chronology, just trademark close observation of everyday banality -- the way his toes automatically rise in the shower in the presense of falling soap, his duck's defensive maneuvers against the house cat, the amazing longevitiy of one ant which outlived all its comrades in an ant farm, the "negative thump" of a paper match pulled from its book.

Checkpoint   by Nicholson Baker, 115 pages Steve Gadd   30 September 2006 A pretty weak effort that managed to get the author in hot water with the Secret Service but otherwise doesn't have much going for it.

The Partly Cloudy Patriot (2002)   by Sarah Vowell, 196 pages James Donahue   04 October 2006 Hilarious outtakes from an historically-obsessed ex-Montana nerd - - - who is not moi!

Emile Zola (1966)   by Elliott Grant, 181 pages James Donahue   25 October 2006 Old-time lit-crit, from the times when the middle-class tried to keep up with their European literature to maintain their class status. Remember those days?

Liberal Government and Politics, 1905-1915 (2006)   by Ian Packer, 180 pages James Donahue   30 October 2006 To quote Pink Floyd: "Is there anybody out there? Just nod if you can hear me."

Man's Search for Meaning   by Viktor Frankl, 193 pages Micaela Larkin   18 November 2006

Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great   by Judy Blume, 138 pages Brad Snyder   20 November 2006 The one book of the "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" series that deals with the precocious, know-it-all Sheila Tubman. Actually rather boring, but my youngest daughter appreciated it.

The War Lords (1976)   by A. J. P. Taylor, 186 pages James Donahue   21 November 2006 Taylor rambles on the BBC; someone writes it down for a bestseller. Oh, to be that famous historian at the end of a long run. Reading it for snappy stories for my class.

The Barbarian Way: Unleash the Untamed Faith Within   by Erwin Raphael McManus, 160 pages Brad Snyder   11 December 2006 A 160 page stream of conscious-type sermon about painting outside the lines in the faith. It ranks one great big yawn.

Faith on the Line: Dare to Make a Kingdom Difference   by Charles Colson, 129 pages Brad Snyder   01 January 2007 This is the first book by Colson I have ever read, since I long ago cast him into the heap of voices that I had deemed irrelevant to modern conversations of faith. I was wrong. Colson's call to action is relevant to the evangelical church now, and will be for many years.

Dark Magus: The Jeckyl and Hyde Life of Miles Davis   by Gregory Davis with Les Sussman, 174 pages Tony Pisarenkov   02 January 2007 An utterly unnecessary, and abysmally written to boot (despite the presence of a presumably professional co-author), memoir by Miles's son of his relationship with his father. Seriously, what new insight into Davis's art can we possibly gain by learning that a conniving aunt conspired to keep poor Gregory out of his father's will?

The Authentic Adam Smith (2006)   by James Buchan, 145 pages James Donahue   22 January 2007 Annoyed at the ahistorical historiography that too often surrounds the patron saint of capitalism, Buchan reconstructs the original Smith within his Scottish milieu and as an Enlightenment figure more concerned with liberalism and moral philosophy, and not economics or industrialization. (Buchan himself comes from a distinguished Scottish literary family.) Trivia Point: Smith only uses the 'invisible hand' only twice in his entire ouerve.

Dark Night of the Soul/Saint John of the Cross: With a new translation and introduction by Mirabai Starr (2002)   by Mirabai Starr , 180 pages Jonathan Misirian   23 January 2007 St. John of the Cross, 16th Century Spanish Mystic popularized the phrase that so many of us use today. Our ‘dark night of the soul’ is that spiritual distance we feel when God seems to have abandoned us. John knew abandonment and torture, being caught up in the counter-reformation, but he also knew the love and depth that are found in the presence of God.

Time's Arrow   by Martin Amis, 165 pages Steven Krise   25 January 2007 Here there is no why. The world is going to start making sense...now.

Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam (2006)   by Joseph Ratzinger and Marcello Pera, 135 pages James Donahue   30 January 2007

Holidays on Ice (1997)   by David Sedaris, 134 pages Brad Snyder   01 February 2007 Christmas tales, all intended to be funny. One hits the mark. One gets close. One utilizes the ironic to demonstrate human greed. The others could be burned.

Bad Bridesmaid: Bachelorette Brawls and Tantrum Tales   by Siri Agrell, 171 pages Micaela Larkin   25 March 2007 Signs that you are a bad bridesmaid: You don't know the difference between taffeta and tulle, but you think they're both ugly.

Memories of My Melancholy Whores   by Gabriel García Márquez, 115 pages Steve Gadd   21 April 2007 Win a Nobel Prize and you can scribble any old thing and get it published. Fortunately Gabo does it infrequently and keeps it short and kind of sweet.

Grendel   by John Gardner, 152 pages Steven Krise   27 April 2007 "You're crazy," I say. "If you think I created that wall that cracked my head, you're a fucking lunatic."

Evil and the Justice of God (2006)   by N.T. Wright, 176 pages Jonathan Misirian   05 May 2007 Wright shifts the focus from ‘why didn’t God do something to stop evil’ to ‘look at what God has done and is doing to help those in the face of evil.’ Wright is a profound thinker and lucid writer. He traces the biblical themes of God’s love for his people in the face of evil and presents a convincing look at how God –through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus –provided the ultimate answer for evil.

Clare Boothe Luce   by Wilfrid Sheed, 176 pages Micaela Larkin   07 May 2007

Grendel   by John Gardner, 174 pages Steve Gadd   11 May 2007 He stretched his wings -- it was like a huge, irascible yawn -- then settled again. "Things come and go," he said. "That's the gist of it."

Paul: In Fresh Perspective (2005)   by N.T. Wright, 195 pages Jonathan Misirian   29 May 2007 Wright explores the Apostle Paul, his life and world- view. His forte is found in digging into the cultural setting in which Paul wrote and re-emphasizing the Jewish cultural and thought that captivated Paul. Another excellent treatment by Wright.

The Tenth Man (1985)   by Graham Greene, 144 pages James Donahue   10 June 2007 When the Germans condemn three random French POWs to die in WWII, chosen by lots, the wealthy lawyer Chavel gives everything he has to a fellow prisoner to accept his short straw. After the war Chavel cannot help but wander back, broke and ashamed, to his former manor, now inhabited by the dead man's mother and sister, fully regretting his trade.

A Gun for Sale   by Graham Greene, 186 pages Steven Krise   12 June 2007 Death came to him in the form of unbearable pain. It was as if he had to deliver this pain as a woman delivers a child, and he sobbed and moaned in the effort. At last it came out of him and he followed his only child into a vast desolation.

The German Education of Philip Schaff (2002)   by Klaus Penzel, 157 pages James Donahue   16 June 2007

The Hipster Handbook (2002)   by Robert Lanham, 176 pages Brad Snyder   25 June 2007 It's deck to be fin.

Brewing the World's Great Beers   by David Miller, 150 pages Steven Krise   02 July 2007 Miller's a twat. He forgets that "crystal clear" beer is, for the most part, a creation of industrialized corporate brewers that has been marketed to the consumer as an improvement, when in fact a yeasty haze is integral to the character of many styles. He acknowledges on p 118-119 that filtering harms the quality of homebrew and yet still advocates it. What a wanker.

The Atomic Bazaar (2007)   by William Langewiesche, 179 pages James Donahue   13 July 2007 Langewiesche continues to be the best writer on contemporary politics with this book about nuclear proliferation after the Cold War. Not only can he write sentences like these: "Diplomacy may help to slow the spread, but it can no more stop the process than it can reverse the progression of time. The nuclearization of the world has become the human condition, and it cannot be changed. Fear of it becomes dangerous when it detracts from realisitic assessments of the terrain." But I believe him. The usual excellent combination here of travelogue/first-hand-anecdote, grasp of the relevant history, layman's science, and political acuity.

The Iraq Study Group Report: The Way Forward- A New Approach   by James Baker and Lee Hamilton, Co-chairs, 160 pages Jonathan Misirian   16 July 2007 Bush first rejected the formation of this bi-partisan group, then relented when political pressure came to bear on him. The ISG’s assessment of the current situation in Iraq is damning at best, and now that the report is over a year old, its themes and warnings continue to come to light. The American people, congress, top military generals in the field, and the international community have all expressed the need for a new approach, while our president continues ‘staying the course.’

The Cross and the Crescent: Christianity and Islam from Muhammad to the Reformation   by Richard Fletcher, 183 pages Tony Pisarenkov   18 July 2007 Informative, but not very well written.

Eric   by Terry Pratchett, 197 pages Steven Krise   19 July 2007 "If Terry Pratchett is not yet [in] an institution he should be.... Nothing...magical."

Peace Kills   by P.J. O'Rourke, 197 pages Steve Gadd   20 July 2007 O'Rourke on Kosovo, Israel, Egypt, Iraq, and Iwo Jima. Reads like Dave Barry but with bombs and policy instead of boogers and poop.

Calibre   by Ken Bruen, 182 pages Jonathan Misirian   13 August 2007 Crime noir writer Bruen writes in a manner that makes you feel like you’ve been punched in the gut. His characters develop and speak in sparse, yet rich dialogue. This new series is set in a London police station, where the difference between the right and wrong is mostly absent. For those that like a quick read, an out-loud laugh or two, Bruen’s novels are for you.

The Catcher in the Rye   by J D Salinger, 192 pages Steven Krise   17 August 2007 That's the whole trouble. You can't ever find a place that's nice and peaceful, because there isn't any. You think there is, but once you get there, when you're not looking, somebody'll sneak up and write "Fuck you" right under your nose.

Clausewitz's On War (2007)   by Hew Strachan, 190 pages James Donahue   18 August 2007 A survey of the book and its origins. Unfortunately its a bit difficult to understand without some background knowledge of Prussian military life. The part I found the most interesting was his discussion of how Colin Powell and the neocons have taken to Clausewitz's book, especially a new translation which words the text a little differently from the editions beloved by Hitler and Ludendorff.

The Loved One (1948)   by Evelyn Waugh, 164 pages James Donahue   30 August 2007 Waugh returns to satire again, after his brief foray into "lit-era-toor," but moves his aim from the British upper class to their cross-Atlantic successors after WWII. In this short novel a British vagabond falls in love with an embalmer in southern California named Aimée Thanatogenos (named after the evangelist) and gets to see the bizarre American world of death.

The Worst-case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel   by Piven and Borgenicht, 191 pages Steve Gadd   07 September 2007 I picked this up expressly to pad my page count. The only thing it's likely to save anyone from is boredom, but it's pretty good at that.

The Teacher's Funeral : A Comedy in Three Parts (2004)   by Richard Peck, 190 pages Brad Snyder   30 September 2007 My son read this book based on his teacher's recommendation and devoured it in three days--not bad for a fifth grader. I found it to be charming, too. Told from the perspective of a 15 year-old in 1904 in rural Indiana, it's the story of what happens when the teacher of the one-room school dies and is replaced by his older sister and how that changes his life.

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information   by Edward R. Tufte, 191 pages Steve Gadd   02 October 2007

Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management   by Johanna Rothman and Esther Derby, 167 pages Tony Pisarenkov   19 October 2007

The Exceptional Presenter (2007)   by Timothy Koegel, 188 pages Jonathan Misirian   25 October 2007 Another recommendation, an excellent college level overview of speaking and presentation skills.

Thirty-Nine Steps (1915)   by John Buchan, 113 pages James Donahue   15 November 2007

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.

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

Beowulf   by Seamus Heaney, translator, 116 pages Tony Pisarenkov   12 January 2008 Re-read in preparation for John Gardner's Grendel

Grendel   by John Gardner, 174 pages Tony Pisarenkov   17 January 2008 Enjoyed it to a surprising degree. A lot of layers and a fair amount to chew on, especially for a book that starts with such a preposterous concept.

American Protestants and TV in the 1950s (2007)   by Michele Rosenthal, 120 pages James Donahue   21 January 2008 Rosenthal argues that the late twentieth century advancement of evangelicalism over mainline Protestantism is attributable to its relative embrace of TV. She does a great job of showing the National Council of Churches disdain for such a lowbrow art form and suspicion of the effect of TV on a culture - but is that representative of "mainline Protestantism" by the 1960s? She does a good job demonstrating that the nascent NAE did not consider TV as a unique medium, somehow different in its substance from books, but rather as a morally neutral and uncomplicated purveyor of messages. What mattered was the morality and intent of the broadcaster, not the medium itself. Thus evangelicals dove into the redemption of the TV as a tool for influencing culture. But how can we jump from the NAE to the evangelicals who really control the airwaves: Falwell, Roberts, Robertson, etc? Its a dissertation that's long on solid, thought-provoking argument, but a bit short on primary research. (Now why didn't I think of that?)

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.

The Authentic Adam Smith (2007)   by James Buchan, 160 pages James Donahue   18 March 2008 Short, informative, too the point. He didn't even take the diversions I was hoping for.

Last Night at the Lobster (2007)   by Stewart O’Nan, 146 pages Jonathan Misirian   08 April 2008 Hailed as a modern story of our postmodern life, O’Nan’s gift lies in his simplicity and in his efforts to paint an accurate portrait of our way of life. A glorified short story, O’Nan follows the manager of a Red Lobster during the last shift before the store is closed.

Jim and Casper Go to Church (2007)   by Jim Henderson and Matt Casper, 170 pages Jonathan Misirian   08 April 2008 An atheist teams up with a former pastor and visit 10 or so famous churches around the country. Excellent anecdotes from some of the bigger pastor names. Great insights and a delightful quick read.

Transforming Discipleship: making disciples a few at a time (2003)   by Greg Ogden, 180 pages Jonathan Misirian   08 April 2008 Good overview of various methods of teaching others about what it means to be a follower of Christ.

Beowulf and Other Old English Poems   by Constance B Hieatt (Trans.), 149 pages Steven Krise   13 April 2008 Now the ghoul found that never in the world, anywhere on earth, had he met a man with a mightier handgrip. He became afraid in his heart, but he could not get away any the sooner. He was eager to be off; he wanted to flee to his hiding place and seek out the company of devils--his circumstances there were unlike any he had ever before encountered in all the days of his life. The brave kinsman of Hygelac remembered his vows of that evening: he stood upright and got a fast hold on the monster;

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

The Gospel According to Hollywood (2007)   by Greg Garrett, 174 pages Jonathan Misirian   23 May 2008 Garrett’s expansive range of movies is only matched by his insightful ability to connect deep spiritual truths, to the best and worst that Hollywood has to offer. A true fan of Film, the author brings out the Christian themes that inhabit so much of what Hollywood creates.

The Return of History and the End of Dreams (2008)   by Robert Kagan, 105 pages James Donahue   28 May 2008 Everything you wanted to know about geopolitics in forty-five minutes. (ahem)

Inventing a Nation: Washington, Adams, Jefferson   by Gore Vidal, 198 pages Tony Pisarenkov   04 July 2008 Vidal's cynical take on the founding fathers. More detailed comments here.

Fight Club   by Chuck Palahniuk, 199 pages Steven Krise   14 July 2008 The angels here are the Old Testament kind, legions and lieutenants, a heavenly host who works in shifts, days, swing, Graveyard. They bring you your meals on a tray with a paper cup of meds. The Valley of the Dolls playset. I've met God across his long walnut desk with his diplomas hanging on the wall behind him, and God asks me, "Why?" Why did I cause so much pain? Didn't I realize that each of us is a sacred, unique snowflake of special unique specialness? Can't I see how we're all manifestations of love? I look at God behind his desk, taking notes on a pad, but God's got this all wrong. We are not special. We are not crap or trash, either. We just are. We just are, and what happens just happens. And God says, "No, that's not right." Yeah. Well. Whatever. You can't teach God anything.

The Future of Christian Learning: An Evangelical and Catholic Dialogue (2008)   by James Turner and Mark Noll , 137 pages James Donahue   03 August 2008

The Landscape of History (2002)   by John Lewis Gaddis, 151 pages James Donahue   12 August 2008

Notes From Underground   by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 110 pages Steve Gadd   12 August 2008

Visual Explanations   by Edward R. Tufte, 151 pages Steve Gadd   17 August 2008 Another classic treatise in design, showing what can go right (arresting a cholera epidemic) and wrong (loss of a Space Shuttle) based on the way information is presented.

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information   by Edward R. Tufte, 191 pages Steve Gadd   17 August 2008 A classic of design, and a minor masterpiece of publishing in its own right.

On the Natural History of Destruction   by W.G. Sebald, 191 pages Tony Pisarenkov   31 August 2008 A collection of Sebald's essays and lectures dealing with the conspicuous absence of treatment of the allied firebombing of German cities during WWII from post-war German literature, what might have contributed to that absence, and the dangers of not rectifying it.

The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements   by Eric Hoffer, 177 pages Tony Pisarenkov   04 September 2008 The title says it all. Not quite what I was hoping for (I was looking for something more directly dealing with religious cults). Heavy on generalities, very short on examples, colored by the state of the world at the time it was written (1951), but at times still thought-provoking.

The Great Gatsby   by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 172 pages Tony Pisarenkov   07 September 2008 Though I had read Gatsby many years ago, I remembered virtually nothing, so it was just like reading it for the first time, and just as enjoyable.

The World's Strangest Aircraft   by Michael Taylor, 112 pages Tony Pisarenkov   23 October 2008 Mostly pictures, but if people can get away with Edward Tufte, I can claim credit for this :)

Job (1930)   by Joseph Roth, 192 pages James Donahue   29 October 2008 A beautifully written book about a Russian Jew in the early twentieth century who becomes a plaything of the Lord.

The Irony of American History (1952)   by Reinhold Niebuhr, 174 pages James Donahue   15 November 2008 "Our moral perils are not those of conscious malice or the explicit lust for power. They are the perils which can be understood only if we realize the ironic tendency of virtues to turn into vices when too complacently relied upon; and of power to become vexatious if the wisdom which directs it is trusted too confidently. The ironic element in American history can be overcome, in short, only if American idealism comes to terms with the limits of all human striving, the fragmentatiness of all human wisdom, the precariousness of all historic configurations of power, and the mixture of good and evil in all human virtue. America's moral and spiritual success in relating itself creatively to a world community requires, not so much a guard against the gross vices, about which the idealists warn us, as a reorientation of the whole structure of our idealism. . . .[That idealism] is too certain that there is a straight path to power toward the goal of human happiness; too confident of the wisdom and idealism which prompt men and nations toward that goal; and too blind to the curious compounds of good and evil in which the actions of the best men and nations abound." (133)

A Theology of Reading: The Hermeneutics of Love (2001)   by Alan Jacobs, 172 pages James Donahue   18 November 2008

Slowness   by Milan Kundera, 156 pages Tony Pisarenkov   03 December 2008

Heart of Darkness   by Joseph Conrad, 132 pages Tony Pisarenkov   12 December 2008 Not too shabby for someone who didn't speak a word of English until age twenty-one.

I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon's Black World (2007)   by Trevor Paglen, 136 pages Brad Snyder   15 February 2009 This book was sitting on the library's display of new titles. It looks somewhat unassuming with a patch pasted on the cover of the black book. I opened it and new I had to read it. It contains pictures of patches and emblems used by several of the Pentagon's black ops units with an explanation or suggestion of what the imagery contained on each is. It also explains a little about some of the missions undertaken by each (when known). Hardly heavy reading, and lots of colorful pictures.

Vox   by Nicholson Baker, 165 pages Steve Gadd   07 March 2009 The rare book that lives up to the blurbs inside the cover. A receipt tucked inside indicates that it was purchased at the Virgin Megastore San Francisco on March 25, 1999.

Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don''t Add Up   by John Allen Paulos, 158 pages Steven Krise   10 April 2009 A quirky, light read that critiques 12 classic arguments for the existence of God. With so few pages, there's not a lot of depth here, but it's a good overview of the topic, and, as the author notes, refutations of these "arguments" has been around for ages so there's not much new to say.

Poker Nights: Rules, Strategies, and Tips for the Home Player   by Scott Tharler, 128 pages Steven Krise   14 April 2009 Slicker (literally) and more colorful than Vorhaus's book about home poker. However, Tharler tries to cover every home poker variation imaginable and consequently only devotes a paragraph at most to describe the rules, action, and strategy. This is a very light-weight book without much meat to offer.

The Theory of Everything   by Stephen Hawking, 136 pages Steven Krise   19 April 2009 "The idea that space and time may form a closed surface without boundary also has profound implications for the role of God in the affairs of the universe. With the success of scientific theories in describing events, most people have come to believe that God allows the universe to evolve according to a set laws. He does not seem to intervene in the universe to break these laws. However, the laws do not tell us what the universe should have looked like when it started. It would still be up to God to wind up the clockwork and choose how to start it off. So long as the universe had a beginning that was a singularity, one could suppose that it was created by an outside agency. But if the universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would be neither created nor destroyed. It would simply be. What place, then, for a creator?"

Play Winning Poker...In No Time   by Alison Pendergast, 183 pages Steven Krise   15 June 2009 If you've played any kind of poker - winning or otherwise then this isn't the book for you. A shallow, uninteresting intro to poker that covers the topics you expect, giving advice you've already heard.

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.

Family History 101: A Beginner's Guide to Finding Your Ancestors   by Marcia Melnyk, 138 pages Steven Krise   09 July 2009 So far, this is the best, most informative and useful guide on doing family history research.

Caro's Fundamental Secrets of Winning Poker   by Mike Caro, 158 pages Steven Krise   14 July 2009 A sort of book length PowerPoint presentation of Caro's tips for maximizing your profit playing poker. There are general tips on poker strategy, tournament play, gauging starting hands and positional advantage as well as specific tips for Draw Poker, Stud, Razz, Hold 'Em.

A Taste for Beer   by Stephen Beaumont, 181 pages Steven Krise   04 August 2009 Written in 1995, just as the "craft beer" movement was gaining steam in North America, this book is an ode to beer and its pairing with other enjoyable experiences (including, eating food with beer, cooking food with beer (yes, a whole chapter of recipes), wine, whiskey, cigars, baseball franchises, movies, musical styles).

Extreme Brewing   by Sam Calagione, 184 pages Steven Krise   08 August 2009 Despite its title, this is actually a conventionally organized book. Preamble is discussion of equipment and process to make "your first batch of beer" and the postscript is a discussion of beer and food pairings. The reason to buy this book, however, is the recipes in the middle half of the book which includes several malt extract versions of recipes for Dogfish Head classics such as 60 Minute IPA, Raison D'Etre, and Midas Touch.

The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 1) (1999)   by Lemony Snicket, 162 pages Brad Snyder   30 August 2009 Reading this out loud to my youngest daughter. I'm enjoyed the book, but loved the time with her.

Handbook of Knots   by Des Pawson, 176 pages Steven Krise   28 September 2009 DK always publishes excellent books, and this handbook is no exception. It uses photographs for the various diagrams, which I find easier to decipher and use as a guide than illustrations.

How to win at poker   by Belinda Levez, 106 pages Steven Krise   08 October 2009 Probably the lamest poker book I've ever read. This is what passes for good advice: develop a betting strategy that maximizes profit whilst minimizing loss (with no explanation of how to evaluate a strategy to see if it meets that criterion) or bluff but not too much because when people call your bluff you lose money.

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.

New Orleans Sketches   by William Faulkner, 173 pages Tony Pisarenkov   21 November 2009 A delightful collection of Faulkner's early sketches, written when he lived briefly in New Orleans in 1924-1925, and inspired by it. Very enjoyable, and made more so by my recent trip there. The editor's introduction is very well-written as well and gives some interesting information on Faulkner's early life.