Ants in the Band Room by Laura Podeschi, (ISBN:978-0978744137)
Ants in the Band Room is a fun picture book for children, written and illustrated by Millikin alum, Laura Podeschi, and published by Millikin’s very own Bronze Man Books. It is a story of a troupe of displaced ants in search of a suitable, new home. Introducing children to various musical instruments while maintaining a pathos for the cute critters, this book has proven to be engaging for children ages 4 to 7 years old. It comes with an audio CD with sample recordings of the instruments encountered. (Brooks)

The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian Culture, History, and Identity by Prof. Amartya Sen (ISBN: 978-0312426026)
Released in 2005 this book is written by the Nobel Prize winning economist from India, Prof Amartya Sen. This book of essays focuses on the Indian traditions of public debate and intellectual pluralism. The book is divided into three parts. Part I outlines “the nature, reach and relevance of the argumentative tradition in India” (Sen xiv). This includes essays on pluralism and the dialogic tradition of heterodox, secular, democracy. The essays in Part II “deal with the role of communication in the development and understanding of cultures” (xv). Part III is focused on what Sen terms as the “politics of deprivation (poverty, class and caste divisions, gender inequality) and with the precariousness of human security in the subcontinent as a result of the development of nuclear weapons in India and Pakistan” (xv). This book is recommended for the politically minded and for all who want to read an authorative book on India without the heavy academic jargon. (Banerjee)

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The Bad Seed by William March (ISBN:978-0060795481)
While the 1956 film version may present a rather unsettling story, it still doesn’t have the chilling impact of March’s well-crafted, timeless text. Eight year old Rhoda, the only child of an often absent father and a gentle, well-meaning and well-bred mother, seems like every parent’s dream—she’s polite, well-behaved, neat, respectful of elders. Yet underneath is a ruthless sociopath who murders to get what she wants. The book, unlike the film, offers us insight into Rhoda’s thoughts—unfeeling, frighteningly cold for a little girl, as well as an ending much different, and much more disturbing, than the film. March deals with the question of the origins of a serial killer, creating a story that is as relevant, and as frightening today as it was then. (Crowe)

Baseball Haiku: The Best Haiku Ever Written About the Game edited by Cor van den Heuvel and Nanae Tamura, (ISBN:978-0393062199)
Baseball Haiku is an excellent anthology of haiku written by American and Japanese haiku poets. Soon after baseball was imported and became a popular sport in Japan, several Japanese haiku poets celebrated the sport in their haiku. Masaoka Shiki, one of the founders of modern Japanese haiku and haiku poetics, wrote his first baseball haiku in 1890. The roster of haiku poets (and baseball players) in this book are arranged by birth date, which creates a fun sense of moving through time with haiku and the game of baseball. I also like the book because I show up toward the end of the batting order as one of the younger poets in this anthology. If you are a baseball or haiku fan, you will enjoy this collection. If you are a fan of both haiku and baseball, you will love this book. (Brooks)

Basket Case by Carl Hiaasen (ISBN: 978-0446611930)
If you’ve never read a book by Hiaasen, he’s the perfect writer for vacation reading. All of his books involve a small, diverse group of people that would never, ever meet up anywhere except for one of Hiaasen’s creations. Basket Case is a mystery story of a Jack Tagger, a journalist who is increasingly annoyed by his job (very realistic and very funny accounts of how journalists balance truth in stories with editors and paper owners who are concerned with money) writing obituataries for a daily south Florida newspaper. (Hiaasen’s day job is a news and op/ed writer for The Miami Herald.) When Tagger investigates one of the deaths he finds more than he bargained for. All I can say, is that you’ll never look at dead, frozen lizards the same again after reading Basket Case. (Williams)

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Vonnegut, Kurt. Anything he’s written.
With his recent passing at age 84, it’s time to revisit some of the works of one of our sharpest contemporary American writers. Whether it’s Slaughterhouse Five, Cat’s Cradle, Mother Night, Breakfast of Champions, or his final work, A Man without a Country, Vonnegut’s dark wit, brutal honesty, and ever-present examination of what it means to be human are not to be missed. Upon his death, a New York Times editorial noted that “the time to read Vonnegut is just when you begin to suspect that the world is not what it appears to be.” Indeed, this may be an especially appropriate time to pick up one of Vonnegut’s books. He will be missed, but he’s left us much. And so it goes. (Crowe)

Defying Hitler by Sebastian Haffner (ISBN: 978-0312421137)
Sebastian Haffner’s Defying Hitler, published a few years ago, was written in 1939 by a German emigrant to England. It reads quickly (except for the parts about Weimar politics) and provides an excellent portrait of early Nazi Germany and provocative suggestions about the psychological roots of Nazism. Haffner’s view of his fellow Germans is scathing. (Andy Matthews)

Digging to America by Anne Tyler
(ISBN: 978-0307263940)
Digging to America is a story of two families who meet at the airport while waiting for the arrival of their newly adopted Korean daughters. The Donaldsons are the typical white, middle-class Americans and the Yazdens are Iranian Americans. Despite the many differences between the two couples, they become friends and get together every year to celebrate the arrival of their daughters to America. This book is about what it means to be family. (Zelhart)

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Eating Korean by Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee (ISBN: 978-0764540783)
This is a great book of recipes with clear explanations of ingredients, procedures and traditions. It includes very basic dipping sauces and more complex expandable recipes for kimchi and main courses. Traditional as well as Americanized recipes are given. Really good, basic description of great foods and how to prepare them. (Braniger)

From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun by Jacqueline Woodson (ISBN: 978-0590458818)
From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun is a book about a boy who has to learn to deal with the shocking news that his mother tells him about her alternative lifestyle. As a teen boy growing up in a nosey neighborhood, he lies to protect his secret at all costs, including losing a best friend. Melanin has never met his father and he has no other male role model in his life. He is obsessed with a girl named Angie and as the story unfolds, you begin to understand that he is a typical teenage boy dealing with his confusion and sexual frustrations the best way that he knows how. The truth about his life is difficult for him to understand, but Melanin learns that the truth is reality. (Megan Taylor*)

A Girl Called Zippy by Haven Hamel (ISBN: 978-0767915052)
In this upbeat memoir about growing up in a small town in the Midwest, Hamel has found the key to putting the “fun” back in dysfunctional. Though the reader is aware that Zippy’s parents are far from perfect (her dad’s “work” is a little questionable, her mom suffers occasionally from the inability to get off the couch), Zippy generally takes their flaws a fact of her life. She evaluates others from the wonderfully narrow way of a child, and considers the adult world as an impediment to her fun. From her fragile arrival into the world (her doctors send her home to die) to her rambunctious toddler-hood to the clever girl she becomes, we root for Zippy. She may not have had the life she would have chosen for herself, but she records this one with tenderness, love, and humor that will keep you happily reading from beginning to end. (McKenna)

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The Gravedigger by Peter Grandbois (ISBN: 978-0811858182)
In this lyrical and mystical first novel, Peter Grandbois lures his readers into the small town world of Juan Rodrigo, the local gravedigger. Rodgrigo, in addition to his task of burying the dead, is given a special gift—he gets information from the dearly departed to share with their families. Roderigo is seen not only as a messenger but a storyteller of depth and sensitivity. In addition to his role as a gravedigger, Rodrigo, a widower, is in search of a new wife, especially now that his daughter has reached adolescence and has become more of a mystery to him than the world of the dead. Using a small town in Spain as a backdrop to this fascinating tale, Grandbois blurs the lines of life and death and assures us that love is truly everlasting. (McKenna)

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie (ISBN: 978-0670886586)
This novel, written for the author’s young son, has elements that appeal to readers of all ages. A young boy, Haroun, goes on a quest to help his father; this quest - driven by love - leads him to not only help his father regain his storytelling abilities, but also saves the world from the loss of stories completely. Haroun is rich with literary allusions to prominent novelists and poets such as Melville and Coleridge that appeal to more mature readers. The conflict between speech and silence, light and dark, love and hate weave beautifully through the story like the waters of the Sea of Stories. (Sarah Lantvit*)

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) by J. K. Rowling, (ISBN:978-0545010221)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series. It will will be released on July 21, 2007 and if you want to keep up with the children in your neighborhood or your nephews and neices, you’d better get it read before August. I certainly plan to get my copy on July 21 and read it immediately. (Brooks)

The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore (ISBN: 978-0140449860)
The Home and the World is a novel that follows Bimala, an Indian woman who is torn between the ideals of her traditional husband and his radical nationalist friend during the Swadeshi movement of India, which ultimately results in conflict, deceit, violence, and tragedy. I was left feeling engrossed and entirely connected with Bimala’s struggles, hopelessness, and disillusionment, all the while continuously interpreting the underlying inferences to the condition of India. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who appreciates the philosophical aspect of history and who wishes to finish a novel as a much less ignorant person than when they began it. (Stacey Fackler*)

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How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton (ISBN: 978-0679779155)
OK, by now you’re thinking that I’m obsessed with Proust, and you’re right. Every summer I allow myself to read one of the seven novels that make up In Search of Lost Time. It’s my treat; I look forward to it. This book, though, is not one of those novels. It’s a light, quick read of “lessons” abstracted from Proust’s work. We learn that wisdom lies not in the pursuit of happiness, but in pursuing ways to be productively unhappy. And nothing can properly be appreciated until we recreate it in our mind’s eye. If you’ve read some Proust or if you’re just curious about him (perhaps you’ve seen Little Miss Sunshine), this book will make a fun day’s reading at the beach or in your backyard. (Klotz)

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (ISBN: 978-0802142818)
This Indo-Anglian novel by Kiren received the Man Booker Prize for 2006. It is also the recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award for 2007. The overarching theme of the novel is human generosity even in the face of migration and living in between two worlds and in between the past and the present. The narrative spans continents, generations, cultures, religions, and races. Primarily set in the Indian hill station of Kalimpong (at the foothills of the Himalaya) in the mid-1980s. The story deals with the arbitrary nature of national borders that separates and diminishes humanity (‘’What was a country but the idea of it? . . . How often could you attack it before it crumbled? To undo something took practice; it was a dark art and they were perfecting it.”). The denouement combines betrayal, retribution, and hope in a surprising yet wholly believable outcome. (Banerjee)

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In Persuasion Nation by George Saunders (ISBN: 978-1594482427)
Fans of Kurt Vonnegut and Thomas Pynchon have been following the career of George Saunders, anxiously awaiting the arrival of his most recent book of twelve short stories, In Persuasion Nation. A clear critique of America’s consumer culture, these stories take as characters overextended and unappreciated individuals swept away by the first thing that offers to provide relief from the mind-numbing routine of existence. Rabid dogs, holograms and ghosts, scripted reality TV, invasive advertising, product specialists, and misfits of all kinds haunt these pages. Full of humor and sadness, Saunders writes with heart and a critical eye, finding the remaining bits of humanity among the ruins of a world on the brink of becoming indoctrinated and uncivilized. (Braniger)

In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant (ISBN: 978-0812974041)
Initially set during the sack of Rome in 1527, a well-kept young courtesan and her dwarf companion narrowly escape the brutalities of the countless invasions and carnage in order to “set up shop” anew in Venice. What makes Dunant’s writing particularly compelling is her gift for description—and voice. Told through the eyes of Bucino, the sharp-witted dwarf, life in16th century Venice is vividly described, in all its nauseating filth—and glistening beauty. Dunant’s research is extensive and thorough, as she incorporates the real (artist Titian and poet Aretino) and the fictitious into a vibrant story which, by the end, makes readers feel as if they lived this tumultuous journey along with these two clever, persevering refugees. It’s well-written, convincing, enjoyable. (Crowe)

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Imaginary Homelands by Salman Rushdie (ISBN: 978-0140140361)
The book Imaginary Homelands is truly a gateway to the mind of a genius. Salman Rushdie is truly remarkable in his critical essays of which range from criticizing the Hollywood version of Ghandi to the meaning behind his writings. Rushdie is one of the finest writers in all the world and in this book, you get to nit pick his personal essays about himself, it is truly an honor. For all English fans, I highly recommend this challenging and insightful book into the mind of Salman Rushdie. Imaginary Homelands is probably one of the easier books of Rushdie to read, but once you read Rushdie, you can never read anything else! I dare you to take the challenge of Rushdie! (Bruce Janek*)

King Dork by Frank Portman (ISBN: 978-0385732918)
For anyone who sat through reading the Catcher in the Rye and didn’t understand why people raved about it, you might find solace that you weren’t the only one. Musician Frank Portman could have started a whole movement of readers who felt that way, but instead he wrote King Dork, a YA story about Tom Henderson, who is considered a geek to his high school peers. After Tom’s father dies of unusual circumstances, he finds his father’s marked up copy of Catcher in the Rye and goes on a crusade to figure out who his father really was. (Williams)

Larenopfer by Rainer Maria Rilke (ISBN: 978-1597090100)
Trans. by Alfred de Zayas. A bilingual edition of Rilke’s early work, the group of poems collected in Larenopfer, or offerings to the household god Lar, are translated for the first time by Alfred de Zayas. In these early poems, Rilke experiments with his lyrical, song-like voice, creating songs of praise for his hometown Prague, odes to simple landmarks such as parks, bridges, churches and fountains. A wonderful exploration in poetry of Rilke’s heritage and culture. A facing page translation with exquisite illustrations by Martin Andrysek. (Braniger)

The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million by Daniel Mendelsohn (ISBN: 978-0060542979)
The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million is huge, idiosyncratic, and gripping. Mendelsohn traveled all over the world to find out exactly what happened to his great-uncle and -aunt and their four daughters in a certain Ukrainian town in the early 1940s. I was so intrigued by their individual fates, and by Mendelsohn’s quest, that I couldn’t wait to find out the horrible particulars. Mendelsohn, a classics professor, intersperses his account with commentary on Genesis and his own musings. (Andy Matthews)

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Lucky Girls by Nell Freudenberger (ISBN: 978-0061124273)
I don’t like contemporary fiction; the prose is limp and the stories go nowhere. This collection of short stories is an exception. Freudenberger brings to life interesting settings—Delhi, Bangkok—and characters, mostly privileged young Americans looking to evade loneliness or disillusionment. Her detailed observations evoke that strange sense of alienation and engagement that anyone who has traveled abroad will recognize. A housekeeper in one of Freudenberger’s stories may be right when she says, “Traveling is for people who don’t know how to be happy.” (Klotz)

Lucy by Ellen Feldman (ISBN: 978-0393325102)
Ellen Feldman is an historian who write novels about historical figures and events with attention to accuracy and detail. In this novel, written from the perspective of President Franklin Roosevelt’s mistress Lucy Rutherford, Feldman captures the essence of the times and the people. Feldman spent hours reviewing the letters of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and Lucy Rutherford, as well as exploring a multitude of biographies and autobiographies of the key players. What results is a beautifully written novel about the young woman who smitten with a powerful and handsome older man, and the impact that relationship would have on them, the nation and the world. The novel documents Lucy’s time she works as Eleanor’s personal secretary through Franklin’s death three decades later. This novel of love, duty and destiny makes for riveting reading, and leaves the reader with a much clearer sense of the private cost of public life. (McKenna)

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Macon County Remembered by Dan Guillory, (ISBN:978-0738541365)
Macon County Remembered is the third Arcadia Press photo history book by Dr. Dan Guillory, Emeritus Professor of English, Millikin University. In this book he explores patterns of social bonding and community-building that helped to create Macon County as we know it today, an area of nearly 600 square miles with 15 towns and villages. (Brooks)

Mathematics of Fire by Josh Wild, (ISBN:978-0978744144)
The poetry of Josh Wild in Mathematics of Fire explores the intersection of postmodern angst with the ordinary folklore expression of scripts for survival in a small Midwest rural town. Josh is a poet who enjoys literary journeys and mythos, but wants to celebrate the lost dreams of the ordinary Joe’s we all know who hurt and seek significance beyond their daily routines. His poetry moves quickly, snapping from a question of the holocaust to the discovery of gum stuck under a small town cafe table. Mathematics of Fire is a hand-sewn chapbook published by Bronze Man Books. Get one of the signed collector’s editions featuring an original print by Carrie Seymour, a 2006 Millikin graduate. (Brooks)

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So B. It by Sarah Weeks (ISBN: 978-0064410472)
So B. It is about a twelve-year-old girl named Heidi who has no idea who she is and where she came from. Her mother is a mentally disabled woman who speaks only twenty-three words. Heidi lives with her mother in an apartment in Reno, Nevada, and her next-door neighbor, Bernadette, takes care of Heidi and her mother. Bernadette has agoraphobia and never leaves the house. When Heidi finds old photos in the back of a drawer, she begins to question her history. Heidi sets out on a quest alone to find out her mother’s past thus discovering her own identity. She is in search of truth. Along the way, Heidi discovers that you cannot always know everything. In the quest to find herself, Heidi loses something very dear. Her life will never be the same because of her quest, but many secrets become known and she finds the truth she longed to know. (Megan Taylor*)

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (ISBN: 978-0812968064)
The author grew up in L.A.’s Chinatown, raised among the traditions of her native culture. Returning to her origins, she traveled the back country of China to research the ancient female practice of nu shu writing and traditions associated with women’s roles. The novel Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is the result of her research. It explores traditional female identity of the nineteenth-century Chinese woman, from the grueling childhood practice of foot-binding to the rituals of marriage and the secret customs of nu shu writing, women’s “upstairs” conversations and exceptional instances of life-long “old-same” matches. The relationship of the narrator and her “old-same” correspondent, Snow Flower, is both enlightening and heartbreaking. A historical exploration of identity rich with raw emotion and delightful surprises. (Braniger)

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Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky (ISBN: 978-1400096275)
Irene Nemirovsky’s pair of novellas, Suite Francaise is a historical find as well as a literary masterpiece. Nemirovsky, who died in Auschwitz in 1942, wrote about events virtually in their midst—the evacuation of Paris in advance of the German army in 1940, the German occupation of a French village in 1941. A beautifully-rendered view of French society in wartime. (Andy Matthews)

Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life among the Pirates by David Cordingly (ISBN: 978-0812977226) While recent films present a rather romantic, exciting, and, for the most part, fictitious rendering of pirates, our curiosity may piqued as to what the real life of these renegades might have been. David Cordingly offers an engaging account of the history, myths, and realities of Caribbean pirates on sea and land (when they dared drop anchor), from wooden legs to buried treasure to female pirates to the realities of a very harsh fugitive life. The contrasts of fiction versus reality are clear, but Cordingly offers us insight into the realities of the golden age of piracy that enrich, as well as clarify, the legends. (Crowe)

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Under a Cruel Star by Heda Margolius Kovaly (ISBN: 978-0841913776)
Heda Margolius Kovaly’s memoir, Under a Cruel Star, starts in Auschwtiz and ends during “Prague Spring” in 1968 (the popular uprising, crushed by the Soviets). In between, Kovaly’s husband, having joined the Communist Party and become a government minister, is arrested and executed. Kovaly, shunned in the beginning as an escapee from the occupying Germans, is later shunned as the wife of a disgraced Communist leader. Engaging reading. (Andy Matthews)

Volkswagen Blues by Jacque Poplin (ISBN: 978-189695423)
A man facing his mid-life crisis heads out in search of his long-lost brother. His only clue on where to start his search is a postcard received 15 years ago. He heads out in his VW mini-bus with a young woman he befriends in Gaspé only to end up crossing from the Canadian border, driving through the midwest and all the way to California on the Oregon Trail. This novel is wonderfully translated from it’s original Quebecois French version, is easy to read and may appeal to those planning travel adventures of their own this summer. (Williams)

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Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen (ISBN: 978-1565125605)
This is a story written in two voices—the voice of an elderly Jacob Jankowski and the voice of Jacob Jankowski as young man. The reader views his journeys in both the nursing home and his encounters as a 23 year old vet in the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, a traveling circus he joins during the Great Depression. There is danger as he falls in love with the wife of an unbalanced, sadistic circus boss. There is also sadness and laughter in his experiences in his life as a resident in a nursing home. You will also learn interesting details about the animals of the circus and the great depression. The best part is the delightful twist at the end of the book. (Dwiggins)

Zen Shorts by Jon J Muth (ISBN: 978-0439339117)
A Caldecott Honor Book, Zen Shorts proves essential for children and adults alike. Through his actions and reactions, Muth’s main character, Stillwater, a giant panda, challenges us to look again at our habitual fears, desires and world views. Rooted in meditative and contemplative practice, this set of tales teaches us important life lessons: patience, cooperation, letting things be and come as they are. (Braniger)

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