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Absalom! Absalom!
by William Faulkner
A great look at accessible modernist
narrative and what it's like to be cooped up away
from home. The southerner, Quentin Compson, tries
to explain his people to a Canadian over the course
of a night. "...[T]he two of them who four months
ago had never laid eyes on one another yet who
since had slept in the same room and eaten side
by side of the same food and used the same books
from which to prepare to recite in the same courses,
facing one another across the lamplit table on
which lay a pandora's box of scrawled paper...[in]
this dreamy and heatless alcove of what we call
the best of thought." What better way to celebrate
being out of the dorms for the summer? (Gardiner)
An Atlas of the Difficult
World by Adrienne Rich
Strongly crafted, passionate poems
that take on assorted complexities of getting by
and dealing with our flawed society. (Bradway)
The Balcony by Jean Genet
In the midst of a violent revolution,
a whorehouse caters to the compulsions of those
who need judges, priests, and generals to ground
a crumbling reality. A classic absurdist drama with
more than a little to say about the relationships
among sexuality, violence, and authority. (Sell)
The Basketball Diaries
by Jim Carroll
This is the adolescent journal of
Jim Carroll, poet, musician, and memorist, when
he attended Trinity High School on a basketball
scholarship and frequently faced their city rival,
Power Memorial, and their star at the time, Kareem
Abdul Jabaar (then Lew Alcindor). The Diaries recount
the tough streets of New York, Carroll's early call
to art, and his vivid stories of heroin addiction.
Made into an embarrassingly bad movie starring still
pre-pubescent Leo Di C, you'll need to read this
book before it's banned because of other moronic
uses of it. (Gardiner)
Berlin Stories by Christopher
Isherwood
A collection of interrelated stories
about the decadence of prewar Berlin. The play Cabaret
is based upon these; they are notable for being
concerned with homosexuality in the days when we
didn't talk about it. (Bradway)
Beyond Malthus: Ninteen Dimensions
of the Population Challenge by Lester R.
Brown, Brian Halweil, and Gary Gardner
Science writing at its best! (Guillory)
The Birth of the Beat Generation:
Visionaries, Rebels, and Hipsters, 1944-1960
by Steven Watson
The definitive book on the folks
that brought you the Counter-Culture. Excellent
photos of Jack and Allen. (Guillory)
Brazil by John Updike
Fascinating update of the Tristan
and Iseult romance, issues of race and class and
what-I'd-do-for-love, set in Rio de Janeiro and
the steamy South American jungle. (Sterns)
Breakfast on Pluto by
Patrick McCabe
Shortlisted for this year's Booker
Prize, McCabe's fifth novel tells the story of Paddy
Braden, the illegimate son of an Irish priest, lover
of a slain I.R.A. terrorist, possibly current operative
in England, and transvestite in London. Widely-praised,
this is a complex and enjoyable read as you are
taken from the average experiences of your "small-town
transvestite in Ireland" (Kirkus Review) to the
psychiatric couch of Dr. Terence to Paddy's lament,"
It's bombing night and I haven't a thing to wear!"
For all this, it is also an insightful look at identity,
nationality, gender, and violence at the century's
end. (Gardiner)
Cat on the Scent by Rita
Mae Brown
The latest in the Sneaky Pie Brown
mysteries. The animals take an even greater role
in helping to solve the murders of two prominent
citizens. (Shepherd)
Connecting the Dots by
Maxine Kumin
Kumin's poetry largely deals with
the sphere of the domestic, whether it be close
friendships, our home in the landscape, children,
or vegetables. She looks carefully at the small
things and events we often overlook. A gentle, careful
writer, now often noted as being the best friend
of poet Anne Sexton. (Bradway)
Cracking India by Bapsi
Sidhwa
Sidhwa is "Pakistan's leading woman
author" (New York Newsday). This is the story
of the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan, told
through a child. Political, personal, rich in detail.
A fabulous book. (Sterns)
A Face of a Stranger
by Anne Perry (the first William Monk novel)
A London mystery which takes place
during the late 1800's. In addition to helping us
hone our detective skills, we learn about the social
system of England during this time period. (Shepherd)
Girl With Curious Hair
by David Foster Wallace
Wallace won a MacArthur genius award
for his fiction. This collection of short stories
is a challenge to read but worth the effort. He's
a talented writer. (Boaz)
Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya
Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells (1997)
While this might seem on the surface
like a summer "fun" read, it also, between the lines,
deals rather seriously with motherhood, mother/daughter
jealousy, and the depth as well as strength of female
friendships. More here than what you might have
expected. (Crowe)
Going After Cacciato by
Tim O'Brien
A sad and peculiarly fantastic vision
of the Vietnam War, this lyrical novel tells the
tale of a soldier who escapes the action by traveling
to Paris (in his mind, maybe). (Bradway)
Hard Laughter by Anne
Lamott (author of Bird by Bird)
A touching story of a mother and
daughter's attempt to create a new family based
on love. (Shepherd)
The Hours by Michael
Cunningham
Cunningham recently won the Pulitizer
Prize in Fiction for this work, based on the life
of Virginia Woolf and her novel, Mrs. Dalloway.
(Boaz)
http://www.friendswood.lib.tx.us/frpubtop150.htm
a list of the 150 Best Novels of
the 20th Century, compiled from four different sources'
lists: Harvard Bookstore's Top 100 Recommended Titles,
Modern Library's 100 Best Novels, Koen Book Distributors'
top 100 Books of the Past Century, and Library Journal's
150 20th-century Most Influential Fiction. (O'Conner)
In the Loyal Mountains and
The Watch: Stories by Rick Bass
Any fiction or essay by Rick Bass
is sure to be rich in nature imagery and our own
reactions to the land around us. Far from being
simply a "nature writer," Bass also deals with the
conflicts of being human. (Bradway)
July's People by Nadine
Gordimer
An important work written by an important
South African writer. Really anything by her will
be worthwhile. R. King can provide more titles.
(Boaz)
Memoirs of a Geisha by
Arthur S. Golden (1999)
A rich account of a lifestyle familiar
to few, chronicling the day-by-day life of a geisha
from her involuntary "induction" to her final days
as former lover to a powerful Japanese man. While
this is classified as fiction, it is based on 10
years of research and offers much insight into Japanese
culture-history, daily life, and, especially, the
life of a certain "kind" of woman. (Crowe)
Mother Courage by Bertolt
Brecht
Perhaps Brecht's most penetrating
examination of the economics of war, this play also
features Brecht's most memorable stage effect: Mother
Courage's "silent scream." (Sell)
Omens of Millennium by
Harold Bloom (1996)
The Gnosis of Angels, Dreams, and
Resurrection. (Mihm)
Oscar Wilde by Richard
Ellmann
Still a classic in biography--beautifully
researched, highly readable, soundly argued. (Boaz)
Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen
Though known primarily for realist
and para-realist dramas such as A Doll's House
and The Master Builder, Ibsen also wrote
a small number of highly experimental--dare we say
"postmodern"?--pieces. Peer Gynt is one of
these. An epic drama about the rise and fall and
rise once again of a mythic slacker. (Sell)
A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
by Annie Dillard
This contemporary classic must be
read by anyone with any interest in the personal
essay. It's a tour de force of minute detail and
mystical attachments to the environment. It's beautifully
written. Dillard is one of the first women to become
known as a "creative non-fictionalist." (Bradway)
The Plumed Serpent by
D. H. Lawrence
In this work, Lawrence traces his
complicated journey to the god, Quetzalcoatl and
away from the "cowardice of two-legged humanity"
in America and Europe. A bizzare, flawed, frequently
tisked at, and completely enjoyable read. (Gardiner)
Prayers for Bobby by
Leroy Aarons
The true-life story of Bobby, who
commits suicide at the age of nineteen because of
his struggle with his own sexuality. The memoir
focuses on his mother's coming to terms with her
fundamentalist beliefs and her conversion to a political
activist. A must read. (Shepherd)
The Professor and the Madman
by Simon Winchester (1998)
Learn all about the creation of the
Oxford English Dictionary and the contributions
made by a scholar living in an insane asylum. Illustrated
with line drawing. (Guillory)
Push by Sapphire
I first encountered a portion of
this as short fiction in the New Yorker. Brilliant
use of dialect. It's the story of an inner-city
adolescent girl with more than her share of abuse
and heartbreak who discovers her voice. Painful
to read, but well worth it. (Sterns)
The Radiance of Pigs
by Stan Rice
A new book of poems by the spouse
of Anne Rice-grotesque, gory, but also good stuff.
(Guillory)
Rosie by Anne Lamott
(author of Bird by Bird)
Rosie, the daughter from Hard Laughter
reappears as an adult with all the charm and humor
of a child. (Shepherd)
Sir Patient Fancy (1678)
a play by Aphra Behn
Behn was the first woman to earn
a living as a professional writer. Like most of
her plays, this one is a silly romp through the
sexual exploits of the men and women of Restoration
England. Since our theatre department will be producing
this comedy of manners next fall, I think the summer
is a perfect time to become acquainted with the
work. Copies are hard to find, but I would be glad
to share a xerox. (Detmer)
Snow Falling From Cedars
by David Guterson
It's an excellent book about people
crossing cultural boundaries, or the difficulty
of doing so, based on the Japanese confinement during
world war two. In a little fishing village in the
Pacific Northwest, a journalist comes home from
the war and finds that the real war of understanding
and accepting humanity beyond our narrow concepts
of "enemies" is a battle that takes more than bullets.
It's a good read by a new voice in American fiction.
(Brooks)
Southern Cross by Patricia
Cornwell (This book is dedicated to Millikin alum,
Marcia H. Morey)
The nation's premiere crime writer,
the second in a series about the women and men in
blue. Southern Cross takes place in Richmond, Virginia,
and covers all the nuances of a city still entrenched
in the Civil War. (Shepherd)
Straight Man by Richard
Russo
A hilarious novel based on the antics
of a crazed English department at a small college.
If you like David Lodge or Jane Smiley's Moo, you
will like this one too! (Detmer)
Teach Us to Outgrow our Madness
by Kenzeburoe
Four short novels by Japan's Nobel
Prize winning writer. (Mihm)
to be real edited by
Rebecca Walker (daughter of Alice Walker)
A collection of essays written by
young activists recasting the definitions of feminism
based on their individual experiences and beliefs.
Forward by Gloria Steinem and afterward by Angela
Y. Davis. (Shepherd)
Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old
Man, a Young Man, and the Last Great Lesson by
Mitch Albom (1997)
A brief but powerful, true account
of Albom's weekly visits to his former professor,
a professor slowly dying of Lou Gehrig's Disease.
While written in journalistic style, Albom nevertheless
captures the spirit and integrity of a very dear,
insightful man during the last months of his life.
Far from what might seem to be a maudlin story,
life (and what's important to Morrie Schwartz, and
perhaps to all of us) is reaffirmed, as Morrie,
through Albom, passes on its "greatest lessons."
(Crowe)
What Is Work: Poems by
Philip Levine
Phil Levine worked in a factory before
he got up the gumption to become a poet. This experience
has given him a relentlessly blue collar view of
the world of work in all its mechanical grit. (Bradway) |
