About Books, WVIK, 90.3 FM, Augustana College: About Books, May 22, 2010

Thursday, May 20, 2010

About Books, May 22, 2010

Jordan Goodman tells the little known story of the brutality of early rubber barons in The Devil and Mr. Casement: One Man's Battle for Human Rights in South America's Heart of Darkness. Roger Casement is a British diplomat sent to investigate Julio Arana (the Devil) and the Peruvian Amazon Company. It has loads of adventure, politics and biographical detail.

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Books Recommended on About Books

Katie Kiley recommends "Lucretia Borgia" by Sarah Bradford, "Murder of a Medici Princess" by Caroline Murphy and "Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling" by Ross King.
Rae Mary recommends the works of Octavia Butler.
Hedy Hustedde recommends"Love Haiku" edited by Patricia Donegan, "Thrillers" edited by David Morrell and Hand Wagner and "Animal Factor" by David Kirby.
Hedy Hustedde recommends "Female Nomad and Friends" by Rita Golden Gelman, "52 Loaves" by William Alexander and "Drinking Arak Off an Ayatollah's Beard" by Nicholas Jubber.
Hedy Hustedde recommends "At Home" by Bill Bryson, "Life Would Be Perfect IF I LIved in That House" by Meghan Dauem and "Let's Take the Long Way Home" by Gail Caldwell.
Judi Sarafin recommends "Fall of Giants" by Ken Follett, "Ape House" by Sara Gruen and " The Invisible Bridge" by Julie Orringer.
Judi Sarafin recommends "A Secret Kept" by Tatiana de Rosnay and "The Widower's Tale" by Julia Glass.
Michael Hustedde recommends "A Guide to the Good LIfe" by William Irvine and "Playing with the Enemy" by Gary Moore.
Emily Navarre recommends "Rock Island Line" and "Driftless" by David Rhodes.
Emily Navarre recommends "Loving Frank" by Nancy Horan.
Adam Kaul recommends The Singing Neaderthals by Steve Mithin and This is Your Brain of Music by Daniel Levitin.
Kelly Daniels rcommends Donald Johnson's "California Gothic."
Paul Selau recommends "The Day We Found the Universe," by Marcia Bartusiak.
Paul Selau recommends "Mysterious Universe: Supernovae, Dark Energy and Black Holes (Scientists in the Field)," by Ellen Jackson and Nic Bishop.
Paul Selau recommends "The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science," by Richard Holmes.
Paul Selau recommends "The Birth of Time: How Astronomers Measured the Age of the Universe," by Dr. John Gribbin.
Paul Selau recommends "What On Earth Evolved?: 100 Species That Changed the World," by Christopher Lloyd et al.
Paul Selau recommends "Seeing Further: the Story of Science and the Royal Society," by Bill Bryson.
David Crowe recommends "The Things They Carried" and "In the Lake of the Woods" by Tim O'Brien.
David Crowe recommends "365 Days" by Ron Glasser.
David Crow recommends 'The Perfect Spy" by Ron Berman and "The Quiet American" by Graham Greene.
David Crowe recommends "The Big Oyster" by Mark Kurlanskuy and 'Tried by War" by James McPherson.
David Crowe recommends "Black Hawk" by Kerry Trask and "Americans in Paris" by Charles Glass.
Judi Sarafin recommends "Lake Shore Limited" by Sue Miller and "Imperfect Birds" by Anne Lamott.
Hedy Hustedde recommends "Bloomsburg Good Reading Guides" and "Yours Ever" byThoman Mallon.
Judi Sarafin recommends "The Postmistress" by Sarah Blake and "Brava Valentine" by Adrianna Trigiani.
Hedy Hustedde recommends "Wilflower" by Mark Seal
Judi Sarafin recommends "The Irresistible Henry House" by Lisa Grunwald and " The Three Weissmanns of Westport" be Cathleen Shine.
Hedy Hustedde recommends "Bright Wings" edited by Billy Collins and "Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book."
Deborah VanSpeybroeck recommends "The Magicians" by Lev Grossman.
Deborah VanSpeybroeck recommends "The Piano Shop on the Left Bank" by Thad Carhart.
Pam Collins recommends Redwall by Brian Jacques.
Jason Peters recommends "Winter Harvest Handbook" by Elliot Coleman, "The Perfect Storm" by Sebastian Junger and "Surprised by Joy" by C. S. Lewis.
Jason Peters recommends "Leavings," "Bringing It To The Table," and "Imagination Place" all by Wendall Berry.
Jason Peters recommends "Winter's Bone" by Daniel Woodrell and "Old Cape Magic" by Richard Russo.
Pam Collins recommends Jasper FForde's "Shades of Grey."
Deborah Van Speybroeck recommends "The Piano shop on the Left Bank" by Thad Carhart.
Deborah Van Speybroeck recommends "The Magicians" by Lev Grossman.
Jan Keessen recommends "Breaking Clean" by Judy Blunt.
Rae Mary recommends the works of Walter Mosely.
William Pepper recommends his own book, "In the St. Nick of Time"
Sarah Gardner's The Calculus of Owls, a book of poems published by Dancing Girl Press.
Hedy Hustedde recommends Anna Thomas' "Love Soup," John Freeman's "The Tyranny of E-mail" and Dave Eggers" "Zeitoun"
Hedy Hustedde recommends Alson Gpnik's "The Philosophical Baby," Nick Reding's "Methland," and Carlotta LaNeir's "A Mighty Long Way"
Judi Sarafin recommends William Trevor's "Love and Summer," Jacquelyn Mitchard's "No Time to Wave Goodbye," and Richard Russo's "That Old Cape Magic"
Judi Sarafin recommends E.L. Doctorow"s "Homer and Langley", Barbara Kingsolver's "The Lacuna" and John Irving's "Last Night at Twisted River"
Dean Kilnkenberg recommends his "Quad Cities Travel Guide"
Sonita Oldfield-Carlson recommends "The Guernsey Literary and Potatoe Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Sonita Oldfield-Carlson recommends "Cooking with Shelburne Farms"
Sonita Oldfield-Carlson recommends "Return to Sullivan's Island" by Dorthea Benton Frank
Ella Johns recommends all the novels of T. C. Boyle
Lisa Powell Williams recommends "Home Safe" by Elizabeth Berg.
Tami Finley recommends " Masterpiece" by Elise Broach
Tami Finley recommends "I'm the Best Artist in the Ocean" by Kevin Sherry
Tami Finley recommends "Not a Stick" by Antoinette Portis
Tami Finley recommends "Uncle Andy's" by James Welch
Michael Hustedde recommends "The Poet of Tolstoy Park" by Sonny Brewer
Mike Hustedde recommends "April in Paris" by Michael Wallner
Mike Hustedde recommends "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
Mike Hustedde recommends "Amish Grace" by Donald Kraybill
Mike Hustedde recommends "Disgrace" by J.M. Coetzee
Kitty Alexander recommends " Chanplain's Dream" by David Hackett Fischer
Ms. Steve Drucker recommends Why People Don't Heal and How They Can by Caroline Myss
Ms. Steve Drucker recommends Renaissance Soul by Margaret Lobenstine
Paul Selau recommends "Salt: Grain of Life" by Pierre Lazlow
Paul Selau recommends "Ancestors Tale" by Richard Dawkins
Paul Selau recommends "On the Shoulders of Giants" by Steven Hawking
Paul Selau recommends Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen of the Troubadours" by Jean Markale
Paul Selay recommends "Heloise and Abelard" by James Burge
Paul Selay recommends "Helen of Troy" by Bettany Hughes
Paul Selau recommends "Physics of the Impossible" by Michico Kaku
Paul Selau recommends "Rimbaud: The Double Life of a Rebel" by Edmund White
Paul Selau recommends " The Pirate Queen" by Susan Ronald
Paul Selau recommends Ovid's "Metamorphoses" read by Barry Kraft
Paul Selau recommends "Origin of the Species" by Charles Darwin
Fran Wojnar recommends her mystery, "Magdalena's Conflict"
Owen Rogal recommends Lori Lansens' "The Girls" and Joseph Mitchell's "Up in the Old Hotel."
Owen Rogal recommends "Moby Dick" and "Walden."
Owen Rogal recommends Dickens' "Bleakhouse" and George Eliot's "Middlemarch."
Nancy Huse recommends "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
Rae Mary recommends the mysteries of Dana Stabenow
Rae Mary recommends "Mirage" by Soheir Khashoggi
Rae Mary recommends "Until the Sea Shall Free Them" by Robert Frump
Rae Mary recommends "The Man Eaters of Eden" by Robert Frump
Rae Mary recommends "Two Tankers Down" by Robert Frump
Hedy Hustedde recommends "Middlesex" by Jefferey Eugenides.
Hedy Hustedde recommends "Behind My Eyes" by Li-Young Lee.
Hedy Hustedde recommends "Disgrace" by J. M. Coetzee.
Judi Sarafin recommends "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" by David Wroblewski.
Judi Sarafin recommends "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.
Judi Sarafin recommends "Murder is Binding" by Lorna Barrett.
Judi Sarafin recommends "Loving Frank" by Nancy Horan.
Hedy Hustedde recommends "Evolution for Everyone" by David Sloan Wilson.
Hedy Hustedde recommends "Mistress of the Art of Death" by Ariana Franklin.
Sonita Oldfield-Carlson recommends "The Space Between" by Kali Van Baale and "Fish Bone the Potter" by Mark Levy.
Margie Rogal recommends "The God of Animals" by Aryn Kyle.
Margie Rogal recommends the poetry of Li-Young. Try his new book, "Behind My Eyes."
Margie Rogal recommends the poetry of Kevin Stein, Poet Laureate of Illinois
Caran Johnson recommends "Revolution is Not a Dinner Party" by Ying Chang Compestine
Steve Drucker recommends "#1 Ladies Detective Agency" by Alexander McCall Smith
Steve Drucker recommends "No Future Without Forgiveness" by Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Dee Canfield recommends "The Cloud of Unknowing" by an unknown 14th Century monk
Dee Canfield recommends "Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening" by Cynthia Bourgeault
Dee Canfield recommends " Open Mind, Open Heart" by Father Thomas Keating
Dee Canfield recommends "Gaudy Night" by Dorothy Sayers
Dee Canfield recommends "Brat Farrar" by Josephine Tey
Dee Canfield recommends "Who Killed Roger Ackroyd" by Pierre Bayard
Dee Canfied recommends "Murder of Roger Ackroyd" by Agatha Christie.
Dee Canfield recommends "The Discovery of Poetry" by Frances Mayes
Henry Shukman recommends Morning in Mexico by D. H. Lawrence
Paul Selau recommends Endless Forms Most Beautiful: the New Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom by Sean B. Carroll
Paul Selau recommends The Richness of LIfe: the Essential Stephen Jay Gould by Stephen Jay Gould, Oliver Sacks and Stephen Rose
Paul Selau recommends Classic Feynman: All the Advistures of a Curious Character edited by Ralph Leighton
Paul Selau recommends A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down by Robert B. Laughlin
Paul Selau recommends After the Ice: A Global Human History 20,000-5,000 B.C. by Steven Mithen
Paul Selau recommends 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles Mann
Paul Selau recommends: Snowball Earth: The Story of a Maverick Scientist and His Theory of the Global Catastrophe That Spawned Life As We Know It by Gabrielle Walker
Paul Selau, Scott Co.Library, recommends: Cool It:The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming by Bjorn Lomborg
Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America by Kenn Kaufman
Novels by T. Jefferson Parker recommended by John Lescroat
John James Audubon Writings and Drawings published by The Library of America and The Audubon Reader edited by Richard Rhodes both recommended by Thomas Joswick
Dawn Powell: Novels 1930-1942 (Library of America) recommended by Kitty Burns Florey

Off the Shelf

December 1: I'm immersed in 18th centure Japan via "The 1000 Autumns of Jacob de Zoet." Fabulous.
I'm deep into "Everything" by Kevin Canty. It's a novel set in Montana. Lovely.
July 31: A friend loaned me her copy of Christopher Hitchen's Memoir, "Hitch 22." Very interesting.
July 9: I'm enjoying The Three Evangelists by Fred Vargas.
June 17: For fun reading try Oleg Steinhauer. His first Milo Weaver spy story is "The Tourist," followed by"The Nearest Exit." George Clooney has the film option.
June 5: I tried and liked a new Scandanavian mystery writer. He is Johan Theorin and the book is "Echoes from the Dead."
May 14: Christopher de Bellaigue's "Rebel Land; Unraveling the Riddle of History in a Turkish Town" is a fascinating study of a village and the different views of its history by the Sunni, Alevis and Armenian residents.
May 1: I discovered an interesting Minnesota writer, Erin Hart, and her book "False Mermaid" which is set in St. Paul and Ireland.
April 1: Just had the pleasure of reading "The Mapping of Love and Death," a Maisie Dobbs mystery.
February 11: I just finished "The Preacher," the second Swedish mystery by Camilla Lackberg. She's a pretty good substitute when you've run out of Henning Mankell mysteries.
January 28: I've discovered a new mystery writer, Lenny Bartulin. His first is called "Death by the Book" and is about a used book dealer in Australia.
January 9: I'm enjoying Katie Roiphe's "Uncommon Arrangements," a biography of seven marriages including those of H.G. Wells, Katherine Mansfield and Vera Brittain.
December 25: Just read a new Finnish mystery by James Thompson called "Snow Angels." Read it in the summer when you want to cool off. He really can portray the deep freeze that is a Finnish winter. The story is pretty good as well.
November 20: I just finished Barbara Kingsolver's "The Lacuna." Wonderful.
October 9: I just finished reading Willaim Trevor's "Love and Summer, " a bittersweet love story as well as a picture of the folk in a small Irish village.
September 10: I'm having a ball reading Judith Jones culinary memoir, The Tenth Muse. She is the editor of all of Julia Child's cookbooks.
August 21: I immersed in Iain Pears' "Stones Fall."
August 5: A friend loaned Nancy Milford's "Savage Beauty: the Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay." It's fabulous.
July 31: I wanted something different to read so the other day I picked off my shelf Ruth Reichl's "Garlic and Sapphires." It's a rollicking tale of her days as food critic for the NY Times. Love it.
July 15: I'm reading "The Turtle Catcher" a story of German immigrants to Minnesota aroung WWI by Nicole Helget. It's fabulous.
July 8: Dan Simmon's "Drood" is a LONG be interesting read about 1860's London, Charles Dickens, and Wilkie Collins.
July 1: Just finished Colm Toibin's "Brooklyn." It's a wonderfully gentle story of a young Irish woman who emigrates to the US after World War II.
June 22:I am midway in the795 page novel "Drood" by Dan Simmons.
May 31: I am enjoying Philip Kerr's "Berlin Noir", a collection of three novels set in Berlin in the years before WWII.
May 7: Henning Mankell is one of my favorites and his new novel, "Italian Shoes" is a lovely story of loss and redemption.
May 1: I'm reading the Pulitzer Prize novel, "Olive Kitteridge" by Elizabeth Strout. Very wonderful.
April 22: I'm reading "The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher" by Kate Summerscale. It just won the Man Booker prize for best non-fiction. It is about one of England's first detectives and a countryhouse murder in the 1860's.
April 9: I just finished Philip Kerr's "A Quiet Flame." It's a mystery novel set in the Weimar Republic and in Argentina following WWII. Loved it.
March 26: A friend called to encourage me to read "Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China" by Jung Chang. I'm half way through and can't put it down.
March 11: I'm reading Georgina Howell's "Gertrude Bell, Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations." It's a vivid protrait of a woman with one foot in the Victorian age and one in the 20th century.
February 12: George Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia" is his personal account of the Spanish Civil War and wonderful reading.
February 4: I just finished "Exit Music," Ian Rankin's last Inspector Rebus mystery. I will miss Rebus terribly. If you haven't read Rankin, start with "Knots and Crosses" and work your way through.
January 11: I've been reading "Origins" by Amin Maalouf. The Lebonese writer searches for his family history which coincides with the end of the Ottoman Empire.
December 15: It's snowing today so I picked an old (1930) book to snuggle in with: Margery Allingham's Mystery Mile.
December 5: Louis de Bernieres' "A Partison's Daughter" is a modern love story. The first sentence is : I am not the sort of man who goes to prostitutes. And it only gets better.
November 11: I'm reading Ariel Sabar's "My Father's Paradise." In it Ariel discovers his family's history in Kurdish Iraq.
October 29: It's on every best seller list, but I'd like to add my own recommendation of Tom Friedman's "Hot, Flat and Crowded." It is a very important book.
October 9: I just finished a debut Irish mystery, "Borderlands," by Brian McGilloway. I found it absorbing, fast paced and real. I'll add McGilloway to my list of mystery writers to watch for.
September 23: Asa Larsson is a favorite Swedish mystery writer of mine. I'm reading her third, "The Black Path." She is great at character development.
August 22: I love riding around the midwest discovering bits of original prairie. I always take with me "Tallgrass Prairie Wildflowers" by Doug Ladd with beautiful photos by Frank Oberle.
August 8: I may be crazy but I've always wanted to read the 12 novels of "Dance to the Music of Time" by Anthony Powell. So this week I took volume one off the shelf and started. Wish me luck.
July 30: "Little Heathens" by Mildred Armstrong Kalish is an award winning non-fiction books about growing up in Iowa during the Depression. A terrific book for everyone over 14 years of age.
July 25: Another friend recommended a Tudor England mystery writer, C. J. Sansom. I'm reading his first, "Dissolution," in which Matthew Shardlake investigates a murder at Scarnsea monastery.
July 17: A friend of mine kept recommending John Burdett's "Bangkok 8." I finally read it, almost in one sitting it was so compelling. Very exotic mystery.
July 9: Don't miss Hakan Nesser's "Mind's Eye," an Inspector Van Veeteren mystery. Nesser is a Swedish author and his books make cool summer reading.
June 26: I found "Travels with Herodotus" by Ryszard Kapuscinski in a London bookstore. Kapuscinski was a Polish traveller-reporter and this is the story of his travels and his traveling companion, "The Histories" by Herodotus.
June 11: "The Bolter" by Frances Osborne was recommended to me while I was traveling in England. It's the story of Idina Sackville, cousin of Vita, who sandalized 1920's society. Very gossipy. I love it.
June 4: A favorite memoir of mine is "Quicksands" by Sybille Bedford. Her story takes her from World War l Berlin to the bohemia in France in the 1920's to London during World War ll.
May 29: Henning Mankell is one of my favorite authors. His new novel, "The Eye of the Leopard," interweaves the past ( in Sweden) and the present (in Africa) of Hans Olofson, who travels to Africa on vacation and never leaves.
May 22: Today I pulled "84, Charing Cross Road" from my shelves. Written by Helene Hanff, it's a charming exchange of letters between Helend and a London bookseller. Delightful.
May 15: I picked up "Carmen" by Nicholas Murray at Foyles Book Store in London and read it on the plane coming home. Set primarily in London, it's a look at infidelity and its consequences. A good, light read.
March 27: I will not tell a lie. "Lush LIfe" by Richard Price is off the library shelf not my home shelves. It has been well reviewed and Price was a guest on the first Titlepage.tv, a new web site that shows interviews of authors. "Lush Life" is tough New York city novel about a murder and lives of many involved in the crime.
March 14: "An Incomplete Revenge" by Jacqueline Winspear. I love to read about the years between the two World Wars. Winspear writes a nice mystery series set in England after WWI with Maisie Dobbs as the detective. I would recommend starting with the first of the series, "Maisie Dobbs" and continue with "Birds of a Feather," Pardonable Lies," and "Messenger of Truth." Then read this latest story that involves gypsies, hops pickers and land deals in an around London.
March 5: "Onward and Upward in the Garden" by Katharine White. I just ordered crocosmia bulbs this week and it put me in the mood for spring and gardening. This book is a compilation of White's pieces first published in The New Yorker magazine. If you too are tired of gray skies and snow, pick up this book and the sun will shine.
Feb. 28: "Voices" by Arnaldur Indridason. This is an outstanding mystery set in Reykjavik, Iceland. Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson investigates a murder at a hotel.just as Christmas approaches. The combination of the shocking secrets he uncovers and his own personal and family problems makes for unbeatable reading. Indridason wond the Glasss Key Award for Best Nordic Crime Novel for both his two previous books, "Jar City" and "Silence of the Grave."
Feb. 19: "The Caliph's House" by Tahir Shah. If you are tired of reading about someone moving to Tuscany and saving an old house, try this funny story of moving to Casablanca and saving a pile contaminated with evil spirits. It's a painless way to see inside Moroccan culture and folklore.
Feb. 6: "The Pleasure of Their Company" by Doris Grumbach. This is a small, beautiful account of Grumbach's remembering writers, friends and loves as she plans a party for her 80th birthday. Recalled are such persons as Carson McCullers, Malcolm Cowley and Virginia Wolff. A joy to read.