suggestions from friends
| Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac Autobiographical novel by Jack Kerouac, published in 1958. The story's narrator, Raymond Smith, is based on Kerouac himself, and the poet-woodsman-Buddhist, Japhy Ryder, is a thinly disguised portrait of the poet Gary Synder. The book contains a number of other characters who are drawn from actual poets and writers. The plot unfolds when Smith, who is suffering spiritual conflicts amid the emptiness of middle-class American life, meets Ryder, whom he immediately recognizes as a spiritual model. The novel tells of the growth of their friendship and Smith's groping toward personal understanding. These two ebullient young men are engaged in a passionate search for Dharma, or Truth. They seek the lesson of solitude--when they can find time--between forays into the pagan groves of San Francisco's Bohemia. An absolutely essential read! We need this book now more than ever! |
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| Better Training for Distance Runners by David E. Martin, Peter N. Coe The purpose of the book is to be a comprehensive guide to training distance runners. If you are serious about your efforts in fulfilling your potential as a runner you will need to address all aspects of training. For some that may mean having a scientific fundamental understanding of how the body responds to training. The first 4 chapters of the book, which focuses on the physiology of running. Running, like any athletic activity, is about training the body's energy systems. This book will get you thinking in a whole new way about your approach to running. An excellent resource for all distance runners. |
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| Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin The classic book on home birth! The first section details the experiences of parents and midwives during the birth experience. The second seciton is a technical manual for midwives, nurses, and doctors. Includes information on prenatal care and nutrition, labor, delivery-techniques, care of the new baby, and breast-feeding. This book is a wonderful resource for all soon-to-be mothers whether you plan on delivering at home, hospital or birthing center. Women can give birth naturally! |
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| Daniels' Running Formula by Jack Daniels, Alberto Salazar Called the "World's Greatest Coach" by "Runner's World", Daniels combines his coaching insights with his Olympic background to provide runners with proven training programs and racing strategies for the 1,500-meter run to the marathon. |
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| Still Here : Embracing Aging, Changing, and Dying by Ram Dass After being introduced for a lecture, Ram Dass eschewed the stairs and, from his front row seat, leapt up on to the stage--or tried to, anyway, but age and gravity brought him crashing back to earth. Like other baby boomers, Ram Dass has learned the hard way that aging is unkind to the body. But he has also learned that it can be an opportunity for growth. While others begin to devalue you, you can reconnect with the spiritual, grow into wisdom, and create value for yourself. In Still Here, Ram Dass offers a philosophy for aging that teaches us how to diminish our suffering despite the aches, pains, and limitations of age. This becomes possible when we step away from the ego-self and into the soul-self, where we can witness our thoughts and emotions and evaluate their effects on us. If aging has brought challenges to Ram Dass, it has also brought him wisdom, which, through his personal anecdotes and stories of others in the struggle against aging, he shares with great generosity. This is an inspirational and motivational book-- highly recommended. |
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| Anne Willan : From My Chateau Kitchen by Anne Willan, Langdon Clay (Photographer) From My Château Kitchen revolves around three subjects: the author's life in the 17th-century Burgundian château she and her husband own; the work of the farmers, vintners, restaurateurs, and others who live in the area and define its spirit; and Burgundian food, the glorious regional plats that represent a time-honored yet ever-evolving cuisine. Anne Willan, founder and president of La Varenne cooking school (now headquartered at the château), skillfully weaves these strands into a romantic but down-to-earth memoir. With more than 300 color photos and 160 adroitly selected recipes, the book offers both armchair excitement and practical kitchen direction. Those drawn to French regional cooking and the life that anchors it will embrace the book. C'est bon a' manger! |
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| It's Not About the Bike : My Journey Back to Life by Lance Armstrong People around the world have found inspiration in the story of Lance Armstrong--a world-class athlete nearly struck down by cancer, only to recover and win the Tour de France, the multiday bicycle race famous for its grueling intensity. Armstrong is a thoroughgoing Texan jock, and the changes brought to his life by his illness are startling and powerful, but he's just not interested in wearing a hero suit. While his vocabulary is a bit on the he-man side (highest compliment to his wife: "she's a stud"), his actions will melt the most hard-bitten souls: a cancer foundation and benefit bike ride, his astonishing commitment to training that got him past countless hurdles, loyalty to the people and corporations that never gave up on him. There's serious medical detail here, which may not be for the faint of heart; from chemo to surgical procedures to his wife's in vitro fertilization, you won't be spared a single x-ray, IV drip, or unfortunate side effect. Athletes and coaches everywhere will benefit from the same extraordinary detail provided about his training sessions--every aching tendon, every rainy afternoon, and every small triumph during his long recovery is here in living color. It's Not About the Bike is the perfect title for this book about life, death, illness, family, setbacks, and triumphs, but not especially about the bike. |
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| How to Use Yoga : A Step-By-Step Guide to the Iyengar Method ofYoga, for Relaxation, Health and Well-Being by Mira Mehta I often had questions that arose during my home yoga practice, particularly about how to sequence the poses. I am so happy to have found Mira Mehta's "How to Use Yoga." This book is packed with information in a balanced blend of text instruction and pictorial guidance for each pose. Best of all, the author includes a ten-week practice course in an easy-to-follow format, along with sequences for common problems and special times, such as back pain, headaches, and menstruation. Get this book: It's like having a yoga teacher at home! |
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| Chicago Running Guide (City Running Guide Series) by Brenda Barrera, Eliot Wineberg Local runner Brenda Barrera joins forces with Eliot Wineberg, publisher of the Chicago Amateur Athlete and produced the definitive guide to running in Chicago-- with up to date maps, parking and driving instructions and accurate descriptions of more than twenty of the best running routes in the greater Chicagoland area. |
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| Doggone Chicago : Sniffing Out the Best Places to Take Your Best Friend by Steve Dale Now, you'll learn about dog friendly festivals, restaurants, even bars where you can take your best friend.. We ranked hundreds of parks and forest preserves, and dog beaches from the canine point of view, counting trees and fire hydrants. Also, listed are places to take dogs off-a-leash, including dog training areas in DuPage and Lake Counties.. Did you know you can bring a dog to Shakespeare in the Park in Oak Park or on a cruise line on Lake Michigan. Lots of pet parades and costume contests for pets are listed, and if you happen to have a pug, you can be in the twice annual pug crawl. Helping with the research of this book were Lucy and Chaser and their canine staff including Bayla, Bonnie, Porkchop, Breathless, Kalea, Sophie and Boots Montgomery, as well as chief research trainers of dogs, Jamie and Mallory Donenberg. This book is personally recommended by Cooper and Miranda-- woof woof! |
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| Visions of Cody by Jack Kerouac Kerouac's most radical experiment in language and storytelling is Visions of Cody, an "enormous paean" to that singular and influential figure Neal Cassady. A fusion of radical improvisation, bold reportate, and oracular voice, it is his ultimate version of the On the Road story. Written during 1951-52, this novel was an underground legend by the time it was finally published in 1972. Written in an experimental form, Kerouac created the ultimate account of his voyages with Neal Cassady, which he captured in a different form for On the Road. A truly incredible book to re-discover... "I wrote the book because we are all gonna die...." READ IT! |
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| Colors by Ken Nordine, Henrik Drescher (Illustrator) Nordine's multi-hued "word jazz" breathes fiery life into the quirky personalities of colors. On each two-page spread, Nordine tackles a new color with a snazzy, jazzy, hip poem depicting all its woes and wonders. Olive is suffering from low self-esteem--who knew? And silly azure, with its nutty ideas, just likes to be different. The author truly soars with his treatise on the color "flesh": "Flesh, as a color, is an awful mess." If all the flesh colors refuse to "establish a sensible sanity/ among differences... flesh, as a color,/ could be black and blue/ or even a bloody hue." Henrik Drescher's wacky and wild illustrations make use of a child's drawings from the 1930s, as well as his own remarkable and unique imagination to create what might be the first glimpses of the real personalities of yellow, purple, chartreuse, and the rest. We're confident that young artists, writers, and musicians will love discovering the greens inside the green as much as we do. (Ages 6 and older) |
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| Timbuktu by Paul Auster In Timbuktu Paul Auster tackles homelessness in America using a dog as his point-of-view character, and it actually works. Filtering the homeless experience through the relentlessly unsentimental eye of a dog, the writer avoids miring the tale in an excess of melodrama. Timbuktu remains tightly focused on just two characters: Mr. Bones, "a mutt of no particular worth or distinction," and his master, Willy G. Christmas, a middle-aged schizophrenic who has been on the streets since the death of his mother four years before. Now Willy is dying and anxious to find a home for both his dog and the multitude of manuscripts he has stashed in a Greyhound bus terminal. Paul Auster is a cerebral writer, preferring to get to his reader's gut through the brain. When Willy dies, he goes out on a sea of words; as for Mr. Bones, this is a dog who can think about metaphysical issues such as the afterlife--referred to by Willy as "Timbuktu". A terrific read-- highly recommended. |
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| Armadillo by William Boyd Boyd adds a deep layer of psychological heft and a lighter level of humor to this thinking-person's thriller by exploring Lorimer's manifold personal and social fears. This is a man who desperately collects ancient helmets even though he knows they offer only "the illusion of protection." Another of Armadillo's many pleasures: its dose of delicious argot. Should Lorimer "oil" the apparent perpetrator of the Fedora Palace arson before he's oiled himself? Or perhaps he just needs to "put the frighteners" on him. Boyd definitely puts the frighteners on his readers more than once in this cinematically seedy and dazzling literary display. Quite a pleasant read-- highly recommended. |
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| The Woman and the Ape by Peter Hoeg {Barbara Haveland (Translator)} Those of us over a certain age find ourselves acquainted with many unattached women justly complaining that a good man is hard to find. In this satiric novel the heroine solves this problem by running off with an ape. This book opens the way to a new genre of reading that not only stimulates in an entertaining manner, but forces the reader to re-think his humanity. It poses a new question as to man's place at the top of the world. The many faceted characters keep you pondering what will occur next in the book. And once you read the first paragraph, you cannot possibly put down the book until you reach the last page. |
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| Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg Smilla Jaspersen, half Danish, half Greenlander, attempts to understand the death of a small boy who falls from the roof of her apartment building. Her childhood in Greenland gives her an appreciation for the complex structures of snow, and when she notices that the boy's footprints show he ran to his death, she decides to find out who was chasing him. As she attempts to solve the mystery, she uncovers a series of conspiracies and cover-ups and quickly realizes that she can trust nobody. Her investigation takes her from the streets of Copenhagen to an icebound island off the coast of Greenland. What she finds there has implications far beyond the death of a single child. The unusual setting, gripping plot, and compelling central character add up to one of the most fascinating and literate thrillers of recent years. A great read, highly recommended. |
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| White Noise by Don DeLillo White Noise captures the particular strangeness of life in a time where humankind has finally learned enough to kill itself. Naturally, it's a terribly funny book, and the prose is as beautiful as a sunset through a particulate-filled sky. Nice-guy narrator Jack Gladney teaches Hitler Studies at a small college. His wife may be taking a drug that removes fear, and one day a nearby chemical plant accidentally releases a cloud of gas that may be poisonous. Writing before Bhopal and Prozac entered the popular lexicon, Delillo produced a work so closely tuned into its time that it tells the future. |
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| Underworld by Don Delillo Spanning five decades and using recurrent images (garbage, graffiti, a smudged baseball) to link dozens of vignettes and characters, the mammoth novel takes for its subject nothing less than the complete Cold War. But though Korea, Cuba, and Vietnam haunt its pages, as do oil embargoes, student riots, and the arms race, Underworld is not a political novel. It is a black comedy about the psychic fallout of nuclear terror: what it felt like to exist year after year with the knowledge that "every privilege in your life and every thought in your mind depends on the ability of the two great powers to hang a threat over the planet. This is a stunning book, crisp and intricate writing with interwoven tales. It provokes a strong sense of place and time. Highly recommended. |
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| Master and
Commander by Patrick O'Brian The opening salvo of the Aubrey-Maturin epic, in which the surgeon introduces himself to the captain by driving an elbow into his ribs during a chamber-music recital. Fortunately for millions of readers, the two quickly make up. Then they commence one of the great literary voyages of our century, set against an immaculately-detailed backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. This is the place to start--and in all likelihood, you won't be able to stop. |
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| Midnight
in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt Atale told by a Northern writer who lives half the time in Savannah provides a firsthand look at these mysteries, at the charisma behind the South's particular brand of good and evil. At the heart of the book is the story of Savannah's most celebrated murder, in which an eccentric antique dealer is accused of having killed his male companion. A "lyrical work of nonfiction," and the book's extremely graceful prose depictions of some of Savannah, Georgia's most colorful eccentrics--remarkable characters who could have once prospered in a William Faulkner novel or Eudora Welty short story. Highly recommended as a fun and engaging read. |
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| A Widow for One
Year by John Irving Irving's latest novel, masterfully conceived and constructed, is a joy to read. Ruth Cole is Irving's first protagonist. She bears emotional scars from childhood and young womanhood that are, ironically, the impetus behind her distinguished writing career. (And Ruth is surrounded by a remarkably rich supporting cast.) The narrative is divided into three parts, each limning a pivotal period in Ruth's life. The summer of 1958 finds four-year-old Ruth, who is the daughter of a separated couple, Ted and Marion Cole (Ted a well-known writer of children's books), coming in on her mother while she is engaged in sex with Eddie O'Hara, Ted's 16-year-old assistant. Ruth understands that her mother is devoted, not to her or even to Eddie, but to her two brothers, both of whom died before Ruth's birth. Photos of the boys are her mother's hallowed possessions. The second section is framed by the year 1990, as Ruth, now in her thirties, enjoys critical and popular regard as a novelist. Still messy, though, are her relations with the opposite sex. The third section takes place just five years later, and Ruth finds her life enriched by love. As one excellently rendered scene follows another, each scene at once ribald, humorous, and tender, Irving achieves a nuanced depiction of overcoming familial and sexual dysfunction. Highly recommended as an enjoyable and engaging read. |
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| Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr Timequake is purportedly Kurt Vonnegut's last book, and while it probably won't be quite what readers would expect from the old sci-fi master, it's a fine book. The premise is that a "timequake" has occurred in the space-time continuum, forcing everyone to relive the decade between 1991 and 2001. Because history can't be changed, everyone is on automatic pilot during the rerun, repeating their actions of the "first" 10 years. When time snaps back to normal, the majority of people fall prey to post-timequake apathy (PTA): they're pretty confused, not only about what happened during the last 10 years but also about what will come next. Luckily Kurt Vonnegut and his fictional alter ego, the almost has-been science fiction writer Kilgore Trout, are there to explain it all. . |
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| All the Pretty Horses (The Border Trilogy, Vol 1) by Cormac McCarthy Volume 1 of the Border Triology with (The Crossing vol 2 and Cities of the Plain : A Novel vol 3). John Cole Grady is a 1930's East Texas teenager, abandoned by his parents' troubles, who sets out with his pal Rawlins to ride across the border to Mexico. Along the way, they pick up an urchin named Blevins and arrive finally at a hacienda, where they're hired to break horses. Grady falls in love with the owner's beautiful daughter--a disaster that leads in succession to arrest and Mexican jail and murder in self-defense. But this clich‚-d plot is not, of course, what one reads a McCarthy novel for. McCarthy is one of the most determined art- prose writers around; and his clean, laconic dialogue is pillowed everywhere with huge gales of imperial style. |
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| The Crossing (Volume 2 of the Border Triology) by Cormac McCarthy A stunning book, one of the best I have ever devoured--essential reading, highly recommended. McCarthy's National Book Award-winning All the Pretty Horses (1992) told of young John Grady Cole, a Texas rancher's son who loses his father and his inheritance and strikes out almost aimlessly into Mexico. This sequel is not about Cole or any of his compadres, however, but is instead a parallel story concerning Billy Parham, 16, and his kid brother, Boyd, growing up about 10 years previously on a high desert ranch in southern New Mexico. A vagabond Indian appears who warns the boys of dire events, and then a she-wolf begins pulling down the Parham cattle. Billy ingeniously traps the wolf but cannot bring himself to kill her; almost on a whim, he crosses the border to return her to the distant mountains she came from. When he comes home after months of wandering in the desert, he finds that his parents have been killed by Mexican horse thieves. He and Boyd go after their family's remuda--much as John Grady Cole did in the preceding novel. Boyd is killed, and Billy returns to the U.S., a rootless, restless young man with an uncertain future. At the heart of The Crossing is a pitiless religious inquiry, exemplified in the long story of a failed priest whom Billy meets in an abandoned mining town. This heretic offers a critique of the mind of God that Billy absorbs and, finally, serves to illustrate. A disquieting sequel, though told in high style and with a mournful humor, and McCarthy's insistent use of Spanish dialogue adds a distinctively southwestern, almost romantic flair. |
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| Cities of the Plain : A Novel (Volume 3 of the Border Triology) by Cormac McCarthy This story brings together the heroes of the first two volumes of the Border Triology (All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing). John Grady, a pensive cowboy and brilliant horseman working a ranch in southeastern Texas in the early 1950s. On the ranch, John Grady joins up with Billy Parham, and the two form an abiding friendship. Though Parham is much more a realist, he finds himself drawn further into Grady's dreams, namely a beautiful teenaged Mexican whore whom John Grady is determined to release from bondage and to marry. Through physical injuries, personal trauma, and many dangerous trips across the Mexican border, the two young men struggle to do what they think will make things right. A full cast of cowboys, landowners, barkeeps, pimps, and desperate whores set the stage for the final curtain call on the American West. There is no doubt that ithis book is the final installment of the Border Triology. |
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| Blood Meridian, Or, the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy A classic American novel of regeneration through violence. McCarthy can only be compared with our greatest writers, with Melville and Faulkner, and this is his masterpiece. An epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, brilliantly subverts the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the "wild west." Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennesseean who stumbles into the nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving. The dark side of human behavior was masterfully and graphically portrayed in this epic saga. |
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| The
Sunlight Dialogues by John Gardner A man gets arrested after drawing a large anarchy sign on the highway and then burning his wallet, including his id and papers. Tells the cops to call him 'Sunlight' - and that is precisely what he offers the chief of police, sunlight. So damn much of it that the police chief slowly starts to slip into Sunlight's own game. Sunlight escapes but keeps coming back, as though he must, must, make the police chief understand that he is serving madness, not order. Beautiful book. Rich in detail, the tapestry of daily life in Batavia, NY comes to life with each gripping page. An incredible book, highly recommended! |
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| Microserfs
by Douglas Coupland Life on the right hand side of the bell curve. Those wiz kids from Microsoft who left the world of cyberlords and microserfs behind, to start their own company. In stead of life in a communal house in Redmond, WA, they moved to a communal house in Silicon Valley and worked day in, day out on their new product: OOP! A 3D multimedia virtual lego-like construction set. Gives a great taste of nerd life and love, a heart warming and good feeling read. Recommended. |
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| A
Certain Justice by PD James James takes us deep into the British legal system where murder and intriuge hang in the hallowed air of Chambers. A woman barrister, capable, respected and feared is murdered and Adam Dalgliesh sets out on a journey into the legal system and bizzare counter culture to solve this case. A great read and a real page turner, typical of most of PD James books. |
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| Straight
Man by Richard Russo First Jane Smiley came out of the comedy closet with Moo, a campus satire par excellence, and now Richard Russo has gotten in on the groves-of-academe game. Straight Man is hilarious sport, with a serious side. William Henry Devereaux Jr., is almost 50 and stuck forever as chair of English at West Central Pennsylvania University. It is April and fear of layoffs--even among the tenured--has reached mock-epic proportions; Hank has yet to receive his department budget and finds himself increasingly offering comments such as "Always understate necrophilia" to his writing students. Russo, the author of the novels Mohawk, The Risk Pool, and Nobody's Fool, is interested in more than generating laughter, and Straight Man strikes me as one of the funniest serious novels since--well, maybe since Portnoy's Complaint |
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| Lucky You
: A Novel by Carl Hiaasen An absolute hoot! as with all Hiaasen books, his sardonic whit creates an sensory impression of the mouldering hot south Florida red-neck world where newspaper reporter and unlucky lotto winner unite forces against the aryan brotherhood. A real page turner. |
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| The
Alienist by Caleb Carr A real page turner! 1896 New York City, a psychologist, newspaper reporter and new chief of police (Theodore Roosevelt) combine their efforts with an unlikely trio of police detectives and utilize newly introduced forensic techniques to solve the identity of a heinous serial murderer |
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| The
Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr Fast-paced and chilling, another tour de force from Caleb Carr, a novel of modern evil in old New York. Carr brings back the vivid world of his bestselling The Alienist but with a twist: this story is told by the former street urchin Stevie Taggert, whose rough life has given him wisdom beyond his years. Thus New York City, and the groundbreaking alienist Dr. Kreizler himself, are seen anew. |
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| The
Steampunk Trilogy : Victoria; Hottentots; Walt and Emily by Paul Di Filippo Three stories: the first is in the tradition of The Difference Engine by William Gibson; Cyberpunk goes retro and the techno-archaic alternative 19th century London comes alive like it only could in the wild imaginings of this genre. The second visits science in Boston in the pre-Darwinian era where voodo rules and the Hottentots smile. The third recreates the mythic romance between Walt Whitman and Emily Dickenson-- a visit with a future yet recently dead Allen Ginsberg in Summerland-- wild and compelling. |
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| The Liars' Club
: A Memoir by Mary Karr In this powerfully funny, razor's edge tale of a fractured girlhood, prize-winning poet and critic Mary Karr conjures up the terrors and joys of growing up in a swampy East Texas refinery town, at the epicenter of a family full of passionate, volatie attachments. In a voice stripped of self-pity, in language reinvented with a raw authenticity and brilliant energy, Karr shows readers a "terrific family of liars and drunks . . . redeemed by a slow unearthing of truth.". |
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| Man Crazy
: A Novel by Joyce Carol Oates The self narrated story of Ingrid, a 21 year old sociopath who grew up in the post-Vietnam era, her father an ex-pilot tormented by the war, her mother Chloe tortured by her own beauty. Typically dark and set in Oate's favorite upstate New York environs, a compelling and gripping tale that leaves one uncomfortably hungry for more. |
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| Where
Wizards Stay Up Late : The Origins of the Internet by Katie Hafner, Matthew Lyon In the 1960's, when computers where regarded as mere giant calculators, J.C.R. Licklider at MIT saw them as the ultimate communications devices. With Defense Department funds, he and a band of visionary computer whizzes began work on a nationwide, interlocking network of computers. Taking readers behind the scenes, Where Wizards Stay Up Late captures the hard work, genius, and happy accidents of their daring, stunningly successful venture. Its a good read even though the authors stop the story shor, ending it when the WWW entered the scene. |
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| Lives of
the Monster Dogs : A Novel by Kirsten Bakis, Cleo Pira A very cool book that takes place in the near future in New York City where the monster dogs have taken up residence and quickly become the toast of the town. One feels total empathy for these hybrid canine-robot humanoid dogs and dread their envitable end. |
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Some Suggestions from friends:
