Items about books I want to read, third list

Posted by: A. Rivera on: October 8, 2009

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As I have done before, this post is just a listing of postings discussing books I would like to read at some point. It is meant mostly to help me keep track of stuff I would like to read and remind me why it is I want to read it. Unless noted otherwise, I try to link the book titles to WorldCat. And they are not listed in any particular order.

• Gaye Tuchman, Wannabe U.: Inside the Corporate University (link to publisher page). Discussed here in Inside Higher Ed.
• The Dalai Lama, The Leader’s Way. Discussed here in Grassroots Innovation.
• Joe Abercrombie, Best Served Cold. This fantasy novel is discussed here in Blogging for a Good Book.
• John Scalzi has a good opinion of this author in his blog Whatever. The author is David Anthony Durham, and he writes fantasy.
• I tend to be fairly skeptical about leadership books geared to business types. They seem formulaic overall. But this one, Jason Hennings‘s Hit the Ground Running, was mentioned in the Anecdote blog here. Since I have a good opinion of the Anecdote guys, I am willing to consider the book.
• I tried getting this one via Interlibrary Loan a while back, but apparently it was too popular at the time for libraries to lend it to our library for me to read. I may have to try again at some point, though to be honest, I am getting a bit tired of reading about religious fundamentalists in this country yet again. As much as I believe in “knowing your enemy,” I am not sure I can read one more. However, this book, Jeff Sharlet’s The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, is discussed by Dr. Myers at Pharyngula. So that’s a good enough reason for me to put it on my list of books to read, even if it might give me nightmares as Dr. Myers suggests. (Update note: 10/12/09: Found an interview with Sharlett in AlterNet that looks good). (Update note: 5/25/11: Another interview with Sharlett at NPR, discussing the book and The Family. He is also co-author of the book Killing the Buddha: a Heretic’s Bible).
• Nahoko Uehashi’s Moribito series is young adult, but it sounds interesting. It comes recommended by Guys Lit Wire, who say that the novels are “set in a vividly depicted fantasy world, full of action and mystery and the supernatural, these two books are probably unlike most stories you’ve read. And they’re very well-written, to boot.” Two books in the series available so far: Guardian of the Spirit and Guardian of the Darkness. For some odd reason, my library ordered the second one, but not the first one. I may have to order the first one on ILL then.
• The folks at Guy’s Lit Wire are also pointing to a reprint of the classic by Rex Warner Men and Gods: Myth and Legends of the Ancient Greeks, now with illustrations by Edward Corey. In my younger days, I would devour mythology books like Bullfinch and Hamilton. The Warner books sounds appealing.
• And the guys are on a roll, also recommending Matthew Polly‘s American Shaolin and they talk about Lobster Johnson and Conan the Barbarian over here.
• Ryan Grim’s This is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America. Find review here at Shelf Awareness.
• William Lobdell’s Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America-and Found Unexpected Peace. This sounds a bit better than Sharlet’s work. Pharyngula mentions it here. Dr. Myers listened to the author speak on the work. Makes me wish I was there.
• Peter Lance’s Triple Cross: How Bin Laden’s Master Spy Penetrated the CIA, the Green Berets and the FBI. It was mentioned in Library Juice here. If nothing else, from the comments that post generated, including the book’s author and one of the U.S. Attorneys from the district the author criticizes, the book may be worth a look.
• Toni Morrison brings us Burn This Book: PEN Writers Speak Out on the Power of the Word. It is a collection of essays exploring the issue of censorship and literature. LISNews mentioned it here.
• Michael Krondl’s The Taste of Conquest: The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spice. It is reviewed here in Cooking With Ideas.
• Another for the LIS list: Information and Liberation: Writings on the Politics of Information and Librarianship by Shiraz Durrani. Mentioned in Library Juice here, as it is one of their books.
• By Mark Schultz, The Stuff of Life: A Graphic Guide to Genetics and DNA certainly sounds interesting. It is reviewed by the folks at Guys Lit Wire here. A simple description is that this is a graphic novel about DNA.
• Again for the LIS list, Information Skills for Education Students. It is mentioned in the Information Literacy Weblog here. This is for students studying education. It sounds like something that I have to read, and that I should probably try to get for our library as well.
• Phil Zuckerman’s Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment. This sounds interesting too. Pharyngula mentions it here.
• This may or not be for reading pleasure, but it sounded interesting. I find that I am gradually building a small collection of books about drinks and cocktails. I am referring to recipe books, though I like reading some histories on the topic as well. Anyhow, the folks at Liquor Snob mention the book Preggatinis: Mixology for the Mom-to-Be by Natalie Bovis-Nelsen. It’s a book of virgin cocktail recipes.

And there, there are some reading lists and bibliographies to look over:

• Resource Shelf links to a “Pre-Deployment Afghanistan Reading List. (link goes to a PDF). The list is from the U.S. Joint Forces Command. Actually, Resource Shelf has also pointed to a nice set of  “Professional Military Reading Lists” from the Combined Arms Research Library. And yes, there is more than just manuals. There are some good choices on current affairs in the lists.
• The Daily Beast has compiled a list of books President Obama has been spotted reading since the campaign trail. This can make a good book display as well. We did a book display on books that inspired President Obama at our library.I am thinking I may bring that display down and put books from the new list after I check and see which books we may have.
• Meredith Farkas of Information Wants to be Free has a bunch of LIS related books to read.LIS Literature is not exactly pleasure reading, but I do read a good amount of it for professional reasons.

Update Note: 10/12/09:

• Barbara Ehrenreich discusses the deception of positive thinking her new book, Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America.

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