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| The Book | Author | Copyright |
| Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time (non fiction) Actually, many people John Harrison worked on the longitude problem, and their stories are also interesting as told here. A very intersting and eye-opening book about a specific historic time, industry, and problem. Dava Sobel also wrote Gallileo's Daughter |
Dava Sobel |
1995 |
| The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason (non fiction) Some faith groups' principles instruct to their members to harm non-believers. This has been true throughout history. Today the most danger comes from fundamental, militant Islam, but they are not the first nor the only dangerous religion. All the "people of the book" are guilty of this. When Islam, Christianity and Judaism become "liberal" they are actually moving away from their original written principles. The author feels that "faith" is inherently flawed because it contradicts "reason." Our book group decided to read Woodruff's Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue and God Without Religion as a continuation of thought about what comes after religions created in an ancient age, a different historical world, are replaced by people living in today's world. |
Sam Harris |
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| The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed (non fiction) In 1997 Grant Hadwin cut down an old, huge golden Sitka spruce sacred to the Haida as a protect against the logging company that owned the land. Before his trial, he disappeared into Alaska and probably did not survive. A review from Seattlepi.com. |
John Vaillant |
2005 |
| Reading Lolita in Tehran (non fiction) The title didn't sound appetizing, so I probably would not have read this book by myself. But I'm so glad was my book club's selection! |
Azar Nafisi |
2003 |
| Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (non fiction) The "choose" in the title should have been "happen" -- I don't believe any of the societies "chose" to fail. But by learning what happened in past cultures, WE may "choose" to not to follow (or to follow) their examples. Decisions leading to deforestation were a large element in the author's reasoning as to failure. I would argue that overpopulation was the larger factor. |
Jared Diamond |
2005 |
| Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (biography) |
Walter Isaacson |
2003 |
| Da Vinci Decoded: Discovering the Spiritual Secrets of Leonardo's Seven Principles A doubtful title for an excellent book. Michael Gelb must have bowed to his publisher's urging to capitalize on the amazingingly large public response to Brown's "The da Vinci Code". The book is a continuation of the ideas in Gelb's earlier book "How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci", this time applied to one's spiritual journey. However, he does pause to define in a few pages in his concise and elegant style the relevance of the novel's ideas to his own system of thought regarding da Vinci. |
Michael Gelb |
2004 |
| Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (non fiction) Laugh-out-loud discussions about punctuation, or in the author's words, "If there is one lesson to be learned from this book it is that there is never a dull moment in the world of punctuation." |
Lynne Truss |
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| An Invitation to Poetry
(poetry)
A new Favorite Poem Project Anthology. I had not heard of this -- and it is not the first book by this group. The Oregonian ran an article on the new book, and I wasn't even the first person asking for it at the Gresham Border's. A CD is included with the book. There is a website for the Favorite Poem Project where you can contribute your favorite poem. |
Robert Pinsky & Maggie Dietz, Editors | 2004 |
| Ficus: The Exotic Bonsai
(non
fiction)
At last! A bonsai artist who will allow those of us who prefer INDOOR bonsai to be taken seriously. Jerry Meislik has put together a wonderful book with wonderful photos. He has been teaching, lecturing, demonstrating, and promoting ficus on his website for many years -- but it is with this book that he will be reaching many more people He will undoubtedly be making converts from among the "conifer only, please" bonsai types. Thanks, Jerry Author's Website |
Jerry Meislik | 2004 |
| Michelangelo and the
Pope's Ceiling (non fiction)
About the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, how to paint frescos, politics of the day and how they affected art, about the life of Michelangelo as well as other artists of that time. |
Ross King | 2003 |
| Hokusai (children's
book)
The Japanese artist sometimes known as Hokusai (1760-1849) created about 30,000 works of art. He was an innovator in a statis art world. I used this story when teaching Sunday School, and instead of Mt. Fuji, we drew our own Mt. Hood. |
Deborah Kogan Ray
(written and illustrated) |
2001 |
| Devil in the White
City
(non fiction)
Two threads run through this book, one about the building of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 (the Columbian Exposition), one about the serial killer who operated nearby and found victims among these who had come to see the Fair. An unusual juxtiposition of plots, and probably what is making it a best seller in 2004. If you get tired of the archhitectural struggles, you can contemplate the socio-economic mileau that made it possible for the killer to operate so effectively. |
Erik Larson | 2003 |
| The Woman with the
Alabaster Jar (non fiction)
Starbird looks through the lens of a women's study program and describes the beliefs of the Cathars, the Albigensian Crusade and Albigensian Heresy in Provence, France. This is yet another example of the current popular examination of the period of Western History from Greek times through the Renaissance. The main idea here is that Mary Magdalen was married to Jesus and fled with her female child to Provence, becoming a part of an alternate Christian worship until being stamped out by agreement between Pope and the King of France. |
Margaret Starbird | 1993 |
| Frida (children's
book)
The most beautiful child's book about Frida Kahlo I've seen. And there are many. Ana Juan's illustrations are wonderful. I used this book in a Sunday School class. The children were fascenated by Frida's life and courage and agreed that even when her works are strange and terrible, one cannot stop looking at them. |
Jonah Winter & Ana Juan | 2002 |
| Annie Dillard
(three musings)
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, An American Childhood, The Writing Life |
Annie Dillard | 1990 |
| Practical Gardening:
Indoor Bonsai
Anyone who thinks bonsai is "practical" is deluding herself! However, good advice about how to care for the little devils is very helpful. |
John Ainsworth | 1990 |
| Indoor Bonsai
(a manual)
Translated from the German by Susan Simpson in 1985 and published in the UK in that year. 20 printings at least... |
Paul Lesniewicz | ? |
| A Dog Year-
Twelve Months, Four Dogs, and Me
Non-fiction. Author of Running to the Mountain, Katz begins the year with two calm, elderly golden retreivers and ends it with two young, active, and challenging border collies. |
Jon Katz | 2002, 2003 |
| Children's Past Lives:How
Past Life Memories Affect Your Child
Non-fiction - Against their own beliefs, therapists have often been surprised by past-life memories related by children. The author cites respectable professionals doing quiet research in the field. |
Carol Bowman | 1997 |
| Brunelleschi's Dome:
How
a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture
(non-fiction about the building of the largest dome in the world) |
Ross King | 2000 |
| How to Think Like
Leonardo da Vinci
Buy it. If you borrow it, you won't give it back. |
Michael Gelb | 1998 |
| Reverence: Renewing
a Forgotten Virtue
I discovered this when Bill Moyers interviewed philosophy Professor Woodruff on "NOW". Reverence is a political and social virtue, not especially a religious one. I wish I could have read this in 1960! |
Paul Woodruff | 2001 |
| The Chopsticks Fork
Principle, a Memoir and Manual
Cathy Bao Bean, a Chinese-American immigrant, writes about her life from childhood, her education, her career as a philosophy professor, her marriage to an imaginative artist, raising their son, and attaining wisdom at sixty. She is one of my several Chinese friends who informed me that when I became sixty, I would become wise. Author's Website |
Cathy Bao Bean | 2002 |
| John Adams
biography -- and LOTS more about the Revolutionary War than you learned in grade school. |
David McCullough | 2001 |
| The Hairstons, an
American Family Black and White
(a study of the Hairston families from slavery days to the present) Review |
Henry Wiencek | 1999 |
| Nisei, the Quiet Americans
Nonfiction chronicle of the World War II concentration camp experience of Japanese Americans |
Bill Hosokawa | 1969 |