50 Books Challenge

50 Books Challenge – Best Books for Our Times

We extend a challenge to read all 50 books this year! In December 2010 we will have a “Reader’s Round-up” celebration and book discussion.

Book Selections and Descriptions from Newsweek.com ; Added Notes from OFPL library staff.

1. THE WAY WE LIVE NOW, by Anthony Trollope  (1875* ) [TRO]  Fiction
The title says it all. Trollope’s satire of financial (and moral) crisis in Victorian England even has a Madoff-before-Madoff, a tragic swindler named Augustus Melmotte.
* [ Anthony Trollope (1815 –1882) became one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. A long-time British Postal Worker; he also lived in several other countries.]

2. THE LOOMING TOWER : Al-Qaeda and the road to 9/11, by Lawrence Wright  (2006)   [973.931 WRI]
Perhaps no two questions are as important in the early 21st century as the ones Wright answers: how 9/11 happened, and why.
* [ Lawrence Wright was born  in 1947 and  is a screenwriter, staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, and fellow at the Center for Law and Security, New York University School of Law. He is a graduate of Tulane University, and for two years taught at the American University in Cairo in Egypt. The Looming Tower won a Pulitzer Prize in 2007.]

3. PRISONER OF THE STATE: the Secret Journal of Zhao Ziyang, by Zhao Ziyang  (2009)   [951.058092 ZHA]
Chinese officials are confiscating copies of this memoir by the party chief who was ousted for opposing military force in Tiananmen Square. They have reason to be nervous.
* [ Zhao Ziyang (1919 -2005) was a high-ranking politician in   the People's Republic of China (PRC). He was under house arrest for 15 years prior to his death. ]

4. THE BIG SWITCH: Rewiring the world, from Edison to Google, by Nicholas Carr (2008)  [303.48 CAR]
You've heard of "cloud computing," but let's be honest, you really don't know what it means. Or why it's going to change everything.
* [ Nicholas G. Carr (born 1959) is an American writer who has published books and articles on technology, business, and culture. He was educated at Dartmouth College and Harvard University. His blog is called Rough Type. ]

5. THE BEAR, by William Faulkner   (1942)   Fiction
A boy comes of age in the 1880s by learning the ways of the fast-disappearing Mississippi forests. The best environmental novel ever written.
* [Originally published as a short story in Go Down Moses, this ‘novella’ has been republished many times. Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949 ]

6. WINCHELL: Gossip, Power, and the Culture of Celebrity, by Neal Gabler (1994)     [BIO Winchell GAR]
Before there was Rush Limbaugh-or Us Weekly-there was Walter Winchell: gossip columnist, commentator, McCarthyite, radio celebrity, has-been.   
*[ Neal Gabler is a professor, journalist, and political commentator who was a panelist on Fox News Watch. He recently published a “meticulously researched biography” about Walt Disney.]

7. RANDOM FAMILY: love, drugs, trouble, and coming of age in the Bronx, by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)  [974.7 LEB]
It took LeBlanc 10 years immersed in the lives of one Bronx family to produce this gripping, cinematic account of urban poverty and its causes. It will take you two days to read it.
* [USA TODAY said this book “is a seminal work of journalism, a brand of deep reporting rarely attempted anymore. It's written like a documentary, & LeBlanc makes no judgments about the lives she presents.” ]

8. NIGHT DRAWS NEAR : Iraq's people in the shadow of America's war, by Anthony Shadid   (2005)    [956.7044 SHA]
While the book is about the run-up to the Iraq War and the immediate aftermath, its strength is its insight into how Iraqis really think, which is instructive as we head for the exits.
* [ Anthony Shadid was born in Oklahoma of Lebanese descent. He is a staff writer for The Washington Post where he is an Islamic affairs correspondent based in the Middle East. Shadid won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 2004 for his Post coverage of the Iraq War. ]

9. PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL:The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, by Dan Ariely(2008)   [330 ARI]
Overturns the notion that we weigh pros and cons logically. Read it to understand why we obey honor codes-and other irrational behaviors.
* [ Dan Ariely (born 1968) is an Israeli professor of behavioral economics. He teaches at Duke University and is head of the eRationality research group at the MIT Media Lab.]

10. GOD: A BIOGRAPHY, by Jack Miles  (1995)  [231 MIL]
Miles, a journalist and former Jesuit, treats the God of the Bible as a literary protagonist-and discovers infinitely human depths.
* [ Jack Miles (born 1942) is an American author and winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the MacArthur Fellowship. His work on religion, politics, and culture has appeared in numerous national publications.    A former Jesuit, he holds a doctorate in Near Eastern languages from Harvard University.]

11. THE UNSETTLING OF AMERICA: culture and agriculture, by Wendell Berry  (1977)   [338.1 BER]
First published in 1982 [sic], this book-length argument for the family farm-and against agribusiness-is simply the most thoughtful book on modern agriculture.
* [ Wendell Berry (born 1934 in Kentucky) is a cultural and economic critic, a farmer, and author of poetry and fiction. He has won many awards and held both a Guggenheim and a Rockefeller Fellowship. ]

12. A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND, by Flannery O'Connor   (1955)   [OCO]  Fiction
Stories of the New South, Christ-haunted and out of control, are as scary as they were when published in 1955. "Shut up, Bobby Lee, it's no real pleasure in life."
* [ (Mary) Flannery O’Connor (born 1925, Savannah, GA) was devastated when her father died of lupus. O’Connor herself survived fourteen years with her own battle with lupus. Of her short stories, she wrote: “ when I see these stories described as horror stories I am always amused because the reviewer always has hold of the wrong horror.” ]

13. UNDERGROUND: The Tokoyo gas attack and the Japanese, by Haruki Murakami (2001)  [364.1523 MUR]
Critics love Murakami's surrealist fiction, but this collection of interviews with victims and perpetrators of Japan's 1995    sarin-gas attack is a useful study of modern terror and its aftermath.
* [ Haruki Murakami (born 1949) is a Japanese writer and translator. His works of fiction and non-fiction have garnered him critical acclaim, and he is the sixth recipient of the Franz Kafka Prize for his novel Kafka on the Shore. He is considered an important figure in postmodern literature, and The Guardian praised him as one of the "world's greatest living novelists.”]

14. DISRUPTING CLASS: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns, by Clayton Christensen   (2008)    [377.3 CHR]
The Harvard Business School professor who introduced the idea of disruptive innovation in The Innovator's Dilemma applies the same principles to education, with provocative results.
* [ Clayton M. Christensen (born 1952) is the Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, and at one time was a missionary to Korea. ]

15. AIR GUITAR: Essays on Art and Democracy, by Dave Hickey (1997) [306.097 HIC]
A seamless blend of criticism, personal history, and a deep appreciation for the sheer nuttiness of American life, with essays on Norman Rockwell, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Perry Mason, to name a few.
* [Dave Hickey (born circa 1939) the noted American art and cultural critic, is known for his arguments against academicism and in favor of the effects of rough-and-tumble free markets on art. He has written for many publications including Rolling Stone, Art News Magazine, and Vanity Fair. He is currently Professor of English at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. ]

16. LEAVES OF GRASS, by Walt Whitman (1855)   [811 WHI]
There's no better season to read the Great American Poem than summer, and no better place than the outdoors for savoring its charms, both contemplative ("I lean and loafe at my ease") and ecstatic ("Mad naked summer night!").
* [Walt Whitman (born 1819 on Long Island, NY) was a free-verse poet whose poetry reflected “the speech patterns and verbal pace of Americans and American life.” Often a controversial figure and regarded as a ‘wild but gifted poet’ for his rebellion against traditional forms, his influence on American writing was enormous.]

17. THE TROUBLE WITH PHYSICS: the Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next, by Lee Smolin   (2006)     [530.14 SMO]
Smolin covers string theory and other topics in modern physics as no other has dared: showing that scientific advances are as much about personalities as data.
* [Lee Smolin (born 1955) is an American theoretical physicist, a researcher at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.  ]

18. CITY: REDISCOVERING THE CENTER, by William H. Whyte   (1988)  [307.7 WHY]
Using years of painstaking research, Whyte proved that the way to make a city work lies in the details-the width of a park bench, the height of a subway step.
* [ William H. Whyte (1917 -1999) was educated at Princeton. For sixteen years he led the “Street Life Project” a pioneer study of city dynamics. This book contains images from Whyte’s time-lapse photography. The text is a masterpiece of his ideas about ‘new urbanism.’ ]

19. DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?, by Philip K. Dick (1968) [SF DIC] Fiction
Before Wall-E, there was this penetrating parable of the grim future of technology and life on an Earth without animals (and the basis for [the 1982 film] Blade Runner).
* [ Philip Kindred Dick (1928 –1982) was an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist whose published work during his lifetime was almost entirely in the science fiction genre, but his writing also explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes. In his later works (many were post-mortem publications) Dick's thematic focus strongly reflected his personal interest in metaphysics and theology.]

20. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, by Edmund S. Morgan    (2002)  [Bio Franklin MOR}
A model biography: pithy, wise, and-despite its brevity-complete. Franklin emerges as a quintessential hero of his time, and ours.
*[ Edmund Morgan  (born 1916, Minneapolis) is Emeritus Professor of History at Yale university where hetaught from 1955 to 1986. He has written over 20 books about early American  historical subjects. ]

21. THE MISSISSIPPI BOOKS ** by Mark Twain  [CL TWA]       Fiction
When Twain turned his attention to the river that ran by his hometown, what was just run-of-the-mill genius in his other books took on a special Krypton-proof dazzle. Think of these as one book, or three ways of telling the same, very American, very tragicomic story. [** Tom Sawyer / Adventures of Huckleberry Finn / Life on the Mississippi.]
* [ Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens, 1835 – 1910) is often  considered the ‘quintessential American writer.’  An Editor of the author’s work, Gregg Camfield, wrote, “I don’t believe that Twain’s talent can be illustrated without putting it into its many contexts – personal, social, intellectual, political, and even that of its posterity.”]

22. AMONG THE THUGS: The Experience, and the Seduction, of Crowd Violence, by Bill Buford    (1991)  [363.32 BUF]
A philosophical look at the rise of soccer hooliganism in Britain that also examines the way apparently meaningless violence has its roots in cultural class inequities.       
* [Bill Buford is an American-born editor of the British literary magazine Granta. ]

23. BROOKLYN, by Colm ToibÌn    (2009)   [TOI]    Fiction
Captures the experience of homesickness and, in deceptively unadorned prose, builds to a heart-wrenching conclusion about the impossibility of getting everything you want.
* [Colm ToibÌn (born 1955) is an Irish novelist and critic. His writing reflects themes of immigration, homo-sexuality, and the human struggle to rise above a legacy of resentments. ]

24. FRANKENSTEIN, by Mary Shelley   (1818)  [CL   SHE]    Fiction
In an age of bioengineering, Shelley's novel about a scientist and his creation is especially unsettling-and its message about the necessity of companionship and sympathy is especially urgent.
* [ Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797 – 1851) was raised by her father, philosopher William Godwin after her mother the feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft died in childbirth. On a trip to Switzerland with her husband, the Romantic Poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, she envisioned her supernatural tale. ]

25. BAD MOTHER, by Ayelet Waldman    (2009)    [813.54 WAL]
Waldman admits that she's an oversharer-which happens to be a great trait for a memoirist. Her essays about motherhood are hilarious, heartbreaking, and edgy. In our child-centric world, Waldman got slammed for saying she loves her husband more than her kids. What's wrong with that?
*[The author has published 2 other books and is married to novelist Michael Chabon.]

26. GUESTS OF THE AYATOLLAH: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam, by Mark Bowden   (2006)   [955.0542 BOW]
On one level, a page-turner on the 1979 hostage crisis by the author of Black Hawk Down. Beyond that, it is a brilliant introduction to a group of young militant (and often ill-informed) Iranian Islamists who are now the militant (and often ill-informed) leaders of Iran.
* [ Mark Bowden (born 1951 in St. Louis, Mo) was a writer for The Atlantic Monthly and Vanity Fair. This extensive book was made into “the acclaimed four-part documentary series “GUESTS OF THE AYATOLLAH” by Discovery Channel in 2006. He is also the author of Black Hawk Down.]

27. WHITTAKER CHAMBERS, by Sam Tanenhaus    (1997)  [BIO Chambers TEN]
Whittaker Chambers (along with his friend William F. Buckley Jr.) was a crucial avatar of the modern right. The forces are all here, embodied to one degree or another within Chambers himself: religion, a tragic sensibility, a fear of centralized control, and a Manichaean view of good versus evil.
* [Sam Tannenhaus (born 1955) was educated at Yale University and is a noted historian and biographer. He is currently the editor of The New York Times Book Review. ]

28. MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN, by Salman Rushdie   (1981) [RUS] Fiction
"To understand just one life, you have to swallow the world," says the protagonist of Rushdie's freewheeling, fanciful allegory of modern India. Published in 1981, Midnight's Children delivers just the opposite: the world through the life of a young man.
* [ “Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (born 1947) is a British Indian novelist and essayist. He achieved notability with his second novel, Midnight's Children (1981). Some of his fiction is set on the Indian subcontinent. His style is often classified as magical realism mixed with historical fiction, and a dominant theme of his work is the story of the many connections, disruptions and migrations between the Eastern and Western world. His fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), was the center of The Satanic Verses controversy, with protests from Muslims in several countries. Some of the protests were violent, with Rushdie facing death threats and a fatw? issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, in February 1989. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor for "services to literature" in June 2007.” ]

29. AMERICAN PROMETHEUS: the Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin    (2005)  [BIO Oppenheimer BIR]
J. Robert Oppenheimer gave us (and the rest of the world) the atomic bomb, and with it, he found himself at the front of the line over the biggest military tug-of-war of the 20th century-and beyond.
* [ This acclaimed biography of Oppenheimer was twenty-five years in the making. It was the winner of a Pulitzer Prize in 2006. Kai Bird, a contributing editor of The Nation, is the author of several prize winning books. Martin Sherwin teaches at Tufts Univ. and has won the American History Book prize for his work.]

30. THE LOST: A Search for Six of Six million, by Daniel Mendelsohn     (2006)   [973.04924 MEN]
A memoir chronicling the author's search for the fates of six relatives killed in the Holocaust. Mendelsohn explores memory-what we know, what we can learn, and what we must remember-in ways that are true to both the living and the dead.
* [ A review in Slate about this biographical  narrative stated that, “…  these [emotional] moments in The Lost go beyond "the facts" to touch deeper truths about human experience that are uniquely accessible via literature.” Daniel Mendelsohn (born 1960) is a prize winning author, and teaches at Bard College.]
31. GILEAD, by Marilynne Robinson   (2004)    [CHR  ROB]  Fiction
A book for the age of Obama: a letter from a father to a son about fathers and sons-and religion, race relations, and the possibility that the arc of the universe bends toward justice, after all. 
* [ A remarkable Christian novel set in ‘Gilead’ Iowa in 1956. The author published Housekeeping in 1981. ]

32. PICTURES AT A REVOLUTION: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood, by Mark Harris (2008)  [791.43 HAR]
The 1967 Oscar race pitted old Hollywood (Dr. Doolittle) against a new generation (Bonnie and Clyde). After that, Hollywood would never be the same.
* [ Mark Harris has crafted this NY Times Bestseller of 2008 book which tracks the progress of 5 movies from conception to release and is the result of extensive interviews and research into a pivotal time in cultural history. The author is the former writer and editor of Entertainment Weekly for 15 years. ]

33. KIM, by Rudyard Kipling, [J CL KIP]      Fiction
A boy orphaned in war becomes a junior spy for the English in Pakistan and Central Asia. Kipling's portrait of a quagmire is eerily contemporary.
* [Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was born in British India and educated in England. An enormously popular author of novels and poems, his contemporary Henry James said of him: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius (as distinct from fine intelligence) that I have ever known."]

34. WALKING WITH THE WIND; a memoir of the movement, by John Lewis      (1998)    [BIO Lewis LEW]
Lewis's memoir of Freedom Rides, SNCC, Bloody Sunday, the March on Washington, life in Congress, and more. Of all the symbolic moments at President Obama's inauguration, nothing was richer than his embrace of Lewis.    
* [John Lewis (born 1940, Alabama) has been a U.S. Congressman since 1987, representing the district of Atlanta, Georgia. He has been called, “… an American hero whose courage, vision, and dedication helped change history.” This book is considered required reading for everyone as a first-hand education about the civil rights movement.]

35. THE LINE OF BEAUTY, by Alan Hollinghurst  (2004)   [HOL]
An elegiac and sumptuous story about nostalgia, longing, and regret as AIDS devastated a generation-in case anyone has forgotten those dark days.
*[ This book earned the 2004 Man Booker Prize. The author was born in England in 1954.]

36. THE DARK IS RISING , by Susan Cooper  (1065 – 1977, 5 titles)   [J PB COO]      Fiction
Forget Harry Potter. In the tradition of Tolkien, this series of novels about five British children and one mysterious adult battling evil shows how powerful a child's fantasy story can be.
*[Book 4 The Grey King (1975) won a Newbery Medal.]

37. PERSEPOLIS, by Marjane Satrapi    (2000-2003) (4 vols.)       [955.05092 SAT]
Published in 2000, Satrapi's graphic novel about her freewheeling youth in pre-revolutionary Iran quickly became an international hit. Today it's also a glimpse into a country's long, unfinished march toward freedom.
* [Marjane Satrapi (born 1969, Iran)is an Iranian-born French contemporary graphic novelist, illustrator, Academy Award-nominated animated film director, and children's book author. She lives in Paris.]

38. UNDERWORLD, by Don DeLillo   (1997)   [DEL]    Fiction  
This sprawling novel traces the currents of anxiety and fear running through the Cold War. The book's first section is as good as fiction gets. 
*[This book by DeLillo (born 1936) was nominated for a National Book Award and was a best-seller.]

39. WHY EVOLUTION IS TRUE by Jerry A. Coyne    (2009)       [576.8 COY] 
Even innocent bystanders in the culture wars should understand the evidence that supports evolution, and this book by a leading evolutionary biologist presents it clearly but not pedantically.
* [Jerry Coyne (born 1949) is a Prof. of Biology at the University of Chicago.]

40. AMERICAN PASTORAL, by Philip Roth   (1997)     [ROT]         Fiction
The '60s may be over, but the times still tremble with their shock waves. Terrorism, social upheaval, rage-it's all there, in Seymour (Swede) Levov's ordinary life.
* [Philip Roth is an award winning American novelist, and the author of Goodbye Columbus (1959) ]

41. THE BOTANY OF DESIRE, by Michael Pollan    (2001)   [306.45 POL]
Before Pollan became a food-world demigod, he wrote this insightful, engaging account explaining our appetites by tracing the evolution of four plants: potato, tulip, marijuana, and apple tree.
*[Pollan  (born 1955, N.Y.) is also the author ofIn Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto (2008) and is a Prof. of Journalism at ULCA Berkeley.]

42. THE REGENERATION TRILOGY (Regeneration, The Ghost Road, The Eye in the Door), by Pat Barker  (1991-1995)   [BAR]
Fiction War can wound more than the body. These novels, inspired by the World War I experiences of British soldiers, explore the trauma of staying alive while others die.
* [ Pat Barker (born 1943, England)was educated in Economics and International History, which she taught until 1982.  Her WW I trilogy was partly inspired by her own grandfather’s experiences in the trenches.]

43. SENATOR JOE MCCARTHY,  by Richard H. Rovere    (1959)  [BIO McCarthy ROV]
An elegant short-form primer on the machinery of Washington's morality-and a timely reminder of what happens when demagogues gain access to what Rovere calls "the dark places of the American mind."
* [ Richard Halworth Rovere (1915-1979) was born in New Jersey. He wrote for many of the well-known periodicals of his time, and for 30 years was the author of “Letter from Washington” for The NewYorker.]

44. YEAR OF WONDERS, by Geraldine Brooks    (2001)  [BRO]     Fiction
The plague that arrives in a small 17th-century village in Brooks's historical novel makes swine flu seem like the sniffles-but death also brings the possibility of a new understanding.
* [ Geraldine Brooks ( born 1955;  Australian)won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel March which imagines the Civil War interactions of the abolitionist father Mr. March, in Louisa May Alcott’s books. Year of Wonders was her first novel and became an international bestseller.]

45. THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG, by Muriel Barbery   (2007)    [BAR]  Fiction
The unlikely friendship between a middle-aged Parisian concierge and a cosseted 12-year-old drama queen proves cultural sensitivity transcends social background.
* [ Murie Barbery  (born 1969 in Morocco)  now resides in Japan .The French author has said about her writing: “ I followed a long, boring course of studies in philosophy. I expected it to help me understand better that which surrounds me: but it didn't work out that way. Literature has taught me more.” ]

46. GONE TOMORROW, by Lee Child  (2009)  [CHI]   Fiction
Jack Reacher is one of the best thriller characters at work today. Escape into a fantasy where thwarting terrorists is just a matter of grim purpose and quick reflexes in this, Child's 13th installment.
* [ Lee Child (born 1954, England) is the pen name of Brit. thriller author Jim Grant. He and his American wife live in NY state.  His first novel, Killling Floor won an Anthony Award for Best 1st Novel in 1997. Child’s hero is a former  American Military Policeman named Jack Reacher who is wandering the U.S. ]

47. THINGS FALL APART, by Chinua Achebe    (1958)  [ACH]     Fiction
In one of the first novels in English from an African perspective, Achebe makes our language his own-and the injustices of colonization all too clear. 
*[Chinua Achebe (born 1930) is a Nigerian novelist and poet and teaches at Brown University. This book, published in 1958, was his first novel. Achebe's novels focus on the traditions of Igbo society, the effect of Christian influences, and the clash of values during and after the colonial era. His style relies heavily on the Igbo oral tradition. ]

48. AMERICAN JOURNEYS, by Don Watson   (2008)   [On order]
Traveling by train, the Australian author scans a post-Katrina America while racking up an impressive trove of insight and observation few natives could match.
* [Don Watson (born 1949; Australian) is a former academic historian. Much of his award winning writing has focused on language, and on politics. This book won several major prizes, including a Walkley Award]

49. COTTON COMES TO HARLEM, by Chester Himes   (1965)   [HIM]    Fiction
One of a brilliant series of brutal, hilarious, and vivid crime novels featuring Harlem police detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson; no one ever wrote better about race.
* [ Chester Bomar Himes (1909 – 1984) won France's Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere and is the author of many novels including Cotton goes To Harlem and A Rage in Harlem, both made into feature films.]

50. THE NEW BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF FILM, by David Thomson  (2004)     [REF 791.43092 THO]
If you don't argue with Thomson on just about every other page, then you aren't paying attention. In a world where film criticism is dying, Thomson make a case for it-eloquently and adamantly
*[ Film critic David Thompson (born 1941, London) has written over 20 books and lives in the United States.]
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A note about the O’Fallon Library’s 50 Books Challenge :

• This list of 50 Best Books for Our Times can be found on the Newsweek.com web site at: www.newsweek.com/id/204300

• LOOK FOR THE SILVER MEDALLION:  The books in the 5o Books Challenge have silver medallions on the covers. Every older title has been recently re-issued, and we have obtained a copy of each one. Look for them all on the display shelves near the front entrance of the library.