Nonfiction

Paco Underhill    Why We Buy (3 votes)
All the people who recommended this book were right.  There is much librarians can learn about marketing our collections and services from this man who makes his living studying shopper behavior.

Malcolm Gladwell    The Tipping Point (2 votes)
* If I were teaching a library management class, this would not only be required reading, I'd have a closed-book test.  The short description: it's a book about fads.  That doesn't do justice to the relevance of this book to librarians and librarianship.
* How small things make a big difference.  Fascinating and thought provoking.

Michael Lewis    The New New Thing
Come to think of it, this would be on my management syllabus as well. You may not like Jim Clark, founder of Netscape, after you finish this book, but you will understand him a lot better.  A wonderfully humorous biography of one of the "big brains" in the dot-com revolution.

Jesse Green    The Velveteen Father
This book has nothing to do with libraries--it's just a candid, moving, and often funny story about a gay man's journey to fatherhood.

Esme Raji Codell    Educating Esme
Stories about a young teacher's first year on the job may be cliche but I really enjoyed this one, especially as an audiobook read by the author.

Rick Bass    Colter:  The True Story of the Best Dog I Ever Had
A lovely and loving story about the relationship between a man and a hunting dog, and so much more.

Murray Sperber    Beer and Circus: How big-time college sports is crippling undergraduate education
That "is" drives me nuts, but the book is a good critique of athletics in large universities.  Of course, he does sometimes seem to be biased (or maybe I am, because I am a rather loyal UW Badger, BS '98) but he points out many of the problems of undergraduate education today (cheating, research vs. teaching, class size, alcohol.)

Anne Elizabeth Simon    The Real Science Behind the X-Files
This book was fascinating.  Maybe I do watch for something other than David Duchovny's bad acting!

Dalai Lama    Ethics for the New Millenium
I first listened to this on tape, then relistened three or four more times.  I have now purchased the book, and my wish for humanity is that we could all internalize these principles and act on them.

Stephen C. Lundin, et al    Fish!  A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Imrpove Results

Jacques Barzun     From Dawn to Decadence
True gallic wit, irony, and wisdom, applied to the last 500 years, or so.  One *thick* book that I actually read.

David Sedaris    Me Talk Pretty One Day
The back cover of the book says this is not a book to read with one's mouth full, and it is so true.  I don't remember the last book that made me laugh so hard so often.

Miles Harvey     The Island of Lost Maps
If you haven't read this, you are in for a treat.  It's a literary gem about cartography, crime, libraries, and the trade in antiquities.

Gary Smith    Beyond the Game:  collected sportswriting
Don't tune out if you don't follow sports.  These pieces are about people, not sporting events, and beautifully written.

Nancy Sorel     Women Who Wrote the War
An absolutely entrancing story of the female journalists and photographers of W.W.II.  The author admirably pieces together the background on these women and their wartime accomplishments. It's an incredible combination of true adventure, courageous women and history.

James McBride    The Color of Water
A true story of an indomitable woman and how she raised her mixed-racial children.
 

Fiction

Joanne Harris    Chocolat
It's about desire and repression, joy and longing. A young widow with a small daughter opens a chocolate shop in a French town during Lent. Voluptuously sweet.

Donna Jo Napoli    Beast
So how did the Beast go from being a prince to being a Lion? How did the curse happen? The backstory -- before Beauty -- is told in vivid metaphor.

Elizabeth Peters    He Shall Thunder in the Sky
A lovely release after the stress that her last Amelia Peabody mystery, The Falcon at the Portal left me with.  I've gotten to be such friends with the characters that I no longer can be objective about this series, though.  I still laugh for ten minutes when I hear (read) Emerson say, in FatP, "A beard...AND a Russian Accent!?!"  At any rate, the last book combined my favorite era (WWI), a mystery, spies, humor, a love story, and a conclusion we've been waiting several books for.  A++++++++.

Ellen Gilchrist    The Cabal and Other Stories
Although the title novella is great, "The Big Cleanup" is a hilarious antidote to feeling middle aged and past all excitement.

Amy Bloom    A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You
A more melancholy collection than Gilchrist's, but exquisitely written.

Dave Barry    Big Trouble

Seamus Heaney    Beowulf:  a new verse translation

John Updike    Gertrude and Claudius
It is a novel which is written as a "prequel" to Hamlet. It is a great story, and will make you want to go back and re-read Shakespeare with a new view.

Barbara Kingsolver    Prodigal Summer

Saul Bellow    Ravelstein

Philip Roth    The Human Stain
His best in ages.

Diane Johnson    Le Mariage
All three (Bellow, Roth, Johnson) give the greatest of pleasure and delight.

Scott Smith    A Simple Plan
The main characters find $4 million in the cockpit of a downed plan. The pilot is dead; no one is looking for the money. How far would YOU go??  You might be surprised ...

Jon Hassler     Staggerford,  A Green Journey and   Dear John
Wonderful characters set in a small town.  I hope he writes another book about these people.

Kent Haruf     Plainsong
A novel about decent people living in small mid-western town.

Tony Earley    Jim the Boy
A young boy grows up during the depression.  Don't let the cover keep you from reading this jewel of a book.  Reminded me of Plainsong.

Beth Gutcheon    Saying Grace
I discovered this author when I read More Than You Know, her most recent novel, which I also enjoyed.

Jeannette Haien    The All of It
An Irish priest in a small village hears an amazing tale after one of his parishoners dies.

Jane Langton    Transcendental Murder
I read this years ago and enjoyed it just as much when I re-read it this year.  The first (and the best) in her Homer Kelly mystery series.  One of the murder weapons is a bust of Louisa May Alcott.  A marvelous picture of Concord.

Janet Evanovich    Hot Six (and the five that preceded it)

Joan Hess     A Conventional Corpse (and virtually all of her two series)

Susan McBride    And Then She Was Gone

Elaine Viets    Doc in the Box (and all of her other books)

Charlaine Harris    Shakespeare's Trollop (and both series by this author)

Marianne Macdonald     Ghost Walk (and other titles by this author)

Carl Hiaasen    Sick Puppy (and most other books by Hiaasen who is one sick puppy)

Jerrilyn Farmer    Killer Wedding (and prior books)
 

Children's Books

Robert Sabuda    The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: a Commemorative Pop-Up (2 votes)
* Sabuda is the master of pop-up and this work shows it.  A work of art.
* Pop-up books are always fun, but this is a masterpiece.  Every page is a wonder that will literally take your breath away.  It even comes with green glasses, the better to experience the Emerald City!  I feel like I don't know enough superlatives to convey how exquisite this book really is.

Joy Harjo    The Good Luck Cat
Yes, I know it's a children's book, and I don't know if they count in this discussion, but I think Ms. Harjo's work shows her poet's spirit and the illustrations are just right.

Erik Brooks    Practically Perfect Pajamas
This picture book has charmed my entire staff.  Every time it's returned, we admire the artwork, and comiserate with the polar bear protagonist.

The Tawny Scrawny Lion

The Saggy, Baggy Elephant
 
 

Contributed by PUBLIB members:
Lisa Costich, Tecumseh Branch Manager, Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, IN
Carolyn Crain, Director, San Marino Public Library, San Marino, CA
GraceAnne DeCandido, Blue Roses Consulting, New York, NY
Karen Dyer, Alameda County, CA
Kate Gillette, Public Relations/Public Services Librarian, Novi Public Library, Novi, MI
Michael A. Golrick, City Librarian, Bridgeport Public Library, Bridgeport CT
Laurel Goodgion, Director, Portland Library, Portland, CT
Naomi Goldberg Honor, New City Library, New City, NY
Andrea Johnson, Children's Librarian, Cook Memorial Public Library, Libertyville, IL
Tim Mallory, Shelton Community Librarian, William G. Reed Public Library, Timberland Regional Library, Shelton, WA
Laura Hibbets McCaffery, Readers Services, Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, IN
Vicki Nesting, Regional Branch Librarian, St. Charles Parish East Regional Library, Destrehan, LA
John Richmond, Palestine Public Library, Palestine, TX
Karen G. Schneider, Assistant Director for Technology, Shenendehowa Public Library, NY
Leila Shapiro, retired librarian, Montgomery County, MD
Elizabeth Stanley, Memphis Shelby County Public Library and Information Center, Memphis, TN
Katherine Wolicki, Niles Public Library District, Niles, IL
 
 
 

This page was last updated January 28, 2001