Here is the New York Times’ list of the top 10 books of 2006: “Absurdistan,” “The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel,” “The Emperor’s Children,” “The Lay of the Land,” “Special Topics in Calamity Physics,” “Falling Through the Earth,” “The Looming Tower,” “Mayflower,” “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” “The Places in Between.” Anyone have other suggestions of books that might make good Christmas gifts?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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13 Comments
For the science geek on your list, you cannot miss with Michael Crichton’s _Next_. The story is complete with transpecies humpanzies and parrots enhanced with human DNA.
It’s a page turner. I haven’t checked the big bookstores, but so far the cheapest copy could be found at Dillons (with your card, of course).
My mother loaned me a book I would also recommend. It is John Grisham’s _The Innocent Man_ – the author’s first non-fiction work. It is the story of two men wrongfully convicted of murder in Oklahoma (one of whom was sentenced to death), their trials in the Oklahoma penal system, and their eventual freedom that was brought about by Barry Scheck’s (remember him) DNA program.
Disturbing in many ways, but very worthwhile.
And so that you don’t think I only read commercial trash, I am currently enjoying _Reading Like a Writer: A guide for people who love books and for those who want to write them_ by Francine Prose (what a good name for a writer, huh?).
First heard the author on NPR and I was hooked. It is a good book.
the Innocent Man — John Grisham — DoubleDay (2006)
COLLAPSE: How societies choose to fail or succeed. Jared Diamond. Penguin
Although an old one, but the expanded and revised addition of “The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman is pretty good.
I’ll second Joe’s nomination “The Woeld is Flat” as important reading.
I can’t recall the name right now, but it is on Watermark’s best selling list. Anyway, it is of Kansas Murals. An interesting piece of art history.
There is a subplot in Crichton’s book where a teenage girl makes money by selling her eggs. The long term consequences of this practice which usually requires using fertility drugs (to get the greatest return – more eggs that is) is not known.
Like with some other Crichton topics one wonders “is this really happening?” And come to find out it is, and has been for a while:
http://www.rebeccamead.com/1999_08_09_art_eggs.htm
The book and article comment on allowing free market forces to prevail when the commidity is human genetic material. The parallels to slavery are pretty striking.
commidity = commodity
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, is a brilliant read for those who like suspense and long, drawn out mysteries. It is full of Vampire lore, and medieval history.
I have not read any of the books in the header for this thread. Has anyone read any of these and do you have any comments/recommendations?
Steven, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” has been discussed here before. After posting about a Terry Gross interview of the author that I heard last spring, I bought the book.
http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2006/05/the_english_are.html#comment-16896137
The discussion linked to above generally preceded a longer discussion about corn subsidies and the related effect on our food chain (ie, corn syrup added to nearly every processed food in the US), as well as Kansas’s water supply. The book has been discussed pretty thoroughly by economists, most of whom agree with the author’s conclusions even if they disagree (generally) with his reasoning.
Here’s one such discussion:http://www.slate.com/id/2152675
Michael Pollan, the author, teaches journalism at Cal. Plus it’s a pretty entertaining read (at the end Pollan hunts, shoots, dresses, cooks, and eats a wild pig; reading about the trevails of an academic journalist venturing out of the ivory tower to hunt wild hogs is worth more than a couple grins) (note to self: never hunt with an academic journalist).
A good spy/thriller novel I read late last summer, “Identity Theory,” is one I’d recommend to anybody who’s got a penchant and some time. Pretty good yarn spun around global terrorism (this novel is just a good, old-fashioned page turner).
http://www.amazon.com/Identity-Theory-Peter-Temple/dp/159692182X/sr=1-1/qid=1165463866/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-6512503-1775345?ie=UTF8&s=books