The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

I wasn't going to read another book I'd already read; but, I saw Holden in his backward, red hunting cap and couldn't resist a visit with one of my favorite fictional characters. Holden's wry and often cynical commentary of the world around him, as experienced in a few short days after being kicked out of school, is honest and even charming. He's the most honest self-proclaimed liar I've ever had the pleasure to know. To steal some of Holden's thunder, this book "kills me. It really does."

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: PS3537.A426 1968
2nd Floor Humanities Library
Review submitted by: Jessica Cioffi, Holocaust Education Coordinator, Rodgers Center
Rating: Highly Recommended

Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari

This is the simple story of a courageous young man, Daoud Hari. He risked his life to work as a translator for international journalists so that the story of genocide in Darfur could be made public.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: McNaughton
1st Floor McNaughton Collection
Review submitted by: Cathy Elliott, Business & Financial Technician, Law Library
Rating: Highly Recommended

Passing for Normal: A Memoir of Compulsion by Amy S. Wilensky

In this autobiography of a woman with Tourette's and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), Amy Wilensky discusses how her childhood and subsequent adult years were shaped by her irrational behaviors and tics. By learning about her own dysfunction, Amy embarks on a journey of self acceptance and discovery that helps her to lead a fulfilling life while coping with the compulsions that held her hostage for so long. Relying heavily on personal experiences rather than scientific research or psychiatric jargon, Amy's memoir is an easy introduction to the diagnosis and treatment of Tourette's and OCD.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: RC533.W54 A3 2000
3rd Floor Science & Technology Library
Review submitted by: Ashley Bloomfield, Program Assistant, Rodgers Center
Rating: Recommended

A Wrongful Death by Kate Wilhelm

As a result of trying to be a Good Samaritan, Barbara Holloway finds herself involved in a murder and kidnapping investigation. Wealth, intrigue, family squabbles, and a billion dollar stock deal add to the suspense.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: McNaughton
1st Floor McNaughton Collection
Review submitted by: Cathy Elliott, Business & Financial Technician, Law Library
Rating: Recommended

A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid

In this short book, Kincaid describes her childhood home: Antigua, a nine-by-twelve mile island in the West Indies. Written with an intensely poetic and often sarcastic tone, she begins by describing the Antigua that tourists see and the Antigua of the natives within the context of the tragedies that linger, and may forever linger, from colonialism. This is not the first time I have read Kincaid (I especially recommend her My Brother). Her writing is always beautiful and stunning.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: F2035 .K56 1989
2nd Floor Humanities Library
Review submitted by: Stacy Russo, Instruction Librarian, Leatherby Libraries
Rating: Recommended

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

This lyrical, achingly beautiful book transcends the controversial nature of its pedophilic subject matter in order to make a statement about the postwar dynamics between European and American culture and about the very nature of love itself. Humbert Humbert, a middle-aged European sophisticate, travels to America where he encounters Lolita, a pubescent nymphet, whose coarse, juvenile mannerisms instantly capture his attention. Told from Humbert Humbert's perspective, what follows is a man's descent into madness as his obsession with Lolita threatens to consume him. Nabokov is a master storyteller whose brilliant use of imagery hooked me within the first chapter; I could not put this down and actually finished it in two days.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: PS3527.A15 L6 1989
2nd Floor Humanities Library
Review submitted by: Ashley Bloomfield, Program Assistant, Rodgers Center
Rating: Highly Recommended

My Secret Life on the McJob by Jerry Newman

This book gave a nice and easy to read account of an HR professor working and interacting with seven different fast food locations in the Northeast, Midwest, and Southeast. Newman does his best to understand the "McJob" worker and put faces to the people who make those wonderful fast food sandwiches. All in all, reading this book will have you thinking about the people behind the counter and realize that the McJob is anything but easy.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: HD31 .N49 2007
3rd Floor Business Library
Review submitted by: Zach Vickery, Circulation Assistant, Leatherby Libraries
Rating: Recommended

The Game by Jack London

Known for such classics as Call of the Wild and White Fang, Jack London demonstrates his breadth of writing ability in The Game. Both a love story and an analysis of the viciousness of prize fighting, London spins a brief yarn that entrances with its depth of detail and description. Torn between two passions, a woman and boxing, Joe Fleming tragically and rather unexpectedly loses both in this work written at the start of the 20th century.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: PS3523.O46 G36 2001
2nd Floor Humanities Library
Review submitted by: Kevin Ross, Associate Dean, Leatherby Libraries
Rating: Recommended

Annapurna: A Woman's Place by Arlene Blum

This amazing book tells the true, exhilarating, and tragic story of the thirteen members of the 1978 American Women’s Himalayan Expedition. The team made history by being the first Americans (and the first women) to climb Annapurna I, a peak with an altitude of 26,504 feet. Told by the expedition leader, the book chronicles the women’s journey on the treacherous mountain where they experienced severe weather and frequent avalanches. Photographs of the expedition complement the text.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: GV199.44.N462 A563 1983
2nd Floor Social Science Library
Review submitted by: Stacy Russo, Instruction Librarian, Leatherby Libraries
Rating: Highly Recommended

Slayride by Dick Francis

Unknown to me until this summer, Dick Francis will be a favorite. His action packed detective novels relate to horses and the racetrack, but also focus on interesting unrelated topics. This one is set in Norway (unusual) and involves secret oil drilling maps and plans. The investigator is a sympathetic and sensible person.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: PR6056.R27 .T7 1975
2nd Floor Humanities Library
Review submitted by: Isa Lang, Head of Information Services, Law Library
Rating: Highly Recommended

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

The desire to learn more about the psychology of drug addiction compelled me to pick up this gut wrenching, nausea inducing trip into the dark underbelly of the Scottish heroin scene. The book, which is actually a series of vignettes narrated by different characters who engage in self-destructive behaviors, is filled with incomprehensible Scottish vernacular that makes reading this a challenge in itself. While no doubt an accurate, unflinching examination of drug addiction; the constant use of slang is a distraction. Heed my warning and steer clear of this one. I wish I had!

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: PR6073.E47 T73 1996
2nd Floor Humanities Library
Review submitted by: Ashley Bloomfield, Program Assistant, Rodgers Center
Rating: Not Recommended

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Set in the near distant future, Ishiguro's dystopian novel describes a world where clones are created for the sole purpose of organ donation. Kathy, a clone transitioning to become a donor, struggles to discover the mysteries behind Hailsham, the boarding school where she and other cloned children were raised. Although the book was an enjoyable read overall, the ending came as no surprise and seemed a bit disappointing after Kathy's long emotional journey. I would rate this somewhere between Recommended and Highly Recommended.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: PR6059.S5 N48 2005
2nd Floor Humanities Library
Review submitted by: Ashley Bloomfield, Program Assistant, Rodgers Center
Rating: Recommended

Trail To Wounded Knee: The Last Stand of the Plains Indians, 1860-1890 by Herman J. Viola

This book captures the essence of the demise of the Great Plains Indians throughout the last 30 years of the 20th century. Faced with an all out military, political, and economic attack on their culture, the Plains Indians seek spiritual strength to guide them, but to no avail. Representative examples from Sand Creek, the Battle of the Little Big Horn, and others illustrate the injustices Native Americans faced at the hands of the white settlers, and which ultimately led to the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: E78.G73 V56 2003
2nd Floor Humanities Library
Review submitted by: Kevin Ross, Associate Dean, Leatherby Libraries
Rating: Highly Recommended

Flight: A Novel by Sherman Alexie

In poet and writer Sherman Alexie's Flight, we're transported into the mind and time-bending misadventures of Zits, a troubled Native American teenager. You may recall the film Smoke Signals; Alexie's screenplay won a Sundance Film Festival award. Here, Alexie's prose narrative moves into raw poetic vengeance as we follow Zits' journey to self identity and self determination. Chapman's First-Year Program is reading this summer, too. Note: contains graphic violence and language; adult situations

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: PS3551.L35774 F57 2007
2nd Floor Humanities Library
Review submitted by: Julie Artman, Chair, Public Services, Leatherby Libraries
Rating: Recommended

Animal Farm by George Orwell

A true classic, Orwell's novel explores the dynamics of communism after a workers' revolution (in this case, animals on a farm). Seven commandments are adopted in the newly named "Animal Farm" and, as the leaders gain more control, the animals find that their memories of the rules are no longer accurate. Memory versus government-controlled documentation and the power to control history (thereby the present), is an idea so compelling that it is repeated in Orwell's 1984. This novel is a quick read and is very engaging.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: PS3503.O4286 A8 1964
2nd Floor Humanities Library
Review submitted by: Jessica Cioffi, Holocaust Education Coordinator, Rodgers Center
Rating: Highly Recommended

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

Orwell's classic novel is set in a dystopian world where not only deeds, but also thoughts, can be criminal. I found this book a little more difficult to get through than Huxley's "Brave New World" simply because it was all bad news - Huxley injected a little humor (and a lot of sarcasm) in his similarly-themed novel. Definitely worth reading, but don't look to this title if you're searching for a "feel good" read.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: PR6029.R8 N49 1984
2nd Floor Humanities Library
Review submitted by: Jessica Cioffi, Holocaust Education Coordinator, Rodgers Center
Rating: Recommended

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

I want to say that this book is different from other Gaiman books; however, anyone familiar with his works knows that all of Gaiman's books (of which there are about a bazillion) are different from each other. This book tells the story of Tristran Thorn and his adventures through Faerie to find a fallen star for his "true love." Gaiman's wit makes this story quite charming and I think I may have startled a few passengers when I laughed out loud on the train. If you saw the movie, read the book - there's so much more to the story than you've seen.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: PR6057.A319 S73 1999
2nd Floor Humanities Library
Review submitted by: Jessica Cioffi, Holocaust Education Coordinator, Rodgers Center
Rating: Highly Recommended

Careless in Red by Elizabeth George

"Perhaps it was something that got into one's blood: the intellectual excitement of the puzzle of the crime and the physical excitement of the chase." Inspector Lynley creator Elizabeth George picks up the series after a horrific tragedy has devastated the inspector. Lynley has left the force and taken up a different path--literally. He has walked miles of the Cornwall coast only to discover the body of a young man. Layers of sons and fathers; mothers and daughters; lovers and avengers tangle and untangle Lynley's fractured psyche. A lengthy, involving read--and imagining PBS Lynley incarnate Nathaniel Parker moving through this complicated ruse is half the fun! Hopefully, the television adaptation is on the way...

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: McNaughton
1st Floor McNaughton Collection
Review submitted by: Julie Artman, Chair, Public Services, Leatherby Libraries
Rating: Highly Recommended

Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr. & Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

This book tells of the Gilbreth family: Dad, the world-renowned efficiency expert, Mom, the psychologist/lecturer, and their twelve children. The descriptions of specific escapades are entertaining, and the reader gets a good picture of Frank Gilbreth, Sr., but I would have enjoyed getting to know Mrs. Gilbreth better. The book is certainly better than the Steve Martin movie of the same name; I hear the Myrna Loy film is enjoyable.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: T40.G5 G5 1948
3rd Floor Science & Technology Library
Review submitted by: Nancy Stenerson Gonzales, Cataloger, Leatherby Libraries
Rating: Recommended

The Man Who Could Not Shudder by John Dickson Carr

A masterpiece of technical investigation, as is John Dickson Carr's bent as a mystery writer. I felt a bit cheated, though, as much could be explained by a simple but hidden fact. He did not develop the answer in steps, which is something I expect from the greatest mystery writers. Nonetheless, it was a good story.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: PS3505.A77 M3 1940
2nd Floor Humanities Library
Review submitted by: Isa Lang, Head of Information Services, Law Library
Rating: Somewhat Recommended

Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing by May Sarton

Nearly all the action in this unique novel takes place in one day. Mrs. Stevens, a poet in her seventies, is being interviewed about poetic inspiration by two journalists. Dialogue is intermingled with Mrs. Stevens' memories of encounters with the Muse. This work also investigates what it means to be both a woman and a writer, the impact of relationships, and the need for solitude.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: PS3537.A832 M5 1993
2nd Floor Humanities Library
Review submitted by: Stacy Russo, Instruction Librarian, Leatherby Libraries
Rating: Highly Recommended

Hunting Badger by Tony Hillerman

Who pulled off the robbery of the Ute casino and killed a couple of security guards in the middle of the night? Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn pool their knowledge of local folklore to try to solve the case. Unfortunately, the FBI doesn't appreciate the local lawmen's involvement. I always enjoy spending time with these characters in Indian country. A quick and easy read.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: PS3558.I45 H86 2001
2nd Floor Humanities Library
Review submitted by: Pam Ames, Purchasing Director
Rating: Somewhat Recommended

The Garden of Last Days by Andre Dubus III

When April, an exotic dancer, is caught without a babysitter, she chooses to bring her 3 yr. old to work with her at the Puma Club for Men. At closing she realizes her daughter is missing. Mix in with this April's big spending foreign client and the events of September 11 and Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog, has created another riveting novel.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: McNaughton
1st Floor McNaughton Collection
Review submitted by: Cathy Elliott, Business & Financial Technician, Law Library
Rating: Highly Recommended

Horse Heaven by Jane Smiley

Very long, but very satisfying. I read this for the second time, keeping pace with my best friend from Maine, who was reading it for the first time. Interwoven stories of racehorses, racetracks, and the people related to them that mirror human issues and dilemmas.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: PS3569.M39 H67 2000
2nd Floor Humanities Library
Review submitted by: Isa Lang, Head of Information Services, Law Library
Rating: Highly Recommended

Stickeen by John Muir

Stickeen was a mongrel dog that befriended John Muir during his explorations of Alaska's glaciers, and this book recounts their exciting adventure one stormy day in 1880. Even in its simplicity, this story leads us to consider the interconnectedness and sanctity of all living things. It was life changing for Muir and one of his most memorable stories. One of the best things about this book is that it is shorter than his other works, and one can experience Muir's exquisite writing without having to read through some of his more serious tomes.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: QL795.D6 M85 1990
3rd Floor Education Muth Library
Review submitted by: Andrew Tessandori, Cataloging Assistant, Leatherby Libraries
Rating: Highly Recommended

Phantom Prey by John Sandford

With this book, I hope I have reached my fill of murder mysteries. Sandford's books are based in Minnesota and occasionally he drops down into Iowa. This is classic Sandford with a couple of separate murders that need to be solved. The dialogue and storyline are believable, fast paced and sometimes funny. If you're into goths, this is the one for you.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: McNaughton
1st Floor McNaughton Collection
Review submitted by: Linda Greeley, Assistant to Director, Anderson Center for Economic Research
Rating: Somewhat Recommended

Colors of the Mountain by Da Chen

What a great book about life in Communist China. It is amazing what dreams and goals can do for you. After reading this book, I can appreciate and respect the freedoms, liberties and choices we have in the United States.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: CT1828.C5214 A3 1999
2nd Floor Humanities Library
Review submitted by: James McCulloch, Carpenter, Facilities
Rating: Highly Recommended

Adventures in Alaska and Along the Trail by Wendell Endicott

This book is a collection of stories focusing on the author's explorations of Alaska and other adventuresome places in North America (my favorite was the Pendleton Roundup in Oregon). Some of the book is great early twentieth century nature/adventure writing, almost like one was sitting around a campfire exchanging stories. But other parts are hunting stories, which were distracting and not what I wanted to get out of the book. Several neat old photographs are included.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: F909.E58 1928
2nd Floor Humanities Library
Review submitted by: Andrew Tessandori, Cataloging Assistant, Leatherby Libraries
Rating: Somewhat Recommended

Free for All: Oddballs, Geeks, and Gangstas in the Public Library by Don Borchert

Humorous account of mayhem and absurdity by an employee in a public branch library. Gives the reader a better appreciation of what librarians have to deal with on a day-to-day basis and it's not just books! A quick read and would be good for that Metrolink commuter.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: McNaughton
1st Floor McNaughton Collection
Review submitted by: Pam Ames, Purchasing Director
Rating: Somewhat Recommended

Going the Distance: Library Instruction for Remote Users by Susan J. Clayton (editor)

Not only is Going the Distance a highly informative read for distance education librarians, but it could also provide great insight for distance educators in general as far as the library services and modes of outreach possible for their remote library users. Especially informative are the sections of the book which address library services assessment, faculty/librarian collaboration, and models of virtual library instruction. Examples of how other academic libraries implement services to their distance education users are provided as well. The reference listed at the end of each chapter lead to many useful resources.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: Z718.85 .G65 2007
2nd Floor Social Science Library
Review submitted by: Annie Knight, Coordinator of CUC Library Services, Leatherby Libraries
Rating: Highly Recommended

Where Are You Now? by Mary Higgins Clark (review #2)

Where Are You Now? follows Carolyn MacKenzie's search for her missing brother, Charles (Mack) McKenzie, who disappeared 10 years ago. Did he simply choose to disappear? Why? This book is spellbinding and hard to put down.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: McNaughton
1st Floor McNaughton Collection
Review submitted by: Marilyn Potts, Executive Assistant, CUC
Rating: Highly Recommended

The Problem of the Wire Cage by John Dickson Carr

The best John Dickson Carr yet--way cool the way there are no footprints on the tennis court and the body is in the middle. It is a funny one, too, with vaudevillian caricatures -- not to speak of the romance between two potentially guilty (and naively truth-avoiding) suspects.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: PS3505.A774 1959
2nd Floor Humanities Library
Review submitted by: Isa Lang, Head of Information Services, Law Library
Rating: Highly Recommended

The Royal Family by William T. Vollmann

This is a great novel that took me forever to read. I spent many, many evenings lingering poolside with the weight of this tome in my hands and on my chest. Vollmann does so many things well (intimacy, bio-power, familial psychotics, street-grit, sex-funk, self-consciousness/doubt/identity, prismed characterizations, metaphor) that The Royal Family incessantly delights, even as it collapses to singular density with an over-awning and excrescent despair that aggregates through the pages with vascularized malignancy. If you decide to get intimate with this book, prepare to feel terrible. Our hero doesn't plummet so much as seep through the San Franciscan Tenderloin to an event horizon of despondency and mental illness, where, as seen from earth, he appears to become frozen in time. There is no vanishing point. Our fall is infinite.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: PS3572.O395 R6 2001
2nd Floor Humanities Library
Review submitted by: Chris Rynd, Development Writer, University Advancement
Rating: Highly Recommended

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

This is the first of my current "Books I Should Have Read in High School" list and I can see why it is required reading in many secondary schools. Harper Lee does a remarkable job of describing the confusing world of a small southern town in the thirties through the eyes of a precocious girl. Imagine High Noon meets Inherit the Wind as told by one of the Waltons.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: PS3562.E33 T6 1995
2nd Floor Humanities Library
Review submitted by: Nancy Stenerson Gonzales, Cataloger, Leatherby Libraries
Rating: Highly Recommended