Staff Reading Picks 2015

Looking for some summer reading ideas? Below are selections of books recently recommended by staff members of the FAU Libraries. These books are now on display in the Wimberly Library’s main lobby.

All the Light we Cannot See
By Anthony Doerr. Scribner, 2014
Call Number: PS3604.O34 A77 2014
Recommended by Beth

Courtesans & Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens
By James Davidson. St. Martin’s Press, 1998
Call Number: DF275 .D23 1998
Recommended by Afra B., Access Services

Earth as Art
By Lawrence Friedl, Karen Yuen, et al. NASA, 2012
Call Number: NAS 1.83:NP-2012-07-889-HQ
Recommended by Bruce Barron, Government Documents
“A book of beautiful full-color pictures showing images from Earth-observing environmental satellites in orbit around the planet.”

The Essential Calvin & Hobbes: A Calvin & Hobbes Treasury
By Bill Watterson. Andrews and McMeel, 1988
Call Number: PN6728.C34W383
Recommended by Brian Wert, Technical Services
“One of the best comic strips ever! It mixed intelligent, thoughtful and mature humor with a childlike point of view about the world. Sometimes hilarious, yet other times poignant and insightful. How can you go wrong with an ornery, imaginative, energetic boy and his Tiger?”

The Far Side Gallery
By Gary Larson. Andrews, McMeel & Parker, 1984.
Call Number: NC1429.L32A4 1984a
Recommended by Brian Wert, Technical Services
“Weird, wild and wonderful! How do you possibly describe the range of reactions experienced while reading a Far Side collection? You will at times snort, laugh out loud, put your head in your hands and think, ‘What?’, or stare blankly at the page grasping for understanding. All the while you are wondering what substances Gary Larson was abusing, if he was dropped on his head as a child or if you should report him to the authorities so they can isolate him from the general public.”

The Favored Daughter: One Woman’s Fight to Lead Afghanistan into the Future
By Fawzia Koofi with Nadene Gourhi. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
Call Number: DS371.43.K66A3 2012
Recommended by Renata Johnson, Access Services
“This was a book group selection and in reading the book, I was exposed to the political machine that makes up modern day Afghanistan. Society, as a whole, still has not fully accepted the role women play in the political system and this book depicts the trials and tribulations of a Muslim woman in the age of the Taliban as she struggles to keep her father’s political legacy alive.”

God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian
By Kurt Vonnegut. Seven Stories Press, 1999
Call Number: PS3572.O5G58 1999
Recommended by Matthew, Access Services
“Features ‘interviews’ with Sir Isaac Newton, Clarence Darrow, James Earl Ray, Eugene Debs, John Brown, Adolf Hitler, William Shakespeare, and Kilgore Trout and more!”

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
By J.K. Rowling. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2000
Call Number: PZ7.R79835Hal 2000
Recommended by Afra B., Access Services
“Harry Potter was a crucial part of my childhood that has contributed to my love of books. Prisoner of Azkaban is my favorite book in the series, but it’s unavailable. Goblet of Fire is a good second choice.”

Jane Eyre
By Charlotte Bronte. Barnes and Noble Books, 1993
Call Number: PR4167.J3 1993
Recommended by Zach English, Collection Development
“Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books. Charlotte Bronte was a powerful writer with a very modern voice.”

Kim
By Rudyard Kipling. Dell Pub. Co., 1959
Call Number: PR4854.K4 1959
Recommended by Zach English, Collection Development
“Kim is a novel about a young man who teams up with a Buddhist monk on a travel across India. Along their way they blend into this kaleidoscopic world, vividly described by Kipling.”

The Man in the High Castle
By Philip K. Dick.
Call Number: PS3554.I3.M26 1992
Recommended by Matthew, Access Services
“An alternate history where the Axis powers were victorious in WWII and now rule over the United States. The novel within the novel – The Grasshopper Lies Heavy – is about an alternate history where the Axis powers lose WWII. Oooh, weird.”

On the Road
By Jack Kerouac.
Call Number: PS3521.E735O5 1993
Recommended by Zach English, Collection Development
“A great novel about bohemian life in post-war America. Kerouac lived his story first and then typed it up.”

One Last Little Peek, 1980-1995: The Final Strips, the Special Hits, the Inside Tips
By Berkeley Breathed.
Call Number: PN6728.O92B75 1995
Recommended by Brian Wert, Technical Services
“Another great comic strip of the 1980s. It featured a wide range of offbeat characters: Opus J. Penguin, Bill the Cat, lawyer Steve Dallas. Entertaining and thought-provoking, sometimes very political and socially-aware subject matter. Plus you have to love any cartoonist with a name like Berkeley Breathed!”

Patton: A Biography
By Alan Axelrod. Palgrave Macmillan, 2006
Call Number: E745.P3A97 2006
Recommended by Lawrence J. Mello, Jr., Reference and Instruction
“One of the most complicated military men of all time, General George Smith Patton, Jr. He was known for carrying pistols with ivory handles and his intemperate manner, and is regarded as one of the most successful United States field commanders of any war.”

 

Slaughterhouse-Five
By Kurt Vonnegut. Dell, 1991
Call Number: PS3572.O5S55 1991 (Jupiter campus library)
Recommended by Alethea Perez, Recorded Sound Archives
“Centering on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim’s odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know. I selected this book because despite being written in 1969, it still is so relevant to now and today. While it can be a tear-jerker at times, I enjoyed the brutal honesty the book had about the way things are.”

Steal this Book
By Abbie Hoffman. Four Walls Eight Windows, 1996
Call Number: HX843.7.H64A3 1996
Recommended by Matthew, Access Services
“Strangely, this book has gone missing from the Wimberly Library. Reported lost, but it’s available at the Jupiter campus…for a limited time.”

Student Body Art Exhibition
By Z. McCarthy-Koppisch. Blurb, 2011
Call Number: N6537.M22 2011 (Jupiter campus)
Recommended by Patzy Koppisch
“The book is located in the Jupiter library, but the Jaffe Center also has a copy. It is a catalog of photographs from the Stories on the Skin: Tattoo Culture at FAU project.”

Voices of 1776
By Richard Wheeler. Crowell, 1972
Call Number: E203.W45 1972
Recommended by Lawrence J. Mello, Jr., Reference and Instruction
“Eyewitness accounts bring to life the turbulent events of the American Revolution from Paul Revere’s ride to the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.”