Book: The News From Spain

Author: Joan Wickersham

Reviewer: Dr. Angela Wiseman, Assistant Professor, Elementary Education

This book features seven short stories that focus on love and relationships among very different kinds of people at different times in history (in fact, two of the stories are based on prominent historical figures).  The one strand that connects these stories together is that a phrase “the news from Spain” that emerges in each story.  By using vivid descriptions, realistic characters, and true to life relationship contexts, I found myself drawn into complex and insightful stories.

Book: Cosmos

Author: Carl Sagan

Reviewer: Haritha Malladi, student, engineering

Of all the books I have read in my life until now, I will always remember Carl Sagan’s Cosmos as the book that brought back meaning into my life. With wonderful humility Dr. Sagan makes the unfathomably huge Cosmos come to life with words that are clearly written from the heart, complemented by beautiful photographs and illustrations. In the deafening noise of various philosophies that concern the meaning of life, Dr. Sagan’s voice is the soothing balm of reason to chaffed and tired ears.

Book: Blue Gold

Author: Maude Barlow & Tony Clarke

Reviewer: Hannah Gotsch, student, engineering

This is an amazing nonfiction book that sums up the global issues on water and expresses all the dilemmas humans have created by increasingly depleting the supply of water.  We have extracted ground water faster than it can be replenished because the surface water has  been polluted, used up until rivers were dry because of dams, or salinated and sent back to the sea—thereby increasing the sea level exponentially. It reminds us that a loss of a diminishing energy source is not the only problem we face.

Book: Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife

Author: Eben Alexander, M.D.

Reviewer: Laura Jackson, University Library Technician, Collection Management, NCSU Libraries

This book is truly a marvelous read as it is a tale of a neurosurgeon who ends up comatose and experiences Heaven. Fascinating medical information describing why his particular experience is so unique and beautiful descriptions of the metaphysical and spiritual journey in which he partakes intertwine to make this memoir so engaging. Whether you are a person of faith or a skeptic, this book will definitely pique your interest.

Book: Never Let Me Go

Author: Kazou Ishiguro

and

Book: Waiting for the Barbarians

Author: J. M. Coetzee

Reviewer: John Papalas, Friends of the Library board member

So hard to pick one favorite, so here are my top two.

In the wake of Ray Bradbury’s death earlier this year, I made a point to read some works by authors he had influenced. The title of the book Never Let Me Go, by Kazou Ishiguro could also describe the readers’ reluctance to put the book down after delving in. What makes the story so subtly unsettling is the otherwise near complete contextual normalcy in which three all but normal friends mature to self-actualized individuals. No cheap thrills are needed (or used) as Ishiguro masterfully highlights the thin yet dark lines that divides our humanity from medical progress.

Do not read Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee if you are looking for a quick pick-me-up. Within the confines of just a few pages, this novel holds a mirror up to the Imperialistic tradition of expansion and progress, and what you see looking back is alien, if not loathsome.   This Nobel laureate draws upon the evocative themes of isolation (mental and physical), exposure to elemental extremes, and societal disorder, to keep the reader eagerly hoping for just a dash of good fortune for the narrator. When I finished reading this book, I was eerily reminded of the prophetic words mumbled by Joseph Conrad’s’ Mr. Kurtz, another monstrosity of Imperialism;  “The horror! The horror!”

Book: Dancing After Hours

Author: Andre Dubus II

and

Book: Townies

Author: Andre Dubus III

Reviewer: Kathy Brown, Director, Planning and Research, NCSU Libraries

After reading Dancing after Hours by Andre Dubus II, I’ll be tracking down his other collections of short stories.  Dubus conveys the struggles of his characters with compassion and a beautiful style, and he was regarded as a master of the short story genre.  A man of great insight, Dubus wrestled his own demons during his life and was, from all accounts, an incredibly lousy father.  Townie, a memoir by Andre Dubus III (also the author of The House of Sand and Fog), describes a life of abject poverty in Haverhill (Massachusetts) after his parent’s divorce.  The younger Dubus exposes the rage that stemmed in large part from his father’s absence and offers a compelling view of how natural it was for him to move down a path of self-destructive violence.  Writing sustained the father and undoubtedly saved the son, who was able to achieve a measure of forgiveness and love for someone who did little to earn it.