Bill Bryson

Recommended by Dean Robert Seal

He mainly writes travel books (My favorite is A Walk in the Woods about his attempt to do the Appalachain Trail from Georgia to New England) but he has also written an interesting book for the layperson on science called A Short History of Nearly Everything. I am currently reading Made in America. Bryson educates you while writing with humor and wit.

Books by Bill Bryson include A Walk in the Woods; A Short History of Nearly Everything; Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States.

The Lord Meren Mysteries
by Lynda S. Robinson

Recommended by Kathryn Young, University Archives, Curator of Rare Books

My favorite book is actually a series by Lynda S. Robinson - the Lord Meren mysteries. They take place in ancient Egypt in the court of Tutankhamun where Meren is a high ranking noble who is the Eyes and Ears of Pharaoh and it is his responsibility to solve various crimes (usually a murder) that threatened the Ma'at (truth and justice) of Egypt. Robinson does a great job of bringing ancient Egypt and the Pharaoh's court to life and her characters are wonderful. Plus, one of the underlying threads of the series is Meren's attempt to find out the truth about the deaths of Akhenaten, the heretic Pharaoh, and Queen Nefertiti.

Books in the series are Murder at the God's Gate; Drinker of Blood; Murder at the Feast of Rejoicing; Murder in the Place of Anubis; and Eater of Souls

Boy’s Life
by Robert McCammon

Recommended by David Schmidt, Recall/Search Assistant

It may be the best coming-of-age story since Bradbury's Dandelion Wine. A marvelous evocation of a time and place so vivid that I felt I knew the inhabitants of this town and was sad the book had to end. Part boyhood nostalgia, part thriller, part magical realism, the book is a delightful balancing act and a joy to read.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories
by Salman Rushdie

Recommended by Kristina Schwobel, Reference Librarian

This is one of those wonderful books that transcends age limits, and is different every time you pick it up. Rushdie does a wonderful job of creating a book that can be read by any age group and yet has a wonderful depth and complexity to it. It is a wonderful fantasy story that still manages to touch on many important social and political considerations.

As I Lay Dying
by William Faulkner

Recommended by Vanessa Crouther-Access Services Supervisor

When I had to read As I Lay Dying in school, I couldn't.  I could never see what my English professors were telling me I'd find in it which is really sad for an English major.  But after college I decided to re-read all those books they made me read, and I fell in love with William Faulkner's storytelling.  His ability to present characters fascinated me. I love his view of the South.

Collecting Contemporary /Cologne; Los Angeles: Taschen, 2007
by Adam Lind emann.

This title is probably one of the frankest, most perspective-rich introductions you’ll likely ever see on the contemporary art market (though it’s maybe a little too insider-ish to approach completely cold, so be warned). It has fascinating interviews with a lot of the big players in today’s art game, and it approaches the phenomenon that is the contemporary art market from a number of different angles. If you’ve ever wondered (in disbelief) why yogurt caps (the foil ones) tacked to a wall can fetch several tens of thousands of dollars from collectors then this might not be a bad place to begin your investigation.

(Cudahy Library, N5210 .L55 2006)

Hans Holbein the Younger : the Years in Basil, 1515-1532 /
Munich ; New York : Prestel, 2006.

(Cudahy Library Oversize, ND588 .H7 A4 2006)

In the Studio : Visits with Contemporary Cartoonists
New Haven : Yale University Press, 2006, by Todd Hignite.

(Cudahy Library, NC1426 .H54 2006)

European Fields : the Landscape of Lower League Football
Gottingen : SteidlMack, 2006.
Hans van der Meer, the photographer whose work is collected here, has spent a number of years traveling and photographing. . . well, what the title says: the workaday (non-professional or semi-professional) teams that play football (soccer) on fields across Europe. He has created a body of work of great poetry, drama, and subtlety from seemingly banal subject matter/raw materials. The book is fascinating to look at; it kinda breathes and gives more with each perusal. I first saw the photographs at a show of Dutch photographers last year and I was completely smitten.

(Cudahy Library, GV944 .E85 M44 2006)

Staying Up Much Too Late: Edward Hopper's Nighthawks and the Dark Side of the American Psyche / New York: T. Dunne Books, 2006, by Gordon Theisen.

(Cudahy Library, ND237 .H75 A74 2006)

Tacita Dean / London ; New York : Phaidon, 2006
by Jean-Christophe Royoux.
One of my favorite artists from the last six or seven years, it’s difficult to “get” Tacita Dean’s work in book contexts; it just doesn’t translate. She makes films, drawings, and some installation pieces. Her work is concerned with time, coincidence, obsolescence, mystery, beauty, aging, nostalgia and conundrum (and a bunch of other stuff). It’s rich and complex, lovely to look at and deeply personal. I just love her. I love her whole attitude and spirit. I think you should pick up this book (and any of the many others we have by or about her) because she should be better known.

(Cudahy Library, NX543 .R72 2006)

Prayers and Portraits : Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych / Washington : National Gallery of Art ; Antwerp : Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten ; Cambridge : Harvard University Art Museums ; New Haven : Yale University Press, 2006
by John Oliver Hand.
I checked this title out soon after we got it, and my youngest daughter fell in love with its images. From time to time, for about two weeks, she would ask me to sit with her and we'd look through it and skim the facts (which are fascinating!) and talk about which panels we liked and which we didn't like. One of the great things about art books now (as opposed to …say… 30 years ago) is that (when money is put forth and care is taken) the book reproduction abilities have improved so greatly (all the way down the line: photographic lenses, scanning, pigments, inks, presses, etc.) that you can now look at some image-centric books and be absolutely stunned (stunned!) at the quality of the images. This is one of those books; they spared no expense and it shows; this is a worthy addition to the literature on my favorite art period. Sometimes you'll talk to people and they'll say": "Yeah, I like art, but the stuff they do these days is just too weird for me…", or something to that effect. The truth is that --- as far as weird goes --- most of the supposed "straight" (read: beautiful/easily digestible) works from art's older history are far weirder (read: having bizarre originary underpinnings/strange visual presentations) than many of their contemporary counterparts. This book is fascinating and beautiful and cool and weird.

(Cudahy Library Oversize, ND635 .H36 2006)

Bernd and Hilla Becher: Life and Work / Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, 2007, by Susanna Lange.
Bernd and Hilla Becher, the German husband and wife photography team, are two of the most important and influential artists of the last thirty-plus years. In addition to their own photographic work (which is rigorous, formally beautiful and deeply cerebral) documenting the world’s industrial past as it quickly recedes, they have taught some of the most important artist/photographers to emerge in the last fifteen years (the so-called “Dusseldorf School”: Candida Hofer, Andreas Gursky, Thomas Struth, Thomas Ruff, Axel Hutte, and a few others). This title investigates them and their working methods with greater candor and thoroughness than any previous title. It’s a fascinating and important look.

(Cudahy Library Oversize, TR140 .B4412 .L3613 2007)

Hans Bellmer / Paris : Centre Pompidou ; Ostfildern, Germany : Hatje Cantz ; London : Whitechapel ; New York : Distribution: D.A.P., Distributed Art Publishers, c2006.
You might remember Hans Bellmer from your Dada/Surrealist survey course (if you had one). He’s “the doll guy” --- the one who did (is most famous for) those strange, faintly disturbing, doll, doll-like, and doll-related, sculptures --- and this survey monograph of his work is probably the most in-depth, new (i.e., possessed of fresh information), and complete one I’ve ever seen; it makes him fascinating again (he’s been made a bit bland by art history). It (the book) has heaps of back story, is rich with source material, has “never-before-seen” sketches, and “not-safe-for-the-kids” erotic drawings, all kinds of historical photographs and found, archival detritus, along with great essays. All of which go a long way toward making Bellmer even more disturbing, pathological and charged than he has always seemed. There’s a faint whiff of danger about his stuff for me now, which there wasn’t really before.

(Cudahy Library, NX550 .Z9 B452 2006)

The New Book Table, located on just the other side of the glass from the photocopy center in Cudahy, is the place to browse the library’s newest acquisitions in contemporary fiction and art books. Refreshed regularly, the new book shelf always has something interesting to give you a break (or a needed distraction) from your studies. Intermittent “Spotlight On…” series highlight certain lesser-known aspects of the collection, such as cookbooks, children’s books, and pop music books.

So swing on by, and see what catches your eye!

-- Andrea Gough, Monograph Acquisitions Associate