Adult Reading Round Table Booklists

TRUE STORIES
FOR FICTION FANS

Alexander, Caroline
The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition
1998, 211 p.
This is the riveting account of explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew’s struggle for survival in the Antarctic after their ship is crushed, leaving them stranded on the ice floes in the Weddeil Sea. Drawing on previously unavailable sources and the amazing photographs of Australian photographer Frank Hurley, Caroline Alexander presents an astonishing tale of survival; the destruction of the ship and the crew’s daily struggle to survive to stay alive, a miracle made possible by the inspiring leadership of Shackleton. The book was published in conjunction with the American Museum of Natural History’s exhibition on Shackleton’s journey, perhaps one of the last great adventures in the age of exploration.

Brancaccio, David
Squandering Aimlessly: My Adventures in the American Marketplace
2000, 283 p.
What does a person do with a sudden windfall or accumulated sum of money? Taking his cue from lottery winners’ statements about how they would manage their winnings, the author devices a plan to explore the options. His forays to the Mall of America, Las Vegas, Wall Street, a socially responsible investment conference and other interesting places result in some humorous antidotes and helpful information for the reader. The mystery author and her husband who left the rat race to live more simply and economically in the Texas Hill Country are especially interesting.

Brenner, Joel Glenn
The Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars
1999, 366 p.
This corporate biography of the bigger-than-life "emperors" of the largest candy manufacturers in the United States combines the mystery of chocolate and its production with the personalities of these moguls, along with a dash of corporate espionage. Forrest Mars, Sr. and Milton Hershey built their chocolate empires in the first half of the 20^th Century, but the battle for supremacy continues even today. Everything you ever wanted to know about these two companies is here, from the candies that made it to those that didn’t the differences between their chocolates and those manufactured in Europe, and even the color ratio in each package of M&M’s. I dare you to read this chocoholic’s delight without chocolate at hand!

Bryson, Bill
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
1998, 276 p.
Getting there is half the fun! At least according to Bill Bryson, who along with his traveling companion, Stephen Katz, attempted (unsuccessfully) to walk the entire 2,100 mile Appalachian Trail. They start at Amicalola Falls State Park in Georgia with the official Appalachian Trail Guides that soon prove to be useless. Bryson and Katz cope with this and a number of other oddities they encounter along the way. A laugh-out-loud account of Bryson’s hike, this is also a stirring endorsement for conserving this lengthy trail.

Cunningham, Laura
Sleeping Arrangements
1989, 195 p.
Set in New York in the 1950s, this memoir is told through the eyes of young Lily. At the age of eight, she is orphaned and left to live with Len and Gabe, her two eccentric uncles who have the gift of "turning the mundane into magic." At six-foot-six, Len is the image of his idol Abraham Lincoln, while 38-year old Gabe writes Jewish gospel songs and dreamed of being the next Gershwin. How the three gradually become a family is heartwarming and often hilarious.

Dash, Mike
TulipoMania: The Story of the World’s Most Coveted Flower and the Extraordinary Passions It Aroused
1999, 273 p.
They are the obsession of an entire country. One could cost more than the entire yearly earnings of a well-off merchant. What is this expensive object? Tulips, Botanist Carolus Clustus imports these exotic flowers, and his writings and gardens help spark the tulipomania that sweeps the country in the 1630s. Soon rare bulbs are selling for double, triple, and quadruple their original cost. The poorest laborers to the wealthiest merchants begin to buy and sell bulbs and then begin to speculate on future bulb growths. This first futures market finally crashes and brings economic ruin and chaos in the courts for years to come.

Dew, Robb Forman
The Family Heart: A Memoir of When Our Son Came Out.
1994, 229 p.
On a spring day in May. Robb Forman Dew’s son tells her he is gay. Thoughtfully and emotionally, she renders her account of that moment and the subsequent journey that follows. As the author grapples with her belief system, her definition of family, and the conventional dreams she had for her son, she also reflects upon the general American attitude towards homosexuality. Robb Forman Dew is an American Book Award winner.

Foreman, Amanda
Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire
1998, 454 p.
English Regency period comes to life in this beautifully written and painstakingly researched Whitbread Prize-winning biography of the Spencer daughter who was Princess Diana’s great-great-great-great aunt. From the glittering ballrooms filled with elegantly clad peers, their wives and children, to the sordid gambling tables that ruined many of those same member of the ton, this is an inside look at the world in which Austen, Heyer, Putney, Quick, et.al. spin the romances Regency readers love.

Frazier, Ian
On the Rez
2000, 311 p.
On today’s Indian Reservation one finds alcohol suicide, poverty, and the occasional flashy moneymaking casino. On the Pine Ridge Reservation of the Oglala Sioux in southwest South Dakota, author Ian Frazier finds all that (expect the casino). He also finds his friend LeWar Lance and Le’s colorful extended family and convoluted network of friends, Frazier also encounters the legend of a modern day hero of the Sioux, the young basketball player SuAnne Big Crow, who brings the reservation together, and then tragically dies in a car crash.

Garcia Marquez, Gabriel
News of a Kidnapping (Translated by Edith Grossman)
1997, 291 p.
Garcia Marquez unveils the story of the abduction of ten prominent Colombians in 1990 by the Extraditables, Pablo Escobar’s drug cartel. Written like a true Suspense novel, Garcia Marquez blends intrigue, fear drama, heroism, evil and page-turning scenes into a haunting and memorable tale. The survivors of the ordeal asked Garcia Marquez to share their story.

Gleeson, Janet
The Arcanum
1998, 324 p.
The arcanum is the formula for transforming base metal into gold. In this historical narrative, one reads of fraud, greed, intrigue and chicanery as alchemists lead the search for the formula during the early 18^th Century. In the town of Meissen, Germany, Johnson Johann Bottger is imprisoned by King Augustus of Saxony to search for the formula. Instead, Botter uncovers the method for making porcelain. Porcelain later becomes known as "white Gold", and Meissen and nearby Dresden become the centers for the famous commodity. The book features colorful historical figures, descriptions of porcelain artistry, and a look at the place of porcelain in history.

Goodwin, Doris Kearns
Wait Till Next Year
1997, 261 p.
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin lovingly remembers her close-knit Long Island community of the late 1940s and 1950s. In Goodwin’s neighborhood loyalty is divided between the Giants, the Yankees, and Goodwin’s own beloved Dodgers. This love for the Dodgers is a devotion she shares with her father. The drama of the annual pennant race, the many books she shares with her invalid mother, the thrill of First Communion, and the ups and downs of neighborhood friendships spark Goodwin’s interest in a good story well told which serves her well as an historian.

Hickam, Homer H. Jr.
Rocket Boys: A Memoir
1998, 368 p.
A mid-level student who no athletic ability, fourteen-year old Homer feels destined to follow his father into the West Virginia coal mines. Seeing the 1957 Sputnik from his backyard, Homer compels his friends to start a Rocket Club to study how rockets work and launch homemade devices. Physics and math classes become a means to study rocketry, and as the boys in the club need help with supplies and funding, they turn to their community for support. This stirring memoir catches the idealism of youth, gives insights into 1950’s company towns, and inspires readers to follow their dreams. This book became the 1999 movie, October Sky.

Johnston, Tracy
Shooting the Boh: A Woman’s Voyage Down the Wildest River in Borneo
1992, 256 p.
Journalist Tracy Johnston begins her white water rafting trip of Borneo’s remote Boh River without her carefully packed luggage, forcing her to borrow clothing and supplies from her fellow rafters. But when the proposed three-day adventure tour turns into a ten day disaster, Johnston and her uncooperative companions deal with treacherous rapids, hoards of bees, leeches, short tempers, and jungle humidity, where nothing ever dries and cuts fester almost immediately. While facing the physical challenges, Johnston also reflects on her love of adventure, lost youth, and what it means to be entering middle age. A unique mixture of exciting and inner contemplation.

Karesh, William B.
Appointments at the Ends of the World: Memoirs of a Wildlife Veterinarian.
1999, 376 p.
Dangerous patients, venomous snakes, tropical diseases, and army guerrillas are all in a day’s work for William Karesh in his profession as a wildlife veterinarian for the Wildlife Conservation Society. We follow him from healing an injured okapi in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) to attaching radio collars to forest elephants in the Cameroon to evaluating the health of macaws in Peru. We also meet the dedicated scientists and conservationists he works with and gain a feel for life in the field as he moves from one critical project to the next, saving the world’s wildlife.

Katz, Jon
Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho
2000, 379 p.
A writer, fascinated by technology and how it’s changing our world, focuses on the story of two young computer aficionados. Eric and Jesse, unable to attend college, are trapped in dead-end jobs in a small town. A casual comment from Katz sets both on a journey of self-discovery of what computers can and cannot do to change your life. The duo move to Chicago, get jobs, and begin to realize that a real-world community is as important as an online one. Katz believes strongly that Jesse and Eric’s generation will take us beyond the internet and current computer use into scenarios we can’t even imagine.

Kiyonaga, Bina Cady
My Spy: Memoir of a CIA Wife
2000, 308 p.
Mrs. Kiyonaga tells of her life with her CIA husband Joe and a growing family as they move to assignments in Japan, Brazil, and Central America during turbulent times. From the mistake she almost makes in Japan when she nearly eats the goldfish in her finger bowl, to the family’s harrowing experience of being chased by a bus full of men with machetes in El Salvador, hr descriptions are vivid and humorous. At the time she is living it, Bina does not have all the details of the actual CIA operations she writes about here. They are revealed to her by Joe on his deathbed with the request that Bina tell their story.

Kolata, Gina
Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It
1999, 300 p.
In 1918, as World War I was winding down, an influenza outbreak that becomes one of the worst in history strikes. "One of history’s great conundrums" kills more people than all of the battles of that terrible war. Throughout the world medical teams focus on the virus and why this particular strain is so deadly. Where did it come from, and why are those aged 20 through 40 so disproportionately affected? Armies of both sides are affected, and maneuvers are abandoned or delayed because personnel are not available. Advances in medical science are now giving us more clues to this outbreak, but there is still much to learn. Those who read medical thrillers will surely enjoy this book.

Kotlowitz, Alex
There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America
1991, 324 p.
This is the story of two brothers, Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers, growing up in the "other" America, a Chicago housing project on the South Side. With gangs, drugs, crime, and inadequate housing, they feel they are caught in a social environment that is like living in a concentration camp, from which there is little chance of escape. Tomorrow is not promised to them; they live day to day, dodging bullets, helping family survive. They grow up too fast, taking on adult responsibilities early in life. There is little hope for families in the projects, but some do escape with help from friends.

Lapierre, Dominique
The City of Joy translated by Kathryn Spink
1985, 464 p.
Like thousands of his countrymen in the drought-stricken countryside, Hasari Pal and his family are forced to leave their village and move to Anand Nagar, "City Of Joy," a district in Calcutta encompassing two football fields and 70,000 poverty-stricken people. Taking a job as a "human horse," a rickshaw driver, Hasarat struggles to survive and still provide a dowry for his daughter. Journalist Lapierre, having lived in the district for two years, has uniquely captured the story of not only the Pals, but of a Polish priest, Stephan Kovalski, and an American medical student, Max Loeb, who work tirelessly to help these gentle people amid the chaos of bureaucracy and the vagaries of illness, weather, and despair.

Larson, Erik
Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
1999, 323 p.
This book relates the story of the deadly hurricane that destroyed the city of Galveston, Texas in 1900. The account traces the actions of Isaac Cline, a scientist who serves as chief of the Texas section of the new U.S. Weather Bureau. The book provides the early history of the national weather system network while also giving a fascinating look at how difficult it is to predict weather patterns and track storms. Larson’s well-researched book presents human-interest accounts of events leading up to the storm as individuals and families are traced that fateful day. Tension builds as the storm approaches, and one reads how ill equipped the citizens and town are to cope with a disaster that costs 6,000-10,000 people with lives.

Liftin, Hilary and Kate Montgomery
Dear Exile: The True Story of Two Friends Separated ( for a Year) by an Ocean.
1999, 203 p.
In a series of smart, funny and refreshingly honest letters, former roommates Hilary and Kate struggle to maintain the closeness of a college friendship, though recent changes have put them on vastly different paths. Hilary drifts through computer jobs while trying to take advantage of the hip Manhattan singles’ scene, while Kate and her new husband battle voodoo, dysentery, and in their work as Peace Corps volunteers in Kenya. Gen-X stereotypes will fall away as you read the forthright letters of two young women working hard to make their way in the world.

Lord, Walter
A Time to Stand
1961, 255 p.
A seamless blend of historic fact and intriguing storytelling. Lord’s account of the Battle of the Alamo incorporates heroism, bravery and cowardice as a handful of American pioneers fight for Texas’ Independence. Mounting suspense and intense battle scenes make this book as readable as any military or political suspense novel.

Lorenzo, Orestes
Wings of the Morning: The Flights of Orestes Lorenzo (Translated by E.K. Max)
1993, 346 p.
Orestes Lorenzo tells of his boyhood in Cuba. He is major in the Cuban Air Force when he begins to question life under Communism. He decides he doesn’t want his children to grow up in a country that denies family dignity and spiritual values. He flies a MIG into the United States asks for asylum. He tells of his two-year struggle to get permission for his family to join him, and of his flight in an old twin-engine Cessna across the Straits of Florida, landing on a busy Cuban highway, in a breathtaking rescue of his family.

Mayes, Frances
Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy
1996, 280 p.
Cold salads on the patio, long siestas in the afternoons, and sightings of the Big Dipper while stretched out on the grass contrast the hard work required to restore a dilapidated villa in Tuscany. Mayes purchases Bramsole, a home in Coratona, Italy, after a bitter divorce has left her rundown and feeling confined. Summers off from teaching provide Mayes and her companion Ed the time to paint, plant, and supervise local workers in remodeling the house. Mayes also finds time to explore the countryside, meet the neighbors, and try new recipes that she describes in delightful detail. A sequel, Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy, was published in 1999.

Orlean, Susan
The Orchid Thief
1998, 284 p.
John Laroche could be a character from a Carl Hiaasen novel, but true adventures of this eccentric Florida plant dealer will fascinate and amaze a reader who enjoys stories with offbeat characters and harebrained schemes. While the book can be enjoyed for the adventure alone, the mesmerizing tour of the world of orchid collecting, breeding, and obsessing that Orlean provides along the way makes it an event more satisfying read. Courtroom melodrama, midnight forays into the swamp, Native-American lore, and cloning make this a certifiably wild and crazy book!

Reid, T.R
Confucius Lives Next Door: What Living in the East Teaches Us about Living in the West.
1999, 276 p.
This literate, humorous look at life in Japan and what makes it work is ideal for the armchair traveler. With facts and stories about how his own thoroughly American family copes, Reido-san paints a picture of the daily life of the Japanese and how they view the world. Confucism, an ethical, community-oriented philosophy, is at the base and partly explains Japan’s rise from the ashes of World War 11 to status as world economic force. Reid a commentator for National Radio, has written a chatty dialogue that manages to get across complex economical, historical and cultural ideas in a entertaining way.

Sontag, Sherry and Christopher Drew with Annette Lawrence Drew
Blind Man’s Bluff
1998, 352 p.
American submarines and their crews have been the stuff dreams are made of for decades. Full of true stories of submarines and their activities since the end of World War II, this book tells us about the missions of some of these submarine crews. From top level briefings where only a handful of people know the true assignments given these crews, to the actual events under the seas, you will be there with these brave seamen. Anyone who enjoys espionage, especially the submarine novels of Patrick Robinson, will enjoy this book.

Stoll, Clifford
The Cuckoo’s Egg: Tracking a Spy through the Maze of Computer Espionage
1989, 326 p.
While trying to track down a 75-cent billing error in Lawrence Berkley Laboratory’s computer center, research Stoll stumbles upon an international computer conspiracy. Hackers are logging into Berkeley’s system and copying passwords used to access top-secret government projects. Like a dog with a bone, the more Stoll learns about the hackers, the more determined he is to find out how they’re doing it, and more importantly, who they are. Far from a dry, techie account, Stoll is a storyteller, a laid-back San Franciscan with a great sense of humor and an eye for interesting detail.

Suskind, Ron
A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League
1998, 372 p.
This follow-up to Suskind’s Pulitzer-winning articles in the Wall Street Journal is an honest, compelling effort to report on and understand the life of one exceedingly determined young man as he follows his dream from the worst public school in Washington, D.C. to an Ivy League college. Suskind befriends and follows Cedric Jennings his mother, pastor, friends, and teachers for three years in an effort to "see America through Cedric’s eyes." He describes the special hurdles Cedric fights to overcome, first as a promising scholar trapped in an unfriendly, violent environment, and then as a fish-out-of –water in the stimulating atmospheres of MIT and Brown University. At the same time, he places Cedric’s growing pains within the context of those felt by so many students as they spread their wings in the world.

Theroux, Paul
The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train through Asia
1975, 342 p.
In one of his earliest travelogues, Paul Theroux leaves Victoria Station to begin an odyssey of four months of train travel riding such intriguing trains as the Orient Express and the Khyber Pass Local to traverse Europe and Asia. The very names of these trains conjure up exotic sights and smells, but the world as seen through this novelist’s eyes, makes for a mesmerizing trip. More important than the scenery and countries traversed are the people he meets along the way--from the guru in an Indian ashram, to the businessmen at a seedy strip show in Japan, to sharing a snow-enshrouded night in a compartment on the Trans-Siberian Express with a Pushkin-quoting, felonious chess player from Irkutsk.

Truman, Margaret
First Ladies
1995, 368 p.
As the daughter of a First Lady, Margaret Truman offers a unique perspective on that little-explored but surprisingly influential aspect of U.S. history--the lives and times of America’s first ladies. Told with a keen eye as well as a sense of humor, Truman presents a wealth of historical detail and an intimate look at these women who, ignored by the Constitution, have created their own different and individual roles as our nation’s unacknowledged second-in command.

Villasenor, Victor
Rain of Gold
1991, 551 p.
In an engrossing page-turning saga, Villasenor traces the lives and family histories of his beautiful, religious mother. Lupe, and his volatile and wild father, Juan Salvador. Their stories begin in Mexico before and during the ravages of the Mexican Revolution, and eventually proceed to America where they meet and marry. It is a tale of hardship, war, prejudice, love, religion, and family bonds, and it has been described as the Mexican Roots.

Winchester, Simon
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
1998, 242 p.
The Oxford English Dictionary is one of the most audacious literary projects conceived of in the nineteenth century. Professor James Murray is the editor for this monumental project and marshals the skills of thousands of contributors who send in over 400,000 definitions. Dr. W.C. Minor, an American living in England, sends in over 10,000 definitions, more than any other contributor. Murray only knows the man from his correspondence even thought lives only 50 miles from Oxford. Determined to meet this reclusive wordsmith, he travels to Minor’s home in the village of Crowthorne, only to discover that the brilliant Minor is a murderer locked up in Broadmoor, an asylum for the criminally insane. The story behind these two men and how they helped create the greatest dictionary of the English language is both improbable and extraordinary.

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