Past Reads

An in depth and fun to read look at our modern food industry. Did you know that farmers consider 'Big Corn' to be a welfare queen and that the corn lobby is behind the creation of genetically engineered corn eating fish? Did you know that the man who invented both synthetic nitrogen and Zyklon B, the death gas used at Auschwitz, was Jewish? This book could have been titled better and no one from the midwest calls it 'America's Middle West' but despite his Berkeley foibles, Pollan is definitely one of the best food writers around because in the end he is writing about everything but food. --Marina

I started Home last autumn but put it aside after getting about halfway through. I liked it overall, but with certain reservations that were bothering me. One, there's too little sense of place. The novel is set in a small Iowa town during the early 1960s, but Robinson doesn't flesh the town out nearly enough for my tastes. (This seems especially odd given that she herself lives in Iowa and surely knows the region well.) Her focus on her four central characters is so all-consuming that everything and everyone else feels blurred out. Secondly, I was having a hard time engaging with the protagonist, Jack Boughton, and his many troubles. Psychic wounds are hinted at, a tenacious ennui is suggested over and over and over -- yet I couldn't particularly care. And there's not enough novelistic space given over to his doting sister, Glory, either. Anyway, I picked the book up again the other night and now I must say I'm hooked. Robinson is playing a patient hand -- the novelist's winning game, rarely that of the TV or film director's -- and you have to give her the time she demands. There's a slow, steady gathering up of forces and deepseated themes (suffering, grace, redemption) and now, two-thirds of the way through Home, it's clear to me why so many readers loved this book when it was first published in 2008. Kelly read it when it was new and raved about it, too. I'm glad I gave Home a second chance and I can't wait to get back to the story. --Alex

Sci-fi maverick Dick's first blockbuster was 1963's Hugo Award winning Man In the High Castle. The characters are interesting, but less important than the premise, that it is 1962 but the Axis powers won WWII and have divided the United States as we once actually divided Germany. Also, the current bestseller in this alternate reality is a book that describes the exact opposite situation, a fantasy world in which the Allies won and America is a supreme capitalist world power instead of a colony of Germany and Japan. Hidden within the plot are many philosophical nuggets about colonialism, consumerism and artistic representation.--Marina

Dowd is one of the new, refreshing breed of thinkers who are asking the $64,000 question: why should science -- specifically evolutionary theory -- and traditional faith practices continue to be seen as diametrically opposed? Here's the winning answer: they shouldn't be.--Alex

Slovenian Marxist philosopher Žižek has written more than 30 books but calls 2006's Parallax View his 'magnum opus.'  I'm 85% sure that a parallax view is the seeing of another object to which you are connected but to which you can never be in physical proximity. Far opposite points on a mobius strip is the obvious example; the disconnect and longing between workers and capitalists is the Žižek example. Mingling the theories of modern philosophers such as Kant, Hegel and Lacan with deep readings of often shallow film and literature,  Žižek explains how we arrive at meaning in a world gone mad.  After a close look at the original non linear manuscript of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'Tender is the Night' and its linear published form, Žižek explains that the real truth can be found in the places where these manuscripts disagree.--Marina

The blue, cool toned coloring of Bradbury's once  futuristic world sets a somber tone for a visual interpretation of this sci-fi-ish classic about firemen who burn books in a totalitarian society. The points made by the renegade book lovers about why books must be saved are pretty relevant for an e-book era. If it doesn't look like a book or smell like a book, is it a book? Discuss . . . but don't let Them hear you. --Marina

In 1975, St. Louis native Shange invented a new medium, the chloreopoem, to describe her play about six different women trying to find their way in a world that does not see them as human. One of them is a young St. Louis girl who wins a children's reading contest at the library only to be stripped of her title when one of the books she read was an adult book about Touissant L'Overture. So she decides to go to Haiti to find him. --Marina

Close your eyes, pick anything written by Wendell Berry, and you're good to go. The man is an authentic genius, completely original and independent in his thought, and the owner of one of the most profound minds in this country's history. Read him: your mind and spirit will be richer for it. --Alex

Meet another great American: Ms. Temple Grandin. This woman is a hero of mine, and Animals Make Us Human is her latest book just out in paperback. --Alex

This collection of essays was given to me as a gift by a friend who was later accused of being a bad boyfriend because 'I mean, c'mon, he gives out books called How To Be Alone for birthday presents.' But because we all are going to be alone at times in our lives, its helpful to have Webster Groves' own Franzen to guide us through issues such as the death of novels, the rise of the prison industrial complex and his very own (not  necessarily warranted but none the less interesting)standoff with Oprah.--Marina

I love Ted Kooser's writing. Whether it's poetry or prose, he's a master of perfect clarity and direct feeling. He's also a Midwesterner who hymns the beauty of our special part of the country. Lights is a brief (60 pages), lovely memoir about his mother's side of the family. Perfection. --Alex

Fantastic read; I finished it in about two weeks, which is really fast for me. Foulds takes the true story of the great poet John Clare's incarceration in a mental hospital, in mid-19th century England, and weaves a fictional tale around it. Foulds is a poet as well as a fiction writer, and the twin talent shows clearly in his beautifully rendered prose style. The Quickening Maze was a finalist for the 2009 Man Booker Prize. A talented young writer to keep your eye on. --Alex

Iwago is a Japanese photographer I'd never heard of prior to this book, which is new in hardcover. Now I will definitely keep an eye open for whatever he publishes next. Curious Cats is an absolute must-see for anyone who loves cats -- or animals of any kind. Or just stunning photography in general. Treat yourself or a friend to this book: it'll increase your happiness quotient. --Alex

This one knocked me sideways, in a way most contemporary U.S. poetry doesn't. Wrigley's a fantastic poet and this is his new collection. This is the real stuff, folks. No silly, sterile language games here -- just the spirit and the flesh of genuine art that will outlast its immediate times. I hope this man keeps writing for a long time to come. --Alex

Do you associate Nick Hornby with incredibly astute book reviewing? No, of course you don't. You think Nick Hornby, you think tales of guys and music, guys and sports, guys and botched love. Well, think again. Hornby used to write a regular book review column for The Believer, and this is the third and final volume of those reviews collected in book form. (I recommend the first two as well.) NH is a literary appraiser who's always scalpel-sharp, learned, witty, and thoroughly fun to read. --Alex