Fifteen of My Favorite Books

Some I’ve read in the past year, and one I haven’t finished yet, but all of these books are highly recommended.

The Invention of Air – Steven Johnson. This is a biography of Joseph Priestly, a scientist from the 1700s. I don’t want to give away the ending, but Joseph Priestly discovers carbon dioxide in England by doing lots of cool experiments and meticulously documenting them. Believe it or not, M and I were discussing the discovery of carbon dioxide on our ride home from soccer practice this week. Really.

The Woodwright’s Guide - Roy Underhill. A great book about working with hand tools, with overviews and history. Roy Underhill really believes in what he teaches and he has many converts, including me.

Rocket Men – Craig Nelson. I haven’t finished this yet, but it’s already on my favorites list. A behind-the-scenes look at the space program, from Kennedy’s initial reluctance to pay for it, to the effect it had on the lives of the astronauts’ families, to the amazing fear the US had towards Russia during that period of history.

The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins. Dawkins is probably more well-known for his unapologetic atheism than his biology bonafides (which are impressive), but he is a great writer who has spent his whole career putting forth the evidence and factual foundation for evolution in the animal kingdom. Don’t read this book if you think the earth is only 6,000 years old - it will only upset you.

The Beak of the Finch – Jonathon Weiner. A married couple conducts a long-term study on the Galapagos Islands, measuring the beaks of the various types of finches living there. They draw a number of conclusions about evolution and give examples of how the weather and flora in the area force the birds to adapt year to year. There are some surprising conclusions.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being – Milan Kundera . This is also one of my favorite movies, and not just because Lena Olin occasionally parades around in her birthday suit. A book set primarily in Czechoslovakia about a man whose “lightness” towards life is baffling to his spouse, who takes things more seriously than he. His intimate escapades with other women, and her relative failure to be unfaithful to him, are one example of the differences between them, but there are more.

The Princess Bride – William Goldman . The Rob Reiner movie, also on my Top 5 Movies list, was quite faithful to the book. The dialogue is outstanding.

The Edith Wharton Murders – Lev Raphael. Lev Raphael was one of my professors at MSU. He taught us that there doesn’t have to be a topic paragraph. I stumbled across this book in the mystery section at the library, and I really liked it. I have read several other books he wrote, but none has impressed me as much as this one.

The Secret History – Donna Tartt . A book about some college students who form a small society (a secret one!), and the dark events that ensue. When I first read this book, I immediately moved it to Number One on my list of favorites. This is on the short list of my all-time favorite books – I’m not sure if it’s Number One, but it’s close.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret – Brian Selznick. A clever and well-done book, a cross between a novel and a comic book, and not quite a graphic novel. This is a book about a boy who lives in a train station, and how he discovers his past, as well as some amazing inventions.

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information - Edward Tufte. Edward Tufte does a great job of showing effective (and ineffective) ways of graphing, charting, displaying, and otherwise presenting data, especially numeric data. He introduces what he calls “The Lie Factor”, the extent to which a poorly-drawn chart or graph misleads the reader. He has some other books that are equally interesting on the same subject.

The Soul of a Tree – George Nakashima. I mentioned this book in an earlier post – it’s a great story of the life of the author. I was struck by the description of the house he lived in for a time – only three walls, with one side open to the elements. Surely not the worst living conditions anyone has endured, but surely not comfortable, either.

The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger. I read this in high school (of course!) and really enjoyed it. I read it several times in college but haven’t picked it up in a long time. I considered re-reading it a few years ago, but I was afraid of not liking it. I’ll leave it alone and continue to remember it like I do today.

A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving. I haven’t liked much of John Irving’s stuff – I’ve started several of his books and put them down after the first fifty pages. I liked this one, though; I believed in the characters, and the story had enough hooks to keep me going. The “A Christmas Carol“ scene where Owen finds out an important piece of information about himself hooked me and I had to know how it ended from then on.

Empire Falls – Richard Russo. A really well-written book, the kind that makes an aspiring novelist throw out his pencil and give up his dream of writing the Great American Novel – because Russo’s already written it.