Evening in the palace of reason: Bach meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment by James R. Gaines

Recommended by: Stephan Macaluso, STL Librarian
Call Number: Stacks ML410 .B1 G28 2005

The legend is told in nearly every music appreciation class: King Frederick II (“The Great”) of Prussia—himself an amateur composer and flautist—practically falls over himself upon hearing that the great J.S. Bach has arrived to pay Frederick a visit. Gaines paints this meeting in much darker tones. History reveals Frederick to be a substantially more brutish, if not brutal, character. And so his challenge to Bach (that he compose a counterpoint to an unmelodic theme of Frederick’s) can be seen less as pleasurable Enlightenment discourse, and more as a stare-down. Bach’s response: The Musical Offering, a complete set of canons and fugues on the seemingly-impossible theme.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Recommended by Colleen Lougen, STL Librarian
Call number: Stacks PS3563.C337 R63 2006

Wonder what the world would be like after a nuclear winter? McCarthy skillfully creates a post-apocalyptic wasteland where a father and son are left to scavenge in a dark and barren land. Transcends any book that I have read in awhile. It will haunt you for many months to come.. Winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Garbage land: on the secret trail of trash by Elizabeth Royte

Recommended by: Alex Wojcik, Student Recycling Coordinator
Call Number: Stacks: HD4484.N7 R68 2005

You are what you throw away. Upon completion of Elizabeth Royte’s 'Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash,' the reader finds his or herself desperately sorting recyclables from the trash bin, and grocery shopping with an increasingly discerning eye. Royte’s beautifully written investigation of America’s trash can begins in her own kitchen and ends in the realization that our daily decisions regarding consumption and waste remain with us, even after dragging our trash bags out to the dumpster.

The omnivore’s dilemma: a natural history of four meals by Michael Pollan

Recommended by: Jeff Pollard, Institute for International Business
Call number: Stacks GT2850 .P65 2006

It is well written and really makes you think about our food industry -
and the ramifications it has on our environment and our bodies. Don't
read it unless you want to learn more about - and likely change the way
you approach your shopping and eating experience - join a CSA to help
eat local!

Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 by David Peterson

Recommended by: Jennifer Torres
Call number: Stacks PN6727.P4682 M684 2007

What is lovely about this book is that it is deceptively child concept of a mouse civilization and its defenders. Rather its a fantasy for adults, in which the heroes face betrayals, intrigue, and predators in fierce life or death struggles. The art is lush and detailed, making the fantasy all the more vivid. All in all a beautifully crafted book and a fine story

For the Relief of Unbearable Urges by Nathan Englander

Recommended by: Phyllis Freeman, Professor of Psychology
Call number: Stacks PS3555.N424 F67 1999

I just finished For Relief of Unbearable Urges by Nathan Englander, a wonderful first volume of short stories. The volume opens with a story of the last night in prison of 26 celebrated Yiddish writers arrested during Stalin's purge and an unpublished loner picked up by mistake with them. He composes a work during their last evening on earth and recites this to the others. Another lighter story is about a rabbi who unhappily plays Santa each year at a department store. My favorite story is about a group of villagers who board the "wrong" passenger train instead of the cattle car to the concentration camp and then disguise themselves as circus performers. The book is wise, powerful, brilliantly ironic, and a must read. The stories and the issues they raise have stayed with me. The book earned him a PEN/Malamud Award and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
I decided to read the short stories after finishing his deeply satisfying first novel (which the Library should purchase) The Ministry of Special Cases, about the "disappeared" in Argentina. Unforgettable characters and heartbreaking situations very reminiscent of the best of Gogol, Kafka, and Singer.

Freakonomics: a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything by Steven Levitt

Recommended by: Dan G., student
Call number: Stacks HB74.P8 L479 2005

At just over 200 pages, Freakonomics is a quick read into the often overlooked gap between what conventional wisdom says is the case and what actually IS the case. With an easy writing style and incongruous teasers for chapter titles, like "What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?" and "How Is the Ku Klux Klan Like a Group of Real-Estate Agents?", the authors easily trap you into reading the entirety in one sitting.