Literature Fans

[RatushnyFan]

You're a writer?  Lucky you....

[munchkin]

Bringing this back into play.  I just finished a fantastic memoir: In the Sanctuary of Outcasts.  It's about the last Leprosarium in the country and the story of one of the inmates from when the Bureau of Prisons was using half the facility as a minimum security prison after most of the leprosy patients had left.  Also then watched the PBS Special about Carville, the leprosarium, on Netflix to learn more about it.

[Ken70]

Some recent good reads:

>The Powerbroker: Robert Moses..., Robert Caro.  A reread after 30 years.  Still great biography but there are a couple places where it's now apparent to me that Caro has gone over the top to indict Moses.

>The Rider, Tim Krabbe.  Short book about a bike race.  Maybe you have to be a cyclist to appreciate, but I found it enthralling.

>Hitch-22, Christopher Hitchens.  Be sure to have dictionary handy.  Seems like he knows everybody, or wants you to believe he does.  But he's very bright and fun to read just for that fact.

>Education's End, Anthony Kronman.  The history of higher education in the last two centuries and how the author, a Yale law and philosophy prof., sees the humanities losing its way since the 1960s.  Interesting for the argument more than his writing style.
 
>The Rational Optimist, Matt Ridley.  I'm a Ridley fan so this is probably less than objective, but this book seems to have high explanatory power when pondering the question of why things are the way they are (as did his previous The Origins of Virtue).  And he's a very good writer.

[jkahn]

Just finished and enjoyed Spiral, a technology-based thriller written by Cornell physics professor Paul McEuen.  Lots of the action takes place in the Ithaca area including on campus.
For a more detailed review, see http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/March11/McEuenNovel.html

[Lauren '06]

Just finished and enjoyed Spiral, a technology-based thriller written by Cornell physics professor Paul McEuen.  Lots of the action takes place in the Ithaca area including on campus.
For a more detailed review, see http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/March11/McEuenNovel.html

Oh wow, I read the first draft of that for him when I worked in the Vice Provost for Research's office. Good for him for seeing it through.