 |
|
|
 |
|
|
| Top 10 Books UO Students Are Reading |
|
1. A Million Little Pieces
by James Frey
A harrowing memoir of addiction that has recently been at the center of a great deal of controversy regarding creative non-fiction, as Frey has admitted that portions of his “true” story are, in fact, fictional.
2. Collapse
by Jared Diamond
The author of Guns, Germs, and Steel addresses how environmental factors impact the future. In this new book, Diamond seeks to understand the fates of past societies that collapsed for ecological reasons, combining environment policy debate with the romance and mystery of lost worlds.
3. Kafka on the Shore
by Haruki Murakami
Kafka Tamura runs away from home to escape his father’s oedipal prophecy and to find his long-lost mother and sister. As Kafka flees, so too does Nakata, an elderly simpleton whose quiet life has been upset by a gruesome murder. What follows is a kind of double odyssey, as the two grope to understand the roles fate has in store for them.
4. The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
by Sam Harris
This timely book delivers a startling analysis of the clash of faith and reason in today’s world. Harris offers a historical tour of mankind’s willingness to suspend reason in favor of religious beliefs, even when those beliefs are used to justify harmful behavior. While warning against the encroachment of organized religion into world politics, Harris also draws on new evidence from neuroscience and insights from philosophy to explore spirituality as a biological, brain-based need.
5. The Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini
Privileged young narrator Amir comes of age during the last peaceful days of the monarchy in Afghanistan, then must endure revolution, invasion, and a country’s long struggle to triumph over violent forces.
6. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
by John Perkins
For many years Perkins worked for an international consulting firm. He describes his job as convincing LDCs (less developed countries) around the world to accept multibillion-dollar loans for infrastructure projects and ensuring most of this money ended up at U.S. engineering and construction companies. This book is his attack on a little-known phenomenon he feels has had dire consequences on both the victimized countries and the U.S.
7. Gilead
by Marilynne Robinson
Twenty-four years after her first novel, Marilynne Robinson returns with an intimate tale of three generations, ranging from the Civil War to the twentieth century: a story about fathers and sons and the spiritual battles that still rage at America’s heart.
8. Memoirs of a Geisha
by Arthur Golden
Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha, in a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl’s virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. Sayuri’s story begins when she is sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. The book follows her transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha and how she must reinvent herself yet again as World War II erupts and the geisha houses are forced to close.
9. Guns, Germs & Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
by Jared Diamond
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Guns, Germs, and Steel answers the question of why the peoples of certain continents succeeded in invading other continents and conquering or displacing their peoples. Until around 11,000 B.C., all peoples were still Stone Age hunter/gatherers. At that point, a great divide occurred in the rates that human societies evolved. But how did differences in societies arise? Diamond assembles convincing evidence linking germs to domestication of animals, germs that Eurasians then spread in epidemic proportions in their voyages of discovery.
10. In Me Own Words: The Autobiography of Bigfoot
by Graham Roumieu
America’s favorite crypto-zoological hominid is humorously recast as the modern-day everyman, struggling with eating disorders, casual cannibalism, pop culture, and philosophical quandaries: “Me once believe in good. Now, no. World go [bad], just like Bigfoot screenwriting career.”
|
|
|
1245 University of Oregon • Eugene, OR • 97403-1245
(541) 346.3950 • FAX (541) 346.3282 • alumnidev@cas.uoregon.edu
Copyright © 2006 University of Oregon
Updated May 15, 2006
|
 |
|
|
|
|
