Hilda C. Landers Library & Archives

Having a close family member battle the fight against addiction, the title of this book jumped out at me as I walked through the campus library. After reading the first few pages I knew I had to continue. The book is a tale of one man’s journey through drug addiction and the effect it has on his life, and the people in it. It’s not a page turner in the sense of let’s say, a murder mystery. Where you just want to keep going to see what happens next. Yet you still are drawn into the story of this man’s life and how it deteriorates around him as he struggles with the ebb and flow of his continuous drug use. You feel yourself rooting for him, hoping for the best possible outcome.

And before you write this off as the story of some ghetto trawling crackhead, be assured it’s not. From dinner parties and luncheons at affluent New York establishments. To trips to London and Paris, the author falls far from the stereotypes. Around halfway through the book it gets a bit long-winded with numerous drug induced moments of paranoia. But stick with it as it’s just another step you take with Mr. Clegg as he gives you insight to what life truly is for an addict.

Availability: SMCM
Review Submitted by: Wendell Wade
Rating: Highly Recommended (Must Read if the title hits close to home.)

Constantine’s presence at the Council of Nicaea, the causes of the Hundred Years’ War, the controversial writings of William of Ockham: if these historical gems of Western civilization have lost their luster (and relevance) to ourselves and our contemporaries, perhaps it is time that we all slow down to remember our shared history.

The beauty of medieval history recently caught my attention, slowing me down, through a recent job offer. Having recently earned a graduate degree in philosophy, I decided to pursue a vocation in teaching (typical story for a humanities graduate!). While I intended to teach music (my undergraduate degree was in piano performance), religion (I went to a Catholic seminary) and philosophy (I compromised my eyesight while reading Kant’s massive Critiques), the headmaster at my new job asked me to teach medieval history. “Medieval history?!” I said in surprise. I haven’t touched the topic since my high school AP history exam. Six years out of high school, I now found myself in desperate need of a crash course in medieval history. Hollister’s A Short History (8th ed.) was a God-send.

A textbook, disguised as a thin paperback, A Short History covers the history of Europe from the Roman Empire in AD 200 to the late medieval period of AD 1500 – all within 375 pages, peppered with useful maps, timelines and photographs. It is organized into three parts: part one is a chronological narration of the early medieval period; part two describes the high middle ages through topical sections; part three briefly describes the transition of Europe into the early modern or Renaissance period.

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Stitches is a quick read. A graphic novel that came out in 2009, Stitches left me speechless—much like the character, David Small himself, becomes. Six year-old David is subjected to radiation therapy by his father, a doctor, in the early ’50s, the norm for sickly children to treat asthma and other breathing problems. When David is 11, a lump is discovered on his neck. Treatment is pushed back, and it is hidden from David that the lump is actually cancer—a product of years of radiation by his father. This discovery changes his life and puts a further strain on his already horrible relationship with his parents. This story and the side stories illustrated in the book are fantastically executed and reminiscent of other great coming-of-age graphic novels I’ve read.

Availability: SMCM
Review Submitted by: Jordan Gaines
Rating: Highly Recommended

After hearing lots of hype for the book several summers ago and the recent film that hit theaters, I finally decided to read Water for Elephants. It was a great story—obviously well-researched, interesting, and well-written. The novel is about Jacob Jankowski, a Cornell veterinary student who joins the circus after tragedy strikes his parents and turns his world upside-down. The book is riddled with violence, love, and—my favorite part—the commentary of 93-year-old Jacob recalling his past.

One thing that bothered me about the novel was the constant anthropomorphism of the animals, and the repetitiveness of their descriptions. Nearly every time the elephant, Rosie, made an appearance in the book, she was described as having “her mouth open in a smile.” It got a bit old after awhile. The historical aspects of the book, however, were very interesting. Overall, it was a great read (and a great summer book for the beach).

Availability: USMAI
Review Submitted by: Jordan Gaines
Rating: Highly Recommended

William Least Heat-Moon’s Blue Highways: A Journey Into America belongs on any list of classic road trip novels. A Google search on road trip novels brings up several lists of great American road trip novels. Many of the titles are ones that everyone has heard of, if not read: On the Road by Jack Kerouac, Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck, even Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter Thompson. Blue Highways holds its own with any of those books, and you’ll find it on many of those lists.

The background of the book is something all of us can understand—life kind of falls apart, so you hit the open road to think about things. Least Heat Moon lost his job, his marriage falls apart, so he sets off to find America, driving and living in his van. The United States is not the only country with open spaces, but we are lucky in that the trails through our open spaces have in many cases become paved roads. We are doubly blessed in being such a diverse country. One thing you notice from Blue Highways is how different people are across America, and how similar. The book is one of the best observations of the little things in America that I’ve ever read.

Blue Highways is not without its faults. The author takes the caricature of the arrogant, more-cultured-than-thou, nouveau blasé academic to a whole new level. It doesn’t take long for his arrogance to rub you the wrong way, and you get the impression that if you met the author, you wouldn’t like him. However, by the end of the book I realized that the author comes off this way because his pretense of culture is really all he had, at least at that point in his life. He had his doctorate, but he had no job and his marriage had fallen apart. He was a failure at everything but his education, so that is what he clung to and brandished, because his failures were too hard to face, though I think by the end of the book he realized he couldn’t run from them and he does finally face them.

In addition to Least Heat Moon’s arrogance, the book is a slow read. Very slow. Parts of the book are like watching grass grow, only a lot less exciting. After a while, finishing it becomes a quest. Somehow, the author managed to catch some of the monotony that is part of every road trip. There were many times I put the book down because it was just too slow, but I always picked it back up again.

Despite the painfully slow pace and the author’s snotty attitude, the book is worth finishing. Looking past the author’s “I’m so cultured” commentary, there are some truly poignant observations on America. After finishing the book you want to hit the road yourself. That, I think, is what makes a road trip novel great.

Availability: USMAI
Review Submitted by: Christopher Mehl, Ph.D.
Rating: Highly Recommended

American Gods by Neil Gaiman is an absolutely wonderful book that will keep you gripped until the end. It’s strongest point is its wonderful characters, whether they be based off ancient gods or of Gaiman’s own creation. Even characters with nothing more than a few pages of focus get fully fleshed out and feel more real than the characters most books spend chapters trying to establish. On the downside, the book is very long and tends to meander a bit. Still, this is an excellent book and a modern classic.

Availability: USMAI
Submitted by: Kevin Koeser
Rating: Must Read

If your favorite part of Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye was Holden Caulfield complaining about phonies then this is the book for you. Franny also likes to complain about phonies, specifically phonies in academia. These are the only works that Salinger that I have read, so I am assuming that everything he writes is focused on phonies. He should really try expanding onto new topics, but I guess he’s dead by now.

Anyway the book is split into two parts. The first part is, as I said, Franny complaining to her college boyfriend about phonies as he rambles on about some paper he wrote. The second part is Zooey taking a bath while talking to his mom, and then talking to Franny about stuff since she is depressed.

If you like Salinger’s style of writing and storytelling then you’ll probably really enjoy Franny and Zooey, but otherwise it’s a little hard to get into.

Availability: SMCM
Review Submitted by: Kenneth Benjes, Lifeguard
Recommendation: Recommended with Reservations

The SMCM Library’s Summer Reading Program will begin on June 1 and  end on August 15, 2011.

The Summer Reading program is open to all members of the SMCM Library community including students, staff, faculty, alumni and residents of the Tri-County area (St. Mary’s, Calvert and Charles.) You can read anything you want as long as a copy is available at the SMCM Library or via USMAI. To get points you must post a review on the blog.

See About Summer Reading for more information.

Thanks to all the readers who posted reviews on our first Summer Reading blog. Don’t forget to pick up your prizes!

I am rarely one for nonfiction travel narratives, but I am always happy to make an exception for Bill Bryson. Notes From a Small Island follows Bryson as he takes one final tour around Great Britain before he moves with his family to his home country of the United States. This book gives us history, culture, and personal anecdotes, both “present” and remembered to make us feel that we are there with him on his trip. But even with his great ability to capture the people and the landscape of wherever he is traveling to, I will read anything by Bryson because I know he will make me laugh out loud. Small Island was no exception. From his nightmare first landlord to the Manchester society for animals to the perils of Scottish Brogue, every point of Bryson’s travels is told with a dry humor that is absolutely irresistible. This is an easy read, and well worth the trip.

Availability: USMAI
Review Submitted by: Lauren Grey
Rating: Highly Recommended