Favorite Books - Students in REL 353 Dark Self E & W W07

Joseph Aubry: Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game

I like this book because it Card does such a good job creating his universe. The characters are well developed and likeable. He sucks you into the story and makes you question what you would do in Ender's situation.

Lila Bichel: Leaves of Grass. Walt Whitman

When I originally encountered this collection of poems, the expansive inclusion of just about everything overwhelmed and even annoyed me. But ultimately Whitman helped me to let go of my ideas of how a poem or piece of literature 'should' be to create whatever meaning. I even found myself enjoying and appreciating his expansive inclusion of everything because of how it illuminates meaning in everything. As he says in "Song of Myself" "take everything in for what its worth, and not a cent more."

Will Brundage: Stardust by Neil Gaiman.

An illustrated novel by one of the modern masters of fairy tale fantasy. It is a tale of what happens when Tristan makes a promise to bring a fallen star to his love in the small village where he grows up. In order to get it, he must pass through the gate that borders the village, and enters into another kind of world entirely. Full of growth, and a vivid tale of love and treachery.

The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle.

A poetic tale about a Unicorn who seeks to find the rest of her kind. In order to do so, she must set out on the road less traveled. She leaves her forest home and discovers that her kind have all been captured by King Haggard's Red Bull, a fierce and heartless beast. She seeks to be free of their domination and release her family from the trap that they are in. Features a wonderful sense of character and how love can be fostered in the smallest of crannies, the tightest of nooks.

Sarah Daegling: J.D. Salinger, Franny & Zooey

This book contains two longer short stories about the youngest children in the Glass family. Franny comes home from college after a sort of breakdown. Her family is weirded out because she won't stop muttering prayers and crying. Zooey is a stubborn actor and doesn't want to do anything his family thinks he should.

Dennis Duran: Autobiography of Malcolm X

I first read the autobiography of Malcolm X when I was a sophmore in high school, and it impacted me far more then any books I had previously read. I knew very little about Malcolm X when I decided to read the book, but by the time I was done I had great respect for him. His stories of such horrific discrimination and persecution allowed me to understand why he had chosen a life of crime and drug using, but the most important part of the story is the transformation that Malcolm goes through. While doing time in prison Malcolm learns of the Nation of Islam, and this opens his eyes to the sinful nature of his previous activities. Malcolm X left prison and went on to be one of the most prolific and a symbol of African-American strength and unity, but I believe the most amazing part of the story is the inspiration for such an amazing individual comes from prison of all places. This book is my favorite because it is a unique rags to riches story which involves the complete transformation of a poverty stricken black man into one of the most prolific religious figures of our time.

Brenda Hagele: Anne Rule, The Stranger Beside Me

Description: This book is written by a close friend of Ted Bundy's. Throughout all the suspicion, arrests, and trial Ann Rule believed that Ted Bundy was innocent. She only later sees the dark side of Ted Bundy. I really enjoyed this book because it shows how close one can get to a person without really knowing who they are, or the evil they are capable of.

Ted Haley:

My favorite book is One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It is a work of magic realism, and follows the history of an imaginary town from its founding to its destruction. Like the genre suggests, it is filled with magic, incredible situations, fantastic people, all intermixed with reality. I enjoyed the book the first time I read it, then I studied abroad in Latin America and found that it is actually based on more facts than one would think. It does follow the history of Garcia Marquez's Colombia fairly well, which makes the book both great literature and a rough sketch of the Latin American reality.

Jonathan Henderson:

Author: Neil Stephenson, Title: Snow Crash
Desc: It's a futuristic cyberpunk novel "the United States exists as a patchwork of corporate-franchise city-states, and the Internet--incarnate as the Metaverse--looks something like last year's hype would lead you to believe it should."-amazon.com . I like the speed of the novel, the way its written and the main character is named hiro, who is a "Protagonist--hacker, samurai swordsman, and pizza-delivery driver". This is part of a series of books that looks at the future development of technology and how it has changed human existence. Most of the boundaries that we would never dream of crossing have been crossed, largely illegally, but it deals with the repercussions of how we try to regulate technology but in many ways its moves us toward the dark side.

T. Knox: David Abram, The Spell of the Sensous.

I read this book while I was in India and Tibet this past autumn, and it is probably the most influential book that I have encountered in my lifetime. The reason that I love it so much is because it provides a philosophical foundation for environmentalism. While a more ecocentric perspective has seemed intuitively correct to me for quite some time now, reading "The Spell of the Sensuous" made the perspective come to life and make sense on a personal level. The passion that infuses each page is contagious and I walked away from the book (and into the Himalayas) with a new, passionate way of relating to the natural world.

Sam Leeds: "Life of Pi"- Yann Martel

This book is a layered and creative story involving a shipwreck, a boy, and a tiger. A philosophical storyline with a suprise ending that is a testament to the survival of the human spirit and the belief in God. Highly recommended.

Ross Logan: Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown

This book is so different than other book that I have read. A normally boring subject was brought to life, and explored in a new way. To be honest, I don't read much, so my reading background to which I compare this book is minimal. But the plot was well thought out and exciting, and kept me reading as often as possible until I was able to finish the book. What is also great about Dan Brown is that he brings some sort of historical background to his works. So while the story as a whole may be fictional, some of the facts and figures and artifacts are real. I think this is a great book, and I believe that this book is also currently in pre production to become a movie.

Jazz McGinnis: Ursula LeGuin, "The Dispossessed".

It's probably the best sci-fi, based in a fictional universe, dystopian novel with underlying anarchist and socialist ideas. LeGuin uses her gifts as a descriptive author to set the scene on a planet and a moon colony, and create such great characterizations of philosophies. Probably my favorite "utopian" novel.

Joel Reynolds: Bible

While I could have picked a lesser known text as my favorite book, the Bible is the only book I truly would not want to go without. Besides being integral to my life as far as faith is concerned, the historical and cultural information it details, albeit problematically (from at least historian's viewpoint), is extremely rich and fascinating. Also, regardless of whether or not one believes in God, there is a diversity of viewpoints and portraits of who God might be and the myriad intricacies of the relation of such a being to his creation. Many of these are left unresolved over the course of the Biblical text, leaving one to ponder for themselves the question of God qua God as well as God as Savior, among numerous other inquiries. Granted, everything I have stated greatly understates the depth of the texts and multiplicity of probed truths in the Hebrew Scripture and Christian New Testament. That being said, it is, in one way or another, a life-changing book.

Angel L. Scott: Living on the Border of the Holy: Renewing the Priesthood of All, L. William Countryman.

William Countryman really captures the metaphysical essence of how each person lives in contact with the HOLY, DIVINE, UNIVERSE (whatever one wishes to call it). I really enjoyed his presentation of the subtle distinctions between ordained and lay ministers. His arguments have convinced me that the work of the Church and the life of the world is led by human beings not super-human Priests.

Heleana Theixos: A Confederacy of Dunces.

The lead character is an obese college drop-out with a self-proclaimed 160 IQ but completely socially inept, still living at home with his reluctant yet sweet mother, in 1960's New Orleans.
This excerpt is the only time we see the college professor, Dr. Talc. I share the small excerpt with you because it is hilarious, and gives you an idea not only of the lead character but also a humorous peek at some college professors:
Dr. Talc lit a Benson and Hedges, looking out of the window of his office, in the Social Studies Building. Across the dark campus he saw some lights from the night clases in the other buildings. All night he had been ransacking his desk for his notes on the British Monarch of legend, notes hurriedly copied from a 100 page survey of British history that he had once read in paperback. The lecture was to be given tomorrow, and it was now almost 8:30. As a lecturer Dr Talc ws renownd for the facile and sarcastic wit and easily digested generalizations that made him popular among the girl students, and helped to conceal his lack of knowledge about almost everything in general, and British history in particular.
But even Talc ralized that his reputation for sophistication and glibbness would not save him in the face of his being unable to remember absolutely anything about Lear and Arthur aside from the fact that the former had some children. He put his cigarette in the ash tray and began on the bottom drawer again. In the rear of the drawer was a stack of old papers that he had not examined very thoroughly during his first search through the desk. Placing the papers in his lap, he thumbed through them one by one, and found that they were, as he had imagined, principally unreturned essays that had accumulated over a period of over 5 years. As he turned over one essay, his eye fell upon a rough yellowed sheet of Big Chief tablet paper on which was printed, in red crayon:
"Your total ignorance of that which you profess to teach merits the death penalty. I doubt whether you would know that saint Casian of Imola was stabbed to death by his students with their styli. His death, a martyrs honorable one, made him a patron saint of teachers. Pray to him, you deluded fool, you "anyone for tennis" golf-playing, cockatil-quafing pseudo pedant, for you do indeed need a heavenly patron. Although your days are numbered, you will not die as a martyr--for you further no holy cause--but as the total ass which you really are."

---ZORRO

A sword was drawn on the last line of the page. "Oh, I wonder whatever happened to him," Talc said aloud.

Edie Wyrick: Here is my fave book: "Beloved" by Toni Morrison

Jessie Zumbiel: Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins

I really enjoy love stories and this book is one of favorites. It is not your conventional love story. What makes the love story so unconventional is Tom Robbins' quick-witted philosophical (slightly strange) writing style. He has a way with words that keeps your attention and expands your thinking. The book is a love story but through out it other ideas, such as, the difference between an outlaw and criminal, the moon's purpose and the conflict between social activism and romantic individualism are discussed. The different topics addressed add to the book's greatness, but the question that the book poses in the first few pages and that is discussed throughout is the main reason I love this book. It asks, "how do you make love stay?" I had a personal interest in this question the first time I read this book.