Books that get "under our skin"...

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

2009-12-16T20:38:00.000-08:00

Butler's milieu is so frighteningly close to ours. I've never seen a near-future dystopia that seems so plausible, possible, and imminent.

Submitted by Brook Brayman
btbrayman@interact.ccsd.net

Guaymas Chronicles by David Stuart

2009-02-10T10:36:00.001-08:00

This book gave me whole new perspective about life on the streets of Mexico and the courageous people who are trying to make a life for themselves and their families. I will never forget the street children portrayed in this book with such rrealism and compassion for their lives. Makes me want to change the world for these kids.

Submitted by Jenny
jewhite@unm.edu

What is the What by Dave Eggers

2008-09-04T17:57:00.001-07:00

This brilliantly written novelization of the story of one of the so-called Lost Boys of the Sudan goes back and forth from the present in America to his life in the Sudan.
It is a wrenching story of how much a human being can suffer and how they can survive against all odds.

I came to understand the greatness in humility. I have not stopped thinking about this book even though I read it a few months ago.

It inspired me to give money to the foundation started by the gentleman on whose life the book is based.

Submitted by Candelaria
candelaria_s@yahoo.com

Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan

2008-07-07T12:34:00.001-07:00

I enjoy gritty science fiction and this does it all. Imagine living when your essence is all on a disk sitting in the back of your neck in your spine. Your body gets fatally injured? No problem! If you've got the bucks, you can have an account that allows the appropriate medics to take out your disc (making you a DH, a digitized human)and upload you into another body, hopefully someone's who doesn't want it back.

Extrapolate from this and you get a great mysterty involving privilege (the Methuselas have lots of money--enough to copy their own original body for future uses and live for hundreds of years-imagine what this does to how one thinks about humanity), corruption and identity. I will read it again.

It was, bottomline, a police procedural, sort of, where the protaganist is put in someone else's body without his consent to do some private investigation. Think Philip Marlowe in the year 2500. Love it!

Submitted by cecile

Love in the time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

2007-12-20T01:11:00.000-08:00

In a simple sentence the book is about life. I have been inspired by this book. It really teaches one about love and the kinds of love that exist. It relates to every kind of love: the blind love, the passionate love, the obsessed love, the passing love, and the lasting love.. The book teaches and i have been learning while being entertained the entire time. (I'm moving on to his other books now)

Submitted by Anahid

Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz

2007-12-03T12:13:00.001-08:00

This book isn't exactly going to win Mr. Horowitz a Pulitzer Prize or anything. It is the first book in the Alex Rider series about a 14 year old boy who becomes a spy. Nevertheless this book is fun, funny, thrilling, and entertaining. I was getting bored with some of the recent books I had been reading but this book is awesome. if you are just looking for a great read it is really entertaining even for someone who doesnt like too read or doesn't read that often.

Submitted by Evan Christensen

The House Of The Spirits by Isabel Allende

2007-10-31T09:12:00.001-07:00

Though this is in the category of a fiction novel, it horrifically resembles the realities which occurred in the govenment of Chile durring the mid 1900s. But what is even more disturbing about this story is how well it parallels the reality of government all over the world. Most specifically, I mean the govenment of the United States, which is unfortunately a social and cultural example for the rest of the world. Live The Revolution!

Submitted by Richard W. Hasselberger
ritch_hass@yahoo.com

The Slave Community by John W. Blassingame

2007-10-30T19:12:00.000-07:00

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The book that got under my skin was the Slave Community by John Blassingame.
And why did it get under my skin, for me it was that it was the first work that I read that spoke from the slave communities’ perspective.

It was published in the early 70s, maybe 1972 and Dr. Blassingame used primary source materials, slave narratives and just really gave the story from the slave perspective as opposed to works that examined the slave community spoke from the slave holders perspective.

There is some debate in the history community about whether or not is it entirely accurate but every single work that has been published has that discussion. Who is to say, but that is the books that got under my skin.

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

2007-10-30T16:28:00.000-07:00

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My name is Susan and the name of the book is Eat, Pray, Love by Gilbert. It is an amazing story of a woman and her journey to find herself, her travels…it speaks to every woman and every woman’s journey.

I loved it.

The Painted House by John Grisham

2007-10-29T20:21:00.000-07:00

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My name is Leslie Henry and the book that I really enjoyed was The Painted House by John Grisham. I really liked this book. It tells the story of a rural family, they owned farm land. They can never seem to get ahead. As much money as they make, they rent their farm land. They always have to pay their landlord. If they have a good crop the landlord makes them pay a lot of money and if they don’t have a good crop they end up owing the landlord.

I just thought it was a great book because it details the human struggle to g et ahead and how this little boy, Stanley ends up leaving and going to the city because they can’t make a living on the farm.

It takes place during World War 2, so the central character, his older brother has been sent off to war. He is just struggling to understand why his brother is gone and if his brother is ever going to come back. I think that in the end it really shows that that family has to rally around itself and take care of each other. I like the book a lot; I really have remembered reading it. I read it about three years ago and I still remember it.

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

2007-10-27T18:59:00.001-07:00

From the moment I read the last word of this book I knew my life had changed. I believe at one point in all of our lives each of us thinks, if only for a second, "I just don't belong here." Neil Gaiman turns the London Underground into a vibrant world of adventure, myth and perhaps somewhere along the lines, reality. There are velvet witches that will guide through the Undergrounds mazes for a price you may not be willing to pay; Black Friars that guard a relic too secret of which to be spoken; bloodthirsty cutthroats so skilled you do not know they are there until you've been slit from gizzard to gullet. His eerie, yet desperately enticing description of what life is like after you "slip through the cracks," has stayed with me throughout the last 8 years. For those of you who are here, and those of you who are here no longer - this book is for you.

Submitted by Dawn MacCarthy
imourningstar@yahoo.com

War Against the Panthers by Dr. Huey P. Newton

2007-10-26T22:45:00.000-07:00

This book goes deeply into historical facts about how the Government (FBI, COINTELPRO, etc.) spent over 100 million of dollars to destroy student activism/dissent groups during the civil rights movement. A very concise yet mind-boggling read!

Submitted by E.S.P.
espsetmefree@gmail.com

The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy

2007-10-26T18:12:00.000-07:00

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You know I only read half of the book because I feel that the book is really scary. It is really scary because, you know if this really happened in the United States; to kill a lady like that and it is really disturbing. To kill a lady into how many pieces?

I couldn’t image that this was a real story in a country like this one. I think that there are too many psycho people here. There are too many stressors. To be honest in this country there are too many temptations. To (want to) live in luxury because of the advertisements, or the lifestyle. People always copy from the high class people to the lower class. They are like social climbers. They do anything to reach that level.

I don’t like the book anymore, not the author, I think it is too scary to finish that book.

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

2007-10-24T22:43:00.000-07:00

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My father suggested that I read it, this was the first classical novel that I read and I liked it. I read it when I was very young, maybe when I was twelve or thirteen years old. I can’t remember.

I remember when David Copperfield was very young when his father died and his mother remarried. He had a very sad life with his step-father. His step-father sent him away. I forgot a lot.

This was the first time that I got to know a boy from England and about their life. My name is Annie and my book is David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.

Dune by Frank Herbert and Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs

2007-10-24T05:35:00.000-07:00

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My name is Jeryd Pojawa and I have chosen two books, one is Frank Herbert’s Dune which is an epic story of humanity and it is an analogy of the imperialism of the middle ages until modern day and it is actually a pretty good analogy for what is going on now.

I read the book first when I was ten and it really blew my socks off because I had never read a book that large in terms of the scope. The fact that this man created the whole universe that had politics and interactions and all kinds of things. Much more than even a Star Wars type of situation because he gets into the interpersonal type of situation the families and the warring families.

There are people fighting for power and all sorts of pathos. There are all sorts of characters good guys and bad guys. It is just this tremendous human drama set in a slightly other world in a slightly other time.

If you think of it as Science Fiction, well yes it is. There have been two films or more done on this particular book. Both major takes have been very interesting and quiet different. But I think the best movie what the one that I made in my head when I was ten when I was reading it because it was the first time that I read anything that grabbed me and made me say “yeah, I want to be a part of that” I want to be writer this is amazing that this guy could write this wonderful story and influence people as he did. Frank Herbert is a brilliant writer and Dune is a major piece.

The other book is a book by William S. Burroughs called Naked Lunch. Naked Lunch is less a novel than an entire group of booklets or novellas, I guess you could say. Burroughs style is very disjointed and in many ways has a quality of magical (?) Now his work, which he was also interested in a homosexual who lived for years with his wife who wound up shooting his wife accidentally under the influence of drugs.

This book was influential to me because, this was around when I was 13 years old or so, I’ve read it several times since. This book showed me that there are other ways to write and other ways to tell a story. I have always been interested in performing and storytelling.

I am an actor and filmmaker now. I think that these two books pushed me in that direction as much as anything else. I learned two ways of telling a story, two valid ways of telling a story. One the epic saga, which I enjoy the historical novels; the Vikings, the Romans the story of the Greek migrations just the wonderful building up of culture or our own cultures in south America the Mayan & the native American cultures how they interacted and all these things came to me from a better understanding of reading Dune.

The understanding of the human id, the human psyche as I understand it came more from the works of Burroughs. Naked Lunch being a good example because it has a series of stories that are very unusual and tell a different kind of story but with a laconic bazaar style and it made me realize that you could tell a story in many ways. You can tell a story of a down and out character as easily as you can tell the story of a hero. In many ways the characters in Burroughs books are very heroic in their own way it is just that they are more human because they are more broken. They are more like ourselves in a lot of ways.

In Dune we identify with Baron Atrides who is this tremendous figure, this King Arthur type figure and in Burroughs books who are junkies and peculiar characters and I think that is the one note that has always kept me interested in both these books and that is what keeps me from coming back to them and read them. I enjoy Burroughs style of writing. He has an odd sense of language but a wonder sense of language. It is a strange almost kind of a Beat poetry. That is what I enjoy about his work

Summing the whole thing up the two books together as polar really talk about the same thing which I find really interesting is the human condition from history into the future. I think that is basically the summary that I would like to leave with. My name is Jeryd Pojaw and my books are Frank Herbert’s Dune and Naked Lunch by William Burroughs.

The Color of Water by James McBride

2007-10-23T16:43:00.001-07:00

My favorite book having to do with SKIN is The Color of Water by James McBride, writer and jazz musician, whose mother, in 1975, emptied her pockets of all her nickels, dimes, and quarters so that he would have "lunch money" on the Greyhound-bus ride from the East Coast to his freshman year at Oberlin College, where I was also a student at the time. The Color of Water is the only book that has ever made me cry.

"As a boy in Brooklyn's Red Hook projects, James McBride knew his mother was different. But when he asked about it, she'd simply say, 'I'm light-skinned.' Later he wondered if he was different, too, and asked his mother if he was black or white. 'You are a human being,' she snapped. 'Educate yourself or you'll be a nobody!' And when James asked what color God was, she said, 'God is the color of water.' As an adult, McBride finally persuaded his mother to tell her story--the story of a rabbi's daughter, born in Poland and raised in the South, who fled to Harlem, married a black man, founded a Baptist church, and put twelve children through college. The Color of Water is James McBride's tribute to his remarkable, eccentric, determined mother --and an eloquent exploration of what family really means." (From the back cover)

I'm dead.

You want to talk about my family and here I been dead to them for fifty years. Leave me alone. Don't bother me. They want no parts of me and me I don't want no parts of them. Hurry up and get this interview over with. I want to watch Dallas...

My family mourned me when I married your father. They said kaddish and sat shiva. That's how Orthodox Jews mourn their dead. They say prayers, turn their mirrors down, sit on boxes for seven days, and cover their heads. It's a real workout, which is maybe why I'm not a Jew now. There were too many rules to follow, too many forbiddens, and 'you can'ts' and 'you mustn'ts' but does anyone say they love you? Not in my family we didn't. We didn't talk that way. (From Chapter 1)

Submitted by Prof. Diana Savas, ESL & English

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hossenini

2007-10-22T22:41:00.000-07:00

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Hi, my name is Paula Hanson and I loved the book The Kite Runner. It was very emotional for me. Just learning that the boys that thought that the other one was a servant only to find out he was his brother and to try and say his brother’s son, it was very emotional at the end. (I) was really happy at the end to find out also that he took over for his brother’s son and that he was the one that was chasing the kite at the end.

Anyway, it was really a good book, very emotional, very entertaining. It kept you interested. Couldn’t wait to hear what was going to happen.

Tapping The Source by Kem Nunn

2007-10-22T19:38:00.000-07:00

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My name is John Hanson, I’m talking about a book called Tapping the Source; which basically reminds me of back in the Sixties when I use to go to Huntington Beach. That is why the book has always fascinated me because the descriptions are just like the Huntington Beach I remember in the Sixties in the early surfing around the coast in that era.

And if anybody has been to Huntington Beach recently they can see how much it has changed. It is nowhere near what it was at that time Tapping the Source was written. I recommend the book to anyone that wants to get a feel for what the old California surfing era was like. The descriptions of the streets and the area were perfect.

LIES MY TEACHER TOLD ME by James W. Loewen

2007-10-21T19:56:00.000-07:00

THIS BOOK PROVIDES A DISHEARTING LOOK AT THE WAY ARE NATIONAL AND POLITICAL HISTORY IS MANUFACTURED BY OUR GOVERNMENT WITH THE AID OF CORPORATE AMERICA. FROM THE INCEPETION OF OUR NATION AND OUR ANNIHILATION OF NATIVES, OUR RACIAL INTOLERANCE OF ONE ANOTHER, TO OUR GOVERNEMNTS ROLE IN NATION "BUILDING", THIS BOOK IS HAS BEEN A EYE-OPENING READ THAT WILL RESHAPE MY THOUGHTS ON SOCIAL CLASS, RACE, AND THE ROLE WE AS A NATION HAVE IN THE OPPRESSION OF PEOPLE ON THIS PLANT.

Submitted by NOAH RIOS
NXR67@YAHOO.COM

The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner

2007-10-19T18:39:00.000-07:00

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My name is Diane McGee, I live in Pasadena. I am not a regular reader so I am going way back to remember a book that had an impact on me. It was in college and the author is William Faulkner’s “The Sound and the Fury”

It had…I still remember the feeling that it gave me about the south. I love to visit the south and in fact lived there for a while. So I just remembered the strength of his characters; many of the characters ability to endure and go on in the hardest of circumstances. And that stayed with me, really, all of my life.

I think that is one reason that I love the south. I and my parents lived in New Orleans for awhile so I experienced it and really felt more for New Orleans partly because of what I read. Unfortunately I am not a regular reader anymore.

Life And Fate by Vasily Grossman

2007-10-19T13:41:00.000-07:00

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Hi, My name is Keith Boseman, You can see I am an Ohio Buckeye fan. The book that really moved me was “Life in Fate” by Vasily Grossman, the great Russian novelist. I just read it two months ago. It is about 800 pages long and it is just devastating. He takes you through what life was like during World War Two in the Soviet Union among ordinary people. They are oppressed by both the fascists and the Marxist state. They are just trying to survive. It centers around the battle of Stalingrad.

That is not the half, he takes you through these wonderful vignettes where occasionally you will see real life people like Hitler and Stalin and they will have little entries and how they will affect an ordinary person lives under totalitarianism, the person that is actually fighting the war and how the human spirit is just resilient and somehow survives under oppression.

It is the greatest novel I’ve read since Orwell. He’s been called now the best writer in the 20th century in Russia, even more so than Solzhenitsyn. This guy, Grossman was a very famous war correspondent for the Red Army. After the war was over he saw the evils of Marxism he wrote this great novel. He gave it to Khrushchev in 1960 thinking that Khrushchev, who had turned anti-Stalin, would publish it. Khrushchev said ‘No, the book is too honest. Too terrifying’. He actually has a scene in there where he walks inside of an oven and takes you through the last moments of his family in the oven as the Germans are putting the gas in. Terrifying book.

The book is also resilient. Life goes on and triumphs. It outlives Stalin and it outlives Hitler. The book never got published in Russia. It was smuggled out by Sakharov, the great physicist. It is now just seeing its day in English. It is on the New York Review of Books in Print. Amazon has it; it is being praised all over the world. It is finally in English and the imprint was so hot when it came off the presses there was a misprint of 80 pages, upside down. That is the printing that just came out. Don’t be deterred by that. The book is a masterpiece. It is called “Life and Fate” by Vasily Grossman. It makes you re-think your purpose on Earth. It makes you rethink who you are. It gives you hope, vision and insight. It does what a book should do, change your world.

RE: Search Modern Primatives

2007-10-17T22:14:00.000-07:00

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My name is Jane Pojawa and my book is Modern Primitives. It is a strange little book, it came out in 1989 and it kind of turn me on to the photojournalism and documentary style of reporting.

On the surface it is about tattoos, piercing and scarification and it is an exploration of the modern primitives movement which has since come up and gradually gone away, it came out of the 80s punk movement kinda of way of hippies.

In the book you got, for instance, you have explorations of the sort of material general covered by publications like National Geographic or ethnology. You also have interviews with people where it is basically talking about lifestyle in their own words. I found that very interesting that a subculture that could be considered very, very out there, that it could be presented in an intelligent and touching kind of way.

It has interviews with some of the old guard tattoo artists, some of the newer people coming up, people that were exploring the possibility of an SM lifestyle. Other people that were trying to find ways to meld technology and also a primitive aesthetic if you will people that preferred the simplicity aesthetic of so called primitive cultures and in some ways maybe even more advanced than our own in some aspects.

So anyway it was a very thought provoking book. I wouldn’t say that I agreed with all of it or anything like that but it got under my skin and led me to think about journalism in different ways, about body modification and about different subcultures as well and documenting them as well.

House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski

2007-10-14T22:30:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about this since I heard about the blog. So I have been thinking about the books that have gotten under my skin. And you know the book that really got under my skin was The House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski. It is an incredible book because it is about a haunted house.

It is not just about the haunted house; it is also about the way the book is written. There is all these footnotes. There are architectural footnotes. There is a story within a story and it was a really scary story. It made you think just because of the way it was written. It was a long time ago that I read it but I have never forgotten it and it sort of...things will happen and I would think about it.

PCC student

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

2007-10-14T21:27:00.000-07:00

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My name is Daniel Larios. I'm a photography student here at PCC and one book I really enjoyed and that I still remember after five years is The Poisonwood Bible.

It is a story about Africa and this family that moves there. It is a really great story and a really great kind of mystery. Well this family, there are from America, they move to Africa because they are missionaries and they are trying to convert Africans to Christianity. They get into all of these troubles.

It is just a great read.

Memoirs by Pablo Neruda

2007-10-11T10:03:00.001-07:00

Neruda's passionate embrace of life is described with lustrous poetic imagery. His world was a bouquet of unique, exotic experiences full of political and romantic rectitude. Reading this book caused me to adopt a more curious and appreciative approach to life - to recognize that every experience is profound and to pursue experiences that are different and bountiful. Neruda was a man whose life was joyous because he was propelled by courage and conviction rather than fear.

Submitted by John Wood
jcwood@pasadena.edu