Book
Recommendations
From the June 2002 Forum
Chestnut Hill's annual book forum took
place on June 9, 2002 after the end-of-year Religious
Education picnic. More than 15 friends gathered to
recommend books that they were reading currently
or had read in the past and wanted to recommend.
Rather than try to capture in these notes any sense
of the description that each person gave, I've appended
links to the Amazon.com description of the book.
This is not intended as an endorsement of amazon.com
or its book descriptions, and the meeting doesn't
get any money if you choose to buy a book from such
a link; it is only meant to lead you quickly to more
information about the book than I was able to record
on my Palm Pilot.
Here, more or less in the order people talked about
them, are the books recommended this year, followed
by (the name of the person recommending the book):
Up in the Old Hotel, Joseph Mitchell (Philip Jones)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679746315/qid=1023645436
Dreams of Trespass, Fatima Mernissi (Ann Jones)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201489376/qid=1023645517
Meeting Jesus Again For the First Time, Marcus
Borg (Hollister Knowlton)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060609176/qid=1023645602
Diary of a City Priest, Fr. John Mcnamee (Hollister
Knowlton)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/155612662X/qid=1023645684
The Glass Palace, Amitav Ghosh (Roberta Foss)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375758771/qid=1023646024
House of the Winds, Mia Yun (Roberta Foss)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140291946/qid=1023646123
Stones for Ibarra, Harriet Doerr (Roberta Foss)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140075623/qid=1023646181
Power of Nonviolence, Richard Gregg (Lynn Mather)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0934676704/qid=1023646234
The Children, David Halberstam (Terry Foss)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0449004392/qid=1023646303
Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond (Terry Foss)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393973867/qid=1023646376
The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb, Gar Alperowitz
(Terry Foss)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/067976285X/qid=1023646435
Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko (Linda Rosenwein)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140086838/qid=1023646493
Leslie Marmon Silko's "Ceremony": A Casebook (Linda
Rosenwein)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195142845/qid=1023646493
The Highly Sensitive Person, Elaine Aron (Jackie
Fields)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553062182/qid=1023646580
Let Your Life Speak, Parker Palmer (Jackie Fields)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0787947350/qid=1023646634
Empire Falls, Richard Russo (Karen Cromley)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679432477/qid=1023646680
Fools of Fortune, William Trevor (Karen Cromley)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140068767/qid=1023646733
The Hungering Dark (meditations), Frederick Buechner
(Karen Cromley)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060611758/qid=1023646777
Enduring Grace: Catholic Women Mystics, Carol
Lee Flinder (Marcelle Martin)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060626453/qid=1023646828
A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (Kerry Krieger)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345361792/qid=1023646887
My Life in Art, Konstantine Stanislawski (Jonathan
Zellars)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0878305505/qid=1023646943
The Bondwoman's Narrative, by Hannah Craft, Henry
Louis Gates, Ed. (Philip Jones)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0446530085/qid=1023647045"
The Art of Happiness, by the Dalai Lama (Betty Hartzell) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1573221112/qid=1023754256
Bird by Bird... Anne Lamott (Betty Hartzell) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385480016/qid=1023754453
When we were Orphans...Kazuo Ishiguro (Betty Hartzell) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375724400/qid=1023754497
Eat Mangoes Naked; Finding Pleasure Everywhere and
Dancing with the Pits, by Sark (Donna Pasanchin) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684859777/qid=1024095397
Phil Jones