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April 2003
Compiled by Georgine Olson, of Fairbanks (AK) North Star Borough Public Library & Regional Center, from contributions by the members of Fiction_L.

(To use this list in your library, book club, etc., please include the following credit line: "Compiled by the subscribers of the Fiction_L mailing list." This list may not be used for commercial purposes.)

Fiction and non-fiction suggestions for those who enjoy reading Quinn for ideas - flaws inherent in civilization and hierarchalism, the destructive myth of "man apart from nature", and realistic ways to save the world as a human habitat.

Book of Dead Birds by Gayle Brandeis

Winner of the Bellwether Prize, this is an intimate portrait of a young woman at a defining moment in her life, who stands at the intersection of two cultures and races. (amazon.com) - Prize founder Kingsolver called it "exactly the kind of book we were looking for. It's lyrical, imaginative, beautifully crafted and deeply intelligent. Before anything else, its characters take you by the heart."

Violence and Compassion by Jean-Claude Carri¸re and the Dalai Lama

Discussions with the Dalai Lama about the state of the world, including the environment, and how change can be effected.

The Watch by Dennis Danvers

When an enigmatic visitor from another world appears at the deathbed of Peter Alexeivich Kropotkin in 1921 Russia, offering him a chance to be reborn, Peter gladly accepts, but his new life in 1999 America is far from idyllic as he is faced with a bizarre new world of plastic and capitalism, where other refugees, both past and present, crave freedom and justice. (NoveList)

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins

Suppose, instead of thinking about organisms using genes to reproduce themselves, as we had since Mendel's work was rediscovered, we turn it around and imagine that "our" genes build and maintain us in order to make more genes. (amazon.com)

Kissing the Virgin's Mouth: a novel by Donna M. Gershten

This debut novel depicts the life of a young woman who has grown up poor in Mexico's extremely patriarchal culture. Through observation and experience, she has developed rules that she believes will insure her survival within this culture. Unfortunately, when she marries into a U.S. household, she finds that these rules no longer apply. (Library Journal) Winner of the Bellwether Prize.

Dumbing Us Down: the Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto

Thirty years of award-winning teaching in New York City's public schools led John Gatto to the sad conclusion that compulsory governmental schooling does little but teach young people to follow orders as cogs in the industrial machine. (amazon.com)

The Culture of Make Believe by Derrick Jensen

This passionate book chronicles the violent hatreds that have been overwhelming our planet, tracing them back through their sources in imperialism, slavery, the rise of global capitalism, and the ideologies of possessiveness and consumerism. (Library Journal)

The Constant Gardener by John LeCarre

You might not expect it, but The Constant Gardener has strong themes of poor countries exploited by rich ones, global drug companies using poor individuals as guinea pigs, corrupt governments encouraged by US business interests, etc.

The Paradise Complex: An Exploration of the Forbidden by Douglas Lockhart

Ad agency head Ian Drummond and his new corporate client are the targets of a ruthless, power-hungry figure set on creating religious and social turmoil by promoting an enigmatic man as the new Messiah - allegedly a descendant of Jesus. A thrilling suspense novel that poses fundamental questions about religion, politics and power. (Ingram, NoveList)

The Curious Enlightenment of Professor Caritat by Steven Lukes

A philosophy professor living in a futuristic autocratic society reluctantly becomes involved in a political struggle, causing him to reassess Western political philosophies (NoveList)

Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy

Onetime college girl, loving mother, pickpocket, and unmarried mourning wife Consuelo Ramos, imprisoned in a New York mental hospital for assaulting a pimp, hovers between a future of life dominant and an endless present of neuroelectric experimentation. (NoveList)

Lila: an Inquiry into Morals by Robert Pirsig

A novel-cum-philosophical tome that wrestles with the issues and problems of life in the Nineties. Phaedrus, the principle character, is a writer grappling with his latest treatise, the "metaphysics of Quality." Lila, his aging and desperate wharf-bar pickup, provides the right amount of antagonism and criticism to hone his ruminations of life and civilization...

The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation by Matt Ridley

Human life... is a complex balancing act: we behave with self-interest foremost in mind, but also in ways that do not harm, and sometimes even benefit, others. This behavior, in a strange way, makes us good. It also makes us unique in the animal world, where self-interest is far more pronounced. (amazon.com)

Redheads by Paul Spencer Sochaczewski

Timely book about urgent ecological issues. Besides being a wise, witty and engrossing thriller, Redheads is one of those very rare novels that you put down knowing you've gained a whole new understanding of how things really work in the wild, wicked world out there.... this book does for the struggle to save the rain forests of Borneo what Catch 22 did for the struggle to stay alive in World War II.

Walden and Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

Walden describes Thoreau's attempts to live apart from civilization and as a part of nature. Civil Disobedience is, of course, a classic instruction manual on social change and protest.

From the Bellwether Prize (an award in support of a literature of social responsibility) web page: Clear, analytical and literary accounts of political and social injustice (either current or historical) include the following excellent examples: * Beloved by Toni Morrison * Snow Falling on Cedars David Guterson * To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee * Crows Over a Wheatfield Paula Sharp * Bastard Out of Carolina Dorothy Allison * The Women's Room Marilyn French * Memoirs of An Ex-Prom Queen Alix Kates Shulman * Mean Spirit Linda Hogan * Cloudsplitter Russell Banks * The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver * The Color Purple Alice Walker Other contemporary contributors to this tradition include * Michael Dorris * Louise Erdrich * Ursula Hegi * Ursula K. LeGuin * Ruth Ozeki * Grace Paley * Marge Piercy * John Edgar Wideman

www.webrary.org/rs:flbklists/daniel.html
First published on the Web: 5/26/2004
Last updated: 5/26/2004