Recommended Books
May 2008

Clear Creek Books Staff Recommendations:

• Zen Gardening by Dave Wann 
  Golden author Wann provides great advice on gardening in our arid climate.  The book is also amusing and well-written.
• Stanley by Tim Jeal.  
  Intriguing and well-written biography of Henry Morgan Stanley, best known as an African explorer. ("Dr. Livingston, I presume?")  He gained fame early in life as an explorer and was later considered infamous for his harsh treatment of native populations.
• Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
  An aging man moves to a remote farmhouse in Norway.  His new neighbor stirs memories of a summer fifty years ago.
• Girls Like Us by Sheila Weller
  This book tells the stories of Joni Mitchell, Carole King, and Carly Simon.  The cultural changes of the sixties and seventies have received much literary attention, but until now, the women who lived through and shaped that era have been largely ignored.  This book offers some interesting new insights.
• Where Mountains are Nameless by Jonathan Waterman ( Colorado author)
  Beautiful descriptions of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by a man who has known the area for twenty years.  He describes the dwindling wildlife and the damage wrought by oil drilling in the area.
• Go by John Clellon Holmes
  The first novel of the beat generation, this book is both important and a good read!
• Unknown Waters by Capt. Alfred McLaren (local)
  Interesting first-person account of exploration conducted in a nuclear submarine.  The photographs add a fascinating touch.
• The Principled Politician: The Ralph Carr Story by Adam Schrager
  The story of Colorado's Governor during World War II.  He risked his status as a rising star in the Republican party by resisting the order to round up and intern Japanese Amerricans.  Adam Schrager will be visiting Clear Creek Books.

PREVIOUS RECOMMENDATIONS

Recommendations from Local Book Clubs:

• Denver Read and Feed has been reading, ranting, and rating books since 1988.  Their all-time favorites are Beloved by Toni Morrison, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling, Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and All's Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque.  This is a co-ed club that meets over dinner, with the person who chooses the book cooking food that relates to the story in some way.  They read only fiction and only books of 400 pages or less.
• The Unnamed Mother-Daughter Book Club likes Just Listen by Sarah Dessen and Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt.  This group started when the girls were in elementary school.  They are now in high school.
• Novel Women like Pride and Prejudice, Poisonwood Bible, Peace Like a River, Angle of Repose, Life of Pi, Cry the Beloved Country, The Grapes of Wrath, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, Jayber Crow, The Bonesetter's Daughter, The Source, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Midwives, Red Tent, Waiting for Snow in Havana, The Agony and the Ecstasy, The Kitchen God’s Wife, Yellow Raft in Blue Water, Snow Falling on Cedars, Water for Elephants.
• The First Wednesday Reading Group recently read and enjoyed Ota Benga: The Pygmy in the Zoo and John Hersey’s 1950s classic, A Single Pebble. This is a co-ed book group, many – but not all—of whose members are current or emeriti faculty members and spouses at Mines.

Award-Winning Books:

• Booker Prize  "The Man Booker Prize for Fiction promotes the finest in fiction by rewarding the very best book of the year."  See the list.
• National Book Awards "...are given to recognize achievements in four genres: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People's Literature. ."  See the lists.
• National Book Critics Circle Award  "Every year the NBCC presents awards for the finest books and reviews published in English."  See the lists.
• Nobel Prize for Literature  "The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to 104 persons since 1901."  See the list of laureates.
• PEN/Faulkner Award  "The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is a national prize which honors the best published works of fiction by American citizens in a calendar year. "  See the lists.
• Pulitzer Prize:   Fiction, History, Biography or Autobiography, Poetry, General Non-Fiction
• Bellwether Prize:  Since 1999, writer Barbara Kingsolver has sponsored a prize "in support of a literature for social change."  See the winners.

Children's Literature

Caldecott Medal  "The Caldecott Medal was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children."  See the list.

Coretta Scott King Award  "Given to African American authors and illustrator for outstanding inspirational and educational contributions, the Coretta Scott King Book Award titles promote understanding and appreciation of the culture of all peoples and their contribution to the realization of the American dream."  See the list.

Mark Twain Award  "The Mark Twain Award is to provide the children of Missouri with a recommended reading list of literature that will enrich their lives through reading. The Mark Twain Award is selected by students in grades four through six and presented annually."  See the list.

Michael L. Printz Award   "The Michael L. Printz Award is an award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature. It is named for a Topeka, Kansas school librarian who was a long-time active member of the Young Adult Library Services Association. The award is sponsored by Booklist, a publication of the American Library Association."  See the list.

Newbery Medal   The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.  See the list.

Pura Belpre Award  "The Pura Belpre Award was established to honor Latino writers and illustrators whose work best embodies the Latino cultural experience in a work of children's literature."  See the list.

Costa Book Awards (formerly the Whitbread Book Award)  The Costa Book Awards is one of the most prestigious and popular literary prizes in the UK and recognises some of the most enjoyable books of the year by writers based in the UK and Ireland.  See the list.

Young Reader's Choice Award  The Pacific Northwest Library Association's Young Reader's Choice Award is the oldest children's choice award in the U.S. and Canada. The award was established in 1940 by a Seattle bookseller, the late Harry Hartman, who believed every student should have an opportunity to select a book that gives him or her pleasure.  See the list.