Humorous Non-Fiction

We all know that Non-Fiction books are written to teach us things, but sometimes authors like to mix a little humor in with the knowledge they are sharing. You can find funny memoirs (one of which includes taxidermy), probably more information than you wanted about cadavers, ponderings on the everyday lives of grocery shoppers (and their lists), adventures on the African safari, funny letters and tweets of famous people, and even conversations overhead in barbershops all over America. Give these books and try and laugh while you learn.

Beth Lisick
Helping Me Help Myself: One Skeptic, Ten Self-Help Gurus, and a Year on the Brink of the Comfort Zone
158.1082 LISICK

Lisick had spent her life avoiding anything that promotes or claims to provide any "self-help," until one New Year's, when she decides that she needs to make some changes in her life. So she spends one year trying to "change" herself with the help of some of the self-help "experts." She not only reads the books, but she also attends seminars and classes. The book covers her journey and thoughts.

Mary Roach

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
611 ROACH

Although it may be a difficult subject for many people, Roach delves into the various ways that human bodies have been utilized after death throughout history. In the past 2000 years, bodies have been used to test theories, to figure out biological processes and surgical methods, and even to determine the decomposition process in different conditions for the solving of murders.

Dave Barry
Dave Barry is Not Making This Up
814.54 BARRY

Dave Barry is well known for his humor column in the Miami Herald that he wrote until 2005. This book is a collection of his humor columns and includes subjects on everything from exploding Pop-Tarts to the worst song lyrics, ever. There are also illustrations throughout the book by cartoonist Jeff MacNelly.

David Sedaris
Me Talk Pretty One Day
814.54 SEDARIS

David Sedaris is an essayist and NPR commentator, who is well known for his sharing his often hysterical life experiences. In this work, Sedaris discusses his move to Paris, his attempting to learn French, and his life in his new city. There are also other interesting and funny stories from his life.

Hillary Carlip
A La Cart: The Secret Lives of Grocery Shoppers
818.54 CARLIP

Carlip, a performance artist, has always found it interesting to collect people's old shopping lists and imagine the lives of the people who use them. So she decides to become the people she imagines and go grocery shopping as they would. There are 26 characters and the stories (and photographs) that go with them.

Steve Martin

The Ten, Make That Nine, Habits of Very Organized People. Make That Ten: The Tweets of Steve Martin
818.607 MARTIN

Steven Martin has over 1.4 million followers on Twitter, and he is known for his ability to convey his cleverness and hilarity in 140 characters or less.

Craig Marberry
Cuttin' Up: Wit and Wisdom from Black Barber Shops
818.62 MARBERRY

Craig Marberry is a journalist and author who traveled all over the country listening in on the conversations going on in barber shops. There, he heard conversations ranging from funny first-haircut reminiscing to serious lessons in black history. Marberry was eager to share the stories of everyday barbers and customers. People he thinks are the, "nation's funniest comedians and sharpest pundits: real characters with fascinating stories to tell."

Charles Osgood
Funny Letters from Famous People
826 FUNNY

Charles Osgood is a broadcaster and humorist who has, in this work, collected often hysterical correspondence from politicians, such as Abraham Lincoln; authors, such as Mark Twain; and other celebrities, such as Groucho Marx and Julia Child. At a time when very few people still correspond with others by sending letters through the mail, this is a glimpse into the lives of these people, even though it is mostly a funny one, and the matters that they would share in a letter.

Peter Allison
Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide
916.88304 ALLISON

Peter Allison grew up in Sydney, but in 1994, at the age of 19, he traveled to Africa and started giving safari tours. In this book, he shares some very funny stories from his time in Africa and from the tours that he has given.

Bill Bryson
A Walk In the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
917.40443 BRYSON and LP 917.404 BRYSON

Bill Bryson decided to reintroduce himself with America, after living in England for twenty years, by walking the 2,100 mile Appalachian Trail (going from Georgia to Maine). Bryson is known for his funny ways of sharing information on subjects, such as the English language or history of the home, and this book is no different. Bryson shares stories of the characters that he meets along the way, the beauty of the landscape he witnesses, and the history of the trail.

Jenny Lawson
Let's Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir)
B LAWSON

Lawson is known for her blog, The Bloggess (at thebloggess.com). In her memoirs she shares funny stories of her life that show her (and us) that even though we all have moments that we wish we could "pretend this never happened," they are the moments that often define who we are.


You can find more humorous Non-Fiction books here, and there are paper copies of the bibliography next to the catalog computers.

Things fall apart by Chinua Achebe

I read this book many years ago and took it up again in the hope of finding a book still relevant to our time, although it was first published in 1958.  The author, deceased just this past year at age 82, was Nigerian, and considered foremost in a movement which introduced African literature to the world, showing the coherence and complexity of tribal traditions and how they were often misinterpreted and vilified by those seeking to colonize these tribes for religious or civil purposes.

The chief character in the book, Okonkwo, is a man of good standing in his village in Nigeria, a skilled wrestler, a hardworking farmer, and a brave warrior.  Achebe, through simple narrative depicting Okonkwo and his family and fellow villagers, brings the reader into familiarity with all the aspects of their existence.  Their cooking, their farming, how Okonkwo’s compound, with his own and his three wives’ houses, is run and managed on a daily basis.  Simple details like the dark night, the silence of the forest around them, how one can hear the pounding of the woman’s mortar who always cooks later rather than in the daytime – all of these quietly inform us, so in a while it feels like we know this routine ourselves.  All the villagers are governed by strictures handed down from their ancestors, which can change sometimes in the form of demands made by their resident spirit, who lives in a nearby cave and communicates through one of the female villagers. 

Achebe does not hold up this world as a paragon of virtue, then to be sullied by the outside colonial forces.  There is injustice, as in the stricture commanding any twin babies to be cast into the forest on their birth, as an affront against nature.  But there is justice as well.  When Okonkwo’s rifle explodes in a noisy celebration, inadvertently killing a young participant, he must leave and take refuge in his mother’s village.  Because the killing was accidental, he can return after seven years.  And the missionaries, when they make their appearance, are not pictured as wholly negative in their influence.  Okonkwo’s son, a convert, seems to hear an answer in the images of the missionaries’ songs, of a light in darkness, an answer to the suffering he has seen in his life. 

Achebe’s power is in depicting the strength of the tribal traditions which have been sifted for so many generations, and yet showing their vulnerability to the foreigners, those who come on “an iron horse” (what they call a bicycle).  Okonkwo disowns his son when he converts to Christianity…he wanted his son to be like him, a warrior.  But a warrior’s days, like Okonkwo’s, are numbered.  The colonial administration, first there to protect the missionaries, is soon to be reckoned with as an established presence, one that will thwart tradition rather than try to accommodate it.

We have this book as the first in a trilogy.  To see it in our catalog, click here.  For learning about Africa, even a part of Africa that is fast disappearing, Achebe seems to be one of our best resources. 

Some Great Literary Catchphrases

Flavorwire published an article online last week called The Greatest Literary Catchphrases by Alison Nastasi. One of these phrases is even appropriate to this time of year, if you are lacking in holiday spirit. There are some phrases that are well known, but there were a few where I knew the saying but had no idea where the phrase came from. See how many you know, and check out the article by clicking on the title above. As always, happy reading!!




1. "Bah! Humbug!"- Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens                   FIC DICKENS

Where would those individuals who lack Christmas spirit be without this particular phrase to voice? 



2. "Old sport."- Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald             FIC FITZGERA

You have probably been called this or heard someone being called this before. Though I don't think that F. Scott Fitzgerald intended for his phrase to be used sarcastically, as it so often is now. 



3. "Big brother is watching you." - from 1984 by George Orwell        FIC ORWELL

Whether you know this phrase from its meaning in the book, or you just know it by the name of the reality television show, most everyone is aware of this issue.



4. "The old ultra-violence." - from A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess   FIC BURGESS

This is one that I had never heard before, but apparently the characters work "ultra-violence" on every unsuspecting character that they come into contact with.



5. "So it goes." - from Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut          FIC VONNEGUT

This deep and meaningful (and fatalistic) phrase is used over 100 times in the novel. Things will happen in the way that they have happened and will continue to happen, as "so it goes." 



6. "Constant vigilance!" - Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling    J FIC ROWLING

I personally have not heard many people saying this out loud, unless it has been in reference to Dumbledore, but he does have a point. Even though most of us aren't dealing with Death Dealers or "He who must not be named," it is useful to always be aware of what goes on around you.  


7. "All that glitters is not gold." - from The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare       822.33 SHAKESPE


Of course, this is just one of the many phrases of wisdom that come from the playwright and are constantly used, but it is a good one to think about.  






8. "Can't live with them, or without them." - from Lysistrata by Aristophanes      882.01 ARISTOPH

Of course, Aristophanes was speaking of women.     I am sure that everyone has heard this phrase used in this context, at least once in their lives (whether they are referring to men, women, children, dogs...).




9. "Catch-22" - from Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
FIC HELLER

I am sure that most everyone has been in a "Catch-22" at least once in their lives. It is a little bit worse than being "stuck between a rock and a hard place," as usually neither choice you make will turn out to be good (at all). 



10. "Begin at the beginning." - from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll                                    J FIC CARROLL

A very simple but deep phrase from the King of Hearts, followed by "and go on till you come to the end: then stop." 


11. "The Horror! The Horror!" - from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad         FIC CONRAD 


I have heard this phrase many times, and I had no idea where it came from. Even though Conrad used this phrase during a most dramatic death scene, most people now seem to use the phrase more sarcastically, though. 





12. "Ships that pass in the night." - from the poem The Theologian's Tale: Elizabeth from Tales of a Wayside Inn by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 811.3 LONGFELL

Another saying that I have heard over and over and did not know the reference to. How many times in dramatic romances have we heard about these ships. Where would all of those characters be without Longfellow?

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon SF SHANNON

The year is 2059, and 19-year-old Paige Mahoney lives in Scion London. In an alternate reality, Jack the Ripper was rumored to be Edward VII, who Scion believes brought the "curse" of clairvoyance to the world, through his misdeeds. In Scion England, it is illegal to use any kind of clairvoyance (accessing the ӕther), even though there are many different kinds of "voyants" to be found (there is a chart at the beginning of the book), and it is considered treason for voyants to use their abilities for financial gain. Scion puts offending voyants in the Tower, and many are eventually executed (or so society believes). 

 Paige is a special kind of voyant, a "dreamwalker," whose spirit can leave her body and invade the minds' of others. Her ability forces her to work in the criminal underground of voyants, within the syndicate system (a surprisingly well organized system) for the mime-lord, Jaxon. She uses her ability as "surveillance" on any activity in the ӕther that is going on in Jax's section. 

On a trip home to visit her father, Paige's train is checked, and she is forced to use her ability in a way she never has before, which leaves a man dead. She is not caught immediately, but during the night at her father's apartment, men in red shirts (not the Scion's) burst into her father's apartment looking for her. She tries to get away, but they manage to catch her. When Paige wakes up, she finds that she was not taken to the Tower, as she thought she would be. Paige, along with thirty-nine other voyants and amaurotics (non-voyants), has been brought to Sheol I (the "lost" city of Oxford) by the Rephaim, an alien race from the Netherworld.

The Rephaim are working with Scion, with the ultimate goal of ruling Earth. The Rephaim need voyants (the red-jackets), supplied by Scion, to help them protect humans from the Emim, another more bestial groups of aliens that, the Rephaim claim, wants to feed on humans. The group Paige is in is part of the Twentieth Bone Season, a period that only comes once every ten years and exists to add to the number of the red-jackets. There are two tests to become part of the red-jackets, though. The first is tied to the person's ability. The second is a fight with an Emim. Failure in either task leads to becoming a performer, one that provides entertainment for the others and is looked down upon by all. 

Each member of the group is assigned a keeper (one of the Rephaim), who train their voyants and take "care" of them. Paige is the only one taken in by the Warden, a really strong Rephaite who seems to have secret motives of his own. As Paige, named XX-59-40 by the Raphaim, learns more and more about her new situation and the Rephaim, the more she wonders if the situation is as clear as the Rephaim, especially one of their leaders, Nashira, would have her believe. She also knows that she needs to get out of Sheol I, for the sake of her life and the protection of her syndicate. One attempt at rebellion, twenty years ago, ended in failure, but failure is not an option for Paige. 

The Bone Season was one of the titles that I had put in the Popular Reads for the Fall Season blog post, as it has been highly anticipated on many of the popular fall reading lists. I was intrigued by all of the genre-blending that Shannon seems to be using in the story. There are elements of a dystopia: Scion is not the salvation from clairvoyance that the amaurotics believe it is; science fiction: a future setting with advanced technology and social issues; fantasy: paranormal elements and two groups of aliens that did not come from the stars but another dimension, and there is also some romance and action mixed in there, too. With so much genre-blending, though, you really have to pay extra attention to the first few chapters. Shannon throws a lot of terminology and world building that will be important to the plot later on in the book. It was a story that very easily sucked me in, and even though there were a few issues that I had with some of the elements of the story, I look forward to reading the next book in the series.     

     

Tearjerkers

I know we are in the "most wonderful time of the year," according to some, but everyone still needs a good cry every now and again. Here are some great stories to help you with all of your crying needs.  

Just a warning, though, you may want to have a box of tissues close by while enjoying these stories. 



P. S., I Love You by Cecilia Ahern         FIC AHERN

Holly never believed that she could live without her husband, Gerry, having known him since high school and considering him the other half of herself. Then Gerry succumbs to a terminal illness, and Holly doesn't have a choice. They had both joked about his making a "list" for her of things to do if she lost him, but soon after his death, Holly finds out from her family that Gerry created the list, in the form of letters, in order to keep her occupied during the first year after his death and to help her move on. As everyone would imagine, it is a very hard process, but with the support of the letters and the craziness of her friends and family, Holly finds the strength to continue on. 

Note: Unlike the movie, the main characters are in Ireland (and are Irish). The movie is located under DVD PS.   



The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards         FIC EDWARDS

On a terrible winter's night in 1964, Dr. David Henry is forced, by a blizzard, to deliver his own twins. His son comes out just fine, but he discovers that his daughter is born with Down's Syndrome. Deciding that he needs to protect his wife from this development, the doctor decides to tell her that the baby died. He gives the little girl to his nurse, Caroline, to take to an institution. Caroline, however, falls in love with the little girl and decides to become her mother, leaving town to hide the secret. Neither the doctor or nurse know just how much their decisions will impact the lives of everyone around them. 

Note: This book was also made into a Lifetime Movie, located under DVD MEMORY.


The Fault in Our Stars by John Green                               YP FIC GREEN

Hazel knows that her lungs don't work right and that her thyroid cancer is terminal. Then she meets Augustus Waters during a Cancer Kid Support Group meeting. Augustus is in remission, but he is very taken with Hazel and completely determined to ignore her attempts to "save" him from her death. Can they both deal with a relationship that has an expiration date?

Note: This book is also in audio format under YP AD FIC GREEN, and we have it in e-book format.


Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston               FIC HURSTON

Janie Crawford has been told how to live her life by so many people and never gets to make choices for herself. Returning home to Eatonville, Florida, after having run away from it two years earlier with a love affair, she tells her life's story to best friend, Pheoby. It is a look into the life of an independently minded woman having to make some hard choices (or have them made for her) during the 1930s and 40s, dealing with poverty, abuse, and even a hurricane. 


Note: This book is also available in audio under AD FIC HURSTON and in video under DVD THEIR.




Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer             B MCCANDLE

In April of 1992, Christopher Johnson McCandless decided to give his savings (of over $20,000) to charity, get rid of most of his other possessions, and travel (by walking and hitchhiking) up to the wilderness a little north of Mt. McKinley in Alaska. He was seeking a knew life and a new way of thinking. Unfortunately, what he utimately found up there in the wilderness was his death.  Jon Krakauer, a contributing editor to Outside and Men's Journal, retraces McCandless' steps on his journey, and by looking at his diary, letters, and some notes that McCandless left behind, he seeks to solve the mystery that was McCandless' goals and, ultimately, his demise.

Note: This book is also available in audio under AD B MCCANDLE and in video under DVD INTO.




Atonement by Ian McEwan                  FIC MCEWAN

It is summer of 1934, and an 13-year-old girl, Briony, witnesses a completely innocent act by her sister, Celcilia and a servant's son, Robbie. When a great act of violence is committed, Briony blows everything out of proportion, accussing Robbie of the crime, and in doing so, instigates a great wrong against two people who mean a lot to her. Unfortunately, her choices also lead to great suffering by these two, and her need for "atonement" from them both.

Note: This book is also available in large print LP FIC MCEWAN, and we also have the movie under DVD ATONEMEN.



The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow            B PAUSCH

There are many professors who give their "last lectures" to their classes, wanting to impart some final wisdom to their students before moving on, but for Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, learning that he had terminal cancer meant that it really would be his last lecture. So he wrote his last lecture on "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," intending to inspire his students, and many others, to live their lives to the fullest and make sure to help further the dreams of others.  

Note: This is also available in audio under AD B PAUSCH.




All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque            FIC REMARQUE

Paul Baümer is just 19 years old when he and his fellow classmates enlist in the German army at the beginning  of World War I, but no one expects the carnage and suffering that will take place in the trenches.  As the war drags on, many of these young soldiers wonder whether they can survive the conflict, and if they do they, whether they will ever be the same again.

Note: This is also a movie under DVD ALL. 





The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
FIC STEIN

Enzo knows that he is not like other dogs and does not seem to think in the same ways that they do. Hoping that he will be human in his next life, he decides to educate himself about humans by watching television and listening to his owner, race car driver, Denny Swift. 


Note: This book is also available in e-book format.




The Color Purple by Alice Walker   FIC WALKER


Celie pours out her feelings into a series of letters (to God and her sister) about the abuse (sexual, physical, and verbal) that she suffers at the hands of the men in her life (her father and her husband), her separation from the sister she tried so hard to protect, and many other hardships. These "letters" are the only ones that hear her thoughts and feelings, as she tries to show that she is a person and deserves to be heard. 

Note: This is also available as a movie under DVD COLOR.  





You can find more tearjerkers here on the bibliography. There are some copies of the bibliography available to take with you next to the catalog computers. Happy reading!

"Not without my daughter" by Betty Mahmoody with William Hoffer

Betty Mahmoody was married to an Iranian doctor who was practicing medicine in the United States. They went to visit his family in Tehran, Iran in 1984, just six years after the Shah of Iran had been overthrown by revolution and Iran had become an Islamic theocracy, with an Islamic cleric at its head who oversees the President and Parliament to ensure that the government is operating in accordance with Islamic law. 

Toward the end of their two week visit, Betty’s husband Sayyed informed her they would be staying in Iran.  The rest of the book chronicles Betty’s resistance to this decision and her struggle to find a way to leave Iran with her daughter, Mahtob, who was four years old at the time.

The book did well in this country but sold particularly well in Europe, where cross-cultural marriages are more common, and where conflicts regarding individual rights can surface.  Betty soon found out that under Islamic law, she was an Iranian citizen by marrying an Iranian, and her husband had control over her and their child. 

The book is fairly long but realistic, as over the 18 months before Betty and Mahtob’s escape, we see Betty trying different tactics and succumbing at times to depression, despair and even apathy.  Her husband keeps her a virtual prisoner, beats her and for a time even keeps her from being with her daughter.

A film was made of the book, which was criticized for being anti-Iranian.  You do see the culture from Betty’s eyes, and she finds some habits of Iranian housewives lacking in hygiene, although it is not clear that this is widespread.  She does find friends and helpers, both Iranian and foreign. 

Sayyed Mahmoody died in 2009, never seeing his daughter again, who refused any contact with him.  He documented his side of the story with a book and with a video made with Finnish journalists.  He denied that he had been abusive towards Betty and maintained that she had agreed to move to Iran, so that he, as a doctor, could give medical help during the Iran-Iraqi war. 

Betty Mahmoody has received a lot of thanks from abused women who found similarities in their situations to hers, although they were not in a foreign country as she was.  It’s a book to make you think about marriage and people’s expectations of marriage, regardless of what culture they live in.

The book is listed here in our catalog. 

25 Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time, According to the Internet

Business Insider just published an article on the 25 Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time, and their information came from two Redditt lists (which is where the "according to the Internet" part comes in). There are several key books to the genre, that may come as no surprise, but I will let you make that decision. So take a look at the list, and see if you agree with those individuals who put in their votes. As always, Happy Reading!!!

The following are summaries of the top ten books, but you can visit the article through the link above (or at the end of the list) to take a deeper look at the other fifteen. 



1) To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip José Farmer     SF FARMER       (we also have the movie under DVD RIVERWOR)

(We have this work, along with the second book, The Fabulous Riverboat, under the title: Riverworld)

The first book in the Riverworld Saga begins with everyone who has ever lived on Earth suddenly finding themselves in a new world by a river. All their food is provided, but there is no clue as to the purpose of their new existence. Sir Richard Burton is the first to find the waystation, and Burton and a band made up of Alice Liddle Hargreaves, a Neanderthal, a Holocaust survivor, and an alien decide to travel the river to find out who brought this whole thing about and what their intentions are. 



2) The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe        
SF WOLFE

(We have this work, along with the second book, The Claw of the Conciliator, under the title: Shadow & Claw)

The first book in the The Book of the New Sun series, this book follows Severian, who is an apprentice in the Guild of Torturers. Severian is soon exiled from the only home he has ever known, when he commits the ultimate sin of his guild by showing mercy to his victim. However, it seems that Severian has a bigger destiny than just that of a torturer.    




3) Anathem by Neil Stephenson
SF STEPHENS  and   AD SF STEPHENS

Fraa Erasmas is a young "avout" living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, (a monastary-like place) which protects the scholars of mathematics, science, and philosophy inside it from the outside "saecular" world and its influences (and technology). During the rite of Apert, fraas and suurs leave the grounds of the concent, and the concent opens its doors to visiting "extras." Neither side is quite prepared, though, for the threat that is coming, and both sides will have to work together, if they want to stop it. Erasmas soon finds himself a key player in the chaos that is coming.




4) Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
SF REYNOLDS

The first book in the Revelation Space series, scientist, Dan Sylveste, knows that the Amarantin civilization was destroyed just as it was on the verge of discovering space flight. Now, he needs to solve the "riddle" of the Amarantin, before it happens again, and he will need the help of the dangerous cyborg crew aboard the starship, Nostalgia for Infinity. There are forces at work that want to stop him, because there was a good reason for the destruction of the Amarantin. 



5) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
SF LEGUIN

One of the books in Le Guin's Hainish Cycle, The Left Hand of Darkness is considered, by many, to be a "groundbreaking" work of science fiction. Genly Ai, a human man, visits the alien winter world of Gethen as an emissary, where he hopes to discuss with the beings of the planet, the Gethians, their planet's being included in the growing intergalactic civilization. However, he must learn to understand the ways of the Gethens, however different they are, and have them understand his ways (and those of the civilization), in return.




6) I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
SF ASIMOV    (we also have the movie under DVD I)

There are three laws of Robotics: 1) a robot may not cause harm to, or allow a human to come to harm 2) a robot must obey orders of humans (unless it violates the first law), 3) a robot must protect its existence (unless it violates the first or second law). I, Robot is a collection of stories that Asimov wrote about robots from the 1940s and 1950s.






7) The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
FIC VONNEGUT

Malachi Constant is the richest and most depraved man on Earth, who takes part in several interplanetary wars, traveling from Earth to Mars to Mercury and to Titan. Constant finds out that all of the incidents within his travels came at the hands of Winston Niles Rumfoord. Kurt Vonnegut was a big inspiriation for Douglas Adam's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (I think you will see it too). 




8) Contact by Carl Sagan
SF SAGAN            
(we also have the movie under DVD CONTACT)

After years of scanning the galaxy for any signs of communication from other life forms, a team of scientists, including Eleanor Arroway (the person who discovered the first communication), belive they have found what they were looking for. However, this discovery brings up bigger, more dangerous questions of not just traveling out to meet these new lifeforms (using the plans for the "Machine" that they sent), but if they really should. Sagan also gives scientific explanations on how things work. 


9) Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
SF ROBINSON

The first book in the Mars Trilogy, Robinson looks at the colonization of Mars in the year 2026. A group of one hundred colonists is sent to begin terrforming the red planet. Each member of the group seems to have a different reason for traveling to Mars, and each person's personality also leads to conflict amongst the group. There also apear to be some in the group that would prefer that no changes be made to the planet at all.    



10) Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton
SF HAMILTON

This is the first book in the Commonwealth Saga. It is the year 2380, and the Intersolar Commonwealth is made up of more than 600 worlds, stretching 400 lightyears in diameter. The worlds are connected through transport "wormholes" (tunnel like transportation). An astronomer, Dudley Bose, observes the vanishing of a star. Since it is too far out to reach by wormhole, the startship, Second Chance, is sent to find out what happened. Will they find more than they bargained for?




11) The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournell   SF NIVEN

12) A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.  SF MILLER & AD SF MILLER

13) Excession by Iain M. Banks           SF BANKS  

14) Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein  SF HEINLEIN (we also have the movie under DVD STARSHIP)

15) Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick  SF DICK (found within the book, Four Novels of the 1960s) & AD SF DICK  (we also have the movie under DVD BLADE for Blade Runner)

16) Ringworld by Larry Niven          SF NIVEN

17) 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke    SF CLARKE  (we also have the movie under DVD 2001)

18) The Forever War by Joe Haldeman    SF HALDEMAN

19) Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson       SF STEPHENS & AD SF STEPHENS

20) Neuromancer by William Gibson   SF GIBSON

21) Hyperion by Dan Simmons (we have the first two books in the series under Hyperion Cantos)    SF SIMMONS

22) Foundation by Isaac Asimov   SF ASIMOV

23) Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card  SF CARD & AD SF CARD &               e-book
released in theaters on November 1st

24) Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams   SF ADAMS (the whole series can be found in The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide) & AD SF ADAMS  & we also have the movie under DVD HITCHHIK

25) Dune by Frank Herbert  SF HERBERT (we also have the movie Dune under DVD DUNE and The Children of Dune under DVD CHILDREN)




Once again, if you want to check out the article for yourself clink on this link.