{"id":66605,"date":"2022-08-09T15:00:43","date_gmt":"2022-08-09T22:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=66605"},"modified":"2022-08-09T15:00:43","modified_gmt":"2022-08-09T22:00:43","slug":"for-the-love-of-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/for-the-love-of-books\/","title":{"rendered":"For the love of books"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aug. 9 is Book Lovers Day, and what better way to celebrate (besides reading your favorite book) than hearing from book lovers about their favorite books? The NAU Review<\/em> asked staff from Cline Library and other NAU departments to share their favorite tomes in honor of this bookish celebration.<\/p>\n

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\"TheJessica Watson<\/strong>, executive assistant and second-year graduate student in public administration<\/p>\n

Favorite book:<\/strong> Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?<\/em> by Alyssa Mastromonaco<\/p>\n

This book is great for anyone considering a career in public service, especially as a woman. It is a relatable and funny read that leaves you wanting to know more.<\/p>\n

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Mike Taylor<\/strong>, manager, Solutions Architecture<\/p>\n

Favorite book:<\/strong> Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance<\/em> by Robert M. Pirsig<\/p>\n

I love this book from start to finish, but one particular scene has always stuck with me. In it, Phaedrus is teaching writing outdoors and a student is stuck and unable to begin writing. Phaedrus asks the student to focus on smaller and smaller views of the surrounding area until he asks the student to focus on a single brick from a single building. Suddenly, the student becomes unstuck and is able to complete (and enjoy) the assignment.<\/p>\n

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\"Cover
First-edition cover of <\/em>Good Omens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

John J. Doherty<\/strong>, head of research and information services<\/p>\n

Favorite book: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch<\/i>\u00a0by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman<\/p>\n

I read this book the day it was published. The hardback first edition of this book (from 1990) is the last book I bought in Ireland before emigrating to the U.S. When I read that Pratchett (whose Discworld was just finding its turtle legs) and Gaiman (of Sandman fame) teamed up to re-write the Book of Revelation, I was first in line at my local Easons to buy a copy. Here we have a ripping yarn(!) full of jokes only a recovering Catholic would get, complete with Pratchett\u2019s footnotes and Gaiman\u2019s Apocalyptic Horsepersons (and accompanying bikers). I still laugh out loud reading this many years later (and, yes, I have seen the TV show, but I also have the book in paperback, Kindle and two Audible versions). And, of course, the snide remarks thrown at Americans (usually in footnotes), such as \u201cI’ve never really liked the Yanks. … You can’t trust people who pick up the ball all the time when they play football.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"CoverEmily Wesling<\/strong>, experiential learning librarian<\/p>\n

Favorite book: Know My Name<\/em> by Chanel Miller<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a big fan of memoirs, and this one was so transformative. Chanel Miller showed such courage when she testified against the Stanford University student who sexually assaulted her in 2015. I am in awe of her bravery, her candidness and the poetic way she tells her story. Know My Name<\/i> is a painful read, but an important piece of the ongoing conversation about the issue of sexual violence on college campuses. My favorite quote from it is, \u201cIt is not a question of if you will survive this, but what beautiful things await you when you do. I had to believe her, because she was living proof. Then she said, good and bad things come from the universe holding hands. Wait for the good to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Hank Hassell<\/strong>, associate librarian<\/p>\n

Favorite book:<\/strong> Desert Solitaire: A Season In the Wilderness<\/i>\u00a0by Edward Abbey<\/p>\n

This is the book that put Abbey’s name on the literary and environmental map. In the main, it recounts his life one summer as a national park ranger in Arches National Monument just outside of Moab, Utah. In it he describes his love and attachment for the wilderness and why it is important to save and preserve the wild places as part and parcel of our souls as Americans. My favorite quotation from the book: “There are those of us who in our nightly devotions never fail to pray for a small, precision earthquake in the vicinity of Glen Canyon Dam. We are devout, we have faith, and someday our prayers will be answered.”<\/i><\/p>\n

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\"CoverAlan Angerbauer<\/strong>, IT service analyst, senior<\/p>\n

Favorite book: The Winter Of Our Discontent<\/i>\u00a0by John Steinbeck<\/p>\n

My favorite book is the last of Steinbeck’s novels, The Winter Of Our Discontent<\/i>. In length, it sits midway between Steinbeck’s tomes (Grapes of Wrath<\/em>, East of Eden<\/em>) and his ‘tinies’ (Cannery Row<\/em>, Of Mice And Men<\/em>). Through its pages, we see its protagonist wrestling with the world, as all people who are not exceptionally privileged must. Sometimes the wrestling resembles an intimate dance; sometimes a bare-knuckled brawl. Most times the turmoil is contained within himself\u2014like an agitated water bottle making mental whirlpools; sometimes, it spills out onto the streets, laid bare for the scrutiny of others\u2014all others. Somehow, this external scrutiny\u2014despite being less intense than the pressure he puts upon himself\u2014is more painful to him. The lengths he will go to escape this pain is not unlike the lengths we as a society go to avoiding the things we should be most careful with: our planet, our fellows, ourselves.<\/p>\n

My favorite passage is the start of the third chapter when our protagonist reflects on his perception of his wife’s sleep: “My wife, my Mary, goes to her sleep the way you would close the door of a closet. So many times I have watched her with envy. Her lovely body squirms a moment as though she fitted herself into a cocoon. She sighs once and at the end of it her eyes close and her lips, untroubled, fall into that wise and remote smile of the ancient Greek gods.”<\/i><\/p>\n

The beauty I find in this passage is that he’s observed his wife frequently and carefully enough to form a lyrical opinion of her sleeping state of mind. The beautiful contradiction lies in the fact that he doesn’t actually<\/i> know what’s going on in his wife’s person. It’s partly his projection\u2014perhaps a desire to see himself as uniquely different to his closest earthly companion\u2014and partly it’s the byproduct of his sensitive nature to observe and characterize the other. His wife is a necessary part of this external world\u2014a world that’s at once a source of terrifying scrutiny but also a necessary component of his existence.<\/p>\n

I find the book reflects on many contemporary human struggles, many of which are rooted in our uneasiness with change.<\/p>\n

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\"BookAimee Quinn<\/strong>, assistant librarian, NAU-Yuma<\/p>\n

Favorite book:<\/strong> Heidi<\/em> by Johanna Spyri<\/p>\n

I received my first copy for Christmas when I was 6 years old, and I still have it. I read any time I feel sad or depressed as it always makes me happy. It was my first book of my very own that was not shared with my four older siblings or my younger sister. Whenever I read it, I have that sense of wonder of a far-off land, in the mountains playing in the sunshine with goats and birds laughing. My favorite part of the story is when the servants in Herr Sesemann\u2019s house believe there is a ghost haunting them, which turns out to be Heidi sleepwalking because she is so homesick for the mountains and hates living in the city. It resonates with me throughout my life.<\/p>\n

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\"TheJill Friedmann<\/strong>, assistant dean<\/p>\n

Favorite book: Pattern Recognition<\/em> by William Gibson<\/p>\n

One of my favorite books that I return to time and again is Pattern Recognition<\/em> by William Gibson. The first time I read this book I was blown away by the world and characters created by Gibson. I think I read it in one sitting. By now I\u2019ve read it so many times I\u2019m on my fourth or fifth copy. I also keep giving away my copies because I want everyone I know to read this book. It\u2019s amazing!<\/p>\n

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\"titlePamela Buzzard<\/strong>, associate librarian, Health Sciences<\/p>\n

Favorite book<\/strong>: What the Eyes Don’t See<\/em>\u00a0by Mona Hanna-Attisha<\/p>\n

I heard Dr. Mona speak at the Medical Library Association conference this summer. She was fun to listen to and absolutely compelling. When I heard she’d be autographing her books at lunch that day, I ran over to grab a copy before another meeting.\u00a0This book really is a story of hope and perseverance. Dr. Mona worked with the kids of Flint, Michigan, and gave them all the attention and care they deserved. When she heard that there was potential lead exposure, she wouldn’t let anything stop her until she got to the root of the problem and made sure public officials listened.\u00a0Now more than ever we need people like Dr. Mona to be willing to stand up in times of crisis and continue to do what is needed for the good of public health.<\/div>\n
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\"CoverTracy Glau<\/strong>, assistant librarian<\/p>\n

Favorite book: Odes to Common Things<\/em> by Pablo Neruda<\/p>\n

Pablo Neruda\u2019s odes always brings me to appreciation\u2014appreciation of the small things in life, the things we take for granted, the things that are always there, such as salt, socks, tomatoes, cats. Neruda brings a life to these objects like no other writer. He embraces the reader with his clever words, stroking our heart and mind and making connections to memories and life. Every time I go back to his writing, I experience tangible goosebumps and somehow his work helps me not take things for granted. His odes are quite shareable.<\/p>\n

Excerpt from “Ode to Salt:”<\/p>\n

In its caves
\nthe salt moans, mountain
\nof buried light,
\ntranslucent cathedral,
\ncrystal of the sea, oblivion
\nof the waves.
\nAnd then on every table
\nin the world,
\nsalt,
\nwe see your piquant
\npowder
\nsprinkling
\nvital light
\nupon
\nour food.<\/p>\n

Expert from “Ode to the Cat:”<\/p>\n

Man wants to be fish or fowl,
\nthe snake would like to have wings
\nthe dog is a disoriented lion,
\nthe engineer would like to be a poet,
\nthe fly studies to be a swift,
\nthe poet tries to imitate the fly,
\nbut the cat
\nonly wants to be a cat
\nand any cat is a cat
\nfrom his whiskers to his tail,
\nfrom his hopeful vision of a rat
\nto the real thing,
\nfrom the night to his golden eyes.<\/p>\n

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Did you know that Cline Library has an NAU Authors room? The shelves are filled with novels, histories, research, books of poetry and personal essays and more written by NAU faculty. Explore their works online<\/a> or browse the shelves in this comfortable reading nook to find your new favorite book!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aug. 9 is Book Lovers Day, and what better way to celebrate (besides reading your favorite book) than hearing from book lovers about their favorite books? The NAU Review asked staff from Cline Library and other NAU departments to share their favorite tomes in honor of this bookish celebration. Jessica Watson, executive assistant and second-year…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":66623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1816],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lumberjack-lifestyle"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}