Selected Reads for faculty, Upper School students and parents from the Browning Library Staff. These are available at the library as books or eBooks.
Fiction
Last Man in Tower by Aravind Adiga
“Aravind Adiga, winner o
f the Man Booker Prize for The White Tiger, brings readers another look at an India at once simple and complex, as old as time and brand new. . . . Adiga has written the story of a New India; one rife with greed and opportunism, underpinned by the daily struggle of millions in the lower classes.” Washington Post
Library Journal
“It takes a lot of nerve and perhaps a special brand of madness to take on the classics, and it doesn’t get more classic thanthe ancient Greek tragedies . . . especially when the play in question happens to be Sophocles’ magnum opus Oedipus the King. Yet with his latest novel, Ed King, author David Guterson does what many might consider the unthinkable: brings Oedipus into the modern age. . . .” BookPage
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
“Harba
ch’s expansive, allusive first novel combines the pleasures of an old-fashioned baseball story with a stately, self-reflective meditation on talent and the limits of ambition, played out on a field where every hesitation is amplified and every error judged by an exacting, bloodthirsty audience.” The New York Times. On the Times list of “10 Best Books of 2011” (and number one on the Sarah Murphy list)
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
“[A]few pages into this story of a mysterious circus and its two stars, a young man and a woman who are both capable of real magic, and you know you are in the presence of an extraordinary storyteller.”
The Daily Beast
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
“…Murakami’s shining magnum opus, which tells us everything we need to know about the world today.” Library Journal
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett 
It’s not often that a novel leaves me (temporarily) speechless. But Ann Patchett’s new novel isn’t called State of Wonder for nothing, because that’s exactly the state I’ve been in ever since I first opened it.” So begins Maureen Corrigan’s NPR review
This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman
“Riveting. . . . As much as this book fiercely inhabits our shared online reality, it operates most powerfully on a deeper level, posing an enduring question about American values.” New York Times Book Review Ms. Schulman was a visiting author at the Browning Book Fair, and the entire library staff can attest to this book’s captivating story and fast-paced narrative.
Non-Fiction
When the Garden was Eden: Clyde, The Captain, Dollar Bill and the Glory Days of the New York Knicks by Harvey Araton
“Araton is the perfect writer for the job…. [ When the Garden was Eden] a must for basketball fans and a super-must for New York sports nuts.” -Kirkus Reviews
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
“For years, Steve Jobs courted biographer Walter Isaacson to write the definitive story of his life. When Isaacson learned how sick Jobs really was, he accepted. Here he discusses profiling the tech visionary, a task that often involved reconciling Jobs’ recollections with those of his friends, family and colleagues.” More at NPR.org
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable
“Marable, who worked for more than a decade on the book and died earlier this year, offers a more complete and unvarnished portrait of Malcolm X than the one found in his autobiography. The story remains inspiring.” New York Times
On the Times list of “10 Best Books of 2011”
The Big Scrum: How Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football by John J. Miller
“[Miller] is on target with a necessarily selective biography highlighting Roosevelt’s lifelong affinity for sports and physical activity, thereby providing context for understanding why a president would devote valuable time to what was then a minor sport. [An] enjoyable history of a seldom-explored turning point in American sports history.” Booklist
Rin Tin Tin by Susan Orlean
“Deeply moving . . . An unforgettable book about the mutual devotion between one man and one dog.” The Wall Street Journal
Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World by Robin Wright
“[Wright] provides invaluable context for what she rightly terms ‘the epic convulsion across the Islamic world’ by listening to voices we don’t usually hear….Anyone seeking deeper understanding of the Arab Spring needs to read Wright’s formidably well-informed book ….Wright’s richly textured portrait of ancient cultures in the throes of wrenching but liberating transformation makes it quite clear that Muslims themselves will decide their future.” Los Angeles Times