| Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas by Tom Robbins. When the stock market crashes on the Thursday before Easter, a young but ambitious, although ineffectual and not entirely ethical young broker is convinced that he is facing the Weekend from Hell. Before the market reopens on Monday, he is going to have to scramble and scheme to cover his butt, but there's no way to anticipate the baffling disappearance of a 300-pound psychic, the fall from grace of a born-again monkey, or the intrusion in of a tattooed stranger intent on blowing your mind and most of your fuses. Over these fateful three days, he will confront everything from mysterious African rituals to legendary amphibians, from tarot-card bombshells to street violence, from his own sexuality to outer space. This is, after all, is a Tom Robbins novel--and the author has never been in finer form. | |
| Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Dark allegory describes the narrator's journey up the Congo River and his meeting with, and fascination by, Mr. Kurtz, a mysterious personage who dominates the unruly inhabitants of the region. Masterly blend of adventure, character development, psychological penetration. Considered by many Conrad's finest, most enigmatic story. Conrad helps the reader to understand that we all hide darkness in our own hearts. | |
| Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi. The true story of LAPD incompetence is more like it. This page turner reads like a Stephen King novel. Prosecuting attorney in the Manson trial, Vincent Bugliosi held a unique insider's position in one of the most baffling and horrifying cases of the twentieth century: the cold-blooded Tate-LaBianca murders carried out by Charles Manson and four of his followers. What motivated Manson in his seemingly mindless selection of victims, and what was his hold over the young women who obeyed his orders? Here is the gripping story of this famous and haunting crime. Miss the movie if you can. | |
| The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams . Douglas Adams was a contributing writer for the Hitchhiker's Guide to Europe. Not a well paying job. One night while sleeping in a Paris Park he got an idea the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It was first produced as a radio show. It truly is a very witty science fiction book. In it you will learn the secret of the universe. Read all six books in this series. | |
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely traveling any farther than his pantry or cellar. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an adventure. They have launched a plot to raid the treasure hoard guarded by Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon. Bilbo reluctantly joins their quest, unaware that on his journey to the Lonely Mountain he will encounter both a magic ring and a frightening creature known as Gollum. My friends at Uninversity of Pittsburgh were all excited about Tolkien in the middle 70s. Trying to figure out what they were excited about, I began reading The Hobbit. I gave up about page 45, tiring of endless hobbit parties, description of hairy hobbit toes, etc. I made two more attempts and failed. Then I saw the cartoon version and loved it. Then I finally read the whole book. I becomes an action paced story around page 67. | |
| The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. The true story of a highly infectious, deadly virus from the central African rain forest suddenly appears in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. There is no cure. In a few days 90 percent of its victims are dead. A secret military SWAT team of soldiers and scientists is mobilized to stop the outbreak of this exotic "hot" virus. The Hot Zone tells this dramatic story, giving a hair-raising account of the appearance of rare and lethal viruses and their "crashes" into the human race. Shocking, frightening, and impossible to ignore, The Hot Zone proves that truth really is scarier than fiction. Made into a less believable movie: Outbreak | |
| The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. In one of the most important and beloved Latin American works of the twentieth century, Isabel Allende weaves a luminous tapestry of three generations of the Trueba family, revealing both triumphs and tragedies. Here is patriarch Esteban, whose wild desires and political machinations are tempered only by his love for his ethereal wife, Clara, a woman touched by an otherworldly hand. Their daughter, Blanca, whose forbidden love for a man Esteban has deemed unworthy infuriates her father, yet will produce his greatest joy: his granddaughter Alba, a beautiful, ambitious girl who will lead the family and their country into a revolutionary future. The House of the Spirits is an enthralling saga that spans decades and lives, twining the personal and the political into an epic novel of love, magic, and fate. | |
| Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Huckleberry "Huck" Finn is the son of the town's vagrant drunkard, "Pap" Finn. Sleeping on doorsteps when the weather is fair, in empty hogsheads during storms, and living off of what he receives from others, Huck lives the life of a destitute vagabond. The author metaphorically names him "the juvenile pariah of the village" and describes Huck as "idle, and lawless, and vulgar, and bad," qualities for which he was admired by all the children in the village, although their mothers "cordially hated and dreaded" him. Huck is an archetypal innocent, able to discover the "right" thing to do despite the prevailing theology and prejudiced mentality of the South of that era. The best example of this is his decision to help Jim escape slavery, even though he believes he will go to hell for it. I read this when I could first read and love it still. In high school I wrote a paper about the book comparing it to Tom Sawyer. The teacher disagreed with my analysis. I then produced a book from the library showing that Mark Twain agreed with me. My teacher said the Mark was mistaken about the meaning. My opinion of my English teacher went downhill from there. |
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