A People's History of the United States
by Howard Zinn
A look at American history from the other side, from the perspectives of people who historically have not been the ones who have written history. Recommended by George Lakoff in his Metaphor class, Fall 1998.

Blonde Like Me: The Roots of the Blonde Myth in Our Culture
by Natalia Ilyin
Non-academic look at the cultural significance of blondes in the United States. Ms. Ilyin claims that blondeness isn't tied to race at all, and yet hardly mentions a non-white blonde. An easy read - fluffy and light.

The Glass Bees
by Ernst Jünger
This dystopian precursor to magic realism is quite compelling. The descriptions of objects are altogether vivid. Recommended by Locklin.

The Language War
by Robin Tolmach Lakoff
I took Robin Lakoff's sociolinguistics class in Fall of 1997. She spoke out about the ways of linguists, and how they could do better to get their ideas out in the mainstream. This book is clearly an attempt at just that, it is written for the layperson and deals with political issues in the United States. It is well written and very funny.

Aeschylus One, of the Complete Greek Tragedies - The Oresteia: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides
by Aeschylus
translated by Richmond Lattimore
The only surviving Greek trilogy, these tragedies deal with the house of Atreus after the fall of Troy. The plays are absolutely beautiful, with a triumphant finish of order prevailing over chaos. This translation is superior to the Fagles, as it is less wordy and more lyrical.

The Oresteia
by Aeschylus
translated by Robert Fagles
I read this translation because it was the one being used in Berkeley Repertory Theatre's production of the Oresteia. The introduction, notes, and glossary are helpful.

Black on White: Black Writers on What it Means to be White
edited by David R. Roediger
An excellent collection of essays and excerpts by black writers on what whiteness is and means. Recommended by Roy.

The God of Small Things
by Arundhati Roy
This book was trying a little too hard to be literary, and just isn't that good. It was worthwhile as a look at the state of Kerala, which has both a lot of Marxists and a lot of Christians. Inevitably compared to Rushdie's Midnight's Children, which is far better.

Paper Bullets
by Kip Fulbeck
27 fictional autobiographical stories grouped under 9 flower names, complete with a plethora of pop culture references.

Labyrinths; Selected Stories and other Writings
by Jorge Luis Borges
Stories and essays of great intelligence. Oddly cold and Kafkaesque.

Hiroshima Mon Amour
by Marguerite Duras
The screenplay to the movie.

The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class
by David R. Roediger
How class and race relations interacted to create a white working class.

The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and other Clinical Tales
by Oliver W. Sacks
An amusing, sad, and profoundly human look at neurological disorders.

Language and Woman's Place
by Robin Tolmach Lakoff
The first look at the differences of female and male discourse.

Leviathan
by Paul Auster
An absorbing tale of two writers and a friendship. Recommended by Caroline.

A Soldier's Legacy
by Heinrich Böll
Dense, atmospheric writing on WWII on the German side in France and Russia. Highly personal and tragic.

First Suburban Chinatown
by Timothy P. Fong
A study on the cultural and ethnic shift of Monterey Park, California. Clearly and concisely written, it deals with the dynamics between race and class relations.

The Cherry Orchard
by Anton Chekhov
translated by Julius West
Chekhov's last play, a tradicomedy in 4 acts.

Iphigenia in Aulis
by Euripides
translated by Charles R. Walker

An Anthropologist on Mars
by Oliver W. Sacks
In the same vein as The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat with seven stories about autism, Tourette's, and more. This book has better pictures than the previous book, particularly when dealing with visual artists with neurological conditions.

Locos: A Comedy of Gestures
by Felipe Alfau
Stumbled across this book at Green Apple, anything with the name "The Crazies" instantly attracts me. It is a book of 13 interconnected short stories about the Spanish, written by a Spanish-American born in Barcelona in 1902. Clever and silly at once.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X
I first read this in African American Studies 27AC (Lives of Struggle: Minorities in a Majority Culture) taught by Percy Hintzen, and it was definitely my favourite thing we read, though I took the class in Fall 1995, and the reading list thankfully no longer includes The Joy Luck Club.

Arabic Script: Styles, Variants, and Calligraphic Adaptations
by Gabriel Mandel Khan
A very pleasing introduction to the Arabic alphabet with a strong focus on calligraphy. My main complaint on the book is that it neglects to tell one what the scale of the original calligraphy is.

Tales from Shakespeare
by Charles and Mary Lamb
These are summaries of 20 Shakespeare plays, the comedies were written about by Mary and the tragedies by Charles. The Lambs were both a bit nutty, Charles had a breakdown or two and Mary stabbed her mother to death in a fit of passion. Originally written for children, these synopses leave out parts unfit for the young, but are quite suitable for older readers as well. Very charming.

King Edward III
by William Shakespeare

Thomas of Woodstock
Shakespeare Apocrypha
conclusion by Frederick Carrigg
This was very funny and sad. The jolts between pathos and bathos are startlingly lovely. The play calls for a horse, which really seems to cheer an audience, at least here in the Bay Area. Makes fine use of the word "pestiferous."

King Lear
by William Shakespeare
Probably my favorite Shakespeare play so far, a very fine tragedy. Not nearly as easily read as the histories mentioned here.

Richard II
by William Shakespeare
The most tragic of the Shakespeare histories here, detailing the fall of Richard II to Henry of Bolingbrook.

The Pearl
by John Steinbeck
Steinbeck's short tragic novel is pretty, but a bit condescending to the Mexican Indians. You can see that he condemns their poor treatment, but at the same time he is guilty of portraying these same people in stereotypical ways. I found all the talk of songs in The Pearl rather cloying, but all and all, it is a nice story, and interesting commentary on human nature, greed, and social hierarchy.

Losing the Race
by John H. McWhorter
Professor McWhorter isn't the anti-christ. No, really. He just seems more inflammatory than he is. Not that I agree with him.

Romeo and Juliet
by William Shakespeare
The western ideal of love is really a strange thing when you stop and think about it.

Year of the Smoke Girl
by Olivia J. Boler
Identity politics, with a focus on Hapa issues and bisexuality, and running off to Europe. Good fun.

The Sun Also Rises
by Ernest Hemingway
In rereading this, I realize that I didn't understand it at all when I was 18, and not fully baked. Clean, tight, almost makes me like Hemingway.

Henry IV, part I
by William Shakespeare
I love Falstaff.