Strategems and Spoils, by F.G. Bailey (1969)

From The List of Books:

Descriptions of the devious and clever ploys that men get up to in different societies in order to get the (differently defined) spoils. Also: Gifts and Poisons

Rec's by Avis C. Vidal: Your Natural Gifts

From The Harvard Guide to Influential Books:

Avis Vidal is an associate professor of city and regional planning at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and specializes in urban economic development, housing and urban policy. Her current research focuses on the effectiveness of public–private partnerships formed to promote urban development by supporting the activities of community-based organizations.

• J. D. Salinger. Franny and Zooey: Two Novellas (1961). New York: Bantam, 1969. (Pb) Buddy's letter to Zooey is the best and most enduring reminder I have had of the importance of discovering the things that really matter to you, and then doing them with zest because that's the way they deserve to be done.

• Chaim Potok. My Name Is Asher Lev (1972). New York: Fawcett, 1978. (Pb) A powerful exploration of the clarity of purpose that a natural gift or calling makes possible, and of the anguish that comes with being forced to choose between two highly valued claims on one's identity.

• Anthony Lewis. Gideon's Trumpet. New York: Random House, 1964. (Pb)

• Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong. The Brethren (1979). New York: Avon, 1980. (Pb)

Two very different accounts of the wonder and power of the law and the people who make it work—when it works.

• Charlotte Brontë. Jane Eyre (1847). New York: Putnam, 1982. My former husband and I read this book aloud. When we finished I asked him whether he liked it. "It's good . . . okay. . . but it gets a little tiresome because it's all from her point of view."

• Chaim Potok. The Book of Lights. New York: Fawcett, 1981. (Pb) A book that illustrates the potential power of religious and cultural tradition in helping one come to terms with the inescapable presence of death and evil.

• Willa Cather. My Antonia (1918). Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1926. (Pb) The only thing I ever read that helped me understand why people like the Midwest.

An American Dilemma, by Gunnar Myrdal et al. (1944)

An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy
by Gunnar Myrdal, with Richard Sterner and Arnold Rose.
(1944). 2 vols. New York: Harper & Row, 1969. (Pb)

Review from Patricia Albjerg Graham in The Harvard Guide to Influential Books:

I discovered Gunnar Myrdal's An American Dilemma some years after it was originally published. I read it while a graduate student in history of American education at Columbia University. As a resident of Manhattan's Upper West Side I was living for the first time in a racially mixed environment. I found two elements of Myrdal's book fascinating: the analysis of what he called "the Negro Problem" and the response of "modern democracy" to it, and the introduction of a new generation of black scholars and the legitimization of their research on black issues.

Review from Harold Howe II in The Harvard Guide to Influential Books:

For understanding the issue of race in the American experience, there is no book to equal this. It has influenced a generation of scholars and the Supreme Court of the United States, and through them it helped create the civil-rights movement of the twentieth century. Myrdal recognizes the moral aspects of the problem and weaves them together with the analysis of a social scientist to create a magnificent insight. Much of my time and effort have been spent on racial issues in education, both schools and colleges, and this book is the bedrock I return to on the subject. Myrdal's basic view is still relevant. "The American Negro problem is a problem in the heart of the American. It is there that the interracial tension has its focus. It is there that the decisive struggle goes on."

An American Dilemma was also #22 on the Modern Library's 100 Best Nonfiction list, and #50 on National Review's Non-Fiction 100 list.

Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error, by E. le Roy Ladurie (1975)

Review from The List of Books:

Pyrenean village, 1294-1324, caught between Albigensian heretics and the Inquisition, brilliantly reconstructed from contemporary documents. Ordinary community is laid bare as authentically as in a novel. Also: Carnival, etc.

(Montaillou was also one of CounterPunch's Favorite 100 Nonfiction Books in Translation Published in English Since 1900)

A Time of Gifts, by Patrick Leigh Fermor (1977)

Review from The List of Books:

18-year-old rebel in 1933 sets out to walk from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople—a modern Grand Tour crucial to his development, as unpredictable and as fascinating as any young sprig's of the 18th century. Also: Roumeli (travels in northern Greece); The Traveller's Tree (journey through the Caribbean islands), etc

Review basics

This blog is intended to collect the best book recommendations I've found from several sources. The sources I'll use include:

• The List of Books
  
• Best Books
• The Harvard Guide to Influential Books
• Ideas that Shaped the World
• Great Books Lists

I will usually include the original review. If none is available, I'll try to provide my own.

I haven't read most of these books...I'm posting them as an incentive to myself to get busy, as well as a benefit to anyone who's interested (I hope).