Short List

Long List

Anderson, Chris. The Long Tail. This book combines business, economics, arts and entertainment, information science and mathematics. A great book for KCC Reads in that it brings together many of the subjects students are thinking about and studying in school and in their lives within a larger theoretical framework. Accessible to college freshmen. Nominated by Jay Bernstein.

Aslan, Reza. No God But God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam. "Really shows the deep relationship between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and explains the phenomenon of fundamentalism and talks about the ongoing reformation happening within the Islamic world that attempts to reconcile Islam and democracy." Nominated by Dean Reza Fakhari.

Barber, Benjamin. Consumed. "Totalistic nature of global consumerism and the conditioning of needs and wants. Economics, politics, international relations, sociology." Nominated by Dean Reza Fakhari.

Barghouti, Mourid. I Saw Ramallah. "This is my clear first choice. It is one of the most beautiful memoirs I have ever read, and is the kind of book that you want to just hand to people so that you can discuss it with them later. Barghouti is a poet who was born in Ramallah in 1944. He was studying in Cairo in 1967 when the Six-Day-War occurred and afterwards he was banned from returning home. He was not able to make the journey back until 1966, after the Oslo Accords; this book is the record of his return home after thirty years, but also about his life as a multiple exile. . . . Barghouti has the voice of a poet and is a natural storyteller." Nominated by Toni Alessandrini.

Diaz, Junot. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. "This novel was just published. . . . I think the topic of the book, which moves back and forth between the Dominican Republic and the New York/ New Jersey area, would allow for a whole series of very timely. . . . .discussions at KCC, including discussions about immigration, bilingualism, and transnational identities. The writer is himself a teacher (currently at MIT) and has traditionally been very available to come and speak to groups of students. . . . " Nominated by Toni Alessandrini.

Gonzales, Laurence. Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why. ". . . about taking chances, extreme conditions and how people survive or die. But in the long run, it is a really excellent book on life in general -- especially in this world where people are so successfully controlled by fear in every aspect of their lives." Nominated by Janice Farley.

Kidder, Tracy. Mountains Beyond Mountains. "The book examines the work of Paul Farmer in the context of international humanitarian projects. Also, Farmer's most personal project is in Haiti and we have many Haitian students at Kingsborough." Nominated by Enid Stubin.

Klein, Naomi. The Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster Capitalism. "The outsourcing of government functions in the conduct of the war in Iraq and beyond." Nominated by Dean Reza Fakhari.

Kozol, Jonathan. The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America. "It features his (Kozol's) usual mixture of authoritative expertise on the way educational institutions work combined with his remarkable sensitivity to the lives of children. . . . Much of the book centers on the New York City school district, but he travels throughout the country and recounts his conversations with students, teachers, and administrators, as well as his own remarkable observations and analyses. This book would make for a year's worth of very interesting and important discussions, I think. It would be especially interesting to give this book to entering freshmen who have by and large come through the NYC public schools to see how they react to Kozol's analyses and suggestions. " Nominated by Toni Alessandrini.

Maathai, Wangari. Unbowed. Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2004. "She narrates the story of her childhood growing up poor in rural Kenya, her education in Kenya and America, and her work as an environmentalist, women's rights, human rights and democracy activist. She was jailed, threatened, harassed, blacklisted form her university and excoriated as a divorced outspoken woman. She organized rural women, empowering them through economic independence. Her Greenbelt Movement involved women in planting millions of trees and reforesting Kenya." Nominated by Betsy McCully.

Reich, Robert. Supercapitalism. "Deals with globalization, global capitalism, and the undermining of democracy. A critical book for any informed citizen." Nominated by Dean Reza Fakhari.

Robison, John Elder. Look Me in the Eye. This is a memoir by a person who suffers a paradoxical condition that impairs social perception. Students will enjoy the book because it also concerns the author's involvement in the pop music business working with the legendary group Kiss, a group beloved by college students and a mainstay of classic rock radio. The book is both funny and sad and relates to the disciplines of psychology and of education. Nominated by Jay Bernstein.

Saks, Elyn R. The Center Cannot Hold. This is a memoir about a woman who successfully lived with schizophrenia and had a brilliant career as an Aristotle scholar , teacher (UCLA and USC), and as a psychoanalyst. Nominated by Eleanor Cory.

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. "Memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. Nominated by Ashiza Shah.

Schank, Roger. Coloring Outside of the Lines: Raising a Smarter Kid by Breaking all the Rules. Nominated by Janice Farley.

Shawn, Alan. I Wish I Could Be There. "A memoir about a composer who teachers at Bennington and suffers from severe phobias and how he conquered them." Nominated by Eleanor Cory.

Sofer, Dalia. The Septembers of Shiraz. "It recounts the arrest of the father and escape of a Jewish family from Iran after the revolution. It is the first novel by a young author and very readable by our students." Nominated by Barbara Walters.

Williams, Terry Tempest. Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place. Nominated by Betsy McCully.