The Fall 2003 University Press Book Sense 76 Top Ten

September 11, 2003

Here are independent booksellers' picks for the top ten university press titles for the fall. Pads are included in the September White Box mailing, and a downloadable PDF file of the University Press Top Ten is available by clicking here.

For past Book Sense 76 lists, go to http://www.bookweb.org/read/1474.

Many thanks to all the independent booksellers who shared their enthusiastic nominations for this top ten list.

Deadlines for the remaining 76 lists for this year are:

• September 26 - November/December Book Sense 76
  
• October 3 - Winter Children's Book Sense 76
  
• November 21 - January/February '04 Book Sense 76
  

Book Sense 76 Editor-in-Chief Dan Cullen encourages all stores to contribute nominations for these three upcoming lists. Go to http://www.bookweb.org/read/6305 for a convenient online nomination form. For more information on the Book Sense 76 go to http://www.bookweb.org/booksense/seventysix/.

1. SONGS OF LIFE AND GRACE, by Linda Scott DeRosier (Univ. Pr. of Kentucky, $26, 0813122767) "Linda Scott DeRosier, who chronicled her Appalachian childhood in the acclaimed memoir Creeker, turns her attention to her parents, taking us deep into their 58-year marriage. DeRosier shows us the joys, hardships, love of the land, and love of each other that surrounded this American rural family. By reading her story, we are able to remember our own." --Arlene Morse, Hawley-Cooke Booksellers, Louisville, KY

2. GODS OF NOONDAY: A White Girl's African Life, by Elaine Neil Orr (Univ. Pr. of Virginia, $27.95, 0813922097) "A beautiful book about the place that place plays in our lives. I savored every word as Orr talked in a very personal and yet universal way about her childhood in Nigeria. A book that will always have a place on my bookshelf and a place in my mind as I remember her vivid descriptions." --Boo Smythe, The Fountain Bookstore, Richmond, VA

3. REPORTING THE UNIVERSE, by E.L. Doctorow (Harvard Univ. Pr., $22.95, 0674004612) "In his intelligent, exhilarating, and thought-provoking new work, Doctorow takes up the lofty challenge once set by Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote, 'In [the writer's] eyes a man is the faculty of reporting, and the universe is the possibility of being reported.' Doctorow offers perspective on topics as diverse, and yet ultimately interrelated, as human consciousness, personal history, American literature, religion, and politics. This is a kind of owner's manual for the 21st century thinking human." --Bob Gray, Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, VT

4. A CARNAGE IN THE LOVETREES: Poems, by Richard Greenfield (Univ. of California Pr., $16.95, 0520238095) "How do you come to terms with yourself and with the world? That a first book of poetry can articulate so much, with such feeling and skillful formal intelligence, is nothing short of astonishing. An amazing debut, fully formed. Don't miss it." --John Evans, DIESEL, A Bookstore, Oakland, CA

5. BARD OF ICELAND: Jónas Hallgrímsson, Poet and Scientist, by Dick Ringler (Univ. of Wisconsin Pr., $45, 0299177203) "Most of us have never heard of Jónas Hallgrímsson, an Icelandic poet and eminent geologist who also contributed to the fields of zoology, geography, archaeology, and botany, in addition to participating in the Icelandic independence movement. Talk about a Renaissance man! His poetry and naturalist prose has been elegantly translated by Ringler. This is a book that no one who relishes world literature should be without." --Stephanie Good, Canterbury Booksellers, Madison, WI

6. BRING ME YOUR SADDEST ARIZONA, by Ryan Harty (Univ. of Iowa Pr., $15.95, 0877458693) "Characters seem to appear fully developed within the first two paragraphs of each story. After that, the reader is carried along on a wave of good writing, treated to sparkling dialogue, and deposited lightly in the sand at the end of a well-told tale." --Bob Summer, Changing Hands Bookstore, Tempe, AZ

7. BOLD SPIRIT: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America, by Linda Lawrence Hunt (Univ. of Idaho Pr., $16.96, 0893012629) "This book is a fine addition to the scholarly literature on the life of ordinary Americans at the turn of the 19th century." --Robert Greene, Bookpeople of Moscow, Moscow, ID

8. LONG TIME, NO SEE, by Beth Finke (Univ. of Illinois Pr., $24.95, 0252028279) "After you read Long Time No See, you'll wish Finke was your best friend. Her story is one of juvenile diabetes that left her blind as a young adult and of her struggles with a severely disabled son. Sometimes heartbreaking, often candidly funny, this unsentimental look at marriage, medicine, and mothering is told with grace and style." --Jenny Fischer, The Bookstore, Glen Ellyn, IL

9. ENTERTAINING AMERICA: Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting, by J. Hoberman and Jeffrey Shandler (Princeton Univ. Pr., $35, 0691113025) "This is my favorite inexpensive coffee-table book of the year. Based on a show at the Jewish Museum in New York City, the authors compile a huge array of photos and memorabilia interspersed with finely written stories about the likes of Louis B. Mayer and Gertrude Berg. The argument that American show business was largely an invention of Jews has never been more persuasively rendered." --Paul Ingram, Prairie Lights Books, Iowa City, IA

10. NATURE LOVES TO HIDE: Quantum Physics and Reality, a Western Perspective, by Shimon Malin (Oxford Univ. Pr., $16.95, 0195161092) "Malin, a physics professor at Colgate University, provides not only one of the most clear and concise overviews of quantum physics, but also one of the most creatively inspired comparisons with classical Western philosophy. Greek philosophy, Neoplatonism, and the metaphysics of British philosopher Alfred North Whitehead (an early proponent of quantum physics) provide the backdrop to this fascinating study." --Patrick Blair, Hawley-Cooke Booksellers, Louisville, KY

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