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25 Books to Remember from 1997


	The American Century: Varieties of Culture in Modern Times Cantor, Norman F. \| HarperCollins, © 1997 \| 909.82-C The cultural quilt of the twentieth-century, pieced by distinctly individual scholar. Reserve This Title
	A Book of Memories Nadas, Peter \| Farrar, Straus and Giroux, © 1997 \| FIC-N A nameless writer's sordid tale sets the framework for this Hungarian tour de force. Reserve This Title
	The Church of Dead Girls Dobyns, Stephen \| Metropolitan/Henry Holt, © 1997 \| FIC-D The disappearance of three girls from a small town provokes fear and suspicion. Reserve This Title
	The Collected Poems Of Audre Lorde Lorde, Audre \| Norton, © 1997 \| 811-Lorde The definitive edition of the work of the great poet and activist. Reserve This Title
	The First Moderns: Profiles In The Origins Of Twentieth-Century Thought Everdell, William R. \| University of Chicago, © 1997 \| 190.904-E Modernism's bright morning view from the shaded vantage of the millennium. Reserve This Title
	The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1440-1870 Thomas, Hugh \| Simon & Schuster, © 1997 \| 382.44-T Gripping, comprehensive survey based on original sources and eyewitness accounts. Reserve This Title
	A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments Wallace, David Foster \| Little, Brown, © 1997 \| 814-Wallace Hilarious nonfiction pieces which examine the foibles and follies of contemporary life in the United States. Reserve This Title
	American Catholic: The Saints and Sinners Who Built America's Most Powerful Church Morris, Charles R. \| Times Books, © 1997 \| 282.73-M An insightful history of the American Catholic tradition and its challenges. Reserve This Title
	Andorra Cameron, Peter \| Farrar, Straus and Giroux, © 1997 \| FIC-C A man trying to leave his past behind finds his memories eerily recreated. Reserve This Title
	Black Zodiac Wright, Charles \| Farrar, Straus and Giroux, © 1997 \| 811-Wright Famous saints, poets, and belletrists serve as an inspiration in these ruminative poems. Reserve This Title
	Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World Kurlansky, Mark \| Walker, © 1997 \| 333.9566-K Savory account of the once-thriving North Atlantic codfish industry. Reserve This Title
	Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest To Solve The World's Greatest Mathematical Problem Singh, Simon \| Walker, © 1997 \| 512.74-S An account of the mathematical event of the century: a 360-year-old theorem proved. Reserve This Title
	The God of Small Things Roy, Arundhati \| Random House, © 1997 \| FIC-R Young twins Rahel and Estha learn the rules governing love and innocence in conflict-torn India. Reserve This Title
	Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies Diamond, Jared \| Norton, © 1997 \| 303.4-D Why some societies have prospered while others have not. Reserve This Title
	How The Mind Works Pinker, Steven \| Norton, © 1997 \| 153-P Explains just that, coherently and accessibly. Reserve This Title
	In The Memory of the Forest Powers, Charles T. \| Scribner, © 1997 \| FIC-P An ordinary farmer's murder investigation shatters fifty years of silence in a small Polish town. Reserve This Title
	Memoirs of a Geisha Golden, Arthur \| Knopf, © 1997 \| FIC-G A portrait of a woman which illuminates a lifestyle and culture not well known outside Japan. Reserve This Title
	New and Selected Poems: 1975-1995 Lux, Thomas \| Houghton Mifflin, © 1997 \| 811-Lux Extravagant and evocative images make this a memorable collection of poems. Reserve This Title
	Our Guys: The Glen Ridge Rape and the Secret Life of the Perfect Suburb Lefkowitz, Bernard \| University of California, © 1997 \| 364.1532-L How unquestioning adulation of high school athletes, pervasive in suburban communities, resulted in a heinous crime. Reserve This Title
	Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America Barry, John M. \| Simon & Schuster, © 1997 \| 977.03-B A raging river's chaos and destruction alters the country's landscape. Reserve This Title
	Space Is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra Szwed, John F. \| Pantheon, © 1997 \| B-Sun Ra-S A self-proclaimed representative from Saturn re-invents himself and jazz. Reserve This Title
	Texaco Chamoiseau, Patrick \| Pantheon, © 1997 \| FIC-C Colorful, fictional history of the Caribbean after slavery. Reserve This Title
	Underworld DeLillo, Don \| Scribner, © 1997 \| FIC-D An epic of Cold War-life in America, rendered with the precision of an atomic clock. Reserve This Title
	Utopia Parkway: The Life and Work of Joseph Cornell Solomon, Deborah \| Farrar, Straus and Giroux, © 1997 \| B-Cornell-S Innocently romantic? Sexually repressed? The drama of an artist's life. Reserve This Title
	The Wind -Up Bird Chronicle Murakami, Haruki \| Knopf, © 1997 \| FIC-M A Japanese Everyman loses his cat and his wife, and begins a journey of spiritual discovery. Reserve This Title
Back to the Branch Libraries home page Books to Remember is an annual list of 25 titles chosen for their distinct and lasting contribution to literature and/or knowledge for the general adult reader. Selection criteria include literary excellence, information value and importance, sincerity and honesty of presentation, skill in presentation and importance in historical context. You can obtain a free copy of this list at any branch of The New York Public Libary. Titles on this list can be reserved for you free at your local branch. These books were selected by the following committee from the staff of The New York Public Library: Frank Collerius, John Flood, Alene E. Moroni, Richard Reyes-Gavilan, Michael W. Watkins, Rita Neri, Co-chair, Gwendolyn Taylor-Davis, Co-chair. Selected titles appearing on this booklist may be available in recorded, braille or large print versions. Please contact the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library: 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211; (212) 206-5400, (212) 206-5458 (TTY).