National University of Singapore Library

Vacation Reading 2000

 

For your vacation reading, we compile here a non-fiction list on topics ranging from anecdotes & humor to man & woman, from cultural memory to photography and from comic books to sports. All titles listed are located at the Central Library Main Shelves unless otherwise indicated.

 


 

Anecdotes & Humour

The best of Annals of improbable research / Marc Abrahams, ed., 1998.

Q172 Bes  (SC Main Shelves)

 

The best of dental humor : a collection of articles, essays, poetry, and cartoons published in the dental literature / Stephen T. Sonis, comp. & ed., 1997.

RK51.5 Bes  (MD Gen Reading)

 

Beyond the courthouse : tales of lawyers and lawyering / Peter Langrock; introduction by Robert F. Drinan, 1999.

KB222 Lan  (LW Main Shelves)

 

Eat the rich / P. J. O'Rourke, 1998.

PN6231 Eco.O  (HL Gen Reading)

 

Egg and ego : an almost true story of life in the biology lab / J.M.W. Slack, 1998.

PN6231 Sla  (SC Main Shelves)

 

The man who mistook his wife for a hat and other clinical tales / Oliver Sacks, 1998.

RC351 Sak (MD Gen Reading)

 

Serious about jokes? You can ruminate on :

 

Jokes: philosophical thoughts on joking matters  / Ted Cohen, 1999.

PN6147 Coh

 

 

Art

Art, creativity, and the sacred : an anthology in religion and art / Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, ed. New rev. ed., 1995.

N72 Rel.A

 

Art museums into the 21st century / Gerhard Mack, 1999.

NA6695 Mac

 

Indonesian art : treasures of the National Museum, Jakarta / photography by Tara Sosrowardoyo, 1998.

N7326 Ind

 

Islamic art and architecture / Robert Hillenbrand, 1999.

NA380 Hil

 

Quantifying artistic success : ranking French painters - and paintings - from impressionism to cubism / David W. Galenson, 1999.

HB1 Wpsn 7407

Full-text accessible by staff and students on LINC via your desktop.

 

Sikh art and literature / Kerry Brown, ed., 1999.

N8199 Sik.S

 

 

 

Asia

Asian values Western dreams : understanding the new Asia / Greg Sheridan, 1999.

DS518.1 She  (CL & HL Main Shelves)

 

Comparative political economy of East and South Asia : a critique of development policy and management / R. C. Mascarenhas, 1999.

HC460.5 Mas

 

Culture and privilege in capitalist Asia / Michael Pinches, ed., 1999.

HB501 Cul (CLRBR & HL Main shelves)

 

Law, capitalism and power in Asia : the rule of law and legal institutions / Kanishka Jayasuriya, ed., 1999.

KNC514 Law  (CL & LW Main shelves)

 

Public policies in East Asian development : facing new challenges / F. Gerard Adams and William E. James, eds., 1999

HC460.5 Pub

 

Southeast Asian-centred economies or economics? / Mason C. Hoadley, ed., 1999.

HC441 Sot

 

 

Bioethics

The fiction of bioethics : cases as literary texts / Tod Chambers, 1999.

R725 Cha

 

Taking sides : clashing views on controversial bioethical issues / Carol Levine, ed., 8th ed., 1999.

QH332 Tak

 

 

Books and Reading

100 banned books : censorship histories of world literature / Nicholas J. Karolides, Margaret Bald and Dawn B. Sova, 1999.

Z658 Uni.Ka

 

 

Ex libris : confessions of a common reader / Anne Fadiman, 1998.

PN4874 Fad

Ann Fadiman, daughter of Clifton Fadiman who wrote The new lifetime reading plan (Z1035 Fad), is also the author of The spirit catches you and you fall down : a Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures, a book on transcultural medical care (RA418.5 Traf.F).

 

For the love of books : 115 celebrated writers on the books they love most / Ronald B. Shwartz, ed., 1999.

Z1039 Aut.Fo

 

 

Business ethics

A better way to think about business : how personal integrity leads to corporate success / Robert C. Solomon, 1999.

HF5387 Sol (HL Main Shelves)

 

Impact of religion on business ethics in Europe and the Muslim world : Islamic versus Christian tradition / Wienen, Ingmar, 2nd ed., 1999.

HF5387 Wie (HL Main shelves)

 

International business ethics : challenges and approaches / Georges Enderle, ed., 1999.

HF5387 Int  (HL Main Shelves)

Includes the work of 39 contributors, half of whom are from non-Western countries.

 

 

Cartoons & Comic Books

The Bench and Bar : great legal caricatures from Vanity Fair by spy / Morris L. Cohen, ed., 1997.

KB222 War

Contains 100 caricatures of English lawyers and judges, drawn between 1873 and 1909 by Leslie Ward for Vanity Fair.

 

Comic strips and consumer culture 1890-1945 / Ian Gordon, 1998.

PN6725 Gor  (CL RBR)

 

Medicine is the best laughter : a second dose / edited and compiled by Gideon Bosker, 2nd ed., 1998.

NC1426 Bos  (MD Gen Reading)

 

The portable Lat / Lat, 1998.

NC1720.1 Lat 

(CL Main Shelves CL Sing/Mal Coll)

 

Pulp demons : international dimensions of the postwar anti-comics campaign / John A. Lent, ed., 1999.

PN6710 Pul

 

Themes and issues in Asian cartooning : cute, cheap, mad, and sexy /John A. Lent, ed., 1999.

NC1680 The  (CL RBR)

 

The world encyclopedia of cartoons / Maurice Horn, ed., 2nd ed., 7 vols., 1999.

NC1325 Wor (CL Reference 1) 

 

 

Correspondences

Letters between a father and son / V.S. Naipaul, 1999.

PR9900 Wes.N

A heart-warming collection. The works of Naipaul's father Seepersad and brother Shiva are also available in the Central Library.

 

Winston and Clementine : the personal letters of the Churchills / edited by their daughter Mary Soames, 1999.

DA566.9 Chu

The letters provide rare and revealing insights into both the great political and social events of a turbulent century and the intimate world of an extraordinary partnership of 57 years.

 

 

Cultural memory

Acts of memory : cultural recall in the present / Mieke Bal, Jonathan Crewe, and Leo Spitzer, eds., 1999.

HM101 Act

 

Bridge across broken time : Chinese and Jewish cultural memory / Vera Schwarcz, 1998.

DS113 Sch

 

 

Cultural Property

The ethics of collecting cultural property : whose culture? whose property? / Phyllis Mauch Messenger, 2nd ed., 1999.

CC135 Eth

 

For those who are interested :

Lord Elgin and the marbles / William St. Clair, 1998.

NB92 Sai

 

 

Cyberspace

Communities in cyberspace / Marc Smith and Peter Kollock, eds., 1999.

HQ1178 Com

 

Cyberpower : the culture and politics of cyberspace and the Internet / Tim Jordan, 1999.

ZA4375 Jor

 

Cyborgs@cyberspace? : an ethnographer looks at the future / David Hakken, 1999.

QA76.9 Com.Hk

 

 

Dragon

Chinese dragon robes / Valery M. Garrett., 1998.

GT1555 Gar

 

The dragon in Chinese art [interactive multimedia] : a collection of 126 transformed shapes of the dragon from the National Palace Museum, 1998.

N7340 Dra CCM155 (CL Media Resource)

N7340 Dra CCMA155 guidebook 

 

The Library also has :

Dragons in Persian, Mughal, and Turkish art ./ Norah M. Titley. 1981.

ND2955 Tit

Dragons : a natural history / Karl Shuker, 1995.

GR830 Dra.S

 

 

Europe

Europe : a cultural history / Peter Rietbergen,  1998.

D20 Rie

 

Politics and society in Western Europe / Jan-Erik Lane and Svante Ersson, 4th ed., 1999.

JN94 Lan

 

 

Film

Asian pop cinema : Bombay to Tokyo / Lee Server, 1999.

PN1993.5 *Asi.S

 

Feminist film theory : a reader / Sue Thornham, ed., 1999.

PN1995.9 Wom.Fe

 

Politics and politicians in American film / Phillip L. Gianos, 1998.

PN1995.9 Pol.Gi

 

The warrior's camera : the cinema of Akira Kurosawa / Stephen Prince. Rev. ed., 1999.

PN1998.3 Kur.P

 

What is non-fiction cinema? : on the very idea of motion picture communication / Trevor Ponech, 1999.

PN1995.9 Doc.Po

On documentary films.

 

 

Forest fires

Indonesia's fires and haze : the cost of catastrophe / David Glover and Timothy Jessup, eds., 1999.

SD421.34 Indon.In

(CL & LW Main Shelves; CL Sing/Mal Coll)

Assesses the damages on Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore caused by the fires and haze of 1997.

Genius

Genius and the mind : studies of creativity and temperament / Andrew Steptoe, ed., 1998.

BF412 Gen

 

Glenn Gould : the ecstasy and tragedy of genius / Peter Ostwald, 1997.

ML417 Gou.Os

Gould was one of the most renowned pianists and classical musicians of the 20th century as well as an apologist for the electronic media.

"Was Gould's genius sponsored by his eccentricity or vice versa? Do men and women of genius sacrifice themselves in the service of a higher ideal while remaining personally unfulfilled?" These are some of the aspects examined by the author, Gould's personal friend, a musician and a professor of psychiatry noted for his psychobiographies on performing artists, including Vaslav Nijinsky: a leap into madness, (GV1785 Nij.O).

 

Manic depression and creativity / D. Jablow Hershman and Julian Lieb, 1998.

BF423 Her (CL & MD Main shelves)

Covers Newton, Beethoven, Dickens, Van Gogh.

 

 

Gifted Persons

Gifted grownups : the mixed blessings of extraordinary potential / Marylou Kelly Streznewski, 1999.

BF412 Str

A 10-year study of 100 gifted adults.

 

Talent in context : historical and social perspectives on giftedness / Reva C. Friedman, Karen B. Rogers, eds. 1998.

BF412 Tal

 

 

History - the Nanjing Massacre

Gute Deutsche von Nanking. English. The good man of Nanking : the diaries of John Rabe / Erwin Wickert, ed.; translated from the German by John E. Woods, 1998.

DS796 Nan.R

John Rabe, a German businessman who saved many lives in the infamous siege of Nanking in 1937 is now honored as the Oskar Schindler of China. The discovery of the Rabe diaries is mentioned in Iris Chang's The rape of Nanking - the forgotten holocaust of World War II (DS796 Nan.C 
CL & SC Main Shelves)

 

The rape of Nanking : an undeniable history in photographs / James Yin, Shi Young ; foreword by Desmond M. Tutu ; preface by Ying-shih Yu; Ron Dorfman and Shi Young. eds., 2nd ed., 1997.

DS796 Nan.Yi

 

 

Humour 

See Anecdotes & Humour

 

 

Life

A 6th bowl of chicken soup for the soul : 101 more stories to open the heart and rekindle the spirit / Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, comps., 1999.

BL624 Six

 

The road less traveled and beyond : spiritual growth in an age of anxiety / M. Scott Peck, 1997.

BL624 Pec

 

Worldwide laws of life / John Marks Templeton, ed., 1997.

BL624 Wor

 

 

Man & Woman

Behold the man : the hype and selling of male beauty in media and culture / Edisol Wayne Dotson, 1999.

HQ1090 Dot

 

The decline of males / Lionel Tiger,  1999.

HQ1090 Tig

 

Einstein's wife : work and marriage in the lives of five great twentieth-century women / Andrea Gabor, 1995.

HQ759 Gab

 

Male, female : the evolution of human sex differences / David C. Geary, 1998.

QP81.5 Gea

 

Managing like a man : women and men in corporate management / Judy Wajcman, 1998.

HD6054.3 Waj (HL Main Shelves) 

 

Significant others : creativity & intimate partnership / Whitney Chadwick and Isabelle de Courtivron, eds., 1993

NX90 Sig

Creativity is traditionally described as an extraordinary individual's lone struggle for self-expression. Thirteen leading critics and historians challenge and redefine conventional assumptions in a series of essays that focus on artist and writer couples who have shared both sexual and artistic bonds, combining biography with evaluation of each partner's work in the context of their relationship.

 

Stiffed : the betrayal of the modern man / Susan Faludi, 1999.

HQ1090.3 Fal

Faludi is the author of Blacklash : the undeclared war against American women (HQ1426 Fal).

 

Till death do us part : a multicultural anthology on marriage / Sandra Lee Browning, R. Robin Miller, eds., 1999.

HQ728 Til

 

Why men don't listen & women can't read maps : how we're different and what to do about it / Barbara and Allan Pease, 1999.

BF692.2 Pea

 

 

Mountaineering

Life and death on Mt. Everest : Sherpas and Himalayan mountaineering / Sherry B. Ortner, 1999.

GV199.44 Eve.O

 

Mountain to climb : the quest for Everest and beyond / David Lim, 1999.

DS599.51 Ldy (CL Sing/Mal Coll;
CL Main Shelves; MD Gen Reading)

David Lim, the captain of Singapore's successful Mount Everest expedition in 1998 who was down with the Guillain-Barre Syndrome (a rare disease) soon after returning home, had just returned in February 2000 from scaling Argentina's Mount Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Americas at 7000m.

 

 

Music

See also Genius for title on Glenn Gould.

 

Diva : the new generation : the sopranos and mezzos of the decade discuss their roles / Helena Matheopoulos, 1998.

ML400 Mat

 

Interested also in the tenors, baritones and basses? Read the author's earlier work on Divo (ML400 Mat).

 

For your viewing and listening pleasure, the Central Library's media resources include Carreras, Domingo, Pavarotti in concert (CLD46) as well as A portrait of Cecilia Bartoli, the mezzo-soprano (CLD84).

 

New World symphonies : how American culture changed European music / Jack Sullivan, 1999.

ML240 Sul

 

Punk rock : so what? / Roger Sabin, ed., 1999.

ML3534 Pun

 

 

People

The dynasty : a political biography of the premier ruling family of modern India / S.S. Gill, 1996.

DS481 Neh.Gi

 

Einstein : visionary scientist /John B. Severance,  1999.

QC16 Ein.Se (SC Main Shelves) 

 

Hitler : diagnosis of a destructive prophet. Fritz Redlich, 1999.

DD247 Hit.Re

 

The life and times of Alan Dower Blumlein / Russell Burns, 2000.

TK140 Blu.Bu

 

Lindbergh / A. Scott Berg, 1998.

TL540 Lin.B

 

Mao : a life / Philip Short, 2000.

DS778 Mao.Sh

 

Nureyev, his life / Diane Solway, 1998.

GV1785 Nur.So 

A full-scale biography of the legendary Russian ballet dancer who died of AIDS in 1993.

 

Out of place : a memoir / Edward W. Said, 1999.

E184 Pan.S

A Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York, Edward Said is well-known as a literary and cultural critic whose works include Orientalism, 1978 (DS12 Sai), The question of Palestine, 1980 (DS119.7 Sai) and Culture and imperialism, 1993 (PN761 Sai  CLRBR). Orientalism has been translated into 15 languages.

Said was born in Jerusalem in 1935. In an interview with him, Canadian writer and broadcaster Eleanor Wachtel introduced Said with these words: “When I try to describe Edward Said, I find myself stringing together a number of incompatible qualifications. He is a Christian, a Palestinian Arab, and an academic who has lived in the United States for the past 40 years. He was an outspoken member of the Palestinian National Council, and yet he mistrusts nationalism …”

Out of place is a compelling read, regardless of whether you have sampled any of Said’s works. “Edward Said interviewed by Eleanor Wachtel” can be found in Queen's Quarterly, vol.100 no.3, Fall 1993, p.665-674 (CL Bnd Periodicals AP5 QQ)

 

The private lives of Albert Einstein / Roger Highfield, Paul Carter, 1993.

QC16 Ein.Hi

 

Years of renewal / Henry Kissinger, 1999.

E855 Kis

 

 

Photography

Colonial photography and exhibitions : representations of the 'native' and the making of European identities / Anne Maxwell, 1999.

TR681 Ind.M

 

The earth from the air / [photographs by] Yann Arthus-Bertrand, 1999.

TR810 Art

 

Camera Indica : the social life of Indian photographs / Christopher Pinney, 1997.

GN635 Ind.Pi

 

Copyright and photographs : an international survey / Ysolde Gendreau, Axel Nordemann, Rainer Oesch, eds., 1999.

KG1472 Cop (LW Main Shelves)

 

 

Plants

Chinese plant symbolisms : a guide to the symbolic value of plants in Chinese culture / Ong Hean-Tatt, 1999.

GT5150 Ong

 

The orchid thief : A true story of beauty and obsession / Susan Orlean, 1998.

SB63 Lar.O  (SC Main Shelves)

 

Plants, people, and culture : the science of ethnobotany / Michael J. Balick, Paul Alan Cox, 1996.

GN476.73 Bal  (SC Main Shelves)

Two of the world's leading ethnobotanists argue that the very roots of human culture are deeply intertwined with plants. The authors, who have both spent decades in the tropics, argue that rain forest conservation can best be accomplished by learning from, rather than opposing indigenous peoples and their concerns.

 

The tulip / Anna Pavord, 1999.

QK495 Lil.P  (SC Main Shelves)

The story of a flower that has made men mad.

 

 

Race

The contemporary Asian American experience : beyond the model minority / Timothy P. Fong, 1998.

E184.06 Fon

 

Race, identity, and citizenship : a reader / Rodolfo D.Torres, Louis F. Mirn, Jonathan Xavier Inda, eds., 1999.

HT1521 Rae

 

Race, science and medicine, 1700-1960 / Bernard Harris and Waltraud Ernst, eds., 1999.

R133 Rac

 

White identities : historical and international perspectives / Alastair Bonnett, 2000.

HT1575 Bon

 

 

Science & Technology

Artificial worlds : computers, complexity, and the riddle of life / Richard Morris, 1999.

QA76 Mor (SC Main Shelves)

 

Cultural boundaries of science : credibility on the line / Thomas F. Gieryn, 1999.

Q175.5 Gie  (CL & SC Main Shelves)

 

The elegant universe : superstrings, hidden dimensions, and the quest for the ultimate theory / Brian Greene, 1999.

QC794.6 Str.Gr

Selected as one of the Best Books of 1999 by Library Journal.

 

The foundations of dialogue in science and religion / McGrath, Alister E., 1998.

BL240.2 Mcg

 

The gendered cyborg : a reader / Gill Kirkup,  et al., eds., 2000.

HQ1190 Gen

 

Information ecologies : using technology with heart / Bonnie A. Nardi and Vicki L. O'Day, 1999.

T14.5 Nar

 

Servants of nature : a history of scientific institutions, enterprises, and sensibilities / Lewis Pyenson and Susan Sheets-Pyenson, 1999.

Q124.6 Pye  (SC Main shelves)

Explores the interaction between scientific practice and public life from antiquity to the present.

 

Technology and society : a bridge to the 21st century / Linda S. Hjorth, et al., eds. 2000.

T14.5 Teh  (SC Main shelves)

 

Valuing technology : organisations, culture, and change / Janice McLaughlin,
et al., 1999.

HM221 Val (CL & HL Main Shelves)

 

 

 

Sports

SportCult / Randy Martin, Toby Miller, eds., 1999.

GV706.5 Spt

 

Sport, culture, and the media : the unruly trinity / David Rowe, 1999.

GV742 Row

 

Understanding sport : an introduction to the sociological and cultural analysis of sport / John Horne, Alan Tomlinson, and Garry Whannel, 1999.

GV706.5 Hor

 

 

Virtual Reality

Digital sensations : space, identity, and embodiment in virtual reality / Ken Hillis, 1999.

QA76.9 Int.Dg (SC Main Shelves)

 

Virtual geographies : bodies, space & relations / Mike Crang, Phil Crang and Jon May, eds., 1999.

ZA4375 Vir

 

 

 

 

Back to NUS Library Bibliographies

 

 

 

Compiled by Lee-Wang Cheng Yeng

Ag. Deputy Librarian (Users' Services)

 

LWCY/dn/vacation reading

March 2000