Alex Ruggieri recommends
Get Out of Your Own Way

Get Out of Your Own Way, by Robert Cooper, is one of the best business books I have read in years. He has a deep understanding of how the human mind has come to function over the millennia of time. His premises are not only practical but are also backed by significant research and sources.

If you would like to learn why your mind does what it does and how to reprogram it for success, this book is for you!

Alex Ruggieri CCIM, MBA
Senior Investment Advisor
Sperry Van Ness Ramshaw Real Estate

Ray Elliott recommends
The Lions of Iwo Jima: The Story of Combat Team 28 and the Bloodiest Battle in Marine Corps History

More ink has probably been spilled about the battle for Iwo Jima in World War II than for any other piece of real estate the size (in square miles) of the sulphur island, or for any other battle in the long history of warfare. And rightly so. AP photographer Joe Rosenthal’s iconic photo of the second flag raising did the Marine Corps, the American people, and the war effort a great deal of good when there was a need for good news.

As a young captain with the Fifth Marine Division’s 28th Regiment for all 36 days of the campaign that cost 6,821 American lives, nearly 20,000 wounded, and more than 20,000 Japanese lives, Major General Fred Haynes went up Mt. Suribachi shortly after the first flag was raised. From the top of the mountain, he recalls in Larry Smith’s book Iwo Jima: World War II Veterans Remember the Greatest Battle of the Pacific, “We saw the mess on the beach and what we had ahead of us. You could see the real challenge was going to come once we got past the airfields, where we had one hell of a fight.”

Major General Haynes and his Lions of Iwo Jima co-author, James A. Warren, bring the battle waged by Combat Team 28 and its 4,500 Marines through that “one hell of a fight” to the bloody end with a stirring and memorable account of individual courage, sacrifice, and honor that gives you a feeling of having been there — as close as that’s possible. I recommend this book highly to help understand the price that has been paid for our freedom.

Ray Elliott
Writer and editor
Tales Press

Orville Vernon Burton recommends
Tom Watson, Agrarian Rebel

The book with the most influence on my thinking, both personally and professionally, remains the Bible. I began reading the Bible as a child and continue to learn from it every day. I think you had a different kind of book in mind for the library project, however, so I will go with C. Vann Woodward‘s Tom Watson, Agrarian Rebel. That book changed me! That is when I first began thinking about becoming a historian. Because of Woodward, I began to see how history could further understanding, and how new understanding could change the world, especially in terms of race relations.

Orville Vernon Burton
Burroughs Professor of Southern History and Culture, Coastal Carolina University
Emeritus University Distinguished Teacher/Scholar and Professor of History, African American Studies, and Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Linda Katehi recommends
Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics

Physics, like so many other fields in the sciences, has been traditionally dominated by male scholarship. Lost in the scientific history are many invaluable contributions of women. Lise Meitner was a ground-breaking researcher whose central role in the discovery of nuclear fission has been overlooked in the literature. Ruth Lewin Sime‘s biography of Meitner has inspired me, as a scientist myself, as well as other countless women in the sciences. Meitner‘s story, a historical low-point in the sciences, reminds us all that discovery ultimately knows no gender.

Linda Katehi
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Deb Busey recommends
The Radical Leap: A Personal Lesson in Extreme Leadership

Author Steve Farber‘s parable of the “radical leap“ to “extreme leadership” defines that leap as the consistent delivery of Love — Energy — Audacity — and Proof. The message of this parable rings true, while the story engages and entertains the reader. This is a must-read for anyone who seeks to enhance their own leadership experience and impact on those they lead.

Deb Busey
County Administrator, Finance & Human Resources Management
Champaign County

Stephen E. Rayburn recommends
Great Expectations

Asking an English teacher to pick a favorite or influential book is equivalent to asking a parent which child is the most loved. I am a reader by both vocation and avocation, so choosing one book from the many in my heart is not an easy task. Gatsby? The Scarlet Letter? The Return of the Native? Slaughterhouse Five? Anything by Shakespeare? All those and more jump quickly to mind.

Still, when I look back on the reading journey of my life, one moment actually does stand out for me. When Pip encountered the convict Magwitch in that cemetery on the edge of the marsh in the opening chapter of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, his was not the only life inexorably altered. I, too, fell in love, not only with Estella, but also with a level of literature I had not met before. Certainly the story captured my attention and the characters--Pip, Joe, Estella, Miss Havisham, Herbert Pocket, Jaggers, and all the others--took life in my imagination. Here, though, the language challenged and thrilled me. Before Dickens, I had read good books, but in Great Expectations I met language as Art, and my life has never been the same.

In the years since, I have read most all of Dickens, but Great Expectations still stands at the top of my list. Rereading the book always reinforces for me the reasons I fell in love with it, plus adds the pleasure of seeing the humor I missed as a ninth grader. In the end, that ability to speak to the fifteen-year-old me as clearly as to the fifty-five-year-old me marks Great Expectations as the book that launched me on both my career and my passion.

Stephen E. Rayburn
English Department, University Laboratory High School
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Photo by David Porreca/The Online Gargoyle

Rick Winkel recommends
The Last Lion

One of my favorite books is The Last Lion, which I enjoy coming back to time and again. It is the beautifully written and richly detailed biography of Winston Churchill by William Manchester. I first read The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill-Visions of Glory, 1874-1932 (Volume I) and Alone, 1932-1940 (Volume II) in the early 1990s.

Whenever I read Manchester’s life story of Churchill, it reminds me of the soaring potential of the human mind, while poignantly depicting the occasions of despair that dogged Churchill his whole life. Churchill was a genius who could see the big picture and act boldly and brilliantly, yet when he erred, he erred on a grand scale as well. Thus, while his vision and heroic spirit saw him through, his often-turbulent life brought him fame and loneliness.

I knew that Manchester had planned to publish a third volume, and I eagerly waited for the culmination of this extraordinary trilogy by a great writer on one of the greatest leaders who had ever lived. Alas, Manchester suffered strokes following the death of his wife, and could not finish the third volume. He died a few years later in 2004.

Rick Winkel
Director, Office of Public Leadership
Institute of Government and Public Affairs
University of Illinois

Bobbie Herakovich recommends
The Necklace: Thirteen Women and the Experiment That Transformed Their Lives

I have had many favorite books throughout my life, but there are several which I have found unforgettable and would recommend to others.

The Necklace by Cheryl Jarvis is a totally different and refreshing true story. A woman yearns to buy a very expensive necklace and gets twelve other women involved in the purchase because she can’t afford it herself. As the ownership of the necklace becomes a revolving and evolving process, with the thirteen owners, it is a story of each person's reaction to it--their feelings and their abilities to multiply the gift of wearing it, if only for a few minutes. It is a story of hope and joy and what a small group of people can do to support each other -- how they can accomplish much more together than alone. I enjoyed the story because it is such a positive example of what can be done when people join together.

Bobbie Herakovich
Executive Director, Champaign Park District

Gail Rost recommends
Moyers on Democracy

Working in the non-profit world for an organization that supports one of the foundations of democracy, public education, I found Moyers on Democracy by journalist Bill Moyers particularly relevant, jarring, and motivating. No matter what side of the political fence you may be on, this is an important read. Liberal-minded Moyers has collected 28 of his speeches from 1986 to the present to demonstrate the direction he feels America has been heading for years and why we as a nation face a crisis today. He does not present solutions, but contextual explanations as he reaches back to the times of Lincoln, Wilson, FDR and Humphrey in his speeches to describe current issues in war, the media, religion, education and politics. This is powerful stuff. As ordinary citizens, we need to recognize that we are the only ones who can make changes and that the power is within us. We need to work hard to bring America to an era of social responsibility, to address the inequalities in public education, healthcare, information dissemination and earn the respect of nations around the globe — in essence, we need to take care of ourselves and our planet.

Gail Rost
Director, Champaign Urbana Schools Foundation

Frances Jacobson Harris recommends
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

When I finished The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, I found it so compelling I went right back to the beginning and started reading it again. Alexie tells the semi-autobiographical story of Junior (aka Arnold) Spirit, a budding cartoonist who leaves the Spokane Indian reservation to attend an all-white high school 20 miles away. Junior is possessed of a braininess and a variety of quirky medical problems that together conspire to make him unloved by members of his own community as well as the white kids at his new school.

Alexie's writing makes you laugh and cry at the same time. Junior is only 14, but has already attended 42 funerals. He struggles with issues of identity, loss, and poverty. These sober circumstances are counterbalanced by Junior‘s sense of humor, resiliency, and triumphs. The text is accompanied by Junior‘s cartoons, perfectly executed by illustrator Ellen Forney.

Frances Jacobson Harris
Librarian, University Laboratory High School Library

Robert Warrior recommends
Miko Kings

I would guess that most readers in CU don‘t know that one of the best and most innovative American Indian writers lives right here in our community. LeAnne Howe, an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation and associate professor of American Indian Studies and English at the U of I, is the author most recently of a terrific novel, Miko Kings, that combines baseball, American Indian history, and reflections on the nature of history and memory. Miko Kings tells the harrowing, touching, and spellbinding story of a Choctaw woman whose world travels bring her back to her family home in Oklahoma. There she finds a pouch of news clippings, a diary, and other materials about the Miko Kings, an all-American Indian baseball team from the turn of the twentieth century. It's a skillful blending of contemporary life and historical writing that provides a stunning glimpse into the modern world of American Indian people.

It might sound complicated, but it‘s highly readable and relies on great twists and turns to keep readers riveted. Read it!

Robert Warrior
Director, American Indian Studies and Native American House
University of Illinois

Dan Hartleb recommends
A Nation of Wimps

Hara Estroff Marano puts into writing many thoughts that I have had during my coaching career. Many of the opinions and examples stated in this book are situations we live with on a daily basis in the coaching profession and the recruiting world. This parenting book is a must-read for anyone in a leadership role whether they are leading our youth or adults in the working world.

Dan Hartleb
Head Baseball Coach
University of Illinois Baseball

Mark Rubel recommends
This Is Your Brain on Music

Dan Levitin is a record producer who (as one does) became a neuro-physiologist. As such he has a deep and multi-faceted understanding of why music means so much to people. His investigations into the psychological, physiological, social and personal aspects of music, provide great insight into this powerful vehicle of understanding and communication. It is interesting to find what is being discovered, and conversely how little we really know about many of the mechanisms of creation, perception, learning and emotion. By shining the light of science on the art of music, Professor Levitin illustrates the creativity that is shared by these disciplines. In a fascinating and captivating manner, he shows how more information and illumination only deepens the mystery and marvel of music, very possibly our species’ most noble pursuit.

Mark Rubel
Musician, recording engineer/producer and owner, Pogo Studio
Professor and recording director, Eastern Illinois University
Instructor, Parkland College

Larry Kanfer recommends
Third Wave

Regularly I like to reflect back on this book to remind me of where we are in the history of the world. Alvin Toffler gives us a background from pre-historic times through the industrial world and he was one of the earlier writers to identify the characteristics of today’s information age where change is accelerating.

From this book (and Toffler’s other books) I see embracing education and looking at things outside of our microscale world as very important. Technology has and will so fundamentally change everything. Today, learning how to synthesize information is even more important than having the information itself. This book takes you on a journey reminding you how to step back, and examine the essence of your being, rather than the manifestations of your being.

Larry Kanfer
Photographic Artist
Larry Kanfer Gallery
Photograph courtesy of Community Concierge Magazine, (c) Community Concierge Magazine.

Laura Huth recommends
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is the story of the author’s family living off the land for one year — eating locally and coming to know the land and its systems better. As someone very interested in local food systems, organic agriculture, and healthy eating, I found this book to be a dynamic, fascinating, and often humorous combination of memoir, fact, opinion, commentary, and even great recipes.

Departing Arizona for the old family homestead in southern Appalachia, Kingsolver and her brood take readers on a fascinating journey of the seasons. Chapter by chapter, we are taken through a year on the land, from sourcing local food supplies, to the beauty and intricacies of planting and harvesting, to their youngest’s animal husbandry “business,” to doing without.

Humorous accounts of throwing parties using only local foods and tales of brooding turkeys are intermixed with serious discussions of food policy; they in turn blend seamlessly with the imagery throughout the book, leaving your mouth watering and hungering for more.

Rising above simply preaching and finger pointing about the problem of unhealthy foods grown in an unsustainable manner, Kingsolver, her husband, and two daughters join together to try it themselves and write for readers the story of their journey as they experience it. Kingsolver’s oldest daughter, Camille, plays a strong supporting role in the book, writing significant portions using her perspective as a 19-year-old. Her writing is as strong as her mother’s and her recipes would make the likes of Julia Child or Irma Rombauer proud. It was a fabulous book: educational, political, and entertaining all at once.

Laura Huth
President & CEO | Trainer & Consultant
do good Consulting

Rocky Maffit recommends
Chronicles Volume 1

Leave it to Bob Dylan to write a book that is non-linear, elliptical, and essential. One of the greatest lyricists of all time has given us a lyrical memoir. His prose is unforced and plain spoken — more “Forever Young” than “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” These are scenes of a life’s journey presented out of time. And what a life! Is it all true? Not sure. But it is real.

I read this book when it was first published in a hardcover edition. My next experience with it was listening to Sean Penn read it on my iPod. My third was hearing random chapters as my iPod “shuffled” through my song playlist — a case of current technology in harmony with the non-sequential intentions of the writer. I think Bob would like that.

I eagerly await Volume 2.

Rocky Maffit
Musician and Author
rockymaffit.com

Kimiko Gunji recommends
Tuesdays with Morrie

Tuedays with Morrie by Mitch Albom highlights two ideals I try to live by and would like to share with you: one is to live life positively and humanely, the other is to be as good a teacher as you can be. Every semester I hope I can inspire my students even one tenth of what Morrie did for Mitch. We can certainly live our lives complaining constantly, or we can live positively and happily. The choice is ours. This book describes how Morrie, who is at the end of his life and has ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), lives with dignity, courage, humor, and composure. His questions to all of us are the fundamental questions of a happy and meaningful life... “Have you found someone to share your heart with? Are you giving to your community? Are you at peace with yourself? Are you trying to be as human as you can be?” These are the questions I ask myself from time to time. I find my answers are not always “YES,” but I am constantly striving for “YES” to be my answer. Tuesdays with Morrie is a truly moving and inspirational book I recommend for any age group.

Kimiko Gunji
Director of Japan House
Associate Professor of Art & Design
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Phil Bloomer recommends
The Golden Age

The Golden Age by Kenneth Grahame is one of the overlooked masterpieces of all time and has sat on the bookshelf by my bed most of my adult life. After sifting through policy papers and listening to the benumbing drone of bureaucrats and politicians much of each day, it is always refreshing to read Grahame. In The Golden Age, he writes from a child’s perspective with elegant clarity and wit to describe the folly of the adult world and the unquestionable superiority of children — the “illuminati.”

Phil Bloomer
Press Secretary
Hon. Rep. Timothy V. Johnson

Anna Maria Watkin recommends
Omnivore’s Dilemma

Choosing one favorite book is an almost impossible task as there are always so many that pop to mind when asked this question. There is one however that made a lasting impression on me and brought about an awareness so sharp that the way I shop for and think about food will never be quite the same again.

With eye-opening insight and observation, Michael Pollan asks “What shall we have for dinner?” and follows three food chains as they wind their way to our tables. His sharp and well researched observations brought home the importance of eating locally produced food, supporting local food suppliers, the physical and economical benefits of eating in season, and the resulting effects on our environment, economy, and spirit, when we choose not to. This is a fascinating book that broadened my knowledge of food production in America and changed my approach to how I shop for the food that goes on my plate.

Anna Maria Watkin
Director
Parkland College Library

Jim Dey recommends
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey

These days when American presidents leave office, they can look forward to a life of wealth and prestige, hardly ever breaking a sweat and secure in a cocoon guaranteeing their personal safety. But circumstances were different in 1914 when former President Theodore Roosevelt, looking for a physical challenge after running unsuccessfully for president on the Progressive Party ticket two years earlier, decided to tour South America and explore an uncharted river running through the Amazon jungle in Brazil. The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard tells the story of Roosevelt’s adventure, how it almost cost him his life and certainly shortened it. It is a tale of amazing hardship and relentless determination, mostly because Roosevelt and his son, Kermit, and a team of professional explorers made up of American and Brazilians bit off more than they could chew. Rather than pursue a more mundane and safer exploration, Roosevelt opted to lead his crew down the uncharted “River of Doubt.” It turned out to be roughly 1,000 miles in length and its discovery is reported to have changed the map of the Western hemisphere. But it was hardly a matter of hopping in a canoe and floating down the river. There were cruel rapids that forced the men to get out of the water and carry their gear and provisions over long and rough terrain. Indians lived in the Amazon jungle, and TR’s crew survived only because they chose to stay out of sight rather than kill and rob the strangers in their midst. It was an agonizing journey. One man drowned on the trip. Another was murdered. Roosevelt and his men were near starvation. So sick and injured was Roosevelt that he contemplated suicide so as not to slow down and thereby jeopardize the lives of his fellow travelers. But Kermit Roosevelt wouldn’t hear of it, so TR soldiered on in the belief that only by living himself could he save his son’s life. TR lived a long and rich life, so much so that he’s a biographer’s delight. But this surely was his most harrowing adventure, proof both of his indomitable character and his unquenchable appetite for adventure in the outdoors.

Jim Dey
Columnist and Editorial Writer
The News-Gazette

Paula Kaufman recommends
Scholarship in the Digital Age: Information, Infrastructure, and the Internet

I live in the world of scholarship and research, a world that information technology is making increasingly complex. Today, scholars, students, librarians, and others are at a crossroad as we confront the next generation of information technology that is reconfiguring how we do our work. But, in her important new book, Christine Borgman helps us focus on many of the most important and pressing issues we face. She describes the roles that information technology plays in the research process, contrasting them with the system of scholarly communication based on publishing in traditional forms such as books and journals and identifying the interplay between technical and social issues. Her rich and insightful analysis speaks to everyone who is concerned about the interaction of legal, economic, social, and political concerns, which ultimately will be more important in shaping the future than technical ones.

Paula Kaufman
University Librarian and Dean of Libraries
University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Jan Kiley recommends
Crocodile on the Sandbank

My recommendation is not a book, but a series of books, the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters. Start with Crocodile on the Sandbank and wander through recent history--beginning, as the stories do, in the late 1880s up to post-World War I. Elizabeth Peters, her pseudonym, is an Illinoisan by birth and holds a PhD in Egyptology from the University of Chicago. The books are historically accurate and contain humor, mystery, and an array of emotions recorded in appropriate and natural ways. Peters spins a good tale and transports readers (or listeners) to a faraway place in both distant and current times. Plan to be snookered by this storyteller and grateful for the 15-plus books in the series.

Jan Kiley
President
Research Survey Service, Inc.

Tom Ramage recommends
The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology

I have read both of Ray Kurzweil‘s books — The Age of the Spiritual Machine and this one. I am fascinated by the science behind predictions resulting from accelerating progress in the exploration of computer science/artificial intelligence, genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics.

The “singularity” (a reference to the theoretical limitlessness of expansion) is an event that is expected to occur because of accelerating trends in terms of miniaturization and computational power. Eventually, smallness and speed reach a point of development with implications that are astounding. Whether you buy into the theory or not, it is an interesting glimpse into a potential future that may not be too far away.

Tom Ramage
President
Parkland College

Wade Hampton recommends
The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive

The book I would recommend is The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive written by Patrick Lencioni. I found it to be quite applicable to my role as the CEO of the YMCA. The book focuses on four clear disciplines needed to run an organization at peak performance. The writer wraps the story around the competition of two CEOs and what drives one to success and the other to envy.

Wade Hampton
Resource Director, YMCA of the USA National Office
Former CEO, Champaign County YMCA