Book Business' The Best We Read 2012

Mike Cooper, National Marketing Specialist

Born to Run, By Christopher McDougall (Vintage, 2009)

A hat tip to Book Business EIC Brian Howard for cluing me into Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run. McDougall skillfully weaves the threads of his own struggles with finding his running form with the story of the mysterious Tarahumara Indians, known for running long-distances bare-footed, as well as his adventures with a group of ultrarunners. Great mix of science, folklore and just good storytelling.
This book kept me running! The timing was perfect for me as I was just beginning the Couch-to-5K program, and was struggling. It helped hone my interest in the sport through the stories of individual accomplishments of various racers. If these folks can run a 100 mile race, surely I can run around the block twice.

Eugene G. Schwartz, blogger, advisory board

Soul Made Flesh: The Discovery of the Brain—and How It Changed the World, By Carl Zimmer (New York: Free Press, 2004)

During the 17th century, the science of medicine was transformed in London from 13 centuries of thought centering the location of “self” in the heart (the Greek Galen), to the meticulous dissection and experimentation that led to the brain (Thomas Willis). Gifted science writer Carl Zimmer brings the period alive during the Cromwellian revolution with a fascinating narrative including in its historic cast of characters William Harvey (circulation), Christopher Wren (illustration), Robert Boyle (gases), Robert Hooke (the cell) and John Locke, the philosopher. They introduced the art of experiment and separated soul from religion as a subject for discourse.

Alex Schwartz, Marketing Manager

Both Flesh and Not: Essays, by David Foster Wallace (Little, Brown and Company, 2012)

The latest posthumously published work from David Foster Wallace gathers 15 essays ranging from the brilliance of Roger Federer's tennis game to the recent rise in “cultural stock” in mathematics. Though Wallace’s writing style can feel at points long-winded and grandiloquent—his word, not mine—his power of observation and ability to make the most (seemingly) mundane subjects come to life is astounding. In the final paragraph of the title essay, “Federer Both Flesh and Not,” Wallace writes, “Genius is not replicable. Inspiration, though, is contagious, and multiform.”