My Virtual Library

Fiction

Москва, Петушки, Ерофеев

The Bridge Across Forever and it's sequel The One, Richard Bach

Люблинский Штукарь, Исаак Башевис Зингер

The Stranger, Albert Camus

Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden

The Unbearable Lightness of Being and The Joke, Milan Kundera

The Evening News, Arthur Hailey

Акунин

Довлатов

My Life In Heavy Metal, Steve Almond

Porterhouse Blue, Tom Sharpe

Парфюмер, Зюскинд

Focault's Pendulum, Umberto Eco

Обыкновенное чудо, Евгений Шварц

The Dangerous Liaisons, Chaderlos de Laclos

The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCullough

Life With a Smile (Жизне-утверждающие книжки)

The Illusions and Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach

Веллер, all the short stories

Вероника Решает Умереть, Пауло Коэльо. Другие книжки тоже понравились.

Many Lives, Many Masters, Brian L. Weiss

Who Stole My Cheese, Spencer Johnson

Guess How Much I Love You, McBratney & Jeram

The Blue Day Book and The Meaning of Life, Greive

Art-History Mysteries Series, Iain Pears

Lifestyles

The Ethical Slut, Easton Liszt

The Spiral Dance, Starhawk

Historical Fiction

An Instance of the Fingerpost, Iain Pears

The Dream of Scipio, Iain Pears

Иудейская Война и все остальные книги, Фейхтвангер

Евангилие от палача и Петля и Камень, Братья Вайнеры

I, Claudius, Robert Graves

Philosophy & Philosophical Fiction

Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell

Пелевин

The True Believer by, Eric Hoffer

Popular Science

The Illustrated Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking

Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food:... , Terry Burnham and Jay Phelan

The Language Instinct, Steven Pinker

The Magic Anatomy Book, Carrol Donner

Israel, Judaism and other religions

Взгляни на дом свой, путник, Илья Штемлер

Повесть/путевые заметки о двух-месячной поездке писателя в Израиль в 1991-ом году. Написано достаточно увлекательно, много интересных и довольно точных наблюдений о жизни (в основном, жизни новых иммигрантов волны 1990-ого года). Довольно много исторических справок и обьяснения традиций, правда некоторое из них не совсем фактически верны (например, Штемлер называет Йом Кипур - Днём поминания усопших и обьясняет положенный пост тем что постящийся должен "понять" состояние усопшего, в то время как на самом деле Йом Кипур - Судный День, когда Бог оценивает поступки человека, и пост даёт возможность думать только о своих поступках; говорит что Бат-Ям находится севернее Тель-Авива, в то время как Бат-Ям как раз южный пригород, где я сама жила). Эти и другие ошибки, к сожалению, несколько мешают цельному восприятию книги.
Через всю книгу прослеживается глубокая любовь к еврейскому народу, гордость и уважение Израилем, и тем не менее привязанность к России, и приятие своих корней там. Эта любовь делает приемлимыми некоторую критику Израиля, и негативные наблюдения не вызывали у меня отрицательной реакции - любящий может и критиковать.

Jewish Literacy, Joseph Telushkin

The best book on all topics Jewish, IMHO. From the biblical times to the modern history of Jews in Israel, US, and Russia; from ethical jewish principles to holidays, and everything in between. This is an encyclopedia with 1 or 2 page articles on all these topics, which I actually read cover to cover, finding it enlightening, even though, or possibly because, I knew most of it already. Still, it felt like seeing a glimpse of the entire completed puzzle of Jewish existance for the first time, whereas before I could only see the individual pieces.
The style is very light and unbiased (at least in my view) towards the Jews in general and any religious group in particular, which is a tough thing to do, especially for an author who is an Orthodox rabbi. He manages it well, and makes the reading more lively by inserting relevant personal stories from his and his grandfather's lives.

A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People, Eli Barnavi

Jews, God, and History, Max I. Dimont

This book provides a very detailed historical account of Jewish history through the ages. The author tries hard to provide the historical context of the nations in which the Jews lived, which makes this book a wirlwind tour of world history (well, mostly European and American), and a bit hard to follow unless the reader already knows most of the history. The major theme is that even though the Jews suffered disproportionately as a nation, they are not just victims, but rather exerted disproportionate influence on the course of history and on other nations. While the content is interesting and comprehensive, the style is rather dry, making it a tough read.

Understanding Islam, Thomas W. Lippman

Know thy enemies? Well, I am not such an extremist, but I was interested to learn a bit about Islam, and this book was the best of the ones I tried. It provides an overview of Islamic faith, from the Koran, to the differences between Shiites and Sunis, to the indoctrination of Islam in the modern muslim countries, explaining how religion shapes history. The book is fairly short and is easy to read even with absolutely no prior knowledge on the subject.

Islam: A Short History, Karen Armstrong

This book is more focused on Islam - the religion and empire, rather than on the modern muslim nations and their profession of faith. I found it biased, the style very dry and hard to follow without prior background.

Finance

The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need, Andrew Tobias

This is the best overview of the financial strategies for regular people. No prior knowledge necessary, and the book manages to cover most financial topics, from savings accounts to commodities trading in just a couple hundred pages, in a light and humourous style. The book has had many updated editions, with the latest including the last tax changes, as well pointers to many online tools and money-saving tips and tricks. This is the book I recommend to all of my friends who start the working careers and suddenly need to decide what to do with their money, how much to invest in the 401(k), Roth IRAs, etc.

The Millionaire Next Door , Stanley & Danko

A fun book for those of us who like statistics and want to learn about the lives of "millionaires". It turns out that it's not that hard to be one (about 3.5% of american households are millionaires, from 0.5% among Native Americans up to 22% among Russian-desent households). Basically, many people with their own businesses, or just with good houses and pension plans, became millionaires by the end of the 90's, and most retained their frugal life-style habits.

Computer Science & Programming

Intoduction to Algorithms, Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest

Future Reading List - At Home

Искуство быть собой, Владимир Леви

Built to Last, James Collins & Jerry Porras

Discipline & Punish, Michael Foucault

The Holocaust In American Life, Novick

Virtual Light, William Gibson

DNA, James Watson

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon

Chaos, James Gleick

The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco

Joseph and His Brothers, Tomas Mann

Future Reading List - To Buy

Лимонов

Kastaneda

Мы, Замятин

Ледокол, Суворов

Over the Wine-Dark Sea, H.N. Turteltaub

Rubyfruit Jungle, Rita Mae Brown

The Rape of Europa,

Harry Potter IV and V, J.K. Rowling