1987: And the Band Played On

Author/Editor: Randy Shilts

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This book is featured on the Library of Congress web site as one of the books that shaped America:

“And the Band Played On is the story of how the AIDS epidemic spread and how the government’s initial indifference to the disease led to a new awareness of the urgency of devoting government resources to fighting the virus. Shilts’s investigation has been compared to other works that led to increased efforts toward public safety, such as Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle.”

The meticulous research and commitment of the author to document the AIDS epidemic is a moving chronicle.  In the acknowledgements, the author writes:

“the people for whom I will always bear special reverence are those who were suffering from AIDS and who gave some of their last hours for interviews, sometimes while they were on their deathbeds laboring for breath.  When I’d ask why they’d take the time for this, most hoped that something they said would save someone else from suffering.  If there is an act that better defines heroism, I have not seen it.”

He goes on to write in the Preface,

“Because of their efforts, the story of politics, people, and the AIDS epidemic is, ultimately, a tale of courage as well as cowardice, compassion as well as bigotry, inspiration as well as venality, and redemptions as well as despair.”

1988: A Brief History of Time: From The Big Bang to Black Holes

Published: New York

Author/Editor: Stephen W. Hawking

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Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, his first popular book, was published in 1988, and went on to sell 10 million copies (and, apocryphally, to be named the most bought and unread book).

A Brief History of Time is brief, vividly explained, and contains just one equation (E=mc², for the curious), but it is still a mind-boggling tour of physics of the late twentieth century. Hawking reviews classical physics, relativity, and quantum theory. Then, he explores the search for a unified field theory that could combine these and resolve puzzling problems. Hawking concluded it was possible such a theory could soon be developed.

We’re still looking. But as Hawking wrote “A complete, consistent, unified theory is only the first step: our goal is a complete understanding of the events around us, and of our own existence.” That is a quest we can find meaning in for years. Partly thanks to the impact of this and other well-written popular science books, hopefully even more of us will find meaning in that quest in the future.

1989: The Remains of the Day

Author: Kazuo Ishiguro

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Stevens is an English butler who highly values his role in society and has undying loyalty to his employer of over thirty years. Told in a retrospective, journal entry type of style, The Remains of the Day explores Stevens’ life as a butler in pre-World War II England and his struggles to adapt to a new social norm after the war. He has sacrificed relationships with his family and repressed his feelings for Miss Kenton, the housekeeper, in order to do his duty by his master and by extension, in his eyes, his country.

Ishiguro seems to almost poke fun at the fabled English country house culture and the class system – he claims that the international view of “[t]he English butler [who] has to be terribly reserved and not have any personal reaction to anything that happens around him” was useful in creating this story for a global audience. We see similar personalities amongst the characters in British television shows such as Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey.

1990: Oh, the Places You’ll Go

Author: Dr. Seuss

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Theodor Seuss Geisel a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, wrote and illustrated 44 children’s books over the span of his career, and may well be the best-known, and best-loved, children’s author of all time.  This title was picked to represent the body of his work as it was his last title published before his death.

Oh, the Places You’ll Go is about the ups and downs we all face along life’s path, but concludes ultimately that we’re all “off to Great Places!” if we’re not afraid to venture out and take part in the journey.  The book has become very popular with college students as they transition into the post-graduation world, and contains a message that resonates with anyone facing life’s inevitable transitions.

1991: The Working Longshoreman

Author: Ronald E. Magden

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This book is by Ron Magden, a Tacoma labor historian, who has focused most of his career on the Longshore history of the Pacific Coast.  The book is a history of the Tacoma waterfront, as well as of the people and events that shaped and formed the Tacoma Longshore Union.  The book encompasses primary source documents, oral histories, and secondary sources, complied over a 40 year career.  Many of these resources now reside at the University of Washington, and make up part of their ‘Waterfront Workers History Project.’  Included here is an online version of this book, many primary source documents, an interview with the author, and a film about the 1934 West Coast Longshore Strike.

1992: The Diversity of Life

Author/Editor: Edward O. Wilson

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Known as the “father of biodiversity,” Wilson has written and spoken extensively on the adverse effects of human activity on the natural world. This book sounds a poignant and powerful alarm over species loss and how we must fight for the preservation for each and every one of them.

1993: The Hidden Life of Dogs

Author: Elizabeth Marshall Thomas

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In this beautiful account, based on thirty years of living with and observing dogs, wolves and dingoes novelist and anthropologist Elizabeth Marshall Thomas brings us a completely new understanding of dogs. Elizabeth Marshall Thomas has observed not only dogs, but also cats and elephants during her career. The Hidden Life of Dogs was on the New York Times bestseller list for over a year. From an article that appeared in Publisher’s Weekly, Thomas shares her thoughts about the relationship she has with her own dogs:

“The books I have written about dogs evoked thousands of letters from readers whose dogs are as essential to them as mine are to me. Some readers described the loss through death of beloved dogs. Perhaps they wanted to share their loss with someone who understands it, because the loss itself has no societal recognition—no formal funeral, no acknowledged mourning—even though, for some of us, the tragedy is as serious as the loss of a person. And this, I think, is due to the intimacy of the relationship.

We display this through our sense of privacy and also of solitude. Imagine yourself about to take a bath. Your dog is with you, but you feel no embarrassment—you take off your bathrobe and get in the tub. If your audience were human, you might not take off the bathrobe, or if you did, you might wonder how you looked. None of this happens with your dog because the dog is somehow part of you. To be with him is like being alone, but better. For the same reason you might say you were alone even if your dog were right beside you. Again, it’s because the dog is part of you, in a way that no person can be.

As far as I’m concerned, I own my dogs as I own my body. My legs are with me when I take a shower and I feel no shame. If I were to lose one, I’d grieve, and people would send sympathy cards, but it would be my condition that evoked the sympathy, not the fate of the leg. That’s like losing a dog.”

Photo of the author courtesy of the New York Times

1994: In the Time of the Butterflies

Author/Editor: Julia Alvarez

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In the Time of the Butterflies was Julia Alvarez’s second novel, and it was one that came very much out of the connection between her personal history and the history of the Dominican Republic. Alvarez was born in New York, but moved as an infant to the Dominican Republic, where her father was active active in a resistance cell against Trujillo. In 1960, her father was found out by the police, and the family fled back to New York, where Alvarez had been born.

Also in 1960, Patria, Minerva, and María Teresa Mirabal, three sisters active in the resistance, were murdered by Trujillo’s forces.  In the Time of the Butterflies tells their story through their surviving sister, Dedé. A year later, Trujillo was assassinated.

Alvarez’s book was published in 1994, and in 1999 November 25^th was designated as International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women by the United Nations.

1995: Reservation Blues

Author/Editor: Sherman Alexie

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We picked Reservation Blues of course for it’s sharp story and prose, but also because it’s Alexie’s first novel and because of Alexie’s ties to the Northwest. Among many other honors, this book won a Murray Morgan Prize—an award given by the Tacoma Public Library  in order to recognize work that is of “high literary quality and wide interest and embodies the principles of narrative excellence and high standards of research …”

Reservation Blues follows some of the chargers who debuted in The Lone Ranger & Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Having happened on to Robert Johnson’s guitar, Thomas Builds-the-Fire forms a band with Victor Joseph and Junior Polatkin. Initially meeting with success, ultimately the band comes apart at the seams and each must return home and find a life path as best they can.

1996: Slam!

Author/Editor: Walter Dean Myers

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Slam! is a classic coming-of-age story about a boy nicknamed “Slam” from Harlem who is great at sports, but not so great at school. When he finds out that he has to get his grades up or else risk not being able to play basketball, he challenges himself to do better, even though it means breaking away from his comfort zone and risking friendships. The book culminates in a basketball game between Slam’s team and his former friend’s team, which can be seen as Slam’s triumph over his past.

This book contains some intense basketball games that are so well depicted that even someone who knows nothing about basketball can follow the action! Winner of several accolades including the Coretta Scott King Award and an ALA Best Book for Young Adults.