Book recommendations from prominent Pittsburghers

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



		What book do you recommend? Readers are welcome to send their own recommendation to postscript@post-gazette.com. Please include your full name and hometown. See what others have submitted.

Reading isn't just for kids.

We asked more than 30 well-known Pittsburghers each to recommend one book worth reading. The result is an eclectic mix of fiction and nonfiction, including beach reading, classics and professional interests.

This week, post-gazette.com will offer audio of each talking about his or her selection, compiled by Post-Gazette staff writers Eleanor Chute, Bill Schackner and Joe Smydo.

Click on the audio link to hear each person's recommendation.

DONNA DURNO
Executive director of the Allegheny Intermediate Unit

Recommended book: "Homestead: The Glory and Tragedy of an American Steel Town" by William Serrin

KAREN WOLK FEINSTEIN
President of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation

Recommended book: "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir" by Bill Bryson

FAROOQ HUSSAINI
Director of interfaith relations, Islamic Center of Pittsburgh

Recommended book: "The Vision of Islam" by Sachiko Murata and William Chittick

JOSEPH JAMES
President judge, Common Pleas Court of Allegheny County

Recommended book: "Up in Honey's Room" by Elmore Leonard

M. GAYLE MOSS
President of the Pittsburgh NAACP

Recommended book: "The Wake of the Wind" by J. California Cooper

CHRISTOPHER RENDALL-JACKSON
Principal dancer, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre

Recommended book: "Bad Land: An American Romance" by Jonathan Raban

MARK ROOSEVELT
Superintendent of the Pittsburgh Public Schools

Recommended book: "Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance" by Atul Gawande

PATRICE KING BROWN
Anchor, KDKA-TV

Recommended book: "72 Hour Hold" by BeBe Moore Campbell

LINDA CLAUTTI
CEO of Northside Urban Pathways Charter School

Recommended book: "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell

LARRY DAVIS
Dean of the School of Social Work, University of Pittsburgh

Recommended book: "Inequality Matters" by James Lardner and David Smith, editors

JAMIE DIXON
University of Pittsburgh men's basketball coach

Recommended book: "Splendid Solution: Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio" by Jeffrey Kluger

ED RENDELL
Governor of Pennsylvania

Recommended book: "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin

CYRIL WECHT
Former Allegheny County medical examiner

Recommended book: "Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens

DEBORAH ACKLIN
Executive vice president and general manager, WQED Multimedia

Recommended book: "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran

KYOKI ROBERTS
Head priest of the Zen Center of Pittsburgh

Recommended book: "Returning to Silence" by Dainin Katagiri

JACK SHEA
President of the Allegheny County Labor Council

Recommended book: "Ireland" by Frank Delaney

EDGAR SNYDER
Attorney

Recommended book: "Lone Survivor" by Marcus Lutrell with Patrick Robinson

BILL STRICKLAND
Founder of the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild and CEO of Manchester Bidwell Corp

Recommended book: "The Women Who Raised Me" by Victoria Rowell

WITOLD 'VIC' WALCZAK
Legal director, ACLU of Pennsylvania

Recommended book: "Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality" by Richard Kluger

ESTHER BARAZZONE
President of Chatham University

Recommended book: "Rules for Old Men Waiting" by Peter Pouncey

JOE GRUSHECKY
Rock musician

Recommended book: "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck

RONALD LENGWIN
Priest and spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh

Recommended book: "A Concise Guide to the Documents of Vatican II" by Edward P. Hahnenberg

BARBARA MISTICK
President and director, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

Recommended book: "On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker" by A'Lelia Bundles

JOANNE ROGERS
Widow of children's television personality Fred Rogers

Recommended book: "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" by Alexander McCall Smith

TIM STEVENS
Chairman and founder the Black Political Empowerment Project

Recommended book: "The Martin Luther King Jr. Companion," selections by Coretta Scott King, Introduction by Dexter Scott King

CYNTHIA BALDWIN
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice

Recommended book: "Becoming Justice Blackmun" by Linda Greenhouse

ALVIN BERKUN
Rabbi emeritus of the Tree of Life Congregation, Squirrell Hill

Recommended book: "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

ANDRES CARDENES
Concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

Recommended book: "The Inner Game of Tennis" by W. Timothy Gallwey

TED PAPPAS
Producing artistic director of the Pittsburgh Public Theater

Recommended book: "Specimen Days: A Novel" by Michael Cunningham

JOYCE ROTHERMEL
Executive director of the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank

Recommended book: "Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate: An Economist's Travelogue" by Michael D. Yates

ESTHER BUSH
President and CEO of the Urban League of Pittsburgh

Recommended book: "The State of Black America 2007" by the National Urban League

LINDA DICKERSON
CEO of the National Aviary

Recommended book: "Last Child in the Woods" by Richard Louv

FREDDIE FU
Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC

Recommended book: "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara