The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho: Paulo Coelho‘s enchanting novel has inspired a devoted following
around the world, and this tenth anniversary edition, with a new introduction from the author, will only
increase that following. This story, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and inspiring wisdom, is about an
Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian
desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man
who calls himself king, and an alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the direction of his quest. No one
knows what the treasure is, or if Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles along the way. But
what starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treasures found within.
Lush, evocative, and deeply humane, the story of Santiago is an eternal testament to the transforming
power of our dreams and the importance of listening to our hearts.
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood: In this astonishing tour de force, Margaret Atwood takes the reader
back in time and into the life and mind of one of the most enigmatic and notorious women of the
nineteenth century. In 1843, at the age of sixteen, servant girl Grace Marks was convicted for her part in
the vicious murders of her employer and his mistress. Some believe Grace is innocent; others think her
evil or insane. Grace herself claims to have no memory of the murders. As Dr. Simon Jordan – an expert
in the burgeoning field of mental illness – tries to unlock her memory, what will he find? Was Grace a
femme fatale – or a weak and unwilling victim of circumstances? Taut and compelling, penetrating and
wise, Alias Grace is a beautifully crafted work of the imagination that vividly evokes time and place. The
novel and its characters will continue to haunt the reader long after the final page.
Alice in Wonderland By Lewis Carol- In 1862 Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a shy Oxford mathematician
with a stammer, created a story about a little girl tumbling down a rabbit hole. Thus began the immortal
adventures of Alice, perhaps the most popular heroine in English literature. Countless scholars have
tried to define the charm of the Alice books–with those wonderfully eccentric characters the Queen of
Hearts, Tweedledum, and Tweedledee, the Cheshire Cat, Mock Turtle, the Mad Hatter et al.–by
proclaiming that they really comprise a satire on language, a political allegory, a parody of Victorian
children’s literature, even a reflection of contemporary ecclesiastical history. Perhaps, as Dodgson might
have said, Alice is no more than a dream, a fairy tale about the trials and tribulations of growing up–or
down, or all turned round–as seen through the expert eyes of a child.
Angela’s Ashes By Frank McCourt: Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish
immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank''s mother, Angela, has no money to feed
the children since Frank''s father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet
Malachy -- exasperating, irresponsible and beguiling -- does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one
thing he can provide: a story. Frank lives for his father''s tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and of
the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies.
Animal Farm By George Orwell- Mr Jones of Manor Farm is so lazy and drunken that one day he forgets
to feed his livestock. The ensuing rebellion under the leadership of the pigs Napoleon and Wellington
leads to the animals taking over the farm. Vowing to eliminate the terrible inequities of the farmyard,
the renamed Animal Farm is organized to benefit all who walk on four legs. But as time passes, the
ideals of the rebellion are corrupted, then forgotten. And something new and unexpected emerges..
An American Tragedy By Theodore Dreiser: Clyde Griffiths finds his social-climbing aspirations and love
for a rich and beautiful debutante threatened when his lower-class pregnant girlfriend gives him an
ultimatum.
The God of Small Things By Arundhati Roy: The God of Small Things heralds a voice so powerful and
original that it burns itself into the reader's memory. Set mainly in Kerala, India, in 1969, it is the story of
Rahel and her twin brother Estha, who learn that their whole world can change in a single day, that love
and life can be lost in a moment. Armed only with the invincible innocence of children, they seek to craft
a childhood for themselves amid the wreckage that constitutes their family
Anthem by Ayn Rand: North America is often criticized for being too individualistic and non-egalitarian.
But what happens when a nation becomes hypercommunal and its people lose all sense of what it
means to be an individual? Ayn Rand's Anthem tells a frightening story about Equality 7-2521 -- a person
who has somehow escaped being brainwashed by the collective and suddenly realizes that he wants his
freedom. But is he willing to pay the price with his life?
Any Known Blood by Lawrence Hill: Spanning five generations, sweeping across a century and a half of
almost unknown history, this acclaimed and unexpectedly funny novel is the story of a man seeking
himself in the mirror of his family's past. There were Canes in Canada before the United States erupted
into civil war. Their roots are deep, their legacy is rich, but Langston Cane V knows little of his heritage.
He is thirty-eight, divorced, and childless and has just been fired for sabotaging a government official's
speech. The eldest son of a white mother and prominent black father, Langston feels more acutely than
ever the burden of his illustrious family name and his racially mixed heritage. To be black in a white
society is hard enough; to be half-black, half-white is to have no identity at all. Or so Langston believes.
After a run-in with his father, Langston takes off for his feisty aunt's house in Baltimore, where he
embarks on a remarkable quest for his family's past. . . .
Ape House By Sara Gruen: This is the story of a family of bonobo apes that is violently torn from their
laboratory by animal liberation activists and placed on a TV reality show. Like Gruen''s phenomenal
bestseller Water for Elephants, this novel explores humans'' relationships with animals and shows that
animals have much to teach people about what it means to be human.
Atlas Shrugged By Ayn Rand: The astounding story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of
the world - and did.
Atonement by Ian McEwan: Adult/High School-Set during the seemingly idyllic summer of 1935 at the
country estate of the Tallis family, the first section of this thought-provoking novel ambles through one
scorchingly hot day that changes the lives of almost everyone present. The catalyst is overly imaginative
13-year-old Briony, who accuses Robbie, her sister's childhood friend and their housemaid's son, of
raping her cousin Lola. The young man is sent to prison and Cecilia, heartbroken, abandons her family
and becomes a nursing sister in London. In the second part, McEwan vividly describes another single
day, this time Robbie's experiences during the ignominious British retreat to Dunkirk early in World War
II. Finally, readers meet Briony again, now a nursing student. She is aware that she might have been
wrong that day five years earlier and begins to seek atonement, having clearly ruined two lives. . . .
Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison: Set in the rural South, this tale centers around the
Boatwright family, a proud and close knit clan known for their drinking, fighting, and womanizing.
Nicknamed Bone by her Uncle Earle, Ruth Anne is the bastard child of Anney Boatwright, who has
fought tirelessly to legitimize herchild. When she marries Glen, a man from a good family, it appears
that her prayers have been answered. However, Anney suffers a miscarriage and Glen begins drifting. He
develops a contentious relationship with Bone and then begins taking sexual liberties with her.
Embarrassed and unwilling to report these unwanted advances, Bone bottles them up and acts out her
confusion and shame. Unaware of her husband's abusive behavior, Anney stands by her man.
Eventually, a violent encounter wrests Bone away from her stepfather. In this first novel, Allison creates
a rich sense of family and portrays the psychology of a sexually abused child with sensitivity and insight.
The Bell Jar By Sylvia Plath: The story of a gifted young woman's mental breakdown beginning during a
summer internship as a junior editor at a magazine in New York City in the early 1950s.
Beloved by Toni Morrison: Set in post-Civil War Ohio, it is the story of Sethe, an escaped slave who has
risked her life in order to wrench herself from a living death; who has lost a husband and buried a child;
who has borne the unthinkable and not gone mad. Sethe, who now lives in a small house on the edge of
town with her daughter, Denver, her mother-in-law, Baby Suggs, and a disturbing, mesmerizing
apparition who calls herself Beloved. Sethe works at "beating back the past," but it makes itself heard
and felt incessantly: in her memory; in Denver‘s fear of the world outside the house; in the sadness that
consumes Baby Suggs; in the arrival of Paul D, a fellow former slave; and, most powerfully, in Beloved,
whose childhood belongs to the hideous logic of slavery and who has now come from the "place over
there" to claim retribution for what she lost and for what was taken from her. Sethe‘s struggle to keep
Beloved from gaining possession of her present--and to throw off the long-dark legacy of her past--is at
the center of this spellbinding novel. But it also moves beyond its particulars, combining imagination and
the vision of legend with the unassailable truths of history.
Black and Blue By Anna Quindlen- "The first time my husband hit me I was nineteen years old," begins
Fran Benedetto, the broken heroine of Anna Quindlen's Black and Blue. With one sweeping sentence,
the door to an abused and tortured world is swung wide open and the psyche of a crushed and tattered
self-image exposed. "Frannie, Frannie, Fran"--as Bobby Benedetto liked to call her before smashing her
into kitchen appliances--was a young, energetic nursing student when she met her husband-to-be at a
local Brooklyn bar. She was instantly captivated by his dark, brooding looks and magnetic personality,
but her fascination soon solidified into a marital prison sentence of incessant abuse and the destruction
of her own identity. After an especially horrific beating and rape, Fran realizes that the next attack could
be the last. Fearing her son would be left alone with Bobby, she escapes one morning with her child.
Fran's salvation comes in the form of Patty Bancroft and Co., a relocation agency for abused women that
touts better service than the witness protection program. Armed only with a phone number, a few
hundred dollars, and the help of several anonymous volunteers, Fran begins a new life. The agency
relocates her to Florida, where she becomes Beth Crenshaw, a recently divorced home-care assistant
from Delaware. Fran and her son adapt, meeting challenges with unexpected resilience and resolve until
their past returns to haunt them.
The Birth House by Amy McKay: The Birth House is the story of Dora Rare, the first daughter to be born
in five generations of Rares. As a child in an isolated village in Nova Scotia, she is drawn to Miss
Babineau, an outspoken Acadian midwife with a gift for healing. Dora becomes Miss B.‘s apprentice, and
together they help the women of Scots Bay through infertility, difficult labours, breech births, unwanted
pregnancies and even unfulfilling sex lives. Filled with details as compelling as they are surprising . . .
Blindness By Jose Sara Mago: A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" which spares no one.
Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds
everyone captive, stealing food rations and raping women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare
who guides seven strangers-among them a boy with no mother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tearsthrough the barren streets, and the procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundings are harrowing
The Bishop’s Man By Linden Macintyre: The year is 1993 and Father Duncan MacAskill stands at a small
Cape Breton fishing harbour a few miles from where he grew up. Enjoying the timeless sight of a father
and son piloting a boat, Duncan takes a moment's rest from his worries. But he does not yet know that
his already strained faith is about to be tested by his interactions with a troubled boy, 18-year-old Danny
MacKay. Known to fellow priests as the "Exorcist" because of his special role as clean-up man for the
Bishop of Antigonish, Duncan has a talent for coolly reassigning deviant priests while ensuring minimal
fuss from victims and their families. It has been a lonely vocation, but Duncan is generally satisfied that
his work is a necessary defense of the church. All this changes when lawyers and a policeman snoop too
close for the bishop's comfort. Duncan is assigned a parish in the remote Cape Breton community of
Creignish and told to wait it out
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood: ―Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car
off a bridge.‖ Thus begins The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood‘s internationally acclaimed, Booker
Prize-winning novel. Laura Chase‘s older sister Iris, married at eighteen to a politically prominent
industrialist but now poor and eighty-two, is living in Port Ticonderoga, a town dominated by her onceprosperous family before the First World War. While coping with her now unreliable body, Iris reflects
on her far from exemplary life, leading up to the events surrounding her sister‘s tragic death. Chief
among these was the publication of The Blind Assassin, a novel that earned the dead Laura Chase not
only notoriety, but also a devoted cult following. . . .
The Bluest Eyes by Toni Morrison: It is the story of eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove -- a black girl in an
America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others -- who prays for her eyes
to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be
different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning, and the tragedy of its
fulfillment.
The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan: The Bonesetter’s Daughter dramatically chronicles the
tortured, devoted relationship between LuLing Young and her daughter Ruth. . . . A strong novel, filled
with idiosyncratic, sympathetic characters, haunting images, historical complexity, significant
contemporary themes, and suspenseful mystery.
The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton: The Book of Ruth follows the story of Ruth, her poverty-stricken
family and the overbearing matriarch, May. It's a bittersweet narration of a story that encounters reallife issues of estrangement and disorder. Jane Hamilton offers a magnificent portrayal of the human
ability for benevolence, pity, and love. Winner of the 1989 PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award, The
Book of Ruth, is a stunning novel of immeasurable compassion.
The Book of Negros- By Lawrence Hill: Abducted as an 11-year-old child from her village in West Africa
and forced to walk for months to the sea in a coffle, a string of slaves. Aminata Diallo is sent to live as a
slave in South Carolina. But years later, she forges her way to freedom, serving the British in the
Revolutionary War and registering her name in the historic, Book of Negroes. This book, an actual
document, provides a short but immensely revealing record of freed Loyalist slaves who requested
permission to leave the US for resettlement in Nova Scotia, only to find that the haven they sought was
steeped in an oppression all of its own. Aminata’s eventual return to Sierra Leone’s passing ships
carrying thousands of slaves bound for America is an engrossing account of an obscure but important
chapter in history that saw 1,200 former slaves embark on a harrowing back-to-Africa odyssey.
Brave New World By Aldous Huxley- Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal
society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs, all its
members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone in feeling discontent. Harbouring an
unnatural desire for solitude, and a perverse distaste for the pleasure of compulsory promiscuity,
Bernard has an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations,
where the old, imperfect life still continues
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao By Junot Diaz: The titular Oscar is a 300-pound-plus "lovesick
ghetto nerd" with zero game (except for Dungeons & Dragons) who cranks out pages of fantasy fiction
with the hopes of becoming a Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien. The book is also the story of a multigenerational family curse that courses through the book, leaving troubles and tragedy in its wake. This
was the most dynamic, entertaining, and achingly heartfelt novel I've read in a long time. My head is still
buzzing with the memory of dozens of killer passages that I dog-eared throughout the book. The rope-adope narrative is funny, hip, tragic, soulful, and bursting with desire. Make some room for Oscar Wao on
your bookshelf--you won't be disappointed.
Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson: An utterly fresh new voice joins the SF/fantasy field with this
compelling story of Afro-Caribbean magic, ancient spirits who rule human lives, and a young woman
forced to fend for herself in a 21st-century Toronto that has fallen into economic collapse.
The Canning Season by Polly Horvath: One night out of the blue, Ratchet Clark'‘s ill-natured mother tells
her that Ratchet will be leaving their Pensacola apartment momentarily to take the train up north. There
she will spend the summer with her aged relatives Penpen and Tilly, inseparable twins who couldn''t
look more different from each other. Staying at their secluded house, Ratchet is treated to a passel of
strange family history and local lore, along with heaps of generosity and care that she has never
experienced before. Also, Penpen has recently espoused a new philosophy - whatever shows up on your
doorstep you have to let in. Through thick wilderness, forgotten, bear-ridden roads, come a variety of
characters, drawn to Penpen and Tilly'‘s open door. It is with vast reservations that the cautious Tilly
allows these unwelcome guests in. But it turns out that unwelcome guests may bring the greatest gifts.
title: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he
makes the necessary formal request to be relieved of such missions, the very act of making the request
proves that he is sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres: It is the salad days of the Second World War and
Captain Antonio Corelli, a young Italian officer, is serving out his time as part of the occupying forces on
the Greek island of Cephallonia. While the war is raging, things seem awkwardly serene from his
agreeable posting, as Corelli is a kind, conscientious man who wants nothing more than peaceful war. A
consummate musician, he passes time plucking his mandolin and courting the daughter of a local
daughter. Just as their love begins to bloom, the intensity of the war is turned up, bringing the savagery
within a heartbeat of the island. Captain Corelli's Mandolin has the flowing quality of a great
composition and displays the acute narrative sense of history's finest writers.
Catch 22 By Joseph Heller: At the heart of Catch-22 resides the incomparable, malingering bombardier,
Yossarian, a hero endlessly inventive in his schemes to save his skin from the horrible chances of war.
His efforts are perfectly understandable because as he furiously scrambles, thousands of people he
hasn''t even met are trying to kill him. His problem is Colonel Cathcart, who keeps raising the number of
missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempts to excuse
himself from the perilous missions that he is committed to flying, he is trapped by the Great Loyalty
Oath Crusade, the hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule from which the book takes its
Chocolat by Joanne Harris: When the exotic stranger Vianne Rocher arrives in the old French village of
Lansquenet and opens a chocolate boutique called ―La Celeste Praline‖ directly across the square from
the church, Father Reynaud identifies her as a serious danger to his flock. It is the beginning of Lent: the
traditional season of self-denial. The priest says she‘ll be out of business by Easter. To make matters
worse, Vianne does not go to church and has a penchant for superstition. Like her mother, she can read
Tarot cards. But she begins to win over customers with her smiles, her intuition for everyone‘s
favourites, and her delightful confections. Her shop provides a place, too, for secrets to be whispered,
grievances aired. She begins to shake up the rigid morality of the community. Vianne‘s plans for an
Easter Chocolate Festival divide the whole community. Can the solemnity of the Church compare with
the pagan passion of a chocolate éclair?
The Chosen by Chaim Potok: Few stories offer more warmth, wisdom, or generosity than this tale of
two boys, their fathers, their friendship, and the chaotic times in which they live. Though on the surface
it explores religious faith--the intellectually committed as well as the passionately observant--the
struggles addressed in The Chosen are familiar to families of all faiths and in all nations. In 1940s
Brooklyn, New York, an accident throws Reuven Malther and Danny Saunders together. Despite their
differences (Reuven is a Modern Orthodox Jew with an intellectual, Zionist father; Danny is the brilliant
son and rightful heir to a Hasidic rebbe), the young men form a deep, if unlikely, friendship. Together
they negotiate adolescence, family conflicts, the crisis of faith engendered when Holocaust stories begin
to emerge in the U.S., loss, love, and the journey to adulthood. The intellectual and spiritual clashes
between fathers, between each son and his own father, and between the two young men, provide a
unique backdrop for this exploration of fathers, sons, faith, loyalty, and, ultimately, the power of love.
Cinnamon Gardens by Shyam Selvadrai: Set in 1920s‘ Ceylon, during the turbulent closing days of
colonial rule, this evocative story of intertwined lives takes us behind the fragrant gardens and polished
surfaces of the elite who reside in a wealthy suburb of Colombo to reveal a world of splintered families,
conflicted passions, and lives destroyed by class hatred. Annalukshmi, a spirited young schoolteacher,
finds herself caught between her family‘s pressures to marry and her own desire for a more
independent life. Then there is her uncle Balendran, whose comfortable life of privilege is rocked by the
arrival of Richard, a lover from his past. Their uneasy reunion re-ignites tensions with Balendran‘s
powerful father, and threatens all on which Balendran has built his present life. Sensual, perceptive, and
wise, Cinnamon Gardens is a novel of exceptional achievement – an exquisite tapestry of lives.
Claudius the God by Robert Graves: Picking up where the extraordinarily interesting I, Claudius ends,
Claudius the God tells the tale of Claudius' 13-year reign as Emperor of Rome. Naturally, it ends when
Claudius is murdered--believe me, it's not giving anything away to say this; the surprise is when
someone doesn't get poisoned. While Claudius spends most of his time before becoming emperor
tending to his books and his writings and trying to stay out of the general line of corruption and killings,
his life on the throne puts him into the center of the political maelstrom.
Clara Callan by Richard B. Wright: Clara Callan is set in the middle of the Great Depression, chronicling
the lives of two sisters. Clara is a spinsterish school teacher whose quiet life in a small Ontario town
masks a passion for love and adventure. Nora, her flighty and very pretty sister, travels to New York
where she lands a starring role in a radio soap opera. Written in diary and letter form, the novel
brilliantly reveals the sisters' stories, as their lives become increasingly complex. [….] And with Wright's
extraordinary eye for small but telling details, the world of the thirties comes vividly to life, an era when
show business was in its infancy, and the Dionnes grabbed the headlines, when Automats were a
futuristic way of buying fast food and the Women's Auxiliary still ruled the social roost in small towns
everywhere. Above all, Wright's portrait draws a world of young women -- pre-divorce, pre-Pill, preliberation, where judgment weighed heavily upon anyone who defied convention.
A Clockwork Orange By Anthony Burgess: In this nightmare vision of a not-too-distant future, fifteenyear-old Alex and his three friends rob, rape, torture and murder - for fun. Alex is jailed for his vicious
crimes and the State undertakes to reform him - but how and at what cost?
A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews: A witty, beleaguered teenager whose family is shattered by
fundamentalist Christianity balances grief and hope in this coming-of-age novel. Left alone with her sad,
peculiar father, she spends her days piecing together why her mother and sister left.
A Creed for the Third Millennium by Colleen McCullough: Tomorrow‘s America is a cold and ravaged
place, a nation devastated by despair and enduring winter. In a small New England city, senior
government official Dr. Judith Carriol finds the man she has been seeking: a deliverer of hope in a
hopeless time who can revive the dreams of a shattered people; a magnetic, compassionate idealist
whom Judith can mold, manipulate and carry to undreamed-of heights; a healer who must ultimately
face damnation through the destructive power of love.
Crime and Punishment By Fyodor Dostoesvsky: What makes this novel unique is that Dostoyevsky's
preoccupation with the dualities of the human soul are consistently merging and splintering, causing the
internal battle of the two forces within the soul of one character, Raskolnikov. The notion that any
human being can fall prey to desperation, and therefore, commit a characteristically or
uncharacteristically desperate act is compelling. Whether readers can find compassion for Raskolnikov
or view him as nothing but despicable, we are forced, if only for a moment, to consider empathizing
with Raskolnikov.
Crow Lake by Mary Lawson: For the farming Pye family, life is a Greek tragedy where the sins of the
fathers are visited on the sons, and terrible events occur – offstage. Centre stage are their neighbours,
the Morrison children, whose tragedy looks more immediate, if less brutal, but is in reality insidious and
divisive. Orphaned young, Kate Morrison is her older brother Matt‘s protégée, her fascination for pond
life fed by his passionate interest in the natural world. Years later, working as an invertebrate biologist,
she can identify organisms under a microscope but seems blind to the state of her own emotional life.
And she thinks she has outgrown her siblings – Luke, Matt and Bo – who were once her entire world. In
this universal drama of family love and misunderstandings, of resentments harboured and driven
underground, Lawson ratchets up the tension with humour and consummate control, overturning one‘s
expectations right to the end. Tragic, funny, unforgettable, Crow Lake is a tour de force that will catapult
Mary Lawson to the forefront of fiction writers today.
Cry:the Beloved Country- By Alan Paton- Cry, the Beloved Country is the deeply moving story of the
Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son, Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people
riven by racial injustice. Remarkable for its lyricism, unforgettable for character and incident, Cry, the
Beloved Country is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man.
The Cure for Death by Lightening by Gail Anderson Dargatz: Some people record the passage of time in
diaries while others go by photographs and memories associated with music, food or scent. The Cure for
Death by Lightning captures Beth Weeks' story on the pages of her mother's scrapbook of recipes and
home remedies. Set against the backdrop of daily life in remote Turtle Valley, B.C., it relates the story of
her 15th summer and transition from childhood to adulthood. It was also shortlisted for the
Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award.
Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man by Fannie Flagg: Taken from the pages of Daisy Fay Harper's journal, this
is a coming of age story set in rural Mississippi that is by turns hilarious and touching. It begins in 1952
when Daisy Fay is a sassy, truth-tellin' but lonely eleven-year old, and ends six years later when she
becomes the flamboyant, unlikely -- but assured -- winner of the Miss Mississippi contest. Along the
way, we meet some of the raffish and outrageous town locals, including her own Daddy, who comes up
with a mortgage scheme that requires Daisy's "resurrection." This is a thoroughly entertaining comic
novel with a heroine who is bound to capture your heart.
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury: The summer of ‗28 was a vintage season for a growing boy. A
summer of green apple trees, mowed lawns, and new sneakers. Of half-burnt firecrackers, of gathering
dandelions, of Grandma''s belly-busting dinner. It was a summer of sorrows and marvels and gold-fuzzed
bees. A magical, timeless summer in the life of a twelve-year-old boy named Douglas Spaulding-remembered forever by the incomparable Ray Bradbury.
De Nero’s Game By Rawi Hage: Bassam and George are childhood best friends who have grown to
adulthood in wartorn Beirut. Now they must choose their futures: to stay in the city and consolidate
power through crime; or to go into exile abroad, alienated from the only existence they have known.
Bassam chooses one path: Obsessed with leaving Beirut, he embarks on a series of petty crimes to
finance his departure. Meanwhile, George builds his power in the underworld of the city and embraces a
life of military service, crime for profit, killing, and drugs.
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather: In 1851 Bishop Latour and his friend Father Valliant
are despatched to New Mexico to reawaken its slumbering Catholicism. Moving along the endless
prairies, Latour spreads his faith the only way he knows - gently, although he must contend with the
unforgiving landscape, derelict and sometimes openly rebellious priests, and his own loneliness. Over
nearly forty years, they leave converts and enemies, crosses and occasionally ecstasy in their wake. But
it takes a death for them to make their mark on the landscape forever ...
The Deep End of the Ocean By Jacquelyn Mitchard- The horror of losing a child is somehow made
worse when the case goes unsolved for nearly a decade, reports Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel columnist
Jacquelyn Mitchard in this searing first novel. In it, 3-year-old Ben Cappadora is kidnapped from a hotel
lobby where his mother is checking into her 15th high school reunion. His disappearance tears the
family apart and invokes separate experiences of anguish, denial, and self-blame. Marital problems and
delinquency in Ben's older brother (in charge of him the day of his kidnapping) ensue. Mitchard depicts
the family's friction and torment--along with many gritty realities of family life--with the candor of a
journalist and compassion of someone who has seemingly been there.
Deliverance by James Dickey: Released for the first time in trade paperback, this is the classic tale of
four men caught in a primitive and violent test of manhood. The setting is the Georgia wilderness, where
the states most remote white-water river awaits. In the thundering froth of that river, in its echoing
stone canyons, four men on a canoe trip discover a freedom and exhilaration beyond compare. And
then, in a moment of horror, the adventure turns into a struggle for survival as one man becomes a
human hunter who is offered his own harrowing deliverance.
Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep By Philip K. Dick- By 2021, the World War had killed millions,
driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remained coveted any
living creature, and for people who couldn''t afford one, companies built incredibly realistic simulacrae:
horses, birds, cats, sheep. . . They even built humans.
Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz: This emotional and subtle debut novel is a heartening tale of two
sisters, their lives and their secrets. Drowning Ruth from author Christina Schwarz begins in the winter
of 1919 with Amanda Starkey tending soldiers retuning from the Great War. Overwhelmed, she leaves
for her family‘s farm on Nagawaukee Lake to spend time with her sister Mathilda and her three-year-old
niece Ruth. Once there however, things are not as peaceful as she hoped as Amanda has difficulty
leaving her troubles behind. A year after her arrival, Mathilda mysteriously disappears and is later found
drowned under the frozen lake. Shattered by the events, Amanda‘s guilt forces her to care for the young
Ruth and assume the duties of the farm. When Mathilda‘s husband returns from the war wounded and
shocked, there is immediate friction. The years roll by and Ruth grows up under her frenetic aunt and
begins to realize something dreadful happened to her mother. The family splinters and the emotions run
high as the truth slowly emerges.
Eat, Pray, Love- By Elizabeth Gilbert:This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among
both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all
the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead,
what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature
amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in
India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali.
East of Eden by John Steinbeck: In his journal, John Steinbeck called East of Eden "the first book," and
indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California's Salinas
Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families—the
Trasks and the Hamiltons—whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the
poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. Adam Trask came to California from the East to farm and raise his
family on the new, rich land. But the birth of his twins, Cal and Aron, brings his wife to the brink of
madness, and Adam is left alone to raise his boys to manhood. One boy thrives, nurtured by the love of
all those around him; the other grows up in loneliness, enveloped by a mysterious darkness.
The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood: Ever since her engagement, the strangest thing has been
happening to Marian McAlpin: she can''t eat. First meat. Then eggs, vegetables, cake, pumpkin seeds—
everything! Worse yet, she has the crazy feeling that she''s being eaten. Marian ought to feel consumed
with passion. But really she just feels...consumed. A brilliant and powerful work rich in irony and
metaphor, The Edible Woman is an unforgettable materpiece by a true master of contemporary literary
fiction.
The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter: This story has entranced readers of all ages since it was
first published twenty-five years ago. The Education of Little Tree tells of a boy orphaned very young,
who is adopted by his Cherokee grandmother and half-Cherokee grandfather in the Appalachian
mountains of Tennessee during the Great Depression. ―Little Tree‖ as his grandparents call him is
shown how to hunt and survive in the mountains, to respect nature in the Cherokee Way, taking only
what is needed, leaving the rest for nature to run its course. Little Tree also learns the often callous ways
of the white businessmen and tax collectors, and how Granpa, in hilarious vignettes, scares them away
from his illegal attempts to enter the cash economy. Granma teaches Little Tree the joys of reading and
education. But when Little Tree is taken away for schooling by whites, we learn of the cruelty meted out
to Indian children in an attempt to assimilate them and of Little Tree‘s perception of the Anglo world
and how it differs from the Cherokee Way.
The Electrical Field by Kerri Sakamoto: In this haunting first novel by Kerri Sakamoto, a double murder
in a small Ontario town exposes a community's secrets. The Electrical Field follows the people in
question for the murders and delves into the devastating impact of Japanese-Canadians' internment
during the Second World War. The novel's questionable narrator, Asako Saito, who cares for her ill
father and appears to be unconnected to the murders, becomes pivotal to the crime. For Saito must
deal with her link to the crime by dealing with her painful past, inescapable memory and remorse.
Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons: In Ellen Foster, the title character is an 11-year-old orphan who refers to
herself as "old Ellen," an appellation that is disturbingly apt. Ellen is an old woman in a child's body; her
frail, unhappy mother dies, her abusive father alternately neglects her and makes advances on her, and
she is shuttled from one uncaring relative's home to another before she finally takes matters into her
own hands and finds herself a place to belong. There is something almost Dickensian about Ellen's
tribulations; like Oliver Twist, David Copperfield or a host of other literary child heroes, Ellen is at the
mercy of predatory adults, with only her own wit and courage--and the occasional kindness of others--to
help her through. That she does, in fact, survive her childhood and even rise above it is the book's
bittersweet victory.
Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald: At the start of the 20th century, James Piper sets fire to
his dead mother‘s piano and heads out across Cape Breton Island to find a new place to live, eventually
eloping with 13-year-old Materia Mahmoud, the daughter of wealthy, traditional Lebanese parents. And
so, from early on, Ann-Marie MacDonald establishes some major themes: racial tension, isolation,
passion and forbidden love, which will gradually lead to incest, death in childbirth, and even murder. At
the centre of this epic story is the nature of family love, beginning with the Piper sisters who depend on
one another for survival. Their development as characters — beautiful Kathleen, the promising diva;
saintly Mercedes; Frances, the mischievous bad girl, who tries to bear the family‘s burden; and disabled
Lily, everyone‘s favourite — forms the heart of the novel. And then there is James, their flawed father.
Moving from Cape Breton Island to the battlefields of World War I, to Harlem in New York‘s Jazz Age and
the Depression, the tense and enthralling plot of Fall on Your Knees contains love, pain, death, joy, and
triumph.
Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry: Set during the 1990s in an overcrowded and politically corrupt
Bombay, Rohinton Mistry's Family Matters depicts a family being torn apart by lies, love, and its
unresolved demons of the past. Nariman Vakeel is an aging patriarch whose advancing Parkinson's
disease and its related complications threaten to destroy his large Parsi family. When Nariman breaks
his ankle and becomes bedridden, his two stepchildren turn his care over to their half-sister, Roxanne,
who lives in a two-room flat with her husband and two sons. What follows is each character's reaction
to this situation, from Roxanne's husband's struggle to provide for his family without neglecting his
conscience to their sons' coming of age in an era of uncertainty. Expertly interspersed between these
dilemmas are Nariman's tortured remembrances of a forbidden love and its inescapable consequences.
A Farewell to Arms By Ernest Hemingway: The unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on
the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse.
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry: Set against the emergency measures imposed by Indira Gandhi in the
mid-1970s, A Fine Balance follows the lives of four unlikely people as they struggle ―to maintain a fine
balance between hope and despair.‖ Originally published in 1995, A Fine Balance is both a warning
about the human terrors that await a society without compassion and a testimony to the enduring
greatness of the human spirit.
Fight Club By Chuck Palahniuk- Every weekend, in the basements and parking lots of bars across the
country, young men with whitecollar jobs and failed lives take off their shoes and shirts and fight each
other barehanded just as long as they have to. Then they go back to those jobs with blackened eyes and
loosened teeth and the sense that they can handle anything. Fight club is the invention of Tyler Durden,
projectionist, waiter, and dark, anarchic genius, and it's only the beginning of his plans for violent
revenge on an empty consumer-culture world.
Five people you meet in Heaven By Mitch Albom: Eddie is an elderly man who has worked at a seaside
amusement park for as long as he can remember. He dies one day in a tragic accident at the amusement
park when he tries to save a little girl's life. The story begins at the end of Eddie's life ...here on earth.
The author Mitch Albom explores the idea of Eddie's afterlife during his descent from this earth into
heaven. Along his journey in the afterlife, Eddie encounters five different souls, each of whom have
played a role in the meaning of his earthly life. Eddie's memories of his past are weaved into a beautiful
story as Eddie learns why he has had a connection with each of these souls on earth and how and why
each one has played a role in his life. As the story builds to the conclusion, Eddie also learns that he too
is one important piece of a much bigger picture
Floating in My Mother’s Palm by Ursula Hegi: Floating in My Mother's Palm is the compelling and
mystical story of Hanna Malter, a young girl growing up in 1950's Burgdorf, the small German town
Ursula Hegi so brilliantly brought to life in her bestselling novel Stones from the River. Hanna's
courageous voice evokes her unconventional mother, who swims during thunderstorms; the illegitimate
son of an American GI, who learns from Hanna about his father; and the librarian, Trudi Montag, who
lets Hanna see her hometown from a dwarf's extraordinary point of view. Although Ursula Hegi wrote
Floating in My Mother's Palm first, it can be read as a sequel to Stones from the River.
For Whom the Bell Tolls By Ernest Hemingway: The story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the
International Brigades attached to an antifascist guerilla unit in the mountains of Spain, it tells of loyalty
and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal. In his portrayal of Jordan''s love for the
beautiful Maria and his superb account of El Sordo''s last stand, in his brilliant travesty of La Pasionaria
and his unwillingness to believe in blind faith,
Foundation by Isaac Asimov: For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it
is dying. Only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the
future—a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve
knowledge and save mankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire—both scientists and
scholars—and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the Galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for
future generations. He calls his sanctuary the Foundation. But soon the fledgling Foundation finds itself
at the mercy of corrupt warlords rising in the wake of the receding Empire. And mankind‘s last best
hope is faced with an agonizing choice: submit to the barbarians and live as slaves—or take a stand for
freedom and risk total destruction.
Frankenstein By Mary Shelley: Swiss medical student Victor Frankenstein discovers the secret of life
(which he never reveals, lest someone repeat the mistake). He then puts together a body, essentially a
man, from various corpses. He then becomes horrified by the creature he has built, and abandons. The
creature, suffering a great deal of neglect and abuse, still manages to get a thorough education, and
learns of his lineage. After murdering Victor's younger brother, and framing the family maid, the
creature tells his (admittedly) sad tale to his "father", and then demands a mate. Victor, in a panic,
agrees, then thinks better of it at the last moment, destroying the new bride. In retaliation, the creature
murders all of Victor's loved ones (including his wife), and leads Victor on a merry chase across the
world
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg: Folksy and fresh, endearing and
affecting, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is the now-classic novel of two women in the
1980s; of gray-headed Mrs. Threadgoode telling her life story to Evelyn, who is in the sad slump of
middle age. The tale she tells is also of two women--of the irrepressibly daredevilish tomboy Idgie and
her friend Ruth--who back in the thirties ran a little place in Whistle Stop, Alabama, a Southern kind of
Cafe Wobegon offering good barbecue and good coffee and all kinds of love and laughter, even an
occasional murder. And as the past unfolds, the present--for Evelyn and for us--will never be quite the
same again.
Gap Creek By Robert Morgan- Robert Morgan's Gap Creek opens with one wrenching death and ends
with another. In between, this novel of turn-of-the-century Appalachian life works in fire, flood,
swindlers, sickness, and starvation--a truly biblical assortment of plagues, all visited on the sturdy
shoulders of 17-year-old Julie Harmon. "Human life don't mean a thing in this world," she concludes.
And who could blame her? "People could be born and they could suffer, and they could die, and it didn't
mean a thing.... The world was exactly like it had been and would always be, going on about its
business." For Julie, that business is hard physical labor. Fortunately, she's fully capable of working "like
a man"--splitting and hauling wood, butchering hogs, rendering lard, planting crops, and taking care of
the stock. Even when Julie meets and marries handsome young Hank Richards, there's no happily-everafter in store. Nothing comes easy in Julie Harmon's world, and their first year together is no exception.
The Girls by Lori Lansens: In Lori Lansens‘ astonishing second novel, readers come to know and love two
of the most remarkable characters in Canadian fiction. Rose and Ruby are twenty-nine-year-old
conjoined twins. Born during a tornado to a shocked teenaged mother in the hospital at Leaford,
Ontario, they are raised by the nurse who helped usher them into the world. Aunt Lovey and her
husband, Uncle Stash, are middle-aged and with no children of their own. They relocate from the town
to the drafty old farmhouse in the country that has been in Lovey‘s family for generations. Joined to
Ruby at the head, Rose‘s face is pulled to one side, but she has full use of her limbs. Ruby has a beautiful
face, but her body is tiny and she is unable to walk. She rests her legs on her sister‘s hip, rather like a
small child or a doll. In spite of their situation, the girls lead surprisingly separate lives. Rose is bookish
and a baseball fan. Ruby is fond of trash TV and has a passion for local history.
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy: In her first novel, award-winning Indian screenwriter
Arundhati Roy conjures a whoosh of wordplay that rises from the pages like a brilliant jazz
improvisation. The God of Small Things is nominally the story of young twins Rahel and Estha and the
rest of their family, but the book feels like a million stories spinning out indefinitely; it is the product of a
genius child-mind that takes everything in and transforms it in an alchemy of poetry. The God of Small
Things is at once exotic and familiar to the Western reader, written in an English that's completely new
and invigorated by the Asian Indian influences of culture and language.
A Good House by Bonnie Burnard: Covering a 50-year span, this novel follows a southern Ontario family
through the last half of the 20th century. Bonnie Burnard's story begins just after the Second World War
with Bill, a hardware store manager, his wife Sylvia and their three young children, Patrick, Paul and
Daphne. Although these characters cannot anticipate the challenges that will shape their lives, they
learn to approach difficulties with grace and tenacity. Births and deaths, weddings and funerals, secrets
and revelations are woven into the powerful narrative of A Good House.
The Grapes of Wrath By John Steinbeck- Journey with the Joads for 21 hours in this first unabridged
version of Steinbeck's classic. Controversial, even shocking, when it was written, the work continues to
be so even today. The keen listener can hear why, because it poses fundamental questions about
justice, the ownership and stewardship of the land, the role of government, power, and the very
foundations of capitalist society. As history, this brings the Dust Bowl years to life in a most memorable
way
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood: Enter a surrealistic future world where women and men are
neatly placed into ready-made roles as nurturer, provider or childbearer. This is the story of one woman,
chosen as a childbearer, or handmaiden, for a well-to-do family. Slowly she remembers her past and her
own daughter, taken from her when she tried to escape the totalitarian state she now obeys. And as the
unnatural boundaries between her and her employers erode, we catch a glimpse of true human nature
struggling to escape the confines of this tyrannical society. Margaret Atwood mystifies, shocks and
ultimately inspires readers with an unsavoury vision of the future for women in The Handmaid's Tale.
The Hanging of Angelique by Afua Cooper: Afua Cooper—writer, historian and poet—tells the
astonishing story of Marie-Joseph Angélique, a slave woman who was convicted of starting a fire that
destroyed a large part of Montréal in April 1734. On appeal, her punishment of death by hanging was
modified to an even crueller fate. No longer would she first have her hands cut off; the precursor to the
gallows would now be forced to undergo "le torture extraordinaire," a brutal leg-crushing, to encourage
her to name an accomplice—a white man, Angélique‘s sometime lover.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy By Douglas Adams: It's an ordinary Thursday lunchtime for Arthur
Dent until his house gets demolished. The Earth follows shortly afterwards to make way for a new
hyperspace bypass and his best friend has just announced that he's an alien. At this moment, they're
hurtling through space with nothing but their towels and an innocuous-looking book inscribed with the
big, friendly words: DON'T PANIC.The weekend has only just begun.
Heart of Darkness By Joseph Conrad: Taking readers with him deep into the Congo, the narrator
witnesses firsthand the bitter juxtaposition of the beauty of the African jungle and the brutality dealt
out to its inhabitants by Belgian imperialists. Heart of Darkness is a model of economic storytelling, an
indictment of the inner and outer turmoil caused by the European imperial misadventure, and a piercing
account of the fragility of the human soul.
The Hobbit By J.R.R. Tolkien- Poor Bilbo Baggins! An unassuming and rather plump hobbit (as most of
these small, furry- footed people tend to be ), Baggins finds himself unwittingly drawn into adventure by
a wizard named Gandalf and 13 dwarves bound for the Lonely Mountain, where a dragon named Smaug
hordes a stolen treasure. Before he knows what is happening, Baggins finds himself on the road to
danger. Wizards, dwarves and dragons may seem the stuff of children's fairy tales, but The Hobbit is in a
class of its own--light-hearted enough for younger readers, yet with a dark edge guaranteed to intrigue
an older audience. In the best tradition of the archetypal hero's quest, Bilbo Baggins sets out on his
fateful journey a callow, untested soul and returns--tempered by hardship, danger and loss--a better
man--er, hobbit
The Hour I First Believed By Wally Lamb- When high school teacher Caelum Quirk and his wife,
Maureen, a school nurse, move to Littleton, Colorado, they both get jobs at Columbine High School. In
April 1999, while Caelum is away, Maureen finds herself in the library at Columbine, cowering in a
cabinet and expecting to be killed. Miraculously, she survives, but at a cost: she is unable to recover
from the trauma. When Caelum and Maureen flee to an illusion of safety on the Quirk family's
Connecticut farm, they discover that the effects of chaos are not easily put right, and further tragedy
ensues.
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus: In this riveting novel of almost unbearable suspense, three
fragile yet determined people become dangerously entangled in a relentlessly escalating crisis. Colonel
Behrani, once a wealthy man in Iran, is now a struggling immigrant willing to bet everything he has to
restore his family‘s dignity. Kathy Niccolo is a recovering alcoholic and addict whose house is all she has
left, and who refuses to let her hard-won stability slip away from her. Sheriff Lester Burdon, a married
man who finds himself falling in love with Kathy, becomes obsessed with helping her fight for justice.
Drawn by their competing desires to the same small house in the California hills--and what it represents
to each of them--and doomed by their tragic inability to understand one another, the three converge on
an explosive collision course. Combining unadorned realism with profound empathy, House of Sand and
Fog is a devastating exploration of the American Dream gone awry.
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Sisnaros: Told in a series of vignettes stunning for their
eloquence, The House on Mango Street is Sandra Cisneros''s greatly admired novel of a young girl
growing up in the Latino section of Chicago. Acclaimed by critics, beloved by children, their parents and
grandparents, taught everywhere from inner-city grade schools to universities across the country, and
translated all over the world, it has entered the canon of coming-of-age classics. Sometimes
heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous, The House on Mango Street tells the story of Esperanza
Cordero, whose neighborhood is one of harsh realities and harsh beauty. Esperanza doesn''t want to
belong--not to her rundown neighborhood, and not to the low expectations the world has for her.
Esperanza''s story is that of a young girl coming into her power, and inventing for herself what she will
become.
The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan: The Hundred Secret Senses is an exultant novel about China
and America, love and loyalty, the identities we invent and the true selves we discover along the way.
Olivia Laguni is half-Chinese, but typically American in her uneasiness with her patchwork family. And no
one in Olivia‘s family is more embarrassing to her than her half-sister, Kwan Li. For Kwan speaks
mangled English, is cheerfully deaf to Olivia‘s sarcasm, and sees the dead with her "yin eyes." Even as
Olivia details the particulars of her decades-long grudge against her sister (who, among other things, is a
source of infuriatingly good advice), Kwan Li is telling her own story, one that sweeps us into the
splendor, squalor, and violence of Manchu China. . . .
The Hunchback of Notre Dame By Victor Hugo: A gypsy girl''s beauty and charm captivate a priest, a
vagabond, a soldier, and a deformed bell-ringer, in a gripping tale that culminates in riot and murder
I, Claudius by Robert Graves: Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus lived from 10 B.C. to 54 A.D.
Despised as a weakling and dismissed as an idiot because of his physical infirmities, Claudius survived
the intrigues and poisonings that marked the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius and the mad Caligula to
become Emperor of Rome in 41 A.D. I, Claudius, the first part of Robert Graves‘ two-part account of the
life of Tiberius Claudius, is written in the form of Claudius‘s autobiography and stands as one of the
modern classics of historical fiction.
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote: On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four
members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from
their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues. As Truman
Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the
killers, he generates both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy. In Cold Blood is a work that
transcends its moment, yielding poignant insights into the nature of American violence.
Icy Sparks by Gwyn Hyman Rubio: Life is hard enough for an orphan living in 1950's rural Kentucky
without the added burden of having an undiagnosed condition that causes facial ticks and
uncontrollable swearing. Gwyn Hyman Rubio‘s touching novel recounts the life of Icy Sparks as she finds
comfort with the community‘s outcast and makes the difficult journey from adolescence to
womanhood.
I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb: What if you were a 40-year-old housepainter, horrifically
abused, emotionally unavailable, and your identical twin was a paranoid schizophrenic who believed in
public self-mutilation? You'd either be a guest on the Jerry Springer Show or Dominick Birdsey, the
antihero, narrator, and bad-juju magnet of I Know This Much Is True. Somewhere in the recesses of this
hefty 912-page tome lurks an honest, moving account of one man's search, denial, and acceptance of
self. This is no easy feat considering his grandfather seemed to take parenting tips from the SS and his
grandmother was a possible teenage murderess, his stepfather a latent sadist, and his brother, Thomas,
a politically motivated psychopath . . . .
In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien: The author of The Things They Carried offers a riveting novel
of love and mystery. When long-hidden secrets about the atrocities he committed in Vietnam come to
light, a candidate for the U.S. Senate retreats with his wife to a lakeside cabin in northern Minnesota.
Within days of their arrival, his wife mysteriously vanishes into the watery wilderness.
The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy: In this award-winning novel, three children come of age in an
immigrant Chinese family living in Vancouver during the early 1940s. Side by side, the family survives
hardships and heartbreaks with grit and humor, discovers this new land, and never forgets their
common ground.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: The classic portrayal of a woman's passionate search for a richer life than
that traditionally allowed women in Victorian society continues to endure.
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan: Four mothers, four daughters, four families whose histories shift with
the four winds depending on who's "saying" the stories. In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants
to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk. United in shared unspeakable
loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Rather than sink into tragedy, they choose to
gather to raise their spirits and money. "To despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or to
prolong what was already unbearable." Forty years later the stories and history continue.
The Jungle By Upton Sinclair: Jungles come in many forms. There are the steamy rain forests of the
Burmese highlands. There are the lies and betrayals of the world of covert operations. And there are the
dark and twisted thoughts of a man bent on near-global domination. To pull off their latest mission, Juan
Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon must survive them all. A devastating new weapon unleashed in
thirteenth-century China...a daring rescue in the snowbound mountains along the Afghanistan/Pakistan
border...a woman gone missing in the jungles of northern Thailand and Myanmar...for Cabrillo and his
crew, all of these events will come together-leading to the greatest threat against U.S. security that the
world has ever known
King Rat by James Clavell: In a brutal prison camp during the Second World War, an American corporal
won‘t let himself be oppressed. He still yearns for the kind of power he had as a figurehead in the army,
and he‘s willing to do anything to regain it.
The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan: With the same narrative skills and evocative powers that made her
first novel, The Joy Luck Club, a national bestseller, Tan now tells the story of Winnie Louie, an aging
Chinese woman unfolding a life's worth of secrets to her suspicious, Americanized daughter.
Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker: As Adam watches a medley of lights sink down into a well, a
pair of blazing green eyes fix on him and then sink lower, throwing upward a green light that grows
more and more vivid. As the light retreats, he hears a blood-chilling scream of agony and terror. Bram
Stoker`s Lair of the White Worm is a terrifying novel of a disgusting, evil creature.
The Language of Threads by Gail Tsukiyama: In her acclaimed debut novel, Women of the Silk, Gail
Tsukiyama told the moving story of Pei, brought to work in the silk house as a girl, grown into a quiet but
determined young woman whose life was subject to cruel twists of fate, including the loss of her closest
friend, Lin. Now we finally learn what happened to Pei, as she leaves the silk house for Hong Kong in the
1930's, arriving with a young orphan, Ji Shen, in her care. Her first job, in the home of a wealthy family,
ends in disgrace, but soon Pei and Ji Shen find a new life in the home of Mrs. Finch, a British ex-patriate
who welcomes them as the daughters she never had. Their new family is torn apart, however, by war,
and the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. As Mrs. Finch is forced into a prison camp, and Ji Shen tries
to navigate the perilous waters of the gang-run black market, Pei is once again forced to make her own
way, struggling to survive and to keep her extended family alive as well.
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquirel: A phenomenal best-seller, Laura Esquivel's enchanting
novel of family life in turn-of-the-century Mexico earned a special place in the hearts of readers all over
the world. Like Water for Chocolate imaginatively follows the romantic dramas of Tita De La Garza, the
youngest of Mama Elena's three daughters. Family tradition dictates that Tita will not marry, but stay in
the home to care for her mother. Matters are made worse for the young woman when her true love
Pedro agrees to marry her sister. Charged with baking the couple's wedding cake, Tita mixes tears of
sorrow into the cake, which has an extraordinary affect on all who eat it. Peppered with traditional
Mexican cooking recipes throughout, this unique novel will captivate readers.
Little Princes By Conor Greenan: Little Princes is a true story of families and children, and what one
person is capable of when faced with seemingly insurmountable odds. At turns tragic, joyful, and
hilarious, Little Princes is a testament to the power of faith and the ability of love to carry us beyond our
wildest expectations Love in the time of Cholera By Gabriel Garcia Marquez : In their youth, Florentino
Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy,
well-born doctor, Florentino is devastated, but he is a romantic. As he rises in his business career he
whiles away the years in 622 affairs--yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at last, and
Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years, nine months, and four days after he first
declared his love for Fermina, he will do so again
Madame Bovary By Flaubert: Emma Bovary is the original desperate housewife. Beautiful but bored,
she is married to the provincial doctor Charles Bovary yet harbors dreams of an elegant and passionate
life. Escaping into sentimental novels, she finds her fantasies dashed by the tedium of her days.
Motherhood proves to be a burden; religion is only a brief distraction. In an effort to make her life
everything she believes it should be, she spends lavishly on clothes and on her home and embarks on
two disappointing affairs. Soon heartbroken and crippled by debts, Emma takes drastic action with
tragic consequences for her husband and daughter.
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden: Let novelist Arthur Golden take you on a journey to a distant
and fascinating world in Memoirs of a Geisha. Meet Sayuri, one of Japan's most respected geishas. From
the tender age of nine, her parents sell her into the rigid world of becoming a geisha. She learns dance,
how to be the perfect woman and how to deal with jealous rivals. This evocative first novel, an
international best-seller, is riveting from start to finish.
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards: Kim Edwards's stunning family drama evokes the
spirit of Sue Miller and Alice Sebold, articulating every mother's silent fear: what would happen if you
lost your child and she grew up without you? In 1964, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver
his own twins, he immediately recognizes that one of them has Down Syndrome and makes a splitsecond decision that will haunt all their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an
institution and to keep her birth a secret. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child as
her own. Compulsively readable and deeply moving, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is an astonishing
tale of redemptive love.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt: Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest
mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a
decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of mosshung oaks and shaded squares. John Berendt''s sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative reads
like a thoroughly engrossing novel, and yet it is a work of nonfiction. Berendt skillfully interweaves a
hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the
unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case.
Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides- the story of Cal or Calliope Stephanides, a comic epic of a family's
American life, and the expansive history of a gene travelling down through time, starting with a rare
genetic mutation. In 1922, Desdemona and Eleutherios ("Lefty") Stephanides, brother and sister, leave
the war-ravaged village of Bithynios in Asia Minor. With their parents dead and their village almost
empty,
Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson: Nalo Hopkinson is all about a fascinating fusion of Caribbean
literature and modern science fiction. Needless to say, Midnight Robber is an intriguing novel. The
Caribbean-colonized planet of Toussaint is celebrating Carnival with music, dance and pageantry. All
sorts of masked folks only add to the spirit of the celebration, until a young girl realizes that it is part of a
system that has corrupted her father. Suddenly, the two are thrust into the brutal world of New HalfWay Tree, where monstrous creatures rule and violent humans rebel. The young girl must reach into the
myth to become the Robber Queen, the one person whose legendary powers can save her life.
Midwives by Chris Bohjalian: In idyllic Reddington, Vt., during the harsh winter of 1981, Sibyl Danforth
makes a life-and-death decision based on 15 years' experience as a trusted midwife. Late on a frigid
night, cut off from the hospital by a storm that has made the roads impassable, Sibyl attempts to save
the baby of a woman she fears has died from a stroke during labour. Later, the midwife's assistant tells
the police she's certain the mother was still alive when the Caesarean section was performed in the
isolated farmhouse. In Midwives, Sibyl's daughter, Connie, narrates the aftermath of this tragedy. Now
an obstetrician, she recalls the events of her 14th year, when her mother's freedom and her family's fate
rested with 12 men and women. Chris Bohjalian captures the human scale of misfortune with this
moving novel.
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins: If diamonds are a girl's best friend, then why is Rachel Verinder leery
about the yellow diamond she has recently inherited? Is there some mystical power in the jewel, or does
someone else want it so badly that they're willing to go to dangerous lengths to get it? Wilkie Collins'
The Moonstone is as much a mystery as it is a commentary on the less desirable elements in English
society. ''. . . the first and greatest of English detective novels'' (T.S.Eliot)
Morgan’s Run by Colleen McCullough: Beginning in 18th-century Bristol, England, one of history‘s
greatest human experiments unfolded: populating an unknown land with English society‘s unwanted,
the criminals. The First Fleet endured slave-like conditions as they journeyed to a place no European had
ever seen. These convicts and their guards were left to survive or perish on the hostile Australian
continent. In Colleen McCullough‘s captivating Morgan’s Run, a convicted felon, the educated, brilliant
and enterprising Richard Morgan, finds the courage to survive, find love and make his mark on this
uncharted territory. This comprehensively researched historical saga blends stirring adventure, romance
and memorable characters.
My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok: Here is the original, deeply moving story of Asher Lev, the
religious boy with an overwhelming need to draw, to paint, to render the world he knows and the pain
he feels, on canvas for everyone to see. A loner, Asher has an extraordinary God-given gift that
possesses a spirit all its own. It is this force that must learn to master without shaming his people or
relinquishing any part of his deeply felt Judaism. It will not be easy for him, but he knows, too, that even
if it is impossible, it must be done....
Native Son By Richard Wright: Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could
have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story
of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief
moment of panic. Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright's powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the
poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of
what it means to be black in America.
My Sister’s Keeper- By Jodi Picoult: Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has
undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight
the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis,
Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate -- a life and a role that she has never
challenged...until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike
most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister -- and so Anna makes a decision that
for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal
consequences for the sister she loves.
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende: Bastian Balthazar Bux is shy, awkward and certainly not
heroic. His only escape is reading books. When Bastian happens upon an old book called The
Neverending Story, he‘s swept into the magical world of Fantastica—so much that he finds he has
actually become a character in the story! And when he realizes that this mysteriously enchanted world is
in great danger, he also discovers that he has been the one chosen to save it. Can Bastian overcome the
barrier between reality and his imagination in order to save Fantastica?
Night By Elie Wiesel: Night is Elie Wiesel''s masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant
autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by
Marion Wiesel, Elie''s wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and
spirit truest to the author''s original intent. And in a substantive new preface, Elie reflects on the
enduring importance of Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication to ensuring that the world never
forgets man''s capacity for inhumanity to man.
No Country for Old Men By Cormac McCarthy- One day, a good old boy named Llewellyn Moss finds a
pickup truck surrounded by a bodyguard of dead men. A load of heroin and two million dollars in cash
are still in the back. When Moss takes the money, he sets off a chain reaction of catastrophic violence
that not even the law-in the person of aging, disillusioned Sheriff Bell-can contain. As Moss tries to
evade his pursuers-in particular a mysterious mastermind who flips coins for human lives-McCarthy
simultaneously strips down the American crime novel and broadens its concerns to encompass themes
as ancient as the Bible and as bloodily contemporary as this morning's headlines.
Not Wanted on the Voyage by Timothy Findley: It's just before the great flood and Noah's family is
living life among the sinners and preparing for the end of the world. Timothy Findley introduces us to a
host of characters with a unique perspective on the world, on Father Noah and on his family. From the
blind cat to Noah's blue son, these characters are not the people you'd expect to be inheriting the
world. This strange, mystical novel reveals uncomfortable possibilities about our religious past. Not
Wanted on the Voyage presents a vision of the world that makes readers question the wisdom of the
flood and the future of our society.
Oliver Twist By Charles Dickens: Dickens's classic morality tale of a starving orphan caught between
opposing forces of good and evil is a powerful indictment of Victorian England's Poor Laws.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin By Harriet Beecher Stowe: The moving abolitionist novel that fueled the fire of the
human rights debate in 1852 and melodramatically condemned the institution of slavery through such
powerfully realized characters as Tom, Eliza, Topsy, Eva, and Simon Legree.
On the Beach by Nevil Shute: They are the last generation, the innocent victims of an accidental war,
living out their last days, making do with what they have, hoping for a miracle. As the deadly rain moves
ever closer, the world as we know it winds toward an inevitable end …
On the Road By Jack Kerouac: The narrator, Sal Paradise, is on an epic quest, one that takes him back
and forth across the country with Dean Moriarity who is based on the real-life Neal Cassady. Dean, the
reform school escapee who specializes in stealing cars, is Sal's mentor. And it is the automobile that is
their chariot, which keeps them constantly in motion. Dean's madness is glorified, as is his ability to do
whatever he pleases. There are a lot of drugs in the book, but liquor seems to be their drug of choice.
They leave the heroin for a character loosely based on the real William Burroughs. Women drift in and
out of the story, usually as one of Dean's lovers who he treats terribly. Dean treats everyone terribly
though, abandoning Sal on several occasions, once while Sal was suffering from dysentery while they
were in Mexico. Sal, however, always forgives Dean, seeing him as a god-like hero, no matter what he
does.
Ordinary People by Judith Guest: The Jarrets are a typical American family. Calvin is a determined,
successful provider and Beth is an organized, efficient wife. They had two sons, Conrad and Buck, but
now they have one. In this moving, memorable novel, Judith Guest takes the reader into their lives to
share their misunderstandings, pain … and ultimate healings.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest By Ken Kesey: Randle Patrick McMurphy, a boisterous, brawling, funloving rebel who swaggers into the world of a mental hospital and takes over. A lusty, life-affirming
fighter, McMurphy rallies the other patients around him by challenging the dictatorship of Big Nurse. He
promotes gambling in the ward, smuggles in wine and women, and openly defies the rules at every turn.
But this defiance, which starts as a sport, soon develops into a grim struggle, an all-out war between two
relentless opponents: Big Nurse, backed by the full power of authority...McMurphy, who has only his
own indomitable will. What happens when Big Nurse uses her ultimate weapon against McMurphy
provides the story''s shocking climax
One Hundred Years of Solitude By Gabriel Garcia Marquez: One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the
story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the
BuendÃa family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad, and alive with unforgettable men and women -brimming with truth, compassion, and a lyrical magic that strikes the soul
The Outsider by Albert Camus: Meursault leads the life of a bachelor in Algiers until he becomes
involved in an act of violence that threatens to forever alienate him from the rest of society. He begins
to question the moral values that he has so far taken for granted, and comes face-to-face with a new
world that is both bleak and absurd. The Outsider is a classic of existentialism, and many critics consider
it to be Albert Camus' greatest literary achievement. It holds a secure place as one of the most
influential books of the 20th century, and is a standard in both philosophy and literature classes.
The Ox-Bow Incident by Wallace Stegner: Set in 1885, The Ox-Bow Incident is a searing and realistic
portrait of frontier life and mob violence in the American West. First published in 1940, it focuses on the
lynching of three innocent men and the tragedy that ensues when law and order are abandoned. The
result is an emotionally powerful, vivid, and unforgettable re-creation of the Western novel, which Clark
transmuted into a universal story about good and evil, individual and community, justice and human
nature. As Wallace Stegner writes, [Clark'‘s] theme was civilization, and he recorded, indelibly, its first
steps in a new country.
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood: The narrator of Atwood‘s riveting novel calls himself Snowman.
When the story opens, he is sleeping in a tree, wearing an old bedsheet, mourning the loss of his
beloved Oryx and his best friend Crake, and slowly starving to death. He searches for supplies in a
wasteland where insects proliferate and pigoons and wolvogs ravage the pleeblands, where ordinary
people once lived, and the Compounds that sheltered the extraordinary. As he tries to piece together
what has taken place, the narrative shifts to decades earlier. How did everything fall apart so quickly?
Why is he left with nothing but his haunting memories? Alone except for the green-eyed Children of
Crake, who think of him as a kind of monster, he explores the answers to these questions in the double
journey he takes - into his own past, and back to Crake‘s high-tech bubble-dome, where the Paradice
Project unfolded and the world came to grief.
The Painted Bird By Jerzy Kozinski: A harrowing story that follows the wanderings of a boy abandoned
by his parents during World War II, "The Painted Bird" is a dark masterpiece that examines the proximity
of terror and savagery to innocence and love. It is the first, and the most famous, novel by one of the
most important and original writers of this century.
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster: Written while England was still firmly in control of India, Forster's
novel follows the fortunes of three English newcomers to India--Miss Adela Quested, Mrs. Moore, and
Cyril Fielding--and the Indian, Dr. Aziz, with whom they cross destinies. The idea of true friendship
between the races was a radical one in Forster's time, and he makes it abundantly clear that it was not
one that either side welcomed. If Aziz's friend, Hamidullah, believed it impossible, the British
representatives of the Raj were equally discouraging. Despite their countrymen's disapproval, Miss
Quested, Mrs. Moore, and Mr. Fielding are all eager to meet Indians, and in Dr. Aziz they find a perfect
companion: educated, westernized, and open-minded. Slowly, the friendships ripen, especially between
Aziz and Fielding. Having created the possibility of esteem based on trust and mutual affection, Forster
then subjects it to the crucible of racial hatred: during a visit to the famed Marabar caves, Miss Quested
accuses Dr. Aziz of sexually assaulting her, then later recants during the frenzied trial that follows. Under
such circumstances, affection proves to be a very fragile commodity indeed.
Pay it Forward By Catherine Ryan Hyde: Pay It Forward, is the moving story of Trevor McKinney, a
twelve-year-old boy who accepts his social studies teacher's challenge to come up with a plan to change
the world.Trevor's idea is simple: Do a good deed for three people and ask them to "pay it forward" to
three others who need help. He envisions a vast movement of kindness and goodwill spreading beyond
his small California town and across the world. However, when Jerry, a bum to whom Trevor gave his
allowance, returns to a life of dissolution, the project seems valuable only as a lesson on the dark side of
human nature. But ultimately Trevor is vindicated. At first people don't know how to explain the odd dip
in crime rates across the nation, but a journalist with a story of his own tracks down the source of the
epidemic of random acts of kindness and makes Trevor a celebrity.
Percepolis By Marjane Satrapi- This book is unbelievable – call it the "thinking person's comic book." I
have read many coming-of-age stories but never one set against the historic backdrop of a society
undergoing a shift from liberal democracy to extreme fundamentalism. This is moving, eye-opening, and
powerful reading.
The Picture of Dorian Gray By Oscar Wilde: A classic tale of the moral decline of its title character,
Dorian Gray. When Dorian has his portrait painted by Basil Hallward and wishes that he would stay
young while his picture changes, his wish comes true. In exchange for this Dorian gives up his soul and as
he ages the bad deeds that he commits are reflected in his painting and not him closer to home: he
wants his pretty, hardworking mother to see the softer side of his beloved teacher, Reuben St. Clair, a
scarred Vietnam veteran who seems to come alive only when he's in front of his class.
The Pillars of the Earth By Ken Follett: The spellbinding epic set in twelfth-century England, The Pillars
of the Earth tells the story of the lives entwined in the building of the greatest Gothic cathedral the
world has ever known-and a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state, and
brother against brother.
The Pilot’s Wife By Anita Shreve- A pilot's wife is taught to be prepared for the late-night knock at the
door. But when Kathryn Lyons receives word that a plane flown by her husband, Jack, has exploded near
the coast of Ireland, she confronts the unfathomable-one startling revelation at a time. Soon drawn into
a maelstrom of publicity fueled by rumors that Jack led a secret life, Kathryn sets out to learn who her
husband really was, whatever that knowledge might cost. Her search propels this taut, impassioned
novel as it movingly explores the question, How well can we ever really know another person?
The Poisonwood Bible- By Barbara Kingsolver: A story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan
Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They
carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it -- from
garden seeds to Scripture -- is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful
epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in
postcolonial Africa.
The Polished Hoe by Austin Clarke: When Mary-Mathilda, one of the most respected women of the
island of Bimshire (also known as Barbados) calls the police to confess to a crime, the result is a
shattering all-night vigil that brings together elements of the island's African past and the tragic legacy of
colonialism in one epic sweep. Set in the West Indies in the period following World War II, The Polished
Hoe -- . . . unravels over the course of twenty-four hours but spans the collective experience of a society
characterized by slavery.
The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay: Set in a world torn apart, where man enslaves his fellow man
and freedom remains elusive, THE POWER OF ONE is the moving story of one young man's search for
the love that binds friends, the passion that binds lovers, and the realization that it takes only one to
change the world. A weak and friendless boy growing up in South Africa during World War II, Peekay
turns to two older men, one black and one white, to show him how to find the courage to dream, to
succeed, to triumph over a world when all seems lost, and to inspire him to summon up the most
irresistible force of all: the Power of One.
A Prayer of Owen Meany By John Irving: The stunted Owen Meany, whose life is touched by God, and
the orphaned Johnny Wheelwright, whose life is touched by Owen. From the accident that links them to
the mystery that follows them-and the martyrdom that parts them-the events of their lives form a
tapestry of fate and faith in a novel that is Irving at his irresistible best.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: Pride And Prejudice, the story of Mrs. Bennet''s attempts to marry
off her five daughters is one of the best-loved and most enduring classics in English literature.
Excitement fizzes through the Bennet household at Longbourn in Hertfordshire when young, eligible Mr.
Charles Bingley rents the fine house nearby. He may have sisters, but he also has male friends, and one
of these -- the haughty, and even wealthier, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy -- irks the vivacious Elizabeth Bennet,
the second of the Bennet girls. She annoys him. Which is how we know they must one day marry. The
romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and Darcy is a splendid rendition of civilized sparring.
As the characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, Jane Austen''s radiantly caustic wit
and keen observation sparkle.
Push By Sapphire: Precious Jones, 16 years old and pregnant by her father with her second child, meets
a determined and highly radical teacher who takes her on a journey of transformation and redemption
QBVII by Leon Uris: In Queen's Bench Courtroom Number Seven, famous author Abraham Cady stands
trial. In his book The Holocaust --born of the terrible revelation that the Jadwiga Concentration camp
was the site of his family's extermination--Cady shook the consciousness of the human race. He also
named eminent surgeon Sir Adam Kelno as one of Jadwiga's most sadistic inmate/doctors. Kelno has
denied this and brought furious charges. Now unfolds Leon Uris' riveting courtroom drama--one of the
great fictional trials of the century.
The Rapture of Canaan by Sheri Reynolds: For 14-year-old Ninah Huff, growing up in the extended
family community of the Church of Fire and Brimstone and God's Almighty Baptizing Wind has meant
working on the communal tobacco farm, receiving harsh punishments for unintended acts, being
different from schoolmates, and enjoying a few simple pleasures. Foremost among the pleasures have
been the company and stories of Nanna, whose husband, Grandpa Herman, founded the church after
surviving wartime combat and unilaterally controlled its finances, doctrines, and daily life. Then comes a
pleasure surpassing all others in the person of 15-year-old James. Designated prayer partners, Ninah and
James share rebellious ideas, tentative touches, and more (after beseeching Jesus to speak to each of
them through the other), leaving Ninah pregnant and touching off events that shake the community and
its faith. Reynolds' second assured coming-of-age novel (after Bitterroot Landing, 1995) is also a
devastating portrayal of organized religion as illogical, intolerant, and cruel but still unable to extinguish
the spark of the human spirit . . . .
The Reader By Berhnard Schlink- When he falls ill on his way home from school, fifteen-year-old
Michael Berg is rescued by Hanna, a woman twice his age. In time she becomes his lover—then she
inexplicably disappears. When Michael next sees her, he is a young law student, and she is on trial for a
hideous crime. As he watches her refuse to defend her innocence, Michael gradually realizes that Hanna
may be guarding a secret she considers more shameful than murder.
Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier: Rebecca is a novel of mystery and passion, a dark psychological tale of
secrets and betrayal, dead loves and an estate called Manderley that is as much a presence as the
humans who inhabit it . . . . Manderley is filled with memories of the elegant and flamboyant Rebecca,
the first Mrs. DeWinter; with the obsessive love of her housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, who observes the
young, timid second Mrs. DeWinter with sullen hostility; and with the oppressive silences of a secretive
husband, Maxim. Rebecca may be physically dead, but she is a force to contend with, and the
housekeeper's evil matches that of her former mistress as a purveyor of the emotional horror thrust on
the innocent Mrs. DeWinter. The tension builds as the new Mrs. DeWinter slowly grows and asserts
herself, surviving the wicked deceptions of Mrs. Danvers and the silent deceits of her husband, to
emerge triumphant in the midst of a surprise ending that leaves the reader with a sense of haunting
justice.
A Recipe for Bees by Gail Anderson Argatz: Augusta Olsen has seven cats, a son-in-law in the hospital
"for tests," and a husband who never says what he is thinking. A Recipe for Bees looks back over her life
story, from a childhood on a farm in rural Canada through various waves of premonition and loss. As a
young girl she is infatuated with the handsome and mysterious Joe, but all she has left of him is a
pendant: a bee frozen in amber. When her mother dies, she marries Karl, who loves her so much that
his face reddens when he looks at her. He makes her feel safe and irritable. Only late in life when she
rediscovers her mother's beekeeping equipment does Augusta find a true opening into the past, as she
spends hours out among the swarms, observing how "a handful of bees felt for all the world like a
handful of warm black currants."
The River King by Alice Hoffman: Weaving history, geography, and the impact of weather upon the
town of Haddan, MA, Hoffman creates an often-grotesque world where love struggles to grow beside
cruelty and secrets. Carlin Leander and Gus Pierce are freshmen boarding at Haddan School, which has
an uneasy relationship both past and present with the townspeople. The novel throbs with often-dense
images of water in all its forms of sustenance and destruction as metaphor and setting. The usual tricks
and strengths of Hoffman are here in the use of magic and mystery within layers of description that
build an atmosphere as important as any characterization. Laural Merlington's reading is clear, sensitive,
and well paced in a story that is haunting in its beauty and cruelty. Joyce Kessel, Villa Maria Coll.,
Buffalo, NY.
The Road By Cormac McCarthy: A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing
moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when
the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don''t know what, if
anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless
bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food--and each other.The
Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains,
but in which the father and his son, "each the other''s world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in
the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of:
ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face
of total devastation.
The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood: This is the wise, unsettling, drastic story of three women whose
lives share a common wound: Zenia, a woman they first met as university students in the sixties. Zenia is
smart and beautiful, by turns manipulative, vulnerable – and irresistible. She has entered into their
separate lives to ensnare their sympathy, betray their trust, and exploit their weaknesses. Now Zenia,
thought dead, has suddenly reappeared. In this richly layered narrative, Atwood skilfully evokes the
decades of the past as she retraces three women‘s lives, until we are back in the present – where it‘s yet
to be discovered whether Zenia‘s ―pure, free-wheeling malevolence‖ can still wreak havoc. The Robber
Bride reports from the farthest reaches of the sex wars and is one of Margaret Atwood‘s most intricate
and subversive novels yet.
Roots by Alex Haley: One of the most important books and television series ever to appear, Roots,
galvanized the nation, and created an extraordinary political, racial, social and cultural dialogue that
hadn't been seen since the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin. The book sold over one million copies in
the first year, and the miniseries was watched by an astonishing 130 million people. It also won both the
Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Roots opened up the minds of Americans of all colors and
faiths to one of the darkest and most painful parts of America's past.
Rose Madder By Stephen King- After 14 years of being beaten, Rose Daniels wakes up one morning and
leaves her husband -- but she keeps looking over her shoulder, because Norman has the instincts of a
predator. And what is the strange work of art that has Rose in a kind of spell? In this brilliant dark-hued
fable of the gender wars, Stephen King has fashioned yet another suspense thriller to keep readers right
at the edge.
Rule of the Bone by Russell Banks: When we first meet him, Chappie is a punked-out teenager living
with his mother and abusive stepfather in an upstate New York trailer park. During this time, he slips
into drugs and petty crime. Rejected by his parents, out of school and in trouble with the police, he
claims for himself a new identity as a permanent outsider; he gets a crossed-bones tattoo on his arm,
and takes the name "Bone." He finds dangerous refuge with a group of biker-thieves, and then hides in
the boarded-up summer house of a professor and his wife. He finally settles in an abandoned schoolbus
with Rose, a child he rescues from a fast-talking pedophile. There Bone meets I-Man, an exiled
Rastafarian, and together they begin a second adventure that takes the reader from Middle America to
the ganja-growing mountains of Jamaica. It is an amazing journey of self-discovery through a world of
magic, violence, betrayal and redemption.
Salt Dancers by Ursula Hegi: Hegi, the author of the critically acclaimed Stones from a River , has crafted
an exquisite novel of love, loss, and reaffirmation. Haunted by bitter memories of her abusive father and
tender memories of the mother who abandoned her, 41-year-old Julia travels home to Spokane,
Washington, in order to lay to rest the distorted images of her bleak childhood. Unmarried and
pregnant, Julia is convinced that she will be unable to nurture her own child until she comes to terms
with the heartbreaking disintegration of her own family. As she struggles to exorcise the demons of her
past, she confronts her father, reconnects with her brother, and rediscovers the mother she believed
was lost to her forever. In achingly beautiful prose that exacts a huge emotional toll, the author at once
shatters and rebuilds the myth of the family unit. . . .
Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally: Schindler's List is a remarkable work of fiction based on the true
story of German industrialist and war profiteer, Oskar Schindler, who, confronted with the horror of the
extermination camps, gambled his life and fortune to rescue 1,300 Jews from the gas chambers.
Working with the actual testimony of Schindler's Jews, Thomas Keneally artfully depicts the courage and
shrewdness of an unlikely savior, a man who is a flawed mixture of hedonism and decency and who, in
the presence of unutterable evil, transcends the limits of his own humanity.
The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne : The story of Hester Prynne-found out in adultery, pilloried
by her Puritan community, and abandoned, in different ways, by both her partner in sin and her
vengeance-seeking husband-possesses a reality heightened by Nathaniel Hawthorne's pure human
sympathy and his unmixed devotion to his supposedly fallen but fundamentally innocent heroine.
Exploring themes such as community and isolation, innocence and guilt, and secrecy and exposure
The Secret Book of Grazia Dei Rossi by Jacqueline Park: The Secret Book of Grazia dei Rossi is a
sweeping tale of intrigue and romance set in a time rife with court politics, papal chicanery, religious
intolerance, and inviolable social rules. Grazia, private secretary to the world-renowned Isabella d''Este,
is the daughter of an eminent Jewish banker, the wife of the pope''s Jewish physician, and the lover of a
Christian prince. In a "secret book," written as a legacy for her son, she records her struggles to choose
between the seductions of the Christian world and a return to the family, traditions, and duties of her
Jewish roots. As she re-creates Renaissance Italy in captivating detail, Jacqueline Park gives us a timeless
portrait of a brave and brilliant woman trapped in an unforgiving, inflexible society.
Secret Daughter- By Shilpi S Gowda: In a tiny hut in rural India, Kavita gives birth to Asha. Unable to
afford the 'luxury' of raising a daughter, her husband forces Kavita to give the baby up--a decision that
will haunt them both for the rest of their lives.Halfway around the globe, Somer, an American doctor,
decides to adopt a child after making the wrenching discovery that she will never have one of her own.
When her husband Krishnan shows her a photo of baby Asha sent to him from a Mumbai orphanage,
she falls instantly in love. As she waited for adoption to be finalized, she knew her life would change. But
she was convinced that the love she already felt would overcome all obstacles.
The Secret Life of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd- When Lily’s fierce-hearted black “stand-in mother,”
Rosaleen, insults three of the town’s most vicious racists, Lily decides they should both escape to
Tiburon, South Carolina—a town that holds the secret to her mother’s past. There they are taken in by
an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters who introduce Lily to a mesmerizing world of bees, honey,
and the Black Madonna who presides over their household. This is a remarkable story about divine
female power and the transforming power of love—a story that women will continue to share and pass
on to their daughters for years to come.
She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb: Delve into the extraordinary world of 13-year-old Dolores Price. In
She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb has created a comical and bittersweet heroine who tries to come of
age in the sixties, when hippies and pot are the last thing on poor Dolores' mind. No, 13-year-old
Dolores has to contend with a mentally-ill mother, an abusive father and the fact that she was raped in a
dog pound by a local DJ. She spends her "glorious" teenaged years eating and eating in front of the TV.
When she reaches the weight of 257 pounds as a young woman, life still holds misery - but Dolores isn't
going to give up that easily. She's determined to give herself one more chance to find herself and her
place in the world.
The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx: When Quoyle's two-timing wife meets her just deserts, he
retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland coast,
where a rich cast of local characters and family members all play a part in Quoyle's struggle to reclaim
his life. As Quoyle confronts his private demons -- and the unpredictable forces of nature and society -he begins to see the possibility of love without pain or misery. A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times
magical portrait of the contemporary North American family, The Shipping News shows why Annie
Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today.
Slaughterhouse Five- Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhous-Five is one of the world''s great anti-war books.
Centering on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim''s odyssey through time reflects the
mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know.
Songs of Solomon By Toni Morrison- Milkman Dead was born shortly after a neighborhood eccentric
hurled himself off a rooftop in a vain attempt at flight. For the rest of his life he, too, will be trying to fly.
With this brilliantly imagined novel, Toni Morrison transfigures the coming-of-age story as audaciously
as Saul Bellow or Gabriel García Márquez. As she follows Milkman from his rustbelt city to the place of
his family’s origins, Morrison introduces an entire cast of strivers and seeresses, liars and assassins, the
inhabitants of a fully realized black world.
The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra: Set in Kabul under the rule of the Taliban, this extraordinary
novel takes readers into the lives of two couples: Mohsen, who comes from a family of wealthy
shopkeepers whom the Taliban has destroyed; Zunaira, his wife, exceedingly beautiful, who was once a
brilliant teacher and is now no longer allowed to leave her home without an escort or covering her face.
Intersecting their world is Atiq, a prison keeper, a man who has sincerely adopted the Taliban ideology
and struggles to keep his faith …
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold: "I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973," says
Susie Salmon in this intriguing novel. Teens will immediately be drawn into this account of a girl who
was raped and killed, and tells her story from "heaven." She realizes gradually that she is in an interim
heaven until she can let go of her earthly concerns. The place is like school with Seventeen for a
textbook and no teachers. On Earth, her mother needs to leave the family for a time, her sister seems to
have Susie constantly in her thoughts, her young brother grows into a pensive preteen, and her griefstricken father spends much of his time seeking out the murderer, even after it seems that the police
have given up. The narrator observes the disparate ways her family and friends cope, and finally sees
that they are resolving their grief as "the lovely bones" of their lives knit themselves around the empty
space that was her life. . .
Three Cups of Tea By Greg Mortenson : Homeless mountaineer who, following a 1993 climb of
Pakistan's treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished mountain villagers
and promised to build them a school. Over the next decade he built fifty-five schools-especially for girlsthat offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on earth. As it
chronicles Mortenson's quest, which has brought him into conflict with both enraged Islamists and
uncomprehending Americans, Three Cups of Tea combines adventure with a celebration of the
humanitarian spirit.
Through Black Spruce By Joseph Boyden- From internationally acclaimed author Joseph Boyden comes
an astonishingly powerful novel of contemporary aboriginal life, full of the dangers and harsh beauty of
both forest and city. When beautiful Suzanne Bird disappears, her sister Annie, a loner and hunter, is
compelled to search for her, leaving behind their uncle Will, a man haunted by loss.While Annie travels
from Toronto to New York, from modelling studios to A-list parties,Will encounters dire troubles at
home. Both eventually come to painful discoveries about the inescapable ties of family. Through Black
Spruce is an utterly unforgettable consideration of how we discover who we really are.
Tis By Frank McCourt- And now we have 'Tis, the story of Frank's American journey from impoverished
immigrant to brilliant teacher and raconteur. Frank lands in New York at age nineteen, in the company
of a priest he meets on the boat. He gets a job at the Biltmore Hotel, where he immediately encounters
the vivid hierarchies of this "classless country," and then is drafted into the army and is sent to Germany
to train dogs and type reports. It is Frank's incomparable voice-his uncanny humor and his astonishing
ear for dialogue-that renders these experiences spellbinding.
Trinity By Leon Uris: The "terrible beauty" that is Ireland comes alive in this mighty epic that re-creates
that Emerald''s Isle''s fierce struggle for independence. Trinity is a saga of glories and defeats, triumphs
and tragedies, lived by a young Catholic rebel and the beautiful and valiant Protestant girl who defied
her heritage to join him
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson: This is the kind of book where you can smell and hear and
see the fictional world the writer has created, so palpably does the atmosphere come through. Set on an
island in the straits north of Puget Sound, in Washington, where everyone is either a fisherman or a
berry farmer, the story is nominally about a murder trial. But since it's set in the 1950s, lingering
memories of World War II, internment camps and racism helps fuel suspicion of a Japanese-American
fisherman, a lifelong resident of the islands. . . .
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon: In the tradition of Flowers for Algernon, Moon's thoughtprovoking novel asks whether we treat impairments of the brain at too great a cost. Lou Arrendale is a
young autistic living in a future time, when most of the symptoms of autism can be controlled through
medication. Lou lives on his own, works full time at a job where his abilities to recognize patterns are
valued, and socializes with nonautistics during his weekly fencing class. Although baffled by the complex
social signals and subtle facial cues of nonautistics, Lou is content with himself as he is--until he falls in
love with Marjory. When his supervisor pressures him to try an experimental treatment that will
eradicate his autism, Lou must decide whether the benefits of life as a "normal" will outweigh the
possible loss of the unique qualities that make him who he is. . . .
Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi: Ursula Hegi's Stones from the River clamors for comparisons to
Gunter Grass's The Tin Drum; her protagonist Trudi Montag--like the unforgettable Oskar Mazerath--is a
dwarf living in Germany during the two World Wars. To its credit, Stones does not wilt from the
comparison. Hegi's book has a distinctive, appealing flavor of its own. Stone's characters are off-center
enough to hold your attention despite the inevitable dominance of the setting: There's Trudi's mother,
who slowly goes insane living in an "earth nest" beneath the family house; Trudi's best friend Georg,
whose parents dress him as the girl they always wanted; and, of course, Trudi herself, whose condition
dooms her to long for an impossible normalcy. . . .
Surfacing by Margaret Atwood: From the island Quebec cabin where she spent her childhood, a
nameless twenty-something woman searches for her father. Despite the company of her lover and
friends, these days are painful and excruciatingly lonely. Unbeknownst to them, the truth about her own
life is surfacing inside her. Powerful and often frightening, this haunting quest for self is Margaret
Atwood's second novel.
A Tale of Two Cities By Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities begins on a muddy English road in an
atmosphere charged with mystery and drama, and it ends in the Paris of the French Revolution with one
of the most famous acts of self-sacrifice in literature.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte: The mysterious new tenant of Wildfell Hall is a strongminded woman who keeps her own counsel. Helen 'Graham' - exiled with her child to the desolate
moorland mansion, adopting an assumed name and earning her living as a painter - has returned to
Wildfell Hall in flight from a disastrous marriage. Narrated by her neighbour Gilbert Markham, and in the
pages of her own diary, the novel portrays Helen's eloquent struggle for independence at a time when
the law and society defined a married woman as her husband's property.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe: Chinua Achebe's first novel portrays the collision of African and
European cultures in people's lives. Okonkwo, a great man in Igbo traditional society, cannot adapt to
the profound changes brought about by British colonial rule. Yet, as in classic tragedy, Okonkwo's
downfall results from his own character as well as from external forces.
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien: The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company:
Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and of course, the
character Tim O'Brien who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of
forty-three. They battle the enemy (or maybe more the idea of the enemy), and occasionally each other.
In their relationships we see their isolation and loneliness, their rage and fear. They miss their families,
their girlfriends and buddies; they miss the lives they left back home. Yet they find sympathy and
kindness for strangers (the old man who leads them unscathed through the mine field, the girl who
grieves while she dances), and love for each other, because in Vietnam they are the only family they
have. We hear the voices of the men and build images upon their dialogue. The way they tell stories
about others, we hear them telling stories about themselves. . . .
Three Came Home by Agnes Newton Keith: Three Came Home is a well-written, true story of a woman
and her son's internment in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in Borneo during WWII. Agnes Newton
Keith creates a vivid portrait of the conditions under which the prisoners lived and of their day-to-day
lives. She tries to retain some dignity and give her son as normal a life as possible, but it is almost
impossible, given the extremely harsh conditions of their lives. She makes it clear that people are not
inherently good or bad; they are often just victims of circumstances. She also shows that it is her love for
her son and hope that they will be reunited with her husband that stop her from giving up and that keep
her morally-centred.
Tim by Colleen McCullough: Content with her solitary world until she meets childlike outcast Tim, Mary
Horton is touched by his innocence and finds her respectable but lonely existence changed forever.
A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute: A Town Like Alice tells of a young woman who miraculously survived a
Japanese "death march" in World War II, and of an Australian soldier, also a prisoner of war, who
offered to help her--even at the cost of his life....
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith: Francie Nolan, avid reader, penny-candy connoisseur, and
adroit observer of human nature, has much to ponder in colorful, turn-of-the-century Brooklyn. She
grows up with a sweet, tragic father, a severely realistic mother, and an aunt who gives her love too
freely--to men, and to a brother who will always be the favored child. Francie learns early the meaning
of hunger and the value of a penny. She is her father's child--romantic and hungry for beauty. But she is
her mother's child, too--deeply practical and in constant need of truth. Like the Tree of Heaven that
grows out of cement or through cellar gratings, resourceful Francie struggles against all odds to survive
and thrive. . . .
Uncle Tom’s Cabin By Harriet Beecher Stowe- Denouncing the institution of slavery in dramatic terms,
the incendiary novel quickly draws the reader into the world of slaves and their masters. Stowe's
characters are powerfully and humanly realized in Uncle Tom, a majestic and heroic slave whose faith
and dignity are never corrupted; Eliza and her husband, George, who elude slave catchers and
eventually flee a country that condones slavery; Simon Legree, a brutal plantation owner; Little Eva, who
suffers emotionally and physically from the suffering of slaves; and fun-loving Topsy, Eva's slave
playmate.
Unless by Carol Shields: “Unless you’re lucky, unless you’re healthy, fertile, unless you’re loved and fed,
unless you’re offered what others are offered, you go down in the darkness, down to despair.” Reta
Winters has many reasons to be happy: Her three almost grown daughters. Her twenty-year relationship
with their father. Her work translating the larger-than-life French intellectual and feminist Danielle
Westerman. Her modest success with a novel of her own, and the clamour of her American publisher for
a sequel. Then in the spring of her forty-fourth year, all the quiet satisfactions of her well-lived life
disappear in a moment: her eldest daughter Norah suddenly runs from the family and ends up mute and
begging on a Toronto street corner, with a hand-lettered sign reading GOODNESS around her neck.
GOODNESS. With the inconceivable loss of her daughter like a lump in her throat, Reta tackles the
mystery of this message. What in this world has broken Norah, and what could bring her back to the
provisional safety of home? . . .
The Watchmen By Alan Moore- This Hugo Award-winning graphic novel chronicles the fall from grace of
a group of super-heroes plagued by all-too-human failings. Along the way, the concept of the super-hero
is dissected as the heroes are stalked by an unknown assassin.
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen: Orphaned and penniless at the height of the Depression, Jacob
Jankowski escapes everything he knows by jumping on a passing train—and inadvertently runs away
with the circus. So begins Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen‘s darkly beautiful tale about the characters
who inhabit the less-than-greatest show on earth. Jacob finds a place tending the circus animals,
including a seemingly untrainable elephant named Rosie. He also comes to know Marlena, the star of
the equestrian act—and wife of August, a charismatic but cruel animal trainer. Caught between his love
for Marlena and his need to belong in the crazy family of travelling performers, Jacob is freed only by a
murderous secret that will bring the big top down.
Watership Down by Richard Adams: Fiver could sense danger -- something terrible was going to happen
to the warren. His brother Hazel could sense it too. They had to leave the warren, and they had to
persuade the other rabbits to join them. And so a band of rabbits begin a long and perilous journey.
We By Eugene Zamiatin: WE takes place in the twenty-sixth century where a totalitarian regime has
created an extremely regimented society where individual expression simply does not exist. All
remnants of individuality have been stripped from its inhabitants including their names. Their names
have been replaced with an alpha-numeric system. People are not coupled. Rather, each individual is
assigned three friends with whom they can have intimate relations on a rigid schedule established by
the state. Those scheduled assignations are the only times the shades in a citizen's glass houses can be
closed. Apart from those hourly intervals everyone's life is monitored by the state. As in Orwell's 1984,
language has been turned on its head. Freedom means unhappiness and conformity and the submission
of individual will to the state means happiness
We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates: The Mulvaneys of High Point Farm in Mt. Ephraim, New
York, are a large and fortunate clan, blessed with good looks, abundant charisma, and boundless
promise. But over the twenty-five year span of this ambitious novel, the Mulvaneys will slide, almost
imperceptibly at first, from the pinnacle of happiness, transformed by the vagaries of fate into a
scattered collection of lost and lonely souls. It is the youngest son, Judd, now an adult, who attempts to
piece together the fragments of the Mulvaneys‘ former glory, seeking to uncover and understand the
secret violation that occasioned the family‘s tragic downfall. Each of the Mulvaneys endures some form
of exile—physical or spiritual—but in the end they find a way to bridge the chasms that have opened up
among them, reuniting in the spirit of love and healing.
Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! By Fannie Flagg: Once again, Flagg‘s humor and respect and affection
for her characters shine forth. Many inhabit small-town or suburban America. But this time, her heroine
is urban: a brainy, beautiful, and ambitious rising star of 1970s television. Dena Nordstrom, pride of the
network, is a woman whose future is full of promise, her present rich with complications, and her past
marked by mystery. Among the colorful cast of characters are: Sookie, of Selma, Alabama, Dena‘s
exuberant college roommate, who is everything that Dena is not; she is thrilled by Dena‘s success and
will do everything short of signing autographs for her; Sookie‘s a mom, a wife, and a Kappa forever.;
Dena‘s cousins, the Warrens, and her aunt Elner, of Elmwood Springs, Missouri, endearing, loyal,
talkative, ditsy, and, in their way, wise; neighbor Dorothy, whose spirit hovers over them all through the
radio show that she broadcast from her home in the 1940s; Sidney Capello, pioneer of modern sleaze
journalism and privateer of privacy, and Ira Wallace, his partner in tabloid television; several doctors, all
of them taken with--and almost taken in by-Dena. . . .
Where The Heart Is by Billie Letts: A funny thing happens to Novalee Nation on her way to Bakersfield,
California. Her ne'er-do-well boyfriend, Willie Jack Pickens, abandons her in an Oklahoma Wal-Mart and
takes off on his own, leaving her with just 10 dollars and the clothes on her back. Not that hard luck is
anything new to Novalee, who is "seventeen, seven months pregnant, thirty-seven pounds overweight-and superstitious about sevens. . . . For most people, sevens were lucky. But not for her.". . . Still, finding
herself alone and penniless in Sequoyah, Oklahoma is enough to make even someone as inured to ill
fortune as Novalee want to give up and die. Fortunately, the Wal-Mart parking lot is the Sequoyah
equivalent of a town square, and within hours Novalee
White Oleander By Janet Fitch- Everywhere hailed as a novel of rare beauty and power, White Oleander
tells the unforgettable story of Ingrid, a brilliant poet imprisoned for murder, and her daughter, Astrid,
whose odyssey through a series of Los Angeles foster homes-each its own universe, with its own laws,
its own dangers, its own hard lessons to be learned-becomes a redeeming and surprising journey of selfdiscovery.
The White Tiger By Aravind Adiga: Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher.
Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous
chandelier, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life -having nothing but his own wits to help him along. Born in the dark heart of India, Balram gets a break
when he is hired as a driver for his village''s wealthiest man, two house Pomeranians (Puddles and
Cuddles), and the rich man''s (very unlucky) son. From behind the wheel of their Honda City car,
Balram''s new world is a revelation. While his peers flip through the pages of Murder Weekly ("Love -Rape -- Revenge!"), barter for girls, drink liquor (Thunderbolt), and perpetuate the Great Rooster Coop
of Indian society, Balram watches his employers bribe foreign ministers for tax breaks, barter for girls,
drink liquor (single-malt whiskey), and play their own role in the Rooster Coop. Balram learns how to
siphon gas, deal with corrupt mechanics, and refill and resell Johnnie Walker Black Label bottles (all but
one). He also finds a way out of the Coop that no one else inside it can perceive.Balram''s eyes penetrate
India as few outsiders can: the cockroaches and the call centers; the prostitutes and the worshippers;
the ancient and Internet cultures; the water buffalo and, trapped in so many kinds of cages that escape
is (almost) impossible, the white tiger. And with a charisma as undeniable as it is unexpected, Balram
teaches us that religion doesn't create virtue, and money doesn't solve every problem -- but decency
can still be found in a corrupt world, and you can get what you want out of life if you eavesdrop on the
right conversations has met three people who will change her life: Sister Thelma Husband, a kindly
eccentric; Benny Goodluck, a young Native American boy; and Moses Whitecotton, an elderly African
American photographer. For the next two months, Novalee surreptitiously makes her home in the WalMart, sleeping there at night, exploring the town by day. When she goes into labor and delivers her baby
there, however, Novalee learns that sometimes it's not so bad to depend on the kindness of strangers-especially if one of them happens to be Sam Walton, the superchain's founder. . . .
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys: A well-received work of fiction, it takes its theme from the novel Jane
Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. The book details the life of Antoinette Mason (known in Jane Eyre as Bertha),
a West Indian who marries an unnamed man in Jamaica and returns with him to his home in England.
Locked in a loveless marriage and settled in an inhospitable climate, Antoinette goes mad and is
frequently violent. Her husband confines her to the attic of his house at Thornfield. Only he and Grace
Poole, the attendant he has hired to care for her, know of Antoinette's existence. The reader gradually
learns that Antoinette's unnamed husband is Mr. Rochester, later to become the beloved of Jane Eyre.
Much of the action of the novel takes place in the West Indies. The first and third sections are narrated
by Antoinette, the middle section by her husband.
A Widow for One Year by John Irving: Marion Cole, a thirty-nine-year-old woman-- and a faithful wife
for twenty-two years--has an affair with a sixteen-year-old boy; she then leaves her philandering
husband. And also abandons her four-year-old daughter, Ruth. By the age of thirty-six, Ruth Cole has
become an internationally acclaimed novelist. But she is an angry, impulsive, often self-contradictory,
unmarried woman whose personal life is not nearly as successful as her literary career, and she distrusts
her judgement in men, for good reason. Five years later, at forty-one, Ruth Cole is a widow and a
mother. Ruth‘s child is the same age Ruth was when her mother left her. Now Ruth is about to fall in
love for the first time. …
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang: The forces of history and the exceptional talents
of this young writer combine to produce a work of nonfiction with the breadth and drama of the richest,
most memorable fiction classics. Wild Swans is a landmark book, with the intimacy of memoir and the
panoramic vision of a monumental human saga, which tells of the lives of Jung Chang, her mother, her
grandmother, and of 20th-century China.
Women of the Silk by Gail Tsukiyama: In Women of the Silk, [….] Gail Tsukiyama takes her readers back
to rural China in 1926 where a group of women forge a sisterhood amidst the reeling machines that
reverberate and clamor in a vast silk factory from dawn until dusk. Leading the first strike the village has
ever seen, the young women use the strength of their ambition, dreams and friendship to achieve the
freedom they could never have hoped for on their own. Tsukiyma‘s graceful prose weaves the details of
―the silk work‖ and Chinese village life into a story of miraculous courage and strength.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: "My greatest thought in living is Heathcliff. If all else perished, and
he remained, I should still continue to be... Nelly, I ‗am‘ Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not
as a pleasure... but as my own being." Wuthering Heights is the only novel of Emily Bronte, who died a
year after its publication, at the age of thirty. A brooding Yorkshire tale of a love that is stronger than
death, it is also a fierce vision of metaphysical passion, in which heaven and hell, nature and society, are
powerfully juxtaposed. Unique, mystical, with a timeless appeal, it has become a classic of English
literature.
Word of Honor by Nelson DeMille: He is a good man, a brilliant corporate executive, an honest,
handsome family man admired by men and desired by women. But a lifetime ago Ben Tyson was a
lieutenant in Vietnam. There the men under his command committed a murderous atrocity--and
together swore never to tell the world what they had done. Now the press, army justice, and the events
he tried to forget have caught up with Ben Tyson. His family, his career, and his personal sense of honor
hang in the balance. And only one woman can reveal the truth of his past--and set him free.
Year of Wonders, A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks: This gripping historical novel is based on
the true story Eyam, the "Plague Village," in the rugged mountain spine of England. In 1666, a tainted
bolt of cloth from London carries bubonic infection to this isolated settlement of shepherds & lead
miners. A visionary young preacher convinces the villagers to seal themselves off in a deadly quarantine
to prevent the spread of disease. The story is told through the eyes of eighteen-year-old Anna Frith, the
vicar's maid, as she confronts the loss of her family, the disintegration of her community, & the lure of a
dangerous & illicit love. As the death toll rises & people turn from prayers & herbal cures to sorcery &
murderous witch-hunting, Anna emerges as an unlikely & courageous heroine in the village's desperate
fight to save itself. Exploring love & learning, fear & fanaticism, & the struggle of science & religion to
interpret the world at the cusp of the modern era, Year of Wonders is at once a story of unconventional
love, & a richly detailed evocation of a riveting moment in history.
1984 By George Orwell-Winston Smith works for the Ministry of Truth in London, chief city of Airstrip
One. Big Brother stares out from every poster, the Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal. When
Winston finds love with Julia, he discovers that life does not have to be dull and deadening, and
awakens to new possibilities. Despite the police helicopters that hover and circle overhead, Winston and
Julia begin to question the Party; they are drawn towards conspiracy. Yet Big Brother will not tolerate
dissent - even in the mind. For those with original thoughts they invented Room 101...