Book List - 1001 Books to Read Before I Die

1

Kim W. (Kim1264) - TX

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus -- three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of... more

Book Votes: 539

2

Donna B. (eclecticreader10)

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women: Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace... more

Book Votes: 332

3

Patty R. (PattyR)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, Bk 1) by J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter has never played a sport while flying on a broomstick. He's never worn a cloak of invisibility, befriended a giant, or helped hatch a dragon. All Harry knows is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley. Harry's room is... more

Book Votes: 327

4

Janelle C. (jscrappy)

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last year of her life, Anne Frank's remarkable diary has since become a world classic -- a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit. In 1942, with Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old... more

Book Votes: 325

5

Chris H. (jgud11)

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, grifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town. A veterinary student who almost... more

Book Votes: 325

6

Vicki T. (VickiT12)

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

This powerful first novel tells a story of fierce cruelty and fierce yet redeeming love. Both transform the life of Amir, the privileged young narrator, who comes of age during the last peaceful days of the monarchy, just before his country's revolution and its invasion by Russian forces.... more

Book Votes: 298

7

Rick B. (bup) - Glenview, IL

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.' Thus memorably begins Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, one of the world's most popular novels. Pride and Prejudice -- Austen's own 'darling child' -- tells the story of... more

Book Votes: 297

8

Jessica D. (MTGirlAtHeart) - Wahiawa, HI

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Little Women is one of the best loved books of all time. Lovely Meg, talented Jo, frail Beth, spoiled Amy: these are hard lessons of poverty and of growing up in New England during the Civil War. Through their dreams, plays, pranks, letters,... more

Book Votes: 280

9

Colleen T. (rainbowbrite98)

The Hunger Games (Hunger Games, Bk 1) by Suzanne Collins

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to... more

Book Votes: 259

10

Terri E. (stocktonmalonefan) -

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Set in South Carolina in 1964, "The Secret Life of Bees" tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the town's... more

Book Votes: 252

11

Janelle C. (jscrappy)

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Charlotte Bronte's impassioned novel is the love story of Jane Eyre, a plain yet spirited governess, and her employer, the arrogant, brooding Mr. Rochester. Published in 1847, under the pseudonym of Currer Bell, the book heralded a new kind of heroine -- one whose virtuous integrity, keen... more

Book Votes: 249

12

Jessica D. (MTGirlAtHeart) - Wahiawa, HI

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

When F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote THE GREAT GATSBY in the early 1920s, the American Dream was already on the skids. Originally based on the idea that the pursuit of happiness involves not only material success but moral and spiritual growth, the dream had by Fitzgerald's time become increasingly... more

When F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote THE GREAT GATSBY in the early 1920s, the American Dream was already on the skids. Originally based on the idea that the pursuit of happiness involves not only material success but moral and spiritual growth, the dream had by Fitzgerald's time become increasingly focused on money and pleasure--a phenomenon the high-living writer was only too familiar with. In THE GREAT GATSBY, Fitzgerald looks deeply into himself and his milieu to create the story of James Gatz, a self-educated nobody from North Dakota who has amassed a fortune and adopted the persona of Jay Gatsby, an Oxford-educated man about town, for the sole purpose of winning back the heart of Daisy, the woman he loved in his youth. Daisy is now married to Tom Buchanan--a brutal, ignorant racist who embodies the corruption that can come with unlimited wealth. As Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom--and the narrator, Daisy's cousin Nick Carroway, who serves as the author's spokesman--play out the drama in a small Long Island town (the East Hampton of its day), Fitzgerald makes it increasingly clear that life is meaningless when it is based on money and glamour at the expense of the solid American values of self-reliance and hard work--and Gatsby's sad end underscores the point. THE GREAT GATSBY has long been celebrated as the archetypal American novel, and, just as Fitzgerald's book grew out of the tradition that included Henry James and Edith Wharton, its influence on later writers from J. D. Salinger to John O'Hara cannot be overestimated. The book remains vividly alive and widely read years after its writing. Amazon.com In 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald announced his decision to write "something new--something extraordinary and beautiful and simple + intricately patterned." That extraordinary, beautiful, intricately patterned, and above all, simple novel became The Great Gatsby, arguably Fitzgerald's finest work and certainly the book for which he is best known. A portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess, Gatsby captured the spirit of the author's generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology. Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald's--and his country's--most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings. "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning--" Gatsby's rise to glory and eventual fall from grace becomes a kind of cautionary tale about the American Dream. It's also a love story, of sorts, the narrative of Gatsby's quixotic passion for Daisy Buchanan. The pair meet five years before the novel begins, when Daisy is a legendary young Louisville beauty and Gatsby an impoverished officer. They fall in love, but while Gatsby serves overseas, Daisy marries the brutal, bullying, but extremely rich Tom Buchanan. After the war, Gatsby devotes himself blindly to the pursuit of wealth by whatever means--and to the pursuit of Daisy, which amounts to the same thing. "Her voice is full of money," Gatsby says admiringly, in one of the novel's more famous descriptions. His millions made, Gatsby buys a mansion across Long Island Sound from Daisy's patrician East Egg address, throws lavish parties, and waits for her to appear. When she does, events unfold with all the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama, with detached, cynical neighbor Nick Carraway acting as chorus throughout. Spare, elegantly plotted, and written in crystalline prose, The Great Gatsby is as perfectly satisfying as the best kind of poem.

Book Votes: 244

13

Carleigh O. (temarifan)

The Hobbit: Or, There and Back Again by J. R. R. Tolkien

J.R.R. Tolkien's own description for the original edition: If you care for journeys there and back, out of the comfortable Western world, over the edge of the Wild, and home again, and can take an interest in a humble hero (blessed with a little wisdom and a little courage and considerable good... more

J.R.R. Tolkien's own description for the original edition: If you care for journeys there and back, out of the comfortable Western world, over the edge of the Wild, and home again, and can take an interest in a humble hero (blessed with a little wisdom and a little courage and considerable good luck), here is a record of such a journey and such a traveler. The period is the ancient time between the age of Faerie and the dominion of men, when the famous forest of Mirkwood was still standing, and the mountains were full of danger. In following the path of this humble adventurer, you will learn by the way (as he did) -- if you do not already know all about these things -- much about trolls, goblins, dwarves, and elves, and get some glimpses into the history and politics of a neglected but important period. For Mr. Bilbo Baggins visited various notable persons; conversed with the dragon, Smaug the Magnificent; and was present, rather unwillingly, at the Battle of the Five Armies. This is all the more remarkable, since he was a hobbit. Hobbits have hitherto been passed over in history and legend, perhaps because they as a rule preferred comfort to excitement. But this account, based on his personal memoirs, of the one exciting year in the otherwise quiet life of Mr. Baggins will give you a fair idea of the estimable people now (it is said) becoming rather rare. They do not like noise. This 1937 fantasy is the prequel, or "prelude" to the classic epic trilogy THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Bilbo Baggins is the hobbit of the title: a short, round, and hairy-footed creature fond of small comforts and his rural home. What he doesn't like (or at least thinks he doesn't like) is adventure, but that's just what he gets when a wizard and several dwarves show up on his doorstep, eat him out of house and home, and induce him to join them on a perilous quest to steal a dragon's treasure. Along the way, he picks up a golden ring with the power to turn the wearer invisible; this ring will turn out to be central to the later volumes. While THE LORD OF THE RINGS is a serious epic about the nature of good and evil, written in highly formal language and intended for adults, this earlier work is considerably lighter in tone and clearly directed toward a younger audience, having sprung out of the stories that Tolkien used to tell his own children. However, that does not and has not prevented adults the world over from enjoying THE HOBBIT.

Book Votes: 240

14

Mary C. (purplepride) - Clovis, NM

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, Bk 1) by Stieg Larsson

Harriet Vanger, scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families, disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the... more

Book Votes: 228

15

Terri E. (stocktonmalonefan) -

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

First published in 1936, this book is a historical novel set against the dramatic backdrop of the American Civil War. It tells the love story of Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler. Amazon.com Sometimes only remembered for the epic motion picture and "Frankly ... I don't give a damn," Gone with... more

Book Votes: 228

16

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

A literary sensation and runaway bestseller, this brilliant debut novel tells with seamless authenticity and exquisite lyricism the true confessions of one of Japan's most celebrated geisha. Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta... more

Book Votes: 225

17

Lisa B. (sheesh)

The Glass Castle : A Memoir by Jeannette Walls

Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic,... more

Book Votes: 224

18

Stacy P.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

When we first meet Susie Salmon, she is already in heaven. As she looks down from this strange new place, she tells us, in the fresh and spirited voice of a fourteen-year-old girl, a tale that is both haunting and full of hope. In the weeks following her death, Susie watches life on Earth... more

Book Votes: 221

19

Kim W. (Kim1264) - TX

Animal Farm by George Orwell

A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned--a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that... more

Book Votes: 220

20

James M. (monkeypox)

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

J. D. Salinger's famous and enduring chronicle of Holden Caulfield's journey from innocence to experience is the quintessential coming-of-age novel--though it's an unusual one, in which the hero tries to cling to the simplicity of childhood, achieving a kind of maturity almost in spite of... more

Book Votes: 210

21

Lori B. (LoriVB)

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

Her name is Dinah. In the Bible, her life is only hinted at in a brief and violent detour within the more familiar chapters of the Book of Genesis that are about her father, Jacob, and his dozen sons. Told in Dinah's voice, this novel reveals the traditions and turmoils of ancient womanhood... more

Book Votes: 209

22

Heidi L. (caleighsmom)

A Child Called 'It': One Child's Courage to Survive by Dave Pelzer

This book chronicles the unforgettable account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games--games that left... more

Book Votes: 186

23

Rick B. (bup) - Glenview, IL

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow. This improbable story of Christopher's... more

Book Votes: 185

24

Kim W. (Kim1264) - TX

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

When The Grapes of Wrath first appeared in 1939, it electrified an America still recovering from the Great Depression. Driven from their Oklahoma farm by the encroachment of large agricultural interests, the Joad family sets out, like generations before them, to the promised land of... more

Book Votes: 184

25

Leah G. (LeahG)

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

In 1959, Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist, takes his four young daughters, his wife, and his mission to the Belgian Congo -- a place, he is sure, where he can save needy souls. But the seeds they plant bloom in tragic ways within this complex culture. Set against one of the most... more

Book Votes: 183

26

Elizabeth B. (Cattriona) - Prairie Vlg, KS

Night by Elie Wiesel

Night -- A terrifying account of the Nazi death camp horror that turns a young Jewish boy into an agonized witness to the death of his family...the death of his innocence...and the death of his God. Penetrating and powerful, as personal as The Diary Of Anne Frank, Night awakens the shocking... more

Book Votes: 181

27

Kim W. (Kim1264) - TX

Of Mice and Men (Twentieth-Century Classics) by John Steinbeck

MAXnotes offer a fresh look at masterpieces of literature, presented in a lively and interesting fashion. Written by literary experts who currently teach the subject, MAXnotes will enhance your understanding and enjoyment of the work. MAXnotes are designed to stimulate independ ent thought... more

Book Votes: 180

28

James M. (monkeypox)

The Stand by Stephen King

Arguably the greatest horror novel ever written by the greatest horror novelist, this is a true Modern Classic that was first published in 1978, and then re-published in 1990, complete and unabridged, with 150,000 words cut from the first edition restored, and now accompanied by unusual and... more

Book Votes: 178

29

J. M. (nena)

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

A specially produced paperback edition -- with flaps -- of the phenomenal #1 New York Times bestseller, that has sold more than six million copies in hardcover Eddie is a grizzled war veteran who feels trapped in a meaningless life of fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. His days are a... more

Book Votes: 176

30

Janelle C. (jscrappy)

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Penguin Classics) by Mark Twain & Guy Cardwel...

Of all the contenders for the title of The Great American Novel, none has a better claim than The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. More than a century after its publication it remains a major work that can be enjoyed at many levels: as an incomparable adventure story and as a classic of American... more

Book Votes: 174

31

Elizabeth W. (pandagirl)

The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

Ponyboy is fourteen, tough and confused, yet sensitive behind his bold front. Since his parents' death, his loyalties have been to his brothers and his gang, the rough, swinging, long-haired boys from the wrong side of the tracks. When his best friend, Johnny, kills a member of a rival gang, a... more

Book Votes: 170

32

Janelle C. (jscrappy)

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again ... With these words the reader is ushered into an isolated gray stone manse on the windswept Cornish coast, as the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter recalls the chilling events that transpired as she began her new life as the young bride of a husband... more

Book Votes: 167

33

MP G. (philomene) - CT

The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring / The Two Towers / The Return of the Ki...

The novel of the century, now with new movie tie-in art, color endpaper maps, flaps, and more. In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring... more

Book Votes: 166

34

Stacy P.

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic... more

Book Votes: 166

35

Erica W. (smerica)

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

A poignant tale of childhood and the ties of family, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn will transport the reader to the early 1900s where a little girl named Francie dreamily looks out her window at a tree struggling to reach the sky.

Book Votes: 165

36

Cassie S. (cassie86) - Westland, MI

1984 by George Orwell

1984 has come and gone, but George Orwell's prophetic, nightmarish vision in 1949 of the world we were becoming is timelier than ever. 1984 is still the great modern classic of "Negative Utopia"--a startlingly original and haunting novel that creates an imaginary world that is... more

Book Votes: 164

37

JAKE B.

The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, Bk 2) by Dan Brown

While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call: the elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum. Near the body, police have found a baffling cipher. While working to solve the enigmatic riddle, Langdon is stunned to... more

Book Votes: 163

38

Peggy B. (peggymib)

Outlander (Outlander, Bk 1) by Diana Gabaldon

Unrivaled storytelling... unforgettable characters... rich historical detail... these are the hallmarks of Diana Gabaldon's work. Her New York Times bestselling Outlander novels have earned the praise of critics and captured millions of readers. Here is the story that started it all,... more

Book Votes: 160

39

Kim W. (Kim1264) - TX

Interview with the Vampire (Vampire Chronicles, Bk 1) by Anne Rice

This is the story of the Louis, as told in his own words, of his journey through mortal and immortal life. Louis recounts how he became a vampire at the hands of the radiant and sinister Lestat and how he became indoctrinated, unwillingly, into the vampire way of life. His story ebbs and flows... more

Book Votes: 159

40

Shaz H. (shaz) - Port St Lucie, FL

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable... more

Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences--biographical, historical, and literary--to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott’s most popular and enduring novel, Little Women. Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy, united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil War. It is no secret that Alcott based Little Women on her own early life. While her father, the freethinking reformer and abolitionist Bronson Alcott, hobnobbed with such eminent male authors as Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, Louisa supported herself and her sisters with “woman’s work,” including sewing, doing laundry, and acting as a domestic servant. But she soon discovered she could make more money writing. Little Women brought her lasting fame and fortune, and far from being the “girl’s book” her publisher requested, it explores such timeless themes as love and death, war and peace, the conflict between personal ambition and family responsibilities, and the clash of cultures between Europe and America.

Book Votes: 159

41

Lori B. (LoriVB)

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Ken Follett had long been a staple of the bestseller lists for his novels of intrigue and espionage. Then came The Pillars of the Earth, a grand novel of epic storytelling that readers and critics quickly hailed as his crowning achievement. Now, The Pillars of the Earth is available for the... more

Book Votes: 157

42

Rachael F. (rlferris)

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult is widely acclaimed for her keen insights into the hearts and minds of real people. Now she tells the emotionally riveting story of a family torn apart by conflicting needs and a passionate love that triumphs over human weakness. Anna is not... more

Book Votes: 157

43

MP G. (philomene) - CT

Lord of the Flies by William Gerald Golding

Originally published in 1954, William Golding's Lord of the Flies is one of the most disturbing and celebrated novels of modern times. A plane crashes on a desert island. The only survivors are a group of schoolboys. At first they revel in the freedom and celebrate the absence of... more

Book Votes: 154

44

Heather M. (aggieeditor) - Boerne, TX

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

The imaginative characters and innovative story structure made Ken Kesey?s debut novel ripe for commentary. Take a closer look at One Flew Over the Cuckoo?s Nest, which also enjoyed critical success as a play and a film. The title, Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest, part of Chelsea... more

Book Votes: 152

45

Charity S. (charitysheppard)

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... more

Book Votes: 151

46

Elizabeth B. (Cattriona) - Prairie Vlg, KS

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

In this first book in the series, the Ingalls family is snug in its Wisconsin log house, safe from blizzards, wolves, and the lonely forest. Notable Children's Books of 1940'1970 (ALA) 1958 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award 1988 Choices (Association of Booksellers for Children) Horn Book... more

Book Votes: 147

47

Ariana B.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

On the surface, Henry and Clare Detamble are a normal couple living in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. Henry works at the Newberry Library and Clare creates abstract paper art, but the cruel reality is that Henry is a prisoner of time. It sweeps him back and forth at its leisure, from... more

Book Votes: 146

48

Renee L. (reneeL)

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

In the world of the near future, who will control women's bodies? Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to... more

Book Votes: 145

49

Amy B. (BaileysBooks)

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

This is the classic and immensely popular first novel in the series about Anne Shirley, an irrepressible red-headed orphan. The Cuthberts decide to adopt an orphan -- a strong, hardworking boy to help with the farm chores. Anne is sent to live with them by mistake. Talkative, romantic and... more

Book Votes: 145

50

Carleigh O. (temarifan)

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Also titled: The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet Set during five of the most intensely dramatic days ever portrayed, ROMEO AND JULIET was probably written in 1594 or 1595. Romeo is forced to approach Juliet in secret because of the impassioned rivalry between his family, the Montagues--and... more

Book Votes: 143

51

Fianna R. (fiannafi)

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Pi Patel, a God-loving boy and the son of a zookeeper, had a fervent love of stories and practices not only within his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam. When Pi is sixteen, his family and their zoo animals emigrate from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship. Alas,... more

Book Votes: 142

52

Carleigh O. (temarifan)

Farhenheit 451 by Ray Bardbury

No description available.

Book Votes: 139

53

Stacy P.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

1939, Nazi Germany - The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier. Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the story of the inhabitants of... more

Book Votes: 137

54

Laurie H. (coolelle) - Doylestown, PA

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Celie is a poor black woman whose letters tell the story of 20 years of her life, beginning at age 14 when she is being abused and raped by her father and attempting to protect her sister from the same fate, and continuing over the course of her marriage to "Mister," a brutal man who terrorizes... more

Book Votes: 137

55

Shaz H. (shaz) - Port St Lucie, FL

Holes by Louis Sachar

Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character... more

Book Votes: 135

56

Soren S. (wiglaf)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Don't panic! You're not timetripping! It's the tenth anniversary of the publication of Douglas Adams's zany, best-selling novel, and to celebrate Harmony is reissuing a special edition of this cult classic! By now the story is legendary. Arthur Dent, mild-mannered, out-to-lunch earth-ling, is... more

Book Votes: 135

57

Ronnie G. (frenchgiant)

Bridge To Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

The story starts out simply enough: Jess Aarons wants to be the fastest boy in the fifth grade--he wants it so bad he can taste it. He's been practicing all summer, running in the fields around his farmhouse until he collapses in a sweat. Then a tomboy named Leslie Burke moves into the farmhouse... more

Book Votes: 134

58

Shaz H. (shaz) - Port St Lucie, FL

The Count of Monte Cristo (Abridged) by Alexandre Dumas & Lowell Bair (Translator...

Set against the turbulent years of the Napoleonic era, Alexandre Dumas's thrilling adventure story is one of the most widely read romantic novels of all time. In it the dashing young hero, Edmond Dantès, is betrayed by his enemies and thrown into a secret dungeon in the Chateau... more

Book Votes: 131

59

Colleen T. (rainbowbrite98)

Catching Fire (Hunger Games, Bk 2) (Unabridged Audio CD) by Suzanne Collins

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of... more

Book Votes: 129

60

James M. (monkeypox)

White Oleander by Janet Fitch

Astrid is the only child of a single mother, Ingrid, a brillant, obsessed poet who wields her luminous beauty to intimidate and manipulate men. Astrid worships her mother and cherishes their private world full of ritual and mystery - but their idyll is shattered when Astrid's mother falls... more

Book Votes: 126

61

J. M. (nena)

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia ...

First, pleasure: savoring Italy's buffet of delights -- the world's best pizza, free-flowing wine and dashing conversation partners -- Gilbert consumes la dolce vita as spiritual succor. "I came to Italy pinched and thin," she writes, but soon fills out in waist and soul. Then,... more

Book Votes: 126

62

Ronnie G. (frenchgiant)

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

At once brutal and tender, despairing and rashly hopeful, spare of language and profoundly moving, this work is a fierce and haunting meditation on the tenuous divide between civilization and savagery, and the essential, sometimes terrifying power of filial love.

Book Votes: 121

63

rolise

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett & Tasha Tudor (Illustrator)

When orphaned Mary Lennox, lonely and sad, comes to live at her uncle's great house on the Yorkshire moors, she finds it full of secrets. At night, she hears the sound of crying down one of the long corridors. Outside, she meets Dickon, a magical boy who can charm and talk to animals. Then,... more

Book Votes: 120

64

Amanda H. (steelplace632)

She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb

"Mine is a story of craving: an unreliable account of lusts and troubles that began, somehow, in 1956 on the day our free television was delivered...." Meet Dolores Price. She's 13, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood goodbye. Beached like a whale in front of her bedroom TV,... more

Book Votes: 118

65

Allie B. (a11iecat)

Watership Down by Richard Adams

One of the most beloved novels of our time, Richard Adams's Watership Down takes us to a world we have never truly seen: to the remarkable life that teems in the fields, forests and riverbanks far beyond our cities and towns. It is a powerful saga of courage, leadership and survival; an epic... more

Book Votes: 117

66

Kim W. (Kim1264) - TX

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

A vulnerable young girl wins a dream assignment on a big-time New York fashion magazine and finds herself plunged into a nightmare. An autobiographical account of Sylvia Plath's own mental breakdown and suicide attempt, The Bell Jar is more... more

Book Votes: 116

67

Sherry G. (Shervivor) - Falls Church, VA

Go Ask Alice by Anonymous

First published in 1971, GO ASK ALICE was presented as the diary of a real teenaged girl whose descent into drug addition ushered her into a dark world of debauchery, abuse, and prostitution that eventually led to her death. Riding on the coattails of the 1960s, this provocative recipe of peer... more

Book Votes: 115

68

Rachael F. (rlferris)

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

With heart-wrenching power and suspense, the bestselling author of "The Kite Runner" shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.

Book Votes: 113

69

Laurie H. (coolelle) - Doylestown, PA

The Green Mile by Stephen King

Read this history-making serial novel -- from cliffhanger to cliffhanger -- in its entirety. When it first appeared, one volume per month, Stephen King's The Green Mile was an unprecedented publishing triumph: all six volumes ended up on the New York Times bestseller list -- simultaneously --... more

Book Votes: 112

70

Shaz H. (shaz) - Port St Lucie, FL

A Tale of Two Cities : Abridged by Charles Dickens & Ian Richardson

Tor Classics are affordably-priced editions designed to attract the young reader. Original dynamic cover art enthusiastically represents the excitement of each story. Appropriate "reader friendly" type sizes have been chosen for each title—offering clear, accurate, and readable text. All... more

Book Votes: 111

71

Amy B. (BaileysBooks)

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley's mighty novel of a soulless, streamlined Eden is the twentieth century's most brilliant profound and terrifying evocation of the future our civilization may be creating. Brave New World is Huxley's prophetic vision of natural man in an unnatural world, where freedom... more

Book Votes: 109

72

James M. (monkeypox)

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

The Fountainhead has become an enduring piece of literature, more popular now than when published in 1943. On the surface, it is a story of one man, Howard Roark, and his struggles as an architect in the face of a successful rival, Peter Keating, and a newspaper columnist, Ellsworth Toohey. But... more

Book Votes: 108

73

Joanne L. (jlustig)

In Cold Blood; a True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences by truman cap...

No description available.

Book Votes: 106

74

Soren S. (wiglaf)

Les Miserables (Everyman's Library (Cloth)) by Victor Hugo

Sensational, dramatic, packed with rich excitement and filled with the sweep and violence of human passions, LES MISERABLES is not only superb adventure but a powerful social document. The story of how the convict Jean-Valjean struggled to escape his past and reaffirm his humanity, in a world... more

Book Votes: 104

75

Charity S. (charitysheppard)

The Thornbirds by Colleen McCullough

Multiple reviews of the book

Book Votes: 102

76

Terri E. (stocktonmalonefan) -

Island of the Blue Dolphins (Illustrated) by Scott O'Dell

This newly illustrated edition of Island of the Blue Dolphins, a Newbery Award-winning novel published in 1960, includes fourteen full-color paintings by a master watercolorist.

Book Votes: 102

77

Heather M. (aggieeditor) - Boerne, TX

It by Stephen King

They were just kids when they stumbled upon the hidden horror of their hometown. Now, as adults, none of them can withstand the force that has drawn them all back to Derry, Maine, to face the nightmare without end, and the evil without a name.

Book Votes: 101

78

Colleen T. (rainbowbrite98)

Mockingjay (Hunger Games, Bk 3) by Suzanne Collins

MY NAME IS KATNISS EYERDEEN. WHY AM I NOT DEAD? I SHOULD BE DEAD. Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are... more

Book Votes: 100

79

D. G. (riahekans)

Like Water for Chocolate (Como Agua Para Chocolate) by Laura Esquivel & Carol Chr...

Earthy, magical, and utterly charming, this tale of family life in tum-of-the-century Mexico became a best-selling phenomenon with its winning blend of poignant romance and bittersweet wit.

Book Votes: 98

80

Terri E. (stocktonmalonefan) -

Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley

This "bold...extraordinary...blockbuster..." (Newsweek magazine) begins with a birth in an African village in 1750, and ends two centuries later at a funeral in Arkansas. And in that time span, an unforgettable cast of men, women, and children come to life, many of them based on the... more

Book Votes: 98

81

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

History and fiction merge seamlessly in this luminous novel about artistic vision and sensual awakening. Girl with a Pearl Earring tells the story of sixteen-year-old Griet, whose life is transformed by her brief encounter with genius... even as she herself is immortalized in canvas and oil.

Book Votes: 98

82

Laurie H. (coolelle) - Doylestown, PA

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

The Princess Bride is a timeless tale that pits country against country, good against evil, love against hate. This incredible journey and artfully rendered love story is peppered with strange beasties monstrous and gentle, memorable surprises both terrible and sublime, and such unforgettable... more

Book Votes: 98

83

Patty R. (PattyR)

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

The author of The Virgin Suicides won a Pulitzer Prize for this long-awaited second novel. In it, Calliope Stephanides, a student at a Grosse Pointe girls' school in 1974, finds herself drawn to a chain-smoking, strawberry blond classmate with a gift for acting. The passion that furtively... more

Book Votes: 95

84

Wendy R. (wendybird)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Bar...

January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she's never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written... more

Book Votes: 93

85

Joanne L. (jlustig)

The Cider House Rules by John Irving

First published in 1985, The Cider House Rules is John Irving's sixth novel. Set in rural Maine in the first half of this century, it tells the story of Dr. Wilbur Larch--saint and obstetrician, founder and director of the orphanage in the town of St. Cloud's, ether addict and abortionist. It is... more

Book Votes: 92

86

Laura M. (mctiggr)

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Ken Follett had long been a staple of the bestseller lists for his novels of intrigue and espionage. Then came The Pillars of the Earth, a grand novel of epic storytelling that readers and critics quickly hailed as his crowning achievement. Now, The Pillars of the Earth is available for the... more

Book Votes: 91

87

Kathy F.

Ender's Game (Ender, Bk 1) by Orson Scott Card

Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his... more

Book Votes: 91

88

Caroline S.

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

Two sisters competing for the greatest prize: the love of a king When Mary Boleyn comes to court as an innocent girl of fourteen, she catches the eye of Henry VIII. Dazzled by the king, Mary falls in love with both her golden prince and her growing role as unofficial queen. However, she soon... more

Book Votes: 91

89

Sherry G. (Shervivor) - Falls Church, VA

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

This is the story of young Victor Frankenstein, who longed to seek out the answers to life and death. Day and night he worked to create something that the world had never seen. But he did not know that one day his efforts would destroy him and everything he had.

Book Votes: 90

90

Stacy P.

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

"Running with Scissors" is the true story of a boy whose mother... gave him away to be raised by her unorthodox psychiatrist who bore a striking resemblance to Santa Claus.... At the age of twelve, Burroughs found himself amidst Victorian squalor living with the doctor's bizarre family, and... more

Book Votes: 89

91

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

One of the most acclaimed novels in recent memory, Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain is a masterpiece that is at once an enthralling adventure, a stirring love story, and a luminous evocation of a vanished American in all its savagery, solitude, and splendor. Sorely wounded and... more

Book Votes: 89

92

Shaz H. (shaz) - Port St Lucie, FL

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Catch-22 is like no other novel. It is one of the funniest books ever written, a keystone work in American literature, and even added a new term to the dictionary. At the heart of Catch-22 resides the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero endlessly inventive in his schemes... more

Book Votes: 87

93

Joanne L. (jlustig)

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

"Brilliant....Each story is a fascinating vignette, and together they weave the reader through a world where the Moon Lady can grant any wish, where a child, promised in marriage at two and delivered at 12, can, with cunning, free herself; where a rich man's concubine secures her daughter's... more

Book Votes: 86

94

Charity S. (charitysheppard)

Dracula (Collector's Library) by Bram Stoker

When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula purchase a London house, he makes horrifying discoveries in his client's castle. Soon afterwards, disturbing incidents unfold in England: an unmanned ship is wrecked; strange puncture marks appear on a young woman's neck; and a... more

Book Votes: 85

95

Charity S. (charitysheppard)

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Anna Karenina tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky. Tragedy unfolds as Anna rejects her passionless marriage and must endure the hypocrisies of society. Set against a vast and richly textured canvas of nineteenth-century... more

Book Votes: 84

96

DARYL D. (bookworm-51)

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

At last, Ayn Rand's masterpiece is available to her millions of loyal readers in trade paperback. With this acclaimed work and its immortal query, "Who is John Galt?", Ayn Rand found the perfect artistic form to express her vision of existence. Atlas Shrugged made Rand not only one of the most... more

Book Votes: 84

97

Denise S. (Dargent)

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel d'Hiv roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours. Paris, May 2002:... more

Book Votes: 84

98

Carleigh O. (temarifan)

Hamlet (Signet Classics) by William Shakespeare

The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark: Shakespeare's classic tragedy of love, madness, and revenge was first enacted in London in 1602. Young Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is in mourning for his dead father, is visited by his father's ghost telling him that he was murdered by his own brother,... more

Book Votes: 83

99

Keitha M. (kmama)

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

An alluring tour de force: a brilliant debut novel told with seamless authenticity and exquisite lyricism as the true confessions of one of Japan's most celebrated geisha. Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells the... more

Book Votes: 82

100

Stacy P.

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

"As far as I was concerned, the French could be cold or even openly hostile. They could burn my flag or pelt me with stones, but if there were taxidermied kittens to be had then I would go and bring them back to this, the greatest country on earth." David Sedaris's new collection, Me Talk... more

Book Votes: 81

101

Rick B. (bup) - Glenview, IL

Crime and Punishment (Oxford World's Classics) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky & Jessie Cou...

Crime and Punishment is one of the most important novels of the nineteenth century. It is the story of a murder committed on principle, of a killer who wishes to set himself outside and above society. The novel is marked by Dostoevsky's own harrowing experience in penal servitude, and yet... more

Book Votes: 80

102

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

With Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr, author of such classics as Cat's Cradle and God Bless You, Mr Rosewater, takes center stage as one of America's most important writers. 'Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. has written one of the major novels of the year . . . haunting . . . irresistible reading .... more

Book Votes: 79

103

Cheryl (pagebypage) - Brant Lake, NY

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed Amer...

The 1893 Chicago World's Fair is the setting for this true account of two very different men: the celebrated architect Daniel H. Burnham who designed and supervised the construction of the "White City" around which the fair was built, and H.H. Holmes (born Herman Webster Mudgett), a fiendishly... more

Book Votes: 78

104

Lisa H. (FlouncePony) - Philadelphia, PA

Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes

FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON made its first appearance as a short story which was rapidly and widely anthologized, and translated internationally. It received further acclaim as a memorable television drama, and as a motion picture production. Now, full-bodies and richly-peopled, FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON... more

Book Votes: 78

105

Kayla F. (klawbie)

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

A lush, cautionary tale of a life of vileness and deception or a loving portrait of the aesthetic impulse run rampant? Why not both? After Basil Hallward paints a beautiful, young man's portrait, his subject's frivolous wish that the picture change and he remain the same comes true. Dorian... more

Book Votes: 77

106

DARYL D. (bookworm-51)

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

There are few more convincing, less sentimental accounts of love than Wuthering Heights. This is the story of a tormented foundling who falls in love with the daughter of his benefactor, and of the violence and misery that result from their thwarted longing for each other.

Book Votes: 75

107

DARYL D. (bookworm-51)

The Pit and the Pendulum and Other Stories by Edgar Allan Poe

No description available.

Book Votes: 75

108

Vera M. (bepa-jean)

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (Penguin Classics) by Ken Kesey

Boisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the seminal novel of the 1960s that has left an indelible mark on the literature of our time. Here is the unforgettable story of a mental ward and its inhabitants, especially the tyrannical Big Nurse... more

Book Votes: 74

109

Laura E. (laereader)

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe: The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis

"NARNIA...the land beyond the wardrobe, the secret country known only to Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy...the place where the adventure begins. Lucy is the first to find the secret of the wardrobe in the professor's mysterious old house. At first, no one believes her when she tells of her... more

Book Votes: 74

110

Terri E. (stocktonmalonefan) -

East of Eden (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) by John Steinbeck

No description available.

Book Votes: 73

111

Terri E. (stocktonmalonefan) -

Shogun by James Clavell

Shipwrecked English adventurer, John Blackthorn, finds himself a key figure in a vast power struggle that is to plunge medieval Japan into civil war. Set in the exotic world of Oriental intrigue, passions, discipline, courage, and rigid moral and martial codes.

Book Votes: 73

112

MP G. (philomene) - CT

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

In language of great simplicity and power, Hemingway tells the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck--he hasn't caught a fish in 84 days--who goes out in his small skiff one more time. This time he hooks a huge marlin. During his relentless ordeal, a long and agonizing battle... more

Book Votes: 72

113

Heather M. (aggieeditor) - Boerne, TX

Uncle Tom's Cabin : or, Life among the Lowly (Modern Library Classics) by Harriet Bee...

When Uncle Tom's Cabin was published in 1852, it became an international blockbuster, selling more than 300,000 copies in the United States alone in its first year. Progressive for her time, Harriet Beecher Stowe was one of the earliest writers to offer a shockingly realistic depiction of... more

Book Votes: 71

114

Sara H. (nursesara)

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Travelling across America in search of who you are - now they do it on cycles, in cars, by bus or in the time-honored tradition of foot and thumb. The wanderers of today may wear their hair long and speak a different jargon, but their trip is one that men (and women) have taken for as long as... more

Book Votes: 71

115

DARYL D. (bookworm-51)

The Story of My Life by Helen Keller

The Story of My Life, a remarkable account of overcoming the debilitating challenges of being both deaf and blind, has become an international classic, making Helen Keller one of the most well-known, inspirational figures in history. Originally published in 1903, Keller's fascinating memoir... more

Book Votes: 69

116

Denise S. (Dargent)

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

When Margaret Lea opened the door to the past, what she confronted was her destiny. All children mythologize their birth... So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter's collection of stories, which are as famous for the mystery of the missing thirteenth tale as they are for... more

Book Votes: 69

117

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of Mr. Hosokawa, a powerful Japanese businessman. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect... more

Book Votes: 68

118

Laurie H. (coolelle) - Doylestown, PA

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

Ten years ago, Barbara Kingsolver published a first novel that is well on its way to becoming a classic work of American fiction. The Bean Trees is a book readers have taken to their hearts. It is now a standard in college literature classes across the nation and has been translated for a... more

Book Votes: 68

119

Cassie S. (cassie86) - Westland, MI

Wizard of Oz (Aladdin Classics) by L. Frank Baum

Hailed as the first original American fairy tale, The Wizard of Oz inspired countless sequels and imitations, as well as the classic American musical film and the Broadway musical The Wiz. In L. Frank Baum's imaginative story, Dorothy Gale takes a magical journey from the American heartland into... more

Book Votes: 68

120

Heidi L. (caleighsmom)

Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin

In the Deep South of the 1950s, journalist John Howard Griffin decided to cross the color line. Using medication that darkened his skin to deep brown, he exchanged his privileged life as a Southern white man for the disenfranchised world of an unemployed black man. His audacious, still... more

Book Votes: 67

121

Stacy P.

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

“Practically alone among the American writers of his generation,” wrote Edmund Wilson, “[Sinclair] put to the American public the fundamental questions raised by capitalism in such a way that they could not escape them.” When it was first published in 1906, The Jungle... more

Book Votes: 66

122

Stacy P.

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

This classic novel of the American Civil War evokes the horrors of battle and the psychology of fear as it recounts the experience of a young, untried Union Army volunteer. Henry Fleming longs to prove himself by winning the "red badge beyond all doubt." But when he finally does come under fire,... more

Book Votes: 66

123

Cassie S. (cassie86) - Westland, MI

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

First there were ten--a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unkonwn to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they're unwilling to... more

Book Votes: 66

124

Wendy R. (wendybird)

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery

The little prince lived alone on a tiny planet no larger than a house. He owned three volcanoes, two active and one extinct. He also owned a flower, unlike any flower in all the galaxy, of great beauty and of inordinate pride. It was this pride that ruined the serenity of the little prince's... more

Book Votes: 66

125

Rick B. (bup) - Glenview, IL

Moby-Dick : Or the Whale (Tor Classics) by Herman Melville

Tor Classics are affordably-priced editions designed to attract the young reader. Original dynamic cover art enthusiastically represents the excitement of each story. Appropriate "reader friendly" type sizes have been chosen for each title—offering clear, accurate, and readable text. All... more

Book Votes: 64

126

Ronnie G. (frenchgiant)

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon & Lucia Graves (Translator)

Barcelona, 1945 -- just after the war, a great world city lies in shadow, nursing its wounds, and a boy named Daniel awakes on his eleventh birthday to find that he can no longer remember his mother's face. To console his only child, Daniel's widowed father, an antiquarian book dealer,... more

Book Votes: 64

127

Stacy P.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich

The New York Times bestseller, and one of the most talked about books of the year, Nickel and Dimed has already become a classic of undercover reportage.Millions of Americans work for poverty-level wages, and one day Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the... more

Book Votes: 64

128

Robin F.

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

Owen Meany, the only child of a New Hampshire granite quarrier, believes he is God's instrument; he is.This is John Irving's most comic novel, yet Owen Meany is Mr. Irving's most heartbreaking character."Roomy, intelligent, exhilarating and darkly comic...Dickensian in scope....Quite stunning... more

Book Votes: 62

129

Amanda M. (Blondie1980)

Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

Anyone who has read J. D. Salinger's New Yorker stories - particularly A Perfect Day for Bananafish, Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut, The Laughing Man, and For Esme - With Love and Squalor, will not be surprised by the fact that his first novel is full of children. The hero-narrator of The... more

Book Votes: 62

130

Amy O. (cheermom140)

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television extensively, and by listening very closely to the words of his master, Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car... more

Book Votes: 62

131

Eileen C. (scrappingal)

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

Born mute, speaking only in sign, Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents on their farm in remote northern Wisconsin. For generations, the Sawtelles have raised and trained a fictional breed of dog whose thoughtful companionship is epitomized by Almondine, Edgar's lifelong... more

Book Votes: 61

132

Stacy P.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

A phenomenal #1 bestseller that has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list for nearly three years, this memoir traces Maya Angelou's childhood in a small, rural community during the 1930s. Filled with images and recollections that point to the dignity and courage of black men and... more

Book Votes: 60

133

Erin A. (taechermama)

The Giver by Lois Lowry

At the age of twelve, Jonas, a young boy from a seemingly utopian, futuristic world, is singled out to receive special training from The Giver, who alone holds the memories of the true joys and pain of life.

Book Votes: 60

134

Christina B. (stina117)

Eclipse: Special Edition (Twilight, Bk 3) by Stephenie Meyer

Edward?s soft voice came from behind me. I turned to see him spring lightly up the porch steps, his hair windblown from running. He pulled me into his arms at once, just like he had in the parking lot, and kissed me again. This kiss frightened me. There was too much tension, too strong an... more

Book Votes: 59

135

Caroline S.

House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III

"Elegant and powerful...an unusual and volatile...literary thriller." --Washington Post Book WorldIn 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... more

Book Votes: 56

136

DARYL D. (bookworm-51)

Homer - The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer

The history of Homer and his works is lost in doubtful obscurity, as is the history of many of the first minds who have done honor to humanity because they rose amidst darkness. The majestic stream of his song, blessing and fertilizing, flows like a river through many lands and nations. The... more

Book Votes: 55

137

Cheryl (pagebypage) - Brant Lake, NY

Room by Emma Donoghue

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits. Room is home... more

Book Votes: 54

138

Rachael F. (rlferris)

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

In Sterling, New Hampshire, 17-year-old high school student Peter Houghton has endured years of verbal and physical abuse at the hands of classmates. His best friend, Josie Cormier, succumbed to peer pressure and now hangs out with the popular crowd that often instigates the harassment. One... more

Book Votes: 53

139

Cassi B.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

DESCRIPTION: In this riveting debut of breathtaking scope, a young girl discovers her father's darkest secret and embarks on a harrowing journey across Europe to complete the quest he never could -- to find history's most legendary fiend: Dracula. When a motherless American girl living in... more

Book Votes: 52

140

Vera M. (bepa-jean)

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

Few novels have had as profound an impact on American culture as On the Road. Pulsating with the rhythms of 1950s underground America, jazz, sex, illicit drugs, and the mystery and promise of the open road, Kerouac's classic novel of freedom and longing defined what it meant to be "beat" and has... more

Book Votes: 51

141

MP G. (philomene) - CT

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Paul Baumer enlisted with his classmates in the German army of World War I. Youthful, enthusiastic, they become soldiers. But despite what they have learned, they break into pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches. And as horrible war plods on year after year, Paul holds fast to a... more

Book Votes: 51

142

Elizabeth B. (Cattriona) - Prairie Vlg, KS

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George

Amazon.com Every kid thinks about running away at one point or another; few get farther than the end of the block. Young Sam Gribley gets to the end of the block and keeps going--all the way to the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York. There he sets up house in a huge hollowed-out tree,... more

Book Votes: 51

143

Lillie M. (lillie) - Garrett, IN

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans, comes an unforgettable edge-of-your-seat mystery that is at once heartbreakingly tender and morally courageous about what it means to be human. Hailsham seems like a pleasant English boarding school,... more

Book Votes: 50

144

Keitha M. (kmama)

Little Women (Aladdin Classics) by Louisa May Alcott

The quintessential American family story, Little Women captured readers' hearts right from the start. A bestseller from the time it was originally published in 1868, it is the story of the four March sisters: Meg, Beth, Jo, and Amy. Louisa May Alcott recreates her own family's dramatic and... more

Book Votes: 50

145

DARYL D. (bookworm-51)

The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking by Michael Chesworth & Astrid Lindgren

An enticing, newly illustrated collection of the enduringly popular Pippi stories. Since Pippi Longstocking was first published in 1950, the escapades of the incomparable Pippi,the girl with upside-down braids and no parents to tell her what to do, have delighted boys and girls alike. Now, for... more

Book Votes: 49

146

Shaz H. (shaz) - Port St Lucie, FL

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

The Year 802,701 A.D. He stepped into the Time Machine and took the starting lever in his hand... "I drew a breath, set my teeth, and went off with a thud. The night came, like the turning off of a lamp, and in another moment came tomorrow. As I put on pace, night followed day like the... more

Book Votes: 48

147

Amy B. (BaileysBooks)

The Once and Future King by T. H. White

The whole world knows and loves this book. It is the magical epic of King Arthur and his shinning Camelot; of Merlyn and Owl and Guinevere; of beasts who talk and men who fly, of wizardry and war. It is the book of all things lost and wonderful and sad. It is the fantasy masterpiece by which all... more

Book Votes: 48

148

Laurie H. (coolelle) - Doylestown, PA

My Antonia by Willa Cather

In Willa Cather's own estimation, My Antonia, first published in 1918, was "the best thing I've ever done." An enduring paperback bestseller on Houghton Mifflin's literary list, this hauntingly eloquent classic now boasts a new foreword by Kathleen Norris, Cather's soulmate of the plains.... more

Book Votes: 48

149

Caroline S.

Midwives by Chris Bohjalian

A talented midwife is arrested for murder when she saves a baby by performing a Caesarean section once she believes the mother has died--only to have her assistant insist later that the woman was still very much alive. Told in the mesmerizing voice of the midwife's daughter, Midwives depicts... more

Book Votes: 48

150

Shannon A. (shaxtell)

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... more

Book Votes: 48

151

Cheryl (pagebypage) - Brant Lake, NY

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

Lily is haunted by memories?of who she once was, and of a person, long gone, who defined her existence. She has nothing but time now, as she recounts the tale of Snow Flower, and asks the gods for forgiveness. In nineteenth-century China, when wives and daughters were foot-bound and lived in... more

Book Votes: 48

152

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Exodus by Leon Uris

Exodus is an international publishing phenomenon--the towering novel of the twentieth century's most dramatic geopolitical event. Leon Uris magnificently portrays the birth of a new nation in the midst of enemies--the beginning of an earthshaking struggle for power. Here is... more

Book Votes: 47

153

Shaz H. (shaz) - Port St Lucie, FL

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that's not safe. Because there's something she's trying not to think... more

Book Votes: 46

154

Amy B. (BaileysBooks)

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

He's rude, arrogant, cold, unfriendly, and easily bored. Nobody minds because he is a genius at solving mysteries. But to interest Holmes at all, the case must be impossible: like the mysteries of the blackmail scheme that might destroy a nation; the woman killed in a locked room - while... more

Book Votes: 46

155

Caroline S.

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, knew about the challenges of... more

Book Votes: 46

156

Alicia J. (aljennin2010iu)

A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks

There was a time when the world was sweeter . . . when the women in Beaufort, North Carolina, wore dresses, and the men donned hats . . . Every April, when the wind smells of both the sea and lilacs, Landon Carter remembers his last year at Beaufort High. Landon had dated a girl or two, and... more

Book Votes: 46

157

Ronnie G. (frenchgiant)

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

The year is 1327. Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. When his delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William turns detective. He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols... more

Book Votes: 45

158

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

This is the epic saga of an earthling, Valentine Michael Smith, born and educated on Mars, who arrives on our planet with many psi powers, including the ability to take control of the minds of others—and complete innocence regarding the mores of man.

Book Votes: 45

159

Fianna R. (fiannafi)

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris

In this phenomenal #1 bestseller, David Sedaris plays in the snow with his sisters. He goes on vacation with his family. He gets a job selling drinks. He attends his brother's wedding. He mops his sister's floor. He gives directions to a lost traveler. He eats a hamburger. He has his blood sugar... more

Book Votes: 44

160

Amanda R.

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

From Publishers Weekly The ironic vision and luminous evocation of South America that have distinguished Garcia Marquez's Nobel Prize-winning fiction since his landmark work, One Hundred Years of Solitude, persist in this turn-of-the-century chronicle of a unique love triangle. It is a fully... more

From Publishers Weekly The ironic vision and luminous evocation of South America that have distinguished Garcia Marquez's Nobel Prize-winning fiction since his landmark work, One Hundred Years of Solitude, persist in this turn-of-the-century chronicle of a unique love triangle. It is a fully mature novel in scope and perspective, flawlessly translated, as rich in ideas as in humanity. The illustrious and meticulous Dr. Juvenal Urbino and his proud, stately wife Fermina Daza, respectively past 80 and 70, are in the autumn of their solid marriage as the drama opens on the suicide of the doctor's chess partner. Jeremiah de Saint-Amour, a disabled photographer of children, chooses death over the indignities of old age, revealing in a letter a clandestine love affair, on the "fringes of a closed society's prejudices." This scenario not only heralds Urbino's demise soon after when he falls out of a mango tree in an attempt to catch an escaped parrot but brilliantly presages the novel's central themes, which are as concerned with the renewing capacity of age as with an anatomy of love. We meet Florentino Ariza, more antihero than hero, a mock Don Juan with an undertaker's demeanor, at once pathetic, grotesque and endearing, when he seizes the memorably unseemly occasion of Urbino's funeral to reiterate to Fermina the vow of love he first uttered more than 50 years before. With the fine detailing of a Victorian novel, the narrative plunges backward in time to reenact their earlier, youthful courtship of furtive letters and glances, frustrated when Fermina, in the light of awaking maturity, realizes Florentino is an adolescent obsession, and rejects him. With his uncanny ability to unearth the extraordinary in the commonplace, Garcia Marquez smoothly interweaves Fermina's and Florentino's subsequent histories. Enmeshed in a bizarre string of affairs with ill-fated widows while vicariously conducting the liaisons of others via love poems composed on request, Florentino feverishly tries to fill the void of his unrequited passion. Meanwhile, Fermina's marriage suffers vicissitudes but endures, affirming that marital love can be as much the product of art as is romantic love. When circumstances both comic and mystical offer Fermina and Florentino a second chance, during a time in their lives that is often regarded as promising only inevitable degeneration toward death, Garcia Marquez beautifully reveals true love's soil not in the convention of marriage but in the simple, timeless rituals that are its cement.

Book Votes: 44

161

Elizabeth B. (Cattriona) - Prairie Vlg, KS

The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss

"For many days we had been tempest-tossed . . .the raging storm increased in fury on the seventh day all hope was lost." From these dire opening lines, a delightful story of adventure begins. One family will emerge alive from this terrible storm: the Robinson's -- a Swiss... more

Book Votes: 44

162

Lisa A. (NeedyBookLover) - IL

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.... more

Book Votes: 43

163

Soren S. (wiglaf)

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Brothers Karamazov is a towering masterpiece of literature, philosophy, psychology, and religion. It tells the story of intellectual Ivan, sensual Dmitri, and idealistic Alyosha Karamazov, who collide in the wake of their despicable father's brutal murder.

Book Votes: 43

164

Stacy P.

Sophie's Choice by William Styron

"[One morning] in the early spring, I woke up with the remembrance of a girl I'd once known, Sophie. It was a very vivid half-dream, half-revelation, and all of a sudden I realized that hers was a story I had to tell." That very day, William Styron began writing the first chapter of Sophie's... more

"[One morning] in the early spring, I woke up with the remembrance of a girl I'd once known, Sophie. It was a very vivid half-dream, half-revelation, and all of a sudden I realized that hers was a story I had to tell." That very day, William Styron began writing the first chapter of Sophie's Choice. ????First published in 1979, this complex and ambitious novel opens with Stingo, a young southerner, journeying north in 1947 to become a writer. It leads us into his intellectual and emotional entanglement with his neighbors in a Brooklyn rooming house: Nathan, a tortured, brilliant Jew, and his lover, Sophie, a beautiful Polish woman whose wrist bears the grim tattoo of a concentration camp...and whose past is strewn with death that she alone survived. ?? "Sophie's Choice is a passionate, courageous book...a philosophical novel on the most important subject of the twentieth century," said novelist and critic John Gardner in The New York Times Book Review. "One of the reasons Styron succeeds so well in Sophie's Choice is that, like Shakespeare (I think the comparison is not too grand), Styron knows how to cut away from the darkness of his material, so that when he turns to it again it strikes with increasing force....Sophie's Choice is a thriller of the highest order, all the more thrilling for the fact that the dark, gloomy secrets we are unearthing one by one--sorting through lies and terrible misunderstandings like a hand groping for a golden nugget in a rattlesnake's nest--may be authentic secrets of history and our own human nature." The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foun-dation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with affordable hard-bound editions of important works of liter-ature and thought. For the Modern Library's seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoring as its emblem the running torchbearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inau- gurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world's best books, at the best prices.

Book Votes: 43

165

Terri E. (stocktonmalonefan) -

Walden (Everyman's Library classics) by Henry David Thoreau

In July 1845, Henry David Thoreau built a small cottage in the woods near Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. During the two years and two months he spent there, he began to write "Walden", a chronicle of his coexistence with nature. Thoreau has an important place among naturalists, but... more

Book Votes: 42

166

Joanne L. (jlustig)

The Shipping News by Annie Proulx

When Quoyle's two-timing wife meets her just desserts, 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... more

Book Votes: 42

167

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand

Seabiscuit was one of the most electrifying and popular attractions in sports history and the single biggest newsmaker in the world in 1938, receiving more coverage than FDR, Hitler, or Mussolini. But his success was a surprise to the racing establishment, which had written off the... more

Book Votes: 42

168

William M.

The Pact: A Love Story by Jodi Picoult

Friendship, loyalty, lifelong love -- and teenage suicide. A riveting, timely, and terrifying novel from an acclaimed writer who skillfully intertwines the intimate perceptions of Anne Tyler with the dramatic tension of John Grisham The Golds and the Hartes, neighbors for eighteen years,... more

Book Votes: 41

169

Sherry G. (Shervivor) - Falls Church, VA

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

In his own words, Robinson Crusoe tells how a terrible storm drowed all his shipmates and left him marooned on a deserted island. Forced to overcome despair, doubt, and self pity, he struggles to create a life for himself in the wilderness.

Book Votes: 40

170

DARYL D. (bookworm-51)

Aesop's Fables (Complete and Unabridged Classics) by Aesop

In this elegantly designed volume, more than sixty of Aesop's timeless fables have been carefully selected, humorously retold, and brought gloriously to life by four-time Caldecott Honor-winner Jerry Pinkney. Included are the Shepherd Boy and The Wolf, the Lion and the Mouse, the Tortoise and... more

Book Votes: 39

171

Diana C. (dianamarie) - CA

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten-year-old girl, is taken with her parents by the French police as they go door to door arresting Jewish families in the middle of the night. Desperate to protect her younger brother, Sarah locks him in a bedroom cupboard—their secret hiding... more

Book Votes: 39

172

Soren S. (wiglaf)

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Invisible Man is a milestone in American literature, a book that has continued to engage readers since its appearance in 1952. A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one... more

Book Votes: 38

173

Sherry G. (Shervivor) - Falls Church, VA

The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea by Sebastian Junger

October 1991. It was "the perfect storm" -- a tempest that may happen only once in a century -- a nor'easter created by so rare a combination of factors that it could not possibly have been worse. Creating waves ten stories high and winds of 120 miles an hour, the storm whipped the sea to... more

Book Votes: 38

174

Charity S. (charitysheppard)

The Divine Comedy: Inferno; Purgatorio; Paradiso by Dante Alighieri

The Divine Comedy written by legendary author Dante Alighieri is widely considered to be one of the greatest books of all time. This great classic will surely attract a whole new generation of readers. For many, The Divine Comedy is required reading for various courses and curriculums. And for... more

Book Votes: 38

175

Emily L. (fairfax512) - Glenside, PA

Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Edith Grossman's definitive English translation of the Spanish masterpiece. Widely regarded as the world's first modern novel, and one of the funniest and most tragic books ever written, Don Quixote chronicles the famous picaresque adventures of the noble knight-errant Don Quixote of La Mancha... more

Edith Grossman's definitive English translation of the Spanish masterpiece. Widely regarded as the world's first modern novel, and one of the funniest and most tragic books ever written, Don Quixote chronicles the famous picaresque adventures of the noble knight-errant Don Quixote of La Mancha and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, as they travel through sixteenth-century Spain. Unless you read Spanish, you've never read Don Quixote. "Though there have been many valuable English translations of Don Quixote, I would commend Edith Grossman's version for the extraordinarily high quality of her prose. The Knight and Sancho are so eloquently rendered by Grossman that the vitality of their characterization is more clearly conveyed than ever before. There is also an astonishing contextualization of Don Quixote and Sancho in Grossman's translation that I believe has not been achieved before. The spiritual atmosphere of a Spain already in steep decline can be felt throughout, thanks to her heightened quality of diction. Grossman might be called the Glenn Gould of translators, because she, too, articulates every note. Reading her amazing mode of finding equivalents in English for Cervantes's darkening vision is an entrance into a further understanding of why this great book contains within itself all the novels that have followed in its sublime wake." From the Introduction by Harold Bloom Miguel de Cervantes was born on September 29, 1547, in Alcala de Henares, Spain. At twenty-three he enlisted in the Spanish militia and in 1571 fought against the Turks in the battle of Lepanto, where a gunshot wound permanently crippled his left hand. He spent four more years at sea and then another five as a slave after being captured by Barbary pirates. Ransomed by his family, he returned to Madrid but his disability hampered him; it was in debtor's prison that he began to write Don Quixote. Cervantes wrote many other works, including poems and plays, but he remains best known as the author of Don Quixote. He died on April 23, 1616.

Book Votes: 38

176

DARYL D. (bookworm-51)

War and Peace (Oxford World's Classics Hardcovers) by Leo Tolstoy & Louise and Ay...

Published to coincide with the centenary of Tolstoy's death, here is an exciting new edition of one of the great literary works of world literature. Tolstoy's epic masterpiece captures with unprecedented immediacy the broad sweep of life during the Napoleonic wars and the brutal invasion of... more

Book Votes: 38

177

Joanne L. (jlustig)

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri's debut story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, took the literary world by storm when it won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000. Fans who flocked to her stories will be captivated by her best-selling first novel, now in paperback for the first time. The Namesake is a finely wrought,... more

Book Votes: 37

178

Stacy P.

The Color of Water : A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride

This is a book that will "make you proud to be a member of the human race," says Mirabella, and countless readers have already discovered its power. Written in remembrance of his Polish-born, Southern-raised Jewish mother, who married a black man and raised twelve children, all of whom... more

Book Votes: 37

179

Laurie H. (coolelle) - Doylestown, PA

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of... more

Book Votes: 37

180

Sara H. (nursesara)

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Student Edition With more than five million copies sold, Flowers for Algernon is the beloved, classic story of a mentally disabled man whose experimental quest for intelligence mirrors that of Algernon, an extraordinary lab mouse. In poignant diary entries, Charlie tells how a brain operation... more

Book Votes: 37

181

Amy B. (BaileysBooks)

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Remains of the Day is a profoundly compelling portrait of the perfect English butler and of his fading, insular world in postwar England. At the end of his three decades of service at Darlington Hall, Stevens embarks on a country drive, during which he looks back over his career to... more

Book Votes: 36

182

Melissa B. (Phantene)

One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus

In 1874 the great Cheyenne chief, Little Wolf, had an idea to help his people assimilate into the new white culture. He asked President Ulysses S. Grant for "the gift of 1000 white women as wives." Since all children born in the Cheyenne culture become members of their mother's... more

Book Votes: 36

183

Shaz H. (shaz) - Port St Lucie, FL

Around the World in 80 Days (Puffin Classics) by Jules Verne

Tor Classics are affordably-priced editions designed to attract the young reader. Original dynamic cover art enthusiastically represents the excitement of each story. Appropriate "reader friendly" type sizes have been chosen for each title--offering clear, accurate, and readable text. All... more

Book Votes: 35

184

Stacy P.

Madame Bovary (Signet Classics) by Gustave Flaubert

Set amid the stifling atmosphere of nineteenth-century bourgeois France, Madame Bovary is at once an unsparing depiction of a woman's gradual corruption and a savagely ironic study of human stupidity. Provocative and deeply tragic, it is "possibly the most beautifully written book ever composed"... more

Book Votes: 35

185

DARYL D. (bookworm-51)

Eats, Shoots and Leaves : The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss

A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air. Why? asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder. I'm a panda, he says, at... more

Book Votes: 35

186

Linda G. (WindynWVa) - WV

Same Kind of Different As Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and th...

A dangerous, homeless drifter who grew up picking cotton in virtual slavery.An upscale art dealer accustomed to the world of Armani and Chanel. A gutsy woman with a stubborn dream. A story so incredible no novelist would dare dream it. It begins outside a burning plantation hut in Louisiana... more

Book Votes: 35

187

Laurie H. (coolelle) - Doylestown, PA

Stones From The River by Ursula Hegi

Stones from the River is a daring, dramatic and complex novel of life in Germany. It is set in Burgdorf, a small fictional German town, between 1915 and 1951. The protagonist is Trudi Montag, a Zwerg -- the German word for dwarf woman. As a dwarf she is set apart, the outsider whose physical... more

Book Votes: 35

188

Lillie M. (lillie) - Garrett, IN

Perfume by Patrick Suskind

Patrick S?skind's first novel, Perfume (Das Parfum) tells the horrific story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an orphan born in Paris in 1738. When Grenouille's abandoned body is found in the garbage, he is taken to an orphanage, where everyone who comes into contact with him finds something about... more

Book Votes: 34

189

Kristin K. (escapeartistk)

The Metamorphosis, The Penal Colony, and Other Stories by Franz Kafka

In the penal colony, and other stories. Translated by Willa and Edwin Muir. This volume brings together everything that Franz Kafka himself published during his lifetime; all those works he thought finished enough to permit their publication. These include: 'The Judgemen,' 'The Metamorphosis,'... more

Book Votes: 34

190

Wendy R. (wendybird)

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan's symphonic novel of love and war, childhood and class, guilt and forgiveness provides all the satisfaction of a brilliant narrative and the provocation we have come to expect from this master of English prose. On a hot summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis... more

Book Votes: 34

191

Cheryl (pagebypage) - Brant Lake, NY

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

A sweeping, emotionally riveting first novel - an enthralling family saga of Africa and America, doctors and patients, exile and home. Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis... more

Book Votes: 34

192

Soren S. (wiglaf)

King Lear (Oxford School Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare

Harold Bloom begins his introduction to this text by claiming that nothing in language goes beyond The Tragedy of King Lear. This text includes a brief biography of William Shakespeare, thematic and structural analysis of the play, as well as a host of critical essays by some of the most... more

Book Votes: 33

193

Beverlee A.

Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult

How do you recover the past when it was never yours to lose? Delia Hopkins has led a charmed life. Raised in rural New Hampshire by her beloved, widowed father, she now has a young daughter, a handsome fiance, and her own search-and-rescue bloodhound, which she uses to find missing persons. But... more

Book Votes: 33

194

James M. (monkeypox)

The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving

"The first of my father's illusions was that bears could survive the life lived by human beings, and the second was that human beings could survive a life led in hotels."So says John Berry, son of a hapless dreamer, brother to a cadre of eccentric siblings, and chronicler of the lives lived, the... more

Book Votes: 32

195

Sherry G. (Shervivor) - Falls Church, VA

The Agony and the Ecstasy : A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo by Irving Stone

Celebrating the 500th anniversary of Michelangelo's David, New American Library releases a special edition of Irving Stone's classic biographical novel-in which both the artist and the man are brought to life in full. A masterpiece in its own right, this novel offers a compelling portrait of... more

Book Votes: 32

196

DARYL D. (bookworm-51)

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early. The shrill siren song of a calliope beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. In this season of dying, Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to... more

Book Votes: 32

197

Joanne L. (jlustig)

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

Praise for Anne Tyler's THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST: "Beautiful, incandescent, heartbreaking, exhilarating... Indisputably her best book... There's magic in it... comic scenes that explode with joy... It leaves one aching with pleasure and pain. Words fail me: one cannot reasonably expect fiction to... more

Book Votes: 32

198

Kate K.

Dune by Frank Herbert

The all-time science fiction masterpiece...now in a special hardcover edition."Unique...I know nothing comparable to it except Lord of the Rings."--Arthur C. ClarkeHere is the novel that will be forever considered a triumph of the imagination. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story... more

Book Votes: 32

199

L. S. (LeMaistreChat)

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Readers with an eye on European politics will recognize Ali as the Somali-born member of the Dutch parliament who faced death threats after collaborating on a film about domestic violence against Muslim women with controversial director Theo van Gogh (who was himself assassinated). Even before... more

Book Votes: 31

200

DARYL D. (bookworm-51)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

Tor Classics are affordably-priced editions designed to attract the young reader. Original dynamic cover art enthusiastically represents the excitement of each story. Appropriate "reader friendly" type sizes have been chosen for each title--offering clear, accurate, and readable text. All... more

Book Votes: 31

201

Christina B. (stina117)

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

Two sisters competing for the greatest prize: the love of a king. A rich and compelling novel of love, sex, ambition, and intrigue, THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL introduces a woman of extraordinary determination and desire who lived at the heart of the most exciting and glamorous court in Europe... more

Book Votes: 31

202

Heather M. (aggieeditor) - Boerne, TX

Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald

The Piper family is steeped in secrets, lies, and unspoken truths. At the eye of the storm is one secret that threatens to shake their lives -- even destroy them. Set on stormy Cape Breton Island off Nova Scotia, Fall on Your Knees is an internationally acclaimed multigenerational saga... more

Book Votes: 30

203

Carla H. (carlamo) - Richmond, TX

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchet...

According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies, written in 1655, before she exploded), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just before dinner. So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing,... more

Book Votes: 30

204

DARYL D. (bookworm-51)

Gulliver's Travels (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (Barnes & Noble Classics) by Jona...

Considered the greatest satire ever written in English, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels chronicles the fantastic voyages of Lemuel Gulliver, principally to four marvelous realms: Lilliput, where the people are six inches tall; Brobdingnag, a land inhabited by giants; Laputa, a... more

Book Votes: 30

205

Wendy R. (wendybird)

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

One of the first questions people ask about The Things They Carried is this: Is it a novel, or a collection of short stories? The title page refers to the book simply as "a work of fiction," defying the conscientious reader's need to categorize this masterpiece. It is both: a collection of... more

Book Votes: 30

206

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Angle of Repose (Contemporary American Fiction) by Wallace Stegner

Wallace Stegner's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is a story of discovery--personal, historical, and geographical. Confined to a wheelchair, retired historian Lyman Ward sets out to write his grandparents' remarkable story, chronicling their days spent carving civilization into the surface of... more

Book Votes: 29

207

Amy B. (BaileysBooks)

100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

No description available.

Book Votes: 28

208

Stacy P.

Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

It is the story of Zhivago, poet and physician, and his struggle to keep his family alive in the midst of the overwhelming chaos of the Russian Revolution. And, it is about Zhivago's love for the beautiful Lara, the woman he pursues beyond all reason, the human symbol of life's sweetness and joy....

Book Votes: 28

209

Barbara W. (idiotBarbie)

The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford

Instinct told them that the way home lay to the west. And so the doughty young Labrador retriever, the roguish bull terrier and the indomitable Siamese set out through the Canadian wilderness. Separately, they would soon have died. But, together, the three house pets faced starvation, exposure,... more

Book Votes: 28

210

Elizabeth K. (elizabethgraces)

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich: A Novel by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

This account of a day in the life of a prisoner in a remote Siberian labour camp pays tribute to the capacity of man to survive under appalling conditions and an indictment of humanity that such conditions exist. This edition has been retranslated and revised and approved by the author.

Book Votes: 27

211

Elizabeth B. (Cattriona) - Prairie Vlg, KS

Night Shift by Stephen King

A collection of King's short stories. Contents: -- Jerusalem's lot -- Graveyard shift -- Night surf -- I am the doorway -- The mangler -- The boogeyman -- Gray matter -- Battleground -- Trucks -- Sometimes they come back -- Strawberry spring -- The ledge -- The... more

Book Votes: 27

212

Stacey R. (bromeliad)

Uglies (Uglies, Bk 1) by Scott Westerfeld

Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that? Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license -- for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly... more

Book Votes: 27

213

Judy B. (Hoody)

Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks

This gripping historical novel is based on the true story of 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 and lead miners. A visionary young preacher convinces... more

Book Votes: 27

214

Wendy R. (wendybird)

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink & Carol Brown Janeway

Hailed for its coiled eroticism and the moral claims it makes upon the reader, this mesmerizing novel is a story of love and secrets, horror and compassion, unfolding against the haunted landscape of postwar Germany. When he falls ill on his way home from school, fifteen-year-old Michael Berg... more

Book Votes: 27

215

Sophia C. (poisha)

Flowers in the Attic (Dollangagers, Bk 1) by V. C. Andrews

Way upstairs there are four secrets hidden. Blond, beautiful, innocent little secrets, struggling to stay alive. Flowers In the Attic The four Dollanganger children had such perfect lives -- a beautiful mother, a doting father, a lovely home. Then Daddy was killed in a car accident, and... more

Book Votes: 27

216

Nori-Lynn T. (norilynn)

Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo

One of the most famous antiwar novels ever written. First published in 1939, this book is NOT dated. It reads like a contemporary novel, and could take place during ANY war. Johnny Got His Gun is the interior monologue of infantryman Joe Bonham as he lies in a hospital with wounds that leave... more

Book Votes: 26

217

Stacy P.

Out of Africa / Shadows On The Grass by Isak Dinesen

One of the great figures in twentieth century literature is Isak Dinesen (the pen name of Baroness Karen Blixen). At the age of twenty-seven, she left Denmark and sailed for East Africa to marry her Swedish cousin, Baron Bror Blixen. Together they bought a four-thousand-acre coffee plantation in... more

Book Votes: 26

218

Stacy P.

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. In this "artful, informative, and delightful" (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had had a head start in food production advanced... more

Book Votes: 26

219

Pamela C.

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, which has been rescued from Serb shelling during the Bosnian war. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be... more

Book Votes: 26

220

Mar

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

This classic novel of self-discovery has inspired generations of seekers. With parallels to the enlightenment of the Buddha, Hesse's SIDDHARTHA is the story of a young Brahmn's quest for the ultimate reality. His quest takes him from the extremes of indulgent sensuality to the rigors of... more

Book Votes: 26

221

Shaz H. (shaz) - Port St Lucie, FL

Illustrated Classic Editions: The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

In a specially adapted version by Eliza Gatewood Warren. Set against the exciting days of the French and Indian War 200 years ago, this story follows the adventures of a colonial scout and his Indian friend, Hawkeye and Chingachgook, two men bound together by their love for the New World and... more

Book Votes: 25

222

Tina S. (cats59)

Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

The first of Thomas Hardy’s great novels, Far From the Madding Crowd established the author as one of Britain’s foremost writers. It also introduced readers to Wessex, an imaginary county in southwestern England that served as the pastoral setting for many of the author’s later... more

Book Votes: 25

223

Amy B. (BaileysBooks)

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Ignatius J. Reilly, a grossly overweight medieval scholar who lives with his mother, is forced to seek employment when she can no longer tolerate his laziness. His disdainful encounters with the modern culture of New Orleans, his habitual misunderstanding of its inhabitants (some of them no less... more

Book Votes: 25

224

Kristin K. (escapeartistk)

The Stranger (Large Print) by Albert Camus

Patrick McCarthy places The Stranger in the context of a French and French-Algerian history and culture, examines the way the work undermines traditional concepts of fiction, and explores the parallels (and more importantly the contrasts) between Camus and Sartre. His account provides a useful... more

Book Votes: 25

225

Laurie H. (coolelle) - Doylestown, PA

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

First published in 1899, this beautiful, brief novel so disturbed critics and the public that it was banished for decades afterward. Now widely read and admired, The Awakening has been hailed as an early vision of woman's emancipation. This... more

Book Votes: 25

226

DARYL D. (bookworm-51)

On the Beach by Nevil Shute

"The most shocking fiction I have read in years. What is shocking about it is both the idea and the sheer imaginative brilliance with which Mr. Shute brings it off."THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLEThey are the last generation, the innocent victims of an accidental war, living out their last days,... more

Book Votes: 25

227

Caroline S.

Under the Banner of Heaven : A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer

Jon Krakauer’s literary reputation rests on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. In UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN, he shifts his focus from extremes of physical adventure to extremes of religious belief within our own borders. At the core of his book is an appalling... more

Jon Krakauer’s literary reputation rests on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. In UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN, he shifts his focus from extremes of physical adventure to extremes of religious belief within our own borders. At the core of his book is an appalling double murder committed by two Mormon Fundamentalist brothers, Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a revelation from God commanding them to kill their blameless victims. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this “divinely inspired” crime, Krakauer constructs a multilayered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, savage violence, polygamy, and unyielding faith. Along the way, he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America’s fastest-growing religion, and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.Krakauer takes readers inside isolated communities in the American West, Canada, and Mexico, where some forty-thousand Mormon Fundamentalists believe the mainstream Mormon Church went unforgivably astray when it renounced polygamy. Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the leaders of these outlaw sects are zealots who answer only to God. Marrying prodigiously and with virtual impunity (the leader of the largest fundamentalist church took seventy-five “plural wives,” several of whom were wed to him when they were fourteen or fifteen and he was in his eighties), fundamentalist prophets exercise absolute control over the lives of their followers, and preach that any day now the world will be swept clean in a hurricane of fire, sparing only their most obedient adherents. Weaving the story of the Lafferty brothers and their fanatical brethren with a clear-eyed look at Mormonism’s violent past, Krakauer examines the underbelly of the most successful homegrown faith in the United States, and finds a distinctly American brand of religious extremism. The result is vintage Krakauer, an utterly compelling work of nonfiction that illuminates an otherwise confounding realm of human behavior.From the Hardcover edition.

Book Votes: 25

228

Caroline S.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

"Why did crime in New York drop so suddenly in the mid-90s? How does an unknown novelist end up a bestselling author? Why is teenage smoking out of control, when everyone knows smoking kills? What makes TV shows like Sesame Street so good at teaching kids how to read? Why did Paul Revere succeed... more

Book Votes: 25

229

Keitha M. (kmama)

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

San Piedro Island, north of Puget Sound, is a place so isolated that no one who lives there can afford to make enemies. But in 1954 a local fisherman is found suspiciously drowned, and a Japanese American named Kabuo Miyamoto is charged with his murder. In the course of the ensuing trial, it... more

Book Votes: 25

230

Kathy F.

Olive Kitteridge: A Novel in Stories by Elizabeth Strout

In a voice more powerful and compassionate than ever before, New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Strout binds together thirteen rich, luminous narratives into a book with the heft of a novel, through the presence of one larger-than-life, unforgettable character: Olive Kitteridge. At... more

Book Votes: 24

231

Elizabeth B. (Cattriona) - Prairie Vlg, KS

Travels With Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck

With his dog Charley, John Steinbeck set out in his truck to explore and experience America in the 1960s. As he talked with all kinds of people, he sadly noted the passing of regional speech, fell in love with Montana, and was appalled by racism in New Orleans.

Book Votes: 24

232

Alicia J. (aljennin2010iu)

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks

Seventeen year old Veronica "Ronnie" Miller's life was turned upside-down when her parents divorced and her father moved from New York City to Wilmington, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains angry and alienated from her parents, especially her father...until her mother... more

Book Votes: 24

233

James M. (monkeypox)

Choke by Chuck Palahniuk

Victor Mancini, a medical-school dropout, is an antihero for our deranged times. Needing to pay elder care for his mother, Victor has devised an ingenious scam: he pretends to choke on pieces of food while dining in upscale restaurants. He then allows himself to be “saved” by fellow... more

Book Votes: 23

234

DARYL D. (bookworm-51)

The Origin of Species: 150th Anniversary Edition by Charles Darwin

This higher education, abridged editoin of The Origin of Species is for use in schools, colleges, and prestigious learning institutions. Special introduction with thought-provoking information on: * The history of evolution * Timeline of Darwin's life * Intelligent Design vs.... more

Book Votes: 23

235

DARYL D. (bookworm-51)

Journey to the Center of the Earth (Classic) by Jules Verne

Tor Classics are affordably-priced editions designed to attract the young reader. Original dynamic cover art enthusiastically represents the excitement of each story. Appropriate "reader friendly" type sizes have been chosen for each title—offering clear, accurate, and readable text. All... more

Book Votes: 23

236

Laurie H. (coolelle) - Doylestown, PA

Just-So Stories (Puffin Classics) by Rudyard Kipling

One of the world's greatest storytellers weaves together an unforgettable collection of animal tales, including how the camel got its hump, how the leopard got its spots, and how even a butterfly stamping his leg can change a man's life. Initially written for his own "best beloved," Just So... more

Book Votes: 23

237

Pamela M.

The Friday Night Knitting Club (Knitting Club, Bk 1) by Kate Jacobs

A charming and moving novel about female friendship and the experiences that knit us together - even when we least expect it. Walker and Daughter is Georgia Walker's little yarn shop, tucked into a quiet storefront on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The Friday Night Knitting Club was... more

Book Votes: 23

238

Ronnie G. (frenchgiant)

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

This brilliant epic novel set in New York and Prague introduces us to two misfit young men who make it big by creating comic-book superheroes. Joe Kavalier, a young artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdiniesque escape, has just smuggled himself out of Nazi-invaded Prague and landed... more

Book Votes: 22

239

Shannon A. (shaxtell)

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 her child. When... more

Book Votes: 22

240

Shannon A. (shaxtell)

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

The Bluest Eye, published in 1970, is the first novel written by Toni Morrison, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature.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... more

Book Votes: 22

241

Shreya -

The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream 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... more

Book Votes: 22

242

Laura E. (laereader)

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, Bk 1) by C. S. Lewis

Narnia... the land beyond the wardrobe, the secret country known only to Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy... the place where the adventure begins. Lucy is the first to find the secret of the wardrobe in the professor's mysterious old house. At first, no one believes her when she tells of... more

Book Votes: 22

243

Ronnie G. (frenchgiant)

Blindness (Harvest Book) by Jose Saramago

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... more

Book Votes: 21

244

Sherry G. (Shervivor) - Falls Church, VA

The Long Walk by Stephen King & Richard Bachman

Phenomenal bestselling horror. On the first day of May, one hundred teenage boys meet for an event known throughout the country as "The Long Walk," a deadly contest of endurance and determination, where each step could literally be their last.

Book Votes: 21

245

Cassie S. (cassie86) - Westland, MI

Gap Creek: The Story of a Marriage by Robert Morgan

Julie Harmon works hard, "hard as a man" they say, so hard that at times she's not sure she can stop. People depend on her. She is just a teenager when her brother dies in her arms. The following year, she marries Hank and moves to Gap Creek. Julie and Hank discover that the modern world is... more

Book Votes: 21

246

Thomas W. (tomtir) - Arcadia, MO

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

Leaving behind a world on the brink of destruction, man came to the Red planet and found the Martians waiting, dreamlike. Seeking the promise of a new beginning, man brought with him his oldest fears and his deepest desires. Man conquered Mars—and in that instant, Mars conquered him. ... more

Book Votes: 21

247

Shannon A. (shaxtell)

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories by Robert Louis Stevens...

Idealistic young scientist Henry Jekyll struggles to unlock the secrets of the soul. Testing chemicals in his lab, he drinks a mixture he hopes will isolate -- and eliminate -- human evil. Instead it unleashes the dark forces within him, transforming him into the hideous and murderous Mr.... more

Book Votes: 21

248

Marta K. (janeeyre72)

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

Bleak House, Dickens's most daring experiment in the narration of a complex plot, challenges the reader to make connections - between the fashionable and the outcast, the beautiful and the ugly, the powerful and the victims. Nowhere in Dickens's later novels is his attack on an uncaring... more

Book Votes: 20

249

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Ahab's Wife: Or, The Star-Gazer by Sena Jeter Naslund

From the opening line--"Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last"--you will know that you are in the hands of a masterful storyteller and in the company of a fascinating woman hero. Inspired by a brief passage in Melville's Moby-Dick, where Captain Ahab speaks passionately of his... more

Book Votes: 20

250

Stacy P.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

As I Lay Dying is the harrowing, darkly comic tale of the Bundren family's trek across Mississippi to bury Addie, their wife and mother, in the town of her choice. The story is told by each family member -- including Addie herself. Faulkner's use of multiple viewpoints to reveal the inner... more

Book Votes: 20

251

Stacy P.

The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

Ripley is back. This new publication of Patricia Highsmith's classic inaugurates the complete Ripley series at Norton.Since his debut in 1955, Tom Ripley has evolved into the ultimate bad boy sociopath, influencing countless novelists and filmmakers. In this first novel, we are introduced to... more

Book Votes: 20

252

DARYL D. (bookworm-51)

The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles

The story deals with the tri-cornered relationship between Charles Smithson, Ernestina, his fianc?e, and Sarah Woodruff, reputed and professing to be a French Lieutenant's discarded woman. Charles is a well-born young man of scientific bent and dilettante pursuits; Ernestina, up from trade, is... more

Book Votes: 20

253

Thomas W. (tomtir) - Arcadia, MO

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

An endearing classic of childhood fancies and memories of an idyllic Midwestern summer from America's most beloved storyteller. Ray Bradbury's moving recollection of a vanished golden era remains one of his most enchanting novels. DANDELION WINE stands out in the Bradbury literary... more

Book Votes: 20

254

Vera M. (bepa-jean)

The Beach by Alex Garland

The Khao San Road, Bangkok--first stop for the hordes of rootless young Westerners traveling in Southeast Asia. On Richard's first night there, in a low-budget guest house, a fellow traveler slashes his wrists, bequeathing to Richard a meticulously drawn map to "the Beach." The Beach, as... more

Book Votes: 19

255

Stacy P.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Didion's journalistic skills are displayed as never before in this story of a year in her life that began with her daughter in a medically induced coma and her husband unexpectedly dead due to a heart attack. This powerful and moving work is Didion's "attempt to make sense of the weeks and then... more

Book Votes: 19

256

Joanne L. (jlustig)

The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe

When the future began... The men had it. Yeager. Conrad. Grissom. Glenn. Heroes ... the first Americans in space ... battling the Russians for control of the heavens ... putting their lives on the line. The women had it. While Mr. Wonderful was aloft, it tore your heart out that the Hero's Wife,... more

Book Votes: 19

257

Sherry G. (Shervivor) - Falls Church, VA

I, Elizabeth by Rosalind Miles

Publicly declared a bastard at the age of three, daughter of a disgraced and executed mother, last in the line of succession to the throne of England, Elizabeth I inherited an England ravaged by bloody religious conflict, at war with Spain and France, and badly in debt. When she died in 1603,... more

Book Votes: 18

258

Stacy P.

Time and Again by Jack Finney

Simon Morley moves into the Dakota apartments and returns to the year 1882 under hypnosis, Where he falls in love and refuses to change records for the government agency controlling his experiment. "Sleep. And when you awake everything you know of the twentieth century will be gone from your... more

Book Votes: 18

259

DARYL D. (bookworm-51)

The Arabian Nights : Tales from a Thousand and One Nights (Modern Library Classics) b...

Full of mischief, valor, ribaldry, and romance, The Arabian Nights has enthralled readers for centuries. These are the tales that saved the life of Shahrazad, whose husband, the king, executed each of his wives after a single night of marriage. Beginning an enchanting story each evening,... more

Book Votes: 18

260

Caroline S.

Blink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

How do we make decisions--good and bad--and why are some people so much better at it than others? Thats the question Malcolm Gladwell asks and answers in the follow-up to his huge bestseller, The Tipping Point. Utilizing case studies as diverse as speed dating, pop music, and the shooting of... more

Book Votes: 18

261

Tina S. (cats59)

Vanity Fair : A Novel without a Hero (Modern Library Classics) by William Makepeace T...

A marvelous, incisive social satire that gleefully exposes the greed and corruption raging in England during the turmoil of the Napoleonic wars through its tracing of the changing fortunes of two unforgettable women. It is a comic masterpiece that still resonates today."Re-reading Vanity Fair,... more

Book Votes: 17

262

Leah G. (LeahG)

Good Grief by Lolly Winston

A brilliantly funny and heartwarming debut about a young woman who stumbles,then fights to build a new life after the death of her husband.Lolly Winston has written an astonishing first novel. In Good Grief she takes a sad situation and artfully finds the humor and pathos to make readers smile... more

Book Votes: 17

263

Stacy P.

Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

With only a yellowing photograph in hand, a young man -- also named Jonathan Safran Foer -- sets out to find the woman who may or may not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Accompanied by an old man haunted by memories of the war; an amorous dog named Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior; and the... more

Book Votes: 17

264

DARYL D. (bookworm-51)

The Woman in White (Modern Library Classics) by Wilkie Collins

Generally considered the first English sensation novel, The Woman in White features the remarkable heroine Marian Halcombe and her sleuthing partner, drawing master Walter Hartright, pitted against the diabolical team of Count Fosco and Sir Percival Glyde. A gripping tale of murder, intrigue,... more

Book Votes: 17

265

Elizabeth B. (Cattriona) - Prairie Vlg, KS

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank

Those fateful words heralded the end. When the unthinkable nightmare of nuclear holocaust ravaged the United States, it was instant death for tens of millions of people; for survivors, it was a nightmare of hunger, sickness, and brutality. Overnight, a thousand years of civilization were... more

Book Votes: 17

266

Kathy F.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Bod is an unusual boy who inhabits an unusual place-he's the only living resident of a graveyard. Raised from infancy by the ghosts, werewolves, and other cemetery denizens, Bod has learned the antiquated customs of his guardians' time as well as their timely ghostly teachings -- like the... more

Book Votes: 17

267

Wendy R. (wendybird)

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

Seventeen-year-old David Balfour's villainous uncle has him kidnapped in order to steal his inheritance. David escapes only to fall into the dangerous company of rebels who are resisting British redcoats in the Scottish highlands. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson remains one of the... more

Book Votes: 17

268

Amanda R.

The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett

St. Elizabeth's is a home for unwed mothers in the 1960s. Life there is not unpleasant, and for most, it is temporary. Not so for Rose, a beautiful, mysterious woman who comes to the home pregnant but not unwed. She plans to give up her baby because she knows she cannot be the mother it needs.... more

Book Votes: 16

269

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Earle Stegner

Called a “magnificently crafted story . . . brimming with wisdom” by Howard Frank Mosher in The Washington Post Book World, Crossing to Safety has, since its publication in 1987, established itself as one of the greatest and most cherished American novels of the twentieth century.... more

Book Votes: 16

270

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

'A thrilling reading experience! One of the greatest adventure stories of our times' - New York Times Book Review. In 1914 Ernest Shackleton and a crew of 27 men, sailed for the South Atlantic on the 'Endurance' with the object of crossing the Antarctic over land. In October 1915, still half a... more

Book Votes: 16

271

Joanne L. (jlustig)

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

The classic depiction of the harsh realities of American life, the dark side of the American Dream, and one man's doomed pursuit of love and success... "Mr. Dreiser is not imitative and belongs to no school. He is at heart a mysticist and a fatalist, though using the realistic method. He is, on... more

Book Votes: 16

272

Elizabeth B. (Cattriona) - Prairie Vlg, KS

Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft by Thor Heyerdahl

Kon-Tiki is the record of an astonishing adventure -- a journey of 4,300 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean by raft. Intrigued by Polynesian folklore, biologist Thor Heyerdahl suspected that the South Sea Islands had been settled by an ancient race from thousands of miles to the east, led... more

Book Votes: 16

273

DARYL D. (bookworm-51)

The Turn of the Screw and The Aspern Papers by Henry James

The Turn of the Screw is the classic ghost story for which James is most remembered. Set in a country house, it is a chilling tale of the supernatural. The Aspern Papers is a tale of Americans in Europe, cleverly evoking the drama of comedie humaine against the settings of a Venetian palace.

Book Votes: 16

274

Michelle M. (sapphire72)

Illusions: The Adventures Of A Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach

In the cloud-washed airspace between the cornfields of Illinois and blue infinity, a man puts his faith in the propeller of his biplane. For disillusioned writer and itinerant barnstormer Richard Bach, belief is as real as a full tank of gas and sparks firing in the cylinders ... until he meets... more

Book Votes: 16

275

Shirl P. (happiness)

A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle

They had been there often as tourists. They had cherished the dream of someday living all year under the Provencal sun. And suddenly it happened. Here is the month-by-month account of the charms and frustrations that Peter Mayle and his wife -- and their two large dogs -- experience their... more

Book Votes: 16

276

Sara H. (nursesara)

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

“Practically alone among the American writers of his generation,” wrote Edmund Wilson, “[Sinclair] put to the American public the fundamental questions raised by capitalism in such a way that they could not escape them.” When it was first published in 1906, The Jungle... more

Book Votes: 16

277

Krista K. (Krista0521)

Kiss the Girls (Alex Cross, Bk 2) by James Patterson

This time it's personal for Cross. The most elusive of killers has abducted Cross's niece, Naomi, a talented law student. Only such a devastating blow could bring the detective back - this time to the Deep South, where old slave prisons are buried in the forests, and houses of horror can... more

Book Votes: 16

278

Shelley Z. (shellbzep)

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Jonas's world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear of pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the community. When Jonas turns 12 he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain... more

Book Votes: 16

279

Cassi B.

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto by Chuck Klosterman

Countless writers and artists have spoken for a generation, but no one has done it quite like Chuck Klosterman. With an exhaustive knowledge of popular culture and an almost effortless ability to spin brilliant prose out of unlikely subject matter, Klosterman attacks the entire spectrum of... more

Book Votes: 15

280

Charity S. (charitysheppard)

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

?I think I could be a good woman, if I had five thousand a year,? observes beautiful and clever Becky Sharp, one of the wickedest?and most appealing?women in all of literature. Becky is just one of the many fascinating figures that populate William Makepeace Thackeray?s novel Vanity Fair, a... more

Book Votes: 15

281

Terri E. (stocktonmalonefan) -

The Last Child by John Hart

John Hart's New York Times bestselling debut, The King of Lies, announced the arrival of a major talent. With Down River, he surpassed his earlier success, transcending the barrier between thriller and literature and winning the 2008 Edgar Award for best novel. Now, with The Last Child, he... more

John Hart's New York Times bestselling debut, The King of Lies, announced the arrival of a major talent. With Down River, he surpassed his earlier success, transcending the barrier between thriller and literature and winning the 2008 Edgar Award for best novel. Now, with The Last Child, he achieves his most significant work to date, an intricate, powerful story of loss, hope, and courage in the face of evil. Thirteen-year-old Johnny Merrimon had the perfect life: a warm home and loving parents; a twin sister, Alyssa, with whom he shared an irreplaceable bond. He knew nothing of loss, until the day Alyssa vanished from the side of a lonely street. Now, a year later, Johnny finds himself isolated and alone, failed by the people he'd been taught since birth to trust. No one else believes that Alyssa is still alive, but Johnny is certain that she is - confident in a way that he can never fully explain. Determined to find his sister, Johnny risks everything to explore the dark side of his hometown. It is a desperate, terrifying search, but Johnny is not as alone as he might think. Detective Clyde Hunt has never stopped looking for Alyssa either, and he has a soft spot for Johnny. He watches over the boy and tries to keep him safe, but when Johnny uncovers a dangerous lead and vows to follow it, Hunt has no choice but to intervene. Then a second child goes missing... Undeterred by Hunt's threats or his mother's pleas, Johnny enlists the help of his last friend, and together they plunge into the wild, to a forgotten place with a history of violence that goes back more than a hundred years. There, they meet a giant of a man, an escaped convict on his own tragic quest. What they learn from him will shatter every notion Johnny had about the fate of his sister; it will lead them to another far place, to a truth that will test both boys to the limit. Traveling the wilderness between innocence and hard wisdom, between hopelessness and faith, The Last Child leaves all categories behind and establishes John Hart as a writer of unique power.

Book Votes: 15

282

Joanne L. (jlustig)

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

In 2019, humanity finally finds proof of extraterrestrial life when a listening post in Puerto Rico picks up exquisite singing from a planet which will come to be known as Rakhat. While United Nations diplomats endlessly debate a possible first contact mission, the Society of Jesus quietly... more

Book Votes: 15

283

Stacy P.

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

One of Waugh's most famous books, Brideshead Revisited tells the story of the difficult loves of insular Englishman Charles Ryder, and his peculiarly intense relationship with the wealthy but dysfunctional family that inhabited Brideshead. Taking place in the years after World War II,... more

Book Votes: 15

284

Kristin K. (escapeartistk)

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit by Daniel Quinn

The narrator of this extraordinary tale is a man in search for truth. He answers an ad in a local newspaper from a teacher looking for serious pupils, only to find himself alone in an abandoned office with a full-grown gorilla who is... more

Book Votes: 15

285

Laurie H. (coolelle) - Doylestown, PA

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Not since DUNE has a science fiction novel generated as much enthusiasm and excitement as THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS. Discover for yourself this thought-provoking tale of an alien planet where all the people are of one sex, and the lone earthman is forced into a subtle planetary intrigue where he... more

Book Votes: 15

286

Caroline S.

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers" -- the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much... more

Book Votes: 15

287

Kate K.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Standing on the fringes of life...offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.This haunting novel about the dilemma of passivity vs. passion marks the stunning debut of a provocative new voice in contemporary fiction: The Perks of Being a... more

Book Votes: 15

288

Nancy S.

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Still Alice is a compelling debut novel about a 50-year-old woman's sudden descent into early onset Alzheimer's disease, written by first-time author Lisa Genova, who holds a Ph. D in neuroscience from Harvard University. Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children and a house on... more

Book Votes: 15

289

James M. (monkeypox)

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

Japan's most highly regarded novelist now vaults into the first ranks of international fiction writers with this heroically imaginative novel, which is at once a detective story, an account of a disintegrating marriage, and an excavation of the buried secrets of World War II. In a Tokyo... more

Book Votes: 14

290

Ronnie G. (frenchgiant)

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

THE CORRECTIONS is a grandly entertaining novel for the new century-a comic, tragic masterpiece about a family breaking down in an age of easy fixes. After almost fifty years as a wife and mother, Enid Lambert is ready to have some fun. Unfortunately, her husband, Alfred, is losing his sanity to... more

Book Votes: 14

291

Joanne L. (jlustig)

WHAT IS THE WHAT by Dave Eggers

What is the What is an epic novel about the lives of two boys during the Sudanese civil war. For those who think they know about the so-called Lost Boys of Sudan, this novel will be an eye-opener. And if you think you know the work of Dave Eggers, this is in many ways a complete departure: it's... more

Book Votes: 14

292

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Electric Kool Aid Acid Test by Tom James Wolfe

Tom Wolfe's much-discussed kaleidoscopic non-fiction novel chronicles the tale of novelist Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters. In the 1960s, Kesey led a group of psychedelic sympathizers around the country in a painted bus, presiding over LSD-induced "acid tests" all along the way. Long... more

Book Votes: 14

293

Amanda M. (Blondie1980)

Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger

A volume containing two interrelated stories by J.D. Salinger, published in book form in 1961. The stories, originally published in The New Yorker magazine, concern Franny and Zooey Glass, two members of the family that was the subject of most of Salinger's short fiction. Franny is an... more

Book Votes: 14

294

Wendy R. (wendybird)

Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg

She thinks more highly of snow and ice than she does of love. She lives in a world of numbers, science and memories--a dark, exotic stranger in a strange land. And now Smilla Jaspersen is convinced she has uncovered a shattering crime...It happened in the Copenhagen... more

Book Votes: 14

295

Amy O. (cheermom140)

The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel

This novel of awesome beauty and power is a moving saga about people, relationships, and the boundaries of love. Through Jean M. Auel’s magnificent storytelling we are taken back to the dawn of modern humans, and with a girl named Ayla we are swept up in the harsh and beautiful Ice Age... more

Book Votes: 14

296

Shaz H. (shaz) - Port St Lucie, FL

Captains Courageous (Tor Classics) by Rudyard Kipling

Tor Classics are affordably-priced editions designed to attract the young reader. Original dynamic cover art enthusiastically represents the excitement of each story. Appropriate "reader friendly" type sizes have been chosen for each title—offering clear, accurate, and readable text. All... more

Book Votes: 13

297

Vera M. (bepa-jean)

Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk

Tender Branson - last surviving member of the so-called "Creedish Death Cult" - is dictating his incredible life story into the flight recorder of Flight 2039, cruising on autopilot at 39,000 feet somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. He is all alone in the plane, which will shortly reach terminal... more

Book Votes: 13

298

Cassi B.

In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez

It is November 25, 1960, and three beautiful sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The official state newspaper reports their deaths as accidental. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does... more

Book Votes: 13

299

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

An exhilarating meditation on nature and its seasons-a personal narrative highlighting one year's exploration on foot in the author's own neighborhood in Tinker Creek, Virginia. In the summer, Dillard stalks muskrats in the creek and contemplates wave mechanics; in the fall she watches a monarch... more

Book Votes: 13

300

Stephanie M. (grinky22)

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

You are about to travel to Edgecombe St. Mary, a small village in the English countryside filled with rolling hills, thatched cottages, and a cast of characters both hilariously original and as familiar as the members of your own family. Among them is Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired), the... more

Book Votes: 13

301

JAKE B.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Dem...

Jon Stewart, host of the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning The Daily Show, and his coterie of patriots, deliver a hilarious look at American government. American-style democracy is the world's most beloved form of government, which explains why so many other nations are eager for us to impose... more

Book Votes: 13

302

Denise S. (Dargent)

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Nine year-old Oskar Schell has embarked on an urgent, secret mission that will take him through the five boroughs of New York. His goal is to find the lock that matches a mysterious key that belonged to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11. This seemingly... more

Book Votes: 13

303

Thomas W. (tomtir) - Arcadia, MO

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

He was a riot of rockets and fountains and people, in such intricate detail and color that you could bear the voiced murmuring, small and muted, from the crowds that inhabited his body.The Illustrated ManRay Bradbury brings wonders alive. A peerless American storyteller, his oeuvre has been... more

He was a riot of rockets and fountains and people, in such intricate detail and color that you could bear the voiced murmuring, small and muted, from the crowds that inhabited his body.The Illustrated ManRay Bradbury brings wonders alive. A peerless American storyteller, his oeuvre has been celebrated for decades--from The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451 to Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes. The Illustrated Man is classic Bradbury --a collection of tales that breathe and move, animated by sharp, intaken breath and flexing muscle. Here are eighteen startling visions of humankind's destiny, unfolding across a canvas of decorated skin--visions as keen as the tattooist's needle and as colorful as the inks that indelibly stain the body. The images, ideas, sounds and scents that abound in this phantasmagoric sideshow are provocative and powerful: the mournful cries of celestial travelers cast out cruelly into a vast, empty space of stars and blackness ... the sight of gray dust settling over a forgotten outpost on a road that leads nowhere ... the pungent odor of Jupiter on a returning father's clothing. Here living cities take their vengeance, technology awakens the most primal natural instincts, Martian invasions are foiled by the good life and the glad hand, and dreams are carried aloft in junkyard rockets. Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man is a kaleidoscopic blending of magic, imagination, and truth, widely believed to be one of the Grandmaster's premier accomplishments: as exhilarating as interplanetary travel, as maddening as a walk in a million-year rain, and as comforting as simple, familiar rituals on the last night of the world. He was a riot of rockets and fountains and people, in such intricate detail and color that you could hear the voices murmuring, small and muted, from the crowds that inhabited his body.Ray Bradbury brings wonders alive. A peerless American storyteller, his oeuvre has been celebrated for decades--from The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451 to Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes. THE ILLUSTRATED MAN is classic Bradbury--a collection of tales that breathe and move, animated by sharp, intaken breath and flexing muscle. Here are eighteen startling visions of humankind's destiny, unfolding across a canvas of decorated skin--visions as keen as the tattooist's needle and as colorful as the inks that indelibly stain the body. The images, ideas, sounds and scents that abound in this phantasmagoric sideshow are provocative and powerful: the mournful cries of celestial travelers cast out cruelly into a vast, empty space of stars and blackness...the sight of gray dust settling over a forgotten outpost on a road that leads nowhere...the pungent odor of Jupiter on a returning father's clothing. Here living cities take their vengeance, technology awakens the most primal natural instincts, Martian invasions are foiled by the good life and the glad hand, and dreams are carried aloft in junkyard rockets. Ray Bradbury's THE ILLUSTRATEDMAN is a kaleidoscopic blending of magic, imagination, and truth, widely believed to be one of the Grandmaster's premier accomplishments: as exhilarating as interplanetary travel, as maddening as a walk in a million-year rain, and as comforting as simple, familiar rituals on the last night of the world.

Book Votes: 13

304

Judy B. (Hoody)

Katherine by Anya Seton

This classic romance novel tells the true story of the love affair that changed history—that of Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the ancestors of most of the British royal family. Set in the vibrant 14th century of Chaucer and the Black Death, the story features... more

Book Votes: 13

305

Lillie M. (lillie) - Garrett, IN

Saturday by Ian McEwan

From the pen of a master -- the #1 bestselling, Booker Prize--winning author of Atonement -- comes an astonishing novel that captures the fine balance of happiness and the unforeseen threats that can destroy it. A brilliant, thrilling page-turner that will keep readers on the edge of their... more

Book Votes: 12

306

Ronnie G. (frenchgiant)

Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin

A bestseller that takes readers on a journey to New York of the Belle Epoque, where Peter Lake attempts to rob a Manhattan mansion only to find the daughter of the house at home. Thus begins the love between the middle-aged Irishman and Beverly Penn, a young girl who is dying. “This... more

Book Votes: 12

307

Ronnie G. (frenchgiant)

The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason

In 1886 a shy, middle-aged piano tuner named Edgar Drake receives an unusual commission from the British War Office: to travel to the remote jungles of northeast Burma and there repair a rare piano belonging to an eccentric army surgeon who has proven mysteriously indispensable to the imperial... more

Book Votes: 12

308

Vera M. (bepa-jean)

Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk

Ever heard of a culling song? It’s a lullaby sung in Africa to give a painless death to the old or infirm. The lyrics of a culling song kill, whether spoken or even just thought. You can find one on page 27 of Poems and Rhymes from Around the World, an anthology that is sitting on the... more

Book Votes: 12

309

Vera M. (bepa-jean)

The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll

Jim Carroll's memoir of his adolescent years in the early 1960s attending Trinity School on Manhattan's Upper West Side, playing basketball, and getting high on a various combinations of chemicals, alcohol, and narcotics is a classic of its kind. His cast of characters, mostly drawn from real... more

Book Votes: 12

310

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Rabbit, Run by John Updike

"Brilliant and poignant...By his compassion, clarity of insight and crystal-bright prose, he makes Rabbit's sorrow his and our own."THE WASHINGTON POSTHarry Angstrom was a star basketball player in high school and that was the best time of his life. Now in his mid-20s, his work is unfulfilling,... more

Book Votes: 12

311

DARYL D. (bookworm-51)

Daisy Miller (Modern Library Classics) by Henry James

Originally published in The Cornhill Magazine in 1878 and in book form in 1879, Daisy Miller brought Henry James his first widespread commercial and critical success. The young Daisy Miller, an American on holiday with her mother on the shores of Switzerland’s Lac Leman, is one of... more

Book Votes: 12

312

Stacy P.

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller

In Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller remembers her African childhood with candor and sensitivity. Though it is a diary of an unruly life in an often inhospitable place, it is suffused with Fuller's endearing ability to find laughter, even when there is little to... more

Book Votes: 12

313

Elizabeth B. (Cattriona) - Prairie Vlg, KS

Replay by Ken Grimwood

Jeff Winston, forty-three, didn't know he was a replayer until he died and woke up twenty-five years younger in his college dorm room; he lived another life. And died again. And lived again and died again -- in a continuous twenty-five-year cycle -- each time starting from scratch at the age of... more

Book Votes: 12

314

Heather M. (hmarottek)

Still Life with Crows (Pendergast, Bk 4) by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

New York Times bestselling authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child return with a suspenseful Midwest Gothic thriller about a serial killer who terrorizes a small town. Medicine Creek, Kansas, has been slowly dying for the last century. A small, quiet place, the primary occupation is still... more

Book Votes: 12

315

Stacy P.

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

A long-lost book reappears, mysteriously connecting an old man searching for his son and a girl seeking a cure for her widowed mother's loneliness. Leo Gursky is just about surviving, tapping his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbor know he's still alive. But life wasn't always... more

Book Votes: 12

316

Caroline S.

Hearts In Atlantis by Stephen King

Stephen King, whose first novel, Carrie, was published in 1974, the year before the last U.S. troops withdrew from Vietnam, is the first hugely popular writer of the TV generation. Images from that war -- and the protests against it -- had flooded America's living rooms for a decade. Hearts in... more

Book Votes: 12

317

Caroline S.

The Dive from Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer

How much do we owe the people we love? Is it a sign of strength or weakness to walk away from someone in need? These questions lie at the heart of Ann Packer's intimate and emotionally thrilling new novel, which has won its author comparisons with Jane Hamilton and Sue Miller. At the age of... more

Book Votes: 12

318

Jami G. (jamiG) - Noblesville, IN

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan

What to eat, what not to eat, and how to think about health: a manifesto for our times. Food. There's plenty of it around, and we all love to eat it. So why should anyone need to defend it? Because in the so-called Western diet, food has been replaced by nutrients, and common sense by... more

Book Votes: 12

319

rolise

On the Beach by Nevil Shute

Nevil Shute’s most powerful novel?a bestseller for decades after its 1957 publication?is an unforgettable vision of a post-apocalyptic world. After a nuclear World War III has destroyed most of the globe, the few remaining survivors in southern Australia await the radioactive cloud... more

Book Votes: 12

320

Kate K.

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Bk 1) by George R. R. Martin

In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom's protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the... more

Book Votes: 12

321

Krista K. (Krista0521)

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

When it was published in 1955, Lolita immediately became a cause celebre because of the freedom and sophistication with which it handled the unusual erotic predilections of its protagonist. But Vladimir Nabokov's wise, ironic, elegant masterpiece owes its stature as one of the twentieth... more

Book Votes: 12

322

Krista K. (Krista0521)

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

In 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist she'd never seen before, eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to McLean Hospital. The author spent most of the next two years on the ward for teenage girls in a psychiatric hospital as renowned for its famous... more

Book Votes: 12

323

Rick B. (bup) - Glenview, IL

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth

When the renowned aviation hero and rabid isolationist Charles A. Lindbergh defeated Franklin Roosevelt by a landslide in the 1940 presidential election, fear invaded every Jewish household in America. Not only had Lindbergh, in a nationwide radio address, publicly blamed the Jews for... more

Book Votes: 11

324

Soren S. (wiglaf)

Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake & Richard Holmes

This beautiful, hardcover gift edition allows Blake to communicate with his readers as he intended, reproducing his illuminations and lettering from the finest existing example of the original. In this way readers can experience the mystery and beauty of Blake?s poems as he created them. This... more

Book Votes: 11

325

Umber G. (Mamie)

Right Ho, Jeeves: A British Humor Classic by P. G. Wodehouse

Jeeves has some outrageous ideas about how Gussie Fink-Nottle can capture the affections of Miss Madeline Bassett including scarlet tights and a false beard. What follows is a delightful romp through the banquet halls and boudoirs of English high society by "the funniest writer ever to put words... more

Book Votes: 11

326

Michelle M. (sapphire72)

Contact by Carl Sagan

The future is here...in an adventure of cosmic dimension. In December, 1999, a multinational team journeys out to the stars, to the most awesome encounter in human history. Who -- or what -- is out there? In Cosmos, Carl Sagan explained the universe. In Contact, he predicts its future --... more

Book Votes: 11

327

Cassie S. (cassie86) - Westland, MI

The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory

I am Catalina, Princess of Spain, daughter of the two greatest monarchs the world has ever known... and I will be Queen of England. Thus, bestselling author Philippa Gregory introduces one of her most unforgettable heroines: Katherine of Aragon. Known to history as the Queen who was pushed... more

Book Votes: 11

328

Denise S. (Dargent)

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf and To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf by Virg...

A Room of One's Own & To The Lighthouse written by legendary author Virginia Woolf are widely considered to be two of the top 100 greatest books of all time. These two great classics will surely attract a whole new generation of readers. For many, A Room of One's Own & To The Lighthouse are... more

Book Votes: 11

329

Sherry W. (octexan)

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hille...

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. �Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. �It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was... more

Book Votes: 11

330

Sherry W. (octexan)

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... more

Book Votes: 11

331

Ashley S.

Little Bee (aka The Other Hand) by Chris Cleave

Worlds collide when Little Bee, a Nigerian girl orphaned by violence, meets Sarah, a dissatisfied British professional away on holiday. The story is extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific. The story starts there, but the book doesn't. And it's what happens... more

Book Votes: 11

332

Ronnie G. (frenchgiant)

Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk

She's a fashion model who has everything: a boyfriend, a career, a loyal best friend. But when a sudden freeway "accident" leaves her disfigured and incapable of speech, she is transformed from the beautiful center of attention to an invisible monster, so hideous that no one will acknowledge she... more

Book Votes: 10

333

Amy B. (BaileysBooks)

The Moonstone (Penguin Classics) by Wilkie Collins

Introduction by Catherine Peters

Book Votes: 10

334

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette by Sena Jeter Naslund

Marie Antoinette was a child of fourteen when her mother, the Empress of Austria, arranged for her to leave her family and her country to become the wife of the fifteen-year-old Dauphin, the future King of France. Coming of age in the most public of arenas -- eager to be a good wife and strong... more

Book Votes: 10

335

Cheryl (pagebypage) - Brant Lake, NY

The Passage by Justin Cronin

It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born." First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way... more

Book Votes: 10

336

Stacy P.

Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Published in 1934, Tender Is the Night was one of the most talked-about books of the year. "It's amazing how excellent much of it is," Ernest Hemingway said to Maxwell Perkins. "I will say now," John O'Hara wrote Fitzgerald, "Tender Is the Night is in the early... more

Book Votes: 10

337

Caroline S.

Columbine by Dave Cullen

In this remarkable account of the April 20, 1999, Columbine High School shooting, journalist Cullen not only dispels several of the prevailing myths about the event but tackles the hardest question of all: why did it happen? Drawing on extensive interviews, police reports and his own reporting,... more

Book Votes: 10

338

Kate K.

We the Living by Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand said of her first novel, We the Living: "It is as near to an autobiography as I will ever write. The plot is invented, the background is not ... The specific events of Kira's life were not mine; her ideas, her convictions, her values, were and are." First published in... more

Book Votes: 10

339

Kate K.

Scarlet Pimpernel (Complete and Unabridged Classics) by Emmuska Orczy, Baroness Orczy

The first and most successful in the Baroness’s series of books that feature Percy Blakeney, who leads a double life as an English fop and a swashbuckling rescuer of aristocrats, The Scarlet Pimpernel was the blueprint for what became known as the masked-avenger genre. As Anne Perry writes... more

Book Votes: 10

340

Angela S. (readabk)

The Chosen by Chaim Potok

25th anniversary edition of Potok's acclaimed first novel. The Chosen chronicles the friendship between Danny Saunders, a boy from a Hasidic family, and the more assimilated Reuven Malter, as they come of age in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Book Votes: 10

341

James M. (monkeypox)

White Noise by Don DeLillo

Winner of the National Book Award, White Noise was immediately hailed as Don DeLillo's "breakout novel" when it first appeared in 1985. The novel entertains a wide array of compelling topics and concerns with consummate agility. After a deadly toxic accident and his wife's addiction to an... more

Book Votes: 9

342

Vera M. (bepa-jean)

The Master and Margarita (Picador Books) by Mikhail Bulgakov & Mikhail Bulgakov

Moscow, 1929: a city that has lost its way amid corruption and fear, inhabited by people who have abandoned their morals and forsaken spirituality. But when a mysterious stranger arrives in town with a bizarre entourage that includes a giant talking cat and a fanged assassin, all hell breaks... more

Book Votes: 9

343

Sherry G. (Shervivor) - Falls Church, VA

The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne

Five Union prisoners escape from the siege of Richmond in a balloon, are blown off course and crash on an uncharted island. They must learn to rebuild a society for themselves while awaiting rescue.

Book Votes: 9

344

Amy B. (BaileysBooks)

Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut

Vonnegut's first novel, an unforgiving portrait of an automated and totalitarian future, was published in 1952. A human revolt against the machines which control life was arranged by the machines themselves to prove the futility of such resistance. Visionary and unrelenting, this is felt by some... more

Book Votes: 9

345

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Rabbit Redux by John Updike

"Rabbit Redux is the complete Updike at last, an awesomely accomplished writer.....For God's sake, read the book. It may even--will probably change your life." BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB "It may be even more than brilliant....It succeeds in putting us in touch with ourselves and our times in ways... more

Book Votes: 9

346

Shirl P. (happiness)

The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama

The daughter of a Chinese mother and a Japanese father, Tsukiyama uses the Japanese invasion of China during the late 1930s as a somber backdrop for her unusual story about a 20-year-old Chinese painter named Stephen who is sent to his family's summer home in a Japanese coastal village to... more

Book Votes: 9

347

Denise S. (Dargent)

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

"There in the middle of the broad, bright high-road-there, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth or dropped from the heaven-stood the figure of a solitary woman, dressed from head to foot in white garments." Thus young Walter Hartright first meets the mysterious woman in... more

Book Votes: 9

348

Cheryl (pagebypage) - Brant Lake, NY

Forever by Pete Hamill

This widely praised bestseller is the magical, epic tale of an extraordinary man who arrives in New York in 1740 and remains...forever. Through the eyes of young Cormac O'Connor--granted immortality as long as he never leaves the island of Manhattan--we watch New York grow from a tiny... more

Book Votes: 9

349

Amanda M. (Blondie1980)

Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger

Since the publication of The Catcher in the Rye in 1951, the works of J.D. Salinger have been acclaimed for their humor, intensity, and their lack of phoniness. A collection of short fiction, Nine Stories contains works with those qualities that make Salinger such a well-loved author.

Book Votes: 9

350

Shannon A. (shaxtell)

A Widow for One Year by John Irving

Ruth Cole is a complex, often self-contradictory character--a "difficult" woman. By no means is she conventionally "nice," but she will never be forgotten. Ruth's story is told in three parts, each focusing on a crucial time in her life. When we first meet her--on Long Island, in the summer... more

Book Votes: 9

351

Wendy R. (wendybird)

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Perennial Classics) by Milan Kundera

A young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover--these are the two couples whose story is told in this masterful novel. In a world in which lives are shaped by irrevocable choices and by fortuitous... more

Book Votes: 9

352

DARYL D. (bookworm-51)

Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott

Unless you're a mathematician, the chances of you reading any novels about geometry are probably slender. But if you read only two in your life, these are the ones. Taken together, they form a couple of accessible and charming explanations of geometry and physics for the curious... more

Book Votes: 9

353

Amy O. (cheermom140)

Clan of the Cave Bear (Earth's Children, Bk 1) by Jean Auel

This novel of awesome beauty and power is a moving saga about people, relationships, and the boundaries of love. Through Jean M. Auel’s magnificent storytelling we are taken back to the dawn of modern humans, and with a girl named Ayla we are swept up in the harsh and beautiful Ice Age... more

Book Votes: 9

354

D. G. (riahekans)

The Pursuit of Love / Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford

Few aristocratic English families of the twentieth century enjoyed the glamorous notoriety of the infamous Mitford sisters. Nancy Mitford's most famous novels, The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, satirize British aristocracy in the twenties and thirties through the amorous... more

Book Votes: 8

355

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness by Edward Abbey

A CELEBRATION OF THE BEAUTY OF LIVING IN A HARSH AND HOSTILE LAND Edward Abbey lived for three seasons in the desert at Moab, Utah, and what he discovered about the land before him, the world around him, and the heart that beat within, is a fascinating, sometimes raucous, always personal... more

Book Votes: 8

356

Stacy P.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith?s dazzling debut caught critics grasping for comparisons and deciding on everyone from Charles Dickens to Salman Rushdie to John Irving and Martin Amis. But the truth is that Zadie Smith?s voice is remarkably, fluently, and altogether wonderfully her own. At the center of this... more

Book Votes: 8

357

DARYL D. (bookworm-51)

The Magnificent Ambersons (The Modern Library Classics) by Booth Tarkington

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize when it was first published in 1918, The Magnificent Ambersons chronicles the changing fortunes of three generations of an American dynasty. The protagonist of Booth Tarkington's great historical drama is George Amberson Minafer, the spoiled and arrogant grandson of... more

Book Votes: 8

358

Stacy P.

Wilkie Collins Omnibus: The Moonstone / The Haunted Hotel / My Lady's Money by Wilkie...

Three classic mysteries by Wilkie Collins in one volume: THE MOONSTONE: Stolen from the forehead of a Hindu idol, the dazzling gem known as "The Moonstone" resurfaces at a birthday party in an English country home--with an enigmatic trio of watchful Brahmins hot on its trail. Laced with... more

Book Votes: 8

359

Laurie H. (coolelle) - Doylestown, PA

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by Seamus Deane & James Joyce

Masterpiece of semi-autobiographical fiction reveals a powerful portrait of the coming of age of a young man of unusual intelligence, sensitivity and character. Telling portrayals of an Irish upbringing and schooling, the Catholic Church and its priesthood, Parnell and Irish politics, sexual... more

Book Votes: 8

360

Caroline S.

Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier

Mary Yellan, recently orphaned, goes to live with her aunt at Jamaica Inn - stark and forbidding and standing alone on Bodmin Moor, its very walls tainted with corruption. This is a classic and enthralling story of smuggling and Cornish secrets and Mary who must observe it all alone.

Book Votes: 8

361

Mary C. (purplepride) - Clovis, NM

Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya

Antonio Marez is six years old when Ultima comes to stay with his family in New Mexico. She is a curandera, one who cures with herbs and magic. Under her wise wing, Tony probes his family ties and discovers himself in the magical secrets of the pagan past -- a mythic legacy as palpable as the... more

Book Votes: 8

362

Keitha M. (kmama)

Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux by Vine Delo...

The most famous Native American book ever written, Black Elk Speaks is the acclaimed story of Lakota visionary and healer Nicholas Black Elk (1863-1950) and his people during the momentous, twilight years of the nineteenth century. Black Elk grew up in a time when white settlers were invading... more

Book Votes: 8

363

Krista K. (Krista0521)

Bitter is the New Black : Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered ...

Jen Lancaster was living the sweet life-until real life kicked her to the curb. She had the perfect man, the perfect job-hell, she had the perfect life-and there was no reason to think it wouldn't last. Or maybe there was, but Jen Lancaster was too busy being manicured, pedicured, highlighted,... more

Book Votes: 8

364

Nancy S.

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

A tiny girl is abandoned on a ship headed for Australia in 1913. She arrives completely alone with nothing but a small suitcase containing a few clothes and a single book -- a beautiful volume of fairy tales. She is taken in by the dockmaster and his wife and raised as their own. On her... more

Book Votes: 8

365

Beth A. (cachebether)

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster & Jules Feiffer (Illustrator)

This ingenious fantasy centers around Milo, a bored ten-year-old who comes home to find a large toy tollbooth sitting in his room. Joining forces with a watchdog named Tock, Milo drives through the tollbooth's gates and begins a memorable journey. He meets such characters as the foolish, yet... more

Book Votes: 8

366

Stephen W. (cubedst)

Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 is a masterwork of twentieth-century literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than... more

Book Votes: 8

367

Tina S. (cats59)

The Wee Free Men (Tiffany Aching, Bk 1) by Terry Pratchett

A nightmarish danger threatens from the other side of reality . . . Armed with only a frying pan and her common sense, young witch-to-be Tiffany Aching must defend her home against the monsters of Fairyland. Luckily she has some very unusual help: the local Nac Mac Feegle?aka the Wee Free... more

Book Votes: 7

368

Leah G. (LeahG)

The Inn at Lake Devine (Vintage Contemporaries) by Elinor Lipman

It's 1962 and all across America barriers are collapsing. But when Natalie Marx's mother inquires about summer accommodations in Vermont, she gets the following reply: The Inn at Lake Devine is a family-owned resort, which has been in continuous operation since 1922. Our guests who feel most... more

Book Votes: 7

369

Susanne L. (mygalrosie)

My Name Is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira

The Civil War offers a 20-year-old midwife who dreams of becoming a doctor the medical experience she craves, plus hard work and heartbreak, in this rich debut that takes readers from a small upstate New York doctor's office to a Union hospital overflowing with the wounded and... more

Book Votes: 7

370

Amanda R.

Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee

Written with austere clarity , Disgrace explores the downfall of one man and dramatizes with unforgettable, almost unbearable vividness the plight of South Africa -- a country caught in the chaotic aftermath of the overthrow of Apartheid. A middle-aged professor of Romantic poetry sees his... more

Book Votes: 7

371

Stacy P.

Basket Case by Carl Hiaasen

Once a hotshot investigative reporter, Jack Tagger now bangs out obituaries for a South Florida daily, “plotting to resurrect my newspaper career by yoking my byline to some famous stiff.” Jimmy Stoma, the infamous front man of Jimmy and the Slut Puppies, dead in a fishy-smelling... more

Book Votes: 7

372

Merrikay B.

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill : A Love Story . . . with Wings by Mark Bittner

Like a lot of young people in the 1970s, Mark Bittner took the path of the “dharma bum.” When the counterculture faded, Mark held on, seeking shelter in the nooks and crannies of San Francisco’s fabled bohemian neighborhood, North Beach. While living on the eastern slope of... more

Book Votes: 7

373

Laurie H. (coolelle) - Doylestown, PA

Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins

Jitterbug Perfume is an epic. which is to say, it begins in the forests of ancient Bohemia and doesn't conclude until nine o'clock tonight [Paris time]. It is a saga, as well. A saga must have a hero, and the hero of this one is a janitor with a missing bottle. The bottle is blue, very, very... more

Book Votes: 7

374

Laurie H. (coolelle) - Doylestown, PA

The Lover by Marguerite Duras

An international best-seller with more than one million copies in print and a winner of France's Prix Goncourt, The Lover has been acclaimed by critics all over the world since its first publication in 1984.Set in the prewar Indochina of Marguerite Duras's childhood, this is the haunting tale of... more

Book Votes: 7

375

Cheryl (pagebypage) - Brant Lake, NY

Thunderstruck by Erik Larson

A true story of love, murder, and the end of the world’s “great hush”In Thunderstruck, Erik Larson tells the interwoven stories of two men—Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural means of... more

Book Votes: 7

376

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

Geek Love is the story of the Binewskis, a carny family whose mater- and paterfamilias set out–with the help of amphetamine, arsenic, and radioisotopes–to breed their own exhibit of human oddities. There’s Arturo the Aquaboy, who has flippers for limbs and a megalomaniac... more

Book Votes: 7

377

Cassie S. (cassie86) - Westland, MI

Eden Close by Anita Shreve

A compelling tale of edgy, small-town emotions, lingering obsession, and romantic salvation. Andrew, after many years, returns to his hometown to attend his mother's funeral. Planning to remain only a few days, he is drawn into the tragic legacy of his childhood friend and beautiful girl next... more

Book Votes: 7

378

Caroline S.

Escape by Carolyn Jessop & Laura Palmer

The dramatic first-person account of life inside an ultra-fundamentalist American religious sect, and one woman’s courageous flight to freedom with her eight children.When she was eighteen years old, Carolyn Jessop was coerced into an arranged marriage with a total stranger: a man... more

The dramatic first-person account of life inside an ultra-fundamentalist American religious sect, and one woman’s courageous flight to freedom with her eight children.When she was eighteen years old, Carolyn Jessop was coerced into an arranged marriage with a total stranger: a man thirty-two years her senior. Merril Jessop already had three wives. But arranged plural marriages were an integral part of Carolyn’s heritage: She was born into and raised in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), the radical offshoot of the Mormon Church that had settled in small communities along the Arizona-Utah border. Over the next fifteen years, Carolyn had eight children and withstood her husband’s psychological abuse and the watchful eyes of his other wives who were locked in a constant battle for supremacy.Carolyn’s every move was dictated by her husband’s whims. He decided where she lived and how her children would be treated. He controlled the money she earned as a school teacher. He chose when they had sex; Carolyn could only refuse—at her peril. For in the FLDS, a wife’s compliance with her husband determined how much status both she and her children held in the family. Carolyn was miserable for years and wanted out, but she knew that if she tried to leave and got caught, her children would be taken away from her. No woman in the country had ever escaped from the FLDS and managed to get her children out, too. But in 2003, Carolyn chose freedom over fear and fled her home with her eight children. She had $20 to her name.Escape exposes a world tantamount to a prison camp, created by religious fanatics who, in the name of God, deprive their followers the right to make choices, force women to be totally subservient to men, and brainwash children in church-run schools. Against this background, Carolyn Jessop’s flight takes on an extraordinary, inspiring power. Not only did she manage a daring escape from a brutal environment, she became the first woman ever granted full custody of her children in a contested suit involving the FLDS. And in 2006, her reports to the Utah attorney general on church abuses formed a crucial part of the case that led to the arrest of their notorious leader, Warren Jeffs.

Book Votes: 7

379

Amanda M. (Blondie1980)

Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction by J. D. Salinger

No description available.

Book Votes: 7

380

Kate K.

Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins

Still Life with Woodpecker is sort of a love story that takes place inside a pack of Camel cigarettes. It reveals the purpose of the moon, explains the difference between criminals and outlaws, examines the conflict between social activism and romantic individualism, and paints a... more

Book Votes: 7

381

Krista K. (Krista0521)

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

Juxtaposing the most common and the most gothic, the humorous and the tragic, Jeffrey Eugenides creates a vivid and compelling portrait of youth and lost innocence. He takes us back to the elm-lined streets of suburbia in the seventies, and introduces us to the men whose lives have been forever... more

Book Votes: 7

382

Stephen W. (cubedst)

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

The Story of two dogs and a boy...Billy, Old Dan and little Ann...A loving threesome, the ranged the dark hills and river bottoms of Cherokee country. Old Dan had the brawn, Little Ann had the brains and Billy had the will to train them to be the finest hunting team in the valley. Glory and... more

Book Votes: 7

383

Tina S. (cats59)

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

From David Mitchell, the Booker Prize nominee, award-winning writer and one of the featured authors in Granta’s “Best of Young British Novelists 2003” issue, comes his highly anticipated third novel, a work of mind-bending imagination and scope. A reluctant voyager... more

Book Votes: 6

384

Leah G. (LeahG)

Happiness Sold Separately by Lolly Winston

Elinor Mackey has always done the right things in the right order -- college, law school, career, marriage -- but now everything's going wrong. After two painful years of trying, Elinor has learned that she can't have children. All the doctors can tell her is that it's probably because of her... more

Book Votes: 6

385

Stacy P.

The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad

After living for three months with the Kabul bookseller Sultan Khan in the spring of 2002, Norwegian journalist Seierstad penned this astounding portrait of a nation recovering from war, undergoing political flux and mired in misogyny and poverty. As a Westerner, she has the privilege of... more

Book Votes: 6

386

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey

The magnificent second novel from the legendary author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Sailor Song is a wild-spirited and hugely powerful tale of an Oregon logging clan. A bitter strike is raging in a small lumber town along the Oregon coast. Bucking that strike out of sheer cussedness... more

Book Votes: 6

387

Stacy P.

Collapse : How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond

In his Pulitzer Prize?winning bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel, geographer Diamond laid out a grand view of the organic roots of human civilizations in flora, fauna, climate and geology. That vision takes on apocalyptic overtones in this fascinating comparative study of societies that have,... more

Book Votes: 6

388

Chris H. (jgud11)

The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield

In the Depression year of 1931, on the golf links at Krewe Island off Savannah's windswept shore, two legends of the game, Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen, meet for a mesmerizing thirty-six-hole showdown. Another golfer will also compete--a troubled local war hero, once a champion, who comes with... more

Book Votes: 6

389

Cheryl (pagebypage) - Brant Lake, NY

FEED by M.T. Anderson

?We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck.?So says Titus, whose ability to read, write, and even think for himself has been almost completely obliterated by his ?feed,? a transmitter implanted directly into his brain. Feeds are a crucial part of life for Titus... more

Book Votes: 6

390

Stacy P.

The New York Trilogy: City of Glass / Ghosts / The Locked Room by Paul Auster

First published in 1985_1986, The New York Trilogy (City of Glass, Ghosts, and The Locked Room) brought immediate international attention to its author, Paul Auster, and elevated him to near-celebrity status, particularly in France. This trilogy and his many works since then (including In... more

Book Votes: 6

391

Cassie S. (cassie86) - Westland, MI

The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood

Marian has a problem. A willing member of the consumer society in which she lives, she suddenly finds herself identifying with the things being consumed. She can cope with her tidy-minded fiancé, Peter, who likes shooting rabbits. She can cope with her job in market research, and the antics... more

Book Votes: 6

392

Shannon A. (shaxtell)

Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich

The first book in Louise Erdrich's Native American series, which also includes The Beet Queen, Tracks, and The Bingo Palace, Love Medicine tells the story of two families--the Kashpaws and the Lamartines. Now resequenced by the author with the addition of never-before-published chapters,... more

Book Votes: 6

393

Kathy F.

Remarkable Creatures: A Novel by Tracy Chevalier

On the windswept, fossil-strewn beaches of the English coast, poor and uneducated Mary Anning learns that she has a unique gift: "the eye" to spot fossils no one else can see. When she uncovers an unusual fossilized skeleton in the cliffs near her home, she sets the religious community... more

Book Votes: 6

394

Krista K. (Krista0521)

Mrs. Kimble by Jennifer Haigh

In her masterful first novel Mrs. Kimble, Jennifer Haigh delivers the riveting story of three women who marry the same man.Ken Kimble is revealed through the eyes of the women he seduces: his first wife, Birdie, who struggles to hold herself together following his desertion; his second wife,... more

Book Votes: 6

395

Krista K. (Krista0521)

Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster

Personal Training, Session One: I'm standing at the front desk, waiting for the mythical "Barbie" to appear. While I was sucking down water and aspirin earlier today, trying to shed my hangover, I started thinking about how judgmental I can be. I mean, why should I have instantly... more

Book Votes: 6

396

Heather M. (aggieeditor) - Boerne, TX

Unless (P.S.) by Carol Shields

Forty-four-year-old Reta Winters, wife, mother, writer, and translator, is living a happy life until one of her three daughters drops out of university to sit on a downtown street corner silent and cross-legged with a begging bowl in her lap and a placard round her neck that says... more

Book Votes: 5

397

Cheryl (pagebypage) - Brant Lake, NY

Island by Aldus Huxley

In his final novel, which he considered his most important, Aldous Huxley transports us to the remote Pacific island of Pala, where an ideal society has flourished for 120 years. Inevitably, this island of bliss attracts the envy and enmity of the surrounding world. A conspiracy is underway... more

Book Votes: 5

398

Ronnie G. (frenchgiant)

All the Names by Jose Saramago

Senhor José is a low-grade clerk in the city's Central Registry, where the living and the dead share the same shelf space. A middle-aged bachelor, he has no interest in anything beyond the certificates of birth, marriage, divorce, and death that are his daily routine. But one day, when he... more

Book Votes: 5

399

Ronnie G. (frenchgiant)

The Quincunx by Charles Palliser

An extraordinary modern novel in the Victorian tradition, Charles Palliser has created something extraordinary -- a plot within a plot within a plot of family secrets, mysterious clues, low-born birth, high-reaching immorality, and, always, always the fog-enshrouded, enigmatic character of 19th... more

Book Votes: 5

400

Umber G. (Mamie)

Leave it to Psmith (Psmith) by P. G. Wodehouse

A debonair young Englishman who has quit the fish business, "even though there is money in fish and decided to support himself by doing anything that he is hired to do by anyone, Psmith, wandering in and out of romantic, suspenseful and invariably hilarious situations, is in the great... more

Book Votes: 5

401

Peggy B. (peggymib)

The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons

Mesmerizing from the beginning to the final, breathtaking end, The Bronze Horseman brings alive the story of two indomitable, heroic spirits and their great love that triumphs over the devastation of a country at war.Leningrad, 1941: the European war seems far away in this city of fallen... more

Book Votes: 5

402

Stacy P.

Wit by Margaret Edson

No description available.

Book Votes: 5

403

Cheryl (pagebypage) - Brant Lake, NY

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. ...

A call to arms against our era's most pervasive human rights violation: the oppression of women in the developing world. With Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn as our guides, we undertake a journey through Africa and Asia to meet an extraordinary array of women... more

Book Votes: 5

404

Stacy P.

Freedom: by Jonathan Franzen

Patty and Walter Berglund were the new pioneers of old St. Paul - the gentrifiers, the hands-on parents, the avant-garde of the Whole Foods generation. Patty was the ideal sort of neighbor, who could tell you where to recycle your batteries and how to get the local cops to actually do their job.... more

Book Votes: 5

405

Preston A. (preston)

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1) by George R. R. Martin

Here is the first volume in George R. R. Martin?s magnificent cycle of novels that includes A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords. As a whole, this series comprises a genuine masterpiece of modern fantasy, bringing together the best the genre has to offer. Magic, mystery, intrigue, romance, and... more

Book Votes: 5

406

Beverly H. (Teege)

Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEA...

Four US Navy SEALS departed one clear night in early July 2005 for the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border for a reconnaissance mission. Their task was to document the activity of an al Qaeda leader rumored to be very close to Bin Laden with a small army in a Taliban stronghold. Five days... more

Book Votes: 5

407

Krista K. (Krista0521)

Bright Lights, Big Ass: A Self-Indulgent, Surly, Ex-Sorority Girl's Guide to Why it O...

From Publishers Weekly Lancaster (Bitter Is the New Black) is a plus-sized, downwardly mobile Republican. She makes fun of disabled people. She cracks nasty about Anna Nicole Smith (granted, she was still alive at the time). She annotates her text with footnotes cheering herself on. When... more

From Publishers Weekly Lancaster (Bitter Is the New Black) is a plus-sized, downwardly mobile Republican. She makes fun of disabled people. She cracks nasty about Anna Nicole Smith (granted, she was still alive at the time). She annotates her text with footnotes cheering herself on. When she's feeling particularly mean, she writes in her own "pidgin Spanish." But in spite of all her politically incorrect rantings, there are times when Lancaster is just too on-target to ignore. People who worry about Bush imposing the Christian lifestyle on everyone, for instance, should take heart from how he's raised his daughters?those "twins are but a Jell-O shot away from starring in the presidential edition of Girls Gone Wild." Even if readers can't altogether sympathize when Lancaster has to downscale her shopping "Holy Trinity" from Bloomingdale's, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus to IKEA, Target and Trader Joe's?they know what she means when she talks about the relentlessly cheerful sales staff at Trader Joe's, the tough-love staff at Target or how IKEA's going to take over America by keeping us all busy with Allen wrenches. Her humor is a bit like junk food?something you can enjoy when no one is looking. (May) Copyright ? Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Book Description Jen Lancaster hates to burst your happy little bubble, but life in the big city isn't all it's cracked up to be. Contrary to what you see on TV and in the movies, most urbanites aren't party-hopping in slinky dresses and strappy stilettos. But lucky for us, Lancaster knows how to make the life of the lower crust mercilessly funny and infinitely entertaining. Whether she's reporting rude neighbors to Homeland Security, harboring a crush on her grocery store clerk, or fighting-and losing-the Battle of the Stairmaster- Lancaster explores how silly, strange, and not-so-fabulous real city living can be. And if anyone doesn't like it, they can kiss her big, fat, pink, puffy down parka.

Book Votes: 5

408

Krista K. (Krista0521)

Delta Of Venus by Anais Nin

In Delta of Venus Anaïs Nin penned a lush, magical world where the characters of her imagination possess the most universal of desires and exceptional of talents. Among these provocative stories, a Hungarian adventurer seduces wealthy women then vanishes with their money; a veiled woman... more

Book Votes: 5

409

Krista K. (Krista0521)

Devil's Knot : The True Story of the West Memphis Three by Mara Leveritt

"Free the West Memphis Three."Maybe you've heard the phrase.But do you know why their story is so alarming?Do you know the facts?The guilty verdicts handed out to three Arkansas teens in a horrific capital murder case were popular in their home state -- even upheld on appeal. But after two HBO... more

Book Votes: 5

410

Cheryl (pagebypage) - Brant Lake, NY

Of Human Bondage (Signet Classic) by W. Sommerset Maugham

It is very difficult for a writer of my generation, if he is honest, to pretend indifference to the work of Somerset Maugham," wrote Gore Vidal. "He was always so entirely there." Originally published in 1915, Of Human Bondage is a potent expression... more

Book Votes: 5

411

Nicola W. (Wellnico) - Dana Point, CA

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Audio CD) (Unabridged) by Mary Ann...

January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she's never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written... more

January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she's never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb. As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends -- and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society -- born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island -- boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all. Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society's members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever. Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways. Audio Review: The curious listener will be intrigued with this audiobook, from the origin of its title to the final letter in this epistolary marvel, which is truly perfect on audio. A most unlikely and unexpected book club is established during the German occupation of Guernsey, in the British Channel Islands. Five narrators bring alive the letters exchanged between a young author, Juliet Ashton (Susan Duerdin), and her London publisher, as well as her "new" friends from the isle of Guernsey. The unfolding of the story through the different voices is completely charming, joyful, sad, and uplifting. The astute casting and scintillating performances by John Lee, Juliet Mills, and Paul Boehmer bring honed, authentic speech and manners to the characters. A special nod to Rosalyn Landor, who reads the letters of Isola, the herbalist and would-be Miss Marple, and other quirky island characters. Really, every one is a delight. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award. -- AudioFile 7 CD's/ 8 hours

Book Votes: 5

412

D. G. (riahekans)

The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa & Edith Grossman (Translator)

Haunted all her life by feelings of terror and emptiness, forty-nine-year-old Urania Cabral returns to her native Dominican Republic -- and finds herself reliving the events of l961, when the capital was still called Trujillo City and one old man terrorized a nation of three million. Rafael... more

Book Votes: 4

413

Sherry G. (Shervivor) - Falls Church, VA

The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. (Josephine B., Bk 1) by Sandra Gullan...

In this first of three books inspired by the life of Josephine Bonaparte, Sandra Gulland has created a novel of immense and magical proportions. We meet Josephine in the exotic and lush Martinique, where an old island woman predicts that one day she will be queen. The journey from the remote... more

Book Votes: 4

414

Stacy P.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love : Stories (Vintage Contemporaries) by Raym...

In his second collection of stories, as in his first, Carver's characters are peripheral people--people without education, insight or prospects, people too unimaginative to even give up. Carver celebrates these men and women.

Book Votes: 4

415

Stacy P.

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

Jemubhai Popatlal, a retired Cambridge-educated judge, lives in Kalimpong, at the foot of the Himalayas, with his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, and his cook....[When] a surge of unrest disturbs the region. Jemubhai, with his hunting rifles and English biscuits, becomes an obvious target. Besides... more

Book Votes: 4

416

Stacy P.

Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser

Young Martin Dressler begins his career as an industrious helper in his father's cigar store. In the course of his restless young manhood, he makes a swift and eventful rise to the top, accompaniedby two sisters--one a dreamlike shadow, the other a worldly business partner. As the eponymous... more

Book Votes: 4

417

Elizabeth B. (Cattriona) - Prairie Vlg, KS

The Bridal Wreath: Kristin Lavransdatter, Vol.1 by Sigrid Undset

Volume one of the trilogy; Kristin's girlhood. The acknowledged masterpiece of the Nobel Prize-winning Norwegian novelist Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter has never been out of print in this country since its first publication in 1927. Its story of a woman's life in fourteenth-century... more

Book Votes: 4

418

Laurie H. (coolelle) - Doylestown, PA

High Tide in Tucson by Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver has entertained and touched the lives of legions of readers with her critically acclaimed and bestselling novels The Bean Trees, Animal Dreams, and Pigs in Heaven.In these twenty-five newly conceived essays, she returns once again to her favored literary terrain to explore the... more

Book Votes: 4

419

Laurie H. (coolelle) - Doylestown, PA

The End of the Pier by Martha Grimes

In a sleepy resort town, Maud Chadwick waits tables at the Rainbow Cafe. Her confidant is Sheriff Sam DeGheyn and what they have in common is obsession. Maude doesn't want her son to leave home, and Sam cannot let go of the unsolved murders of three local women -- or his intuition that the... more

Book Votes: 4

420

Laurie H. (coolelle) - Doylestown, PA

One Writer's Beginnings (The William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in the History of America...

One Writer's Beginnings, Eudora Welty's memoir and meditation on the sources of her narrative art, began as a set of talks given at Harvard in April 1983. Here is the original spoken version of the engaging narration, which contains several extended readings from Welty's fiction not included in... more

Book Votes: 4

421

Cheryl (pagebypage) - Brant Lake, NY

The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss

David Liss's bestselling historical thrillers, including A Conspiracy of Paper and The Coffee Trader, have been called remarkable and rousing: the perfect combination of scrupulous research and breathless excitement. Now Liss delivers his best novel yet in an entirely new setting -- America... more

David Liss's bestselling historical thrillers, including A Conspiracy of Paper and The Coffee Trader, have been called remarkable and rousing: the perfect combination of scrupulous research and breathless excitement. Now Liss delivers his best novel yet in an entirely new setting -- America in the years after the Revolution, an unstable nation where desperate schemers vie for wealth, power, and a chance to shape a country's destiny. Ethan Saunders, once among General Washington's most valued spies, now lives in disgrace, haunting the taverns of Philadelphia. An accusation of treason has long since cost him his reputation and his beloved fiancée, Cynthia Pearson, but at his most desperate moment he is recruited for an unlikely task -- finding Cynthia's missing husband. To help her, Saunders must serve his old enemy, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, who is engaged in a bitter power struggle with political rival Thomas Jefferson over the fragile young nation's first real financial institution: the Bank of the United States. Meanwhile, Joan Maycott is a young woman married to another Revolutionary War veteran. With the new states unable to support their ex-soldiers, the Maycotts make a desperate gamble: trade the chance of future payment for the hope of a better life on the western Pennsylvania frontier. There, amid hardship and deprivation, they find unlikely friendship and a chance for prosperity with a new method of distilling whiskey. But on an isolated frontier, whiskey is more than a drink; it is currency and power, and the Maycotts' success attracts the brutal attention of men in Hamilton's orbit, men who threaten to destroy all Joan holds dear. As their causes intertwine, Joan and Saunders -- both patriots in their own way -- find themselves on opposing sides of a daring scheme that will forever change their lives and their new country. The Whiskey Rebels is a superb rendering of a perilous age and a nation nearly torn apart -- and David Liss's most powerful novel yet.

Book Votes: 4

422

Cheryl (pagebypage) - Brant Lake, NY

Trans-Sister Radio by Chris Bohjalian

When Allison Banks develops a crush on Dana Stevens, she knows that he will give her what she needs most: attention, gentleness, kindness, passion. Her daughter, Carly, enthusiastically witnesses the change in her mother. But then a few months into their relationship, Dana tells Allison his... more

Book Votes: 4

423

Joanne L. (jlustig)

A Son of the Circus by John Irving

A Hindi film star . . . an American missionary . . . twins separated at birth . . . a dwarf chauffeur . . . a serial killer . . . all are on a collision course. In the tradition of A Prayer for Owen Meany, Irving's characters transcend nationality. They are misfits--coming from everywhere,... more

Book Votes: 4

424

Cassie S. (cassie86) - Westland, MI

Mary by Janis Cooke Newman

An engrossing novel about Mary Todd Lincoln – one of history’s most misunderstood and enigmatic women.Writing from Bellevue asylum — where the shrieks of the other inmates keep her awake at night — a famous widow can finally share the story of her life in her own words.... more

Book Votes: 4

425

Wendy R. (wendybird)

Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard

This classic, award-winning novel tells of a young boy's struggle to survive World War II in China. Jim is separated from his parents in a world at war. To survive, he must find a strength greater than all the events that surround him. Shanghai, 1941 -- a city aflame from the... more

Book Votes: 4

426

Jeehae R. (jeehae)

The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan

Amy Tan has touched millions of readers with haunting and sympathetic novels of cultural complexity and profound empathy. With the same spirit and humor that characterize her acclaimed novels, she now shares her insight into her own life and how she escaped the curses of her past to make a... more

Book Votes: 4

427

Kaitlyn P. (kaitlynrouge)

The Game of Kings (Lymnond Chronicles, Bk 1) by Dorothy Dunnett

The first book in the legendary Lymond Chronicles, Game of Kings takes place in 1547. Scotland has been humiliated by an English invasion and is threatened by machinations elsewhere beyond its borders, but it is still free. Paradoxically, her freedom may depend on a man who stands accused of... more

Book Votes: 4

428

Phyllis E. - MD

Endurance : Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

'A thrilling reading experience! One of the greatest adventure stories of our times' - New York Times Book Review. In 1914 Ernest Shackleton and a crew of 27 men, sailed for the South Atlantic on the 'Endurance' with the object of crossing the Antarctic over land. In October 1915, still half a... more

Book Votes: 4

429

Krista K. (Krista0521)

Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America by Elizabeth Wurtzel

Twenty-six-year-old Wurtzel, a former critic of popular music for New York and the New Yorker, recounts in this luridly intimate memoir the 10 years of chronic, debilitating depression that preceded her treatment with Prozac in 1990. After her parents' acrimonious divorce, Wurtzel was raised by... more

Book Votes: 4

430

Krista K. (Krista0521)

Intensity by Dean Koontz

Chyna Shepherd is a twenty-six-year-old woman whose deeply troubled childhood taught her the hard rules of survival, and whose adult life has been an unrelenting struggle for self-respect and safety. Now rare trust has blossomed for Chyna into friendship with the woman whose family home she is... more

Book Votes: 4

431

Pamela M.

The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason

A mysterious coded manuscript, a violent Ivy League murder, and the secrets of a Renaissance prince collide in a labyrinth of betrayal, madness, and genius. THE RULE OF FOUR Princeton. Good Friday, 1999. On the eve of graduation, two students are a hairsbreadth from solving the mysteries of... more

Book Votes: 4

432

Amy O. (cheermom140)

Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk

No description available.

Book Votes: 4

433

Cheryl (pagebypage) - Brant Lake, NY

The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

Julie Otsuka’s long awaited follow-up to When the Emperor Was Divine is a tour de force of economy and precision, a novel that tells the story of a group of young women brought over from Japan to San Francisco as ‘picture brides’ nearly a century ago. In eight incantatory... more

Book Votes: 4

434

Nicola W. (Wellnico) - Dana Point, CA

Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross

For a thousand years men have denied her existence--Pope Joan, the woman who disguised herself as a man and rose to rule Christianity for two years. Now this compelling novel animates the legend with a portrait of an unforgettable woman who struggles against restrictions her soul cannot... more

Book Votes: 4

435

Sherry G. (Shervivor) - Falls Church, VA

A Rip in Heaven : A Memoir of Murder And Its Aftermath by Jeanine Cummins

When my parents packed my brother, sister and me into the family van and drove us to Missouri for Spring Break, we brought our entirely imagined city-hardness with us. The hard truth that we were about to learn was that, in fact, we weren't tough kids at all. Our life in the city had not... more

Book Votes: 3

436

Joanne L. (jlustig)

The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million by Daniel Mendelsohn & Matt Mendelsohn ...

Mendelsohn grew up in a family haunted by the disappearance of six relatives during the Holocaust -- an unmentionable subject during his childhood. Decades later, he embarked on a hunt for the remaining eyewitnesses of his relatives' fates. This is their story.

Book Votes: 3

437

Amy B. (BaileysBooks)

Hood (King Raven, Bk 1) by Stephen R. Lawhead

The Legend Begins Anew For centuries, the legend of Robin Hood and his band of thieves has captivated the imagination. Now the familiar tale takes on new life, fresh meaning, and an unexpected setting. Hunted like an animal by Norman invaders, Bran ap Brychan, heir to the throne Elfael,... more

Book Votes: 3

438

Marta K. (janeeyre72)

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino

"If on a Winter's Night a Traveler" turns out to be not one novel but ten, each with a different plot, style, ambiance, and author, and each interrupted at a moment of suspense. Together they form a labyrinth of literatures, known and unknown, alive and extinct, though which two readers, a male... more

Book Votes: 3

439

Amy B. (BaileysBooks)

The Monk (World's Classics) by Matthew Lewis

One of the most extravagantly dark works of Gothic fiction ever written in English, admired by the likes of Lord Byron and the Marquis de Sade, The Monk drew a firestorm of criticism when it was published in 1796. Contemporaries condemned it as "lewd," "libidinous and impious." "Lust, murder,... more

Book Votes: 3

440

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Middle Passage by Charles Richard Johnson

It is 1830. Rutherford Calhoun, a newly treed slave and irrepressible rogue, is desperate to escape unscrupulous bill collectors and an impending marriage to a priggish schoolteacher. He jumps aboard the first boat leaving New Orleans, the Republic, a slave ship en route to collect members of a... more

Book Votes: 3

441

Stacy P.

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

The newspaper was founded in Rome in the 1950s, a product of passion and a multi-millionaire's fancy. Over fifty years, its eccentricities earned a place in readers' hearts around the globe. But now, circulation is down, the paper lacks a website, and the future looks bleak. Still, those... more

Book Votes: 3

442

DARYL D. (bookworm-51)

Lewis: Main Street and Babbitt (Library of America) by Sinclair Lewis

Sinclair Lewis drew on his boyhood memories of Sauk Centre, Minnesota, to explore middle-class life in America as no writer had done before. These remarkable novels combine biting satire with an lingering affection for the men and women who, as he wrote of Babbitt, want to "seize something more... more

Book Votes: 3

443

Linda M. (5cats) - Holly Springs, NC

The Frogs and Other Plays (Penguin Classics) by Aristophanes

Aristophanes [c. 445 - c. 385 B.C.E.] was the last and greatest of the Old Attic Comedians. Eleven of his plays survive and this collection contains The Wasps, ones of the earliest, The Poet and the Women [Thesmohphoriazusae], a gem of parody and low comedy, and The Frogs, a comic masterpiece... more

Book Votes: 3

444

Merrikay B.

A Buffalo in the House: The True Story of a Man, an Animal, and the American West by ...

Marley and Me meets All Creatures Great and Small, as an ailing but lovable orphan buffalo joins a Santa Fe household. A sprawling suburban house in Santa Fe is not the kind of home where a buffalo normally roams, but Veryl Goodnight and Roger Brooks are not your ordinary animal lovers. Over... more

Book Votes: 3

445

Laurie H. (coolelle) - Doylestown, PA

The Dispossessed (Hainish Cycle, Bk 5) by Ursula K. Le Guin

Shevek, a brilliant physicist, decides to take action. he will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and attempt to tear down the walls of hatred that have isolated his planet of anarchists from the rest of the civilized universe. To do this dangerous task will mean giving up his family and... more

Book Votes: 3

446

Joanne L. (jlustig)

The Innocent by Ian McEwan

The setting is Berlin. Into this divided city, wrenched between East and West, between past and present; comes twenty-five-year-old Leonard Marnham, assigned to a British-American surveillance team. Though only a pawn in an international plot that is never fully revealed to him, Leonard... more

Book Votes: 3

447

Wendy R. (wendybird)

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

This mesmerizing debut, uncannily uniting the trials of a postmodern upbringing with a murder mystery, heralds the arrival of a vibrant new voice in literary fiction Special Topics in Calamity Physics is a darkly hilarious coming-of-age novel and a richly plotted suspense tale told through... more

Book Votes: 3

448

Wendy R. (wendybird)

Therese Raquin (Penguin Classics) by Emile Zola & Leonard Tancock

One of Zola's most famous realistic novels, Therese Raquin is a clinically observed, sinister tale of adultry and murder among the lower classes in nineteenth-century Parisian society. Zola's shocking tale dispassionately dissects the motivations of his characters--mere "human beasts", who kill... more

Book Votes: 3

449

Wendy R. (wendybird)

Corelli's Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres

Extravagant, inventive, emotionally sweeping, Corelli's Mandolin is the story of a timeless place that one day wakes up to find itself in the jaws of history.??The place is the Greek island of Cephallonia, where gods once dabbled in the affairs of men and the local saint periodically rises from... more

Book Votes: 3

450

Keely L. (taevlyn)

Howls Moving Castle Picture Book (Howl's Moving Castle Picture Book) by Hayao Miyazak...

No description available.

Book Votes: 3

451

Shreya -

The Zahir: A Novel of Obsession (P.S.) by Paulo Coelho

The narrator of The Zahir is a bestselling novelist who lives in Paris and enjoys all the privileges money and celebrity bring. His wife of ten years, Esther, is a war correspondent who has disappeared along with a friend, Mikhail, who may or may not be her lover. Was Esther kidnapped,... more

Book Votes: 3

452

Ronnie G. (frenchgiant)

Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes

Matterhorn is an epic war novel in the tradition of Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead and James Jones’s The Thin Red Line. It is the timeless story of a young Marine lieutenant, Waino Mellas, and his comrades in Bravo Company, who are dropped into the... more

Book Votes: 3

453

Michelle W. (drycreek)

Life As We Knew It (Last Survivors, Bk 1) by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Miranda'’s disbelief turns to fear in a split second when an asteroid knocks the moon closer to the earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun? As summer... more

Book Votes: 3

454

Krista K. (Krista0521)

Testimony by Anita Shreve

At a New England boarding school, a sex scandal is about to break. Even more shocking than the sexual acts themselves is the fact that they were caught on videotape. A Pandora's box of revelations, the tape triggers a chorus of voices--those of the men, women, teenagers, and parents involved... more

Book Votes: 3

455

Beth A. (cachebether)

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

"They all crossed into forbidden territory. They all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved and how. And how much. "The year is 1969. In the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India, a skyblue Plymouth with chrome tailfins is stranded on the highway amid a Marxist... more

Book Votes: 3

456

Jennifer G. (Simons-Mom)

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

In a garden surrounded by a tall fence, tucked away behind a small, quiet house in an even smaller town, is an apple tree that is rumored to bear a very special sort of fruit. In this luminous debut novel, Sarah Addison Allen tells the story of that enchanted tree, and the extraordinary people... more

Book Votes: 3

457

Jennifer G. (Simons-Mom)

Peony in Love by Lisa See

“I finally understand what the poets have written. In spring, moved to passion; in autumn only regret.” For young Peony, betrothed to a suitor she has never met, these lyrics from The Peony Pavilion mirror her own longings. In the garden of the Chen Family Villa, amid the scent... more

“I finally understand what the poets have written. In spring, moved to passion; in autumn only regret.” For young Peony, betrothed to a suitor she has never met, these lyrics from The Peony Pavilion mirror her own longings. In the garden of the Chen Family Villa, amid the scent of ginger, green tea, and jasmine, a small theatrical troupe is performing scenes from this epic opera, a live spectacle few females have ever seen. Like the heroine in the drama, Peony is the cloistered daughter of a wealthy family, trapped like a good-luck cricket in a bamboo-and-lacquer cage. Though raised to be obedient, Peony has dreams of her own. Peony’s mother is against her daughter’s attending the production: “Unmarried girls should not be seen in public.” But Peony’s father assures his wife that proprieties will be maintained, and that the women will watch the opera from behind a screen. Yet through its cracks, Peony catches sight of an elegant, handsome man with hair as black as a cave–and is immediately overcome with emotion. So begins Peony’s unforgettable journey of love and destiny, desire and sorrow–as Lisa See’s haunting new novel, based on actual historical events, takes readers back to seventeenth-century China, after the Manchus seize power and the Ming dynasty is crushed. Steeped in traditions and ritual, this story brings to life another time and place–even the intricate realm of the afterworld, with its protocols, pathways, and stages of existence, a vividly imagined place where one’s soul is divided into three, ancestors offer guidance, misdeeds are punished, and hungry ghosts wander the earth. Immersed in the richness and magic of the Chinese vision of the afterlife, transcending even death, Peony in Love explores, beautifully, the many manifestations of love. Ultimately, Lisa See’s new novel addresses universal themes: the bonds of friendship, the power of words, and the age-old desire of women to be heard. From the Hardcover edition.

Book Votes: 3

458

Jennifer G. (Simons-Mom)

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

In this irresistible follow-up to her New York Times bestselling debut, Garden Spells, author Sarah Addison Allen tells the tale of a young woman whose family secrets?and secret passions?are about to change her life forever.Twenty-seven-year-old Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter in... more

In this irresistible follow-up to her New York Times bestselling debut, Garden Spells, author Sarah Addison Allen tells the tale of a young woman whose family secrets?and secret passions?are about to change her life forever.Twenty-seven-year-old Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter in her North Carolina hometown is her favorite season, she?s a sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her hidden closet. For while Josey has settled into an uneventful life in her mother?s house, her one consolation is the stockpile of sugary treats and paperback romances she escapes to each night?. Until she finds it harboring none other than local waitress Della Lee Baker, a tough-talking, tenderhearted woman who is one part nemesis?and two parts fairy godmother?Fleeing a life of bad luck and big mistakes, Della Lee has decided Josey?s clandestine closet is the safest place to crash. In return she?s going to change Josey?s life?because, clearly, it is not the closet of a happy woman. With Della Lee?s tough love, Josey is soon forgoing pecan rolls and caramels, tapping into her startlingly keen feminine instincts, and finding her narrow existence quickly expanding.Before long, Josey bonds with Chloe Finley, a young woman who makes the best sandwiches in town, is hounded by books that inexplicably appear whenever she needs them, and?most amazing of all?has a close connection to Josey?s longtime crush. As little by little Josey dares to step outside herself, she discovers a world where the color red has astonishing power, passion can make eggs fry in their cartons, and romance can blossom at any time?even for her. It seems that Della Lee?s work is done, and it?s time for her to move on. But the truth about where she?s going, why she showed up in the first place?and what Chloe has to do with it all?is about to add one more unexpected chapter to Josey?s fast-changing life.Brimming with warmth, wit, and a sprinkling of magic, here is a spellbinding tale of friendship, love?and the enchanting possibilities of every new day.From the Hardcover edition.

Book Votes: 3

459

Pamela M.

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

A richly inventive novel about a centuries-old vampire, a spellbound witch, and the mysterious manuscript that draws them together. Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her... more

Book Votes: 3

460

Nicola W. (Wellnico) - Dana Point, CA

Moloka'i by Alan Brennert

This richly imagined novel, set in Hawaii more than a century ago, is an extraordinary epic of a little-known time and place---and a deeply moving testament to the resiliency of the human spirit. Rachel Kalama, a spirited seven-year-old Hawaiian girl, dreams of visiting far-off lands like her... more

Book Votes: 3

461

Stephen W. (cubedst)

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes 'unstuck in time' after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life,... more

Book Votes: 3

462

Ronnie G. (frenchgiant)

The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano & Natasha Wimmer & Translator

National Bestseller In this dazzling novel, the book that established Robert Bolano's international reputation, he tells the story of two modern-day Quixotes--the last survivors of an underground literary movement, perhaps of literature itself--on a tragicomic quest through their darkening,... more

Book Votes: 2

463

Ronnie G. (frenchgiant)

A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin

On his, last long walk, septuagenarian war hero, deserter,and professor Alessandro Giuliani shares his past with an illiterate young factory worker -- spinning a remarkable tale of heart-stopping escapes, of loves unrequited and won, of madmen, dwarfs, and mafiosi. But overshadowing all is... more

Book Votes: 2

464

Leah G. (LeahG)

The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin

Winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award for his radiant novel in stories, Mary and O’Neil, Justin Cronin has already been hailed as a writer of astonishing gifts. Now Cronin’s new novel, The Summer Guest, fulfills that promise—and more. With a rare combination of emotional insight,... more

Book Votes: 2

465

Leah G. (LeahG)

The Ladies' Man by Elinor Lipman

From the author of the bestselling The Inn at Lake Devine and Isabel's Bed comes this delicious novel about a woman jilted at the altar and a man who has the audacity to show up and apologize - thirty years later. When the bell rings at the door of Adele Dobbin, the jilted bride, in walks... more

Book Votes: 2

466

Amy B. (BaileysBooks)

The Paradise War (Song of Albion, Volume 1) by Stephen R. Lawhead

In this first book in the Song of Albion series, Lewis must search for his missing roommate Simon. But when he finds him, life changes forever.

Book Votes: 2

467

Amanda R.

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

The highly original satire about Oedipa Maas, a woman who finds herself enmeshed in a worldwide conspiracy, meets some extremely interesting characters, and attains a not inconsiderable amount of self knowledge.

Book Votes: 2

468

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Boys and Girls Together by William Goldman

William Goldman is famous for his Academy Award-winning screenplays, infamous for the thriller that did for dentists what Psycho did for showers, beloved for his hilarious "hot fairy-tale," and notorious for his candid behind-the-scenes Hollywood chronicles. But long before Butch and Sundance,... more

Book Votes: 2

469

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon & Michael Chabon

Grady Tripp is a pot-smoking middle aged novelist who has stalled on a 2611 page opus titled Wonder Boys. His student James Leer is a troubled young writer obsessed by Hollywood suicides and at work on his own first novel. Grady's bizarre editor Terry Crabtree and another student, Hannah... more

Book Votes: 2

470

Merrikay B.

The Geography of Thought : How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why by R...

When psychologist Richard E. Nisbett showed an animated underwater scene to his American students, they zeroed in on a big fish swimming among smaller fish. Japanese observers instead commented on the background environment -- and the different "seeings" are a clue to profound cognitive... more

Book Votes: 2

471

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Rule of the Bone : Novel, A 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... more

Book Votes: 2

472

Kristin K. (escapeartistk)

Shadow Country (Modern Library Paperbacks) by Peter Matthiessen

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALISTPeter Matthiessen?s great American epic?Killing Mister Watson, Lost Man?s River, and Bone by Bone?was conceived as one vast mysterious novel, but because of its length it was originally broken up into three books. In this bold new rendering, Matthiessen has cut nearly... more

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALISTPeter Matthiessen?s great American epic?Killing Mister Watson, Lost Man?s River, and Bone by Bone?was conceived as one vast mysterious novel, but because of its length it was originally broken up into three books. In this bold new rendering, Matthiessen has cut nearly a third of the overall text and collapsed the time frame while deepening the insights and motivations of his characters with brilliant rewriting throughout. In Shadow Country, he has marvelously distilled a monumental work, realizing his original vision. Inspired by a near-mythic event of the wild Florida frontier at the turn of the twentieth century, Shadow Country reimagines the legend of the inspired Everglades sugar planter and notorious outlaw E. J. Watson, who drives himself relentlessly toward his own violent end at the hands of neighbors who mostly admired him, in a killing that obsessed his favorite son.Shadow Country traverses strange landscapes and frontier hinterlands inhabited by Americans of every provenance and color, including the black and Indian inheritors of the archaic racism that, as Watson?s wife observed, "still casts its shadow over the nation."Peter Matthiessen?s lyrical and illuminating work in the Watson narrative has been praised highly by such contemporaries as Saul Bellow, William Styron, and W. S. Merwin. Joseph Heller said "I read it in great gulps, up each night later than I wanted to be, in my hungry impatience to find out more and more." Praise for Shadow Country?Shadow Country is altogether gripping, shocking, and brilliantly told, not just a tour de force in its stylistic range, but a great American novel, as powerful a reading experience as nearly any in our literature. This magnificent, sad masterpiece about race, history, and defeated dreams can easily stand comparison with Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men. Little wonder, too, that parts of the story of E.J. Watson call up comparisons with Dostoevsky, Conrad, and, inevitably, Faulkner. In every way, Shadow Country is a bravura performance, at once history, fiction, and myth?as well as the capstone to the career of one of the most admired and admirable writers of our time.? ? The New York Review of Books?Magnificent and capacious?. I'll just say right here that the book took my sleeve and like the ancient mariner would not let go. Matthiessen has made his three-part saga into a new thing?. Finally now we have these books welded like a bell, and with Watson's song the last sound, all the elements fuse and resonate?.a breathtaking saga.? ? The Los Angeles Times?Gorgeously written and unfailingly compelling, Shadow Country is the exhilarating masterwork of [Matthiessen?s] career, every bit as ambitious as Moby Dick.? ? National Geographic Adventure magazine?Peter Mattiessen consolidates his epic masterpiece of Florida -- and crafts something even better?[He] deserves credit for decades of meticulous research and obsessive details and soaring prose that converted the Watson legend into critically acclaimed literature?.Anyone wanting an explanation for what happened to Florida can now find it in a single novel, a great American novel.? ? Miami Herald?Matthiessen is writing about one man's life in Shadow Country, but he is also writing about the life of the nation over the course of half a century. Watson's story is essentially the story of the American frontier, of the conquering of wild lands and people, and of what such empires cost?.Even among a body of work as magnificent as Matthiessen's, this is his great book.? ? St. Petersburg Times?Shadow Country is a magnum opus. Matthiessen is meticulous in creating characters, lyrical in describing landscapes, and resolute in dissecting the values and costs that accompanied the development of this nation.? --Seattle Times?Shadow Country? is an ambitious, lasting, and meaningful work of literature that will not soon fade away. It is a testament to Mr. Matthiessen?s integrity as an artist that he felt compelled to return to the Watson material to produce this work and satisfy his original vision?.a multifaceted work that can be read variously or simultaneously as a psychological novel, a historical novel, a morality tale, a political allegory, or a mystery. -- East Hampton Star?Matthiessen?s Watson trilogy is a touchstone of modern American literature?this reworking?is remarkable?.Where Watson was a magnificent character before, he comes across as nothing short of iconic here; it?s difficult to find another figure in American literature so thoroughly and confincingly portrayed.? ? Publishers Weekly, starred review, Pick of the Week?Matthiessen has reinvigorated and rejoined the trilogy?s novels?a mosaic about the life and lynch-mob death of a turn-of-the century Florida Everglades sugar planter and serial killer named E. J. Watson ? into the 900-plus-page Shadow Country. This is no mere repackaging: Four hundred pages were cut from the novels, previous background characters now tromp to the foreground, and the books? rangy, Faulknerian essence is rendered more digestible. Deliciously digestible, that is; this is a thick porterhouse of a novel.? ? Men?s Journal "The fiction of Peter Matthiessen is the reason a lot of people in my generation decided to be writers. No doubt about it. SHADOW COUNTRY lives up to anyone's highest expectations for great writing." -- Richard Ford "Peter Matthiessen is a brilliantly gifted and ambitious writer, an inspired anatomist of the American mythos. His storytelling skills are prodigious and his rapport with his subject is remarkable." -- Joyce Carol Oates"Peter Matthiessen's work, both in fiction and non-fiction, has become a unique achievement in his own generation and in American literature as a whole. Everything that he has written has been conveyed in his own clear, deeply informed, elegant and powerful prose. The Watson saga-in-the-round, to which he has devoted nearly thirty years, is his crowning achievement. SHADOW COUNTRY, his distillation of the earlier trilogy, is his transmutation of it to represent his original vision. It is the quintessence of his lifelong concerns, and a great legacy." -- W.S. MerwinFrom the Hardcover edition.

Book Votes: 2

473

Laurie H. (coolelle) - Doylestown, PA

Lunch Poems (City Lights Pocket Poets Series) by Frank O'Hara

Important poems by the late New York poet published in The New American Poetry, Evergreen Review, Floating Bear and stranger places. Often this poet, strolling through the noisy splintered glare of a Manhattan noon, has paused at a sample Olivetti to type up thirty or forty lines of... more

Book Votes: 2

474

Cheryl (pagebypage) - Brant Lake, NY

The Bone People by Keri Hulme

Winner of the Booker Prize. In a tower on the New Zealand sea lives Kerewin Holmes, part Maori, part European, an artist estranged from her art, a woman in exile from her family. One night her solitude is disrupted by a visitor -- a speechless, mercurial boy named Simon, who tries to... more

Book Votes: 2

475

Jami G. (jamiG) - Noblesville, IN

Population: 485 : Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time (Wisconsin) by Michael P...

Welcome to New Auburn, Wisconsin (population: 485), where the local vigilante is a farmer's wife armed with a pistol and a Bible, the most senior member of the volunteer fire department is a cross-eyed butcher with one kidney and two ex-wives (both of whom work at the only gas station in town),... more

Book Votes: 2

476

Kimberly B.

The Joy of Work: Dilbert's Guide to Finding Happiness at the Expense of Your Co-Work...

"I cried because I did not have an office with a door, until I met a man who had no cubicle." Dilbert A message from Scott Adams: I think the next wave of office design will focus on eliminating the only remaining obstacle to office productivity: your happiness. Happiness... more

"I cried because I did not have an office with a door, until I met a man who had no cubicle." Dilbert A message from Scott Adams: I think the next wave of office design will focus on eliminating the only remaining obstacle to office productivity: your happiness. Happiness isn't a physical thing, like walls and doors. But it's closely related. Managers know that if they can eliminate all traces of happiness, the employees won't be so picky about their physical surroundings. Once you're hopelessly unhappy, you won't bother to complain if your boss rolls you up in a tight ball and crams you into a cardboard box. As soon as I noticed this disturbing threat to workplace happiness, I did some investigative work and discovered it wasn't confined to the issue of office design. Companies were making a direct frontal assault on employee happiness in every possible way! I knew there was only one thing that could stop the horror. It was time for another Dilbert book. It might sound corny, but I felt an obligation to society. People told me it was time for me to "give something back to the community." This scared me, until I realized that no one knows I furnished my house with street signs and park benches. So I interpreted the "give something back to the community" message as a plea for me to write this book and then charge the community to read it. In the first part of this book I will tell you how to find happiness at the expense of your co-workers, managers, customers, andbest of allthose lazy stockholders. The second part of the book teaches you my top-secret methods for mining humor out of ordinary situations, thus making it easier to mock the people around you. The third part of the book is made entirely of invisible pages. If the book seems heavier than it looks, that's why. Office Prank #44: Sounds That Drive Co-workers Crazy You can produce sounds in the office that will drive your co-workers insane. That can be very entertaining. Every co-worker is different, so you might have to experiment to find the sounds that are most annoying to your cubicle neighbor. It's worth the effort.

Book Votes: 2

477

Shannon A. (shaxtell)

The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich

The unsolved murder of a farm family still haunts the white small town of Pluto, North Dakota, generations after the vengeance exacted and the distortions of fact transformed the lives of Ojibwe living on the nearby reservation. Part Ojibwe, part white, Evelina Harp is an ambitious young... more

Book Votes: 2

478

Shannon A. (shaxtell)

Caucasia by Danzy Senna

"Lucid and magnificent." --James McBride, author of The Color of Water "Senna's remarkable first novel [will] cling to your memory. There's Birdie, who takes after her mother's white, New England side of the family--light skin, straight hair. There's her big sister, Cole, who takes after her... more

Book Votes: 2

479

Wendy R. (wendybird)

The Good Soldier Svejk : and His Fortunes in the World War by Jaroslav Hasek & Ce...

In The Good Soldier Svejk, celebrated Czech writer and anarchist Jaroslav Hasek combined dazzling wordplay and piercing satire in a hilariously subversive depiction of the futility of war. Good-natured and garrulous, Svejk becomes the Austrian army’s most loyal Czech soldier when he is... more

Book Votes: 2

480

Wendy R. (wendybird)

The Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

This classic selection of writings by Goethe reflects the author's philosophy of love and death. When first published in Germany in 1774, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther created a sensation, and was both condemned and embraced. A full-blooded portrayal of impetuous youth... more

Book Votes: 2

481

Keitha M. (kmama)

My Grandfather's Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging by Rachel Naom...

From the New York Times bestselling author comes the wisdom to heal ourselves and those around us.With Kitchen Table Wisdom, Dr. Remen established herself as an important new voice bringing hope and healing to a difficult world. Her book spent more than three months on the New York Times... more

Book Votes: 2

482

Christina B. (stina117)

Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain by Portia de Rossi

“I didn’t decide to become anorexic. It snuck up on me disguised as a healthy diet, a professional attitude. Being as thin as possible was a way to make the job of being an actress easier . . .” Portia de Rossi weighed only 82 pounds when she collapsed on the set of the... more

“I didn’t decide to become anorexic. It snuck up on me disguised as a healthy diet, a professional attitude. Being as thin as possible was a way to make the job of being an actress easier . . .” Portia de Rossi weighed only 82 pounds when she collapsed on the set of the Hollywood film in which she was playing her first leading role. This should have been the culmination of all her years of hard work — first as a child model in Australia, then as a cast member of one of the hottest shows on American television. On the outside she was thin and blond, glamorous and successful. On the inside, she was literally dying. In this searing, unflinchingly honest book, Portia de Rossi captures the complex emotional truth of what it is like when food, weight, and body image take priority over every other human impulse or action. She recounts the elaborate rituals around eating that came to dominate hours of every day, from keeping her daily calorie intake below 300 to eating precisely measured amounts of food out of specific bowls and only with certain utensils. When this wasn’t enough, she resorted to purging and compulsive physical exercise, driving her body and spirit to the breaking point. Even as she rose to fame as a cast member of the hit television shows Ally McBeal and Arrested Development, Portia alternately starved herself and binged, all the while terrified that the truth of her sexuality would be exposed in the tabloids. She reveals the heartache and fear that accompany a life lived in the closet, a sense of isolation that was only magnified by her unrelenting desire to be ever thinner. With the storytelling skills of a great novelist and the eye for detail of a poet, Portia makes transparent as never before the behaviors and emotions of someone living with an eating disorder. From her lowest point, Portia began the painful climb back to a life of health and honesty, falling in love with and eventually marrying Ellen DeGeneres, and emerging as an outspoken and articulate advocate for gay rights and women’s health issues. In this remarkable and beautifully written work, Portia shines a bright light on a dark subject. A crucial book for all those who might sometimes feel at war with themselves or their bodies, Unbearable Lightness is a story that inspires hope and nourishes the spirit.

Book Votes: 2

483

Rebecca G. (beckaboo4475)

Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza

Immaculee Ilibagiza grew up in a country she loved, surrounded by a family she cherished. But in 1994 her idyllic world was ripped apart as Rwanda descended into a bloody genocide. Immaculee’s family was brutally murdered during a killing spree that lasted three months and claimed the... more

Book Votes: 2

484

Cheryl (pagebypage) - Brant Lake, NY

Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario

In this astonishing true story, award-winning journalist Sonia Nazario recounts the unforgettable odyssey of a Honduran boy who braves unimaginable hardship and peril to reach his mother in the United States. When Enrique is five years old, his mother, Lourdes, too poor to feed her children,... more

In this astonishing true story, award-winning journalist Sonia Nazario recounts the unforgettable odyssey of a Honduran boy who braves unimaginable hardship and peril to reach his mother in the United States. When Enrique is five years old, his mother, Lourdes, too poor to feed her children, leaves Honduras to work in the United States. The move allows her to send money back home to Enrique so he can eat better and go to school past the third grade.Lourdes promises Enrique she will return quickly. But she struggles in America. Years pass. He begs for his mother to come back. Without her, he becomes lonely and troubled. When she calls, Lourdes tells him to be patient. Enrique despairs of ever seeing her again. After eleven years apart, he decides he will go find her.Enrique sets off alone from Tegucigalpa, with little more than a slip of paper bearing his mother’s North Carolina telephone number. Without money, he will make the dangerous and illegal trek up the length of Mexico the only way he can–clinging to the sides and tops of freight trains.With gritty determination and a deep longing to be by his mother’s side, Enrique travels through hostile, unknown worlds. Each step of the way through Mexico, he and other migrants, many of them children, are hunted like animals. Gangsters control the tops of the trains. Bandits rob and kill migrants up and down the tracks. Corrupt cops all along the route are out to fleece and deport them. To evade Mexican police and immigration authorities, they must jump onto and off the moving boxcars they call El Tren de la Muerte–The Train of Death. Enrique pushes forward using his wit, courage, and hope–and the kindness of strangers. It is an epic journey, one thousands of immigrant children make each year to find their mothers in the United States.Based on the Los Angeles Times newspaper series that won two Pulitzer Prizes, one for feature writing and another for feature photography, Enrique’s Journey is the timeless story of families torn apart, the yearning to be together again, and a boy who will risk his life to find the mother he loves. From the Hardcover edition.

Book Votes: 2

485

Catherine H. (bibliobsessed)

Another Bullshit Night in Suck City: A Memoir by Nick Flynn

"A stunningly beautiful new memoir…a near-perfect work of literature."—Stephen Elliot, San Francisco Chronicle"Sometimes I'd see my father, walking past my building on his way to another nowhere. I could have given him a key, offered a piece of my floor. But if I let him inside the... more

Book Votes: 2

486

Amy O. (cheermom140)

Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk

It is a fictional novel about a 15-yr old Jewish girl growing up in NY in the 1930's or so. No dust cover, but from a Book of the month club article, "It is a story of tremendous authenticity as well as pathos, which, because of the excellence of the writer's observation and the rare... more

Book Votes: 2

487

Jim W. (jimwillisca)

The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy

Pat Conroy has created a huge, brash thunderstorm of a novel, stinging with honesty and resounding with drama. Spanning forty years, this is the story of turbulent Tom Wingo, his gifted and troubled twin sister, Savannah, and the dark and violent past of the extraordinary family to which... more

Book Votes: 2

488

Ronnie G. (frenchgiant)

The Children's Hospital by Chris Adrian

A hospital is preserved, afloat, after the Earth is flooded beneath seven miles of water. Inside, assailed by mysterious forces, doctors and patients are left to remember the world they've lost and to imagine one to come. At the center, Jemma Claflin, a medical student, finds herself gifted with... more

Book Votes: 1

489

Ronnie G. (frenchgiant)

Memoir From Antproof Case by Mark Helprin

An old American who lives in Brazil is writing his memoirs. An English teacher at the naval academy, he is married to a woman young enough to be his daughter and has a little son whom he loves. He sits in a mountain garden in Niter�i, overlooking the ocean. As he reminisces and writes, placing... more

Book Votes: 1

490

Vera M. (bepa-jean)

In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami

Another roller-coaster ride from a master of the psycho-thriller!

Book Votes: 1

491

Joanne L. (jlustig)

Raven's Exile: A Season on the Green River by Ellen Meloy

More than a century after John Wesley Powell launched his boat on the Green River, Ellen Meloy spent eight years of seasonal floats through Utah's Desolation Canyon with her husband, a federal river manager. She came to know the history and natural history of this place well enough to call it... more

Book Votes: 1

492

Joanne L. (jlustig)

The Town and the City (Penguin Modern Classics) by Jack Kerouac

'It is the sum of myself, as far as the written word can go' - Kerouac on "The Town and the City". Kerouac's debut novel is a great coming of age story which can be read as the essential prelude to his later classics. Inspired by grief over his father's death and gripped by determination to... more

Book Votes: 1

493

Stacy P.

Paper Lion by George Plimpton

No description available.

Book Votes: 1

494

Stacy P.

Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy (Penguin Classics) by Bernard Shaw & ...

In this caustic satire of romantic conventions, Shaw provides a wonderfully original twist on the Don Juan myth. A finely tuned combination of intellectual seriousness and popular comedy, Man and Superman (1905) articulates a recurrent theme in Shaw's writing: the notion that man is the... more

Book Votes: 1

495

Darcie C.

Big Chief Elizabeth : The Adventures and Fate of the First English Colonists in Ameri...

Big Chief Elizabeth is the swashbuckling story of the extraordinary attempts by English adventurers to claim, divide, and colonize what would be the biggest jewel in Queen Elizabeth's crown: North America. From Richard Hore's 1536 journey to the ill-fated Sir Humfrey Gilbert's attempt, to Sir... more

Big Chief Elizabeth is the swashbuckling story of the extraordinary attempts by English adventurers to claim, divide, and colonize what would be the biggest jewel in Queen Elizabeth's crown: North America. From Richard Hore's 1536 journey to the ill-fated Sir Humfrey Gilbert's attempt, to Sir Walter Ralegh's extravagant expeditions to Roanoke Island and Jamestown, which led to the first permanent English settlements in America, Milton tells a tale of startling greed, ruthless ambition, terrible hardship, and horrific wars between settlers and indigenous peoples. This was the era of great naval exploration fueled by speculative fervor, of maritime daring and nautical disasters. In April 1586 Queen Elizabeth I acquired a new and exotic title. A tribe of Native Americans had made her their weroanza -- a word that meant "big chief." The news was received with great joy, both by the queen and by her flirtatious favorite, Sir Walter Ralegh. His first American expedition had brought back a captive, Manteo, whose tattooed face and otter-skin cloak had caused a sensation in Elizabethan London. In 1587, Manteo was returned to his homeland as Lord of Roanoke along with more than one hundred English men, women, and children. In 1590, an English supply ship arrived at the coastal colony, but the settlers had disappeared. For almost twenty years the fate of Ralegh's colonists was to remain a mystery. When a new wave of settlers sailed to America to found Jamestown, their efforts to locate the lost colony were frustrated by the mighty chieftain Powhatan -- father of Pocahontas -- who vowed to drive the English out of America, though Pocahontas herself made valiant attempts to thwart the massacre of settlers. While Ralegh's "savage" Manteo had played a pivotal role in establishing the first English settlement in America, he had also unwittingly contributed to one of the earliest chapters in the decimation of the Native American population. A riveting historical mystery of colonial America and Elizabethan England, of the clash between old worlds and new, of civilization and savagery, Big Chief Elizabeth confirms Giles Milton's reputation as one of our most colorful and engaging popular historians.

Book Votes: 1

496

Elizabeth B. (Cattriona) - Prairie Vlg, KS

The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima

Set in a remote fishing village in Japan, The Sound of Waves is a timeless story of first love. It tells of Shinji, a young fisherman, and Hatsue, the beautiful daughter of the wealthiest man in the village. Shinji is entranced at the sight of Hatsue in the twilight on the beach, upon her return... more

Book Votes: 1

497

Laurie H. (coolelle) - Doylestown, PA

The Erasers by A. Robbe-Grillet

Alain Robbe-Grillet is internationally hailed as the chief spokesman for the noveau roman (new novel) and one of the great novelists of the twentieth century. The Erasers, his first novel, reads like a detective story but is primarily concerned with weaving and then probing a complete mixture of... more

Book Votes: 1

498

Laurie H. (coolelle) - Doylestown, PA

Hiroshima Mon Amour by Marguerite Duras & Marguerite Duras & Marguerite Duras

Jacket description/back: One of the most influential works in the history of cinema, Alain Renais's Hiroshima Mon Amour gathered international acclaim upon its release in 1959 and was awarded the International Critics' Prize at the Cannes Film festival and the New York Film Critics' Award.... more

Book Votes: 1

499

Laurie H. (coolelle) - Doylestown, PA

Last Year at Marienbad by Alain Robbe-Grillet

A quintessential work of 1960s European art cinema, L'Année dernière à Marienbad (Last Year in Marienbad, 1961) was a collaboration between director Alain Resnais and 'New Novel" enfant terrible Alain Robbe-Grillet. Three people, known only by their initials,... more

Book Votes: 1

500

Laurie H. (coolelle) - Doylestown, PA

Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror by John Ashbery

'Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror'was the first of John Ashbery's books to be published in Britain by Carcanet, and this is its third printing. Since it originally appeared here in 1977, three further collections have followed: 'As We Know', 'Shadow Train' and 'A Wave'. 'Self Portrait in a... more

Book Votes: 1

501

Kristin K. (escapeartistk)

The Street by Ann Petry

THE STREET tells the poignant, often heartbreaking story of Lutie Johnson, a young black woman, and her spirited struggle to raise her son amid the violence, poverty, and racial dissonance of Harlem in the late 1940s. Originally published in 1946 and hailed by critics as a masterwork, The... more

Book Votes: 1

502

Cheryl (pagebypage) - Brant Lake, NY

Refiner's Fire by Mark Helprin

Born on an illegal immigrant ship off the coast of Palestine, Marshall Pearl is immediately orphaned and soon brought to America, where he grows up amidst fascinating and idiosyncratic privilege that is, however, not nearly as influential in regard to his formation as the pull of his origins... more

Book Votes: 1

503

Shirl P. (happiness)

A Fortunate Life by Robert Juniper & A. B. Facey

An amazing true story covering the extraordinary life of an orphan growing up in the Austrailian outback. This is a story of courage, hardship, humor and the strength of the human spirit. One of those rare books that you start reading, and then end up pacing yourself because you don't... more

Book Votes: 1

504

Shirl P. (happiness)

To Catch an Angel: Adventures in the World I Cannot See by Robert Russell

This book was one of the most inspiring books of my youth. I would recommend it highly. It is the autobigraphical look at a man blinded in his youth. I recall it as brutally honest, with Mr. Russel giving an open and often times humorous assesment of life after sight.

Book Votes: 1

505

Shirl P. (happiness)

Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven by Susan Jane Gilman

They were young, brilliant, and ambitious. They set out to conquer the world. Instead, the world conquered them. Bestselling author Susan Jane Gilman's riveting new memoir is a hilarious and haunting true adventure. It's filled with the memorable characters, psychological insights, and... more

Book Votes: 1

506

Cassie S. (cassie86) - Westland, MI

If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern

In her third novel, bestselling author Cecelia Ahern introduces us to two sisters at odds with each other. Elizabeth’s life is an organized mess. The organized part is all due to her own efforts. The mess is entirely due to her sister, Saoirse, whose personal problems leave Elizabeth... more

Book Votes: 1

507

Caroline S.

The Foreigner by Larry Shue

The scene is a fishing lodge in rural Georgia often visited by "Froggy" LeSeuer, a British demolition expert who occasionally runs training sessions at a nearby army base. This time "Froggy" has brought along a friend, a pathologically shy young man named Charlie who is... more

Book Votes: 1

508

Jami G. (jamiG) - Noblesville, IN

Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture by Shannon Hayes

Mother Nature has shown her hand. Faced with climate change, dwindling resources, and species extinctions, most Americans understand the fundamental steps necessary to solve our global crises-drive less, consume less, increase self-reliance, buy locally, eat locally, rebuild our local... more

Book Votes: 1

509

T.C. Robson - TX

The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie

Hugh Laurie concocts an uproarious cocktail of comic zingers and over-the-top action in this "ripping spoof of the spy genre" (Vanity Fair) -- the irresistible tale of a former Scots Guard-turned-hired gun, a freelance soldier of fortune who also happens to be one heck of a nice guy.Cold-blooded... more

Book Votes: 1

510

Cheryl (pagebypage) - Brant Lake, NY

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

The true story of one family, caught between America’s two biggest policy disasters: the war on terror and the response to Hurricane Katrina. Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun run a house-painting business in New Orleans. In August of 2005, as Hurricane Katrina approaches, Kathy... more

Book Votes: 1

511

Stephen W. (cubedst)

Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls

What a way to spend a summer! When the circus comes to town and 30 monkeys and a chimpanzee escape, Jay and his dog spend the summer tracking them down in this heartwarming family story.

Book Votes: 1

512

Tracy F. (golfergurl) - NY

Love Story by Erich Segal

This is the wonderful, tumultuous, heartfelt story of Oliver Barrett IV and Jenny Cavilleri--the story of a rich Harvard jock and a wisecracking Radcliffe music major who have nothing in common but love . . . and everything else to share but... more

Book Votes: 1

513

Michele K. (michelekostelecky)

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Six years after the phenomenal success of The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger has returned with a spectacularly compelling and haunting second novel set in and around Highgate Cemetery in London. When Elspeth Noblin dies of cancer, she leaves her London apartment to her twin... more

Book Votes: 1

514

Michele K. (michelekostelecky)

The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright

In the wake of his bestselling Christmas Jars comes a sweetly crafted story from Wright, a Virginia businessman. Jack and Laurel Cooper are two hardworking, loving Christian pillars of the community who die in each other's arms one night in the bed-and-breakfast that they own and operate. The... more

Book Votes: 1

515

Jim W. (jimwillisca)

The Art of Fielding: A Novel by Chad Harbach

At Westish College, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big league until a routine throw goes disastrously off course. In the aftermath of his error, the fates of five people are upended. Henry's fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his future. College president Guert... more

Book Votes: 1

516

Marina K. (marinka)

These Happy Golden Years (Little House, Bk 8) by Laura Ingalls Wilder & Garth Wil...

Fifteen-year-old Laura lives apart from her family for the first time, teaching school in a claim shanty twelve miles from home. She is very homesick, but keeps at it so that she can help pay for her sister Mary's tuition at the college for the blind. During school vacations Laura has fun... more

Book Votes: 1

517

Marina K. (marinka)

The Wind in the Willows by Ellen Miles

The classic tale!

Book Votes: 1

518

Sherry R. (Saffron)

Odd Thomas, (Odd Thomas, Bk 1) by Dean Koontz

"The dead don't talk. I don't know why." But they do try to communicate, with a short-order cook in a small desert town serving as their reluctant confidant. Odd Thomas thinks of himself as an ordinary guy, if possessed of a certain measure of talent at the Pico Mundo Grill and rapturously in... more

Book Votes: 1

519

Karen L. (kittycat176)

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Generations of children have treasured the story of Sara Crewe, the little girl who imagines shes a princess in order to survive hard times at Miss Minchins London boarding school. Now, this classic novel is available in two beautiful new collectors editions. With Tasha Tudors enchanting... more

Book Votes: 1

520

Merrikay B.

Shabono: A Visit to a Remote and Magical World in the South American Rain Forest by F...

Shabano -- the name for the hamlets of palm-thatched dwellings where the Yanomama Indians of Venezuela and southern Brazil live -- recounts the vivid and unforgettable experience of anthropologists Florinda Donner's time with an indigenous tribe in the endangered rain forest. Shabano... more

Book Votes: 0

521

Merrikay B.

So Many Enemies, So Little Time: An American Woman in All the Wrong Places by Elinor ...

At a time when Americans are so riveted by questions about their place in a newly hostile world that they are swearing off air travel, Elinor Burkett does not just take a trip; she takes a headlong dive into enemy territories, crisscrossing back and forth between Ronald Reagan's old Evil... more

Book Votes: 0

522

Kristin K. (escapeartistk)

Savages (Vintage Departures) by Joe Kane

Savages is a firsthand account, by turn hilarious, heartbreaking, and thrilling, of a small band of Amazonian warriors and their battle to preserve their way of life. Includes eight pages of photos.

Book Votes: 0

523

Laurie H. (coolelle) - Doylestown, PA

Eucalyptus: A Novel by Murray Bail

Winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year On a property in New South Wales, a widower named Holland lives with his daughter, Ellen. Over the years as she grows into a beautiful woman, Holland plants hundreds of different... more

Book Votes: 0

524

Cheryl (pagebypage) - Brant Lake, NY

Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India by William Dalrymple

From the author of The Last Mughal (“A compulsively readable masterpiece”?The New York Review of Books), a mesmerizing book that explores how traditional religions are observed in today’s India, revealing ways of life that we might otherwise never have known.A middle-class... more

Book Votes: 0

525

Alysia D. (alysia) - MD

Missing Max: A Novel by Karen Young

When baby Max is kidnapped during Mardi Gras, Jane and Kyle Madison’s life falls apart. What their daughter, Melanie, does next is unthinkable. Max vanished into thin air while in the care of his teenage sister, Melanie. Six months later, the family is a shadow of its former self:... more

Book Votes: 0

526

Phyllis E. - MD

With Malice Toward None : The Life of Abraham Lincoln by Stephen B. Oates

A masterful biography of Lincoln that follows his bitter struggle with poverty, his self-made success in business and law, his early disappointing political career, and his leadership as President during one of America's most tumultuous periods.

Book Votes: 0

527

Kaitlyn P. (kaitlynrouge)

The Shadow and the Star (Victoria Hearts, Bk 1) by Laura Kinsale

He is a man of dark secrets -- wealthy, strong, majestically handsome -- the master of the ancient arts of a distant land. Scarred by a cruel childhood, he has sworn only to love chastely ... yet he burns with the heat of unfulfilled desire. She is innocent and nearly destitute, yet she... more

Book Votes: 0

528

Sophia C. (poisha)

Now is the Hour by Tom Spanbauer

Rigby John Klusener is hitchhiking to San Francisco. The year is 1967, the town is Pocatello, Idaho. Fresh out of high school, Rigby John is leaving behind a pregnant ex-girlfriend, a depressed mother, a distant father, and the haydust of his harsh small-town Catholic upbringing. As he stands... more

Book Votes: 0

529

Krista K. (Krista0521)

More, Now, Again: A Memoir of Addiction by Elizabeth Wurtzel

Elizabeth Wurtzel published her memoir of depression, Prozac Nation, to astonishing literary acclaim. A cultural phenomenon by age twenty-six, she had fame, money, respecteverything she had always wanted except that one, true thing: happiness. For all of her professional success, Wurtzel felt... more

Book Votes: 0

530

Krista K. (Krista0521)

Kill Your Friends: A Novel (P.S.) by John Niven

AS the twentieth century breathes its very last, with Britpop at its zenith, twenty-seven-year-old A&R man Steven Stelfox is slashing and burning his way through London?s music industry. Blithely crisscrossing the globe in search of the next megahit?fueled by greed and inhuman quantities of... more

Book Votes: 0

531

Catherine H. (bibliobsessed)

Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir by Paul Monette

This "tender and lyrical" memoir (New York Times Book Review) remains one of the most compelling documents of the AIDS era-"searing, shattering, ultimately hope inspiring account of a great love story" (San Francisco Examiner). A National Book Critics Circle Award finalist and the winner of the... more

Book Votes: 0

532

Catherine H. (bibliobsessed)

Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story (Perennial Classics) by Paul Monette

The critically and popularly acclaimed coming of age/coming out story from the author of Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir. "Witty as it is anguished and as full of understanding as of anger, this is Monette's best book."--Booklist

Book Votes: 0

533

Michelle Q. (mquattlebaum)

The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education by Craig M. Mullaney

A West Point grad, Rhodes scholar, and Army Ranger recounts his unparalleled education in the art of war and reckons with the hard wisdom that only battle itself can bestow.

Book Votes: 0

534

Beth A. (cachebether)

The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes

Hailed as a masterpiece since its publication in 1962, The Death of Artemio Cruz is Carlos Fuentes's haunting voyage into the soul of modern Mexico. Its acknowledged place in Latin American fiction and its appeal to a fresh generation of readers have warranted this new translation by Alfred... more

Book Votes: 0

535

Cheri M. (cmurphy712)

Ride the Wind by Lucia St Clair Robson

In 1836, when she was nine years old, Cynthia Ann Parker was kidnapped by Comanche Indians. This is the story of how she grew up with them, mastered their ways, married one of their leaders, and became, in every way, a Comanche woman. It is also the story of a proud and innocent people whose... more

Book Votes: 0

536

Cheryl (pagebypage) - Brant Lake, NY

The Submission: A Novel by Amy Waldman

Claire Harwell hasn?t settled into grief; events haven?t let her. Cool, eloquent, raising two fatherless children, Claire has emerged as the most visible of the widows who became a potent political force in the aftermath of the catastrophe. She longs for her husband, but she has found her... more

Book Votes: 0

537

Nicola W. (Wellnico) - Dana Point, CA

I'm Off Then: Losing and Finding Myself on the Camino de Santiago by Hape Kerkeling

I'm Off Then has sold more than three million copies in Germany and has been translated into eleven languages. The number of pilgrims along the Camino has increased by 20 percent since the book was published. Hape Kerkeling's spiritual journey has struck a chord.Overweight, overworked, and... more

Book Votes: 0

538

Cheryl (pagebypage) - Brant Lake, NY

The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet by Reif Larsen

A brilliant, boundary-leaping debut novel tracing twelve-year-old genius map maker T.S.Spivet?s attempts to understand the ways of the worldWhen twelve-year-old genius cartographer T.S. Spivet receives an unexpected phone call from the Smithsonian announcing he has won the prestigious Baird... more

A brilliant, boundary-leaping debut novel tracing twelve-year-old genius map maker T.S.Spivet?s attempts to understand the ways of the worldWhen twelve-year-old genius cartographer T.S. Spivet receives an unexpected phone call from the Smithsonian announcing he has won the prestigious Baird Award, life as normal?if you consider mapping family dinner table conversation normal?is interrupted and a wild cross-country adventure begins, taking T.S. from his family ranch just north of Divide, Montana, to the museum?s hallowed halls. T.S. sets out alone, leaving before dawn with a plan to hop a freight train and hobo east. Once aboard, his adventures step into high gear and he meticulously maps, charts, and illustrates his exploits, documenting mythical wormholes in the Midwest, the urban phenomenon of ?rims,? and the pleasures of McDonald?s, among other things. We come to see the world through T.S.?s eyes and in his thorough investigation of the outside world he also reveals himself. As he travels away from the ranch and his family we learn how the journey also brings him closer to home. A secret family history found within his luggage tells the story of T.S.?s ancestors and their long-ago passage west, offering profound insight into the family he left behind and his role within it. As T.S. reads he discovers the sometimes shadowy boundary between fact and fiction and realizes that, for all his analytical rigor, the world around him is a mystery. All that he has learned is tested when he arrives at the capital to claim his prize and is welcomed into science?s inner circle. For all its shine, fame seems more highly valued than ideas in this new world and friends are hard to find. T.S.?s trip begins at the Copper Top Ranch and the last known place he stands is Washington, D.C., but his journey?s movement is far harder to track: How do you map the delicate lessons learned about family and self? How do you depict how it feels to first venture out on your own? Is there a definitive way to communicate the ebbs and tides of heartbreak, loss, loneliness, love? These are the questions that strike at the core of this very special debut.

Book Votes: 0

539

Cheryl (pagebypage) - Brant Lake, NY

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, death, and hope in a Mumbai undercity by Katheri...

From Pulitzer Prize-winner Katherine Boo, a landmark work of narrative nonfiction that tells the dramatic and sometimes heartbreaking story of families striving toward a better life in one of the twenty-first century?s great, unequal cities. � In this brilliantly written, fast-paced book,... more

Book Votes: 0

540

Tracy F. (golfergurl) - NY

Man, Woman, and Child by Erich Segal

A perfect marriage envied by all is suddenly threatened by a voice from the past. Man, Woman, and Child is far and away Erich Segal's best and most mature novel, with an impact even greater than Love Story.

Book Votes: 0

541

Tracy F. (golfergurl) - NY

The Class by Erich Segal

From world-renowed author Erich Segal comes a powerful and moving saga of five extraordinary members of the Harvard class of 1958 and the women with whom their lives are intertwined. Their explosive story begins in a time of innocence and... more

Book Votes: 0

542

Tracy F. (golfergurl) - NY

Doctors by Erich Segal

Writing with all the passion of Love Story and power of The Class, Erich Segal sweeps us into the lives of the Harvard Medical School's class of 1962. His stunning novel reveals the making of doctors--what makes them tick, scheme, hurt . . . and love. From the crucible of... more

Book Votes: 0

543

Tony T. (tonysbooks) - ME

First Blood by David Morrell

A HERO...AN ICON... First came the man: a young wanderer in a fatigue coat and long hair. Then came the legend, as John Rambo sprang from the pages of FIRST BLOOD to take his place in the American cultural landscape. This remarkable novel pits a young Vietnam veteran against a small-town cop... more

Book Votes: 0

544

Pamela M.

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never...

Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the... more

Book Votes: 0

545

Jim W. (jimwillisca)

The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene

The Heart of the Matter is not a mystery, a high-octane adventure, nor does it center on an extraordinary event. Rather it is a story of one man whose faith and character is put to the ultimate test. That man is Henry Scobie. Henry Scobie is a British assistant police comissioner stationed in... more

Book Votes: 0

546

Jim W. (jimwillisca)

Beach Music by Pat Conroy

Pat Conroy is without doubt America's favorite storyteller, a writer who portrays the anguished truth of the human heart and the painful secrets of families in richly lyrical prose and unforgettable narratives. Now, in Beach Music, he tells of the dark memories that haunt generations, in a story... more

Book Votes: 0

547

Jim W. (jimwillisca)

The Great Santini by Pat Conroy

Step into the powerhouse life of Bull Meecham. He's all Marine --- fighter pilot, king of the clouds, and absolute ruler of his family. Lillian is his wife -- beautiful, southern-bred, with a core of velvet steel. Without her cool head, her kids... more

Book Votes: 0

548

Jim W. (jimwillisca)

The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy

A novel you will never forget... This powerful and breathtaking novel is the story of four cadets who have become bloodbrothers. Together they will encounter the hell of hazing and the rabid, raunchy and dangerously secretive atmosphere of... more

Book Votes: 0

549

Jim W. (jimwillisca)

My Losing Season (Alex Awards (Awards)) by Pat Conroy

PAT CONROY–AMERICA’S MOST BELOVED STORYTELLER -- IS BACK!“I was born to be a point guard, but not a very good one. . . .There was a time in my life when I walked through the world known to myself and others as an athlete. It was part of my own definition of who I was and... more

PAT CONROY–AMERICA’S MOST BELOVED STORYTELLER -- IS BACK!“I was born to be a point guard, but not a very good one. . . .There was a time in my life when I walked through the world known to myself and others as an athlete. It was part of my own definition of who I was and certainly the part I most respected. When I was a young man, I was well-built and agile and ready for the rough and tumble of games, and athletics provided the single outlet for a repressed and preternaturally shy boy to express himself in public....I lost myself in the beauty of sport and made my family proud while passing through the silent eye of the storm that was my childhood.” So begins Pat Conroy’s journey back to 1967 and his startling realization “that this season had been seminal and easily the most consequential of my life.” The place is the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, that now famous military college, and in memory Conroy gathers around him his team to relive their few triumphs and humiliating defeats. In a narrative that moves seamlessly between the action of the season and flashbacks into his childhood, we see the author’s love of basketball and how crucial the role of athlete is to all these young men who are struggling to find their own identity and their place in the world.In fast-paced exhilarating games, readers will laugh in delight and cry in disappointment. But as the story continues, we gradually see the self-professed “mediocre” athlete merge into the point guard whose spirit drives the team. He rallies them to play their best while closing off the shouts of “Don’t shoot, Conroy” that come from the coach on the sidelines. For Coach Mel Thompson is to Conroy the undermining presence that his father had been throughout his childhood. And in these pages finally, heartbreakingly, we learn the truth about the Great Santini.In My Losing Season Pat Conroy has written an American classic about young men and the bonds they form, about losing and the lessons it imparts, about finding one’s voice and one’s self in the midst of defeat. And in his trademark language, we see the young Conroy walk from his life as an athlete to the writer the world knows him to be.

Book Votes: 0

550

Melissa G. (melisskvg)

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

Can God's Love Save Anyone? Bestselling author Francine Rivers skillfully retells the biblical love story of Gomer and Hosea in a tale set against the exciting backdrop of the California Gold Rush. The heroine, Angel, is a young woman who was sold into prostitution as a child. Michael... more

Book Votes: 0

551

Melissa G. (melisskvg)

The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons

Their love would never be the same. Colquitt and Walter Kennedy enjoyed a life of lazy weekends, gathering with the neighbors on their quiet, manicured street and sipping drinks on their patios. But when construction of a beautiful new home begins in the empty lot next door, their easy... more

Book Votes: 0

552

Marina K. (marinka)

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis

Eleven-year-old Elijah is the first child born into freedom in Buxton, Canada, a settlement of runaway slaves just over the border from Detroit. He’s best known in his hometown as the boy who made a memorable impression on Frederick Douglass. But things change when a former slave steals... more

Book Votes: 0

553

Marina K. (marinka)

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen

A book for young readers. It involves new kids, bullies, alligators, eco-warriors, pancakes, and pint-sized owls. A hilarious Floridian adventure!

Book Votes: 0

554

Marina K. (marinka)

Gib Rides Home by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Gib Whittaker's life at Lovell House Orphanage in the early 1900s is pretty bleak. But along with hours of chores, bad food, and paddlings, the boys do get some schooling, and reading and writing are better than scrubbing floors. Still, Gib's fondest dream is to have a real family. So when... more

Book Votes: 0

555

Marina K. (marinka)

My Name Is Not Angelica by Scott O'Dell

The planter who buys you will put you to work in his household or in the sugar-cane fields. In the fields, under the hot sun, slaves don't last long, perhaps a year. So show your white teeth, Raisha, smile a lot, and don't say anything unless you're asked. Snatched from her home in Africa,... more

Book Votes: 0

556

Marina K. (marinka)

Good-bye, Billy Radish (Aladdin Fiction) by Gloria Skurzynski

No description available.

Book Votes: 0

557

Marina K. (marinka)

Sounder by William H. Armstrong

The Powerful Newbery Award-Winning Classic A landmark in children's literature, winner of the 1970 Newbery Medal, and the basis of an acclaimed film, Sounder traces the keen sorrow and the abiding faith of a poor African-American boy in the 19th-century South. The boy's father is a... more

Book Votes: 0

558

Karen L. (kittycat176)

Plato: Republic by C. D. C. Reeve & G. M. A. Grube & Plato

Since its publication in 1974, scholars throughout the humanities have adopted G. M. A. Grube's masterful translation of choice for their study and teaching of Plato's most influential work. In this brilliant revision, C. D. C. Reeve furthers Grube's success both in preserving the subtlety of... more

Book Votes: 0

559

Karen L. (kittycat176)

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Told by the central character, Alex, this brilliant, hilarious, and disturbing novel creates an alarming futuristic vision of violence, high technology, and authoritarianism.Anthony Burgess' 1963 classic stands alongside Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World as a classic of... more

Book Votes: 0

560

Karen L. (kittycat176)

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

"Once upon a time, I didn't know how lucky I was." When Alice was ten, Ray took her away from her family, her friends -- her life. She learned to give up all power, to endure all pain. She waited for the nightmare to be over. Now Alice is fifteen and Ray still has her,... more

Book Votes: 0

561

Karen L. (kittycat176)

Little Wolf's Book of Badness (Little Wolf) by Ian Whybrow

Little Wolf has been brushing his teeth without being growled at, he's been going to bed early, and he's been far too nice to his baby brother, Smellybreff! His parents are so worried that they will never make a beast out of him that they send him off to Cunning College, where his Uncle Bigbad... more

Book Votes: 0

562

Cheryl (pagebypage) - Brant Lake, NY

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells -- taken without her knowledge -- became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells... more

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells -- taken without her knowledge -- became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons-- as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia-- a land of wooden slave quarters, faith healings, and voodoo -- to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells. Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family past and present is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of. Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother’s cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance?

Book Votes: 0

563

Cheryl (pagebypage) - Brant Lake, NY

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The famous novel, translated by Andrew R. MacAndrew. Introductory essay by Konstantin Mochulsky.

Book Votes: 0

564

Erik D. (legendkeeper)

Lilith by George Macdonald

George MacDonald (1824-1905) was a Scottish author, teacher, and, briefly, clergyman, whose theology was too personal and idiosyncratic for him to remain on the pulpit for very long, but whose imagination led him to write two of the most important visionary novels of the 19th century,... more

Book Votes: 0

565

Erik D. (legendkeeper)

The Silver Hand: Book Two in The Song of Albion Trilogy (Song of Albion) by Stephen R...

The great king, Meldryn Mawr, is dead, and his kingdom lies in ruins. Treachery and brutality rule the land, and Albion is the scene of an epic struggle for the throne. Lewis Gillies returns as Llew, seeking the true meaning behind a mysterious prophecy--the making of a true king and the... more

Book Votes: 0

566

Erik D. (legendkeeper)

The Endless Knot: (Song of Albion, Bk 3) by Stephen R. Lawhead

Fires rage in Albion: strange, hidden fires, dark-flamed, invisible to the eye. Llew Silver Hand is High King of Albion, but now the Brazen Man has defied his sovereignty and Llew must journey to the Foul Land to redeem his greatest treasure. The last battle begins, and the myths, passions, and... more

Book Votes: 0

567

Erik D. (legendkeeper)

Mysteries of the Middle Ages: And the Beginning of the Modern World by Thomas Cahill

The inimitable Thomas Cahill turns his eye on the dawn of the modern Western world in this intelligent, beautifully written exploration of medieval Europe, the fifth book in his acclaimed Hinges of History series.After the long period of cultural decline known as the Dark Ages, Europe... more

Book Votes: 0

568

Carla L. (carlal)

Magical Thinking by Augusten Burroughs

Augusten Burroughs continues his series of memoirs with this wild collection of stories. Here Burroughs confesses to various outrageous thoughts, including his desire to murder his cleaning lady and an obsession with becoming a transsexual.

Book Votes: 0

569

Carla L. (carlal)

The World According to Garp by John Irving

This is the life and times of T. S. Garp, the bastard son of Jenny Fields — a feminist leader ahead of her times. This is the life and death of a famous mother and her almost-famous son; theirs is a world of sexual extremes — even of sexual assassinations. It is a novel rich with... more

Book Votes: 0

Book List - 1001 Books to Read Before I Die

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