Archives: Books
Archives: Books
Flowers in the Attic
This classic story of forbidden love captured the world’s imagination and earned V.C. Andrews a fiercely devoted fan base. The Dollangangers were a perfect family, golden and carefree—until a heartbreaking tragedy shattered their happiness. Now, for the sake of an inheritance that will ensure their future, the children must be hidden away. Kept on the top floor of their grandmother’s vast mansion, their mother assures them it will be just for a little while. But as brutal days swell into agonizing months and years, Cathy, Chris, and twins Cory and Carrie, realize their survival is at the mercy of their …
Fifty Shades of Grey (Series)
When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms. Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed …
Dune
Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides—who would become known as Muad’Dib—and of a great family’s ambition to bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream. A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.
Don Quixote
The Ingenious Nobleman Sir Quixote of La Mancha (published in two volumes, 1605 and 1615) is the story of the imaginative Alonso Quixano’s adventures as Don Quixote de la Mancha, a chivalrous knight who defeats dragons and frees damsels. Perhaps because he has read too many chivalric tales of old, Alonso truly believes he is Don Quixote, and along with his farmer friend Sancho Panza, who becomes his squire, he seeks various quests to prove his knightly worth. While he travels on these quests, his friends and family attempt to bring him home by posing as various characters in his delusion. …
The Da Vinci Code
As millions of readers around the globe have already discovered, The Da Vinci Code is a reading experience unlike any other. Simultaneously lightning-paced, intelligent, and intricately layered with remarkable research and detail, Dan Brown’s novel is a thrilling masterpiece—from its opening pages to its stunning conclusion.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
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 quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog makes for one of the most captivating, unusual, and widely heralded novels in recent years.
Crime and Punishment
Published to great acclaim and fierce controversy in 1866, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment is still known worldwide as the quintessential Russian novel. This tale of passion and redemption follows Rodion Raskolnikov, a former student living in Saint Petersburg. Short of money, convinced he is above the law, and certain that the ends of his actions justify the means, Raskolnikov hatches a plan to murder an elderly, ill-liked pawnbroker. So begins a drama of good and evil, morality and guilt, that has provided generations of readers inspiration to debate the topics of the title.
The Count of Monte Cristo
As much the work of Auguste Maquet—the ghostwriter who was responsible for much of the actual text of the novel—as Dumas himself, The Count of Monte Cristo has become the archetypal revenge story for all works that have followed. Set in 19th-century France, from the Bourbon Restoration through the reign of Louis-Philippe, this adventure story follows the single-minded Edmund Dantès, falsely imprisoned after being set up by friends who envied his fortune. Dantès is likely based on the real story of Pierre Picaud, a shoemaker falsely accused of treason who, once released from prison, embarked on a course of vengeance that spun …
The Color Purple
Published to unprecedented acclaim, The Color Purple established Alice Walker as a major voice in modern fiction. This is the story of two sisters—one a missionary in Africa and the other a child wife living in the South—who sustain their loyalty to and trust in each other across time, distance, and silence. Beautifully imagined and deeply compassionate, this classic novel of American literature is rich with passion, pain, inspiration, and an indomitable love of life.
The Coldest Winter Ever
Renowned hip-hop artist, political activist, and bestselling author Sister Souljah brings the streets of New York to life in this powerful and utterly unforgettable novel, The Coldest Winter Ever. Ghetto-born, Winter is the young, wealthy daughter of a prominent Brooklyn drug-dealing family. Quick-witted, sexy, and business-minded, she knows and loves the streets, but when a cold winter wind blows her life in an unexpected direction, her street smarts and seductive skills are put to the test. Unwilling to lose, she will do anything to stay on top.
The Clan of the Cave Bear
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 world they shared with the ones who called themselves The Clan of the Cave Bear.
The Chronicles of Narnia (Series)
Fantastic creatures, heroic deeds, epic battles in the war between good and evil, and unforgettable adventures come together in this world where magic meets reality, which has been enchanting readers of all ages for over sixty years. The Chronicles of Narnia has transcended the fantasy genre to become a part of the canon of classic literature.
Charlotte’s Web
This beloved book is a classic of children’s literature that is “just about perfect.” Some Pig. Humble. Radiant. These are the words in Charlotte’s Web, high up in Zuckerman’s barn. Charlotte’s spiderweb tells of her feelings for a little pig named Wilbur, who simply wants a friend. They also express the love of a girl named Fern, who saved Wilbur’s life when he was born the runt of his litter. E. B. White’s Newbery Honor Book is a tender novel of friendship, love, life, and death that will continue to be enjoyed by generations to come.
The Catcher in the Rye
Holden Caufield, the disaffected 16-year-old narrator of The Catcher in the Rye, might be literature’s most famous teenager—or at least one of literature’s best examples of teen angst. Recently expelled from prep school, Holden takes a train to New York City, where, through a series of encounters with friends, acquaintances, and strangers up and down the island, he struggles with feelings of alienation, isolation, and grief. The novel well-known for its language, Holden’s disdain for “phonies” chief among his memorable phrases: his candidness with its slang and profanity, lend the narration the very authenticity that Holden seeks.
Catch-22
Arguably the best novel to come out of World War II, in which Heller strips away the veneer of martial glory to expose its insanity, and gives our language a new paradoxical phrase to describe mankind at the mercy of its own institutions.
The Call of the Wild
Set in the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s, the protagonist of this short adventure novel is Buck, who is part sheepdog, part Saint Bernard. Kidnapped from a ranch in the Santa Clara Valley, Buck is sold to dog traders and sent to Yukon, Canada, to become a sled dog. Buck is taken aback by the harshness of life in the Klondike, which stands in stark contrast to his life in California. He soon begins to embrace that harshness to survive: “the law of club and fang.” When he’s confronted by a pack of wolves, he eventually answers “the call …
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Oscar is a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd who—from the New Jersey home he shares with his old world mother and rebellious sister—dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of all, finding love. But Oscar may never get what he wants. Blame the fukú—a curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, following them on their epic journey from Santo Domingo to the USA. Encapsulating Dominican-American history, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao opens our eyes to an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and explores the endless human capacity to persevere—and risk it all—in the name …
The Book Thief
It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement. In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given …
Bless Me, Ultima
With exquisite prose and wondrous storytelling, this coming of age classic follows a young boy as he questions his faith and beliefs in family, religion, and other aspects of his Chicano culture. Antonio Marezis 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 will probe the family ties that bind and rend him, and he will discover himself in the magical secrets of the pagan past-a mythic legacy as palpable as the Catholicism of Latin America. And at each …
Beloved
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 Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved is a towering …