10 Upcoming American Classics 10. Lullaby, Chuck Palahniuk

Transcription

Reading Assignment for American Literature Students
The 11th grade English class is designed to survey American literature over the last 300 years, starting with
Colonial writers like Anne Bradstreet and ending with modernists like Tennessee Williams. To prepare for the
journey, you need to read three books penned by American authors, preferably from different eras. As well,
consider sampling different genres.
Task: For each of the works that you read, you will write an essay of 500 words (+or-) from topics taken from
common literary assessments:
Choice #1: Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes in social or political attitudes or in
traditions. Choose such a novel or play and note briefly the particular attitudes or traditions that the author
wishes to modify. Then analyze the techniques the author uses to influence the reader's or audience's views.
Avoid plot summary.
Choice #2: Choose a novel or play that depicts a conflict between a parent (or parental figure) and
a son or daughter. Write an essay in which you analyze the sources of the conflict and explain how the conflict
contributes to the meaning of the work.
Choice #3: Choose a distinguished novel or play in which some of the most significant events are
mental or psychological; for example, awakenings, discoveries, changes in consciousness. In a well-organized
essay, describe how the author manages to give these internal events the sense of excitement, suspense, and
climax usually associated with external action. Do not merely summarize the plot.
Choice #4: Select an important character who is a villain. Then, in a well-organized essay, analyze the
nature of the character’s villainy and show how it enhances meaning in the work. Do not merely summarize
plot.
Below are some suggestions for American Lit. Daniel Yamilkoski researched the first 10 books, and the rest
come from a library. Consider this as a guide, not a mandate. You are not limited to this list. . If the author is
American, you can choose the work.
10 Upcoming American Classics

This top 10 list features the best of what contemporary American literature has to offer. These
book s, most from the last 15 years, have a good chance of being shelved as classics in the
coming decades. While they are not all in American settings or about American topics – they
reflect the time in which they were written and are all by American authors.
10. Lullaby, Chuck Palahniuk
There is a short poem that causes the listener to die when it is read aloud. You can find it on
9. Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer
Artfully complex in its structure, Everything is
Illuminated is a uniquely witty and cathartic tale in
which Jonathan Safran Foer successfully probes the topics
of love, loss, myth, remembrance, and the Holocaust by
approaching one man's memories of his family on three
levels.
Alex Perchov is a twenty-year old Ukrainian living in
Odessa. Self-described as "unequivocally tall" with
"handsome hairs, which are split in the middle," Alex enjoys
the simple pleasures of any young Ukrainian male.
His proficiency in English…lands Alex a job translating for
a twenty-year old Jewish-American writer in search of the
woman who may or may not have saved his grandfather
8. The Emperor of Maladies, Siddhartha Mukherjee
Cancer has been called the most relentless
and insidious enemy among human diseases,
capable of striking virtually every organ and
tissue of the body and of outwitting all our
defenses. In "The Emperor of All Maladies,"
Siddhartha Mukherjee—a cancer doctor and
researcher—embarks on an ambitious effort
to write a "biography" of the disease, from the
earliest evidence of cancer's existence in
ancient Egypt to the modern attempts at
deciphering the human cancer genome. The
story, he promises, is also one of hubris,
arrogance, paternalism, misperception, false
hope and hype.
-Laura Landro, The Wall Street Journal
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052
748704635704575604654100474276
7. Empire Falls, Richard Russo
“I mean, if I were so unhappy, wouldn’t I know?” asks Miles
Roby, the hero of “Empire Falls,” Richard Russo’s fifth and
most ambitious novel yet. The answer, of course, is not
necessarily, and one of Russo’s great talents is to make us
understand how an intelligent 40-year-old man can fail to
recognize his own quiet desperation — and then make us
believe that his life can change for the better. Along the way,
Russo gives us a panoramic yet nuanced view of the
imaginary town of Empire Falls, Maine, showing how the
history of one powerful family can become the history of a
place. It’s the kind of big, sprawling, leisurely novel, full of
subplots and vividly drawn secondary characters, that people
are always complaining is an endangered species. Yet in part
thanks to Russo’s deft satiric touch — much of the book is
-Maria Russo, Salon Media Group
laugh-out-loud funny — it never feels too slow or oldfashioned.
http://www.salon.com/2001/05/21
6. Rabbit Run, John Updike
Rabbit, Run is the book that established John Updike as one
of the major American novelists of his—or any other—
generation. Its hero is Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, a onetime
high-school basketball star who on an impulse deserts his
wife and son. He is twenty-six years old, a man-child caught
in a struggle between instinct and thought, self and society,
sexual gratification and family duty—even, in a sense,
human hard-heartedness and divine Grace. Though his flight
from home traces a zigzag of evasion, he holds to the faith
that he is on the right path, an invisible line toward his own
salvation as straight as a ruler’s edge.
-Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Rabbit-Run-John5. The Brief Wondrous
Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz
Updike/dp/0449911659
As if it is not enough to be overweight and more into sci-fi
than anyone should be, Oscar is also part of a cursed
Dominican family living in New Jersey. Though an
immigrant family story, it is also a tale that explores gender
roles and stereotypes, racial and national identities, family
history and the definition of home. Oscar is the title
character, but his story is one of many. Lolo, his sister runs
away from home; Bela, his mother shows up in the present
and the past, giving context and continuity to Lola’s story,
but always, always there is Oscar, the tragic, beautiful,
romantic Oscar bringing it all together.
-University of Wisconsin Madison
/
http://www.library.wisc.edu/uwbookmadness/contemporary/
oscar-wao/
4. Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and
then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974. . .
My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver's
license...records my first name simply as Cal."
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mid
dlesex-jeffreyeugenides/1100355974?ean=97803124
27733
3. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
"The Color Purple" is foremost the story of Celie, a poor, barely
literate Southern black woman who struggles to escape the brutality
and degradation of her treatment by men. The tale is told primarily
through her own letters, which, out of isolation and despair, she
initially addresses to God. As a teen-ager she is repeatedly raped and
beaten by her stepfather, then forced by him into loveless marriage to
Albert, a widower with four children. To Albert, who is in love with
vivacious and determinedly independent blues singer named Shug
Avery, Celie is merely a servant and an occasional sexual convenience.
When his oldest son, Harpo, asks Albert why he beats Celie, he says
simply, "Cause she my wife." For a time Celie accepts the abuse
stoically: "He beat me like he beat the children. Cept he don't never
hardly beat them. He say, Celie, get the belt... It all I can do not to cry.
I make myself wood. I say to myself, Celie, you a tree. That's how
come I know trees fear men."
-Mel Watkins, The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/10/04/specials/walker-color.html
2. Gilead, Marilynn Robinson
This beautifully written novel is set in 1956 when John
Ames, a third-generation Congregational minister, has
decided to write a long, memory-filled letter to his sevenyear-old son. At seventy-six years, this reflective man has
been diagnosed with angina pectoris and doesn’t have very
long to live. John wants to pass on the faith that has filled his
life with meaning, the love that has sprung from his second
marriage to a serious young woman, and the forgiveness
that has been a challenge to several generations in his
family.
-Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/bookreviews/view/9363/gilead
1. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon's third novel celebrates the golden age of the
adventure comic book, the ''great, mad new American art form,''
which spanned the years between the late 1930's and the early
50's. It was a thriving time for popular culture, and Chabon
vividly recalls the swing music, the pulp novels, ''Citizen Kane,''
the bars of midtown New York, the bar mitzvahs of midtown
New York, men's bulky suits and the patriotic kitsch inspired by
the Second World War. Although suffused with tragedy, ''The
http://www.ouhsd.k12.ca.us/lmc/ohs/read/Engl3.htm
Amazing
Adventures of Kavalier & Clay'' proves to be a comic
epic, generously optimistic about the human struggle for
THE FOLLOWING RECOMMENDED READING LIST FOR
personal liberation.
(AMERICAN LITERATURE)
WAS COMPILED FROM THESE SOURCES:
-Ken Kalfus, The New York Times
REF 028.5 EST -- Reading Lists for College-Bound Students
https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/09/24/reviews/000924.24ka
REF 028.5 LEW -- Outstanding Books for the College Bound
lfust.htmlAmerican Library Association (ALA), Outstanding Books for the College Bound
California Department of Education Recommended Literature for Grades 9-12
Choose a book that is right for you!
Call numbers are provided to make it easier to locate these books in the OHS Library.
Consider the titles highlighted in red for the Great American Novel "Book Club" Project.
Adams, Henry, The Education of Henry Adams in Novels, 818.409 ADA
These are the best known works of Henry Adams, one of the most powerful and original minds to confront the
American scene from the Civil War to the first World War. The Education of Henry Adams is on this reading list and is
this anthology.
American Library Association (ALA), Outstanding Books for the College Bound

American scene from the Civil War to the first World War. The Education of Henry Adams is on this reading list
and is this anthology.

Ambrose, Stephen, Band of Brothers, FIC AMB
As grippingly as any novelist, preeminent World War II historian Stephen Ambrose tells the horrifying,
hallucinatory saga of Easy Company, whose 147 members he calls the nonpareil combat paratroopers on earth
circa 1941-45. Ambrose takes us along on Easy Company's trip from grueling basic training to Utah Beach on Dday, where a dozen of them turned German cannons into dynamited ruins resembling "half-peeled bananas," on
to the Battle of the Bulge, the liberation of part of the Dachau concentration camp, and a large party at Hitler's
"Eagle's Nest," where they drank the madman's (surprisingly inferior) champagne. Of Ambrose's main sources,
three soldiers became rich civilians; at least eight became teachers; one became Albert Speer's jailer; one
prosecuted Bobby Kennedy's assassin; another became a mountain recluse; the despised, sadistic C.O. who first
trained Easy Company (and to whose strictness many soldiers attributed their survival of the war) wound up a
suicidal loner whose own sons skipped his funeral. The Easy Company survivors describe the hell and confusion
of any war.

Anderson, Sherwood, Winesburg, Ohio, FIC AND
Winesburg, Ohio depicts the strange, secret lives of the inhabitants of a small town. In "Hands," Wing Biddlebaum
tries to hide the tale of his banishment from a Pennsylvania town, a tale represented by his hands. In "Adventure,"
lonely Alice Hindman impulsively walks naked into the night rain. Threaded through the stories is the viewpoint of
George Willard, the young newspaper reporter who, like his creator, stands witness to the dark and despairing
dealings of a community of isolated people.

Baldwin, James, Go Tell It on the Mountain, FIC BAL
What happens when you peel back the layers of damaged lives? What do you discover? Go Tell It on the
Mountain is a young man's novel, as tightly coiled as a new spring, yet tempered by a maturing man's confidence
and empathy. It's not a long book, and its action spans but a single day--yet the author packs in emotion, detail,
and intimate revelation. Using as a frame the spiritual and moral awakening of 14-year-old John Grimes during a
Saturday night service in a Harlem storefront church, Baldwin lays bare the secrets of a tormented black family
during the depression. John's parents, praying beside him, both wrestle with the ghosts of their sinful pasts-Gabriel, a preacher of towering hypocrisy, fathered an illegitimate child during his first marriage down South and
refused to recognize his doomed son; Elizabeth fell in love with a charming, free-spirited young man, followed him
to New York, became pregnant with his son, and lost him before she could reveal her condition. Baldwin lays
down the terrible similarities of these two blighted lives as the ironic context for their son John's dark night of the
soul.

Baldwin, James, If Beale Street Could Talk, FIC BAL
Powerful novel of a young black couple and their brave struggle to live with dignity in a society riddled with hatred.
Fonny, a talented young artist, finds himself unjustly arrested and locked in New York's infamous Tombs. But his
girlfriend, Tish, is determined to free him, and to have his baby, in this starkly realistic tale--a powerful indictment
of American concepts of justice and punishment.

Bellamy, Edward, Looking Backward: 2000-1887, FIC BEL
Edward Bellamy's classic look at the future has been translated into over twenty languages and is the most widely
read novel of its time. A young Boston gentleman is mysteriously transported from the nineteenth to the twentyfirst century--from a world of war and want to one of peace and plenty. This brilliant vision became the blueprint of
utopia that stimulated some of the greatest thinkers of our age.

Bellow, Saul, The Rain King, FIC BEL
The novel examines the midlife crisis of Eugene Henderson, an unhappy millionaire. The story concerns
Henderson's search for meaning. A larger-than-life 55-year-old who has accumulated money, position, and a
large family, he nonetheless feels unfulfilled. He makes a spiritual journey to Africa, where he draws emotional
sustenance from experiences with African tribes. Deciding that his true destiny is as a healer, Henderson returns
home, planning to enter medical school.

Brown, Dee, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, 970.5 BRO
This extraordinary book changed the way Americans think about the original inhabitants of their country.
Beginning with the Long Walk of the Navajos in 1860 and ending 30 years later with the massacre of Sioux men,
women, and children at Wounded Knee in South Dakota, it tells how the American Indians lost their land and lives
to a dynamically expanding white society. During these three decades, America's population doubled from 31
million to 62 million. Again and again, promises made to the Indians fell victim to the ruthlessness and greed of
settlers pushing westward to make new lives. The Indians were herded off their ancestral lands into evershrinking reservations, and were starved and killed if they resisted. It is a truism that "history is written by the
victors"; for the first time, this book described the opening of the West from the Indians' viewpoint.

Cather, Willa, Death Comes for the Archbishop, FIC CAT
Set in the mid-nineteenth century, this is the story of a priest who sets out to win the Southwest for Catholicism.
Bishop Jean Latour is a patrician, intellectual, introverted man. It is a character study, exploring Latour's inner
conflicts and his relationship with the land.

Cather, Willa, My Antonia, FIC CAT
The story of Antonia Shimerda is told by one of the friends of her childhood, Jim Burden, an orphaned boy from
Virginia. Though he leaves the prairie, Jim never forgets the Bohemian girl who so profoundly influenced his life.
An immigrant child of immigrant parents, Antonia's girlhood is spent working to help her parents wrest a living
from the untamed land. Though in later years she suffers betrayal and desertion, through all the hardships of her
life Antonia preserves a valor of spirit that no hardship can daunt or break.

Cather, Willa, O Pioneers!, FIC CAT
The classic story of the heroic Swedish pioneers in Nebraska in the 1880's. Alexandra Bergson's life is a success
story told with a loving affirmation of the beauty of the land and the value of pioneer struggle. The novel also
includes heartache. Alexandra's brothers turn out to be mean-spirited materialists and her beloved younger
brother dies at the hand of a Czech farmer whose wife he has fallen in love with.

Cisneros, Sandra, Caramelo, FIC CIS
Celaya or "Lala," the youngest child of seven and the only daughter of Inocencio and Zoila Reyes, charts the
family's movements back and forth across the border and through time in this sprawling, kaleidoscopic, Spanishlaced tale. The sensitive and observant Lala feels lost in the noisy shuffle, but she inherits the family stories from
her grandmother, who comes from a clan of shawl makers and throughout her life has kept her mother's
unfinished striped shawl, or caramelo rebozo, containing all the heartache and joy of her family. When she, and
later Lala, wear the rebozo and suck on the fringes, they are reminded of where they come from, and those who
came before them. In cramped and ever-changing apartments and houses, the teenaged Lala seeks time and
space for self-exploration, finally coming to an understanding of herself through the prism of her grandmother.
Cisneros was also the only girl in a family of seven, and this is clearly an autobiographical work. Its testaments to
cross-generational trauma and rapture grow repetitive, but Cisneros's irrepressible enthusiasm, inspired riffs on
any number of subjects (tortillas, telenovelas, La-Z-Boys, Woolworth's), hilarious accounts of family gatherings
and pitch-perfect bilingual dialogue make this a landmark work.

Clark, Walter Van T., The Ox-Bow Incident, FIC CLA
This is a psychological study of corrupt leadership and mob rule. Set in Nevada in1885, the story concerns the
brutal lynching of three characters falsely accused of murder and theft. The strong-willed leader of the lynch mob,
Major Tetley, easily takes advantage of the suppressed resentment and boredom of the townspeople. Here is the
historical version of modern "road rage."

Conroy, Pat, Lords of Discipline, FIC CON
In a southern military academy, four cadets who have become bloodbrothers, will brace themselves for the brutal
transition to manhood. Racism and corruption at a military academy unfolds in a powerful story.

Conroy, Pat, My Losing Season, 921 CON
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.

Cooper, James Fenimore, The Deerslayer, FIC COO
A tribute to the noble pioneer spirit in conflict with encroaching society. Natty Bumppo is an idealistic youth raised
among the Indians but he has yet to meet the test. In a tale of violent action, the harsh realities of tribal warfare
force him to kill his first foe and face torture at the stake.

Cooper, James Fenimore, The Last of the Mohicans, FIC COO
The classic portrait of a man of moral courage who severs all connections with a society whose values he can no
longer accept. A brave woodsman, Natty Bumppo, and his loyal Mohican friends become embroiled in the bloody
battle of the French and Indian War.

Crane, Stephen, The Red Badge of Courage, FIC CRA
This novel of the American Civil War is considered to be a masterwork for its perceptive depiction of warfare and
of the psychological turmoil of the soldier. It tells of the experience of war from the point of view of an ordinary
soldier.

Doctorow, E.L., Ragtime, FIC DOC
An extraordinary tapestry, Ragtime captures the spirit of America in the era between the turn of the century and
the First World War. The story opens in 1906 in New Rochelle, New York, at the home of an affluent American
family. One lazy Sunday afternoon, the famous escape artist Harry Houdini swerves his car into a telephone pole
outside their house. And almost magically, the line between fantasy and historical fact, between real and
imaginary characters disappears.

Dorris, Michael, Yellow Raft in Blue Water, FIC DOR
A powerful novel of three generations of American Indian women, each seeking her own identity while forever
cognizant of family responsibilities, loyalty, and love. Rayona, half-Indian half-black daughter of Christine, reacts
to feelings of rejection and abandonment by running away, not knowing that her mother had acted in a similar
fashion some 15 years before. But family ties draw Rayona home to the Montana reservations they drew
Christine to, and as they had drawn Ida many years earlier. As the three recount their lives, often repeating
incidents but adding new perspectives, a total picture emerges.

Douglass, Frederick, Narrative of the Life of an American Slave, 921 DOU
In 1845, just seven years after his escape from slavery, the young Frederick Douglass published this powerful
account of his life in bondage and his triumph over oppression. The book, which marked the beginning of
Douglass's career as an impassioned writer, journalist, and orator for the abolitionist cause, reveals the terrors he
faced as a slave, the brutalities of his owners and overseers, and his harrowing escape to the North. It has
become a classic of American autobiography.

Dreiser, Theodore, An American Tragedy, FIC DRE
Corruption and destruction of one man who forfeits his life in desperate pursuit of success. The author based his
realistic and vivid study on the actual case of Chester Gilette, who murdered Grace Brown at the Big Moose Lake
in the Adirondacks in July 1906.

Dreiser, Theodore, Sister Carrie, FIC DRE
Sister Carrie tells the story of a rudderless but pretty small-town girl who comes to the big city filled with vague
ambitions. She is used by men and uses them in turn to become a successful Broadway actress, while George
Hurstwood, the married man who has run away with her, loses his grip on life and descends into beggary and
suicide. Sister Carrie was the first masterpiece of the American naturalistic movement in its grittily factual
presentation of the vagaries of urban life and in its ingenuous heroine, who goes unpunished for her
transgressions against conventional sexual morality. The book's strengths include a brooding but compassionate
view of humanity, a memorable cast of characters, and a compelling narrative storyline.

DuBois, W.E.B., The Souls of Black Folk, 301.451 DUB
One of the most influential and widely read texts in all of African American letters and history, The Souls of Black
Folk combines some of the most enduring reflections on black identity, the meaning of emancipation, and African
American culture. This new edition reprints the original 1903 edition of W. E. B. DuBois's classic work with the
fullest set of annotations of any version yet published, together with two related essays, and numerous letters
DuBois received and wrote concerning his widely read text.

Ellison, Ralph, Invisible Man, FIC ELL
The novel's hero remains optimistic despite enduring betrayal, manipulation, humiliation, and the loss of his
illusions. Narrating his story from an underground cell, the anonymous protagonist explains that he is involuntarily
invisible because society sees his stereotype rather than his true personality. The narrator recalls how he was
raised in the South, named valedictorian of his high school graduation class, and invited to speak for the
community's prominent white citizens. The evening's brutality convinces him that he will be rewarded if he does
what white people expect, and this idea starts his identity crisis.

Faulkner, William, Absalom, Absalom!, FIC FAU
The story of Thomas Sutpen, an enigmatic stranger who came to Jefferson in the early 1830s to wrest his
mansion out of the muddy bottoms of the north Mississippi wilderness. He was a man, Faulkner said, "who
wanted sons and the sons destroyed him."

Faulkner, William, As I Lay Dying, FIC FAU
A novel concerning Addie Burden of Mississippi, her sons (Cash, Darl, Jewel, and Vardaman) and the family trip
to bury her. A series of mishaps besets the family: in crossing a flooded river, the mules are drowned, Cash's leg
is broken, and the coffin is upset and rescued by Jewel. Later the family rests at a farmhouse, where Darl sets fire
to the barn in an attempt to destroy the rotting remains in the coffin. The family finally reaches Jefferson, where
Addie is buried; Darl is taken to the insane asylum, and Anse acquires a new wife.

Faulkner, William, Intruder in the Dust, FIC FAU
This is the study of murder and the mass mind, of an accused Negro whose guilt or innocence becomes
secondary to the larger moral problems of justice itself, of a boy just old enough to find his way into manhood
under the stress of conflicting values.

Faulkner, William, The Sound and the Fury, FIC FAU
The subject of The Sound and the Fury is how the Compson family is falling apart. They are one of those august
old Mississippi families that fell on hard times and wild eccentricity after the Civil War. But in fact what William
Faulkner is really after in his legendary novel is the kaleidoscope of consciousness--the overwrought mind caught
in the act of thought. His rich, dark, scandal-ridden story of squandered fortune, madness, congenital brain
damage, theft, illegitimacy, and stoic endurance is told in the interior voices of three Compson brothers: first
Benjy, the "idiot" man-child who blurs together three decades of sensations as he stalks the fringes of the family's
former pasture; next Quentin, torturing himself brilliantly, obsessively over Caddy's lost virginity and his own
failure to recover the family's honor as he wanders around the seedy fringes of Boston; and finally Jason,
heartless, shrewd, sneaking, nursing a perpetual sense of injury and outrage against his outrageous family.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott, The Great Gatsby, FIC FIT
Here is the story of fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. It is a brilliant
dramatization of the 1920's--the social and economic corruptions of the jazz age, Prohibition, gangsterism, blasé
flappers and uprooted ness.

Frazier, Charles, Cold Mountain, FIC FRA
Cold Mountain is an extraordinary novel about a soldier's perilous journey back to his beloved at the end of the
Civil War. At once a magnificent love story and a harrowing account of one man's long walk home.

Franklin, Benjamin, Autobiography, 921 FRA
One of the most popular works of American literature, this charming self-portrait has been translated into nearly
every language. It covers Franklin’s life up to his prewar stay in London as representative of the Pennsylvania
Assembly, including his boyhood years, work as a printer, experiments with electricity, political career, much
more.

Gaines, Ernest, Gathering of Old Men, FIC GAI
This is a powerful depiction of racial tensions arising over the death of a Cajun farmer at the hands of a black
man. A sheriff is summoned to a sugarcane plantation, where he finds one young white woman, about 18 old
black men, and one dead Cajun farmer.

Grisham, John, A Painted House, FIC GRI
Here there are hardscrabble farmers instead, and dirt-poor itinerant workers and a seven-year-old boy who grows
up fast in a story as rich in conflict and incident as any previous Grisham and as nuanced as his very best. It's
September 1952 in rural Arkansas when young narrator Luke Chandler notes that "the hill people and the
Mexicans arrived on the same day." These folk are in Black Oak for the annual harvest of the cotton grown on the
80 acres that the Chandlers rent. The three generations of the Chandler family treat their workers more kindly
than most farmers do, including engaging in the local obsession--playing baseball--with them, but serious trouble
arises among the harvesters nonetheless. Most of it centers around Hank Spruill, a giant hillbilly with an equally
massive temper, who one night in town beats a man dead and who throughout the book rubs up against a knifewielding Mexican who is dating Hank's 17-year-old sister on the sly, leading to another murder. In fact, there's a
mess of trouble in Luke's life, from worries about his uncle Ricky fighting in Korea to concerns about the nearby
Latcher family and its illegitimate newborn baby, who may be Ricky's son. And then there are the constant fears
about the weather, as much a character in this novel as any human, from the tornado that storms past the farm to
the downpours that eventually flood the fields, ruining the crop and washing Luke and his family into a new life.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, The Scarlet Letter, FIC HAW
Set in Puritan New England, the main character is Hester Prynne, a young woman who has borne an illegitimate
child. It is considered a masterpiece of American literature and a classic moral study.

Heller, Joseph, Catch 22, FIC HEL
In this satirical novel, antihero Captain John Yossarian is stationed on an airstrip on a Mediterranean island in
World War II and is desperate to stay alive. The "catch" involves a mysterious Air Force regulation which states
that a man is considered insane if he requests to be relieved of his missions.

Hemingway, Ernest, A Farewell to Arms, FIC HEM
As a youth of 18, Ernest Hemingway was eager to fight in the Great War. Poor vision kept him out of the army, so
he joined the ambulance corps instead and was sent to France. Then he transferred to Italy where he became the
first American wounded in that country during World War I. Hemingway came out of the European battlefields with
a medal for valor and a wealth of experience that he would, 10 years later, spin into literary gold with A Farewell
to Arms. This is the story of Lieutenant Henry, an American, and Catherine Barkley, a British nurse. The two meet
in Italy, and almost immediately Hemingway sets up the central tension of the novel: the tenuous nature of love in
a time of war.
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Hemingway, Ernest, The Sun Also Rises, FIC HEM
The story of a group of American and English patriots living in Paris and their excursion to Pampalona. It captures
the angst of the post-World War I generation, known as the Lost Generation, and centers around the flamboyant
Lady Brett Ashley and the hapless Jake Barnes. In an age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution, unrealized
love and vanishing illusions, this is the Lost Generation.

Hemingway, Ernest, For Whom the Bell Tolls, FIC HEM
Timeless epic of Spanish Civil War portraying every facet of human emotions. This is the story of Robert Jordan,
a young American attached to an antifascist guerilla unit in the mountains of Spain. It tells of loyalty and courage,
love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal.

James, Henry, Portrait of a Lady, FIC JAM
When Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American, is brought to Europe by her wealthy Aunt Touchett, it is
expected that she will soon marry. But Isabel, resolved to determine her own fate, does not hesitate to turn down
two eligible suitors. She then finds herself irresistibly drawn to Gilbert Osmond, who, beneath his veneer of charm
and cultivation, is cruelty itself. A story of intense poignancy, Isabel's tale of love and betrayal still resonates with
modern audiences.

James, Henry, The Turn of the Screw, FIC JAM
When a young lady goes to a big country house to teach two beautiful children, strange things start to happen and
a terrible story of ghosts and danger begins.

Kerouac, Jack, On the Road, FIC KER
Poetic, open and raw, Kerouac's prose about the "beat generation of the 1950s" lays out a cross-country
adventure as experienced by Sal Paradise, an autobiographical character. A writer holed up in a room at his
aunt's house, Paradise gets inspired by Dean Moriarty (a character based on Kerouac's friend Neal Cassady) to
hit the road and see America. From the moment he gets on the seven train out of New York City, he takes the
reader through the highs and lows of hitchhiking, bonding with fellow explorers and opting for drink before food.
First published in 1957, Kerouac's perennially hot story continues to express the restless energy and desire for
freedom that makes people rush out to see the world.

Kesey, Ken, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, FIC KES
Randle Patrick McMurphy is a boisterous, brawling, fun-loving rebel who swaggers into the ward of a mental
hospital and takes over... The contest starts as a sport but it soon develops into a grim struggle for the minds and
hearts of the men, into an all-out war between two relentless opponents, Big Nurse and McMurphy.

Kidd, Sue Monk, The Secret Life of Bees, FIC KID
14-year-old Lily Owen, neglected by her father and isolated on their Georgia peach farm, spends hours imagining
a blissful infancy when she was loved and nurtured by her mother, Deborah, whom she barely remembers. These
consoling fantasies are her heart's answer to the family story that as a child, in unclear circumstances, Lily
accidentally shot and killed her mother. All Lily has left of Deborah is a strange image of a Black Madonna, with
the words "Tiburon, South Carolina" scrawled on the back. The search for a mother, and the need to mother
oneself, are crucial elements in this well-written coming-of-age story set in the early 1960s against a background
of racial violence and unrest. When Lily's beloved nanny, Rosaleen, manages to insult a group of angry white
men on her way to register to vote and has to skip town, Lily takes the opportunity to go with her, fleeing to the
only place she can think of--Tiburon, South Carolina--determined to find out more about her dead mother.

Kingsolver, Barbara, The Poisonwood Bible, FIC KIN
The Poisonwood Bible is the story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, the fierce, evangelical
Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. What follows is a suspense epic of one's
family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.

Kingston, Maxine Hong, The Woman Warrior, 921 KIN
What is it like to grow up a girl in a family who values boys? How do family secrets affect a young girl? Here is an
account of growing up female and Chinese American. "Woman Warrior" is a partly fictional work about Maxine
Hong Kingston's girlhood as it was affected by the beliefs of her family. She is a California-born author, educated
at U.C. Berkeley, and long time resident as a schoolteacher in Hawaii.

Krakauer, Jon, Into Thin Air, 796.52 KRA
Heroism and sacrifice triumph over foolishness, fatal error, and human frailty in this bone-chilling narrative in
which the author recounts his experiences on last year's ill-fated, deadly climb. Accepting an assignment from
Outside magazine to investigate whether it was safe for wealthy amateur climbers to tackle the mountain,
Krakauer joined an expedition guided by New Zealander Rob Hall. But Krakauer got more than he bargained for
when on summit day a blinding snowstorm caught four groups on the mountain's peaks. While Krakauer made it
back to camp, eight others died, including Scott Fischer and Hall, two of the world's best mountaineers.
Devastated by the disaster, Krakauer has written this compelling and haunting account.

Krakauer, Jon, Into the Wild, 917.9804 KRA
After graduating from Emory University in Atlanta in 1992, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless
abandoned his possessions, gave his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhiked to Alaska, where
he went to live in the wilderness. Four months later, he turned up dead. His diary, letters and two notes found at a
remote campsite tell of his desperate effort to survive, apparently stranded by an injury and slowly starving. They
also reflect the posturing of a confused young man, raised in affluent Annandale, Va., who self-consciously
adopted a Tolstoyan renunciation of wealth and return to nature. Krakauer, a contributing editor to Outside and
Men's Journal, retraces McCandless's ill-fated antagonism toward his father, Walt, an eminent aerospace
engineer. Krakauer also draws parallels to his own reckless youthful exploit in 1977 when he climbed Devils
Thumb, a mountain on the Alaska-British Columbia border, partly as a symbolic act of rebellion against his
autocratic father. In a moving narrative, Krakauer probes the mystery of McCandless's death.

Lewis, Sinclair, Arrowsmith, FIC LEW
As the son and grandson of physicians, Sinclair Lewis had a store of experiences and imparted knowledge to
draw upon for Arrowsmith. Published in 1925, after three years of anticipation, the book follows the life of Martin
Arrowsmith, a rather ordinary fellow who gets his first taste of medicine at 14 as an assistant to the drunken
physician in his home town. It is Leora Tozer who makes Martin's life extraordinary. With vitality and love, she
urges him beyond the confines of the mundane to risk answering his true calling as a scientist and researcher.
Not even her tragic death can extinguish her spirit or her impact on Martin's life.

Lewis, Sinclair, Babbitt, FIC LEW
Tale of a conniving, prosperous real estate man, George Follansbee Babbitt. He is unimaginative, self-important,
and hopelessly middle class. He is dissatisfied and tries to alter the pattern of his life by flirting with liberalism and
by entering a liaison with an attractive widow.

Lewis, Sinclair, Main Street, FIC LEW
This novel captures the humdrum existence of a small American town and its inhabitants. Carol Milford, a girl of
quick intelligence but no particular talent, after graduation from college, meets and marries Will Kennicott, a
sober, kindly, unimaginative physician of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, who tells her that the town needs her.

Malamud, Bernard, The Assistant, FIC MAL
Story of a secret love between a desperate man and the daughter of his employer. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for
Fiction.

Malamud, Bernard, The Fixer, FIC MAL
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, this is the story of Yakov Bok, accused of murder as
part of an anti-Semitic movement, and how he becomes a hero.

Malamud, Bernard, The Natural, FIC MAL
What happens when you tell everyone you want to be the greatest player that ever lived? Roy Hobbs, the
protagonist of The Natural, makes the mistake of pronouncing aloud his dream: to be the best there ever was.
Such hubris, of course, invites divine intervention, but the brilliance of Bernard Malamud's novel is the second
chance it offers its hero, elevating him--and his story--into the realm of myth.

Mason, Bobbie Anne, In Country, FIC MAS
Sam, 17, is obsessed with the Vietnam War and the effect it has had on her life losing a father she never knew
and now living with Uncle Emmett, who seems to be suffering from the effects of Agent Orange. In her own
forthright way, she tries to sort out why and how Vietnam has altered the lives of the vets of Hopewell, Kentucky.
Her untempered curiosity and imagination sprint off in all directions as she examines closely the often
undiscussed, but always noticed, aspects of daily life. In this coming-of-age novel, Sam ponders many problems,
among them Emmett's crusty, salve-covered pimples, veteran Tom's inability to have an erection and her good
friend Dawn's pregnancy. Although Sam lives in a disheveled, tawdry house, she brings a freshness of spirit to
the way she scrutinizes and revels in life. When she wants to understand living conditions in the Vietnam jungles,
she decides she has to experience it, so spends the night beside a local swamp. A harshly realistic, well-written
look at the Vietnam War as well as the story of a young woman maturing.

McCarthy, Cormac, Crossing, FIC McC
Sixteen-year-old Billy Parham is obsessed with trapping a renegade wolf that has crossed the border from Mexico
to raid his father's cattle ranch. By the time he finally succeeds, Billy has formed such a close bond with his prey
that he decides to return the wolf to its home, and the two head off into the mountains. Billy returns months later
to find that his parents have been murdered by horse thieves. He abducts his kid brother from a foster home, and
they ride into Mexico to retrieve their property, encountering gypsies, desperadoes, and itinerant philosophers
along the way. Essentially a boy's adventure story written for adults, The Crossing is thematically related to the
award-winning bestseller All The Pretty Horses, but it is not a sequel.
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Melville, Herman, Moby-Dick, FIC MEL
Moby Dick, the great white whale, is pursued by the monomaniacal Captain Ahab, whose ivory leg is testimony to
their previous encounter. The crew of Ahab's ship, the Pequod, is composed of a mixture of races and religions,
including the God-fearing mate Starbuck; three primitive harpooners; the Black cabin boy; and the fireworshipping Parsee.

Miller, Arthur, Death of a Salesman, 812.52 MIL
This play is the genuine article--it's got the goods on the human condition, all packed into a day in the life of one
self-deluded, self-promoting, self-defeating soul. The tragedy of Loman the all-American dreamer and loser works
eternally, on the page as on the stage.

Mitchell, Margaret, Gone With the Wind, FIC MIT
Gone with the Wind is a compelling and entertaining novel. It was the sweeping story of tangled passions and the
rare courage of a group of people in Atlanta during the time of Civil War that brought those cinematic scenes to
life. The reason the movie became so popular was the strength of its characters--Scarlett O'Hara, Rhett Butler,
and Ashley Wilkes--all created here by the deft hand of Margaret Mitchell, in this, her first novel.

Morrison, Toni, Sula, FIC MOR
This novel traces the lives of two black heroines from their growing up together in a small Ohio town, through their
divergent paths through womanhood, to their ultimate confrontation and reconciliation. Here is the unforgettable
rendering of what it means and costs to exist and survive as a black woman in America.

Morrison, Toni, Beloved, FIC MOR
In this Pulitzer prize winning novel, is a dense, complex story that yields up its secrets one by one. As Toni
Morrison takes us deeper into Sethe's history and her memories, the horrifying circumstances of her baby's death
start to make terrible sense. And as past meets present in the shape of a mysterious young woman about the
same age as Sethe's daughter would have been, the narrative builds inexorably to its powerful, painful
conclusion. Beloved may well be the defining novel of slavery in America, the one that all others will be measured
by.
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Morrison, Toni, Song of Solomon, FIC MOR
A literary masterpiece about four generations of black life in America. It is a world we enter through the present,
through Macon Dead Jr., son of the richest black family in a Midwestern town. We enter on the day of his birth
and see Macon growing up in his father's money-haunted, death-haunted house with his silent sisters and
strangely, passive mother.
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Neihardt, John G., Black Elk Speaks, 921 BLA
This life story of a holy man of the Oglala Sioux, Black Elk, is considered a North American bible of all tribes. Here
is the story of a Native American who lived during the tragic decades of the Custer battle, the ghost dance, and
the Wounded Knee Massacre. He offers a profound vision of the unity of all creation.

Nordhoff and Hall, Bounty Trilogy, FIC NOR
Classic saga of men and the sea includes Mutiny on the Bounty, Men Against the Sea, and Pitcairn's Island.

Norris, Frank, The Octopus, FIC NOR
Based on an actual, bloody dispute between a wheat farmer and the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1880, The
Octopus is a Stunning novel of the waning days of the frontier West. To the tough-minded and self-reliant farmers,
the monopolistic, land-grabbing railroad represented everything they despised: consolidation, organization,
conformity. But Norris idealizes no one in this epic depiction of the volatile situation, for the farmers themselves
ruthlessly exploited the land, and in their hunger for larger holdings they resorted to the same tactics used by the
railroad: subversion, coercion, and outright violence.

O'Brien, Tim, Going After Cacciato: A Novel, FIC OBR
Winner of the 1979 National Book Award, Going After Cacciato captures the peculiar blend of horror and
hallucinatory comedy that marked this strangest of wars. Reality and fantasy merge in this fictional account of one
private's sudden decision to lay down his rifle and begin a quixotic journey from the jungles of Indochina to the
streets of Paris. Will Cacciato make it all the way? Or will he be yet another casualty of a conflict that seems to
have no end? In its memorable evocation of men both fleeing and meeting the demands of battle, Going After
Cacciato stands as much more than just a great war novel. Ultimately it's about the forces of fear and heroism
that do battle in the hearts of us all.

O'Brien, Tim, Things They Carried, SC OBR
The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell
Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and of course, the character Tim O'Brien who has survived his tour in Vietnam
to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. They battle the enemy (or maybe more the idea of the
enemy), and occasionally each other. In their relationships we see their isolation and loneliness, their rage and
fear. They miss their families, their girlfriends and buddies; they miss the lives they left back home. Yet they find
sympathy and kindness for strangers (the old man who leads them unscathed through the mine field, the girl who
grieves while she dances), and love for each other, because during the Vietnam War they are the only family they
have. We hear the voices of the men and build images upon their dialogue. The way they tell stories about others,
we hear them telling stories about themselves. With the creative verve of the greatest fiction and the intimacy of a
searing autobiography, The Things They Carried is a testament to the men who risked their lives in America's
most controversial war. It is also a mirror held up to the frailty of humanity. Ultimately The Things They Carried
and its myriad protagonists call to order the courage, determination, and luck we all need to survive.

O'Connor, Flannery, Three (Everything That Rises Must Converge), FIC OCO
Three great works are included: (1) Wise Blood evokes a terrifying world as it reveals a weird relationship
between a sensual girl, a conniving widow, and a young man who deliberately blinds himself; (2) The Violent Bear
It Away tells of a strangely decadent family--three generations obsessed by guilt and driven to violence; and (3)
Everything That Rises Must Converge is a collection about eroding family relationships, individuals grappling with
their sense of place and race relations.

O'Connor, Flannery, Collected Works (A Good Man is Hard to Find), 810.9 OCO
The story begins with the grandmother trying to convince her family to cancel a trip to Florida, because of a
vicious criminal who is on the lam somewhere in the Southern states. Everyone in her family ignores her except
for her granddaughter, who mocks her. The family does take the trip and, in an ironic twist of fate, the father, who
is grandmother's son, reluctantly agrees to take a fatal detour down a dirt road that grandmother insists leads to
an old plantation she once visited. On this road, the cat that grandmother secretly brought along in the car attacks
the father, causing an accident. While recovering from the accident and deciding what next step to take, the family
is visited by the Misfit, the very criminal whom the grandmother feared meeting before the family began their trip.

O'Neill, Eugene, Long Day's Journey Into Night, 812.5 ONE
Completed in 1940, it is an autobiographical play Eugene O'Neill wrote that--because of the highly personal
writing about his family--was not to be released until 25 years after his death, which occurred in 1953. But since
O'Neill's immediate family had died in the early 1920s, his wife allowed publication of the play in 1956. Besides
the history alone, the play is fascinating in its own right. It tells of the "Tyrones"--a fictional name for what is clearly
the O'Neills. Theirs is not a happy tale: The youngest son (Edmond) is sent to a sanitarium to recover from
tuberculosis; he despises his father for sending him; his mother is wrecked by narcotics; and his older brother by
drink. In real-life these factors conspired to turn O'Neill into who he was--a tormented individual and a brilliant
playwright.
Picoult, Jodi, Salem Falls, FIC PIC
Loosely based on The Crucible: A handsome stranger comes to the sleepy New England town of Salem Falls in
hopes of burying his past: once a teacher at a girls' prep school, Jack St. Bride was destroyed when a student's
crush sparked a powder keg of accusation. Now, washing dishes for Addie Peabody at the Do-Or-Diner, he slips
quietly into his new routine, and Addie finds this unassuming man fitting easily inside her heart. But amid the
rustic calm of Salem Falls, a quartet of teenage girls harbor dark secrets -- and they maliciously target Jack with a
shattering allegation. Now, at the center of a modern-day witch hunt, Jack is forced once again to proclaim his
innocence: to a town searching for answers, to a justice system where truth becomes a slippery concept written in
shades of gray, and to the woman who has come to love him.
Rand, Ayn, The Fountainhead, FIC RAN
Can one man dare to be different? This is the story of the struggle of genius architect Howard Roark--said to be
based on Frank Lloyd Wright--as he confronts conformist mediocrity. In the author's world, suppression of
individual creativity is the greatest evil. Roark is expelled from architectural school for his unique ideas, but he
pursues his vision any way.
Rees, Celia, Witch Child, FIC REE
Enter the world of Mary Newbury, where being different can cost a person her life. Hidden until now in the pages
of her secret diary, fourteen-year-old Mary’s story begins as she flees the English witch-hunts to settle in an
American colony. How long can she hide her true nature from the Puritans? How long can she keep running?
Robinson, Marilynne, Gilead, FIC ROB
Reverend John Ames of Gilead, Iowa, a grandson and son of preachers, now in his seventies, is afraid he hasn't
much time left to tell his young son about his heritage. And so he takes up his pen, as he has for decades--he
estimates that he's written more than 2,000 sermons--and vividly describes his prophetlike grandfather, who had a
vision that inspired him to go to Kansas and "make himself useful to the cause of abolition," and the epic conflict
between his fiery grandfather and his pacifist father. He recounts the death of his first wife and child, marvels over
the variegated splendors of earth and sky, and offers moving interpretations of the Gospel. And then, as he
struggles with his disapproval and fear of his namesake and shadow son, Jack, the reprobate offspring of his
closest friend, his letter evolves into a full-blown apologia punctuated by the disturbing revelation of Jack's
wrenching predicament, one inexorably tied to the toxic legacy of slavery. "For me writing has always felt like
praying," discloses Robinson's contemplative hero, and, indeed, John has nearly as much reverence for language
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and thought as he does for life itself. Millennia of philosophical musings and a century of American history are
refracted through the prism of Robinson's exquisite and uplifting novel as she illuminates the heart of a mystic,
poet, and humanist.
Rolvaag, O.E., Giants in the Earth, FIC ROL
What was it like to be a pioneer settling untamed territory in America? This is the classic story of a Norwegian
pioneer family's struggle with the land and the elements of the Dakota territory as they try to make a new life in
America.

Russo, Empire Falls, FIC RUS
Wealthy, controlling matriarch Francine Whiting lives in an incongruous Spanish-style mansion across the river
from smalltown Empire Falls, dominated by a long-vacant textile mill and shirt factory, once the center of her
husband's family's thriving manufacturing dominion. In his early 40s, passive good guy Miles Roby, the son of
Francine's husband's long-dead mistress, seems helpless to escape his virtual enslavement as longtime
proprietor of the Whiting-owned Empire Grill, the town's most popular eatery, which Francine has promised to
leave him when she dies. Miles's wife, Janine, is divorcing him and has taken up with an aging health club
entrepreneur. In her senior year in high school, their creative but lonely daughter, Tick, is preoccupied by her
parents' foibles and harassed by the bullying son of the town's sleazy cop who, like everyone else, is a puppet of
the domineering Francine. Struggling to make some sense of her life, Tick tries to befriend a boy with a history of
parental abuse. To further complicate things, Miles's brother, David, is suspected of dealing marijuana, and their
rascally, alcoholic father is a constant annoyance. Miles and David's secret plan to open a competing restaurant
runs afoul of Francine just as tragedy erupts at the high school.

Salinger, J.D., The Catcher in the Rye, FIC SAL
The hero-narrator is a sixteen year-old named Holden Caulfield. After he is expelled from his prep school, he
goes underground in New York for three days. Confused and disillusioned, he searches for truth and rails against
the "phoniness" of the adult world. He ends up exhausted and emotionally ill in a psychiatrist's office. After he
recovers, he tells his story in this novel.

Schlosser, Eric, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All American Meal, 394.1 SCH
Schlosser's incisive history of the development of American fast food indicts the industry for some shocking
crimes against humanity, including systematically destroying the American diet and landscape, and undermining
our values and our economy. The first part of the book details how fast food in Southern California became
important, assessing the impact on people in the West in general. The second half looks at the product itself:
where it is manufactured (in a handful of enormous factories), what goes into it (chemicals, feces) and who is
responsible (monopolistic corporate executives). In harrowing detail, the book explains the process of beef
slaughter and confirms almost every urban myth about what in fact "lurks between those sesame seed buns."
Given the estimate that the typical American eats three hamburgers and four orders of french fries each week,
and one in eight will work for McDonald's in the course of their lives, few are exempt from the insidious impact of
fast food. Throughout, Schlosser fires these and a dozen other hair-raising statistical bullets into the heart of the
matter. While cataloguing assorted evils with the tenacity and sharp eye of the best investigative journalist, he
uncovers a cynical, dismissive attitude to food safety in the fast food industry and widespread circumvention of
the government's efforts at regulation enacted after Upton Sinclair's similarly scathing novel, The Jungle, exposed
the meat-packing industry 100 years ago.
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Shaara, Michael, Killer Angels, FIC SHA
This novel reveals more about the Battle of Gettysburg than any piece of learned nonfiction on the same subject.
Michael Shaara's account of the three most important days of the Civil War features deft characterizations of all of
the main actors, including Lee, Longstreet, Pickett, Buford, and Hancock. The most inspiring figure in the book,
however, is Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, whose 20th Maine regiment of volunteers held the Union's left
flank on the second day of the battle. This unit's bravery at Little Round Top helped turned the tide of the war
against the rebels. There are also plenty of maps, which convey a complete sense of what happened July 1-3,
1863. Reading about the past is rarely so much fun as on these pages.

Sinclair, Upton, The Jungle, FIC SIN
The author vividly depicts factory life in Chicago in the first years of the 20th century. The horrors of the
slaughterhouse, their barbarous working conditions...the crushing poverty, the disease and despair--he revealed
all through the eyes of Jurgis Rudkus, a young immigrant who came to the New World to build a home for himself
and his family.

Smiley, Jane, A Thousand Acres, FIC SMI
The vast and beautiful landscape of a thousand-acre farm is where Jane Smiley begins her Pulitzer Prize-winning
novel. Scanning the countryside through a fish eye lens, the novel brings into focus a small barbecue party where
a decision has been made that will break down the frail framework that has held together a seemingly idyllic and
prosperous third-generation farm family. The focus narrows as Jane Smiley delves into these complex, trapped
characters blindly leading themselves into unchangeable situations. Reminiscent of Shakespeare's King Lear, the
story revolves around three daughters and their father, Larry, who sees them as one entity with no personality,
their only reason for existence being to serve him. Ginny, the protagonist, her indecision swinging like a
pendulum, selflessly wants to please everyone. Rose, the witty, sarcastic middle sister, is at first the only person
with whom Ginny can identify. The confident Caroline left the farm to become a lawyer; now she drifts through
Ginny 's and Rose's lives like an outsider. Just when it seems that the reader knows everything about these
complex characters, Jane Smiley sneaks up from behind and exposes another layer of their lives. Vivid and
unsettling, A Thousand Acres takes us to the edge of unbelievable desperation and makes us question whether
anyone's life is what it seems.
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Steinbeck, John, East of Eden, FIC STE
The novel highlights the conflicts of two generations of brothers; the first being the kind, gentle Adam Trask and
his wild brother Charles. Adam eventually marries Cathy Ames, an evil, manipulative, and beautiful prostitute; she
betrays him, joining Charles on the very night of their wedding. Later, after giving birth to twin boys, she shoots
Adam and leaves him to return to her former profession. In the shadow of this heritage Adam raises their sons,
the fair-haired, winning, yet intractable Aron, and the dark, clever Caleb. This second generation of brothers vie
for their father's approval. In bitterness Caleb reveals the truth about their mother to Aron, who then joins the army
and is killed in France. The novel is a symbolic recreation of the biblical story of Cain and Abel woven into a
history of California's Salinas Valley.
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Steinbeck, John, The Grapes of Wrath, FIC STE
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 California. As they travel across the country, joined by countless
other unwilling migrants, the Joads confront the naked realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-nots.

Steinbeck, John, In Dubious Battle, FIC STE
Observe social unrest and a young man's struggle for identity in this fast-paced novel. In Dubious Battle is set in
California's apple country, where a strike by migrant workers against landowners spirals out of control. Caught up
in the upheaval is Jim Nolan, a once aimless man who finds himself in the course of the strike, briefly becomes its
leader, and is ultimately crushed in its service.
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Steinbeck, John, Sweet Thursday, FIC STE
In Monterey, California, Sweet Thursday is what they call the day after Lousy Wednesday, which is one of those
days that is naturally bad. Returning to the scene of Cannery Row, the weedy lots and junk heaps and flophouses
of Monterey, Steinbeck once more focuses on everyday life of post-World War II.
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Steinbeck, John, To a God Unknown, FIC STE
As his father lies dying, Joseph Wayne decides to trade his Vermont farm for a new life in California. Once
established on his ranch, he comes to revere a huge tree as the embodiment of his father's spirit. Joseph's
brothers and their wives join him, and their farms prosper. Then one of the brothers, repelled by Joseph's
reverence for the tree, cuts it down. Consequences follow -- harsh and severe. In TO A GOD UNKNOWN, one of
his earliest novels, Steinbeck uses the Western American experience as a way of exploring man's relationships to
his environment -- a theme that would come to characterize much of his later work.

Steinbeck, John, The Winter of Our Discontent, FIC STE
Ethan Hawley, a descendant of proud New England sea captains, works as a clerk in the grocery store owned by
an Italian immigrant. His wife is restless: his teenaged children are troubled and unhappy, hungry for the
tantalizing material comforts he cannot provide. Then one day, in a moment of moral crisis, Ethan decides to take
a holiday from his own morals.

Stone, Irving, Love is Eternal
In Irving Stone’s historical novel about Mary Todd, Love is Eternal, the future Mrs. Lincoln confides to her cousin
Ann that she might marry a Springfield, Illinois, lawyer because he has a promising political future and might
someday be president.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, Uncle Tom's Cabin, FIC STO
This is a book that changed history. Harriet Beecher Stowe was appalled by slavery, and she took one of the few
options open to nineteenth century women who wanted to affect public opinion: she wrote a novel, a huge,
enthralling narrative that claimed the heart, soul, and politics of pre-Civil War Americans. It is unabashed
propaganda and overtly moralistic, an attempt to make whites - North and South - see slaves as mothers, fathers,
and people with (Christian) souls. In a time when women might see the majority of their children die, Harriet
Beecher Stowe portrays beautiful Eliza fleeing slavery to protect her son. In a time when many whites claimed
slavery had "good effects" on blacks, Uncle Tom's Cabin paints pictures of three plantations, each worse than the
other, where even the best plantation leaves a slave at the mercy of fate or debt. By twentieth-century standards,
her propaganda verges on melodrama, and it is clear that even while arguing for the abolition of slavery she did
not rise above her own racism. Yet her questions remain penetrating even today: "Is man ever a creature to be
trusted with wholly irresponsible power?".

Tan, Amy, Joy Luck Club, FIC TAN
This novel is structured around the stories of four pairs of Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-born
daughters. The first and last segments tell the mother's stories in China and in America. The middle cradles the
daughter's experiences as children and as Chinese American women. The author uses this structure to
communicate a sense of mother and daughter connectedness that eventually resolves generational differences
and conflicts.

Thoreau, Henry, Walden, 818.309 THO
In August 1854, Houghton Mifflin"s predecessor, Ticknor & Fields, published a book called Walden; or, Life in the
Woods, by a little-known writer named Henry Thoreau. At the time the book was largely ignored, but it has gone
on to become one of the most widely read and influential works ever published, not only in this country but
throughout the world. Enjoy this record written by an individualist and a lover of nature; Thoreau describes his
Robinson Crusoe existence, bare of creature comforts but rich in contemplation of the wonders of the natural
world and the ways of man.

Thoreau, Henry, Civil Disobedience, 818.309 THO
An essay by Henry Thoreau. Its major premise is "that government is best which governs least." Thoreau asserts
that a man's first loyalty is to his own nature; true to himself, he may then be true to a government. The essay
influenced Gandi's doctrine of passive resistance.

Twain, Mark, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, FIC TWA
Huck's adventures on a raft on the Mississippi River begin with his escape from his drunken, brutal father. Huck
meets up with Jim, a runaway slave, and what follows is their story downstream and occasional encounters with
town life along the banks of the river. The novel is also a penetrating social commentary that reveals corruption,
moral decay, and intellectual impoverishment. Through Jim, Huck learns about the dignity and worth of human
life.

Tyler, Anne, Accidental Tourist, FIC TYL
Macon Leary, a travel writer who hates to travel, is about to embark on a surprising journey. Grounded by
loneliness, comfort, and a somewhat odd domestic life, Macon encounters "love" in the unlikely shape of a fuzzyharried dog-obedience trainer.

Uhry, Alfred, Driving Miss Daisy, 812.54 UHR
An elderly Jewish widow living in Atlanta can no longer drive. Her son insists she allow him to hire a driver, which
in the 1950s meant a black man. She resists any change in her life but, Hoke, the driver is hired by her son. She
refuses to allow him to drive her anywhere at first, but Hoke slowly wins her over with his native good graces. It
covers over twenty years of the pair's life together as they slowly build a relationship that transcends their
differences.

Updike, John, Rabbit, Run, FIC UPD
A frank treatment of a former high school basketball star's failure to deal with the adult world. On impulse, he
deserts his wife and at 26 years old struggles to take responsibility for his life.

Vonnegut, Kurt, Cat's Cradle, FIC VON
Commentary on modern man and his madness. An apocalyptic tale of this planet's ultimate fate, it features a
midget as the protagonist.

Vonnegut, Kurt, Slaughterhouse Five, FIC VON
One of Vonnegut's major works, this is an apocalyptic tale of the planet's ultimate fate, featuring a cast of unlikely
heroes. One of Vonnegut's most entertaining novels, it is filled with scientists and G-men and even ordinary folks
caught up in the game. These assorted characters chase each other around in search of the world's most
important and dangerous substance, a new form of ice that freezes at room temperature.

Walker, Alice, The Color Purple, FIC WAL
In this Pulitzer prize winning novel we discover that life wasn't easy for Celie. But she knew how to survive,
needing little to get by. Then her husband's lover, a flamboyant blues singer, barreled into her world and gave
Celie the courage to ask for more--to laugh, to play, and finally, to love.

Walls, Jeannette, The Glass Castle: a memoir, 921 WAL
How do you make a sad memory into art? The Glass Castle is the memoir of Jeannette Walls, a look into a
deeply dysfunctional family. When her father was sober, he was brilliant and charming, teaching his children
physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her
mother was a free spirit who hated homemaking and didn’t want the responsibility of raising a family. The Walls
children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed and protected one another, and eventually found
their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children succeeded.
Jeannette Walls tells her astonishing story without an ounce of self pity. A spectacular read.

Warren, Robert, All the King's Men, FIC WAR
This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is about the corrupting nature of power. Willie Stark, a well-intentioned, idealistic
back-country lawyer, is unable to resist greed for power and lust for politics during his rise and fall. Stark draws a
cast of memorable characters into his flawed life, and together they move toward mutual destruction innocent of
their doom, the genuine hallmark of tragedy.

Welch, James, Fools Crow, FIC WEL
How was the Indian nation changed forever? The year is 1870. A portentous dream seems to overshadow the
Lone Eaters clan of the Blackfeet Indians in the post-Civil War years. The slow invasion of the Napikwans, or
whites, is inevitable and coincidental, however. As we follow White Man's Dog (later renamed Fools Crow), we
see how some of his people try to follow the Napikwan ways, others rebel against them, and many ignore them.
This alien force has both subtle and obvious methods of eliminating the tribal ways, and we watch individuals,
families, and traditions crumbling. Welch's third novel ( Winter in the Blood, The Death of Jim Loney) is like finding
a lifestyle preserved for a century and reanimated for our benefit and education. Recommended for anyone who
wants to see what we have lost, and read a fine novel in the process.

West, Nathaniel, Miss Lonelyhearts, 813.52 WES
Miss Lonelyhearts was a newspaper reporter, so named because he had been assigned to write the agony
column. A joke at first, but then he was caught up in the suffering. In the Day of the Locust, Tod Hackett comes to
Hollywood hoping for a career in scene designing, but he finds the hard way and falls in with others in difficulty.

Wharton, Edith, The Age of Innocence, FIC WHA
This is the elegant portrayal of desire and betrayal in Old New York. With vivid power, the author evokes a time of
gas lit streets, formal dances held in ballrooms of stately brownstones, and society people "who dreaded scandal
more than disease." This is Newland Archer's world as he prepares to marry the docile May Welland. Then,
suddenly the mysterious, intensely nonconformist Countess Ellen Olenska returns to New York after a long
absence and Newland Archer's world is never the same.

Wharton, Edith, Ethan Frome, FIC WHA
First published in 1911, Ethan Frome is widely regarded as Edith Wharton's most revealing novel and her finest
achievement in fiction. Set in the bleak, barren winter landscape of New England, it is the tragic tale of a simple
man, bound to the demands of his farm and his tyrannical, sickly wife, Zeena, and driven by his star-crossed love
for Zeena's young cousin, Mattie Silver. "In its spare, chilling creation of rural isolation, hardscrabble poverty and
wintry landscape," writes Alfred Kazin in his afterword, "Ethan Frome overwhelms the reader as a drama of
irresistible necessity." An exemplary work of literary realism in setting and character, Ethan Frome stands as one
of the great classics of twentieth-century American literature.

Wideman, John Edgar, Philadelphia Fire, FIC WID
From "one of America's premier writers of fiction" (New York Times) comes this novel inspired by the 1985 police
bombing of a West Philadelphia row house owned by the back-to-nature, Afrocentric cult known as Move. The
bombing killed eleven people and started a fire that destroyed sixty other houses. At the center of the story is
Cudjoe, a writer and exile who returns to his old neighborhood after spending a decade fleeing from his past, and
his search for the lone survivor of the fire a young boy who was seen running from the flames. An impassioned,
brutally honest journey through the despair and horror of life in urban America, "Philadelphia Fire isn't a book you
read so much as one you breathe" (San Francisco Chronicle).

Williams, Tennessee, The Glass Menagerie, 812.54 WIL
Amanda, a faded southern belle, abandoned wife, and dominating mother, hopes to match her daughter Laura
with an eligible "gentleman caller" while her son Tom supports the family. Laura, lame and painfully shy, evades
her mother's schemes and reality by retreating to the make-believe world of her glass animal collection. Tom
eventually leaves home to become a writer but is forever haunted by the memory of Laura.

Wolfe, Thomas, Look Homeward Angel, FIC WOL
This novel describes the childhood and youth of Eugene Gant. As he grows up, he becomes aware of the
relations among his family, meets the eccentric people of the town, goes to college, discovers literature and ideas,
has his first love affairs, and at last sets out alone on a mystic and romantic pilgrimage.

Wolfe, Thomas, You Can't Go Home Again, FIC WOL
This novel was the last Thomas Wolfe finished before his untimely death at age 37. In its brilliance, we find more
cause to wish he had lived longer. As with his other novels, You Can't Go Home Again is an extremely personal
work, but in the character of George Webber, a writer, Wolfe sees and captures America and the world in an
dramatic time in history. The time is the period just before the great stock market crash and it stretches through
the Depression and into Germany during the rise of Nazis. And the writer of course is Wolfe, who takes us on a
ride through America never seen before--one with sharp insight and breathtaking flair.

Wright, Richard, Black Boy, 921 WRI
Richard Wright grew up in poverty, hunger, fear, and hatred. He lied, stole, and lashed out at those around him;
he killed and tortured animals; at six he was a drunkard, hanging around the bars. Here is his autobiography -- an
unashamed confession and a touching, powerful story.

Wright, Richard, Native Son, FIC WRI
Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright's powerful novel deals with the poverty and feelings of hopelessness
experienced by people in inner cities across the country and what it means to be black in America. Right from the
start, Bigger Thomas was headed for jail. He killed his first young victim in a movement of panic and found himself
caught up in forces outside his control.
Reading Assignment for American Literature Students
The 11th grade English class is designed to survey American literature over the last 300 years, starting with
Colonial writers like Anne Bradstreet and ending with modernists like Tennessee Williams. To prepare for the
journey, you need to read three books penned by American authors, preferably from different eras. As well,
consider sampling different genres.
Task: For each of the works that you read, you will write an essay of 500 words (+or-) from topics taken from
common literary assessments:
Choice #1: Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes in social or political attitudes or in
traditions. Choose such a novel or play and note briefly the particular attitudes or traditions that the author
wishes to modify. Then analyze the techniques the author uses to influence the reader's or audience's views.
Avoid plot summary.
Choice #2: Choose a novel or play that depicts a conflict between a parent (or parental figure) and
a son or daughter. Write an essay in which you analyze the sources of the conflict and explain how the conflict
contributes to the meaning of the work.
Choice #3: Choose a distinguished novel or play in which some of the most significant events are
mental or psychological; for example, awakenings, discoveries, changes in consciousness. In a well-organized
essay, describe how the author manages to give these internal events the sense of excitement, suspense, and
climax usually associated with external action. Do not merely summarize the plot.
Choice #4: Select an important character who is a villain. Then, in a well-organized essay, analyze the
nature of the character’s villainy and show how it enhances meaning in the work. Do not merely summarize
plot.
Below are some suggestions for American Lit. Daniel Yamilkoski researched the first 10 books, and the rest
come from a library. Consider this as a guide, not a mandate. You are not limited to this list. . If the author is
American, you can choose the work.
10 Upcoming American Classics

This top 10 list features the best of what contemporary American literature has to offer. These
book s, most from the last 15 years, have a good chance of being shelved as classics in the
coming decades. While they are not all in American settings or about American topics – they
reflect the time in which they were written and are all by American authors.
10. Lullaby, Chuck Palahniuk
There is a short poem that causes the listener to die when it is read aloud. You can find it on
page 27 of a children's anthology called Poems and Rhymes from Around the World. It is an
ancient Zulu culling song, originally used to thin the population in time of famine.
Unknowingly, parents are reading it to their children.
Our hero and narrator, Carl Streator, a reporter, is assigned to write a series on sudden infant
death syndrome. He discovers that babies are dying not through pathology but because of the
culling song. He realizes that he killed his wife and son by the same means many years ago. He
hooks up with a woman called Helen Hoover Boyle, who sells haunted houses (fast turnover,
more commission), and who also accidentally culled her family.
-Steven Poole, The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/sep/28/fiction.chuckpalahniuk
9. Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer
Artfully complex in its structure, Everything is
Illuminated is a uniquely witty and cathartic tale in
which Jonathan Safran Foer successfully probes the topics
of love, loss, myth, remembrance, and the Holocaust by
approaching one man's memories of his family on three
levels.
Alex Perchov is a twenty-year old Ukrainian living in
Odessa. Self-described as "unequivocally tall" with
"handsome hairs, which are split in the middle," Alex enjoys
the simple pleasures of any young Ukrainian male.
His proficiency in English…lands Alex a job translating for
a twenty-year old Jewish-American writer in search of the
woman who may or may not have saved his grandfather
from the Nazis.
-Mark Flanagan, About Entertainment
http://contemporarylit.about.com/od/fiction/fr/everythingIllu
m.htm
8. The Emperor of Maladies, Siddhartha Mukherjee
Cancer has been called the most relentless
and insidious enemy among human diseases,
capable of striking virtually every organ and
tissue of the body and of outwitting all our
defenses. In "The Emperor of All Maladies,"
Siddhartha Mukherjee—a cancer doctor and
researcher—embarks on an ambitious effort
-Laura Landro, The Wall Street Journal
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052
748704635704575604654100474276
7. Empire Falls, Richard Russo
“I mean, if I were so unhappy, wouldn’t I know?” asks Miles
Roby, the hero of “Empire Falls,” Richard Russo’s fifth and
most ambitious novel yet. The answer, of course, is not
necessarily, and one of Russo’s great talents is to make us
understand how an intelligent 40-year-old man can fail to
recognize his own quiet desperation — and then make us
believe that his life can change for the better. Along the way,
Russo gives us a panoramic yet nuanced view of the
imaginary town of Empire Falls, Maine, showing how the
history of one powerful family can become the history of a
place. It’s the kind of big, sprawling, leisurely novel, full of
subplots and vividly drawn secondary characters, that people
are always complaining is an endangered species. Yet in part
thanks to Russo’s deft satiric touch — much of the book is
-Maria Russo, Salon Media Group
laugh-out-loud funny — it never feels too slow or oldfashioned.
http://www.salon.com/2001/05/21
/russo/
6. Rabbit Run, John Updike
Rabbit, Run is the book that established John Updike as one
of the major American novelists of his—or any other—
generation. Its hero is Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, a onetime
high-school basketball star who on an impulse deserts his
wife and son. He is twenty-six years old, a man-child caught
in a struggle between instinct and thought, self and society,
sexual gratification and family duty—even, in a sense,
human hard-heartedness and divine Grace. Though his flight
from home traces a zigzag of evasion, he holds to the faith
that he is on the right path, an invisible line toward his own
salvation as straight as a ruler’s edge.
-Amazon
5. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz
As if it is not enough to be overweight and more into sci-fi
than anyone should be, Oscar is also part of a cursed
Dominican family living in New Jersey. Though an
immigrant family story, it is also a tale that explores gender
roles and stereotypes, racial and national identities, family
history and the definition of home. Oscar is the title
character, but his story is one of many. Lolo, his sister runs
away from home; Bela, his mother shows up in the present
and the past, giving context and continuity to Lola’s story,
but always, always there is Oscar, the tragic, beautiful,
romantic Oscar bringing it all together.
-University of Wisconsin Madison
/
http://www.library.wisc.edu/uwbookmadness/contemporary/
oscar-wao/
4. Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and
then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974. . .
My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver's
license...records my first name simply as Cal."
So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and three generations of the GreekAmerican Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia
Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of
l967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To
understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret and the
astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous
narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of
the American epic.
-Barnes and Noble
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mid
dlesex-jeffreyeugenides/1100355974?ean=97803124
27733
3. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
"The Color Purple" is foremost the story of Celie, a poor, barely
literate Southern black woman who struggles to escape the brutality
and degradation of her treatment by men. The tale is told primarily
through her own letters, which, out of isolation and despair, she
initially addresses to God. As a teen-ager she is repeatedly raped and
beaten by her stepfather, then forced by him into loveless marriage to
Albert, a widower with four children. To Albert, who is in love with
vivacious and determinedly independent blues singer named Shug
Avery, Celie is merely a servant and an occasional sexual convenience.
When his oldest son, Harpo, asks Albert why he beats Celie, he says
simply, "Cause she my wife." For a time Celie accepts the abuse
stoically: "He beat me like he beat the children. Cept he don't never
hardly beat them. He say, Celie, get the belt... It all I can do not to cry.
I make myself wood. I say to myself, Celie, you a tree. That's how
come I know trees fear men."
-Mel Watkins, The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/10/04/specials/walker-color.html
2. Gilead, Marilynn Robinson
This beautifully written novel is set in 1956 when John
Ames, a third-generation Congregational minister, has
decided to write a long, memory-filled letter to his sevenyear-old son. At seventy-six years, this reflective man has
been diagnosed with angina pectoris and doesn’t have very
long to live. John wants to pass on the faith that has filled his
life with meaning, the love that has sprung from his second
marriage to a serious young woman, and the forgiveness
that has been a challenge to several generations in his
family.
-Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/bookreviews/view/9363/gilead
2. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon's third novel celebrates the golden age of the
adventure comic book, the ''great, mad new American art form,''
which spanned the years between the late 1930's and the early
http://www.ouhsd.k12.ca.us/lmc/ohs/read/Engl3.htm
American scene from the Civil War to the first World War. The Education of Henry Adams is on this reading list and is
this anthology.

American scene from the Civil War to the first World War. The Education of Henry Adams is on this reading list
and is this anthology.

Ambrose, Stephen, Band of Brothers, FIC AMB
As grippingly as any novelist, preeminent World War II historian Stephen Ambrose tells the horrifying,
hallucinatory saga of Easy Company, whose 147 members he calls the nonpareil combat paratroopers on earth
circa 1941-45. Ambrose takes us along on Easy Company's trip from grueling basic training to Utah Beach on D-
day, where a dozen of them turned German cannons into dynamited ruins resembling "half-peeled bananas," on
to the Battle of the Bulge, the liberation of part of the Dachau concentration camp, and a large party at Hitler's
"Eagle's Nest," where they drank the madman's (surprisingly inferior) champagne. Of Ambrose's main sources,
three soldiers became rich civilians; at least eight became teachers; one became Albert Speer's jailer; one
prosecuted Bobby Kennedy's assassin; another became a mountain recluse; the despised, sadistic C.O. who first
trained Easy Company (and to whose strictness many soldiers attributed their survival of the war) wound up a
suicidal loner whose own sons skipped his funeral. The Easy Company survivors describe the hell and confusion
of any war.

Anderson, Sherwood, Winesburg, Ohio, FIC AND
Winesburg, Ohio depicts the strange, secret lives of the inhabitants of a small town. In "Hands," Wing Biddlebaum
tries to hide the tale of his banishment from a Pennsylvania town, a tale represented by his hands. In "Adventure,"
lonely Alice Hindman impulsively walks naked into the night rain. Threaded through the stories is the viewpoint of
George Willard, the young newspaper reporter who, like his creator, stands witness to the dark and despairing
dealings of a community of isolated people.

Baldwin, James, Go Tell It on the Mountain, FIC BAL
What happens when you peel back the layers of damaged lives? What do you discover? Go Tell It on the
Mountain is a young man's novel, as tightly coiled as a new spring, yet tempered by a maturing man's confidence
and empathy. It's not a long book, and its action spans but a single day--yet the author packs in emotion, detail,
and intimate revelation. Using as a frame the spiritual and moral awakening of 14-year-old John Grimes during a
Saturday night service in a Harlem storefront church, Baldwin lays bare the secrets of a tormented black family
during the depression. John's parents, praying beside him, both wrestle with the ghosts of their sinful pasts-Gabriel, a preacher of towering hypocrisy, fathered an illegitimate child during his first marriage down South and
refused to recognize his doomed son; Elizabeth fell in love with a charming, free-spirited young man, followed him
to New York, became pregnant with his son, and lost him before she could reveal her condition. Baldwin lays
down the terrible similarities of these two blighted lives as the ironic context for their son John's dark night of the
soul.

Baldwin, James, If Beale Street Could Talk, FIC BAL
Powerful novel of a young black couple and their brave struggle to live with dignity in a society riddled with hatred.
Fonny, a talented young artist, finds himself unjustly arrested and locked in New York's infamous Tombs. But his
girlfriend, Tish, is determined to free him, and to have his baby, in this starkly realistic tale--a powerful indictment
of American concepts of justice and punishment.

Bellamy, Edward, Looking Backward: 2000-1887, FIC BEL
Edward Bellamy's classic look at the future has been translated into over twenty languages and is the most widely
read novel of its time. A young Boston gentleman is mysteriously transported from the nineteenth to the twentyfirst century--from a world of war and want to one of peace and plenty. This brilliant vision became the blueprint of
utopia that stimulated some of the greatest thinkers of our age.

Bellow, Saul, The Rain King, FIC BEL
The novel examines the midlife crisis of Eugene Henderson, an unhappy millionaire. The story concerns
Henderson's search for meaning. A larger-than-life 55-year-old who has accumulated money, position, and a
large family, he nonetheless feels unfulfilled. He makes a spiritual journey to Africa, where he draws emotional
sustenance from experiences with African tribes. Deciding that his true destiny is as a healer, Henderson returns
home, planning to enter medical school.

Brown, Dee, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, 970.5 BRO
This extraordinary book changed the way Americans think about the original inhabitants of their country.
Beginning with the Long Walk of the Navajos in 1860 and ending 30 years later with the massacre of Sioux men,
women, and children at Wounded Knee in South Dakota, it tells how the American Indians lost their land and lives
to a dynamically expanding white society. During these three decades, America's population doubled from 31
million to 62 million. Again and again, promises made to the Indians fell victim to the ruthlessness and greed of
settlers pushing westward to make new lives. The Indians were herded off their ancestral lands into evershrinking reservations, and were starved and killed if they resisted. It is a truism that "history is written by the
victors"; for the first time, this book described the opening of the West from the Indians' viewpoint.

Cather, Willa, Death Comes for the Archbishop, FIC CAT
Set in the mid-nineteenth century, this is the story of a priest who sets out to win the Southwest for Catholicism.
Bishop Jean Latour is a patrician, intellectual, introverted man. It is a character study, exploring Latour's inner
conflicts and his relationship with the land.

Cather, Willa, My Antonia, FIC CAT
The story of Antonia Shimerda is told by one of the friends of her childhood, Jim Burden, an orphaned boy from
Virginia. Though he leaves the prairie, Jim never forgets the Bohemian girl who so profoundly influenced his life.
An immigrant child of immigrant parents, Antonia's girlhood is spent working to help her parents wrest a living
from the untamed land. Though in later years she suffers betrayal and desertion, through all the hardships of her
life Antonia preserves a valor of spirit that no hardship can daunt or break.

Cather, Willa, O Pioneers!, FIC CAT
The classic story of the heroic Swedish pioneers in Nebraska in the 1880's. Alexandra Bergson's life is a success
story told with a loving affirmation of the beauty of the land and the value of pioneer struggle. The novel also
includes heartache. Alexandra's brothers turn out to be mean-spirited materialists and her beloved younger
brother dies at the hand of a Czech farmer whose wife he has fallen in love with.

Cisneros, Sandra, Caramelo, FIC CIS
Celaya or "Lala," the youngest child of seven and the only daughter of Inocencio and Zoila Reyes, charts the
family's movements back and forth across the border and through time in this sprawling, kaleidoscopic, Spanishlaced tale. The sensitive and observant Lala feels lost in the noisy shuffle, but she inherits the family stories from
her grandmother, who comes from a clan of shawl makers and throughout her life has kept her mother's
unfinished striped shawl, or caramelo rebozo, containing all the heartache and joy of her family. When she, and
later Lala, wear the rebozo and suck on the fringes, they are reminded of where they come from, and those who
came before them. In cramped and ever-changing apartments and houses, the teenaged Lala seeks time and
space for self-exploration, finally coming to an understanding of herself through the prism of her grandmother.
Cisneros was also the only girl in a family of seven, and this is clearly an autobiographical work. Its testaments to
cross-generational trauma and rapture grow repetitive, but Cisneros's irrepressible enthusiasm, inspired riffs on
any number of subjects (tortillas, telenovelas, La-Z-Boys, Woolworth's), hilarious accounts of family gatherings
and pitch-perfect bilingual dialogue make this a landmark work.

Clark, Walter Van T., The Ox-Bow Incident, FIC CLA
This is a psychological study of corrupt leadership and mob rule. Set in Nevada in1885, the story concerns the
brutal lynching of three characters falsely accused of murder and theft. The strong-willed leader of the lynch mob,
Major Tetley, easily takes advantage of the suppressed resentment and boredom of the townspeople. Here is the
historical version of modern "road rage."

Conroy, Pat, Lords of Discipline, FIC CON
In a southern military academy, four cadets who have become bloodbrothers, will brace themselves for the brutal
transition to manhood. Racism and corruption at a military academy unfolds in a powerful story.

Conroy, Pat, My Losing Season, 921 CON
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.

Cooper, James Fenimore, The Deerslayer, FIC COO
A tribute to the noble pioneer spirit in conflict with encroaching society. Natty Bumppo is an idealistic youth raised
among the Indians but he has yet to meet the test. In a tale of violent action, the harsh realities of tribal warfare
force him to kill his first foe and face torture at the stake.

Cooper, James Fenimore, The Last of the Mohicans, FIC COO
The classic portrait of a man of moral courage who severs all connections with a society whose values he can no
longer accept. A brave woodsman, Natty Bumppo, and his loyal Mohican friends become embroiled in the bloody
battle of the French and Indian War.

Crane, Stephen, The Red Badge of Courage, FIC CRA
This novel of the American Civil War is considered to be a masterwork for its perceptive depiction of warfare and
of the psychological turmoil of the soldier. It tells of the experience of war from the point of view of an ordinary
soldier.

Doctorow, E.L., Ragtime, FIC DOC
An extraordinary tapestry, Ragtime captures the spirit of America in the era between the turn of the century and
the First World War. The story opens in 1906 in New Rochelle, New York, at the home of an affluent American
family. One lazy Sunday afternoon, the famous escape artist Harry Houdini swerves his car into a telephone pole
outside their house. And almost magically, the line between fantasy and historical fact, between real and
imaginary characters disappears.

Dorris, Michael, Yellow Raft in Blue Water, FIC DOR
A powerful novel of three generations of American Indian women, each seeking her own identity while forever
cognizant of family responsibilities, loyalty, and love. Rayona, half-Indian half-black daughter of Christine, reacts
to feelings of rejection and abandonment by running away, not knowing that her mother had acted in a similar
fashion some 15 years before. But family ties draw Rayona home to the Montana reservations they drew
Christine to, and as they had drawn Ida many years earlier. As the three recount their lives, often repeating
incidents but adding new perspectives, a total picture emerges.

Douglass, Frederick, Narrative of the Life of an American Slave, 921 DOU
In 1845, just seven years after his escape from slavery, the young Frederick Douglass published this powerful
account of his life in bondage and his triumph over oppression. The book, which marked the beginning of
Douglass's career as an impassioned writer, journalist, and orator for the abolitionist cause, reveals the terrors he
faced as a slave, the brutalities of his owners and overseers, and his harrowing escape to the North. It has
become a classic of American autobiography.

Dreiser, Theodore, An American Tragedy, FIC DRE
Corruption and destruction of one man who forfeits his life in desperate pursuit of success. The author based his
realistic and vivid study on the actual case of Chester Gilette, who murdered Grace Brown at the Big Moose Lake
in the Adirondacks in July 1906.

Dreiser, Theodore, Sister Carrie, FIC DRE
Sister Carrie tells the story of a rudderless but pretty small-town girl who comes to the big city filled with vague
ambitions. She is used by men and uses them in turn to become a successful Broadway actress, while George
Hurstwood, the married man who has run away with her, loses his grip on life and descends into beggary and
suicide. Sister Carrie was the first masterpiece of the American naturalistic movement in its grittily factual
presentation of the vagaries of urban life and in its ingenuous heroine, who goes unpunished for her
transgressions against conventional sexual morality. The book's strengths include a brooding but compassionate
view of humanity, a memorable cast of characters, and a compelling narrative storyline.

DuBois, W.E.B., The Souls of Black Folk, 301.451 DUB
One of the most influential and widely read texts in all of African American letters and history, The Souls of Black
Folk combines some of the most enduring reflections on black identity, the meaning of emancipation, and African
American culture. This new edition reprints the original 1903 edition of W. E. B. DuBois's classic work with the
fullest set of annotations of any version yet published, together with two related essays, and numerous letters
DuBois received and wrote concerning his widely read text.

Ellison, Ralph, Invisible Man, FIC ELL
The novel's hero remains optimistic despite enduring betrayal, manipulation, humiliation, and the loss of his
illusions. Narrating his story from an underground cell, the anonymous protagonist explains that he is involuntarily
invisible because society sees his stereotype rather than his true personality. The narrator recalls how he was
raised in the South, named valedictorian of his high school graduation class, and invited to speak for the
community's prominent white citizens. The evening's brutality convinces him that he will be rewarded if he does
what white people expect, and this idea starts his identity crisis.

Faulkner, William, Absalom, Absalom!, FIC FAU
The story of Thomas Sutpen, an enigmatic stranger who came to Jefferson in the early 1830s to wrest his
mansion out of the muddy bottoms of the north Mississippi wilderness. He was a man, Faulkner said, "who
wanted sons and the sons destroyed him."

Faulkner, William, As I Lay Dying, FIC FAU
A novel concerning Addie Burden of Mississippi, her sons (Cash, Darl, Jewel, and Vardaman) and the family trip
to bury her. A series of mishaps besets the family: in crossing a flooded river, the mules are drowned, Cash's leg
is broken, and the coffin is upset and rescued by Jewel. Later the family rests at a farmhouse, where Darl sets fire
to the barn in an attempt to destroy the rotting remains in the coffin. The family finally reaches Jefferson, where
Addie is buried; Darl is taken to the insane asylum, and Anse acquires a new wife.
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Faulkner, William, Intruder in the Dust, FIC FAU
This is the study of murder and the mass mind, of an accused Negro whose guilt or innocence becomes
secondary to the larger moral problems of justice itself, of a boy just old enough to find his way into manhood
under the stress of conflicting values.

Faulkner, William, The Sound and the Fury, FIC FAU
The subject of The Sound and the Fury is how the Compson family is falling apart. They are one of those august
old Mississippi families that fell on hard times and wild eccentricity after the Civil War. But in fact what William
Faulkner is really after in his legendary novel is the kaleidoscope of consciousness--the overwrought mind caught
in the act of thought. His rich, dark, scandal-ridden story of squandered fortune, madness, congenital brain
damage, theft, illegitimacy, and stoic endurance is told in the interior voices of three Compson brothers: first
Benjy, the "idiot" man-child who blurs together three decades of sensations as he stalks the fringes of the family's
former pasture; next Quentin, torturing himself brilliantly, obsessively over Caddy's lost virginity and his own
failure to recover the family's honor as he wanders around the seedy fringes of Boston; and finally Jason,
heartless, shrewd, sneaking, nursing a perpetual sense of injury and outrage against his outrageous family.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott, The Great Gatsby, FIC FIT
Here is the story of fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. It is a brilliant
dramatization of the 1920's--the social and economic corruptions of the jazz age, Prohibition, gangsterism, blasé
flappers and uprooted ness.

Frazier, Charles, Cold Mountain, FIC FRA
Cold Mountain is an extraordinary novel about a soldier's perilous journey back to his beloved at the end of the
Civil War. At once a magnificent love story and a harrowing account of one man's long walk home.

Franklin, Benjamin, Autobiography, 921 FRA
One of the most popular works of American literature, this charming self-portrait has been translated into nearly
every language. It covers Franklin’s life up to his prewar stay in London as representative of the Pennsylvania
Assembly, including his boyhood years, work as a printer, experiments with electricity, political career, much
more.
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Gaines, Ernest, Gathering of Old Men, FIC GAI
This is a powerful depiction of racial tensions arising over the death of a Cajun farmer at the hands of a black
man. A sheriff is summoned to a sugarcane plantation, where he finds one young white woman, about 18 old
black men, and one dead Cajun farmer.
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Grisham, John, A Painted House, FIC GRI
Here there are hardscrabble farmers instead, and dirt-poor itinerant workers and a seven-year-old boy who grows
up fast in a story as rich in conflict and incident as any previous Grisham and as nuanced as his very best. It's
September 1952 in rural Arkansas when young narrator Luke Chandler notes that "the hill people and the
Mexicans arrived on the same day." These folk are in Black Oak for the annual harvest of the cotton grown on the
80 acres that the Chandlers rent. The three generations of the Chandler family treat their workers more kindly
than most farmers do, including engaging in the local obsession--playing baseball--with them, but serious trouble
arises among the harvesters nonetheless. Most of it centers around Hank Spruill, a giant hillbilly with an equally
massive temper, who one night in town beats a man dead and who throughout the book rubs up against a knifewielding Mexican who is dating Hank's 17-year-old sister on the sly, leading to another murder. In fact, there's a
mess of trouble in Luke's life, from worries about his uncle Ricky fighting in Korea to concerns about the nearby
Latcher family and its illegitimate newborn baby, who may be Ricky's son. And then there are the constant fears
about the weather, as much a character in this novel as any human, from the tornado that storms past the farm to
the downpours that eventually flood the fields, ruining the crop and washing Luke and his family into a new life.
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Hawthorne, Nathaniel, The Scarlet Letter, FIC HAW
Set in Puritan New England, the main character is Hester Prynne, a young woman who has borne an illegitimate
child. It is considered a masterpiece of American literature and a classic moral study.
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Heller, Joseph, Catch 22, FIC HEL
In this satirical novel, antihero Captain John Yossarian is stationed on an airstrip on a Mediterranean island in
World War II and is desperate to stay alive. The "catch" involves a mysterious Air Force regulation which states
that a man is considered insane if he requests to be relieved of his missions.

Hemingway, Ernest, A Farewell to Arms, FIC HEM
As a youth of 18, Ernest Hemingway was eager to fight in the Great War. Poor vision kept him out of the army, so
he joined the ambulance corps instead and was sent to France. Then he transferred to Italy where he became the
first American wounded in that country during World War I. Hemingway came out of the European battlefields with
a medal for valor and a wealth of experience that he would, 10 years later, spin into literary gold with A Farewell
to Arms. This is the story of Lieutenant Henry, an American, and Catherine Barkley, a British nurse. The two meet
in Italy, and almost immediately Hemingway sets up the central tension of the novel: the tenuous nature of love in
a time of war.
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Hemingway, Ernest, The Sun Also Rises, FIC HEM
The story of a group of American and English patriots living in Paris and their excursion to Pampalona. It captures
the angst of the post-World War I generation, known as the Lost Generation, and centers around the flamboyant
Lady Brett Ashley and the hapless Jake Barnes. In an age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution, unrealized
love and vanishing illusions, this is the Lost Generation.
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Hemingway, Ernest, For Whom the Bell Tolls, FIC HEM
Timeless epic of Spanish Civil War portraying every facet of human emotions. This is the story of Robert Jordan,
a young American attached to an antifascist guerilla unit in the mountains of Spain. It tells of loyalty and courage,
love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal.

James, Henry, Portrait of a Lady, FIC JAM
When Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American, is brought to Europe by her wealthy Aunt Touchett, it is
expected that she will soon marry. But Isabel, resolved to determine her own fate, does not hesitate to turn down
two eligible suitors. She then finds herself irresistibly drawn to Gilbert Osmond, who, beneath his veneer of charm
and cultivation, is cruelty itself. A story of intense poignancy, Isabel's tale of love and betrayal still resonates with
modern audiences.
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James, Henry, The Turn of the Screw, FIC JAM
When a young lady goes to a big country house to teach two beautiful children, strange things start to happen and
a terrible story of ghosts and danger begins.

Kerouac, Jack, On the Road, FIC KER
Poetic, open and raw, Kerouac's prose about the "beat generation of the 1950s" lays out a cross-country
adventure as experienced by Sal Paradise, an autobiographical character. A writer holed up in a room at his
aunt's house, Paradise gets inspired by Dean Moriarty (a character based on Kerouac's friend Neal Cassady) to
hit the road and see America. From the moment he gets on the seven train out of New York City, he takes the
reader through the highs and lows of hitchhiking, bonding with fellow explorers and opting for drink before food.
First published in 1957, Kerouac's perennially hot story continues to express the restless energy and desire for
freedom that makes people rush out to see the world.
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Kesey, Ken, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, FIC KES
Randle Patrick McMurphy is a boisterous, brawling, fun-loving rebel who swaggers into the ward of a mental
hospital and takes over... The contest starts as a sport but it soon develops into a grim struggle for the minds and
hearts of the men, into an all-out war between two relentless opponents, Big Nurse and McMurphy.
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Kidd, Sue Monk, The Secret Life of Bees, FIC KID
14-year-old Lily Owen, neglected by her father and isolated on their Georgia peach farm, spends hours imagining
a blissful infancy when she was loved and nurtured by her mother, Deborah, whom she barely remembers. These
consoling fantasies are her heart's answer to the family story that as a child, in unclear circumstances, Lily
accidentally shot and killed her mother. All Lily has left of Deborah is a strange image of a Black Madonna, with
the words "Tiburon, South Carolina" scrawled on the back. The search for a mother, and the need to mother
oneself, are crucial elements in this well-written coming-of-age story set in the early 1960s against a background
of racial violence and unrest. When Lily's beloved nanny, Rosaleen, manages to insult a group of angry white
men on her way to register to vote and has to skip town, Lily takes the opportunity to go with her, fleeing to the
only place she can think of--Tiburon, South Carolina--determined to find out more about her dead mother.
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Kingsolver, Barbara, The Poisonwood Bible, FIC KIN
The Poisonwood Bible is the story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, the fierce, evangelical
Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. What follows is a suspense epic of one's
family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.

Kingston, Maxine Hong, The Woman Warrior, 921 KIN
What is it like to grow up a girl in a family who values boys? How do family secrets affect a young girl? Here is an
account of growing up female and Chinese American. "Woman Warrior" is a partly fictional work about Maxine
Hong Kingston's girlhood as it was affected by the beliefs of her family. She is a California-born author, educated
at U.C. Berkeley, and long time resident as a schoolteacher in Hawaii.

Krakauer, Jon, Into Thin Air, 796.52 KRA
Heroism and sacrifice triumph over foolishness, fatal error, and human frailty in this bone-chilling narrative in
which the author recounts his experiences on last year's ill-fated, deadly climb. Accepting an assignment from
Outside magazine to investigate whether it was safe for wealthy amateur climbers to tackle the mountain,
Krakauer joined an expedition guided by New Zealander Rob Hall. But Krakauer got more than he bargained for
when on summit day a blinding snowstorm caught four groups on the mountain's peaks. While Krakauer made it
back to camp, eight others died, including Scott Fischer and Hall, two of the world's best mountaineers.
Devastated by the disaster, Krakauer has written this compelling and haunting account.

Krakauer, Jon, Into the Wild, 917.9804 KRA
After graduating from Emory University in Atlanta in 1992, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless
abandoned his possessions, gave his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhiked to Alaska, where
he went to live in the wilderness. Four months later, he turned up dead. His diary, letters and two notes found at a
remote campsite tell of his desperate effort to survive, apparently stranded by an injury and slowly starving. They
also reflect the posturing of a confused young man, raised in affluent Annandale, Va., who self-consciously
adopted a Tolstoyan renunciation of wealth and return to nature. Krakauer, a contributing editor to Outside and
Men's Journal, retraces McCandless's ill-fated antagonism toward his father, Walt, an eminent aerospace
engineer. Krakauer also draws parallels to his own reckless youthful exploit in 1977 when he climbed Devils
Thumb, a mountain on the Alaska-British Columbia border, partly as a symbolic act of rebellion against his
autocratic father. In a moving narrative, Krakauer probes the mystery of McCandless's death.
Lewis, Sinclair, Arrowsmith, FIC LEW
As the son and grandson of physicians, Sinclair Lewis had a store of experiences and imparted knowledge to
draw upon for Arrowsmith. Published in 1925, after three years of anticipation, the book follows the life of Martin
Arrowsmith, a rather ordinary fellow who gets his first taste of medicine at 14 as an assistant to the drunken
physician in his home town. It is Leora Tozer who makes Martin's life extraordinary. With vitality and love, she
urges him beyond the confines of the mundane to risk answering his true calling as a scientist and researcher.
Not even her tragic death can extinguish her spirit or her impact on Martin's life.
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Lewis, Sinclair, Babbitt, FIC LEW
Tale of a conniving, prosperous real estate man, George Follansbee Babbitt. He is unimaginative, self-important,
and hopelessly middle class. He is dissatisfied and tries to alter the pattern of his life by flirting with liberalism and
by entering a liaison with an attractive widow.
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Lewis, Sinclair, Main Street, FIC LEW
This novel captures the humdrum existence of a small American town and its inhabitants. Carol Milford, a girl of
quick intelligence but no particular talent, after graduation from college, meets and marries Will Kennicott, a
sober, kindly, unimaginative physician of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, who tells her that the town needs her.

Malamud, Bernard, The Assistant, FIC MAL
Story of a secret love between a desperate man and the daughter of his employer. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for
Fiction.
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Malamud, Bernard, The Fixer, FIC MAL
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, this is the story of Yakov Bok, accused of murder as
part of an anti-Semitic movement, and how he becomes a hero.

Malamud, Bernard, The Natural, FIC MAL
What happens when you tell everyone you want to be the greatest player that ever lived? Roy Hobbs, the
protagonist of The Natural, makes the mistake of pronouncing aloud his dream: to be the best there ever was.
Such hubris, of course, invites divine intervention, but the brilliance of Bernard Malamud's novel is the second
chance it offers its hero, elevating him--and his story--into the realm of myth.

Mason, Bobbie Anne, In Country, FIC MAS
Sam, 17, is obsessed with the Vietnam War and the effect it has had on her life losing a father she never knew
and now living with Uncle Emmett, who seems to be suffering from the effects of Agent Orange. In her own
forthright way, she tries to sort out why and how Vietnam has altered the lives of the vets of Hopewell, Kentucky.
Her untempered curiosity and imagination sprint off in all directions as she examines closely the often
undiscussed, but always noticed, aspects of daily life. In this coming-of-age novel, Sam ponders many problems,
among them Emmett's crusty, salve-covered pimples, veteran Tom's inability to have an erection and her good
friend Dawn's pregnancy. Although Sam lives in a disheveled, tawdry house, she brings a freshness of spirit to
the way she scrutinizes and revels in life. When she wants to understand living conditions in the Vietnam jungles,
she decides she has to experience it, so spends the night beside a local swamp. A harshly realistic, well-written
look at the Vietnam War as well as the story of a young woman maturing.

McCarthy, Cormac, Crossing, FIC McC
Sixteen-year-old Billy Parham is obsessed with trapping a renegade wolf that has crossed the border from Mexico
to raid his father's cattle ranch. By the time he finally succeeds, Billy has formed such a close bond with his prey
that he decides to return the wolf to its home, and the two head off into the mountains. Billy returns months later
to find that his parents have been murdered by horse thieves. He abducts his kid brother from a foster home, and
they ride into Mexico to retrieve their property, encountering gypsies, desperadoes, and itinerant philosophers
along the way. Essentially a boy's adventure story written for adults, The Crossing is thematically related to the
award-winning bestseller All The Pretty Horses, but it is not a sequel.
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Melville, Herman, Moby-Dick, FIC MEL
Moby Dick, the great white whale, is pursued by the monomaniacal Captain Ahab, whose ivory leg is testimony to
their previous encounter. The crew of Ahab's ship, the Pequod, is composed of a mixture of races and religions,
including the God-fearing mate Starbuck; three primitive harpooners; the Black cabin boy; and the fireworshipping Parsee.
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Miller, Arthur, Death of a Salesman, 812.52 MIL
This play is the genuine article--it's got the goods on the human condition, all packed into a day in the life of one
self-deluded, self-promoting, self-defeating soul. The tragedy of Loman the all-American dreamer and loser works
eternally, on the page as on the stage.
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Mitchell, Margaret, Gone With the Wind, FIC MIT
Gone with the Wind is a compelling and entertaining novel. It was the sweeping story of tangled passions and the
rare courage of a group of people in Atlanta during the time of Civil War that brought those cinematic scenes to
life. The reason the movie became so popular was the strength of its characters--Scarlett O'Hara, Rhett Butler,
and Ashley Wilkes--all created here by the deft hand of Margaret Mitchell, in this, her first novel.
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Morrison, Toni, Sula, FIC MOR
This novel traces the lives of two black heroines from their growing up together in a small Ohio town, through their
divergent paths through womanhood, to their ultimate confrontation and reconciliation. Here is the unforgettable
rendering of what it means and costs to exist and survive as a black woman in America.

Morrison, Toni, Beloved, FIC MOR
In this Pulitzer prize winning novel, is a dense, complex story that yields up its secrets one by one. As Toni
Morrison takes us deeper into Sethe's history and her memories, the horrifying circumstances of her baby's death
start to make terrible sense. And as past meets present in the shape of a mysterious young woman about the
same age as Sethe's daughter would have been, the narrative builds inexorably to its powerful, painful
conclusion. Beloved may well be the defining novel of slavery in America, the one that all others will be measured
by.
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Morrison, Toni, Song of Solomon, FIC MOR
A literary masterpiece about four generations of black life in America. It is a world we enter through the present,
through Macon Dead Jr., son of the richest black family in a Midwestern town. We enter on the day of his birth
and see Macon growing up in his father's money-haunted, death-haunted house with his silent sisters and
strangely, passive mother.
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Neihardt, John G., Black Elk Speaks, 921 BLA
This life story of a holy man of the Oglala Sioux, Black Elk, is considered a North American bible of all tribes. Here
is the story of a Native American who lived during the tragic decades of the Custer battle, the ghost dance, and
the Wounded Knee Massacre. He offers a profound vision of the unity of all creation.

Nordhoff and Hall, Bounty Trilogy, FIC NOR
Classic saga of men and the sea includes Mutiny on the Bounty, Men Against the Sea, and Pitcairn's Island.

Norris, Frank, The Octopus, FIC NOR
Based on an actual, bloody dispute between a wheat farmer and the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1880, The
Octopus is a Stunning novel of the waning days of the frontier West. To the tough-minded and self-reliant farmers,
the monopolistic, land-grabbing railroad represented everything they despised: consolidation, organization,
conformity. But Norris idealizes no one in this epic depiction of the volatile situation, for the farmers themselves
ruthlessly exploited the land, and in their hunger for larger holdings they resorted to the same tactics used by the
railroad: subversion, coercion, and outright violence.

O'Brien, Tim, Going After Cacciato: A Novel, FIC OBR
Winner of the 1979 National Book Award, Going After Cacciato captures the peculiar blend of horror and
hallucinatory comedy that marked this strangest of wars. Reality and fantasy merge in this fictional account of one
private's sudden decision to lay down his rifle and begin a quixotic journey from the jungles of Indochina to the
streets of Paris. Will Cacciato make it all the way? Or will he be yet another casualty of a conflict that seems to
have no end? In its memorable evocation of men both fleeing and meeting the demands of battle, Going After
Cacciato stands as much more than just a great war novel. Ultimately it's about the forces of fear and heroism
that do battle in the hearts of us all.

O'Brien, Tim, Things They Carried, SC OBR
The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell
Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and of course, the character Tim O'Brien who has survived his tour in Vietnam
to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. They battle the enemy (or maybe more the idea of the
enemy), and occasionally each other. In their relationships we see their isolation and loneliness, their rage and
fear. They miss their families, their girlfriends and buddies; they miss the lives they left back home. Yet they find
sympathy and kindness for strangers (the old man who leads them unscathed through the mine field, the girl who
grieves while she dances), and love for each other, because during the Vietnam War they are the only family they
have. We hear the voices of the men and build images upon their dialogue. The way they tell stories about others,
we hear them telling stories about themselves. With the creative verve of the greatest fiction and the intimacy of a
searing autobiography, The Things They Carried is a testament to the men who risked their lives in America's
most controversial war. It is also a mirror held up to the frailty of humanity. Ultimately The Things They Carried
and its myriad protagonists call to order the courage, determination, and luck we all need to survive.

O'Connor, Flannery, Three (Everything That Rises Must Converge), FIC OCO
Three great works are included: (1) Wise Blood evokes a terrifying world as it reveals a weird relationship
between a sensual girl, a conniving widow, and a young man who deliberately blinds himself; (2) The Violent Bear
It Away tells of a strangely decadent family--three generations obsessed by guilt and driven to violence; and (3)
Everything That Rises Must Converge is a collection about eroding family relationships, individuals grappling with
their sense of place and race relations.

O'Connor, Flannery, Collected Works (A Good Man is Hard to Find), 810.9 OCO
The story begins with the grandmother trying to convince her family to cancel a trip to Florida, because of a
vicious criminal who is on the lam somewhere in the Southern states. Everyone in her family ignores her except
for her granddaughter, who mocks her. The family does take the trip and, in an ironic twist of fate, the father, who
is grandmother's son, reluctantly agrees to take a fatal detour down a dirt road that grandmother insists leads to
an old plantation she once visited. On this road, the cat that grandmother secretly brought along in the car attacks
the father, causing an accident. While recovering from the accident and deciding what next step to take, the family
is visited by the Misfit, the very criminal whom the grandmother feared meeting before the family began their trip.
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O'Neill, Eugene, Long Day's Journey Into Night, 812.5 ONE
Completed in 1940, it is an autobiographical play Eugene O'Neill wrote that--because of the highly personal
writing about his family--was not to be released until 25 years after his death, which occurred in 1953. But since
O'Neill's immediate family had died in the early 1920s, his wife allowed publication of the play in 1956. Besides
the history alone, the play is fascinating in its own right. It tells of the "Tyrones"--a fictional name for what is clearly
the O'Neills. Theirs is not a happy tale: The youngest son (Edmond) is sent to a sanitarium to recover from
tuberculosis; he despises his father for sending him; his mother is wrecked by narcotics; and his older brother by
drink. In real-life these factors conspired to turn O'Neill into who he was--a tormented individual and a brilliant
playwright.
Picoult, Jodi, Salem Falls, FIC PIC
Loosely based on The Crucible: A handsome stranger comes to the sleepy New England town of Salem Falls in
hopes of burying his past: once a teacher at a girls' prep school, Jack St. Bride was destroyed when a student's
crush sparked a powder keg of accusation. Now, washing dishes for Addie Peabody at the Do-Or-Diner, he slips
quietly into his new routine, and Addie finds this unassuming man fitting easily inside her heart. But amid the
rustic calm of Salem Falls, a quartet of teenage girls harbor dark secrets -- and they maliciously target Jack with a
shattering allegation. Now, at the center of a modern-day witch hunt, Jack is forced once again to proclaim his
innocence: to a town searching for answers, to a justice system where truth becomes a slippery concept written in
shades of gray, and to the woman who has come to love him.
Rand, Ayn, The Fountainhead, FIC RAN
Can one man dare to be different? This is the story of the struggle of genius architect Howard Roark--said to be
based on Frank Lloyd Wright--as he confronts conformist mediocrity. In the author's world, suppression of
individual creativity is the greatest evil. Roark is expelled from architectural school for his unique ideas, but he
pursues his vision any way.
Rees, Celia, Witch Child, FIC REE
Enter the world of Mary Newbury, where being different can cost a person her life. Hidden until now in the pages
of her secret diary, fourteen-year-old Mary’s story begins as she flees the English witch-hunts to settle in an
American colony. How long can she hide her true nature from the Puritans? How long can she keep running?
Robinson, Marilynne, Gilead, FIC ROB
Reverend John Ames of Gilead, Iowa, a grandson and son of preachers, now in his seventies, is afraid he hasn't
much time left to tell his young son about his heritage. And so he takes up his pen, as he has for decades--he
estimates that he's written more than 2,000 sermons--and vividly describes his prophetlike grandfather, who had a
vision that inspired him to go to Kansas and "make himself useful to the cause of abolition," and the epic conflict
between his fiery grandfather and his pacifist father. He recounts the death of his first wife and child, marvels over
the variegated splendors of earth and sky, and offers moving interpretations of the Gospel. And then, as he
struggles with his disapproval and fear of his namesake and shadow son, Jack, the reprobate offspring of his
closest friend, his letter evolves into a full-blown apologia punctuated by the disturbing revelation of Jack's
wrenching predicament, one inexorably tied to the toxic legacy of slavery. "For me writing has always felt like
praying," discloses Robinson's contemplative hero, and, indeed, John has nearly as much reverence for language
and thought as he does for life itself. Millennia of philosophical musings and a century of American history are
refracted through the prism of Robinson's exquisite and uplifting novel as she illuminates the heart of a mystic,
poet, and humanist.
Rolvaag, O.E., Giants in the Earth, FIC ROL
What was it like to be a pioneer settling untamed territory in America? This is the classic story of a Norwegian
pioneer family's struggle with the land and the elements of the Dakota territory as they try to make a new life in
America.
Russo, Empire Falls, FIC RUS
Wealthy, controlling matriarch Francine Whiting lives in an incongruous Spanish-style mansion across the river
from smalltown Empire Falls, dominated by a long-vacant textile mill and shirt factory, once the center of her
husband's family's thriving manufacturing dominion. In his early 40s, passive good guy Miles Roby, the son of
Francine's husband's long-dead mistress, seems helpless to escape his virtual enslavement as longtime
proprietor of the Whiting-owned Empire Grill, the town's most popular eatery, which Francine has promised to
leave him when she dies. Miles's wife, Janine, is divorcing him and has taken up with an aging health club
entrepreneur. In her senior year in high school, their creative but lonely daughter, Tick, is preoccupied by her
parents' foibles and harassed by the bullying son of the town's sleazy cop who, like everyone else, is a puppet of
the domineering Francine. Struggling to make some sense of her life, Tick tries to befriend a boy with a history of
parental abuse. To further complicate things, Miles's brother, David, is suspected of dealing marijuana, and their
rascally, alcoholic father is a constant annoyance. Miles and David's secret plan to open a competing restaurant
runs afoul of Francine just as tragedy erupts at the high school.

Salinger, J.D., The Catcher in the Rye, FIC SAL
The hero-narrator is a sixteen year-old named Holden Caulfield. After he is expelled from his prep school, he
goes underground in New York for three days. Confused and disillusioned, he searches for truth and rails against
the "phoniness" of the adult world. He ends up exhausted and emotionally ill in a psychiatrist's office. After he
recovers, he tells his story in this novel.

Schlosser, Eric, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All American Meal, 394.1 SCH
Schlosser's incisive history of the development of American fast food indicts the industry for some shocking
crimes against humanity, including systematically destroying the American diet and landscape, and undermining
our values and our economy. The first part of the book details how fast food in Southern California became
important, assessing the impact on people in the West in general. The second half looks at the product itself:
where it is manufactured (in a handful of enormous factories), what goes into it (chemicals, feces) and who is
responsible (monopolistic corporate executives). In harrowing detail, the book explains the process of beef
slaughter and confirms almost every urban myth about what in fact "lurks between those sesame seed buns."
Given the estimate that the typical American eats three hamburgers and four orders of french fries each week,
and one in eight will work for McDonald's in the course of their lives, few are exempt from the insidious impact of
fast food. Throughout, Schlosser fires these and a dozen other hair-raising statistical bullets into the heart of the
matter. While cataloguing assorted evils with the tenacity and sharp eye of the best investigative journalist, he
uncovers a cynical, dismissive attitude to food safety in the fast food industry and widespread circumvention of
the government's efforts at regulation enacted after Upton Sinclair's similarly scathing novel, The Jungle, exposed
the meat-packing industry 100 years ago.

Shaara, Michael, Killer Angels, FIC SHA
This novel reveals more about the Battle of Gettysburg than any piece of learned nonfiction on the same subject.
Michael Shaara's account of the three most important days of the Civil War features deft characterizations of all of
the main actors, including Lee, Longstreet, Pickett, Buford, and Hancock. The most inspiring figure in the book,
however, is Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, whose 20th Maine regiment of volunteers held the Union's left
flank on the second day of the battle. This unit's bravery at Little Round Top helped turned the tide of the war
against the rebels. There are also plenty of maps, which convey a complete sense of what happened July 1-3,
1863. Reading about the past is rarely so much fun as on these pages.

Sinclair, Upton, The Jungle, FIC SIN
The author vividly depicts factory life in Chicago in the first years of the 20th century. The horrors of the
slaughterhouse, their barbarous working conditions...the crushing poverty, the disease and despair--he revealed
all through the eyes of Jurgis Rudkus, a young immigrant who came to the New World to build a home for himself
and his family.

Smiley, Jane, A Thousand Acres, FIC SMI
The vast and beautiful landscape of a thousand-acre farm is where Jane Smiley begins her Pulitzer Prize-winning
novel. Scanning the countryside through a fish eye lens, the novel brings into focus a small barbecue party where
a decision has been made that will break down the frail framework that has held together a seemingly idyllic and
prosperous third-generation farm family. The focus narrows as Jane Smiley delves into these complex, trapped
characters blindly leading themselves into unchangeable situations. Reminiscent of Shakespeare's King Lear, the
story revolves around three daughters and their father, Larry, who sees them as one entity with no personality,
their only reason for existence being to serve him. Ginny, the protagonist, her indecision swinging like a
pendulum, selflessly wants to please everyone. Rose, the witty, sarcastic middle sister, is at first the only person
with whom Ginny can identify. The confident Caroline left the farm to become a lawyer; now she drifts through
Ginny 's and Rose's lives like an outsider. Just when it seems that the reader knows everything about these
complex characters, Jane Smiley sneaks up from behind and exposes another layer of their lives. Vivid and
unsettling, A Thousand Acres takes us to the edge of unbelievable desperation and makes us question whether
anyone's life is what it seems.

Steinbeck, John, East of Eden, FIC STE
The novel highlights the conflicts of two generations of brothers; the first being the kind, gentle Adam Trask and
his wild brother Charles. Adam eventually marries Cathy Ames, an evil, manipulative, and beautiful prostitute; she
betrays him, joining Charles on the very night of their wedding. Later, after giving birth to twin boys, she shoots
Adam and leaves him to return to her former profession. In the shadow of this heritage Adam raises their sons,
the fair-haired, winning, yet intractable Aron, and the dark, clever Caleb. This second generation of brothers vie
for their father's approval. In bitterness Caleb reveals the truth about their mother to Aron, who then joins the army
and is killed in France. The novel is a symbolic recreation of the biblical story of Cain and Abel woven into a
history of California's Salinas Valley.

Steinbeck, John, The Grapes of Wrath, FIC STE
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 California. As they travel across the country, joined by countless
other unwilling migrants, the Joads confront the naked realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-nots.

Steinbeck, John, In Dubious Battle, FIC STE
Observe social unrest and a young man's struggle for identity in this fast-paced novel. In Dubious Battle is set in
California's apple country, where a strike by migrant workers against landowners spirals out of control. Caught up
in the upheaval is Jim Nolan, a once aimless man who finds himself in the course of the strike, briefly becomes its
leader, and is ultimately crushed in its service.

Steinbeck, John, Sweet Thursday, FIC STE
In Monterey, California, Sweet Thursday is what they call the day after Lousy Wednesday, which is one of those
days that is naturally bad. Returning to the scene of Cannery Row, the weedy lots and junk heaps and flophouses
of Monterey, Steinbeck once more focuses on everyday life of post-World War II.

Steinbeck, John, To a God Unknown, FIC STE
As his father lies dying, Joseph Wayne decides to trade his Vermont farm for a new life in California. Once
established on his ranch, he comes to revere a huge tree as the embodiment of his father's spirit. Joseph's
brothers and their wives join him, and their farms prosper. Then one of the brothers, repelled by Joseph's
reverence for the tree, cuts it down. Consequences follow -- harsh and severe. In TO A GOD UNKNOWN, one of
his earliest novels, Steinbeck uses the Western American experience as a way of exploring man's relationships to
his environment -- a theme that would come to characterize much of his later work.

Steinbeck, John, The Winter of Our Discontent, FIC STE
Ethan Hawley, a descendant of proud New England sea captains, works as a clerk in the grocery store owned by
an Italian immigrant. His wife is restless: his teenaged children are troubled and unhappy, hungry for the
tantalizing material comforts he cannot provide. Then one day, in a moment of moral crisis, Ethan decides to take
a holiday from his own morals.

Stone, Irving, Love is Eternal
In Irving Stone’s historical novel about Mary Todd, Love is Eternal, the future Mrs. Lincoln confides to her cousin
Ann that she might marry a Springfield, Illinois, lawyer because he has a promising political future and might
someday be president.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, Uncle Tom's Cabin, FIC STO
This is a book that changed history. Harriet Beecher Stowe was appalled by slavery, and she took one of the few
options open to nineteenth century women who wanted to affect public opinion: she wrote a novel, a huge,
enthralling narrative that claimed the heart, soul, and politics of pre-Civil War Americans. It is unabashed
propaganda and overtly moralistic, an attempt to make whites - North and South - see slaves as mothers, fathers,
and people with (Christian) souls. In a time when women might see the majority of their children die, Harriet
Beecher Stowe portrays beautiful Eliza fleeing slavery to protect her son. In a time when many whites claimed
slavery had "good effects" on blacks, Uncle Tom's Cabin paints pictures of three plantations, each worse than the
other, where even the best plantation leaves a slave at the mercy of fate or debt. By twentieth-century standards,
her propaganda verges on melodrama, and it is clear that even while arguing for the abolition of slavery she did
not rise above her own racism. Yet her questions remain penetrating even today: "Is man ever a creature to be
trusted with wholly irresponsible power?".

Tan, Amy, Joy Luck Club, FIC TAN
This novel is structured around the stories of four pairs of Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-born
daughters. The first and last segments tell the mother's stories in China and in America. The middle cradles the
daughter's experiences as children and as Chinese American women. The author uses this structure to
communicate a sense of mother and daughter connectedness that eventually resolves generational differences
and conflicts.

Thoreau, Henry, Walden, 818.309 THO
In August 1854, Houghton Mifflin"s predecessor, Ticknor & Fields, published a book called Walden; or, Life in the
Woods, by a little-known writer named Henry Thoreau. At the time the book was largely ignored, but it has gone
on to become one of the most widely read and influential works ever published, not only in this country but
throughout the world. Enjoy this record written by an individualist and a lover of nature; Thoreau describes his
Robinson Crusoe existence, bare of creature comforts but rich in contemplation of the wonders of the natural
world and the ways of man.

Thoreau, Henry, Civil Disobedience, 818.309 THO
An essay by Henry Thoreau. Its major premise is "that government is best which governs least." Thoreau asserts
that a man's first loyalty is to his own nature; true to himself, he may then be true to a government. The essay
influenced Gandi's doctrine of passive resistance.

Twain, Mark, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, FIC TWA
Huck's adventures on a raft on the Mississippi River begin with his escape from his drunken, brutal father. Huck
meets up with Jim, a runaway slave, and what follows is their story downstream and occasional encounters with
town life along the banks of the river. The novel is also a penetrating social commentary that reveals corruption,
moral decay, and intellectual impoverishment. Through Jim, Huck learns about the dignity and worth of human
life.

Tyler, Anne, Accidental Tourist, FIC TYL
Macon Leary, a travel writer who hates to travel, is about to embark on a surprising journey. Grounded by
loneliness, comfort, and a somewhat odd domestic life, Macon encounters "love" in the unlikely shape of a fuzzyharried dog-obedience trainer.

Uhry, Alfred, Driving Miss Daisy, 812.54 UHR
An elderly Jewish widow living in Atlanta can no longer drive. Her son insists she allow him to hire a driver, which
in the 1950s meant a black man. She resists any change in her life but, Hoke, the driver is hired by her son. She
refuses to allow him to drive her anywhere at first, but Hoke slowly wins her over with his native good graces. It
covers over twenty years of the pair's life together as they slowly build a relationship that transcends their
differences.

Updike, John, Rabbit, Run, FIC UPD
A frank treatment of a former high school basketball star's failure to deal with the adult world. On impulse, he
deserts his wife and at 26 years old struggles to take responsibility for his life.

Vonnegut, Kurt, Cat's Cradle, FIC VON
Commentary on modern man and his madness. An apocalyptic tale of this planet's ultimate fate, it features a
midget as the protagonist.

Vonnegut, Kurt, Slaughterhouse Five, FIC VON
One of Vonnegut's major works, this is an apocalyptic tale of the planet's ultimate fate, featuring a cast of unlikely
heroes. One of Vonnegut's most entertaining novels, it is filled with scientists and G-men and even ordinary folks
caught up in the game. These assorted characters chase each other around in search of the world's most
important and dangerous substance, a new form of ice that freezes at room temperature.

Walker, Alice, The Color Purple, FIC WAL
In this Pulitzer prize winning novel we discover that life wasn't easy for Celie. But she knew how to survive,
needing little to get by. Then her husband's lover, a flamboyant blues singer, barreled into her world and gave
Celie the courage to ask for more--to laugh, to play, and finally, to love.

Walls, Jeannette, The Glass Castle: a memoir, 921 WAL
How do you make a sad memory into art? The Glass Castle is the memoir of Jeannette Walls, a look into a
deeply dysfunctional family. When her father was sober, he was brilliant and charming, teaching his children
physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her
mother was a free spirit who hated homemaking and didn’t want the responsibility of raising a family. The Walls
children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed and protected one another, and eventually found
their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children succeeded.
Jeannette Walls tells her astonishing story without an ounce of self pity. A spectacular read.

Warren, Robert, All the King's Men, FIC WAR
This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is about the corrupting nature of power. Willie Stark, a well-intentioned, idealistic
back-country lawyer, is unable to resist greed for power and lust for politics during his rise and fall. Stark draws a
cast of memorable characters into his flawed life, and together they move toward mutual destruction innocent of
their doom, the genuine hallmark of tragedy.

Welch, James, Fools Crow, FIC WEL
How was the Indian nation changed forever? The year is 1870. A portentous dream seems to overshadow the
Lone Eaters clan of the Blackfeet Indians in the post-Civil War years. The slow invasion of the Napikwans, or
whites, is inevitable and coincidental, however. As we follow White Man's Dog (later renamed Fools Crow), we
see how some of his people try to follow the Napikwan ways, others rebel against them, and many ignore them.
This alien force has both subtle and obvious methods of eliminating the tribal ways, and we watch individuals,
families, and traditions crumbling. Welch's third novel ( Winter in the Blood, The Death of Jim Loney) is like finding
a lifestyle preserved for a century and reanimated for our benefit and education. Recommended for anyone who
wants to see what we have lost, and read a fine novel in the process.

West, Nathaniel, Miss Lonelyhearts, 813.52 WES
Miss Lonelyhearts was a newspaper reporter, so named because he had been assigned to write the agony
column. A joke at first, but then he was caught up in the suffering. In the Day of the Locust, Tod Hackett comes to
Hollywood hoping for a career in scene designing, but he finds the hard way and falls in with others in difficulty.

Wharton, Edith, The Age of Innocence, FIC WHA
This is the elegant portrayal of desire and betrayal in Old New York. With vivid power, the author evokes a time of
gas lit streets, formal dances held in ballrooms of stately brownstones, and society people "who dreaded scandal
more than disease." This is Newland Archer's world as he prepares to marry the docile May Welland. Then,
suddenly the mysterious, intensely nonconformist Countess Ellen Olenska returns to New York after a long
absence and Newland Archer's world is never the same.

Wharton, Edith, Ethan Frome, FIC WHA
First published in 1911, Ethan Frome is widely regarded as Edith Wharton's most revealing novel and her finest
achievement in fiction. Set in the bleak, barren winter landscape of New England, it is the tragic tale of a simple
man, bound to the demands of his farm and his tyrannical, sickly wife, Zeena, and driven by his star-crossed love
for Zeena's young cousin, Mattie Silver. "In its spare, chilling creation of rural isolation, hardscrabble poverty and
wintry landscape," writes Alfred Kazin in his afterword, "Ethan Frome overwhelms the reader as a drama of
irresistible necessity." An exemplary work of literary realism in setting and character, Ethan Frome stands as one
of the great classics of twentieth-century American literature.

Wideman, John Edgar, Philadelphia Fire, FIC WID
From "one of America's premier writers of fiction" (New York Times) comes this novel inspired by the 1985 police
bombing of a West Philadelphia row house owned by the back-to-nature, Afrocentric cult known as Move. The
bombing killed eleven people and started a fire that destroyed sixty other houses. At the center of the story is
Cudjoe, a writer and exile who returns to his old neighborhood after spending a decade fleeing from his past, and
his search for the lone survivor of the fire a young boy who was seen running from the flames. An impassioned,
brutally honest journey through the despair and horror of life in urban America, "Philadelphia Fire isn't a book you
read so much as one you breathe" (San Francisco Chronicle).

Williams, Tennessee, The Glass Menagerie, 812.54 WIL
Amanda, a faded southern belle, abandoned wife, and dominating mother, hopes to match her daughter Laura
with an eligible "gentleman caller" while her son Tom supports the family. Laura, lame and painfully shy, evades
her mother's schemes and reality by retreating to the make-believe world of her glass animal collection. Tom
eventually leaves home to become a writer but is forever haunted by the memory of Laura.

Wolfe, Thomas, Look Homeward Angel, FIC WOL
This novel describes the childhood and youth of Eugene Gant. As he grows up, he becomes aware of the
relations among his family, meets the eccentric people of the town, goes to college, discovers literature and ideas,
has his first love affairs, and at last sets out alone on a mystic and romantic pilgrimage.

Wolfe, Thomas, You Can't Go Home Again, FIC WOL
This novel was the last Thomas Wolfe finished before his untimely death at age 37. In its brilliance, we find more
cause to wish he had lived longer. As with his other novels, You Can't Go Home Again is an extremely personal
work, but in the character of George Webber, a writer, Wolfe sees and captures America and the world in an
dramatic time in history. The time is the period just before the great stock market crash and it stretches through
the Depression and into Germany during the rise of Nazis. And the writer of course is Wolfe, who takes us on a
ride through America never seen before--one with sharp insight and breathtaking flair.

Wright, Richard, Black Boy, 921 WRI
Richard Wright grew up in poverty, hunger, fear, and hatred. He lied, stole, and lashed out at those around him;
he killed and tortured animals; at six he was a drunkard, hanging around the bars. Here is his autobiography -- an
unashamed confession and a touching, powerful story.

Wright, Richard, Native Son, FIC WRI
Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright's powerful novel deals with the poverty and feelings of hopelessness
experienced by people in inner cities across the country and what it means to be black in America. Right from the
start, Bigger Thomas was headed for jail. He killed his first young victim in a movement of panic and found himself
caught up in forces outside his control.
BOOKS|SUMMER READING—MAY 27, 2016
100 books for your
summer reading list
By Jim Higgins of the Journal Sentinel
Few things make me happier than seeing my daughter reading a
book — not a book she has to read for a college course, but one
she wants to read.
To me, summer reading is simply a synonym for pleasure
reading, non-required reading, reading what you want to read,
be it a coming-of-age story set at a Wisconsin apple orchard, an
espionage tale in World War II France or a history of decoding
the human genome.
Today we offer 100 suggestions of new and newish books for
pleasure reading this summer, including mysteries, histories
and stories with a Wisconsin slant. Our suggestions include
books for children and teens, too. The simplest way to
encourage your children to read more is to read more yourself,
and enjoy doing so.
The Milwaukee Public Library encourages your children to join
itsSuper Reader program for children 12 and younger, and itsteen
reader program for youth ages 13 through 18. In addition to the
pure pleasure of reading, children and teens can earn prizes.
If you live in a different community, check with your local
library. It probably has a summer reading program, too. (It
certainly has plenty of books you can use to make up your own
summer reading list.)
The books suggested here are already on sale, or will be
published in June. Thanks to my colleague Chris Foran for
contributing the baseball and pop-culture sections, and to
freelancers Mike Fischer and Carole E. Barrowman, whose
reviews inspired some of these picks.
Editor's Picks
"As Good As Gone: A Novel" (Algonquin), by Larry Watson. A
Western loner defends his grandchildren from predatory
threats. Watson, author of the classic "Montana 1948," lives in
Milwaukee. He'll celebrate the June 21 publication of "As Good
As Gone" with a 7 p.m. talk that day at Boswell Books, 2559 N.
Downer Ave.
"Barkskins: A Novel" (Scribner), by Annie Proulx. The
author of "The Shipping News" and "Brokeback Mountain"
returns with an epic novel about 300 years of North American
woodcutters. Out June 14.
"Eligible: A Novel" (Random House), by Curtis Sittenfeld. The
author of "Prep" and "American Wife" crosses "Pride and
Prejudice"with "The Bachelor" for a cheeky romantic comedy set
in contemporary Cincinnati.
"Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American
City" (Crown), byMatthew Desmond. For nearly a decade,
Desmond has studied the relationship between eviction and
poverty in Milwaukee. "Evicted"brings this research alive through
the stories of eight Milwaukee families, black and white, and
two landlords involved with them. Desmond's research makes
"Evicted" essential reading for Milwaukeeans; his narrative skill
makes it engaging.
"The Excellent Lombards: A Novel" (Grand Central),
by Jane Hamilton. A frequently funny coming-of-age tale about a
spirited girl growing up on a Wisconsin apple orchard — that
also looks clearly at the forces that threaten family farmers
today. Wisconsin writer Hamilton's earlier books include the
Oprah picks "The Book of Ruth" and "A Map of the World."
"The Gene: An Intimate History" (Scribner), by Siddhartha
Mukherjee. A fascinating and often sobering history of how humans
came to understand the roles of genes in making us who we are
— and what our manipulation of those genes might mean for
our future. Mukherjee, an oncologist, is also the author of "The
Emperor of All Maladies," a history of cancer and its treatment.
"Homegoing: A Novel" (Knopf), by Yaa Gyasi. An 18thcentury Ghana woman is sold into slavery and sent to America;
her sister marries a white man and remains in Africa. Gyasi's
novel traces their descendants through the decades that follow.
Out June 7.
"The Noise of Time: A Novel" (Knopf), by Julian Barnes.
Man Booker Prize winner Barnes depicts the haunted
composer Dmitri Shostakovich as nearly unable to take a breath
without either fearing Power, the name he uses to conceptualize
the Soviet apparatus, or wrangling with his conscience, as he
tries to stay alive, writing music.
"LaRose: A Novel" (Harper), by Louise Erdrich. After a man
accidentally kills his best friend's young son in a hunting
accident, he and his wife give their own son to the grieving
couple to raise.
"Marrow Island" (HMH), by Alexis M. Smith. From the author
of"Glaciers," a new novel about a woman trying to uncover the
truth about a mysterious environmental colony. Out June 7.
"The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories" (Saga Press),
by Ken Liu. A brilliant collection of compulsively readable sci-fi and
fantasy stories, often presenting characters facing agonizing
moral dilemmas. Several stories invoke the pain of, and
atrocities committed during, the Japanese occupation of parts
of China in the 1930s.
"Reasons to Stay Alive" (Penguin), by Matt Haig. In a gentle but
direct voice, novelist Haig describes how he inched his way back
from the worst days of severe depression and anxiety.
Compelling Nonfiction
"At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being and Apricot
Cocktails" (Other Press), by Sarah Bakewell. It wouldn't be an
authentic summer without reading about Jean-Paul Sartre,
Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus and other rebels dubbed
existentialists, whether they claimed that label for themselves or
not.
"Conversations in Jazz: The Ralph J. Gleason
Interviews" (Yale University Press), edited by Toby Gleason.
Long-form interviews the great jazz writer conducted from
1959-'69 with John Coltrane, Quincy Jones, Dizzy Gillespie,
Sonny Rollins, Duke Ellington and other greats.
"Court-Martial: How Military Justice Has Shaped
America From the Revolution to 9/11 and
Beyond" (W.W. Norton), by Chris Bray. An impressively
researched, well-written and thoroughly entertaining account of
military justice in U.S. history, which shows that military courts
sometimes broke new ground in fairness.
"Every Song Ever: Twenty Ways to Listen in an Age of
Musical Plenty" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), by Ben Ratliff. A
music critic suggests delving into music through focusing on
certain qualities rather than genres, such as single-note
stubbornness shared by Neil Young, John Lewis and Drake, or
the "granite and fog" density shared by tracks from OutKast,
Beethoven, Miles Davis and Public Enemy.
"The Geek Feminist Revolution" (Tor), by Kameron
Hurley. Smart, pointed essays by sci-fi/fantasy writer Hurley
("The Mirror Empire"), including her Hugo-winning piece "We
Have Always Fought: Challenging the 'Women, Cattle and Slaves' Narrative."
"The Gray Rhino: How to Recognize and Act on the
Obvious Dangers We Ignore" (St. Martin's Press),
by Michele Wucker. A former Milwaukee Sentinel reporter,
Wucker draws on her experience in economics, international
relations and crisis management to argue for a strategic
approach to problems we see charging right at us.
"Life Reimagined: The Science, Art, and Opportunity
of Midlife"(Riverhead Books), by Barbara Bradley
Hagerty. National Public Radio journalist Hagerty explores the
possibilities for personal renewal through science and personal
stories.
Pleasure Reading
"All the Birds in the Sky" (Tor), by Charlie Jane Anders. A
young witch with healing powers and a brilliant scientist, who
met as youthful loners, meet again as adults in a reunion that
could bring love, or apocalypse.
"The Big Rewind: A Novel" (Morrow), by Libby
Cudmore. Mystery columnist Carole E. Barrowman called
Cudmore's debut "a witty riff on the '80s and '90s." Brooklynite
Jett Bennett traces clues from a mixtape in her attempt to solve
the murder of a neighbor.
"The Charm Bracelet" (Thomas Dunne Books), by Viola
Shipman.Under his grandmother's name and in tribute to her,
Michigan humorist Wade Rouse offers a novel about three
generations connected by the memories embedded in bracelet.
"The Drifter" (Putnam), by Nicholas Petrie. Retired Marine Peter
Ash, still coping with the trauma wrought by war, looks for a
comrade missing in a world of hurt. Petrie lives in Whitefish
Bay; his novel is set in Milwaukee.
"Hard Light" (Minotaur), by Elizabeth Hand. Sex, drugs and rock
'n' roll drive Hand's novel about a punk rock photographer, a
crime story steeped in regret and obsession, and tinted with
scenes of dark brilliance.
"A Hero of France" (Random House), by Alan Furst. In the
spy-story master's latest historical thriller, Paris in early 1941 is
the real star of the picture, a city where secrets can be hidden,
destinies determined and, if lucky, evil outmaneuvered.
"I Almost Forgot About You: A Novel" (Crown), by Terry
McMillan. After the death of her college crush, optometrist
Georgia Young decides to visit the men she has loved and tell
them why they mattered to her. Out June 7.
"Jane Steele" (Putnam), by Lyndsay Faye. Journal Sentinel
mystery columnist Carole E. Barrowman called Faye's book "a
smart satirical gothic romance that plays as much to Charlotte
Brontë's fans as Edgar Allan Poe's."
"Journey to Munich" (Harper), by Jacqueline Winspear. In the
latest installment of a compelling series, English investigator
Maisie Dobbs goes to Nazi Germany in 1938 in disguise, seeking
the release of an important British subject.
"Modern Lovers" (Riverhead), by Emma Straub. In Straub's
novel the surviving, middle-aged members of a band that had
an '80s hit grapple with their own woes, and with a movie
producer who wants the rights to their song.
"Pistols and Petticoats: 175 Years of Lady Detectives in
Fact and Fiction" (Beacon Press), by Erika Janik. Historian and
Wisconsin public-radio producer Janik explores the challenges
faced by both real and fictional women in law enforcement and
crime solving.
"Smoke: A Novel" (Doubleday), by Dan Vyleta. In this
Dickensian yet otherworldly genre-buster, people are judged by
the amount of smoke that emanates from their bodies.
Fischer's Favorites
Reviewer Mike Fischer found much to like about these books:
"Blackass: A Novel" (Graywolf), by A. Igoni Barrett. A
thirtysomething black man in Lagos wakes up one morning to
discover he is now white — except for his rear end. Opportunities,
complications and satire ensue.
"A Country Road, a Tree: A Novel" (Knopf), by Jo Baker.
This beautifully written historical novel imagines Samuel Beckett,
later the playwright famous for "Waiting for Godot," active in
the French Resistance during World War II and on the run in
southern France.
"Even in Paradise" (Akashic Books), by Elizabeth Nunez.
Nunezadapts the story of "King Lear" to the Caribbean islands of
Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad, bringing the legacies of
slavery and colonialism into the tale.
"67 Shots: Kent State and the End of American
Innocence"(DaCapo Press), by Howard Means. Means draws
upon scores of interviews and a rich archival record to dispel
numerous myths that have grown up around the events
culminating on May 4, 1970, with four dead in Ohio.
"Syria Burning: A Short History of a
Catastrophe" (Verso), by Charles Glass. Glass traces the
current horrors in Syria, including an estimated 11 million
refugees and displaced people, back to the effects of foreign
powers, including Washington, pursuing their agendas in the
region.
"What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours" (Riverhead), by Helen
Oyeyemi.Boldly original stories, often with fantastic elements.
"Zero K" (Scribner), by Don DeLillo. In DeLillo's new novel, a
billionaire hopes to cheat death through cryogenics and a
futuristic community called the Convergence, while his son
critiques the whole enterprise.
Author Visits
"You Are a Complete Disappointment: A Triumphant
Memoir of Failed Expectations" (Sterling), by Mike
Edison. A memoir from former High Times editor Edison,
whose activities did not always meet with his father's approval.
Edison will speak at 7 p.m. June 2 at Boswell Books.
"Boy Erased: A Memoir" (Riverhead Books), by Garrard
Conley. At age 19, Conley, a pastor's son, went through a church-
supported conversion therapy that was supposed to cure him of
homosexuality. It didn't have the planned effect. 7 p.m. June 3
at Boswell Books.
"The Yid: A Novel" (Picador), by Paul Goldberg. In Goldberg's
darkly comic revenge fantasy, a former Yiddish theater actor and
his motley accomplices fight back against Stalin. Goldberg will
speak in conversation with UWM's Joel Berkowitz at 7 p.m. June 6
at Boswell Books.
"Wintering: A Novel" (Knopf), by Peter Geye. Kirkus Reviews
likens the new novel from Geye, set in Minnesota wilderness
country, to Jack London's "To Build a Fire" and Jon Krakauer's
"Into the Wild." 7 p.m. June 7 at Boswell Books.
"Exoneree Diaries: The Fight for Innocence,
Independence, and Identity" (Haymarket Books), by Alison
Flowers. Chicago journalist Flowers chronicles the challenges and
obstacles faced by four exonerated prisoners and their families.
6 p.m. June 13, Milwaukee Public Library Rare Books Room,
814 W. Wisconsin Ave.
"The Telling: A Memoir" (Curbside Splendor), by Zoe
Zolbrod. For years Zolbrod kept her childhood sexual abuse a
secret, but it shaped her experiences in many ways, as she
reveals in this memoir. Zolbrod and writer Toni Nealie ("The
Miles Between Me") will speak at 7 p.m. June 17 at Boswell
Books.
Wisconsin Connections
"The Fearless Flag Thrower of Lucca: Nine Stories of
1990s Tuscany" (iUniverse), by Paul Salsini. This story
collection concludes a six-volume series of fiction with Tuscan
roots from Salsini, a retired Milwaukee Journal editor and
writer. He'll talk at 7 p.m. June 16 at Boswell Books.
"Georgia: A Novel of Georgia O'Keeffe" (Random House),
byDawn Tripp. Tripp's novel dramatizes the relationship between
the artist O'Keeffe, born in Sun Prairie, and her mentor and
lover, the photographer Alfred Stieglitz.
"Happy Felsch: Banished Black Sox Center
Fielder" (McFarland & Company), by Thomas Rathkamp.
Cedarburg writer Rathkamp explores the role Felsch played in
the notorious Black Sox scandal, in which eight players were
accused of intentionally losing World Series games in exchange
for payments from gamblers. 7 p.m. June 15 at Boswell Books.
"I Like You Just Fine When You're Not Around" (Tyrus
Books), by Ann Garvin. A psychologist navigates her mother's
dementia and her own foibles in a novel that balances realism
with humor. Garvin is a professor of health and nutrition at
UW-Whitewater.
"Jews in Wisconsin" (Wisconsin Historical Society Press), by
Sheila Terman Cohen. A compact history of Jewish immigration
to, and settlement of, the Badger State, beginning with fur
trader Jacob Franks' arrival in the Green Bay area in 1793.
"Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied" (iUniverse), by Roger
Hinterthuer. A retired Milwaukee police detective,
Hinterthuer's book is part memoir, part "Serial"-style chronicle
of the investigation of a number of murders, including that of
15-year-old newspaper carrier Larry Anstett, connected to
members of the Outlaws motorcycle gang. Hinterthuer
contends, as he has contended for years, that a murderer was
identified and a case was built, but he faults a former Waukesha
County district attorney for not bringing charges.
"Milwaukee in the 1930s: A Federal Writers Project
City Guide"(Wisconsin Historical Society Press), edited by
John D. Buenker. A collective portrait of Milwaukee between
the Great Depression and the beginning of World War II that sat
unpublished for decades can now be enjoyed.
"Oddities and Endings: Collected Stories" (Mint Hill
Books), byKathie Giorgio. Waukesha writer Giorgio, author of the
novels "The Home for Wayward Clocks" and "Learning To Tell
(A Life) Time," releases a story collection that showcases her
versatility. Giorgio will celebrate the release of "Oddities" and
her poetry chapbook "True Light Falls in Many Forms" with a 6
p.m. event June 16 at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha
Commons Building to raise funds for the annual Southeast
Wisconsin Festival of Books. Ticket
info:brownpapertickets.com/event/2555208.
"One in a Billion: The Story of Nic Volker and the
Dawn of Genomic Medicine" (Simon & Schuster), by Mark
Johnson & Kathleen Gallagher. Journal Sentinel reporters
Johnson and Gallagher won a Pulitzer Prize for their series
about physicians and researchers racing the clock to save a sick
little boy through mapping his genome.This narrative expands on
the series.
"The Penelope Project: An Arts-Based Odyssey to
Change Elder Care" (University of Iowa Press), edited
by Anne Basting, Maureen Towey and Ellie Rose. Basting, a UWMilwaukee theater professor, led a team of creative artists that
worked with residents at Luther Manor for two years on the
story of "The Odyssey," culminating in a performance. This
book documents the history of the project. Basting and
collaborators will speak at 7 p.m. June 20 at Boswell Books.
"Re: Re: Re: Essays and Drawings" (Necessary Arts), by
Thomas Gaudynski. A fixture in Milwaukee's experimental
music, art and literary world, Gaudynski shares his explorations
through words and art. He will speak and share artwork at 7
p.m. June 30 at Woodland Pattern Book Center, 720 E. Locust
St.
"Staging the Great Circus Parade" (Arcadia Publishing), by
Jim and Donna Peterson. Photos that document the parade
from behind the scenes, from a couple who volunteered
annually.
"A Time of Terror: A Survivor's Story" (Lifewrites Press),
by James Cameron, edited by Fran Kaplan and Robert Samuel
Smith. A new edition of Cameron's memoir: He survived an
attempting lynching in 1930, and went on to found America's
Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee. Cameron died in 2006
at age 92. Kaplan and Smith will speak about the new edition of
the memoir at 7 p.m. June 27 at Boswell Books.
"This Is Only a Test" (Indiana University Press), by B.J.
Hollars.After surviving an EF-4 scale tornado by huddling in a
bathtub, Hollars wrestles with the knowledge that he can't
protect his son from all the world's dangers in these lively
personal essays. He is an assistant professor of English at the
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
Wild Cards
"Bukowski in a Sundress: Confessions From a Writing
Life"(Penguin), by Kim Addonizio. Sharp, funny personal essays
from an American poet on such lofty subjects as "How to
Succeed in Po Biz" and "How to be a Dirty, Dirty Whore." Out
June 21.
"The Hatred of Poetry" (FSG), by Ben Lerner. In a smart
essay, novelist-poet Lerner considers, thoughtfully, why people
hate poetry, while defending it at the same time, with cheeky
marginalia.
"Romeo and/or Juliet: A Chooseable-Path
Adventure"(Riverhead), by Ryan North. Play as either of
Shakespeare's legendary lovers, and choose your way to many
different endings that include illustrations by Jon Klassen,
Randall Munroe and several dozen other cool artists. Out June
7.
"Sober Stick Figure: A Memoir" (Running Press), by Amber
Tozer.Comedy writer Tozer's memoir of alcoholism and recovery
is punctuated by her lively stick-figure cartoons.
"String Theory: David Foster Wallace on
Tennis" (Library of America). A compilation of the late
novelist's essays on tennis, a sport he played well as a youth and
covered like no one else as an adult.
George Plimpton
Little, Brown has reissued a septet of the late George Plimpton's
books of literary sports journalism in attractive editions with new
forewords by such writers as Bob Costas and Jane Leavy. One of
these might be just right for a dad or grandpa on your Father's
Day list. (The e-book editions add extra documentary
materials.)
"One for the Record: The Inside Story of Hank Aaron's
Chase for the Home Run Record." Plimpton chronicles
Milwaukee favorite Aaron's quest for his historic 715th homer,
paying suitable attention to the pitcher, broadcaster and others
involved.
"Open Net: A Professional Amateur in the World of
Big-time Hockey." During an exhibition game, Plimpton
spent five minutes in goal attempting to block shots by the
Philadelphia Flyers. Yes, he had to sign a waiver.
"Out of My League: The Classic Account of an
Amateur's Ordeal in Professional Baseball." Plimpton
pitched against American and National League all-stars. Sidd
Finch he wasn't.
"Paper Lion: Confessions of a Last-String
Quarterback." In a humorous classic, Plimpton took snaps
behind center with the Detroit Lions. He also offered a peek at
training camps decades before "Hard Knocks" came along.
Excellent Anthologies
"Crush: Writers Reflect on Love, Longing, and the
Lasting Power of Their First Celebrity Crush" (William
Morrow), by Cathy Alter and Dave Singleton. Stephen King on
Kim Novak, Roxane Gay on Almanzo Wilder — and other
writers riffing on the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Barbara
Feldon, Mary Tyler Moore and Tarzan.
"Last Night, a Superhero Saved My Life: Neil Gaiman,
Jodi Picoult, Brad Meltzer, and an All-Star Roster on
the Caped Crusaders That Changed Their
Lives" (Thomas Dunne Books), edited by Liesa Mignogna.
Picoult sings the praises of Wonder Woman, Gaiman reveals the
origin of his love for Batman, and other writers explain how
superheroes make their lives better.
"Lunatics, Lovers and Poets: Twelve Stories after
Cervantes and Shakespeare" (& Other Stories), edited by
Daniel Hahn and Margarita Valencia. Ben Okri, Deborah Levy,
Valeria Luiselli and other writers salute two giants in their
quadricentennial year with new stories.
"Watchlist: 32 Stories by Persons of Interest" (Catapult),
edited by Bryan Hurt. Stories of surveilling and being surveilled
from a wide variety of writers, including Aimee Bender, T.C.
Boyle, Cory Doctorow, Etgar Keret and Charles Yu.
For Children And Teens
"Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most
Famous Bear" (Little, Brown), by Lindsay Mattick and Sophie
Blackall. This tale for readers 2 through 5 years old, about the
real bear whose story inspired Winnie-the-Pooh, won the
Caldecott Medal for year's best picture book.
"Thunder Boy Jr." (Little, Brown), by Sherman Alexie and Yuri
Morales. A little boy named for his father would like his own
exciting name, please. A picture book for readers 2 through 5
years old.
"Extremely Cute Animals Operating Heavy
Machinery" (Simon & Schuster), by David Gordon. Let me
reassure you, this picture book for readers 4 through 8 lives up
to the promise of the title.
"Hello, My Name Is Octicorn" (Balzer + Bray), by Kevin
Diller and Justin Lowe. In this picture book for readers 4
through 8, being half unicorn and half octopus can be tricky,
but it has its advantages, too.
"The Airport Book" (Roaring Brook Press), by Lisa Brown. A
family — and their youngest child's sock monkey — navigate a
trip through the airport in this picture book for readers 4
through 8 years old.
"Snail and Worm: Three Stories About Two
Friends" (HMH), byTina Kügler. Three gentle illustrated tales
with simple words and a few twists, for readers 6 through 9
years old; "Snail and Worm" may appeal to people who love
Arnold Lobel's "Frog and Toad" books.
"Rising Above: How 11 Athletes Overcame Challenges
in Their Youth to Become Stars" (Philomel), by Gregory
Zuckerman. Inspirational accounts of how former Marquette
basketball star Dwyane Wade, onetime Milwaukee Brewers
pitcher Jim Abbott, reigning NBA MVP Steph Curry and other
pro athletes overcame physical and other difficulties. For
readers 8 to 12 years old.
"Raymie Nightingale" (Candlewick Press), by Kate
DiCamillo.Two-time Newbery winner DiCamillo's new novel, for
readers 9 through 14, is her most personal book so far. A 10year-old girl whose father has left home schemes to bring him
back by winning the Miss Florida Central Tire competition.
"As Brave As You" (Atheneum), by Jason Reynolds. When 11year-old Genie and his brother Ernie are sent to stay with
grandparents in rural Virginia for a spell, they discover secrets
about Grandpop and other family members. For readers 9 to 12
years old.
"Summerlost" (Dutton), by Ally Condie. A year after her father
and brother are killed by a drunken driver, 12-year-old Cedar's
family moves to a town with a summer Shakespeare festival,
where she makes a solid friend. For readers 10 and older.
"Booked" (HMH), by Kwame Alexander. A 12-year-old copes with
challenges on and off the soccer pitch with a hand from The
Mac, a rapping librarian. For readers 10 and older.
"Ten Days a Madwoman: The Daring Life and
Turbulent Times of the Original 'Girl' Reporter, Nellie
Bly" (Viking), by Deborah Noyes. In words and images, Noyes
reconstructs Bly's daring undercover stint in a notorious insane
asylum. For readers 10 and older.
"We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose Student
Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf
Hitler" (Clarion), by Russell Freedman. The real-life story of
siblings and friends at the University of Munich who opposed
the Nazi regime with a nonviolent campaign. For readers 10 and
older.
"Burn Baby Burn" (Candlewick), by Meg Medina. Seventeenyear-old Nora copes with hard times in 1977, New York's brutal
summer of blackout and the Son of Sam. For ninth-graders and
older.
"If I Was Your Girl" (Flatiron Books), by Meredith Russo. A
trans girl in a new school just wants to get through the year, but
her growing affection for a classmate forces her to consider how
much of herself she'll reveal. For readers 13 and older.
"Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love
Stories" (St. Martin's Griffin), edited by Stephanie Perkins.
Libba Bray, Lev Grossman, Veronica Roth and other top writers
offer summery stories in funny, spooky and heartfelt modes.
For readers 13 and older.
Pop Culture Books
"Orson Welles: One Man Band" (Viking), by Simon Callow.
The third (of four, hopefully) installments in actor-turnedbiographer Callow's study of Welles follows the Kenosha native
in the least-scrutinized but most fascinating phase of his life,
bookended by a calamitous production of "Othello" starting in
1947 to the hollow triumph of another Shakespeare-rooted
movie, "Chimes at Midnight," released in 1965.
"Citizen Kane: A Filmmaker's Journey" (Thomas Dunne
Books), by Harlan Lebo. Film historian Lebo combines original
research and interviews, deep dives into the archives and
extensive analysis of Orson Welles' 1941 movie masterpiece,
yielding expertly drawn conclusions that feel like, when you read
them, the arguments over the movie's origin story, history and
authorship are over.
"The Network: The Battle for the Airwaves and the
Birth of the Communication Age" (Ecco), by Scott
Woolley. A compelling look at the relationship — and eventual
betrayal — between two American communications giants:
Edwin Armstrong, an inventor who developed FM radio; and
David Sarnoff, the ruthless techie turned business titan who
built RCA into a powerhouse.
"MASH FAQ: Everything Left to Know About the Best
Care Anywhere" (Applause), by Dale Sherman. Trivia about
the original novel "M*A*S*H," Robert Altman's 1970 movie and
the beloved, long-running sitcom that both spun off it are
organized by topic vs. chronology in this book — chapters range
from recurring characters who disappeared to the TV show's
many time slots — making for fun reading for anyone still
watching it in reruns.
"Barbra Streisand: Redefining Beauty, Femininity, and
Power"(Yale University Press), by Neal Gabler. Gabler, a firstrate cultural historian, explores the "biography of the metaphor
that we have come to know as 'Streisand'," showing the singerturned-filmmaker meant and means more than just star power.
Part of Yale's Jewish Lives series.
"Her Again: Becoming Meryl Streep" (Harper), by
Michael Schulman. An engaging, sometimes revealing portrait
of the Greatest Living Actress, from her beginnings through
winning her first Oscar, in 1980, for "Kramer vs. Kramer."
"Everybody Behaves Badly: The True Story Behind
Hemingway's Masterpiece 'The Sun Also
Rises'" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), by Lesley M.M. Blume.
Great artists aren't born, they're made — or, more accurately,
they make themselves. At least that's the story in this study of
Ernest Hemingway's calculated rise to fame.
"The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd
Culture"(Simon & Schuster), by Glen Weldon. The author of
"Superman: The Unauthorized Biography" traces the evolution
of Batman from a copycat vigilante to cultural touchstone —
and, maybe, back.
"The World According to Star Wars" (Dey St.), by Cass
Sunstein.A Harvard legal scholar and former White House
regulatory czar takes the "Star Wars" universe and applies it to
everything from politics and economics to fatherhood.
Baseball Books
In A Rebuilding Year
"The Selling of the Babe: The Deal That Changed
Baseball and Created a Legend" (Thomas Dunne Books),
by Glenn Stout. A fresh take on the oft-told tale of the sale of
Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees,
showing that the business of baseball — and the Babe's impact
on it — as more complex than all the "Curse of the Bambino"
chatter would have you believe.
"The Last Innocents: The Collision of the Turbulent
Sixties and the Los Angeles Dodgers" (Harper), by
Michael Leahy. Relying mainly on interviews, this compelling
group biography tells the stories of seven L.A. Dodgers — some
great (Sandy Koufax, Maury Wills), some on the verge (Wes
Parker, Tommy Davis), some nearly off the radar (Jeff Torborg,
Dick Tracewski, Lou Johnson) — and their lives on and off the
field during challenging times for baseball and the country.
"I'm Fascinated by Sacrifice Flies: Inside the Game We
All Love"(St. Martin's Press), by Tim Kurkjian. ESPN baseball
analyst Kurkjian collects and collates terrific personal anecdotes
on scores of major leaguers — including a number of current
and former Brewers, from J.J. Hardy's pingpong prowess to the
noises Carlos Gomez makes running around the bases.
"Double Switch" (Doubleday), by T.T. Monday. The second
mystery novel featuring Johnny Adcock, an aging relief pitcher
who does private detective work on the side, takes you deep
inside what makes baseball addictive, on and off the field.

10 Upcoming American Classics 10. Lullaby, Chuck Palahniuk

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