GREAT BOOKS FOR HIGH SCHOOL KIDS* - Intranet.dalton.org

GREAT BOOKS FOR HIGH SCHOOL KIDS*
Ackerman, Diane
A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SENSES
In a celebration of our ability to smell, taste, touch, hear, and see, Ackerman weaves
together scientific facts with lore, history, and description to create an enchanting account
of how humans experience the world.
Aeschylus
THE ORESTEIA
Grand in style, rich in diction and dramatic dialogue, the plays embody Aeschylus'
concerns with the destiny and fate of individuals and the state, all played out under the
watchful eye of the gods.
Agee, James
A DEATH IN THE FAMILY
For in his lyrical, sorrowful account of a man's death and its impact on his family, Agee
painstakingly created a small world of domestic happiness and then showed how quickly
and casually it could be destroyed.
Albee, Edward
WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
A dark comedy, it portrays husband and wife George and Martha in a searing night of
dangerous fun and games. By the evening's end, a stunning revelation provides a climax
that has shocked audiences for years.
Alexie, Sherman
THE LONE RANGER AND TONTO FISTFIGHT IN HEAVEN
Against a backdrop of alcohol, car accidents, laughter, and basketball, Alexie depicts the
distances between Indians and whites, reservation Indians and urban Indians, men and
women, and, most poetically, modern Indians and the traditions of the past.
Allison, Dorothy
TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW FOR SURE
This is a startlingly frank book which explores the sometimes devastating emotions that
spin themselves through our lives, illuminating the feelings of a young girl as she
confronts the man who abuses her.
Alter, Peter
GENESIS
In Robert Alter's brilliant translation, these stories cohere in a powerful narrative of the
tortuous relations between fathers and sons, husbands and wives, elder and younger
brothers, God and his chosen people, the people of Israel and their neighbors.

Alvarez, Julia
HOW THE GARCIA GIRLS LOST THEIR ACCENT
It's a long way from Santo Domingo to the Bronx, but if anyone can go the distance, it's
the Garcia girls. Four lively Latinas plunged from a pampered life of privilege on an
island compound into the big-city chaos of New York; they rebel against Mama and
Papa’s old-world discipline and embrace all that America has to offer.
Anaya, Rudolfo
BLESS ME, ULTIMA
Soon Tony will journey to the threshold of manhood. Always, Ultima watches over him.
She graces him with the courage to face childhood bigotry, diabolical possession, the
moral collapse of his brother, and too many violent deaths.
Anderson, Laurie Halse
SPEAK
When Melinda Sordino's friends discover she called the police to quiet a party, they
ostracize her, turning her into an outcast -- even among kids she barely knows. But even
worse than the harsh conformity of high-school cliques is a secret that you have to hide.
Anderson, Sherwood
WINESBURG, OHIO
In the perfectly imagined world of an archetypal small American town, Anderson reveals
the hidden passions that turn ordinary lives into fonts of unforgettable emotions. Played
out against the deceptively placid backdrop of Winesburg, Anderson's loosely connected
stories coalesce, like chapters, into a powerful novel of love and loss.
Ansary, Tamim
WEST OF KABUL, EAST OF NEW YORK: AN AFGHAN AMERICAN STORY
The day after the World Trade Center was destroyed Tamim Ansary sent an anguished email
to twenty friends, discussing the attack from his perspective as an Afghan American.
Born to an Afghan father and American mother, Ansary grew up in the intimate world of
Afghan family life and emigrated to San Francisco thinking he'd left Afghan culture
behind forever. At the height of the Iranian Revolution, however, he took a harrowing
journey through the Islamic world, and in the years that followed, he struggled to unite
his divided self and to find a place in his imagination where his Afghan and American
identities might meet.
Apollo
CONCRETE CANDY
Six stories on life in the black ghetto, written by a 15-year-old boy from California. They
range from Trash Talk, on drugs and violence, to Four Wolves and a Panther, on a white
boy who would like to be black.

Armstrong, Karen
THE BATTLE FOR GOD
Blending history, sociology, and spirituality, The Battle for God is a compelling and
compassionate study of a radical form of religious expression that is critically shaping the
course of world history.
Atwood, Margaret
THE BLIND ASSASSIN
This complex interweaving of multiple narratives draws the reader forward through a
dramatic and turbulent tale of love, betrayal, and death, while simultaneously using its
structural puzzles to reconsider the act of storytelling itself.
Bahrampour, Tara
TO SEE AND SEE AGAIN
To See and See Again traces three generations of an Iranian family undergoing a century
of change -- from her grandfather, a feudal lord with two wives; to her father, a freespirited
architect who marries an American pop singer; to Bahrampour herself, who
grows up balanced precariously between two cultures and comes of age watching them
clash on the nightly news.
Baldwin, James
ANOTHER COUNTRY
Set in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France, among other locales, Another Country is a
novel of passions—sexual, racial, political, artistic—that is stunning for its emotional
intensity and haunting sensuality, depicting men and women, blacks and whites, stripped
of their masks of gender and race by love and hatred at the most elemental and sublime.
Ballard, Allen
WHERE I’M BOUND
Inspired by the true story of the 3rd U.S. Colored Calvary, Where I'm Bound fictionalizes,
for the first time ever, the experiences of an African-American regiment in the Union
Army. Serving in more than 160 regiments, 180,000 men have dissolved into history
uncelebrated. Now, renowned African-American historian Allen Ballard weaves history
and imagination together to bring back to life one forgotten regiment and its fight for
freedom in our nation's most tragic war.
Bambara, Toni Cade
GORILLA, MY LOVE
In these 15 superb stories, written in a style at once ineffable and immediately
recognizable, Toni Cade Bambara gives us compelling portraits of a wide range of
unforgettable characters, from sassy children to cunning old men, in scenes shifting
between uptown New York and rural North Carolina.

Banks, Russell
RULE OF THE BONE
Chappie is a punked-out teenager rejected by his mother and abusive stepfather. Out of
school and in trouble with the police, he drifts through crash pads, doper squats, and
malls until he finally settles in an abandoned school bus with Rose, a seven-year-old
child, and I-Man, an exiled Rastafarian who will dramatically change his life. Together
they begin an amazing journey...
Barker, Pat
REGENERATION
Set in a British military hospital during WWI, this novel blends fact and fiction, drawing
its two protagonists from the pages of history. The author portrays overwhelmed men
who try to come to terms with their outrage over a futile war.
Bates, Karen Grigsby
PLAIN BROWN WRAPPER
African-American reporter Alex Powell has the kind of curiosity that tends to get a nosy
girl in big trouble. Luckily, she also has the wit and wiles to get out of it. But when Alex
finds her boss, Everett Carson, dead at a black journalists' conference, she finds herself
caught in a situation far nastier than normal ... and in grave danger.
Berry, Wendell
LIFE IS A MIRACLE: AN ESSAY AGAINST MODERN SUPERSTITION
In Life Is a Miracle, the devotion of science to the quantitative and reductionist world is
measured against the mysterious, qualitative suggestions of religion and art. Berry sees
life as the collision of these separate forces, but without all three in the mix we are left at
sea in the world.
Bloch, Ariel and Chana
THE SONG OF SONGS
This new edition of The Song of Songs offers both a beautiful new translation and a
definitive interpretation of this great love poem. The Blochs' translation, a combination of
refined poetic resourcefulness and philological precision, brings us closer to the magical
freshness of this ancient Hebrew love poetry than has other English versions.
Boyle, T.C.
TORTILLA CURTAIN
Men and women with brown faces and strong backs who risk everything to cross the
Mexican border and invade the American Dream are the Okies of the 1990s. Two of
them, Candido and America Rincon, have come to Southern California and are living in a
makeshift camp deep in a ravine, fighting off starvation.

Bradbury, Ray
FAHRENHEIT 451
Fahrenheit 451 is set in a grim alternate-future setting ruled by a tyrannical government
in which firemen as we understand them no longer exist: Here, firemen don't douse fires,
they ignite them. And they do this specifically in homes that house the most evil of evils:
books.
Bronte, Charlotte
JANE EYRE
It’s the story of a woman of passion and intelligence who refuses to be satisfied by her
"place" in society, and asserts her identity and aspirations with defiance and dignity.
Bronte, Emily
WUTHERING HEIGHTS
It's the story of Heathcliff, an orphan who falls in love with a girl above his class, loses
her, and devotes the rest of his life to wreaking revenge on her family.
Burciaga, Jose Antonio
DRINK CULTURA: CHICANISMO
In this collection of essays, Chicano writer Burciaga explores from Mexican American
and Chicano viewpoints the complexities of being Mexican American. Many of the
essays tell of the early days of the Chicano movement in Texas, which Burciaga
experienced as a child.
Burgess, Anthony
CLOCKWORK ORANGE
Told by the central character, Alex, this brilliant, hilarious, and disturbing novel creates
an alarming futuristic vision of violence, high technology, and authoritarianism.
Burroughs, William
NAKED LUNCH
Naked Lunch is the unnerving tale of Bill Lee, addicted to hustlers and narcotics, and his
monumental descent into Hell. His journey takes him from New York to Tangiers, as he
runs from the police and searches for a place to buy and take drugs.
Butler, Octavia
PARABLE OF THE TALENTS
Parable of the Talents explores the large and small social ramifications of a group of
survivors banding together in faith to prevail against anarchy. Butler gives us a wellproportioned
fusion of near-future struggle and subtle science fiction, all layered upon an
engaging groundwork of human courage, spiritual doctrine, enslavement, and savagery in
an anarchistic America.

Camus, Albert
THE STRANGER
Through the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an
Algerian beach, Camus explored what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the
absurd."
Canada, Geoffrey
FIST STICK KNIFE GUN
When award-winning educator and activist Geoff Canada was growing up in the Bronx,
the "sidewalk" boys learned the codes of the block from their elders and were ranked-and
to some degree protected--through the rituals of fist, stick, and knife. Weaving in and
out of his stark storytelling is a cogent analysis of how the complicity of gun
manufacturers turned this contained violence into today's world of drive-by shootings and
automatic weapons.
Carroll, Jim
THE BASKETBALL DIARIES
This is a New York City tale of drug addiction and survival in the mean streets. Told in a
diary-like format, this book remains Carroll's supreme achievement. It's absolutely
authentic and real and depicts one's person hellish coming-of-age.
Castellanos, Rosario
THE NINE GUARDIANS
Castellanos has written a haunting novel set against the Mexican Revolution. She gives
much of the narration over to a seven-year-old girl, who introduces characters simply yet
vividly like a series of candid snapshots.
Castillo, Ana
SO FAR FROM GOD
Sofia and her fated daughters, Fe, Esperanza, Caridad, and la Loca, endure hardship and
enjoy love in the sleepy New Mexico hamlet of Tome, a town teeming with marvels
where the comic and the horrific, the real and the supernatural, reside.
Chabon, Michael
THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF CAVALIER & CLAY
It is New York City in 1939. Joe Kavalier, a young artist who has also been trained in the
art of Houdiniesque escape, has just pulled off his greatest feat to date: smuggling
himself out of Nazi-occupied Prague. He is looking to make big money, fast, so that he
can bring his family to freedom. His cousin, Brooklyn's own Sammy Clay, is looking for
a collaborator to create the heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit the
American dreamscape: the comic book.

Chbosky, Stephen
THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER
This is the story of what it's like to grow up in high school. More intimate than a diary,
Charlie's letters are singular and unique, hilarious and devastating. Caught between trying
to live his life and trying to run from it puts him on a strange course through uncharted
territory. The world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas and new friends. The
world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that
perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite.
Chevalier, Tracy
GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING
History and fiction merge seamlessly in this luminous novel about artistic vision and
sensual awakening. Girl with a Pearl Earring tells the story of sixteen-year-old Griet,
whose life is transformed by her brief encounter with genius ... even as she herself is
immortalized in canvas and oil.
Chin, Frank
DONALD DUK
On the eve of the Chinese New Year in San Francisco's Chinatown, twelve-year-old
Donald Duk attempts to deal with his comical name and his feelings for his cultural
heritage.
Chopin, Kate
THE AWAKENING
An American classic of sexual expression that paved the way for the modern novel, The
Awakening is both a remarkable novel in its own right and a startling reminder of how far
women in this century have come. The story of a married woman who pursues love
outside a stuffy, middle-class marriage, the novel portrays the mind of a woman seeking
fulfillment of her essential nature.
Cisneros, Sandra
HOUSE ON MANGO STREET
The House on Mango Street tells the story of Esperanza Cordero, whose neighborhood is
one of harsh realities and harsh beauty. Esperanza doesn't want to belong - not to her rundown
neighborhood, and not to the low expectations the world has for her. Esperanza's
story is that of a young girl coming into her power, and inventing for herself what she
will become.

Coelho, Paulo
THE ALCHEMIST
This story, dazzling in its simplicity and wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy
named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search
of treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who
calls himself king, and an Alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the direction of his
quest.
Colton, Larry
COUNTING COUP: A TRUE STORY OF BASKETBALL AND HONOR ON THE
LITTLE BIG HORN
The team--comprised of both Crow Indian and white girls--is led by Sharon Laforge, a
moody, undisciplined yet talented Native American girl who's hoping to be the first
female player from her high school to earn a basketball scholarship to college. While
following Laforge and the Hardin High School girls' basketball team for an entire season,
Colton shows how the players deal with success, failure, friendship, rivalries, and racism.
Connell, Evan
DEUS LO VOLT: CHRONICLE OF THE CRUSADES
"God wills it!" The year is 1095 and the most prominent leaders of the Christian world
are assembled in a meadow in France. Deus lo volt! This cry is taken up, echoes forth,
and is carried on. The Crusades have started, and wave after wave of Christian pilgrims
rush to assault the growing power of Muslims in the Holy Land. Two centuries long, it
will become the defining war of the Western world.
Crane, Stephen
THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE
In the spring of 1863, as he faces battle for the first time at Chancellors Ville, Virginia, a
young Union soldier matures to manhood and finds peace of mind as he comes to grips
with his conflicting emotions about war.
Dana, Richard Henry
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST
Henry Dana Jr.'s account of his life as a common seaman aboard the brig the Pilgrim
which set out from Boston on August 14, 1835 destined for California by way of the
treacherous Cape Horn. Dana gives a detailed account of the workings of the ship, the
day-to-day routines of the deck hands, and the brutal shortcomings of inept, tyrannical
officers.
Danticat, Edwidge
BREATH, EYES, MEMORY
"I love you," the stranger announces. "More than the sky loves its stars." And her mother
does, but there are memories from Haiti secreted away that torture both young Sophie
and her estranged insomniac mother.

Diamant, Anita
THE RED TENT
Deeply affecting, The Red Tent combines rich storytelling with a valuable contribution in
modern fiction: a new perspective of female life in biblical society. It is a vast and
stirring work described as what the Bible might have been had it been written by God's
daughters instead of sons. Far beyond the traditional women-of-the-Bible sagas in both
impact and vigor, The Red Tent is based upon a mention in Genesis of Jacob's only
female offspring--his daughter, Dinah.
Diamond, Jared
GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL
In this Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Jared Diamond argues that both geography and the
environment played major roles in determining the shape of the modern world. This
argument runs counter to the usual theories that cite biology as the crucial factor.
Diamond claims that the cultures that were first able to domesticate plants and animals
were then able to develop writing skills, as well as make advances in the creation of
government, technology, weaponry, and immunity to disease.
Dick, Philip
MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE
It's America in 1962--where slavery is legal and the few surviving Jews hide anxiously
under assumed names. All because some twenty years earlier America lost a war--and is
now occupied jointly by Nazi Germany and Japan.
Di Prima, Diane
RECOLLECTIONS OF MY LIFE AS A WOMAN: THE NEW YORK YEARS
An evocative, gritty memoir by the leading woman writer of the Beat Generation.
Dorris, Michael
A YELLOW RAFT IN BLUE WATER
Filled with astonishing humor and poignancy, this is a story that reveals the weave of
family relationships and the strength of new beginnings.
Dosteyevsky, Fyodor
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Through the story of the brilliant but conflicted young Raskolnikov and the murder he
commits, Fyodor Dostoevsky explores the theme of redemption through suffering.
Dry, Richard
LEAVING
In 1959, newly-widowed and pregnant Ruby Washington and her thirteen-year-old half
brother, Easton, board a bus in rural South Carolina, destined for Oakland, California.
There, far from the violent events that forced her to flee her home, Ruby hopes to make a
new life for her family.

Dunn, Katherine
GEEK LOVE
Geek Love is the story of the Binewskis, a carny family whose mater- and paterfamilias
set out-with the help of amphetamine, arsenic, and radioisotopes-to breed their own
exhibit of human oddities. There's Arturo the Aquaboy, who has flippers for limbs and a
megalomaniac ambition worthy of Genghis Khan . . . Iphy and Elly, the lissome Siamese
twins . . . albino hunchback Oly, and the outwardly normal Chick, whose mysterious gifts
make him the family's most precious-and dangerous-asset.
Eggers, Dave
A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS
Dave Eggers' memoir of bringing up his younger brother after his parent's death has been
short listed for the Guardian First Book Award, which aims to recognize and reward new
writing across fiction and non-fiction.
Ehrenreich, Barbara
NICKEL AND DIMED
To understand life beyond boom-time America, Barbara Ehrenreich spent months
laboring as a cleaning woman; as a waitress; and as a Wal-Mart sales clerk. Her
revelations about these hard, supposedly "unskilled" jobs and the difficulty of making
ends meet in the U.S. gives this book a powerful, personal edge.
Elliot, Stephen
A LIFE WITHOUT CONSEQUENCES
While the characters are fictional, they are representative of many and we realize the
fragility of childhood and the burden on the children who have nowhere else to go.
Ellison, Ralph
INVISIBLE MAN
Ellison won the National Book Award for this searing story of a black man's fervent
quest for personal identity and social visibility that takes him on a journey through the
Southern U.S. and later to New York City.
Erdrich, Louise
TRACKS
Set in North Dakota at a time in this century when Indian tribes were struggling to keep
what little remained of their lands, Tracks is a tale of passion and deep unrest. Over the
course of ten crucial years, as tribal land and trust between people erode ceaselessly, men
and women are pushed to the brink of their endurance—yet their pride and humor
prohibit surrender.

Escandon, Maria Amparo
ESPERANZA’S BOX OF SAINTS
Esperanza's Box of Saints is a magical, humorous, and passion-filled odyssey about a
beautiful young widow's search for her missing child - a mission that takes her from a
humble Mexican village to the rowdy brothels of Tijuana and a rarely seen side of Los
Angeles.
Esquivel, Laura
LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE
The classic love story takes place on the De la Garza ranch, as the tyrannical owner,
Mama Elena, chops onions at the kitchen table in her final days of pregnancy. While still
in her mother's womb, her daughter weeps so violently she causes an early labor, and
little Tita slips out amid the spices and fixings for noodle soup. This early encounter with
food soon becomes a way of life, and Tita grows up to be a master chef. She shares
special points of her favorite preparations with listeners throughout the story.
Fadiman, Ann
THE SPIRIT CATCHES YOU AND YOU FALL DOWN
Brilliantly reported and beautifully crafted, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
explores the clash between the Merced Community Medical Center in California and a
refugee family from Laos over the care of Lia Lee, a Hmong child diagnosed with severe
epilepsy. Lia's parents and her doctors both wanted what was best for Lia, but the lack of
understanding between them led to tragedy.
Faulks, Sebastian
BIRDSONG
It is the story of Stephen Wraysford, a young Englishman who journeys to France on
business in 1910 and becomes so entangled in a passionate clandestine love affair that he
never returns home. Rootless and heartbroken when war breaks out in 1914, he joins the
army and is given command of a brigade of miners, whose macabre assignment is to
tunnel beneath German lines and set off bombs under the enemy trenches - thereby
creating a pitch-dark subterranean battlefield even more ghastly than the air and trench
warfare above them.
Fitch, Janet
WHITE OLEANDER
Young Astrid is an only child with strong attachments to her brilliant if unstable mother,
Ingrid, and their idyllic life together. Astrid's world is shattered, however, when Ingrid
murders her lover after a devastating rejection. Her life becomes a constantly changing
whirlwind of strange new faces and foster homes.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott
THE GREAT GATSBY
Gatsby lives in the New York suburb of West Egg, where those with "new money"
reside. Gatsby's mansion is right across the bay from the home of his wartime love, Daisy
Buchanan. He uses his money, gained through illegal means, and uses his neighbor, Nick
Carroway, to try to reach Daisy.
Fleming, Keith
THE BOY WITH THE THORN IN HIS SIDE: A MEMOIR
Keith Fleming had been a pretty ordinary Midwestern kid—Little League, Boy
Scouts—but the year he turns twelve, his family is torn apart by divorce when he learns
that his mother and his Uncle Ed are both gay. By the time Keith is fifteen he has become
disfigured by severe acne and is so wild that his father and stepmother place him in a
draconian adolescent mental institution. Here he meets Laura, a pretty Mexican girl with
whom he begins a passionate love affair.
Fox, Paula
BORROWED FINERY
Dumped at birth in a Manhattan orphanage, Paula Fox spent her early years under the
care of a poor, cultivated minister in upstate New York. And then her parents resurfaced.
To outsiders, this nomadic pair seemed colorful: Her father was a handsome, wellregarded
screenwriter, and both earned reputations as hard-partying bohemians.
Frazier, Charles
COLD MOUNTAIN
Cold Mountain is the story of Inman, a wounded and soul-sick Confederate soldier who,
like his literary fellow-traveler Odysseus, has quit the field of battle only to find the way
home littered with impediments and prowled by adversaries.
French, Albert
BILLY
Albert French's harrowing debut novel of 10-year-old Billy Lee Turner, convicted and
executed for murdering a white girl in Baines, Mississippi, in 1937, is an unsentimental
and ultimately heartrending vision of racial injustice.
Fumia, Molly
HONOR THY CHILDREN
The inspirational account of a Japanese-American family's triumph in the face of the
death of their three children, two from AIDS and a third the victim of a tragic drive-by
shooting, Honor Thy Children chronicles the creation, devastation, and remarkable
resurrection of the Nakatanis - who journey from unimaginable grief to healing.

Gaarder, Jostein
SOPHIE’S WORLD
One day when Sophie comes home from school, she finds two questions in her mail:
Who are you? Where does the world come from? Before she knows it, she is pondering
all the great questions of Western philosophy (from the Greeks to Kant, to Marx and
Freud) with a mysterious mentor. But Sophie is also receiving a separate batch of equally
unusual letters. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up in Sophie's world?
To solve this riddle, Sophie uses her new knowledge of philosophy, but the truth is far
stranger than she could have imagined.
Gaiman, Neil
AMERICAN GODS
Shadow dreamed of nothing but leaving prison and starting a new life. But the day before
his release, his wife and best friend are killed in an accident.
Galeano, Eduardo
OPEN VEINS OF LATIN AMERICA
This analysis of the effects and causes of capitalist underdevelopment in Latin America
presents a clear, passionate account of 500 years of Latin American history, written with
drama, humor, and compassion.
Gardner, John
GRENDEL
The first and most terrifying monster in English literature, from the great early epic
BEOWULF, tells his side of the story.
Garland, Alex
THE BEACH
The Beach, as Richard has come to learn, is a subject of legend among young travelers in
Asia: a lagoon hidden from the sea, with white sand and coral gardens, freshwater falls
surrounded by jungle, plants untouched for a thousand years. There, it is rumored, a
carefully selected international few have settled in a communal Eden.
Gates, Jr., Henry Louis
THE BONDWOMAN’S NARRATIVE, BY HANNAH CRAFTS
This collection of 27 essays examines its authenticity and the history of its criticism, the
space it occupies between the sentimental novel and the slave narrative, the place of the
novel in the canon, the influence of the antebellum period on its narrative and themes, the
emergence of African American Gothic, and the search for its author.
Ghosh, Amitav
THE GLASS PALACE
This superb story of love and war begins with the shattering of the kingdom of Burma
and the igniting of a great and passionate love, and it goes on to tell the story of a people,
a fortune, and a family and its fate.

Gogol, Nicolai
DEAD SOULS
Chichikov, a mysterious stranger, arrives in a provincial town and visits a succession of
landowners to make each a strange offer. He proposes to buy the names of dead serfs still
registered on the census, saving their owners from paying tax on them, and to use these
“souls” as collateral to reinvent himself as a gentleman.
Goines, Donald
DADDY COOL
Larry Jackson, better known as Daddy Cool, is a ruthlessly efficient black hit man,
equally effective with a gun or a knife in nailing his prey. The only thing that can melt his
icy heart is his love for his teenage daughter Janet. But when the smooth talking young
blood pimp Ronald lures her into his stable, Daddy Cool must go into action with a
fearsome vengeance.
Goldberg, Myla
BEE SEASON
Eliza Naumann, a seemingly unremarkable nine-year-old, expects never to fit into her
gifted family: her autodidact father, Saul, absorbed in his study of Jewish mysticism; her
brother, Aaron, the vessel of his father's spiritual ambitions; and her brilliant but distant
lawyer-mom, Miriam.
Gordon, Neil
THE COMPANY YOU KEEP
The Company You Keep is a sweeping American saga about sacrifice, the ecstatic
righteousness of youth, and the tension between political ideals and family loyalties.
Gould, Stephen Jay
THE HEDGEHOG, THE FOX, AND THE MAGISTER’S POX: MENDING THE GAP
BETWEEN SCIENCE AND THE HUMANITIES
In his final book and his first full-length original title since Full House in 1996, the
eminent paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould offers a surprising and nuanced study of the
complex relationship between our two great ways of knowing: science and the
humanities, twin realms of knowledge that have been divided against each other for far
too long.
Gourevitch, Philip
WE WISH TO INFORM YOU THAT TOMMORROW WE WILL BE KILLED WITH
OUR FAMILIES: STORIES FROM RWANDA
In April 1994, the Rwandan government called upon everyone in the Hutu majority to
kill each member of the Tutsi minority, and over the next three months 800,000 Tutsis
perished in the most unambiguous case of genocide since Hitler's war against the Jews.
Philip Gourevitch's haunting work is an anatomy of the war in Rwanda, a vivid history of
the tragedy's background, and an unforgettable account of its aftermath.

Grass, Gunter
THE TIN DRUM
The Tin Drum is the autobiography of thirty-year-old Oskar Matzerath, who has lived
through the long Nazi nightmare and who, as the novel begins, is being held in a mental
institution. Willfully stunting his growth at three feet for many years, wielding his tin
drum and piercing scream as anarchistic weapons, he provides a profound yet hilarious
perspective on both German history and the human condition of the modern world.
Guest, Judith
ORDINARY PEOPLE
The Jarrets are a typical American family. Calvin is a determined, successful provider
and Beth an organized, efficient wife. They had two sons, Conrad and Buck, but now
they have one. In this memorable, moving novel, Judith Guest takes the reader into their
lives to share their misunderstandings, pain...and ultimate healing.
Hagedorn, Jessica
DOGEATERS
Dogeaters is an intense fictional portrayal of Manila in the heyday of Marcos, the
Philippines' late dictator. In the center of this maelstrom is Rio, a feisty schoolgirl who
will grow up to live in America and look back with longing on the land of her youth.
Halaby, Laila
WEST OF THE JORDAN
This is a brilliant and revelatory first novel by a woman who is both an Arab and an
American, who speaks with both voices and understands both worlds. Through the
narratives of four cousins at the brink of maturity, Laila Halaby immerses her readers in
the lives, friendships, and loves of girls struggling with national, ethnic, and sexual
identities.
Haley, Alex
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X
The absorbing personal story of the man who rose from a life of poverty and
disadvantage to become the most dynamic leader of the Black Revolution, only to have
his life cut short by an assassin's bullets.
Hall, Brian
THE SASKIAD
Longing to escape the rundown commune where she lives with her organic-farmer
mother, assorted half-siblings, and a cow named Marilyn, the precociously well-read
Saskia White, twelve, imagines herself as the noble contemporary of Odysseys, Marco
Polo, and Horatio Hornblower. Saskia's elaborate fantasies are soon upstaged by her reallife,
long-lost father, who leads Saskia and her best friend Jane on a camping trip that
turns into an epic adventure of love, sex, and lies.

Hamper, Ben
RIVETHEAD: TALES FROM THE ASSEMBLY LINE
The man the Detroit Free Press calls "a blue collar Tom Wolfe" delivers a full-barreled
blast of truth and gritty reality in Rivethead, a no-holds-barred journey through the belly
of the American industrial beast.
Heaney, Seamus
THE CURE AT TROY: A VERSION OF SOPHOCLES’ PHILOCTETES
Seamus Heaney's version of Philoctetes is a fast-paced, brilliant work excellently suited
to the stage. Heaney keeps the majesty of the Greek original, but manages to give his
verse the flavor of Irish speech and context.
Hellenga, Robert
THE SIXTEEN PLEASURES
In this intriguing, provocative novel, a young American woman in Florence encounters
sensual adventure, spiritual challenge, and a unique erotic manuscript.
Heller, Joseph
CATCH-22
As revealing today as when it was first published, this brilliant novel by the author of
Picture This expresses the concerns of an entire generation in its black comedy. World
War II flier John Yossarian decides that his only mission each time he goes up is to
return—alive!
Hemingway, Ernest
FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
This masterpiece of time and place tells a profound and timeless story of courage and
commitment, love and loss, that takes place over a fleeting 72 hours. Drawing on
Hemingway's own involvement in the Spanish Civil War, For Whom the Bell Tolls
reflects his passionate feelings about the nature of war and the meaning of loyalty.
Herbert, Frank
DUNE
Set on the desert planet Arakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would
become the mysterious man known as Muad'Dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot
against his noble family - and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and
unattainable dream.
Hesse, Herman
SIDDHARTHA
In the novel, Siddhartha, a young man, leaves his family for a contemplative life, then,
restless, discards it for one of the flesh. He conceives a son, but bored and sickened by
lust and greed, moves on again. Near despair, Siddhartha comes to a river where he hears
a unique sound. This sound signals the true beginning of his life -- the beginning of
suffering, rejection, peace, and, finally, wisdom.

Hillerman, Tony
THE WAILING WIND
The dead man in the truck looked like just another drunk, so the woman officer who
found him filled out the appropriate papers and moved on. When the FBI came aknocking,
it was Sergeant Jim Chee who was on the hot seat about the case. Before long,
ex-lieutenant Joe Leaphorn comes out of retirement to reopen a cold case, and our
favorite Tribal Police pair is back in action.
Himes, Chester
YESTERDAY WILL MAKE YOU CRY
By turns brutal and lyrical and never less than totally honest, it tells the autobiographical
story of young Jimmy Monroe's passage through the prison system, which tests the limits
of his sanity, his capacity for suffering, and his definition of love. Stunningly candid
about racism, homosexuality, and prison corruption, the book would take sixteen years
and four subsequent revisions before being published in a much-altered form as Cast the
First Stone in 1953.
Holthe, Tess Uriza
WHEN THE ELEPHANTS DANCE
Papa explains the war like this: ‘When the elephants dance, the chickens must be careful.’
The great beasts, as they circle one another, shaking the trees and trumpeting loudly, are
the Amerikanos and the Japanese as they fight. And our Philippine Islands? We are the
small chickens.
Hornby, Nick
HIGH FIDELITY
High Fidelity is the story of Rob, a pop music junkie who runs his own semi-failing
record store. His girlfriend Laura has just left him for Ian from the flat upstairs. Rob is
both miserable and relieved. After all, could he have spent his life with someone who has
a bad record collection?
Hughes, Langston
THE WAYS OF WHITE FOLKS
This is a Classic, a book of short stories that underline the relationships between the
races.
Hulme, Keri
THE BONE PEOPLE
Set in the harsh environment of the South Island beaches of New Zealand, this masterful
story brings together three singular people in a trinity that reflects their country's varied
heritage.

Hurston, Zeale Nora
THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD
Mesmerizing in its immediacy and haunting in its subtlety, Their Eyes Were Watching
God tells the story of Janie Crawford—fair-skinned, long-haired, dreamy woman—who
comes of age expecting better treatment than what she gets from her three husbands and
community. Then she meets Tea Cake, a younger man who captivates Janie's heart and
spirit, and offers her the chance to relish life without being one man's mule or another
man's adornment.
Huxley, Aldous
BRAVE NEW WORLD
Huxley´s vision of the future in his astonishing 1931 novel Brave New World -- a world
of tomorrow in which capitalist civilization has been reconstituted through the most
efficient scientific and psychological engineering.
Irving, John
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP
The World According to Garp is a comic and compassionate coming-of-age novel that is
filled with stories inside stories about the life and times of T. S. Garp, novelist and
bastard son of Jenny Fields--a feminist leader ahead of her time.
Ives, David
ALL IN THE TIMING
The 14 short plays collected here introduce readers to one of the most intelligent and
anarchically funny playwrights of the last decade.
Jackson, Phil
SACRED HOOPS
In a unique and inspirational book, the head coach of the Chicago Bulls writes about how
he motivates and creates unity on the team, using the principles of Zen Buddhism. At the
heart of his work is Jackson's philosophy of mindful basketball--and his lifelong quest to
bring enlightenment to the competitive world of professional sports.
Johnson, Charles
MIDDLE PASSAGE
Peopled with vivid and unforgettable characters, nimble in its interplay of comedy and
serious ideas, this dazzling modern classic is a perfect blend of the picaresque tale,
historical romance, sea yarn, slave narrative, and philosophical novel.
Jones LeRoi
BLUES PEOPLE
A social and musical history of the American Negro, bringing into sharp focus the
revitalizing impact Negro influence has had upon American life.

Karr, Mary
LIARS’ CLUB
Karr's comic childhood in an east Texas oil town brings us characters as a hard-drinking
daddy, a sister who can talk down the sheriff at twelve, and an oft-married mother whose
accumulated secrets threaten to destroy them all.
Katz, Jonathan
GEEKS: HOW TWO LOST BOYS RODE THE INTERNET OUT OF IDAHO
Geeks is the story of how Jesse and Eric--and others like them--used technology to try
and change their lives and alter their destiny.
Kawabata, Yasunari
SNOW COUNTRY
As he chronicles the affair between a wealthy dilettante and the mountain geisha who
gives herself to him without illusions or regrets, one of Japan's greatest writers creates a
work that is dense in implication and exalting in its sadness.
Kay, Guy Gavriel
TIGANA
Drawing on the most powerful mythic archetypes, this master epic of magic, politics,
war--and the power of love and hate--is a rich, beautifully written, multidimensional
work. The few surviving inhabitants of the destroyed land of Tigana bond together in a
secret battle to release their homeland's curse and gain their freedom.
Kaysen, Susanna
GIRL, INTERRUPTED
In 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist she'd never seen before, eighteen-year-old
Susanna Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to McLean Hospital. She spent most of the
next two years on the ward for teenage girls in a psychiatric hospital as renowned for its
famous clientele—Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor, and Ray Charles—as for
its progressive methods of treating those who could afford its sanctuary.
Keegan, John
THE FACE OF BATTLE
Departing from the conventions of military writing, Keegan ranges across history and
through an awesome body of war literature to examine from the perspective of the
common soldier three famous battles waged 500 years apart--Agincourt, Waterloo, and
the Somme.
Kerouac, Jack
ON THE ROAD
Kerouac's classic novel of freedom and longing defined what it meant to be "Beat" and
has inspired every generation since its initial publication more than forty years ago.

Kesey, Ken
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST
This is the unforgettable story of a mental ward and its inhabitants, especially the
tyrannical Big Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy, the brawling, fun-loving
new inmate who resolves to oppose her. We see the struggle through the eyes of Chief
Bromden, the seemingly mute half-Indian patient who witnesses and understands
McMurphy's heroic attempt to do battle with the awesome power of the Combine.
Khue, Le Minh
THE STARS, THE EARTH, THE RIVER: SHORT STORIES
Through her stories, Khue exposes a Vietnam more vital and complex than the
stereotypes that linger in the minds of many Westerners.
Kingsolver, Barbara
THE POISONWOOD BIBLE
The Poisonwood Bible is the saga of the Price family, a rural Georgia family wrestling
with inner demons while living in the small African village of Kilanga.
Kingston, Maxine Hong
WOMAN WARRIOR
A Chinese American woman tells of the Chinese myths, family stories and events of her
childhood that have shaped her identity.
Kosinski, Jerzy N.
BEING THERE
Chauncey Gardiner is the great enigma: a hero of the American media. TV loves him;
print pursues him. He is a household face; the one everybody is talking about. Nobody
knows what he is talking about or where he has come from, but everybody knows he has
come to money, power and sex. Was he led to all this by the lovely, well-connected wife
of a dying Wall Street tycoon?
Kotlowitz, Alex
THERE ARE NO CHILDREN HERE
This is the moving account of two remarkable boys struggling to survive in Chicago's
Henry Horner Homes, a public housing complex disfigured by crime and neglect.
Kozol, Jonathan
SAVAGE INEQUALITIES
A searing, eye-opening exposé of the inequality built into America's public education
system. Traveling the most blighted neighborhoods of our country, Kozol discovers a
separate and unequal school system for America's less fortunate.

Krakauer, Jon
INTO THIN AIR
A childhood dream of someday ascending Mount Everest, a lifelong-love of climbing,
and an expense account all propelled writer Jon Krakauer to the top of the Himalayas. His
powerful, cautionary tale of an adventure gone horribly wrong is a must-read.
Krich, John
EL BEISBOL: TRAVELS THROUGH THE PAN AMERICAN PASTIME
Here is a quirky, wry, and often hilarious odyssey through the baseball fields of Latin
America - sports book and travelogue, political reportage and meditation on New World
identity. With wit and style, John Krich evokes a world where barefoot kids perfect their
swings with stalks of sugar cane, mascot’s dance the merengue atop dugouts, and wily
scouts compete with dictators for the souls of promising shortstops.
Kureishi, Hanif
GABRIEL’S GIFT
Gabriel's ex-rock-musician father has been chucked out of the house by his mother, who
works nights and sleeps days. Gabriel finds solace in drawing (producing real objects by
drawing them), getting guidance from his twin brother Archie (deceased).
Lahiri, Jhumpa
INTERPRETER OF MALADIES
Navigating between the Indian traditions they've inherited and the baffling new world,
the characters in Jhumpa Lahiri's elegant, touching stories seek love beyond the barriers
of culture and generations.
Lamb, Wally
I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE
A novel on mental illness, narrated by a man whose twin brother, a schizophrenic,
amputates his hand as atonement for his sins. The novel describes the family abuse that
led to the illness and the narrator's efforts to obtain the brother's release from an asylum.
Lara, Adair
HOLD ME CLOSE, LET ME GO: A MOTHER, A DAUGHTER, AND AN
ADOLESCENCE SURVIVED
Here is a searingly honest memoir of motherhood and a testament to the power of love
and family.
Lee, Gus
CHINA BOY
Warm, funny, and deeply moving, Gus Lee's semi-autobiographical account of growing
up in a conflict-ridden family, unable to fully embrace either American or Chinese
culture, is an enthralling story of family relationships, the perils of boyhood, and the
difficulty of being Chinese in 1950's San Francisco.

Levin, Ira
THE STEPFORD WIVES
At once a masterpiece of psychological suspense and a savage commentary on a mediadriven
society that values the pursuit of youth and beauty at all costs, The Stepford Wives
is a novel so frightening in its final implications that the title itself has earned a place in
the American lexicon.
Lightfoot, Sara Lawrence
BALM IN GILEAD: JOURNEY OF A HEALER
With the objectivity and insight of a scholar and the love and admiration of a daughter,
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot recounts the extraordinary life of her mother, Dr. Margaret
Morgan-Lawrence, one of the first African-American women to graduate from both
Cornell University and Columbia University's School of Medicine to become a physician.
Li Po and Tu Fu (trans. Arthur Cooper)
LI PO AND TU FU
Together these two poets of the T'ang dynasty cover the whole spectrum of human life
and feeling, and are often appropriately referred to as one poet, 'Li-Tu'. Arthur Cooper's
excellent introduction chronicles the lives and times of Li Po and Tu Fu, and sets the
spiritual, social and aesthetic background to the translations, which are works of poetry in
their own right.
Maclean, Norman
A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT AND OTHER STORIES
From its first sentence to the last, this novella by Norman Maclean will captivate readers
with its vivid images of the Blackfoot River, its tender yet realistic renderings of
Maclean's father and brother and its uncanny blending of fly fishing with the affections of
the heart.
Mailer, Norman
THE NAKED AND THE DEAD
Written in gritty, journalistic detail, the story follows a platoon of Marines who are
stationed on the Japanese-held island of Anopopei.
Maraire, J. Nozipo
ZENZELE: A LETTER FOR MY DAUGHTER
In an extraordinary literary debut - written as a letter from a Zimbabwean mother to her
daughter, a student at Harvard - J. Nozipo Maraire transforms the lessons of life into a
lyrical narrative. Interweaving history and memories, disappointments and dreams, like
the tales of the traditional village storyteller, this letter is a gift from one generation to the
next.

Marquez, Gabriel Garcia
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE
Love and lust, war and revolution, riches and poverty, youth and senility -- the variety of
life, the endlessness of death, the search for peace and truth -- these universal themes
dominate the novel. Whether he is describing an affair of passion or the voracity of
capitalism and the corruption of government, Gabriel García Márquez always writes with
the simplicity, ease, and purity that are the mark of a master.
Martel, Yann
LIFE OF PI
Meet Pi Patel, a young man on the cusp of adulthood when fate steps in and hastens his
lessons in maturity. En route with his family from their home in India to Canada, their
cargo ship sinks, and Pi finds himself adrift in a lifeboat -- alone, save for a few surviving
animals, some of the very same animals Pi's zookeeper father warned him would tear him
to pieces if they got a chance. But Pi's seafaring journey is about much more than a
struggle for survival. It becomes a test of everything he's learned -- about man and beast,
their creator, and the nature of truth itself.
Martinez, Manuel Luis
DRIFT: A NOVEL
At sixteen, Robert Lomos has lost his family. His father, a Latin jazz musician, has left
San Antonio for life on the road as a cool-hand playboy. His mother, shattered by a
complete emotional and psychological breakdown, has moved to Los Angeles and taken
Robert's little brother with her. Only his iron-willed grandmother, worn down by years of
hard work, is left. But Robert's got a plan: Duck trouble, save his money, and head to
California to put the family back together. Trouble is, no one believes a delinquent
Mexican American kid has a chance--least of all, Robert himself.
McBride, James
THE COLOR OF WATER
As a young black boy in Brooklyn, James McBride wondered why his mother looked
different. When he asked her if she was white or black, she would answer, "I'm lightskinned."
Finally, when he had become an adult, she told him her story. She was a rabbi's
daughter, born in Poland, raised in the American South. McBride's tribute, now published
in a 10th anniversary edition, has become a classic in healthy race relations, a topic we
are all apparently still learning.
McCormick, Patricia
CUT
While confined to a mental hospital, thirteen-year-old Callie slowly comes to understand
some of the reasons behind her self-mutilation, and gradually starts to get better.

McCourt, Frank
ANGELA’S ASHES
Perhaps it is a story that accounts for Frank's survival. Wearing shoes repaired with tires,
begging a pig's head for Christmas dinner, and searching the pubs for his father, Frank
endures poverty, near-starvation and the casual cruelty of relatives and neighbors — yet
lives to tell his tale with eloquence, exuberance and remarkable forgiveness.
McPhee, John
THE CONTROL OF NATURE
McPhee's bestselling account of places where people are locked into contested territories,
The Control of Nature examines in detail the strategies and tactics through which people
attempt to control their natural surroundings.
Melville, Herman
BENITO CERENO
Edward J. O'Brien called this epic sea adventure, "the noblest short story in American
literature." The balance of forces is complete, the light cast upon the hero intense to the
highest degree, the realization of the human soul profound, and the telling of the story
orchestrated like a great symphony.
Miller, Henry
SEXUS
Being the ongoing story of an otherwise unfortunate fellow who inherits his grandfather's
wealth - and soon begins wasting his cash on a female sex therapist!
Mistry, Rohinton
A FINE BALANCE
The eagerly awaited novel from the author of the award-winning Such a Long Journey is
set in India in the mid-1970s. A "State of Internal Emergency" has been declared, and in
the days of bleakness and hope that follow, four disparate people find their lives
becoming unexpectedly and inextricably entwined.
Monroe, Mary
GOD DON’T LIKE UGLY
Set in Ohio during the 50's, 60's and 70's, this richly-drawn coming-of-age tale is about a
sexually abused young black woman and the beautiful and diabolical best friend who
comes to her rescue. Resonating with clear-eyed wit and uncompromising honesty, it is a
tale of endurance, hope and triumph, full of laughter and pure enjoyment.

Morrison, Toni
BELOVED
Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this novel transforms history into a story
as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. Sethe, its protagonist, was born a
slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many
memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened.
And Sethe's new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and
whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.
Mosley, Walter
WHITE BUTTERFLY
It's 1956 and, times being what they are, no one in official Los Angeles pays much
attention as a serial killer murders three black bar girls. But when a white stripper is
similarly murdered - and when she turns out to be a UCLA coed, and the daughter of a
politically powerful L.A. prosecutor - all hell breaks loose. The heat is finally on to find
the killer.
Myles, Eileen
COOL FOR YOU
The Style is experimental without being annoying and without any condescension. Ms.
Myles makes real the tough-girl narrator who muses on ambition and sexuality, grief and
delight, with equal candor and grace.
Naylor, Gloria
MAMA DAY
On the island of Willow Springs, off the Georgia coast, the powers of healer Mama Day
are tested by her great niece, Cocoa, a stubbornly emancipated woman endangered by the
island's darker forces.
Neruda, Pablo (trans. Anthony Kerrigan)
SELECTED POEMS
In his long life as a poet, Pablo Neruda succeeded in becoming what many poets have
aspired to but never achieved: a public voice, a voice not just for the people of his
country but for his entire continent.
Nichols, John Treadwell
MILAGRO BEANFIELD WAR
This is a story of how a small town of disenfranchised people came to rally over Joe’s
beanfield and reclaims their own lost rights. This is a story that remains funny, fresh, and
inspiring. Call it a political novel, a Southwest novel, a comic novel, or an environmental
novel, The Milagro Beanfield War succeeds brilliantly on all fronts.
Nin, Aais
THE DIARY OF ANAIS NIN, VOL. 1:1931-1984
Covers the author's life in Paris during the early 1930s and her friendship with Henry
Miller, Otto Frank, and others.

O’Brian, Patrick
MASTER AND COMMANDER
When Jack Aubrey, a young lieutenant in Nelson's navy, is promoted to captain, he
inherits command of HMS Sophie, an old, slow brig unlikely to make his fortune. But
Captain Aubrey is a brave and gifted seaman, his thirst for adventure and victory
immense. With the aid of his friend Stephen Maturin, ship's surgeon and secret
intelligence agent, Aubrey and his crew engage in one thrilling battle after another, their
journey culminating in a stunning clash with a mighty Spanish frigate against whose guns
and manpower the tiny Sophie is hopelessly outmatched.
O’Brien, Tim
THE THINGS THEY CARRIED
In this, his second work of fiction about Vietnam, O'Brien's unique artistic vision is again
clearly demonstrated. Neither a novel nor a short story collection, it is an arc of fictional
episodes, taking place in the childhoods of its characters, in the jungles of Vietnam and
back home in America two decades later.
Oe, Kenzaburo (trans. Paul St. John Mackintosh and Maki Sugiyama)
NIP THE BUDS, SHOOT THE KIDS
"Nip The Buds, Shoot the Kids" recounts the exploits of fifteen teenage reformatory boys
evacuated to a remote mountain village in wartime.
Orwell, George
1984
Winston Smith is a low-ranking member of the ruling Party in London, in the nation of
Oceania. Everywhere Winston goes, even his own home, the Party watches him through
telescreens; everywhere he looks he sees the face of the Party's seemingly omniscient
leader, a figure known only as Big Brother. The Party controls everything in Oceania,
even the people's history and language. Currently, the Party is forcing the implementation
of an invented language called Newspeak, which attempts to prevent political rebellion
by eliminating all words related to it. Even thinking rebellious thoughts is illegal. Such
thought crime is, in fact, the worst of all crimes.
Pamuk, Orhan (trans. Erdag M. Goknar)
MY NAME IS RED
In 16th-century Istanbul, master miniaturist and illuminator of books Enishte Effendi is
commissioned to illustrate a book celebrating the sultan. Soon he lies dead at the bottom
of a well, and how he got there is the crux of this novel.

Patchett, Ann
BEL CANTO
Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish
birthday party is being held in honor of Mr. Hosokawa, a powerful Japanese
businessman. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the
international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening -- until a band of gunwielding
terrorists breaks in through the air-conditioning vents and takes the entire party
hostage. But what begins as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into
something quite different, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and people
from different countries and continents become compatriots.
Paul, Jim
CATAPULT
Building the catapult took money, a great deal of time, and many sore thumbs. But when
they were done, they had re-created the Middle Ages in a backyard in San Francisco, and
with it an entire era in history, as well as a way to understand human society.
Payne, C.D.
YOUTH IN REVOLT
These are the journals of Nick Twisp, California's most precocious diarist, whose
ongoing struggles to make sense out of high school, deal with his divorced parents, and
lose his virginity result in his self-described transformation from "brown-nosing honor
student" to "modern youth in open revolt."
Pham, Andrew X.
CATFISH AND MANDALA
Catfish and Mandala tells the stoyr of one man's ambitous bicycle trip through Mexico,
Japan, and picturesque Vietnam in a quest to understand his identity as a Vietnamese-
American. In search of a kinship with his birth country, Andrew Pham wards off beggars
and robbers while befriending those willing to share their homeland with him.
Meanwhile, Pham is haunted by the memories of the life he left behind as a child in
Vietnam.
Plath, Sylvia
THE BELL JAR
The narrator simply describes herself as feeling very still and very empty, the way the eye
of a tornado must feel. The in-between moment is just what Miss Plath's poetry does
catch brilliantly—the moment poised on the edge of chaos.
Pollan, Michael
THE BOTANY OF DESIRE
Weaving fascinating anecdotes and accessible science into gorgeous prose, Pollan takes
us on an absorbing journey that will change the way we think about our place in nature.

Postman, Neil
AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATH: PUBLIC DISCOURSE IN THE AGE OF
SHOW BUSINESS
Amusing Ourselves to Death is a prophetic look at what happens when politics,
journalism, education, and even religion become subject to the demands of entertainment.
It is also a blueprint for regaining control of our media, so that they can serve our highest
goals.
Quinn, Daniel
ISHMAEL
When a man in search of truth answers an ad in a local newspaper from a teacher looking
for serious students, he finds himself alone in an abandoned office with a gorilla named
Ishmael.
Ray, Rebbecca
PURE
Pure is about fourteen--the age when you know everything, except when you don't know
anything. It's about first love and the end of innocence in all its passion and absurdity. It's
about the raw transition between loving your parents as a child and understanding them
as an adult. It's about the cool friend for whom everything seems effortless, and the
impossibly embarrassing friend you're nice to when your cool friends can't see. It's about
the struggle between desire and duty, and about a chance meeting with a twenty-sevenyear-old
man. And it's about what happens after.
Remarque, Erich Maria
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT
Paul Baumer enlisted with his classmates in the German army of World War I. Youthful,
enthusiastic, they become soldiers. But despite what they have learned, they break into
pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches. And as horrible war plods on year
after year, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the principles of hate that
meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against each
other—if only he can come out of the war alive.
Rice, Anne
INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE
Here are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly erotic, this is a
novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force–a story of danger and flight, of love
and loss, of suspense and resolution, and of the extraordinary power of the senses.
Rice, Christopher
A DENSITY OF SOULS
Five years later the friends are drawn back together and what was held to be a tragic
accident is discovered to be murder. Other secrets begin to unravel and the casual
cruelties of high school develop into acts of violence that threaten an entire city.

Robbins, Tom
EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES
Sissy Hankshaw--flawlessly beautiful, almost; a small-town girl with big-time dreams
and a quirk to match--hitchhiking her way into your heart, your hopes, and your sleeping
bag. . . . Follow Sissy's amazing odyssey from Virginia to Manhattan to the Dakota
Badlands, where FBI agents, cowgirls and ecstatic whooping cranes explode in a
deliciously drawn-out climax.
Rodriquez, Luis
ALWAYS RUNNING
There has never been a more clear and compelling account of a gang member's life than
Always Running, Luis J. Rodriguez's eloquent, impassioned, frighteningly vivid
chronicle of his youth in Los Angeles in the late 60s and early 70s. Growing up in Watts
and East L.A., Rodriguez joined his first gang at age 11 and was drawn into "la vida loca"
- the crazy life.
Rodriquez, Richard
HUNGER OF MEMORY
Here is the poignant journey is a "minority student" who pays the cost of his social
assimilation and academic success with a painful alienation — from his past, his parents,
his culture — and so describes the high price of "making it" in middle class America.
Sacco, Joe
PALESTINE
"In late 1991 and early 1992, Joe Sacco spent two months with Palestinians in the
Occupied Territories, traveling and taking notes. Upon returning to the United States in
mid-1992, he started writing and drawing Palestine, which combined the techniques of
eyewitness reportage with the medium of comic-book storytelling to explore this
complex, emotionally weighty situation."
Sacks, Oliver
SEEING VOICES
Covers a history of the deaf, the battle for acceptance in a hearing world and sign
language as communication.
Sagan, Carl
CONTACT
Carl Sagan imagines the greatest adventure of all -- the discovery of an advanced
civilization in the depths of space. In December 1999, a multinational team journeys out
to the stars, to the most awesome encounter in human history. Who -- or what -- is out
there?
Salinger, J.D.
CATCHER IN THE RYE
Salinger's classic coming-of-age story portrays one young man's funny and poignant
experiences with life, love, and sex.

Santiago, Esmeralda
WHEN I WAS PUERTO RICAN
From a rippled zinc shack in rural Puerto Rico to "the better life" in a decaying Brooklyn
tenement, Esmerelda Santiago's Puerto Rican childhood is one of sorcery, smoldering
war between the sexes, and high comedy. Hers is a portrait of a harsh but enchanted
world that can never be reclaimed.
Sapphire
PUSH
In an electrifying novel, a black street girl, sixteen years old and pregnant, again, with her
father's child, speaks. In a voice that shakes us by its language, its story, and its
unflinching honesty, Precious Jones records her journey up from Harlem's lowest
depths...
Satrapi, Marjane
PERSEPOLIS
Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in
Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images,
Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the
overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the
devastating effects of war with Iraq.
Schlosser, Eric
FAST FOOD NATION
Journalist Schlosser argues that the fast food industry has triggered the growth of malls in
America's landscape, widened the gap between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of
obesity, and propelled American cultural imperialism abroad. He discusses facts about
food production and preparation, the ingredients and taste-enhancers in the food, the
chains' efforts to reel in young, susceptible consumers, and other unsettling facts.
Sedaris, David
ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY
ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY contains far more than just the funniest collection of
autobiographical essays - it quite well registers as a manifesto about language itself.
Wherever there's a straight line, you can be sure that Sedaris lurks beneath the text,
making it jagged with laughter; and just where the fault lines fall, he sits mischievously
perched at the epicenter of it all.
Selvadurai, Shyam
CINNAMON GARDENS
With sensuous atmosphere and vivid prose, this masterfully plotted novel re-creates a
world where a beautiful veneer of fragrant gardens and manners hides social, personal,
and political issues still relevant today.

Senna, Danzy
CAUCASIA
Caucasia, explores the complexity of racial discord in America. While Ellison wrote
about being paradoxically marked yet "invisible" as a black American man, and Larsen
grappled with issues of race, gender, and sexuality during the Harlem Renaissance,
Caucasia describes the experience of the invisible sister who confronts biracial identity in
post-civil rights movement America.
Shaara, Michael
THE KILLER ANGELS
In the four most courageous days of our nation's history, two armies fought for two
dreams: one dreamed of freedom, the other of a way of life. This novel of the Civil War
tells the story of the bloody Battle of Gettysburg.
Shakespeare, William
MACBETH
Macbeth is Shakespeare's great tragedy of a fall into evil.
Silko, Leslie Marmon
CEREMONY
Tayo, a young Native American, has been a prisoner of the Japanese during World War
II, and the horrors of captivity have almost eroded his will to survive. His return to the
Laguna Pueblo reservation only increases his feeling of estrangement and alienation.
While other returning soldiers find easy refuge in alcohol and senseless violence, Tayo
searches for another kind of comfort and resolution.
Smith, Bob
HAMLET’S DRESSER: A MEMOIR
Hamlet's Dresser is a redemptive memoir of a man made whole by art and an intimate
encounter with the plays and sonnets that will make readers fall in love with Shakespeare
again or for the first time.
Soto, Gary
LIVING UP THE STREET
In a prose that is so beautiful it is poetry, we see the world of growing up and going
somewhere through the dust and heat of Fresno's industrial side and beyond: It is a boy's
coming of age in the barrio, parochial school, attending church, public summer school,
and trying to fall out of love so he can join in a Little League baseball team.
Spiegelman, Art
MAUS
It is the story of Vladek Speigelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe, and his son, a
cartoonist coming to terms with his father's story. Maus approaches the unspeakable
through the diminutive. Its form, the cartoon (the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice), shocks
us out of any lingering sense of familiarity.

Steinbeck, John
GRAPES OF WRATH
Although it follows the movement of thousands of men and women and the
transformation of an entire nation, The Grapes of Wrath is also the story of one
Oklahoma farm family, the Joads, who are driven off their homestead and forced to travel
west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions
against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots, Steinbeck
created a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision,
elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its insistence on human
dignity.
Storm, Hyemeyohsts
SEVEN ARROWS
A heartbreaking story of victory, defeat, and of a spiritual search in a profane world, this
is the story of Night Bear and his people. It is the tale of the land they cherish and the
lives they hold sacred, lived until the enemy can no longer be stopped, and the dead have
few left to weep for them.
Straight, Susan
HIGHWIRE MOON
Illegal alien Serafina has found some measure of happiness until she is forcibly separated
from beloved daughter Elvia and sent back to Mexico. Eventually, the teenaged Elvia
will go there to hunt her out.
Susskind, Ron
A HOPE IN THE UNSEEN
At Brown, finding himself far behind most of the other freshmen, Cedric must manage a
bewildering array of intellectual and social challenges.
Swofford, Anthony
JARHEAD
On the surface, Anthony Swofford seemed to be the quintessential "jarhead"; a front-line
combat Marine who shouldered 100-pound packs and waded into battle-torn Iraq with
little or no hesitation. But, as this harrowing memoir shows, Desert Storm veteran
Swofford carried mental baggage far heavier than duffel bags with bed rolls and rifles.
Syal, Meera
LIFE ISN’T ALL HA HA HEE HEE
Caught between two cultures, three childhood friends--Chila, Sunita, and Tania--are
expected to revert to being obedient mothers and wives. But their world explodes when
Tania makes a documentary, starring Chila and Sunita, about contemporary urban Indian
Life. The result is an unforgettable story of friendship, marriage, betrayal, and the
difficult choices woman face.

Tan, Amy
THE JOY LUCK CLUB
In 1949, four Chinese women begin meeting in San Francisco for fun. Nearly 40 years
later, their daughters continue to meet as the Joy Luck Club. Their stories ultimately
display the double happiness that can be found in being both Chinese and American.
Tartt, Donna
THE SECRET HISTORY
The Secret History tells of a small circle of friends at an esteemed college in New
England, whose studies in Classical Greek lead them to odd rituals, shocking behavior-and
murder.
Tayer, Jeffrey
FACING THE CONGO: A MODERN-DAY JOURNEY
INTO THE HEART OF DARKNESS
Transports readers into the jungles and crocodile-infested waters of sub-Saharan Africa.
The author travels a river barge teeming with merchants, mothers, prostitutes, fishermen,
and spiritual followers, and then launches his quest to confront the Congo River by
descending its longest navigational stretch in a hand-carved canoe.
Toer, Pramoedya Ananta
THIS EARTH OF MANKIND
Toer (The Fugitive), an Indonesian novelist and political dissident, began this novel as a
series of stories told to fellow political prisoners held on Buru Island. The tale is narrated
mostly by a brilliant young student, Minke, a native among Dutch colonialists and mixedbloods
in turn-of-the-century Java.
Toole, John Kennedy
A CONDEFERACY OF DUNCES
This wildly inventive and amusing novel features one of the most unforgettable
characters in modern fiction: Ignatius Reilly. He's a mammoth misfit Medievalist
hilariously at odds with the world of the twentieth century, and his adventures take him to
'way down, to New Orleans' lower depths.
Townsend, Sue
THE SECRET DIARY OF ADRIAN MOLE, AGED 13 _
Adrian Mole's first love, Pandora, has left him; a neighbor, Mr. Lucas, appears to be
seducing his mother (and what does that mean for his father?); the BBC refuses to
publish his poetry; and his dog swallowed the tree off the Christmas cake. "Why" indeed.

Tramble, Nichelle D.
THE DYING GROUND
Billy: dead. Felicia: missing.
None of the words made sense together, but the doom I'd expected announced itself. I felt
iron in my mouth, like I'd gargled with pennies, a taste like blood, a bitter taste that
always followed bad news. The setting is Oakland, 1989; the crack epidemic is at its
height and turf wars are brewing.
Twain, Mark
THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN
As Huck learns about love, responsibility, and how to make moral choices, the trip
becomes a metaphoric voyage through his own soul, culminating in the glorious moment
when he decides to "go to hell" rather than return Jim to slavery.
Tyree, Omar
A DO RIGHT MAN
Bobby Dallas, a budding radio talk-show host, has no skeletons or kids in the closet. All
that's missing is a talented, sexy, smart black woman by his side. And that should be
easy, right? But after a shattering breakup with his first love, Bobby wanders for years
between women and jobs, unsure about marriage, family, economics, and his overall
stability. Having achieved his dream of becoming a highly successful radio talk-show
host, Bobby is a man with the best of intentions not only in his career, but also in love.
He learns, though, that being a "do right man" is far from easy.
Vonnegut, Kurt
SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE
Unstuck in time, Billy Pilgrim, Vonnegut's shattered survivor of the Dresden bombing,
relives his life over and over again under the gaze of aliens; he comes at last to some
understanding of the human comedy.
Walker, Alice
THE COLOR PURPLE
Beautifully imagined and deeply compassionate, this is the story of two sisters-one a
missionary in Africa and the other a child wife living in the South-who sustain their
loyalty to and trust in each other across time, distance, and silence.
Walker, Margaret
JUBILEE
Here is the classic--and true--story of Vyry, the child of a white plantation owner and his
black mistress, a Southern Civil War heroine to rival Scarlett O'Hara. Vyry bears witness
to the South's prewar opulence and its brutality, to its wartime ruin and the subsequent
promise of Reconstruction.

Wells, Rebecca
THE DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood manages with passion, humor, and an
irrepressible gift for language to somehow show readers of all backgrounds a mirrorperfect
reflection of their own life experiences.
West, Nathanael
MISS LONELYHEARTS/ DAY OF THE LOCUST
Miss Lonelyhearts, which West envisioned as "a novel in the form of a comic strip," tells
of an advice-to-the-lovelorn columnist who becomes tragically embroiled in the desperate
lives of his readers. The Day of the Locust is West's great dystopian Hollywood novel
based on his experiences at the seedy fringes of the movie industry.
Wharton, Edith
THE HOUSE OF MIRTH
Faced with an array of wealthy suitors, New York socialite Lily Bart falls in love with
lawyer Lawrence Selden, whose lack of money spoils their chances for happiness
together. Dubious business deals and accusations of liaisons with a married man diminish
Lily’s social status, and as she makes one bad choice after another, she learns how venal
and brutally unforgiving the upper crust of New York can be.
Wideman, John Edgar
BROTHERS AND KEEPERS
A haunting portrait of lives arriving at different destinies, Brothers and Keepers is John
Edgar Wideman's seminal memoir about two brothers - one an award-winning novelist,
the other a fugitive wanted for robbery and murder.
Wiesenthal, Simon
THE SUNFLOWER
Must we, can we forgive the repentant criminal? Can we forgive crimes committed
against others? What do we owe the victims? Twenty-five years after the Holocaust,
Wiesenthal asked leading intellectuals what they would have done in his place.
Williams, John A.
THE MAN WHO CRIED I AM
Novelist, poet, and journalist John Alfred Williams has created in Max Reddick an
unforgettable character: irascible, fiercely intelligent, irredeemable, and honorable. The
Man Who Cried I Am is a stunning chronicle of not only Williams's life but the lives of
all black people who have refused to be victims: blacks who have had to leave their
country to claim their individuality, intellectual independence, and rightful recognition,
and who have always yearned to be "home" but struggled to find such a place.

Wilson, August
THE PIANO LESSON
Set in 1936, The Piano Lesson is a powerful new play from the Pulitzer Prize-winning
author of Fences and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. A sister and brother fight over a piano
that has been in the family for three generations, creating a remarkable drama that
embodies the painful past and expectant future of black Americans.
Wimsatt, William Upski
BOMB THE SURBURBS
Upski uses his coming of age in the Chicago break dancing and hip hop scene as a
springboard into a totally original discussion of American identity. Bomb the Suburbs is a
brilliant dissection and advocacy for a real alternative, using art, parody, reportage and
downright good writing.
Winchester, Simon
THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN
Part homage to the greatest reference work of all time, the Oxford English Dictionary,
part mystery, part intellectual history of Victorian England, The Professor and the
Madman tells the parallel stories of the dictionary's genius editor and one of his most
prolific contributors, an insane American doctor committed to an asylum for murder.
Wittlinger, Ellen
HARD LOVE
After starting to publish a zine in which he writes his secret feelings about his lonely life
and his parents' divorce, sixteen-year-old John meets an unusual girl and begins to
develop a healthier personality.
Wolff, Milton
ANOTHER HILL
In this powerful novel, Milton Wolff gives readers an insider's understanding of the
American volunteers who fought with the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. Wolff
gives us a detailed picture of the heroism and trauma of battle, while covering as well
those issues others have avoided: the desertion of some Americans, the execution of
fascist prisoners, and black market activities.
Wolff, Tobias
THIS BOY’S LIFE
Fighting for identity and self-respect against the unrelenting hostility of a new stepfather,
Toby's growing up is at once poignant and comical. His various schemes—running away
to Alaska, forging cheeks, and stealing cars—lead eventually to an act of outrageous selfinvention
that releases him into a new world of possibility.

Wright, Richard
NATIVE SON
Widely acclaimed as one of the finest books ever written on race and class divisions in
America, this powerful novel reflects the forces of poverty, injustice, and hopelessness
that continue to shape out society.
Xialong, Qiu
DEATH OF A RED HEROINE
Inspector Chen of the Shanghai Police must find the murderer of a National Model
Worker, and then risk his own life and career to see that justice is done.
Yoshikawa, Eiji
MUSASHI
Musashi becomes a reluctant hero to a host of people whose lives he has touched and
been touched by. And, inevitably, he has to pit his skill against the naked blade of his
greatest rival.
Zacks, Richard
THE PIRATE HUNTER: THE TRUE STORY OF CAPTAIN KIDD
Who was the real Captain Kidd? Was he the same historical figure we read about in
school, or someone much more ambiguous? Author Richard Zacks takes an authoritative
look at this enigmatic personality.
*The following list was inspired by:
Ayers, Rick and Amy Crawford. Great Books for High School Kids: A Teacher’s Guide
to Books that can Change Lives. Boston: Beacon Press, 2004.
Annotations courtesy of Barnes & Noble Booksellers.
.