Freakonomics
Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.
320 pages
(it's a bit of a dense read, but I enjoyed it even though I HATED ecomonics in school.) In this book a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything…Levitt argues that many apparent mysteries of everyday life don't need to be so mysterious: they could be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the right questions and drawing connections…
Frederick Douglass: Autobiographies...
Frederick Douglass
1100 pages
(I read this a few years ago and it was very insightful to this stage in American history. I also thought it would be interesting considering he is buried in the Mt. Hope Cemetary.) Born a slave, Frederick Douglass educated himself, escaped, and made himself one of the greatest leaders in American history. His three autobiographical narratives, collected here in one volume, are now recognized as classics of both American history and American literature. Writing with the eloquence and fierce intelligence that made him a brilliantly effective spokesman for abolition and equal rights, Douglass shapes an inspiring vision of self-realization in the face of monumental odds. This book includes his three narratives: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, an American Slave (1845), My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), Life and Times of Frederick Douglas (1881), as well as other extracts from some of his famous speeches.
The Girl Who Could Fly
Victoria Forester
208 pages
(Total fluff read, but quick and fun.) When homeschooled farm girl Piper McCloud reveals her ability to fly, she is quickly taken to a secret government facility to be trained with other exceptional children, but she soon realizes that something is very wrong and begins working with brilliant and wealthy Conrad to escape.
A Simple Path, No Greater Love, The Joy in Loving, Mother Theresa,
Mother Theresa
240 pages
in her own words, Mother Teresa shares the thoughts and experiences that have led her to do her extraordinary charitable work. A candid look at her everyday life--at the very simplicity and self-sacrifice that give her the strength to move mountains--A Simple Path gives voice to the remarkable spirit who has dedicated her life to the poorest among us.
…A Simple Path is a unique spiritual guide for Catholics and non-Catholics alike: full of wisdom and hope from the one person who has given us the greatest model of love in action in our time
The Building
Mason Jackson
128 pages
No descriptions available—subjects include: White collar workers, New York (State), Rochester, Anecdotes, Humor, Office buildings, Social aspects.
Out of Africa,
Isak Dinesen
416 pages
In this book, the author of Seven Gothic Tales gives a true account of her life on her plantation in Kenya. She tells with classic simplicity of the ways of the country and the natives: of the beauty of the Ngong Hills and coffee trees in blossom: of her guests, from the Prince of Wales to Knudsen, the old charcoal burner, who visited her: of primitive festivals: of big game that were her near neighbors--lions, rhinos, elephants, zebras, buffaloes--and of Lulu, the little gazelle who came to live with her, unbelievably ladylike and beautiful.
"Same Kind of Different as Me"
Ron Hall and Denver Moore
230 pages
The unlikely story of the unlikeliest of friends—Ron Hall and Denver Moore. Told in two voices, the book alternates between telling the story from the perspective of Ron and Denver. Ron is a wealthy international art dealer who reluctantly volunteers at a homeless shelter (at the insistence of his wife). There he soon comes into contact with Denver, who left his impoverish life as a share-cropper in cotton fields to live on the streets. It was here, in a homeless shelter, that the two men met, one serving food and the other being a reluctant recipient of this charity.
Pieces of Georgia
Jen Bryant
176 pages (Teen)
PIECES OF GEORGIA by Jen Bryant is a touching coming-of-age novel about a troubled 13-year-old girl named Georgia McCoy. The novel in poems is told through journal entries Georgia writes to her deceased mother.
A Long Way Gone, memoirs of a boy soldier
Ishmael Beah
230 pages
A gripping story of a child’s journey through hell and back. There may be as many as 300,000 child soldiers, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s, in more than fifty conflicts around the world. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. He is one of the first to tell his story in his own words. In A LONG WAY GONE, Beah, now twenty-six years old, tells a riveting story. Eventually released by the army and sent to a UNICEF rehabilitation center, he struggled to regain his humanity and to reenter the world of civilians, who viewed him with fear and suspicion. This is, at last, a story of redemption and hope.
Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
CS Lewis
313 pages
At once more human and more mythic than his Perelandra trilogy, Lewis's short novel of love, faith, and transformation (both good and ill) offers the reader much food for thought in a compact, impressively rich story. Less heavy-handedly Christian-allegorical than Narnia, Till We Have Faces gives us characters who remind us of people we know facing choices and difficulties we recognize. This deceptively simple book takes on new depth with each rereading. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. This tale of two princesses - one beautiful and one unattractive - and of the struggle between sacred and profane love is Lewis’s reworking of the myth of Cupid and Psyche and one of his most enduring works.
The Alchemist
Paulo Coelho
208 pages
The Alchemist presents a simple fable, based on simple truths and places it in a highly unique situation. Brazilian storyteller Paulo Coehlo introduces Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who one night dreams of a distant treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. And so he's off: leaving Spain to literally follow his dream. Along the way he meets many spiritual messengers, who come in unassuming forms such as a camel driver and a well-read Englishman. In one of the Englishman's books, Santiago first learns about the alchemists--men who believed that if a metal were heated for many years, it would free itself of all its individual properties, and what was left would be the "Soul of the World." Of course he does eventually meet an alchemist, and the ensuing student-teacher relationship clarifies much of the boy's misguided agenda, while also emboldening him to stay true to his dreams.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Betty SmithPaperback,
430 pages
The beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness -- in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.
The Time Traveler's Wife
Audrey Niffenegger
536 pages
When Henry meets Clare, he is twenty-eight and she is twenty. Henry has never met Clare before; Clare has known Henry since she was six. Impossible but true, because Henry finds himself periodically displaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity from his life, past and future. Henry and Clare's attempts to live normal lives are threatened by a force they can neither prevent nor control, making their passionate love story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable. The Time Traveler's Wife is a story of fate, hope and belief, and more than that, it's about the power of love to endure beyond the bounds of time.
The Power of One
Bryce Courtenay
528 pages
In this magical novel, an irresistible boy tells the story of his survival and coming of age against the background of South Africa during and just after World War II. One reader wrote, “I'm not an big fan of boxing, and I don't know a lot about South Africa and apartheid. So, why do I love this book? I love this book because it drew me in and had me cheering for Peekay. And because it contains adventure and history. And because I felt like a little bit better of a person for having read it.”
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows
274 pages
The book takes place in London post WWII. Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all… Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever. Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.
1984
George Orwell
368 pages
Among the seminal texts of the 20th century, Nineteen Eighty-Four is a rare work that grows more haunting as its futuristic purgatory becomes more real. Published in 1949, the book offers political satirist George Orwell's nightmare vision of a totalitarian, bureaucratic world and one poor stiff's attempt to find individuality. The brilliance of the novel is Orwell's prescience of modern life--the ubiquity of television, the distortion of the language--and his ability to construct such a thorough version of hell. Required reading for students since it was published, it ranks among the most terrifying novels ever written.
Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury
208 pages
In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's classic, frightening vision of the future, firemen don't put out fires--they start them in order to burn books. Bradbury's vividly painted society holds up the appearance of happiness as the highest goal--a place where trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad.
Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins
384 pages
In a not-too-distant future, the United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss’s young sister, Prim, is selected as the mining district’s female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart, Peeta, the son of the town baker who seems to have all the fighting skills of a lump of bread dough, will be pitted against bigger, stronger representatives who have trained for this their whole lives. Collins’s characters are completely realistic and sympathetic as they form alliances and friendships in the face of overwhelming odds; the plot is tense, dramatic, and engrossing. This book will definitely resonate with the generation raised on reality shows like “Survivor” and “American Gladiator.” Book one of a planned trilogy.
Rachel and Leah: Women of Genesis
Orson Scott Card
368 pages
In this third volume of his Women of Genesis series, Orson Scott Card paints a vivid picture of the intertwined lives of four celebrated women. We meet Leah, the oldest daughter of Laban, whose "tender eyes" prevent her from fully participating in the daily work of her nomadic family, and Rachel, the spoiled younger daughter, the petted and privileged beauty of the family -- or so it seems to Leah. There is also Bilhah, an orphan who is not quite a slave but not really a family member, a young woman desperately searching to fit in, and Zilpah, who knows only how to use her beauty to manipulate men as she strives to secure for herself something better than the life of drudgery and servitude into which she has been born. Into the desert camp comes Jacob, a handsome and charismatic kinsman who is clearly destined to be Rachel's husband. But that doesn't prevent the other women from vying for his attention. Tracing their lives from childhood to maturity, Card shows how these women change each other -- and are changed again by the holy books that Jacob brings with him. Ambition, jealousy, fear, and love motivate them as they vie for the attention of Jacob, heir to the spiritual birthright of Abraham and Isaac.
The Uglies
Scott Westerfeld
448 pages
Playing on every teen’s passionate desire to look as good as everybody else, Scott Westerfeld (Midnighters) projects a future world in which a compulsory operation at sixteen wipes out physical differences and makes everyone pretty by conforming to an ideal standard of beauty. The "New Pretties" are then free to play and party, while the younger "Uglies" look on enviously and spend the time before their own transformations in plotting mischievous tricks against their elders. Tally Youngblood is one of the most daring of the Uglies, and her imaginative tricks have gotten her in trouble with the menacing department of Special Circumstances. She has yearned to be pretty, but since her best friend Shay ran away to the rumored rebel settlement of recalcitrant Uglies called The Smoke, Tally has been troubled. The authorities give her an impossible choice: either she follows Shay’s cryptic directions to The Smoke with the purpose of betraying the rebels, or she will never be allowed to become pretty. Hoping to rescue Shay, Tally sets off on the dangerous journey.
The Help
Kathryn Stockett
464 pgs
Set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, Miss., where black women were trusted to raise white children but not to polish the household silver. Eugenia Skeeter Phelan is just home from college in 1962, and, anxious to become a writer, is advised to hone her chops by writing about what disturbs you. The budding social activist begins to collect the stories of the black women on whom the country club sets relies and mistrusts enlisting the help of Aibileen, a maid who's raised 17 children, and Aibileen's best friend Minny, who's found herself unemployed more than a few times after mouthing off to her white employers. The book Skeeter puts together based on their stories is scathing and shocking, bringing pride and hope to the black community, while giving Skeeter the courage to break down her personal boundaries and pursue her dreams.
My Sister’s Keeper
Jodi Picoult
448 pages
Kate Fitzgerald has a rare form of leukemia. Her sister, Anna, was conceived to provide a donor match for procedures that become increasingly invasive. At 13, Anna hires a lawyer so that she can sue her parents for the right to make her own decisions about how her body is used when a kidney transplant is planned. Meanwhile, Jesse, the neglected oldest child of the family, is out setting fires, which his firefighter father, Brian, inevitably puts out. Picoult uses multiple viewpoints to reveal each character's intentions and observations, but she doesn't manage her transitions as gracefully as usual; a series of flashbacks are abrupt. Nor is Sara, the children's mother, as well developed and three-dimensional as previous Picoult protagonists. Her devotion to Kate is understandable, but her complete lack of sympathy for Anna's predicament until the trial does not ring true, nor can we buy that Sara would dust off her law degree and represent herself in such a complicated case. Nevertheless, Picoult ably explores a complex subject with bravado and clarity, and comes up with a heart-wrenching, unexpected plot twist at the book's conclusion.
The buffalo soldier
Christopher Bohjalian
404 pages
In northern Vermont, a raging river overflows its banks and sweeps the nine-year-old twin daughters of Terry and Laura Sheldon to their deaths. In the aftermath of the tragedy, the highway patrolman and his wife, unable to have more children, take in a foster child: a ten-year-old African-American boy who has been shuttled for years between foster families and group homes. Young Alfred cautiously enters the Sheldon family circle, barely willing to hope that he might find a permanent home among these kind people still distracted by grief. Across the street from the Sheldons live an older couple who take Alfred under their wing, and it is they who introduce him to the history of the buffalo soldiers—African-American cavalry troopers whose reputation for integrity, honor, and personal responsibility inspires the child.
Before life has a chance to settle down, however, Terry, who has never been unfaithful to Laura, finds himself attracted to the solace offered by another woman. Their encounter, brief as it is, leaves her pregnant with his baby—a child Terry suddenly realizes he urgently wants. From these fitful lives emerges a lyrical and richly textured story, one that explores the meaning of marriage, the bonds between parents and children, and the relationships that cause a community to become a family.
Blink
Malcolm Gladwell (author of The Tipping Poitn)
296 pages
He displays again in this entertaining and illuminating look at how we make snap judgments—about people's intentions, the authenticity of a work of art, even military strategy—he can parse for general readers the intricacies of fascinating but little-known fields like professional food tasting (why does Coke taste different from Pepsi?). Gladwell's conclusion, after studying how people make instant decisions in a wide range of fields from psychology to police work, is that we can make better instant judgments by training our mind and senses to focus on the most relevant facts—and that less input (as long as it's the right input) is better than more. Perhaps the most stunning example he gives of this counterintuitive truth is the most expensive war game ever conducted by the Pentagon, in which a wily marine officer, playing "a rogue military commander" in the Persian Gulf and unencumbered by hierarchy, bureaucracy and too much technology, humiliated American forces whose chiefs were bogged down in matrixes, systems for decision making and information overload. But if one sets aside Gladwell's dazzle, some questions and apparent inconsistencies emerge. If doctors are given an algorithm, or formula, in which only four facts are needed to determine if a patient is having a heart attack, is that really educating the doctor's decision-making ability—or is it taking the decision out of the doctor's hands altogether and handing it over to the algorithm? Still, each case study is satisfying, and Gladwell imparts his own evident pleasure in delving into a wide range of fields and seeking an underlying truth.
Still Alice
Lisa Genova
293 pages
Neuroscientist and debut novelist Genova mines years of experience in her field to craft a realistic portrait of early onset Alzheimer's disease. Alice Howland has a career not unlike Genova's—she's an esteemed psychology professor at Harvard, living a comfortable life in Cambridge with her husband, John, arguing about the usual (making quality time together, their daughter's move to L.A.) when the first symptoms of Alzheimer's begin to emerge. First, Alice can't find her Blackberry, then she becomes hopelessly disoriented in her own town. Alice is shocked to be diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's (she had suspected a brain tumor or menopause), after which her life begins steadily to unravel. She loses track of rooms in her home, resigns from Harvard and eventually cannot recognize her own children. The brutal facts of Alzheimer's are heartbreaking, and it's impossible not to feel for Alice and her loved ones, but Genova's prose style is clumsy and her dialogue heavy-handed. This novel will appeal to those dealing with the disease and may prove helpful, but beyond the heartbreaking record of illness there's little here to remember.
Elegance of the hedgehog
Muriel Barbery
325 pages
In a bourgeois apartment building in Paris, we encounter Renée, an intelligent, philosophical, and cultured concierge who masks herself as the stereotypical uneducated “super” to avoid suspicion from the building’s pretentious inhabitants. Also living in the building is Paloma, the adolescent daughter of a parliamentarian, who has decided to commit suicide on her thirteenth birthday because she cannot bear to live among the rich. Although they are passing strangers, it is through Renée’s observations and Paloma’s journal entries that The Elegance of the Hedgehog reveals the absurd lives of the wealthy. That is until a Japanese businessman moves into the building and brings the two characters together. A critical success in France, the novel may strike a different chord with some readers in the U.S. The plot thins at moments and is supplanted with philosophical discourse on culture, the ruling class, and the injustices done to the poor, leaving the reader enlightened on Kant but disappointed with the story at hand. --Heather Paulson
The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
A. J. Jacobshttp
416 pages
What would it require for a person to live all the commandments of the Bible for an entire year? That is the question that animates this hilarious, quixotic, thought-provoking memoir from Jacobs (The Know-It-All). He didn't just keep the Bible's better-known moral laws (being honest, tithing to charity and trying to curb his lust), but also the obscure and unfathomable ones: not mixing wool with linen in his clothing; calling the days of the week by their ordinal numbers to avoid voicing the names of pagan gods; trying his hand at a 10-string harp; growing a ZZ Top beard; eating crickets; and paying the babysitter in cash at the end of each work day. (He considered some rules, such as killing magicians, too legally questionable to uphold.) In his attempts at living the Bible to the letter, Jacobs hits the road in highly entertaining fashion to meet other literalists, including Samaritans in Israel, snake handlers in Appalachia, Amish in Lancaster County, Pa., and biblical creationists in Kentucky. Throughout his journey, Jacobs comes across as a generous and thoughtful (and, yes, slightly neurotic) participant observer, lacing his story with absurdly funny cultural commentary as well as nuanced insights into the impossible task of biblical literalism.
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
Erik Larson
447 pages
Author Erik Larson imbues the incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with such drama that readers may find themselves checking the book's categorization to be sure that The Devil in the White City is not, in fact, a highly imaginative novel. Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor. Burnham's challenge was immense. In a short period of time, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the famous "White City" around which the fair was built. His efforts to complete the project, and the fair's incredible success, are skillfully related along with entertaining appearances by such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, Susan B. Anthony, and Thomas Edison. The activities of the sinister Dr. Holmes, who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable. He devised and erected the World's Fair Hotel, complete with crematorium and gas chamber, near the fairgrounds and used the event as well as his own charismatic personality to lure victims. Combining the stories of an architect and a killer in one book, mostly in alternating chapters, seems like an odd choice but it works. The magical appeal and horrifying dark side of 19th-century Chicago are both revealed through Larson's skillful writing.
The Turn of the Screw
Henry James
96 pages
A young governess is sent to a country estate to care for two orphans. When she begins to see apparitions of two deceased servants, she fears for the safety of the children whom she assumes also sees them.
The Stepford Wives
Ira Levin
208 pages
There is something unsettling about living in Stepford, CT - women happily stay at home, do housework, and have no time to socialize - men attend Men's Association meetings in the evening. What is going on there? Joanna, a suspicious newcomer to town, comes up with a chilling explanation.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde
178 pages
Dorian Gray is an extremely handsome young man who sells his soul to remain as beautiful as he appears in his portrait. Over the next 18 years, he becomes the embodiment of the idle rich's ideas of art and beauty, and ultimately of hedonism and debauchery. While Dorian remains outwardly magnificent, each sin manifests itself as a disfiguring mark upon his portrait.
Ghost Walk: Chilling Tales from Rochester’s Past
Cindy Boyer
152 pages
Thirteen 19th century ghost stories taken from newspaper reports, vintage photographs, diaries and letters within the Rochester area.
Brick Lane
Monica Ali
428 pages
For Nazneen, a Pakistani woman sent to London for an arranged marriage to a much older man, life is all about accepting what fate brings her. She lives in the circumscribed immigrant world of Brick Lane, raising her children and keeping house for her harmless but incompetent husband. As the years go by, however, she becomes strong and confident enough to make choices which were, at one time, unthinkable.
The Jane Austen Book Club: a Novel
Karen Joy Fowler
304 pages
The story, which takes place near Sacramento, California, centers around a book club consisting of five women and one man who meet once a month to discuss Jane Austen's six novels. Each of the six chapters is dedicated to one of the six book club members as well as one of Austen's six works. In turn, each of Austen's novels parallels the individual characters' experiences with relationships and love.
The Secret Life of Bees
Sue Monk Kidd
336 pages
Motherless Lily runs away with her black housekeeper/stand-in mother Rosaleen to escape her abusive father and to search for clues about her dead mother. They find refuge with a trio of black beekeeping sisters.
The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Mitch Albom
198 pages
After 83 year old Eddie dies, he discovers that heaven is a place where your life is explained to you by five people who have had some role in your life, even if you never met them.
*The Time Traveler’s Wife
Audrey Niffenegger
546 pages
An unconventional love story that centers on a man with a strange genetic disorder that causes him to unpredictably time-travel and his wife, an artist, who has to cope with his constant absence.
The Lovely Bones
Alice Sebold
368 pages
From heaven, a 14 year old girl, brutally raped and murdered, keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, her killer, and the investigating detective.
* The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
Erik Larson
447 pages
The true stories of two men, Daniel Burnham, the architect of the 1893 Chicago’s World Fair, and Dr. H.H. Holmes, a serial killer whose World’s Fair Hotel contained a gas chamber.
Angela’s Ashes: a Memoir
Frank McCourt
368 pages
A compelling memoir of a poverty stricken childhood in Limerick, Ireland.
The Glass Castle
Jeannette Walls
288 pages
Raised by their non-conformist, dysfunctional parents, the four Walls children lived a nomadic life of increasing deprivation, dependent on each other for their survival.
A Long Way Down
Nick Hornby
352 pages
Four people meet on New Year’s Eve on the roof of Topper’s House, a destination infamous as a last stop for suicidal people. After sharing their stories, they make a pact to reassess their options in 90 days. They decide the solution (if any) to their despair is more likely to come in a small moment of kindness than in any best-selling therapist’s notion of closure.
Mind’s Eye
Paul Fleischman
112 pages
Confined to bed in a convalescent hospital after an accident left her paralyzed, 16 year old Courtney learns the power of imagination from her elderly roommate as they take an imaginary trip to Italy.
Pay It Forward
Catherine Ryan Hyde
320 pages
Trevor is a 12 year old boy whose plan to change the world is simple enough – do something nice for three people and in turn each of them does something nice for three other people.
Someone Knows My Name
Lawrence Hill
486 pages
Born in Africa, kidnapped as a child and enslaved in South Carolina, Aminata Diallo learns to read and write as she attempts to free herself. In exchange for fighting for the British during the American Revolution, she and hundreds of other slaves are promised freedom and land in Canada.
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston
256 pages
Janie Crawford is a black woman who realizes, after three marriages and many heartbreaking experiences that everyone has to find out two things for themselves: how to find God and how to live without fear, bitterness, or overwhelming sorrow.
Beloved
Toni Morrison
316 pages
This story depicts the brutal effects of slavery. Sethe (an escaped slave) and her daughter, Denver, are living in a haunted house occupied by a ghost named Beloved.
A Mercy
Toni Morrison
224 pages
Set in 17th century colonial Virginia during the slave trade, this is the story of a remarkable group of characters – Black, Native American and White who are forced to make difficult and heart wrenching decisions while trying to survive in a brutal society.
North and South
Elizabeth Gaskell
528 pages
first published in book form in 1855 originally appeared as a twenty-two-part weekly serial from September 1854 through January 1855 in the magazine Household Words, edited by Charles Dickens. The title indicates a major theme of the book: the contrast between the way of life in the industrial north of England and the wealthier south, although it was only under pressure from her publishers that Gaskell changed the title from its original,Margaret Hale.
The book is a social novel that tries to show the industrial North and its conflicts in the mid-19th century as seen by an outsider, a socially sensitive lady from the South. The heroine of the story, Margaret Hale, is the daughter of a Nonconformist minister who moves to the fictional industrial town of Milton after leaving the Church of England. The town is modeled after Manchester, where Gaskell lived as the wife of a Unitarian minister. Gaskell herself worked among the poor and knew at first hand the misery of the industrial areas.
The Poisonwood Bible
Barbara Kingsolver
546 pages
Although ''The Poisonwood Bible'' takes place in the former Belgian Congo and begins in 1959 and ends in the 1990's, Barbara Kingsolver's powerful new book is actually an old-fashioned 19th-century novel, a Hawthornian tale of sin and redemption and the ''dark necessity'' of history. The novel's central character, a fiery evangelical missionary named Nathan Price, is part Roger Chillingworth, the coldhearted, judgmental villain of Hawthorne's ''Scarlet Letter,'' and part Ahab, Melville's monomaniacal captain who risks his life and the lives of those closest to him in pursuit of his obsessive vision. Narrated in alternating chapters by Nathan's wife, Orleanna, and their four daughters, Rachel, Leah, Adah and Ruth May, ''The Poisonwood Bible'' begins with the arrival of the Price family in the remote Congolese village of Kilanga, a tiny cluster of mud houses devoid of all the ordinary amenities of life back home in ''the easy land of ice cream cones and new Keds sneakers and We Like Ike.'' Moving fluently from one point of view to another, Ms. Kingsolver does a nimble job of delineating the Price girls' responses to Africa and their father's decision to uproot them.
