Fiction
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Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Story of a big-hearted man who becomes the unlikely hero of a small town with a glorious past but a dubious future.
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
In the summer of her 28th year, Edna Pontellier and her children spend the summer in an idyllic coastal community away from her husband and the sweltering heat of 1890s New Orleans. Aware of deep yearnings that are unfulfilled by marriage and motherhood, Edna plunges into an illicit liaison that reawakens her long dormant desires.
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
A story of passion and idealism, describing a group of men and women in the Middle Ages whose destinies are fatefully linked with the building of a cathedral.
Those Who Saved Us by Jenna Blum
Family secrets of Nazis are the core of this powerful first novel told in two narratives that alternate between New Heidelberg, Minnesota, in the present, and the small town of Weimar near Buchenwald during World War II.
Amsterdam: A Novel by Ian McEwan
On a chilly February day, Clive Linley and Vernon Halliday meet outside a crematorium to pay their last respects to Molly Lane - both had been Molly's lovers. Another of Molly's paramours was a foreign secretary who's running for Prime Minister. Urged by Molly's husband to sabotage the secretary's chances, the pair find themselves making moral choices that could have disastrous results.
Fire Bell in the Night
by Geoffrey Edwards
Filled with historic details of the time, this book explores the explosive tension between North and South and black and white, that gripped Charleston, South Carolina, in the summer of 1850. New York Tribune reporter John Sharp is sent to cover the capital trial of Darcy Calhoun, a farmer who stands accused of harboring a fugitive slave.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Hosseini Khaled
A friendship between two women in
Afghanistan against the backdrop of 30 years of war.
Full of Grace by Dorothea Benton Frank
New York Times bestselling author pens a moving story of the power of love and the miracles of life, chock-full of Southern wit, sass, and charm. (Oprah’s Book Club Pick)
Cane River by Lalita Tademy
Lalita Tademy was a corporate vice president at a Fortune 500 company when she decided to give notice and embark upon an odyssey to uncover her family's past. Tademy takes historical fact and mingles it with fiction to weave a vivid account of what life was like for the four remarkable women who came before her. (Oprah’s Book Club Pick)
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
A Pultizer Prize-winning novel by a master of comedy beloved by readers and critics alike. The place is the French Quarter, the characters, citizens of New Orleans's lower depths.
Magic Seeds by V.S. Naipaul
Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul's Magic Seeds continues the story of Willie Chandran, the perennially dissatisfied and self-destructively naive protagonist of his bestselling Half a Life. Having left a wife and a livelihood in Africa, Willie is persuaded to return to his native India to join an underground movement on behalf of its oppressed lower castes.
On Beauty
by Zadie Smith
Set on both sides of the Atlantic, Smith’s, often funny, third novel is a look at family life, marriage, the collision of the personal and political, and a honest look at people’s self-deceptions.
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Non-Fiction
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Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself
by Alan Alda
After recovering from a nearly fatal intestinal obstruction, Alda grapples with the meaning of his life. Alda is insightful, humorous and easygoing, "rather like a Mr. Rogers for grownups."
[B Alda]
The Faith Club: a Muslim, a Christian, a Jew - Three Women's Search for Understanding
by Ranya Idliby
A groundbreaking book about Americans searching for faith and mutual respect, The Faith Club interweaves the stories of three women, their three religions, and their urgent request to understand one another.
[201.5 I]
Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women by Geraldine Brooks
Award winning journalist Geraldine Brooks offers an intimate, often shocking, portrait of the lives of modern Muslim women and how male pride and power have warped the original message of a once-liberating faith.
[305.486 B]
The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring by Richard Preston
Until recently, redwoods were thought to be virtually impossible to ascend. Richard Preston unfolds the spellbinding story of Steve Sillett, Marie Antoine, and the tiny group of daring botanists and amateur naturalists who found a lost world above California, a world that is dangerous, hauntingly beautiful and unexplored.
[585.5 P]
Warrior of the Light: A Manual by Paul Coelho
From the author of the international bestseller The Alchemist, come short notes on accepting failure, embracing life, and rising to one's own destiny.
[131 C]
Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier by Robert Emmons
Dr. Emmons, editor-in-chief of the
Journal of Positive Psychology, draws on the first major study of the subject to show how the cultivation of gratitude can measurably change peoples lives.
[179.9 E]
Adapted from WLS online catalog and Amazon.com 4/2008
by Laura Jensen
RECOMMEND A BOOK
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Spring 2008