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Book Discussion Kits

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Book Discussion Kits are available to library patrons for use by home and community discussion groups. Each kit contains 12 soft-cover books and discussion information packaged in a canvas tote bag with a 6-week loan period. A limited number of titles are available in large print.

To browse a list of kits, click on the links below. You will be taken to the library catalog where you can browse the list of titles and place a request for the kit of you want. Kits may be reserved and sent to the library of your choice. For further information call the Just Ask line at 574-1611.

Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths by Bruce Feiler
In this timely and uplifting journey, the bestselling author of “Walking the Bible” searches for the man at the heart of the world's three monotheistic religions -- and today's deadliest conflicts.

Aindreas the Messenger: Louisville, Ky, 1855 by Gerald McDaniel
Aindreas is a young Irish-Catholic boy living in gaudy, grubby Louisville in 1855, a city where being Irish, Catholic, German or black usually means trouble.

Ahab's Wife, or the Star-Gazerby Sena Jeter Naslund
Inspired by a brief passage in Melville's Moby-Dick, this tale of 19th century America explores the strong-willed woman who loved Captain Ahab.

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
The fictionalized account of one of the most notorious women of the nineteenth century who was convicted of murdering her employer and his mistress.

All Over But the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg
A dirt-poor Southern boy grows up to be a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, mainly due to the strength and determination of his remarkable mother.

All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this classic is generally regarded as the finest novel ever written on American politics. It is the story of Willie Stark, a back-country lawyer whose idealism is overcome by his lust for power.

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
The National Book Award-winning story of three friends who set out in 1949 to cross the Rio Grande in search of the cowboy life.

Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned by Walter Mosley
Only eight years after serving out a prison sentence for murder, Socrates Fortlow must find a way to live an honorable life as a black man on the margins of a white world.

Angela’s Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt
The Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir of childhood in the slums of Limerick, Ireland, told with humor, compassion and forgiveness.

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
A Pulitzer Prize-winning story recounting the lives of four generations living in the American West.

Animal Dreams: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver
A vivid tale of a young woman rediscovering that which makes her life whole when she returns home to take care of her aging father.

At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon
A warm and humorous look at everyday life of a rector and parishioners in a charming southern village.

At Play in the Fields of the Lord by Peter Matthiessen
A moral thriller set in the South American jungle follows the conflict between a missionary and a mercenary.

Atonement by Ian McEwan
On a hot summer day in 1935, a young girl witnesses a moment’s flirtation between her older sister and the son of a servant, bringing about a crime that will change all their lives.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
The classic collaboration of Alex Haley and Malcolm X that tells the truth about race and racism. The

Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Earnest Gaines
A novel in the guise of the tape-recorded recollections of a black woman who has lived 110 years, amd has been both a slave and a witness to the black militancy of the 1960's.

The Autobiography of My Mother by Jamaica Kincaid
A fictional chronicle of a woman obsessed with piecing together the story of the mother she never knew.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin
The story of a woman, unhappy with her indifferent husband and family, who gives in to her adulterous desires regardless of Victorian religious and social pressures

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Two hapless city boys are exiled to a remote village for re-education during China’s infamous Cultural Revolution where they discover a hidden stash of Western classics.

Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
A young illegitimate girl grows up in the south of the 1950's forming poignant relationships with the indomitable women in her family.

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
Taylor Greer leaves poor rural Kentucky in a ’55 Volkswagen and ends up in Tucson Arizona, “inheriting” a 3-year-old American Indian girl along the way.

Bee Season by Myla Goldberg
An ordinary girl with an exceptional gift for spelling embarks on the "spelling bee" circuit, where her quirky family will collide with the harsh realities of life.

The Beet Queen by Louise Erdrich
A family saga of two orphans who find refuge with their aunt in a North Dakota town.

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
A celebrated American soprano has just finished a recital in the home of the vice-president of a poor South American country when terrorists burst in, taking the international guests hostage.

Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani
A 35-year-old pharmacist and self-proclaimed spinster of a small Virginia village discovers a skeleton in her family's formerly tidy closet that completely unravels her quiet, conventional life.

The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant
A novel of turbulent 15th-century Florence, a lavish city besieged by plague, threat of invasion and religious turmoil, where a young noblewoman must navigate her way into womanhood.

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Winner of the Booker Prize, this brilliant novel within a novel tells the story of two sisters as a romance, a mystery and a fantasty all combined.

Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy B. Tyson
In this outstanding personal history, Tyson, a professor of African-American studies who's white, unflinchingly examines the civil rights struggle in the South.

The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls by Joan Jacobs Brumberg
An examination of how teenage girls have come to view their bodies as a projection of their worth.

The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
Norwegian journalist Seierstad dons the burkha to live with a bookseller's family in post-Taliban Afghanistan, revealing intimate details of women's lives.

Bound Feet and Western Dress by Pang-Mei Chang
In this exquisite memoir, Chang Yu-i, the daughter of a distinguished Chinese family, recreates her exceptional life for her American-born grandniece.

Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
A novel of both the poverty and richness of Haitian family life told by a poor Haitian woman, reunited with the mother she never knew, and the family bonds that extend beyond generations.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
In this Pulitzer Prize winning classic, a bridge collapses in eighteenth-century Peru and five die. Who were they? And what cosmic ironies led them to their fate?

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
Where did the universe come from? How and why did it begin? Will it come to an end, and if so, how? Hawking attempts to reveal these questions using a minimum of technical jargon.

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
A timeless American classic. Cannery Row is only a few blocks long, but the story it harbors is suffused with warmth, understanding and a great fund of human values.

Carrie by Stephen King
The Master of Horror’s debut novel, Carrie is the story of a misunderstood high school girl, her extraordinary telekinetic powers, and her violent rampage of revenge.

Changing Planes by Ursula Le Guin
From the Grand Mistress of speculative fiction comes A Gulliver’s Travels for the 21st century that is deeply thought provoking and heartbreakingly poignant.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Miserly Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of past, present and future in the Victorian story of the meaning of redemption and benevolence.

The Church of Dead Girls by Stephen Dobyns
This is a literary horror tale about a formerly sleepy small town in which the crucial distinction between public and private life is dissolving as suspicion spreads like a toxin.

Clay’s Quilt by Silas House
Orphaned at age four, Clay Sizemore is taken in by the residents of a small Appalachian mining town. As he grows, his substitute family helps him find his true family roots.

Cloud Chamber: A Novel by Michael Dorris
The saga of an American immigrant family from their roots in 19th century Ireland to life in present-day Montana.

Cloudsplitter: A Novel by Russell Banks
Narrated by the son of the abolitionist John Brown, this work of fiction recreates the fractured political and social landscape of pre-Civil War America.

The Club Dumas
Artaro Perez-Reverte
In this intellectual thriller a rare-book specialist, called in to authenticate a Dumas manuscript, is drawn into a web of mystery.

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
A National Book Award winning Civil War story of a wounded soldier's journey away from war and back home to his sweetheart.

The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride
An inspirational memoir of growing up in an interracial family headed by a white Jewish mother.

Colored People: A Memoir by Henry Louis Gates
A rich and touching memoir of growing up in West Virginia in the 1950's by a celebrated scholar, writer and Harvard professor.

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
A Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of a mother and son voicing insights and injunctions regarding their lives in back alley New Orleans.

The Covenant with Black America by Tavis Smiley
A collection of essays that plot a course for African Americans to improve their circumstances in areas ranging from health and education to crime reduction and financial well-being.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, a mathematically-gifted, autistic teenager investigates the murder of a neighbor's dog, meanwhile uncovering family secrets.

Dancing at the Rascal Fair by Ivan Doig
The tale of the settlement of the frontier between 1890 and 1919 told through the lives of a young Scotsman and his friend who homestead in the Two Medicine Country.

Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty
Set in 1923 on a Mississippi delta plantation, this vivid and charming portrait of a large southern family is shown through the Fairchilds as they prepare for their daughter’s wedding.

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
The true tale of two men: the brilliant architect behind the legendary Chicago 1893 World's Fair and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death.

The Ditchdigger's Daughters: A Black Family’s Astonishing Success Story by Yvonne S. Thornton
The memoir of a prominent physician who recalls growing up as one of five daughters in a black family headed by a determined father.

The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood: A Novel by Rebecca Wells
A tale of four southern women and their daughters who find identity and acceptance through their lifelong friendships.

The Dollmaker by Harriette Arnow
A story of a strong Southern woman determined to hold onto her dreams of a rural family life while uprooted to Detroit during World War II.

Dreams From My Father: a Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama
The son of an African father and white American mother discusses his childhood in Hawaii, his struggle to find his identity as an African American, and his life’s accomplishments.

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris
A collection of whimsical essays that inhabits Sedaris’ deliriously twisted domain of hilarious childhood dramas infused with melancholy and the gulf of misunderstanding that exists between family members.

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by Z.Z. Packer
This debut collection of short stories dealing with black men and women, mostly young and urban. treats listeners to the richness of highly developed characters and leads them to some intriguing scenarios.

Dubliners by James Joyce
A collection of fifteen somber stories portraying the struggles encountered by men and women of the lower middle class in early twentieth century Dublin.

Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life by Alison Weir
A vibrant portrait of this truly exceptional woman, one of the great heroines of the Middle Ages. Eleanor managed to defy convention as she exercised power in the political sphere and crucial influence over her husbands and sons.

Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons
A story of the life of a young foster child and the victory of hope over victimization in her young life.

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards.

The Enduring Hills by Janice Holt Giles
A story of a boy who yearns for wider horizons than his Eastern Kentucky home.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Foer
Oskar searches New York with a mysterious key left by his father, killed in the September 11 attacks, a quest that intertwines with the story of his grandparents, whose lives were blighted by the firebombing of Dresden.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
In Great Britain, circa 1985, time travel is routine, cloning is a reality, and literature is taken very, very seriously. An ingenious fantasy that unites intrigue with English literature in a delightfully witty mix.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Fireman Guy Montag loves to rush to a fire and watch books burn up. Then he meets a seventeen-year old girl who tells him of a past when people were not afraid, and a professor who tells him of a future where people could think.

Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith
Ivy Rowe, turn of the century Virginia mountain girl, then mother, wife, and finally, "Mamaw," writes eloquent letters to friends and family.

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Although Gabriel Oak loves the proud Bathsheba Everdene, she willfully becomes involved with two other unsuitable men, with tragic consequences

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser
Schlosser explains how the development of fast-food restaurants has led to the standardization of American culture, widespread obesity, urban sprawl and more.

First Mothers: the Women Who Shaped the Presidents by Bonnie Angelo
First Mothers captures the daily lives, thoughts and feelings of the remarkable women who played such a large role in developing the characters of the modern American Presidents.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Killed in a tragic accident, an elderly man who believes that he had an uninspired life awakens in the afterlife, where he discovers that heaven consists of having five people explain the meaning of one's life.

Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph Ellis
An illuminating study of the intertwined lives of the founders of the American republic--Adams, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, and Washington.

Frankenstein, or, the Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
This 19th Century classic is a timeless terrifying tale of one man’s obsession to create life – and the monster that became his legacy.

Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger
The classic, best-selling story of life in the football-driven town of Odessa, Texas, with a new afterword that looks at the players and the town ten years later.

Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayres
This famous Harriet Vane mystery takes place at the all female Shrewsbury College at Oxford, where a powerful argument for women’s status as men’s intellectual equals is unfolding.

Giants in the Earth: a Saga of the Prairie by Ole Edvart Rolvaag
Nobel Prize winning classic story of a Norwegian pioneer family’s struggles with the land and the elements of the Dakota Territory as they try to make a new life in America.

Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
The author reveals her compelling meditations on youth and age, love and marriage, solitude, peace and contentment, as she set them down during a brief vacation by the sea.

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Nearing death, the Reverend John Ames writes a letter to his son chronicling three generations of his family, a story that stretches back to the Civil War and reveals uncomfortable family secrets. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland
A compelling tale that traces the ownership of a Vermeer painting through time, marking the ways that beauty transforms us.

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
A sharp-edged memoir of a teenage girl and the two years she spent in a psychiatric ward.

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
A fictional history of 17th century Dutch culture featuring the young woman portrayed in Johannes Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring".

The Giver by Lois Lowry
A Newbery Award winner depicting a future society and the young boy who realizes the truth about his world and struggles with its duplicity.

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
In 1969 in Kerala, India, Rahel and her twin brother, Estha, struggle to forge a childhood for themselves amid the destruction of their family life. Winner of the Booker Prize for best fiction.

A Good Man is Hard to Find, and Other Stories by Flannery O’Connor
O'Connor keenly uses irony and dialogue to focus on the dark side of life in the rural south in this collection of short stories.

A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler
A Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of stories about Vietnamese expatriates living in the American South.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
A Pulitzer Prize-winning novel spotlighting the struggle of a dust bowl family who migrate to California to become migrant workers.

The Grass Dancer by Susan Power
A vibrant portrait of the North Dakota Sioux community that interweaves generations and time.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan has been acclaimed by generations of readers.

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
Diamond offers a convincing explanation of the way the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

The Hand I Fan With: A Novel by Tina M. Ansa
A rich story of the search for love and companionship in a small Georgia town.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
A speculative allegory focusing on a world dominated by militaristic fundamentalists, with selective women designated for breeding purposes.

The Harlot By the Side of the Road: Forbidden Tales of the Bible by Jonathan Kirsch
Sex. Violence. Scandal. These are words we rarely associate with the Bible. Kirsch places each story within the political and social context of its time with eye-opening analysis.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
A tale of subtle, psychological terror has earned its place as one of the significant haunted house stories of the ages.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
The story of the passions of an adolescent girl and her friendships with social outcasts of her small southern town.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
A wrenching, hilarious, and stylistically groundbreaking story of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
After jilting her fiancé, Edith Hope retreats to a Swiss Hotel where she ponders her relationship with a married lover and reflects on life-at-large.

An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood by Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter re-creates his Depression-era boyhood on a Georgia farm before the civil rights movement forever changed the country.

The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Virginia Woolf is brought back to life in an intertwining of her story with those of two more contemporary women who are struggling with the conflicting claims of love, hope and despair.

House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus
A gripping tale of a tragic triangle involving a woman evicted from her home due to a bureaucrat's error, the sheriff who evicted her, and the immigrant who purchases the home.

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
An epic tale of the influence of great families on history as well as the influence of history on great families set amidst the oppression and communism of Chile.

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
The story of a Hispanic woman who discovers the tougher side of life in a Chicago-area ghetto.

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
A vibrant tale of four sisters who flee the Dominican Republic during the 1960's and their stories of adjustment to the United States.

How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe by Tim Cahill
An entertaining history of the Dark Ages showing that as Europe was in an intellectual decline, Ireland became a haven for scholarship.

Howard's End by E. M. Forster
A story of class conflict within British society as a wealthy family, two independent but cultured sisters, and a young man living on the edge of poverty struggle with their destinies and desires.

I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven
A young vicar is sent to a village in the Pacific Northwest, learning tolerance and love as he faces his own poignant destiny.

I Married a Communist by Philip Roth
An idealistic political radical and celebrated radio star of the 1950s is blacklisted and brought to ruin when his wife, a self-hating Jewish actress, writes an expose called “I Married A Communist.”

Icy Sparks by Gwyn Hyman Rubio
A coming-of-age story set in 1950s rural Kentucky, featuring a poor, orphaned child prone to "fits".

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
A starkly realistic tale of a talented young artist unjustly arrested and locked away in New York's infamous Tombs, and the sustaining love of his family

If This World Were Mine by E. Lynn Harris
An engrossing and fast-paced novel about four African-African friends whose deep bonds of intimacy are threatened by conflicts of career and romance.

In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien
The tale of a husband and wife who spend time at a Minnesota cabin to sort out his political defeat and recently revealed involvement in the My Lai massacre.

In the Name of Salome by Julia Alvarez
An epic story of a strong woman, based upon the real-life Salome' Urena, a poet who was a national icon in the Dominican Republic.

Independence Day by Richard Ford
A tale of an "everyman" sorting out his life in the midst of a 4th of July celebration.

Italian Love Stories: A Kentuckian’s Journal of Tuscany by Donna Valtri Crane
Crane, a second generation Italian-American and first generation Kentuckian, gives a witty and observant account of life in the tiny Tuscan hill town of Volterra.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Krakauer recounts the haunting and tragic mystery of young, idealistic Chris McCandless who disappeared in April 1992 into the Alaskan wilderness.

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
The classic novel of the experiences of a young black man during the Depression as he travels from the Deep South to Harlem portray the invisibility of his life.

Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson
This absorbing narrative of the 1900 hurricane that inundated Galveston, Texas, conveys the sudden, cruel power of the deadliest natural disaster in American history.

The Jane Austen Book Club: A Novel by Karen Joy Fowler
Fowler exuberantly pays homage to and matches wits with Jane Austen by portraying six irresistible Californians who meet once a month to discuss Austen's six novels.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The romantic classic set in Victorian England of an orphaned young woman who accepts employment as a governess with the mysterious Mr. Rochester

Jarhead: a Marine’s Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles by Anthony Swofford
A memoir of the Gulf War by a front-line infantry marine recounts his struggles with the conflict on the front lines, his battles with fear and suicide, and his identity as a soldier and an American.

Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
Set in the fictional small town of Port William, this is the story of a young man who abandons his plan to become a minister to instead become the town barber.

The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough
The story of one of the most devastating national disasters America has ever known told by a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winning author.

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Four older Chinese women living in San Francisco recall their memories of pre-war China and pass their culture and visions on to their American-born daughters.

Kentucky Straight by Chris Offutt
Stories, sometimes poignant, about life in Kentucky Appalachia, told with no patina of nostalgia, but with a strong sense of place.

Kindred by Octavia Butler
A modern black woman is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South where she must save the life of her white, slave-owning ancestor.

The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan
Pressured to reveal to her adult American-born daughter her secret past in war-torn China in the 1940s, Winnie weaves an account of loneliness, love, courage and endurance.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Traces the unlikely friendship of a wealthy Afghan youth and a servant's son in a tale that spans the final days of Afghanistan's monarchy through the atrocities of the present day.

The Known World by Edward P. Jones
When a black slave owner dies, his widow Caldonia mismanages their Virginia plantation with disastrous results.

Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded by Simon Winchester
A fascinating account of the underlying causes, utter devastation and lasting effects of the cataclysmic 1883 eruption of the volcano island Krakatoa

Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler
A maturing but weary wife leaves her husband and children in order to pursue a life of independence.

Leap of Faith: Memoirs From an Unexpected Life by Queen Noor
The young American woman who became wife and partner to Lebanon’s King Hussein gives an intimate account of a woman who lost her heart to a king and to his people.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin
The science fiction classic of an emissary from a human galaxy whose mission is to recover a wayward planet with an evolving civilization.

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines
The story of a black man unjustly accused of a killing and a teacher who must struggle with the universal question of how to live and die with dignity in segregated Louisiana.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Pi Patel, a zookeeper’s son, sets sail for America. When the ship sinks, he escapes on a life boat and is lost at sea with a dwindling number of animals until only he and a hungry Bengal tiger remain.

Light in August by William Faulkner
Joe Christmas does not know whether he is black or white and can fit in neither world. Faulkner makes of Joe's tragedy a powerful indictment of racism.

Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments, with Recipes, Romances & Home Remedies by Laura Esquivel
A bittersweet romance set in Mexico, where romance and sensuality are celebrated with magical realism in the celebration of food.

Lincoln by Gore Vidal
Isolated in a ramshackle White House in the center of a proslavery city, Lincoln presides over a fragmenting government as Lee's armies beat at the gates. An intimate depiction of the power struggles that accompanied Lincoln's efforts to preserve the Union at all costs.

Lindbergh by A. Scott Berg
A Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of one of most controversial and enigmatic figures of the twentieth century.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
When it was published in 1955, Lolita immediately became a cause célèbre because of the freedom and sophistication with which it handled the unusual erotic predilections of its protagonist

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel
A social history of the invention of the chronometer, which greatly aided longitude calculations, is detailed as an historical marvel that facilitated European exploration.

The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
The residents of a sanitarium in the Swiss Alps mirror the communal problems of pre-World War I Europe.

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
Considered the author’s finest work, this mystery novel introduces Sam Spade, the prototype of the hard-boiled detective.

Mama Day by Gloria Naylor
A captivating story of the conjuring powers of Mama Day, tested when the stubbornness of her New York City-bred niece, Cocoa endangers her to the Georgia island's darker forces.

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
It's America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. The few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. All because some 20 years earlier the U.S. surrendered to Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan.

A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton
A memorable story of grief and guilt faced by a woman implicated in twin tragedies involving children of the community.

Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Speigelman
A story of a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe and his son, a cartoonist who tries to come to terms with his father's story and history itself.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Historical fiction about the experience and art of being a Geisha during 1900s.

The Memory of Old Jack by Wendell Berry
Kentucky author Wendell Berry proves his mastery as a storyteller by sharing the life story of a 92-year-old small town Kentucky farmer, "Old Jack" Beechum.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story by John Berendt
A murder mystery set in that very southern city of Savannah, where the characters are exotic and funny and intriguing.

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
A family saga set against the vast, colourful background of the India of this century.

The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
A hypnotizing tale of joy and sorrow and one special woman's magical powers.

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
The mythical legend of King Arthur is retold through the lives of the amazing women who wielded power from behind the throne.

Monkey Hunting by Christina Garcia
The story of a Chinese immigrant’s enslavement on a Cuban sugar plantation, his escape and eventual prosperity, interwoven with the stories of his Chinese and American descendents.

Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
A P.I. who suffers from Tourette’s Syndrome tries to find out who killed the man who rescued him and three other misfits from a Brooklyn orphanage. Winner of the National Book Critics Award.

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
A thought-provoking portrait of Harvard professor and world-renowned infectious disease expert Dr. Paul Farmer and his struggle to bring modern healthcare to Haiti and the world.

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Direct and vivid in her account of the details of Clarissa Dalloway’s preparations for a party she is to give that evening, Woolf ultimately manages to reveal much more.

My Love Affair with England by Susan Toth
A travel memoir of England recounting numerous trips over a lifetime.

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
Conceived to provide a bone marrow match for her leukemia-stricken sister, teenage Kate begins to question her moral obligations in light of countless medical procedures.

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
A portrait of the immigrant experience follows the Ganguli family from their traditional life in India through their arrival in Massachusetts in the late 1960s.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
Determined to find out how anyone could make ends meet on $7 an hour, the author left behind her middle class life as a journalist to try to sustain herself as a low-skilled worker.

Night by Elie Wiesel
An autobiographical account about Wiesel’s terrifying and tragic experience as a child in Nazi death camps.

No Ordinary Time: Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin
A Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the lives of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
The story of a 19th century Nebraska family coming to grips with farm life and personal relationships.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez
A weaving of spiritual, personal and political worlds into a history of the mysterious and magical Buendia family.

One of Ours by Willa Cather
The Pulitzer Prize-winning narrative of the making of a young American soldier in World War I.

One True Thing by Anna Quindlen
A daughter is arrested for the murder of her critically ill mother in a mercy killing.

One Writer's Beginnings by Eudora Welty
A memoir recounting Welty’s childhood and the mentors who contributed to her path of becoming a writer.

A Parchment of Leaves by Silas House
In 1917, a Cherokee woman who leaves her community to marry a white man finds herself isolated and discriminated against as she tries to settle into her new life.

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
The quiet 1960s midwestern life of the Land family is upended when son Davy kills two teenage boys who have come to harm the family.

The Peppered Moth by Margaret Drabble
A fictional exploration into the author’s family genealogy and her attempts to come to terms with her mother's unhappy history.

Peter the Great: His Life & His World by Robert K. Massie
The Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of one of history's most colorful rulers paints a vivid picture of 17th and 18th century Europe and Russia.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
A classic tale of a well-to-do Englishman who buys his youth from the Devil, remaining young and handsome as his portrait reflects the evil that consumes his life.

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
A series of essays that combines scientific observation, philosophy and personal meditation with beautifully written prose.

Pitied but Not Entitled: Single Mothers and the History of Welfare by Linda Gordon
A thought-provoking study of American policies and programs benefiting single mothers and their children.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
A story of a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family on a mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. A suspenseful epic of one family’s tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction.

The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
A Christian parable pitting God and religion against 20th century materialism in the story of a priest in Mexico who is painfully remorseful about his own human inadequacies.

Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker
Confronting the modern controversial issue of genital mutilation, Walker’s main character, Tashi struggles with understanding and madness.

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Owen Meany, a dwarfish boy with a strange voice, accidentally kills his best friend's mom with a baseball and believes--accurately--that he is an instrument of God to be redeemed by martyrdom.

A Prayer for the Dying by Stewart O’Nan
Set in Friendship, Wisconsin just after the Civil War, A Prayer for the Dying tells of a horrible epidemic that has gripped the town in a vice of fear and death.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
An 18th century comedy of manners about a family’s attempts to marry off five daughters.

The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
A story of a family striving to overcome its bizarre history of horror and grief with the help of a New York psychiatrist.

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
Kentucky born author weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives in southern Appalachia.

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity & the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester
Although confined to a British insane asylum, an American civil war veteran contributes to the Oxford English Dictionary.

Push by Sapphire
Told from the point of view of an illiterate, brutalized Harlem teenager, this intense, explicit novel charts the psychic damage of the most ghettoized of inner-city inhabitants.

The Quiet American by Graham Greene
In 1952, while the French Army in Indo-China is grappling with the Vietnamese, back at Saigon a young and high-minded American begins to channel economic aid to a 'Third Force'.

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
A glimpse into women’s lives in revolutionary Iran; the story of the author and the women invited into her home to read and discuss forbidden works of Western Literature.

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
A young bride arriving at Manderley, is drawn into the life of the first Mrs. De Winter, the beautiful Rebecca, dead, but not forgotten.

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
A fictional retelling of Genesis stories of the daily life of women, as told by Dinah, daughter of Jacob and Leah.

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
The fictional account of an aging butler recalling his life at Darlington Hall which includes intrigue of world politics and upper-class English society.

Remembering Babylon by David Malouf
A compelling tale of a young Australian left for dead who is brought up by the Aborigines, and the bigotry he faces when he returns to Australian society.

River of Earth by James Still
A vivid account of difficult Appalachian life, told with humor and love through the eyes of a boy.

The Road from Coorain: An Autobiography by Jill Kerr Conway
Conway's captivating autobiography covers her childhood in Australia to her adulthood in America, where she later became the first woman president of Smith College

Rocket Boys: A Memoir by Homer Hickam
An inspiring account of the author’s coming of age in a West Virginia mining town, and the remarkable events that lead him to a career with NASA.

A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
A brilliant essay on the importance of freedom for women, especially as it relates to creative writing.

Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
A story of the adopted daughter of a poor but ambitious southern couple growing up as a lesbian in America and seeking adventure as well as acceptance.

Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
When he was 12 years old, his mother gave him away to her psychiatrist to pursue her own poetic delusions. A horrifying, yet hysterical memoir of an unconventional childhood.

Seabiscuit: an American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
The spellbinding true story of this marvelous animal, the world he lived in, and the men who staked their lives and fortunes on his dazzling career.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
A young girl returns to her dead mother’s Southern hometown where she meets an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters.

The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton
In 1941, a young man decided to give up a promising literary career to enter a monastery in Kentucky, from where he proceeded to become one of the most influential writers of the 20th century.

Seventh Heaven by Alice Hoffman
An unconventional single mother moves to a Long Island suburb in 1959, and the place will never be the same.

Singing in the Comeback Choir by Bebe Moore Campbell
A story of a granddaughter and the grandmother who raised her rediscovering faith, hope and love.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
A fictional account of Vonnegut’s experience as a prisoner of war during World War II and,in his words, “is about the inhumanity of many of man’s inventions to man.”

Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball
A National Book Award-winning family biography traces the Ball family history back to their arrival in America as well as the slave families owned by and related to the Ball’s.

Slow Dancing on Dinosaur Bones by Lana Witt
When a Californian rolls his broken-down car into a remote Kentucky town, he finds friends, enemies and lovers who are playing out tales as old as the prehistoric soil beneath their feet.

Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg
A literary thriller revolving around the death of a young boy which takes the resourceful heroine from Copenhagen to Greenland as she discovers a global intrigue.

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
A murder trial of a Japanese American for the murder of a fellow fisherman reveals the racism of a small community.

Snow in August: A Novel by Peter Hamill
A story of friendship between a Jewish rabbi and a Catholic boy, who battle anti-Semitic toughs in 1947 Boston with ancient magic and the power of words.

Souls Raised from the Dead: A Novel by Doris Betts
The story of an adolescent who lives with her divorced father, abandoned by a mother who refuses to donate a kidney to save her dying daughter.

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
Brilliant first novel about the discovery of extraterrestrial life and the voyage of a party of Jesuit missionaries to Alpha Centauri.

The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
A fictional account of one woman’s life presented through diary entries revealing her childhood, marriage, motherhood, and widowed years.

Stones for Ibarra by Harriet Doerr
A fictional story of a couple coming to value the wisdom of the natives and the strengths within themselves while restoring an ancestral home in a primitive Mexican village.

Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi
The story of a dwarf librarian living in Germany during the two World Wars whose craving for normalcy results in her attention to gossip and narrative.

The Stranger by Albert Camus
Through the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach, Camus explores what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd."

The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule
The popular true crime writer and personal friend of the notorious serial killer Ted Bundy writes about her investigative discoveries of his horrific killing sprees.

Sula by Toni Morrison
The story of a young African-American girl who leaves her oppressive neighborhood.to expand her dreams but finds many of her previous relationships tested when she returns ten years later.

. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
This classic captures life among the expatriates on Paris's Left Bank during the 1920s, the brutality of bullfighting in Spain, and the moral and spiritual dissolution of a generation.

The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love by Jill Conner Browne
A group of "belles gone bad" look at love, life, men, marriage and always being prepared.

The Sweeter the Juice: A Family Memoir in Black & White by Shirlee Taylor Haizlip
The true account of intertwined tensions between race and skin color confronted by the author while researching her mother's African-American family, which has passed for white.

A Taste for Death by P. D. James
Inspector Adam Dalgliesh, investigates the murder of a member of the peerage who is found with his throat slit in the vestry of a church.

Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table by Ruth Reichl
This book by the former restaurant critic of the New York Times is the story of a life enhanced and defined by a passion for food, unforgettable people, and the love of tales well told.

A Thief of Time by Tony Hillerman
An investigation of the despoiling of an ancient Anasazi ruin at which two corpses appear amid stolen goods and bones.

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
An unparalleled Vietnam testament and a profound study of men at war that illuminates the capacity and the limits of the human heart.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
The story of tragedy and triumph of a early 20th century African-American woman.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
A novel warning of the problems of colonialism in Africa and its impact on national culture.

A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
A saga of a farmer and his two daughters as their secrets erupt and unravel the family’s carefully constructed world.

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
Dangerously ill after a climb in 1993, Mortenson was sheltered for seven weeks by a small Pakistani village; in return, he promised to build the impoverished town's first school, a project that has since constructed more than 50 schools across rural Pakistan.

Time and Again by Jack Finney
In this cult fiction classic, a man is recruited for a secret government project and transported to 1880s New York City.

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The timelessness of love takes on new meaning in this fantastical romance about a reluctant time traveler Henry, and Clare, whose lives intersect in many non-chronological ways.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The classic story of a young girl who recalls her impressions of the time when her attorney father defended a black man accused of raping a white woman in a small Alabama town.

Traveling Mercies by Annie Lamott
A journey through Anne Lamott's often troubled past to illuminate her devout but quirky walk of faith.

The Trial by Franz Kafka
The terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information.

Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson & the Opening of the American West by Stephen E. Ambrose
Historian Stephen Ambrose traces the Lewis and Clark expedition and the opening of the American West

Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
This chilling story of murder explores the nature of radical Mormon sects and poses some striking questions about the closed-minded, closed-door policies of many religions in general.

An Unfinished Life by Mark Spragg
Hping to introduce her daughter to the grandfather she has never met, a widow seeks refuge in her late husband's Wyoming hometown with her estranged father-in-law.

Walking Across Egypt by Clyde Edgerton
Mattie Rigsby is an independent, strong-minded 78-year-old when she takes in a stray dog and teenage delinquent, offering an incredibly funny, balanced perspective on age and youth.

The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy
The true stotry of Pat Conroy's teaching experience on an impoverished South Carolina island in 1969.

Watership Down by Richard Adams
An epic tale of a hardy band of Berkshire rabbits forced to flee the destruction of their fragile habitat. A powerful saga of courage, leadership and survival.

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch
A compelling work detailing Gourevitch's days in Rwanda as he reports on the genocide that killed nearly a million people in 1994. Winner of the National Book Critics Award.

The Wedding by Dorothy West
A family saga of race and class focusing on the relationship of an African American woman and her white jazz musician husband.

What Our Mothers Didn’t Tell Us: Why Happiness Eludes the Modern Woman by Danielle Crittenden
A book that examines the foremost issues in women’s lives – sex, marriage, motherhood, and work – and argues that a generation of women has been misled by outdated feminist attitudes.

When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
A story told from five different points of view chronicles the experiences of Japanese Americans caught up in the nightmare of the World War II internment camps.

While I Was Gone by Sue Miller
The compelling story of a woman who places her marriage and family life at risk to follow a flirtation from her past.

White Oleander by Janet Fitch
When her mother is jailed for killing a lover, 12-year old Astrid must navigate her way through a series of foster homes in her search to claim her own identity and adulthood.

Wicked by Gregory Maguire
There are two sides to every story. We’ve heard Dorothy’s in L. Frank Baum’s classic “The Wizard of Oz.” Now we hear from the Wicked Witch of the West.

Wild Swans:Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
A memoir reflecting upon the astonishing changes seen by three generations of women in 20th century China.

Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
A timeless book of connected short stories about the brave, cowardly, and altogether realistic inhabitants of an imaginary American town.

World's Fair by E. L. Doctorow
A story of New York of the 1930's as the country deals with a looming depression and war on the horizon, as told through the eyes of a young boy.

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
The story of the plague in the year 1666 from the eyes of Anna Frith, a housemaid and an unlikely heroine and healer. A tale of hope and faith in a time of despair.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert Pirsig
A narration of a summer motorcycle trip undertaken by a father and son becomes a personal and philosophical odyssey into fundamental questions of how to live.

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1776 by David McCullough
Esteemed historian David McCullough details the 12 months of 1776 and shows how outnumbered and supposedly inferior men managed to fight off the world's greatest army.

American Gospel; God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation by Jon Meacham
Re-creating the fascinating history of a nation grappling with religion and politics, Meacham tells the human story of how the Founding Fathers viewed faith, and how they ultimately created a nation in which belief in God is a matter of choice.

Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin
Why would a cow lick a tractor? Why do dolphins sometimes kill for fun? How can a parrot learn to spell? Animals in Translation will forever change the way we think about animals.

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
A road trip like no other -- a journey to the pit stops of American political murder and the myriad ways they have been used for fun and profit and for political and cultural advantage.

At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon
A warm and humorous look at everyday life of a rector and parishioners in a charming southern village.

The Coal Tattoo by Silas House
When a miner survives the collapse of a mine, he'll often surface with a permanent mark stamped onto his skin-- a coal tattoo. Everyone who is raised in Black Banks is indelibly marked by and forever connected to the place.

The Cross-Country Quilters: an Elm Creek Novel by Jennifer Chiaverini
A group of five far-flung friends come together to complete a “challenge quilt,” meanwhile learning that the powers of friendship can transcend any obstacle.

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg
After Idgie saves Ruth from an abusive marriage, these two friends become partners in running the Whistle Stop Cafe, where no one, "not even hobos and colored," is turned away for inability to pay.

Gods and Generals by Jeff Shaara
An epic fictional account of the lives and military careers of Stonewall Jackson, Winfield Scott Hancock, Joshua Chamberlain, and Robert E. Lee.

The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw
The real-life stories of ordinary people responding in extraordinary ways to the defining events of the Depression and World War II

The Illuminator by Brenda Rickman Vantrease
A medieval illuminator with radical views finds himself sharing quarters with a widow struggling to preserve her independence in this novel set in the 14th century.

Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded by Simon Winchester
An erudite, fascinating account of the underlying causes, utter devastation and lasting effects of the cataclysmic 1883 eruption of the volcano island Krakatoa.

The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chavalier
A story of the tapestries of the Lady and the Unicorn, interweaving narratives of the painter who conceived the famous images, the tapissier who weaved them onto cloth, and the women in both artists' lives.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson’s laugh-out-loud pilgrimage through his Fifties childhood in heartland America is full of insights, wit, and wicked adolescent fantasies.

The Locket by Richard Paul Evans
A story of faith, forgiveness, missed opportunities, and second chances

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Historical fiction about the experience and art of being a Geisha during the early 1900s.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story by John Berendt
A murder mystery set in that very southern city of Savannah, where the characters are exotic and funny and intriguing.

Moral Disorder and Other Stories by Margaret Atwood
An intriguing patchwork of poignant episodes, Atwood's latest set of stories chronicles 60 years of a Canadian family, from postwar Toronto to a farm in the present.

A Patchwork Planet by Anne Tyler
The moving, funny story of a man trying to find his place in a baffling world.

On Agate Hill by Lee Smith
Diaries, letters, court documents, poems and ballads gradually divulge the tale of Molly Petree, a girl orphaned in North Carolina in the late 1860s whose life unfolds through Reconstruction.

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
A fictional retelling of Genesis stories of the daily life of women, as told by Dinah, daughter of Jacob and Leah.

Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlin
Muttering a string of bitter profanities sotto voce at the conclusion of a particularly contentious interview, Meghan Fitzmaurice, the queen of morning television, realizes too late that her microphone is still on. Now her social worker sister, Bridget, must pick up the pieces of her abandoned life.

Runaway by Alice Munro
These short stories all concern Canadian woman facing pivotal moments in their lives, even if they're not aware of it at the moment.

Tara Road by Maeve Binchy
A story of two women in the midst of life-changing events who exchange houses for the summer, and the resulting transformation.

Thunderstruck by Erik Larson
Larson tells the interwoven stories of two men - Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of the wireless - whose lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal chases of all time.

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The timelessness of love takes on new meaning in this fantastical romance about, a reluctant time traveler Henry, and Clare, whose lives intersect in many non-chronological ways.

Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man & Life’s Greatest Lesson by Mitch Albom
The remarkable true story of Morrie‘s affirmation of life as he faced death and the transformation of his friend and student with whom he shared it.

Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! by Fannie Flagg
A captivating story of a successful television star whose down-home roots call her home, whether she wants them to or not.

Where God Was Born by Bruce Feiler
Weaving together strands of theology, biblical exegesis, physical exploration, history and personal reflection, Feiler continues his journey of discovery, looking at the common roots of Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman
China and India are taking advantage of systems of communications, production, and distribution that can connect the entire globe instantaneously. With this "flattening" of the globe, can human beings and their political systems adjust in a stable manner?

Last Updated: 10/30/2008