The Work in Progress...
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Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf (1925)
A landmark of modernist fiction that follows an the wife of an MP around London as she prepares for her party that afternoon. Direct and vivid in its telling of details, the novel shifts from the consciousness of Clarissa Dalloway to that of others, including a shell-shocked veteran of World War I whose destiny briefly intersects with hers. |
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The Cider House Rules John Irving (1985)
Set in rural Maine in the first half of this century, it tells the story of Dr. Wilbur Larch - saint and obstetrician, founder and director of the orphanage in the town of St. Cloud's, ether addict and abortionist. It is also the story of Dr. Larch's favorite orphan, Homer Wells, who is never adopted. |
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Beloved Toni Morrison (1988)
It is the story — set in post-Civil War Ohio - of an escaped slave who has risked death in order to wrench herself from a living death; who has lost a husband and buried a child; who has borne the unthinkable and not gone mad. |
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Mother Night Kurt Vonnegut (1961)
This is the story of Howard W. Campbell Jr. - Nazi propagandist, racist, war criminal, and American spy. The story, told by Campbell from his prison cell in Israel, is of his success as a playwrite in Germany before the war, his recruitment by US intelligence, the devistation of the loss of his wife, the utter loneliness and apathy that plagued his life after the war, and the web of political intrigue that surrounds him before his trial. |
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Unveiled: Nuns Talking Mary Loudon (1992)
Conversations with ten intelligent, dedicated Catholic and Anglican British Women living lives distinctly different from our own. Yet, for all that difference, we feel confided in, as if we're sharing with a friend. We follow the narrations intensely, glad for the author's distance, both awed and challenged by the breadth and depth of the fervor. |
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Ninety Minutes in Entebbe William Stevenson (1976)
This is the incredible story of one of the most heroic rescues of modern times, an incident that has become a virtual legend without equal in the archives of anti-terrorist operations. It documents the spectacular rescue by Israeli forces at Entebbe Airport, Uganda during July 1976. This captivating book records in minute detail the hour by hour events throughout the period of this critical event, beginning with the actual in-flight hijacking of Air France Flight 139 en route from Athens to Paris, carrying over 262 passengers and crew. A hijacking endorsed and supported by the then President of the Republic of Uganda, Idi Amin. |
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Notes From a Small Island Bill
Bryson (1997)
After nearly two decades in Britain, Bill Bryson decided it was time to move back to the US for a while. This was partly to let his wife and kids experience life in Bryson's homeland - and partly because he had read that 3.7 million Americans believed that they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another. It was thus clear to him that his people needed him. But before leaving his much-loved home in North Yorkshire, Bryson insisted on taking one last trip around Britain, a sort of valedictory tour of the green and kindly island that had so long been his home. His aim was to take stock of modern-day Britain, and to analyze what he loved so much about a country that had produced Marmite and zebra crossings. |
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And Their Ghosts May Be Heard Rupert
Gerritsen (1994)
This volume speculates on the fates of Dutch mariners marooned on the coasts of Australia before the full scale European colonization. Weaving together historical accounts of the shipwrecks, linguistic and cultural analysis, and examinations of artifacts, the author suggests that the lost Dutch were integrated into Aboriginal societies and that their influence can still be seen today. Much of the analysis rests on the finding of discrepancies of language, kinship systems, methods of agriculture, and systems of property ownership among different Aboriginal groups. |
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Raising a Child Responsibly in a Sexually Permissive World Judith Gordon (1982)
This book provides practical advice that covers a wide range of issues, such as: self-esteem, how families have changed, the media's sexual messages, school sex education, why kids need more than "just say no", and what to do when kids think they're "in love." They also suggest ways parents can open conversations about sexuality, and they provide lists of questions (with great answers) that kids of different ages will probably ask. |
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The World According to Garp John Irving (1978)
Irving's classic is filled with stories inside stories about the life and times of T. S. Garp, novelist and bastard son of Jenny Fields - a feminist leader ahead of her time. As normal a character Garp might be, his life is anything but. It is marred with adulterous affairs, cheating wives, a world-famous mother, struggles to be a successful writer, the anxieties of parenting, the loss of a child, a transsexual ex-football player friend, fanatic cult members who cut off their tongues in anti-male protest, dear and down-to-earth prostitutes, soul-searching trips to Vienna, and much, much more. |
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The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy (1998)
1969. Kerala, on the southern tip of India. A skyblue Plymouth is stranded on the highway amid a Marxist workers' demonstration. Inside the car sit two-egg twins Rahel and Esthappen, and so begins their tale.... Armed only with the invincible innocence of children, they fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family. When their English cousin, Sophie Mol, arrives on a Christmas visit, Esthappen and Rahel learn that Things Can Change in a Day. That lives can twist into new, ugly shapes, even cease forever. |
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A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving (1989)
In the summer of 1953, during a Little League baseball game, 11-year-old Owen Meany hits a foul ball that kills his best friend's mother. Owen Meany, a short boy with a squeaky voice, doesn't believe in accidents; he believes he is God's instrument. |
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The Fountainhead Ayn Rand (1943)
This classic novel presents a philosophy of vital interest to anyone seeking an understanding of our present-day culture. Rand's hero is Howard Roark, a brilliant young architect whose revolutionary building designs lead him to wage a desperate battle against his colleagues, society, and even the woman he loves. Roark refuses to compromise. In defense of his selfish choices, Roark stuns his critics by developing a radical moral philosophy every bit as revolutionary as his buildings. This book pointedly asks, "Is it possible to be an individual in today's world?" |
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In a Sunburned Country Bill
Bryson (2001)
Australia, the country that doubles as a continent, and a place with the friendliest inhabitants, the hottest, driest weather, and the most peculiar and lethal wildlife to be found on the planet. Despite the fact that Australia harbors more things that can kill you in extremely nasty ways than anywhere else, including sharks, crocodiles, snakes, even riptides and deserts, Bill Bryson adores the place, and he takes his readers on a rollicking ride far beyond the beaten tourist path. Wherever he goes he finds Australians who are cheerful, extroverted, and unfailingly obliging, and these beaming products of a land with clean, safe cities, cold beer, and constant sunshine fill the pages of this wonderful book. |
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The Color of Water James McBride (1997)
Around the narrative of Ruth McBride Jordan, a.k.a. Rachel Deborah Shilsky, the daughter of an angry, failed Orthodox Jewish rabbi in the South, her son James writes of the inner confusions he felt as a black child of a white mother and of the love and faith with which his mother surrounded their large family. The result is a powerful portrait of growing up, a meditation on race and identity, and a poignant, beautifully crafted hymn from a son to his mother. |
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Angela's Ashes Frank McCourt (1999)
The luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank's mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank's father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages.Yet Malachy—exasperating, irresponsible and beguiling—does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story. Frank lives for his father's tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and of the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies. Perhaps it is story that accounts for Frank's survival. |
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Conversations with God: Book 1 Neale
Donald Walsch (1985)
Suppose you could ask God the most puzzling questions about existence - questions about love and faith, life aand death, good and evil. Suppose God provided clear, understandable answers. You are about to have a conversation... 'I have seen the searching of your soul. I know how deeply you have desired the Truth. Unendingly have you beseeched Me. Show Myself. Explain Myself. Reveal Myself. I am doing so here, in terms so plain, you cannot misunderstand. In language so simple, you cannot be confused. In vocabulary so common, you cannot get lost in the verbiage. So go ahead now. Ask Me anything. Anything. I will show you then that I have always been there. All ways.' |
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A Room of One's Own Virginia
Woolf (1929)
This essay is perhaps the Woolf's most important work - part feminist manifesto, part literary theory and part personal reflection presaging her suicide. This literary landmark about the male supremacy and female subordination at Oxford University shines a brave, searing light on the obstacles that must be overcome on the path toward a harmonious unity of the sexes. |
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Fingersmith Sarah
Waters (2002)
Imagine a university-educated lesbian Charles Dickens with a similarly keen eye for mendacity and melodrama, and you'll have some idea of the pleasures lurking in Waters's impudent revisionist historical. In Victorian London, the orphaned Sue Trinder is raised by Mrs. Sucksby, den mother to a family of thieves, or "fingersmiths." To repay Mrs. Sucksby's kindness, Sue gets involved in a scam but soon regrets it. |
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Fates Worse Than Death Kurt Vonnegut (1992)
In this revealing collection of essays, Vonnegut examines the issues and events (both personal and social) that shaped the last decade ranging from an intimate portrait of his family to a biting commentary of ex-son-in-law Geraldo Rivera to the 1945 firebombing of Dresden, Germany, where he was a POW. |
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Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand (1957)
The astounding story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world - and did. It is a mystery story, not about the murder of a man's body, but about the murder - and rebirth - of man's spirit. |