Suggested Titles for Community Reads Programs from Random House LLC
Recommended Titles Ann Bausum
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Sergeant Stubby: How a Stray Dog and His Best Friend Helped Win World War I and Stole the Heart of a Nation
Americanah A powerful newnovel—her first inseven years—by the award-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun, a story of love and race spanning three continents and numerous lives, and centered around a young man and a woman from Nigeria who face difficult choices and challenges in the countries they come to call home. United States and Nigeria Winner: National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction / An ALA Notable Book 978-0-307-45592-5 | $15.95C | Anchor | TR | Fiction 978-0-307-39792-8 | $21.00C | Vintage Canada | TR E 978-0-307-96212-6 Themes: IDENTITY SELECTED BY: Penn State Reads Program
James Agee; Photographed by Walker Evans; Edited by John Summers; Introduction by Adam Haslett
Stubby’s story begins in 1917 when America is about to enter the war. A stray dog befriends Private J. Robert “Bob” Conroy at the Connecticut National Guard camp at Yale University and the two become inseparable, eventually crossing an ocean and going to war together. What follows is an epic tale of how man’s best friend becomes an invaluable soldier on the front lines and in the trenches, a decorated war hero and an inspiration to a country long after the troops returned home. The memorable story of Sergeant Stubby-World War I dog veteran, decorated war hero, American icon, and above all, man’s best friend. Beloit, WI 978-1-4262-1310-6 | $24.00/$24.00C | National Geographic | HC | Nonfiction 978-1-4262-1465-3 | $13.95/$16.95C | National Geographic | TR | May 2015 E 978-1-4262-1311-3 Themes: Courage Young Reader’s Edition:
Stubby the War Dog: The True Story of World War I’s Bravest Dog
Cotton Tenants: Three Families Published here for the first time, Agee’s original report—accompanied by thirty of Walker Evans’ historic photos—is an unsparing record of place and of three families who worked the land at a desperate time. It remains relevant today as one the most honest explorations of poverty in America ever attempted, and as a foundational document of long-form reporting. It is, according to novelist Adam Haslett, “a poet’s brief for the prosecution of economic and social injustice.” Alabama 978-1-61219-398-4 l $16.95/$16.95C | Melville House | TR E 978-1-61219-213-0 Themes: IDENTITY LOSS
Maya Angelou
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings A phenomenal #1 bestseller, this memoir traces Maya Angelou’s childhood in a small, rural community in Arkansas during the 1930s. Filled with images and recollections that point to the dignity and courage of black men and women, Angelou paints a sometimes disquieting, but always affecting, picture of the people—and the times—that touched her life. 978-0-8129-8002-8 | $17.00/$20.00C | Random House | TR Nonfiction 978-0-345-51440-0 | $6.99/$8.99C | Ballantine | MM E 978-0-307-47772-9 | ] CD: 978-0-307-87939-4 | ] AD: 978-0-307-87940-0 Themes: Courage Coming of Age Women’s Studies
978-1-4263-1486-5 | $17.99/$20.99C | National Geographic Children’s Books | HC | Nonfiction Themes: Courage
Chris Bohjalian
Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands: A Novel Emily Shepard is a homeless girl living in Burlington. Nearly a year ago, a power plant in Vermont had a meltdown, and both of Emily’s parents were killed. Her father was in charge of the plant, and the meltdown may have been his fault. Emily feels certain that as the daughter of the most hated man in America, she is in danger. So instead of following her classmates after the meltdown, Emily took off on her own for Burlington. But Emily can’t outrun her past, can’t escape her grief, can’t hide forever—and so she comes up with the only plan that she can. For readers of Jodi Picoult, Elizabeth Strout, Sue Miller, and Elizabeth Berg. Lincoln, VT 978-0-385-53483-3 | $25.95 | Doubleday | HC | Fiction 978-0-385-68192-6 | $29.95C | Doubleday Canada | HC E 978-0-385-53484-0 | ] CD: 978-0-307-91748-5 | ] AD: 978-0-307-91749-2 LP: 978-0-8041-9444-0 Themes: COMING OF AGE LOSS Courage
SELECTED BY: Forsyth County, NC; Rome/Floyd County, GA; Kankakee County, IL
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Discussion Guide Available
Katherine Boo
Geoffrey Canada
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence
From Pulitzer Prize-winner Katherine Boo, comes a landmark work of narrative nonfiction. Annawadi is a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport, and as India starts to prosper, Annawadians are electric with hope. But then one man is falsely accused in a shocking tragedy; terror and recession rock the city; and suppressed tensions over religion, caste, and sex turn brutal. The intersection of individual hopes with the greatest global truths. Washington, DC Winner: National Book Award 978-0-8129-7932-9 | $16.00/$18.00C | RH Trade Paperbacks | TR | Nonfiction
E 978-0-679-64395-1 | ] CD: 978-0-307-93407-9 | ] AD: 978-0-307-93408-6 Themes: Courage SELECTED BY: East Lansing, MI
Long before the avalanche of praise for his workfrom Oprah Winfrey, from President Bill Clinton, from President Barack Obama—long before he became known for his talk show appearances, Members Project spots, and documentaries like Waiting for Superman, Geoffrey Canada was a small boy growing up scared on the mean streets of the South Bronx. His childhood world was one where “sidewalk boys” learned the codes of the block and were ranked through the rituals of fist, stick, and knife. Then the streets changed, and the stakes got even higher. In his candid and riveting memoir, Canada relives a childhood in which violence stalked every street corner. New York, NY 978-0-8070-4461-2 | $14.00/$16.00C | Beacon Press | TR | Nonfiction E 978-0-8070-4450-6 Themes: Courage IDENTITY
Bill Bryson
Sandra Cisneros
One Summer: America, 1927
The House on Mango Street
One of the most admired nonfiction writers of our time retells the story of one truly fabulous year in the life of his native country—a fascinating and gripping narrative featuring such outsized American heroes as Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, and yes Herbert Hoover, and a gallery of criminals (Al Capone), eccentrics (Shipwreck Kelly), and closemouthed politicians (Calvin Coolidge). It was the year Americans attempted and accomplished outsized things and came of age in a big, brawling manner. What a country. What a summer. Norfolk, England 978-0-7679-1941-8 | $15.95C | Anchor | TR | Nonfiction 978-0-385-68089-9 | $23.00C | Anchor Canada | TR E 978-0-385-53782-7 | ] CD: 978-0-8041-2735-6 | ] AD: 978-0-8041-2736-3 LP: 978-0-375-43432-7 Themes: IDENTITY
Through a series of vignettes, Cisneros tells the story of Esperanza Cordero, a young girl growing up in the Latino section of Chicago, whose neighborhood is one of harsh realities and harsh beauty. Esperanza doesn’t want to belong—not to her rundown neighborhood, and not to the low expectations the world has for her. San Antonio, TX 978-0-679-73477-2 | $10.95/$12.99C | Vintage | TR | Fiction ] CD: 978-0-7393-2279-6 | ] AD: 978-0-7393-2281-9 978-0-679-75526-5 Themes: COMING OF AGE IDENTITY SELECTED BY: Chicago, IL, The State of Arkansas; Commerce, Escondido, CA; Los Angeles, CA; Pico Rivera, CA; Sonoma County, CA; Jacksonville, FL; Miami, FL; Multnomah County,OR; Brazo Valley, TX; College Station-Bryan, TX; El Paso, TX; Milwaukee, WI
Jennifer Clement
Prayers for the Stolen
SELECTED BY: Tulsa Reads
Susan Cain
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking In Quiet, Susan Cain argues that we dramatically undervalue introverts and shows how much we lose in doing so. She charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal throughout the twentieth century and explores how deeply it has come to permeate our culture. Passionately argued, superbly researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet has the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how they see themselves. ThePowerOfIntroverts.com Hudson River Valley, NY 978-0-307-35215-6 | $16.00/$19.00C | Broadway | TR | Nonfiction E 978-0-307-45220-7 | ] CD: 978-1-4159-5912-1 | ] AD: 978-1-4159-5914-5 Themes: IDENTITY
Ladydi Garcia Martínez is fierce, funny, and smart, yet she was born into a world where being a girl is a dangerous thing. In the mountains of Guerrero, Mexico, women must fend for themselves. They live in the shadows of the drug war, where bodies turn up on the village outskirts and school is only held sporadically. In Guerrero, drug lords are kings and mothers disguise their daughters as sons— anything to protect them from the rapacious grasp of the cartels. Clement offers an intimate look at a country besieged by violence and poverty, based on interviews that she conducted with female survivors of this culture. Mexico City 978-0-804-13878-9 | $23.00/$26.95C | Hogarth | HC | Fiction 978-0-804-13880-2 | $15.00/$18.00C | Hogarth | TR | November 2014 E 978-0-804-13879-6 Themes: Coming of Age IDENTITY
SELECTED BY: Lane Public Library, OH
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Recommended Titles Ernest Cline
Firoozeh Dumas
Ready Player One
Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America
“Willy Wonka meets the Matrix.” (USA Today) In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade’s devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world’s digital confines— puzzles that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. But when Wade finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade’s going to survive, he’ll have to win—and confront the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape. ErnestCline.com • ReadyPlayerOne.com Austin, TX Winner: ALA ALEX Award 978-0-307-88744-3 | $14.00 $17.00C | Broadway | TR | Fiction E 978-0-307-88745-0 | ] CD: 978-0-307-97006-0 | ] AD: 978-0-307-91316-6 Themes: Coming of Age IDENTITY Courage SELECTED BY: One Book One Middletown, CT
Vanessa Diffenbaugh
The Language of Flowers: A Novel In Victorian times, the language of flowers was used to express a wide range of romantic emotions. But for Victoria Jones, it’s been more useful in communicating things like grief, mistrust, and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster care system, she is unable to get close to anybody. But after meeting a mysterious vendor at the flower market, Victoria realizes what’s been missing in her own life. As she starts to fall for him, she’s forced to confront a painful secret from her past, and decide whether it’s worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness. CamelliaNetwork.org Cambridge, MA 978-0-345-52555-0 | $15.00/$18.00C | Ballantine Books | TR | Fiction
E 978-0-345-52556-7 | ] CD: 978-0-307-87895-3 | ] AD: 978-0-307-87896-0 Themes: IDENTITY Coming of Age
Love
SELECTED BY: Palm Beach County, FL; Montcalm, MI
John Donnelly
A Twist of Faith: An American Christian’s Quest to Help Orphans in Africa The story of David Nixon who, despite personal struggles, the corruption of local officials, and the heartbreak of losing orphans to the AIDS epidemic, saves himself by saving others in a place nothing like home. With money raised from his church he sets off to do what so many well-intentioned Americans do in Africa: build an orphanage but slowly comes to realize, that he must abandon his preconceived ideas about how to help others and listen to what the Malawians actually want and need. Chevy Chase, MD 978-0-8070-0116-5 | $16.00/$18.00C | Beacon Press | TR | Nonfiction E 978-0-8070-0133-2 Themes: Courage integrity 4
In 1972, when she was seven, Firoozeh Dumas and her family moved from Iran to Southern California, arriving with no firsthand knowledge of America. This unforgettable story of identity, discovery, and the power of family love chronicles the American journey of Firoozeh’s wonderfully engaging family and Firoozeh herself. Northern California 978-0-8129-6837-8 | $15.00/$18.00C | RH Trade Paperbacks | TR | Nonfiction E 978-0-307-43099-1 Themes: IDENTITY SELECTED BY: Orange County and Whittier, CA; Berkely, CA; Carlsbad, CA; Palo Alto, CA; Dayton, OH; Bensenville, IL; Brentwood, CA; Concord, NH
Dave Eggers
What is the What A moving, extraordinary novel about one of the Sudanese Lost Boys and his struggle for survival. Written with expansive humanity and surprising humor, we come to understand the nature of the conflicts in Sudan, the refugee experience in America, the dreams of the Dinka people, and the challenge one indomitable man faces in a world collapsing around him. San Francisco, CA FINALIST: National Book Critics Circle Awards 978-0-307-38590-1 | $15.95/NCR | Vintage | TR | Fiction | E 978-0-307-39036-3 Themes: Courage SELECTED BY: Arlington, MA Reads Together; Marin County, CA; One Book South Dakota; Philadelphia, PA; San Mateo County, CA; Thousand Oaks, CA Also Available:
Zeitoun 978-0-307-38794-3 | $15.95/NCR | Vintage | TR | Nonfiction E 978-0-307-73943-8 Themes: Courage SELECTED BY: San Francisco, CA; Greenwich, CT
Hans Fallada
Every Man Dies Alone: A Novel It presents a richly detailed portrait of life in Berlin under the Nazis and tells the sweeping saga of one working-class couple who decides to take a stand when their only son is killed at the front. With nothing but their grief and each other against the awesome power of the Reich, they launch a simple, clandestine resistance campaign that soon has enraged Gestapo on their trail. “A signal literary event of 2009.” —The New York Times Book Review WINNER: A New York Times Notable Book of 2009 / A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2009 978-1-935554-04-2 | $16.95/$16.95C | Melville House | TR | Fiction | E 978-1-935554-05-9 Themes: Courage
Sheri Fink
John Grisham
Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital
The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town
Pulitzer Prize winner Sheri Fink’s landmark investigation of patient deaths at a New Orleans hospital ravaged by Hurricane Katrina–and her suspenseful portrayal of the quest for truth and justice. In the tradition of the best investigative journalism, physician and reporter Sheri Fink reconstructs 5 days at Memorial Medical Center and draws the reader into the lives of those who struggled mightily to survive and to maintain life amid chaos. In a voice at once involving and fair, masterful and intimate, Fink exposes the hidden dilemmas of end-of-life care and reveals just how ill-prepared we are in America for the impact of large-scale disasters—and how we can do better. SheriFink.net WINNER: An ALA Notable Book 978-0-307-71896-9 | $26.00/$30.00C | Crown | HC | Nonfiction E 978-0-307-71898-3 | ] CD: 978-0-8041-2811-7 | ] AD: 978-0-8041-2812-4 Themes: Integrity CRIME AND JUSTICE
Jamie Ford
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet: A Novel When Seattle’s famed Panama Hotel undergoes renovation in 1986, Henry Lee, now 56 years old, comes face to face with a relic from his past that unearths memories of his experiences during World War II—the young Japanese woman he loved and lost, the father who betrayed him—and sets him on a journey to repair the errors of his past. Great Falls, MT 978-0-345-50534-7 | $15.00/$18.95C | Ballantine Books | TR | Fiction E 978-0-345-51250-5 | ] CD: 978-1-4159-6209-1 | ] AD: 978-1-4159-6210-7 Themes: IDENTITY Coming of Age SELECTED BY: Schnectady County, NY; Broomfield, CO; Our Region Reads: Coeur d’Alene, ID
Viktor E. Frankl
Man’s Search for Meaning Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl’s memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl’s theory—known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos (“meaning”)—holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.
In 1982, a 21-year-old cocktail waitress was raped and murdered; with a case built on junk science and the testimony of jailhouse snitches, Ron Williamson was sent to death row. If you believe that in America you are innocent until proven guilty, this book will shock you; if you believe in the death penalty, it will disturb you; if you believe the criminal justice system is fair, it will infuriate you. Mississippi and Charlottesville, VA 978-0-385-34091-5 | $16.00/$20.00C | Delta | TR | Nonfiction 978-0-440-24383-0 | $7.99/$11.99C | Dell | MM E 978-0-307-57601-9 | ] CD: 978-1-4159-3307-7 | ] AD: 978-0-7393-4685-3 Themes: CRIME AND JUSTICE
Gail Gutradt
In a Rocket Made of Ice: Among the Children of Wat Opot Gail Gutradt was at a crossroads in her life when she learned of the Wat Opot Children’s Community, a temple complex nestled among Cambodia’s verdant rice paddies, was once a haunted scrubland that became a place of healing and respite where children with or orphaned by HIV/AIDs could live outside of fear or judgment, and find a new family. Disarming, funny, deeply moving, In a Rocket Made of Ice gathers the stories of children saved and changed by this very special place, and of one woman’s transformation in trying to help them. Bar Harbor, ME 978-0-385-35347-2 | $25.95/$30.00C | Knopf | HC | Nonfiction E 978-0-385-35348-9 | ] CD: 978-0-553-54643-9 | ] AD: 978-0-553-54644-6 Themes: INTEGRITY LOSS Love Courage
Mark Haddon
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Christopher is fifteen, gifted, and autistic. His carefully constructed world falls apart when the neighbor’s dog is killed. As he sets out to solve the mystery of the dog’s murder, Christopher must fall back on his own deductive logic to navigate the emotional complexities of a social world that remains a puzzle to him. Oxford, England INNER: ALA Alex Award / YALSA Best Books for W Young Adults 978-1-4000-3271-6 | $13.95/NCR | Vintage | TR | Fiction | E 978-0-385-51102-5 Themes: Coming of Age SELECTED BY: Santa Barbara, CA; Gunnison, CO; Westport, CT; North Attleborough, MA; North Reading, MA; West Boylston, MA; Kalamazoo, MI; Wake County, NC; Cincinnati, OH; Central Valley, NY; New Paltz, NY; Galveston, TX; Salt Lake City, UT; LaPorte County, IN; Michigan City, IN; Falmouth, MA; South Central Pennsylvania; Winchester County, VA
978-0-8070-1427-1 | $14.00/$16.00C | Beacon Press | TR | Nonfiction
E 978-0-8070-1428-8 | LP: 978-0-8070-0000-7 Themes: IDENTITY Loss Courage 5
Recommended Titles Kent Haruf
Homer H. Hickam, Jr.
Plainsong
Rocket Boys
Set on the rural plains of Holt, CO, this stirring meditation on the true nature and necessity of family comprises several story lines that flow into one. The seven characters featured in this tight narrative teach us how families can be made between people who are not necessarily blood relatives. Salida, CO
A powerful story of coming of age at the dawn of the 1960s, of a mother’s love and a father’s fears, of a group of young men who dreamed of launching rockets into outer space . . . and who made those dreams come true. Alabama and the Virgin Islands
WINNER: National Book Award 978-0-375-70585-4 | $13.95/$21.00C | Vintage | TR | Fiction E 978-0-375-72693-4 Themes: love SELECTED BY: The State of Arizona; Gunnison, CO; Loveland, CO; Springfield, IL; Vigo County, IN; Cedar Rapids, IA; Manhattan, KS; Grand Rapids, MI; Boone & Callaway Counties, MO; Kansas City, MO; Wahpeton and Breckenridge, ND; Lincoln, NE; Dallas/Fort Worth, TX; Salt Lake City, UT; Spokane, WA
Peter Heller
The Dog Stars: A Novel Hig survived the flu that killed everyone he knows. He lives in the hangar of a small abandoned airport with his dog, his only neighbor a guntoting misanthrope. In his1956 Cessna, Hig flies the perimeter of the airfield or sneaks off to the mountains to fish and pretend that things are the way they used to be. But when a random transmission somehow beams through his radio, the voice ignites a hope deep inside him that a better life—something like his old life—exists beyond the airport. Denver, CO WINNER: An ALA Notable Book 978-0-307-95047-5 | $15.00/$18.00C | Vintage | TR | Fiction E 978-0-307-96093-1 | ] CD: 978-0-449-01313-7 | ] AD: 978-0-449-01314-4 Themes: Loss Courage SELECTED BY: Gulf Coast Reads; Deshutes PL, OR
Cristina Henríquez
The Book of Unknown Americans: A Novel A dazzling, heartbreaking page-turner destined for breakout status: a novel that gives voice to millions of Americans as it tells the story of the love between a Panamanian boy and a Mexican girl: teenagers living in an apartment block of immigrant families like their own. “Spectacular . . . highly believable and poignant . . . A well-written story set among ‘unknown Americans,’ ostensibly Hispanic but in many ways any family adjusting to a new culture and way of life, regardless of ethnicity.” —Library Journal Hinsdale, IL 978-0-385-35084-6 | $24.95 | Knopf | HC | Fiction 978-0-385-68073-8 | $29.95C | Bond Street Books | HC E 978-0-385-35085-3 | ] CD: 978-0-8041-9144-9 | ] AD: 978-0-8041-9145-6 Themes: IDENTITY Loss
978-0-385-33321-4 | $16.00/$18.00C | Delta | TR | Nonfiction E 978-0-440-33387-6 Themes: Coming of Age Love LOSS SELECTED BY: Guntersville, AL; Jackson County, AL; Scottsboro, AL; Central Florida; Greenwood, IN; Northwest, IN; Topeka, KS; Athol, MA; Easthampton, MA; Southwest MI; Bowling Green, OH; Cleveland, OH; Findlay, OH; Tiffen, OH; Central Pennsylvania; Warren County, PA; Beaford County, SC; Memphis Shelby County, TN; Portland, TN; Alexandria, VA; Winchester, Frederick and Clark Counties, VA; Souix City, IA; Waco, TX
Naoki Higashida Translated by KA Yoshida and David Mitchell
The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism A remarkable journey into the mind of Naoki Higashida, a 13-year-old boy with severe autism. Using an alphabet grid Naoki painstakingly spells out answers to the questions he imagines others most often wonder: why do you talk so loud? Is it true you hate being touched? The result is an inspiring, attitude-transforming book. Japan 978-0-8129-9486-5 | $22.00 | Random House | HC | Nonfiction 978-0-8129-8515-3 | $15.00 | RH Trade Paperbacks | March 2015 978-0-345-80780-9 | $25.00C | Knopf Canada | HC 978-0-345-80782-3 | $18.00C | Vintage Canada | TR | March 2015 E 978-0-8129-9487-2 Themes: IDENTITY
Laura Hillenbrand
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving a young lieutenant, Louis Zamperini afloat. Ahead of him lay thousands of miles of open ocean, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope; brutality with rebellion. Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit. Washington, DC WINNER: Los Angeles Times Book Prize 978-1-4000-6416-8 | $28.00/$33.00C | Random House | HC | Nonfiction 978-0-8129-7449-2 | $16.00/$19.00C | RH Trade Paperbacks | October 2014 E 978-0-679-60375-7 | ] CD: 978-1-4159-6274-9 | ] AD: 978-1-4159-6276-3 LP: 978-0-375-43501-0 Young Reader’s Edition: 978-0-385-74251-1 | E 978-0-307-97565-2 | November 2014 Themes: Courage Coming of Age SELECTED BY: Orange County Libraries, CA; Barrington, IL; Sarasota County, FL; Northern Colorado Common Read; Sierra Madre, CA
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Nancy Horan
Rachel Joyce
Loving Frank: A Novel
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry: A Novel
Fact and fiction are brilliantly blended in this enthralling novel based on the love affair between Mamah Cheney and renowned American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, that scandalized Chicago society in the early 20th century. Langley, Whidbey Island, WA
Meet Harold Fry, recently retired. He lives in a small English village with his wife, Maureen, who seems irritated by almost everything he does. Little differentiates one day from the next. But when a morning walk to the corner mailbox to send a letter to an ailing friend transforms into a pilgrimage across 600 miles of English countryside, something extraordinary happens. Gloucestershire, UK
978-0-345-49500-6 | $15.00/$17.00C | Ballantine | TR | Fiction E 978-0-345-50225-4 | Deluxe E 978-0-345-54103-1 Themes: Love SELECTED BY: Wilmette, IL; Norwell, MA
Arianna Huffington
Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder Thrive is a call to arms to redefine how we measure success in our work lives and personal lives. Beyond money and power, Arianna says, is the Third Metric: the importance of well-being, wisdom and fulfillment. The third metric is creating a revolution in our lives, one that will be led by women as they reinvent what it means to be successful in the workplace—but that will ultimately affect us all, men and women alike. Thrive is a vital next step in the debate on women, success and the workplace. New York City
978-0-8129-8345-6 | $15.00 | RH Trade Paperbacks | TR | Fiction 978-0-385-67771-4 | $19.95C | Anchor Canada E 978-0-679-64511-5 | ] CD: 978-0-449-01277-2 | ] AD: 978-0-449-01278-9 SELECTED BY: Lincoln, NE; Cass County, MO Also Available:
The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy: A Novel 978-0-8129-9667-8 | $20.00 | Random House | HC | Fiction | Feburary 2015 978-0-385-68282-4 | $25.00C | Bond Street Books | HC E 978-0-8129-9666-1 | ] CD: 978-0-553-41010-5 | ] AD: 978-0-553-41012-9 Themes: Love LOSS
Tracy Kidder
Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Kidder tells the true story of eccentric medical genius Paul Farmer, an “American male Mother Teresa.” Farmer shows how one person can effect global progress against seemingly impossible problems—TB, AIDS, poverty— with creativity, knowledge and determination. Williamsburg, MA and South Bristol, ME
978-0-804-14084-3 | $26.00/$31.00C | Harmony | HC | Nonfiction E 978-0-804-14085-0 | ] CD: 978-0-804-19394-8 | ] AD: 978-0-804-19395-5 Themes: IDENTITY Courage
Kristen Iversen
Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats A haunting work of narrative nonfiction about a young woman growing up in a small Colorado town close to Rocky Flats, a secret nuclear-weapons plant once designated “the most contaminated site in America.” Full Body Burden is the story of a young woman growing up in the shadow of the Cold War, in a landscape at once startlingly beautiful land—unknown to those who lived there—tainted with invisible yet deadly particles of plutonium. It’s also a book about the destructive power of secrets—both family secrets and government secrets. KristenIversen.com Memphis, TN 978-0-307-95565-4 | $15.00/$18.00C | Broadway | TR | Nonfiction E 978-0-307-95564-7 | ] CD: 978-0-449-00968-0 | ] AD: 978-0-449-00969-7
978-0-8129-7301-3 | $16.00/$19.00C | RH Trade Paperbacks | TR | Nonfiction 978-0-8129-8055-4 | $18.00/$21.00C | RH Trade Paperbacks | Deluxe TR | Nonfiction E 978-1-58836-334-3 | ] CD: 978-1-4159-4692-3 | ] AD: 978-0-7393-4998-4 Young Reader’s Edition: 978-0-385-74319-8 | E 978-0-307-98088-5 Themes: integrity SELECTED BY: Concord, MA; Dover, MA; Falmouth, MA; and Winchester, MA; Syracuse, NY; Minnetonka, MN; Sarasota, FL; San Diego, CA; Ann Arbor, MI; Southeastern, CT; Summit, NJ; Bozeman, MT; Wilbraham, MA; August, ME; Deerfield, IL; Santa Barbara, CA Also Available:
Strength in What Remains 978-0-8129-7761-5 | $16.00/$19.00C | RH Trade Paperbacks TR | Nonfiction E 978-1-58836-851-5 ] CD: 978-1-4159-6344-9 | ] AD: 978-1-4159-6346-3 Themes: Courage
Themes: IDENTITY Coming of Age
SELECTED BY: Hanover, NH; State of Iowa
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Recommended Titles Herman Koch
Jhumpa Lahiri
Summer House with Swimming Pool
The Lowland: A Novel
Doctors are unassailable. Their patients, with all their secrets, are delivered up to them body and soul. Marc Schlosser is a family doctor to the rich and famous, and behind his mask of solicitude a heartless cynic. When he finds his honour as a husband and father in jeopardy, however, he realizes he has power over life and death. Who could do anything to him should one of his patients die? For readers of suspense and incendiary novels like We Need to Talk About Kevin, Defending Jacob and Gone Girl. Amsterdam
An engrossing family saga steeped in history: the story of two very different brothers bound by tragedy, a fiercely brilliant woman haunted by her past, a country torn apart by revolution, and a love that endures long past death. Moving from the 1960s to the present, and from India to America and across generations. Brooklyn, NY FINALIST: National Book Award 978-0-307-27826-5 | $15.00 | Vintage | TR | Fiction 978-0-676-97937-4 | $21.00C | Vintage Canada | TR E 978-0-385-35040-2 | ] CD: 978-0-385-36742-4 | ] AD: 978-0-385-36743-1 Themes: IDENTITY LOSS Love
978-0-804-13881-9 | $24.00/$27.00C | Hogarth | HC | Fiction E 978-0-804-13882-6 Themes: Integrity CRIME AND JUSTICE
William Landay
Defending Jacob: A Novel
Also Available:
Andy Barber has been a respected assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next: His fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student. Boston, MA
The Dinner: A Novel 978-0-385-34685-6 | $14.00/$16.00C | TR | Hogarth | Fiction E 978-0-385-34684-9 Themes: CRIME AND JUSTICE
978-0-345-53366-1 | $15.00/$17.00C | Bantam | TR | Fiction 978-0-440-24613-8 | $7.99/$9.99C | Dell Books | MM
Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity Equal in urgency and compassion to Half the Sky, this galvanizing new book from the acclaimed husband-and-wife team is even more ambitious in scale: nothing less than a deep examination of people who are making the world a better place, and the myriad ways we can support them, whether with a donation of five dollars or five million, an inkling to help or a useful skill to deploy. Soon to be the basis of a PBS four-hour series. Scarsdale, NY 978-0-385-34991-8 | $27.95/$33.00C | Knopf | HC | Nonfiction | September 2014 E 978-0-385-34992-5 | ] CD: 978-0-385-36784-4 | ] AD: 978-0-385-36785-1 LP: 978-0-8041-9454-9 Themes: integrity Courage Also Available:
Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide 978-0-307-38709-7 | $15.95/$18.95C | Vintage | TR Nonfiction E 978-0-307-27315-4 Themes: integrity SELECTED BY: UCONN Reads; UC Davis Campus Community Book Project
E 978-0-345-52759-2 Themes: CRIME AND JUSTICE IDENTITY SELECTED BY: Sharon, MA; Brookline, MA; Abington, MA
Erik Larson
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Familyin Hitler’s Berlin In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin–and Europe–were awash in blood and terror. ErikLarsonBooks.com Seattle, WA 978-0-307-40885-3 | $16.00/$19.00C | Broadway | TR | Nonfiction E 978-0-307-88795-5 | ] CD: 978-0-307-91459-0 | ] AD: 978-0-307-91460-6 LP: 978-0-7393-7814-4 Themes: CRIME AND JUSTICE Courage SELECTED BY: Evansville, IN; Davie County, NC Also Available:
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America 978-0-375-72560-9 | $16.00/$19.00C | Vintage | TR | Nonfiction E 978-1-4000-7631-4 Themes: CRIME AND JUSTICE SELECTED BY: Lewis County, WA; Sharon, MA; Lincoln, NE; Stoughton, MA; Downers Grove, IL
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Mardi Jo Link
Anthony Marra
Bootstrapper: From Broke to Badass on a Northern Michigan Farm
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena: A Novel
Poignant, irreverent, and hilarious: the memoir of a woman who, after ending her nineteen-year marriage, staves off a perpetually empty bank ac-count, saves her century-old farmhouse from foreclosure with the help of her three young sons, and reclaims her life. Traverse City, MI 978-0-307-74358-9 | $15.00/$18.00C | Anchor | TR | Nonfiction
E 978-0-385-34967-3 | ] CD: 978-0-8041-2073-9 | ] AD: 978-0-8041-2074-6 Themes: Courage IDENTITY
E. Lockhart
In the final days of December 2004, in a small rural village in Chechnya, eight-year-old Havaa flees with her neighbor Akhmed, a failed physician-to the bombed-out hospital. With The English Patient’s dramatic sweep and The Tiger’s Wife’s expert sense of place, Marra delivers a searing debut about the transcendent power of love in wartime, and how it can cause us to become greater than we ever thought possible. AnthonyMarra.net Oakland, CA 978-0-770-43642-1 | $15.00 | Hogarth | TR | Fiction
E 978-0-770-43641-4 | ] AD: 978-0-385-36357-0 Themes: IDENTITY Courage LOSS
We Were Liars A beautiful and distinguished family. A private island. A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy. A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive. A revolution. An accident. A secret. Lies upon lies. True love. The truth. “Riveting, brutal and beautifully told.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Brooklyn, NY 978-0-385-74126-2 | $17.99/$19.99C | Delacorte Press | HC | Fiction E 978-0-375-98440-2 | ] CD: 978-0-8041-6841-0 | ] AD: 978-0-8041-6842-7 Themes: COMING OF AGE LOSS
Emily St. John Mandel
Station Eleven: A Novel One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. Moving back and forth in timefrom the actor’s early days as a film star to fifteen years in the future, when a theater troupe known as the Traveling Symphony roams the wasteland of what remains-this suspenseful, elegiac, spellbinding novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people. Sometimes terrifying, sometimes tender, Station Eleven tells a story about the relationships that sustain us, the ephemeral nature of fame, and the beauty of the world as we know it. For readers of The Dog Stars and The Age of Miracles. Brooklyn, NY 978-0-385-35330-4 | $24.95 | Knopf | HC | Fiction | September 2014 E 978-0-385-35331-1 | ] CD: 978-0-553-54558-6 | ] AD: 978-0-553-39798-7 Themes: Loss Courage
Ayana Mathis
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie: A Novel A debut of extraordinary distinction: Ayana Mathis tells the story of the children of the Great Migration through the trials of one unforgettable family. An emotionally transfixing page-turner, a searing portrait of striving in the face of insurmountable adversity, an indelible encounter with the resilience of the human spirit and the driving force of the American dream. Brooklyn, NY WINNER: Black Caucus Literary Award 978-0-307-94970-7 | $15.00 | Vintage | TR | Fiction E 978-0-385-35030-3 | Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 Digital Edition: 978-0-385-35029-7 ] CD: 978-0-8041-2727-1 | ] AD: 978-0-8041-2728-8 Themes: Courage IDENTITY Loss SELECTED BY: 2013 Read St. Louis
Frances Mayes
Under Magnolia: A Southern Memoir In her Tuscany memoirs, Frances Mayes frequently refers to her south Georgia hometown of Fitzgerald, her memories of it, and the commonalities of what she recalls of Southern life and life in her adopted home of Cortona, Italy. Under Magnolia is her memoir of growing up in the American South, of leaving it to explore the world, and of returning to it to start a new life there. FrancesMayesBooks.com North Carolina 978-0-307-88591-3 | $26.00/$31.00C | Crown | HC | Nonfiction 978-0-307-88592-0 | $15.00/$18.00C | Broadway Books | TR | March 2015 E 978-0-307-88593-7 | ] CD: 978-0-804-14860-3 | ] AD: 978-0-804-14861-0 Themes: IDENTITY Love Also Available:
Under the Tuscan Sun 978-0-7679-0038-6 | $15.00 | Broadway Books | TR | Nonfiction E 978-0-7679-1745-2 Themes: IDENTITY Love SELECTED BY: Denver, CO
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Recommended Titles Alexander McCall Smith
Paula McLain
The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
The Paris Wife: A Novel
Precious Ramotswe’s keen knowledge of the human mind and heart, and steadfast sense of right and wrong, makes her a heroine whose personality inspires trust, warmth, and generosity in all who meet her. Scotland
A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal that captures a remarkable time and a love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley. Jazz Age Paris and the the fabled “Lost Generation”— Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald—provide the vivid backdrop for this engrossing, emotionally wrenching story. Cleveland, OH
978-1-4000-3477-2 | $12.95/$18.95C | Anchor | TR | Fiction 978-1-4000-9688-6 | $6.99/$10.99C | Anchor | MM E 978-1-4000-7765-6 Themes: IDENTITY CRIME AND justice SELECTED BY: Grand Rapids, MI; Monterey, CA; Carlsbad, CA; Howard County, IN; Marquette, MI; Pierce County, WA Young Reader’s Edition:
The Great Cake Mystery: Precious Ramotswe’s Very First Case: A Number 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Book for Young Readers
978-0-345-52131-6 | $15.00 | Ballantine | TR | Fiction 978-0-385-66924-5 | $22.00C | Anchor Canada E 978-0-345-52132-3 | Deluxe E 978-0-345-53361-6 ] CD: 978-0-307-87720-8 | ] AD: 978-0-307-87721-5 Themes: Love SELECTED BY: Nassau County, FL; Pierce County, WA
Rebecca Mead
978-0-307-74389-3 | $6.99/$7.99C | Anchor | TR | Fiction E 978-0-307-74390-9 ] CD: 978-0-449-01140-9 | ] AD: 978-0-449-01143-0 Themes: IDENTITY CRIME AND justice
My Life in Middlemarch A book for every ardent reader who wonders about the power of literature to shape our lives. A New Yorker writer revisits Middlemarch, the seminal book of her youth and now middle age, Mead takes Eliot’s ideas about parenthood, wisdom, and morality and brings them into the present day. For readers of Reading Lolita in Tehran, A Jane Austen Education, and How Proust Can Change Your Life.
Colum McCann
Let the Great World Spin: A Novel On a late-summer morning, the people of lower Manhattan stare up in disbelief at the Twin Towers. It is August 1974, and a tightrope walker is leaping between the towers, suspended a quarter mile above the ground. In the streets below, ordinary lives become extraordinary in this intricate portrait of a city and its people. New York, NY WINNER: National Book Award / An ALA Notable Book 978-0-8129-7399-0 | $15.00 | RH Trade Paperbacks | TR | Fiction E 978-1-58836-873-7 Themes: Loss SELECTED BY: Fort Collins, CO; Bloomington, IN; Wilmette, IL
Jerry McGill
Dear Marcus: A Letter to the Man Who Shot Me Jerry McGill was thirteen years old, walking home through the projects of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, when he was shot in the back by a stranger. Jerry survived, wheelchair-bound for life; his assailant was never caught. Thirty years later, Jerry wants to say something to the man who shot him. “Violence, hope, despair, forgiveness, anger, and living with a disability are explored both lightly and deeply, humorously and profoundly, and always honestly.” —Library Journal (starred review) Portland, OR 978-0-8129-8316-6 | $14.00/$17.00C | Spiegel & Grau | TR | Nonfiction E 978-0-679-64460-6 Themes: Courage IDENTITY Loss
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Brooklyn, NY 978-0-307-98476-0 | $25.00 | Crown | HC | Nonfiction 978-0-307-98477-7 | $15.00 | TR | January 2015 E 978-0-307-98478-4 Themes: IDENTITY
Dinaw Mengestu
All Our Names: A Novel The story of a young man who comes of age during an African revolution—drawn from his university into the intensifying clamor of the streets outside. But as the line between idealism and violence becomes increasingly blurred, and the path of revolution leads to almost certain destruction, he leaves behind his country and friends for America. There, pretending to be an exchange student, he falls in love with a social worker and settles into the routines of small-town life. Yet this idyll is inescapably darkened by the secrets of his past. For readers of V.S. Naipaul, Chinua Achebe, Abraham Verghese, and Chimamanda Adichie. New York, NY 978-0-385-34998-7 | $25.95 | Knopf | HC | Fiction 978-0-385-67977-0 | $27.95C | Bond Street Books | HC E 978-0-385-34999-4 Themes: IDENTITY Coming of Age
Wes Moore
Sonia Nazario
The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates
Enrique’s Journey
The true story of two boys born in the same neighborhood in the same town with the same name, and their starkly different fates. A powerful story about young black men in America—the ones who make it, the ones who don’t, and the difference. TheOtherWesMoore.com Jersey City, NJ
The breathtaking eyewitness account of a young Honduran boy’s perilous efforts to reunite with his mother eleven years after she is forced to leave her starving family to find work in the United States. An intense and timely story of one family’s embodiment of a national issue, illegal immigration, and the toll it takes on the parents and children involved and on the nation’s resources and moral standing. Los Angeles, CA
978-0-385-52820-7 | $15.00/$17.00C | Spiegel & Grau | TR | Nonfiction E 978-1-58836-969-7 | ] CD: 978-0-307-73603-1 | ] AD: 978-0-307-73604-8 Young Reader’s Edition: 978-0-385-74168-2 Themes: IDENTITY Coming of Age
978-0-8129-7178-1 | $16.00/$19.00C | Random House | TR | Nonfiction E 978-1-58836-602-3 | 978-0-8129-7580-2 | E 978-0-307-54824-5 Young Reader’s Edition: 978-0-385-74328-0 | Young Reader’s E 978-0-307-98315-2
SELECTED BY: Bakersfield, CA
Themes: Courage Coming of Age Love
Virginia Morell
Animal Wise: How We Know Animals Think and Feel Animal Wise takes us on a dazzling odyssey into the inner world of animals and among the pioneering researchers who are leading the way into once-forbidden territory: the animal mind. Morell uses her formidable gifts as a storyteller to transport us to field sites and laboratories around the world, introducing us to animal-cognition scientists and their surprisingly intelligent and sensitive subjects. She explores how this rapidly evolving, controversial field has only recently overturned old notions about why animals behave as they do. In this surprising and moving book, Morell brings the world of nature brilliantly alive in a nuanced, deeply felt appreciation of the humananimal bond. WINNER: An Ala Notable Book 978-0-307-46145-2 | $14.95/$17.95C | Broadway Books | TR | Nonfiction E 978-0-307-46146-9 | ] CD: 978-0-307-97075-6 | ] AD: 978-0-307-97076-3 Themes: Love IDENTITY
SELECTED BY: Yuma, AZ; Glendale, CA; Laredo, TX; Santa Fe, NM; Sand Diego, CA
Barack Obama
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance A memoir by President Barack Obama, first published in July 1995 when he was preparing to launch his political career. As the son of a black African father and a white American mother he searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. The sudden death of his father inspires an emotional odyssey—first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance. 978-1-4000-8277-3 | $14.95/$21.00C | Three Rivers Press | TR | Nonfiction E 978-0-307-39412-5 | ] CD: 978-1-4159-4139-3 | ] AD: 978-1-4159-4140-9 Themes: IDENTITY SELECTED BY: Kansas Reads Also Available:
Azar Nafisi
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. A remarkable exploration of the liberating power of literature. Washington, DC
The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream 978-0-307-23770-5 | $14.95/$19.95C | Three Rivers Press TR | Nonfiction E 978-0-307-38209-2 Themes: IDENTITY
978-0-8129-7930-5 | $18.00/$21.00C | RH Trade Paperbacks | TR | Nonfiction E 978-1-58836-079-3 Themes: IDENTITY Courage SELECTED BY: Bloomington, IN; Hartford, CT; Rolette, ND; South Hadlet, MA; DC Public Library Citywide Read
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Recommended Titles R. J. Palacio
John Elder Robison
Wonder
Raising Cubby: A Father and Son’s Adventures with Asperger’s, Trains, Tractors, and High Explosives
August Pullman was born with a facial deformity that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid—but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face. “A memorable story of kindness, courage and wonder.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) New York, NY 978-0-375-86902-0 | $15.99/$17.99C | Alfred A. Knopf BFYR | HC | Fiction 978-0-375-87306-5 | $7.99/$8.99C | Yearling | TR | February 2016 E 978-0-375-89988-1 Themes: Courage IDENTITY SELECTED BY: Bowling Green, OH; Sant Monica P.L.
Chris Pavone
The Accident From the author of the New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning The Expats, an elegant and riveting espionage thriller about spies, secrets, and the devastating power of the truth. Powerful literary agent, Isabel Reed, is reading frantically, turning the pages breathlessly. This is what she’s been waiting for her entire career: a book that will help her move on from a painful past, a book that could save her beloved industry . . . a book that will change the world. New York, NY 978-0-385-34845-4 | $26.00/$31.00C | Crown | HC | Fiction 978-0-385-34847-8 | $15.00/$18.00C | Broadway Books | TR | January 2015 E 978-0-385-34846-1 | ] CD: 978-0-804-16599-0 | ] AD: 978-0-804-16600-3 LP: 978-0-804-12119-4 Themes: Courage IDENTITY Also Available:
The Expats: A Novel 978-0-7704-3572-1 | $15.00/$17.00C | Broadway | TR | Fiction E 978-0-307-95637-8 | ] CD: 978-0-307-99031-0 ] AD: 978-0-307-99032-7 Themes: Courage IDENTITY Love
Tom Reiss
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo Winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize, The Black Count tells the fascinating true story of Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, the son of a French aristocrat and a black slave from the colony of Saint-Domingue (modernday Haiti), Dumas enlisted in the French army in 1786 and quickly rose to the highest rank that would be achieved by a man of color until Colin Powell—nearly 200 years later. New York, NY 978-0-307-38247-4 | $16.00/$18.00C | Broadway | TR | Nonfiction E 978-0-307-95295-0 | ] CD: 978-0-449-01269-7 | ] AD: 978-0-449-01270-3 Themes: Courage Love 12
Raising Cubby, Robison’s third book, is a chronicle about a different boy being raised by a different kind of father—and about coming to terms with being “on the spectrum” as both a challenge and a unique gift. “Funny and moving . . . A warmhearted, appealing account by a masterful storyteller.” —Kirkus Reviews
JohnRobison.com • JERobison.Blogspot.com Amherst, MA 978-0-307-88485-5 | $14.95 | Broadway Books | TR | Nonfiction E 978-0-307-88486-2 | ] CD: 978-0-307-88137-3 | ] AD: 978-0-307-88138-0 Themes: Coming of Age IDENTITY Love Also Available:
Be Different: Adventures of a Free-Range Aspergian With Practical Advice for Aspergians, Misfits,Families & Teachers 978-0-307-88482-4 | $14.00 | Broadway | TR | Nonfiction
E 978-0-307-88483-1 | ] CD: 978-0-307-88133-5 ] AD: 978-0-307-88134-2
Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s 978-0-307-39618-1 | $14.95/$16.95C | Three Rivers Press TR | Nonfiction E 978-0-307-40572-2 | ] CD: 978-1-4159-4245-1 ] AD: 978-1-4159-4247-5 Themes: Coming of Age IDENTITY SELECTED BY: Montcalm, MI; New Philadelphia, OH; Somerville, MA
Gretchen Rubin
Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon Self-Control, and My Other Experiments in Everyday Life In the spirit of her blockbuster #1 New York Times bestseller The Happiness Project, Rubin worked out general theories of happiness. Here she goes deeper on factors that matter for home, such as possessions, marriage, time, and parenthood. How can she control the cubicle in her pocket? With her signature blend of memoir, science, philosophy, and experimentation, Rubin’s passion for her subject jumps off the page, and reading just a few chapters of this book will inspire readers to find more happiness in their own lives. GretchenRubin.com New York, NY 978-0-307-88679-8 | $15.00 | TR | Three Rivers Press | Nonfiction E 978-0-307-88680-4 | ] CD: 978-0-449-01440-0 | ] AD: 978-0-449-01441-7 Themes: IDENTITY Love
Donal Ryan
George Saunders
The Spinning Heart: A Novel
Congratulations, by the way: Some Thoughts on Kindness
In the aftermath of Ireland’s financial collapse, dangerous tensions surface in an Irish town. As violence flares, the characters face a battle between public persona and inner desires. Through a chorus of unique voices, each struggling to tell their own kind of truth, a single authentic tale unfolds. This novel of small-town life is witty, dark and sweetly poignant. “This startling debut reads like a modern Irish twist on William Faulkner’s, As I Lay Dying.” —Library Journal (starred review) Ireland 978-1-58642-224-0 | $15.00 | Steerforth Press | TR | Fiction E 978-1-58642-225-7 Themes: IDENTITY LOSS
Three months after George Saunders gave a graduation address at Syracuse University, a transcript of that speech was posted on the website of The New York Times, where its simple, uplifting message struck a deep chord. Within days, it had been shared more than one million times. Why? Because Saunders’s words tap into a desire in all of us to lead kinder, more fulfilling lives. Powerful, funny, wise, and inspiring. Oneonta, NY 978-0-8129-9627-2 | $14.00/$17.00C | Random House | HC | Nonfiction
E 978-0-8129-9628-9 | ] AD: 978-0-804-19302-3 Themes: IDENTITY Love Will Schwalbe
The End of Your Life Book Club
Marjane Satrapi
The Complete Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood Marjane Satrapi’s bestselling, internationally acclaimed memoir-in-comic-strips. Persepolis is the story of Satrapi’s unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private life and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trails of adolescence; of her homecoming—both sweet and terrible; and of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland. Paris WINNER: ALA Alex Award
Mary Anne Schwalbe was an educator and spent ten years building libraries in Afghanistan. But her story here begins at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where, accompanied by her son, she is waiting for chemotherapy treatments to begin. Will casually asks her what she’s been reading, and the conversation they have grows into tradition: soon they are reading the same books in order to talk about them as Mary Anne is given her treatments. The books they read range from classic to popular, from fantastic to spiritual, and we hear their passion for reading and their love for each other in their dynamic and searching discussions around each one. New York, NY
978-0-375-71483-2 | $24.95/$29.95C | Pantheon | TR | Nonfiction–Graphic Novel E 978-0-307-51802-6 Themes: COMING OF AGE IDENTITY
978-0-307-73978-0 | $15.00 | Vintage | TR | Nonfiction 978-0-307-39967-0 | $19.95C | Vintage Canada E 978-0-307-96111-2 | ] CD: 978-0-449-80663-0 | ] AD: 978-0-449-80666-1 Themes: Loss
SELECTED BY: Chelsea, MI; Seattle, WA; Arlington, VA; Martha’s Vineyard, MA; One Book, One Philadelphia; One Great Read - Lafayette, IN, Miami, FL
SELECTED BY: Calgary Reads; Cincinnati PL “On the Same Page”
Also Available:
Lisa See
Persepolis 1: The Story of a Childhood 978-0-375-71457-3 | $12.95/$14.95C | Pantheon | TR Nonfiction–Graphic Novel
Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return 978-0-375-71466-5 | $11.95/$16.95C | Pantheon | TR Nonfiction–Graphic Novel
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel A brilliantly realistic journey back to an era of Chinese history that is as deeply moving as it is sorrowful. An intimate, absorbing story of two women’s lives, and of the secret language they used to communicate their most private thoughts. Perfect for communities interested in learning about other cultures through a novel that suggests the spectrum of human emotions—including love and forgiveness—are universal, despite cultural differences. Los Angeles, CA 978-0-8129-6806-4 | $16.00/$19.00C | RH Trade Paperbacks | TR | Fiction E 978-1-58836-474-6 | Deluxe E 978-0-679-64459-0 ] CD: 978-1-4159-2154-8 | ] AD: 978-0-7393-5008-9 | LP: 978-0-375-43524-9 Themes: IDENTITY SELECTED BY: Brookline, MA; Naperville, IL; Roseville, CA
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Recommended Titles Jan-Philipp Sendker
Rebecca Skloot
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats: A Novel
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
A poignant and inspirational love story set in Burma spanning the decades between the 1950s and the present. A successful New York lawyer suddenly disappears without a trace, neither his wife nor his daughter Julia has any idea where he might be . . . until they find a love letter he wrote many years ago, to a Burmese woman they have never heard of. Julia decides to travel to the village where the woman lived. There she uncovers a tale of unimaginable hardship, resilience, and passion that will reaffirm the reader’s belief in the power of love to move mountains. Berlin 978-1-59051-463-4 | $14.95/$16.95C | Other Press | TR | Fiction E 978-1-59051-464-1 Themes: Love integrity
Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: A Novel January 1946: writer Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a stranger, a founding member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. And so begins a remarkable tale of the island of Guernsey during the German occupation, and of a society as extraordinary as its name. GuernseyLiterary.com Northern California 978-0-385-34100-4 | $15.00/$17.00C | The Dial Press | TR Fiction E 978-0-440-33797-3 | Deluxe E 978-0-679-64458-3 ] CD: 978-1-4159-5440-9 | ] AD: 978-1-4159-5442-3 Themes: Courage Love SELECTED BY: Rehoboth, MA; NH Lakes Region Reads; One Book, One Coppell, TX; Reading Across Rhode Island; Douglas One Book/Carson Reads, NV; Saratoga Reads; Sandy, OR; Sedalia, MO
Hampton Sides
In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette In the late nineteenth century, people were obsessed by one of the last unmapped areas of the globe: the North Pole. On July 8, 1879, the USS Jeannette set sail from San Francisco to cheering crowds in the grip of “Arctic Fever.” The ship sailed into uncharted seas, but soon was trapped in pack ice. Two years into the harrowing voyage, the hull was breached and the crew abandoned the ship. Less than an hour later, the Jeannette sank to the bottom, and the men found themselves marooned a thousand miles north of Siberia with only the barest supplies. Thus began their long march across the endless ice. For readers of Sebastian Junger and Jon Krakauer. Santa Fe, NM 978-0-385-53537-3 | $28.95/$34.00C | Doubleday | HC | Nonfiction E 978-0-385-53538-0 | ] CD: 978-0-307-96656-8 | ] AD: 978-0-307-96657-5 Themes: Courage
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Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can’t afford health insurance. This phenomenal New York Times bestseller tells a riveting story of the collision between ethics, race, and medicine; of scientific discovery and faith healing; and of a daughter consumed with questions about the mother she never knew. RebeccaSkloot.com Chicago, IL 978-1-4000-5218-9 | $15.00/$17.00C | TR | Nonfiction E 978-0-307-58938-5 | ] CD: 978-0-307-71252-3 | ] AD: 978-0-307-71253-0 Themes: IDENTITY integrity SELECTED BY: Baton Rouge, LA; Columbia, MS; Dayton, OH; Detroit, MI; Madison, WI
Jane Smiley
Some Luck: A Novel On their farm in Denby, Iowa, Rosanna and Walter Langdon abide by time-honored values that they pass on to their five wildly different yet equally remarkable children. Moving from post-World War I America through the early 1950s, Some Luck gives us an intimate look at this family’s triumphs and tragedies, zooming in on the realities of farm life, while casting—as the children grow up and scatter to New York, California, and everywhere in between—a panoramic eye on the monumental changes that marked the first half of the twentieth century. For fans of Phillip Meyer, Louise Erdrich, and Penny Vincenzi. Carmel Valley, CA 978-0-307-70031-5 | $26.95/$32.00C | Knopf | HC | Fiction | October 2014 E 978-0-385-35039-6 | ] CD: 978-0-8041-9412-9 | ] AD: 978-0-8041-9413-6 Themes: IDENTITY
April Smith
A Star for Mrs. Blake: A Novel An emotionally charged, brilliantly realized novel set in the 1930s about five American women— Gold Star Mothers—who travel to France to visit the graves of their World War I soldier sons: a pilgrimage that will change their lives in unforeseeable and indelible ways. For fans of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, and Sarah’s Key. Santa Monica, CA 978-0-307-95884-6 | $25.95/$28.95C | Knopf | HC | Fiction E 978-0-307-95885-3 | ] CD: 978-0-8041-6625-6 | ] AD: 978-0-8041-6626-3 Themes: Loss Love Courage SELECTED BY: Cincinnati “On the Same Page”
Joanne Huist Smith
Warren St. John
The 13th Gift: A True Story of a Christmas Miracle
Outcasts United: A Refugee Soccer Team, an American Town
After the unexpected death of her husband, Joanne Smith had no idea how she would keep herself together and be strong for her three children. But 12 days before Christmas, presents begin appearing on her doorstep with notes from their “True Friends.” This story about the power of random acts of kindness will warm the heart, and remind readers to appreciate the gift of family during the holiday season. ThirteenthGift.com Dayton, OH 978-0-553-41855-2 | $15.00/$18.00C | Harmony | HC | Nonfiction | October 2014 E 978-0-553-41856-9 | ] CD: 978-0-553-54580-7 | ] AD: 978-0-553-54581-4 Themes: Loss Love Courage
Marzena Sowa Illustrated by Sylvain Savoia
Marzi: A Memoir In a similar vein as Persopolis, Marzi is a coming of age narrative that depicts childhood life behind the Iron Curtain in communist Poland. Marzi details the daily struggle of life in communist Poland while maintaining a child’s sense of curiosity and wonder. Set during an interesting time in Poland’s history where the workers movement was instrumental in chipping away at Soviet control and Marzi was figuring out life. Brussels 978-1-4012-2959-7 | $17.99/$19.99C | Vertigo | TR | Nonfiction Themes: Coming of Age
Bryan Stevenson
Just Mercy Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. Just Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of justice. Montgomery, AL and New York 978-0-8129-9452-0 | $28.00/$34.00C | Spiegel & Grau | HC | Nonfiction | October 2014 E 978-0-8129-9453-7 | ] CD: 978-0-553-55062-7 | ] AD: 978-0-553-55063-4 Themes: Courage integrity
The profoundly moving story of a group of remarkable refugee kids who make up The Fugees, a youth soccer team based in a small town in Georgia, their struggle to make a new life in the American South, and their astonishing Jordanian coach Luma, who holds together the team, the community, and the hopes of every kid in her charge during one drama-filled season. New York, NY 978-0-385-52204-5 | $15.00/$18.95C | Spiegel & Grau | TR | Nonfiction E 978-0-375-98880-6 | ] CD: 978-1-4159-4892-7 | ] AD: 978-1-4159-4894-1 Young Readers’ Edition: 978-0-385-74195-8 | E 978-0-375-98880-6 Themes: IDENTITY Coming of Age SELECTED BY: Maryland One Book; One Book San Diego; Southhampton, MA
Cheryl Strayed
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail The sensational #1 New York Times bestseller: a powerful, blazingly honest, and inspiring memoir of a young woman, reeling from catastrophe, who hikes more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest trail to break herself down—and build herself back up again. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Reese Witherspoon. Portland, OR 978-0-307-47607-4 | $15.95/$18.95C | Vintage | TR | Nonfiction E 978-0-307-95765-8 | Oprah Book Club 2.0 Selection (Special E 978-0-307-96281-2) ] CD: 978-0-307-97031-2 | ] AD: 978-0-307-97032-9 Themes: IDENTITY Loss SELECTED BY: Dayton (OH) Big Read; Pierce County Reads; Whatcom Reads!; Green County (OH) Reads; Eden Prairie Reads
Elizabeth Strout
Olive Kitteridge: Fiction Deep, luminous narratives about a small town in Maine, linked by the presence, at center stage or side stage, of their larger-than-life title character, Olive Kitteridge. As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition, its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires. New York, NY WINNER: Pulitzer Prize / An ALA Notable Book 978-0-8129-7183-5 | $15.00/$18.00C | RH Trade Paperbacks | TR | Fiction E 978-1-58836-688-7 Themes: Courage SELECTED BY: readME stories: Maine Center for Creativity; Wilmette, IL
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Recommended Titles Ron Suskind
Hannah Weyer
A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League
On the Come Up: A Novel, Based on a True Story
This is the story of Cedric Jennings, an African American teenager who is ferociously determined to study his way out of the inner city and capture a piece of the American Dream. Author Ron Suskind follows Jennings from his early years in high school through his first year at Brown University. This updated edition includes a new chapter on Cedric Jennings’s postgraduate professional career. RonSuskind.com Washington, DC 978-0-7679-0126-0 | $15.95/$22.95C | Broadway | TR | Nonfiction E 978-0-307-76308-2 Themes: Coming of Age IDENTITY SELECTED BY: Watauga County, NC; Buffalo, NY; One Maryland, One Book; Willmette, IL; Summit, NJ; Logan, UT
Jeanne Theoharis
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks Examines six decades of activism, challenging perceptions of her bus arrest and the Civil Rights movement. Presenting a corrective to the popular notion of Rosa Parks as the quiet seamstress who with a single act birthed the modern civil rights movement, Theoharis provides a revealing window into Parks’ politics and years of activism. She shows readers how this civil rights movement radical sought—for more than a half a century—to expose and eradicate the American racial caste system in jobs, schools, public services, and criminal justice. Brooklyn, NY 978-0-807-03332-6 | $17.50/$20.50C | Beacon Press | TR E 978-0-8070-5048-4 Themes: Courage integrity
Karen Thompson Walker
The Age of Miracles: A Novel Julia and her family awake one day to discover that the Earth’s rotation has begun to slow. The days and nights grow longer, and the environment is thrown into disarray. Yet as she struggles with an ever shifting landscape, Julia is also coping with the disasters of everyday life—the fissures in her parents’ marriage, the loss of friends, and the hopeful anguish of first love. Iowa 978-0-8129-8294-7 | $15.00 | RH Trade Paperbacks | TR | Fiction 978-0-385-67665-6 | $19.95C | Anchor Canada E 978-0-385-67664-9 | ] CD: 978-0-307-97071-8 | ] AD: 978-0-307-97072-5 Themes: Coming of Age SELECTED BY: Marquette, MI; Western New York
Willful, outspoken, and precariously naive, thirteen-year-old Ann Marie Walker dreams of a world beyond Far Rockaway. Then one day, while attending a high school for pregnant girls, she comes across a flyer advertising movie auditions in Manhattan. Astonishingly, improbably, and four months before she’s due to give birth—she lands a lead role. For a time, Ann Marie soars, flying to the Sundance Film Festival, seeing her face on screen. But when the movie closes and the realities of her life set in, Ann Marie’s grit and determination are the only tools left to keep her moving forward. Strong YA crossover title. Brooklyn, NY 978-0-385-80486-0 | $14.95/$16.95C | Anchor | TR | Fiction | E 978-0-385-53733-9 Themes: COMING OF AGE IDENTITY
John Williams; Introduction by John McGahern
Stoner William Stoner is born at the end of the nineteenth century into a dirt-poor Missouri farming family. Sent to the state university to study agronomy, he instead falls in love with English literature and embraces a scholar’s life, so different from the hardscrabble existence he has known. And yet as the years pass, Stoner encounters a succession of disappointments: marriage into a “proper” family estranges him from his parents; his career is stymied; his wife and daughter turn coldly away from him; a transforming experience of new love ends under threat of scandal. Driven ever deeper within himself, Stoner rediscovers the stoic silence of his forebears and confronts an essential solitude. 978-1-59017-199-8 | $14.95/$16.95C | New York Review Books | Fiction E 978-1-59017-393-0 Themes: IDENTITY Coming of Age
Markus Zusak
The Book Thief Set during World War II in Germany, this groundbreaking novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist—books. With the help of her accordionplaying foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau. Sydney, Australia 978-0-375-84220-7 | $11.99/$15.99C | Knopf Books for Young Readers | TR | Fiction E 978-0-307-43384-8 | ] CD: 978-0-7393-3800-1 | ] AD: 978-0-7393-4834-5 978-0-307-47573-2 Themes: COMING OF AGE Courage SELECTED BY: Salt Lake City, UT; Loudon County, VA; Fairhaven, WA; North Reading, MA Reads, Greenwich, CT; Zionsville, IN; Vincennes, IN; Richardson (TX) Reads
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THE BIG READ The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts, designed to revitalize the role of reading in American culture by exposing citizens to great works of literature and encouraging them to read for pleasure and enrichment. The Big Read supports organizations across the country in developing community-wide reading programs which encourage reading and participation by diverse audiences. Organizations selected to participate in The Big Read receive a grant, access to online training resources and opportunities, and educational and promotional materials designed to support widespread community involvement. Visit www.NEABigRead.org to learn more about a list of eligible books, information about annual application deadlines for grants between $2,500 and $20,000, and to browse educational resources including Reader’s Guides, Teacher’s Guides, and multimedia about your favorite books. The NEA presents The Big Read in partnership with Arts Midwest.
Willa Cather
Ernest J. Gaines
My Ántonia
A Lesson Before Dying: A Novel
In this powerful novel, Willa Cather creates one of the most winning yet thoroughly convincing heroines in American fiction. Ántonia Shimerda returns to Black Hawk, Nebraska to make a fresh start after eloping with a railway conductor following the tragic death of her father. Despite betrayal and crushing opposition, Ántonia steadfastly pursues her quest for happiness—a moving struggle that mirrors the quiet drama of the American landscape.
This is the story of two African-American men struggling to attain manhood in a small prejudiced Cajun community in the late 1940s.Grant Wiggins, a sophisticated and educated man comes to the aid of Jefferson, a men-tally slow, barely literate young man, who is convicted of murder and sentenced to die, although he was only an innocent bystander to the crime. Oscar, LA
978-0-679-74187-9 | $10.00/$11.00C | Vintage | TR | Fiction 978-0-553-21418-5 | $4.95/$6.95C | Bantam Classics | MM E 978-0-553-90044-6 Themes: Love SELECTED BY: The State of Nebraska; Chicago, IL; Fox Valley, IL; Ames, IA; South Dakota; Fergus Falls, MN; Timberland Region, WA
Emily Dickinson
The Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson While relatively unknown during her life, the oftquoted Emily Dickinson is now considered one of the finest poets of the 20th century. This slim volume highlights her greatest works. 978-0-679-78335-0 | $12.00/$15.00C | Modern Library TR | Poetry Themes: IDENTITY SELECTED BY: New York Botanical Garden; Sonoma County Reads; The Big Read: Tucson; The Big Read Miami; Amherst County Public Library
WINNER: National Book Critics Circle Awards 978-0-375-70270-9 | $13.00/$16.00C | Vintage | TR | Fiction E 978-1-4000-7770-0 | ] CD: 978-1-4159-2943-8 Themes: CRIME AND JUSTICE Loss SELECTED BY: Miami, FL; Peoria, IL; Bloomington, IN; Northwest Indiana; Lafayette, LA; New Orleans, LA; Newton, MA; Jackson, MS; Albuquerque, NM; Washoe County (Reno), NV; Buffalo, NY; Rochester, NY; Syracuse, NY; Greensboro, NC; Watauga County, NC; Cincinnati, OH; Columbus, OH; Multnomah County/Portland, OR; College Station-Bryan, TX; Houston, TX; Waco, TX; Richmond, VA; Seattle, WA; Washington, DC; Sheridan County (WY) Library Foundation
Dashiell Hammett
The Maltese Falcon The legendary Sam Spade tracks down a treasure worth killing for in Hammett’s indelible classic, which remains known as one of the best detective stories ever written. “The Maltese Falcon is not only probably the best detective story we have ever read, it is an exceedingly well written novel.” –The Times Literary Supplement (London) 978-0-679-72264-9 | $12.95/$14.95C | Vintage | TR | Fiction E 978-0-307-76751-6 | ] CD: 978-0-7366-6047-1 Themes: CRIME AND JUSTICE SELECTED BY: Sno-Isle Libraries, NE; Grand Rapids Public Library, MI; Phoenix Public Library Foundation, AZ; City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, CA; Scranton Public Library, PA; Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, NY; Peoria Public Library, NC; Champaign Public Library, IL; Caldwell County Public Library, AZ
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THE BIG READ Henry James
Naguib Mahfouz
Washington Square
The Thief and the Dogs
This Henry James coming-of-age novel follows the life of Catherine Sloper, a kindhearted, plain-faced woman finding her way in New York City in the mid-19th century.
This haunting novella of post-revolutionary Egypt combines a vivid psychological portrait of an anguished man with the suspense and rapid pace of a detective story.
978-0-375-76122-5 | $7.95/$10.50C | Modern Library TR | Fiction | E 978-0-679-64157-5 Themes: Coming of Age
“[Mahfouz] is not only a Hugo and a Dickens, but also a Galsworthy, a Mann, a Zola, and a Jules Romains.” —Edward Said
SELECTED BY: The Mercantile Library Center for Fiction; New York Society Library
978-0-385-26462-4 | $12.95/$14.95C | Anchor | TR | Fiction Themes: crime and justice
Ursula K. Le Guin
A Wizard of Earthsea Ged was the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea, but once he was called Sparrowhawk, a reckless youth, hungry for power and knowledge, who tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing. Portland, OR WINNER: New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age / YALSA Best Books for Young Adults 978-0-553-38304-1 | $15.00/NCR | Spectra | TR | Fiction 978-0-553-26250-6 | $7.99/NCR | Spectra | MM Themes: Coming of Age SELECTED BY: Jackson District Library, MI; Huntsville Public Library, TX; Timberland Regional Library, WA
Jack London
The Call of the Wild This is the story of Buck, a dog stolen from his home and thrust into the merciless life of the Arctic north to endure hardship, bitter cold, and the savage lawlessness of man and beast. 978-0-553-21233-4 | $4.99/$6.99C | Bantam Classics MM | Fiction E 978-0-553-89814-9 ] CD: 978-0-307-71026-0 | ] AD: 978-0-307-71029-1 Themes: Courage SELECTED BY: Jacksonville Public Libraries Foundation, Inc., FL, Aurora Public Library, CO, King County Library System, WA, Hudson Area Association Library, NY; Sonoma County, CA; Springfield-Green County Library District; Jennings County Public Library; Dearborn (MI) Public Library
SELECTED BY: Florida Center for the Literary Arts at Miami Dade College, FL; Columbia University in the City of New York, NY; South Dakota Humanities Council, SD; Huntsville-Madison County Public Library, AL
Carson McCullers
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers was all of 23 years old when she finished this enduring classic, first published in 1940. John Singer, a deaf-mute in a small Georgia mining town, becomes the confidant of choice for several of the misfit townspeople, all yearning for escape. 978-0-553-26963-5 | $6.99/$10.99C | Bantam | MM | Fiction Themes: Loss SELECTED BY: Humanities Council of Washington, DC, Lansdowne Public Library, PA; Anderson Arts Center, SC
Julie Otsuka
When the Emperor Was Divine Julie Otsuka paints a portrait of the World War II Japanese internment camps unlike any we have ever seen. In five chapters, each flawlessly executed from a different point of view—the mother receiving the order to evacuate; the daughter on the long train ride to the camp; the son in the desert encampment; the family’s return to their home; and the bitter release of the father after more than four years in captivity—she has created a small tour de force. New York, NY 978-0-385-72181-3 | $10.95/$15.95C | Anchor | TR | Fiction E 978-0-307-43021-2 | ] CD: 978-0-385-36248-1 | ] AD: 978-0-385-36249-8 Themes: Coming of Age IDENTITY SELECTED BY: Santa Barbara, CA; Silicon Valley, CA; Westport, CT; Winnetka-Northfield, IL; Carmel, IN; Iowa City, IA; Shawnee County, KS; St. Peter, MN; Seattle, WA; Cheshire, CT; Johnson County, IA; Topeka, KS; Concord NH; Logan, UT; Salt Lake city, UT; Ipswich, MA; Glendale, CA; Howard County, MI; Greenwich, CT; North Mankato Taylor Library, MN
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Cynthia Ozick
Mark Twain
The Shawl
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The story of a woman who survives a concentration camp, losing her daughter, but never can fully recover from the trauma, which still haunts her thirty years later.“Ozick gives us exactly what we expect: a meditation, in figurative language at times dense and shimmering, at times richly colloquial, of the consequences of the Holocaust.” —Library Journal
One of the most splendid portraits of youth in all of literature, the light-hearted Tom Sawyer is written just as much for adults as it is for young boys and girls.
978-0-679-72926-6 | $10.50/$11.99C | Vintage | TR | Fiction Themes: Loss SELECTED BY: Gadsden Reads, AL; Caldwell Public Library, NJ; Writers & Books, NY; New Rochelle Public Library, NY; Worchester County Library, MD; Poughkeepsie Public Library District
Edgar Allan Poe
Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe’s work has been chosen by 27 cities participating in the National Endowment for The Arts’ Big Read program, and only our edition contains the poems and stories discussed in the NEA’s support material, and their official reader’s guide. 978-0-307-47477-3 | $12.00/$15.00C | Vintage | TR | Fiction E 978-0-307-78140-6 Themes: IDENTITY SELECTED BY: Jamestown, NY; Bowling Green, OH; Kenosha Public Library; Staten Island OutLOUD; Rutgers
Leo Tolstoy
978-0-375-75681-8 | $8.00/$10.00C | Modern Library TR | Fiction 978-0-553-21128-3 | $5.50/$7.50C | Bantam Classics MM | Fiction E 978-0-553-89834-7 | ] CD: 978-1-4159-2223-1 Themes: Coming of Age SELECTED BY: Fresno County Public Library, CA; Norwalk Public Library, CT; Massanutten Regional Library, VA; Muscogee County Friends of Libraries, GA; Heermance Memorial Library, NY; Galesburg Public Library, IL; Davenport, IA
Edith Wharton
The Age of Innocence Wharton’s masterpiece: a tragic love story and a powerful homily about the perils of a perfect marriage, set in old New York. Adapted to film by Martin Scorsese in 1993. WINNER: Pulitzer Prize, 1921 978-0-375-75320-6 | $9.95/$14.95C | Modern Library TR | Fiction 978-0-553-21450-5 | $5.95/$7.95C | Bantam Classics | MM 978-0-09-951128-1 | $10.95C | Vintage Classics (Can.) | TR E 978-0-679-64207-7 | ] CD: 978-0-7366-8460-6 Themes: Love SELECTED BY: Bloomsburg Public Library, PA; Parsippany Library System, NJ
Tobias Wolff
The Death of Ivan Ilych
Old School
This story of a judge who slowly comes to realize that his illness is fatal represents perhaps the most keenly realized melding of Tolstoy’s spirituality with his artistic skills.
A brilliant literary novel about a young writer and his secret life at a New England prep school in the 1960s. “ A sharply drawn, acutely felt novel of moral inquiry. . . . Wolff has put his readers in the landscape tracked across by writers as different as J. M. Coetzee, Philip Roth, and, going back, Conrad and Hawthorne.” —The Washington Post Book World
978-1-933633-54-1 | $10.00/$13.00C | Melville House TR | Fiction 978-0-553-21035-4 | $6.95/$8.95C | Bantam Classics MM | Fiction E 978-0-307-27332-1 Themes: Loss SELECTED BY: Regent University Library, VA; Champaign-Urbana Big Read
WINNER: Booklist Editor’s Choice for Young Adults / PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction / A New York Times Notable Book 978-0-375-70149-8 | $14.00/$16.00C | Vintage | TR | Fiction E 978-1-4000-9525-4 | ] CD: 978-0-7366-9880-1 Themes: Coming of Age SELECTED BY: The Libraries of Greater Kansas City, MO; Roseville Public Library, CA; Bellingham Public Library, WA; Ephrata Public Library, PA
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