WVLC READING DISCUSSION BOOK COLLECTION DESCRIPTIONS
84
Charing Cross Road by:
Helene Hanff
- This gem is for the reader who delights in seeing a character revealed, a
friendship grow, and can appreciate a spirited discussion of important but
neglected authors. 97 pages FM
Addie
by: Mary Lee Settle - An extraordinary autobiography that goes
back generations before the celebrated novelist's birth. 237 pages
After
the First Death by:
Robert Cormier -Events of the hijacking of a bus of children by terrorists
seeking the return of their homeland are described from the perspectives of a
hostage, a terrorist, & an Army general involved in the rescue operation &
his son.
Age
of Innocence by: Edith Wharton - Wealthy NY'ers in the 1870s have difficulties
breaking free from social codes they hate.
The
Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream by: Paulo Coelho
-"In order to find the treasure, you will have to follow the omens. God has
prepared a path for everyone to follow. You just have to read the omens that he
left for you." 176 pages FO
**Alice's Tulips by: Sandra Dallas - A Young newlywed left
alone on the farm writes lively letters to her sister filled with accounts of
local quilting bees, the rigors of farm life, and the customs of small-town
America during the civil war. She soon finds herself accused of murder.
256 pages
All
the Lost Girls by:
Patricia Foster
- Foster's memoir details her Southern childhood. Her ambitious mother was
haunted by the poverty she escaped by marrying a doctor who provided her access
to a middle-class life & a daughter who tried to please her. 308 pages
Anthem
by:
Ayn Rand - Classic tale of a future Dark Age of the great
"we" - a world that deprives individuals of name, independence
& values.
The
Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen
by: Jacques Pepin - Jacques Pepin's best-selling
memoir - the captivating story of his rise from young apprentice in an Old World
French kitchen to the world-renowned chef and television superstar that he is
today.
**Atonement by: Ian McEwan
- An upper-middle-class girl in interwar England, who aspires to be
a writer, makes a serious mistake that has life changing effects for many. She
spends her life seeking atonement. 368 pages
**The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart by: M. Glenn Taylor -Part Rip Van Winkle, part Professor Seagull, part O Brother, Where Art Thou?, part
Matewan -The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart is picturesque, legendary, epic, and
outrageous. 274 pages
Bel
Canto by: Ann Patchett
- Readers curious about the emotional flow between hostages and their takers
should like this novel based on the 1996 Tupac Amaru takeover of the
Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima, Peru.
Best
American Essays 2005 by:
Susan Orlean - 25 writing selections.
292 pages
**The Best of Friends: Two Women, Two Continents, and one Enduring
Friendship by: Sara James and Ginger Mauney - Two childhood friends,
one in NYC and one in Africa keep childhood promises to each other. 337 pages
**Beautiful Boy by: David Sheff - A father's journey
through his son's meth addiction. 336 pages
Big
Cherry Holler by:
Adriana Trigiani
- It has been eight years since town pharmacist and longtime spinster Ave Marie
Mulligan married coal miner Jack MacChesney.
Big
Stone Gap by: Adriana
Trigiani - Trigiani
will put Big Stone Gap, VA, on the map with a nice, old-fashioned, feel-good
first novel that is set in 1978. Local pharmacist Ave Marie Mulligan is 35 and
the verge of a series of life-changing events. 269 pages
Blink by: Malcolm Gladwell - Blink is a book about how we think
without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in the
blink of an eye.469 pages
**The Blue Cotton Gown by: Patricia Harman - A midwife's
memoir. A behind the examining room door look - a bittersweet valentine for women.288
pg.
**Breakfast with Buddha by: Roland Merullo - novel of ideas it's not the religion that matters, it's the relationship; it's not the concepts, but the people,
& here are 2 intriguing men, one with his eye on the destination
& fast speed & the other who knows that we travel farthest when we are
still. 323pgs
Cavedweller
by: Dorothy Allison - An
absorbing story of a family in pieces, pulling itself back together
out of one woman's stubborn determination.434pg
The
Chosen by: Chaim Potok
-A baseball injury precipitates a friendship between two boys from Hasidic and
Zionist families.
Clay's
Quilt by: Silas House
- A heartfelt, well-crafted debut novel set in
the Kentucky hills. Clay Sizemore, a young coal miner from a big family and a
small town, never doubts that he will live out his life in the place where he
was born.
**The
Coal Tattoo by: Silas House -Evocative prose and unforgettable characters mark this haunting novel from House, a Kentucky writer who mines the storytelling tradition of Appalachia. Set in the 1960s, the novel functions as a prequel of sorts to House's award-winning book Clay's
Quilt. 341 pgs
The
Coalwood Way by: Homer
Hickam -
In this follow-up to his acclaimed Rocket Boys, retired NASA engineer Hickam
recounts tensions in his household during his last Christmas before college. 318
pages FO
The
Coffin Quilt by: Ann
Rinaldi - In
the 1880s, young Fanny McCoy witnesses the growth of a terrible and violent feud
between her Kentucky family and the WV Hatfield's, complicated by her
older sister's romance with a Hatfield. Young Adult. 228 pages.
TRAIL,
FM
Colored
People by: Henry Louis
Gates - The
man touted as America's most celebrated black scholar reminisces to his
daughters about his boyhood in the polluted, dying Allegheny Mountains'
papermill town of Piedmont, West Virginia.
The Confessions of Max Tivoli by: Andrew Sean Greer - Max
Tivoli has an unusual malady: born with the appearance of an elderly man, he
appears younger as he ages. 267 pages
Counting
Coup by: Larry Colton - On
many Indian reservations, high-school basketball has become a popular venue for
expressing the pride of Native Americans. Yet few are able to overcome the negative forces--poverty,
alcoholism, teen pregnancy, poor education--that surround them. 420 pages FM
Creeker
by: Linda Scott Derosier -
In the "creekers and hollers" of eastern KY, Linda Sue grew up with a
big head of tangled curls, a lot of special awkwardness, and a web of family and
kin that made wonderful stories and pretty good lives.
Cross
Creek by: Marjorie
Kinnan Rawlings - For
the millions of readers raised on The
Yearling, here is the story of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings's experiences
in the remote Florida hamlet of Cross Creek, where she lived for thirteen years.
The
Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-Time by: Mark Haddock- 15-year-old Christopher Boone, an
autistic math genius has just discovered the dead body of his neighbor's
poodle, Wellington.
**Cutting for Stone by: Abraham Verghese, M.D. - involves the
trials of a medical family caught up in the turmoil of Ethiopia. 688 pages
A
Death in the Family by:
James Agee
- When Jay Follet dies in a car accident, his Knoxville family gathers during
the days before his funeral.
Della
Raye by: Gary Penley
- The biography of a woman wrongfully confined at a mental institution in the
Depression-era South from the age of four until adulthood. 339 pages FO
Dismal
Mountain by: John
Billheimer
- The third Owen Allison mystery, following Contrary Blues (1998) and Highway
Robbery (2000), finds the transportation inspector defending his aunt Lizzie
against a murder charge. 304 pages FO
Doors
by: William Hoffman
- The southern landscape pervades William Hoffman's latest collection of short
stories.
Down Town by: Ferrol Sams - set in GA after the civil war
dealing w/ colorful individual's lives. 309 pages
Dust
Tracks on a Road by: Zora Neale Hurston - This is Zora Neale
Hurston's unrestrained account of her rise from childhood poverty in the rural
South to prominence among the leading artists and intellectuals of the Harlem
Renaissance.
East
of the Mountains by:
David Guterson
- In a novel of personal discovery retired heart surgeon Ben Givens, suffering
from terminal colon cancer, embarks on one final, epic hunting odyssey through
the American West.
East
to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart by: Susan Butler -This biography of Amelia Earhart
is a mixed bag. Butler is not overawed by her subject; her text is readable, well
documented, and insightful.489 pages FM
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy,
India & Indonesia by: Elizabeth Gilbert - An exploration of the
human psyche through a very personal journey of self-discovery in three
countries.334 pages FM
**The Elegance of the Hedgehog by: Muriel Barbery The events in
the life of a concierge, Renee Michel, whose deliberately concealed intelligence
is uncovered by an unstable but intellectual precocious girl named Paloma Josse.
325 pages.
The
Elegant Gathering of White Snows
by: Kris Radish -When eight women in rural Wisconsin take off in the
middle of the night for a journey of the heart, it touches women everywhere. 321
pages FO
**Ellen Foster by: Kaye Gibbons -
After her mother's death, a young girl is separated from her abusive father and
is sent between her various friends and relatives, always longing to find a
place to call home. 168 pages
**Emily's Ghost: A novel of the Bronte Sisters by: Denise Giardina
- biographical novel portraying sisters Anne, Charlotte and Emily as different
in temperament but in love with the same man, fighting the same illnesses and
withdrawing from the same grim realities to write. 336 pages FO
The Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hershey &
Mars by: Joel Glenn Brenner - Forrest Mars and Milton Hershey built
business empires out of chocolate.
Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky - A white New England
couple, interior designer Dana and lawyer husband Hugh are excited about
becoming first time parents. 358 pages FO
Feast of the Seven Fishes by Robert Tinnell - This graphic
novel/cookbook is a fictional account of one Italian-American family's Christmas
celebration in north central WV.
Firehouse by: David Halberstam -stories of personal sacrifices
of the men who never returned to the fire station from lower
Manhattan on 9/11. 201pg
Follow
the River by: James
Alexander Thom
-This powerful captivity narration is the story of Mary Draper Ingles and the
other captives from a 1755 Indian raid. 406 pages
Founding
Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation
by: Cokie Roberts
- Since we've heard so much about America's Founding Fathers, the title of
this books is irresistible. 359 pages FO
Funny in Farsi by: Firoozeh Dumas - Dumas, who first came
to America from Iran as a young girl in 1972, recounts many anecdotes about her
family's adjustment to this country.
Gap
Creek by: Robert Morgan
- The story of a young woman's struggles in early 20th century Appalachia.
The
Girls by: Lori Lansens
- Lansens has created a totally believable sibling relationship
between two small-town girls, Rose & Ruby. 343 pages
The
Glass Castle: A Memoir by:
Jeannette Walls
- The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a
revelatory look into a family at once dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. 288
pages
**The Gold Bug and Other Tales by: Edgar Allen Poe - 9
tales of psychological terror and supernatural including the classics. 121 pages
The
Good Earth by: Pearl S.
Buck
- The Pulitzer Prize winning novel is about peasant life in China in the 1920s
& follows the life of Wang Lung, from his beginnings as an
impoverished peasant to his eventual position as a prosperous landowner.
Good
Grief by: Lolly Winston
- Sophie Stanton is 36 years old and too young to be a widow. Widows wear
cardigan sweaters, play weekly pinochle and lose their husbands after 50 years
of marriage, not after only three years.
Granny
D: A Memoir by: Doris
Haddock with Dennis Burke
- "Granny D" Haddock whose 14-month walk from L.A. to Washington, DC,
galvanized the hope of many increasingly dispirited Americans for campaign
finance reform.
The Great Fire by: Shirley Hazzard - An extraordinary love story set in the immediate aftermath
of the Second World War.
A
Grief Observed by: C.S.
Lewis
- Writing A Grief Observed as "a defense against total collapse, a
safety valve," he came to recognize that "bereavement is a universal
and integral part of our experience of love."
**The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society by:
Mary Ann Shaffer - Letters are exchanged between a man living in Guernsey, a town
recently liberated from Nazi occupation, and Juliet, an English
writer. 278 pages FM, FO
**Half Broke Horses by: Jeannette Walls - Lily Casey Smith is one astonishing woman
- a half-broke horse herself who's clearly passed on her best traits to her granddaughter. Told in a
natural, offhand voice that is utterly enthralling.
By the author of the Glass Castle. 288 pages. FM, FO
**Healing Hearts: by: Kathy Magliato, M.D. - A Memoir of a female
heart surgeon. 272 pages
The
Heartsong of Charging Elk by:
James Welch - Charging Elk, an Oglala Sioux, is recruited by
Buffalo Bill Cody to join his Wild West Show which creates a sensation in
Europe, until he is left behind in the unfamiliar world of Marseilles.
The
Heavenly Village by:
Cynthia Rylant
- Rylant imagines a stopping place between heaven and earth, a village where
those who "have taken one step into heaven and hesitated" can stay and
"finish their stories."
- 95 pages. Young Adult. TRAIL, FM, FO
**The
Help by: Kathryn
Stockett
-
set in Jackson, MS in the early 1960's, this novel adopts the complicated theme
of blacks and whites living in a segregated South. 451 pages FO
The
Hemmingway Book Club of Kosovo by:
Paula Huntley - A moving testimony to the power
of literature to bring people together in even the most difficult of
circumstances. 236 pages
**Home to Big Stone Gap by: Adriana Trigiani -In this fourth entry, Ave Maria Mulligan MacChesney and her husband, Jack, must come to terms with the absence of daughter Etta, newly married and living in
Italy. She finds her longtime friend, glamorous librarian Iva Lou, has been keeping a startling secret for nearly 20 years.
317 pages
**Hot, Flat and Crowded by: Thomas L. Friedman - A fresh and provocative look at two of the biggest challenges we face today: America's surprising loss of focus and national purpose since
9/11 and the global environmental crisis.
421 pages
The
Hours by: Michael
Cunningham
- Cunningham draws inventively on the life and work of Virginia Woolf to tell
the story of a group of characters struggling with the conflicting claims of
love and inheritance, life and death, creation and destruction. 230 pages
I
Heard the Owl Call My Name by:
Margaret Craven -A young priest with a short time to live is sent to
a parish of Kwakiutl Indians, where he learns not to fear death.
Ice
Bound: A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole
by: Dr. Jerri Nielsen
- A woman doctor in Antarctica finds a lump in her breast and after performing
her own biopsy realizes that she has a particularly aggressive form of cancer.
362 pages FM
Icy
Sparks by: Gwyn Hyman
Rubio
- An Appalachian girl develops croaks, jerks and spasms
which
leads to her expulsion from school.
In
Their Own Country: An Illustrated Sampler
Various
- Why should children have all the fun? Your Book Discussion Group can join in
the delight. Share the experience of illustrated books. ? pages. Young Adult.
Jacob
Have I Loved by:
Katharine Paterson
- Feeling deprived all her life of schooling, friends, mother, and even her name
by her twin sister, Louise finally begins to find her identity. 244 pages. Young
Adult. TRAIL
Jane
Eyre by: Charlotte
Bronte
- Jane Eyre becomes a governess in Mr. Rochester's home of Thornfield and falls
in love with him before she finds that he has a tragic secret.495 pages FO, FM
The Joy Luck Club by: Amy Tan - a mahjong/storytelling
support group is formed by four Chinese women in San. Fran. in 1949. 288 pages.
Kettle
Bottom by: Diane Gilliam - collection of poems by one
author about the West Virginia coal mine violence in 1920-1921.
**The Killer Angels by: Michael Shaara - This book was the inspiration for Ken Burns' documentary series on the Civil War. This book was also adapted for the screen as the film "Gettysburg" in 1993.
1974 Pulitzer Prize Winner.
344 pages. FM
Kite
Runner by: Khaled Hosseini - Amir finds the he can never escape the far-reaching
consequences of his actions. 371 pages. FM, FO
**Lacuna by: Barbara Kingsolver - novel about a boy's
consequential bonds with Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Leon Trotsky, is a call
to conscience and connection. 464 pages
The
Lady and the Unicorn by:
Tracy Chevalier - The
author of Girl with a Pearl Earring
(2000) and Falling Angels (2001)
offers a luminous tale about a set of medieval tapestries known as the Lady and
the Unicorn sequence.
**Lark and Termite by: Jayne Anne Phillips - set in
1950's in WV & Korea, a story of the power of love & loss, war, family
secrets & unity.304 pgs FM
**The Last Chinese Chef by: Nicole Mones - A paternity
claim comes against the estate of Food writer's Maggie McElroy's late
husband. She travels to China to investigate and researches an article
about a young American born Jewish Chinese chef while there. 278 pages
**The Last Lecture by: Randy Paush - The
famous Last Lecture by Randy Paush from Carnegie Mellon Univ. who
has since passed away from the terminal cancer he lived with. 306 pages FO
Last Whisper by Carlene Thompson - A killer who knows that true nightmares never end & that
the perfect murder is always worth waiting for.
**Letters of A Woman Homesteader by: Elinore Pruitt Stewart
In this collection of letters, the author describes her WY ranch hand
experiences to her former employer, Mrs. Coney. Pruitt's charming descriptions
of work, travels, neighbors, animals, land and sky have an authentic feel. 282
pages.
The
Liar's Club by: Mary Karr -The New York Times says "Mary Karr's
God-awful childhood has a calamitous appeal"...the choice in the book is between
howling misery and howling laughter, and mostly laughter." 320 pages FM
Like
Sisters On the Homefront by:
Rita Williams-Garcia
- Troubled fourteen-year-old Gayle is sent down South to live with her uncle and
aunt, where her life begins to change as she experiences the healing power of
the family. Young Adult. 165 pages FM
Like
Water for Chocolate
by: Laura Esquivel - Take 1 part Whitney Otto's How To Make an American Quilt , add a smidgen of magical realism a la Garcia Marquez, follow up
with several quixotic characters, garnish w/ love, & you'll have Like Water
for Chocolate.
**Look Again by: Lisa Scottoline - Pennsylvania reporter Ellen Gleeson is living an ordinary life with her son and cat until she receives a "Have You Seen This Child?" flyer in the mail. The boy photographed in the flyer bears a striking resemblance to her three-year-old adopted son,
Will. 341 pages
London 1849: A Victorian Murder Story by: Michael Alpers -
1849 murder of a well-to-do man by his former lover & husband. 216 pages
Love in the time of Cholera by: Gabriel Garcia Marquez - A
50 year love story by correspondence. 348 pages
**Loving Frank by: Nancy Horan - Historical fiction - The
scandalous lives of Frank Lloyd Wright & an owner of his designed home. 359 pages FM
Lydia
Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper
by: Harriet Scott Chessman - Lydia Cassatt was the elder sister of American
Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt; she was also one of Mary's favorite models.
The Madonna's of Leningrad by Donna Dean - A novel in which the 900-day siege of
Leningrad during World War
II is echoed by the destructive siege against the mind and memory of an elderly
Russian woman suffering from Alzheimer's.
**The Maltese Falcon by: Dashiell Hammett - Sets the
standard for detective fiction. Story covers a 6
day period in San. Fran. 217 pages FO
Man's
Search for Meaning by: Viktor E. Frankl
- The chilling yet inspirational story of Frankl's struggle to hold on
to hope during his three years as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps, is a
true classic.
Marley
& Me by: John Grogan - Labrador retrievers are generally considered
even-tempered, calm and reliable-and then there's Marley, the subject of this
delightful tribute to one Lab who doesn't fit the mold.
Mary
McGreevy by: Walter
Keady
After her father's death, Sister Mary Thomas leaves her convent to return to the
family farm in the Irish village of Creevagh, where her status as ex-nun
scandalizes the women of the village & her beauty attracts the eligible men.263
pages FO
Memoirs
of a Geisha by: Arthur
Golden
- How nine-year-old Chiyo, sold with her sister into slavery by their father,
becomes Sayuri, the beautiful geisha accomplished
in the art of entertaining men, is the focus of this fascinating first novel.
**The Memory of Old Jack by: Wendell Berry - recounts the
last days in the life of 92-year-old farmer Jack Beechum in the fall of 1952, as
the self-sufficient man of the soil contemplates both his heartaches and
triumphs.170 pages
Memphis
Tennessee Garrison edited by: Ancella Bickley and Lynda Ewen
- In 1968, Bernard Cleveland of Marshall University did an oral history
interview with then 78-year-old Memphis Tennessee Garrison of West Virginia. 30 years later, sociologist Ewen found the interview transcript
& English
professor Bickley edited it.
**A Mercy: A Novel by: Toni Morrison - The story of a
slave giving up her daughter for a less fearsome owner. A story of love and
sacrifice. 167 pages
Middlesex:
A Novel by: Jeffrey Eugenides - Spanning
three generations and two continents, the story winds from the small Greek
village of Smyrna to the smoggy, crime-riddled streets of Detroit, past
historical events, and through family secrets.
A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life & Death of my Husband, Danny Pearl
by: Mariane Pearl - When Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was
kidnapped by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002, his pregnant wife, Mariane, was
left to manage the search effort.
**Milk Glass Moon by: Adriana Trigiani - Readers who have
followed Ave through her marriage now witness her struggle to let go as she
acknowledges her growing daughter's need for independence. 265 pages.
The
Milkweed Ladies by:
Louise McNeill
- Poetically and magically, McNeill unfolds her memories of the farm at Swago
Crick, WV, which has existed in her family for nine generations over
200 years.
122 pages
The Miner's Daughter by: Gretchen Moran Laskas - Surrounded
by the stark poverty of WV Depression-era coal mining life, 16 yr. old Willa leaves school to keep house
for her father, sister, two brothers & pregnant mother. 250 pages. Young Adult.
FM, FO, TRAIL
**Mother to Mother by: Sindiwe Magona - The senseless killing of
Amy Biehl, a young Fulbright scholar who had gone to South Africa to help
residents prepare for the first democratic elections in the history of that
country, is the basis for this novel. 210 pages
My
Antonia by: Willa Cather -Antonia works as a servant for her
neighbors after her father's death, elopes & then returns.
My
Last Days as Roy Rogers by:
Pat Cunningham Devoto - Writing as if she were the literary
love child of Harper Lee and Mark Twain, Devoto gives us small-town Bainbridge,
Alabama, in summer 1954.
Nickel
and Dimed by: Barbara
Ehrenreich
- A close observer and astute analyzer of American life Ehrenreich turns her
attention to what it is like trying to subsist while working in low-paying jobs.
The
Night of the Hunter by:
Davis Grubb
-When Ben Harper is taken to the gallows for a bank robbery killing, he leaves
his young children to hide the stolen money.
No Greater Glory by: Dan Kurzman - The 4 immortal chaplains
& the sinking of the Dorchester in WWII. 250 pages
Not Buying it by: Judith Levine - follows the award
winning journalist's year of nonspending. 267 pages.
Nothing
to Do But Stay by: Carrie Young - Readers are treated
to history at its liveliest in these essays. Young tells of her pioneer
mother's early westerly experiences and those of herself and her five siblings.
Old
Yeller by: Fred Gipson -
About
a Texas pioneer family in the 1860s and the big yellow stray dog that affects
their lives.
**Olive Kitteridge by: Elizabeth Strout - set of linked
stories about a gruff, 60-something school teacher in a coastal town in Maine.
288 pages
On
Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by:
Stephen King -Part memoir, part master class by one of
the bestselling authors of all time.
One
Thousand White Women by:
Jim Fergus
- An American western with a most unusual twist, this is an imaginative
fictional account of the participation of May Dodd and others in the
controversial "Brides for Indians" program. 304 pages FM, FO
One
Writer's Beginnings by:
Eudora Welty
- In a "continuous thread of revelation" she sketches her
autobiography and tells us how her family and her surroundings contributed to
the shaping not only of her personality but of her writing.
Operating
Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year by: Anne Lamott
- Lamott, a 35-year-old novelist, recovering alcoholic, and single
parent, here shares her humor, faith, friendships, and irreverence.
An Ordinary Man by: Paul Rusesabagina - An autobiography
of the man who inspired "Hotel Rwanda" 207 pages
**Parchment of Leaves by: Silas House - 1917 rural Kentucky, a young Cherokee woman named Vine, rumored to cast spells on unsuspecting men, falls in love with local Irishman Saul Sullivan, whom she eventually marries.
293 pages
**Passion of Mary-Margaret by: Lisa Samson -Mary-Margaret
accepts a calling that surpasses her dreams & challenges her deep faith.320
pages
Paula
by: Isabel Allende - As she nursed Paula daily in a hospital in Madrid, Allende
kept a journal in which she told her daughter her life story.
Peace
Like a River by: Leif Enger Dead for 10 minutes before his father orders him to
breathe in the name of the living God, Reuben Land is living proof that the
world is full of miracles.
The Plot against America by: Phillip Roth - A novel of how
Charles Lindbergh, an American Hero, defeats FDR in 1940. According to some
reliable sources, he was also a rabid isolationist, Nazi sympathizer, and a
crypto-fascist. 390 copies
The
Poisonwood Bible by: Barbara Kingsolver - In 1959, evangelical
preacher Nathan Price moves his wife and four daughters from Georgia to a
village in the Belgian Congo, later Zaire.
Pope Joan by: Donna Woolfolk Cross - based on the
controversial historical figure Pope Joan. 422 pages FO
Pride
and Prejudice by: Jane Austen - Wealthy Mr. Darcy and spirited Elizabeth Bennett
dislike each other at first sight, and each must contend with their pride and
prejudices while Elizabeth's mother plots economically advantageous marriages
for all her daughters. 333 pages
**The Prince of Frogtown by: Rick Bragg - an unforgettable
rumination about fathers and sons dedicated to his stepson. 288 pages
The
Problem with Murmur Lee by: Connie May Fowler
-about the strong bonds among a group of friends that loses its quirkiest member.
Property
by: Valerie Martin - Martin re-creates antebellum New
Orleans, examining how slavery affects owners as well as slaves.
**Rebecca by: Daphne Du Maurier - Classic tale of mystery,
horror, romance and suspense with a helpless heroine, strong-willed hero and an
imposing house with secrets.410 pages FM
River
of Earth by: James Still - A 1940 classic is both a poignant
& heartbreaking look at hard times in the Eastern Kentucky hills.
245 pages
The
Romance Reader by: Pearl Abraham -As the oldest child of Rabbi Benjamin,
Rachel, 12, is expected to follow the traditions of her ultra-Orthodox Chassidic
family & to set a good example for her six siblings.
Saving
Grace by: Lee Smith - Florida Grace Shepherd is another of Smith's spirited
Southern women of humble background who are destined to endure difficult and
often tragic times.
Seabiscuit
by: Laura Hillenbrand - A small bay horse built more like a stocky cow pony
than a thoroughbred becomes one of the most famous race horses in American
history. 399 pages FM
Security Breach by: Janet Bailey McQuaid - The author's
happy life is shattered when she learns that her adult son is missing &
might be dead. 197 pgs
Seven Dials by: Anne Perry - a typical blend of Victorian
social history, political intrigue, and exemplary detective work. 330 pages
FO
**She Walks These Hills by Sharyn McCrumb - mystery involving 4 people retracing the trail of
1779 Shawnee escapee, Katie Wyler. 447 pages.
The
Shipping News by: Annie Proulx - A miserable family opts to
start a new life in a miserable Newfoundland fishing village that has an
enchanted quality, despite its harrowing details of abuses.
**The Soloist:
A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship and the Redemptive Power of Music
by: Steve Lopez - A musical prodigy is discovered amongst the cast-offs
on skid row. A portrait of mental illness, of social neglect and the struggle to
resurrect a fallen prodigy. 273 pages
The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness by: Karen
Armstrong -
Armstrong speaks to the troubling years following her
decision, in 1969, to walk away from the life of a Roman Catholic nun, after
failing to find God.
Standing Alone in Mecca
by: Asra
Q. Nomani
- this memoir chronicles the author's pilgrimage to Mecca, or hajj, in
2003. 304 pages
Stardust
by: Neil Gaiman - Gaiman has created an original and well-written fairy tale.
Stiff:
The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by: Mary Roach
-Cadavers have been involved in science's
boldest strides and weirdest undertakings, from testing France's first
guillotines to solving the mystery of TWA Flight 800. 437 pages
Stolen
Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by: Malika Oufkir and Michele
Fitoussi -Oufkir, a general's child, was adopted at the age of 5 by King Mohammed and brought up as a companion to his daughter.
394 pages FO
Stories
of Breece D'J Pancake by: Breece D'J Pancake
-12 stories written during a promising, abruptly ended career
illuminate the lives of doomed and despairing brawlers, murderers, drunkards,
& demented husbands and wives in WV.
**The Story of Forgetting by: Stefan Merrill Block - A
boy's quest to find his family and the truth of his mother's genetic history
after she is diagnosed with a rare disease. 313 pages
Storming
Heaven by: Denise Giardina -This
well-written novel is an earnest recreation of the turbulent events in the West
Virginia coal fields during the early decades of this century. 293 pages
Strange as This Weather Has Been by: Ann Pancake - One
woman's fight against the Coal Industry. 360 pages
The
Summer of the Swans by: Betsy Byars
-A teenage girl gains new insight into herself and her family when her
mentally handicapped brother gets lost. 1971 Newberry Medal Winner.
Three Cups of Tea by: By: Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin - The
astonishing story of a real-life hero & his humanitarian
campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the Taliban's backyard. 337
pages FM
Thunderstruck
by: Erik Larsen - Intertwines the tale of Marconi & the invention of
the telegraph w/a doctor who murdered his wife.463 pg. FO, FM
Tidewater
Blood by: William Hoffman - The abused, outcast youngest son of an arrogant
Tidewater, Va., patriarch becomes the unwitting fall guy for the macabre bombing
assassination of his oldest brother's entire family on the occasion of the
clan's 250th anniversary celebration. 383 pages
**Time is A River by: Mary Alice Monroe - A broken woman rediscovers her sense of self-worth.
369 pages
The
Time Traveler's Wife by: Audrey Niffenegger
- Henry De Tamble is a Chicago librarian with "Chrono
Displacement" disorder; at random times, he suddenly disappears without
warning and finds himself in the past or future, usually at a time or place of
importance in his life 546
pages FO
To
Kill a Mockingbird by: Harper Lee -A Southern novel of unusual narrative charm,
eight-year-old Scout tells about growing up as the
daughter of a widowed lawyer, Atticus Finch, in the small town of Maycomb,
Alabama during the 1930's.
Town
Smokes by: Pinckney Benedict -these 9
stories deal with the mountainmen, sheepfarmers, and hograisers of rural West
Virginia. 168 pages.
The
Trees by: Conrad Richter - oldest
Luckett family daughter, Sayward, is determined that the
family will survive in the wilderness of Ohio.
Tuesdays
with Morrie by: Mitch Alborn
-the best-selling inspirational true story of
Albom and the discussions he had with his dying sociology professor and mentor,
Morrie Schwartz.
The Uncommon Reader by: Alan Bennett - The British Queen learns
how to enjoy reading.120 pages
Under
the Banner of Heaven by: John Krakauer - Veteran
reporter Krakauer's insider look at the Mormon church. 399 pages
FO, FM
A
Walk in the Woods by: Bill Bryson - Leisurely walks in the Cotswold's during a 20-year
sojourn in England hardly prepared Bryson for the rigors of the Appalachian
Trail. Humorous! 276 pages. FO, FM
The Wars of Heaven by: Richard Currey - Short stories that
evoke the
loneliness & despair of his native WV during the depression.
Water for Elephants by: Sara Gruen - Circuses showcase
human beings at their silliest & most sublime, & many unlikely literary
figures have been drawn to their glitzy pageantry, soaring pretensions and
metaphorical potential.
The
Way West by: A.B. Guthrie - Dick
Summers and others travel the Oregon Trail from Independence, Missouri, to
Oregon in the sequel to The Big Sky. Pulitzer Prize Winner.
**We Brought a Zoo: The Amazing True Story of a Young Family, a Broken
Down Zoo and the 200 Wild Animals that Change their Lives Forever by:
Benjamin Mee - True story of the Dartmoor Zoological Park that now
attracts thousands of visitors annually. 261 pages.
**The Well and the Mine by: Gin Phillips -story of one
Depression-era family in an Alabama coal-mining town, and the single night that
forever changes their view of the world around them. 264 pages.
When Madeline was Young by: Jane Hamilton - When Aaron
MacIver's beautiful young wife, Madeline, suffers brain damage in a bike
accident, she is left with the intellectual powers of a six-year-old. 274 pages.
While they're at War by: Kristen Henderson - By the time
Beth Pratt's husband returned from Iraq, they had been apart longer than they
had known each other.
Wild
Sweet Notes edited by: Barbara Smith & Kirk Judd - The voices, lore, and landscape
of W. Va. resound distinctively in these works, though the editors have not
restricted the poems' subject matter to the local.
**Witches, Ghosts and Signs: Folklore of the Southern Appalachians
by: Patrick Ward Gaines - stories collected from fifty years of research
of stories from West Virginia. 177 pages.
**Witness at Hawk's Nest by:
Dwight Harshbarger -Dwight Harshbarger captures the destruction during the digging of Hawks Nest tunnel of well over 700 lives workers who fell victim to undiagnosed silicosis and the cover-up of the tragedy by Union Carbide.
267 pages
Wuthering
Heights by: Emily Bronte -When
Mr. Lockwood has an encounter with the spirit of Catherine Linton at the home of
the unsociable Heathcliff, he hears the story of the tempestuous love affair
between Catherine and Heathcliff. 326 pages.
Year
of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by: Geraldine Brooks -
Brooks re-creates a year in the
life of a remote British village decimated by the bubonic plague. 308 pages. FM
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by: Michael Chabon - An alternate
history novel that succeeds both as a hardboiled detective story and a soft
hearted romance. 414 pages. FM
**You've got to Read This Book: 55 People Tell the Story of the Book that
Changed Their Life edited by: Jack Canfield & Gay Hendricks
-Essays from 55 leaders in the worlds of business, motivation, entertainment
about the book that transformed their lives and helped shape them into who they
are today. 304 pages.