Book Discussion Kits for Adults
The Pioneer Library System makes holding a book discussion as easy as checking out a kit! All you have to do is gather the friends . . . and open the book. We do the all the rest for you!
PLS maintains Book Discussion Kits that have everything you need to have a successful group reading experience. Each kit contains 10-12 copies of the listed book, bookmarks, a manual containing discussion questions, reviews, articles about the book, and information about the author. Each kit can be checked out for 6 weeks.
So whether your interests are fiction or nonfiction or romance or mystery - Pioneer Library System has a kit that you and your friends will enjoy.
To reserve a kit for pick-up at your hometown library please call 405.701.1849 or 405.701.1839 - Please allow 3 working days for delivery.
A Land More Kind Than Home
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:25
A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
A stunning debut reminiscent of the beloved novels of John Hart and Tom Franklin, A Land More Kind Than Home is a mesmerizing literary thriller about the bond between two brothers and the evil they face in a small western North Carolina town.
For a curious boy like Jess Hall, growing up in Marshall means trouble when your mother catches you spying on grown-ups. Adventurous and precocious, Jess is enormously protective of his older brother, Christopher, a mute whom everyone calls Stump. Though their mother has warned them not to snoop, Stump can't help sneaking a look at something he's not supposed to - an act that will have catastrophic repercussions, shattering both his world and Jess's. It's a wrenching event that thrusts Jess into an adulthood for which he's not prepared. While there is much about the world that still confuses him, he now knows that a new understanding can bring not only a growing danger and evil - but also the possibility of freedom and deliverance as well.
A Visit from the Goon Squad
Last Updated on Monday, 05 November 2012 10:26
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Egan's eclectic cast of characters ranges from 1970s punk-rockers and record industry professionals to Kenyan tribesman and a single genocidal dictator from an unnamed country. With each chapter, perspective shifts to another character, usually a character from the periphery of a prior chapter. And with this shift in voice and perspective come radical changes in format - from straight-forward narrative to a convict's apologetic epistle to, in one instance, a powerpoint presentation created by a teenager. Each of these chapters is distinct from its siblings and each is able to stand independently as an engaging piece of short fiction.
Add a commentAlchemist
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:23
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
"My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky." Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams."
The Alchemist is the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found. From his home in Spain he journeys to the markets of Tangiers and across the Egyptian desert to a fateful encounter with the alchemist.
Add a commentAmerican Heiress
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:24
American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin
Be careful what you wish for.
Traveling abroad with her mother at the turn of the twentieth century to seek a titled husband, beautiful, vivacious Cora Cash, whose family mansion in Newport dwarfs the Vanderbilts’, suddenly finds herself Duchess of Wareham, married to Ivo, the most eligible bachelor in England. Nothing is quite as it seems, however: Ivo is withdrawn and secretive, and the English social scene is full of traps and betrayals. Money, Cora soon learns, cannot buy everything, as she must decide what is truly worth the price in her life and her marriage.
Add a commentArt of Fielding
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:24
Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
At Westish College, a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big league stardom. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five people are upended. Henry's fight against self-doubt threatens to reuin his future.
College president Guert Affenlight, a longtime bachelor, has fallen unexpectedly and helplessly in love. Owen Dunne, Henry's gay roommate and teammate, becomes caught up in a dangerous affair. Mike Schwartz, the Harpooner's team captain and Henry's best friend, realizes he has guided Henry's career at the expense of his own. And Pella Affenlight, Guert's daughter, returns to Westish after escaping an ill-fated marriage, determined to start a new life.
Add a commentArt of Racing in the Rain
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:25
Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television extensively, and by listening very closely to the words of his master, Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car driver. Through Denny, Enzo has gained tremendous insight into the human condition, and he sees that life, like racing, isn't simply about going fast. Using the techniques needed on the race track, one can successfully navigate all of life's ordeals. On the eve of his death, Enzo takes stock of his life, recalling all that he and his family have been through: the sacrifices Denny has made to succeed professionally; the unexpected loss of Eve, Denny's wife; the three-year battle over their daughter, Zoë, whose maternal grandparents pulled every string to gain custody.
Add a commentAt Home: a short history of private life
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:26
At Home: a short history of private life by Bill Bryson
Houses aren't refuges from history. They are where history ends up. Bill Bryson and his family live in a Victorian parsonage in a part of England where nothing of any great significance has happened since the Romans decamped. Yet one day, he began to consider how very little he knew about the ordinary things of life as he found it in that comfortable home.
Add a commentBeautiful Ruins
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 08:23
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying.
Add a commentBefore I Go To Sleep: a novel
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:27
Before I Go To Sleep: a novel by S.J. Watson
Memories define us. So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep? Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love-all forgotten overnight. And the one person you trust may be telling you only half the story. Welcome to Christine's life.
Every day Christine wakes up not knowing where she is. Her memories disappear every time she falls asleep. Her husband, Ben, is a stranger to her, and he's obligated to explain their life together on a daily basis-all the result of a mysterious accident that made Christine an amnesiac. With the encouragement of her doctor, Christine starts a journal to help jog her memory every day. One morning, she opens it and sees that she's written three unexpected and terrifying words: "Don't trust Ben." Suddenly everything her husband has told her falls under suspicion.
Add a commentBlue Asylum
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:28
Blue Asylum by Kathy Hepinstall
Amid the mayhem of the Civil War, Virginia plantation wife Iris Dunleavy is put on trial and convicted of madness. It is the only reasonable explanation the court can see for her willful behavior, so she is sent away to Sanibel Asylum to be restored to a good, compliant woman.
Iris knows, though, that her husband is the true criminal; she is no lunatic, only guilty of disagreeing with him on notions of justice, cruelty, and property. On this remote Florida island, cut off by swamps and seas and military blockades, Iris meets a wonderful collection of residents—some seemingly sane, some wrongly convinced they are crazy, some charmingly odd, some dangerously unstable. Which of these is Ambrose Weller, the war-haunted Confederate soldier whose memories terrorize him into wild fits that can only be calmed by the color blue, but whose gentleness and dark eyes beckon to Iris.
Add a commentBrave New World
Last Updated on Monday, 05 November 2012 10:41
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley conjures up a horrifying, but often comic, vision of a future Utopia in which humans are processed, conditioned, regimented, and drugged into total social conformity. The story, set in a futuristic London, focuses on the misadventures of Bernard Marx. Disaffected with the regimentation of society, Bernard and his girlfriend, Lenina, visit the American Southwest where Native Americans are permitted to live in an "uncivilized" state. There they come upon a fair-skinned young man named John, who turns out to be the son of a Londoner, and Bernard brings John back to "civilized" London.
Add a commentBrave: a novel
Last Updated on Monday, 05 November 2012 10:53
The Brave: a novel by Nicholas Evans
As a student at the Ashlawn Preparatory School in 1959 England, eight-year-old, cowboy-crazy Tommy Bedford is teased for being a bed wetter and gets the shock of his young life when he learns that his sister, glamorous “Next Big Thing” actress Diane Reed, is really his mother.Soon afterwards, she and Tommy move to L.A., where Diane falls for TV cowboy Ray Montane, and their tortured relationship leads to a horrifying act of violence that has lifelong repercussions for Tommy.
Add a commentBridge of Scarlet Leaves
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:29
Bridge of Scarlet Leaves by Kristina McMorris
Los Angeles, 1941. Violinist Maddie Kern's life seemed destined to unfold with the predictable elegance of a Bach concerto. Then she fell in love with Lane Moritomo. Her brother's best friend, Lane is the handsom, ambitious son of Japanese immigrants. Maddie was prepared for disapproval from their families, but when Pearl Harbor is bombed the day after she and Lane elope, the full force of their decision becomes apparent. In the eyes of a fearful nation, Lane is no longer just an outsider, but an enemy.
Add a commentChange of Heart
Last Updated on Monday, 05 November 2012 10:41
Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult
The acclaimed #1 New York Times bestselling author presents a spellbinding tale of a mother's tragic loss and one man's last chance at gaining salvation. Can we save ourselves, or do we rely on others to do it? Is what we believe always the truth?
One moment June Nealon was happily looking forward to years full of laughter and adventure with her family, and the next, she was staring into a future that was as empty as her heart. Now her life is a waiting game. Waiting for time to heal her wounds, waiting for justice. In short, waiting for a miracle to happen.
Add a commentChosen
Last Updated on Monday, 05 November 2012 10:42
Chosen by Chandra Hoffman
In Chosen, a young caseworker becomes increasingly entangled in the lives of adoptive and birth parents, with devastating results.
It all begins with a fantasy: the caseworker in her "signing paperwork" charcoal suit standing alongside beaming parents cradling their adopted newborn, set against a fluorescent-lit delivery-room backdrop. It's this blissful picture that keeps Chloe Pinter, director of the Chosen Child's domestic-adoption program, happy while juggling the high demands of her boss and the incessant needs of both adoptive and biological parents.
Add a commentCrooked Letter, Crooked Letter
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:30
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
In the late 1970s, Larry Ott and Silas "32" Jones were boyhood pals. Their worlds were as different as night and day: Larry, the child of lower-middle-class white parents, and Silas, the son of a poor, single black mother. Yet for a few months the boys stepped outside of their circumstances and shared a special bond. But then tragedy struck: Larry took a girl on a date to a drive-in movie, and she was never heard from again. She was never found and Larry never confessed, but all eyes rested on him as the culprit. The incident shook the county—and perhaps Silas most of all. His friendship with Larry was broken, and then Silas left town.
Add a commentDestiny of the Republic
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:31
Destiny of the Republic: a tale of madness, medicine and the murder of a president by Candice Millard
James A. Garfield was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, and a renowned and admired reformist congressman. Nominated for president against his will, he engaged in a fierce battle with the corrupt political establishment. But four months after his inauguration, a deranged office seeker tracked Garfield down and shot him in the back.
Add a commentDevil in the White City
Last Updated on Monday, 05 November 2012 10:43
Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Larson tells the [true] stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor.
Burnham's challenge was immense. In a short period of time, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the famous "White City" around which the fair was built. His efforts to complete the project, and the fair's incredible success, are skillfully related along with entertaining appearances by such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, Susan B. Anthony, and Thomas Edison.
Add a commentDistant Hours
Last Updated on Monday, 05 November 2012 10:43
Distant Hours by Kate Morton
It starts with a letter, lost for half a century and unexpectedly delivered to Edie's mother on a Sunday afternoon. The letter leads Edie to Milderhurst Castle, where the eccentric Blythe spinsters live and where, she discovers, her mother was billeted during World War II. The elder Blythe sisters are twins and have spent most of their lives caring for their younger sister, Juniper, who hasn't been the same since her fiancé jilted her in 1941.
Add a commentDry Grass of August
Last Updated on Monday, 05 November 2012 10:43
Dry Grass of August by Anna Jean Mayhew
Infused with the intensity of a changing time, here is a story of hope and heartbreak, of love and courage, of a journey from wounded to indomitable. In August 1954, Jubie Watts, a white teenager, leaves Charlotte, NC, with her family and their black maid for a Florida vacation.
Add a commentEverything We Ever Wanted
Last Updated on Monday, 05 November 2012 10:44
Everything We Ever Wanted by Sara Shepard
A recently widowed mother of two, Sylvie Bates-McAllister finds her life upended by a late-night phone call from the headmaster of the prestigious private school founded by her grandfather where her adopted son Scott teaches. Allegations of Scott's involvement in a hazing scandal cause a ripple effect, throwing the entire family into chaos. For Charles, Sylvie's biological son, it dredges up a ghost from the past who is suddenly painfully present. For his wife Joanna, it forces her to reevaluate everything she's hoped for in the golden Bates-McAllisters. And for Scott, it illuminates harsh truths about a world he has never truly felt himself a part of.
Add a commentForeign Bodies
Last Updated on Monday, 22 October 2012 14:40
Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick
Cynthia Ozick is one of America’s literary treasures. For her sixth novel, she set herself a brilliant challenge: to retell the story of Henry James’s The Ambassadors—the work he considered his best—but as a photographic negative, that is the plot is the same, the meaning is reversed. At the core of the story is Bea Nightingale, a fiftyish divorced schoolteacher whose life has been on hold during the many years since her brief marriage. When her estranged, difficult brother asks her to leave New York for Paris to retrieve a nephew she barely knows, she becomes entangled in the lives of her brother’s family and even, after so long, her ex-husband.
Add a commentForgotten Garden
Last Updated on Monday, 22 October 2012 14:39
Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
A tiny girl is abandoned on a ship headed for Australia in 1913. She arrives completely alone with nothing but a small suitcase containing a few clothes and a single book—a beautiful volume of fairy tales. She is taken in by the dockmaster and his wife and raised as their own. On her twenty-first birthday, they tell her the truth, and with her sense of self shattered and very little to go on, "Nell" sets out to trace her real identity. Her quest leads her to Blackhurst Manor on the Cornish coast and the secrets of the doomed Mountrachet family. But it is not until her granddaughter, Cassandra, takes up the search after Nell's death that all the pieces of the puzzle are assembled. A spellbinding tale of mystery and self-discovery, The Forgotten Garden will take hold of your imagination and never let go.
Add a commentFriendship Bread
Last Updated on Monday, 05 November 2012 10:44
Friendship Bread by Darian Gee
An anonymous gift sends a woman on a journey she never could have anticipated. One afternoon, Julia Evarts and her five-year-old daughter, Gracie, arrive home to find an unexpected gift on the front porch: a homemade loaf of Amish Friendship Bread and a simple note: I hope you enjoy it. Also included are a bag of starter, instructions on how to make the bread herself, and a request to share it with others. Still reeling from a personal tragedy that left her estranged from the sister who was once her best friend, Julia remains at a loss as to how to move on with her life. She'd just as soon toss the anonymous gift, but to make Gracie happy, she agrees to bake the bread.
Add a commentGeography of Bliss
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:32
Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner
Weiner travels the world in search of the happiest places. As Weiner makes his way from Iceland (one of the world's happiest countries) to Bhutan (where the king has made Gross National Happiness a national priority) to Moldova (not a happy place), he calls upon the collective wisdom of "the self-help industrial complex" to help him navigate the path to contentment.
Add a commentGoodbye Quilt
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:33
The Goodbye Quilt by Susan Wiggs
Linda Davis's local fabric shop is a place where women gather to share their creations: quilts commemorating important events in their lives. Wedding quilts, baby quilts, memorial quilts--each is bound tight with dreams, hopes and yearnings.
Now, as her only child readies for college, Linda is torn between excitement for Molly and heartache for herself. Who will she be when she is no longer needed in her role as mom? What will become of her days? Of her marriage?
Add a commentGreat Gatsby
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:33
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The mysterious Jay Gatsby embodies the American notion that it is possible to redefine oneself and persuade the world to accept that notion. Gatsby's youthful neighbor, Nick Carraway, fascinated with the display of enormous wealth in which Gatsby revels, finds himself swept up in the lavish lifestyle of Long Island society during the Jazz Age.
Add a commentGuernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:34
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
In January 1946, London is beginning to recover from World War II, and Juliet Ashton is looking for a subject for her next book. She spent the war years writing a column for the Times until her own dear flat became a victim of a German bomb. While sifting through the rubble and reconstructing her life, she receives a letter from a man on Guernsey, the British island occupied by the Germans. He'd found her name on the flyleaf of a book by Charles Lamb and was writing to ask if she knew of any other books by the author.
Add a commentHandmaid's Tale
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:35
Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Offred is a handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, where she works for the Commander and his wife. She is hoping to become pregnant by the Commander, since she is valued only for her fertility. Failure to produce a child could mean exile to the polluted Colonies. She cherishes the bittersweet memories of 'before' when she lived with her husband and daughter, had a job, access to knowledge, and had her own name.
Add a commentHeretic's Daughter
Last Updated on Monday, 29 October 2012 10:26
The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent
Martha Carrier was one of the first women to be accused, tried, and hanged as a witch in Salem. Like her mother, young Sarah Carrier is bright and willful, openly challenging the small, brutal world in which they live. Often at odds with each other, mother and daughter are forced to stand together against the escalating hysteria and superstitious tyranny. This is the story of Martha's courageous defiance and ultimate death, as told by the daughter who survived.
Add a commentHistory of Love
Last Updated on Monday, 05 November 2012 10:45
History of Love by Nicole Krauss
Leo Gursky is trying to survive a little bit longer, tapping his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbor know he’s still alive, drawing attention to himself at the milk counter of Starbucks. But life wasn’t always like this: sixty years ago, in the Polish village where he was born, Leo fell in love and wrote a book. And although he doesn’t know it, that book also survived: it crossed oceans and generations, and changed lives.
Add a commentHouse at Riverton
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:36
House at Riverton by Kate Morton
Grace Bradley had gone to work as a servant for the wealthy Hartford family when she was just a girl. During that time she had become quite friendly with daughters Hannah and Emmeline. In the summer of 1924, at a society party there, a young poet shot himself. The only witnesses were Hannah and Emmeline and only they--and Grace--know the truth. Grace, now 98, tells her story to a young movie director, revealing some secrets while keeping others hidden.
Add a commentImmortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Last Updated on Monday, 05 November 2012 10:45
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
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, in vitro fertilization, 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.
Add a commentLanguage of Flowers
Last Updated on Monday, 29 October 2012 10:26
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
A mesmerizing, moving, and elegantly written debut novel, The Language of Flowers beautifully weaves past and present, creating a vivid portrait of an unforgettable woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own troubled past.
The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it’s been more useful in communicating grief, mistrust, and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster-care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings. Now eighteen and emancipated from the system, Victoria has nowhere to go and sleeps in a public park, where she plants a small garden of her own. Soon a local florist discovers her talents, and Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But a mysterious vendor at the flower market has her questioning what’s been missing in her life, and when she’s forced to confront a painful secret from her past, she must decide whether it’s worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness.
Add a commentLetter from Home
Last Updated on Monday, 22 October 2012 14:20
Letter from Home by Carolyn Hart
Summer 1944: Gretchen is working as a reporter at the local newspaper. Everyone's talking about Faye Tatum, who's been found dead in her own living room. Gretchen had known Faye and knew that the circumstances of her life were much different than people imagined. Gretchen's determined to uncover the truth once and for all -- even if it means writing a story that will haunt her for the rest of her life.
Add a commentLife of Pi
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:37
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Winner of the 2002 Man Booker Award
Life of Pi is a masterful and utterly original novel that is at once the story of a young castaway who faces immeasurable hardships on the high seas, and a meditation on religion, faith, art and life that is as witty as it is profound. Using the threads of all of our best stories, Yann Martel has woven a glorious spiritual adventure that makes us question what it means to be alive, and to believe.
Add a commentLight Between Oceans
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:37
Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman
This mesmerizing Australian novel has been a bestselling book around the world, and Hollywood movie rights were recently snapped up by Dreamworks, with David Heyman (Harry Potter) set to produce. Winner of the Indie Awards 'Book of the Year' 2013.
They break the rules and follow their hearts. What happens next will break yours.
Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:38
Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal by Conor Grennan
In search of adventure, twenty-nine-year-old Conor Grennan embarked on a yearlong journey around the globe, beginning with a three-month stint volunteering at an orphanage in civil war–torn Nepal. But a shocking truth would forever change his life: these rambunctious, resilient children were not orphans at all but had been taken from their families by child traffickers who falsely promised to keep them safe from war before abandoning them in the teeming chaos of Kathmandu. For Conor, what started as a footloose ramble became a dangerous, dedicated mission to unite youngsters he had grown to love with the parents they had been stolen from—a breathtaking adventure, as Conor risked everything in the treacherous Nepalese mountains to bring the children home.
Add a commentLost Summer of Louisa May Alcott
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:39
Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O’Connor McNees
Readers across generations have fallen in love with Little Women. But how could Louisa May Alcott --- who never had a romance --- write so convincingly of love and heartbreak without experiencing it herself? In The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, Kelly O’Connor McNees deftly mixes fact and fiction as she imagines a love affair that would threaten Louisa’s writing career --- and inspire the story of Jo and Laurie in Little Women.
Add a commentLouisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:40
Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women by Harriet Reisen
A vivid, energetic account of the life of the beloved author whose work has delighted millions of readers, Louisa May Alcott. Reisen portrays a writer as worthy of interest in her own right as her most famous character, Jo March, and addresses all aspects of Alcott’s life: the effect of her father’s self-indulgent utopian schemes; her family’s chronic economic difficulties and frequent uprootings; her experience as a nurse in the Civil War; the loss of her health; and her frequent recourse to opiates in search of relief from migraines, insomnia, and symptomatic pain. Stories and details culled from Alcott’s journals; her equally rich letters to family, friends, publishers, and admiring readers; and the correspondence, journals, and recollections of her family, friends, and famous contemporaries provide the basis for this true-life rags-to-riches tale.
Add a commentLoving Frank
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:41
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
Fact and fiction are blended in this novel about the relationship between Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney who, in spite of being married to others, began a clandestine affair that eventually led them to flee to Europe, devastating their families and shocking Chicago society. Based on years of research, the historical novel brings the characters to life and illuminates Mamah's conflicts and sacrifices as she's forced to choose between her roles as mother, wife, lover, and intellectual
Add a commentLucky One
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:41
Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks
A brush with death leads a young man to the love of his life. Is there really such thing as a lucky charm? The hero of this novel believes he's found one in the form of a photograph of a smiling woman he's never met, but who he comes to believe holds the key to his destiny. The chain of events that leads to him possessing the photograph and finding the woman pictured in it is the stuff of love stories only a master can write.
Add a commentMajor Pettigrew's Last Stand
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:42
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson
When Major Pettigrew, a retired British army major in a small English village, embarks on an unexpected friendship with the widowed Mrs. Ali, who runs the local shop, trouble erupts to disturb the bucolic serenity of the village and of the Major’s carefully regimented life.
As the Major and Mrs. Ali discover just how much they have in common, including an educated background and a shared love of books, they must struggle to understand what it means to belong and how far the obligations of family and tradition can be set aside for personal freedom. Meanwhile, the village itself, lost in its petty prejudices and traditions, may not see its own destruction coming.
Add a commentMarriage Plot
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:42
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
It’s the early 1980s—the country is in a deep recession, and life after college is harder than ever. In the cafés on College Hill, the wised-up kids are inhaling Derrida and listening to Talking Heads. But Madeleine Hanna, dutiful English major, is writing her senior thesis on Jane Austen and George Eliot, purveyors of the marriage plot that lies at the heart of the greatest English novels.
As Madeleine tries to understand why “it became laughable to read writers like Cheever and Updike, who wrote about the suburbia Madeleine and most of her friends had grown up in, in favor of reading the Marquis de Sade, who wrote about deflowering virgins in eighteenth-century France,” real life, in the form of two very different guys, intervenes. Leonard Bankhead—charismatic loner, college Darwinist, and lost Portland boy—suddenly turns up in a semiotics seminar, and soon Madeleine finds herself in a highly charged erotic and intellectual relationship with him. At the same time, her old “friend” Mitchell Grammaticus—who’s been reading Christian mysticism and generally acting strange—resurfaces, obsessed with the idea that Madeleine is destined to be his mate.
Add a commentMindless Eating: why we eat more than we think
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:43
Mindless Eating: why we eat more than we think by Brian Wansink Ph.D.
This book will literally change the way you think about your next meal. Food psychologist Brian Wansink revolutionizes our awareness of how much, what, and why we’re eating—often without realizing it. His findings will astound you.
- Can the size of your plate really influence your appetite?
- Why do you eat more when you dine with friends?
- What “hidden persuaders” are used by restaurants and supermarkets to get us to overeat?
- How does music or the color of the room influence how much—and how fast—we eat?
- How can we “mindlessly” lose—instead of gain—up to twenty pounds in the coming year?
Starting today, you can make more mindful, enjoyable, and healthy choices at the dinner table, in the supermarket, at the office—wherever you satisfy your appetite.
Add a commentMuffins and mayhem: Recipes for a Happy (if Disorderly) Life
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:43
Muffins and mayhem: Recipes for a Happy (if Disorderly) Life by Suzanne Beecher
In Muffins and Mayhem, Suzanne Beecher, creator of DearReader.com, combines her life stories with 30 of her favorite recipes. With striking candor, Suzanne takes readers on a journey from her lowest moments to her greatest joys and personal victories. Suzanne writes about personal successes and failures and what each taught her about life, love, and her capacity to persevere.
Add a commentRead more: Muffins and mayhem: Recipes for a Happy (if Disorderly) Life
Night Circus
Last Updated on Friday, 02 November 2012 10:16
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.
But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway: a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them both, this is a game in which only one can be left standing. Despite the high stakes, Celia and Marco soon tumble headfirst into love, setting off a domino effect of dangerous consequences, and leaving the lives of everyone, from the performers to the patrons, hanging in the balance.
Add a commentNothing Daunted: the unexpected education of two society girls in the west
Nothing Daunted: the unexpected education of two society girls in the west by Dorothy Wickenden
Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood attended grade school and Smith College together, spent nine months on a grand tour of Europe in 1910, and then, bored with society luncheons and chaperoned balls and not yet ready for marriage, they went off to teach the children of homesteaders in a remote schoolhouse on the Western Slope of Colorado. They traveled on the new railroad over the Continental Divide and by wagon to Elkhead, a tiny settlement far from the nearest town. Their students came to school from miles away in tattered clothes and shoes tied together with string.
Add a commentRead more: Nothing Daunted: the unexpected education of two society girls in the west
Olive Kitteridge
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:44
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
In the small coastal town in Maine, everyone knows Olive Kitteridge, the retired school teacher, who plays a leading or subsidiary role in many lives. She has the uncanny ability to see into the hearts of others, discerning their triumphs and tragedies, while not always seeing her own life as clearly. For instance, she doesn't see that her own son feels tyrannized by her or that her stoic husband stays with her not out of love, but out of a sense of duty.
Add a commentOut Stealing Horses
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:45
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
Trond's friend Jon often appeared at his doorstep with an adventure in mind for the two of them. But this morning was different. What began as a joy ride on "borrowed" horses ends with Jon falling into a strange trance of grief. Trond soon learns what befell Jon earlier that day--an incident that marks the beginning of a series of vital losses for both boys.
Set in the easternmost region of Norway, Out Stealing Horses begins with an ending. Sixty-seven-year-old Trond has settled into a rustic cabin in an isolated area to live the rest of his life with a quiet deliberation. A meeting with his only neighbor, however, forces him to reflect on that fateful summer.
Add a commentOutliers
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:46
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell examines some of the most successful people today, and tries to determine what exactly contributes to their success. He finds that, as a culture, we often analyze a person's success based on what that person is like. Rather, we should look at contributing factors such as culture, family, and the idiosyncratic differences in their upbringing to determine what makes a person successful.
Add a commentPassage
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:47
The Passage by Justin Cronin
An epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and survival, The Passage is the story of Amy—abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions. But Special Agent Brad Wolgast, the lawman sent to track her down, is disarmed by the curiously quiet girl and risks everything to save her. As the experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Wolgast secures her escape—but he can’t stop society’s collapse. And as Amy walks alone, across miles and decades, into a future dark with violence and despair, she is filled with the mysterious and terrifying knowledge that only she has the power to save the ruined world.
Add a commentPostmistress
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:48
Postmistress by Sarah Blake
In 1940, Iris James is the postmistress in coastal Franklin, Massachusetts. Iris knows more about the townspeople than she will ever say, and believes her job is to deliver secrets. Yet one day she does the unthinkable: slips a letter into her pocket, reads it, and doesn't deliver it.
Meanwhile, Frankie Bard broadcasts from overseas with Edward R. Murrow. Her dispatches beg listeners to pay heed as the Nazis bomb London nightly. Most of the townspeople of Franklin think the war can't touch them. But both Iris and Frankie know better...
Add a commentQuiet: the power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking
Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking by Susan Cain
Passionately argued, impressively researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet shows how dramatically we undervalue introverts, and how much we lose in doing so. Taking the reader on a journey from Dale Carnegie’s birthplace to Harvard Business School, from a Tony Robbins seminar to an evangelical megachurch, Susan Cain charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal in the twentieth century and explores its far-reaching effects.
Add a commentRead more: Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking
Room
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:48
Room by Emma Donaghue
To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.
Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough. Not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.
Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, ROOM is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.
Add a commentScent of Rain and Lightning
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:49
Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard
One beautiful summer afternoon, Jody Linder receives shocking news: The man convicted of murdering her father is being released from prison and returning to the small town of Rose, Kansas. It has been twenty-three years since that stormy night when her father was shot and killed and her mother disappeared, presumed dead. Neither the protective embrace of Jody's three uncles nor the safe haven of her grandparents' ranch could erase the pain caused by Billy Crosby on that catastrophic night.
Add a commentSchool of Essential Ingredients
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:50
School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
The School of Essential Ingredients follows the lives of eight students who gather in Lillian’s Restaurant every Monday night for cooking class. It soon becomes clear, however, that each one seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen. Students include Claire, a young mother struggling with the demands of her family; Antonia, an Italian kitchen designer learning to adapt to life in America; and Tom, a widower mourning the loss of his wife to breast cancer. Chef Lillian, a woman whose connection with food is both soulful and exacting, helps them to create dishes whose flavor and techniques expand beyond the restaurant and into the secret corners of her students’ lives.
Add a commentSecrets of Mary Bowser
Secrets of Mary Bowser by Lois Leveen
With the rich detail of Cold Mountain, the strong female bonds of The Help, and the untold history of The Warmth of Other Suns, comes a powerful debut novel about the secrets a woman keeps, and those she will risk everything to tell.
Based on the remarkable true story of a freed African American slave who returned to Virginia at the onset of the Civil War to spy on the Confederates, The Secres of Mary Bowser is a masterful debut by an exciting new novelist.
Add a commentSense of an Ending
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:51
Sense of an Ending by Julian Barns
The story of a man coming to terms with the mutable past, Julian Barnes's new novel is laced with his trademark precision, dexterity and insight. It is the work of one of the world's most distinguished writers.
Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they navigated the girl drought of gawky adolescence together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they swore to stay friends forever. Until Adrian's life took a turn into tragedy, and all of them, especially Tony, moved on and did their best to forget.
Add a commentSister: a novel
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:52
Sister: a novel by Rosamund Lupton
When her mom calls to tell her that Tess, her younger sister, is missing, Bee returns home to London on the first flight. She expects to find Tess and give her the usual lecture, the bossy big sister scolding her flighty baby sister for taking off without letting anyone know her plans. Tess has always been a free spirit, an artist who takes risks, while conservative Bee couldn't be more different. Bee is used to watching out for her wayward sibling and is fiercely protective of Tess (and has always been a little stern about her antics).
Add a commentState of Wonder
State of Wonder by Ann Pratchett
Dr. Marina Singh, a research scientist with a Minnesota pharmaceutical company, is sent to the Amazon to find her former mentor, Dr. Annick Swenson, who seems to have disappeared while working on a new drug. No one knows where Dr. Swenson is, and the last person sent to find her died before completing his mission.
Plagued by trepidation, Marina embarks on an odyssey in hopes of finding answers. Now in her seventies, the uncompromising Dr. Swenson dominates her research team and the natives with the force of an imperial ruler. But while she is as threatening as anything the jungle has to offer, the greatest sacrifices are those Dr. Swenson asks of herself, and will ultimately ask of Marina, who finds she is still unable to live up to her teacher's expectations.
Replete with poison arrows, devouring snakes, and cannibals, State of Wonder is a tale that leads you into the very heart of darkness, and then shows what lies on the other side.
Add a commentStory of Beautiful Girl
Last Updated on Monday, 29 October 2012 10:26
The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon
It is 1968. Lynnie, a young white woman with a developmental disability, and Homan, an African American deaf man, are locked away in an institution, the School for the Incurable and Feebleminded, and have been left to languish, forgotten.
Deeply in love, they escape, and find refuge in the farmhouse of Martha, a retired schoolteacher and widow. But the couple is not alone-Lynnie has just given birth to a baby girl. When the authorities catch up to them that same night, Homan escapes into the darkness, and Lynnie is caught. But before she is forced back into the institution, she whispers two words to Martha: "Hide her."
And so begins the 40-year epic journey of Lynnie, Homan, Martha, and baby Julia—lives divided by seemingly insurmountable obstacles, yet drawn together by a secret pact and extraordinary love.
Add a commentSwamplandia!
Last Updated on Friday, 02 November 2012 10:16
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
From the celebrated twenty-nine-year-old author of the everywhere-heralded short-story collection St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves comes a blazingly original debut novel that takes us to the swamps of the Florida Everglades, and introduces us to Ava Bigtree, an unforgettable young heroine.
The Bigtree alligator-wrestling dynasty is in decline, and Swamplandia!, their island home and gator-wrestling theme park, formerly #1 in the region, is swiftly being encroached upon by a fearsome and sophisticated competitor called the World of Darkness. Ava’s mother, the park’s indomitable headliner, has just died; her sister, Ossie, has fallen in love with a spooky character known as the Dredgeman, who may or may not be an actual ghost; and her brilliant big brother, Kiwi, who dreams of becoming a scholar, has just defected to the World of Darkness in a last-ditch effort to keep their family business from going under. Ava’s father, affectionately known as Chief Bigtree, is AWOL; and that leaves Ava, a resourceful but terrified thirteen, to manage ninety-eight gators and the vast, inscrutable landscape of her own grief.
Against a backdrop of hauntingly fecund plant life animated by ancient lizards and lawless hungers, Karen Russell has written an utterly singular novel about a family’s struggle to stay afloat in a world that is inexorably sinking. An arrestingly beautiful and inventive work from a vibrant new voice in fiction.
Add a commentTiger's Wife
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:53
The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
Weaving a brilliant latticework of family legend, loss, and love, Tea Obreht, the youngest of The New Yorker’s twenty best American fiction writers under forty, has spun a timeless novel that will establish her as one of the most vibrant, original authors of her generation.
In a Balkan country mending from years of conflict, Natalia, a young doctor, arrives on a mission of mercy at an orphanage by the sea. By the time she and her lifelong friend Zóra begin to inoculate the children there, she feels age-old superstitions and secrets gathering everywhere around her. Secrets her outwardly cheerful hosts have chosen not to tell her. Secrets involving the strange family digging for something in the surrounding vineyards. Secrets hidden in the landscape itself.
Add a commentUnlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:56
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
Meet Harold Fry, recently retired. He lives in a small English village with his wife, Maureen, who seems irritated by almost everything he does, even down to how he butters his toast. Little differentiates one day from the next. Then one morning the mail arrives, and within the stack of quotidian minutiae is a letter addressed to Harold in a shaky scrawl from a woman he hasn’t seen or heard from in twenty years. Queenie Hennessy is in hospice and is writing to say goodbye.
Add a commentViolets of March
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:57
Violets of March by Sarah Jio
Emily Wilson would be the first to admit that her life has seen better days. Her best-selling novel debuted eight years ago, she has struggled to write since, and she is now coming face-to-face with divorce from her once perfect husband Joel. Emily needs to heal, and she decides the best place to renew herself is across the country in a dear spot from her childhood: Bainbridge Island.
While staying with her beloved Aunt Bee, Emily's attempt at healing becomes complicated when she discovers the diary of a mysterious woman named Esther. Esther's story leads Emily on a path through a timeless love story, a painful series of misunderstandings, and a devastating secret that has vexed her family for decades.
The Violets of Marchis a story about love and fate. It's about the power such love has over us over space and time, and how it can haunt us when it goes unfulfilled. It defines love as an eternal bond that may drive us toward irrationality, but, ultimately, brings us hope for happiness and forgiveness.
Add a commentWeird Sisters
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 14:12
Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
There is no problem that a library card can't solve. The Andreas family is one of readers. Their father, a renowned Shakespeare professor who speaks almost entirely in verse, has named his three daughters after famous Shakespearean women.When the sisters return to their childhood home, ostensibly to care for their ailing mother, but really to lick their wounds and bury their secrets, they are horrified to find the others there. See, we love each other. We just don't happen to like each other very much. But the sisters soon discover that everything they've been running from-one another, their small hometown, and themselves-might offer more than they ever expected.
Add a commentWhere Lilacs Still Bloom
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 14:13
Where Lilacs Still Bloom by Jane Kirkpatric
One woman, an impossible dream, and the faith it took to see it through.
German immigrant and farm wife Hulda Klager possesses only an eighth-grade education—and a burning desire to create something beautiful. What begins as a hobby to create an easy-peeling apple for her pies becomes Hulda’s driving purpose: a time-consuming interest in plant hybridization that puts her at odds with family and community, as she challenges the early twentieth-century expectations for a simple housewife.
Add a commentWinter Garden
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 14:14
Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
Can a woman ever really know herself if she doesn’t know her mother?
Meredith and Nina Whitson are as different as sisters can be. One stayed at home to raise her children and manage the family apple orchard; the other followed a dream and traveled the world to become a famous photojournalist. But when their beloved father falls ill, Meredith and Nina find themselves together again, standing alongside their cold, disapproving mother, Anya, who even now, offers no comfort to her daughters.
Add a commentWorst Hard Time
Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2013 14:14
Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
The dust storms that terrorized America's High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since, and the stories of the people that held on have never been fully told.
Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times journalist and author Timothy Egan follows a half-dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, going from sod homes to new framed houses to huddling in basements with the windows sealed by damp sheets in a futile effort to keep the dust out. He follows their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black blizzards, crop failure, and the deaths of loved ones. Drawing on the voices of those who stayed and survived—those who, now in their eighties and nineties, will soon carry their memories to the grave—Egan tells a story of endurance and heroism against the backdrop of the Great Depression.
As only great history can, Egan's book captures the very voice of the times: its grit, pathos, and abiding courage. Combining the human drama of Isaac's Storm with the sweep of The American People in the Great Depression, The Worst Hard Time is a lasting and important work of American history.
Add a comment
