Berg, Elizabeth. Range of Motion
FICTION
When an accident puts her husband in a coma, Lainey finds that faith and love can indeed overcome any obstacle. |
Bragg, Rick. All Over But the Shoutin’
BIOGRAPHY
Pulitizer Prize winner Rick Bragg survived a dirt poor childhood in rural Alabama thanks to his selfless mother, who picked cotton and cleaned houses to give her boys a chance at life. |
Chabon, Michael. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
FICTION
Two cousins create the comic book hero “The Escapist” amidst world chaos, personal loss and the belief that art can overcome human circumstance. |
Curtis, Christopher Paul. The Watson’s go to Birmingham – 1963
JUVENILE FICTION
Universal truths beautifully told make this humorous, poignant story about family, prejudice and the power of love an excellent choice for readers of all ages. |
Doerr, Harriet. Consider This, Senora
FICTION
Three American women return to Mexico to ponder their life, love and death. |
Dorris, Michael. A Yellow Raft in Blue Water
FICTION
Three generations of American Indian women – 15-year-old Rayona, her mother Christine and “aunt” Ida—recount their lives and discover themselves, and each other, in the process. |
Dubus, Andre. House of Sand and Fog
FICTION,
Kathy Lazaro’s American Dream turns nightmare when a bureaucratic error puts her home on auction and she must fight an Iranian immigrant for it. |
Erdrich, Louise. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
FICTION
Aging Father Damien, who is not what he seems, must find a way to explain why Sister Leopolda should not be made a saint. |
Franzen, Jonathan. The Corrections
FICTION
The Lambert family secrets emerge as they face patriarch Alfred’s deterioration from Parkinson’s and the tangled lives of each adult Lambert child in this funny, furious look at modern American life. |
Frazier, Charles. Cold Mountain
FICTION
Instead of returning to battle, a wounded soldier begins a long walk home to his sweetheart, not knowing that the Civil War has changed Cold Mountain and Ada forever. |
Gibbons, Kaye. Ellen Foster
FICTION
After the death of her beloved mother, spunky
11-year-old Ellen searches for a safe haven, finding it eventually in a most unlikely place. |
Guterson, David. Snow Falling on Cedars
FICTION
Scars from WWII leave a Japanese American
fisherman accused of murder and his entire
community struggling with questions about the nature of justice, prejudice and compassion. |
Haruf, Kent. Plainsong
FICTION
An abandoned, pregnant teen finds refuge with the town’s strangest duo and discovers that a motley group of people can become one’s truest family. |
Irving, John. A Prayer for Owen Meany
FICTION
Their complicated friendship begins when Owen accidentally kills Johnny’s mother with a foul tip at Little League. |
Kingsolver, Barbara. Prodigal Summer
FICTION
Three very different free-spirited women struggle to find their places in the mountains that they have come to love. |
McCarthy, Cormac. All the Pretty Horses
FICTION
A young cowboy tests his mettle when he rides into Mexico and meets up with corrupt Mexican officials, bandits, harsh desert weather and a beautiful senorita. |
McCourt, Frank. Angela’s Ashes
BIOGRAPHY
Frank McCourt evokes the stunning poverty and chilling depression of mother Angela as he tells of growing up in Limerick, Ireland. |
Morrison, Toni. Beloved
FICTION
Faced with recapture, ex-slave Sethe chooses death over slavery for her dear child Beloved, but finds that 18 years later Beloved’s spirit still haunts her. |
Moss, Barbara Robinette. Change Me into Zeus’s Daughter
BIOGRAPHY
A disfigured girl growing up poor in rural Alabama dreams of looking normal, having enough to eat and saving her brothers and sisters from an abusive father in this powerfully written, ultimately optimistic autobiography. |
Proulx, Annie. The Shipping News
FICTION
When his cheating wife is killed in a car accident, Quoyle takes his daughters and aunt to a stark Newfoundland village where they discover life can begin again. |
Sobel, Dava. Galileo’s Daughter
BIOGRAPHY
Lest she be contaminated by his heretical scientific beliefs, convent-bound Maria Celeste is kept isolated from her father, but manages to convey her thoughts and feelings to him through smuggled letters. |
Stegner, Wallace. Angle of Repose
FICTION
A crippled man looks back at his grandmother’s life when he discovers her drawings and letters. |
Tyler, Anne. Accidental Tourist
FICTION
After the death of his son and his marriage, travel book writer Macon Leary moves back home to discover that life, and love, can still be his. |
Watson, Larry. Montana – 1948
FICTION
Looking back at the summer he turned twelve, David recounts a powerful dilemma when his family discovers a vile secret, causing them to choose between family and justice. |
