Suggested Summer Reading
List
Fiction
A
- Edward Abbey The Monkeywrench Gang.
Eco-terrorists plot the destruction of a major dam. Irreverent
anti-establishment humor.
- Richard Adams Watership Down. Adventure
allegory about rabbits and their quest for a home.
- James Agee A Death in the Family. Tragedy brings
a family together.
- Isabel Allende House of the Spirits An epic
South American story of a family's adventures, scandals, ghosts
and romances.
- Julia Alvarez How the Garcia Girls Lost Their
Accents. Fifteen interconnected stories portray with warmth
and humor the assimilation of a Dominican doctor's family into
urban American culture.
- Kingsley Amis Lucky Jim. Comic misfortunes of a
young instructor at an English University. Very funny.
- Jean Anouilh Becket. This book offers Anouilh's
version of the friendship and strife between King Henry and his
chancellor-archbishop.
- Piers Anthony On A Pale Horse. In this first of
a five-part fantasy, a young man kills death.
- Jennifer Armstrong The Dreams of Mairhe Mehan.
This story recounts the inner struggle of an Irish immigrant torn
between allegiance to Ireland and allegiance to her new home in
America at the height of the Civil War.
- Isaac Asimov Foundation. In a future century,
the Galactic Empire dies, and one man creates a new force for
civilized life.
- Margaret Atwood A Handmaid's Tale. What life in
the US could be like if arch-conservatism controlled our thoughts
and our government.
- Jane Austen Emma. Young, rich Emma Woodhouse
plays matchmaker with unexpected results in this book which
inspired the movie Clueless. Also read Pride and Prejudice
- In early 19th century England, an empty-headed mother schemes to
find husbands for her five daughters.
B
- Joel Barr Chapters and Verse. A charming book
about a bookstore-owner, E. Baker, who selects her a nice enough
young man as her successor and retires.
- Andrea Barrett The Voyage of the Narwhal. Rich
in historical and natural detail, filled with adventure and
romance, this tale of a 19th century Arctic expedition explores
the affects of extreme circumstances on character.
- William Bell Forbidden City. Seventeen-year-old
Alex Jackson is thrilled when his father, a cameraman for the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, is sent on assignment to China.
But the excitement of being in Tiananmen Square turns to horror as
the movement for change turns violent and Alex witnesses the death
of his Chinese friend.
- Thomas Berger Little Big Man. Witty fictional
account of a survivor of the Battle of Little Big Horn.
- Jim Bishop The Day Lincoln was Shot. Bishop
gives a play-by-play account of the people and events surrounding
Lincoln's assassination and death.
- Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451. A world where
reading is forbidden (and you won't be able to put the book down).
(also Martian Chronicles, Dandelion Wine)
- David Brin The Postman. Nuclear war and the
disease following it were bad enough, but what was left was nearly
destroyed altogether by violent survivalists
- Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre. The Story of a
young governess in a mysterious mansion -- and in love.
- Emily Bronte Wuthering Heights. The world's
most haunting love story.
- Irene Bennett Brown Morning Glory Afternoon.
This historical novel, set in Kansas in 1924, recounts the
experience of 17-year-old Jessamyn Faber as she deals with the Ku
Klux Klan and its tactics against various minorities and immigrant
groups.
- Pearl Buck The Good Earth. The story of a
Chinese farmer and his family -- his struggles, his errors, and
his love of "the good earth."
- Octavia Butler Kindred A woman travels in time
to the Maryland plantation where her ancestors were slaves.
C
- Italo Calvino The Baron in the Trees. A young
Italian aristocrat decides he has had enough of family life and
retreats for years to a tree house. Kind of an allegory about
human society and alienation.
- Albert Camus The Stranger. Compelling story of
a nonconformist and his struggles.
- Scott Orson Card Ender's Game. About genetic
experimentations. Six-year-old Ender is playing a computer game to
save the world.
- David Carkeet The Greatest Slump of All Time. A
fine novel about a team that stands a chance to win the world
series.
- Kate Chopin The Awakening. Ayoung married woman
in the 1890's awakens to the value of herself and demands her
independence.
- Sandra Cisneros The House on Mango Street.
Beautifully written book about a Latina girl faced with difficult
challenges as she grows up.
- Arthur Clarke 2001. Exciting fantasy about space
exploration.
- James Clavell King Rat. Power struggles in a
war camp. (also Shogun).
- Isobel Colgate The Shooting Party. A weekend of
hunting on an aristocrat's estate changes the lives of those
involved and signals the end of a ruling class system in early
20th century England.
- Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness. An Englishman
travels to the Belgian Congo and discovers a horrifying dark side
of life.
- Pat Conroy The Water is Wide. The author
recounts his joys and struggles in his tenure as a schoolteacher
and inspiration to children on a rural South Carolina island.
- James Fenimore Cooper The Deerslayer. Early
American confrontations between the Indians and the woodsman Natty
Bumppo are recounted
- Douglas Coupland Microserfs.
Daniel@microsoft.com is part of a house full of computer geeks,
who follow Michael in his new OOP! computer venture startup to
Silicon Valley, where ever so slowly, they begin to have actual
lives.
- Bryce Courtenay The Power of One. Gripping tale
of growing up in South Africa.
- Margaret Craven I Heard the Owl Call My Name. A
good man's life among the Indians -- not too long ago.
D
- Roald Dahl Collected Short Stories. Humorous
anecdotal stories - most with a dark twist - about life in rural
England.
- Richard Dana Two Years Before the Mast. The
true story of Dana's years at sea, worth it all, because the ship
lands in Santa Barbara.
- Robertson Davies Fifth Business. Delve into the
private life of a master in a boys' boarding school. Also Bred
in the Bone. Life of an eccentric art forger.
- Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe. The old classic
about a man surviving alone on an island - probably the first
"survival in nature" novel. Not easy, but a wonderful read if you
stick with it.
- Don Delillo White Noise. A Midwestern
professor of Hitler Studies and his family endure an "industrial
accident." Dark humor.
- Peter DeVries The Vale of Laughter. The story of
a man with an irresistible urge to impersonate Groucho Marx.
- Pete Dexter Paris Trout. A Southern town faces
down a miserly and violent storekeeper.
- E. L. Doctorow Ragtime. Jazz Age madness in
New Rochelle, New York.
- Ivan Doig This House of Sky. Beautiful Western
novel about a boy's relationship with his father and the land that
shaped them both. Excellent. (also Dancing at the Rascal Fair
and The Sea Chasers)
- Michael Dorris Yellow Raft In Blue Water. The
story of an Indian girl, her mother and grandmother.
- Fyodor Dostoevsky The Gambler. The
"confessions" of a compulsive roulette man, by the master
psychologist and story-teller.
- Alexander Dumas The Three Musketeers. The
ultimate swashbuckler.
- David James Duncan The River Why. Funny and
also serious story of a young fly-fisherman in Oregon.
E
- Louise Erdrich The Beet Queen. Family secrets
span two generations; set in North Dakota.
- Ralph Ellison Invisible Man. Struggles of a man
trying to find his identity, first in the South and later in New
York City. Compelling, poetic, disturbing.
F
- William Faulkner The Unvanquished. A collection
of seven interconnected stories about the plight of a Mississippi
family during the Civil War and Reconstruction. (also As I Lay
Dying)
- Ron Faust Fugitive Moon. A manic-depressive
pitcher is suspected as a serial killer.
- Henry Fielding Tom Jones. This novel recounts
the life of Tom Jones, a wild and foolish, though good-hearted,
young man whose virtue eventually overcomes adversity.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald Tender is the Night.
Romance, glamor, and a difficult marriage in the 1920's.
- Richard Ford Wild Life. A Montana boy faces
loneliness and the disintegration of his parents' marriage.
- E.M. Forster Howard's End or A Room with a
View. Two great English turn-of-the -century love stories; the
first set in England, the second in Italy.
- Frederick Forsyth The Day of the Jackal. A
professional hit man plans to murder Charles de Gaulle.
- Herbert Frank Dune. Young prince Paul is
destined to become the messiah of the desert world Dune in this
epic adventure of heroes, mile-long sand worms, and wise
witch-women.
- Charles Frazier Cold Mountain. A Confederate
soldier decides to desert and starts a long walk home through the
mountains, while back home the woman he loves tries to keep her
farm together. Current best seller and wonderful story.
G
- Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett Good Omens: The Nice
and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch. One of the two
funniest books ever written about the end of the world.
- Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying. A young
teacher discovers compassion and commitment as he tutors a
prisoner on death row.
- Sherry Garland Indio. Set in the 1500s in
southwestern United States and Mexico, this is a coming-of-age
novel that spans a nine-year period during which Ipa-tah-chi must
learn to overcome the perpetual hardships of life as an orphan and
then as a slave.
- Kaye Gibbons Charms For the Early Life. Margaret
grows up in the south, guided by her grandmother's wisdom and her
mother's beauty.
- Dorothy Gilman The Maze in the Heart of the
Castle. A kind of Pilgrim's Progress for a golden boy,
suddenly deprived of both parents, and trying to understand why
and how this has happened, and what meaning there could be in a
world that allows that to happen.
- Nadine Gordimer July's People. A white family is
saved by their black servant during a hypothetical revolution in
South Africa.
- Molly Gloss The Jump Off Creek. With courage,
tenacity, and no sentimentality a woman homesteads alone in Oregon
in the mid-1800's. Refreshing.
- Sue Grafton Any of the alphabet thrillers starring a
female private investigator.
- Hannah Green I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.
Two worlds of Deborah Blair, a mentally disturbed young
girl.
- Bob Greene All Summer Long. High school buddies
meet again at a high school reunion, and resolve to spend a summer
bumming around the country together.
- Judith Guest Ordinary People. A family tries to
deal with the death of their son and its impact on his
brother.
- David Guterson Snow Falling on Cedars. A
Japanese-American internment camp is the backdrop for this story
of love and the search for justice.
H
- William Hallberg The Rub of the Green. A fine
novel about a professional golfer who puts everything he's got
into his game, because golf is a lot easier to deal with than
people or emotions.
- Thomas Hardy Tess of the D'Urbervilles. A poor
country girl is controlled and mistreated by two men obsessed with
her.
- Donald Harington The Choiring of the Trees. This
is a story of a man framed and wrongfully convicted of rape and
sentenced to death in Arkansas in the early 1900's, and of the
woman who is convinced of his innocence and determined to save
him.
- Mark Harris The Southpaw. Good novel about
baseball.
- Jim Harrison Legends of the Fall. Great
stories about adventures in the West of the early 1900's.
- Seamus Heaney Beowulf: A New Translation. Heany
brilliantly re-creates this Anglo-Saxon epic with stirring
dialogue, action, and descriptions.
- Ursula Hegi Stones From the River. Trudy, a
German "small person" in World War II, helps to hide Jews from the
Nazis and comes to accept her disability.
- Robert Heinlein Stranger in a Strange Land. One
of the great classics of Sci-Fi.
- Joseph Heller Catch 22. Black comedy about a
bombardier's efforts to get a discharge during the last days of WW
II.
- Mark Helprin Winter's Tale. A fantasy of New
York, a flying horse, villains in derby hats, and a hero who lives
in the ceiling of Grand Central Station.
- Ernest Hemingway A Farewell to Arms. Vivid
love story of an ambulance driver and a nurse in World War I.
(also For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Sun Also
Rises)
- John Hersey The Child Buyer. About a brilliant
young boy, a misfit spurned and humiliated by his peers, and the
company that would like to buy him and use him.
- Homer Hickam Rocket Boys (October Sky). The
memoir of a NASA engineer's teen years. Book on which the movie
October Sky is based.
- Ruth Beebe Hill Hanta Yo. Epic story of the
Dakota Indians, the beauty of their life and the ignominy of their
decline.
- Tony Hillerman The Thief of Time. A modern
detective story set in the Four Corners area of the Southwest.
Great mystery and great way to learn about tribal history of the
Ashkanazi.
- Russell Hoban Riddley Walker. At some time in
the future, centuries after nuclear holocaust, society has
somewhat reconstructed itself, and people are beginning to attempt
to reconstruct written language based on the sounds of existing
language.
- Judith Hoffman At Risk. A young girl contracts
AIDS through a blood transfusion.
- Isabel Huggins The Elizabeth Stories. A funny
and sensitive collection of short stories about a young woman's
growing up.
- Victor Hugo Les Miserables. This novel tells of
the struggle for freedom in postrevolutionary France.
- Zora Neale Hurston Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Poignant story of a black woman's search for independence and
love.
- Aldous Huxley Brave New World. One of the great
frightening visions of the future.
I
- John Irving The World According to Garp. Two
writers, mother and son, try to find out how to live. (also The
Hotel New Hampshire and A Prayer for Owen Meany.)
J
- Shirley Jackson We Have Always Lived in the
Castle. A story about a girl, who survived the massacre of her
family, becoming, in the eyes of the townspeople, the primary
suspect.
- James Joyce A Portrait of the Artist as a Young
Man. Mostly autobiographical. The main character, Stephen
Dedalus, comes to reject "the whole narrow world in which he has
been brought up"
K
- Nikos Kazantzakis Zorba the Greek. An
introspective intellectual spends a year on Crete with the
free-spirited Zorba.
- Jack Kerouac On the Road. One of the important
novels of the 1950s' Beat movement, full of vivid characters in
search of a new lifestyle.
- Ken Kesey One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Zany
and affecting story of a rebel and his unforgettable pals in a
mental institution.
- Barbara Kingsolver The Bean Trees. A woman and
her daughter make their way in Arizona helping Central American
refugees at the Jesus Is Lord tire shop. (also Animal
Dreams.)
- Maxine Hong Kingston The Woman Warrior. A story
about a Chinese girl growing up in America.
- W.P. Kinsella Shoeless Joe. The book which
became the movie Field of Dreams, a fine movie--but a better
book.
- Jerzy Kozinski The Painted Bird. Shocking and
grisly adventures of a young Jewish boy in wartime Poland.
- Milan Kundera The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
A difficult philosophical novel, not without some steamy
scenes. (also The Book of Laughter and
Forgetting.)
L
- Madeleine L'Engle A Ring of Endless Light. With
the help of Adam, Vicky Austin adjusts to several deaths.
- D. H. Lawrence Sons and Lovers. The story of an
English miner, his more educated and ambitious wife, and their
passionate son.
- John Le Carre The Spy Who Came in from the
Cold. A secret agent pretends to defect to the East
Germans.
- Ella Leffland Rumors of Peace. An American girl
learns about prejudice in her small town during World War II.
- Ursula Leguin The Left Hand of Darkness. Sci-Fi
which plays with a whole new concept in gender roles.
- Elmore Leonard Out of Sight and a bunch of
others - all good thrillers about the underworld, enlivened by
some of the best dialogue ever written.
- Jeremy Leven Satan: His Psychotherapy and Cure by
the Unfortunate Dr. Dr. Kassler, J.S.P.S. Satan is feeling
pretty down about the horrible reputation he's been stuck with,
and he goes to a shrink and tries to justify himself.
- Burt Levy The Last Open Road. Buddy Palumbo, a
working class kid from Passaic who falls in love with cars and the
boss's niece, in that order.
- David Lodge Changing Places. Two professors -
one a Californian, the other a Brit - trade workplaces for one
hilarious year.
- Jack London Call of the Wild. Great dog
adventure story set in Alaska.
- Betty Bao Lord Spring Moon. Story of a girl
growing up in the turbulence of modern China.
M
- Norman Maclean A River Runs Through It and Other
Stories. Stories about fly-fishing and nature in the
Rockies.
- Bernard Malamud The Fixer. Moving story of a
Jew who survives the pogroms in Russia.
- Bernard Malamud The Natural. One of the great
novels about baseball, although of course it's really about
something else altogether.
- Michael Malone. Handling Sin. Adventure
centering around one of the most determinedly boring people God
ever made.
- Bobbie Ann Mason In Country. A teenage girl
tries to understand the Vietnam War and her father who died in
it.
- Cormac Mc Carthy All the Pretty Horses. Two
runaways try their luck as wranglers in Mexico. National Book
Award winner.
- Larry Mc Murtry Lonesome Dove. An epic cowboy
journey from Texas to Montana. Leaving Cheyenne. Funny
novel about two cowboys and a woman they love.
- Herman Melville Billy Budd. A handsome young
sailor, falsely accused of mutiny, becomes a legend when he is
hanged for killing his tormentor.
- Arthur Miller The Crucible. Rumors of witchcraft
cause fear in a puritanical New England town, and many fine people
are destroyed in the hysteria.
- Christopher Moore Practical Demon-Keeping.
Travis O'Hearne, much against his will, is the constant traveling
companion of a demon named Catch, and has spent 70 years trying to
unload him.
- Toni Morrison Sula. The lifelong friendship of
two black women weathers extreme poverty and pain.
N
- Vladimir Nabokov Pnin. A bumbling Russian
professor finds a home in a small American college. (also
Lolita).
O
- Patrick O'Brian Any of the Aubrey/Matarin novels,
though one really should start with the first of eighteen, since
they proceed in chronological order: Master and Commander.
A New York Times critic called them "the greatest
historical novels ever written." All about adventures at sea and
elsewhere during the Napoleonic Wars.
- Tim O'Brien The Things They Carried. Moving
short stories about American soldiers in Vietnam.
- Joyce Carol Oates Them, or Because It Is
Bitter, Because It Is My Heart. Novels about growing up poor
in 1950's and 1960's America.
- Edwin O'Connor The Edge of Sadness. One of the
most memorably characters in fiction is the irascible old man,
head of a rich and powerful Boston Irish Catholic clan, who
suddenly takes an interest in the aging priest who tells this
story.
- Michael Ondaatje The English Patient. A
challenging but beautiful novel set in Italy at the end of World
War II. Much more complex and interesting than the movie, of
course!
- George Orwell Animal Farm. Some farm animals
revolt against their human owners and establish a "free" society
that turns into a dictatorship.
P
- Boris Pasternak Dr. Zhivago. A Russian
doctor/poet loves and writes in the midst of the Bolshevik
Revolution.
- Walker Percy The Thanatos Syndrome. Someone
seems to be poisoning the local water supply in an effort to
control people's minds. An intellectual thriller. (also The
Moviegoer.)
- Marge Piercy Gone To Soldiers. This is what
World War II was like for the people who stayed home--the women in
the factories, the codebreakers, the women pilots, the government
propaganda officers and others.
- Sylvia Plath The Bell Jar. A young girl has a
nervous breakdown and attempts suicide. A compelling, sometimes
funny story.
- Chaim Potok My Name is Asher Lev. The story of
a Jewish boy whose orthodox family refuses to accept his
extraordinary artistic talent. (also The Chosen.)
- E. Annie Proulx The Shipping News. Winner of
the National Book Award. Quirky characters in the unusual setting
of Newfoundland. All generations seem to love this book.
R
- Ayn Rand The Fountainhead. Story of an
idealistic architect.
- Erich Remarque All Quiet on the Western Front.
Loss of innocence amid the terrors of World War I trench
warfare.
- Mary Renault Last of the Wine. Adventures in
ancient Greece.
- Marjorie Reynolds The Starlite Drive-In. The
adult heroine looks back on events that happened when she was 12,
and manages to see them with both an understanding of what really
happened and with her 12 year-old's misunderstanding and sense of
grievance.
- Tom Robbins Still Life with Woodpecker. A
frolicking love story filed with bombs, redheads, and camels.
- Philip Roth Goodbye Columbus. A collection of
short stories with a very definite Jewish bent.
- Mary Doria Russell The Sparrow. The book is
about language and the clash of cultures.
- Richard Russo Nobody's Fool. North Bath is a
town that has been dying for years, a resort town long passed over
for greater attractions nearby, though some people have not given
up hope of reviving the resort, including the bank president.
S
- J. D. Salinger Franny and Zooey. If you liked
Nine Stories and Catcher in the Rye, try this.
- Danny Santiago Famous All Over Town. A book
about a Chicano street gang that is full of violence, sympathy,
and joy.
- Sir Walter Scott Ivanhoe. Jousts, magicians,
ladies in distress, and knights in this tale of the Crusades.
- David Shields Heroes. An outstanding novel about
a college basketball team
- Mary Shelley Frankenstein. A polar explorer
tells a strange tale: a scientist created a hideous monster who,
after being rejected by everyone he met, became a murderer, drove
his creator to his death, and went off to kill himself.
- Nevil Shute On the Beach. The last people face
the end of the world.
- Leslie Marmon Silko Ceremony. The story of a
Native American who has been a prisoner of the Japanese in World
War II and returns to his reservation in despair. His search into
the past and ancient rituals is enlightening for him and for the
reader.
- Alan Sillitoe Loneliness of the Long Distance
Runner. Short stories. The title sory describes the struggles
of a rebellious reform school student.
- Mona Simpson Anywhere But Here. A girl goes on
the road with her zany, unstable mother.
- Wallace Stegner Angle of Repose. A man explores
his past through his grandmother's journals. Sweeping, historical
saga of the West.
- John Steinbeck East of Eden. The Cain and Abel
story powerfully retold in a California setting.The Grapes of
Wrath. Oklahoma farmers seek a better life in California.
- Bram Stoker Dracula. The real story.
- Jonathon Swift Gulliver's Travels. When his ship
is repeatedly cast ashore in strange lands, a middle-class English
doctor observes exotic cultures and reassesses his own
beliefs.
T
- Amy Tan The Joy Luck Club. Four Chinese mothers
share their differences between them and their more Americanized
daughters growing up in San Francisco.
- Junichiro Tanizaki Makioka Sisters. Four
sisters vie for husbands, fortunes, and independence - hailed as
"Japan's greatest post-war novel."
- Lawrence Thornton Imagining Argentina. Political
intrigue and family tragedy involving the "disappeareds" in 1970's
Argentina.
- J.R.R. Tolkien The Hobbit and The Lord of
the Ring series. The great fantasy world beloved by many for
generations.
- Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenina. Set in 19th century
Russia, this is the story of two women whose fates are decided by
the different men they fall in love with.
- John Kennedy Toole A Confederacy of Dunces. A
comic tour-de-force about a man who is fat, lazy, and useless.
But, brilliant and arrogant, he talks his way into a number of
jobs and nearly destroys every organization he touches.
V
- Virgil Aeneid. After many failed attempts. the
Trojan hero, Aeneas, succeeds in founding the city of Rome.
- Voltaire Candide. After a naive young man faces
some of life's hardships, he rejects his tutor's blind optimism in
favor of a more realistic view of the world.
- Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse Five. The
misadventures of a World War II veteran and his interplanetary
travel.
W
- Alice Walker The Color Purple. Beautiful story
about a beautifully honest black girl.
- Theodore Weesner Winning the City. This is a
novel that immerses you in the consciousness of a 15 year old boy,
a very good basketball player left off his school's basketball
team because he plays the position wanted by the son of a rich man
who is willing to finance the team.
- Edith Wharton Ethan Frome. Frome struggles with
love and commitment in 19th century New Hampshire.
- T. H. White The Once and Future King. The
Arthurian legend retold.
- Oscar Wilde The Picture of Dorian Gray. Dorian
Gray stays young . . .Why?
- Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie. A shy
young woman's dream world is shattered after her mother arranges
for a "gentleman caller" to visit their drab St. Lous
apartment.
- Tom Wolfe The Bonfire of the Vanities. A
tragicomedy that satirizes almost everything about New York
City.
- Virginia Woolf Orlando. An English writer
reincarnates in different centuries as both male and female.
- Richard Wright Native Son. Classic 1930's novel
about a poor young black man in Chicago who commits a terrible
crime.
Z
- Roger Zelazny Lord of the Light. a Hugo Award
winner involving a chase through different dimensions and strange
new worlds.
Non Fiction and Biography
A
- Edward Abbey Desert Solitaire. An irascible
naturalist works in a relatively unknown national park in Utah.
Wisdom of a curmudgeon and gadfly.
- Diane Ackerman Rarest of the Rare: Vanishing
Animals, Timeless Worlds. Ackerman investigates the
disappearance of endangered species and habitats.
- Hugh Aldersey-Williams The most Beautiful Molecule
Two chemists discover a previously unknown form of
carbon.
- Caroline Alexander The Endurance: Shackleton's
Legendary Antarctic Expedition. A shipwreck strands Sir Ernest
Shackleton and his crew on an ice floe in the Antarctic.
- Frederick Lewis Allen Only Yesterday This
informal history of the United States recounts the decade before
the stock market crash of 1929.
- Stephen Ambrose Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis,
Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West.
Ambrose recreates the travails of Jefferson's personal secretary
who blazed a trail to the Pacific with the Corps of Discovery and
returned a hero and a failure.
- Maya Angelou I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
Coming of age story about an African-American girl who overcomes
sexual abuse, racism, and class struggle.
- Karen. Armstrong A History of God: The 4000
Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Armstrong's
readable and provocative work, which follows humanity's circuitous
route to monotheism, makes a major contribution to religious
studies.
B
- Russell Baker Growing Up. The autobiography of a
New York Times correspondent from childhood to marriage.
- Bill Barich Travelling Light. Essays on
fishing, horseracing, and life in Europe.
- Dick Bass Seven Summits. An account of
climbing seven of the world's highest mountains.
- A. Scott Berg Lindbergh. Masterfully written and
extensively researched, this beautifully balanced biography
depicts one of the twentieth century's most controversial, famous
and yet private of men.
- Daniel Boorstin The Discoverers Boorstin
recounts the history of scientific discovery.
- Dee Alexander Brown Bury My Heart at Wounded
Knee. This chronicle focuses on the 30-year period, 1860-1890,
in the history of the American West during which the last
resisting tribes were defeated in Indian wars fought for
possession of land.
C
- Joseph Campbell The Power of Myth. Campbell and
Bill Moyers, distinguished journalist, offer a brilliant
combination of wisdom and wit on topics that range from birth to
death.
- Philip Caputo A Rumor of War. A journalist
living through the early years of the Vietnam War.
- Rachel Carson Silent Spring. This a rigorous
presentation of the effects of pesticide use as well as a call to
greater awareness of our environment.
- Stephen Carter The Culture of Disbelief. This
law professor from Yale University provides provocative insights
about 20th century societal values.
- Loreen Cary Black Ice. Autobiography of a
black scholarship student attending St. Paul's School in New
Hampshire in the 1970's.
- Evan Connell Son of the Morning Star. Detailed,
readable history of Custer and the Battle of Little Big Horn.
- Jill Kerr Conway The Road from Coorain. A
spunky girl grows up through much hardship in Australia.
D
- Caroline Maria De Jesus Child of the
Dark. Diary of a poor woman in a Brazilian ghetto who kept her
diary on scraps of paper she collected and sold to keep herself
and her illegitimate children alive.
- Barry Denenberg An American Hero: The True Story of
Charles A. Lindbergh. This biography highlights the major
events of Lindbergh's life.
- Annie Dillard Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. A
modern Walden. (also An American Childhood.)
- Isak Dinesen Out of Africa. Baroness Blixen's
account of her years on a coffee plantation in east Africa.
- Frederick Douglass Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass. Douglass's own account of his life as a
slave.
F
- Richard Feynman Surely You're Joking, Mr.
Feynman. Funny and intelligent memoirs by the wacky Nobel
Prize-winning physicist.
- Frances Fitzgerald Fire In the Lake. This
prize-winning book describes the effects on South Vietnam of the
American intervention into Vietnam's civil war.
- Ira Flatow Rainbows, Curve Balls, and Other
Wonders. This reporter gives scientific explanations for
everyday mysteries.
- Anne Frank Diary of a Young Girl. A young Jewish
girl keeps a diary telling of the 25 months during which she, her
family, and four others hide from the Nazi Gestapo in Amsterdam
during World War II.
- Miles Franklin My Brilliant Career. A young
woman's coming of age in turn-of-the-century Australia.
G
- Ernest Gaines The Autobiography of Miss Jane
Pittman. A history of the fight against prejudice as seen
through the experiences of an old woman, a former slave.
- Eugenia Ginzberg Journey into the Whirlwind.
The powerful memoirs of a devout young Communist woman who just
manages to survive the "terror" of Stalin's purges in Russia in
the 1930's.
- Robin Lee Graham Dove. 16-year-old Robin
travels around the world in his 24 ft sloop. Read about his
extraordinary five-year journey.
- John Griffin Black Like Me. A white man
darkens his skin to find out what its like to be black in
America.
- John Gunther Death Be Not Proud. A young man's
heroic struggle with death -- a father's tribute.
H
- Alex Haley Roots Alex Haley's exploration of his
heritage.
- Stephen Hawking A Brief History of Time.
Concepts of physics presented for the layman by one of the
greatest scientists of our time.
- Nat Hentoff A Doctor Among Addicts. A
sensitive, knowledgeable account.
- Elizabeth Huxley The Flame Trees of Thika. A
young British girl's account of growing up in Africa during the
years before World War I.
I
- Pico Iyer The Lady and the Monk. Brilliant
contemporary writer's account of a year living in Kyoto. Zen.
Romance. Contemporary Japan. (also Video Night in Kathmandu
and Falling Off the Map)
J
- Sebastian Junger The Perfect Storm. A gripping
account of a 1991 storm and what happened to a crew of fishermen
from Gloucester, Mass.
K
- Thomas Kennealy Schindler's List. An amazing
and true Holocaust story, with much more depth than the
movie.
- Arthur Koestler Darkness at Noon. Many think it
the most powerful anti-communist statement ever written.
- Jon Krakauer Into Thin Air. An account of an
American group's disastrous ascent of Mt. Everest in the terrible
winter of 1996.
L
- Barry Lopez Arctic Dreams. A study of the
landscape and biota of the arctic. Highly acclaimed descriptive
work.
- Walter Lord A Night to Remember. Historian's
dramatic account of the Titanic disaster.
M
- Frank McCourt Angela's Ashes. An
Irish-American school teacher recalls his miserable childhood in
1930's Ireland. Horrifying, but humorous and up-lifting too.
- Thomas McGuane An Outside Chance. Crisp essays
on fishing, roping, motocross, hunting.
- Malcolm X The Autobiography of Malcolm X. The
evolution of a powerful black leader.
- Beryl Markham West with the Night.
Autobiography of a British horsewoman and aviatrix; interesting
tales of her life in Africa.
- Robert Mason Chickenhawk. An Army helicopter
pilot's adventures during the Vietnam War.
- Robert Massie Nicholas and Alexandra. The last
of the czars and his family.
- Peter Mathiessen Snow Leopard. Ostensibly the
story of a quest after the rare snow leopard in the Himalayas,
this is really a story of self-discovery. Unparalleled nature
writing.
- Mark Mathabane Kaffir Boy. Excellent, vivid
autobiography of a black South African.
- David McCullough The Great Bridge. The story of
the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.
- Anchee Min Red Azalea. The autobiography of a
woman who grew up in the turmoil of modern China. Reads like a
novel.
- Nicholas Monsarrat The Cruel Sea. British
officers and men on a destroyer in the North Atlantic during World
War II.
- Farley Mowat Never Cry Wolf. The true story of
a man's adventures in the Canadian wilderness with a family of
wolves. (also And No Birds Sang.)
P
- R. C. Padden Hummingbird and the Hawk: Conquest and
Sovereignty in the Valley of Mexico, 1503-1541. Epic, graphic
battles.
Q
- David Quammen Flight of the Iguana. A series
of vignettes from the animal world; Quammen makes even mosquitos
interesting. A masterful job of melding nature with
literature.
R
- Jonathan Raban Passage to Juneau: A Sea and Its
Meanings. Sailing solo from Seattle to Juneau, Raban embarks
on a voyage of maritime adventure and personal discovery.
- David Remnick King of the World: Muhammad Ali and
the Rise of an American Hero. Remnick describes the
transformation of Cassius Clay into Muhammad Ali against the
backdrop of 1960s racial politics and the world of boxing.
- Jeremy Rifkin Algeny. A controversial
discussion of evolution.
S
- Mark Salzman The Laughing Sutra. Wacky,
smart and outrageous. This tale brings to life Chinese folklore,
magic and history, and ends up in San Francisco.
- John Steinbeck In Dubious Battle. The grim
reality of the depression and one man's struggle to organize
workers in California.
- Edgar Snow Red Star Over China. An American
journalist's first-hand account of the beginnings of Communist
China.
- Dava Sobol Longitude: The True Story of a Lone
Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His
Time.This story of adventure and exploration, competition, and
sabotage provides a scintillating account of how the problem of
navigation was solved by a simple clock maker.
- Irving Stone The Agony and the Ecstasy. The
life of artist Michelangelo.
- Ron Suskind A Hope in the Unseen: An American
Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League. Upon
graduation, Cedric Jennings, a hard-working black student, escapes
from a demoralizing high school only to learn that success
requires more than dreams and desire.
T
- Wallace Terry Bloods. An oral history of blacks
in Vietnam.
V
- Gore Vidal Lincoln. An intimate portrait of
Lincoln during the war years. (also Burr)
W
- Jearl Walker The Flying Circus of Physics.
Intriguing ideas about the world of physics -- for everyone.
- Simon Winchester The Professor and the Madman.
The story of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, the
Professor who did it, and the murderer who helped.
- Tom Wolfe The Right Stuff. The story of Chuck
Yeager, John Glenn and all the other heroes of the race into
space.