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Authors & Works
| Work | Description | Author |
|---|---|---|
| Go Tell It on the Mountain | Semi-Autobiographical novel about John Grimes in 1930s Harlem. Explores family, the church, racism, and poverty. | James Baldwin |
| Stuart Little | Follows a boy that is 2 inches tall and looks like a rat on his many adventures avoiding the cat snowball and living in the town of Ames Crossing. The title character rather famously drives a toy motorized car on his adventures. | E. B. White |
| Interview with a Vampire | Follows Louis Pointe du Lac as he relates his 200 year life story to an unnamed reporter. He feuds with his companion turned adversary Lestat and cares for the young Claudia. | Anne Rice |
| Ivanhoe | Follows Sir Wilfred who is disowned by his father Cedric, in love with the lady Rowena and loyal to the king. A tournament is hosted in which Robin of Loxley(AKA Robin Hood) appears to win an archery contest. Rekindled interest in the middle ages. | Sir Walter Scott |
| My Ántonia | Jim Burden narrates the book about frontier Nebraska. He is joined by the title character who eventually becomes his best friend. Mr Shimerda kills himself at the end of winter and Jim has to fight off the lecehrous Mr. Cutter. | Willa Cather |
| The Sound and the Fury | Follows the Compson family including the mentally handicapped Benjy, the intelligent but troubled Quentin, the cruel and racist Jason, and the rest of the family. Quentin kills himself after lamenting the state of the south and fate of his sister Caddy. | William Faulkner |
| For Whom the Bell Tolls | Narrator Robert Jordan fights in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the republic. Jordan butts heads with guerilla Pablo and is in love with Maria. Jordan eventually refuses to be killed by a comrade after suffering a wound after blowing up a bridge. | Ernest Hemingway |
| A Death in the Family | Autobiographical novel about when the author's father died returning from a visit to an ill family member. A portrait of a family in grief. Publishes posthumously. | James Agee |
| The Pickwick Papers | The title character, Samuel and members of his sporting club go on bizarre adventures in the English countryside. After romantic misadventure Mrs Bardell sues the title character in a trial that sees them both end up in Fleet Prison. | Charles Dickens |
| The Time Machine | The unnamed narrator travels to the future and meets the placid Eloi and the menacing Morlocks. He befriends Weena the Eloi. He finds matches in "The Palace of Green Porcelain", a derelict museum. | H. G. Wells |
| The Right Stuff | An account of the early Mercury missions analyzing the politics and personal lives behind the space race. Chuck Yeager features prominently despite not having taken part in the missions. | Tom Wolfe |
| The Hunchback of Notre Dame | Follows the suitors of Esmerelda, a Roma Gypsy in Paris. Captain Phoebus, Gringoire, Claude Frollo, and the titular Quasimodo. Esmerelda is hung for a crime committed by Frollo and Quasimodo kills Frollo before disappearing. | Victor Hugo |
| Journey to the Center of the Earth | Axel and his Uncle Lidenbrock descend into an Icelandic volcano, battling prehistoric animals, observing 12 foot men, and eventually being blown out of a volcano in Sicily | Jules Verne |
| Alice in Wonderland | The title character finds herself in a fantasy place full of talking animals and nonsense logic. She chases after a white rabbit and meets characters such as The Cheshire Cat and The Mad Hatter. She plays a rigged game of Croquet with the Queen of Hearts. | Lewis Carroll |
| The Stranger | The title character Mersault is a French citizen in Algeria. After he relates that "mother died today" he "shoots an Arab on the beach" and is subsequently tried and sentenced to death. | Albert Camus |
| The Night Before Christmas | An account of Saint Nicholas making his rounds and encountering a man before flying away in his sleigh saying "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night." | Clement Clarke Moore |
| Where the Wild Things Are | A boy named Max is sent to bed without dinner and finds a strange land in his room full of monsters that declare him their king. | Maurice Sendak |
| The Adventures of Tom Sawyer | The title character is a smart and lazy boy that uses his cunning to convince other children to whitewash a fence. He pursues Becky Thatcher and is eventually trapped with her in cave also containing Injun Joe, a criminal. He befriends Huckleberry Finn. | Mark Twain |
| Tender is the Night | Dick Diver and his wife Nicole live in France. Dick becomes entangled with a young actress named Rosemary and his marriage breaks down as he flashes back to meeting his wife while she was a patient. He descends into alcoholism and is eventually divorced. | F. Scott Fitzgerald |
| Anna Karenina | The title character's story of infidelity and subsequent paranoid relationship with Count Vronksy is interwoven with other characters such as Konstantin Levin and Kitty. | Leo Tolstoy |
| The Deerslayer | Natty Bumppo is referred to with the title name. Over the course of the novel he clashes with the native Hurons and "Floatin Tom" as well as Henry March. Chingachgook his native companion is also a main character. Last novel in Leather Stocking Tales. | James Fenimore Cooper |
| A Tale of Two Cities | The book follows a vast cast of characters through revolutionary France. Dr. Mannette, his daughter Lucie, Charles Darnay, Gaspard, and the Defarges all navigate the perils of the Reign of Terror. | Charles Dickens |
| The War of the Worlds | The first section details how martians land on earth and begin to attack the humans. The second details life under the martian menace. Before the humans can be wiped out the martians are killed off by diseases and the narrator is left to rebuild. | H.G. Wells |
| Winesberg, Ohio | A series of 22 stories featuring a large cast of characters in the titular location. Heavily featuring George Willard. Other characters recur and some appear for a single story. | Sherwood Anderson |
| The Great Santini | The Meecham family in their trials of life and love in 1962 South Carolina. Wilbur Meecham, a fighter pilot calls himself the title. He is an angry man who feuds with his son Ben. | Pat Conroy |
| Advise and Consent | A fictional account of the senate deliberations while trying to confirm Robert Leffingwell as new secretary of state during the cold War. The process is hindered when it is revealed he may have been a member of the communist party. | Allen Drury |
| Gravity's Rainbow | The novel focuses on the characters trying to find the Schwarzgerät a device to be installed in a v-2 rocket called "00000". The whole novel follows many characters like Pirate Prentice and Tyrone Slothrop. | Thomas Pynchon |
| The Count of Monte Cristo | The novel follows Edmond Dantes as he is betrayed, imprisoned, and abused by the post Napoleonic government. He eventually assumes the title rank and takes his revenge. | Alexandre Dumas |
| A Study in Scarlet | Sherlock Holmes meets Dr. John Watson, an army doctor and the two become flatmates. Eventually Holmes is put onto the trail of a murderer killing Americans in London. The story veers off into the life story of Jefferson Hope the erstwhile murderer. | Arthur Conan Doyle |
| The Age of Innocence | Newland Archer spends the novel balancing his safe marriage to May Welland and his desire for her cousin Ellen Olenska who is in turbulent marriage with a Polish Count. Eventually he stays with May and raises his son. | Edith Wharton |
| Tuck Everlasting | Winnie Foster meets the titular family that never ages on account of the magical spring in the woods near their farm. A man buys the woods from Winnie's family and tries to sell the magic water. | Natalie Babbitt |
| A Bell for Adano | Major Victor Joppolo becomes the mayor of Adano, a town in post fascist Italy. The town's bell was taken by the fascists and they are poorly supplied. Joppolo does his best to help the town and eventually finds a new bell before being relieved of duty. | John Hersey |
| Lonesome Dove | The adventures of a group of former Texas Rangers as they try to drive cattle from the Texas border to Montana, interacting with a cast of colorful characters. | Larry McMurtry |
| Tai-Pan | The story revolves around the ruthless competition between Dirk Struan and Tyler Brock as they try and make their fortunes in a newly settled Hong Kong in 1800s China. | James Clavell |
| The Secret Life of Walter Mitty | The title character drives his wife into town for some mundane tasks an imagines heroic fantasies where he is a pilot, a surgeon, and facing a firing squad. | James Thurber |
| Ben-Hur | The book follows a man named Judah as he navigates roam Judaea. He is falsely enslaved and eventually becomes a soldier and charioteer. He forsakes his revenge for Christianity after witnessing the crucifixion. | Lew Wallace |
| Franny and Zooey | The book follows the titular members of the Glass family. The first is frustrated with her boyfriend and begins to recite a prayer obsessively. The second reads a letter from his brother and speaks with his sister on the phone. | J.D. Salinger |
| The Secret Garden | Mary Lennox moves from India to England and finds the titular location on the estate of her uncle. She befriends Dickon and her paraplegic cousin Colin. | Frances Hodgson Burnett |
| Dracula | The titular character sickens Lucy Westenra turning her into a vampire as part of his plan to take over Britain. She is avenged by Quincy, Dr, Seward, The Harkers, Lord Godalming and Dr. Abraham Van Helsing. | Bram Stoker |
| The Last Tycoon | Unfinished novel about the studio manager Monroe Stahr. Narrated by Cecelia Brady as she carries a note to him from the mysterious Mr. Shwartz. It also follows his infatuation with Kathleen Moore and altercations with a labor organizers. | F. Scott Fitzgerald |
| Hard Times | The novel takes place in the fictional Coketown, a mill town in England. It satirizes the conditions of the industrial revolution. Structured as 3 books called: "Sowing", "Reaping", and "Garnering". The book names are taken from Galatians 6:7. | Charles Dickens |
| The Andromeda Strain | Recounts the effort to kill of an extraterrestrial microbe that has killed all but two people in the town of Piedmont, Arizona. | Michael Crichton |
| Pride and Prejudice | The book follows the Bennet sisters specifically Elizabeth. She is looking for a husband among the wealthy bachelors of Regency era England. Eventually the book focuses on the turbulent courtship between her and the aloof Mr. Darcy. | Jane Austen |
| Herzog | The book follows Moses as he frets about his failures, realtionships, and what to do about them. He writes many mental letters to people. He crosses back and forth across the country over the 5 days of the book and resolves to fix his life and his house. | Saul Bellow |
| Absalom! Absalom! | The book is narrated by various members of the Compson family as they chronicle the rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen. Ends with the death of Clytie and Henry Sutpen on their plantation. | William Faulkner |
| The Pearl | The book follows Kino as he tries to find the title object so he can pay a greedy doctor to treat his son Coyotito's shoulder which has been stung by a venomous scorpion. When he finds the object it destroys his life and kills his son. | John Steinbeck |
| A Wizard of Earthsea | The book follows the mage Ged as he learns of his abilities and unleashes the evil shadow. He adventures around the Ninety Isles and eventually defeats a dragon and the shadow healing his soul. | Ursula Le Guin |
| Billy Budd | The title sailor is forced into the royal navy where he accidentally kills the jealous Claggart after being falsely accused of conspiracy. He accepts the sentence of death and ends his life saying "God Bless Captain Vere", the man who sentenced him. | Herman Melville |
| The Invisible Man | A mysterious man named griffin suffers from the title condition and has many exploits while trying to cure himself. He clashes with Dr. Kemp and the traitorous Marvel. Eventually he is killed and his condition ceases. | H.G. Wells |
| Cannery Row | The book follows characters like Lee Chong, Mack, and Doc who all live at the title location. The locals try to have a party for Doc and fail miserably. The title location is so named for the sardine packing plants there. | John Steinbeck |
| Dune | Paul Atreides and his mother are stranded on Arrakis after treachery by the Baron Harkonnen. They ally with the native Fremen to retake the planet and seize its spice, a drug that halts again and allows for space travel. | Frank Herbert |
| Uncle Tom's Cabin | The book follows the title character as well as Eliza and Eva as they attempt to escape slavery. The title character is sold to Simon Legree, a cruel slave owner, who eventually kills him. | Harriet Beecher Stowe |
| A Christmas Carol | The miserly Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by 3 ghosts including his deceased partner Marley. They each show him visions of the past, present, and future of Christmas. This convinces him to change his ways and in doing save his soul. | Charles Dickens |
| The Chocolate War | Jerry, a student at a catholic school and his friend "Goober" fight back against the machinations of headmaster, Brother Leon, and his crew of goons, The Vigils, lead by Jerry's Nemesis Archie as they try and get the students to sell the title objects. | Robert Cormier |
| Daisy Miller | The book chronicles the courtship of the title character by Winterbourne. They meet in Switzerland then Rome where Winterbourne is infatuated with her but finds her to be to frivolous and flirtacious. At the end of the book she dies of "Roman Fever". | Henry James |
| 1984 | Winston is a member of "The Party" in a dystopic London in a country called Oceania and falls in love with Julia. Together they try and join the resistance but are betrayed by O'Brien. | George Orwell |
| Tarzan of the Apes | The book follows John Clayton II, also known as the title name. He is orphaned after his parents are marooned and taken in by an ape named Kala. He kills the king ape Kerchak and is made king. He eventually falls in love with Jane Porter. | Edgar Rice Burroughs |
| The Old Man and the Sea | The novel follows Santiago an unlucky fisherman. Santiago sets out to break his bad luck. He hooks a marlin and holds the line for 2 days before he can kill it. After lashing it to the boat the fish is devoured by sharks before he reaches shore. | Ernest Hemingway |
| Of Mice and Men | The smart George and the mentally handicapped Lenny both struggle to find work . Lenny accidentally kills a woman and to save him from a mob George kills him while telling him about the rabbits they had hoped to own. | John Steinbeck |
| Animal Farm | The animals of an English farm are instructed to rise up by Old Major the hog with the anthem "Beasts of England". Snowball and Napoleon lead the animals against the cruel and neglectful Mr. Jones. Eventually Napoleon seizes the farm and exiles Snowball. | George Orwell |
| The Odyssey | Odysseus, a greek general has his journey home confounded by obstacles sent by Poseidon. His son Telemachus searches for him while his wife Penelope fends off suitors. Eventually he returns home to Ithaca and kills all the suitors. | Homer |
| The Call of the Wild | The dog Buck is stolen from his owners and sent to Canada where he is a sled dog. He kills lead dog, Spitz and become lead dog. He is sold and resold and is freed by Thornton, a prospector. He avenges Thornton's death by natives and joins a wolfpack. | Jack London |
| Invisible Man | The unnamed narrator wins a scholarship by participating in a racist battle royale. He is expelled and heads to Harlem where he becomes involved with the Brotherhood and clashes with Ras the Exhorter. | Ralph Ellison |
| Sula | The title character is friends with Nel but eventually seduces her husband. The characters including members of the Peace family and Shadrack all live in a neighborhood called The Bottom in the fictional Medallion Ohio. | Toni Morrison |
| Death Comes for the Archbishop | The fictional account of real clergy men follows Jean Marie Latour and Joseph Vaillant as they head from Cincinnati to Santa Fe and try administer the new arch diocese. | Willa Cather |
| Dandelion Wine | The novel is a fictionalized version of the authors summers with Douglas Spaulding and his family as the main characters having adventures in the fictional Green Town, Illinois. | Ray Bradbury |
| The Bostonians | The novel follows Basil Ransom and his cousin Olive Chancellor as they meet Verena Tarrant, A feminist activist and suffragette. Despite being opposed to her politics Basil proposes to Verena and takes her away from her activism. | Henry James |
| All the King's Men | The book follows populist governor Willie Stark in depression era deep south and is narrated by his right hand man, Jim Burden. Thought to be heavily based on the career of Huey Long. | Robert Penn Warren |
| The Bluest Eye | The book follows Pecola, a young black girl in Lorain, Ohio in the 40s. She desires the title object because she believe it will make her beautiful. She is eventually raped by her father Cholly and her premature child dies leaving her insane. | Toni Morrison |
| Slaughterhouse Five | Follows Billy Pilgrim throughout his life and focuses on the his enduring of the allied firebombing of Dresden while he was a Prisoner of War. | Kurt Vonnegut |
| The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas | Tells the life story of the title character as she becomes an expatriot and meets the author in Paris and becomes her life partner. | Gertrude Stein |
| Kidnapped | The novel follows David Balfour as he is cheated out of his inheritance by his Uncle Ebenezer and interacts with many historical figures and witnesses the "Appin Murder" | Robert Louis Stevenson |
| War and Remembrance | Aaron Jastrow and his niece experience the holocaust while Pug Henry and his sons, Byron and Warren fight in battles during WW2. The extent of the holocaust is revealed to American forces over the course of the story. | Herman Wouk |
| Les Miserables | The book follows Jean Valjean as its main character. He falls into and out of fortune many times and eventually meets his downfall in the June Rebellion of 1832. | Victor Hugo |
| The Devil's Dictionary | A Satirical word book with definitions that extend barbs at politics, philosophy, and espouse the author's own world view. | Ambrose Bierce |
| Emma | The title character instigates much of the comedy of manners style of the book with her bungled match making. Eventually most characters end up in beneficial relationships including the title character's engagement to the wealth Mr. Knightley. | Jane Austen |
| Riders of the Purple Sage | Bern Venters, Jane Withersteen, and Jim Lassiter are all persecuted by the local Mormon population in the fictional town of Cottonwoods, Utah. | Zane Grey |
| Candide | The title character is in love with his cousin Cunegonde and together they flee to Latin America and engage with a cast of characters like Professor Pangloss the Baron Thunder-Ten-Tronckh. | Voltaire |
| Lord of the Flies | A group of young boys are crashed on a tropical island where they slowly descend into more primitive behavior. Ralph leads one faction while the cruel Jack leads the choir boys. The epileptic Simon is torn to pieces after being mistaken for a beasty. | William Golding |
| As I Lay Dying | The book follows the Bundren family as they try and get the recently deceased Addie to Jefferson Mississippi for burial. | William Faulkner |
| One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest | The novel is narrated by chief as he tells the tale of Randall McMurphy a convict that plead insanity to serve his sentence at an asylum where he clashes with Nurse Ratched . McMurphy is lobotomized after attacking Ratched and Chief mercy kills him. | Ken Kesey |
| The Marble Faun | The count Monte Beni is thought to resemble the title sculpture. He is in love with the intense Miriam. Kenyon the sculptor is in love with the moralizing Hilda. | Nathaniel Hawthorne |
| Wuthering Heights | Focuses on the turbulent romance between Heathcliff and Catherine at Thrushcross Grange and the title location. | Emily Bronte |
| Elmer Gantry | A satirical novel following the title hypocritical and womanizing minister. His exploits see him destroy lives around him and set up shop in the fictional town of Zenith in the midwest. | Sinclair Lewis |
| A Wrinkle in Time | The book follows Meg Murry and her companions as they use the tesseract to travel the universe and defeat "The Black thing" with the help of Mrs. Whatsit. | Madeleine L'Engle |
| The Last of the Mohicans | Natty Bumppo, going by Hawk-Eye and Chingachgook with his son Uncas assist the Munro sisters as they try and reach fort William Henry which is under siege. 2nd in Leatherstocking tales. | James Fenimore Cooper |
| Ragtime | Focuses on an unnamed family and their experiences with Coalhouse Walker a musician whose girlfriend is killed by racists leading him on a vigilante bombing campaign throughout NYC. | E.L. Doctorow |
| Tanglewood Tales | A rewriting of classical greek myths for young children. Including: The Minotaur, The Dragon's Teeth, The Pomegranate Seed, and The Golden Fleece. | Nathaniel Hawthorne |
| White Fang | Follows the title wolf dog as he is born to One Eye and Kiche. One Eye is killed by a lynx before his mate and pup are taken in by the native hunter, Grey Beaver. The title dog is bought by a dog fighter but saved by Weedon Scott. | Jack London |
| The Turn of the Screw | An unnamed narrator is hired to care for the orphaned Miles and Flora at Bly House. She becomes haunted by her predecessor, Ms. Jessel and Peter Quint who died before she arrived. Ends with Miles dying after speaking to Quint. | Henry James |
| The Bonfire of the Vanities | Follows a hit and run in NYC perpetrated by Maria Ruskin, the mistress of Sherman McCoy, a stock broker. A tabloid writer, Fallow tries to catch the story while Larry Kramer, a prosecutor tries to win the case to win the affections of a former juror. | Tom Wolfe |
| Atlas Shrugged | Follows Dagny Taggart as she tries to run her railroad company in a dystopian US. She becomes lovers with the steel magnate, Hank Rearden. Together they create the John Galt Line based on the phrase: "Who is John Galt?" | Ayn Rand |
| The Sun Also Rises | Follows Jake Barnes and the promiscuous Lady Brett Ashley. Robert Cohn, Jake, Mike Campbell, and the matador Romero all vie for Brett's affections in Pamplona. | Ernest Hemingway |
| The Inferno | In an attempt to reach heaven and reunite with his lover, Beatrice, the author is lead by the poet, Virgil, through the nine rings of hell. | Dante |
| Tales of the South Pacific | Follows "The Commander" as he undertakes duties such as Operation "Alligator" in the title location during world war two. | James Michener |
| The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test | A nonfiction account of the exploits of author Ken Kesey and his "Merry Pranksters" as they experiment with drugs, and travel the country in their bus , "Furthur". | Tom Wolfe |
| Uncle Remus | The title character acts as a story telling device for old african american folktales. Featuring characters like Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Bear, and Br'er Fox. | Joel Chandler Harris |
| U.S.A. Trilogy | Follows the development of popular culture and 12 different characters as well as public figures and news from the firs three decades of the 20th century in the title place. | John Dos Passos |
| Little Women | Follows the March sisters, Meg, Jo, Amy, and Beth as they fall in love and weather sickness and heartbreak. Laurie, Professor Bhaer, and John Brook each marry a sister. Beth dies from scarlet fever. | Louisa May Alcott |
| Jane Eyre | Follows the title character as she is raised at Gateshead Hall, learns at Lowood School. She becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall and falls in love with Mr Rochester. His mad wife burns down Thornfield hall before he marries the main character. | Charlotte Bronte |
| Northanger Abbey | Follows Catherine Morland as she tries to navigate Georgian society. She interacts with the Thorpes and Tilneys. Eventually marrying Henry Tilney. | Jane Austen |
| Walden | An account of the author's two years living at the title pond in the wilderness while on a quest for self reliance. | Henry David Thoreau |
| Light in August | Follows the pregnant Lena Grove as she travels to the fictional Yoknapatawpha County to find the father of her child, Lucas Burch. Lucas now going by Joe Brown is involved in bootlegging with the psychopathic Joe Christmas. | William Faulkner |
| Little Men | Follows events at Plumfield hall run by Jo March and Professor Bhaer. Nat, Daisy, Nan, and Dan act as main characters with many other secondary pupils at the school. | Louisa May Alcott |
| Sense and Sensibility | Follows the Dashwood family after they are disinherited by the son of their father's first marriage and his greedy wife, Fanny. Marianne falls for Mr. Willoughby, but after his character and past is revealed marries Colonel Brandon. Elinor marries Edward. | Jane Austen |
| The World According to Garp | Follows the title character as he is born to an independent nurse who names him after the man whom she used to conceive him which she only knew as "Technical Sergeant". He becomes a writer and marries Helen a teacher. His mother becomes a feminist icon. | John Irving |
| Around the World in 80 Days | Follows Phileas Fogg and his valet Jean Passepartout as they try and complete the title challenge to win a 20,000 pound bet with a member of the Refom Club in London. | Jules Verne |
| Portnoy's Complaint | Follows Alexander as he gives an exhaustive account of his life to psychoanalyst, Dr. Spielvogel. He spends most of the book discussing his frustration with satisfaction and shame. | Philip Roth |
| My Name is Asher Lev | Follows the title character as he tries to express himself through art though his strict Hasidic father is disapproving. He apprentices with Jacob Kahn and paints a masterpiece featuring the crucifixion before being asked to leave Brooklyn by the Rebbe. | Chaim Potok |
| The House of Mirth | Follows Lily Bart, an upper class impoverished socialite. Her desire to find a husband is driven both by love and a need to regain wealth. Eventually her social indiscretions cause problems. She falls for Lawrence Selden but dies before he proposes. | Edith Wharton |
| Lolita | Follows Humber Humber an unreliable narrator who is in love with his 12 yr old step daughter, Dolores. After his wife is killed in an accident he flees with her across the country. After they settle Dolores leaves him. Humbert kills "Quilty" at the end. | Vladimir Nabokov |
| The Canterbury Tales | Set at the Tabard inn as pilgrims tell stories to win a contest on their way to the Shrine of St. Thomas Beckett. Contains the tales of: The Miller, The Knight, The Reeve, and 21 others. | Geoffrey Chaucer |
| Roots | Focuses on Kunta Kinte a gambian man who is kidnapped and sold into slavery. He is called Toby by his master but tries to run away before being crippled as punishment. His descendants include: Kizzy, Chicken George, Bertha, and the author of the book. | Alex Haley |
| Rabbit is Rich | Follows Harry Angstrom as he navigates love and his family. He becomes infatuated with a friend's wife and worries about his son's indecisiveness. Takes place in the fictional Brewer, Pennsylvania. | John Updike |
| To Kill a Mockingbird | Focuses on the trial of Tom Robinson as defended by the main character, Scout's, father, Atticus Finch. Also follows Jem, her brother, and Dill, a friend based on Truman Capote. | Harper Lee |
| The Color Purple | Follows Celie, she is abused by her step father Alphonso before being married to "Mister". Her sister Nettie escapes with a missionary couple Celie meets Shug Avery, Mister's mistress. She starts a relationship with Shug and reunites with Nettie. | Alice Walker |
| The Killer Angels | Follows the action of the battle of Gettysburg and it's preceding days. Focuses on Robert E Lee and James Longstreet for the confederacy. And Joshua Chamberlain and John Buford for the union. | Michael Shaara |
| Old Yeller | Follows Travis Coates in the fictional Salt Licks, Texas. He takes in the title dog which saves his family from various wildlife before being bit by a rabid wolf. Travis must put him down before he turns on the family. | Fred Gipson |
| On the Road | Follows Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty as they traverse America causing trouble and leaving a wake of social destruction. Heavily based on the authors own experiences. | Jack Kerouac |
| The Ballad of the Sad Cafe | Follows Miss Amelia Evans as she falls in love with "Cousin Lymon" and they open the title business. Her ExHusband Marvin Macy returns and uses Lymon to ransack the business and Miss Amelia's life. | Carson McCullers |
| The Aeneid | Follows the title character as he flees Troy with his followers as they search for a new home. He jilts queen Dido who swears vengeance before comiting suicide. He marries Livinia and wars with Turnus in Latium. | Virgil |
| The Great Gatsby | Follows Nick Carraway as he lives in West Egg. He meets the mysterious Jay Gatsby who is in love with Daisy Buchanan who is married to the callous Tom. After Tom's mistress is killed her husband murders Gatsby. | F. Scott Fitzgerald |
| The Jungle | Follows Jugris Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant in Chicago as he works in meat packing. Shows the horrors of the industry and ends with a socialist party meeting. | Upton Sinclair |
| Humboldt's Gift | The title character is the mentor of the author Charlie Citrine. When the title character dies penniless his protege desires to make money on the advice of Rinaldo Cantabile, a gangster that speaks to commercial art instead of his mentor's humanist ideas. | Saul Bellow |
| Look Homeward, Angel | Thought to be autobiographical the book follows Eugene Gant as he is born and through his life before he leaves home at 19. The setting of Altamont, Catawba is thought to be a fictional version of Asheville, NC. | Thomas Wolfe |
| A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court | Hank Morgan receives a blow to the head and finds himself in medieval England. He becomes "The Boss" and creates 19th century infrastructure in the middle ages. He fights knights with a lasso and a revolver before being declared outlaw by the church. | Mark Twain |
| Henderson the Rain King | Follows Eugene, a man who feels unfulfilled and travels to Africa. He hires Romilayu and accidentally destroys the cistern in the village of Arnewi. He moves a statue of the goddess Mummah and receives the title rank. When King Dahfu dies he flees. | Saul Bellow |
| Treasure Island | Follows Jim Hawkins as he searches for the lost treasure of Captain Flint. He is betrayed after Long John Silver and Flint's former crew mutiny aboard the Hispaniola. | Robert Louis Stevenson |
| The Wonderful Wizard of Oz | A young girl name Dorothy's home crashes down on top of a witch wearing silver shoes. She is told she must travel to Emerald City and then defeat the Wicked Witch of the West to go home. She gathers a Lion, Tin Man, and Scarecrow as companions. | L. Frank Baum |
| The Little Prince | Follows a pilot who crashes in the Sahara and meets the title character who tells him of his life on the asteroid B612 and his love of a Rose after the narrator draws a sheep in the sand. The boy returns home by being bitten by a snake. | Antoine de Saint-Exupery |
| Harry Potter Series | Follows the title wizard as he learns about his powers, attends Hogwarts, and befriends Ron and Hermione. His nemesis is Voldemort. | J.K. Rowling |
| I am the Cheese | Follows Adam Farmer as he bikes from the fictional Monument, Mass to Rutterburg, VT. He is actually Paul Delmonte being interrogated by agents of the witness protection program about the deaths of his parents and the bike ride is a fantasy escape. | Robert Cormier |
| Divine Comedy | Follows the author as he is guided through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven by the poet Virgil to reunite with his love, Beatrice. | Dante |
| The Godfather | Follows Michael Corleone as he joins his family's crime business and kills "The Turk". He returns from hiding in Sicily to assume control of the family and wage war against his enemies as he relocates to Las Vegas and legitimizes his enterprises. | Mario Puzo |
| Main Street | Follows Carol Milford and her many attempts to redesign and remake the small fictional town of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota. She is stymied by the local cliques and yet she remains defiant. | Sinclair Lewis |
| Winnie-the-Pooh | Follows a young boy named Christopher Robin as he interacts with the title character as well as Tigger, Piglet, Owl, Eeyore, Kanga, and Roo. | A.A. Milne |
| Shogun | Follows John Blackthorne, a shipwrecked englishman as he becomes embroiled in feudal Japanese politics. He allies himself with the daimyo, Toranaga against daimyo Ishido and the Portuguese Jesuit priests already there. | James Clavell |
| Maggie: A Girl of the Streets | Follows the sorrows of the Johnson family as a result of alcohol and their title daughter. After being "ruined" by Pete the title character becomes a prostitue and is shunned by her family and all her former friends. | Stephen Crane |
| This Side of Paradise | Follows Amory Blaine as he attends a prep school then Princeton and is briefly smitten with Isabelle Borge. He fights in WW1 and after returning home loses all his money in a drinking bender. Ends with the phrase "I know myself, but that is all-" | F. Scott Fitzgerald |
| The Heart is a Lonely Hunter | Follows John Singer and Spiros Antonapoulos, two deaf mutes. After Spiros is committed to an asylum it switches to focus on John's friends: Mick Kelly, Jake Blount, Biff Brannon, and Dr. Benedict Mady Copeland. All of whom tell Singer their desires. | Carson McCullers |
| The Kitchen God's Wife | The novel follows Pearl Louie as she heads to San Francisco for an engagement party and a funeral. Pearl's aunt convinces Pearl and her mother to talk. Pearl reveals she has MS and her mother tells of her past marriage and escape with Pearl's father. | Amy Tan |
| An American Tragedy | Clyde Griffiths leaves his home of Kansas City after being involved in a hit and run. He begins working for his uncle Samuel and impregnates Roberta before becoming infatuated with Sondra Finchley. He accidentally kills Roberta and is executed. | Theodore Dreiser |
| The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Follows the title character as he gets into trouble and is kidnapped by Pap before escaping and rowing down the Mississippi river with the runaway slave Jim. | Mark Twain |
| Cat's Cradle | An unnamed narrator meets the children of Felix Hoenikker the creator of ice-nine which turns all water into more ice-nine. He travels to San Lorenzo, an island nation practicing Bokononism and is lead by Papa Monzano. The oceans are turned into ice nine. | Kurt Vonnegut |
| Ethan Frome | The title character is in a love triangle with his sickly wife, Zeena, and her cousin, Mattie. When The title character and Mattie begin an affair, Zeena tries to send her away. The two enter a suicide pact to sled into a tree but only injure themselves. | Edith Wharton |
| Grendel | The title monster lives in a cave with his mute mother and attacks Hrothgar's mead hall at night. He is told stories of great heroes and confers with a dragon about knowledge and joy. When he attacks the mead hall again he is killed by Beowulf. | John Gardner |
| Sister Carrie | The title character moves to Chicago and moves in with Mr. Drouet before being seduced by Mr. Hurstwood and becoming an actress. She and Hurstwood flee with $10,000 from an unlocked safe and move to NYC where she is famous but finds she is still unhappy. | Theodore Dreiser |
| The Hunt for Red October | Marko Ramius, a soviet naval commander tries defecting to the US with the the title high tech submarine. When his plans go awry he works with the American agent, Jack Ryan to defeat the soviets, prevent the scuttling of the sub and defect. | Tom Clancy |
| The House of the Seven Gables | The mysterious Pyncheon family live in the title building. Supposedly cursed by the former owner they are accosted by a cousin who wants to acquire a deed. When he dies they find he framed Clifford for murder and that the land is worthless. | Nathaniel Hawthorne |
| The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde | John Utterson tries to uncover the mystery of one of the title character's connection to the other as he manages the will of the first. When the first man commits suicide a letter reveals that he was both men, using chemicals to change his appearance. | Robert Louis Stevenson |
| David Copperfield | Follows the title character as his stepfather sends him away and controls his life. He goes to school, unravels the plans of Uriah Heep, lives with Betsy Trotwood, and marries Dora Spenlow before she dies, he then marries Agnes Wickfield. Autobiographical | Charles Dickens |
| Island of the Blue Dolphins | Karana is a native Nicoleno girl whose tribe leaves without her and her brother on a ship. When her brother dies to wild dogs she fends for herself taming one named Rontu. She hunts an octopus she calls the devilfish before leaving on a ship to California | Scott O'Dell |
| The American | Christopher Newman takes a tour of Europe in an attempt to find a wife and becomes smitten with Claire. He befriends Valentin Bellegarde, her brother and the painter Noemie. When Valentin dies and his engagement to Claire is broken off he leaves Europe. | Henry James |
| The Beautiful and the Damned | Anthony Patch and Gloria Gilbert's strained marriage and raucous lifestyle destroy them. They each have affairs and destroy whatever happiness they had. | F. Scott Fitzgerald |
| The Bell Jar | Semiautobiographical account of Esther Greenwood. She descends into psychosis after her literary ambitions go awry. She recovers with help from Dr. Nolan. | Sylvia Plath |
| The Caine Mutiny | Willie Keith enlists in the navy on the title ship. The cowardly Captain Queeg is relieved of duty by Maryk with help from Willie during a storm. They are court martialed but acquitted. Willie becomes captain after he shows heroism in a kamikaze attack. | Herman Wouk |
| The Red Badge of Courage | Henry Fleming a union soldier of the 304th is a coward but receives the title wound after fleeing battle. When his friend Jim Conklin dies he becomes brave and leads a successful charge against confederate troops. | Stephen Crane |
| Tar Baby | Jadine is a well off daughter of servants whose employers, the Streets, are her benefactors. She falls in love with Son a poor man down on his luck and they both try and find their way but are challenged when they return to the U.S. | Toni Morrison |
| Robinson Crusoe | The title character has repeated troubles at sea culminating in a shipwreck. He frees a prisoner from local cannibals and names him Friday. Together they survive before helping a captain retake his ship from mutineers and returning to his native Europe. | Daniel Defoe |
| Kim | The title character is a young orphan living in British India. He becomes the disciple of a wandering lama while also being recruited for the British secret service. He plays a game where objects are placed and taken away that is named for him. | Rudyard Kipling |
| Black Beauty | The title horse tells its life story including being a cab driver's horse in London and retiring to the English countryside. | Anna Sewell |
| The Scarlet Letter | Follows Hester Prynne, in Puritan Massachusetts, as she gives birth to a child through an affair with Arthur DImmesdale when she thought her husband, Roger Chillingworth was dead. Her sentence is to wear the scarlet “A” for the rest of her life. | Nathaniel Hawthorne |
| The Reivers | This comic novel tells the story of three unlikely car thieves in rural Mississippi. They get involved in a heroic odyssey that includes horse smuggling, sheriff deputies, and jail. | William Faulkner |
| The Golden Bowl | Following Maggie Verver, her engagement with Prince Amerigo, and the intersection of her relationships with that of her widowed father, this novel explores the consciousness of the main characters. | Henry James |
| The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County | The unnamed narrator of this short story retells a story that he heard from a bartender, Simon Wheeler, at the Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California, about the gambler Jim Smiley and the title amphibian. | Mark Twain |
| War and Peace | This Russian novel tells the story of Pierre Bezukhov, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, and Natasha Rostov during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812. | Leo Tolstoy |
| Just So Stories | A series of origin stories and legends such as: How the Leopard Got His Spots, How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin, and The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo. Each has a moral or some kind of practical wisdom. Also includes some pretty racist stuff. | Rudyard Kipling |
| Catch-22 | Follows Joh Yossarian, a bomber pilot as he tries to navigate world war 2. It hosts other characters such as Milo Minderbinder, Nately, and Hungry Joe as they are based on the island of Pianosa. | Joseph Heller |
| Frankenstein | Follows the title Dr. He describes to Captain Walton how he created a monster but was undone by his creation when it murdered his brother, framed his housekeeper, and killed his wife. The monster appears when the title character dies and kills itself. | Mary Shelley |
| The Bridge of San Luis Rey | Brother Juniper investigates the collapse of the title structure to determine the reason it's 5 victims had to die. The victims include: Dona Maria, Pepita, Esteban, Uncle Pio, and Don Jaime. Brother Juniper and his investigations are burned as heretical. | Thornton Wilder |
| Jurassic Park | John Hammond is the owner of the title location on Isla Nublar. The main attraction is live dinosaurs. Dennis Nedry tries to steal embryos and shuts the power off letting the dinos loose. | Michael Crichton |
| A Confederacy of Dunces | Ignatius Reilly is an eccentric unemployed man that live with his mother in New Orleans. When his mother gets into a car crash Ignatius must get a job to help her pay off the debt. He meets a colorful cast of characters and corresponds with Myrna Minkoff. | John Kennedy Toole |
| The Joy Luck Club | 4 Chinese American women and their daughters life stories are told in a series of vignettes interspersed with their title Mahjong Group. | Amy Tan |
| The Fountainhead | Howard Roark is an architect that rejects convention at his own detriment. He is in love with Dominique and is being smeared by Mr. Toohey. When his old colleague needs help for a project he asks Roark but changes the design. Roark dynamites the site. | Ayn Rand |
| The Scarlet Pimpernel | Sir Percy Blakeney is the title leader of a secret society. He is engaged in trying to save nobles from the reign of terror. His wife Marguerite accidentally helps Citizen Chauvelin, his sworn enemy. He saves Marguerite's brother and defeats Chauvelin. | Baroness Orczy |
| Exodus | Ari Ben Canaan and his friend David use a cargo ship to transport jewish holocaust refugees to Palestine. When they are blockaded they stage a hunger strike and threaten to blow up the ship and the refugees if not allowed to sail. They are allowed. | Leon Uris |
| The Snows of Kilimanjaro | Helen and Harry are both on safari in Africa and Harry is dying of Gangrene. As he dies he remembers his varied life of marrying rich women, adventuring across the world, and never realizing his writing potential. He dies after hallucinating a hyena. | Ernest Hemingway |
| Charlotte's Web | Fern saves the life of Wilbur, the runt of a pig litter. To keep him safe she makes him famous with the help of the title spider that weaves words from packaging scraps brought by the mouse Templeton. | E.B. White |
| Don Quixote | The title character is a demented old man who believes he is a knight. With the help of Sancho Panza as his squire he causes chaos and famously attacks windmills that he believes are giants. | Miguel de Cervantes |
| Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea | Professor Arronax, Conseil, and Ned Land all find themselves aboard the Nautilus, a massive submarine thought to be a large narwhal. They meet Captain Nemo its captain and visit underwater locations. Nemo rams a warship and the trio escape in the sea. | Jules Verne |
| Gulliver's Travels | The title character goes on many voyages most famously to Lilliput where he is captured by the 6 in tall inhabitants. He goes to many other places: Brobdingnag, Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib and Japan. | Jonathan Swift |
| The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe | The Pevensie children move to the countryside to escape the blitz and find a magical world called Narnia in one of the title objects. They meet Mr. Tumnus and battle the White Witch. When Aslan, is killed at the stone table they lead the Narnian armies. | C.S. Lewis |
| The Fixer | Recounts the story of Menahem Mendel Beilis, a Russian Jew accused of the murder of a young boy in Tsarist Russia in 1911. He demanded a fair trial and was acquitted by an all slav jury in 1913. | Bernard Malamud |
| The Ambassadors | Lewis Strether is sent to bring his fiancee's son Chad back from Paris. He finds himself in love with the culture and refinement of Europe and discovers that Madame de Vionett and Chad are romantically involved. He and Chad still return to America. | Henry James |
| The Catcher in the Rye | Holden Caulfield is expelled from Pencey Prep. He is annoyed with people he sees as phony. The only person he appreciates is his sister Phoebe. | J.D. Salinger |
| The Adventures of Augie March | The title character grows up and floats between odd jobs and women. He flies to Mexico with Thea to catch lizards and marries Stella. Together he and Stella move to Paris. | Saul Bellow |
| The Three Musketeers | D' Artagnan wishes to join the title men, Aramis, Porthos, and Athos. He clashes with the Comte de Rocheforte, Milady de Winter, and Cardinal Richelieu. | Alexandre Dumas |
| Dodsworth | The title character, Sam, a car designer from the fictional Zenith, goes on a European tour with his wife, Fran. Their relationship is strained and they part, Sam falls in love with Edith Cotright in Venice. | Sinclair Lewis |
| Fahrenheit 451 | Guy Montag is a fireman that burns books. His wife Mildred is obsessed with media. Guy hides books in his vent but when Captain Beatty confronts him he kill Beatty with a flamethrower. Guy flees the city just before it is destroyed by a nuke. | Ray Bradbury |
| Iliad | The wife of Menelaus, Helen, is kidnapped by Paris of Troy. The Trojans fight the Greeks, including Achilles, Agamemnon, and Odysseus for a decade before being tricked by a horse hiding infiltrators. | Homer |
| The Natural | Roy Hobbs is a baseball player that is shot by a psychotic woman after he strikes out Whammer. Later in life he joins the New York Knights and helps them win the season with his bat Wonderboy and one he helps make called the Savoy Special. | Bernard Malamud |
| Tortilla Flat | Danny lives in Monterey, California and after inheriting two houses from his grandfather in the title neighborhood he and his friends move in and undertake many adventures to make trouble, help the less fortunate, and acquire booze. | John Steinbeck |
| The Chosen | Reuven is a jewish teen that makes friends with Danny after a baseball game. Danny has a photographic memory and an interest in psychology. Danny struggles with his jewish faith and desire to be a psychologist instead of becoming a Rabbi like his father. | Chaim Potok |
| The Pathfinder, or The Inland Sea | Natty Bumppo, going by the title name, is escorting Mabel Dunham by woods near Lake Ontario and undergoes many adventures. At the end Mabel is taken by another suitor and NAtty returns tot he wilderness. Third in the Leatherstocking Tales. | James Fenimore Cooper |
| You Can't Go Home Again | George Webber writes a novel about his home town but the residents reject him when he returns. He travels to NYC, Paris, and Berlin, before returning and finding his identity. | Thomas Wolfe |
| Arrowsmith | The misanthropic main character, Martin is a brilliant but womanizing and principled scientist. He destroy his career but after treating a plague outbreak it is rebuilt. He secludes himself instead of taking a high position, abandoning his 3rd wife. | Sinclair Lewis |
| Moby Dick | Ishmael is a wahler on board the Pequod. He befriends Queequeg and they help the mad Captain Ahab chase the title whale all over the ocean. | Herman Melville |
| Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret | Following a sixth grade girl, this book explores religion and addresses the common issues associated with adolescent girls going through puberty, such as buying her first bra and liking boys. | Judy Blume |
| A Separate Peace | In this coming of age novel, Gene Forrester and his close friend Finny attend high school at Devon with World War Two as a backdrop. | John Knowles |
| Oliver Twist | This book follows the title character of this novel set in the mid-19th century London. The title character joins a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the artful dodger under the greedy Fagan. He is sold into an apprenticeship under an undertaker. | Charles Dickens |
| The Good Earth | The first book in the House of Earth Triology, this book follows a dramaticized version of chinese family life. This influential novel by an American novelists helped in preparing American citizens to consider the Chinese allies. | Pearl Buck |
| The Awakening | Set in Louisiana at the end of the 19th century, this book follows Edna Pontellier and her struggle with gender roles and social constraints for women. | Kate Chopin |
| Great Expectations | Tells the story of the orphan Pip and his adventures in 1812 Kent, particularly his pursuit of the wealthy Estella. | Charles Dickens |
| Beloved | Tells the story of Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman, and her daughter whose Cincinnati house is haunted by a malicious spirit. Based on the true story of Margaret Garner, an escaped slave. | Toni Morrison |
| Native Son | Follows Bigger Thomas, a black man living in Chicago, who is put on trial for committing murder. It is one of the earliest successful attempts to explain the racial divide in America in the social conditions imposed on African Americans. | Richard Wright |
| The Martian Chronicles | An anthology of stories starting with the landing of humans on the title location. Focuses on themes of cultural destruction, ecological change, and colonialization. | Ray Bradbury |
| Gone with the Wind | Scarlet O'Hara is a southern plantation owner on the eve of the civil war. She is courted by Rhett Butler, AShley Wilkes, and Wilkes' younger brother whom she marries, though he dies. She marries twice before being left by Rhett when their child dies. | Margaret Mitchell |
| Lord of the Rings | Trilogy follows the fellowship as they try and destroy the title object. Lead by the nephew of Bilbo Baggins, Frodo. | J.R.R. Tolkein |
| The Maltese Falcon | Sam Spade is a private detective who becomes embroiled in the search for the title black coated statue. He works with and against Brigid O'Shaughnessy, Joel Cairo, and Casper Gutman | Dashiell Hammett |
| The Yearling | Jody Baxter and his family live in the Florida backwoods and feud with the Forresters. When Penny, Jody's mother kills a deer, he adopts the fawn and his friend, Fodder-Wing, names it Flag. At the end he must kill Flag, who'd been shot by Penny. | Marjorie Rawlings |
| Andersonville | Follows inmates at the title prison during the civil war. The commandant, Henry Wirz, is depicted as an injured man working an impossible job while "The Raiders" bully other inmates and live well while they die of starvation and exposure. | MacKinlay Kantor |
| The Winter of Our Discontent | Ethan Hawley commits acts of intrigue as he tries to gain wealth and power. He gets Mr. Marullo deported and takes control of his store while acquiring a strip of land from his drunk friend who dies afterward. His actions drive him to attempt suicide. | John Steinbeck |
| The Prince and the Pauper | The story follows Tom Canty and Edward VI as they are similar in appearance and decide to switch places to avoid their own problems. | Mark Twain |
| Stranger in a Strange Land | Michael Valentine Smith is man born on Mars and is taken to earth where he meets Jill and Jubal Harshaw. They help him evade the politics around him. He founds a cult and teaches martian to his followers before going to heaven after being killed by a mob. | Robert Heinlein |
| Anthem | Follows Equality 7-2521, a streetsweeper who wishes to be a scholar in a dystopian future. He is in love with a girl named Liberty but he calls her "Golden One". Equality discovers electricity and escapes his repressive society with Liberty. | Ayn Rand |
| Peter Pan | The title character has many adventures in Neverland with Wendy and her brothers, Tinkerbell, and the lost boys. He clashes with the Pirate Captain Hook. | Sir James Barrie |
| The Magnificent Ambersons | The titular aristocratic family's fortunes and fall from grace is chronicled in this pulitzer prize winning novel set in a fictionalized Indianapolis. | Booth Tarkington |
| The Prince of Tides | Follows Tom WIngo as he recounts his childhood with his twin sister Savannah to Savannah's psychiatrist, Susan, to try and prevent her many suicide attempts. He regains a love for life and reunites with estranged wife. | Pat Conroy |
| Poor Richard's Almanack | A set of weather forecasts, planting dates and time tables. The publication was named for the author's son. | Benjamin Franklin |
| The Grapes of Wrath | Tom Joad and his family travel with the reverend Jim Casy to California to get better work during the dustbowl. Ends with Rose of Sharon saving a starving man with her breast milk. | John Steinbeck |
| O Pioneers! | Follows the Bergson family in the fictional Hanover Nebraska as they try to navigate love and the financial situation on the prairie. | Willa Cather |
| The Outsiders | The book follows Ponyboy a member of the Greaser gang and their escalating rivalry with the more affluent Socs(Socials). The book ends with Ponyboy resolving to "stay gold". | S.E. Hinton |
| East of Eden | Follows Adam Stark and his sons Cal and Aron. They spend the novel oblivious of their mother Cathy(Kate) a prostitute and madam. The idea of "timshel" or the ability to choose is important. | John Steinbeck |
| The Cider House Rules | Follows Homer Wells, an orphan taken in by obstetrician and abortionist Wilbur Larch. He befriends Wally and Candy. After Wally is presumed dead he has a child with Candy. When Wally returns Homer leaves and takes over the orphanage. | John Irving |
| In Cold Blood | The book is a nonfiction account of the murder of Herb Clutter and his family by recently escaped convicts in Kansas. Written with the help of the author's friend Harper Lee. | Truman Capote |
| Breakfast at Tiffany's | The book is narrated by an unnamed new york socialite who befriends and chronicles the exploits of Holly Golightly who is described as "an American Geisha" as she has no job and lives by socializing with wealthy men. | Truman Capote |
| Journal of the Plague Year | The book chronicles the 1665 London epidemic. Possibly the account of the author's uncle Henry. | Daniel Defoe |
| The Hobbit | Bilbo Baggins joins a group of Dwarves and the mysterious Gandalf as they head off to rob the lair of the dragon Smaug. They encounter the treacherous Gollum and are captured and hampered at many instances. Frodo comes into possession of the One Ring. | J.R.R. Tolkein |
| Their Eyes Were Watching God | The book follows Janie Crawford as she goes from being married off to a farmer before running away with the ambitious Jody Starks. When Jody dies she becomes wealthy and marries "Tea Cakes" who she shoots in self defense after he is bitten by a rabid dog. | Zora Neale Hurston |
| Black Boy | An autobiography following the author from his childhood in the south to the early days of his adulthood in Chicago. | Richard Wright |
| Things Fall Apart | The novel follows Okonkwo in the village of Umuofia. He defeats Amalinze The Cat, kills Ikemefuna(an adopted son), and his gun explodes killing the son of Ezeudu at Ezeudu's funeral. He hangs himself at the end of the book. | Chinua Achebe |
| Crime and Punishment | Raskolnikov, a poor student unable to continue to pay for his studies. He thinks he is above the law, and convinced that utilitarian ends justify his means, he murders a pawnbroker. Overwhelmed by feelings of guilt, He and goes to prison. | Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
| Heart of Darkness | Charles Marlow is commissioned as a steamboat captain in Africa. His boat breaks down and he hear tales of Mr. Kurtz. When he reaches Kurtz's station he finds him dying and being worshipped by the natives. He dies after saying "The horror, the horror!" | Joseph Conrad |
| Lord Jim | The title character is a sailor aboard the Patna which he abandons in a storm. Charles Marlow helps him find work on the island of Patusan as the trade factor of Stein. There he fights "Gentleman Brown" and is killed after his friend dies. | Joseph Conrad |
| 100 Years of Solitude | The Buendia family found the village of Macondo. Visits by gypsies led by Melquiades show them technology and some Buendias fight in a civil war. When the American Fruit Company comes to town they kill striking workers. Macondo is destroyed. | Gabriel García Márquez |
| Love in the Time of Cholera | Fermina and Florentino fall in love but are separated. Fermina marries Dr. Urbino who is dedicated to eradicating the title disease. Florentino still love Fermina but has many trysts. When Urbino dies they reunite. | Gabriel García Márquez |
| Gulag Archipelago | A memoir of the authors experiences in the soviet forced labor system. Also contains a brief history of the system and it's abuses. | Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn |
| Tess of the d'Urbervilles | The title character is in love with Angel Clare but is raped by Alec. When Angel finds out about the rape he leaves her. Years later Angel tries to get her back but she has become Alec's mistress. She is executed for Alec's murder at the end of the book. | Thomas Hardy |
| Far From the Madding Crowd | Bathsheba Everdene's romantic exploits revolve around Gabriel Oak, William Boldwood, and Sergeant Frank Troy. When she marries Troy she is unhappy and finds he has abandoned Fanny Robin. When Boldwood kills Troy, Bathsheba marries Gabriel. | Thomas Hardy |
| The Tin Drum | Oskar Matzerath is a dwarf with incredible intelligence from birth. He live in Poland during WW2 and his father is a member of the Nazi party. He owns the title instrument and uses it to join a jazz band. | Günter Grass |
| The Magic Mountain | Hans Castorp goes to a sanatorium in Davos to visit a sick cousin but is diagnosed with Tuberculosis and stays for 7 years. He meets Lodovico Settembrini, Leo Naphta, Mynheer Peeperkorn, a dionysian Dutchman; and Madame Clavdia Chauchat. | Thomas Mann |
| Madame Bovary | Charles, a young doctor, marries a rich widow but when she dies becomes infatuated with the title woman, Emma. He and Emma marry .She engages in affairs with Leon and Rodolphe. She kills herself over debts and he dies after discovering her affairs. | Gustave Flaubert |
| Lady Chatterley's Lover | Constance Reid is married to Sir Clifford who becomes paralyzed as well as physically and emotionally distant. She starts an affair with the title character, Oliver Mellors, her gamekeeper. | D. H. Lawrence |
| Sons and Lovers | examines the emotional dynamics of the Morel family and charts the gradual decline of the middle son, Paul Morel, as he navigates tensions between his romantic life and his family life. | D. H. Lawrence |
| The Portrait of a Lady | This work follows Isabel Archer, an intelligent and narcissistic woman from Albany, New York. | Henry James |
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