The following selections are arranged by topic and then alphabetically by author within each topic. At the conclusion of each entry, we have provided a suggested grade level to help guide you in making your selection.

Mystery and Intrigue

Berendt, John. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Enormously engaging account of life in secluded and hauntingly beautiful Savannah, Georgia, centered on a sensational murder that took place in the city’s grandest mansion in 1981. (11-12)

Guterson, David. Snow Falling on Cedars
A murder trial recalls the wartime internment of Japanese-Americans in the Northwest - at once, a mystery, a courtroom drama, a story of doomed love and a stirring meditation on place, prejudice, and justice. (11-12)

Hillerman, Tony. A Thief of Time
Murder stalks an Indian ruin. Navaho policemen Leaphorn and Chee must find the killer and the thieves who have removed sacred relics. Another in a series of books that describes the wonders of the Arizona desert, Navaho lore, and some fine detective work. (11-12)

Simpson, Marcia. Crow in Stolen Colors
Widowed part- Indian Liza Romero, struggling to make a living in Alaska's Kindergarten Bay aboard her creaking old freighter, Salmon Eye, under the demanding conditions of the south Alaska coast, rescues a seven-year-old Indian named James from a spray-drenched rock and finds that the men who bushwhacked James’ uncle haven't given up on the idea of killing James too. (10-12)

Simpson, Marcia. Sound Tracks
When a rash of injured and dead whales hits southeast Alaska, and the expert who can help them is found drowned, Liza Romero, captain of the Salmon Eye, discovers a strange new danger lurking in the depths of the sea. (10-12)


Family Matters

Burns, Olive. Cold Sassy Tree
Fourteen-year-old Will Tweedy’s adventures begin on the day the general store proprietor brings scandal to a pious, irreverent Southern town by eloping with a Yankee woman half his age. (9 up)

Dorris, Michael. Yellow Raft in Blue Water
A mother, daughter, and grandmother each tell the story of their shared past in this strong and compassionate novel. (9 up)

Esquivel, Laura. Like Water for Chocolate
As the youngest of three daughters in a turn-of-the-century Mexican family, Tita may not marry but must remain at home to care for her mother. (11-12)

Gibbons, Kaye. Charms for the Easy Life
Three generations of feisty women headed by Grandma Charlie Kate, a self-proclaimed doctor, discover that passion is their natural gift. (11-12)

Gibbons, Kaye. Ellen Foster
Orphaned at eleven, a funny and plucky heroine sets out to find herself a suitable family. (9 up)

Judith Guest. Ordinary People
A teenager struggles with depression as he recovers from a suicide attempt.(11-12)

Hamilton, Jane. Book of Ruth
A young woman from a poor family, with a truly dreadful mother, maintains her soul, her dignity, and her humor even as life comes crashing down around her. (11-12)

Jen, Gish. Mona in the Promised Land
Mona--a "self-made mouth", goes to temple, loves pickles, is boy-crazy, worries about getting into the right college and keeping up with her overachieving sister, and wishes her parents were less strict. Mona is Chinese by birth,Jewish by choice,American by nationality. (11-12)

Kingsolver, Barbara. Pigs in Heaven
What happens when six-year-old Turtle, an adopted Native American child, is reclaimed by the Cherokee Nation? (11-12)

Mason, Bobbie Ann. In Country
A different kind of Vietnam War novel, this story is about a daughter’s quest to understand the war that killed her father. (9 up)

Smiley, Jane. A Thousand Acres
Three sisters inherit precious Iowa farmland from their domineering father and play out the secrets of their childhood. (11-12)

Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club
In 1949, four Chinese women, drawn together by the shadow of their past, begin meeting in San Francisco and forge a relationship that binds them for more than three decades. (11-12)

Tan, Amy. The Kitchen God’s Wife
The dynamics of a Chinese-American family are shown through the long-suppressed secrets that a mother and daughter ultimately reveal to each other. (11-12)

Tyler, Anne. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Ezra runs the Homesick Restaurant “where you can get what you long for when you’re sad and everyone is wearing you down.” (11-12)


Other Times, Other Places

Alvarez, Julia. In the Time of the Butterflies
Four sisters, each individually defined, find themselves caught up in or affected by revolution in the Dominican Republic. (11-12)

Caputo, Philip. A Rumor of War
This groundbreaking memoir of the Vietnam War is a brutally honest firsthand view by a young college graduate, a “gung-ho” lieutenant in the marine corps who enlisted for the “heroic experience” of war.
(11-12)

Chang, Jung. Wild Swans
The true story of the survival of a Chinese family through a century of disaster from pre Communist times to the revolution and beyond. (11-12)

Chatwin, Bruce. In Patagonia
A little masterpiece of travel, history and adventure. (11-12)

Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street
Young Esmeralda’s poetic and exuberant voice celebrates life in the barrios of Chicago. (9-10)

Cross, Donna. Pope Joan
A young woman in the ninth century disguises herself as a boy in order to become educated through the church. Despite danger from pagan hordes, corrupt priests, and the temptations of her heart, she eventually becomes Pope. Based on true events. (11-12)

Davies, Robertson. Fifth Business
Dunstan seems content to live life as a schoolmaster, observing rather than participating, while his womanizing friend Boy Staunton makes waves and becomes hugely successful. Dunstan’s experiments with magic bring about a shock ending for Boy. (11-12)

Doig, Ivan. This House of Sky. Landscapes of a Western Mind
Memories of the author’s rambling boyhood, filled with the bygone denizens of sheep ranches, lumber camps, and saloons, gracefully intertwined with the brutal wildness of Montana. (11-12)

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man
Invisible Man reveals the pain of a black man’s existence in a white world. It is the story of a young man’s journey through the Deep South to the streets of Harlem, through events and experiences that range from tortured to macabre. (11-12)

Frazier, Charles. Cold Mountain
During the Civil War, a wounded Confederate veteran begins the long journey back to his home in the remote hills of North Carolina. Along the way he meets rogues, outlaws, good Samaritans and vigilantes, but his one goal is to return to Cold Mountain and the woman he left behind. (11-12)

Gates, Henry Louis. Colored People: A Memoir
Gates, celebrated scholar and writer and a child of Piedmont West Virginia’s “colored” community, recalls here the characters that peopled his childhood and provided a deep sense of belonging. (11-12)

Golden, Arthur S. Memoirs of a Geisha
The entire life of a geisha, from her origins as an orphaned fishing-village girl in 1929 to her triumphant auction of her mizuage (virginity) for a record price as a teenager to her reminiscent old age as the distinguished mistress of the powerful patron of her dreams. (11-12)

Hersey, John. Hiroshima
Based on eyewitness reports, this is the classic account of the death and destruction unleashed by the atomic bombing on Hiroshima in 1945. (9 up)

Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
This counterculture classic celebrates individualism versus the establishment. Cowed by sadistic “Big Nurse” Ratched, the inmates of a mental hospital are galvanized by a new patient, the free-spirited McMurphy, who enters a pitched battle of wills with the nurse. (11-12)

Leffland, Ella. Breath and Shadows
Saga involving three major characters: Thorkild the Counselor, a Danish dwarf already approaching the end of his life in the early 1800s; his great-granddaughter, Grethe Rosted, a young wife and mother in the 1880s; and Paula, their modern-day descendant, born in Illinois but living in Switzerland. Grethe, orphaned at an early age, knows nothing about Thorkild.... (10 up)

Meltzer, Milton. Rescue: The Story of How Gentiles Saved Jews in the Holocaust
Twelve biographical accounts highlight brave deeds of a dozen Gentiles who risked their lives to help Jews during the Holocaust. (9 up)

Myers, Walter Dean. Fallen Angels
A painfully realistic account of eighteen-year-old Richie Perry’s year on active duty in Vietnam. (9 up)

O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried
A collection of fictional episodes that present a vision of the horror that was the Vietnam War. (11-12)

Ondaatje, Michael. The English Patient
In a brilliantly original novel, four people come together in a deserted Italian villa during the final days of World War II: a young American nurse and her horribly burned English patient, an American soldier of fortune, and an Indian soldier in the British army. Their stories of the past and of the present weave a spellbinding tapestry of how lives are caught and changed by the circumstances of war. (11-12)

Renault, Mary. The King Must Die
The mythical Theseus, King of Athens, emerges as a tough, brave, aggressive, and totally believable hero as he defies the torments and treachery of gods and mortals. (9 up)

Sasson, Jean. Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia
Sultana, a fabulously wealthy member of the royal family, gives one view of women’s life and plight in Saudi Arabia. (11-12)

Shaara, Michael. The Killer Angels
A great battle looms over Gettysburg as the Rebels face the Yankees. (11-12)

Spiegelman, Art. Maus: A Survivor’s Tale. Parts I and II
Stretching the boundaries of the comic strip, these books present Nazi Germany as a monstrous mousetrap, shaping the horrors of the Holocaust and the suffering in survival. (11-12)

John Steinbeck, In Dubious Battle
The story of a strike among the migratory workers in the apple orchards of California rising up “in dubious battle” against injustice. (9 up)

Unsworth, Barry. Morality Play
In 14th-century England, a troupe of traveling actors creates a play based on an actual murder. In the process, they become detectives and players in the real story. An eloquent evocation of the spirit of the time, and of the relationship between life and the mystery of playing. (11-12)

Wolfe, Tom. The Right Stuff
The best, funniest, and most vivid book ever written about America’s manned space program. (9 up)


Adventure and Exploration

Alexander, Caroline. Endurance
One of the greatest epics of survival in the annals of exploration. The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, led by renowned polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, hoped to become the first to cross the Antarctic continent. But their ship, Endurance, was trapped in the drifting pack ice, eventually splintering and leaving the expedition stranded. (9 up)

Fiennes, Ranulph. Mind Over Matter: The Epic Crossing of the Antarctic Continent
Battling blizzards, gangrene, starvation, and hypothermia, Fiennes and his partner made the
world’s first and longest unsupported trek across Antarctica. The trip nearly took their lives and cost them their friendship. (9 up)

Hays, Daniel, and David Hays. My Old Man and the Sea: A Father and Son Sail Around Cape Horn
Two men share the experience of sailing a tiny boat 17,000 miles to the bottom of the world and
back. (9 up)

Junger, Sebastian. The Perfect Storm
In October 1991 a “perfect storm” hit North America’s seaboard. A swordfish boat, the Andrea Gail, out of Gloucester, Massachusetts, and its six crew members were lost beneath the turbulent seas and high waves. Through research, the author tries to recreate the last moments of the Andrea Gail as the story builds slowly and inexorably to its tragic climax. (11-12)

Kiley, Deborah S., and Meg Noonan. Albatross: The True Story of a Woman’s Survival at Sea.
Monstrous waves, numbing cold, and sharks challenge five people stranded in a tiny rubber dinghy in this incredible account by one of the survivors. (9-10)

Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild
The true story of a restless and intelligent young man who left his family and friends to walk alone into the Alaskan wilderness. His emaciated body and his journal were discovered four months later in an abandoned bus. (11-12)

Lord, Walter. A Night to Remember
True story of the “unsinkable” Titanic and a grim night in April 1912. (9-10)

Montgomery, Sy. Walking with the Great Apes: Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Birute Galdikas The fascinating stories of three intrepid women who left civilization to study and share the lives of the primates. (11-12)

Mowry, Jess. Way Past Cool
“Gordon was a born leader...but there were times when a gang leader had to do stupid things...” This picture of the ghetto is both shocking and inspiring. (9-10)

Rathje, William and Cullen Murphy. Rubbish: The Archaeology of Garbage
What does our garbage tell us about ourselves? What are our landfills really full of? You’ll be surprised by the answers. (11-12)

Pfetzer, Mark and Jack Galvin. Within Reach: My Everest Story
In May 1996, the media scrambled to document the gripping and inspirational story of sixteen-year-old Mark Pfetzer’s expedition to Mount Everest. Not only was he the youngest climber ever to attempt the summit, but he bore witness to the tragedy documented in Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, in which eight climbers perished in a sudden storm. (9 up)

Simpson, Joe. Touching the Void
A breathtaking mountaineering tale of personal courage and the power of friendship (9-10)

Wallis, Velma. Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival
Two elderly women are abandoned by their tribe during a relentless winter famine. A beautifully written and suspenseful retelling of an Athabascan Indian myth. (9-10)


Biography and Memoir

Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and the Last Great Lesson
This true story about the love between a spiritual mentor and his pupil has soared to the bestseller list. We meet Morrie Schwartz—a one of a kind professor—and share intimate moments of Morrie’s final days as he lies dying from a terminal illness. (9-12)

Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
An African-American writer traces her coming of age. (11-12)

Ashe, Arthur and Arnold Rampersad. Days of Grace: A Memoir
A highly respected tennis star and citizen of the world dies of AIDS. (11-12)

Gary, Lorene. Black Ice
Honest account of the author’s experiences as one of the first black women students to attend St. Paul’s School. (11-12)

Cohen, Leah Hager. Train Go Sorry: Inside a Deaf World
Although hearing, the author grew up with the proud and determined students of the Lexington School for the Deaf. She offers a unique glimpse of the vitality, dedication, and intimacy of the Deaf culture. (11-12)

Conway, Jill Ker. The Road from Coorain
Growing up female in the isolated outback and the male-dominated world of Australia. (11-12)

Crow Dog, Mary and Richard Erdoes. Lakota Woman
Mary Crow Dog stands with two thousand other Native Americans at the site of the Wounded Knee, South Dakota massacre, demonstrating for Native American rights. (11-12)

Fong-Torres, Ben. The Rice Room: Growing Up Chinese-American from Number Two Son to Rock ‘n Roll
A former writer and editor for Rolling Stone recounts his efforts to become “American” while growing up in the restricted neighborhood of Oakland’s Chinatown. (11-12)

Grealy, Lucy. Autobiography of a Face
The author writes intimately and lucidly of her experiences growing up with a facial disfigurement for which she underwent more than thirty reconstructive procedures. (11-12)

Greene, Melissa Fay. Praying for Sheetrock: A Work of Nonfiction
The political awakening of a small black community on the Georgia coast in the 1970’s is told in the voices of its inhabitants. (11-12)

Hemingway, Ernest. A Moveable Feast
In a vibrant study of Paris in the 1920s, Hemingway records his own five years in the French city, describing his creative struggles and sharing portraits of such fellow expatriates as Fitzgerald, Pound, and Stein. (10 up)

Jiang, Ji-Li . Red Scarf Girl : A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution
Jiang was a young teenager at the height of Mao’s Cultural Revolution in China, when children rose up against their parents, students against teachers, and neighbor against neighbor. Homes were searched and possessions taken or destroyed, her father imprisoned. (9 up)

Karr, Mary. The Liars’ Club
The author recalls her upbringing in an East Texas refinery town with a volatile yet loving family: her emotionally unstable painter mother, seven times married; a fist-swinging father who spun tales with his cronies - dubbed the Liars' Club; and a neighborhood rape when she was eight. (10 up)

Kovic, Ron. Born on the Fourth of July
Paralyzed in the Vietnam War, 21-year-old Ron Kovic has little support from his country and its government. (11-12)

Lightfoot, Sara Lawrence. Balm in Gilead: Journey of a Healer
A daughter’s biography of her mother from childhood in Mississippi through college and medical school to personal and professional fulfillment as a child psychiatrist in New York. (11-12)

Malcolm X, with the assistance of Alex Haley. The Autobiography of Malcolm X
A noted African-American writer traces the transformation of a great and controversial Black Muslim figure from street hustler to religious and national leader. (9 up)

Massie, Robert K. Nicholas and Alexandra
At the brink of revolution, the last Tsar of Russia and his family become victims of their own mismanagement and personal problems. (11-12)

Mathabane, Mark. Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth’s Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa
Growing up under apartheid, a young black boy uses his tennis talent to break down racial barriers and escape to a better life in America. (9 up)

McCourt, Frank. Angela’s Ashes
This best-selling memoir tells the story of the cold, hard life of a poor Irish Catholic family. The father is a mean, cold-hearted man who constantly spends his and his children's money on liquor, while the mother, Angela, must worry about the rent and the well-being of her children. Even though several die from starvation and cold before the age of five, McCourt manages to portray these tragedies with humor and dignity. (10 up)

Mowat, Farley. Woman in the Mists: The Story of Dian Fossey and the Mountain Gorillas of Africa
Dian Fossey sacrifices her finances, friends, health and ultimately her life to protect the endangered African mountain gorillas. (9 up)

Steffan, Joseph. Honor Bound: A Gay American Fights for the Right to Serve His Country Steffan, a high-ranking, well-liked cadet at Annapolis, is forced to resign just six weeks before graduation when he reveals he is gay. (11-12)


General Non-Fiction

Adams, Douglas. Last Chance to See
Adams delivers a humorous, touching view of his travels to find endangered species around the world. (9 up)

Bill Bryson. A Walk in the Woods : Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail Interspersed with the vignettes of life hiking the trail, Bryson gives a sobering account of the health of the nation’s undeveloped lands. (9 up)

Bernstein, Cad, and Bob Woodward. All the President’s Men
Two reporters reveal how they unraveled the events that led to Nixon’s resignation from the presidency. (11-12)

Dorris, Michael. The Broken Cord
Dorris shares the triumphs and difficulties of life with his adopted child, a victim of fetal alcohol syndrome. (11-12)

Hafner, Katie. Where Wizards Stay Up Late : The Origins of the Internet
A solid, entertaining history of the Internet which explains the system’s genesis —and how, as with many of us, e-mail was the application of choice for many users. It also tells of the story of the engineers who invented the Internet—in contrast to the late-night hackers who pushed its evolution. (11-12)

Nabhan, Gary. The Desert Smells Like Rain: A Naturalist in Papago Indian Country
Nature plays a vital part in Papago Indian culture. (9 up)

Quindlen, Anna. Thinking Out Loud
Op-ed pieces from The New York Times underscore Quindlen’s thoughts on human rights, abortion, and justice. (11-12)

Terkel, Studs. Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel about the American Obsession This kaleidoscope covers the full range of America’s views on racial issues. (11-12)


Timeless Classics

Austen, Jane. Emma (or any title)
A supremely self-assured young lady is determined to arrange her life and the lives of all around her into a pattern dictated by her romantic fancy. (11-12)

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice
Mrs. Bennet scrambles to find husbands for her five daughters in a gentle satire of human weakness and prejudice. (11-12)

Avi. Nothing but the Truth
When Philip Malloy hums along with “The Star Spangled Banner” in homeroom, no one expects a national media event (9 up)

Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre (or any title)
Poor orphaned Jane is rejected by her guardian, loved by handsome, sardonic Mr. Rochester, and forced to flee him. (11-12)

Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights
A powerful tale of passionate lovers and the supernatural on the Yorkshire moors. (11-12)

Cather, Willa. My Antonia (or any title)
This unconventional novel of prairie life tells the story of a remarkable woman whose strength and passion epitomize the pioneer spirit. Antonia Shimerda returns to Black Hawk, Nebraska, to made a fresh start after eloping with a railway conductor following the tragic death of her father. (10 up)

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening
In 1900 New Orleans, bored and beautiful Edna Pontellier seeks a new identity as she is awakened to the possibilities of a new love-- and its consequences. (11-12)

Dickens, Charles, any novel.

Fitzgerald, Scott. Tender is the Night (or any title)
A Jazz Age story of Americans on the French Riviera in the 1930s is a portrait of psychological disintegration as the wealthy American couple Dick and Nicole Diver supports friends and hangers-on financially and emotionally, only to find the cost is deadly. (10 up)

Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary
Emma Bovary is beautiful, frustrated and bored. She is also fascinating. Flaubert’s novel was both hailed as a masterpiece and condemned as obscenely romantic. (11-12)

Gaines, Ernest J. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
In her 100 years as an African-American woman, Miss Jane Pittman experiences it all, from slavery to the civil rights movement. (11-12)

Hardy, Thomas. Any novel.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter
In Puritan Massachusetts, a beautiful unwed mother, a vengeful abandoned husband and a minister who strays from the path of righteousness are caught in a web of conflict and suspicion. (10 up)

Hemingway, Ernest The Old Man and the Sea (or any title)
An old Cuban fisherman fights a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin. (9 up)

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God (or any title)
Powerful novel of an African-American woman growing up in Florida in the 1930s, and her discovery through three marriages of her own voice and identity. (11-12)

McCullers, Carson. The Member of the Wedding
A young southern girl is determined to be the third party on a honeymoon, despite all the advice against it from friends and family. (9 up)

Orwell, George. Animal Farm
Political satire: animals turn the tables on their masters, only to recreate human corruption. (9-10)

Potok, Charm. The Chosen
A perceptive and compassionate tale of two Brooklyn boys journeying from boyhood to manhood in the Jewish Hasidic tradition. (9 up)

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Fellowship of the Ring
Middle Earth becomes the battleground between good and evil as Frodo struggles to destroy the ring of power and greed (9 up)

Walker, Alice. The Color Purple
In a series of letters to God and her sister, Celie reveals her struggle to overcome the violence and brutality in her life. (11-12)

Wharton, Edith. Ethan Frome (or any title)
Set in the bleak, barren winter landscape of New England, it is the tragic tale of a simple man, bound to the demands of his farm and his tyrannical, sickly wife, Zeena, and driven by his star-crossed love for Zeena's young cousin, Mattie Silver. (10 up)

Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse (or any title)
In this novel about the vacationing Ramsay family and their relationship with their guests, members of the Ramsay family fall away from each other through normal familial difficulties heightened by the tragedy of war. Woolf explores each character's individual feelings and struggles. (11-12)


Social and Personal Issues

Crutcher, Chris. Staying Fat for Sarah Bymes.
Eric, a self-described fat kid, and Sarah, a girl with disfiguring burn scars, are drawn together by the insensitivity of their classmates. What happens to their friendship when Eric loses weight and begins to explore the abuse behind Sarah’s burns? (9 up)

Fuhrman, Chris. The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys: A Novel
These parochial school boys have the souls of artists and the hormones of 13-year old cynics. This novel is often outrageously comic, but there is an underlying sadness. Growing up can, indeed, be dangerous. (11-12)

Gaines, Ernest J. A Lesson Before Dying
An impossible assignment for a school teacher in 1940’s Louisiana: to teach a young black man, wrongly accused in a liquor store murder, to go to the electric chair with dignity. (9 up)

Hoffman, Alice. Local Girls
Gretel Samuelson; her best friend Jill; her mother, Franny; and Franny's cousin Margot weave in and out of each of the 15 related stories that chronicle the rocky years of Gretel's adolescence. Gretel's brilliant older brother, Jason, becomes a drug addict; their mother must battle cancer; and Gretel becomes involved in a destructive relationship with a drug dealer. (10 up)

Kingsolver, Barbara. Animal Dreams
Codi Noline learns secrets about her past that change her future when she returns home to care for her ailing father and to teach high school biology. (11-12)

Kotlowitz, Alex. There are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America
Journalist Kotlowitz spent a summer with twelve-year-old Lafayette and his nine-year-old brother Pharaoh, experiencing the violence and desolation of life in a Chicago housing project where the children have already “seen too much to be children.” (9 up)

Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies
Mr. Kapasi works as an interpreter for a doctor who does not speak his patients' language; he also drives tourists to local sites of interest. One day his fare is Mr. and Mrs. Das--first-generation Americans of Indian descent. During the course of the afternoon, Mr. Kapasi becomes enamored of Mrs. Das and she reads too much into his profession, telling him a startling secret. Great short stories! (10-12)

Mowry, Jess. Way Past Cool
Thirteen-year-old Gordon is the leader of a gang of African-American boys struggling to hold a few blocks of bleak turf in Oakland, California. (9 up)

Wolfe, Tom. The Bonfire of the Vanities
Sherman McCoy is a young investment banker who's got it all: the right high-paying, high-powered job on Wall Street, the right connections, the right co-op, the right wife and child, even the right mistress. Life is good -- until he's involved in a freak accident in the Bronx. Suddenly, prosecutors, politicians, the press, police, clergy, and assorted hustlers are closing in on him, licking their chops. (10 up)


Science Facts/Science Fiction

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451
Reading is a crime and firemen burn books in this futuristic society. (9 up)

Card, Orson Scott. Ender’s Game
This futuristic tale involves aliens, political discourse on the Internet, sophisticated computer games, and an orbiting battle station. In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race’s next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. (9 up)

David Day. The Search for King Arthur
Highly romantic and colorfully illustrated retelling of the popular tales of the Arthurian legend. (9 up)

Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Rick Deckard is an officially sanctioned bounty hunter whose job is to find rogue androids and to “retire” them. But when cornered, androids tend to fight back, with deadly results. The inspiration for the film Blade Runner. (11-12)

Hawking, Stephen W. A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes
Cosmology becomes understandable as the author discusses the origin, evolution, and fate of our universe. (11-12)

Jacques, Bnan. Redwall
This is the tale of fantasy, adventure, and’ romance, in which the heroes are the gentle mice of Mossflower Wood and the villains are Cluny the Scourge and his battle-seasoned army of rats. (9 up)

Krauss, Lawrence M. The Physics of Star Trek
Krauss uses examples from Star Trek’s tomorrow to explain today’s physics. Go boldly to this book to learn about warp drive, the holodeck, antimatter, time loops. Could this really happen?
(11-12)

Le Guin, Ursula, The Left Hand of Darkness
Genly Pd is an emissary from the human galaxy to Winter, a lost, stray world. His mission is to bring the planet back into the fold of an evolving galactic civilization, but to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own culture and prejudices and those that he encounters — on a planet where people are of no gender—or both. (11-12)

Lewis, Michael. The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story
A profile of Netscape creator Jim Clark, this is one of the first books fully to depict the sort of man that has made such companies possible. It shows how the pursuit of power at its highest levels (“the greatest legal creation of wealth in the history of the planet”) can lead to the very edges of the surreal. (10 up)

McCarthy, Susan, & Jeffrey Masson. When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals
The authors present compelling evidence that animals do indeed have the capacity to feel the gamut of emotions that have long been thought to be the exclusive property of humans. (9 up)

McPhee, John. The Control of Nature
McPhee turns his attention to Alaska, the last American frontier. (9 up)

Morrow, James. Towing Jehovah
God is dead: his two-mile-long body must be towed to the Arctic. (Captain Van Horne faces this challenge with a militant-atheist girlfriend as well as ecological guilt, the demands of the Vatican, and a mutinous crew. (11-12)

Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse Five, or the Children’s Crusade
Billy Pilgrim, an optometrist from Ilium, New York, shuttles between the cellars of Dresden and a luxurious zoo on the planet Tralfamadore. (9 up)

White, T.H. The Once and Future King
The life of King Arthur from boyhood to Holy Grail is retold with lively wit and wisdom. (9 up)


Animals and Other Creatures

Mowat, Farley. Never Cry Wolf
The author wryly recounts his solitary adventures investigating the lives, loves, and eating habits of Arctic wolves. (9 up)

Preston, Richard. The Hot Zone
The dramatic true story of a lethal virus that infiltrated, and almost escaped from, an army research facility outside Washington, DC in 1989. (9 up)

Roberts, Monty. The Man Who Listens to Horses
A real-life “horse whisperer” discusses his unconventional and gentle equine training methods, his unique ability to communicate with horses, and the applications of his communication skills in the corporate world. (11-12)


Sports

Asinoff, Eliot. Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series
It’s all here: the players, the scandal, the shame, and the damage the 1919 World Series caused for America’s national pastime. (9 up)

Bissinger, H.G. Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and a Dream
A revealing and often alarming account of how the culture of high school football dominates the way of life in a Texas town. (11-12)

Blais, Madeleine. In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle
A riveting close-up of the girls on a high school basketball team the Amherst Hurricanes, whose passion for the sport is equaled by their loyalty to one another. (9 up)

Courtenay, Bryce. The Power of One
The engaging story of a young English boy in South America during the 1940s whose belief in himself and his destiny as a boxing champion helps him overcome the superstition and prejudice of the time and place. (11-12)

Feinstein, John. A Good Walk Spoiled: Days and Nights on the PGA Tour
Inside view of the world of gold from a reporter who followed the circuit in 1993-94. (11-12)

Horrigan, Kevin. The Right Kind of Heroes: Coach Bob Shannon and the East St. Louis Flyers
Success comes from effort and practice in this true story of a coach and his football team in a rundown ghetto school. (9 up)

Various editors. Best American Sports Writing
Yearly roundup of exceptional writing on sports from the NFL to figure skating. (11-12)


Librarian’s Suggestions

Allende, Isabel. Daughter of Fortune
A girl from Chile follows her lover to Gold Rush California. (11-12)

Chevalier, Tracy. Girl With A Pearl Earring
A girl’s life is transformed when she becomes a maid for Dutch Painter Vermeer. (11-12)

Goldberg, Myla. Bee Season
A spelling bee winner finds odd changes in her life (9 up)

Hoffman, Alice. The River King
An unsolved death in Haddan, Massachusetts affects the lives of all. (11-12)

Katz, John. Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out Of Idaho (9 up)

Kluger, Steve. Last Days Of Summer
A young boy’s life is changed when he starts a correspondence with a famous baseball player. (9 up)

McCarthy, Cormac. All The Pretty Horses
Adventures of one of the last of a long line of Texas ranchers “where dreams are paid for in blood”. (11-12)

McKinley, Robin. Spindle’s End.
An infant princess is kidnapped by a vengeful fairy.... (9 up)

New York Times recommended paperbacks


Colapinto, John . As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl
A vivid true-life account of a botched circumcision and its aftermath. (11-12)

Nixon, Rob. Dreambirds: The Strange History of the Ostrich in Fashion, Food, and Fortune
A witty look at these gawky birds and the author's South African childhood. (9 up)

Philbrick, Nathaniel . In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
A harrowing re-creation of the 1820 whaling disaster that inspired Moby Dick. (10-12)

Klemperer, Victor . I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1942-1945.
The second volume of the author's daily experiences as a Jew in Nazi Germany. (11-12)

Scott, Joanna. Make Believe
Novel about a young boy in the middle of a custody battle. (10-12)

MacLeod, Alistair. No Great Mischief
A novel about the Scottish fishermen of Cape Breton. (10-12)

Frazier, Ian On the Rez
An unflinching account of the dirt-poor Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. (11-12)