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PBS's Great American Read
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Here's the list of the 100 Books from our Library Catalog. Vote!
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1984
by George Orwell
Portrays life in a future time when a totalitarian government watches over all citizens and directs all activities
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A confederacy of dunces
by John Kennedy Toole
A popular Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy follows the adventures of New Orleans's lower denizens of the French Quarter.
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A prayer for Owen Meany
by John Irving
While playing baseball in the summer of 1953, Owen Meany hits a foul ball that kills his best friend's mother, and he becomes convinced that he is an instrument of God
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A separate peace
by John Knowles
A conflict of loyalties between Gene and his fearless friend, Phineas, leads to tragedy
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A tree grows in Brooklyn
by Betty Smith
Young Francie Nolan, having inherited both her father's romantic and her mother's practical nature, struggles to survive and thrive growing up in the slums of Brooklyn in the early twentieth century
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The adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain
Chronicles the boyhood escapades and adventures of Tom Sawyer and his friend, Huckleberry Finn, as they grow up in a small town along the Mississippi River
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I, Alex Cross : a novel (Alex Cross series)by James PattersonDetermined to capture the psychopath responsible for murdering his niece, Alex Cross discovers that the young woman was among a dangerous group of people and was not the only one to have disappeared, a case that draws Alex into the heart of an underworld fantasy club.
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Alice's adventures in Wonderland and Through the looking-glass by Lewis Carroll"First published in 1865, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland began as a story told to Alice Liddell and her two sisters on a boating trip in July 1862. The novel follows Alice down a rabbit-hole and into a world of strange and wonderful characters who constantly turn everything upside down with their mind-boggling logic, word play, and fantastic parodies.
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Americanah : a novel
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Separated by differing ambitions after falling in love in occupied Nigeria, beautiful Ifemelu experiences triumph and defeat in America, while Obinze endures an undocumented status in London until the pair is reunited in their homeland fifteen years later
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And then there were none
by Agatha Christie
A killer stalks a group of ten total strangers on an isolated island off the Devon coast, in a suspenseful story of murder and retribution, set to a sinister nursery rhyme
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Another country
by James Baldwin
Eight people become entangled in a web of interpersonal relationships, doomed to become as savage and destructive as the society which oppresses them
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Atlas shrugged
by Ayn Rand
The decisions of a few industrial leaders shake the roots of capitalism and reawaken man's awareness of himself as a heroic being, in a special centennial edition of the seminal novel, first published in 1957. Reissue.
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Beloved : a novel by Toni MorrisonSethe, an escaped slave living in post-Civil War Ohio with her daughter and mother-in-law, is haunted persistently by the ghost of the dead baby girl whom she sacrificed, in a new edition of the Nobel Laureate's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.
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Bless me, Ultima
by Rudolfo A. Anaya
Chronicles the story of an alienated New Mexico boy who seeks an answer to his questions about life in his relationship with Ultima, a magical healer, in a twenty-fifth anniversary edition of the classic novel, which comes complete with a special reading group guide. Reprint.
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The book thief
by Markus Zusak
Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors
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The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao
by Junot Díaz
Living with an old-world mother and rebellious sister, an urban New Jersey misfit dreams of becoming the next J.R.R. Tolkien and believes that a long-standing family curse is thwarting his efforts to find love and happiness
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The call of the wild
by Jack London
A young dog, abused by men and his hungry rivals on a Klondike dog team, escapes to the wilderness and joins a wolfpack
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Catch-22 by Joseph HellerA new publication of Joseph Heller's classic WWII black comedy includes a new introduction by Christopher Buckley, bonus material in the back matter and variant covers, in a novel that follows American bomber pilot Yossarian on his harrowing quest for the final mission that will free him from his military obligation.
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The catcher in the rye
by J. D. Salinger
A 16-year old American boy relates in his own words the experiences he goes through at school and after, and reveals with unusual candour the workings of his own mind. What does a boy in his teens think and feel about his teachers, parents, friends and acquaintances?
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Charlotte's web
by E. B. White
Wilbur the pig is upset when he discovers that he is destined to be the farmer's Christmas dinner until his spider friend, Charlotte, decides to help him
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The clan of the cave bear
by Jean M. Auel
Ayla, an injured and orphaned child adopted by a primitive tribe, carries within her the seed and hope of humankind in this epic of survival and destiny set at the dawn of prehistory. Reissue.
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The coldest winter ever : a novel
by Souljah
Winter Santiaga, the daughter of one of Brooklyn's most powerful drug czars, uses her own weapons--including sex and an aggressive attitude--to stay on top, after her father's empire is threatened by a drug war. Reader's Guide included. Reprint.
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The color purple
by Alice Walker
The lives of two sisters--Nettie, a missionary in Africa, and Celie, a southern woman married to a man she hates--are revealed in a series of letters exchanged over thirty years
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The count of Monte Cristo
by Alexandre Dumas
Edmund Dantès, betrayed by his enemies and unjustly convicted of aiding the exiled Napoleon, escapes after fourteen years of imprisonment in the Château d'If and embarks on a carefully crafted plot to seek his revenge
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The curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark HaddonAfter stumbling upon his neighbor's dog, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork and being blamed for the killing, fifteen-year-old Christopher John Francis Boone, an autistic savant obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, decides to track down the real killer and turns to his detective hero to help him with the investigation, which brings him face to face with a family crisis. A first novel.
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The Da Vinci code
by Dan Brown
Adapted for a new generation of readers and published to coincide with the release of the film, Inferno, a young adult edition of Brown's mega best-seller follows the experiences of a Harvard religious symbology professor who, in the wake of a Louvre curator's murder, uncovers a conspiracy with ties to an ancient-world secret. Simultaneous eBook.
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Don Quixote
by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
""The final and greatest utterance of the human mind." -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky. A founding work of modern Western literature, Cervantes' masterpiece has been translated into more than 60 languages and the novel's elderly knight, Don Quixote, and his loyal squire, Sancho Panza, rank among fiction's most recognized characters. This monumental parody of chivalric romances and epic of heroic idealism presents a strikingly contemporary narrative that also reflects the historical realities of 17th century Spain"
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Dune
by Frank Herbert
"Science fiction's supreme masterpiece, Dune will be forever considered a triumph of the imagination. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, it is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who will become the mysterious man known as Muad'Dib. Paul's noble family isnamed stewards of Arrakis, whose sands are the only source of a powerful drug called "the spice." After his family is brought down in a traitorous plot, Paul must go undercover to seek revenge, and to bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream. A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction. "
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Flowers in the attic
by V. C. Andrews
The four Dollanganger children move to their grandparents house with their mother. But things are not as they seem. Their mother then locks them in an abandoned wing of the large house and tells them it's only for a few days
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Foundation : Foundation and empire ; Second foundation
by Isaac Asimov
The Foundation, established after the Old Empire gives way to barbarism, fights against a mutant strain called the Mule and tries to get rid of the Second Foundation after learning it will inherit a future Empire
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Ghost
by Jason Reynolds
Aspiring to be the fastest sprinter on his elite middle school's track team, gifted runner Ghost finds his goal challenged by a tragic past with a violent father
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Gilead
by Marilynne Robinson
As the Reverend John Ames approaches the hour of his own death, he writes a letter to his son chronicling three previous generations of his family, a story that stretches back to the Civil War and reveals uncomfortable secrets about the family of preachers. Reader's Guide available. Reprint.
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The giver
by Lois Lowry
Living in a "perfect" world without social ills, a boy approaches the time when he will receive a life assignment from the Elders, but his selection leads him to a mysterious man known as the Giver, who reveals the dark secrets behind the utopian facade
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The godfather
by Mario Puzo
A fictional portrait journeys inside the world of the Cosa Nostra and its operations to chronicle the lives and fortunes of Mafia leader Vito Corleone, his family, and his underworld domain. Reissue.
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Gone girl : a novel
by Gillian Flynn
When a woman goes missing on her fifth wedding anniversary, her diary reveals hidden turmoil in her marriage, while her husband, desperate to clear himself of suspicion, realizes that something more disturbing than murder may have occurred
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Gone with the wind
by Margaret Mitchell
The turbulent romance of Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler is shaped by the ravages of the Civil War and Reconstruction
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The grapes of wrath
by John Steinbeck
Complemented by a reproduction of Elmer Hader's original Viking first edition cover illustration and other enhancements, a 75th anniversary edition of Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression shares insights into its influence and reflection of period politics.
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Great expectations
by Charles Dickens
Philip Pirrip - known more commonly as Pip - is an orphan. His visits to the mysterious Miss Havisham are his only escape from his childhood of poverty. But then an anonymous bequest changes his life for ever. And Pip soon discovers the merciless cruelty of love, and the harsh reality of his great expectations.
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The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
On the surface, mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby has everything, but he maintains a distance from those in his orbit, the guests at his constant decadent parties who indulge in all that sensuous 'Roaring Twenties' New York has to offer. Everything glitters, but beneath the glamour there is lost love, there is moral failure. Then, tragedy.
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Gulliver's travels
by Jonathan Swift
The unusual voyages of Englishman Lemuel Gulliver carry him to such strange locales as Lilliput, where the inhabitants are six inches tall; Brobdingnag, a land of giants; an island of sorcerers; and a nation ruled by horses
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The handmaid's tale
by Margaret Atwood
Offred, a Handmaid, describes life in what was once the United States, now the Republic of Gilead, a shockingly repressive and intolerant monotheocracy, in a satirical tour de force set in the near future
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Harry Potter and the sorcerer's stone
by J. K. Rowling
A winner of England's National Book Award, the acclaimed debut novel tells the outrageously funny, fantastic adventure story of Harry Potter, who escapes a hideous foster home thanks to a scholarship to The Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Reprint.
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Hatchet
by Gary Paulsen
After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days in the Canadian wilderness, learning to survive with only the aid of a hatchet given him by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents' divorce
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The help
by Kathryn Stockett
Limited and persecuted by racial divides in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, three women, including an African-American maid, her sassy and chronically unemployed friend and a recently graduated white woman, team up for a clandestine project against a backdrop of the budding civil rights era. Includes reading-group guide. Reissue. A #1 best-selling novel.
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The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
by Douglas Adams
Chronicles the journeys, notions, and acquaintances of reluctant galactic traveler Arthur Dent, accompanied by never-before-published material from the late author's archives as well as commentary by famous fans
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The Hunger Games : catching fire
by Suzanne Collins
By winning the Hunger Games, Katniss and Peeta have secured a life of safety and plenty for themselves and their families, but because they won by defying the rules, they unwittingly become the faces of an impending rebellion
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The Hunt for Red October
by Tom Clancy
Both the Americans and the Soviets commence an intense naval search when a trusted and skilled Soviet naval officer defects—using the USSR's most valuable nuclear submarine as his escape vehicle. Reissue. A best-selling novel. 50,000 first printing.
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The intuitionist [electronic resource]
by Colson Whitehead
As two factions at the Department of Elevator Inspectors--the Empiricists and the Intuitionists--wage war on each other, Intuitionist Lila Mae, the first black elevator inspector, faces bedlam when an elevator freefalls on her watch and the mysterious notebooks from the founder of Intuitionism suddenly appear. Reprint.
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Invisible Man
by Ralph Ellison
An African-American man's search for success and the American dream leads him out of college to Harlem and a growing sense of personal rejection and social invisibility. Reissue. 30,000 first printing.
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Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte
Book Annotation
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The Joy Luck Club [electronic resource] : Library Edition
by Amy Tan
Four mothers, four daughters, four families whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who's "saying" the stories. In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk. United inshared unspeakable loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Rather than sink into tragedy, they choose to gather to raise their spirits and money. "To despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable." Forty years later the stories and history continue
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Jurassic Park : Library Edition
by Michael Crichton
An American bioengineering research firm erects a theme park on a Caribbean island, complete with living dinosaurs, and invites a group of scientists to be its first terrified guests
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Left behind : A Novel of the Earth's Last Days
by Tim F. LaHaye
After millions of people around the world vanish in one moment, in what many claim to be the Rapture, Rayford Steele begins a search for the truth amidst global chaos
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The little prince
by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
An aviator whose plane is forced down in the Sahara Desert encounters a little prince from a small planet who relates his adventures in seeking the secret of what is important in life
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Little women
by Louisa May Alcott
Chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters as they grow into young ladies in nineteenth-century New England
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Lonesome Dove : a novel
by Larry McMurtry
Chronicles a cattle drive in the nineteenth century from Texas to Montana, and follows the lives of Gus and Call, the cowboys heading the drive, Gus's woman, Lorena, and Blue Duck, a sinister Indian renegade
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Looking for Alaska
by John Green
Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash
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The lord of the rings
by J. R. R. Tolkien
Presents the epic depicting the Great War of the Ring, a struggle between good and evil in Middle-earth, following the odyssey of Frodo the hobbit and his companions on a quest to destroy the Ring of Power
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The lovely bones : a novel
by Alice Sebold
The spirit of fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon describes her murder, her surprise at her new home in heaven, and her witness to her family's grief, efforts to find the killer, and attempts to come to terms with what has happened
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The Martian : a novel
by Andy Weir
Stranded on Mars by a duststorm that compromised his space suit and forced his crew to leave him behind, astronaut Mark Watney struggles to survive in spite of minimal supplies and environmental challenges that test his ingenuity
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Memoirs of a geisha : a novel
by Arthur Golden
The "memoirs" of one of Japan's most celebrated geishas describes how, in 1929, as a little girl, she is sold into slavery; her efforts to learn the arts of the geisha; the impact of World War II; and her struggle to reinvent herself to win the man she loves. Reprint. 200,000 first printing.
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Moby Dick : Moby Dick
by Herman Melville
In graphic novel format, retells Melville's classic about a fanatical sea captain who hunts the great white whale that maimed him and destroyed his ship; provides discussion topics and biographical information on Melville
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The notebook
by Nicholas Sparks
In a testimony to the lasting power of love, a man tells an elderly woman a story from a faded old notebook, his voice relating the heartbreaking tale of two lovers and their 50-year journey to happiness. Reissue. Movie tie-in.
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One hundred years of solitude
by Gabriel García Márquez
A celebration of the endless variety of life in the mythical village of Macondo chronicles the story of the Buendia family, set against the background of the evolution and eventual decadence of the small South American town. Reprint. 50,000 first printing.
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Outlander : a novel
by Diana Gabaldon
Hurtled back through time more than 200 years to Scotland in 1743, Claire Randall finds herself caught in the midst of an unfamiliar world torn apart by violence, pestilence and revolution and haunted by her growing feelings for James Fraser, a young soldier, in a 20th anniversary edition that includes a new essay, map and a CD with Outlander the musical.
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The outsiders
by S. E. Hinton
A revealing account of the tensions, fears, and frustrations of gang life from a teenage boy's point of view
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The picture of Dorian Gray
by Oscar Wilde
The handsome appearance of dissolute, young Dorian Gray remains unchanged while the features in his portrait become distorted as his degeneration progresses
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The pillars of the earth
by Ken Follett
A prior, a master builder, and their community try to build a cathedral to protect themselves while Stephen and the Empress Maud fight for the crown of England
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Ready player one
by Ernest Cline
Immersing himself in a mid-21st-century technological virtual utopia to escape an ugly real world of famine, poverty and disease, Wade Watts joins an increasingly violent effort to solve a series of puzzles by the virtual world's super-wealthy creator, who has promised that the winner will be his heir. (This book was previously listed in Forecast.)
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Rebecca
by Daphne Du Maurier
"The only hardcover edition of the beloved, internationally best-selling gothic mystery. EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY CONTEMPORARY CLASSICS. The unassuming young heroine of Rebecca finds her life changed overnight when she meets Maxim de Winter, a handsome and wealthy widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise. Rescuing her from an overbearing employer, de Winter whisks her off to Manderley, his isolated estate on the windswept Cornish coast--but there things take a chilling turn. Max seems haunted by the memory of his glamorous first wife, Rebecca, whose legacy is lovingly tended by the sinister housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers. As the second Mrs. de Winter finds herself increasingly burdened by the shadow of her mysterious predecessor, she becomesdetermined to uncover the dark secrets that threaten her happiness, no matter the cost"
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The shack : where tragedy confronts eternity : a novel
by William P Young
Four years after his daughter is abducted and evidence of her murder is found in an abandoned shack, Mackenzie Allen Philips returns to the shack in response to a note claiming to be from God, and has a life-changing experience
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Siddhartha : an Indian tale
by Hermann Hesse
Representing the letter “H” in a series of twenty-six collectible editions, describes the quest for spiritual illumination by a Brahmin who forgoes a life of sensual decadence and wealth for fasting, homelessness and meditation.
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The sirens of Titan
by Kurt Vonnegut
In a paperback re-release of a classic Vonnegut work, the world's wealthiest and most depraved man takes a wild space journey to distant worlds, where he learns about the deeper purpose of human life. Reissue.
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The stand : a novel
by Stephen King
A monumentally devastating plague leaves only a few survivors who, while experiencing dreams of a battle between good and evil, move toward an actual confrontation as they migrate to Boulder, Colorado
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Swan song
by Robert R McCammon
In a nightmarish, post-nuclear catastrophe world, an ancient evil roams a devastated America, gathering the forces of human greed and madness, searching for a child named Swan who possesses the gift of life
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Tales of the city
by Armistead Maupin
The eccentric, mysterious, naive, jaded, up-and-coming, down-and-out, adventuresome, and withdrawn boarders in Russian Hill share their dissimilar worlds and worries
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Their eyes were watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston
When Janie Starks returns to her rural Florida home, her small black community is overwhelmed with curiosity about her relationship with a younger man
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Things fall apart
by Chinua Achebe
A classic novel about the confrontation of African tribal life with colonial rule tells the tragic story of a warrior whose manly, fearless exterior conceals bewilderment, fear, and anger at the breakdown of his society. Reprint.
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This present darkness
by Frank E. Peretti
In a Christian thriller about spiritual warfare and the importance of prayer, a skeptical reporter and a pastor begin to compare notes when they suddenly find themselves fighting a hideous plot to subjugate the townspeople--and eventually the entire human race. Reprint.
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To kill a mockingbird
by Harper Lee
The explosion of racial hate and violence in a small Alabama town is viewed by a little girl whose father defends a black man accused of rape. Reissue.
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War and peace
by Leo Tolstoy
At a glittering society party in St Petersburg in 1805, conversations are dominated by the prospect of war. Terror swiftly engulfs the country as Napoleon's army marches on Russia, and the lives of three young people are changed forever.
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Watchers [sound recording] : Library Edition
by Dean R. Koontz
Two creatures, the end result of experiments in genetic engineering and enhanced intelligence, escape from a government laboratory and bring either doom or a touching new kind of love to those they encounter
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White Teeth
by Zadie Smith
Set in post-war London, this novel of the racial, political, and social upheaval of the last half-century follows two families--the Joneses and the Iqbals, both outsiders from within the former British empire--as they make their way in modern England. A first novel. Reprint. 200,000 first printing.
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