Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| Other People's Childrenby Joanna Trollope
Hardcover - 294 pagesViking Pr; ISBN: 0670885134 Paperback Berkley Pub Group; ISBN: 0425174379 Audio Cassette unabridged edition Penguin Audiobooks; ISBN: 0140869115 Reviews and Articles
From the bestselling author of "The Best of Friends" comes a wry and
empathetic portrait of the extended family. No one delves more fearlessly
into the emotional and practical dynamics of family life than Joanna
Trollope. In the words of "The New York Times", "Like a good kitchen
chat, Joanna Trollope's novels dish out equal measures of reassuring
warmth and sobering insight". | Subject: Literature/Fiction
| Rated:7digest27 digest29 digest30 digest35
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Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| The Chamomile Lawnby Mary Wesley
Paperback - 335 pagesPenguin USA (Paper); ISBN: 014012392X Audio Cassette (abridged) Trafalgar Square; ISBN: 1859988644 Reviews and Articles
Sad, funny, and whimsical, The Camomile Lawn is the story of one
extended family's adventures in London during the Blitz. "A distinctive,
absorbing novel, told with a true storyteller's verve, an enchanting ability
to involve, touch and surprise the reader." | Subject: Literature/Fiction
| Rated:8Page 1 Page 2 Page 3
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Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stoneby JK Rowling
Hardcover - 309 pagesArthur A. Levine Books; ISBN: 0590353403 Paperback - 312 pages Arthur a Levine; ISBN: 059035342X Reviews and Articles
What did Harry Potter know about magic? He was stuck with the
decidedly un-magical Dursleys, who hated him. He slept in a closet and
ate their leftovers. But an owl messenger changes all that, with an
invitation to attend the Hogwarts School for Wizards and Witches, where
it turns out Harry is already famous | Subject: Childrens Books
| Rated:8Page 1 Page 2
| |
Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| Falling Leavesby Adeline Yen Mah
Hardcover - 304 pagesJohn Wiley & Sons; ISBN: 0471247421 Paperback - 278 pages Broadway Books; ISBN: 0767903579 Reviews and Articles
This enthralling, emotionally wrenching saga of a prosperous Chinese
family, living during a time of political upheaval in China, reveals the
effects of communism and capitalism on a family caught in the collision of
East and West. Photos | Subject: Biographies/Memoirs
| Rated:7Page 1 Page 2 Page 2
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Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| Desert Flowerby Waris Diri
Paperback - 240 pagesQuill; ISBN: 0688172377 Hardcover - 224 pages William Morrow & Co; ISBN: 0688158234 Reviews and Articles
Desert Flower recounts the life story of Somalian Waris Dirie, an international supermodel
and human rights ambassador for the United Nations. of color photos. | Subject: Biographies
| Rated:8
| |
Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| Remains of the Dayby Kazuo Ishiguro
Paperback - 245 pagesVintage Books; ISBN: 0679731725 Reviews and Articles
A tragic, spiritual portrait of a perfect English butler and his reaction to his fading insular world in
post-war England. A wonderful, wonderful book. | Subject: Literature & Fiction
| Rated:
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Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| Snow Falling on Cedarsby David Guterson
Paperback - 460 pagesVintage Books; ISBN: 067976402X Hardcover - 352 pages Harcourt Brace; ISBN: 0151004439 ; Reviews and Articles
A Japanese-American fisherman is charged with murder, and around his trial comes a
haunting fugue of memory, including the childhood romance between a white boy and a
Japanese girl, a land dispute, and wartime interment. | Subject: Fiction
| Rated:331-360 361-390
| |
Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| Pillars of the Earthby Ken Follett
Mass Market Paperback - 983 pagesNew American Library; ISBN: 0451166892 Audio Cassette unabridged edition Vol 1-2 Brilliance Corp; ISBN: 0930435524 Reviews and Articles
Ken Follett, internationally-acclaimed master of split-second suspense, author of six #1
bestsellers, reaches beyond the expected to achieve his most brilliant and remarkable novel.
The epic story of the building of a cathedral in 12th century England and the lives of the
people entwined with it and each other is a sensuous, enduring narrative, and a gripping tale
of faith, ambition, bloodshed and betrayal. | Subject: Fiction
| Rated:361-390 391-420
| |
Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| The Ridersby Tim Winton
PaperbackScribner; ISBN: 0684822776 Hardcover - 377 pages Scribner Book Company; ISBN: 0684802961 Audio Cassette Bolinda Pr Amer; ISBN: 1863406077 Reviews and Articles
A man's search for his missing wife is at the center of this superbly written novel of
obsession and emotional torment, written by the award-winning author of Cloudstreet.
Winton is the author of 13 books, including That Eye, the Sky, which was made into a
movie starring Peter Coyote | Subject: Fiction
| Rated:6393-422
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Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| A Year in Provenceby Peter Mayle
Paperback - 207 pagesVintage Books; ISBN: 0679731148 Hardcover - 207 pages Knopf; ISBN: 0394572300 Audio Cassette Audio Renaissance; ISBN: 1559271701 Reviews and Articles
A funny--and often hilarious--month-by-month account of the charms and frustrations of moving
into an old French farmhouse in Provence and adapting to a very different way of life. | Subject: Fiction
| Rated:8393-422
| |
Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| What Dreams May Comeby Richard Matheson
Mass Market Paperback - 278 pages Tor Books (Mm); ISBN: 0812570944 Hardcover - 293 pages Gauntlet; ISBN: 1887368175 Reviews and Articles
A classic novel of love after death, from one our greatest fantasy writers. The premise is deceptively
simple: Chris Neilson has died in a car accident, but his life-force--his spirit--is still conscious of this
plane of reality. And he is still too in love with his wife, Ann, to completely let go. She in turn does
not want to go on living without him, as each regards the other as their soul mate. What Chris will do
to get back with Ann after she dies makes for one of the most unusual love stories ever told. Even
though the story can be enjoyed as pure fantasy, what makes What Dreams May Come unique is
how the author spent years researching the subject of life after death. (An exhaustive bibliography is
included to verify this.) And while Matheson admits that the characters are of course fictional, he
also states that "With few exceptions, every other detail is derived exclusively from research."
Whether, after reading this novel, one believes in life after death is of course a matter of opinion. At
least you'll entertain the possibility that, even though we may not live forever, true love can be
eternal. | Subject: Romance
| Rated:7digest27 digest29 digest30 digest35
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Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| Brideshead Revisitedby Evelyn Waugh
Paperback - 351 pages Little Brown & Co (Pap); ISBN: 0316926345 Hardcover - 315 pages Knopf; ISBN: 0679423001 Reviews and Articles
Evelyn Waugh's best-loved novel and the basis for the PBS television production, Brideshead
Revisited, the epic story of a great Catholic family in a doomed aristocratic age | Subject: Literature and Fiction
| Rated:digest27 digest29 digest30 digest35
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Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| Poisonwood Bibleby Barbara Kingsolver
Paperback - 566 pagesHarperperennial Library; ISBN: 0060930535 Hardcover - 546 pages Harperflamingo; ISBN: 0060175400 Reviews and Articles
In her first novel since "Pigs in Heaven", Kingsolver offers a compelling exploration of religion,
conscience, imperialist arrogance, and the many paths to redemption. An American missionary and
his family travel to the Congo in 1959, a time of tremendous political and social upheaval. Web
feature. | Subject: Literature and Fiction
| Rated:digest27 digest29 digest30 digest35
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Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| Deep End of the Oceanby Jacquelyn Mitchard
Mass Market Paperback - 447 pagesSignet; ISBN: 0451197747 Hardcover Econo-Clad Books; ISBN: 0613033191 Reviews and Articles
A critically acclaimed, best-selling novel tells of the Cappadora family's struggle for emotional
survival and renewal following the sudden and heartbreaking disappearance of their child. | Subject: Literature and Fiction
| Rated:digest27 digest29 digest30 digest35
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Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| Wuthering Heightsby Emily Bronte
Paperback - 315 pagesBantam Classics; ISBN: 0553212583 Hardcover Everymans Library; ISBN: 0679405437 Reviews and Articles
Bronte reveals an uncanny understanding of the terrible truths about men and women, in a
convincing, unsentimental account of passionate love. | Subject: Literature and Fiction
| Rated:digest27 digest29 digest30 digest35
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Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| An Equal Musicby Vikram Seth
Paperback - 400 pages Vintage Books; ISBN: 037570924X Hardcover - 381 pages Broadway Books; ISBN: 0767902912 Reviews and Articles
An Equal Music shows Seth to be at the top of his form: It is a tour de force of poetic,
impassioned writing, conjuring brilliantly the worlds of Beethoven and Bach, of Vienna, Venice, and
London, of individual heartache and the familial bonds that tie a quartet. Interweaving themes of
loss, longing, and the power of music, An Equal Music is a deeply affecting story about the strands
of passion that run through all our lives, masterfully confirming Vikram Seth as one of the world's
finest and most daring novelists.
| Subject: Literature and Fiction
| Rated:Discussion
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Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| Confederates in the Atticby Tony Horwitz
Paperback - 406 pages Random House; ISBN: 067975833X Hardcover - 406 pages Broadway Books; ISBN: 0767902912 Reviews and Articles
One of the prerequisites for a harmonious nation is the capacity to forget the pain of the past.
Britons never seriously declare their personal resentment over the ill treatment of Saxons after the
Norman Conquest. According to Horwitz's delightful but unsettling chronicle of his tour of the Old
South, many people have yet to make peace with the past. In a South Carolina town, whites relate
to Horwitz their pride in the "lost cause," even equating southern valor with the courage of Martin
Luther King; a black preacher explains that affection for the "cause" strikes him as an endorsement
of slavery. Esteemed Civil War scholar Shelby Foote strives to explain the origins of the Klan as the
reaction to a perceived foreign occupation. In Baghdad without A Map, Horwitz displayed the gift
of revealing the humanity of ordinary people that lies beneath the turbulence of the Middle East. This
outstanding work shows his gift is still intact. It also shows that this nation still hasn't learned to
cherish the past while forgetting the pain.
| Subject: Literature and Fiction
| Rated:Discussion
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Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| In the Fallby Jeffrey Lent
Hardcover - 542 pagesAtlantic Monthly Pr; ISBN: 0871137658 Reviews and Articles
To say that this is an astonishing piece of work
for a
first-time novelist underrates it. This is an
astonishing piece of work--period. This epic
story of
three generations of Americans opens as the Civil
War
is ending. Part 1 takes place on the Pehlam
family
farm in Vermont, where Union soldier Norman
returns
with his bride, a runaway slave called Leah. Part
2
seems to turn its back on the first, as does
Norman
and Leah's youngest child and only son, Jamie, in
his
flight to New Hampshire. Light-skinned enough to
"pass," even to his wife and children, Jamie
lives a
hard, fast life as a bootlegger. Only on the
death of
his father does Jamie's son Foster begin to piece
together, in the deep Southern early home of his
grandmother, the fragments of the past that
reveal to
him the truth about Leah's history and her fate.
No
part of Lent's narrative is superficial. Loamy
and
visceral, Lent's writing is deeply introspective,
intelligent, and beautifully descriptive.
| Subject: Literature and Fiction
| Rated:Discussion
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Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| The Green Mileby Stephen King
Mass Market Paperback - 536 pages Pocket Books; ISBN: 0671041789 Reviews and Articles
The
Stand, a new prisoner at Cold Mountain
Penitentiary
presents an unusual dilemma for jaded prison
guard
Paul Edgecombe.
.
| Subject: Literature and Fiction
| Rated:Discussion
| |
Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| The Pactby Jodi Picoult
Paperback - 394 pagesQuill Books; ISBN: 0688170528 Reviews and Articles
When a so-called "suicide pact" between their
teenage
children goes awry--leaving only one child
dead--the
parents, who have been friends for 18 years, find
themselves caught up in an anguished courtroom
drama.
| Subject: Literature and Fiction
| Rated:Discussion
| |
Book TitleBook SynopsisRating & Digest Comments
| Little Womenby LM Alcott
Mass Market Paperback Tor Books; ISBN: 0812523334 Reviews and Articles
Alcott's popular work about the four March
sisters--Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy--has been a
best-loved
story for generations
| Subject: Literature and Fiction
| Rated:Discussion
| |
Rating Scale Used10 = One of the best books I have ever read; 9 = Terrific; couldn't put it down; 8 = Very good; 7 = Good; 6 = Enjoyed parts of it; 5 = I didn't particularly like it or dislike it; mixed review; 4 = An "okay" book, but I don't recommend it; 3 = Poor, lost interest; 2 = Awful; didn't finish it; 1= Don't waste your time; 0 = One of the worst books I have ever read |
