And we've got special boots that beat the path to my house.
Agee, James. A Death in the Family. 1957.
The enchanted childhood summer of 1915 suddenly becomes a baffling experience for Rufus Follet when his father dies.
Alvarez, Julia. In the Time of Butterflies. 1994.
Dede, the only survivor of the four Mirabel sisters, code named Mariposas or butterflies, reveals their role in the liberation of the Dominican Republic from the dictator Trujillo.
Anaya, Rudolfo. Bless Me, Ultima. 1972.
Ultima, a wise old mystic, helps a young Hispanic boy resolve personal dilemmas caused by the differing backgrounds and aspirations of his parents and society.
Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale. 1986.
In Gilead, a Christian fundamentalist dystopia, fertile lower-class women serve as birth-mothers for the upper class.
Butler, Octavia. Parable of the Sower. 1993.
Lauren Olamina, who suffers from a hereditary trait called "hyperempathy" that causes her to feel others' pain physically, journeys north along the dangerous highways of twentieth-first century California.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. 1899.
Edna Pontellier, an unhappy wife and mother, discovers new qualities in herself when she visits Grand Isle, a resort for the Creole elite of New Orleans.
Cisneros, Sandra. The House On Mango Street. 1991.
In short, poetic stories, Esperanza describes life in a low-income, predominantly Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago. (a re-read)
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment. 1866.
A sensitive intellectual is driven by poverty to believe himself exempt from moral law.
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. 1952.
A young African American seeking identity during his high school and college days, and later in New York's Harlem, relates his terrifying experiences.
[Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man -- chapter summary, reviews and essays, from Prof. Alan Fireis, University of Pennsylvania]
Emecheta, Buchi. Bride Price. 1976.
Aku-nna, a very young Ibo girl, and Chike, her teacher, fall in love despite tribal custom forbidding their romance.
Faulkner, William. The Bear. 1931.
Ike McCaslin's hunting trips for the legendary bear, Old Ben, are played out against opposing ideas of corruption and innocence.
Gardner, John. Grendel. 1971.
In a unique interpretation of the Beowulf legend, the monster Grendel relates his struggle to understand the ugliness in himself and mankind in the brutal world of fourteenth-century Denmark.
Gibbons, Kaye. Ellen Foster. 1987.
Casting an unflinching yet humorous eye on her situation, eleven-year-old Ellen survives her mother's death, an abusive father, and uncaring relatives to find for herself a loving home and a new mama.
Heller, Joseph. Catch-22. 1961.
In this satirical novel, Captain Yossarian confronts the hypocrisy of war and bureaucracy as he frantically attempts to survive.
Hemingway, Ernest. Farewell to Arms. 1929.
World War I is the setting for this love story of an English nurse and a wounded American ambulance officer.
Hesse, Hermann. Siddhartha. 1951.
Emerging from a kaleidoscope of experiences and tasted pleasures, Siddhartha transcends to a state of peace and mystic holiness in this strangely simple story.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. 1932.
In a chilling vision of the future, babies are produced in bottles and exist in a mechanized world without soul. (A re-read)
Keneally, Thomas. Schindler's List. 1982.
Oskar Schindler, a rich factory owner, risks his life and spends his personal fortune to save Jews listed as his workers during World War II.
King, Laurie R. The Beekeeper's Apprentice, or, on the Segregation of the Queen. 1994.
Retired Sherlock Holmes meets his intellectual match in 15-year-old Mary Russell, who challenges him to investigate yet another case.
Kosinski, Jerzy. Painted Bird. 1965.
An abandoned dark-haired child wanders alone through isolated villages of Eastern Europe in World War II.
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. 1960.
A young girl tells of life in a small Alabama town in the 1930s and her father's defense in court of an African American accused of raping a white woman. (a re-read)
[Harper Lee and To Kill A Mockingbird, from the Chebucto Community Net in Nova Scotia]
LeGuin, Ursula. The Left Hand of Darkness. 1969.
First envoy to the technologically primitive world of Winter, Al must deal with a hostile climate; a suspicious, bickering government; and his own conventional sexual mores.
Malamud, Bernard. The Fixer. 1966.
Victim of a vicious anti-Semitic conspiracy, Yakov Bok is in a Russian prison with only his indomitable will to sustain him.
Mori, Kyoko. Shizuko's Daughter. 1993.
In the years following her mother's suicide, Yuki develops the inner strength to cope with her distant father, her resentful stepmother, and her haunting, painful memories.
[Teacher's Guide to Shizuko's Daughter from Ballantine Books]
Morrison, Toni. Beloved. 1987.
Preferring death over slavery for her children, Sethe murders her infant daughter who later mysteriously returns and almost destroys the lives of her mother and sister.
O'Connor, Flannery. Everything That Rises Must Converge. 1965.
Stories about misfits in small Southern towns force the reader to confront hypocrisy and complacency.
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. 1939.
An Oklahoma farmer and his family leave the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression to go to the promised land of California.
Uchida, Yoshiko. Picture Bride. 1987.
Hana Omiya journeys to America in the early 1900s to marry a man she has never met.
I'm such a hopeless romantic. I'm fond of having a lover. Sigh.