Book Choices for Literary Circles
(H) = Hard (M) = Medium (E) = Easy reading
Women of the Silk, (H): In rual China in 1926, where a group of women forge a sisterhood amidst the reeling machines that reverberate and clamor in a vast silk factory from dawn until dusk. Leading the first strike the village has ever seen, the young women use the strength of their ambition, dreams, and friendship to achieve the freedom they could never have hoped for on their own. (60)
Year of Wonders, (H): When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated mountain village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healter. Through Anna’s eye we follow the story of the plague year, 1666, as her fellow villagers make an extraordinary choice: quarantine themselves within the village boundaries to arrest the spread of the disease. But as death reaches into every household, villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting. As Anna struggles to survive, a year of plague becomes instead annus mirabilis, a “year of wonders.” (60)
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, (H):-- Narrated by a fifteen-year-old autistic savant obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, this dazzling novel weaves together an old-fashioned mystery, a contemporary coming-of-age story, and a fascinating excursion into a mind incapable of processing emotions.
(60)
Secret Life of Bees (H): The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Kidd—Set in South Carolina in 1964 the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed, is a remarkable story about the transforming power of love against the backdrop of the prejudice of the south.
(60)
Geography Club (E): Russel is still going on dates with girls. Kein would do anything to prevent his teammates on the baseball team from finding out. Min and Terese tell everyone they’re just really good friends. But after a while, the truth’s too hard to hide—at least from each other—so they form the “Geography Club.” Nobody else will come. Why would they want to> Their secrets should be safe. (60)
Go Ask Alice (E): The harrowing true story of a teeneager’s descent into the seductive world of drugs. A diary so honest you may think you know Alice—or someone like her. Read her diary. Enter her world. You’ll never be able to forget Alice. (60)
Catcher in the Rye (M): (253) The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger—Set around the 1950s and narrated by a young man named Holden Caulfield who is not specific about his location while he’s telling the story, but he makes it clear that he is undergoing treatment in a mental hospital or sanatorium in this coming-of-age story.
1984 (M): The world of 1984 is one in which eternal warfare is the price of bleak prosperity, in which the Party keeps itself in power by complete control over man’s actions and his thoughts. As the lovers Winston Smith and Julia learn when they try to evade the Thought Police, and then join the underground opposition, the Party can smash the last impulse of love, the last flicker of individuality. (104)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (H) One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey—In this 1960’s classic, Ken Kesey’s hero, Randal Patrick McMurphy, a boisterous, brawling, fun-loving rebel who swaggers into the world of a mental hospital and takes over.
Catch 22 (H): (13) Catch 22 by Joseph Heller—Set in the closing months of WWII in an American bomber squadron off Italy. It is a microcosm of the twentieth century world as it might appear from the dangerously sane.
Frankenstein (H) (32) Frankenstein by Mary Shelly—Written as a series of letters from Robert Walton, the captain of a ship bound for the North Pole, that recount to his sister back in England the progress of his dangerous mission. Successful early on, the mission is soon interrupted by seas full of impassable ice. Trapped, Walton encounters Victor Frankenstein, who has been traveling by dog-drawn sledge across the ice and is weakened by the cold. Walton takes him aboard ship, helps nurse him back to health, and hears the fantastic tale of the monster that Frankenstein created.
Scarlet Letter (H) The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn—Set in an early New England colony, the novel shows the terrible impact a single passionate act has on the lives of three members of the community: the defiant Hester Prynne; the fiery, tortured Reverend Dimmesdale; and the obsessed, vengeful Chillingworth.
Dove (M): adventure, sails solo around the world at sixteen. (42) Dove by Robin Lee Graham with Derek L. T. Gill—In 1965, sixteen-year-old Robin Lee Graham began a solo ‘round the world voyage from San Pedro, California, in a 24 foot sloop. Five years and 33,000 miles later, he returned to home port with a wife and daughter and enough extraordinary experiences to fill this best selling book.
Sirens of Titan (M): (70) The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut—An outrageous romp through space, time and morality. The richest, most depraved man on Earth, Malachi Constant, is offered a chance to take a space journey to distant worlds with a beautiful woman at his side. Of course there’s a catch to the invitation…and a prophetic vision about the purpose of human life.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (H) (419) I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou—The author describes her coming of age as a precocious but insecure black girl in the American South during the 1930s and subsequently in California during the 1940s. Maya’s parents divorce when she is only three years old and ship Maya and her older brother to live with their paternal grandmother in rural Stamps, Arkansas.
Alive (M): Alive by Piers Paul Read—The story of the Andes survivors. Their plane crashed high in the Andes. Their only shelter was the plane’s shattered fuselage, their only supplies a little wine and some bits of candy. In the beginning, there were thirty-two survivors. Then, only twenty-seven; then, nineteen…and, in the end, sixteen. This is their story.
Brave New World (M/H): Brave New World by Adlous Huxley—A fantasy of the future involving human cloning and conditioning and the destiny of the embryos.
Canticle for Leibowitz: (56) Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr—In the Utah desert, Brother Francis of the Albertian Order of Leibowitz has made a miraculous discovery: the relics of the martyr Isaac Leibowitz himself, including the blessed blue print and the sacred shopping list.
The Dispossessed: (60) The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin—Centuries ago, the moon Anarres was settled by utopian anarchists who left the Earthlike planet Urras in search of a better world, a new beginning.
Whipping Star: (62) Whipping Star by Frank Herbert—Science Fiction—Time was running out when McKie found the last Caleban; damaged, fading, nearly incoherent—or was she? He was pathetically unable to communicate with the tormented creature—much less free her from the ruthless force of evil which had enslaved her awesome power…and which relentlessly sought the annihilation of sentient life.
Lathe of Heaven: (64) Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin—George Orr is a man who discovers he has the peculiar ability to dream things in to being—for better or worse. The novel is a dark vision and a warning—a fable of power uncontrolled and uncontrollable. A startling view of humanity and the consequences of playing God.
Siddhartha: (165) Siddhartha by Herman Hesse—In the novel, Siddhartha, a young man, leaves his family for a contemplative life, then restless, discards it for one of the flesh. He conceives a son, but bored and sickened by lust and greed, moves on again. Near despair, Siddhartha comes to a rive where he hears a unique sound. This sound signals the true beginning of his life—the beginning of suffering, rejection, peace, and finally, wisdom.
House Made of Dawn: (28) by N. Scott Momaday—An American Indian named Abel, living in two worlds. One was that of his fathers, wedding him to the rhythm of the seasons, the harsh beauty of the land, the ecstasy of the drug called peyote. The other was the world of the 20th century. Home from a foreign was, he was a man being torn apart.
The Stranger: (12) by Albert Camus—The story of an ordinary man who unwittingly gets drawn into a senseless murder on a sun-drenched Algerian beach.