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Wandering Stars
Sholem Aleichem
Jo
In many ways, "Wandering Stars" is an artifact -- a testament to a vibrant world and language wiped out by the Holocaust. At the turn of the 20th century, Russian-Jewish teenagers Reizel Spivak and Leib Rafalovitch fall in love with the Yiddish theater and each other, and after several altercations ...show more
The Mill on the Floss
George Eliot
At the center of this tragicomic drama of the rise and fall of a prominent rural family in England during the 1830s, is the turbulent and often toxic relationship between siblings Tom and Maggie Tulliver. Free-spirited Maggie longs for beauty, love and admiration in a society that belittles her inte...show more
Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman
Thomas Hardy
The epitaph and subject of this novel is 'a pure woman' -- and what makes a person truly good at heart. Teresa 'Tess' Durbeyfield arrives at a English diaryfarm seemingly with no past and no family, and her fiery nature and lust for life captures the heart of preacher's kid Angel Clare. But Tess has...show more
Bread Givers
Anzia Yezierska
Thirst for knowledge has haunted 17-year-old Sara Smolinsky from the beginning of her difficult life in the Jewish slums of the Lower East Side of New York City during the roaring 20s. Her father, a stern and unemployed ultra-Orthodox rabbi, believes in the inferiority of women, and his doctrines of...show more
Mansfield Park
Jane Austen
Fanny may come off as priggish or socially-awkward to readers, especially in comparison with Austen's more outgoing and famous heroines. But this was, of course, the intention of her sardonic creator. Fanny is a unlikely heroine, and by staying true to her moral compass, she finds not only love but ...show more
Confessions
Saint Augustine
Get a load of this: "I have loved Thee too late, Beauty at once so new and so ancient! I have learned to love Thee too late!"
The Song of the Lark
Willa Cather
A passionate ode to art and love and how they transform our lives and those around us. Thea Kronberg, growing up in Colorado during the late 19th century, has always felt out of place in her large preacher's family. Her childhood borders on idyllic, with her doting and determined mother Anna always ...show more
Our Mutual Friend
Charles Charles Dickens
The mysterious death of dust heir John Harmon brings together a cast of characters from all levels of London society. Harmon's father, a paranoiac old miser, leaves his property to the Boffins, two old and faithful servants, in the event of his son's death. The Boffins' lawyer, Mortimer Lightwood, a...show more
Bridge to Terabithia
Katherine Paterson
Before he meets Leslie Burke, shy Jesse Aarons has only two passions in life: art and running. After she beats him at track at the beginning of the 1977-1978 school year, they become best friends. The imaginative and vivacious Leslie opens Jesse's eyes to the magic and fantasy of everyday life. They...show more
Lying Awake: A Novel
Mark Salzman
Sister John of the Cross's life turns upside-down, when her neurologist tells her the visions and ecstasies of God she has been experiencing are nothing more than the symptom's of epilepsy. For three years, her spiritual experiences have earned her the ire and admiration of her sisters in a cloister...show more
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Carson McCullers
"The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" hovers between "bitter irony and faith", as Biff Brannon will observe about the lives of the book's five protagonists. It probes the irremediable loneliness of the human heart, the comfort and futility of human connection, and the choice between defeat and courage we m...show more
The Bible
It is called "the greatest story ever told" for a reason. Unlike most religious texts, "The Bible" can stand on its own as a book. Especially if we consider its protagonist to be Christ. Every facet of human nature and life is in these pages.
Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close: A Novel
Jonathan Safran Foer
A hilarious and heart-wrenching exploration of love, grief and hope in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. 9-year-old Oskar Schell, precocious and introverted, is struggling with his father Thomas's death on 9/11. Left with guilt surrounding his father's last phone calls, Oskar tries to cope ...show more
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Betty Smith
A triumph of psychological literature, and both heartwarming and heartwrenching, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" is wistfulness between two covers -- exploring the inner world and coming of age of its irrepressible protagonist, Francie Nolan, at the turn of the 20th century. We watch Francie go from a na...show more