111 Books

#111 The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

2011-10-15T12:58:00.000-07:00

Three brothers— Dimitry, Ivan and Alexei— seem to have nothing in common apart from their father: Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, an aging buffoon leading a life of debauchery who has never concerned himself with his children, until each brother in adulthood decides to visit their father’s home. Mitya, the hothead, goes because he needs money. Ivan, the intellectual, goes to test his dark ideas about evil and faith. Alexei, the young saint, goes to guide his wayward kin back onto the path of good. This epic tale is rife with every imaginable emotion, every possible subject and every conceivable type of personality, making it as near perfection as any novel can get.

#110 Blindness by Jose Saramago

2011-10-11T21:32:00.000-07:00

Imagine that everyone around you goes blind. Confusion and chaos reign. No one is spared, no one that is, except for you. Such is one woman’s fate in this gripping story about a epidemic of white blindness that spreads in the blink of an eye. The Doctor’s Wife, as she is called, becomes the eyes for a hodgepodge group of newly blind people, as a band of armed thugs (also blind) takes over the government-enforced quarantine and demands their last bit of dignity. The Doctor’s Wife has her eyes opened, to her own capacity for ruthlessness, and to the savagery exhibited by many when they no longer believe they are seen.

#109 Missing Mom by Joyce Carol Oates

2011-10-09T17:00:00.000-07:00

“Here’s to moms. Without moms, where’d we all be?” quips Nikki Eaton, toasting her mother Gwen on Mother’s Day. Two days later, Nikki is suddenly, though an act of inexplicable violence, without her mother. This novel tells the story of Nikki’s first year missing her Mom. It is a year of moving back into her mother’s house and wearing her mother’s clothes. It is also a year in which Nikki discovers some startling secrets of Gwen’s past. These revelations are difficult for Nikki to reconcile with the sparkly Gwen, her bread-baking, craft-making, church-going, loving mother, but at last Nikki can fully know the mother she must miss all her life.

#108 The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson

2011-10-07T19:11:00.000-07:00

Reading this book is like stepping into another dimension. Nothing is as it seems. Take the story “Daemon Lover”. Is it really the laughter of her missing betrothed the woman hears behind the closed door of that otherwise-empty building? Or in “The Dummy,” does the ventriloquist insult his companion in the green dress, or can the dummy talk by itself? Did the stranger in “The Witch” actually commit the gruesome murder he describes to the little boy? In “The Lottery”, Jackson’s most famous story, the inhabitants of a village gather for an annual drawing. The village’s location is unstated, but, considering the prize it must lie somewhere within The Twilight Zone.

#107 The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

2011-10-07T06:28:00.000-07:00

Domineering father

+ Controlling, pill-popping mother

+ Depressed, alcoholic, mixed- grill-making son

+ Desperate, swindling, couch-humping, running-off-to-Lithuania son

+ Sleeping-with-both-husband-and-wife-of-same-married-couple, celebrity chef, emotionally masochistic daughter

The Lamberts, one of the most dysfunctional families in contemporary American literature. Alfred, the patriarch of the family, is suffering from advanced Parkinson’s disease, which, among other debilitating things, makes him hallucinate that he is being taunted by a talking turd. His wife, Enid, is convinced that having her children come home to spend one last Christmas in the house they grew up in will fix everything. Christmas is time to hope for a miracle, but barring that, there’s no quick fix for this family.

#106 A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

2011-10-03T20:23:00.000-07:00

Sung to the tune of the “Good Times” theme song:

The Youngers!

Will be getting a big payment

The Youngers!

From an insurance policy

The Youngers!

Walter Sr. passed some years ago

Now they’ll get out of the ghetto with the money he left them

Mama takes some of the money and goes out and buys them a house

But Brother buys a liquor store—Mistake!

The money then gets ripped off—Heartbreak!

A white man doesn’t want them buyin’ ---No Doubt!

In an all white neighborhood—Stay Out!

Will they stay in or move out of the ghetto? --- Youngers!

A postwar “Good Times”, with few good times, but plenty of hardy hope.

#105 A Room With a View by E.M. Forster

2011-10-02T20:35:00.000-07:00

A kiss among the violets on a hilltop near Florence, Italy would cause any young woman to lose her head, especially if that young woman were anything like Lucy Honeychurch. Miss Honeychurch, stepping out from the confines of her small English country society, is hoping for adventure in Italy in spite of having her cousin, Charlotte, a persnickety spinster, as a chaperone. Lucy craves an awakening; she yearns for something to happen to her. This something comes in the form of George Emerson, a quiet, melancholy young man whose dormant passions Lucy arouses and who sends her headlong into a muddle by arousing hers with that impetuously stolen, though welcomed, kiss.

#104 Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

2011-09-26T11:03:00.000-07:00

Living with The Damp and The Sickness is wretched enough, but add to that The Hunger and you’ve got misery that goes beyond the beyonds. It was in this state of abject poverty that Frank McCourt passed his childhood in 1940’s Ireland. Frank, born in New York, was four when his parents moved the family to their native Ireland following the death of their infant daughter. Frank’s father, an indolent alcoholic, did little to support his family and in Ireland their lives were dogged by despair. McCourt writes also of The Shame, which tore at him as a boy. He finally defeats it with this searing telling of his life story.

#103 The Beatles: The Biography by Bob Spitz

2011-09-15T14:38:00.000-07:00

Only one word describes the phenomenon that drove millions of teenagers to scream, writhe, cry, tremble and faint: Beatlemania. For a decade, John, Paul, George and Ringo-- to say nothing of their music—captured hearts and minds worldwide. This book gives an extraordinarily detailed account of the lives of the four Scousers from Liverpool, England—their turbulent childhoods, larger-than-life musical influences, and the fateful meeting between John and Paul that was the beginning of one of the most legendary songwriting collaborations of all time. The stories behind the music are absolute gems of Beatle’s trivia. (For instance, the guitar we hear gently weeping on George’s haunting song? That’s Mr. Eric Clapton.)

#102 Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

2011-09-06T13:09:00.001-07:00

A great book for the jolly summer time, or anytime. Pippi Longstocking is a kid superhero. She can wrestle a grown man, tackle a bull, and rescue children from a burning building, all before bedtime. She lives in a house called Villa Villekulla with a horse and a little monkey named Mr. Neilson. She never goes to school and plays all day with her friends Tommy and Anika. She also has a suitcase full of gold coins, so she never has to worry about money. Her life would be every kid’s dream, except she has no parents, so she does as she pleases. Wait a minute…her life is every kid’s dream.

#101 Little Bee by Chris Cleave

2011-09-06T05:00:00.001-07:00

The blurb on the back of this book instructs the reader not to tell anyone what the story is about. Therefore, all I will say is that this book is about a Nigerian girl and a British woman whose chance meeting on a beach changes both their lives. The story’s intelligent and candid reflections, such as this from the Nigerian girl about horror movies, “Horror in your country is something you take a daily dose of to remind yourself that you are not suffering from it,” give the reader an uncommon dose of compassion for these two brave women, as they suffer through the nightmarish events that have bound them together.

#100 The Princess Bride by William Goldman

2011-09-02T06:52:00.000-07:00

True love saves the day in this fantastic, romantic and sarcastic novel. Fantastic, because a dead man is brought back to life; romantic because farm-boy-turned-pirate Westley, climbs one thousand feet, battles a giant and nearly gets eaten by enormous rodents all to be with his true love, Buttercup; sarcastic because Goldman constantly interrupts the story to give fictitious accounts of how the Princess Bride was written—or as Goldman alleges, “abridged.” Goldman writes that S. Morgenstern is the original author of the story and he, Goldman, abridged it to this ‘good parts’ version, but that’s just a literary device used to build suspense and leave the reader hanging at the good parts.

#99 The Help by Kathryn Stockett

2011-08-20T13:31:00.000-07:00

It’s 1962 in Jackson Mississippi, and the times they are a’ changin’. That’s what Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter are hoping, anyway. They’ve risked many lives, including their own, to write a book, in which the black maids of Jackson tell what it’s really like working for white families. The stories these women tell range from touching—a maid who considers her employer a true and dear friend, to horrifying—a maid tricked into washing her own hands with straight bleach. The three writers must watch out for Hilly Holbrook, Skeeter’s erstwhile racist friend, who is paid back for the lies she spreads by being served a healthy helping of humble pie.

#98 So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell

2011-08-15T04:10:00.000-07:00

Friendships, sadly, sometimes come to an end. Lloyd Wilson and Clarence Smith were neighbors and good friends. Tenant farmers in 1920’s Illinois, each worked hard on his own rented land, and on his neighbor’s as well. Marriages also, sadly, sometimes come to an end, and this happens when Lloyd and Clarence’s wife, Fern, fall in love. The marriages on each farm fall apart as does the friendship between the two men. The narrator, who was a young boy at the time of these events, tells this tale of endings, explaining how his own friendship with Cletus Smith, Clarence’s son, abruptly ended when Clarence brings about Lloyd's final end with a gunshot.

#97 Carrie by Stephen King

2011-08-06T10:46:00.001-07:00

Every picked-on, bullied, powerless teenager dreams of revenge. Carrie White had been bullied almost every day of her life by the kids at school. Ol’ Praying Carrie, they called her, and dogged her every step with taunts, kicks and tricks. Her mother, a religious fanatic, had often told people they that had a special burning seat waiting for them in hell. She was the worst bully of all, routinely locking Carrie in a closet so the girl would be purged of sin. But this time they have all gone too far. Carrie isn’t powerless after all. On prom night she’ll have her revenge. No burning seat will be left empty.

#96 July's People by Nadine Gordimer

2011-08-05T11:28:00.000-07:00

The servant becomes the master in this intense novel about the fictional demise of apartheid in 1980s South Africa. July had worked for white South Africans, Bamford and Maureen Smales, for 15 years. The Smales were liberals who never wanted July to call Bamford “master” as was the custom. The power shift starts with the Bakkie, the vehicle that the Smales use to flee to July’s very rural home when war reaches Johannesburg. The car is the Smales' only means of escape if rebels search July’s home. But July has taken the car from them and what can they do? They owe him their lives and are wrapped around his finger.

#95 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

2011-07-17T13:33:00.000-07:00

The richly-formed cast of characters in this book gives the reader new insight into the personalities of people in their own life, despite many changes in manners and mores. Elizabeth, thoughtful and opinionated, never speaks without thinking, but also never hesitates to tell people the truth. Mr. Darcy, handsome and brooding, disdains common courtesy, until Elizabeth knocks him from his high horse. Mrs. Bennett, Elizabeth’s mother, is the opposite of her reflective daughter, unashamed that her only concern is marrying off her five daughters to any bachelor who comes along. Beautiful Jane, boy-crazy Lydia, sycophantic Collins, spoiled Lady Catherine, and affable Bingley all help to make this book an enlightening read.

#94 The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein

2011-07-06T19:53:00.000-07:00

Adventures…nasty, disturbing, uncomfortable things that make you late for dinner. So says Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit who lives a comfortable life in his deluxe hole in the ground. But adventure comes knocking when Gandalf the wizard thrusts a perilous quest onto the reluctant homebody. Bilbo journeys to the Lonely Mountain with thirteen dwarves, to retrieve their dragon-stolen treasure. He soon finds himself dodging trolls and captured by goblins, rescued by eagles and battling spiders as big as Volkswagen Bugs. Will he ever see his cozy hobbit hole again? Either way, this adventure has made Bilbo a better hobbit than he ever could have been, warming his well-combed toes by the fire.

#93 Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor

2011-07-03T07:09:00.000-07:00

Luxury cars, swimming pools and caviar. The people of Linden Hills have “made it”, but at what price? Willie Mason finds out. Willie, a thoughtful, observant young man, lives in Putney Wayne, a poor neighborhood nearby. For him, Linden Hills is a dream with its palatial homes all owned by black people. But soon the dream becomes his nightmare. The residents of Linden Hills care only about “making it,” and the further down the hill they move, towards the most desirable sections, the further they sink into corruption and depravity. Luther Nedeed, the perpetual landlord of Linden Hills, relishes each devastating fall, and holds the key to the neighborhood’s terrible secrets.

#92 Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

2011-06-27T03:31:00.000-07:00

Orphaned and condemned to a life of poverty and misery before drawing his first breath, Oliver Twist makes his way into our hearts. Brutally beaten by those assigned to care for him, Oliver miraculously survives to see his ninth birthday, when he flees to London. There he falls in with a gang of thieves, and soon the innocent Oliver learns the art of pickpocketing. Throughout the book, Dickens protests against the horrific conditions of the poor and critiques England’s system of “helping” poor people with workhouses and prisons. But it isn’t called Oliver Twist for nothing. There are more cases of mistaken identity, underhanded evil-doing and secret love than a soap-opera.

#91 The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino

2011-06-25T21:10:00.000-07:00

Pre-teen rebellion reaches new heights in this whimsical novel. One evening when Cosimo, a young Italian baron, finds snails as dinner’s main course, he says “no” to the escargot and takes to the trees, resolving to never come down. His family thinks at first that his escape will end when he gets cold or hungry or lonely, but the determined Cosimo soon adapts to life above ground. He learns to hunt, bathe and even answer nature’s call from the trees. He grows into a man respected by all and his arboreal world is almost heaven. Suddenly, Cosimo falls. Not from a tree, but in love, and is brought swiftly, harshly back to earth.

#90 The Best of Simple by Langston Hughes

2011-06-08T04:04:00.000-07:00

1950s Harlem. Two men walk into a bar.

1^st Man: How are things?

2^nd Man: Terrible. Wife won’t pay for divorce, my main-girl actin’ cold, side-girl drinks up my money, landlady wants rent, my bunions hurt, and me bein’ a Negro, white people won’t let me get ahead.

1^st Man: What are you going to do?

2^nd Man: Get you to buy me a glass of beer. At least there will be a head on that.

Jesse B. Semple, the affable Simple character of Hughes’ stories, would be that second man. Uneducated, but not simple-minded, Simple muses on everything from the A-bomb to the A-Train— simply, humorously, talkin’ the blues.

#89 The Stranger by Albert Camus

2011-06-02T22:13:00.000-07:00

“The sun was in my eyes,” is an excuse one gives for not catching a ball in the outfield. In this novel, however, it amounts to Monsieur Meursault’s defense for committing murder. It was hot and bright the day Meursault, a Frenchman living in Algeria, shot a young Arab five times on the beach. Perhaps Meursault was suffering from heatstroke. The strange thing is not only this flimsy defense; it is Meursault himself. His mother’s death, a proposal of marriage, the fact that he has killed a man, it’s all the same to him, for he feels no emotion. Meursault’s indifference ultimately saves him, though not from the hand of justice.

#88 Bridget Jones' Diary by Helen Fielding

2011-05-29T09:47:00.001-07:00

"No Emotional Fuckwittage!", cries Bridget Jones as she charges onto love’s battlefield. It is a new year and Bridget, a single woman in London, is on a mission to change her life. Every diary entry begins with updates on her New Year's resolutions which are: 1) Lose weight 2) Quit smoking 3) Cut down the drink. She also wants to find a relationship free of fuckwittage, which means committment-phobes, cheaters, drugies and like need not apply. Bridget's year is full of ups (getting involved with boss) and downs (getting chucked by boss), but with the help of her feminist, feng-shui-ing, flamboyant fabulous friends, the emotional f-word doesn't keep her down long.

#87 Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrl Revolution

2011-05-26T16:51:00.001-07:00

The rise and demise of Riot Grrl, a feminist punk movement formed in the 90's, is the subject of this rockin' book. If you've never heard of Riot Grrl, you'll be amazed that a group of such bold and angry young women who rocked, existed. If you have, and even consider yourself one of them, you'll find Marcus's fly-on- the-wall account enthralling. Mysteries will be revealed, such as how the band Bikini Kill was formed and became Riot Grrls. The girls weren't just angsty-teenaged punks in Doc Martens. Riot Grrls were political: pro-choice and anti-male dominance eveywhere, not least in the mosh-pit. And they were pro-revolution, girl-style, now.

#86 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

2011-05-18T20:09:00.000-07:00

In this dystopian science fiction novel possessing a book is a crime punishable by fire. Guy Montag, is a fireman. He burns books and occasionally, the people who read them. Guy has burned books with gusto for 10 years, but something has changed. He has begun to steal the books he is supposed to be burning. And then Guy meets Clarisse, a girl who rubs dandelions under people’s chins to see if they are in love. Turns out, Guy is not in love. Not with his wife or his job and certainly, not with himself. Suddenly Guys finds that he would kill to satisfy his burning desire to read a book.

#85 Anne Frank: the Diary of a Young Girl

2011-05-15T06:18:00.000-07:00

Anne Frank’s diary, published after her death, has touched and inspired millions. These entries are not merely the “unbosomings of a thirteen year old school girl”. They are lessons in character building; instructions for how not to behave toward others and, funnily enough, how young girls should proceed in matters of romance. Being in hiding for two years from Hitler and his loathsome “final solution” for the Jews of Europe perhaps made Anne wise beyond her years. Though the world has learned much from her recorded thoughts and feelings, it is hard not to imagine what the world might have learned from Anne herself, had this young girl survived the war.

#84 The Dive From Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer

2011-05-10T05:12:00.000-07:00

Should she stay or should she go, now? Carrie Bell, a young woman living in Madison, Wisconsin decides to go. It’s no small decision: her boyfriend of eight years (also her fiancé) has just had a diving accident that has left him a quadriplegic. Long before the accident, Carrie knew she no longer loved Mike. Tired of the banality of her small town life, Carrie flees to New York hoping to “find herself”. What she finds is a lover, Kilroy, an older man with a mysterious past. It's said, “Home is where the heart is.” Carrie must decide where her heart is to answer a new question: stay, or go back?

#83 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

2011-05-07T22:54:00.000-07:00

This here book is ‘bout a white boy (Huck) and a runaway slave (Jim) gettin’ into a right smart o’ trouble raftin’ down the Mississippi. Oncst, Huck gets caught up in a Hatfield ‘n McCoy type feud, and he and Jim fall in with the “King” and the “Duke,” the two beatenest rapscallions a body ever come across. Betwixt all this whoopjamboreehoo, Huck and Jim has some bully times livin’ on the Old Muddy. Huck reckons only a low-down person such as himself would help a slave run away, but if every person was as “low-down” as Huck , wouldn’t be no need for Jim to run nowhere a’ tall.

#82 Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

2011-05-04T03:29:00.000-07:00

On February 13, 1945 British and American Air Forces bombed the city of Dresden into ruin. This historical event plays a central role in the unhinging of Billy Pilgrim’s mind in this semi-autobiographical novel. Vonnegut, like Billy, was a soldier during WWII. And also like Billy, Vonnegut witnessed the firebombing of Dresden. But unlike Billy, Vonnegut never traveled through time, nor did aliens from the planet Tralfamadore ever kidnap him. Least ways, if these last did occur, Vonnegut never told anyone, unlike Billy who tells of these experiences, much to his daughter’s outrage, on late night radio. War. What is it good for? Throughout this book, Vonnegut vehemently shouts, “Absolutely nothing!”

#81 Light in August by William Faulkner

2011-05-01T12:32:00.000-07:00

Imagine living in 1930s Mississippi, not knowing if you were black or white. This is the riddle facing Joe Christmas, an orphan raised by whites, but consumed by the possibility that he is black. He himself is a riddle, containing both the desire for love, and a simmering, violent malevolence. Christmas’s tragic story intersects with others’: Lena Grove, a saint-like woman searching the South for the father of her unborn child, Byron Bunch, the sawmill worker who falls in love with her, and Reverend Hightower, a preacher obsessed with the Civil War.

Faulkner’s frequent use of the “n” word, while undoubtedly realistic to the time and place, feels hateful and oppressive.

#80 Othello by William Shakespeare

2011-04-16T08:16:00.000-07:00

Iago. The name means supplanter, but after reading this play, demon seems more fitting. Everyone believes this inhuman dog is the soul of honesty. This belief is Othello’s downfall. Damn'd Iago has but to hint that Desdemona, Othello’s devoted young bride, is an adulteress, and her husband, a man known for his steadiness of character, is completely undone. At first, Othello is merely slightly troubled by the thought. But as Iago pours his poisonous potion of lies into Othello’s ear, the Moor becomes a brooding, violent, wretched thing, collapsing into seizures brought on by Iago’s “medicine”, which proves its potency in the number of corpses left behind at the play’s end.

#79 Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers

2011-04-13T14:38:00.000-07:00

There’s no “spoon full of sugar” in the Mary Poppins of Travers’ classic novel. Cross, snappish and vain, the magical nanny is a far cry from the sweet, smiling Julie Andrews of the movie. So why do Jane and Michael Banks adore her? Is it because she takes them around the world in a matter of minutes using an enchanted compass? Or because she celebrates her birthday with a midnight trip to the zoo, where the animals talk and walk about freely, looking at humans in cages? In a word, yes. When Mary “pops-in” to number 17 Cherry Tree Lane, every day of Jane and Michael Banks’ lives becomes an adventure.

#78 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

2011-04-10T18:53:00.000-07:00

In Oedipus Rex, Sophocles writes, “Hide nothing, for time, which sees all and hears all, exposes all”. In Middlesex, it is a hidden mutation in the genes of the Stephanides family that sees all, hears all, and exposes the family’s secret past. Cal Stephanides, raised in 1960s Detroit, reaches back in time to a Greek village in 1920s Turkey, the time when his grandparents, Desdemona and Lefty Stephanides, lived together after their parents were killed. Yes, their parents. Desdemona and Lefty were brother and sister. This secret shame bestows upon their grandchild life as both female and male. Like Tiresias of Oedipus Rex, Cal is first one thing, and then another.

#77 Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

2011-04-08T21:37:00.001-07:00

Life in Umuofia was difficult. Sometimes too little rain fell and yam crops could not grow. Children were born and suddenly died. Disputes were common between a man and his wives. Yet, the people of Umuofia celebrated life. Their customs and sense of fellowship gave them strength. Even in his youth, Okonkwo, a fierce Ibo warrior and village leader, had been strong. He worked hard and ruled his wives and his children with a heavy hand. He was a man of action, for, to Okonkwo, a real man could be nothing less. Then, missionaries arrive in this fictional village, setting Okonkwo’s fiery spirit ablaze. A most desperate, tragic act extinguishes it.

#76 Bone by Fae Myenne Ng

2011-04-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

Everyone in Chinatown knows the Leong family’s secrets: Mah’s failed first marriage, her affair with her boss and youngest daughter Ona’s suicide. But guilt remains the family’s true secret, the bone whose marrow they all continue to suck after their lives have been picked over by neighborhood gossipmongers. Leila, eldest of the three daughters, tells her family’s story in hope that the guilt does not turn sweet, like the seed of a dried plum, a thing savored. Leila acts as archeologist, piecing together the fragmented events that make up the sorrow her family has endured over many years. Once whole, however, she must again bury it in order to find peace.

#75 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

2011-04-02T14:41:00.000-07:00

The wind kicks up, howling steadily, fiercely across a dry, gray landscape. Dust, billowing in great, merciless waves rises from the ground, blocking out air, light and hope. Such was life on the prairie lands in 1930’s America. Steinbeck shows us the hardships thousands of families faced during this dark time through the story of the Joads, Oklahoman sharecroppers.
Tom Joad, the hero of this novel, has just been released from prison. Though imprisonment did not harden him, Tom struggles to check his rage as the family falls apart, and it seems as if all compassion in the world has been blown away by the wind and smothered by the dust.

#74 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs

2011-04-01T10:01:00.000-07:00

The atrocities committed against millions of black men, women and children during the slave trade are unspeakable. Yet Harriet Jacobs (Linda Brent in the book) speaks boldly about her life as a slave girl in this heartrending narrative. A slave girl soon learns that her duties include more than working in the kitchen or toiling in the fields. Her master may demand the use of her body for his own pleasure. To escape her depraved master’s attentions, Linda takes refuge in a crawl space in her grandmother’s house and lives thus, unable to sit or stand, for seven years. This imprisonment is the first step on her long journey toward freedom.

#73 King, Queen, Knave by Vladimir Nabokov

2011-03-28T14:55:00.000-07:00

Lights up on a large, bright bedroom. Franz and Martha lie naked on the bed. They have just finished disporting themselves. Franz, wears a pair of tortoise shell glasses.

Martha: How shall we kill him? Poison? A gun?

Franz: Yes. I want you.

Martha: Later, my love. We must find a way to kill my husband, who is also your uncle.

Franz: Right. (Pause) Wait. What are we talking about?

Martha: Oh, Franz, you’re such an idiot. Perhaps that’s why I love you.

Franz: I feel like I could kill for you.

Martha: Yes. About that, how shall we do it?

Franz: Well personally I prefer the couch…

Martha: Concentrate, Franz!

#72 Emma by Jane Austen

2011-03-20T14:12:00.000-07:00

Emma Woodhouse would be a perfect role model for young women, if she weren’t such a snobby busybody. True, Emma—witty, beautiful, rich, and at the pinnacle of society in her small country village—has reasons to be a snob. In matters of love, however, she is a bit Clueless. Declaring that she herself shall never marry, Emma spends her days interfering in the love lives of her friends—especially Harriet Smith, a shy young woman with little sophistication, whom Emma magnanimously decides to take on as a protégée. Emma’s attempts to direct Cupid’s arrows always hit the wrong mark, until, at last, to her own surprise, she is struck in the heart herself.

#71 Equus by Peter Shaffer

2011-02-19T14:02:00.000-08:00

My horse’s hooves are nothing like the sun;

Velvet is far more soft than his ears soft.

If snow be white, then his teeth are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow upon his mane.

I have seen horses dappled, brown and white,

But no such dapples are in his coat;

And in some perfumes there is more delight

Than in the sweat that from him reeks.

I love to hear him neigh, yet I know

That music hath a more pleasing sound;

I saw a god once go;

My horsey gallops above the ground.

And so, by Equus, I think my horse more rare than any stallion anywhere.

#70 The Otterbury Incident by C. Day Lewis

2011-02-09T15:13:00.000-08:00

“The Incident” is what the boys called the mass of rubble that was left when a bomb fell in the middle of Otterbury, a fictional town in which the “incidents” of this story take place. It is a tale about a group of youngsters who like to play war during wartime. Ted and Toppy each command their own company of boys in whatever the game may be. During their childish though realistic play--the boys pretend to be soldiers, lawyers and detectives—they stumble upon actual criminal activity. Think The Goonies set in England, circa 1945: counterfeit money; cool kid-crafted inventions and a secret hideout.

Incidentally, C. Day Lewis was Daniel’s father.

#69 White Teeth by Zadie Smith

2011-02-05T21:04:00.000-08:00

Most families are related by blood, but some families are related though history. Archie, Samad, Clara, Alsana, Magid, Irie and Millat make up two separate families whose lives are linked through their shared past: an unlikely friendship between Archie Jones, a white Englishman, and Samad Iqbal, a man from Bangladesh. The two become friends as mere boys, during WWII, but in middle age, Samad and Archie would rather relive the wars of the past than face the wars raging within their own families. Both have married much younger women, and as each man’s children grow up, Archie and Samad find themselves on one side of a generational gap that seems unbridgeable.

#68 Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas

2011-01-24T04:56:00.000-08:00

Originally a radio play, the book tells of a day in the life of a Welsh fishing vilage so small, everyone can guess the father of each illegitimate child. Willy Nilly the postman announces the contents of each inhabitant’s mail to everyone in town. Mrs. Ormore-Pritchard, twice-widowed, gets into bed with each of her dead husbands every night. Mr. Pugh orders a book to learn the best way to poison his wife. Everyone has a secret, a vice, in this town of gossips, drunkards, philanderers, nosey-parkers and lovers. The town on the fishboat-bobbing sea is picturesque and quaint, but life remains difficult and lonely in this elegiac and lyrical work.

#67 Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

2011-01-22T21:31:00.000-08:00

He once had a girl,

or should I say,

he once had two

Her knew one awhile

She was the yen

Of his best friend

But when his best friend commits shocking and sad suicide

The boy and the girl take to walking around side by side

She must go away

he’s left alone, in love with her

He meets someone new

They have lots of fun

Could she be the one?

He’s thinking back to the 60’s and life in Tokyo

He also recalls a sanitarium in Kyoto

Naoko’s one girl

Midori’s the other

And he is Turo

Which love will survive?

He’s so confused

Whom will he choose?

#66 Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros

2011-01-19T11:25:00.000-08:00

“We are not dogs!” This abrupt statement is what sends Eleuterio Reyes back to Mexico to fulfill his obligations as a father. It’s also what makes later generations of the Reyes family possible. Celaya Reyes, born years later in America, tells stories of her family’s complicated past, stories that contain more twists than a telenovela. Though her book is a novel, Cisneros includes many historical facts, such as a description of the Ten Tragic Days, which occurred during the Mexican revolution. It is this mix of fiction and reality that shows that the Reyeses are indeed, not dogs, but a proud family with a heritage as rich and sweet as caramelo.

#65 Disappearing Moon Cafe by Sky Lee

2011-01-19T08:05:00.000-08:00

Torrid passions, secrets and lies envelop the Wong family in this surprising and alluring novel. Kae Ying Woo, the narrator of this tale, delves into her family's tangled past and discovers the truth behind her aunt Suzanne’s death: suicide over a star-crossed love. Hidden family ties have led to accidental incest, and Kae finds out that many relatives throughout her family tree have tasted the bitter fruit of forbidden love. Kae’s discoveries help her find the will to rekindle a past romance of her own. The loves in this book are as fleeting as the disappearing moon of the title, yet they all leave a permanent longing in each lover's heart.

#64 Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum

2011-01-08T13:18:00.000-08:00

That little girl from Kansas just can’t seem to stay put. In this third installment in the Land of Oz series, Dorothy gets herself thrown off a ship during a raging storm and washes up on the shores of the fairy land of Ev. The Land of Ev lies just opposite the Land of Oz, across a deadly desert, and Dorothy must, of course, find her way home. But first, Dorothy must have a few good old-fashioned adventures, which include rescuing the royal family of Ev and defeating the Nome King. Good thing she has her old friends from Oz and a few new companions to help her along the way.

#63 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

2011-01-08T13:09:00.000-08:00

The master, a writer who becomes mentally ill when his novel about Pontius Pilate is met with public derision, and Margarita, the beautiful woman who falls in love with him, are but a small part of this classic novel. Bulgakov’s story cross-cuts back and forth between Satan and his retinue unleashing hellish chaos on 1930s Moscow, and Pontius Pilate and Yeshua (Jesus) Ha-Nazori (of Nazareth), fatefully interacting in Biblical Jerusalem.

The sacred and profane, the tragic and comic, are all present in this teeming montage. Behemoth, a big, black cat who talks, walks upright and eats with a fork, is absurdly amusing. Bulgakov’s uncannily detailed recounting of Jesus’s crucifixion? Not so much.

#62 Essays of E.B. White

2010-12-26T18:13:00.000-08:00

Each of these essays displays White’s trademark precision of language and thought. They remain timely. With the recent passage of the START agreement, in which the U.S. and Russia commit to reducing their cache of nuclear weapons, one hopes that White’s assertion that “A disarmament arrangement backed by controls and inspection… is simply a veiled invitation to more and greater secrecy” is incorrect, though White’s reasoning is so clear and methodical, one cannot help thinking that perhaps it is not.

His writing makes the reader feel as though he is simply having a conversation with a friend who knows of what he speaks. It is in the reader’s interest to listen.

Why Harry Potter Makes Me Want To Be British

2010-11-19T14:41:00.000-08:00

On July 15^th, Harry Potter will pop back onto his broomstick and fly into movie theatres in over thirty countries. All over the world, people will gasp, cheer and even shed tears when their favorite boy wizard crosses wands with his adversaries one last time. What is it about this particular fantasy that has made us pour so much of our hearts and minds into its books and films, and has made sure that the Sun never sets on J.K. Rowling’s empire?

Sure, who doesn’t fancy they could do magic? It would be great to simply say “Hooverus Totalis” and have your floors vacuumed in an instant. But for me, there’s another appeal.

Harry Potter makes me want to be British. “British-ness” in itself seems to be a main character in the Potter franchise, and these films give such a whopping great dose of it, that I find myself saying things like, “I’m just going to nip to the loo,” for weeks after I’ve seen one.

I know, America is # 1 and Britain’s a wet little island with soggy weather and bland food. But there must be something they have that we lack… Diction, perhaps? Perfectly round, bouncing Oh’s and lilting Ahs’s, popping briskly, crisply out, while our American vowels drag out nasally, bleating their last like lambs being carted off for slaughter.

Maybe it’s no coincidence that Harry Potter became so popular just when the world decided it wasn’t so keen on the United States telling everyone else what to do anymore. Maybe there’s a certain nostalgia for a time when someone other than those barbarous American Muggles was there to rubbish things up. Certainly, the word “America” is conspicuously absent from the books and movies.

So much the better. As Americans, we are forbidden from ever being the underdog, but Harry Potter can defeat Lord Voldemort in every book and every movie, and still seem like he has the odds stacked against him every time. He shrugs off his triumphs over evil, and makes self-effacing statements like “Harry Potter’s a bit of a tosser, really.” Harry Potter can make winning look like losing, and it takes being British to pull that off.

The veteran actors in the films embody this particularly British wit and restraint. Alan Rickman as Snape is an actor so wickedly precise he can make a quiet word communicate resignation, spite, and confirmed desperation all at once. Maggie Smith as McGonagall admonishes her young charges with a bemused look and a drolly articulated phrase.

Okay, Great Britain. You gave us constitutional government and the language of Shakespeare, we gave you freedom from Fascism and ketchup on your fries—I mean chips. You gave us Harry Potter, and in return, I agree to walk around speaking in my most terrible British accent for a week after I watch the next movie. I think that’s an even exchange. Pip, pip, Cheerio!

#61 Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

2010-06-30T19:10:00.000-07:00

Willie Loman can’t get a break. All his life he’s been traveling the country, shilling items that are as useless as he feels. Then Willie loses his job, the thing that defined him and gave him purpose. His son Biff has inherited Willie’s lack of ambition, but this has not always been so. Something caused Biff to lose all interest in making something of himself. Was it because Willie always taught Biff that hard work is unnecessary, that being well-liked is enough? Partly. But there is another reason, one that only Willie and Biff know. Willie does not carry it to his grave, but this secret helps to send him there.

#60 Boy by Roald Dahl

2010-06-29T14:59:00.000-07:00

One of the most beautifully crafted memoirs I have ever read. Roald Dahl, that genius of children’s literature, enchants us with true tales of his eventful childhood. There was the time he and three friends hid a dead mouse in the gobstoppers jar of Mrs. Pratchett’s candy shop, and the time when, at 9 years old, he had his adenoids cut out from his throat without anesthesia (or even warning). Some of these events one can hardly believe, but one can hardly ignore Dahl’s strident assertion at the beginning of the book that all of them are true. These stories will make you laugh out loud and pause in quiet wonder.

#59 Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann

2010-06-28T13:07:00.000-07:00

This book is like a 1960s Sex and the City, with more drugs, albeit just as much sex. Anne, our heroine, moves from a small New England town to New York City. where her good looks land her a job at an advertising agency. There, she meets ad-exec and notorious ladies man, Lyon Burke. Anne falls for him immediately, but he proves to be just as elusive as “Mr. Big.” Anne’s sometime friend Neely (who is just plain evil) reaches fame’s mountaintops, in Broadway and Hollywood, before sliding down the slopes of drug abuse and treachery. Jennifer, the blond bombshell, hits the rock bottom of the valley of the dolls.

#58 Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

2010-06-27T06:12:00.000-07:00

If you can’t be with your one true love, here’s some advice: marry her sister! That way you can be close to the one you love, at least on holidays and family occasions, anyway. Sounds like an asinine idea, but Pedro, Tita De La Garza’s true love, doesn’t think so. Tita’s mother, Mama Elena, refuses to let Pedro and Tita marry, so Pedro marries Tita’s older sister, Rosaura, instead. Tita, a gifted cook, prepares the wedding feast and her food magically causes everyone to feel her pain. Pedro soon realizes that marrying Rosaura instead of Tita was like substituting water for sumptuous chocolate in the mystical recipe for true love.

#57 The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

2010-06-21T11:27:00.000-07:00

Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli, Bengali emigrants, name their baby son “Gogol” when a letter from Ashima’s grandmother containing a Bengali name for the baby never arrives. It is the family tradition to have a family elder name new children, and the missing letter symbolizes the inner search that the child must undertake to find his own identity as a Bengali-American. Gogol Ganguli, a.k.a. Nikil, a.k.a. Nick, changes his name in order to shake off his Bengali culture, but soon discovers that changing one’s name does not change one’s heritage or history. Seems like a rose isn’t the only thing that by any other name would still remain the same.

#56 The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

2010-04-04T09:21:00.000-07:00

Forget what you know about Baloo the Bear. He’s not the “Bear Necessities” singing, Disneyfied bear you think you know. In Kipling’s book, Baloo knows it’s a jungle out there and makes sure Mowgli the Man Cub knows it too. If it weren’t for Baloo and the black panther, Bagheera, Mowgli would have been the wolves’ dinner when he was but a little baby. Instead he is allowed into the pack on Baloo’s word and Bagheera’s offering. Mowgli lives by Jungle Law and becomes a friend to all animals, except Shere Khan the Tiger. Mowgli seems easy prey to Shere Khan, but Baloo has taught Mowgli the bare necessities of survival.

#55 The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

2010-04-04T07:54:00.001-07:00

“Nothing gold can stay” –Not true. Ponyboy Curtis stays golden, even after his best friend Johnny’s run in with the Socs puts Ponyboy in an unbelievable situation. The whole thing was an accident. The Socs had beaten Johnny so badly, that he’d cried like a baby when his gang of Greaser friends found him. When the Socs cornered him and Ponyboy again, Johnny’s instincts told him there was only one thing he could do. He buried his switchblade deep into the Soc whose ringed fingers had torn his face apart. But Frost is partially right. Ponyboy stays golden, even after Johnny is gone. Johnny couldn’t stay, but he was golden too.

#54 The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah

2010-03-29T12:42:00.000-07:00

This seems like the perfect mother daughter relationship: Lavish trips to the hair salon, sharing designer clothes, daughter selling drugs to her strung-out, junkie mother…Wait a minute, what? Yes, Winter Santiaga sells drugs to her own mother. What choice does she have? Winter must hustle to stay alive now that her drug lord father is in jail and her “MTV Cribs”-like existence has come to an abrupt end. Anyway, her mother is sure to understand. After all, Momma has taught Winter that she has to be a “bad b**ch”. That means having the most expensive clothes, nails done, hair did and a man with deep pockets. Like mother, like daughter.

#53 Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

2010-03-23T15:06:00.000-07:00

Who says you can’t learn anything from reading comic books? This graphic novel about life in pre and post-revolutionary Iran reads like an Iran For Dummies book with much better pictures. Marjane Satrapi tells the story of her childhood amid the communist revolt and the Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s. This book not only gives us a better understanding of Iranian politics, we also see beyond these large-scale matters to the daily battles Marji fights for freedom. Wearing the veil becomes chief among these struggles. It’s not a question of whether to wear it, but of how to wear it and whether showing some hair will get her arrested and whipped.

#52 Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

2010-03-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

Rosemary’s Lullabye:

Rock-a-bye-Demon,

In my Belly,

You’ll soon be Reigning over Hell-y.

When the Water Breaks,

I shall give Birth,

To One who’ll bring

Darkness and Fire to Earth.

Talk about an expectant mother’s worst nightmare. Rosemary and Guy move into their dream apartment in New York City. There are rumors of strange happenings in the building, but who could say no to low rent and so much space? Their elderly neighbors, the Castevets, become intrusively involved in the young couple’s life, but seem harmless. Then, a proffered chocolate mousse cake from these neighbors leads to a nightmarish coupling, and to nine months of painful gestation and a horrifying discovery.

#51 Animal Farm by George Orwell

2010-03-17T16:58:00.000-07:00

At first, the animal rebellion went splendidly. In an instant, the animals had overpowered the farmer and his men and freed themselves from servitude, exploitation and constant hunger. The boars, Napoleon and Snowball, make themselves the Boss Hogs of the new democracy, but when Napoleon chases Snowball off the farm, and the other animals find themselves working day and night with little food to eat. Napoleon starts to dress in the ousted farmer’s clothes, and the other animals see him as a real Man in Pig’s clothing, realizing too late that the rebellion was nothing but a change in regime. Wolves aren’t the only animals that like to play dress up.

#50 Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

2010-03-11T19:33:00.000-08:00

Babies havin’ babies? Not on Nanny’s watch. At least, not out of wedlock. That’s why she insisted that her 16 year old grand daughter, Janie, get married right away. Nearly twenty-five years and two marriages later, Janie returns to her home after having left with Tea Cake, a man twenty years her junior. Janie is alone and the playa’ hatin’ neighbors want to know why. As she tells her story to her friend, Phoeby, we learn not only about the tragedy involving Tea Cake, but about the events that have helped Janie live by what seems to be her motto: “To thine own self, be true." In other words, “Do you.”

#49 M.Butterfly by David Henry Hwang

2010-02-11T18:40:00.000-08:00

This play is based on a true story, believe it or not. For how could Rene Gallimard not have known that Song Liling, the woman he loved for twenty years was really a man? Song creates the fantasy of the perfect woman: She is beautiful, seductive and wants only to fulfill her man’s every desire. Or so Gallimard thinks. Song is a spy for the Chinese government and Gallimard’s position as a French diplomat is the target of her “womanly wiles”. Gallimard claims to have had no idea that his painted lady was no butterfly at all. Not so hard to believe; every fool in love is eager to be deceived.

#48 A Separate Peace by John Knowles

2010-02-10T13:59:00.000-08:00

Gene returns to the Devon School, site of the angst of his teenage years. He is older, but the school looks younger, varnished and gleaming. Equally varnished are Gene’s memories of Phineas, his best friend while at the Devon School. Finny, an adroit charmer and natural athlete, makes life look easy. He is everything Gene is not. When an accident involving Gene, a high tree, and a questionably clumsy Phineas puts an end to his physical prowess, Gene must ask himself a hard question: Did he cause Finny’s fall on purpose? Sometimes it’s hard to know the difference between a friend and a frenemy until you’re falling out of the tree.

#47 Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

2010-02-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

It’s sort of like the show Seinfeld, but with more songs and pine trees. Pooh is the Jerry of the book, as he always breaks even and never comes to any harm. He and his friends, Piglet, Rabbit, Owl, Kanga, and Roo also spend the day visiting each other’s apartments (that is, tree houses) and muddling through the absurdities that fill their lives. But this book, unlike that show, is not about nothing. It is about friendship, imagination and the wonder of childhood. Pooh could give Jerry a few lessons on dealing with life’s little Heffalumps with a “hummy” song, a smackerel of “hunny,” and a quiet stroll though the woods.

#46 The Iliad by Homer

2010-01-31T05:33:00.001-08:00

There are names for women like Helen of Troy, and by the tenth year of a most bloody and unceasing war, she has called herself every one. Every day, men have their limbs slashed, eyes gouged, throats cut, skulls smashed and corpses defiled, all because of her. The war starts when she, already married to Menalaus of Sparta, ran away with Paris of Troy. The Greeks launch a thousand ships to get her back. When the gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus get involved, it quickly turns into a battle between the mortal and immortal: an unfair match. All this fuss over one woman. She’s beautiful, yes, but can she cook?

#45 The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

2010-01-27T17:52:00.000-08:00

Long before Maury Povich came on the scene to reveal paternity, people just had to take the mother’s word for it. The problem in this novel is that Hester Prynne isn’t talking. Her husband cannot be the father of her child, because he is thought to be two years at the bottom of the sea. Rather than leave the confines of her strict Puritan town, she stays and is forced to wear the letter “A”, for “adultery”, upon her chest. So who is the father? One who speaks eloquently about the Heavenly Father, and who suffers unimaginably in hypocrisy and shame. His secret letter “A” is the agony within his heart.

#44 The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

2009-11-15T11:50:00.000-08:00

First there was the land and the land was good. Wang Lung is a poor farmer in China before the revolution, whose love of his land rules his life. Wang sweats through sunshine, rain and harvest time, reaping the crops from his good and fertile land. Then Wang Lung chooses O-Lan, a slave woman from the majestic house of Hwang, to be his wife. She is no beauty, with her big feet and big hands, but she works and bears sons, and brings prosperity to Wang Lung's house. But as Wang Lung’s wealth grows, so do his troubles. In the end, the land remains, planted with seeds of deceit and greed.

#43 A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

2009-10-31T10:20:00.000-07:00

To a wood, in the dark of night,

Fair Hermia and Lysander steal away.

In the midst of their secret flight,

Fairies make mischief, confusion and play.

Helena, spurned by Demetrius, tells him of the lovers’ plan.

Demetrius, spurned by Hermia, chase to the lovers gives.

Helena, love-sick and forlorn, follows this rough, unfeeling man

In whose heart no love for Helena lives.

Under moonlight, Oberon and Titania, the fairy king and queen

Quarrel over a little boy who to the queen belongs.

Oberon with his henchfairy, Puck, schemes

To make Titania, to a Donkey, sing love’s sweet songs.

Oh what fools these Mortals be!

Yes, Fairy Puck, I quite agree.

#42 The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

2009-10-02T19:07:00.000-07:00

It is a good island, but what about the boys marooned there? Fair-haired Ralph tries to maintain order and to keep a fire going as a signal for ships and airplanes. Meanwhile, red-haired and blood-thirsty Jack does not want to be rescued at all. Why get rescued? There are no rules on this island and one can hunt and kill whatever or whomever one pleases. When Jack allows the fire to go out when there is a ship on the horizon, all systems break down. Ralph has been named Chief, but who is really in charge here? It is the spirit of evil and savagery, the Lord of the Flies.

#41 The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston

2009-09-07T13:53:00.000-07:00

Some women become doctors, some become lawyers and others become warriors. Maxine Hong Kingston is a warrior. She uses this phantasmagorical memoir to battle the many “ghosts” of her childhood. Some of these are the ghosts of her mother’s talk-story about life in China. Others are the unfamiliar and frightening faces of her American neighborhood: mail-carrier ghosts, meter-reader ghosts, teacher ghosts, white ghosts and black ghosts. Maxine, a Chinese-American, must make her way among these specters while trying to find her place among the Chinese who believe that it is “better to raise geese than girls.” But in becoming an American, she finds that she has become a ghost herself.

#40 A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

2009-09-01T22:07:00.000-07:00

Their parents perish in a mysterious fire and three children’s lives go up in smoke. Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudalaire are orphans. They must live with Count Olaf, a man with a creepy tattoo on his ankle and two menacingly shiny, shiny eyes. Olaf immediately becomes the “bane of their existence”, a phrase which here means, “he schemes to lay his filthy hands on the fortune the children have inherited” and his treachery haunts the Baudalaires ad infinitum. Fortunately, Violet’s clever inventions, Klaus’s skillful research and Sunny’s four unusually sharp teeth help to keep them out of Olaf’s clutches. Unfortunately, their gifts are constantly required in a series of unfortunate events.

#39 Native Son by Richard Wright

2009-08-20T09:52:00.000-07:00

Fear is a curious emotion. It can make you do terrible things. For instance, fear can make you murder the daughter of your generous employer. At least, that is what fear makes Bigger Thomas do. Bigger is a young, black man who lives on the south side of Chicago in a one-room apartment with his mother, younger brother and sister. He is caged by the close quarters, poverty and by the color of his skin. Bigger must choose: take a job as a chauffeur for a rich white family, steal or starve. Bigger takes the job, because he’s damned if he doesn’t; but this unfortunate man is condemned when he does.

#38 A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen

2009-07-31T14:00:00.000-07:00

At first Nora was afraid, she was petrified,

kept thinking she could never live without Torvald by her side

and then he found out about the money she borrowed to save his life

and he said she was a liar and the cause of all his strife!

He called her low, and a disgrace,

said he no longer loved her, but outside he'd show a happy face,

and when the lender then decided that blackmail he would not pursue,

then Torvald turned to little Nora and said, “My Darling, I love you!”

But she said, "No!"

"Now I will go!" She turned around then and walked out and slammed the door...

#37 Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

2009-07-27T10:49:00.000-07:00

Avast, me hearties!

Capt Flint, th' most feared buccanneer on th' high sea be dead, an' Billy Bones, his first mate knows 'ere Flint buried his booty. Bones be a buccanneer who loves his rum an' when he drinks hisself t' Davy Jones' locker, 12-year-old Jim Hawkins comes upon Flint’s map. Jim an' his shipmates Doctor Livsey an' Mr. Trelawny, set sail fer riches an' adventure. But shi'er me timbers, thar’s treachery afoot. Long John Silver, th' one legged buccanneer wi' a heart as black as a bilge rat’s belly, be plottin' a mutiny. Jim an' his shipmates must look sharp an’ fight t' stay alive on Booty Isle, arrr!

#36 Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

2009-07-26T18:50:00.000-07:00

What does it mean to be a “catcher in the rye”? For 16-year-old Holden Caulfield, it means catching kids who are running through a rye field before they fall over a cliff at the end of the field. But Holden himself needs to be caught. He swears a lot and smokes too much, while falling more deeply into isolation and depression after his brother’s death. Unable to stand the “phonies” in his prep school, he flunks out and leaves in the middle of the night. After two cold and lonely days in New York City, Holden allows himself to be caught by an unlikely person whose childish innocence gives him hope.

#35 Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

2009-07-20T19:45:00.000-07:00

Black lacquered hair. White face.Red lips fixed in a knowing smile. We have all seen pictures of the beautiful geisha. But what lies behind the make-up? This book gives an intimate portrait of one geisha’s heartbreaking journey.

Chiyo Sakamoto’s father sells her into an okiyo, a geisha house, where her unusual grey eyes attract the jealousy of the top geisha, Hatsumomo. The two women fight it out with bitter gossip in the tea-houses of Kyoto, until Chiyo becomes Sayuri, the city’s most celebrated geisha. But her success does not buy her the freedom to follow her heart. In the world of the geisha, love is the luxury that costs too much.

#34 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

2009-07-16T22:24:00.000-07:00

Being eleven isn’t easy. Your body betrays you and your world seems to be changing faster than you can make sense of it all. This is especially true if you receive a letter informing you that you are actually a wizard, which is what happens to eleven year old Harry Potter. Harry is an orphan living with his detestable aunt and uncle, who constantly remind him that he is unwanted in their home. He gets the letter and his whole world changes, as if by magic. It’s exciting to discover the magic world with Harry. An enchanted castle, flying broomsticks, unicorns and centaurs would certainly make being eleven loads more fun.

#33 A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

2009-07-15T21:35:00.000-07:00

Blanche Dubois is the houseguest from hell. She arrives at her sister Stella’s cramped New Orleans apartment and showers contempt on the humble surroundings. She ties up the bathroom for hours, drinks all the liquor in the house and covers lightbulbs with paper lanterns to escape the harsh glare that reveals her fading beauty. No wonder Blanche and her brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski don’t get along. Stanley is part man, part beast, and his very existence offends Blanche’s delicate sensibilities. But Blanche is not as pure as she seems. As the summer wears on, the sordid details of her past come to light, and the paper lantern is savagely ripped off.

#32 The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

2009-07-14T00:20:00.000-07:00

Mary Lennox is a skinny, sickly, spoiled, selfish and sour-faced little girl with a nasty temper. She knows not how to love anyone else, but you will love her. When her parents die, she is shipped off from India to an uncle who lives in a huge, old house high on a moor in England. Once there, Mary learns of a neglected garden on the property and sets off to find it and make it come alive. Then Mary begins to come alive herself. You will love Mary because she will make you fall in love with all outdoors: the sunshine, wind, rain and every blooming, growing thing upon the earth.

#31 A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

2009-07-09T14:22:00.000-07:00

A woman could never have written Shakespeare’s plays, says Virginia Woolf, because women in Shakespeare's time had no money nor a room of their own in which to write. To demonstrate this point, Woolf creates Judith, Shakespeare’s imaginary sister. Judith has as much of a gift for words as her brother and as adventurous a heart, but is denied access to classical works that would ignite her imagination, and is not allowed to have exciting experiences that she could put into her plays. Instead, she is forced into marriage and a life of domestic servitude.

Thankfully, times have changed, even if perhaps the world is still awaiting another Shakespeare, male or female.

Let's Pause for Music: Michael and Me

2009-07-02T17:25:00.000-07:00

Remember the Time

We're the party people, night and day. Livin' crazy, that's the only way...

It’s 1979. The house is filled with music and people. It is dark, but there is a red and green light on and everyone is dancing, dancing, dancing. They’re bumping hips, snapping fingers, spinning around, and looking good. Anne Marie, a teenage girl who lives at the end of the block, is doing the Robot, making her forearm swing at the elbow like it was attached with a hinge. I try it too and everyone laughs at the four year old with all the barrettes in her hair, holding her hands at right angles and moving jerkily around the room. I know I’m no dancer, but the music makes me feel like jumping, spinning, shaking my too-many-barretted-head from side to side. The madness in the music has gotten to me and I am off the wall. Later, I look at the cover of the album, at the boy with big hair and a bright smile. I can’t read, but I know his name is Michael Jackson.

People always told me, be careful what you do, don’t go around breaking young girls’ hearts.

It’s 1984. Long legs, long arms, long jheri curl. Peach-colored glasses that are crooked on my face. Nine year old me, trying to Moonwalk on the kitchen floor, wearing my red pleather zipper jacket, like the one Michael wore in “Beat It.” I keep trying, but I look more like someone running backwards on sandpaper. Night after night, too, I pour over the cover of Thriller-- Michael in a glowing white suit lying sexily on some black, polished surface. Watching him perform Billie Jean at the Grammy Awards, I cry when he moonwalks across the stage. All I have is an 11 inch black and white T.V. with a wire hanger in it for an antenna, but I cry because the show will soon be over. Oh Michael, don’t go! Dance for me one more time. Don’t break this young girl’s heart.

Annie , are you o.k.? So Annie are you o.k. are you o.k, Annie?

It’s 1987. I am in junior high and a nerd of magnificent proportions. Even longer legs and a short waist. Huge glasses with coke bottle lenses. Hair permed straight and pulled back into a sickly pony-tail. (The jheri curl went out of style when Michael’s hair caught on fire during the filming of a Pepsi commercial—too much jheri curl juice.) I have changed and so has Michael. The cover of the new album, Bad, is a disappointing shock to me. Where is the handsome, brown skinned boy that I had spent hours day-dreaming about? Who is this pale guy with long straight hair? Was that a cleft in his chin? Still, the music on Bad is still Bad—in the good way. And the video for Smooth Criminal, with that ridonkulous anti-gravity lean? Not that I could do that move myself— for fear of falling down and breaking my precious glasses— but how did he do it? My friends and I have many ideas: camera trick, wires, mirrors-- or had Michael actually found some way to defy gravity? His moves are awesome, but why did he bleach his skin? With a night and day difference in how he looks, I can’t help asking, “Michael, are you o.k.? Are you O.K. Michael?”

Do you remember the time, when we fell in love, do you remember the time when we first met…

It’s 1992. I am a college student, 17 years old. Michael and I are going in different directions. I am wearing kente cloth and cowrie shells. My hair is in dreadlocks. Meanwhile, Michael’s nose seems to be disappearing and his skin is getting paler and paler. Still, no one else can sing and dance like he can. Being college students who are too-cool-for-school does not stop my best friend and me from trying to do the dance in the “Remember the Time” video. Snap, move to the left, Snap, move to the right, then down on the knees, left-right-left-right. I always mess it up and am still no dancer, but so what? It is great to be dancing with Michael again.

It’s 2009. My best friend calls me up after his death, in tears. I don’t understand. Sure, it’s sad, but she doesn’t even know the guy, and he seemed to have gone off the deep end long ago. But then she reminds me of how much we had loved Michael, his music and his moves. How we had spent so much of our childhoods listening to and singing his songs over and over again. His songs were like private jokes between him and us, him and me. How "Mama-say-mama-saw-ma-mock-ooo-saw" sounded like "I'mma sit on the side of a mountain top." Oh, Michael, you so crazy!

And now, I remember the time when Michael Jackson was so much of my world, remember the time when I fell in love with the beautiful brown-skinned boy who made an awkward little girl forget that she couldn’t dance. And I cry for the loss of a friend whose music was the beat of my childish heart.

#30 Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

2009-06-26T23:08:00.000-07:00

Homer Zuckerman had a farm: e-i-e-i-o.

And on that farm he had a spider: e-i-e-i-o.

Most of us have either read the book or have seen the movie. We know the story of how Charlotte, a witty and charismatic spider, saves Wilbur, a sweet and earnest pig, from being killed by weaving messages like “Some Pig” and “Terrific” into her web. Zuckerman thinks Wilbur is no ordinary pig. Says Mrs. Zuckerman: “I think you’re a little off. Seems to me we have no ordinary spider!” One can learn much from Charlotte and her web which, like the lives in this book, is intricate, fleeting and full of sticky situations.

#29 A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

2009-06-24T23:05:00.000-07:00

The French Revolution wasn’t televised, but was broadcast via The Novel. This classic puts a face on one of the bloodiest moments in history. It is the face of Charles Darnay, a nobleman who rejects the aristocracy and immigrates to London. He goes back to Paris during the uprising to help a friend who has been arrested. This proves fatal, when he’s identified as an Evrémonde, a family known for cruelty towards the peasantry. It is also the face of Syndey Carton, who bears a striking resemblance to Darnay. Carton, a troubled cynic, does “a far, far better thing” than he has ever done and finds peace amidst chaos and death.

#28 Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

2009-06-23T02:01:00.000-07:00

An enormous nest made of human hair? A mutant turd that refuses to go down without a fight? Is this stuff for real? Fortunately, yes. Or else how could David Sedaris use his great talent for turning the embarrassing and icky moments in life into hilarious stories for us to enjoy? Sometimes he is poking fun at the “weirdos” of the world, and sometimes he is poking fun at himself. Having a friend from out of town come visit means being stuck with a woman he'd like to beat to death. He goes to France and the only word he can say in French is “bottleneck.” You just can’t make this stuff up.

#27 The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

2009-06-19T23:34:00.000-07:00

Ah! To be young, gifted…and depressed. A college student working as a writer in New York, Esther Greenwood attends fashion shows, parties and rubs elbows with the literary elite. But she can’t enjoy any of it. Esther has shut down- or has broken down- and comments on those around her as if she were a ghost observing the living. After a nightmarish suicide attempt she seeks help, which comes in the form of badly administered electro-shock therapy. Ironic, as at the beginning of the novel she says, “The idea of being electrocuted makes me sick.” But it’s the idea of life after college that makes her sick in the first place.

#26 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

2009-06-12T23:58:00.000-07:00

There are times when being invisible would be a blessing: an unsightly pimple, or a foot-in-your-mouth remark, but that is not the case for the young black man in Ellison’s classic novel. He tells the story of how throughout his life people have chosen not to see him, though he is a solid, physical being. It was a slow, painful process, becoming invisible, but he embraces it now, as real life has nothing to offer him and he sees it as a joke. He lives rent free in the basement of an apartment building where he has rigged 1,369 light bulbs powered by stolen electricity. He is off the grid; invisible.

#25 Going Solo by Roald Dahl

2009-06-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

Whoosh! It’s not a bird, it’s a plane, and in it is...Roald Dahl! When most people hear the name Roald Dahl, they think of the prolific author who wrote some of the best books in children’s literature. But did you know that Dahl used be a fighter pilot for the Royal Air Force during WWII? It’s true. How does someone go from shooting down German planes over the Aegean Sea to writing books about a madman who lives in a chocolate factory? This book is a thrilling and nail-biting account of how Dahl cheated death through feats of daring and lived to bring joyful feats of imagination to the world.

#24 American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

2009-06-06T10:12:00.000-07:00

On the outside, Patrick Bateman seems to have it all. He’s vice president of an upscale firm, he lives in an swanky apartment and he wears only the finest clothes. On the inside, Patrick embodies all that is sick within the human soul. He spends his days in a world where materialism reigns and individuality is not an option. His nights are spent torturing and killing people in horrific acts of violence. But are the murders just figments of Patrick’s imagination or is he indeed a psychopath? It’s hard to know. One thing is certain: this is not someone you want to encounter in a dark alley, Armani suit or no.

#23 The God of Small Things by Arudhati Roy

2009-05-28T16:24:00.000-07:00

In Ayemenem, a small town in India, the rainy season brings more than mud and wild greenery. It brings Rahel back to her childhood home. She has come to see Estha, her twin brother. He has been “re-returned” to Ayemenem after being sent away 25 years ago and has stopped speaking.

The story goes back in time and tells of the tragic events that took Estha’s voice and separated him from Rahel and their mother, the beautiful Ammu, who dared to fall in love with an untouchable. An artful commentary on India’s caste system, in which lies and prejudice spread like wild creepers in June to smother an already fragile family.

#22 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

2009-05-25T10:19:00.000-07:00

It is 1935. The Depression is in full swing. Hitler is up to no good, and in Maycomb, Alabama, Scout and Jem Finch are learning the meaning of bigotry. Their father, Atticus Finch, is defending Tom Robinson, an innocent black man accused of raping a white woman. Atticus’s courageous actions bring out all the ugliness and hatred in the community. Jem and Scout spend their last summers of innocence standing up for their father and trying to make Boo Radley, a vilified recluse who has not been seen in 15 years, come out. They succeed and learn that while boogiemen do exist, they are not always who you think they are.

#21 The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

2009-05-22T13:05:00.000-07:00

A steamy love affair, a hot north African desert, a fiery plane crash and a thimble of saffron make this book a spicy read.

Set during and after World War II, this book tells of a love affair between Lazlo de Almasy, a Hungarian explorer, and Katherine Clifton, the wife of a British official. Passion is ignited over desert campfires and passages of Herodotus, and when Katherine ends the affair, Lazlo becomes sick with jealousy and desire. He asks a friend about the name of the little hollow below a woman’s neck and is told-- "Pull yourself together." Easier said than done in this story of love, sand, and war.

#20 One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

2009-05-19T19:01:00.001-07:00

You get the sense of sleepwalking through a long and detailed dream while reading this book. It is the fantastical story of four generations of the Buendia family living in Macondo, a village of vague locale, isolated from the rest of the world. Time seems to have no beginning or end as people are born, grow up, live and die. Juan Arcadio Buendia, the patriarch of the family, tries to end Macondo’s isolation by finding a path to the rest of the world and bringing the townspeople into the modern age. But as Macondo becomes more modernized and sophisticated, each member of the family is left in despair, frustration, and solitude.

#19 All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

2009-05-17T14:43:00.000-07:00

Look here, pal, lemme tell ya’ about a man named Willie Stark, the Boss. The Boss got a bee in his bonnet about becoming governor and told anybody who would listen that he was going to cut the corruption out of this state like a cancer. “Gimme that meat ax!” was Willie’s battle cry, and the people loved him. Willie realized that he couldn’t get anything done without getting his hands dirty, and Willie’s hands got filthy as all hell. As Willie likes to say, "Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption and he passeth from the stink of the didie to the stench of the shroud.” Him included.

#18 The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein

2009-05-15T21:56:00.000-07:00

Let us go now to Middle Earth, down the great river Anduin, through the golden wood of Lothlorien, past the white towers of Minas Tirith, to the black wastes of Mordor and into the fiery mountain of Orodruin. With us is Frodo Baggins, a hobbit, who has the perilous task of destroying the Ring of Power, a treacherous weapon crafted by the evil Lord Sauron. On our travels we will meet long-lost kings, wise wizards, eagle-eyed elves, ax-wielding dwarfs, monstrous orcs and stout-hearted hobbits. Take heed, for one who has been corrupted by the ring follows us, the creature Gollum. A journey that seems never-ending, yet all too short.

#17 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

2009-05-14T21:07:00.000-07:00

Humbert Humbert is a hoity-toity professor with a secret: he has an appetite for young girls. He meets Lolita at her mother’s house and immediately becomes obsessed with the “nymphette". Humbert goes as far as to marry Lolita’s man-hungry mother, just to have a chance at having her daughter. Things work out better than he expected when the mother suddenly dies. Is Lolita as pure as the driven snow? No. But she is only 12. With her mother gone, she becomes Humbert’s concubine and prisoner.

Said Nabokov: “I am probably responsible for the odd fact that people don't seem to name their daughters Lolita any more.” You damn right, Vlady.

#16 The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

2009-05-14T13:48:00.001-07:00

Is it better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody? Tom Ripley thinks so. He scores a trip to Italy funded by the wealthy Mr. Greenleaf who wants Tom to persuade his son Dickey to come back to the states. In Italy, we see Tom’s talents come to the fore as he cunningly worms his way into Dickey’s good graces. Dickey soon becomes bored with their friendship, and not wanting to go back to being a nobody, the seemingly mild mannered Tom takes some gruesome measures. “I would kill to be in his shoes” is not just an expression for the talented Mr. Ripley. It becomes his way of life.

#15 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

2009-05-12T22:18:00.000-07:00

“I’m Tom Sawyer. Who the hell are you?” Long before Bart Simpson came on the scene, Tom Sawyer was raising heck in late 19^th century literature. He tricks the neighborhood boys into whitewashing a fence for him, woos the new girl in town, and makes a mockery out of a Sunday School competition. Things take a turn for the serious when Tom accidentally witnesses Injun Joe, the local thug, commit murder. This doesn’t keep him from pretending to be a pirate, running away from home and letting the whole town think he has drowned so he can go to his own funeral and surprise everyone. Boys will be boys, I guess.

#14 A Passage to India by E.M. Forster

2009-05-11T14:33:00.000-07:00

How do you say, “Can’t we all just get along?” in Hindi?

Tenuous race relations between the British and the Indians erupt when the colonizers and the colonized mix. Miss Quested, a British woman, complains of not seeing the “real India”, so Aziz , a well-to-do Indian doctor, offers to take her and her future mother-in-law on an outing to the Marabar caves. The trip ends in disaster when Miss Quested becomes disoriented in a cave and claims Aziz tried to rape her. Then all bets are off. It’s Brit against Black as both sides unabashedly reveal their true feelings.

हम सभी को प्यार कर सकते हैं? Apparently not.