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Book Club Kits 2 Go: List of Titles with Annotations

	The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton An elegant portrait of desire and betrayal in Old New York. In the highest circle of New York social life during the 1870's, Newland Archer, a young lawyer, prepares to marry the docile May Welland. Before their engagement is announced, he meets May's cousin, the mysterious, nonconformist Countess Ellen Olenska, who has returned to New York after a long absence.
	The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler Marrying quickly during World War II after falling in love at first sight, a mismatched couple discovers that their different personalities and approaches to life are taking a toll on their relationship and their family.
	Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner Susan and her engineer husband live rough lives in mining camps during the late 19th century, and their marriage cannot survive.
	The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein Nearing the end of his life, Enzo, a dog with a philosopher's soul, tries to bring together the family, pulled apart by a three year custody battle between daughter Zoe's maternal grandparents and her father Denny, a race car driver.
	Ava’s Man by Rick Bragg Rick Bragg brings his astonishing gift for storytelling to the tale of his grandfather, a man who kept his family one step ahead of poverty and starvation in Depression-era Appalachia. Charlie Bundrum was a man who took giant steps in rundown boots, a true hero whom history would otherwise have overlooked.
	Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, two boys are sent to the country for reeducation, where their lives take an unexpected turn when they meet the beautiful daughter of a local tailor and stumble upon a forbidden stash of Western literature.
	Bel Canto by Ann Patchett When terrorists seize hostages at an embassy party, an unlikely assortment of people is thrown together, including American opera star Roxanne Coss, and Mr. Hosokawa, a Japanese CEO and her biggest fan.
	Blink : the Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell Draws on a range of case studies to explore the process by which people make decisions, explaining how the difference between good and bad decision making is directly related to the details on which people focus, and counseling readers on how to become better decision makers in every aspect of life.
	The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad An international phenomenon translated into 17 languages, "The Bookseller of Kabul" has become not only the bestselling nonfiction book ever published in the author's native Norway, but also a tremendous success throughout Europe and around the world.
	The Color of Water by James McBride James McBride grew up one of twelve siblings in the all-black housing projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn, the son of a black minister and a woman who would not admit she was white. The object of McBride's constant embarrassment, and his continuous fear for her safety, his mother was an inspiring figure, who through sheer force of will saw her dozen children through college, and many through graduate school.
	Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières The idyllic world of the Greek island of Cephallonia is forever changed by the inexorable changes of World War II, as the inhabitants struggle to cope with the Axis invasion and occupation
	The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother.
	Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende Raised in the British colony of Valparaiso, Chile, after being abandoned as a baby, a pregnant Eliza follows her lover, Joaquin Andieta, to California at the height of the Gold Rush and finds adventure and adversity on her road to independence and love.
	The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson In The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson takes readers into a richly complex moment in American history, a moment that would draw together the best and worst of the Gilded Age, the grandeur and triumph of the human imagination, and the poverty, violence, and depravity that surrounded it.
	The Distant Land of My Father by Bo Caldwell Experiencing a seemingly idyllic childhood in pre-World War II Shanghai, Anna flees to California with her mother when the Japanese occupation begins, believing her charismatic millionaire father's connections will keep him safe. Funded by a donation from Book Expo.
	Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert Traces the author's decision to quit her job and travel the world for a year after suffering a midlife crisis and divorce, a journey that took her to three places in her quest to explore her own nature and learn the art of spiritual balance.
	The Eighth Promise: An American Son's Tribute to his Toisanese Mother by William Poy Lee A memoir of the Chinese American immigrant experience and the relationship between a mother and son, in which the mother makes eight promises to her mother before she leaves China, and instills the final one, to live with compassion toward all, into her son.
	Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card A veteran of years of simulated war games, Ender believes he is engaged in one more computer war game when in truth he is commanding the last fleet of Earth against an alien race seeking the complete destruction of Earth.
	Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles The Civil War Era was one of the most divisive and heart-rending in our nation's history. For 18-year-old Adair Colley it brought about intense personal change as well. Although the Colley family was neutral on the issues of secession and slavery, many men from their area in Missouri Ozarks had joined the Confederate army. One day in November 1864 the Union Militia swept in on their mission to rout Confederate sympathizers.
	Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury In one of literature's most haunting denunciations of censorship, Ray Bradbury uses the materials of science fiction to tell the story of Guy Montag, a fireman forced to burn books.
	Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry In mid-1990s Bombay, Nariman Vakeel lives in a crumbling apartment with his two middle-aged stepchildren--the mild-mannered Jal and his domineering sister, Coomy, who plots to turn over the care of her stepfather to her younger sister, Roxana.
	The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs Gathering for their weekly knitting club at a small yarn shop on Manhattan's upper west side, a group of friends shares such challenges as raising children, navigating the ups and downs of their education and careers, and pursuing uncertain relationships.
	Gardens in the Dunes by Leslie Marmon Silko A sweeping, multifaceted tale of a young Native American pulled between the cherished traditions of a heritage on the brink of extinction and an encroaching white culture, Gardens in the Dunes is the powerful story of one woman's quest to reconcile two worlds that are diametrically opposed. At the center of this struggle is Indigo, who is ripped from her tribe, the Sand Lizard people, by white soldiers who destroy her home and family.
	The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson Forty years after the disappearance of Harriet Vanger from the secluded island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger family, her octogenarian uncle hires journalist Mikael Blomqvist and Lisbeth Salander, an unconventional young hacker, to investigate.
	The Golden Notebook by Doris May Lessing The experiences of two women provide the framework for an intense literary study of liberated womanhood, in a new edition, which includes an author biography and publication history, of a novel originally published in 1962.
	The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows January 1946: writer Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a stranger, a founding member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. And so begins a remarkable tale of the island of Guernsey during the German occupation, and of a society as extraordinary as its name.
	The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood Offred, a Handmaid, describes life in what was once the United States, now the Republic of Gilead, a shockingly repressive and intolerant monotheocracy, in a satirical tour de force set in the near future.
	Horse Heaven by Jane Smiley "It's not true," says a character in Jane Smiley's funny, passionate, and brilliant new novel of horse racing, "that anything can happen at the racetrack," but many astonishing and affecting things do -- and in Horse Heaven, we find them woven into a marvelous tapestry of joy and love, chicanery, folly, greed, and derring-do.
	Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford When artifacts from Japanese families sent to internment camps during World War II are uncovered during renovations at a Seattle hotel, Henry Lee embarks on a quest that leads to memories of growing up Chinese in a city rife with anti-Japanese sentiment.
	In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan From the author of the bestselling "The Omnivores Dilemma" comes this bracing and eloquent manifesto that shows readers how they might start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich their lives and enlarge their sense of what it means to be healthy.
	In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan (Large Print ed.) From the author of the bestselling "The Omnivores Dilemma" comes this bracing and eloquent manifesto that shows readers how they might start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich their lives and enlarge their sense of what it means to be healthy.
	The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler "Real people are really complicated," says Jocelyn, the founder of the "Central Valley/River City all-Jane-Austen-all-the-time book club." And the members of her newly founded book club certainly prove this to be true. Each has a story to tell, and much like an Austen novel, the intricate plots that are their own lives are slowly revealed.
	The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan In sixteen interwoven stories, Amy Tan's characters—four Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-raised daughters—struggle to connect despite the ghosts and secrets of the past.
	Justine by Lawrence Durrell On the eve of World War II in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, an exiled Irish schoolteacher becomes involved with Justine, the Jewish wife of a Coptic Christian.
	The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father's servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption, and it is also about the power of fathers over sons-their love, their sacrifices, their lies.
	The Known World by Edward P. Jones Henry Townsend, a black farmer, bootmaker, and former slave, has a fondness for Paradise Lost and an unusual mentor -- William Robbins, perhaps the most powerful man in antebellum Virginia's Manchester County. Under Robbins's tutelage, Henry becomes proprietor of his own plantation -- as well as of his own slaves.
	The Life of Pi by Yann Martel Life of Pi is at once a realistic, rousing adventure and a meta-tale of survival that explores the redemptive power of storytelling and the transformative nature of fiction.
	Little Bee by Chris Cleave Presents a tale of a precarious friendship between an illegal Nigerian refugee and a recent widow from suburban London, a story told from the alternating and disparate perspectives of both women.
	Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov A novel that studies the moral disintegration of a man whose obsessive desire to possess his step-daughter destroys the lives of those around him.
	Loving Frank by Nancy Horan Fact and fiction blend in a historical novel that chronicles the relationship between seminal architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney, from their meeting in Oak Park, Illinois, when they were each married to another, to the clandestine affair that shocked Chicago society.
	The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett Detective Sam Spade becomes embroiled with a mysterious client, avenges the death of his partner, and chases a priceless treasure, in this classic American private-eye novel.
	Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides Spanning eight decades, Eugenides's long-awaited second novel is a grand, utterly original fable of crossed bloodlines, the intricacies of gender, and the deep, untidy promptings of desire.
	My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult "My Sister's Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life, even if that means infringing upon the rights of another?"
	Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich "Nickel and Dimed" reveals low-wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity. Instantly acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this book is changing the way the nation perceives its working poor.
	Night by Elie Wiesel In eloquent, unflinching scenes, Night recalls Wiesel's survival as a teenager in Nazi death camps. Each chapter raises questions that have haunted the world since Hitler's rise: How could such a staggering number of innocents have lost their lives at the command of one regime? What does it take to survive when body, mind, and spirit are brutalized for months, even years?
	A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly While working at the local hotel, the drowned body of a young woman washes onto the shore and gets Mattie thinking again of the loss of her mother, her family's struggles, and her unhappy life in her small community, but when she reads the girl's letters, Mattie is inspired and becomes determined to follow her dream of moving to New York City to become a writer.
	Not a Genuine Black Man: My Life as an Outsider by Brian Copeland Based on the longest running one-man show in San Francisco history--now coming to Off-Broadway--"Not a Genuine Black Man" is a hilarious, poignant, and disarming memoir of growing up black in an all-white suburb.
	The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks An elderly man reads a story from a notebook to a woman who does not know him; the story is of young lovers kept apart by disapproving parents.
	Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout At the edge of the continent, in the small town of Crosby, Maine, lives Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher who deplores the changes in her town and in the world at large but doesn't always recognize the changes in those around her.
	The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver The family of a fierce evangelical Baptist missionary--Nathan Price, his wife, and his four daughters--begins to unravel after they embark on a 1959 mission to the Belgian Congo, where they find their lives transformed over the course of three decades.
	Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, the girls in Azar Nafisi’s living room risked removing their veils and immersed themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitgerald, Henry James and Vladimir Nabokov. This is a remarkable exploration of resilience in the face of tyranny.
	The Red Tent by Anita Diamant The Red Tent tells the little-known Biblical story of Dinah, daughter of the patriarch Jacob and his wife, Leah. In Chapter 34 of the Book of Genesis, Dinah’s tale is a short, horrific detour in the familiar narrative of Jacob and Joseph.
	The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama On the eve of the Second World War, a young Chinese man is sent to his family's summer home in Japan to recover from tuberculosis. He will rest, swim in the salubrious sea, and paint in the brilliant shoreside light. It will be quiet and solitary. But he meets four local residents - a lovely young Japanese girl and three older people. What then ensues is a tale that readers will find at once classical yet utterly unique.
	Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan A collection of tales about modern African children in crisis includes "An Ex-Mas Feast," in which an eight-year-old child shares in his family's sacrifices to obtain enough food and enable his education.
	The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd After her "stand-in mother," a bold black woman named Rosaleen, insults the three biggest racists in town, Lily Owens joins Rosaleen on a journey to Tiburon, South Carolina, where they are taken in by three black, bee-keeping sisters.
	Sleeping at the Starlite Motel: and other Adventures on the Way Back Home by Bailey White Anyone who has read her bestseller Mama Makes Up Her Mind--or who has heard her on National Public Radio--knows that Bailey White is one of the keenest observers of Southern eccentricity since Mark Twain. Sleeping at the Starlite Motel revives White's reputation as a master storyteller, Southern division, as it catalogs the oddities of the Georgia town she knows so well.
	Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Høeg She thinks more highly of snow and ice than she does of love. She lives in a world of numbers, science and memories--a dark, exotic stranger in a strange land. And now Smilla Jaspersen is convinced she has uncovered a shattering crime...
	The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell “Jesuit priest and linguist, Emilio Sandoz, leads a twenty-first-century scientific mission to a newly discovered extraterrestrial culture. Sandoz and his companions are prepared to endure isolation, hardship and death, but nothing can prepare them for the civilization they encounter, or for the tragic misunderstanding that brings the mission to a catastrophic end.”
	The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal “Put yourself in the position of a prisoner in a concentration camp. A dying Nazi soldier asks for your forgiveness.”
	Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table by Ruth Reichl The candid and comical memoir by the renowned "New York Times" restaurant critic whose high-spirited life has always been defined and enriched by food. Reichl's childhood and young-adult life provide a smorgasbord of wit and wisdom, sprinkled with recipes that perfectly capture her endlessly entertaining world.
	Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston Zora Neale Hurston's vibrant novel presents Janie Mae Crawford's growth from a voiceless teenage girl into a woman who takes charge of her own destiny.
	Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the Taliban's backyard.
	The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger Passionately in love, Clare and Henry vow to hold onto each other and their marriage as they struggle with the effects of Chrono-Displacement Disorder, a condition that casts Henry involuntarily into the world of time travel.
	To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee As Harper Lee's narrator, Scout Finch, tries to draw out a reclusive neighbor, she finds herself involved in a racially charged trial that decides the fate of a man in her Alabama community.
	The Tortilla Curtain by T. C. Boyle From the author of The Road to Wellville comes his most controversial novel yet--a deeply moving story of the men and women who risk everything to cross the Mexican border and invade the American dream.
	Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck With his poodle dog Charley, John Steinbeck set out in his truck to explore and experience America in the 1960s.
	Under the Banner of Heaven: a Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer Krakauer shifts his focus from extremes of physical adventure to extremes of religious belief in this true story of an appalling double murder committed by two Mormon Fundamentalist brothers who insist God commanded them to kill.
	A Walk in the Woods By Bill Bryson Returning to the U.S. after 20 years in England, Iowa native Bryson decided to reconnect with his mother country by hiking the length of the 2100-mile Appalachian Trail. Awed by merely the camping section of his local sporting goods store, he nevertheless plunges into the wilderness and emerges with a consistently comical account of a neophyte woodsman learning hard lessons about self-reliance.
	The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life -- having nothing but his own wits to help him along.
	Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks Young Anna Frith, a vicar's maid, is faced with the loss of her family, the disintegration of her local community, and a passionate, illicit love as she and her village confront the horrors of the plague, in a historical novel based on real-life events in seventeenth-century England.

Book Club Kits 2 Go: List of Titles with Annotations