Fiction

The Alchemist Paolo Coelho
Pursuing dreams of treasure and distant lands, a shepherd boy journeys from Spain to Egypt. Along the way, encounters with mystical characters teach him lessons of self-fulfillment, wisdom, and following his heart.

The Appeal John Grisham
This court drama starts with the verdict and the beginning of the appeal process. In true Grisham fashion, the underdogs of small town America battle corporate giants.  This novel shows the extraordinary lengths corporations will take to win at any cost, even in the judicial systems.

The Book of Lost Things John Connolly
At a dark time in his life, a young teen retreats to his attic bedroom with only his books for company. They begin to whisper to him and lure him into a dark fantasy world of beasts, monsters, kings, and a quest that will be his only way out of the creepy fairy-tale.

Children of Hurin J.R.R. and Christopher Tolkien
Long before hobbits, when dragons and evil still roamed Middle Earth, a half-human, half-elven young man comes of age, faces wrongful banishment, and leads outlaws in the crusade against evil in this battle-packed adventure.

The Confessor David Silva
An art restorer who leads a double life as an Israeli governmental spy and assassin must track the murderer of an agent researching the Catholic church's involvement in the Holocaust.  Secret religious societies as well as governments try to keep long-hidden secrets buried...even if it means burying the hero, too.

Copper Sun Sharon Draper (author of Tears of a Tiger and Forged by Fire!)
An Africian teenager is captured into slavery, brought to America, and given as a "gift" to the master's son. Only her own strength and an unlikely friendship help her rise above the brutality of slavery.

Deception Point Dan Brown (author of The DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons!)
When NASA announces its discovery of a meteror buried in the Arctic, a federal investigator and an oceanographer arrive to verify it and instead find themselves in a web of science, danger, politics, and murder.

Does My Head Look Big in This? Randa Abdel-Fattah
With humor and strength, a Muslim teen faces the shock of her snotty prep school when she decides to wear the traditional head scarf full time. All teens can relate to this funny and warm story about coping with a crush on a classmate, helping a friend in need, and making your own choices.

Ender's Game Orson Scott Card
Child prodigy and military genius Ender Wiggen must save the world from alien attack.

Estrella's Quinceanera Malin Alegria
A girl dreads her 15th birthday party when her mother starts making humiliating plans for things like a hideous puffy dress, while she is also distracted by a romance with a classmate which causes cultural conflict.  Light-hearted story with meaningful search for independence and pride in one's roots.

Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte
The classic in which orphanhood turns the heroine into a practical, spirited survivor.  Just when she finds love and anticipates a happy ending, a dark secret from the past make her choose between her heart and her own principles.
*Required reading for English 419*

One Mississippi Mark Childress
A loner, who has just moved to the South during racial integration of schools, finds a brilliant new buddy and falls in love with an African-American girl, whom the boys seriously injure in an accident, and who then believes she is white. Keeping their guilt a secret pushes this page-turner toward its violent, explosive conclusion.
 

Raiders Night Robert Lipsyte
Pressure at home leads the football captain to experiment with prescription drugs and "juice," while a football camp prank gone violently wrong and conflict between team members force him to take an ethical stand for the first time.

 Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas James Patterson
Romantic tearjerker about a young woman whose boyfriend crushes her by breaking up with her. His only explanation is to give her the diary his first wife kept for their baby.  Katie learns to love the woman who stands in the way of her own true love.

A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini (author of The Kite Runner!)
An illegitimate daughter has no choice but an arranged marriage to an older man with hateful views on women.  When he takes a beautiful second wife, a surprising sisterhood between the two suffering women develops that not even war-town Afghanistan can destroy.

What Happened to Mcbride?  Gail Giles
Distrubing, suspenseful triller about a troubled college student sho takes revenge on the most popular girl in his brother's school...by burying her alive.

Non-Fiction

From Baghdad with Love Jay Kopelman & Melinda Roth
Serving in Iraq, Kopelman, a marine, finds a stray puppy that warms the hearts of his whole unit in spite of the ugly face of war--so much that they plan to break all the rules by evacuating the puppy from Iraq. Also packed with war details.

Game of Shadows Mark Fainaru-Wada & Lance Williams
A cold, damning account of both Barry Bond's steroid scandal and the shadowy presence of steroids in sports, written by the award-winning reporters who first broke the scandal.

Gang Leader for a Day Sudhir Venkatesh
The author's fascinating experience of a strange friendship with a Chicago gang.  For a college class, he decided to research life in a dangerous Chicago housing project, where he got an inside look at urban poverty and the highly organized system of crack-dealing.

The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls
A memoir chronicling the struggles of growing up in poverty with a uniquely dysfunctional but caring family. Walls and her siblings endured an artistic, free-spirited, but irresponsible mother and a brilliant dreamer of a father who became hurtful when he drank.  Yet Walls still depicts her family with honesty and understanding, and even with love and forgiveness.

In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle Madeleine Blais
After 5 years of choking in the state playoffs, a high school basketball team finally gets the chance at glory. Moving account of the athletes' special season.

The Last Lecture Randy Pausch
Dying of pancreatic cancer, a university professor delivered a final lecture to his class.  His inspirational book is based on his lecture and is not about death but instead about life:  following dreams, living for the moment, and having fun.  Featured on Oprah!!

Mississippi: An American Journey Anthony Walton
A black man from suburban Chicago travels to Mississippi, contemplating issues such as the history of slavery and civil rights activism in one of America's racist past on our present.He achieves an awareness of the complexities of race by weaving in historical stories and documents, stories of his own family, poetry, songs, and pictures. *Required reading for English 319*

The World Without Us Alan Weisman
What would happen to our planet if humans disappeared altoghter? Which buildings would survive? Which species of plants and animals would be better off without humans?  Would cockroaches really outlive us? This book explores these questions and human impact on the environment both before and after our disappearance.