The Surgeon of Crowthorne (Popular Penguins) by Simon Winchester
Category: Fiction | Series: Popular Penguins Ser. | Reading Level: very good
Simon Winchester'sThe Surgeon of Crowthorne was an international bestseller and tells an extraordinary true story of murder, madness and an extraordinary friendship in the nineteenth century. It is the tale of James Murray, the compiler of the first Oxford English Dictionary, and his most valued helper- ...Show more
A Handful of Dust: Popular Penguins by Evelyn Waugh
Category: Fiction | Series: Popular Penguins | Reading Level: very good
Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dustis a satirical depiction of the 'sterile' generation between the wars. It tells the story of bored Lady Brenda Last, who abandons her husband's Gothic pile to conduct an affair with shallow socialite John Beaver of the Belgravia set. A Handful of Dustremains one of the fi ...Show more
Potiki by Patricia Grace
Category: NZ Fiction | Reading Level: very good
In a small coastal community threatened by developers who would ravage their lands it is a time of fear and confusion - and growing anger. The prophet child Tokowaru-i-te-Marama shares his people's struggles against bulldozers and fast money talk. When dramatic events menace the marae, his grief and rag ...Show more
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Category: Fiction | Reading Level: very good
'Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird' - Meet Scout, the narrator of this book. Her story is one of Deep South summers, fights at school and playing in the street. The spooky house of her mysterious neighbour, Boo Radley, sags dark and forbid ...Show more
Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese
Category: Fiction | Reading Level: Adult
A sweeping, emotionally riveting novel with over one million copies sold--an enthralling family saga of Africa and America, doctors and patients, exile and home. Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their ...Show more
Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
Category: Fiction | Reading Level: General Adult
After earning a graduate degree in creative writing from the University of East Anglia, Tracy Chevalier was immediately recognized for her literary talent. In Girl with a Pearl Earring, she recreates the 17th-century world of Johannes Vermeer. This haunting work of historical fiction received rave revie ...Show more