Reading Lists

The Dog Stars

By Peter Heller
The debut novel begins in a post apocalyptic world, where almost everyone has been killed by a terrible virus. One day, the main character, living in what is left of Colorado with only his dog, picks up a radio transmission and he then risks everything to try to connect to another human. Read this to find out what is really important in our lives. Check Our Catalog

The Dressmaker

By Kate Alcott
Tess thinks she has had the great luck to start a new life, when she talks a famous designer to take her to America on a ship as her personal maid. But maybe luck is not on her side, since the ship is the Titanic. Tess and her employer do survive the trip, but once a reporter starts investigating as to why there were so few people in her employer’s life boat; Tess’s life gets more complicated. Set against the historical background of the period, this novel moves at a fast pace and is full of human interest. The character of the designer is based on an actual Titanic survivor. Check Our Catalog

Heaven is Here

By Stephanie Neilson
Stephanie Neilson is well known in the blogging community for her upbeat blog detailing her life raising four young children and then, in an instant, everything changes. She and her husband are in a plane crash, and she has burns over 80% of her body. She is put in a medically induced coma for 3 months. Her children are scared to look at her. And all she wants to do is return to the peaceful place she was in when she was comatose, imagining it was heaven. Now she must go through enormous struggles to find out what if she can ever be able to say that “heaven is here.” Her struggles to get to that point will inspire you. Check Our Catalog

Help Thanks Wow

By Anne Lamott
This is a very short book that has a lasting impact. Anne Lamott’s other books have detailed how faith has been an anchor throughout her life, and now she makes her faith as succinct as possible. Anne Lamott brings the act of prayer to our level-do able, reachable and powerful. Check Our Catalog

Killing Kennedy

By Bill O'Reilly
Bill O’Reilly has a deft touch in writing not just the story of the assassination, but the story of Kennedy’s life, the personal and political story of man who sometimes is more myth than reality. O’Reilly’s book can give us the benefit of both hindsight and the huge amount of additional information that has come forward in the years after Kennedy’s death. His timeline of Kennedy’s life, paired with that of Lee Harvey Oswald’s, sheds light on how this killing could have happened. It is a good addition to the myriad of books that have been published about Kennedy. Check Our Catalog

No! I Don't Want to Join a Book Club

By Virginia Ironside
The author of this book writes from he own experience, in a fictional diary form, which may have you laughing in sprite of yourself. The author is turning 60, and her alter ego does not want to do anything-no bungee jumping, not taking a course to improve her mind, and certainly NOT joining a book club. You will have to read it to find out just what she does do. Check Our Catalog

The Orchardist

By Amanda Coplin
Talmadge has lived alone in the Pacific Northwest since 1857, living peacefully while taking care of his apple and apricot orchard. One day, two very young and very pregnant women appear, who, as it turns out, are running away from a brothel and who have been impregnated by its owner. Talmadge’s life is never the same. He offers the women safety, and when men come after them, he is left taking care of an infant and one of the women. Once his has been forced to connect to the outside world, his world can never to back to what it was-for better or worse. Check Our Catalog

Round House

By Louise Erdrich
For two decades, Erdrich has been writing abut the Ojibwe and white community, having grown up in the world of the North Dakota Native Americans. Erdrich knows this world inside and out. When young Joe’s mother is brutally beaten and raped when he is 13, his peaceful life is changed irrevocably. His father, a tribal judge, is frustrated in his pursuit of justice. His mother is affected not just physically, but mentally as well. All of the happens while Joe is becoming an adult faster than anyone wishes. Check Our Catalog

Someone Knows My Name

By Lawrence Hill
Aminata Diallo is a fictional character who looms larger than life. We follow her from her childhood in Africa, living in difficult circumstances but well loved. All that changes when she is captured at the age of 10 by white slave traders. She travels on a terrible journey to America, she is purchased by two different owners and eventually becomes free. She than travels to both Nova Scotia and back to Africa, where she looks for her roots as well as the child she has lost. The novel is based on extensive research, to make it as historically accurate as possible. Check Our Catalog