VIRTUALLIBRARIAN

A READING LIST OF

 LOVE

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* denotes a College Bound Reading List selection

Agee, James A Death in the Family* (F Age)

 On a sultry summer night in 1915, Jay Follet leaves his house in Knoxville, Tennessee, to tend to his father, whom he believes is dying. The summons turns out to be a false alarm, but on his way back to his family, Jay has a car accident and is killed instantly. Dancing back and forth in time and braiding the viewpoints of Jay's wife, brother, and young son, Rufus, Agee creates an overwhelmingly powerful novel of innocence, tenderness, and loss that should be read aloud for the sheer music of its prose.

Auch, Mary Jane Ashes of Roses

(YA Auc)When she arrives on Ellis Island as a seventeen-year-old Irish immigrant, Rose Nolan is looking for a land of opportunities; what she finds is far from all she'd dreamed. Stubborn and tenacious, she refuses to give up. Left alone to fend for herself and her younger sister, Rose is thrust into a hard-knock life of tenements and factory work.

When the devastating Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 rushes into Rose's life, her confusions are brought to an all-too-painful head. To whom and to what can she turn when everything around her is in ashes?

Austen, Jane Pride and Prejudice* (F Aus)

Elizabeth Bennet is the perfect Austen heroine: intelligent, generous, sensible, incapable of jealousy or any other major sin. That makes her sound like an insufferable goody-goody, but the truth is she's a completely hip character, who if provoked is not above skewering her antagonist with a piece of her exceptionally sharp -- but always polite -- 18th century wit. The point is, you spend the whole book absolutely fixated on the critical question: will Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy hook up?

Austen, Jane Sense and Sensibility* (F Aus)

The story revolves around the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne. Whereas the former is a sensible, rational creature, her younger sister is wildly romantic--a characteristic that offers Austen plenty of scope for both satire and compassion.

Brashares, Ann The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (YA Bra)

As four lifelong friends prepare to split up for the summer, they discover that the second-hand jeans look good on all of them, despite their different physiques. They promise to rotate the jeans among them and, upon their reunion at summer's end, record their favorite adventures on the pant legs.

Brashares, Ann The Second Summer of the Sisterhood (YA Bra)

With a bit of last summer’s sand in the pockets, the Traveling Pants and the Sisterhood that wears them embark on their 16th summer.

Bronte, Charlotte Jane Eyre* (F Bro)

The story of an unhappy orphan and her life as a governess at Thornfield is filled with difficulty, including a shocking revelation on her wedding day.

Bronte, Elizabeth Wuthering Heights* (F Bro)

Wuthering Heights is the tale of Heathcliff, a brooding, troubled orphan, and his doomed love for Catherine Earnshaw. His desire for her leads him to madness, however, when Catherine is made to marry a wealthy lord, sending Heathcliff on a life-long quest to avenge himself upon those who stole his only love and his life.

Burns, Olive Anne Cold Sassy Tree (HF Bur)

Cold Sassy, Georgia, had never been a whirlpool of excitement. If the preacher's wife's petticoats showed, the ladies could make the talk last a week.

But on July 5, 1906, things took a scandalous turn. That was the day E. Rucker Blakeslee, proprietor of the general store and barely three weeks a widower, eloped with Miss Love Simpson -- a woman half his age and, worse yet, a Yankee!

Cabot, Meg The Princess Diaries, Princess in Love, Princess in the Spotlight, Princess in Waiting  (YA Cab)

It would seem that 14-year-old Mia Thermopolis ("five foot nine inches tall, with no visible breasts, feet the size of snowshoes") has the kind of life every Manhattan teenager could only dream of: She is, in her spare time, the princess of the European country of Genovia. Alas, the Royal Privilege is more like a Predicament.

Carter, Alden Bull Catcher (YA Car)

For his senior project, Bull decides to chronicle his high school baseball career by filling in the details of the diary he has been keeping. The teen, by choice, lives with his widowed grandfather while his business-executive single mom imparts advice from her home in California. While baseball is the major focus of this story, Bull also faces the challenges common to adolescents including dealings with family, friends, the opposite sex, and school.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott The Great Gatsby* (F Fit)

It's also a love story, of sorts, the narrative of Gatsby's quixotic passion for Daisy Buchanan. The pair meet five years before the novel begins, when Daisy is a legendary young Louisville beauty and Gatsby an impoverished officer. They fall in love, but while Gatsby serves overseas, Daisy marries the brutal, bullying, but extremely rich Tom Buchanan. After the war, Gatsby devotes himself blindly to the pursuit of wealth by whatever means--and to the pursuit of Daisy.

Harris, Joanne Chocolat (Rom Har)

Chocolat is an enchanting novel about a small French town turned upside down by the arrival of a bewitching chocolate confectioner, Vianne Rocher, and her spirited young daughter.

Holt, Kimberly Willis My Louisianna Sky (YA Hol)

Tiger Ann Parker wants nothing more than to get out of the rural town of Saitter, Louisiana--far away from her mentally disabled mother, her "slow" father who can't read an electric bill, and her classmates who taunt her. So when Aunt Dorie Kay asks Tiger to spend the summer with her in Baton Rouge, Tiger can't wait to go. But before she leaves, the sudden revelation of a dark family secret prompts Tiger to make a decision that will ultimately change her life.

Hornby, Nick About a Boy (Rom Hor)

Will Lightman is a Peter Pan for the 1990s. At 36, the terminally hip North Londoner is unmarried, hyper-concerned with his coolness quotient, and blithely living off his father's novelty-song royalties. Will sees himself as entirely lacking in hidden depths--and he's proud of it! The only trouble is, his friends are succumbing to responsibilities and children, and he's increasingly left out in the cold. How can someone brilliantly equipped for meaningless relationships ensure that he'll continue to meet beautiful Julie Christie-like women and ensure that they'll throw him over before things get too profound?

Kidd, Sue Monk The Secret Life of Bees (HF Kid)

  Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the town's fiercest racists, Lily decides they should both escape to Tiburon, South Carolina--a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters who introduce Lily to a mesmerizing world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna who presides over their household. This is a remarkable story about divine female power and the transforming power of love--a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.

Klause, Annette Curtis Blood and Chocolate (YA Kla)

Sixteen-year-old Vivian Gandillon is trying to fit in to her new home in the suburbs. But trying to act "normal" isn't always easy, since Vivian and her family are werewolves. It's glorious to have the power to change, and Vivian is a beautiful loup-garou with all the young wolves howling for her. But she wants no part of her squabbling pack, left leaderless by her father's recent death.

Then Vivian falls in love with a human, a meat-boy. If she reveals herself, will he relish the magic of her dual nature? When a brutal murder threatens the pack's survival, Vivian's divided loyalties are further strained. What is she really--human or beast?

Lawrence, D.H. Sons and Lovers* (F Law)

Torn between his passion for two women and his abiding attachment to his mother, young Paul Morel struggles with his desire to please everyone--particularly himself. Lawrence's highly autobiographical novel unfolds against the backdrop of his native Nottinghamshire coal fields, amidst a working-class family dominated by a brutish father and a loving but overbearing mother.

Letts, Billie Where the Heart Is (F Let)

Talk about unlucky sevens. An hour ago, seventeen-year-old, seven months pregnant Novalee Nation was heading for California with her boyfriend. Now she finds herself stranded at a Wal-Mart in Sequoyah, Oklahoma, with just $7.77 in change. But Novalee is about to discover hidden treasures in this small Southwest town--a group of down-to-earth, deeply caring people willing to help a homeless, jobless girl living secretly in a Wal-Mart. From Bible-thumping blue-haired Sister Thelma Husband to eccentric librarian Forney Hull who loves Novalee more than she loves herself, they are about to take her--and you, too--on a moving, funny, and unforgettable journey to . . . Where the Heart Is.

Mazer, Norma Fox When She Was Good (YA Maz)

Em spent the first fourteen years of her life suffering her father's alcoholic rages and her mothr's silent depression, and the next three trapped with her abusive older sister Pamela. Now Pamela is dead and Em is alone at last. But will she be able to survive?

McCullers, Carson The Member of the Wedding* (F McC)

Tall, awkward, and lonely, Frankie Addams has a vivid imagination but no friends. Even her father calls her a great big long-legged 12-year-old blunderbuss, and the friendless girl spends most of her time in the kitchen, pouring out her heart to Berenice, the gentle and wise family cook and housekeeper. Frankie's jealousy of her brother's impending marriage, and her curious belief that she must accompany him and his bride on their honeymoon in order to belong, drives her to strange measures. She devises a desperate plan, reinventing herself as the seemingly sophisticated F. Jasmine, a gawky beauty in a pink dress who looks closer to 16 than 12. But she's ill prepared for what follows from this troubling game of make-believe.

McKinley, Robin Beauty* (398.2 McK-fiction, but cataloged with Fables)

Kind Beauty grows to love the Beast at whose castle she is compelled to stay and through her love releases him from the spell which had turned him from a handsome prince into an ugly beast.

McKinley, Robin Rose Daughter* (SFF McK)

Twenty years ago, Robin McKinley dazzled readers with the power of her novel Beauty. Now this extraordinarily gifted novelist returns to the story of Beauty and the Beast with a fresh perspective, ingenuity, and mature insight. With Rose Daughter, she presents her finest and most deeply felt work--a compelling, richly imagined, and haunting exploration of the transformative power of love.

Mikaelson, Ben Petey (YA Mik)

In 1922 Petey, who has cerebral palsy, is misdiagnosed as an idiot and institutionalized; sixty years later, still in the institution, he befriends a boy and shares with him the joy of life.

Morrison, Toni Beloved* (F Mor)

In the troubled years following the Civil War, the spirit of a murdered child haunts the Ohio home of a former slave. This angry, destructive ghost breaks mirrors, leaves its fingerprints in cake icing, and generally makes life difficult for Sethe and her family; nevertheless, the woman finds the haunting oddly comforting for the spirit is that of her own dead baby, never named, thought of only as Beloved.

Morrison, Toni Sula* (F Mor)

In Sula, Toni Morrison, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize for literature, tells the story of two women--friends since childhood, separated in young adulthood, and reunited as grown women. Nel Wright grows up to become a wife and mother, happy to remain in her hometown of Medallion, Ohio. Sula Peace leaves Medallion to experience college, men, and life in the big city, an exceptional choice for a black woman to make in the late 1920s.

Rennison, Louise Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging ; On the Bright Side I’m Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God ; Knocked Out by my Nunga Nungas; Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants (YA Ren)

This is the hilarious Bridget Jones-like diary of 14-year-old Georgia, who has a rather wild cat named Angus, a three-year-old sister who pees in her bed, and a best friend who is in love with the vegetable seller's son. Georgia discusses kissing (snogging) lessons, which she needs because she has just met the "Sex God" of her dreams; what to wear to parties and school; and how to spy on your crush's girlfriend (this is where thongs come into play). In typical teen manner, Georgia lives in her own world; she thinks she is ugly, is convinced that her parents are weird, positively abhors schoolwork, and has a deep desire to be beautiful and older. Yet she still has time to enjoy the mad antics of her cat and indulge her odd but sweet sister.

Smith, Betty Joy in the Morning (Rom Smi)

In Brooklyn, New York, in 1927, Carl Brown and Annie McGairy meet and fall in love.Though only eighteen, Annie travels alone to the Midwestern university where Carl is studying law to marry him. Little did they know how difficult their first year of marriage would be, in a faraway place with little money and few friends. But Carl and Annie come to realize that the struggles and uncertainty of poverty and hardship can be overcome by the strength of a loving, loyal relationship.

Smith, Betty A Tree Grows in Brooklyn*(F Smi)

Francie Nolan, avid reader, penny-candy connoisseur, and adroit observer of human nature, has much to ponder in colorful, turn-of-the-century Brooklyn. She grows up with a sweet, tragic father, a severely realistic mother, and an aunt who gives her love too freely--to men, and to a brother who will always be the favored child. Francie learns early the meaning of hunger and the value of a penny. She is her father's child--romantic and hungry for beauty. But she is her mother's child, too--deeply practical and in constant need of truth. Like the Tree of Heaven that grows out of cement or through cellar gratings, resourceful Francie struggles against all odds to survive and thrive.

Tan, Amy The Bonesetter’s Daughter (F Tan)

Now suffering from Alzheimer's, Lu Ling's references to the past are confusing and contradictory particularly her desperate attempts to communicate with her deceased Precious Auntie, who was her nursemaid and Ruth worries about her mother's health. But when Ruth translates Lu Ling's lengthy journal, she learns that her mother was once a strong-willed, courageous girl who overcame a background of family secrets and lies, persevered despite romantic heartbreak and survived tremendous hardships and suffering in war-torn China.

Tan, Amy The Joy Luck Club* (F Tan)

In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk. United in shared unspeakable loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Rather than sink into tragedy, they choose to gather to raise their spirits and money. "To despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable." Forty years later the stories and history continue.

Uchida, Yoshiko Picture Bride* (HF Uch)

Hana, the main character, knows she wants more in life than what her family can offer her in Japan. She sets all her hopes on a new life in America with a man owning a prosperous shop. Upon arriving she finds reality to be a world away from her expectations, the man she has promised to marry does not look like his picture and his little shop is not fairing well at all. Hana must make due with her life in America and struggle to survive with her new family. Enter the life of a Japanese-American after the bombing of Pearl Harbor through the Picture Bride. Everything that Hana goes through is felt by the reader. Her emotions come out clear and strong as she fights to accept her life in America, to make ends meet, and to face prejudice and injustice in a land promising freedom.

Walker, Alice The Color Purple (F Wal)

Sisters Nettie and Celie, the former a missionary in Africa, the latter a southern woman trapped in an unhappy marriage, share their thoughts and experiences throughout a thirty-year correspondence.

Whelan, Gail Homeless Bird  (YA Whe)

Forced to leave her family at thirteen and marry someone she has never met ...

Koly's parents have arranged a marriage for their only daughter and now, like many girls her age in India, she will leave home forever. She yearns to flee, but tradition dictates that it's too late to turn back. On her wedding day, Koly's fate is sealed.

Yolen, Jane Briar Rose * (SFF Yol)

A young woman's promise to her dying grandmother leads her on a quest to discover the truth of her own family's mysterious beginnings in this grim retelling of the classic fairy tale "Briar Rose," or "The Sleeping Beauty." In Yolen's modern-day version, the wall of thorns becomes a barbed-wire prison, while the sleeping princess is both victim and heroine.

Young, Karen Romano The Beetle and Me: a Love Story (YA You)

Fifteen-year-old Daisy Pandolfi wants more than anything to rebuild her parents '57 Volkswagon Beetle.For Daisy the Beetle has always been special, almost magical. It must run again, and it will be her very own set of wheels if it does. But she's determined to fix the Beetle herself, with no assistance from concerned family or friends who recognize that Daisy's got a lot more invested in her project than elbow grease and midnight oil. And then there's Billy. He wants to help, but should Daisy let him into her heart -- or let him go?

ALSO CHOCK FULL OF LOVE ARE BOOKS BY THE FOLLOWING AUTHORS:

Victoria Holt (HF Hol)

Nicholas Sparks (Rom Spa)

Nora Roberts (Rom Rob)

Phyllis A. Whitney (Rom Whi)

LaVyrle Spencer (Rom Spe)

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