Book Discussion Titles
Introduction
As a service to the community, the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library maintains multiple copies of paperback books selected for discussion groups. This annotated list of the available sets is arranged alphabetically by title with a separate author index. Fiction titles are starred. There are 15 copies of most titles.
The Adult Services Department at the Main Library handles the arrangements for the discussion books. Stop in or call (932-3600, ext. 278). You will be asked to provide the following information:
- - first and second title choice
- - date of the discussion
- - date and location where books are to be picked up
- - your name and telephone number
- - approximate number of copies needed
The set of books will be ready on the established pick-up date at the circulation desk of the branch where you have indicated you wish to pick them up. They will be held under the group’s or contact person’s name. All books must be charged out at the time of pick-up by (a) individual group members using their own library cards, or (b) a single person designated by the group to be responsible for all the books. Extended loan periods may be arranged. Most groups like to have the books one month prior to the discussion date. Books are due shortly after the discussion has occurred. Fines ARE charged for overdue books.
Public Library
2345 Lee Road
Cleveland Heights, OH 44118
(216) 932-3600
Book Discussion List
Title Index
ALIAS GRACE* by Margaret Atwood
Grace Marks is convicted of the double murders of her employer and his mistress but claims to have no memory of the day in question. Dr. Simon Jordan, an expert in mental illness is brought in to try and recover Grace’s memories. Will he find an innocent victim of circumstances or unveil a cold ruthless killer?
ANIMAL FARM* by George Orwell
A satire on revolution in general and the Russian Revolution in particular. Mr. Jones’ farm animals revolt but when they have power, they learn it corrupts.
ANNE FRANK: THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL by Anne Frank
The horrors of the Jewish persecution during WWII as seen through the eyes of a young girl who was forced to hide from the Germans.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X by Malcolm X with Alex Haley
Malcolm’s personal and spiritual evolution; the liberal vs. the radical approach to attaining equality; life on the streets in a Black ghetto; Malcolm’s significance to the “Black Liberation Movement”.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MISS JANE PITTMAN* by Ernest J. Gaines
This imaginary autobiography records the recollection of a Black woman 110 years old who has been a slave and a witness to the Black militancy of the 1960’s.
THE BEAN TREES* by Barbara Kingsolver
The story of Taylor Greer is one of love and friendship, belonging and discovery. “Instant motherhood” tests her resources in a most inspirational story.
THE BEEKEEPER’S APPRENTICE* by Laurie R. King
An aging Sherlock Holmes meets his intellectual match in tomboyish fourteen-year-old Mary Russell. But when he takes her under his wing to teach her the art of investigation, attempts are made on both their lives. Together they hunt for the would-be killer. A Sherlock Holmes special.
BELOVED* by Toni Morrison
After escaping from slavery, Sethe comes to live in rural Ohio. A masterpiece dealing with slavery and its aftermath.
THE BLUEST EYE* by Toni Morrison
A teenager’s perception of racism; the effects of prejudice and hate on children.
CATCH-22* by Joseph Heller
A satirical and apocalyptic novel which describes the ordeals and exploits of a group of American airmen based on a small Mediterranean island during World War II.
CATCHER IN THE RYE* by J. D. Salinger
Holden Caulfield runs away from boarding school and goes to New York where he must make his way in a world not of his choosing.
THE CHOSEN* by Chaim Potok
The condition of modern Judaism; the relevancy of the Hasidic tradition today; rationalism vs. mysticism.
THE COLOR OF WATER by James McBride
This is McBride’s moving tribute to his eccentric, remarkable and determined white mother who was a rabbi’s daughter born in Poland. She married a black man, founded a Baptist church and put twelve children through college all the while teaching her children that only two things mattered: church and school.
A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR’S COURT* by Mark Twain
Twain’s personal war against tyranny and injustice; New World vs. Old World values; attitudes and the use of satire as social comment.
THE COVENANT: WITH BLACK AMERICA by Tavis Smiley
This collection of essays outlines a course for African American and their communities, explaining how individuals and households can make changes that will immediately improve their circumstances in areas ranging from health and education to crime reduction and financial well-being. Each chapter deals with a key issue and provides a list of resources, suggestions for action, and a checklist for what concerned citizens can do to affect change.
CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY* by Alan Paton
This novel of life in South Africa, of hope and courage springing from the dauntless spirit of man, tells of the tragic plight of black-skinned people in a white man’s world.
THE DA VINCI CODE* by Dan Brown
When a curator at the Louvre is murdered, a set of events unfolds that centers of a 2,000 year of mystery linked to the paintings of Da Vinci, and a powerful relic protected by the Priory, a secret society to which the artist belonged.
A DAY LATE AND A DOLLOR SHORT* by Terry McMillan
The relationships of Viola Price and her family a bit confusing to start with, but ultimately the dysfunctional family dynamics make a very enjoyable story.
THE DESERT AND THE SOWN by Gertrude Bell
A fascinating contemporary of T. E. Lawrence, rare Western female explorer through the Ottoman Middle East, and member of British intelligence during World War I, this book documents Bell’s epic journey across the Syrian desert.
DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS* by Walter Mosley
It is 1948 and Easy Rawlins has just been laid off. So when a white man offers him money to locate Miss Daphne Monet, Easy just can’t say no, even though saying yes may cost him his life.
DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD* by Rebecca Wells
The chronicle of lifelong friends’ — the Ya-Yas — mischievous adventures with life, love and heartache as they grow up and grow old in a small Louisiana town.
THE EDIBLE WOMAN* by Margaret Atwood
A story of a woman who becomes engaged and finds she can’t eat.
THE EDUCATION OF LITTLE TREE by Forrest Carter
Carter’s true story of his boyhood in the Tennessee hills, where he was raised by his Cherokee grandmother and half-Cherokee grandfather.
FAHRENHEIT 451* by Ray Bradbury
A bookburner in a future time finds out that books describe past cultures and are important. A classic.
FAR FROM THE TREE* by Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant
Four generations of African American women discover decades old secrets and family skeletons. Their time together helps refocus them and sets them on a course of healing.
FINAL PAYMENTS* by Mary Gordon
About love, caring, and inbred guilt. A compassionate view of the 70’s, with a serious concern for vulnerable women.
FINDING FISH: A MEMOIR by Antwone Fisher
Fisher’s account of his childhood in Cleveland, his sexual abuse, his foster mother’s relentless cruelty, homelessness and a scary spell of criminal employment, before a stint in the Navy provides him with a way forward.
GIRL IN HYACINTH BLUE* by Susan Vreeland
This novel focuses on how the lives of various owners of a famous Vermeer painting are changed by coming into contact with the artwork.
GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING* by Tracy Chevalier
The story of a Dutch teenager who becomes the housemaid of the painter Johannes Vermeer and thus begins to discover herself, first through Vermeer’s art and then through her relationship with the artist himself.
THE GOOD EARTH* by Pearl S. Buck
This is the story of China before the Revolution and its vast social and economic changes.
THE GREAT GATSBY* by F. Scott Fitzgerald
First published in 1925, this novel is a sharp and antagonistic portrayal of wealthy society in America, specifically in New York and Long Island.
GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL by Jared Diamond
Biologist Jared Diamond examines how geography, demography, and ecological happenstance have contributed to the rise and fall of human societies.
HANDMAID’S TALE* by Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid lives in a bedroom in the home of the Commander in the Republic of Gilead, formerly the United States. Her only purpose is to produce a child. A powerful story.
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS* by J. K. Rowling
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE* by J. K. Rowling
HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE* by J. K. Rowling
Harry is eleven years old and living with his horrible aunt and uncle Dursley and their awful son Dudley. But when a mysterious letter arrives to invite him to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, his life is changed forever.
THE HEART OF A WOMAN by Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou’s fourth volume of her autobiography speaks of her years in the Harlem Writers Guild, her fondest dreams and deepest disappointments. It is written with typical eloquence.
HEART OF DARKNESS* by Joseph Conrad
A dark allegory of a journey up the Congo River, this is a masterful blend of adventure, character study and psychological penetration.
THE HOBBIT* by J. R. R. Tolkein
This stirring adventure fantasy begins the tale that was continued by J. R. R. Tolkein in his epic trilogy, “The Lord Of The Rings”. Bilbo Baggins goes in search of the ring accompanied by the wizard Gandalf and a band of dwarves.
HOLY BLOOD, HOLY GRAIL by Michael Baigent
The meticulously researched story of the Knights Templar, and a behind-the-scenes society called the Prieure de Sion, and its involvement in reinstating descendants of the Merovingian bloodline into political power.
HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS* by Isabel Allende
This is the story of the Trueba family, their loves and hates, a family saga which takes place in Chile.
HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT* by Whitney Otto
Through the metaphor of quilt making we come to know the women who make up a small town quilting circle. By exploring the concept of the perfect marriage and the anger of thwarted lives, the novel’s central theme explores our human desires to be both joined and separate.
IN COLD BLOOD by Truman Capote
True crime reporting that reconstructs the 1959 murder of a Kansas farm family and the investigation that let to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, Capote generates suspense and empathy.
INHERIT THE WIND by Jerome Lawrence
Tense drama of the most explosive trial of the century. At stake was the freedom of every American.
JANE EYRE* by Charlotte Bronte
Heroine Jane Eyre finds love, danger, heartbreak, and maturity in this ultimate classic tale of romance.
JIHAD VS. MCWORLD by Benjamin Barber
Jihad vs. McWorld is a groundbreaking work, an elegant and illuminating analysis of the central conflict of our times: consumerist capitalism versus religious and tribal fundamentalism.
THE JUNGLE* by Upton Sinclair
The nature of economic oppression; literature as a social force; Sinclair’s idea of democratic socialism; the exploitation of immigrants.
KILLER ANGELS* by Michael Shaara
A superb re-creation of the Battle of Gettysburg, when for four days two armies fought, one for freedom, the other for a way of life. Killer Angles is unforgettable.
KIM* by Rudyard Kipling
Kim, an Irish orphan in India, becomes involved with the British Secret Service and a mysterious holy man, thus beginning an adventure of danger and excitement.
KINDRED* by Octavia Butler
Dana Franklin is transported back in time to the antebellum South to save Rufus Weylin, who will become her ancestor when he rapes one of his slaves as an adult. Repeatedly, she returns to protect Rufus and each time her stay grows longer and becomes more dangerous.
THE KITCHEN GOD’S WIFE* by Amy Tan
A harrowing, compelling and at times bitterly humorous tale in which the world of California’s immigrant Chinese unfolds in great detail.
LEAP OF FAITH:MEMOIRS OF AN UNEXPECTED LIFE by Queen Noor
The word unexpected in the book’s subtitle refers to the fact that this American-born, Princeton-educated woman was in the beginning stages of a career in urban planning when, rather suddenly, she married the much older and thrice-married king of Jordan.
LEFT BEHIND* by Tim F. LaHaye
The apocalypse has just begun. People are mysteriously disappearing and this is the story of those left behind.
LIFE OF PI* by Yann Martel
A brilliant tale of survival, and a meditation on faith and art. At 16, Pi spends 227 days at sea on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger, a situation that demands the most of Pi, while he in turn gives the most of himself-and discovers his strength.
LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE* by Laura Esquivel
Sprinkled with recipes and remedies, this is a tale of a young woman fated to remain single as her mother’s caretaker.
LINCOLN* by Gore Vidal
A large sprawling novel of Abraham Lincoln and his time.
LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA* by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Set in a tropical port at the turn of the century, this is the passionate love story of Fermina Daza and Florentino Ariza which is consummated after 50 years, when they are 70.
LOVE MEDICINE* by Louise Erdrich
The book follows the saga of two native American Indian families on a North Dakota reservation and how they are affected by the death of their relative, June Kashpaw, a Chippewa prostitute.
MAKES ME WANNA HOLLER by Nathan McCall
By age 20, Nathan McCall had been in prison for armed robbery. He is now a respected journalist at the Washington Post. His blistering memoir is both devastating and inspiring.
A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS by Robert Bolt
Courage and convictions; the separation of church and state; human and divine law.
MARTIAN CHRONICLES* by Ray Bradbury
Closely interwoven short stories, linked by recurrent images and themes, telling of the repeated attempts by humans to colonize Mars.
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA* by Arthur Golden
9 year-old Sayuri enters the world of the Geisha, spending years mastering the art, witticism, the arcane rules of courtship, the tea ceremony and the subtle art of seduction.
MIDDLE PASSAGE* by Charles R. Johnson
As a stowaway aboard the slave ship “Republic”, the hero begins one of the most extraordinary voyages in literature and one of the most revelatory illuminations of the African American experience.
THE MISTS OF AVALON* by Marion Bradley
In this monumental reimagining of the Arthurian legend, Bradley retells the familiar story of King Arthur from Guinevere’s point of view, thus putting into a woman’s perspective a traditionally male story. A brilliant effort.
NICKEL AND DIMED: ON NOT GETTING BY IN AMERICA by Barbara Ehrenreich
Ehrenreich, an investigative reporter, spent about three months in different cities attempting to “get by” on the salary available to low-paid and unskilled workers.
NIGHT by Elie Wiesel
Story of a fifteen year-old Jewish boy’s experiences at Auschwitz and Buchenwald as he loses not only his entire family, but his faith in a God who could allow such things to happen.
ON THE DOWN LOW by J. L. King
In this book, King talks about the pressures on black men to “be a man” and the deep-rooted homophobia in the black community that not only encourages, but practically forces men to keep any homosexual desires or activity deep undercover.
ONE TRUE THING* by Anna Quindlen
This novel follows the psychological travails of Ellen, who against all personal inclinations returns home to care for her dying mother, Kate, and eventually finds herself accused of mercy-killing.
ORDINARY PEOPLE* by Judith Guest
An adolescent’s return from a mental hospital creates problems of adjustment for him and his parents.
PIGS IN HEAVEN* by Barbara Kingsolver
In this sequel to Bean Trees, Kingsolver takes a risk she hasn’t taken before: she challenges her own 60’s-style politics by pitting its cultural correctness against the boundless love between a mother and child.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE* by Jane Austen
Novel concerned mainly with the conflict between the prejudice of a young lady and the well-founded though misinterpreted pride of the aristocratic hero.
THE PRINCE* by Niccolo Machiavelli
First published in 1632, the Prince started a debate which continues today. It is described as the first book to analyze the role of the political elite and the book which established the independence of politics from theology. It is an uncompromising picture of the true nature of power.
PRINCE OF TIDES* by Pat Conroy
A hauntingly lyrical novel dealing with the Southern psyche, the meaning of life, the relationship between twins and the impact of attempted suicide. This is Conroy at his best.
PRINCESS, A TRUE STORY OF LIFE BEHIND THE VEIL by Jean Sasson
In this book Sasson tells the fascinating story of an unidentified Saudi Princess who yearns for recognition in her own right, not as an adjunct of men.
RAISIN IN THE SUN by Lorraine Hansberry
A three-act play about a middle class black family in Chicago and what happens to them when they inherit money.
THE RED TENT* by Anita Diamant
Dinah, daughter of Leah and Jacob, tells this story of turmoil and tradition in the ancient world.
THE ROAD FROM COORAIN by Jill Ker Conway
Conway’s beautifully written autobiography about growing up on an Australian sheep-farm and moving to America where her profession leads her to the presidency of Smith College.
THE ROSEWOOD CASKET* by Sharyn McCrumb
As Randall Stargill lies dying, his four sons return to their Appalachian farm to build him a coffin from a cache of rosewood. Complications arise as family strife, haunting legends and dark secrets are unearthed.
SAINT MAYBE* by Anne Tyler
A realistic chronicle that celebrates family life without erasing the pain and boredom most families almost necessarily inflict upon their members.
THE SCARLET LETTER* by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Puritan morality and rigidity cause a young woman anguish and guilt.
SEABISCUIT: AN AMERICAN LEGEND by Laura Hillenbrand
Though the racing establishment had written off Seabiscuit, the crooked-legged horse with the sad tail, he became one of the most popular attractions in sports history in 1938. This is his story and the story of the three men who saved him. Now a major motion picture.
SECRET LIFE OF BEES* by Sue Monk Kidd
Set in rural South Carolina in 1964, this novel deals with the relationship between 14 year-old Lily Owens, her father’s housekeeper, Rosaleen, as they travel through Southern Civil Rights history, finally seeking asylum with Rosaleen’s three bee keeping sisters. The stunning metaphors and realistic characters are so poignant that they will bring tears to your eyes.
THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE by Stephen Covey
This best-seller is a seven-course meal on how to take control of one’s life and become the complete fulfilling person one envisions.
SMILLA’S SENSE OF SNOW* by Peter Hoeg
Smilla Qaavigaag, investigates her young neighbors death. Set in Copenhagen, Smilla’s background, drug trafficking and mysterious scientific experiments help make this complex murder mystery extra9ordinary.
THE SOUND AND THE FURY* by William Faulkner
Written in narrative style this is a monstrous tale of the futility and insanity of one Southern family. Through the eyes of various family members the decay of this group is tragically recorded.
THE SPARROW* by Mary Doria Russell
The linguist, Father Emilio Sandoz returns from a disastrous Jesuit expedition to Rakhat and is forced to stand trial for crimes he committed there. Slowly the Jesuits pry the painful story of a first contact between humans and the beautiful child-like inhabitants of Rakhat.
SULA* by Toni Morrison
The moving tale of two childhood friends who grow up together, then apart as they trace their lives along very different paths from a small Ohio town.
THE SUN ALSO RISES* by Ernest Hemingway
A group of American and English expatriates travel from Paris, France to the bullfights at Pamplona, Spain in the heady post World War I era. Lady Brett Ashley and Jake Barnes, two of the travelers heading for Spain, try to hold on to a romantic love in an age of moral bankruptcy and spiritual dissolution.
TALE OF TWO CITIES* by Charles Dickens
The story of two young men and the woman they both love set during the horror of the French Revolution.
TALES OF CONJURE & THE COLOR LINE* by Charles Chestnutt
Charles Chesnutt words of the African American experience with wit and charm. In his stories of “the color line” he addresses problems of race in America.
TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES* by Thomas Hardy
This is the tragic story of Tess, born poverty-stricken, who becomes the victim of countless tyrannical circumstances. They include the evil deeds of others in the past and present, particularly between the two men who have affected her life.
THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD* by Zora Neale Hurston
A classic novel of Black literature that tells with haunting sympathy the story of Janie Crawford and her evolving selfhood through three marriages.
THIS SIDE OF PARADISE* by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald’s debut novel depicting the “crazy years” of post World War I era is a coming-of-age story about Amory Blaine as he grows from an egotistical young man to an adult with a new sense of responsibility and respect.
A THOUSAND ACRES* by Jane Smiley
This is a story about farming in America, the loss of family farms, and the force of the family itself.
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD* by Harper Lee
Violence and racial hatred are the backdrop for this courtroom novel set in a small Alabama town in the 1930’s. A black man is on trial for raping a white woman and lawyer Atticus Finch not only defends him but strikes a blow against racism as well.
TRUMAN by David McCullough
The biography excels in painting a portrait of the 33rd U. S. President and places him in the historic panorama of his times. It is a revealing account of an ordinary man who becomes an extraordinary historical figure.
TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE by Mitch Albom
Albom, a sports columnist for the Detroit Free Press, tells a heart-warming and inspirational story about the time he spent with his beloved ex-college sociology professor, Morrie Schwartz, before Schwartz died from Lou Gehrig’s disease.
UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN by Frances Mayes
An American buys and renovates an abandoned villa in Tuscany.
VANITY FAIR* by William Makepeace Thackerary
Amelia Sedley and Becky Sharp’s fortunes rise and fall in this witty satiric attack on Thackeray’s money-conscious, class conscious, hypocritic English society of the early 1800s.
WOMEN OF BREWSTER PLACE* by Gloria Naylor
In a series of vignettes focusing on seven Black women; their dreams, their problems, their lives. Beautifully written.
YOU JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND by Deborah Tannen
Book that ponders gender-based differences that define and distinguish male and female communication.
YOUR BLUES AIN’T LIKE MINE* by Bebe Moore Campbell
Cold blooded murder and a racist beating in a small Mississippi town in the 1950’s has repercussions for decades, in dozens of lives.
YOU’VE EARNED IT, DON’T LOSE IT by Suze Orman
Financial advisor Suze Orman lets people know how to safeguard their financial future so retirement is carefree.
Book Discussion List
Author Index
- Albom, Mitch — Tuesdays with Morrie
- Allende, Isabel — House of the Spirits
- Angelou, Maya — The Heart Of A Woman
- Atwood, Margaret — Alias Grace
- Atwood, Margaret — The Edible Woman
- Atwood, Margaret — Handmaid’s Tale
- Austen, Jane — Pride and Prejudice
- Baigent, Michael — Holy Blood, Holy Grail
- Barber, Benjamin — Jihad vs. McWorld
- Bolt, Robert — A Man for All Seasons
- Bradbury, Ray — Fahrenheit 451
- Bradbury, Ray — The Martian Chronicles
- Bradley, Marion — The Mists Of Avalon
- Bronte, Charlotte — Jane Eyre
- Brown, Dan — The Da Vinci Code
- Buck, Pearl S. — The Good Earth
- Campbell, Bebe Moore — Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine
- Capote, Truman — In Cold Blood
- Carter, Forrest — The Education Of Little Tree
- Chesnutt, Charles — Tales Of Conjure and the Color Line
- Chevalier, Tracy — Girl with a Pearl Earring
- Clemens, Samuel L. — SEE Twain, Mark
- Conroy, Pat — Prince of Tides
- Conway, Jill Kerr — The Road From Coorain
- Covey, Stephen — The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People
- DeBerry, Virginia — Far From the Tree
- Diamant, Anita — The Red Tent
- Diamond, Jared — Guns, Germs, and Steel
- Dickens, Charles — Tale of Two Cities
- Doerr, Harriet — Stones for Ibarra
- Ehrenreich, Barbara — Nickel and Dimed
- Erdrich, Louise — Love Medicine
- Esquivel, Laura — Like Water For Chocolate
- Faulkner, William — The Sound And The Fury
- Fisher, Antwone — Finding Fish
- Fitzgerald, F. Scott — The Great Gatsby
- Fitzgerald, F. Scott — This Side of Paradise
- Frank, Anne — Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl
- Gaines, Ernest J. — Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
- Garcia Marquez, Gabriel — Love in the Time of Cholera
- Golden, Arthur — Memoirs of a Geisha
- Gordon, Mary — Final Payments
- Green, Hannah — SEE Greenberg, Joanne
- Guest, Judith — Ordinary People
- Haley, Alex — SEE Malcolm X
- Hansberry, Lorraine — A Raisin in the Sun
- Hardy, Thomas — Tess of the D’Urbervilles
- Hawthorne, Nathaniel — The Scarlet Letter
- Heller, Joseph — Catch-22
- Hemingway, Ernest — The Sun Also Rises
- Hillenbrand, Laura — Seabiscuit
- Hoeg, Peter — Smilla’s Sense of Snow
- Hurston, Zora Neale — Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Johnson, Charles R. — Middle Passage
- Kidd, Sue Monk — Secret Life of Bees
- King, Laurie R. — The Beekeeper’s Apprentice
- Kingsolver, Barbara — The Bean Trees
- Kingsolver, Barbara — Pigs in Heaven
- Kipling, Rudyard — Kim
- LaHaye, Tim F. — Left Behind
- Lawrence, Jerome — Inherit the Wind
- Lee, Harper — To Kill A Mockingbird
- McBride, James — The Color Of Water
- McCall, Nathan — Makes Me Wanna Holler
- McCullers, Carson — The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter
- McCullough, David — Truman
- McCrumb, Sharyn — The Rosewood Casket
- McMillan, Terry — A Day Late and A Dollar Short
- Machiavelli, Niccolo — The Prince
- Malcolm X with Haley, Alex — Autobiography of Malcolm X
- Martel, Yann — Life of Pi
- Mayes, Frances — Under The Tuscan Sun
- Morrison, Toni — Beloved
- Morrison, Toni — The Bluest Eye
- Morrison, Toni — Sula
- Naylor, Gloria — Women of Brewster Place
- Noor, Queen — Leap of Faith
- Orwell, George — Animal Farm
- Otto, Whitney — How to Make an American Quilt
- Paton, Alan — Cry, the Beloved Country
- Potok, Chaim — The Chosen
- Quindlen, Anna — One True Thing
- Rowling, J. K. — Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone
- Salinger, J. D. — Catcher in the Rye
- Sasson, Jean — Princess, a True Story of Life Behind the Veil
- Shaara, Michael — Killer Angels
- Sinclair, Upton — The Jungle
- Smiley, Jane — A Thousand Acres
- Smiley, Tavis — The Covenant: With Black America
- Tan, Amy — The Kitchen God’s Wife
- Thackeray, William Makepeace — Vanity Fair
- Tolkein, J. R. R. — The Hobbit
- Twain, Mark — A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthurs Court
- Tyler, Anne — Saint Maybe
- Vidal, Gore — Lincoln
- Vreeland, Susan — Girl in Hyacinth Blue
- Wiesel, Elie — Night
.