The following books are available free to any book discussion group in the area on a first-come first-served basis. To reserve a set of books simply call the Woodmere Branch 932-8500 ext. 204. Indicate which set you wish and the date of your discussion. The books will be available six weeks before your discussion at Woodmere's Circulation Desk. Please return them to the Circulation desk as soon as possible after your group meets. New titles and additional copies of available sets will be added periodically.

Baxter, Charles

Shadow Play

Michigan short story writer and novelist takes on 80’s ethics and its impact on families in a small community with a chemical plant. 399 pages

Bloom, Amy

Come to Me

Short Stories. 174 pages

Brooks, Geraldine

March

2006 Pulitzer Prize winning novel of Civil War time. 280 pages

Bryson, Bill

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

Bryson's memoir of his childhood. 268 pp.

Buck, Pearl S.

The Good Earth

1932 Pulitzer Prize winning novel

Cisneros, Sandra

Caramelo

Mexican/American history, family love. 439 pages

Coelho, Paulo

Eleven Minutes

Best selling Brazilian novelist

Coetzee, J.M.

Disgrace

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. 220 pages.

Conway, Jill Ker

The Road from Coorain

Memoir of Conway’s journey from an Australian sheep farm to America. She eventually became the first woman president of Smith College. 238 pages

Danticat, Edwidge.

Breath, Eyes, Memory

The wonder, terror and heartache of Danticat’s native Haiti and its women. 234 pages

Davies, Peter Ho

The Welsh Girl

North Wales just after D-Day (5 copies)

Driscoll, Jack

Wanting Only to be Heard

Poignant stories about hard men by Interlochen writer. 191 pages

Edwards, Kim

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

A fathers disavowal of a newborn daughter with Downs Syndrome.

Erdrich, Louise

The Master Butchers Singing Club

Immigrants settle in the fictional town of Erdrich's previous novels, Argus, N.Dakota following WWI.

Fleischman, Lisa Huang

Dream of the Walled City

Inspired by the author's early feminist Chinese grandmother.

Foer, Franklin

How Soccer Explains the World

Soccer and the global economy

Frayn, Michael

Headlong

English playwright, novelist and journalist. Shortlisted for 1999 Booker Prize. 342 pages

Gibbons, Kay

Ellen Foster

11 year old orphan in American South. Oprah selection

Gruen, Sara

Water for Elephants

Story of a man's life in the circus in Depression era America. 335 pages

Hammett, Dashiell

The Maltese Falcon

Crime fiction

Hemingway, Ernest

Nick Adams Stories

Memorable character grows from child to adolescent to soldier, veteran, writer and parent. 268 pages

Horan, Nancy

Loving Frank

Novel about Frank Lloyd Wright's scandalous life.

Hosseini, Khaled

Kite Runner

Kabul in the 1970s from fall of the monarchy to The Taliban. ALA Notable Book. 371 pages

Houston, Pam

Cowboys Are My Weakness

Strong shrewd and funny. 171 pages

Hunt, Linda Lawrence

Bold Spirit

Helga Estby's forgotten walk across victorian America.

Hurston, Zora Neale

Their Eyes Were Watching God

An independent black woman in the 30's. 205 pages

Jamerson, William

Big Shoulders

Looking for his dad, a boy finds his father. 325 pages

Kingsolver, Barbara

Animal Dreams

Early Kingsolver

Kingsolver, Barbara

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Recounts a year spent eating home-grown food and, if not that, local.

Langer, Adam

Crossing California

Chicago's West Rogers Park neighborhood in 1979

Larson, Erik

The Devil in the White City

Murder, magic, and madness at the World's Fair (non-fiction)

Lynch, Jim

Highest Tide

A 13-yr old boy develops a consuming passion for tidal flats one summer. 272 pages

Maxwell, William

All the Days and Nights

21 stories spanning 50 years of William Maxwell’s eloquence, grace and wit. 415 pages

McCraken, Elizabeth

The Giant's House

Unlikely love story between a lonely spinster librarian and a monstrous-sized younger man

Mengestu, Dinaw

The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears

Debut novel about what it means to lose a family and a country through African immigrant's eyes.

Morrison, Toni

The Bluest Eye

1970 first Morrison novel. Oprah selection. 206 pages

Morrison, Toni

Beloved

Chosen by NYT Book Review fiction writers and reviewers as best American fiction in last 25 years.

Mortenson, Greg

Three Cups of Tea

One man's quest to build schools in the wildest parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Oates, Joyce Carol

We Were the Mulvaneys

Dissolution of the American family—and an American way of life. Oprah selection. 454 pages

O'Faolain, Nuala

Are You Somebody?

The accidental memoirs of a Dublin woman. 215 pages

Raban, Jonathan

Passage To Juneau: a sea and its meanings.

Raban sails a 35 foot sailboat the thousand miles from Seattle to Juneau. The journey becomes a personal journey as well, as events in his own life impact his trip. 435 pages

Robinson, Marilynne

Gilead

Fathers and sons and the spiritual battles that still rage in America's heart. 247 pages

Robinson, Marilynne

Housekeeping

A book to read slowly and savor each word. Coming of age of a young orphan. 187 pages

Rubenstein, Julian

Ballad of the Whiskey Robber

True story of bank heists, ice hockey, Transylvanian pelt smuggling, moonlighting, detectives, and broken hearts. 319 pages

Rushdie, Salman

Midnight’s Children

Allegory for events in India before and after its 1947 independence and partition. Won Booker of Bookers in 1993. 533 pages

Seierstad, Asne

The Bookseller of Kabul

Reportage of Afghan after the Taliban

Stander, Aaron

Color Tour

Second in Ray Elkins thrillers series

Taylor, Peter

Summons to Memphis

Pulitzer Prize

Tey, Josephine

The Franchise Affair

Inspector Grant has a cameo role in this classic in the detective field. 300 pages

Toobin, Jeffrey

The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court

New Yorker legal writer Toobin surveys the Court from the Reagan administration onward, as the justices wrestled with abortion, affirmative action, the death penalty, gay rights and church-state separation.

Trevor, William

After Rain

Short stories by the author of Felicia’s Journey. 213 pages

Unsworth, Barry

Morality Play

Medieval murder mystery. 206 pages

Wakefield, Larry

The Way it Was: Stories from the Grand Traverse Area

In this collection of stories, historian Larry Wakefield, offers a short excursion into the amazing landscape of The Way It Was in the Grand Traverse Region.

Walters, Minette

The Sculptress

Edgar award winning contemporary mystery writer – one of her best. 307 pages

Wharton, Edith

The Age of Innocence

Won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize. A story of desire and betrayal in Old New York. 362 pages

Wiesel, Elie

Night

Autobiographical account of Nazi death camp. Nobel Peace Prize. 109 pages

Wolff, Tobias

This Boy's Life

A Memoir