Classics:

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's classic, frightening vision of the future, firemen don't put out fires - they start them in order to burn books. Bradbury's vividly painted society holds up the appearance of happiness as the highest goal - a place where trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad. The novel reflects several major concerns of the time of its writing: the censorship in the 1950’s, the book-burnings in Nazi Germany, Stalin's suppression of authors and books in the Soviet Union, and the horrible consequences of an explosion of a nuclear weapon.

In this internationally acclaimed classic, "firemen" are entrusted with the task of burning books to keep the citizenry away from anything that might cause dissent. People drug themselves with pills, thrills, and the meaningless programming that pours from four-wall television. Guy Montag is a fireman; he loves the act of burning, but he's never actually stopped to consider what it is he's burning. Nor has he ever stopped to consider whether his life contains any meaning or happiness. Then he meets a strange girl named Clarisse, who encourages him to question everything. Inspired by Clarisse, Montag does two radical, forbidden things: he begins to read, and he begins to think.

One of Bradbury's definitive works, Fahrenheit 451 is an amazingly prescient book, anticipating not only social but technological trends. This novel is a soothsayer, warning of a future populated by non-readers and non-thinkers; a lost people with no sense of their history. At the same time, it salutes those who dedicate their lives to the preservation and passing on of knowledge, and testifies to the quiet or passionate courage of the rebel with a cause.

http://www.amazon.com/Fahrenheit-451-Ray-Bradbury/dp/0345410017/ref=ed_oe_p/102-2417556-7070507

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Harper Lee tells a timeless story of the quiet heroism of Atticus Finch and the honesty of his children Jem and Scout as they face prejudice in the American South of the 1930s. The result is a tough and tender novel of race, class, justice, and the pain of growing up. Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus - three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a piece of our American history that depicts racism and prejudice, childhood innocence, and the perseverance of a man who risked it all to stand up for what he believed in. The book is beloved by millions of readers worldwide for its appealing depiction of childhood innocence, its scathing moral condemnation of racial prejudice, and its affirmation that human goodness can withstand the assault of evil.

One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has earned many distinctions since its original publication in 1960. It won the Pulitzer Prize, has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, and was made into a classic film. Regarded as a masterpiece of American literature, librarians across the country gave the book the highest of honors by voting it the best novel of the twentieth century. By turns funny, wise, and heartbreaking, To Kill a Mockingbird is one classic that continues to speak to new generations, and deserves to be reread often.

http://www.amazon.com/Kill-Mockingbird-Harper-Lee/dp/0446310786/ref=pd_bbs_2/103-2472849-7804651?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196891176&sr=1-2

Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

In his timeless classic of love and sacrifice, A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens powerfully, depicts the great, hun­gry maw of social upheaval in France during the French Revolution and tells a story of unselfish devotion. Influenced by Thomas Carlyle's History of the French Revolution, Dickens wanted to give his readers an understanding of that terrible time that devoured both the innocent and the guilty at the guillotine. While sympathetic to the need for reform, Dickens shows his dismay over the gap between revolutionary ideals and self-serving actions.

Uncharacteristic for Dickens, the plot is somber and tightly written, but his characters are as rich as ever. After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille the aging Dr. Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. Two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, become enmeshed through their love for Lucie Manette. From the tran­quil lanes of London, they are all drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained streets of Paris at the height of the Reign of Terror and soon fall under the lethal shadow of La Guillotine.

One of Dickens's most haunting novels, A Tale of Two Cities since its first serial publication in 1859, has contin­ued to exert a grip on the popular imagination. The two cities - a lethal, vengeful Paris and a leafy, tranquil London - are only one of the novel's stark dichotomies that are continued as Syndey Carton and Charles Darnay are drawn toward their separate destinies - their lives touched by the same woman. Charles Dickens' compelling portrait of the results of terror and treason, love and supreme sacrifice continues to captivate readers around the world.

http://www.amazon.com/Tale-Two-Cities-Bantam-Classic/dp/0553211765/ref=pd_sim_b_img_5/002-9353755-4416052

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

With The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown masterfully concocts an intelligent and lucid thriller that marries the gusto of an internation­al murder mystery with a collection of fascinating esoteria culled from 2,000 years of Western history. A murder in the silent after-hour halls of the Louvre museum in Paris reveals a sinister plot to uncover a secret that has been protect­ed by a clandestine society since the days of Christ. The victim is a high-ranking agent of this ancient society who, in the moments before his death, manages to leave gruesome clues at the scene that only his granddaughter, noted cryptographer Sophie Neveu, and Robert Langdon, a famed symbologist, can untangle. They learn the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion - an actual secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci, among others.

In a breathless race through Paris, London, and beyond, Langdon and Neveu match wits with a faceless power­broker who seems to anticipate their every move. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle in time, the Priory's ancient secret - and an explosive historical truth - will be lost for­ever. Brown has created a page-turning thriller that also provides a fascinating interpretation of Western history. Brown's hero and heroine embark on a lofty and intrigu­ing exploration of some of Western culture's greatest mysteries-from the nature of the Mona Lisa's smile to the secret of the Holy Grail.

The Da Vinci Code is an enthralling read that provides rich food for thought. It heralds the arrival of a new breed of lightning-paced, intelligent thriller - utterly unpredictable right up to its stunning conclusion. Though some will quibble with the veracity of Brown's conjectures, therein lies the fun. Brown has assembled a whopper of a plot that will please both conspiracy buffs and thriller addicts.

http://www.amazon.com/Da-Vinci-Code-Special-Illustrated/dp/076792603X/ref=sr_1_6/105-2213537-1246066?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196891374&sr=1-6

Angle Of Repose by Wallace Earle Stegner

Wallace Stegner has said of his epic novel. "It's perfectly clear that if every writer is born to write one story, that's my story." It is a testament to the power of Stegner's prose and vision that Angle of Repose, winner of the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, can be appreciated as America's story as well. The editorial board of the Modern Library named this book as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the century.

Based on the correspondence of the little-known 19th century writer, Mary Hallock Foote, the novel's heroes represent opposing but equally strong strains of the American ideal. Susan Burling Ward is refined, educated, and strong-willed. Her husband, Oliver, is a handsome adventurer of cruder habits, who brings a pistol when he comes courting, yet who is humbled in the presence of Susan's sophistication. As we follow Susan on her first journey across the young country, we quickly experience the West through the eyes of a true easterner, horrified at the lack of culture, the quickly fabricated cities, the dust, dirt, and heat. Throughout her married life she defines herself through her east coast roots, debating Oliver's worthiness as a husband and provider, and assessing what she has given up in exchange for a life of adventure and uncertainty. In Susan and Oliver's numerous disappointments and incidents of misfortune we find Stegner exposing the myth of America's west as a land of golden opportunity and fearless cowboys. The terrain becomes a character in its own right, deserving of fear and respect, forcing its will on the people who carve their homes out of its resistant rock and soil.

Although the term 'angle of repose' refers to a resting point, Stegner's novel, if nothing else, helps us recognize America as a nation in constant flux, engaged in incessant struggle between east and west, between young and old, between myth and reality, between reaching for one's dreams, and settling for less. Angle of Repose was written during a time of tremendous political and social upheaval in America. Yet some twenty years after its publication, the character's personal histories continue to be relevant and edifying. They are America's stories, part of her past and present and undoubtedly, part of her future.

http://www.amazon.com/Angle-Repose-Contemporary-American-Fiction/dp/0785798471/ref=sr_1_1/103-2406862-8331865?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196891429&sr=1-1

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

The Sun Also Rises was Ernest Hemingway's first big novel, and immediately established Hemingway as one of the great prose stylists, and one of the preeminent writers of his time. It is also the book that encapsulates the angst of the post-World War I generation, known as the Lost Generation. This poignantly, beautiful story of a group of American and English expatriates in Paris on an excursion to Pomploma represents a dramatic step forward for Hemingway's evolving style. Featuring Left Bank Paris in the 1920's and brutally, realistic descriptions of bullfighting in Spain, the story is about the flamboyant Lady Brett Ashley and the hapless Jake Barnes. In an age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution, unrealized love, and vanishing illusions, this is the Lost Generation.

The Sun Also Rises first appeared in 1926, and yet it is as fresh and clean and fine as it ever was, maybe finer. Hemingway's famously, plain declarative sentences linger in the mind like poetry. His cast of thirty-something dissolute expatriates - Brett and her drunken finance, Mike Campbell, the unhappy Princeton Jewish boxer Robert Cohn, the sardonic novelist Bill Gorton - are as familiar as the "cool crowd" we all once knew. No wonder this quintessential lost-generation novel has inspired several generations of imitators, in style, as well as lifestyle.

The Sun Also Rises is Hemingway's masterpiece - one of them, anyway - and no matter how many times you've read it or how you feel about the manners and morals of the characters, you won't be able to resist its spell. This is a classic that really does live up to its reputation.

http://www.amazon.com/Sun-Also-Rises-Ernest-Hemingway/dp/0743297334/ref=pd_bbs_1/105-6268420-7323640?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196891466&sr=1-1

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rawling

Eleven-year-old Harry Potter, the plucky yet nerdy hero of this series, is the embodiment of every uncool kid's fantasy. Unpopular in school, picked on by bullies, and persecuted by his adoptive family, the disheveled and bespectacled Harry manages to not only survive but thrive by discovering friends, magical powers, and a great destiny he never knew he had.

Soon Harry finds himself attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he receives training in some magic basics, masters riding a broomstick, and discovers his incredible talent for a game called Quidditch. And for the first time in his life, Harry has friends who care about him: his fellow students Hermione and Ron and a giant named Hagrid. But all is not rosy when Harry discovers his true destiny and finds he must once again face the evil one who killed his parents. His survival will depend upon the help of his newfound friends, as well as his own wit and powers.

It's easy to see why Harry Potter has caught the reading public's fancy. Not only are his adventures an entertaining mix of fright, fantasy, and fun, his triumphs over everyday adversities offer a heartening lesson to kids everywhere.

http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Sorcerers-Stone-Book/dp/0439554934/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-1638991-8694356?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196891502&sr=1-1

The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

The most famous book on politics ever written. The Prince remains as lively and shocking today as when it was written almost five hundred years ago. Initially denounced as a collection of sinister maxims and a recommendation of tyranny, it has more recently been defended and indeed applauded as the first scientific treatment of politics as it is practiced rather than as it ought to be practiced. A masterpiece of effective prose. The Prince is at once comic and formidable, imaginative and calculating, fascinating and chilling. Its influence in modern history has been profound and often considered to be the first modern book. It was surely a primary text for the modern philosophers who challenged the traditions of ancient and medieval thought and morality.

Since The Prince was first published in 1532, the buzz around Machiavelli has really never died down. Machiavelli's matter of fact instruction that rulers must be prepared to lie, cheat, and steal to hang on to their thrones, all the while acting the part of the benevolent leader has not lost its razor edge. Even in this era of cynicism, Machiavelli's view of humanity as greedy and self-seeking or stupid and easily tricked still seems remarkably dark and to some, remarkably relevant. Machiavelli excites so much passion because his work divides readers into two hostile camps: those who admire his clear-sighted pragmatism and those who are repelled by his casual amorality.

http://www.amazon.com/Prince-Niccolo-Machiavelli/dp/0937832383/ref=pd_bbs_1/105-1735208-3768466?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196891532&sr=1-1

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby may be the most popular classic in modern American fiction. F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby is a tragic love story, a mystery, and a social commentary on American life. The story of Jay Gatsby's desperate quest to win back his first love reverberates with themes at once characteristically American and universally human, among them the importance of honesty, the temptations of wealth, and the struggle to escape the past.

Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald's and America’s most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings. A profound indictment of class privilege in the Jazz Age and beyond, The Great Gatsby explores the conflict between decency and self-indulgence. The Great Gatsby lays bare the empty, tragic heart of the self-made man. In the novel's famous conclusion, the characters collide, leaving human wreckage in their wake.

Although it was not a commercial success for Fitzgerald during his lifetime, this lyrical novel has become an acclaimed masterpiece read and taught throughout the world. Fitzgerald's masterpiece has become a touchstone for generations of readers and writers, many of whom reread it every few years as a ritual of imaginative renewal. The Great Gatsby is widely regarded as one of the greatest English-language novels of the 20th century.

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Gatsby-Scribner-Classics/dp/0684830426/ref=ed_oe_h/105-2402606-7994066