The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay – Michael Chabon

This is a book that puts you in the universe of the characters. Chabon makes you love his protagonists. The book explores street magic, the Golden Age of comics (ie. Superman), the post-Houdini era of escapism, and war-torn Europe. It gives the reader a new perspective on many subjects. This books is recommended for students in Secondary V.

Last Days of Summer – Steven Kluger

The interesting thing about this book is that it is written entirely in letters, newspaper clippings, and psychiatric interviews. The story takes place between 1940 – 1942 in America and recounts the story of a young Jewish boy, Joey, and Charlie Banks, a famous baseball player as they develop a rather unexpected relationship. At the same time, the war is progressing and Joey is dealing with it in America, which provides a different perspective of the war from the perspective in most books I’ve read. This book is recommended for students from Secondary II to Secondary V.

The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje

Most people have heard of the Oscar winning film adaptation of this book. The novel, however, reads like poetry. Ondaatje’s language and literary style is beautiful as he describes the central event of the story – a love story between a Canadian nurse and a bomb disposal expert. This book is recommended for students in Secondary V.

Whistling for the Elephants – Sandi Toksvig

This is a quirky story about a young girl from England who finds herself more or less on her own in New York City. She discovers an old zoo inhabited by a group of eccentric women who take her in as one of their own. The characters in this book are bizarre and interesting and the story is often surprising. This is a great book for Secondary II or III students.

The Beach - Alex Garland (Now a motion picture)

In our ever-shrinking world, where popular Western culture seems to have infected every nation on the planet, it is hard to find even a small piece of unspoiled land--forget searching for islands or continents. This is the situation in Alex Garland's debut novel, The Beach. Human progress has reduced Eden to a secret little beach near Thailand. In the tradition of grand adventure novels, Richard, a rootless traveller rambling around Thailand on his way somewhere else, is given a hand-drawn map by a madman who calls himself Daffy Duck. He and two French travellers set out on a journey to find this paradise.

What makes this a truly satisfying novel is the number of levels on which it operates. On the surface it's a fast-paced adventure novel; at another level it explores why we search for these utopias, be they mysterious lost continents or small island communes. Garland plays around with a gripping and thought-provoking narrative that cannot be missed. Do not miss out on this novel. (Joey Goodman)

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Susie Salmon is a 13 year old girl who was murdered. Susie recounts the details of the crime from her vantage point in heaven. She describes how she was raped and murdered one afternoon when she was on her way home from school. Susie watches life on Earth continuing without her- her friends trading rumours about her disappearance, her family hoping she’ll be found, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her sister hardening herself in order to stay strong, and her baby brother trying to grasp the meaning of the word gone. This is a suspenseful and upbeat book about love, memory, joy, heaven and healing. (Staff recommendation)

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues – Tom Robbins

When a beautiful girls grows up in Richmond Virginia with the biggest thumbs this plant has ever seen, what else could she become other than a hitchhiker? Sissy Hankshaw, model for a female hygienic company (though her thumbs are always hidden), also happens to be a hitchhiking, nomadic legend. Finally tired of the nomad lifestyle, her gay female-pheromone-hating boss and CEO (a man named The Countess) introduces her to Julian, a civilized and assimilated Native American. Marriage ensues, as does a modeling job at the Countess’s rebellious all-girl ranch, led by the steamy Bonanza Jellybean…not to mention great spiritual mystery at the hands of The Chink and The Clockworks. One of the best books I’ve ever read. This one’s PG-16. It contains sex, swearing, and other no-nos. (Review submitted by Josh B., Secondary IV)

Executive Orders – Tom Clancy

Jack Ryan, the main character in most of Tom Clancy’s books, has just been made President after the attack on the U.S. Capital building. Throughout the book, Clancy shows us Ryan’s struggle with his new position. Ryan must deal with the emerging superpower of The United Islamic Republic. I suggest that you read Clancy’s book Debt of Honour before you read Executive Orders, as Executive Orders begins where Debt of Honour left off. This book is recommended for Secondary IV or V students.

Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy E. Allison

This novel is a coming of age narrative, written from the perspective of Bone, the out-of-wedlock young daughter of one of the fiercely proud, dirt-poor Boatwrights of Greenville, South Carolina. The story moves from Bone’s very young recollections of life with her waitress mother Anne and her numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins, through her mother’s painful brief marriage and quick widowhood, to her volatile and painful second marriage to Daddy Glenn, who abuses and violates Bone. (Staff recommendation)

Plainsong by Kent Haruf

This book, which is about family and romance, tribulation and tenacity, is set in the small tone of Hold, Colorado. A high school teacher has to raise two young boys alone after their mother deserts them. A teenage girl who is pregnant is kicked out of the house by her mother and has to find a home for herself and the baby she is carrying. Two brothers, elderly bachelors, open their home and their hearts to this young girl.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

This is a wonderful gothic novel that tells the story of Sue Trinder, an orphan who grows up in a family of pickpockets in 19th Century London. Sue is anxious to show her devotion to Mrs. Sucksby, who has taken care of Sue since her mother was hanged, and agrees to embark on a moneymaking scheme with a gentleman who turns out to be a notorious con-man. While playing the part of a maid to a young gentlewoman named Maud, Sue discovers her first passions. Waters does a fabulous job at creating intriguing plot twists. It is hard to put this book down once you start reading it.

Affinity - by Sarah Waters

Margaret Prior decides to become a lady visitor to Millbank Prison in order to help morally educate the women held there. During her visits, she becomes obsessed with Selina Dawes, a beautiful, young spiritualist and tries to make her her confidante. While delving into Selina's secrets, Margaret is forced to come to terms with many of her own. Waters does a divine job at keeping the reader engrossed in the suspense of the story, while revealing intricacies about female relationships.

Ten Thousand Lovers by Edeet Ravel

Ten Thousand Lovers was the first book I read upon returning from Israel. It put me right back there! It’s a novel about Israel in the 70’s, which happened to be an incredibly interesting time (ask your parents.) A girl waiting at a hitchhiking station (they actually have those!) gets picked up by a young guy… romance ensues. However, what begins as a simple love drama quickly grows into a novel about Israel, the nature of conflict, and the price we all pay to have a country of our own. Ravel is a brilliant linguist, and provides etymological information about the missing subtleties of conversation that are lost in the translation to English. This may sound dry, but suffice it to say, if they taught stuff like that in Hebrew class, I’d be on time every day. It really adds a dimension to Hebrew that some don’t even know exists. This book will make you think, it will make you feel (be prepared to cry during the climax), and you won’t have to force yourself to read it. Ravel’s writing puts you right there in the situation; I finished it less than three days! I couldn’t put it down.

PG: 15-16. Sexual situations, drug use… oh yeah! Typical hippie stuff. Be prepared for a little bit of blasphemy here and there. Edeet Ravel has really left-wing views.(Recommend by Josh Berkowicz)

Ashes to Ashes, Tami Hoag

Kate Conlan, former FBI agent turned witness advocate was given a case involving a young, troubled girl. Kate normally deals with adults, but reluctantly takes on this case. The novel takes place in Minneapolis, where a serial killer is on the loose. The police haven’t made that case their main priority, until a very wealthy, important, young women is murdered. The only witness to the crime is the young, abused girl who was thrust into Kate’s arms. Kate gets much more than she signed up for when she discovers that her only witness has disappeared and that she is probably next on the killer’s list.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it to all who love mystery and suspense. I also recommend many of Hoag’s of novels. They are all filled with twists and suspense and are simply captivating and terrific. (Recommended by Melanie Wiseblatt)

She’s Come Undone Wally Lamb

Dolores Price is the main character in this novel. She recounts her unusual, painful experiences from age four to age forty, including her harsh social difficulties, mental illness in her family, and being abused by her father and other men. Throughout the book, Dolores develops physical and emotional problems caused by her surroundings and lack of good role models. Dolores begins to hate the person she’s become, until she decides to fight her illness and changes her life. Painful events do not stop occurring to Dolores, but she becomes a stronger, more mature person.(Recommended by Chen Argaman for students in grades 9-10.)

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck depicts the lives of ordinary people striving to preserve their humanity in the face of social and economic desperation during the Great Depression. He focuses on the Joads, a tight knit family that was booted off their Oklahoma farm and leaves everything behind for better wages in California. As their arduous journey progresses, the Joads refuse to let go of their human dignity. When the California of their dreams proves to be less than perfect, they realize that the selfish land owners will never offer them a helping hand. The only people that the Joads can turn to are their fellow poor, yet compassionate, migrants. Steinbeck paints a portrait of the bitter conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man's fierce reaction to injustice, and one woman’s stoic perseverance. This is a tale of a family that represents the decency that the broken migrants refused to leave behind.This book is recommended for patient readers aged 14+.