Sherwood Adult Winter Reading Challenge #2: Classic Books "You Always Meant to Read"Like this list

20 items

• To Kill a Mockingbird

  Lee, Harper

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  The explosion of racial hate and violence in a small Alabama town is viewed by a young girl whose father defends a black man accused of rape. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence, and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Great Gatsby

  Fitzgerald, F. Scott (Francis Scott), 1896-1940,

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  Jay Gatsby had once loved beautiful, spoiled Daisy Buchanan, then lost her to a rich boy. Now, mysteriously wealthy, he is ready to risk everything to woo her back.

• In Cold Blood

  a True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences

  Capote, Truman, 1924-1984

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  Based on the true story of a prosperous and respected Kansas farmer who, along with his wife and children, is murdered by two mindless ex-convicts.

• Brave New World

  Huxley, Aldous, 1894-1963,

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  Huxley's classic prophetic novel describes the socialized horrors of a futuristic utopia devoid of individual freedom.

• Jane Eyre

  Brontë, Charlotte, 1816-1855

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  Jane, a plain and penniless orphan in nineteenth-century England, accepts employment as a governess at Thornfield Hall and soon finds herself in love with her melancholy employer, Mr. Edward Rochester, a man with a terrible secret.

• The Iliad

  Homer

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  The centuries old epic about the wrath of Achilles is rendered into modern English verse by a renowned translator and accompanied by an introduction that reassesses the identity of Homer. In Robert Fagles' beautifully rendered text, the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus

  Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797-1851

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  The story of Dr. Frankenstein and his obsessive experiment that leads to the creation of a monstrous and deadly creature.

• The Catcher in the Rye

  Salinger, J. D. (Jerome David), 1919-2010,

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  The story of Holden Caufield with his idiosyncrasies, penetrating insight, confusion, sensitivity and negativism. Holden, knowing he is to be expelled from school, decides to leave early. He spends three days in New York City and tells the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Beloved

  a Novel

  Morrison, Toni

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  Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of enslavement, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. Sethe, its protagonist, was born enslaved and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Things Fall Apart

  Achebe, Chinua,

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  First published in 1958, this novel tells the story of Okonkwo, the leader of an Igbo (Ibo) community who is banished for accidentally killing a clansman. The novel covers the seven years of his exile to his return, providing an inside…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A Christmas Carol

  Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870

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  Through the intervention of four ghosts, Ebenezer Scrooge is shown the spirit of Christmas.

• Persuasion

  Austen, Jane, 1775-1817

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  Austen's last novel is the crowning achievement of her matchless career. Her heroine, Anne Elliot, a woman of integrity, breeding and great depth of emotion, stands in stark contrast to the brutality and hypocrisy of Regency England.

• 1984

  a Novel

  Orwell, George, 1903-1950

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  Portrays life in a future time when a totalitarian government watches over all citizens and directs all activities.

• Another Country

  Baldwin, James, 1924-1987,

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  Set in 1970s Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France, among other locales, Another Country is a novel of passions -- sexual, racial, political, artistic -- that is stunning for its emotional intensity and haunting sensuality, depicting men…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A Room of One's Own

  Woolf, Virginia, 1882-1941

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  Why is it that men, and not women, have always had power, wealth, and fame? Woolf cites the two keys to freedom: fixed income and one's own room.

• Catch-22

  Heller, Joseph

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  This contemporary classic depicts the struggles of a United States airman attempting to survive the lunacy and depravity of a World War II airbase.

• The Kite Runner

  Hosseini, Khaled

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  The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy Afghan youth and the son of his father's servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Life of Pi

  a Novel

  Martel, Yann,

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  Pi Patel, having spent an idyllic childhood in Pondicherry, India, as the son of a zookeeper, sets off with his family at the age of sixteen to start anew in Canada, but his life takes a marvelous turn when their ship sinks in the Pacific,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Secret History

  Tartt, Donna

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  Richard Papen had never been to New England before his nineteenth year. Then he arrived at Hampeden College and quickly became seduced by the sweet, dark rhythms of campus life -- in particular by an elite group of five students, Greek…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Walden

  And, Civil Disobedience

  Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862

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  Disdainful of America's growing commercialism and industrialism, Henry David Thoreau left Concord, Massachusetts, in 1845 to live in solitude in the woods by Walden Pond. This classic account of his stay there, conveys at once a…Read moreRead more of this annotation