Howard County Reads 2008

19 Minutes by Jodi Picoult
Comment: Deals with contemporary relationship issues leading to school shootings. Twists and turns in the plotting make this a riveting read.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
1984 by George Orwell
Comment: One of the most important books of the 20th Century and frighteningly relevant today.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Amethyst Heart, The by Penelope J. Stokes
Comment: Multi-generational story with a lot of "heart", set in a historical background.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Comment: On a summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses a moment’s flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant. But Briony’s incomplete grasp of adult motives and her precocious imagination bring about a crime that will change all their lives.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Comment: This book gave so much beauty to the word "love". Great for Valentine's Day and it also helps get through the pain and heartbreak; see love through someone else's eyes.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Beaufort by Ron Leshem

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Black: the birth of evil by Ted Dekker
Comment: Different than any other chosen HCR book - a combination of suspense/sci-fi. Black is the first in a series and it leaves you wanting more! This book is available in paperback as well as graphic novel (for teens).

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Blind Assassin, The by Margaret Atwood

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
Comment: A new title by a Pulitzer Prize winner. Not about Italy (Bridge of Sighs refers to a painting) but about small town upstate New York life, not unsimilar to the industrial decline locally.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Burning Bright: A Play in Story Form by John Steinbeck

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Child called "It": one child's courage to survive, A by David Pelzer
Comment: Because it's sad and I want parents to know why it's not 80 to disaplen their child

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Children of Men, The by P. D. James

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Clay's Quilt by Silas house
Comment: Good book . Takes place in Ky. author is a rural mailcarrier.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Colony by Ann Rivers Siddons

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Da Vinci Code, The by Dan Brown
Comment: Popular a few years ago. Would make for a good discussion.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Daisy Miller by Henry James

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Dream When you're Feeling Blue by Elizabeth Berg
Comment: Takes place during WWI, interesting book .The finish is not what one would expect.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Dream when you're feeling blue by Elizabeth Berg
Comment: During WW II--sisters give up lives with boyfriends and do without in many ways. Sacrifices met then are comparable to now.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Comment: Very thought provoking

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Comment: After divorce, a woman begins a journey to rediscover herself with stops in Roman, Mumbai and Bali. Written with introspection and humor this is a great read for women (and men) who are looking for a little soul searching themselves.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Fear Street by R. L. Stine
Comment: Cause its scary and cool

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Comment: Fight club is the invention of Tyler Durden, projectionist, waiter, and dark, anarchic genius, and it's only the beginning of his plans for violent revenge on an empty consumer-culture world.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Fine and Private Place, A by Peter S. Beagle
Comment: A haunting love story.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Follow The River by James Alexander Thom

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Comment: A well written and very engaging true story about a disfunctional family and how the children are able to survive and rise above their circumstances. Shatters some assumptions about homeless people and children learning lifestyles from their parents.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien
Comment: When private Cacciato deserts his squad in Vietnam to walk to Paris for the peace talks, Paul Berlin ordered after him on a surreal manhunt beginning with a trail of M&M's.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Great Gatsby, The by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Greatest Man in Cedar Hole, The by Stephanie Doyon

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Handmaid's Tale, The by Margaret Atwood

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
History of love by Nicole Krauss
Comment: One of the most beautiful novels in recent years

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Holy Fools by Joanne Harris

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Honk and Holler Opening Soon,The by Billie Letts
Comment: Interesting and somewhat funny at times. Interesting characters, good book.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
I am America (and so can you) by Stephen Colbert
Comment: Very funny

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Comment: In this suspenseful account of her life and her internal struggle with her Muslim faith, Ayaan Hirsi Ali discusses how these views were shaped by her experiences amid the political chaos of Somalia and other African nations, where she was subjected to genital mutilation and later forced into an unwanted marriage.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Innocent Man by John Grisham
Comment: True tale dealing with contemporary issues of justice.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk
Comment: Narrator Shannon McFarland, once a gorgeous fashion model, has been hideously disfigured in a mysterious drive-by shooting. Her jaw has been shot off, leaving her not only bereft of a career and boyfriend, but suddenly invisible to the world.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles by Anthony Swofford
Comment: A witty, profane memoir of the first Gulf War.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
Comment: Jayber Crow, a barber in rural Port William, Kentucky, recounts the story of his life and the lives of the townfolk and the story of their community.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
Comment: This is an enchantingly original book that juxtaposes two tales about mothers, love, tragedy, and the power of the kitchen and home in the lives of a pair of free-spirited young women in contemporary Japan.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Kite Runner, The by Khaled Hosseini
Comment: Previous discussion book about 2 brothers growing up in Afghanistan, and the challenges they meet in that culture. The new movie is very close to the book though the visualization is a little less brutal. A beautiful film which would make the book more accessible to many.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Last Days, The by Joel C. Rosenberg
Comment: Riveting!

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Last True Story I'll Ever Tell, The by John Crawford
Comment: John Crawford joined the Florida National Guard to pay for his college tuition. But in 2002, one semester shy of graduation and on his honeymoon, Crawford was shipped off to the front lines in Iraq. Once there he was determined to get it all down, to chronicle the daily life of a soldier in all its brutal, terrifying, heartbreaking honesty.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Last Unicorn, The by Peter S. Beagle
Comment: A fairy tale for adults.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Leaving Microsoft to Change the World by John Wood
Comment: This is an inspirational book about giving up money to make a difference in children's lives. We could do something to contribute to his reading program.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Left Hand of Darkness, The by Ursula K. Le Guin
Comment: Imagine a world in which a person's gender is constantly in a state of flux.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Liars' Club, The by Mary Karr
Comment: The Liars' Club by Karr is much better than Glass Castle by Walls.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Life & Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, The by Bill Bryson
Comment: Bill Bryson is a good author. Other books by him have been nominated in the past.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Little Prince, The by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Comment: A timeless classic. An aviator whose plane is forced down in the Sahara Desert encounters a little prince from a small planet who relates his adventures in seeking the secret of what is important in life.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Comment: Forget Anna Karenina. Read Madame Bovary.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Maltese Falcon , The by Dashiell Hammett
Comment: If you're only going to read one hardboiled detective novel in your lifetime, this is the one to read.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Master and Margarita, The by Mikhail Bulgakov
Comment: Written during the Soviet crackdown of the 1930s, when Mikhail Bulgakov's works were effectively banned, it wraps its anti-Stalinist message in a complex allegory of good and evil.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Memory Keeper’s Daughter, The by Kim Edwards
Comment: Patrons continue to rave about this as a must read. It has also been made into a movie.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin
Comment: In medieval Cambridge, England, Adelia, a female forensics expert, is summoned by King Henry II to investigate a series of gruesome murders that has wrongly implicated the Jewish population, yielding even more tragic results. As Adelia's investigation takes her behind the closed doors of the country's churches, the killer prepares to strike again.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Moon Is Down, The by John Steinbeck
Comment: The Nazi occupication of Norway plays out in a small coastal town. A true classic of WWII fiction.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Comment: Very readable tale of the child of immigrants fitting into this culture. The new movie is excellent.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Comment: Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Other Boleyn Girl, The by Philippa Gregory
Comment: The other Boleyn is Mary, the little-known sister of Henry VIII's second wife, Anne.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Painted House, A by John Grisham

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Penny, The by Joyce Meyer
Comment: This book is about ultimate grace and forgiveness. Everyone needs that.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
Comment: The mythic story of the Sarajevo Haggadah, one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Persian Pickle Club, The by Sandra Dallas
Comment: Hard times in Depression-era Harveyville, Kansas, are softened by the conviviality of a weekly quilting circle called the Persian Pickle Club.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Pillars of the Earth, The by Ken Follett
Comment: In 12th-century England, the building of a mighty Gothic cathedral signals the dawn of a new age.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Quiet Strength by Tony Dungy
Comment: An inspirational "sports" book that would appeal to many people. Lots of programming possibilities.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Quiet Strength by Tony Dungy

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Red heart, The by James Alexander Thom
Comment: It is a great book with local interest (Frances Slocum). Author lives in Indiana. Many programs in October could be built around the book.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Return of the King, The by J. R. R. Tolkein
Comment: It is great!

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig
Comment: This book is so good, interesting, and historical. It picked up from where Margaret Mitchell left off in her book, Gone with the Wind. (not so much as the movie since they left a lot out) I hope more read it.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Septembers of Shiraz, The by Dalia Sofer
Comment: In the aftermath of the Iranian revolution, rare-gem dealer Isaac Amin is arrested, wrongly accused of being a spy. Terrified by his disappearance, his family must reconcile a new world of cruelty and chaos with the collapse of everything they have known.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Soldier of the Great War, A by Mark Helprin

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen
Comment: A memoir of growing up Vietnamese in Grand Rapids and creating an American identity using food.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Step-by-step 50 great children's party cakes by Sue Maggs
Comment: It's cool

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Streetcar Named Desire, A by Tennessee Williams

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas
Comment: Takes place during WWI in Colorado,it is about the camps that were built to house the Japanese citizens .

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Testament of Gideon Mack, The by James Robertson

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Comment: The writing is astounding. "Amory Blaine inherited from his mother every trait, except the stray inexpressible few, that made him worth while. His father, an ineffectual, inarticulate man with a taste for Byron and a habit of drowsing over the Encyclopedia Britannica, . . . handed down to posterity his height of just under six feet and his tendency to waver at crucial moments, these two abstractions appearing in his son Amory. "

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Thousand Splendid Suns, A by Khaled Hosseini
Comment: The story of two women, Mariam and Laila, wedded unwillingly to the same man and their unlikely friendship, set against the backdrop of the last 30 turbulent years in Afghanistan.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Thousand Splendid Suns, A by Khaled Hosseini
Comment: A second (unrelated to Kite Runner) excellent book about families in Afghanistan.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Comment: It was very, very interesting. I could hardly lay it down. I was also amazed at what one person can do when he/she dedicates himself to that task. And this was a huge task, but he did it. Amazing man.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Thunder cake by Patricia Polacco
Comment: Because it is good. [juvenile book]

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Traveler's Gift, The: seven decisions that determine personal success by Andy Andrews
Comment: The Traveler's Gift is a book that combines fiction with self-help. It is an inspiring book which provides useful ways to overcome life's obstacles.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution by Woody Holton
Comment: Myth busting the origin of the US Constitution.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Villette by Charlotte Brontë
Comment: Charlotte Brontë’s last and most autobiographical novel is a powerfully moving study of isolation and the pain of unrequited love, narrated by a heroine determined to preserve an independent spirit in the face of adverse circumstances.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Comment: Chronicles the adventures of a group of rabbits searching for a safe place to establish a new warren so that they can live in peace

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Way of a Pilgrim and The Pilgrim continues his way, The by Helen Bacovcin (Translator)
Comment: This Orthodox spiritual classic is the story of an anonymous, 19th-century, Russian peasant who attempts to follow St. Paul's advice to "pray without ceasing."

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Comment: A cousin disturbs the lives of two sisters, one an acquitted murderess, when he arrives on their doorstep with schemes of usurping their estate.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Winter of Our Discontent, The by John Steinbeck

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library
Wrinkle in Time, A by Madeleine L'Engle
Comment: A classic book that spans the ages. One of my favorites.

Find this book at: Kokomo-Howard Co. Public Library or Greentown Public Library