Some Great Ones
Discover timeless classics and gripping modern favorites in this curated reading list, featuring *The Help*, *The Pillars of the Earth*, and *Rebecca*. From fiction to history, explore unforgettable stories by Kathryn Stockett, Ken Follett, and more.
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The Assistant
by Bernard Malamud
Frank, a troubled, somewhat desperate, Italian American, works long hours in the grocery store of a struggling Jewish family in a Brooklyn neighborhood where he develops a secret passion for his employer's attractive daughter.
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The Pillars of the Earth
by Ken Follett
"Original hardcover edition published by William Morrow and Company Inc.; previously published in a Plume edition"--T.p. verso.
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The Monk
by Matthew Lewis
Set in the sinister monastery of the Capuchins in Madrid, The Monk is a violent tale of ambition, murder, and incest. The great struggle between maintaining monastic vows and fulfilling personal ambitions leads its main character, the monk Ambrosio, to temptation and the breaking of his vows, then to sexual obsession and rape, and finally to murder in order to conceal his guilt. This edition contains a new introduction which shows how Lewis played with convention, ranging from gruesome realism to social comedy, and even parodied the Gothic genre in which he was writing.
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The Exorcist
by William Peter Blatty
A young girl becomes possessed by the devil and causes several violent deaths before she can be cured.
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Longest Day
by Cornelius Ryan
The unparalleled, classic work of history that recreates the battle that changed World War IIâthe Allied invasion of Normandy. The Longest Day is Cornelius Ryanâs unsurpassed account of D-Day, a book that endures as a masterpiece of military history. In this compelling tale of courage and heroism, glory and tragedy, Ryan painstakingly recreates the fateful hours that preceded and followed the massive invasion of Normandy to retell the story of an epic battle that would turn the tide against world fascism and free Europe from the grip of Nazi Germany. This book, first published in 1959, is a must for anyone who loves history, as well as for anyone who wants to better understand how free nations prevailed at a time when darkness enshrouded the earth.
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The Help
by Kathryn Stockett
The #1 New York Times bestselling novel and basis for the Academy Award-winning filmâa timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we donâtânominated as one of Americaâs best-loved novels by PBSâs The Great American Read. Aibileen is a black maid in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, whoâs always taken orders quietly, but lately sheâs unable to hold her bitterness back. Her friend Minny has never held her tongue but now must somehow keep secrets about her employer that leave her speechless. White socialite Skeeter just graduated college. Sheâs full of ambition, but without a husband, sheâs considered a failure. Together, these seemingly different women join together to write a tell-all book about work as a black maid in the South, that could forever alter their destinies and the life of a small town...
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Rebecca
by Daphne Du Maurier
The young second wife of a widower comes to realize the evil surrounding Rebecca, his first wife.
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The Power of One
by Bryce Courtenay
âThe Power of One has everything: suspense, the exotic, violence; mysticism, psychology and magic; schoolboy adventures, drama.â âThe New York Times âUnabashedly uplifting . . . asserts forcefully what all of us would like to believe: that the individual, armed with the spirit of independenceââthe power of oneââcan prevail.â âCleveland Plain Dealer In 1939, as Hitler casts his enormous, cruel shadow across the world, the seeds of apartheid take root in South Africa. There, a boy called Peekay is born. His childhood is marked by humiliation and abandonment, yet he vows to survive and conceives heroic dreamsâwhich are nothing compared to what life actually has in store for him. He embarks on an epic journey through a land of tribal superstition and modern prejudice where he will learn the power of words, the power to transform lives, and the power of one. âTotally engrossing . . . [presents] the metamorphosis of a most remarkable young man and the almost spiritual influence he has on others . . . Peekay has both humor and a refreshingly earthy touch, and his adventures, at times, are hair-raising in their suspense.â âLos Angeles Times Book Review âMarvelous . . . It is the people of the sun-baked plains of Africa who tug at the heartstrings in this book. . . . [Bryce] Courtenay draws them all with a fierce and violent love.â âThe Washington Post Book World âImpressive.â âNewsday âA compelling tale.â âThe Christian Science Monitor
