This is the best book I've read in 2009. It has creative and effective descriptions, character development, and, believe it or not, suspense. Despite the reader's familiarity with the historical events portrayed it manages to be a page turner..

A wonderful collection of works for those of us who have read our way through much of the canon. Lesser known novels by well known writers, obscure but first rate novels by authors unknown to us, science fiction, mysteries, romances, westerns. I'm going to read my way through the novels at the rate of one a week over the next two years.

A frightening book that reveals how much damage man has done to our planet. But the author points out that much of the devistation would be reversed if we were gone. This makes him hopeful that we might make the changes we need to make before we wipe ourselves out, taking much of the natural world with us.

Dr Thorne raises his niece, Mary, as if she were his own daughter. But she isn't. She's the illegitimate daughter of working man made good, Sir Roger Scatchard. He has named his sister's eldest child as his heir and that child is Mary Thorne.

A thorough history of the music-writing teams in New York. The period from about 1955 to about 1966 was a rich one with such hits as "Save the Last Dance for Me" and "This Guy's In Love With You" eminating from the Brill Building. Unfortunately, the book is written in a slow-moving and pedestrian manner and nearly put me to sleep until about 2/3 of the way through when it picked up.

A clearly written expose of the "rush to judgement" of some of the Duke faculty when three members of the lacrosse team were unjustly accused of rape by a stripper who was a part-time North Carolina Central University student. The administration of Duke fired the coach (who was entirely innocent of any unethical act) and prejudged the young men guilty. The district attorney who brought the case against them was later disbarred for pursuing a case he knew was spurious. The state of North Carolina declared the men "innocent." A shameful incident.

Sisters move to Deerbrook where Mr Hope, the physician, falls in love with Margaret. But Harriet thinks he loves her and reciprocates. So he marries Harriet. Then the trouble begins, when a malicious neighbor spreads rumors that Mr Hope is stealing dead bodies from the graveyard and worse.

This classic of naturalism describes the development of the first big department store in Paris. Small shopkeepers were forced out of business and a way of life disappeared.

If you haven't read Trollope, this is the novel to start with. Ayala and her sister, left peniless when their parents die, are sent to live with relatives. Ayala has a dream of an "angel" - a man who will sweep her off her feet and give her everything she wants and needs. Then she meets a man who is nothing like what she has been dreaming of. Will she be wise enough to recognize him as her angel?

This is truly the Great American Novel. It isn't easy to read but every American should be familiar with it.

This gripping novel of the American Jewish immigrant experience was first published in 1925. Written from the point of view of an increasingly Americanized daughter it tells the story of a father who, as he sees his daughters betginning to break from the traditions of life in the old country, becomes a tyrant. The narrator leaves home to study nights while working in laundries. She eventually goes to college and becomes a teacher, but she realizes that she has been able to achieve this because of what she learned from her father.

The stories, originally written in Yiddish, from which "Fiddler on the Roof" was developed are collected here as _Tevye the Dairyman_. This novel is much darker and ends with more ambiguity than the musical. Tevye's daughters represent the changes in Jewish life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries such as pogroms, revolutionary groups, secularish, and loosening of tradition.