Beloved
by Toni Morrison
Beloved is the story – set in post-Civil War Ohio – of Sethe, an escaped slave who has risked death in order to wrench herself from a living death; who has lost a husband and buried a child; who has borne the unthinkable and not gone mad; a woman of “iron eyes and backbone to match.”
The Color Purple
by Alice Walker
The Color Purple is the story of two sisters — one a missionary to Africa and the other a child wife living in the South — who remain loyal to one another across time, distance, and silence. Beautifully imagined and deeply compassionate, this classic American literature is rich with passion, pain, inspiration, and an indomitable love of life.
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
by Emily Dickinson
The complete words of Emily Dickinson, and edited by the original editor as well.
Fahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury
In a future totalitarian state where books are banned and destroyed by the government, Guy Montag, a fireman in charge of burning books, meets a revolutionary schoolteacher who dares to read and a girl who tells him of a past when people did not live in fear.
The Handmaid’s Tale
by Margaret Atwood
Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now.
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Brontë
Follows the story of Jane, a seemingly plain and simple girl as she battles through life’s struggles. Jane has many obstacles in her life – her cruel and abusive Aunt Reed, the grim conditions at Lowood school, her love for Rochester and Rochester’s marriage to Bertha.
1984
by George Orwell
Winston Smith is a worker at the Ministry of Truth, where he falsifies records for the party. Secretly subversive, he and his colleague Julia try to free themselves from political slavery but the price of freedom is betrayal.
Orlando
by Virginia Woolf
Orlando doubles as first an Elizabethan nobleman and then as a Victorian heroine who undergoes all the transitions of history in this novel that examines sex roles and social mores.
Silas Marner
by George Eliot
The lonely and miserable life of a miserly recluse is transformed when he takes in an orphaned child and raises her as his own daughter.
Twelve Years a Slave
by Solomon Northup
Kidnapped into slavery in 1841, Solomon Northup spent 12 years in captivity. This autobiographical memoir represents an exceptionally detailed and accurate description of slave life and plantation society.