Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

The beloved author of Little Women was torn between pleasing her idealistic father and planting her feet in the material world. Louisa May Alcott's name is known universally. Yet, during her youth, the famous Alcott was her father, Bronson—an eminent teacher, lecturer, and admired friend of Emerson and Thoreau. Willful and exuberant, Louisa flew in the face of all her father's intricate... (more)

Smart Words: Vocabulary for the Erudite

by Mim Harrison

How and where to use 500 of the words that make you sound more cultured, worldly, and downright smart. Whoever said sounding smart had to be painful? It’s all in how you acquire the “ten-dollar words” of English. Smart Words makes fast and smooth learning of words such as prelapsarian , sedulous , sybaritic and draconian . How? By sticking to ultra-simple definitions, then offering a memorable—and often... (more)

Don't look now : stories

by Patrick McGrath, Daphne du Maurier

An NYRB Original Daphne du Maurier wrote some of the most compelling and creepy novels of the twentieth century. In books like Rebecca , My Cousin Rachel , and Jamaica Inn she transformed the small dramas of everyday life—love, grief, jealousy—into the stuff of nightmares. Less known, though no less powerful, are her short stories, in which she gave free rein to her imagination in narratives of unflagging... (more)

Cider with Rosie

by Laurie Lee

One of eight children, Laurie Lee was born in 1914, in Slad, Gloucestershire, then a remote corner of England. As his father was absent, the large family five children from his father's first marriage and three from his second one was brought up by his capable mother. 'We lived where he had left us; a relic of his provincial youth; a sprawling cumbersome, countrified brood too incongruous to carry with him; and I,... (more)

Somewhere Towards the End

by Diana Athill

All in a Day

by Cynthia Rylant

This lovely book illuminates all the possibilities a day offers—the opportunities and chances that won’t ever come again—and also delivers a gentle message of good stewardship of our planet. Newbery Medal winner Cynthia Rylant’s poetic text, alongside Nikki McClure’s stunning, meticulously crafted cut-paper art, makes this picture book not only timeless but appealing to all ages, from one to one hundred.

The Entomological Tales of Augustus T. Percival

The Entomological Tales of Augustus T. Percival

by Dene Low

You would think Petronella’s sixteenth birthday would be cause for celebration. After all, fashionable friends are arriving at her country estate near London, teas are being served, and her coming out party promises to be a resplendent affair. Everything is falling nicely into place, until, suddenly—it isn’t. For Petronella discovers that her guardian, Uncle Augustus T. Percival, has developed a most unVictorian... (more)

Wicked Plants: A Book of Botanical Atrocities

Wicked Plants: A Book of Botanical Atrocities

by Amy Stewart

A tree that sheds poison daggers; a glistening red seed that stops the heart; a shrub that causes paralysis; a vine that strangles; and a leaf that triggered a war. In Wicked Plants , Stewart takes on over two hundred of Mother Nature’s most appalling creations. It’s an A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend. You’ll learn which plants to avoid (like exploding shrubs), which plants make... (more)

Consequences

by Penelope Lively

The Booker Prize–winning author’s sweeping saga of three generations of women “One of the most accomplished writers of fiction of our day” ( The Washington Post ) follows the lives and loves of three women—Lorna, Molly, and Ruth—from World War II–era London to the close of the century. Told in Lively’s incomparable prose, this is a powerful story of growth, death, and renewal, as well as a penetrating look at... (more)

The Dissident: A Novel

by Nell Freudenberger

From the PEN/Malamud Award-winning author of Lucky Girls comes an intricately woven novel about secrets, love, art, identity, and the shining chaos of every day American life. Yuan Zhao, a celebrated Chinese performance artist and political dissident, has accepted a one-year artist's residency in Los Angeles. He is to be a Visiting Scholar at the St. Anselm's School for Girls, teaching advanced art, and... (more)

Consequences

by Penelope Lively

The Booker Prize-winning author’s first novel since The Photograph is a sweeping saga of three generations of women, their lives, and loves A chance meeting in St. James’s Park begins young Lorna and Matt’s intense relationship. Wholly in love, they leave London for a cottage in a rural Somerset village. Their intimate life together—Matt’s woodcarving, Lorna’s self-discovery, their new baby, Molly—is... (more)

To My Dearest Friends

by Patricia Volk

What happens when you find out something you wish you didn’t know? From the critically acclaimed author of Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family (“Taut, sharp . . . Vibrantly textured” — The New York Times Book Review ; “Unnervingly delightful” — The Miami Herald ), here is a smart, generous novel about two New York City women, the bonds of friendship, and the power—and responsibility—of secrets. ... (more)

The Moonflower Vine

by Jetta Carleton

A timeless American classic rediscovered—an unforgettable saga of a heartland family On a farm in western Missouri during the first half of the twentieth century, Matthew and Callie Soames create a life for themselves and raise four headstrong daughters. Jessica will break their hearts. Leonie will fall in love with the wrong man. Mary Jo will escape to New York. And wild child Mathy's fate will be the... (more)

The Midnight Folk

by John Masefield

The Midnight Folk introduces readers to Kay Harker, the orphaned boy who is also the hero of John Masefield’s classic Christmas fantasy, The Box of Delights . Kay lives in a vast old country house, and is looked after by an unpleasant duo: the oily and egregious Sir Theopompous and the petulant and punitive Sylvia Daisy Pouncer. In her zeal to educate Kay on the finer points of Latin grammar, Sylvia Daisy has... (more)

Water from the Well: Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah

Water from the Well: Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah

by Anne Richardson Roiphe

By retelling the stories of the Matriarchs through a sympathetic eye, Anne Roiphe will create portraits of the Bible’s women that will show how they played a role in Western history, how they taught us what is important and what is not, how they inspire our moral and immoral imaginations.

The Art Thief: A Novel

by Noah Charney

Rome: In the small Baroque church of Santa Giuliana, a magnificent Caravaggio altarpiece disappears without a trace in the middle of the night. Paris: In the basement vault of the Malevich Society, curator Genevi - ve Delacloche is shocked to discover the disappearance of the Society's greatest treasure, White-on-White by Suprematist painter Kasimir Malevich. London: At the National Gallery of Modern Art, the... (more)

Love Falls: A Novel (P.S.)

by Esther Freud

From the author of Hideous Kinky comes a charming, surprising, and utterly irresistible tale of adolescent love and self-discovery. When seventeen-year-old Lara accepts her father's invitation to accompany him to a Tuscan villa for the summer, she's both thrilled and nervous for the exotic holiday. To her delight, she soon discovers that the villa's closest neighbors are the glamorous Willoughbys, the... (more)

Classics for Pleasure

by Michael Dirda

This is not your father’s list of classics. In these delightful essays, Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Dirda introduces nearly ninety of the world’s most entertaining books. Writing with affection as well as authority, Dirda covers masterpieces of fantasy and science fiction, horror and adventure, as well as epics, history, essay, and children’s literature. Organized thematically, these are works that have shaped... (more)

Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression

Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression

by Mildred Armstrong Kalish

I tell of a time, a place, and a way of life long gone. For many years I have had the urge to describe that treasure trove, lest it vanish forever. So, partly in response to the basic human instinct to share feelings and experiences, and partly for the sheer joy and excitement of it all, I report on my early life. It was quite a romp. So begins Mildred Kalish’s story of growing up on her grandparents’ Iowa farm... (more)

The Cure for Anything Is Salt Water: How I Threw My Life Overboard and Found Happiness at Sea

The Cure for Anything Is Salt Water: How I Threw My Life Overboard and Found Happiness at Sea

by Mary South

At forty, Mary South had a beautiful home, good friends, and a successful career in book publishing. But she couldn't help feeling that she was missing something intangible but essential. So she decided to go looking for it . . . at sea. Six months later she had quit her job, sold the house, and was living aboard a forty-foot, thirty-ton steel trawler she rechristened Bossanova. Despite her total lack of... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

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The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father

by John Matteson

by Mim Harrison

by Patrick McGrath, Daphne du Maurier

by Laurie Lee

by Diana Athill

by Cynthia Rylant

by Dene Low

by Amy Stewart

by Penelope Lively

by Nell Freudenberger

by Penelope Lively

by Patricia Volk

by Jetta Carleton

by John Masefield

by Anne Richardson Roiphe

by Noah Charney

by Esther Freud

by Michael Dirda

by Mildred Armstrong Kalish

by Mary South