Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

The Alchemist's Daughter: A Novel

by Katharine McMahon

There are long-held secrets at the manor house in Buckinghamshire, England, where Emilie Selden has been raised in near isolation by her father. A student of Isaac Newton, John Selden believes he can turn his daughter into a brilliant natural philosopher and alchemist. Secluded in their ancient house, with only two servants for company, he fills Emilie with knowledge and records her progress obsessively. In the... (more)

Breath

by Donna Jo Napoli

Salz is a boy afflicted with cystic fibrosis -- though in the Middle Ages in Saxony no one can identify it as such. Instead he is an outcast, living with his unfeeling father and superstitious brothers in a hovel outside Hameln. His grandmother has kept Salz alive by having him avoid the mead and beer commonly drunk by all and by teaching him how to clear his lungs. When the townsfolk of Hameln are affected by a... (more)

Song of the Magdalene

by Donna Jo Napoli

The story of a teenage Mary Magdalene -- here called Miriam -- is finally told.... When the world goes dark and her mind explodes within her, Miriam's future is shattered. In ancient Israel such seizures make her unclean. If anyone finds out about them, she will be an outcast. Only Abraham -- the son of Hannah, her caretaker -- shares her secret. Abraham, too, is afflicted -- a perfect mind in an imperfect... (more)

On Agate Hill: A Novel

by Lee Smith

Molly Petree, orphaned by the Civil War, is by her own definition "a spitfire and a burden. I do not care. My family is a dead family, and this is not my home, for I am a refugee girl." Raised in the ruins of a once prosperous plantation on Agate Hill in North Carolina, she's a refugee who has no interest in self-pity. To document her headstrong life, she collects its artifacts—her lifelong diaries, letters,... (more)

Ten Thousand Sorrows

by Elizabeth Kim

I don't know how old I was when I watched my mother's murder, nor do I know how old I am today.' The illegitimate daughter of a peasant and an American GI, Elizabeth Kim spent her early years as a social outcast in her village in the Korean countryside. Ostracized by their family and neighbours, she and her mother were regularly pelted with stones on their way home from the rice fields. Yet, there was a tranquil... (more)

We Are Their Heaven: Why the Dead Never Leave Us

We Are Their Heaven: Why the Dead Never Leave Us

by Allison DuBois

What happens to our loved ones when they die? Is there a heaven? Is there a true connection and communication between the living and the dead? Allison DuBois invites us into her world where she delivers messages from our lost loved ones. She convinces us that those who have passed away are constantly with us, providing comfort, love, and support. They are as eager to reach us as we are to stay connected with... (more)

Ella Enchanted

by Gail Carson Levine

How can a fairy's blessing be such a curse? At her birth, Ella of Frell was the unfortunate recipient of a foolish fairy's gift--the "gift' of obedience. Ella must obey any order given to her, whether it's hopping on one foot for a day and a half, or chopping off her own head! But strong-willed Ella does not tamely accept her fate. Against a bold backdrop of princes, ogres, giants, wicked stepsisters, and fairy... (more)

The Secret Life of Bees

by Sue Monk Kidd

Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her harsh, unyielding father, Lily Owens has shaped her entire life around one devastating, blurred memory--the afternoon her mother was killed, when Lily was four. Since then, her only real companion has been the fierce-hearted, and sometimes just fierce, black woman Rosaleen, who acts as her "stand-in mother."When Rosaleen insults three of the deepest racists in... (more)

Drowning Ruth

by Christina Schwarz

Deftly written and emotionally powerful, Drowning Ruth is a stunning portrait of the ties that bind sisters together and the forces that tear them apart, of the dangers of keeping secrets and the explosive repercussions when they are exposed. A mesmerizing and achingly beautiful debut. Winter, 1919. Amanda Starkey spends her days nursing soldiers wounded in the Great War. Finding herself suddenly overwhelmed, she... (more)

Light on Snow

by Anita Shreve

A brilliant and beautiful contemporary novel about love and memory from the author of the bestselling novels All He Ever Wanted and The Pilots Wife.The events of a December afternoon, during which a father and his daughter find an abandoned infant in the snow, will forever alter the 11-year-old girls understanding of the world and the adults who inhabit it: a father who has taken great pains to remove himself from... (more)

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Book 1

The Pox Party

by M. T. Anderson

A gothic tale becomes all too shockingly real in this mesmerizing magnum opus by the acclaimed author of FEED. It sounds like a fairy tale. He is a boy dressed in silks and white wigs and given the finest of classical educations. Raised by a group of rational philosophers known only by numbers, the boy and his mother — a princess in exile from a faraway land — are the only persons in their household assigned... (more)

Stowaway

by Karen Hesse

It is known that in the summer of 1768, Captain James Cook sailed from England on H.M.S Endeavour, beginning a three-year voyage around the world on a secret mission to discover an unknown continent at the bottom of the globe. What is less known is that a boy by the name of Nicholas Young was a stowaway on that ship. Newbery winner Karen Hesse re-creates Cook's momentous voyage through the eyes of this... (more)

A Drowned Maiden's Hair: A Melodrama

by Laura Amy Schlitz

A feisty orphan is taken in by a band of phony spiritualists in this intriguing, engaging novel. Maud Flynn is known at the orphanage for her impertinence, so when the charming Miss Hyacinth and her sister choose Maud to take home with them, the girl is as baffled as anyone. It seems the sisters need Maud to help stage elaborate séances for bereaved, wealthy patrons. As Maud is drawn deeper into the deception,... (more)

The Descendants: A Novel

by Kaui Hart Hemmings

Narrated in a bold, fearless, hilarious voice and set against the lush, panoramic backdrop of Hawaii, The Descendants is a stunning debut novel about an unconventional family forced to come together and re-create its own legacy. Matthew King was once considered one of the most fortunate men in Hawaii. His missionary ancestors were financially and culturally progressive–one even married a Hawaiian princess,... (more)

The Wasp Factory: A NovelIain Banks

The Wasp Factory: A Novel

by Iain Banks

Bloody Jack : being an account of the curious adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy

Bloody Jack Adventure: Book 1

Bloody Jack : being an account of the curious adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy

by L. A. Meyer

Life as a ship's boy aboard HMS Dolphin is a dream come true for Jacky Faber. Gone are the days of scavenging for food and fighting for survival on the streets of eighteenth-century London. Instead, Jacky is becoming a skilled and respected sailor as the crew pursues pirates on the high seas. There's only one problem: Jacky is a girl . And she must use every bit of her spirit, wit, and courage to keep the crew... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: death of mother

The Alchemist's Daughter: A Novel

by Katharine McMahon

Breath

by Donna Jo Napoli

Song of the Magdalene

by Donna Jo Napoli

On Agate Hill: A Novel

by Lee Smith

Ten Thousand Sorrows

by Elizabeth Kim

We Are Their Heaven: Why the Dead Never Leave Us

by Allison DuBois

Ella Enchanted

by Gail Carson Levine

The Secret Life of Bees

by Sue Monk Kidd

Drowning Ruth

by Christina Schwarz

Light on Snow

by Anita Shreve

The Pox Party

by M. T. Anderson

Stowaway

by Karen Hesse

A Drowned Maiden's Hair: A Melodrama

by Laura Amy Schlitz

The Descendants: A Novel

by Kaui Hart Hemmings

The Wasp Factory: A Novel

by Iain Banks

Bloody Jack : being an account of the curious adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy

by L. A. Meyer