Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

“I present to you . . . the truth about this man’s death and my life.” Baltimore, 1849. The body of Edgar Allan Poe has been buried in an unmarked grave. The public, the press, and even Poe’s own family and friends accept the conclusion that Poe was a second-rate writer who met a disgraceful end as a drunkard. Everyone, in fact, seems to believe this except a young Baltimore lawyer named Quentin Clark, an ardent... (more)

The Aeneid

by Virgil

Robert Fagles’s translations of both the Iliad and Odyssey have sold hundreds of thousands of copies and become the standard translations of our era. Now, his stunning modern verse translation of Virgil’s Aeneid is poised to do the same. This beautifully produced edition of the Aeneid will be eagerly sought by readers desiring to complete their Fagles collection—and the attention it receives will... (more)

Ro?ddin. (English)

by Arnaldur Indrioason

Arnaldur Indridason took the international crime fiction scene by storm after winning England’s CWA Gold Dagger Award for Silence of the Grave . Now, with the highly anticipated Voices, this world-class sensation treats American readers to another extraordinary Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson thriller. The Christmas rush is at its peak in a grand Reykjavík hotel when Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson is called in... (more)

Beowulf (A Norton Critical Edition)

by Seamus Heaney, Robert Nye, Kevin Crossley-Holland, Burton Raffel, Michael Alexander

Winner of the Whitbread Prize, Seamus Heaney's translation "accomplishes what before now had seemed impossible: a faithful rendering that is simultaneously an original and gripping poem in its own right" ( New York Times Book Review ). The translation that "rides boldly through the reefs of scholarship" ( The Observer ) is combined with first-rate annotation. No reading knowledge of Old English is assumed.... (more)

A brave vessel : the true tale of the castaways who rescued Jamestown and inspired Shakespeare's The tempest

A brave vessel : the true tale of the castaways who rescued Jamestown and inspired Shakespeare's The tempest

by Hobson Woodward

A gripping tale of shipwreck and survival that changed the fate of the colonies and enriched our literary legacy In 1609, aspiring writer William Strachey set sail aboard the Sea Venture , bound for the New World. Caught in a hurricane, the ship separated from its fleet and wrecked on uninhabited Bermuda, a bountiful island paradise its passengers would inhabit for nearly a year before reaching their intended... (more)

The magician's death : a Hugh Corbett medieval mystery

The magician's death : a Hugh Corbett medieval mystery

by P. C. Doherty

Scholars conven at Corfe Castle, to crack the code of Roger Bacon’s Book of Secrets. When murder and mayhem ensue, Sir Hugh Corbett must thread through a maze of mystery while trying to unlock Bacon’s great secrets.

Vetrarborgin. (English)

by Arnaldur Indrioason

In this new extraordinary thriller from Gold Dagger Award winner Arnaldur Indridason, the Reykjavik police are called on an icy January day to a garden where a body has been found: a young, dark-skinned boy is frozen to the ground in a pool of his own blood. Erlendur and his team embark on their investigation and soon unearth tensions simmering beneath the surface of Ice land’s outwardly liberal, multicultural... (more)

The Kite Runner

by Khaled Hosseini

In his debut novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini accomplishes what very few contemporary novelists are able to do. He manages to provide an educational and eye-opening account of a country's political turmoil--in this case, Afghanistan--while also developing characters whose heartbreaking struggles and emotional triumphs resonate with readers long after the last page has been turned over. And he does this on... (more)

Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany

Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany

by Bill Buford

In Cold BloodTruman Capote

In Cold Blood

by Truman Capote

Capote's riveting re-creation of events surrounding the 1959 murder of the Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas, covers the subsequent police investigation and the capture, trial, and execution of the two young murderers. 2 cassettes.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

by Mark Haddon

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow. This improbable story of Christopher’s quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog makes for one of the most captivating, unusual, and... (more)

The Devil in the White CityErik Larson

The Devil in the White City

Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

by Erik Larson

True Crime, Chicago World's Fair

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: A Novel

by Susanna Clarke

At the dawn of the nineteenth century, two very different magicians emerge to change England’s history. In the year 1806, with the Napoleonic Wars raging on land and sea, most people believe magic to be long dead in England—until the reclusive Mr Norrell reveals his powers, and becomes a celebrity overnight. Soon, another practicing magician comes forth: the young, handsome, and daring Jonathan Strange. He... (more)

Case Histories: A Novel

by Kate Atkinson

Case one: A little girl goes missing in the night. Case two: A beautiful young office worker falls victim to a maniac's apparently random attack. Case three: A new mother finds herself trapped in a hell of her own making - with a very needy baby and a very demanding husband - until a fit of rage creates a grisly, bloody escape. Thirty years after the first incident, as private investigator Jackson Brodie... (more)

A Son of the Circus (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

A Son of the Circus (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

by John Irving

A Hindi film star . . . an American missionary . . . twins separated at birth . . . a dwarf chauffeur . . . a serial killer . . . all are on a collision course. In the tradition of A Prayer for Owen Meany, Irving's characters transcend nationality. They are misfits--coming from everywhere, belonging nowhere. Set almost entirely in India, this is John Irving's most ambitious novel and a major publishing event.

True History of the Kelly Gang

A Novel

by Peter Carey, Alec Geoffrey Brierley

“I lost my own father at 12 yr. of age and know what it is to be raised on lies and silences my dear daughter you are presently too young to understand a word I write but this history is for you and will contain no single lie may I burn in Hell if I speak false.” In True History of the Kelly Gang , the legendary Ned Kelly speaks for himself, scribbling his narrative on errant scraps of paper in semiliterate... (more)

The Professor and the Madman

A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

by Simon Winchester

The Professor and the Madman , masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED began in 1857, it was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led... (more)

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

by John Berendt

Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion in the misty,early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. John Berendt's sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative reads like a thoroughly engrossing novel, and yet it is a work of nonfiction.... (more)

The Foreign Correspondent: A Novel

by Alan Furst

From Alan Furst, whom The New York Times calls “America’s preeminent spy novelist,” comes an epic story of romantic love, love of country, and love of freedom–the story of a secret war fought in elegant hotel bars and first-class railway cars, in the mountains of Spain and the backstreets of Berlin. It is an inspiring, thrilling saga of everyday people forced by their hearts’ passion to fight in the war against... (more)

Truelove (O'Brian, Patrick, Aubrey/Maturin Novels, 15.)

Truelove (O'Brian, Patrick, Aubrey/Maturin Novels, 15.)

by Patrick O'Brian

Dispatched with his ship, the Surprise, to restore order after an attack on a British whaler in Tonga, Captain Aubrey discovers Clarissa Harvill, an escaped female convict, stowed away in the cable-tier. Reprint.

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: eh

by Matthew Pearl

by Virgil

by Arnaldur Indrioason

by Seamus Heaney, Robert Nye, Kevin Crossley-Holland, Burton Raffel, Michael Alexander

by Hobson Woodward

by P. C. Doherty

by Arnaldur Indrioason

by Khaled Hosseini

by Bill Buford

by Truman Capote

by Mark Haddon

Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

by Erik Larson

by Susanna Clarke

by Kate Atkinson

by John Irving

A Novel

by Peter Carey, Alec Geoffrey Brierley

A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

by Simon Winchester

by John Berendt

by Alan Furst

by Patrick O'Brian