Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Poignant, evocative, and unforgettable, The Space Between Us is an intimate portrait of a distant yet familiar world. Set in modern-day India, it is the story of two compelling and achingly real women: Sera Dubash, an upper-middle-class Parsi housewife whose opulent surroundings hide the shame and disappointment of her abusive marriage, and Bhima, a stoic illiterate hardened by a life of despair and loss, who... (more)

The Reader

by Bernhard Schlink, Carol Brown Janeway

Hailed for its coiled eroticism and the moral claims it makes upon the reader, this mesmerizing novel is a story of love and secrets, horror and compassion, unfolding against the haunted landscape of postwar Germany. When he falls ill on his way home from school, fifteen-year-old Michael Berg is rescued by Hanna, a woman twice his age. In time she becomes his lover--then she inexplicably disappears. When... (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)

Double Dutch (Aladdin Fiction)

by Sharon M. Draper

secrets Delia loves Double Dutch more than just about anything, and she's really good at it -- so good she and her teammates have a shot at winning the World Double Dutch Championships. Delia would die if she couldn't jump -- but Delia has a secret, and it could keep her off the team next year. Delia's friend Randy has a secret too, one that has him lonely and scared. And while Delia and Randy struggle to... (more)

The Wolf Pit

by Marly Youmans

A powerful, intimate look at the Civil War on the home and battle fronts, The Wolf Pit is Marly Youmans's third and most accomplished novel. In it Robin, a young Confederate soldier and witness to the horrors of war, clings to what gives him strength: family pictures, psalms, and an old legend about a pair of mysterious green children found in a wolf pit. Robin carries these inside the Elmira prison camp, the... (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 Captain's Wife

by Douglas Kelley

Based on the true story of Mary Patten, The Captain's Wife begins in July 1856 during the heyday of the great clipper ships. Mary's husband, Captain Joshua Patten, is hired to navigate Neptune's Car on a treacherous voyage from New York to San Francisco through one of the most dangerous straits in the Western Hemisphere Cape Horn. Early on, trouble erupts on the ship. When the first mate is put in... (more)

Dragon Seed.Pearl S. Buck

Dragon Seed.

by Pearl S. Buck

Flight

by Elizabeth Stow Ellison

Samantha adores her older brother, Evan; but she worries about him too. He always seems to be in trouble - breaking rules, taking dares, acting out at home and school. A gifted athlete and brilliant artist, fourteen-year-old Evan has a problem - he can't read! Samantha is shocked when he reveals his secret. How has he managed to hide it for so long? Why haven't her parents done something about it? Evan's dream... (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 Lesson Before Dying

by Ernest J. Gaines

From the author of A Gathering of Old Men and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman comes a deep and compassionate novel. A young man who returns to 1940s Cajun country to teach visits a black youth on death row for a crime he didn't commit. Together they come to understand the heroism of resisting.

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Tags: illiteracy

The Space Between Us: A Novel

by Thrity N. Umrigar