Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Curtis Sittenfeld’s debut novel, Prep, is an insightful, achingly funny coming-of-age story as well as a brilliant dissection of class, race, and gender in a hothouse of adolescent angst and ambition. Lee Fiora is an intelligent, observant fourteen-year-old when her father drops her off in front of her dorm at the prestigious Ault School in Massachusetts. She leaves her animated, affectionate family in South... (more)

The Wasp Factory

by Iain Banks

Meet Frank Cauldhame. Just sixteen, and unconventional to say the least: Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different and more fundamental reasons than I'd disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did for my young cousin Esmerelda, more or less on a whim. That's my score to date. Three. I haven't killed anybody for years, and don't intend to ever again. It was... (more)

Ordinary People

by Judith Guest

Describes a youth's breakdown and recovery and how it affects his family.

The Long Secret (Harriet the Spy)

by Louise Fitzhugh

Harriet the Spy refuses to become ruffled when an unidentified person starts leaving disturbing notes all over the quiet little beach town of Water Mill. She’s determined to discover the author of the notes. And she drags her best friend, mousy Beth Ellen, into all kinds of odd and embarrassing situations in her efforts to reveal the culprit. Observing in her own special, caustic way with her ever-present... (more)

Monkeys (Vintage Contemporaries)

by Susan Minot

NATIONAL BESTSELLER In this luminous story of family life--the first novel by Susan Minot, author of the highly acclaimed Evening --the seven Vincent children follow their Catholic mother to Mass and spend Thanksgiving with their father's aging parents who come from a world of New England priviledge. As they grow older, they meet with the perplexing lives of adults. Susan Minot writes with delicacy and a... (more)

A Wasp Among Eagles: A Woman Military Test Pilot in World War II

A Wasp Among Eagles: A Woman Military Test Pilot in World War II

by Ann Carl

A jet-age pioneer, Carl was the only American woman to test-fly experimental planes during WWII and the first woman to fly a jet. She was one of about a thousand WASPs (Women Airforce Service Pilots), women military flyers on the home front, whoAwith zero publicity and very low statusAferried planes to bases, served as flight instructors and test-piloted repaired aircraft. This extraordinary memoir is a spirited,... (more)

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Prep: A Novel

by Curtis Sittenfeld