Genre Literature

Saul Bellow evokes all the rich colors and exotic customs of a highly imaginary Africa in this acclaimed comic novel about a middle-aged American millionaire who, seeking a new, more rewarding life, descends upon an African tribe. Henderson's awesome feats of strength and his unbridled passion for life win him the admiration of the tribe - but it is his gift for making rain that turns him from mere hero into messiah. A hilarious, often ribald story, Henderson the Rain King is also a profound look at the forces that drive a man through life.

The stark grief of a brother mourning a brother opens this novel with a stunning, unforgettable experience. Here, in a monumental saga of love and rage, Baldwin goes back to Harlem, to the church of his groundbreaking novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, to the homosexual passion of Giovanni's Room, and to the political fire that inflames his nonfiction work.

Deep down here by the dark water lived old Gollum, a small slimy creature. I don’t know where he came from, nor who or what he was. He was Gollum—as dark as darkness, except for two big round pale eyes in his thin face. He had a little boat, and he rowed about quite quietly on the lake; for lake it was, wide and deep and deadly cold.

The second novel in Joseph M. Marshall III's acclaimed Lakota Western series begins in 1875, as Sitting Bull gathers thousands of Lakota to face the growing problem of white incursion. What follows is a sweeping tale of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, including the days and weeks leading up to the conflict and the remarkable defeat of General George Armstrong Custer and the Seventh Cavalry.

A vicious 15-year-old droog is the central character of this 1963 classic, a frightening fable about good and evil, and the meaning of human freedom. In Anthony Burgess' nightmare vision of the future, where the criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, who talks in a brutal invented slang that brilliantly renders his and his friends' social pathology.

The Company has a special secret operation planned for one of their top agents: the leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorist groups are hiding out in Pashtun country, and they must be eliminated. The job falls to a man they have named Frank Morganan agent who stood out as a recruit at Quantico and whose skills resemble those of the legendary Vietnam assassin. The other soldiers claim Frank’s abilities as a sniper and a tracker border on the supernatural and are more than willing to complete this mission with him.

Inspired by a near-mythic event on the wild Florida frontier at the turn of the 20th century, Shadow Country re-imagines the legend of the inspired Everglades sugar planter and notorious outlaw E. J. Watson, who drives himself relentlessly toward his own violent end at the hands of neighbors who mostly admired him, in a killing that obsessed his favorite son.

From playwright, author and Oscar-nominated actor Jesse Eisenberg, When You Finish Saving the World tells the moving and evocative story of three individuals working to understand each other and themselves: Nathan, a father learning to connect with his newborn son; Rachel, a young college student seeking to find her place in a relationship and in life, before marriage to Nathan; and Ziggy, their son, a teenager hoping to figure out where he came from, and where he’s headed.

“A ‘World’s Fittest Santa’ contest? Please tell me you’re joking." My store manager is in fact not joking. All I want for Christmas this year is to finally quit my job and figure out what the hell I’m doing with my life. Instead, here I am, auditioning sexy, shirtless men in fake white beards so hundreds of horny mall shoppers can sit on their laps. A dream come true for some women, I’m sure. For me? This is my personal nightmare. As a former professional dancer, my days of excessive exercise and counting calories are behind me. The last thing I need is a Santa with a six-pack.

Against the backdrop of windswept, coastal Ireland, two people are brought together under unlikely circumstances, one scarred by tragedy, the other by betrayal.

Wheeler Rankin isn't here for romance—she's come to Lucky River Ranch to visit her best friend, wrangle a business deal, and prove herself to everyone who ever doubted her. But when she collides with Duke Rivers—resident heartbreaker, restless cowboy, and brother to her best friend's new flame—sparks fly hotter than a Texas summer. Duke has always dreamed of more than dusty trails and small-town life. He's itching to see the world, but one unforgettable night with Wheeler changes his course.

The Road Home lies in the shadows of Manifest Destiny and Wounded Knee; it is etched into the landscape of an old man’s memory and into the stubborn dreams of a young man’s heart. In one of Jim Harrison’s greatest works, five members of the Northridge family narrate the tangled epic of their history on the expanses of the Nebraska plains. They strive to understand their fates, to reconcile with demons of the past, to live in accordance with the land, and to die with grace.

Valeria Cossati never suspected how unhappy she had become with the shabby gentility of her bourgeois life—until she begins to jot down her thoughts and feelings in a little black book she keeps hidden in a closet. This new secret activity leads her to scrutinize herself and her life more closely, and she soon realizes that her individuality is being stifled by her devotion and sense of duty toward her husband, daughter, and son.

Mary Stoltzfus is 30 years old, splashed with freckles, and unmarried. In her Amish world, that qualifies her to be called an old maid. She is living her quiet schoolteacher life in the Lancaster County Amish community when she gets a surprising invitation in the mail one day. Would she come to Montana to teach?

Camden Harris, the famously hot, hulk of a footballer is laid up in a London hospital. But his busted knee doesn't stop him from running his well-practiced game on Indie Porter - his redheaded spitfire of a doctor. She's not his type, not even close. But she could be the perfect distraction from the soul-crushing damage this injury could cost him.

Want to know what happens to a man who barely claws his way out of a tragedy, only to fall right into the arms of the one girl in the world he can never have? Another tragedy, that's what. When I was six years old, my father made a choice that altered the course of my entire life. Because of what he did, the only girl I ever loved became the only girl I couldn’t have. In a lot of ways, I did have her; I had her first steps, her first words, her first smile. I had her milestones, her heartbreaks, her dreams.

Following a devastating injury that has left him side-lined and stripped of his beloved number 13 jersey, Johnny is struggling to hold on to his dreams. Lost, insecure and desperately seeking comfort, he sets his sights on unravelling the mystery of the girl with the midnight-blue eyes. With his best friend, Gibsie, by his side, Johnny embarks on his quest of exposing the secrets surrounding the girl who haunts his every waking hour. Secrets are exposed and lives are changed forever in Keeping 13: Part One, the explosive sequel to the best-selling audiobook Binding 13.

The life of Mr. Badman forms a third part to The Pilgrim’s Progress, but it is not a delightful pilgrimage to heaven. On the contrary, it is a wretched downward journey to the infernal realms. The author’s goal is to warn poor, thoughtless sinners, not with smooth words they can ignore, but with words that thunder against their consciences regarding the danger of their souls and the increasing wretchedness into which they are madly hurrying.

On her 12th birthday, Sierva Maria - the only child of a decaying noble family in an 18th-century South American seaport - is bitten by a rabid dog. Believed to be possessed, she is brought to a convent for observation. And into her cell stumbles Father Cayetano Delaura, who has already dreamed about a girl with hair trailing after her like a bridal train. As he tends to her with holy water and sacramental oils, Delaura feels something shocking begin to occur.

The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it - from garden seeds to Scripture - is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family’s tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.