AJ's Staff Picks


Showing 1 - 10 of 10  There are a total of 63 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao"
Star rating for The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao
Average Rating:
3.6 stars
Description:
Oscar is a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd who--from the New Jersey home he shares with his old world mother and rebellious sister--dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of all, finding love. But Oscar may never get what he wants. Blame the fukú--a curse that has haunted Oscar's family for generations, following them on their epic journey from Santo Domingo to the USA. Encapsulating Dominican-American history, The...
Book cover for "Circe"
Star rating for Circe
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
Follows Circe, the banished witch daughter of Helios, as she hones her powers and interacts with famous mythological beings before a conflict with one of the most vengeful Olympians forces her to choose between the worlds of the gods and mortals.
Book cover for "A clockwork orange"
Star rating for A clockwork orange
Average Rating:
3.7 stars
Description:

A vicious fifteen-year-old droog is the central character of this 1963 classic. In Anthony Burgess's 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. A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil, and the meaning of human freedom. And when the state undertakes

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Book cover for "The great Gatsby"
Star rating for The great Gatsby
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
A young man newly rich tries to recapture the past and win back his former love, despite the fact that she has married. This edition is the enduring original text, updated with the author's own revisions, a foreword by his granddaughter, and with a new introduction by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald's third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published by Scribner in 1925, this...
Book cover for "The Importance of Being Earnest"
Star rating for The Importance of Being Earnest
Average Rating:
4 stars
Book cover for "Lord of the flies"
Star rating for Lord of the flies
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
The tale begins after a plane wreck deposits a group of English school boys, aged six to twelve on an isolated tropical island. Their struggle to survive and impose order quickly evolves from a battle against nature into a battle against their own primitive instincts. Golding's portrayal of the collapse of social order into chaos draws the fine line between innocence and savagery. The classic study of human nature which depicts the degeneration of...
Book cover for "My best friend's exorcism"
Star rating for My best friend's exorcism
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
"A heartwarming story of friendship and demonic possession. The year is 1988. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disastrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act different. She s moody. She s irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she s nearby. Abby s investigation leads her to some startling discoveries and by the time their story reaches its...
Book cover for "The song of Achilles"
Star rating for The song of Achilles
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
Patroclus, an awkward young prince, follows Achilles into war, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they have learned, everything they hold dear. And that, before he is ready, he will be forced to surrender his friend to the hands of Fate. Set during the Trojan War.
Book cover for "The southern book club's guide to slaying vampires"
Star rating for The southern book club's guide to slaying vampires
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"A supernatural thriller set in South Carolina in the '90s about a women's book club that must protect its suburban community from a mysterious stranger who turns out to be a real monster"--
Book cover for "Their eyes were watching God"
Star rating for Their eyes were watching God
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
When Janie Starks returns home, she seeks identity and independence as the small southern black community buzzes with gossip about the outcome of her affair with a younger man.