Lawrence's Staff Picks


Showing 1 - 20 of 61  There are a total of 61 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "All the birds in the sky"
Star rating for All the birds in the sky
Average Rating:
3.7 stars
Description:
"When Patricia Delfine was six years old, a wounded bird led her deep into the forest to the Parliament of Birds, where she met the Great Tree and was asked a question that would determine the course of her life. When Laurence Armstead was in grade school, he cobbled together a wristwatch-sized device that could send its wearer two seconds into the future. When Patricia and Laurence first met in high school, they didn't understand one another at all....
Book cover for "American gods"
Star rating for American gods
Author:
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
Shadow is a man with a past and wants nothing more now than to live a quiet life with his wife. When his wife is killed in a terrible accident, Shadow flies home for the funeral. As a raging storm rocks the plane, the strange man in the seat next to Shadow introduces himself as Mr. Wednesday. He knows more about Shadow than is possible--and he warns Shadow an even bigger storm is coming.
Book cover for "Anna Karenina"
Star rating for Anna Karenina
Average Rating:
3.4 stars
Description:

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," writes Tolstoy in his literary masterpiece Anna Karenina. Commonly regarded as one of the greatest realist novels ever written, Tolstoy himself saw it as his first true novel. The novel was not well received by critics when first published, but Tolstoy's fellow Russian greats all considered it a great work of art.

Book cover for "Babel"
Star rating for Babel
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
"From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal retort to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British empire. Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal. 1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious...
Book cover for "Brandon Sanderson's white sand"
Star rating for Brandon Sanderson's white sand
Author:
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"On the planet of Taldain, the legendary Sand Masters harness arcane powers to manipulate sand in spectacular ways. But when they are slaughtered in a sinister conspiracy, the weakest of their number, Kenton, believes himself to be the only survivor. With enemies closing in on all sides, Kenton forges an unlikely partnership with Khriss--a mysterious Darksider who hi des secrets of her own. Assassins are coming for them from all directions, and Kenton's...
Book cover for "Breakfast of champions, or, Goodbye blue Monday!"
Star rating for Breakfast of champions, or, Goodbye blue Monday!
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Description:
The author questions the condition of modern man in this novel depicting a science fiction writer's struggle to find peace and sanity in the world
Book cover for "Cat's cradle"
Star rating for Cat's cradle
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Description:
A young writer decides to interview the children of a scientist primarily responsible for the creation of the atomic bomb.
Book cover for "Crazy rich Asians"
Star rating for Crazy rich Asians
Author:
Series:
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
When New Yorker Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home and quality time with the man she hopes to marry. But Nick has failed to give his girlfriend a few key details. One, that his childhood home looks like a palace; two, that he grew up riding in more private planes than cars; and three, that he just happens to be the country's most eligible bachelor. On Nick's arm,...
Book cover for "Daughter of the moon goddess"
Star rating for Daughter of the moon goddess
Series:
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
A captivating debut fantasy inspired by the legend of the Chinese moon goddess, Chang'e , in which a young woman's quest to free her mother pits her against the most powerful immortal in the realm and sets her on a dangerous path--where choices come with deadly consequences, and she risks losing more than her heart. Growing up on the moon, Xingyin is accustomed to solitude, unaware that she is being hidden from the powerful Celestial Emperor who exiled...

10. Dawn

Book cover for "Dawn"
Star rating for Dawn
Series:
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
"Lilith Iyapo awoke from a centuries-long sleep to find herself aboard the vast spaceship of the Oankali. Creatures covered in writhing tentacles, the Oankali had saved every surviving human from a dying, ruined Earth. They healed the planet, cured cancer, increased strength, and were now ready to help Lilith lead her people back to Earth--but for a price."--Amazon.com.
Book cover for "The demon-haunted world"
Star rating for The demon-haunted world
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
"How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technology-driven lives if we don't understand the difference between the myths of pseudoscience and the testable hypotheses of science? Casting a wide net through history and culture, Sagan examines and authoritatively debunks such celebrated fallacies of the past as witchcraft, faith healing, demons, and UFOs. As Sagan demonstrates with lucid eloquence, the siren song of unreason is not...
Book cover for "Devil in the grove"
Star rating for Devil in the grove
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
Chronicles a little-known court case in which Thurgood Marshall successfully saved a black citrus worker from the electric chair after the worker was accused of raping a white woman with three other black men. In 1949, Florida's orange industry was booming with cheap Jim Crow labor. When a white seventeen-year-old Groveland girl cried rape, vicious Sheriff McCall was fast on the trail of four young blacks who dared to envision a future for themselves....
Book cover for "The dispossessed"
Star rating for The dispossessed
Series:
Hainish series volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
Shevek, a brilliant physicist, attempts to reunite two planets cut off from each other by centuries of distrust.
Book cover for "A Doll's House"
Star rating for A Doll's House
Average Rating:
5 stars
Book cover for "Ficciones"
Star rating for Ficciones
Average Rating:
5 stars
Book cover for "Fire and ice"
Star rating for Fire and ice
Author:
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Description:
Fireheart, a full-fledged warrior cat, must confront questions of loyalty and identity as he faces the possibility of betrayal from within his own forest clan. Deep in the heart of the forest, four clans of warrior cats coexist in uneasy harmony -- but uncertain times are upon them, and dangers threaten the precarious balance of the forest. Fireheart is a ThunderClan warrior cat now, but his troubles are far from over. As the chill of winter sets...
Book cover for "Fledgling"
Star rating for Fledgling
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
A young girl suffering from amnesia wakes up to find that she's actually a middle-aged vampire. Shori is a young amnesiac girl whose needs and abilities lead her to a shocking discovery: she is in fact a 53-year-old vampire, genetically modified to survive daylight. The sole survivor of a horrific slaughter, Shori must now struggle to rebuild her family and learn who would want--and still wants--to destroy her.
Book cover for "Forest of secrets"
Star rating for Forest of secrets
Author:
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
Description:
The warrior cat Fireheart's determination to uncover the truth about another warrior's death leads him deep into danger, and reveals secrets that test the strength of clan loyalties.
Book cover for "Ghost music"
Star rating for Ghost music
Average Rating:
2.5 stars
Description:
"From the author of the "original and electric" Braised Pork (Time), An Yu's enchanting and contemplative novel of music and mushrooms follows a former concert pianist searching for the truth about a vanished musician. For three years, Song Yan has filled the emptiness of her Beijing apartment with the tentative notes of her young piano students. She gave up on her own career as a concert pianist many years ago, but her husband Bowen, an executive...
Book cover for "God bless you, Mr. Rosewater, or, Pearls before swine"
Star rating for God bless you, Mr. Rosewater, or, Pearls before swine
Average Rating:
3.5 stars
Description:
"God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" is a comic masterpiece. Eliot Rosewater, drunk, volunteer fireman, and President of the fabulously rich Rosewater Foundation, is about to attempt a noble experiment with human nature...with a little help from writer Kilgore Trout. The result is Vonnegut's funniest satire, an etched-in-acid portrayal of the greed, hypocrisy, and follies of the flesh we are all heir to.