Lawrence's Staff Picks


Showing 1 - 20 of 20  There are a total of 61 valid entries on the list.
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 "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 "The Joy Luck Club"
Star rating for The Joy Luck Club
Author:
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Description:

Four Chinese women, drawn together by the shadow of their past, meet in San Francisco to play mah jong, invest in stocks, eat dim sum, and to "say" stories to each other. Nearly 40 years later, one of the women has died, and her daughter arrives to take her place. However, the daughter never expected to learn of her mother's secret lifelong wish—and the tragic way in which it has come true. The revelation creates among the women an urgent

...
Book cover for "Kindred"
Star rating for Kindred
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned across the years to save him. After this first summons, Dana is drawn back, again and again, to the plantation to protect Rufus and ensure that he will grow to manhood and father...
Book cover for "The left hand of darkness"
Star rating for The left hand of darkness
Series:
Hainish series volume 6.
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
A human emissary sent to the world of Winter to bring it into a galactic civilization must find a way to bridge the gulf between his outlook and that of the natives, who can change gender at will.
Book cover for "Mansfield Park"
Star rating for Mansfield Park
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
"Taken from the poverty of her parents' home in Portsmouth, Fanny Price is brought up with her rich cousins at Mansfield Park, acutely aware of her humble rank and with her cousin Edmund as her sole ally. During her uncle's absence in Antigua, the Crawford's arrive in the neighbourhood bringing with them the glamour of London life and a reckless taste for flirtation."
Book cover for "Mistborn"
Star rating for Mistborn
Series:
Mistborn novels volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Description:
Experiencing an epiphany within the most daunting prison of the monstrous Lord Ruler, half-Skaa Kelsier finds himself taking on the powers of a Mistborn, and teams up with ragged orphan Vin in a desperate plot to save their world.
Book cover for "The nickel boys"
Star rating for The nickel boys
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
Follows the experiences of two African-American teenagers at an abusive reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.
Book cover for "Oathbringer"
Star rating for Oathbringer
Series:
Average Rating:
4.9 stars
Description:
Dalinar Kholin's Alethi armies won a fleeting victory at a terrible cost: The enemy Parshendi summoned the violent Everstorm, which now sweeps the world with destruction, and in its passing awakens the once peaceful and subservient parshmen to the horror of their millennia-long enslavement by humans. While on a desperate flight to warn his family of the threat, Kaladin Stormblessed must come to grips with the fact that the newly kindled anger of the...
Book cover for "Persuasion"
Star rating for Persuasion
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
The romance between Captain Wentworth and Anne, the daughter of Sir Walter Elliot, seems doomed because of the young man's family connections and lack of wealth.
Book cover for "Pride and prejudice"
Star rating for Pride and prejudice
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Description:
When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited; he is indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane, she is determined to dislike him more than ever. In the sparkling comedy of manners that follows, Jane Austen shows the folly of judging by first...
Book cover for "Rhythm of war"
Star rating for Rhythm of war
Series:
Average Rating:
4.9 stars
Description:
After forming a coalition of human resistance against the enemy invasion, Dalinar Kholin and his Knights Radiant have spent a year fighting a protracted, brutal war. Neither side has gained an advantage, and the threat of a betrayal by Dalinar's crafty ally Taravangian looms over every strategic move.
Book cover for "Slaughterhouse-five, or, The children's crusade"
Star rating for Slaughterhouse-five, or, The children's crusade
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes "unstuck in time" after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.

Slaughterhouse-Five

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Book cover for "Tess of the D'Urbervilles"
Star rating for Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
Betrayed by the two men in her life -- Alec D'Urberville, her seducer/rapist and father of her fated child; and Angel, her intellectual and pious husband -- Tess takes justice, and her own destiny, into her delicate hands.
Book cover for "Things fall apart"
Star rating for Things fall apart
Average Rating:
3.6 stars
Description:
The contemporary African writer's classic novel depicting the destruction of traditional tribal life by the white man.
Book cover for "The way of kings"
Star rating for The way of kings
Series:
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
Introduces the world of Roshar through the experiences of a war-weary royal compelled by visions, a highborn youth condemned to military slavery, and a woman who is desperate to save her impoverished house.
Book cover for "Welcome to the monkey house"
Star rating for Welcome to the monkey house
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
Description:
Tender stories of love, incisive essays on human greed and misery, and imaginative tales of futuristic happenings reveal Vonnegut's versatility and vision.
Book cover for "The well of ascension"
Star rating for The well of ascension
Series:
Mistborn novels volume 2.
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
Charged with the task of rebuilding the world after the defeat of the brutal Lord Ruler, former street urchin Vin finds herself worshipped for her Mistborn powers and worries about the strange behavior of the mists since the death of the Lord Ruler.
Book cover for "A wizard of Earthsea"
Star rating for A wizard of Earthsea
Series:
Earthsea series volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
A boy grows to manhood while attempting to subdue the evil he unleashed on the world as an apprentice to the Master Wizard. Ged was the greatest sorcerer in Earthsea, but in his youth he was the reckless Sparrowhawk. In his hunger for power and knowledge, he tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tumultuous tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and...
Book cover for "Words of radiance"
Star rating for Words of radiance
Series:
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
The war with the Parshendi moves into a new, dangerous phase, as Dalinar leads the human armies deep into the heart of the Shattered Plains. Meanwhile Shallan searches for the legendary city of Urithuru, and Kaladin, leader of the restored Knights Radiant, masters the powers of a Windrunner.