The Great American Read


Showing 1 - 20 of 60  There are a total of 92 valid entries on the list.

1. 1984

Book cover for "1984"
Star rating for 1984
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
Portrays life in a future time when a totalitarian government watches over all citizens and directs all activities. Written 75 years ago, 1984 was George Orwell's chilling prophecy about the future. And while 1984 has come and gone, his dystopian vision of a government that will do anything to control the narrative is timelier than ever... "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."...
Book cover for "Alice's adventures in Wonderland ; and, Through the looking-glass and What Alice found there"
Star rating for Alice's adventures in Wonderland ; and, Through the looking-glass and What Alice found there
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
Description:
When Alice follows a strange rabbit down a rabbit hole and passes through a looking glass, she experiences curious sensations and encounters the Mad Hatter, the fiendish Queen of Hearts, and many other odd characters.
Book cover for "Americanah"
Star rating for Americanah
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
"A young woman from Nigeria leaves behind her home and her first love to start a new life in America, only to find her dreams are not all she expected"--
Book cover for "And then there were none"
Star rating for And then there were none
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
A killer stalks a group of ten total strangers on an isolated island off the Devon coast, in a story of murder and retribution set to a sinister nursery rhyme.
Book cover for "Beloved"
Star rating for Beloved
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
After Paul D. finds his old slave friend Sethe in Ohio and moves in with her and her daughter Denver, a strange girl comes along by the name of "Beloved." Sethe and Denver take her in and then strange things begin to happen. Set in rural Ohio several years after the Civil War, this profoundly affecting chronicle of slavery and its aftermath is Toni Morrison's greatest novel, a dazzling achievement, and the most spellbinding reading experience of the...
Book cover for "The book thief"
Star rating for The book thief
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.
Book cover for "The call of the wild"
Star rating for The call of the wild
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
The adventures of an unusual dog, part St. Bernard, part Scotch shepherd, that is forcibly taken to the Klondike gold fields where he eventually becomes the leader of a wolf pack.
Book cover for "Charlotte's web"
Star rating for Charlotte's web
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
A little girl named Fern raises the little runt pig, Wilbur, only to have her father give him away. At his new home, Wilbur is desolate when he discovers that he is destined to be the farmer's Christmas dinner until his spider friend, Charlotte, decides to help him. Wilbur, the pig, is desolate when he discovers that he is destined to be the farmer's Christmas dinner until his spider friend, Charlotte, decides to help him.
Book cover for "The coldest winter ever"
Star rating for The coldest winter ever
Series:
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
After a black drug dealer goes to jail in Brooklyn, his ruthless 17-year-old daughter takes over his empire. A look at the mores and manners of the black underclass, this one with money. First novel by a hip-hop artist, author of No Disrespect. Winter Santiaga, the daughter of one of Brooklyn's most powerful drug czars, uses her own weapons--including sex and an aggressive attitude--to stay on top, after her father's empire is threatened by a drug...
Book cover for "The color purple"
Star rating for The color purple
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
The lives of two sisters--Nettie, a missionary in Africa, and Celie, a Southern woman married to a man she hates--are revealed in a series of letters exchanged over thirty years. "Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance, and silence"--Back cover.
Book cover for "A confederacy of dunces"
Star rating for A confederacy of dunces
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
A fat New Orleans misanthrope who constantly rebukes society, Ignatius Reilly, gets a job at his mother's urging but ends up leading a worker's revolt
Book cover for "The Count of Monte Cristo"
Star rating for The Count of Monte Cristo
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
Edmund Dantes, unjustly convicted of aiding the exiled Napoleon, escapes after fourteen years of imprisonment and seeks revenge in Paris.
Book cover for "The Da Vinci code"
Star rating for The Da Vinci code
Series:
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon and French cryptologist Sophie Neveu work to solve the murder of an elderly curator of the Louvre, a case which leads to clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci and a centuries-old secret society.

14. Dune

Book cover for "Dune"
Star rating for Dune
Series:
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
Follows the adventures of Paul Atreides, the son of a betrayed duke given up for dead on a treacherous desert planet and adopted by its fierce, nomadic people, who help him unravel his most unexpected destiny. In the far future, the son of Duke Leto Atreides leads a struggle against the Emperor from the desert planet of Arrakis, where his family has lived in exile for many years at the Emperor's command.
Book cover for "The eye of the world"
Star rating for The eye of the world
Series:
Wheel of time volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
Relates a tale of the bestial Trollocs, the witch Moiraine, and three boys, one of whom is fated to become the Dragon--the World's only hope and the sure means of its destruction

16. Ghost

Book cover for "Ghost"
Star rating for Ghost
Series:
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
Aspiring to be the fastest sprinter on his elite middle school's track team, gifted runner Ghost finds his goal challenged by a tragic past with a violent father.
Book cover for "The giver"
Star rating for The giver
Author:
Series:
Giver quartet volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives. Living in a "perfect" world without social ills, a boy approaches the time when he will receive a life assignment from the Elders, but his selection leads him to a mysterious man known as the Giver, who reveals the dark secrets behind the utopian...
Book cover for "The godfather"
Star rating for The godfather
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
A portrait of a Mafia family focuses on the life and times of patriarch Don Vito Corleone, a Sicilian-American godfather, and his sons. "Mario Puzo's classic saga of an American crime family that became a global phenomenon--nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read. With its brilliant and brutal portrayal of the Corleone family, The Godfather burned its way into our national consciousness. This unforgettable...
Book cover for "Gone girl"
Star rating for Gone girl
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
On the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick's wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police immediately suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they aren't his. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone. So what really did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?
Book cover for "Gone with the wind"
Star rating for Gone with the wind
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
The turbulent romance of Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler is shaped by the ravages of the Civil War and Reconstruction.