NBS recommends literary greats

GO SET A WATCHMAN by Harper Lee

P945

Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch — “Scout” —returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise’s homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town, and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee

P215

To Kill a Mockingbird is about the crisis of human behavior and conscience arising from the racism and prejudice that exist in the small Southern town during the Depression. Scout Finch, age 8, who lives with her brother, Jem, and their lawyer father, Atticus, in Maycomb, Alabama, tells the story of her father’s defense of Tom Robinson, a young black man who is being tried for the rape of a white woman.

THE GOOD EARTH by Pearl S. Buck

P315

In The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck paints an indelible portrait of China in the 1920s, when the last emperor reigned and the vast political and social upheavals of the twentieth century were but distant rumblings. This moving, classic story of the honest farmer Wang Lung and his selfless wife O-Lan is must reading for those who would fully appreciate the sweeping changes that have occurred in the lives of the Chinese people during the last century.

THE COLOR PURPLE by Alice Walker

P375

Celie is a poor black woman whose letters tell the story of 20 years of her life, beginning at age 14 when she is being abused and raped by her father and attempting to protect her sister from the same fate, and continuing over the course of her marriage to “Mister,” a brutal man who terrorizes her. Celie eventually learns that her abusive husband has been keeping her sister’s letters from her and the rage she feels, combined with an example of love and independence provided by her close friend Shug, pushes her finally toward an awakening of her creative and loving self.

THE GOLDFINCH by Donna Tartt

P399

Theo Decker, a 13- year- old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Tormented above all by his longing for his mother, he clings to the one thing that reminds him of her — a mysteriously captivating painting.