I'm not doing this to be ``arty farty'', rather just altruistic. When I search bookstores I usually just pick out something that won a prize or has a startling review, this method has a 2/3 hit rate! Perhaps, if the rest of you web-surfers out there also makes a list of worthwhile literature we can help each other out!
Peter Carey, 1998, ISBN 0 679 30918 7
A fantastic yarn. Read it!
Charles Frazier, 1997, ISBN 0 340 68058 X
Somebody will make a classic movie from this book! A heroic tale set in the American Civil war (Anne couldn't let go of this one).
Peter Guralnick, 1994, ISBN 0 316 33220 8
Most people detest or scorn Elvis, but hey, you don't become the King of Rock 'n' Roll for nothing! Guralnick writes about Elvis' early music (check out the CD) with great gusto but the best of it is that Elvis' skyrocket ride to fame makes a really great yarn.
Nelson Mandela, 1994, ISBN 0 349 10653 3
I respected this man more and more as I read this book. Written with humility, Mandela's chronicle of the struggle to rid South Africa from apartheid is a fascinating account of one of the twentieth century's great achievements.
Frank McCourt, 1997, ISBN 0 00 649840 X
``People everywhere brag and whimper about the wes of their early years, but nothing can compare with the Irish version''. This very sad book is the beautifully written story of an impoverished Irish childhood.
Anne Michaels, 1997, ISBN 0 7475 3496 9
Well, it had trouble taking off, got lost at the end, but the middle of this book had some really good stuff. This novel takes up the story of a Greek Jew whose entire family were murdered in WWII.
Marge Percy, 1997, ISBN 0 14 0266060 2
A well-researched recreation of the French revolution told through the eyes of its perpetrators. When she puts her foot on the gas, Percy really takes you some 220 years.
Arundhati Roy, 1997, ISBN 0 06 097749 3
Confusing at first, set in slopes of India's Caste system, this book ends with a breathtaking whirlwind of events. It is dotted with sentences who stand tall by themselves, ``... no such thing in the world as a black cat... only black cat-shaped holes in the Universe''. Well worth the initial strain!