Secret Life of Bees by Sue Kidd (fiction) - Following a racial brawl, Lily, a fourteen year old white girl, is taken in by an eccentric trio of Afro-American beekeeping sisters.
Things They Carried by Tim OíBrien (fiction) - Twenty-two interconnected stories recount the lives and remembrances of Lieutenant Jimmy Cross's infantry unit leading up to and following the death of one of the men, Ted Lavender.
Children of the River by Linda Crew (fiction) - Forced to leave her family in Cambodia and flee to the United States with her aunt, Sundara is torn between cultures as she tries to find her place in her new country.
Hoop Dreams by Ben Joravsky, (non-fiction) - A study of the struggles of Arthur Agee and William Gates to win college scholarships and positions on professional teams follows the stories of their families, relationships, and personal aspirations.
Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich (non-fiction) - The adventures of the 6 MIT students who make a fortune in Las Vegas counting cards and what happens when the casinos find out who they are and what they are doing are detailed in this fast-moving story.
Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher (fiction) - Intellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial, adopted teenager, shuns organized sports and the top athletes at his high school until he forms a swimming team and recruits some of the school's less popular students. ANY OTHERS BY THIS AUTHOR
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (science fiction) - The story of a British earthling plucked from his planet, and his subsequent adventures elsewhere in the universe.
A Lesson before Dying by Ernest Gaines (fiction) - This novel tells the story of a young African-American man sentenced to death for a murder he did not commit and of a teacher who tries to impart his learning and pride before the execution.
Smashed: A Drunken Girlhood by Koren Zailckas (non-fiction) - The harrowing and ultimately uplifting memoir of a girl who falls in love with alcohol and spent 9 years caught up in its spell before becoming sober at age 23.
A Thousand Splendid Suns & The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (fiction)
The Kite Runner opens in Kabul in the mid1970s. it is the story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father's servant. The story revolves around the consequences of that relationship.
A Thousand Splendid Suns, is about two women born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family. They are brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation.
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (fiction) - A young man born of Indian parents in America struggles with issues of identity from his teens to his thirties.
19 Minutes by Jodi Picoult (fiction) - In the aftermath of a small-town school shooting, lawyer Jordan McAfee finds himself defending a youth who desperately needs someone on his side, while detective Patrick Ducharme works with a primary witness of the daughter of the judge assigned to the case.
The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeanette Walls (non-fiction) - The child of an alcoholic father and an eccentric artist mother discusses her family's nomadic upbringing, during which she and her siblings fended for themselves while their parents outmaneuvered bill collectors and the authorities.
Geeks: how two lost boys rode the Internet out of Idaho by Jon Katz (nonfiction) - The true story of Jesse and Eric, nineteen-year-old roommates in the small town of Caldwell, Idaho who changed their lives and built a new future for themselves with the power of the Internet.
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (fiction) - Kurt Vonnegut's absurd classic introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In the plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life. Concentrating on his (and Vonnegutís) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.
Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden (non-fiction) - On October 3, 1993, about a hundred U.S. soldiers were dropped by helicopter into a teeming market in the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia, to abduct two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord. By morning, eighteen Americans were dead, and more than seventy badly injured.
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (science fiction) - In a future where everyone is made beautiful on their 16th birthday 15 year old Tally is trying to decide if she wants to give up individuality for a perfect pretty life.