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Supplemental Book Club in a Bag Titles: Annotated Bibliographies These titles are available through a cooperative program with other libraries in Nassau County. All arrangements for supplemental book bags MUST BE MADE with the Syosset Public Library. Supplemental book bags are obtained from cooperating libraries. Please allow enough time for us to obtain them for you.

Adiga, Aravind. White Tiger . (10 Copies)

Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life-- having nothing but his own wits to help him along.

Alexander, Robert. The Kitchen Boy. (10 Copies)

The Kitchen Boy is a brilliant mixture of historical information and skillful storytelling. Robert Alexander takes the bare bones of the Romanov tragedy and fleshes them out into a poignant, seemingly accurate tale. The descriptions of each member of the Tsar’s family and how each behaved in captivity are based on testimony from those who saw them and are only slightly embellished. The diaries of the Tsar and Tsaritsa are also utilized to full extent to illustrate the misconceptions about her and the fact that he, while well-intentioned, was at best ineffectual as a leader. The imagery and descriptions are so vivid that the reader can almost picture the Tsar pacing up and down and the family rushing to be near the finally opened window for a breath of fresh air.

Atkinson, Kate. One Good Turn. (10 Copies)

Two years after the events of Case Histories left him a retired millionaire, Jackson Brodie has followed Julia, his occasional girlfriend and former client, to Edinburgh for its famous summer arts festival. But when he witnesses a man being brutally attacked in a traffic jam - the apparent victim of an extreme case of road rage - a chain of events is set in motion that will pull the wife of an unscrupulous real estate tycoon, a timid but successful crime novelist, and a hardheaded female police detective into Jackson's orbit. Suddenly out of retirement, Jackson is once again in the midst of several mysteries that intersect in one giant and sinister scheme.

Atwood, Margaret. The Robber Bride. (10 Copies)

Exploring the paradox of female villainy, this tale of three fascinating women is another peerless display of literary virtuosity by the supremely gifted author of Cat's Eye and The Handmaid's Tale. Roz, Charis and Tony all share a wound, and her name is Zenia. Beautiful, smart and hungry, by turns manipulative and vulnerable, needy and ruthless, Zenia is the turbulent center of her own perpetual saga. She entered their lives in the sixties, when they were in college. Over the three decades since, she has damaged each of them badly, ensnaring their sympathy, betraying their trust, and treating their men as loot. Then Zenia dies, or at any rate the three women — with much relief — attend her funeral. But as The Robber Bride begins, Roz, Charis and Tony have come together at a trendy restaraunt for their monthly lunch when in walks the seemingly resurrected Zenia...

Austen, Jane. Emma. (10 Copies)

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice . (10 Copies)

Pride and Prejudice is a perceptive examination of the relationship between the classes in Britain with middle class, upwardly mobile aspirations to progress rubbing against upper class efforts to keep them "in their place." Austen's adroit depiction of the plight of women in pre-Victorian Europe shows her superlative insight into her own world and this insight is skillfully mirrored through one of the most intriguing and admired heroines of English novels Elizabeth Bennet.

Berg, Elizabeth. The Art of Mending. (10 Copies)

Brennert. Alan. Moloka’I. (10 Copies)

Young Rachel Kalama, growing up in idyllic Honolulu in the 1890s, is part of a big, loving Hawaiian family, and dreams of seeing the far-off lands that her father, a merchant seaman, often visits. But at the age of seven, Rachel and her dreams are shattered by the discovery that she has leprosy. Forcibly removed from her family, she is sent to Kalaupapa, the isolated leper colony on the island of Moloka'i.

Brooks, Geraldine. People of the Book. (10 Copies)

In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, which has been rescued from Serb shelling during the Bosnian war. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images. When Hanna, a caustic loner with a passion for her work, discovers a series of tiny artifacts in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—she begins to unlock the book's mysteries. The reader is ushered into an exquisitely detailed and atmospheric past, tracing the book's journey from its salvation back to its creation.

Cross, Donna Woolfolk. Pope Joan. (10 Copies)

Brilliant and talented, young Joan rebels against medieval social strictures forbidding women to learn. When her brother is brutally killed during a Viking attack, Joan takes up his cloak–and his identity–and enters the monastery of Fulda. As Brother John Anglicus, Joan distinguishes herself as a great scholar and healer. Eventually, she is drawn to Rome, where she becomes enmeshed in a dangerous web of love, passion, and politics. Triumphing over appalling odds, she finally attains the highest office in Christendom–wielding a power greater than any woman before or since. But such power always comes at a price.

Diaz, Junot. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. (10 Copies)

Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fuk — the curse that has haunted the Oscar's family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most recent victim.

Dubus, Andre. House of Sand and Fog. (10 Copies)

When the reader first meets Behrani, he has exhausted himself and almost all of his savings in a relentless job search , but has been unable to find a suitable job. Behrani, a former member of the Iranian Air Force under the Shah, is reduced to a job on a road crew picking up trash and yearns to restore his family’s dignity. When an attractive bungalow turns up for auction, he buys it, hoping to resell it at a profit. But the house’s troubled owner, Kathy Nicolo, aided by her lover, the local sheriff, is determined to get the house back. Both Behrani and Kathy are driven by the same need, as the house represents much more than just a place to live for both of them.

Fergus,Jim. One Thousand White Women. (10 Copies)

The story begins with May Dodd's journey west into the unknown. A government program, in which women are brought west as brides for the Cheyenne, is her vehicle. What follows is the story of May's adventures: her marriage to Little Wolf, chief of the Cheyenne nation, and her conflict of being caught between two worlds, loving two men, living two lives.

Finney, Jack. Time and Again. (10 Copies)

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. (10 Copies)

The Great Gatsby , which is generally considered to be Fitzgerald's greatest completed work, is set among the gaudy, excessive mansions of Long Island and depicts the hope and disillusionment inspired by the dream of becoming wealthy. It is a portrait of the spiritlessness of the Jazz Age and the cruelty of immense wealth.

Gilbert, Elizabeth. Eat, Pray, Love. (10 Copies)

Traces the author's decision to quit her job and travel the world for a year after suffering a midlife crisis and divorce, a journey that took her to three places in her quest to explore her own nature and learn the art of spiritual balance.

Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink: The Poser of Thinking Without Thinking. (10 Copies)

In this best-seller, a staff writer for The New Yorker weighs the factors that determine good decision-making. Drawing on recent cognitive research, Gladwell concludes that those who quickly filter out extraneous information generally make better decisions than those who discount their first impressions.

Gladwell, Malcolm. The Tipping Point. (10 Copies)

This best seller focuses on non-linear social changes -- the times when an "epidemic" breaks out.  Such epidemics can be a fashion fad (the revival of Hush Puppies) or an important cultural change (the sudden reduction in crime in New York in the early 1990's). Gladwell shows how a factor ‘tips’ - when a critical mass ‘catches’ the infection and passes it on. This is when a shoe becomes a ‘fashion craze’, social smoking becomes ‘addiction’ and crime becomes a ‘wave’. The Tipping Point is a manual for understanding and directing change: a revolutionary’s handbook.

Gruen, Sara. Water for Elephants. (10 Copies)

Jacob Jankowski, ninety-three years old and living in a nursing home, reminisces about his youth. Set during the Great Depression, Jacob is orphaned two weeks before completing his veterinary degree. He impulsively jumps aboard a train which turns out to be a struggling third rate circus. Although he has no experience, he is given a job as a vet. He has to learn everything about the circus world, the performers, the working men, the animals and the peculiar social hierarchy. Uncle Al is the ruthless director, August the temperamental second in command, and Marlena is August’s wife to whom Jacob is very attracted. Into this volatile mix comes Rosie the elephant with the expectation that her act will save the circus. Jacob’s memories are interspersed with descriptions of his current life in this heartwarming novel.

Hamilton, Masha . The Camel Bookmobile. (10 Copies)

Fiona Sweeney wants to do something that matters, and she chooses to make her mark in the arid bush of northeastern Kenya. By helping to start a traveling library, she hopes to bring the words of Homer, Hemingway, and Dr. Seuss to far-flung tiny communities where people live daily with drought, hunger, and disease. Her intentions are honorable, and her rules are firm: due to the limited number of donated books, if any one of them is not returned, the bookmobile will not return.

But, encumbered by her Western values, Fi does not understand the people she seeks to help. And in the impoverished small community of Mididima, she finds herself caught in the middle of a volatile local struggle when the bookmobile's presence sparks a dangerous feud between the proponents of modernization and those who fear the loss of traditional ways.

Hay, Sheridan. Secret of Lost Things. (10 Copies)

In this charming novel about the eccentricities and passions of booksellers and collectors, a captivating young Australian woman takes a job at a vast, chaotic emporium of used and rare books in New York City and finds herself caught up in the search for a lost Melville manuscript.

Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. (10 Copies)

Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable, beautifully told story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul. Raised in the same household and sharing the same wet nurse, Amir and Hassan nonetheless grow up in different worlds: Amir is the son of a prominent and wealthy man, while Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant, is a Hazara, member of a shunned ethnic minority. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them. When the Soviets invade and Amir and his father flee the country for a new life in California, Amir thinks that he has escaped his past. And yet he cannot leave the memory of Hassan behind him. The Kite Runner is a novel about friendship, betrayal, and the price of loyalty.

Jacobs. Kate. The Friday Night Knitting Club (10 Copies)

Juggling the demands of her yarn shop and single-handedly raising a teenage daughter has made Georgia Walker grateful for her Friday Night Knitting Club. Her friends are happy to escape their lives too, even for just a few hours. But when Georgia's ex suddenly reappears, demanding a role in their daughter's life, her whole world is shattered.
Luckily, Georgia's friends are there, sharing their own tales of intimacy, heartbreak, and miracle making. And when the unthinkable happens, these women will discover that what they've created isn't just a knitting club: it's a sisterhood.

Korelitz, Hanff. Sabbathday River. (10 Copies)

Jogging outside the town of Goddard, New Hampshire, Naomi Roth finds the body of a newborn baby girl floating face down in the Sabbathday River. News of the dead child spreads quickly through Goddard, and Naomi - an aging idealist, a former VISTA volunteer, and the founder of a women's quilting cooperative - is shocked when the community swiftly, implausibly fingers Heather Pratt, a young single mother notorious for her affair with a married man, as the prime suspect. It comes as an even greater shock when, after a long interrogation behind closed doors, Heather confesses to the crime. Moved and angered by Heather's plight - and increasingly isolated in conservative Goddard - Naomi engages the help of Judith Friedman, a lawyer and fellow "flatlander," to defend the young woman. But when the truth at the heart of this astonishing case - and the body of a second baby - comes to light, it is Naomi who must confront how little she has understood her town, her friend, and herself.

Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. (10 Copies)

In April 1992, a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. He had given $25,000 in savings to a charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet and invented a life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. Jon Krakauer brings Chris McCandless's uncompromising pilgrimage out of the shadows and illuminates it with meaning in this mesmerizing and heartbreaking tour de force.

Levy, Andrea. Small Island. (10 Copies)

Andrea Levy's award-winning novel, Small Island, deftly brings two bleak families into crisp focus. First a Jamaican family, including the well-intentioned Gilbert, who can never manage to say or do exactly the right thing; Romeo Michael, who leaves a wake of women in his path; and finally, Hortense, whose primness belies her huge ambition to become English in every way possible. The other unhappy family is English, starting with Queenie, who escapes the drudgery of being a butcher's daughter only to marry a dull banker. As the chapters reverse chronology and the two groups collide and finally mesh, the book unfolds through time like a photo album, and Levy captures the struggle between class, race, and sex with a humor and tenderness that is both authentic and bracing. The book is cinematic in the best way--lighting up London's bombed-out houses and wartime existence with clarity and verve while never losing her character's voice or story.

Lively, Penelope. The Phototgraph. (10 Copies)

Penelope Lively's latest masterpiece opens with a snapshot: Kath, before her death, at an unknown gathering, holding hands with a man who is not her husband. The photograph is in an envelope marked "DON'T OPEN— DESTROY." But Kath's husband does not heed the warning, embarking on a journey of discovery that reveals a tight web of secrets—within marriages, between sisters, and at the heart of an affair. Kath, with her mesmerizing looks and casual ways, moves like a ghost through the memories of everyone who knew her— and a portrait emerges of a woman whose life cannot be understood without plumbing the emotional depths of the people she touched.

Lustbader, Victoria. Hidden. (10 Copies)

A captivating debut novel, Hidden marvelously re-creates New York City in the 1920s, from the hustle and bustle of the Lower East Side to the hushed hallways of the homes of the rich and powerful. In graceful, eloquent prose, Victoria Lustbader presents a fierce, compelling story of loyalty, forbidden desire, and the end of innocence.

McEwan, Ian. Atonement . (10 Copies)

Using a love story, a family saga, and historical events, this book takes the reader through the events of three intertwined lives from childhood in 1935 England, through the WWII years and finally into the final stages of their lives. Foreboding from the start, the reader knows that something bad is going to happen. And it does about halfway through. The remainder of the book is spent learning about the consequences and the deep psychological makeup of these main characters.

Mills, Mark. Amagansett. (10 Copies)

By 1947, Amagansett, like much of this part of Long island, is undergoing a radical change as Manhattan’s rich and famous invade the small fishing villages and farmlands that have made up this area. Fishermen like immigrant Basque Conrad Labarde and his helper Rollo cast nets almost daily to earn a living and catch the body of a young woman. Deputy Chief of Police Tom Hollis investigates the death to ascertain whether a murder has occurred. Though on the surface Amagansett is a historical village police procedural, the story line is actually more of a character study at a time when great upheaval impacts this part of Long Island as centuries old lifestyle is changing.

Moehriger, J. R. The Tender Bar. (10 Copies)

Munro, Alice. Runaway. (10 Copies)

In Alice Munro’s superb new collection, we find stories about women of all ages and circumstances, their lives made palpable by the subtlety and empathy of this incomparable writer. The runaway of the title story is a young woman who, though she thinks she wants to, is incapable of leaving her husband. In “Passion,” a country girl emerging into the larger world via a job in a resort hotel discovers in a single moment of stunning insight the limits and lies of that mysterious emotion. Three stories are about a woman named Juliet–in the first, she escapes from teaching at a girls’ school into a wild and irresistible love match; in the second she returns with her child to the home of her parents, whose life and marriage she finally begins to examine; and in the last, her child, caught, she mistakenly thinks, in the grip of a religious cult, vanishes into an unexplained and profound silence. In the final story, “Powers,” a young woman with the ability to read the future sets off a chain of events that involves a friend and her husband-to-be in lifelong pursuit of what such a gift really means, and who really has it.

Nafisi, Azar. Reading Lolita in Tehran. (10 Copies)

Nemirovsky, Irene. Suite Francaise (10 Copies)

A lost masterpiece of French literature, this epic novel of life under Nazi occupation was discovered 62 years after the author's tragic death at Auschwitz. Originally intended to be in five parts, the two that form this work are complete in themselves. Part One, "A Storm in June," is set in the chaos and mayhem of the massive 1940 exodus from Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion. Part Two, "Dolce," opens in the provincial town of Bussy during the first influx of German soldiers. Each part features a rich cast of characters-people who never should have met, but come to form ambiguous relationships as they are forced to endure circumstances beyond their control.

Obama, Barack. Dreams From My Father : A Story of Race and Inheritance (10 Copies)

Years before becoming the 44th President-elect of the United States, Barack Obama published this lyrical, unsentimental, and powerfully affecting memoir, which became a #1 New York Times bestseller when it was reissued in 2004. Dreams from My Father tells the story of Obama’s struggle to understand the forces that shaped him as the son of a black African father and white American mother—a struggle that takes him from the American heartland to the ancestral home of his great-aunt in the tiny African village of Alego.

Richman, Alyson. The Last Van Gogh. (10 Copies)

Summer, 1890. Van Gogh arrives at Auvers-sur-Oise, a bucolic French village that lures city artists to the country. It is here that twenty-year-old Marguerite Gachet has grown up, attending to her father and brother ever since her mother's death. And it is here that Vincent Van Gogh will spend his last summer, under the care of Doctor Gachet-homeopathic doctor, dilettante painter, and collector. In these last days of his life, Van Gogh will create over 70 paintings, two of them portraits of Marguerite Gachet. But little does he know that, while capturing Marguerite and her garden on canvas, he will also capture her heart.

See, Lisa. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. (10 Copies)

Born into a farmer's family in 19th century China, Lily suffers her fate like many other daughters of that age - she is seen more as a liability then an asset. But the local matchmaker announces that Lily's feet will be flawless if they are bound. Suddenly, a good marriage for Lily and an improvement in fortune for the family are within reach. Lily also meets Snow Flower, a girl with whom she would share the joys and heartaches of the rest of her life. Footbinding, matchmaking, nushu, sworn sisterhood, all traditional practices of old China, figure strongly in this memorable novel about Chinese women, loyalty and love.

Shapiro, Dani. Black & White. (10 Copies)

A novel about art, fame, ambition, and family that explores a provocative question: Is it possible for a mother to be true to herself and true to her children at the same time?
Clara Brodeur has spent her entire adult life pulling herself away from her famous mother, the renowned and controversial photographer Ruth Dunne, whose towering reputation rests on the unsettling nude portraits she took of her young daughter from the ages of three to fourteen. Now, Ruth Dunne is dying, and Clara is summoned to her bedside. Despite her anguish and ambivalence, Clara returns and confronts the past she has ignored for so long.

Sofer, Dalia. The Septembers of Shiraz . (10 Copies)

In the aftermath of the Iranian revolution, rare-gem dealer Isaac Amin is arrested, wrongly accused of being a spy. Terrified by his disappearance, his family must reconcile a new world of cruelty and chaos with the collapse of everything they have known.

As Isaac navigates the tedium and terrors of prison, forging tenuous trusts, his wife feverishly searches for him, suspecting, all the while, that their once-trusted housekeeper has turned on them and is now acting as an informer. And as his daughter, in a childlike attempt to stop the wave of baseless arrests, engages in illicit activities, his son, sent to New York before the rise of the Ayatollahs, struggles to find happiness even as he realizes that his family may soon be forced to embark on a journey of incalculable danger.

Umrigar, Thrity. If Today Be Sweet. (10 Copies)

The recent death of her beloved husband, Rustom, has taken its toll on Tehmina Sethna. Now, while visiting her son, Sorab, in his suburban Ohio home, she is being asked to choose between continuing her old life in India and starting a new one in this unfamiliar country with her son, his American wife, and their child. Her destiny is uncertain, and soon the plight of two troubled young children next door will force the most difficult decision she has ever faced. Ultimately the journey is one that Tehmina must travel alone .

Umrigar, Thrity. The Space Between Us . (10 Copies)

Bhima is a domestic servant in contemporary Bombay who leaves her own small shanty in the slums to scrub the floors of a house in which she remains an outsider. Sera, her employer, is an upper-middle-class Parsi housewife whose opulent surroundings hide the shame and disappointment of her abusive marriage. Despite being separated from each other by blood and class, Bhima and Sera find themselves bound by gender and shared life experiences. Everything changes, however, when Bhima’s granddaughter, Maya, a university student, becomes pregnant by a man whose identity she refuses to reveal. Bhima's dreams of a better life for Maya, as well as for herself, may be shattered forever and loyalties are put to the test. Poignant and compelling, evocative and unforgettable, The Space Between Us is an intimate portrait of a distant yet familiar world.

Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle: A Memoir. (10 Copies)

The author recalls her life growing up in a dysfunctional family with an alcoholic father and distant mother and describes how she and her siblings had to fend for themselves until they finally found the resources and will to leave home.

Wiesel, Elie. Night. (10 Copies)

Wiesel is one of the most eloquent writers of the Holocaust, and this book is his best known work. This compelling narrative describes his own experience in Auschwitz. His account of his entrance into Auschwitz and his first night in the camp is extraordinary. This narrative is often considered required reading for students of the Holocaust.

Young, Wm.Paul. The Shack. (10 Copies)

Zusak, Marcus. The Book Thief. (10 Copies)

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.