The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Author: J.D. Salinger

Published: 1951

Novel.

Holden is at Pencey Preparatory is an exclusive private school in Agertown, Pennsylvania, on the Saturday afternoon of the traditional football game with rival school Saxon Hall. Holden ends up missing the game. 

He is the manager of the fencing team and loses their equipment on a New York City subway train, resulting on the cancellation of a match. Holden is expelled and isn't to return home until after Christmas break, so he goes to his history teacher's home, Mr. Spencer. 

Shortly, Holden returns to his dorm, realizing most of the students are still at the football game. He begins to re-read a book, but his distraction is temporary; first Ackley, his dorm neighbor disturbs him; later Holden argues with Stradlater, his roommate, who fails to appreciate a composition that Holden wrote for him about the baseball glove of Holden's late brother Allie. Stradlater, a womanizer, has just returned form a date with Holden's old friend Jane Gallagher. Holden is distressed that Stradlater might have taken advantage of Jane, because he doesn't appreciate her in the manner Holden does; he even refers to her as Jean. The boys fight and Holden catches a train to New York City, where he plans to stay in a hotel until Wednesday, when his parents expect him home for New Years vacation. 

He checks into the Edmont Hotel. After observing the behavior of the perverts in the hotel room facing his, he struggles with his own sexuality. He spends an evening dancing with three tourist women in their 30s, from Seattle, in the hotel lounge and enjoys dancing with one, but ends up with only the check, the women seem unable to carry a conversation. 

Holden agrees to have a prostitute named Sunny visit his room, but his attitude changes when she enters the room; she seems about the same age as he, and he becomes uncomfortable with the situation.

Holden visits his former and admired English teacher, Mr. Antolini, who offers advice on life along with a place to sleep for the night. 

Characters: 

Holden Caulfield

Stradlater

Mr. Antolini

Maurice

Sally Hayes

Sunny

Jane Gallagher

Phoebe Caufield

Allie

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

Author: Sebastian Faulks

Published: 1993
Novel.

The story begins in Amiens, northern France in 1910. A young Englishman, Stephen Wraysford is on attachment from London, working in the textile industry and lodging with the Azaire family. René Azaire runs a large factory when Stephen works; his second wife Isabelle is a woman of unfulfilled hopes, ill-treated by her husband. In the stultifying atmosphere of their town house, Stephen develops a passion for Isabelle. At first, she resists; but this only intensifies his feeling, which she soon begins to share. 

In 1916, in Flanders, Stephen is an infantry officer on the Western Front. He is frindly with Michael Weir, an engineer, whose men dig tunnels under No Man's Land to undermine the enemy. 

Stephen is a man almost broken by love and by war, but full of a passionate perversity. While some soldiers are happy to die, unable to comprehend what they have seen; Stephen becomes more and more determined to survive. 

Characters:
Stephen Wraysford
René Azaire
Isabelle Azaire (Madame Azaire)
Lisette
Jack Firebrace
Captain Weir
Jeanne Fourmentier
Elizabeth Benson
Françoise
Irene
Bob

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Author: J.R.R. Tolkien

Published: 1937
Novel.

Gandalf tricks Bilbo into hosting a party for Thorin and his band of dwarves, who sing of reclaiming the Lonely Mountain and its vast treasure form the dragon Smaug. When the music ends, Gandalf unveils a map showing a secret door into the Mountain and proposes that the dumbfounded Bilbo serve as the expedition's burglar. The dwarves ridicule the idea, but Bilbo, indignant, joins. 

The group travels into the wild, where Gandalf saves the company from trolls and leads them to Rivendell, where Elrond revelas more secrets from the map. Passing over the Misty Mountains, they are caught by goblins and driven deep underground. Although Gandalf rescues them, Bilbo gets separated from the others as they flee the goblins. Lost in the goblin tunnels, he stumbles across a mysterious ring and then enconunters Gollum, who engages him in a game of riddles. As a reward for solving all riddles Gollum will show him the path out of the tunnels, but if Bilbo fails, his life will be forfeit. 

With the help of the ring, which congers invisibility, Bilbo escapes and rejoins the dwarves, improvising his reputation with them. The goblins and Wargs give chase, but the compau are saved by eagles before resting in the house of Beorn. 

The company enters the black forest of Mirkwood without Gandalf. In Mirkwood, Bilbo first saves the dwarves from giant spiders and then from the dungeons of the Wood-elves. Nearing the Lonely Mountain, the travellers are welcomed by the human inhabitants of Lake-town, who hope the dwarves will fulfill prophecies of Samug's demise. The expedition travles to the Lonely Mountain and finds the secret door; Bilbo scouts the dragon's lair, stealing a great cup and learning of a weakness in Smaug's armour. The enraged dragon, deducing that Lake-town has aided the intruder, sets out to destroy the town. A thrush had overheard Bilbo's report of Smaug's vulnerability and reports it to Kale-town defender Bard. His arrow finds the chink and slays the dragon. 

When the dwarves take possession of the mountain, Bilbo finds the Arkenstone, an heirloon of Thorin's dynasty, and hides it away. The Wood-elves and Lake-men besiege the mountain and request compensation for their aid, reparations for Lake-town's destruction, and settlement of old claims of the treasure. Thorin refuses and, having summoned his kin from the Iron Hills, reinforces his position. Bilbo tries to ransom the Arkenstone to head off a war, but Thorin is intransigent. He banishes Bilbo, and battle seems inevitable. 

Characters: 

Bilbo Baggins

Gandalf

Thorin Oakenshield

Smaug the Dragon

Elrond

Gollum

Beorn

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Author: Daphne du Maurier

Published: 1938
Novel.

While working as the companion to a rich American woman on holiday in Monte Carlo, a naïve young woman in her early 20s, becomes acquainted with a wealthy Englishman, Maximilian de Winter, a widower aged 42. After a fortnight of courtship, she agrees to marry him and, after the wedding and honeymoon, accompanies him to his mansion in Cornwall. 

Mrs. Danvers, the sinister housekeeper, was profoundly devoted to the first Mrs. de Winter, Rebecca, who died in a boating accident about a year before Maxim and the second Mrs. de Winter's met. She continually attempts to undermine the new Mrs. de Winter psychologically, subtly suggesting to her that she will never attain the beauty, urbanity and charm her predecessor possessed. Whenever the new Mrs. de Winter attempts to make changes at Manderley, Mrs. Danvers describes how Rebecca ran it when she was alive. Each time Mrs. Danvers does this, she implies that the new Mrs. de Winter lacks the experience and knowledge necessary for running an important estate. 

She is soon convinced that Maxim regrets his impetuous decision to marry her and is still deeply in love with Rebecca. The climax occurs at Manderley's annual costume ball. 

Characters: 

The narrator/second Mrs. de Winter. 

Maximilian de Winter. 

Mrs. Danvers

Rebecca de Winter

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

Comedy

All's Well That Ends Well

As You Like It

The Comedy of Errors

Cymbeline

Love's Labours Lost

Measure for Measre

The Merry Wives of Windsor

The Merchant of Venice

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Much Ado About Nothing

Pericles, Prince of Tyre

Taming of the Shrew

The Tempest

Troilus and Cressida 

Twelfth Night

Two Gentlemen of Verona

Winter's Tale

History

Henry IV, parts 1-2

Henry V

Henry VI, parts 1-3

Henry VIII

King John

Richard II

Richard III

Poetry

The Sonnets

A Lover's Complaint

The Rape of Lucrece

Venus and Adonis

Funeral Elegy by W.S.

Tragedy

Antony and Cleopatra

Coriolanus

Hamlet

Julius Caesar

King Lear

Macbeth

Othello

Romeo and Juliet

Timon of Athens

Titus Andronicus

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

Author: Joseph Heller

Published: 1961

Novel. 

At the heart of Catch-22 resides the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero endlessly inventive in his schemes to save his skin from the horrible chances of war. His problem is Colonel Cathcart, who keeps raising the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempts to excuse himself from the perilous missions that he's committed to flying, he's trapped by the Great Loyalty Oath Crusade, a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes the necessary formal request to be relieved of such missions, the very act of making the request proves that he's sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved. 

Characters: 

Yossarian

Chaplain Tappman

Colonel Cathcart

Doctor Daneeka

Milo Minderbinder

Lieutenant Nately

Lieutenant Scheisskopf

Snowden

Captain Aardvaark

Appleby

Captain Black

Colonel Cargill

Clevinger

Nurse Cramer

Major Danby

Mrs. Daneeka

General Dreedle

Dobbs

Captain Flume

Februray - Book of the Month

Hidden by Kendra Elliot

Eleven years ago, the Co-Ed Slayer murdered nine female college students on the Oregon State University campus. Lacey Campbell barely survived his attack, but he killed her best friend, Suzanne, whose body was never found. Now a forensic odontologist analyzing teeth and bones for the state medical examiner, Lacey is devastated when she identifies Suzanne's remains at a crime scene. She finds comfort in the arms of the ex-cop Jack Harper, and sparks fly between them even as a new reign of terror begins. Someone is killing the witnesses who sent the Co-Ed Slayer to prison a decade ago. All the evidence points to the Co-Ed Slayer as the culprit, only he's long since dead. So who's the new killer? And is Lacey next in line to die?






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