Don's List of Great Books

Here are some of Don's favorites:

Crows and Cards (Paperback)

$5.99
ISBN-13: 9780547339092
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Sandpiper, 06/01/2010

Crows and Cards is a rollicking adventure along the Mississippi in the 1800s with a 12-year-old narrator who is clever enough to make insightful observations but gullible enough to land in a hilarious series of scrapes. Joseph Helgerson is a skillful writer who successfully fills his story with both humor and heart.


$17.95
ISBN-13: 9781590173381
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: NYRB Classics, 03/01/2010

There is no better introduction to poetry and the classical world than Gilbert Highet’s Poets in a Landscape. Not only a beautiful look at the relationship between poets and their surroundings, both urban and rural, but as the fantastic chapter on Cattulus illustrates, an exploration of their emotional landscapes as well. If you at all enjoy poetry, history, and literary criticism, Poet’s in a Landscape is not to be missed.


$17.50
ISBN-13: 9781400068937
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Random House, 03/01/2010

This marvelous first novel is an often humorous look at love and aging. Not only does Major Pettigrew have to contend with falling in love with the Pakistani widow who owns the local convenience store, his proper English view of how the world should be continually comes into conflict with how the world really is. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand speaks to readers about the mysteries of love and belonging.


The Pig Did It (Paperback)

$13.99
ISBN-13: 9781883285340
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Delphinium Books, 05/01/2009

Writer, Aaron McCloud, picks up and moves to a remote part of western Ireland after failing to woo one of the students in his writing class. There he lives with his aunt, also a writer, whose profession is rewriting the classics. On his arrival, he is adopted by a pig on a hillside overlooking town, and which follows Aaron wherever he goes. A mystery begins when the pig digs up a body buried in the garden, and Aaron isn’t sure if the culprit might be his aunt, or Lolly Mckeever, a woman he has become attracted to, and whom his aunt claims used to own the pig. Caldwell has an easy, humorous style that makes the Irish landscape come alive and the characters as important as the mystery Aaron tries to solve.


Dispatches (Hardcover)

By Michael Herr, Robert Stone (Introduction by)
$24.00
ISBN-13: 9780307270801
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Everyman's Library, 02/01/2009

Dispatches is war correspondence written not as a journalist would report for a newspaper but more as someone writing letters home or keeping a journal of the war, full of killing fear, drugs horror and the dark humor of Viet Nam. Written in the language and with the sensibilities of the era, Herr's book is poetic and disturbing. Reprinted as part of the Contemporary Classics line, the harsh and honest nature of Dispatches makes it one of the most surprising additions to Everyman's Library.


$16.99
ISBN-13: 9780316013567
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 09/01/2009

In this (nearly) wordless picture book, even the cover is wordless. It is Pinkney’s amazing illustrations and design that bring the story powerfully and gracefully to life. Pinkney sets the fable in the Serengeti, "so awesome yet fragile — not unlike the two sides of each of the heroes" he states in the artist’s notes. What a spectacular book, and a wonderful gift idea.


$27.00
ISBN-13: 9780151013319
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 11/01/2009

The Gift of Thanks tells about all the rituals of Gratitude we take part in everyday and by comparing how they are carried out - or not - in other cultures and by searching out their historical roots, leaves us feeling their importance in our lives all the more.


$16.99
ISBN-13: 9780316114271
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 07/01/2009

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon was born out of Grace Lin’s love of the Chinese folk tales her mother shared with her along with other classics she read as a child, like East of the Sun, West of the Moon, The Light Princess, and The Wizard of Oz. The story features Minli, who sets out on a quest to bring fortune to her family and the rest of the desolate Valley of the Fruitless Mountain. She meets many characters that intersperse her story with captivating folk tales. The book is beautifully produced with illustrations by Grace.


$26.00
ISBN-13: 9781931520553
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Small Beer Press, 06/01/2009

Cloud and Ashes is a book that begs to be read and reread. A first reading allows you to soak in the music of the language. Rereadings allow you to go deeper in understanding of the story and to catch hidden references, puns, and meanings, still leaving you with the sense that you’ll never run out of discoveries to make.

Greer Gilman is a true wordsmith and Cloud and Ashes is a collection of three fantasy stories that is probably unlike anything you’ve come across, dense with folklore, myth and symbolism and placed in a country setting where the senses are nearly overwhelmed.


Family Reminders (Hardcover)

By Julie Danneberg, John Shelley (Illustrator)
$14.95
ISBN-13: 9781580893206
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Charlesbridge Publishing, 07/01/2009

Mary McHugh’s once happy family struggles to keep going when her father is seriously injured in a mining accident. Set in a Colorado mining town in 1890, Family Reminders is reminiscent of the Little House books in its period flavor and strong family bond. It is a story of family joys and trials told in a way that younger readers will be able to understand.


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