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Favorite Books |
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Looking for a Good Book? Fiction Nonfiction Favorite Young Adult Books Fiction In 1843, a 16-year-old Canadian housemaid named Grace Marks was tried for the murder of her employer and his mistress. The sensationalistic trial made headlines throughout the world, and the jury delivered a guilty verdict. Yet opinion remained fiercely divided about Marks--was she a spurned woman who had taken out her rage on two innocent victims, or was she an unwilling victim herself, caught up in a crime she was too young to understand? In Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood reconstructs Marks's story in fictional form. Arranged Marriage: Stories / Chitra Divakaruni Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's exquisitely wrought debut collection of stories subtly chronicles the accommodation - and the rebellion - Inidan-born girls and women in America undergo as they balance old treasured beliefs and surprising new desires. Each story is complete in itself, together they created a tapestry as colorful, as delicate and as enduring as the finest silk sari. Bridget Jones' Diary / Helen Fielding A devastatingly self-aware, laugh-out-loud account of a year in the life of a thirty-something Singleton on a permanent doomed quest for self-improvement. Caught between the joys of Singleton fun, and the fear of dying alone and being found three weeks later half eaten by an Alsatian; tortured by Smug Married friends asking, "How's your love life" with lascivious, yet patronizing leers, Bridget resolves to reduce the circumference of each thigh by 1.5 inches, visit the gym three times a week not just to buy a sandwich, form a functional relationship with a responsible adult and learn to program the VCR. With a blend of flighty charm, existential gloom, and endearing self-deprecation, the diary has touched a raw nerve with millions of readers the world round. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason / Helen Fielding Bridget is back, in "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason," and the calorie-counting, thigh-hating, man-hunting hedonist, has found self-help spirituality. Even more fun than the Bridget Jones’s Diary! Chocolat: A Novel / Joanne Harris Vianne Rocher and her 6-year-old daughter, Anouk, open a luxuriant chocolate shop crammed with the most tempting of confections and offering a mouth-watering variety of hot chocolate drinks in the small village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes during Lent. Theshop is located opposite the church and is open on Sundays, and Francis Reynaud, the austere parish priest, is livid. One by one the locals succumb to Vianne's concoctions. When Vianne announces a Grand Festival of Chocolate commencing Easter Sunday, it's all-out war: war between church and chocolate, between good and evil, between love and dogma. Daughter of Fortune / Isabel Allende This novel follows the fortunes of Eliza Sommers, Chilean by birth but adopted by a British spinster, Rose Sommers, and her bachelor brother, Jeremy, after she is abandoned on their doorstep. As Eliza grows up, she becomes less tractable, and when she falls in love with Joachin Andieta, a clerk in Jeremy's firm, her adoptive family is horrified. They are even more so when a now-pregnant Eliza follows her lover to California where he has gone to make his fortune in the 1849 gold rush. Along the way Eliza meets Tao Chi'en, a Chinese doctor who saves her life and becomes her closest friend. What starts out as a search for a lost love becomes, over time, the discovery of self; and by the time Eliza finally catches up with the elusive Joachin, she is no longer sure she still wants what she once wished for. The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood / Rebecca Wells The Ya-Yas are the wild circle of girls who swirl around the narrator Siddalee's mama, Vivi, whose vivid voice is "part Scarlett, part Katharine Hepburn, part Tallulah." The Ya-Yas broke the no-booze rule at the cotillion, skinny-dipped their way to jail in the town water tower, disrupted the Shirley Temple look-alike contest, and bonded for life because, as one says, "It's so much fun being a bad girl!" Siddalee must repair her busted relationship with Vivi by reading a half-century's worth of letters and clippings contained in the Ya-Ya Sisterhood's packet of "Divine Secrets." It's a contrived premise, but the secrets are really fun to learn.
Bright and outgoing, having grown up through the Great
Depression and the World War II years, Sandy Meyer is suddenly given one
perplexing clue to her past that sets her on an incredible and harrowing
journey in search of her lost family, a pilgrimage that brings her face to
face with nerve-shattering suspense, unbearable terror and the magnificent
capacity of the human heart.
Like Cinderella, Antwone Fisher rose above the abuse of a dismal foster care childhood in Cleveland to success as a screenwriter and producer in Hollywood. The cast of characters includes a wicked foster mother (Mrs. Pickett), whose ultimate betrayal condemned him to homelessness at age 17; colorful friends, many of whom became victims of street life; and a strong though tragic birth family with which "Fish" reunites as a young man. This is a story of resilience based on personal character as well as the kindness and inspiration of mentors; it is also a gripping expos‚ of a foster care system that undersupervises caretakers and provides little transitional assistance for its "graduates." This sprawling and often brutal novel, set in the rich farmlands of California's Salinas Valley, follows the intertwined destinies of two families--the Trasks and the Hamiltons--whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. "A strange and original work of art." A Fine Balance / Rohninton Mistry The Indian government has just declared a State of Emergency, which upheavals four strangers--a spirited widow, a young student uprooted from his idyllic hill station, and two tailors who have fled the caste violence of their native village. This foursome will be thrust together, forced to share one cramped apartment and an uncertain future. The characters move from distrust to friendship and from friendship to love for one another. Throughout the story they persevere despite adversity and demonstrate the human spirit in an inhuman state. A Gracious Plenty: a novel / Sheri Reynolds In the lush and isolated cemetery of a small Southern town, Finch Nobles, the narrator of this inventive novel, tends to the flowers and shrubs that surround the monuments of people who were not known to her while they lived but who in death have become her lifeline. Badly burned in a household accident when she was just four, Finch grows into a courageous and feisty loner. She eschews the pity and awkward stares of the people of her hometown and discovers that if she listens closely enough, she can hear the voices of those who have gone before. Finally, when she speaks, they answer back, telling their stories in a remarkable chorus of regrets, explanations, and insights. The Hundred Secret Senses / Amy Tan When Olivia Yee's half-sister, Kwan, arrives from China, Olivia's life is irrevocably changed. For one thing, Kwan has yin eyes--she can see ghosts. Every night as they were growing up, Kwan told Olivia bedtime stories about the same group of yin people: a woman named Banner, a man named Cape, a one-eyed bandit girl, and a half-and-half man. But, for Olivia, Kwan is also a perpetual source of embarrassment due to her endless questions, fractured English, and boundless optimism. When Olivia separates from her husband, Simon, Kwan schemes to get them back together, and the three take a trip to China to visit the village where Kwan grew up and to learn the secret of their connection to the yin people. I Know This Much is True / Wally Lamb 40-year-old housepainter Dominick is facing many obstacles to happiness. He doesn't know who his real father is, his own marriage is defunct, and his current relationship with the woman in his life is tricky. However, these problems pale in comparison to the much bigger situation he has to deal with: his schizophrenic twin brother, Thomas. Having already presented Dominick with a lifetime of problems, Thomas has now mutilated himself; he severed his own hand out of some misplaced notion of religious sacrifice and political protest. Interspersed with the narrative history of the many awful situations Thomas' mental instability has forced the two to face over the years is the story of the twins' grandfather, whom Dominick learns about from the old man's memoir. Through the help of a counselor, Dominick comes to realize that the manuscript can be read as a "parable of failure" that can teach him how to get free of an abiding self-pity. The reader aches for Dominick to find peace, but this empathy is certainly tested over the novel's many, many pages. This overly long story would have been more pungent in a more succinct form. But expect high demand from the many readers of the author's previous novel. The Kite Runner / Khaled Hosseini My Ántonia / Willa Cather An unforgettable story of an immigrant woman's life on the hardscrabble Nebraska plains. Through Jim Burden's affectionate reminiscence of his childhood friend, the free-spirited Ántonia Shimerda, a larger, uniquely American portrait emerges, both of a community struggling with unforgiving terrain and of a woman who, amid great hardship, stands as timeless inspiration. Of Mice and Men / John Steinbeck In Depression-era California, two migrant workers share friendship and a dream of better days on a spread of their own until an act of unintentional violence leads to tragic consequences. Open House / Elizabeth Berg Throughout the 20 years of her marriage, Samantha Morrow has been content with her life, though she knows it isn't perfect. She has a nice home, a great son, and a husband she loves. But everything is turned upside down when her husband, David, tells her he wants out of their marriage. His rapid departure on the heels of this announcement leaves Sam horribly shocked, utterly confused, and oddly obsessed with Martha Stewart. Her initial reaction is to go on a spending spree, charging thousands of dollars worth of merchandise at Tiffany's to her husband's credit card. But when reality sets in and her husband cuts her off, she realizes that if she wants to keep the house she loves and make a home for herself and her son, she's going to have to generate some income. Her first solution to this dilemma is to find a couple of roommates. Between the finished portion of the basement and the extra bedroom upstairs, Sam figures she can take on two boarders and mitigate a large portion of the mortgage payment. She finds her first boarder quickly-the septuagenarian mother of an acquaintance-and is delighted. Lydia Fitch is quiet, clean, concerned, friendly, and more than eager to play grandmother to Sam's son, Travis. In fact, Sam's mother has made a career out of dating since the death of her husband two decades ago and is now determined to fix Sam up as soon as possible-a plan with foreseeable disasters written all over it. Throughout it all, the one steady force in Sam's life is King, whose implacable calm and supportive friendship provides a stabilizing rudder in the storm-tossed sea of Sam's life. But Sam soon discovers there is much more to King than she realized and it will force her to rethink everything she has come to hold true. Rain of Gold / Victor Villaseñor Rain of Gold is the story of three generations of the author's family's migration from revolutionary Mexico in the 20th century to California. But Rain of Gold is no Roots and Villaseñor is not Alex Haley. His style is naive and disturbing--he ranges back and forth between his family's historical past and a more contemporary setting. Nevertheless, there is good material in this oral history. Villaseñor blends family stories and tales handed down through generations into an uneven narrative but a text which is credible social history. The most visible persona is the author's mother Lupe, who grew up among soldiers and moved North from her native La Lluvia de Ora, the Mexican gold mine operated by omnipresent American economic colonial interests. The final episodes concern the family's transformation from rural Mexico to heavily Hispanic-populated California. The Red Tent / Anita Diamont
The Secret Life of
Bees / Sue
Monk Kidd
This is the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the town's fiercest racists, Lily decides they should both escape to Tiburon, South Carolina--a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters who introduce Lily to a mesmerizing world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna who presides over their household. She’s Come Undone / Wally Lamb Bruised by her parents' divorce, her mother's breakdown, and brutal betrayal by a neighbor, Dolores Price tries to retreat from life. Overwhelming anger and defiance frequently blind her to the needs of others, yet even in despair she battles for love and acceptance, supported by some delightfully unconventional friends. There are no simple solutions, but from the shattered remains of her dysfunctional family, she binds together a new beginning. Her struggles to understand pain and achieve forgiveness resonate with a sense of life's complexities. Dolores is not always likable, but her story combines sorrow and wonder in a remarkable way. Sister of My Heart / Chitra Divakaurni The tale of two cousins born on the same day, their premature births brought on by a mysterious occurrence that claims the lives of both their fathers. Sudha is beautiful, Anju is not; yet the girls love each other as sisters, the bond between them so strong it seems nothing can break it. When both are pushed into arranged marriages, however, each discovers a devastating secret that changes their relationship forever. Snow Falling on Cedars / David Guterson A Japanese-American fisherman's 1954 murder trial becomes the backdrop of a
story that follows a doomed love affair between a white boy and a Japanese girl, a
simmering land dispute, and the wartime internment of San Piedro's Japanese residents. Stones From the River / Ursula Hegi Stones from the River is a daring, dramatic and complex novel of life in Germany. It is set in Burgdorf, a small fictional German town, between 1915 and 1951. The protagonist is Trudi Montag, a Zwerg -- the German word for dwarf woman. As a dwarf she is set apart, the outsider whose physical "otherness" has a corollary in her refusal to be a part of Burgdorf's silent complicity during and after World War II. Trudi establishes her status and power, not through beauty, marriage, or motherhood, but rather as the town's librarian and relentless collector of stories. Through Trudi's unblinking eyes, we witness the growing impact of Nazism on the ordinary townsfolk of Burgdorf as they are thrust on to a larger moral stage and forced to make choices that will forever mark their lives. To Kill a Mockingbird / Harper Lee Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus--three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Though her story explores big themes, Harper Lee chooses to tell it through the eyes of a child. The result is a tough and tender novel of race, class, justice, and the pain of growing up. Tortilla Flat / John Steinbeck Novel by John Steinbeck, published in 1935. The first of his novels to be set in the Monterey peninsula of California, this episodic, humorous tale of the adventures of a group of pleasure-loving Mexican-Americans contains some of Steinbeck's most interesting characters. The men drink, steal, chase women, make music, and dance until they are eventually undone by a climactic fire.
A harmless prank, a chance conversation and Cal Gant stumbles onto the
naked face of cruelty, incest and murder. When he attempts to rescue a strange
and haunting girl from the slaughterhouse her life has become, he finds
himself in a heart-stopping struggle with her ruthless father, leading Cal to
the brink of self-doubt, terror and death itself. Can he find within himself
the backbone to stand against the horror, the daring to concoct some scheme to
set Gretchen free? Until They Bring The Streetcars Back is the gripping story
of what Cal does.
The
novel, told in flashback by nonagenarian Jacob Jankowski, recounts the wild and
wonderful period he spent with the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on
Earth, a traveling circus he joined during the Great
Depression. When 23-year-old Jankowski learns
that his parents have been killed in a car
crash, leaving him penniless, he drops out of Cornell veterinary
school and parlays his
expertise with animals into a job with the circus, where he cares for a
menagerie of exotic creatures[...] He also falls in love with Marlena, one of
the show's star performers—a romance complicated by Marlena's husband, the
unbalanced, sadistic circus boss who beats both his wife and the animals
Jankowski cares for.
When beautiful, egotistical poet Ingrid murders the lover who dumped her, 12-year-old daughter Astrid descends into the hells of foster care, where she is sustained only by a fierce intelligence and great artistic talent. Shot and left for dead by her first mother, half-starved in a mansion by another, turned into a drudge by a racist, she nearly finds happiness and mutual love with Ron and Claire; but then Claire kills herself. Heartbreaking, but without a trace of sentimentality, this novel provokes amazement that children like Astrid can emerge whole and capable after what we know are even worse childhoods than hers Women of the Silk / Gail Tsukiyama Born into a typically patriarchal peasant family dominated by a cold father who undervalues women's lives, the adolescent Pei is sent off to a silk farm after a fortuneteller predicts she will be a ``nonmarrying'' (hence nonproductive) adult. In Yung Kee Village, Pei works alongside other Chinese girls and women similarly victimized. Many have been ousted from families for refusing arranged marriages; others have chosen family exile as a means of self-determination. Under the supervision of the warm, matriarchal Auntie Yee, these women form friendships emblematic of their new independence. Their nurturing community is initially untouched by the war with Japan raging miles away, and Pei is fascinated when some of her friends choose to enter a ``hairdressing'' ceremony and swear off marriage forever. But hardships intervene: monsoons, isolation, a strike, the war, and eventually fire and death disrupt the female commune. Pei returns home briefly to become reconciled with her parents, then symbolically sets off at novel's end on a voyage for freedom and independence.
Non Fiction
Cesar's
Way: The Natural, Everyday to Understanding and Correcting Common Dog Problems
/ Cesar Millan
An accessible guide to help new and current dog owners better understand the needs of their beloved pets. If you are not yet a fan, try to catch a couple of episodes of the remarkable show--you will be amazed, impressed, and motivated to create a healthier, more fulfilling relationship with your dog. In Cesar's Way, Cesar explains that dogs are not complicated, and despite what various owners think--not human. They rely on three key elements in their lives: exercise, discipline, and affection (in that order). "Problem dogs" can be attributed to "problem owners," owners who don't understand and misinterpret their dog's behavior. Cesar's Way is really a training program for dog owners, with chapters devoted to understanding the "power of the pack," taking responsibility for "how we screw up our dogs," and learning how to manage aggression. Cesar's book (a must-have for new and old dog owners) moves beyond basicobedience school techniques, and teaches owners how to change unwanted behavior by better understanding their "best friends." Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal / Eric Schlosser
The
Glass Castle: A Memoir /
Jeannette Wells
Walls
chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents--Rose
Mary, her frustrated-artist mother, and Rex, her brilliant, alcoholic father.
As Rose
Mary and Rex, motivated by whims and paranoia, uprooted their kids
time and again, the youngsters (Walls, her brother and two sisters) were
left largely to their own devices. But while Rex and Rose Mary firmly believed
children learned best from their own mistakes, they themselves never seemed to
do so, repeating the same disastrous patterns that eventually landed them on
the streets. Walls describes in fascinating detail what it was to be a child
in this family, from the embarrassing (wearing shoes held together with safety
pins; using markers to color her skin in an effort to camouflage holes in her
pants) to the horrific (being told, after a creepy uncle pleasured himself in
close proximity, that sexual assault is a crime of perception; and being
pimped by her father at a bar). Though Walls has well earned the right to
complain, at no point does she play the victim. In fact, Walls' removed,
nonjudgmental stance is initially startling, since many of the circumstances
she describes could be categorized as abusive (and unquestioningly
neglectful). But on the contrary, Walls respects her parents' knack for making
hardships feel like adventures, and her love for them--despite their
overwhelming self-absorption
Sedaris, noted essayist and NPR radio commentator, is a master at turning his
life experiences into witty vignettes that both entertain and comment on the
human condition. This latest collection draws on his quirky childhood in North
Carolina, where he was subjected to speech therapy sessions to correct his
lisp; he countered by conveniently avoiding words that contained "s"
sounds. Additional family recollections include his father's desire to create
a jazz combo from his offspring--unfortunately, none of them exhibited any
talent or desire to follow this career path. From there he moves onto a brief
stint as a "clearly unqualified" writing teacher in Chicago, where
his unorthodox lesson plans included watching soap operas and having the
students write "guessays" on what would happen in the next episode.
Then it's on to New York and ultimately to France. Sedaris chronicles his
attempts to learn French and the confusion experienced by people who don't
share the same culture or language.
Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food,
Taming Our Primal Instincts / Terry Burnham, Jay Phelan
The authors reveal that our struggles for self-improvement
are battles against our own genes that helped our distant ancestors flourish
but are selfish and out of place in the modern world. They examine such issues
such as body image, money, addiction, and the search for friendship and love,
and use knowledge of the connections between genes and behavior to offer steps
for improving the quality of our lives. This book is insightful and
extremely entertaining.
The Other End of the Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs / Patricia B. McConnell It matters greatly that people who love dogs
understand enough about them to provide a good environment, writes McConnell
(Feeling Outnumbered? How to Manage Your Multi-dog Household) in her thoughtful
exposition on improving human-canine communication. An animal behaviorist and
adjunct professor of zoology at the University of Wisconsin Madison, McConnell
offers sound advice for dog owners: Pay attention to your own behavior. Believe
me, your dog is. Drawing on anecdotes from her professional practice (she
specializes in canine behavior problems), research into the work of other dog
trainers and personal experiences with her beloved Border collies, the author
explains how a dog might be misinterpreting signals from its owner. For example,
although humans express affection through hugs, a dog may feel threatened by
them. McConnell also provides tips on how to play safely with dogs (she
recommends games of fetch rather than rough-and-tumble wrestling) and how to get
them to do what you want (the best way to get a dog to stop demanding attention
is simply to break off visual contact). She has harsh words for trainers who
tell owners to establish dominance over dogs by behaving aggressively to them
when they are young, and also for owners of puppy mills. These dog factories,
she says, create damaged animals and unsuitable pets. This is a helpful guide
for pet owners by a specialist who clearly loves her work. Favorite Young Adult Books Breaking Through / Francisco Jiménez Bud, Not Buddy / Christopher Paul Curtis An orphaned runaway, Bud copes with the adult world with his numbered "Rules and Things." His few treasures from his former life with "Momma," are kept in a battered suitcase. One, a flyer advertising a musical group, leads him on a fantasy journey to an amazing reality. A 1999 Gold Award Winner. Ages 10 and up.
A classic story of survival from Jack London, published in 1903 and widely
regarded as his masterpiece.. The Call of the Wild is the story of a
courageous dog, Buck, taken from pampered surroundings and shipped to the
wilds of Alaska to be a sled dog. As Buck fights for survival, his primitive
nature begins to emerge and he becomes more like the wolf from whom his breed
is descended.
The Circuit: Stories From the Life of a Migrant Child / Francisco Jiménez Coraline / Neil Gaiman Coraline has recently moved with her preoccupied parents into a flat in an old house. The neighbors above and below are odd but friendly: Mr. Bobo trains mice; elderly Misses Spink and Forcible serve her tea and tell her fortune. No one lives in the flat next door. But Coraline knows better, and one evening she discovers what's there: a tantalizing alternate world, filled with toys and food (unlike any of the boring stuff she has at home) and weird-- though wonderfully attentive--parents, who happen to have black button eyes sewn on with dark thread. Although her "other parents" beg her to stay, she decides to leave, but by doing so Coraline sets in motion a host of nightmarish events that she must remedy alone. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone / J.K. Rowling In the nonmagic human world--the world of "Muggles"--Harry is a nobody, treated like dirt by the aunt and uncle who begrudgingly inherited him when his parents were killed by the evil Voldemort. But in the world of wizards, small, skinny Harry is famous as a survivor of the wizard who tried to kill him. He is left only with a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead, curiously refined sensibilities, and a host of mysterious powers to remind him that he's quite, yes, altogether different from his aunt, uncle, and spoiled, piglike cousin Dudley. Ages 9-12. His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass) / Philip Pullman
Holes
/ Louis Sachar
How I Live Now / Meg Rosoff
To most people around him, Matt is not a boy, but a beast. A room full of
chicken litter with roaches for friends and old chicken bones for toys is
considered good enough for him. But for El Patrón, lord of a country called
Opium -- a strip of poppy fields lying between the U.S. and what was once
called Mexico -- Matt is a guarantee of eternal life. El Patrón loves Matt as
he loves himself for Matt is himself. They share identical DNA.
This book received the following awards: 2002 National Book Award
(Young People's Literature), 2003 Newbury Honor Book, and 2003
Michael L. Printz Honor Book.
The Life of Pi / Yan Martel
The
peripatetic Pi (ne the much-taunted Piscine) Patel spends a beguiling boyhood in Pondicherry,
India, as the son of a zookeeper. Growing up beside the wild
beasts, Pi gathers an encyclopedic knowledge of the animal world. His
curious mind also makes the leap from his native Hinduism to Christianity
and Islam, all three of which he practices with joyous abandon. In his
16th year, Pi sets sail with his family and some of their menagerie to start a
new life in Canada.
Halfway to Midway Island, the ship sinks into the Pacific, leaving Pi stranded
on a life
raft with a hyena, an
orangutan, an injured zebra and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.
After the beast dispatches the others, Pi is left to survive for 227 days with
his large feline companion on the 26-foot-long raft, using all his knowledge,
wits and faith to keep himself alive.
Pictures of Hollis Woods
/ Patricia Reilly Giff
The Rag and Bone Shop
/ Robert Cormier
Thura's Diary / Thura
Al-Windawi Fourteen-year-old Lucy is the youngest daughter of a proper, upper-middle-class family living in Boston in 1858. Afrika, a young slave, doesn't know how old she is, but she knows it's time to make a run for freedom via the Underground Railroad. The girls' lives collide when Lucy discovers Afrika hiding in her grandfather's house, which is a safe place along the way to Canada. Lucy's abolitionist grandfather shares some of his secrets before his death, and now Lucy and Afrika must figure out the codes, the signals, and the roads that will take them north. The journey is dangerous, and almost no one can be trusted, but after months of difficult travel, the courageous teens arrive in Canada. Grades 6 - 8.
When Bella
Swan moves from sunny
Phoenix to Forks,
Washington, a damp and dreary town known for the most rainfall in the
United States, to live with her dad, she isn;t expecting to like it. But the
level of hostility displayed by her standoffish high school biology lab
partner, Edward
Cullen, surprises her. After several strange interactions, his
preternatural beauty, strength, and speed have her intrigued. Edward is just
as fascinated with Bella, and their attraction to one another grows. As Bella
discovers more about Edward's nature and his family, she is thrown headlong
into a dangerous adventure that has her making a desperate sacrifice to save
her one
true love.
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