When I first put together the Fifty Favorites List, in my early weeks as director at Barrington Library, I never thought the list would prove to be so popular. Now more and more people are telling me that they’ve read and enjoyed the first fifty favorites and are asking me to compile another favorites list. I am very happy to oblige with more suggestions of books I have really enjoyed over the years. Some are new; some are old; some are enduring literary classics, and some are just fun to read. I hope you have as much enjoyment reading these books as I did. Let me know what you think! ~ Debbie Barchi

Fiction:

Atwood, Margaret: Alias Grace

Is Grace a brutal murderer, or an innocent victim? At the turn of the century, a young doctor, trying to master the very new science of psychiatry struggles to discover the truth.

 

Austen, Jane: Northanger Abbey

Austen’s gentle and witty spoof of the overblown and excitable Gothic novels so popular in the early nineteenth century.

 

Bennett, Alan: The Clothes They Stood Up In

A stodgy couple return from a night at the opera to discover that every single item in the home has been stolen. Their adjustment to this stunning situation makes for a very funny, sardonic story.

 

Capote, Truman: Breakfast at Tiffany’s

An eager young writer moves to New York and falls in love with the irrepressible Holly Golightly, a scatter-brained young adventuress who seems bent on self destruction.

 

Carr, James Lloyd: A Month in the Country

Emotionally damaged after the horrors of WWI, a young artisan sets out to restore a long damaged church fresco in a remote English village

 

Carter, Forrest: The Education of Little Tree

Although there is some mystery and controversy surrounding the author, there can be no question that this story of a young Native American boy seeking to understand the teachings of his people while struggling against the prejudice all around him is a true plea for tolerance and love.

 

Chevalier, Tracy: The Girl With A Pearl Earring

A young girl becomes a servant in the house of the famous Dutch painter Vermeer who is attracted to her beauty and intelligence and sets out to capture her elusive spirit on canvas.

 

Collins, Wilkie: The Moonstone

When a priceless diamond disappears, a young heiress in Victorian England does all she can to disrupt the investigation, fearful that the man she loves is somehow involved in the theft.

 

Craven, Margaret: I Heard the Owl Call My Name

Sent by his wise bishop to help the native people of an isolated community in British Columbia, a young idealistic priest does not know his own days are numbered.

 

Dallas, Sandra: The Diary of Mattie Spencer

Mattie Spencer, newly married, must face the overwhelming, often life-threatening challenges of a pioneer wife, as she crosses the forbidding prairies with her aloof and mysterious husband.

 

Dickens, Charles: David Copperfield

The most autobiographical of all Dickens’ novels as a young, gentle-hearted boy takes on the iniquities and the opportunities that are continually thrust his way.

 

Doctorow, E.L.: Ragtime

The turn of the nineteenth century is examined without the usual sentimentality to reveal a time of great social unrest, inequality, and personal tragedy, but also of vigor and hope.

 

Fitzgerald, Valarie: Zemindar

A young woman unwillingly sets out with her sister and brother-in-law to India at the middle 1800’s, a time of great civil unrest, with bloody uprisings soon to follow.

 

Golden, Arthur: Memoirs of A Geisha

The inner feelings of a young girl learning the ancient art of the geisha are flawlessly conveyed in this story that balances the inevitability of fate with the power of love.

 

LeCarre, John: The Spy Who Came In From the Cold

There is no glamour in this disturbing and cynical tale of a British agent who wants to get out of the espionage business before it is too late.

 

LeFanu, J. Sheridan: Uncle Silas

A brooding atmosphere of evil pervades this entire novel as a young, extremely naïve orphan girl is slowly drawn into a sinister plot to take her wealth and her life.

 

Lemarque, Erich Maria: All Quiet on the Western Front

This novel disturbed many when it was first released and still raises the disturbing question: who is the real enemy when young men go to war?

 

Mantel, Hillary: Fludd

Is the mysterious, dark man who appears one stormy night in the unhappy village of Fetherhoughton really a curate or a being with less earthly ties?

 

Pears, Ian: An Instance of the Fingerpost

Told from multiple points of view, this fascinating story, set in the 1660’s during the restoration of Charles II,, eventually reveals the truth of a young woman’s alleged involvement in witchcraft and murder.

 

Perez-Reverte, Atruro: Club Dumas

The hunt for a rare, possibly apocryphal manuscript by Dumas brings out the very worst kind of ruthlessness in the world of rare book collectors.

 

Pym, Barbara: Jane and Prudence

An older woman and her former pupil from Oxford try their hands at matchmaking, with hilarious results.

 

Ray, Jeanne: Julie and Romeo

Two sixty-something lovers from rival family-owned businesses find the path to true love is littered with enraged and vengeful family members in this delightful “retelling” of Shakespeare’s lusty tale.

 

Ross, Ann: Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind

Miss Julia has been a model wife in every way; but when she learns that her just-deceased husband had been leading a double life, Miss Julia decides to take on the hypocrites in her sleepy little Southern town.

 

Schlee, Anne: Rhine Journey

A slow-moving, seductively simple story of an English spinster who longs for a life of her own as she travels with her husband, sister-in-law, and lovely young niece on a journey through Prussia in the mid-1800’s.

 

Shea, Suzanne Strempek: Selling the Lite of Heaven

Newly jilted and utterly humiliated, a young Polish-American girl tries to sell her engagement ring, only to discover a rich and promising world among the people who want to buy it.

 

Skarmeta, Antonio: The Postman. (Il Postino)

A shy, sensitive postman takes lessons from the famous poet Pablo Neruda on the art of attracting a beautiful woman.

 

Smith, Betty: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Innocence slowly gives way to unwelcome knowledge as young Francie Nolan comes of age in this classic, tenderly written story.

 

Spark, Muriel: A Far Cry From Kensington

London in the fifties, still recovering from the war, as a boarding house full of people strive to make the best of their lives, in a neighborhood that has seen better days.

 

Stegner, Wallace: Angle of Repose

An elderly historian, confined to a wheelchair, sets out to uncover the incredible life of his grandparents, and especially of his elegant and beautiful grandmother, as they met the challenges of the unexplored, inhospitable West.

 

Thompson, Flora: Still Glides the Stream

An older woman returns to the tiny village of her youth, and recalls the passage of her days, the simple love of her family, and the triumphs and tragedies of her friends.

 

Tobin, Betsy: The Bone House

A first class historical mystery, set in the middle ages, as a young woman takes it upon herself to investigate the sudden death of the town’s most popular prostitute, found at the bottom of a muddy ravine.

 

Todd, Charles. A Test of Wills

The first of an extraordinary detective series featuring a British Inspector, newly returned from the trenches of WWI, who is haunted by the death of his comrades and especially by the death of one young Scottish soldier.

 

Twain, Mark. The Diaries of Adam and Eve

The old, familiar story gets a piquant twist as one of America’s greatest writers uses his customary wit and unexpected tenderness to reveal the “inside story” of Adam and Eve.

 

Tyler, Anne. The Accidental Tourist

Brimming with Tyler’s usual quirky cast of characters and laugh aloud situations, this novel follows the fortunes of a conservative travel writer who decides to start an unlikely affair with a woman very definitely his opposite.

 

Vickers, Sally. Miss Garnet’s Angel

Miss Garnet, a repressed, retired school teacher, comes into unexpected wealth, and discovers remarkable beauty in the enchanting city of Venice and even more remarkably, within herself.

 

Vine, Barbara. The Chimney Sweeper’s Boy

A famous writer keeps the secret of his past life from his wife and children, but upon his death, the shocking story of his youth is slowly uncovered.

 

Wharton, Edith. The Age of Innocence

Caught up in the strictures of his upper class life, a sensitive man must decide whether to defy convention, or settle down and marry suitably.

Non-Fiction:

Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays With Morrie

One of the finest books about appreciating every moment of life, while accepting the inevitability of death, this true story of a dying man and his former student is sad but always life affirming.

 

Fraser, Antonia. The Weaker Vessel

An intriguing look at the day-to-day lives of wives, widows, courtesans, actresses, and heiresses in the seventeenth century.

 

Hillenbrand, Laura. Seabiscuit: An American Legend

Heart pounding accounts of real-life races interspersed with insightful biographies of the men who trained, rode, and loved one of America’s greatest racehorses.

 

Levoy, Gregg. Callings

How do we recognize a true calling in ourselves and what do we do to follow that calling in an authentic and rewarding way?

 

Maxtone-Graham, John. Safe Return Doubtful

The excitement, danger, and the frequent brushes with brutal death encountered by the many brave explorers racing to reach the North and South Poles in the nineteenth century.

 

Philbrick, Nat. In the Heart of the Sea

The real life, thrilling story of the Nantucket whaling ship stove by a whale, that served as an inspiration for Herman Melville in the writing of his classic novel Moby Dick.

 

Salzman, Mark. Iron and Silk

A young man, gifted in the martial arts and with writing, ventures to China in the 1970’s and becomes enthralled with the people and their lives and beliefs.

 

Sarton, May. Journal of a Solitude

The famous poet finds both peace and loneliness in her solitary life and strives to distill some bit of beauty and meaning from each slowly evolving day.

 

Stewart, Elinore Pruitt. The Letters of a Woman Homesteader

A wonderful sense of immediacy and courage comes through these lively letters as a young widower sets out to make an independent life for herself on the harsh prairie.

 

Uleland, Brenda. If You Want To Write

Brash, bold, and totally unconventional in her approach to writing, Brenda Uleland was considered to be the finest writing teacher of her time by many, including her friend and colleague Carl Sandberg.

 

Winchester, Simon. The Professor and the Madman

The compilation of the highly revered Oxford English Dictionary was a staggering task, and a great deal of the work was done, astonishingly, by an institutionalized murderer.