Recorded Books contemporary classics | Park County Library System

Author

Lewis, Sinclair, 1885-1951

Earliest Publication Date

1922

Summary

Babbitt turns the spotlight on middle America and strips bare the hypocrisy of business practice, social mores, politics, and religious institutions. In his introduction and notes Gordon Hutner explores the novel's historical and literary contexts, and highlights its rich cultural and social references. --from publisher description

Author

Wharton, William

Earliest Publication Date

1979

Summary

This masterful National Book Award winner explores the shattering effects of war on the human mind. Growing up, Birdy dreams of flying like a bird and shares these fantasies with his best friend Al. Years later, World War II sends both men to hospitals-Al for physical wounds, and Birdy for psychological trauma. When Birdy falls into a catatonic state, it is Al who tries to pull him out.

3) Crossing to safety

Author

Stegner, Wallace, 1909-1993

Earliest Publication Date

1987

Summary

One of the finest American authors of the 20th century, Wallace Stegner compiled an impressive collection of accolades during his lifetime, including a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, a National Book Award, and three O. Henry Awards. His final novel, Crossing to Safety is the quiet yet stirring tale of two couples that meet during the Great Depression and form a lifelong bond. "This is a wonderfully rich, warm, and affecting book."-Library Journal

4) Death in the afternoon

Author

Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961

Earliest Publication Date

1932

Summary

"Death in the afternoon" is Hemingway's classic work on the art of bullfighting. It tells of the bullfighters and the bulls, the bravery and cowardice, the pageantry and the history--enlivened by Hemingway's pungent comments on life and literature.

5) Gone with the wind

Author

Mitchell, Margaret, 1900-1949

Earliest Publication Date

1936

Summary

After the Civil War sweeps away the genteel life to which she has been accustomed, Scarlett O'Hara sets about to salvage her Georgia plantation home.

Author

Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961

Earliest Publication Date

1930

Summary

Short stories in the laconic style of a news reporter.

7) Islands in the stream

Author

Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961

Earliest Publication Date

1970

Summary

First published in 1970, nine years after Ernest Hemingway's death, Islands in the Stream is the story of an artist and adventurer -- a man much like Hemingway himself. Rich with the uncanny sense of life and action characteristic of his writing -- from his earliest stories (In Our Time) to his last novella (The Old Man and the Sea) -- this compelling novel contains both the warmth of recollection that inspired A Moveable Feast and a rare glimpse...

8) Journey to Ixtlan: the lessons of Don Juan

Author

Castaneda, Carlos, 1931-1998

Earliest Publication Date

1972

Summary

Castanada relays his experiences being challenged by his mentor on his perception of the world and all living things in it.

9) Killing Mister Watson

Author

Matthiessen, Peter

Earliest Publication Date

1990

Summary

Drawn from fragments of historical fact, Matthiessen's masterpiece depicts the fortunes and misfortunes of Edgar J. Watson, a real-life entrepreneur and outlaw who appeared in the lawless Florida Everglades around the turn of the century.

10) Nada

Author

Laforet, Carmen

Earliest Publication Date

2007

Summary

In Barcelona, in the wake of the Spanish Civil War, Andrea, a young university student, moves into a strange, gothic house inhabited by a volatile array of aunts and uncles in order to attend college.

11) Night

Author

Wiesel, Elie, 1928-2016

Earliest Publication Date

1960

Summary

Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion Wiesel, Elie's wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and spirit truest to the author's original intent. And in a substantive new preface, Elie reflects on the enduring importance of Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication...

12) Pippi Longstocking

Author

Lindgren, Astrid, 1907-2002

Earliest Publication Date

1950

Summary

Escapades of a lucky little girl who lives with a horse and a monkey--but without any parents--at the edge of a Swedish village.

13) The age of innocence

Author

Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937

Earliest Publication Date

1920

Summary

"As the scion of one of New York's leading families, Newland Archer has been born into a life of sumptuous privilege and strict duty. Sensitive and intelligent, he respects the rigid social codes of his class, and is thankful that his forthcoming marriage to May Welland is to 'one of his own kind'. But the arrival of the Countess Olenska, a free spirit who breathes clouds of European sophistication, makes him question the path on which his upbringing...

Author

Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924

Earliest Publication Date

1954

Summary

Kafka's last novel, The Castle is set in a remote village covered almost permanently in snow and dominated by a castle and its staff of dictatorial, sexually predatory bureaucrats. The novel breaks new ground in exploring the relation between the individual and power, asking why the villagers so readily submit to an authority which may exist only in their collective imagination. Published only after Kafka's death, The Castle appeared in the same decade...

15) The counterlife

Author

Roth, Philip, 1933-2018

Earliest Publication Date

1987

Summary

The Counterlife is about people enacting their dreams of renewal and escape, some of them going so far as to risk their lives to alter seemingly irreversible destinies. Wherever they may find themselves, the characters of The Counterlife are tempted unceasingly by the prospect of an alternative existence that can reverse their fate.Illuminating these lives in transition and guiding us through the book's evocative landscapes, familiar and foreign,...

16) The island of Dr. Moreau

Author

Wells, H. G. (Herbert George), 1866-1946

Earliest Publication Date

1896

Summary

Dr. Moreau, a scientist, finds an isolated island that gives him the freedom to create hideous creatures with human intelligence.

17) The red pony

Author

Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968

Earliest Publication Date

1945

Summary

From the Publisher: Raised on a ranch in northern California, Jody is well-schooled in the hard work and demands of a rancher's life. He is used to the way of horses, too; but nothing has prepared him for the special connection he will forge with Gabilan, a hot-tempered pony his father gives him. With Billy Buck, the hired hand, Jody tends and trains his horse, restlessly anticipating the moment he will sit high upon Gabilan's saddle. But when Gabilan...

18) The snows of Kilimanjaro, and other stories

Author

Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961

Earliest Publication Date

1961

Summary

The ideal introduction to the genius of Ernest Hemingway, these stories are beautiful in their simplicity, startling in their originality, and unsurpassed in their craftsmanship, the stories in this volume highlight one of America's master storytellers at the top of his form.

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