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Allende, Isabel. Ines of My Soul. 313 pages. Allende chronicles the brave deeds and passionate loves of Ines Surez, a spirited woman who journeys to the New World and helps establish the nation of Chile.

Atwood, Margaret.  The Blind Assassin. 521 pages. A novel within a novel, this Booker Prize winner includes a story told by two unnamed lovers. Told in a style that captures the colloquialisms of the 1930s and 1940s, it unfolds layer by layer and concludes with a twist.

Bin Ladin, Carmen. Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia. 214 pages (nonfiction). Carmen Bin Ladin, the sister-in-law of Osama Bin Laden, provides a penetrating look inside the Bin Laden family, Saudi society and the treatment of Saudi women.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. 190 pages. Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which book paper burns. Fahrenheit 451 is a short novel set in the (perhaps near) future when "firemen" burn books forbidden by the totalitarian "brave new world" regime.

Brooks, Geraldine.  Year of Wonders. 308 pages. In 1666, a young woman comes of age during an extraordinary year of love and death. Inspired by the true story of Eyam, a “plague village”  in the hill country of England.

Brown, Dan.  Angels and Demons. 572 pages. Robert Langdon goes to a Swiss research facility to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist and uncovers a plot involving an ancient secret brotherhood and a new weapon of destruction.

Bryson, Bill. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir. 270 pages (nonfiction). Bryson pens a vivid, nostalgic, and utterly hilarious memoir of growing up in the middle of the United States in the middle of the last century.

Cunningham, Michael.  The Hours. 226 pages. This Pulitzer Prize winter draws inventively on the life and work of Virginia Woolf to tell the story of a group of contemporary characters struggling with the conflicting claims of love and inheritance, hope and despair.

Cather, Willa.  My Antonia. 272 pages. Antonia Shimerda is the daughter of a Bohemian pioneer immigrant in Nebraska. Through the eyes of friend and narrator Jim Burden, the reader follows her life that includes many hardships but ultimately is one of inner triumph.

Dallas, Sandra. Tallgrass. 305 pages. During World War II, a family finds life turned upside down when the government opens a Japanese internment camp in their small Colorado town.

Dean, Debra. The Madonnas of Leningrad. 231 pages. Moving back and forth in time between the Siege of Leningrad and modern-day America, this novel is a searing portrait of war and remembrance, of the power of love, memory, and art to offer beauty, grace, and hope in the face of overwhelming despair.

Diamant, Anita.  The Red Tent. 321 pages. In the Book of Genesis, Dinah’s tale is a short, horrific detour in the narrative of Jacob and Joseph.  In the Biblical tale Dinah is given no voice; here, she is the narrator of the novel, revealing the life of ancient womanhood.

Didion, Joan. The Year of Magical Thinking. 227 pages (nonfiction). Didion chronicles the experience of losing her husband to a massive coronary just weeks after the two of them watched as their only daughter was put into an induced coma to save her life.

Doig, Ivan. The Whistling Season. 345 pages. This is the saga of how a widow from Minneapolis and her brother -- soon to become the new teacher in a tiny Montana community in 1909 -- change lives in unexpected ways.

Dubus III, Andre.   The House of Sand and Fog.  365 pages. Drawn by their competing desires to the same small house in the California hills and doomed by their tragic inability to understand one another, three people converge in an explosive collision course.

Edwards, Kim. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter.  401 pages. In 1964, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins, he recognizes that one of them has Down Syndrome and makes a decision that will haunt all their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and to keep her birth a secret. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child as her own.

Egan, Timothy. The Worst Hard Time: the Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl. 340 pages (nonfiction). Pulitzer Prize-winning Egan follows a half-dozen families and their communities through the dust storms that terrorized America's High Plains during the Depression.

Ellis, Joseph.  His Excellency: George Washington. 320 pages (nonfiction). Ellis paints a full portrait of George Washington's life and career -- from his military years through his two terms as president. He richly details Washington's private life and illustrates the ways in which it influenced his public persona.

Enger, Leif.  Peace Like a River. 312 pages. Reuben Land, 11, an asthmatic boy, has reason to believe in miracles. Along with his sister and father, he finds himself on a cross-country search for his outlaw older brother who has been controversially charged with murder.

Erdrich, Louise. The Master Butcher’s Singing Club. 388 pages. What happens when a trained killer discovers that his true vocation is love? Having survived World War I, Fidelis Waldvogel returns home to his quiet German village and marries the pregnant widow of his best friend who was killed in action.

Flagg, Fannie. Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven. 365 pages. Flagg takes readers back to Elmwood Springs, MO, where the most unlikely and surprising experiences of a high-spirited octogenarian inspire a town to ponder the age-old question: Why are we here?

Franklin, Ariana. Mistress of the Art of Death. 420 pages. In medieval Cambridge, England, four children have been murdered. The crimes are immediately blamed on the town's Jewish community. King Henry I places the Cambridge Jews under his protection and appeals to his cousin, the King of Sicily, to send him his finest "master of the art of death." Her name is Adelia.

Franzen, Jonathan.  The Corrections. 566 pages. Winner of the 2001 National Book Award, this novel tells a comic, tragic story of an American family breaking down in an age of easy fixes.

Gilbert, Elizabeth. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia. 334 pages (nonfiction). Leaving behind all the trappings of modern American success, Gilbert sets out for a year to explore three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures: the art of pleasure in Italy; the art of devotion in India; and then a balance between the two in Indonesia.

Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. 916 pages (nonfiction). Goodwin illuminates Lincoln's political genius as she chronicles the rise of the one-term congressman/prairie lawyer from obscurity to prevail over three gifted rivals of national reputation to become president and then persuade them to join his cabinet.

Grogan, John. Marley & Me. 305 pages (nonfiction). The heartwarming and unforgettable story of a family in the making and the wondrously neurotic dog who taught them what really matters in life.

Gruen, Sara. Water for Elephants. 350 pages. In 1932 Jacob Jankowski jumps onto a passing train and joins a second-rate circus. There that he meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, who is married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. He also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her.

Haddon, Mark.  The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. 226 pages. Christopher Boone is 15 and has Asperger’s, a form of autism. When he finds his neighbor’s dog murdered, he sets out on a journey which will turn his world upside down.

Haigh, Jennifer. Baker Towers. 334 pages. Baker Towers is an intimate exploration of love and family set in a western Pennsylvania coal town in the years following World War II. For the five Novak children, the Forties are a decade of tragedy, excitement and stunning change.

Hansen, Ron. Isn’t It Romantic? 198 pages. Mistaken identity, botched schemes and hilarious misunderstandings all play a part when Nebraskan common sense and Parisian sophistication collide in this romantic comedy by National Book Award finalist Ron Hansen.

Haruf, Kent. Plainsong. 301 pages. Set in a small town in the plains of Colorado, this novel tells the interrelated stories of 8 characters whose lives undergo radical change during the course of one year.

Hicks, Robert. Widow of the South. 436 pages. This debut novel is based on the true story of Carrie McGavock. During the Civil War's Battle of Franklin, a five-hour bloodbath with 9,200 casualties, McGavock's home was turned into a field hospital where four generals died. For 40 years she tended the private cemetery on her property where more than 1,000 were laid to rest.

Hosseini, Khaled.  Kite Runner. 371 pages. Narrator Amir comes of age during the last peaceful days of the Afghanistan monarchy, then must endure revolution, invasion and a country’s struggle to triumph over violent forces.

Isaacson, Walter. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. 586 pages (nonfiction). This portrait of Benjamin Franklin’s public and private life also examines American and European political history of the time.

Jacobs, Kate. The Friday Night Knitting Club. 372 pages. Walker & Daughter is Georgia Walker's little yarn shop, tucked into a quiet storefront on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The Friday Night Knitting Club was started by some of Georgia's regulars, who gather once a week to work on their latest projects and tell their stories of love, life and everything in between.

Kava, Alex.  One False Move. 384 pages. Mother-and-son-con-artists Melanie and Charlie Starks team up with an ex-con who has recently gotten away with murder to pull off the ultimate heist. But during the robbery, everything goes wrong.

Kidd, Sue Monk.  The Mermaid Chair. 335 pages. Jessie Sullivan returns home to South Carolina after a traumatic family incident and gets to know a monk named Brother Thomas, becoming involved in the world of the monastery where the "mermaid" chair is part of a shrine. (This book is made available through a donation by the Tattered Covers Book Club.)

Kidd, Sue Monk.  The Secret Life of Bees. 302 pages. Set in South Carolina in 1964, this novel tells the story of Lily Owens who’s trying to discover the secret of her dead mother’s past. When her “stand-in mother” Rosaleen insults the town’s fiercest racists, they escape and are taken in by three black beekeeping sisters.

Kingsolver, Barbara.  Prodigal Summer. 444 pages. This novel is a hymn to wildness that celebrates the prodigal spirit of human nature, and of nature itself.  It weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives amid the mountains and farms of southern Appalachia.

Kloefkorn, William. Restoring the Burning Child. 172 pages (2008 One Book One Nebraska Selection; nonfiction). The second volume in Kloefkorn's four-part memoir, Restoring the Burnt Child describes with humor and lyrical prose the unsentimental education he received growing up in a small town in Kansas at the time of World War II.

Kooser, Ted. Local Wonders. 153 pages (nonfiction). Kooser describes with exquisite detail and humor the place he calls home in the rolling hills of southeastern Nebraska where nothing is too big or too small for his attention.

Landvik, Lorna. Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons. 404 pages. This novel describes four decades of laughter, heartache, and friendship in the lives of five small-town women--members of AHEB (Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons), an unofficial "club" that becomes much more.

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. 323 pages. Set in a small Alabama town during the Depression, the novel follows 3 years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus -- 3 years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman.

Maguire, Gregory.  Wicked. 406 pages. The Wizard of Oz is one of the most watched, best-loved movies of all time. Here's a twist in the tale -- a richly comic, highly literary, and entertaining excursion into the life and times of the infamous Wicked Witch of the West.

Martel, Yann. Life of Pi. 319 pages. Winner of the Booker Award, this novel tells of a metaphysical adventure as Pi, the son of a zookeeper, is marooned aboard a lifeboat with four wild animals.

Messud, Claire.  The Emperor’s Children. 478 pages. A novel of fate and fortune--of love and friendship, family and secrets, of striving and glamour, disaster and promise--this post 9/11 novel brings to life a city, a generation, and the idea of living in the moment for three friends.

McBride, James. The Color of Water. 291 pages (nonfiction). This memoir tells of McBride’s childhood in a mixed-race family. He was an adult before he discovered the truth about his mother:  the daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi in rural Virginia, she had run away to Harlem, married a black man, and founded an all-black Baptist church.

McCarthy, Cormac.  The Road. 287 pages. A searing, post-apocalyptic novel, The Road boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which a father and his son are each other's world entire. It is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best of which we are capable.

McCullough, David.  Mornings on Horseback. 445 pages (nonfiction). Mornings on Horseback is the story of a young Theodore Roosevelt, handicapped by recurrent and nearly fatal attacks of asthma, and his struggle to manhood, seen in the context of the very uncommon household (and rarefied social world) in which he was raised. (NOTE: Only 7 copies available.)

McNeal, Tom.  Goodnight, Nebraska. 314 pages. Randall Hunsacker is only 17, but he already has two strikes against him: his father’s death when he was 13 led to a succession of “stepfathers” moving through his life and the last one, Lenny, Randall has shot.  The shooting, a suicide attempt, and a stint in juvenile hall bring him to the small town of Goodnight, Neb.

Mortenson, Greg.  Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations – One School at a Time. 349 pages (nonfiction). This is an account of one man’s campaign to build schools (especially for girls) in the most dangerous, remote, and anti-American reaches of Asia.

Nemirovsky, Irene. Suite Francaise. 431 pages. An extraordinary novel of French life under Nazi occupation -- discovered and published 62 years after the author's tragic death at Auschwitz.

Niffenegger, Audrey.  The Time Traveler’s Wife. 546 pages. This debut novel depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare’s marriage and their passionate love for each other as the story unfolds from both points of view.

Philbrick, Nathaniel. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War. 463 pages (nonfiction). The startling story of the Plymouth Colony -- from the flight to religious freedom to the war that ravaged New England.

Picoult, Jodi. My Sister’s Keeper. 423 pages. Written with grace, wisdom and sensitivity, this novel is about a teen who was conceived as a bone marrow match for her sister Kate, and what happens when she begins to question who she really is.

Picoult, Jodi. Nineteen Minutes. 455 pages. Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens -- until the day its complacency is shattered by a shocking act of violence. In the aftermath, the town's residents must not only seek justice in order to begin healing but also come to terms with the role they played in the tragedy.

Powers, Richard. The Echo Maker. 451 pages. On a remote Nebraska road, 27-year-old Mark Schluter flips his truck in a near-fatal accident. When he emerges from a protracted coma, Mark believes that his sister is really an identical impostor.

Robinson, Marilynne. Housekeeping. 219 pages. Ruth and her younger sister Lucille grow up haphazardly in the small town of Fingerbone in the Far West, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, the eccentric and remote sister of their dead mother.

Roth, Philip. The Plot Against America. 416 pages. In this alternate history, Pulitzer Prize winner Roth considers what it could be like for his Newark family during the menacing years of a Charles Lindbergh presidency, when American citizens who happened to be Jews would have every reason to expect the worst.

Sandoz, Mari. Crazy Horse. 428 pages (nonfiction). Sandoz unfurls the story of the noted Oglala Sioux warrior who fought many battles for his people's independence, culminating with wiping out Custer's troops at the Little Bighorn. Despite his apparent standoffishness, Crazy Horse was a charismatic leader and clever strategist.

Schaffert, Timothy.  The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God. 230 pages. Newly divorced, Hud Smith channels his regret into writing country-western songs, contemplating life on the lam with his 8-year-old daughter, and searching cryptic postcards for news of his teenage son who has run off with the Daughters of God, an alternative Gospel-punk band.

Sebold, Alice. The Lovely Bones. 328 pages. This is a tale of family, memory, love and living as told by 14-year-old Susie Salmon from her vantage point in Heaven. She recounts her rape and murder and watches her family as they cope with their grief.

See, Lisa. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. 269 pages. In 19th-century China, when wives and daughters were foot-bound and lived in almost total seclusion, the women in one remote county developed their own secret code, thereby reaching out of their isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments.

Setterfield, Diana. The Thirteenth Tale. 404 pages. Reclusive author Vida Winter, famous for her collection of 12 enchanting stories, has spent the past six decades penning a series of alternate lives for herself. Now old and ailing, she is ready to reveal the truth about her extraordinary existence and the violent and tragic past she has kept hidden for so long to young biographer Margaret Lea.

Shaffner, George. In the Land of Second Chances. 314 pages. The folks of Ebb, Nebraska, are revitalized when a handsome stranger comes to town selling games of chance. Wherever he is from and whoever he is, he leaves behind a town where second chances not only happen -- they transform.

Shipler, David.  Working Poor: Invisible in America. 329 pages (nonfiction). Pulitzer prize-winning author David Shipler presents an intimate portrait of working American families struggling against insurmountable odds to escape poverty.

Shreve, Anita. Sea Glass. 376 pages. Set in 1929 at a decaying beach house on the Atlantic Coast, "Sea Glass" unfolds a richly engaging tale of marriage, money, and troubled times. (Books donated by the Tattered Covers book club.)

Smith, Alexander McCall. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. 235 pages. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency consists of one woman, the engaging and sassy Precious Ramotswe, who sets up shop in Gaborone, Botswana.

Tan, Amy.  The Bonesetter’s Daughter. 403 pages. As a child, Ruth was subjected to her mother's notions about curses and ghosts and her repeated threats to kill herself. But now LuLing Young seems happy. LuLing begins to write all that she can remember of her life as a girl in China. When Ruth discovers the papers, she finds each page reveals secrets about her mother's heart.

Tyler, Anne. Digging to America. 227 pages. Two families, who would otherwise never have come together, meet by chance at the Baltimore airport, each awaiting the arrival of an adopted infant daughter from Korea. Their lives become intertwined in this novel that explores what it is to be an American, and "outsiderness."

Ward, Liza. Outside Valentine. 301 pages. Based on the Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate murders in Nebraska in the 1950s, Liza Ward’s spellbinding first novel is told from the very different points of view of three narrators mysteriously linked by a shocking crime and their efforts to heal the past.