Showing 1–32 of 32 books
- Award year: 2009
- Genre: Realistic Fiction
- List: Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners
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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Born with water on the brain, Arnold Spirit, aka Junior, transfers to an all-white school off his reservation. He knows he won't easily fit in, but with self-determination and a solid personal identity, he has the chance to succeed. -
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. II: The Kingdom on the Waves
After escaping a death sentence in the summer of 1775, Octavian and his tutor find shelter but no safe harbor in British-occupied Boston and, persuaded by Lord Dunmore's proclamation offering freedom to slaves who join his counterrevolutionary Royal Ethiopian Regiment.
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Bastard Out of Carolina
Bone, an illegitimate child in a family of social outcasts, sees her mother's happiness with her new husband and will not tell when the stepfather begins abusing her in the 1950s- Realistic Fiction
- Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners 2009
- ISBN: 9780525934257
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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
A self-proclaimed “ghetto nerd,” outcast and animé-loving Oscar Wao is the latest in a long line of doomed generations to suffer the dreaded fuku curse of his native Dominican Republic. With only humor and talent as his weapons, he perseveres, knowing “you can never run away. Not ever. The only way out is in.” -
Caramelo
During her family's annual car trip from Chicago to Mexico City, Lala Reyes listens to stories about her family, including her grandmother, the descendant of a renowned dynasty of shawl makers, whose magnificent striped shawl has come into Lala's possession.- Realistic Fiction
- Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners 2009
- ISBN: 9780679435549
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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic, fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother -
Daniel Half-Human: And the Good Nazi
In 1933, best friends Daniel and Armin admire Hitler, but as anti-Semitism buoys Hitler to power, Daniel learns he is half Jewish, threatening the friendship even as life in their beloved Hamburg, Germany, is becoming nightmarish.- Realistic Fiction
- Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners 2009
- ISBN: 9783551580450
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Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters
Ella Minnow Pea is a girl living happily on the fictional island of Nollop off the coast of South Carolina. Nollop was named after Nevin Nollop, author of the immortal pangram, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."- Realistic Fiction
- Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners 2009
- ISBN: 9780385722438
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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
A new novel by the author of Everything Is Illuminated introduces Oskar Schell, the nine-year-old son of a man killed in the World Trade Center bombing who searches the city for a lock that fits a black key his father left behind.- Realistic Fiction
- Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners 2009
- ISBN: 9780618329700
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Forgotten Fire: A Novel
In 1915, Vahan Kenderian's life of privilege is shattered when family and friends disappear or are shot before his eyes in the Armenian Genocide- Realistic Fiction
- Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners 2009
- ISBN: 9780789426277
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The God of Animals
After her older sister elopes, 12-year-old Alice is left behind on the family's rundown Colorado horse farm to cope with her distant parents and the unsolved murder of a classmate. -
God's Debris: a Thought Experiment
Scott Adams, creator of the popular comic strip "Dilbert," has written a modern-day parable about a young man and an unlikely mentor.- Realistic Fiction
- Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners 2009
- ISBN: 9780740747878
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The Kite Runner
Traces the unlikely friendship of a wealthy Afghan youth and a servant's son in a tale that spans the final days of Afghanistan's monarchy through the atrocities of the present day -
The Known World
When a plantation proprietor and former slave--now possessing slaves of his own--dies, his household falls apart in the wake of a slave rebellion and corrupt underpaid patrollers who enable free black people to be sold into slavery.- Realistic Fiction
- Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners 2009
- ISBN: 9780060557546
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A Lesson Before Dying
In his first novel in ten years, Ernest Gaines, the highly acclaimed author of the best-selling The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, brings us a wrenching story of death and identity in a small Cajun Louisiana community in the late 1940s- Realistic Fiction
- Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners 2009
- ISBN: 9780679414773
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Looking for Alaska
Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash. -
Mister Pip
On a copper-rich tropical island shattered by war, on which survival is a daily struggle, eccentric Mr. Watts, the only white man left after the other teachers flee, spends his day reading to the local children from Charles Dickens's classic Great Expectations. -
Mosque
An author and artist who has continually stripped away the mystique of architectural structures that have long fascinated modern people, David Macaulay here reveals the methods and materials used to design and construct a mosque in late-sixteenth-century Turkey- Realistic Fiction
- Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners 2009
- ISBN: 9780618240340
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Never Let Me Go
From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans, comes an unforgettable edge-of-your-seat mystery that is at once heartbreakingly tender and morally courageous about what it means to be human- Realistic Fiction
- Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners 2009
- ISBN: 9781400043392
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New Found Land: Lewis and Clark's Voyage of Discovery
The letters and thoughts of Thomas Jefferson, members of the Corps of Discovery, their guide Sacagawea, and Captain Lewis's Newfoundland dog, all tell of the historic exploratory expedition to seek a water route to the Pacific Ocean.- Realistic Fiction
- Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners 2009
- ISBN: 9780763621131
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Nineteen Minutes
In Sterling, New Hampshire, 17-year-old high school student Peter Houghton has endured years of verbal and physical abuse at the hands of classmates- Realistic Fiction
- Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners 2009
- ISBN: 9780743496728
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Pillars of the Earth
Set in twelfth-century England, this epic of kings and peasants juxtaposes the building of a magnificent church with the violence and treachery that often characterized the Middle Ages.- Realistic Fiction
- Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners 2009
- ISBN: 9780688046590
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The Plot Against America
When the renowned aviation hero and rabid isolationist Charles A. Lindbergh defeated Franklin Roosevelt by a landslide in the 1940 presidential election, fear invaded every Jewish household in America- Realistic Fiction
- Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners 2009
- ISBN: 9780618509287
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Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea
A westerner's visit into North Korea, told in the form of a graphic novel. Famously referred to as one of the "Axis of Evil" countries, North Korea remains one of the most secretive and mysterious nations in the world today.- Realistic Fiction
- Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners 2009
- ISBN: 9781896597898
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The Red Tent: A Novel
The story of Dinah, a tragic character from the Bible whose great love, a prince, is killed by her brother, leaving her alone and pregnant- Realistic Fiction
- Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners 2009
- ISBN: 9780312169787
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Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead
Hamlet as told from the worm's-eye view of the bewildered Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters in Shakespeare's play- Realistic Fiction
- Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners 2009
- ISBN: 9780802132758
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The Secret Life of Bees
Set in South Carolina in 1964, [this book] tells 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.- Realistic Fiction
- Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners 2009
- ISBN: 9780670032372
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Sold
Thirteen-year-old Lakshmi leaves her poor mountain home in Nepal thinking that she is to work in the city as a maid only to find that she has been sold into the sex slave trade in India and that there is no hope of escape. -
Someday This Pain Will be Useful to You
Eighteen-year-old James living in New York City with his older sister and divorced mother struggles to find a direction for his life- Realistic Fiction
- Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners 2009
- ISBN: 9780374309893
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Sunrise Over Fallujah
Robin Perry, from Harlem, is sent to Iraq in 2003 as a member of the Civilian Affairs Battalion, and his time there profoundly changes him.- Realistic Fiction
- Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners 2009
- ISBN: 9780439916240
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A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World
An irresistible blend of history, myth, and misadventure, A Voyage Long and Strange captures the wonder and drama of first contact.- Realistic Fiction
- Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners 2009
- ISBN: 9780805076035
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What is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng: A Novel
A biographical novel traces the story of Valentino Achak Deng, who as a boy of seven was separated from his family when his village in southern Sudan was attacked by government helicopters.- Realistic Fiction
- Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners 2009
- ISBN: 9781932416640