Leisure Reads: Fiction and Popular Non-Fiction

In cold blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences by Capote, Truman

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott "Backgrounds and Contexts" includes a wealth of archival materials, among them previously unpublished correspondence with Thomas Niles and Alcott's own precursors to Little Women. "Criticism" reprints twenty nineteenth-century reviews. Seven modern essays represent a variety of critical theories used to read and study the novel, including feminist (Catharine R. Stimpson, Elizabeth Keyser), new historicist (Richard H. Brodhead), psychoanalytic (Angela M. Estes and Kathleen Margaret Lant), and reader-response (Barbara Sicherman). A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll Down down into the rabbit hole ...The Cheshire Cat, The Queen of Hearts, Caterpillar, the Hatter -All 4 COMPLETE books - all four FULLY illustrated, including originals by Carroll himself!Your Alice in Wonderland Complete Deluxe Illustrated Edition includes:+ All 4 Works are gorgeously illustrated with John Tenniel's original artworks+ EXCLUSIVE BONUS - Original drawings by Carroll himself for "Alice's Adventures Under Ground"!PLUS+ The full detailed bio by Belle Moses "Lewis Carroll in Wonderland and at home : the story of his life"* Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - restored illustrations John Tenniel* Through the Looking Glass - restored Illustrations by John Tenniel* Alice's Adventures Underground - original illustrations by Lewis Carroll himself!!* The Hunting of the Snark - all eight Parts fully illustrated.

The X Factor: A Quest for Excellence by George Plimpton; William S. Rukeyser (Editor); Anthony C. Kiser (Editor) George Plimpton is embarrassed. The noted amateur of odd sporting experience has lost one horseshoe match to George Bush, a match that was as much a test of wills as of skills. Now Bush has invited him back for a rematch. How to avoid humiliation the second time? What is that quality - we'll call it the X Factor - that all winners, from famous athletes to successful CEOs, seem to possess? Plimpton sets out to find it. The quest for this elusive ingredient is both hilarious and informative, leading from the locker room to the boardroom, with several strange stops in between. Plimpton corners superstars like Bill Russell and Billie Jean King, famous coaches, the chairman of American Express, sports doctors, and M & A king Henry Kravis, and puts the same question to all of them: What is it that allows an individual, or a team, to outperform competitors who are no less gifted, mentally and physically? Their answers run the gamut from motivational rage to new-age meditation, and Plimpton slowly pieces together a definition of this mysterious winning quality.

The disappearing spoon : and other true tales of madness, love, and the history of the world from the periodic table of the elements by Sam Kean

Frankenstein: Prodigal Son by Dean Koontz & Kevin J. Anderson

Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero by David Maraniss

Game of Thrones by George Martin

Are We Rome?: The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America by Cullen Murphy

The Hunger Games (Book 1) by Susan Collins

The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson

Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

Atlas Obscura: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders by Joshua Foer

The Goldfinch: A Novel by Donna Tartt