Washoe County Library System

George Orwell's timeless fable, a parable for would-be liberators everywhere, glimpsed through the lens of our own history. As ferociously fresh as it was more than a half century ago, this remarkable allegory of a downtrodden society of overworked, mistreated animals, and their quest to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality is one of the most scathing satires ever published. As we witness the rise and bloody fall of the revolutionary...

The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under -- maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche...

Set during the Great Depression, it traces the migration of an Oklahoma Dust Bowl family to California and their subsequent hardships as migrant farm workers

First published in 1907, “The Iron Heel” is Jack London’s dystopian novel about the rise of an oligarchic tyranny in the United States. Displaying the socialist views that were held by London himself and that were prevalent at the beginning of the 20th century, “The Iron Heel” tells the story of events far in the future when a small, wealthy class squeezes out the middle class and effectively rules with brutality for three centuries until...

"This beautiful, giftable Christmas collection features old-fashioned works from classic authors who invite you to a feast of holiday nostalgia. Stories and poetry have been part of the Christmas season for generations, reminding us that the heart of the holiday never changes. A Vintage Christmas is a unique collection of lesser-known Christmas tales, reflections, and poems from beloved authors across the centuries and makes the perfect gift for...

Loosely based on one of the most notorious crimes of the seventeenth century, The Marquise de Gange by The Marquis de Sade is a neglected classic. Although a departure from his earlier pornographic and libertine works, the novel reads with the same subversive tension of an author plotting against virtue in his distress. 'It is time to die, Madame: there shall be no mercy for you..!' It was one of the most shocking crimes of the seventeenth century,...

Pairs of rhyming words are introduced and used in simple sentences, such as "Day. Play. We play all day. Night. Fight. We fight all night." "Join Dr. Seuss in this classic rhyming picture book–"the simplest Seuss for youngest use." Full of short, simple words and silly rhymes, this book is perfect for reading alone or reading aloud with Dad! The rollicking rythym will keep kids entertained on every page, and it's an especially good way to...

Vividly depicts the colorful, sometimes disreputable, inhabitants of a run-down area in Monterey, California. Cannery Row is a book with a minimally developed plot. Instead, it's an attempt to depict the atmosphere and characters of a particular place-the cannery neighbourhood of Monterey, California, which is home to a mix of the poor and individuals who prefer not to live "up the hill" in the more respectable part of town for a variety of reasons....

"The hero-narrator of this novel is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he...

Schoolboys marooned on a tropical island revert to primitive savagery. ''Get ready for an adventure tale in its purest form, a thrilling and elegantly told account of a group of British schoolboys marooned on a tropical island. Alone in a world of uncharted possibilities, devoid of adult supervision or rules, the boys begin to forge their own society, their own rules, their own rituals. With this seemingly romantic premise, and through the seemingly...