Solo Narration, Female - Barbara Rosenblat, reading Bronx Primitive: Portraits in a Childhood by Kate Simon

   Solo Narration, Male - Frank Muller, reading Tishomingo Blues by Elmore Leonard [CD FIC LEO]

Accomplished First Novels

   Writing a well-received novel anytime is quite a feat, but receiving critical and popular success with a first novel is truly an accomplishment. The following list is just a sample of some first novels that have jump-started an author’s career. Try one out and see what you think.

Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen Carter [FIC CAR, LP]

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant [FIC DIA, CAS, LP]

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger [FIC ENG]

Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding [FIC FIE, DVD]

Three Junes by Julia Glass [FIC GLA, LP]

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon [FIC HAD, CAS]

Mrs. Kimble by Jennifer Haigh [FIC HAI]

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd [FIC KID, CAS, CD, LP]

The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru [FIC KUN]

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri [FIC LAH, LP]

Mission Flats by William Landay [MYS LAN]

The Dive from Clausen’s Pier by Ann Packer [FIC PAC, LP]

The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst [FIC PAR]

I Don’t Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson [FIC PEA, LP]

Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold [FIC SEB, CAS, LP]

The Dark Room by Rachel Seiffert [FIC SEI]

White Teeth by Zadie Smith [FIC SMI]

   Long winter evenings are the perfect time to find a comfortable chair and read a thick, involving novel. Family sagas follow a family through the generations or during a momentous period of their lives. Try one of the following titles with a nice cup of tea or hot chocolate on a cold winter’s evening:

House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende [FIC ALL] - Follow the Trueba family -- their loves, their ambitions, their spiritual quests, their relations with one another, and their participation in the history of their times, a history that becomes destiny and overtakes them all. Begins at the turn of the century in an unnamed South American country.

Kane & Abel by Jeffrey Archer [FIC ARC] – In 1906, two baby boys entered the world. Across three generations, and around a rapidly changing world, their war rages unchecked, for the love of a dream, the loss of an empire, and the lure of a fortune.

Woman of Substance by Barbara Taylor Bradford [FIC BRA] - Young and impoverished Emma Harte embarks on a journey first of survival, then of unimaginable achievement. Driven to succeed, the iron-willed Emma parlays a small shop into the world's greatest department store and an international business empire.

Beulah Land by Lonnie Coleman [FIC COL] – Follow the trials and triumphs of the Kendall clan as they endure the Civil War in their home in the heart of Georgia. God is an Englishman by R.F. Delderfield [FIC DEL] - Traces the development of a haulage firm that serves all of England, Wales and part of Scotland. Follow the Swann family as they help create history.

The Immigrants by Howard Fast [FIC FAS] - Dan Lavette, son of an Italian fisherman, battles from the rubble of the San Francisco earthquake to build a fortune in the shipping industry. Rising to success through hard work and a loveless marriage to the daughter of the city's wealthiest family, he risks it all for the exotic beauty of a woman who shares his secret and scandalous passion.

The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy [FIC GAL] - A brilliant social satire by Nobel Prize-winning author John Galsworthy, this monumental trilogy chronicles the lives of three generations of an upper-middle-class London family obsessed with money and respectability.

Roots by Alex Haley [929.2 HAL] - Haley recaptures his family's history in this drama of eighteenth-century slave Kunta Kinte and his descendants. Follow six generations of people--slaves and freedmen, farmers and lawyers, an architect, a teacher--and one acclaimed author--descended from Kunte Kinte.

This Other Eden by Marilyn Harris [FIC HAR] - Set on the North Devon coast of England and in fashionable London during the period of the French Revolution, the novel tells the saga of the great Eden family and of the romantic, intensely dramatic events when the Edens and Lockes made their fateful union.

North and South by John Jakes [FIC JAK, CAS, LP] - Set during the Civil War, this ambitious epic interweaves the lives of two families representative of both the North and the South. The story includes such weighty themes, as abolition, love, religion, revenge and death.

In the Fall by Jeffrey Lent [FIC LEN, LP] - Spanning the post-Civil War era to the edge of the Great Depression, the novel is a richly layered rendering of a rapidly evolving America, from life on the farm through the final years of Prohibition and bootlegging, to the advent of modern times. It is a vision of an American landscape and history, and a portrait of an American family.

Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz [FIC MAH] - Describes the disintegrating family life of a tyrannical, prosperous merchant, his timid wife and their rebellious children in post-WW I Egypt. Al-Sayyid Ahmad, a middle-class merchant who runs his family strictly according to the Qur'an directs his own behavior according to his desires.

Back Bay by William Martin [FIC MAR] - The powerful Pratts have searched for generations for a lost family possession--a breathtaking Paul Revere treasure. A centuries-spanning tale of romance, greed, lust, and murder.

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough [FIC MCC] – A sweeping saga of dreams, titanic struggles, dark passions, and forbidden love that takes the reader from the Australian to the Papal court.

Hawaii by James Michener [FIC MIC] – This is a story of people of strength and character: the Polynesians, the fragile missionaries, the Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos who intermarried into a beautiful race called Hawaiians.

Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman [FIC PEN] – 13th-Century Wales is a divided country, ever at the mercy of England's ruthless King John. When Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, secures an uneasy truce with England by marrying the English king's beloved, illegitimate daughter, Joanna, the excitement begins.

The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan [FIC TAN, CAS, LP] - Chronicles the tortured, devoted relationship between LuLing Young and her daughter Ruth. This is a novel filled with idiosyncratic, sympathetic characters, haunting images, historical complexity, significant contemporary themes, and suspenseful mystery.

The Winds of War by Herman Wouk [FIC WOU] - Follows the various members of the Henry family as they become involved in the events preceeding America's involvement in World War II and captures all the drama, romance, heroism, and tragedy of the Second World War.

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Previous Issues of Book Notes

September/October 2004

November/December 2004