Catalog Search Results
1) Native son
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 6.1 - AR Pts: 24
Lexile measure
700L
Language
English
Description
Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic. Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Richard Wright's novel is just as powerful today as when it was written -- in its reflection of poverty and hopelessness, and what...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
"The gripping tale about two boys, once as close as brothers, who find themselves on opposite sides of the Holocaust. Elliot Rosenzweig, a respected civic leader and wealthy philanthropist, is attending a fundraiser when he is suddenly accosted and accused of being a former Nazi SS officer named Otto Piatek, "the butcher of Zamosc." Although the charges are denounced as preposterous, his accuser, Ben Solomon, is convinced he is right. Solomon persuades...
3) Hello girls
Author
Language
English
Description
Best friends are forged by fire. For Winona Olsen and Lucille Pryce, that fire happened the night they met outside the police station, both deciding whether to turn their families in for abuse and mistreatment. They realize they can't wait until graduation to start their new lives. They need out. Now. All they need is three grand, fast. And really, a stolen convertible to take them from Michigan to Las Vegas can't hurt.
Author
Series
Heirloom novels volume 01
Language
English
Description
"Through an heirloom charm bracelet three women will rediscover the importance of family, love, faith, friends, fun and a passion for living as the magic of each charm changes their lives. Lolly, still lives in the family cabin on Lost Land Lake where her mother gave her the charm bracelet that would become Lolly's talisman and connection to family past and Lolly hopes the present, but her daughter, Arden, and granddaughter, Lauren, haven't visited...
5) So Big
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 5.8 - AR Pts: 14
Lexile measure
900L
Language
English
Description
Winner of the 1924 Pulitzer Prize, So Big is widely regarded as Edna Ferber's crowning achievement. A rollicking panorama of Chicago's high and low life, this stunning novel follows the travails of gambler's daughter Selina Peake DeJong as she struggles to maintain her dignity, her family, and her sanity in the face of monumental challenges.
Author
Language
English
Description
"For fans of Jacqueline Woodson and Brit Bennett, a striking coming-of-age debut about friendship, community, and resilience, set in the housing projects of Chicago during one life-changing summer. "Toya Wolfe is a storyteller of the highest order. Last Summer on State Street is a stunning debut."--Rebecca Makkai, New York Times bestselling author of The Great Believers Even when we lose it all, we find the strength to rebuild. Felicia "Fe Fe" Stevens...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
Never Come Morning is unique among the novels of Algren. The author's only romance, the novel concerns Brun Bicek, a would-be pub from Chicago's Northwest side, and Steffi, the woman who shares his dream while living his nightmare. This new edition features an introduction by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and an interview with Nelson Algren by H.E.F. Donohue.
Author
Language
English
Description
A darkly funny and heartfelt debut novel about what it means to grow up young and black on the south side of Chicago when it feels like your choices are slim to none.
Claude McKay Love is an average kid coping with abandonment, violence, riots, failed love, and societal pressures. As a young black man born on the South Side of Chicago, he is raised by his civil rights-era grandmother, who tries to shape him into a principled actor for change. When...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
"Gail and Jon Durbin moved to the Chicago suburbs to set up house as soon as Gail got pregnant. But then she miscarried - once, twice, three times. Determined to expand their family, the Durbins turn to adoption. When several adoptions fall through, Gail's desire for a child overwhelms her. Carli is a pregnant teenager from a blue-collar town nearby, with dreams of going to college and getting out of her mother's home. When she makes the gut-wrenching...
Author
Language
English
Description
"Carol misses red flags about Joe's need for control before she marries him, dashing her dreams for herself and her family. Trouble escalates after their daughter Ellie is paralyzed by the polio virus and Joe returns from WWII. Carol realizes howbrutal waking life can be, and she conceals bruises and protects her children the best she can. The Moments Between Dreams is a captivating story of a 1940s housewife who conforms to the rulebook of society...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
As rock and roll novelist Tom Carson writes in his introduction, "The Neon Wilderness is the pivotal book of Nelson Algren's career--the one which bid a subdued but determined farewell to everything that had earlier made him no more than just another good writer, and inaugurated the idiosyncratic, bedevilled, cantankerously poetic sensibility that would see him ranked among the few literary originals of his times."
Algren's classic 1947 short story...
12) The actual
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
Harry Trellman doesn't belong. Not in the Chicago orphanage where he is sent by his mother, not in high school (too brainy), not even on the streets. Human attachments? Yes, he has them, but they are like everything else in his life, singular and irregular. People who know him say that he "drowns his feelings in his face," and that he has a Mongolian "masked look." But though Harry stands apart, he has always been a most keen observer, listener, recorder,...
14) Torn by the code
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
Elana Dolvan lived through a treacherous childhood in Chicago, and wants to be more than another 'hood life' statistic, so she sets her sights on the top. Elana works her way up the steep ladder of white collar success, achieving one of the most impressive careers in her family's history. She becomes a powerful attorney, but the lure of the streets is still strong. She is also known in the underworld as Dutchtress, one of the most ruthless female...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
"Aleksandar and Isobel are siblings and former classical music prodigies, once destined for greatness. As the only Eastern European family growing up on their block on the far southside of Chicago, the pair were inseparable until each was forced to confront the absurdity of tragedy at an early age and abandon their musical ambitions. Now in their twenties, they find themselves encountering ridiculous jobs, unfulfilling romantic relationships, and...
16) Crossroads
Author
Series
Key to all mythologies volume 1
Language
English
Description
"It's December 23, 1971, and heavy weather is forecast for Chicago. Russ Hildebrandt, the associate pastor of a liberal suburban church, is on the brink of breaking free of a marriage he finds joyless -- unless his wife, Marion, who has her own secret life, beats him to it. Their eldest child, Clem, is coming home from college on fire with moral absolutism, having taken an action that will shatter his father. Clem's sister, Becky, long the social...
Author
Language
English
Description
Addie Downs and Valerie Adler, who were best friends in grade school but grew apart when they became teens and are now in their thirties, find their relationship evolving once again when Valerie shows up at Addie's house with blood-stained sleeves and says Addie is the only person who can help her.
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