Set during the Great Depression of the 1930s, Water for Elephants tells the story of a young man who leaves his life as a Cornell University veterinary student and joins the circus after his parents are killed in an automobile accident. The story is told as a series of memories. The main character, Jacob Jankowski, is in a nursing home and reminisces about his time with the circus. Jacob is employed as the show’s veterinarian and he faces a number of challenges in dealing with the head trainer, August, while also learning how to function in the hierarchy of the circus and falling in love.

An epic tale of fathers and sons, of friendship and betrayal, that takes us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the atrocities of the present. The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father's servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption, and it is also about the power of fathers over sons-their love, their sacrifices, their lies.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan’s last thirty years—from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to the post-Taliban rebuilding—that puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives—the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness—are inextricable from the history playing out around them

Like Water for Chocolate is a popular novel, published in 1989 by first-time Mexican novelist Laura Esquivel. The novel follows the story of a young girl named Tita who longs her entire life for her lover, Pedro, but can never have him because of her domineering mother's traditional belief that the youngest daughter must not marry but instead care for her parents. Tita is only able to express her passions and feelings through her cooking, which causes the people who taste it to experience what she feels. The novel was originally published in Spanish as Como agua para chocolate and has been translated into thirty languages; there are over three million copies in print worldwide. The novel makes heavy use of magical realism.

The Bluest Eye is a 1970 novel by American author and Nobel Prize recipient Toni Morrison. Morrison's first novel, which was written while Morrison taught at Howard University and was raising her two sons on her own,[1] the story is about a year in the life of a young black girl in Lorain, Ohio named Pecola. It takes place against the backdrop of America's Midwest as well as the Great Depression. The Bluest Eye is told from five perspectives: Pecola's, her mother's, her father's, her friend Claudia's, and Soaphead Church's.

Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a 1969 autobiographical novel about the early years of author Maya Angelou's life. The autobiography explores the isolation and loneliness faced by Angelou, and the attributes of her character that helped her cope with the prejudices of society. The novel is the first in a six-volume autobiographical series, covering her childhood and young adult experiences. Later books in the series include Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now, All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes, and A Song Flung Up to Heaven.