Reading Essentials: 322 books

The Lark has all the charm and freshness which have made Nesbit's other novels so justly popular, and yet the story is entirely new and original. Two girls, Jane and Lucilla, are led by Jane's guardian to entertain high hopes. The fortune, however, which Jane should have inherited, has been lost by...

And another adventure of the kind and wonderful Doctor Dolittle begins as he discovers how to speak with ancient insects and plans a voyage to find them - but before he does so, one arrives in his garden. Chapters are ideal for bedtime reading. A charming tale sure to be enjoyed at any age.

This brilliant and evocative book is now widely regarded as the greatest single study of the age in any language. The late George Kitson Clark characterized it as "an historical essay of unique interest and importance." Though the book deserves to rank as a classic, its allusive style makes...

Germany's opening run of victory in World War II was only made possible by the panzer forces that Heinz Guderian (1888-1954), the father of modern tank warfare, had created and trained, and by his audacious leading of those forces from 1939-1941. Guderian's breakthrough at Sedan and lightning drive...

Ernie Pyle's gripping account of life on the European front-line during World War II. Written with touching sympathy and humanism, Brave Men offers a poignant description of the everyday experiences of American foot soldiers; their courage, humanism and unshakeable camaraderie. A must-read war memoir.

An elegantly written and engaging biography of the Jesuit missionary and explorer Jacques Marquette (1637-1675), based on the author's own wide knowledge and research.

On a site given by the Company of New France to the Ursulines (nuns) who landed in Quebec in 1630, was founded in 1641, a convent distroyed by fire in 1650, and rebuilt in 1651. This story is about Saint Ursula and the Urulines, who were the most adventurous of nuns.

Is it possible that a peasant and a circus girl could come to rule the Roman world? This is the strange tale of the harlot empress Theodora - the eerie beauty whose name stands in history beside Helen of Troy and Cleopatra. The daughter of a circus performer, a footloose vagabond and harlot, whose...

THE MAGNIFICENT CENTURY covers the turbulence, romance, and pageantry of Henry III's long and tumultuous reign, from 1216 to 1272. During his lifetime Henry was frequently unpopular, unreliable and inconsistent. Yet his reign saw spectacular advancement in the arts, sciences, and theology, as well as in government. Despite all, it was truly a magnificent century...

Thomas B. Costain's four-volume history of the Plantagenets begins with THE CONQUERING FAMILY and the conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066, closing with the reign of John in 1216. The troubled period after the Norman Conquest, when the foundations of government were hammered out between...

THE THREE EDWARDS covers the years between 1272 and 1377 when three Edwards ruled England. Edward I brought England out of the Middle Ages. Edward II had a tragic reign but gave his country Edward III, who ruled gloriously, if violently. "A thrilling narrative... history told with all the interest found only in a great novel." (Salt Lake City Tribune)

Captain Bligh and eighteen loyal members of the Bounty's crew were set adrift in a small open launch. This is the story of their incredible voyage of thirty-six hundred miles across an uncharted ocean...

When Janie Starks returns to her rural Florida home, her small black community is overwhelmed with curiosity about her relationship with a younger man.

A shining star of the Harlem Renaissance movement, Langston Hughes is one of modern literature's most revered African-American authors. Although best known for his poetry, Hughes produced in Not Without Laughter a powerful and pioneering classic novel. A fascinating chronicle of a family's joys and...