Famous Writers I Have Known

10 best books like Famous Writers I Have Known (James Magnuson): Rooftops of Tehran, Much Ado About Nothing, Lessons From Lucy: The Simple Joys of an Old, Happy Dog, Lady Susan, Nanaville: Adventures in Grandparenting, Call It Courage, Storyteller, Ice Land, Man at the Helm, The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For and Believe

Rooftops of Tehran

Author

Mahbod Seraji

From "a striking new talent"(Sandra Dallas, author of Tallgrass) comes an unforgettable debut novel of young love and coming of age in an Iran headed toward revolution.

In this poignant, eye-opening and emotionally vivid novel, Mahbod Seraji lays bare the beauty and brutality of the centuries-old...

Much Ado About Nothing

Author	William Shakespeare
ISBN	0743482751

Much Ado About Nothing, abridged.

CLAUDIO: So, um, Hero, I sorta maybe like you a whole lot will you go to the prom with me?

HERO: We should get married! Squeeeeeee!

BEATRICE: Pfft. Love is for stupid losers who are stupid.

BENEDICK: You know, you might get laid more...

Lessons From Lucy: The Simple Joys of an Old, Happy Dog

Author	Dave Barry
ISBN	1501161172

In this “little gem” ( Washington Independent Review of Books), Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist and New York Times bestselling author Dave Barry learns how to age happily from his old but joyful dog, Lucy.

As Dave Barry turns seventy—not happily—he realizes that his dog,...

Lady Susan

Author	Jane Austen
ISBN	0486444074

Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere.

O Lady Susan Vernon, what a juicy jewel of a villainous character you are, a black diamond, repelling and fascinating at the same time, your wicked charm inspiring possibly an uncanny form of envy more than simple revulsion. Deceiving everyone...

Nanaville: Adventures in Grandparenting

Author	Anna Quindlen
ISBN	0812996100

Mother, mother-in-law, grandmother--the Pulitzer-winning columnist and #1 bestselling author reflects on the roles we play throughout our lives, sharing personal stories and advice on the special joys and complexities of middle age.

It's a little challenging to suss out why exactly...

Call It Courage

Author	Armstrong Sperry
ISBN	0689713916

A boy tries to overcome his fear of the sea in this treasured classic and winner of the Newbery Medal.

Mafatu was afraid of the sea. It had taken his mother when he was a baby, and it seemed to him that the sea gods sought vengeance at having been cheated of Mafatu. So, though he was the son of the Great...

Storyteller

Author

Leslie Marmon Silko

"She was an old woman now, and her life had become memories." She's Ayah, an Indian woman, and her story encapsulates the persecution and suffering of the Native Americans in the hands of the white colonizers.

I had always suspected that great literature often springs out of suffering, whether...

Ice Land

Author	Betsy Tobin
ISBN	1906021147

A beautiful epic of love, longing, redemption, and enchantment in the tradition of Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon

Iceland, AD 1000
Freya knows that her people are doomed. Warned by the Fates of an impending disaster, she must embark on a journey to find a magnificent gold necklace,...

Man at the Helm

Author	Nina Stibbe
ISBN	0241003156

My sister and I and our little brother were born (in that order) into a very good situation and apart from the odd new thing life was humdrum and comfortable until an evening in 1970 when my mother listened in to my father's phone call and ended up blowing her nose on a tea towel - a thing she'd only have done...

The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For and Believe

Author	Richard Rohr
ISBN	1524762091

Richard Rohr, one of the world's most influential spiritual thinkers, delivers his long-awaited book on Jesus. In this radical message of hope, Rohr shows how "Jesus" + "Christ" reveal the divine wholeness at the heart of things--and what that means for every one of us.

In his decades as a globally...

City of Grit and Gold

Author	Maud Macrory Powell
ISBN	0996755853

The streets of Chicago in 1886 are full of turmoil. Striking workers clash with police…illness and injury lurk around every corner…and twelve-year-old Addie must find her way through it all. Torn between her gruff Papa—who owns a hat shop and thinks the workers should be content with their American...

The Mathematician's Shiva

Author	Stuart Rojstaczer
ISBN	0143126318

A comic, bittersweet tale of family evocative of The Yiddish Policemen’s Union and Everything Is Illuminated

Alexander "Sasha" Karnokovitch and his family would like to mourn the passing of his mother, Rachela, with modesty and dignity. But Rachela, a famous Polish émigré mathematician...