Adult Vacation Reading Challenge 2010 – Reading List
Caribbean Titles
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Pick of the crop : a novella / Nailah Folami Imoja Adult WI Fiction
WI F Imo
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All the finest girls : a novel / Alexandra Styron. Adult Fiction
F Sty
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Frangipani house / Beryl Gilroy Adult WI Fiction
WI F Gil
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He drown she in the sea / Shani Mootoo Adult WI Fiction
WI F Moo
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Midnight robber / Nalo Hopkinson. Adult WI Fiction
WI F Hop
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Every time a rainbow dies / Rita Williams-Garcia Young Adult
YA F Wil
Summary: After seeing a girl raped and becoming obsessed with her, sixteen-year-old Thulani finds
motivation to move beyond his interest in his pigeons and his grief over his mother's death.
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My grandmother's erotic folk tales / Robert Antoni. Adult WI Fiction
WI Ant
Summary: "With stories of adventure and occasional orgies in her boarding house for American soldiers
during the war, including her confrontations with the Kentucky colonel, the Tanzanian devil and the King
of Chacachacari."
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High tide of intrigue / Michael Anthony Adult WI Fiction
WI Ant
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The Stolen cascadura / by Beverley-Ann Scott Adult WI Non-fiction
WI Sco
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Butterfly in the wind / Lakshmi Persaud. Adult WI Fiction
WI F Per
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Cereus blooms at night / Shani Mootoo. Adult WI Fiction
WI F Moo
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Amphibians and the black mermaid : a new dimension to love / by Vivien C. Patrick Adult WI Fiction
WI Pat
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The Wine of astonishment / Earl Lovelace; introduction by Marjorie Thorpe. Adult WI Fiction
WI F Lov
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Tide running / Oonya Kempadoo Adult WI Fiction
WI Kem
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Four taxis facing north / Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw Adult WI Fiction
WI F Wal
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I. Joe Mulatto : a novel / by Martin Orda Adult WI Fiction
WI F Ord
African Titles
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Angel of mercy / Lurlene McDaniel Young Adult
YA F Mac
Summary: Eighteen-year-old Heather travels as a volunteer to Africa, where she provides direly needed
medical help in Kenya and Uganda and hopes to act as God's hands on Earth.
o
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Arrow of God / Chinua Achebe Adult PBK Fiction
F Ach
Summary: Ezeulu, Chief Priest of Ulu in the 1920s, decides to send his son to the missionary school
where his conversion causes conflict among Ezeulu, the tribe, and the school's English administrator.
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Things fall apart /Chinua Achebe Adult Fiction
F Ach
Summary: Traces the growing friction between village leaders and Europeans determined to save the
heathen souls of Africa. But its hero, a noble man who is driven by destructive forces, speaks a universal
tongue.
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Beasts of no nation : a novel / Uzodinma Iweala. Adult Fiction
F Iwe
Summary: Recruited by a unit of guerrilla fighters after the brutal murder of his father by militants, a West
African student falls under the spell of his dangerous commander, and finds his new life increasingly
contrasting with his former existence.
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A Bend in the river / V.S. Naipaul. Adult WI Fiction
WI Nai
Summary: In an African country that has suffered revolution and civil war and that is headed by a man of
almost insane energy and crudity, one restless, reflective, and isolated villager and his friends uneasily
submit to the tide of events.
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God's bits of wood / Sembene Ousmane ; translated by Francis Price Adult PBK Fiction
F Ous
An account of the 1947-48 strike against the Dakar-Niger railway.
o
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Half a life / V.S. Naipaul Adult WI Fiction
Wi Nai
Summary: The son of a man who, inspired by Gandhi, married below his caste, travels to New York
where he struggles to find his identity and forge a career as a writer.
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Infinite riches / Ben Okri Adult Fiction
F Okr
In the chaotic world of his African village, the spirit-child Azaro still watches the tumultuous and tender
lives of the Living; of his father who has been imprisoned for a crime he did not commit and of his mother
who battles for justice.
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Little soldier / by Bernard Ashley Adult Fiction
F Ash
Summary: Taken from Africa to a foster home in London after his family is killed by an enemy tribe,
Kaninda discovers the meaning of hate and the value of not hating.
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Mojo : conjure stories / edited by Nalo Hopkinson Adult PBK Fiction
F Moj
A collection of original stories draws on African magic, folklore, and history
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The palm-wine drinkard ; and, My life in the bush of ghosts / Amos Tutuola Adult Fiction
F Tut
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Waiting for the rain : a novel of South Africa / Sheila Gordon Young Adult Fiction
YA F Gor
Chronicles 9 years in the lives of two South African youths--one black, one white--as their friendship ends
in a violent confrontation between student and soldier.
South African Titles
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A blade of grass : a novel / Lewis DeSoto Adult Fiction
F Des
Summary: Rendered alone after an act of violence at her South African farm, British newlywed M?arit
Laurens struggles to keep the farm working despite disputes between the farm workers and the local
Afrikaner community, finding a single supporter in her black housekeeper, Tembi.
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In the heart of the country / J.M. Coetzee Young Adult
YA F Coe
Summary: A young woman living on a remote South African farm describes her loneliness and bitter
anger.
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Life & times of Michael K / J.M. Coetzee Adult Fiction
F Coe
Michael K, a young South African, becomes unwillingly and unwittingly involved in a war in South Africa
after he loses his gardening job in Capetown and embarks on an odyssey to return his dying mother to her
homeland.
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The heart of redness / Zakes Mda Adult Fiction
F Mda
Summary: South African exile returns from America--where he fled during the apartheid regime--to find
his newly democratic country in a shambles. 15,000 first printing.
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Hottentot Venus : a novel / Barbara Chase-Riboud Adult Fiction
F Cha
Summary: A shocking historical novel re-creates the tragic life of Sarah Baartman, an African bushwoman
born in the colony of Good Hope, South Africa, in 1790 and the exploitation and cruelty she faced in
nineteenth-century Europe as a subject of scientific curiosity, in a compelling novel of racism, sexism, and
European imperialism.
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Joshua's Bible / Shelly Leanne Adult Fiction
F Lea
Chosen to be the first black minister sent to South Africa in years, idealistic young Philadelphia minister
Joshua Clay finds his faith tested as he struggles to minister to his congregation during the apartheid-era
1930s.
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Out of bounds : seven stories of conflict and hope / Beverley Naidoo Juvenile Fiction
J Nai
Summary: Seven stories, spanning the time period from 1948 to 2000, chronicle the experiences of young
people from different races and ethnic groups as they try to cope with the restrictions placed on their lives
by South Africa's apartheid laws.
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The wedding : a novel / Imraan Coovadia Adult Fiction
F Coo
A novel set in India and South Africa follows Ismet Nassin, a clerk of modest prospects from Bombay,
who marries the village beauty--a union that is most challenging especially since his new bride is
headstrong, spirited, and antisocial.
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Cry, the beloved country / Alan Paton Adult Fiction
F Pat
Summary: A Zulu country parson arrives in Johannesburg and finds that his sister has become a prostitute
and his son a murderer.
Somehow tenderness survives : stories of southern Africa / selected by Hazel Rochman Young Adult
Fiction
YA F Som
Summary: A collection of ten short stories about South Africa--five by Black and five by White South
Africans. Includes selections by Peter Abrahams, Dan Jacobson, Nadine Gordimer, and Mark Mathabane,
as well as a glossary and notes on the contributors.
Indian Titles
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Checkmate / Karna Small Bodman Adult Fiction
F Bod
Summary: Inventing a new technology capable of defending against cruise missiles, Dr. Cameron Talbot
is forced into an uneasy alliance with Lt. Col. Hunt Daniels of the National Security Council to prevent the
theft of Cameron's invention.
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Manhattan music : a novel / by Meena Alexander. Adult PBK Fiction
F Ale
Summary: Sandhya Rosenblum, an Indian immigrant married to an American Jewish man, attempts to
make sense of her life in a time of turbulence, exploring issues of ethnic intolerance, interracial affairs and
marriages, and what it means to be an American today.
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The Inheritance of loss / Kiran Desai Adult PBK Fiction
F Des
Summary: In a crumbling house in the remote northeastern Himalayas, an embittered, elderly judge finds
his peaceful retirement turned upside down by the arrival of his orphaned granddaughter, Sai.
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The Namesake / Jhumpa Lahiri Adult Fiction
F Lah
Summary: A portrait of the immigrant experience follows the Ganguli family from their traditional life in
India through their arrival in Massachusetts in the late 1960s and their difficult melding into an American
way of life.
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Madras on rainy days / Samina Ali Adult PBK Fiction
F Ali
Summary: Torn between her disparate roles as dutiful Muslim daughter and independent American
woman, Layla reluctantly agrees to an arranged marriage to an Indian man she does not know, but as the
time of the wedding approaches, she finds herself increasingly wary of the bargain she has made. A first
novel. 20,000 first printing.
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Arc on the horizon / Balkrishna Naipaul Adult WI Fiction
WI F Nai
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A Beggar at the gate Young Ad PBK Fiction
YA F Ali
Summary: Two years after arriving in India, Mariana Givens finds herself an outcast in her new
homeland, and must weave a difficult path amid a rising storm of political and civil strife, in the sequel to
"A Singular Hostage.".
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The blue bedspread / Raj Kamal Jha. Adult Fiction
F Jha
Summary: After his sister dies in childbirth, a man accepts overnight custody of her infant daughter until
the child's adoptive parents can arrive to claim her, and spends the night writing stories of his family and
the mother the child will never know.
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By dawn's early light / David Hagberg Adult Fiction
F Hag
Summary: In the wake of a Pakistani attack on India that could kill millions, the president's brother, a
former Navy SEAL who is the plot's only witness, is captured, prompting Commander Frank Dillon of the
nuclear sub Seawolf to launch a rescue mission.
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Darjeeling / Bharti Kirchner Adult Fiction
F Kir
Summary: Two sisters--Aloka, a successful journalist, and Sujata, a tea importer, who are in love with the
same man--return to their childhood home in Darjeeling where they try to heal old wounds of bitterness
and anger.
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For matrimonial purposes / Kavita Daswani. Adult Fiction
F Das
Summary: Unable to find a husband despite the efforts of friends, fortune-tellers, and matchmakers, thirtythree year old Anju, confronted by her family's shame, obtains their permission to leave Bombay to look
for a husband in the United States.
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The holder of the world / Bharati Mukherjee. Adult PBK Fiction
F Muk
Summary: Beigh Masters stumbles upon the records of a remote ancestor and discovers a remarkable
woman related only by blood until a persistent investigation lends Beigh an unexpectedly intimate
understanding.
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If you are afraid of heights / Raj Kamal Jha. Adult Fiction
F Jha
Summary: Three short works follow the romance between a man and woman who meet in a midnight road
accident, a reporter who covers a child's rape and murder, and a young girl who fears for her parents' lives
during a series of neighborhood suicides.
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The impressionist / Hari Kunzru Adult Fiction
823.92 Ku
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In times of siege / Githa Hariharan Adult Fiction
F Har
Summary: Caring for his adult ward, who has broken her leg, middle-aged history professor Shiv Murthy
struggles with his feelings for the young woman, a situation that is complicated when one of his lessons on
medieval India is challenged by religious extremists.
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The last song of dusk / Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi. Adult Fiction
F Sha
Summary: Anuradha Patwardhan, a legendary beauty in 1920s India, marries handsome and well-to-do
doctor Vardhmaan, but their married years are challenged by the death of their child and the arrival of a
mysterious girl.
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Legends of the emperor's ring : a novel / Balkrishna Naipaul Adult WI Fiction
WI F Nai
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Mandala : a novel of India / Pearl S. Buck Adult PBK Fiction
F Buc
Summary: Jagat, a prince in the Indian government before 1960, falls in love with an American, and the
two search for their own identity in the new country
o
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Of women, outcastes, peasants, and rebels : a selection of Bengali short stories / edited, translated,
and with an introduction by Kalpana Bardhan. Adult PBK Non-fic
891.443 0108 Of
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Raise the lanterns high / Lakshmi Persaud. Adult WI Fiction
WI F Per
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Real time : stories and a reminiscence / Amit Chaudhuri Adult Fiction
F Cha
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The red carpet : Bangalore stories / Lavanya Sankaran. Adult Fiction
F San
Summary: Presents a collection of stories set in modern-day India, including tales of a successful young
entrepreneur who is faced with a partner who refuses to honor an agreement to return to America and a
traditional Indian mother who circumvents her Western-educated daughter's aversion to marriage.
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The Sari shop : a novel / Rupa Bajwa. Adult PBK Fiction
F Baj
Summary: Spending unfulfilling days working in a fabric shop in Amritsar, Ramchand is sent to a new
part of the city to show samples to a wealthy family, an experience that shows him a different way of life
and compels him to pursue the dreams of his childhood.
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Interpreter of Maladies stories / Jhumpa Lahiri Adult Fiction
F Lah
Summary: A debut collection of short fiction blends elements of Indian traditions with the complexities of
American culture in such tales as "A Temporary Matter," in which a young Indian-American couple
confronts their grief over the loss of a child, while their Boston neighborhood copes with a nightly
blackout. Original. 20,000 first printing.
Other Titles
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Imagining Argentina / Lawrence Thornton Adult PBK Fiction
F Tho
Summary: Carlos Rueda, a prominent children's playwright in Buenos Aires, Argentina, claims to have
visions and joins the mothers who protest in the Plaza de Mayor after the Argentinian generals begin their
reign of terror in 1976.
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Across the river and into the trees / Ernest Hemingway Adult Fiction
F Hem
Summary: Richard Cantwell comes to Venice on leave from the army to see his love and to visit the place
where he was wounded in World War I.
o
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The old man and the sea / Ernest Hemingway Adult Fiction
F Hem
Summary: Santiago is a Cuban fisherman who encounters a giant marlin in the Gulf Stream and the battle
for his catch becomes one of survival against a band of marauding sharks.
o
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The Snows of Kilimanjaro : and other stories / Ernest Hemingway Adult PBK Fiction
F Hem
Summary: Contains ten of Hemingway's classic stories including "The snows of Kilimanjaro," "A day's
wait," "Fathers and sons," "The killers," and "The short happy life of Francis Macomber".
o
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A Thousand splendid suns / Khaled Hosseini Adult Fiction
F Hos
Summary: Two women born a generation apart witness the destruction of their home and family in
wartorn Kabul, losses incurred over the course of thirty years that test the limits of their strength and
courage.
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Going to meet the man / by James Baldwin. Adult PBK Fiction
F Bal
Summary: The rockpile -- The outing -- The man child -- Previous condition -- Sonny's blues -- This
morning, this evening, so soon -- Come out the wilderness -- Going to meet the man.
o
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The good earth / Pearl S. Buck Adult Fiction
F Buc
Summary: Wang Lung, a Chinese peasant, rises from poverty to become a rich landowner with the aid of
his patient wife in the 1920s.
o
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Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books / Azar Nafisi Adult Non-fiction
820.9 Na
Summary: The author describes growing up in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the group of young
women who came together at her home in secret every Thursday to read and discuss great books of
Western literature.
o
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Mountains beyond mountains / Tracy Kidder Adult Non-fiction
610.92 Ki
Summary: A portrait of infectious disease expert Dr. Paul Farmer follows the efforts of this
unconventional Harvard genius to understand the world's great health, economic, and social problems and
to bring healing to humankind.
o
Falling leaves return to their roots : the true story of an unwanted Chinese daughter = Luo ye gui
gen / Adeline Yen Mah. Adult Non-fiction
305.489 51 Ma
Summary: The daughter of a wealthy Hong Kong businessman describes her very difficult childhood and
the psychological abuse she suffered at the hands of her stepmother.
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