Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
(Barns & Noble)
Slaughterhouse-Five is one of the world’s greatest anti-war books. Centering on the infamous firebombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim’s odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search fpr meaning in what we are afraid to know.

The Book of Fate by Brad Meltzer
(Barns & Noble)
Six m inutes from now, one of us will be dead. None of us knew it was coming. So says Wes Holloway, a young presidential aid, about the day he put Ron Boyle, the chief executive’s oldest friend, into the president’s limousine. By the trip’s end, a crazed assassin would permanently disfigure Wes and kill Boyle. Now, eight years later, Boyle has been spotted alive. Trying to figure out what really happened takes Wes back into disturbing secrets buried in Freemason history, a decade-old presidential crossword puzzle, and a two-hundred-year-old code invented by Thomas Jefferson that conceals secrets worth dying for.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
(Barns & Noble)
Catch-22 is like no other novel. It is one ofthe funniest books ever written, a keystone work in American literature, and even added a new term ti the dictionary.

At the heart of Catch-22 resides the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero endlessly inventive in his schemes to save his skin from the horrible chances of war. His efforts are perfectly understandable because as he furiously scrambles, thousands of people he hasn’t even met are trying to kill him. His problem is Colonel Cathcart, who keeps raising the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempts to excuse himself from the perilous mission that he is committed to flying, he is trapped by the Great Loyalty Oath Crusade, the hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule from whic the book takes its title: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes the necessary formal request to be relieved of such missions, the very act of making the request proves that he is sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.

Catch-22 is a microcosm of the twentieth-century world as it might look to someone dangerously sane – a masterpiece of our time.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
(Book Mooch)
In Memoirs of a Geisha, we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where girl’s virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction – at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful – and completely unforgettable.

The Lord of the Rings, Part 2: The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien
(Book Mooch)
The Fellowship was scattered. Some were bracing hopelessly for war against the ancient evil of Sauron. Some were contending with the treachery of the wizard Saruman. Only Frodo and Sam were left to take theaccursed Ring of Power to be destroyed in Mordor – the dark Kingdom where Sauron was supreme. Their guide was Gollum, deceitful and lust-filled, slave to the corruption of the Ring.

The Lord pf the Rings, Part 3: The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
(Book Mooch)
While the evil might of the Dark Lord Sauron swarmed out to conquer all Middle-earth, Frodo and Sam struggle deep into Mordor, seat of Sauron’s power. To defeat the Dark Lord, the accursed Ring of Power had to be destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom. But the way was impossibly hard, and Frodo was weakening. Weighed down by the compulsion of the Ring, he began finally to despair.

The Meaning of Night: A Confession by Michael Cox
(Book Mooch)
“After killing the red-haired man, I took myself off to Quinn’s for an oyster supper.”

So begins the story of Edward Glyver, booklover, scholar, and murderer. A chance discovery convinces Glyver that greatness awaits him. His path to win back what is rightfully his leads him to Evenwood, one of England’s most enchanting country houses, and a woman who will become his obsession.