Rick Bass “The Hermit’s Story”

Rick Bass is the author of 16 books. ”The Hermit’s Story” is his best fiction.
Every story in this collection is amazing. My favorite stories are “The Hermit’s Story” and “Swans”. Bass explores the mysterious connections between man and nature. In “The Hermit’s Story”, a man and a woman travel across the frozen surface of a dry lake, in "Swans," a woman lights fires along the shore of a freezing pond to warm the five swans living there.
Language is wonderful, characters well developed, every story is remarkable in its own way.
Tanya

Shirley Hazzard “ The Transit of Venus”

"The Transit of Venus" is an extraordinary piece of modern literature. I just finished to read it and enjoyed it so much.
National Book Critics Circle Award-winner Shirley Hazzard tells a story of two sisters, Grace and Caroline Bell. They move from Australia to England to start their lives in a new land. We watch their lives progress through the men they meet. They fall in love, meet their husbands, their lovers.
This book is a story of different place and time. It’s a very good love story.
This is one of my favorite books, which is beautifully written and language is wonderful too.
Lena

Tom Robbins “Skinny Legs And All”

“Skinny Legs and All” deals with so many topics, many of which are classical in nature: love, sex, family, art, compassion, work, religion.
The book is very humorous, but it does have its serious side. The book moves across the USA from the South to the Northwest and out to New York, then to the Middle East as Robbins constantly analyzes the situation between Jews and Arabs there, as well as studies the Christian history. Tom Robbins is a master with words and best thing about his book is his writing.
I thought the story is terrific. It makes me want to live life, and live it in a new and healthy and loving way.
Olga.

Harper Lee “To Kill a Mockingbird”

A classic of modern American literature “To Kill a Mockingbird” is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960, it was instantly successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize.
I'm so glad I finally picked up “To Kill a Mockingbird”, I heard so many wonderful things about this book. It’s really a wonderful piece of literature, great characters, plot and prose. Every character and every little side story added flavor, color and depth to this wonderful tale. This book seems so simple, but it's about several things at once - racism, injustice, social status, innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” has become a new all-time favorite book for me.
Lili

Boyle T.C. “World’s End”

World's End is a 1987 historical fiction novel by T. C. Boyle, the winner of the 1988 PEN/Faulkner Award for American Fiction. The novel tells the story of several generations of families in the Hudson River Valley from the late seventeenth century to the late 1960s with darkly humor, high seriousness, and beautiful prose. There are lots of characters, and lots of time shifts between chapters, but Boyle is able to tie it all together into a great story, involving wealthy Dutch landowners, Native Americans, poor farmers, and a rebellious youth in the 1970's. The novel is wisely readable, every character is placed with great care in the plot to do something. What I loved about the novel the most is its mix of historical fiction with family drama in the present, it never gets boring.
This book was hard to put down and well worth the read.
Olga.

Larry McMurtry “Lonesome Dove”

Lonesome Dove is a 1985 Pulitzer Prize–winning western novel written by Larry McMurtry. This novel goes down as one of the finest examples of Western literature of all time. The story focuses on the relationship of several retired Texas Rangers and their adventures driving a cattle herd from Texas to Montana. I think you really feel you are on the journey with them across the wide open spaces and going through their trials. The characters in this story are more real than in any other book I've read. I came to absolutely love Gus and Clara. Lonesome Dove
is a book to make me dream, laugh….
“If you read only one western novel in your life, read Lonesome Dove…” USA Today
Lena

Wally Lamb “She's Come Undone”

Wally Lamb presents the reader with a character who has lost all hope. I like Delores. She started out with a normal enough life. She was the only child in a normal family. Mother and father were together and happy, and Delores enjoyed spending time with them. But when her father decides to leave her and her mother, Dolores is not quite sure how to carry on.
The author has created an incredibly true and memorable young woman who has many of the same thoughts and feelings of your average female reader. I truly understood the feelings and thoughts of Dolores. It's amazing to me that a male author could write such engaging female character.

I think this story is a tragedy and a chance for the readers to think about the tragedies and sadness of our own lives.
Lena

Anita Shreve "The Last Time They Met"

What a great book!!! This was the first book that I read by Shreve. Anita Shreve knows exactly how to make you care for her characters as close friends and to gain a deeper understanding of the character’s lives. This book really touched me and I can not stop thinking about it. I thought the book was wonderfully written. Shreve created such a powerful and emotional love between Linda and Thomas The ending was so shocking, it still brings tears to my eye. I highly recommend this novel and will be reading it again and again in years to come…A gripping novel…
Irina

John Edgar Wideman “Sent for You Yesterday”

“Sent for You Yesterday” is a novel by the American writer John Edgar Wideman set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during the 1970s. The novel tells the story of Albert Wilkes, who after seven years on the run, returns to Homewood, an African American neighborhood of the East End.
Wideman tells about ordinary lives are filled with hope and despair.
John Edgar Wideman is true great writer. I never knew there could be so many thoughts and ideas in two hundred pages.
An excellent novel.
Ann

Sebastian Faulks “Birdsong”

This is one of the best books about war, love, sorrow, loss, life that I have ever read.
The book is arranged into parts; one set in 1910, three set in the 1970s and the rest (the majority of the book) between 1916 and 1918. The parts set during the World War I are excellent. The battle scenes are so realistic, that as a reader I feel to be in the thick of the battle.
Birdsong begins as a love story. The young Englishman lives with a business partner's family in France and falls in love with his wife.
The novel also focuses on the life of Stephen's granddaughter, Elizabeth, and her attempts to find out more about her grandfather's experiences in World War I.

The story stays with you for a while after reading it. I could not put the book down.
I high recommend this book!
Lili