With spring break only a week away, we thought we would give you a list of books that you can either take with you on your travels or curl up with right at home.
The Pillars of the Earth
By: Ken Follet
The spellbinding epic
set in twelfth-century England, The Pillars of the Earth tells the story
of the lives entwined in the building of the greatest Gothic cathedral
the world has ever known—and a struggle between good and evil that will
turn church against state, and brother against brother.
In a time of civil war, famine and religious strife, there rises a magnificent Cathedral in Kingsbridge. Against this backdrop, lives entwine: Tom, the master builder, Aliena, the noblewoman, Philip, the prior of Kingsbridge, Jack, the artist in stone and Ellen, the woman from the forest who casts a curse. At once, this is a sensuous and enduring love story and an epic that shines with the fierce spirit of a passionate age.
In a time of civil war, famine and religious strife, there rises a magnificent Cathedral in Kingsbridge. Against this backdrop, lives entwine: Tom, the master builder, Aliena, the noblewoman, Philip, the prior of Kingsbridge, Jack, the artist in stone and Ellen, the woman from the forest who casts a curse. At once, this is a sensuous and enduring love story and an epic that shines with the fierce spirit of a passionate age.
Synopsis from Goodreads.com
The Pearl That Broke Its Shell
By: Nadia Hashimi
A luminous and unforgettable tale of two women, destiny, and identity in Afghanistan
Kabul, 2007: The Taliban rules
the streets. With a drug-addicted father and no brothers, Rahima and her
sisters can rarely leave the house or attend school. Their only hope
lies in the ancient Afghan custom of bacha posh,
which allows young Rahima to dress and be treated as a son until she is
of marriageable age. As a boy, she has the kind of freedom that was
previously unimaginable . . . freedom that will transform her forever.
But Rahima is not the first in
her family to adopt this unusual custom. A century earlier, her
great-great-grandmother Shekiba, left orphaned by an epidemic, saved
herself and built a new life in the same way—the change took her on a
journey from the deprivation of life in a rural village to the opulence
of a king's palace in the bustling metropolis of Kabul.
Crisscrossing in time, The Pearl That Broke Its Shell interweaves the stories of these two remarkable women who are separated by a century but share the same courage and dreams.
I Am Malala
By: Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb
I come from a country that was created at midnight. When I almost died it was just after midday.
When the Taliban took country of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education.
On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive.
Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
I Am Malala is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls' education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons.
Synopsis from goodreads.com
The Knife of Never Letting Go
By: Patrick Ness
Prentisstown isn't like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee -- whose thoughts Todd can hear too, whether he wants to or not -- stumble upon an area of complete silence. They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden -- a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives.
Synopsis from goodreads.com
Delirium
By: Lauren Oliver
In an alternate United States, love has been declared a dangerous disease, and the government forces everyone who reaches eighteen to have a procedure called the Cure. Living with her aunt, uncle, and cousins in Portland, Maine, Lena Haloway is very much looking forward to being cured and living a safe, predictable life. She watched love destroy her mother and isn't about to make the same mistakes.
But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena meets enigmatic Alex, a boy from the Wilds who lives under the government's radar. What will happen if they do the unthinkable and fall in love?
Synopsis from amazon.com
