John Irving
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 7.7 - AR Pts: 42
Description
First published in 1989, this novel tells the story of two friends, John Wheelwright and Owen Meany, who grew up together as boys, but who have different backgrounds and appearances. Owen, for one thing, remains stunted at under five feet tall as an adult. He also believes he has a purpose to accomplish. Themes include the importance of faith, and the concept of fate.
Author
Formats
Description
"Juan Diego -- a fourteen-year-old boy, who was born and grew up in Mexico -- has a thirteen-year-old sister. Her name is Lupe, and she thinks she sees what's coming -- specifically, her own future and her brother's. Lupe is a mind reader; she doesn't know what everyone is thinking, but she knows what most people are thinking. Regarding what has happened, as opposed to what will, Lupe is usually right about the past; without your telling her, she...
Author
Description
"In Aspen, Colorado, in 1941, Rachel Brewster is a slalom skier at the National Downhill and Slalom Championships. Little Ray, as she is called, finishes nowhere near the podium, but she manages to get pregnant. Back home, in New England, Little Ray becomes a ski instructor. Her son, Adam, grows up in a family that defies conventions and evades questions concerning the eventful past. Years later, looking for answers, Adam will go to Aspen. In the...
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 7.2 - AR Pts: 38
Description
Set in rural Maine in the first half of this century, it tells the story of Dr. Wilbur Larch--obstetrician and director of the orphanage in the town of St. Clouds. It is also the story of his favorite orphan, Homer, who is never adopted.
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 7 - AR Pts: 34
Formats
Description
Dominic Cookie Baciagalupo and his son, Danny, work the kitchen of a New Hampshire logging camp overlooking the Twisted River, whose currents claimed both Danny's mother and, mysterious newcomer Angel Pope. Cookie and Danny's world of accidents expands, precipitating a series of adventures. The ensuing 50-years follows the Baciagalupos from a Boston Italian restaurant to an Iowa City Chinese joint and finally a Toronto French cafe, while dovetailing...
Author
Formats
Description
Until I Find You is the story of the actor Jack Burns; his life, loves, celebrity and astonishing search for the truth about his parents. When he is four years old, Jack travels with his mother Alice, a tattoo artist, to several North Sea ports in search of his father, William Burns. From Copenhagen to Amsterdam, William, a brilliant church organist and profligate womanizer, is always a step ahead.
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 6.7 - AR Pts: 33
Appears on list
Description
Originally published in 1978, and now reissued in a Modern Library paperback classics edition, THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP occupies a special place in American letters as a beloved modern classic. Author John Irving provides a new Introduction for this edition. As the Chicago SUN-TIMES said, "Like all extraordinary books, GARP defies synopsis".
Author
Description
While reporting a story from India, a New York television journalist has his left hand eaten by a lion; millions of TV viewers witness the accident. In Boston, a renowned hand surgeon awaits the opportunity to perform the nation's first hand transplant; meanwhile, in the distracting aftermath of an acrimonious divorce, the surgeon is seduced by his housekeeper. A married woman in Wisconsin wants to give the one-handed reporter her husband's left hand...
Author
Pub. Date
[1994]
Description
An Indian-Canadian doctor returns to Bombay to seek a cure for a disease which afflicts circus dwarfs and is caught up in a serial killing of prostitutes. The action is interspersed with commentary on the lot of social misfits: prostitutes, dwarfs, himself--the doctor regarding himself a foreigner in both India and Canada.
Author
Pub. Date
1993, c1968
Description
It is 1967 and two Viennese university students want to liberate the Vienna Zoo, as was done after World War II. But their good intentions have both comic and gruesome consequences, in this first novel written by a twenty-five year old John Irving, already a master storyteller.
19) Simon Birch
Description
The smallest kid in town gets into constant trouble and teams up with his best friend who is searching for his real father.