Books we love

1. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE BY EDITH WHARTON

Edith Wharton’s masterpiece brings to life the grandeur and hypocrisy of a gilded age. Set among the very rich in 1870s New York, it tells the story of Newland Archer, a young lawyer engaged to marry virginal socialite May Welland, when he meets her cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska, a woman unbound by convention and surrounded by scandal. As all three are drawn into a love triangle filled with sensuality, subtlety, and betrayal, Archer faces a harrowing choice between happiness and the social code that has ruled his life. The resulting tale of thwarted love is filled with irony and surprise, struggle and acceptance. Recipient of the first Pulitzer Prize for fiction ever awarded to a woman, this great novel paints a timeless portrait of “society” still unmatched in American literature—arbitrary, capricious social elite that professes inviolable standards but readily abandons them for greed and desire.

2. PERSUASION BY JANE AUSTEN

Everyone have their own Jane Austen, this is mine. There is something about this story that stands out from the usual Jane Austen story, this book tells us wisely and wittily about the nature of romantic entanglements and the follies of being human; it is the type of book that has your mind replaying the characters even after you have finished reading it.

3. THE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE BY RICH WARREN
If you read only one book this year, make it this one.

4. THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND BY GILES FODEN

This was Giles first book, I personally prefer the book to the movie "last king of scotland" in this book he gives an account of sides to Idi Amin most people didnt know existed.

SYNOPSIS
What would it be like to become Idi Amin's personal physician? Giles Foden's best-selling thriller is the story of a young Scottish doctor drawn into the heart of the Ugandan dictator's surreal and brutal regime. Privy to Amin's thoughts and ambitions, he is both fascinated and appalled. As Uganda plunges into civil chaos he realises action is imperative - but which way should he jump?

5. MANSFIELDS PARK BY JANE AUSTEN

In Mansfield Park, for example, Austen gives us Fanny Price, a poor young woman who has grown up in her wealthy relatives' household without ever being accepted as an equal.

The only one who has truly been kind to Fanny is Edmund Bertram, the younger of the family's two sons. Into this Cinderella existence comes Henry Crawford and his sister, Mary, who are visiting relatives in the neighborhood. Soon Mansfield Park is given over to all kinds of gaiety, including a daring interlude spent dabbling in theatricals.

Young Edmund is smitten with Mary, and Henry Crawford woos Fanny. Yet these two charming, gifted, and attractive siblings gradually reveal themselves to be lacking in one essential Austenian quality: principle. Without good principles to temper passion, the results can be disastrous, and indeed, Mansfield Park is rife with adultery, betrayal, social ruin, and ruptured friendships. But this is a comedy, after all, so there is also a requisite happy ending and plenty of Austen's patented gentle satire along the way.

6. THE BREAKING POINTS BY MARY ROBERTS RINEHART

Elizabeth Wheeler is a small-town, church-going girl who dreams of a man who will whisk her away from her mundane life. What she gets is an endless adventure of passion, betrayal, and murder, and just maybe the wedding of her dreams

7. ANNA KARENINA BY LEO TOLSTOY

The greatest Love story ever told with an expression of written words. If you are a die-hard romantic and do not believe love is a “conspiracy theory” you must read this.

8. WHATS'S SO AMAZING ABOUT GRACE? BY PHILIP YANCEY


Award-winning author Philip Yancey explores grace, the engine that powers Christian love and pushes evil away with forgiveness, in action in everyday life. As he searches for its presence in his own life and in the church, he finds that grace is indeed shocking and scandalous as it shakes our conventions with its insistence on getting close to sinners and touching them with mercy and hope. You will never know what love is or how to love unconditional until you can forgive much.

9. NIGHTS BY ELIE WIESEL

I first heard of this book on the Oprah Winfrey show, I had to read it, this book gives and account of what a human being can go through, endure, become and still have the ability to remain human. In this book Elie Wiese a Nazi holocaust survivor shares his experience in the Jewish camp. My wish is that the powerful message of this little book would be engraved on every human heart and will never be forgotten again.

10. A LONG WALK TO FREEDOM; AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY PAPA NELSON MANDELA.

This is the mother of all biograpghy.The riveting memoirs of one of the great moral and political leaders of our time following the momentous events of 1994, Nelson Mandela vividly re- creates the drama of the experiences that helped shape his destiny: the years operating undercover, effectively classed as a `terrorist' by the state; the surprisingly eventful quarter-century behind bars, when his dedication to the cause elevated him to a status of martyr, icon and inspiration; and the astonishing moves towards the ANC's near-landslide victory in the breakthrough multi-racial elections of April 1994, when Mandela became South Africa's first-ever black President.


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