Top 10 Los Gatos Library Classics

1. Angle of repose, Wallace Earle Stegner

This long, thoughtful novel about a retired historian who researches and writes about his pioneer grandparents garnered Stegner a Pulitzer Prize. (amazon)

2. Ender's game, Orson Scott Card

An expert at simulated war games, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin believes that he is engaged in one more computer war game when, in truth, he is commanding the last Earth fleet against an alien race seeking Earth's complete destruction.

3. The great Gatsby, Scott F. Fitzgerald

he exemplary novel of the Jazz Age, F. Scott Fitzgeralds' third book, The Great Gatsby (1925), stands as the supreme achievement of his career. T. S. Eliot read it three times and saw it as the "first step" American fiction had taken since Henry James; H. L. Mencken praised "the charm and beauty of the writing," as well as Fitzgerald's sharp social sense; and Thomas Wolfe hailed it as Fitzgerald's "best work" thus far. (amazon)

4. Nineteen eighty-four, George Orwell

A chilling portrait of a totalitarian society under the ever-watchful gaze of Big Brother--where love, individuality, and privacy are banned.

5. Sense and sensibility, Jane Austen

Two sisters, one practical and conventional and the other emotional and sentimental, find that only through compromise of their mutual differences can they get along and find the husbands they wish.

6. Carrie, Stephen King

An introverted girl with remarkable powers of telekinesis faces the horrors of teenage life and unleashes a few horrors of her own when she attends the high school prom.

7. The old man and the sea, Ernest Hemingway

Story of an old fisherman's struggle against natural obstacles that hinder the catch of a huge marlin

8. Black like me, John Howard Griffin

A white writer recounts his experiences in the American South following treatments that darkened his skin and shares his thoughts on the problems of prejudice and racial injustice.

9. Into the wild, Jon Krakauer

In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter.  How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild. (amazon)

10. The sun also rises, Ernest Hemingway

The quintessential novel of the Lost Generation, The Sun Also Rises is one of Ernest Hemingway's masterpieces and a classic example of his spare but powerful writing style. A poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation, the novel introduces two of Hemingway's most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley. The story follows the flamboyant Brett and the hapless Jake as they journey from the wild nightlife of 1920s Paris to the brutal bullfighting rings of Spain. (amazon)