SAS librarian Marla Wise's suggestions for overlooked treasures in the SAS library:

Please see also my nonfiction recommendations and other nonfiction suggestions.

The Chosen by Chaim Potok

Read this. It would be trite of me to say that it's about testing the bounds of friendship, being an outsider, finding a place to belong and a passion in life, and wanting to be accepted. To say it's the story of two Jewish boys in New York just after World War II would miss all of the deeply personal emotions in the book, but the setting is vitally important as well. Two Jewish boys-- one Orthodox, one not. New York, but not the bustle of Manhattan and Fifth Avenue. World War II, but more about the fallout and aftermath. It's a powerful book.

The book is cleverly disguised as a library book, with a solid red hard vinyl cover.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

This book shares much with Little Women. It is also semi-autobiographical and features a family down on its luck. However, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is very definitely a 20th century work, with gritty, urban poverty and fallable characters. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is set in the years leading up to World War I, and follows a young girl as she grows up in Brooklyn, NY. The novel draws for the reader the experiences of the second-generation immigrant, the influence of the crooked NY politics of the early 1900s, the uncertainty of education, the options open to women at the time, and the matter-of-fact acceptance of what is and hopes of what might be.

The soft-focus pouting girl holding a bouquet of flowers is in no way indicative of the contents of this book.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

I think I first read this book in 4th or 5th grade. It is a sentimental tale of a money-poor family in New England during and after the American Civil War. Alcott wrote the book in the late 1860s in order to earn money to support her family, but she was never happy with it. In fact, I recommend reading up on Alcott’s life before rereading this book--it offers a new perspective on the people and plot.

I’m looking at the cover of the library copy of this book wondering what planet the illustrator was from, since he or she seems to have dressed the family in 1970s-ish pinafores.

The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov

This is one of my favorite books by possibly the most prolific science fiction author of the 20th century. I like this series better than his Foundation series, since it’s not trying to be metaphysical or deterministic. The Caves of Steel is a lovely combination of good ol’ science fiction and hard-boiled mystery/detective story.

The cover of this book features a somewhat airy metallic city and a pouting man in an overcoat, really quite funny in context.

Persuasion by Jane Austen

This is my favorite Jane Austen book. Anne Elliot is an old maid, unfashionable and frumpy, bossed around by her family, and generally overlooked. She is not as witty and selfish as Emma, but she is also not as wimpy as Fanny (Mansfield Park). The title, as with other Austin books, is also the theme-- there are many types and instances of persuasion in the book, some more overt than others-- but I’d better stop there or I’ll keep going, typing out the fruits of a full-semester course on Jane Austen.

The cover is a generic portrait of a woman from about the time period the book was written. This is to make sure we know the book is a “classic”.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

If you have had to read this book for a class, please try to read it again without worrying about symbolism and all that stuff. This is a darkly gothic tale of abandoned and abused children, infidelity and bigamy, and cruelty and insanity. It’s like reading the feature story in a gossip magazine-- all of the dirty laundry is brought out to horrify the reader-- you can’t help but turn the page.

For some reason, they’ve put little dots all over the serviceable cover portrait of a girl reading a book.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Even better-- we have the annotated version! Full of little notes and strange illustrations from earlier editions, this copy of The Secret Garden is pleasant to flip through. If you liked this book when you were little, you will love to see all the little explanations and references in the margins. If all you know are the made-for-TV movies, then you need to read the original. Things that sound cheesy on TV are charming in text.

This book has little vignettes from various illustrators set into a green (get it? Garden?) foil border. You won’t be able to pretend you’re reading War and Peace.

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

This is a long work by Dickens, and that’s saying something. It is my favorite story, drawing in the best of Dickens-- orphans, worthless parents, pretend philanthropists, London, and British government and society. How can you pass up a book which contains spontaneous human combustion and dancing masters? It is a slow read; Dickens is not an author you can whisk on through. The end of the book is a good ending, being neither a happy ending nor completely depressing.

The painting the publisher has picked for this classic is titled "Waiting for the verdict"-- very appropriate.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig (171 PIRSIG)

This book was assigned reading in my 10th grade English class. Despite being a philosophy book, it is a captivating read. The frame for the story is a cross-country motorcycle trip, and the center is the author’s quest to understand the “Metaphysics of Quality”. The book is not about the practice of Zen, nor is it about motorcycle maintenance, but it is about the sort of understanding that encompasses both the non-intellectual and the logical approaches. The book is colored by the time period in which it was written-- it was published in 1974-- but it is more than the typical hippie-dippy stuff.