Bailey Cove Branch Library

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
"Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable, beautifully told story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul. Raised in the same household and sharing the same wet nurse, Amir and Hassan nonetheless grow up in different worlds; Amir is the son of a prominent and wealthy man, while Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant, is a Hazara, member of a shunned ethnic minority. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them. When the Soviets invade and Amir and his father flee the country for a new life in California, Amir thinks that he has escaped his past. And yet he cannot leave the memory of Hassan behind him." "The Kite Runner is a novel about friendship, betrayal, and the price of loyalty. It is about the bonds between fathers and sons, and the power of fathers over sons - their love, their sacrifices, and their lies. Written against a backdrop of history that has not been told in fiction before, The Kite Runner describes the rich culture and beauty of a land in the process of being destroyed. But with the devastation, Khaled Hosseini also gives us hope: through the novel's faith in the power of reading and storytelling, and in the possibilities he shows for redemption." [check the catalog]

The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr
Mycroft Holmes, an advisor to the ailing queen Victoria, summons his famous brother and Dr. Watson to Edinburgh to investigate the puzzling murders of two of the Queen's aides. Because the men had been working on the renovation of the royal palace of Holyrood, Sherlock recounts to Watson the story of David Rizzio, "the Italian secretary" who had been butchered by supporters of Queen Elizabeth in front of Mary, Queen of Scots, in Holyrood. Using the spectral history of the Italian secretary and making some pragmatic deductions, the duo close on the killers' deadly plot against the royal family. [check the catalog]

Widower Ephraim Cabot abandons his New England farm to his three sons, who hate him but share his greed. Eben, the youngest and brightest sibling, feels the farm is his birthright, as it originally belonged to his mother. He buys out his half-brothers' shares of the farm with money stolen from his father, and Peter and Simeon head off to California to seek their fortune. Later, Ephraim returns with a new wife, the beautiful and headstrong Abbie, who enters into an adulterous affair with Eben.

Prometheus Unbound is a four-act play by Percy Bysshe Shelley first published in 1820. It is inspired by Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound and concerns the final release from captivity of Prometheus.

Rossetti's most famous poem is the story of two sisters who hear goblin cries at night and follow them to a mysterious market. One sister buys fruit from the goblins and eats it, while the other does not; the poem follows how their choices changed their lives.