Special Collections

All Things Wise and Wonderful

World War II intrudes on the pastoral life of the Yorkshire veterinarian and #1 New York Times–bestselling author of All Creatures Great and Small.   Only a couple of years after settling into his new home in northern England, James Herriot is called to war. In this series of poignant and humorous episodes, the great veterinarian shares his experiences training with the Royal Air Force, pining for a pregnant wife, and checking in on the people back home who made his practice so fascinating. As the young men of Yorkshire are sent into battle and farmers consider the broader world they&’re a part of, Herriot reflects on the lives—human and animal alike—that make his home worth fighting for.  

Date Added: 05/25/2017

All the Pretty Horses

The national bestseller and the first volume in Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy, All the Pretty Horses is the tale of John Grady Cole, who at sixteen finds himself at the end of a long line of Texas ranchers, cut off from the only life he has ever imagined for himself. With two companions, he sets off for Mexico on a sometimes idyllic, sometimes comic journey to a place where dreams are paid for in blood.

Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

All Quiet on the Western Front

Paul Baumer enlisted with his classmates in the German army of World War I.

Youthful, enthusiastic, they become soldiers.

But despite what they have learned, they break into pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches.

And as horrible war plods on year after year, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the principles of hate that meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against each other--if only he can come out of the war alive.

Date Added: 03/15/2019

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain's sequel to Adventures of Tom Sawyer. A modern masterpiece of American fiction.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

1984

A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick With extraordinary relevance and renewed popularity, George Orwell&’s 1984 takes on new life in this edition. &“Orwell saw, to his credit, that the act of falsifying reality is only secondarily a way of changing perceptions. It is, above all, a way of asserting power.&”—The New Yorker   In 1984, London is a grim city in the totalitarian state of Oceania where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. Winston Smith is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be. Lionel Trilling said of Orwell&’s masterpiece, &“1984 is a profound, terrifying, and wholly fascinating book. It is a fantasy of the political future, and like any such fantasy, serves its author as a magnifying device for an examination of the present.&” Though the year 1984 now exists in the past, Orwell&’s novel remains an urgent call for the individual willing to speak truth to power.

Date Added: 05/25/2017