Up the Down Staircase


Bel Kaufman - 1964
    It has been translated into sixteen languages, made into a prize-winning motion picture, and staged as a play at high schools all over the United States; its very title has become part of the American idiom.Never before has a novel so compellingly laid bare the inner workings of a metropolitan high school. Up the Down Staircase is the funny and touching story of a committed, idealistic teacher whose clash with school bureaucracy is a timeless lesson for students, teachers, parents--anyone concerned about public education. Bel Kaufman lets her characters speak for themselves through memos, letters, directives from the principal, comments by students, notes between teachers, and papers from desk drawers and wastebaskets, evoking a vivid picture of teachers fighting the good fight against all that stands in the way of good teaching.

Echoes from the Macabre: Selected Stories


Daphne du Maurier - 1976
    Book by Du Maurier, Daphne

Midwinter: Spookshow 10


Tim McGregor - 2019
    Her shock at being evicted is quickly replaced by surprise when her beau suggests they finally buy a house together. Billie agrees to go house hunting only to find that every home has history, and trying to find a house that doesn't have old ghosts proves tricky for someone who can see the dead. Detective Mockler faces a challenge of his own when he's put in charge of a newly formed cold case unit to clear the backlog of old homicides. He dives into the new job eagerly only to hit an unexpected snag that could prove troubling to both himself and his psychic girlfriend. When the search for a house proves futile, Billie stumbles across her dream home; a quaint fixer-upper with vintage charm and a lack of ghosts. But nothing is ever simple when it comes to the paranormal and the new home-owners find themselves under assault from a violent presence that can elude Billie's psychic abilities. Meanwhile, John Gantry, the occult expert/con man, faces his own terrifying ordeal when he learns that his family is coming to visit for the holidays.

The Distant Summer


Sarah Patterson - 1976
    Poignant story of a girl who loves two WWII flyers, written by the daughter of suspense writer Jack Higgins when she was just 17.

Little One, Maid of Israel


Bill Harvey - 1976
    Ride along with Little One in this version by Bill Harvey as she is carried away and taken to a foreign land. See her bravery as she faces her captors and tells them about God. Sense her helplessness as she is made a slave, and hear her prayers to God even when things are unsure.

How Soon Is Never?


Marc Spitz - 2003
    . . or is there?Welcome to the big Reagan ’80s, where ketchup is a vegetable and the Cold War looms large and chilly. If like Joe Green you were coming of age during this boom era, your main concerns include one or more of the following: a rainbow assortment of Polo shirts worn with the collar flipped up, K-Swiss tennis shoes, a new cable channel called MTV, and Top 40 radio. Stuck in the suburban haze of Long Island, New York, Joe Green knows there has got to be more to life. However, salvation is on the way, in the form of a quiffed-up quartet from Manchester, England, who take over the airways of a local radio station. Hearing the Smiths for the first time jerks Joe awake: Morrissey’s wry and witty lyrics speak to him, and Johnny Marr’s driven guitar chords get under his skin. He destroys his Phil Collins cassettes, pomades his hair into New Wave submission, studies up on his Oscar Wilde, and falls in love. He even shows up for dinner on time. That is, until his favorite band breaks up and then breaks his heart.Fast-forward some fifteen years. Joe Green is making a living as a rock journalist, still recovering from a wicked post-college smack addiction and slumming with youngsters who ironically “appreciate” the seminal ’80s music that once gave his life meaning. It’s too late to go home, or is it? What if Joe Green can get the Smiths back together? What if reuniting the long-broken-up band can reverse the passage of time and bring back the magic of youth? What if it helps him win the heart of the woman he loves?How Soon Is Never? is an acerbic, ingenious look at Reagan-era adolescence, the power of hearing a record that changes your life, and the dangers of nostalgia. Be prepared to see a bit of yourself in Joe Green.

Displaced Person


Lee Harding - 1979
    He is rather an ordinary-looking person of average height. He dresses casually and well and gets along fine with his classmates and friends. In fact the typical all-rounder.The change begins gradually. More and more he feels that people are ignoring him. Why? Waitresses, tram conductors, even his parents and girl friend, are looking right through him as if they can hardly see or hear him.And as he becomes indistinct to them, they and their world become grey and faint to him. Is he going mad? What's going on?In this disturbing story Lee Harding has moved a little away from the straightforward science fiction novels with which he has made him name to create a contemporary hero with whom we can identify as he grapples with his psychological adventure.

Rule of the Bone


Russell Banks - 1995
    With a compelling, off-beat protagonist evocative of Holden Caulfield and Quentin Coldwater, and a narrative voice that masterfully and naturally captures the nuances of a modern vernacular, Banks’s haunting and powerful novel is an indisputable—and unforgettable—modern classic.

Mad, Mad Monday


Herma Silverstein - 1988
    In trying to cast a spell with a love potion designed to bewitch handsome but conceited Stormy, fourteen-year-old Miranda actually conjures up the ghost of a boy who died in 1958.

Distant Waves


Suzanne Weyn - 2009
    Four sisters and their mother make their way from a spiritualist town in New York to London, becoming acquainted with journalist W. T. Stead, scientist Nikola Tesla, and industrialist John Jacob Astor. When they all find themselves on the Titanic, one of Tesla's inventions dooms them...and one could save them.

Trout Fishing in America


Richard Brautigan - 1967
    He came of age during the Haight-Ashbury period and has been called “the last of the Beats.” His early books became required reading for the hip generation, and on its publication Trout Fishing in America became an international bestseller. An indescribable romp, the novel is best summed up in one word: mayonnaise. This new edition includes an introduction by the poet Billy Collins, who first encountered Brautigan’s work as a student in California.

Mrs. Mike


Benedict Freedman - 1947
    Mike is a classic tale that has enchanted millions of readers worldwide. It brings the fierce, stunning landscape of the Great North to life—and tenderly evokes the love that blossoms between Sergeant Mike Flannigan and beautiful young Katherine Mary O'Fallon.

I Capture the Castle


Dodie Smith - 1948
    By the time the last diary shuts, there have been great changes in the Mortmain household, not the least of which is that Cassandra is deeply, hopelessly, in love.

Lone Wolf


Kristine L. Franklin - 1997
    When a large family moves into the house near where he and his father live in the woods, Perry's friendship with the oldest girl helps him come to terms with his sister's death and his parents' divorce.

The Rules of Attraction


Bret Easton Ellis - 1987
    Bret Easton Ellis trains his incisive gaze on the kids at self-consciously bohemian Camden College and treats their sexual posturings and agonies with a mixture of acrid hilarity and compassion while exposing the moral vacuum at the center of their lives. The Rules of Attraction is a poignant, hilarious take on the death of romance.