Are there books that you’ve been meaning to read, but never got around to it? Let 2021 be your year! Start now- all of these books on many people’s “to-read” list are available on Hoopla with no waiting, no need to leave your house. (Descriptions from Hoopla)

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To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee

Available in eBook and eAudiobook

Voted America’s Best-Loved Novel in PBS’s The Great American Read

Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep South-and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred

One of the most cherished stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father-a crusading local lawyer-risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.

War and Peace

Leo Tolstoy

Available in eBook and eAudiobook

‘…not a novel, even less is it a poem, and still less a historical chronicle’

– Leo Tolstoy

Striking a balance between philosophical discussion and compelling story-telling, War and Peace transcends the restrictions that Tolstoy perceived in the conventional novel.

Set in Russia during the Napoleonic era, this epic novel follows the fortunes of five aristocratic Russian families over the course of the French invasion. Tolstoy’s timeless portrayal of the fates of families set against the backdrop of war is ultimately optimistic and life-affirming, with the educated, but socially awkward Count Pierre Bezukhov often giving voice to Tolstoy’s own beliefs.

Weaving together the historical and the personal, this powerful work of Russian literature encompasses the entirety of human existence.

The Alchemist

Paulo Coelho

Available in eBook and eAudiobook

Combining magic, mysticism, wisdom and wonder into an inspiring tale of self-discovery, The Alchemist has become a modern classic, selling millions of copies around the world and transforming the lives of countless readers across generations.

Paulo Coelho’s masterpiece tells the mystical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. His quest will lead him to riches far different-and far more satisfying-than he ever imagined. Santiago’s journey teaches us about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, of recognizing opportunity and learning to read the omens strewn along life’s path, and, most importantly, to follow our dreams.

The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Available in eBook and eAudiobook

The year is 1922, and young Nick Carraway moves to the village of West Egg, where he discovers that his neighbor is the eclectic millionaire Jay Gatsby. As he and Gatsby become acquainted, Nick is thrown into a world full of da

zzling parties, unrequited love, and unchecked idealism. Gatsby, surrounded by riches, yearns for the love of a woman who chose another man. He waits for her every night, using a green light at the end of his dock to call out to her from across the water. Daisy, stuck in a loveless marriage, dreams of what could have been-and gets a taste for it after she is re-acquainted with Gatsby through Nick.

Considered by critics to be one of the greatest novels ever written, this 1925 masterpiece is a portrait of the Roaring Twenties that’s full of literary intrigue, resounding metaphors, and decadent glimpses into the glitz and glam of early twentieth-century America. As relevant today as ever, it offers a cautionary tale of the American Dream, warning against the temptation to believe that enough money paired with equal desire can achieve anything-even reverse the deepest regrets.

Jane Eyre

Charlotte Brontë

Available in eBook and eAudiobook

Jane Eyre follows the emotions and experiences of its eponymous heroine, including her growth to adulthood and her love for Mr. Rochester, the Byronic master of fictitious Thornfield Hall. In its internalization of the action, the focus is on the gradual unfolding of Jane’s moral and spiritual sensibility, and all the events are colored by a heightened intensity that was previously the domain of poetry — Jane Eyre revolutionized the art of fiction.

Charlotte Brontë has been called the ‘first historian of the private consciousness’ and the literary ancestor of writers like Joyce and Proust. The novel contains elements of social criticism, with a strong sense of morality at its core, but is nonetheless a novel many consider ahead of its time given the individualistic character of Jane and the novel’s exploration of classism, sexuality, religion, and proto-feminism.