Libraries for the Blind and Print Disabled

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Newsweek's Top 100 Books (2009)

This list was started by Dan at Minnesota. It is a work in process. Feel free to update (it's been a while since I review this list).

--- //[[dan.malosh@state.mn.us|Dan Malosh @ MN1A Regional]] 2013/05/15 16:09//

#1 - War and Peace (1869) by Leo Tolstoy

AVAILABLE FORMATS:

DB026275 Read by Gordon Gould. Reading time: 60 hours, 52 minutes.
DB067136 Read by Conrad Feininger. Reading time: 63 hours, 28 minutes. 2007 translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.

ANNOTATION: Epic historical novel portrays five aristocratic families against the background of Russian social life during the Napoleonic Wars (1805-1814). Depicts campaign battles, the burning of Moscow, and the French army's winter retreat.

#2 - 1984 (1949) by George Orwell

AVAILABLE FORMATS:

DB034268 Read by Alexander Scourby. Reading time: 11 hours, 15 minutes.

ANNOTATION: A satirical, frightening novel about a future time under a totalitarian regime, where the people believe ignorance is strength and war is peace. For high school and older readers.

#3 - Ulysses (1922) by James Joyce

AVAILABLE FORMATS:

DB019994 Read by Alexander Scourby. Reading time: 30 hours, 43 minutes.

ANNOTATION: Deals with a single day–June 16, 1904–in the life of Leopold Bloom, a Dublin advertising salesman. The stream-of-consciousness style and the use of interior monologues expose the personalities of the characters.

#4 - Lolita (1955) by Vladmir Nabokov

AVAILABLE FORMATS:

DB067388 Read by David Hartley-Margolin. Reading time: 14 hours, 34 minutes.

ANNOTATION: Incarcerated and awaiting trial, widowed middle-aged professor Humbert Humbert tells of his erotic obsession with preadolescent girls–particularly twelve-year-old Dolly Haze, whom he calls Lolita. Humbert details his fascination with Lolita and describes their bizarre road trip.