Quick Reads

It's a busy time for college students: presentations, registration for next semester, essays, final exams, and so many other things. 

But one great way to relax is to lose yourself in a novel, and before you think you don't have any time to read, check out some of our recommendations for short novels that you can most likely read in just one sitting!

214 pages

This short young adult novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson is a story about an isolated, odd, and possibly murderous family and the weirdness that ensues when a cousin arrives for a visit. Find it on the third floor of the library with the call number PS3519.A392 W4. 

197 pages

Child of God by Cormac McCarthy is a little creepy, but in a good way. Lester Ballard, a man fasley accused of rape, is released from jail and attempts to return to life in East Tennessee. Find it on the third floor of the library with the call number PS3563.C337 C4 1993

219 pages

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and is the story of Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, who grow up first with their competent grandmother, then two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, their eccentric and remote aunt. A great book about family, find it on the third floor of the library with the call number PS3568.O3125 H6 1980.

175 pages

In The Lime Twig, a group of crooks plan to steal and race a horse under a false name. Reviewers say it's strange and experimental, but well worth the read. And at only 175 pages, it wouldn't take long! Find it on the third floor of the library with the call number PS3558.A82 L5x

120 pages

Coming in at only 120 pages, Gabriel Garcia Marquez has written a great story about a man who returns to his hometown to solve a murder and is determined to get to the bottom of the story. Find Chronicle of a Death Foretold on the third floor of the library with the call number PQ8180.17.A73 C5 1983


Sit down with some turkey and pumpkin pie, and enjoy these great quick reads. Have a great Thanksgiving break, Kohawks!

Braydon Roberts - Introduction and Book Recommendation

[caption id="attachment_1140" align="alignleft" width="163"] Braydon[/caption]

The library cannot provide its extended hours and services, during the academic year, with-out the help of its student workers.   We are deeply appreciative of all the work they do and would like to showcase them on the blog this semester.  We have asked them to recommend a book or media item to the Coe community and will post a brief introduction and their suggestions in the coming weeks.

Library student worker Braydon Roberts is a sophomore who works in the George T. Henry College Archives.  He suggests the Book "Catch 22" by Joseph Heller, because "It is a classical work set during World War II that also involves a lot of humor."

Catch-22 in the Library Catalog

Catch-22 is set in the closing month of World War II, in an American bomber squadron on a small island off Italy.  Its hero is a bombardier named Yossarian, who is frantic and furious because thousands of people he hasn't even met keep trying to kill him. (He has decided to live forever even if he has to die in the attempt.)

His problem is Colonel Cathcart, who keeps raising the number of missions the men have to fly.

-from the description on the book jacket

~Sara Pitcher, Archives Assistant