Ocean State Libraries

"A city of Whos on a speck of dust are threatened with destruction until the smallest Who of all helps convince Horton's friends that Whos really exist." --

After being washed overboard from an ocean liner, a spoiled millionaire's son is rescued by New England fishermen who put him to work on their boat.

Twelve Years a Slave (1853) is considered to be one of the most riveting and important documents recounting slavery in the United States. It is the heart-rending memoir of a free black man who is taken hostage and sold into slavery in a Louisiana plantation, his twelve years of bondage, and his remarkable escape to freedom. Since its publication, this classic has become a historical reference for its salient of depiction of life as a slave in the...

"Trapped in a violent, controlling relationship with a wealthy scientist, Cecilia Kass escapes in the dead of night and disappears into hiding. But when her abusive ex commits suicide and leaves her a generous portion of his vast fortune, Cecilia suspects his death was a hoax. As a series of eerie coincidences turns lethal, threatening the lives of those she loves, Cecilia's sanity begins to unravel as she desperately tries to prove that she is being...

The Handmaid's Tale is not only a radical and brilliant departure for Margaret Atwood, it is a novel of such power that the reader will be unable to forget its images and its forecast. Set in the near future, it describes life in what was once the United States, now called the Republic of Gilead, a monotheocracy that has reacted to social unrest and a sharply declining birthrate by reverting to, and going beyond, the repressive intolerance of the...

Juliette is an 18 year-old orphan whose unbridled appetite for pleasure shakes up all of St. Tropez. Her sweet but naive husband Michel endures beatings, insults and mambo in his attempts to tame her wild ways.

After their father dies, leaving them to a life of genteel poverty, sensible Elinor and romantic Marianne Dashwood must rely on making good marriages as their means of support.

This epic masterpiece is about a group of 16th century samurai who are hired to defend a small Japanese village that finds itself annually raided by an army of bandits who steal the meager crops harvested by the peasants. Tired of relinquishing their food supply but woefully inept in combat skills, the villagers decide to hire a band of samurai to protect them. In addition to the primary conflict between the villagers and the bandits, much of the...

Set in Paris in the 1890s, Swann falls in love with a young courtesan, and soon finds himself tormented by his unrelenting sexual desire.

Set in Latvia in 1919 at the end of the Russian civil war, a Prussian soldier rejects the advances of an aristocratic woman. She retaliates by joining the Bolsheviks.