@ Your Library
I mentioned in last week’s column that I’d be sharing book prompt ideas two weeks in a row, because I forgot to include ideas in the column for February 28. This week the prompt is to read titles based on the last sentence of the book. This was a prompt I borrowed from another list and had to go searching for books that were supposed to have the best last sentences. Here are eight titles that I’ve read that I could agree had a good last sentence. The subject matters vary tremendously and they were written between 1868 and 2005, so other than their last sentence being a marvelous end to the book very little in common.
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is the oldest book on the list and was published originally in two parts in 1868 and 1869. It is a wonderful coming of age story with delightful characters and a tragic story of loss.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is the newest book on the list and was published in 2005. This is a World War II novel and like several other titles on this list has a movie that could be watched after reading the book.
Animal Farm by George Orwell is a fascinating allegorical satire about farm animals rebelling against their farmer. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes is a moving story about intelligence and whether or not it can be increased and the moral implications therein. I read both of these books in high school so my recollections are pretty hazy, but I enjoyed them then.
I don’t read much Stephen King as I’m not a fan of horror, but did enjoy his Eyes of the Dragon fantasy novel and I read Gunslinger the novella published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction but haven’t read the novel which is first volume of his Dark Tower series.
Beloved by Toni Morrison is another book with a movie adaptation which I haven’t seen. The book is about a dysfunctional family living in a house haunted by a malevolent spirit. I’m pretty sure living in a haunted house would make any family dysfunctional.
Alice Sebold published The Lovely Bones in 2002 and it chronicles a family’s attempt to solve and understand the murder of their teenage daughter while she comes to term with her death.
The Giver by Lois Lowry is considered a youth novel, but the dystopian world presented has lessons we can all learn and no one ever said you had to give up reading kids books just because you are an adult. And if you find yourself intrigued by the first book of the series, Lois Lowry wrote three more loosely connected titles over the next thirty years.
A reminder that many of the books I’m recommending could probably fit under more than one prompt so if you want to read multiple titles I’m suggesting then make them fit in different prompts to fill out your 2025 reading challenge.