Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling

Details:

Originally published as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

Published in 1997 by Bloomsbury UK. I likely read a 1998 Scholastic (US) hardcover.

Best guess, I read it in 1999.

Awards:

National Book Award.

From the Publisher:

Harry Potter has never been the star of a Quidditch team, scoring points while riding a broom far above the ground. He knows no spells, has never helped to hatch a dragon, and has never won a cloak of invisibility. 

All he knows is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley--a great big swollen spoiled bully. Harry's room is a tiny closet at the foot of the stairs, and he hasn't had a birthday party in eleven years. 

But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by owl messenger: a letter with an invitation to an incredible place that Harry--and anyone who reads about him--will find unforgettable.

For it's there that he finds not only friends, aerial sports, and magic in everything from classes to meals, but a great destiny that's been waiting for him...if Harry can survive the encounter.

First Line:

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

Alternate Covers:

Blood Meridian by Cormac MCarthy

Details:

Full title is Blood Meridian Or the Evening Redness in the West.

Published in 1985 by Random House.

I read it in 2007, I think.

From the Publisher:

An epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, Blood Meridian brilliantly subverts the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the "wild west." Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennesseean who stumbles into the nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving.

First Line:

See the child. He is pale and thin, he wears a thin and ragged shirt.

Alternate Covers:

Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind

Details:

Published in 1994 by Tor Books.

I read what was likely a 1997 reprint in 2000. 

From the Publisher:

In the aftermath of the brutal murder of his father, a mysterious woman, Kahlan Amnell, appears in Richard Cypher's forest sanctuary seeking help . . . and more. His world, his very beliefs, are shattered when ancient debts come due with thundering violence.

In a dark age it takes courage to live, and more than mere courage to challenge those who hold dominion, Richard and Kahlan must take up that challenge or become the next victims. Beyond awaits a bewitching land where even the best of their hearts could betray them. Yet, Richard fears nothing so much as what secrets his sword might reveal about his own soul. Falling in love would destroy them--for reasons Richard can't imagine and Kahlan dare not say.

In their darkest hour, hunted relentlessly, tormented by treachery and loss, Kahlan calls upon Richard to reach beyond his sword--to invoke within himself something more noble. Neither knows that the rules of battle have just changed . . . or that their time has run out.

This is the beginning. One book. One Rule. Witness the birth of a legend.

First Line:

It was an odd looking vine.

Alternative Covers:

Dragon of the Lost Sea by Lawrence Yep

Details:

Published in 1982 by Harper & Row.

I read what I think is a 1994 reprint from Harper Trophy, in 1997.

From the Publisher:

The dragon princess Shimmer is on a dangerous quest: to recover a magic pebble containing a stolen sea--a sea that is her home, her past, her future. "Maybe I'd better go with you," suggests the orphan boy, Thorn. Shimmer scoffs. "Don't try to follow, boy. You're be next to useless."

Even though Shimmer is a dragon princess and Thorn a mere human, Thorn knows they have something in Common. They are both homeless, both alone in the world. They need each other. "I'll never let you down," Thorn says. "Wait and see." After all, if a pebble can hold an ocean, a boy can prove himself as bold as a dragon.

First Line:

I stopped when I smelled the magic.

Alternative Cover:

Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

Details:

Published in 1951 by Little, Brown and Company.

I read what was likely a 1991 reprint in 2004.

From the Publisher:

The hero-narrator of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it. There are many voices in this novel: children's voices, adult voices, underground voices-but Holden's voice is the most eloquent of all. Transcending his own vernacular, yet remaining marvelously faithful to it, he issues a perfectly articulated cry of mixed pain and pleasure. However, like most lovers and clowns and poets of the higher orders, he keeps most of the pain to, and for, himself. The pleasure he gives away, or sets aside, with all his heart. It is there for the reader who can handle it to keep.

First Line:

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.

Alternate Covers:

Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce

Details:

Published in 1983 by Athenium.

I think I read a 1988 edition from Random House.

Best guess, I read it in 1998.

From the Publisher:

In a time when girls are forbidden to be warriors, Alanna of Trebond wants nothing more than to be knight of the realm of Tortall. So she finds a way to switch places with her brother, Thom. Disguised as a boy, Alanna begins her training as a page at the palace of King Roald. The road to knighthood, as she discovers, is not an easy one. Alanna must master weapons, combat, magic -- and also polite behavior, her temper, and even her own heart. With stubbornness, skill, and daring, she wins the admiration of all around her, and the friendship of Prince Jonathan of Tortall himself. But she also makes an enemy of the prince's uncle, the powerful and charming Duke Roger....

Filled with swords and sorcery, adventure and intrigue, good and evil, Alanna's first adventure begins -- one that will lead to the fulfillment of her dreams and the magical destiny that will make her a legend in her land.

First Line:

That is my decision.

Alternate Covers:

Not Without My Sister by Juliana Buhring, Celeste Jones, and Kristina Jones

Details:

Published in 2007 by HarperCollins.

Best guess I read it in 2008.

From the Publisher:

Kristina, Celeste, and Juliana were all born into the Children of God cult, and from as early as three years old were mistreated and used as sexual beings. They were denied access to formal schooling, forced to wander the streets begging for money, and were mercilessly beaten for "crimes" as harmless as reading an encyclopedia. After being separated from each other and their mothers and forced to live in various missions with multiple foster parents, the sisters eventually managed to escape. In this startling exposé, they have come together to reveal in horrific detail the group that has destroyed the lives of so many. Their intertwining stories reveal a community spread throughout the world whose legacy of anorexia, depression, drug abuse, suicide, and even murder are impossible to erase. Together, the sisters found a strength that finally enabled them to uncover and free themselves from the shadows of their past.

First Line:
In January 2005, our sister Davida died from a drug overdose.

Fire Bringer by David Clement-Davies

Details:

Published in 1999 by Macmillan UK.

I probably read the 2000 edition from Puffin in 2001.

From the Publishers:

In a Scotland beset by Norse invaders, the deer--the Herla--are fighting their own war. A tyrannical new lord of the herd has ended the old way, the yearly play of antlers that ensured a change of leadership. At his command is a corps of young stags, scars on their brows and antlers sharpened for the kill, whose mission is complete dominion over the animal world. But Herla lore promises a hero--a fawn with a strange birthmark whose unique bond with all creatures, including man, will ignite an epic battle and free the Herla forever.

In this grand and gripping book, with its echoes of myth, legend, and gospel, David Clement-Davies has created a classic hero tale set in a society that is at once convincingly animal and a sharp reflection of our own.

First Line:

A lone red deer was grazing across the glen, swaying through the deep tangle of heather that covered the hillside. 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Details:

Published in 1865 by Macmillan.

The version I read was a Barnes and Noble Classic from 2004.

I read it in 2010.

From the Publisher:

First published in 1865, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was an immediate success, as was its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. Carroll’s sense of the absurd and his amazing gift for games of logic and language have secured for the Alice books an enduring spot in the hearts of both adults and children.


Alice begins her adventures when she follows the frantically delayed White Rabbit down a hole into the magical world of Wonderland, where she meets a variety of wonderful creatures, including Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Cheshire Cat, the hookah-smoking Caterpillar, the Mad Hatter, and the Queen of Hearts—who, with the help of her enchanted deck of playing cards, tricks Alice into playing a bizarre game of croquet. 


Throughout her fantastic journeys, Alice retains her reason, humor, and sense of justice. She has become one of the great characters of imaginative literature, as immortal as Don Quixote, Huckleberry Finn, Captain Ahab, Sherlock Holmes, and Dorothy Gale of Kansas. 

First Line:

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do; once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, "and what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations?"

Alternate Covers:

The Wind Singer by William Nicholson

Details:

Published in 2000 by Hyperion Books.

Best guess, I read it in 2001.

From the Publisher:

Kestrel Hath's schoolroom rebellion against the stifling caste system of Aramanth leads to explosive consequences for her and her family: they are relegated to the city's lowest caste and are ostracized. With nothing left to lose, Kestrel and her twin brother, Bowman, do the unthinkable: they leave the city walls. Their only hope to rescue the rest of their family is to find the key to the wind singer, a now-defunct device in the city's center, which was once the course of happiness and harmony in Aramanth. But the key was given to an evil spirit-lord, the Morah, in exchange for the Morah's calling off its terrible army of Zars. Armed with desperate bravery, wits, and determination, Kestrel, Bowman, and a tagalong classmate set off to find the key. Along the way they meet allies and foes, but in order to succeed in their quest, they must face the most sinister force of all: the powerful Morah.

First Line:

At the time the strangers came, the Manth people were still living in the in the low mat-walled shelters that they had carried with them in their hunting days.

Alternative Covers:

1984 by George Orwell

Details:

Published in 1949 by Secker and Warburg.

The version I read was a Signet Classic published in 1990.

Best guess, I read this in 2003.

From the Publisher:

In 1984, London is a grim city where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. Winston is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be.


Written in 1948, 1984 was George Orwell’s chilling prophecy about the future. And while 1984 has come and gone, Orwell’s narrative is timelier than ever. 1984 presents a startling and haunting vision of the world, so powerful that it is completely convincing from start to finish. No one can deny the power of this novel, its hold on the imaginations of multiple generations of readers, or the resiliency of its admonitions—a legacy that seems only to grow with the passage of time.

First Line:

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

Alternative Covers: