Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy—it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.

ALA Reasons:

• Swearing:
• Hell: 82
• Damn: 12
• Shit: 3
• Ass: 14
• Bitch: 25
• Bastard: 38
• FU: 1
• Genital Related: 50
• Nigger/Negro: 2
• God: 50
• Christ: 15

The Dark Tower Book One: The Gunslinger by Stephen King

In 1978 Stephen King introduced the world to the last Gunslinger, Roland of Gilead.  Nothing has been the same since. Over twenty years later the quest for the Dark Tower continues to take readers on a wildly epic ride. Through parallel worlds and across time, Roland must brave desolate wastelands and endless deserts, drifting into the unimaginable and the familiar as the road to the Dark Tower extends beyond its own pages. A classic tale of colossal scope—crossing over terrain from The Stand, The Eyes of the Dragon, Insomnia, The Talisman, Black House, Hearts in Atlantis, ‘Salem’s Lot and other familiar King haunts—the adventure takes hold with the turn of each page.

And the tower awaits…

Stichley's Rating:
Intriguing idea, I didn't care for it myself.

Experiment 429's Rating: How many thumbs ups can I give?

Instances of Swearing:

• Hell: 15
• Ass: 5
• Damn: 9
• Shit: 5
• Bitch: 3
• Bastard: 1
• Fuck: 6
• Genital Related: 11
• God: 34

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

A controversial tale of friendship and tragedy during the Great Depression

They are an unlikely pair: George is "small and quick and dark of face"; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a "family," clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation.

Laborers in California's dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. For George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own. When they land jobs on a ranch in the Salinas Valley, the fulfillment of their dream seems to be within their grasp. But even George cannot guard Lennie from the provocations of a flirtatious woman, nor predict the consequences of Lennie's unswerving obedience to the things George taught him.

ALA Reasons:

• Swearing:
• Hell: 47
• Damn: 34
• God: 26
• Christ: 30
• Bastard: 17
• Bitch: 13
• Negro/Nigger: 12
• Morbid and depressing themes
• Racial Slurs

Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King

Stephen King, whose first novel, Carrie, was published in 1974, the year before the last U.S. troops withdrew from Vietnam, is the first hugely popular writer of the TV generation. Images from that war -- and the protests against it -- had flooded America's living rooms for a decade. Hearts In Atlantis is composed of five interconnected, sequential narratives set in the years from 1960 to 1999. Each story is deeply rooted in the sixties, and each is haunted by the Vietnam War.

In "Low Men in Yellow Coats," eleven-year-old Bobby Garfield discovers a world of predatory malice in his own neighborhood and that adults are sometimes not rescuers but at the heart of the terror.

In the title story, a bunch of college kids get hooked on a card game, discover the possibility of protest...and confront their own collective heart of darkness, where laughter may be no more than the thinly disguised cry of the beast.

In "Blind Willie" and "Why We're in Vietnam," two men who grew up with Bobby in suburban Connecticut try to fill the emptiness of the post-Vietnam era in an America which sometimes seems as hollow and haunted as their own lives.

And in "Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling," Bobby returns to his hometown where one final secret, and his heart's desire may await him.

Full of danger, suspense, and full of heart, Hearts In Atlantis takes some listeners to a place they have never been...and others to a place they have never been able to completely leave.

Stichley's Rating:
Not a bad book, but a little slow.  I read it because the movie was coming out, so I read it a long time ago, and it neither encouraged me or discouraged me from seeing the movie.  It just didn't inspire me.

Instances of Swearing:

• Hell: 43
• Ass: 29
• Shit: 47
• Damn: 9
• Fuck: 52
• Bitch: 41
• Bastard: 15
• Christ: 24
• God: 64
• Genital Related: 14

Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov

Awe and exhiliration--along with heartbreak and mordant wit--abound in Lolita, Nabokov's most famous and controversial novel, which tells the story of the aging Humbert Humbert's obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for the nymphet Dolores Haze. Lolita is also the story of a hypercivilized European colliding with the cheerful barbarism of postwar America. Most of all, it is a meditation on love--love as outrage and hallucination, madness and transformation.

ALA Reasons:

• Swearing:
• Hell: 12
• Ass: 1
• Damn: 4
• Bitch/Bastard: 4
• God: 33
• Christ: 2
• Genital Related: 18
• Themes of pedophilia and incest

Eragon, Book One: Inheritance by Christopher Paolini

Perfect for fans of Lord of the Rings, the New York Times bestselling Inheritance Cycle about the dragon rider Eragon has sold over 35 million copies and is an international fantasy sensation.


Fifteen-year-old Eragon believes that he is merely a poor farm boy—until his destiny as a Dragon Rider is revealed. Gifted with only an ancient sword, a loyal dragon, and sage advice from an old storyteller, Eragon is soon swept into a dangerous tapestry of magic, glory, and power. Now his choices could save—or destroy—the Empire.

Stichley's Rating:
I enjoyed the first book in-spite of some parts being a little immature in the writing style.  If you can overlook that it is a great book.  Nothing like the movie.  I also read the second and third book, but was so disappointed with the last book that I never finished it.  So to me it is an unfinished series.  That being said the first book is enjoyable and while it does have similarities to many other stories (Star Wars being just one), it is a decent book.

Instances of Swearing:

• Ass: 1

1984 by George Orwell

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.

ALA Reason:

• Damn: 3
• Hell: 1
• "Pro-communist and contained explicit sexual matter."