REA 081 - Downtown Campus (Hazan)  

You have been assigned to read some of the following books for REA 081 at the Downtown Campus. When you read your novel, you may be unfamiliar with the author, location, culture, time period, and/or sets of beliefs and values represented. Developing some prior knowledge about the author and related subjects portrayed in your book will create a more meaningful reading experience for you.

Catch Me If You Can - Frank W. Abagnale

An ex-confidence man and master impostor recounts his crimes, capture, imprisonment, and current career as a highly paid crime consultant.

I Am the Messenger - Markus Zusak

After capturing a bank robber, nineteen-year-old cab driver Ed Kennedy begins receiving mysterious messages that direct him to addresses where people need help, and he begins getting over his lifelong feeling of worthlessness.

Like Water for Chocolate - Laura Esquivel

Like Water For Chocolate, a poignant love story told from a woman's point of view, takes place on the De la Garza ranch in turn-of-the-century Mexico. Esquivel does a splendid job of describing the frustration, love and hope expressed through the most domestic and feminine of arts, family cooking, suggesting by implication the limited options available to Mexican women of this period.

The Notebook - Nicholas Sparks

Noah Calhoun, recently returned from World War II in 1946, buys an old plantation home in rural North Carolina, where he contents himself with memories of his first love, a girl he met fourteen years earlier, but then she unexpectedly arrives at his door.