The Best Literature & Fiction Books 2026

1. Joan of Arc, (Paperback)

Very few people know that Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) wrote a major work on Joan of Arc. Still fewer know that he considered it not only his most important but also his best work. He spent twelve years in research and many months in France doing archival work and then made several attempts until he felt he finally had the story he wanted to tell. He reached his conclusion about Joan's unique place in history only after studying in detail accounts written by both sides, the French and the English. Because of Mark Twain's antipathy to institutional religion, one might expect an anti-Catholic bias toward Joan or at least toward the bishops and theologians who condemned her. Instead one finds a remarkably accurate biography of the life and mission of Joan of Arc told by one of this country's greatest storytellers. The very fact that Mark Twain wrote this book and wrote it the way he did is a powerful testimony to the attractive power of the Catholic Church's saints. This is a book that really will inform and inspire. " I like Joan of Arc best of all my books; and it is the best; I know it perfectly well. And besides, it furnished me seven times the pleasure afforded me by any of the others; twelve years of preparation, and two years of writing. The others needed no preparation and got none." -- Mark Twain "Mark Twain comes furtively like Nicodemus at night with this tribute to one of God's saints. In doing so he tells a secret about himself. It is as though the man in a white suit and a cloud of cigar smoke thought there just might be a place where people in white robes stand in clouds of incense." -- Fr. George Rutler, Author, The Cure d'Ars Today "Twain's understanding of history and Joan's place in it accounts for his regarding his book Joan of Arc as worth all of his other books together." -- Edward Wagenknecht, The Man and His Work "Joan of Arc is the lone example that history affords of an actual, real embodiment of all the virtues demonstrated by Huck and Jim and of all that Twain felt to be noble in man, Joan is the ideal toward which mankind strives. Twain had to tell her story because she is the sole concrete argument against the pessimistic doctrines of his deterministic philosophy." -- Robert Wiggins, Mark Twain: Jackleg Novelist

Joan of Arc, (Paperback) Author: Ignatius Press ISBN: 9780898702682 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 1989-09-01 Page Count: 455

2. Cold Sassy Tree (Hardcover)

The unforgettable characters of Cold Sassy, Georgia, are presented in this heartwarming story of modern times coming to a small Southern town. "Rich with emotion, humor and tenderness".--Washington Post Book World. Received enormous national publicity as a Hallmark Hall of Fame TV-movie starring Faye Dunaway. The one thing you can depend on in Cold Sassy, Georgia, is that word gets around - fast. When Grandpa E. Rucker Blakeslee announces one July morning in 1906 that he's aiming to marry the young and freckledy milliner, Miss Love Simpson - a bare three weeks after Granny Blakeslee has gone to her reward - the news is served up all over town with that afternoon's dinner. And young Will Tweedy suddenly finds himself eyewitness to a major scandal. Boggled by the sheer audacity of it all, and not a little jealous of his grandpa's new wife, Will nevertheless approves of this May-December match and follows its progress with just a smidgen of youthful prurience. As the newlyweds' chaperone, conspirator, and confidant, Will is privy to his one-armed, renegade grandfather's second adolescence; meanwhile, he does some growing up of his own. He gets run over by a train and lives to tell about it; he kisses his first girl, and survives that too. Olive Ann Burns has given us a timeless, funny, resplendent novel - about a romance that rocks an entire town, about a boy's passage through the momentous but elusive year when childhood melts into adolescence, and about just how people lived and died in a small Southern town at the turn of the century. Inhabited by characters who are wise and loony, unimpeachably pious and deliciously irreverent, Cold Sassy, Georgia, is the perfect setting for the debut of a storyteller of rare brio, exuberance, and style.

Cold Sassy Tree (Hardcover)

3. Foreigner Inheritor, Book 3, (Paperback)

The third novel in Cherryh's Foreigner space opera series, a groundbreaking tale of first contact and its consequences... Six months have passed since the reappearance of the starship Phoenix--the same ship which brought a colony of humans to the hostile environment of alien atevi nearly two hundred years ago. During these six months, the atevi have reconfigured their fledgling space program in a bid to take their place in the heavens alongside humans. But the return of the Phoenix has added a frighteningly powerful third party to an already volatile situation, polarizing both human and atevi political factions, and making the possibility of all-out planetary war an even more likely threat. On the atevi mainland, human ambassador Bren Cameron, in a desperate attempt to maintain the peace, has arranged for one human representative from the Phoenix to take up residence with him in his apartments, and for another to be stationed on humanity's island enclave. Bren himself is unable to return home for fear of being arrested or assassinated by the powerful arch conservative element who wish to bar the atevi from space. Responsible for a terrified, overwhelmed young man, and desperately trying to keep abreast of the atevi associations, how can Bren possibly find a way to save two species from a three-sided conflict that no one can win?

Foreigner Inheritor, Book 3, (Paperback) Author: Daw Books ISBN: 9780886777289 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 1997-02-01 Page Count: 464

4. Mage Winds: Winds of Fury (Series #3) (Paperback)

Book Three of The Mage Winds trilogy. No longer the willful novice of Winds of Fate, Princess Herald Elspeth has completed her magical training. She returns to her homeland with her beloved partner Darkwind. Will they be strong enough to confront the magical evil that is threatening their land?

Book Three of The Mage Winds trilogy. No longer the willful novice of Winds of Fate, Princess Herald Elspeth has completed her magical training. She returns to her homeland with her beloved partner Darkwind. Will they be strong enough to confront the magical evil that is threatening their land?

5. Tears of Yesterday (Other) 9781551664170

ISBN: 9781551664170 ISBN10: 1551664178 Contributors: Baxter, Mary Lynn,

From the bestselling author of "Lone Star Heat" comes the passionate story of a woman who would do anything for her brother, including asking her estranged husband for help--and reliving the pain, love and passion of a failed marriage. But is the cost of her brother's freedom her own?

6. Cattleman's Choice 9781551660561 Used / Pre-owned

CONDITION – USED: Books sold are in GOOD or better condition. Good Condition: Minimal damage to the cover, dust jacket may not be included, minimal wear to binding, most of the pages undamaged(e.g., minimal creases or tears), highlighting / underlining acceptable on books as long as the text is readable and markings are not excessive, no missing pages. May be a former library book, with usual treatments(e.g., mylar covers, call stickers, stamps, card pockets, barcodes, or remainder marks). Extra components, such as CDs, DVDs, figurines, or access codes are not included. ISBN: 9781551660561 ISBN10: 1551660563 Contributors: Palmer, Diana,

Carson Wayne had come to Mandelyn with the ultimate request--he needed her to teach him how to treat a lady. It was too intriguing a challenge to turn down. Mandelyn suspected that the renegade was really a caring and sensitive man. But what she hadn't counted on were her own feelings for this irresistible rebel. From the author of Lady Love.