Brokeback Mountain is the story of Jack Twist and Ennis del Mar, two young Wyoming natives who connect sexually and emotionally one summer while working on a ranch. The story goes on to chronicle their lives as they conform to the heteronormative culture around them, getting married and fathering children. They reconnect periodically on camping trips, but conflicts inevitably arise from their dalliance and eventually their lives unravel. Jack dies, either in an accident or in a gang beating, and Ennis is left to mourn him.
Mountains Beyond Mountains is a biography by Tracy Kidder about Paul Farmer, a physician who worked to fight tuberculosis in Russia, Peru and Haiti. The biography, told from the author's perspective, chronicles Farmer's life, his broken engagement to Ophelia Dahl, his work for Partners in Health and his numerous accomplishments. Kidder characterizes Farmer as hard-working, unpretentious and kind man who acted more than preached, simply living his life in accordance with what he believed would help others.
The Tortilla Curtain is a novel by T. C. Boyle dealing with issues of immigration, class, racism and environmentalism. The novel recounts the lives and interactions between two couples in very different situations: the illegal Mexican immigrants, Candido and America, and the middle-class citizens, Delaney and Kyra. The novel recounts the immigrants' struggles with poverty and Delaney's gated community's fear of immigrants. In the end, Delaney confronts Candido, their house is swept away in a landslide, killing their daughter and Candido helps Delaney out of a river.