Women's Stories with International Settings

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Women's literature
• Female characters
• International setting

A Thousand Splendid Suns
By Khalid Hosseini
F HOSSEINI
Two women of different backgrounds share a life under the same roof with the same abusive husband. “A Thousand Splendid Suns” is a story of personal tragedy set against the backdrop of national tragedy in Afghanistan.

Girls of Riyadh
By Rajaa Alsanea
F ALSANEA
A series of emails tells the struggles of four friends. These close girlfriends from upper-class Saudi families attend universities in Riyadh and in Chicago and San Francisco. Searching for love, they cannot escape deep-seated oppressive traditions after they return to Riyadh.

Saffron Kitchen
By Yasmin Crowther
F CROWTHER
The relationship between a mother and daughter grows turbulent when the mother, Maryam, returns to the tiny village in Iran where she grew up to come to terms with her past, especially with the ghost of her father and with her first love, Ali, who has been waiting for her return

Women of the Silk
By Gail Tsukiyama
F TSUKIYAMA
Spanning the years between the world wars, this tale of a young Chinese girl forced to work in a silk factory describes the sisterhood of workers she discovers there.

A Golden Age
By Tahmina Anam
F Anam
As she plans a party for her son and daughter, Rehana Haque's life will be transformed in a story of one family caught in the middle of the 1971 Bangladesh War of Independence, as they face changes and decisions that will have a profound impact on their lives.

Recent Fantasy Novels

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Fantasy
• Books published in the last 10 years
• Interesting plot lines
• Fast pace
• Interesting characters

His Majesty’s Dragon
By Naomi Novik
SCIFI NOVIK
When a French ship and its priceless cargo, an unhatched dragon egg, are captured by Captain Will Laurence he must give up his ship and join the elite Aerial Corps as a master of the dragon Temaraire, in which role he must match wits with the powerful dragon-borne forces of Napoleon Bonaparte.

The Name of the Wind
By Patrick Rothfuss
SCIFI ROTHFUSS
A hero named Kvothe, now living under an assumed name as the humble proprietor of an inn, recounts his transformation from a magically gifted young man into the most notorious wizard, musician, thief, and assassin in his world.

Shades of Grey
By Jasper Fforde
SCIFI FFORDE
Color Control Agency employee and House of Red member Eddie Russett experiences discontent with his limited vision when he meets Jane, a Gray, who suggests that their color-blind world was brought about by a disaster that nobody is allowed to acknowledge.

Fire
By Kristin Cashore
YA F CASHORE
In a kingdom called the Dells, Fire is the last human-shaped monster, with unimaginable beauty and the ability to control the minds of those around her, but even with these gifts she cannot escape the strife that overcomes her world.

The Red Wolf Conspiracy
By Robert V.S. Reddick
SCIFI REDDICK
Scant years after a terrible war that shook empires, a 600-year-old ship sails for enemy lands and must deal with deadly assassins, treacherous mermaids, and monstrous slavers in order to deliver a young woman whose marriage will seal the peace.

Thud!
By Terry Pratchett
SCIFI PRATCHET
A seemingly routine day in the life of City Watch commander Sam Vimes is abruptly interrupted by an unsolved murder, an impending war, an unwanted new recruit, and a pesky government inspector.

The Curse of Chalion
By Lois McMaster Bujold
SCIFI BUJOLD
Betrayed by an unknown enemy into slavery, former soldier and courtier Lupe dy Cazaril escapes his bondage and returns to the royal household he once served. Entrusted with the teaching of the sister to the heir to the throne of Chalion, Cazaril finds himself drawn into a tangled web of politics and dark magic as he battles a curse that threatens the lives and souls of a family he has come to love.

Interesting Nonfiction

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Nonfiction

The Omnivore’s Dilemma
By Michael Pollan
394.12 POL
A fascinating look at what we eat, and why we eat it. Pollan visits a number of food related topics in this book from the origins of our food, to the reasons behind our corn based society, to organic farming, and beyond.

Born to Run
By Christopher McDougall
BIO McDougall
McDougall, a sports writer and amateur runner injures his foot on a three mile run. Said injury starts him on the path to discover how a group of native Mexican Indians are able to beat the odds and run amazing distances without the help of modern technology.

Shadow Divers
By Robert Kurson
940.5451 KUR
A fascinating account of two amateur scuba divers who discovered a World War II German submarine off the coast of New Jersey. The wreck was deeper than was normally possible to dive too, and therefore no one the amazing discovery. Adventure, with lots of World War II history thrown in.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames
By David Sedaris
814.54 SED
Another humorous memoir by David Sedaris. Each chapter looks at a different aspect of his life ranging from the frustrations of living in France, to his childhood , to his attempts to give up smoking while living in Japan.

The Homemade Life
By Molly Wizenberg
BIO WIZINBER
Wizenberg is the author of the online food blog Orangette. With each chapter she discusses a certain time in her life, the sites, smells and food associated with it. Each chapter includes the recipe for the particular food that she discusses. A very satisfying, warm, and delicious memoir.

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
By Simon Winchester
423 WIN
The compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary, 70 years in the making, was an intellectually heroic feat with a twist worthy of the greatest mystery fiction: one of its most valuable contributors was a criminally insane American physician, locked up in an English asylum for murder.

Science Fiction for Women

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Science fiction
• Female Characters

The Quantum Rose
By Catherine Asaro
SCIFI ASARO Kamoj, a young noblewoman, agrees to marry a powerful stranger from another planet in order to save her people.

The Hunger Games
By Suzanne Collins
YA F COLLINS
In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.

The Eyre Affair
By Jasper Fforde
SCIFI FFORDE
In a world where one can literally get lost in literature, Thursday Next, a Special Operative in literary detection, tries to stop the world's Third Most Wanted criminal from kidnapping characters, including Jane Eyre, from works of literature.

The Host
By Stephanie Meyer
SCIFI MEYER
A member of a species that takes over the minds of human bodies, Wanderer is unable to disregard his host's love for a man in hiding, a situation that forces both possessor and host to become unwilling allies.

The Morcai Battalion
By Diana Palmer
SCIFI PALMER
In a future where humans are inferior, cloning is common, and war rages among the many alien races that exist, Dr. Madeline Ruszel, fighting for peace and freedom, is captured by the Centurions and forced to operate on their leader.

The Book of Atrix Wolfe
By Patricia A. McKillip
SCIFI MCKILLIP
Summoned to the timeless realm of the Queen of the Wood, mage Atrix Wolfe is entreated to find the Queen's missing daughter, who disappeared twenty years earlier during a bloody war that Atrix refereed.

Well-Written Historical Fiction

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Historical Fiction

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
By Sijie Dai
F DAI
During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, two boys are sent to the country for reeducation, where their lives take an unexpected turn when they meet the beautiful daughter of a local tailor and stumble upon a forbidden stash of Western literature.

These Is My Words
By Nancy Turner
F TURNER
In 1881, Sarah Agnes Prine, 17, goes from New Mexico to Texas and back, protecting her family with her rifle, and then becoming ranch manager while her second husband serves as a Texas Ranger.

The Rose of Sebastopol
By Katherine McMahon
F MCMAHON
When her fiancé falls ill while serving in the Crimean War, Mariella Lingwood travels to Italy to care for him only to discover that her cousin, a volunteer in Florence Nightingale's nursing corps, has gone missing.

The Killer Angels
By Michael Shaara
F SHAARA
Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet tell the Southern view of the battle at Gettysburg while Colonel Joshua Chamberlain and General John Buford present the Northern view.

The Scarlet Pimpernel
By Baroness Emmuska Orczy
F ORCZY
Sir Percy Blakeney leads titled Englishmen in assisting the escape of emigrés threatened during the terrors of the French Revolution.

Women's Literature

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Fiction
• Women's Literature

Letter to My Daughter
By George Bishop
F BISHOP
When her 15-year-old daughter runs away from their Baton Rouge home, a guilt-ridden mother writes a healing letter about her own adolescence, marked by a strict Catholic boarding school, a forbidden romance and the origins of an enigmatic tattoo.

The Accidental Bestseller
By Wendy Wax
F WAX
Once upon a time, four aspiring authors met at a writers' conference. Ten years later they're still friends, veterans of the dog-eat-dog New York publishing world. Together they collaborate on a novel using their own lives as fodder, assuming no one will ever discover the truth behind their words--but with success comes scrutiny and scandal.

My Sister’s Keeper
By Jodi Picoult
F PICOULT
Conceived to provide a bone marrow match for her leukemia-stricken sister, teenage Anna begins to question her moral obligations in light of countless medical procedures and decides to fight for the right to make decisions about her own body.

Eat Cake
By Jeanne Ray
F RAY
Ruth draws on her talent for concocting delectable cakes and desserts when her family begins to disintegrate around her--her husband loses his job, her mother moves in, and her long-estranged father shows up at the door with no place to go.

The Nanny Diaries
By Emma McLaughlin
F MCLAUGHL
A satirical glimpse into Manhattan's upper class follows Nanny, a struggling NYU student who takes a position caring for the son of the rich and glamorous X family, as she learns how to juggle a vast array of tasks so that a Park Avenue wife never has to lift a well-manicured finger.

Teen Action Adventure

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Teen books
• Action
• Adventure
• Great books for guys
  

Ruins of Gorlan
By John Flanagan
YA F Flanagan
When fifteen-year-old Will is rejected by battleschool, he becomes the reluctant apprentice to the mysterious Ranger Halt, and winds up protecting the kingdom from danger.

Silverfin
By Charles Higson
YA F Higson
Prequel to the adventures of James Bond, 007, introduces the young James when he is just starting boarding school in England and is about to become involved in his first adventure.

Tomorrow When the War Began
By John Marsden
YA F Marsden
Seven Australian teenagers return from a camping trip in the bush to discover that their country has been invaded and they must hide to stay alive.

Airborn
By Kenneth Oppel
YA F Oppel
Matt, a young cabin boy aboard an airship, and Kate, a wealthy young girl traveling with her chaperone, team up to search for the existence of mysterious winged creatures reportedly living hundreds of feet above the Earth's surface.

Keeper of the Grail
By Michael P. Spradlin
J F Spradlin
In 1191, fifteen-year-old Tristan, a youth of unknown origin raised in an English abbey, becomes a Templar Knight's squire during the Third Crusade and soon finds himself on a mission to bring the Holy Grail to safety.

Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman?
By Eleanor Updale
YA F Updale
In Victorian London, after his life is saved by a young physician, a thief utilizes the knowledge he gains in prison to create a new, highly successful, double life for himself.

Peak
By Roland Smith
YA F Smith
A fourteen-year-old boy attempts to be the youngest person to climb Mount Everest.

It's a Dog's Life

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Nonfiction
• Animal stories
• Books about dogs

What My Dog Has Taught Me about Life
By Gary Stanley
242.68 STA
Winsome dog photos give a sense of cheer in this “dog teaches man” philosophy book. It is divided into short tales of man and his best friend; “Something To Chew On” (words of wisdom from a dog’s viewpoint), “Paws for Prayer” (prayers from a dog’s perspective) and “Mutterings” (quotes by the author and other humans).

Shaggy Muses
By Maureen Adams
820.9 ADA
Through letters, journal entries and contemporary writings, the author offers a unique perspective into the lives of Emily Bronte, Edith Wharton, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Emily Dickinson and Virginia Woolf. Each chapter explores the life of one of these women giving us insight into how their dogs influenced their creativity, and offered fragile mental and social stability.

Good Dog. Stay
By Anna Quindlen
Biography Quindlen
A memorial to Quindlen’s beloved dog Beau, she reflects on the influence the dog had both on herself and her growing family. Quindlen learned from Beau to “roll with the punches, take things as they come, measure herself not in terms of the past or the future but of the present, to raise her nose in the air from time to time and, at least metaphorically, holler, ‘I smell bacon!’”

A Big Little Life
By Dean Koontz
636.7527 KOO
This is Dean Koontz’s memoir to his beloved dog Trixie. From the moment Trixie entered the Koontzs lives she began teaching--teaching of how to live in the present, what unbridled joy felt like and the meaning of love and loyalty.

Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog
By Ted Kerasote
636.7092 KER
The dog appeared out of nowhere and seemed to say “You need a dog & I’m it,” and so begins the relationship of Merle and the author. Not a training manual but a powerfully written book, Kerasote mixes scientific knowledge and love throughout showing how the bond between human and dog can reach its utmost potential.

Chicken Soup for the Cat and Dog Lover's Soul
158.128 CHI 1998
True heartwarming short stories celebrating the magic of love between dogs and their people. (Cats and a few other creatures are included in the book)

Teen Dystopias

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Teen books
• Dystopias
• Science Fiction

The Hunger Games
By Suzanne Collins
YA F COLLINS
In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.

The Giver
By Lois Lowry
YA F LOWRY
Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox
By Mary Pearson
YA F PEARSON
In the not-too-distant future, when biotechnological advances have made synthetic bodies and brains possible but illegal, a seventeen-year-old girl, recovering from a serious accident and suffering from memory lapses, learns a startling secret about her existence.

Life As We Knew It
By Susan Beth Pfeffer
YA F PFEFFER
Through journal entries sixteen-year-old Miranda describes her family's struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.

Unwind
By Neil Shusterman
YA F SHUSTERMAN
In a future world where those between the ages 13-18 can have their lives "unwound" and their body parts harvested for use by others, three teens go to extreme lengths to uphold their beliefs--and, perhaps, save their own lives.

Uglies
By Scott Westerfeld
YA F WESTERFELD
Just before their sixteenth birthdays, when they will be transformed into beauties whose only job is to have a great time, Tally's best friend runs away and Tally must find her and turn her in, or never become pretty at all.