Paranormal Romance

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Supernatural characters
• Romance

Wicked Lovely
By Melissa Marr
YA F MARR
Seventeen-year-old Aislinn, who has the rare ability to see faeries, is drawn against her will into a centuries-old battle between the Summer King and the Winter Queen, and the survival of her life, her love, and summer all hang in the balance.

Night Play
By Sherrilyn Kenyon
ROMANCE KENYON
Fed up with men and romance, Bride McTierney never expected to find herself falling in love with Vane Kattalakis, a tortured and mysterious man who just happens to be a Were-Hunter wolf on the run from his enemies.

Lover Eternal
By J.R. Ward
ROMANCE WARD
Fierce warrior and legendary lover, Rhage, a vampire cursed by the Scribe Virgin and owned by the dark side, finds salvation in Mary Luce, the innocent young beauty he has sworn to protect, and together they battle against their enemies and fight for eternal love.

The Witching Hour
By Anne Rice
F RICE
Rowan Mayfair, a neurosurgeon with special powers and the descendant of a dynasty of witches, is drawn to Michael Curry, gifted with strange powers after a near-fatal accident, as they seek to unlock the secret of their talents.

Warprize
By Elizabeth Vaughn
ROMANCE VAUGHN
The daughter of the Warrior King, Xyron, Xylara has trained as a healer to help those wounded in the war with the invading Firelanders, using her talents to bring comfort to both her countrymen and Firelander prisoners, never expecting that a handsome Firelander Warlord will demand her in exchange for a cease-fire.

Full Moon Rising
By Keri Arthur
ROMANCE ARTHUR
When her twin brother, Rhoan, an assassin who protects the innocent from evil supernatural beings, vanishes, Riley Jenson--a young woman who is half werewolf, half vampire--joins forces with a sexy but disoriented vampire to find him.

A Hunger like No Other
By Kresley Cole
ROMANCE COLE
Seeking revenge for years of torture from the vampire horde, Laclain MacRieve, leader of the Lykae Clan of werewolves, abducts the ethereal Emmaline, a young woman who is half Valkyrie and half vampire, and finds himself falling in love with his captive.

Dragon Heat
By Allyson James
ROMANCE JAMES
When her strange roommate, a cranky fifty-foot dragon named Caleb, takes on his human form to protect her from those out to steal her magic and destroy the world, Lisa Singleton finds herself distracted from her mission to save humankind by this hunky warrior with the rippling muscles.

Gentlemen Prefer Succubi

By Jill Myles
ROMANCE Myles
After a one-night stand with a fallen angel and a vampire bite, Jackie Brighton wakes up in a trash bin with a voluptuous new body and an insatiable sex drive. With the help of Noah, her one-night stand lover, she learns to adapt to her new lifestyle as an immortal siren until she goes up against the vampirequeen--and the sexy man who turned her.

Fast-paced History

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Historical information
• Fast pace
• Nonfiction

Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow
By Susan Campbell Bartoletti
943.086 BAR
Through interviews with surviving Hitler Youth members as well as those who resisted the movement, this book explores how Hitler gained the loyalty, trust, and passion of so many of Germany's young people that by the time he became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, 3.5 million children belonged to the Hitler Youth.

The Children’s Blizzard
By David Laskin
978.02 LAS
Laskin describes the deadly 1888 snowstorm in the Great Plains that killed more than five hundred people, including numerous schoolchildren.

With Courage and Cloth
By Ann Bausum
324.623 BAU
Chronicles the final years of the struggle for women's voting rights, focusing on the activities of Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party and their part in the successful passage of the 19th Amendment.

Journey from the Land of No
By Roya Hakakian
BIO Hakakian
An Iranian American poet recounts her life as a daughter of Jewish parents growing up in Tehran, during which she witnessed the impact of the Ayatollah Khomeini's return to the nation and contemplated political asylum.

Clean and Adventurous Scifi or Fantasy for Guys

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Adventure
• Science fiction or fantasy
• Clean reads
• Books for guys

Amulet of Samarkand
By Jonathan Stroud
YA F STROUD Nathaniel, a magician's apprentice, summons up the djinni Bartimaeus and instructs him to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from the powerful magician Simon Lovelace.

Mister Monday
By Garth Nix
YA F NIX
Although Arthur Penhaligon is supposed to die, he is saved by a key shaped like the minute hand of a clock, and now some bizarre creatures--including Mister Monday, his avenging messengers, and an army of dog-faced Fetchers--will stop at nothing to get the key.

The Time Machine
By H.G. Wells
SCIFI WELLS
When a Victorian scientist propels himself into the year a.d. 802,701, he is initially delighted to find that suffering has been replaced by beauty and peace. Entranced at first by the Eloi, an elfin species descended from man, he soon realizes that these beautiful people are simply remnants of a once-great culture—now weak and childishly afraid of the dark. They have every reason to be afraid: in deep tunnels beneath their paradise lurks another race descended from humanity—the sinister Morlocks.

Ender’s Game
By Orson Scott Card
YA F CARD
An expert at simulated war games, Andrew “Ender” Wiggin believes that he is engaged in one more computer war game, when, in truth, he is commanding the last Earth fleet against an alien race seeking Earth’s complete destruction.

Among the Hidden
By Margaret Peterson Haddix
YA F HADDIX
In a futuristic society, each family is only allowed two children. Luke is an illegal third child and has had to spend all of his 12 years in hiding. One day as he is looking out the air vent in the attic he sees a face looking back at him from a house where the family of four has already left for the day. Could it be possible that he is not the only hidden child?

The Secret Hour
By Scott Westerfeld
YA F WESTERFE
Upon moving to Bixby, Oklahoma, fifteen-year-old Jessica Day learns that she is one of a group of people who have special abilities that help them fight ancient creatures living in an hour hidden at midnight; creatures that seem determined to destroy Jess.

The Giver
By Lois Lowry
YA F LOWRY
Given his 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.

Unwind
By Neal Shusterman
YA F SHUSTERM
In a future world where those between the ages of thirteen and eighteen 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.

Dragon’s Blood
By Jane Yolen
YA F YOLEN
Jakkin, a bond boy who works as a Keeper in a dragon nursery on the planet Austar IV, secretly trains a fighting pit dragon of his own in hopes of winning his freedom.

Literary Fiction with a Historical Perspective

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Literary books
• Fiction
• Historical background

Balzac and the Chinese Seamstress
By Die Sijie
F SIJIE
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. The boys become the story tellers to the otherwise isolated hill top community—this novel explores questions of intellectual freedom and the limits of cultural bondage.

The Memory Keepers Daughter
By Kim Edwards
F EDWARDS
In a tale spanning twenty-five years, a doctor delivers his newborn twins during a snowstorm and, rashly deciding to protect his wife from their baby daughter's affliction with Down Syndrome, turns her over to a nurse, who secretly raises the child. This book reminds us that parenthood is an infinite series of opportunities for redemption. In regards to the Doctor’s decision one character remarks” You missed a lot of heartache, sure. But David, you missed a lot of joy." Readers of The Memory Keeper's Daughter will find ample stores of both.

My Name is Asher Lev
By Chiam Potak
F POTAK
Yearning to make art, young Asher Lev is ostracized from his orthodox Jewish family-especially his stern father. This novel examines questions of how religion intersects with personal and family life.

The Poisonwood Bible
By Barbara Kingsolver
F KINGSOLV
The family of a fierce evangelical Baptist missionary—Nathan Price, his wife, and his four daughters—begins to unravel after they embark on a 1959 mission to the Belgian Congo, where they find their lives transformed over the course of three decades.

The Bonesetter’s Daughter
By Amy Tan
F TAN
Suffering from Alzheimer's, Lu Ling's references to the past are confusing and often contradictory to her Daughter Ruth. When Ruth translates her mother’s lengthy journal, she learns that her mother was once a strong-willed, courageous girl who overcame a background of family secrets and lies, persevered despite romantic heartbreak and survived tremendous hardships and suffering in war-torn China.

Clean Historical Fiction

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Clean books
• Historical fiction

Treasures of the North
By Tracie Peterson
F PETERSON
Torn between her desire to obey her parents and her fear of the man they've arranged for her to marry, young Grace opts to leave Chicago for the untamed Alaskan frontier.

Tilly
By Catherine Cookson
F COOKSON
Tilly becomes mistress of the manor dominating Durham County, and she raises herself from the stigma of an underprivileged Victorian child.

Where the Wild Rose Blooms
By Lori Wick
ROMANCE WICK
Just when Clayton Taggart is dreaming of the day when he can leave the life of a mine surveyor in the Colorado mountains to become a teacher, he meets up with newcomer Jackie Fontaine, and playful teasing turns into true love.

Cotillion
By Georgette Heyer
ROMANCE HEYER
Young Kitty Charing stands to inherit a vast fortune from her great-uncle Matthew—if she marries one of her cousins. Kitty is not wholly adverse to the plan, if the right nephew proposes. Unfortunately, Kitty has set her heart on Jack Westruther, a confirmed rake, who seems to have no inclination to marry her anytime soon. To make Jack jealous, Kitty convinces another of her cousins to pretend to be engaged to her.

Anna Karenina
By Leo Tolstoy
F TOLSTOY
Anna Karenina is the story of three Russian families linked by blood and marriage, each struggling in its own way. The tension between personal happiness and moral strictures that shapes Anna Karenina is more than a fictional construct; these are the forces that molded Leo Tolstoy himself.

To Serve Them All My Days
By R.F. Delderfield
F DELDERFI
The novel recounts the fictional story of David Powlett-Jones, WWI veteran who becomes a schoolmaster at a public boy’s school in Devon. His life is portrayed in the context during the social changes of the inter-war years. The appeal of this book lies in the well-crafted central characters who are instantly recognizable as real characters.

The Boleyn Inheritance
By Philippa Gregory
F GREGORY
The only survivor of the ambitious Boleyn family, lady-in-waiting Jane Boleyn testifies against Henry VIII's latest queen, Anne of Cleves, and conspires to place her young cousin, Katherine Howard, on the throne.

Pavilion of Women
By Pearl S. Buck
F BUCK
From the author of The Good Earth comes the story of Madame Wu, a woman whose surprising decision to retire from married life and select a concubine for her husband upsets her extended household.

Exciting Adventures for Teen Guys

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Adventure
• Teen books
• Books for guys
• Books published in the last 10 years

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. Book one in the Young Bond Series.

Dangerous Days of Daniel X
By James Patterson
YA F PATTERSO
Fifteen-year-old Daniel has followed in his parents' footsteps as the Alien Hunter, exterminating beings on The List of Alien Outlaws on Terra Firma, but when he faces his first of the top ten outlaws, the very existence of Earth and another planet are at stake.

The Recruit
By Robert Muchamore
YA F MUCHAMOR
When James is recently orphaned, he is recruited by a secret agency for his math skills and must undergo one hundred days of grueling training. (Book 1 in the Cherub series.)

Devil’s Breath
By David Gilman
YA F GILMAN
When his father goes missing and he is almost killed at his boarding school in England, Max travels to the wilderness of Namibia to try to find him where he soon learns about his father's work to stop Shaka Chang and his evil plot for ecological destruction.

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. (Book one in the Ranger’s Apprentice series.)

Skulduggery Pleasant
By Derek Landy
YA F LANDY
When twelve-year-old Stephanie inherits her weird uncle's estate, she must join forces with Skulduggery Pleasant, a skeleton mage, to save the world from the Faceless Ones. Be sure to read the next books in this series as well.

Artemis Fowl
By Eoin Colfer
YA F COLFER
When a twelve-year-old evil genius tries to restore his family fortune by capturing a fairy and demanding a ransom in gold, the fairies fight back with magic, technology, and a particularly nasty troll. (Book 1 in the Artemis Fowl series.)

Incarceron
By Catherine Fisher
YA F FISHER
To free herself from an upcoming arranged marriage, Claudia, the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, a futuristic prison with a mind of its own, decides to help a young prisoner escape. (Book 1 in the Incarceron series.)

The Maze Runner
By James Dashner
YA F DASHNER
Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape. (Book 1 in Maze Runner trilogy.)

The Angel Experiment
By James Patterson
YA F PATTERSO
After the mutant Erasers abduct the youngest member of their group, the "birdkids," who are the result of genetic experimentation, take off in pursuit and find themselves struggling to understand their own origins and purpose. (Book 1 in the Maximum Ride series.)

Upbeat Historical Family Dramas with a Touch of Romance

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Historical titles
• Family stories
• A little bit of romance

Papa Married a Mormon
By John D. Fitzgerald
BIO Fitzgerald
An autobiography by the creator of “The Great Brain” children’s series. Mr. Fitzgerald tells about the old "wild west" and the people who made America the strong nation that it is today. A Catholic man falls in love with a Mormon woman and they raise their family in Utah in the late 1860s. This short but engaging book includes gunfights, saloon kings, as well as faithful reverends, charitable women, and people whose lives changed for the better.

Peace like a River
By Leif Enger
F Enger
The quiet 1960s Midwestern life of the Land family--father Jeremiah, and children, Reuben, Davy and Swede--is upended when Davy kills two teenage boys who have come to harm the family. On the morning of his sentencing, Davy escapes from his cell and the Lands set out in search of him. Their search is at once a heroic quest, a tragedy, a love story, and a haunting meditation on the possibility of magic in the everyday world.

Mr. Darcy’s Daughters
By Elizabeth Aston
F Aston
One of the best Pride and Prejudice ‘sequels’, this story picks up in 1818, twenty years after Elizabeth and Darcy fall in love. They have gone to Constantinople, giving us an opportunity to get to know their five daughters, who have left the sheltered surroundings of Pemberley for a few months in London. While the eldest, Letitia, frets and the youngest, Alethea, practices her music, twins Georgina and Belle flirt and frolic their way through parties and balls and Camilla -- levelheaded and independent -- discovers what joys and sorrows the city has to offer an intelligent young woman.

The Blue Castle
By L. M. Montgomery
YA F Montgome
At twenty-nine Valancy had never been in love, and it seemed romance had passed her by. Living with her overbearing mother and meddlesome aunt, she found her only consolations in the "forbidden" books of John Foster and her daydreams of the Blue Castle. Then a letter arrived from Dr. Trent -- and Valancy decided to throw caution to the winds. For the first time in her life Valancy did and said exactly what she wanted. Soon she discovered a surprising new world, full of love and adventures far beyond her most secret dreams.

The Book Thief
By Markus Zusak
F Zusak
Set during World War II in Germany, this is the story of Liesel, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau. This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.