Try these books if you're looking for:

• Action
• Thrillers

The Eight 
By Katherine Neville
F NEVILLE
This adventure thriller is set in two time periods: 1790 and 1972, but the backstory goes back to the 9th century when Charlemagne owned a chess set which held the key to magic, alchemy and cosmic powers. The set was hidden away in an abbey for 1,000 years—until the French Revolution. In 1790 a young novice, becomes aware of the set and its potential and disperses the pieces across Europe. Then in 1972, a computer expert working for an accounting firm with an avid interest in chess is invited to undertake an unusual assignment—locate all the pieces of this long lost chess set. And she is not the only one after the pieces: there’s an antiques dealer, a Soviet chess master, and KGB agents also hot on the trail. 

The Tourist 
By Olen Steinhauer
F STEINHAU
Milo Weaver has a desk job with the CIA. Milo interrogates a man being held believed to be an assassin--"the Tiger." Soon "the Tiger" is dead in his cell. When Angela Yates, a colleague from Milo's days in black ops, is under suspicion of trading secrets, Milo pays her a visit. Soon Angela is dead in her apartment. Milo returns home to vacation with his family in Disneyland when his superior call him with a "go" code and Milo sets off on the run. Milo has to figure out what's going on while Homeland security and and the CIA itself are trying to bring him in. 

The Book of Names 
By Jill Gregory and Karen Tintori
MYSTERY GREGORY
This is a fast-paced thriller involving a Kabalistic interpretation of the Book of Names. This ancient document, ostensibly written by Adam, contains an encoded text listing the names of 36 individuals of each generation whose righteousness preserves the earth and its inhabitants. David Shepherd has been prompted with names out of the blue since he was about 15 years old and has been recording them in a notebook. He has no idea that the names he’s recorded are identical to those being deciphered from this Book of Names. An ancient organization, known as Gnoseos, is working to identify and kill each of the 36 “hidden ones” in this generation. When David Shepherd realizes that the names he has recorded over the years are all of dead people he begins to investigate—and not a moment too soon. 

Clean Romance with a Damsel in Distress

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• Clean reads
• Romance

Friends and Foes 
By Sarah M. Eden
Call #: ROMANCE EDEN
After five years of tracking and capturing spies, Philip Jonquil, Earl of Lampton, is in pursuit of his last quarry--a dangerous French spy. But when Sorrel Kendrick inadvertently stumbles upon a crucial piece of the puzzle (making her indispensable to the mission), can these two proud hearts negotiate a ceasefire when cooperation matters most?

Short-Straw Bride 
By Karen Witemeyer
Call #: ROMANCE WITEMEYE
No one steps on Archer land. Not if they value their life. But when Meredith Hayes overhears a lethal plot to burn the Archer brothers off their ranch, she takes the risk. When Travis Archer confronts her, he can't bring himself to send her away. Meredith once dreamed about, she determines to stand by his side against the enemy that threatens them both. But will love ever be hers? Or will Travis always see her merely as a short-straw bride? 

The Silent Governess 
By Julie Klassen
Call #: ROMANCE KLASSEN
Believing herself guilty of a crime, Olivia Keene flees her home and takes a post with Lord Bradley who has just learned a terrible secret, which, if exposed, will change his life forever. As Olivia and Lord Bradley's secrets catch up with them, will their hidden pasts ruin their hope of finding love? 

Frederica 
By Georgette Heyer
Call #: ROMANCE HEYER
Bringing her family to London in the hopes of finding her younger sister a suitable husband, Frederica is saddened when her prime prospect, the Marquis of Alverstroke, seems totally uninterested, but when her younger brother ends up in a terrible accident, the dutiful Marquis becomes as chivalrous as ever to the those in his charge. 

For Darkness Shows the Stars 
By Diana Peterfreund
Call #: YA F PETERFRE
Years ago, Elliot North passed up the chance to run away with Kai because she felt obligated to stay behind and care for the tenants on her family’s estate, many of whom have diminished abilities after their country’s failed genetic experiment. With her father and sister’s spending habits and selfishness running the estate into the ground, Elliot is desperate to help her people, and that’s when Kai re-enters her life, as a respected member of the Cloud Fleet, a successful, wealthy group of Post explorers want to rent the North family's boatyard. (This is Jane Austen’s Persuasion retold in a post-apocalyptic setting, which sounds weird, but the author did a fantastic job with it.) 

Read-alikes for Neil Gaiman, Orson Scott Card, or Kurt Vonnegut

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• Read-alikes for Neil Gaiman, Orson Scott Card, or Kurt Vonnegut

The Forever War 
By Joe Haldeman
SCIFI HALDEMAN Forever #1
This award winning book features a reluctant hero,Captain Mandella, insights into human behavior, anti-war sentiments and a similar moral stance to many of Card’s books. Captain Mandella must perform his duties and do whatever it takes to survive before returning back home to an aging Earth. 




Blue Girl
By Charles DeLint
YA F DELINT  
DeLint, like Gaiman’s protagonists, live in a world resembling ours but contain differences that make the line between our world and the fantasy world just a bit blurry.  





Bellwether
By Connie Willis
SCIFI WILLIS  
If the reason you like Vonnegut is his sarcasm, poking fun at contemporary culture and satire you might enjoy Bellwether, the story of a sociologist who studies fads and a chaos theorist who are brought together when an unusual package is misdelivered.>

Catch 22

By Joseph Heller
F HELLER
Heller's Catch 22 is classic satire on the insanity of war. Heller and Vonnegut write with similar wit and sarcasm.

Holocaust Fiction for Teens

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Teen books
• Historical fiction
• Books about the Holocaust

Once 
By Morris Gleitzman
YA F GLEITZMA Felix #1
After living in an Catholic orphanage for nearly four years, a naive Jewish boy runs away and embarks on a journey across Nazi-occupied Poland to find his parents. 

Milkweed 
By Jerry Spinelli
YA F SPINELLI
Captures the hardships and cruelty of life in the ghettos of Warsaw during the Nazi occupation of World War II, through the eyes of a Jewish orphan who must use all his wits and courage to survive unimaginable events and circumstances. 

Torn Thread 
By Anne Isaacs
YA F ISAACS
In an attempt to save his daughter's life, Eva's father sends her from Poland to a labor camp in Czechoslovakia where she and her sister survive the war. 

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas 
By John Boyne
YA F BOYNE
Bored and lonely after his family moves from Berlin to a place called "Out-With" in 1942, Bruno, the son of a Nazi officer, befriends a boy in striped pajamas who lives behind a wire fence.

Historical Fantasy for Teen Girls

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• Fantasy
• Female characters
• Teen books
• Clean reads
• No vampires

The Story Teller’s Daughter 
 By Cameron Dokey
YA F DOKEY
When Shaharazad becomes enslaved, she must come up with a plan that will make the coldhearted king see her in a different light in order to change her future. 

Inkheart 
By Cornelia Funke
YA F FUNKE Ink Tril #1
Twelve-year-old Meggie learns that her father, who repairs and binds books for a living, can "read" fictional characters to life when one of those characters abducts them and tries to force him into service. 

East 
By Edith Pattou
YA F PATTOU A young woman journeys to a distant castle on the back of a great white bear who is the victim of a cruel enchantment. 

A Curse as Dark As Gold 
By Elizabeth Bunce
YA F BUNCE
Upon the death of her father, seventeen-year-old Charlotte struggles to keep the family’s mill running, despite the mortgage and what the locals believe is a curse, but when a man who is capable of spinning straw into gold appears, it’s up to her to decide if she’s willing to pay the price for his help.

Recently Published Teen Adventures with a Dash of Romance

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• Adventure
• Romance
• Characters who push the boundaries of their societies

Legend
By Marie Lu
YA F LU
In a dark future, when North America has split into two warring nations, fifteen-year-olds Day, a famous criminal, and prodigy June, the brilliant soldier hired to capture him, discover that they have a common enemy.

Under the Never Sky
By Veronica Rossi
YA F ROSSI
Aria and Perry, two teens from radically different societies--one highly advanced, the other primitive--hate being dependent on one another until they overcome their prejudices and fall in love, knowing they can't stay together.

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.

The False Prince
By Jennifer A. Nielsen
YA F NIELSEN Ascenden #1

In the country of Carthya, a devious nobleman engages four orphans in a brutal competition to be selected to impersonate the king's long-missing son in an effort to avoid a civil war.

Mysteries for Adults

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• Books for adults
• A variety of mysteries

Sweetness at the Bottom of thePie

C. Alan Bradley

MYSTERY BRADLEY Flavia #1

Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is propelled into a mystery when a man is found murdered on the grounds of her family's decaying English mansion and Flavia's father becomes the main suspect.

Old City Hall

By Robert Rotenberg

F ROTENBER

It should have been an open and shut case. Canada's leading radio talk show host came to the door of his luxury condominium, his hands bloody, and said to the newspaper deliveryman, "I killed her." Yet, the discovery that the victim was a self-destructive alcoholic, the presence of strange fingerprints at the crime scene, and the refusal of the accused to say anything--even to his attorney--lead to a hotly contested murder trial.

The War against Miss Winter

By Kathryn Miller Haines

MYSTERY HAINES Rose Wi #1

Struggling with missing her enlisted boyfriend, a lack of employment, and the growing impact of World War II on her New York City home, aspiring actress Rosie Winter reluctantly accepts work with a lowbrow detective agency and is caught up in a high-society mystery when her new boss is murdered.

The Curious Incident of the Dogin the Night-time

By Mark Haddon

F HADDON

Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother.

Size 12 Is Not Fat

By Meg Cabot

MYSTERY CABOT Heather #1

Former pop star Heather Wells has left behind hordes of screaming fans to settle into a new life, but when strange things start happening at her college, she finds herself once again in the spotlight, this time as a detective.

Teen Adventure Fiction

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Teen fiction
• Adventure 
• Books available as either ebooks or downloadable audiobooks (via Overdrive)

Shelter

By Harlan Coben

YA F COBEN

eBook

After tragic events tear Mickey Bolitar away from his parents, he is forced to live with his estranged Uncle Myron and switch high schools, where he finds both friends and enemies, but when his new girlfriend, Ashley, vanishes, he follows her trail into a seedy underworld that reveals she is not what she seems to be.

Unwind

By Neal Shusterman

YA F SHUSTERM

Downloadable Audiobook

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.

The Warrior Heir

By Cinda Williams Chima

YA F CHIMA Heir #1

eBook

After learning about his magical ancestry and his own warrior powers, sixteen-year-old Jack embarks on a training program to fight enemy wizards.

Stoneheart

By Chris Fletcher

J F FLETCHER Stonehea #1

eBook, Downloadable Audiobook

When twelve-year-old George accidentally decapitates a stone statue in London, England, he falls into a parallel dimension where he must battle ancient "live" statues and solve a dangerous riddle. 

Airborn
By Kenneth Oppel
YA F OPPEL Airborn #1
Downloadable Audiobook
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.

Fiction That Transports You to Another World

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• Fiction

The Flight of Gemma Hardy

By Margot Livesey

F LIVESEY

After her widowed father drowns, Gemma Hardy leaves Iceland to live with family in Scotland where she encounters many difficulties as she grows up. Eventually she accepts a post as an au pair on the Orkney Islands where she finds herself attracted to her employer, Mr. Sinclair. When Gemma returns briefly to Iceland to search for her family she understands more about herself. 

The Forgotten Garden

By Kate Morton

F MORTON

Abandoned on a 1913 voyage to Australia, Nell is raised by a dock master and his wife who do not tell her until she is an adult that she is not their child, leading Nell to return to England and eventually hand down her quest for answers to her granddaughter.

The Night Circus

By Erin Morgenstern

F MORGENST

A fierce competition is underway, a contest between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood to compete in "a game," in which each must use their powers of illusion to best the other. Unbeknownst to them, this game is a duel to the death, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will.

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 Rules of Civility

By Amor Towles

F TOWLES

A chance encounter with a handsome banker in a jazz bar on New Year's Eve 1938 catapults Wall Street secretary Katey Kontent into the upper echelons of New York society, where she befriends a shy multi-millionaire, an Upper East Side ne'er-do-well, and a single-minded widow.

Entertaining Stories with Witty Dialogue

Try these books if you're looking for:

•  Fiction
• Witty dialogue 

The Peach Keeper

By Sarah Addison Allen

F ALLEN

Returning to the hometown of her youth after a failed marriage, Willa struggles to find her place in a community where she no longer feels like she belongs, uncovers a 60-year family feud and falls for a strangely secretive man.

The Forgotten Garden

By Kate Morton

F MORTON

Abandoned on a 1913 voyage to Australia, Nell is raised by a dock master and his wife who do not tell her until she is an adult that she is not their child, leading Nell to return to England and eventually hand down her quest for answers to her granddaughter.

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.

Stardust

By Neil Gaiman

SCI-FI GAIMAN

Living in a Victorian countryside town overshadowed by an imposing stone barrier, Tristran is compelled to retrieve a fallen star for the woman he loves and crosses to the wondrous other side of the barrier, where he encounters dangerous rivals for the star.

A Grown-up Kind of Pretty

By Joshilyn Jackson

F JACKSON

Three generations of women live under one roof. The first two were unwed mothers while still in their teens and the third is desperate to create a different kind of future for herself. But she will her family’s past is hard to escape and the installation of a pool in the back yard of their home uncovers a mystery that will unsettle them all.

Clean Historical Fiction

 Try these books if you're looking for:

• Historical Fiction
• Clean reads

The Dressmaker

By Kate Alcott

F ALCOTT

Tess meets world-renowned fashion designer Lucile Duff Gordon just moments before boarding the Titanic. Lucile’s agreement to hire Tess as her maid sends the women on a trajectory of volatile friendship, loyalty, and conflict, all of which comes to a head in the wake of their survival.

The Flight of Gemma Hardy

By Margot Livesey

F LIVESEY

This is a more contemporary retelling of the Jane Eyre story. Gemma leaves Iceland to live with family in Scotland where she encounters many difficulties as she grows up. Eventually she accepts a post as an au pair on the Orkney Islands where she finds herself attracted to her employer, Mr. Sinclair.

Miss Peregrine's Home forPeculiar Children

By Ransom Riggs

YA F RIGGS

After a family tragedy, Jacob feels compelled to explore an abandoned orphanage on an island off the coast of Wales, discovering disturbing facts about the children who were kept there. This book starts in the present day, and bounces back and forth between the present and World War II.

The American Heiress

By Daisy Goodwin

F GOODWIN

Cora Cash suddenly finds herself Duchess of Wareham, married to Ivo, the most eligible bachelor in England. Unfortunately, she finds that life is not quite as ideal as she expected.

The Twentieth Wife

By Indu Sundaresan

F SUNDARES

A novel set against the exotic backdrop of the Mughal dynasty of sixteenth-century India chronicles the life and times of Mehrunnisa, an intelligent, ambitious, and beautiful young woman who became one of India's legendary heroines.

Fantasy for Older Teens

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Fantasy
• Books for older teens and advanced readers

Shadow and Bone
By Leigh Bardugo
YA F BARDUGO
Orphaned by the Border Wars, Alina Starkov is taken from obscurity and her only friend, Mal, to become the protege of the mysterious Darkling, who trains her to join the magical elite in the belief that she is the Sun Summoner, who can destroy the monsters of the Fold.

Grave Mercy
By Robin LaFevers
YA F LAFEVERS
In the fifteenth-century kingdom of Brittany, seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where she learns that the god of Death has blessed her with dangerous gifts--and a violent destiny.

Hourglass
By Myra McEntire
YA F MCENTIRE
Seventeen-year-old Emerson uses her power to manipulate time to help Michael, a consultant hired by her brother, to prevent a murder that happened six months ago while simultaneously navigating their undeniable attraction to one another.

Divergent
By Veronica Roth
YA F ROTH
In a future Chicago, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomaly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.

Name of the Wind
By Patrick Rothfuss
SCI-FI ROTHFUSS Kingkill #1
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.