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

Try these books if you're looking for:

• 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

Try these books if you're looking for:

• 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.