Literary Sci-Fi

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Literary titles
• Science Fiction

The Book of Lost Things
By John Connolly
SCIFI CONNOLLY
Taking refuge in fairy tales after the loss of his mother, twelve-year-old David finds himself violently propelled into an imaginary land in which the boundaries of fantasy and reality are disturbingly melded.

The Stolen Child
By Keith Donohue
SCIFI DONOHUE
Stolen from his family by changelings, Henry Day is given the name "Aniday" by the ageless and magical beings, who replace him with another child who takes his place with his parents, a young boy who possesses an extraordinary gift of music.

Never Let Me Go
By Kazuo Ishiguro
F ISHIGURO
A reunion with two childhood friends--Ruth and Tommy--draws Kath and her companions on a nostalgic odyssey into the supposedly idyllic years of their lives at Hailsham, an isolated private school in the serene English countryside, and a dramatic confrontation with the truth about their childhoods and about their lives in the present.

The Road
By Cormac McCarthy
F MCCARTHY
In a novel set in an indefinite, futuristic, post-apocalyptic world, a father and his young son make their way through the ruins of a devastated American landscape, struggling to survive and preserve the last remnants of their own humanity.

The Time Traveler’s Wife
By Audrey Niffenegger
F NIFFENEG
Passionately in love, Clare and Henry vow to hold onto each other and their marriage as they struggle with the effects of Chrono-Displacement Disorder, a condition that casts Henry involuntarily into the world of time travel.

Romantic Suspense

Try these books if you're looking for

• Romance
• Suspense

Whispers at Midnight
By Karen Robards
ROMANCE ROBARDS
Returning to Georgia after her divorce, Carly Linton sets her sights on Sheriff Matt Converse, the town's former bad boy, but her plans are thwarted when a dead body is found on her property and someone makes it clear that she is no longer welcome.

Heartbreaker
By Karen Robards
ROMANCE ROBARDS
Robards tells the story of a divorced Chicago anchorwoman Lynn Nelson who signs on to chaperone high school students on a horseback riding vacation in the Utah mountains. It’s an opportunity to bond with her increasingly estranged teenage daughter, Rory. What Lynn doesn't count on, besides the bruising reality of actually riding horses, is finding love with hunky outfitter Jess and stumbling on a plot to blow up the world.

Darkling I Listen
By Katherine Sutcliffe
ROMANCE SUTCLIFF
Unforgettable Brandon Carlyle, a famous Hollywood actor, has come home to Ticky Creek, Texas, after being in prison for a crime he does not remember committing, in order to restore what's left of his heart and soul. A tabloid reporter wants to help Brandon write his autobiography to counteract the bad press of his past. She learns that there are threats on his life. The two soon fall in love, and their love scenes alone are enough to sizzle the edges of this book's pages.

Naked in Death
By J.D. Robb
MYSTERY ROBB
Eve meets Roarke while investigating the murder of the granddaughter of a senator. Roarke, a gorgeous, shady, sexy, billionaire takes an interest in Eve even while she suspects him of the crime. But Roarke did not become a billionaire by letting events take their course, and he wages a subtle campaign to seduce Eve and helps her solve the murder.

Drop Dead Gorgeous
By Heather Graham
ROMANCE GRAHAM
Old friends and old secrets lead to terror and murder. Lori, a teacher and sportswear designer, has returned to her hometown of Coconut Grove to take care of her sick dad. 15 years before, her friend Mandy Olin was murdered. The person who was tried and acquitted for Mandy's death, Sean Black, is also back in town. He was the sexy boy from the other side of the tracks back then. When he rekindles a romance with an old flame, the past comes dangerously alive as a killer lurks in the shadows.

Sarah’s Key
By Tatiana de Rosnay
F ROSNAY
On the sixtieth anniversary of the 1942 roundup of Jews by the French police in the Vel d'Hiv section of Paris, American journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article on this dark episode during World War II and embarks on investigation that leads her to long-hidden family secrets and to the ordeal of Sarah, a young girl caught up in the raid.

Almost Home
By Pam Jenoff
F JENOFF
A young woman intelligence officer struggles to confront her haunting past while tackling a dangerous assignment of global proportions with origins tracing back to World War II.

Mistaken Identity
By Lisa Scottoline
F SCOTTOLI
At the trial in Philadelphia of a woman accused of killing her policeman lover, lawyer Bennie Rosato comes to suspect her client is the victim of a conspiracy and that the judge is in on it. By the author of Rough Justice.

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
By Katherine Howe
F HOWE
Forced to set aside her Ph.D. research in order to help the settling of her late grandmother's abandoned home, Connie Goodwin discovers a hidden key among her grandmother's possessions that is linked to a darker chapter in Salem witch trial history.

The Other Daughter
By Lisa Gardner
MYSTERY GARDNER
Twenty-nine-year-old Melanie Stokes' search for her true identity leads her to distrust the seemingly loving parents who adopted her.

Contemporary Biographies

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Contemporary books
• Biographies
• Social Issues

Losing My Faculties: a Teacher’s Memoir
By Brendan Halpin
BIOGRAPHY HALPIN
In this journal-like memoir, Halprin explains how he became involved in teaching high school English in Boston and two nearby suburbs. As he was finishing grad school in the early 1990s, he applied for positions in the Boston public school system, wanting to teach kids in an urban area in order to change their lives. Here he shares his nine-year roller-coaster ride of life in those schools.

The Stardust Lounge
By Deborah Digges
BIOGRAPHY DIGGES
At 14, Stephen was stealing cars, waving guns around his house, and running with a violent gang. But his mother, poet and memoirist Deborah Digges, did not give up on Stephen. Instead, she took extraordinary steps to save him, even disguising herself and following him on his nighttime escapades, and inviting gang members into her home.

There Are No Shortcuts
By Rafe Esquith
BIOGRAPHY ESQUITH
What's a Los Angeles middle-school teacher to do when charged with a bunch of fifth and sixth graders, none of whom speak English at home and most of whom are eligible for free lunches? If you're Esquith, you have them read Twain, perform Shakespeare, play classical guitar and study algebra. You take them camping and to concerts and the theater. Part memoir, part manual, but primarily a call for action, Esquith's book is explicitly directed to parents and "concerned citizens" as well as teachers.

There Is No Me without You
By Melissa Greene
362.732 GRE
Journalist Greene sheds light on the AIDS epidemic in Africa by focusing on Haregewoin Teferra, an Ethiopian widow who has opened her heart and her home to her hundreds of her country’s AIDS orphans.

Strong Female Protagonists and a Hint of Romance

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Female heroines
• Romantic subplot

Graceling
By Kristin Cashore
YA F CASHORE
In a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace, the Grace of killing, and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king.

Keturah and Lord Death
By Martine Leavitt
YA F LEAVITT
When Lord Death comes to claim sixteen-year-old Keturah while she is lost in the King's Forest, she charms him with her story and is granted a twenty-four hour reprieve in which to seek her one true love.

Secret History of the Pink Carnation
By Lauren Willig
F Willig
Leaving Harvard to complete her dissertation on the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian in England, Eloise Kelly discovers information about the most elusive spy of all time, a figure who single-handedly saved England from Napoleon's invasion.

Wings
By Aprilynne Pike
YA F PIKE
When a plant blooms out of fifteen-year-old Laurel's back, it leads her to discover the fact that she is a faerie and that she has a crucial role to play in keeping the world safe from the encroaching enemy trolls.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth
By Carrie Ryan
YA F RYAN
Through twists and turns of fate, orphaned Mary seeks knowledge of life, love, and especially what lies beyond her walled village and the surrounding forest, where dwell the Unconsecrated, aggressive flesh-eating people who were once dead.

Classics

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• Classics

Ivanhoe
By Sir Walter Scott
F SCOTT
The classic epic of chivalry and courtly love features the disinherited knight Ivanhoe, his fair lady Rowena, and such larger-than-life characters as Richard the Lion-Hearted and Robin Hood. Ivanhoe, Richard, and Robin Hood are involved in many adventures, including defending beautiful women and saving the English throne.

Lorna Doone
By Richard Blackmore
F BLACKMOR
In seventeenth century England, on the north Devon coast, Lorna Doone grows up in a group of outlaws and falls in love with John Ridd.

Daniel Deronda
By Eliot, George
F ELIOT
Daniel Deronda, a young artistocrat, must choose between two women: Gwendolen Harleth, a high-spirited beauty trapped in an oppressive marriage, and Mirah, a poor Jewish girl.

To Kill a Mockingbird
By Harper Lee
F LEE
Scout's father defends a black man accused of raping a white woman in a small Alabama town during the 1930s.

Lonesome Dove
By Larry McMurtry
F MCMURTRY
Former Texas Rangers leave their unsuccessful cattle business when they hear of good opportunities in newly opened territory.

I Capture the Castle
By Dodie Smith
F SMITH
A novel about an eccentric and impoverished English family whose home is a ruined 14th century castle. The story is presented in the form of a diary by the family's teen daughter.

The Count of Monte Cristo
By Alexandre Dumas
F DUMAS
Imprisoned unjustly for supposedly having helped the exiled Napoleon, Edmond Danté escapes after 15 years, finds funds in the cavern of Monte Cristo, and punishes his enemies.

East of Eden
By John Steinbeck
F STEINBEC
In what is considered Steinbeck's best work, the Trasks and the Hamiltons live and work together in Salinas during the early 20th century.

Biographies

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Biographies
• Books on CD (each of these books is available as a Book on CD, with the same call number as the book version)
  

A Girl Named Zippy
By Haven Kimmel
BIO Kimmel
The author offers a chronicle of growing up in a small town in America's heartland, offering portraits of her family and her encounters with the complexities of the adult world, romance, and small-town life during the 1960s and 1970s.

Last Lecture
By Randy Pausch
BIO Pausch
The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family.

Team of Rivals
By Doris Goodwin
BIO Lincoln
An analysis of Abraham Lincoln's political talents identifies the character strengths and abilities that enabled his successful election, in an account that also describes how he used the same abilities to rally former opponents in winning the Civil War.

Open: An Autobiography
By Andre Agassi
BIO Agassi
A candid memoir by the tennis champion covers his Grand Slam wins, establishment of a charitable foundation for underprivileged children, and marriage to Stefanie Graf.

Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith
By Deborah Heiligman
BIO Darwin
Provides an account of Charles Darwin's life and evolutionary theory, examining how his personal life affected his work and vice versa because of his wife's strong religious beliefs.

Adventurous Romantic Mysteries

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Adventure
• Romance
• Mysteries
• Historical fiction
• Anne Perry read-alikes
  

Airs above the Ground
By Mary Stewart
MYSTERY STEWART
After seeing a newsreel which proves her husband is in Austria, fleeing a circus fire with a blonde beauty, when he should have been in Sweden, Vanessa heads to Austria and embarks on a series of dangerous adventures.

Ruby in the Smoke
By Philip Pullman
YA F PULLMAN
In nineteenth-century London, sixteen-year-old Sally Lockhart, a recent orphan, becomes involved in a deadly search for a mysterious ruby while simultaneously uncovering the truth about her heritage. (First book in the Sally Lockhart quartet.)

My Darling Caroline
By Adele Ashworth
ROMANCE ASHWORTH
Determined to study botany despite the conventions that bar nineteenth-century women from professional careers, Lady Caroline Grayson masquerades as a man to further herself, but an arranged marriage brings about unexpected benefits.

Snare of Serpents
By Victoria Holt
ROMANCE HOLT
After Davinia is charged but acquitted murdering her father, she leaves Scotland, aiming to start a new life in South Africa. Life becomes more complicated, though, as she finds herself caught up in the Boer war and enthralled by the dynamic Roger Lestrange.

Secret History of the Pink Carnation
By Lauren Willig
F WILLIG
Leaving Harvard to complete her dissertation on the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian in England, Eloise Kelly discovers information about the most elusive spy of all time, a figure who single-handedly saved England from Napoleon's invasion.

Seneca Falls Inheritance
By Miriam Grace Monfredo
MYSTERY MONFREDO
Known for her accurately detailed historical mysteries, Monfredo starts her series with this novel. Glynis Tryon, librarian in Seneca Falls, New York, investigates the murder of a woman claiming to be the illegitimate daughter of a recently deceased man prior to the First Women's Rights Convention in 1848.

Adult Historical Fiction

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Books written for adults
• Historical Fiction

Master and Commander
By Patrick O’Brian
F O’BRIAN
Master and Commander starts this series with strong, complex characterization of a friendship that weathers 20 books and provides readers with a sense of Napoleonic-era life and seamanship by immersion.

Book Thief
By Markus Zusak
F ZUSAK
Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl who’s book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.

Byzantium
By Stephen Lawhead
F LAWHEAD
Irish monks of Kells prepare an illuminated manuscript to give to the Holy Roman Emperor at Byzantium and send Aidan on the trip where he has a variety of adventures.

In My Father’s House
By Bodie Thoene
F THOENE
An unforgettable story that moves from beautiful green mountains in the mid-America Valley of Shiloh to a neighborhood in an industrial town. A land of promise seems more like a land of hopelessness and tragedy, but the characters learn that God's eye always remains upon the sparrow.

Teen Clean Fantasy Books

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Fantasy
• Clean Reads
• Teen Books

Mistborn: the Final Empire
By Brandon Sanderson
SCIFI SANDERSO
Kelsier, a half-Skaa, finds in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he recruits the best criminal crew ever assembled to engineer the downfall of the Lord Ruler. The plan seems impossible until Kelsier discovers Vin, a street urchin who has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets, and gotten it. She will have to learn to trust, if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed. This is the first book in the Mistborn Trilogy.

Book of a Thousand Days
By Shannon Hale
YA F HALE
When Dashti, a maid, and Lady Saren, her mistress, are shut in a tower for seven years for Saren’s refusal to marry a man she despises, the two prepare for a very long and dark imprisonment. The arrival outside the tower of Saren’s two suitors—one welcome, and the other decidedly less so—brings both hope and great danger, and Dashti must make the desperate choices of a girl whose life is worth more than she knows.

Keturah and Lord Death
By Martine Leavitt
YA F LEAVITT
When Lord Death comes to claim sixteen-year-old Keturah while she is lost in the King’s Forest, she charms him with her story and is granted a 24 hour reprieve in which to find her one true love.

Graceling
By Kristin Cashore
YA F CASHORE
In a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace, the Grace of killing, and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king.

Fallen
By Lauren Kate
YA F KATE
Suspected in the death of her boyfriend, seventeen-year-old Luce is sent to a Savannah, Georgia reform school where she meets two intriguing boys and learns the truth about the strange shadows that have always haunted her.

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. (This book is not a fantasy but it is really a great book.)