Easy Reading Nonfiction

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• Easy reading nonfiction
• A touch of humor
• Books that are applicable to daily life

NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children
By Po Bronson & Ashley Merriman
305.231 BRO
Award-winning science journalists Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman demonstrate that many of modern society's strategies for nurturing children are in fact backfiring--because key twists in the science of child development have been overlooked.

The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove
By Cathy Erway
641.5973 ERW
In the city where dining is a sport, a gourmand swears off restaurants (even takeout ) for two years, rediscovering the economical, gastronomical joy of home cooking. Includes thirty original recipes.

Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength
By Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney
153.8 BAU
The authors review the latest research to report key findings on willpower and offer practical advice for increasing it.

Moby Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them
By Donovan Hohn
551.462 HOH
Whimsical curiosity begets a quixotic odyssey and troubling revelations about plastics polluting the seas in former high school teacher and journalist Hohn's charming account of what he learned searching for 28,800 rubber bath toys lost at sea in 1992.

Just My Type
By Simon Garfield
686.224 GAR
A romp through the history of fonts and the lives of the great typographers, revealing the extent to which fonts are not only shaped by but also define the world in which we live.

Historical Romances with Happy Endings

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• Historical fiction
• Romance
• Happy endings
• Interesting female characters

The False Princess
By Eilis O'Neal
YA F O’NEAL
The narrator of this book has been raised in luxury--after all, she's a princess. However, one day, she is called in before the king and queen and informed that she is not the princess. The true princess was hidden away at birth after a prophecy that she might be murdered before her sixteenth birthday.

Captive Heart
By Michele Paige Holmes
ROMANCE HOLMES
Emma Madsen flees Boston for a teaching job out west in Colorado, but her life changes forever when bandits stop her train and one of them kidnaps her, saying he is looking for a teacher. There are many twists, turns, and surprises to keep you on your toes.

The Apothecary’s Daughter
By Julie Klassen
ROMANCE KLASSEN
Set in Regency England when society’s rules allowed women little advancement of the mind or spirit, Lilly Haswell tries to balance two worlds. A sensible, strong willed young woman, she has had much responsibility set on her shoulders watching over her mentally challenged little brother and assisting her father run his apothecary after her mother walked out of their lives. A dream come true comes in with an offer to go to London for a season.

Friends and Foe
By Sarah Eden
ROMANCE EDEN
Philip Jonquil, Earl of Lampton, has sent five years pretending to be the dandiest of dandies as a cover for his role tracking spies for the Foreign Office. He plays his part magnificently, and, at a traveler's inn, manages to offend Sorrel Kendrick, a young lady, when he insists that it's not fashionable for her to use a cane. Sorrel makes her opinion of him clear and when Philip manages to insult her yet again, war ensues between the two, but soon, each comes to find that the other might not be quite as he or she seems.

Suspenseful Teen Adventures

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• Action
• Adventure
• Clean reads
• Suspense
• Teen books

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

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

Dark Life
By Kat Falls
YA F FALLS
When fifteen-year-old Ty, who has always lived on the ocean floor, joins Topside girl Gemma in the frontier's underworld to seek and stop outlaws who threaten his home, they learn that the government may pose an even greater threat.

Downriver
By Will Hobbs
YA F HOBBS
Fifteen-year-old Jessie and the other rebellious teenage members of a wilderness survival school team abandon their adult leader, hijack his boats, and try to run the dangerous white water at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

The Secret Hour
By Scott Westerfeld
YA F WESTERFE Midnight #1
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.

Historical Fiction Set in England

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• Historical fiction
• Books set in England
• Read-alikes for Jane Austen or Philippa Gregory

Green Darkness
By Anya Seton
F SETON
A 16th-century Benedictine monk Stephen Marsdon falls in love with Celia de Bohun and forsakes his vows only to be reincarnated 400 years later in a similar situation.

Innocent Traitor
By Alison Weir
F WEIR
A fictional portrait of Lady Jane Grey, the great-niece of Henry VIII, follows her turbulent life against the backdrop of Tudor power politics and religious upheaval, from her youth, to her nine-day reign as Queen of England, to its tragic aftermath.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
By Mary Ann Shaffer
F SHAFFER
In 1946, writer Juliet Ashton finds inspiration for her next book in her correspondence with a native of Guernsey, who tells her about the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a book club born as an alibi during German occupation.

Katharine of Aragon
By Jean Plaidy
F PLAIDY
An evocative historical novel chronicles the life of Henry VIII's first wife, Katharine of Aragon, from her early days in England after being sent from Spain to marry Henry's sickly older brother, through her subsequent marriage to Henry, to the divorce that ignited a storm of controversy that changed history.

Rebecca
By Daphne du Maurier
F DU MAURIER
A classic novel of romantic suspense finds the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter entering the home of her mysterious and enigmatic new husband and learning the story of the house's first mistress, to whom the sinister housekeeper is unnaturally devoted.

Fast-Paced Adventures

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• Fast-paced books
• Adventure with a historical setting
• Fantasy
  

Steel
By Carrie Vaughn
YA F VAUGHN
When Jill, a competitive high school fencer, goes with her family on vacation to the Bahamas, she is magically transported to an early-eighteenth-century pirate ship in the middle of the ocean.

The Naming
By Alison Croggon
YA F CROGGON BooksPe #1
A manuscript from the lost civilization of Edil-Amarandah chronicles the experiences of sixteen-year-old Maerad, an orphan gifted in the magic and power of the Bards, as she escapes from slavery and begins to learn how to use her Gift to stave off the evil Darkness that threatens to consume her world.

Mistborn
Brandon Sanderson
SCIFI Sanderso Mistborn #1
Experiencing an epiphany within the most daunting prison of the monstrous Lord Ruler, half-Skaa Kelsier finds himself taking on the powers of a Mistborn, and teams up with ragged orphan Vin in a desperate plot to save their world.

Well-Written Adventures

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• Adventure
• Beautiful language
• Strong sense of place

Mistborn: The Final Empire
By Brandon Sanderson
SCI-FI SANDERSO Mistborn #1
Experiencing an epiphany within the most daunting prison of the monstrous Lord Ruler, half-Skaa Kelsier finds himself taking on the powers of a Mistborn, and teams up with ragged orphan Vin in a desperate plot to save their world.

Dovekeepers
By Alice Hoffman
F HOFFMAN
A tale inspired by the tragic first-century massacre of hundreds of Jewish people at Masada presents the stories of a hated daughter, a baker's wife, a girl disguised as a warrior, and a medicine woman who keep doves and secrets while Roman soldiers draw near.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
By Laura Hillenbrand
BIO ZAMPERIN
On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then on the ocean surface, a face appeared – Lt. Louis Zamperini. Captured by the Japanese and driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve and humor.

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.

Storm Front
By Jim Butcher
SCI-FI BUTCHER Dresden #1
A modern-day mage and consultant to the police finds his stale life suddenly enlivened by the presence of a rival in the black arts.

Romantic Tales of Everyday Life

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• Character-driven fiction
• Great plots
• Stories of everyday life
• Romance

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. She uncovers a 60-year family feud and falls for a strangely secretive man.

Very Valentine
By Adriana Trigiani
F TRIGIANI Valentin #1
Valentine Roncalli struggles to save her decades-old family business, finding love and the life she wants along the way.

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.

A Thousand Tomorrows
By Karen Kingsbury
ROMANCE KINGSBURY
A young couple faces the challenge of falling in love, while seemingly doomed to repeat the negative patterns they have established for most of their lives.

These Is My Words
Nancy Turner
TURNER Sarah Ag #1
Written in diary format, this is the compelling story of Sarah Agnes Prine. Only 17 when the story begins, she goes from New Mexico to Texas and back, protecting her family with her rifle. Along the way she experiences danger and hardship, romance and heartache.

Literary Fiction

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• Literary fiction
  

State of Wonder
By Ann Patchett
F PATCHETT
A researcher at a pharmaceutical company, Marina Singh journeys into the heart of the Amazonian delta to check on a field team that has been silent for two years – a dangerous assignment that forces Marina to confront the ghosts of her past.

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.

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.

Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind
By Suzanne Fisher Staples
YA F STAPLES
When eleven-year old Shabany, the daughter of a nomad in the Cholistan Desert of present-day Pakistan, is pledged in marriage to an older man whose money will bring prestige to the family, she must either accept the decision, as is the custom, or risk the consequences of defying her father’s wishes.

Great Books for Guys with Interesting Plot Twists

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• Books for guys
• Adventure
• Plot twists
• Books published in the past 10 years

The Rule of Four
By Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason
F CALDWELL
Trying to decipher an ancient text that weaves a mathematical labyrinth within a love story, two researchers obtain a diary that may contain the key to the code, but when a fellow researcher is killed, they realize that the book contains a dangerous secret.

The Thief
By Megan Whalen Turner
YA F TURNER Attolia #1
Gen flaunts his ingenuity as a thief and relishes the adventure which takes him to a remote temple of the gods where he will attempt to steal a precious stone. (This one was not published within the past 10 years, but later books in the series were published in the past ten years.)

Spartan Gold
By Clive Cussler
F CUSSLER Fargo Ad #1
Treasure hunters Sam and Remi Fargo are shocked to discover a bottle of a rare wine taken from Napoleon's lost cellar. However, someone else is also searching for this treasure.

Templar Legacy
By Steve Barry
F BARRY Cotton #1
Former secret agent Cotton Malone and Stephanie Nelle, a U.S. Justice Department prosecutor, must solve the mystery of fourteenth-century Templar riches and secrets before Raymond de Roquefort and his murderous allies prevail.

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Teen books
• Mystery
• Action

Dark Life
By Kat Falls
YA F FALLS
When fifteen-year-old Ty, who has always lived on the ocean floor, joins Topside girl Gemma in the frontier's underworld to seek and stop outlaws who threaten his home, they learn that the government may pose an even greater threat.

Death Cloud
By Andy Lane
YA F LANE Young Sh #1
In 1868, with his army officer father suddenly posted to India, and his mother mysteriously "unwell," fourteen-year-old Sherlock Holmes is sent to stay with his eccentric uncle and aunt in their vast house in Hampshire, where he uncovers his first murder and a diabolical villain.

A Spy in the House
By Y.S. Lee
YA F LEE Agency #1
Rescued from the gallows in 1850s London, young orphan and thief Mary Quinn is offered a place at Miss Scrimshaw's Academy for Girls where she is trained to be part of an all-female investigative unit called The Agency and, at age seventeen, she infiltrates a rich merchant's home in hopes of tracing his missing cargo ships.

Hero
By Mike Lupica
YA F LUPICA
Fourteen-year-old Zach learns he has the same special abilities as his father, who was the President's globe-trotting troubleshooter until "the Bads" killed him, and now Zach must decide whether to use his powers in the same way at the risk of his own life.

Princess Ben
By Catherine Gilbert Murdock
YA F Murdock
Benevolence is not your typical princess. With her parents lost to assassins, Princess Ben ends up under the thumb of the conniving Queen Sophia. Starved and miserable, locked in the castle’s highest tower, Ben stumbles upon a mysterious enchanted room. So begins her secret education in the magical arts.

Plot-Driven Suspenseful Fiction

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• Plot-driven books
• Action
• Suspenseful fiction
• Read-alikes for to Brandon Sanderson

The City of Golden Shadow
By Tad Williams
SCI-FI Williams Otherlan #1
In a strange world of the near future, where virtual reality encompasses all aspects of society and boundaries are limited only by the power of the imagination, a dark conspiracy involving the world's most powerful individuals threatens to destroy everything.

The Thief
By Megan Whalen Turner
YA F Turner Attolia #1
Gen flaunts his ingenuity as a thief and relishes the adventure which takes him to a remote temple of the gods where he will attempt to steal a precious stone.

Finnikin of the Rock
By Melina Marchetta
YA F Marchett
Now on the cusp of manhood, Finnikin, who was a child when the royal family of Lumatere was brutally murdered and replaced by an imposter, reluctantly joins forces with an enigmatic young novice and fellow-exile, who claims that her dark dreams will lead them to a surviving royal child and a way to regain the throne of Lumatere.

I Am Not a Serial Killer
By Dan Wells
F Wells John Cle #1
John Wayne Cleaver keeps his obsession with serial killers in check by a set of rigid rules that he lives by, hoping to the prevent himself from committing murder; but when a body turns up behind a laundromat, John must confront a danger outside himself. (This is not fantasy like the other three books on the list, but it has a surprising twist in the middle and an action-packed plot.)

Adventurous, Interesting Books for Teen Guys

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• Teen books
• Books for guys
• Adventure

The Wednesday Wars
By Gary Schmidt
YA F SCHMIDT
During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker's classroom where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns much of value about the world he lives in.

Downriver
By Will Hobbs
YA F HOBBS
Fifteen-year-old Jessie and the other rebellious teenage members of a wilderness survival school team abandon their adult leader, hijack his boats, and try to run the dangerous white water at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

The Wreckers
By Iain Lawrence
YA F LAWRENCE High Sea #1
Shipwrecked after a vicious storm, fourteen-year-old John Spencer attempts to save his father and himself while also dealing with an evil secret about the English coastal town where they are stranded.

Bucking the Sarge
By Christopher Paul Curtis
YA F CURTIS
Deeply involved in his cold and manipulative mother's shady business dealings in Flint, Michigan, fourteen-year-old Luther keeps a sense of humor while running the Happy Neighbor Group Home For Men, all the while dreaming of going to college and becoming a philosopher.

Ender’s Game
By Orson Scott Card
YA F CARD Ender Sa #1
A veteran of years of simulated war games, Ender believes he is engaged in one more computer war game when in truth he is commanding the last fleet of Earth against an alien race seeking the complete destruction of Earth.