Naturalism, Travel and Adventure Nonfiction

Try these books if you’re looking for:

•    Travel
•    Adventure
•    Naturalism

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
Bill Bryson
917.404 BRY 2007
This book traces the author's adventurous trek along the Appalachian Trail past its natural pleasures, human eccentrics, and offbeat comforts.

H is for Hawk
Helen Macdonald
598.944 MAC 2015
Recounts how the author, an experienced falconer grieving the sudden death of her father, endeavored to train for the first time a dangerous goshawk predator as part of her personal recovery.

In Search of King Solomon’s Mines
Tahir Shah
916.304 SHA 2003
A bold elephant hunter journeys to an unknown land in search of fabled lost treasure. But terrible dangers threaten anyone who approaches the wonderful diamond mines of King Solomon. This great African adventure novel is an enduring favorite among those who love excitement and romance. It is filled with qualities close to the human heart: the spirit of adventure and discovery, the desire for immortality, primal terror, and the search for the primitive.

A Winter in Arabia
Freya Stark
953.35 STA 1987
Recounts the late author's 1937-1938 expedition through the land now called Yemen, during which she and two companions spent a winter in search of an ancient South Arabian city and examined local business and social conduct as well as life behind the veil for women.

Feel-good Historical Fiction

Try these books if you’re looking for:

·         Historical Fiction

·         Feel-good Reads

It Happened at the Fair

Deeanne Gist

F GIST

A historical novel about a promising young inventor, his struggle with loss, and the attractive teacher who changes his life, all set against the razzle-dazzle of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker

Jennifer Chiaverini

F CHIAVERINI

Elizabeth Keckley, born a slave, uses her skills as a dressmaker to purchase her freedom. After Lincoln’s election, Elizabeth is hired by First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. Mrs. Lincoln comes to rely heavily on Elizabeth’s calming influence and steady support as she navigates the trials of being the First Lady. 

The Shoemaker’s Wife

Adriana Trigiani

F TRIGIANI
Two star-crossed lovers--Enza and Ciro--meet and separate, until, finally, the power of their love changes both of their lives forever. Set during the years preceding and during World War I. 

Clara and Mr. Tiffany

Susan Vreeland

F VREELAND

Louis Comfort Tiffany staffs his studio with female artisans--a decision that protects him from strikes by the all-male union--but refuses to employ women who are married. Lucky for him, Clara Driscoll's romantic misfortunes ensure that she can continue to craft the jewel-toned glass windows and lamps that catch both her eye and her imagination.

Mr.Rosenblum Dreams in English

Natasha Solomons

F SOLOMONS
After escaping Germany during WWII, Jack and Sadie Rosenblum, together with their baby daughter, settle into a life of acting "English." In post-war England, however, no golf club will admit a Rosenblum. So Jack hatches a wild idea: he'll build his own. It's an obsession Sadie does not share, particularly when Jack relocates them to a thatched roof cottage in Dorset to embark on his project.

Young Adult Fantasy

Try these books if you’re looking for:

•    Young Adult
•    Fantasy

The Demon King
Cinda Williams Chima
YA F CHIMA Seven Re #1
Relates the intertwining fates of former street gang leader Han Alister and headstrong Princess Raisa, as Han takes possession of an amulet that once belonged to an evil wizard and Raisa uncovers a conspiracy in the Grey Wolf Court.

The Naming
Alison Coggon
YA F CROGGON Books Pe #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.

Finnikin of the Rock
Melina Marchetta
YA F MARCHETT Lumatere #1
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.

Name of the Wind
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.

Young Adult Historical Fiction

Try these books if you’re looking for:

•    Historical Fiction
•    Young Adult Fiction
•    Female Protagonists

Belle Epoque
Elizabeth Ross
YA F ROSS
Sixteen-year-old Maude Pichon, a plain, impoverished girl in Belle Epoque Paris, is hired by Countess Dubern to make her headstrong daughter, Isabelle, look more beautiful by comparison but soon Maude is enmeshed in a tangle of love, friendship, and deception.

My Family for the War
Anne C. Voorhoeve
YA F VOORHOEV
Before the start of World War II, ten-year-old Ziska Mangold, who has Jewish ancestors but has been raised as a Protestant, is taken out of Nazi Germany on one of the Kindertransport trains, to live in London with a Jewish family, where she learns about Judaism and endures the hardships of war while attempting to keep in touch with her parents, who are trying to survive in Holland.

The Caged Graves
Dianne K. Salerni
YA F SALERNI
Returning to her hometown of Catawissa, Pennsylvania, in 1867 to marry a man she has never met, seventeen-year-old Verity Boone gets caught up in the a mystery surrounding the graves of her mother and aunt and a dangerous hunt for Revolutionary-era gold.

Prisoner of Night and Fog
Anne Blankman
YA F BLANKMAN Prisonder #1
In 1930s Munich, the favorite niece of rising political leader Adolph Hitler is torn between duty and love after meeting a fearless and handsome young Jewish reporter.

Catherine, Called Birdy
Karen Cushman
YA F CUSHMAN
The daughter of an English country knight keeps a journal in which she records the events of her life, particularly her longing for adventures beyond the usual role of women and her efforts to avoid being married off.

Paranormal Fantasy with Action and Romance

Try these books if you’re looking for:

•    Adventure
•    Action
•    Romance
•    Paranormal Fantasy

Stitching Snow
R.C. Lewis
YA F LEWIS
A futuristic retelling of Snow White in which seventeen-year-old Essie, a master at repairing robots and drones on the frozen mining planet Thanda, is pulled into a war by handsome and mysterious Dane after his shuttle crash-lands near her home.



 
Ill Wind
Rachel Caine
SCI-FI CAINE Weather #1
When Joanne Baldwin, a Weather Warden who can tame the most violent weather, is forced to flee from the law when murder accusations rain down upon her, she must find the only man who can help her - Lewis, the most powerful Warden, who is also on the run from the World Council.

Embrace
Jessica Shirvington
YA F SHIRVING Violet #1
Violet Eden's life is thrown into disorder on her seventeenth birthday when Lincoln, her training partner and the object of her affection, reveals to her that they are both half angels, until the mysterious exiled angel Phoenix enters her life.



The Iron King
Julie Kagawa
YA F KAGAWA Iron_Fey #1
When her half-brother is kidnapped, Meghan Chase, who has recently learned that she is the daughter of the summer faery king, must journey into a strange world she never imagined to face an unknown enemy and save those she loves.




Beautiful Creatures
Kami Garcia
YA F GARCIA Caster #1
In a small South Carolina town, where it seems little has changed since the Civil War, sixteen-year-old Ethan is powerfully drawn to Lena, a new classmate with whom he shares a psychic connection and whose family hides a dark secret that may be revealed on her sixteenth birthday.

Contemporary Urban Horror

Try these books if you’re looking for:

     • horror
     • adventure
     • urban setting
     • contemporary setting

The Strain
Guillermo del Toro
F TORO Strain #1
The story begins onboard a grounded plane that has just landed at New York's JFK airport. Police and emergency medical crews are called to investigate the possible outbreak of a mysterious disease, which has killed all but four of the plane's passengers. Unknowingly, something more ominous is responsible for the carnage, which now threatens the city and soon the entire country.

House of Leaves
Mark Z. Danielewski
F DANIELEW
When House of Leaves was first being passed around, it was nothing more than a badly bundled heap of paper. Now, for the first time, this astonishing novel is made available in book form. The story remains unchanged, focusing on a young family that moves into a small home on Ash Tree Lane where they discover something is terribly wrong: their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story -- of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter
Jeffry P. Lindsay
MYSTERY LINDSAY Dexter #1
Dexter Morgan, who hides a secret life as a serial killer while working as a blood-spatter analyst for the Miami police, is intrigued by the work of a new serial killer whose style mimics his own.

Odd Thomas
Dean R. Koontz
F KOONTZ Odd Thom #1
Over the course of two days, Odd Thomas, his soul-mate Stormy Llewellyn, and an assortment of allies make their way through a dark, terrifying world in which past and present, and life and death collide as they try to avert a cataclysm.

Koko

Peter Straub

F STRAUB Tim Unde #1

"KOKO..." Only four men knew what it meant. They were Vietnam vets-a doctor, a lawyer, a working stiff, and a writer. They were as different as men could be. Yet all of them were bound eternally together by a single shattering secret. And now they have been reunited, on a quest that will take them from the graveyards and fleshpots of the Far East to the human jungle of New York...as they hunt something inhuman from the past that has risen from the darkness to kill and kill and kill....

Teen Fiction

Try these books if you're looking for:

• fiction
• teen reads
• young protagonists
• reads like Lois Lowry, JK Rowling, Gail Carson Levine, and Harper Lee

Cinder
By: Marissa Meyer
Call Number: YA F MEYER Lunar #1
As plague ravages the overcrowded Earth, observed by a ruthless lunar people, Cinder, a gifted mechanic and cyborg, becomes involved with handsome Prince Kai and must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect the world in this futuristic take on the Cinderella story.

Matched
By: Ally Condie
Call Number: YA F CONDIE Matched #1
Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her, so when Xander appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows he is her ideal mate--until Ky Markham's face appears for an instant before the screen fades to black.



 

The Wednesday Wars
By: Gary Schmidt
Call Number: 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.

Rebecca
By: Daphne du Maurier
Call Number: 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.

Clean, Fast-Paced Novels with Action and Romance

Try these books if you're looking for:

• clean reads
• fast pacing
• some action
• some romance

Princess of the Midnight Ball 
Jessica Day George
YA F GEORGE
A retelling of the tale of twelve princesses who wear out their shoes dancing every night, and of Galen, a former soldier now working in the king's gardens, who follows them in hopes of breaking the curse. The first in a series.

Ruby in the Smoke 
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.

Princess Bride 
William Goldman
YA F GOLDMAN
A classic swashbuckling romance retells the tale of a drunken swordsman and a gentle giant who come to the aid of Westley, a handsome farm boy, and Buttercup, a princess in dire need of rescue from the evil schemers surrounding her.

Grave Mercy 
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.

Longbourn 
Jo Baker
F BAKER
Using Pride and Prejudice’s familiar setting and characters, Baker tells a very different story of family, love and self-discovery. Bold and intelligent, Sarah is an orphaned housemaid whose days are filled with hard, body-punishing work.

Sabriel 
Garth Nix
YA F NIX
Sabriel, daughter of the necromancer Abhorsen, must journey into the mysterious and magical Old Kingdom to rescue her father from the Land of the Dead.

Modern Boy YA with Magic

Try these books if you're looking for:

• teen reads
• male protagonist
• good characterization
• modern settings

Ship Breaker 
Paolo Bacigalupi
YA F BACIGALU
In a futuristic world, teenaged Nailer scavenges copper wiring from grounded oil tankers for a living, but when he finds a beached clipper ship with a girl in the wreckage, he has to decide if he should strip the ship for its wealth or rescue the girl.

Midnight for Charlie Bone 
Jenny Nimmo
YA F NIMMO Charlie #1
Charlie Bone's life with his widowed mother and two grandmothers undergoes a dramatic change when he discovers that he can hear people in photographs talking.

Insignia 
S.J. Kincaid
YA F KINCAID Insignia #1
Tom, a fourteen-year-old genius at virtual reality games, is recruited by the United States Military to begin training at the Pentagon Spire as a Combatant in World War III, controlling the mechanized drones that do the actual fighting off-planet.

Human Interest Nonfiction

Try these books if you're looking for:

• nonfiction
• human interest (like Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert)
• not super sad
• not explicit

The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels 
Ree Drummond
BIO DRUMMOND
American blogger and food writer Ree Drummond relates the real life story of how she met and married her "Marlboro Man." Her stories about her husband, family, and country living paint a humorous and poignant picture of life on an Oklahoma ranch. This book is one of my favorites (and, yes, I've read it more than once). Humorous writing style and just a good, true story.

Dad Is Fat 
Jim Gaffigan
814.6 GAF 2013
Stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan, who's best known for his legendary riffs on Hot Pockets, bacon, manatees, and McDonald's, expresses all the joys and horrors of life with five young children.

The Answer to the Riddle Is Me: A Memoir of Amnesia 
David MacLean
BIO MACLEAN
"In 2002, at age twenty-eight, David MacLean "woke up" in a foreign land with his memory wiped clean. No money. No passport. No identity. Taken to a mental hospital by the police, MacLean then started to hallucinate so severely he had to be tied down. Soon he could remember song lyrics and scenes from television shows, but not his family, his friends, or the woman he loved. All of these symptoms, it turned out, were the result of the commonly prescribed malarial medication he was taking. Upon his return to the States, he struggled to piece together the fragments of his former life in a harrowing, absurd, and unforgettable journey back to himself." While this does have some sadder elements, the entire journey is fascinating and the writing is beautiful.

Wish You Happy Forever: What China's Orphans Taught Me About Moving Mountains 
Jenny Bowen
362.734 BOW 2014
The founder of Half the Sky Foundation, an organization dedicated to transforming Chinese orphanages and the lives of the neglected girls who live in them, details her relentless perseverance and unwavering commitment to this cause. This seems like it would have the potential to be really sad, but it was actually really inspiring. It made me want to go start a non-profit organization. And adopt Chinese orphans.

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress 
Rhoda Janzen
BIO JANZEN
A hilarious and moving memoir--in the spirit of Anne Lamott and Nora Ephron--about a woman who returns home to her close-knit Mennonite family after a personal crisis. This book had a lot to say about personal faith and growth that was very interesting. The first book has a lot of language in it. The second book (Mennonite Meets Mr. Right) does not and details her conversion to evangelical Christianity.

The Boys in the Boat 
Daniel Brown
797.123 BRO 2013
Daniel James Brown's robust book tells the story of the University of Washington's 1936 eight-oar crew and their epic quest for an Olympic gold medal, a team that transformed the sport and grabbed the attention of millions of Americans. Super inspiring. I listened to this on a road trip and had to keep driving around so I could finish it.

Fun YA Love Stories

Try these books if you're looking for:

• teen reads
• realistic romance
• some adventure
• no language
• reads like Sarah Dessen, Nicholas Sparks, Scott Westerfield

The Horse Whisperer 
Nicholas Evans
F Evans
After a terrible accident, Grace retreats into silence and her horse, Pilgrim, is driven mad by pain. Her mother gambles that The Whisperer can heal both Pilgrim and her daughter. The Whisperer could calm wild horses with softly whispered secrets uttered into troubled ears.

Zac & Mia 
A. J. Betts
YA F Betts
The last person Zac expects in the room next door is a girl like Mia, angry and feisty with questionable taste in music. In the real world, he wouldn't--couldn't--be friends with her. In hospital different rules apply, and what begins as a knock on the wall leads to a note--then a friendship neither of them sees coming.

Delirium 
Lauren Oliver
YA F
Oliver High school senior Lena Haloway is counting the 95 days until her appointment to undergo the operation that every citizen has at age 18 to prevent them from contracting amor deliria nervosa: love, which is seen as a deadly disease. At first, Lena is eager for the surgery, believing it will make her life happy and safe. But then she meets handsome and enigmatic Alex, and she's not so sure anymore.

Open Road Summer 
Emery Lord
YA F Lord
Follows seventeen-year-old Reagan as she tries to escape heartbreak and a bad reputation by going on tour with her country superstar best friend--only to find more trouble as she falls for the surprisingly sweet guy hired to pose as the singer's boyfriend.