Historical Fiction
Chevalier, Tracey. Remarkable Creatures.
When Mary Anning uncovers an unusual fossilized skeleton in the cliffs near her home on the English coast, she sets the religious fathers on edge, the townspeople to vicious gossip, and the scientific world alight. Luckily, Mary finds an unlikely champion in prickly Elizabeth Philpot, and in the struggle to be recognized in the wider world, Mary and Elizabeth discover that friendship is their greatest ally.
Ford, Jamie. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.
When artifacts from Japanese families sent to internment camps during World War II are uncovered during renovations at a Seattle hotel, Henry Lee embarks on a quest that leads to memories of growing up Chinese in a city rife with anti-Japanese sentiment.
Ghosh, Amitav. Sea of Poppies.
Preparing to fight China's nineteenth-century Opium Wars, a motley assortment of sailors and passengers establish family-like ties that eventually span continents, races, and generations.
Gregory, Philippa. The Red Queen.
Preparing to fight China's nineteenth-century Opium Wars, a motley assortment of sailors and passengers establish family-like ties that eventually span continents, races, and generations.
Harding, Paul. Tinkers.
On his deathbed, surrounded by his family, George Washington Crosby's thoughts drift back to his childhood and the father who abandoned him when he was twelve.
Kearsley, Susanna. Lotus Eaters.
A novel that follows an American female combat photographer in the Vietnam War as she captures the wrenching chaos and finds herself torn between the love of two men.
Matters of the Heart
Brashares,Ann. My Name is Memory.
Sharing multiple lifetimes with the reincarnations of Sophia, Daniel, a soul with a rare ability to remember his past lives, arrives in the present frustrated that their time together has always been cut short and hopeful that Sophia's burgeoning memories can help them overcome past-life challenges.
Johnson, Maureen. Scarlett Fever.
Fifteen-year-old Scarlett, who is beginning to get over her break-up with Eric, stays busy as assistant to her theatrical-agent friend who is not only promoting Scarlett's brother Spencer, but also a new client whose bad-boy brother has transferred to Scarlett's school.
Lord, Cynthia. Touch Blue.
When the state of Maine threatens to shut down their island's one-room schoolhouse because of dwindling enrollment, eleven-year-old Tess, a strong believer in luck, and her family take in a trumpet-playing foster child, to increase the school's population.
Morton,Kate. The House at Riverton.
Living out her final days in a nursing home, ninety-eight-year-old Grace remembers the secrets surrounding the 1924 suicide of a young poet during a glittering society party hosted by Grace's English aristocrat employers, a family that is shattered by war.
Picoult, Jodi. Sing You Home.
Ten years of infertility issues culminate in the destruction of music therapist Zoe Baxter's marriage, after which she falls in love with another woman and wants to start a family, but her ex-husband, Max, stands in the way.
Reinhardt,Dana. The Things a Brother Knows.
Although they have never gotten along well, seventeen-year-old Levi follows his older brother Boaz, an ex-Marine, on a walking trip from Boston to Washington, D.C. in hopes of learning why Boaz is completely withdrawn.
My Life
Berg, Elizabeth. Last Time I Saw You.
Attending a fortieth high school reunion at the sides of former classmates, Dorothy reconnects with old friends with whom she reevaluates her life, choices, and relationships.
Kasischke, Laura. In a Perfect World.
Former flight attendant Jiselle Dorn's idyllic family life as the wife of pilot Mark Dorn and the mother of two soon grows wearisome, since Mark is always away and her children are hostile, but nothing can prepare her for the threat of the Phoenix Flu, which endangers the very lives they have all imagined.
Lamb, Wally. Wishn’ and Hopin’: a Christmas Story.
Set in the fictional town of Three Rivers, Connecticut, the story of fifth grader Felix Funicello in the months leading up to Christmas 1964.
Lodato, Victor. Mathilda Savitch.
Mathilda investigates her older sister's shattering death and learns perplexing truths when she accesses her sister's computer journals and reads about a secret underworld life.
Ostow, Micol. So Punk Rock (and Other Ways to Disappoint Your Mother) .
Four suburban New Jersey students from the Leo R. Gittleman Jewish Day School form a rock band that becomes inexplicably popular, creating exhiliration, friction, confrontation, and soul-searching among its members.
Stork, Francisco X. Last Summer of the Death Warriors.
Seventeen-year-old Pancho is bent on avenging the senseless death of his sister, but after he meets D.Q, who is dying of cancer, and Marisol, one of D.Q.'s caregivers, both boys find their lives changed by their interactions.
In the News
Brown,Jennifer. Hate List.
Sixteen-year-old Valerie, whose boyfriend Nick committed a school shooting at the end of their junior year, struggles to cope with integrating herself back into high school life, unsure herself whether she was a hero or a villain.
Burns, Loree Griffin. Hive Detectives: Chronicle of a Honey Bee Catastrophe.
Bees don't just produce honey. Your food supply depends on them. Apiarist Dave Hackenberg's bees have a busy travel schedule, pollinating around the United States from February to July. So when Dave inspected four hundred of his hives and found that the bees had simply vanished, a dream team of bee scientists get to work.
Christopher, Lucy. Stolen.
Sixteen-year-old Gemma, a British city-dweller, is abducted while on vacation with her parents and taken to the Australian outback, where she soon realizes that escape attempts are futile, and in time she learns that her captor is not as despicable as she first believed.
Genova,Lisa. Left Neglected.
Sarah Nickerson, a career-driven young mother, suffers a traumatic brain injury in a car accident that leaves her unable to perceive left-side information, a disability that causes her to struggle through an uncertain recovery as she adapts to her new life.
Strasser, Todd. Wish You Were Dead.
Madison, a senior at a suburban New York high school, tries to uncover who is responsible for the disappearance of her friends, popular students mentioned in the posts of an anonymous blogger, while she, herself, is being stalked online and in-person.
Young-Stone, Michelle. Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors.
Surviving two lightning strikes in childhood, a traumatized Becca Burke becomes isolated from her disbelieving family members and bonds with Buckley Pitank, who is grieving the loss of his mother from a lightning strike.
Other Worlds
Bacigalupi, Paolo. Ship Breaker.
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.
Card, Orson Scott. Ender’s Game.
After Ender Wiggins leaves for Battle School, his enigmatic siblings Valentine and Peter try to solve injustice at their school, while in Battle School, Zeck Morgan's beliefs are challenged as he's groomed to fight the Formics.
Collins, Suzanne. Mockingjay.
Two-time Hunger Games survivor Katniss Everdeen is targeted by a vengeful Capitol that vows to make Katniss and all of District 12 pay for the current unrest.
McKinley, Robin. Pegasus.
Because of a thousand-year-old alliance between humans and pegasi, Princess Sylvi is ceremonially bound to Ebon, her own pegasus, on her twelfth birthday, but the closeness of their bond becomes a threat to the status quo and possibly to the safety of their two nations.
Orwell, George. 1984.
Portrays life in a future time when a totalitarian government watches over all citizens and directs all activities.
Pearson, Mary E. Adoration of Jenna Fox.
In the not-too-distant future, when biotechnological advances have made synthetic bodies and brains possible but illegal, a seventeen-year-old girl, recovering from a serious accident and suffering from memory lapses, learns a startling secret about her existence.
Best of Editors' 2010 Choices
Egan, Jennifer. A Visit From the Goon Squad.
Working side-by-side for a record label, former punk rocker Bennie Salazar and the passionate Sasha hide illicit secrets from one another while interacting with a motley assortment of equally troubled people from 1970s San Francisco to the post-war future.
Irwin, Stephen. Dead Path.
After the death of his wife, Nicholas Close becomes haunted, literally, by ghosts. Torn by guilt and fearing for his sanity, he returns home to Tallong, Australia, and becomes entangled in a disturbing series of disappearances and murders--both as a suspect and as the next victim of the malignant evil lurking in the heart of the woods.
Oppenenheimer, Mark. Wisenheimer: a Childhood Subject to Debate.
Frank and comical, "Wisenheimer "chronicles the travails of a hyperarticulate child who finds salvation in the heady world of competitive oratory.
Hellenga, Robert. Snakewoman of Little Egypt.
A middle-aged anthropology professor contemplating his future becomes romantically involved with a woman released from jail after shooting her husband, the pastor of a snake-handling church.
Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years.
Vlautin, Willy. Lean on Pete.
Left homeless by the death of his father, fifteen-year-old Charley Thompson sets off with a racehorse, Lean on Pete, on a perilous treck from Portland, Oregon to Wyoming to find a distant aunt, hoping to regain stability in his life.
Crossing Borders
Kim, Eugenia. Calligrapher’s Daughter.
In early-twentieth-century Korea, Najin Han, the privileged daughter of a calligrapher, longs to choose her own destiny. Smart and headstrong, she is encouraged by her mother--but her stern father is determined to maintain tradition, especially as the Japanese steadily gain control of his beloved country.
McCoy, Sarah. The Time It Snowed in Puerto Rico.
It is 1961 and Puerto Rico is trapped in a tug-of-war between those who want to stay connected to the United States and those who are fighting for independence. Verdita has always been safe and secure in her sleepy mountain town, but she must find the strength to decide what sort of woman she'll become.
Qin, Xiaolong. Death of a Red Heroine.
Inspector Chen must battle the political climate of Shanghai and seek the help of a former friend in order to solve the murder of a National Model Worker.
Sofer, Dalia. The Septembers of Shiraz.
Their serene villa life devastated by a wrongful imprisonment, the wife and children of Tehran gentleman Isaac Amin face potential betrayals within their own household and eventually plan a dangerous escape.
Verghese, Abraham. Cutting for Stone.
Twin brothers born from a secret love affair between an Indian nun and a British surgeon in Addis Ababa, Marion and Shiva Stone come of age in an Ethiopia on the brink of revolution, where their love for the same woman drives them apart.
Busfield, Andrea. Born Under a Million Shadows.
In post-Taliban Afghanistan, Fawad and his mother move in with a Western woman who has a relationship with a notorious Afghan warlord, and soon, a horrible tragedy threatens to destroy Fawad's love for his country.
Thrillers
Bradley,C. Allan. Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.
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.
Crichton, Michael. Andromeda Strain.
A team of scientists struggles to define and contain a deadly bacteria brought back from outer space by a satellite.
Fukada, Andrew Xia. Crossing.
When a series of mysterious abductions rattles Xing Xu's adopted hometown, his position on the outskirts of society helps him investigate the kidnappings with the hope of proving his worth to his classmates and his crush.
Kostova, Elizabeth. The Historian.
Discovering a medieval book and a cache of letters, a motherless American girl becomes the latest in a series of historians, including her late father, who investigate the possible surviving legacy of Vlad the Impaler.
Larbalestier, Justine. Liar.
Compulsive liar Micah promises to tell the truth after revealing that her boyfriend has been murdered.
Larsson,Steig. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Forty years after the disappearance of Harriet Vanger from the secluded island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger family, her octogenarian uncle hires journalist Mikael Blomqvist and Lisbeth Salander, an unconventional young hacker, to investigate.
Classics
Christie, Agatha. Death on the Nile.
Young, beautiful, and rich, Linnet Doyle sparks the interest of Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot when she and her new husband take a cruise on the same ship as he, and he senses trouble in paradise.
Dickens, Charles. Tale of Two Cities.
Two men who look alike love Lucie Manette, and during the French Revolution one of them goes to the guillotine in place of the other for Lucie's happiness.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby.
Jay Gatsby still adores Daisy Buchanan although she has married someone else, and he risks everything to lure her back.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Scarlet Letter.
In early colonial Massachusetts, a young woman endures the consequences of her sin of adultery and spends the rest of her life in atonement.
James, Henry. Portrait of a Lady.
Tells of the psychological impact of European culture upon an American girl, Isabel Archer, and of her unfortunate marriage.
Mitchell, Margaret. Gone with the Wind.
Scarlett O'Hara faces and survives the Civil War and Reconstruction and marries Rhett Butler for his money because her true love has married someone else.
Steinbeck, John. Grapes of Wrath.
The Joad family, Okie farmers forced from their dustbowl home during the Depression, try to find work as migrant fruitpickers in California.
Books into Movies
Adamson, Joy. Born Free.
Relates the adventures of a lion cub reared and loved for three years by an American game warden and his wife.
Allende, Isabel. House of the Spirits.
The Trueba family embodies strong feelings from the beginning of the 20th century through the assassination of Allende in 1973.
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451.
A totalitarian regime has ordered all books to be destroyed, but one of the book burners suddenly realizes their merit.
Buck, Pearl. The Good Earth.
Wang Lung, a Chinese peasant, rises from poverty to become a rich landowner with the aid of his patient wife in the 1920s.
Landon, Margaret. Anna and the King of Siam.
Journeying to Siam to serve as governess to the king's royal children, a young widow transforms the life of the proud ruler of the exotic Asian country.
Golding, William. Lord of the Flies.
The classic study of human nature which depicts the degeneration of a group of schoolboys marooned on a desert island.
Portis, Charles. True Grit.
With her papa's pistol tied to her saddlehorn and a supersized ration of audacity, fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross sets out to avenge her father's murder.
Science Matters
Anthony, Lawrence. Babylon’s Ark: the Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo.
Chronicles Anthony’s hair-raising efforts to save a pride of Saddam’s lions, close a deplorable black market zoo, run ostriches through shoot-to-kill checkpoints, and rescue the dictator’s personal herd of thoroughbred Arabian horses.
Bodanis, David. The Secret House: 24 Hours in the Strange and Unexpected World in which We Spend Our Nights and Days.
Uncovers the astounding physical and biological events that go on while we sleep eat or brush our teeth; the little hidden dramas happening around us all the time. Much of what is described is invisible to the naked eye or inaudible to the average ear.
Corson, Trevor. The Secret Life of Lobsters: How Fishermen and Scientists are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean.
The author escorts the reader onto the slippery decks of fishing boats, through danger-filled scuba dives, and deep into the churning currents of the Gulf of Maine to learn about the secret undersea lives of lobsters.
Croke, Vicki Constantine. The Lady and the Panda: the True Adventures of the First American Explorer to Bring Back China’s Most Exotic Animal.
In Croke’s hands, the intrepid American woman and the con men, dreamers, and adventurers who joined her in the pursuit of the world’s most exotic animal spring vividly to life.
Fisher, Len. Rock, Paper, Scissors: Game Theory in Everyday Life.
Fisher takes us from the problems of cooperation in everyday life to serious issues such as resource depletion, global warming, and conflict negotiation sometimes with hilarity, but always revealing.
Glennon, Robert. Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What to Do About It.
Reminds us that water is indeed finite, Unquenchable clearly shows us the solutions to the greatest threat of the 21st century are limited only by politics and greed.
Higgins, Peter M. Nets, Puzzles, and Postmen: an Exploration of Mathematical Connections.
Brings the world of networks to life, in an exploration that ranges from mathematical puzzles to the hidden mathematical structures that underpin many world phenomena.
Leonard, Annie. The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health-and a Vision for Change.
Leonard weaves together engaging personal stories and encyclopedic knowledge of her subject to communicate a powerful systemic frame and defines a spot-on agenda for practical action.
Wolke, Robert L. What Einstein Told His Barber: More Scientific Answers to Everyday Questions.
If you shoot a bullet into the air, can it kill somebody when it comes down? You can find out the answer and more in an astonishing compendium of the proverbial mind-boggling mysteries of the physical world we inhabit.
Yoerg, Sonia. Clever as a Fox: Animal Intelligence and What It Can Teach Us About Ourselves.
Entertaining and scrupulously researched, this book will challenge your previously held notions about animals and the measure of intelligence, both theirs and ours.
Zukav, Gary. The Dancing Wu Li Masters: an Overview of the New Physics.
Thoroughly and in the clearest language possible, Zukav covers quantum mechanics and relativity theory from their inceptions to the science of the modern age, gearing his explorations to readers with no mathematical or technical background.