Provo City Library Reading Recommendations

Romantic Tales of Everyday Life

2012-02-03T15:31:00.004-07:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

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

2012-01-25T14:08:00.005-07:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

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

2012-01-25T12:45:00.006-07:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

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.

2012-01-13T20:18:00.004-07:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Teen books
Mystery
Action

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

2012-01-13T19:43:00.004-07:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

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

2012-01-12T10:32:00.005-07:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

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
Bu 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.

Epic Fantasy, in the Tradition of Brandon Sanderson

2011-12-21T11:17:00.004-07:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Epic fantasy
Read-alikes for Brandon Sanderson or Robert Jordan

The Name of the Wind
By 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.

The Dragonbone Chair
By Tad Williams
SCI-FI WILLIAMS Memory #1
Simon, a young kitchen boy and magician's apprentice, finds his dreams of great deeds and heroic wars becoming an all too shocking reality in a terrifying civil war.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
By Susanna Clarke
SCI-FI CLARKE
In nineteenth-century England, all is going well for rich, reclusive Mr. Norell, who has regained some of the power of England's magicians from the past, until a rival magician, Jonathan Strange, appears and becomes Mr. Norrell's pupil.

The Black Company
By Glen Cook
SCI-FI COOK Black Co #1
The tough mercenaries of the Black Company risk their lives and their souls as they set out to find the White Rose, a mystical figure who embodies the very essence of good.

The Red Wolf Conspiracy
By Robert V.S. Redick
SCI-FI REDICK Chathran #1
Scant years after a terrible war that shook empires, a 600-year-old ship sails for enemy lands and must deal with deadly assassins, treacherous mermaids, and monstrous slavers in order to deliver a young woman whose marriage will seal the peace.

The Lies of Locke Lamora
By Scott Lynch
SCI-FI LYNCH Gentlema #1
Vowing to bring down the crime boss running the city, a group of Gentlemen Bastards, led by Locke Lamora, sets out to beat the Capa at his own game, taking on other thieves, murderers, beggars, and thugs in the process.

Books with Strong Characterization, Published in 2011

2011-12-13T20:31:00.003-07:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Fiction
Strong Characterization
Books published in 2011

The Language of Flowers
By Vanessa Diffenbaugh
F DIFFENBA
The story of a girl whose gift of flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own past.

These Things Hidden
By Heather Gudenkauf
F GUDENKAU
When golden girl teenager Allison Glenn is released from prison to a halfway house, she is more determined than ever to speak with her estranged sister. Their legacy of secrets is focused on one little boy. And if the truth is revealed, the consequences will be unimaginable for the adoptive mother who loves him, the girl who tried to protect him and the two sisters who hold the key to all that is hidden.

Divergent
Veronica Roth
YA F ROTH
In a future Chicago, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomaly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.

Rules of Civility
By Amor Towles
F TOWLES
A chance encounter with a handsome banker in a jazz bar on New Year's Eve 1938 catapults Wall Street secretary Katey Kontent into the upper echelons of New York society, where she befriends a shy multi-millionaire, an Upper East Side ne'er-do-well, and a single-minded widow.

Mysteries for Fans of Stieg Larsson

2011-11-29T20:23:00.003-07:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Mysteries and thrillers
Read-alikes for Stieg Larsson
Books with a new perspective

Smilla’s Sense of Snow
By Peter Hoeg
MYSTERY HOEG
When her six-year-old neighbor falls to his death, and no one is willing to suspect foul play, Smilla Qaavigaaq Jasperson finds her own investigation taking her into the files of a Danish company.

Three Seconds
By Anders Roslun
MYSTERY ROSLUND
Ex-convict Piet Hoffman--a family man, a rising member of Stockholm's Polish mafia, and an undercover police informant--is sent to a maximum security prison to make himself the boss of the amphetamine trade so the police can shut it down.

In the Woods
By Tana French
MYSTERY FRENCH
Twenty years after witnessing the violent disappearances of two companions from their small Dublin suburb, detective Rob Ryan investigates a chillingly similar murder that takes place in the same wooded area, a case that forces him to piece together his traumatic memories.

A Duty to the Dead
By Charles Todd
MYSTERY TODD
Independent-minded Bess Crawford's upbringing is far different from that of the usual upper-middle-class British gentlewoman. At the outbreak of WWI, she volunteers for the nursing corps, serving from the battlefields of France to the doomed hospital ship Britannic. On one voyage, she promises to a deliver a message from a dying officer to his brother. Once she's able to do so, she's disturbed at the brother's indifferent reception of the message, and when an unexpected turn of events provides her with an opportunity to stay with the family for a short time, she takes it.

Entertaining Teen Historical Fiction

2011-11-23T14:09:00.004-07:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Teen books
Historical Fiction
Strong character development
Read-alikes for Laurie Halse Anderson and Nancy Turner
Clean reads

Boston Jane
By Jennifer Holm
YA F Holm Boston J #1
In 1854, sixteen-year-old Jane Peck has ventured to the unknown wilds of the Northwest to wed her childhood idol, William Baldt. But her impeccable training at Miss Hepplewhite's Young Ladies Academy in Philadelphia is hardly preparation for the colorful characters and crude life that await her.

The Raging Quiet
By Sherryl Jordan
YA F Jordan
Suspicious of 16-year-old Marnie, a newcomer to their village, the residents accuse her of witchcraft when she discovers that the village madman is not crazy but deaf and she begins to communicate with him through hand gestures.

Hattie Big Sky
By Kirby Larson
YA F Larson
After inheriting her uncle's homesteading claim in Montana, sixteen-year-old orphan Hattie Brooks travels from Iowa in 1917 to make a home for herself and encounters some unexpected problems related to the war being fought in Europe.

A Countess below Stairs
By Eva Ibbotson
YA F Ibbotson
After the Russian revolution turns her world topsy-turvy, Anna, a young Russian countess, has no choice but to flee to England. Penniless, Anna hides her aristocratic background and takes a job as servant, armed only with an outdated housekeeping manual and sheer determination.

Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman?
By Eleanor Updale
YA F Updale Montmore #1
In Victorian London, after his life is saved by a physician, a thief uses the knowledge he gains in prison and from scientific lectures he attends with the physician, to create a double life.

Teen Romantic Suspense

2011-11-19T15:34:00.003-07:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Teen books
Romance
Suspense

Divergent
By Veronica Roth
YA F Roth
In a future Chicago, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomaly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.

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.

Wildwood Dancing
By Juliet Marillier
YA F Marillie
Five sisters who live with their merchant father in Transylvania use a hidden portal in their home to cross over into a magical world, the Wildwood.

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.

Beautiful Creatures
By Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
YA F Garcia
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.

Issue-driven Books, with Emphasis on Characters

2011-11-17T13:50:00.007-07:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Books about controversial issues
Books about characters and relationships
Books similar to Jodi Picoult’s but cleaner

Please Look after Mom
By Kyong-suk Shin
F SHIN
Follows the efforts of a family to find the mother who went missing from Seoul Station and their sobering realizations when they recall memories that suggest she may not have been happy.

Every Last One
By Anna Quindlen
F QUINDLEN
Mary Beth is first and foremost a mother whose three children come first, before her career, or even her life as the wife of a doctor. Caring for her family and preserving their everyday life is paramount. So when one of her sons becomes depressed, she focuses on him, and is blindsided by a shocking act of violence.

The Language of Flowers
By Vanessa Diffenbaugh
DIFFENBA
The story of a woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own past.

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.

These Things Hidden
By Heather Gudenkauf
F GUDENKAU
When golden girl teenager Allison Glenn is released to a halfway house, she is more determined than ever to speak with her estranged sister. Their legacy of secrets is focused on one little boy. And if the truth is revealed, the consequences will be unimaginable for the adoptive mother who loves him, the girl who tried to protect him and the two sisters who hold the key to all that is hidden.

2011-11-17T13:38:00.004-07:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Recent fiction
Character-driven stories
Contemporary fiction

State of Wonder
By Ann Patchett
F PATCHETT
Pharmacologist Marina Singh, researcher at a drug company in Minnesota, is sent to the Amazon to investigate the death of a colleague and to check on the progress of Dr. Annick Swenson, a rogue scientist on the cusp of developing a fertility drug that could rock the medical profession.

The Lake of Dreams
By Kim Edwards
F EDWARDS
At a crossroads in her life, Lucy Jarrett returns home, only to find herself haunted by her father's unresolved death a decade before. She discovers some papers in her house that lead her to a mystery that goes back generations and whose resolution will alter long-established family histories and future plans.

Life Sentences
By Laura Lippman
F LIPPMAN
Writer Cassandra Fallows returns to Baltimore and tries to reconnect with three former classmates in an attempt to investigate the case of a mutual friend who has been accused of murder. In the process, she discovers the gulf that separates her memories of events from theirs.

If I Stay
By Gayle Forman
YA F FORMAN
While in a coma following an automobile accident that killed her parents and younger brother, seventeen-year-old Mia, a gifted cellist, weighs whether to live with her grief or join her family in death.

Wolves, Boys, and Other Things that Might Kill Me
By Kristen Chandler
YA F CHANDLER
When wolves are reintroduced to the area near her small Montana town, KJ Carson teams up with the new boy in town, Virgil, to write a column about them for the school newspaper. Her life becomes more complicated as her friendship with Virgil deepens and the townspeople argue about the fate of the wolves.

Well-written Contemporary Nonfiction or Biographies about the Midwest and Gulf States

2011-10-27T14:50:00.007-06:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Nonfiction
Biographies
Midwest or Gulf States setting

Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
By Erik Larson
364.1523 LAR 2003
An account of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 relates the stories of two men who shaped the history of the event--architect Daniel H. Burnham, who coordinated its construction, and serial killer Herman Mudgett.

A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana
By Haven Kimmel
BIO KIMMEL 2002
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.

Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression
By Mildred Armstrong Kalish
BIO KALISH 2007
A memoir from a schoolteacher of growing up in the heart of the Midwest during the Great Depression describes life on an Iowa farm during a time of endless work, resourcefulness, no tolerance for idleness or waste, family, and kinship.

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less
By Terry Ryan
BIO RYAN 2005
The author describes her mother Evelyn's struggles with poverty in the 1950s as she tried to build a happy home for her ten children, with the help of wit, poetry, and prose during the contest era of the 1950s and 1960s.

The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square
By Ned Sublette
976.335 SUB 2008
Tells the story of one of America's most complex cities, with an emphasis on New Orleans's musical heritage and its first century filled with war, religious conflicts, slavery, and its struggles with France, Spain, and England.

Historical Fiction with a Hint of Mystery

2011-10-27T14:26:00.004-06:00

Try these books if you like:

Historical fiction
Mysteries
Clean reads

Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor
By Stephanie Barron
MYSTERY Barron Jane Aus #1
Fleeing from a broken engagement, Jane Austen has scarcely arrived in Scargrave when the local earl is felled by a mysterious ailment that is far too agonizing and fatal to be credited to his fondness for claret and pudding. The earl's widow asks Jane to investigate.

A Duty to the Dead
By Charles Tood
MYSTERY Todd
Independent-minded Bess Crawford's upbringing is far different from that of the usual upper-middle-class British gentlewoman. At the outbreak of WWI, she volunteers for the nursing corps, serving from the battlefields of France to the doomed hospital ship Britannic. On one voyage, she promises to a deliver a message from a dying officer to his brother. Once she's able to do so, she's disturbed at the brother's indifferent reception of the message, and when an unexpected turn of events provides her with an opportunity to stay with the family for a short time, she takes it.

Mount Vernon Love Story
By Mary Higgins Clark
F Clark
Follows the story of George Washington from the time he steps down from the presidency to return with Martha to his beloved Mount Vernon home, a period during which the couple shares a renewal of feelings from the early years of their marriage.

Clara and Mr. Tiffany
By Susan Vreeland
F Vreeland
Hoping to honor his father and the family business with innovative glass designs, Louis Comfort Tiffany launches the iconic Tiffany lamp as designed by women's division head Clara Driscoll, who struggles with the mass production of her creations.

Last Dickens
By Matthew Pearl
MYSTERY Pearl
When Daniel Sand's body is discovered by the docks where he awaited Charles Dickens's unfinished novel, publishing partner James Osgood and Rebecca Sand, Daniel's sister, attempt to uncover Dickens's final mystery.

Teen Nonfiction for Boys

2011-10-25T19:03:00.006-06:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Books for teen boys
Nonfiction
Books with less than 250 pages

The Dark Game: True Spy Stories
By Paul B. Janeczko
YA 327.73 JAN 2010
A collection of true spy stories from throughout the history of the United States, discussing personalities, missions, traitors, technological advances and more.

Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World
By Jennifer Armstrong
YA 919.89 ARM 1989
Describes the events of the 1914 Shackleton Antarctic expedition when, after being trapped in a frozen sea for nine months, their ship was finally crushed, forcing Shackleton and his men to make a very long and perilous journey across ice and stormy seas to reach inhabited land.

The War to End All Wars
By Russell Freedman
YA 940.3 FRE 2010
This book describes the situations that led to WWI, the wars progression and how the peace treaty actually set the world up for the next world war. This book is entertaining and informative and helps bring history to life.

The Great Fire
By Jim Murphy
YA 977.3 MUR 1995
An account of the Great Chicago Fire combines archival photographs and drawings with personal accounts by its survivors and historical documents.

Chasing Lincoln’s Killer
By James L. Swanson
YA BIO BOOTH
Recounts the escape of John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, and follows the intensive twelve-day search for him and his accomplices.

Clean Historical Fiction

2011-09-26T11:04:00.008-06:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Historical fiction
Clean books

Captive Heart
By Michele Paige Holmes
ROMANCE HOLMES
Thayne Kendrich’s urgent need for a school teacher forces him to abduct Emmalyne Madsen off her westward-bound train and lead her to his Black Hills home – and into the path of his deadly ex-wife who will kill for the gold he’s discovered.

Seeking Persephone
By Sarah M. Eden
ROMANCE EDEN
Lodged deep in a forest infested with wild dogs, the Duke of Kielder’s castle is as forbidding as the Duke himself, a man with terrible scars on his body and his soul. But the Duke’s determination to protect his heart at all costs is challenged by his growing attachment to his gentle bride.

Mark of Royalty
By Jennifer K. Clark
ROMANCE CLARK
Determined to fulfill her devoted mother’s wishes, Sarah reserves her heart for Chad despite her growing affection for another man. But as plots against the crown unfold, someone accidentally discovers Sarah’s mark of royalty – setting the stage for discoveries that will shake the kingdom to its core.

The Blue Castle
By L.M. Montgomery
YA F MONTGOME
Valancy Stirling, an inhibited twenty-nine-year-old spinster, undergoes a total personality change when a doctor tells her she has no more than one year to live.

Mr. Darcy’s Daughters
By Elizabeth Aston
F ASTON
Elizabeth Aston has written a novel of historical fiction that depicts British social life and customs during the 19th century. She follows the adventures of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth’s five daughters giving Jane Austen fans an opportunity to visit old friends and learn what happened to the Bennet, Darcy, and Bingley clans.

Enthralling Nonfiction

2011-09-26T10:46:00.002-06:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Nonfiction
Entertaining books

The Glass Castle
By Jeannette Walls
BIO Walls
The child of an alcoholic father and an eccentric artist mother discusses her family's nomadic upbringing, during which she and her siblings fended for themselves while their parents outmaneuvered bill collectors and the authorities.

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
By Jung Chang
951.05 CHA
A Chinese woman chronicles the struggles of her grandmother, mother, and herself to survive in a China torn apart by wars, invasions, revolution, and continuing upheaval, from 1907 to the present.

At Home: A Short History of Private Life
Bill Bryson
643.1 BRY
Bryson takes readers on a tour of his house, a rural English parsonage, showing how each room has figured in the evolution of private life. It is a very entertaining and fascinating read.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
Michael Pollan
394.12 POL
An ecological and anthropological study of eating offers insight into food consumption in the twenty-first century, explaining how an abundance of unlimited food varieties reveals the responsibilities of consumers to protect their health and the environment.

Mysteries for Teens

2011-09-26T10:19:00.006-06:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Mysteries
Teen books

Down the Rabbit Hole
By Peter Abrahams
YA F ABRAHAMS Echo Fal #1
Like her idol Sherlock Holmes, eighth grader Ingrid Levin-Hill uses her intellect to solve a murder case in her home town of Echo Falls. First book in the Echo Falls series.

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. Though it has science fiction adventure element to it, the mystery is what drives the story along. First book in the Dark Life series.

The Killer’s Cousin
By Nancy Werlin
YA F WERLIN
After being acquitted of murder, seventeen-year-old David goes to stay with relatives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he finds himself forced to face his past as he learns more about his strange young cousin Lily.

Historical Fiction with Emphasis on Characters and Relationships

2011-08-31T15:16:00.006-06:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Great stories
Historical fiction
Romantic suspense
Books about characters and relationships

Rules of Civility
By Amor Towles
F TOWLES
A chance encounter with a handsome banker in a jazz bar on New Year’s Eve 1938 catapults Wall Street secretary Katey Kontent into the upper echelons of New York society, where she befriends a shy multi-millionaire, an Upper East Side ne’er-do-well, and a single-minded widow.

The Secret History of the Pink Carnation
By Lauren Willig
F WILLIG Pink Car #1
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.

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

Russian Winter
By Daphne Kalotay
F KALOTAY
Former Bolshoi ballerina Nina Revskaya auctions off her jewelry collection and becomes overwhelmed by memories of her homeland, the friends she left behind amidst Stalinist aggression, and the dark secret that brought her to a new life in Boston.

Contemporary Paranormal Romances

2011-08-18T13:36:00.006-06:00

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Romance
Paranormal creatures
Contemporary books

Edge of Twilight
By Maggie Shayne
ROMANCE SHAYNE
In order to quench his thirst for revenge, Edge, the last of the Immortals, joins forces with Amber Lily, the only half human, half vampire ever born, to destroy the enemy--an alliance that plunges them into a dark realm of evil where passion is the key to their survival.

Blue Moon
By Lori Handeland
ROMANCE HANDELAN
When the wolf population of Miniwa, Wisconsin begins to stalk human prey, officer Jessie McQuade enlists professor Will Cadotte, a Native American activist, to help her investigate. As Jessie follows the trail to the shocking truth, she'll have to decide who she can trust when the moon is full.

How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire
By Kerry Sparks
ROMANCE SPARKS
On the run from the Russian mob after witnessing a brutal murder, dentist Shanna Whelan is rescued from certain death by Roman Draganesti, a charming and wealthy vampire in search of a dentist who can repair his broken fang.

Dates from Hell
ROMANCE STORIES DATES
Four popular romance authors explore the seductive and dangerous world of the supernatural in four sensuous tales of romance with demon lovers, werewolves, and the undead.

Undone
By Rachel Caine
SCI-FI Outcast #1
Once she was Cassiel, a Djinn of limitless power. Now, she has been reshaped in human flesh as a punishment for defying her master. Cursed to live among mortals, Cassiel finds refuge among the Weather Wardens until she encounters an evil force that threatens the family she has become closest to, forcing her to realize that her perceived human weaknesses may be her greatest strengths.

City of Bones
By Cassandra Claire
YA F CLARE #1
Able to see demons and the Darkhunters who are dedicated to returning them to their own dimension, fifteen-year-old Clary Fray is drawn into this bizarre world when her mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a monster.

Janet Evanovich Read-alikes

2011-08-13T15:33:00.004-06:00

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Contemporary books
Mystery series
Female lead character
Read-alikes for Janet Evanovich

The Dangerous Edge of Things
By Tina Whittle
MYSTERY WHITTLE Tai Rand #1
Trying to run her newly inherited Confederate-themed gun shop, Tia Randolph's life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body in her brother's driveway. /div>

Bubbles Unbound
By Sarah Strohmeyer
MYSTERY STROHMEY
Against all odds, Bubbles Yablonsky has returned to school, but while on her way to journalism school, she happens upon a crime scene and finds herself drawn into a murder investigation.

Dating Dead Men
By Harley Jane Kozak
MYSTERY KOZAK
As part of her research for talk show host Dr. Cookie Lahven's upcoming book "How to Avoid Getting Dumped All the Time," Wollie Shelley is dating forty men in sixty days, but her assignment is complicated by an unexpected corpse.

Swift Justice
By Laura A. H. DiSilverio
MYSTERY DISILVER
Charlotte "Charlie" Swift, a former Air Force investigator turned private eye, likes her solitary existence. When her silent partner flees the the country, leaving his socialite wife Gigi with a half interest in the business, Charlie must find a way to cope with her while also investigating the case of an abandoned baby.

The War Against Miss Winter
By Kathryn Miller Haines
MYSTERY HAINES
Struggling with missing her enlisted boyfriend, a lack of employment, and the growing impact of World War II on her New York City home, aspiring actress Rosie Winter reluctantly accepts work with a lowbrow detective agency and is caught up in a high-society mystery when her new boss is murdered. (Though it is a historical mystery series, it has a strong, smart mouth female character, similar to Evanovich's Stephanie Plum.)

Ordinary People Doing Amazing Things

2011-08-05T15:45:00.004-06:00

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Adventure

Across the Nightingale Floor
By Lian Hearn
F HEARN Tales of #1
In a novel set in a land much like ancient Japan, a young boy named Takeo becomes a pawn in the ceaseless wars between rival warlord clans in a culture ruled by codes of honor and formal rituals.

Mistborn
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.

Wizard’s First Rule
By Terry Goodkind
SCI-FI GOODKIND Sword of #1
An unearthly adversary descends on an idyllic fantasy world, corrupting magic against good and slaughtering innocents, and only a single man can stop him.

Odd Thomas
By Dean 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..

Assassin’s Apprentice
By Robin Hobb
SCI-FI HOBB
As Fitz, an outcast and the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, grows to manhood, a legacy of magical skill and other mysterious talents propels him into the role of protector of the kingdom, if his initial perilous mission does not destroy him first.

Adventurous Fantasy

2011-07-20T12:13:00.003-06:00

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Adventure
Fantasy
Read-alikes for Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, Brandon Mull, Rick Riordan, and J.K. Rowling

The Curse of Chalion
By Lois McMaster Bujold
SCI-FI BUJOLD Chalion #1
Seeking a position in the royal household, Cazaril is offered the post of secretary to the Royesse Iselle, the sister to the heir to Chalion's throne, but his new assignment brings him face to face with old enemies.

The Runelords
By David Farland
SCI-FI FARLAND
A young prince-wizard embarks on a journey to a far-flung fiefdom to marry a princess, a journey that soon becomes a matter of life and death.

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.

Olympos
By Dan Simmons
SCI-FI SIMMONS
Achilles and Hector lay seige to the home of the gods, inadvertently triggering a massive conflict between humanity and such powerful beings as Setebos, Prospero, and Caliban.

Mister Monday
By Garth Nix
YA F NIX Keys to #1
Although Arthur Penhaligon is supposed to die, he is saved by a key shaped like the minute hand of a clock, and now some bizarre creatures--including Mister Monday, his avenging messengers, and an army of dog-faced Fetchers--will stop at nothing to get the key.

Historical Fiction Set in Europe or Asia

2011-07-19T17:51:00.004-06:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Historical fiction
International setting

Invisible Bridge
By Julie Orringer
F ORRINGER
An unforgettable story of three brothers, of history and love, of marriage tested by disaster, of a Jewish family's struggle against annihilation, and of the dangerous power of art in a time of war.

The Smile
By Donna Joe Napoli
YA F NAPOLI
In Renaissance Italy, Elisabetta longs for romance, and when Leonardo da Vinci introduces her to Guiliano de Medici, whose family rules Florence but is about to be deposed, she has no inkling of the romance--and sorrow--that will ensue.

The Clan of the Cave Bear
By Jean M. Auel
F AUEL
After a natural disaster kills Ayla's tribe, members of the Clan of the Cave Bear find her and mistrust her because her blonde hair and blue eyes are different, but she eventually helps them survive.

Ties That Bind, Ties That Break
By Lensey Namioka
YA F NAMIOKA
Ailin's life takes a different turn when she defies the traditions of upper class Chinese society by refusing to have her feet bound.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
By Lisa See
F SEE
A story of friendship set in nineteenth-century China follows an elderly woman and her companion as they communicate their hopes, dreams, joys, and tragedies through a unique secret language.