Provo Library Reading Recommendations

Three Memoirs and Three Westerns

2013-05-16T16:41:00.003-06:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

memoirs
westerns

A Natural Woman: A Memoir
By Carole King
BIO KING 2012
This book is a memoir by the iconic singer-songwriter chronicling her story from her beginnings in Brooklyn through her remarkable success as one of the world's most acclaimed musical talents, to her present day as a leading performer and activist.

The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels--A Love Story
By Ree Drummond
BIO DRUMMOND 2011
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 warm and touching picture of life on an Oklahoma ranch.

The Glass Castle: A Memoir
By Jeannette Walls
BIO WALLS 2005
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.

Close Range: Wyoming Stories
By Annie Proulx
F PROULX
Annie Proulx is an award winning author and a journalist. Her "westerns" are not typical at all--nevertheless they are evocative and beautifully written stories of the West featuring compelling characters, bleak landscapes, and interesting storylines.

All the Pretty Horses
By Cormac McCarthy
F MCCARTHY
McCarthy is a literary Western author whose psychological stories focus on characters. The stories are invariably set in the Southwest and are often both picturesque and bleak. This story features John Grady Cole and a friend who head across the Texas border into Mexico looking for adventure.

Cold Mountain
By Charles Frazier
F FRAZIER
Frazier skillfully captures the landscapes and mindset of 19th-century America, with evocative details of the mountains, farmland, and frontier wilderness of rural North Carolina and its inhabitants' rough, melodic speech. This story, winner of the 1997 National Book Award, tells of Inman, a Civil War soldier who escapes from a war hospital in 1864 and starts walking to Cold Mountain.

Adventurous historical fiction/escape to other worlds

2013-05-16T16:30:00.001-06:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

adventure
historical
romance
new worlds

Maid of Fairbourne Hall
By Julie Klassen
ROMANCE KLASSEN
Margaret is set to receive an inheritance on her next birthday. Her stepfather wants to make sure the money stays in the family. In desperation, Margaret disguises herself as a maid and runs away. She finds work at Fairbourne Hall, the home of not one but two of her former suitors. Can she manage not to be recognized until her birthday and what will her heart tell her to do? Likeable characters and an enjoyable plot.

Violins of Autumn
By Amy McAuley
YA F MCAULEY
Lying about her age, Betty, alias Adele, becomes a Special Operations Executive and parachutes into France to serve as a courier for the French Resistance. Adele is well-trained but nothing can prepare her for the dangers of spying. There’s a good mix of adventure, suspense and a bit of romance. Adele is a well-developed protagonist and she is accompanied by good supporting characters.

The Summoning
By Kelly Armstrong
YA F ARMSTRON
When teenaged Chloe starts seeing ghosts, she is sent to Lyle House, a group home for mentally disturbed youth. Making both friends and enemies there, she discovers there is something strange about the home and its inhabitants. Fast moving and twisty plot with solid characters. First in the Darkest Powers series.

Inspirational Magical Realism

2013-05-11T12:02:00.001-06:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

inspirational
magical realism

Kafka on the Shore
By Haruki Murakami
F MURAKAMI
Murakami is a master storyteller, capable of blending the real and surreal with ease. In this specific story a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, runs away from home in order to escape a prophesy and finds that his fate intertwines with that of an old simpleton, Nakata. Murakami is known for his intricate plots, incredible imagination, and ability to play with reality.

Midnight’s Children
By Salman Rushdie
F RUSHDIE
In Rushdie’s now classic tale, Saleem is born on the stroke of midnight as India gains its independence. Part of a band of children endowed with exotic magical powers, Saleem’s winding saga mirrors that of his country. Rushdie’s creative, evocative language and epic storylines will appeal to fans of other magical realism heavyweights, such as Marques’ One Hundred Years of Solitude.

All the Names
By Jose Saramago
F SARAMAGO
Senhor José works as a clerk in his city’s central registry and lives an insipid life until he becomes obsessed with a mysterious record of an anonymous woman. His obsession takes him on a journey of metaphysical and personal discovery. Saramago has perfected the skills of telling strange, uplifting tales in sparse, beautiful prose.

Like Water for Chocolate
By Laura Esquivel
F ESQUIVEL
In this inspiring story of love and family, Esquivel bends reality around the feminine arts of cooking and housekeeping. Through reading about the romantic tragedy of the main characters, the reader unconsciously learns about turn of the century Mexican culture.

Life of Pi
By Yann Martel
F MARTEL
Pi finds himself a lone survivor of a shipwreck with a 450 pound Bengal tiger as a traveling companion. His 227 day trip across the sea is recounted twice: once as an irrational, impossible tale, and again as a mundane story of survival. The reader is left to find the real story for himself.

YA Action Fantasy

2013-05-11T11:39:00.000-06:00

Try these books if you're interested in:

YA action fantasy
male hero
good vs. evil

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.

Mister Monday
By Garth Nix
YA F NIX Keys #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 Fetchers--will stop at nothing to get the key. First book in the Keys to the Kingdom series.

The Amulet of Samarkand
By Jonathan Stroud
YA F STROUD Bartiame #1
Nathaniel, a magician's apprentice, summons up the djinni Bartimaeus and instructs him to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from the powerful magician Simon Lovelace. First book in the Bartiameus Trilogy.

The Hunchback Assignments
By Arthur G. Slade
YA F SLADE Hunchbac #1
In Victorian London, fourteen-year-old Modo, a shape-changing hunchback, becomes a secret agent for the Permanent Association, which strives to protect the world from the evil machinations of the Clockwork Guild. First book in the Hunchback Assignments series.

You might also like to try these titles of heroes that fight against evil without powers:

The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen
Dark Life by Kat Falls
Foundling by D. M. Cornish
Keeper of the Grail by Michael P. Spradlin.

Fantasy with Strong Female Characters/Mysteries

2013-04-29T17:00:00.001-06:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

strong female lead characters
other worlds
unpredictable endings
lyrical writing styles
mysteries

A Great and Terrible Beauty
By Libba Bray
YA F B RAY Gemma Do #1
After the suspicious death of her mother in 1895, sixteen-year-old Gemma returns to England, after many years in India, to attend a finishing school where she becomes aware of her magical powers and ability to see into the spirit world. The book involves a mysterious world with unpredictable characters and the series has been listed as having an unpredictable ending as well. Definitely involves adventures in other worlds as well as time. The main character is a strong female lead and is involved in just enough romance to be intriguing.

The Language of Flowers
By Vanessa Diffenbaugh
F DIFFENBA
Like Jamie Ford’s, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, this is an adult novel written for the enjoyment of young adults as well. This book weaves past and present, creating a portrait of an unforgettable woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own troubled past. It is listed as a psychological fiction book and has elements of surprise and is written with a lyrical style.

Her Forbidden Knight
By Rex Stout
MYSTERY STOUT
Rex Stout writes intricate plots with character driven mysteries. A motley gang of gentlemanly ne'er-do-wells hangs about in the lobby of Manhattan's Lamartine Hotel, casting ardor-filled glances at beauteous Miss Lila Williams and regaling each other with tales of their impressive -- and mostly fictional -- exploits. “Stout transports readers back to a time when the world seemed more innocent, a man's good name was a valuable asset, and happily-ever-after was a reasonable goal ” (Booklist).

Great adventure stories

2013-04-27T16:05:00.001-06:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

adventure stories
great plot
read like Jack London

Mr. Midshipman Hornblower
By C.S. Forester
F FORESTER Hornblow #1
Young Horatio Hornblower leaves his home at seventeen to begin a life in His Majesty’s Navy, learning the trade while serving his country in the French wars and the Spanish wars.

Sitka
By Louis L’Amour
LP F LAMOUR
Jean LaBarge, drawn by the beauty and strength of Sitka, the gateway to Alaska, takes on the dangers of the distant land, but the men who control Sitka move to destroy him, sparking a fight in which Jean attempts to win Alaska for America.

Pirate Latitudes
By Michael Crichton
F CRICHTON
English Captain Charles Hunter and his crew of ruffians sail from colonial Jamaica to infiltrate a Spanish-controlled port, commandeering the galleon El Trinidad and its fortune in gold after a bloody battle.

Captains Courageous
By Rudyard Kipling
F KIPLING
Harvey Cheyne, the son of a millionaire, learns lessons about life, responsibility, determination, and self-reliance when, saved from drowning by a fishing schooner, he is forced to share the life and hard work of his rescuers.

King Solomon’s Mines
By H. Rider Haggard
F HAGGARD
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.

Teen Action/Thriller Novels

2013-04-19T13:21:00.002-06:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Teen novels
Action/thriller reads
Harry Potter/Hunger Games-type reads

Witch & Wizard
By James Patterson
YA F PATTERSO Witch #1
Torn from their parents in a society increasingly controlled by the government, 15-year-old Wisty and her older brother, Whit, are incarcerated in a totalitarian prison where they discover they have incredible supernatural powers.

Paranormalcy
By Kiersten White
YA F WHITE Paranorm #1
Evie, the only known human with the ability to see through supernatural "glamours," works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency tracking down dangerous creatures. But when a mysterious shape-shifter invades the IPCA and brings news of a string of paranormal murders, things start to heat up.

I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have To Kill You
By Ally Carter
YA F CARTER Gallaghe #1
As a sophomore at a secret spy school and the daughter of a former CIA operative, Cammie is sheltered from "normal teenage life" until she meets a local boy while on a class surveillance mission.

Sabriel
By Garth Nix
YA F NIX Abhorsen #1
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.

Graceling
By Kristin Cashmore
YA F CASHMORE
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, and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king.

Contemporary Adult Romance/Mystery, Witty, with Happy Endings

2013-04-17T20:45:00.000-06:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Contemporary adult romance
Contemporary adult mystery
Books with witty banter
Books with believable love stories
Intriguing/humorous reads
Good character development
Happy endings
Reads like: Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Sophie Kinsella, Tami Hoag
e-books

Manhunting
By Jennifer Crusie
ROMANCE CRUSIE
After three failed engagements, successful businesswoman Kate Svenson comes up with a definitive plan for finding the man of her dreams by snaring an eligible bachelor at The Cabins resort, but as her would-be swains begin to drop around her, Jake Templeton decides to save the world of men from this dangerous femme fatale.

All Night Long
By Jayne Ann Krentz
ROMANCE KRENTZ
Irene Stenson returns to her hometown to find that her best friend has died suddenly, compelling her to extend her stay at a local lodge, where she and the hazel-eyed owner risk far more than local gossip to uncover the truth.

Austenland
By Shannon Hale
F HALE
Because her obsession with Jane Austen's Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice," is ruining her love life, Jane Hayes is delighted when she gets the chance to take a trip to a n English resort catering to Austen-crazed women.

The Surgeon
By Tess Gerritsen
MYSTERY GERRITSEN Rizzoli #1
A female heart surgeon, terrorized by a serial killer in Boston using the same MO as a killer who attacked her during her internship years in Savannah, works with a detective to solve the crime while trying to stay alive.

The Face of Deception
By Iris Johansen
MYSTERY JOHANSEN Eve Dunc #1
Forensic sculptor Eve Duncan is persuaded by billionaire magnate John Logan to reconstruct the face of an adult murder victim. It turns out to be a very dangerous job as she is left in a specially equipped lab in rural Virginia. Surveillance cameras are everywhere, the phones are tapped and Logan himself acts at once ruthless, charming and desperate.

Meaningful/Thought-Provoking Books

2013-04-17T19:58:00.001-06:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Meaningful books
Thought-provoking books

Peace Like a River
By Leif Enger
F ENGER
The quiet 1960s midwestern life of the Land family -- father Jeremiah, and children, Reuben, Davy and Swede -- is upended when Davy kills two teenage boys who have come to harm the family. On the morning of his sentencing, Davy escapes from his cell and the Lands set out in search of him. Their search is at once a heroic quest, a tragedy, a love story, and a haunting meditation on the possibility of magic in the everyday world.

Kira-Kira
By Cynthia Kadohata
YA F K ADOHATA
Chronicles the close friendship between two Japanese-American sisters growing up in rural Georgia during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the despair when one sister becomes terminally ill.

Homeless Bird
By Gloria Whelan
YA F WHELAN
When thirteen-year-old Koly enters into an ill-fated arranged marriage, she must either suffer a destiny dictated by India's tradition or find the courage to oppose it.

Sold
By Patricia McCormick
F MCCORMIC
When she is tricked by her stepfather and sold into prostitution, thirteen-year-old Lakshmi becomes submerged in a nightmare where her only comfort is the friendship she forms with the other girls, which helps her survive and eventually escape.

Charms for the Easy Life
By Kaye Gibbons
F GIBBONS
A tale of three generations of North Carolina women that has charmed readers from coast to coast. Their men may come and go -- but for Margaret, Sophia and Charlie Kate, the hopes, hurts, large losses and small victories are the stuff that bind family together.

Character-driven, Plot-focused Downloadable E-books

2013-04-13T16:05:00.001-06:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

compelling plot
focus on characters
available as downloadable audiobook

The Night Circus
By Erin Morgenstern
F MORGENST
A fierce competition is under way between two young magicians who have been trained since childhood to compete in "a game," where each must use their powers of illusion to best the other. As they begin to fall in love they don’t realize that the game is actually a duel to the death.

Caleb’s Crossing
By Geraldine Brooks
F BROOKS
Growing up amid a band of pioneers and Puritans, Bethia yearns for an education that is closed to her due to her gender. At twelve, while out exploring the island, she encounters Caleb, the young son of a native chieftain . The two forge a friendship that draws each into the world of the other.

Kabul Beauty School
By Deborah Rodriguez
305.4869 ROD 2007
Deborah went to Afghanistan in a humanitarian aid group but felt her skills as a hairdresser weren’t as useful as those of others. Yet she had a gift for befriending Afghans, and once her profession became known she was sought out by Afghan women . These women shared with Rodriguez their lives, giving her the strength to leave her own unhealthy marriage and allow herself to love again.

Wild: FromLost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
By Cheryl Strayed
BIO STRAYED 2012
A powerful, blazingly honest, inspiring memoir: the story of a 1,100 mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe -- and built her back up again.

Eat,Pray, Love
By Elizabeth Gilbert
BIO GILBERT 2010
Traces the author's decision to quit her job and travel the world for a year after suffering a midlife crisis and divorce, a journey that took her to three places in her quest to explore her own nature and learn the art of spiritual balance. Audiobook narrated by the author herself.

Brandon Sanderson/Classics/Biographies

2013-04-13T15:45:00.002-06:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Read like Brandon Sanderson
Classics
Biographies

Enchantment
By Orson Scott Card
SCI-FI CARD
With colorful believable characters, Card intertwines the story of Sleeping Beauty with Russian mythology creating a fantasy complete with adventure and romance.

Sorcerer’s Treason
By Sarah Zettel
SCI-FI ZETTEL
Bridget Lederle, a lonely outcast maintaining a lighthouse has a vision about the shipwreck victim she saves. From another world, he also has visions, but is he trustworthy or not?

Flowers For Algernon
By Daniel Keyes
F KEYES
This is the classic novel of a mentally disabled man, Charlie, whose life mirrors the incredible lab mouse Algernon. Charlie documents his own experimental scientific progression until ...

Sometimes the Magic Works
By Terry Brooks
BIO BROOKS
This biography gives you a chance to enter the mind of best selling fantasy author Terry Brooks. He draws on his own life experiences and life lessons learned to show you how he created his characters and writing style.

Classics

2013-04-13T15:27:00.002-06:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Classics
Similar to Mary Shelley, Fredrick Barton, Shakespeare

Dracula
Bram Stoker
F STOKER
Having discovered the double identity of the wealthy Transylvanian nobleman, Count Dracula, a small group of people vow to rid the world of the evil vampire.

The Woman in White
Wilkie Collins
MYSTERY COLLINS
When Walter Hartwright encounters a solitary, terrified, beautiful woman dressed in white on a moonlit night in London, he feels impelled to solve the mystery of her distress. The story, full of secrets, locked rooms, lost memories, and surprise revelations, features heroine Marian Halcombe and drawing-master Walter Hartright as sleuthing partners pitted against the diabolical Count Fosco and Sir Percival Glyde.

The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas
F DUMAS
The Count of Monte Cristo is the story of Edmond Dantes, who is imprisoned in the island fortress of the Chateau d'If on a false political charge; after escaping, he finds the fabulous treasure of Monte Cristo and sets upon the course of revenge against his old enemies.

Rebecca
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.

Doctor Faustus and Other Plays
Christopher Marlowe
822.3 MAR 1998
Christopher Marlow was an Elizabethan play wright who in “Doctor Faustus ” tells the story of a learned German doctor who sells his soul to the devil in order to get more knowledge and power.

Adventure/Paranormal Romance

2013-04-13T15:11:00.002-06:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Adventure
Paranormal
Romance

The Forest of Hands and Teeth
By Carrie Ryan
YA F RYAN Forest #1
Through twists and turns of fate, orphaned Mary seeks knowledge of life, love, and especially what lies beyond her walled village and the surrounding forest, where dwell the Unconsecrated, aggressive flesh-eating people who were once dead.

Vampire Academy
By Richelle Mead
YA F MEAD Vampire #1
Two years after a horrible incident made them run away, vampire princess Lissa and her guardian-in-training Rose are found and returned to St. Vladimir's Academy, where one focuses on mastering magic, the other on physical training, while both try to avoid the perils of gossip, cliques, gruesome pranks, and sinister plots.

Divine by Mistake
By P.C. Cast
SCI-FI CAST Divine #1
This one is a little different than the others on this list — rather than vampires & zombies, this story involves mythology as the supernatural element of the story. In this story, Shannon Parker, a teacher, is on summer vacation and purchases a Celtic vase. Thereafter she finds herself transported to the world of Partholon where she becomes the Goddess Incarnate of Epona and must find a way to return to Oklahoma before war erupts - and she is married off to a centaur.

Fallen
By Lauren Kate
YA F KATE Fallen #1
Suspected in the death of her boyfriend, seventeen-year-old Luce is sent to a Savannah, Georgia, reform school where she meets two intriguing boys and learns the truth about the strange shadows that have always haunted her.

The Vampire Diaries
By L. J. Smith
YA F SMITH Vampire #1 - 2
Two vampire brothers compete for high stakes -- the love of Elena Gilbert, a beautiful high school senior who is searching for excitement.

Science Fiction/Memoir for the Well-Read Reader

2013-04-13T14:33:00.000-06:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Science fiction
Memoir
Well-written
For the well-read reader

Ready Player One
By Ernest Cline
SCI-FI CLINE
In a bleak 2044, Wade Watts, an impoverished high school student lives primarily online alongside billions of others via a massive online game, OASIS, where players race to unravel the puzzles OASIS creator James Halliday built into the game before his death, with the winner taking control of the virtual world's parent company, as well as staggering wealth. When Wade stumbles on a clue taken from a 1980s video game , he's plunged into high-stakes conflict with a corporation dedicated to unraveling Halliday's riddles.

Zorro
By Isabel Allende
F ALLENDE
Diego de la Vega, the son of an aristocratic Spanish landowner and a Shoshone mother, returns to California from school in Spain to reclaim the hacienda on which he was raised and to seek justice for the weak and helpless.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: a Novel
By Edgar Wroblewski
F WROBLEWSKI
A tale reminiscent of "Hamlet" that also celebrates the alliance between humans and dogs follows speech-disabled Wisconsin youth Edgar, who bonds with three yearling canines and struggles to prove that his sinister uncle is responsible for his father's death.

Daughter of the Forest
By Juliet Marillier
SCI-FI MARILLIER Sevenwat #1
To reclaim the lives of her brothers, Sorcha leaves the only safe place she has known and starts on a journey of pain, loss, and terror. This is the first of six books in the Sevenwaters series.

Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Meth Addiction
By David Sheff
BIO SHEFF
Bright and athletic, Nic Sheff excelled in any setting. But during his teenage years he was seduced by the illicit world of drugs and alcohol and found himself caught in the clutches of addiction. Beautiful Boy is Nic’s father’s recounting of the story of his son. Tweak: (Growing Up on Methamphetamines) by Nic Sheff (BIO SHEFF) reveals the story of addiction and recovery from Nic’s point of view.

The End of Your Life Book Club
By Will Schwalbe
NEW BOOKS - NONFICTION SCHWALBE 2012
The inspiring story of a son and his dying mother, who form a "book club" that brings them together as her life comes to a close.

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore
By Robin Sloan
NEW BOOKS – FICTION SLOAN
The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon out of his life as a San Francisco web - design drone and landed him a new gig working the night shift at Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. But after just a few days on the job, Clay begins to realize that this store is even more curious than the name suggests. There are only a few customers, but they come in repeatedly and never seem to actually buy anything. Soon he embarks on a complex analysis of the customers' behavior and ropes his friends into helping him figure out just what's going on.

YA Dystopian Fiction

2013-04-13T12:58:00.000-06:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Teen
Dystopian fiction

Birthmarked
By Caragh O’Brien
YA F O’BRIEN Birthmar #1
When her midwife mother is taken away by the very people she serves, Gaia Stone starts to question the role of the Enclave and whether it is all that it seems.

The Selection
By Kiera Cass
YA F CASS
America Singer is chosen to compete in the Selection--a contest to see which girl can win the heart of Illea's prince--but all she really wants is a chance for a future with her secret love, Aspen, who is a caste below her.

Wither
By Lauren Destafano
YA F DESTEFANO Chemical #1
After modern science turns every human into a genetic time bomb where men die at age twenty-five and women at age twenty, girls are kidnapped and married off in order to repopulate the world.

For Darkness Shows the Stars
By Diana Peterfreund
YA F PETERFRE
Elliot North fights to save her family's land and her own heart in this post-apocalyptic reimaging of Jane Austen's Persuasion.

Inside Out
By Maria V. Snyder
YA F SNYDER
Trella, a scrub whose life consists of cleaning for the socially superior Uppers, finds her peaceful life disturbed when she encounters a prophet who promises a better life for her people and ends up in the middle of a rebellion.

Historical Fiction/Romance

2013-04-01T16:22:00.000-06:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

historical fiction
clean read
romance

The Blue Castle
By L.M. Montgomery
YA F MONTGOMERY
When Valancy Stirling is diagnosed with a heart condition, she decides to throw aside her family’s overbearing standards and live exactly as she likes, much to her staid family’s dismay. But it’s when her rebellion puts her in contact with Barney Snaith, the town pariah, that Valancy’s new life truly begins.

A Bride for Donnigan
By Janette Oke
F OKE Women of #7
Kathleen O’Malley is bound for America, leaving her homeland to marry a man she has never seen. Donnigan Harrison has finally achieved his dream of building a cabin and making a success of his farm, but finds it is lonely by himself. Will they be able to make their arranged marriage work?

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
By Avi
YA F AVI
As the lone “young lady” on a transatlantic voyage in 1832, Charlotte learns that the captain is murderous and the crew rebellious.

Hidden Places
By Lynn Austin
F AUSTIN
Eliza Wyatt is a young widow trying to keep hold of her family orchard. But when an injured, out-of-work man arrives on her doorstep, Eliza finds herself falling in love with his kind heart and gentle ways.

Courting Miss Lancaster
By Sarah Eden
ROMANCE EDEN
Harry Windover knows he can never make an offer for his adored Athena Lancaster, but when her brother asks him to help find a suitable suitor for Athena, Harry concocts a plot to help her see his own sterling qualities against a backdrop of alarming suitors.

Inspirational Fiction

2013-03-13T20:02:00.001-06:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Inspirational fiction

At Home in Mitford
By Jan Karon
F KARON Mitford #1
Longing for change in the face of burnout, Episcopal rector Father Tim finds his lonely bachelor existence enriched by a stray dog, a lonely boy, and a pretty neighbor.

The Scarlet Thread
By Francine Rivers
F RIVERS
When Sierra finds a journal by one of her ancestors, she begins to explore the young woman's life and rediscovers her own spirituality.

A Time to Dance
By Karen Kingsbury
F KINGSBURY Women of #1
Struggling to keep their marriage together, John and Abby Reynolds put their differences aside and their thoughts of divorce on hold when their daughter announces her plans to be married in the summer.

A Proper Pursuit
By Lynn Austin
F AUSTIN
Set in Chicago during the time of the World's Fair, this is the story of Violet Hayes whose search to find her mother exposes the young woman to the world about her from high society to the poor immigrant families; from the suffragette movement to the security of a suitable marriage match. As Violet contemplates what course her life will take, she will discover the missing parts of her family's past and, ultimately, herself.

Teen Books with a Bit of Romance and Adventure

2013-02-06T20:34:00.000-07:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Teen books
Adventure
Romance
Clean reads

Legend
By Marie Lu
YA F LU Legend #1
In a dark future, when North America has split into two warring nations, fifteen-year-olds Day, a famous criminal, and prodigy June, the brilliant soldier hired to capture him, discover that they have a common enemy.

Heist Society
By Ally Carter
YA F CARTER Heist #1
A group of teenagers uses their combined talents to re-steal several priceless paintings and save fifteen-year-old Kat Bishop's father, himself an international art thief, from a vengeful collector.

Book of a Thousand Days
By Shannon Hale
YA F HALE
Fifteen-year-old Dashti, sworn to obey her sixteen-year-old mistress, the Lady Saren, shares Saren's years of punishment locked in a tower, then brings her safely to the lands of her true love, where both must hide who they are as they work as kitchen maids.

Entwined
By Heather Dixon
YA F DIXON
Confined to their dreary castle while mourning their mother's death, Princess Azalea and her eleven sisters join The Keeper, who is trapped in a magic passageway, in a nightly dance that soon becomes nightmarish.

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.

Historical Fiction

2013-02-06T20:23:00.000-07:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Historical fiction

The Light between Oceans
By M.L. Stedman
F STEDMAN
A novel set on a remote Australian island a few years after WWI, where a childless couple live quietly running a lighthouse, until a boat carrying a baby washes ashore.

Rumors of War
By Dean Hughes
F HUGHES Children #1
The first volume in the Children of the Promise series opens in 1938 with Elder Alex Thomas and his companion serving in Germany. It soon becomes obvious that he will never complete his mission. War is coming, and that will affect not only Elder Thomas but also his family back home in Salt Lake City.

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.

Interesting Mysteries

2013-01-11T16:42:00.002-07:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Mysteries
Little to no language and no graphic scenes

A Test of Wills
By Charles Todd
MYSTERY TODD Inspecto #1
Ian Rutledge returns to his career at Scotland Yard after fighting in the war, still suffering from shell shock. His next case, with a war-ravaged ex-soldier as the witness, could spell disaster for him.

The Undertakers Widow
By Phillip Margolin
F MARGOLIN
Judge Richard Quinn struggles to follow justice in the trial of a congresswoman accused of murdering her mortician husband but instead finds himself in a maze of murder and deceit.

Spycatcher
By Matthew Dunn
F DUNN Spycatch #1
Unpredictable agent Will Cochrane must catch the world's most wanted international terrorist mastermind, who was responsible for the death of his father in Iraq twenty-five years ago, and avert an attack the likes of which the world has never seen.

Don’t Turn Around
By Michelle Gagnon
YA F GAGNON
After waking up on an operating table with no memory of how she got there, Noa must team up with computer hacker Peter to stop a corrupt corporation with a deadly secret.

Suspenseful Adventures That Are Clean Reads

2013-01-11T16:33:00.001-07:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Adventure
Suspense
Clean Reads

Gold of Kings
By Davis Bunn
F BUNN
An art historian unravels the mystery surrounding her grandfather's untimely death and quickly becomes entangled in a web of international intrigue dating back to biblical times.

Road to Nowhere
By Paul Robertson
MYSTERY ROBERTS
Unexpected funding for town development transforms a small mountain community in North Carolina from a peaceful region where neighbors care for one another into a hostile and divided area fraught with greed and violence.

Dead Heat
By Joel C. Rosenberg
F ROSENBER Jon Benn #5
In the wake of a horrific war in the Middle East, the president's second term is ending and the battle to succeed him is heating up into one of the most fiercely contested presidential elections in American history--and Jon and Erin Bennett realize the stakes could not be higher.

Kill Switch
By Neal Baer
MYSTERY BAER
Criminal psychologist Dr. Claire Waters finds her life unraveling when she mistakenly recommends the release of a brutal serial killer, after which a woman is murdered and the crime bears all the signs of the serial killer's work.

The Atlantis Code
By Charles Brokaw
F BROKAW Thomas #1
When the ancient ruins of Atlantis are discovered along the Spanish coast, linguist and archaeologist Thomas Lourds joins a violent competition to be the first of its explorers, an effort marked by a series of puzzles that must be solved in order to gain entry into the lost civilization.

2012-12-26T18:25:00.000-07:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Action
Thrillers

The Eight
By Katherine Neville
F NEVILLE
This adventure thriller is set in two time periods: 1790 and 1972, but the backstory goes back to the 9th century when Charlemagne owned a chess set which held the key to magic, alchemy and cosmic powers. The set was hidden away in an abbey for 1,000 years—until the French Revolution. In 1790 a young novice, becomes aware of the set and its potential and disperses the pieces across Europe. Then in 1972, a computer expert working for an accounting firm with an avid interest in chess is invited to undertake an unusual assignment—locate all the pieces of this long lost chess set. And she is not the only one after the pieces: there’s an antiques dealer, a Soviet chess master, and KGB agents also hot on the trail.

The Tourist
By Olen Steinhauer
F STEINHAU
Milo Weaver has a desk job with the CIA. Milo interrogates a man being held believed to be an assassin--"the Tiger." Soon "the Tiger" is dead in his cell. When Angela Yates, a colleague from Milo's days in black ops, is under suspicion of trading secrets, Milo pays her a visit. Soon Angela is dead in her apartment. Milo returns home to vacation with his family in Disneyland when his superior call him with a "go" code and Milo sets off on the run. Milo has to figure out what's going on while Homeland security and and the CIA itself are trying to bring him in.

The Book of Names
By Jill Gregory and Karen Tintori
MYSTERY GREGORY
This is a fast-paced thriller involving a Kabalistic interpretation of the Book of Names. This ancient document, ostensibly written by Adam, contains an encoded text listing the names of 36 individuals of each generation whose righteousness preserves the earth and its inhabitants. David Shepherd has been prompted with names out of the blue since he was about 15 years old and has been recording them in a notebook. He has no idea that the names he’s recorded are identical to those being deciphered from this Book of Names. An ancient organization, known as Gnoseos, is working to identify and kill each of the 36 “hidden ones” in this generation. When David Shepherd realizes that the names he has recorded over the years are all of dead people he begins to investigate—and not a moment too soon.

Clean Romance with a Damsel in Distress

2012-12-20T12:40:00.001-07:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Clean reads
Romance

Friends and Foes
By Sarah M. Eden
Call #: ROMANCE EDEN
After five years of tracking and capturing spies, Philip Jonquil, Earl of Lampton, is in pursuit of his last quarry--a dangerous French spy. But when Sorrel Kendrick inadvertently stumbles upon a crucial piece of the puzzle (making her indispensable to the mission), can these two proud hearts negotiate a ceasefire when cooperation matters most?

Short-Straw Bride
By Karen Witemeyer
Call #: ROMANCE WITEMEYE
No one steps on Archer land. Not if they value their life. But when Meredith Hayes overhears a lethal plot to burn the Archer brothers off their ranch, she takes the risk. When Travis Archer confronts her, he can't bring himself to send her away. Meredith once dreamed about, she determines to stand by his side against the enemy that threatens them both. But will love ever be hers? Or will Travis always see her merely as a short-straw bride?

The Silent Governess
By Julie Klassen
Call #: ROMANCE KLASSEN
Believing herself guilty of a crime, Olivia Keene flees her home and takes a post with Lord Bradley who has just learned a terrible secret, which, if exposed, will change his life forever. As Olivia and Lord Bradley's secrets catch up with them, will their hidden pasts ruin their hope of finding love?

Frederica
By Georgette Heyer
Call #: ROMANCE HEYER
Bringing her family to London in the hopes of finding her younger sister a suitable husband, Frederica is saddened when her prime prospect, the Marquis of Alverstroke, seems totally uninterested, but when her younger brother ends up in a terrible accident, the dutiful Marquis becomes as chivalrous as ever to the those in his charge.

For Darkness Shows the Stars
By Diana Peterfreund
Call #: YA F PETERFRE
Years ago, Elliot North passed up the chance to run away with Kai because she felt obligated to stay behind and care for the tenants on her family’s estate, many of whom have diminished abilities after their country’s failed genetic experiment. With her father and sister’s spending habits and selfishness running the estate into the ground, Elliot is desperate to help her people, and that’s when Kai re-enters her life, as a respected member of the Cloud Fleet, a successful, wealthy group of Post explorers want to rent the North family's boatyard. (This is Jane Austen’s Persuasion retold in a post-apocalyptic setting, which sounds weird, but the author did a fantastic job with it.)

Read-alikes for Neil Gaiman, Orson Scott Card, or Kurt Vonnegut

2012-12-10T10:32:00.001-07:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Read-alikes for Neil Gaiman, Orson Scott Card, or Kurt Vonnegut

The Forever War
By Joe Haldeman
SCIFI HALDEMAN Forever #1
This award winning book features a reluctant hero,Captain Mandella, insights into human behavior, anti-war sentiments and a similar moral stance to many of Card’s books. Captain Mandella must perform his duties and do whatever it takes to survive before returning back home to an aging Earth.

Blue Girl
By Charles DeLint
YA F DELINT
DeLint, like Gaiman’s protagonists, live in a world resembling ours but contain differences that make the line between our world and the fantasy world just a bit blurry.

Bellwether
By Connie Willis
SCIFI WILLIS
If the reason you like Vonnegut is his sarcasm, poking fun at contemporary culture and satire you might enjoy Bellwether, the story of a sociologist who studies fads and a chaos theorist who are brought together when an unusual package is misdelivered.>

Catch 22

By Joseph Heller
F HELLER
Heller's Catch 22 is classic satire on the insanity of war. Heller and Vonnegut write with similar wit and sarcasm.

Holocaust Fiction for Teens

2012-12-03T12:40:00.000-07:00

Try these books if you're looking for:

Teen books
Historical fiction
Books about the Holocaust

Once
By Morris Gleitzman
YA F GLEITZMA Felix #1
After living in an Catholic orphanage for nearly four years, a naive Jewish boy runs away and embarks on a journey across Nazi-occupied Poland to find his parents.

Milkweed
By Jerry Spinelli
YA F SPINELLI
Captures the hardships and cruelty of life in the ghettos of Warsaw during the Nazi occupation of World War II, through the eyes of a Jewish orphan who must use all his wits and courage to survive unimaginable events and circumstances.

Torn Thread
By Anne Isaacs
YA F ISAACS
In an attempt to save his daughter's life, Eva's father sends her from Poland to a labor camp in Czechoslovakia where she and her sister survive the war.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
By John Boyne
YA F BOYNE
Bored and lonely after his family moves from Berlin to a place called "Out-With" in 1942, Bruno, the son of a Nazi officer, befriends a boy in striped pajamas who lives behind a wire fence.