By Benedict Jacka
Series Alex Verus

When he is approached by multiple factions seeking his skills to unlock the mystery surrounding a relic from a long-ago mage war, magic shop owner Alex Verus, an oracle, forsees that his life will be in great danger if he takes this job—and if he doesn’t.

By Neil Gaiman
Recommended By Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian
With Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian

Wednesday, April 25. 7:30 PM

“On the plane home to attend the funerals of his wife and best friend, Shadow, just released from prison, encounters Mr. Wednesday, an enigmatic stranger who seems to know a lot about him, and when Mr. Wednesday offers him a job as his bodyguard, Shadow accepts and is plunged into a dark and perilous world, where the soul of America is at stake (From the Publisher).”

By Neil Gaiman

His past marked by his father’s embarrassing taunts and untimely death, Fat Charlie meets the brother he never knew and is introduced to new and exciting ways to spend his time.

By Claire Kendal
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager

While serving jury duty, university administrator Clarissa realizes that the disturbingly violent crime unfolding in front of her parallels to recent events in her own life as she becomes the obsession of her colleague who has crossed the line between fantasy and reality, love and compulsion.

By Marcus Zuzak
With Jackie Ranaldo, Head of Readers' Services

Wednesday, January 27, 2010.  7 PM.

Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel - a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.

By Daniel James Brown
Recommended By Jean Buchholtz, Library Clerk, Audrey Honigman, Library Clerk
With Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

Tuesday, March 8, 2016. 7:30 PM.

Traces the story of an American rowing team from the University of Washington that defeated elite rivals at Hitler's 1936 Berlin Olympics, sharing the experiences of their enigmatic coach, a visionary boat builder, and a homeless teen rower.

By Jeffrey Brown
Recommended By Jackie, Head of Readers' Services

Cartoonist Jeffrey Brown’s drawings perfectly capture the humor and quirkiness of cats in all their strange and charming glory.

By Jeffrey Archer

This sprawling and intricately plotted multigenerational family saga starts with Harry Clifton, a boy of mysterious parentage but much ambition, working on the docks in Bristol, England in 1919. This semiautobiographical story continues through 100 years of history, into the 21st century, from multiple points of view. The series offers colorful characters, mystery, plenty of questionable decision making, and a contested family fortune.

By Jim Butcher

In the land of Alera, where people bond with the furies - elementals of earth, air, fire, water, and metal - young Tavi struggles to cope with his lack of magical talent, until his homeland erupts into conflict between rebels and loyalists and Tavi discovers that he holds the key to his realm's survival.

By Neil Gaiman

Looking for excitement, Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must challenge a gruesome entity in order to save herself, her parents, and the souls of three others.

Became the movie: Coraline.

By Mark Haddon
Recommended By Pam Strudler, Programming & Arts Librarian

Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor’s dog and uncovers secret information about his mother.

By George R.R. Martin (ed.)

A collection of twenty-one short stories celebrates dangerous women, both heroines and villains, and includes a new Outlander tale by Diana Gabaldon, a George R.R. Martin novella set in the world of “A Game of Thrones,” and a Harry Dresden contribution by Jim Butcher.

By George R.R. Martin (ed.)

Dangerous Women Vol. 2 includes stories by Lev Grossman, Sharon Kay Penman, S.M. Stirling, Sam Sykes, Caroline Spector, and Nancy Kress, and features an entirely new 28,000-word “Outlander” novella by New York Times bestselling author Diana Gabaldon.

By Alexandra Bracken
Series Darkest Minds

Sixteen-year-old Ruby breaks out of a government-run “rehabilitation camp” for teens who acquired dangerous powers after surviving a virus that wiped out most American children.

By Jeffrey Brown

In this comic reimagining, Darth Vader is a dad like any other – except with all the baggage of being the Dark Lord of the Sith.

By Veronica Roth
Series Divergent
Recommended By Sharon Long, Assistant Library Director, Megan Kass, Systems Manager, Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian

In a dystopian future–era Chicago, 16-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 uncovers powerful secrets and truths about her identity, her family and the order of her society.

By Jim Butcher

A modern-day mage and consultant to the police finds his stale life suddenly enlivened by the presence of a rival.

Became the TV show: The Dresden Files.

By Celeste Ng
Recommended By Jackie, Head of Readers' Services
With Lisa Jones, Readers' Services Librarian

Tueday, July 28, 2015. 1 PM.

A story of the divisions between cultures and the rifts within a family explores the fallout of the drowning death of Lydia Lee, the favorite daughter of a Chinese-American family in 1970s Ohio.

By Anthony Bourdain
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager

With the chefs of Los Angeles ruling the town like crime lords, sushi chef Jiro, a chef known for decapitating patrons who dare request a California roll, is sought after by both the "Internationalists" and the "Vertical farm" families.

By Gillian Flynn
Recommended By Arlene Silverman, Library Clerk, Pam Strudler, Programming & Arts Librarian

When a beautiful woman goes missing on her fifth wedding anniversary, her diary reveals hidden turmoil in her marriage and a mysterious illness; while her husband, desperate to clear himself of suspicion, realizes that something more disturbing than murder may have occurred.

By Mary Kubica
Recommended By Pam Strudler, Programming & Arts Librarian, Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

The daughter of a prominent Chicago judge and his socialite wife, inner-city art teacher Mia Dennett is taken hostage by her one-night stand, Colin Thatcher, who, instead of delivering her to his employers, hides her in a secluded cabin in rural Minnesota to keep her safe from harm.

By Neil Gaiman
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager

The world is going to end next Saturday, but there are a few problems--the Antichrist has been misplaced, the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse ride motorcycles, and the representatives from heaven and hell decide that they like the human race.

By Joe Hill
Recommended By Jessikah Chautin, Community Engagement Specialist

After his childhood sweetheart is brutally killed and suspicion falls on him, Ig Parrish goes on a drinking binge and wakes up with horns on his head, hate in his heart, and an incredible new power which he uses in the name of vengeance.

By Grady Hendrix
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager, Kaye Spurrell, Readers' Services Librarian

After strange things start happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, three employees volunteer to work an overnight shift to investigate, but what they discover is more horrifying than they could have imagined.

By Suzanne Collins
Series The Hunger Games Trilogy
Recommended By Sharon Long, Assistant Library Director, Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian, Alisa Fogel, Librarian-Programming, Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian, Pam Strudler, Programming & Arts Librarian

In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.

By Suzanne Collins
Series The Hunger Games Trilogy
Recommended By Sharon Long, Assistant Library Director, Alisa Fogel, Librarian-Programming, Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian, Pam Strudler, Programming & Arts Librarian

In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.

By Niccolò Ammaniti

In the summer of 1978 in a small Italian village, nine-year-old Michele Amitrano loses his innocence of childhood when he accidentally uncovers a dark secret being kept by the adults of Acqua Traverse.

By Elizabeth Haynes

Married to an erratic, controlling and sometimes frightening husband, Catherine plans a meticulous escape. Four years later, struggling to overcome her demons, Catherine dares to believe she might be safe from harm. Until one phone call changes everything.

By Susanna 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.

By Jeffrey Brown
Recommended By Jackie, Head of Readers' Services

Provides a humorous look at parenting through the interactions of little Oscar and his mother and father.

By Joe Hill
Recommended By Jessikah Chautin, Community Engagement Specialist, Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager

The story of the Keyhouse, a New England mansion, with doors that transform all who walk through them...and home to a hate-filled and relentless creature that will not rest until it opens the most terrible door of all.

By Ava Dellaira

A troubled teen writes poignant letters to influential celebrities who died young, confronting in the process her own efforts to fit in, navigate her splintering family and come to terms with a past trauma.

By Anthony Bourdain

In a book that begins with a top-secret, and highly illegal, after-hours meeting of powerful chefs, the author of the best-selling Kitchen Confidential explores how the cooking world has changed since his last book.

By Vince Flynn
Series Mitch Rapp

Undercover CIA counter-terrorism agent Mitch Rapp rebels against red tape and standard operative procedure to thwart terrorists, both foreign and domestic

By Mohsin Hamid

“Hamid's tale, played out against the background of Pakistan's recent testing of a nuclear device, creates a powerful image of an insecure society toying with its own dissolution (Publishers Weekly Review).”

By Joe Hill

When Charles Talent Manx, an unstoppable monster who transforms children into his own terrifying likeness, kidnaps her son, Victoria McQueen, the only person to ever escape his unmitigated evil, must engage in a life-and-death battle of wills to get her son back.

By Diana Gabaldon
Series Outlander Novels
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager, Meghan F., Children's Services Librarian , Sonia Grgas, Reference Librarian

Hurtled back through time more than two hundred years to Scotland in 1743, Claire Randall finds herself caught in the midst of an unfamiliar world torn apart by violence, pestilence, and revolution and haunted by her growing feelings for James Fraser, a young soldier.

By George Saunders

A collection of stories focuses on a somewhat skewed version of America and includes the misadventures of a male exotic dancer who is haunted by a departed maiden aunt and a self-help guru given to colorful metaphors.

By Brad Taylor
Series Pike Logan Thrillers

These exciting, fast-paced political thrillers follow an elite team of American agents as they travel across the globe on violent, action-packed missions thwarting terrorist plots, tracking notorious killers, and rescuing innocent hostages. The clever plotting, relentless suspense, and compelling casts of heroes and villains make these books hard to put down.

By Ken Follett

Set in twelfth–century England, this epic of kings and peasants juxtaposes the building of a magnificent church with the violence and treachery that often characterized the Middle Ages.

Became the TV mini-series: The Pillars of the Earth.

By Nelson Demille
Series John Corey

When Tom and Judy Gordon are found murdered in their Long Island home, NYPD detective John Corey uncovers a chilling link between the couple’s deaths and the theft and illegal sale of genetically altered viruses, and races against time to stop the possible release of a deadly plague.

By Colette McBeth
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager

Astonished to discover that a police press conference assignment is about her best friend from high school, television journalist Rachel endeavors to learn the fate of her missing friend before making a discovery that brings everything they once shared into question.

By Kurtis J. Wiebe

The Rat Queens, a group of four adventurers consisting of an elven mage, a dwarven fighter, a human cleric, and a smidgen thief, must defend themselves against assassins when they are sent on a quest that turns out to be a trap.

By Mohsin Hamid

In the aftermath of 9/11 a young Pakistani man tells his life story to a mysterious American stranger.

Became the movie: The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

By Brad Thor
Series Scot Harvath Thrillers

When a group of Secret Service agents is massacred in Utah and the president of the United States is abducted, surviving agent Scot Horvarth vows to avenge his murdered colleagues and find the kidnappers.

By Laura Hillenbrand
Recommended By Jean Buchholtz, Library Clerk

"Seabiscuit was one of the most electrifying and popular attractions in sports history and the single biggest newsmaker in the world in 1938… Author Laura Hillenbrand brilliantly re-creates a universal underdog story, one that proves life is a horse race (From the Publisher)."

By Bryan Lee O'Malley

After her life hits some unexpected snags, Katie, a successful chef, meets a mysterious girl who provides her with a set of simple instructions for getting a magical do-over. Katie suddenly finds herself with another change to get things right—and with an irresistible urge to keep resetting the clock until her life is not just good, but perfect.

By Carlos Ruiz Zafón

An uncannily absorbing historical mystery, a heart–piercing romance, and a moving homage to the mystical power fo books, The Shadow of the Wind is a triumph of the storyteller’s art.

By Neil Gaiman

Living in a Victorian countryside town overshadowed by an imposing stone barrier, Tristran is compelled to retrieve a fallen star for the woman he loves and crosses to the wondrous other side of the barrier, where he encounters dangerous rivals for the star.

By Brandon Sanderson
Series Stormlight Archive Series

A new epic series by the best-selling writer of Robert Jordan’s final Wheel of Time novels introduces the world of Roshar through the experiences of a war-weary royal compelled by visions, a highborn youth condemned to military slavery and a woman who would save her impoverished house.