*Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. A classic novel set in Nigeria in which an African warrior witnesses the disintegration of his tribal life under the influence of white missionaries.

*Almond, Steve. Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America. NON-FICTION. The delicious and hilarious story of one man’s lifelong obsession with candy and his quest to discover its origins in America.

*Barnes, Linda J. Trouble of Fools. MYSTERY. Six-foot one-inch redhead Carlotta Carlyle divides her time between driving a cab in Boston and private investigation. In the first of a series, a search for a missing cabdriver leads her to a strange scam involving large sums of money. Good match with Nevada Barr & Sue Grafton mysteries on this list.

*Barr, Nevada. Track of the Cat. MYSTERY. Fleeing New York to find refuge as a ranger in the remote backcountry of West Texas, Anna Pigeon stumbles into a web of violence and murder when fellow park ranger Sheila Drury is mysteriously killed and another ranger vanishes. Good match with the Linda Barnes & Sue Grafton mysteries on this list.

*Bear, Elizabeth. All the Windwracked Stars. FANTASY. A last surviving member of the ancient Valkyries race returns to the last surviving city on her dying world to reclaim a sword of power owned by her lost brothers and sisters, an effort that is challenged by a hunting Mingan the Wolf. Edda of Burdens; bk.2. Need not read others in series order.

Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. GRAPHIC NOVEL. THIS TITLE IS NOT A CHOICE FOR STUDENTS TAKING AP OR HONORS ENGLISH. This autobiography deals with the author’s childhood with a closeted gay father, who was an English teacher and proprietor of the local funeral parlor. Illustrated by the author.

*Bellavia, David & John R. Bruning. House to House: An Epic Memoir of War. NON-FICTION. In November, 2004, a U.S. infantry squad in Fallujah plunged into one of the most sustained and savage urban battles in the history of American men at arms. Ssg. Bellavia and his men confronted an enemy who had had weeks to prepare. Bringing to life the terrifying intimacy of hand-to-hand infantry combat, and populated by a well-drawn cast of characters, this is more than just another war story. The book develops the intensely close relationships that form between soldiers under fire, in a harrowing story of triumph, tragedy, and the resiliency of the human spirit. Graphic language and violence.

*Boyle, T. Coraghessan. Tortilla Curtain. While leading their lives in their gated hilltop community in Los Angeles, Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher accidentally meet Mexican illegal aliens and their encounter brings them together in a relationship of misunderstanding.

*Boyne, John. Crippen: A Novel of Murder. HISTORICAL MYSTERY. Re-creates an infamous serial killer case involving the 1910 Scotland Yard investigation into the murder of Bella Elmore, whose body is discovered in the cellar of her husband/killer Hawley Crippen, a doctor who has fled in disguise along with his mistress on a cruise ship bound for America. For a non-fiction account—also pick up Erik Larson’s Thunderstruck on this list.

*Brooks, Geraldine. Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague. HISTORICAL FICTION. When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated mountain village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. Through Anna’s eyes, we follow the story of the plague year, 1666, as her fellow villagers elect to quarantine themselves within the village boundaries to arrest the spread of the disease.

*Brown, Dan. Deception Point or Digital Fortress. SUSPENSE.
Deception Point. On the eve of a presidential race in which NASA’s budget is a pivotal issue, the space agency announces the discovery of an ancient meteorite filled with fossils deep in the Arctic ice.
Digital Fortress. In the author’s debut, a techno thriller, involving computers, cryptography, and government paranoia, NSA’s TRANSLTR is a top-secret super-computer that can crack any encryption code in an hour or two. Then the NSA discovers “Digital Fortress,” an encryption algorithm written by an ex-NSA genius that the TRANSLTR can’t break. “Digital Fortress” is now posted on the Internet encrypted with its own algorithm and is being offered to the highest bidder.

*Busfield, Andrea. Born Under a Million Shadows. In post-Taliban Afghanistan, Fawad and his mother move in with a Western woman who has a relationship with a notorious Afghan warlord, and soon, a horrible tragedy threatens to destroy Fawad’s love for his country. Some graphic language.

*Cahill, Thomas. How the Irish Saved Civilization. NON-FICTION. Cahill’s absolutely fascinating narrative details the pivotal role the Irish played in preserving and transmitting the classical literature of both Greece and Rome.

*Canin, Ethan. Carry Me Across the Water. This is a striking novel about reliving the past and attempting to repair it. As a 78-year-old man contemplates his fate, he mourns his beloved spouse, and relives his childhood in prewar Germany. His thoughts drift over his boyhood escape from the Nazis, his military service with the Allies, and his successful business career. But a single image absorbs him more than all the rest: The face of one enemy soldier.

*Carhart,Thaddeus. Piano Shop on the Left Bank: Discovering a Forgotten Passion in a Paris Atelier. NON-FICTION. In this engaging memoir, an American writer living in Paris recounts his experiences in a piano shop tucked into an out-of-the way street in Paris immersing himself in the history and mechanics of the piano, including chapters on the craft of piano making, the instrument’s development over the centuries, and the fine points of piano tuning.

*Cohen, Jaren. Children of Jihad: A Young American’s Travels Among the Youth of the Middle East NON-FICTION. Documents the author’s travels to the Middle East in search of an understanding of radical Islamic violence, journeys during which he focused his research on Muslim youth and learned about his interviewees’ perspectives and experiences at the risk of his own life.

*Colapinto, John. As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl. NON-FICTION. This Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist traces the life of David Thiessen, a boy sex-changed to female during infancy as part of a cruel experiment.

*Collins, Billy. Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems. POETRY. In this compilation by former Poet Laureate Collins, the surface structure of these poems appears simplistic, but subtle changes in tone or gesture move the reader from the mundane to the sublime.

*Creamer, Robert. Babe: The Legend Comes to Life. BIOGRAPHY. Creamer has captured the true essence of the player George Herman Ruth, known as “Babe.” Quotes from players from the past give readers a sense of the complex personality of this legendary ball player.

Crutcher, Chris. Deadline. Given the medical diagnosis of one year to live, high school senior Ben Wolf decides to fulfill his greatest fantasies, ponders his life’s purpose and legacy, and converses through dreams with a spiritual guide known as “Hey-Soos.” Author wrote Whale Talk on Junior List & Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes on the Sophomore Lists.

*Davis, Amanda. Wonder When You’ll Miss Me. After she is sexually assaulted under the school bleachers, sixteen-year-old Faith, accompanied by the Fat Girl, a taunting, imaginary former self, runs away from home to the circus, where she finds a safe haven and a healing environment. Good companion to Wally Lamb’s She’s Come Undone.

*De Blasi, Marlena. That Summer in Sicily: A Love Story NON-FICTION. The author describes a summer in Sicily where she uncovered the story of Tosca, the daughter of a poor horse trader, who became the ward of the local prince and his family and eventually had a love affair with the prince.

*DeMeo, Albert & Mary Jane Ross. For the Sins of My Father: A Mafia Killer, His Son, and the Legacy of a Mob Life. NON-FICTION. The son of the head of the Gambino crime family’s squad of killers and thieves describes coming of age in the world of organized crime, the murder of his father when he was seventeen, and his determination to escape his father’s fate.

*Donaldson, Stephen R. Lord Foul’s Bane. FANTASY. In the first book from the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Covenant, the leper, travels to Revelstone and leads the lords to Mount Thunder in pursuit of the magic staff of Drool, the evil cavewright.

*Dorris, Michael. Yellow Raft in Blue Water. A fierce saga of three generations of Native American women beset by hardship and torn by angry secrets yet bound together by kinship, set in the Pacific Northwest and on a Montana Indian reservation.

*Ensler, Eve. I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World. NONFICTION. Playwright Eve Ensler writes monologues and stories inspired by girls around the globe. Moving through a world of topics and emotions, these voices are fierce, alive, tender, complicated, imaginative, and smart. This book is a celebration of the authentic voice inside every girl and an inspiring call to action for girls everywhere to speak up, follow their dreams, and become the women they were always meant to be. Mature themes, explicit language and sexual content. Also see Pipher on this list.

*Ferraris, Zoe. Finding Nouf. MYSTERY. A finely detailed literary mystery set in contemporary Saudi Arabia. Stumbling upon the drowned body of Nouf, the teenage daughter of a prominent, wealthy Saudi Arabian family, Nayir, a desert guide hired by her family to search for her, feels compelled to discover what really happened to her.

*Ferrell, David. Screwball. MYSTERY. The Boston Red Sox’s hottest, young player, Ron Kane alters the team’s fortune when his ability as a “killer” pitcher extends off the field, as General Manager Neville Wulfmeyer suddenly realizes, when the FBI, media, and mobsters all become involved. Some profane and crude language.

*Fick, Nathaniel. One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer NON-FICTION. An ex-Marine captain shares his story of fighting in a recon battalion in both Afghanistan and Iraq, beginning with his training at Quantico and following his progress in the deadliest conflicts since the Vietnam War. Same Marines from Wright’s Generation Kill on this list. Graphic language and violence.

*Flynn, Vince. Transfer of Power. SUSPENSE. In this first in the Mitch Rapp series, the President is swept away to an isolated underground bunker when terrorists crash White House security and the Vice President suddenly finds himself in charge.

Forman, Gayle. If I Stay. While in a coma following an automobile accident that killed her parents and younger brother, 17-year-old Mia, a gifted cellist, weighs whether to live with her grief or join her family in death. For those readers looking for The Lovely Bones experience.

*Forsyth, Frederick. The Fist of God. SUSPENSE. During the Gulf War, a mysterious spy planted deep in the heart of Iraq becomes the key as Saddam Hussein threatens to unleash a secret, ultimate weapon on the Allied forces.

*Gaarder, Jostein. Sophie’s World: A Novel about the History of Philosophy. A young girl begins a correspondence with an unknown writer who hides letters for her to find. The letters contain both a mystery and a philosophy lesson. The ending is a surprise turnaround for those who have stayed with Sophie throughout the story.

*Gabaldon, Diana. Outlander. FANTASY/HISTORICAL ROMANCE. Claire walks through a cleft stone in an ancient henge in Scotland and travels from 1945 to 1745, meets her husband’s evil ancestor, and falls in love with his enemy, a very handsome Highlander. Hottest book on the list! Explicit sexual content.

*Gilbert, Elizabeth. Last American Man. NON-FICTION. Nominated for the 2002 National Book Critics Circle Award, Gilbert explores the true story of Eustace Conway, who left his comfortable suburban home at the age of seventeen to move into the Appalachian Mountains, where for the last twenty years he has lived, making fire with sticks, wearing skins from animals he trapped, and living off the land. Conway has always seen himself as a “Man of Destiny” whose goal is to convince modern Americans to give up their materialistic lifestyles and return with him back to nature. Author of the memoir Eat, Pray, Love and the fictional Stern Men on the Sophomore list.

*Goodman, Carol. Lake of Dead Languages. This debut is intricately plotted and is a captivating tale of buried secrets. When Jane Hudson returns to her high school alma mater, the Heart Lake School for Girls as a Latin teacher, tragic events of the past begin to resurface. Readers of Mary Lawson’s Crow Lake on the Junior list may enjoy. REVIEW.

*Grafton, Sue. “Q” is for Quarry. MYSTERY. Eighteen years after the body of an unidentified young woman is discovered in a quarry off California’s Highway 1, two police detectives nearing retirement enlist Kinsey Millhone’s aid to help identify the long-ago murder victim. Series begins with A is for Alibi. A good companion to Linda Barnes and Nevada Barr on this list.

*Graham, Jo. Black Ships. FANTASY. This debut is an exceptional retelling of The Aeneid. Counseling the rulers of a world beset by enemies and natural disasters, oracle Gull is forced to choose between her calling and an effort to protect the last surviving members of her mother’s people in a flight from the doomed City of Pirates.

*Greenlaw, Linda. The Hungry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain’s Journey NON-FICTION. Originally profiled in Sebastian Junger’s hugely popular The Perfect Storm (1997), Captain Greenlaw pens her account of one memorable fishing trip to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland aboard her sword-fishing ship the Hannah Boden.

*Grisham, John. The Summons. SUSPENSE. University of Virginia law professor Ray Atlee stumbles upon more than $3 million in cash in the rural Mississippi house of his dead father, then tries to discover the source of the money and elude an increasingly persistent and menacing extortionist.

Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Don’t You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey. In the journal she is keeping for English class, sixteen-year-old Tish chronicles the changes in her life when her abusive father returns home after a two-year absence.

*Haddon, Mark. Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. In this acclaimed and engaging debut, Christopher, an autistic math whiz, takes his life too literally and can’t relate to others. Inspired by Sherlock Holmes, he investigates the death of a neighbor’s dog and unravels secrets very close to home.

*Halberstam, David. The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship. NON-FICTION. The author tells the moving story of the decades-long friendship among four Boston Red Sox teammates from the 1940s—Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, Bobby Doerr, and Dom DiMaggio—and recounts the road trip Pesky and DiMaggio made to visit the dying Williams in 2001.

*Harris, Joanne. Blackberry Wine: A Novel or Five Quarters of the Orange.
Blackberry Wine: A Novel. Jay Mackintosh is trapped by memory in the old familiar landscapes of his childhood, more enticing than the present, and to which he longs to return. A bottle of home-brewed wine left to him by a long-vanished friend seems to provide both the key to an old mystery and a doorway into another world as Jay escapes to a derelict farmhouse in a French village.
Five Quarters of the Orange. Returning to the small Loire village of her childhood, Framboise Dartigen is relieved when no one recognizes her. Decades earlier, during the German occupation, her family was driven away because of a tragedy that still haunts the town. Hidden among the recipes for crepes and liquors are clues that will lead Framboise to the truth of long ago.

*Haruf, Kent. Plainsong. The intensely affecting story of family, tribulation, and tenacity, set on the High Plains east of Denver where in the small town of Holt, Colorado, a high school teacher struggles to raise his two sons alone.

*Harvey, Miles. Island of Lost Maps: True Story of Cartographic Crime. NON-FICTION. The spellbinding story of author Miles Harvey’s quest to understand America’s greatest map thief, a chameleon who changed careers and families without ever looking back.

*Hiaasen, Carl. Star Island. Ann DeLuisa, body double for drug-addled pop star Cherry Pye, is kidnapped by an obsessed paparazzo, and Cherry’s entourage must rescue her while keeping her existence a secret from Cherry’s public–and from Cherry herself. Mature themes, explicit language and sexual content.

*Holley, Michael. Red Sox Rule: Terry Francona and Boston’s Rise to Dominance. NON-FICTION. Michael Holley, bestselling author of Patriot Reign from the Junior list, provides an inside look at how it all happened. With the exclusive cooperation of Terry Francona and stories from the clubhouse and the conference room, Holley reveals the private sessions and the dugout and front-office strategies that have made the Boston Red Sox a budding dynasty.

*Jordan, Robert. Eye of the World. FANTASY. In the first of the Wheel of Time series, Rand al-Thor and his companions flee from a magical terror.

*Karr, Mary. The Liars’ Club. MEMOIR. The poet describes her early life in Port Arthur, Texas, surrounded by alcoholism, financial difficulties, and a family in denial.

*Keene, Brian. The Rising. HORROR. When a horrifying plague turns most of the world into powerful flesh-eating zombies, Jim Thurmond, while on a cross-country quest to save his son, joins forces with others to save civilization from evil. Appeals to fans of Wellington’s Monster Island on the Sophomore list.

*Kerouac, Jack. On the Road. Narrated by Sal Paradise, one of Kerouac’s alter-egos, this book is a cross-country Bohemian odyssey that not only influenced writing in the years since its 1957 publication but penetrated into the deepest levels of American thought and culture.

*King, Stephen. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. NON-FICTION. This popular horror author reveals the origins of his vocation and shares essential habits and rules that every writer can apply.

*Klein, Lisa. Ophelia. In a story based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia tells of her life in the court of Elsinore, her love for Prince Hamlet, and her escape from the violence in Denmark.

*Lamb, Wally. She’s Come Undone. Dolores Price is a mess. Growing up in the “perfect 1950s,” her life unraveling from the day she was born, Delores falls completely apart when she is thirteen. The author does an excellent job presenting the emotional state of Dolores particularly in his description of what makes her fat and what being fat does to one’s life. Good companion to Amanda Davis’s Wonder When You’ll Miss Me.

*Lanier, Jaron. You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto. NONFICTION. Lanier, a Silicon Valley visionary, offers this provocative and cautionary look at the way technology is transforming lives for better and for worse

*Larson, Erik. Devil in the White City or Thunderstruck. NON-FICTION.
Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America. NON-FICTION. The best selling author of the Junior list’s Isaac’s Storm returns with a gripping tale about two men — one a creative genius, the other a mass murderer – who turned the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair into their playground. Set against the dazzle of a dream city whose technological marvels presaged the coming century, this real-life drama of good and evil unfolds with all the narrative tension of a fictional thriller.
Thunderstuck. True account of the Crippen murder—good companion to Boyne’s fictional Crippen on this list. A vivid portrait of the Edwardian era recounts two parallel stories–the case of Dr. Hawley Crippen, who murdered his wife and fled the country with his mistress to build a new life in America, and Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of wireless communication–as the new technology is used to capture a killer.

*Laymon, Richard. The Lake. SUSPENSE. A woman is forced to confront her horrifying past when her eighteen-year-old daughter, while hanging out at the lake during the summer, is tormented by a sadistic killer who plunges them both into a world of terror and insanity. The author is known for his white-hot pacing, the rivers of blood and, above all, the memorable evocation of the fathomless mystery of the moonlit hours.

*Lynch, Chris. Inexcusable. High School senior and football player Keir sets out to enjoy himself on graduation night, but when he attempts to comfort a friend whose date has left her stranded, things go terribly wrong.

*Manning, Sarra. Pretty Things. Against the backdrop of a drama workshop devoted to a production of The Taming of the Shrew, four London teens explore issues of friendship, family, and sexuality. Lines of Shakespeare’s play mix with bold, contemporary talk. Some profane and crude language.

*Melville, Greg. Greasy Rider: Two Dudes, One Fry-Oiled Powered Car, and a Cross-Country Search for a Greener Future. NON-FICTION. The author describes the cross-country odyssey of a freelance journalist and his college buddy in a dilapidated 1985 Mercedes diesel station wagon powered on vegetable oil collected from restaurant grease and dumpsters along the way, detailing their visits to Google’s solar-powered headquarters, the National Ethanol Council, wind turbines in Minnesota, and other alternative energy hotspots.

*Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye or A Mercy.
The Bluest Eye. The bluest eye is what an unloved and abused, black teenage girl yearns for because she is convinced that by the white standards of beauty, she is ugly.
A Mercy. HISTORICAL FICTION. In exchange for a bad debt, an Anglo-Dutch trader takes on Florens, a young slave girl, who feels abandoned by her slave mother and who searches for love–first from an older servant woman at her master’s new home, and then from a handsome free blacksmith, in a novel set in late seventeenth-century America. Will appeal to readers who enjoyed Mudbound by Hillary Jordan on the Junior list.

*Mortimer, Gavin. The Great Swim. NON-FICTION. Draws on primary sources, diaries, and family interviews to document the story of four American athletes who in 1926 became the first women to swim the English Channel, in an account that also cites the media frenzy that surrounded that achievement.

*Otsuka, Julie. When the Emperor Was Divine. A story, told from five different points of view, chronicles the experiences of Japanese Americans caught up in the nightmare of the World War II internment camps.

*Packer, Ann. The Dive from Clausen’s Pier. In a reckless attempt to impress Carrie, Mike’s dive off Clausen’s Pier ended with him paralyzed. Now Carrie finds herself torn between the loyalty she’s expected to feel toward Mike and her need to transform herself. She takes a dive of her own—into adulthood—when she escapes to New York City.

*Parker, Robert B. Back Story. MYSTERY. Thirty years after an unsolved bank robbery leaves a woman dead, Paul Giacomin (Early Autumn on Sophomore List), whom Spenser regards like a son, and Daryl Gordon, the son of the robbery victim, turn to Spenser to seek out clues about the crime. Bk.30 in Spenser series. Also author of Hugger Mugger on Junior list.

*Patchett, Ann. Bel Canto. In this stunning novel that explores the tragic results of human misunderstandings, an unlikely assortment of people is thrown together, including an American opera star and a Japanese CEO, her biggest fan, when terrorists seize hostages at an embassy party in South America.

*Patterson, James. Four Blind Mice. MYSTERY. With his resignation from the Washington Police interrupted by a case involving a friend who has been framed for murder, Alex Cross and partner John Sampson journey across military lines to confront the most brutal killer of their careers. Eighth book in the Alex Cross series.

Pausch, Randy with Jeffrey Zaslow. The Last Lecture. NON-FICTION. The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family. HARDCOVER ONLY (2008)

*Pearlman, Jeff. The Rocket that Fell to Earth: Roger Clemens and the Rage for Baseball Immortality. BIOGRAPHY. This biography of one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history explores Clemens’ youth in suburban Ohio, his 24-year professional playing career, and the controversy of his alleged steroid use.

*Perry, Anne. Face of a Stranger. HISTORICAL MYSTERY. In this first of a series, an accident has caused detective Monk’s memory and his entire past to vanish. As he tries to hide the truth, Monk returns to work and is assigned to investigate the brutal murder of a popular Crimean War hero. This makes Monk’s efforts doubly difficult, since he has forgotten his professional skills along with everything else.

*Petry, Ann. The Street. Written in 1946, this story tells of a young black woman’s attempt to make a life for herself, despite racial and sexual prejudice.

*Picoult, Jodi. Nineteen Minutes. or The Pact or Vanishing Acts
Nineteen Minutes. In New Hampshire, 17-year-old high school student Peter Houghton has endured years of abuse at the hands of classmates. His best friend, Josie, succumbed to peer pressure and now hangs out with the popular crowd that often instigates the harassment. One final incident of bullying sends Peter over the edge and leads him to commit an act of violence that forever changes the lives of the town’s residents.
The Pact: A Love Story. The budding romance between two teenaged children of two families who have been lifelong friends and neighbors culminates tragically in an abortive suicide pact, leading to a gripping courtroom drama.
Vanishing Acts. Working with the Search and Rescue bloodhound team to find missing people, single mother Delia Hopkins anticipates her upcoming nuptials, until a series of unsettling flashbacks threatens to devastate her life and the lives of those she loves. Author is on Sophomore list with Plain Truth; Junior list with Second Glance.

*Pipher, Mary. Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Lives of Adolescent Girls. NON-FICTION. The author maintains adolescence is a time when girls are forced into roles they do not choose. Many lose their spark–the edge they had when younger–as they struggle to stay within society’s narrow definition of what it means to be female.

*Rebeck, Theresa. Three Girls and Their Brother. From a prize-winning playwright, this tale of three sisters transformed into the fashion world’s latest “it” girls is told in four different narrative voices. The siblings fall prey to the evil forces and temptations of show business, unleashing a rivalry that threatens the three girls and their quiet, neglected brother with a self-destructive disaster.

*Roberts, Nora. Key of Light. ROMANCE. The first in this Key trilogy follows Malory, a woman gifted with artistic talent, as she races to find the Key of Light–a perilous mission that revolves around a quest to free the trapped souls of three Celtic demigoddesses that could either forge her destiny or shatter her life forever.

*Robinson, Patrick. To the Death. SUSPENSE. When Admiral Arnold Morgan breaks up a terrorist cell in the U.S. following a bombing at Boston’s Logan Airport, the Hamas high command, led by Morgan’s old enemy, Ravi Rashood, vows to assassinate the admiral when he leaves American soil. From Robinson’s US Navy series.

*Rosoff, Meg. The Bride’s Farewell. HISTORICAL FICTION. Rather than marry without love, Pell Ridley absconds with a favorite horse and her mute little brother, Bean. Both are quickly lost, and Pell’s perilous journey to find Bean leads to discovery of the things she ran away from: family, love, and herself.

*Salzman, Mark. True Notebooks: A Writer’s Year at Juvenile Hall. NON-FICTION. While teaching writing to 17-year-olds detained in Los Angeles Central Juvenile Hall, Salzman found himself surprised by the boys’ talent. The teens’ heartwarming, funny voices are included in this irresistible, provocative memoir.

Sievert, Tim. That Salty Air. GRAPHIC NOVEL. THIS TITLE IS NOT A CHOICE FOR STUDENTS TAKING AP OR HONORS ENGLISH. The author’s first graphic novel is a small, understated fable about Hugh, a fisherman who learns that his mother has drowned. Deciding that the sea is his enemy, he sets out to teach it a lesson.

*Silva, Daniel. The Kill Artist. SUSPENSE. The first in the Gabriel Allon series finds the Israeli intelligence chief recalling two former agents to eliminate a top Palestinian terrorist. The former agents were once lovers and their pasts and their enemies come back to haunt them as the terrorist begins his campaign of murder.

*Snyder, Don. The Cliff Walk: A Memoir of a Job Lost and a Life Found. BIOGRAPHY. At the age of forty, Snyder lost his job teaching college English and while looking for another job, loses his home. He learns along the way that a job cannot define who we are.

*Theroux, Marcel. Confessions of Mycroft Holmes. MYSTERY. When British journalist Damian March inherits his Uncle Patrick’s house on an island off Cape Cod, he discovers an unpublished novel called The Confessions of Mycroft Holmes and begins to learn about his uncle’s solitary life, so much like that of Sherlock Holmes’s brother.

*Tinti, Hannah. The Good Thief. HISTORICAL. Growing up in a New England orphanage unaware of his family and of how he had lost his left hand as an infant, twelve-year-old Ren is terrified of the future until a young man shows up claiming to be his long-lost brother.

*Tracy, Kristen. Lost it. As if dealing with her best friend’s plot to destroy a poodle and considering losing her virginity to her boyfriend wasn’t enough, now Tess Whistle has to find her bearings in a new community when her family moves to a survivalist camp in Utah. For Sarah Dessen fans. Explicit Sexual Content.

*Udall, Brady. Miracle Life of Edgar Mint. Half-Apache orphan Edgar is taken from his home on an Arizona reservation after he is run over by a mailman, which sets in motion a journey from the hospital to a school for delinquents to a Mormon foster family and his eventual, unexpected return home.

Ullman, James. Banner in the Sky. His father dies while trying to climb Switzerland’s greatest mountain–the Citadel–and young Rudi knows he must make the assault himself. Based on the author’s personal experiences, this novel will appeal to Krakauer fans (Sophomore list).

*Vaught, Susan. My Big Fat Manifesto. Overweight, self-assured, high school senior Jamie Carcaterra writes in the school newspaper about her own attitude to being fat, her boyfriend’s bariatric surgery, and her struggles to be taken seriously in a very thin world.

*Vonnegut, Kurt. Cat’s Cradle. A satire on just about everything from religion to government research to human nature, this book is both a humorous and fatalistic view of the future.

*Walls, Jeanette. The Glass Castle. MEMOIR. Wall’s extraordinary memoir recounts her itinerant childhood with two eccentric parents and the poverty and bullying that she endured. A graceful, candid, and sometimes shocking story.

*Wertheim, L. Jon. Strokes of Genius: Federer, Nadal, and the Greatest Match Ever Played. NON-FICTION. In the 2008 Wimbledon men’s final, Centre Court was a stage set worthy of Shakespearean drama as five-time champion Roger Federer, the most dominant player in the history of the game of tennis, played against the swashbuckling Spaniard Rafael Nadal. This is a thoughtful and entertaining look at the science, art, psychology, technology, strategy and personality that go into a single tennis match

*Willis, Connie. The Doomsday Book. SCIENCE FICTION. A Hugo and Nebula winner, this novel tells of a history student in 2048 who is transported to an English village in the 14th century and arrives mistakenly on the eve of the onset of the Black Plague.

*Wright, Evan. Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America, and the New Face of American War. NON-FICTION. A narrative on the lives of twenty-three First Recon marines who led the attack on Iraq describes their training and the physical and psychological challenges they faced in skirmishes leading to the fall of Baghdad. Same Marines from Fick’s One Bullet Away on this list.

*Zailckas, Koren. Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood. NON-FICTION. From earliest experimentation to habitual excess to full-blown abuse, twenty-four-year-old Koren Zailckas leads us through her experience of a terrifying trend among young girls, exploring how binge drinking becomes routine, how it becomes “the usual.” She persuades us that her story is the story of thousands of girls like her who are not alcoholics—yet—but who use booze as a short cut to courage, a stand-in for good judgment, and a bludgeon for shyness, each of them failing to see how their emotional distress, unarticulated hostility, and depression are entangled with their socially condoned binging.

*Zevin, Gabrielle. Elsewhere. After fifteen-year-old Liz Hall is hit by a taxi and killed, she finds herself in a place that is both like and unlike Earth, where she must adjust to her new status and figure out how to “live” in this philosophical and poetic novel. For those looking for something similar to Sebold’s Lovely Bones.

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