Rooms

Ask A Librarian

Home -> Recommended Reading -> Fiction

Browse History

Search the Catalog

Explore the Library

Starred Review

Known in Nantucket as the crazy woman who lives in the rambling house atop the bluff, Nan doesn’t care what people think. At sixty-five-years old, her husband died twenty years ago, her beauty has faded, and her family has flown. If her neighbors are away, why shouldn’t she skinny dip in their swimming pools and help herself to their flowers? But when the money she thought would last forever begins to dwindle and she could lose her beloved house, drastic changes are necessary. So Nan takes out an ad: Rooms to rent for the summer in a beautiful old Nantucket home with water views and direct access to the beach. Slowly, people start moving into the house, filling it with noise, with laughter, and with tears. As the house comes alive again, Nan finds her family expanding. Her son comes home for the summer, and then an unexpected visitor turns all their lives upside-down.

-	Large Print edition

Breathtaking Historical Fiction

The American Revolution is brought to life in this breathtaking saga of the building of our nation. Jeff Shaara creates vivid portraits of the lives of historically famous people such as Benjamin Franklin and Samuel, John and Abigal Adams as they worked to create a nation during difficult and tumultuous times. If you like historical fiction, you'll love this stirring novel of the American Revolution. And don't forget to check out the sequel: The Glorious Cause.

-	Sequel: The Glorious Cause
-	More by Jeff Shaara

Of Local Interest

Following the death of his mother, Teddy Ruzak fulfills a long-held dream of setting up a private detective agency in his hometown of Knoxville, Tenn. He soon gets his first case--who drove the mysterious black SUV that mowed down a row of baby geese crossing the street? After starting as an especially well-drawn out shaggy dog story, the story takes unforeseen, utterly believable twists that wind to an extremely satisfying close. By turns touching, suspenseful and hilarious, this is sure to be a story that will leave Knoxville area readers eagerly awaiting the sequel, The Highly Effective Detective Goes to the Dogs, which is due to be released mid-August 2008.

-	Jack Neely's interview with the author
-	The Highly Effective Detective Goes to the Dogs

Evocative Fiction

In 1996, Hanna Heath, a young Australian book conservator, is called in to analyze the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a priceless six-hundred-year-old Jewish prayer book salvaged from a destroyed Bosnian library. When Hanna discovers a series of artifacts in the book's centuries-old binding, she unwittingly exposes an international cover up. Gifted storyteller and Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks reveals not only the treasured religious icon's complex and moving history but also provides vividly realized glimpses into the individual lives of the extremely diverse people it touched over the centuries.

-	More by Geraldine Brooks

Action Packed Thriller!

A horrific plague has risen from the ocean to devastate humankind. SIGMA Force operatives Dr. Lisa Cummings and Monk Kokkalis search for answers from aboard a repurposed cruise liner turned floating hospital. Terrorists savagely hijack the vessel, turning a mercy ship into a floating bio-weapons lab. A world away, SIGMA's Commander Gray Pierce thwarts the murderous schemes of a beautiful would-be killer who holds the first clue to a possible cure, then finds he must joins forces with her. As a relentless madman dogs their every step, Gray and his unlikely ally are pulled into an astonishing mystery buried deep in antiquity and in humanity's genetic code.

-	Read or listen to more Sigma Force novels.

If you like George Pelecanos, try...

How do you solve an impossible crime? An officer in the State Security force, Leo’s Demidov only ambition is to serve his country. He has spent his career guarding against threats to the State. Ideological crimes--of thought, of disloyalty, against the revolution--are forcefully suppressed, without question. And then a different kind of criminal--a murderer--is on the loose, killing at will. At the same time, Leo finds himself demoted and denounced by his enemies - all but sentenced to death. The only way to salvage what remains of his life is to uncover this criminal. Leo, with only Raisa at his side, must find and stop a criminal that the State won't admit even exists.

-	audio, dowloadable, large print

FBI Thriller

FBI Special Agents Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock are assigned to protect Dr. MacLean, a physician with frontal lobe dementia that could compromise his ability to maintain doctor-patient confidentiality. With a patient list made up of Washington movers and shakers, MacLean's role as a keeper of secrets is jeopardized as well. Is there someone out there so desperate that they'd kill the doctor for what he knows? It is up to Jackson, Savich, and Sherlock to find out--no matter the cost. Catherine Coulter’s 12th FBI thriller is a stunning new novel filled with secrets, mayhem, and murder.

-	more in the FBI series

Short Fiction

Acclaimed writer Elizabeth Berg's latest book is a compelling anthology of short fiction. It includes eleven never-before-published pieces, exploring the lives of women breaking free of the convention that controls their lives. The collection includes "Returns and Exchanges," "Over the Hill and Into the Woods," and the title story, about a woman who goes on a happiness binge after ditching Weight Watchers.

What will you read next?


	Use NoveList Use NoveList to find more book recommendations. It's the easiest way to find the reading order of books in a series. You can create and keep lists of books in your own account so that you can keep track of things you want to read as well as things you've already read.

Browsing for books?

	Overbooked.org Find your book Nirvana at Overbooked, a resource for ravenous readers.
	Internet Public Library An annotated list of web sites with resources for reading groups.
	Bestsellers lists Bookspot.com has several lists of bestsellers.

Debut novel

This lyrical novel takes place in Malaysia.

Fiction based on reality

Prep is a pitch-perfect portrayal of adolescence.

Crazy Good Reading