More Summer Reads

2010 Children's Choice Award Winner-Teen

This series was recommended to me by another librarian, and I was somewhat surprised how much I enjoyed this dynamic action-filled story with its compelling female protagonist. The second book does not disappoint, and the third is coming out later this summer.

"New York Times"-bestselling author Collins continues the amazing story of Katniss Everdeen, in this second novel of the Hunger Games trilogy. …More

I found this on an endcap display in Fiction, where the bright yellow cover caught my eye. I've read a lot of fantasy, but this book (and its sequel) were new to me. It reads a bit like Gulliver's Travels (but not quite so political). Definitely a "shaggy bear" story, but very amusing and worth a look if you need something slightly episodic, silly but smart to read while waiting for Summer to arrive :-) More details below.

Captain Bluebear is a bear with blue fur, a creature as unique as the fantastic adventures he undergoes. Unlike cats, which have only nine lives, bluebears have twenty-seven. This is fortunate, because our hero is forever avoiding disaster by a paw's breadth. In this remarkable book, Captain Bluebear tells the story of his first thirteen-and-a-half lives spent on the mysterious continent of Zamonia, where intelligence is an infectious disease and water flows uphill, where headless giants roam deserts made of sugar, and where only Captain Bluebear's courage and ingenuity enable him to escape the dangers that lie in wait for him around every corner. In company with our indomitable hero, we enter a realm of the imagination that combines the fantasy of "Lord of the Rings and "The Neverending Story with the humour of Baron Munchausen - a wonderland where anything can exist except boredom. …More

A perfect long, juicy read for a weekend at the beach; four intertwined perspectives on the same set of events, set in mid-17th century London, with a bit of the scientifical Royal Society thrown in for good measure. I'm loving this book!

It is 1663, and England is wracked with intrigue and civil strife. When an Oxford don is murdered, it seems at first that the incident can have nothing to do with great matters of church and state. Who poured the arsenic into the victim's brandy? …More

2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Winner

New York Times bestselling author Strout binds together 13 rich, luminous narratives through the presence of one larger-than-life, unforgettable character: Olive Kitteridge, who offers profound insights into the human condition. …More