From Page to Screen
Fiction
Penguin Random House
Paperback
A gripping vision of our society radically overturned by a theocratic revolution, The Handmaid’s Tale has become one of the most powerful and most widely read novels of our time. Margaret Atwood is “the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction” (New York Times).
Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, serving in the household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife. She may go out once a day to markets whose signs are now pictures because women are not allowed to read. She must pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, for in a time of declining birthrates her value lies in her fertility, and failure means exile to the dangerously polluted Colonies. Offred can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost even her own name. Now she navigates the intimate secrets of those who control her every move, risking her life in breaking the rules.
Like Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Handmaid’s Tale has endured not only as a literary landmark but as a warning of a possible future that is still chillingly relevant.
Penguin Random House
Paperback
Written 70 years ago, 1984 was George Orwell’s chilling prophecy about the future. And while 1984 has come and gone, his dystopian vision of a government that will do anything to control the narrative is timelier than ever…
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
Winston Smith toes the Party line, rewriting history to satisfy the demands of the Ministry of Truth. With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit thoughtcrimes. But as he starts to think for himself, Winston can’t escape the fact that Big Brother is always watching…
A startling and haunting vision of the world, 1984 is so powerful that it is completely convincing from start to finish. No one can deny the influence of this novel, its hold on the imaginations of multiple generations of readers, or the resiliency of its admonitions—a legacy that seems only to grow with the passage of time.
Includes a foreword by Thomas Pynchon
Penguin
Paperback
Beautiful, clever, rich – and single – Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr. Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protégée Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected. With its imperfect but charming heroine and its witty and subtle exploration of relationships, Emma is often seen as Jane Austen’s most flawless work.
Simon & Schuster
Paperback
Fifty years after its original publication, Catch-22 remains a cornerstone of American literature and one of the funniest—and most celebrated—books of all time. In recent years it has been named to “best novels” lists by Time, Newsweek, the Modern Library, and the London Observer.
Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy—it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.
This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; a wealth of critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos from Joseph Heller’s personal archive; and much more. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature.
Simon & Schuster
Paperback
A worldwide bestseller for more than forty years, Watership Down is the compelling tale of a band of wild rabbits struggling to hold onto their place in the world—“a classic yarn of discovery and struggle” (The New York Times).
Richard Adams’s Watership Down is a timeless classic and one of the most beloved novels of all time. Set in the Hampshire Downs in Southern England, an idyllic rural landscape, this stirring tale of “suspense, hot pursuit, and derring-do” (Chicago Tribune) follows a band of rabbits in flight from the incursion of man and the destruction of their home. Led by a stouthearted pair of brothers, they travel forth from their native Sandleford warren through harrowing trials to a mysterious promised land and a more perfect society. “A marvelous story of rebellion, exile, and survival” (Sunday Telegraph) this is an unforgettable literary classic for all ages.
Penguin Random House
Paperback
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE
The searing, post-apocalyptic novel about a father and son’s fight to survive.
A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.
The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, “each the other’s world entire,” are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.
Harper Collins
Paperback
*INDIGO’S PICK!*
Behold: a book that can only be described as a love letter to Pittsburgh. And yet, that doesn’t even begin to encapsulate its beauty and magic. I think everyone has a book they re-read every year and this is mine. It grows with me as I grow and has remained my favorite book for a number of years now. It was the first book I read in my first college writing course, and I had no idea then how it would change me forever. This book made me fall in love with the Pittsburgh I had taken for granted, as a native. It took the dingy gray city I’d grown used to and transformed it into The Cloud Factory, The Lost Neighborhood. It turns late night drives into glittering, golden memories. This book touched me so deeply it became my first tattoo. It taught me how to love, how to forgive, and how to find cinematic chaos and joy in the mundane. I remember finishing it and throwing it across the room, in choking sobs. I couldn’t believe it was over and I had to say goodbye to these characters who had become me, become my friends and lovers. This was the book that helped me settle into my own queerness. It was the book that guided me through the uncertainty and naivety of my early twenties. It is a book of all seasons but will always cradle you in the orange glow of summer. Sit on Flagstaff Hill and look out towards The Cloud Factory as you read, let the fantasy overwhelm you and turn this town into Chabon’s glistening, nostalgic dream of a world.
The enthralling debut from bestselling novelist Michael Chabon is a penetrating narrative of complex friendships, father-son conflicts, and the awakening of a young man’s sexual identity. Chabon masterfully renders the funny, tender, and captivating first-person narrative of Art Bechstein, whose confusion and heartache echo the tones of literary forebears like The Catcher in the Rye’s Holden Caulfield and The Great Gatsby’s Nick Carraway. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh incontrovertibly established Chabon as a powerful force in contemporary fiction, even before his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay set the literary world spinning. An unforgettable story of coming of age in America, it is also an essential milestone in the movement of American fiction, from a novelist who has become one of the most important and enduring voices of this generation.
Penguin
Hardcover, Cloth
Part of Penguin’s beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula with the purchase of a London house, he makes a series of horrific discoveries about his client. Soon afterwards, various bizarre incidents unfold in England: an apparently unmanned ship is wrecked off the coast of Whitby; a young woman discovers strange puncture marks on her neck; and the inmate of a lunatic asylum raves about the ‘Master’ and his imminent arrival. In Dracula, Bram Stoker created one of the great masterpieces of the horror genre, brilliantly evoking a nightmare world of vampires and vampire hunters and also illuminating the dark corners of Victorian sexuality and desire.
Penguin
Hardcover, Cloth
Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design.
Pip doesn't expect much from life...His sister makes it clear that her orphaned little brother is nothing but a burden on her. But suddenly things begin to change. Pip's narrow existence is blown apart when he finds an escaped criminal, is summoned to visit a mysterious old woman and meets the icy beauty Estella. Most astoundingly of all, an anonymous person gives him money to begin a new life in London.
Are these events as random as they seem? Or does Pip's fate hang on a series of coincidences he could never have expected?
Horror and Thriller
Random House
Paperback
Sharp Objects isn't one of those scare-and-retreat books; its effect is cumulative. I found myself dreading the last thirty pages or so but was helpless to stop turning them. Then, after the lights were out, the story just stayed there in my head, coiled and hissing, like a snake in a cave. An admirably nasty piece of work, elevated by sharp writing and sharper insights. —Stephen King
One of the best and most disturbing books I have read in a long time...Flynn never stoops to the gratuitous, and the torment produces haunting characters that hung around my imagination long after I had finished the book. Her skillful blending of old tragedies with new culminated in an 'oh-my-gosh' moment that I never saw coming. This book simply blew me away. —Kansas City Star
Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family's Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story—and survive this homecoming.
Random House
Hardcover
*Tyler’s Pick*
This is hands down my favorite short story collection I have ever read. These stories gripped me in a way I haven’t felt since I first had the macabre pleasure of picking up my first collection of Poe stories. It is so very hard to do horror right, and this collection hits it out of the park. This book weaves you into the madness and misfortune of our protagonists in such a unique way that it is still being referenced to this day (it was written in 1895!). To anyone who enjoys feeling uncomfortable, lost, confused, terrified, mystified….this is your book.
This collection of stories has influenced writers from H.P. Lovecraft and Raymond Chandler, to Robert Heinlein, Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman and George R. R. Martin. The King in Yellow and his legendary city of Carcosa may be the most famous character and setting you've never heard of.
There are tons of Easter eggs and symbols related to this story collection embedded in the first season of True Detective, (the good season) it was a major inspiration and influence. i09 calls it “The One Literary Reference You Must Know to Appreciate True Detective” We are all in.
Random House
Paperback
*KU Recommends*
Every so often a novel-reader’s novel comes along: an enthralling, entertaining story wedded to simple, supple prose, both informed by tremendous imagination. Summer is the perfect time for such books, and this year readers can enjoy the gift of Justin Cronin’s The Passage. Read fifteen pages and you will find yourself captivated; read thirty and you will find yourself taken prisoner and reading late into the night. It has the vividness that only epic works of fantasy and imagination can achieve. What else can I say? This: read this book and the ordinary world disappears. —Stephen King
An epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and survival, The Passage is the story of Amy—abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions. But Special Agent Brad Wolgast, the lawman sent to track her down, is disarmed by the curiously quiet girl and risks everything to save her. As the experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Wolgast secures her escape—but he can’t stop society’s collapse. And as Amy walks alone, across miles and decades, into a future dark with violence and despair, she is filled with the mysterious and terrifying knowledge that only she has the power to save the ruined world.
Simon & Schuster
Paperback
Stephen King’s terrifying, classic #1 New York Times bestseller, “a landmark in American literature” (Chicago Sun-Times)—about seven adults who return to their hometown to confront a nightmare they had first stumbled on as teenagers…an evil without a name: It.
Welcome to Derry, Maine. It’s a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real.
They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But the promise they made twenty-eight years ago calls them reunite in the same place where, as teenagers, they battled an evil creature that preyed on the city’s children. Now, children are being murdered again and their repressed memories of that terrifying summer return as they prepare to once again battle the monster lurking in Derry’s sewers.
Readers of Stephen King know that Derry, Maine, is a place with a deep, dark hold on the author. It reappears in many of his books, including Bag of Bones, Hearts in Atlantis, and 11/22/63. But it all starts with It.
Simon & Schuster
Paperback
An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is discovered in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens—Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon have DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad.
As the investigation expands and horrifying details begin to emerge, King’s story kicks into high gear, generating strong tension and almost unbearable suspense. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face? When the answer comes, it will shock you as only Stephen King can.
Sci-Fi and Fantasy
Random House
Paperback
KU recommends, this book is a delightful pleasure!
Enchanting! Willy Wonka meets The Matrix. —USA Today
As one adventure leads expertly to the next, time simply evaporates. —Entertainment Weekly
An addictive read . . . part intergalactic scavenger hunt, part romance, and all heart. —CNN
Ridiculously fun and large-hearted . . . Cline is that rare writer who can translate his own dorky enthusiasms into prose that’s both hilarious and compassionate. —NPR
A fantastic page-turner . . . starts out like a simple bit of fun and winds up feeling like a rich and plausible picture of future friendships in a world not too distant from our own. —iO9
Delightful . . . the grown-up’s Harry Potter. —HuffPost
A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready?
In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the OASIS, a vast virtual world where most of humanity spends their days.
When the eccentric creator of the OASIS dies, he leaves behind a series of fiendish puzzles, based on his obsession with the pop culture of decades past. Whoever is first to solve them will inherit his vast fortune—and control of the OASIS itself.
Then Wade cracks the first clue. Suddenly he’s beset by rivals who’ll kill to take this prize. The race is on—and the only way to survive is to win.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Entertainment Weekly • San Francisco Chronicle • Village Voice • Chicago Sun-Times • iO9 • The AV Club
Random House
Paperback
*TYLER’S PICK!*
If you had to make me choose either Androids or Blade Runner, it would be Androids every time. Philip K. Dick delivers an insanely gripping story focused on humanity and the lack thereof. Parts of this story affected me so much that they are and will be forever ingrained into my brain. You feel anger when androids just give up and accept their fate. You feel companionship to chickenheads, and hope that the spider will be ok. It wraps you up in this tale of desperation and darkness that you just can’t find in any other story. This is one of my favorite novels of all time and I can’t see that ever changing.
By 2021, the World War has killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remain covet any living creature, and for people who can’t afford one, companies built incredibly realistic simulacra: horses, birds, cats, sheep. They’ve even built humans. Immigrants to Mars receive androids so sophisticated they are indistinguishable from true men or women. Fearful of the havoc these artificial humans can wreak, the government bans them from Earth. Driven into hiding, unauthorized androids live among human beings, undetected. Rick Deckard, an officially sanctioned bounty hunter, is commissioned to find rogue androids and “retire” them. But when cornered, androids fight back—with lethal force.
Penguin Random House
Paperback
In one complete volume, here are the five classic novels from Douglas Adams’s beloved Hitchhiker series.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Seconds before the Earth is demolished for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is saved by Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised Guide. Together they stick out their thumbs to the stars and begin a wild journey through time and space.
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
The moment before annihilation at the hands of warmongers is a curious time to crave tea. It could only happen to the cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his comrades as they hurtle across the galaxy in a desperate search for a place to eat.
Life, the Universe and Everything
The unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky– so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals can avert Armageddon: mild-mannered Arthur Dent and his stalwart crew.
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
Back on Earth, Arthur Dent is ready to believe that the past eight years were all just a figment of his stressed-out imagination. But a gift-wrapped fishbowl with a cryptic inscription thrusts him back to reality. So to speak.
Mostly Harmless
Just when Arthur Dent makes the terrible mistake of starting to enjoy life, all hell breaks loose. Can he save the Earth from total obliteration? Can he save the Guide from a hostile alien takeover? Can he save his daughter from herself?
Includes the bonus story “Young Zaphod Plays It Safe”
Random House
Paperback: Graphic Novel
Y: The Last Man, winner of three Eisner Awards and one of the most critically acclaimed, best-selling comic books series of the last decade, is that rare example of a page-turner that is at once humorous, socially relevant and endlessly surprising.
Written by Brian K. Vaughan (Lost, Pride of Baghdad, Ex Machina) and with art by Pia Guerra, this is the saga of Yorick Brown—the only human survivor of a planet-wide plague that instantly kills every mammal possessing a Y chromosome. Accompanied by a mysterious government agent, a brilliant young geneticist and his pet monkey, Ampersand, Yorick travels the world in search of his lost love and the answer to why he’s the last man on earth.
Collects Y: The Last Man #1-10.
Hachette
Paperback
In the ruins of civilization, a young girl’s kindness and capacity for love will either save humanity — or wipe it out in this USA Today bestselling thriller Joss Whedon calls “heartfelt, remorseless, and painfully human.”
Melanie is a very special girl. Dr. Caldwell calls her “our little genius.”
Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointed at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don’t like her. She jokes that she won’t bite, but they don’t laugh.
The Girl With All the Gifts is a genre-defying, emotionally charged thriller that will shatter your expectations of the classic zombie novel.
Penguin
Paperback
The Magicians (Book One) $18.00
The Magician’s King (Book Two) $18.00
The Magician’s Land (Book Three) $18.00
*Blair’s Pick!*
Many people have likened this to a teenage, R-rated Harry Potter, which is somewhat accurate because magic but also blood and sex and violence etc., and our Harry in this case is an witty existential joker with a dirty vocabulary. Also, add Narnia. This is a fun read that has surprisingly sincere and moving moments along with its sometimes very creepy and haunting ones.
The Magicians
Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A high school math genius, he’s secretly fascinated with a series of children’s fantasy novels set in a magical land called Fillory, and real life is disappointing by comparison. When Quentin is unexpectedly admitted to an elite, secret college of magic, it looks like his wildest dreams may have come true. But his newfound powers lead him down a rabbit hole of hedonism and disillusionment, and ultimately to the dark secret behind the story of Fillory. The land of his childhood fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he ever could have imagined . . .
The Magicians is one of the most daring and inventive works of literary fantasy in years. No one who has escaped into the worlds of Narnia and Harry Potter should miss this breathtaking return to the landscape of the imagination.
The Magician King
Quentin Coldwater should be happy. He escaped a miserable Brooklyn childhood, matriculated at a secret college for magic, and graduated to discover that Fillory—a fictional utopia—was actually real. But even as a Fillorian king, Quentin finds little peace. His old restlessness returns, and he longs for the thrills a heroic quest can bring.
Accompanied by his oldest friend, Julia, Quentin sets off—only to somehow wind up back in the real-world and not in Fillory, as they’d hoped. As the pair struggle to find their way back to their lost kingdom, Quentin is forced to rely on Julia’s illicitly learned sorcery as they face a sinister threat in a world very far from the beloved fantasy novels of their youth.
The Magician’s Land
Quentin Coldwater has lost everything. He has been cast out of Fillory, the secret magical world of his childhood dreams that he once ruled. With nothing left to lose he returns to where his story began, the Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic. But he can’t hide from his past, and it’s not long before it comes looking for him. Meanwhile, the magical barriers that keep Fillory safe are failing, and barbarians from the north have invaded. Eliot and Janet, the rulers of Fillory, embark on a final quest to save their beloved world, only to discover a situation far more complex—and far more dire—than anyone had envisioned.
Along with Plum, a brilliant young magician with a dark secret of her own, Quentin sets out on a crooked path through a magical demimonde of gray magic and desperate characters. His new life takes him back to old haunts, like Antarctica and the Neitherlands, and old friends he thought were lost forever. The Magician’s Land is an intricate and fantastical thriller, and an epic of love and redemption that brings the Magicians trilogy to a magnificent conclusion, confirming it as one of the great achievements in modern fantasy.
Hachette
Paperback
Humanity has colonized the solar system – Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond – but the stars are still out of our reach.
Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, the Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for – and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.
Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to the Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.
Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations – and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.
Macmillan Publishers
Paperback
*Blair’s Pick!*
So this is may be my FAVORITE BOOK OF ALL TIME even though I say that a lot...because of the universe I was enveloped in while reading it. What is so extraordinary about this book is YES it’s magic but it’s magic in the “real world”; a magician attempts to bring respect and dignity back to magic by showing its practical usefulness and employs it during war-time, for example, which I’ve never seen done (and oh my god those scenes are so amaze). The other fun thing about this book is the history in the footnotes--it’s practically a whole other book. The world she builds is truly incredible and the pace and care put into the character development and fictional history is unlike any book I’ve ever read and feels so real that you finish the book feeling like a scholar of an alternative history.
At the dawn of the nineteenth century, two very different magicians emerge to change England's history. In the year 1806, with the Napoleonic Wars raging on land and sea, most people believe magic to be long dead in England-until the reclusive Mr Norrell reveals his powers, and becomes a celebrity overnight.
Soon, another practicing magician comes forth: the young, handsome, and daring Jonathan Strange. He becomes Norrell's student, and they join forces in the war against France. But Strange is increasingly drawn to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic, straining his partnership with Norrell, and putting at risk everything else he holds dear.
Young Adult
Simon & Schuster
Hardcovers
Ages 8-12
Treasure the imaginative world of Anne Shirley with the first three artfully packaged books in the Anne of Green Gables series.
Red-headed, big-hearted Anne Shirley is one of literature’s most classic and beloved characters, and these books are the perfect way to cherish her adventures and her legacy. Each of the four books features an artistically crafted cover, making them a wonderful gift and keepsake.
Anne of Green Gables introduces orphan Anne Shirley as she first comes to Marilla and Matthew’s home on Prince Edward Island. Anne of Avonlea chronicles Anne’s misadventures as Avonlea’s schoolteacher. Anne of the Island follows Anne as she sets out for Redmond College.
Anne of Green Gables (Book One) $19.99
Anne of Avonlea (Book Two) $18.99
Anne of the Island (Book Three) $17.99
Penguin
Hardcover
Ages 10+
Louisa May Alcott’s classic tale of four sisters in a deluxe hardcover edition, with beautiful cover illustrations by Anna Bond, the artist behind world-renowned stationery brand Rifle Paper Co.
Grown-up Meg, tomboyish Jo, timid Beth, and precocious Amy. The four March sisters couldn’t be more different. But with their father away at war, and their mother working to support the family, they have to rely on one another. Whether they’re putting on a play, forming a secret society, or celebrating Christmas, there’s one thing they can’t help wondering: Will Father return home safely?
Macmillan Publishers
Hardcovers
Ages 10+
A Wrinkle in Time (Book One) $25.99
A Wind in the Door (Book Two) $33.99
A Swiftly Tilting Planet (Book Three) $35.99
*HENRY’S PICK!*
This book threw a bomb into everything I knew when I was young. At that time I only knew how to wrap my head around my backyard, and this book gave me the entire universe. A Wrinkle in Time was also my first introduction to infinity, making it tangible, folding it into something that could fit inside my pocket. Perhaps the most powerful idea expressed in this book is that fate, like a sonnet, has a fixed form - but within those lines you can write whatever you want.
In the Newbery Award winner A Wrinkle in Time, the children learn that Mr. Murry has been captured by the Dark Thing, and they must time travel to Camazotz to save him. KU says: This book is everything.
In A Wind in the Door, Meg, Calvin and Mr. Jenkins (their grade school principal) must travel inside C.W. and battle to save Charles's life—as well as the balance of the universe.
And in A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Meg's brother Charles Wallace has twenty-four hours to stop the tragedy of nuclear war from occurring.
Read the iconic novels that continue to inspire millions of fans around the world.
Scholastic
Hardcovers
Ages 8+
The Hunger Games (Book One) $18.99
Catching Fire (Book Two) $18.99
Mockingjay (Book Three) $18.99
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (Prequel) $27.99
The Hunger Games is a violent, jarring, speed-rap of a novel that generates nearly constant suspense... I couldn't stop reading. —Stephen King, Entertainment Tonight
Brilliantly plotted and perfectly paced. —John Green, New York Times Book Review
Enthralling, imaginative and creepy. —Los Angeles Times
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. And the odds are against all who play.
Penguin Random House
Hardcover
Ages 8+
Willy Wonka’s famous chocolate factory is opening at last! But only five lucky children will be allowed inside. And the winners are: Augustus Gloop, an enormously fat boy whose hobby is eating; Veruca Salt, a spoiled-rotten brat whose parents are wrapped around her little finger; Violet Beauregarde, a dim-witted gum-chewer with the fastest jaws around; Mike Teavee, a toy pistol-toting gangster-in-training who is obsessed with television; and Charlie Bucket, Our Hero, a boy who is honest and kind, brave and true, and good and ready for the wildest time of his life!
Penguin Random House
Hardcover
Ages 8+
Two very stern aunts make life difficult for a recently orphaned young boy named James. But James receives a precious gift from a mysterious old man and embarks upon a thrilling voyage inside a …what? Yes, a giant peach.
Penguin Random House
Hardcover
Ages 8-12
A beautiful, collectible, hardcover edition of The Witches from the World’s No. 1 Storyteller! Now a major motion picture!
This is not a fairy tale. This is about real witches.
Grandmamma loves to tell about witches. Real witches are the most dangerous of all living creatures on earth. There’s nothing they hate so much as children, and they work all kinds of terrifying spells to get rid of them. Her grandson listens closely to Grandmamma’s stories—but nothing can prepare him for the day he comes face-to-face with The Grand High Witch herself!
Penguin
Hardcover
Ages 8+
The Nancy Drew Starter Set is the perfect gift for aspiring detectives, or longtime fans of the series!
The first five books in this iconic series are packaged together in a collectible box set with an updated design. Teenage sleuth Nancy Drew is a beloved cultural figure and noted inspiration for generations of women, including Sonia Sotomayor, Sandra Day O’Connor, and Hillary Clinton.
Includes #1 The Secret of the Old Clock, #2 The Hidden Staircase, #3 The Bungalow Mystery, #4 The Mystery at Lilac Inn, and #5 The Secret of Shadow Ranch.
Penguin
Hardcover
Ages 13+
NOW A HULU ORIGINAL SERIES!
Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award
Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist
NPR’s Top Ten Best-Ever Teen Novels
TIME magazine’s 100 Best Young Adult Novels of All Time
First drink. First prank. First friend. First love.
Last words.
Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words—and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet François Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young, who will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.
Looking for Alaska brilliantly chronicles the indelible impact one life can have on another. A modern classic, this stunning debut marked #1 bestselling author John Green’s arrival as a groundbreaking new voice in contemporary fiction.
Penguin Random House
Hardcover
Ages 13+
Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Mystery
#1 New York Times Bestseller
USA Today Bestseller
Publishers Weekly Bestseller
Now a major motion picture!
When Margo Roth Spiegelman beckons Quentin Jacobsen in the middle of the night—dressed like a ninja and plotting an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows her. Margo’s always planned extravagantly, and, until now, she’s always planned solo. After a lifetime of loving Margo from afar, things are finally looking up for Q . . . until day breaks and she has vanished. Always an enigma, Margo has now become a mystery. But there are clues. And they’re for Q.
Penguin
Hardcover
Ages 13+
#1 New York Times Bestseller
#1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller
#1 USA Today Bestseller
#1 International Bestseller
*MICHAEL’S PICK!*
This book made me experience about five years of collected emotion in one sitting. We’re talking golf-ball-sized tears followed by ten solid minutes of cry-laughing. Stars deals with some pretty heavy subject matter – cancer, depression, unrequited love – but it does it in such an earnest, humorous way that you can’t help but laugh through the tears. This is a quick, but no less profound, read that asks people to think about what’s really important in life. And, whereas similar books might be heavy-handed in their approach, Stars is funny and gentle and never tries to beat the right answer out of you. This is definitely one of my new favorites.
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.
From John Green, #1 bestselling author of Turtles All the Way Down, The Fault in Our Stars is insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw. It brilliantly explores the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.
Penguin
Hardcover
Ages 13+
An instantaneous leap into the magical . . . Energetic, innovative, and perceptive. —The Washington Post
A trumpet blast for the imagination. —Sunday Times
From award-winning German author Michael Ende, The Neverending Story is a classic tale of one boy and the book that magically comes to life.
When Bastian happens upon an old book called The Neverending Story, he’s swept into the magical world of Fantastica–so much that he finds he has actually become a character in the story! And when he realizes that this mysteriously enchanted world is in great danger, he also discovers that he is the one chosen to save it. Can Bastian overcome the barrier between reality and his imagination in order to save Fantastica?
Penguin
Hardcover
Ages 12+
Ponyboy can count on his brothers. And on his friends. But not on much else besides trouble with the Socs, a vicious gang of rich kids whose idea of a good time is beating up on “greasers” like Ponyboy. At least he knows what to expect—until the night someone takes things too far.
Harper Collins
Hardcover
Ages 14+
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.
Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.
But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.
Simon & Schuster
Paperback
Ages 14+
The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.
Harper Collins
Hardcover
Ages 10+
This Newbery Medal-winning novel by bestselling author Katherine Paterson is a modern classic of friendship and loss.
Jess Aarons has been practicing all summer so he can be the fastest runner in the fifth grade. And he almost is, until the new girl in school, Leslie Burke, outpaces him. The two become fast friends and spend most days in the woods behind Leslie's house, where they invent an enchanted land called Terabithia. One morning, Leslie goes to Terabithia without Jess and a tragedy occurs. It will take the love of his family and the strength that Leslie has given him for Jess to be able to deal with his grief.
Harper Collins
Hardcover
Ages 8+
Massachusetts Children's Book Award
Lewis Carroll Shelf Award
Horn Book Fanfare
ALA Notable Children’s Book
Newbery Honor Book
This beloved book by E. B. White, author of Stuart Little and The Trumpet of the Swan, is a classic of children's literature that is "just about perfect." This edition includes a foreword by two-time Newbery winning author Kate DiCamillo.
Some Pig. Humble. Radiant. These are the words in Charlotte's Web, high up in Zuckerman's barn. Charlotte's spiderweb tells of her feelings for a little pig named Wilbur, who simply wants a friend. They also express the love of a girl named Fern, who saved Wilbur's life when he was born the runt of his litter.
E. B. White's Newbery Honor Book is a tender novel of friendship, love, life, and death that will continue to be enjoyed by generations to come. It contains illustrations by Garth Williams, the acclaimed illustrator of E. B. White's Stuart Little and Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series, among many other books.
Whether enjoyed in the classroom or for homeschooling or independent reading, Charlotte's Web is a proven favorite.
Harper Collins
Hardcover
Ages 8+
The classic story by E. B. White, author of the Newbery Honor Book Charlotte's Web and The Trumpet of the Swan, about one small mouse on a very big adventure.
Stuart Little is no ordinary mouse. Born to a family of humans, he lives in New York City with his parents, his older brother George, and Snowbell the cat. Though he's shy and thoughtful, he's also a true lover of adventure.
Stuart's greatest adventure comes when his best friend, a beautiful little bird named Margalo, disappears from her nest. Determined to track her down, Stuart ventures away from home for the very first time in his life. He finds adventure aplenty. But will he find his friend?
Scholastic
Hardcover
Ages 8+
*BLAIR’S PICK!*
”If you lose your purpose…it’s like you’re broken”
If you’re not already sold just by picking up and flipping through this visually stunning book, then you are boring. This is a beautiful story that blends film and magic and childlike wonder to create Hugo Cabret, a boy who tends to the clocks at a train station in Paris, where he also lives. At the heart of the story lies a mystery: an automaton with a message. This message not only changes Hugo’s life, but also someone unexpected. Like the small parts that make each clock work, the characters in this story realize they too are parts of a vast machinery where each piece matters, be it a dreamer, adventurer, magician or clockmaker.
ORPHAN, CLOCK KEEPER, AND THIEF, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy booth in the station, Hugo's undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message from Hugo's dead father form the backbone of this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery.
Harper Collins
Hardcovers
Ages 14+
Divergent (Book One) $21.99
Insurgent (Book Two) $19.99
Allegiant (Book Three) $19.99
*MICHAEL’S PICK!*
One of the most popular dystopian series out right now – and for good reason! Divergent takes place in post-apocalyptic Chicago, where the city’s inhabitants are divided into five factions – based on personal attributes like strength and bravery, intelligence, and selflessness – and discouraged from associating with each other. This book has an interesting premise and fantastic characters, both of which you’ll learn much more about the further you fall into the story. While critics seem eager to compare it to The Hunger Games trilogy, Divergent goes far beyond your typical dystopian storyline, exploring that fine line between order and chaos and encouraging its readers to re-examine what it means to be loyal, to be obedient. To be truly afraid.
The Divergent is a series of young adult science fiction adventure novels by American novelist Veronica Roth set in a post-apocalyptic dystopian Chicago. The trilogy is set in the future in a dystopian society that is divided into five factions. The trilogy's society defines its citizens by their social and personality affiliations, with the five different factions removing the threat of anyone exercising independent will and threatening the population's safety. Beatrice Prior, who later changes her name to Tris, is born into Abnegation but transfers into Dauntless; she must figure out her life as a Divergent, conceal her true nature, and live with the danger of being killed if her true nature is discovered by the Erudite and Dauntless leaders.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Hardcover
Ages 13+
*KRISTEN’S PICK!*
I know you have seen the movie, and loved it, (who didn’t love it?) but I can’t stress enough that you should also read this book. Read it for the hilarious ‘asides’ where Goldman takes you on an up close and personal tour of both his child and adulthood. Read it for the introduction, a beautiful and touching piece of writing (and includes juicy tidbits about making the movie). Read it for the “Buttercups Baby” explanation. Especially the conversation Goldman has with Stephen King (they are friends and have a sort of mutual admiration society going, a fact that never fails to delight me). The first line of the original text reads “This is my favorite book in all the world” and I couldn’t agree more.
A beautifully illustrated hardcover gift edition of William Goldman’s beloved story of Buttercup, Westley, and their fellow adventurers
A tale of true love and high adventure, pirates, princesses, giants, miracles, fencing, and a frightening assortment of wild beasts—The Princess Bride is a modern storytelling classic.
As Florin and Guilder teeter on the verge of war, the reluctant Princess Buttercup is devastated by the loss of her true love, kidnapped by a mercenary and his henchman, rescued by a pirate, forced to marry Prince Humperdinck, and rescued once again by the very crew who absconded with her in the first place. In the course of this dazzling adventure, she'll meet Vizzini—the criminal philosopher who'll do anything for a bag of gold; Fezzik—the gentle giant; Inigo—the Spaniard whose steel thirsts for revenge; and Count Rugen—the evil mastermind behind it all. Foiling all their plans and jumping into their stories is Westley, Princess Buttercup’s one true love and a very good friend of a very dangerous pirate.William Goldman's modern fantasy classic is a simple, exceptional story about quests—for riches, revenge, power, and, of course, true love—that's thrilling and timeless.
Anyone who lived through the 1980s may find it impossible—inconceivable, even—to equate The Princess Bride with anything other than the sweet, celluloid romance of Westley and Buttercup, but the film is only a fraction of the ingenious storytelling you'll find in these pages. Rich in character and satire, the novel is set in 1941 and framed cleverly as an “abridged” retelling of a centuries-old tale set in the fabled country of Florin that's home to “Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passions.”
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Hardcover
Ages 10+
Celebrate Lois Lowry’s Newbery Medal–winning classic story of a young boy discovering the dark secrets behind his seemingly ideal world in this 25th Anniversary Edition of The Giver. Includes a new afterword from Lois Lowry, as well as her Newbery acceptance speech.
The Giver, Lois Lowry's Newbery Medal–winning novel, has become one of the most influential books of our time. Placed on countless reading lists and curricula, translated into more than forty languages, and made into a feature film, The Giver is a modern classic.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Hardcovers
Ages 10+
The Giver: 25th Anniversary Edition (Book One) $19.99
Gathering Blue (Book Two) $19.99
Messenger (Book Three) $19.99
Son (Book Four) $17.99
Celebrate Lois Lowry’s Newbery Medal–winning classic story of a young boy discovering the dark secrets behind his seemingly ideal world in this 25th Anniversary Edition of The Giver. Includes a new afterword from Lois Lowry, as well as her Newbery acceptance speech.
The Giver, Lois Lowry's Newbery Medal–winning novel, has become one of the most influential books of our time. Placed on countless reading lists and curricula, translated into more than forty languages, and made into a feature film, The Giver is a modern classic.
Harper Collins
Hardcover
Ages 12+
Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep South—and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred
One of the most cherished stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.
Harper Collins
Paperback
Ages 13+
The Selection (Book One) $15.99
The Elite (Book Two) $15.99
The One (Book Three) $15.99
The Heir (Book Four) $15.99
The Crown (Book Five) $15.99
A cross between The Hunger Games (minus the bloodsport) and The Bachelor (minus the bloodsport), this trilogy launch is a lot of fun. Cass deftly builds the chemistry between America and Maxon, while stroking the embers of America’s first, forbidden love. —Publishers Weekly
Reality T.V. meets dystopian fairy tale in Kiera Cass’s delightful debut. Charming, captivating, and filled with just the right amount of swoon. —Kiersten White, New York Times bestselling author of Paranormalcy
For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The chance to live in a palace and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon. But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her, and leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn’t want.
Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she’s made for herself—and realizes that the life she’s always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.
In The Heir and The Crown, Princess Eadlyn becomes the first ever princess to hold a Selection of her own—but she doesn’t believe that any of her thirty-five suitors will capture her heart...
Hachette
Hardcovers
Ages 10+
The Lightning Thief (Book One) $19.99
The Sea of Monsters (Book Two) $18.99
The Titan's Curse (Book Three) $21.99
The Battle of the Labyrinth (Book Four) $21.99
The Last Olympian (Book Five) $19.99
Accompany the son of the sea god Poseidon and his other demigod friends as they go on a series of quests that will have them facing monsters, gods, and conniving figures from Greek mythology. Do they have what it takes to save the Olympians from an ancient enemy?
Whether it is for readers who are experiencing Percy's funny and thrilling adventures for the first time, or for fans who want to devour the saga again, this gift will be prized by readers aged 8-80.
Random House
Paperback
Marvelous . Vonnegut wheels out all the complaints about America and makes them seem fresh, funny, outrageous, hateful and lovable. —The New York Times
Free-wheeling, wild and great, uniquely Vonnegut. —Publishers Weekly
In Breakfast of Champions, one of Kurt Vonnegut’s most beloved characters, the aging writer Kilgore Trout, finds to his horror that a Midwest car dealer is taking his fiction as truth. What follows is murderously funny satire, as Vonnegut looks at war, sex, racism, success, politics, and pollution in America and reminds us how to see the truth.