167 books
Each of Us a Desert by Mark Oshiro (2020)
Xochital is destined to wander the desert alone, speaking her troubled village's stories into its arid winds. Her only companions are the blessed stars above and enimagic lines of poetry magically strewn across dusty dunes. Her one desire: to share her heart with a kindred spirit. One night, Xo's wish is granted—in the form of Emilia, the cold and beautiful daughter of the town's murderous mayor. But when the two set out on a magical journey across the desert, they find their hearts could be a match... if only they can survive the nightmare-like terrors that arise when the sun goes down.
Trails by Gail Brown (2021)
A devastating cascade of earthquakes strike New Mexico's forgotten fault lines. Quakes spread across the continent. Fumeroles emerge in unknown hotspots. The Earth shakes and begins the process of opening the Rio Sea, where once, in prehistory, a great ocean thrived. Oceans heave as the Ring of Fire bursts with increased activity. Continental plates shift, rip apart, and bounce against each other. Oceans heave as the Ring of Fire bursts with increased activity. Disaster builds on disaster. Continental plates shift, rip apart, and bounce into each other. Everyone thought Arizona and New Mexico would be forever safe from earthquakes, volcanoes, and shifting water tables. Only, they aren't. As the continental plates shift, so do the lives of Amber and Alex as they struggle to find firm ground in the altered landscape. Aftershocks spread through the land, changing communities, forcing most to flee for their lives. The world as Amber and Alex knew crumbles around them. Family and friends missing. Communication relays fail. There is no power, or phone service, with remaining fuel reserved for military missions. Society as they knew it, teeters on the brink of collapse. Established communities melt apart, as walls between human population groups soar. Men, women, and cultures clash as if they had never learned to live together in peace. Together, survivors must build a future in a tangled environment of fear, hunger, cold, and desolation.
Trails by Gail Brown (2021)
The middens of the ancestors slowly empty. The last few usable pieces are found. Only a generation since KlaPit mine was abandoned, the new mine at Shells is almost empty. Buried dangers emerge from the bottoms of the pit mines. Forgotten fears told as campfire tales emerge in their spectral forms. Rusty worries her life skill is at an end. She has no other interest, than being the dig leader following Zella. Ambrena feels threatened that her life skill will be less valued as Tanna's daughters grow up. Every mistake is magnified as if it were life threatening. Corandra fears her ancestors have cursed her. Corandra knows they don't want her. Everything she touches crumbles. The box she found spreads a devastating illness. She abandons her villa for a cure. Corandra feels abandoned by her older friends, Ambrena and Rusty, as they embrace their life skills. The only person who notices her anymore is her verbal sparring partner, Henry. Or so she thinks. Will Corandra forgive herself? Will she allow others to forgive her for the damage her ancestors committed? When she has to choose between saving Ambrena and Rusty, or saving Henry, how will she decide? What will that decision mean to the future of the Pit Miners? Will Ambrena and Rusty find the cure they so desperately seek? Is it even what they think it is? Will the battle in the Grass Sea lead to peace, or the forgotten specter of war?
Benny Rose, the Cannibal King by Hailey Piper (2020)
Blackwood, Vermont has one legend to its name—Benny Rose, the Cannibal King. Every local kid knows him and tells his stories, especially on Halloween. When a new girl moves to town in the autumn of 1987, the legend inspires high school junior Desiree St. Fleur and her friends to pull a Benny Rose-themed prank. A few laughs and screams, and they’ll have a Happy Halloween. But a vicious storm crashes into Blackwood and interrupts the festivities. Soon the girls find themselves trapped and hunted in a strange neighborhood where no one will help them. There’s nothing made-up about Benny Rose this Halloween night. The truth is coming, and it's hungry. Book 3 in the Rewind-or-Die series: imagine your local movie rental store back in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, remember all those fantastic covers. Remember taking those movies home and watching in awe as the stories unfolded in nasty rainbows of gore, remember the atmosphere and textures. Remember the blood.
The Aurykon Chronicles, Books 1 to 5 by Ron B. Saunders (2017)
The Aurykon Chronicles, Books 1 to 5, is a contemporary American tale about a northern Californian teenager, Mack Thomas. He undertakes a fantastic five-year journey that transforms, imperils, and matures him. Through conversations with Pappy, his wise old grandfather and mentor, Mack discover the truth about the causes of danger in the world—government corruption, banking fraud, excessive military intervention, insurmountable debt, eroding freedom and democracy, corruption of our monetary systems, failing social programs, and a frightening rise of tyranny. He learns why it will all inevitably collapse in the worst geopolitical and macroeconomic conflagration in human history. Mack struggles with his grandfather’s dystopian predictions about the fate of America. Despite Pappy’s logic, he thinks the old guy is crazy. Financial collapse and severe depression? The end of democracy and personal liberty? The rise of totalitarianism? The fall of the Empire? Nuclear war? Surely not. This is a speculative fiction story in which Mack secretly raises an orphaned infant alien, Aurykon, in Mendocino County wilderness. This inter-dimensional being proves to be a challenging handful for a naïve, young, single parent. You see, after five years in Mack’s care, Aurykon matures to a super-intelligent, super-powerful, and super-large individual. He stands twenty feet tall, is bulletproof, breathes fire, and has a forty-foot wingspan. Yes, Aurykon is a magnificent, golden-tinged dragon ... and he’s not yet fully grown. Mack and Aurykon are inseparable best friends. That’s fortunate, for when they cross to an alternate dimension to return the dragon to his original home, the planet Shukra, the humans there have driven geopolitical and macroeconomic affairs to the brink of catastrophe—a most dangerous place. Mack witnesses and nearly succumbs to the inevitable consequences of the same human greed and profligacy that plague Earth. Pappy’s predictions prove plausible. Fear not, during his travels Mack encounters Princess Bibianna. Although this royal beauty is supposedly unobtainable, she ultimately makes all his troubles worthwhile. The Aurykon Chronicles weaves elements of factual circumstances with a genre mix of science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and coming-of-age. The tale’s underlying premise (political and economic irresponsibility of governments and elite individuals) enlightens new adult readers while entertaining them with a rollercoaster hero’s journey. The story is a series of five novella-sized “Books,” each being a phase of Mack and Aurykon’s awesome tale of discovery: Book 1: California Dragon Book 2: Mendocino Mayhem Book 3: Minaurian Exploits Book 4: Desperate Measures Book 5: The Gauld War Through this exciting compilation, you discover the dark truth about the real world, while joining Mack and his dragon pal on a fantastic intergalactic voyage.
HALE by JK Noble (2021)
After a desperate escape attempt from his kidnapper, sixteen-year-old Hale is thrust into the brutal world of magic that his sister had tried to protect him from. Here, in the violent Land of Griffins, Hale learns he is anything but normal. He is in fact a griffin who has pretty amazing talents. As Hale grows close to the Griffin Leader, Bayo, he can't deny their connection. However, Hale is unaware of the dark plans Bayo has in store for him....as well as who they truly are to one another. In Hale: The Rise of the Griffins, readers discover a diverse fantasy world with four unique nations and cultures. The novel is broken into short stories that follow a different set in the cast bringing the reader into fun adventures in every chapter. This unique magic system is unlike anything in fantasy literature today. Hale: The Rise of the Griffins is an anti-chosen-one story that addresses loss, manipulation, good and bad family relationships, finding one’s path, and dealing with one’s mistakes.
The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb (2022)
Ray McMillian loves playing the violin more than anything, and nothing will stop him from pursuing his dream of becoming a professional musician. Not his mother, who thinks he should get a real job, not the fact that he can't afford a high-caliber violin, not the racism inherent in the classical music world. And when he makes the startling discovery that his great-grandfather's fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, his star begins to rise. Then with the international Tchaikovsky Competition—the Olympics of classical music—fast approaching, his prized family heirloom is stolen. Ray is determined to get it back. But now his family and the descendants of the man who once enslaved Ray's great-grandfather are each claiming that the violin belongs to them. With the odds stacked against him and the pressure mounting, will Ray ever see his beloved violin again?
How We Named the Stars by Andrés N. Ordorica (2024)
When Daniel de La Luna arrives as a scholarship student at an elite East Coast university, he bears the weight of his family’s hopes and dreams, and the burden of sharing his late uncle’s name. Daniel flounders at first—but then Sam, his roommate, changes everything. As their relationship evolves from brotherly banter to something more intimate, Daniel soon finds himself in love with a man who helps him see himself in a new light. But just as their relationship takes flight, Daniel is pulled away, first by Sam’s hesitation and then by a brutal turn of events that changes Daniel’s life forever. As he grapples with profound loss, Daniel finds himself in his family’s ancestral homeland in México for the summer, finding joy in this setting even as he struggles to come to terms with what’s happened and faces a host of new questions: How does the person he is connect with this place his family comes from? How is his own story connected to his late uncle’s? And how might he reconcile the many parts of himself as he learns to move forward?
Beyond by Ud Din (2024)
“A deformed boy named Kipling stumbles into Beyond, a mysterious world filled with talking animals, lost secrets, and wicked wonders waiting for travelers to ensnare. Accompanied by a cheerful courier frog, a secretive stowaway cat, and a secluded old astronomer, Kipling must venture into the heart of Beyond to ever have a hope of returning home. However, remnants of an ancient evil still lurk within Beyond... which may be more familiar to Kipling than he's willing to admit [(Amazon)](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D83CQ4WZ).” Part of the [Georgia Tech Authors collection](https://galileo-gatech.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01GALI_GIT/18jodvt/alma9915267181602947) at the Georgia Tech Library.
Title by Cordia Pearson (2024)
Two fathers, two countries and no place to call home. When your skin’s the wrong color, and eyes a hated shade of blue, life is one wretched battle after another. All that’s kept me alive is the birthmark for which I was abandoned the night of my birth. A Luna moth, symbol of the Mother Goddess, with a terrifying potential for magic. I worship the fierce warrior who found, then named me Thea. In a moon, I turn seventeen and will join his forces if he deems me worthy. Service alone will grant me citizenship, and deflect the hate heaped upon me daily. Yet I’m troubled by our mission to deny my desert people access to this country’s many resources. A warrior mage I’ve never trusted swears we’ve known each other in many lifetimes. He sees a different path for me—one in which I embrace the mystical destiny my birthmark portends. Faced by this alarming possibility, I ask: can I kill my own kind? Or will this mage, to whom I’m inexplicably drawn, convince me to give up a life of honor, for one of magic? Be swept away by this captivating adventure of love, honor, bias, and destiny.
The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson (2007)
Errol Flynn washes up on the island in the 'Zaca', his storm-wrecked yacht. Ida Joseph, teenaged daughter of Port Antonio's Justice of the Peace, is intrigued to learn that the 'World's Handsomest Man' is on the island, and makes it her business to meet him. For the jaded swashbuckler, Jamaica is a tropical paradise that offers adventure and the promise of personal salvation. Soon Flynn has made a home for himself on Navy Island where he entertains the cream of Hollywood - and Ida has set her heart on this charismatic older man.
The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma (2015)
Four middle-class Nigerian brothers,Ikenna,,Boja, Obembe and Benjamin, decide to go fishing in a river. They do this without their mother's knowledge, carefully hiding away their fishing kit when they come home. Their career lasts six weeks before they are discovered by a neighbor, who tells their mother. One day at the river they meet the local oddball, Abulu,who has the power of prophecy, and who predicts that Ikenna, the eldest, will be killed by one of his brothers: by a "fisherman". It is from this simple, almost mythological conceit that Chigozie Obioma's debut novel grows, gaining complexity and power as it rises to its heartbreaking climax.
Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour (Scott Pilgrim #6) by Bryan Lee O'Malley (2010)
"Six of Ramona's seven evil exes dispatched, it should be time for Scott Pilgrim to face Gideon Graves, the biggest and baddest of her former beaus. But didn't Ramona take off at the end of Book 5? Shouldn't that let Scott off the hook? Maybe it should, maybe it shouldn't, but one thing is for certain all of this has been building to Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour!"--Amazon.
The last song by Nicholas Sparks (2009)
#1 bestselling author Nicholas Sparks's new novel is at once a compelling family drama and a heartrending tale of young love.Seventeen year old Veronica "Ronnie" Miller's life was turned upside-down when her parents divorced and her father moved from New York City to Wilmington, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains angry and alientated from her parents, especially her father...until her mother decides it would be in everyone's best interest if she spent the summer in Wilmington with him. Ronnie's father, a former concert pianist and teacher, is living a quiet life in the beach town, immersed in creating a work of art that will become the centerpiece of a local church.The tale that unfolds is an unforgettable story of love on many levels--first love, love between parents and children -- that demonstrates, as only a Nicholas Sparks novel can, the many ways that love can break our hearts...and heal them.
Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld (2005)
Curtis Sittenfeld's debut novel, Prep, is an insightful, achingly funny coming-of-age story as well as a brilliant dissection of class, race, and gender in a hothouse of adolescent angst and ambition.Lee Fiora is an intelligent, observant fourteen-year-old when her father drops her off in front of her dorm at the prestigious Ault School in Massachusetts. She leaves her animated, affectionate family in South Bend, Indiana, at least in part because of the boarding school's glossy brochure, in which boys in sweaters chat in front of old brick buildings, girls in kilts hold lacrosse sticks on pristinely mown athletic fields, and everyone sings hymns in chapel. As Lee soon learns, Ault is a cloistered world of jaded, attractive teenagers who spend summers on Nantucket and speak in their own clever shorthand. Both intimidated and fascinated by her classmates, Lee becomes a shrewd observer of--and, ultimately, a participant in--their rituals and mores. As a scholarship student, she constantly feels like an outsider and is both drawn to and repelled by other loners. By the time she's a senior, Lee has created a hard-won place for herself at Ault. But when her behavior takes a self-destructive and highly public turn, her carefully crafted identity within the community is shattered.Ultimately, Lee's experiences--complicated relationships with teachers; intense friendships with other girls; an all-consuming preoccupation with a classmate who is less than a boyfriend and more than a crush; conflicts with her parents, from whom Lee feels increasingly distant, coalesce into a singular portrait of the painful and thrilling adolescence universal to us all.From the Hardcover edition.
The impossible fortress by Jason Rekulak (2017)
Billy Marvin's first love was a computer. Then he met Mary Zelinsky. Do you remember your first love? The Impossible Fortress begins with a magazine...The year is 1987 and Playboy has just published scandalous photographs of Vanna White, from the popular TV game show Wheel of Fortune . For three teenage boys--Billy, Alf, and Clark--who are desperately uneducated in the ways of women, the magazine is somewhat of a Holy Grail: priceless beyond measure and impossible to attain. So, they hatch a plan to steal it. The heist will be fraught with peril: a locked building, intrepid police officers, rusty fire escapes, leaps across rooftops, electronic alarm systems, and a hyperactive Shih Tzu named Arnold Schwarzenegger. Failed attempt after failed attempt leads them to a genius master plan--they'll swipe the security code to Zelinsky's convenience store by seducing the owner's daughter, Mary Zelinsky. It becomes Billy's mission to befriend her and get the information by any means necessary. But Mary isn't your average teenage girl. She's a computer loving, expert coder, already strides ahead of Billy in ability, with a wry sense of humor and a hidden, big heart. But what starts as a game to win Mary's affection leaves Billy with a gut-wrenching choice: deceive the girl who may well be his first love or break a promise to his best friends. At its heart, The Impossible Fortress is a tender exploration of young love, true friends, and the confusing realities of male adolescence--with a dash of old school computer programming.
Tell the wolves I'm home by Carol Rifka Brunt (2012)
It is 1987, and only one person has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus -- her uncle, the renowned painter Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her older sister, June can only be herself in Finn's company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies, far too young, of a mysterious illness her mother can barely speak about, June's world is turned upside down. But Finn's death brings a surprise acquaintance into June's life -- someone who will help her to heal, and to question what she thinks she knows about Finn, her family, and even her own heart.
Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler (2013)
"Hank, Leland, Kip and Ronny were all born and raised in the same Wisconsin town--Little Wing--and are now coming into their own (or not) as husbands and fathers. One of them never left, still farming the family's land that's been tilled for generations. Others did leave, went farther afield to make good, with varying degrees of success; as a rock star, commodities trader, rodeo stud. And seamlessly woven into their patchwork is Beth, whose presence among them--both then and now--fuels the kind of passion one comes to expect of lovesongs and rivalries. Now all four are home, in hopes of finding what could be real purchase in the world. The result is a shared memory only half-recreated, riddled with culture clashes between people who desperately wish to see themselves as the unified tribe they remember, but are confronted with how things have, in fact, changed. There is conflict here between longtime buddies, between husbands and wives--told with writing that is, frankly, gut-wrenching, and even heartbreaking. But there is also hope, healing, and at times, even heroism. It is strong, American stuff, not at all afraid of showing that we can be good, too--not just fallible and compromising. Shotgun Lovesongs is a remarkable and uncompromising saga that explores the age-old question of whether or not you can ever truly come home again--and the kind of steely faith and love returning requires"--
The blooding of Jack Absolute by C. C. Humphreys (2005)
Amongst the debauched aristocracy of eighteenth-century London, life is easy for the handsome young Jack Absolute. The only risks he faces appear on the cricket field, in the billiard hall, or in the boudoirs of the city's courtesans. Yet despite his carousing, he hopes for something more, and plans to give it all up for college in Cambridge and a promising career. His future success is assured, as long as he can stay out of trouble for one more night. ...