Reading Room Blog

If you liked  “Perelandra," you might find something to enjoy in these titles.

“The Sparrow” by Mary Doria Russell
“Emilio Sandoz, a brilliant Jesuit priest, seems like the perfect leader for the first expedition to an extraterrestrial culture. However, when Sandoz returns to Earth 20 years later as the mission's sole survivor, he is accused of unspeakable violence and depravity. Why? An extraordinary fiction debut, by paleoanthropologist Mary Doria Russell.”--Copyright © Libri GmbH.

African-American fiction can run the gamut from romance to gritty, urban
mysteries.

Some African American mysteries are:

Coq au Vin by Charlotte Carter. Nanette Hayes is a poetry-spouting,
jazz-playing, French speaking Black American Princess who looks like
Grace Jones. Hip, funny and sexy.

It depends on what elements of sociology and psychology and what ages/grades you are interested in. However, here are some that you
might find useful for teens of various ages (both Giles and Hautman tend to write psychological fiction for teens). I hope these help--

Invisible by Pete Hautman (mental illness).

Doug and Andy are unlikely best friends--one a loner obsessed by his model trains, the other a popular student involved in football and

theater--who grew up together and share a bond that nothing can sever.

Here are three titles I hope you might enjoy.

Lily Dale: Awakening by Wendy Corsi Staub.
When seventeen-year-old Calla's mother suddenly dies, she goes to stay with her psychic grandmother in Lily Dale, a spiritualist community in western New York, where she discovers some disconcerting secrets about her practical, down-to-earth mother, and realizes that she herself may also have some psychic abilities.

I have some suggestions if you liked A Walk to Remember, and The Notebook.

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly.

In 1906, sixteen-year-old Mattie, determined to attend college and be a writer against the wishes of her father and fiance, takes a job at a summer inn where she discovers the truth about the death of a guest. Based on a true story.

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray.

Have you also read Garden of the Purple Dragon and Dragon Moon also by Carole Wilkinson?

Here are some other titles I think you may enjoy:

In an interview, Carol Wilkinson said she was reading The Amulet of Samarkand and was enjoying it immensely.

The Amulet of Samarakand by Jonathon Stroud.

Nathaniel, a magician's apprentice, summons up the djinni Bartimaeus and instructs him to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from the powerful magician Simon Lovelace.

Dragon's Keep by Janet Lee Carey.

 Here are some other titles that you might consider. There are two more titles in that series.

Frostbite by Richelle Mead.

Rose loves Dimitri, Dimitri might love Tasha, and Mason would die to be with Rose...

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin.

The mysterious death of an eccentric millionaire brings together an unlikely assortment of heirs who must uncover the circumstances of his death before they can claim their inheritance.

Madapple was a finalist for the American Library Association Award, and I’m on the waiting list to read it.

Here are some other titles you may enjoy:

A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth Bunce.

Upon the death of her father, seventeen-year-old Charlotte struggles to keep the family's woolen mill running in the face of an overwhelming mortgage and what the local villagers believe is a curse, but when a man capable of spinning straw into gold appears on the scene she must decide if his help is worth the price.

If you liked Katherine Neville's The Eight, you may also be interested in her 2008 novel, The Fire, and these titles:

The Overseer by Jonathan Rabb
Agent Sarah Trent and Professor Xander Jaspers search the globe for a missing 16th century manuscript that outlines a plan for world domination.