Reading: Movies

Perhaps the best written of all the slave narratives, this book recounts how Solomon Northup, born a free man in New York, was lured to Washington, D.C., in 1841 with the promise of fast money, then drugged and beaten and sold into slavery. He spent the next twelve years of his life in captivity on a Louisiana cotton plantation. Nonfiction. 170 pages. Available as ebook

When ten people arrive on private Indian Island off England's southwest coast, lured to a mansion by invitations from a mysterious host, terror mounts as one guest after another is murdered, in a classic whodunit. Fiction. 275 pages.

Before Nic Sheff became addicted to crystal meth, he was a charming boy, joyous and funny, a varsity athlete and honor student adored by his two younger siblings. After meth, he was a trembling wraith who lied, stole, and lived on the streets. This candid memoir was written by a father who wouldn't give up on his son. Nonfiction. 340 pages. Available as ebook

The riveting story of a woman who has lost her short term memory and wakes up every morning scared because she doesn't recognize the man in bed with her. Not to worry, it's her husband. Or is it? Fiction. 360 pages.

African American detective Ron Stallworth tells his story of how he went undercover to investigate the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado Springs in 1978. This book is the basis of the award winning movie by Spike Lee. Nonfiction. 191 pages.

Follows one young man from his impoverished childhood with a crack-addicted mother, through his discovery of the sport of football, to his rise to become one of the most successful, highly-paid players in the NFL. Nonfiction. 339 pages.

When Garrard Conley was a nineteen-year-old college student, he was outed to his parents, and was forced to make a life-changing decision: either agree to attend a church-supported conversion therapy program that promised to 'cure' him of homosexuality; or risk losing family, friends, and the God he had prayed to every day of his life. This memoir is a testament to love that survives despite all odds. Nonfiction. 340 pages.

In a remarkable true story about human inventiveness, an enterprising teenager in Malawi builds a windmill from scraps he finds around his village and brings electricity, and a future, to his family. Nonfiction. 286 pages.

A sudden and powerful romance blossoms between an adolescent boy and a young man who is a summer guest at his parents' cliffside mansion on the Italian Riviera. Fiction. 248 pages.

The powerful bond between two brothers--one alive and the other killed in a terrible accident--unexpectedly transcends the barriers of life and death, and it is up to one enchanting woman to make their world right. Heartwarming and moving. Fiction. 306 pages.

In this fast paced urban fantasy series set in New York, Clary Fray is suddenly able to see demons and the Darkhunters who are dedicated to returning them to their own dimension, and is drawn in to this dark world. Young Adult Fiction. 485 pages. Available as ebook

After being taught in a boarding school run by whites that Navajo is a useless language, Ned Begay and other Navajo men are recruited by the Marines to become Code Talkers, sending messages during World War II in their native tongue. Young Adult Fiction. 231 pages.

Looking for excitement, Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must challenge a gruesome entity in order to save herself, her parents, and the souls of three others. Young Adult Fiction. 162 pages. Available as ebook and audiobook

An outrageously funny debut, Crazy Rich Asians is the story of three superrich, pedigreed Chinese families and the gossip, backbiting and scheming that occur when Nicholas Young, heir to one of the most massive fortunes in Asia, brings home his ABC (American-born Chinese) girlfriend to the wedding of the season. Fiction. 517 pages. Available as audiobook

Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother. Young Adult Fiction. 226 pages. Available as audiobook

Sookie Stackhouse is just a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana, until the vampire of her dreams walks into her life. When one of her coworkers checks out, she decides that maybe having a vampire for a boyfriend isn't such a bright idea. Inspiration for HBO series True Blood. Fiction. 327 pages.

John, a high school dropout, enlists in the Army not knowing what else to do with his life. While in the Army he meets Savannah, the girl of his dreams. They fall in love and she awaits his return from the Army. Then 9/11 changes everything. Fiction. 278 pages.

The gripping account of the experiences of the thirty-three men who endured entrapment beneath thousands of feet of rock for a record-breaking sixty-nine days during the San José mine collapse outside of Copiapó, Chile, in August 2010. Nonfiction. 309 pages.

A veteran of years of simulated war games, Ender believes he is engaged in one more computer war game when in truth he is commanding the last fleet of Earth against an alien race seeking the complete destruction of Earth. Fiction. 324 pages.

Guy Montag, a fire-fighter and book-burner for the State, discovers that in order to remain human he must preserve the books that attest to his humanity. Fiction. 249 pages. Available as ebook

Hazel is a 16-year old girl with stage IV thyroid cancer. To help her deal with her clinical depression, her doctor sends her to a weekly support group where she meets Augustus Waters, a fellow cancer survivor who forces her to reexamine her perspective on love, loss, and life. Young Adult Fiction. 318 pages. Available as ebook Disponible en español.

First published in Rolling Stone magazine in 1971, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is Hunter S. Thompson's savagely comic account of what happened to this country in the 1960s. It is told through the writer's account of an assignment he undertook with his attorney to visit Las Vegas and "check it out." . Nonfiction. 204 pages.

First part of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. After discovering the true nature of the one ring, Bilbo Baggins entrusts it to the care of his young cousin, Frodo, who is charged with bringing about its destruction and thus foiling the plans of the Dark Lord. Fiction. 398 pages. Available as ebook

Seventeen-year-olds Stella and Will, both suffering from cystic fibrosis, realize the only way to stay alive is to stay apart, but their love for each other is slowly pushing the boundaries of physical and emotional safety. Young Adult Fiction. 281 pages.

"These are the memories that inspired the television show. The author is the thirty-year-old proprietor of Baohaus, the hot East Village hangout where foodies, stoners, and students come to stuff their faces with delicious Taiwanese street food late into the night. But before he created the perfect home for himself in a small patch of downtown New York, he wandered the American wilderness looking for a place to call his own." Nonfiction. 276 pages. Available as ebook

In 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist she'd never seen before, eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to Mc Lean Hospital to be treated for depression. She spent most of the next two years on the ward for teenage girls in a psychiatric hospital renowned for its famous clientele-Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor and Ray Charles. A clear-sighted, unflinching work that provokes questions about our definitions of sane and insane, Kaysen's extraordinary memoir encompasses horror and razor-edged perception while providing vivid portraits of her fellow patients and their keepers. Nonfiction. 168 pages.

Rachel is unemployed and devastated by a recent divorce. She fills her time with drinking, riding the commuter train, and fantasizing about a seemingly perfect couple the train passes by every day. Then one morning, Rachel sees something shocking that unravels her and entangles her in an unfolding mystery. Fiction. 316 pages. Available as ebook

Set in the late twentieth century, Jonas lives in a peaceful community that knows of no pain, war, or poverty, but in society's quest for sameness they have also lost the meaning of love and family. Follow Jonas and other outcasts who question this life. Young Adult Fiction. 179 pages. Available as ebook and audiobook

Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North. This is the first book of a trilogy. Young Adult Fiction. 351 pages. Available as ebook

On their fifth anniversary, Nick's clever and beautiful wife Amy disappears. Is he the killer? As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they really know the one they love. Fiction. 419 pages. Available as ebook and audiobook

Jay Gatsby had once loved beautiful, spoiled Daisy Buchanan, then lost her to a rich boy. Now, mysteriously wealthy, he is ready to risk everything to woo her back. A classic of twentieth-century literature. Fiction. 180 pages. Available as ebook and graphic novel

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, serving in the household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife. A gripping vision of our society radically overturned by a theocratic revolution. Fiction. 350 pages. Available as ebook

Rescued from the outrageous neglect of his aunt and uncle, a young boy with a great destiny proves his worth while attending Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Young Adult Fiction. 309 pages. Available as ebook

This runaway best seller tells the story of 16-year-old Starr Carter, who is drawn to activism after she witnesses the police shooting of her unarmed friend. Winner of the Coretta Scott King award. Young Adult Fiction. 444 pages. Available as ebook and audiobook

Limited and persecuted by racial divides in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, three women, including an African-American maid, her sassy and chronically unemployed friend, and a recently graduated white woman, team up for a clandestine project. Fiction. 464 pages.

An account of the previously unheralded but pivotal contributions of NASA's African-American women mathematicians to America's space program describes how they were segregated from their white counterparts by Jim Crow laws in spite of their groundbreaking successes. Nonfiction. 346 pages.

Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit, lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to take part in an adventure from which he may never return. Fiction. Available as ebook and audiobook

This action thriller is set In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting youth against one another. First part of a trilogy that includes Catching Fire and Mockingjay. Young Adult Fiction. 374 pages. Available as ebook Catching Fire and Mockingjay also available as ebooks.

Mia had everything: a loving family, an adoring boyfriend, and a bright future in music. Then, in an instant, everything changes…. Simultaneously tragic and hopeful, this is a riveting and uplifting story about memory, music, living, dying, and loving. Young Adult Fiction. 262 pages.

As her senior capstone project, Pippa Fitz-Amobi is determined to find the real killer in a closed, local murder case, but not everyone wants her meddling in the past. T.V. adaptation streaming on Netflix.Young Adult Fiction. 389 pages. Available as ebook

After the unexpected death of a beloved pope, Cardinal Lawrence and church leaders are locked together in the Vatican in an ancient ritual and discover secrets that could shake the foundation of the Church. This thriller of a novel was the basis for the 2024 motion picture. Fiction. 285 pages.

This award winning novel tells the sweeping tale of a desert planet called Arrakis, the focus of an intricate power struggle in a byzantine interstellar empire.Fiction. 535 pages.

Truman Capote’s masterpiece is the intensively researched narrative of the lives of the Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas, and of the two men, Richard Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward Smith, who brutally murdered them. A True Crime classic. Nonfiction. 343 pages.

We are in a small room with the vampire, face to face, as he speaks--as he pours out the hypnotic, shocking, moving, and erotically charged confessions of his first two hundred years as one of the living dead. Fiction. 351 pages.

In April 1992, a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. Into the Wild tells the unforgettable story of how he came to die. Nonfiction. 207 pages. Available as ebook

A humorous account of a New York City teenager's battle with depression and his time spent in a psychiatric hospital. This is a remarkably moving tale about the sometimes unexpected road to happiness. Young Adult Fiction. 444 pages. Available as audiobook

A memoir of the Gulf War by a front-line infantry marine recounts his struggles with the conflict on the front lines, his battles with fear and suicide, his brushes with death, and his identity as a soldier and an American. . Nonfiction. 260 pages.

In the 1920s, members of the Osage nation who had gotten rich off the oil under their land began disappearing. White investigators who tried to uncover the truth were disappearing too. Young adult adaptation of a Nonfiction book. 322 pages.

Traces the unlikely friendship of a wealthy Afghan youth and a servant's son, in a tale that spans the final days of Afghanistan's monarchy through the atrocities of the present day. Fiction. 371 pages. Available as ebook and graphic novel

Unusual zookeeper's son Pi Patel sets sail for America, but when the ship sinks, he escapes on a life boat and is lost at sea with a dwindling number of animals until only he and a hungry Bengal tiger remain. Fiction. 326 pages. Available as ebook

This is the tale of family, memory, love, and living told by 14-year-old Susie Salmon, who is already in heaven. Through the voice of a precocious teenage girl, Susie relates the awful events of her death and builds out of her family's grief a hopeful and joyful story. Fiction. 328 pages.

It's America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. In San Francisco, the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some twenty years earlier the United States lost a war-and is now occupied by Nazi Germany and Japan. Fiction. 274 pages.

An edge-of-your-seat thriller about an astronaut stranded on Mars. Mark Watney draws on his ingenuity, his engineering skills, and a dogged refusal to quit as he confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Fiction. 369 pages. Available as ebook

Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape. Young Adult Fiction. 375 pages. Available as ebook and audiobook

They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose . . .Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life--steady boyfriend, close family--who has barely been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex-Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Fiction. 369 pages.

A 36-year-old single mother finds a bottle containing a love letter written only three weeks earlier by a man declaring his love to his darling Catherine. She decides to try to make contact with the man in hopes of changing both their lives. Fiction. 342 pages.

Discover the classic, behind-the-scenes chronicle of John E. Douglas’ twenty-five-year career in the FBI Investigative Support Unit, where he used psychological profiling to delve into the minds of the country’s most notorious serial killers and criminals. This book is the basis of a Netflix original series. Nonfiction. 375 pages.

Moneyball starts with an innocent question: how did one of the poorest teams in baseball, the Oakland Athletics, win so many games? The author examines the fallacy behind the major league baseball refrain that the team with the biggest wallet is supposed to win. Nonfiction. 288 pages.

A poor and passionate young man falls in love with a rich young woman and gives her a sense of freedom. Will their social differences divide them? Fiction. 239 pages.

Out of work and out of money, Stephanie Plum lands a job as bounty hunter and her first prey is, guess who? None other than Joe Morelli, the macho pig who deflowered her in high school. Now a cop, he is wanted for murder. The intriguing thing is she still rather fancies him. Fiction. 334 pages.

Heartbreaking, hilarious, and at times enraging, Piper's story offers a rare look into the lives of women in prison - why it is we lock so many away and what happens to them when they're there. Nonfiction. 327 pages.

A poignant coming of age novel told in a series of letters reveals the life of Charlie, a freshman in high school who is a wallflower, shy and introspective, and very intelligent. It's a story of what it's like to grow up in high school, tracing a course through uncharted territory in the world of first dates, family dramas and new friends. Young Adult Fiction. 231 pages. Available as ebook Disponible en español.

A self-portrait of a black teenage girl, big, fat, unloved, with a father who rapes her and a jealous mother who screams abuse. For Precious, hope appears when a courageous young teacher bullies, cajoles and inspires her to learn to read. Fiction. 139 pages.

It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place. In the virtual utopia called Oasis, gamers must navigate clever puzzles and outwit enemies in the virtual world to save the real one. Fiction. 374 pages. Available as ebook and audiobook

Drafted against her will to serve the regime of Vladimir Putin as an intelligence seductress, Dominika Egorova engages in a charged effort of deception and tradecraft with first-tour CIA officer Nathaniel Nash before a forbidden attraction threatens their careers. Fiction. 434 pages.

Based on a true story, The Revenant is a tale of obsession, the human will stretched to its limits, and the lengths one man will go for retribution. One of the greatest tales of the nineteenth century West. Fiction. 262 pages. Available as audiobook

The spellbinding tale of Seabiscuit, a horse with crooked legs and a pathetic tail that made racing history in 1938, thanks to the efforts of a trainer, owner, and jockey who transformed a bottom-level racehorse into a legend. Nonfiction. 399 pages.

After her "stand-in mother," a bold black woman named Rosaleen, insults the three biggest racists in town, Lily Owens joins Rosaleen on a journey to Tiburon, South Carolina, where they are taken in by three black, bee-keeping sisters. Heartwarming. Fiction. 302 pages. Available as ebook and audiobook

Mack’s youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted , and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant, The Shack wrestles with timeless questions. Christian Fiction. 266 pages.

Pat Peoples formulates a theory about silver linings while in a neural health facility. Once he becomes physically fit and emotionally supportive, his happy ending will be the return of his estranged wife, Nikki. Or so he thinks. Fiction. 289 pages.

Navajo Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Tribal Officer Jim Chee are investigating three murders, leading them into the dark and mystical domain of evil beings of Navajo legend, the “skinwalkers." Fiction. 304 pages.

In the quiet English hamlet of Wall, Tristran Thorn embarks on a remarkable journey through the world of Faerie to recover a fallen star for his lover, the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester. Fiction. 250 pages. Available as ebook

Two teens--Daniel, the son of Korean shopkeepers, and Natasha, whose family is here illegally from Jamaica--cross paths in New York City on an eventful day in their lives--Daniel is on his way to an interview with a Yale alum, Natasha is meeting with a lawyer to try and prevent her family's deportation to Jamaica--and fall in love. Young Adult Fiction. 344 pages. Available as ebook and audiobook

The explosion of racial hate in an Alabama town is viewed by a little girl whose father defends a black man accused of rape. Fiction. 323 pages. Available as ebook, audiobook, and graphic novel

Mattie Ross is fourteen years of age when a coward going by the name of Tom Chaney shoots her father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robs him of his life, his horse, and $150. She leaves home with Marshal Rooster Cogburn to avenge her father's blood. Fiction. 235 pages. Available as ebook

When Bella leaves Phoenix to live with her father in Forks, Washington, she meets an exquisitely handsome boy at school for whom she feels an overwhelming attraction and who she comes to realize is not wholly human. Young Adult Fiction. 498 pages. Available as ebook

In May of 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean Lt. Louis Zamperini is captured by the Japanese and driven to the limits of endurance. Zamperini answered desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor. Adult Nonfiction. 473 pages.

Four African-American women console and support one another in a complex friendship that helps each of them face the middle of her life as a single woman. Fiction. 409 pages.

A powerful, blazingly honest, inspiring memoir: the story of a 1,100 mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe--and built her back up again. Nonfiction. 315 pages. Available as ebook

Meg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg's father, who has disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government. Young Adult Fiction. 245 pages. Available as ebook, audiobook and graphic novel

The true story of how the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands. Nonfiction. 368 pages. Available as audiobook

A darkly comedic, genre-bending tale in which an aspiring Asian American actor navigates the absurd stereotypes of his TV-inspired world, dreaming of breaking free from the background role of "Generic Asian Man" to become the lead in his own story. Winner of the National Book Award. Streaming on Hulu.Fiction. 270 pages. Available as ebook and audiobook

Best selling novelist Colleen Hoover delivers a captivating romance with a cast of all-too-human characters in an unforgettable tale of love that comes at the ultimate price. Fiction. 376 pages. Disponible en español.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that exposes the harrowing truths of a segregated reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida through the intertwined stories of two boys who endure its brutal injustices.Fiction. 213pages. Available as audiobook

Alex Claremont-Diaz, son of the President of the United States, finds himself drawn in a whirlwind romance with Prince Henry, heir to the British throne, which could derail his mother's re-election campaign and upend two nations. Young Adult Fiction. 421 pages. Available as audiobook.