Reading: International

Sunny Nwazue lives in Nigeria, but she was born in New York City. Her features are West African, but she's albino. She doesn't seem to fit in anywhere, but then she discovers she is a free agent with latent magical power. Young adult fiction. 477 pages. Available as ebook and audiobook

This enchanting novel, about an Andalusian shepherd boy who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of treasure, is a testament the transforming power of our dreams and the importance of listening to our hearts. Fiction. 182 pages. Available as ebook and audiobook

Two young Pakistani Americans open a motel together in a sweeping story that crosses generations and continents in a novel about family and forgiveness, and love and loss. Young adult fiction. 374 pages. Available as ebook

18-year-old Salama Kassab, a pharmacy student volunteering at the hospital in Homs, Syria, is desperate to find passage on a refugee boat for herself and her pregnant best friend, but first she must learn to see the events around her for what they are--not a war, but a revolution. Young adult fiction. 417 pages.

Antonio Marez is six years old when Ultima – a curandera who cures with herbs and magic - comes to stay with his family in New Mexico. Under her wise wing, Tony will test the bonds that tie him to his people,as Ultima nurtures the birth of his soul. Fiction. 290 pages.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa has witnessed some of the worst crimes peopel can inflict on others. So wherever he goes, he inevitably gets asked, How do I forgive? This book is his answer. Nonfiction. 229 pages, Available as ebook

Noah's path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother, he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. A moving yet funny portrait. Nonfiction. 288 pages. Available as ebook

McDougall reveals the secrets of the world's greatest distance runners--the Tarahumara Indians of Copper Canyon, Mexico--and how he trained for the challenge of a fifty-mile race pitting the tribe against an odd band of super-athletic Americans. Nonfiction. 287 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.

"This historical fiction tells the riveting tale of a British fighter plane that crashes in 1943 in Nazi-occupied France. A story of friendship of two women, a pilot and a secret agent spy, who find themselves in enemy territory." Young Adult Fiction. 339 pages.

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.

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.

One of The New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year, Disappearing Earth is described as brilliant, engrossing and daring. Set on the shoreline of the Kamchatka peninsula at the northeastern edge of Russia, the novel begins when two sisters, ages eight and eleven, go missing. Fiction. 255 pages.

Reyna Grande writes about her childhood in Mexico when her father, and later her mother left for the United States, and then she makes her own journey to "El Otro Lado" to live with her long absent father. Nonfiction. 325 pages.

A fictionalized biography of the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who grew up a painfully shy child, ridiculed by his overbearing father, but who became one of the most widely-read poets in the world. Young Adult Fiction. 372 pages.

Embittered by her first experiences of love, a young Brazilian girl travels to Geneva in search of fame and fortune and finds her beliefs about sex and romance challenged by her relationship with a young painter. Fiction. 273 pages. Available as ebook

A whimsical fantasy and mystery novel featuring a genius, anti-social professor whos is an expert on dryadology, the study of fairies on an isolated island in Norway. Fiction 317 pages.

As violence and unrest looms over their country, Nadia and Saeed embark on a furtive love affair.. As the violence escalates, Nadia and Saeed leave their homeland and begin their life as refugees. Described as "spellbinding" and "all too relevant." Fiction. 231 pages. Available as ebook

"Russia's last tsar, Nicholas II, and his family (four daughters and a hemophiliac son), buried their heads in the sand, living a life of opulence as World War I raged outside their door and political unrest grew into the Russian Revolution. Alternating between the lives of the Romanovs and their advisor Rasputin and the plight of Russia's peasants and urban workers -- and their eventual uprising – the author tells a compelling story, complete with period photographs." Nonfiction. 292 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 1972, when she was seven, the author and her family moved from Iran to Southern California. Funny in Farsi is a humorous and unforgettable story of culture shock, discovery, and the power of family love. Nonfiction. 227 pages.

The story of a former literature professor and fugitive of the Mexican government who reinvents himself as a trucker in the United States. A whimsical and passionate story of a father and daughter on the run. Fiction. 295 pages.

Two Pulitzer Prize winners address our era's worst human rights violation: the oppression of women in the developing world. They show that a little help can transform lives, and that the key to economic progress lies in unleashing women's potential. Nonfiction. 294 pages.

Two half sisters, Effia and Esi, unknown to each other, are born into two different tribal villages in 18th century Ghana. One will marry an English colonel, the other will be shipped to America and sold into slavery. In a novel that stretches from the tribal wars of Ghana to the streets of 20th century Harlem, Yaa Gyasi's has written a modern masterpiece. Fiction. 305 pages. Available as ebook

In the 1960s, political tension forces the García family away from Santo Domingo and towards the Bronx. The sisters all hit their strides in America, adapting and thriving despite cultural differences, language barriers, and prejudice. Fiction. 290 pages.

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday October 9, 2012, she almost paid the ultimate price. Nonfiction. 327 pages. Available as ebook

When the sister who delighted their parents by her faithful embrace of Mexican culture dies in a tragic accident, Julia, who longs to go to college and move into a home of her own, discovers that her sister may not have been as perfect as believed. Described as a "perfect book about imperfection." Young adult fiction. 344 pages. Available as ebook and audiobook

Deborah Rodriguez went to Afghanistan in 2001 to help. Not a doctor or nurse, she used her skills as a hairdresser to help Afghan women, who have a long tradition of running their own beauty salons. That’s how the Kabul Beauty School was born. Nonfiction. 301 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. 372 pages. Available as ebook

After the sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a wounded zebra, an orangutan—and a 450-pound royal bengal tiger. Fiction. 326 pages.

A captivating gothic horror novel set in 1950s Mexico, combining eerie atmosphere, family secrets, and a creepy haunted house. Fiction. 334 pages. Available as ebook

It's Carnival time and the Caribbean-colonized planet of Toussaint is celebrating. To young Tan-Tan, the Robber Queen is simply a favorite costume to wear at the festival--until her power-corrupted father commits an unforgivable crime. Fiction. 329 pages.

In October 1972, a plane carrying an Uruguayan rugby team crashed in the Andes. Not immediately rescued, the team turns to cannabilism to survive. Nonfiction. 291 pages.

Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant Naples neighborhood, the novel follows the divergent life of paths of Elena and Lila during a time of momentous change. From one of Italy's most acclaimed authors. Fiction. 331 pages. Available as ebook

A darkly comic hand grenade of a novel about a Nigerian woman whose younger sister has a very inconvenient habit of killing her boyfriends. Fiction. 226 pages.

The students of Hailsham, an elite school in the English countryside, are so special that visitors shun them, and only by rumor and the occasional fleeting remark by a teacher do they discover their unconventional origins and strange destiny. Fiction. 288 pages. Available as ebook

This first novel in the widely acclaimed The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series tells the story of the delightfully cunning detective, Precious Ramotswe of Botswana. This case is of a missing boy, who may have been snatched by witchdoctors. Fiction. 235 pages. Available as ebook

Two sisters leave Shanghai to find new lives in 1930s Los Angeles in this fresh, fascinating adventure. Fiction. 322 pages.

A young poet tells the inspiring story of his migration from El Salvador to the United States at the age of nine in this gripping memoir of bravery, hope, and finding family. Memoir. 384 pages Available as ebook and audiobook

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

Jal, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, witnessed and perpetrated unspeakable brutality in his country's civil war. Shocking, inspiring and finally hopeful, War Child is a memoir by a young man determined to tell his story and bring peace to his homeland. Nonfiction. 262 pages.

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