Welcome to Los Gatos Library Staff Picks
It's no surprise that many of us here at the library love to read, so we thought we would share our most enjoyable reads with you.
Adult Fiction
Loving Frank : a novel - Nancy Horan
Publisher:
Ballantine Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 08/07/2007
ISBN-13: 9780345494993
ISBN-10: 0345494997
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 08/07/2007
ISBN-13: 9780345494993
ISBN-10: 0345494997
Fact and fiction blend in a historical novel that chronicles the relationship between seminal architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney, from their meeting in Oak Park, Illinois, when they were each married to another, to the clandestine affair that shocked Chicago society. A first novel. 75,000 first printing.
The book thief - Markus Zusak
Publisher:
Alfred A. Knopf
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 03/14/2006
ISBN-13: 9780375831003
ISBN-10: 0375831002
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 03/14/2006
ISBN-13: 9780375831003
ISBN-10: 0375831002
Living with a foster family in Germany during World War II, a young girl struggles to survive her day-to-day trials through stealing anything she can get her hands on, but when she discovers the beauty of literature, she realizes that she has been blessed with a gift that must be shared with others, including the Jewish man hiding in the basement.
Mistress of the art of death - Ariana Franklin
Publisher:
G.P. Putnam's Sons
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/06/2007
ISBN-13: 9780399154140
ISBN-10: 0399154140
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/06/2007
ISBN-13: 9780399154140
ISBN-10: 0399154140
Sent to medieval Cambridge in order to exonerate a group of Jewish prisoners with financial ties to King Henry I, University of Salerno medical examiner Adelia and a group of companions struggle to avoid being accused of witchcraft and discover that the killer may be a former crusader. 150,00 first printing.
Billy Straight : a novel - Jonathan Kellerman
Publisher:
Random House
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/01/1999
ISBN-13: 9780679459590
ISBN-10: 0679459596
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/01/1999
ISBN-13: 9780679459590
ISBN-10: 0679459596
When twelve-year-old Billy Straight, a runaway struggling to survive L.A.'s most dangerous streets, becomes the sole eyewitness to a brutal murder, he becomes the target of the media, bounty hunters, and a killer, as L.A.P.D. homicide detective Petra Connor races against time to save his life. 325,000 first printing. Tour.
One hundred years of solitude - Gabriel García Márquez and Gregory Rabassa
Publisher:
Perennial Classics
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/01/2004
ISBN-13: 9780060740450
ISBN-10: 0060740450
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/01/2004
ISBN-13: 9780060740450
ISBN-10: 0060740450
Tells the story of the Buendia family, set against the background of the evolution and eventual decadence of a small South American town.
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Publisher:
Farrar, Straus, Giroux
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/04/2002
ISBN-13: 9780374199692
ISBN-10: 0374199698
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/04/2002
ISBN-13: 9780374199692
ISBN-10: 0374199698
Calliope's friendship with a classmate and her sense of identity are compromised by the adolescent discovery that she is a hermaphrodite, a situation with roots in her grandparents' desperate struggle for survival in the 1920s. By the author of The Virgin Suicides.75,000 first printing.
State of wonder - Ann Patchett
Publisher:
Harper
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/07/2011
ISBN-13: 9780062049803
ISBN-10: 0062049801
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/07/2011
ISBN-13: 9780062049803
ISBN-10: 0062049801
A researcher at a pharmaceutical company, Marina Singh must step out of her comfort zone when she is sent into the heart of the Amazonian delta to check on a field team that has been silent for two years--a dangerous assignment that forces Marina to confront the ghosts of her past. 300,000 first printing.
The devil all the time : a novel - Donald Ray Pollock
Publisher:
Doubleday
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/12/2011
ISBN-13: 9780385535045
ISBN-10: 038553504X
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/12/2011
ISBN-13: 9780385535045
ISBN-10: 038553504X
The author of Knockemstiff presents a dark tale set in rural southern Ohio and West Virginia between World War II and the 1960s that follows the experiences of tormented and violent individuals whose respective struggles culminate in the adult patterns of an orphaned son.
Prodigal summer : a novel - Barbara Kingsolver
Publisher:
HarperCollins Publishers
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/01/2000
ISBN-13: 9780060199654
ISBN-10: 0060199652
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/01/2000
ISBN-13: 9780060199654
ISBN-10: 0060199652
Wildlife biologist Deanna is caught off guard by an intrusive young hunter, while bookish city wife Lusa finds herself facing a difficult identity choice, and elderly neighbors find attraction at the height of a long-standing feud. 500,000 first printing.
Adult Mysteries
Worst fears realized - Stuart Woods
Publisher:
HarperCollins
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/01/1999
ISBN-13: 9780060191825
ISBN-10: 0060191821
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/01/1999
ISBN-13: 9780060191825
ISBN-10: 0060191821
When the women in his life--including his date, his neighbor, and his secretary--start turning up dead, attorney-turned-investigator Stone Barrington joins forces with his friend Dino, an NYPD lieutenant, to help clear his name.
Thereby hangs a tail : A Chet and Bernie Mystery - Spencer Quinn
Publisher:
Atria Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/05/2010
ISBN-13: 9781416585855
ISBN-10: 1416585850
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/05/2010
ISBN-13: 9781416585855
ISBN-10: 1416585850
A follow-up to Dog On It finds the human-and-canine investigative team endeavoring to rescue an abducted show dog, a case that is complicated by reporter Susie Sanchez's disappearance and Chet's separation from Bernie.
A question of belief - Donna Leon
Publisher:
Atlantic Monthly Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/01/2010
ISBN-13: 9780802119421
ISBN-10: 0802119425
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/01/2010
ISBN-13: 9780802119421
ISBN-10: 0802119425
Longing to visit the cool mountains with his family during a brutally hot tourist season in Venice, Commissario Guido Brunetti agrees to help his inspector friend to safeguard an aunt's savings from an unscrupulous astrologer with ties to a shocking act of violence.
Adult Science Fiction & Fantasy
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
Publisher:
Bloomsbury
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/30/2004
ISBN-13: 9781582344164
ISBN-10: 1582344167
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/30/2004
ISBN-13: 9781582344164
ISBN-10: 1582344167
In nineteenth-century England, all is going well for rich, reclusive Mr Norell, who has regained some of the power of England's magicians from the past, until a rival magician, Jonathan Strange, appears and becomes Mr Norrell's pupil.
The summer tree : The Fionavar Tapestry - Guy Gavriel Kay
Publisher:
ROC
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/01/2001
ISBN-13: 9780451458223
ISBN-10: 0451458222
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/01/2001
ISBN-13: 9780451458223
ISBN-10: 0451458222
Five university students--Kimberly, Dave, Jennifer, Kevin, and Paul--meet a wizard who takes them to the heart of all worlds, Fionavar, where they discover who they were truly meant to be. Reprint.
A wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin
Publisher:
Atheneum
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/01/1991
ISBN-13: 9780689317200
ISBN-10: 0689317204
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/01/1991
ISBN-13: 9780689317200
ISBN-10: 0689317204
A boy grows to manhood while attempting to subdue the evil he unleashed on the world as an apprentice to the Master Wizard.
Adult Non-Fiction
The audacity of hope : thoughts on reclaiming the American dream - Barack Obama
Publisher:
Crown Publishers
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/10/2006
ISBN-13: 9780307237699
ISBN-10: 0307237699
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/10/2006
ISBN-13: 9780307237699
ISBN-10: 0307237699
The junior U.S. senator from Illinois speaks out to all Americans on how to transform U.S. politics, calling for a return to America's original ideals and revealing how they can be adapted to such controversial issues as globalization, the function of religion in public life, and the struggle to bring people together in a nation torn by differences. 250,000 first printing.
Dark nights of the soul : a guide to finding your way through life's ordeals - Thomas Moore
Publisher:
Gotham Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/01/2004
ISBN-13: 9781592400676
ISBN-10: 1592400671
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/01/2004
ISBN-13: 9781592400676
ISBN-10: 1592400671
A continuation of his best-selling Care of the Soul explains how to use times of challenge, disappointment, illness, and dissatisfaction as an opportunity to explore the soul's deepest needs in order to provide healing and a new understanding of the meaning of life. 100,000 first printing.
The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot
Publisher:
Crown Publishers
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/02/2010
ISBN-13: 9781400052172
ISBN-10: 1400052173
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/02/2010
ISBN-13: 9781400052172
ISBN-10: 1400052173
Documents the story of how scientists took cells from an unsuspecting descendant of freed slaves and created a human cell line that has been kept alive indefinitely, enabling discoveries in such areas as cancer research, in vitro fertilization and gene mapping.
The lost painting - Jonathan Harr
Publisher:
Random House Trade Paperbacks
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/07/2006
ISBN-13: 9780375759864
ISBN-10: 0375759867
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/07/2006
ISBN-13: 9780375759864
ISBN-10: 0375759867
The author of A Civil Action offers a compelling account of the search for a long-lost masterpiece by Italian Baroque master Michelangelo Caravaggio, one his era's most colorful and turbulent figures, following a young graduate student across hundreds of years and four countries to uncover the mystery of "The Taking of Christ." Reprint. 150,000 first printing.
Young Adult Fiction
Trickster's choice - Tamora Pierce
Publisher:
Random House
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/28/2004
ISBN-13: 9780375828799
ISBN-10: 0375828796
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/28/2004
ISBN-13: 9780375828799
ISBN-10: 0375828796
Alianne, the teenage daughter of Alanna, the first lady knight in Tortall, is kidnapped and sold into slavery, forced to serve an exiled royal family in the remote Copper Islands, where she is immersed in a world of murder, intrigue, and warring gods. Reprint.
Graceling - Kristin Cashore
Publisher:
Harcourt
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/01/2008
ISBN-13: 9780152063962
ISBN-10: 015206396X
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/01/2008
ISBN-13: 9780152063962
ISBN-10: 015206396X
Having the ability to kill a man with her bare hands since she was a young girl, Katsa, a Graceling, has been forced to do the king's dirty work for years in order to live in his kingdom, but things change dramatically when she falls in love with Prince Po and secrets about her powers are suddenly revealed. 75,000 first printing.
The fault in our stars - John Green
Publisher:
Dutton Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/10/2012
ISBN-13: 9780525478812
ISBN-10: 0525478817
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/10/2012
ISBN-13: 9780525478812
ISBN-10: 0525478817
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few more 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 the Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten. By the award-winning author of Looking for Alaska.
The hero and the crown - Robin McKinley
Publisher:
Greenwillow Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/01/1984
ISBN-13: 9780688025939
ISBN-10: 0688025935
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/01/1984
ISBN-13: 9780688025939
ISBN-10: 0688025935
Aerin, with the guidance of the wizard Luthe and the help of the Blue Sword, wins the birthright due her as the daughter of the Damarian king and a witchwoman of the mysterious, demon-haunted North.
Impossible : a novel - Nancy Werlin
Publisher:
Dial Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/18/2008
ISBN-13: 9780803730021
ISBN-10: 0803730020
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/18/2008
ISBN-13: 9780803730021
ISBN-10: 0803730020
Discovering that the women of her family have been cursed for centuries upon her seventeenth birthday, Lucy decides to tackle the impossible by completing the three dangerous tasks necessary to break free from the spell and rid her family of its madness once and for all. 30,000 first printing.
The nature of Jade - Deb Caletti
Publisher:
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/27/2007
ISBN-13: 9781416910053
ISBN-10: 1416910050
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/27/2007
ISBN-13: 9781416910053
ISBN-10: 1416910050
While watching the elephants on the zoo webcam in her room in the hopes of keeping her panic disorders in check, Jade notices Sebastian for the first time and falls hard, but after learning more about him and his secrets, Jade must be careful not to pursue a relationship she knows is not the right one for her.
Watership Down - Richard Adams
Publisher:
Scribner
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/01/2005
ISBN-13: 9780743277709
ISBN-10: 0743277708
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/01/2005
ISBN-13: 9780743277709
ISBN-10: 0743277708
A visually enhanced trade edition of the top-selling modern classic follows the survival tale of a group of wild rabbits who are forced to flee their doomed warren and find a safe place to live in the face of brutal challenges, an adventure that explores metaphorical themes about environmentalism and social oppression. Original. 60,000 first printing.
The lord of the rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Publisher:
Houghton Mifflin
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/01/2003
ISBN-13: 9780618343997
ISBN-10: 0618343997
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/01/2003
ISBN-13: 9780618343997
ISBN-10: 0618343997
Presents the epic depicting the Great War of the Ring, a struggle between good and evil in Middle Earth.
Graphic Novels
Scott Pilgrim. [Vol. 1], Scott Pilgrim's precious little life - Bryan Lee O'Malley
Publisher:
Oni Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/28/2004
ISBN-13: 9781932664089
ISBN-10: 1932664084
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/28/2004
ISBN-13: 9781932664089
ISBN-10: 1932664084
Scott Pilgrim's fantastic life takes an unforseen turn when rollerblading delivery girl Ramano Flowers makes her appearance.
One piece : Romance Dawn - Eiichiro Oda
Publisher:
Viz
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/01/2003
ISBN-13: 9781569319017
ISBN-10: 1569319014
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/01/2003
ISBN-13: 9781569319017
ISBN-10: 1569319014
When Monkey D. Luffy accidentally gains the power to stretch like rubber at the cost of never being able to swim again, he and his crew of pirate wannabes set off in search of the "One Piece," the greatest treasure in the world.
I kill giants - Joe Kelly and J. M. Ken Niimura
Publisher:
Image Comics
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/13/2009
ISBN-13: 9781607060925
ISBN-10: 1607060922
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/13/2009
ISBN-13: 9781607060925
ISBN-10: 1607060922
Barbara Thorson, a girl battling monsters both real and imagined, kicks butt, takes names, and faces her greatest fear.
Kingdom come - Mark Waid and Alex Ross
Publisher:
DC Comics
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/01/1998
ISBN-13: 9781563893308
ISBN-10: 1563893304
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/01/1998
ISBN-13: 9781563893308
ISBN-10: 1563893304
Fables : Legends in Exile - Bill Willingham
Publisher:
DC Comics
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/01/2003
ISBN-13: 9781563899423
ISBN-10: 1563899426
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/01/2003
ISBN-13: 9781563899423
ISBN-10: 1563899426
Follows the adventures of storybook and nursery rhyme characters who live side-by-side with humans.