The House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Clune Linus Baker, a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages. Then Linus is unexpectedly given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they're likely to bring about the end of days.
Remote Control, Nnedi Okorafor The day Fatima forgot her name, Death paid a visit. From here on in she would be known as Sankofa--a name that meant nothing to anyone but her, the only tie to her family and her past. Her touch is death, and with a glance a town can fall. And she walks-alone, except for her fox companion-searching for the object that came from the sky and gave itself to her when the meteors fell and when she was yet unchanged; searching for answers. But is there a greater purpose for Sankofa, now that Death is her constant companion?
Ready Player Two, by Ernest Cline Days after winning OASIS founder James Hallidays contest, Wade Watts makes a discovery that changes everything. Hidden within Hallidays vaults, waiting for his heir to find, lies a technological advancement that will once again change the world and make the OASIS a thousand times more wondrous and addictive than even Wade dreamed possible.
Akata Witch, Nnedi Okorafor Twelve-year-old Sunny Nwazue, an American-born albino child of Nigerian parents, moves with her family back to Nigeria, where she learns that she has latent magical powers which she and three similarly gifted friends use to catch a serial killer.
Children of Blood and Bone + Children of Vengeance and Virtue, Tomi Adeyemi "Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie's Reaper mother summoned forth souls. But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.
Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good." (Overdrive) (Recommended by Emily and Cassie)
Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkein (Student recommendation)
House of Stairs, Wiliiam Sleator (Student recommendation)
We Are Legion, We Are Bob, Dennis E. Taylor (Student recommendation)
The Andromeda Strain, Michael Crichton The United States government stands warned that sterilization procedures for returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere. When a probe satellite falls to the earth two years later, and lands in a desolate area of northeastern Arizona, the bodies that lie heaped and flung across the ground, have faces locked in frozen surprise. The terror has begun.... (publisher description).
Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein Stranger in a Strange Land, winner of the 1962 Hugo Award, is the story of Valentine Michael Smith, born during, and the only survivor of, the first manned mission to Mars. Michael is raised by Martians, and he arrives on Earth as a true innocent: he has never seen a woman and has no knowledge of Earth's cultures or religions. But he brings turmoil with him, as he is the legal heir to an enormous financial empire, not to mention de facto owner of the planet Mars. With the irascible popular author Jubal Harshaw to protect him, Michael explores human morality and the meanings of love. He founds his own church, preaching free love and disseminating the psychic talents taught him by the Martians. (summary by Amazon).
Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger "This is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare's passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly romantic trap." (from the publisher)
Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card In a world decimated by alien attacks, the government trains young geniuses like Ender Wiggin in military strategy with increasingly complex computer games.
Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman "Richard Mayhew is a young man with a good heart and an ordinary life, which is changed forever when he stops to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk. He must learn to survive in this city of shadows and darkness, monsters and saints, if he is ever to return to the London that he knew." Amazon.com
The Tooth Fairy, Graham Joyce “... a blackly comic, disturbingly erotic tale of an ordinary boy named Sam - and the unearthly being only he can see. Is she real - or is she just a figment of his turbulent imagination? All Sam knows, as he grows from childhood to adolescence, is that she is never very far away.” Kirkus Review
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K Le Guin The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants can change their gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters. Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.
The Innamorati, Midori Snyder "Cursed by love, revenge, or their own human failings, a maskmaker, poet, priest, actor, peasant girl, and mercenary journey to the city of Labirinto, where a magical maze holds the ability to redeem or destroy them." (Library Journal)
Ishmael, Daniel Quinn For those of us who have been in the rat race of modern culture long enough that we have stopped thinking, and for those of us who have never deeply examined our place in the world, this book is an awakening. It just may change the way you think about everything. Ishmael is a teacher, unlike any you have ever met, with a final mission — to teach man about fixing the ills of the modern world before it's too late. This book is a must read, and a wonderful eye-opener. (Powells.com)
Mary Reilly, Valerie Martin Relating the history of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from another point of view, Martin gives the reader a female view of the events of that Victorian thriller. Mary Reilly, an Irish orphan, is the maid of Dr. Jekyll and through her eyes, this timeless horror tale becomes a story about class and privilege as well as morality. Because of her wit and her loyalty, Mary becomes a confidante of Dr. Jekyll and is caught up in the dilemma of humanity’s duality of that makes up the theme of Stevenson’s original novella.