FICTION
Lynn Austin
Refiner's Fire series -- My favorite Christian Historical Fiction books to date! Set in the Civil War era, these three books can stand on their own but do reference one another.
Candle in the Darkness -- Caroline Fletcher's father is a wealthy Richmond slaveholder, but as she gets older, her faith grows and her eyes are opened to the reality of slavery.
Fire by Night -- Julia Hoffman is terribly offended when the man she likes finds her spoiled, but in her quest to prove the man wrong, she realizes how right he is, and her journey takes her into a nursing profession that shows her how to be the woman she wants to be. Meanwhile, Phoebe's three brothers enlist in the army. Refusing to be left behind, she disguises herself as a man to join the army herself.
A Light to my Path -- Kitty grew up a slave and never questioned it. But as the Yankees move in and she is presented with the prospect of freedom, it's time to make a decision: a decision that Grady, the man she loves, has already made.
Orson Scott Card
I'm not much of one for science fiction, so this author's presence in this library is kind of a big deal!
Ender's Game -- Earth is at war with an alien race referred to as the "Buggers," and humanity is out of time to find a genius to defeat them. Therefore, the birth, childhood, and life of Ender Wiggen is requisitioned by the government to be the genius that is the perfect blend of his brother's ruthlessness and his sister's compassion. He isn't told what he is doing though until it might be too late.
Ender's Shadow -- A companion piece to Ender's Game, this book is about Bean, another child-genius flagged and raised by the government to help save the world, held onto and manipulated to be a sort of plan B in case Ender fails.
Kristin Cashore
Young Adult Fantasy and blogger extraordinaire .. I can tell you all about her entire writing process down to what kinds of pens she likes to use and where she keeps her manuscripts, but that doesn't make me a creepy stalker fan since she's the one who published it online for all to see... right?
Graceling -- In a fantasy world where a person with eyes of two different colors is "graced" with a particular talent, the niece of a proud and arrogant king is controlled and used for his own purposes because of her killing Grace, despite her desire to undermine the mindlessness of the seven kings in the Middluns. When her secret mission to rescue a kidnapped grandfather thrusts her into partnership with another Graceling, she finds herself learning to take control of her own life, to trust, and to love.
Caution: There's one questionable scene at the end of Chapter 20 I'd be leery of letting my little brother read.
Fire -- Existing in a neighboring region from the events of Graceling, this kingdom is caught in conflict between a rebel lord and a hostile neighbors. Rather than Gracelings, this kingdom deals with Monsters, creatures of incredible beauty with power over thoughts and emotions. Fire is the last Monster human left, and she must accept and learn to use her power for the good of the kingdom, rather than continue to deny it for fear of the evil her father used it for.
Ted Dekker
Yes, he writes psychological thrillers that aren't for the faint of heart, but he's also got the best grip on what romance means that I have ever experienced from a guy! Not to mention he's an awesome writer who sucks his readers in with the beauty of his written words. As demonstrated by the list below, I kind of have a thing for Ted Dekker!
Adam -- Daniel Clark is an FBI psychologist hunting down the serial killer referred to as Eve who murders his victims by injecting them with a new strain of meningitis. Daniel and his team manage to rescue one of Eve's victims, but Eve kills him with a bullet to the head and takes the victim to finish his deed. Daniel is resuscitated, but faces intense anxiety attacks and other psychological consequences of his death. To make matters worse, Eve finds Daniel's ex-wife, and the struggle becomes an incredibly personal one.Yes, he writes psychological thrillers that aren't for the faint of heart, but he's also got the best grip on what romance means that I have ever experienced from a guy! Not to mention he's an awesome writer who sucks his readers in with the beauty of his written words. As demonstrated by the list below, I kind of have a thing for Ted Dekker!
Psychological thriller
Blink -- Seth Border is an American college student with the world's highest IQ, but his life becomes infinitely more complex when he develops the ability to see many possible futures depending upon what choice he makes. When he encounters Miriam, a Saudi princess fleeing oppression, he finds himself running for their lives.
Thriller
Boneman's Daughters -- Boneman is a serial killer who is looking for the perfect daughter, and when his victims turn out to be less than perfect, he kills them by breaking their bones and leaving them for dead. Ryan Evans is an intelligence officer who has just returned from a traumatic experience in the Middle East to find that his own daughter as well as his wife have finally written him off. When Boneman takes his daughter, he takes it on himself to track the killer down before it's too late.
Psychological Thriller
The Bride Collector -- Special Agent Brad Raines is tracking a serial killer who leaves a bridal veil at each scene. The Bride Collector is striking faster and Brad is no closer to his identity. At a loss, he turns to the residents of a private psychiatric institution for help, including Paradise: a schizophrenic woman whom Brad sometimes wonders is more "sane" than the world outside the walls of the hospital. But when Brad's partner is targeted, will Paradise's help come too late?
Psychological Thriller
The Circle Series -- Thomas Hunter is a starving artist, a writer bunking with his sister waiting for his big break. After a head injury however, he finds himself existing in two different worlds: the "real world" so to speak, and the "Other Earth." Each time he falls asleep in one, he wakes in the other. But a deadly virus is threatening the real world as war breaks out in the Other Earth, and Thomas must act to save both. Black, White, and Red lead into Green, which was meant to be able to function as both the first book and the last book, creating a looped timeline.
Fantasy
Horror
Immanuel's Veins -- Toma Nicolescu is sent with his companion Alec on a mission by Catherine the Great to protect the Cantemir family. When he falls in love with one of the Cantemir daughters and a courtship begins between her and Vlad van Valrik, he must distinguish between love and duty. As he discovers the truth behind Vlad and his unsettling companions, Toma then learns just what it meant to devote his entire life to love.
Caution: This book is pretty sensual. Personally, I think my little brother could handle it, but when Dekker wrote it, the Dutch publisher refused to print it. Just a head's up!
Fantasy
Three -- Kevin has a stalker with explosive tendencies that the authorities are convinced is the serial killer they've been trying to catch for months. Kevin and a childhood friend, Sam, try to figure out the sin that the stalker wants confessed, only to find that Kevin's past holds more secrets than either of them can fathom.
Psychological Thriller
Ernest Hemmingway
A Farewell to Arms -- Frederic Henry is an American serving as an ambulance driver on the Italian front in WWI. He is wounded and falls in love with an English nurse, who by the time Henry is sent back to the front is three months pregnant with his child.
Literary Fiction
The Old Man and the Sea -- The Old Man is a fisherman down on his luck alone on the sea when he wins the struggle of a lifetime against a prize Marlin. That struggle however is only the beginning: now he has to make it back home.
Novella
Tami Hoag
This author is my guilty pleasure/brain candy. She writes awesome suspense thrillers!
Caution: Ellen and a journalist get things goin' on, if you know what I mean. This is not a PG book, and therefore not for everyone.
Kill the Messenger -- A bike messenger just trying to provide for himself and his genius little brother is pulled into the middle of a blackmail conspiracy simply by luck of the draw, being the messenger in the area at the time to pick up a package that would change his life forever.
James Byron Huggins
Leviathan -- Scientists have genetically altered a komodo dragon to create the real thing in hopes of creating the ultimate war weapon. When their creation achieves their goals better than they were prepared for however, it becomes a grueling struggle of life and death to kill their own creation before it kills the world. One impossible situation after another is written with the magic of written language that drags the reader further and further into the struggle until character and reader alike are forced to face what friendship, sacrifice, and being a hero really means.
Science Fiction/Fantasy
Tim O'Brien
The Things They Carried -- A heavily lingering piece of fiction based on O'Brien's own experiences fighting in Vietnam. Strong characters, intense detail, and one of the most effective uses of non-linear narrative I have ever read!
Literary Fiction
Frank Peretti
House -- Peretti joins forces with Ted Dekker to bring you this fantastic work of delicious suspense! Jack and Stephanie are trying to make it to a marriage counseling appointment but get lost and stranded at an old Victorian home functioning as an inn with a dating couple and the family of three that owns the establishment. Just as the place begins to seem at least a half-bubble off center, the seven are trapped inside the house and informed of three rules: "1. God came to my house and I killed him. 2. I will kill anyone who comes into my house as I killed God. 3. Give me one dead body, and I might let rule two slide. You have until dawn."
Horror
Monster -- Reed convinces his wife, Beck, to go on a camping trip that she doesn't really want to go on, and it goes terribly wrong when a beast beyond their imaginations takes her. As Reed and his allies try desperately to find Beck, the hunters become the hunted. Eventually, DNA tests show that these creatures they contend with are a result of science gone terribly wrong.
Christian Fiction
The Oath -- The small mining community of Hyde River is plagued by what is written off as a bear, but when Steve Benson's brother Cliff is killed and his wife barely escapes with her life, Steve and the Sheriff Deputy Tracy Ellis decide that enough instances have been swept under the rug and decide to figure out what's really going on.
Christian Fiction
This Present Darkness -- There's a lot going on in the small town of Ashton, from a photo deleted from a journalist's camera upon her false arrest for prostitution to a pastor no longer welcome in his own church... But that's just the stuff that people can see. This novel explores spiritual warfare, the realm of angels and demons, the world that may not be visible, but is very much so real.
Christian Fiction
Piercing the Darkness -- Taking place in another small town under spiritual attack, this sequel to This Present Darkness continues to explore the power of prayer and the constant struggle of good verses evil.
Christian Fiction
The Veritas series is a work of teen fiction based on a family of four sent by the President to investigate supernatural instances.
Hangman's Curse -- Seventy years ago, high schooler and bullying victim Abel Frye hanged himself in the school. Now, jocks in the school are apparently being attacked by his ghost. Elijah and Elisha go to the school under cover to help their parents investigate, discovering the nuances of high school social structures as well as the secrets that are a little more unique to this particular school.
Christian Young Adult
Nightmare Academy -- After a missing boy is found with his memory wiped and then mysteriously dies, the Veritas Project is sent to investigate the Knight-Moore Academy. Once inside though, the twins lose contact with their parents. Elijah is taken into a mountain, and Elisha must find him before it's too late.
Christian Young Adult
Philip Pullman
His Dark Materials -- A fantasy trilogy depicting the adventures of Lyra and Will as they traverse parallel universes and adolescence alike. Bringing physics and philosophies together with epic adventures and dynamic characters, the trilogy has drawn some fire for its negative depiction of Christianity. Personally, I found it to be more of an attack on organized religion, as most of the story's jabs were more towards Catholicism specifically, and the writing is really good! The trilogy is comprised of The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass.
Young Adult Fantasy
J.R.R. Tolkien
The Hobbit -- Bilbo is a respectable hobbit who lives in a hole in the ground and never goes on any adventures or does anything unexpected... Until Gandalf brings a company of thirteen dwarves to bring him across Middle Earth on a quest to reclaim their lost city from a dragon.
Children's Adventure/Fantasy
The Lord of the Rings -- Frodo Baggins comes into possession of a golden ring that contains all of the evil of Sauron, the enemy of all of the free peoples of Middle Earth. While the hope of the world is placed squarely on the shoulders of this little hobbit sent to the fires of Mount Doom to destroy it, every race and country from the Shire to Mordor is plunged into war against pure evil. So many characters to relate to, so many story lines, only one genius... May I present, J.R.R. Tolkien!
Fantasy Trilogy
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