Summer Reading Choices

First up….Non-Fiction books:

The President’s Secret Service

Never before has a journalist penetrated the wall of secrecy that surrounds the U.S. Secret Service. After conducting exclusive interviews with more than one hundred current and former Secret Service agents, bestselling author and award-winning reporter Ronald Kessler reveals their secrets for the first time.

• George W. Bush’s daughters would try to lose their agents.• Based on a psychic’s vision that a sniper would assassinate President

George H. W. Bush, the Secret Service changed his motorcade route.• To make the press think he came to work early, Jimmy Carter would walk

into the Oval Office at 5 a.m., then nod off to sleep.• Lyndon Johnson gave dangerous instructions to his Secret Service agents

and engaged in extensive philandering at the White House.

Escape From Camp Fourteen

North Korea’s political prison camps have existed twice as long as Stalin’s Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. No one born and raised in these camps is known to have escaped. No one, that is, except Shin Dong-hyuk.

In Escape From Camp 14, Blaine Harden unlocks the secrets of the world’s most repressive totalitarian state through the story of Shin’s shocking imprisonment and his astounding getaway. Shin knew nothing of civilized existence—he saw his mother as a competitor for food, guards raised him to be a snitch, and he witnessed the execution of his mother and brother.

Escape from Camp 14 offers an unequalled inside account of one of the world’s darkest nations. It is a tale of endurance and courage, survival and hope.

No Easy DayThis is a first-person account of the planning and execution of

the Bin Laden raid from a Navy Seal who confronted the terrorist mastermind and witnessed his final moments.

From the streets of Iraq to the third floor of Osama Bin Laden’s compound, Mark Owen of the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group--commonly known as SEAL Team Six-- has been a part of some of the most memorable special operations in history.

No Easy Day puts readers alongside Owen and the other hand picked members of the twenty-four-man team as they train for the biggest mission of their lives.

Steal Like an Artist10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative

You don’t need to be a genius, you just need to be yourself. That’s the message from Austin Kleon, a young writer and artist who knows that creativity is everywhere, creativity is for everyone. Steal Like an Artist is a guide whose graphic look, illustrations and examples will put readers directly in touch with their artistic side.

When Mr. Kleon was asked to address college students in upstate New York, he shaped his speech around the ten things he wished someone had told him when he was starting out. The talk went viral, and its author dug deeper into his own ideas to create Steal Like an Artist, the book.

Next type of books…Fiction:

Dystopia and Sci-Fi books

Shadow and BoneThe once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the

Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. Shadow and Bone is the first installment in Leigh Bardugo's Grisha Trilogy.

Ready Player OneIn the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time

teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines—puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them.

But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.

AshesAn electromagnetic pulse flashes across the sky, destroying

every electronic device, wiping out every computerized system, and killing billions.

Alex hiked into the woods to say good-bye to her dead parents and her personal demons. Now desperate to find out what happened after the pulse, Alex meets up with Tom—a young soldier—and Ellie, a girl whose grandfather was killed by the EMP.

For this improvised family and the others who are spared, it’s now a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human.

Author Ilsa J. Bick crafts a terrifying and thrilling novel about a world that could be ours at any moment.

DivergentIn Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is

divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). All sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is-- So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Ender’s ShadowGrowing up is never easy. But try living on the mean streets

as a child begging for food and fighting like a dog with ruthless gangs of starving kids who wouldn't hesitate to pound your skull into pulp for a scrap of apple. If Bean has learned anything on the streets, it's how to survive. And not with fists. He is way too small for that. But with brains.

Bean is a genius with a magician's ability to zero in on his enemy and exploit his weakness.

What better quality for a future general to lead the Earth in a final climactic battle against a hostile alien race, known as Buggers. At Battleschool Bean meets and befriends another future commander - Ender Wiggins - perhaps his only true rival.

Realistic Fiction books...

An Abundance of Katherines

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton’s type is girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. On a road trip miles from home, this washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight best friend riding shotgun—but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl. Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this comic novel about reinventing oneself.

Sea of Tranquility Two and a half years after an unspeakable tragedy left

her a shadow of the girl she once was, Nastya Kashnikov moves to a new town determined to keep her dark past hidden and hold everyone at a distance. But her plans only last so long before she finds herself inexplicably drawn to the one person as isolated as herself: Josh Bennett.

Josh’s story is no secret. Every person he loves has been taken from his life. When your name is synonymous with death, everyone tends to give you your space. Everyone except Nastya who won’t go away until she’s insinuated herself into every aspect of his life. But as the pull between them intensifies, he starts to wonder if he will ever learn the secrets she’s been hiding—or if he even wants to.

Wild CardsAfter getting kicked out of boarding school, bad boy

Derek Fitzpatrick has no choice but to live with his ditzy stepmother while his military dad is deployed. Things quickly go from bad to worse when he finds out she plans to move them back to her childhood home in Illinois. The last thing he needs is to get involved with someone else’s family drama.

Ashtyn Parker knows one thing for certain--people you care about leave without a backward glance. So when her older sister comes home after abandoning her ten years earlier, with her hot new stepson in tow, Ashtyn wants nothing to do with either of them. She comes up with a plan that would finally give her the chance to leave, but it requires trusting Derek. Is she willing to put her heart on the line to get the future she wants?

Out of My MindMelody is not like most people. She cannot walk or talk, but

she has a photographic memory; she can remember every detail of everything she has ever experienced. She is smarter than most of the adults who try to diagnose her and smarter than her classmates in her integrated classroom—the very same classmates who dismiss her as mentally challenged, because she cannot tell them otherwise. But Melody refuses to be defined by cerebral palsy. And she’s determined to let everyone know it…somehow. In this breakthrough story, readers will come to know a brilliant mind and a brave spirit who will change forever how they look at anyone with a disability.

Historical Fiction book...

Between Shades of GrayIf you enjoyed reading Night by Elie Wiesel...WWII - Fifteen-year-old Lina is a Lithuanian girl living an

ordinary life--until Soviet officers invade her home and tear her family apart. Separated from her father and forced onto a crowded train, Lina, her mother, and her young brother make their way to a Siberian work camp, where they are forced to fight for their lives.

Lina finds solace in her art, documenting these events by drawing. Risking everything, she imbeds clues in her drawings and secretly passes them along, hoping they will make their way to her father's prison camp. But will strength, love, and hope be enough for Lina and her family to survive?

A classic novel...

Last Of the MohicansChingachgook and Uncas are the last living members

of the great Mohican tribe. Hawkeye, a colonial scout, is their companion and loyal friend. In the midst of the French and Indian War, these three will risk everything to lead the two daughters of a British colonel to safety through the battle-torn northern wilderness. When the girls are captured by the vicious Huron tribe, Chingachgook, Uncas, and Hawkeye determine to do whatever they can to save them—no matter the cost.

Works CitedSummaries and pictures taken from Amazon.com

Goodreads.com