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Favorite Quotes
"For my totem, the alley cat. We share the situation of small predators who easily become prey. I have my equivalent of claws and teeth, and indeed my arched back and loud hiss are my best defenses. When I need to hide my size and weakness, I can look fiercer than I am, but when I cannot talk or threaten or argue my way out of trouble, then I am in a lot of trouble. We are scavengers in the alleys and streets of a society we do not control and scarcely influence. We survive and perish both by taking lovers. Freedom is a daily necessity like water, and we love most loyally and longest those who allow us at least occasionally to vanish and wander the curious night. To them we always return from the eight deaths before the last."
from Braided Lives by Marge Piercy
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Browsing all posts tagged 'teen fiction'
Title: The Inexplicable Logic of my Life
By: Benjamin Alire Saenz
Salvador Silva has always thought that he knows where he fits into the world. Growing up in El Paso, Texas with his gay adoptive father and spending time with his best friend Samantha, his life has seemed fairly straightforward. But at the start of Sal’s senior year in high school, ... [Read more]
Posted by pughc on Jan. 10, 2019
Tags: teen fiction
0 Comments
Title: The Diviners
By: Libba Bray
New York City, 1926 After inadvertently causing a scandal back home in Ohio, Evie O’Neill is sent to New York to stay with her Uncle Will, who runs the Museum of American Folklore, Superstition and the Occult. While Evie is excited about coming to New York, seeing an old friend, ... [Read more]
Posted by pughc on Aug. 2, 2018
Tags: teen fiction
0 Comments
Title: Illuminae
By: Arnie Kaufman
I get super excited about unique things. I love experiencing something that pushes the boundaries of normal expectations. I love not being willing to put a book down because I want to know not just what will happen next, but how they will tell me about it. And I experienced ... [Read more]
Posted by augasona on Feb. 26, 2018
Tags: teen fiction
0 Comments
A hilarious journey into first love
Title: I believe in a thing called love
By: Maureen Goo
Desi Lee has never had a boyfriend. She reasons that this is probably because she has been so busy with school and extracurricular activities. Desi’s friends, however, know that it’s because during times of pressure, she tends to crack. Her friends call these moments flailures. After one particularly spectacular flailure ... [Read more]
Posted by pughc on July 29, 2017
Tags: teen fiction
0 Comments
Title: Dreamland Burning
By: Jennifer Latham
Rowan Chase lives with her parents in Tulsa, Oklahoma. When her parents decide to do some renovations on their house, they run into a problem—construction workers find a skeleton buried in the backyard. When it’s discovered that the body has probably been there since the early 1920s and it’s that ... [Read more]
Posted by pughc on April 6, 2017
Tags: fiction, teen fiction
0 Comments
Different, modern, and a little dark
Title: I am Princess X
By: Cherie Priest
Having already read and enjoyed Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker and Dreadnought (very steampunky and dark books), I was a little uncertain as I approached her first young adult novel, I am Princess X. As it turned out, though my concern about it being too dark was somewhat well founded, I really ... [Read more]
Posted by augasona on Sept. 19, 2016
Tags: teen fiction
0 Comments
Title: Walk on Earth a Stranger
By: Rae Carson
Leah Westfall, better known as Lee, knows about hard work and how to take care of herself. She’s grown up with her parents in a small town, not far from the 1829 gold rush that took place in northern Georgia. Now, gold has been found in faraway California, and seemingly ... [Read more]
Posted by pughc on Aug. 1, 2016
Tags: teen fiction
0 Comments
Title: My Lady Jane
By: Cynthia Hand
1553 turns out to be a very interesting year in England. King Edward VI has been poisoned and apparently is dying. Soon, his cousin Lady Jane Grey will take the throne—but for only nine days. You see, there is also the issue of the Edians, who can change from a ... [Read more]
Posted by pughc on July 27, 2016
Tags: teen fiction
0 Comments
Title: Charms
By: Leslie Calderoni
I'm really excited that we were able to get Charms, the first book of local author Leslie Calderoni’s Tempest Trinity trilogy, onto the shelves at the Santa Cruz Public Libraries. Set in Santa Cruz, Charms takes us to favorite spots like Marini's (Martini's in the book), bonfires on the beach, ... [Read more]
Posted by augasona on July 7, 2016
Tags: teen fiction
0 Comments
Title: Outrun the moon
By: Stacey Lee
Mercy Wong lives with her family in the Chinatown section of San Francisco in 1906. Frustrated that the local Oriental Public School only goes up to the eighth grade, she makes a deal with the head of St. Clare’s School for Girls, which is open only to upper class white ... [Read more]
Posted by pughc on June 26, 2016
Tags: teen fiction
0 Comments
Title: Hero
By: Perry Moore
Thom Creed is a pretty average kid except for a few minor details: his dad is an Ex-Superhero, and Thom is Gay. In this action-packed and heart-wrenching novel, Thom struggles to keep his father in the dark about his sexual orientation and the fact that he has joined the League ... [Read more]
Posted by augasona on April 30, 2016
Tags: fiction, audiobook, teen fiction
0 Comments
Title: The House of the Scorpion
By: Nancy Farmer
Over a hundred years in the future, Matt Alacran lives in the Land of Opium, where he is the clone of the Lord of Opium, El Patron. The 100+ year-old ruler was once a powerful crime/drug lord who took much of the southern United States and northern Mexico and formed ... [Read more]
Posted by augasona on April 11, 2016
Tags: science fiction, teen fiction
0 Comments
Title: Salt to the Sea
By: Ruta Sepetys
Near the end of World War II in Europe, many people have begun fleeing their homes to escape the Nazis. The Russians are destroying whole towns, and people are escaping with what they can carry. Joana, Emilia, Florian and Alfred have all left home for different reasons. Joana is a ... [Read more]
Posted by pughc on March 31, 2016
Tags: fiction, teen fiction
2 Comments
Title: Dumplin'
By: Julie Murphy
Clover City, Texas, is known for its annual Miss Teen Blue Bonnet Pageant. Willowdean Dickson, known as Will or Dumplin’, is perfectly happy in her own skin, much to the chagrin of her former pageant queen mother. Will isn’t one of the skinny pageant girls, and wouldn’t have it any ... [Read more]
Posted by pughc on Jan. 3, 2016
Tags: fiction, teen fiction
0 Comments
Title: Saint Anything
By: Sarah Dessen
Sydney Stanford has always lived in the shadow of her older brother, Peyton. Over the last few years, Peyton has been making poor choices, culminating in a prison sentence after hitting a boy with his car. Sydney decides to start over at a new school where nobody knows about her ... [Read more]
Posted by pughc on Aug. 3, 2015
Tags: fiction, teen fiction
0 Comments
Title: Pagan's Crusade
By: Catherine Jinks
It is the Year of Our Lord 1187, and the Middle East is going to “Hell in a handcart.” Just ask Pagan Kidrouk, squire-in-training to the traditionally heroic Lord Roland de Bram aka Saint George. Pagan has 206 bones in his body, all of which contain sarcasm rather than marrow, ... [Read more]
Posted by rammerr on June 14, 2015
Tags: fiction, teen fiction
0 Comments
Title: Vivian Apple at the end of the world
By: Katie Coyle
The Church of America has been warning of the rapture for a long time, all the while taking over the country. Vivian Apple doesn’t believe in the church, even though her parents are believers. On the morning after the rapture was supposed to take place, Vivian comes home to find ... [Read more]
Posted by pughc on March 19, 2015
Tags: fiction, teen fiction
2 Comments
Title: Legend
By: Marie Lu
June and Day live in Los Angeles, which is part of the Republic, in the western half of the former United States. The Republic is at war with the Colonies, formerly the eastern half of the United States. The Republic is run as a military state, and June is its ... [Read more]
Posted by pughc on Nov. 29, 2014
Tags: fiction, teen fiction
0 Comments
Title: Tam Lin
By: Pamela Dean
If you were the Queen of Faery and had to pay a septennial teinde or tribute to Hell, where would you hunt for your victims? A small liberal arts college in Minnesota seems as likely a place as any to capture promising human youths: take your pick of any of ... [Read more]
Posted by Xenon on Oct. 8, 2014
Tags: fiction, teen fiction
0 Comments
Title: Torn Away
By: Jennifer Brown
Life can change in an instant. Growing up in Elizabeth, Missouri, Jersey Cameron is used to frequent tornado warnings. When a tornado rips through her hometown, destroying her house and killing her mother and sister, Jersey is left with nothing. Before long, her stepfather sends her to live with her ... [Read more]
Posted by pughc on Sept. 10, 2014
Tags: fiction, teen fiction
0 Comments
Title: Annals of the Western Shore
By: Ursula K. Le Guin
While there are three books in the Annals of the Western Shore, and certain characters make more than one appearance, this is not a conventional trilogy. Rather, each book focuses on a different society within the larger geographic region of the “Western Shore.” Ursula K. Le Guin's father was the ... [Read more]
Posted by Xenon on July 26, 2014
Tags: fiction, teen fiction
2 Comments
Title: Buzz kill
By: Beth Fantaskey
Who wanted to kill head football coach Hollerin’ Hank Killdare? Well, apparently lots of people wanted him dead. But there’s only one person high school journalist Millie Ostermeyer is worried about the murder getting pinned on—her father, the assistant football coach. Millie begins her own investigation and gets help from ... [Read more]
Posted by pughc on June 16, 2014
Tags: teen fiction
0 Comments
Title: The Weight of Water
By: Sarah Crossan
It's not easy moving to a new country, learning a new language, changing schools, making new friends, getting a new name because the teacher can't pronounce your given name. It's especially not easy when you are 12 going on 13 and your father has disappeared, maybe to the country you ... [Read more]
Posted by ogradyj on June 14, 2014
Tags: fiction, teen fiction, kids fiction
0 Comments
Title: Bandette: in Presto!
By: Paul Tobin
If Catwoman and Batman had a daughter together, and that daughter was French, it's very possible you would get Bandette. A master class thief, yet interested in bringing justice to the "bad" criminals in Paris, Bandette is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Why does she do what she does? ... [Read more]
Posted by berlinskit on April 26, 2014
Tags: teen fiction, graphic novel
0 Comments
Title: Fangirl
By: Rainbow Rowell
Cath would rather be anywhere else except college, especially since her twin sister Wren doesn’t want to them to be roommates. The one place she feels safe is in the world of Simon Snow, where she writes fan fiction on Internet forums. Even so, Cath doesn’t know if she can ... [Read more]
Posted by pughc on March 1, 2014
Tags: teen fiction
1 Comment
Title: Shadowfell
By: Juliet Marillier
Juliet Marillier’s fantasy fiction employs what is for me an irresistible blend of adventure, romance, and fairy magic. Her Shadowfell series is set in the invented medieval kingdom of Alban, which physically and culturally strongly resembles Scotland. Alban is ruled by a tyrant whose forces are systematically rounding up or ... [Read more]
Posted by Logophile on Dec. 15, 2013
Tags: fiction, teen fiction
0 Comments
A real person in a magical world
Title: Graceling
By: Kristin Cashore
Throughout the seven kingdoms, there are some people who are born with a special skill, called a Grace, who are known by their different colored eyes. Anyone with a Grace is both sought-after and feared. Katsa is notorious throughout the Middluns for her Grace, which is killing. Since Katsa was ... [Read more]
Posted by pughc on Nov. 24, 2013
Tags: fiction, teen fiction
0 Comments
Title: The Lost Crown
By: Sarah Miller
The Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia Romanov are the daughters of Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia. The girl’s lives are immersed in privilege until the onset of World War I, when the war effort quickly turns to revolution across Russia. The Bolshevik party has risen quickly, ... [Read more]
Posted by pughc on Aug. 6, 2013
Tags: fiction, teen fiction
0 Comments
Title: Breathless
By: Jessica Warman
Katie Kitrell is a swimming prodigy with a secret. Katie’s parents send her to Woodsdale Academy so that she can escape the trouble her brother Will’s growing mental illness has caused her family. But instead of being honest with her new friends, she tells them her brother is dead. For ... [Read more]
Posted by pughc on July 25, 2013
Tags: fiction, teen fiction
0 Comments
Title: Ship Breaker
By: Paolo Bacigalupi
When whole cities lie beneath the waves and there isn’t a drop of petroleum left on the planet, will the pace of life finally slow and congeal into a more natural order, where family and loyalty are key and sailboats drift lazily across the sea? No way. Bacigalupi’s raw, violent, ... [Read more]
Posted by mcgrewfredem on July 25, 2013
Tags: fiction, teen fiction
0 Comments
Title: Second Chance Summer
By: Morgan Matson
This is a story about how one event can change your life, and how everyone deserves to have a second chance. Returning to Lake Phoenix is not how Taylor Edwards wanted to spend her summer. She’s wanted to forget how she hurt her best friend and first crush there five ... [Read more]
Posted by pughc on July 18, 2013
Tags: fiction, teen fiction
2 Comments
Title: The False Prince
By: Jennifer A. Nielsen
What drew me to the first book of the as yet uncompleted Ascendance Trilogy by newcomer Jennifer A. Neilsen was the cover. (I’ll admit that I do judge books by the cover.) I was doubly intrigued when I read the summary on the inside flap, although I do NOT recommend ... [Read more]
Posted by berlinskit on July 16, 2013
Tags: teen fiction
0 Comments
Title: The Miseducation of Cameron Post
By: Emily M. Danforth
When Cameron Post’s parents die in a car accident, she’s relieved that they’ll never find out that she had been kissing her best friend Irene. Now her grandmother and Aunt Ruth have come to live with Cameron in her small ranching town of Miles City, Montana. Aunt Ruth is a ... [Read more]
Posted by pughc on May 18, 2013
Tags: fiction, teen fiction
1 Comment
Title: Tangerine
By: Edward Bloor
This is one of my all-time favorite young adult novels. It has many levels that will interest the more mature reader, and has a wonderful storyline with characters that will totally draw you in. Twelve-year-old Paul is legally blind, but is a mean soccer goalie in Tangerine, Florida. His family ... [Read more]
Posted by bibliobug on May 1, 2013
Tags: fiction, teen fiction
0 Comments
Jeepers Creepers It's Everywhere
Title: Creepers
By: Joanne Dahme
Ivy is everywhere. It seems to want to overtake the whole house. And no matter how much they try to pull it out and tear it off the walls it won't be eradicated. Courtney and her family move to their new home in remote Murmur, Massachusetts and the spookiness begins. ... [Read more]
Posted by ogradyj on July 15, 2010
Tags: fiction, mystery, teen fiction
0 Comments
Book Kits
To help your book discussion group, we've gathered a collection of popular paperback titles and sorted them into kits which can be sent to you upon request.
Learn more... Browse titles...Upcoming Book Events...
Reading in the Redwoods @ Felton
Wednesday, August 28 (6:15 PM - 7:30 PM)Location: Felton
Scotts Valley Genre Book Discussion Club
Thursday, August 29 (7:00 PM - 8:30 PM)Location: Scotts Valley
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Wednesday, September 4 (10:00 AM - 11:00 AM)Location: Aptos
Adult Book Discussion Group @ La Selva Beach
Thursday, September 12 (10:30 AM - 12:00 PM)Location: La Selva Beach
Aptos Library Book Discussion Group
Thursday, September 12 (1:00 PM - 2:30 PM)Location: Aptos
