This list includes titles that received rave reviews from participants in our adult summer reading program. Our readers found all kinds of treasures to enjoy this summer from thrillers to manga to westerns to nonfiction.


Compiled by:
Elizabeth G.
As Close As Sisters

Colleen Faulkner
Faulkne

“Insightful and compelling”

Diagnosed with terminal cancer, 42-year-old McKenzie Arnold, spending one last summer with her three best friends, realizes that with the love and support of Aurora, Janine and Lilly, she can face her death with courage, but nothing has prepared her for how the summer will end.


Attack on Titan

Hajime Isayama
GN Isayama

“My first Manga!  Perfect amount of action and character development with a very intriguing story.  An emotional ride!”

For the past century, what's left of mankind has hidden in a giant, three-walled city, trapped in fear of the bizarre, giant humanoids known as the Titans. Little is known about where they came from or why they are bent on consuming human-kind, but the sudden appearance of an enormous Titan is about change everything


Checkmate

Steven James
James
Series: Bowers Files

“Awesome conclusion!”

When a clandestine FBI facility is attacked, Special Agent Patrick Bowers is drawn into the vicious, ruthless story that a killer from his past is bent on telling the world. Clues lead to long-forgotten secrets buried deep beneath Uptown Charlotte, North Carolina. Now Bowers is caught up in trying to stop one of the deadliest attacks ever planned on American soil. Smart, tense, and full of mind-bending twists and turns, Checkmate explodes onto the scene, bringing this cycle of the Bowers Files to an unforgettable conclusion.


The City

Dean Koontz
Koontz

“Cried at the end, probably my favorite and I’ve read every book by this author.”

There are millions of stories in the city--some magical, some tragic, others terror-filled or triumphant. Jonah Kirk's story is all of those things as he draws readers into his life in the city as a young boy, introducing his indomitable grandfather, also a "piano man;" his single mother, a struggling singer; and the heroes, villains, and everyday saints and sinners who make up the fabric of the metropolis in which they live--and who will change the course of Jonah's life forever. Welcome to The City, a place of evergreen dreams where enchantment and malice entwine, where courage and honor are found in the most unexpected corners and the way forward lies buried deep inside the heart.


Euphoria

Lily King
King

“I liked it!  Based on history, it was a smart summery tale of love and academia and not sugary sweet!”

Inspired by an event in the life of Margaret Mead, this novel tells the story of three young anthropologists in 1930s New Guinea. Nell Stone and her husband, Fen, flee one tribe, and, with the help of English anthropologist Andrew Bankson, settle with another. A love triangle soon develops among the three. The attraction Bankson feels for Nell saves him from loneliness and suicide, but it heightens tensions between Nell and Fen, ultimately exploding in violence. This three-way relationship is complex and involving, but even more fascinating is the depiction of three anthropologists with three entirely diverse ways of studying another culture.


Foreign babes in Beijing : Behind the scenes of a new China

Rachel DeWoskin
951.15 De

“A smart, funny, insightful peek into modern China through the eyes of a ‘foreign babe’.”

Having lived briefly in China while growing up, DeWoskin returns as an adult to work in a PR firm and finds herself cast in a successful soap opera, Foreign Babes in Beijing. In her highly entertaining and enlightening memoir of the same name, she shares her fascinating perspective. DeWoskin shares insider views on the one-child policy, the practice of self-criticism, and more. Still, life in Beijing is definitely improving; notes DeWoskin, "Beijing is more like Hong Kong, [as] street kiosks [make] way for sleek boutiques and cafes where the Chinese and foreigners lounge together drinking lattes and Italian sodas." She gives readers the perfect feel for today's China-a place where ancient and modern mingle.


Hondo

Louis L'Amour
Lamour

“Classic western, his first and my first, but not my last.  Loved it!”

Angie Low is raising her young son, Johnny, alone on an isolated ranch under the protection of Apache chief Vittoro, who is about to engage the U.S. Cavalry. He offers to spare them if Angie allows Johnny to be raised as an Apache.  In the aftermath Hondo Lane, a U.S. Cavalry dispatcher, tries to convince Angie and her son to abandon their ranch and flee with him to safety.


The Legend of the Monk and the Merchant: Principles for Successful Living

Terry Felber
158.1 Fel

“Awesome read with applicable principles for successful living.  The best of the three I read- by far.”

A fantastic adventure of personal growth - set in 16th century Italy. Readers will meet and join young Julio, who is taken on a quest into adulthood - as his grandfather reveals mysterious family secrets. Woven through the story are 12 principles of success including: Work Hard and God will Prosper You, Be Meek Before God, but Bold Before Men, Live Debt-Free and Below Your Means, and Set Aside the First 10% to Honor God. The Legend of the Monk and the Merchant will change the way you think about your career, wealth, and success.


Lucky Us

Amy Bloom
Bloom

“WONDERFUL from beginning to end!”

Disappointed by their families, Iris, the hopeful star and Eva the sidekick, journey through 1940s America in search of fame and fortune. With their friends in high and low places, Iris and Eva stumble and shine though a landscape of big dreams, scandals, betrayals, and war. Filled with gorgeous writing, memorable characters, and surprising events, Lucky Us is a thrilling and resonant novel about success and failure, good luck and bad, the creation of a family, and the pleasures and inevitable perils of family life, conventional and otherwise. From Brooklyn’s beauty parlors to London’s West End, a group of unforgettable people love, lie, cheat and survive in this story of our fragile, absurd, heroic species.


Made You Up

Francesca Zappia
Y Zappia

”Awesome debut novel from this University of Indianapolis student.  Loved it!”

Alex fights a daily battle to figure out what is real and what is not. Armed with a take-no-prisoners attitude, her camera, a Magic 8 Ball, and her only ally (her little sister), Alex wages a war against her schizophrenia, determined to stay sane long enough to get into college. She's pretty optimistic about her chances until she runs into Miles. Didn't she imagine him? Before she knows it, Alex is making friends, going to parties, falling in love, and experiencing all the usual rites of passage for teenagers. But Alex is used to being crazy. She's not prepared for normal. Can she trust herself? Can we trust her?


Memory Man

David Baldacci
Baldacc

“Riveting!”

Amos Decker's life changed forever when a violent hit during a pro football game knocked him off the field for good, and left him with an improbable side effect--he can never forget anything. Nearly two decades later Decker, a police detective, returned home from a stakeout to find his family murdered. Unable to forget a single detail from that horrible night, Decker leaves the police force, taking piecemeal jobs as a private investigator. Over a year later, a man confesses to the murders. When Decker is called back in to help police investigate another horrific event he seizes his chance to learn what really happened to his family. To uncover the stunning truth, he must use his remarkable gifts and confront the burdens that go along with them.


We'll Meet Again

Mary Higgins Clark
Clark

“Amazingly suspenseful read – best of the three challenge books that I read.”

Gary Lasch, a famous doctor is found dead in his home, his skull crushed by a blow with a heavy bronze sculpture. His wife, Molly, is found in bed covered with his blood. As the evidence against Molly grows, her lawyer plea-bargains a manslaughter charge to avoid a murder conviction. Released from prison nearly six years later, Molly reasserts her innocence. Molly convinces her old friend, Fran Simmons, an investigative reporter and anchor for a true-crime show to research and produce a program on her husband’s death. As hidden aspects of Gary Lasch’s come to light, is Fran herself the next target for murder?


Who Moved My Cheese?

Spencer Johnson
155.24 Jo

“Impressive inspirational read.  Now one of my top 10 books.”

Change can be a blessing or a curse, depending on your perspective. The message of this title is that all can come to see it as a blessing, if they understand the nature of cheese and the role it plays in their lives. Who Moved My Cheese? is a parable that takes place in a maze. Four beings live in that maze and have different relationships with cheese. Most of us reading the story will see the cheese as something related to our livelihoods, although it can stand for anything. The point of the story is that we have to be alert to changes in the cheese, and be prepared to go running off in search of new sources of cheese when the cheese we have runs out.