RS 100 - College Skills: Reading suggestions

In this debut novel, two estranged siblings must set aside their differences to deal with their mother's death and her hidden past--a journey of discovery that takes them from the Caribbean to London to California and ends with her famous black cake.

In order to avoid an Internal Affairs investigation, Detective Wolf must hunt down the "Black Lotus Killer," a pursuit that leads to a cold case from his past.

As a hit man from the time he was very young, money, women, and danger have always ruled Gideon’s life; but for the first time, the job is taking its toll. Neither Gideon nor the city of Buenos Aires has recovered from the mayhem caused during Gideon’s last job. But before the dust has settled and the bodies have been buried, Gideon calls in backup to launch his biggest act of revenge yet ... one he believes will destroy his adversary, Midnight, once and for all. Yet Midnight and his second-in-command are launching their own revenge.

From the plantations of the South to the Civil War and the Great Migration, from the coal mines of Pratt City, Alabama, to the jazz clubs and dope houses of twentieth-century Harlem, right up through the present day, Gyasi makes history visceral, and captures how the memory of captivity came to be inscribed in the soul of a nation.

To come to terms with her own identity, Ailey embarks on a journey through her family's past, uncovering the shocking tales of generations of ancestors--Indigenous, Black, and white--in the deep South.

Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

It is the story of eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove -- a black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others -- who prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment.

Maia's intensely cathartic autobiography charts their journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to their family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, the book is more than a personal story.

New London, Texas. 1937. Naomi Vargas and Wash Fuller know about the lines in East Texas as well as anyone. They know the signs that mark them. They know the people who enforce them. But sometimes the attraction between two people is so powerful it breaks through even the most entrenched color lines. And the consequences can be explosive. (Set during the 1937 New London school explosion, the deadliest school disaster in American history.).

A haunting coming of age novel told in a series of letters to an unknown correspondent reveals the life of Charlie, a freshman in high school who is a wallflower, shy and introspective, and very intelligent. It's a story of what it's like to grow up in high school, tracing a course through uncharted territory in the world of first dates, family dramas and new friends.

In profiling rock and roll manager Peter Grant, Blake sheds new light on the history of Led Zeppelin and on the wider story of rock music in the 1960s and '70s. He provides new insights into Grant's early life as an actor and wrestler; the formation of Led Zeppelin; Grant's seclusion following the demise of the band; and his recovery from substance abuse.

Los Angeles in the 1960s and 70s was the pop culture capital of the world--a movie factory, a music factory, a dream factory. Eve Babitz was the ultimate factory girl, a pure product of L.A.

In the photograph of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on the balcony of Memphis's Lorraine Motel, one man kneeled down beside King, trying to staunch the blood from his fatal head wound with a borrowed towel. This kneeling man was a member of the Invaders, an activist group that was in talks with King in the days leading up to the murder. He had a second identity: an undercover Memphis police officer reporting on the activities of this group.

Beyoncé. Her name has come to be synonymous with beauty, glamour, power, creativity, love, and romance. This tribute features essays that examine how she has steadily invested the power her freedom required, as she shapes a vision of womanhood that influences young people around the world.

When NASA sent astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s the agency excluded women, arguing that only military test pilots--a group then made up exclusively of men--had the right stuff. It was an era in which women were steered away from jobs in science and deemed unqualified for space flight. Eventually, though, NASA recognized its blunder and opened the application process to a wider array of hopefuls, regardless of race or gender. From a candidate pool of 8,000 six elite women were selected in 1978.

Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a £20,000 wager (roughly £1.6 million today) set by his friends at the Reform Club.

A gripping dystopian vision of our society radically overturned by a theocratic revolution, this book has become one of the most powerful and most widely read novels of our time.

Santiago is a Cuban fisherman who encounters a giant marlin in the Gulf Stream and the battle for his catch becomes one of survival against a band of marauding sharks.

The struggle of three brothers to stay together after their parent's death and their quest for identity among the conflicting values of their adolescent society.

In this historic romance, young Elizabeth Bennet strives for love, independence and honesty in the vapid high society of 19th century England.

Greta lives with her friend Sabine in an ancient Dutch farmhouse in Hudson. The house, built in 1737, is unrenovated, uninsulated, and full of bees. Greta spends her days transcribing therapy sessions for a sex coach who calls himself Om. She becomes infatuated with his newest client, a repressed married woman she affectionately refers to as Big Swiss, since she's tall, stoic, and originally from Switzerland.

"An explosive, tense, and illuminating work of fiction, The Laughter is a fascinating portrait of privilege, radicalization, class, and modern academia that forces us to confront the assumptions we make." - Provided by the publisher.

Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one in the journalism community is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?

This novel is a sharp story of youth, ambition, love, money and technology's inability to hack human nature

Palestine, 1990. Seventeen-year-old Isra prefers reading books to entertaining the suitors her father has chosen for her. Over the course of a week, the naïve and dreamy girl finds herself quickly betrothed and married, and is soon living in Brooklyn. There Isra struggles to adapt to the expectations of her oppressive mother-in-law Fareeda and strange new husband Adam, a pressure that intensifies as she begins to have children -- four daughters instead of the sons Fareeda tells Isra she must bear.

One of the most influential books of the 20th century gets the graphic treatment in this adaptation of George Orwell's 1984, which warns against totalitarianism. The story is told from the point of view of Winston Smith, a functionary of the Ministry of Truth whose work involved the "correction" of all records each time the "Big Brother" decided that the truth had changed.

Persepolis is the story of the author's childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming - both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland.

In kindergarten, the author's teacher asks him to draw his family, with a mommy and a daddy. But his mom is an addict, in and out of rehab, and in and out of his life. He doesn't know where to find his father, or even what his name is. The author lives with his grandparents - two loud, loving, opinionated people who had thought they were through with raising children.

The author-illustrator traces his father's imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp through a series of disarming and unusual cartoons arranged to tell the story as a novel.

The sweeping tale of one young family fighting to find their place in the universe. When two soldiers from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war fall in love, they risk everything to bring a fragile new life into a dangerous old world.

Seeking peace and safety after a hard childhood, Leah marries Judah, a strong and gentle man, and for the first time in her life believes she can rest easily. But the land is ruled by Antiochus IV, and when he issues a decree that all Jews are to conform to Syrian laws upon pain of death, devout Jews risk everything to follow the law of Moses.

Eleven-year-old Nico Crispi never told a lie. When the Nazi's invade his home in Salonika, Greece, the trustworthy boy is discovered by a German officer, who offers him a chance to save his family. All Nico has to do is convince his fellow Jewish residents to board trains heading towards "the east" where they are promised jobs and safety.

Raised among the Lemhi Shoshone, Sacajewea [sic] learns all the ways to survive. When her village is raided, she is kidnapped and then gambled away to Charbonneau, a French Canadian trapper. Now she must learn to survive in a new world teeming with fur trappers and traders. When Lewis and Clark's expedition arrives, Sacajewea must cross a vast and brutal terrain with her newborn son, the white man who owns her, and a company of men who wish to conquer and commodify the world she loves.

After the Great War took both her beloved brother and her fiancé, Violet Speedwell refuses to accept being a "surplus woman," one of a generation doomed to a life of spinsterhood after the war killed so many young men.

in World War II, with the invading Germans hard on their heels, Anne frantically moves the Mona Lisa and other treasures from the Louvre again and again in an elaborate game of hide and seek.

This 19th century novel tells the story of Oliver Conrad, age fifteen, who lives in a country mansion with his stepfather, stepbrother and mother. Oliver's stepfather secretly commits his mother to a madhouse to steal her estate and pretends she has died. To get Oliver out of the picture, his stepfather arranges a job for him in New York City. Oliver must survive through many hardships in order to save his mother, return home and reveal the truth of his stepfather's evil plans.

An acclaimed memoir of World War II, the author tells about a failed campaign and the long captivity that followed.

A turn-of-the-century love story of two people who search for understanding of themselves and each other, authored by one of the greatest African-American writers.

This novel is a humorous detective tale.

A mother/daughter story that follows bohemian artist Candace Burdett as she attempts to prove a point: that she can do a better job as a mother than her own mother, Eileen. The author previously lived in Spencertown.

A resident of Austerlitz during the first half of the 20th century, this compilation includes poetry, songs, a verse play, and a sonnet sequence.

On Planetoid Three, Jaguar Addams enters the minds of criminals. She lives in the shadows of their fears . . . and chases them into the light. The followers of the Revelation Sect are preparing for the Second Coming. Stockpiles of weapons were found when federal agents stormed the home of the fanatical leader, Sardis Malocco. Now Jaguar must resort to using a virtual reality environment of Heaven to get to the root of Sardis's fear of God-before Revelation's zealots unleash their own apocalypse upon the world. The author lives in Albany.

Seven years after he begins receiving mysterious checks that follow him as he moves through life, Josh Redmont, en route to a summer vacation, is approached by a stranger with information about Josh's identity. The author, named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, was a resident of Gallatin and Ancram.

Herrick's novel evoked a contemporary Spain where the fraternal clash of loyalists and fascists has given way to the revolutionaries--fathers and sons. Herrick lived in Old Chatham.

The author writes an account of her relationship with her pit bull Rosie. Starting from the emptiness following Rosie’s death, the author launches a heartfelt and fabulist investigation into the true nature of the bond between pet and pet owner.

Black Boy Smile is a story that proves that when we acknowledge the fallacies of our past, we can uncover the path toward self-discovery. Black Boy Smile is the story of a Black boy who healed.

A memoir by the counterculture legend discusses how he formed one of the most successful comedy duos of all time, became a representative of the recreational drug movement, forged a successful solo career, and amassed a collection of renowned Chicano art.

Just days before his sixty-ninth birthday, Jonathan Raban was sitting down to dinner with his daughter when he found he couldn't move his knife to his plate. Later that night, at the hospital, doctors confirmed he had suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke, paralyzing the right side of his body. Once he became stable, Raban embarked on an extended stay at a rehabilitation center, struggling to accept the limitations of his new body. Woven into his story is that his father, Peter, faced in the trenches during World War II.

As the author navigated the world of the elite and saw the realities of the education gap firsthand, Zara realized he needed to confront the label he had been quietly holding in: what it looked like to be part of the "working class"--whatever that meant.

Matt Brady is trying to get out of both his native borough and his dead-end job writing for a weekly newspaper. When he’s sent to cover yet another fatal shooting, he’s as surprised as the detectives to find out he knows the corpse. As Matt digs beyond what the police say about the murder, he discovers that what seemed like the story that could finally get him out of the Bronx only sucks him in deeper, until his own life is on the line.

Set in rural Kentucky from the Korean War to 1970, Tucker returns from war to work for a bootlegger. He falls in love and starts a family, and while the Tuckers don't have much, they have the love of their home and each other. But when his family is threatened, Tucker is pushed into violence, which changes everything.

Stephen King's HOLLY marks the triumphant return of beloved King character Holly Gibney. Readers have witnessed Holly's gradual transformation from a shy and reclusive (but also brave and ethical) homebody in Mr. Mercedes to Bill Hodges's partner in Finders Keepers and End of Watch to a full-fledged, smart and occasionally tough private detective on her own in The Outsider and If It Bleeds. In this new novel, Holly once again claims the spotlight, and must face some of her most depraved adversaries yet.

Charlie Wynwood and Silas Nash have been best friends since they could walk. They've been in love since the age of fourteen. But as of this morning...they are complete strangers. Their first kiss, their first fight, the moment they fell in love...every memory has vanished. Now Charlie and Silas must work together to uncover the truth about what happened to them and why.

“Excellent… The ingredients — adultery, fake identities, ulterior motives, forgery, plagiarism, rough sex, unusual chapter breaks, a little murder thrown in here and there — are enticing, and Donlea tells a propulsive tale.” —The New York Times

By all accounts, Simon Basset is on the verge of proposing to his best friend's sister--the lovely and almost-on-the-shelf--Daphne Bridgerton. But the two of the know the truth--it's all an elaborate ruse to keep Simon free from marriage-minded society mothers. And as for Daphne, surely she will attract some worthy suitors now that it seems a duke has declared her desirable.

Makeda Hicks has lost her job and her girlfriend in one fell swoop. The last thing she's in the mood for is to rehash the story of her grandmother's infamous summer fling with a runaway prince from Ibarania, or the investigator from the World Federation of Monarchies tasked with searching for Ibarania's missing heir. Yet when Beznaria Chetchevaliere crashes into her life, the sleek and sexy investigator exudes exactly the kind of chaos that organized and efficient Makeda finds irresistible.

Lily and Ryle have just settled into a civil co-parenting rhythm with their daughter, Emerson, when Lily suddenly runs into Atlas nearly two years after they last spoke. Elated that the timing finally seems to be right to give what they have together a real chance, Atlas asks Lily on a date. But Lily's excitement is almost immediately replaced by dread and anxiety.

Cynical twenty-three-year old August doesn't believe in much. She doesn't believe in psychics, or easily forged friendships, or finding the kind of love they make movies about. And she certainly doesn't believe her ragtag band of new roommates, her night shifts at a 24-hour pancake diner, or her daily subway commute full of electrical outages are going to change that. But then, there's Jane.

When Poppy met Alex, there was no spark, no chemistry, and no reason to think they'd ever talk again. Over the years, Alex and Poppy's lives take them in different directions, but every summer the two find their way back to each other for a magical week long vacation. Until one trip goes awry, and in the fallout, they lose touch.

Earth, 2144. Jack is an anti-patent scientist turned drug pirate, traversing the world, fabricating cheap scrips for poor people who can’t otherwise afford them. But her latest drug hack has left a trail of lethal overdoses as people become addicted to their work, doing repetitive tasks until they become unsafe or insane. Hot on her trail, an unlikely pair: Eliasz, a brooding military agent, and his robotic partner, Paladin.

Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit, lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to take part in an adventure from which he may never return.

In a future America, United States, the Department of Balance has adopted a radical new form of law enforcement: rather than incarceration, wrongdoers are given a second (and sometimes, third, fourth, and fifth) shadow as a reminder of their crime-and a warning to those they encounter. Within the Department, corruption and prejudice run rampant, giving rise to an underclass of so-called Shadesters who are disenfranchised, publicly shamed, and deprived of civil rights protections.

The tranquility of Mars is disrupted by humans who want to conquer space, colonize the planet, and escape a doomed Earth.

In the wake of an insignificant battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms in fourteenth-century southern India, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. After witnessing the death of her mother, the grief-stricken Pampa Kampana becomes a vessel for the goddess Parvati, who begins to speak out of the girl's mouth. Granting her powers beyond Pampa Kampana's comprehension, the goddess tells her that she will be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga--literally 'victory city'--the wonder of the world.

Against the backdrop of ongoing massive resistance to desegregation and calls for Black Power, the NBA in the 1970s embodied the nation's imagined descent. The press and public blamed young Black players for the chaos in the NBA, citing drugs, violence, greed, and criminality. The supposed decline of pro basketball became a metaphor for the first decades of integration in America: the rules had changed, allowing more Black people onto a formerly white playing field.

Kings of the Cage follows the desperate fighters, audacious promoters, fanboy bloggers, fatherly trainers, philosophical announcers, hustling sponsors, and three improbable twentysomething corporate titans on a darkly comic odyssey to normalize a new level of brutality in American pop culture-and make a fortune doing so.

Four Wheels and a Board captures the sport's vibrant history, from its origins in Indigenous surf culture to its establishment as an official competitive sport in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Celebrate the inseparable story of sneaker and basketball in this richly illustrated history of the beloved game told through the lens of iconic shoes.

In Rocket Men, sportswriter John Eisenberg offers the definitive history of Black quarterbacks in the league-men who not only shaped the history of football, but made indelible contributions to the cause of civil rights in America.

Keith Rudy and Hugh Malco grew up in Biloxi in the sixties and were childhood friends, as well as Little League all-stars. But as teenagers, their lives took them in different directions. Keith's father became a legendary prosecutor, determined to "clean up the Coast." Hugh's father became the "Boss" of Biloxi's criminal underground.

Lady Bird, an unlucky assassin, is tasked with grabbing a suitcase from a bullet train from Tokyo to Morioka and exiting at the next stop, but doesn't realize other dangerous passengers are trying to do the same.

A year has passed since LAPD detective Renée Ballard quit the force. Yet, after the chief himself tells her she can write her ticket within the department, Ballard takes back her badge to rebuild the cold case unit. For years, Harry Bosch has been working a case that he hasn't been able to crack-the murder of an entire family by a psychopath who still walks free. Ballard makes Bosch an offer: come work with her as a volunteer investigator in the new Open-Unsolved Unit, and he can pursue his "white whale" with the resources of the LAPD behind him.

Fred Daniels, a Black man, is picked up by the police after a brutal double murder and tortured until he confesses to a crime he did not commit. After signing a confession, he escapes from custody and flees into the city's sewer system. This is the devastating premise of this scorching novel, a never-before-seen masterpiece by Richard Wright.

Sullivan County, Georgia. One historic lake house. Seven murder victims. Two versions of the truth.... When Army Rangers posted to the local base are implicated in a major crime, the investigating team is led by Major Jeremiah Cook. Sheriff Emma Williams has never worked a multiple homicide, and Cook knows it. And the evidence doesn't fit the secrets he is learning. Unless Cook can convince the locals that the recent crimes are part of a larger mystery, this outsider may never unlock the truth.

It started when journalist Jillian Lauren asked LAPD Homicide Detective Mitzi Roberts about which case Roberts was most proud of closing. "Samuel Little," Roberts answered. The now 79-year-old Little had murdered approximately 90 women over six decades and repeatedly got away with the murders due to lack of evidence (or jurisdiction); Roberts finally brought him to justice by tying him to the murders of three Los Angeles women. Surprised she had never heard of Little, Lauren started digging.

From a 1983 story of a campus rape at the University of Pennsylvania that unleashed a debate over the nature of consent when drinking and drugs are involved, to three cold cases featuring the inimitable Long Island private detective Ken Brennan and a startling investigation into a murderer deep within the LAPD's ranks, shielded for twenty-six years by officers keen to protect one of their own, these stories are the work of a masterful narrative journalist.

An agent in the world-renowned FBI Behavioral Sciences Unit who consulted on more than 850 homicide cases, crossing paths with some of the world's most infamous serial killers, and the real-life model for The Silence of the Lambs's Clarice Starling, shares her incredible story for the first time.

Beginning in December 1884, the Midnight Assassin crisscrossed the emerging city of Austin, Texas, striking on moonlit nights, using axes, knives and long steel rods to rip apart women from every race and class. Before it was over, at least a dozen men would be arrested in connection with the murders. Along the way, the murders would expose what a newspaper described as "the most extensive and profound scandal ever known in Austin."

In 1998, Rowe was working as a stringer for The New York Times in Poughkeepsie, when police discovered the bodies of eight women stashed in the attic and basement of the home that Kendall Francois shared with his parents and sister. Rowe wanted to understand how a man could abduct and strangle eight women and how a family could live for two years, seemingly unaware, in a house with the victims’ rotting corpses.

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world. At least, he's not a beast all the time.

In the summer between middle school and high school, Aiden Navarro is away at camp. While there, he navigates friendships, deals with bullies, and spends time with Elias (a boy he can not stop thinking about), and he finds himself on a path of self-discovery and acceptance.

Starr Carter moves between the poor neighborhood where she lives and the suburban prep school she attends. That uneasy balance is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and a drug lord try to intimidate Starr. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night?

Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash.

It is a universally acknowledged truth that high school sucks. But on the first day of his senior year, Greg Gaines thinks he's figured it out. The answer to the basic existential question: How is it possible to exist in a place that sucks so bad? His strategy: remain at the periphery at all times. Keep an insanely low profile. Make mediocre films with the one person who is even sort of his friend, Earl. This plan works for exactly eight hours. Then Greg's mom forces him to become friends with a girl who has cancer.