Adult Books for High School Students

Adult/High School—This debut novel by a former NFL tight end is, unsurprisingly, about an NFL tight end. Dominic Fucillo is totally focused on football. He continues to play, even though he has a knee that could disintegrate at any moment. His girlfriend no longer speaks to him, since he put football above their relationship. He lives in a cheap motel, despite his salary. He has just been fined $50,000 for attacking a referee, and since he may not have a salary once the season is over, it is probably just as well that he isn't heavily invested in real estate. Fucillo arrives at the stadium early one morning to find that the team's star linebacker has been beaten, and he starts asking questions about a known gambler who has been hanging around. The protagonist is an alternately appealing and exasperating character. He clearly loves the sport, but he can be stunningly naive (he is shocked, shocked! to discover that gambling and drug use go on in the NFL). He is superstitious about religion (miss Mass, lose a game), and hopelessly romantic about his ex-girlfriend. He has violent bursts of anger as well as moments of tenderness and affection. Bavaro never quite seems to decide if he is writing a straight sports novel or a mystery/thriller, so the plot lurches along erratically. But the football scenes are dramatic and gripping, and the insider knowledge will fascinate fans.—Sarah Flowers, formerly at Santa Clara County Library, CA

Adult/High School—When Finnula Crais learns that her older sister is pregnant, she agrees to participate in the tradition of "man-napping" to earn money for her sister's dowry. Her quarry is not what she expects: instead of kidnapping a lowly knight returning from the Crusades with his riches, she finds herself saddled with Hugo Fitzstephen, Earl of Stephensgate. Over the days in which Finnula holds him captive, they succumb to passion. When the truth about his identity comes to light, Finnula's brother and the earl himself insist that the two marry. The pair meets with adversity in the form of Hugo's cousin, who has mismanaged the estate in the earl's absence. However, despite murder attempts, suspicion falling on Finnula's past, and a great deal of misunderstanding, true love triumphs. While the secondary characters are drawn with broad strokes, both Finnula and Hugh are well-crafted characters with likable personalities and real depth. The setting seems well researched, with enough detail that readers can clearly picture this 13th-century English hamlet. Cabot, writing as Princess Mia Thermopolis, has imbued this novel with enough humor to counteract the sometimes overly earnest love story. Witty dialogue and a plot that contains plenty of twists and turns work together to keep even the most jaded readers turning the pages. Cabot fans and romance readers alike will fall in love with feisty Finn and her strong, passionate earl.—Karen E. Brooks-Reese, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, PA

Adult/High School—This story offers teens a realistic look at the glamour and grime of life as a working musician in New York City in the early 1970s. There is a bit of sex and quite a bit of pot smoking, but the rock 'n' roll has been replaced with kids' music. The four young songwriters, a fading star/producer, and a recording engineer/drummer/family man have been hired to create educational songs for a children's cartoon show called Pop Goes the Classroom. They are all receiving a paycheck, for which they are grateful, and they get to work, even sleeping in the basement recording studio. But with the money and free pot come doubts about selling out and the fear of losing their artistic integrity. The creative and romantic chemistry among the musicians evolve quickly but are believable on both fronts. They write plenty of good learning songs, such as "Nine's Magic Multiples" and "Funky Solar System," and the relationships develop in realistic and unexpected ways. Each chapter focuses on a different character, and teens will enjoy seeing the conflicting perspectives on the same events. The love scenes are tame enough, but the romantic and artistic estrangements and betrayals are fairly brutal. The story ends with a present-day reunion of the group that shows where they all ended up.—Will Marston, Berkeley Public Library, CA

Adult/High School—As young children in the early 1960s, Anna and Peter are told that their mother has died in an accident while away from their British village for the day. It is the Cold War period of spies, spy catching, and even spy executions, and Peter tries to convince his sister that their mother isn't dead but is an agent who has been recalled by the Russians. Harding tells the tale from the viewpoints of both Anna the child and Anna the woman, now exploring Eastern Europe in the 21st century, looking for clues to her mother's real past. Peter the man has removed himself, both physically and emotionally, from finding out whether their mother was a spy or whether it was all a game he imagined to comfort himself at her death. This quick and haunting read tickles the imagination, almost unbearably, with questions about what we can ever know of history and what history always seems to have ready to reveal even by serendipity.—Francisca Goldsmith, Halifax Public Libraries, Nova Scotia

Adult/High School—Eighteen stories by some of today's best-selling fantasists, including R. A. Salvatore, Will McDermott, and Nancy Virginia Varian, are gathered together in one volume. The tales range from a story about a princess trapped in an ice tower who learns the language of the birds to one that describes a young man of the future working in an alien diner, restless and driven to be a stowaway in a Megallanic truck loaded with deadly Hydro-Gel. Some settings and characters are unlike any encountered in reality, while others are familiar even in their peculiarity, and readers can connect with, relate to, and learn from the characters' experiences. Recommend this one to fans of alternative worlds, fantasy realms, and role-playing games.—Joanne Ligamari, Twin Rivers United School District, Sacramento, CA

Adult/High School—Romano offers an unsentimental series of vignettes about an Italian immigrant family adjusting to life in Chicago in the mid-20th century. Readers will be charmed by Mama's grit and evocative broken English, Papa's gentle passivity and tuneful whistling of Italian opera, Michael's longing for his heritage, and his brother Jimmy's drive to succeed. Both sons experience growing pains as they navigate school, sports, the neighborhood, first jobs, and the inevitable cultural and generational gap with their parents. Told from the point of view of each member of the family, the stories flow back and forth in time. Readers learn of the lives and romances of Mama and Papa in the old country, before their arranged marriage, as well as of the experiences of their sons as children, young married men, and fathers. Mama forged the way, coming to America first, changing the family name from Comingo to Cummings. As the boys grow, the inevitable conflicts arise and everyone relates a story of secrets, betrayals, and misunderstandings. The stories are humorous, heartbreaking, and uniquely American. Readers will find the Comingos engaging, and their experiences, while not unfamiliar, compelling.—Jackie Gropman, formerly at Fairfax County Public Library System, Fairfax, VA

Adult/High School—This alternate history opens with German Captain Hasso Pemsel battling Russian soldiers amid the ruins of the Museum district in war-torn Berlin. With nothing to lose, he decides to sit on a museum artifact labeled the navel of the world, and he's whisked into a parallel universe. He finds himself in a medieval-seeming place inhabited by two people at war with one another: large, blond, arrogant, and technologically superior Lenelli and smaller, swarthy, defensive, and wily Grenye. Turtledove's third-person narration from Pemsel's perspective provides excellent descriptions of the sights and smells of a medieval city, details about technology and strategy in warfare, and suspenseful battle scenes. The male characters are well developed through dialogue and action, and although most of the women are merely sexual partners, Velona and Drepteaza, priestesses of Lenelli and Grenye, respectively, present formidable challenges to Pemsel. A few are wizards with magical abilities, and a couple of unicorns make minor appearances, but this is not a fantasy novel. The story is well paced, alternating among battle scenes, strategic planning, political intrigue, romance, and the captain's insights about human nature.—Sondra VanderPloeg, Colby-Sawyer College, New London, NH

Adult/High School—David Kim, formerly known as Dae Joon, has just turned 12 years old and moved to New Jersey from Korea. After five years of living with his mother and his older, moody sister, he must reconnect with a father he does not remember and get used to his American life, which consists of going to school and working at his parents' shop, East Meets West. In a series of interwoven short stories, Woo captures both the difficulty of transitioning from adolescence into adulthood and the additional challenges of making that transition in a new country. The author presents, through the boy's perspective, a chapter about an American acquaintance who experiments with wearing pantyhose under his clothes. Woo imbues the story, like others in the collection, with David's overall sense of confusion about this man's American ways. With a mix of humor and drama, Everything Asian makes a fine addition to recreational reading lists and a good companion to Gene Luen Yang's graphic novel American Born Chinese (Roaring Brook/First Second, 2006).—Sarah Krygier, Fairfield Civic Center Library, Fairfield, CA

Adult/High School—Buergenthal was elected American judge at the International Court of Justice, The Hague, in 2000. He is a survivor of Auschwitz, one in a succession of several labor, prison, and death camps where he spent his 10^th and 11^th years. An excellent and evocative storyteller, he finds that the distance of time allows him to ask questions about how his experiences in a Polish ghetto, the fact that he was able to stay with his father during his early concentration camp months, and his reunion with his mother after liberation and before his 13^th birthday shaped him, and also helped him to survive in the worst Holocaust scenarios. Illustrating the vivid word images he creates with snapshots of his prewar and postwar life (the former saved by a neighbor in spite of her fears that the Nazis would discover her Jewish sympathy), this is a well-constructed, warm, insightful visit with the man. He knows that he was both lucky and well served by the plasticity of a youth that really had no "ordinary" contrast against which he might have turned and lost hope, will, and the strength to keep alive emotionally and physically. In addition to being an excellent curriculum-support text, the fine writing and insights here make this book a powerful choice for teens looking for a mentor through emotional and political challenges of their own.—Francisca Goldsmith, Halifax Public Libraries, Nova Scotia

Adult/High School—Holton's collection of 28 first-person narratives will be useful and appealing to teens of color considering a career in law enforcement. The tales from the streets of Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Chicago, Louisiana, Philadelphia, Indiana, and Massachusetts vary widely in content and quality of writing. Early chapters are prefaced with brief third-person biographical sketches of the authors, but these introductory remarks are not included in every instance. Seven women are represented, and three of the chapters describe the experiences of corrections officers working in prisons. Some of the authors share one specific anecdote from law enforcement, while others have written mini-autobiographies that can be considered primary-source materials. The book opens with a well-written prologue summarizing the history of African Americans serving as law enforcement officers in the United States, from 1805 to the present. The tone throughout the book is conversational; sometimes reading it feels like watching the "law" portion of Law & Order, or sitting down with a family friend and listening to her life story.—Sondra VanderPloeg, Colby-Sawyer College, New London, NH

Adult/High School—This book has been published in conjunction with the Library of Congress's exhibition marking the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth. The beautifully produced volume culls some 40 documents handwritten by the president together with an equal number of commentaries by present-day Americans of note. These contributors range from past presidents (Carter, Clinton, Bush, and Bush) to authors and scholars (John Updike, John Hope Franklin, Toni Morrison, Sven Birkerts), and to people in the performing arts (Steven Spielberg, Liam Neeson, Ken Burns, Conan O'Brien). They all offer brief, thoughtful reflections on the manuscripts presented. The quality of the reproductions is high, providing readers with an accurate representation of the color and texture of the documents, and the clarity of the handwriting in them. Also, the volume is generously illustrated with well-chosen photographs, drawings, and prints. But by far its greatest triumph lies in the thoughts and words of Lincoln himself and the unique window into the creation of those words the handwritten sheets of paper provide. In these drafts of speeches (including Gettysburg and the first and second inaugurals), letters, notes, poems, and other writings, readers glimpse the mind of the author at work. They see strikeovers, insertions, rewriting in the margins; they even see where Lincoln paused to dip his pen in the ink. Everyone knows about the man's political accomplishments, his statesmanship, and his oratory skills, but teens will learn much more from this volume.—Robert Saunderson, formerly at Berkeley Public Library, CA

Adult/High School—Written in a question-and-answer format by a veterinarian, this relaxed and informal guide covers a wide range of topics. Health and diet take up about half of it ("Can I give my cat a Tylenol?"). The rest of it covers behavior ("Why does my cat attack my ankles?") and social interactions among cats and their human companions ("Does my cat listen when I talk?"). The author's answers to these and many other questions are both informative and accessible. Lee avoids scientific and medical terms in favor of a friendly conversational style and includes answers to questions readers might hesitate to ask a vet in person ("Is it true male cats have a backward penis?"). Teens who help care for little Chloe or Max ("What are the top ten hottest cat names?") will find many of their questions answered here and even learn that cleaning the litter box is more than a stinky chore—the size of the urine clumps can give clues about a cat's health.—Sandy Schmitz, Berkeley Public Library, CA

Adult/High School—A memoir told through evocative language and with clear-eyed precision. Lyles writes about her experiences with both America's mid-20^th-century urban racial dysfunction and her own intellectual blooming. The summer of 1974, a time when the author was poised between Cleveland's projects and a scholarship to a private academy, is the linchpin. She moves back and forth with grace and an ever-growing awareness of how her parents created a smart, well-read girl in spite of poverty. The first edition (Faber & Faber, 1994) ended two thirds of the way through this story. Here, readers follow Lyles through prep school, college, and her attendance years later at two high school reunions: that of the school from which she graduated and the inner city public one to which her friends and peers were left—and from which so many of her male friends and brothers dropped away. Lyles's father was an absent intellectual guardian as she grew from early adolescence watching the Afro Set demonstrate on project streets to the woman who is now a poet and editor. Her mother provided her five children with food and shelter through the most menial of jobs, and she also exposed them early and often to art, drama, and the belief that learning what Latin phrases mean could change how they saw both themselves and their city. This is essential reading for all American teens.—Francisca Goldsmith, Halifax Public Libraries, Nova Scotia

Adult/High School—Arranged alphabetically and including traditions ranging from Buddhism and Roman Catholicism to Eckankar and Yazdânism, this tongue firmly in cheek "guide" glosses the high—and most gruesome, exciting, or threatening—points of death beliefs. Each religious system receives four pages that include an overview paragraph, a full-page portrait of an affiliated personality (founder, god, etc.), and a spread with a diagram of how your lifetime choices—or, in some situations, plain luck—influence where you go after death and what happens to you there. No one will become a theological scholar with this book as their text, and there is something to offend practically everyone if the religion under discussion is theirs. However, for spiritually curious teens and those with the irreverent sense of humor and delight in the bizarre, this is a treat. There's also just enough about the rudimentary structure of each faith system to give readers good search terms to take to the Web to find fuller details.—Francisca Goldsmith, Halifax Public Libraries, Nova Scotia

Adult/High School—"I'm afraid of everything," says King. Writing about his fears makes them disappear, at least while he's working, says the popular icon of horror, obsessive reader, and author. When he was two, his father walked out, leaving his mother barely scratching out a living for herself and her two boys. Despite their poverty, she paid King a quarter for every story he wrote to encourage him in his endeavor. Later, his submissions to magazines paid him enough to survive. Though he had gotten along with others in high school, he was also the butt of pranks, inspiring his first novel, Carrie. King and his wife cashed the first check he received for that book to buy antibiotics for their baby. After that, fame and money came fast and furiously. King struggled with substance abuse for several years, prolific through it all, although his health was affected and he worked his way to becoming clean and sober. Though Rogak has documented her facts, her writing is often repetitive, lacking the dynamism she is trying to convey about her subject. Still, King's books are rarely sitting on the shelves, so this should be a popular choice of biography or an interesting addition to U.S. pop-culture history from the '60s through the '90s. King's work ethic and success as a writer will serve to encourage those who also aspire to the profession.—Ellen Bell, Amador Valley High School, Pleasanton, CA

Adult/High School—This riveting collection of 17 narratives puts a human face on the human-rights tragedy of Sudan. Several victims recount their stories from Cairo, where numerous refugees lead marginalized lives. Many wait in lines at the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to obtain yellow cards for official status. However, the UNHCR at times seems bureaucratically insensitive and ineffective as protectors. Some common themes emerge from the diverse stories. Several of the women have suffered forced marriages, repeated rape, and being sold into slavery. Sudanese boys and young men in Cairo get sucked into self-destructive gangs such as the Lost Boys and the Outlaws. Many refugees suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Health care is mostly nonexistent in refugee camps and, even in public hospitals in Cairo, it is hazardous to the patient. Organ harvesting is not uncommon among such "disposable" people. Almost all of the narrators have a fair degree of education and value learning as the hope for rebuilding their country. Many admire John Garang and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and place hope in the 2011 Self-Determination Referendum. Students of global studies and international relations will find an abundance of research information in the excellent appendixes, but the heart and soul of the book is most certainly in the heart-wrenching narratives of these people.—Paula Dacker, Charter Oak High School, CA