• By Forsyth County Public Library
• Posted Sunday, June 10, 2012

Your Library Staff Recommends... Our Favorite Great Reads

Summer reading is underway and this year, it's all about what's Between the Covers — of a good book, that is.

We have some great tools for finding your next great book, like our NextReads Newsletters, Novelist Plus, and those handy bookmarks you can pick up at your favorite library location. The library staff also loves it when you come in and we talk books and see you go home with something we think you'll like.

So this summer, our library staff has some personal recommendations of their idea of a great summer read, be it a classic, a bestseller, nonfiction — a whole world of choices.

Adult Fiction

Barbery, Muriel. The Elegance of the Hedgehog. 2008. Adult fiction.

Berdoll, Linda. Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife. 2004. Historical fiction.

Brontë, Anne. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Adult fiction.

Byatt, A.S. Possession.1990. Adult fiction.

Carey, Peter. Oscar and Lucinda.1988. Adult fiction.

Chabon, Michael. Wonder Boys. 1995. Adult fiction.

Cunningham, Michael. The Hours.1998. Adult fiction.

Chappell, Fred. The Brighten the Corner Where You Are.1989. Adult fiction.

Chybosky, Stephen. The Perks of Being a Wallflower.1999. Adult fiction.

Conroy, Pat. Prince of Tides. 1986. Adult fiction.

Cronin, Justin. The Passage. 2010. Adult fiction.

Dunnett, Dorothy. Niccolo Rising. 1986. Historical fiction.

Follett, Ken. The Pillars of the Earth. 1989. Adult fiction.

Fitzgerald, Penelope. The Bookshop.1997. Adult fiction.

Forstchen, William. One Second After. 2009. Adult fiction.

Gabaldon, Diana. Outlander. 1991. Adult fiction.

Gibbons, Kaye. Ellen Foster.1997. Adult fiction.

Harkness, Deborah. Discovery of Witches. 2011. Adult fiction.

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God.1937. African American fiction.

Jackson, Shirley. We Have Always Lived in the Castle. 1962. Adult fiction.

King, Stephen. Under the Dome. 2009. Adult fiction.

Kunstler, James Howard. A World Made by Hand. 2008. Adult fiction.

Lamb, Wally. She's Come Undone.1992. Adult fiction.

McCaffery, Megan. Sloppy Firsts. 2001. Adult fiction.

McGregor, Ewan. Atonement. 2002. Adult fiction.

Mitchell, David. Cloud Atlas. 2004. Adult fiction.

O'Connor, Flannery. The Complete Stories. 1971. Adult fiction.

O'Neill, Jamie. At Swim, Two Boys. 2002. Adult fiction.

Pearson, T.R. A Short History of a Small Place. 1985. Adult fiction.

Rhodes, David. Driftless. 2008. Adult fiction.

Smith, Alexander McCall. 44 Scotland Street. 2005. Adult fiction.

Smith, Dodie. I Capture the Castle. 1948. Adult fiction.

Taylor, Elizabeth. Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont. 1971. Adult fiction.

Tyler, Anne. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. 1982. Adult fiction.

Trumbo, Dalton. Johnny Got His Gun. 1959. Adult fiction.

Walker, Alice. The Color Purple.1985. African American fiction.

Wodehouse, P.G. The Code of the Woosters.1938. Adult fiction.

Wroblewski, David. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. 2008. Adult fiction.

Adult Nonfiction

Bryson, Bill. Notes from a Small Island. 1995. Adult nonfiction.

Gawande, Atul. The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right. 2010. Adult nonfiction.

Johnson, Spencer. Who Moved My Cheese? 1998. Adult nonfiction.

McCullough, David. The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris. 2011. Adult nonfiction.

Schiff, Stacy. Cleopatra: A Life. 2010. Biography.

Weir, Alison. The Six Wives of Henry VIII. 1992. Adult nonfiction.

Classics

Austen, Jane Sense and Sensibility. 1811. Classic fiction.

Austen, Jane. Emma. 1815. Classic fiction.

Austen, Jane. A Pride and Prejudice. 1813. Classic fiction.

Baum, L. Frank. The Wizard of Oz. 1900. Classic fiction.

De Cervantes, Miquel. Don Quixote. 1605, 1615. Classic fiction.

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. 1859. Classic fiction.

Ellison, Ralph. The Invisible Man. 1952. African American fiction.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. 1925. Classic fiction.

Forster, E.M. Howard's End. 1910. Adult fiction.

Hardy, Thomas. Jude the Obscure. 1895. Classic fiction.

Homer. The Illiad. 8th-7th c. BCE. Classic fiction.

Homer. The Odyssey. 8th-7th c. BCE. Classic fiction.

Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. 1915. Classic fiction.

Joyce, James. Ulysses. 1922. Classic fiction.

Mitchell, Margaret. Gone With the Wind. 1936. Classic fiction.

Montgomery, Lucy Maude. Anne of Green Gables. 1928. Classic fiction.

Reade, Harold. The Cloister and the Hearth. 1861. Adult fiction.

Salinger, J.D. Catcher in the Rye. 1951. Classic fiction.

Thoreau, Henry Davis. Walden. 1954. Classic fiction.

Tolkein, J.R.R. The Hobbit. 1937. Adult fiction.

Tolkein, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings. 1954-55. Adult fiction.

Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. 1885. Classic fiction.

Verne, Jules. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. 1870. Classic fiction.

Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. 1925. Adult fiction.

Juvenile Fiction

Burnett, Frances Hodgson. The Secret Garden.1938. Juvenile fiction.

Colfer, Eoin. Artemis Fowl. 2001. Juvenile fiction.

Dahl, Roald. Matilda. 1988. Juvenile fiction.

DiCamillo, Kate. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. 2006. Juvenile fiction.

George, Jean Craighead. My Side of the Mountain. 1991. Juvenile fiction.

Grahame, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows.1940. Juvenile fiction.

Lowry, Lois. The Giver. 1993. Juvenile fiction.

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. 2000. Juvenile fiction.

Picture Books

Sendak, Maurice. Where the Wild Things Are. 1963. Picture book.

Willems, Mo. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! 2003. Picture book.

Science Fiction

Carriger, Gail. Soulless. 2009. Steampunk.

Herbert, Frank. Dune.1965. Science fiction.

Willis, Connie. The Doomsday Book. 1992. Science fiction.

Young Adult Fiction

Beddor, Frank. The Looking Glass Wars. 2006. Young Adult fiction.

Kibuishi, Kazu. The Stonekeeper's Curse. 2009. Graphic novel.

Pullman, Phillip. His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass. 2007. Young Adult fiction.

Ursu, Anne.The Shadow Thieves. 2006. Young Adult fiction.

Zusak, Marcus. The Book Thief. 2006. Young Adult fiction.