WRA summer reading 13 v3_Summer reading 04.qxd 4/30/2013 3:43 PM Page 23
Days of Blood & Starlight (Laini Taylor, 2012) Student and monster’s apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.* Second in a planned trilogy following Daughter of Smoke & Bone (2011). Detective/Crime/Mystery Writers: Try any book by the following mystery writers: Nevada Barr (featuring National Park Ranger Amanda Pigeon; novels are set in various U.S. National Parks); Grace Carroll (featuring fashionista Rita Jewel in the Accessories Mystery series); Agatha Christie (featuring detective Hercule Poirot); Lindsey Davis (featuring “informer” Marcus Didius Falco in ancient Rome); Janet Evanovich (featuring bail bondswoman Stephanie Plum in an outrageously funny series set in the “Burg” in New Jersey); Dick Francis (featuring a variety of sleuths and locations); Sue Grafton (featuring female sleuth Kinsey Millhone); Charlaine Harris (featuring a variety of sleuths and locations, including the Southern Vampire Mystery series); P.D. James (featuring Scotland Yard Commander Adam Dalgliesh); Lisa Lutz (featuring P.I. Izzy Spellman who works in her family’s detective agency in this humorous series): Henning Mankell (featuring Swedish police detective Kurt Wallender in detailed police procedurals); Robert B. Parker (featuring hard-boiled Boston detective Spenser); Thomas Perry (featuring Native American Jane Whitefield, a guide who helps people disappear); Will Thomas (featuring “enquiry agent” Cyrus Barker and his young assistant Thomas Llewelyn in Victorian England). Diviners (The) (Libba Bray, 2012) Evie O’Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City…. When a rash of occult-based murders comes to light, Evie and her uncle are right in the thick of the investigation. And through it all, Evie has a secret: a mysterious power that could help catch the killer—if he doesn’t catch her first.* Elegance of the Hedgehog (The) (Muriel Barbery, 2008) Renee is the concierge of a grand Parisian apartment building, home to members of the great and the good. Over the years she has maintained her carefully constructed persona as someone reliable but totally uncultivated, in keeping, she feels, with society’s expectations of what a concierge should be. But beneath this facade lies the real Renee…*
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