RUSA Reading List 2011
SAN DIEGO —The Reference and User Services Association (
RUSA) has announced its selection for the 2011
Reading List.
The Reading List annually recognizes the best books in eight genres: adrenaline (including suspense, thriller and adventure), fantasy, historical fiction, horror, mystery, romance, science fiction and women’s fiction. This year’s list includes novels that will please die-hard fans, as well as introduce new readers to the pleasures of genre fiction.
The winning titles were selected by the Reading List Council, whose members include Jacqueline Sasaki, chair, Ann Arbor District Library; Alicia Ahlvers, Kansas City Public Library; Jennifer Baker, Seattle Public Library; Cheryl Bryan, Massachusetts Library System, Waltham, Mass.; Craig Clark, formerly with Cuyahoga County Public Library; Kathleen Collins, University of Washington Libraries, Seattle; Megan McArdle, Berkeley Public Library; Joyce Saricks, Downers Grove, Ill.; Sharron Smith, vice-chair, Kitchener Public Library; Kimberly Wells, Denton Public Library; Neal Wyatt, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Va. And Alan Ziebarth, Chicago.
The 2011 winners are:
| Bury Your Dead
By Penny, Louise
2010-09 - Minotaur Books
9780312377045 Check Our Catalog
BookPage Notable Title Chief Inspector Gamache receives a letter from the village of Three Pines, where beloved Bistro owner Olivier was recently convicted of murder. The letter proclaims Olivier's innocence, so Gamache must relive the terrible events that killed one of his men before he can bury the dead. …More
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| Faithful Place
By French, Tana
2010-07 - Viking Books
9780670021871 Check Our Catalog
Back in 1985, Frank Mackey was 19, growing up poor in Dublin's inner city, and he and Rosie Daly were all ready to run away to London together. But on the night when they were supposed to leave, Rosie vanished. Twenty-two years later, Rosie's suitcase shows up behind a fireplace in a derelict house on Faithful Place, and Frank is going home whether he likes it or not. …More
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| The Taken: A Hazel Micallef Mystery
By Wolfe, Inger Ash
2010-07 - Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)
9780151013531 Check Our Catalog
The second novel featuring Hazel Micallef finds the Detective Inspector's recuperation from back surgery interrupted by the case of a body fished out of one of the lakes near Port Dundas--a scenario in a serialized story published by the local newspaper. …More
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| Think of a Number
By Verdon, John
2010-07 - Crown Publishing Group (NY)
9780307588920 Check Our Catalog
An extraordinary fiction debut, "Think of a Number" is an exquisitely plotted novel of suspense that grows relentlessly darker and more frightening as its pace accelerates, forcing its deeply troubled characters to moments of startling self-revelation. …More
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| Vermilion Drift
By Krueger, William Kent
2010-09 - Atria Books
9781439153840 Check Our Catalog
Krueger's next nail-biting suspense has Cork O'Connor investigating a series of decades-old murders and their connection to his past. …More
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| A Matter of Class
By Balogh, Mary
2010-12 - Vanguard Press
9781593155896 Check Our Catalog
From the "New York Times"-bestselling author of "Slightly Wicked" comes another classic historical tale that sizzles with romance and unforgettable drama. …More
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| Barely a Lady
By Dreyer, Eileen
2010-07 - Forever
9780446542081 Check Our Catalog
After discovering her former husband on the battlefield of Waterloo--and in enemy uniform--Olivia Grace must pretend to still be married to Jack to keep him from being hanged as a traitor.Original. …More
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| The Forbidden Rose
By Bourne, Joanna
2010-06 - Berkley Sensations
9780425235614 Check Our Catalog
A French aristocrat is on the run, disguised as a British governess. England's top spy has a score to settle with her family. But as they're drawn inexorably into the intrigue and madness of Revolutionary Paris, they gamble on a love to which neither of them will admit. Original. …More
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| The Iron Duke
By Brook, Meljean
2010-10 - Berkley Publishing Group
9780425236673 Check Our Catalog
Brook offers the first in an all-new series in which seductive danger and steampunk adventure abound in the gritty world of the Iron Seas. …More
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| Something about You
By James, Julie
2010-03 - Berkley Sensations
9780425233382 Check Our Catalog
Staying overnight in a luxury hotel, Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron Lynde overhears a murder. Special Agent Jack Pallas is assigned to the investigation--the same Jack Pallas who still blames Cameron for nearly ruining his career. Original. …More
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| The Dervish House
By McDonald, Ian
2010-07 - Pyr
9781616142049 Check Our Catalog
Seven days, six characters, three interconnected story strands, one central common core--the eponymous dervish house, a character in itself--that pins all these players together in a weave of intrigue, conflict, drama, and a ticking clock of a thriller. …More
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| Ark
By Baxter, Stephen
2010-05 - Roc
9780451463319 Check Our Catalog
The fascinating apocalyptic vision ("Publishers Weekly") of "Flood" continues as the waters rise on Earth, and candidates prepare to escape to another planet aboard a spaceship called "Ark." …More
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| Blonde Bombshell
By Holt, Tom
2010-06 - Orbit
9780316086998 Check Our Catalog
A comedy of intergalactic proportions, from one of the funniest writers in genre fiction. …More
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| Darkship Thieves
By Hoyt, Sarah A.
2010-11 - Baen Books
9781439133989 Check Our Catalog
Athena Hera Sinistra never wanted to go to space. Never wanted see the eerie glow of the Powerpods. Never wanted to visit Circum Terra. Never had any interest in finding out the truth about the DarkShips. You always get what you don't ask for. Which must have been why she woke up in the dark of shipnight, within the greater night of space in her father's space cruiser, knowing that there was a stranger in her room. In a short time, after taking out the stranger--who turned out to be one of her father's bodyguards up to no good, she was hurtling away from the ship in a lifeboat to get help. But what she got instead would be the adventure of a lifetime--if" she managed to survive. . . . …More
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| The Lifecycle of Software Objects
By Chiang, Ted
2010-07 - Subterranean Press
9781596063174 Check Our Catalog
What's the best way to create artificial intelligence? In 1950, Alan Turing wrote, 'Many people think that a very abstract activity, like the playing of chess, would be best. It can also be maintained that it is best to provide the machine with the best sense organs that money can buy, and then teach it to understand and speak English. This process could follow the normal teaching of a child. Things would be pointed out and named, etc. Again I do not know what the right answer is, but I think both approaches should be tried.'
The first approach has been tried many times in both science fiction and reality. In this new novella, at over 30,000 words, his longest work to date, Ted Chiang offers a detailed imagining of how the second approach might work within the contemporary landscape of startup companies, massively-multiplayer online gaming, and open-source software. It's a story of two people and the artificial intelligences they helped create, following them for more than a decade as they deal with the upgrades and obsolescence that are inevitable in the world of software. At the same time, it's an examination of the difference between processing power and intelligence, and of what it means to have a real relationship with an artificial entity …More
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| Solomon's Oak
By Mapson, Jo-Ann
2010-10 - Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
9781608193301 Check Our Catalog
In Mapson's deeply felt, wise, and gritty new novel, three broken souls, who have suffered losses that change their lives forever, find in each other an expected comfort, the bond of friendship, and a second chance to see the miracles of everyday life. …More
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| The Girl Who Chased the Moon
By Allen, Sarah Addison
2010-03 - Bantam
9780553807219 Check Our Catalog
In the latest enchanting novel from "New York Times"-bestselling author Allen, two very different women discover how to find their places in the world--no matter how out of place they feel. …More
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| The Language of Sand
By Block, Ellen
2010-04 - Bantam
9780440245759 Check Our Catalog
A charming, life-affirming story, "The Language of Sand" is about a woman who is desperately in need of a fresh start in a colorful island community off the coast of North Carolina. …More
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| The Love Goddess' Cooking School
By Senate, Melissa
2010-10 - Gallery Press
9781439107232 Check Our Catalog
Senate relays a charming story about a woman who inherits her grandmother's cooking school in a small town in Maine, and finds her happy ending in the process. …More
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