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:

Adrenaline

Nearest Exit By Steinhauer, Olen 2010-05 - Minotaur Books 9780312622879 Check Our Catalog Milo Weaver has nowhere to turn but back to the CIA in Steinhauer's brilliantfollow-up to the "New York Times" bestselling espionage novel, "The Tourist." …More

Caught By Coben, Harlan 2010-03 - Dutton Books 9780525951582 Check Our Catalog In this explosive new thriller, a reporter's investigative work has resulted in a man being taken into custody in front of a shocked television audience. But months later, she realizes she may have unwittingly been part of a grand manipulation aiming to destroy an innocent man. …More

Crashers By Haynes, Dana 2010-06 - Minotaur Books 9780312599881 Check Our Catalog This brilliantly conceived, high-energy thriller combines cutting-edge "CSI"-style investigation with a straight-out-of-"24" ticking-clock chase. …More

Deep Shadow By White, Randy Wayne 2010-03 - G. P. Putnam's Sons 9780399156267 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title Thirty minutes into what should have been an easy dive in a remote Florida lake, the rim of a cave collapses, trapping two of Doc Ford's friends. Ford himself manages to escape and quickly surfaces to find help--but that's when his troubles truly begin. …More

They're Watching By Hurwitz, Gregg Andrew 2010-07 - St. Martin's Press 9780312534905 Check Our Catalog Patrick Davis is a man with troubles. First his Hollywood dreams crumble and then his storybook marriage hits a snag. Now, DVDs start being delivered to his house--DVDs which show that someone is watching him and his wife. With every step he falls deeper into a web of intrigue. …More

Fantasy

Under Heaven By Kay, Guy Gavriel 2010-04 - Roc 9780451463302 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title In his latest innovative work, an award-winning author evokes the dazzling Tang Dynasty of 8th-century China in a story of honor and power. …More

Finch By Vandermeer, Jeff 2009-11 - Underland Press 9780980226010 Check Our Catalog In "Finch, " mysterious underground inhabitants known as the gray caps have reconquered the failed fantasy state Ambergris and put it under martial law. They have disbanded House Hoegbotton and are controlling the human inhabitants with strange addictive drugs, internment in camps, and random acts of terror. The rebel resistance is scattered, and the gray caps are using human labor to build two strange towers. Against this backdrop, John Finch, who lives alone with a cat and a lizard, must solve an impossible double murder for his gray cap masters while trying to make contact with the rebels. Nothing is as it seems as Finch and his disintegrating partner Wyte negotiate their way through a landscape of spies, rebels, and deception. Trapped by his job and the city, Finch is about to come face to face with a series of mysteries that will change him and Ambergris forever. …More

The Half-Made World By Gilman, Felix 2010-10 - Tor Books 9780765325525 Check Our Catalog The world is only half made. What exists has been carved out amidst a war between two rival factions: the Line, paving the world with industry and claiming its residents as slaves; and the Gun, a cult of terror and violence that cripples the population with fear. …More

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms By Jemisin, N. K. 2010-02 - Orbit 9780316043915 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title Yeine Darr is an outcast from the barbarian north. But when her mother dies under mysterious circumstances, Yeine is summoned to the majestic city of Sky. There, to her shock, she is named an heiress to the king. …More

Nights of Villjamur By Newton, Mark Charan 2010-06 - Spectra Books 9780345520845 Check Our Catalog Nights of the Villjamur marks the beginning of a sweeping new fantasy epic. Beneath a dying red sun sits the proud and ancient city of Villjamur, capital of a mighty empire that now sits powerless against an encroaching ice age. As throngs of refugees gather outside the city gates, a fierce debate rages within the walls about the fate of these desperate souls. Then tragedy strikes--and the Emperor's elder daughter, Jamur Rika, is summoned to serve as queen. Joined by her younger sister, Jamur Eir, the queen comes to sympathize with the hardships of the common people, thanks in part to her dashing teacher Randur Estevu, a man who is not what he seems. …More

Historical Fiction

The Invisible Bridge By Orringer, Julie 2010-05 - Knopf Publishing Group 9781400041169 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title Orringer's astonishing first novel is a grand love story and an epic tale of three brothers whose lives are torn apart by war. An unforgettable story of history and love, of marriage tested by disaster, of a Jewish family's struggle against annihilation, and of the dangerous power of art in a time of war. …More

A Battle Won By Russell, S. Thomas 2010-08 - Putnam Adult 9780399156892 Check Our Catalog Master and Commander Charles Hayden returns in the sequel to the international bestseller "Under Enemy Colors." As the British fight the French for control of the strategically located island of Corsica, Hayden and his crew land join forces with native insurgents and find themselves at the vanguard of a brutal clash of empires. …More

A Fierce Radiance By Belfer, Lauren 2010-06 - Harper 9780061252518 Check Our Catalog The "New York Times"-bestselling author of "City of Light" pens a compelling, richly detailed, and absorbing tale of passion and intrigue set in New York City in the tumultuous early days of World War II. …More

The Golden Mean By Lyon, Annabel 2010-09 - Knopf Publishing Group 9780307593993 Check Our Catalog A startlingly original first novel by "this generation's answer to Alice Munro" "(The Vancouver Sun)" is the bold re-imagining of one of history's most intriguing relationships: between legendary philosopher Aristotle and his most famous pupil, the young Alexander the Great. …More

The Rebellion of Jane Clarke By Gunning, Sally 2010-06 - William Morrow & Company 9780061782145 Check Our Catalog On the eve of the Revolutionary War, a young woman is caught between tradition and independence, family and conscience, loyalty and love, in this compelling novel from the author of "The Widow's War" and "Bound." …More

Horror

The Dead Path By Irwin, Stephen M. 2010-10 - Doubleday Books 9780385533430 Check Our Catalog A haunting vision in the woods sets off a series of tragic events, leaving Nicholas Close lost amid visions of ghosts trapped in their harrowing, final moments. These uniquely terrifying apparitions lead him on a thrilling and suspenseful ride to confront a wicked soul. …More

The Caretaker of Lorne Field By Zeltserman, Dave 2010-08 - Overlook Press 9781590203033 Check Our Catalog Jack Durkin is the ninth generation of Durkins who have for nearly 300 years weeded Lorne Field. It's an important job, though no one else seems to realize it. For, if the field is left untended, a horrific monster called an Aukowie will grow. …More

The Frenzy Way By Lamberson, Gregory 2010-04 - Medallion Press 9781605421070 Check Our Catalog When raped and dismembered corpses start to appear throughout New York City, the investigation draws police captain Mace into a plot that plays like a horror movie. Taking the lead role in this chilling story may be the challenge of his career, testing his skills and his stamina, but even a superhero would find the series of terrifying crimes daunting. Unlike anything Mace has experienced, every blood-spattered scene is filled with body parts and partially eaten human remains and in the wake of each attack is the haunting premonition of another murdering onslaught. As Mace follows this crimson trail of madness, he must accept the inevitable conclusion: whomever or whatever is responsible for this terror does not intend to stop, and it's up to him to put an end to the chaotic reign of a perpetrator whom, until now, he's met only in the annals of mythology. Unfortunately, the mere mention of the word--werewolf--would send New Yorkers into a panic. …More

Horns By Hill, Joe 2010-02 - William Morrow & Company 9780061147951 Check Our Catalog The "New York Times"-bestselling author of "Heart-Shaped Box"--a major player in 21st-century fantastic fiction ("Washington Post")--returns with a relentless new supernatural thriller. …More

More books to follow...

So Cold the River By Koryta, Michael 2010-06 - Little Brown and Company 9780316053631 Check Our Catalog As a gift for her husband, Alyssa Bradford approaches Eric Shaw to make a documentary about her father-in-law, Campbell Bradford, a 95-year-old billionaire whose past is wrapped in mystery. Eric soon discovers a long-forgotten evil that will stop at nothing to regain its lost glory. …More