TV Read-Alikes
Spring Booktalks 2013
If you watch this... .............................. ...You might like this:
Intervention
Beautiful Boy by David Sheff
Journalist David Sheff tells the story of his son Nic's happy early childhood, the transformation wrought by Nic's addiction to methamphetamine, and his own obsession with Nic's well-being.
Tweak by Nic Sheff
The author describes his childhood in California, his addiction to crystal meth and heroin at a young age, his relapse after eighteen months of sobriety, and his path to recovery.
Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back by Josh Hamilton
Josh Hamilton chronicles his comeback from drug and alcohol addiction to playing baseball in the major leagues.
Survivorman
Mud, Sweat, and Tears: The Autobiography by Bear Grylls
The star of the survival series "Man Vs. Wild" recounts his adventurous life, from his experiences with mountaineering and martial arts to the free-fall parachuting accident in Africa that almost left him paralyzed.
The Total Outdoorsman Manual: 374 Skills You Need by Field & Stream
Describes 374 skills essential to hunting, fishing, camping, and surviving in the outdoors, offering advice on such tasks as pitching camp, rainproofing tents, siponing gas, splitting logs, throwing a knife, fishing a bream bed, tying a rapala knot, trolling, paddling a canoe into a gale, facing a duck blind in the right direction, tanning a deer hide, tracking an elk, building a fire in the rain, making a blowgun, skinning and cooking a snake, and more.
Man vs. wild : survival techniques from the most dangerous places on Earth by Bear Grylls
Television host and survival expert Bear Grylls offers a practical guide to surviving in any terrain, with information on how to find water, shelter, and food and how to stay protected in any environment.
America's Next Top Model
Model: A Memoir by Cheryl Diamond
The author shares her experiences as a high fashion model living in New York and provides insight into the industry.
Smile for the Camera by Kelle James
The author relates her experiences after she left an abusive home at sixteen and traveled to New York City to pursue a career as a model.
The Teen Vogue Handbook: An Insider's Guide to Careers in Fashion
Offers information and advice on careers in the fashion industry from "Teen Vogue," detailing the career paths of established professionals in the industry, and covering resumés, agencies, education, and other related topics.
Airhead by Meg Cabot
Sixteen-year-old Emerson Watts, an advanced placement student with a disdain for fashion, is the recipient of a "whole body transplant" and finds herself transformed into one of the world's most famous teen supermodels.
Where I Belong by Gillian Cross
Thirteen-year-old Khadija, a Somali refugee, becomes a model for a famous fashion designer to help her family back home, while the designer's daughter Freya and fourteen-year-old Abdi, whose family Khadija lives with in London, try to protect her.
The book of styling : an insider's guide to creating your own look by Somer Flaherty.
Contains advice on fashion, including sections on fashion icons and American style, being a professional stylist, and fashion emergencies.
Hoarders
Dirty Little Secrets by CJ Omololu
When her unstable mother dies unexpectedly, sixteen-year-old Lucy must take control and find a way to keep the long-held secret of her mother's compulsive hoarding from being revealed to friends, neighbors, and especially the media.
Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee
Psychologist Randy O. Frost and social worker Gail Steketee present cases studies that examine the causes and implications of compulsive hoarding and discuss their own limited success in the treatment of hoarders.
Compulsion by Heidi Ayarbe
Poised to lead his high school soccer team to its third straight state championship, seventeen-year-old star player Jake Martin struggles to keep hidden his nearly debilitating obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Dateline: Real Life Mysteries
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Tells the parallel stories of Daniel Burnham, the main architect of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, and serial killer Henry H. Holmes, discussing the challenges Burnham faced in creating the hugely successful White City, and looking at how Holmes used the opportunities afforded by the fair to lure victims to their deaths.
Skyjack: The Hunt for DB Cooper by Geoffery Gray
Describes the search for D. B. Cooper, who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft in November 1971, received a large ransom, and parachuted from the plane.
The Zodiac Killer: Terror and Mystery
Provides an overview of the case of the Zodiac Killer, who terrorized the San Francisco region in the late 1960s, killing at least five people and taunting the police by sending coded letters to newspapers.
The Greatest Unsolved Mysteries of All Time by Life Editors
Examines fifty mysteries from throughout history, discussing the facts known about the murder of Napoleon, Lizzie Borden's innocence, Amelia Earhart's fate, the identity of the Zodiac, JonBenét Ramsey's killer, and more.
The year we disappeared : a father-daughter memoir by Cylin Busby & John Busby.
Father and daughter, Cylin and John Busby, share their memories of the challenges they faced after their family was forced to go into hiding in order to protect themselves from a killer who had already shot John, a police officer, once and was determined to finish the job.
Dear Marcus: A Letter to the Man Who Shot Me by Jerry McGill
The author, who was shot at the age of thirteen, writes a letter to his unknown assailant, whom he names Marcus, detailing the repercussions of that fateful day.
Toddlers and Tiaras
Cinderella ate my daughter : dispatches from the front lines of the new girlie-girl cultureby Peggy Orenstein
Food Network
Your food is fooling you : how your brain is hijacked by sugar, fat, and salt by David A. Kessler ; adapted by Richie Chevat from The end of overeating.
Explains that processed foods' combinations of sugar, fat, and salt caused out bodies to crave more and provides practical advice for developing healthy eating habits.
The Omnivore's Dilemma: The Secrets Behind What You Eat by Michael Pollan ; adapted by Richie Chevat
Examines the origins of the different food chains that have sustained humans throughout history, discussing how certain foods and cuisines have become a popular part of people's daily diets.
Chew on this : everything you don't want to know about fast food by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson
Investigates the practices of fast food restaurants. Describes the additives found in soft drinks, French fries, and hamburgers and explores the effects of fast food on the human body. Also examines the origins of the fast food industry.
Dear Julia by Amy Bronwen Zemser.
Shy sixteen-year-old Elaine has long dreamed of being the next Julia Child, to the dismay of her feminist mother, but when her first friend, the outrageous Lucida Sans, convinces Elaine to enter a cooking contest, anything could happen.
The sweet life of Stella Madison by Lara M. Zeises.
Seventeen-year-old Stella struggles with the separation of her renowned chef parents, writing a food column for the local paper even though she is a junk food addict, and having a boyfriend but being attracted to another.
Girlhunter: revolutionizing the way we eat, one hunt at a time by Georgia Pellegrini.
A classically trained chef relates the experiences that made her resolve to take up hunting, describing her research with experienced hunters and her subsequent efforts to create recipes using foods she can supply for herself.
Ghost Hunter
Haunted Wisconsin : ghosts and strange phenomena of the badger state by Linda S. Godfrey
Shares stories of ghosts and other supernatural phenomena in northern, western, east central, and southern Wisconsin, as well as in Madison and Milwaukee.
The best of ghosts caught on film : the paranormal and the supernatural caught on camera by Melvyn Willin, with Jim Eaton.
A collection of unexplained phenomena caught on film, including mysterious figures, ghostly lights, apparitions, and more.
The paranormal caught on film : amazing photographs of ghosts, poltergeists and other strange phenomena by Melvyn Willin
Contains photographs that are said to contain true images of ghostly figures, strange lights and apparitions, simulacra, and other paranormal phenomena, each with descriptive text.
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendra Blake
Cas Lowood, armed with his late father's mysterious athame, set out to kill a ghost known as Anna Dressed in Blood, but what he believes will be a routine task turns deadly when he discovers Anna is unlike any ghost he has ever encountered before.
The Diviners by Libba Bray
Seventeen-year-old Evie O'Neill is thrilled when she is exiled from small-town Ohio to New York City in 1926, even when a rash of occult-based murders thrusts Evie and her uncle, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult, into the thick of the investigation.
A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb
After benignly haunting a series of people for 130 years, Helen meets a teenage boy who can see her and together they unlock the mysteries of their pasts.
I Shouldn't Be Alive
Black wave : a family's adventure at sea and the disaster that saved them by John and Jean Silverwood.
The authors describes their family's adventures at sea and the shipwreck that forced them to band together in order to survive.
Heart of iron : my journey from transplant patient to ironman triathlete by Kyle Garlett.
Kyle Garlett tells his life story, describing his diagnosis of lymphoma, years of chemotherapy, a heart transplant, and how he became an Ironman triathlete.
In the heart of the sea : the tragedy of the whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick.
Tells the story of the "Essex," a whaleship that set sail from Nantucket in 1819 on a routine voyage, and how it was rammed and sunk by an enraged sperm whale in the South Pacific, which sent the twenty-man crew adrift in three tiny boats.
Downton Abbey
Wentworth Hall by Abby Grahame
In 1912 England, eighteen-year-old Maggie Darlington returns from France to learn that her father hopes to restore the family fortunes through her marriage and his guardianship of two orphaned teens, but scandalous satires in the newspaper threaten to spoil his plans and reveal the family's many secrets.
The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott
Tess, a young seamstress working for designer Lady Lucile Duff Gordon, survives the sinking of the RMS "Titanic," and finds herself torn between loyalty to her employer and to the sailor who saved her when Lady Duff Gordon's version of their escape differs from the truth.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
Juliet Ashton, a thirty-year-old author, writes to her publisher expressing her desire to stop covering the aftermath of WWII, but Guernsey farmer Dawsey Adams invites neighbors to write to Juliet with their stories, which puts her off at first but eventually helps her find inspiration for her next book, and her life.
Swamp People
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
The Walking Dead
The end : 50 apocalyptic visions from pop culture that you should know about--before it's too late by Laura Barcella
Looks at fifty apocalyptic scenarios from movies, books, and music, including quotes and sections on the works' impact and the chances of the scenarios actually occurring.
Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry
n a post-apocalyptic world where fences and border patrols guard the few people left from the zombies that have overtaken civilization, fifteen-year-old Benny Imura is finally convinced that he must follow in his older brother's footsteps and become a bounty hunter.
Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick
Alex, a resourceful seventeen-year-old running from her incurable brain tumor, Tom, who has left the war in Afghanistan, and Ellie, an angry eight-year-old, join forces after an electromagnetic pulse sweeps through the sky and kills most of the world's population, turning some of those who remain into zombies and giving the others superhuman senses.
Ashfall by Mike Mullin
After the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano destroys his city and its surroundings, fifteen-year-old Alex must journey from Cedar Falls, Iowa, to Illinois to find his parents and sister, trying to survive in a transformed landscape and a new society in which all the old rules of living have vanished.
This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers
Barricaded in Cortege High with five other teens while zombies try to get in, Sloane Price observes her fellow captives become more unpredictable and violent as time passes although they each have much more reason to live than she has.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
Through twists and turns of fate, orphaned Mary seeks knowledge of life, love, and especially what lies beyond her walled village and the surrounding forest, where dwell the Unconsecrated, aggressive flesh-eating people who were once dead.
Ridiculousness
Awkward by Marni Bates
Mackenzie Wellesley is having an awkward junior year in high school, and things seem to only get worse when she has a mishap with a football player, until the incident goes viral on the internet and she becomes an overnight sensation.
YouTube : the company and its founders by Rebecca Rowell.
This book describes YouTube, a video-sharing Web site that has changed how computer users worldwide share videos, and the lives and careers of its founders.
Friend me! : 600 years of social networking in America by Francesca Davis DiPiazza
Discusses the history of social networking, detailing the history including wampum belts of the early Native Americans, printed broadsides, the ring shouts of slave gatherings, telegrams, telephones, and modern Internet.
Comedy Central
So you think you're funny? : a students' guide to improv comedy by The Immediate Gratification Players
Harvard University's The Immediate Gratification Players offer students step-by-step instructions and advice to improve their improv comedy skills, discussing scenes, how to create a comedy troupe, auditions, and other related topics.
How Angel Peterson got his name : and other outrageous tales about extreme sports by Gary Paulsen
Author Gary Paulsen relates tales from his youth in a small town in northwestern Minnesota in the late 1940s and early 1950s, such as skiing behind a souped-up car and imitating daredevil Evel Knievel.
The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Native American is the school mascot.
Angus, thongs and full-frontal snogging : confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louise Rennison
Presents the humorous journal of a year in the life of a fourteen-year-old British girl who tries to reduce the size of her nose, stop her mad cat from terrorizing the neighborhood animals, and win the love of handsome hunk Robbie.
Swim the Fly by Don Calame
Swim team members and best friends Matt, Sean, and Coop, set themselves the summertime goal of seeing a live girl naked, and while the chances of that happening seem very dim, Matt's personal goal to swim the one-hundred-yard butterfly to impress the new girl on the team seems even less likely to happen.
I'm Down by Mishna Wolff
The author reflects on her childhood growing up white in a predominantly African-American neighborhood and her struggle to fit in with her classmates after moving to a mostly Caucasian school district.
The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha
Contains brief essays in which comedy writer Neil Pasricha shares his observations on some of the little things in life that make people happy, such as popping bubble wrap, solving the "Wheel of Fortune" puzzle first, and seeing someone laugh in their sleep.
Funny business : conversations with writers of comedy compiled and edited by Leonard S. Marcus
Thirteen notable children's authors discusses various aspects of humor and their work, such as sources of inspiration, the value of comedy, and the writing process.
Axe Cop (volume 1) written by Malachai Nicolle ; drawn by Ethan Nicolle ; colored by Tom Rhodes
Collects the webcomic "Axe Cop," written by five-year-old Malachai Nicolle and illustrated by his older brother Ethan, in which the hero fights alongside Dinosaur Soldier, Flute Cop, Ghost Cop, and other unique police officers in a variety of crime-fighting adventures.
Awkward
My Life Undecided by Jessica Brody
Fifteen-year-old Brooklyn Pierce is tired of making bad decisions, so she starts a blog where she puts her readers in charge of her life and leaves the choices to them, but she soon learns there are some things in life that simply cannot be chosen by other people--like who she should fall in love with--and soon things are more screwed up than ever.
The perks of being a wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Charlie, a freshman in high school, explores the dilemmas of growing up through a collection of letters he sends to an unknown receiver.
Adios to all the drama by Diana Rodriguez Wallach
Mariana Ruiz's life becomes a complicated mess when her Puerto Rican boyfriend moves in with her family, causing tension between Mariana, her friends, and family, and as her friends struggle with their own problems, Mariana wonders if life will ever be the same again.
Dexter
I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga
Seventeen-year-old Jazz learned all about being a serial killer from his notorious "Dear Old Dad." Believing he can fight his own urges and right some of his father's wrongs, Jazz helps the police catch the town's newest murderer, "The Impressionist," but, in doing so, he discovers he may have more in common with his father than he thought.
Acceleration by Graham McNamee
Stuck working in the lost and found department of the Toronto Transit Authority for the summer, seventeen-year-old Duncan finds the diary of a serial killer and sets out to stop him.
Tenderness by Robert Cormier
A psychological thriller told from the points of view of a teenage serial killer and the runaway girl who falls in love with him.
Game of Thrones
Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
Sam and Frodo begin their quest that will take them into Suaron where they can destroy the Ring of Power in Mount Doom.
The name of the wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Kvothe spends his life fighting hidden and familiar foes while struggling to master his magical powers and battle ancient evils that threaten his world.
Battle by R.G. Grant.
Chronicles the history of warfare over the course of five thousand years, providing accounts of significant conflicts, generals, weapons, and battles, and includes maps and detailed illustrations.
Falling Kingdoms
The three kingdoms of Mytica are on the brink of war, and four key players, a princess, a rebel, a sorceress, and an heir find their fates intertwined.
Graceling
In a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace of killing and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king.
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
In a world where dragons and humans coexist in an uneasy truce and dragons can assume human form, Seraphina, whose mother died giving birth to her, grapples with her own identity amid magical secrets and royal scandals, while she struggles to accept and develop her extraordinary musical talents.
Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Manchetta
Now on the cusp of manhood, Finnikin, who was a child when the royal family of Lumatere was brutally murdered and replaced by an imposter, reluctantly joins forces with an enigmatic young novice and fellow-exile, who claims that her dark dreams will lead them to a surviving royal child and a way to regain the throne of Lumatere.
Eragon by Christopher Paolini
In Aagaesia, a fifteen-year-old boy of unknown lineage called Eragon finds a mysterious stone that weaves his life into an intricate tapestry of destiny, magic, and power, peopled with dragons, elves, and monsters.
Beowulf by Anonymous
Translated from Old English. Presents a modern-day translation of the epic poem which tells the story of the hero Beowulf, slayer of the monster Grendel.