Fountaindale's Summer Reading Recommendations for Adults

Top reads of the summer for adults, as recommended by the staff of the . 

1. Dressmaker by Kate Alcott (recommendation by Christine Jason, Inter Library Loan Assistant)

Tess, an aspiring seamstress, thinks she's had an incredibly lucky break when she is hired by famous designer Lady Lucile Duff Gordon to be a personal maid on the Titanic's doomed voyage. What follows is not only the famous sinking of the Titanic but also a fascinating look at the trials that followed.

2. One Thousand White Women: the Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus (recommendation by Christine Jason, Inter Library Loan Assistant)

An author researching his family comes across the journals of his eccentric late great grandmother, May Dodd, and finds her story how she and a colorful assembly of pioneer women who travel to the western prairies in 1875 to intermarry among the Cheyenne Indians. The covert and controversial "Brides for Indians" program, launched by the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, is intended to help assimilate the Indians into the white man's world. Wonderful, engrossing and heartbreaking as well.

3. The Pursuit of Lucy Banning by Olivia Newport (recommendation by Christine Jason, InterLibrary Loan Assistant)

Set during the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, this book involves the wealthy and privileged of the time.Lucy Banning is expected to marry an up-and-coming banker from a respected family, but she fears she will be forced to abandon her charity work--and the classes she is secretly taking at the newly opened University of Chicago. She meets a young architect and of course romance follows. An interesting look at an era gone by.

4. Gathering of Crows by Brian Keene (recommendation by Christine Jason, Inter Library Loan Assistant)

The town of Brinkley Springs is dying in more ways then one. Five mysterious figures show up intent on not only killing the town and its residents but destroying the universe. Only one man can save all of them(and us), Levi Stoltzfus, and Amish man with the gift of magic. A gory, delight for fans of horror.

5. First Days: As the World Dies book one by Rhiannon Frater (recommendation by Christine Jason, InterLibrary Loan Assistant)

Jenni and Katie, two women who do not know each other are having a typical morning when the world dies. Meeting up they become a sort of Thelma and Louise as they fight the Zombie apocalypse. The first of a trilogy, this book is more then just a typical zombie horror book.

6. Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan (recommendation by Julie Turza, Senior Adult Services Assistant)

7. Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach (recommendation by Julie Turza, Senior Adult Services Assistant)

8. Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore (recommendation by Julie Turza, Senior Adult Services Assistant)

9. 11/22/63 by Stephen King (recommendation by Julie Turza, Senior Adult Services Assistant)

10. The Paris Wife by Paula Mclain (recommendation by Julie Turza, Senior Adult Services Assistant)

11. Calico Joe by John Grisham (recommendation made by Carol Woekel, Senior Librarian)

Like a good father/son/baseball story? Read or listen to John Grisham's Calico Joe. Grisham adds to the fun of the story with "real" baseball players. Get ready, though, to hold back a few tears as father and son resolve some past issues and look to the future.