Story Tags

look both ways

Trouble in the Middle

Contemporary Realistic Fiction for Middle Readers

For a taste of some of the best middle grade reads of the past year try one of the books listed below. Each book focuses on issues surrounding tweens and adolescents, including growing independence, friendship and advocacy. Perfectly paced and timely these novels will capture the most casual readers of the realistic fiction, of all ages. Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Books by Jason Reynolds

Gropius: The Man Who Built the Bauhaus

The Bauhaus Revisited

A 100th Anniversary Booklist

In 1919 architect Walter Gropius was made head of both an arts and crafts school and an art academy in Weimar, Germany, the seat of the newly formed German Republic.  Gropius combined the schools into what is commonly known as the Bauhaus, or House of Building. Students from other arts and crafts or art academies applied with the hope of gaining a paying profession.  Faculty flocked to the school looking to transform society.

American Spy

A Woman's Work

Some of 2019's Best

In this anniversary year of Women’s Suffrage some remarkable and sure to be classic novels have emerged.  New voices like Lauren Wilkinson and established ones like Lisa See have created page-turning, literary works with strong female characters who don’t always realize their strengths.  Place your holds and check out these memorable gems available in hardcover, eBook or audiobook formats.

Lost Picnic

Tales of Summer

Picture Books on Family, Fun and Adventure

Summer can be a great time to enjoy a story or create one through experiences.  Below is a book list inspired by summer and the National Building Museum’s upcoming exhibit, Lawn.  Free admission is available to D.C. residents on their ward day, beginning in July.

April in Paris

Storied Paris

New Fiction for Springtime Reading

Cosmopolitan, sensual, violent, beautiful and romantic, are all words that could be used for Paris, France, historically and currently.  Try these five new novels for springtime and glimpse a Paris that is these things and more.  Happy reading!

Happiness Project

A Clean Slate

Self Help in the New Year

Clear your mind and home, and act on your aspirations in the New Year. Try these bestselling self-help books by lifestyle professionals offering researched and tested methods in orderliness, time management, self-actualization and personal finance.  

American Panda by Gloria Chao

Real Reads

Teen Read Week 2018

Teen Read Week is a chance for teens to look back on their favorite books of the year and try something they don’t usually read.  The novels listed below were written in 2018 and cover a wide range of experiences within realistic fiction. Some are humorous, some are thrillers, some are romantic, but all are make for good reading. This year's Teen Read Week is Oct. 7-13, 2018 and the theme is "Its written in the stars".

The Arrangement by Ashley Warlick

Recipe for Fiction

Novels of Food and the Senses

A perusal of a list of the top 100 novels will inevitably yield a book with memorable food and or drink.  Sometimes there is even a clue as to what it is made of (sadly the butterbeer in the Harry Potter books lacks these details). A recipe or an experience well described can reveal something important about the main character or become a way for the reader to participate in the story.

Skeletons on the Zahara

True Survival

Non-Fiction Adventure

True-life adventure stories have made for popular reading for generations. The books listed below are retellings of bestselling firsthand accounts published in periodicals and books, months or days after the return home. Well researched, these newer works combine multiple firsthand experiences of survivors as well as rescuers wherever possible and make these much read stories even more accessible.

Fifty Shades of Grey

Guilt and Pleasure

Twists on Familiar Classics

Whether it’s a guilty pleasure or a great work, a well-told story of romance sought, found or lost is a joy to read repeatedly and, for some exceptional fans, to be imitated. For the month of love, revisit some enduring page-turners and tales they inspired (check out the movies as well). Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (1892)

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