Britton Summer Reading Club

The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy

Bucky Bleichert, ex-prize fighter and policeman, investigates when a young woman's mutilated body appears in a vacant Los Angeles lot. Based on a true life crime.

Casino Royale by Ian Fleming

In the first James Bond novel, originally published in 1953, 007 takes on Le Chiffre, a French communist and paymaster of the Soviet murder organization SMERSH, as the suave agent becomes involved in a high-stakes game of baccarat, a fiery love affair with a sexy female spy, and endures torture at the hands of a master sadist.

Children of Men by P. D. James

In 2021, with the human race becoming extinct because of the infertility of all males, Oxford historian Theodore Faron is drawn into the schemes of an unlikely group of revolutionaries out to save society.

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon and French cryptologist Sophie Neveu work to solve the murder of an elderly curator of the Louvre, a case which leads to clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci and a centuries-old secret society

The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

A small-town girl lands a job at a prestigious fashion magazine working for the editor from hell.

Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle-Stop Café by Fannie Flagg

(Movie title: Fried Green Tomatoes) The tale of two high-spirited women of the 1930s, Idgie and Ruth, helps Evelyn, a 1980s woman in a sad slump of middle age, to begin to rejuvenate her own life.

Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

A poor 17th-century servant girl knows her place in the household of the painter Johannes Vermeer, but when he begins to paint her, nasty whispers and rumors circulate throughout the town.

Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris

Relates the early life and events that molded cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in Eastern Europe, following the loss of his entire family during World War II.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

(Movie Title: The Haunting) An anthropologist conducts an unusual research project in a reputedly haunted house.

House Of Sand And Fog by Andre Dubus

Three fragile yet determined people are drawn by their competing desires to the same small house in the California hills and become dangerously entangled in a relentlessly escalating crisis.

How Stella Got Her Groove Back by Terry McMillan

Presents a humorous novel about a woman who unexpectedly finds love but who just might be losing her mind.

The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy

A classic cat-and-mouse tale of Americans and Soviets commence when a trusted and skilled Soviet naval officer defects - using the USSR's most valuable nuclear submarine as his escape vehicle.

Little Children by Tom Perotta

A group of young suburban parents, including a stay-at-home dad, a former feminist, and an over-structured mom, finds its sleepy existence shattered when a convicted child molester moves back into town and two of the parents have an affair.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of racial injustice in a small Southern town.

Kiss the Girls by James Patterson

As two serial killers terrorize different regions of America, Washington, D.C., police detective Alex Cross embarks on a personal quest to find the perpetrators.

The Last Of The Mohicans: A Narrative Of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper

(Movie title: The Last Of The Mohicans) The classic tale of a disillusioned man who exiles himself from a society whose values he abhors while taking two sisters through hostile Indian country with the help of a Mohican scout.

The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

(Movie title: Sleepy Hollow) A superstitious schoolmaster, in love with a wealthy farmer's daughter, has a terrifying encounter with a headless horse man.

Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian

Captain Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin fight in the Napoleonic Wars.

Mystic River by Dennis Lehane

Sean Devine confronts the world of violence and pain when his childhood friend's daughter is murdered and the investigation brings him face-to-face with a vigilante killer and a man with a dangerous secret.

The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot

Raised in a Greenwich Village loft in New York City by her flaky-but-loving artist mother, ninth grader Mia Thermopolis is shocked to learn from her father that she is now the heir apparent to Genovia, the tiny European kingdom he rules.

Red Dragon by Thomas Harris

A genuinely frightening but completely un-lurid novel. . . featuring the most quietly convincing psychopath in recent American thriller fiction. The crimes are truly horrible: two whole families in far-apart suburban towns have been slaughtered one month apart - by the same man.

Rumble Fish by S. E. Hinton

A junior high school boy idolizes his older brother, the coolest, toughest guy in the neighborhood, and wants to be just like him. Not to be confused with a nostalgia piece. . . this is a remarkably preserved specimen of rebel-without-a-cause nihilism.

Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally

Oskar Schindler, a German, comes to Krakow, Poland, and helps the Jews working in his prison-camp complex. Based on a true story.

The Silence Of The Lambs by Thomas Harris

FBI Agent Clarice Starling studies, then uses one of the most intriguing and gruesome madmen, Hannibal Lecter, to catch another, known as Buffalo Bill.

Shopgirl by Steve Martin

Mirabelle is the shopgirl who sells gloves at Neiman Marcus. She meets Ray Porter, a wealthy businessman twice her age. Together they embark on a relationship and try to decipher the language of love.

Sideways by Rex Pickett

A fresh take on an evergreen: two men - one just divorced, one about to marry - spend a week together testing, then tying up, the bonds of their friendship.

Silas Marner by George Eliot

(Movie Title: A Simple Twist of Fate) Silas Marner, unjustly accused of theft, finds redemption in the love for a foundling child.

The Sum Of All Fears by Tom Clancy

One terrible act plunges the world into an instant nuclear crisis, Jack Ryan comes to the rescue with the help of FBI head Dan Murray to help him avert disaster.

A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley

"King Lear" on an Iowa farm.

Vanity Fair : A Novel Without A Hero by William Makepeace Thackeray

Becky Sharp and her husband stand in contrast to the lives of Dobbin and Amelia in this revelation of societal classes.

Waiting To Exhale by Terry McMillan

A saucy and savvy tale about four black women approaching midlife and the changes the men in their lives put them through.

A Walk To Remember by Nicholas Sparks

A 17-year-old boy in 1950s North Carolina finds all his expectations overthrown by the Baptist minister's daughter.

What Was She Thinking?: Notes On A Scandal by Zoe Heller

(Movie title: Notes On A Scandal) When her new friend and co-worker, Sheba Hart, begins a passionate affair with a male student, schoolteacher Barbara Covett decides to defend Sheba and unknowingly reveals secrets they both hide.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

When Mr. Lockwood has an encounter with the spirit of Catherine Linton at the home of the unsociable Heathcliff, he hears the story of the tempestuous love affair between Catherine and Heathcliff