Adventure Begins at Your Library

This summer, dive into captivating tales of adventure or uncover new authors, titles, and genres waiting to be explored. Whether you're following a character on a journey of self-discovery or immersing yourself in an exploration of the South Pole, this reading list is designed to inspire your sense of adventure.

Showing 1 - 20 of 33  There are a total of 35 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "Alone on the ice"
Star rating for Alone on the ice
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
Description:
Describes the epic journey undertaken by Douglas Mawson, who suffered starvation, the loss of his team, and a crippling foot injury as he resorted to crawling back to base camp during the Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1913.
Book cover for "The bone code"
Star rating for The bone code
Series:
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Notes:
BECAUSE YOU LIKE NCIS
Description:
"On the way to hurricane-ravaged Isle of Palms, a barrier island off the South Carolina coast, Tempe receives a call from the Charleston coroner. The storm has tossed ashore a medical waste container. Inside are two decomposed bodies wrapped in plastic sheeting and bound with electrical wire. Tempe recognizes many of the details as identical to those of an unsolved case she handled in Quebec years earlier. With a growing sense of foreboding, she travels...
Book cover for "Chasing the thrill"
Star rating for Chasing the thrill
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"A full-throttle, first-person account of the treasure hunt set in motion by Forest Fenn--an eccentric art dealer and, some would say, robber baron--in 2010 that lasted a full decade and became the stuff of contemporary legend. When Forest Fenn was told he was going to die, he hid a chest full of jewels and gold in the wilderness and published a poem that contained a series of clues about the treasure's secret location. But he didn't die, and he wouldn't...
Book cover for "Dragon teeth"
Star rating for Dragon teeth
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
The year is 1876. Among the warring Indian tribes and lawless gold-rush towns of America's western territories, two paleontologists pillage the Wild West. They are hunting for dinosaur fossils, while surveilling, deceiving and sabotaging each other in a rivalry that will come to be known as the Bone Wars. Into this treacherous territory plunges the arrogant and entitled Yale student William Johnson. Determined to survive a summer in the west to win...
Book cover for "The ghost bride"
Star rating for The ghost bride
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
When she agrees to become a ghost bride for the wealthy Lim family's son, who recently died under mysterious circumstances, Li Lan must dive into a shadowy parallel world of the Chinese afterlife to find the truth. "Malaya, 1893. Li Lan, the daughter of a genteel but bankrupt family, has few prospects. But fate intervenes when she receives an unusual proposal from the wealthy and powerful Lim family. They want her to become a ghost bride for the...

6. Hawke

Book cover for "Hawke"
Star rating for Hawke
Author:
Series:
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Alexander Hawke must stop an experimental nuclear warhead armed stealth submarine heading to the US as well as come to terms with the murder of his parents by pirates many years ago.
Book cover for "The hobbit, or, There and back again"
Star rating for The hobbit, or, There and back again
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit, lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to take part in an adventure from which he may never return.
Book cover for "In the heart of the sea"
Star rating for In the heart of the sea
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Description:
Read about the tragic ship that inspired the story of Moby Dick. In 1819, the 238-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage to hunt whales. Fifteen months later the Essex was rammed and sunk by an enraged sperm whale. Fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, the 20-man crew set out in three small boats for South America, almost 3,000 miles away. Three months later, only eight were left alive. This book shares a fantastic saga of...
Book cover for "Into the raging sea"
Star rating for Into the raging sea
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
Description:
"On October 1, 2015, Hurricane Joaquin barreled into the Bermuda Triangle and swallowed the container ship El Faro whole, resulting in the worst American shipping disaster in thirty-five years. No one could fathom how a vessel equipped with satellite communications, a sophisticated navigation system, and cutting-edge weather forecasting could suddenly vanish--until now g on hundreds of exclusive interviews with family members and maritime experts,...

10. Ivanhoe

Book cover for "Ivanhoe"
Star rating for Ivanhoe
Average Rating:
3.7 stars
Description:
The epitome of the chivalric novel, Ivanhoe sweeps readers into Medieval England and the lives of a memorable cast of characters. Ivanhoe, a trusted ally of Richard-the-Lion-Hearted, returns from the Crusades to reclaim the inheritance his father denied him. Rebecca, a vibrant, beautiful Jewish woman is defended by Ivanhoe against a charge of witchcraft -- but it is Lady Rowena who is Ivanhoe's true love. The wicked Prince John plots to usurp England's...
Book cover for "A journey to the center of the earth"
Star rating for A journey to the center of the earth
Average Rating:
3.5 stars
Description:
"From the discovery of a strange parchment in an old book to the fantastic descent through a dormant volcano into a subterranean world of danger and beauty, A Journey to the Center of the Earth is as wonderfully entertaining today as when it was first published. One of Jules Verne's finest novels, its unique combination of "hard" science and vivid imagination helped establish this brilliant Frenchman as the father of modern science fiction. A high-tension...

12. Kim

Book cover for "Kim"
Star rating for Kim
Average Rating:
3 stars
Description:
Filled with lyrical, exotic prose and nostalgia for [the author's] native India, [he] is widely acknowledged as the ... greatest novel and a key element in his winning the 1907 Nobel Prize in Literature. It is the tale of an orphaned sahib and the burdensome fate that awaits him when he is unwittingly dragged into the Great Game of Imperialism. During his many adventures, he befriends a sage old Tibetan lama who transforms his life. As Pankaj Mishra...
Book cover for "The last of the Mohicans"
Star rating for The last of the Mohicans
Series:
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
Chingachgook and Uncas are the last living members of the great Mahican tribe. Hawk eye, a colonial scout, is their companion and loyal friend. In the midst of the French and Indian War, the three take great risks to lead the two daughters of a British colonel to safety through the battle-torn northern wilderness. When the girls are captured by the vicious Huron tribe, Chingachgook, Uncas, and Hawk eye risk their very lives to rescue them.
Book cover for "The lawless land"
Star rating for The lawless land
Series:
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
"England, 1351. The Pestilence has ravaged the land. Villages lie abandoned but for crows and corpses. Highways are patrolled by marauders and murderers. In these dark and dangerous times, the wise keep to themselves. But Gerard Fox cannot afford to be wise. The young knight has been robbed of his ancestral home, his family name tarnished. To regain his lands and reputation, he sets forth to petition the one man who can restore them. Fate places Fox...
Book cover for "Life of Pi"
Star rating for Life of Pi
Author:
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
Possessing encyclopedia-like intelligence, unusual zookeeper's son Pi Patel sets sail for America, but when the ship sinks, he escapes on a life boat and is lost at sea with a dwindling number of animals until only he and a hungry Bengal tiger remain.
Book cover for "The long way to a small, angry planet"
Star rating for The long way to a small, angry planet
Series:
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
"When Rosemary Harper joins the crew of the Wayfarer, she isn't expecting much. The patched-up ship has seen better days, but it offers her everything she could possible want: a spot to call home, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy and some distance from her past. And nothing could be further from what she's known than the crew of the Wayfarer."--Page [4] of cover
Book cover for "The Lost City of the Monkey God"
Star rating for The Lost City of the Monkey God
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Description:

The #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, named one of the best books of the year by The Boston Globe and National Geographic: acclaimed journalist Douglas Preston takes readers on a true adventure deep into the Honduran rainforest in this riveting narrative about the discovery of a lost civilization — culminating in a stunning medical mystery.

Since the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumors have circulated...
Book cover for "The Martian"
Star rating for The Martian
Author:
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
"Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he's alive--and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, he...
Book cover for "Perpetual West"
Star rating for Perpetual West
Author:
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"As Alex and Elana try to make their home among the academics and young leftists in El Paso and Juárez, they are pulled from each other by an affair with a lucha libre fighter, their struggles to define themselves, and the loud cry of home"--
Book cover for "Polar exposure"
Star rating for Polar exposure
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"The story of how British polar explorer Felicity Aston gathered a team of ten women from across Europe and the Middle East to ski over the frozen Arctic Ocean to the North Pole"--