Series: Jane Austen Mysteries

Series: Jane Austen Mysteries
Author: Stephanie Barron
First Book: Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrove Manor
Most Recent Book (number 12): Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas
Started: 1996
Category: Adult
Genre: Historical Mystery, Austen-Referencing
Summary of First Book on Goodreads: On a visit to the estate of her friend, the young and beautiful Isobel Payne, Countess of Scargrave, Jane bears witness to a tragedy. Isobel's husband,a gentleman of mature years, is felled by a mysterious and agonizing ailment. The Earl's death seems a cruel blow of fate for the newly married Isobel. Yet the bereaved widow soon finds that it's only the beginning of her misfortune...as she receives a sinister missive accusing her and the Earl's nephew of adultery and murder. Desperately afraid that the letter will expose her to the worst sort of scandal, Isobel begs Jane for help. And Jane finds herself embroiled in a perilous investigation that will soon have her following a trail of clues that leads all the way to Newgate Prison and the House of Lords' trail that may well place Jane's own person in the gravest jeopardy.

Book: Peter Pan

Title: Peter Pan
Author: J. M. Barrie
Category: Classic, Childrens/Middle-Grade
Genre: Fantasy/Adventure
Pages: around 200 pages, depending on the version
Published: 1902
Summary on Goodreads: Neverland is home to Peter Pan, a young boy who has never grown up. On one of his visits to London, Peter makes the acquaintance of young Wendy Darling, whom he invites to travel with him to Neverland and become the mother of his gang of Lost Boys. Flying through the night sky to Neverland, Wendy and her brothers are soon caught up in adventures.

Series: Booktown Mystery

Series: Booktown Mysteries
Author: Lorna Barrett
First Book: Murder is Binding
Most Recent Book (book 9): A Fatal Chapter
Category: Adult
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Started: 2008
Summary of Series on Goodreads: Tricia Miles, runs a mystery bookstore, Haven’t Got a Clue, and the cat Miss Marple, in fictional small-town Stoneham, New Hampshire, a town full of bookstores and solves mysteries on the side.

Series: Anna Pigeon

Series: Anna Pigeon
Author: Nevada Barr
Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery
Summary of Series on Goodreads: National Park Ranger Anna Pigeon goes beyond the call of duty in this Agatha and Anthony Award-winning mystery series. She travels to National Parks around the country, solving mysteries in the wilderness and historic locales. Author Nevada Barr draws on her own experience as a former park ranger to craft these award-winning novels. 
Started: 1993

First Book: Track of the Cat

Latest Book (number 18 so far!): Destroyer Angel

Book: Two-Way Street

Title: Two-Way Street
Author: Lauren Barnholdt
Published: 2007
Pages: 288
Category: YA
Genre: Realistic Fiction, Romance, Break-Ups
Summary on Goodreads: There are two sides to every breakup.

This is Jordan and Courtney, totally in love. Sure, they were an unlikely high school couple. But they clicked; it worked. They're even going to the same college, and driving cross-country together for orientation.

Then Jordan dumps Courtney -- for a girl he met on the Internet.

It's too late to change plans, so the road trip is on. Courtney's heartbroken, but figures she can tough it out for a few days. La la la -- this is Courtney pretending not to care.

But in a strange twist, Jordan cares. A lot.

Turns out, he's got a secret or two that he's not telling Courtney. And it has everything to do with why they broke up, why they can't get back together, and how, in spite of it all, this couple is destined for each other.

Other Books the author has written to look into: One Night That Changes Everything
Sometimes It Happens
Aces Up
The Thing About the Truth
Right of Way
Through to You
Witches of Santa-Anna series

Book: The Sense of an Ending

Title: The Sense of an Ending
Author: Julian Barnes
Published: 2011
Pages: 163
Category: Adult
Genre: Realistic Fiction, Family/Personal Drama
Summary on Goodreads: This intense novel follows Tony Webster, a middle-aged man, as he contends with a past he never thought much about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance: one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. Tony thought he left this all behind as he built a life for himself, and his career has provided him with a secure retirement and an amicable relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, who now has a family of her own. But when he is presented with a mysterious legacy, he is forced to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.

Awards: Man Booker Prize, European Literature Prize, ALA Notable Book

Author has also written several other books: Arthur and George
A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters
Flaubert's Parrot
and many more

Series: The Naturals

Series: The Naturals
Order of Series: The Naturals
Killer Instinct
All In (coming November 3rd)
Possible forth book depending on how things go
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Started: 2013
Category: YA
Genre: Mystery, Paranormal/Urban Fantasy, People with Powers
Summary of First Book: Seventeen-year-old Cassie is a natural at reading people. Piecing together the tiniest details, she can tell you who you are and what you want. But it’s not a skill that she’s ever taken seriously. That is, until the FBI come knocking: they’ve begun a classified program that uses exceptional teenagers to crack infamous cold cases, and they need Cassie.

What Cassie doesn’t realize is that there’s more at risk than a few unsolved homicides—especially when she’s sent to live with a group of teens whose gifts are as unusual as her own. Sarcastic, privileged Michael has a knack for reading emotions, which he uses to get inside Cassie’s head—and under her skin. Brooding Dean shares Cassie’s gift for profiling, but keeps her at arm’s length.

Soon, it becomes clear that no one in the Naturals program is what they seem. And when a new killer strikes, danger looms closer than Cassie could ever have imagined. Caught in a lethal game of cat and mouse with a killer, the Naturals are going to have to use all of their gifts just to survive.

Good for: Jennifer Lynn Barnes fans, Mystery fans, NCIS/CSI fans, Body Finder fans, Urban Fantasy fans

Trilogy: Raised by Wolves

Trilogy: Raised by Wolves
Order of Books: Raised by Wolves
Trial by Fire
Taken by Storm
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Started: 2010
Category: YA
Genre: Urban Fantasy/Werewolves
Summary of First Book on Goodreads: Adopted by the Alpha of a werewolf pack after a rogue wolf brutally killed her parents right before her eyes, fifteen-year-old Bryn knows only pack life, and the rigid social hierarchy that controls it.  That doesn't mean that she's averse to breaking a rule or two.  

But when her curiosity gets the better of her and she discovers Chase, a new teen locked in a cage in her guardian's basement, and witnesses him turn into a wolf before her eyes, the horrific memories of her parents' murders return. Bryn becomes obsessed with getting her questions answered, and Chase is the only one who can provide the information she needs.

But in her drive to find the truth, will Bryn push too far beyond the constraints of the pack, forcing her to leave behind her friends, her family, and the identity that she's shaped?

Book: Nightwood

Title: Nightwood
Author: Djuna Barnes
Published: 1936
Category: Adult, Modern Classic
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Pages: 182
Summary on Goodreads: Nightwood, Djuna Barnes' strange and sinuous tour de force, "belongs to that small class of books that somehow reflect a time or an epoch" (TLS). That time is the period between the two World Wars, and Barnes' novel unfolds in the decadent shadows of Europe's great cities, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna—a world in which the boundaries of class, religion, and sexuality are bold but surprisingly porous. The outsized characters who inhabit this world are some of the most memorable in all of fiction—there is Guido Volkbein, the Wandering Jew and son of a self-proclaimed baron; Robin Vote, the American expatriate who marries him and then engages in a series of affairs, first with Nora Flood and then with Jenny Petherbridge, driving all of her lovers to distraction with her passion for wandering alone in the night; and there is Dr. Matthew-Mighty-Grain-of-Salt-Dante-O'Connor, a transvestite and ostensible gynecologist, whose digressive speeches brim with fury, keen insights, and surprising allusions. Barnes' depiction of these characters and their relationships (Nora says, "A man is another person—a woman is yourself, caught as you turn in panic; on her mouth you kiss your own") has made the novel a landmark of feminist and lesbian literature. Most striking of all is Barnes' unparalleled stylistic innovation, which led T. S. Eliot to proclaim the book "so good a novel that only sensibilities trained on poetry can wholly appreciate it." Now with a new preface by Jeanette Winterson, Nightwood still crackles with the same electric charge it had on its first publication in 1936.

Trilogy: Regeneration

Series: Regeneration
Author: Pat Barker
Category: Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction
Started: 1991
Order of Books: Regeneration
The Eye in the Door
The Ghost Road
Summary of First Book on Goodreads: Regeneration, one in Pat Barker's series of novels confronting the psychological effects of World War I, foc.uses on treatment methods during the war and the story of a decorated English officer sent to a military hospital after publicly declaring he will no longer fight. Yet the novel is much more. Written in sparse prose that is shockingly clear -- the descriptions of electronic treatments are particularly harrowing -- it combines real-life characters and events with fictional ones in a work that examines the insanity of war like no other.

Series: Abarat

Series: Abarat
Author: Clive Barker
Started: 2002
Category: YA
Genre: Fantasy
Order of Books: Abarat
Days of Magic, Nights of War
Absolute Midnight
A forth book is expected to be released, but no word yet on when.
Summary of First Book on Goodreads: Candy lives in Chickentown USA: the most boring place in the world, her heart bursting for some clue as to what her future may hold. She is soon to find out: swept out of our world by a giant wave, she finds herself in another place entirely...

The Abarat: a vast archipelago where every island is a different hour of the day, from the sunlit wonders of Three in the Afternoon, where dragons roam, to the dark terrors of the island of Midnight, ruled by Christopher Carrion.

Candy has a place in this extraordinary world: she has been brought here to help save the Abarat from the dark forces that are stirring at its heart. Forces older than time itself, and more evil than anything candy has ever encountered. 

Trilogy: Grisha

Series: Grisha Trilogy
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Started: 2012
Category: YA
Genre: Fantasy
Order of Books: Shadow and Bone
Siege and Storm
Ruin and Rising
Summary of First Book on Goodreads: Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.

Book: No Time For Goodbye

Book: No Time For Goodbye
Author: Linwood Barclay
Published: 2007
Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 338
Summary on Goodreads: Fourteen-year-old Cynthia Bigge woke one morning to discover that her entire family, mother, father, brother had vanished. No note, no trace, no return. Ever. Now, twenty-five years later, she'll learn the devastating truth

Sometimes better not to know. . . 

Cynthia is happily married with a young daughter, a new family. But the story of her old family isn't over. A strange car in the neighborhood, untraceable phone calls, ominous gifts, someone has returned to her hometown to finish what was started twenty-five years ago. And no one's innocence is guaranteed, not even her own. By the time Cynthia discovers her killer's shocking identity, it will again be too late . . . even for goodbye.

Note: There is a companion book to this called No Safe House about different characters.

Trilogy: Breathless

Trilogy: Breathless
Author: Maya Banks
Category: Adult
Genre: Romance, Erotica, Realistic Fiction
Started: 2013
Order of Books: Rush
Fever
Burn
Summary of Series on Goodreads: The series follows three billionaires—Gabe Hamilton, Jace Crestwell and Ash McIntyre—who are best friends and business partners. The men dominate both in the boardroom and in the bedroom. Each novel in the trilogy will explore the relationship of one of the men as he discovers the woman he will love.

Note: This author has written several other contemporary erotica romances, this is just her most well known.

Series: Huxtable Quintet

Series: Huxtable Quintet
Author: Mary Balogh
Started: 2009
Category: Adult
Genre: Historical Romance
Order of Books: First Comes Marriage
Then Comes Seduction
At Last Comes Love
Seducing an Angel
A Secret Affair
Gist of series: Another series of historical romances centered around a family.

Series: Bedwyn Saga

Series: Bedwyn Saga
Author: Mary Balogh
Started: 2003
Category: Adult
Genre: Historical Romance
Order of Books: Slightly Married
Slightly Wicked
Slightly Scandalous
Slightly Tempted
Slightly Sinful
Slightly Dangerous
Prequels: One Night For Love
A Summer to Remember

Gist: A category romance series revolving around a family of brothers and their romances with various women. Each one is a different love story.

Book: Empire of the Sun

Title: Empire of the Sun
Author: J. G. Ballard
Published: 1984
Category: Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 351
Summary on Goodreads: Jim is separated from his parents in a world at war. To survive, he must find a strength greater than all the events that surround him.

Shanghai, 1941 -- a city aflame from the fateful torch of Pearl Harbor. In streets full of chaos and corpses, a young British boy searches in vain for his parents. Imprisoned in a Japanese concentration camp, he is witness to the fierce white flash of Nagasaki, as the bomb bellows the end of the war...and the dawn of a blighted world.

Awards: Man Booker Prize Nominee

Guardian Fiction Award

James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction