Out of the Teen Area and Into the Adult Stacks: Alex Award Winners

With a nice long winter break coming up, you may find yourself looking for something off off-beat to read. How about trying one of this year's Alex award winners - adult books that have a strong appeal for teens? This year's choices cover an amazing range - gritty war stories, steampunk fantasy, a satire about New York's high society teens, and even a little Stephen King (for those wintry nights when you want to huddle under a blanket with a good book and...... get real scared.) Hope to see you in the library over the holidays...


City of Thieves (the audiobook is also available to download) by David Benioff
Two teenage boys encounter cannibals, murderers, prostitutes, and assassins as they struggle to complete an impossible task during the freezing Siege of Leningrad in this funny, shocking, and briskly written tome.



Dragons of Babel by Michael Swanwick
In this original steampunk fantasy, young Will embarks on a quest that takes him to the dizzying heights and gritty depths of the postindustrial world of Babel.

Finding Nouf by Zoë Ferraris
After a 16-year-old girl from a wealthy Saudi family is found dead in the middle of the desert, a devout Muslim guide and a young medical examiner seek to unravel the mystery while facing the sanctions of Middle Eastern society.

The Good Thief (the audiobook is also available to download) by Hannah Tinti
In this suspenseful and unpredictable adventure, Ren, a one-handed eighteenth-century orphan, becomes apprenticed to a con man. Surprisingly, Ren seems born to it.


Just After Sunset: Stories by Stephen King
Modern terrors abound—a porta-potty prison, class warfare on an apocalyptic afternoon—in this wickedly compelling collection of macabre, absurd, and gleefully vulgar stories. Scary, dirty fun.




Mudbound: A Novel by Hillary Jordan
At the close of WW II, two soldiers return to their home in the South to find racial tensions as explosive as the battlefields of Europe. This beautifully written story casts a spell as inescapable as the mud fields of the Mississippi Delta.


Over and Under by Todd Tucker
Andy and Tom’s fourteenth summer is defined by adventures in the woods and caves near their home, a strike that polarizes their small town, and secrets that test their friendship.




The Oxford Project by Stephen G. Bloom, photographed by Peter Feldstein
In this riveting sociological study, the residents of Oxford, Iowa were photographed in 1984 and then again in 2005. Their compelling life stories, vividly expressed in brief biographical sketches, show just how much someone can change in 21 years.


Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow
A fast-paced ride through the brutality of L.A.’s wilderness of drugs, gangs, and the connections people make with one another. The fact that most of the characters in this bloody, sexy, free-verse tale are mostly lycanthropes is almost incidental.




Three Girls and Their Brother by Theresa Rebeck
This witty satire of show-biz politics, told from the perspective of four New York teenage siblings in the eye of a publicity tornado, provides a fascinating insider’s look at the world of the rich and famous.