Deep work: rules for focused success in a distracted world

Cal Newport

Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively

demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated

information and produce better results in less time... professor Cal

Newport ... makes the case that in almost any profession, cultivating a

deep work ethic will produce massive benefits. He then presents a

rigorous training regimen, presented as a series of four 'rules' for

transforming your mind and habits to support this skill.

Sacred heart

Liz Suburbia

The children of Alexandria are just trying to live like normal teens, and Ben

Schiller is no exception. But her relationship with her best friend is

changing, her sister is hiding a dark secret, and tragedy looms. Also:

where are all the parents?

Fables: Arabian Nights (and days)

Bill Willingham, writer

The people of Fabletown prepare to defend themselves by forming

alliances with those who have not yet been conquered by the Adversary's

legions; however, a delegation from Arabian Homelands makes the task

more difficult.

Black Earth: the Holocaust as history and warning

Timothy Snyder

It comforts us to believe that the Holocaust was a unique event. But as

Timothy Snyder shows, we have missed basic lessons of the history of the

Holocaust, and some of our beliefs are frighteningly close to the ecological

panic that Hitler expressed in the 1920s. As ideological and environmental

challenges to the world order mount, our societies might be more

vulnerable than we would like to think.

Chasing butterflies

Amir Abrams

When sixteen-year-old piano prodigy Nia discovers her recently departed

father wasn't her biological dad, she becomes desperate for answers,

leading her to Omar, an ex-convict determined to win the love of his

daughter.

The problem with forever

Jennifer L. Armentrout

Growing up, Mallory "Mouse" Dodge learned that the best way to survive

was to say nothing. After she escaped her terrifying childhood and spent

years being homeschooled by loving adoptive parents, she is starting her

senior year at a public high school. The first day, she runs into Rider Stark,

the friend and protector from her childhood, and Mallory realizes that their

bond never really faded. But as Rider's life spirals out of control, Mallory

faces a choice between staying silent and speaking out--for the people she

loves, the life she wants and the truths that need to be heard.

The memory book

Lara Avery

When a rare genetic disorder steals away her memories and then her

health, teenaged Sammie records notes in a journal to her future self,

documenting moments great and small.

Mortal gods

Kendare Blake

In mid-thirteenth century Provence, Dolssa de Stigata is a fervently

religious girl who feels the call to preach, condemned by the Inquisition as

an "unnatural woman," and hunted by the Dominican Friar Lucien who

fears a resurgence of the Albigensian heresy; Botille is a matchmaker

trying to protect her sisters from being branded as gypsies or witches--but

when she finds the hunted Dolssa dying on a hillside, she feels compelled to protect her, a decision that may cost her everything.

Watched

Marina Budhos

Far from the "model teen," Naeem moves fast to outrun the eyes of his

hardworking Bangladeshi parents, their gossipy neighbors, and the other

forms of surveillance in his immigrant neighborhood in Queens, but when

his mistakes catch up with him and the police offer a dark deal, will Naeem

be a hero or a traitor?

Bones & all

Camille DeAngelis

Seventeen-year-old Amy Goodnight has long been the one who makes her

family of witches seem somewhat normal to others, but while spending a

summer with her sister caring for their aunt's farm, Amy becomes the

center of weirdness when she becomes tied to a powerful ghost.

Love letters to the dead

Ava Dellaira

When Laurel starts writing letters to dead people for a school assignment,

she begins to spill about her sister's mysterious death, her mother's

departure from the family, her new friends, and her first love.

Transcendent

Katelyn Detweiler

In the aftermath of a terrorist attack on Disney World, all eyes turn to a

teenage girl who may be the savior the world needs.

Playing for the Devil’s Fire

Phillippe Diederich

Thirteen-year-old Boli lives in a small pueblo near Mexico City, a landscape

destroyed by drug crime, and when his parents leave town and are not

heard from, Boli hopes to inspire a luchador to help him find them.

You and me and him

Kris Dinnison

Maggie Bowers thinks she knows what to expect her junior year of high

school, but when she and her out-of-the-closet best friend Nash have

feelings for the same boy she wonders if winning someone's heart means

losing her soul mate.

Remember yesterday

Becca Fitzpatrick

Sixteen-year-old Jessa Stone is the most valuable citizen in Eden City. Her

psychic abilities could lead to significant scientific discoveries--if only she'd

let TechRA study her. But after they kidnapped and experimented on her

as a child, cooperating with the scientists is the last thing Jessa would do.

But when she discovers the past isn't what she assumed, Jessa must join

forces with budding scientist Tanner Callahan to rectify a fatal mistake

made ten years ago. She'll do anything to change the past and save her

sister--even if it means aligning with the enemy she swore to defeat.

Front lines

Michael Grant

1942, World War II. The most terrible war in human history. Millions are

dead; millions more are still to die. The Nazis rampage across Europe and

eye far-off America. The green, untested American army is going up

against the greatest fighting force ever assembled--the armed forces of

Nazi Germany. But something has changed. A court decision makes

females subject to the draft and eligible for service. So in this World War

II, women and girls fight, too. As the fate of the world hangs in the

balance, three girls sign up to fight.

We love you, Charlie Freeman

Kaitlyn Greenidge

The Freeman family, Charles, Laurel, and their three daughters, move to

rural Massachusetts to participate in a research experiment, but the

family's isolation becomes the source of their undoing, and they soon learn

the history of this Institute's history of questionable studies.

The killer in me

Margot Harrison

A girl's unsettling connection with a serial killer leads her on a potentially

deadly manhunt.

Eden West

Pete Hautman

During an eventful year for the Christian cult where he has grown up,

seventeen-year-old Jacob finds his faith and devotion tested when he

meets new friends from the outside world and encounters temptations that

threaten his contentment.

What we saw

Aaron Hartzler

The story of a town torn apart by the events surrounding the rape of drunk

girl at a house party, from the perspective of the partygoers who

witnessed it.

Beyond the read

Ava Jae

When Kora and Eros are framed for the attempted assassination of her

betrothed, they flee. Their only chance of survival is to turn themselves in

to the high court, where revealing Eros' secret could mean a swift public

execution.

Devil and the Bluebird

Jennifer Mason-Black

Armed with her mother's guitar, a knapsack of cherished mementos, and a

pair of magical boots, Blue journeys west in search of her sister Cass, but

when the devil she met at the town's crossroads changes the terms of

their deal, Blue must reevaluate her understanding of good and evil.

How to hang a witch

Adriana Mather

Follows fifteen-year-old Samantha Mather, who has moved to Salem with

her stepmother 300 years after her family hanged witches there, to find

she is ostracized by the witch descendants at school, as she unravels the

lost secrets of the hangings and her family.

Every last word

Tamara Ireland Stone

Consumed by a stream of dark thoughts and worries that she can't turn

off, a girl coping with Purely-Obsessional OCD learns to accept herself and

take control of her life through her experiences in poetry club.

Out of darkness

Ashley Hope Pérez

Loosely based on a school explosion that took place in New London, Texas,

in 1937, this is the story of two teenagers: Naomi, who is Mexican, and

Wash, who is black, and their dealings with race, segregation, love, and

the forces that destroy people.

Kill the boy band

Goldy Moldavsky

Four fan-girls of The Ruperts, sneak away to a hotel in Manhattan to see

their favorite boy band, but when one of them literally drags Rupert

Pierpont to their room and they tie him up, things get complicated--and

when Rupert is killed things go from bad to worse.

Vicarious

Paula Stokes

Working as a digital stunt girl for an elite sensory experience company

after escaping a dangerous past, Winter is devastated when her beloved

sister, Rose, is murdered, a crime Winter discovers to be more complicated

than originally believed.

The darkest corners

Kara Thomas

When her father dies, Tessa is pulled back to the small Pennsylvania town

where her life came apart when her father was sent to prison, her mother

went to pieces, and her beloved older sister ran away, and where her

testimony and that of her now-estranged friend Callie sent a serial killer to

death row--a serial killer who may be getting a new trial as long buried

secrets come to light.

The serpent king

Jeff Zentner

The son of a Pentecostal preacher faces his personal demons as he and his

two outcast friends try to make it through their senior year of high school

in rural Forrestville, Tennessee without letting the small-town culture

destroy their creative spirits and sense of self.

This is where the world ends

Amy Zhang

Micah and Janie have the perfect friendship--as long as no one finds out about it. But

then Janie goes missing and everything Micah thought he knew about his best friend

is colored with doubt.

Chilling adventures of Sabrina

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa

On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, young sorceress Sabrina Spellman

finds herself at a crossroads, forced to choose between an unearthly

destiny and her own mortal boyfriend, Harvey. But Madam Satan, a deadly

foe from her family's past, has arrived in Greendale, and she has her

sights set squarely on the young witch. Can Sabrina face the challenge, or

will her witching career--and high school life--end all too abruptly?

How to talk to girls at parties

Neil Gaiman

Enn is a fifteen-year-old boy who just doesn't understand girls, while his

friend Vic seems to have them all figured out. Both teenagers are in for

the shock of their young lives, however, when they crash a local party only

to discover that the girls there are far, far more than they appear!

Undocumented: a Dominican boy's odyssey from a homeless

shelter to the Ivy League

Dan-el Padilla Peralta

Dan-el Padilla Peralta discusses how he went from a young boy living in

the United States illegally to a successful student at Princeton.

Crooked kingdom

Leigh Bardugo

Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist so daring even they

didn't think they'd survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they're

right back to fighting for their lives. Double-crossed and badly weakened,

the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from

around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the

dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies

emerge to challenge Kaz's cunning andtest the team's fragile loyalties. A

war will be waged on the city's dark and twisting streets--a battle for

revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of the Grisha world.

Exit, pursued by a bear

E.K. Johnston

At cheerleading camp, Hermione is drugged and raped, but she is not sure

whether it was one of her teammates or a boy on another team--and in

the aftermath she has to deal with the rumors in her small Ontario town,

the often awkward reaction of her classmates, the rejection of her

boyfriend, the discovery that her best friend, Polly, is gay, and above all

the need to remember what happened so that the guilty boy can be

brought to justice.

Gemina

Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

When the space station Heimdall is invaded, Hannah and Nik must work

together to defeat the enemy.