In July, we celebrate Independence Day! In this reading list, we are highlighting some books with “fireworks” of their own, with some of the most popular political thrillers in our collection. In addition, we are highlighting some historical fiction that highlights different eras and people from throughout American History.
Political Thrillers
Never
by Ken Follett
Navigating terrorist attacks, illegal arms trading and smear campaigns, Pauline Green, the country’s first women president, is caught in a complex web of alliances with the most powerful counties that are being orchestrated by the enemy, and only those the most elite skills can stop the inevitable.
Tom Clancy: Chain of Command
by Marc Cameron
To implement his most ambitious plan of all, a ruthless billionaire must get President Jack Ryan out of the way and assembles the most ruthless mercenaries alive to kidnap the First Lady.
Clive Cussler’s Dark Vector
by Graham Brown
Discovering a sinking of the ship is just part of an intricate web of deception, they find themselves in the middle of a cyber-war between rival groups of hackers, both of whom want to control the flow of data around the world.
State of Terror
by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny
A passionate young foreign service officer, a dedicated journalist, and a smart, determined, but as yet untested new secretary of state must team up to defeat an intricate, carefully constructed conspiracy planned to take advantage of four years of an American government out of touch with international affairs.
The President’s Daughter
by Bill Clinton and James Patterson
A one-time Navy SEAL and past president, Matthew Keating, after his daughter is kidnapped by a madman, embarks on a one-man special-ops mission that tests his strengths as a leader, a warrior, and a father.
The Hunt for Red October
by Tom Clancy
The Soviets’ new ballistic-missile submarine is attempting to defect to the United States, but the Soviet Atlantic fleet has been ordered to find and destroy her at all costs. Can Red October reach the U.S. safely?
Rogue Asset
by Brian Andrews
The secretary of state has been kidnapped by Islamic extremists and his only hope for survival is a reconstituted Presidential Agent team?
American Assassin
by Vince Flynn
Syracuse University student Mitch Rapp broods over the deaths of his girlfriend and thirty-four other classmates on the bombed Pan Am Flight 103, until he is recruited and trained by the CIA and receives his first assignment–to kill the Turkish arms dealer who sold the bomb that killed his friends.
Historical Fiction: American History and Famous Americans
Check out our Historical Fiction reading list which includes more recommendations!
The Killer Angels
by Michael Shaara
Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet tell the Southern view of the battle at Gettysburg while Colonel Joshua Chamberlain and General John Buford present the Northern view.
The Fort
by Bernard Cornwell
After the British establish a fort on the Penobscot River, the Massachusetts patriots–among them General Peleg Wadsworth and Colonel Paul Revere–mount an expedition to oust the redcoats.
Flying Angels
by Danielle Steel
After her brother is wounded in the attack on Pearl Harbor, Audrey and her best friend Lizzie enlist in the army as flight nurses in a new novel from the New York Times best-selling author of over 150 books.
The Underground Railroad
by Colson Whitehead
After Cora, a pre-Civil War Georgia slave, escapes with another slave, Caesar, they seek the help of the Underground Railroad as they flee from state to state and try to evade a slave catcher, Ridgeway, who is determined to return them to the South.
Lincoln in the Bardo
by George Saunders
Traces a night of solitary mourning and reflection as experienced by the sixteenth president after the death of his eleven-year-old son at the dawn of the Civil War.
The Steel Wave
by Jeff Shaara
A fictional account of D-Day and the Allied invasion of Europe chronicles the events of the campaign and the personalities who took part, from the ordinary soldiers on the land and in the air, to such leaders as Dwight Eisenhower and George Patton.
Rodham
by Curtis Sittenfeld
This powerfully imagined tour de force of fiction of what-might-have-been follows Hillary Rodham as she takes a different path, blazing her own trail – one that unfolds in public as well as in private – and one that crosses paths again and again with Bill Clinton.
White Houses
by Amy Bloom
After meeting the future first lady while covering Franklin Roosevelt’s campaign, Lorena Hickock and Eleanor discover a powerful passion between them.
