Best Seller Read-Alikes for the Week of June 25th

Can’t wait to get your hands on the latest best-seller, but the hold list is too long? To tide you over, every week we’ll offer similar titles and authors to the week’s fiction and nonfiction best sellers.

Fiction

Returning the the #1 spot on the fiction bestsellers list is Calico Joe by John Grisham. Check out our Best Seller Read-Alike post from April for similar books. At #2 is Mission to Paris by Alan Furst. Against the tension-filled backdrop of the beginning of WWII in France, Hollywood star Frederic Stahl is unwittingly entangled in the region's shifting political currents when he discovers that his latest film is linked to the destinies of fascists, German Nazis and Hollywood publicists. Mission to Paris is the twelfth in his Night Soldiers spy novel series set prior to and during World War II.

Authors with similar styles to Furst include:

Graham Greene - One of Furst's inspirations, historical espionage author Greene's tightly-plotted stories range in setting from set in the post-colonial tropics to World War II England . Greene writes with a more personal focus on his characters, as they wrestle with questions of morality and free will. Try The Confidential Agent (1993).

John Altman - A relative newcomer to WWII espionage, Altman has an affinity for the period, swift action, and a lean, cinematic style. His plots are often complex, with plenty of reversals and double-crossings, evoking a smoky decadence and tarnished romance of a bygone age.

Click here for more fiction bestsellers...

Nonfiction 

This week's #1 nonfiction book is again The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House by Edward Klein and you can find read-likes for that book here. The #2 book on the list this week is Cowards: What Politicians, Radicals, and the Media Refuse to Say by Glenn Beck. Aside from his nationally syndicated talk radio show, Beck has written several other political books, and a few fiction novels as well. In Cowards, Beck addresses political, social and economic issues that he feels the mainstream media have ignored.

Other books similar to Cowards include:

What the (Bleep) Just Happened?: The Happy Warrior's Guide to the Great American Comeback by Monica Crowley: Political and foreign affairs analyst for the Fox News Channel and host of her own talk radio program, Crowley argues against the Obama Administration's agenda and calls for a return to the spirit of the Reaganesque "Happy Warrior.” 

Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America (2012) by Mark Levin (320.973 LEV): The nationally syndicated conservative radio host explores the philosophical basis of America's foundations as well as the crises facing government today.

Click here for more nonfiction bestsellers ...

If you'd like more recommendations, stop by the Recommendations Desk on the first floor, check out NoveList Plus on the library's website, or visit W. 11th & Bluff next week for more reading suggestions. Or submit a Personal Recommendations request, and we'll create a reading list just for you!