Bestseller Read-Alikes for the Week of June 4th

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

This week's #1 book on the fiction bestsellers list is again 11th Hour by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro (you can find read-alikes for that book here) At number 2 is John Sanford's Stolen Prey. Sandford's latest is the 22nd installment in his Prey series, featuring  Lucas Davenport (now an agent with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.) In this entry, Davenport investigates a particularly gruesome crime - the torture and murder of an entire family in an small, upscale neighborhood. The killings have all the markers of a drug cartel, and investigators soon uncover a cross-border money laundering scheme. As Davenport unravels the mystery, he's pulled deeper, leading him to dark places and putting his own life at risk.

Other series with similar writing styles and themes include:

James Patterson's Alex Cross series - Serial murder; bank robbery; kidnapping -- all of these crimes and more are investigated by Washington, D.C. police detective/psychologist Alex Cross. Told from the points of view of both Cross and the killer, these roller-coaster cases have plenty of twists and grisly details. Start with the first book in the series, Along Came a Spider, as Cross becomes caught up in a kidnapping case that may involve a teacher at an elite private school who is also a schizophrenic psychopath and serial murderer.

James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux series -  Burke's first-person mystery novels featuring hardboiled P.I. Dave Robicheaux are action-filled stories that focus on cases of corruption, political abuse, and similar moral and social issues. In the first book of the series, The Neon Rain, someone in New Orleans wants Robicheaux dead, and there is no shortage of suspects.

Click here for more fiction bestsellers...

Nonfiction 

This week's #1 nonfiction book is Colin Powell's It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership. More of a meditation on leadership than a memoir, the book collects lessons and personal anecdotes that have shaped the four-star general and former Secretary of State's career in public service, and offers advice for succeeding in the workplace and life.

Other books similar to It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership include:

A Reason To Believe: Lessons from an Improbable Life by Deval Patrick - The first African-American governor of Massachusetts draws on lessons from his own life and career to counsel readers on how to build a meaningful community and country, sharing stories from his disadvantaged youth while describing his views on the transcendent power of friendship and faith.

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson - Drawing on more than forty interviews with Steve Jobs, as well as interviews with family members, friends, competitors, and colleagues, biographer Isaacson offers a look at the co-founder and leading creative force behind the Apple computer company.

Click here for more nonfiction bestselllers ...

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!