Summer Learning 2026 for Adults

A mix of new and recommended fiction and nonfiction titles.

Updated May 27, 2026
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Lewis and Clark Library Lewis and Clark Public Library
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Summer Learning 2026 for Adults

A mix of new and recommended fiction and nonfiction titles.

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Assyria : the rise and fall of the world's first empire
Frahm, Eckart
Ebook
A new history of Assyria, the ancient civilization that set the model for future empires. "Truly extraordinary." --Times (London) At its height in 660 BCE, the kingdom of Assyria stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. It was the...
Atlas of a lost world : travels in ice age America
Childs, Craig
Paper Book
Scientists squabble over the locations and dates for human arrival in the New World. The first explorers were few, encampments fleeting. At some point in time, between twenty and forty thousand years ago, sea levels were low enough that a vast land bridge was exposed between Asia and North America....
Atlas of the World: Thirty-Second Edition
Paper Book
With the pace of change accelerating ever more rapidly each year--in population, climate, national borders, and many other areas--an out-of-date atlas can present a markedly inaccurate view of the world. Oxford's Atlas of the World is the only atlas of its type to be updated annually, offering the...
Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life
Jabr, Ferris
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A vivid account of a major shift in how we understand Earth, from an exceptionally talented new voice. Earth is not simply an inanimate planet on which life evolved, but rather a planet that came to life. "Glorious . . . full of achingly beautiful...
Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History
Al-Rashid, Moudhy
Paper Book
Thousands of years ago, in a part of the world we now call ancient Mesopotamia, people began writing things down for the very first time. What they left behind, in a vast region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, preserves leaps in human ingenuity, like the earliest depiction of a...
Dinner with King Tut: How Rogue Archaeologists Are Recreating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations
Kean, Sam
Paper Book
Finalist for the 2026 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award | LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER | INDIE BESTSELLER | The New Yorker's Best Books of 2025 From "one of America's smartest and most charming writers" (NPR), an archaeological romp...
Antología de dinosaurios y vida prehistórica
Chinsamy-Turan, Anusuya
Paper Book
La mejor forma de comprender el presente...¡es mirar al pasado!  Dinosaurios y vida prehistórica recorre las diferentes etapas de la vida en la tierra, desde su origen hasta el surgimiento de la especie humana. ¿Sabías que los paquicefalosaurios tenían una cabeza enorme?...
Dinosaurus : a prehistoric dictionary
Charles, Rhys
Paper Book
Dinosaurs, fossils, and reptiles, oh my... The whole family can become paleontology experts with this illustrated dictionary of 100+ terms for prehistoric animals! This delightful prehistoric dictionary defines more than 100 words and phrases alongside informative entries,...
Dragon teeth : a novel
Crichton, Michael
Paper Book
Michael Crichton, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Jurassic Park, returns to the world of paleontology in this recently discovered novel--a thrilling adventure set in the Wild West during the golden age of fossil hunting. The year is 1876. Warring Indian tribes still...
The Emerald Mile : the epic story of the fastest ride in history through the heart of the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Paper Book
From one of Outside magazine's "Literary All-Stars" comes the thrilling true tale of the fastest boat ride ever through the Grand Canyon, atop the legendary Colorado River flood of 1983. In the spring of 1983, massive flooding along the length of the Colorado River...
Eradication: A Fable
Miles, Jonathan
Paper Book
A blackly comic literary gem in which a broken man confronts a broken world on an uninhabited Pacific island, where a conservation assignment becomes a moral reckoning. "An instant classic." --The Washington Post * "Excellent " --The New York Times * "Urgent and lyrical...
Footprints : in search of future fossils
Farrier, David
Paper Book
A profound meditation on climate change and the Anthropocene and an urgent search for the fossils--industrial, chemical, geological--that humans are leaving behind What will the world look like in ten thousand years--or ten million? What kinds of stories will be told about...
Frostlines: A Journey Through Entangled Lives and Landscapes in a Warming Arctic
Shea, Neil
Paper Book
A Recommended Read from Yale Climate Connections "[Frostlines weaves] together natural history, indigenous perspective, and environmental transformation in the Arctic. The book helps bring a human story to the science of climate change."--Parade A...
Geology for dummies
Spooner, Alecia M.
Paper Book
Get a rock-solid grasp on geology Geology For Dummies is ideal reading for anyonewith an interest in the fundamental concepts of geology, whether they're lifelong learners with a fascination for the subject or college students interested in pursuing geology or earth sciences....
How to build a dinosaur : extinction doesn't have to be forever
Horner, John R.
Paper Book
A world-renowned paleontologist teams up with a "New York Times" science writer to reveal a new science that trumps science fiction: how humans can re-create a dinosaur.
Jurassic Park
Kennedy, Kathleen
Jurassic Park : a novel
Crichton, Michael
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the author of Timeline, Sphere, and Congo, this is the classic thriller of science run amok that took the world by storm. Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's...
The last days of the dinosaurs : an asteroid, extinction, and the beginning of our world
Black, Riley
Paper Book
Winner of the AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books! "This is top-drawer science writing." --Publishers Weekly, starred review In The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, Riley Black walks readers through what happened in the days, the...
The Lost Tomb: And Other Real-Life Stories of Bones, Burials, and Murder
Preston, Douglas
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTELLER * A GOODREADS READER'S CHOICE AWARD FINALIST From the #1 bestselling author of The Lost City of the Monkey God, a jaw-dropping discovery of an Egyptian tomb opens up a slew of archaeological mysteries and deadly tales...
The lost world
Crichton, Michael
Paper Book
"HARROWING THRILLS . . . FAST-PACED AND ENGAGING." --People It is now six years since the secret disaster at Jurassic Park, six years since the extraordinary dream of science and imagination came to a crashing end--the dinosaurs destroyed, the park dismantled, the island indefinitely...
The map that changed the world : William Smith and the birth of modern geology
Winchester, Simon.
Ebook
From the author of the bestselling The Professor and the Madman comes the fascinating biography of science detailing the story of William Smith, the orphaned son of an English country blacksmith, who became obsessed with creating the world's first geological map and ultimately...
The Mesopotamian Riddle : An Archaeologist, a Soldier, a Clergyman, and the Race to Decipher the World's Oldest Writing
Hammer, Joshua
Paper Book
An "adventure tale for puzzle lovers and Indiana Jones fans alike" (The Washington Post) following three free-spirited Victorians on their twenty-year quest to decipher cuneiform, the oldest writing in the world--from the New York Times bestselling author of The Bad-Ass...
The Monster's Bones : The Discovery of T. Rex and How It Shook Our World
Randall, David K.
Paper Book
In the dust of the Gilded Age Bone Wars, two vastly different men emerge with a mission to fill the empty halls of New York's struggling American Museum of Natural History: Henry Fairfield Osborn, a privileged socialite whose reputation rests on the museum's success, and intrepid Kansas-born...
Origin : a genetic history of the Americas
Raff, Jennifer
Paper Book
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! From celebrated anthropologist Jennifer Raff comes the untold story--and fascinating mystery--of how humans migrated to the Americas. ORIGIN is the story of who the first peoples...
Otherlands : A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds
Halliday, Thomas
Paper Book
"Immersive . . . bracingly ambitious . . . rewinds the story of life on Earth--from the mammoth steppe of the last Ice Age to the dawn of multicellular creatures over 500 million years ago."--The Economist LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE * "One of those rare...
Painless earth science
Denecke, Edward J.
Paper Book
Whether you're a student or an adult looking to refresh your knowledge, Barron's Painless Earth Science provides review and practice in an easy, step-by-step format. Perfect for: Virtual Learning Homeschool Learning pods ...
The rise and fall of the dinosaurs : a new history of a lost world
Brusatte, Stephen
Paper Book
"THE ULTIMATE DINOSAUR BIOGRAPHY," hails Scientific American: A thrilling new history of the age of dinosaurs, from one of our finest young scientists. "A masterpiece of science writing." --Washington Post A New York Times Bestseller * Goodreads Choice Awards ...
The Rise and Reign of the Mammals : A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us
Brusatte, Steve
Paper Book
By the author of the acclaimed bestseller The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, a "brilliant" and "beautifully told" new natural history of mammals, illuminating the lost story of the extraordinary family tree that led to us [New Scientist; The Times UK] ...
Set in stone
Woodhouse, Kimberley
Paper Book
A dangerous scheme could bury their long-held dreams forever. . . . From the time she was little, Martha Jankowski has been digging in the dirt, much to the dismay of her mother. Now she dreams of being a paleontologist and is determined to make her parents proud by uncovering the next big...
A short history of nearly everything
Bryson, Bill.
Paper Book
THE #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER, UPDATED FOR 2025 * A wonder-filled quest to understand everything that has happened in the history of the Earth, from the Big Bang theory to the rise of civilization and beyond--revised to reflect the last two decades of scientific advancement ...
Some assembly required : decoding four billion years of life, from ancient fossils to DNA
Shubin, Neil
Paper Book
An exciting and accessible new view of the evolution of human and animal life on Earth. From the author of national bestseller, Your Inner Fish, this extraordinary journey of discovery spans centuries, as explorers and scientists seek to understand the origins of life's immense diversity.<...
The story of birds : a new history from their dinosaur origins to today
Brusatte, Stephen
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ​​​ From the renowned paleontologist and bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, a sweeping evolutionary history of birds, from their dinosaur origins to the 10,000+ extraordinary species...
Them Bones: A McKenzie Novel
Housewright, David
Paper Book
A stolen dinosaur skull is at the center of a complex mystery laid at the feet of unofficial P.I. Rushmore McKenzie. There are two things that Rushmore McKenzie hates to turn down--a request from a friend and a challenge. Both of them show up in his wife's nightclub in the...
Tyrannosaur Canyon
Preston, Douglas J.
Paper Book
A moon rock missing for thirty years... Five buckets of blood-soaked sand found in a New Mexico canyon... A scientist with ambition enough to kill... A monk who will redeem the world... A dark agency with a deadly mission... The greatest scientific discovery of all time... What fire bolt from the...
When Worlds Quake: The Quest to Understand the Interior of Earth and Beyond
Tkalcic, Hrvoje
Paper Book
How earthquakes can reveal the subsurface secrets of our planet and other worlds When Worlds Quake is a fascinating account of how scientists around the globe seek to use quakes to answer tantalizing questions about the structure and inner dynamics of our planet and to...
Why dinosaurs matter
Lacovara, Kenneth
Paper Book
What can extinct dinosaurs teach us about our future? Plenty, according to paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara, who has discovered some of the largest creatures to ever walk the Earth. By tapping into the ubiquitous wonder that dinosaurs inspire, Lacovara weaves together the stories...
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