Missoula Reads

Baited by Colleen O’Brien 

The Silver Squad by Marty Essen 

Wrecking Ball: Race, Friendship, God, and Football by Rick Bass 

Delusions and Grandeur: Dreamers of the New West by Mark Sundeen 

A History of Montana in 101 Places by the Montana Historical Society 

The Mollys B. by Joann Howeth 

If I Fall for You by Myra Johnson 

Savage Malice by Kit Karson 

Landscapes of a Montana Heart: Ballad of the Drover by C.G. Eberts 

Indian Country by Shobha Rao 

If I Had Said Beauty: Poems by Tami Haaland 

Dinosaur Dreams by B.J. Hollars 

Rooted at the Edge by Donna L. Erickson 

American Sky by James Grady 

The Essential Book of Pickup Trucks by Fred Haefele 

Death of a Fly by Russell Dobrzynski 

The Way Around: A Field Guide to Going Nowhere by Nicholas Triolo 

Grit to Grind: Shaping Montana Communities One Skatepark at a Time by Andy Kemmis and Chris Bacon 

Beartooth by Callan Wink 

The Boxcar Librarian by Brianna Labuskes 

Don’t Forget Me, Little Bessie by James Lee Burke 

A Mountain’s Idea of Time: Poems by Charles Finn 

Saving the Big Sky: A Chronicle of Land Conservation in Montana by Bruce A. Bugbee, Robert J. Kiesling, and John B. Wright 

Harlo by Brian Petersen 

Your Mother’s Bear Gun: Poems by Corrie Williamson 

A Time of Legends: The Story of Two Fearless Wolves – and One Rebel (Chronicles of the Yellowstone Wolves #2) by Rick McIntyre and David A. Poulsen 

Pastoral, 1994 by Joe Wilkins 

Winning the Earthquake: How Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become the First Woman in Congress by Lorissa Rinehart 

The Bunch Quitter by Philip J. Burgess 

Into This Radiance: Kayaking Flathead Lake by Gary W. Hawk 

This year marks the 250^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. To complete this category, read a book about the historic document.

American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence by Pauline Maier

American Treasures: The Secret Efforts to Save the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address by Stephen Puleo

The Declaration of Independence: The Story Behind America’s Founding Document and the Men Who Created It by Rod Gragg

Founder’s Revolution: The Forgotten History and Principles of the Declaration of Independence by Michael S. Law

Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality by Danielle S. Allen

Our Lost Declaration: America’s Fight Against Tyranny from King George to the Deep State by Mike Lee

Signing Their Lives Away: The Fame and Misfortune of the Men who Signed the Declaration of Independence by Denise Kiernan

Thirteen Clocks: How Race United the Colonies and Made the Declaration of Independence by Robert G. Parkinson

1,000 Books to Read Before You Die: A Life-changing List by James Mustich

The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks by Shauna Robinson

The Book: A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time BY Keith Houston

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

By the Book by Jasmine Guillory

Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living with Books by Michael Dirda

Check These Out: One Librarian’s Catalog of the 200 Coolest, Best, and Most Important Books You’ll Ever Read by Gina Sheridan

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward

The Madman’s Library: The Strangest Books, Manuscripts and Other Literary Curiosities From History

 By Edward Brooke-Hitching

Portable Magic: A History of Books and Their Readers by Emma Smith

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

Remarkable Books: The World’s Most Beautiful and Historic Works by Michael Collins

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer

The Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books (and Two Not-so-great Ones) Saved My Life by Andy Miller

Some books just seem to be made for each other. For this category, read two books that are connected somehow – maybe they explore the same topic or theme. Perhaps the story is the same in both books, but they are written from different perspectives. Or maybe one is a classic novel while the other is a modern retelling.

The possibilities are endless, but if you need some inspiration, check out the list below – it was curated by numerous MPL staff!

• Blood on the Marias by Paul Wylie AND The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
• Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain AND/OR James by Percival Everett AND/OR Finn by Jon Clinch AND/OR My Jim by Nancy Rawles
• Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask by Anton Treuer AND There There by Tommy Orange
• The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart AND The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin AND/OR Pachinko by Min Jin Lee AND/OR A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver AND Strange as This Weather Has Been by Ann Pancake
• Stag Dance by Torrey Peters AND The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things by JT LeRoy
• Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance AND What You are Getting Wrong About Appalachia by Elizabeth Catte
• Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson AND Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
• The Lost Journals of Sacajawea by Debra Magpie Earling AND The River Where You Forgot My Name by Corrie Williamson
• The Power of the Dog by Thomas Savage AND The Girls from the Five Great Valleys by Elizabeth Savage
• The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin AND/OR The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein AND/OR Saga by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples
• Distant Star by Roberto Bolano AND Tracing the Veins: Of Copper and Culture from Butte to Chuquicamata by Janet Finn
• The Heart of Everything That Is by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin AND Ridgeline by Michael Punke
• East of Eden by John Steinbeck AND/OR Ishmael by Daniel Quinn AND/OR Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
• The Stand by Stephen King AND Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
• Haunted by Chuck Palahnuik AND And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
• Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer AND Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
• Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin AND Nestlings by Nat Cassidy
• Mage and the Endless Unknown by S.J. Miller AND Step by Bloody Step by Simon Spurrier
• The Country Under Heaven by Frederic S. Durbin AND The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
• The Revenant by Michael Punke AND The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

A book that everyone is talking about

Read any book that any celebrity book club has read. Examples include Oprah Winfry, Reese Witherspoon, and Sarah Jessica Parker; use the internet to search for others. Or elevate your literary experience with a selection from the locally famous Literature and Libations podcast.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett by Annie Lyons

Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

Edie Richter Is Not Alone by Rebecca Handler

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland

The Lives of Edie Pritchard by Larry Watson

Miss Cecily’s Recipes for Exceptional Ladies by Vicky Zimmerman

The Missing Treasures of Amy Ashton by Eleanor Ray

Sabrina & Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

A frenemy is a person with whom one is friendly despite a fundamental dislike or rivalry.

Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine

Friends Like These by Kimberly McCreight

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Old School by Tobias Wolff

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

A Room with a View by E. M. Forster

Swing Time by Zadie Smith

Trust Exercise by Susan Choi

Wildcat by Amelia Morris

The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza

Real Americans by Rachel Khong

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

The Son by Philipp Meyer

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Well-Behaved Indian Women by Saumya Dave

White Teeth by Zadie Smith

Books enter the public domain when their copyrights expire. Search the internet for titles or ask a librarian for help.

Cantoras by Carolina de Robertis

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina García

Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo

A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes by Rodrigo by Rodrigo Garcia

¡Hola Papi!: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons by John Paul Brammer

I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez

A Lot Like Adiós by Alexis Daria

Infinite Country by Patricia Engel

Never Look Back by Lilliam Rivera

Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia

Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

What happened to Ruthy Ramirez by Claire Jimenez

What’s Mine and Yours by Naima Coster

Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed: 15 Voices from the Latinx Diaspora by Saraciea J. Fennell

Browse By Year

A topic you find puzzling, or about puzzles, or a character solves puzzles.

To commemorate the 250^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, read a book about the Revolutionary War.

The Dewey Decimal call number for non-fiction works about the Revolutionary War is 973.3.

The Bastard by John Jakes

Dreams of Glory by Thomas J. Fleming

Freedom’s Light by Colleen Coble

A Girl Called Samson by Amy Harmon

The Hornet’s Nest by Jimmy Carter

I, Eliza Hamilton by Susan Holloway Scott

The Man Who Would Be King by John Miller

The Rifleman by Oliver North

Rise to Rebellion by Jeff Shaara

Savage Liberty: A Mystery of Revolutionary America by Eliot Pattison

The Trial and Execution of the Traitor George Washington by Charles Rosenberg

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

Beloved by Toni Morrison

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride

Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

The Stranger by Albert Camus

Ulysses by James Joyce

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

NoveList Plus is an online book recommendation service that is free to use through the library’s website. From our home page, click Collections > Digital Items > Databases A-Z > NoveList Plus to get started.

Need help? Call or stop by the Montana Room and a reference librarian will assist you.