Action & Adventure

Publication year 2012

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Good & Evil, Religion & Spirituality, Power & Greed

Tags Fantasy, Magical Realism, Action & Adventure, Middle Eastern Literature, Romance, Religion & Spirituality

Shadow and Bone (2012) by Leigh Bardugo is a young adult fantasy adventure and romance novel. It is Bardugo’s debut novel and the first book in her Shadow and Bone trilogy, also called the Grisha trilogy. Inspired by 19th-century Tsarist Russia, Bardugo creates a darkly magical world characterized by strange armies, extreme wealth and poverty, and personifications of light and shadow. The novel was a New York Times best seller, a Los Angeles Times best... Read Shadow and Bone Summary

Publication year 2004

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Appearance & Reality, Objects & Materials, Place, War, Fate, Good & Evil, Justice, Safety & Danger, Science & Technology, Trust & Doubt, Truth & Lies

Tags World History, World War II, Action & Adventure, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Military & War, Science & Nature, Biography

Shadow Divers: The True Story of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II (2004) by Robert Kurson is a celebrated nonfiction adventure book. Kurson, an adventure journalist whose stories have been featured in Rolling Stone, Esquire, and The New York Times Magazine, is known for his immersive and entertaining style. His first book-length work, Shadow Divers was a New York Times Best Seller and won the... Read Shadow Divers Summary

Publication year 2003

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Good & Evil

Tags Action & Adventure, Historical Fiction, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Life-Inspired Fiction, Trauma & Abuse, Modern Classic Fiction, Travel Literature

Shantaram is a 2003 novel by Gregory David Roberts. Written as a semi-autobiographical telling of his adventures as one of the most wanted men in 1980s Australia, Shantaram tells the story of Lindsay Ford (who usually goes by “Lin”), who, after fleeing from an Australian prison, escapes to Mumbai. He falls in love with the country and rises through the ranks of a criminal organization led by Abdel Khader Khan.At the time of its publication... Read Shantaram Summary

Publication year 2006

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Memory, Coming of Age, Animals, Self Discovery, Trust & Doubt

Tags Realistic Fiction, Action & Adventure, Animals, Children`s Literature, Fantasy

Publication year 2001

Genre Novel, Fiction

Tags Action & Adventure, Education, Education, World History, Historical Fiction, Magical Realism

LeAnne Howe’s Shell Shaker was first published in 2001; this guide refers to the 2007 Kindle edition. Howe, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, is a professor of English specializing in Native American studies. A former Fulbright Scholar, Howe received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012 from the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas. Shell Shaker received an American Book Award in 2002.One on hand, the novel is a mystery about who killed... Read Shell Shaker Summary

Publication year 2010

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Family, Loyalty & Betrayal, Fate

Tags Science Fiction, Action & Adventure, Fantasy

Paolo Bacigalupi’s young adult dystopian novel Ship Breaker (2010) was a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and the recipient of both the Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book and the Michael L. Printz Award for young adult fiction. The story takes place in a postapocalyptic future in the United States, somewhere west of old New Orleans. The human race is facing economic and environmental devastation due to climate change... Read Ship Breaker Summary

Publication year 2001

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Conflict, Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Perseverance, Hope, Mental Health, Childhood & Youth, Coming of Age, Environment, Friendship, Teamwork, Safety & Danger

Tags Action & Adventure, Realistic Fiction, Survival Fiction, Children`s Literature, Modern Classic Fiction

Publication year 1998

Genre Biography, Nonfiction

Themes Safety & Danger, Place, Teamwork

Tags Action & Adventure, Inspirational, World History, Children`s Literature, Education, Education, Biography

Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance by American author Jennifer Armstrong is a work of narrative non-fiction that tells the story of the survival of explorer Ernest Henry Shackleton and the crew of the ship Endurance after they were shipwrecked in the Antarctic Circle. Published in 1998, the book was the winner of the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction and was also named an... Read Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World Summary

Publication year 1975

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Religion & Spirituality, Loyalty & Betrayal, Language, Shame & Pride, Power & Greed, Politics & Government, Wins & Losses

Tags Historical Fiction, Action & Adventure, Asian History, Politics & Government, Military & War, American Literature, World History, Fantasy, Japanese Literature, Classic Fiction

Shogun is a 1975 novel by American author James Clavell. It is one of six books in Clavell’s Asian Saga, which chronicles the ways Europeans interacted with countries in Asia from the 17th to the 20th centuries. The novel tells the story of English ship pilot John Blackthorne, loosely based on the real life navigator William Adams, who becomes intimately involved in the rise to power of Yoshi Toranaga, a fictionalized version of Tokugawa Ieyasu... Read Shogun Summary

Publication year 2013

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Perseverance, Power & Greed, Wins & Losses, Safety & Danger, Religion & Spirituality, Good & Evil, War, Self Discovery, Animals, Loneliness

Tags Fantasy, Action & Adventure, Addiction & Substance Abuse, Leadership, Love & Sexuality, Military & War, Politics & Government, Trauma & Abuse, Religion & Spirituality, Romance

Publication year 1997

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Animals, Teamwork, Fear, Shame & Pride, Good & Evil

Tags Fantasy, Action & Adventure, Animals, Relationships, Children`s Literature

Kenneth Oppel’s 1997 award-winning middle-grade novel Silverwing is a high-fantasy work that follows a young bat’s journey to find his colony. The novel has sold over a million copies and been adapted for television as an animated children’s series. This book is the first of four in The Silverwing Book Series.Other works by this author include Inkling, Bloom, Half Brother, and Airborn.Plot SummaryThe novel is divided into three parts, and it shifts point of view... Read Silverwing Summary

Publication year 1970

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Community, Gender Identity, Colonialism

Tags Historical Fiction, Action & Adventure, US History, Children`s Literature, World History, Classic Fiction

Scott O’Dell’s children’s novel Sing Down the Moon (1970) is a work of historical fiction focusing on a mid-19th-century Navajo teen girl who calls herself Bright Morning. She and her people live as shepherds and farmers in Canyon de Chelly in Arizona. Bright Morning faces a series of trials in the novel: First, she is taken captive and sold into slavery; after she escapes home, white soldiers force her people to leave their village and... Read Sing Down the Moon Summary

Publication year 2015

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Revenge

Tags Fantasy, LGBTQ+, Action & Adventure

Published in 2015, Leigh Bardugo’s young adult fantasy novel Six of Crows, the first in a two-part series, received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, VOYA, and Kirkus Reviews. A fantasy heist story, the novel shifts between the alternating points of view of five teenagers who team up to pull off the ultimate prison break.Six of Crows begins in Ketterdam, an invented version of 17th-century Amsterdam, and the novel’s main characters hail from the seedy criminal... Read Six of Crows Summary