I recently wrote about the library’s holiday themed literary event in which patrons chose a book decoratively wrapped and were asked to read at least three-fourths through before stopping if it didn’t appeal to them.

Well, I decided to participate and I was very pleasantly surprised by how well I enjoyed Geraldine Brook’s Caleb’s Crossing, the story of a friendship between a Native American boy and his Calvinist friend Bethia Mayfield. This story was inspired by an actual but little known event in American history – the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College.

Mayfield was one of the most intriguing characters I’ve met through the pages of a book, and I highly recommend this story to anyone who enjoys historical fiction.

Here are some other titles that might interest you.

Dan Champion is a former NYPD detective who now works in a small town after a case he was working on nearly destroyed him. The horrors of that most difficult case come back to haunt him when a woman’s body is washed ashore in Andrew Klavan’s A Killer in the Wind.

Retired detective John Rebus is spending his time going through abandoned files and, to the dismay of everyone, he gets involved in a case when two women go missing on the same road as a previous victim in Ian Rankin’s Standing in Another Man’s Grave.

Set in Paris in the year 1878, two young sisters must struggle to survive after the death of their father and deal with their mother’s alcoholism. Each young woman embarks on a unique career path as one enters the theater and the other becomes a dancer in The Painted Girls: A Novel by Cathy Marie Buchanan.

A young woman, abandoned by her mother when she was a baby who left behind only a diary and a large diamond, sets out to find the mother she never knew in The Imposter Bride by Nancy Richler.

Charlie and his sister Ros inherit their aunt’s grand English estate in Elizabeth Wilhide’s Ashenden. As they decide whether to sell or keep the house, the stories of those who’ve lived in it are told.

Chris Schneider is missing and his former lover Mattie Engel sets out to find him in the new James Patterson thriller Private Berlin co-written with Mark Sullivan. Jack Swyteck is a criminal defense attorney who represents a woman accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter in James Grippando’s Blood Money.

Pike Logan and his partner are in the Middle East to protect an American envoy whose life is threatened after a peace deal is reached between Israel and Palestine in Brad Taylor’s Enemy of Mine, a Pike Logan thriller.

In American history, four presidents have been assassinated and Beecher White uncovers that someone is recreating those deaths and the current president’s life is in danger in Brad Meltzer’s The Fifth Assassin.

Territorial Marshals Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch are on a train escorting Mexican prisoners back to the border but trouble brews when the governor of Texas, his wife, daughters and bodyguards bring with them a cache of $500,000. When vengeful Bloody Bob Brandice comes on board things get complicated in Robert B. Parker’s Ironhouse written with Robert Knott.

LAPD cop Scott James nearly died on the night his partner Stephanie was killed. Since then, life’s been hell but he returns back to the force and his new partner has issues as well – she is a German shepherd named Maggie who lost her partner while on patrol in Iraq and together they begin the investigation to find Stephanie’s killers in Suspect by Robert Crais.

The loss of a husband can be devastating for some women, but six in particular learn to rebuild their lives. How they succeeded is chronicled in the memoir Saturday Night Widows: the Adventures of Six Friends Remaking Their Lives by Becky Aikman.

Losing weight can be very difficult and just finding the right diet plan can be just as daunting but the editors of Muscle and Fitness have compiled the best of the best in 101 Get-Lean Workouts and Strategies. This book offers step-by-step instructions as well as meal plans to get into peak condition.

Since we’re in the waning weeks of winter, the titles I’ve shared with you may be of interest to you on your next visit to the Maricopa Public Library. Stay tuned, new books for children and young adults will be featured in the next edition of Great Reads.