Each year the Orem Public Library celebrates books and reading with an annual programming series called Orem Reads. This year, we will be exploring the romance genre with a month of programs, activities, giveaways, and author events. Make sure to join us on Saturday, September 24 for the Orem Reads Kickoff: Romance Conference, which is a daylong series of author panels and readings. Check the Orem Reads website for a complete calendar of events.

As a special gift, attendees at any Orem Reads program will receive a free book of their choice (one book per household). Here is a small selection of the titles to choose from:

The Wrath and the Dawn

By Renée Ahdieh
Teen Fiction

In this reimagining of The Arabian Nights, Shahrzad plans to avenge the death of her dearest friend by volunteering to marry the murderous boy-king of Khorasan, but discovers not all is as it seems within the palace.


Más allá del invierno

By Isabel Allende
460.83 Allende

Isabel Allende parte de la célebre cita de Albert Camus —”en medio del invierno aprendí por fin que había en mí un verano invencible”— para urdir una trama que presenta la geografía humana de unos personajes propios de la América de hoy que se hallan “en el más profundo invierno de sus vidas”: una chilena, una joven guatemalteca indocumentada y un maduro norteamericano. Los tres sobreviven a un terrible temporal de nieve que cae en pleno invierno sobre Nueva York y acaban aprendiendo que más allá del invierno hay sitio para el amor inesperado y para el verano invencible que siempre ofrece la vida cuando menos se espera.


Un cuento perfecto

By Elisabet Benavent
460.83 Benavent

De la autora de la saga Valeria, en la que se basa la serie de Netflix.

¿Qué sucede cuando descubres que el final de tu cuento no es como soñabas?

– Érase una vez una mujer que lo tenía todo y un chico que no tenía nada.

– Érase una vez una historia de amor entre el éxito y la duda.

– Érase una vez un cuento perfecto.


The Kiss Quotient

By Helen Hoang
Adult Fiction

A heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that proves one thing: there’s not enough data in the world to predict what makes your heart tick. Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases, a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with but way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old. It doesn’t help that Stella has Asperger’s and that French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice—with a professional.


The Inn at Rose Harbor

By Debbie Macomber
Adult Fiction

Jo Marie Rose opens the Rose Harbor Inn bed and breakfast in Cedar Cove in order to start a new life, but the inn and its first guests bring surprises into Jo’s life.


Me Before You

By Jojo Moyes
Adult Fiction

Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life. She takes a badly needed job working for ex-Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after a motorcycle accident. Will is acerbic, moody, and bossy, but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves. Soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.


Attachments

By Rainbow Rowell
Adult Fiction

Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It’s company policy.) But they can’t quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives. Meanwhile, Lincoln O’Neill can’t believe this is his job now—reading other people’s e-mail. When Lincoln comes across Beth’s and Jennifer’s messages, he knows he should turn them in. He can’t help being entertained, and captivated, by their stories. But by the time Lincoln realizes he’s falling for Beth, it’s way too late to introduce himself. What would he even say?


Everything, Everything

By Nicola Yoon
Teen Fiction

My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla. But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black — black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly. Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.


Orem Reads is part of the 25th Annual Utah Humanities Book Festival. This annual free festival is the Utah Humanities’ gift to the community, allowing us to explore all sorts of ideas by interacting with great writers.

For more information about Orem Reads and a calendar of events, visit the Orem Reads website.

Our thanks to the Book Festival’s major sponsors:  George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation, Salt Lake City Arts Council, Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts, and Parks Fund, Summit County RAP, Weber County R.A.M.P., The Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, The King’s English Bookshop, Weller Book Works, Under the Umbrella Bookstore, The Book Bungalow, The National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Catalyst.