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In honor of Independence Day and this year’s adult Summer Learning Program at the library, these book suggestions are all about color—specifically red, white, and blue. Each featured title includes one of these patriotic hues, making them perfect picks to celebrate the holiday and help you check off the challenge to read a book with a color in the title. Whether you’re in the mood for historical fiction, memoir, or mystery, there’s a colorful read here for everyone.

 

The Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian

A twisting story of love and deceit: an American man vanishes on a rural road in Vietnam, and his girlfriend, an emergency room doctor trained to ask questions, follows a path that leads her home to the very hospital where they met.

 

The White House Plumbers by Egil Krogh and Matthew Krogh

The true story of a secret unit inside Nixon’s White House, their ill-conceived plans to stop the leaking of the Pentagon Papers, and how they led to Watergate and the President’s demise. A gripping, thoughtful, and cautionary tale of placing loyalty over principle.

 

The Sweet Blue Distance by Rosina Lippi

In 1857, a young midwife braves the perilous journey west from New York City to Santa Fe, New Mexico Territory in this captivating historical novel.

 

Four Red Sweaters by L. J. Adlington

The true stories of four Jewish girls during the Holocaust, strangers whose lives were unknowingly linked by everyday garments, reveals how the ordinary can connect us in extraordinary ways.

 

The Girl in White Gloves by Kerri Maher

This fictionalized account of Grace Kelly’s life explores the sacrifices it takes for an unappreciated girl from Philadelphia to defy her family and become the reigning queen of the screen, the heartbreaking reasons she trades Hollywood for a crown, and the loneliness of being a princess in a fairy tale kingdom that is all too real.

 

Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors

Three estranged siblings return to their family home in New York after their beloved sister’s death in this unforgettable story of grief, identity, and the complexities of family.

 

Jen Pace Dickenson is the Youth Services Librarian for Polk County Public Libraries. For information about the library’s resources, programs, and other services, visit polklibrary.org or call (828) 894-8721.