Colorado State Library Resources

Koushun Takami's notorious high-octane thriller envisions a nightmare scenario: a class of junior high school students is taken to a deserted island where, as part of a ruthless authoritarian program, they are provided arms and forced to kill until only one survivor is left standing. Criticized as violent exploitation when first published in Japan--where it became a runaway best seller--Battle Royale is a Lord of the Flies for the 21st century, a...

When Ruth finds a piece of debris washed up on a beach on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest she discovers the diary of sixteen-year-old Nao, living in Tokyo, who decides that death is the only escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates' bullying, but before she ends it all, Nao first plans to document the life of her great grandmother, a Buddhist nun who's lived more than a century.

Case, a burned out computer whiz, is asked to steal a security code that is locked in the most heavily guarded databank in the solar system.