Book Recommendations from Our Lions, Patience & Fortitude
Today we celebrate the birthday of Patience and Fortitude, the beloved lions outside the 42nd Street library who have stood guard over New York City since the building's opening in 1911. They were named by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia in the 1930s for the qualities he felt New Yorkers needed to survive the Great Depression. To celebrate, our lions have put together reading recommendations that inspire the qualities for which they are named.
All of these titles are available to borrow digitally via the Library’s e-reader app SimplyE.
Patience's Book List
Patience: the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.
American Primitive by Mary Oliver
Fifty poems about nature and humanity.
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan
A probing account of a lifetime passion for surfing.
The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss and Crockett Johnson
Despite everyone's dire predictions, a little boy has faith in the carrot seed he plants.
Gandhi: The Years that Changed the Worldby Ramachandra Guha
Details Gandhi's arrival in 1915 Bombay and his role in addressing such issues as colonialism, the caste system, religious conflict, and the emancipation of women.
Greater Gotham: A History of New York from 1898 to 1919 by Mike Wallace
New York was transformed in these two decades as the world's second-largest city and its financial capital, thriving and sustained by the city's seemingly unlimited potential.
Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes
When Lilly brings her purple plastic purse to school, she has a very hard time waiting for sharing time.
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
A profoundly contemplative collection of essays chronicling a year at Tinker Creek in Virginia's Blue Ridge valley.
A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean
The story of two brothers growing up in Montana in a family in which "there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing."
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
A reflection on simple living in natural surroundings, personal freedom, individualism, materialism, and social conscience.
The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. ed. Clayborne Carson
Drawing on King's unpublished writings and other materials, a civil rights scholar assembles a first-person narrative of King's life.
Fortitude's Book List:
Fortitude: courage in pain or adversity
Belovedby Toni Morrison
Sethe, an escaped slave living in post-Civil War Ohio with her daughter Denver, is haunted by the ghost of her dead baby girl.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Two sisters, Nettie and Celie, survive an abusive father. Nettie becomes a missionary in Africa while Celie is married off to a cruel man and remains in the south. Their lives are revealed in a series of letters exchanged over thirty years.
The Diary of a Young Girlby Anne Frank
The diary of a young girl written over two years spent in hiding with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
The haunting story of a disastrous expedition to Mt. Everest that claimed the lives of eight climbers and left several others stranded by a storm.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Set in a future America, where the government asserts control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss is put to the test when she volunteers to take her younger sister's place in the games.
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
Ex-convict Jean Valjean risks his freedom to take care of a motherless young girl during a period of political unrest in Paris.
The Lord of the Ringsby J.R.R. Tolkien
An epic struggle between good and evil that follows Frodo and his companions on a quest to destroy the Ring of Power.
Moby-Dick: or, The Whaleby Herman Melville
A sailor, Ishmael, narrates the story of Ahab, captain of a whaling ship, and his complex quest for revenge on the giant white sperm whale that on a previous voyage bit off Ahab’s leg at the knee.
The Odyssey by Homer
An epic poem that focuses mainly on the Greek hero Odysseus and his 10-year journey home after the fall of Troy.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Scout recalls the summer in the 1930s when a black man in Alabama was accused of raping a white woman and she joined her father in a battle against ignorance and prejudice.
Wonderby R.J. Palacio
Ten-year-old Auggie Pullman, who was born with extreme facial abnormalities and was not expected to survive, goes from being home-schooled to entering fifth grade at a private middle school in Manhattan.
Honorable Mention:
Lost in the Library: A Story of Patience & Fortitude by Josh Funk and illustrated by Stevie Lewis
Patience, one of The New York Public Library lions, is missing—and Fortitude, the other lion, searches the building from top to bottom seeking him.
Don't forget to "return" your e-books when you're done—the sooner you return them, the sooner someone else can use them.
Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your ideas too, so leave a comment and tell us what you’d recommend. And check out our Staff Picks browse tool for more recommendations!