Biblio File

Book Recommendations from Our Lions, Patience & Fortitude

lion statues holding books

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.

book cover

American Primitive by Mary Oliver

Fifty poems about nature and humanity.

 

 

 

 

 

book cover

Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan

A probing account of a lifetime passion for surfing.

 

 

 

 

 

book cover

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.

 

 

 

 

 

book cover

Gandhi: The Years that Changed the World by 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.

 

 

 

 

 

book cover

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.

 

 

 

 

book cover

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.

 

 

 

 

book cover

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.

 

 

 

 

 

book cover

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."

 

 

 

 

 

book cover

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

A reflection on simple living in natural surroundings, personal freedom, individualism, materialism, and social conscience.

 

 

 

 

 

book cover

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

book cover

Beloved by 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.

 

 

 

 

 

book cover

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.

 

 

 

 

book cover

The Diary of a Young Girl by 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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

book cover

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.

 

 

 

 

 

book cover

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.

 

 

 

book cover

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

book cover

The Lord of the Rings by 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.

 

 

 

 

 

book cover

Moby-Dick: or, The Whale by 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.

 

 

 

 

book cover

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.

 

 

 

 

 

book cover

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.

 

 

 

 

 

book cover

Wonder by 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:

book cover

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!

Comments

Patron-generated content represents the views and interpretations of the patron, not necessarily those of The New York Public Library. For more information see NYPL's Website Terms and Conditions.

Patience and Fortitude: Making a Marriage

My parents met for the first time, on a blind date, under one of the Lions, eventually resulting in me. The patience of my dad and the fortitude of my mom and rooms and rooms full of books, like the library, gave me a world of the written word and a life of the mind. I owe a lot to those Lions!.

What a lovely story—thank you

What a lovely story—thank you for sharing it with us!