Sure, you could go and see a movie this weekend. You could sit in a dark room eating stale popcorn for two hours. You could do that. The question is, why would you want to?
For those who’d rather sit in the sunshine with a cool drink and a good book, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best alternatives to this weekend’s biggest movie options, along with the descriptions from their publishers. From dinosaurs to romantic trysts, from sci-fi thrillers to real life war stories, there’s something here for everyone.
Which means there’s no excuse for paying outrageous movie theater prices and wasting a gorgeously sunny afternoon.
Jurassic World
Watchers by Dean Koontz
From a top secret government laboratory come two genetically altered life forms. One is a magnificent dog of astonishing intelligence. The other, a hybrid monster of a brutally violent nature. And both are on the loose…
A lonely widower, a ruthless assassin, a beautiful woman, a government agent.
Drawn together in a deadly hunt, all four are inexorably propelled towards a confrontation with an evil beyond human imagining.
Bestselling author Dean Koontz presents his most terrifying, dramatic and moving novel: The explosive story of a man and a woman, caught in a relentless storm of mankind’s darkest creation…
Tyrannosaur Canyon by Douglas Preston
A moon rock missing for thirty years…
Five buckets of blood-soaked sand found in a New Mexico canyon…
A scientist with ambition enough to kill…
A monk who will redeem the world…
A dark agency with a deadly mission…
The greatest scientific discovery of all time…
What fire bolt from the galactic dark shattered the Earth eons ago, and now hides in that remote cleft in the southwest U.S. known as…
Tyrannosaur Canyon?
Magic Mike XXL
Stripped by H. M. Ward
The woman who stole my heart and crushed it in her hand disappeared from my life 3 years ago. So when I see her at a bachelor party, half naked, rolling around on the floor with another stripper, I’m shocked.
I have to know what cracked Cassie Hale’s picture perfect world that landed her in this hellhole, and I hope that I’m not so bitter that I can’t help her escape.
Escorted by Claire Kent
Lori might be a popular romance writer, but she’s never been anything but a flop with sex and love in her personal life. Still a virgin at twenty-six and increasingly frustrated by her inexperience, she decides to take matters into her own hands. She hires a talented, sexy male escort to take care of her inconvenient virginity.
She assumes one time with Ander will be enough, but she never dreams how much pleasure he can make her feel. Once isn’t nearly enough. Twice isn’t enough either. Soon, she becomes one of his regular clients.
Lori knows that nothing would be as foolish as falling in love with her paid escort, but she’s never been wise with her heart. And, despite his professionalism, he doesn’t seem entirely immune either.
Ted 2
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks.
Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him — something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too.
With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn’t she killed by the germ like all the females on New World?
Propelled by Todd’s gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is.
A Million Ways to Die in the West by Seth McFarlane
From the creator of Family Guy and director of Ted comes a hilarious first novel that reinvents the Western.
Mild-mannered sheep farmer Albert Stark is fed up with the harsh life of the American frontier, where it seems everything and anything can kill you: Duels at high noon. Barroom brawls. Poisonous snakes. Cholera-infected drinking water. Tumbleweed abrasion. Something called “toe-foot.” Even a trip to the outhouse. Yes, there are a million ways to die in the wild, wild West, and Albert plans to avoid them all.
Some people think that makes him a coward. Albert calls it common sense. But when his girlfriend dumps him for the most insufferable guy in town, Albert decides to fight back — even though he can’t shoot, ride, or throw a punch. Fortunately, he teams up with a beautiful gunslinger who’s tough enough for the both of them. Unfortunately, she’s married to the biggest, meanest, most jealous badass on the frontier. Turns out Albert has just discovered a million and one ways to die in the West.
Max
Sergeant Rex by Mike Dowling
Deployed to Iraq’s infamous Triangle of Death in 2004, Sergeant Mike Dowling and his military working dog Rex were part of the first Marine Corps military K9 teams sent to the front lines of combat since Vietnam. It was Rex’s job to sniff out weapons caches, suicide bombers, and IEDs, the devastating explosives that wreaked havoc on troops and civilians alike. It was Mike’s job to lead Rex into the heart of danger time and time again, always trusting Rex to bring them both back alive.
Filled with harrowing tales of knife-edge bomb-detection work, including an extraordinary baptism by fire, Sergeant Rex is a heart-pounding account of how an unbreakable human-canine bond helped Mike and Rex to stay focused on their mission and save countless lives. Dowling takes us into the searing 130-degree heat, the choking dust, and the ever-present threat of violent attack that seemed to permeate Iraq’s streets.
We experience Dowling’s visceral fear of walking down an IED-laden alley where dismemberment or death can come with any footstep, only his trusted partner, Rex, by his side.
War Dogs by Rebecca Frankel
Under the cover of night, deep in the desert of Afghanistan, a US Army handler led a Special Forces patrol with his military working dog. Without warning an insurgent popped up, his weapon raised. At the handler’s command, the dog charged their attacker. There was the flash of steel, the blur of fur, and the sound of a single shot; the handler watched his dog take a bullet. During the weeks it would take the dog to heal, the handler never left its side. The dog had saved his life.
Loyal and courageous, dogs are truly man’s best friend on the battlefield. While the soldiers may not always feel comfortable calling the bond they form love, the emotions involved are strong and complicated. In War Dogs, Rebecca Frankel offers a riveting mix of on-the-ground reporting, her own hands-on experiences in the military working dog world, and a look at the science of dogs’ special abilities-from their amazing noses and powerful jaws to their enormous sensitivity to the emotions of their human companions.
The Dog Who Could Fly by Damien Lewis
In the winter of 1939 in the cold snow of no-man’s-land, two loners met and began an extraordinary journey that would turn them into lifelong friends. One was an orphaned puppy, abandoned by his owners as they fled Nazi forces. The other was a different kind of lost soul — a Czech airman bound for the Royal Air Force and the country that he would come to call home.
Airman Robert Bozdech stumbled across the tiny German shepherd — whom he named Ant — after being shot down on a daring mission over enemy lines. Unable to desert his charge, Robert hid Ant inside his jacket as he escaped. In the months that followed the pair would save each other’s lives countless times as they flew together with Bomber Command.
With beautiful vintage black-and-white photos of Robert and Ant, The Dog Who Could Fly is a deeply moving story of loyalty in the face of adversity and the unshakable bond between a man and his best friend.
Top Dog by Maria Goodavage
In Top Dog, Maria Goodavage takes readers into the life of Lucca K458, a decorated and highly skilled military working dog. An extraordinary bond develops between Lucca and Marine Corps dog handlers Chris Willingham and Juan Rodriguez, in what would become a legendary 400-mission career. A Specialized Search Dog, Lucca belongs to an elite group trained to work off-leash at long distances from her handler. She served alongside both Special Forces and regular infantry, and became so sought-after that platoons frequently requested her by name.
The book describes in gritty detail Lucca’s adventures on and off the battlefields, including tense, lifesaving explosives finds and firefights, as well as the bravery of fellow handlers and dogs they served with. Ultimately we see how the bond between Lucca and her handlers overcame the endless brutalities of war and the traumas this violence ignites.
Here is a portrait of modern warfare with a heartwarming and inspiring conclusion that will touch dog lovers and the toughest military readers.
Terminator Genisys
The Blade Runner by Alan E. Nourse
Billy Gimp was a bladerunner… one of the shadowy procurers of illegal medical supplies for the rapidly expanding, nightmare world of the medical black market. Doc was a skilled surgeon at a government-operated hospital by day… and an underground physician by night, providing health care for the multitudes who could not — or would not — qualify for legal medical assistance.
Trapped by Health Control Police, Billy Gimp knew he had to warn Doc that they were closing in on him.
But something even more deadly than the law had already mad its first move… a new plague that Health Control could not handle!
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
An origin story nearly as famous as the book itself: One dreary summer on the shores of Lake Geneva, amid discussions of galvanism and the occult and fireside readings from a collection of German ghost stories, Lord Byron proposed a game. Each of his guests — eighteen-year-old Mary Godwin and her future husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, among them — would try their hand at writing a tale of the supernatural. Unable at first to think of a plot, Mary was visited one sleepless night by the terrible vision of a corpse, a “hideous phantasm of a man,” lurching to life with the application of some unknown, powerful force. The man responsible, a “pale student of unhallowed arts,” fled in horror from his creation, leaving it to return to the dead matter from which it had been born. But the monster did not die. It followed the man to his bedside, where it stood watching him with “yellow, watery, but speculative eyes” — eyes of one who thought, and felt.
The novel that Mary Shelley would go on to publish, the legend of Victor Frankenstein and his unholy creation, and their obsessive, murderous pursuit of each other from Switzerland to the North Pole, has been the stuff of nightmares for nearly two centuries. A masterpiece of Romantic literature, it is also one of the most enduring horror stories ever written.
Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.
Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction.
Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.
Inside Out
Sandman by Neil Gaiman
New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman’s transcendent series Sandman is often hailed as the definitive Vertigo title and one of the finest achievements in graphic storytelling. Gaiman created an unforgettable tale of the forces that exist beyond life and death by weaving ancient mythology, folklore and fairy tales with his own distinct narrative vision.
In Preludes & Nocturnes, an occultist attempting to capture Death to bargain for eternal life traps her younger brother Dream instead. After his seventy-year imprisonment and eventual escape, Dream, also known as Morpheus, goes on a quest for his lost objects of power. On his arduous journey Morpheus encounters Lucifer, John Constantine, and an all-powerful madman. This book also includes the story “The Sound of Her Wings”, which introduces us to the pragmatic and perky goth girl Death.
Fantastic Voyage by Isaac Asimov
Four men and a woman are reduced to a microscopic fraction of their original size, sent in a miniaturized atomic sub through a dying man’s carotid artery to destroy a blood clot in his brain.
If they fail, the entire world will be doomed.
How many of these books have you read? What do you recommend reading instead of going to the movies this weekend? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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