Ann Brashares books in order

In the town of Waterby on Fire Island, the rhythms and rituals of summer are sacrosanct: the ceremonial arrivals and departures by ferry; yacht club dinners with terrible food and breathtaking views; the virtual decree against shoes; and the generational parade of sandy, sun-bleached kids, running, swimming, squealing, and coming of age on the beach.

Sisters Riley and Alice, now in their twenties, have been returning to their parents’ modest beach house every summer for their entire lives. Petite, tenacious Riley is a tomboy and a lifeguard, always ready for a midnight swim, a gale-force sail, or a barefoot sprint down the beach. Beautiful Alice is lithe, gentle, a reader and a thinker, and worshipful of her older sister.

And every summer growing up, in the big house that overshadowed their humble one, there was Paul, a friend as important to both girls as the place itself, who has now finally returned to the island after three years away.

But his return marks a season of tremendous change, and when a simmering attraction, a serious illness, and a deep secret all collide, the three friends are launched into an unfamiliar adult world, a world from which their summer haven can no longer protect them.

NB: Previously titled Girl of Lost Things.

Three girls. One summer. Their friendship to salvage . . .

Ama, desperate to live up to her family's expectations, finds herself on an outdoor adventure summer camp. Can she stick it out or will this be the first time in her life she's ever failed anything . . . ?

Tomboy, loner Polly discovers that her grandmother used to be a model and decides she's going to follow in her footsteps - even if it means starving herself to get thin.

Jo's parents' are still grieving the death of her older brother and she's stuck in the middle of their messy divorce. She's got her own problems this summer too - has she made a mistake by turning her back on her old friends?

Having let their friendship fade, can these three girls, with their three very different lives, struggle through the summer without each other, or will they realise they've made a mistake?

Daniel has spent centuries falling in love with the same girl. Life after life, crossing continents and dynasties, he and Sophia (despite her changing name and form) have been drawn together-and he remembers it all. For all the times that he and Sophia have been connected throughout history, they have also been torn painfully, fatally, apart.

But just when Sophia (now "Lucy" in the present) finally awakens to the secret of their shared past, the mysterious force that has always separated them reappears. Ultimately, they must come to understand what stands in the way of their love if they are ever to spend a lifetime together.

Follow the rules. Remember what happened. Never fall in love. 

The world Prenna James comes from is in ruins. She and the others who escaped are here to prevent humanity’s destruction. But if they don’t follow The Rules, everything that matters will be gone: Friends. Families. Dreams. Love.

Ethan Jarves can never know Prenna’s secret. That she’s not from another place.

She’s from another time.

For Sasha, summer means time at her family's sprawling old house out on Long Island. For Ray, it's the same. Sasha and Ray aren't related--and they've never met--but long ago, before they were born, Sasha's dad and Ray's mom were married. Then came a bitter divorce, remarriages, and a new generation of children. Now, the two families have an arrangement: use the summerhouse at your designated time and never cross paths.

Sasha and Ray do connect, though, by email--joking around, confiding in one another, forming a friendship. They've shared so much already...what would happen if they met in real life?

NB: Previously titled The Whole Thing Together.

Profiles Steve Jobs, and describes how his friendships and knack for electronics led him to develop Apple and Macintosh personal computers, computer animation, and desktop publishing despite competition from IBM and Microsoft.

Profiles the creator of the Linux operating system, describing his early skill and interest in computers while growing up in Finland, and explains the impact of his operating system as an open source system.

Some friends just fit together.

Once there was a pair of pants. Just an ordinary pair of jeans. But these pants, the Traveling Pants, went on to do great things. This is the story of the four friends—Lena, Tibby, Bridget, and Carmen—who made it possible.

Pants = love. Love your pals. Love yourself.

With a bit of last summer’s sand in the pockets, the Traveling Pants and the sisterhood who wears them—Lena, Tibby, Bridget, and Carmen—embark on their second summer together.

Pants = love. Love your pals. Love yourself.

It’s the summer before the sisterhood departs for college . . . their last real summer together before they head off to start their grown-up lives. It’s the time when Lena, Tibby, Bridget, and Carmen need their Pants the most.

Pants = love. Love your pals. Love yourself.

Carmen got the jeans at a thrift shop. They didn’t look all that great; they were worn, dirty, and speckled with bleach. On the night before she and her friends part for the summer, Carmen decides to toss them. But Lena decides they should all try them on. Whoever they fit best will get them.

Nobody knows why, but the pants fit everyone perfectly...

With unraveled embroidery and fraying hems, the Traveling Pants are back for one last, glorious summer. It’s a summer that will forever change the lives of Lena, Bridget, Tibby, and Carmen, here and now, past and future, together and apart.

Pants = love. Love your pals. Love yourself.

summer is a time to grow

seeds

Polly has an idea that she can't stop thinking about, one that involves changing a few things about herself. She's setting her sights on a more glamorous life, but it's going to take all of her focus. At least that way she won't have to watch her friends moving so far ahead.

roots

Jo is spending the summer at her family's beach house, working as a busgirl and bonding with the older, cooler girls she'll see at high school come September. She didn't count on a brief fling with a cute boy changing her entire summer. Or feeling embarrassed by her middle school friends. And she didn't count on her family at all. . .

leaves

Ama is not an outdoorsy girl. She wanted to be at an academic camp, doing research in an air-conditioned library, earning A's. Instead her summer scholarship lands her on a wilderness trip full of flirting teenagers, blisters, impossible hiking trails, and a sad lack of hair products.

Four friends. One sisterhood. Ten years later, the story continues.

On the cusp of turning thirty, Tibby, Lena, Carmen, and Bridget are now living separate lives, out on their own. Yet despite having jobs and men that they love, each knows that something is missing: the closeness that once sustained them. Carmen is a successful actress in New York, engaged to be married, but misses her friends. Lena finds solace in her art, teaching in Rhode Island, but still thinks of Kostos and the road she didn’t take. 

Bridget lives with her longtime boyfriend, Eric, in San Francisco, and though a part of her wants to settle down, a bigger part can’t seem to shed her old restlessness. Then Tibby reaches out to bridge the distance, sending the others plane tickets for a reunion that they all breathlessly await. And indeed, it will change their lives forever—but in ways that none of them could ever have expected.