Books with category 📚 Fiction
Displaying books 529-576 of 8726 in total

After The Funeral And Other Stories

2023

by Tessa Hadley

A masterful collection of stories that plumb the depths of everyday life to reveal the shifting tides and hidden undercurrents of ordinary relationships. Tessa Hadley has been praised as "one of the greatest stylists alive" by Ron Charles of the Washington Post. Her work draws comparisons to Alice Munro, with a keen eye for the travails, fantasies, and small joys of life.

The anthology, featuring twelve stories, explores the profound impact of seemingly small events. From Heloise's encounter with a connection to her father's tragic death, to two estranged sisters' awkward reunion, and Janie's mother's disrupted wedding plans, each narrative delves into the complexities of human relationships.

Throughout the collection, Hadley examines the tensions between responsibility and freedom, power and desire, and the clash between societal norms and personal aspirations. The stories are as psychologically astute as they are emotionally rich, highlighting Hadley's ability to bring to life both the superficial aspects of life and its deeper, often hidden layers.

This collection is a vital addition to Tessa Hadley's celebrated body of work and stands as a testament to her extraordinary skill in literary craft.

The Splinter in the Sky

The Splinter in the Sky is a diverse, exciting debut space opera about a young tea expert named Enitan, who finds herself taken as a political prisoner and recruited to spy on government officials. This precarious role may empower her to win back her nation's independence, making it a compelling read for fans of N.K. Jemisin and Nnedi Okorafor.

After the dust settles from the failed war of conquest between the Holy Vaalbaran Empire and the Ominirish Republic, Enitan's simple life as a scribe and tea enthusiast is upended. Despite the last Emperor's surrender, the aftermath is deeply personal when her lover is assassinated, and her sibling is abducted by Imperial soldiers. Determined to seek vengeance and rescue her sibling, Enitan abandons her dreams of a peaceful life to navigate the treacherous political landscape of the Vaalbaran capital. Through her journey, she discovers the lengths she is willing to go to not only exact vengeance but also to secure the freedom of her homeland.

How the Steel Was Tempered

How the Steel Was Tempered is a classic novel that offers a fictionalized account of author Nikolai Ostrovsky's experiences during the Civil War and his journey of overcoming crippling injuries after the war ended. The story centers on a young man, Pavel Korchagin, and follows his transformation from an ill-mannered malcontent to a disciplined soldier of the revolution.

In a time when the achievements of humanity are being threatened by capitalist barbarism, this novel serves as an inspiration, reminding us of the power of the human spirit and the potential for self-realization. More than just a tale of socialism, it heralds the arrival of a new type of human being, free from material and economic chains.

This literary work is one of the great revolutionary novels that brings the dry analysis of socialism to life, presenting it as a vibrant, historical experience. It is a testament to the enduring importance of revisiting revolutionary literature, as these stories play a crucial role in understanding the evolution of human ideals.

The Librarianist

2023

by Patrick deWitt

From bestselling and award-winning author Patrick deWitt comes the story of Bob Comet, a man who has lived his life through and for literature, unaware that his own experience is a poignant and affecting narrative in itself.


Bob Comet is a retired librarian passing his solitary days surrounded by books and small comforts in a mint-colored house in Portland, Oregon. One morning on his daily walk, he encounters a confused elderly woman lost in a market and returns her to the senior center that is her home. Hoping to fill the void he's known since retiring, he begins volunteering at the center. Here, as a community of strange peers gathers around Bob, and following a happenstance brush with a painful complication from his past, the events of his life and the details of his character are revealed.


Behind Bob Comet's straight-man facade is the story of an unhappy child's runaway adventure during the last days of the Second World War, of true love won and stolen away, of the purpose and pride found in the librarian's vocation, and of the pleasures of a life lived to the side of the masses. Bob's experiences are imbued with melancholy but also a bright, sustained comedy; he has a talent for locating bizarre and outsize players to welcome onto the stage of his life.


With his inimitable verve, skewed humor, and compassion for the outcast, Patrick deWitt has written a wide-ranging and ambitious document of the introvert's condition. The Librarianist celebrates the extraordinary in the so-called ordinary life, and depicts beautifully the turbulence that sometimes exists beneath a surface of serenity.

The Wall of Winnipeg and Me

2023

by Mariana Zapata

Vanessa Mazur knows she's doing the right thing. She shouldn't feel bad for quitting. Being an assistant/housekeeper/fairy godmother to the top defensive end in the National Football Organization was always supposed to be temporary. She has plans and none of them include washing extra-large underwear longer than necessary.


But when Aiden Graves shows up at her door wanting her to come back, she's beyond shocked. For two years, the man known as The Wall of Winnipeg couldn't find it in him to tell her good morning or congratulate her on her birthday. Now? He's asking for the unthinkable.


What do you say to the man who is used to getting everything he wants?

Slingshot: Building the largest machine in human history

Slingshot is a love story – about a man, a woman, another man, another woman, some gender-bending...and a machine, the largest ever built. Slingshot is a mystery – about a missing aviatrix, a conspiracy, a true-believer. It is an adventure – about following a dream, the ocean-deep, outer space.

Slingshot is about constructing the first space launch-loop stretching 2,600 km between Baker and Jarvis Islands in the Equatorial Pacific. It’s about high finance, intrigue, unlimited ambition, heroism, fanaticism, betrayal...and about opening space to the common person.

The setting is the day-after-tomorrow. Technology has advanced, the web is more pervasive than ever, but human ambition and greed remain unchanged. In Slingshot, Alex Regent, Margo Jackson, and Klaus Blumenfeld reach for the stars as they blend their skills to create the world’s first space launch-loop, backed by major software money. Environmental fanatic Lars Watson with his team of young eco-terrorists are funded by opposing financial interests, who will go to any length to halt the project.

Reporter Lori Kutcher indiscriminately applies her own personal skills to ensure it is she who reports the unfolding events to a watching world. With a cast of 69, Slingshot takes you from Seattle’s world financial district, to the ocean bottom at 5,000 feet off Baker Island, to the edge of space 80 km above. You play with dolphins and battle sharks. You fly and sail and dive, you work and play and love across the vast panorama of an Equatorial Pacific being put to leash to serve humanity’s surge into outer space.

While its accurate science and precise engineering will appeal to hard science-fiction buffs, Slingshot’s major focus is the grand journey, the opening of outer space to the common person by men and women who loom larger than life as they work, play, and love.

Banyan Moon

2023

by Thao Thai

Spanning decades and continents, from 1960s Vietnam to the wild swamplands of the Florida coast, Banyan Moon is a stunning and deeply moving story of mothers and daughters, the things we inherit, and the lives we choose to make out of that inheritance.

When Ann Tran gets the call that her beloved grandmother, Minh, has passed away, her life is already at a crossroads. Ann has built a seemingly perfect life. She lives in a beautiful lake house and has a charming professor boyfriend, but it all crumbles away with one positive pregnancy test. With both her relationship and carefully planned future now in question, Ann returns home to Florida to face her estranged mother, Hu'o'ng. Under the same roof for the first time in years, mother and daughter must face the simmering questions of their past, while trying to rebuild their relationship.

Running parallel to this is Minh's story, as she goes from a lovestruck teenager living in the shadow of the Vietnam War to a determined young mother immigrating to America in search of a better life. And when Ann makes a shocking discovery in the Banyan House's attic, long-buried secrets come to light as it becomes clear how decisions Minh made in her youth affected the rest of her life and her family.

Our Wives Under the Sea

2023

by Julia Armfield

Miri thinks she has got her wife back when Leah finally returns after a deep-sea mission that ended in catastrophe. It soon becomes clear, though, that Leah may have come back wrong. Whatever happened in that vessel, whatever it was they were supposed to be studying before they were stranded on the ocean floor, Leah has carried part of it with her, onto dry land and into their home.


To have the woman she loves back should mean a return to normal life, but Miri can feel Leah slipping from her grasp. Memories of what they had before – the jokes they shared, the films they watched, all the small things that made Leah hers – only remind Miri of what she stands to lose. Living in the same space but suddenly separate, Miri comes to realize that the life that they had might be gone.


Our Wives Under The Sea is the debut novel from the critically acclaimed author of Salt Slow. It’s a story of falling in love, loss, grief, and what life there is in the deep, deep sea.

The Road of Bones

2023

by Demi Winters

A woman on the run. A crew of Viking mercenaries. A forbidden romance. And the secret which threatens them all.

Silla Nordvig is running for her life.

The queen of Íseldur has sent warriors to bring Silla to Sunnavík, where death awaits her. When her father is killed, his last words set Silla on a perilous quest: travel the treacherous Road of Bones–a thousand-mile stretch haunted by warbands, creatures of darkness, and a mysterious murderer–and go to Kopa, where a shield-house awaits her.

After barely surviving the first stretch of road, a desperate Silla sneaks into a supply wagon belonging to the notorious Bloodaxe Crew. To make it to Kopa, she must win over Axe Eyes, the brooding leader of the Crew, while avoiding the Wolf, his distractingly handsome right-hand man. But the queen’s ruthless assassin has other plans and hunts Silla obsessively.

Will Silla make it safely to Kopa? Or will she fall prey to the perils of the Road of Bones?

Featuring an immersive world blending fairy tale with Vikings, The Road of Bones leads you on an adrenaline-fueled chase with fun banter and a slow-building enemies to lovers romance.

The Road to Roswell

2023

by Connie Willis

A delightful novel about alien invasions, conspiracies, and the incredibly silly things people are willing to believe—some of which may actually be true—from the Nebula and Hugo award-winning author of Blackout and All Clear.

When level-headed Francie arrives in Roswell, New Mexico, for her college roommate’s UFO-themed wedding—complete with a true-believer bridegroom—she can’t help but roll her eyes at all the wide-eyed talk of aliens, which obviously don’t exist. Imagine her surprise, then, when she is abducted by one.

Odder still, her abductor is far from what the popular media have led her to expect, with a body like a tumbleweed and a mass of lightning-fast tentacles. Nor is Francie the only victim of the alien’s abduction spree. Before long, he has acquired a charming con man named Wade, a sweet little old lady with a casino addiction, a retiree with a huge RV and a love for old Westerns, and a UFO-chasing nutjob who is thoroughly convinced the alien intends to probe them and/or take over the planet.

But the more Francie gets to know the alien, the more convinced she becomes that he’s not an invader. That he’s in trouble and she has to help him. Only she doesn’t know how—or even what the trouble is.

Part alien-abduction adventure, part road trip saga, part romantic comedy, The Road to Roswell is packed full of Men in Black, Elvis impersonators, tourist traps, rattlesnakes, chemtrails, and Close Encounters of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth kind. Can Francie, stuck in a neon green bridesmaid’s dress, save the world—and still make it back for the wedding?

Midnight

2023

by Amy McCulloch

When she's gifted a once-in-a-lifetime Antarctic cruise, Olivia has never been anywhere so spectacular.

Huge cliffs of ice loom up to the sky. The sun never sets over the sparkling sea. And there's a killer on board...

Unable to sleep in the endless eerie daylight, Olivia has no idea who she can trust. And if she can't figure it out soon, she won't make it back alive...

The Rachel Incident

The Rachel Incident, brilliantly funny novel about friends, lovers, Ireland in chaos, and a young woman desperately trying to manage all three.

Rachel is a student working at a bookstore when she meets James, and it’s love at first sight. Effervescent and insistently heterosexual, James soon invites Rachel to be his roommate and the two begin a friendship that changes the course of both their lives forever. Together, they run riot through the streets of Cork city, trying to maintain a bohemian existence while the threat of the financial crash looms before them.

When Rachel falls in love with her married professor, Dr. Fred Byrne, James helps her devise a reading at their local bookstore, with the goal that she might seduce him afterwards. But Fred has other desires. So begins a series of secrets and compromises that intertwine the fates of James, Rachel, Fred, and Fred’s glamorous, well-connected, bourgeois wife. Aching with unrequited love, shot through with delicious, sparkling humor, The Rachel Incident is a triumph.

I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home

2023

by Lorrie Moore

From “one of the most acute and lasting writers of her generation” (The New York Times)—a ghost story set in the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries, an elegiac consideration of grief, devotion (filial and romantic), and the vanishing and persistence of all things—seen and unseen.

“Who else but Lorrie Moore could make, in razor-sharp irresistible prose, a ghost story about death buoyant with life?” —PEOPLE

“Is it an allegory? Is it real? It doesn’t matter...[It’s] a novel with big questions, no answers, and it’s absolutely brilliant.” —Lit Hub

“[A] triumph of tone and, ultimately, of the imagination.” —The Guardian

Lorrie Moore’s first novel since A Gate at the Stairs—a daring, meditative exploration of love and death, passion and grief, and what it means to be haunted by the past, both by history and the human heart.

A teacher visiting his dying brother in the Bronx. A mysterious journal from the nineteenth century stolen from a boarding house. A therapy clown and an assassin, both presumed dead, but perhaps not dead at all...

With her distinctive, irresistible wordplay and singular wry humor and wisdom, Lorrie Moore has given us a magic box of longing and surprise as she writes about love and rebirth and the pull towards life. Bold, meditative, theatrical, this new novel is an inventive, poetic portrait of lovers and siblings as it questions the stories we have been told which may or may not be true. I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home takes us through a trap door, into a windswept, imagined journey to the tragic-comic landscape that is, unmistakably, the world of Lorrie Moore.

The Bullet That Missed

2023

by Richard Osman

The Bullet That Missed is the latest installment in the thrilling series by Richard Osman. While the description is not provided, readers can expect the same wit and intrigue that have become synonymous with Osman's work. This book promises to deliver another compelling mystery filled with unexpected twists and a touch of humor, set against the backdrop of English society.

Turncoat

2023

by Tīhema Baker

Daniel is a young, idealistic Human determined to make a difference for his people. He lives in a distant future in which Earth has been colonised by aliens. His mission: infiltrate the Alien government called the Hierarch and push for it to honour the infamous Covenant of Wellington, the founding agreement between the Hierarch and Humans.

Turncoat explores the trauma of Maori public servants and the deeply conflicted role they are expected to fill within the machinery of government. From casual racism to co-governance, Treaty settlements to tino rangatiratanga, Turncoat is a timely critique of the Aotearoa zeitgeist, holding a mirror up to Pakeha New Zealanders and asking: What if it happened to you?

Loot

2023

by Tania James

Loot is a spellbinding historical novel set in the eighteenth century, weaving together a hero's quest, a love story, and the coming of age of a young artist with an exuberant heist adventure. This narrative traces the bloody legacy of colonialism across two continents and fifty years, making for an irresistibly inventive storytelling experience from the imaginative mind of Tania James, who is at the height of her powers.

At the tender age of seventeen, Abbas's talents as a woodcarver catch the eye of Tipu Sultan, leading him to the palace to construct a grand tiger automaton for Tipu's sons, a commemoration of their return from British captivity. The journey of Abbas—and the wooden tiger he contributes to—reflects the tumultuous shifts of nations and empires devastated by conflict across India and Europe.

In the company of the renowned French clockmaker Lucien du Leze, Abbas refines his craft, picks up French, and encounters Jehanne, a French expatriate's daughter. Once Du Leze is allowed to journey back to Rouen, he takes Abbas under his wing as an apprentice. However, Abbas's European endeavor is met with the harsh reality that Tipu's palace has been pillaged by British troops, and the tiger automaton has vanished. To establish his worth, Abbas is compelled to reclaim the tiger from an English estate where it stands amongst a trove of looted treasures.

Love, Theoretically

2023

by Ali Hazelwood

The many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally caught up with her. By day, she's an adjunct professor, toiling away at grading labs and teaching thermodynamics in the hopes of landing tenure. By other day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent paycheck by offering her services as a fake girlfriend, tapping into her expertly honed people-pleasing skills to embody whichever version of herself the client needs.

Honestly, it's a pretty sweet gig—until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly attractive and arrogant older brother of her favorite client, turns out to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor's career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And he's the same Jack Smith who rules over the physics department at MIT, standing right between Elsie and her dream job.

Elsie is prepared for an all-out war of scholarly sabotage but… those long, penetrating looks? Not having to be anything other than her true self when she's with him? Will falling into an experimentalist's orbit finally tempt her to put her most guarded theories on love into practice?

Much Ado about Nada

2023

by Uzma Jalaluddin

A sparkling second-chance romance inspired by Jane Austen's Persuasion...

Nada Syed is stuck. On the cusp of thirty, she's still living at home with her brothers and parents in the Golden Crescent neighbourhood of Toronto, resolutely ignoring her mother's unsubtle pleas to get married already. While Nada has a good job as an engineer, it's a far cry from realizing her start-up dreams for her tech baby, Ask Apa, the app that launched with a whimper instead of a bang because of a double-crossing business partner. Nothing in her life has turned out the way it was supposed to, and Nada feels like a failure. Something needs to change, but the past is holding on too tightly to let her move forward.

Nada's best friend Haleema is determined to pry her from her shell...and what better place than at the giant annual Muslim conference held downtown, where Nada can finally meet Haleema's fiancé, Zayn. And did Haleema mention Zayn's brother Baz will be there?

What Haleema doesn't know is that Nada and Baz have a past—some of it good, some of it bad and all of it secret. At the conference, that past all comes hurtling at Nada, bringing new complications and a moment of reckoning. Can Nada truly say goodbye to once was or should she hold tight to her dreams and find their new beginnings?

The Bee Sting

2023

by Paul Murray

The Bee Sting, by Paul Murray, is an exuberantly entertaining novel that delves into the lives of the Barnes family as they navigate a world on the brink of collapse. At the heart of their misfortunes is Dickie, whose once-thriving car business is now failing, leading him to obsessively build an apocalypse-proof bunker. His wife, Imelda, sells her jewelry on eBay and flirts with the idea of an affair, while their teenage daughter, Cass, is on a path of self-destruction. The youngest, PJ, contemplates running away from home.

The narrative poses a poignant question: if you could rewrite this family's story, how far back would you need to go? Could it be Imelda's wedding day, marred by a bee sting? A car accident preceding Cass's birth? Or even further back, to a summer day with Dickie and his father? The Bee Sting is both a portrait of post-crash Ireland and a tragicomic family saga, offering a dazzling exploration of the challenges in striving to be good in a world that's falling apart.

All The Sinners Bleed

2023

by S.A. Cosby

A Black sheriff. A serial killer. A small town ready to combust.

Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, Charon has had only two murders. After years of working as an FBI agent, Titus knows better than anyone that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface.

Then a year to the day after Titus’s election, a school teacher is killed by a former student and the student is fatally shot by Titus’s deputies. Those festering secrets are now out in the open and ready to tear the town apart.

As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon. With the killer’s possible connections to a local church and the town’s harrowing history weighing on him, Titus projects confidence about closing the case while concealing a painful secret from his own past. At the same time, he also has to contend with a far-right group that wants to hold a parade in celebration of the town’s Confederate history.

Powerful and unforgettable, All the Sinners Bleed confirms S. A. Cosby as “one of the most muscular, distinctive, grab-you-by-both-ears voices in American crime fiction”.

Kairos

2023

by Jenny Erpenbeck

Kairos, by Jenny Erpenbeck, is a novel of great emotional depth and historical resonance. Set against the backdrop of the collapsing German Democratic Republic (GDR), this intricate love story weaves together the lives of two individuals caught in the midst of transformative times.

Nineteen-year-old Katharina encounters a married writer in his fifties, Hans, by chance in East Berlin at the end of the 1980s. The narrative follows their passionate, yet challenging, long-running affair through the decline and eventual dissolution of the GDR in 1989, and into the era that follows.

With her distinctive style and broad narrative sweep, Erpenbeck charts the journey of these two lovers. Katharina matures and grapples with a romance that is far from ideal, paralleling the disintegration of an entire world along with its ideology.

Erpenbeck is celebrated for her ability to capture the nuances of human relationships amidst the dramatic shifts of history, and Kairos is no exception. It is a powerful exploration of love, identity, and the indelible impact of political change on personal lives.

Lady Tan's Circle of Women

2023

by Lisa See

The latest historical novel from New York Times bestselling author Lisa See, inspired by the true story of a woman physician from 15th-century China—perfect for fans of See's classic Snowflower and the Secret Fan and The Island of Sea Women.

According to Confucius, "an educated woman is a worthless woman," but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations—looking, listening, touching, and asking—something a man can never do with a female patient.

From a young age, Yunxian learns about women's illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose—despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it—and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other's joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus, they tell themselves: from adversity beauty can bloom.

But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife—embroider bound-foot slippers, pluck instruments, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights.

How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions, go on to treat women and girls from every level of society, and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later? How might the power of friendship support or complicate these efforts? Lady Tan's Circle of Women is a captivating story of women helping other women. It is also a triumphant reimagining of the life of a woman who was remarkable in the Ming dynasty and would be considered remarkable today.

Same Time Next Summer

The ultimate summer nostalgia read, about an engaged woman who comes face to face with her first love who she hasn't seen in fourteen years, but who she spent every summer with from age five to seventeen when he broke her heart, calling into question everything she thought she knew about their love story, and herself.

Beach Rules: Do take long walks on the sand. Do put an umbrella in every cocktail. Do NOT run into your first love.

Sam’s life is on track. She has the perfect doctor fiancé, Jack (his strict routines are a good thing, really), a great job in Manhattan (unless they fire her), and is about to tour a wedding venue near her family’s Long Island beach house. Everything should go to plan, yet the minute she arrives, Sam senses something is off. Wyatt is here. Her Wyatt. But there’s no reason for a thirty-year-old engaged woman to feel panicked around the guy who broke her heart when she was seventeen. Right?

Translation State

2023

by Ann Leckie

Translation State is a powerful new novel by one of the masters of modern science fiction, Ann Leckie. It's a sweeping space adventure and a brilliant exploration of belonging and identity.

When Enae's grandmaman passes away, Enae inherits an unexpected diplomatic assignment to track down a fugitive missing for over 200 years. Although it seems to be an empty assignment meant to keep his occupied, Enae, who has never had a true purpose, is determined to succeed.

Reet, an adopted mechanic with a secret yearning to understand his identity, is approached by a political group claiming he has ties to a genetically mysterious, long-deceased family. Eager for answers, Reet is drawn into a deeper mystery.

Qven, a Presgr translator, has always known their path—learn human ways and serve as an intermediary between the dangerous alien Presgr and the human worlds. However, when Qven desires something different, a rebellion against their predetermined life begins.

As a Conclave of various species approaches and with a critical treaty at stake, the paths of Enae, Reet, and Qven collide, triggering a chain of events with far-reaching consequences across galaxies.

Unfortunately Yours

2023

by Tessa Bailey

Unfortunately Yours, a novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey, is a hilarious rom-com set in the picturesque Napa Valley.

Natalie, after losing her job and fiancé, returns home to recover and plan her next move. With a trust fund that requires her to be married for access, she finds herself proposing a marriage of convenience to August, a man whose presence stirs both irritation and attraction within her.

August is determined to honor his late best friend's legacy but is struggling as no bank will approve the loan he needs. When Natalie offers a solution in the form of a quickie marriage, he's tempted by the prospect despite their mutual antagonism.

What was supposed to be a simple arrangement becomes complicated by their unfortunate, unbearable, and undeniable attraction to each other.

Swamp Story

2023

by Dave Barry

Pulitzer Prize–winning and New York Times bestselling author—and actual Florida Man—Dave Barry returns with a hilariously funny caper full of oddballs and more twists and turns than a snake slithering away from a gator.

Jesse Braddock is trapped in a tiny cabin deep in the Everglades with her infant daughter and her ex-boyfriend, a wannabe reality TV star who turned out to be a lot prettier on the outside than on the inside. Broke and desperate for a way out, Jesse stumbles across a long-lost treasure, which could solve all her problems—if she can figure out how to keep it. The problem is some very bad men are also looking for the treasure, and they know Jesse has it.

Meanwhile, Ken Bortle of Bortle Brothers Bait and Beer has hatched a scheme to lure tourists to his failing store by making viral videos of the “Everglades Melon Monster.” The Monster is, in fact, an unemployed alcoholic newspaperman named Phil wearing a Dora the Explorer costume head. Incredibly, this plan actually works, inspiring a horde of TikTokers to swarm into the swamp in search of the Monster at the same time villains are on the hunt for Jesse’s treasure. Amid this mayhem, a presidential hopeful arrives in the Everglades to start his campaign. Needless to say, it does not go as planned. In fact, nothing in this story goes as planned. This is, after all, Florida.

The Late Americans

2023

by Brandon Taylor

The Late Americans is a deeply involving new novel by Brandon Taylor, the Booker Prize finalist and acclaimed author of Real Life and Filthy Animals. Set in the shared and private spaces of Iowa City, the novel follows a loose circle of lovers and friends through a volatile year of self-discovery. Among them are Seamus, a young poet; Ivan, a dancer turned aspiring banker; Fatima, whose independence and work ethic complicate her relationships; and Noah, who experiences sex as something that comes to him unexpectedly.

The characters are surrounded by a diverse cast, including artists, landlords, meatpacking workers, and mathematicians who populate the cafes, classrooms, and kitchens of the city. Their interactions sometimes lead to violent and electrifying consequences. As each individual prepares for an uncertain future, they gather at a cabin to bid farewell to their former lives—a moment of reckoning that changes them forever.

The Late Americans is a novel about friendship, chosen family, love, sex, ambition, and the precarious nature of contemporary life. It poses fresh questions and offers a rich, involving narrative that cements Brandon Taylor's position as a perceptive chronicler of our times.

The Will of the Many

2023

by James Islington

At the elite Catenan Academy, a young fugitive uncovers layered mysteries and world-changing secrets in this new fantasy series by internationally bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy, James Islington.

AUDI. VIDE. TACE. The Catenan Republic—the Hierarchy—may rule the world now, but they do not know everything. I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilized society in allowing my strength, my drive and my focus—what they call Will—to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do. I tell them that I belong, and they believe me.

But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart. And that I will never, ever cede my Will to the empire that executed my family. To survive, though, I will still have to rise through the Academy's ranks. I will have to smile, and make friends, and pretend to be one of them and win. Because if I cannot, then those who want to control me, who know my real name, will no longer have any use for me. And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.

The Guest

2023

by Emma Cline

The Guest by Emma Cline is a captivating novel that explores the complexities of identity, belonging, and the thin line between being a welcome and an unwelcome guest. Set against the backdrop of the East End of Long Island as summer draws to a close, we meet Alex, a young woman who finds herself no longer welcome in the opulent world she's been navigating.

After a faux pas at a dinner party, the older man she's been staying with sends her packing with a ride to the train station and a one-way ticket back to the city. With little to her name and her phone damaged by water, Alex's ability to read and manipulate the desires of those around her becomes her survival tool. She chooses to stay on the island, becoming a spectral presence weaving through the elite enclaves of wealth and privilege.

Driven by desperation and a fluid moral compass, Alex spends the days leading up to Labor Day moving from one temporary refuge to another, leaving a trail of chaos in her wake. The Guest is a sharply drawn, propulsive narrative that holds the reader spellbound, a testament to Emma Cline's prowess as a storyteller.

The True Love Experiment

Sparks fly when a romance novelist and a documentary filmmaker join forces to craft the perfect Hollywood love story and take both of their careers to the next level—but only if they can keep the chemistry between them from taking the whole thing off script.

Felicity “Fizzy” Chen is lost. Sure, she’s got an incredible career as a beloved romance novelist with a slew of bestsellers under her belt, but when she’s asked to give a commencement address, it hits her: she hasn’t been practicing what she’s preached. Fizzy hasn’t ever really been in love. Lust? Definitely. But that swoon-worthy, can’t-stop-thinking-about-him, all-encompassing feeling? Nope. Nothing. What happens when the optimism she’s spent her career encouraging in readers starts to feel like a lie?

Connor Prince, documentary filmmaker and single father, loves his work in large part because it allows him to live near his daughter. But when his profit-minded boss orders him to create a reality TV show, putting his job on the line, Connor is out of his element. Desperate to find his romantic lead, a chance run-in with an exasperated Fizzy offers Connor the perfect solution. What if he could show the queen of romance herself falling head-over-heels for all the world to see? Fizzy gives him a hard pass—unless he agrees to her list of demands. When he says yes, and production on The True Love Experiment begins, Connor wonders if that perfect match will ever be in the cue cards for him, too.

Yellowface

2023

by R.F. Kuang

White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences…

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks. So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I.

So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree. But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media.

Against Nature

Against Nature, also known as Against The Grain, is a wildly original fin-de-siècle novel that follows the journey of its sole character, Des Esseintes. He is a decadent, ailing aristocrat who retreats to an isolated villa where he indulges his taste for luxury and excess.

Veering between nervous excitability and debilitating ennui, he gluts his aesthetic appetites with classical literature and art, exotic jewels (with which he fatally encrusts the shell of his tortoise), rich perfumes, and a kaleidoscope of sensual experiences.

The novel is known as the original handbook of decadence and has enjoyed a cult readership from its publication to the present day.

Two Serious Ladies

2023

by Jane Bowles

Christina Goering, eccentric and adventurous, meets the anxious but equally enterprising Mrs. Copperfield at a party. Two serious ladies who wish to live outside of themselves, they embark on a quest for salvation. Mrs. Copperfield visits Panama with her husband, finding solace among the women who live and work in its brothels, while Miss Goering engages with various men. At the end, the two women meet again, each transformed by her experiences.

Mysterious, profound, anarchic, and very funny, Two Serious Ladies is a daring, original work that defies analysis.

The Eyes and the Impossible

The Eyes and the Impossible is a captivating tale that explores the boundless realms of imagination. Dive into a world where the boundaries of reality are blurred, and the impossible becomes possible. With vivid illustrations by Shawn Harris, this book offers a unique storytelling experience that will enchant readers of all ages.

Join the characters on their extraordinary adventures, where each page turn reveals a new surprise, and every chapter is a gateway to a new universe. It's a journey that challenges perceptions and celebrates the power of creativity.

August Blue

2023

by Deborah Levy

August Blue, a mesmerising new novel from the twice Booker-shortlisted author Deborah Levy, delves into the life of Elsa M. Anderson, a piano virtuoso and former child prodigy, now in her thirties, who finds herself in a moment of crisis. At the pinnacle of her career, Elsa walks off the stage in Vienna, mid-performance, setting off on a journey to escape her talent and her past.

Her odyssey takes her to Athens, where she encounters a woman so familiar, she could be her double. This woman purchases a pair of mechanical dancing horses at a flea market—objects Elsa herself desires but cannot have. This encounter sparks Elsa's trek across Europe, haunted by the presence of the woman who seems to share her soul.

August Blue paints a dazzling portrait of melancholy and metamorphosis, exploring the ways we attempt to rewrite our life stories and the pursuit to reinvent ourselves.

Chain Gang All Stars

Two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America's own.

Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America's increasingly dominant private prison industry. It's the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.

In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE's corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar's path have devastating consequences.

Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system's unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means.

Fourth Wing

2023

by Rebecca Yarros

Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Yarros.

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you're smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don't bond to 'fragile' humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother's daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She'll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise. Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

The Covenant of Water

The Covenant of Water is a stunning and magisterial new epic that weaves together love, faith, and medicine, set against the richly textured backdrop of Kerala, India. Spanning from the year 1900 to 1977, this narrative follows three generations of a family grappling with a peculiar curse: in every generation, at least one person succumbs to drowning in a land where water is omnipresent.

The saga begins with the story of a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala's ancient Christian community, who, grieving the loss of her father, embarks on a boat journey to meet her much-older husband for the first time. This young girl, destined to become the matriarch known as Big Ammachi, bears witness to the sweeping changes of her time, experiencing both the heights of joy and the depths of sorrow, with her unwavering faith and love as her guiding lights.

Through a tapestry of vivid medical encounters, moments of unexpected humor, and profound human connections, Abraham Verghese brings to life a bygone era of India. The Covenant of Water stands as a tribute to the progress in medicine, to the enduring human spirit, and to the sacrifices of previous generations, all for the benefit of those living in the present. It is a literary masterpiece that captures the fleeting nature of time and the indelible mark of history on our lives.

The Day of the Jackal

The Day of the Jackal is a classic thriller that stands as a benchmark in the genre, earning its place among other notable works such as The Manchurian Candidate and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. It is often compared to the mysteries of the Hardy Boys for its depth and complexity.

The narrative centers around the Jackal, a mysterious and professional assassin. Described as a tall, blond Englishman with opaque, gray eyes, he is at the top of his profession. Unknown to any secret service in the world, he is tasked with a contract to kill the world's most heavily guarded man.

Armed with just a rifle, the Jackal has the power to change the course of history. His mission is so secretive that not even his employers know his name. As the minutes tick down to the final act of execution, it becomes apparent that no power on earth can stop the Jackal.

Happy Place

2023

by Emily Henry

Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since they met in college—they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and rolls. Except, now—for reasons they're still not discussing—they don't. They broke up six months ago. And still haven't told their best friends.

Which is how they find themselves sharing the largest bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group's yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blue week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.

Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they'll all have together in this place. They can't stand to break their friends' hearts, and so they'll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It's a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week… in front of those who know you best?

Losing It

2023

by Cora Carmack

Virginity. Bliss Edwards is about to graduate from college and still has hers. Sick of being the only virgin among her friends, she decides the best way to deal with the problem is to lose it as quickly and simply as possible--a one-night stand. But her plan turns out to be anything but simple when she freaks out and leaves a gorgeous guy alone and naked in her bed with an excuse that no one with half-a-brain would ever believe. And as if that weren't embarrassing enough, when she arrives for her first class of her last college semester, she recognizes her new theatre professor. She'd left him naked in her bed about eight hours earlier...

Small Mercies

2023

by Dennis Lehane

Small Mercies, a compelling novel by Dennis Lehane, unfolds against the backdrop of a sweltering Boston summer in 1974. Mary Pat Fennessy is caught in a relentless struggle to fend off the bill collectors, living a life steeped in the traditions of Southie, the Irish American neighborhood that prides itself on its heritage and independence.

As the city simmers under a heatwave, Mary Pat's world is upended when her teenage daughter Jules fails to return home one evening. Concurrently, the mysterious death of a young Black man on the subway tracks appears to be a separate tragedy. Yet, as Mary Pat delves deeper into her search for Jules, she unwittingly stirs the pot of a brewing storm—posing questions that draw the ire of Marty Butler, the local Irish mob boss, and his henchmen who are quick to silence any disturbance to their operations.

Set against the explosive period of school desegregation in Boston, which ignites violence in the streets, Small Mercies is not just a thriller; it's a stark portrayal of criminality, the abuse of power, and a raw examination of America's persistent racial divide. Lehane delivers a narrative that is as enthralling as it is unsettling—a testament to his prowess as one of the finest novelists of our time.

The Skin and Its Girl

2023

by Sarah Cypher

A young, queer Palestinian American woman pieces together her great-aunt’s secrets in this sweeping debut, confronting questions of sexual identity, exile, and lineage.


In a Pacific Northwest hospital far from the Rummani family’s ancestral home in Palestine, the heart of a stillborn baby begins to beat and her skin turns vibrantly, permanently cobalt blue. On the same day, the Rummanis’ centuries-old soap factory in Nablus is destroyed in an air strike. The family matriarch and keeper of their lore, Aunt Nuha, believes that the blue girl embodies their sacred history, harkening back to a time when the Rummanis were among the wealthiest soap-makers and their blue soap was a symbol of a legendary love.


Decades later, Betty returns to Aunt Nuha’s gravestone, faced with a difficult decision: Should she stay in the only country she’s ever known, or should she follow her heart and the woman she loves, perpetuating her family’s cycle of exile? Betty finds her answer in partially translated notebooks that reveal her aunt’s complex life and struggle with her own sexuality, which Nuha hid to help the family immigrate to the United States. But, as Betty soon discovers, her aunt hid much more than that.


The Skin and Its Girl is a searing, poetic tale about desire and identity, and a provocative exploration of how we let stories divide, unite, and define us—and wield even the power to restore a broken family. Sarah Cypher is that rare debut novelist who writes with the mastery and flair of a seasoned storyteller.

Treacherous Estate

2023

by Behcet Kaya

In Treacherous Estate, award-winning author Behcet Kaya introduces us to Jack Ludefance, a P.I. who lives aboard his 57-foot houseboat in the Florida Panhandle and keeps an alligator for security. Written from Jack's first-person point of view; his commentary is frequently terse and self-deprecating. He is a man who knows his limitations and honest enough to admit them, but rarely indulges in self-pity. Unlucky in love and sometimes a bit awkward with women, he has the outward scar on his face from wrestling with a gator as a kid and the inward scar of the loss of his wife to divorce.

While enjoying his usual Friday night after dinner beer at a local restaurant, Jack's evening is suddenly shattered when a beautiful young woman sits down next to him, whispers, "Can you help me, Mr. Ludef...?" then falls dead. When her death is ruled 'natural', Jack begins to investigate why she came to him desperately seeking his help. To complicate matters, her husband is a prominent, highly respected local businessman. As Jack unravels the pieces to the unsolved puzzle, the more heinous the crimes of the dead woman's husband become and Jack finds his own life is in danger.

Promises Stronger Than Darkness

Promises Stronger Than Darkness marks the final installment of the international bestselling author Charlie Jane Anders's absolutely heart-stopping YA series, Unstoppable. They're the galaxy's most wanted—and our only hope.

When Elza became a space princess, she thought she'd be spending her time at the palace, wearing gorgeous couture and soaking up everything there is to know—but instead, she's on the run, with everyone hunting for her and her friends.

Rachael followed her best friend Tina on the adventure of a lifetime—but now Tina's gone, and Rachael's the only one keeping her friends together, as they go on a desperate quest to save everyone from an ancient curse.

Rachael, Elza, and their friends have found one clue, one shining mysterious chance to stop the end of the world. And that takes them back to the second-to-last place they'd want to be: enlisting the aid of Captain Thaoh Argentian, the woman who stole Tina's body (and who now seems to be relishing a second chance at teenage chaos and drama, instead of living up to her legacy as an intrepid heroic commander).

With only a ragtag band of misfits, crewmates, earthlings, friends, lovers (and one annoying frenemy), the Unstoppable Crew are up against the universe—and they soon find that in order to survive, they may have to cross a line they vowed never to cross.

Divine Rivals

2023

by Rebecca Ross

Shadow and Bone meets Lore in Rebecca Ross's Divine Rivals, an epic enemies-to-lovers fantasy novel filled with hope and heartbreak, and the unparalleled power of love.

After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again. But eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow just wants to hold her family together. Her mother is suffering from addiction and her brother is missing from the front lines. Her best bet is to win the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.

To combat her worries, Iris writes letters to her brother and slips them beneath her wardrobe door, where they vanish—into the hands of Roman Kitt, her cold and handsome rival at the paper. When he anonymously writes Iris back, the two of them forge a connection that will follow Iris all the way to the front lines of battle: for her brother, the fate of mankind, and love.

Enter Ghost

2023

by Isabella Hammad

A bold, evocative new novel from the award-winning author Isabella Hammad that follows actress Sonia as she returns to Palestine and takes a role in a West Bank production of Hamlet.

After years away from her family's homeland, and reeling from a disastrous love affair, actress Sonia Nasir returns to Haifa to visit her older sister Haneen. This is her first trip back since the second intifada and the deaths of their grandparents: while Haneen made a life here commuting to Tel Aviv to teach at the university, Sonia stayed in London to focus on her acting career and now dissolute marriage. On her return, she finds her relationship to Palestine is fragile, both bone-deep and new.

At Haneen's, Sonia meets the charismatic and candid Mariam, a local director, and finds herself roped into a production of Hamlet in the West Bank. Sonia is soon rehearsing Gertrude's lines in classical Arabic and spending more time in Ramallah than in Haifa, along with a dedicated group of men from all over historic Palestine who, in spite of competing egos and priorities, each want to bring Shakespeare to that side of the wall. As opening night draws closer, it becomes clear just how many violent obstacles stand before a troupe of Palestinian actors. Amidst it all, the life Sonia once knew starts to give way to the daunting, exhilarating possibility of finding a new self in her ancestral home.

A stunning rendering of present-day Palestine, Enter Ghost is a story of diaspora, displacement, and the connection to be found in family and shared resistance. Timely, thoughtful, and passionate, Isabella Hammad's highly anticipated second novel is an exquisite feat, an unforgettable story of artistry under occupation.

Romantic Comedy

Romantic Comedy is a hilarious, observant, and deeply tender novel from New York Times–bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld.

Sally Milz is a sketch writer for "The Night Owls," a late-night live comedy show airing every Saturday. With a history of heartbreaks, Sally has given up on love, focusing instead on the occasional fling, her career, and her stepfather to fill her life.

However, when Sally's colleague Danny starts dating a stunning actor, Sally's frustration inspires her to create a sketch that satirizes the common trope of average-looking men with beautiful partners, while highlighting the rarity of the opposite scenario for women.

Enter Noah Brewster, a charming pop star known for his model-dating history, who stirs unexpected feelings in Sally as they work together. Despite the chemistry, Sally doubts a romance between them could be possible. After all, this isn't a romantic comedy... or is it?

Curtis Sittenfeld deftly navigates the exhilarating and confusing maze of love, alongside a witty examination of modern romance's social dynamics and gender roles.

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