Recommendations based on Trust Exerciseby Susan Choi

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. Conversations with Friends

    by Sally Rooney
    Two college students explore the complexity of relationships and their place in the world.

    A sharply intelligent novel about two college students and the strange, unexpected connection they forge with a married couple. Frances is twenty-one years old, cool-headed, and darkly observant. A ... (Goodreads)

  2. Her Body and Other Parties: Stories

    by Carmen Maria Machado
    Collection of surreal stories exploring the complexities of gender, sexuality and identity.

    In Her Body and Other Parties , Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. While her ... (Goodreads)

  3. The Woman in Our House

    by Andrew Hart
    A couple's decision to rent out their guesthouse to a mysterious woman leads to dark secrets and dangerous consequences.

    What happens when you open your home to the perfect stranger?, Anna Klein is ready to return to work as a literary agent for the first time since having children. She and her husband, Josh, decide to ... (Barnes & Noble)

  4. Play It As It Lays

    by Joan Didion
    A woman's search for identity amidst the glamour and emptiness of 1960s Hollywood.

    The novel begins with an internal monologue by the 31-year-old Maria Wyeth, followed by short reminiscences of her friend Helene, and ex-husband, film producer Carter Lang. The further narration is ... (Wikipedia)

  5. Tenth of December

    by George Saunders
    A collection of stories exploring the human condition through diverse characters and their struggles.

    A young girl named Alison is kidnapped three days before her birthday. Kyle, a boy who lives nearby whose parents enforce very strict household rules, sees the event unfold and must decide whether to ... (Wikipedia)

  6. The Birth House

    by Ami McKay
    A young midwife in a small Nova Scotia village navigates the challenges of childbirth and women's rights in the early 20th century.

    Spanning the 20th century Ami McKay takes a primitive and superstitious rural community in Nova Scotia and creates a rich tableau of characters to tell the story of childbirth from its most secretive ... (Goodreads)

  7. Olive Kitteridge

    by Elizabeth Strout
    An exploration of the life of a small-town woman, revealing her struggles and emotional complexities.

    Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition – its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires. At times stern, at other times ... (Goodreads)

  8. The Sense of an Ending

    by Julian Barnes
    An exploration of memory and its impact on the present, looking at the choices we make in life.

    By an acclaimed writer at the height of his powers, The Sense of an Ending extends a streak of extraordinary books that began with the best-selling Arthur & George and continued with Nothing to Be ... (Goodreads)

  9. The Need

    by Helen Phillips
    A mother is forced to confront her deepest fears when a stranger breaks into her home and claims to be her doppelganger.

    ***LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION*** “An extraordinary and dazzlingly original work from one of our most gifted and interesting writers” (Emily St. John Mandel, author of, The ... (Barnes & Noble)

  10. To the Lighthouse

    by Virginia Woolf
    Exploration of the complexities of human relationships and family life.

    The novel is set in the Ramsays' summer home in the Hebrides , on the Isle of Skye . The section begins with Mrs Ramsay assuring her son James that they should be able to visit the lighthouse on the ... (Wikipedia)

  11. The Bluest Eye

    by Toni Morrison
    Coming of age story of a young Black girl dealing with prejudice and racism in 1940s Ohio.

    In Lorain, Ohio , nine-year-old Claudia MacTeer and her 10-year-old sister Frieda live with their parents, a tenant named Mr. Henry, and Pecola Breedlove, a temporary foster child whose house was ... (Wikipedia)

  12. Give Me Your Hand

    by Megan Abbott
    Two former friends, now rival scientists, confront their dark past and secrets as they compete for a coveted research position.

    A life-changing secret destroys an unlikely friendship in this "magnetic" psychological thriller from the Edgar Award-winning author of, Dare Me, (,Meg Wolitzer,). You told each other everything. ... (Barnes & Noble)

  13. Find Me

    by André Aciman
    A sequel to "Call Me By Your Name," exploring the lives of Elio, Oliver, and Elio's father. A journey of self-discovery, love, and loss.

    In this spellbinding exploration of the varieties of love, the author of the worldwide bestseller, Call Me by Your Name, revisits its complex and beguiling characters decades after their first ... (Goodreads)

  14. The Astonishing Color of After

    by Emily X.R. Pan
    After her mother's suicide, Leigh travels to Taiwan to meet her grandparents and uncovers family secrets through her mother's vividly colored bird visits.

    A stunning, heartbreaking debut novel about grief, love, and family, perfect for fans of Jandy Nelson and Celeste Ng. Leigh Chen Sanders is absolutely certain about one thing: When her mother died by ... (Barnes & Noble)

  15. Journey Under the Midnight Sun

    by Keigo Higashino
    A decades-long murder mystery unravels in Tokyo, revealing the interconnected lives of two families.

    When a man is found murdered in an abandoned building in Osaka in 1973, unflappable detective Sasagaki is assigned to the case. He begins to piece together the connection of two young people who are ... (Goodreads)

  16. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

    by Dave Eggers
    An autobiographical account of a young man dealing with grief and responsibility.

    'When you read his extraordinary memoir you don't laugh, then cry, then laugh again; you somehow experience these emotions all at once.' "Well, this was when Bill was sighing a lot. He had decided ... (Goodreads)

  17. Everyone's a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too

    by Jomny Sun
    An alien visits Earth and learns about humanity, love, and friendship. A heartwarming graphic novel about finding your place in the world.

    Everyone’s a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too is the illustrated story of a lonely alien sent to observe Earth, only to meet all sorts of creatures with all sorts of perspectives on life, love, and ... (Barnes & Noble)

  18. Queer

    by William S. Burroughs
    A semi-autobiographical novel exploring the underground gay culture of 1950s America, with a focus on drug use and criminality.

    Originally written in 1952 but not published till 1985, Queer is an enigma - both an unflinching autobiographical self-portrait and a coruscatingly political novel, Burroughs' only realist love story ... (Goodreads)

  19. The Keep

    by Jennifer Egan
    Two cousins renovate a castle in Eastern Europe, uncovering dark secrets and confronting their own troubled pasts.

    Danny is an aging hipster in New York City who has fallen on hard times. He does not have a real career, and he has a habit of burning bridges with old friends. His cousin Howard presents him with an ... (Wikipedia)

  20. Summer House with Swimming Pool

    by Herman Koch
    A doctor's summer vacation with his family turns into a nightmare when a patient dies after visiting their rented house.

    The blistering, compulsively readable new novel from Herman Koch, author of the instant New York Times bestseller, The Dinner., When a medical procedure goes horribly wrong and famous actor Ralph ... (Goodreads)

  21. The Hike

    by Drew Magary
    A man embarks on a surreal journey through a mysterious forest, encountering strange creatures.

    “,The Hike, just works. It’s like early, good Chuck Palahniuk. . . . Magary underhands a twist in at the end that hits you like a sharp jab at the bell. . . . It’s just that good.” —NPR.org,“A ... (Barnes & Noble)

  22. Pinball, 1973

    by Haruki Murakami
    A young man's obsession with pinball leads him on a surreal journey through his memories and dreams.

    The plot centers on the narrator's brief but intense obsession with pinball, his life as a freelance translator, and his later efforts to reunite with the old pinball machine that he used to play. He ... (Wikipedia)

  23. We Are Not Ourselves

    by Matthew Thomas
    A journey of life-changing events, testing the resilience of an American family.

    Epic in scope, heroic in character, and masterful in prose, We Are Not Ourselves is a multigenerational portrait of the Irish American Leary family. Born in 1941, Eileen Tumulty is raised by her ... (Goodreads)

  24. The Woman Upstairs

    by Claire Messud
    The story of a woman's inner turmoil as she struggles with feelings of dissatisfaction and longing.

    Nora Elridge is an elementary school teacher living in Cambridge, Massachusetts who was raised by her frustrated stay at home mother to have artistic ambitions, ambitions which she was never able to ... (Wikipedia)

  25. You Will Know Me

    by Megan Abbott
    A gripping thriller about a talented gymnast and her family, whose lives are upended by a tragic accident and the secrets that come to light.

    You Will Know Me is the tale of a young gymnast , Devon Knox, and her parents, Katie and Eric Knox. Katie and Eric have imposed excessive burdens on themselves, emotionally and financially, to ... (Wikipedia)

  26. Bee Season

    by Myla Goldberg
    A family's unraveling as a daughter discovers an unexpected gift for language and wordplay.

    Eleven-year-old Eliza Naumann is the only "ordinary" member in a family of gifted people living in Abington Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania . Her father Saul is a cantor at the local ... (Wikipedia)

  27. The Echo Maker

    by Richard Powers
    After a near-fatal accident, a man develops Capgras syndrome and his sister tries to help him recover his sense of self.

    On a winter night on a remote Nebraska road, 27-year-old Mark Schluter flips his truck in a near-fatal accident. His older sister Karin returns reluctantly to their hometown to nurse Mark back from a ... (Goodreads)

  28. The Red Notebook

    by Antoine Laurain
    An ordinary man discovers a lost notebook and embarks on a journey of self-discovery.

    Heroic bookseller Laurent Letellier comes across an abandoned handbag on a Parisian street. There's nothing in the bag to indicate who it belongs to, although there's all sorts of other things in it. ... (Goodreads)

  29. The Haunting of Hill House

    by Shirley Jackson
    A group of people investigating a mysterious and haunted house, uncovering its secrets.

    It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, the lighthearted ... (Goodreads)

  30. The Wedding Date

    by Jasmine Guillory
    A chance meeting leads to a fake wedding date, but sparks fly and they must navigate a long-distance relationship.

    A groomsman and his last-minute guest are about to discover if a fake date can go the distance in this fun and flirty multicultural romance debut by, New York Times, bestselling author Jasmine ... (Barnes & Noble)