Recommendations based on Christine Fallsby Benjamin Black

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

  1. Beautiful Ruins

    by Jess Walter
    A romantic story of fate, secrets, and destiny, spanning from Italy in the 1960s to present day.

    "The best novel of the year." — Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air A #1 New York Times bestseller, this “absolute masterpiece” (Richard Russo) is the story of an almost-love affair that begins on the ... (Goodreads)

  2. The Snowman

    by Jo Nesbø
    Detective Harry Hole investigates a series of grisly murders, with the help of a mysterious snowman.

    In 1980, a married woman has illicit sex with a lover while her adolescent son waits in a car outside; their lovemaking is disturbed when they think somebody is looking at them from outside the ... (Wikipedia)

  3. Exit Music

    by Ian Rankin
    An Edinburgh Detective's investigation of a murder, uncovering a complex web of conspiracy.

    Just a week before Rebus ’s retirement , Rebus and Clarke are investigating the death of a famous Russian exile poet who was mugged and beaten to death on King's Stables Road. Then a sound recordist ... (Wikipedia)

  4. Arthur & George

    by Julian Barnes
    A gripping tale of justice, following the story of a man falsely accused of a heinous crime.

    As boys, George, the son of a Midlands vicar, and Arthur, living in shabby genteel Edinburgh, find themselves in a vast and complex world at the heart of the British Empire. Years later—one ... (Goodreads)

  5. Capital

    by John Lanchester
    An exploration of the lives of a group of characters in London, revealing the dark side of modern capitalism.

    Celebrated novelist John Lanchester (author of The Debt to Pleasure ) returns with an epic novel that captures the obsessions of our time. It’s 2008 and things are falling apart: Bear Stearns and ... (Goodreads)

  6. All My Puny Sorrows

    by Miriam Toews
    A heart-wrenching story of two sisters as one battles depression and the other struggles to keep her alive.

    The novel recounts the tumultuous relationship of the Von Riesen sisters, Elfrieda and Yolandi, the only children of an intellectual, free-spirited family from a conservative Mennonite community. ... (Wikipedia)

  7. 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)

  8. TransAtlantic

    by Colum McCann
    Interwoven stories of transatlantic journeys that span generations of history.

    It tells the intertwined stories of Alcock and Brown (the first non-stop transatlantic fliers in 1919), the visit of Frederick Douglass to Ireland in 1845/46, and the story of the Irish peace process ... (Wikipedia)

  9. The Sea

    by John Banville
    A man reflects on his past and reconciles his memories of youth with the present.

    The story is told by Max Morden, a self-aware, retired art historian attempting to reconcile himself to the deaths of those he loved as a child and as an adult. The novel is written as a reflective ... (Wikipedia)

  10. The Magician's Assistant

    by Ann Patchett
    After the death of her magician husband, Sabine learns about his past and discovers secrets that challenge her understanding of their relationship.

    Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781857028157 Sabine– twenty years a magician's assistant to her handsome, charming husband-- is suddenly a widow. In the wake of his death, she finds he has left a ... (Goodreads)

  11. A Spool of Blue Thread

    by Anne Tyler
    A family's history is revealed through the stories of four generations of its members.

    A freshly observed, joyful and wrenching, funny and true new novel from Anne Tyler "It was a beautiful, breezy, yellow-and-green afternoon." This is how Abby Whitshank always begins the story of how ... (Goodreads)

  12. The Yellow Birds

    by Kevin Powers
    A soldier's haunting experience in the Iraq War and the aftermath of his return home.

    The Yellow Birds begins: "The war tried to kill us in the spring" and follows Pvt. John Bartle, the novel's protagonist and narrator, in Al Tafar, Iraq; Fort Dix , New Jersey ; Kaiserslautern , ... (Wikipedia)

  13. Tinkers

    by Paul Harding
    A dying man reflects on his life and family, grappling with his mortality.

    The Los Angeles Times, praised "a writer [who] describes something so well—snow, oranges, dirt—that you can smell it or feel it or sense it in the room." ,, The New Yorker, enjoyed Harding's ... (Wikipedia)

  14. For Whom the Bell Tolls

    by Ernest Hemingway
    A soldier's story of courage and survival in the Spanish Civil War.

    The novel graphically describes the brutality of the Spanish Civil War. It is told primarily through the thoughts and experiences of the protagonist, Robert Jordan. It draws on Hemingway's own ... (Wikipedia)

  15. The Secret Agent

    by Joseph Conrad
    An espionage tale of political intrigue and moral ambiguity set in 19th century London.

    Set in London in 1886, the novel follows the life of Adolf Verloc, a secret agent . Verloc is also a businessman who owns a shop which sells pornographic material, contraceptives and bric-a-brac . He ... (Wikipedia)

  16. Silence of the Grave

    by Arnaldur Indriðason
    A detective investigates a decades-old murder to uncover the truth and bring justice.

    Inspector Erlendur returns in this gripping Icelandic thriller When a skeleton is discovered half-buried in a construction site outside of Reykjavík, Inspector Erlendur finds himself knee-deep in ... (Goodreads)

  17. The Door

    by Magda Szabó
    A mysterious doorkeeper guards the door between two worlds, changing the lives of two women.

    The novel begins with Magda, the narrator, recounting the recurring dream that haunts her in her old age. As Magda explains, after waking up from this dream, she is forced to face the fact that "I ... (Wikipedia)

  18. The Redbreast

    by Jo Nesbø
    Detective searches for clues to an elusive crime to find a killer terrorizing Oslo.

    The Redbreast is a fabulous introduction to Nesbø’s tough-as-nails series protagonist, Oslo police detective Harry Hole. A brilliant and epic novel, breathtaking in its scope and design—winner of The ... (Goodreads)

  19. How the Light Gets In

    by Louise Penny
    Detective Armand Gamache investigates a murder in a small Canadian town, uncovering secrets and lies.

    Christmas is approaching, and in Québec it's a time of dazzling snowfalls, bright lights, and gatherings with friends in front of blazing hearths. But shadows are falling on the usually festive ... (Goodreads)

  20. Commonwealth

    by Ann Patchett
    Intertwining story of two families across multiple generations, and how their lives become intertwined.

    It started at Franny Keating’s christening party. Bert Cousins wasn’t even invited, but looking for an excuse to get out of the house, away from his three noisy children and pregnant wife for a few ... (Wikipedia)

  21. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

    by Emily Dickinson
    A compilation of Dickinson's poetic works, exploring themes of nature, mortality, and love.

    THE ONLY ONE-VOLUME EDITION CONTAINING ALL 1,775 OF EMILY DICKINSON’S POEMS Only eleven of Emily Dickinson’s poems were published prior to her death in 1886; the startling originality of her work ... (Goodreads)

  22. Burial Rites

    by Hannah Kent
    A woman awaits her execution in 19th-century Iceland, reliving her story of hardship, loss and faith.

    Burial Rites tells the story of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, a servant in northern Iceland who was condemned to death after the murder of two men, one of whom was her employer, and became the last woman put ... (Wikipedia)

  23. The Lost Girls

    by Heather Young
    A family saga that explores the disappearance of three sisters from their secluded lake house in Minnesota in 1935.

    In the summer of 1935, six-year-old Emily Evans vanishes from her family’s vacation home on a remote Minnesota lake. Her disappearance destroys her mother, who spends the rest of her life at the lake ... (Goodreads)

  24. The Storyteller

    by Jodi Picoult
    A storyteller's quest to restore faith in the power of storytelling and to mend the wounds of her past.

    25-year-old Sage Singer lives in the small town of Westerbrook, New Hampshire . , A couple of years before the story began, Sage and her mother were in a car accident while Sage was driving. Sage's ... (Wikipedia)

  25. Brideshead Revisited

    by Evelyn Waugh
    A nostalgic reflection on a wealthy family and the enduring power of love.

    The novel is divided into three parts, framed by a prologue and epilogue. The prologue takes place during the final years of the Second World War . Charles Ryder and his battalion are sent to a ... (Wikipedia)

  26. Girls on Fire

    by Robin Wasserman
    A teenage girl's suicide in a small town sets off a chain of events that reveal dark secrets and test the limits of friendship.

    On Halloween, 1991, a popular high school basketball star ventures into the woods near Battle Creek, Pennsylvania, and disappears. Three days later, he’s found with a bullet in his head and a gun in ... (Barnes & Noble)

  27. Disgrace

    by J.M. Coetzee
    A professor's fall from grace in post-apartheid South Africa, reckoning with the consequences of his actions.

    David Lurie is a South African professor of English who loses everything: his reputation, his job, his peace of mind, his dreams of artistic success, and finally even his ability to protect his own ... (Wikipedia)

  28. Candy Cane Murder

    by Joanne Fluke
    A collection of three cozy mystery novellas set during the Christmas season, all involving candy canes in some way.

    'Tis the season for trimming the tree, caroling, baking cookies, and curling up by the Yuletide waiting for Santa to drop down the chimney. But in this festive collection of holiday whodunits, murder ... (Goodreads)

  29. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

    by James Joyce
    An exploration of a young man's struggle to find his identity and place in the world.

    The portrayal of Stephen Dedalus's Dublin childhood and youth, his quest for identity through art and his gradual emancipation from the claims of family, religion and Ireland itself, is also an ... (Goodreads)

  30. Lucia, Lucia

    by Adriana Trigiani
    A young woman navigates life in 1950s New York City, pursuing her passion for fashion design and finding love along the way.

    It is 1950 in glittering, vibrant New York City. Lucia Sartori is the beautiful twenty-five-year-old daughter of a prosperous Italian grocer in Greenwich Village. The postwar boom is ripe with ... (Goodreads)