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Recommendations based on The Dante Clubby Matthew Pearl
* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans
Red Dragon
by Thomas Harris
A serial killer stalks the night, and a former FBI agent is the only one who can stop him.
In 1975, Will Graham , a brilliant profiler of the FBI , captured the serial killer Hannibal Lecter . However, Graham suffered serious injuries from the encounter and retired afterwards. Four years ... (Wikipedia)
The Rule of Four
by Ian Caldwell
An academic quest to decode a centuries-old mystery, uncovering secrets of the past.
The book is set on the Princeton campus during Easter weekend in 1999. The story involves four Princeton seniors, both friends and roommates, getting ready for graduation: Tom, Paul, Charlie and Gil. ... (Wikipedia)
Beat the Reaper
by Josh Bazell
A former doctor turned hitman on the run from the mob, struggling to protect his identity.
The plot, written in first-person and alternating between present-day scenes and flashbacks , concerns Peter Brown, a medical resident in the Federal Witness Protection Program . In the flashback ... (Wikipedia)
The Name of the Rose
by Umberto Eco
A Franciscan friar investigates a series of murders in a medieval monastery, uncovering a sinister plot.
In 1327, Franciscan friar William of Baskerville and Adso of Melk , a Benedictine novice travelling under his protection, arrive at a Benedictine monastery in Northern Italy to attend a theological ... (Wikipedia)
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
by Gregory Maguire
A retelling of the classic Cinderella story from the perspective of one of the stepsisters, exploring themes of beauty, identity, and societal expectations.
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister tells the story of Iris, the plain younger daughter of Margarethe Fisher, as she takes care of her mentally challenged older sister Ruth and her beautiful stepsister ... (Wikipedia)
The Alienist
by Caleb Carr
A gripping murder-mystery set in 19th century New York, exposing the dark underbelly of the city.
Narrated from the first-person perspective of John Moore, a crime reporter for, The New York Times, , the novel begins on January 8, 1919, the day that Theodore Roosevelt is buried. Moore has dinner ... (Wikipedia)
Neverwhere
by Neil Gaiman
A mysterious journey through a hidden realm of London, filled with danger and unexpected allies.
Neverwhere is the story of Richard Mayhew and his trials and tribulations in London. At the start of the story, he is a young businessman, recently moved from Scotland and with a normal life ahead. ... (Wikipedia)
Bel Canto
by Ann Patchett
A story of redemption and transformation amidst a hostage crisis.
Set in an unspecified South American country, , the story begins at a birthday party thrown at the country's vice presidential home in honor of Katsumi Hosokawa, the visiting chairman of a large ... (Wikipedia)
Mount Dragon
by Douglas Preston
A thrilling story of genetic engineering gone wrong, set in a remote research facility.
Dr. Guy Carson is a young scientist and cowboy-at-heart, raised on a southwestern ranch and bored with city life. That is, until the prestigious genetic engineering corporation GeneDyne offers Carson ... (Wikipedia)
People of the Book
by Geraldine Brooks
A journey through time as an ancient book is discovered and its secrets revealed.
The "complex and moving" ( The New Yorker ) novel by Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks follows a rare manuscript through centuries of exile and war. Inspired by a true story, "People of the ... (Goodreads)
A Prayer for Owen Meany
by John Irving
A boy's search for faith, set against a backdrop of unlikely events.
The story is narrated by John Wheelwright, a former citizen of New Hampshire who has become a voluntary expatriate from the United States, having settled in Toronto , Ontario , Canada and taken on ... (Wikipedia)
The Runaway Jury
by John Grisham
A jury trial where the jury's decision is up for sale as two sides battle for a multi-million dollar verdict.
Wendall Rohr and his team of tort lawyers have filed suit on behalf of plaintiff Celeste Wood, whose husband died of lung cancer , against the tobacco company Pynex. The trial is to be held in Biloxi ... (Wikipedia)
Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad
A journey into the depths of the human psyche, exploring the darkness of colonialism.
Aboard the Nellie , anchored in the River Thames near Gravesend , Charles Marlow tells his fellow sailors how he became captain of a river steamboat for an ivory trading company. As a child, Marlow ... (Wikipedia)
The Angel of Darkness
by Caleb Carr
Detective Laszlo Kreizler investigates a series of horrific child murders in 19th century New York City.
The now-adult Stevie Taggert, a tobacconist , makes a bet with an elderly John Moore that he can write the story of one of their adventures together as well as Moore (a former newspaper reporter) ... (Wikipedia)
Sick Puppy
by Carl Hiaasen
A wild and chaotic adventure involving a hapless protagonist and a crooked politician.
Robert Clapley, a former drug smuggler -turned-real estate developer, plans to build high-rise condominiums and golf courses on Toad Island, the home to a large population of oak toads . The project ... (Wikipedia)
When Christ and His Saints Slept
by Sharon Kay Penman
Epic tale of medieval England, exploring the power struggles of the Plantagenet dynasty.
A.D. 1135. As church bells tolled for the death of England's King Henry I, his barons faced the unwelcome prospect of being ruled by a woman: Henry's beautiful daughter Maude, Countess of Anjou. But ... (Goodreads)
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
by John le Carré
A British agent's mission to infiltrate East Germany during the Cold War, full of suspense and intrigue.
In this classic, John le Carre's third novel and the first to earn him international acclaim, he created a world unlike any previously experienced in suspense fiction. With unsurpassed knowledge ... (Goodreads)
Inferno
by Dante Alighieri
An epic journey through the nine circles of Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil.
Of the great poets, Dante is one of the most elusive and therefore one of the most difficult to adequately render into English verse. In the Inferno, Dante not only judges sin but strives to ... (Goodreads)
Many Waters
by Madeleine L'Engle
Twins travel back in time to biblical era, encountering angels, nephilim, and a flood. They must find their way back home before it's too late.
In the middle of a New England winter, identical twin brothers Sandy and Dennys accidentally disturb an experiment in their parents' laboratory and are teleported to a sandy desert. There, they are ... (Wikipedia)
Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales
by H.P. Lovecraft
Collection of bizarre horror stories exploring the cosmic unknown.
Originally written for the pulp magazines of the 1920s and 1930s, H. P. Lovecraft's astonishing tales blend elements of horror, science fiction, and cosmology that are as powerful today as they were ... (Goodreads)
The Complete Fiction
by H.P. Lovecraft
A collection of horror fiction stories exploring the unknown.
Another excellent edition in the Knickerbocker Classic series, The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft collects the author's novel, four novellas, and fifty-three short stories. Written between the ... (Goodreads)
The Drawing of the Three
by Stephen King
A man's battle for survival and acceptance in a dangerous and strange world.
The book begins less than seven hours after the end of, The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, after The Man in Black has described The Gunslinger's fate using tarot cards . , Roland wakes up on a beach, ... (Wikipedia)
Leviathan
by Paul Auster
A mysterious stranger's dark and somewhat surreal journey of self-exploration.
The story is told by Peter Aaron about the victim, Benjamin Sachs, his best friend whom he first meets as a fellow writer in a Greenwich Village bar in 1975. Peter decides to try to piece together ... (Wikipedia)
The Birth of Venus
by Sarah Dunant
A passionate story of love and art set in 15th century Florence.
Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back from northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family’s Florentine palazzo. ... (Goodreads)
Girl in Hyacinth Blue
by Susan Vreeland
A painting's journey across time, connecting with its owners and revealing its secrets.
A professor invites a colleague from the art department to his home to view a painting he has kept secret for decades in Susan Vreeland's powerful historical novel, Girl in Hyacinth Blue . The ... (Goodreads)
Breakfast of Champions
by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
A humorous exploration of life's absurdities, through a madcap journey of a protagonist.
Kilgore Trout is a widely published, but ignored and virtually invisible writer who is invited to deliver a keynote address at a local arts festival in distant Midland City. Dwayne Hoover is a ... (Wikipedia)
King Lear
by William Shakespeare
An aging king's descent into madness reveals the consequences of pride and vanity.
Shakespeare’s King Lear challenges us with the magnitude, intensity, and sheer duration of the pain that it represents. Its figures harden their hearts, engage in violence, or try to alleviate the ... (Goodreads)
Lost in a Good Book
by Jasper Fforde
A journey through the magical world of fiction as a character attempts to find a way out of the book.
Three months after the events of The Eyre Affair , Thursday Next is happily married to Landen Parke-Laine and working as a literary detective out of Swindon . One day, Thursday meets her father, a ... (Wikipedia)
The Broker
by John Grisham
A lawyer on the run from the FBI and CIA must use his expertise to help them uncover a powerful conspiracy.
Joel Backman is "the Broker," a considered to be one of the most powerful lobbyists in Washington, D.C. . However, Backman's life falls apart when a deal collapses involving a hacked spy satellite ... (Wikipedia)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1
by Alan Moore
A band of Victorian-era misfits join forces to protect the British Empire.
In 1898, one year after her encounter with Dracula , Mina Murray has divorced her husband and now works for the British government. She meets with MI5 agent Campion Bond (the grandfather of James ... (Wikipedia)
