Literary theme analysis, by a book like {foo}
Books about Disillusionment
The Stranger
by Albert Camus
A man's journey of existentialism, questioning the meaning of life and death.
Meursault learns of the death of his mother, who has been living in a retirement home. At her funeral, he expresses none of the expected emotions of grief. When asked if he wishes to view the body, ... (Wikipedia)
Joyland
by Stephen King
A young man's investigation into a mysterious amusement park, uncovering secrets and discovering his own identity in the process.
The novel is set at a North Carolina amusement park in 1973 and involves a carny who must confront the "legacy of a vicious murder and the fate of a dying child". Devin Jones, age twenty-one, who ... (Wikipedia)
White Noise
by Don DeLillo
A darkly comic exploration of modern life, examining the effects of technology and consumer culture.
Set at a bucolic mid-western college known only as The-College-on-the-Hill, White Noise follows a year in the life of Jack Gladney, a professor who has made his name by pioneering the field of Hitler ... (Wikipedia)
A People's History of the United States
by Howard Zinn
An examination of American history from a perspective of marginalized people.
In the book, Zinn presented a different side of history from the more traditional "fundamental nationalist glorification of country". Zinn portrays a side of American history that can largely be seen ... (Goodreads)
A Mercy
by Toni Morrison
An exploration of the human condition and the consequences of slavery in America.
In the 1680s the slave trade in the Americas is still in its infancy. Jacob Vaark is an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer, with a small holding in the harsh North. Despite his distaste for dealing in ... (Goodreads)
Orientalism
by Edward W. Said
Exploration of the Middle East through the West's prejudiced lens.
More than three decades after its first publication, Edward Said's groundbreaking critique of the West's historical, cultural, and political perceptions of the East has become a modern classic. In ... (Goodreads)
The Line of Beauty
by Alan Hollinghurst
The story of a young gay man in Thatcher's England, navigating his identity and sexuality.
The novel is set in Britain in three parts, taking place in 1983, 1986 and 1987. The story surrounds the young gay protagonist, Nick Guest. Nick is middle-class and from the fictional market town of ... (Wikipedia)
The Naked and the Dead
by Norman Mailer
Based on WWII, a journey of a platoon of soldiers in the Pacific theater as they confront death and the harsh realities of war.
The novel is divided into four parts: Wave; Argil and Mold; Plant and Phantom; and Wake. Within these parts are chorus sections, consisting of play-like dialogue between characters, as well as Time ... (Wikipedia)
The Sun Also Rises
by Ernest Hemingway
A group of expatriates in 1920s Europe, struggling to come to terms with the aftermath of WWI.
On the surface, the novel is a love story between the protagonist Jake Barnes—a man whose war wound has made him unable to have sex—and the promiscuous divorcée usually identified as Lady Brett ... (Wikipedia)
Dead Souls
by Nikolai Gogol
A satirical tale of a man's quest for wealth, exposing the corruption of 19th century Russian society.
The story follows the exploits of Chichikov, a middle-aged gentleman of middling social class and means. Chichikov arrives in a small town and turns on the charm to woo key local officials and ... (Wikipedia)
Brave New World
by Aldous Huxley
A dystopian society where citizens are genetically engineered and prescribed pleasure-inducing drugs.
The novel opens in the World State city of London in AF (After Ford) 632 (AD 2540 in the Gregorian calendar ), where citizens are engineered through artificial wombs and childhood indoctrination ... (Wikipedia)
The Seagull
by Anton Chekhov
A tale of unrequited love and personal frustrations set in a rural Russian town.
The play takes place on a country estate owned by Pyotr Sorin, a retired senior civil servant in failing health. He is the brother of the actress Irina Arkadin, who has just arrived at the estate for ... (Wikipedia)
Blood Magick
by Nora Roberts
A young woman's journey of self-discovery, unlocking her magical powers with the help of those she loves.
From #1, New York Times, bestselling author Nora Roberts comes a trilogy about the land we’re drawn to, the family we learn to cherish, and the people we long to love…, Book Three of The Cousins ... (Goodreads)
Transmetropolitan, Vol. 1: Back on the Street
by Warren Ellis
A journalist navigates a dystopian world, exposing corruption and social injustices.
After years of self-imposed exile from a civilization rife with degradation and indecency, cynical journalist Spider Jerusalem is forced to return to a job that he hates and a city that he loathes. ... (Goodreads)
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)
The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories
by Ernest Hemingway
Collection of short stories exploring the human condition and the consequences of life choices.
The ideal introduction to the genius of Ernest Hemingway,, The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories, contains ten of Hemingway's most acclaimed and popular works of short fiction. Selected from, ... (Goodreads)
Dubliners
by James Joyce
Collection of stories about everyday life in Dublin, exploring the Irish psyche.
This work of art reflects life in Ireland at the turn of the last century, and by rejecting euphemism, reveals to the Irish their unromantic realities. Each of the 15 stories offers glimpses into the ... (Goodreads)
Eugene Onegin
by Alexander Pushkin
A poetic novel of unrequited love and tragic consequences, set in early 19th century Russia.
In the 1820s, Eugene Onegin is a bored St. Petersburg dandy , whose life consists of balls, concerts, parties, and nothing more. Upon the death of a wealthy uncle, he inherits a substantial fortune ... (Wikipedia)
White Oleander
by Janet Fitch
A young girl's struggles to survive in a series of foster homes, finding strength in her resilience.
Astrid Magnussen is a 12-year-old girl living in Los Angeles , California with her mother, Ingrid Magnussen, a self-centered and eccentric poet. Astrid's father, Klaus Anders, left before Astrid was ... (Wikipedia)
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
by David Foster Wallace
Collection of stories exploring male relationships and the complexities of human behavior.
In his startling and singular new short story collection, David Foster Wallace nudges at the boundaries of fiction with inimitable wit and seductive intelligence. Venturing inside minds and ... (Goodreads)
Cannery Row
by John Steinbeck
An exploration of the lives of the inhabitants of a small town in California.
Cannery Row has a simple premise: Mack and his friends are trying to do something nice for their friend Doc, who has been good to them without asking for reward. Mack hits on the idea that they ... (Wikipedia)
The Beautiful and Damned
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A young couple's struggle to maintain their marriage while searching for financial stability.
The Beautiful and Damned tells the story of Anthony Patch in 1910s New York, a socialite and presumptive heir to a tycoon's fortune; his complicated marriage to Gloria Gilbert; the couple's troubling ... (Wikipedia)
The Clown
by Heinrich Böll
A young man's reflective journey through post-war Germany, exploring the consequences of war.
Hans Schnier is the "Clown" of the novel's title. He is twenty-seven years old from a very wealthy family. At the beginning of the story he arrives in Bonn, Germany. As a clown, he had to travel ... (Wikipedia)
American Pastoral
by Philip Roth
A man's experience of the American Dream gone wrong, as his daughter's political radicalism unravels his family life.
Seymour Irving Levov is born and raised in the Weequahic section of Newark, New Jersey , in 1927 as the elder son of a successful Jewish American glove manufacturer, Lou Levov, and his wife Sylvia. ... (Wikipedia)
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
by Michael Pollan
Exploration of the modern food chain, examining the impact of food choices on our health and the environment.
What should we have for dinner? The question has confronted us since man discovered fire, but according to Michael Pollan, the bestselling author of The Botany of Desire , how we answer it today, at ... (Goodreads)
Cat's Cradle
by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
A satirical exploration of human folly, exposing the dangers of unchecked science and technology.
Told with deadpan humour and bitter irony, Kurt Vonnegut's cult tale of global destruction preys on our deepest fears of witnessing Armageddon and, worse still, surviving it ... Dr Felix Hoenikker, ... (Goodreads)
The Return of the Native
by Thomas Hardy
A story of a man's ill-fated love, set against the wild landscape of rural England.
The novel takes place entirely in the environs of Egdon Heath , and, with the exception of the epilogue, Aftercourses , covers exactly a year and a day. The narrative begins on the evening of Guy ... (Wikipedia)
A Passage to India
by E.M. Forster
Exploring imperial tensions between colonial India and Britain in the early 20th century.
A young British schoolmistress, Adela Quested, and her elderly friend, Mrs. Moore, visit the fictional city of Chandrapore, British India . Adela is to decide if she wants to marry Mrs. Moore's son, ... (Wikipedia)
The House of Mirth
by Edith Wharton
A young woman's struggle to navigate New York high society, in pursuit of financial security and true love.
Lily Bart, a beautiful but impoverished socialite, is on her way to a house party at Bellomont, the country home of her best friend, Judy Trenor. Her pressing task is to find a husband with the ... (Wikipedia)
The Shadow of the Torturer
by Gene Wolfe
A journey of self-discovery and exploration, as a young man seeks to unlock the secrets of his past.
Severian , an apprentice in the Torturers' Guild, barely survives a swim in the River Gyoll. On his way back to the Citadel, Severian and several other apprentices sneak into a necropolis where ... (Wikipedia)
The Selection
by Kiera Cass
A young girl competes in a televised competition to become a prince's bride.
In a futuristic world where society is divided into castes, with Ones as the most prosperous, consisting of royals and elites, and Eights who are mostly orphans, drug users, handicapped, and ... (Wikipedia)
The Abolition of Man
by C.S. Lewis
Argument against the corrosive effects of modern society on morality and values.
Alternative cover for ISBN: 978-0060652944 The Abolition of Man, Lewis uses his graceful prose, delightful humor, and keen understanding of the human mind to challenge our notions about how to best ... (Goodreads)
The Waste Land
by T.S. Eliot
A modernist poem exploring the social and psychological fragmentation of modern society.
The Waste Land, first published in 1922, is often regarded as T.S. Eliot's masterpiece, as well as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. The ... (Goodreads)
Waiting for Godot
by Samuel Beckett
Two men wait for a mysterious figure who never arrives, reflecting on their lives and existence.
Two men, Vladimir and Estragon, have met near a leafless tree. Estragon spent the previous night lying in a ditch and receiving a beating from some unnamed assailants. The two men discuss a variety ... (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)
Pereira Declares: A Testimony
by Antonio Tabucchi
A journalist's moral awakening amidst a totalitarian regime.
The novel is set in Portugal in the summer of 1938, during Salazar 's dictatorship. Pereira, an old journalist on a Portuguese newspaper - the Lisboa - who loves literature and practically gives his ... (Wikipedia)
Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
by Douglas Coupland
A satirical look at the lives of disaffected young adults in the early 1990s.
Andy, Dag and Claire have been handed a society priced beyond their means. Twentysomethings, brought up with divorce, Watergate and Three Mile Island, and scarred by the 80s fall-out of yuppies, ... (Goodreads)
Small Great Things
by Jodi Picoult
A gripping story of racism and justice, exploring the intersections of power and privilege.
#1, NEW YORK TIMES, BESTSELLER • With richly layered characters and a gripping moral dilemma that will lead readers to question everything they know about privilege, power, and race,, Small Great ... (Barnes & Noble)
Beyond Good and Evil
by Friedrich Nietzsche
A philosophical exploration of morality and truth, challenging conventional morality and religious beliefs.
Friedrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil is translated from the German by R.J. Hollingdale with an introduction by Michael Tanner in Penguin Classics. Beyond Good and Evil confirmed Nietzsche's ... (Goodreads)
Slaughterhouse-Five
by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
A surrealistic, satirical commentary on the horror of war and the loss of innocence.
The story is told in a non-linear order by an unreliable narrator (he begins the novel by telling the reader, "All of this happened, more or less"). Events become clear through flashbacks and ... (Wikipedia)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
by Mohsin Hamid
A Pakistani man's journey of identity and belonging, in a post-9/11 world.
At a café table in Lahore, a bearded Pakistani man converses with an uneasy American stranger. As dusk deepens to night, he begins the tale that has brought them to this fateful encounter… Changez is ... (Goodreads)
The First Four Years
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
An account of the hardships endured and lessons learned in the first four years of marriage.
The novel gets its title from a promise Laura made to Almanzo when they became engaged. She did not want to be a farmer, but decided to try farming for three years. Laura keeps house and Almanzo ... (Wikipedia)
Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction
by Joseph Conrad
A searing exploration of colonialism, told through the lens of a journey up the Congo River.
Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction , by Joseph Conrad, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general ... (Barnes & Noble)
Be Careful What You Wish For
by Jeffrey Archer
A man's ambitious quest for power leads to consequences he never anticipated.
Be Careful What You Wish For follows the Barrington-Clifton family during the years 1957 to 1964, when Emma Barrington Clifton seeks to take control of her family shipping business and must deal with ... (Wikipedia)
The Nanny Diaries
by Emma McLaughlin
A young woman's struggle to balance her professional and personal obligations as a nanny.
Wanted: One young woman to take care of four-year-old boy. Must be cheerful, enthusiastic and selfless–bordering on masochistic. Must relish sixteen-hour shifts with a deliberately nap-deprived ... (Goodreads)
Demons
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
A fictional exploration of the human condition, examining the darker sides of our nature.
The novel is in three parts. There are two epigraphs, the first from Pushkin's poem "Demons" and the second from Luke 8:32–36. After an almost illustrious but prematurely curtailed academic career ... (Wikipedia)
Go Set a Watchman
by Harper Lee
Confronting the past and present, a woman struggles to reconcile her beliefs with those of her hometown.
Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, a single 26-year-old, returns from New York to her hometown, Maycomb, Alabama, for her annual fortnight-long visit to her father Atticus, a lawyer and former state ... (Wikipedia)
Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro
A dystopian story about a group of people who were cloned for organ harvesting.
The story begins with Kathy H., who describes herself as a carer, talking about looking after organ donors. She has been a carer for almost twelve years at the time of narration, and she often ... (Wikipedia)
SantaLand Diaries
by David Sedaris
An absurdist account of the author's working at a Christmas theme park.
'Santaland Diaries' contains six of David Sedaris' most profound Christmas stories, from Dinah, the Christmas Whore to Season's Greetings to our Friends and Family. ... (Goodreads)
A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories
by Flannery O'Connor
A collection of short stories exploring the human condition, from the comic to the grotesque.
This now classic book revealed Flannery O'Connor as one of the most original and provocative writers to emerge from the South. Her apocalyptic vision of life is expressed through grotesque, often ... (Goodreads)
An Officer and a Spy
by Robert Harris
A story of espionage and betrayal set against the backdrop of the Dreyfus Affair.
Upon being promoted to run the Statistical Section , the top secret headquarters of French military intelligence, Georges Picquart begins to discover that the evidence used to convict Alfred Dreyfus ... (Wikipedia)
The Caine Mutiny
by Herman Wouk
A naval officer is court-martialed after leading a mutiny against his captain.
The story is told through the eyes of Willis Seward "Willie" Keith, an affluent but callow young graduate of Princeton University . Following a mediocre living as a nightclub piano player, he signs ... (Wikipedia)
Liar's Poker
by Michael Lewis
A Wall Street insider's look at the culture of high finance and the dynamics of the markets.
The time was the 1980s. The place was Wall Street. The game was called Liar’s Poker. Michael Lewis was fresh out of Princeton and the London School of Economics when he landed a job at Salomon ... (Goodreads)
The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ
by Anonymous
A collection of ancient records and testimonies of Jesus Christ's mission and teachings.
The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement , which, according to Latter Day Saint theology, contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from ... (Wikipedia)
American War
by Omar El Akkad
A vivid account of a second American Civil War and its devastating consequences.
In 2074, after the passage of a bill that bans the use of fossil fuels anywhere in the United States, Mississippi , Alabama , Georgia , South Carolina and Texas secede from the Union, starting the ... (Wikipedia)
The Charterhouse of Parma
by Stendhal
A young Italian nobleman's adventures in a world of political intrigues and affairs of the heart.
The Charterhouse of Parma chronicles the adventures of the young Italian nobleman Fabrice del Dongo from his birth in 1798 to his death. Fabrice spends his early years in his family's castle on Lake ... (Wikipedia)
2666
by Roberto Bolaño
An epic saga of interconnected stories exploring the darkness of the human soul.
The novel is substantially concerned with violence and death. According to Levi Stahl, it "is another iteration of Bolaño's increasingly baroque, cryptic, and mystical personal vision of the world, ... (Wikipedia)
The Marriage Plot
by Jeffrey Eugenides
A young woman's exploration of love, life, and her place in the world.
It's the early 1980s - the country is in a deep recession, and life after college is harder than ever. In the cafés on College Hill, the wised-up kids are inhaling Derrida and listening to the ... (Goodreads)
Splendid
by Julia Quinn
A romantic tale of two star-crossed lovers, navigating family drama and secrets.
There are two things everyone knows about Alexander Ridgely. One, he's the Duke of Ashbourne. And two, he has no plans to marry anytime soon... That is until a redheaded American throws herself in ... (Goodreads)
The Map and the Territory
by Michel Houellebecq
A darkly humorous exploration of life, art, and success in the modern world.
Si Jed Martin, le personnage principal de ce roman, devait vous en raconter l’histoire, il commencerait peut-être par vous parler d’une panne de chauffe-eau, un certain 15 décembre. Ou de son père, ... (Goodreads)
Capital in the Twenty-First Century
by Thomas Piketty
An economic analysis of wealth and inequality in the modern era.
What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic ... (Goodreads)
Down and Out in Paris and London
by George Orwell
An exploration of the dark side of two cities, and how life can be different for the privileged and the destitute.
This unusual fictional memoir - in good part autobiographical - narrates without self-pity and often with humor the adventures of a penniless British writer among the down-and-outs of two great ... (Goodreads)
The Fall
by Albert Camus
A man's journey into alienation and despair, driven by a sense of absurdity in life.
The Fall, ( French :, La Chute, ) is a philosophical novel by Albert Camus . First published in 1956, it is his last complete work of fiction. Set in Amsterdam , The Fall consists of a series of ... (Wikipedia)
Hard Times
by Charles Dickens
A grim tale of a Victorian industrial city, highlighting its struggles of poverty, injustice and strife.
"My satire is against those who see figures and averages, and nothing else," proclaimed Charles Dickens in explaining the theme of this classic novel. Published in 1854, the story concerns one Thomas ... (Goodreads)
Johnny Got His Gun
by Dalton Trumbo
A young soldier's harrowing journey through physical and psychological trauma of WWI.
Joe Bonham, a young American soldier serving in World War I , awakens in a hospital bed after being caught in the blast of an exploding artillery shell . He gradually realizes that he has lost his ... (Wikipedia)
Choke
by Chuck Palahniuk
A darkly humorous story of a man's journey to self-awareness through disruption and chaos.
Choke follows Victor Mancini and his friend Denny through a few months of their lives with frequent flashbacks to the days when Victor was a child. , Victor had grown up moving from one foster home ... (Wikipedia)
Behold the Dreamers
by Imbolo Mbue
A Cameroonian family’s struggle to build a better life in America.
The novel opens in fall 2007 with the interview of an immigrant from Cameroon, Jende Jonga, who is hoping to be hired as a chauffeur for Clark Edwards, a Lehman Brothers executive. Jonga's job allows ... (Wikipedia)
The Physicists
by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
A dark comedy about three physicists struggling with their moral responsibilities in a world of danger and uncertainty.
Möbius, ein umworbener weil genialer Physiker, will eine gefährliche Verstrickung von Wissenschaft und Politik verhindern und täuscht darum vor, geisteskrank zu sein, damit er in einer Klinik ... (Goodreads)
Submission
by Michel Houellebecq
A French professor's struggle to come to terms with the growing power of an extreme right-wing political party.
In 2022, François, a middle-aged literature professor at Paris III and specialist in Huysmans , feels he is at the end of his sentimental and sexual lives – composed largely of year-long liaisons ... (Wikipedia)
The Blind Owl
by Sadegh Hedayat
A surreal exploration of the human condition, touching on themes of despondency, futility, and nihilism.
Considered the most important work of modern Iranian literature, The Blind Owl is a haunting tale of loss and spiritual degradation. Replete with potent symbolism and terrifying surrealistic imagery, ... (Goodreads)
Flight of the Intruder
by Stephen Coonts
American Navy pilots take on a daring mission to strike deep into North Vietnam.
Flight of the Intruder begins with a night attack mission flown by Jake Grafton and his navigator Morgan "Morg" McPherson from the USN aircraft carrier, USS Shiloh , striking a target in North ... (Wikipedia)
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
by Edward S. Herman
Critique of mass media and its role in shaping public opinion.
In this pathbreaking work, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky show that, contrary to the usual image of the news media as cantankerous, obstinate, and ubiquitous in their search for truth and defense ... (Goodreads)
Virtual Light
by William Gibson
Cyberpunk thriller, exploring the effects of technology on future societies.
The plot centers around Chevette Washington, a young bicycle messenger who lives in the ad hoc , off-the-grid community that has grown on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in the aftermath of a ... (Wikipedia)
Journey to the End of the Night
by Louis-Ferdinand Céline
A darkly comic, nihilistic journey of self-discovery, following a man into the heart of an absurd world.
Céline’s masterpiece—colloquial, polemic, hyper-realistic, boiling over with black humor Céline’s masterpiece—colloquial, polemic, hyper realistic—boils over with bitter humor and revulsion at ... (Barnes & Noble)
Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
by Raymond Carver
An exploration of mundane moments and everyday lives of ordinary people.
With this, his first collection, Carver breathed new life into the short story. In the pared-down style that has since become his hallmark, Carver showed us how humour and tragedy dwelt in the hearts ... (Goodreads)
The Summer Tree
by Guy Gavriel Kay
A group of friends on a quest to save their world from an evil force.
The books opens in our own world, at the University of Toronto , where the five main characters are all fellow students. They attend a lecture by a Professor Lorenzo Marcus, who afterwards reveals to ... (Wikipedia)
Leaving Paradise
by Simone Elkeles
A young girl's struggle to find her identity in a world of conflicting expectations.
Nothing has been the same since Caleb Becker left a party drunk, got behind the wheel, and hit Maggie Armstrong. Even after months of painful physical therapy, Maggie walks with a limp. Her social ... (Goodreads)
Child of God
by Cormac McCarthy
A violent and disturbing story of a man's descent into depravity.
Set in mountainous Sevier County, Tennessee , in the 1960s, Child of God tells the story of Lester Ballard, a dispossessed, violent man whom the narrator describes as "a child of God much like ... (Wikipedia)
The Girls in the Garden
by Lisa Jewell
Unraveling a dark mystery behind a seemingly-perfect family in a quiet suburban setting.
One of, People,’s,, Glamour,’s, and, BuzzFeed,’s Best Reads of Summer, from the, New York Times, bestselling author of, Then She Was Gone, “Jewell expertly builds suspense by piling up domestic ... (Barnes & Noble)
Identity
by Milan Kundera
A novel about discovering one's true identity by examining the complexities and contradictions of life.
There are situations in which we fail for a moment to recognize the person we are with, in which the identity of the other is erased while we simultaneously doubt our own. This also happens with ... (Goodreads)
The Elementary Particles
by Michel Houellebecq
Story of two half-brothers, exploring the depths of humanity and the emptiness of modern life.
Despite the essentially elaborate scope of the plot revealed in the novel's conclusion, the narrative focuses almost exclusively on the bleak and unrewarding day-to-day lives of the protagonists, two ... (Wikipedia)
Platform
by Michel Houellebecq
Satirical exploration of the modern world and its discontents.
The story is the first-person narrative of a fictional character named Michel Renault, a Parisian civil servant who, after the death of his father and thanks to a hefty inheritance, engages in sexual ... (Wikipedia)
Sweet Tooth
by Ian McEwan
Story of a young woman's journey of self-discovery and the moral dilemmas she faces.
The plot is set in early-1970s England. Serena Frome ("rhymes with plume"), the daughter of an Anglican bishop, shows a talent for mathematics and is admitted to the University of Cambridge . But she ... (Wikipedia)
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
by Tim Weiner
A critical look at the history of the CIA, exploring its successes and failures.
For the last sixty years, the CIA has managed to maintain a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, burying its blunders in top-secret archives. Its mission was to know the world. When ... (Goodreads)
Strange Weather
by Joe Hill
Four interconnected stories that explore the chaos of the natural world.
A collection of four chilling novels, ingeniously wrought gems of terror from the brilliantly imaginative, Joe Hill Snapshot is the disturbing story of a Silicon Valley adolescent who finds himself ... (Goodreads)
Amerika
by Franz Kafka
A young man's surreal journey through a bizarre and dystopian version of America.
The story describes the bizarre wanderings of sixteen-year-old European immigrant Karl Roßmann, who was forced to go to New York City to escape the scandal of his seduction by a housemaid. As the ... (Wikipedia)
The Liars' Club
by Mary Karr
Memoir of a turbulent childhood in East Texas, exploring the power of love and family.
The book tells the story of Karr's troubled childhood in a small Texas town in the early 1960s. Using a non-linear story line, Karr describes the troubles of growing up in a family and town where ... (Wikipedia)
The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone - Especially Ourselves
by Dan Ariely
Examines why people lie and how dishonesty affects our lives.
Het wetenschappelijk bewijs liegt er niet om: zelfs de meest eerlijke mensen nemen meerdere keren per dag een loopje met de waarheid. Hóé (on)eerlijk we zijn blijkt verrassend genoeg afhankelijk van ... (Goodreads)
The Loved One
by Evelyn Waugh
Satirical tale of a young man's journey to a funeral home in Los Angeles.
Sir Ambrose Abercrombie visits housemates Dennis Barlow and Sir Francis Hinsley to express his concern about Barlow's new job and how it reflects on the British enclave in Hollywood, which is also ... (Wikipedia)
The Rum Diary
by Hunter S. Thompson
A man's journey to find himself and meaningful work, set in a tropical paradise.
Begun in 1959 by a twenty-two-year-old Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary is a tangled love story of jealousy, treachery, and violent alcoholic lust in the Caribbean boomtown that was San Juan, Puerto ... (Goodreads)
The Anti-Christ
by Friedrich Nietzsche
An exploration of morality and its relationship to religion, with a focus on the concept of nihilism.
The reference to the Antichrist is not intended to refer to the biblical Antichrist but is rather an attack on the "slave morality" and apathy of Western Christianity. Nietzsche's basic claim is that ... (Goodreads)
The Rebel
by Albert Camus
Philosophical meditation on the individual's search for meaning in an absurd world.
By one of the most profoundly influential thinkers of our century, The Rebel is a classic essay on revolution. For Albert Camus, the urge to revolt is one of the "essential dimensions" of human ... (Goodreads)
The Silent Wife
by A.S.A. Harrison
A tense psychological thriller, exploring the complexities of a marriage on the brink of collapse.
A chilling psychological thriller portraying the disintegration of a relationship down to the deadliest point when murdering your husband suddenly makes perfect sense. Todd Gilbert and Jodie Brett ... (Goodreads)
The Road to Wigan Pier
by George Orwell
Journey of social discovery, examining the struggles of working class life in 1930s England.
A searing account of George Orwell’s experiences of working-class life in the bleak industrial heartlands of Yorkshire and Lancashire, The Road to Wigan Pier is a brilliant and bitter polemic that ... (Goodreads)
Oblomov
by Ivan Goncharov
A story of a man's struggle to break free from his life of stagnation and inactivity.
The novel focuses on the life of the main character, Ilya Ilyich Oblomov. Oblomov is a member of the upper middle class and the son of a member of Russia's nineteenth-century landed gentry. Oblomov's ... (Wikipedia)
Harrison Bergeron
by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
A dystopian future where equality is enforced through handicapping citizens.
In the year 2081, the 211th, 212th, and 213th amendments to the Constitution dictate that all Americans are fully equal and not allowed to be smarter, better-looking, or more physically able than ... (Wikipedia)
Men at Arms: The Play
by Stephen Briggs
A humorous play about a hapless army unit, facing a seemingly undefeatable enemy.
Edward d'Eath, an Assassin and son of a down-and-out noble family, becomes convinced that the restoration of the Ankh-Morpork monarchy will solve the social change in the city which he blames for his ... (Wikipedia)
An Object of Beauty
by Steve Martin
A New York art dealer's pursuit of success, power, and money.
Lacey Yeager is young, captivating, and ambitious enough to take the NYC art world by storm. Groomed at Sotheby's and hungry to keep climbing the social and career ladders put before her, Lacey ... (Goodreads)
Kuyucaklı Yusuf
by Sabahattin Ali
A young man's struggle to reconcile his idealistic dreams and harsh realities of life.
"Bu manasız ve yabancı hayatta bir tek şeye hakikaten sarılmış, hakikaten inanır gibi olmuştu. Bu da karısı idi. Muazzez'in varlığı Yusuf için büyük, boşlukları dolduracak mahiyette bir şey değildi, ... (Goodreads)
Kulti
by Mariana Zapata
A reclusive soccer star and a determined coach clash over the game and life.
“Trust me, I’ve wanted to punch you in the face a time or five.”When the man you worshipped as a kid becomes your coach, it’s supposed to be the greatest thing in the world. Keywords: supposed to. It ... (Goodreads)
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