Literary theme analysis, by a book like {foo}
Books about Social Norms
Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen
A story of courtship, romance and social class in which a young woman discovers her own identity.
The novel is set in rural England in the early 19th century. Mrs. Bennet attempts to persuade Mr. Bennet to visit Mr. Bingley, a rich bachelor recently arrived in the neighbourhood. After some verbal ... (Wikipedia)
Salt: A World History
by Mark Kurlansky
Comprehensive overview of the influence of salt on human society, from ancient times to the present.
In his fifth work of nonfiction, Mark Kurlansky turns his attention to a common household item with a long and intriguing history: salt. The only rock we eat, salt has shaped civilization from the ... (Goodreads)
Carmilla
by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Gothic horror novella following a young woman's mysterious encounter with a female vampire.
Le Fanu presents the story as part of the casebook of Dr. Hesselius, whose departures from medical orthodoxy rank him as the first occult detective in literature. , Laura, the teenage protagonist, ... (Wikipedia)
About a Boy
by Nick Hornby
A man reevaluates his life when he meets an awkward 12-year-old boy.
Set in 1993 London, About a Boy features two main protagonists: Will Freeman, a 36-year-old bachelor, and Marcus Brewer, an incongruous schoolboy described as 'introverted' by his suicidal mother, ... (Wikipedia)
Women
by Charles Bukowski
A collection of stories exploring the lives of various women and their relationships with men.
Women focuses on the many dissatisfactions Chinaski faced with each new woman he encountered. One of the women featured in the book is a character named Lydia Vance; she is based on Bukowski's ... (Wikipedia)
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott
A timeless story of sisterhood, family, and female empowerment in the backdrop of Civil War America.
Four sisters and their mother, whom they call Marmee, live in a new neighborhood (loosely based on Concord ) in Massachusetts in genteel poverty. Having lost all his money, their father is serving as ... (Wikipedia)
The Master
by Colm Tóibín
A fictionalized account of Henry James' life, exploring his relationships and struggles as a writer.
The Master depicts the American-born writer Henry James in the final years of the 19th century. The eleven chapters of the novel are labelled from January 1895 to October 1899 and follow the writer ... (Wikipedia)
Confessions of a Mask
by Yukio Mishima
A young man's inner turmoil as he struggles to reconcile his true self with society's expectations.
The protagonist is referred to in the story as Kochan, which is the diminutive of the author's real name: Kimitake. Being raised during Japan's era of right-wing militarism and Imperialism, he ... (Wikipedia)
A Doll's House
by Henrik Ibsen
A woman's struggle to break from societal expectations and find her own identity.
A Doll's House (1879), is a masterpiece of theatrical craft which, for the first time portrayed the tragic hypocrisy of Victorian middle class marriage on the stage. The play ushered in a new social ... (Goodreads)
Orlando
by Virginia Woolf
A fantastical journey through history and gender, exploring the complexities of identity.
The eponymous hero is born as a male nobleman in England during the reign of Elizabeth I . He undergoes a mysterious change of sex at the age of about 30 and lives on for more than 300 years into ... (Wikipedia)
The Late Mattia Pascal
by Luigi Pirandello
A man's journey to reclaim his identity and freedom from a life of dullness and unhappiness.
The protagonist, Mattia Pascal, finds that his promising youth has, through misfortune or misdeed, dissolved into a dreary dead-end job and a miserable marriage. His inheritance and the woman he ... (Wikipedia)
The Human Stain
by Philip Roth
A professor's life unravels after a scandal, exploring the limits of identity and redemption.
It is 1998, the year in which America is whipped into a frenzy of prurience by the impeachment of a president, and in a small New England town an aging Classics professor, Coleman Silk, is forced to ... (Goodreads)
The Piano Teacher
by Elfriede Jelinek
A woman's exploration of her sexuality, and its implications on her life.
The Piano Teacher, the most famous novel of Elfriede Jelinek, who was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature, is a shocking, searing, aching portrait of a woman bound between a repressive society ... (Goodreads)
The Age of Innocence
by Edith Wharton
A romantic drama set in the high society of 19th century New York, exploring the limits of love and longing.
Newland Archer, gentleman lawyer and heir to one of New York City's most illustrious families, happily anticipates his highly desirable marriage to the sheltered and beautiful May Welland. Yet he ... (Wikipedia)
The Lottery
by Shirley Jackson
A small village's annual lottery reveals a dark secret, with sinister implications.
Details of contemporary small-town American life are embroidered upon a description of an annual rite known as "the lottery". In a small village of about 300 residents, the locals are in an excited ... (Wikipedia)
Sense and Sensibility
by Jane Austen
The contrasting fortunes of two sisters, and the love and heartbreak that ensue.
Henry Dashwood, his second wife, and their three daughters live for many years with Henry's wealthy bachelor uncle at Norland Park, a large country estate in Sussex. That uncle decides, in late life, ... (Wikipedia)
The Ship Who Sang
by Anne McCaffrey
A young girl, born with severe physical disabilities, embarks on a journey to become a "brainship", a human-computer interface.
Helva had been born human, but only her brain had been saved—saved to be schooled, programmed, and implanted into the sleek titanium body of an intergalactic scout ship. But first she had to choose a ... (Goodreads)
The Rainbow
by D.H. Lawrence
Exploration of sexuality, love, and relationships between men and women in early 20th century England.
Set in the rural Midlands of England, The Rainbow (1915) revolves around three generations of the Brangwens, a strong, vigorous family, deeply involved with the land. When Tom Brangwen marries a ... (Goodreads)
Maurice
by E.M. Forster
A young man's journey of self-discovery and acceptance of his sexuality.
Maurice Hall, age fourteen, discusses sex and women with his prep-school teacher Ben Ducie just before Maurice progresses to his public school. This scene sets the tone for the rest of the novel, as ... (Wikipedia)
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
by Susan Cain
An exploration of the power of introversion, examining the implications of modern society's emphasis on extroversion.
The book that started the Quiet Revolution, At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking; who innovate and create but dislike ... (Goodreads)
Tomboy: A Graphic Memoir
by Liz Prince
A young woman's exploration of gender identity, and the challenges she faces growing up.
Growing up, Liz Prince wasn't a girly girl, dressing in pink tutus or playing pretty princess like the other girls in her neighborhood. But she wasn't exactly one of the guys, either. She was ... (Goodreads)
The Price of Salt
by Patricia Highsmith
Two women build a relationship against all odds, navigating a taboo romance.
Therese Belivet is a lonely young woman, just beginning her adult life in Manhattan and looking for her chance to launch her career as a theatre set designer . When she was a small girl, her widowed ... (Wikipedia)
The Making of Pride and Prejudice
by Sue Birtwistle
A behind-the-scenes look at the making of the beloved BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice."
The BBC’s lavish adaptation of ‘Pride and Prejudice’, starring Colin Firth, was eighteen months in the making and continues to captivate audiences today. This indispensable companion to the series is ... (Goodreads)
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
by Richard H. Thaler
A groundbreaking exploration of how subtle influences can shape decisions and improve people's lives.
From the winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Economics, Richard H. Thaler, and Cass R. Sunstein: a revelatory look at how we make decisions,New York Times bestseller,Named a Best Book of the Year by, ... (Goodreads)
Anne of Avonlea
by L.M. Montgomery
A young girl's coming-of-age in rural Prince Edward Island, full of adventures and misadventures.
Anne is about to start her first term teaching at the Avonlea school, although she will still continue her studies at home with Gilbert, who is teaching at the nearby White Sands School. The book ... (Wikipedia)
The Lady With the Little Dog and Other Stories, 1896-1904
by Anton Chekhov
Collection of short stories exploring the complexities of human relationships and the human condition in late 19th century Russia.
In the final years of his prominent life, Chekhov had reached the height of his powers as a dramatist, and also produced some of the stories that rank among his masterpieces. The poignant 'The Lady ... (Goodreads)
Bartleby the Scrivener
by Herman Melville
A story of a mysterious scrivener whose refusal to comply with workplace demands leads to tragedy.
The narrator is an unnamed Manhattan lawyer, aged around his late 50s, with a business in legal documents. He already employs two scriveners , Nippers and Turkey, to copy legal documents by hand, but ... (Wikipedia)
Catherine, Called Birdy
by Karen Cushman
An adolescent girl's story of rebellion, seeking freedom in a restrictive society.
The following is a description of the novel as it appears on the cover: "[T]he fourteen-year-old daughter of an English country knight keeps a journal in which she records the events of her life, ... (Wikipedia)
Prep
by Curtis Sittenfeld
A teenage girl's struggle to find her place and identity in an elite prep school.
Curtis Sittenfeld’s debut novel, Prep , is an insightful, achingly funny coming-of-age story as well as a brilliant dissection of class, race, and gender in a hothouse of adolescent angst and ... (Goodreads)
Giovanni's Room
by James Baldwin
A man's struggle for identity and acceptance amidst a tumultuous romantic relationship.
David, a young American man whose girlfriend has gone off to Spain to contemplate marriage, is left alone in Paris and begins an affair with an Italian man, Giovanni. The entire story is narrated by ... (Wikipedia)
Diary
by Chuck Palahniuk
An exploration of the depths of human depravity, exposing the darkest aspects of society.
Diary takes the form of a "coma diary" telling the story of Misty Marie Wilmot as her husband lies senseless in a hospital after a suicide attempt. The story is not exactly told by Misty but through ... (Wikipedia)
The French Lieutenant's Woman
by John Fowles
A love story set in Victorian England, exploring the complexities of class, gender, and social norms.
Set in the mid-nineteenth century, the narrator identifies the novel's protagonist as Sarah Woodruff, the Woman of the title, also known as "Tragedy" and as "The French Lieutenant's Whore". She lives ... (Wikipedia)
Washington Square
by Henry James
A woman's struggle against the expectations of her society, in pursuit of her own happiness.
The plot of Washington Square has the simplicity of old-fashioned melodrama: a plain-looking, good-hearted young woman, the only child of a rich widower, is pursued by a charming but unscrupulous man ... (Goodreads)
Little Children
by Tom Perrotta
A suburban couple's struggle with the everyday dramas of marriage and parenting.
Sarah, who once considered herself a radical feminist , wonders how she allowed herself to be reduced to a common housewife , constantly at the playground with three other neighborhood Stepford ... (Wikipedia)
The Rosie Project
by Graeme Simsion
An awkward professor's journey to find love, discovering the true meaning of connection.
An international sensation, this hilarious, feel-good novel is narrated by an oddly charming and socially challenged genetics professor on an unusual quest: to find out if he is capable of true love. ... (Goodreads)
The Yellow Wall-Paper
by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
A woman's descent into madness due to oppressive social expectations.
A woman and her husband rent a summer house, but what should be a restful getaway turns into a suffocating psychological battle. This chilling account of postpartum depression and a husband's ... (Goodreads)
The Cinderella Deal
by Jennifer Crusie
A romantic comedy about a woman determined to break the rules and find her own happily-ever-after.
New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Crusie brings humor and storytelling magic to this modern-day romance of a match made anywhere but in heaven—but destined for a fairy-tale ending. Daisy ... (Goodreads)
The Duke and I
by Julia Quinn
A tale of forbidden love and unexpected romance between a duke and an ordinary woman.
A #1 New York Times bestseller From, New York Times, bestselling author Julia Quinn comes the first novel in the beloved Regency-set world of her charming, powerful Bridgerton family, now a series ... (Barnes & Noble)
Nicholas
by René Goscinny
A collection of humorous stories of a young French boy's misadventures.
La maîtresse est inquiète, le photographe s'éponge le front, le Bouillon devient tout rouge, les mamans ont mauvaise mine, les papas font les guignols, le directeur part à la retraite, quant à ... (Goodreads)
The Golden Notebook
by Doris Lessing
A woman's journey of self-discovery and reflection, exploring freedom, identity and relationships.
The Golden Notebook is the story of writer Anna Wulf, the four notebooks in which she records her life, and her attempt to tie them together in a fifth, gold-coloured notebook. The book intersperses ... (Wikipedia)
Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer
by Sena Jeter Naslund
A woman's journey of self-discovery, defying society's expectations and finding her own path.
A magnificent, vast, and enthralling saga, Sena Jeter Naslund's Ahab's Wife is a remarkable epic spanning a rich, eventful, and dramatic life. Inspired by a brief passage in Moby Dick , it is the ... (Goodreads)
Girl on Girl
by Brian K. Vaughan
A coming of age story of a young girl's exploration into her sexuality and identity.
On July 17, 2002, all living mammals with a Y chromosome —including embryos and sperm —simultaneously die, with the exception of a young amateur escape artist named Yorick Brown and his Capuchin ... (Wikipedia)
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
by Dan Ariely
An exploration of why humans make irrational decisions, and how to overcome them.
Why do our headaches persist after taking a one-cent aspirin but disappear when we take a 50-cent aspirin? Why does recalling the Ten Commandments reduce our tendency to lie, even when we couldn't ... (Goodreads)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
by Edward Albee
A darkly comedic exploration of a troubled couple's tumultuous marriage.
George and Martha engage in dangerous emotional games. George is an associate professor of history and Martha is the daughter of the president of the college where George teaches. After they return ... (Wikipedia)
Brokeback Mountain
by Annie Proulx
Forbidden love between two cowboys exploring their sexuality and emotions in a hostile environment.
Annie Proulx has written some of the most original and brilliant short stories in contemporary literature, and for many readers and reviewers, "Brokeback Mountain" is her masterpiece. Ennis del Mar ... (Goodreads)
Rabbit, Run
by John Updike
A man's attempt to escape the pressures of adult life and find freedom.
Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, formerly a high school basketball star, is now 26, and has a job selling a kitchen gadget named MagiPeeler. He is married to Janice, who was a salesgirl at the store where he ... (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)
Far From the Madding Crowd
by Thomas Hardy
A pastoral romance of love and redemption, set against the backdrop of 19th century rural England.
An ACE can be found here . Independent and spirited Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Her bold presence draws three ... (Goodreads)
The Witch Boy
by Molly Knox Ostertag
A young boy's struggles against the gender expectations of his magical family.
Nella famiglia di Aster, una cosa è certa: tutte le ragazze sono destinate a diventare streghe, e i ragazzi saranno dei mutaforma. Non sono ammesse eccezioni. Peccato che Aster sia affascinato dalla ... (Goodreads)
The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue
by Mackenzi Lee
An 18th-century adventure of love, friendship, and self-discovery as a young man travels Europe.
A Kirkus Prize nominee and Stonewall Honor winner with 5 starred reviews! A New York Times bestseller! Named one of the best books of 2017 by NPR and the New York Public Library! "The queer teen ... (Barnes & Noble)
A Perilous Undertaking
by Deanna Raybourn
Victorian-era murder mystery, leading a woman to unravel secrets beyond the grave.
London, 1887. At the Curiosity Club, a ladies-only establishment for daring and intrepid women, Victorian adventuress Veronica Speedwell meets the mysterious Lady Sundridge, who begs her to take on ... (Goodreads)
Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
by Michel Foucault
Examines the emergence of the modern prison system and its effects on society.
Librarian note: an alternate cover for this edition can be found, here,. Barely two hundred and fifty years ago a man condemned of attempting to assassinate the King of France was drawn and quartered ... (Goodreads)
SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes And Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance
by Steven D. Levitt
An exploration of human behavior and economics, challenging accepted social norms and traditional wisdom.
The New York Times best-selling Freakonomics was a worldwide sensation, selling over four million copies in thirty-five languages and changing the way we look at the world. Now, Steven D. Levitt and ... (Goodreads)
The Sorrows of Young Werther
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A young man's struggle to reconcile his intense emotions with the realities of society.
This is Goethe's first novel, published in 1774. Written in diary form, it tells the tale of an unhappy, passionate young man hopelessly in love with Charlotte, the wife of a friend - a man who he ... (Goodreads)
Dietland
by Sarai Walker
A woman's determined search to find her own power, while challenging the beauty standards imposed by society.
The diet revolution is here. And it’s armed. Plum Kettle does her best not to be noticed, because when you’re fat, to be noticed is to be judged. Or mocked. Or worse. With her job answering fan mail ... (Goodreads)
Like Water for Chocolate
by Laura Esquivel
Magical tale of forbidden love, crossed by cultural and family traditions.
The book is divided into 12 sections named after the months of the year, starting in January and ending in December. Each section begins with a Mexican recipe . The chapters connect each dish to an ... (Wikipedia)
Ghosts
by Henrik Ibsen
A family's struggle to face the consequences of their past and present.
Helen Alving is about to dedicate an orphanage she has built in memory of her late husband. Despite his affairs, Mrs. Alving stayed with him to protect her son from the taint of scandal and for fear ... (Wikipedia)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A man's journey through life in reverse, exploring the meaning of life and death.
In 1860 Baltimore , Benjamin is born with the physical appearance of a 70-year-old man, already capable of speech. His father Roger invites neighborhood boys to play with him and orders him to play ... (Wikipedia)
Assholes Finish First
by Tucker Max
A comedic exploration of modern dating and relationships.
From the Tucker Max website: What do you do when you've become rich and famous for writing a #1 best-selling book about your drunken, sexual misadventures? I'll tell you what I do: I write another ... (Goodreads)
Affinity
by Sarah Waters
Gothic mystery of spiritual and romantic entanglement set in Victorian London.
An upper-class woman recovering from a suicide attempt, Margaret Prior has begun visiting the women’s ward of Millbank prison, Victorian London’s grimmest jail, as part of her rehabilitative charity ... (Goodreads)
Hedda Gabler
by Henrik Ibsen
A woman's struggle against societal expectations and a search for freedom.
Hedda, the daughter of an aristocratic and enigmatic general, has just returned to her villa in Kristiania (now Oslo) from her honeymoon. Her husband is George Tesman, a young, aspiring, and reliable ... (Wikipedia)
Men Explain Things to Me
by Rebecca Solnit
Examines the cultural phenomenon of men explaining things to women without full understanding of the topic.
In her comic, scathing essay “Men Explain Things to Me,” Rebecca Solnit took on what often goes wrong in conversations between men and women. She wrote about men who wrongly assume they know things ... (Goodreads)
Orange Is the New Black
by Piper Kerman
A memoir of a woman's experiences in prison, exploring the effects of incarceration.
With her career, live-in boyfriend and loving family, Piper Kerman barely resembles the rebellious young woman who got mixed up with drug runners and delivered a suitcase of drug money to Europe over ... (Goodreads)
The Governess Affair
by Courtney Milan
A romance between a governess and a duke, as they confront the social conventions of their time.
She will not give up… Three months ago, governess Serena Barton was let go from her position. Unable to find new work, she’s demanding compensation from the man who got her sacked: a petty, selfish, ... (Goodreads)
Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle
by Vladimir Nabokov
An epic novel of forbidden love between a brother and sister, set against a backdrop of family secrets.
Ada tells the life story of a man named Van Veen, and his lifelong love affair with his sister Ada. They meet when she is eleven (soon to be twelve) and he is fourteen, believing that they are ... (Wikipedia)
Bluebeard
by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
A woman's exploration of her husband's dark past, uncovering secrets and shocking truths.
At the opening of the book, the narrator, Rabo Karabekian , apologizes to the arriving guests: "I promised you an autobiography, but something went wrong in the kitchen..." He describes himself as a ... (Wikipedia)
Stuff White People Like: A Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions
by Christian Lander
Satirical exploration of the lifestyle preferences and cultural quirks of white people in the United States.
They love nothing better than sipping free-trade gourmet coffee, leafing through the Sunday New York Times , and listening to David Sedaris on NPR (ideally all at the same time). Apple products, ... (Goodreads)
Invisible Monsters
by Chuck Palahniuk
A woman's journey to re-establish her identity and find her place in the world.
The narrator of the story is an unnamed disfigured woman who goes by multiple pseudonyms, notably Daisy St. Patience and Bubba Joan—identities given to her by Brandy Alexander, with whom she spends ... (Wikipedia)
Venetia
by Georgette Heyer
A spirited young woman's thrilling adventure to win her true love.
The beautiful Venetia Lanyon, thanks to a reclusive and over-protective father, grew up in the country, away from the world with only her younger brother Aubrey, bookish and lame, for company. Her ... (Wikipedia)
Loveless, Volume 01
by Yun Kouga
A young couple's struggle to find a missing person and their own place in the world.
The long-awaited continuation of the best-selling series, a masterpiece tale of intrigue and innocence lost. Ritsuka Aoyagi is alone in the world—never fitting in at school and alienated from his own ... (Barnes & Noble)
Unteachable
by Leah Raeder
High school student Maise falls for her teacher, but their forbidden romance is threatened by secrets from their pasts.
Maise O’Malley just turned eighteen, but she’s felt like a grown-up her entire life. The summer before senior year, she has plans: get into a great film school, convince her mom to go into rehab, and ... (Goodreads)
A Handful of Dust
by Evelyn Waugh
A satirical novel about the decline of British aristocracy and the emptiness of modern life.
Tony Last is a country gentleman, living with his wife Brenda and his eight-year-old son John Andrew in his ancestral home, Hetton Abbey. The house is a Victorian pseudo-Gothic pastiche described as ... (Wikipedia)
Whose Body?
by Dorothy L. Sayers
A murder mystery, as an aristocrat's body is found in the bathtub of an architect.
Thipps, an architect, finds a dead body wearing nothing but a pair of pince-nez in the bath of his London flat. Lord Peter Wimsey—a nobleman who has recently developed an interest in criminal ... (Wikipedia)
Convenience Store Woman
by Sayaka Murata
A darkly comic story of a woman's search for acceptance and belonging in a society that doesn't fit her.
Keiko Furukura is a 36-year old woman who has been working part-time at a convenience store , or konbini , for the last 18 years. She has known since childhood that she is "different" and that ... (Wikipedia)
Is It Just Me?
by Miranda Hart
An exploration of the joys, challenges and complexities of everyday life.
10th Anniversary of hit TV show. A Sunday Times Number One Bestseller, Miranda Hart will carry you along with the sheer force of her charm, bumbling cheer and charisma. -, Sunday Express, Well hello ... (Barnes & Noble)
Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night
by Kresley Cole
A dark romance between two unlikely lovers, exploring a forbidden love.
This seductive paranormal series continues with a brutal Highland werewolf and an exquisite young witch, adversaries with a blood vendetta between them. Her breathless kiss haunts him... Bowen ... (Goodreads)
The Female Man
by Joanna Russ
Four women from different dimensions and times meet, challenging gender norms and societal expectations.
The novel begins when Janet Evason suddenly arrives in Joanna's world. Janet is from Whileaway, a futuristic world where a plague killed all of the men over 800 years ago, and Jeannine lives in a ... (Wikipedia)
You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You're Deluding Yourself
by David McRaney
A humorous exploration of cognitive biases, irrational behavior and why humans deceive themselves.
An entertaining illumination of the stupid beliefs that make us feel wise. Whether you’re deciding which smart phone to purchase or which politician to believe, you think you are a rational being ... (Goodreads)
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)
Embroideries
by Marjane Satrapi
An intimate gathering of Iranian women sharing stories of love, life, and sexuality.
From the best–selling author of Persepolis comes this gloriously entertaining and enlightening look into the sex lives of Iranian women. Embroideries gathers together Marjane’s tough–talking ... (Goodreads)
Sleeping Beauty Trilogy
by A.N. Roquelaure
Erotic reimagining of the classic fairy tale, exploring themes of power, freedom and desire.
Celebrate the daring gifts of Anne Rice, writing as A. N. Roquelaure, with this beautifully repackaged boxed set of the three erotic novels in her acclaimed Sleeping Beauty trilogy. ... (Goodreads)
Married by Morning
by Lisa Kleypas
A young woman and her guardian discover a powerful love as they face unexpected challenges.
He's everything she wants to avoid., For two years, Catherine Marks has been a paid companion to the Hathaway sisters—a pleasant position, with one caveat. Her charges' older brother, Leo Hathaway, ... (Goodreads)
Faro's Daughter
by Georgette Heyer
A charming romance between a young woman and an aristocrat as they navigate the upper class society.
The beautiful but poor Deborah Grantham presides over her aunt's gaming house in Georgian London. Here she meets Max Ravenscar, who is determined to prevent his young cousin Lord Mablethorpe from ... (Wikipedia)
The Box Man
by Kōbō Abe
A man abandons his life to live in a cardboard box, observing society from the outside.
Kobo Abe, the internationally acclaimed author of Woman in the Dunes , combines wildly imaginative fantasies and naturalistic prose to create narratives reminiscent of the work of Kafka and Beckett. ... (Goodreads)
Tropic of Capricorn
by Henry Miller
A controversial and candid look into the author's tumultuous personal life in 1920s and 1930s New York.
The novel covers Miller's growing inability and outright refusal to accommodate what he sees as America's hostile environment. It is autobiographical but not chronological, jumping between Miller's ... (Wikipedia)
The Diary of a Nobody
by George Grossmith
A humorous look at the everyday struggles of an ordinary family living in 19th century London.
Mr Pooter is a man of modest ambitions, content with his ordinary life. Yet he always seems to be troubled by disagreeable tradesmen, impertinent young office clerks and wayward friends, not to ... (Goodreads)
Kiss of Crimson
by Lara Adrian
A vampire warrior must confront her inner demons and choose between love and duty.
He comes to her more dead than alive, a towering black-clad stranger riddled with bullets and rapidly losing blood. As she struggles to save him, veterinarian Tess Culver is unaware that the man ... (Goodreads)
The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay and Diaries: Bringing Jane Austen's Novel to Film
by Emma Thompson
Behind-the-scenes look at the making of the 1995 film adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel.
This engaging and beautiful book includes the complete Academy Award-winning script and Thompson's own diaries detailing the production of the film, reviewed by Stanley Kauffmann in The New Republic ... (Goodreads)
Make Something Up: Stories You Can't Unread
by Chuck Palahniuk
A collection of short stories that are bizarre, twisted, and often disturbing, exploring the dark side of human nature.
Stories you'll never forget—just try—from literature's favorite transgressive author Representing work that spans several years, Make Something Up is a compilation of 21 stories and one novella (some ... (Goodreads)
You Think It, I'll Say It
by Curtis Sittenfeld
Collection of stories exploring the human condition, relationships, and the power of words.
A suburban mother of two fantasizes about the downfall of an old friend whose wholesome lifestyle empire may or may not be built on a lie. A high-powered lawyer honeymooning with her husband is ... (Goodreads)
Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners
by Therese Oneill
A humorous and informative guide to the secret and scandalous lives of Victorian women, covering topics from hygiene to sex.
Have you ever wished you could live in an earlier, more romantic era? Ladies, welcome to the 19th century, where there's arsenic in your face cream, a pot of cold pee sits under your bed, and all of ... (Barnes & Noble)
Difficult Women
by Roxane Gay
A collection of stories exploring the complexity of womanhood through the eyes of diverse characters.
Award-winning author and powerhouse talent Roxane Gay burst onto the scene with, An Untamed State, and the, New York Times, bestselling essay collection, Bad Feminist, (Harper Perennial). Gay returns ... (Goodreads)
The Average American Male
by Chad Kultgen
A raw and explicit portrayal of the life of an average American male, filled with sex, drugs, and self-destructive behavior.
“I can’t figure out if this book is a heart-felt dispatch from the front line in the battle of the sexes or a brilliant send-up of the way in which the male point of view has been misrepresented by ... (Goodreads)
Jacob's Room
by Virginia Woolf
A portrait of a young man's life, told through the perspectives of those who knew him. A meditation on the fleeting nature of existence.
Set in pre-war England, the novel begins in Jacob's childhood and follows him through college at Cambridge and into adulthood . The story is told mainly through the perspectives of the women in ... (Wikipedia)
Cakes and Ale
by W. Somerset Maugham
A satirical novel about the life of a successful writer, his scandalous past, and the literary world of the early 20th century.
The story is told by a first-person narrator and well-to-do author, William Ashenden, who, at the beginning of the novel is suddenly and unexpectedly contacted by Alroy Kear, a busybody literary ... (Wikipedia)
كخه يا بابا
by عبدالله المغلوث
A story of a family's search for a missing father, and the secrets it reveals.
إن أبرز مشاكلنا السلوكية والإجتماعية تبدأ في مجتمعاتنا مبكراً، مبكراً جداً... فنحن نستقبل أطفالنا بعبارات: "كخه يا بابا"، و"أح يا ماما" و"عيب" حتى ينبت الشعر في شواربهم. هذه العبارات التي ترافق ... (Goodreads)
How Not To Be a Boy
by Robert Webb
A humorous yet poignant look at the expectations of men and the search for self-acceptance.
Rules for being a man: Don't Cry; Love Sport; Play Rough; Drink Beer; Don't Talk About Feelings But Robert Webb has been wondering for some time now: are those rules actually any use? To anyone? ... (Goodreads)
A Man of Some Repute
by Elizabeth Edmondson
A British spy mystery set in a post-WWII Europe. A man's death leads to uncovering secrets and conspiracies.
Truth is rarely pure and never simple… Selchester Castle in 1953 sits quiet and near-empty, its corridors echoing with glories of the past. Or so it seems to intelligence officer Hugo Hawksworth, ... (Goodreads)
Never Seduce a Scot
by Maya Banks
A passionate romance between two Scottish warriors, struggling against their family and social expectations.
Eveline Armstrong is fiercely loved and protected by her powerful clan, but outsiders consider her “touched.” Beautiful, fey, with a level, intent gaze, she doesn’t speak. No one, not even her ... (Goodreads)
SuperMutant Magic Academy
by Jillian Tamaki
A graphic novel about a school for mutants with magical powers, exploring teenage angst and identity in a humorous and satirical way.
Unrequited love, underage drinking, and teen angst rule at a high school for mutants and witches. The New York Times and New Yorker illustrator Jillian Tamaki is best known for co-creating the ... (Goodreads)
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