Literary theme analysis, by a book like {foo}
Books about Unconventional
The Sound and the Fury
by William Faulkner
Tragic story of the decline of a southern family, exploring the human condition.
The first section of the novel is narrated by Benjamin "Benjy" Compson, a source of shame to the family due to his diminished mental capacity; the only characters who show genuine care for him are ... (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)
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)
Glue
by Irvine Welsh
A gritty portrait of characters struggling with poverty, addiction, and violent crime in Edinburgh.
Glue is the story of four boys growing up in the Edinburgh schemes, and about the loyalties, the experiences - and the secrets - that hold them together into their thirties. Four boys becoming men: ... (Goodreads)
Death Note, Vol. 2: Confluence
by Tsugumi Ohba
A thrilling story of crime, justice, and morality, as a young man uses a supernatural notebook to punish the wicked.
Light thinks he's put an end to his troubles with the FBI—by using the Death Note to kill off the FBI agents working the case in Japan! But one of the agents has a fiancée who used to work in the ... (Goodreads)
The Invisible Man
by H.G. Wells
A scientist's journey to invisibility which leads to a descent into madness.
A mysterious man, Griffin, referred to as 'the stranger', arrives at the local inn owned by Mr. and Mrs. Hall of the English village of Iping , West Sussex, during a snowstorm. The stranger wears a ... (Wikipedia)
Uzumaki
by Junji Ito
Horror manga about a cursed town plagued by mysterious supernatural spirals.
Uzumaki follows a high-school teenager, Kirie Goshima (,五島桐絵,) ; her boyfriend, Shuichi Saito (,斎藤秀一,) ; and the citizens of the small, quiet Japanese town of Kurouzu-cho (,黒渦町,, Black Vortex Town,) ... (Wikipedia)
Naked Lunch
by William S. Burroughs
Surrealist exploration of addiction, delusions, and reality.
Naked Lunch is a non-linear narrative without a clear plot. The following is a summary of some of the events in the book that could be considered the most relevant. The book begins with the ... (Wikipedia)
Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror, Vol. 1
by Junji Ito
A small town is plagued by a supernatural force that causes events to take strange and terrifying turns.
Uzumaki follows a high-school teenager, Kirie Goshima (,五島桐絵,) ; her boyfriend, Shuichi Saito (,斎藤秀一,) ; and the citizens of the small, quiet Japanese town of Kurouzu-cho (,黒渦町,, Black Vortex Town,) ... (Wikipedia)
Desolation Angels
by Jack Kerouac
Exploration of life through a journey of self-reflection, spurring personal growth.
With the publication of On the Road in 1957, Jack Kerouac became at once the spokesman and hero of the Beat Generation. Along with such visionaries as William S. Burroughs, Neal Cassady, and Allen ... (Goodreads)
Tales of Ordinary Madness
by Charles Bukowski
Poignant, darkly humorous exploration of life as a struggling artist in Los Angeles.
Inspired by D.H. Lawrence, Chekhov and Hemingway, Bukowski's writing is passionate, extreme and has attracted a cult following, while his life was as weird and wild as the tales he wrote. This ... (Goodreads)
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)
House of Leaves
by Mark Z. Danielewski
A family discovers a hidden door in their home leading to an ever-shifting labyrinth.
House of Leaves begins with a first-person narrative by Johnny Truant, a Los Angeles tattoo parlor employee and professed unreliable narrator . Truant is searching for a new apartment when his friend ... (Wikipedia)
The Possibility of an Island
by Michel Houellebecq
Exploration of existential questions in a dystopian future, through the eyes of an immortal.
There are three main characters - Daniel and two of his clones. Daniel is a successful comedian who can't seem to enjoy life despite his wealth. He gets bored with his hedonist lifestyle, but can't ... (Wikipedia)
V for Vendetta
by Alan Moore
A dystopian future, where a mysterious vigilante fights for freedom and justice.
On Guy Fawkes Night in London in 1997, a young girl goes to see her boss after curfew when she is sexually attacked by three men who are actually members of the state secret police , called "The ... (Wikipedia)
Blood Red Road
by Moira Young
A dystopian adventure of survival and family, as a young woman sets out on a quest to save her kidnapped brother.
▶, ACE #1, Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her ... (Goodreads)
Saga, Volume 2
by Brian K. Vaughan
An intergalactic adventure of two star-crossed lovers and their families.
Each issue of Saga is titled with a numerical Chapter, such as "Chapter 1" for the debut issue. Every six chapters comprise a story arc designated as a "Volume" and are reprinted as trade paperbacks. ... (Wikipedia)
Trainspotting
by Irvine Welsh
An exploration of the gritty underworld of drug addiction, told through the eyes of a group of characters.
The Skag Boys, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Mother Superior - Narrated by Renton. Mark and Simon (a.k.a. Sick Boy) are watching a Jean-Claude Van Damme video when they decide to go buy heroin from ... (Wikipedia)
Beastly
by Alex Flinn
A modern retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" following a high school student's transformation.
Kyle Kingsbury is rich, handsome, and popular; he is also selfish, shallow, and cruel. He plays a mean practical joke on an outcast girl in his class. The girl is really a witch named Kendra in ... (Wikipedia)
Across the Universe
by Beth Revis
Interplanetary journey of a teenage girl, struggling to stay alive and free from a totalitarian government.
Hundreds of years in the future, the spaceship Godspeed travels toward a distant, earth-like planet with 100 cryogenically frozen settlers on board. Seventeen year old Amy, frozen along with her ... (Wikipedia)
Out
by Natsuo Kirino
Exploration of the dark side of modern society through the story of four female factory workers.
The novel tells the tales of four women, working the graveyard shift at a Japanese bento factory. All four women live hard lives. Masako, the leader of the four women, feels completely alienated from ... (Wikipedia)
The Heart's Desire
by Robert Kirkman
A suspense novel about a young man's journey of self-discovery and the secrets he uncovers along the way.
The world we knew is gone. The world of commerce and frivolous necessity has been replaced by a world of survival and responsibility.,An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept the globe, ... (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)
Peyton Place
by Grace Metalious
A small-town scandal unravels, exposing secrets of the inhabitants.
First published in 1956, Peyton Place uncovers the passions, lies and cruelties that simmer beneath the surface of a postcard-perfect town. At the centre of the novel are three women, each with a ... (Goodreads)
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)
August: Osage County
by Tracy Letts
A darkly comic and dramatic family reunion, exposing dysfunction and tensions.
The action takes place over the course of several weeks in August inside the three-story home of Beverly and Violet Weston outside Pawhuska, Oklahoma . Prologue The play opens with Beverly Weston, a ... (Wikipedia)
An Enemy of the People
by Henrik Ibsen
A doctor confronts a public scandal, challenging expectations of morality and justice.
In An Enemy of the People , Ibsen places his main characters, Dr. Thomas Stockman, in the role of an enlightened and persecuted minority of one confronting an ignorant, powerful majority. When the ... (Goodreads)
The Man Without Qualities
by Robert Musil
A man without a defined identity navigates the complexities of pre-WWI Vienna society. A philosophical exploration of the human condition.
Part I, titled A Sort of Introduction , is an introduction to the protagonist, a 32-year-old mathematician named Ulrich who is in search of a sense of life and reality but fails to find it. His ... (Wikipedia)
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72
by Hunter S. Thompson
A wild journey through the 1972 US presidential election, tackling issues of politics and power.
Hilarious, terrifying, insightful, and compulsively readable, these are the articles that Hunter S. Thompson wrote for, Rolling Stone, magazine while covering the 1972 election campaign of President ... (Goodreads)
Pulp
by Charles Bukowski
A collection of short stories and poems that explore the gritty, raw, and often vulgar side of life.
Pulp is a pulp fiction novel which acts also as a meta-pulp. Pulp comments on the obsessions of the pulp fiction genre, making fun of itself as stereotypical of the genre in the grimiest form. ... (Wikipedia)
Hot Water Music
by Charles Bukowski
A collection of Bukowski's works exploring themes of love, death, and the human experience.
With his characteristic raw and minimalist style, Charles Bukowski takes us on a walk through his side of town in, Hot Water Music,. He gives us little vignettes of depravity and lasciviousness, bite ... (Goodreads)
Shantaram
by Gregory David Roberts
An Australian convict escapes to India and embarks on a journey of self-discovery.
In 1978, Roberts was sentenced to a 19-year imprisonment in Australia after being convicted of a series of armed robberies of building society branches, credit unions , and shops. In July 1980, he ... (Wikipedia)
Darkly Dreaming Dexter
by Jeff Lindsay
An introspective serial killer navigates the dark side of morality, guided by his own code of justice.
The novel's protagonist , Dexter Morgan , works for the Miami-Dade Police Department as a forensic blood spatter analyst . In his spare time, Dexter is a serial killer who kills murderers, rapists, ... (Wikipedia)
Kill the Dead
by Richard Kadrey
A supernatural detective story, uncovering the secrets of a dark and mysterious underworld.
What do you do after you’ve crawled out of Hell to wreak bloody revenge? If you’re Stark you turn to bounty hunting, tracking and decimating whatever rogue monsters you’re paid to kill. Stark hates ... (Goodreads)
Factotum
by Charles Bukowski
A portrait of a struggling writer, seeking solace in alcohol and women.
Set in the 1940s, the plot follows Henry Chinaski , Bukowski's perpetually unemployed, alcoholic alter ego , who has been rejected from the World War II draft and makes his way from one menial job to ... (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)
Junky
by William S. Burroughs
A gritty, autobiographical account of a man's descent into the underworld of addiction.
Before his 1959 breakthrough, Naked Lunch , an unknown William S. Burroughs wrote Junky , his first novel. It is a candid eye-witness account of times and places that are now long gone, an ... (Goodreads)
Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things
by Jenny Lawson
A witty memoir of overcoming struggles with mental illness, with a focus on finding joy in the midst of darkness.
#1, New York Times, Bestseller In Furiously Happy , a humor memoir tinged with just enough tragedy and pathos to make it worthwhile, Jenny Lawson examines her own experience with severe depression ... (Barnes & Noble)
Rant
by Chuck Palahniuk
A darkly humorous and surreal look into a world of chaos, taking on societal norms and conventions.
Buster Casey is born in the rural town of Middleton with the senses of smell and taste far more advanced than any other human. He acquires the nickname "Rant" from a childhood prank involving animal ... (Wikipedia)
Imajica
by Clive Barker
A man embarks on an epic journey to discover the hidden truths of the universe.
The novel opens with a man, Charlie Estabrook, hiring the mysterious assassin Pie'oh'pah to murder his estranged wife, Judith. Pie heads to New York and makes an attempt on Judith's life, but fails. ... (Wikipedia)
A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories
by Lucia Berlin
An exploration of female experience, weaving together stories of love, loss, and resilience.
A Manual for Cleaning Women compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. With the grit of Raymond Carver, the humor of Grace Paley, and a blend of wit and melancholy all ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Long Hard Road Out of Hell
by Marilyn Manson
An autobiographical account of Marilyn Manson's rise to fame and struggles with celebrity.
The 150,000-copy national bestselling autobiography of Marilyn Manson, America's most controversial celebrity icon, is offered with a bonus chapter not included in the hardcover. "By turns moving, ... (Goodreads)
Letters to a Young Contrarian
by Christopher Hitchens
A collection of essays offering philosophical reflections on society and the power of dissent.
From bestselling author and provocateur Christopher Hitchens, the classic guide to the art of principled dissent and disagreement In Letters to a Young Contrarian , bestselling author and world-class ... (Goodreads)
Love Is a Dog from Hell
by Charles Bukowski
A poetic exploration of the human experience, from joy to heartache and everything in between.
Collection of poems rising from and returning to Bukowski's personal experiences reflect people, objects, places, and events of the external world, and reflects on them, on their way out and back. ... (Goodreads)
Wildwood
by Colin Meloy
A young girl's fantastical adventure in a magical forest, discovering the power of friendship and courage.
Prue is in a park with Mac when "a murder of crows" swoops down and carries him away. Prue runs after him (followed by her classmate Curtis), and sees the crows carry him into the Impassable ... (Wikipedia)
Last Exit to Brooklyn
by Hubert Selby Jr.
A gritty, dark exploration of post-WWII life in Brooklyn and its inhabitants.
Few novels have caused as much debate as Hubert Selby Jr.'s notorious masterpiece, Last Exit to Brooklyn, and this Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Irvine Welsh, author of ... (Goodreads)
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
by Mary Roach
A humorous exploration of the science and research behind sex and human sexuality.
In Bonk, the best-selling author of Stiff turns her outrageous curiosity and insight on the most alluring scientific subject of all: sex. Can a person think herself to orgasm? Why doesn't Viagra help ... (Goodreads)
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
by Tucker Max
A fratboy's outrageous misadventures through college life and beyond.
The Book That Inspired The Movie, My name is Tucker Max, and I am an asshole. I get excessively drunk at inappropriate times, disregard social norms, indulge every whim, ignore the consequences of my ... (Goodreads)
Damned
by Chuck Palahniuk
A powerful satire of American culture, as a young woman confronts the absurdities of society.
The novel opens with 13-year-old Madison "Maddy" Spencer waking in Hell , unsure of the details surrounding her death. She believes she died of a marijuana overdose while her celebrity parents were ... (Wikipedia)
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)
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)
How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale
by Jenna Jameson
A memoir recounting the journey of a woman becoming one of the most successful adult film stars.
Jenna Jameson's unforgettable memoir is many things at once: a shocking sexual history; an insider's guide to the secret workings of the billion-dollar adult-film industry; and a gripping thriller ... (Goodreads)
In the Penal Colony
by Franz Kafka
A traveler visits a penal colony where a brutal execution machine is used. The officer in charge is obsessed with the machine's perfection.
" In the Penal Colony " (" In der Strafkolonie ") (also translated as "In the Penal Settlement") is a short story by Franz Kafka written in German in October 1914, revised in November 1918, and first ... (Wikipedia)
Battle Royale
by Koushun Takami
High school students forced to fight to the death in a dystopian society.
Battle Royale takes place in a fictional fascist Japan in the year 1997. The state, known as the Republic of Greater East Asia (,大東亜共和国,, Dai Tōa Kyōwakoku,) , arose after an alternate World War 2 ... (Wikipedia)
Tampa
by Alissa Nutting
A teacher's descent into depravity as she attempts to fulfill her twisted desires.
Celeste Price is a beautiful 26-year-old woman who is unhappily married to Ford, an alcoholic police officer with a wealthy family. She is secretly a hebephile , and has constructed her life to ... (Wikipedia)
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)
Addicted
by Zane
A story of a woman's struggle to overcome an addiction to drugs, alcohol and sex.
For successful African-American businesswoman Zoe Reynard, finding the pleasure she wants, the way she wants it, is not worth the risk of losing everything she has: marriage to the man she has loved ... (Goodreads)
Preacher, Volume 3: Proud Americans
by Garth Ennis
A preacher, his gun-toting girlfriend, and an Irish vampire set out on a mission of vengeance against the agents of heaven.
The third amazing new edition in the PREACHER series, collecting issues #18-26. Jesse Custer heads for France to rescue Cassidy, the Irish vampire, from the clutches of religious fanatics. His search ... (Goodreads)
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)
Preacher, Volume 9: Alamo
by Garth Ennis
A supernatural showdown in Texas between the forces of Heaven and Hell.
In this final volume, the story comes to an explosive climax. As the net closes around Jesse Custer, so the renegade Preacher embarks on his own endgame, a terrifying strategy that will place him ... (Goodreads)
Tortilla Flat
by John Steinbeck
A comedy of friendship and adventure, focusing on a group of paisanos living in California during the Great Depression.
Above the town of Monterey on the California coast lies the shabby district of Tortilla Flat, inhabited by a loose gang of jobless locals of Mexican-Indian - Spanish-Caucasian descent (who typically ... (Wikipedia)
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding
by Agatha Christie
Hercule Poirot solves a theft and murder mystery during a Christmas gathering in a country house.
An English country house at Christmas time should be the perfect place to get away from it all - but nothing is ever simple for Hercule Poirot, as he finds not one but five baffling cases to solve. ... (Goodreads)
Hidden Bodies
by Caroline Kepnes
A thrill-seeking serial killer's journey of mayhem and destruction.
NOW A HIT NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES THE RIVETING SEQUEL TO THE, NEW YORK TIMES, BESTSELLING, YOU, “Kepnes hits the mark, cuts deep, and twists the knife.” —,Entertainment Weekly, “Delicious and ... (Barnes & Noble)
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
by Legs McNeil
An exploration of the punk rock movement through interviews with its pioneers and participants.
A, Time Out, and, Daily News, Top Ten Book of the Year upon its initial release,, Please Kill Me, is the first oral history of the most nihilist of all pop movements. Iggy Pop, Danny Fields, Dee Dee ... (Goodreads)
The New Enchanted Broccoli Forest
by Mollie Katzen
A vegetarian cookbook filled with delicious and healthy recipes, including soups, salads, and main dishes, all featuring broccoli as a key ingredient.
This second volume in Mollie Katzen's classic cooking series features over 200 vegetarian recipes and a bounty of kitchen guidance from one of America's dearest cookbook authors. Mollie first revised ... (Goodreads)
Story of the Eye
by Georges Bataille
A surrealist exploration of transgression, sex, and violence.
Story of the Eye consists of several vignettes, centered around the sexual passion existing between the unnamed late adolescent male narrator and Simone, his primary female partner. Within this ... (Wikipedia)
Dust
by Hugh Howey
A post-apocalyptic world struggles to survive against oppressive forces.
The story of Wool takes place on a post-apocalyptic Earth. , Humanity clings to survival in the Silo, a subterranean city extending one hundred forty-four stories beneath the surface. The series ... (Wikipedia)
The Illearth War
by Stephen R. Donaldson
Epic fantasy adventure as a group of unlikely heroes fight against a tyrannical evil.
Several weeks after returning to his world from The Land , the leper Thomas Covenant is taking a phone call from his ex-wife Joan when he falls and hits his head, waking to find himself back in the ... (Wikipedia)
The Good Lord Bird
by James McBride
A comedic story of a slave escaping bondage and their unlikely friendship with abolitionist John Brown.
Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found, here, From the bestselling author of, The Color of Water, and, Song Yet Sung, comes the story of a young boy born a slave who joins John ... (Goodreads)
The Promised Neverland, Vol. 1
by Kaiu Shirai
Set in the year 2045, Emma is an 11-year-old orphan living in Grace Field House, a self-contained orphanage housing her and 37 other orphans. Life has never been better: with gourmet food; plush ... (Wikipedia)
Preacher, Volume 7: Salvation
by Garth Ennis
A mysterious force from heaven and hell threatens the world, and the Preacher must save it.
Written by Garth Ennis Art by Steve Dillon Cover by Glenn Fabry A new edition of the classic collection featuring PREACHER #41-50, in which Jesse Custer becomes the sheriff of a troubled Texas town. ... (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 Painted Bird
by Jerzy Kosiński
A young boy wandering through a war-torn Europe, struggling to find his identity.
A harrowing story that follows the wanderings of a boy abandoned by his parents during World War II, The Painted Bird is a dark novel that examines the proximity of terror and savagery to innocence ... (Goodreads)
South of No North
by Charles Bukowski
A collection of short stories that explore the gritty and raw side of life, often depicting the struggles of the working class.
South of No North contains some of Bukowski's best work. Among the short stories collected in the book are Love for $17.50, about a man named Robert whose infatuation with a mannequin in a junk shop ... (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)
Fever Dream
by Samanta Schweblin
A woman's surreal, unsettling journey into the depths of her subconscious.
Waking up disoriented in a clinic, Amanda begins a conversation with a young boy named David. He urges Amanda to try to remember what happened before she came to the clinic. Through the constant ... (Wikipedia)
Birdman
by Mo Hayder
A gritty crime thriller, delving into the dark depths of the criminal underworld.
DI Jack Caffery gets involved in a frightening case of five mutilated bodies of women whose corpses are found on the outskirts of London. His investigation yields a treasure trove of abominations. ... (Wikipedia)
The Elementals
by Michael McDowell
A gothic horror story about a family haunted by a mysterious force from the sea.
On a split of land cut off by the Gulf, three Victorian summer houses stand against the encroaching sand. Two of the houses at Beldame are still used. The third house, filling with sand, is ... (Goodreads)
The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart
by Mathias Malzieu
A fantastical story of a boy who, in order to survive, has his heart replaced with a mechanical one.
Le jour de la naissance de Jack, en 1874 à Edimbourg, est si froid que son coeur en reste gelé. La sage-femme qui l'a mis au monde, mi-sorcière mi-chaman, remplace l'organe défectueux par une horloge ... (Goodreads)
Manhattan Transfer
by John Dos Passos
A kaleidoscopic portrayal of New York City in the early 20th century, following the lives of various characters as they navigate the city's social and economic landscape.
The novel tells the stories, primarily, of four people living in Manhattan from the 1890s to the late 1920s. The stories are presented in a fragmented, contrasting way, often juxtaposing them to ... (Wikipedia)
Les Infortunes de La Vertu
by Marquis de Sade
A woman's descent into depravity, through a series of misfortunes in a society full of immorality and cruelty.
The plot concerns Justine, a 12-year-old maiden ("As for Justine, aged as we have remarked, twelve") who sets off to make her way in France. It follows her until age 26 in her quest for virtue. She ... (Wikipedia)
Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology
by Bruce Sterling
A collection of short stories that explore the gritty, high-tech world of cyberpunk, where humans and machines merge and society is ruled by corporations.
With their hard-edged, street-wise prose, they created frighteningly probable futures of high-tech societies and low-life hustlers. Fans and critics call their world cyberpunk. Here is the definitive ... (Goodreads)
An Idiot Abroad: The Travel Diaries of Karl Pilkington
by Karl Pilkington
A reluctant traveler is sent around the world to experience different cultures and customs, often with hilarious results.
The companion guide to the hysterical television show of the same name, in which Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant force their arrestingly simple pal Karl Pilkington on a global journey "He'd have ... (Goodreads)
Prince of Thorns
by Mark Lawrence
A young prince's quest for revenge against those who killed his family.
Before the thorns taught me their sharp lessons and bled weakness from me I had but one brother, and I loved him well. But those days are gone and what is left of them lies in my mother's tomb. Now I ... (Goodreads)
Plum Spooky
by Janet Evanovich
A female bounty hunter teams up with a gang of peculiar characters to solve a mystery.
Evanovich fans rejoice! Stephanie Plum is back in town, along with her sidekick Lula, her Grandma Mazur, and an ever-widening cast of freaks, criminals, deranged felons, and lunatics looking for ... (Goodreads)
The Boys from Brazil
by Ira Levin
An international thriller involving a sinister plot to clone Hitler and create a Fourth Reich.
Yakov Liebermann is a Nazi hunter (loosely based on Simon Wiesenthal ) who runs a center in Vienna that documents crimes against humanity, perpetrated during the Holocaust . The waning interest of ... (Wikipedia)
Tough Shit: Life Advice from a Fat, Lazy Slob Who Did Good
by Kevin Smith
Kevin Smith shares his life experiences and offers advice on how to overcome obstacles and achieve success.
That "Kevin Smith? The guy who did Clerks a million years ago? Didn t they bounce his fat ass off a plane once? What could you possibly learn from the director of Cop Out ? How about this: he changed ... (Goodreads)
The Siren
by Tiffany Reisz
An erotic romance between a writer and a siren, exploring the power of seduction and desire.
Notorious Nora Sutherlin is famous for her delicious works of erotica, each one more popular with readers than the last. But her latest manuscript is different—more serious, more personal—and she's ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Double
by José Saramago
A man discovers his doppelganger, leading to a surreal and unsettling exploration of identity and reality.
Tertuliano Máximo Afonso is a divorced high school history teacher who spends his nights reading about Mesopotamian civilizations. One day Tertuliano rents a movie recommended by a colleague and sees ... (Wikipedia)
The Black Company
by Glen Cook
Mercenary soldiers of a legendary company face the trials and tribulations of war.
The series follows an elite mercenary unit, The Black Company, last of the Free Companies of Khatovar, through roughly forty years of its approximately four-hundred-year history. Cook mixes fantasy ... (Wikipedia)
Bloody Mary
by J.A. Konrath
A gruesome serial killer is on the loose, and Lieutenant Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels must stop them before they strike again.
Feisty female police officer Jack Daniels is back to solve her most compelling case yet! From major new mystery talent J. A. Konrath comes the latest intoxicating cocktail in the Jack Daniels series ... (Goodreads)
The Fairy Gunmother
by Daniel Pennac
Intenta ad attraversare la strada con tutta la circospezione dovuta all'età avanzata, una vecchietta tremolante impugna improvvisamente una P38, prende la mira e fa secco un giovane commissario di ... (Goodreads)
Porno
by Irvine Welsh
A darkly comic look at the lives of a group of drug-addled youths in Scotland.
The novel is divided into three sections, each of which comprises chapters with different narrators . Unlike Trainspotting which had more narrational diversity, Porno is reduced to just five ... (Wikipedia)
Grotesque
by Natsuo Kirino
Two women's lives intertwine after a murder at an elite school in Tokyo. A dark exploration of societal pressures and the human psyche.
The book is written in the first person for all parts and follows a woman whose sister and old school friend have been murdered. The narrator of Grotesque is unnamed and forever lives under the ... (Wikipedia)
Filth
by Irvine Welsh
A darkly humorous story of a degenerate cop's descent into drug-fueled chaos.
Bruce Robertson is a detective sergeant serving in Edinburgh 's " Lothian Constabulary ". Robertson is a Machiavellian, intensely misanthropic man who spends his time indulging in cocaine and alcohol ... (Wikipedia)
Young Avengers, Volume 2: Alternative Culture
by Kieron Gillen
The Young Avengers face off against Mother, a shape-shifting parasite, while exploring their identities and relationships.
Collects Young Avengers (2013) #6-10. Ever wonder what the super hero equivalent of a terrible soul-sucking, talent-wasting temp job is? Wonder what Tommy (aka Speed) has been up to? Wonder why ... (Barnes & Noble)
Ice Hunt
by James Rollins
A team of scientists and soldiers race to uncover a secret hidden in the Arctic ice before a deadly enemy finds it first.
Carved into a moving island of ice twice the size of the United States, Ice Station Grendel has been abandoned for more than seventy years. The twisted brainchild of the finest minds of the former ... (Goodreads)
Bitch
by Deja King
A gritty urban tale of a woman's rise to power in the drug game, navigating betrayal and violence along the way.
Precious Cummings came from nothing but was determined to have it all. Using her most deadly weapons - undeniable beauty, body and street savvy brains, Precious sets out to change the cards that ... (Goodreads)
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