Literary theme analysis, by a book like {foo}
Books about Uniqueness
Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America
by Steve Almond
A humorous and informative exploration of the history and culture of small candy makers in America.
A self-professed candyfreak, Steve Almond set out in search of a much-loved candy from his childhood and found himself on a tour of the small candy companies that are persevering in a marketplace ... (Goodreads)
Everything Is Illuminated
by Jonathan Safran Foer
A young man's journey to trace his family's past, uncovering the secrets of the Holocaust.
Jonathan Safran Foer (the author), a young American Jew, who is vegetarian and an avid collector of his family's heritage, journeys to Ukraine in search of Augustine, the woman who saved his ... (Wikipedia)
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
by Patrick Süskind
A murder mystery set in 18th century France, exploring the depths of human obsession.
An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of ... (Goodreads)
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
by Ransom Riggs
A mysterious island and an old abandoned home, harboring secrets and strange creatures.
Alternate Cover edition for ISBN 9781594744761 A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine's Home ... (Goodreads)
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
by Muriel Barbery
A story of two unlikely outcasts who find solace and comfort in each other's company.
The story revolves mainly around the characters of Renée Michel and Paloma Josse, residents of an upper-middle class Left Bank apartment building at 7 Rue de Grenelle – one of the most elegant ... (Wikipedia)
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
by Karen Joy Fowler
A family's secrets and a girl's quest for the truth about her own identity.
The, New York Times, bestselling author of, The Jane Austen Book Club, introduces a middle-class American family that is ordinary in every way but one in this novel that won the PEN/Faulkner Award ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Archived
by Victoria Schwab
A girl discovers a hidden world of secrets and supernatural beings when she starts working in a library for the dead.
Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books. Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in ... (Barnes & Noble)
Watchmen
by Alan Moore
A group of vigilante superheroes face a looming danger, exposing the darkness of the world.
This Hugo Award-winning graphic novel chronicles the fall from grace of a group of super-heroes plagued by all-too-human failings. Along the way, the concept of the super-hero is dissected as the ... (Goodreads)
Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon
by Chuck Palahniuk
A guidebook to the hidden gems and eccentricities of Portland, Oregon, written by the author of "Fight Club."
Want to know where Chuck Palahniuk's tonsils currently reside? Been looking for a naked mannequin to hide in your kitchen cabinets? Curious about Chuck's debut in an MTV music video? What goes on at ... (Goodreads)
The Lady of the Lake
by Andrzej Sapkowski
A battle for the fate of the world between humans and monsters, with a witcher at the center.
The story opens with Ciri bathing in a lake from another world. As she does so, Sir Galahad, King Arthur 's knight, stumbles upon her. After mistaking her for the Lady of the Lake, they then talk and ... (Wikipedia)
In Persuasion Nation
by George Saunders
A collection of satirical short stories that critique consumerism, media, and politics in modern America.
The stories In Persuasion Nation are easily his best work yet. "The Red Bow,"about a town consumed by pet-killing hysteria, won a 2004 National Magazine Award and "Bohemians," the story of two ... (Goodreads)
Mason & Dixon
by Thomas Pynchon
Epic tale of two surveyors in colonial America, exploring the boundaries of knowledge and identity.
Charles Mason (1728-1786) and Jeremiah Dixon (1733-1779) were the British surveyors best remembered for running the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland that we know today as the Mason-Dixon ... (Goodreads)
Mother's Milk
by Edward St. Aubyn
A darkly humorous exploration of a dysfunctional upper-class family, grappling with addiction, trauma, and the legacy of abuse.
The story follows Patrick Melrose through his forties. The novel explores themes of maternal love, parenthood, nostalgia, and infancy. It follows Patrick as he and his wife Mary are consumed by ... (Wikipedia)
The Third Policeman
by Flann O'Brien
A bizarre yet darkly funny tale of a man's descent into a surreal world of mischievous creatures and strange events.
The Third Policeman is set in rural Ireland and is narrated by a dedicated amateur scholar of de Selby , a scientist and philosopher. , The narrator, whose name we never learn, is orphaned at a young ... (Wikipedia)
The Gashlycrumb Tinies
by Edward Gorey
An alphabet book featuring children meeting their untimely demise in various ways, illustrated in Gorey's signature macabre style.
The Gashlycrumb Tinies: or, After the Outing is an abecedarian book written by Edward Gorey that was first published in 1963. Gorey tells the tale of 26 children (each representing a letter of the ... (Goodreads)
Chronic City
by Jonathan Lethem
A surreal tale of a former child star and a cultural critic navigating a strange, alternate version of New York City.
The acclaimed author of Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude returns with a roar with this gorgeous, searing portrayal of Manhattanites wrapped in their own delusions, desires, and lies. ... (Goodreads)
A Wild Sheep Chase
by Haruki Murakami
A surreal journey of self-discovery through fantasy, reality, and the unknown.
This quasi-detective tale follows an unnamed, chain-smoking narrator and his adventures in Tokyo and Hokkaido in 1978. The story begins when the recently divorced protagonist, an advertisement ... (Wikipedia)
Special Topics in Calamity Physics
by Marisha Pessl
Blue van Meer navigates her senior year at an eccentric school, uncovering secrets and tragedies along the way.
Blue van Meer is a film-obsessed, erudite teenager. She is the daughter of itinerant and arrogant academic Gareth van Meer, who, after the death of his amateur lepidopteran-catching wife (and Blue's ... (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)
The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories
by Tim Burton
Collection of darkly humorous, twisted tales of peculiar and fantastical characters.
From breathtaking stop-action animation to bittersweet modern fairy tales, filmmaker Tim Burton has become known for his unique visual brilliance – witty and macabre at once. Now he gives birth to a ... (Goodreads)
Diary of a Madman and Other Stories
by Nikolai Gogol
Collection of humorous and dark stories exploring the absurd and surreal.
Hailed by Nabokov as "the greatest artist that Russia has yet produced," Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) left his mark as a playwright, novelist, and writer of short stories. Gogol's works remain popular ... (Goodreads)
Bink & Gollie
by Kate DiCamillo
Two best friends, Bink and Gollie, embark on hilarious adventures and learn valuable lessons along the way.
Meet Bink and Gollie, two precocious little girls — one tiny, one tall, and both utterly irrepressible. Setting out from their super-deluxe tree house and powered by plenty of peanut butter (for ... (Goodreads)
The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
by Franz Kafka
A collection of surreal stories exploring the depths of the human condition.
Virtually unknown during his lifetime, Franz Kafka is now one of the world’s most widely read and discussed authors. His nightmarish novels and short stories have come to symbolize modern man’s ... (Goodreads)
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
by Ben H. Winters
A parody of Jane Austen's classic novel, with added sea monsters and adventure on the high seas.
The story follows the plot of Sense and Sensibility , but places the novel in an alternate universe version of Regency era United Kingdom where an event known as “The Alteration” has turned the ... (Wikipedia)
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)
Elmer
by David McKee
Elmer, a colorful patchwork elephant, tries to fit in with the other elephants but learns to celebrate his uniqueness.
Elmer the elephant is bright-colored patchwork all over. No wonder the other elephants laugh at him! If he were ordinary elephant color, the others might stop laughing. That would make Elmer feel ... (Goodreads)
Boy, Snow, Bird
by Helen Oyeyemi
A retelling of Snow White set in 1950s America, exploring themes of identity, race and family.
Boy Novak, a young white girl, is born to an abusive father who works as an exterminator and whom she refers to as the rat catcher. In the winter of 1953, when she is twenty years old, Boy runs away ... (Wikipedia)
The Woman Upstairs
by Claire Messud
The story of a woman's inner turmoil as she struggles with feelings of dissatisfaction and longing.
Nora Elridge is an elementary school teacher living in Cambridge, Massachusetts who was raised by her frustrated stay at home mother to have artistic ambitions, ambitions which she was never able to ... (Wikipedia)
Shades of Grey
by Jasper Fforde
A satirical fantasy adventure through a world divided by the ability to see colors.
Chromatacia is a future dystopian society that exists at least five hundred years (although possibly more) after the collapse of our own society, identified as 'the Previous'. All life is governed by ... (Wikipedia)
Homo Zapiens
by Victor Pelevin
A satirical novel exploring the nature of reality and identity through the eyes of a young man navigating the world of advertising in post-Soviet Russia.
The collapse of the Soviet Union has opened up a huge consumer market, but how do you sell things to a generation that grew up with just one type of cola? When Tatarsky, a frustrated poet, takes a ... (Goodreads)
Perdido Street Station
by China Miéville
A thrilling adventure through a captivating and unique city, filled with danger and magic.
Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin is a scientist living in the city of New Crobuzon. He is approached by Yagharek, a member of a birdlike species known as garuda , who has had his wings removed as a ... (Wikipedia)
Emerald Green
by Kerstin Gier
A teenage girl's journey of adventure, unlocking the secrets of time travel.
Gwyneth Shepherd, a 16-year-old student, feels dizzy for the first time during lunch at her school in London. Not long after, she unintentionally jumps through time while leaving the house. At first, ... (Wikipedia)
Secondhand Souls
by Christopher Moore
A madcap adventure through the streets of San Francisco to save the city from an ancient supernatural force.
In San Francisco, the souls of the dead are mysteriously disappearing—and you know that can't be good—in New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore's delightfully funny sequel to A Dirty ... (Goodreads)
The Midwich Cuckoos
by John Wyndham
A mysterious event in a small English village leads to the birth of telepathic children.
Ambulances arrive at two traffic accidents blocking the only roads into the (fictional) British village of Midwich, Winshire. Attempting to approach the village, one ambulanceman becomes unconscious. ... (Wikipedia)
Exquisite Corpse
by Poppy Z. Brite
An exploration of love, sex, and death through the lives of four interconnected characters.
The novel unfolds in alternating chapters from the points of view of the four main characters. Andrew Compton, a convicted serial killer (based on serial killer Dennis Nilsen ), escapes his UK prison ... (Wikipedia)
All My Friends Are Dead
by Avery Monsen
A lighthearted exploration of death, in the context of the animal kingdom.
"Laugh out loud funny, and a tiny bit disturbing. In other words, perfect.", - The Huffington Post An amusing and captivating tale that's a delightful primer for laughing at the inevitable: If you're ... (Goodreads)
Sideways Stories from Wayside School
by Louis Sachar
A collection of humorous tales set in an offbeat school, featuring a cast of eccentric characters.
There was a terrible mistake - Wayside School was built with one classroom on top of another, thirty stories high (The builder said he was sorry.) Maybe that's why all kinds of funny things happened ... (Goodreads)
Astro City, Vol. 1: Life in the Big City
by Kurt Busiek
An exploration of a vibrant city, populated by superheroes and everyday citizens.
Volumes 1-6 of Kurt Busiek's Astro City are collected in this volume that also includes a sketchbook showing the development of Astro City a cover gallery of cover paintings. ... (Goodreads)
Soulless
by Gail Carriger
A Victorian England-set adventure featuring vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures.
Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a ... (Goodreads)
How to Be Both
by Ali Smith
Exploring duality and interconnectedness through the life of a girl and a Renaissance artist.
Passionate, compassionate, vitally inventive and scrupulously playful, Ali Smith’s novels are like nothing else. A true original, she is a one-of-a-kind literary sensation. Her novels consistently ... (Goodreads)
The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil
by Stephen Collins
A man's life is turned upside down when he grows a gigantic beard that threatens to consume his entire town.
The job of the skin is to keep things in. On the buttoned-down island of Here, all is well. By which we mean: orderly, neat, contained and, moreover, beardless. Or at least it is until one famous ... (Goodreads)
Clara and Mr. Tiffany
by Susan Vreeland
The story of Clara Driscoll, head of the women's division at Tiffany Studios, and her collaboration with Louis Comfort Tiffany on iconic stained-glass lamps.
Against the unforgettable backdrop of New York near the turn of the twentieth century, from the Gilded Age world of formal balls and opera to the immigrant poverty of the Lower East Side, bestselling ... (Goodreads)
I Could Pee On This: And Other Poems By Cats
by Francesco Marciuliano
A book of humorous poems from the perspective of cats, exploring the unique personalities of felines.
Animal lovers will laugh out loud at the quirkiness of their feline friends with these insightful and curious poems from the singular minds of funny cats. In this hilarious book of tongue-in-cheek ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street
by Natasha Pulley
A man searches for clues to his past, unlocking secrets of the supernatural.
1883. Thaniel Steepleton returns home to his tiny London apartment to find a gold pocket watch on his pillow. Six months later, the mysterious timepiece saves his life, drawing him away from a blast ... (Goodreads)
Lanark
by Alasdair Gray
Four-part novel exploring the life of artist Duncan Thaw and his alter-ego, Lanark, in a surreal and dystopian world.
Lanark comprises four books, arranged in the order Three, One, Two, Four (there is also a Prologue before Book One, and an Epilogue four chapters before the end of the book). In the Epilogue, the ... (Wikipedia)
In the Labyrinth of Drakes
by Marie Brennan
Lady Trent returns to her passion of studying dragons, this time in the dangerous deserts of Akhia.
I,n the Labyrinth of Drakes, the thrilling new book in the acclaimed fantasy series from Marie Brennan, the glamorous Lady Trent takes her adventurous explorations to the deserts of Akhia. Even those ... (Barnes & Noble)
You're Never Weird on the Internet
by Felicia Day
Memoir of an unconventional life in Hollywood, embracing individuality and creativity.
The instant, New York Times, bestseller from “queen of the geeks” Felicia Day,, You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost), is a “relentlessly funny and surprisingly inspirational” (,Forbes,) memoir ... (Barnes & Noble)
Wayside School Is Falling Down
by Louis Sachar
A humorous tale about the strange and wacky events at an unusual school.
Louis yard teacher starts off 30 tales of unusual students. Comic sketches precede every chapter. Todd brings a cute adorable plastic puppy who bites back when Joy steals it. Cafeteria Mrs Mush ... (Goodreads)
Chasing Vermeer
by Blue Balliett
An artistic mystery that unravels through a series of clues and puzzles.
The book begins with a mysterious letter that is delivered to three unknown recipients, two women and one man. The letter tells them they are of great need to the sender, but begs them not to tell ... (Wikipedia)
English Passengers
by Matthew Kneale
A darkly comic novel about the voyage of a group of Englishmen to Tasmania in search of the Garden of Eden.
In 1857, after their attempts to smuggle contraband goods land them with a heavy fine from the British Customs , Captain Illiam Quillian Kewley and his crew of Manx sailors are forced to offer their ... (Wikipedia)
Version Control
by Dexter Palmer
A woman tries to save her marriage and unravel the mysteries of time travel. A thought-provoking exploration of relationships and the consequences of our choices.
Rebecca Wright has reclaimed her life, finding her way out of her grief and depression following a personal tragedy years ago. She spends her days working in customer support for the internet dating ... (Goodreads)
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
by Olga Tokarczuk
An elderly woman's journey of self-discovery, as she investigates a series of mysterious animal deaths.
In a remote Polish village, Janina devotes the dark winter days to studying astrology, translating the poetry of William Blake, and taking care of the summer homes of wealthy Warsaw residents. Her ... (Goodreads)
FRUiTS
by Shoichi Aoki
A photographic exploration of youth fashion in Japan, capturing the spirit of street style.
This extensive collection of portraits represents a unique documentation of the changing face of street fashion throughout the last decade. Colourful, fascinating and funny, this is the first time ... (Goodreads)
The Elephant Vanishes
by Haruki Murakami
Collection of short stories depicting the surreal and mysterious aspects of life.
Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780679750536 With the same deadpan mania and genius for dislocation that he brought to his internationally acclaimed novels A Wild Sheep Chase and Hard-Boiled ... (Goodreads)
Mouthful of Birds
by Samanta Schweblin
A collection of surreal and haunting short stories that explore the dark and unsettling aspects of human nature.
A powerful, eerily unsettling story collection from a major international literary star., Unearthly and unexpected, the stories in Mouthful of Birds burrow their way into your psyche and don't let ... (Goodreads)
Lost in the Funhouse
by John Barth
A collection of postmodern short stories that challenge traditional narrative structures and blur the line between reality and fiction.
Barth's lively, highly original collection of short pieces is a major landmark of experimental fiction. Though many of the stories gathered here were published separately, there are several themes ... (Goodreads)
The Far Side Gallery 3
by Gary Larson
Collection of absurd, surreal and darkly humorous cartoons.
The third, Far Side, treasury. 1988 FarWorks, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Far Side and the Larson signature are registered trademarks of FarWorks, Inc. ... (Goodreads)
The Giant's House
by Elizabeth McCracken
A librarian falls in love with a boy who grows to be a giant. Their relationship is tested by society's expectations and the boy's health.
An unusual love story about a little librarian on Cape Cod and the tallest boy in the world, The Giant's House is the magical first novel from the author of the 1994 ALA Notable collection Here's ... (Goodreads)
Graffiti World: Street Art from Five Continents
by Nicholas Ganz
A comprehensive look at the global street art movement, featuring stunning photographs and interviews with prominent graffiti artists.
"Graffiti World is the ultimate graffiti book. Offering a unique insight into the very essence of graffiti and its creative explosion over the past thirty-five years, it takes us on an adventure ... (Goodreads)
Life Among Them
by Robert Kirkman
A post-apocalyptic tale of survival and hope, as a group of survivors strive to rebuild society.
At long last, the survivors of Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard's acclaimed post-apocalyptic survival adventure find the hope they've longed look for. Can a town not yet ravaged by the horrors ... (Goodreads)
Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time
by Mark Adams
An adventurous journey to uncover the secrets of Peru's Machu Picchu.
THE, NEW YORK TIMES, BESTSELLING TRAVEL MEMOIR,What happens when an unadventurous adventure writer tries to re-create the original expedition to Machu Picchu?,In 1911, Hiram Bingham III climbed into ... (Barnes & Noble)
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)
The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack
by Mark Hodder
In an alternate Victorian London, explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton investigates the mysterious Spring Heeled Jack.
A time-traveller from the distant future returns to 1840 to prevent an ancestor from attempting to commit an act of regicide . After failing in his mission, he returns to 1837 and recruits the 'Mad ... (Wikipedia)
The Memory of Babel
by Christelle Dabos
A teenage girl embarks on a journey to uncover the mysteries of her past and restore peace to her homeland.
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)
One of Our Thursdays Is Missing
by Jasper Fforde
A zany and thrilling detective story set in a world of fantasy and fairytales.
Literature detective Thursday Next, who has the ability to travel between the RealWorld and the BookWorld, disappears before stopping a genre war. Her BookWorld counterpart, Thursday Next, receives a ... (Wikipedia)
Phoenix Rising
by Pip Ballantine
Eliza Braun and Wellington Books are back to save the world from supernatural threats in this steampunk adventure.
In Victorian England, Londoners wash up dead on Thames, drained of blood and bone. Clandestine Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences is forbidden to investigate. But Eliza Braun, with bulletproof corset, ... (Goodreads)
Curly Girl
by Lorraine Massey
A guide to embracing and caring for curly hair, with tips on styling, cutting, and product recommendations.
The Curly Girl manifesto is back, now completely revised, updated, and expanded by more than a third with all-new material. Created by curly hair evangelist Lorraine Massey—the go-to curl expert ... (Goodreads)
As She Climbed Across the Table
by Jonathan Lethem
A physicist falls in love with a black hole she created, causing chaos in her personal and professional life.
Lack is an emptiness created in a particle collider. Professor Soft theorized that the experiment would replicate the Big Bang and opened a wormhole to a microscopic universe and that this wormhole ... (Wikipedia)
Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things
by Richard Wiseman
A fun and fascinating exploration of the science behind everyday quirks and behaviors.
For over twenty years, psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman has examined the quirky science of everyday life. In Quirkology , he navigates the backwaters of human behavior, discovering the ... (Barnes & Noble)
Die Känguru-Offenbarung
by Marc-Uwe Kling
The story opens with Marc-Uwe Kling answering the door to a kangaroo. It explains that it would like to borrow some eggs from him, as it wants to make pancakes but did not remember to buy any eggs. ... (Wikipedia)
Undermajordomo Minor
by Patrick deWitt
A young man's strange and humorous adventures in a distant land.
Friendless and loveless, young and aimless, Lucien (Lucy) Minor is the resident odd duck in his bucolic hamlet of Bury, a weakling and compulsive liar in a town famous for producing brutish giants. ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Water-Method Man
by John Irving
A man's mid-life crisis leads him to question his relationships and sexuality, while pursuing a career in academia.
The novel revolves around the mishaps of its narrator, Fred Trumper, a floundering late-twenty-something graduate student with serious commitment and honesty issues that earn him the nickname ... (Wikipedia)
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