Big Balls Books 🧐

The Odyssey

Homer · 2018

Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Penguin Classics)

Thomas Hardy · 2003

Sense and Sensibility (Penguin Classics)

Jane Austen · 2003

Persuasion (Jane Austen)

Jane Austen · 2014

A Tale of Two Cities (Penguin Classics)

Charles Dickens · 2003

Don Quixote

Miguel de Cervantes · 2003

Sons and Lovers

D.H. Lawrence · 2019

Infinite Jest

David Foster Wallace · 2009

The Time Machine

H.G. Wells · 2021

The Interpretation of Dreams

Sigmund Freud · 2015

Life and Fate

Vasily Grossman · 1995

Moby Dick

Herman Melville · 2022

Mansfield Park

Jane Austen · 2016

Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius · 2012

The Shadow of the Wind

Carlos Ruiz Zafón · 2005

Flowers for Algernon

Daniel Keyes · 2004

Women in Love

D.H. Lawrence · 1996

The Rainbow

D. H. Lawrence · 2020

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Gabriel Garcia Marquez · 2014

Love in the Time of Cholera

Gabriel Garcia Marquez · 1988

The Trial

Franz Kafka · 2020

Gone With the Wind

Margaret Mitchell · 1996

A Course in Miracles

Helen Schucman · 2006

Paradise Lost

John Milton · 2020

The Goldfinch

Donna Tartt · 2015

""The Goldfinch" is a rarity that comes along perhaps half a dozen times per decade, a smartly written literary novel that connects with the heart as well as the mind....Donna Tartt has delivered an extraordinary work of fiction."--Stephen King, "The New York Times Book Review" Composed with the skills of a master, "The Goldfinch" is a haunted odyssey through present day America and a drama of enthralling force and acuity. It begins with a boy. Theo Decker, a thirteen-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his unbearable longing for his mother, he clings to one thing that reminds him of a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art. As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love-and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle. "The Goldfinch" is a novel of shocking narrative energy and power. It combines unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language, and breathtaking suspense, while plumbing with a philosopher's calm the deepest mysteries of love, identity, and art. It is a beautiful, stay-up-all-night and tell-all-your-friends triumph, an old-fashioned story of loss and obsession, survival and self-invention, and the ruthless machinations of fate.

The Doors of Perception

Aldous Huxley · 1970

Middlesex

Jeffrey Eugenides · 2022

The Da Vinci Code

Dan Brown · 2006

Letters from a Stoic (Penguin Classics)

Lucius Annaeus Seneca · 1969

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: A George Smiley Novel

John le Carré · 2011

Siddhartha

Herman Hesse · 2022

Memoirs of a Geisha

Arthur Golden · 2009

The Talisman

Stephen King, Peter Straub · 1984

Heart of Darkness

Joseph Conrad · 2020

War And Peace

Leo Tolstoy · 2009

At a glittering society party in St Petersburg in 1805, conversations are dominated by the prospect of war. Terros swiftly engulfs the country as Napoleon's army marches on Rusia, and the lives of three young people are changed for ever. The stories of quixotic Pierre, cynical Andrey and impetuous Natasha interweave with a huge cast, from aristocrats and peasants to soldiers and Napoleon himself. In War and Peace (1863-9), Tolstoy entwines grand themes - conflict and love, birth and death, free will and fate - with unforgettable scenes of nineteenth-century Russia, to create a magnificent epic of human life in all its imperfection and grandeur.

1Q84

Haruki Murakami · 2011

EMMA Jane Austen

Jane Austen · 2020

Collector's Edition featuring illustrations and indexed pages. Complete, unedited and unabridged version. Emma, by Jane Austen, is a novel about youthful hubris and the perils of misconstrued romance. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian-Regency England; she also creates a lively comedy of manners among her characters.Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like." In the first sentence, she introduces the title character as "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich." Emma is spoiled, headstrong, and self-satisfied; she greatly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities; she is blind to the dangers of meddling in other people's lives; and her imagination and perceptions often lead her astray.

Sula

Toni Morrison · 2004

The Green Mile

Stephen King · 2008

The Institute: A Novel

Stephen King · 2020

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King, the most riveting and unforgettable story of kids confronting evil since It. “This is King at his best” (The St. Louis Post-Dispatch).<br/><br/>In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis’s parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two minutes. Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there’s no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents—telekinesis and telepathy—who got to this place the same way Luke did: Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris, and ten-year-old Avery Dixon. They are all in Front Half. Others, Luke learns, graduated to Back Half, “like the roach motel,” Kalisha says. “You check in, but you don’t check out.”<br/><br/>In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don’t, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.<br/><br/>As psychically terrifying as Firestarter, and with the spectacular kid power of It, The Institute “is another winner: creepy and touching and horrifyingly believable, all at once” (The Boston Globe).

The Brothers Karamazov

Fyodor Dostoyevsky · 2004

Fyodor Dostoyevsky's final novel, considered to be the culmination of his life's work, "The Brothers Karamazov" is the story of the murder of Father Karamazov, whose four sons are all to some degree complicit in the crime. Within the context of this crime story evolves a brilliant philosophical debate of religion, reason, liberty, and the nature of guilt in society. Considered by Sigmund Freud as "The most magnificent novel ever written", the excellent translation of Constance Garnett is presented here in this edition of "The Brothers Karamazov".

House of Leaves

Mark Z. Danielewski · 2000

The Dream Life of Sukhanov

Olga Grushin · 2007

To the Lighthouse

Virginia Woolf · 2023

To the Lighthouse, novel by Virginia Woolf, published in 1927. The work is one of her most successful and accessible experiments in the stream-of-consciousness style.<br/>The three sections of the book take place between 1910 and 1920 and revolve around various members of the Ramsay family during visits to their summer residence on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. A central motif of the novel is the conflict between the feminine and masculine principles at work in the universe. In the first part, the reader looks at the world through Mrs. Ramsay’s eyes as she presides over her children and a group of guests on a summer holiday. In the second section of the novel, Woolf illustrates time’s passage by describing the changes wrought in the summer home over a decade. The third section relates the return of the Ramsay children, now grown, and Lily Briscoe, a painter and friend of the family.

Giovanni’s Room

In Cold Blood

Truman Capote · 1966

The People in the Trees

Hanya Yanagihara · 2013

Man and His Symbols

Carl Gustav Jung · 1969

Illustrated throughout with revealing images, this is the first and only work in which the world-famous Swiss psychologist explains to the layperson his enormously influential theory of symbolism as revealed in dreams.

Lapvona

Moshfegh Otessa · 2022

The Two Towers

J. R. R. Tolkien · 1982

The standard hardcover edition of the second volume of The Lord of the Rings includes a large format fold-out map. Frodo and his Companions of the Ring have been beset by danger during their quest to prevent the Ruling Ring from falling into the hands of the Dark Lord by destroying it in the Cracks of Doom. They have lost the wizard, Gandalf, in a battle in the Mines of Moria. And Boromir, seduced by the power of the Ring, tried to seize it by force. While Frodo and Sam made their escape, the rest of the company was attacked by Orcs. Now they continue the journey alone down the great River Anduin -- alone, that is, save for the mysterious creeping figure that follows wherever they go.

Carmilla

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu · 2020

Carmilla is an 1872 Gothic novella by Irish author Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu and one of the early works of vampire fiction, predating Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) by 26 years. First published as a serial in The Dark Blue (1871–72), the story is narrated by a young woman preyed upon by a female vampire named Carmilla, later revealed to be Mircalla, Countess Karnstein (Carmilla is an anagram of Mircalla). The character is a prototypical example of the lesbian vampire, expressing romantic desires toward the protagonist, and is depicted as a trait of antagonism in line with the contemporary views of homosexuality.

The Grapes of Wrath

John Steinbeck · 2023

The Grapes of Wrath is a novel written by John Steinbeck that tells the story of the Joad family's journey from Oklahoma to California during the Great Depression. The novel highlights the struggles and hardships faced by migrant workers during this time, as well as the exploitation they faced at the hands of wealthy landowners. Steinbeck's writing style is raw and powerful, with vivid descriptions that bring the characters and their surroundings to life. The novel has been widely acclaimed for its social commentary and remains a classic in American literature. Despite being published over 80 years ago, the novel still resonates with readers today, serving as a reminder of the importance of empathy and compassion towards those who are less fortunate.

Blood Meridian

Cormac McCarthy · 2010

"Blood Meridian" is an epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, brilliantly subverting the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the Wild West. Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennesseean who stumbles into a nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving.

Anna Karenina

Leo Tolstoy · 1997

The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne · 2015

The Portrait of a Lady

Henry James · 2007

Frankenstein

Mary Shelley · 2018

<b>Mary Shelley’s classic novel, presented in its original 1818 text, with an introduction from National Book Critics Circle award-winner Charlotte Gordon</b><br>  <br> <b>Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s <i>The Great American Read</i></b><br>  <br>The original 1818 text of <i>Frankenstein</i> preserves the hard-hitting and politically-charged aspects of Shelley’s original writing, as well as her unflinching wit and strong female voice. This edition also emphasizes Shelley’s relationship with her mother—trailblazing feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, who penned <i>A Vindication of the Rights of Woman</i>—and demonstrates her commitment to carrying forward her mother’s ideals, placing her in the context of a feminist legacy rather than the sole female in the company of male poets, including Percy Shelley and Lord Byron.<br>  <br> This edition includes a new introduction and suggestions for further reading by National Book Critics Circle award-winner and Shelley expert Charlotte Gordon, literary excerpts and reviews selected by Gordon, and a chronology and essay by preeminent Shelley scholar Charles E. Robinson. <br>  <br>Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

The Count of Monte Cristo

Alexandre Dumas · 1998

Beloved

Toni Morrison · 2022

To Paradise: A Novel

Hanya Yanagihara · 2022

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • From the award-winning, best-selling author of the classic A Little Life—a bold, brilliant novel spanning three centuries and three different versions of the American experiment, about lovers, family, loss and the elusive promise of utopia. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: VOGUE • ESQUIRE • NPR • GOODREADS To Paradise is a fin de siècle novel of marvelous literary effect, but above all it is a work of emotional genius. The great power of this remarkable novel is driven by Yanagihara’s understanding of the aching desire to protect those we love—partners, lovers, children, friends, family, and even our fellow citizens—and the pain that ensues when we cannot. In an alternate version of 1893 America, New York is part of the Free States, where people may live and love whomever they please (or so it seems). The fragile young scion of a distinguished family resists betrothal to a worthy suitor, drawn to a charming music teacher of no means. In a 1993 Manhattan besieged by the AIDS epidemic, a young Hawaiian man lives with his much older, wealthier partner, hiding his troubled childhood and the fate of his father. And in 2093, in a world riven by plagues and governed by totalitarian rule, a powerful scientist’s damaged granddaughter tries to navigate life without him—and solve the mystery of her husband’s disappearances.   These three sections comprise an ingenious symphony, as recurring notes and themes deepen and enrich one another: A townhouse in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village; illness, and treatments that come at a terrible cost; wealth and squalor; the weak and the strong; race; the definition of family, and of nationhood; the dangerous righteousness of the powerful, and of revolutionaries; the longing to find a place in an earthly paradise, and the gradual realization that it can’t exist. What unites not just the characters, but these Americas, are their reckonings with the qualities that make us human: Fear. Love. Shame. Need. Loneliness.

Jamaica Inn

Daphne du Maurier · 2013

From the author of Rebecca and The Birds: a classic thriller of shipwreck and murder, "rich in suspense and surprise" (New York Times Book Review).  On a bitter November evening, young Mary Yellan journeys across the rainswept moors to Jamaica Inn in honor of her mother's dying request. When she arrives, the warning of the coachman begins to echo in her memory, for her aunt Patience cowers before hulking Uncle Joss Merlyn. Terrified of the inn's brooding power, Mary gradually finds herself ensnared in the dark schemes being enacted behind its crumbling walls -- and tempted to love a man she dares not trust. The inspiration for the 1939 Alfred Hitchcock film.

The Master and Margarita

Mikhail Bulgakov · 1994

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

Isabel Wilkerson · 2023

Notes from Underground

Fyodor Dostoyevsky · 2016

The Waves

Virginia Woolf · 1978