Book List 🦋

Convenience Store Woman: A Novel

Sayaka Murata · 2019

Shortlisted for the Best Translated Book Award<br/>Longlisted for the Believer Book Award<br/>Longlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation<br/>A Los Angeles Times Bestseller<br/><br/>The English-language debut of an exciting young voice in international fiction, selling 660,000 copies in Japan alone, Convenience Store Woman is a bewitching portrayal of contemporary Japan through the eyes of a single woman who fits into the rigidity of its work culture only too well.<br/><br/>The English-language debut of one of Japan’s most talented contemporary writers, selling over 650,000 copies there, Convenience Store Woman is the heartwarming and surprising story of thirty-six-year-old Tokyo resident Keiko Furukura. Keiko has never fit in, neither in her family, nor in school, but when at the age of eighteen she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of “Smile Mart,” she finds peace and purpose in her life. In the store, unlike anywhere else, she understands the rules of social interaction—many are laid out line by line in the store’s manual—and she does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a “normal” person excellently, more or less. Managers come and go, but Keiko stays at the store for eighteen years. It’s almost hard to tell where the store ends and she begins. Keiko is very happy, but the people close to her, from her family to her coworkers, increasingly pressure her to find a husband, and to start a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action…<br/><br/>A brilliant depiction of an unusual psyche and a world hidden from view, Convenience Store Woman is an ironic and sharp-eyed look at contemporary work culture and the pressures to conform, as well as a charming and completely fresh portrait of an unforgettable heroine.

Weyward: A Novel

Emilia Hart · 2023

The Color Purple: A Novel

Alice Walker · 2019

Read the original inspiration for the new, boldly reimagined film from producers Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, starring Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, and Fantasia Barrino.<br/><br/>Celebrating its fortieth anniversary, The Color Purple writes a message of healing, forgiveness, self-discovery, and sisterhood to a new generation of readers. An inspiration to authors who continue to give voice to the multidimensionality of Black women’s stories, including Tayari Jones, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Jesmyn Ward, and more, The Color Purple remains an essential read in conversation with storytellers today.<br/><br/>Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award<br/><br/>A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early-twentieth-century rural Georgia. Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance, and silence. Through a series of letters spanning nearly thirty years, first from Celie to God, then from the sisters to each other, the novel draws readers into a rich and memorable portrayal of Black women—their pain and struggle, companionship and growth, resilience and bravery.<br/><br/>Deeply compassionate and beautifully imagined, The Color Purple breaks the silence around domestic and sexual abuse, and carries readers on an epic and spirit-affirming journey toward transformation, redemption, and love.<br/><br/>“Reading The Color Purple was the first time I had seen Southern, Black women’s literature as world literature. In writing us into the world—bravely, unapologetically, and honestly—Alice Walker has given us a gift we will never be able to repay.” —Tayari Jones<br/><br/>“The Color Purple was what church should have been, what honest familial reckoning could have been, and it is still the only art object in the world by which all three generations of Black artists in my family judge American art.” —Kiese Laymon

The Picture of Dorian Gray: The Original 1890 Edition (A Oscar Wilde Classic Novel)

Oscar Wilde · 2023

“The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.” ― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray<br/><br/>The Picture of Dorian Gray is a 1891 gothic and philosophical novel by Irish writer and playwright Oscar Wilde. First published as a serial story in the July 1890 issue of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, the editors feared the story was indecent, and without Wilde's knowledge, deleted five hundred words before publication.<br/><br/>Despite that censorship, The Picture of Dorian Gray offended the moral sensibilities of British book reviewers, some of whom said that Oscar Wilde merited prosecution for violating the laws guarding the public morality. In response, Wilde aggressively defended his novel and art in correspondence with the British press.<br/><br/>Wilde revised and expanded the magazine edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) for publication as a novel; the book edition (1891) featured an aphoristic preface — an apologia about the art of the novel and the reader. The content, style and presentation of the preface made it famous in its own literary right, as social and cultural criticism. In April 1891, the editorial house Ward, Lock and Company published the revised version of The Picture of Dorian Gray.<br/><br/>A True Classic that Belongs on Every Bookshelf!

Angels Before Man

rafael nicolás · 2023

The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love

bell hooks · 2004

A Dowry of Blood

S. T. Gibson · 2023

<p><b>THE DARK FANTASY BOOKTOK BLOCKBUSTER!<br> <br> <br> <br> In this dark, fantasy sensation, S. T. Gibson spins the gothic, seductive tale of Dracula's first bride, Constanta.</b><br> <br> <br> <br> <i>This is my last love letter to you, though some would call it a confession. . .</i></p> <p>Saved from the brink of death by a mysterious stranger, Constanta is transformed from a medieval peasant into a bride fit for an undying king. But when Dracula draws a cunning aristocrat and a starving artist into his web of passion and deceit, Constanta realizes that her beloved is capable of terrible things.</p> <p>Finding comfort in the arms of her rival consorts, she begins to unravel their husband's dark secrets. With the lives of everyone she loves on the line, Constanta will have to choose between her own freedom and her love for her husband. But bonds forged by blood can only be broken by death.<br> <br> <br> <br> "A dizzying nightmare of a romance that will leave you aching, angry and ultimately hopeful." --<b>Hannah Whitten, <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author of For the Wolf</b></p>

The Weight of Blood

Tiffany D Jackson · 2022

<br> <br> <p>* AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * INDIE BESTSELLER * JUNIOR LIBRARY GUILD SELECTION * KIDS' INDIE NEXT LIST PICK * NPR BEST PICK * KIRKUS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR *</p> <p>New York Times bestselling author Tiffany D. Jackson ramps up the horror and tackles America's history and legacy of racism in this suspenseful YA novel following a biracial teenager as her Georgia high school hosts its first integrated prom.</p> <p>When Springville residents--at least the ones still alive--are questioned about what happened on prom night, they all have the same explanation . . . Maddy did it.</p> <p>An outcast at her small-town Georgia high school, Madison Washington has always been a teasing target for bullies. And she's dealt with it because she has more pressing problems to manage. Until the morning a surprise rainstorm reveals her most closely kept secret: Maddy is biracial. She has been passing for white her entire life at the behest of her fanatical white father, Thomas Washington.</p> <p>After a viral bullying video pulls back the curtain on Springville High's racist roots, student leaders come up with a plan to change their image: host the school's first integrated prom as a show of unity. The popular white class president convinces her Black superstar quarterback boyfriend to ask Maddy to be his date, leaving Maddy wondering if it's possible to have a normal life.</p> <p>But some of her classmates aren't done with her just yet. And what they don't know is that Maddy still has another secret . . . one that will cost them all their lives.</p>

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife: A Novel

Ashley Winstead · 2021

"[A] mordant debut novel....examines what it means to covet the lives of others, no matter the cost."—The New York Times "Tense, twisty, and packed with shocks."—Riley Sager, New York Times bestselling author of Survive The Night Six friends. One college reunion. One unsolved murder. Ten years after graduation, Jessica Miller has planned her triumphant return to her southern, elite Duquette University, down to the envious whispers that are sure to follow in her wake. Everyone is going to see the girl she wants them to see—confident, beautiful, indifferent. Not the girl she was when she left campus, back when Heather Shelby's murder fractured everything, including the tight bond linking the six friends she'd been closest to since freshman year. But not everyone is ready to move on. Not everyone left Duquette ten years ago, and not everyone can let Heather's murder go unsolved. Someone is determined to trap the real killer, to make the guilty pay. When the six friends are reunited, they will be forced to confront what happened that night—and the years' worth of secrets each of them would do anything to keep hidden. Told in racing dual timelines, with a dark campus setting and a darker look at friendship, love, obsession, and ambition, In My Dreams I Hold A Knife is an addictive, propulsive read you won't be able to put down. "Beautiful writing, juicy secrets, complex female characters, and drumbeat suspense—what more could you want from a debut thriller?"—Andrea Bartz, author of Reese's Book Club pick We Were Never Here

Piranesi

Susanna Clarke · 2021

Honor

Thrity Umrigar · 2022

The Song of Achilles

Madeline Miller · 2012

The School for Good Mothers: A Novel

Jessamine Chan · 2022

Evil Eye: A Novel

Etaf Rum · 2023

An NPR Best Book of the Year<br/>“A moving meditation on motherhood, inter-generational trauma and how surface appearances often obscure a deeper truth. . . . A stunning second novel from a writer who set the bar very high with her first!”—Tara Conklin, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Romantics and Community Board<br/>The acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of A Woman Is No Man returns with a striking exploration of the expectations of a Palestinian-American woman, the meaning of a fulfilling life, and the ways our unresolved pasts affect our presents.<br/>"After Yara is placed on probation at work for fighting with a racist coworker, her Palestinian mother claims the provocation and all that’s come after were the result of a family curse. While Yara doesn’t believe in old superstitions, she finds herself unpacking her strict, often volatile childhood growing up in Brooklyn, looking for clues as to why she feels so unfulfilled in a life her mother could only dream of. Etaf Rum’s follow-up to her 2019 debut, A Woman Is No Man, is a complicated mother-daughter drama that looks at the lasting effects of intergenerational trauma and what it takes to break the cycle of abuse." —Time magazine, "The Most Anticipated Books of the Year"

Magic Lessons: Book #1 of the Practical Magic Series

Alice Hoffman · 2021

In this “ bewitching” (The New York Times Book Review) novel that traces a centuries-old curse to its source, beloved author Alice Hoffman unveils the story of Maria Owens, accused of witchcraft in Salem, and matriarch of a line of the amazing Owens women and men featured in Practical Magic and The Rules of Magic.<br/><br/>Where does the story of the Owens bloodline begin? With Maria Owens, in the 1600s, when she’s abandoned in a snowy field in rural England as a baby. Under the care of Hannah Owens, Maria learns about the “Nameless Arts.” Hannah recognizes that Maria has a gift and she teaches the girl all she knows. It is here that she learns her first important lesson: Always love someone who will love you back.<br/><br/>When Maria is abandoned by the man who has declared his love for her, she follows him to Salem, Massachusetts. Here she invokes the curse that will haunt her family. And it’s here that she learns the rules of magic and the lesson that she will carry with her for the rest of her life. Love is the only thing that matters.<br/><br/>Magic Lessons is a “heartbreaking and heart-healing” (BookPage) celebration of life and love and a showcase of Alice Hoffman’s masterful storytelling.

Our Wives Under The Sea

Julia Armfield · 2022

Midnight Is the Darkest Hour: A Novel

Ashley Winstead · 2023

Sharp Objects: A Novel

Gillian Flynn · 2006

Weyward: A Novel

Emilia Hart · 2023

Piranesi

Susanna Clarke · 2020

Happy Hour: A Novel

Marlowe Granados · 2021

With the verve and bite of Ottessa Moshfegh and the barbed charm of Nancy Mitford, this stunning debut about a young ingénue in the big city is “as refreshing as gin fizz . . . a wild careening joyride through a hot sultry summer in New York” (Rachel Syme, The New Yorker).<br/><br/>Isa Epley, all of twenty-one years old, is already wise enough to understand that the purpose of life is the pursuit of pleasure. She arrives in New York with her newly blond best friend looking for adventure. They have little money, but that’s hardly going to stop them.<br/><br/>By day, the girls sell clothes on a market stall, pinching pennies for their Bed-Stuy sublet and bodega lunches. By night, they weave between Brooklyn, the Upper East Side, and the Hamptons among a rotating cast of celebrities, artists, Internet entrepreneurs, stuffy intellectuals, and bad-mannered grifters. Resources run ever tighter and the strain tests their friendship as they try to convert social capital into something more lasting than precarious gigs as au pairs, nightclub hostesses, paid audience members, and aspiring foot fetish models.<br/><br/>Through it all, Isa’s bold, beguiling voice captures the precise thrill of cultivating a life of glamour and intrigue as she juggles paying her dues with skipping out on the bill. Happy Hour is a novel about getting by and having fun in a system that wants you to do neither.

The Girls: A Novel

Emma Cline · 2017

The Block Party: A Novel

Jamie Day · 2023

Lilith

Marmery Nikki · 2023

<b>LILITH IS THE HEROINE WOMEN HAVE WAITED SIX THOUSAND YEARS FOR.</b></p><p><b>ONE OF <i>STYLIST'S</i> BEST NEW FEMINIST RETELLINGS TO READ IN 2023</b><br><b>A DELIA ONLINE BOOK OF THE MONTH</b><br><b>'LUSH, LYRICAL PROSE'</b> DAILY MAIL<br><b>'FEISTY, FURIOUS, AND STARTLINGLY FUNNY... EVERY PAGE SEETHES WITH LILITH'S RAGE AND HEARTACHE'</b> NAOMI KELSEY</p><p><i>In the Garden of Eden, at the beginning of time, an outrageous lie is born: that women are inferior.</i></p><p>Lilith and Adam are equal and happy in the Garden of Eden. But when Adam decides Lilith should submit to his will and lie beneath him, she refuses - and is banished forever from Paradise. Demonised and sidelined, Lilith watches in fury as God creates Eve, the woman who accepts her submission. But Lilith has a secret: she has already tasted the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Endowed with Wisdom, she knows why Asherah - God's wife and equal, the Queen of Heaven - is missing. Lilith has a plan: she will rescue Eve, find Asherah, restore balance to the world and regain her rightful place in Paradise.</p><p><b>'Lilith is beautifully written, thought-provoking, and always true to its heroine. Truly a unique, magnificent achievement'</b> Costanza Casati, author of <i>Clytemnestra</i></p><p><b>'Stellar... This feminist reimagining of the Bible will grip readers'</b> <i>Publishers Weekly</i>, starred review</p><p><b>'A ferocious, heterodox mythic novel that upends notions of divinity, femininity versus masculinity, and human beings' responsibility toward one another and the earth'</b> <i>Foreword Reviews</i>, starred review</p><p><b>'Furious, fierce & feminist... Simply the best book I've read in years'</b> Nydia Hetherington</p><p><b>'Fans of Madeline Miller and Jennifer Saint will love this evocative feminist retelling'</b> Rosie Andrews</p><p><b>'Perhaps the most powerful, audacious, hopeful novel I've ever read'</b> Louise Morrish</p><p><b>'Marmery's exquisite prose brings this compelling, highly relevant tale of Adam's first wife to life'</b> Laura Shepperson</p><p><b>'In a poetic voice, at once ancient and modern, Nikki Marmery's Lilith conjures a feminist counter-narrative'</b> Kathleen B. Jones</p><p><b>'I learned so much from this joyous rampage through Biblical history'</b> Alice Albinia</p><p><b>'Marmery delivers one of the most gloriously feminist myth-meets-historical-fiction novels I've read'</b> Susan C. Wilson</p><p><b>'A furious tornado of a novel'</b> Maggie Brookes<br><b>'Fierce and utterly original'</b> Jennifer Saint<br><b>'The book I've been waiting my whole life for'</b> Victoria Hawthorne<br><b>'An extraordinary, important book'</b> Sara Sheridan<br><b>'Dynamite. I laughed loud, fumed louder'</b> Meg Clothier<br><b>'A battle cry of a book. A rich, vividly written story'</b> Sophie Keetch<br><b>'At long last we have the origin story women deserve'</b> Miranda Malins<br><b>'Defiant and magnificent'</b> Chikodili Emelumadu<br><b>'Ambitious and intriguing'</b> Elyse John<br><b>'Daring, fresh and playful'</b> Ann Morgan<br><b>'An invigoratingly furious book'</b> Niamh Boyce<br><b>'Witty and furious'</b> Joanne Burn<br><b>'Exquisitely written and full of wit and female rage'</b> Rani Selvarajah</p>

God of the Woods

Liz Moore - undifferentiated · 2024

Disaster Tourist

Yun Ko-Eun · 2020

The Garden Girls

Jessica R. Patch · 2024

Garden Spells: A Novel (Waverly Family)

Sarah Addison Allen · 2008

The magical New York Times bestseller. In a garden surrounded by a tall fence, tucked away behind a small, quiet house in an even smaller town, is an apple tree that is rumored to bear a very special sort of fruit. In this luminous debut novel, Sarah Addison Allen tells the story of that enchanted tree, and the extraordinary people who tend it....<br/>The Waverleys have always been a curious family, endowed with peculiar gifts that make them outsiders even in their hometown of Bascom, North Carolina. Even their garden has a reputation, famous for its feisty apple tree that bears prophetic fruit, and its edible flowers, imbued with special powers. Generations of Waverleys tended this garden. Their history was in the soil. But so were their futures.<br/><br/>A successful caterer, Claire Waverley prepares dishes made with her mystical plants--from the nasturtiums that aid in keeping secrets and the pansies that make children thoughtful, to the snapdragons intended to discourage the attentions of her amorous neighbor. Meanwhile, her elderly cousin, Evanelle, is known for distributing unexpected gifts whose uses become uncannily clear. They are the last of the Waverleys--except for Claire's rebellious sister, Sydney, who fled Bascom the moment she could, abandoning Claire, as their own mother had years before.<br/><br/>When Sydney suddenly returns home with a young daughter of her own, Claire's quiet life is turned upside down--along with the protective boundary she has so carefully constructed around her heart. Together again in the house they grew up in, Sydney takes stock of all she left behind, as Claire struggles to heal the wounds of the past. And soon the sisters realize they must deal with their common legacy--if they are ever to feel at home in Bascom--or with each other.<br/><br/>Enchanting and heartfelt, this captivating novel is sure to cast a spell with a style all its own....<br/><br/>From the Hardcover edition.

The Invisible Hour: A Novel

Alice Hoffman · 2023

Daisy Jones & The Six: A Novel

Taylor Jenkins Reid · 2020

<b>#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • OVER TWO MILLION COPIES SOLD! A gripping novel about the whirlwind rise of an iconic 1970s rock group and their beautiful lead singer, revealing the mystery behind their infamous breakup—from the author of <i>The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Malibu Rising, </i>and <i>Carrie Soto Is Back</i><br><br><b>REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • NOW AN EMMY AWARD–NOMINATED ORIGINAL STREAMING SERIES EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY REESE WITHERSPOON</b><br>  <br>“An explosive, dynamite, down-and-dirty look at a fictional rock band told in an interview style that gives it irresistible surface energy.”—Elin Hilderbrand<br><br>ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPR, <i>The Washington Post, Esquire, Glamour, Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, Marie Claire, Parade, Paste, Shelf Awareness, BookRiot<br></i></b><br> <i>Everyone knows DAISY JONES & THE SIX, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.<br><br></i>Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n’ roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.<br><br> Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.<br><br> Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.<br><br> The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with <i>Daisy Jones & The Six, </i>brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.

Bright Young Women: A Novel

Jessica Knoll · 2023

Jackal: A Novel

Erin E. Adams · 2022

Malibu Rising: A Novel

Taylor Jenkins Reid · 2021

Carrie Soto Is Back: A Novel

Taylor Jenkins Reid · 2023

The Honeys

Ryan La Sala · 2022

The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill

Rowenna Miller · 2023

Juniper & Thorn: A Novel

Ava Reid · 2022

The Beautiful Ones: A Novel

Silvia Moreno-Garcia · 2021

Lady of the Camellias

Alexandre Dumas · 1994

Go as a River: A Novel

Shelley Read · 2023

NATIONAL BESTSELLER<br/>* Finalist for Goodreads Choice Award * Colorado Public Radio 2023 Books We Love *<br/>Set amid Colorado’s wild beauty, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story of a resilient young woman whose life is changed forever by one chance encounter. A tragic and uplifting novel of love and loss, family and survival—and hope—for readers of Great Circle, The Four Winds, and Where the Crawdads Sing.<br/>“Beautiful . . . A striking first novel of love and strength and growth, set against the forests and rivers of Colorado’s high country. Read is a gifted writer, and the book is a literary triumph.”—Denver Post<br/>“With gorgeous descriptions of the great outdoors, an illicit love story, and an unforgettable protagonist, Go as a River offers something for everyone.”—Real Simple<br/>Seventeen-year-old Victoria Nash runs the household on her family’s peach farm in the small ranch town of Iola, Colorado—the sole surviving female in a family of troubled men. Wilson Moon is a young drifter with a mysterious past, displaced from his tribal land and determined to live as he chooses.<br/>Victoria encounters Wil by chance on a street corner, a meeting that profoundly alters both of their young lives, unknowingly igniting as much passion as danger. When tragedy strikes, Victoria leaves the only life she has ever known. She flees into the surrounding mountains where she struggles to survive in the wilderness with no clear notion of what her future will bring. As the seasons change, she also charts the changes in herself, finding in the beautiful but harsh landscape the meaning and strength to move forward and rebuild all that she has lost, even as the Gunnison River threatens to submerge her homeland—its ranches, farms, and the beloved peach orchard that has been in her family for generations.<br/>Inspired by true events surrounding the destruction of the town of Iola in the 1960s, Go as a River is a story of deeply held love in the face of hardship and loss, but also of finding courage, resilience, friendship, and, finally, home—where least expected. This stunning debut explores what it means to lead your life as if it were a river—gathering and flowing, finding a way forward even when a river is dammed.

Half a Soul (Regency Faerie Tales Book 1)

Olivia Atwater · 2022