bookshelf

crooked kingdom: a sequel to six of crows

Leigh Bardugo · 2016

Kaz Brekker And His Crew Have Just Pulled Off A Heist So Daring Even They Didn't Think They'd Survive. But Instead Of Divvying Up A Fat Reward, They're Right Back To Fighting For Their Lives. Double-crossed And Badly Weakened, The Crew Is Low On Resources, Allies, And Hope. As Powerful Forces From Around The World Descend On Ketterdam To Root Out The Secrets Of The Dangerous Drug Known As Jurda Parem, Old Rivals, And New Enemies Emerge To Challenge Kaz's Cunning And Test The Team's Fragile Loyalties. A War Will Be Waged On The City's Dark And Twisting Streets -- A Battle For Revenge And Redemption That Will Decide The Fate Of The Grisha World.

Beach Read

Emily Henry · 2020

the lion, the witch and the wardrobe

C. S. Lewis · 2008

mrs. dalloway

Virginia Woolf · 1990

The authorized, original edition of Virginia Woolf’s masterpiece and one of the most “moving, revolutionary artworks of the twentieth century” (Michael Cunningham), with a foreword by Maureen Howard.<br/>In this vivid portrait of a single day in a woman’s life, Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of preparation for a party while in her mind she is something much more than a perfect society hostess. As she readies her house for friends and neighbors, she is flooded with remembrances of the past—the passionate loves of her carefree youth, her practical choice of husband, and the approach and retreat of war. And, met with the realities of the present, Clarissa reexamines the choices that brought her there, hesitantly looking ahead to the unfamiliar work of growing old.<br/>From the introspective Clarissa, to the lover who never fully recovered from her rejection, to a war-ravaged stranger in the park, the characters and scope of Mrs. Dalloway reshape our sense of ordinary life and reshaped English literature as we know it.<br/>“Perhaps her masterpiece…Exquisite and superbly constructed…Required like most writers to choose between the surface and the depths as the basis of her operations, she chooses the surface and then burrows in as far as she can.” –E. M. Forster

the grapes of wrath

John Steinbeck · 2006

The Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression, a book that galvanized—and sometimes outraged—millions of readers. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read<br/><br/>A Penguin Classic<br/><br/>First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man’s fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman’s stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. At once a naturalistic epic, captivity narrative, road novel, and transcendental gospel, Steinbeck’s powerful landmark novel is perhaps the most American of American Classics.<br/><br/>This Penguin Classics edition contains an introduction and notes by Steinbeck scholar Robert Demott.<br/><br/>For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents 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 long walk

*SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE COMING SEPTEMBER 12, 2025* In this #1 national bestseller, master storyteller Stephen King, writing as Richard Bachman, tells the tale of the contestants of a grueling walking competition where there can only be one winner—the one that survives. In a dystopian near-future, America has fallen on hard times. Sixteen-year-old Ray Garraty is about to compete in the annual grueling match of stamina and wits known as the Long Walk. One hundred boys must keep a steady pace of four miles per hour day and night, without ever stopping. The winner gets “The Prize”—anything he wants for the rest of his life. But the rules of the Long Walk are harsh and the stakes could not be higher. There is no finish line—the winner is the last man standing. Contestants cannot receive any outside aid whatsoever. Slow down under the speed limit and you’re given a warning. Three warnings and you’re out of the game—forever.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Michelle Hodkin · 2012

Madonna in a Fur Coat

Sabahattin Ali

Stardust

Neil Gaiman · 2009

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

Joanne Greenberg · 2022

Only Dull People are Brilliant at Breakfast

Oscar Wilde · 2016

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Betty Smith · 2009

When You're Ready, This Is How You Heal

Brianna Wiest · 2022

la caida

ALBERT CAMUS · 2021

the metamorphosis

Franz Kafka · 2009

"The Metamorphosis" (original German title: "Die Verwandlung") is a short novel by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915. It is often cited as one of the seminal works of fiction of the 20th century and is widely studied in colleges and universities across the western world. The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into an insect.

leaves of grass: 1855

Walt Whitman · 2018

This is a copy of the first self-published copy of Leaves of Grass, published on July 4, 1855 in Brooklyn, NY. 795 copies were printed, although only 200 copies were bound with the green cover.<br/>The author's name did not appear on the cover, although it does appear in the poem on page 31 in this edition.<br/>Walt Whitman continued to work on this masterwork until his death. Six more versions appeared during his lifetime, and after his death a “death-bed” version appeared.<br/>History buffs will know that the 1855 edition was printed six years before Abraham Lincoln became president. Later editions are important because of the poems Whitman wrote about the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln.<br/>This 1855 edition is a favorite of many poets because of the fresh energy in the presentation and language.<br/>This edition was gone over line by line to be sure the text is readable, and the line breaks closely represent Whitman's original intention. Also, the full 1855 introduction by Walt Whitman is included in this edition.<br/>period reviews<br/>"We find upon our table (and shall put into the fire) a thin octavo volume, handsomely printed and bound. We shall not aid in extending the sale of this intensely vulgar, nay, absolutely beastly book, by telling our readers where it may be purchased." - Frank Leslie, Illustrated Newspaper<br/>"In glancing rapidly over the 'Leaves of Grass' you are puzzled whether to set the author down as a madman or an opium eater; when you have studied them you recognize a poet of extraordinary vigor, nay even beauty of thought, beneath the most fantastic garments of diction." The New York Daily News<br/>"We had ceased, we imagined, to be surprised at anything that America could produce...but the last monstrous importation from Brooklyn, New York, has scattered our indifference to the winds...This portrait expresses all the features of the hard democrat, and none of the flexile delicacy of the civilized poet." London Critic<br/>"Walt is one of the most amazing, one of the most startling, one of the most perplexing creations of the modern American mind." Translatlantic Leader<br/>"We have glanced through this book with disgust and astonishment; - astonishment that anyone can be found who would dare to print such a farrago of rubbish." Dublin Review<br/>Other Whitman collections available from Cholla Needles on Amazon<br/>Leaves Of Grass: 1855<br/>Short Stories (1848)<br/>Three Novellas (1846)<br/>Drum Taps (1865)<br/>Goodbye My Fancy (1988-1991)

flush

Virginia Woolf

“Una ventata di allegria e di comicità degna di Alice nel paese delle meraviglie” Nadia Fusini È l’inizio dell’estate del 1842 quando Flush – un cucciolo di cocker spaniel di razza purissima, manto marrone tendente all’oro, coda folta, nessun ciuffo fuori posto – varca la soglia del numero 50 di Wimpole Street, a Londra, per essere regalato a una delle più grandi poetesse inglesi, la brillante e sventurata Elizabeth Barrett. Tra i due basta un’occhiata, un lampo di riconoscimento, perché nasca un’intesa. Finché, qualche tempo dopo, nella vita tranquilla di Flush entra un rivale: il poeta Robert Browning. Leggendo la corrispondenza di Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Virginia Woolf rimane così colpita dalle descrizioni che la poetessa fa del suo cane da decidere di dedicargli una biografia. Mescolando realtà e finzione, guizzi di umorismo e lampi di autentica poesia, Woolf ricostruisce la vita di Flush, che diventa non solo il racconto del rapporto unico e straordinario che si crea tra un cane e il suo padrone, ma anche un vivido ritratto della società vittoriana e un’acuta riflessione sulla natura umana, vista attraverso lo sguardo di un cane. E scopriamo così che a Virginia Woolf si addice lo straniante sguardo dal basso, del cane, che dal sottosuolo dei sensi, più che dall’empireo dell’intelletto, raccoglie la materia della propria visione.

of human bondage

W. Somerset Maugham · 2004

spring awakening

Frank Wedekind · 2020

That it is a fatal error to bring up children, either boys or girls, in ignorance of their sexual nature is the thesis of Frank Wedekind's drama “Frühlings Erwachen.” From its title one might suppose it a peaceful little idyl of the youth of the year. No idea a could be more mistaken. It is a tragedy of frightful import, and its action is concerned with the development of natural instincts in the adolescent of both sexes.<br/><br/>The playwright has attacked his theme with European frankness; but of plot, in the usual acceptance of the term, there is little. Instead of the coherent drama of conventional type, Wedekind has given us a series of loosely connected scenes illuminative of character—scenes which surely have profound significance for all occupied in the training of the young. He sets before us a group of school children, lads and lassies just past the age of puberty, and shows logically that death and degradation may be their lot as the outcome of parental reticence. They are not vicious children, but little ones such as we meet every day, imaginative beings living in a world of youthful ideals and speculating about the mysteries which surround them. Wendla, sent to her grave by the abortive administered with the connivance of her affectionate but mistaken mother, is a most lovable creature, while Melchior, the father of her unborn [Pg vi]child, is a high type of boy whose downfall is due to a philosophic temperament, which leads him to inquire into the nature of life and to impart his knowledge to others; a temperament which, under proper guidance, would make him a useful, intelligent man. It is Melchior's very excellence of character which proves his undoing. That he should be imprisoned as a moral degenerate only serves to illustrate the stupidity of his parents and teachers. As for the suicide of Moritz, the imaginative youth who kills himself because he has failed in his examinations, that is another crime for which the dramatist makes false educational methods responsible.<br/><br/>- Francis J. Ziegler about "Spring Awakening" written by Frank Wedekind

the seven husbands of evelyn hugo

Taylor Jenkins Reid · 2017

sisterhood of the traveling pants

Ann Brashares · 2003

bad feminist

Roxane Gay · 2014

a good girl's guide to murder

Holly Jackson · 2021

<b>THE MUST-READ MULTIMILLION BESTSELLING MYSTERY SERIES<b>—</b>NOW ON NETFLIX! This is the story about an investigation turned obsession, full of twists and turns and with an ending you'll never expect. </b><br><br>Everyone in Fairview knows the story. <br><br>Pretty and popular high school senior Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who then killed himself. It was all anyone could talk about. And five years later, Pip sees how the tragedy still haunts her town.<br><br>But she can't shake the feeling that there was more to what happened that day. She knew Sal when she was a child, and he was always so kind to her. How could he possibly have been a killer?<br><br>Now a senior herself, Pip decides to reexamine the closed case for her final project, at first just to cast doubt on the original investigation. But soon she discovers a trail of dark secrets that might actually prove Sal innocent . . . and the line between past and present begins to blur. Someone in Fairview doesn't want Pip digging around for answers, and now her own life might be in danger.<br><br><br><b>And don't miss the sequel, </b><i><b>Good Girl, Bad Blood!</b> </i><br><br><b>"The perfect nail-biting mystery." —Natasha Preston, #1 <i>New York Times </i>bestselling author</b>

Chasing Chaos

Jessica Alexander · 2013

Franny and Zooey

J. D. Salinger · 1991

Men Explain Things to Me

Rebecca Solnit · 2014

Juno Loves Legs

Karl Geary · 2023

The Road

Cormac McCarthy · 2007

The Paris Express

Emma Donoghue · 2025

The Secret Garden

Frances Hodgson Burnett · 2010

Ninth House

Leigh Bardugo · 2020

Let Me Be the One

Elisabeth Harvor

Dear Dickhead

Virginie Despentes, Frank Wynne · 2024

<p><b>"The book of the moment" <i>Sunday Times</i></b><br> <b>A</b> <b>Guardian Book of the Year</b><b><br> "Highly entertaining . . . subtle and complex" <i>Guardian</i></b><br> <b><i>"</i>Despentes at her very best" <i>New European</i></b><br> <b><i>"</i>Full of emotional suspense" <i>FT</i><br> "Brilliant - funny, wise and completely addictive - a work of angry, outrageous and hilarious genius" VICTORIA HISLOP</b><br> <b>"Full of energy and blistering rationality" LISA McINERNEY</b><br> <b>An <i>FT</i> Best books of 2024</b><br> <br> <i>Dear Dickhead,</i><br> <i>I read the piece you posted on Insta. You're like a pigeon shitting on my shoulder as you flap past. It's shitty and unpleasant. Congratulations: you've had your fifteen minutes of fame! You want proof? Here I am writing to you.</i><br> <br> Rebecca Latté is a famous actress in her fifties, perhaps past the peak of her career.<br> <br> Oscar Jayack is a middle-aged, moderately successful author who, in the wake of the #MeToo movement, has been accused of sexual harassment by his former publicist-turned-feminist blogger Zoé Katana.<br> <br> When Oscar insults Rebecca's appearance on Instagram, she sends a scorching reply and the pair fall into a spiral of mutual antipathy. In back-and-forth emails, they vie for the last word, finding common ground in their experiences of addiction, assessing the changing world around them as Covid locks down Paris, and reluctantly beginning to lean on one another.<br> <br> A novel of rage, irreverence and vulnerability, exploring ageing, gender, privilege, addiction and consent, <i>Dear Dickhead</i> is an excoriating encapsulation of our times and of the broken human beings trying to make sense of it.<br> <b><br> Translated from the French by Frank Wynne</b></p>

Good Girl, Bad Blood: The Sequel to A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

Holly Jackson · 2022

great expectations

Charles Dickens · 2019

the blind assassin

Margaret Atwood · 2003

pitch perfect: the quest for collegiate a cappella glory

Mickey Rapkin · 2008

emma

Jane Austen

where the crawdads sing

Delia Owens · 2018

the bell jar

Sylvia Plath · 2005

<p><i>The Bell Jar</i> chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under -- maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made <i>The Bell Jar</i> a haunting American classic.</p> <p>This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.</p>

good things i wish you

Manette Ansay · 2009

crying in h mart: a memoir

Michelle Zauner · 2021

Orlando

Virginia Woolf · 2017

the Year of magical thinking

Joan Didion · 2007

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • From one of America’s iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion that explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage—and a life, in good times and bad—that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child.<br/><br/>Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill with what seemed at first flu, then pneumonia, then complete septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support. Days later—the night before New Year’s Eve—the Dunnes were just sitting down to dinner after visiting the hospital when John Gregory Dunne suffered a massive and fatal coronary. In a second, this close, symbiotic partnership of forty years was over. Four weeks later, their daughter pulled through. Two months after that, arriving at LAX, she collapsed and underwent six hours of brain surgery at UCLA Medical Center to relieve a massive hematoma.<br/><br/>This powerful book is Didion’ s attempt to make sense of the “weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness ... about marriage and children and memory ... about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself.

lives of the saints

Nino Ricci · 1990

the coming bad days

Bernstein, Sarah · 2021

harlem shuffle

Colson Whitehead · 2022

i who have never known men

Jacqueline Harpman · 2019

<p><b>SISTERHOOD. SECRETS. SURVIVAL.</b><br> <br> <b>Discover the haunting, heart-breaking post-apocalyptic TikTok sensation.</b><br> <br> Deep underground, thirty-nine women are kept in isolation in a cage. Above ground, a world awaits. Has it been abandoned? Devastated by a virus?<br> <br> Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only vague recollection of their lives before. But, as the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl - the fortieth prisoner - sits alone an outcast in the corner.<br> <br> Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground. The woman who will never know men.<br> <br> <b>WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY SOPHIE MACKINTOSH, BOOKER PRIZE-LONGLISTED AUTHOR OF THE <i>WATER CURE</i><br> <br> **<i>Orlanda</i>, the next sensation from Jacquline Harpman, is available now**</b></p>

violet

Lana Del Rey · 2020

The New York Times bestselling debut book of poetry from Lana Del Rey, Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass.<br/><br/>“Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass is the title poem of the book and the first poem I wrote of many. Some of which came to me in their entirety, which I dictated and then typed out, and some that I worked laboriously picking apart each word to make the perfect poem. They are eclectic and honest and not trying to be anything other than what they are and for that reason I’m proud of them, especially because the spirit in which they were written was very authentic.” —Lana Del Rey<br/><br/>Lana’s breathtaking first book solidifies her further as “the essential writer of her times” (The Atlantic). The collection features more than thirty poems, many exclusive to the book: Never to Heaven, The Land of 1,000 Fires, Past the Bushes Cypress Thriving, LA Who Am I to Love You?, Tessa DiPietro, Happy, Paradise Is Very Fragile, Bare Feet on Linoleum, and many more. This beautiful hardcover edition showcases Lana’s typewritten manuscript pages alongside her original photography. The result is an extraordinary poetic landscape that reflects the unguarded spirit of its creator.<br/><br/>Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass is also brought to life in an unprecedented spoken word audiobook which features Lana Del Rey reading fourteen select poems from the book accompanied by music from Grammy Award–winning musician Jack Antonoff.

Book Lovers

Emily Henry · 2022

An insightful, delightful, instant #1 New York Times bestseller from the author of Funny Story. “One of my favorite authors.”—Colleen Hoover One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming... Nora Stephens' life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby. Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute. If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.

Waiting for Bojangles

Olivier Bourdeaut · 2019

happy place

Emily Henry · 2023

The Time Traveler's Wife

Audrey Niffenegger · 2004

Funny Story

Emily Henry · 2024

To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Jenny Han · 2014

The Summer I Turned Pretty

Jenny Han · 2022

the notebook

Nicholas Sparks · 2014

better than the movies

Lynn Painter · 2022

<b>A <i>USA TODAY</i> and <i>New York Times</i> bestseller</b><br> <br><b>Perfect for fans of Kasie West and Jenn Bennett, this “sweet and funny” (Kerry Winfrey, author of <i>Waiting for Tom Hanks</i>) teen rom-com follows a hopelessly romantic teen girl and her cute yet obnoxious neighbor as they scheme to get her noticed by her untouchable crush.</b><br><br>Perpetual daydreamer Liz Buxbaum gave her heart to Michael a long time ago. But her cool, aloof forever crush never really saw her before he moved away. Now that he’s back in town, Liz will do whatever it takes to get on his radar—and maybe snag him as a prom date—even befriend Wes Bennet.<br> <br>The annoyingly attractive next-door neighbor might seem like a prime candidate for romantic comedy fantasies, but Wes has only been a pain in Liz’s butt since they were kids. Pranks involving frogs and decapitated lawn gnomes do not a potential boyfriend make. Yet, somehow, Wes and Michael are hitting it off, which means Wes is Liz’s in.<br> <br>But as Liz and Wes scheme to get Liz noticed by Michael so she can have her magical prom moment, she’s shocked to discover that she likes being around Wes. And as they continue to grow closer, she must reexamine everything she thought she knew about love—and rethink her own ideas of what Happily Ever After should look like.

love and other words

Christina Lauren · 2018

After a decade apart, childhood sweethearts reconnect by chance in New York Times bestselling author Christina Lauren’s touching, romantic novel Love and Other Words…how many words will it take for them to figure out where it all went wrong?<br/><br/>The story of the heart can never be unwritten.<br/><br/>Macy Sorensen is settling into an ambitious if emotionally tepid routine: work hard as a new pediatrics resident, plan her wedding to an older, financially secure man, keep her head down and heart tucked away.<br/><br/>But when she runs into Elliot Petropoulos—the first and only love of her life—the careful bubble she’s constructed begins to dissolve. Once upon a time, Elliot was Macy’s entire world—growing from her gangly bookish friend into the man who coaxed her heart open again after the loss of her mother...only to break it on the very night he declared his love for her.<br/><br/>Told in alternating timelines between Then and Now, teenage Elliot and Macy grow from friends to much more—spending weekends and lazy summers together in a house outside of San Francisco devouring books, sharing favorite words, and talking through their growing pains and triumphs. As adults, they have become strangers to one another until their chance reunion. Although their memories are obscured by the agony of what happened that night so many years ago, Elliot will come to understand the truth behind Macy’s decade-long silence, and will have to overcome the past and himself to revive her faith in the possibility of an all-consuming love.

a certain hunger

Chelsea G. Summers · 2020

the beauty myth

Naomi Wolf · 1997

The controversial, critically-acclaimed, bestselling book that kickstarted the third wave of feminism is now available with a new introduction and a new look.In 1990, Naomi Wolf published The Beauty Myth - a book that catapulted Wolf into the international spotlight and onto bestseller lists everywhere (88 straight weeks on The Globe and Mail bestseller list). The effects it had on feminist discourse can still be felt today (and in some ways are even more relevant), and the author's new introduction will help put all the controversy, debate, and media it inspired in context for the next millennium.

we have always lived in the castle

Shirley Jackson · 2006

<b>Shirley Jackson's beloved gothic tale of a peculiar girl named Merricat and her family's dark secret</b><br><br>Taking readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, <i>We Have Always Lived in the Castle</i> is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate. This edition features a new introduction by Jonathan Lethem.<br><br>For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents 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.

whalefall

Daniel Kraus · 2024

they're going to love you

Meg Howrey · 2023

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2022 • A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE MONTH • A BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB PICK • A gripping novel set in the world of professional ballet, New York City during the AIDS crisis, and present-day Los Angeles. • "Beautiful...[A] finger-trap puzzle of a plot."—New York Times Book Review “They’re Going to Love You is my idea of a perfect book. It is about art, life, death, love, and family and it is beautifully and sharply written. I cried several times while reading it, and was sorry to let it go when I was done. I cannot recommend it enough.” —Jami Attenberg, New York Times bestselling author of The Middlesteins and All This Could Be Yours Throughout her childhood, Carlisle Martin got to see her father, Robert, for only a few precious weeks a year when she visited the brownstone apartment in Greenwich Village he shared with his partner, James. Brilliant but troubled, James gave Carlisle an education in all that he held dear in life—literature, music, and, most of all, dance. Seduced by the heady pull of mentorship and hoping to follow in the footsteps of her mother—a former Balanchine ballerina—Carlisle’s aspiration to become a professional ballet dancer bloomed. But above all else, she longed to be asked to stay at the house on Bank Street, to be a part of Robert and James’s sophisticated world, even as the AIDS crisis brings devastation to their community. Instead, a passionate love affair created a rift between the family, with shattering consequences that reverberated for decades to come. Nineteen years later, when Carlisle receives a phone call that unravels the events of that fateful summer, she sees with new eyes how her younger self has informed the woman she’s become. They’re Going to Love You is a gripping and gorgeously written novel of heartbreaking intensity. With psychological precision and a masterfully revealed secret at its heart, it asks what it takes to be an artist in America, and the price of forgiveness, of ambition, and of love.

the pillars of the earth

Ken Follett · 2016

a fine balance

Rohinton Mistry · 1997

With a compassionate realism and narrative sweep that recall the work of Charles Dickens, this magnificent novel captures all the cruelty and corruption, dignity and heroism, of India. The time is 1975. The place is an unnamed city by the sea. The government has just declared a State of Emergency, in whose upheavals four strangers--a spirited widow, a young student uprooted from his idyllic hill station, and two tailors who have fled the caste violence of their native village--will be thrust together, forced to share one cramped apartment and an uncertain future.<br/><br/>As the characters move from distrust to friendship and from friendship to love, A Fine Balance creates an enduring panorama of the human spirit in an inhuman state.

portait of a lady

Henry James · 2007

The Portrait of a Lady is Henry James’s classic novel featuring the strong and spirited Isabel Archer, the embodiment of women’s independence and strength.<br/><br/>The heroine of this powerful novel, often considered James’s greatest work, is the vivacious young American Isabel Archer. Blessed by nature and fortune, she journeys to Europe to seek the full realization of her potential—or in modern terms, “to find herself”—but what awaits her there may prove to be her undoing.<br/><br/>During her journey, wooers vie for her attentions, including an English aristocrat, a perfect American gentleman, and a sensitive expatriate. But it is only after the ingenue falls prey to the schemes of an infinitely sophisticated older woman that her life takes on its true form. With its brilliant interplay of tensions and characters, The Portrait of a Lady is a timeless and essential American novel.<br/><br/>With an Introduction by Regina Barreca<br/>and an Afterword by Colm Tóibín

normal people

Sally Rooney · 2020

<b>NOW AN EMMY-NOMINATED HULU ORIGINAL SERIES • <i>NEW YORK TIMES</i> BESTSELLER • LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE • “A stunning novel about the transformative power of relationships” (<i>People</i>) from the author of <i>Conversations with Friends,</i> “a master of the literary page-turner” (J. Courtney Sullivan).</b><br> <br><b>“[A] novel that demands to be read compulsively, in one sitting.”—<i>The Washington Post</i></b><br><br><b>ONE OF <i>ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY</i>’S TEN BEST NOVELS OF THE DECADE</b><br><br><b>TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: <i>People, Slate,</i> The New York Public Library, <i>Harvard Crimson</i></b><br><br>Connell and Marianne grew up in the same small town, but the similarities end there. At school, Connell is popular and well liked, while Marianne is a loner. But when the two strike up a conversation—awkward but electrifying—something life changing begins.<br><br>A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years at university, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. And as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.<br><br><i>Normal People</i> is the story of mutual fascination, friendship, and love. It takes us from that first conversation to the years beyond, in the company of two people who try to stay apart but find that they can’t.<br> <br><b>WINNER: The British Book Award, The Costa Book Award, The An Post Irish Novel of the Year, <i>Sunday Times </i>Young Writer of the Year Award</b><br><br><b>BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: <i>The New York Times</i>, <i>The New York Times Book Review, Oprah Daily, Time,</i> NPR, <i>The Washington Post, Vogue, Esquire, Glamour, Elle, Marie Claire, Vox, The Paris Review, Good Housekeeping, Town & Country</i></b>