favourite books 📚

The History of Sound: Stories

Ben Shattuck · 2024

Bury Your Gays

Chuck Tingle · 2024

<p><b>The instant <i>USA Today</i> bestseller by Chuck Tingle about what it takes to succeed in a world that wants you dead. </b><br><br><b>Named o</b><b>ne of the Best Horror Books of 2024 </b>(<i>Esquire, Parade, </i>and<i> Library Journal) </i>• <b>Winner of the Locus Award for Best Horror Novel </b>• <b>A Lambda Literary Award finalist!</b><br><br>Misha knows that chasing success in Hollywood can be hell.<br><br>But finally, after years of trying to make it, his big moment is here: an Oscar nomination. And the executives at the studio for his long-running streaming series know just the thing to kick his career to the next level: kill off the gay characters, "for the algorithm," in the upcoming season finale. <br><br>Misha refuses, but he soon realizes that he’s just put a target on his back. And what’s worse, monsters from his horror movie days are stalking him and his friends through the hills above Los Angeles. <br><br>Haunted by his past, Misha must risk his entire future—before the horrors from the silver screen find a way to bury him for good.<br><br><b>"Brilliantly bloody, wildly fun, and extremely scary, <i>Bury Your Gays</i> brings a sledgehammer down on tired tropes and makes a masterpiece of their guts."</b>—Rachel Harrison, national bestselling author of <i>Black Sheep</i><br><br>Also by Chuck Tingle<br><i>Lucky Day<br></i><i>Camp Damascus</i><br><i>Straight</i></p>

Open Water

Caleb Azumah Nelson · 2021

Things We Lost in the Fire: Stories

Mariana Enriquez · 2017

Dreamland

Rosa Rankin-Gee · 2021

Earthlings

Murata Sayaka · 2021

Natsuki isn't like the other girls. She has a wand and a transformation mirror. She might be a witch, or an alien from another planet. Together with her cousin Yuu, Natsuki spends her summers in the wild mountains of Nagano, dreaming of other worlds. When a terrible sequence of events threatens to part the two children forever, they make a promise: survive, no matter what. Now Natsuki is grown. She lives a quiet life with her asexual husband, surviving as best she can by pretending to be normal. But the demands of Natsuki's family are increasing, her friends wonder why she's still not pregnant, and dark shadows from Natsuki's childhood are pursuing her. Fleeing the suburbs for the mountains of her childhood, Natsuki prepares herself with a reunion with Yuu. Will he still remember their promise? And will he help her keep it?

Requiem for a Dream

Hubert Selby Jr. · 1978

The acclaimed novel that inspired the Darren Aronofsky film--the story of three friends whose pursuit of wealth ends in addiction and tragedy. "To understand Selby's work is to understand the anguish of America"(New York Times Book Review).<br/><br/>Over twenty years after its first publication in 1978, Requiem for a Dream makes it to the big screen in a major motion picture starring Ellen Burstyn, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans, Jared Leto, and Christopher McDonald. Directed by Darren Aronofsky, the highly acclaimed director of Pi, the movie was released in November 2000. In this searing novel, two young hoods, Harry and Tyrone, and a girlfriend fantasize about scoring a pound of uncut heroin and getting rich. But their habit gets the better of them, consumes them and destroys their dreams.

After Dark

Haruki Murakami · 2007

Heaven: A Novel

Mieko Kawakami · 2021

Mysterious Skin

Scott Heim · 2005

Piranesi

Susanna Clarke · 2020

Brokeback Mountain

Annie Proulx · 2005

Sharp Objects

Gillian Flynn · 2007

Dance Dance Dance

Haruki Murakami · 1988

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Haruki Murakami · 1985

Brave New World

Aldous Huxley · 1932

The Plague

Albert Camus · 1947

The townspeople of Oran are in the grip of a virulent plague. Cut off from the rest of the world, living in fear, they each respond in their own way to the grim challenge of the deadly bacillus. This novel tells a story of courage and determination against the arbitrariness and seeming absurdity of human existence.

The Stranger

Albert Camus · 1942

Convenience Store Woman

Sayaka Murata · 2019

The Metamorphosis

Franz Kafka · 1915

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Benjamin Alire Sáenz · 2014

The Outsiders

S. E. Hinton · 1997

The Virgin Suicides

Jeffrey Eugenides · 1993

Nineteen Eighty-Four

George Orwell · 1950

One of the most celebrated classics of the twentieth century, Orwell’s cautionary tale of a man trapped under the gaze of an authoritarian state feels more relevant now than ever before.<br/><br/>Winston Smith spends his days rewriting history to fit the narrative that his government wants citizens to believe. But as the gap between the propaganda he writes and the reality he lives proves too much for Winston to swallow, he begins to seek some form of escape. His desperate struggle to free himself from an all-encompassing, tyrannical state illuminates the tendencies apparent in every modern society, and makes vivid the universal predicament of the individual.<br/><br/>Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket. Contemporary Classics include an introduction, a select bibliography, and a chronology of the author's life and times.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde · 1890

The Song of Achilles

Madeline Miller · 2012

A New York Times Bestseller<br/>“At once a scholar’s homage to The Iliad and startlingly original work of art….A book I could not put down.” —Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House<br/>A thrilling, profoundly moving, and utterly unique retelling of the legend of Achilles and the Trojan War from the bestselling author of Circe<br/>A tale of gods, kings, immortal fame, and the human heart, The Song of Achilles is a dazzling literary feat that brilliantly reimagines Homer’s enduring masterwork, The Iliad. An action-packed adventure, an epic love story, a marvelously conceived and executed page-turner, Miller’s monumental debut novel has already earned resounding acclaim from some of contemporary fiction’s brightest lights—and fans of Mary Renault, Bernard Cornwell, Steven Pressfield, and Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series will delight in this unforgettable journey back to ancient Greece in the Age of Heroes.<br/>“A captivating retelling of The Iliad and events leading up to it through the point of view of Patroclus: it’s a hard book to put down, and any classicist will be enthralled by her characterisation of the goddess Thetis, which carries the true savagery and chill of antiquity.” — Donna Tartt, The Times

Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows, 2)

Leigh Bardugo · 2018

Six of Crows

Leigh Bardugo · 2015

King of Scars (King of Scars Duology, 1)

Leigh Bardugo · 2019

Rule of Wolves (King of Scars Duology, 2)

Leigh Bardugo · 2021

<p><b>Instant #1 <i>New York Times </i>Bestseller!<br><br>Goodreads Choice Award Winner for Best Young Adult Fantasy!<br></b><br><b>See the Grishaverse come to life on screen with the Netflix series, <i>Shadow and Bone </i>-- Season 2 streaming now!</b><br><br><b>Discover what comes next for the daring rogue Nikolai in the riveting sequel to <i>King of Scars </i>from #1 bestselling author, Leigh Bardugo.</b><br><br><b>The Demon King.</b> As Fjerda’s massive army prepares to invade, Nikolai Lantsov will summon every bit of his ingenuity and charm—and even the monster within—to win this fight. But a dark threat looms that cannot be defeated by a young king’s gift for the impossible.<br><br><b>The Stormwitch. </b>Zoya Nazyalensky has lost too much to war. She saw her mentor die and her worst enemy resurrected, and she refuses to bury another friend. Now duty demands she embrace her powers to become the weapon her country needs. No matter the cost.<br><br><b>The Queen of Mourning. </b>Deep undercover, Nina Zenik risks discovery and death as she wages war on Fjerda from inside its capital. But her desire for revenge may cost her country its chance at freedom and Nina the chance to heal her grieving heart.<br><br><b>King. General. Spy.</b> Together they must find a way to forge a future in the darkness. Or watch a nation fall.<br><br>Read all the books in the Grishaverse!<br><br><b>The Shadow and Bone Trilogy</b><br>(previously published as The Grisha Trilogy)<br><i>Shadow and Bone</i><br><i>Siege and Storm</i><br><i>Ruin and Rising</i><br><br><b>The Six of Crows Duology</b><br><i>Six of Crows</i><br><i>Crooked Kingdom</i><br><br><b>The King of Scars Duology</b><br><i>King of Scars</i><br><i>Rule of Wolves</i><br><br><i>The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic</i><br><i>The Severed Moon: A Year-Long Journal of Magic<br>The Lives of Saints<br>Demon in the Wood Graphic Novel</i><br><br><b>Praise for the Grishaverse</b><br><br>“A master of fantasy.” —<i>The Huffington Post</i><br>“Utterly, extremely bewitching.” —<i>The Guardian</i><br>“This is what fantasy is for.” —<i>The New York Times Book Review</i><br>“A world that feels real enough to have its own passport stamp.” —NPR<br>“The darker it gets for the good guys, the better.” —<i>Entertainment Weekly</i><br>“Sultry, sweeping and picturesque. . . . Impossible to put down.” —<i>USA Today</i><br>“There’s a level of emotional and historical sophistication within Bardugo’s original epic fantasy that sets it apart.” —<i>Vanity Fair</i><br>“Unlike anything I’ve ever read.” —Veronica Roth, bestselling author of <i>Divergent</i><br>“Bardugo crafts a first-rate adventure, a poignant romance, and an intriguing mystery!” —Rick Riordan, bestselling author of the Percy Jackson series</p>

Crush

Richard Siken · 2005

The Secret History

Donna Tartt · 1992

<b><b><b><b>ONE OF <i>TIME MAGAZINE</i>'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME • </b>INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A contemporary literary classic and "a<b>n accomplished psychological thriller ... absolutely chilling" (<i>Village Voice</i>)</b>, f<b>rom the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of <i>The Goldfinch.<br><br></i></b></b></b>One of <i>The Atlantic</i>’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years</b><br><br>Under the influence of a charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at a New England college discover a way of thought and life a world away from their banal contemporaries. But their search for the transcendent leads them down a dangerous path, beyond human constructs of morality.<br><br><b>“A remarkably powerful novel [and] a ferociously well-paced entertainment . . . Forceful, cerebral, and impeccably controlled.” —<i>The New York Times</i></b>

The Goldfinch

Donna Tartt · 2014

If We Were Villains

M. L Rio · 2017

A Little Life

Hanya Yanagihara · 2016

<b><i>NEW YORK TIMES</i> BESTSELLER • A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (<i>NPR</i>) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century.<br></b><br><b><b><b><b><b><b><b>NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST <b><b><b>•</b></b></b></b> MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST <b>• <b><b><b><b><b> WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE</b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b><br><br><i>A Little Life</i> follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves.

Norwegian Wood

Haruki Murakami · 2022

Giovanni's Room

James Baldwin · 2013

Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami · 2006

Sputnik Sweetheart

Haruki Murakami · 2002

Men Without Women: Stories

Haruki Murakami · 2017

Crying in H Mart: A Memoir

Michelle Zauner · 2021

The Darkness Outside Us

Eliot Schrefer · 2021

<p>They Both Die at the End meets Gravity in this mind-bending sci-fi mystery and tender love story about two boys aboard a spaceship sent on a rescue mission, from two-time National Book Award finalist Eliot Schrefer. Stonewall Honor Award winner!</p><p>Two boys, alone in space. Sworn enemies sent on the same rescue mission.</p><p>Ambrose wakes up on the Coordinated Endeavor with no memory of a launch. There’s more that doesn’t add up: evidence indicates strangers have been on board, the ship’s operating system is voiced by his mother, and his handsome, brooding shipmate has barricaded himself away. But nothing will stop Ambrose from making his mission succeed—not when he’s rescuing his own sister.</p><p>In order to survive the ship’s secrets, Ambrose and Kodiak will need to work together and learn to trust each other . . . especially once they discover what they are truly up against. Love might be the only way to survive.</p><p>* Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best Books of the Year * A Booklist Editor's Choice of the Year * A BCCB Blue Ribbon Book of the Year * A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults & Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults Book of the Year *</p>

Just Kids

Patti Smith · 2010

Breasts and Eggs

Mieko Kawakami · 2020

The Burning God (The Poppy War, 3)

R. F Kuang · 2021

The Dragon Republic (The Poppy War, 2)

R. F Kuang · 2020

The Poppy War: A Novel (The Poppy War, 1)

R. F Kuang · 2019

<p>“I have no doubt this will end up being the best fantasy debut of the year [...] I have absolutely no doubt that [Kuang’s] name will be up there with the likes of Robin Hobb and N.K. Jemisin.” -- Booknest</p><p>A Library Journal, Paste Magazine, Vulture, BookBub, and ENTROPY Best Books of 2018 pick!</p><p>Washington Post "5 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Novel of 2018" pick!</p><p>A Bustle "30 Best Fiction Books of 2018" pick!</p><p>A brilliantly imaginative talent makes her exciting debut with this epic historical military fantasy, inspired by the bloody history of China’s twentieth century and filled with treachery and magic, in the tradition of Ken Liu’s Grace of Kings and N.K. Jemisin’s Inheritance Trilogy.</p><p>When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard—the most elite military school in Nikan—was even more surprising.</p><p>But surprises aren’t always good.</p><p>Because being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard. Targeted from the outset by rival classmates for her color, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly power—an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. Exploring the depths of her gift with the help of a seemingly insane teacher and psychoactive substances, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive—and that mastering control over those powers could mean more than just surviving school.</p><p>For while the Nikara Empire is at peace, the Federation of Mugen still lurks across a narrow sea. The militarily advanced Federation occupied Nikan for decades after the First Poppy War, and only barely lost the continent in the Second. And while most of the people are complacent to go about their lives, a few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away . . .</p><p>Rin’s shamanic powers may be the only way to save her people. But as she finds out more about the god that has chosen her, the vengeful Phoenix, she fears that winning the war may cost her humanity . . . and that it may already be too late.</p>

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A novel

Gabrielle Zevin · 2022

The Dreamers

Gilbert Adair · 2014