reads
“To understand the world, one must turn away from it on occasion” — de Beauvoir
Items in this hypelist
Fantasy
Sisters of the Snake
Sasha Nanua • 2021
Six Crimson Cranes
Elizabeth Lim • 2021
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea
Axie Oh • 2022
The Binding
Bridget Collins • 2019
Piranesi
Susanna Clarke • 2020
Romantasy
Alchemised
Senlinyu • 2025
<p> <b>Um romance sombrio que agarra o leitor até à última página.</b> </p> <p> <b>Neste eletrizante romance de estreia de <i>Dark Fantasy</i>, uma mulher com perda de memória luta para sobreviver num mundo devastado pela guerra, dominado pela necromancia e alquimia, e enfrenta o homem encarregado de desvendar os segredos mais profundos do seu passado.</b> </p> <p> <b> </b> </p> <p>Em tempos uma alquimista promissora, Helena Marino é agora prisioneira — da guerra e da sua própria mente. Os amigos e aliados da Resistência foram brutalmente assassinados, as suas habilidades suprimidas, e o mundo que conhecia reduzido a cinzas.</p> <p>Após uma longa guerra, a nova classe dominante de Paladia — composta por famílias de guildas corruptas e necromantes depravados, cujas criaturas vis e reanimadas ajudaram a assegurar a sua vitória — mantém Helena sob cativeiro.</p> <p>De acordo com os registos da Resistência, ela não passava de uma curandeira sem grande relevância. Mas a perda inexplicável de memória dos meses que antecederam a sua captura levanta suspeitas entre os seus inimigos: será Helena realmente tão insignificante como aparenta, ou esconderão as suas memórias perdidas a chave para a derradeira jogada da Resistência?</p> <p>Para recuperar o que se perdeu nas profundezas da sua mente, Helena é entregue ao Grande Bailio, um dos necromantes mais poderosos, e impiedosos, deste novo mundo. Enclausurada na sua propriedade em ruínas, a luta de Helena para proteger a sua história esquecida e preservar os últimos fragmentos de quem foi está apenas a começar. Pois tanto a sua prisão como o seu captor escondem segredos... Segredos que Helena terá de desvendar, custe o que custar.</p>
A Study in Drowning
Ava Reid • 2023
Kings Rising
C. S. Pacat • 2016
Prince's Gambit
C.S. Pacat • 2014
Captive Prince
C. S. Pacat • 2014
Iron Flame
Rebecca Yarros • 2023
Fourth Wing
Rebecca Yarros • 2023
Kingdom of the Wicked
Kerri Maniscalco • 2020
Classics
Sense and Sensibility
Jane Austen • 2003
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde • 1890
“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!
Anne of Green Gables
Lucy Maud Montgomery • 2023
Crime and Punishment
Fyodor Dostoevsky • 1993
<b>Hailed by <i>Washington Post Book World</i> as “the best [translation] currently available" when it was first published, this second edition of <i>Crime and Punishment </i>has been updated in honor of the 200th anniversary of Dostoevsky’s birth. • <b>ONE OF <i>TIME MAGAZINE</i>'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME</b></b><br><br>With the same suppleness, energy, and range of voices that won their translation of <i>The Brothers Karamazov</i> the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Prize, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky offer a brilliant translation of <i>Crime and Punishment, </i>Dostoevsky's astounding pyschological thriller, newly revised for his bicentenniel. <br><br>In <i>Crime and Punishment</i>, when Raskolnikov, an impoverished student living in the St. Petersburg of the tsars, commits an act of murder and theft, he sets into motion a story that is almost unequalled in world literature for its excruciating suspense, its atmospheric vividness, and its depth of characterization and vision. Dostoevsky’s drama of sin, guilt, and redemption transforms the sordid story of an old woman’s murder into the nineteenth century’s profoundest and most compelling philosophical novel.
Persuasion
Jane Austen • 2017
Modern Classics
Giovanni's Room
James Baldwin • 2013
No Longer Human
太宰治 • 1958
<p> Mine has been a life of much shame. I can't even guess myself what it must be to live the life of a human being. </p><p>Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. His attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a "clown" to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult. Without sentimentality, he records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moments of human connection and tenderness.</p><p>Still one of the ten bestselling books in Japan, No Longer Human is an important and unforgettable modern classic: "The struggle of the individual to fit into a normalizing society remains just as relevant today as it was at the time of writing." (The Japan Times)</p>
Animal Farm
George Orwell • 2023
1984
George Orwell • 1950
<b>Written more than 70 years ago, <i>1984</i> was George Orwell’s chilling prophecy about the future. And while 1984 has come and gone, his dystopian vision of a government that will do anything to control the narrative is timelier than ever...<br><br><b>• Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s <i>The Great American Read •</i></b><br></b><br>“<i>The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.</i>”<br><br>Winston Smith toes the Party line, rewriting history to satisfy the demands of the Ministry of Truth. With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit thoughtcrimes. But as he starts to think for himself, Winston can’t escape the fact that Big Brother is always watching...<br><br>A startling and haunting novel, <i>1984</i> creates an imaginary world that is completely convincing from start to finish. No one can deny the novel’s hold on the imaginations of whole generations, or the power of its admonitions—a power that seems to grow, not lessen, with the passage of time.
Historical Fiction
Isola
Allegra Goodman • 2025
In Memoriam
Alice Winn • 2023
High Fantasy
The Will of the Many
James Islington • 2023
Jade War
Fonda Lee • 2019
Jade Legacy
Fonda Lee • 2021
Jade City
Fonda Lee • 2017
The Burning God
R. F. Kuang • 2020
The Dragon Republic
R. F. Kuang • 2019
The Poppy War
R. F. Kuang • 2018
Dark Academia, DA Fantasy
The Secret History
Donna Tartt • 2004
<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>
If We Were Villains
M. L. Rio • 2017
Blood Over Bright Haven
M. L. Wang • 2023
Babel
R. F. Kuang • 2022
Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller from the author of The Poppy War “Absolutely phenomenal. One of the most brilliant, razor-sharp books I've had the pleasure of reading that isn't just an alternative fantastical history, but an interrogative one; one that grabs colonial history and the Industrial Revolution, turns it over, and shakes it out.” -- Shannon Chakraborty, bestselling author of The City of Brass From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal retort to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British empire. Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal. 1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization. For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide… Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?
Historical Fantasy
Our Violent Ends
Chloe Gong • 2021
These Violent Delights
Chloe Gong • 2020
The Song of Achilles
Madeline Miller • 2012
Queer Romance
Tough Guy
Rachel Reid • 2024
Heated Rivalry
Rachel Reid • 2024
Crime Fiction
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder
Holly Jackson • 2021
Psychological Fiction
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed
Mariana Enriquez • 2021
Y/A
Haven
Mary Lindsey
Have you ever wondered why that 13-digit number on the back of a book costs $125 in the United States but is completely free in Canada and India? This book, The Global ISBN Handbook, is your 2025 guide to the International Standard Book Number. It explains everything about this global "fingerprint" for books. The ISBN is the most important cornerstone of the publishing industry. It started as a simple warehouse tool in the 1960s. Now, it is a complex digital identifier used in over 200 countries. This handbook deconstructs the entire system. It uses 15 distinct national case studies to do this. You will learn how the old 10-digit system changed to the new 13-digit one. We break down the five parts of the ISBN, from the "Bookland" prefix to the final check digit. The book explores the global governance framework, starting with the International ISBN Agency. Then, it dives deep into how different countries run their systems. You'll see the privatized, high-cost model in the United States. You'll compare it to Canada's free, government-run system. We explore the industry-led models in Brazil and Germany. We look at government-run systems in Mexico and India. We even cover the unique case of China, where the ISBN is not a simple identifier but a state-controlled publication license. The book also examines the systems in the UK , France , Russia , Japan , Australia , South Africa , Nigeria , and Egypt. Many books and websites can tell you how to get an ISBN. This handbook is the only resource that explains why the process is so different everywhere you look. It moves beyond a simple "how-to" and provides a true global analysis. It directly compares the privatized, for-profit models in the US and UK against the free, public-good systems in Canada and South Africa. You won't just learn the price; you will understand the cultural policies, market structures, and legal philosophies that shape that price. This book shows how the ISBN is a "global mirror". It reveals how a simple number can be a commercial product in one nation , a tool of cultural policy in another , and an instrument of state control in a third. This comparative insight is the missing piece for any author, publisher, or researcher trying to navigate the complex international publishing market. Disclaimer: This handbook is an independently produced resource for commentary and analysis. The author has no affiliation with the International ISBN Agency, R.R. Bowker, Library and Archives Canada, the National Press and Publication Administration, or any other national ISBN agency. This work is independently produced under the principle of nominative fair use.
Immortal City
Scott Speer • 2012
Gothic Fantasy, Horror
The Eyes Are the Best Part
Monika Kim • 2024
Graveyard Shift
M. L. Rio • 2024
Coraline
Neil Gaiman • 2012
Silver Under Nightfall
Rin Chupeco • 2022
Contemporary Fiction
Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World
Benjamin Alire Sáenz • 2021
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Benjamin Alire Sáenz • 2012
