ult reading list
Items in this hypelist
Fantasy
All This Twisted Glory
Tahereh Mafi · 2024
<p>A New York Times bestselling series!</p> <p>The highly anticipated third novel in the Woven Kingdom romantasy series, full of powerful magic, searing romance, and heartbreaking betrayal, from the award-winning and bestselling author of the Shatter Me series. Perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Leigh Bardugo, and Sabaa Tahir.</p> <p>As the long-lost heir to the Jinn throne, Alizeh has finally found her people--and she might've found her crown. Cyrus, the mercurial ruler of Tulan, has offered her his kingdom in a twisted exchange: one that would begin with their marriage and end with his murder.</p> <p>Cyrus's dark reputation precedes him; all the world knows of his blood-soaked past. Killing him should be easy--and accepting his offer might be the only way to fulfill her destiny and save her people. But the more Alizeh learns of him, the more she questions whether the terrible stories about him are true.</p> <p>Ensnared by secrets, Cyrus has ached for Alizeh since she first appeared in his dreams many months ago. Now that he knows those visions were planted by the devil, he can hardly bear to look at her--much less endure her company. But despite their best efforts to despise each other, Alizeh and Cyrus are drawn together over and over with an all-consuming thirst that threatens to destroy them both.</p> <p>Meanwhile, Prince Kamran has arrived in Tulan, ready to exact revenge...</p> <p>Layered with exquisite tension and heart-stopping romance, All This Twisted Glory is the explosive third book in the captivating, bestselling Woven Kingdom series.</p>
These Infinite Threads
Tahereh Mafi · 2023
Instant #1 New York Times bestseller! A stunning romantasy full of explosive magic, searing romance, and heartbreaking betrayal, this breathtaking sequel to This Woven Kingdom is from the award-winning and bestselling author of the Shatter Me series and is perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Leigh Bardugo, and Sabaa Tahir. With the heat of a kiss, the walls between Alizeh, the long-lost heir to an ancient Jinn kingdom, and Kamran, the crown prince of the Ardunian empire, have crumbled. And so have both of their lives. Alizeh, the heir to the Jinn throne, is destined to free her people from the half-lives they’ve been forced to live under human rule. When Kamran, the heir to the human throne, falls in love with her, he’s forced to question everything he’s been taught about Jinn. Kamran’s grandfather lays dead at the hand of Cyrus, ruler of the neighboring kingdom of Tulan. Cyrus has stolen Alizeh away to his homeland and plans to marry her there, giving her everything she needs to become the Jinn queen—and when she assumes the throne he will have fulfilled his own bargain with the devil. Alizeh wants nothing to do with Cyrus’s deal or the devil. But without a way to escape Tulan, and with the fulfillment of her own destiny tantalizingly close, she’ll have to decide whether she can set aside her emotions to become the queen her people need. Kamran, meanwhile, is picking up the pieces in Ardunia. Facing betrayal at every turn, all he knows is that he must go to Tulan to avenge his grandfather. He can only hope that Alizeh will be waiting for him there—and that she hasn’t yet become the queen of Tulan. Enemies to Lovers: Alizeh wants nothing to do with the cruel king Cyrus, but his dark bargain with the devil might be the only way for her to claim her own throne. Political Intrigue: With one king dead and another facing betrayal at every turn, the fate of two empires hangs in the balance as Alizeh is caught between them. Heir to the Throne: As the long-lost Jinn queen, Alizeh is destined to free her people—but she must first decide if she can set aside her emotions to become the leader they need. A Breathtaking Sequel: Fans of Sarah J. Maas and Leigh Bardugo will devour this next installment in the bestselling This Woven Kingdom series.
This Woven Kingdom
Tahereh Mafi · 2022
<p>New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller from the acclaimed author of the Shatter Me series! Clashing empires, forbidden romance, and a long-forgotten queen destined to save her people--Tahereh Mafi's first in an epic romantasy series inspired by Persian mythology.</p> <p>To all the world, Alizeh is a disposable servant, not the long-lost heir to an ancient Jinn kingdom forced to hide in plain sight.</p> <p>The crown prince, Kamran, has heard the prophecies foretelling the death of his king. But he could never have imagined that the servant girl with the strange eyes, the girl he can't put out of his mind, would one day soon uproot his kingdom--and the world.</p> <p>Perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Leigh Bardugo, and Sabaa Tahir, this is the explosive first book in a new romantasy series from the New York Times bestselling and National Book Award-nominated author Tahereh Mafi.</p> <p>"In a tale as exquisitely crafted as one of Alizeh's own garments, Mafi weaves a spell of destiny and danger, forbidden love and courtly intrigue, magic and revolution." --Cassandra Clare, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Last Hours</p> <p>"This Woven Kingdom is an exquisite fantasy. Rich with clever prose, delicious twists, and breathtaking world building. Prepare to be destroyed--this one will wrench at your heart and make it pound, and in the end it will leave you entirely speechless." --Stephanie Garber, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Caraval series</p>
Blood Over Bright Haven A Novel
M. L. Wang · 2024
<b><i>NEW YORK TIMES</i> BESTSELLER • The first woman ever admitted to a prestigious order of mages unravels a secret conspiracy that could change the practice of magic forever in this “provocative stand-alone novel [that] deftly incorporates elements of science and philosophy into dark academia” (<i>The Washington Post</i>), from the author of <i>The Sword of Kaigen</i>.</b><br><br><b>“Bears comparison to groundbreaking works by Ursula K Le Guin . . . the best fantasy novel of the year”—<i>The Guardian<br></i></b><br><b>Features gold and red foil on the jacket, a full-color endpaper map, and an interior illustration of an in-world magical item!</b><br><br><b>AN <i>ELLE </i>BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR</b><br><br>For twenty years, Sciona has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fueled by a mad desire to achieve the impossible: to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry at the University of Magics and Industry.<br><br>When Sciona finally passes the qualifying exam and becomes a highmage, she finds her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues are determined to make her feel unwelcome—and, instead of a qualified lab assistant, they give her a janitor.<br><br>What neither Sciona nor her peers realize is that her taciturn assistant was not always a janitor. Ten years ago, he was a nomadic hunter who lost his family on their perilous journey from the wild plains to the city. But now he sees the opportunity to understand the forces that decimated his tribe, drove him from his homeland, and keep the privileged in power.<br><br>At first, mage and outsider have a fractious relationship. But working together, they uncover an ancient secret that could change the course of magic forever—if it doesn’t get them killed first.
Classics
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.
East of Eden (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics)
John Steinbeck · 1952
A masterpiece of Biblical scope, and the magnum opus of one of America’s most enduring authors<br/><br/>A Penguin Classic<br/><br/>In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden “the first book,” and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California’s Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.<br/><br/>The masterpiece of Steinbeck’s later years, East of Eden is a work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love's absence. Adapted for the 1955 film directed by Elia Kazan introducing James Dean and read by thousands as the book that brought Oprah’s Book Club back, East of Eden has remained vitally present in American culture for over half a century.<br/><br/>This edition features an introduction by David Wyatt.<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.
A Room of One's Own
Virginia Woolf · 1989
<p><b><i>"I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman."</i></b><br> <br> <br> <br> In <i>A Room of One's Own</i>, Virginia Woolf imagines that Shakespeare had a sister--a sister equal to Shakespeare in talent, and equal in genius, but whose legacy is radically different. This imaginary woman never writes a word and dies by her own hand, her genius unexpressed. If only she had found the means to create, argues Woolf, she would have reached the same heights as her immortal sibling.<br> <br> <br> <br> In this classic essay, Woolf takes on the establishment, using her gift of language to dissect the world around her and give voice to those who are without. Her message is a simple one: women must have a steady income and a room of their own in order to have the freedom to create.<br> <br> <br> <br> <b>With a Foreword by Mary Gordon</b></p>
Mystery
Not Quite Dead Yet
Holly Jackson · 2025
<p><b>THE NO.1 <i>SUNDAY TIMES</i> AND <i>NEW YORK TIMES</i> BESTSELLER</b></p> <p>'<b>A roller coaster ride of page-turning suspense and knock-out twists!</b>' FREIDA MCFADDEN<br> '<b>A thrilling, twisting, heartbreaker</b>' CHRIS WHITAKER<br> '<b>An original and unique thriller</b>' CLAIRE DOUGLAS<br> '<b>All the pizzazz, poignancy, humour and ingenious plotting of <i>A Good Girl's Guide to Murder</i></b>' <i>SUNDAY TIMES</i> THRILLER OF THE MONTH<br> <br> --<br> <br> <b>In seven days Jet Mason will be dead.<br></b><br> Jet is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Woodstock, Vermont. Twenty-seven years old, she's still waiting for her life to begin. She'll do it later, she always says. She has time.<br> <br> Until, on the night of Halloween, Jet is violently attacked by an unseen intruder.<br> <br> She suffers a catastrophic brain injury. The doctor is certain that within a week, she'll suffer a deadly aneurysm.<br> <br> Jet never thought of herself as having enemies. But now she looks at everyone in a new light: her family, her ex-best friend turned sister-in-law, her former boyfriend.<br> <br> She only has seven days, and as her condition deteriorates she has only her childhood friend Billy for help. But nevertheless, she's absolutely determined to finally finish something:<br> <br> <b>Jet is going to solve her own murder.</b><br> <br> <b>--</b><br> <br> <b>PRAISE FOR <i>NOT QUITE DEAD YET</i></b><br> <br> '<b>Propulsive, unputdownable and unexpectedly heart wrenching, Not Quite Dead Yet is a masterclass in thriller writing and an example of storytelling at its finest</b>' Alex Michaelides<br> <br> <b>'I absolutely loved it: twisty, edgy, and with her trademark voice. It deserves to fly'</b> Gillian McAllister<br> <br> <b>'A propulsive plot, where the pathos is fuel for real suspense, makes this perfect holiday fare - a genuine page turner'</b> <i>Guardian</i><br> <br> <i>'</i><b>Another cracker from the author of the global hit <i>A Good Girl's Guide To Murder...</i> Jackson creates such a relatable character that the reader is kept engrossed until the heartbreaking, shocking finale</b>' <i>Daily Mail</i><br> '<b><i>Not Quite Dead Yet</i> is everything I love about Holly Jackson's novels dialled up to eleven - a searingly clever premise. An instant classic</b>' Amy McCulloch<br> <br> '<b>Fiercely original, wickedly clever... It had me snickering, gasping, and flying through the chapters until the final page</b>' Andrea Bartz<br> <br> <i>Not Quite Dead Yet</i>, No.1 Sunday Times bestseller, August 2025<br> <i>Not Quite Dead Yet</i>, No.1 New York Times bestseller, August 2025<br></p>
Historical Fiction
Yellowface
R. F. Kuang · 2023
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • EXCERPT TO NEW NOVEL KATABASIS! “Hard to put down, harder to forget.” — Stephen King White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences… Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn’t write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American—in this chilling and hilariously cutting psychological thriller from R.F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel. Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars in the world of literary fiction. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks. So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I. So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree. But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves. With its totally immersive first-person voice from a masterfully crafted unreliable narrator, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.
As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow
Zoulfa Katouh · 2022
<b>A love letter to Syria and its people, <i>As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow</i> is a speculative novel set amid the Syrian Revolution, burning with the fires of hope, love, and possibility. Perfect for fans of <i>The Book Thief</i> and <i>Salt to the Sea</i>.</b><br> <br> <br> <br> Salama Kassab was a pharmacy student when the cries for freedom broke out in Syria. She still had her parents and her big brother; she still had her home. She had a normal teenager's life. <br> <br> <br> <br> Now Salama volunteers at a hospital in Homs, helping the wounded who flood through the doors daily. Secretly, though, she is desperate to find a way out of her beloved country before her sister-in-law, Layla, gives birth. So desperate, that she has manifested a physical embodiment of her fear in the form of her imagined companion, Khawf, who haunts her every move in an effort to keep her safe. <br> <br> <br> <br> But even with Khawf pressing her to leave, Salama is torn between her loyalty to her country and her conviction to survive. Salama must contend with bullets and bombs, military assaults, and her shifting sense of morality before she might finally breathe free. And when she crosses paths with the boy she was supposed to meet one fateful day, she starts to doubt her resolve in leaving home at all. <br> <br> <br> <br> Soon, Salama must learn to see the events around her for what they truly are--not a war, but a revolution--and decide how she, too, will cry for Syria's freedom.
Dark Academia
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
Oliver Marks has just served ten years for the murder of one of his closest friends - a murder he may or may not have committed. On the day he's released, he's greeted by the detective who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, but before he does, he wants to know what really happened ten years ago.As a young actor studying Shakespeare at an elite arts conservatory, Oliver noticed that his talented classmates seem to play the same roles onstage and off - villain, hero, tyrant, temptress - though Oliver felt doomed to always be a secondary character in someone else's story. But when the teachers change up the casting, a good-natured rivalry turns ugly, and the plays spill dangerously over into life.When tragedy strikes, one of the seven friends is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.
Mythological Fiction
Circe
Madeline Miller · 2018
This #1 New York Times bestseller is a "bold and subversive retelling of the goddess's story" that brilliantly reimagines the life of Circe, formidable sorceress of The Odyssey (Alexandra Alter, TheNew York Times). In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child -- not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power -- the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus. But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love. With unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language, and page-turning suspense, Circe is a triumph of storytelling, an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man's world. #1 New York Times Bestseller -- named one of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, the Washington Post, People, Time, Amazon, Entertainment Weekly, Bustle, Newsweek, the A.V. Club, Christian Science Monitor, Refinery 29, Buzzfeed, Paste, Audible, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Thrillist, NYPL, Self, Real Simple, Goodreads, Boston Globe, Electric Literature, BookPage, the Guardian, Book Riot, Seattle Times, and Business Insider.
Literary Fiction
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>
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous A Novel
Ocean Vuong · 2021
<b>A <i>New York Times </i>bestseller <b>• Nominated for the National Book Award for Fiction <b>• Ocean Vuong’s debut novel is a shattering portrait of a family, a first love, and the redemptive power of storytelling</b></b><br><br><b><i>New York Times </i>Readers Pick: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century</b> <br><br><b>“A lyrical work of self-discovery that’s shockingly intimate and insistently universa</b>l…N<b>ot so much briefly gorgeous as permanently stunning.” —Ron Charles, <i>The Washington Post</i><br></b><br></b><i>On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, </i>the debut novel from the author of <i>The Emperor of Gladness,</i> is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, <i>On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous</i> is as much about the power of telling one’s own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard. <br><br>With stunning urgency and grace, Ocean Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are. The question of how to survive, and how to make of it a kind of joy, powers the most important debut novel of many years.<br><br><b>Named a Best Book of the Year by: <br><i>GQ, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Library Journal, TIME</i>, <i>Esquire, The Washington Post</i>, Apple, <i>Good Housekeeping, The New Yorker</i>, The New York Public Library, Elle.com, <i>The Guardian</i>, The A.V. Club, NPR, Lithub, <i>Entertainment Weekly</i>, Vogue.com, <i>The San Francisco Chronicle, Mother Jones, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal Magazine, </i>and more! <br></b>
Biography
Everything I Know About Love
Dolly Alderton · 2020
New York Times Bestseller Like Bridget Jones’ Diary but all true— a wildly funny, occasionally heartbreaking coming-of-age memoir from the funny, sharp British journalist and podcast host, who Elizabeth Gilbert calls “a sparkling Roman candle of talent.” “The older you get, the more baggage you carry. When you date at twenty-five, everyone walks into the bar with a very neat, light carry-on. When you date from thirty onwards, get ready to meet someone absolutely brimming with history, complications and demands.” When it comes to the trials and triumphs of becoming an adult, writer Dolly Alderton has seen and tried it all. In her memoir, she vividly recounts falling in love, finding a job, getting drunk, getting dumped, and that absolutely no one can ever compare to her best girlfriends. Everything I Know About Love is about bad dates, good friends and—above all else— realizing that you are enough. Glittering with wit and insight, heart and humor, Dolly Alderton’s unforgettable debut memoir about navigating your twenties weaves together personal stories, satirical observations, a series of lists, recipes, and other vignettes that will strike a chord of recognition with women of every age. Perfect for fans of Nora Ephron and Caitlin Moran, this book is a hilarious and heartfelt look at the messiness of growing up: Female Friendship: A loving celebration of the ride-or-die girlfriends who get you through bad dates, terrible jobs, and the times you forget that you are enough. Relatable Humor: Dolly Alderton’s wildly funny and painfully honest stories of getting drunk, getting dumped, and figuring it all out will have you laughing with recognition. Dating Disasters: From MSN Messenger flirtations to disastrous first dates, a sharp and witty look at the trials and triumphs of looking for love in all the wrong places. Humorous Memoir: More than just stories, this debut includes satirical observations, lists, and even recipes for when your heart (or head) is aching.
