The Gift of Reading: Book Bundles
Looking for the perfect complementary read for some of your favorite books?
Our librarians have gathered a "reader’s dozen" list of book bundles, perfect for people looking for titles similar to books in their favorite subgenres and tropes. Whether you’re looking for yourself or trying to find recommendations for a friend, we hope you find this list helpful. (All summaries adapted from the publisher.)
If you want to read something outside your comfort zone, check out our recommendations for Book Riot’s Read Harder challenge: How to Read Harder in 2019
Books with an Intriguing Setting
Recommended by Amanda Pagan
Books are the cheapest forms of travel. With one story, a reader can find themselves completely immersed in the goings-on of an English countryside manor, or a small town struggling to survive the Arctic wilderness. If you're looking for stories with settings that immediately pull you in, check out these titles!
Rebeccaby Daphne du Maurier
"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderly again."
With these words, the reader is ushered into an isolated gray stone mansion on the windswept Cornish coast, as the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter recalls the chilling events that transpired as she began her new life as the young bride of a husband she barely knew. For in every corner of every room were phantoms of a time dead but not forgotten—a past devotedly preserved by the sinister housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers: a suite immaculate and untouched, clothing laid out and ready to be worn, but not by any of the great house's current occupants. With an eerie presentiment of evil tightening her heart, the second Mrs. de Winter walked in the shadow of her mysterious predecessor, determined to uncover the darkest secrets and shattering truths about Maxim's first wife—the late and hauntingly beautiful Rebecca.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Past the rusted gates and untrimmed hedges, Hill House broods and waits…
Four seekers have come to the ugly, abandoned old mansion: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of the psychic phenomenon called haunting; Theodora, his lovely and lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a lonely, homeless girl well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the adventurous future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable noises and self-closing doors, but Hill House is gathering its powers and will soon choose one of them to make its own.
The Snow Child: A Novel by Eowyn Ivey
Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart—he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone—but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.
For more books with strong settings, check out these blog posts: Living Dangerously: 13 Haunted House Novels, Travels as an Armchair Detective: Mysteries with a Sense of Place, and A Brief History of Gothic Horror.
Level Up! Video Game Fiction!
For some, video games aren't just a hobby, they're a lifestyle. Leveling up, meeting new players online, and winning achievements (and sometimes money) are all that matter. Characters getting sucked into video games are a staple of the isekai genre of Japanese manga and light novels. (For readers looking for more on this subgenre, check out our Beginner’s Guide to Isekai recommendations!) These titles explore virtual worlds and realities that are perfect for young adventurers!
Warcross by Marie Lu
Recommended by Julia Perham
The obsession started 10 years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down Warcross players who bet on the game illegally. But the bounty-hunting world is a competitive one, and survival has not been easy.
To make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships—only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation. Convinced she's going to be arrested, Emika is shocked when, instead, she gets a call from the game's creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this year's tournament to uncover a security problem… and he wants Emika for the job.
With no time to lose, Emika is whisked off to Tokyo and thrust into a world of fame and fortune that she's only dreamed of. But soon her investigation uncovers a sinister plot, with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire. In this sci-fi thriller, #1 New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu conjures an immersive, exhilarating world where choosing who to trust may be the biggest gamble of all.
Otherworld by Jason Segel
Recommended by Julia Perham
That’s how Otherworld traps you. It introduces you to sensations you’d never be able to feel in real life. You discover what’s been missing—because it’s taboo or illegal or because you lack the guts to do it for real. And when you find out what’s missing, it’s almost impossible to let it go again.
There are no screens. There are no controls. You don’t just see and hear it—you taste, smell, and touch it too. In this new reality, there are no laws to break or rules to obey. You can live your best life. Indulge every desire.
The frightening future Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller have imagined is not far away. Otherworld asks the question we'll all soon be asking: if technology can deliver everything we want, how much are we willing to pay?
For the Win by Cory Doctorow
Recommended by Amanda Pagan
At any hour of the day or night, millions of people around the globe are engrossed in multiplayer online games, questing and battling to win virtual "gold," jewels, and precious artifacts. Meanwhile, others seek to exploit this vast shadow economy, running electronic sweatshops in the world's poorest countries, where countless "gold farmers," bound to their work by abusive contracts and physical threats, harvest virtual treasure for their employers to sell to first-world gamers willing to spend real money to skip straight to higher-level gameplay.
Mala is a brilliant 15-year-old from rural India whose leadership skills in virtual combat have earned her the title of "General Robotwalla." In Shenzen, the heart of China's industrial boom, Matthew is defying his former bosses to build his own successful gold-farming team. Leonard, who calls himself Wei-Dong, lives in Southern California, but spends his nights fighting virtual battles alongside his buddies in Asia, a world away. All these young people, and more, will become entangled with the mysterious young woman called Big Sister Nor, who will use her experience, knowledge of history, and connections with real-world organizers to build them into a movement that can challenge the status quo.
For more game-related reads, check out our Game-based manga recommendations.
Women in STEM
Recommended by Julia Perham
Women have been the unsung heroes of the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) for as long as those fields have existed. Check out these titles that celebrate their accomplishments and lives.
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
Geobiologist Hope Jahren has spent her life studying trees, flowers, seeds, and soil. Lab Girl is her revelatory treatise on plant life—but it is also a celebration of the lifelong curiosity, humility, and passion that drive every scientist. In these pages, Hope takes us back to her Minnesota childhood, where she spent hours in unfettered play in her father’s college laboratory. She tells us how she found a sanctuary in science, learning to perform lab work "with both the heart and the hands." She introduces us to Bill, her brilliant, eccentric lab manager. And she extends the mantle of scientist to each one of her readers, inviting us to join her in observing and protecting our environment. Warm, luminous, compulsively readable, Lab Girl vividly demonstrates the mountains we can move when love and work come together.
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson; introduction by Linda Lear; afterword by Edward O. Wilson; drawings by Lois and Louis Darling
First published in 1962, this book alerted a large audience to the environmental and human dangers of indiscriminate use of pesticides. The outcry that followed its publication forced the banning of DDT and spurred revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. Silent Spring became a runaway bestseller, with international reverberations.
"[It is] well crafted, fearless and succinct… Even if she had not inspired a generation of activists, Carson would prevail as one of the greatest nature writers in American letters." -Peter Matthiessen, for Time's "100 Most Influential People of the Century"
The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars by Dava Sobel
In the mid-19th century, the Harvard College Observatory began employing women as calculators, or "human computers," to interpret the observations their male counterparts made via telescope each night. At the outset, this group included the wives, sisters, and daughters of the resident astronomers, but soon the female corps included graduates of the new women's colleges—Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith. As photography transformed the practice of astronomy, the ladies turned from computation to studying the stars captured nightly on glass photographic plates.
The "glass universe" of half-a-million plates that Harvard amassed over the ensuing decade—through the generous support of Mrs. Anna Palmer Draper, the widow of a pioneer in stellar photography—enabled the women to make extraordinary discoveries that attracted worldwide acclaim. They helped discern what stars were made of, divided the stars into meaningful categories for further research, and found a way to measure distances across space by starlight. Their ranks included Williamina Fleming, a Scottish woman originally hired as a maid, who went on to identify ten novae and more than 300 variable stars; Annie Jump Cannon, who designed a stellar classification system that was adopted by astronomers the world over and is still in use; and Dr. Cecilia Helena Payne, who, in 1956, became the first-ever woman professor of astronomy at Harvard—and Harvard’s first female department chair.
True Crime
Recommended by Julia Perham
For those of you who enjoy reviewing cold cases or delving deep into the minds of criminals, we’ve gathered titles full of murder, mayhem, and macabre interest.
The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple by Jeff Guinn
In the 1950s, a young Indianapolis minister named Jim Jones preached a curious blend of the gospel and Marxism. His congregation was racially mixed, and he was a leader in the early civil rights movement. Eventually, Jones moved his church, Peoples Temple, to northern California, where he got involved in electoral politics and became a prominent Bay Area leader. But underneath the surface lurked a terrible darkness.
In this riveting narrative, Jeff Guinn examines Jones’s life, from his early days as an idealistic minister to a secret life of extramarital affairs, drug use, and fraudulent faith healing, before the fateful decision to move almost a thousand of his followers to a settlement in the jungles of Guyana in South America. Guinn provides stunning new details of the events leading to the fatal day in November, 1978, when more than 900 people died—including almost 300 infants and children—after being ordered to swallow a cyanide-laced drink.
The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich
Before Alex Marzano-Lesnevich begins a summer job at a law firm in Louisiana, working to help defend men accused of murder, they think their position is clear. The child of two lawyers, Marzano-Lesnevich is staunchly anti-death penalty. But the moment convicted murderer Ricky Langley’s face flashes on the screen as they review old tapes―the moment they hear him speak of his crimes―they are overcome with the feeling of wanting him to die. Shocked by their reaction, Marzano-Lesnevich digs deeper and deeper into the case. Despite coming from vastly different circumstances, something in Langley's story is unsettlingly, uncannily familiar.
Crime, even the darkest and most unsayable acts, can happen to any one of us. As Alex pores over the facts of the murder, they find themself thrust into the complicated narrative of Ricky’s childhood. And by examining the details of Ricky’s case, they are forced to face their own story, to unearth long-buried family secrets, and reckon with a past that colors their view of Ricky's crime. But another surprise awaits: They weren’t the only one who saw their life in Ricky’s.
Black Dahlia, Red Rose: The Crime, Corruption, and Cover-up of America's Greatest Unsolved Murder by Piu Eatwell
The gruesome murder of hopeful starlet Elizabeth Short, in the noir-tinged Los Angeles of 1947, has a permanent place in American lore as one of the most inscrutable of true-crime mysteries. Now, Piu Eatwell―relentless legal sleuth and atmospheric stylist―cracks the case after 70 years. With recently unredacted FBI files, newly released sections of the LAPD files, and explosive new interviews, Eatwell has unprecedented access to primary evidence and a persuasive culprit. She layers her findings into a gritty, cinematic retelling of the case from the corrupt LAPD and the take-no-prisoners press, to the seedy underworld of would-be actresses and the men who preyed on them. In mesmerizing prose, Black Dahlia, Red Rose is a panorama of 1940s Hollywood, a definitive account of one of the biggest unsolved murders in American legal history.
Cozy Smalltown Murder Mystery Series
Recommended by Amanda Pagan
What is it about small towns that make them so prone to murder? Is it the close-knit community and subsequent petty rivalries? The noisy neighbors? Or is it the prevalence of antiques so valuable they’re worth murdering for? Whatever the cause, they make wonderful settings for some of our favorite mystery series!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder: a Hannah Swensen Mystery by Joanne Fluke
Cookie-maker Hannah Swensen decides to investigate when Ron LaSalle, the beloved delivery man from the Cozy Cow Dairy, is found murdered behind her bakery.
The first in the Hannah Swensen Mystery series!
Still Life by Louise Penny
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, just north of the U.S. border, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it’s a tragic hunting accident and nothing more, but Gamache smells something foul in these remote woods, and is soon certain that Jane Neal died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter.
First in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series!
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
It is the summer of 1950, and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events: A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath.
For Flavia, both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. "I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life."
First in the Flavia de Luce series!
For more cozy mysteries, check out our blog post To Brie or Not to Brie... What's the Question?
Ladies of Mystery
Recommended by Amanda Pagan
Ever since Agatha Christie published her Miss Marple mystery novels, female private eyes, detectives, and amateur sleuths have become a staple of the genre, and we love that! Here are some of our favorite ladies of mystery.
Cocaine Blues by Phryne Fisher
The London season is in full fling at the end of the 1920s, but the Honourable Phryne Fisher―she of the green-grey eyes, diamante garters and outfits that should not be sprung suddenly on those of nervous dispositions―is rapidly tiring of the tedium of arranging flowers, making polite conversations with retired colonels, and dancing with weak-chinned men. Instead, Phryne decides it might be rather amusing to try her hand at being a lady detective in Melbourne, Australia.
Almost immediately from the time she books into the Windsor Hotel, Phryne is embroiled in mystery: poisoned wives, cocaine smuggling rings, corrupt cops, and communism—not to mention erotic encounters with the beautiful Russian dancer, Sasha de Lisse—until her adventure reaches its steamy end in the Turkish baths of Little Lonsdale Street.
First in the Phryne Fisher series!
A Cast-off Coven by Juliet Blackwell
Students are spooked at the San Francisco School of Fine Arts, and Lily is called in to search for possible paranormal activity. In return, she's been promised a trunkful of Victorian-era clothes recently discovered in a school storage closet.
But Lily finds something else: the body of a wealthy patron of the school. In between running the store and seeing her new boyfriend, Max—a "mythbuster" uncomfortable with her witchcraft—she uses her sleuthing skills to try to solve the murder. Soon Lily senses something from the school's vintage clothes, but it's not the smell of mothballs—it's the unmistakable aura of evil intent.
Part of the Witchcraft Mysteries series!
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series by Alexander McCall Smith
This first novel in Alexander McCall Smith's widely acclaimed The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series tells the story of the delightfully cunning and enormously engaging Precious Ramotswe, who is drawn to her profession to help people with problems in their lives. Immediately upon setting up shop in a small storefront in Gaborone, she is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. But the case that tugs at her heart, and lands her in danger, is a missing eleven-year-old boy, who may have been snatched by witch doctors.
First in the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series!
For more, check out our Go, Go, Girl Detectives blog post.
Unreliable Narrators
Recommended by Amanda Pagan
Unreliable narrators make you question everything you read since you have no way to know if they are telling the truth. For those who like their fiction on the unpredictable side, check out these titles.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Two sisters, Merricat and Constance Blackwood, live in a mansion that is, at times, compared to a castle. Merricat might be a witch while the unwanted visitor to their house, Charles, may or may not be a ghost or a demon.
Meanwhile, most of the villagers hate and fear the two sisters, who have been living in seclusion with their ailing uncle ever since a poisoned sugar bowl killed the rest of the Blackwood family.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy's fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations made when Nick's clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-year Nick isn't doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife's head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge.
Under mounting pressure from police and the media—as well as Amy's fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he's definitely bitter—but is he really a killer? As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they really know the one they love.
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
A beautiful and distinguished family. A private island. A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy. A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies. True love. The truth.
Spending the summers on her family's private island off the coast of Massachusetts with her cousins and a special boy named Gat, teenaged Cadence struggles to remember what happened during her 15th summer.
Read it. And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.
Twists and Turns
Recommended by Amanda Pagan
Thrillers! Mysteries! Suspense! If you love a good page-turner that has you on the edge of the seat and unable to put it down, then check out these titles,
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Ten strangers, each with a dark secret, are gathereed together on an isolated island by a mysterious host. One by one, they die, and before the weekend is out, there will be none.
Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey
Maud, an aging grandmother, is slowly losing her memory—and her grip on everyday life. Yet she refuses to forget her best friend Elizabeth, whom she is convinced is missing and in terrible danger.
But no one will listen to Maud—not her frustrated daughter, Helen, not her caretakers, not the police, and especially not Elizabeth’s mercurial son, Peter. Armed with handwritten notes she leaves for herself and an overwhelming feeling that Elizabeth needs her help, Maud resolves to discover the truth and save her beloved friend.
This singular obsession forms a cornerstone of Maud’s rapidly dissolving present. But the clues she discovers seem only to lead her deeper into her past, to another unsolved disappearance: her sister, Sukey, who vanished shortly after World War II.
As vivid memories of a tragedy that occurred more than 50 years ago come flooding back, Maud discovers new momentum in her search for her friend. Could the mystery of Sukey’s disappearance hold the key to finding Elizabeth?
In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
What should be a cozy and fun-filled weekend deep in the English countryside takes a sinister turn in Ruth Ware's suspenseful, compulsive, and darkly twisted psychological thriller. Leonora, known to some as Lee and others as Nora, is a reclusive crime writer, unwilling to leave her "nest" of an apartment unless absolutely necessary.
When a friend she hasn't seen or spoken to in years unexpectedly invites Nora to a weekend away in an eerie glass house, deep in the English countryside, Nora reluctantly agrees to make the trip. Forty-eight hours later, she wakes up in a hospital bed injured but alive, with the knowledge that someone is dead. Wondering not "what happened?" but "what have I done?", Nora (Lee?) tries to piece together the events of the past weekend. Working to uncover secrets, reveal motives, and find answers, Nora must revisit parts of herself she would much rather leave buried where they belong: in the past.
For more recommendations, check out Mystery Without End… Literally.
Get Ready to Cry
Recommended by Julia Perham
Crying is cathartic. If you feel like you need to release some pent-up emotions, try some of these certified tear-jerkers. Have the tissues ready!
I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb
"On the afternoon of October 12, 1990, my twin brother, Thomas, entered the Three Rivers, Connecticut, public library, retreated to one of the rear study carrels, and prayed to God the sacrifice he was about to commit would be deemed acceptable."
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
A dazzling novel of friendship and redemption in the face of tragedy and loss, set in 1980s Chicago and contemporary Paris, by the acclaimed award-winning author, Rebecca Makkai. In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet, as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him.
One by one, his friends are dying; after his friend Nico's funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon, the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico's little sister. Thirty years later, Fiona is in Paris tracking down her estranged daughter, who disappeared into a cult. While staying with an old friend, a famous photographer who documented the Chicago crisis, she finds herself finally grappling with the devastating ways AIDS affected her life and her relationship with her daughter. The two intertwining stories take us through the heartbreak of the 80s and the chaos of the modern world, as both Yale and Fiona struggle to find goodness in the midst of disaster.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes-cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity.
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator, yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma he'll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.
Feminist Science Fiction
Recommended by Amanda Pagan
Most scholars agree that science fiction, as we currently know it, was defined by the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 1818. Female writers have consistently contributed groundbreaking works that challenge modern notions of gender inequality, sexism, racism, and politics. Feminist science fiction is a subgenre that, more specifically, explores these elements.
The Female Man by Joanna Russ
Living in an altered past that never saw the end of the Great Depression, Jeannine, a librarian, is waiting to be married. Joanna lives in a different version of reality: she's a 1970s feminist trying to succeed in a man's world. Janet is from Whileaway, a utopian earth where only women exist. And Jael is a warrior with steel teeth and catlike retractable claws, from an earth with separate—and warring—female and male societies. When these four women meet, the results are startling, outrageous, and subversive.
Dawn by Octavia Butler
In a world devastated by nuclear war, with humanity on the edge of extinction, aliens finally make contact. They rescue those humans they can, keeping most survivors in suspended animation while the aliens begin the slow process of rehabilitating the planet. When Lilith Iyapo is "awakened," she finds that she has been chosen to revive her fellow humans in small groups by first preparing them to meet the utterly terrifying aliens, then training them to survive on the wilderness that the planet has become. But the aliens cannot help humanity without altering it forever.
Bonded to the aliens in ways no human has ever known, Lilith tries to fight them even as her own species comes to fear and loathe her. A stunning story of invasion and alien contact by one of science fiction's finest writers.
Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson
It's Carnival time and the Caribbean-colonized planet of Toussaint is celebrating with music, dance, and pageantry. Masked "Midnight Robbers" waylay revelers with brandished weapons and spellbinding words. To young Tan-Tan, the Robber Queen is simply a favorite costume to wear at the festival—until her power-corrupted father commits an unforgiveable crime.
Suddenly, both father and daughter are thrust into the brutal world of New Half-Way Tree. Here, monstrous creatures from folklore are real, and the humans are violent outcasts in the wilds. Tan-Tan must reach into the heart of myth and become the Robber Queen herself. For only the Robber Queen's legendary powers can save her life… and set her free.
Looking for more titles? Check out our Beginner’s Guide to Science Fiction and Current Feminist Writers.
Trilogies: The Best Things Come in 3s!
Sometimes one book is just not enough to deliver on world-building, character dynamics, or sprawling plot points. For those who want something a bit more compact than a 7+ bound series, check out these trilogies!
The Captive Prince Trilogy by C.S. Pacat
Recommended by Amanda Pagan
Damen is a warrior hero to his people, and the rightful heir to the throne of Akielos. But when his half brother seizes power, Damen is captured, stripped of his identity, and sent to serve the prince of an enemy nation as a pleasure slave.
Beautiful, manipulative, and deadly, his new master, Prince Laurent, epitomizes the worst of the court at Vere. But in the lethal political web of the Veretian court, nothing is as it seems, and when Damen finds himself caught up in a play for the throne, he must work together with Laurent to survive and save his country.
For Damen, there is just one rule: never, ever reveal his true identity. Because the one man Damen needs is the one man who has more reason to hate him more than anyone else…
Captive Prince is the first in the series.
Annihilation (The Area X Trilogy) by Jeff VanderMeer
Recommended by Amanda Pagan
Area X has claimed the lives of members of 11 expeditions. The 12th expedition, consisting of four women, hopes to map the terrain and collect specimens; to record all their observations, scientific and otherwise, of their surroundings and of one another; and, above all, to avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.
Annihilation is the first novel of the series.
Oryx and Crake (The MaddAddam Trilogy) by Margaret Atwood
Recommended by Julia Perham
The narrator of Atwood's riveting novel calls himself Snowman. When the story opens, he is sleeping in a tree, wearing an old bedsheet, mourning the loss of his beloved Oryx and his best friend Crake, and slowly starving to death. He searches for supplies in a wasteland where insects proliferate and pigoons and wolvogs ravage the pleeblands, where ordinary people once lived, and the Compounds that sheltered the extraordinary.
As the narrator tries to piece together what has taken place, the narrative shifts to decades earlier. How did everything fall apart so quickly? Why is he left with nothing but his haunting memories? Alone except for the green-eyed Children of Crake, who think of him as a kind of monster, he explores the answers to these questions in the double journey he takes—into his own past, and back to Crake's high-tech bubble-dome, where the Paradice Project unfolded and the world came to grief.
Oryx and Crake is the first novel of the series.
Non-Committal Short Stories
Recommended by Julia Perham
These short-story collections are perfect for readers looking to expand their minds without committing to long-term, multi-volume narratives. Feel free to pick stories you want to read!
Look Alive Out There by Sloane Crosley
The characteristic heart and punch-packing observations are back, but with a newfound coat of maturity. A thin coat. More of a blazer, really. Fans of I Was Told There'd Be Cake and How Did You Get This Number know Sloane Crosley's life as a series of relatable but madcap misadventures. In Look Alive Out There, whether it's scaling active volcanoes, crashing shivas, playing herself on Gossip Girl, befriending swingers, or squinting down the barrel of the fertility gun, Crosley continues to rise to the occasion with unmatchable nerve and electric one-liners.
As her subjects become more serious, her essays deliver not just laughs, but lasting emotional heft and insight. Crosley has taken up the gauntlets thrown by her predecessors—Dorothy Parker, Nora Ephron, David Sedaris—and crafted something rare, affecting, and true. Look Alive Out There arrives on the 10th anniversary of I Was Told There'd Be Cake, and Crosley's essays have managed to grow simultaneously more sophisticated and even funnier.
Certain American States: Stories by Catherine Lacey
The characters in Certain American States are continually coming to terms with their place in the world, and how to adapt to that place, before change inevitably returns. A woman leaves her dead husband’s clothing on the street, only for it to reappear on the body of a stranger; a man reads his ex-wife’s short story and neurotically contemplates whether it is about him; a young woman whose Texan mother insists on moving to New York City with her has her daily attempts to get over a family tragedy interrupted by a mute stranger showing her incoherent messages on his phone.
These are stories of breakups, abandonment, and strained family ties; dead brothers and distant surrogate fathers; loneliness, happenstance, starting over, and learning to let go. Lacey’s elegiac and inspired prose is at its full power in this collection, further establishing her as one of the singular literary voices of her generation.
Stories of Your Life and Othersby Ted Chiang
Combining the precision and scientific curiosity of Kim Stanley Robinson with Lorrie Moore's cool, clear love of language and narrative intricacy, this award-winning collection offers readers the dual delights of the very, very strange and the heartbreakingly familiar.
Stories of Your Life and Others presents characters who must confront sudden change—the inevitable rise of automatons or the appearance of aliens—while striving to maintain some sense of normalcy. In the amazing and much-lauded title story, a grieving mother copes with divorce and the death of her daughter by drawing on her knowledge of alien languages and non-linear memory recollection. A clever pastiche of news reports and interviews chronicles a college's initiative to "turn off" the human ability to recognize beauty in "Liking What You See: A Documentary." With sharp intelligence and humor, Chiang examines what it means to be alive in a world marked by uncertainty and constant change, and also by beauty and wonder.