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Summaries of 9,841 books.

  1. King Dork

    Frank Portman

    ★ 3.5 (7k) average on GoodreadsMystery

    Armed with his dead father's copy of 'The Catcher in the Rye,' high school outcast Tom Henderson unravels a rock-and-roll conspiracy that turns his suburban angst into a Da Vinci Code-esque quest.

  2. Oleanna

    David Mamet

    ★ 3.6 (7k) average on GoodreadsFiction

    A college professor's meeting with a student turns into a chilling inquiry, exposing power, censorship, and abuse through weaponized language.

  3. The Nightingale and the Rose

    Oscar Wilde

    ★ 4.3 (7k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    To help a lovelorn student win his beloved, a devoted nightingale embarks on a desperate quest for a red rose, ultimately making the ultimate sacrifice to create one from her own heart's blood.

  4. Five Have a Mystery to Solve

    Enid Blyton

    ★ 3.9 (7k) average on GoodreadsChildren's

    Julian, Dick, Anne, George, and Timmy the dog face the spooky legends of Whispering Island, hoping to find a real mystery among its old, unsettling secrets.

  5. Moving Mars

    Greg Bear

    ★ 3.8 (7k) average on GoodreadsPolitics

    On a Mars chafing under Earth's corporate rule, a young woman's quiet defiance ignites a generations-long struggle for planetary independence.

  6. Justine

    Lawrence Durrell

    ★ 3.9 (7k) average on GoodreadsLiterary Fiction

    In pre-WWII Alexandria, where intellect and history meet, a group of expats goes into obsessive love and betrayal, mistaking physical pursuit for understanding.

  7. Stone Cold

    David Baldacci

    ★ 4.0 (7k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A master con artist flees a vengeful casino king, forcing Oliver Stone and his Camel Club to face a ghost from Stone's past: a seemingly ordinary family man who is, in reality, a relentless assassin systematically eliminating everyone connected to Stone.

  8. A Grain of Wheat

    Ngugi wa Thiongo

    ★ 3.9 (7k) average on Goodreads

    In the crucible of Kenya's fight for independence, a disillusioned villager grapples with betrayal, sacrifice, and the agonizing cost of freedom.

  9. Aristotle's "Art of Rhetoric"

    Aristotle

    ★ 3.9 (7k) average on GoodreadsPolitics

    Aristotle's guide to persuasive speech teaches how to master rhetoric for public discussion and how to guard against its manipulative uses.

  10. Stay Where You Are and Then Leave

    John Boyne

    ★ 4.0 (7k) average on GoodreadsChildren's

    A determined young shoe-shine boy uncovers his father's hidden trauma in a war hospital, forcing him to confront the silent battles fought far from the trenches.

  11. Tiny Pretty Things

    Sona Charaipotra

    ★ 3.8 (7k) average on GoodreadsPsychology

    At an elite Manhattan ballet academy, three ambitious dancers navigate a cutthroat world of rivalry, romance, and dangerous secrets as they compete for the prima role, each willing to sacrifice everything.

  12. The Everlasting Man

    G.K. Chesterton

    ★ 4.2 (7k) average on GoodreadsHistory

    Chesterton shows how the idea of linear human progress is wrong, revealing humanity's lasting distinctiveness and how the Christian faith explains life's deepest questions.

  13. The Yellow House

    Patricia Falvey

    ★ 3.8 (7k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    In early 20th-century Northern Ireland, Eileen O'Neill navigates sectarian strife and hidden family secrets, determined to reclaim her ancestral 'Yellow House' and mend her fractured family amidst political and religious turmoil.

  14. The Genius of Birds

    Jennifer Ackerman

    ★ 4.0 (7k) average on GoodreadsScience

    Jennifer Ackerman explores new research to show how bird intelligence, from tool-making to communication, is changing how we define genius.

  15. The Moorchild

    Eloise Jarvis McGraw

    ★ 4.0 (7k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    Banished for her inability to shapeshift, a half-moorfolk girl raised as a changeling must navigate prejudice and forgotten memories to right the ancient wrong done to her human family, even if it means confronting the magical world that cast her out.

  16. All About Love

    Stephanie Laurens

    ★ 4.1 (7k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    A notorious rake seeking a country escape finds himself ensnared by a spirited beauty whose independence ignites his possessive instincts, leading to a battle of wills and seduction in the pursuit of love and pleasure.

  17. Earth

    David Brin

    ★ 3.9 (7k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    As a man-made black hole consumes Earth from within, humanity races against time, facing the horrifying idea that its own end might be the planet's only hope.

  18. The Guise of Another

    Allen Eskens

    ★ 3.8 (7k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A detective, trying to save his career and marriage, finds an identity theft case that puts him in a deadly hunt for a mysterious man by a brutal assassin.

  19. Mirror Image

    Danielle Steel

    ★ 3.9 (7k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    Identical twins Olivia and Victoria swap lives to escape scandal and pursue their dreams, finding love and destiny tangled with deception and sacrifice.

  20. Every Exquisite Thing

    Matthew Quick

    ★ 3.6 (7k) average on GoodreadsPsychology

    A star athlete's carefully built life falls apart when a mysterious cult classic novel ignites her rebellious spirit, leading her to forbidden friendships, passionate love, and the difficult consequences of becoming her true self.

  21. Wrapped in Rain

    Charles Martin

    ★ 4.3 (7k) average on GoodreadsFiction

    A photographer, weighed down by his Southern estate's past and his late housekeeper's wisdom, must face his estranged father and a broken family to learn how to fight life with his heart.

  22. Little Big Man

    Thomas Berger

    ★ 4.3 (7k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    Orphaned and raised among the Cheyenne, Jack Crabb navigates the brutal and often absurd American West as both an adopted "human being" and a white man, witnessing the demise of a culture he loves while clashing with legendary figures like Custer and Wild Bill.

  23. The Seamstress

    Sara Tuvel Bernstein

    ★ 4.1 (7k) average on GoodreadsBiography

    Defying her father, throwing ink at an anti-Semitic priest, and surviving Ravensbrück, Sara Tuvel Bernstein's memoir tells a story of rebellion and resilience during the Holocaust.

  24. A Severed Head

    Iris Murdoch

    ★ 3.8 (7k) average on GoodreadsFiction

    An academic's polite world of affairs collapses when his wife leaves him for her psychoanalyst, sending him into a dark, funny spiral through an incestuous maze of intense passions and unsettling self-discovery.

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