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The library

Summaries of 9,834 books.

  1. The Alienist

    Caleb Carr

    ★ 4.1 (182k) average on GoodreadsFiction

    In Gilded Age New York, an early psychologist and a newspaper reporter hunt a serial killer preying on adolescent boys, challenging social norms and risking their lives in a city of stark contrasts.

  2. An Ember in the Ashes

    Sabaa Tahir

    ★ 4.3 (182k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    In a brutal empire reminiscent of ancient Rome, a slave girl spies within a ruthless military academy to save her brother, only to find her destiny intertwined with the academy's finest, yet most reluctant, soldier.

  3. The 4-Hour Workweek

    Timothy Ferriss

    ★ 3.9 (181k) average on GoodreadsBusiness

    Learn how to leave the traditional work-life by creating automated income, outsourcing tasks, and taking 'mini-retirements' to live a life of freedom and adventure, all while working only four hours a week.

  4. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

    Stephenie Meyer

    ★ 3.5 (181k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    In this dark companion to the Twilight Saga, a young newborn vampire named Bree Tanner navigates a brutal existence, a fleeting romance, and a deadly conspiracy as she hurtles towards an inevitable, tragic confrontation.

  5. Shadow of Night

    Deborah Harkness

    ★ 4.0 (181k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    In Elizabethan London, a modern witch and an ancient vampire face political plots, old romances, and dangerous magic while seeking a lost manuscript and confronting Matthew's dark past.

  6. The Dead Zone

    Stephen King

    ★ 3.9 (181k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A man awakens from a coma with the psychic ability to foresee the future, forcing him to decide whether to assassinate a presidential candidate to prevent an apocalypse.

  7. King Lear

    William Shakespeare

    ★ 3.9 (181k) average on GoodreadsFiction

    An aging king, swayed by flattery, disowns his loyal daughter, setting off a chain of madness, betrayal, and suffering that destroys his kingdom and his mind.

  8. The Exorcist

    William Peter Blatty

    ★ 4.2 (181k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    In the terrifying 40th-anniversary edition, a desperate mother and two priests battle a malevolent supernatural entity for a little girl's soul.

  9. Girl, Interrupted

    Susanna Kaysen

    ★ 3.9 (181k) average on GoodreadsPsychology

    Confined to a 1960s psychiatric hospital, Susanna Kaysen navigates sanity and madness, offering a sharp look into the lives of "interrupted" girls and the blurry lines that define them.

  10. The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend

    Kody Keplinger

    ★ 3.8 (179k) average on GoodreadsYoung Adult

    A cynical teen, labeled the 'ugly fat friend,' unexpectedly falls for the school's most known player after a humiliating nickname starts a volatile, secret relationship.

  11. Entwined with You

    Sylvia Day

    ★ 4.2 (179k) average on GoodreadsRomance

    Eva Tramell and Gideon Cross navigate their intense romance, confronting shared traumatic pasts and the dangerous pull of complete possession.

  12. James Joyce's Dubliners

    James Joyce

    ★ 3.8 (179k) average on GoodreadsFiction

    Fifteen linked stories show turn-of-the-century Dublin through lives marked by desire, deceit, and despair, ending with the reflective 'The Dead.'

  13. Just Kids

    Patti Smith

    ★ 4.2 (179k) average on GoodreadsBiography

    Patti Smith's 'Just Kids' tells the story of her early life and artistic journey with Robert Mapplethorpe in 1970s New York, centered around the Chelsea Hotel.

  14. Thus Spake Zarathustra

    Friedrich Nietzsche

    ★ 4.1 (179k) average on Goodreads

    A lone prophet leaves the mountains to announce God's death, the coming of the Overman, and the terrifying truth of eternal recurrence, urging humanity to forge its own values beyond good and evil.

  15. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America

    Barbara Ehrenreich

    ★ 3.6 (178k) average on GoodreadsPolitics

    Barbara Ehrenreich's undercover expose on minimum-wage work reveals that even two jobs are not enough to escape poverty.

  16. Pretty Girls

    Karin Slaughter

    ★ 4.0 (177k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A woman's search for her sister, missing for twenty years, uncovers a grotesque web of secrets, showing that the past is not just haunting—it is actively hunting.

  17. Different Seasons

    Stephen King

    ★ 4.3 (177k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Stephen King's 'Different Seasons' tells four stories: a man's prison escape, a boy's bond with a Nazi, four friends finding a corpse, and a woman's determination to give birth. The collection explores human strength, evil, and growing up.

  18. The Vampire Lestat

    Anne Rice

    ★ 4.1 (177k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    From the decadent salons of pre-revolutionary France to the stages of 1980s rock, the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt navigates centuries of immortal existence, seeking the truth of his terrifying nature amidst a world both beautiful and monstrous.

  19. Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened

    Allie Brosh

    ★ 4.2 (177k) average on GoodreadsPsychology

    Allie Brosh hilariously recounts her chaotic life, from debilitating depression to the absurdities of dog ownership, with stick-figure drawings that perfectly capture the human experience of being human.

  20. Wallbanger

    Alice Clayton

    ★ 4.0 (176k) average on GoodreadsRomance

    A woman's dating break is hilariously interrupted by her new apartment's thin walls, which provide an intimate, unwanted soundtrack to her unseen, womanizing neighbor's nightly adventures.

  21. Elantris

    Brandon Sanderson

    ★ 4.2 (176k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    Divine magic becomes a curse, forcing a fallen prince, a cunning princess, and a zealous priest into conflict over a kingdom's fate, unaware that salvation lies in the very city that caused their despair.

  22. The Darkest Temptation

    Danielle Lori

    ★ 4.0 (176k) average on GoodreadsRomance

    A sheltered woman's quest for answers in Moscow takes a terrifying turn when her enigmatic lover becomes her captor, forcing her to thaw his icy heart to survive the brutal Russian winter and his thirst for revenge.

  23. American Dirt

    Jeanine Cummins

    ★ 4.3 (176k) average on GoodreadsLiterary Fiction

    After her journalist husband exposes a cartel boss, a Mexican bookstore owner and her son are thrust into a harrowing journey as migrants, desperately fleeing north on 'la bestia' to escape the cartel's vengeful reach.

  24. Moon Called

    Patricia Briggs

    ★ 4.2 (176k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    A coyote shapeshifter and mechanic named Mercy Thompson lives an ordinary life in the Tri-Cities, until she gets caught between powerful magical groups. Vampires ride buses, werewolves live next door, and chaos starts.

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