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Summaries of 9,835 books.

  1. Remembering Babylon

    David Malouf

    ★ 3.5 (3k) average on GoodreadsLiterary Fiction

    Stranded between British settlers and Aboriginal land, a young man's return to civilization sparks a cultural clash under the Australian sun.

  2. The Swimmer

    John Cheever

    ★ 4.0 (3k) average on GoodreadsFiction

    On a perfect summer day, Neddy Merrill swims through his suburban neighborhood's pools, only to find his life growing colder and more desolate with each stroke towards an inescapable truth.

  3. The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman

    Angela Carter

    ★ 3.8 (3k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    In a city descending into chaos from a mad doctor's machines, a man obsessed with the doctor's glass daughter goes on a surreal journey through a world of centaurs, cannibals, and acrobats, fighting reality itself to win his dream-bound love.

  4. I Am Not Esther

    Fleur Beale

    ★ 3.9 (3k) average on GoodreadsChildren's

    Renamed Esther and stripped of her identity, a young girl must navigate the oppressive world of a strict religious cult where conformity is salvation and individuality is sin.

  5. The Things a Brother Knows

    Dana Reinhardt

    ★ 3.9 (3k) average on GoodreadsPsychology

    A younger brother, tired of his hero-worshipped sibling's absence, searches for the fractured man who returns from war and the distance that now separates them.

  6. Touching my father's soul

    Jamling Tenzing Norgay

    ★ 4.0 (3k) average on Goodreads

    Jamling Tenzing Norgay climbs Everest, following his father's path, seeking spiritual connection and facing his own fears on the world's highest peak.

  7. Dead City

    James Ponti

    ★ 4.3 (3k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    Thirteen-year-old Molly Bigelow discovers her mom is a legendary zombie hunter, thrusting her into a secret world where she must patrol the undead streets of New York City and follow in some seriously spooky footsteps.

  8. Panther in the Sky

    James Alexander Thom

    ★ 4.3 (3k) average on GoodreadsFiction

    Born under a shooting star, Tecumseh, the 'Panther in the Sky,' unites the Shawnee nation and leads a desperate fight to keep their ancestral lands and way of life from white settlers.

  9. Fair Play

    Tove Jansson

    ★ 3.9 (3k) average on GoodreadsFiction

    Two aging artists navigate decades of intertwined lives through shared studios, solitary islands, and the American Southwest, transforming contentment into hard-won love and surprising discovery.

  10. Coming of Age in the Milky Way

    Timothy Ferris

    ★ 4.2 (3k) average on GoodreadsHistory

    Explore millennia of cosmic discovery, as brilliant and often rebellious astronomers challenged old ideas and revealed the universe's design, from Ptolemy's spheres to quantum space.

  11. Penelope

    Marilyn Kaye

    ★ 3.8 (3k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    Born with a pig's snout due to an ancient curse, a reclusive heiress navigates superficial suitors and a world eager to exploit her, finding freedom and self-acceptance when she ventures out on her own.

  12. Long Division

    Kiese Laymon

    ★ 3.8 (3k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    A YouTube-famous teen in post-Katrina Mississippi unravels a time-bending mystery involving a disappearing girl, a stolen laptop, and a cryptic book that links his present to alternate versions of himself battling the Klan in the past.

  13. Biology

    Neil A. Campbell

    ★ 4.1 (3k) average on GoodreadsBiography

    Explore the world of life through the basic ideas and experiments that have taught millions of students about biology.

  14. Maps for Lost Lovers

    Nadeem Aslam

    ★ 3.8 (3k) average on GoodreadsLiterary Fiction

    In an English town, two lovers disappear, uncovering a family's strict traditions and the painful clash between faith and forbidden desire.

  15. The Napoleon of Notting Hill

    G.K. Chesterton

    ★ 3.9 (3k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    In a future London held back by rules, a new King starts a medieval revival, leading one man to defend Notting Hill with his own army, turning the city into a battleground.

  16. Gallows Hill

    Lois Duncan

    ★ 3.8 (3k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    When a school fair's fortune-telling act grants 17-year-old Sarah actual prophetic visions, she finds herself terrifyingly re-enacting the Salem witch trials with her classmates as accusers.

  17. Course in General Linguistics

    Ferdinand de Saussure

    ★ 4.0 (3k) average on GoodreadsReference

    Saussure's posthumous work revealed language's hidden structure, breaking from historical linguistics and starting structuralism, which changed how we understand signs, systems, and meaning.

  18. Nova Express

    William S. Burroughs

    ★ 3.7 (3k) average on GoodreadsScience Fiction

    In a universe where psychic parasites prey on humanity, Inspector Lee of the Nova Police must dismantle the reality-warping word machine of the Nova Criminals before they unleash ultimate destruction.

  19. Delhi

    Khushwant Singh

    ★ 3.8 (3k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    Through the eyes of an aging man and his hijra lover, Khushwant Singh's "Delhi" shows centuries of a city's history, filled with sultans, saints, and seduction.

  20. Dove

    Robin Lee Graham

    ★ 4.2 (3k) average on GoodreadsLifestyle

    A 16-year-old sails solo around the world in a 24-foot sloop, finding love, fatherhood, and self-discovery over five years and 33,000 miles of ocean.

  21. Into the Deep

    Young, Samantha Young

    ★ 4.3 (3k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Four years after a tragic incident separated them, an ordinary Indiana girl studying abroad in Edinburgh unexpectedly reunites with the extraordinary boy who once pulled her into the deep, forcing them to confront their past and the dangerous spark that still exists between them.

  22. Hot Zone

    Catherine Mann

    ★ 4.1 (3k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A haunted pararescueman, seeking oblivion in high-stakes missions, finds his greatest danger and unexpected healing in the independent woman he's compelled to rescue.

  23. The Lottery Rose

    Irene Hunt

    ★ 4.0 (3k) average on GoodreadsChildren's

    An abused young boy, escaping into a secret world of rose gardens, learns to give and receive love when a small rosebush and a new home help him blossom.

  24. The Untouchable

    John Banville

    ★ 4.0 (3k) average on GoodreadsLiterary Fiction

    An unmasked Cambridge spy, an art expert to the Queen, faces his past, revealing a life of deception and desire. He betrayed his country, family, and himself, searching for the truth of his downfall.

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