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Summaries of 9,834 books.

  1. Dubliners

    James Joyce

    ★ 3.9 (123k) average on GoodreadsLiterary Fiction

    Fifteen realistic tales by James Joyce examine the stagnant lives of early 20th-century Dubliners, showing their spiritual and emotional traps through moments of sudden, often unsettling, insight.

  2. Lincoln in the Bardo

    George Saunders

    ★ 3.8 (123k) average on GoodreadsLiterary Fiction

    In a spectral Georgetown cemetery, a grief-stricken Abraham Lincoln visits the bardo where his deceased son, Willie, is caught in a hilarious and terrifying purgatory with a chorus of chattering ghosts, all grappling with the messy, unfinished business of life and death.

  3. The Serpent's Shadow

    Rick Riordan

    ★ 4.3 (123k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    With the chaos snake Apophis threatening eternal darkness, Carter and Sadie Kane must unite squabbling gods and magicians, and bargain with a murderous ghost, to uncover an ancient spell that can weaponize the serpent's own shadow before the world plunges into oblivion.

  4. The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry

    Jon Ronson

    ★ 3.9 (123k) average on GoodreadsPsychology

    Jon Ronson's investigation into the diagnosis of psychopathy unexpectedly leads him to question the sanity of the very people studying madness, revealing that the lines between sane and insane are blurrier than we think.

  5. The Power of Six

    Pittacus Lore

    ★ 4.2 (123k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    As the last six alien Garde scatter across Earth, Number Seven, Marina, develops her powers and hopes John Smith, Number Four, and a mysterious raven-haired girl will unite them to fight the Mogadorian hunters before humanity's adopted home becomes their final grave.

  6. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay

    J.K. Rowling

    ★ 4.2 (122k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    A misplaced magical case in 1920s New York unleashes a menagerie of wondrous and dangerous creatures, forcing a shy magizoologist to confront dark forces threatening both the wizarding and non-magical worlds.

  7. Reconstructing Amelia

    Kimberly McCreight

    ★ 3.8 (122k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A grieving mother's relentless investigation into her daughter's supposed suicide uncovers the dark secrets of an elite all-girls school, revealing a truth far more sinister than she could have imagined.

  8. The Last Straw

    Jeff Kinney

    ★ 4.2 (122k) average on GoodreadsChildren's

    Greg Heffley must navigate his father's attempts to toughen him up with sports and 'manly' activities, or face the ultimate threat: military academy.

  9. Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls

    David Sedaris

    ★ 3.8 (122k) average on GoodreadsBiography

    David Sedaris hilariously explores the absurdities of family, mortality, and peculiar obsessions, finding deep humanity in unexpected observations, from his father's odd clothes to thinking about buying a Pygmy skeleton.

  10. Lover Revealed

    J.R. Ward

    ★ 4.3 (122k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    An ex-cop's love for an aristocratic vampire leads him to a desperate battle against ancient evils, only to become a pawn in the war he sought to join, testing love and sacrifice.

  11. Rich People Problems

    Kevin Kwan

    ★ 3.9 (122k) average on GoodreadsRomance

    Asia's wealthiest family fights over a dying matriarch's fortune and prime Singaporean estate, as long-buried secrets, couture sabotage, and scandalous rivalries explode, threatening their opulent lives.

  12. Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

    Simon Sinek

    ★ 4.1 (122k) average on GoodreadsBusiness

    Learn to articulate your core purpose, not just your products, to inspire loyalty and drive change.

  13. Morning Star

    Pierce Brown

    ★ 4.5 (122k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    In the final book, a changed Red miner starts a brutal, galaxy-wide revolution against the tyrannical Golds, making him fight former friends and inspiring the oppressed to break free and create a new future.

  14. The Ersatz Elevator

    Lemony Snicket

    ★ 4.0 (122k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    In the sixth book of their sad story, the Baudelaire orphans go down a dark elevator shaft, finding red herrings, secret passages, and parsley soda, all while trying to outsmart a master of disguise and figure out some mysterious initials.

  15. Unearthly

    Cynthia Hand

    ★ 4.0 (121k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    Blessed with angelic power and haunted by prophetic visions, Clara must navigate a dangerous destiny and a celestial love triangle as a fiery apocalypse looms.

  16. The Rainbow Fish

    Marcus Pfister

    ★ 4.2 (121k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    A shimmering fish learns that true beauty and happiness come not from glittering scales, but from the joy of sharing them with others.

  17. SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes And Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance

    Steven D. Levitt

    ★ 4.0 (121k) average on GoodreadsBusiness

    Levitt and Dubner explore the hidden incentives behind everything from prostitution and terrorism to global warming and chemotherapy, revealing the surprising logic that governs our world.

  18. The Girl Before

    J.P. Delaney

    ★ 3.7 (121k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A minimalist house designed by a reclusive architect forces two women, years apart, to face their pasts and question their minds as they uncover the truth behind the previous tenant's death, which mirrors their own lives.

  19. The History of Love

    Nicole Krauss

    ★ 3.9 (121k) average on GoodreadsLiterary Fiction

    A forgotten Yiddish novel intertwines the lives of a lonely Polish émigré still yearning for his lost love and a tenacious teenage girl determined to cure her mother's solitude by finding its elusive author.

  20. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

    Douglas Adams

    ★ 4.0 (121k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    A disarmingly holistic detective, a couch, and an ancient ghost's time-traveling suicide attempt collide in a hilariously convoluted plot to save humanity from its own past.

  21. The Bonesetter's Daughter

    Amy Tan

    ★ 4.0 (121k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    A mother's fading memories unlock a hidden past of ancestral curses, forbidden love, and shocking betrayals in a remote Chinese village, forever altering her daughter's understanding of their tumultuous bond.

  22. Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began

    Art Spiegelman

    ★ 4.4 (121k) average on GoodreadsBiography

    In this graphic memoir's haunting conclusion, a son confronts his aging, Holocaust-survivor father's past in Auschwitz and their difficult present in the Catskills, grappling with inherited trauma through the unforgettable metaphor of mice and cats.

  23. Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 1

    Hiromu Arakawa

    ★ 4.5 (121k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    Alchemy comes at a brutal cost in this story of two brothers. One is a living suit of armor, the other an alchemist with prosthetic limbs. They hunt for a mythical stone to restore their bodies, but they uncover a conspiracy more dangerous than their own forbidden experiments.

  24. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

    Jesse Andrews

    ★ 3.5 (121k) average on GoodreadsYoung Adult

    A self-deprecating film nerd and his only friend must face the difficult realities of dying and real connection when they try to make a last, terrible movie for a classmate.

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