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Summaries of 9,834 books.

  1. Vanity Fair

    William Makepeace Thackeray

    ★ 3.8 (118k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    In the ballrooms and battlefields of Napoleonic England, two women—one a social climber and the other an idealist—live in a society where ambition and virtue clash.

  2. My Sister's Grave

    Robert Dugoni

    ★ 4.0 (118k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Twenty years after her sister's murder, a Seattle homicide detective reopens the cold case, uncovering dangerous small-town secrets that shatter her past and put her life at risk.

  3. A Room of One's Own

    Virginia Woolf

    ★ 4.2 (118k) average on GoodreadsCreativity

    To write, a woman needs talent, a room of her own, and money, making a physical and mental space for her voice in a male-dominated world.

  4. A Moveable Feast

    Ernest Hemingway

    ★ 4.0 (118k) average on GoodreadsLifestyle

    In this posthumous memoir, Ernest Hemingway vividly recaptures the intoxicating poverty and creative camaraderie of his youth among literary giants in 1920s Paris, a time when he discovered his voice while living on the edge of starvation and brilliance.

  5. Hot Six

    Janet Evanovich

    ★ 4.2 (118k) average on GoodreadsMystery

    Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum navigates exploding cars, an incontinent dog, persistent arson attempts, and disastrous skin days, all while trying to clear her enigmatic colleague Ranger of a mob hit.

  6. The Day of the Jackal

    Frederick Forsyth

    ★ 4.3 (118k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    An anonymous assassin, known as the Jackal, plans to kill France's President Charles de Gaulle, while intelligence agencies try to find him and stop the assassination.

  7. Dog Days

    Jeff Kinney

    ★ 4.2 (118k) average on GoodreadsChildren's

    Greg Heffley's ultimate summer fantasy of endless video games and zero responsibilities clashes with his mom's outdoor-centric vision, all while a new family member threatens to upend everything.

  8. We Have Always Lived in the Castle

    Shirley Jackson

    ★ 4.0 (118k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Isolated in their crumbling mansion, the eccentric Blackwood sisters, one a suspected poisoner and the other a darkly protective recluse, must defend their peculiar sanctuary from an avaricious cousin and a prying world.

  9. Joyland

    Stephen King

    ★ 3.9 (118k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    In the summer of '73, a college student working at a North Carolina amusement park uncovers a brutal murder, experiences a child's final days, and grows up in a way that changes his view of life and death.

  10. The Good Daughter

    Karin Slaughter

    ★ 4.1 (118k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A lawyer faces her mother's unsolved murder from nearly 30 years ago when a new tragedy in her hometown reopens old wounds and reveals her family's hidden secrets.

  11. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

    Azar Nafisi

    ★ 3.6 (118k) average on GoodreadsBiography
  12. Death Masks

    Jim Butcher

    ★ 4.3 (117k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    Caught between a vampiric duel, a sacred relic theft, and his semi-vampire ex-girlfriend's return, Chicago wizard Harry Dresden faces a supernatural storm where each win might lead him closer to his end.

  13. An Echo in the Bone

    Diana Gabaldon

    ★ 4.4 (117k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    During the American Revolution, Jamie and Claire Fraser navigate war and family, trying to change history and protect loved ones, while their daughter in the future uncovers parts of their past that threaten her own life.

  14. Tao Te Ching

    Lao Tzu

    ★ 4.3 (117k) average on GoodreadsSpirituality

    The Tao Te Ching reveals a path to enlightened leadership and personal harmony through humility, spontaneity, and connection to the universe's natural flow.

  15. Maniac Magee

    Jerry Spinelli

    ★ 3.9 (117k) average on GoodreadsChildren's

    An orphaned boy with a knack for legendary feats and an aversion to standing still runs into a racially divided town, inadvertently weaving himself into its fabric and challenging its deep-seated prejudices.

  16. Warbreaker

    Brandon Sanderson

    ★ 4.3 (117k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    In a world where color provides power and gods are reborn as mortals, two royal sisters navigate divine politics, ancient magic, and a reluctant God King to prevent a war that could destroy them.

  17. The Snow Child

    Eowyn Ivey

    ★ 4.0 (117k) average on GoodreadsLiterary Fiction

    In 1920s Alaska, a childless homesteader couple's despair changes with the sudden arrival of a wild, mysterious girl, born from snow and myth, who redefines their ideas of family, nature, and the line between reality and fairy tale.

  18. City of Thieves

    David Benioff

    ★ 4.3 (117k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    In besieged Leningrad, two friends go on a dangerous quest for a dozen eggs, finding courage and friendship in the face of death.

  19. The Deep End of the Ocean

    Jacquelyn Mitchard

    ★ 3.9 (116k) average on GoodreadsMystery

    When her three-year-old son disappears from a hotel lobby, a mother's worst fear starts a ten-year journey of guilt, hope, and the difficult question of what family means when the lost child returns.

  20. Alanna: The First Adventure

    Tamora Pierce

    ★ 4.2 (116k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    A determined young girl secretly trains as a knight, facing perilous battles and hidden magic on her quest for knighthood.

  21. The Iron Daughter

    Julie Kagawa

    ★ 4.1 (116k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    Stripped of her powers and imprisoned by the Winter Court, half-human Meghan must forge an iron will to expose the unseen threat of the Iron fey, even as her heart yearns for the treacherous prince who abandoned her.

  22. High Five

    Janet Evanovich

    ★ 4.2 (116k) average on GoodreadsMystery

    Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum navigates a chaotic week of alien-abduction theories, a closet-dwelling fugitive, a scripture-quoting ex-con, and two competing love interests, all while trying to locate her missing uncle.

  23. Stillhouse Lake

    Rachel Caine

    ★ 4.1 (116k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    Forced to shed her identity as a serial killer's wife, a mother reinvents herself as a fierce protector, only to find her new lakeside sanctuary threatened by a copycat killer determined to expose her past and endanger her children.

  24. Before the Fall

    Noah Hawley

    ★ 3.7 (116k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    After a private jet crashes into the ocean, leaving only a struggling painter and a young boy alive, the survivors face intense media scrutiny and a growing conspiracy suggesting the crash was no accident.

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