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Summaries of 9,835 books.

  1. The Forest of Hands and Teeth

    Carrie Ryan

    ★ 3.6 (81k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    Mary lives in a village surrounded by the reanimated dead. She uncovers its dark secrets, forcing her to choose between a life built on lies and the dangerous freedom beyond the fence.

  2. My Year of Rest and Relaxation

    Ottessa Moshfegh

    ★ 3.7 (81k) average on GoodreadsLiterary Fiction

    A rich, disaffected young woman in Y2K Manhattan tries to medically induce a year-long hibernation to escape her existential boredom, guided by an incompetent psychiatrist and powerful drugs.

  3. Evvie Drake Starts Over

    Linda Holmes

    ★ 3.9 (81k) average on GoodreadsRomance

    In a charming Maine town, a young widow hiding a devastating secret and a fallen baseball star battling the 'yips' find an unexpected second chance at love and honesty when they agree to mend their broken lives under the same roof.

  4. The Bridges of Madison County

    Robert James Waller

    ★ 3.6 (81k) average on GoodreadsRomance

    A wandering photographer and a lonely farm wife discover a four-day love affair among Iowa's covered bridges that irrevocably alters the course of their lives, leaving behind a bittersweet legacy of choices and enduring passion.

  5. Little Town on the Prairie

    Laura Ingalls Wilder

    ★ 4.2 (81k) average on GoodreadsChildren's

    As the prairie winter thaws into a season of youthful exuberance, nearly fifteen-year-old Laura balances endless hours of shirt-sewing to secure her blind sister Mary's future with the burgeoning excitement of socials, dances, and the steady, new attention of Almanzo Wilder.

  6. The Black Dahlia

    James Ellroy

    ★ 3.8 (81k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    In postwar Hollywood, two detectives hunt the killer of the Black Dahlia. The case mirrors the darkness in themselves and the city they protect.

  7. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

    Kate DiCamillo

    ★ 4.4 (81k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    A vain china rabbit named Edward Tulane embarks on an unexpected, decades-long journey of loss and love after falling overboard, ultimately discovering that even the most fragile heart can learn to truly care.

  8. Fingersmith

    Sarah Waters

    ★ 4.0 (81k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    In Victorian London's criminal underworld, a con man's plot to defraud an heiress traps a pickpocket and her mark in a web of secrets, betrayals, and forbidden desires, blurring the lines between love and deception.

  9. Open

    Andre Agassi

    ★ 4.3 (81k) average on GoodreadsBiography

    Andre Agassi's 'Open' tells the story of a child tennis prodigy who grew to resent the sport that imprisoned him, battling fame, personal struggles, and injuries to find his own path to redemption and love.

  10. Gilead

    Marilynne Robinson

    ★ 3.9 (80k) average on GoodreadsLiterary Fiction

    An aging pastor in 1956 Iowa writes letters to his young son, sharing his faith, family history, and the quiet wonders of a life lived with God and the echoes of abolitionist passion.

  11. Size 12 Is Not Fat

    Meg Cabot

    ★ 3.7 (80k) average on GoodreadsMystery

    A former pop star, now an assistant dorm director, becomes a detective when students die mysteriously, forcing her to prove the deaths are not accidents despite everyone's dismissal.

  12. Elevation

    Stephen King

    ★ 3.7 (80k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    In Castle Rock, a man losing weight without shrinking discovers his strange condition might help unite a prejudiced community.

  13. A Long Way Down

    Nick Hornby

    ★ 3.4 (80k) average on GoodreadsPsychology

    Four strangers, each on the brink of suicide atop a London building on New Year's Eve, accidentally make a darkly comedic and surprisingly life-affirming pact to stay alive, showing the absurdities and unexpected grace in shared despair.

  14. New Spring

    Robert Jordan

    ★ 4.0 (80k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    Amidst a brutal winter battle and a king's sudden death, a newly minted Aes Sedai and a stoic warrior are thrust together to find an infant prophesied to save or shatter the world, all while navigating treacherous political plots.

  15. Night Film

    Marisha Pessl

    ★ 3.8 (80k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A disgraced journalist enters the cult-like world around a reclusive horror film director and his mysteriously dead daughter, risking his sanity and life to solve a decades-old mystery.

  16. Sing You Home

    Jodi Picoult

    ★ 3.8 (80k) average on GoodreadsRomance

    A grieving woman's second chance at motherhood and love is challenged in court by her ex-husband, who believes her new same-sex relationship makes her an unfit parent for their frozen embryos.

  17. Behind Her Eyes

    Sarah Pinborough

    ★ 3.8 (80k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A secretary's affair with her married boss turns dangerous when she befriends his fragile wife and uncovers a supernatural secret that upends everything she knows about their marriage.

  18. Nightshade

    Andrea Cremer

    ★ 4.0 (80k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    A gifted shapeshifter, bound by prophecy to a powerful alpha wolf, risks everything when she breaks her pack's sacred laws to save a human boy. This act sparks a forbidden love, threatening her destiny and the foundations of her world.

  19. Drowning Ruth

    Christina Schwarz

    ★ 3.7 (80k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    In 1919 Wisconsin, a young mother's drowning beneath a frozen lake reveals dark family secrets, leaving her sister and daughter to face a chilling legacy.

  20. A Painted House

    John Grisham

    ★ 3.7 (80k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    In 1952 Arkansas, a seven-year-old farm boy's innocent summer in the cotton fields turns dark when he witnesses a murder and is forced to keep secrets that threaten to unravel his family and their community.

  21. Revolutionary Road

    Richard Yates

    ★ 3.9 (80k) average on GoodreadsLiterary Fiction

    In 1950s Connecticut, Frank and April Wheeler's perfect suburban life falls apart, showing the emptiness of unfulfilled dreams and marital unhappiness.

  22. The Illustrated Man

    Ray Bradbury

    ★ 4.1 (79k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    A nameless narrator encounters a mysterious wanderer whose animated tattoos unfurl eighteen chilling tales of humanity's future, from virtual reality gone awry to the poignant final moments of stranded astronauts.

  23. The Moonstone

    Wilkie Collins

    ★ 3.9 (79k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    A cursed Indian diamond, plundered and left to an English heiress, unravels a web of secrets, betrayals, and a baffling disappearance within a Victorian country house.

  24. The Power of One

    Bryce Courtenay

    ★ 4.3 (79k) average on GoodreadsHistorical Fiction

    In apartheid-era South Africa, a white boy named Peekay learns to box and, guided by the principle 'first with your head and then with your heart,' rises from a difficult childhood to become a boxing champion and a symbol of hope.

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