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from 1801 to 2000
What books are currently the most popular and which are the all time classics? Here we present you with a mixture of those two criteria. We update this list once a month.
Philip Roth
Philip Roth's new novel is a candidly intimate yet universal story of loss, regret, and stoicism. The bestselling author of The Plot Against America now turns his attention from "one family's harrowing encounter with history" (New York Times) to one man's lifelong skirmish with …
Soseki Natsume
I Am a Cat is a satirical novel written in 1905–1906 by Natsume Sōseki, about Japanese society during the Meiji Period; particularly, the uneasy mix of Western culture and Japanese traditions, and the aping of Western customs. Sōseki's original title, Wagahai wa neko de aru, …
Lisa See
“I finally understand what the poets have written. In spring, moved to passion; in autumn only regret.”For young Peony, betrothed to a suitor she has never met, these lyrics from The Peony Pavilion mirror her own longings. In the garden of the Chen Family Villa, amid the scent …
Jorge Luis Borges
The Aleph and Other Stories is a book of short stories by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. The title work, "The Aleph", describes a point in space that contains all other spaces at once. The work also presents the idea of infinite time. Borges writes in the original …
Simon Singh
People love secrets. Ever since the first word was written, humans have sent coded messages to each other. In The Code Book, Simon Singh, author of the bestselling Fermat's Enigma, offers a peek into the world of cryptography and codes, from ancient texts through computer …
Richard Bach
Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah is a novel by writer and pilot Richard Bach. First published in 1977, the story questions the reader's view of reality, proposing that what we call reality is merely an illusion we create for learning and enjoyment. Illusions was …
Claire Messud
A bestselling, masterful novel about the intersections in the lives of three friends, now on the cusp of their thirties, making their way—and not—in New York City.There is beautiful, sophisticated Marina Thwaite—an “It” girl finishing her first book; the daughter of Murray …
Ernest J. Gaines
Oprah Book Club® Selection, September 1997: In a small Cajun community in 1940s Louisiana, a young black man is about to go to the electric chair for murder. A white shopkeeper had died during a robbery gone bad; though the young man on trial had not been armed and had not …
Michael Crichton
Disclosure is a novel by Michael Crichton, published in 1994. The novel is set in a fictional high tech company, just before the beginning of the dot-com economic boom. The plot concerns protagonist Tom Sanders, and his battle against unfounded allegations of sexual harassment.
Annie Proulx
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling author of The Shipping News and Accordion Crimes comes one of the most celebrated short-story collections of our time. Annie Proulx's masterful language and fierce love of Wyoming are evident in these breathtaking tales of …
John Wyndham
The Chyrsalids is set in the future after a devastating global nuclear war. David, the young hero of the novel, lives in a tight-knit community of religious and genetic fundamentalists, always on the alert for any deviation from the norm of God’s creation. Abnormal plants are …
Melissa Marr
Unbeknownst to mortals, a power struggle is unfolding in a world of shadows and danger. After centuries of stability, the balance among the Faery Courts has altered, and Irial, ruler of the Dark Court, is battling to hold his rebellious and newly vulnerable fey together. If he …
Kevin Brockmeier
The Brief History of the Dead is a fantasy and adventure novel by Kevin Brockmeier.
Michael Connelly
New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly has written one explosive thriller after another featuring Detective Harry Bosch. Now, in an electrifying departure, he presents a novel that breaks all the rules and will keep your heart racing and your mind guessing until the …
Emile Zola
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for …
Mario Vargas Llosa
Urania Cabral, a New York lawyer, returns to the Dominican Republic after a lifelong self-imposed exile. Once she is back in her homeland, the elusive feeling of terror that has overshadowed her whole life suddenly takes shape. Urania's own story alternates with the powerful …
James Patterson
Detective Lindsay Boxer and the Women's Murder Club face an unexpected ripple of violence from an accused murderer in San Francisco.An accused murderer called Kingfisher is about to go on trial for his life. Or is he? By unleashing unexpected violence on the lawyers, jurors, and …
Margaret Weis
Dragons of Spring Dawning is the third book in the Dragonlance Chronicles series, written by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis. It continues events from Dragons of Winter Night and sets up the premise of the Dragonlance Legends trilogy, also written by Weis and Hickman
Carolyn Parkhurst
'Here is what we know, those of us who can speak to tell a story: On the afternoon of October 21st, my wife, Lexy Ransome, climbed to the top of the apple tree in our back yard and fell to her death. There were no witnesses, save our dog Lorelei . . .' So begins this remarkable, …
Margery Williams
A stuffed toy rabbit (with real thread whiskers) comes to life in Margery Williams's timeless tale of the transformative power of love. Given as a Christmas gift to a young boy, the Velveteen Rabbit lives in the nursery with all of the other toys, waiting for the day when the …
Laurie Halse Anderson
The New York Times bestselling story of a friendship frozen between life and death Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in fragile bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the thinnest. But then Cassie suffers the ultimate loss—her life—and Lia …
Michael Ende
At the edge of the city, in the ruins of an old amphitheatre, there lives a little homelss girl called Momo. Momo has a special talent which she uses to help all her friends who come to visit her. Then one day the sinister men in grey arrive and silently take over the city. Only …
Sam Harris
Letter to a Christian Nation is a book by Sam Harris, written in response to feedback he received following the publication of his first book The End of Faith. The book is written in the form of an open letter to a Christian in the United States. Harris states that his aim is …
Aldous Huxley
The Doors of Perception is a short book by Aldous Huxley, first published in 1954, detailing his experiences when taking mescaline. The book takes the form of Huxley's recollection of a mescaline trip that took place over the course of an afternoon, and takes its title from a …
Pat Frank
"Alas, Babylon." Those fateful words heralded the end. When a nuclear holocaust ravages the United States, a thousand years of civilization are stripped away overnight, and tens of millions of people are killed instantly. But for one small town in Florida, miraculously spared, …
Scott Westerfeld
Leviathan is a biopunk/steampunk novel written by Scott Westerfeld and illustrated by Keith Thompson. It was released on October 6, 2009. First of a young adult fiction trilogy set in alternative version of World War I, it has Central Powers using mechanized war machines opposed …
Mary Doria Russell
Children of God is the second book, and the second science fiction novel, written by author Mary Doria Russell. It is the sequel to the award-winning novel, The Sparrow.
Anne Rice
In her new novel, perennial bestseller Anne Rice fuses her two uniquely seductive strains of narrative -- her Vampire legend and her lore of the Mayfair witches -- to give us a world of classic deep-south luxury and ancestral secrets. Welcome to Blackwood Farm: soaring white …
Alfred Bester
The Demolished Man, by Alfred Bester, is an American novel, science fiction and inverted detective story, that was the first Hugo Award winner in 1953. The story was first serialized in three parts, beginning with the January 1952 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction, followed by …
Holly Black
Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie, is a young-adult urban fantasy novel by Holly Black. It was published in 2005 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, who recommended it for ages "14 up". Valiant is a sequel to Black's debut novel Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale, and the …
Georges Perec
Over twenty years ago, Godine published the first English translation of Georges Perec's masterpiece, Life A User's Manual, hailed by the Times Literary Supplement, Boston Globe, and others as "one of the great novels of the century." We are now proud to announce a newly revised …
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Anne is the mother of five, with never a dull moment in her lively home. And now with a new baby on the way and insufferable Aunt Mary Maria visiting -- and wearing out her welcome -- Anne's life is full to bursting. Still Mrs. Doctor can't think of any place she'd rather be …
Bret Easton Ellis
Book Description: Imagine becoming a bestselling novelist, and almost immediately famous and wealthy, while still in college, and before long seeing your insufferable father reduced to a bag of ashes in a safety-deposit box, while after American Psycho your celebrity drowns in …
Tina Fey
Amazon Best Books of the Month, April 2011: Tina Fey’s new book Bossypants is short, messy, and impossibly funny (an apt description of the comedian herself). From her humble roots growing up in Pennsylvania to her days doing amateur improv in Chicago to her early sketches on …
Tom Clancy
Razio Yamata is one of Japan's most influential industrialists, and part of a relatively small group of authority who wield tremendous authority in the Pacific Rim's economic powerhouse. He has devised a plan to cripple the American greatness, humble the US military, and elevate …
Guy Gavriel Kay
Taken to a realm of magic and war, five men and women from our world embark on an epic journey in the first novel in Guy Gavriel Kay’s classic, critically acclaimed fantasy trilogy, The Fionavar Tapestry.It begins with a chance meeting that introduces the five to a man who will …
Nicholas Sparks
Nights in Rodanthe is a romantic love novel by American writer Nicholas Sparks in September 2002. Set in Rodanthe, North Carolina, the story follows the purely intense and close romance of a divorced mother, Adrienne Willis, and a divorced father and surgeon, Paul Flanner. The …
Arto Paasilinna
The Year of the Hare is a 1975 novel by Finnish author Arto Paasilinna. It tells the story of Kaarlo Vatanen, a frustrated journalist, who, after nearly killing a hare with his car, decides to live with the hare in the wilderness. The novel has been translated into over a dozen …
William Peter Blatty
Originally published in 1971, The Exorcist is now a major television series on FOX. It remains one of the most controversial novels ever written and went on to become a literary phenomenon: It spent fifty-seven weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, seventeen consecutively …
Lois McMaster Bujold
Paladin of Souls is a 2003 fantasy novel by Lois McMaster Bujold.
Nathaniel Philbrick
The appeal of Dava Sobel's Longitude was, in part, that it illuminated a little-known piece of history through a series of captivating incidents and engaging personalities. Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea is certainly cast from the same mold, examining the …
Kate Atkinson
When Will There Be Good News? is a 2008 crime novel by Kate Atkinson and won the 2009 'Richard & Judy Best Read of the Year' at the British Book Awards. It is the third to involve retired private detective Jackson Brodie and is set in and around Edinburgh. It begins though …
Sarah Waters
Affinity is a tale of power and possession that Henry James himself might admire. In her first novel, Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters explored secrets and longing--capping off this lesbian romp with a utopian-socialist vision. Her intricate follow-up is just as sensual but …
Osamu Tezuka
Osamu Tezuka’s vaunted storytelling genius, consummate skill at visual expression, and warm humanity blossom fully in his eight-volume epic of Siddhartha’s life and times. Tezuka evidences his profound grasp of the subject by contextualizing the Buddha’s ideas; the emphasis is …
Patricia Cornwell
From Library Journal Kay Scarpetta, chief medical examiner of Virginia and heroine of Postmortem , gets involved in the case of a brutal stabbing death in Richmond of romance writer Beryl Madison. Now Madison's greedy lawyer accuses Scarpetta of losing his client's latest …
Joseph J. Ellis
In retrospect, it seems as if the American Revolution was inevitable. But was it? In Founding Brothers, Joseph J. Ellis reveals that many of those truths we hold to be self-evident were actually fiercely contested in the early days of the republic. Ellis focuses on six crucial …
Tom Robbins
Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates is Tom Robbins' seventh work; the novel was first published in 2000 by the Random House Publishing Group.
Milan Kundera
Identity is a novel by Franco-Czech writer Milan Kundera, published in 1998. It is possibly his most traditional novel in terms of narrative structure. It's also one of his shortest novels. The phrase "masturbating fetus" appears to have been coined in this novel.
Colm Toibin
Amazon Best of the Month, May 2009: Committed to a quiet life in little Enniscorthy, Ireland, the industrious young Eilis Lacey reluctantly finds herself swept up in an unplanned adventure to America, engineered by the family priest and her glamorous, "ready for life" sister, …
Laurell K. Hamilton
Micah is the thirteenth in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery/erotica novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.
James C. Collins
The Challenge:Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the verybeginning. But what about the company that is not born …
Charles Stross
Accelerando is a 2005 science fiction novel consisting of a series of interconnected short stories by British author Charles Stross. As well as normal hardback and paperback editions, it was released as a free e-book under the Creative Commons …
Ryū Murakami
Almost Transparent Blue is a 1976 novel, written by Japanese author Ryū Murakami, that features a portrait of narrator Ryū and his friends trapped in a cycle of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll during the 1970s.
Natsuo Kirino
Real World is a novel written by Natsuo Kirino. It was published in English by Vintage Books on July 15, 2008. The story describes the lives of four teenage girls: Toshi, Terauchi, Yuzan and Kirarin, and how they deal with Toshi's neighbor Worm, a teenage boy who goes on the run …
Daniel Defoe
The recent adaptation of Moll Flanders for Masterpiece Theater is a book-lover's dream: the dialogue and scene arrangement are close enough to allow the viewer to follow along in the book. The liberties taken with the tale are few (some years of childhood between the gypsies and …
Haruki Murakami
A New York Times #1 BestsellerA New York Times and Washington Post notable book, and one of the Financial Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Slate, Mother Jones, The Daily Beast, and BookPage's best books of the yearColorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is the …
Stendhal
Officer, diplomat, spy, journalist, and intermittent genius, Marie Henri Beyle employed more than 200 aliases in the course of his crowded career. His most famous moniker, however, was Stendhal, which he affixed to his greatest work, The Charterhouse of Parma. The author spent a …
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
In the First Circle is a novel by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn released in 1968. A more complete version of the book was published in English in 2009. The novel depicts the lives of the occupants of a sharashka located in the Moscow suburbs. This novel is highly autobiographical. Many …
John le Carré
British diplomat Justin Quayle, complacent raiser of freesias and doting husband of the stunning, much younger Tessa, has tended his own garden in Nairobi too long. Tessa is Justin's opposite, a fiery reformer, "that rarest thing, a lawyer who believes in justice," whose …
Isaac Asimov
Forward the Foundation is a novel written by Isaac Asimov, published by the author in 1993. It is the second of two prequels to the Foundation Series. It is written in much the same style as the original novel Foundation, a novel composed of chapters with long intervals in …
Alan Moore
The mad, shaggy genius of the comics world dips deeply into the well of history and pulls up a cup filled with blood in From Hell. Alan Moore did a couple of Ph.D.'s worth of research into the Whitechapel murders for this copiously annotated collection of the independently …
Clive Barker
Abarat is a fantasy novel written and illustrated by Clive Barker, the first in Barker's The Books of Abarat series. It is aimed primarily at young adults. The eponymous Abarat is a fictional archipelago which is the setting for the majority of the story. The title image …
William S. Burroughs
Before his 1959 breakthrough, Naked Lunch, an unknown William S. Burroughs wrote Junk, his first book, a candid, eyewitness account of times and places that are now long gone. This book brings them vividly to life again; it is an unvarnished field report from the American …
Nick Hornby
Just when everything is coming together for Sam, his girlfriend Alicia drops a bombshell. Make that ex-girlfriend-- because by the time she tells him she's pregnant, they've already called it quits. Sam does not want to be a teenage dad. His mom had him at sixteen and has made …
Rainer Maria Rilke
Letters to a Young Poet is a collection of ten letters written by Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke to Franz Xaver Kappus, a 19-year-old officer cadet at the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt. Rilke, the son of an Austrian army officer, had studied at the …
Joris-Karl Huysmans
The infamous inspiration for the novel which slowly corrupts Oscar Wilde's Dorian Grayis translated by Robert Baldick with an introduction by Patrick McGuinness in Penguin Classics. A wildly original fin-de-siècle novel, Against Nature contains only one character. Des Esseintes …
Albert Camus
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. …
Louisa May Alcott
CHAPTER I. NAT "Please, sir, is this Plumfield?" asked a ragged boy of the man who opened the great gate at which the omnibus left him. "Yes. Who sent you?" "Mr. Laurence. I have got a letter for the lady." "All right; go up to the house, and give it to her; she'll see to you, …
Bernard Werber
In the early 21st century, in a Paris rapidly turning tropical thanks to global warming, Jonathan Wells tries to get to the bottom (as it turns out, quite literally) of his Uncle Edmond's obsession with ants. Jonathan and his family have been left Edmond's basement apartment; …
Mireille Guiliano
French women don’t get fat, even though they enjoy bread and pastry, wine, and regular three-course meals. Unlocking the simple secrets of this “French paradox”—how they enjoy food while staying slim and healthy—Mireille Guiliano gives us a charming, inspiring take on health and …
James Gleick
Few writers distinguish themselves by their ability to write about complicated, even obscure topics clearly and engagingly. James Gleick, a former science writer for the New York Times, resides in this exclusive category. In Chaos, he takes on the job of depicting the first …
Rudyard Kipling
One of the particular pleasures of reading Kim is the full range of emotion, knowledge, and experience that Rudyard Kipling gives his complex hero. Kim O'Hara, the orphaned son of an Irish soldier stationed in India, is neither innocent nor victimized. Raised by an …
Knut Hamsun
Pan is an 1894 novel by Norwegian author Knut Hamsun. Writing it while he lived in Paris and in Kristiansand, Norway, Hamsun was directly influenced by the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky. It remains one of his most famous works today.
Laurell K. Hamilton
A Caress of Twilight is the second novel in the Merry Gentry series by Laurell K. Hamilton.
Paulo Coelho
Brida, a young Irish girl, has long been interested in various aspects of magic but is searching for something more. Her search leads her to people of great wisdom. She meets a wise man who dwells in a forest, who teaches her to trust in the goodness of the world, and a woman …
Charlaine Harris
Grave Sight is the first of four novels in the The Harper Connelly Mysteries by American mystery author Charlaine Harris. Harper Connelly, the central character of the novel, has the ability to sense the location and last memories of dead people, a result of being struck by …
Tamora Pierce
Emperor Mage is a fantasy novel by Tamora Pierce, the third in a series of four books, The Immortals. It details the peace delegation sent by Tortall to Carthak which Daine joins, to save the emperor's birds.
David Foster Wallace
In this exuberantly praised book - a collection of seven pieces on subjects ranging from television to tennis, from the Illinois State Fair to the films of David Lynch, from postmodern literary theory to the supposed fun of traveling aboard a Caribbean luxury cruiseliner - David …
Laurell K. Hamilton
Danse Macabre is the fourteenth book in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery/erotica novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.
Octavia E. Butler
Kindred is the bestselling novel by American science-fiction author Octavia E. Butler. Part time-travel tale and part slave narrative, it was first published in 1979 and is still widely popular; it is regularly chosen as a text for community-wide reading programs and book …
Maeve Binchy
Tara Road is a novel by Maeve Binchy. It was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection in September 1999.
Timothy Zahn
The dying Empire’s most cunning and ruthless warlord, Grand Admiral Thrawn, has taken command of the remnants of the Imperial fleet and launched a massive campaign aimed at the New Republic’s destruction. Meanwhile, Han Solo and Lando Calrissian race against time to find proof …
Terry Goodkind
The Pillars of Creation is the seventh book in Terry Goodkind's epic fantasy series The Sword of Truth. It is the first book in the series not to feature Richard Rahl as the main protagonist, although he does appear.
Joseph Campbell
A brilliant evocation of the noted scholar's teachings on mythology. Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers offer a brilliant combination of wisdom and wit in conversations that range from modern marriage to virgin births, from saviors to heroes in the Power of Myth--a great summing up …
JUSTEJN GORDER
THE CHRISTMAS MYSTERY transcends all barriers. We all love a beadtime story and here we have a philosophical meditation wrapped in the simple clothes of a journey across Europe to Bethlehem. The qualities of wonder and enquiry that readers loved in SOPHIE'S WORLD are as strong …
Raymond E. Feist
At Crydee, a frontier outpost in the tranquil Kingdom of the Isles, an orphan boy, Pug, is apprenticed to a master magician - and the destinies of two worlds are changed forever. Suddenly the peace of the Kingdom is destroyed as mysterious alien invaders swarm the land. Pug is …
Louise Fitzhugh
Harriet the Spy is a children's novel written and illustrated by Louise Fitzhugh that was published in 1964. It has been called "a milestone in children's literature" and a "classic".
Marc Hempel
Distraught by the kidnapping and presumed death of her son, and believing Morpheus to be responsible, Lyta Hall calls the ancient wrath of the Furies down upon him. A former superheroine blames Morpheus for the death of her child and summons an ancient curse of vengeance against …
Jodi Picoult
The astonishing new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult about a family torn apart by an accusation of murder. They tell me I'm lucky to have a son who's so verbal, who is blisteringly intelligent, who can take apart the broken microwave and have it …
Philip K. Dick
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is a 1965 dystopian novel by US science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1965. The novel takes place some time in the 21st century. Under United Nations authority, humankind has colonized …
Vikas Swarup
Vikas Swarup's spectacular debut, which provided the inspiration for the award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire, is a page-turning and beguiling story of love, perseverance, and drama.Vikas Swarup's remarkable debut novel opens in a jail cell in Mumbai, India, where Ram Mohammad …
Ken Follett
Amazon Best of the Month, September 2010: Welcome to the 20th century as you've never seen it. At over 1,000 pages, Fall of Giants delivers all the elements that fans of Ken Follett have come to treasure: historical accuracy, richly developed characters, and a sweeping yet …
Jennifer Egan
Jennifer Egan's spellbinding novel circles the lives of Bennie Salazar, an ageing former punk rocker and record executive, and Sasha, the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Although Bennie and Sasha never discover each other's pasts, the reader does, in intimate …
Stephen E. Ambrose
From the New York Times bestselling author of Band of Brothers and D-Day, the definitive book on Lewis and Clark’s exploration of the Louisiana Purchase, the most momentous expedition in American history and one of the great adventure stories of all time.In 1803 President Thomas …
edited by Frederik Pohl
Gateway is a 1977 science fiction novel by American writer Frederik Pohl. It is the opening novel in the Heechee saga. Several sequels followed, and the novel was adapted into a computer game in 1992. Gateway won the 1978 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the 1978 Locus Award for Best …
Tove Jansson
An elderly artist and her six-year-old grand-daughter while away a summer together on a tiny island in the gulf of Finland. As the two learn to adjust to each other's fears, whims and yearnings, a fierce yet understated love emerges - one that encompasses not only the summer …
Christopher Priest
The Washington Post called this "a dizzying magic show of a novel, chock-a-block with all the props of Victorian sensation fiction: seances, multiple narrators, a family curse, doubles, a lost notebook, wraiths, and disembodied spirits; a haunted house, awesome mad-doctor …
Stieg Larsson
Stieg Larsson’s trilogy that began with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has become this generation’s international bestselling phenomenon. Disgraced crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist has no idea of the levels of conspiracy he will uncover when is enlisted to investigate the …
Ken Grimwood
Replay is a novel by Ken Grimwood first published by Arbor House in 1986. It won the 1988 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. The novel tells of a 43-year-old man who dies and awakens back in 1963 in his 18-year-old body. He then begins to relive his life with intact memories of …
Roald Dahl
Fantastic Mr Fox is a children's novel written by British author Roald Dahl. It was published in 1970, by George Allen & Unwin in the UK and Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S., with illustrations by Donald Chaffin. The first UK Puffin paperback, first issued in 1974, featured …
Daniel Gilbert
A smart and funny book by a prominent Harvard psychologist, which uses groundbreaking research and (often hilarious) anecdotes to show us why we’re so lousy at predicting what will make us happy – and what we can do about it. Most of us spend our lives steering ourselves toward …
Lloyd Alexander
The High King is a high fantasy novel by Lloyd Alexander, the fifth and last of The Chronicles of Prydain. It was awarded the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature in 1969. The series follows the adventures of Taran, the Assistant Pig-Keeper, as he nears …
Robert Jordan
The Wheel of Time ® is a PBS Great American Read Selection! Now in development for TV! Since its debut in 1990, The Wheel of Time® by Robert Jordan has captivated millions of readers around the globe with its scope, originality, and compelling characters.The Wheel of Time turns …
Tamora Pierce
First Test, is a fantasy novel by Tamora Pierce, the first book in the series Protector of the Small. It details the first year of Keladry of Mindelan's training as a page of Tortall.
Tamora Pierce
Wolf-Speaker is a fantasy novel by Tamora Pierce, the second in a series of four books, The Immortals. This book details the journey of Veralidaine Sarrasri as she learns more about her wild magic and her journey to Dunlath to help the wolves, only to find there is a bigger and …
Cassandra Clare
Product Description Magic is dangerous--but love is more dangerous still.When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London's …
Rick Riordan
The Red Pyramid is a 2010 fantasy adventure novel based on Egyptian mythology written by Rick Riordan. It is the first novel in The Kane Chronicles series. The book is written as a recording by Carter and Sadie Kane. Carter and their father, Julius, go to London to visit Sadie. …
Roddy Doyle
In Roddy Doyle's Booker Prize-winning novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, an Irish lad named Paddy rampages through the streets of Barrytown with a pack of like-minded hooligans, playing cowboys and Indians, etching their names in wet concrete, and setting fires. Roddy Doyle has …
Eoin Colfer
Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox is the sixth book in the series Artemis Fowl by Irish writer Eoin Colfer. It was released in the U.S. on 5 July 2008, and on 7 August in the U.K. At 432 pages, it is the longest book in the series. In Colfer's video blogs, he mentioned the book, …
Gillian Flynn
THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears. Husband-of-the-Year Nick …
Philip K. Dick
VALIS is a 1981 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. The title is an acronym for Vast Active Living Intelligence System, Dick's gnostic vision of one aspect of God. It is the first book in the incomplete VALIS trilogy of novels, followed by The Divine Invasion. The planned …
Roald Dahl
Where did Roald Dahl get all of his wonderful ideas for stories? From his own life, of course! As full of excitement and the unexpected as his world-famous, best-selling books, Roald Dahl's tales of his own childhood are completely fascinating and fiendishly funny. Did you know …
Philip Pullman
Lyra's Oxford is a short book by Philip Pullman depicting an episode involving the heroine of His Dark Materials, Pullman's best-selling trilogy. Lyra's Oxford is set when Lyra Silvertongue is 15, two years after the end of the trilogy. It was released to quench the thirst of …
Jörn Ingwersen
A man of infinite jest, Pocket has been Lear's cherished fool for years, from the time the king's grown daughters—selfish, scheming Goneril, sadistic (but erotic-fantasy-grade-hot) Regan, and sweet, loyal Cordelia—were mere girls. So naturally Pocket is at his brainless, elderly …
Mario Vargas Llosa
A New York Times Notable Book of 2007"Splendid, suspenseful, and irresistible . . . A contemporary love story that explores the mores of the urban 1960s--and 70s and 80s."--The New York Times Book ReviewRicardo Somocurcio is in love with a bad girl. He loves her as a teenager …
Isaac Asimov
The Gods Themselves is a 1972 science fiction novel written by Isaac Asimov. It won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1972, and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1973. The book is divided into three main parts, originally published in Galaxy Magazine and Worlds of If as three …
Kate DiCamillo
A classic tale by Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo, America’s beloved storyteller.Once, in a house on Egypt Street, there lived a china rabbit named Edward Tulane. The rabbit was very pleased with himself, and for good reason: he was owned by a girl named Abilene, who adored him …
Walter Dean Myers
"Monster" is what the prosecutor called 16-year-old Steve Harmon for his supposed role in the fatal shooting of a convenience-store owner. But was Steve really the lookout who gave the "all clear" to the murderer, or was he just in the wrong place at the wrong time? In this …
Sofi Oksanen
Purge is a novel by Finnish-Estonian writer Sofi Oksanen, which has been translated into thirty-eight languages. Oksanen's third Finnish-language novel, Purge was published in 2008 and is based upon her original play of the same name, staged at the Finnish National Theatre in …
Karen Armstrong
Armstrong, a British journalist and former nun, guides us along one of the most elusive and fascinating quests of all time--the search for God. Like all beloved historians, Armstrong entertains us with deft storytelling, astounding research, and makes us feel a greater …
John Grisham
Playing for Pizza: A Q&A with John Grisham Q: American football in Italy seems like an unlikely subject for a John Grisham novel. What was the inspiration for Playing for Pizza? A: Three years ago when I was in Bologna researching "The Broker", I discovered American …
George Bernard Shaw
Pygmalion is a play by George Bernard Shaw, named after a Greek mythological character. It was first presented on stage to the public in 1913. Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a …
Lloyd Alexander
The Castle of Llyr is a high fantasy novel by Lloyd Alexander, the third of five volumes in The Chronicles of Prydain. The story continues the adventures of Taran "Assistant Pig-Keeper", primarily on the Isle of Mona west of Prydain, far from the forces of Arawn, Lord of Death. …
Orson Scott Card
In Enchantment, Orson Scott Card works his magic as never before, transforming the timeless story of Sleeping Beauty into an original fantasy brimming with romance and adventure. The moment Ivan stumbled upon a clearing in the dense Carpathian forest, his life was forever …
Margaret Atwood
Surfacing is the second published novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. It was first published by McClelland and Stewart in 1972. It has been called a companion novel to Atwood's collection of poems, Power Politics, which was written the previous year and deals with …
John Irving
Born a Parsi in Bombay, sent to university and medical school in Vienna, Dr. Farrokh Daruwalla is a 59-year-old orthopedic surgeon and a Canadian citizen who lives in Toronto. Periodically, the doctor returns to Bombay, where most of his patients are crippled children. Once, 20 …
Patricia Cornwell
#1 bestselling author Patricia Cornwell's heart stopping thriller featuring gutsy medical examiner Kay Scarpetta. Young lovers are dying......When the daughter of the presidents newest drug czar vanishes, Dr. Kay Scarpetta knows time is short.
Vasily Grossman
A book judged so dangerous in the Soviet Union that not only the manuscript but the ribbons on which it had been typed were confiscated by the state, Life and Fate is an epic tale of World War II and a profound reckoning with the dark forces that dominated the twentieth century. …
Dean Koontz
Bill Wile is an easygoing, hardworking guy who leads a quiet, ordinary life. But that is about to change. One evening, after his usual eight-hour bartending shift, he finds a typewritten note under the windshield wiper of his car. If you don’t take this note to the police and …
John Ajvide Lindqvist
Handling the Undead is a 2005 horror novel by Swedish writer John Ajvide Lindqvist, translated into English in 2009. The book revolves around the unexplained reanimation of thousands of recently deceased people in Stockholm. The plot focuses on the reactions of society and the …
Garth Nix
Mister Monday is the first novel in the Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix. The other books in the series are: Grim Tuesday, Drowned Wednesday, Sir Thursday, Lady Friday, Superior Saturday and Lord Sunday. Mister Monday is afflicted with the deadly sin of Sloth.
Maria V. Snyder
Yelena is a survivor. Kidnapped as a child, held prisoner as a teen,then released to act as a poison taster, she is now a student of magic.But these magic skills place her in imminent danger, and with an execution order on her head, she has no choice but to escape to Sitia, the …
Alain de Botton
"It is common," Alain de Botton writes in The Consolations of Philosophy, "to assume that we are dealing with a highly intelligent book when we cease to understand it. Profound ideas cannot, after all, be explained in the language of children." While his easygoing exploration of …
Kami Garcia
Is death the end . . . or only the beginning?Ethan Wate has spent most of his life longing to escape the stiflingly small Southern town of Gatlin. He never thought he would meet the girl of his dreams, Lena Duchannes, who unveiled a secretive, powerful, and cursed side of …
Naguib Mahfouz
The second volume of the highly acclaimed Cairo Trilogy from the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Filled with compelling drama, earthy humor, and remarkable insight, Palace Of Desire is the unforgettable story of the violent clash between ideals and realities, dreams …
Pablo Neruda
First published in 1924, "Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada" remains among Pablo Neruda’s most popular work. Daringly metaphorical and sensuous, this collection juxtaposes youthful passion with the desolation of grief. Drawn from the poet’s most intimate and …
E. Lockhart
Frankie Landau-Banks at age 14: Debate Club. Her father's "bunny rabbit." A mildly geeky girl attending a highly competitive boarding school. Frankie Landau-Banks at age 15: A knockout figure. A sharp tongue. A chip on her shoulder. And a gorgeous new senior boyfriend: the …
Jacqueline Winspear
"A female investigator every bit as brainy and battle-hardened as Lisbeth Salander." —Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air, on Maisie Dobbs Maisie Dobbs got her start as a maid in an aristocratic London household when she was thirteen. Her employer, suffragette Lady Rowan Compton, …
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov
Laughter in the Dark is a novel written by Vladimir Nabokov and serialised in Sovremennye Zapiski in 1932. The first English translation, Camera Obscura, was made by Winifred Roy and published in London in 1936 by Johnathan Long, the paperback imprint of Hutchinson Publishing, …
Milan Kundera
Bypassing the question of whether you can ever go home again, Milan Kundera's Ignorance tackles instead what happens when you actually get there. Ignorance is the story of two Czechs who meet by chance while traveling back to their homeland after 20 years in exile. Irena, who …
Paolo Bacigalupi
Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen's Calorie Man in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, Anderson combs Bangkok's street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history's lost calories. There, he encounters Emiko. Emiko is …
Olive Ann Burns
If the preacher's wife's petticoat showed, the ladies would make the talk last a week. But on July 5, 1906, things took a scandalous turn. That was the day E. Rucker Blakeslee, proprietor of the general store and barely three weeks a widower, eloped with Miss Love Simpson—a …
Dave Eggers
The true story of one family, caught between America’s two biggest policy disasters: the war on terror and the response to Hurricane Katrina.Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun run a house-painting business in New Orleans. In August of 2005, as Hurricane Katrina approaches, Kathy …
Maeve Binchy
It began with Benny Hogan and Eve Malone, growing up, inseparable, in the village of Knockglen. Benny—the only child, yearning to break free from her adoring parents...Eve—the orphaned offspring of a convent handyman and a rebellious blueblood, abandoned by her mother's wealthy …
Italo Calvino
The Castle of Crossed Destinies is a 1973 novel by the Italian writer Italo Calvino. Its narrative details a meeting among travelers who are inexplicably unable to speak after traveling through a forest. The characters in the novel recount their tales via Tarot cards, which are …
Bohumil Hrabal
I Served the King of England is a novel by the Czechoslovak writer Bohumil Hrabal. The story is set in Prague in the 1940s, during Nazi occupation and early communism, and follows a young man who alternately gets into trouble and has successes. Hrabal wrote the book during a …
Joe Abercrombie
The third novel in Joe Abercrombie's The First Law fantasy series.
Emile Zola
Therese Raquin is a clinically observed, sinister tale of adultery and murder among the lower orders in nineteenth-century Paris. Emile Zola's dispassionate dissection of the motivations of his characters, mere 'human beasts' who kill in order to satisfy their lust, is much more …
Lisa McMann
Ever since she was eight years old, high school student Janie Hannagan has been uncontrollably drawn into other people's dreams, but it is not until she befriends an elderly nursing home patient and becomes involved with an enigmatic fellow-student that she discovers her true …
Christopher Paul Curtis
Bud, Not Buddy is a children's novel written by Christopher Paul Curtis, published in 1999. The book received the 2000 Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature. Christopher Paul Curtis was also recognized with the 2000 Coretta Scott King Award, an award …
David Brin
A starship crew of humans and dolphins skirts the brink of interstellar war in this epic adventure by the New York Times-bestselling author of The Postman. We are not alone. Humanity's explorations have revealed galaxies inhabited by millions of intelligent species interacting …
Tamora Pierce
Trickster's Queen is a book published in 2004 that was written by Tamora Pierce.
Iain Banks
Look to Windward is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first published in 2000. It is Banks' sixth published novel to feature the Culture. The book's dedication reads: "For the Gulf War Veterans".
Astrid Lindgren
On the night Ronia was born, a thunderstorm raged over the mountain, but in Matt's castle and among his band of robbers there was only joy - for Matt now had a spirited little black-haired daughter. Soon Ronia learns to dance and yell with the robbers, but it is alone in the …
Johanna Sinisalo
"A wily thriller-fantasy . . . Each discovery sounds like the voice of a storyteller reminding us of how the gods play with our fates."—New York TimesWinner of the Finlandia Award, Troll: A Love Story is an enchanting novel that has become an international sensation. Angel, a …
Dietlinde Haug
"I was born in Tuckahoe. I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their …
Harlan Coben
#1 New York Times bestselling author Harlan Coben takes readers into the heart of family loyalty in this twisty page-turner that proves that the darkest secrets are often closest to home.Paul Copeland, a New Jersey county prosecutor, is still grieving the loss of his sister …
David Eddings
Polgara the Sorceress is a fantasy novel by David and Leigh Eddings, and the twelfth in the setting of The Belgariad, The Malloreon and Belgarath the Sorcerer. Like Belgarath, it is presented as a first-person narrative recounting the life of the eponymous character, Polgara, …
Willa Cather
One of America’s greatest women writers, Willa Cather established her talent and her reputation with this extraordinary novel—the first of her books set on the Nebraska frontier. A tale of the prairie land encountered by America’s Swedish, Czech, Bohemian, and French immigrants, …
Mary Roach
Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, published by W. W. Norton & Company, a non-fiction work by Mary Roach, is a humorous scientific exploration as to whether there is a soul that survives death. In Britain, the title of the book is Six Feet Over: Adventures in the …
Tad Williams
River of Blue Fire is the second book in Tad Williams' acclaimed Otherland Series. It was originally published in 1998, the paperback in 1999. It continues the saga begun in City of Golden Shadow and takes the characters through among others a weird Wizard of Oz simulation, a …
Paul Auster
In Oracle Night, Paul Auster returns to one of his favorite themes: writing about writers and the act of writing. Recovering from a severe illness that has left him weak and prone to nosebleeds, struggling novelist Sidney Orr takes the suggestion of his mentor, the acclaimed …
Patricia Cornwell
“A knockout” (People) of a thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell featuring medical examiner Kay Scarpetta.“Killing me won’t kill the beast” are the last words of rapist-murderer Ronnie Joe Waddell, written four days before his execution. But they …
Arthur C. Clarke
3001: The Final Odyssey is a science fiction novel by Sir Arthur C. Clarke. It is the fourth and final book in Clarke's Space Odyssey series.
Robin McKinley
Spindle's End is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty by author Robin McKinley, published in 2000.
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Little Town on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, was first published in 1941 and is the seventh of nine books written in her Little House series, also known as "The Laura Years." The book is set in De Smet, South Dakota. It opens in the spring after the Long Winter, and ends …
David Grann
Amazon Exclusive: John Grisham Reviews The Lost City of Z Since first publishing A Time to Kill in 1988, John Grisham has written twenty novels and one work of nonfiction, The Innocent Man. His second novel, The Firm, spent 47 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, …
Franz Kafka
Translated by Willa and Edwin Muir Foreword by E. L. Doctorow Afterword by Max Brod Kafka’s first and funniest novel, Amerika tells the story of the young immigrant Karl Rossmann who, after an embarrassing sexual misadventure, finds himself “packed off to America” by his …
Sherwood Anderson
Published in 1919, Winesburg, Ohio is Sherwood Anderson’s masterpiece, a work in which he achieved the goal to which he believed all true writers should aspire: to see and feel “all of life within.” In a perfectly imagined world, an archetypal small American town, he reveals the …
Detlev Jöcker
The award-winning book about a beautiful fish who finds friendship and happiness when he learns to share is now available in a board book edition for the youngest child.
James Surowiecki
“No one in this world, so far as I know, has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.” —H. L. MenckenH. L. Mencken was wrong.In this endlessly fascinating book, New Yorker columnist James Surowiecki explores a deceptively …
Lawrence Hill
Abducted as an 11-year-old child from her village in West Africa and forced to walk for months to the sea in a coffle—a string of slaves— Aminata Diallo is sent to live as a slave in South Carolina. But years later, she forges her way to freedom, serving the British in the …
David Brin
The Postman is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by David Brin. In it, a drifter stumbles across a letter carrier uniform of the United States Postal Service and with empty promises of aid from the "Restored United States of America" gives hope to Oregon threatened by …
Michael Connelly
When a dog unearths evidence of a murder in the Hollywood Hills, Detective Harry Bosch must tackle a cold case that sparks memories he's tried to forget. On New Year's Day, a dog finds a bone in the Hollywood Hills -- and unearths a murder committed more than twenty years …
Anne Fadiman
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures is a 1997 book by Anne Fadiman that chronicles the struggles of a Hmong refugee family from Houaysouy, Sainyabuli Province, Laos, the Lees, and their interactions …
Avi
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle is a historical fiction novel by the American author Avi published in 1990. It takes place during the crossing of a ship from England to America in the 19th century. The book chronicles the evolution of the title character as she is pushed …
Pat Barker
Regeneration is a historical and anti-war novel by Pat Barker, first published in 1991. The novel was a Booker Prize nominee and was described by the New York Times Book Review as one of the four best novels of the year in its year of publication. It is the first of three novels …
Dave Barry
Peter and the Starcatchers is a best-selling children's novel that was published by Hyperion Books, a subsidiary of Disney, in 2004. Written by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, the book provides a backstory for the character Peter Pan, and serves as a prequel to J. M. Barrie's …
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Anne Shirley has left Redmond College behind to begin a new job and a new chapter of her life away from Green Gables. Now she faces a new challenge: the Pringles. They're known as the royal family of Summerside - and they quickly let Anne know she is not the person they had …
Michael Lewis
The time was the 1980s. The place was Wall Street. The game was called Liar’s Poker. Michael Lewis was fresh out of Princeton and the London School of Economics when he landed a job at Salomon Brothers, one of Wall Street’s premier investment firms. During the next three years, …
Thomas Pynchon
The wild, macabre tale of the twentieth century and of two men — one looking for something he has lost, the other with nothing much to lose — and "V.," the unknown woman of the title. Written in 1963, V. remains a popular literary classic. "This work may well stand as one of …
Piers Anthony
A Spell for Chameleon is the first book of the Xanth series by Piers Anthony. The book won the 1977 British Fantasy Society Award for the best novel of the year.
Steven Hall
The Raw Shark Texts is the debut novel by author Steven Hall, released in 2007. The book was released by Canongate Books in the US and the UK and published by HarperCollins in Canada. The title is a play on "Rorschach Tests", which are inkblot tests. The novel is a work of …
Lloyd Alexander
Taran Wanderer is a high fantasy novel by Lloyd Alexander, the fourth of five volumes in The Chronicles of Prydain. The series follows Taran, the Assistant Pig-Keeper, as he nears manhood while helping to resist the forces of Arawn Death-Lord. The story follows Taran as he …
Greg Bear
All the best thrillers contain the solution to a mystery, and the mystery in this intellectually sparkling scientific thriller is more crucial and stranger than most. Why are people turning against their neighbors and their newborn children? And what is causing an epidemic of …
Margaret Mitchell
THE PHENOMENAL #1 BESTSELLING SEQUEL TO MARGARET MITCHELL'S GONE WITH THE WIND"Alexandra Ripley is true to Scarlett's spirit and to Rhett's. Her sense of Mitchell's style is right on target." - Chicago Tribune The timeless tale continues... The most popular and beloved American …
Tamora Pierce
The Realms of the Gods is a fantasy novel by Tamora Pierce, the fourth and last in a series of books, The Immortals.
Meg Cabot
All American Girl is a young adult novel written by Meg Cabot for teenagers. It reached number one in the New York Times best-seller list for children's books in 2002. A sequel titled, Ready or Not was released in 2005. Meg Cabot also wrote a short story, "Another All-American …
Douglas Coupland
Canadian author Douglas Coupland's seventh novel could be subtitled When Bad Things Happen to Bad People. As the estranged members of the Drummond family straggle into Florida for youngest sister Sarah's impending space shuttle launch, we only begin to glimpse the true meaning …